2016-11-28 Ritz and Gravitas

(Apologies but audience interaction was lost in the log somehow, but the story was preserved)

Ritz grins and floats on by because he never lands. Well, almost never.

Ritz pose smiles and finds a spot up front in the position of a story teller tonight! He twirls a small piece of blue crystal in one paw, a crystal that scintillates in a way that suggests it is anything but a rock.

Ritz mmmms, "As much as I am itching to tell you all a story, maybe we'll wait just a moment longer if anyone else shows. For most of you that don't know me, my name is Ritz! I'm a chodonex, one of three, but that's not going to be our story. There's something bigger in store for you tonight!"

Ritz grins, "Okay, so much for patience. Just a bit too excited to float idly! So I was asked by my mother to relax a story to you all. Apparently she has told you a little bit here and there as part of a tale about muses and the trials one bardic muse faced." He grins at Flavia, "In a way yes. You see this is what dreams are made of. Lady Luck lent it to me because, ah... well I kinda slept through some parts of this story when it happened, and I needed a refresher. So let me start this off with a question: Have you ever noticed that tales of wars between light and dark seem to be common all over the universe? Have you ever wondered why or if there was something more to it?

Ritz grins at Sora and Aldrinor. "Definitely correct on both accounts." He looks at the crystal and ponders. "I could just use this to show you...but I think we should do something a bit more special. Instead of me sitting here telling you second hand, I think we should go and get the story right from the source! She's not used to such visits, but I think it would do her good."

Ritz waves his paws, "Come on in everyone, nice and close... Bah, I'll just make a nice, big hole that will fit everyone! Don't worry, I'll you get you all back here just fine and before you need to pack bag lunches." He grins at Sora's mention of a field trip. Ritz is known for 'opening' things. Most casualties have been vending machines, but tonight it is the ground beneath everone! The fall through the hole into another realm is no more than skipping a few stairs on the way down, by Spindizzy is quickly left behind to find a place where the sky is empty on one side and full of stars on the other because it is on the very edge of the expanding universe. The location resembles a graveyard at night, and while there are what looks like tombstones everywhere in orderly rows, they all have a soft blue glow that makes them seem far less daunting. IN fact, they are made from the same crystal that Ritz is carrying but much larger. In the near distance there is what looks like a great cathedral.

Ritz grins, "Welcome to the edge of the universe! More specifically, the edge of dream in the realm of wonder. This is her secret garden, a refuge where she is safe. If you look out you can see the stars and where there are none, but what you can't see are all the other shells, all the growing dreams, being shed out from here for everyone to enjoy. The chaos of dreams is the best armor to keep her safe.

Ritz flits upwards, "Give me a second. She's probably thinking too much again, so I will get her attention." Ritz floats off and up tot he top of the cathedral. "Hey big mom. I brought friends hoping you might tell them a story." He is there a moment when it becomes more obvious that there is something on top of the cathedral. Blackness hidden against a starless backdrop has kept the massive figure hidden until its silvery eyes open. Those who have met Verada will immediately realize it is the same kind of light that the shadow wolf has in her eyes. this shadow is the shape of a raveb, but she is large enough to blanket the whole cathedral with her body, and her wing feathers extend out infinitely across the universe even if gently and subtle in their touch. The light of the raven's eyes is enough to illuminate the graveyward, and with the added light, a very special light, it proves to be more of a garden than a burial ground. Ritz smiles, "Everyone, this is Gravitas. She has a lot of other names too, so sometimes with just call her G. We like to think it makes her blush, but none of us are sure just yet."

Ritz smiles to Gravitas, "Zoey was going to tell them the story of first light, but no one knows it better than you. Even I don't know all of it. Would you tell us the tale? Please?" Ritz floats down to join the audience now. "Forgive me if I do not move closer. Should I tug anything too hard, it can be disastrous." Despite her size, Gravitas has a very soft, smooth voice. She speaks as one that is shy or perhaps nervous, traits that may seem strange for someone of her stature. "You would all truly wish to know the tale of the first light?" She looks over everyone almost like a mother bird looking over a nest.

Gravitas nods softly. "I will begin first with an apology. Those times your lives when you feel hopeless. When you feel there is a weight on your soul that you cannot bear. I am the force that pulls, and I am the source of all weight, and my reach is infinite even if it is not strong. When the weight pushes down your hopes and dreams, it is my fault. The tale of the light begins in darkness, and the brilliance of the light that lives in you could not be separated from the darkness from which it was born. For that, I am sorry. If I could, I would have made that light pure. Having said this, I will start from the beginning.

The garden goes dark. A darkness none here have ever seen as it is from the time before light. "In the beginning, there was darkness and between darkness was void. It was not that darkness was evil at all. We had no contrast and no means to see who we were, to perceive differences, or to fear anything. So it is not accurate to say that the Darkness was evil. We simply were. I was them mostly as I am now, and I could feel the movement of every one of my kin. It was a like a drumming on my back that never ended. I collapsed inwards on myself, for Darkness cannot defend itself well from itself, wishing that something would change. To this day, I am not sure if it was a wish, or a desire so strong that and without direction that it could be called hope. Something happened inside me. There was a sudden burst of something hot, something broken and struggling back against me, and that was when first opened my eyes, and I realized I had eyes. As some of your eyes shine in this garden, mine did in the void, and everyone could see by that light.

The war between light and dark did not begin out of malice. It came from fear. In my light, we could see each other, and many of our forms were terrifying to behold not just my mortals today but to each other. Everyone knew where the light came from, and while no one knew how to turn it off, they knew who they were going to blame and lash out against. Everything I knew was wrong, and everyone I ever knew turned against me. I didn't even try to defend myself, but no one could stop the light. In my own struggles both with my kin and with fear itself, who I should say is a Darkness not to trifle with, I pulled myself into a ball without thinking about what I was doing. I am the force that pulls all together, and I pulled so hard and fast that the unknown, the void itself, was smashed into a dot so small that it finally rebelled against me. The light that came forth made mine seem so small, and all sorts of things, glowing things, came out of it with such force that it pushed us all out and away from it. Like Darkness, it was unified, a perfect light that dazzled us and gave us pause. That was the moment your era began, when like drove back darkness in a great explosion.

Ritz grins, "I remember part of this! This is when we were born! No...wait... Not yet. Sorry G!"

G closes her eyes a moment and everyone is held in the warmth of that light in miniature. "The first thing to come out of the light on its own were two beings bound together. They were the essence of chaos and probability. Luck could mold anything around her into the way she wanted it to happen regardless of the odds against it. Luck was a more feminine entity, though you all know her as Zoey, a name and a form bestowed on her by the mortals that saved the first universe to begin a second, a better one. The other was a leveling agent. With him around, anything was possible for good or ill. Anything that could be would. Some call him Murphey though he has a name now as well, Virgil. It was Virgil that realized who and what I was, he did not recoil at seeing me. He, unlike all others, truely loved me at first sight, and he reach into that ball of light and took from it something magical. It was from his hands that dreams were born, and the Darkness of old fares poorly against the chaos of a dream. They can try to warp and bend it, but they cannot dream and they cannot so easily break dreams. He gave you this gift as he did me, and from it grew wonder and shattered the borders that restrained my kind.

Ritz smiles, "Its okay G, I'll do this part. I know some of this is hard." He floats up and in front. "In the first light, my kind did not exist. Darkness could not fight dreams or chaos, but you can. They manipulated the universe until at last the conditions were right to shatter the barriers that chaos had made. But just as they would manipulate others to do their will, Gravitas could as well. I said she had a lot of names, but one of them is Fate. She is the hand that reaches infinitely, and he can guide with it. there was a second contraction and explosion, but this time she eased her grip and let chaos steer, and knowing dreams were not enough, they made something new." G nods to confirm, "Born of chaos with some of my guidance, we created the chodonex, creatures of hope, dream, and wonder. Guardians of the border between mortals and Darkness." Her tone softens a little for the first time, "We made them with the best of intentions, but chaos is as it is and we ended up with something that has been causing anything that looks like a twinkie to go extinct.

Ritz "I can't help it! They just taste so good!

G nods and them looks up, "Dream was one of the first things to separate from the light making it nearly impossible to measure or detect. I'm afraid it has been throwing off some physicists for some time now, well before the other forces separated. It remained a safe place, a parallel to this universe growing alongside us. When mortals, sometimes madmen, occurred with particularly strong imaginations, they sometimes caused a condensation of dream that you could call a wonderland. No one is as mad as he, but Murphey means well. To guard and live as dream, he took on a form in my image hoping he could be closer to me, and if you turn to the stars, you'll see him. Blue as a crystal in this garden." Gravitas moves a feather a tiny bit, and the seeming around the garden dims enough that you can all see you are in the center of many layers of concentric spheres that eventually break at the outer layer. One could guess they must go for at least astronomical units if not more, but among them is something blue like a great crystalline phoenix. "My mad fool, but he never gave up on me or you."

Ritz nods, "The bard that caused the wars Zoey told you about has been on Spindizzy. He's being watched over by other muses including the one running a coffee shop. Her husband has a wonderland." He looks to Rielle, "Kind of, though one persons paradise can be hell to another. Wonderlands are dangerous but can be good things." He giggles, "Yeah, 'Alive' has some stories but I can't promise she will tell them." He hmmmms, "You know, this might be a good spot if you wanted to ask Gravitas anything about the story."

G looks to Sora, "I will always have regrets about what I could not mend, but it is a doing well enough. I gave up much of my control to let chaos mend what I failed at first, and I try to nudge the smaller parts into line if I must." She looks to Niny'ah, "Perhaps the first universe. I tried to control too much, to set everything up and let it run through, but only once have we reset it all. Chaos chose to bend itself to put almost everything back where we had it with some key differences. I think as much as I might try to guide or set the pace, it is chaos's job now, and they are always dreamers.

G looks to Sora, "It depends on the wound. Darkness struggles to even do damage because Darkness cannot think in ways necessary to harm it. It is madness itself that can damage him as they are like entities which means that it can be those like you can are both its greatest ally and enemy. Hope above all things can mane them though. I learned this the hard when way I nearly lost them. With hope, no dream, no chaos, will ever truly die."

G looks over everyone, "I know Ritz will need to take you all home soon. Though the distance from there to here is great, and thought I have my regrets, none of you are among them. For what it may matter to you, my reach means I am always with you, always part of what is around you even if I must refrain from trying to tinker."

G actually smiles. The stones glow brighter as the whole world seems to change! Not just another room, its another planetoid of some kind and different ones in different places. Crazy adventures of all kinds, though sometimes one might notice some recurring characters, and sometimes folks may spot themselves in brief visions of dreams they had. "Dreams, Sora. Ones we have shared with others, ones I cherish. They are all priceless to me, and when I feel myself faltering, they give me hope. They were graves the first time, people I clung to in desperation that always ended horribly, but not in this garden."

Ritz smiles, "The crystal I have, this little pencil size thing, has billions of dreams in it. You can imagine how much those stones carry."

G smiles, "There are countless dreams and not one of them if without value. Perhaps we shall meet again in your own. Ritz will see you all home safely, and should nightmare and darkness haunt your dreams, he will be there to aid you. That is what he was meant to do."

Ritz giggles, "Seems I left the hole open so long on the way here the group got rather large. Uh, so this time I really DO need folks to bunch up a little if you all can." He grins to Flavia, "No, Luck chose these ones. I think she knew what it would make me do. She's sneaky like that."

Ritz doesn't make everyone fall into the hole this time. He more of a doorway portal on the scale that everyone here should be able to get through safely. "Okay everybody! Spindizzy express this way!"

Ritz grins, "One of the things G loves is that whatever mortals imagine comes to be in a way. Totally screws over her kin. They don't handle rule changes well."

Ritz leads everyone on through and like a chaperone on a school field trip, he makes sure everyone is accounted for before closing the door.

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