The Midnight Sun

As soon as Kate crosses the threshold, Madame Naoki quickly shuts the door, nearly clipping Kate's trailing foot. Then she hurriedly engages the locks, one, two, three, four, five of them, tapping each one, double checking as she goes.

The door to Madame Naoki's office, and by extension, her quarters, is probably one of the more secure doors outside of the Citadel. With a wide grain and rich ebony finish, all the woodwork in the room seemed to come from the same tree. This uniformity gave a refined and dignified air to the room. Madame Naoki fits right in with these surroundings. Judging by the number of locks on the door, one could infer a strong desire for security and privacy.

With the door bolted many times over, Madame Naoki exhales a visible breath of relief. She strides over to a cabinet, deftly swings open both doors, and begins to rummage around inside.

"Please, please, have a seat anywhere. I've heard the expression. I'd like to know what's going on down there, but that thump..."

She trails off, engrossed in her search.

"Ah, here we go."

From the cabinet, she draws out a wooden cylinder. It is perhaps a foot long, with a radius of four inches, about the size of a rolling pin. But unlike a rolling pin, this one had small rounded bumps on it, and was covered in a soft cotton fabric.

"I know my place. I am not a fighter. You could take a rusty spoon out of your apron there and scoop my eyes out, if you really had a mind to. I wouldn't be able to stop you. That's why I've positioned myself here."

Madame Naoki shuts the cabinet, and takes her peculiar instrument over to the wall. With one hand, she places it against her back and the wall behind her. Luxuriously, catlike, she massages her back.

"It's dangerous at the top. From here, I can see everything, and everyone can see me. I have loads of followers too. Artemis would die before she allows whatever terrible abomination is downstairs to knock at my door. Nearly all of the staff are contractually obligated to assist me however they can."

After a few dozen rolls of massage, Madame Naoki, satisfied, finishes and sets the roller on the desk. In the process, she shifts an ink well, two bottles, and several large stacks of parchment. Although her desk seems overburdened, she easily moves things about.

"Situations like this really get to me, though. I leave... I was out, until recently, at the Citadel, making introductions. I leave, I was out for perhaps five hours at the most. And when I return, this. Mr. Cresno, my feed of information, sitting there comatose. A hole in the roof, literal demons fighting in the street, and I suspect whatever is downstairs is one of Hasdrubal's beasts. It just gets to me to see my systems and the general order shattered like this..."

Naoki trails off again, staring malcontent at her hands. She looks up and stares at Kate.

"I shouldn't ramble like that. I'm going to get changed, alright? Just over into the next room here."

Madame Naoki is wearing the same black dress she put on to visit the Citadel, though it has been wrinkled, and the gloves fouled most properly. She moves to one of the doors leading off of the office, opens it, and steps inside. She pulls it to with her foot, but doesn’t manage to close it fully.

Sorry. He killed Hasdrubal, and he's fucking "sorry". He'll be "sorry" when he's screaming for mercy at our feet. He'll be "sorry" when we send his blackened soul into oblivion.

In that moment, Artemis made her decision. This bastard was going to DIE.

She glides a few steps further down the stairs, maintaining a launch-ready position at all times, tonfas ready at her sides.

Just give me an opening, Screwtape.

Screwtape rocks backwards, dropping the lit cigarette from between his fingers. He utters a quick bark of a laugh.

"An Angel, man? I certainly am no Angel. I saw something in you, and it was not the soul of one above. No, no, dear soul. I see the makings of a demon in you. You have the untempered rage of one not yet learned in the ways of this earth. I see the boundless fervor for harrowing mortals and setting up treasures for whomever you say you are pledged."

He stands from his chair, gesturing to the floor with both hands.

"You saw we have a fallen Angel downstairs? I think I am looking at him now. You really are a younger me... You see yourself as invincible, unstoppable, and wholly devoted to your cause. One day, you will know what eons of striding this world can do to the immortal soul. One day, you will stoop low under the weight of your calling. Except you have before you a decided advantage over my former self."

A smile, a slight bow.

"You have the benefit of my experience! Come, Archangel. Think of the great and terrible things we might bring if we were to act together. Your power, my mind. We would not have to worry about such things as bars or mad men or drink. The world would bow."

Zuu finally breaks free from her bonds, and it's signalled by an animalistic yell full of rage echoing throughout the Midnight Sun, echoing from Hasdrubal's Lair. The group isn't given much time to prepare for her arrival, as half a moment later she speeds from the doorway, making a beeline toward Erik.
"NO MORE PLAYING!" she screams, her voice full of rage. She doesn't like being made a fool of. She is meant to be powerful! Deadly! She will not let some prissy angel defeat her.

If she's able to run into Erik, she'll knock him onto his back, pinning his arms to the ground as she straddles his chest, leaning down close to him. Her eyes are full of irrational, unquenchable rage and her mouth is turned up into a mad grin. Normally she's able to keep her madness under wraps, but Erik's looking down on her has caused it to bubble to the surface. "Do you feel the helplessness now?" she whispers, like a lover asking a lewd question, punctuating it with a giggle. Her nail-claws dig into Erik's wrists, drawing a great amount of blood.

Upon hearing the noise from downstairs, Kate nearly jumps two feet to the air. Panicked, she ran to the door only to find it locked. How do you open these? All these locks seem excessive, but I suppose she has her reasons...

Suddenly it hit Kate. Where was Madame Naoki? The shining star of The Midnight Sun? Her of all the people she would have expected to have ran off to oversee the situation... Then, where was she?

Kate jogged to her door and stopped for a moment. Was this appropriate? Well, in the worst possible case she could be... Kate swung the door wide open.

She... Was prepared to see many things. This was not one of those things. The Madame sat on the bed like a small girl who just fell on a bike. The Madame. The one who was always on top of things. She was just... Sitting there. Oh dear, poor thing.

Kate approached her cautiously. A voice on the back of his head was saying that she'd be ruining the carpet for coming in with boots. That didn't matter now. She needs me. She sat next to her and, should she allow it, would place her hand on he shoulder, petting her gently.

"It's okay. It's okay now..." Her voice was a whisper, empathetic, filled not with pity or mockery, but an innocent care for others.

Out again is the walking stick, this time wreathed in shadows and Stygian fire. It hurts the eyes and mind to look at it, as if the brain somehow knew that, within that inferno, there was something that simply should not be.

"You are not in this fight alone, Archangel. You have said too much, convinced me too strongly, to abandon you now. This must end here."

Screwtape flings off his cloak, whirling it deftly over his right arm and brandishing his smoking cane sword with the left. He levels the tip at Zuu.

"I'd hate to have your blood shed all over the floor, Archangel. Your kind are such a ballyhoo to clean up after. Shall we? I'll take the right, you, the left."

He sighed but said nothing to disagree with him. He knew of the girl's powers vaguely and knew this would be no easy task.

"Fine, you take the Right-"

He was cut off by the feeling he was being attacked from behind. The Girl! He forgot her presence for split moment. This could prove fatal for him if he didn't react fast. He moved his armored arm back and moved his body a bit to block the strike, though didn't take in account of the gravitation manipulation or what ever the tonfa had on it. He pushed her back and swung the pronged part at her side, hoping to just knock her away.

"Great, two on two. Sir, calm your employee. It seems she hates me almost as much as the fallen.."

He Gritted his teeth in pain, his shoulder going to definitely sore after a hit from the impacted, not expecting the hit to be so hard. He allowed himself to slide away from her a bit before shooting his arm out at her, the Bident in his hand still. He aimed a telekinetic blast at her from his fist, in hopes to knock her back away from him before she uppercut him. After that, he dematerialized his weapons and materialized a kite shield in his left arm and the Bident in his right hand. If she got knocked back from the blast, he would throw the Bident at her at the right timing to have it pin her to the wall by her throat. Not harming her, his giving himself sometime.

He looked back at the man.

"Sorry, needed her to stay out of this for now. She isn't hurt too badly."

Naoki, prefix hardly applicable, does not rebuff Kate’s comforting. Tears roll down her arms as she tries to repress her sobs. After a long minute of tears, she suddenly stops, and turns to look at Kate with new, watery eyes.

Her mouth moves, wanting to speak, but fails, and stops fumbling.

Now that she has calmed down a bit, Naoki takes a moment to listen. Her ears pan around, trying to discern what could be happening downstairs. Nothing. Just the rapid beating of her own heart, and Kate’s breathing directly to the right.

“It’s terrible. I had these walls reinforced. They’re mostly soundproof; someone could be yelling in the next room, and we wouldn’t know. Just thin enough to allow the rage screams of the monster, and just thick enough to block out the sounds of everyone I know, falling dead on the floor, one by one.

Naoki draws her legs up onto the edge of the bed, and rests her arms on her bent knees.

“What do you think it is? What kind of terrible, unholy beast screams like that? It sounded almost like a voice, but monstrously powerful, and twisted with inhuman rage.”

Her black tail curls itself around her body to rest on the tops of her feet.

“I’ve met a number of beings in my short time on this world. Lots of strange and dangerous people come through here, you can imagine. Just last week, there was this massive, hulking stud of a man, must have been ten feet tall, covered in scars. Hardly fit through the door, had to leave his hammer outside. Turns out he had a soft spot for children. Spent hours playing peek-a-boo with someone’s kid.”

A moment passes in that terrible, terrible silence.

Naoki begins to laugh. Not a hearty chuckling, nor a light titter, but rather the rapid, flavorless exhalations of an individual who has accepted their fate. Her chest heaves as her eyes begin to water once more.