Originally Posted by
Cthulhu_of_R'lyeh
"Unsurprising, this." Ishtar commented. "The Doctor like the Jinzi we know, makes ... improvements, to what he finds."
It was after all, a thing proven time and again in the past two years. Each technological discovery or obstacle met by Pantaloon was taken to with a glint in his eye, eager hands, and an injection of caffeine; the end result coming -- some hours or even days later -- as a thing beyond what it was before and more often than not bordering on the cusp of magic ... of a particular kind. Though it seemed, as Wilhelm pulled back the veil on the Doctor's handiwork and revealed the means to ferret out the would be 'God of Time', that this retrofitting of his had been more slapdash, than inspired.
Telling.
Though at the same time ... the mention of how close the Doctor had come to prematurely ending his dreams of a reversion however, did engender curiosity after a fashion however; and for an Oni curiosity was a difficult thing to ignore. So as the conversation ebbed, and Wilhelm addressed the supplemental, Ishtar considered something briefly ... before that curiosity compelled her to ask a question of her own. "After this device to track the alternate Jinzi is fashioned Wilhelm ... Jinzi, and provided you do not succeed where the Doctor failed in compromising its integrity; would you be so kind as to return the heart to my care with battery charged, if at all possible ?"
A long-shot perhaps, this question ... and request. Yet all the same, there were several uses to be had from an unending supply of energy, let alone one so easy -- and perhaps even eager -- to discharge the selfsame energy so very, very catastrophically.
Before the question could be answered however, the preceding questions needed be, and Ochazuke, ever one to address the 'heart' of an issue had requested as much detail of the First Race as Wilhelm could provide. A thing that the man did with a measure of trepidation; but given what was shown not a moment after he produced the tablet containing the relevant information ... did everyone understand why.
And the whole of it, what these Dreadnaught were capable of, seemingly fashioned so by the First Race themselves ... filled Ishtar with a slowly building anger. Though the reason itself -- for what was more destruction for one who had been made to watch countless more just like it ? -- was perhaps carryover, from sentiments already formed, and further cemented; on the wings of yet another damnable realization:
"... Yet another on an ever mounting list of things that were left untended to by the ever watchful, ever-loving Gods." Ishtar all but spat, as she gazed over at the nearby Asha'rah, before disgust caused her to turn away. "For there could be no denying they existed before the Heavens' War, this First Race; and yet they were left unattended ... without judgment. Yet now the Gods' demise ... these First Race specters linger still. Yet who is left to clean up after what the Gods refused to acknowledge, enraptured as they were by petty squabbles of how a Universe should be run ?"
There came a pause as she considered the question in the moment.
Who else was there ? Mortals ? Unlike the Gods, Ishtar would not require them to settle this. Would not hold them accountable for the sins of the Creators. That line of reasoning was reserved only for the mad, and monstrous. Other Gods, then ? Like Auroc, and Asha'rah, and the absentee Zen'o ? Why would anyone turn to those who allowed these problems fester from the outset ? To say nothing of how twisted those Gods who remained -- or those who wished to be seen as such -- had become. What of Sihn, and Zurvan ? ... Given the truth unveiled by Zurvan not twenty-four hours prior, of they had manipulated her since birth ? No. They may offer help ... but in that they had proven themselves to be as untrustworthy as the Gods themselves.
So it seemed to be, in Ishtar's eyes ... there was no one else; and it was on the heels of this realization that the Oni whispered softly. "There is ... only me ?"
It would fall to her, after all, her Hakai no longer sealed and mantle sure to follow; she would be GoD ... and so the task of righting the wrongs of the Gods who came before would fall squarely on her shoulders.
"... only me."
Her head sagged, and with a weary sigh she turned away from the tablet. "Thank you, Wilhelm. I have seen ... all I needed to."