[15th April 2011]

[Saint Columba's College, Ballyvourney, County Cork, Republic of Ireland, Earth-16]

"Fine, fine, but just the one please, it's harder explained to groups when I'm supposed to be doing a one-on-one with my fellow cleric here..." I agreed to female not-Superman sitting with myself and the purple-black Tattletale, but not a big group, or her lawyer 'Brandish', or the mostly silent Armsmaster. It was one or the other, not the peer-pressure cluster that'd infer with a more straightforward questioning "...since you'll get the full brief off Giovanni or Georgina I imagine"

Tattletale glanced at her lawyer, then at 'Alexandria' who gave a curt nod as I walked over to a private booth with a refilled mug of coffee and donut. I could have taken support of my own of course, but they were less likely to help with what I wanted since this was a religious mater. And, dammit, I'd been forced to endure an hours long briefing on this already and knew what I was allowed to say, and what not to say. Bad enough I had a non-believer sitting in on a religious matter...eh, what the hells. It was the pragmatic thing to do, so no point spilling over split milk I reminded myself as I took my seat.

"Well then..." I started as both took their seats sitting across the table from, tea-drinkers apparently, as I sat back in a 'polite' stance as I looked at the younger of the two "...congratulations! Welcome to the Faith! Good News; you've been granted powers to warp reality itself! Bad News time: that power comes with responsibilities, often dangerous ones!"

Tattletale gave an amused snort "You're not really good at this whole cult thing, are you?"

I sighed, resisting my urge to roll my eyes "Heavens, we're not a cult is the first thing. Our Patron is a pragmatic God, one of the portfolios, and we generally leave the whole ass-kissing and brown-nosing to the faiths of the Abrahamic God. Sure, it's doable, but the Boss doesn't really go for it. Genuine belief yes, but generally not of the..." I raised my hands in a mock televangelist voice "...Praise Jesus!..." before rolling my eyes "...actually a fake prayer nonsense"

'Alexandria' decided to interrupt here, cutting into what wasn't any of her damned business "And what exactly your Patron as you call it? What is a...God?"

"Well, that's a very divisive question" I replied with a look into my mug of coffee frowning "...but, to answer as best I can, the Shrouded Lord of Nishrek is, what my bosses here call, an Outsider God. Meaning a divine being, a Deity, a Divine Patron, not fully native to this dimension...hmm..."

I took a sip, gathering my thoughts before continuing "To give a more...materialistic answer He could be referred to as an Extra-dimensional...hmm...Multiversal?...Entity that is empowered by collective belief of sentient and sapient beings, and has entered into a symbiotic relationship with His clerics. We get empowered by Him, and in exchange we offer up worship, and generally act as guides for the faithful, or as general agents to said religious needs, or to encourage the tenets of His Divine Portfolio"

Placing the mug down I frowned, sitting back in the chair, fingers interlocking on the table "Which, relevant to you my dear Tattletale, is the Primaries of; Knowledge, Pragmatism, Planning, and Organised Warfare, with Secondarys we'll call them, of: Law/Order, Magic, Science, and Civilizational Advancement. These are basically Domains, or driving goals of our Patron Deity might be a better description - and how close we lean towards one, or many, of these Portfolios defining our powers as they develop and we learn over time"

I held up my hand to stall the obvious complaint I knew was coming up "Now, War doesn't necessarily mean starting fights and wars, but our God is a God of Order, so tends to favour the development of things related to militaries, and defences against outside threats . Hence why he's one of the Patron Deities of SHIELD for instance. Our patron tends to frown very, very, heavily on chaotic, evil, stupid, wannabe warlords tearing down civilization. Which...well, moves unto this important fact, one we, both of us..." I gestured at her, and then at myself "...are very much guilty of"

"Oh?"

I nodded "It's really, really, fucking dangerous, and stupid, to reach out into the void like that. You don't know who or what will answer, and many, many, many, of them are absolute horrors"

Tattletale winced slightly "Yeah...Dream Boss-Man mentioned that also"

"Yeah, He does that..." I muttered awkwardly rubbing the back of my head as 'Alexandria' glanced back and forth between myself and the girl a moment "...because it is, once you get the knowledge and realise how BAD it could go"

I let out a breath, reaching into my dimensionally adjacent pocket of holding and pulled out a secure SHIELD logo'd data-pad "Which...leads me to the other major thing before we start going into more. You reaching out proves, well...that your side can do, far faster than we'd thought honestly. Something that indicates others will try doing so, some of which will succeed in their Calling...and some of those getting answers from very, very, bad things. Which, as a High Priestess of the Shrouded Lord, you'll probably be expected to confront...so, I'm giving you a warning as best I can to give you a leg up I didn't get till well into fun and horrors"

Our new Priestess smirked as I turned on the S-Pad, bringing up the first of two clips as 'Alexandria' merely gave a faint nod "Trying to scare me off, eh?"

"Nope, you're in now sister, I'm just trying to help..." I replied sadly clicking on the needed buttons and bringing up the black-grey-white footage, with sounded turned down, that was recovered from rotten, zombie-infested, temple in Qurac "...this is what can happen with desperate men, with partial knowledge, but just enough to gather the needed resources and abilities, get a ritual up and running. This is Qurac, which was basically run by a mind-controlling meta-human named Queen Bee, but when she and her capital got nuked the place fell into civil war, and this faction got an idea, a terrible, terrible, idea..."

I showed them the Nergal summon footage we'd recovered, and the clips from Star City when those crazy Mercy-Killer Lawful Neutral Law Enforcing Death Machines were summoned, giving a very brief explanation of the events. Tattletale had gone a little pale at the two clips, while her older 'minder' merely studied the clips impassively before I finished speaking "...see, that's the issue. Both of these were ultimately done by non-powered, actually non-magical, people, but they had the resources to reach out to practitioners, torturing it out of them in one case, or to supervillains with abilities that let them unlock enough knowledge to get a summoning. Basically what you and I did Tattletale, just on a bigger, even stupider, level"

She smiled weakly at me "Least I get more superpowers?"

I grinned "That we do, and I'm not doing this to discourage...it's just you've proven a door is open, and that means competition"

'Alexandria' merely sat back, sipping her tea a moment before speaking "Yet, you are implying that Christianity, which has many priests, has no power?"

"Heh!" I couldn't help but chuckle at that "Nine Hells, no, not in the least. Christian churches, with genuine faithful building up belief, not just the fake or head-nodding turn up for Christmas, tend to be magic-dampeners in of themselves. So, be aware of that Tats, don't pick a fight with the giant gorilla in the heavens that is the Silver City, and that certain areas will weaken you, even stop you at the level your at right now. It's actually why magic weakened...here anyway...as Belief, Collective Belief, fuels Divine Magic, but it also fuels the opposite, especially when the Scientific Method first came about alongside it"

Tattletale frowned, then cheered herself up I guess "So...don't challenge the Pope to a Magic Duel?"

"No, that would generally be a bad idea, at least on this Earth here. The Vatican, Mecca, Jerusalem, a few other spots are Holy Sites, and have odd effects even on Arcane Magic and the like..." I replied honestly. It was true after all, albeit far more complicated than that "...and that flows nicely into the next point. Belief impacts the result, the experiment for testing...though I'll say with very powerful beings, like Cain for instance, they can power through sheer energy or self-belief"

'Alexandria' frowned now, every so faintly "You are implying...that if you someone believes enough that...magic...does not exist, that it won't exist for them, and can impact the environment itself if enough people do so"

"Yes...sort of, though they can often just mass delude themselves into writing off supernatural effects, as certain powers, that you would call Mastering, can be resisted through sufficient Belief or Faith...hell, even if it's Belief and Faith in Communism with certain beings!" I replied rubbing my chin in thought "It's why Vampires are often, but not always, affected by religious iconography. There is an inherent power there, but its often just the fact both parties, in particular, the vampire, believe the Cross affects them even without the actual power behind it...so because they believe it'll harm them, well, it DOES harm them"

I shrugged "It's why many magicians hypnotise themselves to increase their abilities as mortal minds aren't fully capable of grasping beyond the purely physical realm. It's less problematic with ourselves as clerics as we are drawing upon an external energy source in our Deity, but there is still Faith required, so the less we Believe the weaker we are, the more we do the stronger our connection and therefore the raw power available to draw upon for our abilities"

Tattletale hummed in thought at that "I firmly believe in the Shrouded Lord, he definitely exists and gives me awesome powers, with more to come. Mostly because I'm certain I'm not going crazy"

"Very pragmatic of you, the Lord approves I imagine"

She paused, then grinned as she sat back, seemingly recovered from darker thoughts earlier "Yes, he probably would, wouldn't he? This is so much better than Sunday School!"

I nodded "Oh yeah, we are certainly less fire and brimstone...and we'll do proper testing in the few hours and see what way your inclinations, and therefore future powers, lie"

'Alexandria' tapped her fingers off the table "And there are other such...Deities out there?"

"Oh, yes, very much so. Some Good, some Bad, some World-Ending" I replied getting a curious glance from here I guessed as the helmet hid the upper part of her head. Her tone indicated amusement, as did the general aura around her to my eyes.

"You are certainly more accepting of other Gods actual existing, other than just your own?"

I held my hands apart "We know they exist, the Multiverse is vast, and while my Faith and Loyalty are to my Lord, that doesn't mean I deny the others are there too. In the end, it's a matter of personal choice, though some Powers are better, or very much worse, than others...and some are literally Inhuman in their logic, their actions incomprehensible, or seeming malicious, to our mortal eyes..."

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