All the Overlords are gathered once again in the palace, along with the Sins, Charlie, Emily, the Cherubs, Fizzarolli, Loona, Blitz, Stolas, Paimon, and the Von Eldritches, in the same room that was used for war meetings just a little while ago.
Now, though, it's being used for a briefing session before the actual trial.
Lucifer glances around, then says "As most of you probably know by now, Hell had some…visitors, yesterday. It was God, along with the Seraphim who allowed Extermination to happen in the first place, and the current leader of the Exorcist army, Lute. They're going on trial in a week's time, and everybody here is going to be there."
Paimon clears his throat, and asks "And, it's safe to assume Ambassador Peverell will be there as well?" Call him crazy or paranoid, but he does not want to be in the same room as Calliope and the people responsible for the three of them ending up in Hell in the first place - he likes all his bones intact, his feathers unsinged, and not being suffocated or outright crushed by her magic.
Asmodeus snorts, and says "As if anyone or anything could keep Calli from being there."
Beelzebub adds "She'd chew her way out of Hell if that's what it took. I'm pretty sure it was Calli I felt yesterday, and she was ready to put someone or something through a shredder. Have any ideas who that was?"
Lilith and Lucifer simultaneously say "Yes."
Lucifer adds "For your information, Paimon, Calli is currently getting things set up for the trial itself."
Velvette glances at Paimon before subtly nudging Vox and typing a message on her phone to him. 'Is it just me, V, or is he really a kiss-up to her?'
Vox rolls his eyes, but pulls up his internal messaging system and directs it to a pop-up display over his palm for her to read where nobody else is going to see it. 'From what I found when I was looking for information on her, Vel, she took on all of Hell in a prolonged guerrilla war and singlehandedly whipped it into the shape we know it as. Chances are, she beat the bird black and blue. Probably broke every bone in his body in the process.'
Velvette manages not to snicker as she sends back 'From what you told me of what you saw yesterday, the bird-lady from Heaven is gonna be in the same state soon enough.'
As much as Vox wants to roll his eyes…she's not wrong in the slightest. Calliope Peverell was very, very ready to splatter Sera all over the floor and far wall and clean up the mess afterwards.
Lucifer making a giant orb takes their attention, and the image it shows is...Calliope flying through the air, heading for a mountain. She glances over after a minute, red hair whipping around her face, and says "Good timing, Luce, I'm just heading to the last of the Ward Stones now. After that, I'll start looking for a good spot for the courthouse."
"And," Carmilla asks, "if you can't find one?"
"Then I'll make one. I'm already making the Courthouse itself, after all, a clearing somewhere on the island away from the beach isn't particularly difficult."
Zeezee incredulously asks "You're just going to...make an entire courthouse from scratch?! All by yourself?!"
Calliope snorts, asking "Like it's the first time I've made a building? I made the palace you're sitting in, to name just one example. Luce, is this everyone that's attending? Or are you going to bring the original Hotel members to, since they participated in the fight against the Exorcists? Though, if we do that, we may need to bring some of Rosie's Cannibals since they were also there, unless Rosie can act as a representative for all of them since they're under her domain…"
Calli lands on the mountainside, heading into a cave entrance, and holds up a ball of light. Eventually, she gets to a point where there's braziers every few feet and lights one of them.
"Uh, Calli?" Lucifer glances at the various light sources in the cave in confusion, noticing something on the back wall that's still covered by the darkness of the cave, asking "What are those doing there?"
Calli runs a hand down her face, the other hand trailing along the cave wall, then says "It was supposed to be a surprise, something for you to do while you were on the island, but you know now, so surprise…" If she sounds a combination of exasperated and exhausted…it's because she spent eight hours designing an entire scavenger hunt for Lucifer, with this location being the final destination, and now he knows all about it. She'll just have to take him and Lilith to one of the other places she has Warded for their first vacation outside Hell - they all have surprises to keep him from going into another depression spiral, like the ducks at the mountainside manor where she has all the movies Azrael's collected for them over the years.
Lucifer blinks a few times, then says "Well, I don't know very much, so I could still do it? Also…why are you there, if it was supposed to be a surprise?"
"Because I put the last of the Wardstones that need to be recharged in here. Specifically…" She stops, the hand that was on the wall resting over a crack in the rock, and then turns into green mist before seeping into said crack.
The spell's view changes, squeezing through the crack in the wall that leads to another cavern - clearly, she either created it or found it and sealed it off from the rest of the cave system she's walked through. When she reforms, she makes her way to a pedestal that's faintly outlined by some sunlight coming in through a crack in the back wall - on the pedestal is a large chunk of what looks like crystal, with a faint glow tinging it a light green. A cut suddenly appears on her palm, and she holds her fist up and squeezes until blood drips onto the stone…that instantly turns a brilliant, blazing neon-green color as soon as the first drop of blood hits. Seven drops of blood later, the entire cave is lit up from that glowing chunk of crystal, with glowing symbols having appeared on the pedestal and spread to the rest of the cavern.
After inspecting everything, Calli turns into mist again and heads out through the hole in the cavern wall - when she emerges and reforms, she's on a ledge overlooking the forest on the island. "Wards are back to full strength," she says while popping her back, "so now I need to find a good spot for the courthouse…that's nowhere near the beach."
Well, Vox thinks incredulously, she did say it was supposed to be a vacation spot for them, so…
Still, he didn't think it'd be somewhere that…nice. The place looks like some kind of hidden paradise! …which, technically, it is since she hid it away from the entire world.
Walking near the edge of the cliff, Calli squints then says "There might be something…aw, shit." Despite standing in the middle of the ledge, nowhere near the edge, she just felt the damned thing shift under her.
Lucifer incredulously says "You aren't close enough to the edge of the cliff!"
"Apparently, my curse has decided otherwise, Luce. Looks like I'm getting down there a lot faster than I planned." Before anyone can even ask what they mean, the ledge Calli's squarely in the middle of…collapses. It's only thanks to a Sticking Charm that Calli stays on the broken-off ledge, and another Charm to keep it from breaking into a thousand little pebbles altogether.
Almost everyone stares in disbelief as Calli rids a giant rock down the mountain, and Vox eventually asks "Is she…?"
Lucifer says "We called it Mountain-sledding, after the first time it happened when Calli was showing me how to climb mountains."
"This isn't the first time she's had a rock ledge just give out underneath her feet."
Calli yells over "Six times, actually! Not counting my old world!"
Frederick Von Eldritch chuckles at almost everyone's expressions, and says "Welcome to life with a Luck Curse. This is hardly the most surprising thing that's happened to her…this month."
Calli rolls her eyes, pushing her hair out of her face, and calls over "Life would be boring without me around and you know it, Fredrick! Besides, when you've lived as long as I have, a little excitement every now and again is good for you!"
Fredrick raises an eyebrow in amusement, but doesn't comment - she did just use her magic to avoid a tree growing out of the side of the mountain she's currently 'sledding' down, after all.
A sound like wood being sawed comes through, and Calli hisses something before speeding up the rock. Lucifer facepalms, and asks "What was that, Sis?"
Calli glances back for a moment, then says "Either a Jaguar or a Leopard, Luce. It's like the bear thing all over again, just with a cat this time."
Velvette glances between Lucifer - who doesn't look surprised at all, exhausted but not surprised - Lilith - who also doesn't look surprised - and the other people in the room that have known her for a long time, and asks "The…bear thing?" What bear thing?!
"Well," Calli yells out, sending a beam of green energy shooting out of her hand behind her without looking where she's aiming as she has to keep from crashing, "let me put it to you this way - the Cat Distribution System got together with my Luck Curse, and together the two of them decided regular kittens, housecats, or even fear barn cats weren't nearly enough for me. Instead of finding a kitten on the highway or having a pack of 'em come up to me demanding food, snuggles, and a roof over their heads, I get apex predators that want to rip me apart for a meal! Guess this is my stop!" Before anyone can ask what she means, Calli angles the rock over to a section of mountain shaped almost like a ramp.
The rock ledge goes flying through the air, and Calli releases the Sticking Charm just as it starts heading back towards the ground and gets her wings out.
Everyone including Calli watches as the spotted form that was chasing her keeps going, unable to slow its own momentum down the mountain - definitely a Jaguar, from the looks of it. "Looks like I'm flying for a while after all…here's hoping I don't meet a hawk or eagle or something on the way. Talk later once I've found a spot."
Zeezee clears her throat, then asks "So, uh…is she gonna be alright? Or…"
Lilith waves a hand, saying "Time was, back at the start of my life, that was a regular occurrence for her. The say 'that's Tuesday'? She may was well be the origin of it. Calliope can handle herself and then some, a random animal isn't going to be enough to get the best of her."
Frederick says "She wasn't wrong about bringing the Hoteliers that were part of the battle against the Exorcists, though. Do you want to bring them along, Lucifer?"
"They may well need to testify anyway, so…what the heck, let's bring them." He'd just wanted to check in with her, disguise it as an update on her progress with the Wards - the Wards are completely recharged…and his sister is being hunted by a Jaguar. Wonderful, that was so not the kind of update he meant.