Elite Dining(#2626Ten)
The Elite Dining Room, with lengthy tables made for social occasions when the elites would be called together. Chairs of various sizes and strengths line the wall, just in case you leave your throne of skulls at home.
There is a kitchen area off to the side.
Welcome to the Monthly Social!
Grandmother Bane, aptly-ranked Morale Liason for the Confederacy has again put together a social event for the new faces and old of the Confederacy… 'old' of course, being relative.
Grandmother Bane herself is at the front, near the enterence with a roll of pink and white raffle tickets and balloons, while the spread of food on the long buffet table with all manner of fineries, ranging from steak tartar (with at least one marked with a red exclamation mark) to chicken tenders, spaghetti and cold pasta dishes to Chinese and Japanese cuisine. Every so often there is a platter marked with a little placard with a red exclimation mark… which does not mean that it's spicy.
Tables and chairs are set up in various places around the dining room, for various sizes of people.
The King Golem is off to the side, looking awkward and hideous in his formal wear, sort of glaring faintly at nobody in particular and standing in an ungainly hunch. He's not normally this bad, but, well, things being what they've been recently and, well, considering that he's not exactly used to being, well, social with folks, despite a confessed, avid love of being around people- hell, comments about how painful it was NOT being around people. He certainly didn't seem that friendly at the moment. Maybe it's the fact that there's more than one person around. Not quite a crowd, but, well…
He keeps staring at a chair like he wants to sit down, at the food like he's thinking about getting something to eat, at folks now and again, contemplating conversation… but he's just standing there.
When Sasuke enters, there may as well be ominous music playing, but he's only attending to assess potential resources and allies, his body mostly healed by now but he still has bandages and some stitches. He doesn't sit yet, instead leaning against the wall with his arms crossed, staring down at a raffle ticket in his hand.
The Hunter Selena Hawk enters with a smooth gliding walk that leaves no question as to the extent of her training. A pace that leaves her long sky blue and sunset colored cloak flowing in her wake. Beneath the glorious ruins of her once beautiful face (see desc for full description) her icy mint green eyes sweeping the room as she strides towards Grandmother Bane. At the sight of the old woman she smiles a little, or rather her frown becomes so slight that it seems like a smile in contrast to her deep set frownline and a lot of the hardness goes out of her eyes as she attempts to pull herself into a friendlier state of mind. Her natural silvery voice bubbles up from her normally frozen throat to replace her typical icy drone, "Greetings, and thank you for having me. I take it you are Grandmother Bane?"
The soldier behind her looks somewhat nervous as he steps into his honorguard position behind her craddling her well shined orange helm under his arm.
"I am, poppet. Welcome to the New Faces social. I am pleased that the turn out is coming along so well, and flattered that so manyf aces — both old and new — are able to make an appearance. Welcome." Grandmother Bane smiles, and offers Selena a ticket.
"Care to partake in the raffle?" she questions brightly, looking over the assembled confederates.
"Please, feel free to partake in the offerings — it may be a litle spaced out now, but do not fret. I would warn you… if you are unfamiliar with my paticular… tastes… please mind the food with the red exclimation notes."
With a shuffle and a self conscious blink, the Golem pushes off the wall, lurching a few times, trying to get used to the formalwear. It's stupid. He's used to wearing a full bodysuit, something RIGHT UP AGAINST HIS SKIN for f***s sake, but get him in a tuxedo he goes all weird.
Easing away from the wall, he took a moment to rub between the eyes several times, an irritated sound in the depths of his throat, trying not to blind himself with the rough, combat pitted metallic digits. A glance at the buffet, and he lopes over, giving the plates a once-over, glancing at the little ! marks with a quirked eyebrow. "Huh." He's not sure about spice. Doesn't usually go for it himself but every now and again it's nice. Looking crosswise at the various marked dishes, he idly moves down the way a little, picking some crab rangoons out of one of the asian snackely bits and stands a bit aside, letting his eyes sweep over the rest of the room.
Seeing Selena, he offers a bit of a nodding tilt to his head- then, remembering their last radio conversation, goes a little less leathery-brown, paling to a more leathery-tan and swallows a bite half-chewed, wincing at the crunchies going down. Ouch.
Selena nods and smiles, managing to bring her lips that high for a brief moment, which dents in her half faded dimples and briefly showing the beauty that once was before falling back to the more neutral expression that she usually passes for a smile. She laughs a little as she accepts the ticket, "I think I will, I haven't done a raffle since…" her voice cuts off as a pained, well more pained, look crosses her face, after a moment she continues in a cool and controlled but fairly pleasant voice, "It's been a long time anyway."
The Hunter takes her leave of Grandmother Bane for now, not wanting to monopolize her time, and find herself a seat. The lone soldier behind her looks rather nervous as he scans the room, his face concealed but his body language as plain as day, and those near the two might hear his audible gulp as he takes up his position behind her. Selena in the meanwhile is cooly appraising the foods, eyes flashing about the table as she mentally marks down which ones she means to try. Her eyes raise briefly to lock onto Nine's in recognition of his discomfort, her expression says, 'I'm watching you.' before returning to their work.
Socials? Socials. Though pointless little get togathers for no reason but to talk, eat, and whatever it was these inferior humans liked to do on a daily basis, Pride found himself interested by the idea. He'd been to more social get togathers in the past then he cared to count. All about getting to know one another over a plate of food, playing with other children, or watching them make fools of themselves over the course of the 'party'. He arrived like any other member of the First Family of Amestris, clad in a light greenish-blue suit jacket buttoned up over a white shirt with a light brown tie at his neck with a pair of dark brown shorts that hang about his knees and a pair of leather shoes and white socks.
The boy-shaped humonculus walked in, absently taking a raffle ticket and pocketing it without another look, he was flanked by two guards dressed in black suits and equipped with an ear-piece radio both looking hawkishly about as they accompanied Pride into the dining room. He warned them earlier, should anyone outside this room be alerted to their prescence here, they both would die and he would make it look like an accident.
Of course, Pride planned to kill them both afterwards anyway, just in case, so it really didn't matter; he'd get appointed more. He /was/ the adopted son of the Fuhrer, after all. As Pride made his way further into the room, he took notice of those who've already arrived but openly ignored many of them.
Sasuke especially.
He took a seat, and shot a dark look toward his guards, who immediately took position behind him; against the wall.
"You two would do..well, to make yourselves useful outside 'protecting' me." he mused, his voice his usual tone of a demonically metallic distort of a young child's voice.
"You are relieved for now, make youselves.. comfortable, and bring me a drink. Tea. Hot. Preferably with two sugars." Pride commanded, the two guards seem to relax and nod.
"Yes, Master Selim." they both say in unison before walking off towards the drinks.
"Fools." he mutters.
He let out a low sigh, resting one hand against his face as he expanded his shadows about the floor beneath his seat, allowing them to slink across the floor and walls, eyes bubbling up from the shadows, and watching along the wall.
Sasuke carefully pushes from the wall, walking over to the seat directly across from Pride. There's a slight tilt of his head, then he just… sits, staring with his currently plain black eyes. Oh yes, this is a test!
"Now, now, Pride… everyone should be able to enjoy themselves. We're among friends." Grandmother Bane scolds lightly, stepping up from behind the raffle table, and draws up some of the balloons. She smiles, stepping over to the gathering.
"As I was saying, it's good to see so many gathering, getting to know others. After all, without alliances… what is there to tie our loyalties?" she smiles…
And ties a pair of balloons around Pride's wrist.
Well sh*t.
He had no illusions, but things had been going rather well. Well, rather well for him. Which wasn't always that well, but was better than /bad/, which was how things rather went for him. Bad. He'd been used to bad for so long that not bad was good and good was great, great went beyond awesome and his life so far had been flying so far beyond most positive terms he didn't know how to describe how good it'd been recently.
And now there was Selena. Comfortably in the 'so far beyond you there's no hope, removing any discomforting delusions of even trying' realm of things he didn't even need to worry about it, she was…
It didn't matter, cause now she was watching him, and he suddenly knew what mice and rabbits felt like. Ghh.
Rising once more, leaving the plate where it was, he tromped over to the form of Grandmother Bane, sweeping into a rather fluid bow that, well, looked utterly ridiculous on him. "Granny… it's so good to see you again. Thanks again fer tha stuff ya sent me for Christmas. Rally was kind a you." His ugly face pulling into a goofy looking smile at the memory, he eases a chipped, rough metal hand into hers if he could, raising it to kiss like a lady. "I regret I missed your last social. I'd *wanted* to go… But when Mister Red shows up, I can't well say I'm unable to come because of a party…" A twist to the grin, a bit of a grimace. He shakes it off. "Glad I could come this time, though."
There's a pause, and a bit of a cough, followed by, in a very low voice, an earnest, worried question. "I, um, hey… I was, thinking, um… could I maybe… … …*talk*, to you later? About, um, something? You've been in the Feds longer than I have, and, um, well…" Tang tang tang go the fingertips together, the big ugly monstrous combat cyborg looking like nothing so much as a nervous five year old talking to their mother.
When his guards returned with his tea; Pride reached over and grasped the cup gentlye by the handle, sipping it quietly. The two guards took their positions behind him once more, despite his previous order for them to relax. Though upon spotting Sasuke sitting across from him, his eyes narrowed slightly, setting his cup down almost for dramatic effect, he opened his mouth to say something only to be caught off guard by Grandmother Bane as she ties.. balloons to his wrist.
"…Please don't do that." he asks, almost irritatedly as a single tendril of shadow rises up and slashes the the cords of the balloons without hesitation.
Balloons.
Seriously?
"While.. I appreciate the gesture.. such things are both childish and annoying." he states as his guards can help but snicker quietly between themselves, another tendril shoots up stabbing into the wall deathly close to impaling the guard's head.
"And you two would be wise.. not to irritate me." he states, darkly.
Guard 1, silences himself immediately when the tendril strikes very close to severing his ear, shuddering with fear. Guard 2 simply watches, with wide eyes. Pride on the other hand, sips his tea again cracking a smile, a sadistically childish smile that no child of his apparent age should never hold.
"Thank you, though!" he says, voice switching to Selim's.
Grandmother Bane has no qualms about allowing Nine to kiss her hand, giving a little smile as she allows herself to blush.
"I'm very glad that you've found the time to arrive and share with us, Nine. I firmly beleive that by cementing the bonds between us, the Confederacy shall become stronger. We can not permit the Union to take us on without paying the price." the ancient Grandmother gives a smile… but she turns to Pride.
Her smile twists, becoming far too wide for a human.
"You /are/ a child compared to me, Poppet." the voice warps, and her own shadows creep upwards, and /shove the table away.
"You come into this mewling and whining like a pup looking for a teat. You would come here, do not irritate, do not touch. Your red and yellows show no difference to me, /whelp/. You are an insect, a peon… a /child/…"
And as quickly as they come, the shadows recede, and the grandmother leans a little on her cane a bit.
"Enjoy the food, little one!" she says cheerily, and turns to Nine with a smile. "Just beware the red exclimation marks; that would be food from my kitchen."
"I find it fascinating that you feel the need to assert your dominance at every turn." Sasuke states as calmly as ever, reaching to take some sort of drink in a glass and relax against his chair, lightly sipping. "A Sith woman, along with a dragon and its rider, have offered themselves as allies to me. It'll be interesting to see how loyal they are."
And it's time for another visit to the elite dining hall! Kotomine Shirou's wandered into the gathering, since, as usual, he likes to check in on his subministers' dealings. He's actually still thinking on what themes to work with this month and he decided to take a bit of a break.
Various items begin rising from their resting places and floating towards the red haired huntress where she sits, arranging themselves neatly one by one upon the plate set before her. Selena smiles, enjoying the small pleasure of using her power for so mundane a purpose as it reminds her of better days. Occassionally she glances at the others, but her expression during these moments of appraisal is cold like the winter's breath and gives no hint to her feelings. "I entirely agree with your appraisal Grandmother Bane, perhaps we shall be victorious, perhaps not, uncertainty is the way of war, but if we do fall. Let it not be said that it was to petty childish dissent and bickering." her voice is pleasant enough, far cheerier than her usual monotone, but also very tightly mastered, letting no emotion or particular emphasis flavor it or point it's suggestions at any particular person.
Pride narrowed his eyes, the very faintest of growls fall from his lips but his composure doesn't seem to change at the harsh words spoken by Grandmother Bane. He sips his tea instead, having still had hold on the cup before the table is shoved away.
"Cute." he muses, simply, without another word. He was superior then everyone here.
He knew this.
They just refused to acknowledge it.
He rolled his shoulders slightly, kicking his feet back and forth as they hung off the chair he sat in almost unconsiously so like any child would.
His guards on the otherhand, their eyes only widened more, shuddering at the sheer use of..whatever it was that happened. They weren't used to these sorts of things.
They were meant to protect from human threats, and kidnapping attempts, not from angry old ladies with magic; though they remained where they were. They had been given orders not to attack anyone no matter what happens within this room.
Pride's gaze shifts back to Sasuke, and only sips his tea at the teen boy, almost mockingly so.
"Attempting to anger me will only result in pointless failure. There is no 'wrath' within me." he says, simply.
Sip.
And Nine finds himself in a state of confusion, stepping up beside the recently MUCH scarier Grandmother Bane and laying a hand carefully on her shoulder, as carefully as he'd touch anyone's grandmother he cared about, Confederate or not. "I can't believe I'm sayin this, but… Pride's been makin a good showin a bein less overbearin about the whole, well, pride thing. Now, I know e's still a handful and a half, but if you're absolutely intolerable all the time and you go down to just mildly infuriatin, inn't that a sign a improvement?" What the HELL was he doing? A glance over at Pride, and a shake of his head. "E's been tryin. For Pride, tryin at /all/, showin any ability t' think at /all/ beyond his own lil world of 'I am teh bettar than youz rar' is a big step." The hand patted once, carefully, his smile going all sweet and sappy. Evidently, despite his memories being cracked and stirred to pieces like so much scrambled eggs, he likely had a grandmother somewhere in there he was rather partial to. "Though he should try to be extra polite to you. You're a real treasure." A sweet grin on an ugly face, before turning back to Pride and Sasuke.
CLAMP goes a hand, one on Sasuke's shoulder, one on Pride's, his arms long enough to get both comfortably. "What bout you two, eh?"
Leaning over to Sasuke, his voice is conspiratory. "Oh come on now, you try to seem all superior same as him, ya just use different words fer it s'all." And then, a lean over to Pride, grin getting all the bigger. "And please. Attempting t' anger you has no affect? Didn't seem so last time I implied things between ya and yer dad, eh?" A derisive snicker, but then he crouches down, clapping them both on the shoulders and snugging them both a little closer. "Relax you two, you're too tense. This is supposed to be a fun time! Gettin t' know each other, not taking jabs, right Sasuke?" And then OH GODS HE'S MESSING UP HIS HAIR! NOOO!
Having finished assaulting Sasuke's hairdo, he rises with a laugh, noting Kotomine and wandering closer. "Hey man, haven't seen you in a while. How's it been goin on your front?" And then realizing that he didn't have a very good ide of Kotomine's front. How embarrassing. His smile was a bit more apologetic, but hell, he was trying, even if he was LOUSY at talking to folks, he was still going to try.
Kotomine offers a nod toward No. 9. "I see you're doing a good job here," he says with a small grin, "I've just been recovering the fees from December and attempting to come up with what my work for this month will be." "It's good to see you again, Nine."
The King Golem laughs it off, waving a scarred up metallic hand. "What, me? I aint doin sh*t man. Just hangin round n' talkin t' folks n' all tha…" He can feel his language slipping, but ignores it. The grin is big and wide and rather creepy looking with those slightly overstrong teeth. His voice dropping a little, he mutters, "Good seein' ya agin too." Cough. "So… whatcha thinkin bout? What sorta work ya referrin to man?"
The King Golem laughs it off, waving a scarred up metallic hand. "What, me? I aint doin sh*t man. Just hangin round n' talkin t' folks n' all tha…" He can feel his language slipping, but ignores it. The grin is big and wide and rather creepy looking with those slightly overstrong teeth. His voice dropping a little, he mutters, "Good seein' ya agin too." Cough. "So… whatcha thinkin bout? What sorta work ya referrin to man?"
The King Golem laughs it off, waving a scarred up metallic hand. "What, me? I aint doin sh*t man. Just hangin round n' talkin t' folks n' all tha…" He can feel his language slipping, but ignores it. The grin is big and wide and rather creepy looking with those slightly overstrong teeth. His voice dropping a little, he mutters, "Good seein' ya agin too." Cough. "So… whatcha thinkin bout? What sorta work ya referrin to man?"
The King Golem laughs it off, waving a scarred up metallic hand. "What, me? I aint doin sh*t man. Just hangin round n' talkin t' folks n' all tha…" He can feel his language slipping, but ignores it. The grin is big and wide and rather creepy looking with those slightly overstrong teeth. His voice dropping a little, he mutters, "Good seein' ya agin too." Cough. "So… whatcha thinkin bout? What sorta work ya referrin to man?"
The King Golem laughs it off, waving a scarred up metallic hand. "What, me? I aint doin sh*t man. Just hangin round n' talkin t' folks n' all tha…" He can feel his language slipping, but ignores it. The grin is big and wide and rather creepy looking with those slightly overstrong teeth. His voice dropping a little, he mutters, "Good seein' ya agin too." Cough. "So… whatcha thinkin bout? What sorta work ya referrin to man?"
The King Golem laughs it off, waving a scarred up metallic hand. "What, me? I aint doin sh*t man. Just hangin round n' talkin t' folks n' all tha…" He can feel his language slipping, but ignores it. The grin is big and wide and rather creepy looking with those slightly overstrong teeth. His voice dropping a little, he mutters, "Good seein' ya agin too." Cough. "So… whatcha thinkin bout? What sorta work ya referrin to man?"
Sasuke closes his eyes patiently, then raises a hand to fix his hair while peering calmly at Pride. "I assure you, the homunculous is of no consequence to me." He raises the glass to his lips again, likely being frustratingly arrogant at the moment.
Prince Lotor arrives with little grandness, save for his sudden presence. Which isn't hard, considering his size, power, and simple /presence/ when he arrives. A dark blue uniform with its black mantle, red trim, and snow white gloves covering his hands. His booted feet stride in confidently. No cloak this time, but his helmet adorns his head. Though clearly an instrument of war and protection, it is also a symbol. The bladed wings of the helm glinting in the light of the dining room as Lotor throws open the doors. His lips curl up, flashing his pearl white teeth and elongated canines. His gold, feline slitted eyes scan over those present.
Some he knows by sight, some he doesn't… including the fire and slightly gray haired Selena. Aging power and beauty in her face, yet still lovely to a man of his tastes. He inclines his head towards her first. The other one he doesn't know by sight is the boy, though he aaahs, "Pride. So good to have you come as yourself for once." He chuckles softly. "Whatever scheme your father set in making you look like that… I never would have expected it."
Sasuke is given an appraising look, it being the first time he had seen him in the flesh. The boy definitely shows promise, he can see that himself.
The disturbing looking Nine is given a warm nod. The welcome Shirou a salute of fist to chest. And, of course, the Grandmother Bane herself.
"Aaaah, Grandmother." Lotor walks over to her, charmingly stepping right up to her side and doffing his helm. Leaning in and placing a kiss on her cheek like an attentive grandson. "How glad am I that you are willing to put on these wonderful get togethers. You look marvellous as always."
"And neither is the ninja child of any consequence to me either.." he states, sipping his tea as tendrils rise from around the base of his chair and drag the table back into place between him and his chair as he sets his cup down. He shoots a look toward one of his guard,
"Refill it." he commands, and first guard jumps at the chance to at least walk away for a little while. He looks toward Lotor, and offers a nod toward the Prince.
"Outward appearences are symbolic, Prince Lotor." he states, moving to his feet a moment to approach Lotor and greet him. His guard follows reluctantly behind him, while his other guard refills his tea; looking off toward Nine with a faint grin.
"Isn't that right, Mr. Golem?" he asks, voice shifting to Selim's for a moment before his eyes drift back toward Lotor.
"Before Wrath was created.. I was incharge of making sure Amestris ran smoothly for Father." He pauses, crossing his arms slightly; as his shadows expand from beneath his feet, one tendril rising up and casting an eerie shadow against his youthful features.
"Just as I was acting Fuhrer before Father unfied. Always playing the part of adopted son of the Amestrian leaders.."
Gramdmother Bane just gives a nice smile, and turns to Lotor, leaning a little on her cane as she draws herself up a little bit, unpeterubed from any of Pride's antics.
"It is good to see you made it, Prince Lotor. I am honored by your presence." she states, allowing the Prince to kiss her cheek (and maybe even giving a little blush — all part of the game). She gives a little wave.
"Take care to avoid the red exclimation parks, dear; unless you feel up to a bit of a culinary adventure." she states, giving a small chuckle.
Selena smiles, particularly at Lotor, her dimples showing through very cleanly for a moment despite the increasing dampness of her liquid looking eyes and the deep runnels beneath them. Beautiful for a moment despite the scars of time and tears, and as quickly, it's gone, her face returning to the near smile it had clung to prior. She sips a drink, slowly, lingeringly, closing her eyes briefly to savor it. How his presence reminded her of her Isaac, her face shifts back and forth between subtle joy and shattering sorrow for the three seconds she allows it before clamping down like ice upon her own heart once more. Her new expression is like snow, soft, maybe even friendly, but without the coloration or warmth of solid emotion, cold but friendly. The Hunting Hawk watches the room with eyes tuned and sharp.
Kotomine offers a nod toward Bane and Lotor. "Good to see you again, how've you both been doing?"
Sasuke stares at Pride a little longer, then Lotor arrives and the Uchiha is standing, walking over to the man and offering his hand. "Prince Lotor. You really are an alien." he states as his eyes shift to red, and he's looking over the man to peer into his body. "Excuse me, I'm just checking to see if you have chakra channels like most humans."
"Doesn't she though?" Nine's answering smile, both to Lotor's smile and his comment about Grandmother Bane shines for just a moment through the ugly and he nods.
Although Nine fully recognizes the dig for what it is, shooting a flat, hateful glare at Pride. Outward appearances are symbolic. When you looked like Nine, ugly and rough and stamped with more brands and tattoos and serial numbers than a side of beef, yeah, he knew /exactly/ what Pride meant.
The rude gesture he flashed in return hopefully would let Pride know exactly what HE meant in return.
He'd spit on the floor but that'd be unsanitary.
But that wasn't important. Hell, Pride wasn't important, no matter what he thought. Shoving the thought violently from his head, he checked somewhat covertly over his shoulder at the brightly colored hunting bird that was Selena, hopeful her attention had drifted elsewhere and he could relax even as he began perusal of the food. Ooh. That looked good. He began idly browsing along the line, wondering at the exclamation points (and no, he still didn't get it. Groan.) but mostly picking the safe stuff.
Wandering over to take a bite, he gives Lotor a once over, grinning. "Ey man, lookin spiffy…" Yeah, Nine looked like a barbarian in comparison, even in a tuxedo. ESPECIALLY in a tuxedo. "Ya look good. How's things been for you, eh?" Nom. He takes a bite of something or other, not noting much other than it was good. "How's Cossack been? I haven't seen him in a while. -He's still alive, isn't he?" Suddenly flat of expression, trepidacious. Blinking it off, he shakes his head, looking over to Sasuke. "Hello. Rude? You don't just go up to someone like Lotor and give him the creepy eyes dude, he's a respected Confederate." Sasuke gets a bacon wrapped scallop poked at him like an accusatory eye of death, the combat cyborg's scowl making his face all the uglier.
A delighted laugh comes from Lotor, "Oh yes, Grandmother. I am well aware. And /such/ adventures." The Prince of Doom replaces his helm. Looking to the young Pride, Lotor, rather then ruffling the boy's hair as clearly is on the menu, gives him a salute of fist to heart as he listens. Considering the workings of Pride and his Father's organization. Something to remember. With Father's arrival… the Homunculi have suddenly become rather then errant children but now… …potentially very dangerous threats. And with Father's rank in play and how he wishes to remain aloof but still side with them…
…yes, things to be watched.
"Symbolic and important, Pride. Symbolic and important." Lotor looks to Selim's guard for a moment, walking forward a moment. "A bodyguard, Pride? Amusing…" He reaches out and pats the shoulder of one Amestrian Guard. "Welcome to the Confederacy." Lotor can only imagine what fate they have in store for them after tonight. He briefly wonders if they realized they were bodyguarding more then the Fuhrer's Son before they came here.
Lotor doesn't miss Selena's change of apperence and the emotion that passes across her face. His eyes meeting those of the snowy faced Hunting Hawk. A slow incline of his head, as if to agknowledge it, even as he walks over to the drinks table. Lifting a goblet and pouring himself a stream of dark red wine from a bottle.
"Quite well, Shirou. Quite well. My new Citadel is fully operational now… and I intend to host one of my own galas in short order!"
As Sasuke approaches him, Lotor places down his goblet and reaches out to clasp the boy's hand in his own. Lotor is quite tall, well over six feet. And grips the smaller youth's hand warmly. "Oh, indeed I am, Sasuke. The Prince of an Alien Empire! It is good to meet you in the flesh." Lotor does, indeed, have chakra channels, but his are slightly shifted. Veins of it flowing differently. His internal anatomy is almost entirely similar to that of a human. And his life force is strong. With it, however, is a dark presence that flows along his flow of Life Force. Magic? A very dark magic to be sure.
And then to 9, Lotor chuckles softly, "Thank you, 9. And worry not, I utterly understand. Scientific curiousity is common on first meetings… and oh yes, Cossack is /very/ much alive and doing very well. He has been running my gladiatorial pits for me… a task he relishes."
"I address Prince Lotor as an equal, and these creepy eyes gave you a feeling you were incapable of having." Sasuke reminds, returning his gaze to Lotor so he can offer a polite nod, his shake firm before releasing the taller man's hand. "Your chakra channels are strange, it must be your alien physiology."
The Hunting Hawk's eyes sweep the room, touching on each person in turn, sharpening to slits briefly as they pass Nine, before lock onto Sasuke as he scans Lotor, the flint of those eyes is sharp and hard as she makes a mental note of the rudeness, but her eyes are turned long before Uchiha is finished. Her voice is sweet and lyrical, like honeyed music, but her words, "Back home, scanning the Prince of any planet or Empire without permission would be considered an act of war, in fact it would be my duty and pleasure to lay such a person's entrails on the floor in front of them. Ah, how customs differ eh?" and she laughs. Her tone reverts to ice, "You're not very well versed in politics are you Sasuke? It'd be wise to learn."
"Prince Lotor," she smiles, her silvery voice returning once more as she stands and offers the slightest of bows, eyes locked on his, "How delightful it is to meet you at last in the flesh. How does this day find you?" She's not looking at Sasuke, nor does her body language acknowledge him directly, but her stance is not unguarded and those trained Hunter's eyes take in everything.
The guard jumps almost three feet in the air at the sudden touch, reaching for his gun on reflex. But a tendril rises up, stretching out like a bar to try to ease the man's nerves.
"..C..Confederacy?" the guard asks, clearly unaware of the inter multiversal politics.
The tendril shifts and flickers like a wave on the water as a blood red eye bubbles up from the darkness. And from the shadow, Pride's voice intones.
"At -ease-." Pride commands, "There is no threats here.. unless you -want- them to threaten you.." he states, his distorted voice echoing from the tendril; his mouth unmoving on Selim.
The second guard returns with a refilled cup of tea, setting it on the table where Pride was at, and approaching the other two. He seems a bit more shaken up then the other one, but both seem fairly shaken.
"In any case, yes.. body guards. They are simply there for appearences." he flashes a grin, glancing toward Sasuke, then to Selena.
"It seems /young/ Sasuke here, has a bit of a problem with..doing things some people may find.. impolite." he states to Selena, his voice still the distorted echo of a child's voice.
Nine's cackling, mucky laughter echoes brassily through the room for long moments, the Golem's cracked mirth filling the dining hall. "Hah! Well, good for him! E' still owes me a game, but sh*t, I can understand the pull a duty, man. Just glad t' know things are goin good for him, good for you, alla tha…" A grin. "I aint worked with you in quite a while, man. You still lookin for onna my brethren? I hear they're doin /somethin/ with Seven, but Six r' Eight might be vailable, never know…" Not that Nine had any idea about the state of the other incapacitated King models, but it was an interesting idea.
At Selena's words, Nine goes even paler, once more returning to the more pale buckskin hues rather than the richer, less pleasant browner leather of his normal features. Coughing faintly. "Wh-OW. Check three on the 'Don't piss this lady off' right after the multiple impalings and that -smile-. Whee!" Cough. One more reason to tread lightly around the Hawk. Moving a little away from Selena, more subconsciously than anything, Nine looks around for a moment. "Hey, Granny Bane. Did you bring your cat? She's such a sweet kitty. Really helped my headache last time…" Irreguardless of the cat's gender it's a she apparently to Nine. Ghh.
Though the guard's reaction/overreaction gets an arched eyebrow from Nine, the Golem doesn't do much beyond idly pacing over to the nearest one and, assuming he's not shot for it, dropping an arm across the man's shoulders (hell, even if he IS shot for it, he's a King Unit. He laughs that sort of thing off, literally usually.). ALL the way across both, and trailing down the arm a bit. Golems. His grin is meant to be comforting but comes out more creepy than anything, mucky, rough voice easygoing. "Relax man, s'all good here. Yer with friends fer tha moment. Yer s'pposed t' be relaxin, right? Come get sumthin t' eat, pull th' stick out, c'mon." Apparently the King Unit's playing host to the bodyguards now too.
"Half-alien, my good Sasuke. Half-alien. My mother was human. And I suspect… yes. The mixture of genetics and biologies must have had such an effect…" The Prince speaks warmly and respectively to Sasuke. "I doubt I could employ your strange ninjutsu effects in any case. My life force doesn't allow me to manipulate such arts… however I have my own talents." His eyes glow for a moment with a faint eerie inner glow…
Before Selena takes his full attention. The Prince giving his most charming, handsome smile as he looks toward her. Reclaiming up his goblet even as he bows over it deeply to Selena.
"It is an honor, dear Selena. I was, indeed, looking forward to meeting you in the flesh. The day finds me exceedingly well… and this gala has found me meeting quite the beauty." He raises the goblet toward Selena, "To you, oh Hunter Hawk." He drinks deeply, lowering it to chuckle, "As for that… the boy has spent a life as a ninja assassin and warrior. Not a politician… nor ruler… Differences of custom are entirely understandable. He was not raised as an ambassador and leader as I was…" Lotor looks to Sasuke, "But to inherit the burning will of his ancestors."
The Will of Fire. Lotor has… done his homework.
Lotor then turns his attention to Pride and his guards. A rumbling chuckle rises from him. "Yes. Listen to the Son of your Fuhrer and guard him well. He is still the son of your fuhrer, even now…" Lotor is rather amused at the state Pride has put the two men in. Clearly it was intentional. A plaything for the Homunculus to do along with tweaking the mind of Nine and the others. "And I wouldn't go that far, Pride. Sasuke, like you, has an overriding goal. Service to Father. Service to the memory of the Uchiha."
Nine is given Lotor's full attention them, "He'll be glad to match you all too soon, Nine. And yes, I remain curious about the other King models. They could be /most/ useful…" Lotor finds Nine's reactions quite amusing as well, chuckling softly.
Lotor raises his goblet again, "And, on that note… I would like to propose a toast." Lotor speaks with ringing solemnity, "In memory of the Uchiha Clan. May they be avenged!"
Grandmother Bane hums as she returns to her place near the fold-up table witht he pink and white balloons and raffle tickets, leaning a bit on her cane as she goes, making sure that there was still pleanty of food on the buffet tables, and drinks to be had.
There's even a milkshake machine, yes, free milkshakes. Granny Bane's milkshakes brings all the Confeds to the Yard.
"I'm very pleased that the turnout has been relatively high; yes…" she hums a bit to herself as she sits and looks over her glasses at the gathering.
The Hawk smiles a chilly smile, "That I'll drink to that! To Uchiha! To vengeance and the death of those deserving." the cold malice in her voice is unmistakable. She raises her glass high and then downs it at a gulp before slamming the glass down upon the table, careful to stay just on the intact side of breaking it with the impact.
"OH YEAAAAAAAAAH!"
Reality itself sunders at the location of a wall, as cracks of chaos and dischord form. The Nether Goddess of Darkness shatters reality, jumping out of the Nether-dimension in an overly dramatic fashion. In each hand, she's holding huge pitchers of fruit punch, the liquid sloshing in its containers as the Grand Inquisitor seals reality shut behind her.
"Who wants some fucking FRUIT PUNCH? I made it EPICLY. It's also pretty alcoholic, bitches!'
"Politics, customs, all that matters is giving and receiving the proper respect. That I consider Prince Lotor an equal is the highest of compliments. And any assassin attempting to cut me down for not swearing fealty to anyone, would find themselves sadly lacking in continued sanity." Sasuke states quite casually as he raises a glass back to his lips when vengeance is taosted.
"To the impaled heads of every Konoha citizen on poles lining the new Uchiha throne."
Kotomine Shirou's gotten off to looking at the food. However he pauses and looks toward Nethryn a bit uneasily… "…hello Nethryn…" he murmurs before clearing his throat.
<IC-Broadband> Talynn Black says, "—ooh. Are we /really/ going there? I heard it's /really/ high class~."
Speaking of defying reality, someone else arrives, in a black suit and with his usual slicked-back hair. He walks into the dining room, but is conspicuously careless about how physics works. You know, the whole 'two objects occupying the same space' law. He just passes right through one of the walls to get around an arriving guest or two.
This young man is Tyki, and he immediately makes for the booze. The Nether Goddess would find he would be the first one to get some of that fruit punch. And he's even enthusiastic about it, all grins that she's displaying so much energy. "Your attitude is infectious," he compliments, holding out a cup that he procured from…somewhere. He's real good with that sleight-of-hand thing, seeing as he doesn't need to worry about hiding places.
Fwumm. Reality isn't getting a break tonight. Because there's another sudden tear in space. A large wormhole ringed in a soft blue glow. And then… There's a mechanical buzzing.
The sound of heavy weight and machinery slowly lowering from the ceiling of the dining room as the Genetic Lifeform and Disk Operating System main processing unit descends from the portal in the ceiling.
"I am sorry I am late." GLaDOS chirrups. "I was playing First Person Tetris."
At least she's honest.
"I baked you all a cake to make up for it."
There's another portal now, that simply drops a frosted cake decorated with strawberries and crushed nuts on the nearest table.
The cake has a sign on it.
TOTALLY SAFE. CONTAINS NO DEADLY NEUROTOXIN.
Achryn appears, in all her regal majesty, in…
A white apron. And her crown, and a white napkin wrapped around her head, her ears flicking behind her little white hat-hood-bonnet-thing.
And carrying, with a huge technomagical arm apparatus from a belt around her waist, a massive platter. Of what appears to be a small dragon.
"BEHOLD! I HAVE MADE A CULINARY MASTERPIECE. It's a Cornish Hen, in a Quail, in a Chicken, in a Duck, in a Pig, in a DRAGON." She takes a deep breath. "I glazed it in liquid madness, booze… and bacon strips. And bacon strips. And bacon strips. And bacon strips. And …" She holds up her free hand, and counts off on her fingers, going around at least twice before adding "And bacon strips and bacon strips."
"WHO WANTS SOME?!" The queen of the Nation of Darkness calls, into the room.
Lotor drains his first goblet of wine to the toast on Uchiha, pleased to provoke the responses from Selena and Sasuke himself. Glad already to be working himself into the boy's good graces. Lotor, ever the consumate planner, sees these get togethers as exactly what they are; the linking together of disperate forces who, if given the chance, would conquer and destroy one another if not given a target. Lotor knows that once they defeat the Union, the ties that bind in places like these will either hold the Confederacy together…
…or allow a new star ruler over the shattered, broken factions that will emerge from the whole.
Lotor smiles a rather feral smile for an instant as he lowers his goblet, clearing it to his simply charming one as the toast to the Uchiha Clan is concluded.
Aaaand… a Goddess arrives.
Lotor looks at Nethryn and /bursts/ out laughing. A shake of his head and a warm wave, "Nethryn! Excellent. And sounds positively delicious!"
Shirou's responce raises Lotor's smile just a bit, before he appropriates a savory of his own… popping it into mouth while he notices Tyki's arrival. A chuckle coming from him as he swallows. He didn't even bother to check on if it was 'safe' or not. "Tyki Mikk. Welcome! So good to see you"
And then Lotor looks to the Cake as it arrives. Just… shaking his head. "GLaDOS! …That certainly looks… …appetizing."
And Achryn, Lotor looking to her and bursts out laughing again! Shaking his head as he just /stares/.
"…Oh my poor arteries."
Reality, Schmeality. Grandmother Bane stands to greet Tyki Mikk and Nethryn, slipping out with some difficulty from behind her main table and walking over to the Noah.
"Sir Tyki Mikk, what a delight to see you here, and my goodness! It's not every day that a Goddess graces this lowly grandmother's functions." She states, and pinches his cheek as she ties a pink balloon around their wrists. "Always good to see a representative of the Earl about!" she states breezily, and glances up as GLaDOS makes her appearance.
"Ah! GLaDOS! Good to see you getting… out and about." the old woman says with a wave.
At the enterence of Achryn… ehr eyes open wide… and she leans forward.
…. so… many… things.
And Achryn is favored with a fantastic thing that not many could make Grandmother Bane say:
"… that sounds fantastic. I simply /must/ have some."
Nethryn gladly pours Tyki a huge glass of punch. Upon taste, he would find it's actually vaguely fruit favored pure alcohol. Anyone else at the party gets a glass of the deadly superpunch if they want some. Nethryn, however, spots Achryn and immediately rushes over to her, "NO! IT IS NOT DONE, APPRENTICE! NOW BEHOLD!"
Nethryn coils back her hand and then throws one of the pitchers at the dish in Achryn's hands. The pitcher itself phases through her meal, but the contents of it are gone when it smashes on the other side of the room and then vanishes, "AND NOW… IT IS ALCOHOLIC!" She shouts dramatically.
There is a pink and silver siamese cat here.
It is eating from the plate of eternal bacon.
It is utterly and completely inconspicuous.
Selena, ever the loyal Hunting Hawk, settles into her chair with a neutral expression, her ears and eyes perked sharply at all the sights and sounds moving about her. For now she decides to settle to silence and take measure unless addressed directly, it seems the best course of action. She too knows a thing or two about gatherings such as these.
Tyki damn near spills his drink when his cheek is pinched, causing him to tilt over goofily and make a loud, "Heeeey!!" in protest. He sidles away from Granny Bane when she finishes humiliating him in front of the other guests, and sips his drink. He pauses and looks down in it with a look of stark surprise.
And then takes another sip, a brow perked as if making some mental 'oh well.' His attention then goes to what Nethryn just did. His eyes seem perpetually stuck in that wide surprised glow for the moment. And then he is compelled to ask to Nethryn, sliding up to stand in front of her.
"How did you do that? You must teach me."
The look on his face is chilishly hopeful. And weird, because of the ashy dark skin, and the gold evil eyes, and the stigmata displayed on his forehead…
"GLaDOS, Nethryn." Sasuke addresses one that he recognizes, and the other whose voice is familiar. He approaches Nethryn, bowing his head slightly, which is likely a large sign of respect from the Uchiha. "So you're a goddess." he states blandly, eyes scanning over her to see if his eyes can tell just what a goddess is made of. Is she chakra? Is she existential chocolate? "I apologize for my latest failure, but I did collect a hair sample from the Saiyan."
Kotomine's apparently moved to slip out durring all the chaos, ooh booyyy.
When the large.. scaly.. ugly monstrous.. cyborg.. thing, lays it's arms over the Jones's shoulders, the highly trained special ops guard quite nearly pisses himself in fear from the sheer monstrous appearence of Number Nine. He had come here, with the thoughts of protecting young Selim from possible assassination, or kidnapping while he played in the park. He never expected..Pride, to be.. around such.. people. He was going to call it in, but immediately realized his radio was jammed. Pride cracked a grin, without turning around his voice intones.
"Oh yes, did I forget to mention? Your radios are of no use here.. I can't have you pathetic little fools reporting this to my..'dear' mother, now can I?" he chuckles quietly, waving them both off dismissively for Nine to entertain.
"Do go easy on them, Nine…Get them both drunk, and let them have the time of their lives." The two guards look at eachother, then back toward Nine.
"It will make a nice cover story later.." Pride muses, letting his tendril slowly recede beneath his feet, as he glances around the room at the new arrivals.
He spots Tyki, offering a faint nod of his head, he'd met the man only once before, and that was during his early days in the Multiverse.
Noting the other arrivals, whom he didn't know by face..the boy-shaped humonculus rolled his shoulders some absently adjusting his jacket as he moves over toward the food on the tables, and begins glancing about the dishes with some form of curiosity. He didn't /need/ to eat, but it was still enjoyable to test out different cuisines. He grabbed a few plates, using his shadows to balance more then just one and place them all accordingly around his tea at his table.
Nine is, apparently, listening to Sasuke, judging by the sudden choking fit that seems to be incapacitating him. Either that or he just swallowed a live hedgehog. Either of those could explain that sound, but considering the likelihood of hedgehogs, living or dead being on the menu, it's likely the former. "Gheh heh heh hah hah HAH HA HA HA HAH! BwAHAHAAHAAHAAHAAHAAHAAAAAAAAAHAAAAAAAAAAAAHHHHHHHH!!!"
Chokecoughsnort. "Well, aint YOU got a pair a jumbo sized cojones? You think you can back that up, lil man? You? Equals with LOTOR? Shyeah right, ya gotta be KIDDIN me!" Another gale of highly obnoxoious laughter follows that little resolution, the King Golem not versed at all in any sort of social nicities. Clapping a hand on Jones' chest, he steers the man to the bar, idly noting, "Don't forget to mind the exclamation points." Without really knowing why himself.
The portal in the ceiling gets a long, wide eyed stare. A long. Wide. Eyed. Stare. He's always sorta paralyzed when GLaDOS shows up, but that passes quickly. Ooh, cake!
"Thanks GLaDOS! You always have the best cake." Guiding the man over, he nods towards the massive figure in the ceiling with a grin, retrieving himself a piece of cake with a happy sigh. Mmmm. "See? No neurotoxin. PERFECTLY safe!" Slapping him on the back and abandoning him to GLaDOS' tender mercies at the moment, he makes his way towards Achryn and Nethryn, shouting. "FUNCTIONING ARTERIES ARE FOR PUSSIES! HIT MEH!" of course, he might well get slapped for that, but hey, it's all part of the fun. A grin and a wave, the Golem quite happy for a glass of Deadly Superpunch to go with his Artery Destroying Escher-Esque TurDuckHen Bacon Bomb and Non-Deadly Neurotoxin-less Cake. Wheehee!
tMoving back after a moment with a big cup of punch and a plate of the turduckhen monstrosity for Jones the guard, idly reapplying his arm over his shoulder. "Drink up, kid. Things are going to get interesting pretty damn soon…"
While Raze is not here, Archryn and the others are still around. As such, Reaper's been lured out to the social out of curiousity. As such the cyborg wanders in, riding on Bodycount's shoulder. "….hello everyone…" Reaper greets.
"Unit Bodycount greets you all…"
Lotor turns back to the drinks table, lifting up the bottle of wine and pouring himself another goblet full. A delightful vintage. He studies the wine a moment, considering the label, missing the departure of Shirou and simply listening to the chaos unfolding. Tonight has proven an interesting one. He definitely intends to have some of Achryn's crazy food and Nethryn's punch. And, he reasons, he might even brave a slice of GLaDOS' cake. He's too valuable for GLaDOS to poison at the moment… so she'll warn him if he's about to eat deadly neurotoxin.
Probably.
Possibly.
Maybe?
No.
Lotor gives a little sigh and laughs. Turning back to walk over to the table. Pulling out a pair of chairs. Lounging into one he reclines lazily, putting a booted foot onto another.
"This is simply marvellous!" He raises his goblet and takes a drink. "Havn't seem so many of us gathered outside of a battlefield since Doom's little parties!"
And oh ho, a new face. Lotor turns his head to look to Reaper and… WHOA! …that is an impressive cyborg. Lotor inclines his head, "Reaper. Bodycount. Glad you could join us!"
"Don't worry about it. I'm not the kind of person that blames people for their failures, and trust me, you more than counter-balanced by getting me my mountain." Nethryn says. In response to his headbow, she halfway bows at the waist in an equal show of respect to the powerful young Elite. As for what she's made of? It's like looking at an MC Escher Painting of an MC Escher Painting of some stairs. "But yes, I am a goddess. I also serve as Evelynn Cordelia's navigator and an Inquisitor for the Confederacy."
The pink and silver siamese cat, out of the left field, jumps onto Nine's left shoulder.
It is perfectly balanced there, against all odds.
With soft purring, it remains there.
It looks very content with its new perch.
That's right. Even GLaDOS sometimes decides to drop on down from her ceiling perch and perform Aperture Science Computer Aided Social Enrichment Activities. The main, golden, eye of the gigantic computer swivels at Nethryn's sudden infusion of alcohol into a meal that…
Would clog the arteries of anything alive just from touching it.
"Oh. Yes. I thought I would come on down and help raise morale." The AI drones blankly in reply to Bane's greeting. "Really. I have no intent to set down a cake laced with a new strain of deadly neurotoxin in hopes of testing it. I mean. It's not like I would ever do that to Confederate personnel, anyway."
Head-unit tilting just a bit, the machine retracts slightly into the giant portal from which she dangles. "Sasuke." She offers back to the ninja. "When you least expect it." Is all she says. Because it looks someone is going for her cake! When Nine helps himself to a slab, she whispers but one thing…
"This was a triumph."
That's when something reaches her aural sensors. Something only GLaDOS seems to hear. She goes silent. Her Emotion core swings down, red eye glowering balefully as it begins scanning the room left and right, trembling with purest and undistilled rage as it growls quietly.
"You mean throw the pitcher? See, it's all about focus. You have to imagine the punch coming out of it and the pitcher still going. It's timing, really, like when you try to juggle. You keep both objects phasic simultaneously, but then you rephase one while keeping the other unphased." Nethryn explains as she takes a gulp from the pitcher in her hand and spins faintly, "And then Tada. An explosion of glass."
Achryn places the now completely alcoholic Draturducken Bacon Monstrosity on the table, and smiles around, her eyes bright and rather happy. She sighs, a bit, pulling some of the normal punch over and retrieving a small flask from her Utility Belt, and dumping enough 'spike' to the punch to make it lethal to small animals. It also turns the punch a swirly purple, with a small electrical storm brewing over it.
She takes a plastic cup and scoops a full cup from the punch bowl, knocking it back with gusto. "Phew. Cooking is hard! It's a good thing I have so many lackies who actually know how to cook. Lotor!" She raises her now empty cup, and then… Fills her cup again, before continuing. "To… Ruling stuff!"
She downs that cup without pausing to see if Lotor is drinking with her, her cheeks flushing a bit as the rather fast acting liquid madness/strong booze/whimpering and abused punch mixture starts affecting her.
She wobbles her way over to Nethryn, leaning on the goddess's shoulder and her ears flopping and flicking drunkenly.
She then pats Sasuke on the head. "You keep this up, and we'll find you a place in the Ministry. Doing cool stuff, like retro-rocket dragon riding with laser whips."
"Thank you prince Lotor," Reaper replies with a slight bow of her head, "I heard Archryn and Nethryn were here, so I came to investigate." At which point Bodycount announces the fact he's in wait mode. "What is the occasion for this feast again," the cyborg girl wonders quietly.
Tyki listens to Nethryn, completely failing to understand what she's saying. He flicks out a deck of cards, and starts shuffling it with his open hand, thinking on what she said. "I don't think I can do that from a distance," he admits, "My reality bending requires me to touch something." He squints over at the deadly 'food' item that had been set down. It's like someone trying to learn telekinesis. Or the Force. Or a variety of other things.
He's starting to seem a little buzzed, so he might keep trying for a whi—
"Oh, cake!" That didn't last long.
Ridley had no feelings towards the Confederacy, other than a necessary evil. Should they not be required for Ridley's survival and profit in the Multiverse; surely many members of the Confederacy would have convinced the Space Dragon to turn his weapons upon them long ago.
Still, through all his carefully chosen dialog, his deep and booming intellectual voice, and his means to 'act' as a creature of great intellect and high standards… Ridley was by all means a Pirate; and a pirate does love to drink… obsessively and in great amounts on a normal occasion. Sure he detested the choice of company, but should the alcohol be good enough Ridley can sulk in his own corner, ignore his so called allies and get his own body weight in free drinks before he slinks off without a word or even an acknowledgement towards his allies.
Heavy footfalls and the clink of metal on the hard floors signify that Ridley has arrived, as the Space Dragon enters the Elite Dining Room for the first time since his employment in the Confederacy. Due to his spiteful nature, Ridley tries to spend as little time as possible in the Confederate Headquarters, and spends the majority of his free time in Zebes.
Clad in his metallic Meta-Suit, Ridley was likely trying to show himself as a threat to his allies, not bothering to relax enough to remove his armaments and weapons before entering the hall. Perhaps that would convince less people to dare approach him for conversation.
Ridley scans over the room with half-closed and totally uninterested eyes, noting a few familiar faces and giving a light growl of annoyance; and quickly takes a look in search of this so called free alcohol.
"I do what I need to leave an impression on my superiors." Sasuke states for both Nethryn and Achryn, moving over to the cake. His hand moves in one swift motion, and a perfectly cut piece of cake is suddenly in his hand with a small plate. "I'm immune to poisons, your psychological tactic was largely pointless on me." he states very dryly, glancing to Nine. "If one wishes to strike me down for speaking to those of power as an equal, then they're welcome to try."
He's of course not stating it aggressively, but as some fact of the situation, heading back over to Nethryn. "I attempted to recruit Lydia Deetz and her Beetlejuice, but she drew the line quite clearly. And your physiology is interesting."
"It's still an impressive power!" Nethryn says to Tyki as she watches him take out his desk of cards, "I wish I had real phasing powers. It's more parlor tricks for me." She admits to the Noah before she takes another sip of her drink, "How have things been for you and the Earl? I haven't heard much of his workings."
"You are leaving a good impression on everyone you meet, Uchiha Sasuke." Grandmother bane states as she eases down into a chair, a piece of cake in hand, and some of that rediculous meat construction in the other, cane hanging over her wrist as she sits down.
The Grandmother leans forward and gives a small smile. "I look forward to working with you in the future. I also enjoy laying waste to all who stand in my way." she smiles, and takes a bite out of the cake.
"mm, delicious."
"It's still an impressive power!" Nethryn says to Tyki as she watches him take out his desk of cards, "I wish I had real phasing powers. It's more parlor tricks for me." She admits to the Noah before she takes another sip of her drink, "How have things been for you and the Earl? I haven't heard much of his workings."
Idly, the Goddess of the Nether pets her minion on the top of her head when Achryn starts leaning against her, "Nine! Sasuke! You two play nice for this scene. OR! YOU CAN!" She attempts to pose dramatically, but cannot between punch and Wolfox girl leaning against her. She more sorta half-jumps and waves sissily, "Gladiate for my amusement!"
Welcome to the Monthly Social!
Grandmother Bane, aptly-ranked Morale Liason for the Confederacy has again put together a social event for the new faces and old of the Confederacy… 'old' of course, being relative.
Grandmother Bane herself is at the front, near the enterence with a roll of pink and white raffle tickets and balloons, while the spread of food on the long buffet table with all manner of fineries, ranging from steak tartar (with at least one marked with a red exclamation mark) to chicken tenders, spaghetti and cold pasta dishes to Chinese and Japanese cuisine. Every so often there is a platter marked with a little placard with a red exclimation mark… which does not mean that it's spicy.
Tables and chairs are set up in various places around the dining room, for various sizes of people. (repose of the opening for eeeveryone!"
The Hunting Hawk rises and moves over nearer to Grandmother Bane, nodding her head in brief apology, "Sorry to leave your engagement when it seems to just be getting really started, but I've just remembered, I have someone to kill tonight. Thank you, it's been educational and entertaining." with that she glides towards the door, her black suited soldier following closely behind her.
Lotor's grin spread even wider at Ridley's. Looking over one of his more interesting and favored allies. Watching him not so much slip in as /thunder/ in. Ridley, even in the Meta-suit, is a /dragon/. A rumbling laugh bubbles up from him as he motions, "There are the kegs, my friend Ridley. Grab yourself a keg and enjoy yourself. So glad you joined us." Lotor remains lounging even as he drinks his wine, giving the crowd around Achryn's magnificent feast a chance to thin. Becoming most amused. He pities those poor guards with Pride even now…
…they'll probably die of fright before the night is out.
Lotor calls out then to Achryn, "Part of being a monarch is knowing when to enjoy a feast! This is what Majordomos are for! Let your subordinates run the land while you're recovering. If they run it into the ground, you can always execute them and blame the problems on them!" Lotor raises his own goblet, "…To rulership, oh Queen!" He deeply, finishing off the last of his wine. Swinging his legs down and approaching the punch bowl.
He lowers his goblet in, filling it of Nethryn's potent concoction.
"Thankfully, Cossack has actualy never needed to be executed! He's quite useful that way."
Lotor slips over as well, smiling charmingly even as he takes some cake. "GLaDOS. I trust its not /that/ deadly. Maybe a few minor nanites to watch and monitor us?" He asks teasingly.
As Selena departs, Lotor inclines his head towards her, "Until we meet again, Hunter Hawk! Feel free to visit my ship or my citadel any time you wish!"
Nine now has a cat on his shoulder? Neat! Without realizing the horrid implications of the creature now making his rather wide shoulder home, he idly raises a scratched and pitted metal hand, rubbing the kitty idly despite the fact that it isn't Bane's cat. Maybe she got two.
Idly downing the punch with a bit of a glassy look, he coughs, staring at the glass incredulously before getting another helping of 'punch'. "F*** woman, you could knock out a Blizzard Chaser with this sh*t!" Judging by his commentary, it's not a bad thing. Coming back with his second glass, he claps a hand once more to Jones the guard's shoulder, leaning amicably on the man's shoulder and gesturing with his glass, before downing it in one pulling drink. "Anyway! As I was saying, anyway- I, whoa. I think this stuff is getting to me." Leaving the poor, bewildered Jones behind, he nods and moves a little unsteadily towards the hanging form of GLaDOS, laughing raucously to himself. "HEAR THAT GLaDOS? SOUNDS LIKE A CHALLENGE T' ME!" okay, so he might not be able to get drunk longterm, but even the mitochondria can only keep up with so much. Speaking of that- Once more the punch is tapped, abused, refilled, and the Golem is off, somewhat tipsy and somewhat bemused, wandering through the crowd.
"NO HE AINT!"
Idly weaving through people (and occasionally just weaving, the Golem snerks, raising his drink as he would a weapon and calls out. "YOU WANT ME TO SPANK THE KID NETHRYN, I'LL DO IT!" Okay so maybe the chaos and booze are actually affecting him for real. WHEE!
Sasuke suddenly vanishes from the cake, and appears about five feet in front of nine, taking modest bites of his cake while slowly beginning to draw his sword with the other hand. "I'm more than willing to demonstrate my prowess for a superior. Is this a fight to the death, or am I simply disabling him?"
"It's the power to Choose," Tyki explains to Nethryn, with a happy tone of voice, "I 'choose' what I want to affect me. I can even force the power to do more…dangerous things. Like rejecting gravity. Or rejecting reality. Black holes are so much fun~!" He starts to get such a big grin on his face. "But reality likes to push back, so it's hard to do much with it without tiring myself out quickly," he adds.
Talkative, now. He does look more tipsy, he's been drinking that stuff. He continues, and mentions, offhandedly, "The Duke is busy doing business with that Homunculus in Central Two," obviously not pleased to talk about it. "I apologize. He's had me out hunting for the Exorcists for weeks now, and I've come up empty. He always sends me off for the least elegant jobs. I wish he'd send Skin for it, he's more the smashy type."
Complaining comes to an end when he toddles over to the cake and acquires a piece. And gets an idea. He hefts it in his hand…and then flicks it skillfully in an arc across the room, right at Nine's face. Because he's yelling. It seemed like a good idea at the time. "Oops~…"
Ridley turns his head over at Lotor as the Prince of Planet Doom addresses him. Ah yes, Lotor; though humanlike in appearance he was one of the only members of the Confederacy Ridley didn't outwardly detest. The dragon gives a unemotional nod in greetings towards Lotor (coming from Ridley, that's a grand compliment) before following Lotor's motion over towards the (hopefully) various kegs.
The size of a human Keg was about the size of a slightly larger than usual "can" of beer, so the Space Dragon would likely empty out many of them without regard of how expensive kegs are. However a coy smirk does spread over Ridley's beaked muzzle, flashing his metallic reinforced fangs as he moves to the kegs and quickly snatching up one in his claws. As promised; Ridley cared little for the condition of the keg once he finished with it, and with his narrow beak and massive fangs he promptly bit a large hole in the top corner of one keg and promptly smashes his muzzle the rest of the way in, the metal groaning loudly as the dragon begins to quickly suck up the contents of the keg.
In only seconds, the dragon was already tilting the keg in the air as whatever liquid within messily dribbles down the front of the dragon's maw and chest, before the container was emptied and Ridley rips the twisted hunk of metal off of his maw, throwing the keg behind him; the top ripped and torn open, claw marks indented in the side of the keg, and totally empty.
Without missing a beat, the Space Dragon quickly reaches down and grabs a second keg; repeating the same action as he drinks as though he hadn't drank in months.
Reaper has set into digging at the Nethryn and Achryn combo of alcoholic fooooood! "Hmmm… so this is the kind of food they would make….."
He had no care for alchohal, cake, or just about anything else. He just sat and observed, like he always did. Sipping his tea, eating his sushi and other random bits and bobs of food he grabbed. Smith took position behind him, watching Jones and Nine make fools of themselves over cake, alchohal, and other wonderous objects of delight.
"You know.. you don't have to watch over me.." Pride states, not looking toward his bodyguard. "This will likely be the last time you ever see me." he says, with such knowing, such casual tones. "
Besides, I'm sure Jones would appreciate the company.." he muses, lifting up an eel roll, and peering over it some before popping it into his mouth.
Smith frowned deeply, watching the Arrogant Humonculus eat, licking his lips some before pushing off from the wall and making his way over toward Nine and Jones.
"If you—" he starts to say, but Pride cuts him off.
"I don't need you, and I never needed you. Just be sure to come back.. and I'll make you death as painless as possible, understand?" Pride said quietly, he wasn't lying either.
"Have fun. This is quite literally your last day alive…"
With that, Smith walks off his face much more paler now, and Pride goes back to eating now.. some form of asian noodles. He glances up faintly, to the things going on in the dining room, expanding his shadows at the base of his chair, the black snake-like tendrils easing their way through the large room; slinking around people, as blood red eyes begin bubbling up from the walls, floor, and even the tables.
Achryn smiles dumbly at Sasuke. "Right, excuse me…" She wobbles towards Number Nine, heading past him for more punch, and…
Stops dead, as cake flies past her, towards Nine. "Wait. Was that…"
"DID SOMEONE JUST THROW THE CAKE THAT THE MINISTER MADE? Because I will demote you so fast for wasting the last slice of cake that they'll have to make a new rank, which is the SQUARE ROOT OF NEGATIVE ONE!" She calls loudly, and drunkenly.
And then she pauses. "Oh, wait. There's still cake. CARRY ON!" She grabs a slice of cake, and starts munching. Omnom.
Nom.
Nomnom. Cake.
Then, she laughs, raising her fork. "Fight for the Goddess of Nether's Amusement!" She urges on Nine and Sasuke.
She then stabs a fork into one of the eyes on the wall, her own chains of darkness (which are on fire) slinking out of her belt and sleeves and generally countering Pride's stuff.
Nine might be drunk (yay for liquid chaos!) but he's not overly incapacitated, and, laughing, his hand drops to the handle at his waist, idly drawing the gunblade with a wrench of his long, apish arm. His grin is wide, his eyes narrowed and his breath heavy with alcohol, scent heavy with mitochondrial tang. "Heyyy kiddo. Lemme ask something. Ya able to survive without yer intestines? Cause that'll /really/ help in about a minute n' a half."
Before, oh, look, cake! He catches it on the plate idly, the plate still in hand and the half piece of cake becoming a piece and a half as it falls from him, his tongue (long, rather doglike and also rather purple, yeesh!) cleaning off the rest. "Mmmm."
A glance at the cat on his shoulder gets a very confused look, but oh, wait, he has a kid to eviscerate, didn't he?
"BEAT EACHOTHER LIKE THE RED-HEADED STEP CHILDREN OF THE CONFEDERACY!" Nethryn says as she crosses her arms and nods her head before grabbing Achryn and shaking her, "Achryn! We are drink, I think! Drank! Drunk! We're DRUNK!" She establishes the proper tense for the situation before nodding her head.
"No killing eachother! And the loser has to get on the Confederate bands and admit they wanna star in a yaoi manga!" She nods her head and then grins fangily, "Or something! I dunno." She shrugs idly.
Tyki turns his head leisurely to look over at Achryn, not intimidated, just mildly surprised he was being yelled at. He looks bemused when Yaoi manga is mentioned, and starts to shimmy to a safe side of the room, where he can eat his cake and booze it up, and hopefully not have to dodge Elite punches.
Fashionably late is allllll the rage. Or, rather, at the last moment of trying to leave the castle for the Confederate Social, an incident occurred that kept the local 'Wolfwere' from being able to be on time. Something to do with two farmers, a pig, and neither of them being able to say who it belonged to.
An interesting story to be told later! Instead, With a gust of wind powerful enough to knock the doors to the dining hall open and send any curtains present fluttering, Marrok makes his way in, adujusting his princly cape with an air of annoyance, and making his way directly for Grandmother Bane's chair. Because, being a prince, one must do with political crap first: "My greatest apologies, great Grandmother Bane, for being late to your social. It shall never happen again. I have seen to it that the problem which held me up was dealt with post haste, and the next time someone thinks to keep me, they shall be most sorry that th—" He stops, Because about this point, he's noticed there's a bruhaha going on. He blinks, having being mid-Most-Apologetic-Bow-And-Sweep-Of-Cape.
Ohhh… People are eating the cake…
"A huge success…"
GLaDOS crackles to herself. But then the AI begins to retract into the portal on the ceiling. "I'm am very GLaD you all like my cake so much. … Enjoy it all while you can." She says. Before all of her eyes focus on Sasuke.
"Haha. The joke is on you. You have fallen for my Serbian Jew Double Bluff."
That's all she says as the portal closes.
Lotor simply takes a seat, laughing with pure delight at the chaos and gathering going on. Setting his slice of cake on the table and raising his goblet of… 'fruit punch'. He sniffs it lightly. Reacting with a widening of his eyes at the /power/ of the bouquet. He gently sets it down even as he shakes his head with warm laughter. Ridley's gaze and nod is returned with a warm one of his own. Doffing his helmet and letting his tumble of white hair spill free down his back. Resting it too on the table. Watching Ridley drink his alcohol with definite amusement.
"So good for you to join us, my space dragon friend."
Lotor just shakes his head then, watching with a smile at the events over with the cake, Nine, and the others. And the clear desire for Achryn and Nethryn to have a battle for their amusement. Lotor considers, and raises his voice… pausing briefly to look down at one of Pride's eyes on one of the tendrils. Lotor just giving a little wave at it.
"Allow me to offer a location for the next Gala then, if you're so eager for bloodsport! My Citadel is completed! Including the gladiatorial pits! There will soon be a grand opening and much more… if Grandmother Bane consents, we can colaborate for the next one. And I can put on the grandest show this side of Planet Doom!"
"Ceasar had magnificent matches when he was around. Mine, however, are /much/ more interesting!"
Grandmother Bane, from her place with the balloons and raffle tickets, gives a wave to the wolfware, setting her fork to her plate as she leans back in her chair.
"Oh… don't mind them. There is a bit of a druken match going on, and I immediately approve it — have you tried the delectable meat-candy offering that has been brought to the event? It's simply fantastic, even if it is not… 'our favorite fare'."
With Glados' dissapearance, Reaper wonders over to the cake and starts muching away at it as well. And she was really putting away that Drabacturdu—-err GIANT GLORIOUS ABOMINATION OF MEAT a moment ago. How much space is in the kuudere cyborg's stomache? …one watching her closely enough, however, would see she's a bit flushed. …and is Bodycound wobbling even thoug he's sitting still now?
"… interesting," Comments Marrok thoughtfully, as he catches his breath amazingly fast. Given he is the 'Prince of the Wind Wolves', this is not a big feat. Instead, with a couple of blinks, the currently human fellow nods to her, then looks about the banquet room. Interesting. His eyes, however, land most firmly, on Blossom.. And then narrow to slits. A low growl comes from him, most noticebly not human— But he clears his throat shortly after, and runs his fingers through his spikey Man-Mullet of a mane, and then starts for the buffet table, passing by 9 and Rose with a girth of at least ten feet. Just enough to sniff the air, and make sure he doesn't know this cat personally. And far enough to keep him from losing his cool entirely.
Ridley grimaces with the havoc taking place behind him; but uses that as further motivation to keep drinking. He was highly disappointed to find most of the drinks were human drinks; and though alcohol will affect him in roughly the same way, he was used to far more powerful drugs and drinks. Still, he continues to drink if not simply as a means to avoid conversation with the others.
Ridley pauses as suddenly Lotor speaks to him, the Space Dragon raising an eye ridge as he crushes another empty keg in his claws and casually rolling it along the ground in the direction of the loudest in the room; Nine. It wasn't an attack so much as Ridley drunkenly wanting to see what happens; but the throw was casual and non-hostile, not holding any of the dragon's usual super strength; so it could be easily avoided.
"I was merely looking for fine drink; the company was an afterthought. Never the less, I suppose it is… good… to see you." the dragon seems to half choke out the words; not because it disgusted him but quite frankly he has never had much opportunities to practice human civility.
"I did assume you were like me in the regard of simple pleasures however; a fine drink is hard to beat, especially when free."
Getting the go-ahead, Nine nods a little, his lips pressed tight in a smile and his eyes closed for just a moment, idly easing his plate onto the table, well away from where they're going to be… and draws his gunblade back, holding the blade with a pair of fingers- before moving to SLAP Sasuke away from him, lurching drunkenly and slipping between a pair of tables and a chair to move towards a more open area.
The radio seems to confuse him for a moment, and he draws one of his Mongoose's, tilting his head. "Either I'm s'pposed to shoot you, shoot Achryn or drink more… N'ot sure which."
Nine also seems to take a moment to get around a keg rolling across the floor. This isn't managed well, since it seems to continue moving in a particularly treacherous manner, and he ends up kicking it out of the way after a moment in irritation.
Whether he still has a cat on his shoulder or not… he has to check. Um.
At this point… Lotor decides it was time to go with the flow. He raised the goblet of nether-goddess made Fruit Punch. He takes a long slow drink. Shivering as he feels the power of that fluid racing into him. He turns and takes a forkfull of cake. Considering it. He wishes he had a poison detector with him… but then, others are eating the cake and not keeling over dead. So he takes a bite. "…Mmmm… Good cake." He shrugs and proceeds to contentedly eat. Pausing only for a moment to rise and, staggering just a little, to obtain another goblet full.
He walks over and offers it to Grandmother Bane with his most courtly bow.
"Hello, Marrok! Glad you could join us, cousin! Enjoy the alcohol. Tonight is a night of drunken frivoloty it seems!"
Lotor muses, then smiles to Ridley. Nodding warmly as he returns to his own seat. "Truer words, my friend. Truer words."
He lounges back even as he speaks into a private line to someone… somewhere.
Sasuke takes the blade to the face, flying back into a chair and also dropping his cake at the same time. He lifts himself up, rubbing his cheek, then vanishes from where he's standing and appears in front of Nine again, attempting to stab him right into the shoulder. "I have an impression to make. Don't take anything I'm about to do personally."
Achryn reaches into her belt, rummaging around, before pulling out two handfuls of about eight shotglasses. Each.
She slams them down on the table, and starts pouring Nethryn's punch into the shotglasses. And then she starts /downing/ them. Well, actually, she leaves a row of eight. For Number Nine! But then she notices that he's actually off shooting Sasuke for Nethryn's amusement. So she downs the rest of the shots, sweeps the table of the now empty glasses (which shatter on the floor, then burn from the flaming darkness chains), and cups her hands to her mouth.
"THROOOOOOOOOOOOOOWDOOOOOOOOOOOOOWN!"
The cat on Nine's shoulder stares as violence happens.
It is not a good thing.
With a burst of silver light, the cat turns into a girl in armor, wielding a gigantic axe and scythe. Her eyebrows are incredibly low. She does not appear to be happy.
There is a brief burst of moonlight thorough the entire dining room as she speaks— voice amplified by magic in such a way that it echoes in the minds of all who hear it.
"SIT DOWN."
She even swings her axe at Nine— but the blade would stop inches from his face, at which point the blunt of it is spun to try and knock him down onto his designated seat. In front of food. With the same movement, she brings the arm and axe back to her in such a way as to also sit Sasuke down.
"I swear if anyone tries to hurt anyone else they are going to have to go through ME. Clear? GOOD." The catgirl does in fact not look particularily happy. She is about an inch away from just forcefeeding people who refuse to sit down and enjoy the good times.
And lord are you in trouble if you stain your clothes.
Blossom Rose hit No. 9 with her Enjoy Your Meal >:| tag attack! <Standard Mechanic>
Blossom Rose hit Sasuke Uchiha with her Or Else. »:| tag attack! <Standard Mechanic>
The stab recieves a… giggle? Yeah. He laughs. It's high, and sort of inappropriate, but he's laughing even as the heavily reinforced shoulder is stabbed into, the blade slipping between metal plates along the pauldron and into the thick, heavy armored meat below. Tough f***er. Even as the blood spurts, it flares orange, burning to ashy water along blade and armor and the Golem laughs, chuckling muckily and wiping a bit of cake from his face.
He stops a moment, trying to identify what he's suddenly staring at… looks like an… axe. Blade. Edge on. Hmm. Glancing over the blade at Blossom, he raises an eyebrow, looking dissappointed. "Awww…"
Oh, wait. This meant the ability to drink some more. Hey! "Have a drink, kid. If it can *hic* affect me, it can affect you. C'mon."
And now it's time to move back, find Jones and, what was his name… the other guy, and maybe Achryn, and get f***ing PLASTERED.
<X-Confed-Chatter> (Voice Acted) Ridley says, "Oh and I was already daring her attention."
The buffet truely does look quite delicious; and truely, Marrok was doing his best to ignore the cat, be nice, and just attack the buffet with hunger.
And then, MOONLIGHT.
"Huh, what in th— My eyes— OH-" … what follows is a snarled, howled amount of cursing in French so thick and abominable that it best left untranslated.
The Garish cry climaxes in a sudden cloud of howling, snickering shadows flying about Marrok in a swarm, each giggling and chattering. .. A mass of feral Inviscus, suddenly drawn about by his surprise. All seeming to try and devour him at once. Until: "EEEE-NOUGH!"
At the garbled, deep, resonating roar, the !Heartless shirk back, forming into a loose pack of about five, staring at what was once a man, but is now nine shaggy feet of mottled Alpha Wolf, looking very annoyed.
Sasuke stumbles back from the axe, sighing as he aims the sword at Blossom now, shaking his head. "I have permission to cut you down in order to fight Mister Nine and leave an impression, however…" Sasuke looks over in Nethryn's direction, shaking his head. "I believe my superios is intoxicated at the moment."
"Unit Reaper thinks Unit Reaper can only get drunk on something this powerful…." Reaper mumurs as she leans onto the area the dragon turkey bacon, still nomming even more at the mess. "Delicious madness meaaaats," Bodycount randomly spouts from his spot where he's flailing near the door way.
Lotor just watches the chaos. Bursting out laughing as Blossom Rose goes… crazy. And … Moonlight? He shakes his head. Totally unfamiliar with Exalted. Lunar, Infernal, Solar, or otherwise. He taking another long swallow from his alcohol as Achryn sets up the shots. He is grinning a feral grin of his own as the alcohol floods through him. He can feel it searing into him. Blossom's motherliness is absolutely priceless. And this whole social event is magnificent.
What happens to Marrok though almost makes him fall off of his chair with laughter.
"Why cousin! What big teeth you have!"
"What big ears you have!" Grandmother Bane adds on, and sits next to Lotor… and downs a shot.
Yes. She needed one. This was turning out to be /quite/ the evening.
"HEY RIDLEY! Here, have the rest of my punch!" Nethryn shouts to the dragon as she tosses the pitcher towards the dragon. It's not a lot, but it's about 97% Alcohol and that's a powerful mixture! The Nether Goddess wobbles on her feet, "ACHRYN! WONDER NETHER DUO POWERS ACTIVATE!"
Nethryn runs towards Achryn at a high-speed, holding up her arm as their palms collide while explosions of energy erupt behind them. And then the two have vanished.
Achryn rubs her face, looking absolutely smashed. And then, she looks, horrified, at the food and drink table. "Oh… oh god. Oh no. We're running low!"
She stands straight up, looking around. "DON'T WORRY EVERYONE!"
She looks to Nethryn and nods, seriously. "FORM OF… DRUNKENNESS!"
Achryn then runs towards Nethryn at a high-speed, holding up her arm as their palms collide while explosions of energy erupt behind them. And then the two have vanished.
The stab in the eye with fire forks of doom, was enough to pain Pride slightly, and cause the eye to close. He muttered irritatedly as he retracts that particular tendril, slinking it along the floor now and opening the eye again in a new location.
He watched as Lotor waved to another eye, and just generally remained where he was sipping his tea and continuing to sample different types of food. He found chicken ramen to his liking, as well as a few different types of sushi, as well as many other different things.
If he hadn't known better, he'd think he was becoming Gluttony, but he knew he had nothing better to do, but watch as these people make fools of themselves. Meanwhile, off to another side of the dining hall, both Smith and Jones were drunk off their ass by now, singing showtunes and dancing around stupidly to their own delight, obviously they were enjoying their last night in the Multiverse.
"o/~ Jus' a shmall toown giirrrll.. livin' in a looonely worrrrld! o/~" Both Jones and Smith began to sing in unison, and drunkenly.
"o/~ She took a midnight traain goin' annnn-eeee-wheeeerrrreeee! o/~" the both busted out laughing to themselves, as they continued to sing.
Without a care in the world.
Pride would be sure to make their deaths quick and painless, as he promised. Pride felt the faint urge to join in the festivities of getting drunk himself, but.. that was below him, not to mention he appeared underage anyway. He sipped his tea, and simply watched as the chaos continued.
Ears lay back and marrok shoots both Bane and Lotor a /look/. But he has other things to worry about, like two of his inviscus slinking towards the other guests with mischevious intent. Marrok growls, fur bristling, before he lunges for the beasts, snapping at their heals: "The lot of you get back to the shadow." .. Like the Tiger at the back of the jackal Tabaqui. This disrupts any shenaniganry of his minions part, and the wolf then /sighs/.
"Yes, yes, big teeth, big ears, big eyes, big hands, get it all out." he says, back at Lotor and Bane, before rising upright to his hind feet, and stretching his forepaws some as they readjust into hands. "I will try my best not to get hair in the food. The liqour, well. They say the 'hair of the Dog' cures all ills, no?"
Time for Nine to get in on it, laughing raucously. "And what a big DRESS YOU HAVE! H-HA!" Dick.
Stopping by the punch, he gathers a BIG drink, downing the entire thing, opens a cigarette case -without- cigarettes in it, pulls one of the handrolled items out and lights it briefly before tossing the case to Lotor. It's… a good grade, and the option C of cigars or cigarettes. Um.
Tucking the burning length to one side of his mouth, he fishes another drink out on the way BACK to Sasuke, shaking out his shoulders, both damaged and whole. "OKAY! I aint exact'ly much fer guns most times, so what say I jest slap ya round tha old fashioned way, hey?" And then the Gunblade is back up, backhanded style this time and THWAP!!
No. 9 does 1 damage to Sasuke Uchiha with a Mild Graze hit.
No. 9 hit Sasuke Uchiha with his The Return of the Night of the Gunblade Slap Part 2: The Sequel weak attack! <Standard Mechanic>
Ridley catches the pitcher and sniffs the contents loudly before eyeing the container, giving a look of skepticism through his glowing optics. He then tilts the drink to his mouth, before suddenly his eyes widen and he pulls the pitch her back, grunting loudly as he looks down at the punch. "This… is something I'll have to learn how to make for my personal reserves." Ridley admits, then he turns his head upwards, looking up at Nethryn Ervale as he hopes to show… an amazing act from the dragon and thank her sensearly for the drink.
"Nethryn, I-"
Then……
Nethryn Ervale: "FORM OF… DRUNKENNESS!"
*CRACK-BOOOOOOM!*
"…….You're an idiot." the dragon mutters before he turns and shakes his head, deciding to leave the room (drink still in hand) mutterint, "I knew this was a bad idea."
He does offer Lotor a quick nod of respect on his way out before he leaves however.
Moonlight! For everyone!
Rose glares at Ridley for quite a moment before she turns her gaze to Sasuke and his sword. Her expression reads "this girl is in mama bear mode, and apparently treating EVERYONE near her like her cubs; she is unhinged beyond belief". And for what it's worth, she has no small amounts of power coursing through her— Sasuke might even be able to tell that her sudden behavior is hardly natural. But how and why, that would need prolonged exposure to tell.
Which nobody is getting, because while she would love to mudwrestle with the werewolf to find out if werecats and werewolves are inherently matched in strength, her husband is about to summon a hundred demons SOMEWHERE. And though she may blindly believe everything he says and does… she still has SOME principles.
Wanton demon summoning is still against them.
And so, Blossom Rose is gone.
OR WAS SHE NEVER HERE IN THE FIRST PLACE?
(Tip: she was)
When Sasuke is slapped, his head gets turned by the back of the blade, and his hand is suddenly gripping his own sword very tightly, rage whelling up in him. "I believe you mistook orders to fight, as permission to disrespect." Without any warning, the sword is swinging in a blur for Nine's neck. "I'll accept no apology less than having your head."
Sasuke Uchiha does 6 damage to No. 9 with an Above Average hit.
Sasuke Uchiha hit No. 9 with his OFF WITH HIS HEAD! weak attack! <Standard Mechanic>
<O-Confederate> Limit: 0. Blossom Rose so sad her limit break occured on the one night she couldn't stay up late. Although this fortunately demonstrates just how terribly inconvenient those +flaws can get.
Tyki Mikk has disconnected.
"… Not that it looks like hair in the food is going to be the most of our worries," Mutters the mutt, as he watches 9 and Sasuke out of the corner of his eyes, as he deftly snatches a plate up with one paw, and begins loading it with the other. This is where being built like a D*ney animal comes in handy. He calls, then, toward the fueding two, "Careful, it would be a /shame/ for blood to go to waste tonight."
And then the wolf decides to try a bit of the Roast Who Beast (as it were,) snatching up what is left with claws daintily.
Ch-KLONK. The blade would quiver against the heavy subdermal armoring, still producing an alarming amount of blood. He hadn't clipped the artery, and the muscle was only SO damaged, but still, that f***in hurt! Eyebrows crashing down, the Golem lurched away from the blade trying to carve through neck and shoulder, grateful for the titanium along his spine and the tank alloy under his skin. "JEEZ kid, aint y' got no manners??"
The Mongoose comes up in one hand, the Gunblade in the other, and he brings both of them down HARD, butt first, downwards and inwards towards Sasuke's ears, aiming for a rather uncouth and unkosher ring-the-ears attack. "S'a good thing ya aint acceptin no apologies cause ya aint GETTIN none!"
Ridley has disconnected.
Reaper and Bodycount somehow end up slumped right into the middle of the room with Reaper fast asleep on top of Bodycount.
No. 9 does 1 damage to Sasuke Uchiha with a Mild Graze hit.
No. 9 hit Sasuke Uchiha with his Ring the Bells- Err, Ears, Non Kosher Dual Pistol-Whip weak attack! <Standard Mechanic>
Achryn Nanako has reconnected.
Lotor looks to the Grandmother beside him, looks to 9 and Sasuke having a gladiatorial match, looks to the rather perturbed Wolfwere, looks to the departing Mother Hen, he looks to Pride and his own amusements. He shakes his head, laughing helplessly as he takes another swallow. Reaching up and catching the thrown cigarette from 9. He consides it a moment and simply puts it in his uniform. Smoking is a habit he rarely indulges in, but finds it occasionally amusing. He made the suggestion to Jaffar remembering the quality of his leaf and the idea of Jaffar lounging, drinking alcohol, and smoking in all this chaos.
As Ridley departs, he raises his goblet to him.
"Until next time, Ridley!"
Ridley, however, would pass Cossack in the hall on his way out…
Lotor then rises, motioning and calling out,
5t"There is only one thing that would improve this party!"
"COSSACK!"
Outside, Cossack calls out, "Yes, Prince Lotor?"
Lotor calls out, "LEt them in!"
And Cossack cackles, "Yes, My prince!"
…And what comes next is…
…Women. Beautiful women. Clad in very slim garments. Singing in synchrony as they glide in. A chorus of ethereal female voices singing a sustained series of several notes that weave together in slow rising and falling sighs of music. The bangles on their ankles and wrists jangling as they run. They run in with perfect coriography and kneel in a diamond formation in the center of the room.
Lotor cries out, "Harem Girls!" He raises his goblet to the dozen girls!
They all, women of green eyes, blue eyes, brown, gold, yellow, red, and more… blondes, brunettes, hair of flame and of midnight, and stranger colors of the rainbow. Humans, Drule, and even some other beautiful alien women of green skin and more.
"Dance for us!"
And as one, the women begin to dance, their bangles rattling perfectly as they begin to sing and dance as one.
<X-Confed-Chatter> Prince Lotor can be heard helplessly laughing before he says, "There is only one thing that would improve this party!" A pause, "COSSACK!" Cossack pauses, "Yes, Prince Lotor?" Lotor says, "Let them in!" Cossack cackles, "Yes, my prince!"
<X-Confed-Chatter> Prince Lotor says triumphantly, "…Harem Girls! Dance for us!" The sound of over a dozen beautiful women singing and bangles and fingersymbols chiming.
Sasuke places his hand up to his ear when it starts ringing after the smack sends him stumbling and spinning slightly. "I won't need a verbal apology, I'll simply beat you until I can remove your ability to speak. Your voice box will be on a mantle as a reminder of your disrespect." He turns around and aims his sword at the cyborg, and a blade of electricity suddenly extends from it in an attempt to stab him in the gut. It sounds like thousands of chirping birds in the midst of electricity, the blue energy concentrated very solidly and quite sharp.
Sasuke Uchiha does 3 damage to No. 9 with a Graze hit.
Sasuke Uchiha hit No. 9 with his Chidori Spear moderate attack! <Standard Mechanic>
SH*T!
And then all is dancing electricity, screaming and pain. For just a moment. Sh*t sh*t sh*t sh*t SH*T SH*T /SH*T/!! HE HATED ELECTRICITY!
After the flickering electrical signals are over and done with and he's done screaming, he drops back, shoving the gunblade back in it's sheathe and the mongoose as well, hands bared. "O-KAY. Ya wanna PLAY kid? WE'LL PLAY!" A lunge, a snarling smile and oh, the light in those eyes. Unwholesome. At best. His own neck bleeding quite heavily and agonizingly painful (and ignored) his hand leaps for Sasuke's own neck, attempting to grasp the younger man round the throat and SQUEEZE THE LIVING F*** OUT OF HIM!
No. 9 does 14 damage to Sasuke Uchiha with a Direct hit.
No. 9 hit Sasuke Uchiha with his Crushing Chokehold moderate attack! <Standard Mechanic>
Without even an invite, or anything, both Smith and Jones in their drunken starte rush over to the Harem Girls and begin dancing along with them. Laughing and dancing, their tuxes messed up and wrinkled with their earbud radios hanging off their collar; the Amestrian bodyguards continue to have a blast at Pride's command, having quite nearly forgotten about the arrogant Humonculus.
Who simply watches, drinking his tea, sampling his food. It was enjoyable, to say the least. Though the tendril near Lotor, it shifts as Pride's voice intones in his demonically metallic voice.
"Do let them have their fun.. Prince Lotor.." he states, quietly.
"They will not live to see tomarrow, after this is over..and I have granted them some form of mercy, to enjoy themselves, and then be killed painlessly." the voice continues.
"And I must agree, tonight has been.. interesting.." The tendril shifts and flickers a bit like rolling water.
Ears perk, and the wolf pauses in overloading his plate, and turns to look towards the incoming harem girls. He watches him with appriciation and approval for several moments, before licks his chops, having found himself salavating over the succulent … view. He coughs, daintily picking up a napkin to wipe his mouth with, for drooling like Pavlovian subjects is so inappropriate no matter the company. Then he moves toward the spectacle of beast stuffed within beast stuffed within beast.
… And sniffs. And snuffs. And plucks up a piece of the bacon and tastes it.
… And groans in sudden ecstacy.
He doth look left, he doth look right, and then.. he sets his plate aside the table, and attempts to start sliii-iii-iiiiiding the large tray of Drabacturduck-whatever to the side, for the floor.
… Because everyone /knows/ that dogs automatically have all claim on anything that hits the floor.
The veins in Sasuke's head seem almost as if they're going to pop, standing there as he struggles to breathe within his grasp. Then he suddenly pushes his sword forward in an attempt to stab the man and leave the sword there, and brings his hands back to start rapidly doing hand seals. "Chi… dori…"
The sound of the chirping birds is like a loud screech at first, and he stands his electrically charged hand right for Nine's chest as he goes for an outright explosion of energy.
Sasuke Uchiha does 13 damage to No. 9 with a Direct hit.
Sasuke Uchiha hit No. 9 with his Chidori moderate attack! <Standard Mechanic>
A shadowy tendril reaches over and tugs that massive, heavy platter with the Drapigturduckhenqualcor — and all its bacon — back onto the table.
Grandmother Bane peers over at Marrok as she sips again at the 'Punch'.
"Now, now, Marrok — save some for everyone." she chides softly.
Ridley has connected.
Achryn Nanako has reconnected.
Lotor returns to lounging in his chair, raising his goblet to drink even as he smiles. Downing the last of the fruit punch… …pausing as he notices Marrok be a naughty boy. He just shakes his head. At this point, he just doesn't care. The dancing harem girls continue their dancing… with much gyration of hips and beautiful music and singing. A few more women have also slipped into the door and begin playing guitars and zithers. Tamborine and drum working into the music of the dance.
As the girls dance, they welcome the two dancing guards into it, some dancing with them and making sure their last night is at least a fun one.
He then turns to finish off his slice of Suspicious Cake.
Thankfully he's not dead. Yet.
"Coffin nail," he says even as he takes a bite. The smell of the food is getting to him as well. He motions, and one woman quickly breaks from the crowd to kneel demurely before him. A beautiful blonde haired, blur skinned Drule, "Xiara. Some of the Bacon wrapped please. And make sure they know they're all allowed to enjoy themselves tonight." The woman smiles up to Lotor.
"Of course, my prince." She says this with fondness in her golden eyes and her silken voice as she dances off to obtain the prince his food. Thankfully Lotor warns her to avoid the … special goods.
Lotor looks to Grandmother Bane then, "So, what do you think? The next one at my Citadel? I need to put my gladiatorial pit to good use…"
VWEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEE! CRAAAAASH!
Such is the sound that approaches from outside! And the crashing comes as an entire portion of a wall crumbles inward. Through the wall comes a 1983 GMC G-15 Van. It is painted black and has a huge red stripe up the side. The vehicle hits the ground and begins spinning wildly as it streaks towards a table, tiretracks circling the floor as brakes scream. The van (finally) comes to a stop inches from the food table, the back of the van facing the refreshments.
Nethryn opens the driver's side door. She steps out, now wearing a jean jacket, black bare midriff top and some jeans. Her hair is in a full mohawk and gold chains hang around her neck and she drunkenly sings, off key, "In 1972, a crack pair of badass chicks were sent to court for a crime they didn't commit. These gals immediately escaped from a maximum security party van. Today, still wanted by the government, they survive as PARTIERS. If you have a party. If no one else will come. And if you can find them, you might be able to party with… the N-Team! BAAAAAAAAAAAAH DADADA! BUM BUM BUM! I pity the fool that does not know… HOW TO PARTY."
And with that, the Goddess walks around to the side of the van and puts her hand on the door, waiting for Achryn before the two pound their fists together.
Achryn, with a olive drab military cap-beanie thing with the rank strips for a colonel on it, steps out of the passenger side of the van, her footfalls creating cinematic clouds of dust as she pulls off a pair of aviator sunglasses, and throws them agains the wall. She munches on the fat cigar that burns bright between her teeths, her lips curling back to puff a big fat cloud of smoke out. She has the biggest, drunkenest smile on her face as she places her hand on the right side back door of the van.
And then her left fist comes up and bumps Nethryn's, in the female version of epic broforce. (The Sis Fist)
Then she, and Nethryn, throw wide the back doors of the van, revealing no less then a dozen steaming fresh large pizzas. And the rest of the van is filled with Nethryn's SUPER PUNCH.
Nethryn lets out another puff of smoke. "I love it when a plan comes together… FOR PARTIES!" She grins.
The stab goes into his torso and is largely ignored, save for a grunt and a snerk and a bubbling laugh, more bubbling due to the froth of red at his lips and the burning flow of red-to-orange-to-clear down his chest. But the electricity, however, really steams him. And hurts him. And f***s up his cybernetics. Something awful. Glitching and spasming and curling around the blade in the middle of him, Nine grunts, spitting bloody froth and LAUGHS. "HA! Now THIS IS a brawl! HEHEE, ya MIGHT BE USEFUL FER SOMETHIN AFFERALL, KID!" Lurching, he ripped the blade from his torso, the red burning away till it was no longer dangerously infectious before, with a wicked grin, he shifted the grip, lunging at Sasuke and aiming to JAM the blade into Sasuke's torso, at roughly the same point. "I think ya LOST somethin. HERE! Have it /BACK/!"
No. 9 does 14 damage to Sasuke Uchiha with a Direct hit.
No. 9 hit Sasuke Uchiha with his Hello, Yes, I Think You Left This In My Torso moderate attack! <Standard Mechanic>
<X-Confed-Chatter> Achryn Nanako cigar puff. "I love it when a plan comes together."
A yap of surprise, and the wolf slicks his ears back. Blast! Caught with his hand in the cookie jar as it were. He humphs. "If I must." He says… but then sets about carefully trying to pull all the bacon goodness to him that he can, picking up his forgotten plate and covering it in bacon. Bacon, bacon, more backon — Ooo, some blood sausage — Bacon, bacon — He deftly avoids the Soy Bacon, what a travesty THAT would have been — Bacon, Bacon..
He then carries the plate towards a.. somewhat less chair and table-ish area, sets it on the floor, sets down before it… and then just begins ripping into things, shovelling food into his mouth, snapping things up animatedly. Careful not to stick a hand in there, folks, it might not come back as anything but a stub.
Grandmother Bane raises a hand as the van comes /through the wall/, and enters into the party. People might even scurry away, but she watches with a sense of Morbid Fascination as Nethryn and Acryn… render any relevence that she had in this party to little gold-plated shreds. And she is perfectly all right with this incredible amount of insanity…. but between that and the harem girls, it may be time to close her own participation.
She was getting hungry.
"… I beleive here is where I shall end my association with this bruhaha." Grandmother Bane states, and draws herself to a stand while looking at Lotor and Marrok with a sly smile, "Do try to return his harem girls in the same condition they're coming in, poppet." She states as she stands, and sets her cane on the floor as she glances around the insanity.
Oh yes, the sweet insanity. It might not have been what she pictured, but there's no doubt that this has raised morale.
"Meat, merrimiment… and fair company. Although I must bid adieu for this evening… you know us old ladies… our early bed-times…" she smiles, and turns to excit the strange affairs of the evening.
Yikes.
Sasuke takes the sword right through the gut, and it goes through his back, causing him to cough up blood. This should be a fatal black, especially with how the ninja weakly hunches over. "You… stabbed me with my own sword…" He grabs the bloody hilt of his blade, then yanks it out of his body and goes charging at the cyborg, starting to rapidly swing slashes meant to cut at vital points of his body, his sword very electrified at the moment.
Sasuke Uchiha uses The Hoboken Chicken Emergency moderate combo attack on No. 9.
The attacks resulted in a series of, Direct, Direct, and Above-average strikes for a total of 16 damage.
Meanwhile, where is Tyki? He's still standing over there, his suit conspicuously untouched, a cup newly-filled with alcoholic beverage in his hand. He sips at it casually and watches the chaos, smiling. Quite a restrained attitude. That is, because his form of crazy fun usually involves breaking limbs and removing organs, so they probably wouldn't like if he got enthusiastic.
…or maybe they would, and he just doesn't want to get bloodied up? Either way.
Pride merely sips tea, watching the chaos as it continues to go on.
Nine and Sasuke fighting it out for some pointless thing he didn't bother paying attention two.
Vans bursting into the room with crazy goddesses, and their sisters.
Wolfweres stealing food from the refreshment tables. Harem girls dancing with drunken bodyguards.. yes, this was an interesting night all right. And for some reason, he was enjoying himself, watching everyone else make fools of themselves. It was a glorious sight.
It only proved, how entirely inferior everyone was to him..he only wished Father had showed up to watch.
Smith and Jones continued to dance along the Harem girls, throwing off their jackets and twirling them about in the air like some sort of crazed rock star, or something.
Not that Pride really knew anything about rockstars, but he'd read, and heard a number of strange things in his time here in the Multiverse. He kept his shadows expanded, watching curiously at everyone, with his blood red eyes.
Honestly the electricity messes him up much worse than the blade- every strike at a vital point ends in a ting or a tike or a crkk or a crunch, and while Sasuke might well be damaging the artificial organs or punching through the armored plates, it's still not touching soft organs or bare nerve clusters. The Golem laughs manically, eyes burning and dancing back, his own hands wreathed in electricity- although this is no attack and mere discharge dancing along his frame.
Roaring out a mocking cackle, the King Unit leaps back, through a table and flexes his hands, bounding and leaping. As he's cut and shocked, Nine only laughs, ducking back and under and down and IN, and suddenly, VERY close to Sasuke, he'd just grin a sh*t eating grin, hand snapping out, not for the throat, but for the hair, aiming to put the kid through one of the nearby tables and dent the floor a bit. "HAA!"
Achryn Nanako has partially disconnected.
No. 9 does 1 damage to Sasuke Uchiha with a Mild Graze hit.
No. 9 hit Sasuke Uchiha with his En-Route to Floor With Brief Table Stopover moderate attack! <Standard Mechanic>
The Harem Girls yelp and cry out when the van crashes through the wall… but quickly recover once they realize it is part of the show. Thanks to some private words in their ears from Lotor. Lotor's silent magic based radio communication always moves so useful in these situation. When Xiara returns with his plate full of Achryn's… fascinating roast and a new goblet of punch, Lotor proceeds to dig in and relax. "Return to play, Xiara. Tonight is a night for you as well." Lotor waves her away gently.
Lotor just looks one with definite amusement at Nethryn and Achryn, shaking his head… even as he does dig in. He feels positively decadent tonight. Reminded of the grand parties back on the throneworld… back home. And with such company even as Sasuke and 9 continue to beat eachother senseless.
Cossack the Terrible has joined the festivities himself. Cackling at the battle and claiming his own savories and foods.
When Grandmother withdraws, Lotor gives her his most charming smile, "Enjoy your night, dear Grandmother. Thank you again for setting this up. It was… magnificent! And still is!"
Lotor downs another swallow of his 'fruit punch', and puts his boots up as the harem girls dance and sing and play. Music from the musician trained ones helping the others dance.
Lotor hms, "I'll have to have them practice some earth ones. 'Be Italian' perhaps…" He muses…
Sasuke is taken down to a table, the side of his head thudding on the edge before he's inhaling very deeply. "Katon: Gokakyu no Jutsu!" This is followed by a massive six foot fireball aimed at Nine at point blank range. The Uchiha is clearly in a bad mood right now, and may have forgotten Nethryn's orders.
Sasuke Uchiha does 15 damage to No. 9 with a Critical hit.
Sasuke Uchiha hit No. 9 with his Great Fireball Technique moderate attack! <Standard Mechanic>
Snarl snap nomf chomp snarf— The wolf pauses as a harem girl manages to pass by close enough for him to give an appriciative howl and receive a pat on the head, which sends his tail thomping the ground — before he soon finds himself slurping the empty plate with his tongue, and eying the buffet table hungrilly. For someone who has eaten three near adult humans whole, let's face it. The /table/ could be his plate and he's still look for more. Marrok licks his snout slowly, and stands.. and with Bane gone, he starts sneaking for the bacon again. It SHALL be his entirely! MU WAH HAH HAH H— ooooo Haremgirl - HAH Hah hah..
Achryn Nanako has partially disconnected.
Fire.
Why did it have to be fire.
Okay. He was having fun before- NOW HE'S… okay, now he's still having fun, but it's a reckless, hurt, burned sort of fun, rather than a careless, half drunken sort of fun. Rising with an ugly, bloody grin even as the flesh of his face cracked and bled, hissing blood onto the newly burned flesh. "Heh. Heh heh. Heh hah. Ha. Hah hah! HAH! HA HAH HAH BWAAHAAHAHAAAHAHAHHH!!"
Rising, face to the ceiling he roared his laughter, a hand reaching down and tearing his machete from the sheathe, his other hand running along the blade. Transferring it to the other hand, he yanks the Gunblade out, charging for the kid with a screaming roar of laughter, dragging the machete along the floor till the liquid along the blade alights with a FWOOSH, drawing a gleaming X across the young man; one in a bright glare of billowing flame and machete, the other with the gleaming edge of the Gunblade, alight with the ionic forcefield wreathing the edge.
Achryn Nanako has partially disconnected.
No. 9 does 5 damage to Sasuke Uchiha with a Graze hit.
No. 9 hit Sasuke Uchiha with his Fire and Light; Dual Blade Cross Slash strong attack! <Standard Mechanic>
Sasuke tries to dodge back, getting his shirt cut in half as shallow X marks appear over his stomach, a bit of blood trickling down his stomach. "Your barbarian-like amusement places you so far below a Uchiha, to acknowledge you as an opponent would be an insult to the definition of murder. Nethryn doesn't want any death, but I can write it off as poor judgment due to intoxication. Now die."
His sword is sheathed, and then he's suddenly throwing a mass of kunai with explosive tags at the end of them, apparently trying to cover Nine's body in at least twenty of them.
Sasuke Uchiha does 13 damage to No. 9 with an Above Average hit.
Sasuke Uchiha hit No. 9 with his Explosive Acupuncture strong attack! <Standard Mechanic>
With Sasuke's words; Pride's tendrils launch at him, looking to grab each of his limbs.
"You would do well, to -not- kill your Superior Officer." Pride's voice intones, though he seems still content with sipping tea at his table.
"While it was stated that you should fight.. Confederate ranking dictates that, despite how -inferior- Nine may be, he outranks you." Pride says, was he really defending Nine?
Who knows, maybe he was just bored of seeing the battle. Meanwhile, Smith and Jones seem to be tired out now with the dancing and have pretty much collapsed near the refreshment table, half-conscious.
Lotor has disconnected.
With no one watching the Buffet, Marrok attempts to carry out a most dastardly plan once more of pushing the enormous tray of meat and bacon, for the floor.
Reaper snorts as she suddenly sits up from her sleep. "Ehh?"
The blade comes up, whipping several of the bizarrely shaped kunai out of the air even as they explode, his face losing all it's relaxation, joy and easygoing. In fact, he comes to a dead stop, settling his weight and just staring. "Kid." He pauses, he shakes his head. Not the way to start.
"What. The fuck."
Standing now, burned and blackened, pocked with holes blown in armor and flesh, the Golem strides towards Sasuke, his look low, flat and completely disapproving. The drunken soldier is gone, and the angry soldier is back. Looking to Pride with some measure of surprise, he nods, still holding his glowing and burning blades. "Sasuke Uchiha. You have turned a perfectly good battle into a travesty. You have turned what is, essentially, just another form of entertainment into something inappropriate for this gathering, something inappropriate for your rank and inappropriate for your standing in the Confederacy. I suggest you learn to *control* yourself better, learn some manners, learn some respect, learn some protocol, and anything else you've been currently fucking up on. This battle is over."
And with that, the Golem turns his back on Sasuke, sighing and shaking his head.
"That woman said that if the proper respect weren't given to a prince, she'd have removed their entrails in her world. I will not be slapped around for the sake of entertainment, one shouldn't enter combat with me without expecting some chance of fatality." With that, Sasuke's hand swings in Pride's direction, another exploding kunai headed right to his face. "Children are not exempt."
Sasuke Uchiha does 6 damage to Pride with an Average hit.
Sasuke Uchiha hit Pride with his Exploding Kunai moderate attack! <Standard Mechanic>
Man, Tyki couldn't have /paid/ for better entertainment than this. He takes a sip of…air…and glares into his glass until it cracks. Or was that his hand? It was probably from his hand. He frowns more calmly at it. Glass dug into his hand. It might've snapped him out of his daze.
Then a big bright grin grows on his face, signifying how drunk he really is. He picks a place to set his drink down, looking over to the fight that had just ended. "Tsk…" He looks disappointed. He looks twitchy. He looks like he's about to flip out like a homicidal demon. Because that would be entirely accurate. The continuation of the combat, though, that makes him giggle.
The Noah of Pleasure is appeased by the violence.
But, as the Gentleman's Code demands, he protests, somewhat half-heartedly, "I must agree with them! You are getting very excessive. This is a party, not a battle! The line might blur elsewhere, but not here."
Achryn, who had been lifting a giant keg of booze to her lips and guzzling… (After ordering Lotor's harem to chant 'chug', because of course, she's a little insane already), seems to just drop the keg on the ground, staring dumbly at Pride. And then she outstretches her hand…
That's when by her side a small portal opens in the air, ringed in a soft orange light. "Here. I'll let you borrow this." Says the synthesized tone that floats through the opening in timespace. And what follows said voice, slowly emerging from the portal is… A crowbar. Made from pristine white titanium. With an Aperture Science logo emblazoned upon it.
She wobbles over to Pride, and then draws herself up. "Yeah… No. I'm going to order you to put down the entertai-" She then draws back, and mid sentence, biffs Pride upside the head. Her crowbar is also on fire, for good measure.
Achryn Nanako does 17 damage to Pride with a Direct hit.
<DRAMATIC ATTACK> Achryn Nanako hit Pride with her FLAMING DRUNKEN CROWBAR OF TOTALLY NOT WHIFFING IT THIS TIME strong attack! <Standard Mechanic>
"I woulda interrupted the fight before either of them died." Comes a voice, most of the slur from it gone. The Grand Inquisitor crosses her arms as she watches the events unfold, "However. Since it was interrupted early, I suppose I can say my piece."
Nethryn takes a deep breath, and then one or two steps forward. She sets her foot down, her clothes shifting around her back into her normal outfit as she says, "Eeeeeeeveryone hold the show." Her steps still wobbling as she tries to maintain her visage of sobreity, "Wait it all up."
"Sasuke. Nine. You are two of the most active confederates we have. And neither of you is in a position that reflects this. I wanted to test both of you in a fight I observed personally. You both have proved that you supplement eachother. Sasuke, you possess an amazing amount of control, but when you're pushed too far you lose sight of your orders. Nine, you are out of control and wild, but you know when you should stop. SO." Nethryn snaps her fingers and pulls out of the air two golden shields, "I am giving you both commendations for the amazing show. You will be recommended for promotions each, on ONE condition."
Nethryn tosses medals towards both of them, grinning fangily and in her capricious nature, "You two… are now a partnership for the next month. You will deploy together when the times permit. You will eat your meals together. You will exercise together. Otherwise? I retract your recommendations from me for promotions."
… And while the chaos ensues, Sneaky Wolf sneakily shoves at the largest bacon plate, attempting to upend it onto the floor, where it becomes Dog's Domain. Insert Muttley Whiplash snicker here.
Nine's about to continue talking… but stops. Eyes wide, he listens to Nethryn's speech. And listens. And listens. And his eyes? They just keep going wider. Which in his case means the light gets brighter and brighter. Wow. That's bright. Blinking in bewilderment, he looks between Sasuke and Nethryn, Nethryn and Pride, Lotor and Marrok- Hey! He was going to have some more of that! Rrr! >:(
"Team up. With him?" Looking over and down, he tilts his head, scratching the back of his head and blinking through the crust of burns around his eyes.
Staring. Staring. The eyes close faintly, and he nods.
"Yeah. I can do that." He nods, after a moment, taking a deep breath…
Before looking over to Nethryn and Achryn, look sober. "On one condition. Pride was in the right on his assessment of the situation, in my opinion, even if he delivered the information in his normally fucked up way. I don't want him getting in trouble for that." Normally he'd throw a please on there, but he's still got a little bit of the fire that was with him before he went mad under the Shadow Government's scalpels, and he stands firm.
The doors would burst open suddenly, revealing a rather crazy eyed looking Kotomine Shirou, holding Dissever (the holy chainsaw) in one hand and his shotgun in the other. Several black keys are straped over his coat and priest robes. He yells loudly as he glares over the drunken party goers.
"OKAY…YOU-WILL-BREAK-IT-UP!!!"
However this is followed by a blank stare as he realises everything's calm now. "….ok….sure…whatever…just go home already."
Nine blinks, after a moment. "Well, aside from bein' bashed in the head frum onna GLaDOS' crowbars. That *was* pretty funny."
Nethryn shrugs to Nine, "I can't punish him, remember? He's a Wraith. He's not under my control. But that also means she can't get in trouble for smacking him. However, I won't get him in trouble over this."
Nethryn turns on her heel and begins to walk out the door, "Kotomine, if you ever want lessons on how to make an entrance, look up me and Achryn." She says as she tosses him the keys to the van and begins walking.
Achryn turns on her heel and begins to walk out the door. "Nice entrance, Kotomine. Next time, work a bit on your timing. If you want help, look up me and Nethryn!" She tosses him a sick high five, before she begins walking.
Clang, goes the bacon tray. And nearly the entire buffet as Marrok forgets himself a moment to dive under the table and start wolfing the bacon down with an, "Oops, my bad, here, let me get that, sorry for the mess.." That barely goes above a murmur, since all the important people are like, doing important things.
Tyki looks up from his bloodied hand, and over at Kotomine. And then starts slow-clapping, smiling quaintly. "Sorry… You missed it, priest," he tells Shirou, in the derisive tone that he can't keep from making. He even has to pause and make a face at his own tone. "Instincts," he murmurs, as if it were a real apology.
He looks back over to the two who were darn near beating eachother to death.
He watches Achryn and Nethryn's exits, and decides it would be a good time for him to leave, too. He walks this time. There are a lot of things that block his phasing in allied territory, it's really quite embarrassing when he smacks into a wall.
As the kunai comes flying, a single tendril launches up and knocks it askew it exploding just a few inches away from where Pride sits, though the blast is close enough to cause his tendrils to burn away and dissipate. Though he wasn't expecting the..crowbar, on fire to come bashing into his head; singing his hair some. Though despite being -wanged- in the head, Pride appears to show no signs of pain, just mild irritation.
"That was uncalled for.." he states, simply, as his tendrils retract from all over the room now.
He raises his cup, and sips it finishing it as he looks toward Smith and Jones still laying there half-conscious, and probably suffering from major headaches. With a sharp whistle, both of them stumble to their feet, running into eachother as they make their way over toward Pride, both reaching for their guns as they aim them at Achryn, "Shtep.. 'way from.. Master SELeeem!" Smith pipes up; as a single black tendril circles around him before impaling Smith directly through the heart.
"I believe I stated, there were no threats here, once."
The tendril hovers dangerously close to Jones now, "Weapon, away, now, or your next." Pride's voice commands, as Jones lowers his gun and steps(or stumbles) backwards.
Pride too moves to his feet now, running his hand over his hair there's no arc of alchemy, it just sort of fixes itself quietly.
"It seems the 'fun' has ended.. and I will take my leave now." He says, simply, turning toward the door.
"Jones, you are now the property of Nine, to do whatever he pleases with." he says, and then walks out, without another word.
Kotomine blinks, looking lost as he gets a set of keys and a high five thrown at him, while both his hands are full. "…enterances?" He shakes his head a little. "Well, anyway, get out as soon as you're done with your food…unless you want me to teach you some manners."
Sasuke very carefully slides his sword back into its sheath after catching the medal, peering down at it, then to Nine, and finally to Nethryn. "Very well. Excuse my anger, I was offended and felt his head was an adequate price." That said, he stares down at his fallen cake, and begins walking over to get another slice.
Nine's about to continue talking… but stops. Eyes wide, he listens to Nethryn's speech. And listens. And listens. And his eyes? They just keep going wider. Which in his case means the light gets brighter and brighter. Wow. That's bright. Blinking in bewilderment, he looks between Sasuke and Nethryn, Nethryn and Pride, Lotor and Marrok- Hey! He was going to have some more of that! Rrr! >:(
"Team up. With him?" Looking over and down, he tilts his head, scratching the back of his head and blinking through the crust of burns around his eyes.
Staring. Staring. The eyes close faintly, and he nods.
"Yeah. I can do that." He nods, after a moment, taking a deep breath…
Before looking over to Nethryn and Achryn, look sober. "On one condition. Pride was in the right, even in his fucked up way. I don't want him getting in trouble for that." Normally he'd throw a please on there, but he's still got a little bit of the fire that was with him before he went mad under the Shadow Government's scalpels, and he stands firm.
The Golem didn't seem troubled by the burns and the cuts and the occasional leaping arcs of light. Even when the flesh cracked and he bled. Even when things went PFFT and shot sparks. He's a combat model. He's used to this.
Walking to Jones, he stoops, easing the man to his feet. His words are low and quiet, hand pressing a cup into the man's fingers. More punch. The guard must be close to alcohol poisoning at this point, but Nine seems insistent. Something about being easier. Something about not feeling it. Reassurance. His words are oddly calming, despite their mucky tones, and the shaken wreck of a man manages to down some more, the alcohol on top of alcohol easing him down from the teary panic to a dulled, glassy stupor. Nine bends, wiping off his blade and returning them to their sheathes. Retrieving his plates, he lifts Jones over his shoulder in a fireman's carry, his remaining cake and food carried in two plates in one hand, the remains of the punch poured into a large container in the other, Jones over one shoulder. Poor guy. What a night.
He turns to Sasuke, leaking from several wounds, giving him a long once over and takes an idle, contemplative sip of his drink. "So." Just that. So. An opening, an invitation, a beginning. So.
"So, we do what she says. We'll be working together. I hope you can handle that." Sasuke takes his second slice of cake, and starts heading for the exit, holding his stomach. "I have to get this hole in my stomach fixed, so I can eat this. Good night."
And as the party dwindles down, somewhere, having absconded with a pair of Harem Girls and anything else he could 'make disappear' in entirety from the buffet table safely hidden in his 'interdimensional food pocket' (Read: Stomach), there is what can only be described as a very happy, very full Wolf enjoying tummy rubs, ear scritches, and dreaming of pigs flying— right into his mouth.
"*I* can handle it?" The eyebrow goes up, but he's smiling. Taking another sip, he shifts the groaning, unconscious form of Jones a little, easing the man into an easier carry. "You got a lot to learn, kid." It's not recriminating, but contemplative, and he watches Sasuke walk out, his own body a mess of scorched and bleeding holes. "Hm. Kid has potential…" Course, the word 'kid' here is relative. He'd called Jones a kid earlier even if he was clearly an adult. Speaking of Jones… he should hurry before the man woke up. The Neoteny process was so horrible, so excruciating that the mind simply fled, and the first parts were, by far, the worst. Well, after the last parts. Or, Maybe, somewhere in the middle. -Best not to think of it. Madness lay down that road. With Jones unconscious, he wouldn't hardly feel half of it…
Glancing over at the happy wolf, the mostly wrecked place, what little remained of the food, he was tempted to stay. Looking at the harem girls? Ohhh, gods he was more than tempted to stay. A hurt, yearning sort of look came into his eyes there, lips twisting up- but he'd made a decision, a small concession to someone he found he gave a damn about at all, and if he waited much more time at all the man could wake again, and he wouldn't wish that on his worst enemies… And so, with a sigh of loss and longing, he let his eyes slide over the beauty of the harem, over the gorgeous sight of the human women and the utterly captivating beauty of the drule- emphasis on drool, in that case- and hefted the man once more, making his way out.