LadyAnnaLee

The Lesser Evils. (Play is live!)

Argenti looked at the woman who mentioned avoided “net zero” and basically implied that she wouldn’t help without something in return. Well, that was fair, and it wasn’t even that ridiculous a price. She was right. Something like that should be easy enough for the so-called Detective. Rumor had it that they practically ran the town. Of course, that was just rumor. Still, it had to be easier than what the two of them discussed. Argenti had been about to kill The Detective when he had been summoned. Luckily, they had been a fast speaker. In the end Argenti had agreed to come to this meeting if the Detective had agreed to help find an eliminate all the ways to summon Argenti. In the succubus’s opinion that was a fair price for helping with these Outcasts as well. Though it sounded like he might have to wait until the problem was solved to be paid. That was alright. Argenti would be paid, one way or another.

He did claim another pastry, this one a plain glazed donut, “I’m in. I have no problem trying to figure out these Outcasts and their goals and then eliminating them.” He smirked at no one and nothing, “I don’t even have a problem with working with the others in this room.”

That was true enough. Argenti had worked with others in the past and figured that he would work with others in the future. Many supernatural types were loners and Argenti certainly fell into that category well enough, but he wasn’t such a loner that he refused to deal with others. Besides this was bigger than any personal preferences. This wasn’t even just about justice at this point. The sooner then figured out what was going on with these Outcasts the more Innocents would be protected from whatever this plan of theirs was. Though justice had a part of it as well. Argenti would have to figure out exactly what type of Fae Eris was as well as what type of demon Samael was. That would help him figure out how to make them suffer. Though more important, not that Argenti would ever say this bit out loud, was finding the bodies or proof that the Innocents were dead so their families could have closure. It may have been cruel, but the truth was that even too much hope could be poisonous. Hopefully it wouldn’t reach that point.

Argenti reached for another file. It wouldn’t hurt to look at more information. Perhaps he would see something that the investigators hadn’t. It wasn’t likely, but who knew. Right now, reading files was all he could do. After this meeting was over, he could try poking around for information on Samael and Eris, but even that would probably reveal next to nothing new. Still, he had a few sources that he knew for fact this Juniper didn’t have. He wasn’t sure about The Detective. It wouldn’t hurt to ask the other minor demons of The City. At the very least they would know that things in The City were changing and know how demons were reacting to the change. Any information would be valuable at this point. Right?

The Lesser Evils. (Play is live!)

Hello! How is everybody?

Okay. I'm just going to be real. Monday nights is a better time for me to be posting my posts. So, I'm just going to move the due dates to Mondays. Hopefully that works for everybody.

On another note I was going to have The Detective mention everybody's payment in that last post only to realize that I didn't actually require that in the character sheets. Oops. My bad, guys. I said this was my first time. I'm working on it. So, if everyone wants to either post here in the OoC what their character is expecting as payment or mention it in their next post that would be awesome. I know some of you did mention in your character sheets, but I'm just going to say everyone needs to either state or restate payment methods. Just to be fair! I hope that makes sense and is good for everyone.

Also I didn't have time to get this to @Pascal to beta read it. So, there are probably typos galore. Please forgive them.

You are all amazing!

LadyAnnaLee

The Lesser Evils. (Play is live!)

The Detective clenched a hand into a tight fist as their gaze focused on wall above the door across from where they were sitting, “They’re dead. I just don’t have bodies to give families closure.”

If The Detective could find bodies to place in places where they could be found they would do so in a heartbeat. Some of the Innocents had families and friends that were desperate for any sign that their loved ones were safe and coming home. It might be cruel of The Detective to want to dash those hopes, but the people wouldn’t be able to start healing until they knew what had happened to their missing loved ones. The Detective didn’t want to be unkind, but they could fathom allowing people to live with false hopes. That being said right now they had no proof to give anyone that the Innocents were dead. The Detective knew when they had died. Or more importantly The City knew. That would have to be enough.

The Detective gave their head a shake and turned their gaze to mother across the table, “Of course. I will smooth things over before I begin my Sleep. After all, for some of us family is all we have.” They looked around the table, “In the past I discussed payment for this job with some of you. For others that is something we still need to discuss. Some of it I will be able to take care of before my Sleep as I can for the Lesser Pride. Some of it will have to wait until the situation is resolved, but you will all be paid. I keep my word.” Then The Detective said that it that might of seemed as if they let something slip but was deliberately planned, “Breaking my word is against The Rules.”

It was true. Breaking promises made meant breaking the Rules and The Detective tried to avoid that. For some of them it would be easy enough. Setepenre just wanted to be able to take care of her children no matter what form they might take. Calling in the right favors to make that happen was something they had already started and would finish up this afternoon. On the other hand, Juniper Murik wanted exclusive and first-person access to events, restaurants, museums, and other such things that would look good on her social media. That was also fairly easy but ongoing. It would have to wait. For others The Detective wasn’t sure exactly what they want or required but wasn’t too worried. They were all intrigued enough by the threat to the Innocents to come here to this meeting free of charge or bribe or threat. They might not be reasonable, but The Detective was willing to wager they wouldn’t be completely unreasonable either.

They nodded to the Lesser Sloth, “Thank you for the invitation, but I have already prepared a place for me to rest. It will be safer than most other places and I am comfortable with it.” Then they looked around the room and asked the question that would confirm either their fears or their hopes, “Will you all be working against these Outcasts?”

Posts Due

August 15th, 2022

The Lesser Evils. (Play is live!)

Little mini update. Odds are I will not be able to get a Detective post up tonight. It will probably happen late Monday super early Tuesday. Keep in mind that I'm in CST, sleep days, and live nights. So, "midday" for me is like midnight for most people, and midnight tomorrow is *hand waving* roughly when I'll be posting the next moving on post. I would do it today but something came up. That gives the last few people a little bit more time to post. Keep in mind this is the exception not the rule. Thank you for understanding! Have a great rest of your day!

The Tree of Astra (LadyAnnaLee and Blackfridayrule)

I understand. Thanks for letting me know.

The Lesser Evils. (Play is live!)

Well, Argenti wasn’t going to share his full set of power, but he didn’t want to be the one holding out, “I’m a low level succubus.” He flapped his hand at this Cain, “There’s no point in copying my powers.

That was true for the most part. If he could mimic mundane powers as well as supernatural like he said Argenti’s parkour and free-running skills might be useful, but there was no point in bringing those up. If he got called out later, he would just say he hadn’t realized those were important enough to mention. Could Cain copy knowledge as well? If so, he might like the knowledge of how to efficiently torture a plethora of species, but since he hadn’t mentioned that Argenti would keep it to himself. He didn’t need to know about the Gift. John had given that to Argenti and he wasn’t sharing that!

He might get a few raised eyebrows for calling himself a succubus rather than an incubus since he wasn’t cross dressing today, but he didn’t care. He wasn’t even sure when succubus had come to mean female sex demon and incubus had come to mean male sex demon but that hadn’t always been the case. Oh well, these were supernatural creatures indeterminate age, not some “traditional” idiot born only 5 decades ago. This group had to have more sense. He draped over the table and flashed Cain his flirtiest smile. It didn’t mean anything. It was just supposed to reinforce his statement that he was just a low-level succubus, which was true enough.

Only to straighten and turn serious as The Detective simultaneously handed Juniper the files and talked about Bob. Practically perfect and completely ordinary? It was possible. Argenti had seen it before. His silver eyes grew hard. It was also extremely difficult. Argenti looked around the table. No one here fit the bill, but if this Bob did, that might explain how they got Innocents away for the crowds to extract their souls. They had to get them away and into a private space. That fact that there were so few victims lent proof to that theory. The Outcast weren’t taking souls in mass. Whatever their plan was they wanted, pure, undiluted, uncorrupted Innocent souls. It was dangerous, but sooner or later, it would also make them trackable.

So, when the witch, Juniper, passed over the files he took one at random. IT opened to reveal a yearbook picture. Argenti steeled himself to look at the age: 16. So, these Outcasts weren’t just taking Innocents. They were taking children too. It was true that most Innocents were under the age of 30 and even more were under the age of 18, but still, it felt worse somehow. The boy did the fairly typical things that Innocents did. He volunteered at a youth sport’s program three times a week, played the same sport at his high school, had slightly higher than average grades, volunteered at a soup kitchen once a week, went to a farmer’s market for most of his shopping, helped his single working mom taking care of his two younger siblings without complaining, and was genuinely well likely. He hadn’t been declared dead yet and his social media was filled with comments about how he wouldn’t have run away and how he was such a sincerely sweet guy. Argenti pulled out his only phone, plugged in his headphones and found the interview with his mother begging for whoever had her son to please give him back, that she wouldn’t press charges. She wasn’t an Innocent, but even through the screen Argenti could tell that she wasn’t an Innocent because of some big choice. Life had just happened to her. The way it just happened to most people. She was at least 98 percent Innocent. That wasn’t exactly how it worked, but close enough. Argenti’s whole posture screamed an increasing rage as he watched it, and his face promised murder.

He scowled as he looked back up, “There is a pattern here somewhere. They are looking for quality rather than quantity. We can find the pattern and we can stop them. We just need to work together. We don’t have to trust each other. We just have to work with each other.”

The Lesser Evils. (Play is live!)

@Zanavy

@DawningAurora

This sounds amazing! And so much fun! I can't wait to see it!

The Lesser Evils. (Play is live!)

There's another Detective post! This time posts are due on the 31st so I could post a moving forward post on the 1st! Thank you!

The Lesser Evils. (Play is live!)

The silence in the room was damning and for a brief moment The Detective feared that the Lessers might just walk out. They didn’t know what they would do if that happened. As much as it pained them to admit, even to themselves, calling this group had been their last hope. Well, not their very last hope, but their last hope at getting a conclusion that was acceptable. Then Lesser Gluttony asked her question. It took a great deal of effort to not visibly sigh in relief. They weren’t walking out just yet. The Detective still had a chance to convince them to help.

They handed a folder to the witch, “Here are the names of the ones that I managed to identify. I located 19 of them. I suspect there are more victims but cannot be sure how many. They arrived in The City about 3 months ago. Then about two weeks ago my powers started to … falter.” They pointed at the Lesser Lust, “I have seen two individuals, one male and one female, that I believe may actually be Bob in two different shapes. In both forms they are practically perfect yet somehow completely ordinary.” They gave their head a brief shake, “I realized they were a threat about a week in. By then Bob had already figured out how to effectively hide from my magic which is doable but shouldn’t be easy. I do not think Bob was their original name. I think it is the name they are choosing to use now.”

Then they paused. How to answer the Lesser Envy’s question without revealing too much or too little. The Detective didn’t want to be unhelpful, especially since Setepenre, Albert, and Ivan had already shared, but they really didn’t him copying their abilities. That would be difficult. It shouldn’t be possible, but it also shouldn’t be possible for their powers to be blocked this completely. This was entirely new territory and for the first time in a long, long time they weren’t sure what was going on. They had taken a risk with the barrier. That made them inclined to be cautious now. That didn’t mean that could be deliberately mysterious. That wouldn’t be helpful at all and might even be detrimental.

They spoke slowly, “As for my powers specifically.” They sighed, “They follow a specific set of Rules. Within The City those Rules should be absolute. As such how much power I have or don’t have depends on how successfully I follow the Rules. It is possible that the Outcasts have managed to get me to break one of the Rules, but I doubt that. I know the Rules pretty damn well. It is more likely that they managed to craft or find a loophole. Right now, most of my power and magic is going towards keeping a barrier up around The City. It specifically keeps the three Outcasts in and beings of a certain power level out. They will not be able to flee nor call reinforcements. However, this taxes me greatly. Soon I will have to Sleep in order to maintain it. I will not be able to do more.” There was another sigh, “I did not call you all to fight. I called you all to support each other in this battle. I was hoping.” For the first time all meeting they smiled as they pointed at the Lesser Sloth, “That one of you would offer protection to those that needed it, so that way those of you could fight would be able to do so without worrying about friends and family.” They turned back to the young witch, “Have you discovered anything useful?”

Posts Due

July 31st, 2022

The Lesser Evils. (Play is live!)

As a reminder. Posts are due on the 17th. If you cannot post by then, please remember to reach out to either me or Pascal. Thank you!