Ptah's Realm

[Ptah]

When travelling through the vast expanses of the Diamond Gardens, one might chance to glimpse the Ptah's realm. It looks much the same as the rest of the wilderness, but within its borders time speeds up. Leaves vibrate as they curl and uncurl. Flood-waters rise and fall in minutes.Trees rise from the ground, grow, wither, and die in the space of a few days. Occasionally civilizations rise up, going from tents to huts to shacks to towns to vast cities, all moving so that the people are a blur as they race about, constructing a new world. Eventually, inevitably, their civilization falls and the process begins again.

There are only two constants in Ptah's realm: A Macy's clothing store with a large stock of red ball caps, and a ridiculously comfortable couch placed in a prime spot for observing the world as it rushes past. Ptah often sits on this couch, casually watching as the affairs of his realm unfold.

[Steepest Durin]

You have simple yet wise tastes, Ptah!

[Grey Aides]

When Grey Aides stands within Ptah's Realm, there is a small...field...where the two time effects cancel out, and life crawls by at its normal...dreary pace.

When Ptah turns his attention toward Aides, his effects begin to reassert themselves...this is his realm, after all...

But surely the Time of Aides would win out in the long run...the long, long run of time that makes mortal and immortal lifespans nearly identical...the Time of one who has gazed upon the void of Sessile Tartarus.

[Ptah]

I smile slightly as Grey Aides enters my realm and allow a small sketchbook that I was working in to vanish. I carefully observe the field that he creates, and how time seems to warp around his very presence. When he is close enough for conversation, I speak.

"What brings you here?" I await a response, then add, as an afterthought, "Also, hello."

[Diamond Master]

You find a bowl of nuts for roasting, and a portable hearth strung with a mess of writhing wires and hooked up to an incredibly powerful battery.

Most of the nuts have been eaten, but there are still a few left.

[Yerkan of Elish]

"Fascinating. Of course that's how you make friends with someone - offer them food. I don't know if I ever would have done it. I often forget that even the most sentient of creatures enjoy a good snack every now and then. It's really quite intriguing when you think about it."

[Ptah]

I happily munch upon my nuts. Do the wires and the battery power the hearth?

[Diamond Master]

Yes, that appears to be their purpose.