Karma Coin (Shizz the wiz)

[Lion]

"Git!  You're just a bitter old woman!"

"But sir!"

"Git outta mah inn or I'll kill ye!"  The man shook his fist violently into the air and kicked Keva to the mud, tossing her further away.  His face was morose and all the wrinkles of it came together like a sponge crushed in someone's fist.  His motions were angry, and it was obvious he was not pleased.  "Ye call yerself a fortune teller?  Pah!  I've seen squirrel-rabbits give better fortunes!  Ye're just another goddamned liar!  Yah, that be what ye are.  Telling me nothing but lies and selling even more lies to me customers!  What kind of business d'ye think I be running here?  Leave!"

Keva scampered away, glaring at him like a cornered, wounded animal.  She didn't feel as if her words were wrong.  She was never wrong.  The rain coming down only fueled her displacement, and her sudden contempt for this man.  "I will leave, you old bastard!  But I wasn't lying to you, Taven, you will be struck by lightning!  It's just that—"

But she was cut of quickly.  "Oh yeah!?  When?"

And without missing a beat she replied, " Right.....right now."

"Why you little!" he cried, raising his metal pipe into the air, intent on smashing it into Keva's head.  But the storm was brewing overhead, its rain coming down in sheets and the lightning raging above them all.  And in a flash a surge of lightning came down, reacting through the pipe and zapping down toward Taven.  This entire body locked for a split second, his muscles contracting and his heart stopping.  The electricity withdrew as swiftly as it struck, returning back into the angry clouds.  And just like that he dropped dead, his face molded into an expression of surprise, as if to say: "Oh shit nits!  I shoulda listened to the broad!"

Well, that couldn't be helped.  Keva looked at the man, wiping her wet face in the rain, and gulping sorrowfully.  Another job lost, and more people disbelieving in her.  It was just her luck to get stuck in a situation like this...  Even though Taven was dead and the inn was alone, there was really nothing for her in this worthless backwater squat of a village.  It would be best, before her luck turned to worse, to leave this place and find somewhere else to go...  To go somewhere where the Prophet would not find her so easily.  When it arrived, it would consume this village.

Keva restrapped her boots and stepped tentatively on the mud, heading into the forest in which the woodland was surrounded.  She would be much safer there than here.  Tossing the hood of her newly acquired cloak over her head, something she snatched off an unwitting customer, she was ready to make her way through the oncoming darkness.  Shadows greeted the fortune teller's eyes as a myriad of thoughts bombarded her psyche: questions, hopes, dreams, nightmares, wishes.

Anything and everything that might turn her luck around...

[Anonymous]

The air was changing.

There was a certain energy that was pulsing, that was coursing through the forest. There was a slight chill, one that made a slight mist fall into the depths of the darkness. It hung close to the ground, covering the dirt path and obscuring the view. It was only concentrated in one area however, where the road forked and split off into two directions. A crossroads.

There was a strange light in the mist, it was a pale white colour, almost like the moon was shining upon the mist, but it wasn't from the moon. No, this was an otherworldly light, as if will-o-whisps were floating and drifting to and fro. The moon didn't factor into it, not with the storm clouds above. Even if the storm hadn't been there, an electric charge was in the air, making the hair of nearby travellers stand on end. The simples sounds of the forest, despite being quiet already, there was nothing to hear. No leaves rustling, no animals of the night calling out to each other, nothing, just a dead silence.

That is of course, until in the mist something appeared. It was a silhouette at first, something bulky at first, but as it moved forward it became more defined. It was a robed figure, draped in black. The hood was pulled up, and despite the lights in the mist there was no light that penetrated under the darkness of the hood. The sleeves of the garment were much long than normal, and had been sewn up near the end with large archaic symbols in white thread. They had a faint glow to them as it walked directly to the point where the road diverged into two paths. The strange hooded figure looked left, then looked right...and then shrugged as the sound seemed to return to the forest. Chirping of crickets, rustling of leaves in the wind, it all slowly came back as the hooded figure stood in the middle of the road.

Someone was coming.

That was the only answer. He could only show up when someone was coming to a cross road. "Wishmaster, Wishmaster, grant me my wish, I'd like to see the ocean, but why am I a fish? Wishmaster, Wishmaster, you steered me wrong, did you know what would happen all along? Wishmaster, Wishmaster, don't step on me, I wished I could fly so you made me a flea." The voice that sung was a very strange one, at first it sounded like it had a a strange distortion to it, but as the song progressed the voice was almost...normal. Almost pleasant in a way.

This was a very strange creature to say the least.

[Lion]

And just as she wanted, her luck was just about to change shortly.  But whether for better or for worse, all that was still up in the air, to be decided by whatever was determined to change the fortune teller's fate.  For all her known life, she remembered had been one to determine whether people lived or died, never stayed in one place for too long and though she was not exactly from this land, wherever she had come from, she brought something with her that was unnatural this world.  Perhaps that something was her own gift, or 'curse' as some might call it, to read only the negative fortunes of that of a prospective person.  Sure, she made some money telling the fortunes of people who others wanted dead, and was even somewhat praised for it.  But in that aspect only.  She carried with her a dreadful presence, one that was subtle.

Keva Tava wandered the woodland, staying along the path that threatened to make her slip with an abundance of mud, walked not with a purpose or intent of any kind.  She walked as if she was in a dream-like state even as she worked not to faceplant into the icky goo beneath her boots.  Her footwear wasn't the most trustworthy of its kind; they were worn and old.  And in fact, she had stolen them a few years back when she had not even a boomerang to her name.  They fit her feet awkwardly and buckled up her shins as if the previous owner was afraid they would constantly fall off.  This certainly wasn't the case for her.  Her browned travel robes were simple in design and she would blend in quite easily with any crowd of muggers or band of thieves.  She was a part-time thief herself at one point in her life.

But her boots took her wear she needed to go; they served their purpose as all things should, knowing their place and fulfilling it as they were supposed to.  Keva knew little of her own purpose and carried herself as such.  One could tell she was a wayfarer just by the look of her.

Then the atmosphere began to change...  And a song abruptly pierced the air.

"What the hell?" she muttered, screwing her face into one of curiosity.  She crouched low and ducked by a tree as she saw the shadowy figure manifest.  It took on the appearance of a robe as orbs of light surrounded it.  It seemed that from here, several yards from where she was hidden, the road had a fork in it, splitting in two as if cleaved by the grass and verdant greens that covered the forest floor.  She had half a mind to deviate from the main path right now.

But this figure, this—thing—or whatever it was, had caught her attention and, the dark forces lurking within her, the power of the Prophet was drawing her nearer...as if all this was apart of her fate to so do.  If there was one fortune she could not yet tell, it was her own.  Her destiny resided in the hands of the mystical, dark being that was the Prophet.  Like hers, its origins were unknown.

As the rain still impeded her sight, she had no choice but to scamper a little closer than she would have liked for comfort, but did so only for curiosity's sake.  "What the hell....?" she muttered, still in confusion.  "What are you?"

[Anonymous]

There was a power approaching.

He honestly couldn't say if it boded well however. People who had power already didn't often want more power, or they had been corrupted by power already. That however didn't matter, there was only one option that he could give, one option that he was able to take. Funny, a creature on a crossroad was only allowed to take one path. It wasn't even the choice of left or right either, for him, he always appeared with his back facing the crossroads, which meant he could only walk away. One path, one path, away from the crossroads.

The word was irony or something along those lines.

What was it that approached though? He could feel two, but there was only one. One was much further off, but the first...it was tainted, it felt of the second? If that made sense. Like they were connected in a way. Most interesting. People who were married, people who were bonded, they didn't feel this way, no, they felt different, they didn't feel as connected. No, this was different, this was deeper than just a simple bonding of two people, this was more exciting, this was much more exciting than just a normal appearance then.

"Wishmaster, wishmaster, with brilliance and power you can endow, wishmaster, oh wishmaster, greet your new friend with a bow." The singing creature spun about theatrically before it doubled over in a bow to the woman who came ever closer to him. She was soaked in that power then, she was the one who led the other being, the other presence. "I am a Dweller at the Crossroads." He spoke softly as he stood up, his robed hands pressing together within the confines of the robe sleeves. "Or should I say, the Dweller, for I have not met any others like me." Dweller spoke as he peered curiously at the woman from under his hood, which showed no features, no face, not even a head, just darkness.

"And you would be the lucky woman who has brought me here to this fine little world." He sounded pleasantly surprised and almost excited. He had been here before, he thought, but in a lesser form, this one was a lot better in his own opinion. "Which means you little munchkin, get a wish." He let his arms drop to his side, flapping slightly in the light wind that wormed through the forest. "You can't kill anyone however with a wish, or wish me away, or wish anything out of existence." Well, she could wish a rock could fall on someone, or that a mountain would erupt into a volcano, but she couldn't just wish a person would die. That was a big no-no, and he found the Universe itself did not look kindly on removing something existence. Energy is never created, it is changed. Matter is never created either, though energy could be transformed into matter...but destroying something was...against the rules.  It would also be an absolutely terrible way to go, your matter, your energy, simply...stopping to exist? The universe took steps to stop such things from happening.

"After that however, your heart's content, desire, will, is my pleasure to create and obey." He was probably grinning under his hood to some degree. It was hard to know if he actually existed, if there was even a body, let alone a face under that robe of his.

[Lion]

It looked like something that had crawled out of a nightmare or someone's insane dream.  Keva was accustomed to malevolence on both a physical and spiritual level, but this thing! in front of her was something else entirely.  It, well, from the voice she deduced it to be he, he had said that she had summoned him.  Summoned?  By what incantation or ritual did she summon him?  She had enough trouble as it was.  Why would she want the trouble of a second Prophet when she could barely handle the first one.  Speaking of which...she could feel its presence drawing nearer and the hair on the back of her neck stood up.

"A wishmaster?" she breathed to herself, perplexed.  Wherefore did this being appear to her?  To grant her a wish, he had said.  A wish?  What more could she wish for, rather than to be free of something.  But no matter what power she would hope to summon, the spirit that tracked her was an anomaly that would possess her to the end of her days.  She looked at this almost ethereal being that appeared to her, in a form so mysterious that she was nearly tempted to come further and tear the robe off.

Keva, though curious, glanced at this being who called himself Dweller at the Crossroads and looked at the path around him.  The rain no longer bothered her and she had half a mind to remove the sodden hood from her head.  She soon did so and stood to full length.  "What do you get out of it?" she asked, feeling herself on the verge of a vision.  She wasn't sure if she should summon that ability here and now.  The presence of the Prophet was lurking ever closer to her.

"What if I don't have any desire?  What then?  There's always a catch."

[Anonymous]

What would one person see if they looked under his robe, if they ripped it from him, took it away from him and left him bare. Would there be a creature underneath? Was the robe itself the creature? Perhaps there was nothing but a form of energy within the robe. It was impossible to tell, the robe didn't fall upon a person, it didn't form to an actual body it looked like. It appeared that perhaps a creature of some form, while energy, mass, or otherwise did exist, but it was quite impossible to figure out without...well...ripping the robe off and peering at the creature within. There was always a chance that you could go insane however, that you would be driven mad by whatever sight was held under the robe. It was a test of will perhaps.

He nodded at her question.

"Yes. A Wishmaster." It sounded much better than what other wishing creatures were. Djinn. Marid. Ifrit. Genie. Hah. That was rather pathetic in his mind, being called something so...simple. Wishmaster however had a real ring to it. He absolutely loved the sound of it, it made him sound...like he had control. Instead of being...well...a slave, and having to grant wishes to any who asked of him.

"I get to use my powers once more." Dweller said simply, giving a shrug of his shoulders. He very much liked to use his powers though, to grant wishes, just the wishes could be a little...powerful, erratic, and weren't altogether trustworthy most of the time. Once more, Dweller gave a simple shrug as she asked her next question.

"Desire is a broad term. You can wish for anything, whether you desire it or not. However, if you don't have any desire, or any...wish to wish...then..." He gestured to the road left of him. "You can take the left road." He then gestured to the road right of him. "Or you can take the right road." Though for her, the directions would be reversed but he couldn't be bothered to change them for her. She could always figure out what he meant on her own.

"So have you anything in mind that you would wish for?" He asked her as his arms folded over his chest once more, staring at her. Or...well, she could assume that he was staring at her from under that hood of his. There was no face, no eyes, just darkness peering out at her. He could still feel that power that was approaching fast, and he could only wonder what was coming to visit. Was it her that summoned him, or was it perhaps that power that brought him to this world? A good question to be sure, and he couldn't wait to find out what happened when that power collided with this spot.

[Lion]

"He's coming," she breathed, stunned and no longer paying much heed to the cloaked figure.

It was like a shadow creeping over her, but less than a shadow and more of a light.  Far in the distance behind this being that attempted to grant her a wish, a tiny light lurked up ahead.  It danced alone, swinging to and fro and acted as if it was pushed by the semi-violent gusts of wind back and forth amongst the trees.  It was also somewhat akin to a drunken man trying to walk home, or maybe the lantern of a drunken man trying to find his way through the dense wood.

Yet, it apparently dawned on her that, should this be a lantern, perhaps it would have fallen to the ground a few times for drunken men often lost their grips on things and the thick rain made once solid surfaces to be slippery and unforgiving.  Already, Keva could feel her feet slowly sink into the surface of the moist soil and the wrath of the sky above was getting worse as she now felt the lightning come down harder on the trees.  And she leapt to the side suddenly just seconds before lightning flashed and struck the tree she had been standing against.  She flung herself to the ground and had her clothes now covered in mud.  But this was the least of her concerns.

She saw the dancing light come closer and burn stronger as she pulled herself up to her knees.  Stronger and more powerful it grew until, with another flash of lightning, it burst through the trees, stabbing through the darkness of night, and with a roll of thunder, she fell back even as her arms came up to shield her eyes from the blinding light.  Wind ripped through the air so violently that thick branches were torn from the trunks and flung away toward her as if attempting to strike her.  She dodged a few just a in time, regaining some footing in the mud before one came down and landed on her thigh.  Crying out, she slumped down in the mud, grasping a trunk in desperation.  She hugged it and closed her eyes as she cried out in the raging winds and storm: "He's here!"

[Anonymous]

"Is he?" She was an odd one, Dweller would give her that much. Whatever he was, he was...er...apparently he was approaching. Sometimes he wished he knew just what the crazy little humans thought about. She was focused on something else, and at first he did think it was him...however as he followed her gaze behind him, to look in the darkness of the forest, there it was. Just a tiny little light, a little wisp of a thing that danced back and forth erratically. Dweller lifted his robe covered arm and began to move it around just like the light, following it, mimicking the little light as it moved. How strange indeed. Was this the he that she had spoke of then?

The weather was becoming quite a nuisance, Dweller noticed, that everything was starting to become more violent now. He felt rather pleased that he was not actually able to be bothered by it, he couldn't get wet, he couldn't get struck by lighting, he could get blown about by strong winds he supposed, but things weren't that bad yet. The trees however that were exploding and being struck by lightning were an interesting thing. His new little friend almost ended up a crispy treat for a forest critter, just lucky enough to escape a lightning bolt. "Do be careful now." Dweller said as he looked at her on the ground, now covered in mud.

In all the places he had visited, in all the worlds he had seen before...this was now the strangest. He had thought this was a normal sort of world, but now he was sure that it really wasn't that normal. What was with this weather? It wasn't natural, oh no...he knew natural weather, and this was more of...this was more of the weather that preceded his arrival. Yes. While he rolled in fog, this 'he' had to roll in an entire thunderstorm, which to Dweller was just showing off. Branches began to fly as if an archer had released it from his bow. Dweller was lucky, to see where they were coming, and pertinently side-stepped or ducked the onslaught of what would surely be a messy collision. One arm was level with his chest, the other was resting the elbow on where his palm would be...then...he rested his chin on hand...well...it was all symbolic, since his robed hand was in his hood, but it looked like he was resting on it.

"Well tell him to turn off the dramatic entrance! Some of us have things we would like to accomplish without some big pompous fanfare!" Dweller called back, his voice was just as clear, albeit louder now, as it had been before the storm. He'd never get to ruin this little mortal life with some jerk ruining it with his...flashy introduction. Heh. That was good. Yes, this was a very stormy reception. Dweller chuckled to himself. He'd have to use that if he met whoever this person was.

It would be fun.

[Lion]

The storm did not calm at all now as the light dissipated.  The wind wailed out and about as if it were in severe pain and the lightning raged overhead as if it were a mad god about to punish all upon the earth, and the flashes and roaring thunderheads were the visible and audible manifestations of that god's vivacious and insuppressible wrath.  And Keva was the only victim of that wrath for the figure Dweller seemed cool and entirely unperturbed by the worldly anger that was present around them.

But she knew that Dweller had made a mistake of interpretation.  The spirit's coming had nothing to do with flashy entrances, for it was quite incapable of such things.  The Prophet was a quiet thing and one never quite knew of it's coming until disaster had already struck and survival or redemption was already to late.  The form had erred and Keva was forced to laugh maniacally for a second or two, for even she knew of it's mistake.  No, the Prophet was not the cause of the violence of the storm.  It was the storm that knew of the Prophet's coming and therefore wailed its wails of torment as if the very presence of the spirit caused this world a torrent of pain far beyond any mortal capabilities.

The violence was the reaction of the world to it's own coming demise...  And Keva was its beacon.  Wherever she went, fled or not, the Prophet closely followed.  No one ever saw it, no one ever heard it and even now, she could feel its force so close.  So she looked at the figure in the cloak which moved in its ghostly fashion and speaking quite audibly despite the rage about them.  And she could not hear him, for the whispers and voices all the souls the Prophet had taken shouted and screamed and laughed inside her head, as if it were the very hell they suffered in.  But she couldn't help them, she didn't want to.  All she wanted to do was get away, to go someplace else—ANYWHERE!—that was away from this Underworld of her mind.  "No!" she cried out, suddenly feeling enraged.  She looked at the figure Dweller, her mind unable to make sense of anything right now and paused before she spoke in a whisper that would caress whatever hearing devices the figure utilized: "You have erred, Dweller.  This one is mine."

[Anonymous]

Dweller could be classified as some form of high presence, of a being of an utmost power, limited however to use most of the stored power when asked for by another. Dweller couldn't just be 'hurt' by something, it wouldn't 'kill' him so to speak. Yes, he would be banished back to his realm of strange darkness, to recover his power and then he could return to another plane as he saw fit. The world around him was a minor consequence, the storm was nothing but a small nuisance, a fly buzzing overhead. Annoying, but not enough for him to do anything about it, except maybe swat at it.

There was a lot of madness and chaos happening around them. Dweller seemed almost preoccupied by something, his arm coming up and waving around. "Multiple levels...how interesting...here...not here...there...not there...both." The strange creature murmured with a surprised satisfaction. Something cut through the storm, and into his very consciousness, which caused his arm to drop and face Kheva. Well. What had been Kheva at least.

"Erred is it? How formal. Dost thou wishes to converse in tongues of old? But whatever you are, big stormy flashy entrance entity, I don't really want yours. At least...not for too long. Just a wish. That's all I offer. One wish, and then I might be gone." Might being the operative word. Dweller might choose to follow Kheva. It was interesting, whatever followed Kheva, brought a terrible storm. Dweller didn't exactly know every little detail, but he could see a lot of things right now, a lot of realities, a lot of dimensions, a lot of what could bes and what never will bes, a ton of what were and what may be, a few things that should never be, and even something that should be, but won't be for a long while. He could see some strange things about Kheva and this being that possessed her. He kind of liked it.

"But you know, you and I could get to know each other better. What's your sign?" Dweller asked as he came closer, and much like a slightly drunk lecherous man in a bar, seemed to lean on a counter top that was not there. "Because I think it's 'Going my way." It was impossible to tell what was going on under the hood of Dweller, if there was a face, and if that face was grinning or not. He assumed that this...entity of Kheva's, was some form of extraplanar being, that it didn't have a body of its own, which made for some interesting thoughts and ideas.

"I don't think I caught your name either, and since you know mine, introductions seem like a fanciful idea, don't they?" Even in the face of some potentially omnipotent and awesome being, Dweller couldn't help but act haughty and slightly arrogant.