the Snark is pulled out of retirement
...because the straight voice can't keep her facts straight.
Last November we had half the Archangels in a parking lot in the Inland Empire talking to a bunch of new spies, including one who's functionally their faceman. Being one of the main characters and all. So we let the spies fade into the background...the thief, the twin lucid dreamers, the telepath, the ace pilot, the country star and her dad, the rescue working family...resources for later.
But for now it's January and Ryuki's getting his Master's and there's a party. A small party, because he's thirty years old in a family of overachievers and he's just now getting his Master's. There's a long story there but unless you feel like reading the diary of Mary Sue it's probably not all that interesting. Corat invites his angel buddies from the aforementioned parking lot, and Sunae, and all but Ash show up at his office, to surprise him.
With apologies to p/o Ash, this story was supposed to be told from the demons' perspective, but given all the plotting, backstory, and the fact that the GM has a crush on her own character and enjoys making his virtual life difficult, I just couldn't wrap my brain around it.
Sunae can't decide whether Ryuki's a sweet guy with some bad habits or a total jackass with moments of kindness. She seems to favor the latter but goes to the party anyway, apparently to make Corat happy. Or Ryukawa (the dad). Have they even met?
And just to get the new guys in...David got wind of Faceman, er, Ryuki and sent a Malakite to the party. Just to mix things up a bit? He also gets half a message to Ryuki from Dominic and a brief if fruitless chat with Velga on the plane.
Jean sends someone else to go check out the new guy and to deliver Ryuki the other half of the message from Dominic.
Ida shows up at the office on the excuse of debugging Ryuki's laptop from gremlin damage--actual gremlins. He's amused to see that his guest understands that. He's wholly amused at the request he's been sent, to find the Mighty Squeaky Hammer of Smiting with no details at all. You see in the interim in his dwindling spare time he's been sent wetwings to play with, to teach them the fine art of negotiating with an asshole. Oops, did I type that? So he figures this is maybe just a slightly brighter version of that, until he opens the scroll. It's a rejection letter from Dominic and at first he feels rejected, then giddy. Because it's signed. It's an autograph from an archangel, and to a fanboy and a sorcerer this is pure unadulterated gold. Platinum maybe. Kane walks in just in time to see the Look on His Face and to hear him tell a baldfaced lie about the Mighty Squeaky Hammer's whereabouts.
And then the rest of the surprise-party plotters show up at the door, and Ryuki will not never nohow tell his dad to wait, so he lets them all in. They are soon joined by Pavel (Ryuki's friend), and Mia and Ken (his paternal siblings). Snug. Ken sets down the cake and leaves, still reeling from being at the helm of the real estate department during a crash. Ryuki decides that this is a good time to ask his father about working for angels...in front of everybody. Pavel gets it, the angels get it, his father doesn't get it..."IHS"? But he explains it's undercover law enforcement and that he gets. Ryukawa, dubious about all this, lays down a gauntlet. Ask your uncle. Your late uncle. The one who was probably murdered by Japanese cops or their mob friends. How you manage that is up to you.
His sister Mia...well, she's hellllllping! She knows a phone psychic who can hook them up. Well, Ryuki knows that phone psychic too, as a fellow sorcerer and a con artist (like, he might argue, most sorcerers) who would gladly box him up and send him to a demon for a bribe. So Ryuki does what any man in his family would do when threatened--he attacks! His younger sister's phone! Ryukawa is mortified--so much for being the calm, refined family.
But enough drama for one episode. Ryuki puts "call dead uncle" and "tie up sister" on his to-do list and the lot go downstairs to a local pub.
Last November we had half the Archangels in a parking lot in the Inland Empire talking to a bunch of new spies, including one who's functionally their faceman. Being one of the main characters and all. So we let the spies fade into the background...the thief, the twin lucid dreamers, the telepath, the ace pilot, the country star and her dad, the rescue working family...resources for later.
But for now it's January and Ryuki's getting his Master's and there's a party. A small party, because he's thirty years old in a family of overachievers and he's just now getting his Master's. There's a long story there but unless you feel like reading the diary of Mary Sue it's probably not all that interesting. Corat invites his angel buddies from the aforementioned parking lot, and Sunae, and all but Ash show up at his office, to surprise him.
With apologies to p/o Ash, this story was supposed to be told from the demons' perspective, but given all the plotting, backstory, and the fact that the GM has a crush on her own character and enjoys making his virtual life difficult, I just couldn't wrap my brain around it.
Sunae can't decide whether Ryuki's a sweet guy with some bad habits or a total jackass with moments of kindness. She seems to favor the latter but goes to the party anyway, apparently to make Corat happy. Or Ryukawa (the dad). Have they even met?
And just to get the new guys in...David got wind of Faceman, er, Ryuki and sent a Malakite to the party. Just to mix things up a bit? He also gets half a message to Ryuki from Dominic and a brief if fruitless chat with Velga on the plane.
Jean sends someone else to go check out the new guy and to deliver Ryuki the other half of the message from Dominic.
Ida shows up at the office on the excuse of debugging Ryuki's laptop from gremlin damage--actual gremlins. He's amused to see that his guest understands that. He's wholly amused at the request he's been sent, to find the Mighty Squeaky Hammer of Smiting with no details at all. You see in the interim in his dwindling spare time he's been sent wetwings to play with, to teach them the fine art of negotiating with an asshole. Oops, did I type that? So he figures this is maybe just a slightly brighter version of that, until he opens the scroll. It's a rejection letter from Dominic and at first he feels rejected, then giddy. Because it's signed. It's an autograph from an archangel, and to a fanboy and a sorcerer this is pure unadulterated gold. Platinum maybe. Kane walks in just in time to see the Look on His Face and to hear him tell a baldfaced lie about the Mighty Squeaky Hammer's whereabouts.
And then the rest of the surprise-party plotters show up at the door, and Ryuki will not never nohow tell his dad to wait, so he lets them all in. They are soon joined by Pavel (Ryuki's friend), and Mia and Ken (his paternal siblings). Snug. Ken sets down the cake and leaves, still reeling from being at the helm of the real estate department during a crash. Ryuki decides that this is a good time to ask his father about working for angels...in front of everybody. Pavel gets it, the angels get it, his father doesn't get it..."IHS"? But he explains it's undercover law enforcement and that he gets. Ryukawa, dubious about all this, lays down a gauntlet. Ask your uncle. Your late uncle. The one who was probably murdered by Japanese cops or their mob friends. How you manage that is up to you.
His sister Mia...well, she's hellllllping! She knows a phone psychic who can hook them up. Well, Ryuki knows that phone psychic too, as a fellow sorcerer and a con artist (like, he might argue, most sorcerers) who would gladly box him up and send him to a demon for a bribe. So Ryuki does what any man in his family would do when threatened--he attacks! His younger sister's phone! Ryukawa is mortified--so much for being the calm, refined family.
But enough drama for one episode. Ryuki puts "call dead uncle" and "tie up sister" on his to-do list and the lot go downstairs to a local pub.