—Hell: Castle of Pandemonium— 

Tholman was pulled from his thoughts as the being who was previously harrasing the bee turned his attention to him. Before The Herald could get any words out his ears were berated with the sound of shrieking bats, followed by a more recognizable voice berating the incessantly cackling entity above. Well, he didn't remain above for long, instead appearing next to.. Victoire Bordeaux. Tholman pointedly made sure to move out of the way of all of these increadibly powerful individuals. Not to say he himself was not strong, simply that he was not made for the task of...what was it? Front-line fighting? Hell he hardly belonged on the battlefield.

While Tholman knew little of the world with his hermitage, he had heard of the exploits of Ghelgath. Tholman was fascinated with the process that made him, well, who he was. 
"The Wicked Lich King himself...  How incredibly interesting. Tell me, are you actually Undead? You certainly don't seem like it. Or... do you know?"

"A cur in heat trying to impersonate a lovey-dovey maiden... This stench make-believe love is enough to make me retch." Victoire indeed had to make an actual effort, covering her mouth, to not paint the hall crimson with her latest meal once Apia skipped past her and latched onto Gelgath like a flying lamprey. No one in this corridor had even an inkling of class to them, however, a demon—no, a dirty-blood who must have sold herself in exchange for power that she was never meant to yeild— acting like a lovestruck schoolgirl was the height of travesty.

At least with Apia out of the way, Victoire had proper passage to follow her way— or so she thought, until some random buffoon that Victoire had never seen before decided to violate her personal space. A grin appeared on Victoire's face as an idea flashed through her mind. "Maybe I can make better use of the resources at hand while having some entertainment," she thought, inconspicuously using her blood magic to slowly raise Apia's libido, quite literally making the newborn vampire's blood boil down with her own heat.

A moment later, Victoire turned to face the clown, with an inscrutably neutral smile on her lips. "What is it that I can do for you? If you do not want anything, I would appreciate if you could stop staring at me like a deranged hyena," she asked while keeping her actual attention focused on Apia's reaction.

Apia's face turned red at the mention of her deeds. Thomas was quite the despicable fellow indeed. One fellow with quite the punchable face, at that. Apia opened her mouth to respond to Thomas with a witty remark, but then the world got... cloudy.

Apia felt her body constrict as she stared around an ever-enclosing void of feeling. The air was hot and her face grew even redder. It was as if she was being suffocated by her own feelings. It hurt her, but even then... the world was not all blurry.

The pristine blue hair of Him stuck out to her. Not only that, but nearly every feature of His facade and body stuck out like a sore thumb. It was entirely captivating. Comforting. Enticing. The world began to clarify, but the colors were all gone. What remained were shades of gray and hues of blue. Apia felt her body rise into the air, her legs crossing as she sat within the air beside Him.

Everyone else could die. He was the one that mattered. Nobody else did.

"Go choke on your own insanity," Apia shouted at Thomas. Fuck him. He could die and nobody would care. Hell, everyone would likely be better off without him. Especially Him.

Thomas' intial remark regarding the relationship with Rufus didn't deter Ghelgath' cold stature. That whole ordeal has since frozen over after being placed inside a burning furnace simply by trying to assert for him (see previous thread). Of course, he should've known better than to help King Rufus. He may have technically saved him from his deep slumber in ice, but it wasn't personal in many, many stretches. Now as for the 'girlfriend', who just landed beside him as she admires his dedication in wearing the scarf she made for him, there wasn't much he can say regarding that subject. Yes Apia was someone he'd saved several times in the past, although his usual demeanor seems to contradict with this. Perhaps a bit of unusual warmth managed to hit a soft spot within him, prompting him to do these nice things for her, which is usually a rarity outside say his second in command. He doesn't really understand this either. Does he consider the bee queen a date though? Not quite... yet. For now, he considers her as a close ally. After all, he simply wore the scarf she made just because it looked cool and that it fits his attire.

Meanwhile, some plague doctor is curious about Ghelgath's biological structure. Tholman was it? He only heard the name flutter around here and there so it managed to stick. 

"Nah." he simply scoffs as the Lich looks at his own chalky-pale hand, "I'm more flesh than bone. I just command the undead to my every will."

He looks to see Thomas giggling his head off as he lands right next to Victorie who seemed to hide in the shadows. If Thomas wanted to piss Ghelgath off right this minute simply by showing him this chick, then he's shit out of luck. While the Vampiric girl was indeed someone you don't want to mess around with, and the Lich knows this, Ghelgath had very little interaction with her. All he knows is that outside of battle, the girl simply shows a bratty like attitude. An attitude he utterly despises. He can just shove her remarks off relatively well, even that particular one she just said. However, Apia seemed to take these insults a little [i]too[/i] personally, especially the one from Thomas.

"Oi, enough." Ghelgath calls out assertively as he gestures her to halt. He then looks at Thomas who was just sitting in mid-air while relaxing to his little jokes. "So?" he asks again in a calm, yet rather hostile tone, "What's the point here? I swear you must've hit your head on something when you were little, cause you're making ABSOLUTELY no fuckin' sense here."(edited)

Thomas's smile quickly shrunk as he backed off of Victoire, moving back to the throne room door. Even he wasn't crazy enough to fuck with a Primordial. A moment passed and he quickly shrugged it off, looking back to Apia and Ghelgath. Neither of them seemed particularly afraid, which was really a damn shame. On second thought, Apia looked a little hot under the collar, but that wasn't fear- ah. Thomas began giggling once again as he looked over at Victoire. "My my, I didn't think she had it in her." He said to himself out loud as Apia began shouting and clinging to Ghelgath. He cooly ignored her and looked back to the icy lich. "I have hit my head when I was little actually. It's a minor neccessity when you headbutt a soldier to death at the fragile age of 7. Regardless, I just came here to tell you what I just told you. Enjoy yourself."

Thomas turned towards the throne room doors and opened them with one push, the doors swinging open with a mighty creak. He walked inside the room, his giggling trailing away from the group as he walked towards the leaders of Hell. RILD, the four baddest Demons of them all. Rufus, one of the first leaders of Hell and a master of all things portals. Ira, a swordswoman with a chip on her shoulder. Lucille, one of Hell's more recent rulers and a stone cold bitch if he was being entirely honest. And last but not least Dana, one of the last remaining Primordial Vampires and Rufus's wife. Thomas liked Rufus and Dana, they were fun. 

"King Rufus! I delivered your message as you requested! Better news, they're here right now to recive your judgement!" Thomas turned back to Ghelgath and Apia with a pleased look on his face, standing in front of Hell's leaders without a care in the world. They had recently taken to sending him out to do things they couldn't be bothered to do, some would say he was a glorified errand boy. But Thomas preferred the term enforcer.

Rufus favored the approaching clown with marginally less disdain then the usual sycophant bartering for RILD’s favor. By all accounts he would have been amused to follow in the vain of long departed Hell Monarch’s like Void Dark and having a running line of spokesman to murder on a daily basis, but with the long standing nature of the Nexus it would only get worn out fast. So he refrained from the whimsical impulse to laughter into choked cries for mercy and rose off his couch after Thomas said his piece. 

“Well it’s pleasant to see I can rely upon competence at home. Pat yourself on the back, would you?” He patted the clown’s shoulder in passing and strode through the ajar doors to find a motley assortment of blood suckers, popsicles, and a doctor he wouldn’t want to see practicing medicine anytime soon. “Is there a reason you lot are cowering out here? At least step inside so we can glare at you for entertainment. Oh and Victoire, how are your dogs doing? They must be getting lax if you aren’t walking with a limp.”

A dangerous leer formed upon the Eldritch Horror who formed a portal beneath the group’s feet and swallowed them all whole through the ground. In that same instant it another opened over his and Dana’s couch, depositing them in an ungraceful tangle of armor and clothing atop Dana while Rufus stood inverted upon the air, unphazed by gravity as even his hair remained in place. “Come on gang, Let’s have a group pow-wow and talk about this blood bath someone left in my meat storage.”

Apia was surprised by the sudden hole under everyone, but it took a second to actually be pulled down into the portal. Of course she did fall straight through after a second, and immediately as she looked down towards the garment pile she noticed His falling speed. Was this a chance for her? She had to take it.

As soon as He would hit the pile, Apia flew towards his body and fell onto it in such a way that her head was resting perfectly fine on His lap. It was surprisingly soft, and it was also that perfect temperature for sleeping. A nice cool feel. Comforting. Encapsulating. Just like Him.

Was it getting a bit warmer...?

"Boring." That was the only word to escape Victoire's lips in response to the grinning buffoon's act. If he thought that he could probe her for an easy reaction like he did with the others, he should reconsider his harassment tactics.

The bloody cur's reaction, on the other hand, was enough to make Victoire grin inwardly. Not only her obvious distress but the obliviousness of her unknowing 'paramour'. Beings of this lowly caliber could barely call themselves demons in Victoire's opinion. A Demon takes that which is beautiful and leaves nothing behind for others to claim. Love and affection are prerogatives of the strong and yokes of the weak. That's the only truth that there's to know.

Regardless of the entertainment she derived from observing maggots squirming under her claws, Victoire had a mission—no, missions— to accomplish; she turned around and began to make her way to the Throne Room only to be interrupted by no one other than the Great Slacker himself. Naturally, Rufus was as derisive as ever which—as ever— ended up with he abusing his subjects in some sick new way.

"Kin—" Victoire didn't even have the time to properly curtsey before being forcefully teleported away in a messy heap along with the remainder of Hell's rabble. Victorie's reflexes kicked in as soon as she was dropped on the other side of the portal causing Victoire to shapeshift into her shadow bat swarm form and fly away from Dana, landing a few feet away from the throne in the position she usually takes when attending the Hell's Court summons before changing back in her normal self, already in a graceful knelt stance.

"'Tis an honor to be in your presence again, My Lieges. I come to bring news of my findings that may give an edge to Hell in the upcoming future."

Ghelgath quickly realizes that Thomas wasn't annoying them just for the sake of annoying him. He's in fact trying to fetch him, and perhaps Apia by the looks of it. The Lich scowls at the giggling lunatic as he looks up at the four leaders that only recently united to become a Council for Hell. He almost forgot that the group were hanging out right outside RILD's throne room. In fact, he has no idea why he's being summoned to face the Council, other than the fact that whatever was going to conspire wasn't going to be good. 

"Ok..." he growls as he tries to keep cool, "What the flying fuck do you guys think I~"

But before he finishes, he finds himself falling down a portal that opened directly underneath him. Ghelgath prepared to be douched in boiling hot lava, but much to his surprise he lands on a couch... or more precisely on Dana who was sitting on said couch. With nothing to push him out of the way, it seems he was going to anger Rufus' wife. And that was going to be nothing less of fun. However, before that can be done, he suddenly gets hit by Apia who saved him from falling on the blonde. As soon as they hit the floor, Ghelgath looks to see the bee's head rested on his lap. Awkwardly the Lich attempts to lightly move her body away from his while getting off the floor, before Rufus and the others descend with the others to talk about this 'Blood Bath'. He can see Victoire kneeling towards them as if she's waiting for some reward and can't help but to issue another dirty look at her before looking back directly at Rufus.

"What bloodbath?" he asks bluntly as he brushes any dust on his clothes, "I don't recall doing any of that shit, nor am I interested in it. And why must we be here out of all places?"

The great government that ruled over Hell was not amused even in their happier days. Indeed, those who visited their chambers were usually there to grovel or beg for their lives or, by some foolery, proclaim to think they could claim leadership themselves. Whatever the case, Team RILD were not kind to their visitors as they were usually witness to idiocy and failure. Such was the case even now, Rufus opening the gates of Hell wide open for the gathered group to stand before them.

Well, stand wasn’t exactly the term to be used, all of them being portaled by Rufus to specifically land on his wife’s lap. Dana exchanged a glare with tongue spat out, sound effect included, before preparing to be bombarded with the pile of demons. It never came, not when each of them apparently had their own ways of avoiding the elder vampire. The other two members of their rulership looked on with equal glances of boredom and annoyance.

Ira, the Arch Demon and Goddess of War, sat with one leg crossed over the other. In her hands lay the crimson blade of her weapon, the woman running her hand over its surface. With each pass, chaotic sparks flew as she sharpened it to a warrior’s point, not taking a single cut from her practice. She ignored the ensemble of buffoonery gathered before them, eyes narrowed behind that helmet of hers.

“Oh?” Lucille the Black Goat raised an eye to Victoire’s attempt at groveling, resting her cheek into the knuckles of her fist. “To what ends do you claim to have found new findings, vampire. And what use do you assume it will have towards our goals as Hell,” she said, leaving the others for Rufus and Dana to be dealing with. 

“Whoah, whoah! Hey, hey, isn’t that your bee lady friend, Ira?” Dana said with a wave of her arms. “Look, look, she’s like, totes snogging that walking ice cube. Like, OMG, she’s not letting him go! You totally have a rival to fight over with now, oh ho!” she continued, ducking down to avoid a glob of black flames Ira tossed her way.[hr]