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div class="bbWrapper" style="box-sizing: border-box; font-size: 0.875rem;"The Los Angeles offices of Wolfram and Hart were abuzz with news of their latest potential client. Several seers had died of shock and been brought back as undead due to the perpetuity causes in their contracts when they discovered the Lightbringer himself had come to California, but not all of them were still sane enough to be useful. Lucifer had been an oft-cited but seldom-believed legend up to that point. The images captured from the minds of the diviners still among the living showed a brightly glowing figure with ethereal wings bathed in white hellfire casually destroying any who opposed him with a glance and a streak of actinic light. The flaming sword in some of the visions and the casual collection of the souls of those he'd slain lent even more weight to the claim the Devil himself had entered the style="box-sizing: border-box;" /br style="box-sizing: border-box;" /The way he batted aside actual angels in full battle gear in the middle of an abandoned modern city was encouraging for the Senior Partners and their enforcers, who'd originally intended to bring about their own apocalypse. Even if the they couldn't recruit such a powerful figure they could certainly ingratiate themselves to it and piggyback on its plans to further their own agenda. Agents, clean up crews, caterers (Lucifer liked bar food?), and lawyers were all contacted and instructed to keep the massively powerful being happy no matter the cost, and an expense account was cobbled together from emergency funds for that style="box-sizing: border-box;" /br style="box-sizing: border-box;" /From the histories it was believed that the god of creation had long since left this realm to its own devices. The so-called "Powers That Be" had taken up the role of "good" (or maintaining the status quo, depending on who you asked) while the Wolf, Ram, and Hart had taken the role of "evil." Sometimes things changed, and it was of course all subjective, but the world generally experienced a steady descent into depravity. Potential ends of the world cropped up here and there but were always thwarted by those who couldn't agree on just how it should end. Despite all that, Lucifer was supposed to be only one step or two behind the Creator in power. They had no choice but to align themselves with the Morning Star and hope for the style="box-sizing: border-box;" /br style="box-sizing: border-box;" /Holland Manners, Head of Special Projects, had drawn the short straw among the directors stationed in California. He'd known long ago that the job came with both amazing risks and amazing benefits but had never expected to have to deal with the actual Devil. That was why he'd delegated the task of keeping the immensely powerful being happy to a pair of Junior Partners that seemed to be after his job. Lindsey McDonald and Lilah Morgan hated each other too much to effectively plan his downfall together and could be easily sacrificed to compensate for any screw-ups, hopefully keeping Lucifer happy with the firm in the style="box-sizing: border-box;" /br style="box-sizing: border-box;" /-br style="box-sizing: border-box;" /br style="box-sizing: border-box;" /Similar unrest was quickly and quietly dealt with in the Watchers' Council. Surely the under-trained Slayer in the area would be lost if she confronted the Devil himself, and another would be called elsewhere. Could they even afford to wait that long, though? Many of the Slayer candidates that had been found early were trained well and awaited only their empowerment to begin their duties. Research into solutions to the problem found a few possibilities, but between Lucifer and the prophecy regarding the Slayer's death later the coming year it was determined no direct action would be taken in California for the time being. The rest of the world was a different style="box-sizing: border-box;" /br style="box-sizing: border-box;" /Resources were stockpiled, known Slayer candidates were called in for or instructed to begin additional training, equipment and safe houses were double-checked, and Watcher candidate training was switched from mostly academic to a more survival and combat-oriented curriculum. The Council would fight this and every other evil preying on humanity until the bitter end, and to do so they needed to be prepared. The old gods and true demons had mostly been defeated and either driven out of their dimension or slain. So too would this upstart fallen angel. style="box-sizing: border-box;" /br style="box-sizing: border-box;" /Various covens of witches and other "friendly" magic users were also called upon to bolster the ranks and provide support, but few of them answered the call. The Watchers had burned a lot of bridges over the years, and it was coming back to bite style="box-sizing: border-box;" /br style="box-sizing: border-box;" /-br style="box-sizing: border-box;" /br style="box-sizing: border-box;" /One seeress in particular had some extra-strange visions. Instead of picking up on the presence of a new supernatural power, she somehow found herself subjected to visions of a yet-to-be-created children's show complete with audio. When Drusilla the Mad started babbling about how friendship was magic she was completely ignored by all but her darling Spike, who while confused would never ignore her. He took away from the one-sided conversation that minions would be extra necessary in the future, that he may need to find a witch or ten to bribe into helping keep him and his lady love safe, and finally that the weed in California was a lot stronger than he remembered. Perhaps a move back to Europe was in order?br style="box-sizing: border-box;" /br style="box-sizing: border-box;" /-br style="box-sizing: border-box;" /br style="box-sizing: border-box;" /The Powers That Be, as they called themselves, were deeply unhappy. A new player in the game meant more competition, and they couldn't do a whole lot on Earth as it was. Since being forced off-world by the Old Ones and kept there by the Wolf, Ram, and Hart in conjunction with the First Evil they hadn't been able to evenly match the forces of destruction, let alone push them back. They didn't remember the Lightbringer themselves, but he'd been recorded in history as one of the first sons of the Creator and there were prison dimensions they'd never been able to check. It was quite possible he was real, and his return could prove to be the final straw for the world at style="box-sizing: border-box;" /br style="box-sizing: border-box;" /There was only one problem with that: the long-dormant conduit of power coming from the Creator itself was starting to show signs of life. Either the Lightbringer was closer in both power and nature to the Creator than they'd ever imagined or he wasn't the only one returning. If a true God showed up they might gain an overwhelmingly powerful ally. The self-proclaimed gods (hellish or not) of the worlds they watched over just couldn't match up to something that could dictate the rules of existence. A brilliant flash lit the halls of Heaven, and with a flare of amethyst and silver light a dancing flame burned for the first time in billions of years in the center of the upper style="box-sizing: border-box;" /br style="box-sizing: border-box;" /While it did not empower all those of the Powers and the Host who approached, it did so for many. Atrophied servants of creation that had long since left things to The Powers were slowly regaining their strength. The presence was different according to those with the longest memories, but the power was real and pure. Even changed, the Creator had returned. There had been no announcement so things were kept quiet, but the Heavenly Host prepared once more to make their mark on both the Earth and style="box-sizing: border-box;" /br style="box-sizing: border-box;" /-br style="box-sizing: border-box;" /br style="box-sizing: border-box;" /Far below, Tara Maclay opened the door to a pair of proselytizers asking her if she'd heard the word of their Lord and Savoir. She outright laughed exclaiming that she'd been saved by her very own guardian angel and they should move on before closing the door in their faces. If they didn't already know, they would style="box-sizing: border-box;" /br style="box-sizing: border-box;" /Outside, Lindsay McDonald and Lilah Morgan stood dumbfounded. The Deceiver worked fast, and had already recruited a pair of powerful witches to his side if the records they'd found and the young woman's reaction were any indication. The wards around the house were the strongest they'd ever encountered but they couldn't feel a damn thing. They'd had to get creative just to get to the door, swearing that they didn't intend to harm anyone within. The barely-perceptible presence they'd felt shift was still there watching, waiting for any mistake or sign of deceit. They'd both felt a twinge of pain when they agreed on the plan to ask about their new client, and another when the young woman that answered the door looked briefly annoyed at style="box-sizing: border-box;" /br style="box-sizing: border-box;" /Next door Buffy, Dawn, and Joyce summers enjoyed a gift basket left by their new neighbor filled with chocolate from all over the world. In Boston a supremely old vampire, his assistant, and all his minions burned to less than ash in white fire. What passed for their souls were dragged south to the ass-end of the Earth and into a prison from which they would never escape. Darla was less than pleased by the quality of her new company. Several intangible clones returned to the essence of their creator, having completed all their tasks and style="box-sizing: border-box;" /br style="box-sizing: border-box;" /In LA Jesse McNally woke weeks later to find he really didn't ever want to go back to Sunnydale, and begged his parents not to make him go. Since they'd recently been offered lucrative employment elsewhere but had stayed for their son to finish school they agreed. Since he'd need to catch up on school anyway after his coma and his skull and ribs both needed time to heal, they'd enrol him again next year wherever they ended style="box-sizing: border-box;" /br style="box-sizing: border-box;" /-br style="box-sizing: border-box;" /br style="box-sizing: border-box;" /The First Evil, manifestation of and dumping ground for all the world's hate, selfishness, and angst curled in on itself. While it spanned the entirety of the local multiverse, it wasn't arrogant enough to think that being both incorporeal and conceptual would keep it from death against a being that could go undetected save for the fact its very presence rejuvenated the fabric of reality itself. Things were changing again, and it wouldn't be a good idea to show up with powers like that around. Plots were aborted or delayed, pawns were destroyed or let go, and all other traces of its presence on Earth vanished. Every member of the Harbingers of Doom experienced sudden heart failure over the course of the next few days and their souls were stuffed in the deepest pits available to hide them./div
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div class="message-userContent lbContainer js-lbContainer hasThreadmark" style="box-sizing: border-box;" data-lb-id="post-42007273" data-lb-caption-desc="Wrin ยท Dec 6, 2017 at 2:23 PM"
div class="bbWrapper" style="box-sizing: border-box; font-size: 0.875rem;"The Los Angeles offices of Wolfram and Hart were abuzz with news of their latest potential client. Several seers had died of shock and been brought back as undead due to the perpetuity causes in their contracts when they discovered the Lightbringer himself had come to California, but not all of them were still sane enough to be useful. Lucifer had been an oft-cited but seldom-believed legend up to that point. The images captured from the minds of the diviners still among the living showed a brightly glowing figure with ethereal wings bathed in white hellfire casually destroying any who opposed him with a glance and a streak of actinic light. The flaming sword in some of the visions and the casual collection of the souls of those he'd slain lent even more weight to the claim the Devil himself had entered the style="box-sizing: border-box;" /br style="box-sizing: border-box;" /The way he batted aside actual angels in full battle gear in the middle of an abandoned modern city was encouraging for the Senior Partners and their enforcers, who'd originally intended to bring about their own apocalypse. Even if the they couldn't recruit such a powerful figure they could certainly ingratiate themselves to it and piggyback on its plans to further their own agenda. Agents, clean up crews, caterers (Lucifer liked bar food?), and lawyers were all contacted and instructed to keep the massively powerful being happy no matter the cost, and an expense account was cobbled together from emergency funds for that style="box-sizing: border-box;" /br style="box-sizing: border-box;" /From the histories it was believed that the god of creation had long since left this realm to its own devices. The so-called "Powers That Be" had taken up the role of "good" (or maintaining the status quo, depending on who you asked) while the Wolf, Ram, and Hart had taken the role of "evil." Sometimes things changed, and it was of course all subjective, but the world generally experienced a steady descent into depravity. Potential ends of the world cropped up here and there but were always thwarted by those who couldn't agree on just how it should end. Despite all that, Lucifer was supposed to be only one step or two behind the Creator in power. They had no choice but to align themselves with the Morning Star and hope for the style="box-sizing: border-box;" /br style="box-sizing: border-box;" /Holland Manners, Head of Special Projects, had drawn the short straw among the directors stationed in California. He'd known long ago that the job came with both amazing risks and amazing benefits but had never expected to have to deal with the actual Devil. That was why he'd delegated the task of keeping the immensely powerful being happy to a pair of Junior Partners that seemed to be after his job. Lindsey McDonald and Lilah Morgan hated each other too much to effectively plan his downfall together and could be easily sacrificed to compensate for any screw-ups, hopefully keeping Lucifer happy with the firm in the style="box-sizing: border-box;" /br style="box-sizing: border-box;" /-br style="box-sizing: border-box;" /br style="box-sizing: border-box;" /Similar unrest was quickly and quietly dealt with in the Watchers' Council. Surely the under-trained Slayer in the area would be lost if she confronted the Devil himself, and another would be called elsewhere. Could they even afford to wait that long, though? Many of the Slayer candidates that had been found early were trained well and awaited only their empowerment to begin their duties. Research into solutions to the problem found a few possibilities, but between Lucifer and the prophecy regarding the Slayer's death later the coming year it was determined no direct action would be taken in California for the time being. The rest of the world was a different style="box-sizing: border-box;" /br style="box-sizing: border-box;" /Resources were stockpiled, known Slayer candidates were called in for or instructed to begin additional training, equipment and safe houses were double-checked, and Watcher candidate training was switched from mostly academic to a more survival and combat-oriented curriculum. The Council would fight this and every other evil preying on humanity until the bitter end, and to do so they needed to be prepared. The old gods and true demons had mostly been defeated and either driven out of their dimension or slain. So too would this upstart fallen angel. style="box-sizing: border-box;" /br style="box-sizing: border-box;" /Various covens of witches and other "friendly" magic users were also called upon to bolster the ranks and provide support, but few of them answered the call. The Watchers had burned a lot of bridges over the years, and it was coming back to bite style="box-sizing: border-box;" /br style="box-sizing: border-box;" /-br style="box-sizing: border-box;" /br style="box-sizing: border-box;" /One seeress in particular had some extra-strange visions. Instead of picking up on the presence of a new supernatural power, she somehow found herself subjected to visions of a yet-to-be-created children's show complete with audio. When Drusilla the Mad started babbling about how friendship was magic she was completely ignored by all but her darling Spike, who while confused would never ignore her. He took away from the one-sided conversation that minions would be extra necessary in the future, that he may need to find a witch or ten to bribe into helping keep him and his lady love safe, and finally that the weed in California was a lot stronger than he remembered. Perhaps a move back to Europe was in order?br style="box-sizing: border-box;" /br style="box-sizing: border-box;" /-br style="box-sizing: border-box;" /br style="box-sizing: border-box;" /The Powers That Be, as they called themselves, were deeply unhappy. A new player in the game meant more competition, and they couldn't do a whole lot on Earth as it was. Since being forced off-world by the Old Ones and kept there by the Wolf, Ram, and Hart in conjunction with the First Evil they hadn't been able to evenly match the forces of destruction, let alone push them back. They didn't remember the Lightbringer themselves, but he'd been recorded in history as one of the first sons of the Creator and there were prison dimensions they'd never been able to check. It was quite possible he was real, and his return could prove to be the final straw for the world at style="box-sizing: border-box;" /br style="box-sizing: border-box;" /There was only one problem with that: the long-dormant conduit of power coming from the Creator itself was starting to show signs of life. Either the Lightbringer was closer in both power and nature to the Creator than they'd ever imagined or he wasn't the only one returning. If a true God showed up they might gain an overwhelmingly powerful ally. The self-proclaimed gods (hellish or not) of the worlds they watched over just couldn't match up to something that could dictate the rules of existence. A brilliant flash lit the halls of Heaven, and with a flare of amethyst and silver light a dancing flame burned for the first time in billions of years in the center of the upper style="box-sizing: border-box;" /br style="box-sizing: border-box;" /While it did not empower all those of the Powers and the Host who approached, it did so for many. Atrophied servants of creation that had long since left things to The Powers were slowly regaining their strength. The presence was different according to those with the longest memories, but the power was real and pure. Even changed, the Creator had returned. There had been no announcement so things were kept quiet, but the Heavenly Host prepared once more to make their mark on both the Earth and style="box-sizing: border-box;" /br style="box-sizing: border-box;" /-br style="box-sizing: border-box;" /br style="box-sizing: border-box;" /Far below, Tara Maclay opened the door to a pair of proselytizers asking her if she'd heard the word of their Lord and Savoir. She outright laughed exclaiming that she'd been saved by her very own guardian angel and they should move on before closing the door in their faces. If they didn't already know, they would style="box-sizing: border-box;" /br style="box-sizing: border-box;" /Outside, Lindsay McDonald and Lilah Morgan stood dumbfounded. The Deceiver worked fast, and had already recruited a pair of powerful witches to his side if the records they'd found and the young woman's reaction were any indication. The wards around the house were the strongest they'd ever encountered but they couldn't feel a damn thing. They'd had to get creative just to get to the door, swearing that they didn't intend to harm anyone within. The barely-perceptible presence they'd felt shift was still there watching, waiting for any mistake or sign of deceit. They'd both felt a twinge of pain when they agreed on the plan to ask about their new client, and another when the young woman that answered the door looked briefly annoyed at style="box-sizing: border-box;" /br style="box-sizing: border-box;" /Next door Buffy, Dawn, and Joyce summers enjoyed a gift basket left by their new neighbor filled with chocolate from all over the world. In Boston a supremely old vampire, his assistant, and all his minions burned to less than ash in white fire. What passed for their souls were dragged south to the ass-end of the Earth and into a prison from which they would never escape. Darla was less than pleased by the quality of her new company. Several intangible clones returned to the essence of their creator, having completed all their tasks and style="box-sizing: border-box;" /br style="box-sizing: border-box;" /In LA Jesse McNally woke weeks later to find he really didn't ever want to go back to Sunnydale, and begged his parents not to make him go. Since they'd recently been offered lucrative employment elsewhere but had stayed for their son to finish school they agreed. Since he'd need to catch up on school anyway after his coma and his skull and ribs both needed time to heal, they'd enrol him again next year wherever they ended style="box-sizing: border-box;" /br style="box-sizing: border-box;" /-br style="box-sizing: border-box;" /br style="box-sizing: border-box;" /The First Evil, manifestation of and dumping ground for all the world's hate, selfishness, and angst curled in on itself. While it spanned the entirety of the local multiverse, it wasn't arrogant enough to think that being both incorporeal and conceptual would keep it from death against a being that could go undetected save for the fact its very presence rejuvenated the fabric of reality itself. Things were changing again, and it wouldn't be a good idea to show up with powers like that around. Plots were aborted or delayed, pawns were destroyed or let go, and all other traces of its presence on Earth vanished. Every member of the Harbingers of Doom experienced sudden heart failure over the course of the next few days and their souls were stuffed in the deepest pits available to hide them./div
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