This Place Is So Weird (OPEN)

[Shiloh]

She nodded, and then paused a moment, staring down at the coffee in her hand.

"Oh, shoot. I probably should have brought him a coffee..." She sighed softly, then shook her head. It was too late for all of that now. Waving for Cain to follow her, she made her way up to the door of Xapham's school, knocking on the door.

[Xapham]

After a few moments Xapham would answer the door.

"Ah, young Shiloh. Welcome back my child, and I see you've brought a guest! Welcome, welcome. What can I do for you two today?"

[Cain Rhamos]

"Here, pretend this one's his."

Cain goes to hand Shiloh his coffee before the door opens. For a second, he squints, looking at Xapham as if trying to place the face from somewhere...

Then shakes his head.

"I'm looking for someone who knows about the Old World's Gods."

[Shiloh]

Shiloh looked down at Cain's coffee, and a soft smile touched her lips. She looked back to him with a look of gentle affection, as if, given different circumstances, she might have hugged him.

"Hello again, Xapham. This is my new friend, Cain. Here, he got us coffee!" She held out one of the cups, not honestly paying much attention to which one, and tilted her head to one side.

"He needed some help, so I brought him here."

[Xapham]

Xapham's eyes were solely focused on Cain... for the first time Shiloh would notice that the normally warm and happy older man was now giving off a very different type of energy, she couldn't place it, but he was deffinitely not in a positive mood...

"The old gods... what about them."

[Cain Rhamos]

Cain notices the lack of response given to Shiloh from the older man, and it makes him frown a bit.

That's pretty rude, all things considered.

"I was wondering if you knew anything about them. How their powers worked, how to make a throne or new Gods, stuff like that."

You know, every day information.

[Shiloh]

Shiloh's shoulders slumped slightly, but she fell silent. The tension in the air was so thick, she could taste it. Holding on to both of the coffees, she settled for simply seeing what might happen.

[Xapham]

"No. And if I did such knowledge should never come to this world."

He would say as the gloomy emotion started to spread out from him.

"You must've grown up in the God's Territory, raised to believe in their ways, their methods. But they were foolish, horrible beings. They did not deserve the powers they stole."

[Cain Rhamos]

Cain smiles slightly.

"Stole, hm? I did come from Olympus, yeah. But by all means, tell me why they didn't deserve what they have?"

[Shiloh]

Shiloh felt the shifting in the air, her skin quivering slightly as the energy all around her began to shift. The hairs on her arms stood up, and she turned her attention to Xapham, those green eyes far too knowledgeable for such an innocent young girl.

[Xapham]

Xapham's gaze didn't waver from Cain.

"You are young boy, and lack real awareness of the culture you were born into, I may not look it now, but I too was born in the Gods Territory, decades before you. I was there when they first came to power. The first Gods were just strong individuals with impressive Qi, but somehow, somewhere along the way they learned forbidden arts, and ancient traditions that they bastardized and abused to increase their power and spread their influence. This is why they are driven mad. Believing they are really gods they imitate. What they became was nothing more than power hungry men blinded by greed."

Xapham scoffed.

"Looking at you I can pick up on the fact that you, too, have already undergone one of their rituals. Were you too so blinded by the need for power that you choose to forsake what it means to be a warrior and gain strength through natural means?"

[Cain Rhamos]

"You think so?"

That smile looks a lot less friendly now.

"I trained for my entire life to become a God. I earned my place like a true warrior, and gained my reward through my own hard work, blood, and sweat. You just sound like a washout who couldn't make it."

Cain snorts through his nose.

"I should've known better. What a waste of time."

[Shiloh]

Shiloh sighed softly. This was not how she expected this meeting to go... really at all. The more emotional the two became, the easier it would be for them to ignore her completely. The more charged the air around her was, the more she seemed to fade into the background. She knew, from experience, that if this escalated any farther, it would be next to impossible for them to hear her if she spoke up... As was, her words may still go unnoticed. She only hoped that Xapham's strange ability to see her innocence could work in her favor.

"Xapham... You obviously have the knowledge to answer his questions, and sharing knowledge or having knowledge is not wrong. He is asking for help, and you can provide it..." She looked up at him, trying to see if he could see her through the emotions he was feeling. "The right thing to do... is to provide him with information, and allow him the freedom to make his own choices..."

---------

Qi Weakness: People rarely consistently pay attention to her, and going unnoticed can be quite draining on a person's mental health. She also has limited control on when it is NOT happening, so even attempting to speak in certain situations, she is extremely easy to ignore. Trying to diffuse high-passion situations is next to impossible, as the more emotional an individual gets, the easier it is to ignore her.

[Xapham]

Xapham was too far gone in his growing darkness to see the light that Shiloh normally shown.

"Own power? Don't fool yourself. You drank from a cup and got an extraordinary abilities all you did was climb a mountain. I've done that plenty of times, like before it became a pre-requisite for power. You 'trails' mean nothing. Your 'convictions' are weak. Your 'strength' isn't yours. And the fact that you feel the need to bring those back to this world shows just how truly foolish you are. If you want to truly prove yourself, pursue strength in your own way, develop your own power instead of relying on stealing it from others. You call me a washout? I'd rather be a washout who left Olympus and gained power to rival the gods with my own hands, than to have been enslaved by some foolish ideology that true power can only be stolen."

[Cain Rhamos]

"All I hear are excuses to make yourself feel better for not being good enough. Do you really think you're as strong as one of the Gods?"

Cain shakes his head.

"I doubt it. You're just an old man running an orphanage, hoping that it gives his life meaning."