As 2020 continues to be a dumpster fire, with Pandemics, Corrupt Government, Riots, War, and Police Brutality, Lytek, God of Exaltation sees a chance to fix things. . .
A New Day (Exalted in 2020 Fic)
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Prologue
KnightofTempest
The Man who would be King
- Location
- Chicago
Things had been weird for Henry Lately. Hell things had been weird for everyone lately. Henry hadn't been super enthused with the way the country was going to begin with, but the Coronavirus had made it even worse. Still, he didn't want to get sick so he had followed CDC guidelines. Then, just as the State was set to reopen, the cops got caught killing someone on camera and mass protests happened all across the country. Henry wasn't going to let that stop him from living his life though. Illinois had just opened back up and he needed groceries. Of course, living in Downtown Chicago like he was, this probably wasn't the best of times to be going out and stocking up on food, but he couldn't imagine anyone would deliver with massive protests happening.
Currently he was walking home from the Target, shopping bags full of Ramen and other low cost goods that could last him awhile. As he headed to the Blue Line to try and make it back home, he noticed that the entrance to the L platform had been blocked off by cones and a notice had been taped to the stairs. The Trains were being suspended due to the curfew that had been emplaced on the City. "Wait, how am I supposed to get back home then?" He asked no one in particular.
"I guess I'm walking." He shrugged. He headed off Northwest in the direction of Division Street and his Apartment near the Polonia Triangle Area. Henry was a second generation Polish Immigrant. His Dad had come over in the 70's to escape Soviet Oppression in Poland during the Cold War and he had lived in Chicago all his life. His dad had since moved to a more affluent area in the Suburbs, but Henry had lived in the Apartment above the Polish Deli that his family owned on Division Street since. He still worked part time at the Deli downstairs while he tried to get a job that could work with his Masters of History. Of course even though his Dad's Deli had since franchised into a chain of stores, the Old Man Still insisted that Henry try and make his own way in life with as little assistance from him as was practicable. Hence the bulk buy of Ramen. Henry supposed he could have just bought stuff from the Deli downstairs, but even with his Employee Discount imported brands from Europe were a bit too pricey for him, not when everything had just been shut down for months and he'd mostly been living off his savings and occasional help from his Dad.
As he walked, he noticed certain streets blocked off, some bridges had been raised too, forcing him to detour through some less than affluent neighborhoods. It was here that he began to notice signs of the Protests. A few people with signs at first, the groups of people, then a whole mass of people, chanting and protesting and waving signs. Henry tried to move through the crowd towards a bridge he knew would take him closer to his apartment and that if he could cross it, he would be able to go a few blocks further north and east and take a shortcut that would get him home quicker before the cops showed to break things up as they usually did. Unfortunately as he moved and tried to finagle his way through the crowd, he saw that a police barricade had been set up in front of the bridge and several uniformed officers were blocking his way home.
Most of the protesters here were peaceful, but there were a few who seemed to be trying to verbally spar with the police all while what had to be 16 year old girl filmed the entire thing from the sidewalk with her phone. The cops didn't seem to be responding to the clear agitators attempts to rile them up. Henry had heard online that some of the protests were being astroturfed to shit by instigators for political reasons, but hadn't seen it first hand until now. It took 15 minutes for everything to suddenly turn nasty. One of the Agitators had gotten right up in one of the cops faces and was inches away from the Officer. That's when he got pepper spray in the face. He went down and the police handcuffed him with zip ties and dragged him behind the barricade. That riled up the rest of the protestors and soon enough riot armored police backup arrived. Tear gas was fired into the crowd and through the chaos, Henry could see one of the Riot armed police aiming a weapon at the teenage girl who was filming everything on her camera. The Police had been using rubber bullets to disperse protesters for a couple days now, but Less Lethal didn't mean Non Lethal, Rubber bullets were meant to incapacitate by breaking bones and causing internal hemmoraging, and if she got hit in the head she could die. For no reason too, as far as Henry was concerned, the Girl hadn't done anything wrong. He started to move as the Riot Cop brought his gun up, but he knew he would be late and the Teenage Girl with the Camera was going to get shot in the head with a rubber bullet. He bit out a prayer to any diety that was watching to let him make it in time. He reached the Teenager just as the crack of gunfire sounded. He shoved her out of the path of the Rubber bullet only to tank it in the back of his head.
Normally even a Rubber Bullet to the base of the Skull would be pretty lethal, but as it turned out, there was indeed a God watching. In what remained of the Celestial Realm of Yu Shan, Lytek, the God of Exaltation had been looking for an excuse to introduce the Spark of Exaltation into the modern world. Long after Creation had been destroyed and a new world risen to take its place, one based not on the Magic of Creation but on scientific principals as the Gods were no longer trusted to shepard things. The Games of Divinity had been too addictive in the end, and new gods had swept in to declare the new world off limits. As if the new World based on science and logic would be any less erratic with the humans involved. He now had his chance, for if the Chaos in the Modern World did not prove the New Gods were full of hot air, what would? He cast about for a suitable host for an Exaltation and was guided by a desperate prayer, a prayer not to make the supplicant rich, nor to heal the supplicant's maladies as was so often the case these days, but to ensure that the supplicant made it in time to stop a corrupt system from injuring or killing a child. Lytek smiled, if that wasn't worthy of Exaltation, nothing was. He sent a golden shard down to the Supplicant. This Shard had rather more energy than was usual, having been sat idle for so long. Lytek thought perhaps that was a sign, perhaps this time, things would work out for the best.
Meanwhile on Earth, Henry felt the hard rubber jacketed steel hit the base of his skull. He thought it would be the end of him, but it wasn't. Somehow he had survived. He opened his eyes to see that he was wreathed in Golden Armor that had stopped the Bullet. The Armor didn't feel like it was solid at all, more ethereal, even though it had clearly saved him from getting killed by a less than lethal round. He stood up as it seemed like everyone had stopped, both the Police and Protestors had stopped what they were doing to gape at the glowing, golden armored man. Seeing that attention was on him, Henry tried to de-escalate the situation.
He turned to the Riot Police. "You shouldn't be firing directly at protestors, you could kill someone like that, and that girl couldn't have been more than 16. You're police, you're supposed to be better than the criminals, not thugs in uniform who will fire into a crowd at the slightest provocation!" He Shouted, desperately trying to get the Police to listen. Somehow, whether it was his plea or the golden Aura surrounding him, the Police listened, and began to stand down.
Henry turned to the Agitators in the Protest crowd, "You shouldn't be agitating at a peaceful protest! That only gives the police incentive to escalate! If you have any sense of respect for this cause at all, you'll go home and let these people demonstrate in peace. It's a right Guaranteed by the Constitution for fucks sake!" He growled. The Agitators somehow either got the message or were retreating to fight another day, as they slunk back through the crowd of regular protestors.
As the situation calmed and the protest continued peacably, without police violence or agitation, Henry began feeling a little tired, like he had just run a marathon. The crowd parted for him, Protestors and Cops both. He headed home for the evening exhausted. He arrived at his apartment 30 minutes later, feeling like he had just gone 5 Rounds in the Octagon and desperately needing to sleep. As he entered his apartment, the last words he mumbled to himself before collapsing into bed were, "Goddamned cops shooting people, goddamned agitators turning peaceful protests into riots. We're supposed to be better than this."
He had no idea that the video of him stopping a protest escalating into a riot, complete with police crackdown would be on youtube by the time he got home. . .
Currently he was walking home from the Target, shopping bags full of Ramen and other low cost goods that could last him awhile. As he headed to the Blue Line to try and make it back home, he noticed that the entrance to the L platform had been blocked off by cones and a notice had been taped to the stairs. The Trains were being suspended due to the curfew that had been emplaced on the City. "Wait, how am I supposed to get back home then?" He asked no one in particular.
"I guess I'm walking." He shrugged. He headed off Northwest in the direction of Division Street and his Apartment near the Polonia Triangle Area. Henry was a second generation Polish Immigrant. His Dad had come over in the 70's to escape Soviet Oppression in Poland during the Cold War and he had lived in Chicago all his life. His dad had since moved to a more affluent area in the Suburbs, but Henry had lived in the Apartment above the Polish Deli that his family owned on Division Street since. He still worked part time at the Deli downstairs while he tried to get a job that could work with his Masters of History. Of course even though his Dad's Deli had since franchised into a chain of stores, the Old Man Still insisted that Henry try and make his own way in life with as little assistance from him as was practicable. Hence the bulk buy of Ramen. Henry supposed he could have just bought stuff from the Deli downstairs, but even with his Employee Discount imported brands from Europe were a bit too pricey for him, not when everything had just been shut down for months and he'd mostly been living off his savings and occasional help from his Dad.
As he walked, he noticed certain streets blocked off, some bridges had been raised too, forcing him to detour through some less than affluent neighborhoods. It was here that he began to notice signs of the Protests. A few people with signs at first, the groups of people, then a whole mass of people, chanting and protesting and waving signs. Henry tried to move through the crowd towards a bridge he knew would take him closer to his apartment and that if he could cross it, he would be able to go a few blocks further north and east and take a shortcut that would get him home quicker before the cops showed to break things up as they usually did. Unfortunately as he moved and tried to finagle his way through the crowd, he saw that a police barricade had been set up in front of the bridge and several uniformed officers were blocking his way home.
Most of the protesters here were peaceful, but there were a few who seemed to be trying to verbally spar with the police all while what had to be 16 year old girl filmed the entire thing from the sidewalk with her phone. The cops didn't seem to be responding to the clear agitators attempts to rile them up. Henry had heard online that some of the protests were being astroturfed to shit by instigators for political reasons, but hadn't seen it first hand until now. It took 15 minutes for everything to suddenly turn nasty. One of the Agitators had gotten right up in one of the cops faces and was inches away from the Officer. That's when he got pepper spray in the face. He went down and the police handcuffed him with zip ties and dragged him behind the barricade. That riled up the rest of the protestors and soon enough riot armored police backup arrived. Tear gas was fired into the crowd and through the chaos, Henry could see one of the Riot armed police aiming a weapon at the teenage girl who was filming everything on her camera. The Police had been using rubber bullets to disperse protesters for a couple days now, but Less Lethal didn't mean Non Lethal, Rubber bullets were meant to incapacitate by breaking bones and causing internal hemmoraging, and if she got hit in the head she could die. For no reason too, as far as Henry was concerned, the Girl hadn't done anything wrong. He started to move as the Riot Cop brought his gun up, but he knew he would be late and the Teenage Girl with the Camera was going to get shot in the head with a rubber bullet. He bit out a prayer to any diety that was watching to let him make it in time. He reached the Teenager just as the crack of gunfire sounded. He shoved her out of the path of the Rubber bullet only to tank it in the back of his head.
Normally even a Rubber Bullet to the base of the Skull would be pretty lethal, but as it turned out, there was indeed a God watching. In what remained of the Celestial Realm of Yu Shan, Lytek, the God of Exaltation had been looking for an excuse to introduce the Spark of Exaltation into the modern world. Long after Creation had been destroyed and a new world risen to take its place, one based not on the Magic of Creation but on scientific principals as the Gods were no longer trusted to shepard things. The Games of Divinity had been too addictive in the end, and new gods had swept in to declare the new world off limits. As if the new World based on science and logic would be any less erratic with the humans involved. He now had his chance, for if the Chaos in the Modern World did not prove the New Gods were full of hot air, what would? He cast about for a suitable host for an Exaltation and was guided by a desperate prayer, a prayer not to make the supplicant rich, nor to heal the supplicant's maladies as was so often the case these days, but to ensure that the supplicant made it in time to stop a corrupt system from injuring or killing a child. Lytek smiled, if that wasn't worthy of Exaltation, nothing was. He sent a golden shard down to the Supplicant. This Shard had rather more energy than was usual, having been sat idle for so long. Lytek thought perhaps that was a sign, perhaps this time, things would work out for the best.
Meanwhile on Earth, Henry felt the hard rubber jacketed steel hit the base of his skull. He thought it would be the end of him, but it wasn't. Somehow he had survived. He opened his eyes to see that he was wreathed in Golden Armor that had stopped the Bullet. The Armor didn't feel like it was solid at all, more ethereal, even though it had clearly saved him from getting killed by a less than lethal round. He stood up as it seemed like everyone had stopped, both the Police and Protestors had stopped what they were doing to gape at the glowing, golden armored man. Seeing that attention was on him, Henry tried to de-escalate the situation.
He turned to the Riot Police. "You shouldn't be firing directly at protestors, you could kill someone like that, and that girl couldn't have been more than 16. You're police, you're supposed to be better than the criminals, not thugs in uniform who will fire into a crowd at the slightest provocation!" He Shouted, desperately trying to get the Police to listen. Somehow, whether it was his plea or the golden Aura surrounding him, the Police listened, and began to stand down.
Henry turned to the Agitators in the Protest crowd, "You shouldn't be agitating at a peaceful protest! That only gives the police incentive to escalate! If you have any sense of respect for this cause at all, you'll go home and let these people demonstrate in peace. It's a right Guaranteed by the Constitution for fucks sake!" He growled. The Agitators somehow either got the message or were retreating to fight another day, as they slunk back through the crowd of regular protestors.
As the situation calmed and the protest continued peacably, without police violence or agitation, Henry began feeling a little tired, like he had just run a marathon. The crowd parted for him, Protestors and Cops both. He headed home for the evening exhausted. He arrived at his apartment 30 minutes later, feeling like he had just gone 5 Rounds in the Octagon and desperately needing to sleep. As he entered his apartment, the last words he mumbled to himself before collapsing into bed were, "Goddamned cops shooting people, goddamned agitators turning peaceful protests into riots. We're supposed to be better than this."
He had no idea that the video of him stopping a protest escalating into a riot, complete with police crackdown would be on youtube by the time he got home. . .
KnightofTempest
The Man who would be King
- Location
- Chicago
So this is mostly a project that I'm writing as Catharsis. The State of the World is kind of broken right now, and this is my way of trying to work through things.
It's basically a way for me to help cope with how shitty everything is in the world right now.
I guess I'm sorry if this is stupid or too political for this site. . .
It's basically a way for me to help cope with how shitty everything is in the world right now.
I guess I'm sorry if this is stupid or too political for this site. . .
Meanwhile in Rome
KnightofTempest
The Man who would be King
- Location
- Chicago
Annelisa was exhausted. She had just been on a 24 hours shift at the Lab in the Bio-Medico University. Her team had been contacted by the Ministry of health months ago when the Coronavirus started becoming severe to research a vaccine. Her team and the university had been given a grant in the millions of Lira to try and figure out a vaccine, but thus far one had been eluding her. Even going on to 24 hour shifts hadn't gotten them anymore progress, and while they floundered, people throughout Europe and indeed the World were dying. Annelise sighed and sipped at her Espresso. She only had a few hours before she would be called in to explain to her Bosses why progress was so slow. They didn't understand that you couldn't rush medicine like this or the results could be catastrophic, typical politicians. So she had ordered a Double Espresso at a cafe she frequented on the way between the University and the Minstry of Health Building.
It was even more frustrating for Annelisa because it wasn't just about the Grant money for her. Her Elderly Mother had been in the Danger Zone for fatal cases and had caught the Virus back in March. She wasn't doing so well and would likely be taken off the ventilator soon and left to die so that some less clearly terminal case could have the ventilator. The prospect drove Annelisa even more to find a vaccine. She couldn't bear the thought of her mother dying for nothing. Yet the most recent test for their latest attempt had turned up depressingly ineffective. She sighed in Frustration as she put down her Coffee cup.
"You sound like you're having a bad day." Came a Voice from another table, 6 feet away as was mandatory.
Annelisa looked up to see a Woman in a green dress with a green mask staring back at her. The Woman was sipping a glass of Sprakling Water carefully so as not to get her mask wet. "You have no idea. My team is working on a project that's crucial to the Government's Efforts to combat the health crisis." Sighed Annelisa.
"Really? Have you made much progress?" Asked the strange woman.
"Officially? We're still working on it." Replied Annelisa automatically.
"And unnoficially?" Asked the Woman.
"You're not a reporter of some kind are you? Because I haven't been cleared to give interviews." Said Annelisa.
"No, I'm just a concerned party. I peddle in knowledge and inspiration. I was simply hoping to help." Replied the Woman.
Annelisa frowned, "You peddle in knowledge? What kind of Hollywood line is that? You sound like one of those mysterious old crones from certain American movies." She scoffed.
"Oh my, I would hope I do not look like an Old Crone. My Sisters would be so upset." Said the Woman, somehow Annelisa could tell she was smirking behind her mask.
The image caused Annelisa to blow out a snort of laughter. "No, not an old crone. A Mysterious Enchantress perhaps?" She smiled.
"I have been called worse. Still, perhaps your lack of progress can be ameliorated, if only you had the eyes to see." Smiled the Woman.
Annelisa thought she caught a glimpse of some design on the Woman's Mask that hadn't been there before when she said the word 'See' it looked sort of like a stylized number four with a little tail coming out of one of the branches. She shook her head then paused. Her mind was instantly transported a month and a half in the future and it was like she was having a vision of what would be needed to break through to the next step of the Vaccine. She could practically see the steps she and her team would have to take over the next month and a half to reach a better permutation of the vaccine formula. She snapped back to herself an instant after she watched herself go over the test results that saw a 10% increase in successful vaccination.
Annelisa looked around for the strange woman in the green dress but found that she had left. There was not even an indication that someone had been sitting at her table. "Was I daydreaming?" She asked herself. She didn't think so, but then she had just been working a 24 hour shift. It was entirely possible she had managed to imagine the whole thing in some strange waking dream spurred on by lack of sleep. Her gut told her that wasn't the case though. Just in case, she phoned her number 2, Pietro, and told him to run the next steps through the computer to see what the projections would be on the simulator. Luckily, she'd caught him before he'd left the university.
"Are you sure, Annelisa? It's kind of late in my shift for simulations based on a gut feeling." Asked Pietro.
"Just do it, worst case scenario you spend an extra hour in the lab on the computer. It's not like you're the one that has to face the health Ministry in two hours." Replied Annelisa.
"Alright, but if this turns out to be nothing, you're the one whose going to tell Dr Piccolomini's Team why he was an hour delayed using the supercomputer." Snorted Pietro.
"Fine, just do it." Replied Annelise.
She ordered another double Espresso as she waited for Pietro to call her with the results. On the off chance it had been some kind of fugue daydream, she didn't want to nod off while awake again during her meeting with the health Ministry's People. There was nothing worse than a Politician who thought they weren't being listened to, after all. She sipped her coffee slowly, as if to stretch out the cup while she was waiting on the results. An hour later she got a call back from Pietro.
"Annelisa, I don't know how you figured out what you did, but the Supercomputer is saying this should increase success for the Vaccine by 10%!" Exclaimed Pietro.
"Are you sure?" Asked Annelisa.
"I ran the Simulation twice, the results were consistant! If you bring this up to the Health Ministry's People you should be able to secure funding for Animal Testing for this and future Vaccine Formulae! This could be the breakthrough we needed to really start making progress!" Gushed Pietro.
"I'll bring it up during the meeting." Said Annelisa, stunned that her seeming daydream had panned out.
Meanwhile in the remains of the Celestial Realm of Yu Shan, Jupiter the Maiden of Secrets smiled as she watched her new Chosen of Secrets via the Loom of Fate. After all, Lytek couldn't be the only one to fix things. . .
It was even more frustrating for Annelisa because it wasn't just about the Grant money for her. Her Elderly Mother had been in the Danger Zone for fatal cases and had caught the Virus back in March. She wasn't doing so well and would likely be taken off the ventilator soon and left to die so that some less clearly terminal case could have the ventilator. The prospect drove Annelisa even more to find a vaccine. She couldn't bear the thought of her mother dying for nothing. Yet the most recent test for their latest attempt had turned up depressingly ineffective. She sighed in Frustration as she put down her Coffee cup.
"You sound like you're having a bad day." Came a Voice from another table, 6 feet away as was mandatory.
Annelisa looked up to see a Woman in a green dress with a green mask staring back at her. The Woman was sipping a glass of Sprakling Water carefully so as not to get her mask wet. "You have no idea. My team is working on a project that's crucial to the Government's Efforts to combat the health crisis." Sighed Annelisa.
"Really? Have you made much progress?" Asked the strange woman.
"Officially? We're still working on it." Replied Annelisa automatically.
"And unnoficially?" Asked the Woman.
"You're not a reporter of some kind are you? Because I haven't been cleared to give interviews." Said Annelisa.
"No, I'm just a concerned party. I peddle in knowledge and inspiration. I was simply hoping to help." Replied the Woman.
Annelisa frowned, "You peddle in knowledge? What kind of Hollywood line is that? You sound like one of those mysterious old crones from certain American movies." She scoffed.
"Oh my, I would hope I do not look like an Old Crone. My Sisters would be so upset." Said the Woman, somehow Annelisa could tell she was smirking behind her mask.
The image caused Annelisa to blow out a snort of laughter. "No, not an old crone. A Mysterious Enchantress perhaps?" She smiled.
"I have been called worse. Still, perhaps your lack of progress can be ameliorated, if only you had the eyes to see." Smiled the Woman.
Annelisa thought she caught a glimpse of some design on the Woman's Mask that hadn't been there before when she said the word 'See' it looked sort of like a stylized number four with a little tail coming out of one of the branches. She shook her head then paused. Her mind was instantly transported a month and a half in the future and it was like she was having a vision of what would be needed to break through to the next step of the Vaccine. She could practically see the steps she and her team would have to take over the next month and a half to reach a better permutation of the vaccine formula. She snapped back to herself an instant after she watched herself go over the test results that saw a 10% increase in successful vaccination.
Annelisa looked around for the strange woman in the green dress but found that she had left. There was not even an indication that someone had been sitting at her table. "Was I daydreaming?" She asked herself. She didn't think so, but then she had just been working a 24 hour shift. It was entirely possible she had managed to imagine the whole thing in some strange waking dream spurred on by lack of sleep. Her gut told her that wasn't the case though. Just in case, she phoned her number 2, Pietro, and told him to run the next steps through the computer to see what the projections would be on the simulator. Luckily, she'd caught him before he'd left the university.
"Are you sure, Annelisa? It's kind of late in my shift for simulations based on a gut feeling." Asked Pietro.
"Just do it, worst case scenario you spend an extra hour in the lab on the computer. It's not like you're the one that has to face the health Ministry in two hours." Replied Annelisa.
"Alright, but if this turns out to be nothing, you're the one whose going to tell Dr Piccolomini's Team why he was an hour delayed using the supercomputer." Snorted Pietro.
"Fine, just do it." Replied Annelise.
She ordered another double Espresso as she waited for Pietro to call her with the results. On the off chance it had been some kind of fugue daydream, she didn't want to nod off while awake again during her meeting with the health Ministry's People. There was nothing worse than a Politician who thought they weren't being listened to, after all. She sipped her coffee slowly, as if to stretch out the cup while she was waiting on the results. An hour later she got a call back from Pietro.
"Annelisa, I don't know how you figured out what you did, but the Supercomputer is saying this should increase success for the Vaccine by 10%!" Exclaimed Pietro.
"Are you sure?" Asked Annelisa.
"I ran the Simulation twice, the results were consistant! If you bring this up to the Health Ministry's People you should be able to secure funding for Animal Testing for this and future Vaccine Formulae! This could be the breakthrough we needed to really start making progress!" Gushed Pietro.
"I'll bring it up during the meeting." Said Annelisa, stunned that her seeming daydream had panned out.
Meanwhile in the remains of the Celestial Realm of Yu Shan, Jupiter the Maiden of Secrets smiled as she watched her new Chosen of Secrets via the Loom of Fate. After all, Lytek couldn't be the only one to fix things. . .
