I talk to myself, but I lose arguments.

[Caile]

Aleksei babbled and Renea just stared rather blankly at the map as the words filed past without once stopping to say hello to the inside of her head. She might have agreed had she understood what the hell he was saying but to her it all sounded like nonsense. And then Glenn started speaking and she looked at him as if he was a complete loon.

"Are you off your fucking rocker? Give the drow a demon sword? Right cause they aren't enough trouble as it is." She turned to Agnieszka then and in all seriousness asked "Is there some sort of mental ward in yon hospital? I think we need a straight jacket."

[channe]

Agnie chokes.

Literally. For a few seconds, she doubles over, hacking up something stuck in her throat. Coughing it free, she straightens, rising slowly to her feet, her face red from anger or lack of breath. She catches that breath, her hand hovering right over her mouth -- and then, that hand, lightning-fast, striking out to attempt to punch Glenn in the face without any further preamble.

[BetaFlame]

He just stares at Glenn as he outlines the 'plan'. Give the drow a demon possessed, powerful magical sword? "Glenn have you-" Then the bit about him and Agnie. His face turns pale and he just turns to look at Agnie, trying to muster up something to say to her to try and defuse what is going to be a disaster of unmitigated proportion. He can see the many possible reactions to this in his head.

He figures there will be violence involved. He sees her tense, the balling of the fist. He should stop it. But no, Glenn earned this one. He just reaches for the bottle of wine. It was expensive, and it wouldn't do for it to spill in the resulting violence.

[Glenn]

He looked rather put out, overdramatically so. Had he been kidding the whole time? That wasn't THAT far off a thought? It was more reasonable than the alternative, no? "Well, if everyone's against it..." Oh look, here's Agnie, beelining at him, fist first. ONCE, once he had let her sneak up on him with such an attack, once upon a time in a far off dream. That was so long ago, before his time training with Jirai, before his time in underdark, lifetimes ago for both of them. Now with a small, ridiculous yelp of "Regicide!" he skidded back, kissing his two outstretched fingers as he moved just out of range, before then attempting to press them into Agnie's extended fist, having some idea of what it would do to both of them. At the very least, it would stop the violence.

[Caile]

The lunge at Glenn was amusing and if Renea actually feared for his life she might have attempted to stop it but she knew Agnie didn't intend on killing him so she just sat back and watched instead. When he cried out 'Regicide' she just snorted and rolled her eyes. Really? The man did have delusions of grandeur didn't he. Turning to Aleksei and ignoring the scuffle she just gave him a relaxed, casual look. "So, those options are off the table, what else do you have?"

[BetaFlame]

He just lets out a sigh and considers the wine for a moment. It would almost be worth drinking at this point just to make the headache that was forming stop. Next time, he is just going to go ahead with his plan. He glances at Renea and just moves away from the table, he doesn't want to get gravy on his shirt. He isn't entirely sure that Agnie will stop right now. She looks mighty angry. He just gives them a look. "If either of you get anything on this map, you owe me three hundred crowns."

He turns to Renea and shrugs again. "I haven't given up on my plan. The place I want to take it has nothing to do with demons, or devils. As far as anyone knows, nothing truly lives there. Its one of the Planes of Torment."

[channe]

Of course he knew what that would do.

And it just makes Agnieszka angrier -- even after his fingers connect, even after the shock of that running through her system, and of course, his -- but it works. She deflates immediately. She doesn't really break his hand. But honestly? That's hurt in her face, Glenn, and you put it there. What's worse -- an Agnie angry with you, or an Agnie who loses trust in you?

"Even you," she says, catching her breath, "even you don't get to call me a whore."

And with that, she slides back into her chair, looking for all the world like she's burning inside. "And your plan sucks, too. We're not giving the drow a demon sword."

[Glenn]

Glenn Burnie stumbled to his knees, steadying himself with his arms before him. It was not a pleasant thing. He was pale, sweating now. Death comes for all of them, of course, but the living should never know the taste of it so vividly. Of course, for the governor these days, the taste of ANYTHING is a rare treat, and Burnie savored in in unpleasant agony for a few long moments, not in the least needing to retch.

Of course, Agnie Kaczmarek. Hate Glenn Burnie. Hate him just until the moment he opened his mouth. "Were you a whore, and you're not might I add, Aleksei wouldn't wan anything to do with you." The words were a little strained, with effort behind them. He wiped at his lips, still not wretching. "Science, experimentation. Ran a little test, and our boy here came up aces. We'd be having a very different conversation right now otherwise. Don't you worry, Ag'ny." He didn't spit either, no matter how much he wanted to; he was a guest after all. "If i wanted a bodyguard these days, I'd pick Renea. We make a better pair, two peas in a pod, and she's less apt to try to punch me." The regicide bit was a joke, she realized, no? And who else in Myrken could joke as the prickly princess of Myrken Wood was bearing down upon them.

Then a bit of laughter mixed with a groan as he rolled on to his back and stared up at the ceiling. "No, we're not actually giving the Drow a demon sword, but only due to the fact that I think the Thessholes are still mixed up in this, not as the ones who sprang it on us, but as victims and pawns. Thessilane is the end goal to the plot, whatever it is. We're just a fermenting ground for this unholy draught. Otherwise, it'd be nice and neat. Here, though, they'll always want to get back through our lands to Thessilane. IF we complicate things with Aleksei's people, it'll likely mean a war that we end up the center of. Which is all a damn shame since that was a nice, neat solution. You people always underestimate how god damn insular it is down there. There's a reason we haven't been overrun. It's not like it'd be that hard. Helstone knew how easy it'd be. He just didn't understand WHY they didn't do it. That's what drove him to embarrassing paranoia."

Feet kicked up into the air then whipped back down, propelling him to his feet in a very nice and athletic kip up. He stretched his neck to the left giving birth to a loud, satisfying crack. "Here's the thing. Aleksei's plan won't work either. It's to messy. This is Myrken. Everytime we invoke a new power, there's a terrible cost. There's something in the blood of this land that twists everything, people, ideals, sure, but magic most of all. We send a demon to this The Howling Madness of Pandemonium," he managed in is best Aleksei impression, which wasn't very good by the way. Not one of Glenn's talents, "and we'll get three things back in return." A dead on stare now. "And one of those things would be one of us made all the more twisted and insane for our trouble. Most likely, it'd be worse than that. We're not going to invite a lion into Myrken to deal with our rat problem, especially not a Howling Mad Pandemonium Lion.."

Somewhere else, it might have made sense, been a good and proper plan, one that would receive applause and awards, but here in Myrken? Everytime you used magic to fix magic, it went cockeyed for everyone and everything. OR maybe Glenn was just paranoid and superstitious too.

[Caile]

Oh she realized it was a joke. Glenn, whatever else he was, was far too practical to call himself a king in any truth. As for the plan, Aleksei's plan, Glenn hit the nail right on the head with his comments and Renea nodded her agreement. She understood that magic was sometimes necessary in a world where magic existed, seldom could good steel solve a magical problem which this most certainly was. However, the more convoluted the solution the more ways it could go so very, very wrong and to Renea most magical solutions seemed convoluted.

"Sink it into rock and drop it into the deepest depths of the ocean?" See, that would involve some magic too but none of these alternate dimensions or binding to the underworld. She didn't truly believe the demon could be destroyed for eternity but as long as it stayed away long enough for them all to die a nice natural death she'd be happy with that. As to Agnie, she just gave her a deadpan look and rolled her eyes after a moment.

"Agnieszka, you're far too frigid for anyone to believe you're a whore."

[BetaFlame]

Aleksei just looks at Glenn. It really wasn't that bad, her touch. At least, not to him. Then again, he had been tied down, had his skin carved upon while silver was poured into his wounds and healing magic kept him alive. So, by comparison not much was. Glenn's tirade just made him loft a brow and tilt his head as he looked back and forth between the three of them.

"Let me make something clear.. there is no place in this world we can put this demon. I will not simply pawn a problem like this off on some other poor bastard to deal with. No, that's not right and I don't give a damn what any of you think about my morality in this matter." He looks between them all. He's not kidding, either. He'd rather have them kill them than anything else.

"That said, if you have a better idea to imprison the demon far away, I am all ears. But I can protect myself from the effects of the Winds, and the Angel in my head as volunteered to use her power in conjuction with my knowledge to seal it. I won't have to go alone, since you" --a finger stabs at Renea, "would be immune, thanks to what that boy did to you."

He settles back in his head, and pours Glenn a shot of the whiskey, handing it down to the man laying on the floor. "If any of you have a better idea, I am all ears. But unless you want a giant ocean lizard stomping out of the sea and coming here breathing fire on Myrken, I would not suggest sinking it to the bottom of the ocean."

He seems.. annoyed.

[channe]

She heaves a sigh, and slumps a little in her chair. "Nobody's questionin' your morality, Aleksei, just your sense." She pauses, putting an apologetic smile on her face, and presses her lips together, thinking. "But this Howlin' Madness o' Howls. It's another plane. Just like the one it came from. And it got from its plane to here. What would keep it there? How do you know there ain't other mages shovin' stuff there that would make it more powerful?"

She pauses. "When we kilt Aeryn," and a pause there, just a little one, before she moves on, "we destroyed the things inside o' him. Can't we just burn the axe? Can't we just shove it into some criminal what needs killin', and fix it that way for good?"

Eminently practical at all times -- the brilliant Agnieszka Kaczmarek.

Who stops for a minute, and looks at Renea. "... what happened? Other than the age thing?"

[Glenn]

Agnie was like a shooting star. Hot, bright, blinding even. Burn you right up if you got too close but she burnt out in the sky real qui ck if you didn't play along. It wasn't that she was reasonable, but she couldn't rage in the face of nothing at all either. Not anymore. Little Agony had matured somewhere along the way.

And Glenn had become something else altogether. "First of all, Aleksei, presentation is important. You could have called it ... I don't know, "the severed plane," or something along those lines," said with a glance to Renea and Agnie to see how that worked. "Something that didn't actually mean anything but sounded about right. When you call it the Howling Madness of Howls, of course we're going to be dubious. Nothing good can come from the Howling Madness of Howls. We all have some experience what happens when you play with powers like these." Nothing good. "I don't want us involved with other planes or dimensions or whatever to begin with, BUT if it's necessary, then let's avoid a chaotic one and find a nice orderly one. Isn't there something completely empty? Something scoured and barren, where there's nothing at all? THAT would be the place to put it. Not the Howling Madness of Howls." Glenn Burnie had no idea what he was talking about, but certain precepts he lived by and one was that order was always preferable to chaos. Aleksei was ... contaminated. If he had come to Glenn two months ago with this same plan, it might have been otherwise. now, though? Who knew if it wasn't what the foulfiend wanted. Best not to mention that, though.

Just like it was best not to mention whatever was going on with Renea. Probably too late for that, now.

[Caile]

Too late by far. Best not to mention it indeed, especially since it hadn't been mentioned to Renea in the first place, and she was almost as lost as Agnie.

"Excuse me what now?" She was all ready to push some more of Agnie's buttons, or poke more holes into why sending a demon to another plane was perhaps not the best choice and then Aleksei went and said something that caught her undivided attention. She gave Aleksei a hard look, not even glancing at the chairwoman even though it was her question she was answering.

"As far as I know the aging thing was all of it, or at least according to Mr. Magic over here it was." The hard look turned to brittle flint and her jaw muscles spasmed as she clenched and unclenched her teeth. "Aleksei, do explain why you...accidently forgot to mention the 'other thing' to me." Mage, scholar, angel..whatever the hell he was Renea did not like being played for a fool, did not like being lied to and she had no particular fondness for the man at the best of times. She was, to put it mildly, a little angry.

[BetaFlame]

He holds up a hand, he needs a minute to collect his thoughts. They were all going on at once, and he needed some order. The chaos beast in his head did not like the conversation about how to get rid of it, not in the slightest, and there was a straining around his eyes as he concentrated, for just a moment on quelling that voice in his head.

"Renea, it has nothing to do with what Jarod did to you, but more to do with.. the nature of your family. It was something I stumbled across when I was looking you over, and I didn't tell anyone else. We can talk about it later, if you like." Was he lying? His face was unchanged from a moment ago as he glossed over this.

He gets up and paces. Energy needed to be burned, and it was this or hitting things. "Pandemonium is a prison plane. Which is why I picked it. Isolated. No one goes there voluntarily, really. The constant noise and howling drives most sentient creatures insane, and even attempting to walk there is.. odd. Its a giant tunnel system. Like a never ending cave. But up and down are.. ephemeral. Once you reach a wall, its a matter of putting your foot on the wall and walking up it. But if you want other options..." He turned a looked at his map of the planes.

Limbo? No.. the creature would find itself too comfortable there. Its a long moment while he considers, then finally shrugs. "The other two I would consider.. the Positive Energy Plane. Its a plane of pure life force. So much that you can actually die of being too alive. But I have no idea what a creature like the demon axe could do there. My other choice.. Tartarus. Its a giant labyrinthine network. The size of a plane. Another prison."

There is.. a small glint in his eye. Was he playing Glenn? The slight curve of his lip certainly suggested that Tartarus was his favorite of the bunch. He moved to stand behind Agnie and rested his hands on the back of her chair. Careful, not to touch her of course.

[channe]

She's quiet for a moment. She looks up at Aleksei as he moves to the back of her chair, tilting her chin, her hands nervous for a moment, then stilling in her lap.

"... but imprisoned ain't dead." A pause. "I wanna kill it. I want it dead. There has to be an option for dead."