[Nexus] AMEN XLIV: Beware Falling Flowers

[Reinholdt]

[Meeting Room]

How inherently vague. Ilpholin supposes it needs to be to avoid making any would be assassin's jobs too easy.

"As do I." Ilpholin replies, taking the envelope. She goes ahead and opens it up to examine the contents.

[Shadowcaller]

Flying Fiasco

"Gargoyles are nocturnal, they usually sleep during the day but I know some of them have been trained to stay awake during the day. They have quite good night vision, but they are a bit sensitive to light. As for fighting them just piercing their skin will do. I don't have any exact tips on how however nor do I have any magical senses." Cybil says with a look at the cat burglar.

[Artemis97]

[Meeting Room]

Actually it has to do with me having no idea how long it will be for the actual ball to get off the ground and running as a plot.

Inside the envelope is a pair of gilt edged invitations, complete with date and time, written out in both Common and Drow script.

[Reinholdt]

[Meeting Room]

"Two, huh?" Presumably for a plus one. Or perhaps just for Magtok. She passes one to Magtok all the same.

"Well thank you for delivering this to us personally."

[Artemis97]

[Meeting Room]

"You are quite welcome." Sornnolu says, head bowed slighty, his hands spread in an open gesture. The mage retook his seat and leaned back, looking up at Ilpholin. "Now, as we both know, Matron Danube is on her way to the Nexus in order to inspect our progress here. Have you made any plans in preparation?" He asks, getting down to business now that the social niceties were out of the way.

[Lord Magtok]

Meeting Room

Shoot. Whilst maintaining an entirely neutral expression on his face, Magtok writhes on the inside. After that harpooning, he'd officially run out of acceptable plus ones to bring along to these sorts of things. He'd have to either ask out some obscenely passive goddess of death, awkwardly try to convince Missy to come along despite the fact that they've been through with each other for months, or else invite untold amounts of suffering and woe upon himself by contacting that awful vampire woman, Samona. Each and every one of those options was no option at all.

[Reinholdt]

[Meeting Room]

Magtok could always come as Ilpholin's plus one. No way is she bringing Darcy to this event, for both of their sakes.

"In preparation for her arrival? I was informed this morning. I have some ideas I'm considering, but nothing's been finalized." Ilpholin responds.

[Artemis97]

[Meeting Room]

"Of course, of course." Sornnolu waves a hand. "It is very short notice. Quite a surprise to me as well. Normally she is loathe to leave the center of her web. I have to wonder what prompted her to come all of this way just to visit us." He peers at Ilpholin, one eyebrow raised and looking very much like their father. Though not outright stating things, he was clearly suspicious.

[Reinholdt]

[Meeting Room]

"Indeed. Whatever the reason, I'm glad she's coming. She should find much of the Nexus to her liking, I'd think, and we've made much progress since our first arrival." Ilpholin replies, without any indication of noticing Sorn's peering suspicions.

[Artemis97]

[Meeting Room]

"You're glad?" Sorn's other eyebrow raises to join the other. "Truly?"

[Reinholdt]

[Meeting Room]

"Of course. Are you unhappy that she's coming Sornnolu? Does it worry you?" Ilpholin asks, folding her hands in front of her. "If you need some sort of help to prepare for her arrival, I'm sure we can spare some manpower."

[Artemis97]

[Meeting Room]

The mage chuckles. "Oh, I am sure you can. You must have countless followers if you think you can declare your intention to rule the Nexus." Sornnolu doesn't bother to try tokeep the smirk from his face. Here was the real reason for his visit.

Still near the door, Divoyn shifts his stance just a bit, preparing to react if Ilpholin did not take that jibe well.

[Reinholdt]

[Meeting Room]

"The Nexus? Well actually you'd be surprised. I don't think you need any followers to make such a declaration. People do it every day all the time. Fortunately I'm not one of them." Ilpholin replies, calmly closing her eyes with a small smile.

Oops. Seems Sornnolu made a mistake. Ilpholin never declared an intention on the Nexus. And even if it means having to deal with this smug bastard a little longer, Ilpholin will milk it all the same.

[Artemis97]

[Meeting Room]

"No." Sornnolu pushed himself to his feet and leaned over the table, anger in his amber colored eyes. "You declared your desire to rule the Council, the governing body of the entire Nexus, and they practically laughed you out of the room. Rather than keeping your desires quiet and building up a proper power base, you stood up in front of the most respected people in the city and made yourself out to look like a damned fool, sounding like every maniacal two bit villain that comes into this city. You have disgraced yourself and your House."

[ThirdEmperor]

Flying Fiasco

"Um, wait, are you coming with?" The Cat didn't hear anything about Cybil being part of the raid team. But maybe he missed something. Either way, four people for a black ops? Bit much.

[Shadowcaller]

Flying Fiasco

The earth vampire shakes her head, "No, I just won't be of any help in that area if you really required it."

[ThirdEmperor]

Flying Fiasco

"Oh, uh, alright. Sorry, I got confused. So. So, a spiderweb ward we can't touch, gargoyles in the skies, human guards in the castle proper and some vampires, right?" The Cat recites, listing them off on his fingers.

"Er, hope I'm not asking any questions, but what can you tell us about the non-gargoyle guards?" He probably is asking too many question. But better safe than sorry.

[Gnrlshrimp]

[BioLab]

Another couple of days work and a few more dead ferrets, and Isabelle feels confident that she's done it.

But she must be sure!

And so she knocks once more on Megan's door.

[Mindfreak]

BioLab
Greg opens the door.
"Oh, hey Isabelle. Come on in. Megan's just making something to eat."
Megan was indeed cooking!
She was cooking fish.
...
What a surprise.

---

Flying Fiasco
Megan would pipe up and say: Why not do some scouting of the wards first and bring some sort of object to help you identify what they are and such so that you can then disable them or get around them, but Ilpholin said to keep quite unless they asked her for equipment.
So...
She keeps quiet.
One of her robots with a forklift like attachment does bring a small crate with the jetpacks in it, though.
The laser was going to take longer though.

[Gnrlshrimp]

[BioLab]

"Ah, thank you. It sounds like you've settled in rather well then." Isabelle steps in and Cedric gives a greeting shriek.

[Reinholdt]

[Meeting Room]

Ilpholin peeps one eye open halfway. "This is unlike you Sornnolu. You of all people I'd expect to get their facts straight." She closes it again, remaining as calm as before. "The Council, a rotting joke failed in conception really, rules Inside and Inside only. Now the individual members do have important leadership duties in other organizations and areas. But I did not ask to lead Council and therefore them. I suggested they make use of my leadership skills in Inside. Believe it or not Sornnolu, even if it was true at one point in time, Inside is not the representation of the Nexus. It is too wide, exciting, and varied to be limited by a single city. Indeed, it's almost insulting to equate the Nexus to Inside."

"And I guarantee you, nothing's come back on the house."

[Mindfreak]

BioLab
"Well it's just plain easy. I already know everything so it works like clockwork."
He hasn't met the Moffs yet.
That'll be a fun experience for him.
Megan takes the now cooked salmon fillets and puts them on the small table in the kitchen area she set up.
"Oh, Isabelle! Great to see you! I saw your experiment with the ferrets. Very nice work on them."

[Gnrlshrimp]

[BioLab]

Isabelle simply smiles at Greg. Oh sure, everything works like clockwork, but his own existence and the means by which he was brought into existence must raise questions, surely?

Ah well, if he's happy, then she's content to leave him to his happiness.

"Yes, the ferrets seem to have turned out reasonably well. I doubt Magtok is particularly happy with me, but it was necessary to ensure my ferrets will be good enough for AMEN. I'm here because I'm hoping you can assist me with the last stage, actually."

[Mindfreak]

BioLab
Er, not really actually. Megan already made sure that he knew the why and how of his creation, as she knew he'd be like her enough to think that it'd be a good idea as well.
"Oh? What's this last step?"

[Gnrlshrimp]

[BioLab]

But Isabelle does not think the same way. To her, even knowing that stuff, there'd be awkward questions.

"The ferrets are strong enough and intelligent enough to keep an eye out for any bugs, spies, or anything like that...and dispose of it. As far as I can tell, that is. I need someone to plant some mock-devices around AMEN and see if the ferrets can find them."

[Mindfreak]

BioLab
"So you want me to plant these mock devices then?"
She knew exactly what she's gonna do already.
She's been wanting to make rat-bots again. They're freaking adorable

[Gnrlshrimp]

[BioLab]

"I would appreciate it if you could do that, yes." And Cedric would probably be grateful too!

But he'd still only shriek, so that probably doesn't count.

Making adorable things is all well and good, but they're kinda going to get chomped by ferrets...

Well, hopefully anyway.

[Mindfreak]

BioLab
Megan skitters off before bringing back a shoebox.
Opening it up she takes a Mechano-Rat out and turns it on, putting it on the table.
"Will this do for your bugs? I originally made them for gathering intelligence and infiltrating places."
The Mechano-Rat looks up at Megan, already recording info again.

Spoiler

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[Artemis97]

[Meeting Room]

Ilpholin peeps one eye open halfway. "This is unlike you Sornnolu. You of all people I'd expect to get their facts straight." She closes it again, remaining as calm as before. "The Council, a rotting joke failed in conception really, rules Inside and Inside only. Now the individual members do have important leadership duties in other organizations and areas. But I did not ask to lead Council and therefore them. I suggested they make use of my leadership skills in Inside. Believe it or not Sornnolu, even if it was true at one point in time, Inside is not the representation of the Nexus. It is too wide, exciting, and varied to be limited by a single city. Indeed, it's almost insulting to equate the Nexus to Inside."

"And I guarantee you, nothing's come back on the house."

[Meeting Room]

"Oh, stop arguing semantics, Ilpholin." Sorn says, disgusted. "It's just a smoke screen. Now tell me, what in the Nine Hells were you thinking? Do you have any idea what you were risking?"

[Gnrlshrimp]

[BioLab]

"Oh, yes, that looks like it'll do quite well." Isabelle sounds a little uncertain though.

Whatever it is...it looks expensive. And complicated.

"Are you expecting it back in one piece? I don't know if my ferrets can manage that."