"Well, mage. I have met somepony incredible. He thrives on chaos, and the more he creates the powerful he becomes.", Eden says, serious as he could. "He happens to have a very, very good plan. And while I can't go into detail in case you refuse, I can tell you this: if he succeeds, he'll become the most powerful force on the planet. But there is a catch. He doesn't have enough power to get started, and he relies on chain reactions. All we have to do is set this in motion, and before the week is out, we'll be richer than Mister Apollo." Eden grins, showing his jagged teeth. "What do you say, mage? Trade your goody good stuff for armor, weapons, power, and wealth?"
Zephyr hears a loud ruckus downstairs as he tucks the knife under one of his goggles straps and goes to take a look. He peeks his head around the corner and see's a group of ponies in the midst of a bar fight, and that there were some Reavers looking around. It doesn't take long to piece two and two together and Zephyr ran back to the room and threw open the door. "Guys, there are people here, we need to get out. Now."
"Relax, Zephyr.", Eden says calmly. "Are they Reavers or Followers? If they're followers, tell them you're a friend of Doctor Fuse, and they'll let you out. If they're Reavers, tell them you know Eden." He looks back at Luck. "They were both rather interested in the offer I gave you, so consider it wisely."
Zephyr looks at Eden, his usual stupid grin absent from his face. "Well gee, I guess you're right, it could be some other crazed performer who came to this inn wearing a stupid hat. C'mon, Move!" Edit: Because this line is just so perfect.
Eden goes into the main room, and walks up to one of the Reavers. "Mister Apollo would be very angry if Eden were to get hurt, wouldn't he?", Eden says to him casually. "Now imagine if Eden told Big A that you were the reason me or my friends were hurt? What would he do to you, associate?" The pony seemed to be nervous about this, and he seemed to recognize Eden faintly. "Now, how about you let us through, and I never mention this?" The pony nodded, and Eden started to walk out, when he noticed that both Zephyr and Luck were being held up. He walked up to the two, and looked Luck in the eyes. "Do you accept my offer, Luck?"
(SOme advice: When making a sales pitch on morally ambiguous contracts, never introduce words like "feeds on chaos" and "trade your goody good". I'm going to run with it, since Luck was always going to think it over, but keep an eye out for that in future-I pay attention to wording. As an asides, obfuscating the intent of the actions also gives you a leg up because it keeps your villianous rear in control of Luck by controlling the flow of information and the shape of it-dangling a carrot without revealing who's getting killed for it) Luck listened to the deal with a headache that grew with each word. There were parts he didn't like, such as "trading his goody good", and there were parts where he didn't understand that the reference, like the Mister Apollo named(OOC:Wasn't there for that, doesn't know anything about the kid or such). But Luck's ears perked at the idea of money and power. He wasn't really that ambitious-in all reality, he was a party animal and a slacker. But if some short tasks earned him the chance to live without responsibility, without working, to go back to running around and doing what he want? To dump this divination buffalo hockey on the side? Luck was very tempted. He might have accepted it had not been for the wording, the clear discussion of intent. He wasn't the sort who would say at such implications he'd simply say no-he was a bit amoral anyways. But those things did have costs. It was a matter of whether those costs were worth while. "I'll...think on-" WHAM! The door opened, with Zephyr panting in panic. "Guys, there are people here, we need to get out. Now." Luck groaned. It had already been late in the night when he got to the camp, and since then he had been slammed into an unknown land, beaten up, and left standing for most of theday. Not to mention a heavy amount of magic work, between the earlier divination and the light magic he pulled for the show. He really wanted to just curl up and sleep". He almost whined. "And how do we know they're here for us? Could be looking for anyone" "Well gee, I guess you're right, it could be some other crazed performer who came to this inn wearing a stupid hat. C'mon, Move!" Zephyr replied. Luck groaned as he got up and followed after Zephyr. No rest for the weary. If I meet my grandpa again, I'm gonna kill him for his fortune cookie crap OOC:Gah, three or four posts ruins that. I'll revise later, unless y'all can work around it.
Luck frowned at the pony. "I. Don't. Know. You never make a gamble without weighing the losses, and I've been travelling all day, on top of doing a lot of magic, ON TOP OF SOME PONY THRASHING MY FACE. I'm quite frankly astounded I was able to pull off the bull*squee!* I did with the show earlier. You've got my interest, but your pitch is terrible-you already showed some of the hidden fees, and now I've got to figure out if it's worth it". Luck glared again. "If my immeadiate choice is needed for getting out of this situation, then clearly your newfound influence can buy me time till noon tomorrow. You try and tell me anything else and I'm gonna assume you're out to screw me over." Luck sat down and looked the other pony in the eye. "Whoever the guy is employing you, I assume he isn't interested in me because I'm an idiot. So don't insult me by trying to force me into a stupid choice."
Eden grinned. "Excellently worded, boy. You'll do great." He nodded at the Reavers and Luck was allowed to leave. "As for you, Zephyr...", Eden said, frowning. "I don't think Little Miss Eden would appreciate it if I let you live. But on the other hand, if you die, things may go downhill. And besides, I guess you can pay me back later." "He's clear.", Eden says to the guard holding him up. Eden thinks to himself, "Why didn't I seek out faction influence before? This is wonderful."
(You are REALLY BAD at sales pitches, you know that? You just said that one of your options is to kill one of the people who's been helping Luck out[albeit, at the cost of dignity, respect, and some actual qualities that lead to survivability]. Luck will drag this out as long as he can and keep considering it, but stuff like that is kinda hard to ignore)
(HAH! If you drag it on, Eden's going to be f*cking pissed! He'd have you executed, not even formally! Joking, but really, you should make up your mind. If you plan to be paragon, don't do it. But who wants to be paragon? Doing favors, paying full price for products, it's BS. With renegade, a death threat or a simple beating can put that merchant in his place- which is giving YOU free spell books. I hope you all see now that renegade is a much easier path, and gives a much larger payout than being a paragon. As for my less than acceptable quality for sales pitches, I'm glad you picked up on that. This version of Eden is his younger version, and he gets much better at speechcraft as he gets older. I tried not to sound like I do IRL; I'm a con artist. It's worth it in the end)
Zephyr coughs and stands up off of the floor. As he gets up he shoots Eden a glare, but then it slowly transitions into a wry smile as it usually would. The gears in his head began to turn. He thinks to himself. "How'd was he able to command those men without even knowing where we are to begin with...?" The thought begins to linger and fester in his mind. Something was clearly wrong here. These were the same ponies who threatened Clef for simply walking around, why woukd they take orders from a psychopath like Little Miss Eden? This would be something important to keep in mind, but enough worrying for now, there was nothing to be changed about the current situation for now. Zephyr chuckled "Y'know you should really be nicer to the guys who're paying fir the bed you'll be sleeping in tonight Missy" He pulls the large coin bag out from under his goggles and bounces it in his hoof. "Among other things." OOC: >Renegade has larger payout >I'm a theif It's all about how you do business that matters.
Eden's grin disappears. "Maybe you don't understand, Zephyr. This is my town now, and these are my ponies now. Now let me make myself clear. If you so much as breath wrong, I will personally attend your execution. Understand now?" Eden decided not to get angry, as the cocky bastard would be put in his place later. "And now, another thing. Don't call me Little Miss Eden, or I'll make sure that it says, "Little Miss Zephyr" on your headstone." Eden turned and left, not amused.
OOC:Granted, Luck stipulated a time-noon tomorrow-and will probably 'keep' to that. What you might be missing though is that villianous characters get just as much out of favors and buying things at full price as anyone else, and more can be accomplished long term that with a death threat or beating. Luck, if he is a villian, is one who works both the velvet hand and the iron glove. Sure, he could just threaten someone to death(silly in his case, really), but more people are willing to give if you actually pay extra-you know, for the nicer room, or for the kids, or what have you. He wouldn't get gangs to fight his interest-no, it's everyone from the suburban mom to the shining knight who will get the job done, and even better, employ both. You must remember a few things about me: 1)I'm a writer, 2)I'm a scheming,manipulative bastard by nature, 3) I play a game called World of Darkness as a GM, where even the 'good guys' have skeletons in their closets and some very grey approaches to things, and I play against smart players. Going villian is FUN, but I play a different kind of villian. I can take the most sinister sort of act, wrap in up nice and get the good guys to do it for me, Because I'm not pandering to good and evil, I'm pandering towards desires and fears. NEVER let good and evil enter the equation. People KNOW the answer to that one.
GM: Eden didn't see it coming, but he would soon be betrayed by his leader. His suffering would come back to haunt him in time. NOTE: I don't mean to discourage anyone to join Discord, I'm just saying that I admit I'm being an *squee!* GM, so I'll make sure that my power is sucked away in one fatal swipe. Everyone cool about that?
OOC:Actually, not really. Even if we all go villian(doubtful), it'd be fun to actually see how we all try and bring each other down while moving up on Discord's ranks. Granted, with the speed and the apaprent lack of cost for having enough influcne to cover two major powers in a town, having it be very fragile is very approrpo, os it CAN fall away. But don't do it just as an apology. It is a interesting story arc and sets the stage for some fun conflict.
Zephyr chuckles "Your little outbursts don't help your case y'know, oh man you really are too much. You see the thing is, I don't think YOU understand. You have no idea where we are or why. None of us do." Zephyr begins to pace in the hallway of the inn "Your power? I wouldn't hold it too highly, not from what I can see in this town. For that matter, how'd you even get it? You're either being used, or tricked. Besides, from what I hear the Reavers got plenty of enemies, seems pretty stupid to go parading it around like some sort of flag. Understand, Missy?" He smiles and prepares for the inevitable retaliation, verbal or physical. OOC: Wow, while typing that out you say he'll be betrayed. Talk about spot on.
OOC: You sound like me, Arcane. I don't usually like to get my hands dirty, but occasionally I lose my temper. However, I find it infinitely amusing to stage a crime and watch people suffer. You'll find I can be quite cold when it comes to business, and if you try to f*ck with me, you get detention for a crime you didn't commit. That's how I roll, what can I say. As for the writing thing, I love to write. I hope to get something published in the future, and quite enjoy my ways of merciless manipulation of the human mind. I respect that you think that paying extra will get you farther, and that may be true, but hear this: fear is a funny, funny thing. So is pain. You just give them a small dose, and you suddenly got yourself a new *squee!*. You can't keep that *squee!* for long, but while you have him, you can do what you want. Once he's gone, you get in a bit of trouble, but you brush it off. After all is said and done, you come out on top. That, my dear friend, is how I make a living. And don't get me wrong, I don't do this every day for kicks. I'm not an evil person, as Stare showed me in the low point of my life, I am just vengeful. If you hit me, I hit you back harder. Much harder. Just please, don't let this cloud your thoughts of me. I am still a young person, a bassist, and a rather philosophical one at that. Just please, don't think of me any different. Alright?
Eden merely grins. "If you want, I can just tell the Reavers to kill you. No problem. In fact, I can-", he suddenly stops. "I have to go, Zephyr. Enjoy your time alive, for it may be limited." Eden leaves, and returns to his leader. "Do we have a problem?", he asks, angrily. "Yes.", Discord says coldly. "A big problem."
OOC:Oh, no worries, I can seperate characters from players. And we have seen that bit from Kidd, but Luck doesn't know that-still, I do see some of the reality to Eden and am interested to see that fleshed out. And I'm not saying that your villainy or mine is better, just that your seems much more cut and dried in presentation, takes more risks and seems more short sighted-which is not technically bad. That can be a rewarding kind of villian, particularly since it often breaks down many of the catspaw games that villains normally play. But I find myself contrasting that with, as an example, my current Hunter game, where a now major villian isn't killing the group with brute force-No, he's doing worse, he's getting them in DEBT to him(Of course, I'm pleased with how that turned out, because this guy actually wasn't even supposed to know of them yet-hell, I don't think he was going ot be any more than a presence, but he turned into a major villain the players want to kill). Even worse really is the fact that two groups the've met and can categorize as 'nice' are also incurring favors from them. In the case of one, they're good guys but the enactingof favors will probably result in them dying, which will result in them coming back to life but WRONG in ways. In the case of the other, they're monsters-not nessecarily heavily good or evil they do both equally, but they are monstrous for what they do, and the favors enacted there will ALSO cost them. In short, the game I run, and therefore the good guys and the bad guys I run, all cost the PC's something, and they need to cover their rears in regards to that. THe only difference is that the really villianous ones are very likely to kill them in the enacting of favors. In other words, as the world, the true source of conflict, the real enemy against the players, I prefer playing an insidious game where even the good guys have to make grey choices, where everything has a cost and a price, and where the negotiating things can be a bit like running through a labyrinth, where you can't always know what's coming, or even what's behind you. The only difference between me GMing this game and playing in this one is that as the GM, I do also have to provide a way out, a way to win-I can't make it impossible. Here though? Well, now I'm the one who's provided with a way to win. It won't be easy, but I can win.(Well, succeed-everyone wins if the story is fun)
