8699/Playing Hot and Cold

Playing Hot and Cold
Date of Scene:	16 November 2021
Location:	The Griffin
Synopsis:	A simple dart game on the walls turns into things being discovered which have been hidden.
Cast of Characters:	Ree, Saeko, Thomas Blake, Satana Hellstrom

---

Ree has posed:
Ree is peeling the paint off the walls.

She's spend some time stabbing a stolen kithen knife into the arm of one of the chairs, but had to stop when she threw the knife and it stuck too high in the wall for her to retrieve. She managed to get some darts stuck into a mounted animal head, which may or may not have already been there when she arrived. She's drunk all the liquids in the refrigerator, including some that aren't technically for drinking.

She's bored. Making little paintings with peeled paint won't keep her attention for long. And soon, she's going to end up going outside again.

it's like she was told to sit tight or something. SOMEONE doesn't do patient well.

Saeko has posed:
Destruction of property in this place wasn't exactly new. The first time Saeko had visited it had come under attack after all. Still, as the vixen simply appeared in the kitchen space and stepped towards the refridgerator it actually too a moment for her to frown, pause and look about at the chaos.

"Restless imps?" Saeko muses aloud, frowning as she opens the door to find the devestation to the contents and exhaling a breath mirrored with a little irritated twitch of her ears.

She turns, raising an eyebrow as she comes to fix on the sight of the destructive sprite that was Ree.

Thomas Blake has posed:
Thomas Blake returns fresh off the plane from Africa, needing a meal, a shower, and booze. He throws his carry on down.

"SaTANa! I'm back!!! Did you miss methefuckareyouandwhatthefuckareyoudoingtomyhouse?" A very large kukri knife that screams 'Abyssal Magic.' He spares a glance at great-aunt Lil's portrait over the fireplace.

Ree has posed:
Licking a bit of mayonnaise from her own chin with a tongue too long for her own face, the red skinned demon turns upon hearing others arrive. "Oh, thank god," she actually says, straight faced and everything. She tosses what she's got in her hands to one side, not particular about where it all ends up (some bits probably looking stolen) and spreads her arms. First to Saeko, then to Tommy Boy.

"HUMANS yay! I love humans. I ate all the condiments though, please tell me you brought ketchup. I'm also fond of dates and citrus peel, but I don't expect it on a first date."

she seems to trail off a bit on a tangent there, but at this point she's just trying to fuck with people. Leave ME alone for hours will you? Wait, these aren't Satana. Oh well, already doing it, commit.

She offers Saeko her hands, to hold or ignore. "I'm John Wilkes Boothe. My favourite colours are plaid. Do you know the way to san jose?"

There are signs of massive sugar consumption. They're well hidden, but they're there if you know what to look for. Oh, and she grins at Thomas, waiting for her sharp teeth to sink in. horns, tail. Demon.

Saeko has posed:
It was...probably offensive to call Saeko a human for a few reasons, divine beings weren't exactly without their pride. But trickster or not in this context it was just confusing.

She wasn't hiding her tails, ears, wisker marks or those inhuman eyes after all. In a house usually full of demons, it tended to be less important.

Thomas' arrival earns a lift of her hand, but his reaction earns a blink...one further echoed in the face of Ree's words.

"Hello," she speaks slowly, sweeping her hand through the air as a small manifested ceramic cup forms in her hand, a blink at the question from the little demonette. "I do not but..." a frown as she's left holding a tea cup while Thomas is going for a knife and the Tenko finally askes the obvious question.

"Is...is this demon meant to be here?"

Thomas Blake has posed:
Thomas Blake it sinks in and drops from sight. "Another fucking demon... where's your babysitter my little ghost pepper crumpet?" He sheathes the knife and looks around. "Bloord... I hope they grew back from the last time you screwed up with Satana... because you're going to loose them again!"

He could go out and jump on anther plane. Go looking for Nanda Parbat or something. But let's see were this is going.

"John Wilkes Booth... I know demons are capable of a lot but stooping to political humor is stooping indeed."

Satana Hellstrom has posed:
Most people use the front door to come home.

Satana is not most people.

Pay attention. These two statements are about to become important.

The doorbell rings. This starts a tidal wave of imps who'd been hiding from the inevitable wrath that Ree's actions would engender to spill out of hiding and rush to the door.

The doorbell rings again.

The chaos of frightened imps rushing to what they think is (relative) safety distracts from the scent and sound of a demon teleporting into the kitchen.

"Damn me (again)," Satana mutters to herself as she surveys the damage that Saeko too surveyed. "Did I go on a bender or something?"

She looks like she went on a bender. What with the shadows under her eyes, the torn costume (can't really call it 'clothing' can you?), and the scratches and abrasions.

Ree has posed:
"Who's humourous?" Ree says, as she takes in Saeko's appearance through the alcohol and sugar rush. "Hey. I know you. You're..." She trails off, kind of forcing Saeko to tell her name or to ignore her, either would do.

Then she turns toward Thomas! "I wouldn't mind if you showed me how to use that knife. Do you have one for me? Or is this not a sexual moment?" Wait, knife, sexual? This has GOT to be Satana's influence.

She almost announced the lady's arrival, right there, and turns on cue in assumption that Satana will arrive. She used the turn to grab Thomas' butt with her tail, but given that she's already trashed the place a bit, it's probably the least of her worries.

"MASTER!" Her voice isn't loud, it's just...voice'ish. She may or may not deserve to be murdered for that shout. Which isn't a shout, it's just that she has yet to figure out an inner voice. Either that or she's ingested enough sugar to send her into the speed dimension.

Thomas Blake has posed:
Thomas Blake turns to look at Satana and boggles a little. "I was gone... 10 days. Rasputin! Is he all right? Did Gabby bring him back? Excuse me a minute... if you're trying to say hi with that tail..." Thomas gives Ree a swat on the butt, "Hi back." He runs to the door to the basement.

Saeko has posed:
More kitchen teleporting! It was probably a good thing Saeko had moved earlier or Satana would have probably landed on top of her.

There are worse things that could happen!

Ree's querying of her identity earns a small puzzled look behind her cup of tea before a small flick of her fingers seems to erase the beverage out of existance.

"I am Saeko," she begins, but her attention shifts to Satana's state as the more 'Royal' demoness makes muttering orientation to the surroundings and Thomas flees to check on Rasputin.

"I...don't believe it was this way this morning."

Satana Hellstrom has posed:
"What on Hell and Earth happened here?" Satana asks as she steps into the living room and takes in the scene.

The wave of imps headed for the door.

The damaged ... everything.

The animal head she can't quite remember having had.

"I left the place for two days. TWO DAYS. Well, OK, it was four days ago, but still..."

Her eyes fall on Ree. "Oh, little one. I had a frank chat with your old benefactor. Well, with a few of his heavies. It seems he is very keen on getting you back."

Her not-nice smile spreads across her face like peanut butter on a Hell sandwich.

"I think my response was clear. All he has to do is reassemble the corpses of his heavies. You're still mine."

Stepping up to Saeko, Satana kisses the fox and a little bit more. "Missed you foxy," she says with a wink. Her eyes track the fleeing Catman as she comments, "Missed him too, but he's not in reach. I guess you get this."

Her hand wanders down to the base of Saeko's tail for a little scratching.

Thomas Blake has posed:
Thomas Blake comes up out of the basement speaking on his phone. "Bring him back please. Ye-e-e-es today... Thank you Gabrielle." He walks past Ree and molds himself onto Satana's back, kissing her neck.

"Honey? Who is this John Wilkes Booth and why are they trashing our home?" He returns to kissing her.

Ree has posed:
Having her butt swatted just makes Ree look confused. Nobody's that delicate. She assumes it was an accident, and turns her head to watch the cute guy take off. "Careful, I threw some bottles down there to see what sound they'd make." There's broken glass, it might be a trip hazard.

She's nice, see? She even warned him.

Then she looks at Saeko, her eyes looking confused. She lets her eyes go to Satana, then back to Saeko, as the two interact. She isn't sure about this one. Nobody's that nice and/or obtuse. Still, it'd be wrong not to take an opportunity when it's offered to her.

"So, she says to Saeko, "I didn't do it," and moves on.

Then she grins at Satana, bouncing on her toes a bit. "I love dismemberments! Did they have fun? It's always nice when you get the wrong arm or leg, the rejection symptoms really spice things up."

The kissing and tail-scritching is minor. Also what is apparently a threesome forming up. Who put her in vanilla-land?

Saeko has posed:
A look between the demoness and the imp was fairly revealing, making it fairly clear that there was more than Saeko knew going on. Myth aside, she was frustratingly quite far from omnipotent!

Satana's approach brings a smile, the kiss met and returned quite readily enough that it was fairly clear that divinity did not a prude make.

Besides, that hand finding the base of her tails has poor Saeko giving a little groan and a bite of her lip that melts away into a flushed chuckle. "I missed you too Satana..."

Back to Ree and her apparent innocence? Saeko's answer was simply to close her eyes a moment and exhale.

She wouldn't even -attempt- to restore the place magically, that kinda required her to know the full extent of the chaos for a start!

Satana Hellstrom has posed:
"So, I guess introductions are in order. This is Ree."

Satana pronounces the name properly which causes minor ear bleeding in the unfortified.

"She was ... used as a tool by Beleth. Beleth is a repugnant idiot. I turned his mana hose back on him. It was fun. He's now upset with me."

Satana glances over at Thomas quickly. "We're in a war. Thought you should know."

Continuing, she says, "So since I liberated her from her previous master, Ree has decided that I'm her new one." The fact that Satana said as much doesn't count. It was Ree's choice. I mean she could easily have just gone back to Hell as a wisp...

"I haven't yet found her precise role..."

"WHAT THE EVERLOVIN' HELL IS THIS!?"

That's from the man in a cheap suit lugging a box with the name Electrosux on the side.

"I JUST WANTED TO SELL A VACUUM CLEANER BUT..."

His voice gets cut off as the tower of imps loses its balance and falls on him, covering him in a dozen of the creatures.

Thomas Blake has posed:
Thomas Blake beeps Satana's nose. "Honey, we don't kill around the house, unless we really have to. Let the poor man go. It's not like he was selling Bibles I'll see him out. Then we'll discuss war and what to do with or about Ree."

Ree has posed:
"Names have power. Don't let that get too far around." Ree isn't asking, she's insisting on something here. She didn't react to the pronounciation, though honestly Satana did a good job. Just enough pitch on the upper screech, hitting that nails on a chalkboard sound.

Ree was watching when Saeko bit her lip. Making a mental note to make her an offer later on, she tilts her head as the explanation goes forward, along with Thomas' complementary edification.

And...the new guy.

"I could take care of him if you wish," she says bluntly. "I need to practice. And he seems like he'd break after a few rounds anyway." No comment on the war, just an immediate offer to have sex with the vacuum salesman. It seems like a way she can be useful.

She knows a role she'd fill well, but it appears that Satana already has people for that. Still, she wouldn't be her if she missed a chance for a pun.

She moves a bit closer to the guy, and then whispers something to him. There's something about sucking involved, and she doesn't seem adverse to the idea.

Who's Rasputin?

Satana Hellstrom has posed:
And just like that they were gone. Thomas to "persuade" the salesman that he'd just been tripping or whatever. Saeko to clean up. Leaving the battered Satana to look at the bored Ree.

"You're a troublemaker."

Spoken without anger or rancor or even disapproval. Just plain fact. "You're wasted on Beleth. But before you become wasted on me, let me know one thing: what was it Beleth valued you for?"

Ree has posed:
Ree isn't certain what she's meant to do yet. She isn't, but she's been sitting alone for hours, and at this point she's tired of beating around the bush. Much better uses of those things anyway. "I am," she agrees. Again, no judgement in that statement. Like Satana's own, she knows it's just a thing.

"Never-ending hope," she says. She assumes that'll make more sense to Satana than it would someone else.

1: Beleth needed to break people.
2: Breaking people naturally ruins them in certain ways.
3: Someone who he could abuse, and still get creativity and hope from is invaluable. Ree would have still been able to make things interesting. Perhaps even make artistic decisions. Hell is, in many ways, stagant by design.

"I always felt there was something more." Her eyes glance about, as if she's looking for something else in the room, then back. "I'll never be a perfect servant, Master. I'll always be a little too bored to do things right. Maybe you should disintegrate me after all."

Don't. Don't. Please don't.

Satana Hellstrom has posed:
"Oh, if I choose to dispose of you it won't be through disintegration."

The other imps in the room shiver as one. They know.

"I have a laboratory downstairs that I use to acquire and use ingredients. Imps who displease me are common contributors."

One of the imps contributes. Right here. Right now. Staining the carpet as it cowers behind another one, that starts trying to cower behind the first resulting in a two-bodied dog chasing its tail.

"Beleth found enough to value in you to elevate you. To send you forth as a pawn in a nonsensical scheme to charge up mana batteries. To lose his heavies in a bid to get your return. I shan't strip you to a wisp just yet. You intrigue me."

Cruel eyes match the cruel smile.

"Please me, however, and I'll show you how a succubus rewards faithful service. You'll never look back to Beleth again."

Ree has posed:
What could you possibly say to that kind of thing. It's not a question, not really. It's a decision, and one that Ree has to make on her own. She knows what Satana could do to her. Probably better than she has a right to know. So she turns, and looks at the other imps. At their fear, and the way they hide.

"No."

She turns, and she looks back at Satana. She's still afraid. That's just sense though. This means she's going to get carved, and she's ready for it. "I'm finally out. I'll please you, because I want to. But I won't be your servant. I know I can't ever be your equal, or your friend. But I'm done. Either start tearing me apart, or make another choice."

Then she lifts her eyes, looking at Satana's own. Spirit. Unbroken spirit.

"I'll be free someday."

Satana Hellstrom has posed:
For just a moment the facade falls, and the face of a wrathful Hell Lord with a grievance is pictured. Fingers start automatically shaping themselves into the Soul Fire glyph. A glow even forms around the fist.

But then it all falls back in place. That thin veneer of politesse. That mask of pleasantry.

"Intriguing."

Satana stares at Ree a while, pondering. Assessing.

"Beleth may have let a gem slip from his grasp. But little one, tell me, what is your plan for protecting yourself? Surely you would be better off having a patron."

Ree has posed:
Ree has a heart attack for a moment. She tries to hide it, but Satana in full rage is not something you just brush off. She took a step back, she seriously skipped a beat. She swallows. That shit is terrifying.

Then, when it seems like she's not completely effed, she tries to get saliva in her mouth. She notes, she's stone cold sober. Wow. That's one serious plan for clearing your head.

"I...don't. Nobody ever has one, though. Do they?" She pauses, trying to answer. It's hard, what with having just nearly purged your bladder.

"I'd love to have you on my side. I owe you, I know that. I won't turn away anything that you ask of me. But I'll do it without being ordered to. And I'll make mistakes and get hurt. Like people do, every day."

Satana Hellstrom has posed:
"People. You mean prey animals. You forget what you are now. Tell me, little one, how do you feed? You know, I suspect, how I do. What is your means. Blood? Flesh? The teeth hint at the latter."

Satana walks slowly around Ree, assessing again, before coming to a conclusion.

"I won't send you back," she decides.

Ree had no say in this.

"It would be a waste to have gotten into such a war over you only to have you go back to Hell. And imps can be surprisingly useful when they have a backbone. Bloord was one of those once."

The fiend that has been hovering quietly in the hall in case of need coughs politely.

"Now he's a fiend. So let's play the pretend game. We'll pretend that you're free. And if you're still useful to me, we'll talk about your elevation."

Ree has posed:
She's silent. She's won a big victory, but there are limits to how far she can push things. Know when to stop pushing your luck. Rule twenty-two on Ree's list of how to handle anyone who can kick your ass.

With a fingertip, yet.

"Thank you," she says. No 'master'. It's pretend, for now. And realistically it's always been. She pauses though, and thinks. This might actually be better.

If Beleth comes after her, she needs to be under someone who can stand up to him. She can't do it. she can barely weld a dog to a swingset and leave it for the kindergarten class to freak out over. She's not a warrior. Satana is being Hell's version of 'nice'.

"Thank you," she says, with a bit more oomph in it. Because, like all contracts, things go both ways. Pretend you're free, and someday if you're safe to let go, then maybe.

"I eat everything. Bone marrow is delicious. Do you think if I were to get a job, I'd get to eat things?" She did clean out the refrigerator, which should have been Satana's first hint on how 'novierous Ree is.

Then she looks over at the fiend, and grins. "Bloord, my dude. Sorry about the bathroom."

What did she do to the bathroom???

Satana Hellstrom has posed:
Satana stares. First at Ree. Then at Bloord. The latter of whom just raises his shoulder in a resigned shrug.

"There is one rule: do not destroy the nest. If you have the urge to start being ... creative ... go at least 500 metres from this place or even farther. Then be creative to your heart's content."

She gestures at the door where the salesman once was before getting swarmed by imps.

"I could have drained him to settle the problem. I didn't. Because it leads to trouble. Detection. And even the mortals can do things to the like of me. I hate being forced back to my domain and then waiting to be able to come back. So I feed in Gotham where people don't care."

Beat.

"If you can't teleport there, I'll give you the bus map."

Ree has posed:
There's no gap, no hesitation. Ree says, "Yes'm," right away. The Master title is gone, but she's still supremely respectful of Satana's wishes. It's just possible that she might not fuck up and get herself killed (by Satana or others). She might, almost, be smart enough to pull it off.

And then, it's just as likely that she'll end up on the wrong end of a farmer's pitchfork with torches and an angry mob, so her life's a bit of a gamble. And from the look in her eyes, she'd have it no other way.

"I can't actually teleport, at all," she says. This is an admission of weakness. "I can only make things stick to other things." She bends down, then picks up something. A half a broken bottle. She then places on the other half, and a moment later it's an UN-broken bottle again.

Beleth wants her because she's a fledgeling matter manipulator. She just told the molecules of that bottle to re-merge. Perfectly. Beleth himself can't do that, and if she can also cause them to separate...

Desintegration is the final form of that power. Someday, this Imp is going to be powerful indeed. And she has no idea.

Satana Hellstrom has posed:
Satana tries not to react. And succeeds in all aspects of body language. But for one.

Her eyes glow coal red.

"That's an interesting little thing you do there," she says with the faux casualness of a cat creeping up on prey by pretending not to notice it. "I think you and I need to go to my lab sometime."

It takes a moment, but she realizes the implication.

"No, no, not like that." The imps who'd begun to jeer at Ree suddenly shut up. "I would like to investigate how much you can do. How well you can do it. And perhaps even investigate how to make it ... better.

She's trying hard. And her body language is impeccable. But her eyes are now glowing hard enough they're casting shadows in a well-lit room.

"What do you think? Does it offend your sense of freedom to come for some investigations?"

At least she's not drooling.

"If ... necessary ... there are other rewards I can offer for participation."

And there's the succubus.

Ree has posed:
"I'll come. Now?" Ree doesn't freak this time. She's already won a semblance of freedom, but she knows, she KNOWS that she owed Satana. She owes her hard, and she'll keep owing her more and more the more this war goes on. "Will it help?" she asks, but more likely what she means is 'will it be interesting'. She fidgets, she doesn't hold still well. She's young.

Her own eyes glow yellow, but that's just her default state. Her horns, however, are perking forward. They appear to mimic her emotional state, something else odd about her. An easy read point, a tell she's not aware of. Something others can use against her.

Then she grins, and starts toward Satana's side. "My sense of freedom isn't like a human's, Ma'am. I'm willing to do things a bit at a time. And you saw something."

She looks at Satana, her yellow eyes firm. She's curious. What did Satana see, that made her want to do these experiments. She's curious enough to undergo any test, painful or otherwise. She's actually...she's actually excited!

"I'm here now."