The door opened with a soft click, the sound nearly inaudible to human ears, but he hears it. He looked every bit as hale and hearty as ever; a god in his prime, immortal and every young with a beauty to match. And yet, he pulled his aura close to him, his eyes distant as he moved. The god was exhausted; he always was when he came back from the world he’d just visited. There, he was alone, a lone god to a universe full of people. People who cried out in his name for everything from a good harvest to political success to entire wars won in his name.

Seth had never wished for violence to be done in his name, not by his worshippers, his faithful. His priests knew that, preached a reverence for all life, and yet there were droves of men and women alike who felt that it was against some unspoken rule for people to choose not to pray to him.

Sighing, the god leaned back against the door for a moment, eyes closing as he took a moment to try to release the tension. Failing, he strode to the balcony, his form shifting as he took wing and flew over the sky of the Hub, letting the dusking sun warm his small body even as he flew upwards before dipping back down, alighting on a bench, the soft feathers of the owl fluffing out and back down where they belonged.

It was so much quieter here where no one called out his name for their wars or lives or crops. He could never simply walk away from his responsibilities, but here, at least, he could have a reprieve from them.

@kel

Belle was...pretty drunk. She shouldn't have been not with how much she'd actually drunk but...that's what happens when you hardly eat for two days. So after theoretically have been left virtuously in her bed...Belle found herself heading out the door and down the block to the Moon.

Why? Because...because DAmn it! She...she needed to talk to him!

Now if she’d been thinking clearly Belle would have been horrified at her actions, but here she was not quite staggeringly drunk but damn close to it! “Arjay!” she knew where he would be, Belle opened the back door with easy familiarity.

@mike

The door opened and the finely dressed fallen angel stepped into the shop. In his hand a flask and on his face a mischievous little smile. He was looking for objects that could cause a little mayhem and chaos and get a little laugh. He was picturing maybe a joy buzzer or flower that sprays water. He had no idea what he was getting himself into when he walked into the joke shop, if he had maybe he wouldn’t have decided to walk through the door. Raising the flask to his lips to take a quick drink before returning it to his inner breast pocket.

Why was he looking for little gags? Well, he had started to think that he might go home or Mazikeen would sense that he was no longer in the void and come looking for him. And with how he had left things between them, or how he left her, he’d need a good distraction to hopefully calm that temper of hers. Was it going to work? Not really, but he was still going to try it anyway. Besides, the Devil did enjoy a good prank or joke and would always enjoy a good laugh or two.

But he was going to need some help finding the right stuff. “Anyone around that can help me?” He glanced around the place looking for someone who worked here.

@kel

Nothing. An endless see of white that filled this endless space. Time didn’t move normally in this space; he’d be able to spend an eternity here and only a small lifetime would pass in his universe. The emptiness and freedom from his father’s game made him content. Even if there was nothing to entertain him. Occasionally, he’d pass across a few structures or constructs that would be falling through the void temporarily. But it would only be there for a few moments before it fell and became nothing. Normal. But, one day he came across something that was out of the norm. Something that should not exist.

A door just floating there. It wasn’t falling through or being swallowed by the empty. It was sustained existence within the void. Lucifer was lost as to what to do, the first of the fallen just floated there staring at it for the first few days after finding it. What should he do? Leave it and go about on his adventure through the nothing? Should he open it and find out what was on the other side? What power could create this object and maintain it in this place? Could this be another one of his father’s attempts to manipulate him?

Well, curiosity got the better of the fallen angel. Lucifer found himself moving closer and closer to the door. Hand reaching out and taking the knob, the door opened and suddenly he was pulled through by an unknown force. He didn’t resist, there wasn’t a point in it whatever was pulling him through this portal was too powerful. To resist this force could risk injury and he wasn’t sure his abilities would be about to heal him wherever he ended up. So, he was just going to enjoy the ride and be as cautious as he could.

He was dropped into a strange world. Lucifer’s eyes darted as he came down to land on solid ground. Wings outstretched at first and when he realized he wasn’t in any immediate danger they folded against his back. “Well, what do we have here?” Lucifer glanced around the section of the bazaar he had come to be in. A flash of red and he felt that surge rush through, old instincts whenever he was around other people. Well who could blame him for learning of the woman and men in this world and getting a few drinks before returning to the void?

The shop was closed.

The sign on the door simply stated that it was ‘for the foreseeable future.’

Intellectually Belle knew that she was a short step from doing something...something she couldn’t forgive herself for, already the thought of getting drunk or visiting Nala for something...stronger-

It made her sick to her stomach how tempted by the thought of it, of escape, of abandoning all her morals, all her good sense and being just like everyone else.

Belle shivered, rain finding its way under the collar of her jacket - “Relaxation.” the hologram activated when she paused, reached out to Belle a soft smile on its face, “Forgiveness.” exhausted bloodshot from bawling her eyes out for the last 24 hours turned towards the building - “Rest. don’t you need it? Just a few hours.” the phantom hand beckoned and Belle found her feet following.

------------------------------------------

‘Oh…’

The exhausted red head, leaned back in the booth, pain that had etched fresh lines around her mouth faded. Twin glowing ‘gems’ attached to her temples sent Belle into a dream like state, controlling what she was seeing, feeling.


@mike

It’d been a trialing day and one that was filled with struggle, pain, and stress. He was quite certain Belle was stressed beyond believe and he knew of at least one thing that happened when someone stressed – their nights tended to get plagued with nightmares. So while they had gotten as far as her couch when they got home that night. And sprawled across it. She seemed too tired to care when she was spread over him when she fell asleep that night. Perhaps the horrors of the day simply had her desire to be close to someone. Sebastian didn’t question it. He did, however, decide to do what he could to make her mind less stressed.

So one shouldn’t fault him too badly when he decided to invade her dreams that night and manipulate them to being something other than possible nightmares. The dream had her dressed in the most provocative underwear, complete with thigh-highs are garters hidden beneath a tight dress. His stood behind her in her bedroom, his mouth drifting small soft kisses along the side of her neck as his hands snacked around her stomach. Fingers sprayed apart to touch as much of her as possible as thumbs stroked over the dress, teasing the skin underneath.

At her backside he was pressed, hard bulge fighting against his pants. He rolled his hips against her backside. A soft groan escaping his lips at the feeling. His right hand drifted up her torso, ghosting over her breast before wrapping around her throat and tilting her head up and tilting to the side so he could ex\pose more of her neck to him. He nipped at the flesh, fangs threatening to pierce into it to bite but holding back for some reason. He was waiting for her to desire his bite. His left hand drifted down until his hand moved pass the bottom of her dress to rest on her thigh and slowly pull her dress up, exposing more of her leg to him. His hand curled over her leg, his fingers drifting to caress the inside of her thigh.

”I want to make a mess of you. He commented into against her neck, a deep chuckle caressing her skin as he used the hand on her leg pull her against him. ”Shall I make you obsessed with my bite?” Perhaps she was already, But he pinched the side of her neck between his teeth before his tongue brushed along her neck until his teeth could tug at her ear. Her lobe drew into his mouth, his tongue teasing over the earring she wore. ”I want to find the perfect spot to mark you. Make you mine. Perhaps here..?” His thumb tucked inside the skirt of her dress stroked over her skin, high on the inside of her thigh and almost to the point the tip of his thumb might stroke across her covered sex.

@kel

As Arjay stepped through the dimension door he’d cast from Belle’s apartment, he took a moment to let out a deep sigh. When he’d grown in power, when he finally began to reside in the celestial planes with Sune and his peers, he firmly intended to make his part of the plane resemble this. Something about the inn and its energy just made him relax, even when it was closed down for the night and the lights were out. Right now, he needed that comfort. The problems that he’d just walked away from had only been going on for a few spare minutes, true, but it had left the fledgeling god soul-weary after the events from the past few weeks of his life that he still hadn’t recovered from. Hopefully, the rest of the night would prove to be some sort of balm for those spiritual scars.

Ascending the stairs to his bedchambers, though, he found himself pausing in the doorway. He’d expected (based on the note he’d been given not very long before) see Sune’s red tresses spread over the bed and her body curled up with the tiny form of their daughter. Instead, Hanali's golden hair practically lit up the room from where she sat holding the baby and looking none too pleased.

Wonderful.

Wordlessly and wearily, Arjay walked over, carefully extricating his daughter from her mother's arms. He slowly lay down on the bed, resting the sleeping infant on his chest and slowly stroked his fingers down her back, lulling her more deeply into sleep. “I'm sorry that my return is so long in coming, my love,” he sighed. “Incidentally, when next you're in Arvadandor, tell Shevarash that only cowards strike from ambush, and that ambushing someone who bears you no ill is a move that Lolth would particularly approve of.” Perhaps things would progress better if he came in contrite, but he was far too drained for that much self-abuse to come naturally right now.

@moon

This was not the best day of Arjay's life. His first outing in Faerun as a god had gone better than he ever could have hoped, but the return? Ohhhh the return had been a mess. Blame not knowing the impulses of his power, blame being hurt and tired and weak, blame just being an idiot (he had his money on the last one), but he'd screwed things up royally. Oh, it was in his power to fix, of course... or it would have been, if Belle weren't hosting a malevolent item that was determined to not let him fix it and put a stop to the self-destructively foolish ideas going through her head all because in a moment of weakness, he had been a complete idiot.

Fortunately? While he failed to make any headway arguing with this spirit, he'd had another plan in mind already. One he didn't like as much, but still one that would work. He had some reservations about it, but the only one that this could really go badly for was himself... and that was acceptable right now.

He wasn't sure where Queth was right now, just that he could sense her in the Hub, and that was enough. He cast his magic out and the illusion formed next to her, with no warning or preamble. There wasn't time for that. If he were the one in trouble, that would be all right, but it was Belle in trouble, and there was no room for any error caused by delay.

"Queth? I need your help." He paused, then sighed, shame forcing him to be honest. "Belle needs you. She's not in danger," he quickly added. "But she needs someone to be there for her right now, and I'm the problem, not a solution."

@moon

It was a dream that could never last.

Belle walked on daggers.

She smiled, she tried her best to pretend. But how could she hide her despair, heart break from a man would could feel it in his soul no matter how she tried to hide behind a bright smile?

Living in Hub had become unbearable, even if she didn’t see him..there was, Queth, Pete, Sebastian, digging shards of guilt deep into her soul.

She needed to leave, just for a few months, enough and far enough to -


A world with out magic, with out gods, enough technology that she could have refrigeration, that was what she asked the broker, a world where she couldn’t be visited by supernatural beings.

He offered one where time move swifter, she could spend subjective years and only a few weeks or months would pass, he offered to exchange the relative wealth she’d accumulated on Hub and make her a grand Lady on Persephone.

She choose instead a small farm, the world awakening a faint spark of her sense of adventure.

Those close to her knew she was going on a long vacation, Chris knew more but than he would have been blind not to.

Soul Food shuttered its doors and Belle took her small possessions that would still work on this new world.

The quiet routine of daily farm work, serving as town Liberian, on a frontier world slowly soothed the raw wounded places in her too often broken heart.

And then the Reavers came.

The ring around her neck was powerless to protect her, there was no gateway to Hell for it to open.

But it did have enough to fulfill the purpose it had originally been given to her.

Belle didn’t die.

The reclamation team that found her didn’t recognize her at first, it shouldn’t have been possible to survive-

The mentally shattered wreck Jane Doe was sent to a psychiatric clinic.

Five years later a woman walked out, years later she would take the name.

Saffron.