Void Emissary

IC: Daijuno | The Great Takea I took another long draught of ale, which might have been a mistake, considering that I had skipped breakfast and lunch to get down to the beach this morning. But, hey, I figured that my mouth couldn't get me into more trouble drunk than it could while sober. "Now that's something we can agree on, Rhow," I said. "Because you're right, lady -- this isn't the same Empire. Here -- now -- the law cuts the same for you and for me. No royal exemption, no special dispensation, no rounding up of dissidents to dump off the side of the Yukanna in the dead of night. So you're angry with the Empire, with our dear, sweet little empress?" I set my pint down on the countertop, sliding it over to Rhow, along with enough widgets for me and the attendant. "What are you planning to do about it?" OOC: @Umbraline Yumiwa @Vezok's Friend @Mel -Void

IC: Daijuno | The Great Takea I pulled out a Karzahni match and struck it on the bottom of my boot, using it to light my cigar. I took a long drag on it, taking some time to reflect on what this royal attendant had just told me, as well as to do a double-take at the sight of the one, the only, Plangori Shuuan -- she must have come over with the Umbralines, which is hilarious. Word on the street has always been that she has about as much tact as me. "You're putting words in my mouth, ma'am," I said, holding the cigar languidly between two fingers, pretending to watch the smoke rise from its tip to give off the much-needed air of nonchalance that royals are so good at. "I never said that what happened back in Kentoku wasn't a tragedy. Although I will say that I and the rest of 'hoko there probably had about as much of being 'murdered indiscriminately,' as you say, by the Chaotic Six as we did by a menti like yourself whom we happened to inconvenience one day. "What I actually said," I continued, leaning in now and looking this royal ###### spittoon-cleaner dead in the eyes, "was that you and your little entourage and your little empress don't get to come here and tell everyone how to do their jobs. Everyone here was getting along just fine before you and I showed up, and if we all died tomorrow, they'd keep on getting along just fine. I mean, really -- when you really think about it -- you, and the rora, and all the royals here are just ... extraneous at this point. Like a barnacle or a... er, someone remind me, what's the old term for 'parasite'? 'Saihoko,' isn't it?" Siiip. "That is good ###### ale." OOC: @Mel @Umbraline Yumiwa -Void

IC: Saritsu | Odaiba "We're on our way to Sado," Saritsu said, giving Lii a small, reconciliatory smile; although she wasn't sure how much good it would do. The warrior still seemed suspicious of them -- and, Saritsu admitted to herself, not without good reason. Kneeling down amongst the children, her mindarm began gathering twigs and vines and bits of moss to make into splints and poultices. The telescopic lens of her Akaku extended, as her vision suddenly sharpened exponentially until she could see through the minute cracks of the taajars' armour, through the pores of their skin and between their sinuous muscle to where bone sat cracked and fractured. "The Imperial City was designed as a fortress in and of itself," she said, not looking up from her work, "and our hope has been that it's held off this invasion so far. If you can find us safe passage there, the Toroshu and I will make sure that you and your people are taken care of there." Presuming that the Imperial City is still there. OOC: @sunflower @Razgriz @Krayzikk -Void

IC: Daijuno | The Great Takea "From what I understand -- and correct me if I'm wrong here, miss," I said, nodding towards Rhow, the bartender, "but it seems like ###### like that happens fairly regularly around these parts. By Taka's boudoir portraits, you know what happened to our little group of 'Dasaka diplomatic members' on the first day -- the first day! -- that we got here? We ended up having to fight off some lady who looked like her father had been a ###### fikou spider, who tried to sic us with these giant parasitic worms!" While I was saying this, I had been pulling a cigar out of my case and slicing one end off with my dagger. "You're not in Kentoku anymore, ma'am," I said, slipping the other end into my mouth. "Y'gotta try harder to get into the morning's headlines, here." OOC: @Umbraline Yumiwa @Vezok's Friend -Void

IC: Zyla | Ga-Koro Shore Lady Daijuno? Despite her weakness -- or perhaps because of it -- Zyla couldn't help but laugh at that. Goddess, if only Daijuno could have been around it hear it. Zyla couldn't say whether she would have crowed or had a conniption. Perhaps both, in sequence. "No worries, ma'am," Zyla said, reaching up to grab hold of the menti's wrist for support. "I know the ... lady Daijuno. But ... if it is the same to you, I would perhaps enjoy that meal and that berth ... and, perhaps, a bath before I meet with her." OOC: @TL01 NUVA -Voi

IC: Plagia | The Dark Walk I looped the belt around my shoulder, across my chest. The thought of setting off explosives in as confined a space as this wasn't super appealing to me, don't get me wrong. But I remembered the last time that I had taken on Rahkshi -- way back in Le-Koro, with Kehuri and Naru at my side -- and I remembered how quickly they had swarmed me, dragging me down into the swamp to drown in the mire. As good I was with my fists and my sword, I wasn't hankering to go into Round Two with them under-armed. "Thank, K," I said, returning to the back of the group, eyeing up the bonsai that Skri had picked up. OOC: @ARROW404 -Void

IC: Plagia | The Dark Walk "Hey, Kehuri," I whispered, knocking him gently on the shoulder. "You got any of those grenades left?" OOC: @ARROW404 -Void

IC: Saritsu | Odaiba Ever the ######-up of Clan Eiyu, Saritsu could handle having her knuckle rapped, and she bowed her head modestly to the jahagir. "I picked up a thing or not when it comes to medicine in my travels," she said, cautiously making her way over to the wandering warriors. "I'll do what I can." She flashed a look over to her sister, already knowing what she would say. :I know, I know. We've both told each other so, now.: OOC: @Krayzikk @Razgriz -Void

IC: Rynekk | The Fowadi Rynekk clapped a hand on his old friend's shoulder, a weary smile on his face. "Right back 'atcha, Kale," he said, looking at across the ship's deck to the ocean beyond. "I... If ever there's been someone I could count on... right through Tadris, and Stendhal, and whole ###### mess of Ko... it's been you." His smile faltered for a moment, before failing entirely. "Reckon this ship'll need the two of us now more than ever, huh," he said. "You've heard the whispers, haven't you? About Him." OOC: @Silvan Haven -Void

IC: Nika | ??? Nika, for his part, finished loading another sliver of lightstone into the chamber of his rifle. The hope, for pragmatic reasons only, was to keep casualties to zero -- if he could blind the crabs long enough for him and Pae to get out, that would be ideal. Still. It was just a hope. OOC: @Palm @ARROW404 -Void

IC: Zyla | Ga-Koro "Yes," Zyla said weakly, moving to lean on the newcoming Dasaka. "I believe I would like ... somewhere to sit ... and perhaps something to ... eat.... A big something...." OOC: @TL01 NUVA IC: Daijuno | The Great Takea "Yeah, yeah," I said, nodding along with the bartender who had slid me the drink. "Did I hear right that they had been seen in that great city of ice on the other side of the island a few months back? Ko-something, wasn't it?" OOC: @Umbraline Yumiwa @Vezok's Friend -Void

IC: Rynekk | The Fowadi With much of the administrative work taken care of for the day, Rynekk settled himself onto one of the barrels on deck and allowed himself to rest after this long trip from Ko-Koro. "I'm sorry I've been away for so long, Kale," he said, adjusting his hat to block the harsh mid-day sun shining down, checkered, through the Fowadi's rigging. "From what I hear, a lot of the old team pulled up stakes after we freed Ko. I can only imagine how tough it must have been to try and run the ol' girl with half of what we're used to, huh?" OOC: @Silvan Haven -Void

IC: Nika | ??? Nika didn't stop moving when he saw Pae -- instead, he seized the Toa's shoulder with one hand and used his forward momentum to heave himself onto his partner's back. "They're right on top of us," the bounty hunter said. "Think we'll have to go with exit plan 'E.'" OOC: @Palm @ARROW404 -Void

IC: Daijuno | The Great Takea Long, relaxing drink before I get back to the office and find half the saihoko population waiting at the doorstep. That's what I figured. Nice, relaxing drink at a tavern that didn't feature the royal ###### family at its tables. That's what I figured. That's what I expected. Goddess only knows why. It was a bad time to be without Sinshi, or Zyla, or -- by 'taka -- even Whitehot, who could at least make it through a conversation without being a massive ######, which made her about a million times the diplomat that I was. Bad enough time that I sincerely considered getting the karz outta dodge (to quote the 'Munequita herself), just jumping over to the Tidalpool and subjecting myself to the agonizing experience of watching the line at my door across the street grow longer and longer and longer as the day went on. Sure, I could have just avoided the royal family (the royal goddess-###### ###### family!) and just sit at a different table in the Takea, but.... C'mon. It was inevitable, your honour. So I took a seat at the bar. "--thing I can get ya?" the bartender said to one of royals, or maybe one of their entourage, who was to say. "Something to ease the spine ache from the long journey?” To which the royal, or the royal-adjacent, said, "Appreciate the concern; my spine is well oiled and massaged, but I will take an ale. Do you have a speciality?" "Whatever you're giving her, I'll have the same," I said, "and put both on my tab." OOC: @Vezok's Friend @Caedast -Void

IC: Nika | ??? They had simply been too lucky in the past. Either they had been working with the local law enforcement (after a fashion, and with mixed feelings about the arrangement on both sides), or they had managed to get in and out, finishing the job before the cops could be called. Nika had gotten lazy, and he realized it now. Before, he would never have shot towards where he would be headed and draw the eye to where he was going. He had boxed himself in. Karz. "Everyone in the building," he heard the crabs call out from outside, "is hereby ordered to stop all hostilities, put down their weapons, and approach the windows on this side of the building with their hands where we can see them!" Karz! Nika might have been able to take out one or two of them, but he wasn't a fighter -- without Pae or Jin to clear a path for him out of there, he was little better than a sitting infernavika. The front door would surely be blocked off from escape, so unless he could blow his way through a wall into the adjoining building, there wasn't much that he could-- snif snifsnif His eyes slowly flickered down to the bodies of the Matoran he had just dispatched, and to the disk launchers they had been carrying, loaded with disks lined with what looked to be a finely-ground gravel to the untrained eye. Of course, Nika, who had spent the better part of the past years roughing up weapons-dealers, knew the look of Stralix powder when he saw it. Their mark was clearly paying top-dollar for their merchandise, he mused, already crawling over to the grab one of the launchers. Pity he couldn't have afforded better guards. There was only one working launcher left, and only three disks. Three would have to be enough, he thought, aiming the launcher through the broken window. "Hey, cops!" he shouted, and pulled the trigger. "Time for a ###### crab roast!" The disk flew straight and true, slamming into the top corner of the building that Nika had just dived out of, exploding into shards of bamboo and brick, and hopefully showering the cops with enough rubble -- not to kill them, despite the desire, since a lack of casualties might look better if Nika was actually caught -- but to keep them occupied for a few more moments. Enough moments to get out of this place. Nika took off full-tilt after Pae, wondering how much longer his luck could hold out. Karz! OOC: @Palm @ARROW404 -Void

IC: Plagia | Dark Walk Entrance "Sooner the better, LT!" I said as I made my way to the back of the heap. "I've got a roast in the oven that I gotta get back to!" Along my path, I bopped Kehuri on the shoulder and flashed him a friendly wink, hoping to take the edge off -- although whose edge was, well, a little up for debate. The last time that I had walked into a place like this had been next to Akinii, swords out with the rest of the 'Squad to take down Makuta's big, bad hive of Nui-Rama in Le-Wahi. And if my record held out, I would get to the other side of the Dark Walk just fine. It would just be only me coming out, is the thing. God, I wish I had a drink right now. "Hey, Skri," I whispered to her as I settled into the rear (badum-tss! still got it). "First confirmed kill buys lunch when we get out. Deal?" OOC: @Leaf -Void

IC: Rynekk | The Fowadi "Krayn was here?" It wasn't outside the realm of possibility -- if Rynekk hadn't been back to the ship in two months, why would Krayn's timetable be any different? But, still, the thought that he had missed his friend, or that his friend had avoided him was ... troubling. Like many of his problems, Rynekk decided to ignore this one, as well. "Well, no matter," he continued brightly. "I've just been filling Tekmo here in on the history of the Aggressors, as best as a rookie like myself can. He's quite keen -- maybe you can pick up where I left off." -Void

IC: Saritsu | The Outskirts of Odaiba Her hand had been slipping towards the hilt of her blade as soon as the flames appeared across that woman's body. And then, further as the taajar man managed to bait her sister -- the smart one of the family -- into a fight that she couldn't possibly win. And although Saritsu resented anyone who tried to needle her sister, she had met enough of the Chand-Long to know that they understand these lands better than anyone; and that if there was a way to get across the water to Sado, they were the best of finding it. Which meant that Saritsu now had to play politics. Slowly, quietly as she could, Saritsu crept down the treeline, away from her sister and towards the Long caravan. When she saw Nini's look at her movement, she could only manage to get a single phrase out: Trust me. "T'ull a'jaar, Toroshu Shunkyou!" she shouted, stepping out of the underbrush and onto the path that Clan Long seemed to be travelling. Her taajari was rare and rusty, picked up on chance encounters and around roadside campsteads, but she knew the big words and the important greetings. All that she could do was pray that they would be enough here, and that her meagre diplomatic skills could bridge the gap between the two leaders standing before her. :I'll speak like this from now on, if it please,: she continued, her mind and Shunkyou's now bridged. :I too am Eiyu, the companion of the Toroshu to whom you speak. I have met members of your clan many times in my prior travels of these lands, as well as your sisters of the Chand. If your great people are sullen from weeks on the road, imagine what soft imperials such as ourselves must be like now, yes?: She tried for a flicker of a smile, an attempt to break the ice. :My sis-- my Toroshu perhaps speaks hastily, and maybe unkindly; but that is only because we have been tricked before by the demons that now swarm these lands. We are perhaps too on-guard. If I tell my clan leader to drop her illusions, may we start this discussion over again?: -Void

IC: Plagia | Outside the Dark Walk Boy howdy were things breaking bad out here. "Kehuri's right," I said, giving Skri a well-meaning nudge in the ribs. "If anyone's made it this far, it means they've fought their fair share of battles. We've all got notches in our sword-belts -- no need to go showing 'em off, and definitely no need for us to go making more when it isn't needed." I glanced over to the LT, hoping that there was a clear enough pleading in my eyes for them to pull this ship the right way around. -Void

IC: Saritsu | Odaiba Outskirts :We could try to swim it,: Saritsu offered, her doubt bubbling above the surface of her thoughts the harder she tried to push it down. Even she would drown before she had made it halfway across the rapids between Odaiba and Sado, and she had lived half her life among the rough whims of nature -- Nini, bless her soul, would die before even then. But they didn't have any other options, and those ... demons, whatever they were, were gaining ground on them every second. It was either swim or-- :Someone's coming,: she said, spinning, ducking behind bracken. Her Mindarm drew an arrow from her quiver and held it, at the ready, aloft in the air. The sound of footsteps, of many footsteps, travelling along and getting closer. With her Akaku, the foliage became as invisible as air to Saritsu's gaze as she looked for the source-- :Goddess,: she said, turning back to Nihonei momentarily. :Dasaka. A few, at least. I can't make out any clan colours, but they don't seem to be having too hard a time making it through the wilderness. I'd put my money on taajar.: OOC: @Krayzikk @Razgriz @sunflower That's the Chand-Long group that Saritsu is spotting. -Void

IC: Zyla | Ga-Koro Daijuno was not aware -- and what Daijuno was not aware of could fill many books, and Zyla knew this because it was more often than not she was filling those books -- that her assistant and confidant had, against nearly every expectation, managed to survive the initial onslaught of the Demons of Mount Koshiki, to survive the panicked masses that thronged to the cries of Umbraline salvation, to survive the two-month journey across the Sea Without End while subsisting on rations meant only for a three-week patrol across the archipelago. Zyla of Clan Dastana was one of the lucky ones, and had any of the menti -- or even the dashi and the ringti -- managed to notice her amongst the cramped, sick, sweating bodies, they might have been shocked. The saihoko on-board were not surprised, as every one of them had survived similar conditions at one point or another in their lives. This is all needs to be said. When the ship landed on the shores that should have been impossible, Zyla was one of the last to emerge into the hot, humid air; the last to see the sun shimmering through the criss-cross of palm leaves that drifted in a breeze smelling of not just salt, but of fresh fruit and carved wood. Her feet touched burning, golden sand after weeks of damp wood and cold crystal, but she barely felt these things. She barely saw the natives creeping towards the ships, offering shoulders to the Dasaka (even the saihoko), her vision bleary with fatigue and hunger and eight weeks worth of tightly-wound nerves that had did not seem to know how to shut off. All that she could think of was food, and water, and the possibility of a bed with pillows -- or at least a chair to herself. She prayed that such things could be found in this island. She prayed that the Demons couldn't swim. Zyla Dastana had made it to Mata-Nui. OOC: @TL01 NUVA If you want to have Karoru find Zyla, go for it! -Void -Vo

IC: Plagia | Dark Walk Entrance "I'll bring up the rear, then," I said, nodding to the Turaga. I recognized the other one, Zueya I seemed to recall, as one of the Kalta and -- despite what I had heard Reo lament into his cups, I didn't have any issues with her taking the lead when it came to planning this ######storm. "Skri, wanna join?" OOC: @Krayzikk @Perp @Keeper of Kraata -Void

IC: Rynekk | The Fowadi "Kale's dependable, good people; and Dehkaz is mysterious, but'll have your back in a scrape," Rynekk said. "Skyra is flighty, but powerful; Praggos is a crank ... or that's what I hear, anyway. Ember's solid, but I'd wager it wouldn't do to say anything foolish around her. And Krayn...." Stepping out onto deck, he paused, bringing one hand up to shield his eyes from the sun. The gesture might have seemed odd to Tekmo, considering the wide-brimmed hat that the young private had worn even in the underbelly of the Fowadi, but the bright rays would have hidden from view the slight twinge in Rynekk's face at the name of the man, Inzaka. "...Krayn's good people, too," he finished. "We used to have more, but a lot of them drifted away over the months. In all honesty, though, the only way you'll know what anyone's about is by meeting 'em-- Oh, hey there, Mr. Ironshaper! How is it that I've walked this entire ship top-to-bottom and haven't seen the captain anywhere?" -Void

IC: Rynekk | The Fowadi "I was thinking the same thing," Rynekk said, the corners of his mouth crinkling into a smile -- a tired smile. The trip from Ko-Koro had been hard and, truth be told, he wasn't sure if he was ready to see the rest of the crew so soon. He had never been especially close to Dehkaz, true enough ... but it had been too long since he had seen Krayn last, and when he had, it had been while his friend was in traction. "Let's head back up," he said, turning for the stairs. -Void

IC: Saritsu | Odaiba :I'll save it until we're back safe in Sado,: came the Ideatalk of Nihonei's sister, a thought-voice hewn as rough as the jagged cliffsides of Iki. It had only been chance that Saritsu had been with her sister when the creatures had attacked. She had been planning a new expedition into the heart of Oki to try and see if there was any truth to the rumours that Artakha Bulls could be found deep enough in the foliage. But when the ship that had been bringing her fresh supplies was forced to stay at port for a sea-storm from the west, the young Eiyu had gotten bored enough to risk heading back to the family homestead. It was a good thing she had to, or else her sister might have been-- Since then, the trek across Odaiba had been slow and arduous. Dodging the creatures had been bad enough -- not even Saritsu had been reckless enough to try and face them head-on, not after seeing one render an Eiyu soulswordswoman to viscera with simply a twitch of their spear -- but Odaiba itself seemed more difficult to traverse than it ever had before. It was as though the island itself were fighting their progress -- but, if Saritsu's instincts were correct, they should finally be getting to the shoreline soon. :But as soon as we get in view of the palace,: she continued, hacking through another patch of thick underbrush, :I will definitely be #####ing you out for risking your life over a couple of dusty old books.: -Void