This girl is a gun, before you know it, it's done
And you'll be wishing that you crossed your fingers

ucifer appears to her first as a rippling black smear on the horizon, his figure distorted by the shimmering waves of heat that roil from the sun-baked sand. As he draws closer, grunting out a question by way of greeting, she thinks she detects an edge to his voice - not one of hostility, but of something else. Marceline's amber eyes sweep assessingly over his form, but she sees nothing outwardly wrong with him. His posture seems relaxed, and so far he has been receptive to her arrival. She quickly brushes any thoughts of anger or injury, choosing to pursue the topic which had drawn her here in the first place.

"Indeed," she affirms, pleased that he has caught on so quickly. Marceline's lips purse as she considers her next words carefully. Though her interactions with Lucifer had, admittedly, been quite fleeting, he struck her as the type to tread carefully around. "I am not one to pass up an opportunity when it presents itself. So I have come to suggest an alliance," she settles on at last. "The wicked witch you share your southern border with is an enemy to us both, it seems, and I think we would do well to unite against her." Marceline picked her words with care, keeping her gaze carefully trained on his face, assessing his features for any shift in expression that might give her a hint at the direction of his thoughts.

The irony is not lost on her, of course - the former Peak Prime Minister seeking to align herself with the former Lagoon thug she had once held hostage within her borders. If someone had told the Marceline of three years past she would be offering an alliance to the great black beast, she would have rolled herself down the Peak rather than accept it as reality. But circumstances have changed, and in the face of the threat that is Nyimara they cannot afford to be picky about whom they garner support from. Marceline knows all too well that the Desert queen is a force to be reckoned with, a tempest trapped within a sultry body that she would wield both in battle and in bed to get what she wanted. There was little doubt in Marceline's mind that her long-time rival would stop at nothing to take anything and everything she could from them.

"If there is something you desire," Marceline continues, "you need only name it and I will do everything in my power to help you obtain it." Within reason, of course. She would not be giving away her daughters like chattel - though she had no doubt if presented the opportunity at least one of them would be willing to take a vacation from the Hills - nor would she subjugate herself to him. Yet if there were middle ground to be found, Marceline would meet him there, and if all went well they would forge a fruitful alliance that would bring Salem one step closer to unity.