The Scorching Depths

[bc56]

Pandemonium
"I sent her away, but I need to know everything you know about her. Her abilities, weaknesses, what resources she has at her disposal, the political, uh, climate. Anything that could be useful." Sekhmet subtly sidles towards the bed. If the thing that the two succubi were trying to hide is down there, she wants to know what it is. But first she needs to get close enough to check without arousing suspicion.

[Ironsmith]

[Pandemonium]

"W-well..." Mendacity begins, shuffling nervously as Sekhmet approaches her and her hidden relic. "I, um... we've never actually met the lady. Or any of the devils, for that matter. We just know that they're bad news. Like, really bad news."

"Your mum ran this place before you did, right?" Perfidy asks, beginning with the obvious. "And for a while you didn't know it, yeah? Think back to how you felt when you first learned the queen of hell had taken a personal interest in you."

"And then multiply that by seven. The, ah, devils get weirdly competitive about souls."

"So we hear, at least. Last thing we wanted was to find out for sure."

[bc56]

Pandemonium
"Yes, she's dangerous. I understood that. But, uh, do you have any useful information? Does she have an army? Any powerful magics?" Sekhmet has a no-nonsense look about her. "She strongly implied that if I don't hand the two of you over, she'll try to take you, and others, by force. So you had better start telling me everything you know." In the meantime, Sekhmet slides the tip of her tail under the bed. A slight moment of concentration is all she needs to shapeshift an eye on its tip so she can take a look without it being obvious.

[Ironsmith]

[Pandemonium]

"Um... I, uh, don't really know what to tell you." Mendacity replies nervously. "We've only got rumors to go on. I mean... I would assume 'yes, very much so' on the whole magic thing, but..."

"Actually, that wouldn't be much of an assumption." Perfidy points out. "The devils are the source of magic in the Abyss. You know how some people make deals with demons, for power or wealth or good looks or whatever? That follows from demons making deals with the devils. They set out the details of what they can offer well in advance."

"...Oh, yeah. I keep forgetting about that." Mendacity rubs at her chin. "Then, yeah. They've got magic. Lots and lots of magic. As for armies... there's the mulchmen, I guess. And the hounds. I don't know for sure, though... it seems a bit redundant when they're already kind of... kind of..."

"Stupid powerful?"

"...Yeah."

Perfidy gives a little nod. "I do remember something that might help, though. For all her power, Libidine can't actually leave the Abyss. That's why she hires out succubi like Tricksy, so they can act in her stead. I'm not entirely clear on how it works, but there's a whole process to how she picks them, and what she does with them after she has. Given how much the rest of the Abyss sucks, I can only imagine how much of a burden it is to work directly under her..."

Meanwhile, under the bed, Sekhmet's eye will find... nothing but dust bunnies. It seems Mendacity took Perfidy's advice and did not, in fact, hide anything down there. She must have put the incriminating evidence somewhere else.

[bc56]

Pandemonium
Of course that would be too easy. Anywhere else would be much more obvious that Sekhmet is searching the place.
If Pan wasn't busy with the remodeling, Sekhmet would ask her to take a look. As it stands, she'll just have to be left in the dark for now.
"How many mulchmen? Dozens? Hundreds? Thousands?" The hounds are less of a concern. Neither is Libidine being stupid powerful; Sekhmet is too.

[Ironsmith]

[Pandemonium]

"Enough to keep an infinite plane under their collective thumb." Perfidy replies. "I, um... am not sure how many that actually is. Probably more than a handful, though."

Mendacity shuffles uncomfortably on the bed. "...Not that it matters." She adds sardonically. "The devils aren't generally the storm-the-gates type. If you really want to keep us safe from her, you'd have to keep us under watch twenty-four-seven, and hope that's enough to stop her. It won't be."

"And even if it was... I mean, that's not exactly fun for us..."

[bc56]

Pandemonium
"Would you rather I gave up? It would be very easy for me to send the two of you as a peace offering." Sekhmet would never do such a thing. But hopefully the two succubi don't realize that. "If she could just steal you away, she would have done it. She's after you for escaping the abyss, not my native subjects."

[Ironsmith]

[Pandemonium]

"No!" "Absolutely not!" "Please no!" "That'd be just cruel!" The succubi clamor over each other to submit their pleas to the queen, not seeming to catch on very quickly that she was asking a rhetorical question. Sort of. In the process, Mendacity ends up leaping off the bed, leaving an oddly-rigid lump in the blanket behind her.

"Please don't send us away!" The pair chorus, begging on their knees with their hands folded in front of them.

[bc56]

Pandemonium
"Then help me stop her... What's this?" Sekhmet's hand closes around the blanket lump. She gingerly tries to unfold the blanket from around it.
She's also gauging the succubi's reactions. She wants to know just how bad they think it would be for her to see it.

[Ironsmith]

[Pandemonium]

"We're trying t-ah, heck."

Sekhmet's probings will turn up a large, hardbacked book, The Great Big Book of Human and Demon Physiology, a copy of which has been missing from her study for a few weeks now. There's a thin notebook tucked into the front cover, which itself has a few loose leaves tucked into its pages. The book's bound-in bookmark is about a quarter of the way through it, marking the start of the chapter about the digestive system and Sekhmet's subjects' equivalent to it.

"Ah... heh... I, um... was gonna put that back." Mendacity offers, shrinking back a little with a sheepish smile on her face. Perfidy, meanwhile, already has her hand on the doorknob, fully anticipating that they'll need to run in the near future.

[bc56]

Pandemonium
It helps that Sekhmet doesn't really care about this particular book. She doesn't need it. "You could have just asked to borrow a book," she says, "Why would you break into my chambers to steal it?" She doesn't sound angry, just disappointed.

[Ironsmith]

[Pandemonium]

"Ah... w-well, um..." Mendacity stammers. "I, um, didn't actually know that. I thought, if I asked for it, it'd just clue you in on who took it when it went missing..."

"Besides, I was the one who actually stole the bloody thing." Perfidy clips in, stepping up next to Mendacity. "She didn't break into your chambers at all."

[bc56]

Pandemonium
"No, if you'd asked, I would have just given it to you," Sekhmet is thoroughly bewildered by how these two seem to have not thought of that. "Why do you even want that book so badly?" It seems like a relatively worthless book to steal.

[Ironsmith]

[Pandemonium]

Mendacity frowns. "Well, I-I-I... I haven't seen any universities down here, and there weren't any in the Abyss and I can't really go to the mortal plane and-"

"Oh, for the love of-" Perfidy comes up and puts her hands on the other succubus's shoulders. "Look. Back in life, Mindy here had ambitions to become a doctor. Didn't really get much of a chance to do it back then, even less of a chance after that car hit her. For a while, we thought that was that and there was nothing to do about it. But after spending a while here, in our own little room, we finally got tired of finding new variations on the horizontal mambo and she started wondering about pursuing that life again. So I went out and got her some of the relevant reading material."

Mendacity looks back over at Perfidy and slowly nods. "Y-... yeah, that's... that's what happened. More or less."

[bc56]

Pandemonium
"Really? There are other doctors here. You could probably get an apprenticeship." If it's not really, Sekhmet would be able to tell. She's good enough at judging emotions to tell when she's being lied to.

[Ironsmith]

[Pandemonium]

"She was afraid to ask for a textbook, what makes you think she would have gone for an apprenticeship?" Perfidy challenges, hands on her hips.

"...I, um... I think she means that's an option now, Perry." Mendacity points out. "And if that's what you mean, your highness... yes, please."

So far as Sekhmet can tell, Mendacity is telling the unvarnished truth, while Perifdy is being slightly less-than-sincere. Likely not anything malicious, but she's still keeping something to herself... like covering for her partner or putting on a more aggressive front to cover her own merves. Something along those lines.

[bc56]

Pandemonium
"I'll see what I can do. Get dressed and come with me." Sekhmet gestures to the door, then steps outside.
She'll give Mindy a little while to decide whether she wants to come.

[Ironsmith]

[Pandemonium]

"'Get dressed'? She knows who she's talking to, right?"

"Better to do as she says, Perry. She's being really nice here, let's not piss her off."

Two wing-flaps later, both succubi step outside, Perfidy dressed in a casual outfit of a sweatstained tank top and ripped-knee jeans, while Mendacity is wearing a modest blouse and skirt. Both are ready to follow Sekhmet wherever she goes.

[bc56]

Pandemonium
Sekhmet leads the pair down the hallways to the infirmary where the giant succubus is being kept. On the way, she explains, "You two, uh, probably know the most about how to take care of our newest guest." Once they arrive, she gives out clearer instructions. "Help the doctor with anything she needs. If the, uh, patient ever wants to talk to me, come get me immediately. Doctor," Sekhmet still doesn't know the doctor's name, "Mendacity would like medical training. I, uh, advise you to consider taking her as an apprentice if she does well here."

[Ironsmith]

[Pandemonium]

"...Oh my god."

The thirteen-foot succubus looks up at Sekhmet again when she enters, before her dulled gaze returns to a spot on the wall, not even degining to greet her or her entourage.

Perfidy, however, seems a little less inclined to let things sit in silence.

"Tricksy? Is that you? You've... grown." She manages awkwardly, looking the succubus up and down.

"....Hm."

"How've you been? I haven't seen you since-"

"Don't waste your breath." The succubus interrupts. "I know that isn't the real Perry. You can't fool me this time."

"...Beg pardon?"

"You heard me. I won't play your game."

"Tricksy, it's... it's me. It really is me. Don't you recognize me?"

The succubus says nothing, but rolls over slightly, tilting her head so as to avoid everyone else's gaze.

The physician sighs and shakes her head. "Good news is, apart from that, she's been cooperative. My guess is she just doesn't see a point in putting up a fight." She sighs and flips up her clipboard. "I'll let you know if her condition changes. In the meantime, it looks like I'm going to be busy trying to deal with these three."

[bc56]

Pandemonium
Sekhmet nods. "Are you ready to tell me about Libidine now?" she asks Tricksy. Hopefully she's willing m if not, Sekhmet has another appointment to get to soon, she can wait.

[Ironsmith]

[Pandemonium]

The succubus slowly inclines her head to meet Sekhmet's gaze, before slowly lowering it again, the bellows next to the bed giving a little hiss as she takes a deep sigh. "Bit pointless not to answer if you ask." She mumbles, face half-buried in her pillow. "What do you want to hear?"

[bc56]

Pandemonium
"Let's start with her resources. What forces does she command? What are her armies? How secure is her seat of power?" Sekhmet starts on the questions. She suspects she'll get some sort of propaganda answers, but it doesn't hurt to ask.

[Ironsmith]

[Pandemonium]

"Nobody can unseat Libidine." The succubus replies drearily, giving Sekhmet a look that implies skepticism with regards to her intelligence. "Or any other Devil. They're not like any of the other hellish nobles; they don't have bodies, souls, centers of being. There's nothing to destroy, or to push away, or to even threaten. They simply are and care nothing for our mortal ideas of time and place."

She lowers her head and closes her eyes. "As for armies... she needs none. She has me, my sisters, the Mulchmen, the Hounds, and whatever else she feels a need to drum up if the occasion calls for it. If she wishes something destroyed, she need only lift a finger and make it so."

[bc56]

Pandemonium
Sekhmet frowns. "None of that propaganda. If she was truly all-powerful, her subjects wouldn't be escaping, and if she had the ability to take what she wanted from me without a fight, she wouldn't have bothered to try to intimidate me. Clearly, her power and resources are much more limited than that. So let's start again." Sekhmet clears her throat. "I already know that she can't truly leave her own domain, so tell me about her agents. How many mulchmen does she have? How frequently can she open gateways like the one she used to bring you here?"

[Ironsmith]

[Pandemonium]

The succubus lowers her head into the pillow. "...Then you do not know her cruelty. Or you think I don't." She sighs, wearily. "That's what she does. What they all do. They let you struggle and squirm and think you have a chance, then squash you when you no longer amuse them. Resistance is futile. It will only bring you more pain, in the end." She pauses, briefly sucking her teeth plaintively. "...I know of seventy Mulchmen who answer to her. There are probably more I haven't seen. And I've watched her make gateways back-to-back before and bestow the ability to others. She is not limited in that regard."

[bc56]

Pandemonium
"There is hope," Sekhmet counters. "Her greatest victory over you was convincing you otherwise. That is why you are still her slaves." She paces back and forth. The mulchmen are dangerous, but so few of them? Once she has her researchers reverse-engineer their weapons, her guards will have a huge advantage in numbers. Still, a defense should probably be raised against unwanted entry anyway. She knows someone who can help with that, but that's a concern for later.

[Ironsmith]

[Pandemonium]

"Victory implies struggle." The succubus replies languidly. "Any moment now, she could come right back in and take me over again. My body, my mind, my soul... they're not mine. They never were. And they're never going to be." She closes her eyes and buries her face in the pillow. "Hope isn't an option. Hope is a fantasy. A little sweetener when they decide it's time for you to become a meal." She curls up tighter, shivering despite the heat. "Abandon it. That's the best you can do."

[bc56]

Pandemonium
Sekhmet sighs. "As long as you continue to believe you're a slave, you will be. We're done here." She steps out of the room and motions to a guard. "Keep her under watch in case she gets any bright ideas about helping her former master." Tricksy seems crazy enough to do something like that.

[Ironsmith]

[Pandemonium]

"'Former', she says. How naive."

The succubus shivers and rubs her hands along her arms, shaking in her bed. "Mistress, please, I would never betray you, I-"

"Hush, hush, dearie. You're doing wonderfully." Libidine's voice interrupts the succubus's, momentarily seizing her mouth and larynx to deliver the message.

"...I... I am?"

"Of course you are, o favored vessel of mine. You always seem to know just what to say, don't you?" The succubus's hand comes up to stroke her own cheek affectionately.

"Then... I'm not to be punished?"

"Oh, now don't sound so put out. I can always redouble the pain you're in now."

The succubus's breathing turns shallow and rapid as she shakes in the bed, staring up at Sekhmet pleadingly, tears brimming in her eyes as she seizes.

"No? All right."

The seizure stops as abruptly as it started, leaving the oversized succubus laying on her side, crying quietly.