I talk to myself, but I lose arguments.

[BetaFlame]

Aleksei was prone to odd things. Ideas being one of them. This idea was perhaps the oddest he had ever come across. The book he was reading (A treatsie on the differences between magic and science) when something seemed to dawn on him. The book was tossed on a table, and he rushed upstairs to the library he had started building. Books pulled from shelves as he looked for a tome. It was old, and perhaps a bit on the crazy side. He put a marker in one place in the tome, and a marker in the second place. Then downstairs he went, to begin penning letters.

Glenn would find his in The Box.

Glenn,

Have you ever realized that you were approaching a problem from the wrong angle? I just realized that. We need to have a meeting. Please come to my house tomorrow night if you are free. I hope so, I think I know how to get rid of this axe."

Aleksei - Archmage of Myrkenwood.


There was a joke somewhere, probably. Or he had lost his mind.

The second letter. This would find its way to Agnie via one of the guards.

Agnie,

I think I know what I have been doing wrong. I have a plan. I've invited Glenn over tomorrow night to talk about it. Maybe you can make it?

-Aleksei


A third letter. Probably the most surprising of the lot. He wrote a letter to Renea, to be delivered to her office. This one actually had an official seal on it and everything. He didn't know her that well.

Marshall Sundance,

Please come to my home tomorrow night. As you may know, I have a demon axe living inside me, and your services may be required to remove it. Assuming Glenn or Agnie do not punch me in the face for this plan."

-Aleksei River


Letters sent, and preperations to be made. He'd need food.. and drinks. He could at least have some wine, brandy and whiskey available for his guests.

[channe]

A returned letter, from that same guard, who doesn't look very amused at all.

Aleksie,

I hate your plan alredee. But I will come to your howse ok.

It bettur not be taking out your brane and slaming it all over the wall becaus I wouldnt like that.

--Agnie

[Glenn]

Aleksei, lucky man that he was, would receive not a guard or a messenger but a sumptuously dressed teahouse girl (well compensated) who carried the message. She also mentioned something about a "last meal," which the governor had paid for him, with a good deal of winking. She had been warned, however, that Aleksei would very likely not understand. If not, she was free to go on her way.

Aleksei,

I will assume this plan doesn't involve you falling heroically on your sword. Again. That's hardly clever at all. Hell, I've come up with that one for you. I call it Plan B. Let's hope your Plan A is better. I'd hate to give you what you want.

Glenn

[Caile]

Delivered by a rather scrawny urchin came the marshall's reply, scrawled across the back of the same envelope the invitation had been delivered to her in. Renea was a practical woman and there was no reason to start a fresh sheet of paper for such a simple response.

I'll be there.

R.

[BetaFlame]

The letters were delivered. When Aleksei received Agnie's letter he could only blink a few times. He lifted his glasses off his nose and peered at it. To actually understand, he had to read it aloud. He just sighed and shook his head folding it and tucking it into the inner pocket of his cloak.

When Glenn's messenger arrived, he just took the letter with thanks. The offer of last meal was met with a blank stare. "Oh, no thank you. I have something. Glenn must have meant for himself." He gives the girl some extra coin for her trouble, and sends her on her way. Hopefully back to the Governor.

Renea's urchin is given a few coins as well and an apple before he puts hers and Glenn's letters in a strongbox.

So he starts making ready.

He hangs a map on the wall across from the dinner table. It displays not the world, but the planes. It maps out the relative location of the inner and outer planes, the material, and the elemental planes, surrounded by the Astral and Ethereal planes. Its a prop he will need. The door is left unlocked with a small note "Just come in" pinned to the front as he starts getting food ready for his guests.

[channe]

Agnieszka is the first to arrive. She's actually tried to put some attention into her appearance -- her clothes are dark blue and brown, iron-smoothed, and are even cut to flatter her figure a little more than her Myrken soldier's uniform or the peasant-garb she's usually seen in. She pushes the door open quietly and then lets it close with a bit of a bang, and just stands there for a moment, looking awkward.

A pause, and she collects herself. "Looks like school," is the first thing she says.

[Glenn]

Burnie arrives soon after. He looks more than a little bemused at Agnie's presence. That may explain him sending back the teahouse girl. Obviously Aleksei was compromised. Well, this was partially Glenn's own fault. He told Agnie to get close. He encouraged it. That didn't mean invite her in to planning meetings, however. After what happened with Aeryn, it was moderately unlikely she'd be able to see clearly when it came to the best eventuality here, though given that, it had to make one wonder just why he DID push her towards Aleksei. Was it for her own sake? A chance to reopen her heart after what happened or the extreme opposite: to redeem herself by being able to be the one to strike the scholar down if he went too far?

It was so damn hard to tell with the governor these days. Sometimes it seemed like he didn't even know, not that he'd ever admit to that.

Regardless, here he was, and despite the bemusement, he was still smiling. "Just the three of us then? That's manageable enough."

[Caile]

It didn't take much longer for Renea to follow the other two into the building and when she caught sight of Agnie her lips twitched as if trying to hide a smile. In truth she was trying to hold back an outright laugh. The idea of Agnieszka feeling the desire to dress up to impress a fellow was completely at odds with the persona she attempted to portray that it just looked like an alligator in a tutu, completely adorable but out of place and you certainly don't want to call attention to it or the alligator will bite your face off. All that aside if she laughed she might wind up putting Agnie on the defensive and scaring her away from starting a relationship and that would not nearly be as much fun as watching her struggling with burgeoning feelings.

So it was that with a mild twitch of her lips she eyed the chairwoman briefly and then directed her attention to Aleksei. "Well, looks like we're all here, what's the plan?"

[BetaFlame]

He just smiles at Agnie and tilts his head at her comment, "I suppose it does, at that. Maybe you'll learn something? You look nice." Aleksei wasn't very good at this either. "Sit, please. Make yourself at home." He turned just in time to see Glenn enter, and shakes his head, "Nono, one more. It will still be manageable, I am sure Glenn."

He just nods to Renea and smiles a bit. So direct. She made him seem the soul of subtlety by comparison. He gestures for everyone to sit. There is food, roast beef, potatoes, carrots. Whiskey and brandy and a bottle of Derry red he found somewhere. Water for himself of course. "Sit, get yourself some food. We may be here a while. I am not very good at this host thing, so I assume everyone will just get what they want?"

He sits down in his own chair once everyone sits and takes a deep breath. "I think I know what to do about my.. head guest. We've been trying to figure out how to banish him to his own plane. That seems silly. He will just come back eventually.

So.. why don't we imprison him somewhere else?"

Surely there was more to it than that, but he wanted to give everyone a few moments to get settled and see if Glenn could guess his move.

[channe]

You don't need to ask the chairwoman twice -- she already has her hands on a plate and a serving-spoon, digging into the spread with the enthusiasm of someone who grew up not really knowing where their next meal was coming from. When that's done, she pours herself a glass of whiskey like this is a party, not a strategic session.

"... I ain't never learned anything at any school," she says, sending a grin his way. "But you're prob'ly a good teacher."

Once that's said, she turns to the others -- a grin for Glenn, although not as warm and personal as the one to Aleksei, and then a friendly nod to Renea. She sits herself, lets Aleksei speak, and shoves a piece of beef in her mouth.

"... yeah, we don't even have a *gaol* here in Myrken. How're we supposed to imprison someone on a mind-plane?' she says around a mouthful of beef.

[Glenn]

Renea, managable. Maybe once. Now, of course she was a soulless abomination, and unlike some people, she was having a terrible time making that work out for the good of Myrken Wood. Granted, she wasn't necessarily doing all that well before when she had a soul, which wasn't to say she didn't have her uses, of course. Renea was worth quite a bit, if only due to various ways one could apply leverage with her. Just keeping a moderately antagonistic relationship with Agnie more than made her presence worth it. Sometimes, the best way to keep Myrken safe was to keep its defenders at odds with one another. Oh, sad truths, the very lifeblood of Glenn Burnie's reign.

"Yes, I imagine he is a good teacher. I had a plan to surround him with a gaggle of urchins and let them suck up all that knowledge of his." and act as the world's smallest bodyguards to keep his all too noble hunter away. "He seems reluctant though. Can you imagine why?" A smile to Renea. "As for demon, there are a few options. Either Aleksei intends to make me a bejeweled staff to trap it in, so that I could smite my enemies with arcane energy, or, more interestingly (somehow, I know), it's a who we're talking about and not a what."

[Caile]

The byplay between Agnie and Aleksei had Renea biting down on the inside of her cheek to keep from commenting, it was just so damned....cutesie. If she'd had some way of hearing Glenn's thoughts though she would have been offended, soulless abomination aside. She had, since she arrived, built two structures for the use of the citizens out of her own pocket, trained the local militia into a finely oiled machine and helped to end a demonic entity. Mind you, most would argue that was all off set by the fact that she managed to unleash further demonic entities but that had all happened before she lost her soul. After she lost it she'd been a model citizen. Not, of course, that she was aware she was missing said soul in the first place, as far as she was concerned she was as normal as always, barring the unbelievably young exterior and the occasional regrowth of missing arms. As far as Myrken standards went though she was salt of the earth.

But as she couldn't hear the Governor's thoughts none of those entered her mind and she was left purely with trying not to laugh or make snide comments about the burgeoning relationship between the chairwoman and the scholar. It was hard to keep the amusement out of her eyes though. "Who? You want to put this thing in someone else? Right, like that couldn't go horribly, horribly wrong."

[BetaFlame]

He just smiles at the lot of them, and leans back in his chair, tapping the map. It was a curious thing. In the middle was a blue circle. Above a red orb with fire, below a blue orb with water. To the left another blue orb with clouds, and to the right an orb that looked as if it was made of stone. Then various other, smaller orbs in different locations. A good dozen of them, easily. With various symbols drawn on them. The whole thing surrounded and filled by what seemed to be a great grey mist.

"Not a who, nor a what. But a 'where'." He points the center circle. "Our world is just one of many. We exist near the elemental planes, the planes of the High Heavens, the Nine Layers of Hell, the Infinite Abyss. The four prime elemental planes. Outside of those are other planes." Each mention earned a tap of a circle on the map, "The Mutating Chaos of Limbo. The Shadow Realm. So far we have been trying to banish the demonaxething back to its home realm. I have a new proposal." He taps a grey orb. In the center is drawn what looks like a swirling wind, that is a blowing from a gaping fanged maw. "We take it here. The Howling Madness of Pandemonium. Its a completely underground world. Vast, infinite tunnels that are filled with a wind that tears at your mind, ripping away your intellect and turning you into a primal beast. I take it here, and trap it in the walls, forge a ward to prevent it from using its influence."

He folds his arms over his chest. It was certainly.. different. Dangerous, more than a little for that matter.

[channe]

Agnie just chews her beef slowly, washing it down with a swig of whiskey. She'll chew, and chew, and swallow, and empty her mouth, and say --

"So you make it even more insane," she says. "Doesn't sound like a good plan to me."

[Glenn]

This was the plan? Glenn just stared at Aleksei. This would be vaguely easier if they were alone, because then he could just yell at him. "I think we're better off sticking the demon somewhere that... you know... doesn't sound a lot like a place that only exists in the brain of some weirdo bearded high wizard in a far off tower with a name like Bloodmire Cove or Blacknight Bay. Aleksei. The last thing we're going to do is mess with fucking theoretical magical fairyland hell what with its infinite vertices and six-titted demon skanks. I've had enough of that. The thing in your had has had enough of that. We are not going to solve demon problem with MORE DEMON PROBLEM."

He raised a hand. "HERE is what we're going to do instead. Sticking the infernal hellbeast on someone else is a great idea. I think we can solve all of our problems at once. Step one:" He jutted up one finger of that hand. "We bind the demon to your sword. Step two." Another finger. "We send it down to Underdark for the drow to mess with and get possessed by. Step three." A third finger. "We blatantly lie to Roland and your other stick-up-the-ass buddies and tell them that we sent the Celestial down there too, bound to the sword." A little pause. "Do you know about that Renea? If not, just smile fetchingly and nod, please." A fourth finger rose. "Step four. Ideally we find some way to BIND the sword and everything else down there, so it can't come back up easily. Then the jerks sent to get you go down to get it, thinking the celestial is there, crash into the sword wielding possessed, STUCK DOWN THERE, Drow, and they all blow each other up. Then all sleep peacefully and you and Agnie can finally rut if you like." He opened up both hands. "Situation governed. Let's get a drink."