My little group was eating together the other day when Caledon and Clara showed up, along with two suited people.
Cal walked over to our table and explained, "I've gotten ARC to let us go with you, with another agent or two alongside us to protect Clara and ensure I don't do anything too, y'know, risky."
"Wait, you're Zagreus, aren't you?" asked Kaden.
"Caledon, actually. Used to be, though."
"Oh. You aren't an Angel anymore?"
"No. I left them a few months back."
"That makes sense. You certainly looked miserable back then. ...Do you fellows want to sit down?"
The four newcomers sat down at the table next to ours.
"Well, then. Let's recap, shall we?" Kaden asked. "We have a former Mountebank, a former Angel, a reluctant Nest, three ARC agents, a Runner, and a would-be Puppet. Is that all correct?"
"Yeah, pretty much," I said.
"God, that is a weird group. Hello, by the way," he said to the agents.
"Hello," said one of them, who wore a suit and generally looked like he should have been in a 40s crime movie. I assumed he wasn't wearing a fedora because he was in a restaurant, despite its relative lack of classiness. "My name's Ash, and my partner is Alice."
"Wait, Ash and Alice?" Eric asked. "The legendary..." He trailed off as he saw Ash and Alice look at one another in an "I can't believe we're having this conversation again" kind of way. "Never mind. Anyways, I'm Eric, this is H—, this is Kaden, and this is Giles."
"I see. Kaden, you mentioned a former Mountebank and an unwilling Nest?"
"Yes. I used to be a Mountebank. Giles is a Nest, but the birds usually go near him instead of inside. But I assume ARC doesn't need to assign any more security to us, what with the three agents?"
"Unlikely," Ash said. "Unless you're particularly dangerous."
"That's fair... it isn't like I'm a wizard or anything." He smiled.
Ash laughed, though I detected a hint of suspicion in his expression.
"So," said Kaden, "what are we going to do? Our circumstances aren't the best at the moment. Couldn't we just stay at ARC headquarters?"
"We'd like to be able to house you long-term, but we just don't have the money for that, especially with how spartan the holding cells are currently," Eric said. "I guess what I mean is, if you're interested, you could go there, but it wouldn't be perfect. Which is also why we don't take in Runners. Much as we'd like to, we don't have unlimited funding, so we have to prioritize."
"...Oh," said Kaden. "That makes sense. Hm." He rubbed his coin absentmindedly.
As I looked at Kaden's coin, I noticed the image on its "heads" side shift slightly. Then, yet another important person walked into the restaurant. I assumed he was Jack of All, Kaden's former patron. He matched the new look of Kaden's coin, for one thing, and he wore a red glove on his right hand, for another.
"You know," Jack said to Kaden, "God doesn't play dice. But I do."
"Why are you here?" Kaden asked angrily.
"To explain something. You see, you really did get off easy when all that happened to you was that you got stuck with the Mountebanks. I rolled snake eyes when I decided what to do with you, and I don't fix my games. So I went with it, and I allowed you to escape the Mountebanks without your end of the deal being nullified. I even gave you that good luck charm, Kaden dear," he said, eyeing the coin. "Though that was more out of generosity than anything else."
"You expect me to believe you?" Kaden asked.
"You don't have to," Jack said casually. "It's not like I can make you. But I can certainly make good on my promise in the future. Besides, what difference does it make whether you believe me or not? You can't hurt me."
Kaden sighed. "I guess you're right, but—"
"No buts, Crowley. I'm right. That's it."
Kaden stared at him in anger as Jack walked away. Jack turned around to say, "Oh, and don't expect things to turn out right. I'm not the only power out there... or around here." Then he disappeared back into the night.
I'm pretty glad we were the only ones there, aside from the staff. I have to assume the people who were there just took it as a strange midnight chat between people in a cheap restaurant.
- Poe
Sunday, May 26, 2019
Monday, May 13, 2019
King Pest II
Kaden has taken to calling Giles his "old flame." He pretends to be joking, but...
Honestly, they're adorable.
(And no, the title isn't even slightly fitting here, but I'm too lazy to find a relevant Poe quote, so I'm recycling from when I met Eric and found him annoying for some reason. Probably just inability to cope with having another snarky guy around. That, and his working for ARC, whom I still don't really trust or like.
Oops.)
- Poe
Honestly, they're adorable.
(And no, the title isn't even slightly fitting here, but I'm too lazy to find a relevant Poe quote, so I'm recycling from when I met Eric and found him annoying for some reason. Probably just inability to cope with having another snarky guy around. That, and his working for ARC, whom I still don't really trust or like.
Oops.)
- Poe
Thursday, May 9, 2019
The Winged Seraphs II
The Timberwolves found us.
Evidently, they had started trailing us at some point. Either we've got a mole among us, or they've been trailing us for a while now, because they knew about the Caledon situation, and they weren't happy.
For once, I think I'd rather it be the latter option.
Let's back up.
The four of us were eating dinner at a fast food place when a bald, bearded man with the Archangel seal tattooed on his neck showed up at the table next to ours. To be perfectly honest, having the symbol of your group drawn on your skin with ink isn't exactly subtle. On the other hand, given his pointed glances at the four of us as we ate, I don't know if subtlety was his goal.
We finished eating quickly after he arrived. What little food we had left by that point, we trashed. Better to be hungry for a little while than to stick around for a fight with one of the Archangel's dogs. Perhaps unsurprisingly, though, the Timberwolf wasn't really interested in eating, and followed us outside shortly after we started to leave.
What a shame. I usually like eating the leftover fries, and they went totally to waste.
There were no other people in the parking lot by that point.
"You four. H—, I mean, and your little gang. Of course, my pal isn't with you anymore, but he didn't have to be for long, eh?"
"Who is this guy?" asked Giles.
"I think he's the partner of a guy who betrayed the Timberwolves," I replied.
"That's correct. My name is Triptolemus. I was assigned to Zagreus to keep him from doing to us what he'd already done to ARC, Eric's, eh, employers. By which I mean betray us. And now that's happened, and it's your fault, I'm a little upset with you guys."
"So, what is your plan, exactly?" asked Eric. "Other than just attacking a Runner, an ARC agent, a Nest, and a sorcerer, that is."
"Was that deliberately ranked in terms of least to most powerful, or was that a coincidence?" asked Kaden.
The three of us glared at him. He just raised his hands as if to surrender.
"Actually, no, I had no plans of attacking alone," said Triptolemus, completely ignoring Kaden. "Everybody, meet my friends Hecate, Acheron, and Melinoe. They're… what's the word… angels."
I didn't like where I was pretty sure this was going.
Three more Timberwolves stepped out of portals behind Triptolemus, apparently using some sort of domain-based transport. I took out my knife, Eric took out his gun, Giles called the birds, and Kaden summoned a ritualistic-looking dagger.
Triptolemus held out his hand before his Timberwolves could do anything. "Wait, friends. Perhaps we don't have to resolve this through violence. How about you just tell me where Eric here is keeping my buddy, and I tell my goons not to hurt you?"
Eric grimaced.
"I'll take that as a no?"
Eric, ordinarily so hygienic, spat on the ground.
"Hm. Playing hard to get, eh? That's alright. We can tango if you're looking to tango." He made a throat-slitting gesture and pointed at us.
It was barely a contest. Giles' birds mangled the Timberwolves, or at least Melinoe and Acheron. The difficulty was keeping the birds from killing them without making the birds angry at us. Kaden offered to summon birdseed, but Giles said the Convocation weren't interested in that now that they'd tasted blood. Thus, Kaden did the only sensible thing and summoned some more.
I suddenly don't want to know how Kaden's summoning works.
At any rate, that distracted the Convocation, but it also kept us from doing anything when Triptolemus opened a portal to Bliss and, along with his allies, escaped.
I think Kaden mentioned something about recognizing Triptolemus. That comment made a bit more sense when he explained that Triptolemus had met him when he was a Mountebank, meaning Triptolemus didn't recognize Kaden's face, voice, or name, and he'd also lied to him, meaning he had reason not to mention it earlier.
At any rate, that's another complication for us all to deal with. I'm torn between feeling glad that we escaped unharmed and horrified at what the Convocation did to the Timberwolves, even if I think they might still survive.
C'est la vie, I suppose.
- Poe
Evidently, they had started trailing us at some point. Either we've got a mole among us, or they've been trailing us for a while now, because they knew about the Caledon situation, and they weren't happy.
For once, I think I'd rather it be the latter option.
Let's back up.
The four of us were eating dinner at a fast food place when a bald, bearded man with the Archangel seal tattooed on his neck showed up at the table next to ours. To be perfectly honest, having the symbol of your group drawn on your skin with ink isn't exactly subtle. On the other hand, given his pointed glances at the four of us as we ate, I don't know if subtlety was his goal.
We finished eating quickly after he arrived. What little food we had left by that point, we trashed. Better to be hungry for a little while than to stick around for a fight with one of the Archangel's dogs. Perhaps unsurprisingly, though, the Timberwolf wasn't really interested in eating, and followed us outside shortly after we started to leave.
What a shame. I usually like eating the leftover fries, and they went totally to waste.
There were no other people in the parking lot by that point.
"You four. H—, I mean, and your little gang. Of course, my pal isn't with you anymore, but he didn't have to be for long, eh?"
"Who is this guy?" asked Giles.
"I think he's the partner of a guy who betrayed the Timberwolves," I replied.
"That's correct. My name is Triptolemus. I was assigned to Zagreus to keep him from doing to us what he'd already done to ARC, Eric's, eh, employers. By which I mean betray us. And now that's happened, and it's your fault, I'm a little upset with you guys."
"So, what is your plan, exactly?" asked Eric. "Other than just attacking a Runner, an ARC agent, a Nest, and a sorcerer, that is."
"Was that deliberately ranked in terms of least to most powerful, or was that a coincidence?" asked Kaden.
The three of us glared at him. He just raised his hands as if to surrender.
"Actually, no, I had no plans of attacking alone," said Triptolemus, completely ignoring Kaden. "Everybody, meet my friends Hecate, Acheron, and Melinoe. They're… what's the word… angels."
I didn't like where I was pretty sure this was going.
Three more Timberwolves stepped out of portals behind Triptolemus, apparently using some sort of domain-based transport. I took out my knife, Eric took out his gun, Giles called the birds, and Kaden summoned a ritualistic-looking dagger.
Triptolemus held out his hand before his Timberwolves could do anything. "Wait, friends. Perhaps we don't have to resolve this through violence. How about you just tell me where Eric here is keeping my buddy, and I tell my goons not to hurt you?"
Eric grimaced.
"I'll take that as a no?"
Eric, ordinarily so hygienic, spat on the ground.
"Hm. Playing hard to get, eh? That's alright. We can tango if you're looking to tango." He made a throat-slitting gesture and pointed at us.
It was barely a contest. Giles' birds mangled the Timberwolves, or at least Melinoe and Acheron. The difficulty was keeping the birds from killing them without making the birds angry at us. Kaden offered to summon birdseed, but Giles said the Convocation weren't interested in that now that they'd tasted blood. Thus, Kaden did the only sensible thing and summoned some more.
I suddenly don't want to know how Kaden's summoning works.
At any rate, that distracted the Convocation, but it also kept us from doing anything when Triptolemus opened a portal to Bliss and, along with his allies, escaped.
I think Kaden mentioned something about recognizing Triptolemus. That comment made a bit more sense when he explained that Triptolemus had met him when he was a Mountebank, meaning Triptolemus didn't recognize Kaden's face, voice, or name, and he'd also lied to him, meaning he had reason not to mention it earlier.
At any rate, that's another complication for us all to deal with. I'm torn between feeling glad that we escaped unharmed and horrified at what the Convocation did to the Timberwolves, even if I think they might still survive.
C'est la vie, I suppose.
- Poe
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