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| No title. |
| (2014-03-18 - Now) |
| No description. |
| Hades | The Underworld. The path is only approachable by the Phantom Train, those who know how to reach it through the cooridors of darkness, and through other lesser known ways. Also dying, but many of you are so RESISTANT to that dying thing. However, Shadow Lords and their servants get an extra benifit in the underworld...mostly that it doesn't kill them, and try to weather away everything that they are. Typically, the journy into Hades' relm is much more suffering, argerous, and epic. Which is great for Epics, but bad for backroom deals. Rakassa did manage to impress Hades, she's been less than obnoxious, and generally successful. Hades is willing to listen to offers, especially interesting ones. Right now, Hades' throne room is mostly clear, he sits, throne of skulls (well, he is LORD of the dead) while he looks over the TNT programming schedule. He has his head in one hand, looking bored, as Pain and Panic scurry around, with their various duties. |
| Rakassa | Rakassa, dressed in her best evening gown with opened purple robes, arrives with long-pipe in mouth and a smile on her face; far too many teeth showing even as her robes and conveniently placed shadows hide everything else. One might notice several tails snaking out from behind the woman, like some sort of bizzare chimera. She's far less bestial than usual today for her Shadow Lord dealings, but hardly recognizable as a certain Rakassa from Vector. The Darkness Corridor that lets her through quickly fades behind her and her minion as she arrives. Already, she's doing her best to be charming. "Ahh, Lord Hades!" The name's spoken playfully, acting /far/ different from her more militaristic tone back in Vector. Here, at least, she can let her hair down. She even chuckles lightly, fully into her 'Olivia' persona. "I trust this isn't a bad time? I can come back later. Maybe with a delinquent servant or two to add to your rather wonderful furniture there!" |
| Queegmaa | ....And what would an evil overlord be without a few oppressed toadies? Hades has both Pain and Panic, while Rakassa isn't quite a god, or goddess, so she just has one yes-man, who goes by the name of Queegmaa. One of the main differences is that Que isn't actually much shorter than his master, whereas at seven feet, Hades towers over most individuals, which goes without saying that the midgets known as Pain and Panic are dwarfed by a considerable margin. The kappa wasn't comfortable in this ghastly realm, but since he always felt afraid for his life, seeing a bunch of skeletons wasn't a substantially grander reminder of how fragile he was compared to some in the World of Ruin.... besides which, he had to remind himself that his bias towards bones were only scary to vertabraes, because sapient octopi-people(Probably from Montressor Spaceport) would've been reminded of death by things other than bones(perhaps residual beaks?). Their innards were composed of anything but! Peering up at 'Olivia', the green troll observed that Rakassa herself didn't look too much different than Ultros, in some ways, with her many fangs protruding from an oversized mouth, and tendrils of hers spilling out in different directions, knowing full well that even she had to be feeling some degree of anxiety, since Hades was beyond her scope of power.... something that only happened when she was amongst true immortals! He grunted at Olivia, "Chances are, ya will 'venshalee be back 'ere later.... e'erybody 'oo is capable o' dyin' ends up in dis place." A pretty observant quip, and not untruthful in the least, but after Olivia seeks Hades' approval in order to stay, Que takes a step forward, in front of his matron, acting as her interpreter/speaker/whatever, "Matron Olivia 'n I'r 'ere tuhday cuz we're 'opin ta make seek yer approval on scourin' da Underworld. We wanna talk wi' summa da inhabitants. Since dis is yer domain, obveeslee, yer da guy ta talk tuh." He bows. |
| Hades | Hades already knew the two were here. It's his dominion, it is where he is absolute. Nothing happens in the underworld without his knowledge, unless he's preoccupied. Sometimes things happen, but these are generally plot related. Generally. He looks towards 'Olivia' for the moment, he actually seems more than willing to be able to push off the drull work onto someone else, throwing the guide to Panic, which only gets squashed beneath the large book. "Now see, that is where I have to stop you. You don't waste a good minion like that. Sure, you make them FEAR for their lives...maybe kill one to make the others work faster. But you can't just be so flippant...then killing them gives no OOMPH. Familarity breeds contempt and all." Hades says, waving a hand as a chair appears infront of the throne. He stares at Queegmaa for a moment, rubbing his ears for a moment. Lets see if we can't turn that channel into being able to figure out what the hell he is saying, that accent was worse than Heph on a bad day catching someone lookin' at Aphrodite. Yeesh. "So what brings you down to the Underworld, hmm? Lose something? Lookin' for a loved one?" He pauses, taking a moment to laugh loudly about that. "Ha ha, no really, what can I, the Lord of the Dead, do for YOU, an up and coming Shadow Lord." |
| Rakassa | Smile! Even /more/ teeth show. Sometimes it's like they multiply. That may not be far from the truth. Rakassa doesn't respond to the death bit, by Que. She reaches over with a slimey tail-tendril, and swats him hard on the head. "Isn't he just /adorable/? So loyal, and what a...quaint accent." Time to translate. Smile! "Mmm...but it's so /fun/ to torture and slay them! But I suppose you've a point. Oh well, I suppose I'll have to save that for our enemies." Shrug. Then, she sits upon the offered chair, giving a nod. "We want to take a /lovely/ little stroll in your realm, Lord Hades. We hear tell some rather /interesting/ individuals make their home down here, and we'd love to have a chat. Consider it a...soul-searching journey for inspiration!" Smile! "With your permission, of course." |
| Queegmaa | When Hades lectures Olivia on how to instill dread in her minions, he doesn't intervene in any way-- not only does he have no chocobo in this Gold Saucer race, being that he has no lackeys to bully, but the imp wouldn't even /want/ to contribute to an argument that would make the woman more efficient at exploiting her underlings if he could, given that he'd be one of the first to receive her attention. So whether he agreed or disagreed with Hades' methods was moot, all he really wanted to do was strike a deal so that they didn't have to risk accidentally triggering a tirade, since the loser in such a brawl would be the Vectorites. The less time spent in the company of the lion, the less chance that the lion would be given a justification to gnash their bones into powder. Sadly, because Que is hardly able to speak with the sort of eloquence that even a three-year old human could muster, there was automatically a better chance of Hades' irritation being on the higher end of the spectrum, which is evident from how the god rubs his ears in remote annoyance? Yeah.... the quicker, the safer! Not safe enough, though, as Olivia slaps him with one of her strange, snakey limbs, causing him to grimace. When Rakassa explains that they want to get 'inspired', Que elaborates, since Hades isn't going to be won over with such a vague explanation, and if they even /attempt/ to pull a fast one on him, they may get more than a three-hour-tour o/~. "Soul-searchin' in da realm o' da dead. Har har." He continues, "I done some research, 'n 'parently dere's dem boys calt Telkeens oo kud make rayle bad wehpins outta even da most simple 'o metals back in aynshent Greece. We wanna tawk to'm tuh see if dey'll let us learn a few o' deir tricks....." Time for Olivia to translate, probably. |
| Hades | Hades holds up a hand so Olivia doesn't have to translate. He heard the words. All he needed to say was the spirits they wanted to meet... "Yeaaaaaaaaah, no." He says, calmly, "It's great you have ambition, but THOSE particular souls are locked in the deepest part of the underworld, for a reason. Even if you somehow got passed me, which I assure you, you won't, that lock won't be comin' off of them so easily." He starts to wave them off but then... "Unless..." the gears start to turn...oh no, he could turn this into his favor...infact, they might have exactly what he needs. "Maybe we shouldn't be hasty, I can't just let you wonder around, I don't exactly to tour guides here for a reason...but maybe I can make a deal." "And make some assurances." |
| Rakassa | Slowly, as Hades reconsiders, the woman kicks back. She has no doubt that whatever the Lord of the Dead will ask for will be horridly one-sided, and no doubt to come bite her in the ass later. As far as she's concerned, however? With luck, and planning, she can get that bite to come neatly to someone else. Queegma, if no-one else. Her hands open, and she smiles. "Name your price. Good honest dealings between fellow Shadow Lords. Make Maleficent proud, and all!" |
| Queegmaa | Okay, Hades said no.... time to go! At least, Que is almost given a glimmer of hope until the dark god starts to ruminate on the idea a little more; in earnest, the kappa wasn't sure he'd even go for it at all, but he had to pretend like he was feeding Rakassa good ideas so that he could stay on the payroll. Who knew that this one might actually reach fruition? The Telchines had crafted weapons that had slain gods and titans, as well as poisons that ended up being the scourge of mankind for an age or more, until finally they had to transform Apollo into a great wolf using the power of the other gods to slaughter the Telchines; they were indeed, dangerous creatures, but also skilled! Not only that, but they tended to be a bit on the greedy end, so sometimes, like as was the case with Hades, deals could be made, but even just getting an audience with them meant /first/ dealing with the master of necrosis himself, and he was surely not an easily-satisfied customer; he was not one to get the lesser half of a deal. "I 'spose it can't 'urt tuh listen...." is all he says, now that Olivia hastily agrees to accommodate Hades; the turtle could tell that Rakassa was already planning on unloading this on somebody else, given how little hesitation she showed, and how willing she was to allow Hades to name his price without the slightest impediment of any kind. This wasn't going to be fun for Queegmaa.... first, he gets to deal with the regulator of all the world's cadevors, then the creators of the world's worst arsenal. He'll reconsider planting such lofty schemes in Olivia's head, next time. |
| Hades | "One." Hades says, "The most important part of this. Whatever you learn, whatever you USE from them...you do not use it against myself, my goals, or my interests unless I explisitly say it is alright for you to do." Hades says, this is important. He is NOT going to back down on this one. The things they could make, even he was a little afraid. They would undoubtedly cause a situation even he could not easily deal with. However...directed and controled. "Second. I will require a boon. I will call it in at some point, when the time is right." "Lastly...You will use what you learn from them to slay a particular thorn in my side...Hercules." |
| Rakassa | Even 'Olivia' has heard of Hercules. That actively has her laughing. "Hercules. Ahhh, the legendary hero, hmm? Absolutely. Mmmm.../that/ might take a while, though...planning, learning from /them/...you understand. And frankly? I can't resist a bit of humiliation and experimentation upon such a choice hero!" She's all but salivating now, her various appendages wiggling. Then, she waves a hand. "Your terms are acceptable. Just make that 'boon' of yours interesting, hmm? There's nothing I hate more than boredom." Her gaze briefly turns to Queegma. The kappa's always good for a bit of tweaking. It's her cue to back her up, and throw one of his ideas on the table. |
| Queegmaa | Que mulls over Hades' conditions as he declares them, immediately pondering if he could create any loopholes, or probably more important than that, avoid being held accountable if things somehow spiral out of his own control, since he knew that Olivia liked to leave him holding the bag when she messed things up. He was actually the brains of the outfit, and allowed Rakassa to take credit for all of his ideas, but that meant that when something went wrong, usually because she didn't apply his advice properly, it suddenly became /his/ idea again. "I suhjest dat we make a tiny lil amendment tuh dat first one.... not sain dat we dun agree to't, but it prolly needs a beet more clericification!" He grins widely, cracking his knuckles.... but not actually breaking them, because then the repair bills would be a problem, "I dink we shud say dat it's better if me 'n Olivia don't use dees weapons 'ginst ya noanlee and wilflee, when in our typical states 'o mind.... cuz, after all, I dunno 'bout Olivia here, but she din install no kinda mind-control resistance in my cybernetics, like an anti-slave-crown or nuddin. Somebody might jus' come along, seize muh brainpan, 'n den have me circumventin' yer objectives wi'out my consent!(ICly, of course)." The lizard taps his foot, "I mean.... on da udder hand, if I'm interprettin' things all normal like, in da way I shud, den I'd be totally liibull if I pulled some kinda stunt on ya...." He peers at Olivia, as if to assure Hades that she would be held to the same standard, Shadow Lord or not, "....Same wud 'ply ta 'er." Of course, now that he added that specification to the deal, which was hardly illogical, it might force Olivia to upgrade him someday in the future, so that nobody could take over his mental state and force him to misuse the weapons! And if she doesn't at least put effort into making sure her subordinate stays in line, well.... Hades would have an excuse to be mad at /her/, hohohoho! |
| Hades | Hades just stares at Queegmaa for a bit. "Okay, no. If you're incompetant, and get something slapped on you, than I want PROTECTIONS for that reason. So don't even think about changin' the first one, it's simply off the table." Hades says after a moment. "But she's agreed to the other parts.." So a contact falls into the table infront of Rakassa. "Just sign on the dotted line." |
| Rakassa | Rakassa only smiles harder as Queegma gets rejected. Nice try, underling. Maybe next time. She might be /slightly/ better to him (for about a minute!) for the attempt though. It amused her. Taking the document with an appropriately non-slimey appendage, she takes her time in reading it over, looking for loopholes, and other general screwery that Shadow Lords are known for. Only should she find it an honest dealing, that she signs it. "You have a deal, Hades. A pleasure working with you~" |
| Queegmaa | Que squints at Hades, after he decrees that there's to be no modification to the first term. Well, it didn't bother him any; he was under Rakassa's charge, and he knew that if he was acting 'under her orders', then technically, she was, as the acting authority, responsible for the behavior of her crew, which meant that he could easily foist the problem onto her. And if she argued, he would just find some other way of manipulating the semantics so that it was her fault that he befouled something, ergo, she was going to have to be more careful about how she handled things. No.... the rejection didn't thwart him. He's got a knack for twisting things, and when the first twist doesn't do the job, he just twists a little more. Rakassa might think she's won, but that's always the perception he allows her to maintain, because that enables a functional relationship between an egomaniac and a traitor. He's not going to take the fall it this goes awry, no sir; Olivia signed the document, so she's gonna be the one! But he says nothing..... if he comes out and publicizes what he thinks, then there's no chance for implementing a surprise attack. Instead, he does his usual routine, of cringing, as though insinuating that he feels cornered, and helpless! |
| Hades | The contract vanishes with a VOOMA. "Indeed." He says to Rakassa. "Now. Return here in a bit. I will need time to prepare the guests." |
| Rakassa | Rakassa stands, all smiles and barely able to keep from dancing in victory. She even offers Hades a bow. "Until next time~ Come along, little kappa~ Time to celebrate an honest deal!" That means, of course, drunken Shadow Lords and kappa escorts. A minion's work is never done |