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[gates_of_babylon]

 Is this truly the state of the world?

[Gilgamesh asked the machine while not realizing it was on, wondering if he was simply being shown a farce of the Earth. The reality of the world around him sunk in quickly, but he seemed a little disappointed. The King stood in the middle of the street, holding his tablet in one hand and visible in the corner of the screen he held a golden crown with a jeweled ring attached to the front of it.]

So few survivors left. With this artifact being the only interesting thing presented to me...

[His teeth clenched and his expression hardened.]  What a torrid vacation. The degradation of the world is no surprise, but these spoils are a disappointment. At the very least, I would have preferred to see the 'end' of civilization as it happened rather than being inclined to save it in its aftermath.

I, Gilgamesh, shall oversee this.

Comments

Re: anonymous, voice;

[gates_of_babylon]

Speak? [Gilgamesh's stern expression turned callous before a smile erupted on his face and he began to laugh--earnestly and intently.]

As a jester could scarcely get me to smile, this is indeed refreshing! You fool...!

Hah! No, there will be no speaking between you and I. Those who mock me in such earnest ways...

[Gilgamesh pulled the tablet in closer--his eyes wide and knowing.]

I will simply rain punishment upon you.

anonymous, video;

[deathwarder]

[ Oh, really? He can play the intimidation game, too. He'll switch to a video feed and adjust the tablet accordingly, zooming out to... well, this. Let's just get the ego strutting out of the way first and foremost so actual business can be conducted, hm? ]

I would reconsider testing your blade against me if I were you, little one. Great power I sense, but it is not as great as mine, a power that has existed since time immemorial.

[ Folding one massive, molten paw over the other, Deathwing cracks a broken grin. ]

Come! Bring your punishment, if you so dare! But I would advise a better course of action... one of our mutual benefit. The day comes soon when I drown this world in flame, consume it in ashes.

Abide me, or defy me. But the hands of fate are mine to control, not yours. So proclaims the Destroyer—so proclaims Death!

[gates_of_babylon]

[A curious look came across Gilgamesh's face. It must have been massive, this creature--near the size of the Bull of the Heavens. His smile turned more solemn and relaxed. It was the eerie chill that came across a man who was trying to think of a way to space out all the fun he was going to have.

He felt childlike wonder for the first time in ages.]

Ahhh, a wyrm! I see where your pride comes from, beast. [One should be proud when they look like a dragon that's been forged out of steel and lava. Gilgamesh touched his chin, inspecting the sight of the dragon carefully.]

Though, I find this pathetic. Of all phantasmal creatures, it seems dragons are the most cowardly. [Fafnir wasn't a joke, he surmised. Sigurd likely had his hands full just prying the creature close to the ravine.]

Arrogance of a creature that crawls with its stomach in the dirt... I'll erase you from the world entirely and in your fleeting final moments, you'll know that the 'King' stands above Time as well.

[deathwarder]

[ Gilgamesh's reaction is curious; most shrunk away in fear rather than leaning closer in wonder. He's every bit as arrogant as the "King" implies, though, holding his spadelike head high when he senses he's being assessed, snorting smoke. ]

The Great Black, Blood's Shadow, Death Incarnate, Shuul'wah, Phquathi, Xaxas... these are my names, and many more. You would be wise to commit them to memory. I intend on engraving each and every oen into the earth as it smolders beneath my wings. For I do not crawl, but soar above all others.

[ Burning red eyes narrow at Gilgamesh's continued flaunting and pronouncements. Ordinarily, he'd be quick to cut him down a notch or two, but he'll elect for the more diplomatic approach, at least for now. No need to make powerful enemies if they can simply be swayed to his favor instead. ]

I do not back down when I am challenged. Of that, you can rest assured. If the need for supremacy sings so keenly in your heart, I would grant it to you. However, this world is in dire need of cleansing, just as you said.

After the wretched scream out in agony and judgment has been cast, I would test your resolve. For that is why I exist, to fulfill the prophecy you speak of... and here, I see no need to stand in each others' way.

[gates_of_babylon]

You have too many names--far too many for a reptile. [Creatures he hated to begin with. He pitied the snake, but one couldn't say that he didn't hate it from the bottom of his heart when it begged him for immortality.

In the same sense, Gilgamesh was regarding Deathwing with clear irritation the moment the creature seemed to turn more civilized than immediately dangerous. Weren't politics supposed to stay in the realm of men?]

You spoke nothing of 'cleansing'. In my rule, I would leave only those who are strong, courageous and worthy of me in the world.

'Burning the world' implies a much less desirable situation for me. Choose your words more wisely in my presence.

[deathwarder]

Then you may simply address me as Deathwing. I am indeed a wyrm, the greatest of my kind, leader of the Black Dragonflight.

[ Oh, Gilgamesh. You really do have so very much to learn. One didn't manipulate an entire kingdom without some degree of political finesse. Snarling, fire-breathing, and all other things destructive would come later (soon, the voices beckon him, pound into his skull).

At present, he'll just fall back on Prestor's charisma, sliding into the pointed smile that so defined him as the venomous snake in the grass. ]

Call it whatever you wish. But I tell you again, the perfection of a world that has become corrupted, twisted, is also what I'm after. We work towards the same end. If you should so desire to rule once the dust settles, be my guest.

But to be at odds, currently, is not in my interests, nor is it in yours.

[gates_of_babylon]

[Gilgamesh had never heard of a dragon by that name--but, it wasn't a surprise at all. There were countless realities in which the world had different heroes and different stakes to take into account. A world with a dragon of supreme title wasn't surprising. The phantasmal creatures known as 'dragons' had their own eras after the Age of Gods he lived in.]

Very well. [He answered slowly, feigning interest in Deathwing's advancement in the conversation. Gilgamesh knew better than to rely on a dragon's word and he didn't know this dragon at all. Every word could have been a lie simply for him to incur favor.

So, naturally, he played into it so he could reach further in and locate the dragon's most simplistic of desires when it presented itself. If anything, it would serve to be interesting. A dragon willing to sit and play chess with him was more worthy an opponent than one who simply wanted to throw itself in the path of his rupture.]

You have my forgiveness for the moment. However, be warned: My good graces are thin and quick to collapse.

[deathwarder]

[ It's rather like being back at court again, dancing around pompous nobles and appeasing bureaucrats with promises of land, lavishness, and above all else, loyalty, spinning pretty words into pretty lies. Ultimately, it didn't matter whether Gilgamesh believed him or not, only that he stayed his hand as well as his tongue. That alone would be enough.

And far be it him to neglect an opportunity for chess. One of the few human inventions worth indulging, to pass all that time in between... along with alcohol, of course. ]

His Majesty is too kind. [ Snark. Get used to it, Gilgamesh, you'll be hearing plenty more where that came from. ] Indulge my curiosity, then... what is it that grants you this title of King? Power? Influence? Heroics?

Or were you simply born into such a position, inherently divine? A guardian of the lesser races?

[gates_of_babylon]

It seems more along the lines that you're attempting to indulge me, beast. [Not that he really hated talking about himself. Nope, Gilgamesh was pretty adept when it came to talking about himself. If this creature had never heard of the King of Heroes, then it wouldn't hurt at all to educate him.]

I am all of those things. I was born a King, I gathered all nations under my rule, I possess the true charisma of a King, I am the King of all Heroes in the world and I am of true, divine birthing.

However, that is simply a malleable definition as to how I've lived. 'What' I am is 'The True King'. Whether I ruled the whole world or one nation does not matter in the face of the defining feature of my existence--that I am the only one in the world suited to rule without question, regardless of origin.

[deathwarder]

[ The slur of beast stokes Deathwing's ire, but he listens, waiting. Deathwing was rather accustomed waiting. Year after year, century after century, millennium after millennium...

Yes, Deathwing could wait for a very, very long time to get what he wanted. ]

In the world from which I hail, such an existence would be more appropriately classified as a god. And most gods that I know of do not take the forms of men, but of far greater beings, ones that dwell in the skies above rather than walking the earth as mere mortals.

Yet you seem intent to make your throne here, as opposed to the heavens. Is that correct?

[gates_of_babylon]

You lend those beings too much credit. They're lazy, wasteful creatures only fit to complain and draw upon themselves a farce of a veil of strength. [One could say Gilgamesh really did hate the gods. After all they put him through, he really didn't mind sawing off one god's legs and killing their bull for fun alone.

He wasn't even sure if he held affection for his mother anymore.]

Mortal men who suffer and survive in the same breath every day are worthy of my rule. Those gods who fall prey to the weakness of desire without understanding true cruelty cannot compare to the people I wish to rule.

The gods are weak and pitiable, prone to selfishness and utterly incapable of betterment. They would quicker die than correct themselves and such is something I've witnessed for myself.

[deathwarder]

[ An interesting individual, this one... speaking with fondness for both destruction yet a distaste for gods, though his attitude was certainly comparable to what he'd expect from them, haughty things. The heavy weight of his tail can be heard thump, thump, thumping in the background, lava-blooded veins pulsing bright through charred scales as he studies Gilgamesh. ]

The gods among gods of Azeroth—Titans, they are known—abandoned it to its own devices shortly after its creation. The earth corroded and decomposed, left to rot without proper care... their shortsightedness was deplorable beyond forgiveness.

But there are also gods who understand the world for what it is, and recognize what must be done, as you do. And that is to say nothing of their understanding of cruelty.

[ Deathwing shifts the tablet closer, and though expressions were always difficult to discern on a dragon, his is so stern as to be bleak. ]

Gilgamesh, "King of Heroes". Believe these words, if nothing else: I have seen cruelty's true face. I have endured it since the moment my creators granted me the spark of life. It beats within my chest, the suffering of a thousand lifetimes.

Do not rank me among those gods you speak so lowly of. I am not cut from the same cloth.

[gates_of_babylon]

[Titans. The mention made him remember his elder grandfathers and those before them. The Norse titans. The Roman and Greek Titans. Those who were in possession of ridiculous amounts of strength, yet no minds in which to proper utilize them. Their 'deaths' were their only useful courses and Gilgamesh could muster the slightest respect for them over that.]

You, a god as well? What a poor draw in incarnation you've pulled. Such an ugly body and such an ugly spirit--one must assume that the cruelty you've suffered in your heart must certainly be a lack of pride. [This was actually Gilgamesh in a 'teasing' mood, surprisingly enough. His smile was too gentle to be completely hostile about it.]

What, then, do you expect of yourself? Do you live only to suffer and to burn?

[deathwarder]

[ He's certainly been called worse than ugly before, and as such the comment is just laughed off. The hideously torn face melts away in an instant, replaced by something like Gilgamesh's, convincingly human, deceptively handsome in how it shrouds his insanity in a regal cloakj. ]

Death can take whatever form that it chooses. How else would I hide in plain sight here, without an army being summoned for my head?

[ The second question is what throws him, and eyes that flicker crimson in the dark avert from the screen, trailing off towards some point unseen. ]

I obey a higher calling. So I was forged in the flames of hatred, so they must forever blaze until the time I am no longer needed... until the promised hour when twilight dawns and the world's true kings may rule.

[gates_of_babylon]

[Gilgamesh's eyes narrowed, flickering wisps of interest. Alright, so he went from ugly beast to human in an instant. Though admittedly, he would be unable to imagine that man's face. He could only think of the dragon--ugly, scarred and twisted with metal. Somehow he thought the dragon was more appealing if only because it wasn't a facade.]

An absurd notion. 'Kings'?

[deathwarder]

[ Most couldn't forget that vile monstrosity once they'd seen it. They'd made certain he wouldn't, with how deeply they'd carved the scars, mental and physical. How they'd destroyed his face, everything that was once beautiful, shattered it into nothing.

No, this man wasn't Deathwing. It was only a shell, a transparent means to a far greater end. ]

Perhaps they will grace this planet with their presence before that day comes. [ Purposely vague. He won't be tipping his hand entirely yet. ] Perhaps not. But I am pledged to carry out their will in their stead, whatever the case.

You ask what it is I expect, why it is I exist... it is to live and die in their service. For the time of my heroism has long since past.

Now, only chaos reigns.

[gates_of_babylon]

How odd. A dragon bearing such an audacious fate and duty, pledged to 'Kings'? It resembles no story I've ever heard, before.

[He has nothing much to add to it. From what he was hearing, Deathwing was dedicated to something regarded as 'fate'. He was a part of a myth not yet complete, yet fully prepared to put everything he had into it. Willing to plea with a king and look for allies.]

At the very least, you've caught my interest. To see you approach your end... For such a grandiose myth, I imagine there are few worthy to witness it.