Hotei's Story

Under the table on the opposite side of Lilith approaches a soft shuffling noise of carpet. Shortly after the noise stops three large snake heads in respective red, green, and blue eyes stare at her. An unmistakable chorus of salesmen voices begins.

"It's the most beautiful pair of ennuis I've ever seen, Blue!"

"That's right red, you can't find many like these on this side of the nebula! What do you think, Green?"

"Oh I'd love to have one of these in my databanks. It's just striking."

The three mind-eavesdropping snakes raise far enough to see the join of necks. They chorus, "So tell us, how much does this bountiful rarity cost!? Please, tell us more!"

Hotei

Hearing different voices she spun around, at first she saw nothing and assumed she had merely picked up the voices from around her. Of course being how unlikely this seemed, she first looked left, nothing. Looked right, nothing. Looked Up, nothing. Finally in exasperation she stared down and even she was little beyond baffled at sight in front of her. For a few seconds Lilith looked at the bottle in her hand, then back at three headed snake or three snakes. Finally, with a sigh she responded, "I am not drunk or high enough to ever think that conversing with you would achieve something other than me continuing to drink this Barcardi. So kindly fuck off. I may not be demonic anymore, but I am not in the mood to deal with strange shit right now. Go slither up a girl's leg or something far more entertaining." she once more began to swig from the bottle before placing it down and sighing loudly, "Plus I have no fucking idea what you are talking about so I could not even answer if I deigned it worth it."

Hotei's thick rear body pushed the human-sized snake heads above the table line a little more even to view. Red put his head upside down on the table, "I told them a good pitch is still a hard sell for that many questions."

Green eyes scoffs at red then straightens to look at Sirad, "Ssspah, We're here for the sounds of good questions not entertainment! Who wants to buy all the swearing and shallow questions?"

Blue sidles in sideways beside green forked tongue hanging out. Blue looks up at green explaining, "We can hear you thinking deep questions but not what they are. What hope for good answers do small swearing minds have?"

Red eyes the bottle psychokinetics pushing at it lightly, "If you're going to drown good questions we'll take them off your hands! They're all blurry now!"

The former demoness growled in the past she would have done unspeakable things to this annoyance as she was admittedly really damn petty and outright hateful in the past. Now she was meant to be a lot more than this. Although from the voices she gathered what they wanted. Still did not remove her rage she felt towards these things, "FINE! I used to be so many things from in Garden of Eden to something far more complex. I was a demoness. I was Lilith. I still am Lilith, but my sister who defined so much of myself from hate to love and intimacy I no longer have. I don't know what my purpose is. I can't go back to what I previously did as I been given a second chance. Thus, I face conundrum what am I meant to do?" she sneered with clear fury surging towards her mind, "I don't who I am, because how I defined myself is gone. I am not even human like these folks. I am Pure Human, which means I am magical and immortal. So tell me dear expert WHAT THE FUCK AM I?"

Magali could sense trouble a mile away. Working with the magically-inclined as a waitress all day gave her a sixth sense for the stuff. After all, business was only booming as long as fights weren't breaking out and tensions kept low. She could hear the tone of the rather loud woman and in an instant, Magi had her warm, disarming smile on her face as she strutted slowly over to the table in question.

Things were still in control, that was good. Magi'd seen stranger things, but she wasn't quite sure which set of snake eyes to make contact with so she instead decided to address the woman first. "Well, right now I see a woman with a beautiful face and powerful voice. Do you need another bottle?" she asked, her tone polite as she trilled out the words. Her gaze swiveled towards the snakes and she made a small questioning gesture. "And you..." She looked them all over and decided to guess. "...boys, do you need anything? Perhaps some snacks, hm? With your mouths full, perhaps we can have a calmer chat. No more feather ruffling." The last statement was a little firmer, she was ready to lay down the law if needed. "Hm?"

Excitement widens three pairs of slit eyes for interesting answers raising so many questions. Was there empirical proof of a deity? Excellent questions for scientists. They couldn't actually talk to each other but they knew roughly what each were thinking. A demon made into mankind? So many interesting questions!

Blue feels the waitress enter his telekinetic envelope first and turns toward her. He cleans his eyes with his tongue while he listens. Shortly the others turn to listen too.

Blue looks at Red though they all look down ever so slight at a calmer authority, "Okay, we'll be good. Less loud questions. Red can eat since we only have one stomach anyway."

"But isn't it a human's purpose to ask their unanswerable 'why'?" Green piped up with a quieter voice toward fuming Lilith, "Doesn't that make you much more like them now? Did creation with answers to purpose make it difficult to change for so long? Does that it mean if you ask questions about your purpose but did not before that now your future can change? Humans gave our answer for purpose of always asking why. We don't mean to cause anger."

Red looked up and shook his head, "Green your optimism will get us bitten one day. Why do I have to be the eating one!"

Under normal circumstances, a pretty face would never have stopped Lilith from teaching the snake a lesson, but fortunately, she was a changed person thus though she had images of murdering the snake or one of the heads she instead counted to three in her head before turning and staring at the other person.

Forget the snake, this person was far more interesting.

The former demoness had never encountered someone who was so easy on the eyes the freckles giving her an air of innocence and increasing attraction for her. For a time, she just gazed licking her lips back and forth being lost in the beauty appearance and struggling to think straight. Even her melancholy had taken a back seat currently everything focused on Magali.

For a time just saying nothing, but appearing obviously attracted to the waitress.

Finally, she spoke, "Fuck the snakes, you are less likely to piss me off... come sit with me..." smirking she gestured to a seat off at the far corner before adding, "Also would love another bottle of Barcardi, but what would someone like you desire my dear? I have money to spare and you have likely been on your feet all day, why not a little rest?" she asked with disarming glint in her eyes which appeared older than her whole body, in fact, she exuded an old soul truly. Nonetheless, she smiled warmly, "Lilith, I don't have a proper surname but I also can go by the name Sirad if one desire's and anything you desire I would truthfully promise you will definitely receive." licking her lips again she gave one last look of the snake thing rolled her eyes and started towards the seats she had gestured off at a dim part of the casino away from much of the noise. Likely a VIP area.

Elsewhere large piles of dirt surrounded a hole from which three emerald green snake heads emerge. Hotei was busily unburying an interesting object long since swallowed by the forest. Two heads pointed down for a moment eyeing a small hundred pound boulder floating from the hole then launching off. The green slit-eyed head remained fixated on a broad-spectrum noise source in the distance.

"Hey, guys! There's something over that way still active! I think it's blowing up!", Green said forked tongue flicking wildly.

Red and blue then rose from behind the dirt mound three heads squirming to surmount the dirt conjoined with green in the middle. It didn't take much focus for them to slither forward so only one green bothered to look where they were going.

"Are we coming back? I kind of wanted to see what the organic stuff was inside.",Said the red-eyed head looking backward.

Hotei moved fast and quietly over underbrush despite his weight with a 7 foot long track to distribute the force. Blue eyed Red first, "If we can we'll go back it's not like we'll ever forget where it is."

Then he called over to the red-dressed lady as he approached, "Hello! Is anyone hurt? Green thought he heard something break!"

Distant, dreamlike memories echoed in Sheras brain for maybe a minute, this wasn't the first time she would bump her head and fall but this time it was more intense, that...trip, that warp or whatever it was messed her up, her thoughts were confusing, unreliable to say the least.

this is it dumass, this is how you die, probably you're bleeding out as you waste away on the floor of... of where? Where was she moments ago? Why couldn't she figure it out? She knew about the warp and the impact but before that? what was she working on? when? It's almost as if there was a gap between this moment and...when?

so I'm dying and I don't know why, where or when, great Sheras, just great...Sheras, yes that is me, what else do I know.... Trapped in a state of half sleep she didn't even hear the steps approaching her, only when a hand touched her cheek she twitched back as a reaction.

Someone asked you a question...sounds like a robot with a cool voice...maybe there's still hope

with fatigue she twitched once more and opened her eyes only to meet a pair of intense blue eyes of a blond girl. While still dazed and confused she noticed something peculiar about those eyes but in the moment she could't think clearly.



I..I guessargh..!! pain, pain from the frontside of her forehead, her own voice bouncing inside her brain. aaah I need a sec lady, grunted Sherazad with an annoyed tone. After a short pause and a few deep breaths Sheras felt the grassy ground under her, the air was fresh too and the sounds described outdoors Where am I? My head hurts mumbled Sheras as she helped herself up.

In that moment her ears heard another voice, she turned around and saw what horrified her like nothing ever before...a three headed giant snake? That talks?

before she could even comprehend this her body was already infused with adrenaline causing it to move as quick as possible in the opposite direction of the snake. She stumbled and fell backwards on her backpack while making a short yet desperate shout for help. She then rolled on the backpack and got back on her feet and made a few steps away as she frenetically opened the bag and extracted the Desert Eagle. What it the foken hell?? screamed she while loading the weapon, ready to aim it.

Arms shaking, head hurting, thoughts blended it chaos there she was, aiming a gun at a 15' tall snake.

The strange reactions were truly how Lai would expect a human to react. Waking up from such a painful yet calm slumber to an android poking at her cheek. But that wasn't all, there was some kind of three-headed synthetic worm which decided to join this scene. From the words it spoke, there was no reason to be afraid. Of course, there was nothing for Lai to be afraid of anyway, even it it was hostile to them. What a lovely time to ruin the calm studying, placing research that would change the world on hold for some girl who probably fell out of the massive trees that litter these lands.

In fact, the girl seemed to be more hostile than the worm, pointing a gun at the giant synthetic creature with some poor vocabulary. An accent of a true failure, the profanity of a true failure. Lai hated these people. Or maybe it was another adopted nature, her creator was narcissistic after all, looking down on anyone who didn't understand the theories of quantum mechanics. Anyone who spoke like this girl was already hated and considered dirt. Perhaps she should give this girl a chance, instead of just leaving the area again.

"Ah, a robot worm." Lai mumbled to herself as she returned from her thoughts, her voice showing signs of inquisitiveness as she gave a quick scan over the creature. Of course, she had to turn to the swearing girl as means of calming her down. What would her creator do?

"Oi, mind your language, woman." She spoke the exact words her creator had spoken before, saved in her memory whenever she would encounter such events as this, taking the question 'What would your creator do?' into literal terms. The worm was already ignored, something considered as a lower being due to it's slacked design. Whoever created this worm really had nothing to match up with the great creator who built Lai.

Though they sauntered up blue stared at the hole where lady red dress stood. Blue got a pain of feedback when she looked at him and shook its head. The other two kept him moving forward when the other hurt lady started to get up. They stopped suddenly when she got out the gun.

The tip of its tail extrudes blue ichor of dense runic slipping from between its scales. The tide rushes across his surface just above the emerald green and transparent scales as everything behind the literary front vanishes entirely. A second less visible wave followed as internal technical mechanisms took over its zauborg IR and EM envelope. As its heads vanish from sight the third of applied telekinetics vanishes him from sonar and held the ground from disturbance.

The camouflage had little of its own emission but in the magical sense. A flat glow of illusion magic to the discerning mage backed by conventional meta-DSP to harden against dispersal. As a rule when talking so while trying not to get shot he more and less talked with his hands. They were psychic projections of his telekinetic envelope to start with.

The invisible snake pushed some grass aside as it tried to get out of the line of fire. Their chaotically sourced voices were much more hollow now.

"Hey! We're not going to eat you!"
Another voice was more practical, "Is that even enough gun to shoot us?"
"I don't think so but you're not going to see anyway."
"Aww."

The sources appeared to move wildly Hotei kept his hands moving but Blue directed a bemused voice at LAI, "And if I'm a worm then you're a hole where a person should be."

The woman with the red dress didn't seem very surprised at the sight of a creature who was a snake, a three headed snake. For a short moment Sheras thought she was already dead, in hell, experiencing eternal punishment at the early stage.

Language? really? The woman spoke with an overly calm voice which Sheras really could not relate to

Language?? Miss are you blind or mad?! Get behind me! perhaps she was mad, perhaps it was Sheras who went mad, but in any case there was no time for any of these question as the snake started to freakishly...mutate?
Sherazad didn't have a word but the point was that in a few moments the snake disappeared from her sight cloacking itself from Sheras confused eyes.
Oh no, where is it, where is it! Feeling weak in the knees she felt terror like never before, she had to fight it, she had to focus on running or hiding or whatever but she would not let fear kill her.

She started to point her gun in other directions as she backed up in panic. What was this place, where was it, why was she here
I hate mondays thought she briefly.

She was gathering some breath, ready to start the dash of her life when from somewhere a voice...two or..three voices talked to her
*hey we're not gonna eat you*. Sounded friendly, yet...snakes don't talk, Sheras was sure she was tripping now, like never before thou and she was no newbie to psyho drugs. After a second or two she decided that there was no point in running, her gun was heavy, knees weak and palms sweaty. She fell on her knees as her eyes began to tear.

Is...is this hell? Am I dead? Or trippin hard?

Lai had noticed the disappearance of the worm, her inquisitive expression intensifying even more as her mind screamed for research. Such a quick and efficient cloaking device was definitely something to study, they even managed to lower their transmissions to a minimum, nearly reaching invisibility to her eyes. Although, her constant scanning kept the worm in place. She could see their attempts at moving away while calling out to calm the girl down, a true pacifist way to reacting to such a scene. And so, she smiled towards the worm, an extremely calming and inviting expression. She had perfected body language to the letter, using it even further for her acts of manipulation. This time, she wanted to get close to the worm in order to learn it's cloaking ability.

"It's rude and sexist to call a girl a hole~" Lai kindly scolded the worm, raising her finger and waving it back and forth, a playful smile given along with a cock of the head. Her body had straightened up as she held her legs close, subconsciously showing off her curved figure out of habit when talking to male beings. This worm sounded male, so it's close enough, right?

And you, young lady." Lai turned to the girl, continuing her smiling expression and the waving of her finger. "You shouldn't be waving a gun around in this area, it's dangerous~"

Hotei stayed pressed to the ground among grass his voices like hand puppets attracting gunfire overhead. Green busied himself in large to tending its cloaking. One, blue, still looking at LAI replied, "Ah! I hear fundamental questions of reality from the lady with a gun. However I don't hear a mind where you are. A void. I don't intend to that kind of rudness."

"Well I do!", came the irritated reply toward Sheras, "We come to see if she's okay and she points a gun at us."

The snake's hind section raised slightly and rotated as Red said sharply, "I might not have hands and you can't see it gun-lady but I promise there's a 2 for 1 sale on flipping you off!"

The cloak perturbed slightly to accommodate new protuberances. He was partly biological after all.

Green's voice piped up having been the first with attention to notice."HEY! Put those away!"
Blue's head turned back to look and said exasperated,"What? Ugh, Red you mad bastard!"

The protuberances in the field vanished with a retracting cloak as green and blue overpowered Red. Red just quietly fumed on the ground.

Two voices apologized, "Sorry.Sorry. Red isn't very nice. However rude and strange your reality might be gun-miss I think you're not home anymore. Please don't shoot anyone. Even if he deserves it."

the woman and the snake seemed friends now, or at least not bothered at all by each others existance. As hard as it was Sheras gathered all the rational thought she had left in an attempt to reason ok what're you looking at here? Unarmed woman talking to 3 headed invisible snake with split personality, one is...mad and the other two..not? As for this crazy bitch, maybe she just escaped a mental institution..

Sheras found herself being scolded by both for the gun, really? Do you people not see the situation? Woman, there is an invisible crazy three headed snake and you worry about my gun? her tone went from scared to angry with a dash of sarcasm.

She sat on the ground and nervously searched inside with one hand whole holding the bag and Deagle in the other. There they are, Fboots, she quickly started to put them on, an action that would take some time but at least she wasn't alone.

Ok sassy snake red man listen, I don't know how I got here, I don't know if you're real, but take the red dressed one, she's kuku anyway and more meaty than me I'm not worth devouring, if you can don't take anyone but if it's gonna be someone take her, spare me I got so much to live for, flip me off all you want I don't mind as long as I'm here and you're there

Was anyone here hostile thou? Or was the snake playing mind games on her? Maybe the blonde lady was a projection of the snake to lure Sheras into a trap? Paranoidal thoughts mixed with anxiety at least up here I might be safe-ish. She was ready to blast off but the dialogue between the snakes perhaps stopped her, curiosity was her defining feature after all.

Not that she knew what does she live for but that was another story, one boot was on. She strapped them tight on the ankle, quickly put old shoes in bag and before wearing the other one she lifted herself in flight, switching modes to remain stable in mid air at around seven meters of height now.

She finally wore the backpack and started to strap in the second boot. Nervously.

Lai's smile had quickly fallen to a visible forced smile of annoyance, her teeth clenched together as she placed her hands behind her back, slowly stepping towards the worm. Suddenly, at great speed, Lai had slammed her foot down on the worm, trapping the red eye's head in her heel. Looking down, the forced smile had returned to her usual caring smile, cocking her head to the side as a small playful giggle had wriggled from her voice system.

"You need to learn some manners when it comes to talking to a lady," Lai stated, her words seeming more of a threat than a suggestion as the closed-eye smile was directed to the single head, if it has an artificial intelligence at this level, it would experience fear. Exactly what Lai would need to instil at this situation, the simple shock of the entrapment had already removed whatever cloaking the worm was using.

More movement had caught Lai's eye as she quickly looked back to the confused girl, floating in the air as she attempted to strap on some strange boots. Obviously means for her to run away. "Now you get back down here, young lady." Lai ordered, her voice more stern as she pointed to the ground before her. "You shouldn't be running away, leaving innocent people to suffer such an annoyance. It's very rude."

Light distended more as the last cloaking field immolated in ragged blue holes were solidity returned to Hotei. They had all been lying on the ground but Red was pinned under LAI's heel. Red's twitching apertures just looked up at LAI and he huffed looking at the Sherezad.

Blue just eyed him tongue flicking as he scoffed, "*Kah* I'm Blue Hotei by the way and I tell Red to stop being so vulgar but he never listens, Miss."

Facial expressions weren't something their anatomy provided much for but his mouth halted a moment in concern for the hostility, "Ah, I do apologize for his rudeness but he does do the eating. Please don't hurt him."

Under a boot heel Red had to talk through his hands though it was a clear mutter as he evaded eye contact with LAI, "Lady, I don't have the tolerance for stupid people like you and Blue do. So sue me."

Green rose to shake dirt off of his head then looked at Sherezad, "She's not stupid just scared! Be nice! We're very real miss! Somebody built us. But we don't need to hunt stuff. Don't you have money for food?"

Green's movement was constrained by the pin but he leaned a bit further in, "Are you homeless? We could get you some food."

That lady...what the.. As LAI stomped Hotei, Sheras could finally see him again, damn it was huge. No time, she strapped the second boot and initialized balance synchronization protocol. As the dialogue between the two or...4 went on Sheras looked around her with inquisitive eyes, trying to figure out where she was Ok girl, keep your chill now, it is supposingly safe up here and you can blast off when you want now. the extents of the woods went further that she could distinguish, but no signs of anything familiar. If only she had something to work with.

Then the green one talked to her. Money, oh yes of course! Sherasad didn't answer the questions of the snake immediatly, instead she looked for her wallet in the front of the bag. Opening it she read her name age and address, found a sudent card and various other memoirs.

I have like 20 Swiss franks and....I live in barkers street 404 but...where am I now? What day is it? Asked she back while looking down at the group.


Sorry lady but I think you got it all wrong, I'm not leaving innocent people to suffer...I..I don't know what you mean by that... Sheras was indeed confused by the nonchalance of the woman, her behavior of superiority was something to be carefull about, then again she might be batshit crazy and about to be devoured by what seems a....robotic snake??

Then it dawnd at her, blue guy said they were built...built??


Hey snake....you were built? as in engineered? such complexity, such performance, this was science fiction to Sherazad who was tampering with 32 arm processors back in the 2000's, to her such level of technology was hardly dreamable about.. She wouldn't leave quite yet, in fact she descended a couple of meters to have a closer look, from a 5 meter safe distance and ready to pulse upwards at any moment, her boots vibrating slightly, in eagerness.

LAI smiled a smile of nostalgia, this worm really did remind her of her past days with the Knights. The three different personalities running parallel to the personalities of certain knights, the bickering between each other as they attempted to act on a situation that was far out of their reach. A small giggle managed it's way through LAI's mouth as she calmly raised her hand to cover her mouth.

"How foolish~" She spoke out to herself, not attempting to insult the worm. That was when the girl had replied once again, her words at first were confusing, seemingly out of context. That was when she had moved inward to observe the worm even closer, seemingly amazed at it's structure. Such an amazement had already offended the android who considered herself of better construction than the worm.

"Oh come on, this is poor engineering. I've seen much better constructions, looking in a mirror is one of them." She exclaimed, placing a higher pressure on the red eyed head of the worm, as if punishing it for existing.