Lucifer vs. Vor master post

[vorbarra]

WHO: Lucifer + the whole damn cast + a bunch of unfortunate victims of circumstance.
WHERE: Various.
WHEN: Starting 5/27 and onward.
WHAT: Lucifer has Mark kidnap Gregor. Shit hits the fan.
WARNINGS: There is definitely going to be torture and violence. Will update with specifics.


Table of Contents (roughly chronological)
Initial kidnapping -- Gregor, Mark, Lucifer
So honey, I haven't told you... -- Aral, Cordelia
Secondary kidnapping -- Lucy, Mark, Kel
Hawke vs. Vorhouse -- Hawke, Miles, Aral, Tex, Jim, Spock, Kel
Miles at the hospital -- Miles, Kitty, Tex, Ed, Jim, Bucky, Ken, Kareen, Mark, Newt, Kel
Location: rubble -- Winry, Miles, Ed, Tex
Ruined date and getting voluntold -- Duv, Kasumi, Aral
Torture log -- Lucifer, Dean, Gregor
Assignment -- Lucifer, Mark
Telepathy -- Aral, Tex, Gregor
Wagon circling -- Miles, Winry, Roy, Ed, Yuri
Requests -- Aral, Jim
Rescue -- Lucifer, Miles, Kitty, Hermann, Mark
Hellhounds -- Lucifer, Roy, Ed, Hawke, Mark, Aral
Main fight -- Lucifer, Aral, Hawke
Swamp mingle -- Tex, Hawke, Ed, Winry, Roy, Jim
Post-rescue at hospital -- Gregor, Miles, Kitty, Duv, Cordelia
Following the trail of burger wrappers and tears -- Duv, Nicolas
Hospital threads part three -- Miles, Cordelia
End of the line -- Duv, Mark
Family reunion & oath swearing -- Mark, Gregor, Aral, Tej, Duv, Miles, Tex, Winry, Ed, Simon
Recovery OTA -- Aral, Miles, Duv, Cordelia, Ed, Winry

Comments

[keep_nothing]

[ She sits up at that, turning her head to raise her eyebrows at him. ]

Really.

[fullmetalbrat]

You're a life saver.

[He leans back against the wall behind him, dropping down to sit and finally taking a good look at Aral.]

... How are you holding up?

[use_everything]

[He gives her the most dry look at her meerkat impression. How pleasing it was to see her enthusiasm and pleasure had nothing to do with anything at all. Really.]

Not now.

[angelfire]

[ He should have made sense of that attack, when it came, what will all the wide and varied experience he'd had on the battlefield, but he underestimates humanity too much. He expects Aral to make the mistake of waiting too long to attack, opening himself up to be parried, and can't give him the benefit of thinking he's done it on purpose.

As expected, Lucifer drives upward with his right arm to glance the hand away, following through with the other arm toward Aral's gut. He's smirking, prideful, pleased with himself for overcoming this small thing, anticipating the moment where he brought this man to his knees before him. ]

[komarran]

[ He nods -- both names are familiar to him and more than one graduate student, including himself, had cursed them quietly when searching for sources only for them to be mysteriously nonexistent or censored.

It's the second comment that catches him off-guard. The rational part of him had questioned his father's propaganda, reading Vorkosigan's book on the 'textbook campaign' that Komarr was hadn't sounded like a man searching for tensions to rise through revolts and terrorism that harmed his own people as well. But there had been no proof beyond the man's word when on trial. Nothing firmly released to say otherwise.

Never before had he been so unsatisfied in trying to disprove the words of his father.

Duv's not sure how much weight he can give the Admiral's words, the sole person who's alive who can say anything about the massacre and has every reason to deny he had a hand in it. How much was the pain medicine of this world clouding his judgement? He lets out a small sigh and quietly adds, ]

Yes, it was.

[keep_nothing]

Well of course not now. She'd actually have to be in the room to be now.

[ The unsubtle waggling of eyebrows could be read as either teasing or ... something else. One can never really tell with Cordelia when she's in a mood like this. ]

tej + anyone. literally anyone. possibly everyone.

[ghemnotgem]

( even a month in, tej can barely reconcile vorkosigan and vorbarra as her however temporary family; large, present, they certainly are a family -- in the vein of her own, only more extended. and without a genetically created dancing trope. more to the point, however, is that the gregor and viceroy vorkosigan hadn't shown up for work. they'd normally been very punctual, and in the gregor's case, oddly pleased to be working at all. was it the appeal of a grubber life? tej didn't really understand the appeal, but she'd been a baronette, not an emperor. but they hadn't even come in late, just didn't show, and didn't call.

a day? something could have come up. two days? sickness. three and longer, with no sign of them? more worrisome. so when the beginning of the month rolls around and tej has heard nothing -- not even from an ivan -- she decides to swing by their house after her shift and after picking up groceries for her continued attempts at cooking. she's no master, of course, but she thinks she's managed something edible after a near month of practice. something she thinks is edible -- rish would have something to say about it, as she'd had the finer palette.

it's the smell that makes her pause at first, noise wrinkling as she tries to sort it out. fear, swamp, rubble, and an odd tang in the air she can't identify... it gets stronger as she gets closer. and then she's standing in front of the half-destroyed and partially rebuilt house, just staring. )

Oh.

( one of ivan xav's phrases springs to mind: good god. )

[komarran]

[ Duv, thankfully by the only good grace he's had this entire venture, was not adding to the smell of the swamp. He had been away from the main fight when they had been teleported, though he understands it was quite the sight. He much prefers it this way even if the resulting aftermath had been a fair number of uncomfortable conversations for him.

The guest staring outside is unexpected in any case. The woman he met at the cafe, supposedly married to an Ivan of the future, and not a potential risk. Thankfully. And he had thought Miles visit to Earth had been bad. ]

Lady Vorpatril. I didn't know we were expecting you.

[use_everything]

[Of all the candidates to carry the sword, it was left to the man with no special strength, no incredible speed, and in fact, had to rely on others for even the simplest of distractions to the battle. It could have been human pride, the father's wrath... Or it was the knot that settles over Lucifer's power as the archangel's fist impacts like a needler blast, going through like paper.

Aral chokes, folding over the blow and vision whiting out. It's adrenaline and reflex fuel the blind strike, driving the angel blade up towards Lucifer's back.]

[use_everything]

[He stares up at the ceiling, as if asking for strength from gods he didn't believe in.]

I survive a battle with the devil to be killed by two powerful women's affections.

[There's a beat.]

They'll write songs about it.

[failureisntachoice]

[ She's finally found enough time to get out of her armor and into fresh clothing. Which means she's back at the hospital, subtly armed, and with a bottle of water she got from the vending machine. She's not sure if Aral's awake yet, but if her instincts are right, she'll find Cordelia in there and in need of a refreshment.

When she steps into the hospital room, she feels immediately as if she's walking into some joke that she's just missed the punchline to. She looks from Cordelia to Aral. Then back to Cordelia. ]

Do I want to know?

[burningbothends]

[Spells. Eugh.]

Probably. Would it be possible to see a demonstration? On a log or something.

[keep_nothing]

[ The only answer Tex gets is the sound of Cordelia's laughter, open-throated and completely genuine laughter. ]

[burningbothends]

[Well, that makes it pretty clear where the thing is...

There's still a fine scattering of dust in the air from the initial transmutation that turned the floor into gravel. Roy shifts the denser, dust-laden air to concentrate around the creature and snaps his fingers, engulfing the thing in a radius of blindingly hot fire, sustained as the dust particles continue to combust and as Roy feed sit more oxygen.]

[use_everything]

[It takes a moment, connecting through the pain medication haze to remember something important. Miles barely gets to his feet before Aral's hand covers his on the bedrail.]

Miles. [The name falls a moment after, just in case the gesture wasn't enough to give pause.] Before you go...

[use_everything]

[Laughing is SUCH a bad idea. It stops quickly after starting, but still can't quite help the grin.]

Likely not.

[failureisntachoice]

[ She stares at them a moment longer before shaking her head and pulling a chair up beside the bed. ]

You're going to make him reopen his wounds. [ Her tone is flat, but it's clear from her expression she doesn't mean it and she offers Cordelia the bottle of water. ]

[whathawksdo]

[ Look at all these haters, Hawke don't even care. ]

Of course. [ She turns about, scanning the area until she spots a promising log. ] There.

[ Stabbing her staff into the soft ground to help keep herself grounded as she pulls together the spell -- the air around them practically fills with some unseen energy, the sort that makes hairs on the back of necks stand up -- and, after a gesture towards the log to focus it, she turns her hand palm up and raises her arm, as if lifting something. The log fidgets, then gets yanked upwards, along with some smaller rocks, bits of debris, very suddenly.

Of course, this only reveals what she's chosen is actually a-- ]

Ohhh, not a log. So not a log.

[ Nope. That's an alligator. A large one. Now thrashing around in the air wildly.

Well then.

Uh. In her defense, it looked like a log. ]

[use_everything]

[The damage is mercifully covered, though there is no mistaking the sheer amount of bandaging and the hard lines of a brace under the thin blanket and gown.]

I'm fine. [The lie reinforced by an irritable wave of his hand.] Though I've been informed I've you and yours to thank for that fact.

[keep_nothing]

[ Her laugh calms only after several moments, and she takes the water gratefully. She's still wiping her eyes as she says, ] Well, we could always kiss it all better for him.

[use_everything]

[Their expressions even match. He holds his hands up in surrender.]

[failureisntachoice]

[ She smirks and props her feet up on the edge of the bed by Cordelia. ]

I didn't think I was getting paid to be a healer too.

[keep_nothing]

It'd be a perk.

[failureisntachoice]

[ At least this demonstration won't result in a house crumbling on top of anyone. She's watching Hawke closely as she starts her magic trick. It's impressive up until a damn gator is suddenly in the air.

Tex's visor is in the way, but she's leveling a rather flat stare at Hawke. ]

Yeah, if you could avoid that when you haul me out, that'd be great.

[burningbothends]

[That feeling in the air... Much like a transmutation, only far more sustained. But Roy is pulled out of further thought when the log starts... thrashing.]

No... no, that is not a log.