The Drawing on the Wall

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Pepper swallowed hard. She remembered a few of the places she had been, and hopefully, the ones she remembered would be enough to satisfy Ira. It wasn’t as many as she wished she remembered, but enough that she could hopefully talk her way out. It wasn’t lying to tell her places she’d been as a child.

[font color=darkpink] “Once, I went to a place where everything was water. I don’t think there was any land, because my portals usually take me to places above sea level. There was a giant creature, it almost looked like a snake crossed with a whale, and it let me catch a ride on its fins. It went so fast that I thought I’d lose my grip every time it turned. It took me underwater and I could… I could breathe still.[/font color] There was a moment where her voice skipped as she had a revelation. She thought quickly about the other places she’d been. Surely, not all of them had breathable air. She had breathed underwater. Did her biology adjust to new planes when she entered them? She’d have to test that at some point. She had never tried to breathe underwater before, but maybe she could.

[font color=darkpink] “Uh, I spent hours there, just looking at all of the different creatures. I had never been to an aquarium as a kid, so when I saw all the strange sea creatures, I was really fascinated. There were creatures twice my size, just floating around peacefully.”[/font color] She really had been fascinated back then. There had been so many colorful specimens. Pepper wondered if she’d be able to open portals there now that she was practicing again.

[font color=darkpink] “There was another place, with the greenest grass I’ve ever seen. I was in a forest of some kind, maybe an orchard given how the trees were spaced, but the trees were miles tall. I couldn’t see the tops of them at all. The shortest branch was so high up that I could barely find them. The grass had been waist height, and I remember seeing the legs of some massive creature before I left. I think everything there was actually just incredibly giant. The planet itself must have been massive.”[/font color]

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[div style="background-color:deepskyblue;border-top:darkred 4px outset;border-left:deepskyblue 4px inset;border-right:darkred 4px outset;border-bottom:deepskyblue 4px inset;"][div style="border-top:deepskyblue 4px inset;border-left:darkred 4px outset;border-right:deepskyblue 4px inset;border-bottom:darkred 4px outset;"][div style="background-color:black;color:white;padding:15px;"][font face="courier new"]Ira stared with wide-eyed fascination as Pepper described the watery world and giant forest worlds she visited. Her mind raced with ideas, the water world in particular gave her a few thoughts. There were empty places in her solar systems, new worlds could be made, Ira had the time...

As Pepper described the forest world, Ira nodded and quietly remarked, [font color="8682eb"]"Yes, megafauna. Oft easy to grow, just need space. My world, massive. Many thousand times larger than this- erhm, what called, Earth? Earth. Yes. So much larger. Most life, underground, though. Surface has some, special life. Not found, anywhere else. Very special."[/font] Ira had stopped looking at Pepper when she described her own world, her eyes flicking down to the paper where she worked and drew. Suddenly, Ira froze, an idea cropping up into her head.

Snapping her head up, she stated with complete seriousness, [font color="8682eb"]"My waking world. Do not go there. Your safety, I cannot guarantee. Extremely dangerous. Cannot explain, you will not understand. But do not go there. Please, if you got hurt- Cody..." [/font]Ira stood up with her paper and began walking back over to the wall of drawing,[font color="8682eb"] "He would, be sad. Maybe, me too..." [/font]The second statement came out so gently that Ira was unsure it was even loud enough to be heard. Taping her picture to the wall, Ira finished speaking by asking, [font color="8682eb"]"Ever you meet someone like me?"[/font][/font][/div][/div][/div]
 
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If it weren’t for the fact that Pepper was listening intently to what Ira was saying, she might have missed the softly spoken statement of how sad both she and Cody would be if anything happened to her. At that, her heart melted. She smiled softly and tapped her fingers on the activity table.[font color=darkpink] “I promise you, Ira, that I never go anywhere dangerous without the proper equipment to keep myself safe. I have a suit that’s meant to disorient anything I come in contact with. I have armor built into it to protect me from anything with claws or spikes. I’m always safe, no matter where I go. But I hear your concerns, and I’ll take them to heart.”[/font color]

She didn’t need Ira’s assurances that the denizens would hurt her. She’d already experienced a few close calls already. Well, except for that time earlier that week but that was a miracle meeting. She froze up a bit at the final question Ira asked her.

[font color=darkpink] “I’ve never met anyone quite like you. When I was very young, I met a demigod made of living fire, I think. They followed me through their planet and stopped a few massive creatures made of stone from hurting me. I think, looking back on it, they simply had natural camouflage that looked like rock. But whatever that creature of fire was, they seemed to worship it. They dropped to their knees in front of it and obeyed its gestures.”[/font color]

That wasn’t a lie, even if she was omitting the godspark. Pepper and Cody still didn’t have permission from Jupiter to tell Ira yet. She wanted desperately to tell Ira how she never meant to take the shard of the Dead God, and how she didn’t want it to affect their relationship that was blossoming before her eyes. She wanted the girl to take the information and be okay afterward, and that would only happen if she and Cody told her themselves. It took all her willpower not to tell Ira the truth.

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[div style="background-color:deepskyblue;border-top:darkred 4px outset;border-left:deepskyblue 4px inset;border-right:darkred 4px outset;border-bottom:deepskyblue 4px inset;"][div style="border-top:deepskyblue 4px inset;border-left:darkred 4px outset;border-right:deepskyblue 4px inset;border-bottom:darkred 4px outset;"][div style="background-color:black;color:white;padding:15px;"][font face="courier new"]Ira nodded as Pepper reassured her. The little Goddess believed her new friend in that she would not go to the waking dimension. If Pepper had not ended her 'safety statement' with mentioning of taking Ira's words to heart, Ira likely would have repeated herself. Her world was not friendly to humans. There was a time when the Foundation decided to brute force test the limits of her sleeping radius, and not a single person experimented on had survived.

Ira made her children to change as they willed, they did not take kindly to heresy. Even accidental.

Then, Pepper started talking about a god. A being of fire worshipped by beings of rock. Ira closed her eyes, she could hear the voice in her head and she simply did not have the willpower to shut Her up. So, sighing and nodding, Ira gave the lecture that she felt She needed to say, [font color="8682eb"]"Demigod, weird word. To be less, that is meaning. Demi, half. Half gods. There are, many, half gods, in my world. A god is- strange. Powerful beings, you might call anomalies. Change the world, change themselves. What makes worship worthy? By right of power? Right of existence? I tell you, true gods rare. Beings beyond all else. Beings who, regardless of worship, are eternal. These, true gods. Even if unknown they are... Infinite..."[/font]

Finding herself back at her table and drawing again, yet not remembering the walk over, little Ira sighed and continued to color. The words were hers and the thoughts were hers, because she was She and She was she. But the will behind the lecture was almost solely Her's to hold. Ira couldn't care less about expounding on what did or did not classify a diety to be so. Without thinking, Ira yawned. Talking made her tired. If Pepper had anything else to say, this would be the time to do so.[/font]
 
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[font color=darkpink] “There are many half-gods in your world? That’s fascinating”[/font color] She left it at that, not wanting to push her. She had already requested once that they don’t talk about her waking world any more than they had. Pepper didn't want to irritate Ira any more than was necessary. And it wasn't necessary at all.

It raised the question in her head of what Ira would consider her. Would she consider her just the host body, or would the fact that the walls between herself and the Dead God were crumbling make her a half-god? Did only real gods live forever? So many questions now lived in Pepper’s head. So many answers she wouldn’t have for a long time coming.

A lot of puzzles to solve.

Pepper noticed then that Ira seemed to be tired. Before she could say anything, the little girl yawned. Pepper smiled softly and resisted the urge to reach out and tuck her hair behind her ear for her. She didn’t think Ira would like it much if she started mothering her. At least, not yet. So instead she leaned forward just the slightest bit and smiled up at Ira where she sat in her chair. [font color=darkpink] “You look tired. Should I let you rest now?”[/font color]

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[div style="background-color:deepskyblue;border-top:darkred 4px outset;border-left:deepskyblue 4px inset;border-right:darkred 4px outset;border-bottom:deepskyblue 4px inset;"][div style="border-top:deepskyblue 4px inset;border-left:darkred 4px outset;border-right:deepskyblue 4px inset;border-bottom:darkred 4px outset;"][div style="background-color:black;color:white;padding:15px;"][font face="courier new"]Ira was not tired! Well, no, that was a lie, she was tired. Talking tired Ira out. She was not going to sleep, that was the truth. She would not fall asleep while Pepper was in the room with her. Killing people was something Ira went out of her way to avoid when she could, and killing friends was especially unacceptable. Even if their tiny lives were utterly meaningless in the universe's grand scheme, their interaction with Ira gave them a permanence that stretched beyond time and space.

A spot in the memory of time itself.

And Ira would remember them, her friends. She would remember them even when the stars died- because, eventually, even stars died. But Ira did not. So Ira needed to make the most of her time with her friends while they were still with her, keeping care not to hurt them and taking care to remember every interaction with them. Because, when the stars died, she would go back to those memories. Relive them as if they were still occurring, as if they had not happened yet, and enjoy them all the same. After all, all things died.

Even stars die.

Ira realized, in that moment, that she had zoned out after Pepper asked her a question. Blinking and thinking back to it, Ira nodded and responded quietly, [font color="8682eb"]"Yes, I am. Begone. Another time, return. I abide not loneliness. Bring tribute. Always necessary. Now go." [/font]And the manner that Ira made her demands came out a little softer, a little kinder, with each word. Her tone conveyed not the harshness of her words, rather, it spoke of a soft child who was, unwillingly, tired of a playdate. Absentmindedly, Ira waved Pepper off and continued her drawing. [/font]
 
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