VIGIL 3: Uh... can we get a mulligan?

[Morty]

[Memorial Service]

Wenomir crosses his arms across his chest. He trusts Adir, but... he also knows the stag might not be the best person to expect to keep secrets.

"I can tell you, but you shouldn't spread it around too much. It's not a secret, really, but we don't want it to be common knowledge just yet."

[RyanKoopa]

[VIGIL - Outside]
The Portal approaches the door cautiously, an iron staff in hand. On the one hand this certainly sounds like an attack on their new headquarters, but on the other hand, nobody is brazen enough to announce an attack by knocking on the door like that right? He begins to charge up his powers, his white hair begins swaying like there is a wind entirely separate from the storm growing outside, and both his hair and eyes begin glowing fiercely. Not yet opening the door he calls out to whoever is outside, holding his weapon behind his back. "Hello, is there anything I can help you with?" His voice sounds oddly distorted, like a phone call with poor reception.

[Shadowcaller]

Makeshift Conference Room

Cessie nearly jumps as she hears the thunder outside, expecting an explosion or something. She looks out the window afraid that there has been another attack. "I'm not sure what's going on but it appears one of our other members are handling it." She says, part to Caravan and part to herself, just glad this newcomer wasn't some demon. Or at least Cessie didn't believe she was. It was hard to tell sometimes.

[VIGIL - Outside]

"Are you VIGIL?" The naked woman demands angrily. "Or have they been replaced by weak cowards? Since I'm not seeing you doing anything but hiding out here." Her eyes seem to crackle which is a sound that fits her mood. She's furious.

[Lost_Deep]

Makeshift Conference Room

"Alright. Let's get down to it, then," Caravan says. "I have in the works a sizable goodwill donation. It's not much, but it's what I can give without anyone batting an eye. That's not to say I can't give more, I can, it's just that it's all I can casually give. Much more and it stops being a goodwill donation and starts being an... investment." She says the word heavily. "I wouldn't necessarily expect a monetary return, but I would expect some kind of reassurance. I'm a reasonable pony, and at a basic level it would just be the occasional check to make sure, for example, there's no corruption. But that, I think, is a bit beyond the moment's consideration." She looks Cessie in the eye. "The moment's consideration is, would you be open to investment at all? You can say no and still get that donation, but if you say yes... we can discuss investment strategies."

"And for all the risk there is in those, I can promise that there would be a lot to work with."

[RyanKoopa]

[VIGIL - Outside]
The Portal scowls. Ouch, right in the ego! Against his better judgement he opens the door, and upon seeing the lady immediately averts his eyes. He has to cover his his mouth to avoid bursting out laughing in surprise. Of all the things he had expected to see at the door, a naked lightning lady had definitely not been one of them. "Um...would you like something to cover yourself with m'am?" He says, looking straight at the ground while blushing.

[Shadowcaller]

[VIGIL - Outside]

The woman looks at him in utter disbelief. "My home is in ruins, my family killed or taken prisoner for spirits know what reason, your base is destroyed and the corpses of your members are littering the ruins..." She pauses, grinding her teeth against one another. "But no, the largest concern are MY LACK OF CLOTHES!!!!" She screams at him, having to take a few large breaths after that, attempting to calm down. "Can I perhaps talk to someone who isn't a complete idiot? Or do you need me to dress up for you before we can communicate?"

Makeshift Conference Room

"I'm willing to hear what you have to offer if you like to invest in us. Right now your donation sounds pretty standard fare but this investment sounds like something more interesting." She replies, trying to focus on the discussion at hand and stop worrying about whatever is going on outside at this very moment.

[Lost_Deep]

Makeshift Conference Room

"Well, a small investment, you'd be given some time to recover, rebuild, all that, and then occasionally someone would come over to check on you. Just make sure that nothing uncouth is going on, and that you're not all lazing around. If the inquiry comes back insufficient, you'd stop getting money and we'd have to re-negotiate. So, basically, you'd get easy money as long as nothing went wrong," Caravan said, "But it wouldn't be enough money to keep an organization running, most likely. Now, if you want something more, either more money or something specific, scrutiny would be tighter, about what you'd expect. I don't want to stifle you or manage you (I have plenty of management I need to do myself) but investments, especially large ones, need to have some kind of monitoring," she says sadly.

"Unless, of course," she says carefully, "you want to try and deal in... I'm not going to pressure this, but if you want to deal in favors, I can deal in favors," she says, "But I suspect you aren't eager to get into that sort of mess with a company."

[RyanKoopa]

[VIGIL - Outside]

"Alright, alright, it can wait" says The Portal, in no hurry to further provoke someone on her level of power. "The others are busy right now, rebuilding an organization from the ground up isn't easy as you might imagine, so I'm afraid for the time being you're stuck with me." He backs up another step in anticipation of a possible negative reaction to the news, if she does not he continues, "so you say your family has been taken prisoner? Do you have any idea who did it, or where they may have taken them? If you have any leads I can take you to them immediately, it's kind of a specialty of mine."

[Shadowcaller]

[VIGIL - Outside]

"What do you think? It's the same black bloods that destroyed your old base!" The woman stares down at the Portal. "If you can take me there, then by all means." The dismissive gesture and the slight roll of her eyes suggests she isn't inclined to believe him however.

[RyanKoopa]

[VIGIL - Outside]

"Oh crap. So the demons are on the move again" says Portal. He looks worried for a second then smiles. "Interesting, I never got to fight them at the old base, now's as good a time as any to satiate my curiosity. Could you give me a description of your home? Anything will do, I just need to have an idea of what it looks like before I can take you there."


OOC: What thread are we going to move this too in a few posts?

[Shadowcaller]

Makeshift Conference Room

"Well, a small investment, you'd be given some time to recover, rebuild, all that, and then occasionally someone would come over to check on you. Just make sure that nothing uncouth is going on, and that you're not all lazing around. If the inquiry comes back insufficient, you'd stop getting money and we'd have to re-negotiate. So, basically, you'd get easy money as long as nothing went wrong," Caravan said, "But it wouldn't be enough money to keep an organization running, most likely. Now, if you want something more, either more money or something specific, scrutiny would be tighter, about what you'd expect. I don't want to stifle you or manage you (I have plenty of management I need to do myself) but investments, especially large ones, need to have some kind of monitoring," she says sadly.

"Unless, of course," she says carefully, "you want to try and deal in... I'm not going to pressure this, but if you want to deal in favors, I can deal in favors," she says, "But I suspect you aren't eager to get into that sort of mess with a company."

Makeshift Conference Room

"We prefer to avoid favors." Cessie remarks. "But as long as they are within VIGIL's mission it should be acceptable. Did you have anything specific in mind? Since before we even talking about such arrangements we would need to know."

[VIGIL - Outside]

"My home? I thought you were supposed to take me directly to the black-bloods. My home is deserted. Anyone who haven't been grabbed by those things have fled. The only thing that remains are spirits of death and violence." She makes a face of disgust. "You won't find anything there besides the remains of ruined lives and ashes."

[Lost_Deep]

Makeshift Conference Room

"No, I didn't honestly expect favors to be an option, but if we were to agree to such things I would align them with protecting the Nexus and it's people." She rubs her chin with her hoof. "However, I do have an... unusually thorough information network. It's possible I could find a method to alert you of dangers I'm aware of before they became more obvious."

[Murkus]

[Memorial Service]

Wenomir crosses his arms across his chest. He trusts Adir, but... he also knows the stag might not be the best person to expect to keep secrets.

"I can tell you, but you shouldn't spread it around too much. It's not a secret, really, but we don't want it to be common knowledge just yet."

"Well, don't keep me in suspense," Adir says with a chuckle, though his eyes are keen and narrow. "Who is it? Magtok?"

[Morty]

[Memorial Service]

"It's Jezebel," Wenomir says grimly. "She says she wants us to be strong since we stand between the people of the Nexus, and the things that want to destroy them. She also wants us to protect her children." He shakes his head. "Cessie says she really is trying to be honest and forthright. And I do trust Cessie."

[RyanKoopa]

[VIGIL - Outside]

"My home? I thought you were supposed to take me directly to the black-bloods. My home is deserted. Anyone who haven't been grabbed by those things have fled. The only thing that remains are spirits of death and violence." She makes a face of disgust. "You won't find anything there besides the remains of ruined lives and ashes."

Unsure of exactly how to respond, Portal simply says "ah." He bites his lip, desperately trying to formulate a plan. On the one hand, the smart thing to do would probably be to wait for some of the higher ups to be available, and work with them to come up with a reasonable course of action. On ther hand if, god forbid, it was his mother who had been kidnapped by monsters, he would do everything in his power to rescue her immediately. He decides it should be the lady's choice on how to approach the situation. "Well here's the way I see it" he tells her "either we can wait for one of my bosses, who has more experience fighting these things, are free and then formulate a plan to rescue your loved ones. Or, I could take you to the rubble of the old VIGIL base. I can't guarantee anything but it seems probable that the demons left some sentries to watch over the base, and we might be able to extract information from them. Which course of action do you want to go with?"

[Shadowcaller]

[VIGIL - Outside]

"I've already been in that ruin when I came for you to help the first time. Didn't see any blackbloods there. But I'm all in favor of doing something rather than just giving someone else the job, your bosses weren't competent enough to keep their base safe so how much help would they be really?" She asks rhetorically. "If you weren't a part of the fail crew watching the base when that happened then maybe there is still hope for you."

[Zefir]

[Another day -Kitchen]

The next morning after the last training session Mia is up again. She has to deal with sore muscles from the training yesterday and didn't felt like going straight for another training. She decided to so something for the name of Deus mechanicus and for that headed into the kitchen. There is allways something to improve or repair. So she took a look around and picked up the toaster. Can't hurt to let it make toasts more quick, right?

[Murkus]

[Memorial Service]

"It's Jezebel," Wenomir says grimly. "She says she wants us to be strong since we stand between the people of the Nexus, and the things that want to destroy them. She also wants us to protect her children." He shakes his head. "Cessie says she really is trying to be honest and forthright. And I do trust Cessie."

"The, uh..." Adir clears away some cobwebs. He doesn't like what he finds. "The woman who ran that hotel? Who has a cult?" The stag thinks back, back to a cruel dark elf stabbing his wife in the leg, back to a time of just slightly more danger and intrigue. He can't say he quite enjoyed that level of danger.

Adir hesitates to speak his next thought. He isn't quite certain, but... "And how do we, um, know that Jezebel isn't making Cessie say this?"

[Morty]

[Memorial Service]

Wenomir sighs.

"Yes, and she challenged me to a duel because I killed one of her people. I'm not any happier about it than you are, trust me. But you know the proverb about not looking a gift horse in the mouth. Besides, she was open about her motives, which are self-serving. I'd never trust her if she claimed to do it out of moral concerns, but a desire for protection? I know where I'm standing with that."

He rubs his chin.

As for your other concern... well, it's not baseless, certainly. But I don't think she is. Cessie is acting like Cessie always is. I'd be able to tell if she was being influenced. There's a... change in someone's body language, no matter how crafty the manipulator is. A delay between their actions, as if the command needed a spit-second to take root. I've dealt with mind control enough to have picked up on this pattern."

[Aric Kale]

Training Grounds
Sometime after the memorial service...

If anyone would like to learn Runic Magic, or fancies a lesson or two in one-armed sword fighting, Marcus is in the designated training area. Also known as a boxed off area with active Protection Runes where he can freely practice his magic without fear of removing one of his fellow Vigilants' limbs.

He's recovered well, by the looks of things. The praetorian appears most comfortable when active. After all, there's just something about blood rushing through your veins that makes a man feel alive.

[Murkus]

[Memorial Service]

Adir looks at Wenomir hard for a second. "I don't recall us being able to tell with that... that dark elf that turned on us." Adir smiles just a little and shakes his head. "Damn, I can't even remember his name. But... if you and Cessie think it's best, well, I'm sure VIGIL could use the money. You'd think there'd be more people springing to accommodate the group that saves the world."

[Morty]

[Memorial Service]

"You would, but the other people who approached us so far are even less reputable than Jezebel," Wenomir says sourly. "We had to turn down a proposal because the terms weren't acceptable. Luckily we have some other potential sponsors who shouldn't require us to do their dirty work," he adds. But as those scenes aren't finished yet, he won't say more.

[RyanKoopa]

[VIGIL - Outside]
"That's not entirely fair" says The Portal, a mild irritation creeping into his voice "the way I heard it, they were ambushed by thousands of the damn things. I don't know who could repel something like that on such short notice." As he speaks the lady might notice her surroundings flickering white for a second and then suddenly...

[VIGIL Ruins]
they are outside the rubble of the old base. "But yeah, I wasn't there when the whole thing went to pieces" says the Portal, continuing as if nothing happened, "I'm one of a handful of new recruits who only joined once the old base was gone." He begins to carefully examine his surroundings, but then pauses. "Oh, I almost forgot! What is your name?"

[Shadowcaller]

[VIGIL Ruins]

Calling the remains of the old VIGIL base "ruins" is giving this this crater more credit than it's due. Considering the overloaded chaos rift melted the rockbed it was standing on into nothing, there are no traces of the base left whatsoever. So the spot the portal and the mystery woman ends up at is the top of a giant pile of rocks which seem to be a landslide that happened shortly after the giant explosion that took place here.

There are no signs of demons or anything else of interest. It would be hard to imagine anything useful that could remain after an explosion like that besides rubble. "I'm called Oaks by some people, but I got plenty of names. Just say if you want something else, Oaks isn't all that suitable for me when I think about it." The woman replies as she looks around. "Yep, looks like when I first visited. It took me a while to even realize the base had even been here. It's completely gone."

Makeshift Conference Room

"So you don't have a task right now, but might have tasks in the future? I'd like to know the nature of these tasks, I assume they're related to your work and company somehow? Since I wasn't completely clear on what your company do." Cessie asks.

[Murkus]

"Ahh, we, the luckless few," Adir says with a grin. He slaps Wenomir on the shoulder. "I'm sure those other leads'll pan out. It's only a matter of time."

"...And by the way, Wenomir," the stag starts to add. "If you ever feel like you need to get a drink and talk, or one of the two, well, uh... don't hesitate to call."

[Lost_Deep]

Makeshift Conference Room

"Gilded Caravan, Tnr., is a transrealital shipping and mercantile organization. That said, however, it's rather hit that size where companies begin to do most everything. I'm not sure there's much it doesn't do, directly or by a subsidiary, except for strictly religious duties," Caravan explains, "For the most part, if it were to ask something, it would be because something was decided to be a sizable and dangerous threat to our efforts in the Nexus by way of being a threat to civilization in the Nexus. I wouldn't call you in to defend my buildings, I would call you in to protect my consumers and employees, see?" She has a sly smile on her face.

[RyanKoopa]

[VIGIL Ruins]
"Wow" says the Portal, staring blankly at the massive crater laid before him. "You aren't kidding. It's a small miracle I even managed to teleport to this place correctly, it looks nothing like I thought it would." He then stretches his arms and says "well Oaks, we should probably head down there, who knows, maybe we will find something of use down there we can't see from up here." He seems incredibly optimistic, willfully so because he doesn't want to consider the possibility Oak's family is already dead (well, at least not until he has too.) Without waiting for an answer he begins heading down the slope of displaced boulders, no need to be cautious when he could teleport his way out of any missteps, and he was pretty sure Oaks could fly.

[Morty]

[Memorial Service]

"I will. I feel I'm going to need something to take my mind off..." he makes a vague, broad gesture around him, as if to say "everything".

[Shadowcaller]

Makeshift Conference Room

Cessie raises an eyebrow. "Just how large is your company miss Caravan? Since I'm not sure we'd be able to protect the entire staff and customer base of a company that stretches over several realities. Even if such threats aren't common."

[VIGIL Ruins]

That's a good assumption as "Oaks" simply levitates off the ground without any visible effort. "I've already scouted this place. There is nothing here." She insists.

They're wandering down a desolated landscape that easily could be called apocalyptic. Even outside the crater he can see that a great deal of trees around what was once the base have been knocked down flat on the ground even though it wasn't a singular explosion but a lot of smaller blasts.

Even after walking around through the rocks burying the base of the crater the Portal won't find anything more than rocks and dirt. Yet if he looks up he can see a singular black figure against the clouds. Looks to be a large bird of some kind. "Why are we even looking here? Why would anyone stay around this crater? Not like there is anything valuable left here."

[Morty]

[Field]

Wenomir is waiting for Mia on a stretch of open terrain not far from Felandria's house - he'd basically pick whatever was closest. The priestess' training has been progressing, so Wenomir decided to put her to a test.