It's Warmer Inside (SSoDI-N)

[DanteMGalileo]

"Nrgh..." Lobo glared into the mirror at his usual haggard appearance in the morning. Groaning, he reached down and pulled out a hairtie, tying the majority of his hair back into its usual messy ponytail. "That's better," he said, feeling his face, frowning. "Ugh, I thought I just shaved yesterday. Oh well."

He reached and pulled out a tube of shaving cream and a razor...

A few minutes later, a loud scream could be heard from the bathroom.

---

Loba hummed as she dusted off and neatened the last table. After last night, she and Lobo had dismissed their staff early to get the shooting out of their heads, and the pair had retired early. "Hmm. Maybe I'll go flying after breakfast." Clearly, the rain didn't seem to bother her, and she seemed to be unaware of what had occurred in the plaza.

Making her way to the kitchen, she turned on the coffeepot, and put two slices of bread in the toaster. When the toaster popped and the coffee was done, she poured a little too much sugar to be healthy into her mug, and spread some reddish jam on the toast. "Ah. Sugar with coffee and toast with plum jam. What more could you ask for?" She giggled to herself upon hearing Lobo's scream. "Oh, sounds like he cut himself shaving. Again. Hope he didn't wake our guests."

But before the petit angel could begin to enjoy her breakfast, there was a knocking sound. "... Huh? We don't open 'til eight at night today. Maybe it's the inspection guy?" Summoning her shortsword to hand, she walked over to the front door, and with a clicking sound, unlocked it...

"Whoa!! There's no need for that!!" William put his hands up, seeing Loba's shortsword, clearly panicked. Seeing his reaction, Loba dispelled the blade from her hand.

"Oh. I thought you were the inspection guy. Come on in, get out of the rain. I imagine it's warmer inside." She curtsied her guests inside, politely bowing. "Hmm... where are Percy and the demon lady who was completely awesome last night?"

William groaned as he took a seat, pushing his wet hair out of his face. "They went out to the alleyway behind the bar. They're talking about something that they didn't want us to hear for... whatever reason."

[ParamountKeymaster]

Paul was very visibly tense for a moment. Scott's hand was hovering over something in his utility belt. Both brothers relaxed the moment William diffused the tension and Loba dismissed her weapon.

Scott let out a deep sigh as he stepped inside the club. "Why do I get the feeling that kind of behavior is going to become commonplace in the days to come?"

"Knowing this island, it kinda already is," Paul mumbled back, awkwardly looking around. The club had been cleaned up quite nicely, to be fair, but seeing it so calm and empty after the commotion that took place there last night was somehow simultaneously relieving and unsettling. Like a pleasant memory forever tainted; he wanted to feel secure here, but this club's association with that terrifying encounter kept him on edge.

While Paul silently paced around, very likely upset by more things than the atmosphere, Scott turned to Loba. So long as she was unarmed and being polite, he figured he may as well do the same, offering her a hand. "Scott Sellers. I take it you're familiar with my brother over here?

[ColArana]

Oooo! Pointy objects!

Awww. No pointy objects.

Anyways!~ Ranuen gladly accepted Loba's invitation to get in out of the rain, tailing in after Paul and Scott. He, like Paul, was impressed at the clean-up job after the brawl that had taken part in here. "Thank you. Hate the rain." He added, though briefly pondered over social faux pas. Was it rude to just grab a seat, since the place clearly wasn't open for business?

"Did I hear someone screaming before I came in here-- you know what, nevermind. I probably don't want to know." Ranuen began and then corrected himself.

[DanteMGalileo]

"Lobazotah Tethys. Just call me Loba, Mr. Sellers," Loba responded, shaking Scott's hand. "I am familiar with your brother, if only by appearance- it's my brother who deals with people face-to-face." She glanced toward Raunen, conjuring a chair of his size from what seemed to be crystalized water. "Oh, and the scream? Lobo cut himself shaving. Again." And then, as if on cue, said brother showed up, clad in a bathrobe with bandages on his cheeks, grinding what seemed to be pepper into a coffee mug.

"Oh, hey. Didn't expect anyone at this hour..." Lobo mumbled, for a certain definition of mumble, taking a seat. "... Oh, hey. ... Do I know you? Because I'm sure I don't know you..." He got up-close to Scott, some traces of yellow blood still visible through the bandages.

"Lobo, give him some space." Loba grabbed her brother by the shoulders, and tossed him aside. "I'm sorry about that, Mr. Sellers. He's kind of a blockhead... Do you lot want some coffee and breakfast?"

"Now that you mention it..." William's stomach audibly growled. "Yeah... black, no sugar... I don't care, just something heavy... I'll pay for us all..."

[ParamountKeymaster]

"I-I'm good. Thanks." Paul wasn't hungry. If anything, he'd been somewhat nauseous ever since his near-death experience and moment of self-discovery.

Scott leaned away from Lobo, eyes narrow, hand once again nearing his belt, but he just as quickly relaxed again when Loba dismissed her brother and offered the group some breakfast. "That... might actually do my some good. Thank you. Not sure what kind of food you offer, but coffee sound great."

Paul sat down with a heavy sigh, folding his hands against his stomach, staring anxiously at the floor. He still clearly had a lot on his mind. The invasion, the events of last night, Kelsey's mental state, her current whereabouts, his brother's sudden involvement... and try as he might not to let it bother him, Paul had to wonder what role he was bound to play now that he and the angels knew what he could do.

[ColArana]

Ranuen was shocked to see the chair of crystallized water but eagerly sat down, happy at the hospitality. "Remind me to tip extra well next time I'm in." He commented, before noticing Lobo entering with the cuts on his face. "....Ah. I see. That seemed.... excessive for cutting while shaving."

He then shrugged. "If you're offering breakfast I won't say no... I'm not picky though."

It hadn't slipped Ranuen's mind what they were here for, but he wasn't sure if he should be the one to broach the topic, or if one of the others should first.

[DanteMGalileo]

Loba nodded and exited to the kitchen, returning a few minutes later with a full coffeepot, several mugs, and several smaller containers. "Here you go. I dunno what humans like in their coffee, so go ahead and prepare it yourself." With a wave of her hand, watery hands carrying plates of toast and assorted toppings set their contents down on the table the group was using. "Hope you like toast. Feel free to top it off with butter, peanut butter, sriracha, plum jam, grape jam, goat cheese, or honey. Or mix and match."

William raised an eyebrow at the sriracha, but poured himself a cup of coffee. "You guys want sugar, cream, or anything? Can't stand anything in mine..." After his cup was poured, the blonde took a slice of toast, plain save for some goat cheese and a small drizzle of honey. "Thanks, Loba. You're the best."

"I know." As Loba resumed her breakfast, Lobo took a seat, a powerful scent of pepper in his coffee. The green-eyed angel took a slice of toast, spreading almost the entire contents of the sriracha container on the bread.

"So, disregarding my mishaps with shaving..." Lobo said with a mouthful of overly-spiced bread. "What brings you lot here so early? Hey, Paul, you ain't hungry?" He glanced towards the dragon man.

"It's... a long story... Well not really, but the utter bugfuck insanity makes up for it..." William seemed to be wanting to get to the point of why they came here. "... So... Lobo, Loba..." The two angels glanced at the blonde. "... What do you know about angel armies?"

The pair in question exchanged expressions, Lobo's face draining of colour and Loba's grin vanishing. William continued. "The first thing that happened this morning was that we got into more than a little fight with an entire ship's worth. The leader seems to have it out for Paul after... something he did..."

Lobo exhaled sharply, and in a hushed-for-him-tone, muttered, "... The hell? Who was the leader of that damn squadron?"

William shrugged as he took a dip of coffee. "I don't remember, but he had pale green skin, blonde hair... had only one eye, red... green fire, overall a giant prick..."

"Fuck, he's actually serious this time..."

William raised an eyebrow at this. "Do you two know that guy?"

[ParamountKeymaster]

Paul glanced up at Lobo, looking perhaps the tiniest bit startled, having been so lost in thought that being directly addressed was like a sudden wake-up call. "N-No. No thanks." Then he went right back to silence, allowing William the chance to speak.

In the meantime, Scott helped himself to some toast; he would've preferred blackberry over grape jelly, but beggars and choosers and whatnot. He offered the angel siblings a nod of gratitude for the sake of politeness towards them and the young man who had taken the floor. Having kept to the sidelines during the event they were discussing, Scott had very little to offer right out the gate. However, after munching on his toast and mulling over his thoughts for a moment, he decided to broach something a little more personally relevant. "Yeah, Paul, what did you do exactly? What's this guy got against you personally?"

"I breathed lightning on him," Paul blurted out, speaking in the low, begrudging tone of someone who wanted to get a painful ordeal over with.

...Well, hush Scott's mouth.

"It's not just me, though," Paul quickly continued, turning back to the others. "Kelsey managed to total their ship. Wouldn't surprise me if she took out a good handful of their troops along with it. Considering how angry he was at me, I'm... worried about what he could be planning for her."

Scott raised an eyebrow. "I'm worried about how much power your girlfriend seems to possess. Somehow I doubt it's healthy for just one person to carry."

"She's not my..." Paul cut himself off, then he dropped the topic altogether with a heavy sigh.

[ColArana]

Ranuen watched the angels closely as the talk of armies and ships came up. They definitely knew something. But Ranuen held his tongue. For the moment.

He didn't after the two showed evidence of knowing the leader. "That looks like a "yes" Will. So I'm curious. Who is he then?" A pause. "And... just as importantly..... How do we put him in the ground?" He asked.

"I noticed that even the random mooks on that ship were pretty resilient to damage. I'm guessing it's a racial thing, so it begs the question, if you were trying to kill an angel, how would you do it? Sorry if that's a little personal, but it's kind of a problem for.... everyone on this island right now." He noted. "So knowing how to cut them down might be helpful."

[DanteMGalileo]

"Yeah, we know that asshat. Better yet, we have the misfortune to be related to him," Lobo said with a sigh. "Liderc. Our estranged and deranged half-brother. 'Bout once a year when the island power swap occurs, he makes a half-assed attempt to kill us with whatever he got that year."

"I, uh, what now..." William had been about to take a sip of coffee when Lobo dropped knowledge of his relation to the leader. "Half-brother?"

"I know, some family resemblance we've got going there, right? I'm FAR better-looking, to start..."

"... Sure. Let's go with that for now." William took a long gulp of coffee, noticing Paul's discomfort. He winced slightly at Raunen's very direct approach to the main issue. "Hey, Raunen, dude, you don't just ask people what they're weak to without at least getting some basic conversation in..."

Loba closed her eyes, frowning. "... Due to millions of years of living on a planet where almost everything is trying to kill you, only the toughest angels survived long enough to reproduce, passing their resilience on to the next generation. So yes, Raunen is right; durability is a racial trait, although you'll find that the greenbloods are the frailest, even if they are tougher than the average human..."

"Wait, you're comfortable with telling us your weaknesses?"

"Well, we've always been a little weird," Lobo gave a small grin. "A subjugated population doesn't bring in the dough, and besides." The green-eyed angel grabbed another slice of toast. "This place is our home. So yeah... Just point me at anythin' you need skewered."

"Well, this conversation is going better than I thought..." William poured another cup of coffee. "So... how exactly do you put an angel down?"

Loba opened her eyes, her expression serious. "There are many ways to kill a human, and quite frankly, I'm a little concerned how you discovered these methods. Decapitation. Blunt force trauma. Asphyxiation. Exsanguination. Drowning." The pink-eyed angel had created liquid puppets from her coffee, animating each method she listed. "... But there is only one guaranteed way to kill an angel- remove the wings or damage them beyond repair." The coffee-angel's wings fell back into the cup, followed by the rest of it. "Those methods of killing a human? Those will only slow them down. An angel can regenerate any other lost body part... Although, you could use decapitation to incapacitate an angel, then chop their wings off..." She turned to Paul. "You... breathed lightning on him? Oh my..."

"That... didn't sound good..." William noted. "What about Paul breathing lightning on I'm gonna call him green asshole birdy?"

"Lemme make this clear." Lobo stood up. "Electricity... an angel's body is crap at handlin' electricity. It screws up our energy flow and transmits realllllllll good in our bodies." He shot a concerned look at Paul. "Paul, listen well. Chances are, he's gonna go after you 'cuz of that lightning breath fiasco. Even if you're, well, you, he ain't gonna see you that way..."

[ParamountKeymaster]

"Yeah, but..." Paul twiddled his thumbs. "Thing is, it seemed like he was targeting me even before I started shooting lightning outta my mouth. I dare say I posed the smallest threat to that fleet compared to Kelsey or Ranuen or Percy, but when given the opportunity to attack any of us, he went for me."

"Granted, maybe he attacked you because he perceived you as the easiest target," Scott offered. "No offense. Then again, that wouldn't make much sense from a tactical standpoint if your allies were right there to fend him off."

"Well, a couple of them were incapacitated. But even if that wasn't the case, if he wanted me dead that badly, why waste time on a dramatic monologue?"

"Seems like a typical villainous thing to do. I find that a lot of scoundrels who think they're carrying out some righteous purpose tend to have a penchant for theatrics." Scott took a long sip of his coffee, then he continued, "This something you've had for a while now, little bro?"

"I literally just discovered I could do that when he tried to kill me."

"...I see. Well, look at it this way. Sure, they might target you for this, but at least you have power over something they're vulnerable to. And I know how thick-skinned you are. Between your own natural self-defense adaptations and this team you have assembled around you, I honestly doubt they'll be able to kill you that easily."

"Um... Thanks." Paul continued to fidget in his seat, eyes trained on anything besides the other people in the room. "Don't think this is me complaining about this new development. I'm still processing it, is all. I-I'm sure I'll get good use out of it once I... figure out how to control it willingly."

[ColArana]

Having heard Paul's discourse, Ranuen interjected with a query at the angel duo as well. "I don't suppose Liderc has any abilities to detect something like that, does he? That he might have been aware of Paul's ability, even if Paul himself didn't?"

Giving time enough for them to answer, Ranuen then digested the exposition that had been delivered. So, the green skinned angel's name was Liderc, huh? And Angels.... aside from the wings and electricity, they had no particular weaknesses? Damn. While Ranuen knew he could always target the wings, that could prove difficult, in any case. One of the things about fighting humans, or human-like beings... they had vulnerabilities all over the body. A human couldn't centralize their defense most of the time. If a human focused the entirety of their defense protecting their upper body, you hacked off their legs. Focus too much on defending their legs, you stabbed them in the head. But if an angel truly only had the one weak point, it would be a real challenge, as it meant they could focus the entirety of their defense around that weak point, making it much harder to pierce.

That means if an angel and human that are otherwise entirely equal were to battle, then... Ranuen glared at nobody in particular. Damnit.

And he was a fire user, so he couldn't exploit their electricity weakness. Learning an entirely separate element would be incredibly difficult. "I'm gonna need to pick up some new tricks, my skillset's really bad for killing angels it seems."

[DanteMGalileo]

"Hell if I know if he's got some kinda danger-sensin' ability," Lobo replied. "When we left, he was this skinny stump of an angel that cried a lot. And somehow, I doubt he'd tell us any abilities he's developed when he's tryin' to kill us." He shrugged. "Maybe he does, maybe he was just tryin' to pick the least dangerous threat off first? Hell if I know."

An awkward silence fell, punctuated by the occasional bite of toast and sip of coffee. This lasted until William decided to break the silence. "So, Lobo, Loba... you sure you're willing to fight with us? Against your own people?"

"I'm an angel, yeah, but those warmongerin' monsters ain't my people." The green-eyed angel stated. "I've got yer backs. Just point me in the direction of anythin' you need skewered or blasted."

"Well... anything that looks like you would be a good start."

"Hmm. That reminds me," Loba said, standing up. "I have something for you, Will. I'll be back in a few minutes." Without further word, the petit angel stood up and began the walk up the stairs.

"... What could she have for me...?" William wondered aloud. A knocking sound could be heard after.

"I'll get it, I'll get it!" Lobo stood up, and walked over to the entrance door, pulling it open.

"Ah, I'm surprised you're up..." Percy's hair hung over his eyes, which seemed a bit unfocused and hazy. "Is that toast I smell?"

"Uh, yeah, it is, just remember to use napkins-"

The brunette took a seat and a slice, before beginning to munch on it, his eyes unfocused as ever. "Yo, Perce..." William waved a hand in front of Percy's face. No response. "Perce? Percy? You okay?"

[ParamountKeymaster]

"Maybe I should too..." Scott murmured in response to Ranuen's remark. "If I'm gonna involve myself in this war, I doubt general police training is gonna cut it. Might as well figure out how to play their game."

Paul didn't respond. He simply watched as Lobo opened the front door, allowing Percy to step inside, closely followed by Kelsey. While the former took a seat next to William, Kelsey spotted Paul, nodded to him and walked his way. She didn't speak, but the frustration in her face and her tense gait spoke volumes all their own.

"Hey..." Paul mumbled worriedly as she sat down next to him on the couch. "How was the talk?"

"We didn't have a talk. Tri and Imago did," Kelsey answered lowly. "About what, I don't know. He's been giving me the silent treatment ever since I woke back up."

"Oh... Um..." Paul wasn't sure what to do with this information. The angels were a big enough problem. The group's demons keeping secrets wasn't exactly helping.

[ColArana]

Hmmm.... "Then does he just like beating up people weaker than him or something?" Ranuen asked. Still trying to rationalize why Paul of the entire group was attacked. While still annoyed with his weakness to Angels.

"If nothing else, it's great to have you all as allies." Ranuen noted. "So Liderc used to be a lot weaker than you? Aaaaaand still is, hopefully?" He offered. "And in any case, we were also looking for tips. Wondering what the best way to take it to them would be, seeing how we're not a huge group. And if Liderc's setting the standard for their middle-ranked fighters, it's going to be tough." Despite Ranuen's previous bravado about rushing into a hard fight, it was clear he was taking this seriously. Eager to rush to a death match? Sure. But that didn't mean Ranuen took said death match lightly at all.

Then Percy arrived. "Whoa! Welcome back Percy!" He exclaimed. "Are.... you okay man?"