Downtime 6- WuJen

After a few days recovering from his wounds, mostly spent watching Nam for signs of being Nakamats, Wujen lets his teammates know he's headed off to Astral space for a few days and settles into his bed to make the astral journey to Pandemonium.

This time, the Watcher that guards the paths into the metaplanes seems to be taking it easy, involving the young elf in an annoying riddle game that he's sure has a point, but doesn't really get it.  Eventually being allowed to pass, WuJen crosses over onto the vast plain dominated by the impossibly tall mountain and makes his way to the palace.

The palace is as WuJen remembered, though when he arrives the guards put him in a waiting room rather than allowing him to see Tatsuo.  Time becomes endless as he waits, though it's hard to tell as he doesn't seem to get hungry, thirsty or even need to sleep while away from his mortal body.  He figured Tatsuo's father was angry with him, She would not be getting hurt and be forcibly sent back here if not for her relationship with him.  He assumes this wait is just the ancient God being petty, leaving him to cool his heels as punishment.  So he waits. On and on.  An eternity goes by, and then two.  More.  The waiting is endless.  So long is the waiting that time loses its meaning, his thoughts just existing in this place while he paces, sits, paces and waits some more.  Another eternity goes by.

At long last, a guard enters and he is brought before the Dragon King.

"Eternity is something you mortals don't understand.  You believe it's a long time, but that is just because you exist with limits.  We do not."

Another eternity seems to pass.  Each time WuJen thinks to speak, the time just doesn't seem right, the Dragon King about to continue with what he has to say.  But he does not, and time draws on endlessly.

Finally, or perhaps instantly upon the heels of his last words "We have unlimited time, and that means unlimited capacity.  For Love.  For Hate, For Pain.  Time is a meaningless concept to beings such as us.  Instead we simply exist.  We Are."

Time stretches further on, or not at all. "We measure not Time, but Events.  You are filling my Daughter's existence with suffering.  She now worries over Time, and how much you may have left.  You are catching her up in Mortality, Mage.  Move beyond it."

Another eternity crawls by at the speed of light, perhaps thought.

"You are mortal, and cannot see beyond it.  Take what I have shown you, and learn.  If you would be worthy of my Daughter, you must be more.  I have shown you the way, now go."

For once, it appears to be the proper time to speak, and WuJen says "Yes Sir.  Thank You"

As the young mage begins to move toward the exit, the great Dragon speaks one last time "And Mage...   stop getting her disrupted.  It is ...unseemly..."

Moving on from his audience with the Dragon King, Wujen meets up with Tatsuo in her rooms.

"So how did your little talk with Father go?" she asked

"Terrifying as always. He's really quite imposing. I'm not sure if he likes me or not. He likes you, and that gets me his attention, which is more than I'd like, honestly. This time he seemed to be showing me something else. I feel like I almost understand, but it's just beyond me. Something about the nature of time. or death. maybe neither. It was for you though. Trying to make me better." WuJen shakes his head in confusion.

"At any rate, ready to head back? There are things happening that really can't be left for long."

Tatsuo smiles "Of course. Interesting Times, and all that."

Together they head back to mortal existence, walking the long distance back to the entrance to the astral plane.

WuJen is surprised, though he isn't sure why, to find that when he wakes up it's only been a little over a day since he left for Pandemonium. Little Dragon materializes next to him, beautiful as always and smiling.

"So what's up first?" she asks

"First, some time with you, of course. It's been days, and I may be a little tender, but I missed you like life itself." Wujen says with a mischievous grin

"After that though we are off to check on our friends. We got the girls we rescued set up near Mushiba's people, and they seem to be doing OK but you never know. One of those girls, the one we saved from the house, is off on her own and I am especially worried about her as she might not be who she says she is. Plus, she's alone in a place where bad things happen every day."

"Then there's the other girl, the one who became a Ghoul. It's been some time since I checked on her, and the potential for that to go horrible is pretty high both for her and for those who cross her path. I want to help her, but I don't know if I can, or if ending her life would be kindest for all involved."

"I'd also like to take a quick trip down to the Farm, check on the Dryad and the people we left with her, make sure they are fitting in and doing well. Maybe check to see if they need anything from the City while we have time."

"There's also some disturbing news about a family attacked by what sounds like the odd Spider Lady we encountered when we moved in here. I feel somewhat responsible, especially if she's out hunting people when we were the ones that let her go. I'd like to do some investigating on that."

"In between all that there are a few spells I'd like to learn, and some sharpening of skills. All in all, a busy time ahead of us."

WuJen starts his day looking at his list, and begins by checking in on Nakamats's girls, flitting out into astral space and manifesting to talk with them and making sure they are doing all right.

After that he gets dressed and heads out to Good Manas to see what kind of establishment they are-- given Nam's paranoia it seems like that spirit could be a danger to innocents in her vicinity.

"Hey Madouka, I've come to browse, I have some free time this morning. How are things?" Ghost nods at the other elf in the shop and greets him "Morning"

He casually looks at some of the reagents around the shop. Ghost is two meters tall and has palish skin, he's wearing decent quality clothing but carrying a patched around backpack that rested heavy on his shoulder.

"Good Morning" WuJen says as he nods to the other mage.

Stepping up to the counter, WuJen says "I understand this establishment provides spellcasting and spirit services to the public. Who do I speak to about that? "

"I am not in need of your services, but rather I'm keeping tabs on a recent client. It seems you have engaged a spirit to attack anyone that might be watching her. I hope you were careful with those instructions, as any number of things could be construed as watching her. "

WuJen quickly casts an illusion of Nam beside him, and continues " This is the woman in question. She's recently been very abused, in ways that could render her incredibly dangerous. I am happy to tell the whole story if you like, But the short version is that she is either a perfectly innocent young woman who got very lucky in escaping a bad situation... or she is someone who kidnapped, enslaved, and experimented on SINless young women before selling them as sex dolls when they were no longer useful in the experiments. I rescued her from a bad situation, and haven't yet recovered enough from that ordeal to be sure of who she is. "

" Which puts me in an awkward position. If innocent, I do not wish to trouble her further... But if not I cannot just let her go on to continue her activities. So I come to you since she's being watched over by your spirits. I don't wish to fight, but if you are to keep her safe from surveillance then you need to know that you may now be responsible for her future actions. "

WuJen nods. "Very well. You have been warned, It's your reputation on the line. She's potentially very dangerous to the public at large. If that proves true this matter will be laid at your door. I truely hope this ends well for all involved. "

Before leaving WuJen, under the guise of browsing the store for a moment, assenses the shopkeeper carefully so that if he encounters spirits or spells later he will recognize the astral signiture.

Having done all he can short of getting into a magical brawl over stalking a potentially innocent and scared girl, WuJen decides to let the matter rest for the moment. Instead he decides to head back to the community center, and astral projects to the place Takako had taken shelter.

Worried a little for Takako, WuJen resolves to check up on her later and travels out to Harumi's Farm for a short visit and to make sure the refugees he saddled her with are doing well.

"Nothing in particular. Thought I would drop by for a visit, see if you needed anything and wanted to make sure the people I settled with you were behaving. "

WuJen settles in to chat with Harumi for a short while before heading back to his body. Once he returns he checks the xyz board for any replies to his advertisement for the armor.

WuJen declines the kind offer of manual farm labor, and after the short chat heads back home to his body. He spends the rest of the day with Little Dragon.

Uncomfortable not knowing where Nam or Takako is, but unwilling to push the issue by hunting young women who clearly doesn't it want to be bothered by him, WuJen shoots a short message to Sam about his failure to find a fair deal on the armor.

Afterwards, WuJen concentrates on domestic life and his studies.