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hey duet, why not try out the god form in the ocean, your far away from everything and everyone, no ones gonna see you
Oh...now there was an idea.
Maybe they would try that, just dive down to the ocean floor and change there, at some point. That seemed much safer, actually...
Maybe they’d talk to Micool about it.
Magic Anon Expired: Loosened Seal
Returning home after everything that had happened was...sobering. Sobering was a good word for it. Despite being at the most powerful they had been in centuries, they hadn't really grown all that much closer to what they had been, had they? Sure, they had once again flown through the sky, glided through the sea, stood miles tall in a form so close to the celestial form they had once had, looming over submerged mountains, looming large, lofty like the stars, the sky above... And yet no answers had come, no acceptance, no worship, no truth nor any closure. Only homesickness. Only mourning for a time and companions long past. Only regret. They supposed that was a lesson in and of itself, however, that even when they were as old as this, as weak and restrained and living each day in a small, fragile human body, their once cosmic consciousness reduced almost completely to mere mortal senses, they could still learn things. They still be could be overzealous, overly confident, and believe they knew what they wanted, that what they used to have was still valuable, still worth pursuing... But now they knew better, and stepping into their shop, they didn't even notice the presence of Vivi as they walked past her, cowl slightly askew, the woman blinking for a moment, surprised to see her boss, back without a word after quite some time being away, the woman calling after them as they stumbled into their office: "Duet? Are you okay?! Did something happen?" The god turned to her, but only partially, knowing that, if they turned towards her any more she may glimpse a part of their starry face... And that wasn't a side of themselves they were really concerned with right now, if they were honest. It didn't make sense for her to see it then, and it didn't make any sense now, either. "I'm well, Vivi, better than I've ever been...but, uh, can I ask you to run the store tomorrow? I've just returned from some rather...heavy affairs, and I need some time to recuperate. I'll pay you time and a half. I'm sorry." The woman nodded, smiling, knowing her boss well enough to know that Duet wasn't making this request without reason: they knew their limits, and they had clearly pushed themselves a bit too far, somehow. She wished them the best, replying: "No problem boss: get some rest. If you need anything just call, okay?" "Thank you, Vivian," Duet smiled, more appreciation than ever for the humans they surrounded themselves with, the lives, fragile and short and transient though they may be, that they had the privilege of having around them. Perhaps, they finally concluded, this curse wasn't so bad after all. Locking the door to their office behind them, the sealed god fell back onto their pile of cushions, beanbag chairs, and other such soft comforts as they felt, like a grand snake closing, coiling, crushing around the body of its prey, their seal beginning to seal back up, strengthen again. They knew that that meant a long, painful night and day ahead of them as the sealing spell carved its way back through their flesh, extracated the long-buried power that anon's curse had awoken again from their body. This time, however, they were happy to return to normal... Some may call them a fool, a traitor to their kin and their true nature, but they didn't care: having had a taste of what once was, what they had now become so removed from that they couldn't even remember, couldn't even understand, couldn't reach towards that power, that old life of their's anymore, they reclined back, letting their weak body go limp, let the sealing spell take hold of them again. Between godhood and humanity, they had finally chosen a side, had leaned towards humanity, and, bring that decision what it may, they were ready for it, ready for anything... Anything at all.
Jesse regarded Duet sliently with a slow bow of his head, then he echoed his words to his now aquatic friend, He began to circle around them slowly.
They...knew that voice.
“Jesse?!”
They were completely awestruck...and relieved as well, though not entirely. Friend though Jesse was to them, his exact nature and species still evaded Duet, and this situation did nothing to ease their buried fear of him...especially not with him circling them like that.
“Well, I’m quite surprised to see you here, like this, as well: I wasn’t aware you were capable of taking on such a form...”
A lie.
Or, at least, a partial one: they had seen that Jesse had a monstrous side before, was capable of altering his form...but this was more than they were prepared for, or could have ever expected.
“As for myself, I’m only out here due to an anon curse: I’ve been afforded more power and freedom of form than usual, so I went for a swim...what are you doing here?”
The mun was just swimming around lazily, happy to have spent time with the god in one of her favorites places. She did nearly scream when she spotted the the shifting shape in the darkness that suddenly shot towards her but she calmed when she realized the skin. "Duet? What is this?"
“What is this, well...”
They tilted their head, glancing off to the side, thinking...how best to explain it?
“...I was afforded three new forms by a magic anon curse, and, well, you’ve already seen the other two.”
They gave a slight shrug...a shrug that could shake off a small mountain’s worth of material if they were out of the water, but a shrug nonetheless.
“I decided I might try and use the last available form to try and return to...what I was like before I was sealed.”
They pet the mun again, less out of affection and more just...seeking comfort. As exhilarating as it was to have such a powerful form again, remembering their sealing was not a pleasant experience...in fact, it might very well be the fact that they were currently in a such a powerful form and with someone they love and trust that they were able to talk, think about it all.
Their sealing was their most traumatic memory, after all.
“This isn’t...exactly what I was like before, it’s a bit small and doesn’t have even a fraction of the power I used to have before, but it’s...nice.”
They glance skywards, focusing on the light filtering down from above, thinking of the sky overhead, the vastness of space beyond it...could a being that couldn’t even remember their home be homesick?
“It’s hard to describe in a way...I’m not frightening you, am I?”
As they were asking their question, they pulled their hand away, looking down at the mun with closed lips, hiding their teeth, glowing eyes narrowing slightly, taken out of their thoughts and away from their speculation by Micool’s presence.
Jesse held back on snapping his jaws at the creature that nearly crashed into him. After all, this was the first time something had spoken to him down here in the deep. His bioluminescence brightened up to takr a better look at this being, who sounded curiously like his friend. Now, this dull day had gotten very interesting.
Duet turned their attention to the being before them, glowing white eyes focusing on them as their own light glowed brighter and-
Fear.
That was the only feeling in their mind as they saw the giant, serpentine creature, easily tree times their size, glaring them down. Suddenly, all the power that the recent loosening of their seal had afforded them felt rather paltry, and they didn’t feel quite so confident and untouchable, anymore...
Regardless, some shred of their usual propriety and calm took control, and they attempted diplomacy, first: this didn’t seem like any normal sea creature they knew of...maybe it was supernatural, fully sentient and could be reasoned with. it was worth a shot.
“I-I’m, uh...sorry about all that, I re-really should have been watching where I was going. I’m Duet, and, again, you have my utmost apologies.”
all I wanted was to swim with you and I go that, you want to go down were I cant go and im not gonna stop you -smooch-
Well, that was motivation enough: they smooched the mun back, then turned their attention to the abyss below…
It took them quite some time to reach the bottom, as one might expect, and by the time they reached the ocean floor, the only light they could see was what was coming off of their own body.
They were having a hard time pushing water through their gills as well, the pressure pounding down on them intensely, and it was quickly making their body begin to ache.
No time to think through this any farther: if they tried to swim back up now they’d pass out before they could get back to where Micool was…
Time to test the limits of their seal under this curse.
They focused on their third and final form, feeling the power course through them and-…
It was exhilarating.
They felt their form shift, their tail turn back into legs, Duet planting their feet on the ocean floor, felt their gills close off, and although there was nothing down here to truly compare their scale to, they could feel how massive their form was now, and still growing, their glowing eyes turning skyward.
To be fair, this form was nowhere near the one they had once had, not in size, scale or power…and although disappointment sat in the back of their mind at this fact, it couldn’t do anything to sour their mood.
They felt free, alive, and overjoyed, limited though this transformation may be…
Best to get back to Micool, now.
They kicked off of the ocean floor, swimming back towards where Micool was: their senses weren’t nearly as sharp as they had once been, but it was easy to spot the mun long, long before she came anywhere within their range of sight, them picking up on her aura long before anything else, and when they came within physical range of her, they reached out…
From Micool’s perspective, it was probably a pretty startling sight: just the dark depths below, and then, suddenly, from that abyss came a massive hand, appearing to be made of the same material as the night sky, each finger easily a hundred feet in length, coming up towards her, curling in near her, the index finger coming in close to…
Pet her.
Despite how weak this form was compared to their old one, at least they had enough control over it to interact with her as gently as they would have if they were still in their human form. At least that much was intact.
They pulled their hand away, floating up until Micool was roughly at eye-level with them, their eyes those same glowing pools of white light…though, in this form, they glowed brilliant and bright...and when Duet spoke, their voice was gentle, welcoming, not loud or overpowering at all, heard telepathically in Micool’s head:
“Hello, Micool.”
They smiled, revealing teeth just as glowing and white as their eyes…not to mention sharp and long.
“I chose my last form, I hope you don’t mind.”
duet, your true form calls you, go on, do it!
...they’re working on it. Give them a second.
I love you too, if you wanna go into the deep you can, do what you want
Well, as much fun as that did sound, they had other concerns at the fore of their mind:
“Is there anything you wanted to do with me, first? I don’t want to just buzz off and leave you here when we’re supposed to be hanging out together...”
Plus, they were thinking about...trying out their last form down there, seeing if even worked, and all that. They left that part out.
