Chapter 14: Training (2)

To say the organization he was eventually going to lead had a storied past was something of an understatement. To that end Lance had begun devoting several hours a day to the utterly colossal library that Limbo had squirreled away in the depths of its labyrinthine structure, perusing volume after volume of ancient history in the never-ending quest for greater understanding and knowledge.

"Thank christ for my perfect recall or this would be impossible."

Setting aside his previous book detailing some kind of enormous pissing contest over where the famed Familiar Forest would end up he instead grabbed a thick tome that covered the ancient history of Limbo in more description, shaking his head in disbelief at the crap that early Limbo mediators had to deal with.

The organization - his organization - served as an impartial mediator between Supernatural disputes and quite honestly he couldn't help but feel that part had been undersold when Celestia and Heshal had told him about it. Limbo had been doing that for millennia.

The Supernatural were by nature a competitive and quarrelsome bunch, which in turn lead to a lot of disagreements between the various factions. Sometimes those disagreements turned bloody. VERY bloody. Like, millions of casualties bloody.

Turns out having gods of literal war, vengeance, lust and death among your number with perpetually horny and prideful people on the other side was a recipe for disaster, who knew? But that was where Limbo stepped in, a faction that held no interest in whatever the other side had to offer or had done, simply working towards a resolution or judging the situation on objective facts and analysis.

Gods only know rational discourse was a marketable resource among a world of superpowered crybabies, where the biggest stick and loudest voice had a more likely chance of being obeyed to the likely detriment of all involved.

Hell, look no further than aforementioned Familiar Forest deal. The Greeks, Egyptians, Hindus, Norse, Abrahamic and Shinto had been at each other's throats trying to come to a decision on where to relocate most of their ancient creatures of 'myth and legend', the continued expansion of the mundane world leading to repeated friction between the sides. Three decades and as many threats of declaring war later Limbo was finally called in to fix the freakin' disaster in the making, swiftly coming to a verdict that was brilliant in that it sufficiently and equally pissed off everyone.

The Familiar Forest would be placed in the Underworld rather than any other locale, sharing borders with Hades' territory, the Devils and the Fallen, who would benefit from being in close physical proximity but would have to deal with the inherit dangers of surly magical beasts living next door. The rest of the factions would have to travel either through teleportation or regulated mass transit means if they wished to visit, the running of the Forest itself given to a collection of independent 'zookeepers' and the Dragon Queen Tiamat who would decide who had visitation rights and when.

All in all, a neat and tidy solution that everyone hated but kinda liked and had been a nightmare of negotiation for Limbo to push through.

And that was something several centuries old, a more recent example would be when the Devils had apparently kicked out members of the Nekoshou Yokai living in their borders over a finding of dubious veracity, even killing a few in the process. Needless to say the Yokai were pissed and had raised - no pun intended - hell. Other factions jumped in because no one really liked the Devils all that much and oh looky-loo, the grumblings of war on the horizon, Limbo shaking its collective head, sighing and stepping in before supernatural world war electric boogaloo could kick off.

"Huh, says here that was one of Celestia's big shining moments, settling things before it got batshit insane."

Plenty of reparations and discourse later things had quieted down, the final entry in the book suggesting that there was going to be some kind of mutual land ownership deal between the Yokai and Devils in a bid to fix things up, taking place in some city called Kuoh and headed up by the Satan Leviathan and Kyuubi Yasaka..

"Great, I'll probably end up dealing with that shit if I end up in charge by then...awesome."

Sighing as he flipped closed that volume as well he reclined his seat, glancing over his shoulder in the direction of Louis, a black-haired werewolf with an air of sophistication and killer petit handlebar mustache. He also just so happened to be the head record keeper and librarian of the monstrosity the teen had been working through, his tone aggrieved as he asked, "Don't you have anything more specific I can look through? This stuff is fascinating and great and all but I don't have any context for it. Names, dates, motivations...there's a lot that goes into understanding why these things happen and how to avoid them, I'm not going to understand any of that by consuming the cliff notes version of everything."

Not looking up from where he was returning a collection of novels the werewolf calmly responded, "You don't trust us to know that is potentially an issue, or that we have not considered its ramifications?"

Resisting the urge to roll his eyes Lance dryly said, "Allow me to rephrase. Why are you having me read the cliff notes instead of the more comprehensive volumes? I've got the whole perfect memory thing going for me, why not rely on that to get me up to speed?"

Louis vaguely gestured to the library itself, large enough to fill several football fields and maybe a few city blocks just to be sure.

"Because to understand what you are asking to understand would require you to spend years of doing nothing but nonstop reading at the expense of your other lessons. Instead, we shall rely on your memory to understand a great many events and then begin to draw conclusions from those, connecting common themes and occurrences to paint a greater picture of our world as a whole. More situational knowledge can be attained as necessary."

The man slotted the final book back into place, steely grey areas pinning the teen in place.

"You are to be our leader, it's vastly more critical that you understand what and how we do first instead of why we do so. And that goes for the other factions as well."

Huffing out a breath of acceptance Lance grumbled, "Fine, fine...well if that's the hand I'm stuck with then what's next on the reading menu?"

"Study up on the timeline of the Devil Civil War, despite its title it had a far-reaching impact on the supernatural world as a whole."

Doing as suggested Lance returned to his reading, mind drifting to a rather peculiar line of inquiry, now that he had time to think about it.

Yog-Sothoth was apparently the knower of all, events both real and possible understood by the amorphous space blob without distinction...so why had it made the avatars in the first place? He was fine with the explanation that his step-dad couldn't interact with their reality in any meaningful or worthwhile way - separation of existence or some other woo woo concept - but why would he want to in the first place? Wasn't all of this already preordained as one possible result of an infinite amount of futures?

"Wow that sounded pretentious."

"And it's also got an easy answer."

Nearly jumping in his seat as Shir'Atath's voice suddenly echoed through his skull the grimoire carried on like she hadn't just caused a bit of poop to snake out his ass, saying, "You were just talking with Louis about it, after all. It's one thing to know the events that happened, to know the surface details...it's another to actually experience them, to see them with your own eyes rather than as words on a page."

A cackle left the grimoire, tone amused as she finished with, "That's why papa made us, even though this reality and all of its possible twists and turns is known to him. Because he's curious about what it's like to feel them happen, the taste, sound and scent of it."

Lance quietly thought about that explanation...and hesitantly asked, "So my step-dad is going to know about all the ways I fucked his daughter?"

"Kinky, ain't it~?"

"Yeah sure whatever bleach my mind when I die, please."

Shir merely snickered before returning to whatever it was she'd been doing, Lance lifting the book up once more-

-and felt the rest of his crap vacate his ass as slim arms threw themselves over his shoulders, a playful voice tickling his ear with, "Still spending your day among dusty books and dull old people, Lance~?"

"Can you maybe not insult the people mentoring me, Senia? Because I have to interact with them on a fairly consistent basis and would appreciate it if they didn't think I was friends with a sharp-tongued asshole, they might just take out their frustrations on me instead of you."

Louis didn't even look up from his cart of texts, dismissively responding, "I've been called worse," before returning to his work.

"See? Lighten up a little~!"

The succubus nipped his ear and tightened the embrace, the werewolf promptly adding, "If you're going to fuck I would politely ask that you don't do so in the library."

"Yeah, Senia. Don't be gross."

The maroon-eyed woman snorted at his response, settling for throwing herself onto his lap and blocking his sight of the book. She was actually sensibly dressed, a simple strapless dress and flats while her horns and tail were unadorned with jewelry or decoration.

"So what's the occasion, other than ruining my reading time?"

"Because we came to invite you to a party, duh~!"

Shir'Atath took up Senia's previous spot on his shoulders, the male grunting, "Oh, so that's where you were," before resigning himself to whatever newfangled bullshittery they were going to put him through. Bullshit that hopefully wouldn't leave Em tacitly giving him the cold shoulder.

"Well I'm flattered but in case you haven't noticed I'm a little bit busy at the moment. No parties for me."

"Oh? Even if there was something quite wonderful lined up as a reward?"

Affixing Senia with a dull stare he replied, "Unless it's a way to magically make Emily not mad at me anymore, you've got nothing to offer."

"Oh? Not even this?"

Feeling himself get sandwiched between two petite and feminine forms Lance was treated to the sight of Senia and Shir'Atath eagerly and passionately making out, wet smacks and plenty of glistening tongue involved with the display as it really irked him that he was getting turned on by the sight.

Slitted emerald and maroon seduction turned his way, the succubus stating, "Not even a special night just between us?"

Lance met their heated stares...and blandly lifted his book high, continuing to read as he responded, "Nah, I'd rather not have Em pissed at me."

He didn't bother trying to hide his smug smirk of victory as the briefest flashes of annoyance crossed Senia's features, at his complete dismissal of her charms. Shir knew better, naturally, but the grimoire seemed content to let him throw his word shivs.

"In addition to not fucking could you also not so aggressively flirt? It makes me feel lonely in this cold, dead library."

The last part was said in such deadpan that it implied the opposite, Lance losing his smarminess and instead asking, "Seriously though, what's up with the party invitation?"

Crossing her arms and straddling his thigh Senia explained, "Limbo has bi-weekly celebrations for one reason or another, sometimes for no reason at all. Naturally, given my vaunted status and great beauty-"

"Don't knock yourself over with all the back patting."

"-I was invited right away. Thus, you are my accompanying date, as is only natural considering our relationship."

Lance wasn't impressed, holding aloft his reading material and stating, "I'm doing this so that when I'm put in charge of this I don't fuck up and kill people that can't just bullshit themselves back to life. I can't just not do my homework, Senia. Besides, don't you have a royal selection to worry about?"

The princess gave him an unimpressed glare, retorting, "What do you think this is, boy? A fun little social call and nothing else? Limbo has fingers in every supernatural pot across the realms, befriending and cozying up to those of this organization can only benefit me, much like what I did with you."

"Just a heads up, but most might not be okay with literally being fucked to death."

She smirked, purring, "With my skills? You might just be impressed, young boy~!"

Faking a gag he promptly huffed out a sigh immediately afterward, turning to Louis before asking, "Well, is it alright?"

"Why are you asking for my permission? You are to be our leader."

Eye twitching the teen amended, "Do you think it's a good idea for me to go?"

The werewolf idly shrugged, replying, "Seeing and interacting with Limbo at large will be crucial for your eventual role, ruling over a bevy of nameless faces has never served any leader well."

He arched an eyebrow, mustache ruffling.

"And do you not have eidetic memory? Should you need to catch up on material we will simply have you read until you collapse."

"Umm, right. Thanks, I think."

Turning to glance at his watch Lance felt his eyes widen, almost seven solid hours having passed since he'd begun devouring books and information, barely a few minutes seeming to have passed.

"Holy shit. Maybe it is for the best that I get out of here for a bit."

Standing up Shir and Senia smirked at each other, the princess giving him an appraising look before decisively nodding to herself.

"We have two hours to make you presentable, Jacobson. Let's retreat to our quarters and find you something that isn't dull."

Staring down at his simple t-shirt and jeans Lance sighed.

"I already hate this. A makeover and you calling it our room."

False smiles were his only response.

Surprisingly, getting a makeover wasn't too bad. Mostly because having two cute girls fussing over his appearance - albeit one of those aforementioned girls he'd rather die than admit was anything other than a pain in his ass - was always a fun time. And his clown costume wasn't as nearly clowny as he'd been worried it would be, merely a button down shirt with flame designs and pressed jeans, both tasteful and comfy.

"Now remember, you're the-"

"Senia? I fucking know. If you want to remind me of the same thing everyone else seems to love reminding me of have the decency to do it through interpretive dance or some other novel means."

The succubus gave a haughty sniff, tail smacking him on the ass in a manner that was more admonishing than it was sensual.

"Now now, respect your elders. I'm old enough to be your mother, little boy."

"One hell of an abusive mother, if you don't mind me saying so."

The pair continued to snipe at each other as Shir'Atath hummed a happy little tune to herself, floating high overhead as she lead the way to the designated party area with a goofy smile on her face, enjoying the acidic banter.

"Okay, lovebirds, we're here. Now while it's not my place to tell you how to act maybe being at each other's throats the whole time isn't the way to do it, especially not in front of the whole of Limbo, hmm~?"

Both 'lovebirds' gave each other a nasty glare before schooling their expressions into ones of placid acceptance that was blatantly antithetical to how they really felt, Senia scoffing before she directed her attention forward once more.

Shir pushed open the doors leading to the designated party zone-

-and Lance felt like he just got blasted in the face by a noise cannon, pounding bass assailing his senses as he tried not to gawk at the presented image like some kind of country boy. He had his pride as a resident of Vegas to not be surprised by extravagant parties, after all.

The room was easily the width of a football field, two levels above them that held a variety of smaller dance floors or even a couple floating platforms hovering high overhead as winged individuals either soared or used magic to travel between them, scantily or opulently dressed beings from every walk of life and realm interacting freely as borderline pornographicly dressed attendants traveled in hunting packs, fangs of choice levitating trays of every food and drink imaginable as the room held a beautiful ambiance thanks to the centerpiece of the whole ensemble.

A giant gem cut into impossibly fine planes, illuminated from below by multicolored fire that was refracted into a perfectly clear image of Earth slowly spinning on its axis, dozens of smaller landmasses orbiting it that held just as much detail.

"Shir...what the fuck am I looking at?"

"That, Lance, is the Oracle. It's one of my first host's crowning achievements, a scale and real-time representation of Earth and the realms that border it, able to be observed at increasingly powerful magnifications so that we can watch any place at any time. Can't show people but still pretty useful, eh~?"

The teen slowly nodded, musing, "I'll bet...wait, why are we all having a party right next to such an assumedly priceless artifact?!"

Shir smirked, bluntly replying, "Becuase if you get high or drunk as fuck and look at Oracle it's awesome."

"...Right, don't know why I even asked."

Shaking his head Lance wandered off towards the bar, Senia and Shir following in his wake as the teen quickly found himself growing used to the initially overwhelming and distracting sights and sounds.

"You know if this is what I can expect from all of Limbo's parties then I'm kind of looking forward to the rest, this is crazy."

"You think this is impressive why don't you just wait and see until we get to the actual main events like holidays? I remember christmas being quite the crazy affair…"

Lance instantly perked, asking, "Wait, you all celebrate christmas here?"

"Unless things have changed even more than I expected since I fell asleep, yeah. Heh heh, you're going to love the reindeer rodeo competition~!"

"Sorry, the what? That sounds fucking awesome!"

Senia snorted, wryly remarking, "I see Limbo is every bit insane as rumors suggest."

"You're just a killjoy, princess. Tres tequilas, por favor."

Retrieving the booze from a harried and hard working Gorgon bartender - snake hair aiding in the mixing process and doing enough work for six - the trio turned to make their way further into the party-

"Oh shit, heads up-"

-and Lance blinked as the tumblers went crashing onto the floor, a Fallen youth's wings smacking against his hands and catching him off guard.

"...Well, that was a perfectly good waste of booze."

"Ahh fuck. My bad, pal. Got pushed around in all the hustle and bustle and...hey, aren't you the new leader guy we've got?"

Blinking at the sudden address Lance turned to face the new arrival, a young man with black wings and spiky black hair, unfairly handsome features oddly familiar.

A roguish grin appeared on the other dude's face, tone excited as he shouted, "Holy shit it is you, Lance Jacobson! What are the odds of actually running into each other in all of Limbo, huh?"

Grabbing Lance's hand in a firm handshake - a little too firm for his liking, the former human's appendage smarting once it'd been let go - the guy introduced himself as, "Name's Adimus, don't suppose my dad has mentioned me to you yet, has he?"

"...Your dad?"

Suddenly it clicked, Lance snapping his fingers, responding, "Oh, I see the resemblance! You're Heshal's kid, right?"

The Fallen smirked, opening his mouth to respond-

"Weird, I'm surprised he didn't say anything. Then again he never talks about anything that isn't pertinent to lessons or instruction, so there's that…"

For a moment the youth could have sworn he saw a flash of anger and vitriol on the other guy's face...and just as quickly as it appeared it was gone, the Fallen amicably shrugging as he replied, "Eh, that's dad for yah. Never a break in seriousness or duty. Hey, why don't I introduce you to some of my friends? You can take your very lovely companion along with you, I'm sure she'd have all sorts of fun with us~!"

Senia met Adimus's playful wink with a haughty smirk, retorting, "That's a bold claim...I think I'll take you up on it. Senia Marscha, at your pleasure."

"And the founder is always more than welcome to join any group as she pleases, of course."

Shir merely gave a friendly wave, content to float high overhead and stare at Oracle with a silly grin.

"Well in that case we'll take you up on that offer. Lead the way."

Smirking as she slipped an arm through his Senia was happy to come along for the ride as Adimus smoothly lead them through the crowd, parting it like water as after only a short while they came to a relatively out of the way corner of the room, the Fallen gesturing to three other figures already seated around a small enchanted firepit, Lance raising an eyebrow at the curious mix of races present.

"Introductions! First over there is Kane, don't introduce him to any girls you might want to date, he'll make the first move without fail."

An unfairly pretty kitsune boy winked at Lance, giving Senia a charming grin.

"The Vampire is Daniela, don't let her stereotypical goth attire fool you, she's annoyingly happy all the time."

"Aww, one of us has to stay positive or we'd be boring as hell~!"

Long brown hair, gleaming red eyes and what was indeed goth clothing adorned the girl's slim frame.

"Lastly is our darling little Nymph, Myrine. She doesn't say much but she gets her mileage out of what she does say."

A small, noncommittal wave was the black-haired and tan-skinned lady's response as she calmly nibbled on some manner of dried fruits.

Throwing himself into a chair and looping an arm around Myrine's shoulders - the Nymph rolling her eyes at the action - Adimus grandly stated, "And this, oh friends of mine, is our recently discovered leader, Lance Jacobson and the princess of the succubi, Senia Marscha."

Yet again Lance noted that there was something of an odd reaction by the group to his appearance and introduction, snippets of distaste and annoyance before they shifted back into looks of politeness.

"Alright...this is getting weird."

His social sense for danger tingling Lance nonetheless kept his cool, amicably responding, "Pleasure to meet you all, from what I've been able to tell supernatural physical appearances don't match up with their ages. Please tell me I'm not hanging out with the college kids or their parents."

Another round of false smiles and laughs that had his asshole puckering, Lance sticking around only because it would be pretty awesome to actually have friends around his age in Limbo. Em wouldn't always be around to chat with.

"Nah, we're all in the fifteen to eighteen range, you're among the babies of the supernatural."

"Then I'm amidst good company."

Throwing himself into the chair alongside Kane - the Kitsune's tail briefly stiffening before it smoothed itself back out - Lance asked, "So what's a normal day like for the self-proclaimed babies of Limbo? Curious to see how it compares to a human's."

Adimus waved a hand, saying, "Suffice to say that it's pretty dull. Lots of studying and combat training, as well as plenty of magic or esoteric examinations."

Kane nodded, adding, "Sort of like what you're doing, in all honesty...although…"

Daniela narrowed her ruby eyes, innocently posing, "We do not have the attention of such accomplished instructors such as Adimus' sire, Celestia or Louis. That's quite the spread of talent and knowledge."

Lance shrugged, responding, "Well if they want me to be as good of a leader as I can possibly be it makes sense to get only the best of the best. And lord only knows they have exacting standards."

Myrine calmly affixed him with her gaze, neutrally asking, "So you don't think you can measure up?"

"Didn't say that, now did I?"

The Fallen lazilly added, "Sorry, but rumor has it that you struggle every time they ask you to do anything. Hell, the Fourth Avatar had to basically throw you in a black frost spell before you got the hang of...I dunno, something."

Slowly realizing what this was all about Lance carefully posed, "It sounds like you don't approve of the job I'm doing."

"Not at all, we just aren't sure if it was a human from a human background that was the best choice to start receiving all this high quality education."

"Ah. There it is."

Senia's brief but amused glance just confirmed his suspicions. The false cheer upon meeting him, the almost pushy way he brought him to a relatively isolated part of the room, the brief snippets of hostility and aggression…

These clowns had the balls to try and bully him, poking fun at his race and insinuating - not entirely without basis - that he was hopelessly out of his element.

The teen inwardly offered up a shark's grin.

"Alright, these jokers think they can get away with talking shit to me? Let's dance, amigos. I know how to deal with you."