Riverside 19

[Shadowcaller]

Northside Disaster Zone

Instead of verbally replying, a illusionary map of Riverside appear before the demon king and he puts his metal-clad index finger over an area at the border of the lotus gardens. "Here, I will send the coordinates to your subordinates as well. They will be informed of the situation." The area of the map Sargon is pointing out is zoomed in and Zefir will see a group of pit fiends along with some golems and other demons waiting there. At the center is a great summoning circle.

[Recaiden]

[Invasion HQ]

"Indeed," Zenon says, nodding at Omiko. Another sphere, true to her expectations, opens for them both. "We need not linger here any longer, then." He offers her his hand before stepping into the sphere. A brief jaunt through the darkness, and the familiar sight of the invasion's makeshift HQ reappears once more.

A mawsphere similar to the one that transported them away appears just outside the building AMEN and the demons are using as their field HQ. Zenon emerges first from the entity's maw, and he stands looking around for a moment.

"Well, that was interesting," He comments to himself.

"Tell me where to go and tell those in the base to gather there as well. They should interrupt things."

Instead of verbally replying, a illusionary map of Riverside appear before the demon king and he puts his metal-clad index finger over an area at the border of the lotus gardens. "Here, I will send the coordinates to your subordinates as well. They will be informed of the situation."

Omiko follows Zenon out of the maw. She looks good as new. Her outfit and gear remain in 'mauled by a bear and a cyber-ghost' ruin. She stands with her hands on her hips and looks around. This leads her to frown slightly at the lack of demons; they didn't even wait for AMEN to return?

"Not what I expected out of the mage or VIGIL, but it was fun."

And then a new objective is delivered to them.
"No rest for the wicked, huh? This should be even more interesting. And maybe even less bloody." Back into the mawsphere, off towards the Gardens?

[Mad Magic World]

They just manage to get a few feathers as the struggling hawk propels itself out of reach. Shortly afterwards it then awkwardly attempts to reach another floor of the building, was there any windows or other openings the hawk could go for? At least it didn't look like the demon could teleport itself into this empty space...

Anika is right. The elfin demon cannot leave the tower. She can reach out (to snatch Wrens and hawks) but no more. Certainly no teleporting.

There aren't any windows (who wants to look at blank nothingness outside?) but there is a doorway at the bottom, built into the shape of the tower. That should work for getting back inside.

"Hey, bird-bear-man? Omiko says we've got real work to do, so if you come back up here I'll let you go." I mean, since she got the feathers, the elf-demon is happy enough without the rest of Anika. "And I wouldn't go flying far out there. You could end up in some bad, bad places."

[Gnrlshrimp]

[Post-Invasion, by the river in Northside]

"Really, what was I thinking?" Ithuriel seems to be developing a nasty habit for talking to herself. The angel is sitting idly on a bench, taking a break from her fruitless searching across Inside, staring glumly into the river.

...and talking to herself. She's been doing far too much of that lately.

Out of boredom, or maybe some sort of hitherto undiscovered hatred for rivers, she periodically picks up a stone and chucks it at the water, watching it plunk and sink to the bottom. Between her Intersection duties and her commitment to helping out the people living in the slums in Inside, she's had far less time to fly out here and actually get to the business of searching. More than once she's considered the possibility that Magtok sent her barking up the wrong tree. Maybe she ought to pay him a visit and knock some sense into him? Considering how well talking to him went last time, a little bit of the ol' physical violence could hardly go worse, could it?

"I need a holiday when I'm done with all this." There you go again, Ithuriel! Stop talking to yourself!

A few more minutes and she gets back on her feet, giving her wings a quick stretch as she prepares to get back to her utterly pointless search.

[Nova_Eclipse]

[Invasion HQ-> Gardens Border Negotiations]

Zenon listens quietly to the new objective, then nods at Omiko.

"Less bloody, perhaps, though...hmmm. Well, let's go see if we can muddy the situation further, at least." His thought seems a bit discombobulated. Perhaps he would prefer they kept the Gardens? It's hard to say. A moment later, the mawsphere opens once more, to engulf both Omiko and him. This time, though, they pass directly through to the Gardens, instead of making a pit stop on the Other Side of Nowhere.

Just outside the summoning circle, a mawsphere appears, and the duo step through. The sphere dissolves into black mist and dissipates after they've passed. Zenon folds his arms over his chest while they wait for everyone else to arrive, apparently deep in thought.

[Gullara]

[Westside High]

The flash appear to have struck somewhere in the middle of a huddle of apartment buildings if she wishes to go and investigate.
Her tiny prisoner gives her a furious glare however. "You'll regret that! My master will ruin your life! She's richer than everyone in this backwater town!"

---

As Tellysandra appears in the relative safety of the alley she grunts. How embarrassing! She had really underestimated her foe there. That she could have such a absolute control of water was certainly a surprise, the only she had seen her do in those news footage's were those water arrows. The warlock had no idea it extended to far more than that.
Well, she wouldn't make the same mistake again and she would get her hands on Lumine before that stupid pixie gave away her identity...

[Westside High]

"Your master needs to be put in her place. I'm happy to do it." Archera retorts. She turns away and heads back to street level to make her way toward the Lotus Gardens again. The bubble and its cargo will be right alongside her. She's not really sure where else to go amongst all this chaos, but her captive needs to go somewhere. Hopefully it'll do.

[Northside Hospital - Pre-invasion]

Nike shows the flats of her hands. "No, no, no, you shouldn't have to put in extra effort for this. I'll make sure you get a proper coat as soon as possible. I would feel like an terrible employer otherwise, like the one that made me wear shorts. So I must insist on it." She argues, then folding her hands and straightening her back as if to come across more serious. "As for email, that perfectly fine but I feel like I need some kind of proof from you Nigel..." The administrator starts twiddling her thumbs as she considers, her gaze slowly focusing on Vax. "Ah, this is a somewhat unorthodox suggestion, but you do specialize in the mind if I understood your resume correctly, miss Teplos?" She raises her eyebrows at the warlock. "Perhaps you could..." She makes a twirling movement with her hand. "Confirm his experience somehow? As long as it isn't dangerous of course."

[Northside Hospital - Pre-invasion]

"It's not impossible." Vax says from her position standing next to the door, with her hands folded neatly behind her. "I would need materials and some time to prepare, but It could be done. However, we'd need to discuss the matter of a fee." She wasn't hired today for this, after all.

[Lord Magtok]

Post-Invasion, by the river in Northside

"Ugh. Needs, we've been up and down this shoreline all day. We've been doing this for three days now, and we haven't found even one wish-granting talking fish or whatever. Besides, if there was such a fish, it probably died in the war a couple days ago. Can we stop this already? Can I go home?" a MagClone with angelic wings and a white suit pleads, tired of walking up and down the stupid river as his orange-robed brother Needs hovers over it, staring down into the water, peering into its murky depths, presumably in search of this magical tuna.

"Fish? We were never here for a fish, my brother Nephilim. I said that we would walk this shore seven times seven times over the course of three days, and a wish would be granted. Not a fish. Who would do all of this for a fish?" The very idea is utterly ridiculous, even for Needs. Why, if he wanted to, he could just pluck any living thing he wanted from the river! Besides, how would walking help with catching fish? Preposterous. Ambriel speaks utterly preposterous nonsense, and to think, they call Needs the crazy one!

"Well this is our seventh time today and the only thing I'm wishing for right now is-HEY DON'T YOU VANISH ON ME LIKE THAT! I'M NOT DONE TALKING TO YOU, YOU LITTLE-" Did Needs just ****ing throw a smoke bomb and disappear?! Raptor Christ, what an aggravating little freak! He really did walk up and down this beach forty-nine times for his weird little brother, watching him trace those weird runes across the riverbank every time. He thought they were finally starting to get along, to understand and accept each other, and then he pulls this?! God, was all of this just a big stupid alien prank all along?! Needs, what the hell?! Why would you do that?! Of all the worthless, rotten, despicable things to-

...hold on, is that Ithuriel on that bench over there?

[Felandria]

[Lotus Gardens - Cathedral]

Wenomir ends up picking a simple shirt and trousers that don't really fit all that well, but cover up Anika's ruined clothing. Now he feels slightly less horribly embarrassed by the whole situation.

"I hope Anika can get away from AMEN on her own," he admits. "She's resourceful. If not... our only real lead is AMEN. We need to put them back in their place in any event. No idea how to fix the body-swap, though. The AMENites had no idea it had happened, so they didn't do it. Must have been the demons or one of their allies."

He turns to look at Felandria. He's not sure what Jezebel intended by abdicating power. He was preoccupied at the time.

"I just got here, but it seems we stung those things enough that they're negotiating."

Felandria is looking around confuses about all this body swap talk, but

Okay, I see there’s weird stuff going on, and I’ll deal with that later, but for now I should probably get in there so they can tell me what’s happening.

Apparently I’m supposed to be in charge now.

[Gnrlshrimp]

[Post-Invasion River Bank]

I've been gone so long, it's like I-
vanished without saying "goodbye".
Did you even think that I'd return?

Did you count the days, were they grey without me?
Did the weather seem better if you thought about me?
Did you even think that I'd return?

Broken promise, foolish angel
Lost in deadtime, still I failed.
Is it too late to tell you I've returned?
Did I just leave you feeling burned?

And I left you,
all alone
But I still came back!
But I still came back!

Is it all too much now to atone?
But I still came back!
But I still came back!

...but I still came back.


She'd like to be serious about this. Really, she would. She upped and left him almost as soon as the offer to help him change his ways had left her lips. It doesn't matter if it wasn't her fault. It doesn't matter if she had no way to know such a thing would happen. She promised, she swore to help, and she wasn't there.

She wants to take it seriously. She's the angel of second chances. Is she really about to ask him if he's willing to give her a second chance to do this right? Deadtime is a cruel, mysterious thing, she could be claimed again at any time - she could vanish into the mist right now, right in front of him, and she'd have no way to prevent it!

She really, really wants to be serious.

But he just got smoke-bombed by another kooky floating MagClone in orange robes. Wait, how many Magtoks are back in the Nexus anyway? She tries so very, very hard, but she can't help herself from giggling at the sight of it.

And then Ithuriel just gives up on any attempt at modesty whatsoever and charges over, picking Ambriel up and pulling him into an almost back-breakingly tight hug. The myriad doubts plaguing her are pushed aside for the moment as she gives him a broad smile, her eyes beaming. "Hey Wings."

[Lord Magtok]

Post-Invasion River Bank

Oof! There goes our lungs and ribs and everything. Ambriel, Angeltok, Wings, whatever you want to call him, tries his best to force a smile and recover from the unexpected spinal trauma. Well...maybe force is too strong a word. I mean, someone just recognized him as his own unique, individual human being. That doesn't happen every day for a MagClone! What's more, it's Halloween Party Vampire Angel Lady, Ithuriel! She was pretty great, for the brief period of time we knew her. Definitely didn't expect to ever see her again, though.

"Hey Genuine Article!" he greets her, a not especially subtle nod to the fact that he's just a human with wings grafted to his back, whereas Ithuriel is the real deal when it comes to being a servant of the divine. He's changed a little since she last saw him. The feathers on his wings had to be replaced, since most of the original ones had fallen out, giving him more of a mottled gray pigeon sort of look. His chrome prosthetics have been redone too, with an extra arm tucked against his left side, and the outer shell of all his bits and pieces replaced with a shiny alabaster finish. Visually, he's more half-sculpture than half-robot now.

[Morty]

[Lotus Gardens - Cathedral]

Wenomir steps outside to talk to Felandria directly.

"Jezebel is currently negotiating with the enemy, but I think their diplomat just left. You should probably go meet up with her, since I don't know how it's going either."

[UncleWolf]

Musical Solo => Glade

Once they're in the small glade, Topaz sinks onto a rock as all her adrenaline flows away and she's left shaking and weak. She eventually stands back up and just rolls over the rock she'd been sitting on to reveal a small ammo can. "You hurt?" She asks, falling to her knees as she opens the can to reveal half a dozen assorted potions, a heavy revolver, a bowie knife, and a pair of sealed scrolls. Topaz takes a purple potion for herself, drinking it entirely before pulling out an amber one to sip on. The bleeding all over her body seals and she regains a bit of her color, but it'd take a long time for her scales to return. After a sip, she offers the amber "potion" which smells strongly of bourbon, as well as a blue potion with red swirls. "This'll mend minor cuts and get your energy back. Wake you up."

There's a bag beneath the ammo box, little more than a satchel, but she doesn't touch it just yet.

Into The Breach

Eric is thankful for that moment, but there's not much he can do to avoid the attack or block it. Instead he goes on the offensive and tries to simply shove his arm into the hound's mouth, down it's throat, and use his clawed fingers to find purchase so he can rip its throat open from the inside out. It means he'll definitely get some nasty bite wounds on his arm and shoulder, but it was certainly better than having his own throat ripped out by those jaws.

The Lotus Gardens

"Yuan, I know you wish to go back to your wife and daughter, but I ask that you would go with them. Assure me there is no treachery. If there is...bring Adir and the ambassador both back to me. Alive." She clarifies before looking at the diplomat. "Your life will be mine to do with what I wish if there is such. Understand that." She warns before giving a gesture and allowing them to move on.

When Felandria gets to her, she will see Jezebel idly scratching lines into the decapitated head on her arm-rest. "Hello, Mayor." She says with a slight tired smile. "Before you ask for my reasons, I abdicated to assure that the invaders could not hold half the city hostage against me, or me against half the city. If the negotiations fail here and they wish to parlay with someone about Eastside, it will fall to you now. And as you can tell, I am in such a state that I had to assure there would be some sort of leadership left behind should I bite it." She adds, gesturing at the freshly patched hole right through her torso.

With that out of the way, she turns to Tarim. "Should this go awry, I suspect you'll want to stay and fight but please see to it that everyone here gets out. I cannot assure everyone's safety."

The Lotus Gardens - Border

Yuan, a several meter long demonic serpentman, will follow along behind Adir and the envoy as they head towards the meeting point.

[Felandria]

The Lotus Gardens

"Yuan, I know you wish to go back to your wife and daughter, but I ask that you would go with them. Assure me there is no treachery. If there is...bring Adir and the ambassador both back to me. Alive." She clarifies before looking at the diplomat. "Your life will be mine to do with what I wish if there is such. Understand that." She warns before giving a gesture and allowing them to move on.

When Felandria gets to her, she will see Jezebel idly scratching lines into the decapitated head on her arm-rest. "Hello, Mayor." She says with a slight tired smile. "Before you ask for my reasons, I abdicated to assure that the invaders could not hold half the city hostage against me, or me against half the city. If the negotiations fail here and they wish to parlay with someone about Eastside, it will fall to you now. And as you can tell, I am in such a state that I had to assure there would be some sort of leadership left behind should I bite it." She adds, gesturing at the freshly patched hole right through her torso.

With that out of the way, she turns to Tarim. "Should this go awry, I suspect you'll want to stay and fight but please see to it that everyone here gets out. I cannot assure everyone's safety."

The Lotus Gardens - Border

Yuan, a several meter long demonic serpentman, will follow along behind Adir and the envoy as they head towards the meeting point.

Felandria nods gravely.

I understand completely.

What do you need from me?

[Gnrlshrimp]

[Post-Invasion River Bank]

"Hah! I guess I do kinda look the part with the robes. Not so much when I'm in uniform though, then I'm just look like an officer with wings." Wings are a common enough non-angel thing that folks might not even recognise her as angel-y when she's on duty.

Kinda depends if she has the aura up, probably. Glowy golden light is a bit more of a giveaway.

She sets Ambriel down, giving his wings a curious poke. "You've had a few upgrades, haven't you? Wings could do with a bit of work though. I like the new paint job on your metal side and- wait, is that a third arm?" She tilts her head in confusion. That's not a normal thing for a Magtok to do, right? Was this an attempt to further distinguish himself from the norm, maybe?

Realising that she's being a bit forward, Ithuriel takes a step back and coughs awkwardly, "How, um, how have you been? It's, uh, been a while, hasn't it?"

[Lord Magtok]

Post-Invasion River Bank

Ambriel glances down at the arm, which shrugs, as if it were just as surprised to be here as Ithuriel was to find it."Oh, I got stabbed in the chest after negotiations between my guys and The General who runs part of Riverside-" Or is it ran part of Riverside? Ambriel hasn't been checking the newspapers; she might've died in the war. -fell apart. My team fixed me up after, thought I could use an extra hand the next time I'm in a fight, hold an extra gun and such. I can put it away if it weirds you out, though." Gods know it's weirded himself out plenty of times. In fact, the arm is already gone before Ithuriel can comment further, folding itself up into a panel on the cyborg's left side.

"Anyway, you said you're a cop now? Not for one of the governments around here, I should hope." Ambriel makes a concerned face at that. The Faction doesn't hold Riverside's governments in very high esteem. The whole city is too fractured, too messy. It's why they were such a perfect target for those demons in the first place. Also, there's the fact that The Faction's paramilitary agenda kinda runs contrary to the goals of each and every governing body in the city. Being forced to fight Ithuriel over politics would be pretty lame, especially when we only just found her again after years of deadtime.

[Recaiden]

Here, actually, is apparently where the mawsphere deposits our villains.

Omiko steps out with all three hands non-confrontationally open.
"Hello everyone. We're the negotiators from AMEN. I'm afraid there's been a slight change of plans..."
"Do you think we could all calmly head back to Jezebel? Or perhaps one of you can speak in her place?"
Not the fiend, of course.

[Shadowcaller]

The Lotus Gardens

Cessie exits the cathedral with Wenomir and she can't help but see the wounded Felandria, looking at her wide-eyed. "Miss Felandria, what happened to you? If there is anything I need you to do, it's getting healing right away." The sorceress remarks. "Don't kill yourself, you seem to have done more than enough already. Eastside wouldn't want to lose another mayor in such a short amount of time as there will be rebuilding to do."

The Lotus Gardens - Border

The AMEN members will see the group of fiends, golems and other demons gathering here. Some of them appear surprised at their sudden appearance.
But what AMEN likely will be focusing on are the three people approaching the summoning circle the demons have made just outside the borders of the Lotus gardens.
Adir, who at least Zefir have seen before, Yuan, a snake-man, and the demons diplomat, a small fiend that does not seem to have the same magical traits (such as glowing eyes) as its peers.

This fiend frowns as they spot AMEN. "What's the meaning of this? There is no need for you to get involved, we are simply returning their ally to them."

[Murkus]

[The Lotus Gardens - Border]

Adir just looks none-too-pleased to see the AMENites here. His gut roils with hostility. Lucky (or perhaps unluckily?) for Zefir/C4, Adir doesn't seem to recognize him.

His query is flat and base. "Who are you losers?"

For the benefit of the AMENites, Adir appears to be an extremely tall man in a suit of silvery armor. The chestplate of the suit is emblazoned with engravings of snarling hounds. His face is hidden by a mask of bluish ice, the only feature a pair of eye slits, but upturned antlers and long, inquisitive ears protrude from the sides of his head.

[Earl of Purple]

Into the Breach

Tallya is very glad for the option to go somewhere else, and takes it, barrelling through the door away from Eric and the hounds. She's got her hammer, in case there's something that needs to be whacked on the other side. She hopes not; she's scared enough already.

She's not looking down, so hopefully the door doesn't lead to a massive drop out of the flying castle.

[Gnrlshrimp]

[Post-Invasion River Bank]

"That's, um-" Ithuriel fumbles for some sort of word to explain just how weird it is to have a concealable third arm. There's even a degree of physical fumbling in the air as if she was physically flicking through a dictionary looking for something suitable.

"Um, it's weird." Nope, no luck, her dictionary is lacking in better words for weird than weird, even though that doesn't really feel weird enough for how weird that is. "But I guess not everyone comes away from a chest wound with an extra arm?" At least it turned out well, but it's another little sting for her that she upped and abandoned Ambriel and then he went and got stabbed.

But he doesn't seem angry at her so that's something? Maybe he doesn't even remember that she promised to help him on the straight and narrow?

"Yeah, I'm Intersection. I, uh, hope that's not a problem? It was kinda weird when practically the first day on the job I had to do a security check on a truck being driven by Magtok. Althooough..." She leans forward with a wicked little grin on her face, her eyes narrowing, "When we went to Trog's afterwards, he practically admitted he was hoping to talk me into the bedroom. Is that a thing with all Magtoks? How Magtok-y are you these days?"

[Nova_Eclipse]

[Glade]

Electra shakes her head and gestures for Topaz to use the potion on herself.

"I'm fine. You should use it for yourself if you can." She glances around cautiously, a habit born from experience in combat. It's doubtful anything will attack them here, but a little caution never hurts. "Whatever other gear you've got stashed here, you should probably grab. No telling what might happen next."


[The Lotus Gardens - Border]

Zenon gives the fiend a quelling look before speaking quietly.

"There's been a change of plans. The deal is being altered. Now stand aside." His face remains politely neutral as he says this, but there's a dangerous edge to his voice, daring the fiend to defy him and suffer the consequences. He strides forwards past the demons towards the other party of negotiators. Zenon, for reference, appears to be a young-ish man wearing odd armor that seems to be a mix of futuristic plates and clothing. His V-crested helmet hides his hair, but not his face, and his red eyes have three sets of parallel bars in the irises along with the normal pupils. The hilts of two weapons protrude from smoothed "holsters" on the outside of his thighs. He gives a half amused smile at Adir's inquiry.

"We are from AMEN. I am Zenon the Devourer, and this is Omiko," he says, gesturing towards the cat-pirate. "Indeed, as Omiko has stated, we really must speak with Jezebel, if at all possible."

[Lord Magtok]

Post-Invasion River Bank

"I, umm. W-well, you, uh..." Ambriel turns beet-red, stumbling over his words as he struggles to put together a coherent sentence. The two hands he's still using are fidgeting uncomfortably, as if the right words to say might just jump up out in front of him and then vanish if he's not ready to catch them.

"Okay! So umm...first! I'm not sure how to feel about 'Magtok' being used as a synonym for wanting to see you naked. Second, I...erm-" Stop thinking about her naked, Ambriel, you have a conversation to finish! The fact that she's still here and asking that kind of question after seeing your weird, gross third arm means you might still have a chance, but it'll all fall to pieces if you continue acting like a hopelessly inept dork who can't even talk to girls!

"Alright, no, actually just please don't do that again, and also maybe punch him if you can find an excuse to do so?" To say relations between The Faction and MagClone Hegemony are strained would be putting it mildly. If Faction's chief diplomat and one of the Collective's scouts were to start feuding over the same girl...well, that's how we get situations like the Trojan War, don't we? Fortunately that scout has already found quite a few other women to pay attention to him, so it shouldn't be an issue. Ambriel is absolutely feeling jealous over someone he hasn't seen in like five years, though.

"Second, I, well, umm...yes? Is 'yes' a valid answer to that question?" No. No, it is not, Ambriel. The primary question was 'how Magtok-y are you these days' which definitely cannot be answered with the word 'yes.' You're only like...what, twenty-five percent Magtok these days, tops? You have a completely different set of emotional baggage, and none of the self-confidence and charm the chrome crook is known for. That Magtok is prepared to battle gods and dragons and demons for the fate of the universe. You, on the other hand, couldn't talk your way out of walking up and down a shoreline forty-nine times in a row.

[Zefir]

Northside Disaster Zone

With a sight Zefir turns away from the angel. She might be important for the whole fight but for AMEn it's nothing special, since the song only excludes demons. He will head of for the location shown. He won't make much haste since he needs to prepare something.

The Lotus Gardens - Border

Zefir will appear a bit later then the other AMEN members and likly from another direction. He still wears the leather fighting clothes he got befor, but now he also got some iron shoulderpads and a mask covering his face to make it hard to recognise. In addition the mask also changes his voice slightly making it harder to recognize for people who know him.

"Indeed." Zefir confirmes what Zenon says. "I have to disappoint you. There has been a slight misscommunication. The plans have changed."

And he walks closer to the summoning circle.

[Gnrlshrimp]

[Post-Invasion River Bank]

Ithuriel laughs and claps Ambriel on the back, although she's really not paying enough attention to her strength right now so she might end up knocking him to the floor. "Don't you worry, Wings, I got plenty of reason to punch him. I kinda learned the hard way that I got lucky in convincing even one of you to change your ways a bit. I dunno if that's because I kind of trapped you in my "lair", or if I got lucky 'cos I let you get lucky." She winks, giving him a hand back up and brushing off any dirt or mud or whatever may have got on him. Hopefully distracting him with embarrassment will make him not realise that she was at least a little bit of a jerk for not apologising there.

"Oh, and sorry about that. Don't know my own strength." Oh, there we go. Never mind then! But she totally does know her own strength, she's just a little excitable, so she's still totally being a bit of a jerk! Do mind! Mind the careless angel!

"So, anyway, negotiations? That sounds pretty not-evil." Subtle, Ithuriel, very subtle. You might as well be asking if he does/doesn't eat babies or something! But sure, if you just want to go ahead and address it directly like this, "Did that whole trying to go on the straight and narrow thing stick then? I...I wanted to do so much more to help you. When an angel makes a promise, it's- it's their duty to see it through." Her gaze slowly drifts downwards as she speaks until she's staring straight down at the floor, the prior enthusiasm having all but vanished in a matter of moments. Seems this is really bothering her.

[UncleWolf]

The Lotus Gardens - Border

The several meter long snakeman sets his hand on the diplomat's shoulder after AMEN arrives and speaks. "It sseeemss that your life is forfeit." He points out, sounding...pitying and understanding. It seemed like the diplomat had just been sacrificed after all, even if he was supposedly important. The hand will turn into an iron grip if he tries to make a run to the circle, but otherwise Yuan will simply try to guide him back to the Chapel gently. "None of usss sspeak for The Mistresss. Pay her resspect." He warns, gesturing for AMEN to go first. The ex-daemon wasn't going to turn his back to such people.

The Lotus Gardens - Chapel

Jezebel closes her eyes for a moment and sighs. "It seems that plans have changed. AMEN has arrived to negotiate instead. Ilpholin is not with them." She explains to everyone present before holding her hand out to Cessie as she stands up. Naked and still covered in gore, she at least keeps her talent of standing proud and noble and can cast a daring figure. "The chalice, please. I do not think Sargon is going to come now, even if he planned to do so before. But I can at least deal with AMEN. Should that happen, get inside the Chapel as fast as you can. That goes for all of you. They have one among their number that seems almost impervious to...almost any means of attack if what my secretary and security says is true." She explains.

The Glade

"Unless you're planning on shooting me, this is as safe as we're going to get. We're in Wildside now." Topaz points out, pulling the little bag out and setting it on the ground to use as a pillow so she can bask in the starlight. "So I'm going to drink away the pain, rest, recover, and relax until I feel like I need to move on or until I get word one way or another about how the fight is going." And with that she closes her eyes to the world for the time being.

[Recaiden]

[The Lotus Gardens - Border]

Omiko laughs, mostly to herself.
"Sargon didn't tell you?"
That's actually a little suspicious, though she hasn't figured out how to act about it. Better forge on ahead. She saunters towards Adir, snakeman, and fiend.

Omiko, for those not in the other two introductions, is a catwoman[lynx] (muzzle and fur, not just ears and tail) 'demon' (mostly visible in her black crystal claws atm) cyborg (robot eye, robot third arm, metal-tipped tail) pirate (what's left of her outfit, the way she walks). Her non-robot eye isn't catlike at all. It's a very human green. She used to have yet another robot arm, but it's been broken off by bears and robots and devils.

"We have a standing claim on 'their ally'. Just as they would trade the entire Lotus Gardens to retrieve her, well, we might well pass up the entire gardens to keep her. Has no one explained to you how much damage Ilpholin will do - to you even - if you just let her go?" It's like the demons aren't taking this seriously. "Did she not take down an Infernal single-handedly, and that just at the beginning of the battle?" Mr. Squiggles, you see, doesn't have hands to contribute. Just legs and guns. "Meanwhile, this is...what?" She waves her mechanical arm at the Gardens around them. Nice, but just another place. Is it really worth the demon-slayer's life? Yes, absolutely, in her opinion.

[Nova_Eclipse]

The Glade

"Hmmm, I see. I'm going to see if I can get in touch with Wenomir." Electra comments, before pressing a hand to her right auditory sensor, a gesture done more out of habit than any real necessity. If any of the VIGIL members have radios on, they'll pick up her transmission.

"MERC calling VIGIL party. MERC calling VIGIL party. Need to speak to Commander Wenomir if present, over."This transmission is subvocalized, so while those listening on the radios can hear it, Topaz most likely won't be able to, unless she has some sort of cybernetic radio implanted.

[The Lotus Gardens - Border]


When Zefir appears, Zenon pauses and turns slightly, before bowing a bit and allowing Zefir to proceed ahead of him. He then takes up a position at Zefir's right flank. Since Zefir is here, there should be little need for him to do much more of the negotiating. He'll simply stand near Zefir and be ready for any sort of attack. So much simpler when one doesn't need to do the leading for a change. He still thinks that trading Ilpholin for the Lotus Gardens is a bad trade. One woman for the font of power that is the Gardens? Foolish, in his minds, but Zefir obviously knows something he doesn't or else he wouldn't be giving up a powerful, permanent base in the city for her. He watches with interest, but will say little more unless addressed.

[Lord Magtok]

[Post-Invasion River Bank]

Ithuriel laughs and claps Ambriel on the back, although she's really not paying enough attention to her strength right now so she might end up knocking him to the floor. "Don't you worry, Wings, I got plenty of reason to punch him. I kinda learned the hard way that I got lucky in convincing even one of you to change your ways a bit. I dunno if that's because I kind of trapped you in my "lair", or if I got lucky 'cos I let you get lucky." She winks, giving him a hand back up and brushing off any dirt or mud or whatever may have got on him. Hopefully distracting him with embarrassment will make him not realize that she was at least a little bit of a jerk for not apologizing there.

"Oh, and sorry about that. Don't know my own strength." Oh, there we go. Never mind then! But she totally does know her own strength, she's just a little excitable, so she's still totally being a bit of a jerk! Do mind! Mind the careless angel!

"So, anyway, negotiations? That sounds pretty not-evil." Subtle, Ithuriel, very subtle. You might as well be asking if he does/doesn't eat babies or something! But sure, if you just want to go ahead and address it directly like this, "Did that whole trying to go on the straight and narrow thing stick then? I...I wanted to do so much more to help you. When an angel makes a promise, it's- it's their duty to see it through." Her gaze slowly drifts downwards as she speaks until she's staring straight down at the floor, the prior enthusiasm having all but vanished in a matter of moments. Seems this is really bothering her.

Are all angels that strong? Yikes. Ambriel can't even bring himself to care, though. The one person in the world who can tell him apart from the rest of his brethren is back, and thirstier than he's ever seen her, so that's pretty exciting.

"Oh yeah, I'm the team diplomat, so...sorta? I mean, we haven't done much lately, since it became obvious we weren't going to be able to just roll into town and depose all the evil despots and make everything happy and wonderful." His stabbing and the ensuing drama that came with it made that point crystal clear. Authoritarians hate sharing, especially when the thing they're being asked to share is power, so the dream might take a little longer than expected to become reality. Ambriel still believes in the cause, though. This city would be so much nicer if everyone let his team govern it. The people would be overjoyed to have MagClones keeping the trains running on time. Just gotta convince their leaders to see reason and embrace the will of the people.

Speaking of convincing, this might be a great time to put those diplomacy powers into action. You see the way she looks at the floor when she's talking about duty? You should definitely say something. Like maybe-

"Hey. Hey, listen. Nobody can control when those deadtime things happen. It happens to everyone. It happened like two days after Magtok carved that horribly dated proposal into the moon. Some of us just get lucky and come back from the deadtime, but not all of us. I'm doing okay for myself, fighting for a good cause, and I'm not mad you went away, because it wasn't your fault. You're here now, and that's what counts." Ambriel insists, reaching out to hug her and assure the angel that everything is fine.

[Gnrlshrimp]

[Post-Invasion River Bank]

Nobody can control when those deadtime things happen.

That's what you wanted to hear, right Ithuriel? You know it's not your own fault, you've always known it's not your fault but you just couldn't forgive yourself. You're meant to be an angel of forgiveness and you couldn't find it in you to forgive yourself for something you had no control over? Really?

But it doesn't matter now, right? He's forgiven you! So it's all fine!

...why isn't it fine?

Well maybe he's just being nice. Maybe he really is hurt and he's just hiding that to make you feel better? Maybe he actually still thinks you're a horrible person, maybe he thinks you're going to abandon him again immediately and then it'll be so much worse and does he even really need your help anyway? Look at him, he's trying to help in his own way, maybe he never needed your help to change his ways and was always going to-

No. No no no NO NO! Why aren't you fine, Ithuriel? Why can't you just let it go? Just let it go! STOP BEING SO-

...

It's probably a good thing Ambriel is hugging her right now so he can't see the expression her face makes as her overcharged conscience wages war internally with a weak but defiant common sense. He'll still feel her shaking though, perhaps be able to hear the slight sniffle as she tries to keep herself from sobbing.

Why are you an angel anyway? You know you're no good at this. You can't help anyone! The one person you though you'd helped went and helped himself without you! Really, what did you expect to happen? Did you think you were just going to fly in here and he'd be crying about how hard it is to be a nice guy instead of mean, selfish old Magtok and-

Is this even healthy for her? Well, she's sort of committed to it now, hasn't she? She reciprocates the hug, holding Ambriel tightly (but not too tightly! She's learning!) and even leaning over to give him a very quick kiss on the lips. "I think the line between duty and affection got blurred in my mind long ago. You're still that same awkward guy who couldn't quite decide if he was terrified or not." She chuckles lightly, straight back to acting like the big strong angel with absolutely no inner turmoil that she totally is. "So, hey, you got a team? You mean there's more of you quirky, rebellious 'toks out there? Do I get to meet them? Uh, hey, actually there's a thought. Is it awkward if I refer to you as a Magtok in any way, Wings? Does your team have new, edgy, aggressively anti-Magtok names or something?"

[Morty]

[Lotus Gardens/The Glade]

Wenomir turns back to the robot using DC's old armor once Felandria leaves.

"We might need your help, so we'll keep that in kind, but we need to find Anika first in any case."

Then comes Electra's call. His response is brief and to the point.

"Wenomir here. What's the situation?"

[Shadowcaller]

The Lotus Gardens - Border

One of the demons say something in their alien language and the diplomat replies in kind as a group of fiends move up to them. They seem to be having some kind of argument and the diplomat is having none of the demons replies.
Finally, the diplomat turns to Adir and Yuan. "I will speak to the king on your behalf. I'm afraid you will have to deal with these people in the meantime..." Then they suddenly disappear in a brilliant flash of orange light.
Once they're gone, the fiend that first spoke to the diplomat turns to the members of AMEN. "Do you need a escort?" They ask, gesturing at the other fiends and demons around them. "We'll give you the Il-person once you made a decision regarding the gardens."

Into The Breach

The hound will chomp down on Eric's hand, but thankfully it won't be able to tear it off before he tears out its throat. It will leave quite a nasty bite-mark though, one that likely already is infected.
On the other side of the door there is a whole group of people in teal ponchos. Most of them are quite young, but there are a few people that seem to be roughly the same age as Zula and the apeman and of all manner of races, but mainly humans. They seem busy packing, strapping on pretty much everything that isn't furniture. There are a wide assortment of occult artifacts here, skulls, masks, idols, candles...

Zula now approaches Eric, still panting slightly. "We'll be ready to move out in moments, do you require anything? Someone could probably heal you up..."

The Lotus Gardens - Chapel

Cessie will hand Jezebel the chalice, but as Fel haven't posted yet, I'm not going to have her to anything else.

[Mad Magic World]

Another trick! There was no way that monster was telling the truth.
The hawk flies upwards, attempting to see if it can enter one of the other rooms from her, perhaps by flying through a window...