Silly Plots 4: It's not particularly silly, is it?

[Recaiden]

"Just a while to be bored, hmm?" Message nods.
"Of course. You had many petitioners to address. Deal with them well."

Message sits down next to the succubus. "Silly of you."
"That might work if she were shy or distracted. But she's deeply opposed to acting seemly."
"It's hard to trick people into being accepting. If you want her to change, you need to show that being like you lets you beat her at her own game."

[bc56]

Divine Visitation
"What do you even mean by that?" Lisa asks, confused. "She is shy, isn't she? And how would I, or anyone, convince her of that? She barely listens to us, especially not when it comes to that."

[Recaiden]

This will prompt Message to pat the poor confused succubus on the head.
"No. She's not shy so much as disapproving. If you successfully slipped her a love potion or something, once it ran its course, she would be furious, and become twice as boring as before to make up for it."
She laughs.
"Words are easy to ignore, especially since she's so biased against you."
"One of you needs to demonstrate - easier once you get out of prison, I expect - that you can do all the faithful and loving things she believes it, while also being sexy, confident, provocative at the same time."

[bc56]

Divine Visitation
"What? You want me to be chaste!? Listen, here. We didn't end up here because we were faithful, loving people. It's in our nature to engage in that way with others as often as we can. Even she knows that, considering how often she leaves the court to be with her mortal husband." She sighs. "Most of us have faked being a loving wife at some point, but that's not who we are." Lisa seems doubtful, but, "It's not a bad idea, playing off her jealousy like that. But you'd be hard-pressed to find a succubus willing to give that level of commitment." Or maybe neither party involved in this disagreement really knows what it means to be a succubus.

[Recaiden]

"I didn't say it would be easy."

"Well, you're here because your sins were more in line with corruption than with anything else, right? That's pretty broad."
Actually, what does make these fiends what they are? Message makes an effort to look at Lisa on a magical and spiritual level, blue light glowing around the edges of her glasses. These fiends are very different from her angels, but not completely different. Maybe she can figure out a few things.
"Sekhmet mentioned some of you were made this way by her mother, and some of you did it on your own. What's your story, other than not liking commitment?"

[bc56]

Divine Visitation
"I'm in the former category. I started as a murderer, more or less. A poisoner. Something I did attracted the attention of the Queen of Poison, that's Sapphira, the former queen, and she sent an incubus to offer me a deal. Eternal youth and beauty, magical power, the whole package. In exchange, my soul, to be collected at the time of my death. I accepted, of course. It didn't take super long for everyone else to figure out I was a witch, though. A couple years of me not aging was enough for them to be suspicious. By ten years, they had enough proof, so I was thrown in a dungeon and then," She makes a slicing motion across her throat, "Off with her head. So I died." Lisa pauses for effect. "That was almost a thousand years ago, if I recall. But I made a deal, and so that incubus got my soul, and he was just contracted to a succubus who was contracted to Sapphira, so she decided my fate. She must have liked me, because she remade me as the sexy demoness you see now and let me loose."
Lisa is, more or less, a former mortal soul twisted and filled by the essence of this plane and shaped by a potent will into an instrument with a distinct purpose, that is seducing people into giving up their souls. That purpose shapes her personality, her appearance, her abilities, almost everything about her.

[Recaiden]

Message wonders how much the essence of the plane is contributing to the process. That's something she doesn't really have experience with or an equivalent to. Is that where they get their seemingly unrelated pyromagic?

"In life you were just trying to get ahead, which ended up getting you killed, where an uncontracted murderer might have avoided suspicion." Suitably ironic, one has to credit the incubus who set it up.
"Then you had a new purpose, and now, after a thousand years, you...are unnecessary. But you don't seem to mind Sekhmet taking over very much. Are long-term schemes to get back to your old ways not your style? Or are you just glad Sapphira isn't expecting anything of you?" Or something different from either of those, most likely.

[bc56]

Divine Visitation
"The only ones who want to go back to Sapphira's rule are crazy. She was a monster, and that's coming from me. But what we want, most of us, is a ruler who understands us. Sapphira understood, she was one of us, but she treated us all as disposable pawns. Sekhmet actually cares, you can tell, we all can, but she's not really one of us, she seems to despise our way of life, and doesn't know how to lead succubi. She needs to learn how, but we don't know how to teach her, and that's the honest truth. So... There you have it." Lisa sighs again.

[Recaiden]

"Sekhmet does despise it, and not fairly. Now, some of your way of life will have to change, because it was designed by a monster to suit her, and she's gone." Message suggests. "What do you think is the most important to you non-crazy subjects?"

[bc56]

Divine Visitation
"The curtains are pretty important. Succubi, we wither and die if we don't get them regularly. But she hasn't really stopped that. She knows how that is." Lisa isn't exactly sure what the most important thing is, other than that. "We like to, well, you've seen. We're sexy and we know it. We dress up, party, live the high life. We have fun and enjoy being the noblewomen of Hell. Maybe that's why Sekhmet is grating on us. She doesn't act like that at all. For her, being Queen is all about duty and responsibility. She just sits on the throne and makes judgements. Then she leaves and goes to the mortal world and does whatever she does there."

[Recaiden]

"I haven't, actually. There were some who ran away as soon as they could, and you, sitting meekly in jail not trying a thing. And that's all I've seen of this kingdom's succubi." Message smirks.
"But I finally understand what you mean. There's no revelry anymore, no appreciation."

[bc56]

Divine Visitation
"Oh." A pause. "You get it! She just sucks the fun out of it!" Sekhmet does seem to be a very serious ruler, from what Message has seen so far. "So, Message. You're a goddess. You have an in with Sekhmet. Will you help us?"

[Recaiden]

Message stands up, letting her tails flick back and forth.
"Well, I do understand you, but I would need a good reason to interfere in a kingdom on a distant plane like this one."
If the plight of the poor, joyless succubi isn't enough on it's own...
Well, Message isn't being quite serious.

[bc56]

Divine Visitation
"I can't pay you. Not in anything a goddess would find valuable. Unless..." Lisa grips the zipper on what passes for her prison uniform (although it seems she's probably wearing it by choice rather than because it's required) and gives it a meaningful tug downwards. "I could pay you the way we succubi are famous for... If you think your friend the Queen won't mind."

[Recaiden]

"Ahaha, she would absolutely mind. Besides, I'm going to help you anyway."
Message lets the guard know that she's done here and will be heading back to the Queen.
"But I'd be happy to see you once you make it out of here."

[bc56]

Divine Visitation
"Hahaha. You mean it, right? I've never... A god before." Now that is intriguing to Lisa. It'll probably be worth the wait. But for now, Message can find her way back to Sekhmet in the throne room; she's apparently gotten through all those petitioners (and definitely not just been waiting for Message and not dealing with the petitioners right now). "Oh, uh, hi Message. How'd it go?" she asks.

[Recaiden]

"It would be cruel to joke about that with one of you. Farewell Lisa."

Message prances back into the throne room.
"Hi Sekhmet. I think it went okay."
"The thing is, the older succubi have lost their sense of purpose and respect."

[bc56]

Divine Visitation
"Uh, what do you mean?" Sekhmet asks. She knows they don't have respect, at least not for her, but purpose? Their purpose is to seduce people, isn't it? She has no idea what the intent of this is.

[Recaiden]

"Well, your mother made them in her image; they were her favorites. And they had an important job to do for the kingdom in recruiting lost souls and carrying out Sapphira's missions, so they were respected and important. And they were able to enjoy themselves. Not just curtains, to them that's like, um, drinking water? It's important, but it's not a fulfilling existence, right?"
Message paces up to the throne.
"But you don't need them, or even want them. And far from being favorites, you disdain them, can barely talk about them."
"Make sense so far?"

[bc56]

Divine Visitation
"Uh, sort of?" It makes enough sense. The succubi were important beforehand, and now, they're not. Sekhmet's changed the organizational structure around on them in order for her to more easily run the kingdom. That's what Message means, right?

[Recaiden]

That's part of what Message is saying.
"You need to give them some roles in society where they can be constructive, or at least not as destructive."
"Like, recruiting the most perverse and lustful mortals to join them, or tempting people who are committing other sorts of sins so that they'll end up in the Searing Depths instead. Or just competing to be the most beautiful and sensual."

[bc56]

Scorching Depths
"So... Give them work? I guess it would make them happier, but, uh, how does it, uh, make them less hard on me about the way I act differently from them?" Sekhmet sees at least some of the merit in the suggestion. It doesn't really address the concern of the succubi that they want to have fun, but maybe Message is getting there.

[Recaiden]

Message waves a hand to indicate that she's getting there.
"Secondly, in addition to work, there needs to be fun. Parties, fashion, revelry, joy. Things to look forward to, times to show off. You can work with your more cooperative subjects on the details."

[bc56]

Divine Visitation
"Oh, uh..." Sekhmet isn't sure about that at all. "I'm, uh, not really good at that. I don't know. Could you, uh, help me get, uh, started?" Sekhmet really is woefully inexperienced with parties, or fashion, or revelry. She can occasionally do joy.

[Recaiden]

"I think I can do that. Friends help each other out. I will need to do some more research on the means and customs here."
Message is also not terribly good at those things, but she supports them, and more importantly, she can cheat at them very well.

"But, that brings me to the third thing. The people here may be literal evil fiends, but you should only be mean to them for things that are actually bad, not just for being different."

[bc56]

Divine Visitation
"I'm not mean to them!... Am I?" Sekhmet didn't think she was. She doesn't want to be mean, that's, well, mean! Still, Message wouldn't mention it if it weren't true. "Okay, uh, then. I'll, uh, try my best to be nice to them from here on out. And that, uh, starts with, uh, throwing them the best party possible. Right?"

[Recaiden]

"Well, probably you are. It's not as if devils pray to me with the details. But they can certainly tell how little you think of them." Message admits. Sekhmet's probably a bit mean to them though.

"Right. Except, now, this isn't advice exactly, but a lot of them were made the way they are by Sapphira, and you could make them different. If there were any who didn't want to be succubi anymore, maybe we could even work out some way for that."

[bc56]

Divine Visitation
"I'd, uh, have to do some studying. It's a lot easier to, uh, remake a soul if, uh, I have a template to work off. In the past, I, uh, used myself as that template, so, uh, their nature ends up similar to mine, but, uh, I don't exactly follow my own nature. So they, uh, ended up as succubi, or something similar." Sekhmet has to think about it. "It, uh, might be risky for the first few. But, uh, let's concentrate on the, uh, party idea?" Sekhmet has never hosted a party other than her wedding, which she only sort of hosted. She has no idea what to do. "We need, uh, food, and, uh, music?" That's a good starting point, right?

[Recaiden]

"Mhm. I have a few templates that might be useful as well, if you wanted."
But first, celebration!

"Yes, that's a start - well, do they eat food? - but the goal is to create a feeling, an environment. But also..."
Message calls up a simple bit of non-divine magic. The Ring is desire, corruption, care, and entertainment; of the six aspects she has, it is her second strongest. The result is that she should just know what the fiendish party scene was like, what the succubi liked and didn't. The history is all right here, after all.
Then she'll relay to Sekhmet those suggestions. At least, the ones that won't make the queen immediately die of embarrassment. Some of this stuff is probably unspeakable.

[bc56]

Divine Visitation
The parties here historically have varied based on Sapphira's whims. There's always a very sensual aspect to them, but over the many thousands of years this place has existed, pretty much everything has been tried at some point, ranging from hedonistic bloodbaths to grand balls to fashion shows. There are some commonalities though. Everyone dresses up for the event, they eat, drink and make merry, and there are a lot of curtains, as is to be expected. The succubi wear something vaguely appropriate, pushed as far towards the revealing as they can manage within the theme of the party, but if any of them seem nearly as beautiful as Sapphira, they meet a very abrupt end at her hands. Interestingly, the further back Message looks, the more incubi are at the parties; over time they slowly disappear. She didn't see any here now either; some of the guards are male, but clearly not incubi. There's a very distinct difference. There are also signs of shady backroom things going on, dealings between succubi, intrigue and diplomatic maneuvering amongst the revelers. But for the most part, it's clear the attendees are enjoying themselves.
Sekhmet hears these things without a ton of surprise. It's what she expected. "So, uh, what do you, uh, think? A dance, or, uh, a more generic just social party, or, uh, something more specific?"