Welcome to Gaia! ::

Max paused for a minute looking at Damion and then at the cup as if written on its wide porcelain face was an explanation as to exactly why Damion should be reaching and taking it instead of staring at it. The moment lasted in quiet, until a drop of something between seasoning and blood dripped from the steak hanging from the other man's mouth and onto the plate and broke the silence. At which point, Maximos cracked a smile and began laughing.

"Oh, right. Of course." He said after the laughter faded and as he pulled out the seat at the head of the table. "After three days of recovery, Walter is all I can do to even just barely remember the silverware."

Max leaned forward, setting the tea down in Damion's arm's reach and pouring himself something jet black and yet thin like juice from a jet black pitcher into an empty glass. As the fluid streamed inside of the glass it turned on itself, brightening to a gray and then a concrete sort of off-gray like when creamer mixes with black coffee. "I believe I know what you might be thinking..."

Maximos said, again cordially. He didnt assume Damion was going to be much of a conversationalist until the gaping void in his belly was full. But, Max was more then willing to fill the gap. He stirred the glass around letting the liquid settle, and then lift the cup up to one of the nearby lights as he spoke. "...where is the proof? Where are the scars?"

As Maximos brought the glass back down, the liquid inside was flawless and snow white. He nodded at it, took a small sip and then continued. "When you get a moment to look at yourself more thoroughly, you'll find that not only are the scars of our battle missing, the Life Leaf will have removed all your past scars."

Maximos made a sort of smacking sound with his tongue against the roof of his mouth, frowned slightly and poured a bit more of the black liquid into the cup, keeping his hand over the mouth of the pitcher as it poured. The snow white liquid swirled into a rainy sort of gray. "I could have let Raven manage things and perhaps left you with marks but, I felt your...evolution, deserved you being granted a fresh..."

Maximos paused, grinned slightly and sipped the drink again, this time coming away with a smile and a nod. "...canvas to start with."

He looked down at his right arm for a moment, there were no bandages adorning it now. "An option denied me. Imbibing the stuff since childhood has left me for lack of a better word, unscarrable."

A second sip, which turned into a gulp and made a good third of the liquid in the cup vanish. "But I digress..."

And that was where the shift occurred, a small c**k of his head against the light. It was nothing magical or dramatic. It was the exact same voice. It was the same face. The same teeth and smile. And at the exact same time it was completely different. Maximos voice was a hair smoother and deeper, his teeth glinted just right against the light that they looked more like instruments of consumption than adornments to a smile. His eyes caught the light, a breath sharper, a touch more focused. And yet, it was like the face that had greeted Damion had melted away in the darkness.

It was true, like the elemental, formality was an act in a play and it was something Maximos enjoyed. And yet for all the questions he had asked, and all the things he had said there was only one thing he truly wanted to say and ask. With a grin that quirked at its edges in all the wrong ways Maximos said, "Tell me...Damion..."

And then came a question having nothing to do with the flesh and everything to do with the spirit that triumphed over it. "...How do you feel?"

"Not a bad prospect, not at all."

Maximos said, cradling his cup in both hands and leaning back deeply in his chair. To fight and fight and fight on and on? He could see the appeal in it, adrenaline filled and even nostalgic. Maximos grin ran wide across his face and he took a small sip letting the words settle and simmer.

"Your a monster now, Damion." Maximos said, as if it were just an offhand observation. A simple thing like saying Damion's had teeth or hair. The Shadow let the drink swirl in the glass by way of a gentle rolling motion from his wrist and explained. "You have two legs, two arms, two eyes, skin and hair, and by merely possessing a body composed of those things others of similar composition impose expectations and limitations on you. They entitle you 'a man' they call you 'human'."

Another small sip, his hand passing under his lip to dry a stray drop. "Those things do you make you who you are. You are more. Greater. Better. Transcended beyond those names and limitations and by being such you make each and every one of them question whether or not they are or can be something more. You ruffle their comfortable lives, you remove the ceiling and the floor and all the walls that keep them safe and docile..."

A chuckle, a sip, and he set the empty cup down on the table. Mismatched eyes moved across the table to Damion. "...You scare them. Not by being intentionally frightful or scare-ry, but just by being who you are. Just by existing. That is what it means to be a monster. I am honored I was able to be present for your awakening, for your first step down this road."

"And thus, I must ask...alive as you now are..." And all at once Maximos rocked forward, placing his elbows on the table with his hands interlocked over his face and the edges of his smile peeking out past his fingers. Maximos had been in Damion's shoes before. He found battle after battle all he could do was think of the next battle, of how to improve, to refine, to better equip himself or what skill set to better maximize. He wondered where Damion's mind was. He wondered... "...what's next?"

It wasnt the first part of Damion's answer that caught Maximos attention, it was the last. It was to be expected that a man who had just started walking his path would not have any plans for which direction it was to go. And yet still Maximos asked the question, because the answers that came forth were true. Honest. Raw. Pure.

"I want to become stronger, as always. I want to go further, to press the limits of this body more than I have before. I want to shake the gods from their seats and crush their throats with my hands."

Damion became more animated, the piece of meat clutched in both hands virtually raining blood onto the plate below as his white knuckled grip squeezed it dry.

There was so much emotion, so much that Maximos could see it. Even without Soul Sight it wafted off of the other man like a wave, an aura, pulsing out. He grabbed that meat like it was the flesh of so very many crushed foes and foes yet still to be defeated. Maximos watched the spirited display, and then he leaned forward and spoke softly. He said words that had already been said, and yet said them slowly as if letting them pass through a strainer so the core meaning came through.

"Stronger..." Maximos said, and there was a light in his eyes. A sparkle if you will, the moment in which a realization or idea awakens. Maximos was a creator of things, he couldnt help himself. "...to shake and crush the gods...with your hands."

He slipped one hand out from the other and passively gestured at Damion's hands with a fan of his pale fingers. "With these hands? These hands right here?"

There are shameful eyes, and mocking eyes, and eyes that see right through you and make you feel tiny. Maximos had used all of these in the past, and he used none of them now.

Passion such as what Damion expressed was contagious! With each excited word, with each heartfelt gesture Maximos' smile grew brighter and brighter. As Damion' rose his bloodied hands into the air, Maximos could not help tossing a clenched fist up along with it. The spirit, the fire of the moment was a palpable thing. This was Damion's core, the fuel that would carry him onwards down this new road. It was an absolutely thrilling experience to be a part of.

Now the moment was settling, Maximos leaned back in his chair once more.

"I don't think I worded that the way I wanted to....but you get it, right? I feel like I can do anything at all with these hands, this body of mine. Even cast down the Gods." Damion said, and Maximos immediately made a dismissing wave of his hand. "Nonsense, that answer was perfect! Everything I hoped it would be, and more! You can do anything my friend, anything at all. But..."

The Shadow clapped his hands together in front of himself. He was sitting like some sort of lazy king. His back was slouched against the chair back with a single leg draped over the chair arm. Max rubbed his hands together and then took turns rolling his fists inside either palm as he spoke. "...as you say I am a fellow artist, what if I told you I could make you a brush, a tool, through which to perform your craft?"

"Not better!" Maximos shook his head side to side, "No, never that. A tool itself does not make art. But perhaps, with this 'brush', this item held in your hands, you can write your signature into every one of your masterpieces. A mark of you and only you. How would that sound?"

Maximos smile a wide and devious smile the sort that the Devil might smile at a soul willing to give anything. There was mischief afoot, perhaps even darkness to be done and yet it was not Damion that would suffer the machinations in Maximos' head.

"Not a knife, blade, or blunt thing. Not a tool to be wielded by your hands." Maximos said in grinning response to the elemental, Maximos lift up both of his hands and opened them wide in front of him, like a mine pressing an invisible wall. "I speak of a tool for your hands."

The Shadow paused, he let the silence creep up onto the outskirts of the moment, his eyes settled on Damion as if waiting for some sort of reaction from the other man, but before Damion could speak Maximos added. "...that's all I can say for now."

And simply dropped his hands back into his lap. "If your interested, then perhaps I can provide the next step on your path. I would require a few items to be...harvested. I would gather them myself but I'm afraid I'm already searching for items for a quest of my own. You'll need-"

Maximos started, stopped and laughed lightly to himself, smiling at Damion and cocking his head innocently to the side to say, "-I'm getting ahead of myself. Are you interested, my good Damion?"

Maximos nodded promptly. Something about Damion's small acquiescence seemed to give the Shadow room and space to maneuver. Like a genie who could change the world, if only you would rub the lamp. Maximos leaned forward again so that his mid-section pressed to the edge of the table, his elbows fell to the tabletop and his fingers interlocked in front of his face.

"You could say, Damion, that I'll need you to go back into your own past, to carve the path of your future." Maximos smiled, flashes of white teeth poking out form the edges of his interlocked fingers, at the corner of his grin.

"First, I'll need two full scales from a great stone dragon. A hatchling or a youth simply wont do. The dragon will need to be alive when you take them, though it need not die to supply them." The Shadow paused, seeking out Damion's eyes and that hint of recognition that showed he understood and then progressed on to the next.

"Second, I'm going to need skin from a Rock Serpent, and is eyes. Your likely going to have to be tricky for these, at its death the Rock Serpent releases the venom within its body which decays its flesh entirely from the inside out. I understand you have some experience with these particular creatures." Another pause, punctuated by nod. Maximos slipped his hands apart and placed them flat on the table. He spaced his fingers out wide, and then looked back at Damion with a grin.

"Lastly, but perhaps most difficult. I'm going to need the heart of an earth elemental." Maximos paused, smiled a bit wider and immediately qualified by saying, "Yes, they do indeed have hearts. A fleshy beating thing covered by a core of living and moving rock and stone and sometimes metal."

Maximos made a gesture as if grasping at a spherical object in his pale hands. Delicately, and yet purposefully. "It may also surprise you to know that they have blood. Stones can bleed although only in a pocket surrounding the heart and a small vein framework through the core of the earthen body. When the heart is removed I'll need to you to save the blood as well, it is, perhaps the most key ingredient."

Maximos finished, pursed his lips and let his eyes wander for a moment and then nodded a silent affirmation and said. "Yes, I believe that's all. Do you think you can do it?"

He couldnt help but chuckle, at least a bit. The subtle reactions in the look on Damion's face, the realizations that flicked across his eyes for just a moment before settling into fact or doubt. Maximos was almost nostalgic, thinking of simpler and older days when the world was simply full of magic and new learning!

"Where...where would I find an elemental Maximos?" Damion said, the simple and honest question freed Maximos from his reverie. Where would one find such a creature? He knew of their existence but he could not say he had ever met one. A hand moved to his bare chin for a moment as he tried to recite the most relevant piece of information he knew. "True elementals are a fickle things. They're born in places where an element is at a surplus, but not in competition with any other element, the excess just rolls off and makes a crude living thing."

Max tapped his chin with a finger. "The Mithral Mountains have too much fire. Barthavos too. The forests are too over-run with nature spirits and wood. Try the plains."

Maximos said and nodded as the idea seemed to settle favorably in his mind. "The grassy places may be too much but there are naked spots, vestiges of battles from long ago. That might work. Be wary however. While elementals are not blessed with much intelligence they are the incarnation of the element itself. All of its abilities both scientific, metaphysical, and believed. Which is to say, they are very strong, very tough, and can be very dumb. They are rock."

The question one might have expected followed, " But, yes, I think, no...I know I can do this. But...what exactly are you going to make?"

And Maximos' only answer was to lean back in his chair, grinning like a demon and say. "A tool. A brush for the artists hands. I promise you will love it."