Session Four: A Question of War
The last thing Malcolm remembers is fire, someone invading his brain, and Tyrone explaining in explicit detail recipes for egg salad. When he comes too, he's a spinning wheel of fire, bouncing off the walls of a room in Gabriel's cathedral. Gabriel is there, in her uberchick form, attended by other spinning wheels, pacing back and forth and frothing at the mouth. When Malcolm can speak, Gabe and Malcolm talk about various problems... mostly involving Dominic, the Inquisition, and why people Must Be Stopped. And Gabe shows Malcolm where the Tethers, good and evil, are in Michigan. Sinners, you know, are almost as bad as servants of Dominic. Malcolm discovers a small secret of the game - if you ask for something really off the wall and bizarre, you might just get it. Malcolm reappears in Flint looking suspiciously like Danzig. He beats feet up to Alpena.
People are still lingering around Maxwell's place, eating dinner, and being uncomfortable. Right before Dana decides, the hell with this, she's going up to Heaven to confront her Superior, a limo pulls up. The limo driver gets out, walks up, and knocks on the door. He has a small conversation with Maxwell, before Max goes in to discuss this. Eventually, Maxwell and Dana agree to get into the Limo. The doors close and lock behind them, and the limo speeds off into the night.
Still back at Maxwell's house, Jered agrees to keep an eye on the duo of absolute irrevocable evil... who decide to go sit on Maxwell's back porch and smoke some hash. Daimon also wanders in, raids Maxwell's kitchen, and returns to the porch, King Dons in hand.
The limo pulls up to the small catholic church. There are a few other limos, as well as cops doing the job of keeping the public away. And there's alot of public. Standing up at the front door to the church is Joe Badass, who looks like a secret service agent. He lets Maxwell and Dana in.
In the church, the place is filled with people. There's this weird feeling eminating from the place which makes one feel like they have gone and sinned, and need to be punished. The pews are filled with repentant humans, heads bowed, whispering the rosary. Dana is allowed to go ahead to the front of the church, while Maxwell is made to sit in the back. From the right side, the priest comes out, dressed in his vestments, followed by a tall man in cardinal's vestments.
The Cardinal greets Dana, and Dana shows proper respect. He is clearly a Celestial of some power. The Celestial introduces himself as Cardinal Georgio Biotti. Then he starts to tell Dana the Way It Is. He talks about the destitution of the heretical followers of Eli, the evil of the followers of Gabriel, the stand of Dominic that no evil shall be given the right of Redemption, the War must continue unabated, and Judgement on evil has been passed. He points out that Dana has incured displeasure from their mutual Superior, and is in a world of hurt. She can make it up, though, by jumping through a few hoops, although she is getting mighty close to drawing the eye of the Inquisition herself. Dana walks away, feeling like something bad has just happened, but she's not sure what.
Dana and Maxwell return to the House, and Dana frowns when she smells the hashish from the porch. Maxwell does a bit of a search through the House to find the two on the porch, then goes back inside. Dana expresses that she thinks something is seriously wrong. Then Malcolm shows up, not looking much like Malcolm anymore.
Dana and Malcolm talk, then Malcolm decides to have it out with Daimon. "Into the living room, boy." This starts the "What Band to you play for anyways," conversation, which ends up with Daimon admitting he's a Lilim, but would rather not be killed at that moment.
"So, why haven't you gone celestial yet, and ran?"
"Because I have a feeling you all would hunt me down and kill me. It
occured to me that running right now was not conducive to my long term
survival."
"Oh."
Dana, getting tired of this, goes into the back bedroom and ascends to heaven. Jered, also getting tired of this, goes home to get some peace.
This does not end the floating conversation which is going on. Information gets bantered around, threats are made, and people talk. Star tries to comfort Daimon, who is clearly starting to freak out. Lots of people walk up and down the stairs.
Dana goes off to talk to Dominic. She ascends to the Council Halls, which is his dwelling place. Interestingly enough, she doesn't have too much trouble getting in to see him. Dominic, in nicer tones, tries to explain the exact same thing everyone else has said - the War must go on, and no peace will be tolerated. He apologizes for the heavy handedness of his servants, and emphasizes that Dana needs to observe Humans and their ways with the Law as well. She leaves, feeling that all is forgiven even though she needs to get rid of some heathens, when the dissonance settles around her. Something isn't right.... really not right...
Malcolm, Maxwell, Star, and Daimon end up in Maxwell's basement, talking about stuff. The conversation wanders from being a pretty good full blown interrogation to just talking. Dana, after rematerializing, lurks at the top of the stairs, easedropping.
Jered gets a call from Claire later on, saying people want to meet him at the Library. They talked to her, because there was a screw up in addresses. So Jered goes to the library, and he's met by Yoshiko (Achaiah), Angel of Synchronicity, and Jonathan, Cherub of Children and All Around Nice Guy. Yoshiko talks about the Peace Movement, and the fact that the members are being systematically destroyed. They don't know who all are involved, or how many, but they know several main ones. They are trying to observe this and keep tabs. Jonathan hands his card, and offers if Jered ever wants a change of pace, then he is the guy to call. They leave, and Jered goes home.
Malcolm/Danzig calls Jered to get a crash pad, then goes crusing around town restlessly. He decides not to sleep, but keep moving, all the time. He even finds some punks to smite.
Dana leaves to go back to her hotel. She's tired, and pissed, and feels like she's been shafted by everyone and her cousin. Who do you trust? As she gets out of the taxi, she gets stopped by Nakir, Calabite of Drugs and Fun Guy. He offers to take her for some relaxation. They go to a bar on his bike, and talk for a bit. He tells her that it's great to be a demon, and that she should join him. He notices that she's a little more apathetic and bitter then she was the day before. She gets little tiny bits of information, while he's sitting there destroying cutlery. She gets a phone number, and goes back to the hotel.
Star and Daimon go into the back bedroom, while Maxwell positions himself into a position to listen. They talk, and Star tells Daimon she's in love with him. He gets this look on his face like he's just been slapped, and says that he's done some pretty horrible things in his time. He begs her not to say that, but she persists. Eventually yells that the last angel who fell in love with him is now a Balseraph. They both end up upset, and he looks more freaked out then before.
In the middle of the night, Daimon comes out of the room to sulk in the living room instead. Maxwell follows him, but Daimon is just being depressed. They have a fairly friendly chat, Daimon claiming he's "Collecting opinions" and asks Maxwell what he thinks his role in the War is. Daimon admits that he was prepared to defend various demons, but he decides that it's not true and he's just really confused and leaves it with that. They end up playing video games instead.
