A gathering of 'monsters'

Subject: A gathering of 'monsters' Fri Jan 31, 2020 12:26 pm

Couldn't have the decency to give the rest of them a break with some tolerable weather, could those water demons? Sure,t hey had chosen this rainforest glen as their meeting place previously- and the icy mountains before that, which Anol presumed had been taken as a sort of insult, to now produce such wretched rain. And all in the absence of any water demons actually showing their faces so far.

Anol crouched miserably in the driest spot he could find, feeling the mud seep slowly into the thin soles of his shoes, the vibrant royal blue of his trousers- both of which were much more suited to court than the outside- speckled with dark flicks of mud and the very occasional splashback of rain from someone else moving nearby. A clear disk of air above him pushed the rain off to either side of him like a roof, yet there was a distinct discomfort to his demeanour all the same in the way he huddled bird-like in his scarf, pulled tightly about his shoulders. He hadn't even showed up to the meeting place on time- fashionably late instead- and yet they were still waiting to begin even after he had announced his presence.

It didn't appear as if they were going to start anytime soon, either- not with every water demon quite obviously missing, at least. Rolling his eyes, he dug into a pocket and extracted tobacco and paper, dragging out the process of rolling it into a thin taper to pass the time. He wasn't particularly patient; perhaps surprising for a demon, so long-lived as they were, but Anol didn't like to linger on anyone else's account. Putting the taper between his teeth, he looked around for the nearest fire demon.
"Within us friends here, you would be willing to give me a light without having to compromise for it?" He pointed to the unlit end hopefully.

Subject: Re: A gathering of 'monsters' Fri Jan 31, 2020 2:48 pm

Del’ure sighed, but moved to Anol’s side nevertheless. With a lazy snap of his fingers, he held a small flame to the end of the air demon’s hand-rolled. It was a cheap parlour trick he didn’t much enjoy doing but it served its purpose now and then. In this case, it would – hopefully – prevent the air demon from complaining too much while he was busy ruining his lungs.

Not that it was necessary for them to really pay attention to that kind of thing. They were demons after all and they all had their vices. Each and every one of them. No matter what they displayed to the general public. It was a fact all of them were aware of, though very few of them knew most of the other demons’ vices – apart from the obvious ones.

Anol’s penchant for indulgence, Del’ure’s libido – just to name a couple – those were well-known. Others, such as Jazz’ secret brewings were a well-guarded secret only a select few were aware of. Del’ure was, as a matter of fact, not one of those select few but somehow he had stumbled upon the secret. Not that she knew it, and he wouldn’t reveal that fact to her unless absolutely unavoidable.

While Del’ure lounged against a tree trunk, steam wafting off his hair and clothes as the water immediately dried on his slightly heated body, he observed the earth demon in question.

Jazz’Sola, utterly unaware as well as utterly uncaring of this attention, was examining a tree on the other side of the glen. Her face was creased in a frown as her hand ran slowly over the oddly shaped trunk.

Del’ure sighed again. “Guess there’s no need to wait for the water demons any longer. I think they’ve made their point pretty clear. Their crappy wet greetings seem to be all we’re going to get from them.”

Subject: Re: A gathering of 'monsters' Fri Jan 31, 2020 4:10 pm

Anol boyishly grinned as Delu're indulged him with a light, despite the obvious distaste he had for doing it. Ah, sometimes you just had to stoop to using magic for trivial means- like his invisible umbrella, still keeping him drier than anyone else around. He dragged in a thick lungful of smoke and sighed contentedly, eyes closed.
"My thanks. Can you be tempted with a little puff?" He smirked, stretching up onto the balls of his feet and releasing the ache in his legs from where he had hunched down for so long. "Although it appears you have smoke of your own already."

He turned to look towards Jazz'Sola as well, following Del'ure's gaze towards the earth demon who appeared to be ignoring everything bar the plant in front of her. She looked a little crazy to Anol's eyes, the way her fingers ran down the bark like the skin of a lover. At least someone was enjoying being out here in the middle of nowhere. He soaked up another breath of smoke to keep himself from voicing something harsh- his own idiosyncracies were no less strange to someone outside of demon culture. Unfortunately put them all together and then leave them to their own devices without direction and something like this happened- hours of waiting and no progress in anything but dampness. And it was rather above Anol's rank- if through age if nothing else- to declare the whole thing a bust.

Thankfully, Del'ure made the decision for him, and he couldn't help but give a sigh of relief. "Finally. Let us finish with this so we can all return to our interests. Plant, or otherwise." He clapped his hands together, theatrics taking hold despite just reminding himself he had no sway here- not really. "Welcome, welcome to--"

Subject: Re: A gathering of 'monsters' Thu Feb 06, 2020 3:34 pm

Jazz was unnerved by the way the tree bark was woven. It seemed odd and unnatural, yet the tree didn’t look like an illness had befallen it. It would necessitate a little further investigation but just at that moment, she heard a voice calling out a welcome.

Reluctantly, she turned away from the growth and toward the assembled demons. There were quite a few missing, she noted, and not just the water demons, whom she was actually rather fond of, though they did have a bit of a temper, more so than the fire demons.

The demon who was currently speaking was an air demon and not one she was well acquainted with, though she knew enough to try and stay away from if at all possible. He was loud and exuberant and not at all her kind of person. When she noticed the demon lounging next to Anol, she narrowed her eyes at him, not liking the way he was staring at her.

Del’ure winked at her, which made her press her lips firmly together before she exclaimed in outrage and disrupt the beginnings of the meeting. In a way, it was probably better. She wouldn’t have known what to say anyway. She only knew that the wink bugged her. But maybe that was only because it was him. She had heard of Del’ure and his…. well…

Her thoughts were interrupted when a general grumbling arose about the missing water demons and she decided it might be better to start paying proper attention to what was being said.

“I know, I know,” Del’ure spoke up, trying to raise his voice above the clamour. “The water demons are missing and the lovely weather is probably curtesy of their somewhat twisted sense of humour. Let’s make do with it, and if that is too much to ask, let’s reschedule to a different place at a different time.”

In other words, he really couldn’t care less. These meetings were not unimportant, but if they already started with them at each other’s throats, not a lot of good could come of any kind of discussion. Theoretically anyway.

Subject: Re: A gathering of 'monsters' Mon Feb 24, 2020 10:28 am

Demons never had had many manners, Anol's words quickly drowned out by outrage of the others. Well, so much for holding the spotlight. Somewhat put out, he let Del'ure take over without fuss, stepping back out of the 'spotlight' as it were to wards Jazz'Sola, tipping up his chin in greeting. He'd let Del'ure take the flack too, when some of the older, more traditional demons spluttered up indignance at holding court without the water demons present as well.
"It is too much to make do without our water brethen! Court is to bring all demons together to meet, not most demons!" Anol knew the old air demon that spoke up- Theorin, a demon who had never seen quite eye-to-eye with Anol, if only for the ostentatiousness of the younger demon. He'd heard tales that Theorin didn't expect or wish to see many more gatherings of the demon court, so it was of little surprise that he was speaking up now. "We must wait, and the water demons will come soon enough."

"Soon enough cannot come too soon enough," grumbled Anol sardonically under his breath. "Can they not be deemed present through this downpour and we can all return to our normal lives far away from all this?" He looked down at the puddle that had slowly been forming around his feet, leaping back out of it when a silhouette unlike his own stared back. “What in the?”

Rather than simple puddle, the water materialised its way into the shape of a person- albeit rather short in stature- before their eyes. It was an uneven and ever-changing figure, but apparently solid enough for a water demon to assimilate into.
“I cannot hold this form for long! We need help- there is an imbalance in water magic at Tarz. Come at once… we need assistance.” The voice was frantic, words bubbling round the edges like the sing-song of a fountain. There was no time for questions or clarifications- as quickly as the figure had formed it splashed back across the ground again, rippling into puddles.

Subject: Re: A gathering of 'monsters' Sun May 03, 2020 9:56 am

Jazz kept an eye on the air demon ever so slowly sidling up to her, as if it were an inconspicuous movement. She wasn’t quite sure what he wanted from her but it was not unusual for the demons to mingle at these occasions. She just generally preferred not to be one of those.

“U-huh,” Jazz responded to Anol’s comment. She wanted the water demons to also appear either soon or have the meeting postponed to another time. Either way, she wanted a decision so she could go back to doing other things. She didn’t understand what it may be but there had to br a reason for this downpour other than it just being a silly little prank on the water demons’ behalf.

Though she wasn’t all that up to date on the political manoeuvrings. So she sighed and settled into a more comfortable stance only to immediately jump at attention when the puddle in front of Anol’s feet suddenly developed into a distorted form of a water demon.

Echoing the air demon’s words, she uttered a harsh “What the..?!” and automatically held up her hand and snapped her fingers to try and gain the attention of

At first, Theorin did not stop speaking but it when it became clear that less and less demons were listening to him but instead looking at Anol and Jazz, he halted his indignant speech mid-word.

“What’s going on?” Del’ure asked, echoing what a few others had already asked as well.

When Jazz told the assembled demons about the apparition of a water demon inside the puddle, he raised his eyebrows. That was a neat trick! He would have to try that with fire! Noting the urgency in Jazz’ tone however, he shook the thoughts from his mind to be dealt with later.

“Do you think it’s legit?” The fire demon’s eyes jumped from the earth demon to the air demon, ignoring the somewhat vocal and varied opinions of the other demons surrounding them.

Subject: Re: A gathering of 'monsters' Sun May 03, 2020 1:53 pm

Taken aback by the water demon that had formed, then deformed before his eyes, Anol took a moment to process what had appeared in front of them all. Suddenly, being even slightly damp felt very uncomfortable indeed- immediately, he summoned his umbrella of air again, disgusted at the idea of any more rain hitting him. What if it was [i]another demon[i?] Ugh. Ugh!

"Certainly it would explain the absence of water demons presently," he said, answering Del'ure directly as the others around supposed and exclaimed. Crouching, he examined the puddle from each angle, but the water's surface only reflected his own silhouette, ripping gently with fresh raindrops. "What perhaps is more important; an imbalance in magic?" He raised one eyebrow at the others, having felt nothing of the sort from his end, at least. But water bonded easier with fire than anything else, so perhaps the fire demons had something to say?

Subject: Re: A gathering of 'monsters' Sun May 03, 2020 2:29 pm

"I didn't feel anything," Del'ure mused uneasily, feeling completely at a loss. It was a feeling he did not experience very often and he did not enjoy it, not at all. But he was also still a relatively young demon and if anyone had noticed this it would be one of the elders, whom everyone was currently looking at.

Selenka was the one who spoke up: “I’ve been having issues with bigger magics lately but I didn’t put any importance to it. I figured it may just have been me.” It was clear it was not something she enjoyed admitting but for the general good, she did, which Del’ure admired her for. Not many would have done so. “Performing minor magic, smaller tricks did not register any unusualness at all – not for me anyway. I’m not sure if any of the others have?”

There were several shakes of the heads, but a couple of the other older ones, not just fire demons, confirmed what she had said. Anything on a larger scale had been trying but none of them had put stock in this failing, considering it a simple glitch in the fabric of demonic or elemental magic.

“Well I guess that shows that at least this much of the air demon's statement is true,” Del’ure muttered. This wasn’t a topic he was all too keen on speaking up about, knowing it would end up in him having to lend a helping hand and he had other things that required doing.

He caught Jazz’ eyes. Hers were narrowed at him as if she knew what he was thinking and did not approve. He merely raised an eyebrow, daring her to say something, which only made her glare harder, before she asked the most important question of all: “What are we going to do?”

Subject: Re: A gathering of 'monsters' Sun May 03, 2020 2:55 pm

Anol wracked his brain to try and remember if he had ever felt any disturbances in magic, difficulties or unusual behaviour, but he came up blank. Mostly he only ever used it for trivial purposes, rather than any great expenditures, so that wasn't surprising. But he was in the minority for using magic as he did- it was rather frowned upon by some of the older demons how he just pulled up a little breeze here or there for his purposes.

Anyway, he shrugged. Regardless of whether he had had disfunctional magic, if it was starting to become imbalanced at a greater level, then it would eventually affect them all without prejudice. But, he held up a finger to Del'ure's mumbled statement.
"Ah, no. The statement came from this puddle, not I." He gestured to the ground, absurd as it was. "And if the puddle is to be believed, then, would the answer not be: to Tarz?" Although how they would spirit everyone there fast enough to help, he wasn't sure, if the water demons were in immediate trouble... it was halfway across the continent. Gaining a little trick like jumping through water from one place to another would be rather helpful right now, but he didn't think that would be forthcoming.

"Leaving for Tarz would break the traditions of Court," Theorin rumbled, his voice eventually cutting through the mumble of the others. "This day and this place was where it was set, and this is where and when Court should be held." Stubborn in his ways, it was almost as if the old demon didn't understand the urgency in the change of magic, and of everything.

Subject: Re: A gathering of 'monsters' Sun May 03, 2020 3:14 pm

“With all due respect,” Del’ure said, his voice gaining a bit of a defeated edge, knowing that all his plans would have to wait despite his very best intentions not to get involved in this situation, “but fuck the Court’s traditions. An imbalance in magic such as the one the water demons are saying exists is more important than adhering to some ancient traditions. Besides, they’re already broken because of the water demons’ absence.”

Jazz’Sola gasped at Del’ure’s tone and words, looking between him, Theorin and some of the other elders whose brows had furrowed dangerously. That was not the way to be speaking to their elders. Even if he was right and Theorin was a bit of a pompous ass. She glanced at Anol who was still at her side. Seems like that came naturally to air demons. Maybe something to do with their magic...

The elder air demon was about to argue, his cheeks turning a little coloured, when Selenka spoke up: “Del’ure, honestly, measure your tone, will you? I am going to have to discipline you if you keep up this insolence.” But there seemed to be no real heat behind her words. “But you are right. This is more important than traditions. Whether or not Court was set for this time and this place, our brethren need our help. So help we must provide. It is as simple as that. Do you not agree?”