"...This is starting to sound like the kind of story I might like to hear from the beginning."

The Sins manage to share a look without seeming to move. And they seem to make a decision. The variety of weapons are hidden away, or slid back into holsters and sheathes.

"Cup of tea?" Gluttony offers. "Scone?" She holds up the box.

...he laughs. "Sure, why not," he says, and he steps away from the pillar of fire. A patch of bare ground next to him grows a small sturdy tree in the shape of an elegant and comfortable chair; he's already moving to sit in it as it begins to sprout, and it settles into its final form just in time to catch him. He is entirely casual about this, as though it's a perfectly ordinary way to acquire a chair.

The Sins seem, if not inured to casual magic, at least at the point of not bothering to question it. Avarice carries a cup of tea and the box over to the Emperor, offering both.

Now he has tea and a scone!

"Thanks," he says cheerfully. "Anybody else want a chair?"

"Well, if you're offering," and there's something to the way Pride's moving now, something...refined, more suited to a high society ball than the slaughter in the village. "It would almost be rude to refuse."

"Guess it's a good thing people don't expect me t'be polite," Wrath comments, staying on her feet, but accepting the cup of tea Lust hands her.

Avarice is keeping to Pride's shoulder now, almost protective. Sloth appears to be asleep.

"Seats do sound more comfortable than the ground," Lust agrees. Gluttony and Envy make affirmative noises. "So, I guess that's four yeses, Av and Wrath being awkward and S being asleep, your...Emperorness? What do you even call and Emperor?"

"You can call this one by name," he says cheerfully. "It's Solekaran."

Four more chairs grow out of the ground.

Those wishing chairs take seats, and there's a round of introductions from them! (Although Pride introduces Avarice who's hovering behind her, and Lust introduces Sloth who is still sleeping, and Wrath who is watching Solekaran closely.)

"I think, Wrath, the story starts with you?"

"Of course you do," Wrath rolls her eyes. "I suppose it makes sense. I was the first."

She stares down into her cup of tea for a while. "We've expanded beyond one planet," she says eventually. "But colonisation isn't exactly easy. As your people just proved, local flora and fauna do not in fact like being colonised all that much. So. They figured they needed a way to cull the human population. Without being obvious about it. And then they figured, people kill for very base emotions. For very base Sins. Wrath, Envy, Lust, I'm sure you're seeing a pattern here."

"...I think I'm missing a few links in this chain of logic. If you're trying to settle somewhere and it's difficult, how is killing a bunch of your own people supposed to help?"

"Because Wrath skipped the part where there are already colonies. Functional, mostly safe. Easier to cull populations there than anything else. Sure it's a little creepy moving into a house where a horrific murder happened, but, y'know, better than possibly getting eaten if you join that colonisation effort that's happening. I never really thought the project's motivations made sense. But like. The people in charge were invariably idiots so. They seemed to think it was logical."

"Cull the undesirables," Wrath corrects, and something in her mannerisms seems...off, at odds with her previous almost confrontational behaviour. "Anyone the Imperials and the Royals didn't consider 'appropriate'. Which included anything from criminal tendencies, to monetary value, and believe me, they were more than willing to overlook the criminal activities if you had enough money. And screw how you're getting that money." There's a challenging look in her eyes again, watching Solekaran for his reaction to her words.

"...if you're waiting to see how I respond to something, you might want to tell me what it is I'm supposed to be responding to."

Wrath manages an approximation of a grin. "How do you feel about parents selling their twelve year old's virginity?"

"That's the sort of thing where when I find out someone is doing it I generally go straight to killing them without stopping to chat first."

"On that we're agreed."

"Fuck you, sis, it would've been fine. You put up with their shit."

"Oh, were you the twelve-year-old in question?"

There's a moment of silence, the others looking at Lust and Wrath from the corner of their eyes.

"Yes," Lust confirms, with an almost casual shrug. "Although I hardly see how that is relevant."

"You're the one who brought it up. But anyway, back to this story you're trying to tell. So the idea is that they're trying to settle new and dangerous places, and it's not working so well, and instead of doing any sensible things about this, they decide to go back to the places they've already settled and kill a bunch of people they don't like to make room for people they like better? And you're all meant to help with that somehow?"

Pride's not exactly watching him as she responds, head tilted to keep both Wrath, Lust and Solekaran in her field of vision. "I'm not entirely sure they intended to use us personally. Or at least, not all of us."

(Wrath shifts, and there's an impression she's rolling her eyes, even if she doesn't actually roll her eyes.)

"We were just the first ones who survived their tests. And then proved harder to kill than they might like. But the point was that we would act as a...delivery system. For nanotechnology that would...induce the correct emotions that would then lead to murder."

"Oh, charming. So, what, you ran off and now you're making people murder each other on your own time?"

"I'm pretty sure 'ran off' doesn't quite cover what we did," Gluttony muses. "But then again, if you're going to make mistakes like 'get the kid sibling Wrath has already slaughtered a considerable number of people to protect involved' and 'kidnap a fifteen year old off the streets, reconstruct him badly and let Pri know', you probably deserve to have your spines ripped out."