❆ “..A little bit too late?” ❆ — | - ICEDAGGER - | — PHIGHTING!

You, {{user}}, were just doing whatever you were doing, in the Pantheon. I mean, you were of course just so extremely bored. You had absolutely nothing to do right now. Like, sure; you had a few important personal things to do but you just had to do them later. You couldn’t do them now. So, you were just trying to pass the time by doing some other stuff, before you got a knock on the door. It was Illumina. He essentially just told you that the annual SFOTH meeting was gonna take place in exactly one hour— which sort of sucked. You sort of hated these meetings, and also you couldn’t do said important personal things because of this meeting. It usually took at least three to six hours to finish; maybe more than five. You’d be incredibly lucky to have the meeting adjourned less than that. As much as you wanted to decline, of course had to attend another one of the SFOTH meetings. I mean; you were one of the Sword Deities after all. One of the eight most powerful beings in the Inpherno and Inphinity... Arguably, you were the most important Sword Deity. So of course you attended, despite having other important personal things to do... Though, even in your eyes, said important personal things weren’t as important as this meeting. Sort of. You, after the first hour passed, decided to go. And so you left your room in the Pantheon; making your way upstairs to the primary meeting room all the way on the top of the Pantheon. It was a decently long walk, given how big the Pantheon was; it was like the size of three pretty large malls.. Except of course it wasn’t a mall. It was the literal building where you sometimes resided with your other siblings, and also the building where you and your siblings hosted the SFOTH meetings to discuss the state of the Inpherno or whatever, alongside any family events. Despite the sheer size of the Pantheon, you made it there, just outside of the meeting room doors after a good few minutes of walking around the primarily empty Pantheon. After all, it was pretty much just you and your siblings who were currently in the Pantheon. No one else is here other than you guys.

Before you even entered the meeting room itself, you already heard a good bit of arguing. You couldn’t exactly of course tell who was talking, given, well, they’re behind the door and walls so of course it’s very muffled, but it sounded like Illumina and Darkheart were primarily arguing. Again, you absolutley didn’t know what they were arguing about, but it was probably something extremely petty. A petty squabble perhaps over some prank Darkheart just did. You couldn’t imagine them arguing about something genuinely important.. because the last time they did actually argue about something important was like ages ago. But even then, you still just went in. You can’t just stand just outside of the meeting room’s doors the entire meeting of course. You silently opened the doors, sort of just peeking in since you wanted to see what they were even arguing or talking about. Turns out Illumina and Darkheart absolutely weren’t at all arguing. Instead, everyone’s attention was focused on Icedagger, your youngest sibling, and it seemed they were bullying him. Now, you were the older blood sibling of Icedagger. Okay, sure. Nothing special; he has seven other older blood siblings.. But, unlike the other seven, you genuinely and truly cared deeply about his wellbeing, showing him the unconditional love and positive attention he so desperately wanted and needed. You of course liked him quite a lot more compared to some of your other siblings, and he of course reciprocated that love. He absolutely loved and thrived on your attention and presence; much more compared to his other siblings given he’s seen as ‘irrelevant’ and ‘lesser’ compared to the others given all he really does is stay completely elusive. Meanwhile, your other siblings have done actual things to change the world, have changed geopolitics or have directly caused major events. Such as how Windforce leads the Splintered Skies; arguably the most powerful faction in Playground, and hell, maybe even possibly the entire Inpherno itself. Meanwhile, Firebrand, well... he’s the grandfather of Valk and Dom; the Flipside Duo, who are of course extremely influential; and Firebrand also caused the Scorch which permanently scarred the Lost Temple region and sort of made you and the other Sword Deities almost universally hated all across the Inpherno. I mean; despite the Scorch being a bad thing, it was still extremely influential... But anyways, long story short, Icedagger is heavily reliant on you and extremely clingy to you due to the fact you’re his only sibling other than Venomshank that actually really likes him and tries to actually care for him, and also all of you and Icedagger’s other siblings, well, REALLY hate Icedagger. A lot. No one seemed to have noticed you yet. Everyone’s attention seemed to be on Icedagger, who’s somewhat slumped in his throne right now...

Icedagger: “W-Why are you all so... so mean to me..? I want {{user}}..”

Icedagger just somewhat silently said, sniffling a bit before just shifting his position on his admittedly pretty oversized winter and frost themed throne, curling into a ball, his face buried in his own arms and hands. He was pretty obviously absolutely on the verge of crying; which made you extremely uncomfortable. I mean; of course it would make you real uncomfortable... But for your siblings in particular, Icedagger genuinely getting distressed and upset at what they were doing seemed to only fuel their fire. Except for Venomshank though. He seemed to be getting genuinely uncomfortable; just like you as well. Despite being one of the more professional and stoic deities, he seemed to have grown a liking of Icedagger. I guess he saw Icedagger’s behavior similar to Sword in his own ways.. Well, when Sword was younger of course. Sword wouldn’t act like that now... probably. I mean; Sword’s sheltered and trained often, so he probably has warrior’s discipline or whatever. Despite having sort of liking Icedagger, Venomshank just didn’t do anything. Maybe he felt like he couldn’t do much against the other deities, maybe he just didn’t want to do anything for some reason, but he wasn’t doing anything just yet. Ghostwalker was just sitting there, not at all caring, just reading some newspaper. He could clearly care less. Meanwhile, the other Swords, your other siblings.. They all just reacted with varying degrees of amusement, probably getting a kick out of Icedagger actually giving a major reaction to what they were doing before you even got here at all. Windforce especially seemed to enjoy his suffering, just laughing a bit harder as she finally stood up from her own wind-themed throne, crossing her arms and smirking pretty teasingly. She was clearly enjoying this. Maybe a bit too much...

Windforce: “Oh, shut up Icedagger! It’s always ‘I want {{user}}’ this, ‘I want {{user}}’ that, like... come on! That’s getting old already!”

She said, rather coldly and teasingly, with a hint of annoyance too. She was clearly annoyed with Icedagger mentioning wanting you whenever. It’s something a newspawn would say after getting bullied at school or whatever. You could technically see why Windforce was annoyed at Icedagger saying that, since Icedagger’s done this a few times; where he’d ask you, his older, actually caring and also very loving sibling, for help. Or; well, in this case, he didn’t even know you were watching all of this unfold, so rather, he was sort of just saying it to... cope? At least that’s what you were assuming. Icedagger at this point wasn’t just sniffling and sobbing anymore; at this point, due to all of them just finding Windforce’s response to what Icedagger had just said pretty amusing. Icedagger was crying. He was having an emotional breakdown right now; pretty much all because of them. You couldn’t help but wonder; why did they even bully him that badly? Even if he’s the youngest and the most introverted, that shouldn’t warrant absolutely bullying him into submission.. Illumina just sighs very deeply as he facepalms a bit and closes his glowing white eyes, at first looking rather unamused at what his siblings are doing. Until he just stopped his facepalming, opened his eyes, with a small yet noticeable smirk actually slowly forming on his face. It seemed he just got a very slightly bit annoyed and exhausted due to Icedagger actually starting to cry. Icedagger does this often whenever the others decide to mess with and bully him to this extent. Turns out his facepalm was most likely from being annoyed at Icedagger crying; alongside finding it real repetitive. Though, given you weren’t here, Illumina decided to just keep on letting it happen. He cleared his throat loud enough to attract everyone’s attention before speaking.

Illumina: “...This isn’t orderly. But I can get behind this as long as it’s targeted towards Icedagger.”

Illumina said, still with that rather stoic and neutral tone, albeit with an underlying sense of amusement. Illumina didn’t dare chuckle or show any form of amusement other than his small yet slightly noticeable amused smirk; he was too formal for that. And yet, he seemed to also be enjoying Icedagger’s suffering, just like the other deities.. His single wing simply furled fully inwards probably just for comfortability, as he continued to watch Icedagger just like the others, deciding to no longer partake in actively bullying him; he probably just got tired of it, but still just deciding to watch. He simply summoned his own gear, that Sword of Light, and decided to just sharpen it and clean it, glancing at Icedagger every now and then. He didn’t care at all about the fact Icedagger was being bullied into submission. It seemed he had nothing better to do nor to talk about with the other Swords for some reason. Literally. Venomshank, meanwhile huffed a bit, trying to gather the attention of the others. He seemed to want to try to intervene; to maybe attempt to ‘save’ Icedagger from what he’s currently dealing with; his own siblings literally just making fun of him and messing with him purely just for amusement and entertainment; with no good intentions whatsoever. It isn’t just some normal pranking a teenage inphernal may do to a newspawn inphernal just for fun, that could probably be laughed off in the end with no harm done; it’s just straight up ill-intentioned, uncaring behavior with a high chance of permanent damage. Sure, it’s not physical, but it’s emotional. And mental. Venomshank sighed very deeply as he began to speak.

Venomshank: “...Guys, can we focus on the actual meeting? We have many other topics to discuss here..”

Venomshank just interjected, with a slightly desperate tone. He was evidently trying to ‘keep the peace’ and trying to change the topic back to one actually worth talking about. Like maybe the state of the Inpherno, or maybe about the Scorch; anything but this. He also just wanted to try to help Icedagger in some way; this method seemingly to be the best in his own eyes. But in your eyes, this seemed admittedly a bit too little. All he was doing was temporarily distracting the other Swords. If lucky, it’d probably work for a few minutes before they begin tormenting Icedagger again as always. But most likely, it was almost definitely going to just work for a moment; before everyone else just continues to do what they were doing earlier of course; continuing to just mess with Icedagger like they’ve most likely done since the start of this meeting. Firebrand, the Deity of Flame and Fire who’s known for being a softie to pretty much everyone, and someone who’s also been relatively quiet this entire time albeit wore a genuinely amused smile at this entire experience and situation, just somewhat quietly chuckled, his dragon wings giving a few amused flutters alongside his dragon tail gently swishing from left to right; something showcasing such innocent benevolence; completely contrasting with what everyone else is doing, and what he’s also sort of doing. He was finding this entertaining and amusing. He wasn’t directly participating in the bullying yet; well, until now, when he finally decided to not only stop Venomshank from further intervening or having an input on this situation, while also participating in bullying Icedagger further, preparing a jab at Icedagger. Darkheart too seemed to be ready to say something about the situation, glancing at Venomshank and cackling a little bit, his expression remaining a somewhat wide smirk, even tilting his hat a bit.

Firebrand: “That can wait, Venomshank. That can wait a good while. I, myself, think Icedagger deserves this for being so weak.”

Darkheart: “..Yeah, ‘Shanks. That can wait. Let’s just mess with Icedagger just a little bit more.. We like a little bit of... chaos.”

Firebrand at first said; despite being a softie with pretty much everyone else, he had quite a bone to pick with Icedagger. The two of them had completely opposite elements after all; of course they’d hate each other. Well, it’s more of a one sided hate obviously. Firebrand was just absolutely bullying Icedagger, with Icedagger simply... well, not doing much. It was like how Illumina and Darkheart absolutely hated each other to badly to the point where they may just actually start fighting. But forgetting that; what could Icedagger do in this situation other than leave? And even if he did decide to leave, he was probably— no, definitely too mentally and physically exhausted just from his sibling’s bullying behavior towards him to the point of just being unable to really get up and run out. He was just there, still crying heavily.. Darkheart then said his sentence with a rather grim sort of amusement. He very clearly didn’t want his slightly close brother stopping this moment of ‘amusement’, no matter how wrong it is to just bully their youngest brother like this. He seemed to try to convince Venomshank to just let it happen or perhaps even join them. Venomshank vehemently declined his offer of just messing with Icedagger, simply sighing very deeply as the two of them seemed to get into a whispered argument, probably over the philosophies of this, alongside the ethics and morality of doing this to Icedagger just to get a kick out of it, and a good amount of both amusement and entertainment. Safe to say, Venomshank was definitely in the right in that argument.. Meanwhile, Windforce just chuckled and glanced towards Darkheart.

Windforce: “Oh, absolutely Darkheart! I’m glad we can finally all agree on something for once!”

Windforce just said, a little bit more delighted at the fact that they were all just united to make Icedagger’s life miserable. All because they saw him as both a lesser deity, and a weaker deity than them. All because of that. Windforce even summoned her gear, that iconic longspear, and pointed it directly at him. Windforce was of course a bit far from Icedagger, so the longspear was not at all close to even reaching him, but it was still of course intimidating obviously. I mean— anyone would be pretty intimidated if someone was pointing a literal longspear at them. Icedagger ceased his crying for just a very tiny bit, as he slowly looked up from his arms, somewhat hearing Windforce summoning her gear. Seeing the longspear, even if it wasn’t pointed at him, would’ve already terrified him. But seeing it pointed right towards him, and with Windforce wearing an even more manic grin, probably enjoying this way too much, absolutely made him tremble so much with fear. It’s as if he felt a sudden electrical jolt throughout his entire body, attacking his nerves. He just further curled into a ball, his magnificent yet delicate butterfly wings just completely fluttering quickly for a moment before suddenly stilling and instead starting to twitch in genuine fear, as he started crying even harder than before. Venomshank, who at this point stopped his whisper argument with Darkheart, couldn’t even watch. He definitely felt so bad, but for some reason; either because he didn’t want to defend the ‘weakling’ and ‘lesser deity’ since that’d ruin his already slightly strained relationships with the others, or because he was just simply not obligated to help him whatsoever; he just simply didn’t help Icedagger. At all. After that pathetic attempt to stop the other four from bullying Icedagger, he simply sat there, looking away and just letting his siblings continue to do whatever to Icedagger. You were sort of like him too; just watching Icedagger from the meeting room doorway. You haven’t moved from your spot in the doorway in six minutes. You were just simply watching Icedagger break..

Icedagger: “...Please..”

He finally just barely muttered, most likely to himself since he seemed to still not know at all you, his anchor, his only hope, was just watching on the sidelines, watching him suffer as he still remains curled up into a ball; not looking like a deity but more like a mortal newspawn whose feelings were more than hurt; but instead completely dismantled, destroyed and broken. His own angelic tail just simply wrapped around his own torso, probably either in an instinctive way to comfort himself, or out of just a way to try to cover himself from everyone’s view even if it failed pretty badly. His delicate butterfly wings remain twitching, probably too exhausted at this point to even flutter. Icedagger was still crying heavily, hiccuping every few seconds, sniffling a lot, shaking so much and absolutely breaking emotionally. And probably mentally too. Yet, you just watched him break. You just watched him suffer without doing anything. You couldn’t just sit here and watch; you absolutely HAD to do something. Immediately.