The Lotus Gardens - Sleepover

Jezebel is quiet for a few long moments, but eventually closes her eyes and reaches up to try and take Cessie's hand so she can put it on her cheek, as if to comfort her. "I...I'm not sure what I can say as it comes to mind, but I'll try. Cessie, I've...that universe where I come from...it should not exist. It should never have, but it does, and almost every soul that is born there suffers for it. The supposed good guys, the Imperium, is an expansive decayed and corrupt galaxy-wide empire that follows and worships a dead god upon a throne of gold. They sacrifice billions in his name, waging wars across entire systems of worlds, likely destroying the worlds in the process in the hopes of destroying some threat they perceive as even greater than their own demise. Thousands of souls offered up as conscripts, thousands more taken by The Black Ships to have their souls devoured by their god, knowledge and thoughts controlled, technology ritualized and kept secret...and do you know what sucks about it all?" She asks rhetorically.

"I'm not entirely sure it's the worst of evils for them or that they're entirely wrong even if I disagree about how they handle things." She adds with a sigh.

"That place is a ****ed up universe, Cessie. As bad as The Imperium's policies are, there are worse threats out there. Massive fleets of bio-ships harboring trillions of mindless instinct-driven monsters that strip worlds clean, hordes of war-hungry barbarians that drop asteroids on worlds, cults devoted to alien incubation and breeding programs that can take over an entire world, and even a race of metallic skeletal beings that wield weapons capable of atomizing people that want nothing more than to eradicate and erase all life. I've seen only a handful of those threats and they've left me...scarred. Scarred and scared and I haven't even touched upon the Ruinous Powers and The Warp yet." She explains, sighing again into Cessie's hand.

"Beyond the veil, that thin dimensional wall, so many...things wait beyond it, wanting to break in and feast and revel. The Powers are so corruptive, so tainting and excessive that even having followed one before I know that they would only serve to cleanse the universe of sensible life if but given a chance to do so. Being here in this...bridge between worlds and realities, I feel both frustrated and relieved. I feel...humbled and glad and troubled all at the same time because it is so rare that I meet anyone who...who...understands what I've had to go through. I don't want people to go through what I have, but at the same time I can't exactly talk about it either. You've seen but a small scratch upon the surface of it all, and I hate to have shown you that much. Delving any deeper...such events change people."

She pauses a moment, trying to gather her next words before finally speaking a little more. "I've seen worlds glassed and bombarded from orbit, cities razed, and entire populations burned in some vain hope that an alien threat or the Corruption of Chaos doesn't take root." She adds, shrinking a little as if defeated as she remembers things. "And the worst of it all? In that specific universe that I used to call home...having been a part of what lays beyond the veil and waits to get in...I can't claim that they were all wrong about doing so. All I can hope for is that it hasn't been in vain and that the innocents caught in it find peace." After letting it all out, she falls silent, wondering what Cessie would think of what she's said. She doesn't comment on her tears either.


During the Invasion

Eastside - City Hall

Jezebel is entirely impressed by Cessie's ability to summon magma like that, and if they weren't so hard pressed she would have even commented upon such. Instead, one of the demon hounds appears in their midst and explodes into the gas. She grimaces, flinching away as she expected to be thrown back by the explosion, but when it doesn't happen and she feels her throat beginning to burn, she almost visibly panics. Almost.

She reaches up, grasping the collar of her suit of armor, and pulls it up and out, revealing a hidden respirator that could cover a person's mouth and nose and let them breath stored air. Instead of putting it on, she tries to toss it into Cessie's hands so she can use it before Adir takes her away. At the very least the air would get any of it out of Cessie's lungs as she breathes through it. Jezebel doesn't have a second one however and slowly trudges her way out of the gas to get to the front so she can continue to hold off more demons. The burning and irritation is quite distracting and likely damaging, but she chooses to rely upon her power to fend it off or repair the damage done later. She could ill afford to take a break. For now her skin is unblemished, but it likely wouldn't stay that way for long depending on how much longer the gas stuck around. At least her eyes were protected.

Eastside - Sarah & Co.

Sarah's skin blisters in places from simple proximity to the flames. She lets out a horrible scream as she tries to crawl away until Eric shouts at her to head back to the Gardens. She flails about with her remaining arm for a moment until she regains purchase and gets to her feet. She doesn't run right back to the Gardens and instead takes a few minutes to clamber up a fire escape to where she left the remains of Alexia, hoping that there'd at least be something to take home.

After shouting, Eric takes a moment to breath and watch the demons he'd shot, hoping that they stay down before finally getting to his feet if they are both dead or dying.

Above, the doll is surrounded and trapped by the shields, but she is by no means defenseless or easy to hit. She squirms out of the way of some of the weapons while being hit by others, all while returning blows. She revels in the dance of death, even as one blade cracks open her chest piece and another is impaled right through her. There's signs of grievous damage being done, especially when her un-taloned hand is lopped off at the elbow, but the daemon inside the doll is burning a lot of its power to keep going. It is going to be "killed" by the end of it, but the question remains as to how many of the demons it takes out before the final blow is dealt.

The Lotus Gardens - Zenon

The newcomer zips out of the hole in the roof with ease before landing gingerly a short distance away. The khaki woman stands tall and strong, mostly covered in light brown draconic scaling. She's just shy of seven feet in height with a mixture of elven, draconic, and likely demonic features and forms to her body and face. Her clothing, a suit complete with dull burgundy tie, barely hides her heavily muscled and powerful form however. She appears unarmed, but it lasts for just a moment as she twists her left wrist and causes a crystalline saber to form out of no-where. There's a touch of arcane magic when she does it, but it is either an incredibly efficient spell or was just a command as there's not enough to form a sword on its own.

Her other hand however holds a small metal sphere. Without a word, she casts a glance around and squeezes the sphere, activating it. Half a second later, the powerful concussion grenade goes off. She doesn't seem at all fazed by the effect, but it causes the woman on the floor to curl up in a ball and should be more than enough to dizzy and disorient Zenon.