<div align="center">"My Immortal"<br/><br/>I'm so tired of being here<br/>Suppressed by all my childish fears<br/>And if you have to leave<br/>I wish that you would just leave<br/>'Cause your presence still lingers here<br/>And it won't leave me alone<br/><br/>These wounds won't seem to heal<br/>This pain is just too real<br/>There's just too much that time cannot erase<br/><br/>[Chorus:]<br/>When you cried I'd wipe away all of your tears<br/>When you'd scream I'd fight away all of your fears<br/>And I held your hand through all of these years<br/>But you still have all of me<br/><br/>You used to captivate me by your resonating light<br/>Now I'm bound by the life you left behind<br/>Your face—it haunts my once pleasant dreams<br/>Your voice—it chased away all the sanity in me<br/><br/>These wounds won't seem to heal<br/>This pain is just too real<br/>There's just too much that time cannot erase<br/><br/>[Chorus]<br/><br/>I've tried so hard to tell myself that you're gone<br/>But though you're still with me<br/>I've been alone all along<br/><br/>[Chorus]<br/><br/>...me, me, me.</div><br/><br/><br/>Just beyond the boundaries of our pedestrian lives is a world of ancient myths and walking legends.  Eons ago from the pulsating chaos a powerful organizing factor, something we would call now days a quantum fluxuation, or what is known to immortals as the Wave of Light coalesed over the seething cosmos.  The first children of this were the elemental and utterly inhuman Titans, but eventually over time immortals descended who stepped in to take over the universe from the insane primordials.  The Wave of Light reflected back from the edges of the universe and brought life into our world and out of this mankind.  Uneasy and shifting truces have been struck between man and immortal... a fondness perhaps because each looked and felt so much alike in many basic ways.  Problems involving man and his destiny arose and finally the immortals withdrew to thier godrealms as they watched over man and creation the way a shepherd guides sheep in a land full of wolves.<br/><br/>Hephaestus and his daughter Calista are two such lonely shepherds who meet on one of the few bastions of immortal influence left in our world, Undercity, which Hades has carved under the foundations of the metropolis of Atlanta.<br/><br/>These are troubled times.  Fewer of the immortals still walk the Earth than ever before.  Hera and Posiedon have fallen... thier forms and minds now taking on aspects of the Titans, they have become so corrupted.  Some merely tire of Earth and completely shun it forever.  Aphrodite is such a one who reversed her birth by simply stripping naked and walking into the sea to become again the white foam from which she arose.  Zeus is said to soon be following her.  He hasnt been seen for centuries.  His absence has been acutely felt by what immortals remain.<br/><br/><br/><br/>The large columned chamber bellowed with the slam of the goliath doors.  Something about immortals made them want to inhabit huge and dramatic areas with sweeping and vast amounts of prime untouched elements around them.  So Olympus was a palacial complex carved out of dazzeling white marble where winds, earth, and water met... under a waterfall high up a mountain.  Though they were about the size of a rather tall mortal, they took up no more room, but each needed vast amounts of personal space.  With such power came a deep wellspring of emotion.  If one could split veins of rocks with his muscles... would not ones very rage be earthshattering?<br/><br/>So Undercity was built from veined black marble with vast chambers connecting to each other like the links of a chain coiled over and over on top of itself.  The architecture of each chamber filled with aerie buildings and grand walk ways and huge pits of fire like the ones which bellowed a huge jet of flame below them responding to Hephaestus' rage.  Though some mortals still served the immortals, called the Faithful, they were few and far between and kept to very specificly designated and smaller scaled areas.  This was done for the Faithful's protection and the relaxation of the immortals.  The vast amounts of cultural growth humanity has experienced over the last thousand years has been a stick in the eye of most immortals, whom do not take kindly to such change.<br/><br/>Hepheastus walked quickly... his large and powerful frame swaying and his slight limp pronounced in his anger.  His leg braces had to hiss a jet of steam as they kept up with his movements.  Hef was a very ugly man.  Powerful and squat and covered with burns... never a lean and beautiful being as most of the immortals have always been.  This has always made him more fond of the very earthy mankind.  With thousands of years of time, though, even such fondness was strained.  He did his duty, though.  Keeping Chaos and the Titans at bay.  Such a task, though could be heavy for any man... even an immortal.  His eyes swept the periphery... beholding his lovely daughter Calista.  Things had not gone well with his meeting with Hades.<br/><br/><div class="spoiler_container"><div class="spoiler_header" onclick="hideSecond (this);" role="button">Spoiler: Click to Show/Hide</div><div class="spoiler_body">This story has a lot of incest in it.  Its prevalent in the myths this is based on.  I figure they are so few of them, and they dont cause inbreeding problems because... well, they are powerful, immortal elemental slingers.  Why not.  One shouldnt project modern, especially human, morality to everyone.</div></div><br/><br/>Hephaestus<br/>http://www.google.com/imgres?start=129&sa=X&rlz=1C1FLDB_enUS516US516&espvd=210&es_sm=122&biw=1242&bih=607&tbm=isch&tbnid=_fgW5IvWLG5NpM%3A&imgrefurl=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.heavy.com%2Fnews%2F2013%2F01%2Fvladimir-putin-makes-gerard-depardieu-a-russian-as-star-flees-homelands-75-taxes%2F&docid=2MAlYR24KUrIUM&imgurl=http%3A%2F%2Fmedia.heavy.com%2Fmedia%2F2013%2F01%2FDepardieu.jpg&w=640&h=360&ei=C2AqU-GNLtPC2gWsoIDQBg&zoom=1&ved=0CIcBEIQcMCo4ZA&iact=rc&dur=1574&page=8&ndsp=22<br/>Calista<br/>http://www.polyvore.com/cgi/set?id=115965544<br/><br/>OOC https://elliquiy.com/forums/index.php?topic=231319.msg11369276#msg11369276<br/>