"Not semantics. An important distinction. But I wouldn't expect a lesser to understand the nuances." Ilpholin replies.
"And I know what I risked. As I said, your concerns about this falling back on our house are unfounded. Tell me, when you found out about this, were you told that House Xar'cha made a move or that a rogue element made a move? I'm willing to bet it was the latter for all the reasons you mentioned earlier." That maniacal two-bit villain stuff. "If you go around and examine things, you'll find that nary a ****** is given by anyone about that situation. 90% probably don't even know. The apathy of the Nexus should not be underestimated. Granted, that is, unless someone like... say you, makes a big deal about it. Only then will the act itself gain any sort of strength or power. Only then can it tarnish the House."
"Ignore it and it'll do no harm. As it is, only Remnant has any cause to care, if that."
__________________
There is happiness for those who accept their fate.
There is glory for those who resist their fate.
BioLab
"Oh, don't worry about wrecking them. Thanks to a deal I made a while ago, I get all the raw materials I want. I could pop out a batch of these easily."
It's true. Thanks to that deal she made with Karyana a long time ago she can do whatever she wants.
Sornnolu sits back down, struggling to keep the scorn off of his face, his expression settling into a frown. "You got lucky. Nothing more. I thank the gods that your little fiasco didn't bring ruin down upon us all. This time, they saw you as a singular person and a joke. If they had taken you seriously. If just one of those powerful organizations had seen you as a threat and acted, it could have been disasterous. If they went after you, I would have been obliged to try to protect you. If they linked you with me and our forces at Delmah Phor, it could have sparked a war. Politics is not a game, Ilpholin. You are not a child anymore. You are a daughter of the Eighth House of Menzoberranzan. A noble lady of House Xabaresh Chaeron. Start acting like it."
"In such an unlikely event, I would have refused your aid and officially gone rogue, helping the matron from the shadows and the chaos. I'm no fool Sornnolu. Everything went as expected, how I planned. If you truly consider this luck, then you're more of a gambling man than I thought."
"So get over yourself and stop thinking like you're the only one who knows how to act in this game just because you don't like the moves others make."
__________________
There is happiness for those who accept their fate.
There is glory for those who resist their fate.
Magtok wordlessly eyes his invitation, trying to swallow the urge to smirk as Ilpholin systematically destroys Sorn's verbal jabs. There was a reason he agreed to have Ilpholin take the leadership role, and this was it. He briefly considers looking up to chime in and add his own two cents, but then thinks better of it, and goes right back to waiting for the two elves to finish things up.
"Well that sounds wonderful. How soon could you release...say...three of them?"
A quick test with the rats, one or two minor adjustments afterwards, perhaps...
And then Isabelle can go ahead and present her finished work to Ilpholin!
__________________
Before you criticise someone, walk a mile in their shoes. That way, when you criticise them, you'll be a mile away and you'll have their shoes.
Sornnolu laughs, a dark chuckle more reminiscent of his uncle. "Going rogue? That was your back up plan? Did you really expect the Matron to accept that? Have you forgotten what she did to our father after he went rogue? Do you recall what she did to my mother when she left for the Surface without permission?" His tone changed, his voice threatening to crack. He took a deep breath, regaining his composure. When he spoke again, he was calm, his tone even. "It's true, I don't like what you've done. You are risking trouble from both the denizens of the Nexus and from within our own House, and there is a chance they will lump me in with you because we both happen to be Xar'Cha on the Surface. I urge you to consider your moves more carefully, before you doom us both and our House along with us."
"Now sounds fine. Go ahead and set them loose. The time it takes me to go fetch the ferrets and let them out should be a suitable enough head start, I'd have thought."
__________________
Before you criticise someone, walk a mile in their shoes. That way, when you criticise them, you'll be a mile away and you'll have their shoes.
BioLab
Megan takes out her laptop and gives the rats the orders!
They scatter off in various places of AMEN!
"There you go. Let's see who can win, your ferrets or my rats."
"If it was necessary to protect our house." Ilpholin states simply. To be honest, she hadn't much considered Sorn's mother in all this. But she doesn't have anyone back home the Matron can use against her like Raril did.
"Unfortunately, leading AMEN requires an invitation to trouble. Such is the nature of its members and its spirit. I shall endeavor in the future, however, to ensure you and the house are not caught in any potential crossfire."
__________________
There is happiness for those who accept their fate.
There is glory for those who resist their fate.
No, all of the people Ilpholin cared about were right here in the Nexus.
"I would greatly appreciate that." Sornnolu bows his head in concession. Looking up again, his expression is serious. "Understand that if our holdings here fall, there are hundreds of lives which would be destroyed. Our family, our blood, our kin and those who serve us, trust us to protect them and provide for them. As nobility, as those in charge, we are responsible to them. If we fail in that responsibility, they are capable of destroying us."
Well that was a change of tone. She's not sure if that is an appeal to her morality or her fear or her duty or something else. Though it was an admission that she had the power to destroy much of the family should she so choose. But that'd be utterly pointless.
On the other hand, it does leave her without a witty retort this time. "That won't happen." Failure has never been an option.
__________________
There is happiness for those who accept their fate.
There is glory for those who resist their fate.
The drow shakes his head. "No. Unless you have something to ask of me, I will leave and allow you to return to your duties. I thank you for speaking with me on such short notice, and for listening to what I've had to say." Sornnolu stands and bows, respectfully.
Sornnoly heads for the door, nodding to Magtok as he passes. Divoyn falls into step behind him, as will the guards who had been posted outside. If allowed, they will all proceed towards the front door, unless an escort is required to avoid those mechanical panthers or whatever other surprises AMEN holds.
Isabelle hurries back to her room at a brisk pace and slips inside, walking over to a row of cages...
And neatly avoiding various rather unpleasant messes. Seems she got through quite a few ferrets before getting it right. Indeed, there's a number of ferret corpses that seem to have, quite literally, had their brains explode. My my, that's messy.
Three of the cages are opened, and out emerge three ferrets. With a smile, Isabelle picks them up, "Alright my dears, time to make mummy proud. You've got some little rats to catch!" She runs her hands gently over the ferrets, taking a moment to admire her own work. The ferrets' appearance had been altered only slightly, to allow for stronger muscles, their teeth frightfully sharp, their eyes a vicious red...
And their heads had been adjusted in shape just slightly, presumably part of the process to make them intelligent...without their brains exploding.
"Off you go now dears. Get to work!" Isabelle sets the ferrets down and opens her door, and off they go, noses a'twitching as they try to pick up the scent of the mechano-rats.
Probably worth mentioning that their rather heightened sense of smell means these ferrets are quite capable of tracking things that leave barely a hint of a whiff behind.
__________________
Before you criticise someone, walk a mile in their shoes. That way, when you criticise them, you'll be a mile away and you'll have their shoes.
All Over AMEN
Except the Mechano-rats leave no smell behind because, well, robots
However, Megan's scent is faintly on them, but it's also on the Mechano-Panthers.
It might be difficult for the ferrets to tell which is the Mechano-Panthers and which are the rats.
"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.
Quote:
Originally Posted by Mindfreak
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.
((I was actually waiting for earl but I guess I can safely skip him now.))
Flying Fiasco
"There are human guards, servants, artists and nobles inside the castle. The weapons the guards use are probably adapted to the city they now live above but they probably use focal enchanted items as well which basically translates to energy weapons and shields." Cybil explains. "It was years since I lived there though so things might have changed quite a bit."
Ilpholin turns her attention to Magtok now that Sornnolu's left.
"Since you're here, I wanted to go over a few things. Unless you have some urgent business elsewhere?" Though Ilpholin can't imagine what urgent business could not be handled by a clone or something.
__________________
There is happiness for those who accept their fate.
There is glory for those who resist their fate.
"If we encounter a human, is it more likely to be a guard or a servant, noble or artist?" Nephrim tilts her head to one side.
((I was awaiting Kid Kris))
__________________
"Ignorance is... Carlisle." The Doctor, Doctor Who
Terrowin Avatar by HappyTurtle. Much thanks!
I have a point!
Always willing to run a dungeon for those who need somewhere to explore. Just PM me, and decide the character and location and I'll see what I can rummage up.
Why not? But let's get this over with quickly, so Magtok can go back to screwing up his personal affairs as soon as possible, stumbling from one disaster into the next with all the grace and poise of a drunk hippopotamus.
There's only about three or four things, so Magtok only has to be competent for a short while.
"Alright, first on the list is Cin. He listed you as a reference. What can you tell me about him?"
__________________
There is happiness for those who accept their fate.
There is glory for those who resist their fate.
"He's a sick, twisted mother****er with no moral code, ethics, and as far as I can tell, no gag reflex to speak of. There's never been a more depraved or heartless amateur surgeon in the history of the Nexus. He makes Hannibal Lecter look like a sweet, harmless old man. The Hippocratic oath is a thing only the Mirror-Nexus version of him has ever heard of, and even that bastard is still pretty depraved.
He sent me some of his previous work befor, notes and recordings and such. To watch it all, I needed a bucket handy to catch all of the meals I was firing out of my mouth-hole, otherwise all of that stomach acid and breakfast cereal would've burned a hole right through the floor."
Magtok shrugs.
"Nothing that would make him unfit for working at AMEN, though."
__________________
"If two wrongs don't make a right, try three."
-Laurence J. Peter
Maggy Dent avatar by happyturtle
Last edited by Lord Magtok : 08-02-2012 at 09:44 PM.
"Incredibly creepy flower lady. Unlikely to turn any other members into plants unless she can get away with it, in which case I think she'd leap at the opportunity. I haven't been going anywhere without surveillance and stuff on me, just in case, since I'm the most disposable around, excluding the chromatic minion brigade."
Magtok shakes his head.
"Again, nothing to keep her from serving as a loyal, hard-working AMENite. They just need to be watched every now and then, so they don't do anything stupid."
Like go to the Masks temple for several days without telling anyone, for example. Becky's digging her own grave with that one, and the only reason Magtok hasn't ratted her out yet is because he's waiting to see when she'll finally get her comeuppance from Ilpholin, delivered personally, without pity, and with absolutely nothing held back.
Yes. If it turns out positively, probably going to have some of the new recruits get plant enhanced."
"Alright, we have a new intern, Harley." Ilpholin will describe her. "She's got some sort of cursed sword thing she can't get rid of that tries to make her do good things, so keep an extra eye on her."
"Also, another would be member, Lily, is supposed to be building a machine that will let people back into her world. I need you to go and check out her references. Once that's done she can become a full member."
__________________
There is happiness for those who accept their fate.
There is glory for those who resist their fate.
Sounds like dirty work. Talking to people most folks would rather not talk to, about things they'd rather avoid mentioning. An ugly mess full of frustration and annoying idiots being annoying. Certainly beats what he'd be doing with his free time anyways, though.
RSS Feeds: 
Re: [Nexus] AMEN XLIV: Beware Falling Flowers
