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Elora has chosen to have the debriefing inside the manse today, all the better to keep the details far from prying ears. Today they are in a room whose walls are carefully painted to provide a perfectly realistic image of a southwestern Jungle.

Elora is mostly picking at her food rather than actually talking about the results of the group's most recent "efforts."

Autumn walks in, having changed his hair color to five shades of the maidens, wearing a dark regalia showing astrological charts and the five maidens doing dirty acts to themselves using their icons. His mask is half comedy, half tragedy, mingling of black and white. He sits down, feet on the table. "So, now that's uot of the way, which Dynast do we terrorize next?"

She starts with "You're la..." before deciding to give up on it.

Elora follows up with "Our job is not to terrorize Dyna..." No.

Elora "..."

"Just be quiet for a minute."

Autumn "Ah, yes, we gotta shag them too. Relax, I have nothing against that part!"

Bishop Of Strife? stands from his seat, adjusting the intricate pleats of his scarlet military-style robe-coat, paces around the room like a professor about to lecture. Then, without warning, he grabs a lesser-god servant by the throat and starts beating the hapless spirit against the wall, all the while shouting at it in some chthonic tongue!

Autumn "The Bishop who will never be a pope! How exotic. Lacks style, though."

Elora shoots daggers from her eyes at Autumn as she very forcefully stabs a pepper with her fork.

"...what are you doing."

Bishop Of Strife? then continues by flinging the servant across the room, adjusting his coat, and returns calmly to his seat. "I just remembered, that spirit once failed to properly notarize some paperwork."

Autumn "See, Venus is superior. I would just tie the servant up and using spankings and wax. Why drop blood?" One of his scarves whips out and steals a chicken wing from Elora's plate.

Bishop Of Strife? He stretches comfortably, examining his fingernails. His voice is back to a soothing, mellow, near-whisper. "I fail to see the problem with our performance."

Elora sighs. Even her prodigious appetite isn't enough to let her finish her meal.

Bishop Of Strife? "I'm serious, please elaborate on what could have gone better."

Autumn eats some of the chicken. Without removing his mask.... somehow

"There is no need to be so... brutal. The same effect can be achieved without any short-term crippling or long-term permanent damage." He nods sagely, "That, and it lacked *grace*. And that is just criminal."

Elora looks at the Bishop with googly eyes. "You took time off!"

Autumn "Oh, you mean the job in general. No, it has been wonderful. Venus is pleased!"

Bishop Of Strife? nods solemnly. "Yes, the Crimson Panoply was woefully behind schedule on beatings."

Elora blinks.

Bishop Of Strife? sips tea delicately.

Elora "Ohhhh.... kay."

Autumn "And I guess battles too. Gotta love a good senseless fight with guards!"

Bishop Of Strife? gestures dismissively.

Autumn picks a pepper, throws it on the Bishop's general direction. "And you m.i.s.s.e.d. it~!"

Bishop Of Strife? "No, no. I didn't miss it. I simply wasn't present."

Elora "This is the worst job ever."

Elora starts to flip through the troop movement documents she swiped from Delana's place.

Autumn "Anything interesting, or should we go back and there and beat them more? I'm certain I can write a new scripture or two. Those inviting, INVITING walls!" He gushes

  • The document is mostly a long list of Dynast names and brief abbreviations for various locations -- Nexus, Halta, the West, and so forth.

Elora "They don't need any more beating." A pause. "Especially from the Bishop, but ESPECIALLY from Autumn."

  • The annotations appear around several names assigned to the northeast region -- they are circled in red, with a brief abbreviation next to them: "So M?." One name is circled and underlined -- Peleps Deled.

Elora "Hm."

Bishop Of Strife? "I would like to think that I deliver the best beatings this side of the other side of anywhere."

Elora asks to no one in particular, "Do you know who Peleps Deled is?"

Bishop Of Strife? "No. But I wish to meet him or her, and fight him or her."

Autumn' "No idea!"

Elora "Well, he's circled on this list of names." She looks over it again. "AND underlined."

Autumn "He must be an interesting person, then! Let us find out who he is. And then we can can dance!"

Elora "Well, uh." Elora thinks about it for a moment, then sends off a spider to see if she can find out exactly where he lives.

Serpent comes in and lifts some noodles off the plate and just sort of inhales them, without sitting down.

Elora looks up at Serpent for a second and says "Hi, you're also late," but then gets embarrassed for some reason and looks back down at her plate.

Bishop Of Strife? extends his starmetal-plated left hand to Elora. "May I?"

Serpent takes a seat for some reason and refills everyone's teacups.

Elora "May you... what."

Bishop Of Strife? "The papers, please."

Elora hands them over.

Bishop Of Strife? dons a monocle and rifles through the papers scrutinously.

Autumn "Serpent! How have things been? Can we talk like that or should we write up? We could make a contest."

Serpent "Mmff mm fffm—" Serpent swallows the chunk of bread— "It's not so bad."

  • The spider returns, almost apologetically whispering into Elora's ear, "That information is either generally lost or actively concealed at this time."

Elora "Cuntmonkeys."

Bishop Of Strife? looks up from the papers. "Hrm, cuntmonkeys? I haven't seen one of those in ... over a century, I think. They're not extinct, are they?"

Autumn produces a bar of bar of soap, and handles it to Elora. "For the mouth!" He nods sagely

Elora takes the bar of soap and pockets it without verbal response.

Bishop Of Strife? looks back to the paperwork, pushing plates and cups out of the way to make room for a scroll produced from within his robe-coat. The Bishop leans in, beginning to jot notes, draw lines, and sketch in mind-straining numerals...

Autumn "Cunts certainly aren't! I wouldn't know about monkeys, though. But funny animals, alas, always end up extinct."

Elora realizes what she's done and coughs loudly. "Ahem."

  • It is immediately apparent to the Bishop that the list is a payroll for Mnemnon Delana's espionage department. The general distribution of the agents are consistent with intentions to ensure a level of peace and control when Mnemnon's attempt to conquer the Realm begins...

Serpent "So, uh, speaking of dancing..."

Autumn "I wasn't calling YOU one. I'm sorry if I hit some self-image problem." He nods, then turns to Serpent, clapping! "Yes? Dances? Where?!?"

  • except for the puzzling distribution of forces in the northeast. Judging by the numbers, Deled was sent to the northeast originally about a year ago. Since then, a few Dynasts have been sent every month, with the number constantly increasing, widely outnumbering the next most occupied area.

Serpent "How did everyone feel about that visit to Delana? I feel pretty okay about it. Except for that whole... ...thing..."

Elora thinks: ::I felt pretty good about it...:: -- but what she says is "We, uh, appear to have achieved some good ends." Then she blushes and drops her fork.

Elora looks up at Serpent for help, then remembers what happened with Serpent at Delana's, and blushes further.

Autumn "We kicked their backsides! And did it with dance and pantomime and feminine wiles! I feel very good about it! Though, I wasn't there at the start, so that should change."

Serpent bites his lip. His eyes dance with laughter. "Yes, ends..."

Elora tries to change the subject. "So, Bishop, have you, uh... found anything?"

Bishop Of Strife? strokes his beard for a moment, studying his equations, and makes a few more notes. ? = { ? | ? ? ? & ? < ?}

Bishop Of Strife? "Hm!" He gestures meaningfully at ?, tapping twice. "It's a force poised for invasion. This location, notably, is steadily building a force of Dynasts, and has been for about a year."

Elora "You don't say."

Bishop Of Strife? "Peacekeeping forces, specifically."

Elora "Hrrrrrrrrr."

  • The Bishop's warmongering eye is drawn to the pair of Dynasts who appear to have infiltrated Lookshy.

Bishop Of Strife? leans back in his chair, leaving the gold-inked mathematical symbols to swirl in the eyes of onlookers. "So ... how do you feel about Lookshy?"

Serpent "It is...very well populated."

Autumn "Boring."

Elora blinks again. "What? I don't care about Lookshy. Obviously we should be looking where this guy is."

Serpent "Who's this guy."

Bishop Of Strife? "I disagree, Autumn." He taps at the pair of names that caught his eye. "Call it a Martian hunch." Serpent makes a little cage out of sliced vegetables around a heap of meat and pokes it. "Nice kitty..."

Elora realizes that at least the Bishop has a plan that has yet to involve punching. "Fine, fine. Lookshy."

Autumn "Well, then. But I'll have to enliven it a bit." He blinks. "Yay, playing with food!"

Serpent makes another little cage with Autumn's food, since he has a mask on -anyway-, and builds a little waterside scene with rice-ball rocks and a curry lake.

Elora blinks three more times, before suddenly becoming very loud. "ALRIGHT! ALRIGHT THAT'S ENOUGH! EVERYONE PUT DOWN THE SHIT-FUCKING FOOD AND GET READY TO LEAVE!"

Serpent stuffs a last rice ball into his mouth and goes to pick up his scabbards from the weapons rack.

Serpent He looks a little hurt. "You don't have to shout."

Autumn curls into a ball on his seat and rocks back and forth "... but, but... playing with food is fun, mom... why do you hate fun?"

Bishop Of Strife? looks at Elora as though suddenly finding some shred of respect.


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