In Which the Overlord Wonders What Happened [Backdated to immediately post-tournament]

[badassfreakingoverlord]

In the Fortress of the Overlord, surrounded by minions and servitors who were (for once) merely standing around and adding their presence to his majesty, Zetta sat on his throne and waited. His gaze fixed on the 'gates', such as they were, he waited with as much assumed Overlordly dignity as he could manage.

He expected a report, damn it! And a good one!

Comments

[hit_girl_mindy]

If there was one thing Mindy prided herself on, it was keeping her emotions on poker face when she needed to. As Mindy Macready, she could act all upset about the recent deaths and espouse concern for fighting all while serving up some food. She got into this part so well that most people forgot the bruises and cuts she sported, blowing it off to them as injuries sustained by cooking. She was short a cook, after all, and had to do that herself.

As Hit Girl, however, she knew exactly how she sustained those injuries and more other people couldn't see, and it gnawed at her. A stalemate that took her right out of the tournament, and she had to chew on THAT bitter pill in silence, not fume and slam things for sake of giving herself away.

But of course, she would eventually had to touch ground with the Overlord, and that was not liking to have her feeling any better. She walked through the gates, refusing to show any of the weakness she felt even as she was still smarting days after the fight.

[ruffntumblenut]

Ruffnut however was oblivious, still proud of herself for having gotten as far as she did. Her helmet was still dented and she had tried to tape the horns back on, causing them to wobble and hang ridiculously on the sides. She still hadn't seen Hiccup to get her battered and abused gear fixed.

But all and all she seemed content.

[badassfreakingoverlord]

The Overlord eyed them sagely from his forbidding seat, for a long quiet moment.

"...to hell with this," he finally said, as a minion scooped him up. "Get over here, you two."

The minion carried the book towards the couch and the armchairs nearby. Now that they'd shown up, Zetta found himself not at all caring about the damn image. He wanted to hear their stories!

[hit_girl_mindy]

Ah crap. Man was she still irritated about this. She had no choice but to recount in full detail how she had not come as far as Ruffnut-no, as far as she wanted to come. But it was still the Overlord, and if she answered to anyone, of course it would be him.

She walked over, picking an armchair and sitting cross legged, rubbing her temple.

"Where do we start?"

[ruffntumblenut]

Ruffnut flopped onto sofa much more relaxed then Mindy, After all what did she have to be nervous or irritated about.

"Second place. I ended up mutilating my helmet just to draw some blood on the last guy. His scales were too thick and he just drank up my lightning."

[badassfreakingoverlord]

"What kind of freaking lack of detail is that?!" the Overlord sputtered. He straightened up in a brief fit of fury... which immediately dissipated when he realized he was talking to Ruffnut. He should've expected that.

"... let's have some highlights at least, okay? I'd like to hear some details."

[hit_girl_mindy]

Highlights. Yeah, hit girl COULD go into detail, since that was exactly the kind of thing she would have done. Hell, she had to at least come clean with how she wound up not even going past third round.

"First guy I took on had these pretty sick powers, actually: had a claw that came close to taking me out, could spike the ground, and he was super strong. Had to pull out the gun, throw my magic at him, levitate and depended on my barrier jacket, but my explosives got him in the end. Obtained his claw hand and spiked floor shit too. Next round was a ranger guy, he was easier, but he was still a pain."

She sighed. "Got eliminated in third round. Stalemate."

[ruffntumblenut]

"Maaaan I wish you could have kept that badass claw thing. It was all gross and creepy looking." Ruffnut's twisted grin made it clear just how she felt about those adjectives.

"And that last round was crap. Seriously anyone could see you were winning."

[badassfreakingoverlord]

Well, this wasn't getting anywhere. Zetta rolled his eyes while they were bantering, then looked at them. Hit Girl specifically, first. "You're not gonna get all depressed, are you?"

Some time later after the talk (So you guys can finsh the above stuff)

[thewunderkind]

If they were to look to the left, the others might spot a Lash walking through one of the tower's many arches, zombie-like as she marched onward in what looked like...a morning robe of some sort. Her hair was a mess (well...more so than usual). The last few weeks had been a mixture of inventing, preparing and doing Council stuff. Sleep? Pah! She knew she could handle it...but even the Wunderkind had a limit to how much her body could carry her. It was incredibly rare for Lash to reach her limit, but last night had been it.

She had just awoken, rubbing her eyes showing that she hadn't really slept that much at all this week. Maybe a good six, seven hours today? Who really knew in this place, but it was better than before. There was still a lot to do, she couldn't really slack off. Without even looking who was there, she just waved at the assembled entourage, assuming that only Zetta was present with a lot of minions.

"Give 'em a little pep talk?" her voice was devoid of its usual energy. It was a side of Lash the others probably hadn't seen before. Early morning Lash.

[badassfreakingoverlord]

Clearly they had reached one of those legendary The Next Steps in their relationship, the time when they could stop being their polished, presentable public selves around each other and instead reveal more of their private, unprepared lives. If Lash had been 'polished, presentable, etc.' to begin with, some glamorous lady with perfect makeup and never a hair out of place, it might have been shocking, but... Lash was Lash, sleepy or exhausted or bounding around.

If he were more romantic, he'd describe her as 'lovely without artifice'. But Zetta couldn't bring himself to say something that sissified and emotional, so he settled for opining that early morning Lash was pretty hot in her own way.

"Hey, I wanted to hear glorious war stories. Been freaking forever since I could have an actual, real fight."

[thewunderkind]

She grinned despite herself, pushing some of the loose hair strand away. Not that her hair needed much setup in the morning, but it was a bit wilder than usual.

"Tee hee hee! That's cause you haven't fought against me in a while." You know, just keeping the status quo, never really won a fight against him but wasn't going to give up, so on and so forth. She slumped herself into the floor, arms outstretched.

"Phew! Whatta week. I hate to say it but even a great Wunderkind like could really use a break right now! But no time when there's things to smash and inventions to set up!"

[badassfreakingoverlord]

His eyes never left her. He appreciated the view. And not in a slavering-lust way... she really was lovely.

"Trust me, if I could give you some strength, I would," the book grumbled. "Fat lot of good all this power is doing me when I don't have a freaking body!"

[thewunderkind]

"Once this whole's thing done, we need to work on that," Lash added, nodding, rubbing her eyes again. Not that it really changed much in their relationship for now. "I bet there's some sort of magical artifact just laying around in a part of the ship we can't access right now."

[badassfreakingoverlord]

"Yeah, but you know how those things always go. It'll end up draining someone's soul or turning you into a zombie or you'll devour the life force of others or go crazy from not sleeping or something."

Mad science in the Netherworld was, well, disturbing and comedic.

[thewunderkind]

"I don't actually," she replied back. "But the zombie one sounds pretty neat to use against someone, tee hee hee!" Always funnier when you weren't affected, you see. She rubbed her chin in thought.

"Maybe if we could somehow transfer your soul to a blank body somehow..." No Lash don't do it. "But then I guess it wouldn't be really yours. Just borrowed. It would probably explode from all your power too!"

...THAT SOUNDED SO COOL.

[badassfreakingoverlord]

"Yeah, not only would it explode, I'm pretty sure we'd make enemies out of a bunch of people if we drained someone's soul to get me a body and you more energy. Also, would you really want me in a body that wasn't mine?"

Think about it, Lash. The person you'd be making out with wouldn't be good old blank-eyed flame-haired Zetta. It'd be some OTHER dude on the ship.

Or chick. That would be worse.

[dragonspooker]

The outcome of Lina's participation in the tournament was...well, less than satisfactory to the sorceress - she didn't quite get to blow off as much steam as she wanted. So now she had taken to the city for exploring.

Zetta's fortress caught her eye - it seemed like the kind of place she'd go scrounging around for treasure in. If anything, it should prove to be at least interesting and a distraction from her current frustrations!

Would it be so simple as to just walk through the front door, though?

[badassfreakingoverlord]

Well, the gates were open, no one was guarding them, and the battlements, such as they were, were unmanned.

So walking through the front door? Easy enough.

[dragonspooker]

Simplicity was the order of the day, it seemed - not that Lina was complaining.

Once she got in, she put her hands on her hips, and considered the options. One, she could try to root around in things and potentially get in trouble and have to get out of it. Two, she could see if anyone was around and save the potential trouble.

That seemed like the better idea, really. So...

"HEEEEEEEY! ANYONE HOME?!"

[badassfreakingoverlord]

Inside was a different matter. The minions who were just standing around paid no attention to her, but from on the throne, the sinister blank-white gleam of a demon's eyes peered down on her... from the cover of a book.

"Who the hell are you?"

[dragonspooker]

...well, that was certainly a...uh. Talking book.

Lina ignores the minions just as much as they are her, and strides up closer to the throne. "I'm Lina Inverse, sorcery genius! ...who are you?"

[badassfreakingoverlord]

Sorcery genius, seriously...? The book cracked a wicked smile.

"The name is Zetta. The most badass freaking Overlord in the entire cosmos!"

...DAMN it felt good to say that again! He needed to find more people he didn't know just to introduce himself.

[dragonspooker]

Lina's head tilts at the introduction. On one hand, assuming that something that didn't look dangerous wasn't dangerous always came back to bite her in the butt. On the other hand, this thing seemed pretty self-assured, which usually meant their bluster was just that - bluster.

Despite being a book, this guy was not easy to read just on introduction.

"...so is that a fancy way of saying an entire library, or are you bein' literal?" When in doubt, backtalk.

[badassfreakingoverlord]

"Wha -- no! Of course I'm being literal! I'm the strongest Overlord in the freaking cosmos! Ignore the whole book thing, that's -- it's not important!" Well, actually it was terribly important, but his ego was a lot more so.