Golem, Art Thou Truly Existent? (VeeSmith, Myself)

[Vee Katame: His Wolfy]

She finally stopped crying and wiped her eyes with her paws. As she sat there, she looked around her. She hadn't gotten a chance to examine the surrounding area yet, so now would be the perfect time to look.

The look of the land didn't surprise her, really. It was basically what she expected from what had happened to her in the past hour. It was pretty bland in colorful and nothing really to be admired, but she did admire it. Something about it fascinated her.

She wanted to walk around and explore but she knew it wouldn't be safe for her to do so with that beast roaming around just waiting for her to make one wrong move and she wasn't going to disobey her creator. The land made her curious and it intrigued her, but she would resist her urge to wander away. Plus, she knew nothing else besides her creator, the temple, the beast that was trying to get to her so it could take her soul, and the stone-laden hands that were protecting her from said beast.

So she stayed in the spot she was told to stay in, standing up and jumping up and down in place sometimes, but always sitting back down in the same exact spot. She figured that he was letting her learn what it was like to be alone in this place, and it was hard for her to just stay in that spot. She wasn't tired or anything, just in some pain, so she wanted something to do. But she couldn't do anything unless she was told that she was allowed to, well, really, she didn't want to do anything unless she was allowed to do so because she was doing what she was told.  She was to stay while he meditated in his thoughts, and, she figured, while he got some rest. He had gone through a lot too. More than she had really, because he had had to get what he needed to create her, then create her, and then had to go through everything after her creation. He had an excuse to be tired. She didn't. And she wasn't.

She sighed and laid down on her back. Staring up at the sky, she let her mind wander freely but kept her senses about her. Just in case.

[DeusExAshen]

H e slumbered for a lengthy period, the length of which was augmented by his exhaustion and contempt for being awake.  It was one of the few things he still knew how to do, well, or at least exceptionally, and that was to rest.  In this place, however, he never knew when he was dreaming or awake.  Certainly the creations here, as surreal and mongrel as they were,  were not part of any sentient life, as one could perceive.  His perception, unfortunately, had faded away over the years, and the few things that he could dream about were about the life he once led.

It was glorious for what it was, back in the years when he was truly dedicated to himself.  His ambition was the end of him, however.  He dreamt of his excursions with the baron's daughter, the vaunt and beautiful succubi, the one that had created him this hell.  The time alone with the creature was certainly beautiful, for what it  was, but the pain that he had to endure afterwards, did not make it worth.  Such was retrospect, however, and this place held no kindness for such a subjective matter.  It was a cruel dream, for what it was, but nothing he couldn't bare.  Fortunately for the girl, he would wake no later than a dozen hours later.  His ascension back to consciousness was slow, but he endured it grudgingly.  

There was naught but a grimace on his face as he endured the ever-light that always haunted this place.  The souls were still bound to that maelstrom, simply existing a shallow life until they'd be called upon to live again.  Would he have it, he'd have sent the female back so that she would be recycled too, but she obviously was compelled enough to survive, even in this horrid land.  With a dampened anger, he would descend from his tattered palace, with eyes casually thrown here and there as he scrutinized the bodies.  In his descent down, he would find the girl still there, most likely held in place by the fear that he induced rather than the grip of his hand.

Manipulating his own hand, he would then cause the shallow interpretation of to project the body of the female in his direction.  Against her, or for her will, regardless, he would allow the touching of his fingers against the thick coating of her chin.  Those demanding, vicious eyes would develop a penchant for watching hers, as he began to study her anew.  To this, he spoke to her in a more subtle tone then what was expected of him.  "I know this body, for I had made it.  You might have been a more...immortal creature in this past life, but you are a mortal now.  Hunger is still an obligation to you, but it is not for me.  There are trees, with some fruit, yonder, and I shall fetch them for you."

The paw retracted, as did the most of him.  Before he left, completely, the safe confines of the temple, he would speak to her once more.  "This is not an act of kindness, but a means to prolong your life until I decide what to do with you."  It was cold, but vastly more casual then he had spoken to her yet.  Into the distance he walked, seemingly protected by those ancient wraiths.

[Vee Katame: His Wolfy]

She must've been laying there for hours, since she was half asleep when she felt herself being moved. Her eyes shot open and looked from side to side then looked forward to see his eyes as his fingers touched her chin.

She kept her eyes locked on his while he studied her and spoke to her. She hadn't felt hungry until he mentioned that she still needed to eat. His tone was kind of surprising to her, mainly because it more gentle than before. She was thankful that he was going to get her food. In fact, she would've thanked him but it didn't seem that he would accept any thanks since he just said to not consider it as an act of kindness. The tone he used when saying his last two sentences was a little less of a surprise to her since it was a cold tone, but it was still more casual than any tone he'd used with her before.

She watched him walk away and rubbed her chin when he was out of sight. This guy was confusing but she remembered thinking that about guys in general in her past life too. Nothing seemed to have changed with the transition to this life besides the welcome she got, the place she was living, at least, for a little while until her fate was decided, and her company. The rest seemed all the same to her.

She sighed, watching the place where he had disappeared. She really hope that when he made his decision it would be to let her live. She had decided in the back of her mind that living here would be a whole lot better than dying again (even if it meant she would be recycled to live in the normal world again). Of course, it didn't seem that she had a say in the matter anyway. But she kind of liked it here. It was private and she had always liked her privacy. She also didn't have to be social and she had always had many a day when she didn't want to be around anyone, and now she only had one other that she had to be around. Well...she did have the risk of death to deal with all the time but at least she knew what could kill her, unlike in the normal world where death could be anything around any corner.

Her stomach growled and she looked down at it. If he hadn't mentioned hunger then she probably wouldn't have realized it until way later. She looked back up, rubbing her eyes and then stretching her arms up, then letting them fall to her sides, her paws hitting the ground with slight thuds. It didn't hurt though, thankfully, so there was no new pain added to her lingering pain. She sighed and rubbed her chin again, continuing to watch the place where he had disappeared.

[DeusExAshen]

I t was a simple procedure, for him at least.  Were it her, she would have drawn in the attention of that vagrant beast again, or the many that still flocked those out-lands, which is one of the many reasons why he stuck her on that hand all night.  On a short leash, she would have been better controlled, and better trained, because certainly, she seemed to have died with the heart of a blazon youth.  That was unfortunate, for him, for this was not a place for tempers.  It was just as unfortunate that he had to be forced, as fierce as a demon as he was, to accept that as well.  Now he lived his life akin to a solitary monk, as contradicting as it was to his former profession.

There were many of those trees out there within the land, but just enough to make it barely hospitable.  Perhaps they helped to establish some sort of potential ecology, or perhaps they were just a mockery of a nature he once knew.  Either way, they were there, and they bore fruit.

He stood beneath one, subtle in his approach, though ultimately aggressive in his pursuit.  Those massive claws would dig into the bark of the tree, which awkwardly reacted by movement of the entire tree as a whole.  It pulsated with a certain life as he mounted and climbed it in pursuit of a greater sustenance.  There was much in this land he had not studied yet, though he acknowledged.  This flora was one of those objects; his pursuits were better injected in his need to make this place more hospitable, for him.  Perhaps he would do so, eventually, but for now, he would pluck a fruit off with a eager force.   Descent was easier than the pursuit, as he leaped off into the shallow glades that made the land so barren.

In the half-an-hour, or so, that he left, he would have left her there alone, to herself, and to his surprise, she wasn't off being maimed by some ageless beast.  In his hand sat the fruit.  Its lumpish appearance was only made more distinguished by the lavender and black markings that adorned it.   It was offered to her much like he would offer a dog a bone, but in their limited relationship, this was all she would get, and he would give it guilt free.  To that, he would make a revelation to her.  

"This may be poisonous.  Neither do I know, or care.  You have to ask yourself: is your survival worth trusting something that could kill you?" he would say, as curious as the days when he were a babe, however, the question was double-sided.  The question itself didn't mean much to him, and he imagined that the answer wasn't going to be ravenously accepted, but communication was something that he did miss.

[Vee Katame: His Wolfy]

She had started to get tunnel vision from staring at the same place for so long. She had to shake her head and rub her eyes every now and again to clear her vision. She took a few sweeping looks of the area around her at certain times but always brought her vision back to where he had walked off.

She had looked down at the ground for a second and when she looked back up he was in her view. She just watched him walk towards her without moving any part of her besides her eyes, which examined him then moved to his hand in which he held an odd fruit. It was lavender and black and it was of the likes she had never seen before but, then again, so was this place. The fruit intrigued her and peeked her interest.

She looked up at his face when he was standing in front of her, searching for any kind of sign of what he was thinking or feeling. She looked back at the fruit when he spoke of it. Could be poisonous? Why doesn't this surprise me? She thought to herself. But the question he asked did surprise her somewhat, although her expression didn't reveal it.

She took the fruit from his hand, not in an eager way nor in a cautious way, just in the normal way you would take something from someone who offered it. She examined the fruit and looked back up directly into his eyes. "I trusted you to save me from that beast thing, whatever it was, when I knew you could kill me anyway." She stated simply. "So I guess the correct response in my case would be, yes." She took a pretty normal-size bite out of the fruit, chewed it, and swallowed. "Though I'm not sure what it would be in your case. Maybe the same, maybe not?" She looked back up at him. The last part sounded like a question but it really was just her wondering about it. She had figured the question was double-sided when she heard it. Of course, she could've been wrong, but it just sounded like a double-sided question.

[DeusExAshen]

H is right brow cocked upward as she called him out as a savior, of sorts.  For a moment he almost felt pious, and sick to his stomach in one sweeping motion.  However, indeed it was sweeping, and it lasted only a moment as he watched fruit being consumed, slowly.  It was interesting on his part, for could not experience food, or the pain wrought on by it.

Fortunately for her, the fruit was ate safely; it was not designed to fend off predators, possibly because it was not living, and could not fear death.  That, and there weren't many predators around.  The taste itself was bland, but relatively warm and reactive to touch.  It was not the ideal food, but in her case, it was one of the many things keeping her from death, or worse.  As she ate, he strafed the young one as he recalled her previous comments back into memory, as annoying as they were to the snide beast.

"I did not save you, so you in turn could save me.  In case you haven't gotten the concept of this place, I saved your eternal soul, and not because I'm sweet and caring" he said, very bluntly at that.  He continued, with the same tone: "To take a life is horrid, because you destroy a life, a lifetime of memories and actions that will forever ripple, in effect, down the annals of time.  The cycle of life may seem unfair, or awkward sometimes, but indeed, there is a point to it all.  If I were to have killed you when I did, your soul would have been taken back to, what I call, the Maelstrom."  To that, he would raise his paw high into the air.  The sky, entirely composed of millions of dead souls, would sway and flow as it always did, but now it would be put under a new light.

"There is a Heaven, and there is a Hell.  However, they are not what they seem.  They are simply alternative lands, no different from the Earth or any other planet that one would choose to inhabit.  Heaven is not run by a singular god, no, it is ran by the angels, or a council there of.  Contrary to what many believe, they are not forgiving" he exclaimed, his voice vastly more coarse than what it was as he explained to her.  "That, in is essence, is where there is hatred between the two lands.  That is another story, but know that we guardian over the mortals not because we have a higher purpose for them plotted out.  We're just greedy, and desperate at times."

"When one, a mortal, dies, they are not returned to the "Heavenly Body", or eternally damned, they are simply set to the maelstrom.  They live out a mediocre existence until one day, there is a body birthed without a soul.  That soul, having lived years in such an abysmal existence, goes to the body without any memories.  It begins anew, to experience the life that so many souls had worked to create previously.  You are but a worker, whom is set about constructing society.  It is no different than building, in example a temple" his paw would extend out to his very own.  "It is devoted to ones self, but it has no practical purpose outside of being a homage.  The angels don't require you, and the demons certainly don't, for when they die, they go straight to the same apathetic place."

"Now, this is where we fit in" he would utter quietly.  His right paw would raise up, and he would perk her chin up between two fingers.  The touch was a stern one, but not entirely brutal as it was in the past. "I have two options, personally.  I'm bound here, and I do not get recycled, because I cannot die.  I can become consumed by those beasts though, and never return to the cycle.  I saved you not because I have a fondness for you, but because it was my duty to save you.  My duty to the life cycle, for I am one of the few, now, that understand it."

"In my zeal, and loneliness, I almost butchered you to put you back on track, and out of true harm's way.  It was an awkward concoction, but justified.  You're in true danger if you stay.  If die at the hands of one of those beasts, you do not go to Heaven.  You don't get reborn.  You just stop existing" he exclaimed, ultimate and ominous in his tone.

"You do not have a choice, here.  I chose to kill you, and for better or worse, I almost succeeded in doing so.  I choose not to kill you now, because I realized, for the first time, I might be going mad.  I need a voice around here, and one to help me, if needed.  I'm recruiting your services, one way or another.  The only choice you have, is at you die, and you go back.  In doing so, however, you might not learn about your true purposes." It was with that, that he would finish speaking.  Moving that erected hand-statue, he would pick her up and set her down with that other-worldly fruit still within her paws.  It was probably the first time they had to themselves, where her person wasn't being butchered.  She was still tattered over their last encounter, as she was still quite wounded.  He would do nothing for her, however.  As he concluded, he was not a saint.  There was a reason he was judged, and there was a reason his kind was being exterminated, and it wasn't because he was so loving.  It would strengthen her, in the long run, however.  At least, he hoped it did.  There were still many trials she would have to face, in this place.

[Vee Katame: His Wolfy]

She saw him raise his right brow, probably because she had just said that he saved her, which she still believed that he basically did whether he was saving her as a whole or just her soul. It still meant he was saving part of her.

The fruit did not have any bad effect on her after that first bite, thankfully, so she continued to eat away at it. It had a bland taste but at least it eased her hunger as she ate it and for that, she was grateful for the fruit.

She watched him the whole time he spoke, following his gestures to the Maelstrom and the temple. Her head nodded every now and again in acknowledgement of what he said. She took bites out of her fruit at times while she listened to him intently. It was nice to have all of this explained to her, and now she knew why he had saved her.

She had been looking down at the fruit when her chin was perked up. Her ears perked up more as she looked at him and continued to listen. She shuddered when he said she would just stop existing if one of the beasts got her, but her look didn't falter. She definately didn't like that idea. She was relieved when he said that he was going to let her live but she didn't let her face show it.

He stopped speaking and she was picked up and set down. She put the last piece of the fruit in her mouth, chewed it, and swallowed. She had stopped feeling the pain of her wounds. She looked down at her injured body and examined her wounds. They looked pretty bad; a burned torso, assorted cuts and bruises, and probably an out of place rib or two. She pushed on those ribs and popped them back into place, gritting her teeth as they made a popping noise. Her other injuries she couldn't really heal, they would have to heal on their own. She looked back at him, not really thinking of any kind of response to his explaination...but then she thought of a simple one, one of which that he would probably just turn down.

"Well...I'm thankful that you've decided to keep me around and I will help you out as best as I can." She stated simply. She knew he didn't care about being thanked, not being a saint and not wanting to be thought of as one, but she just felt the need to express that she was thankful. She looked off to the right, not knowing what else to say to him.