Fastball o/` The Way o/`

[Dracos]

Dracos takes the invitation, sitting down and pondering, "Could you perhaps then share with us a tale of one of the previous Contests?  Sometimes understanding or pondering what has gone before helps with perceiving what will come."

Dracos

[Brian]

Ezmereth nods, taking a seat himself.  "The first victors were those who fled.  Who ran away from their old world, and came here.  Your own legends will remind you of it, I think.

"Those who would cull the weak were the second victors.  From a time when the memories of Man had become smaller, and their view of the world was the same.  A great many people died in what they called the Black Death.  Not as many as would have to die in this age, but a great many, regardless.

"The third victors were those who fled, again.  And they did, coming to the new world to despoil it."  Ezmereth shrug.  "The boundries between these worlds have since fallen apart ... and now the worlds are merged.  But where can they flee, now, I wonder?  Into the dream itself?"

He frowns moodily, considering this.

[Dracos]

"That is a tale of the effects, not the contest itself but...hmmm, That does set a timeline.  Those who flee lead an ever selfdestructing circle.  As do those who cull.  Hum..."

Dracos goes silent, watching Ezmereth and Victor curiously.

Dracos

[Huitzil]

"Okay, wait, hold up."

Paul looks at Ezmereth. "See, I'm kinda the new guy here, and I'm not used to this mystic prophecy stuff. So, sorry, but could you hold up and get this straight for me?

"Okay, so all of us are reincarnated warriors who met you in a past life. And right now, or soon, there is going to be a contest to decide the fate of the world. These Cabal and Arcana guys are on different sides in the contest, and both of them are bad guys. We're going to fight in this contest, along with other guys with... with super-powers... but we haven't picked a side yet. Is that right?"

[Brian]

"You are shadows, or reflections, or their roles forged anew," Ezmereth says, as if this clarifies things.  "The Contest may not be for some time ... and it may be soon.  The Enemy approaches, however, and makes it a neccessity.

"And no, you're not going to be in this challenge unless you choose to be there.  As before, I merely wish you to be aware of it.  Regardless of what will come, you are all part of the old world.  You will survive the culling, if such is chosen.  You will be left behind, if a way is found to abandon our dying Sister Earth.

"Would you rather not have known this?"

Victor takes a deep pull of his pipe, then offers it to Philip.

[Huitzil]

"We're going to be in the contest. I know we will, like how I knew the furs were magic, and how I knew I was experiencing the dreams of a dead man. Because that's how it is, now. The hand of fate is reaching down. I would rather know that not, if I'm to be thrown into it either way.

"I don't suppose this contest has a physical location and rules, does it?"

[Dracos]

Dracos ponders, instinctively resistant even if outwardly courteous as he receives the pipe from Victor, briefly lifting and looking over it.  "Nay, better to know than to be ignorant.  It appears we owe you thanks Ezmereth, even though I think all of us curse any necessity of being out here."

Dracos

[Brian]

"And who wouldn't?" Ezmereth asks mildly.

Turning to Paul, he adds, "It has many locations, and few rules.  More that it is a contest of power, than a contest of rules."  He frowns at this.

Dracos:  The pipe is carved from a bone, though you can't tell which.  Probably a land-based predator, if you had to guess.  It's got intricate tribal looking markings around the bowl, and the stem has three large eagle feathers tied to it, along with a few shiny glass beads on hide cords.  To your eyes, it also posseses a faint glow.  You can tell it's made to burn whatever's in the bowl when someone takes a pull on it, and other than that, whatever magic is there is red, yellow, white, black, and very subtle.

[Dracos]

Dracos frowns slightly, closing his eyes a little bit as he pondered before taking a slight pull of the pipe.

Dracos

[Huitzil]

"I figured it would be one of those kinds of contests. Why, oh why, can't they ever hold these ancient prophecized contests in a ring, with a referee?

"Anyway. It's obvious, we're going to have to join this contest. There's just no other possibility. But... do we have to choose? Are abandonment or culling, Arcana or Cabal, our only options?"

[Brian]

Phil:  You suspect that this is not what it's like for a normal smoker.  The smoke that enters your lung doesn't feel that much different from the air around you you, save that it's warmer.  It makes you feel warmer, too, and your senses widen a notch, as though you've just become a bit more spiritually awakened.  You're aware, in some sense, as though there were another you in the back of your head monitoring your intoxication level with a handy kill-switch, ready to shut it off if you need it to happen.

Ezmereth shakes his head, looking at those still standing, and says, "The future, of course, is what you make of it ... as, perhaps, is this world."

[Bjorn]

"You keep speaking of the Enemy," Bjorn says, quietly, as he sinks to squat by the fire. "What do you mean by that?"

[Brian]

Bjorn: As you lower yourself, Dracos offers you the pipe.

"The Enemy, is that which is not," Ezmereth says slowly.  "They come to destroy that which does not fit within the universe.  It is ... a thing beyond the reaches of knowing, further than deepest dream.  Grandfather Thunder speaks of the old days, when there were two dreams.

"We followed the dream of light and earth, and the Enemy is that which followed the dream of darkness and stars."

[Bjorn]

Bjorn touches the pipe to his lips in a gesture of politeness, but does not inhale.  After passing the pipe onto Paul, he continues, "If I wanted to enter into the Contest, what would I need to do?"

[Huitzil]

"I think we already have entered into the Contest. I think I entered six months ago while I was singing 'Honky Tonk Women' in my head, and that you entered when you got a bracelet in the mail. What we need to know is, now that we're entered, what do we do? We have this Arcana and Cabal fighting each other, evacuation versus culling. And outside of that there is a formless, hateful Other, a being of non-existence. It is our Enemy with a capital E.

"And we are standing in the middle. Great. You didn't answer my question -- are these sides our only choices?"