Run By: Soldier of Misfortune (3 xp)

Players: Azami

Synopsis: Azami shows off her cleverness and tricks a very dim Abyssal into attacking Isus instead of Vir Sidus.

 

It's a peaceful little night in the middle of nowhere, Vir Sidus. The birds are chirping, the moths are flying, the moon is shining, the skeleton horde is marching...

 Wait. Hang on.

 What?

 The skeleton horde of the Abyssal known as Shadows Seep Through Daylight tromps behind him, clad in full regalia. Of course, he was missing a few - ever since that meddlesome Raksha had entered the equation, he'd had a problem getting more corpses to animate, and at least one of the skeletons was hastily assembled from multiple pieces of multiple dead people and had an extra couple fingers and a lopsided toe - but that was part of being an Abyssal.

 Shadows Seep Through Daylight snarls. "I cannot BELIEVE that damnable Manticore!" he rages, "Goddess of Vir Sidus, is she?! Well, I'll just...march into Vir Sidus myself! And curse them all! With death!"

 "Is death a curse?" The Abyssal pauses.

 "PROBABLY! A SWEET SWEET CURSE FROM WHICH THERE IS NO ESCAPE!"

 "AHAHAHAHAHAHHAAHAH!"

 

What is this?

 Azami really can't help but notice such a surge of Void energy, even while she sleeps. In fact, it wakes her up. She snorts as she is jostled by that familiar essence from her dreaming and opens one green eye. Someone is laughing maniacally. This just... How is she supposed to sleep after the shenanigans in the North with all this racket?!

 Grouchily, she rolls over and catches herself on the wide branch which overhangs the forgotten rural road and leans down, long white braid falling down to swing above the road like a bright white ribbon in the darkness of the forest path.

  "HEY!" She snaps, seeing the march of skellingtons coming her way. Her moonwhite hair is tousled, framing her upside-down face and her green eyes are bright, ears tilted back. All of five feet in front of where the Abyssal walks ahead of his army. "What is all this nonsense? Eh?" From the road, it might seem that she appeared out of nowhere-- which is not far from the truth.

 

 

Perhaps it was racoons.

 They're shifty bastards, you know.

 With their masks. And their eyes.

 The Abyssal stops. "What in the names of the Unnameable is this?!" He shouts, "Can't I even march an army of undead horrors down a road without someone getting in the way?!"

 The Abyssal throws up his hands, annoyed; a knife lodges itself in one of the skeletons' skulls.

 It has, predictably, no effect.

 "Accursed Masters this is -absurd!- I haven't even put a plan into action yet!" Shadows Seep Through Daylight rages, "I mean, can't you have the common decency to let me kill a few people before you come traipsing through the...wait a minute."

 He stops in mid-motion, marching over to Azami and looking her over.

 "...what kind of hero are you?!"

 

 

Azami frowns at the Abyssal. For all that she is upside-down and hanging from a branch so that her shoulders are just visible and her braid nearly swipes the path, she puts some effort into looking official. Or at least very irritated. "You woke me up," she says as if this were a terrible offense. "And no of /course/ you can't just march a whole army of skellingtons through Creation without people noticing! Are you new to this?" Shifting, she dissapears for a moment, then lowers herself down carefully, hanging for a moment by her hands, then drops to her feet. Aza dusts off her skirts and blouse, then tosses her bangs out of her eyes and puts her hands on her hips. "It is extremely noticable!"

She even has her little reading specs on, and a book peeking out of her satchel.

 To any gods observing this, it would appear that a small librarian is reaming the Abyssal.

 

 

"Of course it's NOTICEABLE. The whole POINT is to be NOTICEABLE. So it's -FEARSOME-. SCARY. NOTICEABLE! What are you, -new- at this?"

 The Abyssal puts his hands on his hips, looking her over briefly. "You look like a bookbinder!" He adds, "How am I supposed to take this seriously? I mean, it's like..."

 He waves his hand airily. "I feel like I should be asking you permission to check out a book, rather than threatening you!"

 "You realize how hard this makes my job, right?" He sighs.

 

 

The bridge of Aza's nose wrinkles up in derision. "Skellingtons are not that scary," she says, rather more lightly. "What, it is just people on the inside. Nothing so very unusual! Maybe you are thinking of going into Vir Sidius and saying: 'Oooogie boogie! I'm here to tell you about bones in you body! OoooOOOooOOgieboogie!'?" She huffs. "I have you know, is very rude." Peering up into his face, she endeavours to see his eyes. "What Deathlord do you serve? It isn't Lover is it?"

 

 

"I uh."

 Shadows Seep Through Daylight coughs into his hand, drawing a dagger forth and wheedling it between his fingers deftly.

 "I serve the Walker with pride, and skeletons, and killing people! I..."

 He sighs and slips the knife back...somewhere. "It's pretty hard to do this to a librarian. I mean, epic heroes, that's one thing, but I can't honestly knife you in the head or anything. I'd feel bad, which is pretty odd, because I've murdered a small village before, but. You know. It wasn't entirely personal."

 "It didn't have an -antagonistic- sort of quality to it."

 

 

Azami's expression softens a little. "Oh... yes I quite know what you mean. Very hard, finding good opposition." She sighs, and taps her finger against her lips thoughtfully. "But listen, yes? Maybe I can help. See, Queen of this place, she is not best of targets. What you want is someone who will have heroes to rally for, yes? And maybe epic battles with women weeping and men growling. Very proffessional."

 

 

"Er. People won't rally for a queen? But..." He makes a bunch of complex handsigns probably intended to get across confusion. "...she's a queen. Queens have epic heroes to defend them. I think."

 

 

"Trust me, lovey," Aza says, using the old Wavetongue colloquiallism. "Queens not always all they are cracked up to be. See, Wue Xi is not up to you level yet. Get her later, when I am done teaching her. Right now all she has to defend her is some wet hen Solar." she rolls her eyes, and shakes her head. "Boring little squab."

 

 

"Oh." Shadows Seep Through Daylight scratches the back of his head. "But it's still a city. I mean, people will come to defend a city in flames. Won't they?"

 "I'm not looking for anything BIG, just, you know, something that Walker will pay attention to."

 "I mean, uh. Glorify him."

 

 

Azami hrms... and steps back a pace. "Well, that is certainly something you can do! But for maximum fear effect, hit a place that does not see it coming, yes? But large enough that people, they say: Oh Hell! and make certain that they are very respectful to your master."

"Vir Sidius, they are hit very often by people with Skellingtons," Azami nods sagely.

 

 

"...huh. Is that so? You'd think, you know, necromancy wouldn't be too common in Creation. I mean, it's just..." He shrugs. "Okay. So where would you recommend?"

 

 

"What about Greyfalls?" Azami suggests, pondering. "A civil war just came to conclusion, yes? So they are weakened... and very visible."

 

 

"No, no. That sounds like they've just been through the ravages of war. I'd feel like I was getting the sloppy seconds of somebody else's kills." The Abyssal crosses his arms and frowns. "Hey, what about that Chronopolis place?"

 

 

Azami's green eyes light up. "G-gosh..." she says. "W..well... Thing is..." Oh god. He'd get slaughtered. And then what would happen? He'd shout 'I was sent here by a little girl with white hair and glasses!' and mister Chronoz will know I did it.

But so very tempting.

(Judge) Azami rolls Temperance: [ 2 2 6 6 9 ]

        Resulting in 1 successes.

Azami sighs internally. Sometimes it sucks being a nice person.

 "What about Isus?" She suggests.

 

 

"Never heard of it." The Abyssal replies.

 

 

"Very pretty," Aza says, feeling rather on edge. Lure him to her own territory, then send him packing back to Walker. This is the sort of idea her Elders would slap her on the back for, she's sure. On the other hand, Aza isn't all that confident just now. "Far to the East. There is a queen there, you know, and lots of people are always... poking their nose into her business." A bit of annoyyance creeps into her tone there. She can't help it.

On the other hand, here's her chance to prove herself to Ord and Fudou!

Azami feels her confidence grow a little at this.

 

 

"Why does that bother you, exactly?" Shadows Seep Through Daylight asks, pointing his knife at her - not threateningly, just kind of waving it like a scribe waving a pen.

 

 

"Lots of wards," Aza answers. "Makes poking very annoyying."

 

 

"Oh." He stares at her for a moment. "I see."

 "Sounds like a nice place to invade. Can you give me some directions? I'm hoping to get to a town to bolster my forces by sunup."

"You know, with the slaughtering and the reanimating and all that," he adds needlessly.

 

 

Azami nods, and kneels on the path. With a hand she brushes away the leaves to reveal the dusty path, then draws a rough map there. "Here is Vir Sidius," she says, then traces the road that leads from it into Isus, an older one, less used, and a village at its end. As Vir Sidius shares a border with Isus, it isn't a long trip. "Here is Isus."

 

 

"There's a flaw in this plan," the Abyssal says suddenly, crouching (as do several skeletons, looking over his shoulder with an odd level of humanity).

 

 

"What's that?" Azami asks with wry curiosity. Of course there is. She made this plan. It can't really get worse, can it?

 

 

"Well, you only gave me one road. So you know where I'm coming from." He frowns. "Can you maybe give me a few more? That way, I can surprise you if you decide to tell them where I'm coming from."

 

 

Azami looks up at the Abyssal. Gods-damn it, his brain is still functioning. "Oh, of course!" and looks back down. Pondering, she lines out a few more roads. They are all quite accurrate, surprisingly. Aza is good at maps. "Does this help?"

 

 

"A lot. Thanks." He nods, and several of the skeletons do the same. "Okay. That's a great plan." He stands up. "Hey, what's your name, anyway? I'm Shadows Seep Through Daylight."

 

 

Azami rises and smiles, offerring her small white hand towards him in a friendly manner. This is exciting, and she feels her blood rising. What a game to play! "Winter Rose, pleased to meet you!"

 

 

"Winter Rose. Okay." The Abyssal shakes her hand firmly. "I'm Shadows Seep Through...wait, I said that. ...does it sound threatening? I picked it myself. They wanted me to be First and Forsaken Carp."

 

 

Azami's hand is quite chilly. She looks at him in surprise, then sorrow. "Oh that's /horrible/. First and Forsaken Carp? Were you a fisher? Carp bones are very tricksy, sure, but... but yes! Very frightening, why if I was afraid of the dark I'd be quite impressed!" She smiles, beaming.

"Lots of people are," she adds, just in case that came across rudely. "Hard to see. Bump into things."

 

 

"That's very nice of you to say. Hopefully when I bring about the end of your life, we can get a cup of coffee when you show up in the underworld." He nods and crosses his arms. "I have a really nice manse. You'd like it. Very black and white."

 

 

Azami grins. "Monochromatic! Very nice. That red-black thing is for Lover anyway. Too gaudy." Stepping back, she raises her hand in parting and walks back up to her tree, pulling herself up with a few trial hops before settling back into her impromptu nest and appearing to go back to sleep.

 

 

"Okay, well. I'll kill you later!" The Abyssal waves cheerily. "HORDE! LET'S MARCH! Hup two three four! Hup two three four!" And with that, Shadows Seep Through Daylight storms off in the direction if Isus, flanked by about a hundred skeletons.

 

 

The tromping fades... and Azami opens one eye.

 "Oop, time to go," she murmurs to herself in Skytongue. A moment later, a little white sparrow arcs up over the trees and shadows the army, staying out of sight.