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Post by Magnus on Aug 2, 2011 7:28:49 GMT -6
Natalie grit her teeth and scowled when Leviathan left. She wasn't afraid now, just. . Just angry. Angry that Leviathan was able to visit Lilith before her because she had to stay in this god awful creepy castle defending it from all of the Lords of Sin. And of course Leviathan was going there to freak out Lilith. Natalie wanted to follow him, to go over there and to assure Lilith she was doing the best job she could.
But she couldn't. She had work to do. She had to do the best job she could do, for Lilith, and that didn't involve leaving her post.
So Natalie unclenched the fists she didn't know were clenched and let out a deep breath. She looked over at Dago. "The Lords of Sin are all extremely guilty of their sin, and of other sins as well. It's how we got Lucifer out of the picture in the first place. Anyway, once you know what they're guilty of, it's easier to manipulate them," she said. "Of course, the risk is high. Thankfully, it was Leviathan who showed up and not Mammon. ."
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Post by Soprano on Aug 2, 2011 23:49:30 GMT -6
It wasn’t clearly if Leviathan was bluffing or not, but it was ultimately clear that he wasn’t going to tell Natalie where Lilith was. He knew she didn’t know and that she would want to know; it was about the only thing he had over her right at that point and he was fully willing to use it.
“Oh,” Dago said, unsure of what to say to that other than congratulate her on a risk well measured, he supposed, “We’ve seen almost all of them… Does that mean Beelzebub and Mammon are due?”
The battle had kind of weird finality to it, though they’d only seen four out of the six Lords of Sin… There were suddenly footsteps at the doorway and Mammon appeared, glancing around the carnage.
“Speak of the devil and he shall appear, mm?” Mammon said, fixing his gaze on Natalie, “You found out what that box did, I assume.”
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Post by Magnus on Aug 3, 2011 0:01:04 GMT -6
Natalie's eyes widened when she saw Mammon appear. Oh, fuck. Not again. She closed her eyes and took a breath before lifting her lids and staring at him, giving him the same expression she'd given Leviathan. "It's awfully interesting that you would have a box of banishment with you, isn't it?" she asked coolly. She didn't answer Dago's question. It had answered itself, and besides, she didn't want Mammon to become interested in Dago. That was all she needed, her right hand man being enslaved in the Greed Circle of all places.
"Where's Beelzebub?" Natalie asked Mammon. She knew that he wouldn't have gone out of his way to explicitly sabotage the other Lord of Sin's attempt. No, Mammon was far. . Far more subtle than that. "And what are you doing here, anyway? Going to try your bid for power?" Natalie wouldn't have been surprised if that was it. Of course, wait for her to use all resources available to her.
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Post by Soprano on Aug 3, 2011 0:51:28 GMT -6
“You should know better than to question your superiors,” Mammon tutted, “It won’t last long, I suggest you be rid of it.” He paced around the dead bodies of pride demons, not giving them a second glance, “I nearly expected an army here to greet me. Did Amon truly give you that much trouble? You should be grateful I incapacitated Beelzebub for you.”
Beelzebub would have given them more trouble than Amon, by the way he seized power again when he was released. Their power struggles were near-constant, but there was something of a hierarchy, which Mammon and Lucifer fought for also near-constantly. They kept it cordial, which couldn’t be said of other lords of sin.
“No, I’m here to congratulate you, Natalie,” Mammon said with a thin smile, “You’ve managed to survive, exceeding even my own expectations. I can’t wait to see how you decorate the place.” He had a smile on his face that resembled a shark.
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Post by Magnus on Aug 3, 2011 0:57:52 GMT -6
Natalie's frown deepened. He was doing this to piss her off, she knew it, but she couldn't keep it from working so damn well! "You're not my superior," she growled. "And you never have been." She paused for a second, trying to regain control of herself. Trying to compose herself. "Anyway, it isn't my fault that Lucifer cared about keeping his minions in constant fear of him rather than make them intelligent and able to fight," Natalie continued, her voice flippant again. She shrugged.
Natalie hated having to play the roll of the actress, especially around Mammon. With his brother, it was easier. Far easier.
Natalie's face went back to its stony expression while Mammon's turned into a shark's expression. "Thank you for the congratulations. I think you know where the door is, now," she said, with exaggerated cordiality, gesturing towards the way out of the castle. All she wanted right then was for him to leave.
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Post by Soprano on Aug 5, 2011 3:21:42 GMT -6
“So you say,” Mammon said, peering down at a puddle of blood at his feet, “Regardless, you did an impressive job keeping them together and…”
He kicked the arm of a deformed Morningstar Child and made a thoughtful noise. He seemed halfway between amused and disgusted. He continued walking and didn’t finish his thought, though he thought it was obvious what he meant. He stopped right in front of Natalie and Dago, appraising their damage with an experienced eye.
“You’ve managed to come out mostly unharmed as well,” he noted with some amusement, like he hadn’t expected that.
He paced in a line in front of them, hand on his chin for a moment, ignoring what Natalie was saying. He didn’t really have anything to add, now that she was alive and kicking; he knew she used the box…
“Fine,” he said simply, “But I’ll be back when your time is up. Clock’s ticking, Natalie.”
With that, he left, quicker than he came.
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Post by Magnus on Aug 5, 2011 4:03:23 GMT -6
Natalie breathed a sigh of relief when Mammon left her and Dago. Thankfully, he'd ignored Dago, so at least she didn't have to worry about Mammon trying to enslave him and hold it against her or something. Still, though, the brief meeting had left her. . Disconcerted. Encounters with Mammon tended to. She knew that he was just trying to ruffle her feathers and scare her into doing something rash, but it didn't keep her feathers from being ruffled.
She glanced over at Dago for a second. "It looks like we have some cleaning up to do," she finally said, frowning at the corpses around them. She'd lost far more demons than she'd wanted to during this battle. Oh well, at least there were quite a few Pride demons still alive, but still. Every little bit mattered when one did not have the advantage, and Natalie definitely did not have the advantage.
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Post by Soprano on Aug 5, 2011 4:36:43 GMT -6
Dago immediately went to the doors and started to prop them up, hoping for some semblance of protection until they could get them fixed. He’d go and grab some boards to reinforce things, just in case. As he hauled up the other panel, he glanced over his shoulder at Natalie to see if she was alright. He was scared shitless, frankly, but knew the best option was to keep one’s head down and stay the fuck quiet, lest one grabbed the attention of someone unsavory.
“The fuck was that about?” he asked, “Mammon strolls in, strolls back out, the fuck?”
He was just glad they didn’t have to fight the bastard, nor Beelzebub, apparently. Two pieces of good news in one day when the day was possibly the end of your afterlife was really a-okay for Dago. He didn’t really expect much of an answer to his question either, considering how the day had gone.
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Post by Magnus on Aug 5, 2011 4:44:53 GMT -6
Natalie glanced back up at Dago, her face weary. "Don't. . Don't be surprised if he does it again," she said, trying to compose herself. "He's the most powerful Lord of Sin now, thanks to us, and he thinks that he has some sort of control over me. He doesn't, of course. ." She didn't want to go into detail about what had happened between her and Mammon. She didn't want anyone to know about that, especially people whom she was in charge of.
"It's just a scare tactic," she affirmed. "Don't worry about it." Natalie hated standing by unable to do anything while Mammon roamed around her castle, but until her powers as the Lord of Pride kicked in, she wouldn't be able to do anything. She hoped that they would kick in, at least. She wasn't sure if they would or not. . After all, Lucifer wasn't really dead.
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Post by Soprano on Aug 5, 2011 16:40:09 GMT -6
Dago snorted, “I won’t be,” he said, knowing from second-hand experience what single-minded bastards they could be if they wanted it.
He wasn’t surprised to hear there was not going to be much respect for Natalie as a Lord of Sin either. This seemed like standard fare in Hell, after all. Pick on the new person, hopefully kill them and take their power… Yeah, sounded about right for this place. He finished propping up the door, picking up a mallet to get ready to board it up again when he finally saw the crack in Natalie’s façade. It wasn’t a big one, of course, but he really couldn’t blame her, with Mammon tromping around like he owned both of them.
“Hey, are you okay?” he said, dropping the mallet to move back over toward her.
He kind of assumed the answer, but the question was only to let her say she didn’t want to talk about it.
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