Endless Sea (Alaki Nuva)

IC: Joskander (Blackrock Canyon) Ko-Koro. Ha. Funny how that works out, I suppose. Joskander watched Dahkapa as he walked out into the burning light of the sun. Message received. Bridge burned. Just as well they'd be going in the same direction, he supposed. Perhaps he'd stop off by the Sanctum, let the guards know of their erstwhile knight's wanderings? No reason not to, he supposed. The Guard could do with that information what they wished. He had another former protector of Ko-Koro to look after. And I've got a news flash for you, brother. I'm the one with the Mask of Speed, not you. Maybe I'll see you there. Maybe this is farewell for good. I'll leave it to Destiny to decide which. Joskander's Kakama flared to life. A gust of wind rustled Dahkapa's cape as the Toa of Air blurred and vanished across the horizon. OOC: @Daniel the Finlander Joskander to Ko-Wahi.

IC: Cephala (Ga-Koro docks) "Really? We're taking a wagon all the way to Ko-Koro together and you don't find a little round of introductions to be prudent? My, my, whatever do they teach you Toa in Kentoku?" OOC: @Mel @Geardirector @Keeper of Kraata

IC: Cephala (Ga-Koro docks) It was a little while before Cephala finished packing and returned to the group. There wasn't much more for her to get- she tended to travel light, and they'd all probably need to stock up in Ko-Wahi anyways- but what alcohol was still in her system was having a rough time letting go. One of the little Dasaka Matoran-ish fellows actually had to help her into the cart, and she'd made it through a good chunk of her (rather sizeable) repository of expletives by the time she was done being seated. Pretty classy way to travel, though. Wagons were a new experience for her; closest she'd gotten in the past was renting out a Ussal. She wondered if it might somehow be possible to nap all the way to Ko-Wahi; they were certainly stocked up on more than enough heatstones and blankets to be comfortable, but then, she was also sharing the wagon with two particularly saucy elders, a snake, a birb, and... “You’re leaving for Ko-koro today, right? I’ll be coming with you.” Curious. "Oh? And who might you be, little one?" OOC: @Mel @Geardirector @Keeper of Kraata

IC: Joskander (Blackrock Canyon) And Joskander said nothing as he watched Dahkapa go. He'd been waiting for this, he realized, ever since the two of them had left Ta. Some part of him had probably been hoping for it, even. You can punch a monster in the face, but you can't punch a faith... This is for the best, he told himself. You're a fighter, not a therapist. You were never cut out to help. He's beyond you now. Go home, Joskander. There are other battles waiting- battles you were actually made to win. They were words he'd told himself before, when he ran from Ko-Koro. They meant nothing then. They meant even less now. Screw it. One more try. "Brother," he called out. "Dahkapa. Where are you headed next?" OOC: @Daniel the Finlander

IC: Joskander (Blackrock Canyon) "Yeah, and I bet the Brotherhood tells that to everyone they take to the conversion chambers... right before they pick up their knives." OOC: @Daniel the Finlander

IC: Joskander (Blackrock Canyon) "Your eyes?" Joskander chuckled mirthlessly. "Dahkapa, you should have seen your eyes a moment ago. You looked like one of them. Like the last thing left to break in you finally went and broke." OOC: @Daniel the Finlander

Haven't found a good place for Cephala to interject, so I'm letting you guys guide things for now.

IC: Joskander (Blackrock Canyon) It took almost a minute before Joskander found his voice again. "Dahkapa, you worship a death god. You know what I thought you meant." OOC: @Daniel the Finlander

IC: Joskander (Blackrock Canyon) Because you were talking like a cultist. Because I didn't like the look in your eyes. Because you're scaring me. Because this place is scaring me. Because I hate this place and everything it stands for. Because I remember burning buildings, and I know something wrong happened in one of them, and something's wrong here too. Because I miss my friends and I want to see them again. Because I thought you were a friend and now I don't know anymore. Because I don't know you and I never did. Because I've lost the ability to trust ever since I saw you again in Ta-Koro. Because I've been carrying the world ever since I watched Ko-Koro burn. Because I feel responsible for everything you are and everything you do. Because I don't understand what's going on. Because I'm lost. Because you're lost. Because I wish I'd never come to this god-forsaken island no I don't no I don't stop that stop that what is WRONG with me Joskander looked down at his fallen brother, eyes narrowed, shoulders rising and falling with every heaving breath. A thousand thousand answers to Dahkapa's question flitted through his mind, rattling the edges, screaming to be heard. Had he been any less tired, he would have let them all out. The tablet in his hand had cracked upon impact with Dahkapa's face. A second crack was forming right alongside it, widening rapidly beneath the Toa of Air's gauntleted grip. Joskander sighed and let the tablet fall. "Before I answer that question, I want you to answer one of my own. I want you to define the word 'sacrifice' for me." OOC: @Daniel the Finlander

IC: Joskander (Blackrock Canyon) Joskander stared. The gears in his head were groaning. Speeding up? Slowing down? Who knew? He was always bad at metaphors, and he had better things to worry about than figuring this one out. Chief among those better things, of course, was the fact that he was presently attempting to slam the Brotherhood's instruction tablet directly into Dahkapa's crazy smiling face. After spending the entire trip as a paranoid wreck, it was almost liberating to finally do something incredibly stupid and poorly thought-out again. OOC: @Daniel the Finlander

IC: Joskander (Blackrock Canyon) It was not long before Joskander trudged his way back up the stairs, but there was eternity in his eyes as he stepped back out into the sunlight. His moved as if his armor was twice as heavy and half as articulated as it had been but a few minutes before, and he was clutching the stone tablet in his hand hard enough to dig marks into its weathered surface. "I think you were almost right," he muttered as he approached Dahkapa. "Saw a few marks on the ground that gave me the impression there used to be bookcases there- or some kind of shelving, at least. Nothing anymore, though." He regarded the tablet he had looted as one would a bloodied knife. "This was the only thing I could find that had writing on it. It doesn't look like scripture, though. More like an instruction manual. For..." His eye twitched. "I don't wanna say it. I think you got a pretty good idea, though." OOC: @Daniel the Finlander Wasn't sure what you were hoping Joskander would find down there, if anything, so I picked something I felt would be relevant. If you were fishing for something else for him to find, do let me know!

IC: Joskander (Blackrock Canyon) "...I hope that from now on, the truth of Ak'rei'an can be spread with words of reason, not coercion. Maybe then followers of Mata Nui won't respond with such excessive force." Joskander shook his head as he gingerly trotted his way down the frozen steps. Maybe, huh? he thought as he watched Dahkapa outpaced him. You hope, huh? You know, when you first started talking at me like that, I was waiting for the other shoe to drop. No clue whether you were trying to play me, or you were just insane. Couldn't take a word you said at face value. Now, I'm starting to think you genuinely believe every word of what you're saying... and that scares me. Because there's no way in all the world that you'll be able to convince your cultist friends that what they did to you was wrong... or convince people like me to forgive them. And I have no idea what you're going to do when you realiOHNOOHGODOHMAN- Slip. Both Joskander's feet gave beneath him, and suddenly he was skidding head over heels down the last few steps and crashing face first into the floor. By the time he had picked himself off the ground and reassured himself that he hadn't gone the way of that poor old Skakdi at Obsidian Outpost, Dahkapa was already easing his way through a broken wall and- oh no- a hidden passageway. Never a good sign, one of those in a place like this. "Dahkapa!" he called as he stumbled out of the ruined halls. "Brother! Wait up!" Squeeze through the passage, jump down the hole, don't trip, don't trip, down the stairs down the stairs, down the stairs- He saw the room before he saw Dahkapa. "Oh." For a few moments he just stood there on the stairs, squinting into the chamber, trying to catch a glimpse of its innards, instantly regretting it whenever he did. Then he slowly walked down to stand by Dahkapa's side. "I can search this room for you, if you want," he murmured. "But I don't think we're gonna find anything worthwhile down here." OOC: @Daniel the Finlander

IC: Cephala (Ga-Koro docks) "Oh? I hope that means you're planning on taking on more than just us on this rescue mission, then. Two old petkeepers and a drunk fisherwoman in the Wastes? Even with the cultists gone from Ko-Koro I'm not too drunk to realize that's not a disaster waiting to happen." OOC: @Mel @Geardirector

IC: Cephala (Ga-Koro docks) "Ah." A grimace. "This wouldn't happen to be that 'Soraph' lady you mentioned earlier, yes?" OOC: @Mel @Geardirector Decided to check on old posts from the Old People Corner, and apparently this isn't the first time Soraph's come up! Gonna edit my last post too to clear up a minor bit of continuity.

IC: Cephala (Ga-Koro docks) "Oh?" Cephala frowned in thought. "Nothing planned, no- I wouldn't have asked to stick around with you lot earlier if I had obligations to take care of, y'know? I was thinking about trying to mingle with some of your cohorts earlier, naturally, but that's less of a plan and more of a 'stand around and wait for things to happen' sort of thing anyways. Why do you ask?" OOC: @Mel @Geardirector EDIT: looked up some old posts, found a thing where Cephala asked to come along anyways, decided to put it in because continuity. I worry too much, methinks.