Ch 3 - Divinoscore
A wind carried a glorious scent of sweet rose, honey, lilies, and fruit in its wings past Dood and Desmond, billowing their clothes. The scent traveled into Dood’s nostrils and filled his chest, a heat gathered in the new organ that grew next to his heart. He held a hand to his chest to try and focus on the feeling as they walked a path lined with waist high blue and gold flowers. The path, paved with flat quartz slabs, led to two wooden doors. The wooden doors had carvings in them, depicting scenes of figures, beasts, and icons.
Desmond scanned a badge on a panel to the right of the door. *BEEP* A lock shifted and Desmond extended his hand to Dood with a smile. “Good luck, Dood …?”
“Ferguson, Dood Ferguson.” Dood grinned and shook Desmond’s hand. “Thanks for keeping me company. This whole experience is crazy, but you really helped me shake some of the nerves loose. I’m glad to have a friend in this place.”
“Friends typically share their contact information…” Desmond noted while taking out a small white card.
Dood took it and glanced through its information. On the front was English and on the back, a series of patterned concentric circles.
Desmond Hall - Divinos Warrior
Elementalist
#879-012-9872
“You’ll get a holo-ring after orientation. Just scan the circles after you get it and you’ll have my contact. Let me know if you need any help.” Desmond said.
Dood nodded and pushed the door open with his back while he bade Desmond goodbye, “Thanks for the help, man! I’ll be sure to reach out.”
Dood turned and searched the lobby of the compound, the door shut quietly behind him. Soft light, simple furniture, busy people, and neutral color tones filled the room. Directly before him was a white wooden desk with a female human receptionist talking with her hand near her face, a ring inlaid with soft blue light. She noticed him soon after and gestured to her desk with the wave of her other hand.
Dood looked around while she helped someone on a call of some sort. The people that filled the hall were shuffling around between a series of more than fifty light screen terminals. He was mesmerized by the various types of people. Humans, dwarves, elves, sea-people, and beast-men mixed and conversed casually. “I wonder when I’ll get used to this?” Dood said aloud to himself.
The receptionist pressed her index ring with her thumb and turned to Dood with a smile, “Excuse me sir, thank you for waiting. How can I help you?”
Dood turned to her. She was quite beautiful and Dood’s mouth had trouble starting up.”Um, uh, I am… What am I? What did he call it?...” He tried to think back to the dwarven man that greeted them on the platform when he had just arrived. “I just got a card. And I, uh… Came here… I’m not from here.” He finally stuttered out.
The woman chuckled, “You’re a traveler? Welcome to The Divinos Realm, and welcome to The Divinos Way!” Dood noted that the joy in her eyes was genuine. She was truly happy for him starting this journey. It reminded him of the first time he walked into a church back on Earth. He walked in looking for answers, filled with preconceptions, and walked out, not with answers (that came later), but he felt welcomed… loved. The elven woman continued, “The orientation is about to start so you can head to the horizon amphitheater…” She pointed out a hallway closeby with an icon of a sun rising between three mountains, and ushered him on his way.
He followed the passage and found polished stone steps that descended into a large white-stone walled amphitheater. The chamber could easily seat a hundred, but only fourteen others dotted the curved rows. At the bottom, a sleek podium stood before a dormant lightscreen that spanned the wall.
Tension in the room caught Dood's eye - everyone gathered near the front rows, but there was a void around one person who sat front and center facing the podium. Light glinted off his golden hair that cascaded like a lion's mane. As Dood drew closer he noticed the uneasy caution in those around the man, their eyes shifting to him periodically. But as Dood drew closer, he noticed something in the man's posture. Not hostility the others seemed to see, but an intensity focused somewhere beyond the present moment.
The wooden steps creaked softly as Dood settled into the adjacent seat. "Hi, I'm Dood."
"Kaizer," the man replied, his jaw relaxing slightly as he turned. His features held an almost classical nobility, as if sculpted from stone.
"How'd you end up here?" Dood asked, gesturing vaguely at their surroundings.
Kaizer's fingers drifted to the left side of his neck, tracing an invisible line. "Outside Chen's Restaurant, three blocks from home." His voice grew quiet, distant. "Heard screaming from the alley. Woman being attacked. I just... acted." He swallowed hard. "Didn't see the knife until it was in my neck."
The air seemed to grow heavier as he continued. "Blood everywhere. Thought I was done for. Then I saw it - this wooden card, just lying there in a puddle of my own blood. I reached for it by instinct, and suddenly..." His eyes took on an almost reverent glaze. "He was there. Jesus himself, kneeling beside me. He reached down, pulled the blade out..." Kaizer's hand still hadn't left his neck. "Should've been dead in seconds, but the wound... it just closed up. He said he had work for me here, and well..." He gestured at the amphitheater. “Here I am.”
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"That's..." Dood shifted in his seat, suddenly self-conscious. "I just found mine wedged at the top of an old pine tree." He let out a nervous laugh. "Not exactly a life-or-death moment."
The corner of Kaizer's mouth twitched upward. "Maybe not. But you're here all the same, aren't you?"
Dood's fingers traced patterns on the wooden armrest as memories surfaced. "You ever feel like life's grinding you down? This past year..." He exhaled slowly. "Lost my job, my apartment, my wife - everything really, except my faith. Funny how rock bottom makes you look up."
The glow from suspended spheres of soft light caught dust motes dancing between them as he continued. "Found myself thumbing rides to Montana. Glacier park. Needed to get above it all, you know?" A small smile tugged at his lips. "Saw this massive lodgepole pine reaching into the clouds. Must've been two hundred feet tall. Started climbing and wound up at the top." He chuckled softly. "On the top branch, balancing on a split, there was this beautiful wooden card just... waiting."
"Haven't really had time to process any of this," Dood added, gesturing at the alien architecture around them. "Thanks for letting me-"
CRACK!
A bolt of lightning split the air, leaving spots dancing in their vision and the taste of ozone on their tongues. Where empty space had been moments before, a figure now commanded the podium. Silver fabric rippled like liquid mercury around his shoulders, stark against pristine white pants that seemed to glow. His elvish features held the sharp angles of cut crystal, and his presence filled the room like a static charge.
"The Divinos Way!" His voice resonated off the walls, jolting several students upright in their seats.
"I am Mr. Beech." The elf swept into an elaborate bow, his silver shawl floating as if caught in an invisible breeze. And kept bowing. And bowing. The silence stretched like taffy.
Dood's hesitant clap echoed through the chamber. Clap. Clap. Clap. Other students joined in awkwardly, their scattered applause building like reluctant rainfall. Mr. Beech held his bow through it all, silver shawl still dancing without wind, and a satisfied grin grew on his face.
“Some of you have traveled from Earth, others from the Ethereal Planes. Earth-born souls," he gestured toward the handful of humans scattered throughout the chamber, his mercury-bright eyes lingering on each face. "Your world has forgotten the energy of creation, the photonforce. It sleeps, like a desert waiting for rain." His voice softened. "But here you will harness unique aspects of the photonforce through your newly formed divinoscore.” He gestured to the rest of his audience, "Ethereal souls, you're already familiar with the photonforce, but from this day onward - you'll be able to master it."
He raised his hand as lightning danced on his fingertips. “I control the aspect, lightningforce.” The elven man looked at the fourteen men and women of various races. He pointed to Dood, “You, come here.”
Dood stood and tentatively walked beside Mr. Beech, almost expecting to get zapped. “I want you to focus on the divinoscore in your chest.” Mr. Beech reached over and poked the right side of Dood’s chest. “Visualize it with your mind and tell me what you see.”
Dood thought for a moment, considering what Mr. Beech had said, then closed his eyes and concentrated. In his mind, he visualized looking inwardly at his own heart then panning right. “What is that?” He gasped subtly. “I can see something, is it just my imagination?” Dood asked with his eyes still closed.
Mr. Beech smiled and calmly replied, “What is it you see?”
Dood’s head tilted right, “I see a black sphere… Like obsidian glass. There’s… two openings on the top and bottom, and inside is… THE WOLF?” Dood’s voice became frantic. “It’s the wolf from the divinos card I found. It looks like it’s sleeping.”
Mr. Beech nodded, “A beast bonder. Very good!” He walked behind Dood and spoke again, “Now I want you to go into the sphere, your divinoscore. More will be revealed when you look inside.”
Dood unconsciously nodded. His mind drifted closer to the black sphere and as he simply thought of being inside, suddenly, he found himself looking at a wide expanse. He was dazed by a sparkling carpet of silver moss atop rolling meadows that stretched beyond an unknown horizon. The sky above was twilight, filled with stars and nebulas. In the center most point was a young wolf lying down asleep. Its obsidian fur sparkled with sparse motes of golden starlight, and the fur on its paws, tip of its tail, and crest of its chest were dyed a crystalline gold.
Knowledge flowed through his mind like revelation from the Holy Spirit of God.
* Name - Dood Ferguson
* Faction - Beast Bonder
* Photonforce Aspect - Cosmicforce
* Divinos Beast Card - Cosmicanine (Restricted Epic)
* Inherited Skills - Cosmic Steps | Restricted | Restricted | Restricted
* Passive Skill - Boost to Cosmicforce skills / Slight boost to Lightforce and Spaceforce Skills
* Skills :
* * Novice : *None*
‘Cosmicanine? Is that the wolf?’ Dood asked himself as he gazed at the sleeping wolf before him.
He walked closer towards the beast, moss crunching beneath his steps. Suddenly his right foot hovered in mid air, the wolf’s nostrils flared.
The wolf beast’s nose lifted and quickly turned his direction. It lifted its head peacefully then joy filled its face like a dog seeing its owner for the first time in months. It bolted to him, kicking up silver moss in its wake, and jumped into his arms to lick his face. ‘How is any of this happening? Is this my spirit?’ He couldn’t wrap his mind around the moment, but joy welled up in his heart regardless. He cradled the 80-pound wolf, laughter bubbling up from his chest. “How about a name? How does Brave sound?” he suggested, a wide grin spreading across his face.
The Cosmicanine howled in excitement and doubled its face licking output. Dood ruffled Brave’s furry mane and watched as motes of starlight fell away like pollen from a tree in spring. He felt a closeness to Brave, like a spiritual bond that connected their hearts, and understanding flowed between them without words.
After several minutes of playful interaction, Dood's hands still buried in Brave’s fur, he gazed into the eyes of his new companion. ‘How do we get out of here?’ he wondered to himself. In that instant, his vision shifted, and he found himself back in the amphitheater, the sensation of Brave's warmth lingering on his skin, though the wolf itself was nowhere to be seen.