Return of the Dark Council

Descendant Aspect - Sulfurous Cavern
 * A thick sulfurous mist hangs heavy amongst the lava-lit stalactites and stalagmites of this expansive subterranean cavern, with its boiling lake of steaming magma and two giant skull-shaped rocks providing gaping entrances into either end of the Ring of Fire - a place of trials where demons in service to the Descendants must keep in check the powers of good.

Plutok is standing in the middle of the cavern, decrying the coming of his Master to any and all Demons around, with suitable referances to Khorne, Nurgle, Slaanesh and Tzeench thrown in there.

Lasciel wings down into the caverns, abandoning mortal semblance for the time being, to land not far from Plutok. Her normal self-assurance appears to be somewhere else; she seems reserved. Possibly even wary.

The slender, unnaturally graceful form of Vivienne enters, seeming to drift, all black hair and black skin and black leather. She's cackling happily as she goes, longsword sheathed at her waist.

Zariel arrives in the Ring of Fire... looking like Plutok sometimes does. While he doesn't seem to be eating or raping anything unusual, the Demon of Wrath looks like he just stepped out of a bathtub full of blood. He's growling and looks to be in a bad mood, glancing around the area with an air of distant familiarity.

"The time of my master's arrival is nigh! You all shall be punished for failing in your ways!" Plutok cries, "Khorne has not had enough blood! Not enough has decayed for Nurgle! Slaanesh has not been pleased! Not enough has been warped for Tzeench!" he cries at passing Demons.

Lasciel bares her fangs at Plutok. "Yesss. And we are going to fry *with* them, you shouting twit," she snaps, hissing a bit in her anger. "That is nothing to be pleased about!"

"Fry? This is boring," Vivienne declares loudly, smirking. "Why have you called us here? If it isn't for something good I will go back to my manthings! I am seeing how many square inches of skin you can take off before they decorporealize..."

"We know, we know," Zariel grumbles to Plutok, "Corn, Nurgle, blood. Shut the fuck up." He crosses his arms and takes a breath, running a bloodied hand through his bloodied hair, and looking between the other demons. "Oh, you'll love these two," he remarks to Vivienne, "The bitch likes to play with acid, and Plutok the yelling Tard over here rapes things and eats their hearts."

Plutok laughs a bit, "If my Master deems that I need punishment, I shall take it with pleasure as befitting Slaanesh!" he replies to Lasciel. He looks back to the other Demons, "My master is coming!" he calls.

And a moment later, a black and red cloud of enormous proportions appears between Lasciel and Plutok. It clears fairly quickly, but instead of a large demon inside the cloud, there's a girl who can't be older than five. She's clothed in a simple, white dress with long black hair. Her eyes have no whites and no iris, appearing completely black, and a black glow aura surrounds her.

"You all have failed." she states in an innocent sounding voice.

Lasciel does not hesitate - which might surprise those that knew her, if any were present. The demoness drops into a full kowtow. At once. "All apologies, Master," she says...and was that *fear* in her voice?

"Are you going to torture me?" Vivienne asks of the girl, almost gleefully. "I will show you my manthings, all lined up on the wall. Then we can hurt them together, and you can hurt me. But I will have to get back to them sooner or later. Someone must take care of them!"

Zariel pauses for a moment, blinking at the little girl and taking a small step back. "Creepy," he remarks, but he's not entirely stupid - the blood-drenched demon drops to a knee and bows his head to stare at the ground. No excuses, no arguing, no apology. Simply silence after that first comment.

Plutok drops down as well, "We have helped pave the way for you, master," he states.

The girl looks over at Plutok, "And you have failed to do so," she states as her eyes flair briefly. Plutok remains where he is, and this seems to just piss the girl off, "You will pay, do not doubt that," she states. Then, she looks over towards Viv, "You will kneel," she commands.

Lasciel says nothing. Does nothing. The demoness stays in that kowtow, and waits to be spoken to. Or punished.

Vivienne smiles toothily and does just that, dropping to her knees. "You can still punish me," she suggests hopefully, "even though I'm obedient."

Zariel is on the same page as Lasciel - he doesn't move, doesn't speak, barely dares to breathe even as he waits.

The girl moves over towards Vivienne, she kneels in front of the other Demon, placing her hands on the face of the demon. She whispers in Viv's ear, and when she's done she kisses the ear before standing again, "Every one of you doesn't even deserve to be on your knees before me. You have all failed in the tasks you were given. I am contemplating...changes in assignments, unless /everyone/ can give me an adequate reason as to let them stay where they are." her eyes settle on Zariel, "Starting with you."

Vivienne pouts slightly, but obediently falls silent to wait for her turn.

Throat tightening for a moment, Zariel opens his mouth to speak, hesitates, and then takes a breath. "I-I...," he starts, voice cracking, "I am the Demon of Wrath, and the rage within me has been harnessed in attempting to strengthen the Descendants' hold on the realm of Necromundus through mass slaughters to acquire Evil's Due Vouchers. Unsuccessfully, I admit, and for that I will accept my punishment without resistance. However, to my knowledge, I have done the most for the bettering of our-... your... grip on the neutral grounds out of the demons assigned to the area." He stops there, muscles tightened a bit as he still doesn't dare to move. Bracing himself, perhaps.

The little girl smiles a bit, moving towards Zariel, "The Demon of Wrath cowering before a little girl. You failure," she slaps Zariel, "You do not even /begin/ to embody your purpose, for this you will be stripped of your title, Demon of Annoyance. That seems to be all you are good for," at that, she looks to Viv, "You, explain yourself."

"I torture people all day long," Vivienne happily sings. "They did not give me a mission, they turned me loose and they told me make them suffer. And it is what I do." She seems neither afraid nor actively insolent, watching the girl with curious eyes. "Do with me as you please!"

Zariel lets out an infernal growl as he's slapped, finally looking up to the girl with eyes nearly as blackened as hers, "You want to see a real Demon of Wrath? Piss me off a little more, bitch... I dare you. Just that little bit to make me forget what you are."

The girl looks at Viv for a moment, "You all disgust me. You are Demons, yet you have no backbone. You remind me of those horrid Ascendants." her eyes flare again, and one might notice that her ring finger glows as she sends a gust of air at Viv, not to hurt her, but to push her away. She laughs at Zariel then, "You can get nothing right, can you Demon of Annoyance? The time for speaking out is past, you have already failed. Be silent or I shall demote you further."

Vivienne doesn't move out of the way, letting herself be blown back with a cackle of enjoyment as she skids along the floor. Once the wind's passed, she rises, saunters back to her previous location and kneels again. One cheek is scraped and oozing blood, not that she seems to care.

"There's nothing you can do to me that I haven't already been through," Zariel remarks, standing as those eyes blacken more fully, "Demote me, torture me, send me back to hell to scream out the rest of eternity..." He pulls put his whip and attacks the girl, "I'll still try to rip out your throat!"

The girl barely even has to move from Zariel's attack, "You will kneel," she says simply, the ring finger glows again, and the earth reaches up and tries to grab onto Zariel to bring the Demon to his knees.

Vivienne watches the fight with visible amusement, not so much as lifting a finger for either side.

The Demon of Annoyance leaps away from the moving earth and charges again. "I will NOT!" Zariel bellows, sweeping the whip around to strike at the girl again, "I'll tear you apart!"

The girl again moves out of the way of the whip, "You will kneel," she repeats, the earth coming up again to trap the other Demon.

It's too fast for Zariel this time and he's caught, forced back into a kneeling position as he struggles and squirms and wrenches against the earthen force. He's strong, and the formation does strain mildly with his movement, bot the demon's unable to pull himself free. He roars, just getting more angered at his situation, and doesn't stop struggling regardless of his inability to escape.

The girl simply watches Zariel for a moment, before looking towards Lasciel and Plutok, "You two have obviously failed in your missions to pave the way for my arrival, you do not even belong in my presance anymore. You are of no further use to me, and no longer are you my heralds. You are now the lowest of the low among Demons, get out of my sight, all of you."

Vivienne seems to assume she's included in that all of you, climbing to her feet and heading for the exit without concern, dark hair a swirl behind her.

Lasciel says nothing, but gets to her feet and *wings* for the upper reaches, and Necromundus.

"Kind of hard to leave when I'm stuck to the ground, you dumb whore," Zariel growls, breathing heavily from straining himself so much.

Plutok looks, well, completely taken aback by his demotion, but he follows after Lasciel, almost just as fast.

The girl smiles sweetly, "No, no, you shall not be going. You shall be Xerum's Throne," she states, the ring glowing again as the earth forms a throne around Zariel.