Snippet #2636606

River turned to Rosa, rubbing his jaw. It seemed he got to talk a lot today, all business and no pleasure, what a terrible time for an Incubus. He glanced at Kira, still being carried by Volga and grinned Atleast one of us is making up for it. He mused inwardly.

"Buckle up kids, River's gunna give you a lesson on Garden lore." He started.

"Cycles are what we call the combination of the break periods and game periods in The Garden. Each Cycle usually lasts a thousand and a bit years, at the end of the thousand years the Lords begin to awaken along with any Vassals they kept and start to amass resources and regain their power. Usually through absorbing souls, although others have unique methods, the man in the top hat who forced his way out of Luka is one of them, he feeds on fear, anxiety, hopelessness. During the breaks we rebuild, rearm, train, try to find where the Lords went to sleep and total the body count." He paused and scratched at his cat-like ears, tail freed from its position as a belt and swatting back and forth in agitation.

"Over the cycles they've been getting shorter, we're down to about a hundred years now, and as you experienced, a lord or two have woken up even earlier. Based on the warning signs, duration, and results of high-level divination spells, this is the last cycle, ever. We find a way to waste them here, or we lose, on top of that we have to defend the four cities so we've got something to come back to. I joined last cycle along with KH4 and a few others, out of the crew we've got on deck, this is about a fifth of The Nameless. Everyone else died, in fact, almost everyone except me and K died. At the game start of every cycle, agents of The Garden itself can be hired for exorbinant prices to summon newbies from other worlds, and to revive some of the dead, its a random lottery who comes back, if you don't make it into the next cycle after you die, you're gone for good." He explained, taking a deep breath to continue the final stretch, man explaining so often turned into rants, he had to wonder how these rants would look on paper. One giant wall of blabbering text, going on and on.

"If we're lucky, revival restrictions will unlock once The Garden's clear, if we're unlucky....well don't die. Nobody knows what happens when The Garden is clear of Lords, we were all summoned or born here to clear them out. We didn't even figure out the timer was shortening until dozens of cycles in, so who knows what'll happen to this prison once it's empty of prisoners. Most of us are accustomed to living here, being ejected back to my homeworld by force doesn't sound fun, I'm dead there." He mused, tail flicking faster in agitation.

"Final warning for Cycles 101, most Lords don't make it through more than a few cycles, new lords are made from corrupt individuals or warped from a corpse of a dead one, so stay pure and don't leave anything behind. Those who do make it through cycles get names and start developing from mindless monsters into creatures of personality, they're the most dangerous, there are one or two of them who can even resist The Garden's will and never sleep. We don't know how they get so strong or what makes them different, but if a Lord introduces itself, run. Even if I tag-teamed with Blitz we'd struggle to take a Named One. Take notes kiddies, Apocalys zones hold the highest chance of holding a Lord, this is important, they're made from a Lord scarring the earth with a game, or from when it takes a nap." He finally finished, taking an exaggeratingly large breath in and breathing it out, holding his arms at his side and puffing jokingly.

"Class dismissed, good question Rosa, I'm more likely to give you a straight answer than anyone else. Mainly because I've still got all my memories, huzzah for not dying right?...or not again, like that other time...and the other one. Don't do death kids, it's not so great for your heart." He joked, grinning and scratching at his ears again "But I hope to god that answers that, I'm not sure what I could have missed." He mused thoughtfully, ruffling through his hair as he always did when he was thinking.

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Meanwhile in the temple of doom...better known as Kira.

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Kira held her hand up in the shape of a mouth and moved it everytime River spoke, rolling her eyes sarcastically and mimicking his awkward scratchings everytime he paused. She was so caught up in her playful jab that she'd entirely forgotten she'd been so huffy previously, realization hit her when the grandiose class was over and she turned to Volga, awkwardly pecking her on the cheek (Unsure of showing affection still and still not 100% okay with touching) and grinning "I'm fine, just not super excited for mandatory field trips, I'm sure it'll be fun." She reassured her companion, filtering through her assortment of junk and tossing stuff aside she didn't think was useful. Realization hit her again and she whispered into Volga's ear "Sorry about the magnet." She apologized plainly, afraid she'd wound the warriors pride if she mentioned it further than that.