Palm

IC: Tuara Drigton - Ta-Koro Streets Kitea's silent protests meant nothing to the firm grip Tuara had on her elder brother as they made their way into the street. She knew the Guard. The second they found what was at the smithy, was the second Tuara would be placed on a first immediate priority list. It was impossible to get there and move some of the remains before they would find them. This was the only option. "Stay close to me." Tuara hissed. The streets were a little busier than usual. It was noon, with high traffic. Anybody one lunch, or anybody with a late start to their day was out. The markets would be packed. Unfortunately, that meant the crowd would be slightly thinner as the pair made their way towards the gates. The markets were in the other direction. Brisk steps carried the Drigtons through the ocean of people, navigating the crowds as efficiently as possible, without having to shove anybody aside. Though Tuara was already running the scenario through her mind. If all went well, they would pass through the gates without a second glance. She was a household name among Guardsmen. However, if the word was out to look for her, that would put her at a disadvantage immediately. They needed to bypass that as quickly as possible. "Shaddix!" Tuara's brow furrowed. What did she just hear? Focusing so strongly on what was next for her and Kitea, she wasn't paying close enough attention to the crowds. "Tu-" "Shaddix!" Tuara turned her head towards what sounded like the start of her name. There, across the street, with a dozen faces between them, was Dorian, standing, just starting to turn away. Tuara nearly changed direction, but stopped completely dead in her tracks when she realized who he was now talking to: A Guard. One of the sergeants. Tuara's heart pounded like a drum. Kitea growled under his breath, "What are you doing? Aren't we in a hurry?" The split second in which Tuara decided to turn away again and continue on her path to the village exit lasted a minute. How long had it been? She couldn't remember. Tuara had spent the last month drowning in alcohol. Wallowing in a series of failures. A ruined career with the Guard, ruined friendships, the failure of Utu, and the personal failure to never pull herself fully out of it all. Always, back to the only consistent comfort in her life: Vodka. What had Dorian seen? Where had he been? There were many questions she wanted to ask him. There's soon to be many that he'll want to ask her. Tuara turned away, giving Kitea another yank on the arm to keep up. 'Not yet, Dorian. Soon. I promise.' They were about halfway to the gates. Tuara's heart began to pound harder still.

IC: Pae - Ko-Koro - Abandoned Home Pae said nothing.

IC: Pae - Ko-Koro - Abandoned Home Pae's face remained entirely unchanged. He turned his eyes to Nika who was still sound asleep. Pae did not return the sentiment directly, but he did say, "I hope we all get what we want."

IC: Pae - Ko-Koro - Abandoned Home Pae's grip softened. Nika's soft snores complimented only by the sound of the wind just outside in the streets of Ko-Koro. He looked over to Jin, still awake, on watch. He stood up. Speaking softly, "I can take over watch." "Thanks," she said, arching her back into a languid stretch. "It's dead as my love life out there." Pae's expression was deader, but he took her place closer to the door regardless. He gave Jin a glance however, and continued by saying, "You could have ran while we slept." He took a seat on a stool, keeping everybody plus the door in his line of sight, "I was offered something of great value as well." Silence. "We agreed to not share. But I would not be here if I didn't believe Polzin could give me what I want."

feels so good to see so much posting again <3

IC: Agrona - Ko-Koro Streets I continued watching as I discreetly prepared needles underneath my cloak. IC: Pae - Ko-Koro - Abandoned Home Pae awoke with a start, his grip on the hammer hard. He looked to his comrades.

IC: Tuara Drigton - Ta-Koro 'Can I put a stop to this?' She had friends, people who would stand up for her in court. Dorian, a man who had murdered, now walked - mostly free. There was coming back from this wasn't there? There was always a solution. There had to be. Tuara knew what it was. She had to come clean. Tuara pushed open the front door with a huff, and Kitea poked his head around the door from her and Dorian's bedroom. She began to march inside with some renewed determination, but stopped when she looked up at her brother's face. Coming clean meant burying Kitea beneath miles of granite in implications in crimes against Mata-Nui and its people. Burying one of two Drigtons left standing: Tuara's only family. Kitea stepped out and asked, "What's wrong?" She looked him in the eye and spoke, her mouth dripping with magma, "Tell me everything, this instant. No secrets. I need you to explain to me exactly what happened to that Guardsman you killed." Kitea wrung his hands together, but Tuara pressed onward. "Kitea, they know what happened." His expression changed harshly, and he asked incredulously, "How?" She stepped towards him, closing the door behind her. Tuara faltered a little, and put her hand to her brow, "I... I let slip that something was at the smithy. Jaller took it pretty seriously." Kitea advanced down the steps into the living room, "You told the ###### Akiri?" Tuara suddenly felt herself falling to her defense, "Not exactly! I just told him something was-" she stopped, pushing back, "It doesn't matter. They know, and we need to make a decision right now. I have friends, I can protect you but-" "You can't protect me! You can't protect us! We're ###### because I wasn't there to hold your hand? Are you kidding me?" Kitea growled, "Tuara, if your plan was to talk to your friends, you had to do that before you ###### hid a body for me." Kitea began pacing, his own hand pressed hard against his forehead. Tuara stepped forward, gripping her fist on Kitea's collar, and yanking him towards her, "Shut the ###### up. Tell me what happened." Kitea stammered, "He-e was my c-contact." "You've been spying on the Guard." Tuara hissed, her tone sharper than knives. "He got cold feet! Said he was going to rat me out-t!" Kitea struggled to defend himself, "I had no other choice!" Tuara looked into Kitea's eyes, sensing a sadness growing. "The entire world would fall upon me in an instant! I would never see the skies again, or even you!" Tuara was taken aback and was about to retort, "I know I should have come to you. But I never wanted you to get involved in this war." "I got involved without your help." "But not because of me!" Kitea growled back, "I wouldn't have been able to live with myself if I pulled you into the crossfire. I should have never come to you for help. It was selfish and terrible and now you're going to burn because of my choices." Tuara released Kitea's collar. He took a moment to stand upright, sheepishly, "I don't deserve your help." Tuara looked away for a moment, glancing at her front window with a renewed nervousness, "I can still give it." He looked back up. Tuara's fist clenched. Harder and harder. Shaking. Finally she spoke again, "We're leaving." Kitea shook his head, "We're not making it out of Ta-Koro in time." Tuara reached forward and grabbed his arm, yanking on it as she turned around towards the door, "Tuara, what are you-" "I've done impossible things before. I'm taking you out of here, and we're going to work this out." Tuara shoved the door open, and the two walked out into the streets, turning east towards the gates. It would be quite the walk.

No gotta love f a m i l y ♫ and there ARE more details in the hiding - but the information of a missing recruit and a general location is enough to raise some alarms

In other news, there's some fun stuff going on with Tuara.

IC: Tuara Drigton - Ta-Koro - Jaller's Office 'What am I talking about?' Tuara thought to herself. Discerning the situation with Kitea was not likely to be taking stress off her life at the moment. Tuara began to feel a little sick. She looked at the papers now in her hand and the pay-check. She looked up again to Jaller and suddenly blurted, "You have another recruit you should check up on. Behind the old smith shop." Tuara turned away quickly, hiding her face and pushed open the door. Stepping outside with a sudden urgency. She closed the door hard and without a single word or a second of pause to the guards at the door she began speed-walking down the road towards the crowded market. '######, ######, ######.' She had just told Jaller about the body - which she now for some reason claimed to be a new recruit in the guard. The Akiri himself was just given the location of a body Tuara disposed of. Tuara, dizzy and suddenly sick, felt her stomach tie itself inside out. She wanted to puke. Tuara began jogging. '#######, Mata-Nui.'

IC: Tuara - Ta-Koro - Jaller's Office 'Why did I say that?' Tuara asked herself internally. What a dumb question. She rubbed the back of her neck and continued, "Thank you, Jaller. I know trusting me with work isn't... easy. Right now." With a sigh she crossed her arms and looked away, speaking a little wistfully, "Ta-Koro seems to feel a similar way right now." After a moment of silence between the two, Tuara stood up from her chair, "Maybe it's time the village started to be honest with itself," she examined her cut-off gloves, "This place has been Mata-Nui's bastion of safety, but with Ko-Koro taken you must feel your time slipping away." Tuara stepped to the door, ready to leave, "It is."

IC: Tuara Drigton - Ta-Koro - Jaller's Office Tuara sat down and waited for Jaller to greet her. Once he did, she traded his smile for one of her own and leaned forward. Here she was, sitting across from an old friend, her old boss, and the most powerful person alive in Ta-Koro, with a secret that would certainly ruin her for life. Tuara wouldn't be here today if she didn't feel a sense of urgency surrounding the situation. The ex-cop might have had connections with the guard, but as long as any cases into homicides were opening at any point, she wanted to be close enough to access that information as quickly as possible. She shook her head, "Sorry," Tuara began with a sort of sad smile, "You're right." Tuara rubbed the back of her neck, "I'm looking for work right now," she said, "I know the Guard has no shortage of things to be taken care of. I've only been home a few days and I'm already going a bit crazy, not doing anything so I'd be happy to return to the force." Tuara gave a little laugh, and asked Jaller before he could respond, with a bit of a flatter, colder tone, "Do you feel safe right now?"

IC: Tuara Drigton - Ta-Koro Tuara gave the guards a nod, "Good, am I free to go in?"

OOC: Invoking the 12-hour rule. IC: Tuara Drigton - Ta-Koro A lost brother found alive, implicated in murder, implicated with Makuta's people. An ex-cop usually drunk, implicated in murder, implicated with the murderer. Tuara showed no signs of nervousness as she moved through the streets with a clear destination on her mind: Jaller's offices. The idea that she was now on her way to speak with her old boss and Ta-Koro's leader was enough for her to sober up. The hangover didn't feel very good though. She approached Ta-Koro's central offices.

Tuara Drigton "She was in." Got some fun stuff planned here.

IC: Tuara - Ta-Koro Tuara closed the door behind her and let out a deep sigh. She looked up to see Kitea sitting meekly on her living-room couch. Upon hearing Tuara's entrance, Kitea turned around and stood up to face his younger sister. Tuara - still drunk - stepped into her home and immediately stepped inside. He stammered a bit, but before he could form a proper word, Tuara kicked a kitchen chair around and said flatly, "Sit." Kitea quickly made his way around the couch and placed himself into his new seat, directly opposite Tuara. "Who was he?" Kitea tried to look away, but he wouldn't be able to get away, "Kitea, I know you can't tell me everything, but I think I deserve some answers." Kitea began, "I can't tell you." Tuara leaned in and began to whisper, "I just tossed a body," she hissed, her voice shrill, "for you." Kitea responded, "The less you know the better." Tuara stood up, her speech slightly slurred, "How naive do you think I am? I'm already involved!" Kitea stood up and pointed at Tuara, "You're drunk!" Tuara's fists clenched, "This is not about me you ######. I wasn't dead for hundreds of years. I didn't ask my sister to cover up a murder. Mata-Nui, Kitea! Where were you?" Tuara's fists began to shake and she yelled, "You abandoned me!" Kitea's facial features softened slightly and Tuara lowered her voice again, "After all this time, not a single letter or word from you to tell me that you were alive," Tuara's voice broke, "You're the one in the wrong and you know it." she finally finished, wiping some tears from under her eyes, "The least you can do is tell me why." Kitea looked away, scowling, avoiding eye-contact, "I didn't want to involve you in the things I was involved in. I was running with some Makuta cultists. Pretty much as soon as mom and dad..." Kitea gripped his own arm, and Tuara felt herself sober up slightly. She switched from vulnerable to defensive, "I wanted to wait for the right time to find you but I kept putting it off. The more I knew about who I was with and our plans, the more dangerous I became to you." "Makuta cultists?" Tuara asked, somewhat incredulously, "Kitea, those people are terrorists," Kitea refused to return eye-contact, "You should have known that even as kids!" Tuara suddenly found herself thinking about where her pole-staff was. She should be able to take on Kitea without a weapon, but there wasn't much trust in place that a Makuta-follower wouldn't have something up his sleeve. Especially somebody who's committed murder. Tuara instinctively took a step back. "You weren't there." Tuara snorted, "Don't tell me you're still with them!" Kitea only now looked up at his sister, finally making eye-contact, "You can't be serious." "You didn't see the things I saw. Makuta, his power is-" "Friends and families have been torn apart for that demon. Hundreds dead in Ko-Koro just weeks ago," Tuara said, "I've nearly lost friends to his 'people'. I'll probably lose more in the coming years." Kitea looked away again, "Whatever." Tuara shook her head in shock, "Whatever? Kitea people are dead and dying." Kitea remained silent. "Are you going to say anything?" His silence continued. Tuara sighed and turned towards the kitchen, letting out another sigh. It was bad enough that she'd just helped her brother dispose of a body - which had yet to be explained - but she had done it for a past - maybe present - follower of the most dangerous network of cultists and criminals on Mata-Nui in recent centuries. For what? For a chance at a family again? Tuara leaned with both hands onto the stone counter-top. It didn't matter how she felt now. She was in.

what's happening

IC: Agrona - Ko-Koro Streets I watched the fight with great intensity. Frowning slightly at the injuries Eisen had sustained for himself. That would be something to fix up later. Hopefully it would be the only thing. I turned my gaze towards the other gathered party members, but underneath my cloak, my fingers were working secretly. I discreetly had lifted off one of my vials from my belt, and opened the top off. I hummed a little tune softly, and the insects under my cloth and atop my skin moved about. I was preparing needles. Eisen wanted to win the fight with honour. I didn't want to challenge my powers of resurrection on his charred corpse. As trusted and powerful as he may be, Eisen was just one man. Was I planning on using these darts I was preparing? No, not unless I had to. I narrowed my eyes as I silently worked, the contents of my craft completely hidden from any potential onlookers. I looked at Oreius with great interest. A hundred questions raced through my mind 'what if-', 'how can we-', and 'what will we-'. But chiefest at the moment was 'what exactly was that mask?'

Hey everybody! I'm going to have next to no internet access until Sunday evening. Thanks!

IC: Tuara Drigton - Ta-Koro - Angelus' Office "That was here too?" Tuara nearly stood up, but remained seated, clenching her fists. She suddenly remembered Utu, and the path Joske set her on before abandoning it and vanishing. The thought of it made her cheeks flush with heat. She sat back and crossed her arms, the usual sharp attitude in her voice sullied by her slurred speech, "No, I didn't know about that. Any of that. This day has been just a flood of new information," Tuara looked away, scowling, "First Kitea, and now-" Tuara stopped herself, and covered her hand with her mouth.

IC: Tuara Drigton - Ta-Koro - Angelus' Office Tuara squinted her eyes, thinking for a minute, "Wait," she began, "Where is he? Is he OK?"

IC: Tuara Drigton - Ta-Koro - Angelus' Office "You're not much better," Tuara said, a drunk lilt to her speech, lazily wrapping her own arms around Angelus, "I'd seen Jaller stress before, but the bags under his eyes weren't that big," Tuara quipped back, still hugging him. In her drunken state, Tuara felt a short moment of clarity, realizing just how long the two had been embracing. She pulled back to look at him, searching for something in his face. Her sober mind would have been quicker to find something, but eventually she met her mark, "Bad a day as I?" She pushed past him with a sigh, "You can't talk about it I bet," Tuara kicked the chair in front of his desk around and sloppily threw herself down into it, "But you don't have to worry about that," she pointed at him with gun fingers, "I didn't come to steal your secrets," Tuara let out a little 'puh-choo' as she 'fired' the gun. Her expression changed slightly as if she was struggling to focus and think, "I don't think anyway." "You usually don't," the Captain deadpanned, sitting back on his couch and pulling some innocuous papers over Kino's case file. "You're day drunk - and the morgue isn't full. Your boyfriend must have left town after all. Sorry about your apartment...things must be kind of a shock to you right now." Tuara's felt her expression almost change at the word morgue but she was quickly snapped back to the present at the mention of her apartment, "Yeeeaaah I was a bit confused, but I mean, the piano," she reached into her pocket and grabbed the note Angelus had left on her door, "Shaddix is gonna throw a fit that when he sees it." She plopped the note on Angelus' desk and looked up at the toa of fire.

eisen and oreius about to fight in ko is actually making me physically exhausted

OOC: Bunnying permission from Eyru with Oreius' response to her. Eisen dialogue provided by Gundam. IC: Agrona - Ko-Koro - The Citadel Courtyard I followed Eisen down the steps, and glanced at Oreius, "No examination?" His face told me I wouldn't be getting anywhere near him for a check-up. With a wink and a sing-songy voice I said to him, "Don't worry, meat. I'm only a little offended." Once by my companion again, I reached forward, and took Eisen's wrist, humming to myself casually. I slid my hands up his arm, checking for scrapes or bruises. I stopped my little song to ask quietly, "Any sparring injuries I'm not aware of?" "None that I'm aware of." The Fe-Toa answered, after a moment to think. "Any from the invasion are long gone, and I have not sustained any since." "Good," I say simply, returning to my song. I check his other arm and continue my scan, "Oreius Maru," I say, "So many mysteries and secrets," I turn around and glance at him, standing a ways away before returning to my work, "I don't need to tell you to overestimate him," I position myself in front of Eisen and hold up a finger for his eyes to track, "I may be good, but I've never brought a charred corpse back to life." "If all goes according to plan," Eisen said, letting his green eyes track her finger left then right. "We shouldn't have to find out if you can. I wouldn't challenge him if I didn't think I could win. Not, granted, that he left us much choice." Satisfied with his eyesight, I ask Eisen, "One leg," and he obliges, putting all his weight onto one, and letting the other hang loose. I knock the space above his kneecap with my knuckles, and his leg bounces. I step back and say one more thing before turning away, "Good luck, Eisen." I made my way back to the sidelines, and watched his opponent preparing to fight. Win or lose, I knew we were about to learn something about Oreius Maru.

IC: Agrona - Ko-Koro - The Citadel The tension in the room shifted. I felt my muscles relax slightly at Oreius' response. I let go of my hidden weapons and brought my hands out into the open again. I cleared the space between Eisen and I and slid up next to him, "Once you're outside, I'll make sure you're in peak condition." I nodded to Orieus Maru as well, speaking to him for the first time, "You too, if you'll have it, Toa," I said, "Eisen said no tricks and I will abide by that," I shoot Eisen a look. Binding oneself to honor while against a Maru didn't exactly fill me with confidence. Eisen was certainly capable, but that didn't change the fact that his opponent was a legendary hero, "Though I'll understand if you refuse," I step forward, feeling some attraction to Oreius' power. After-all, this was one of the beings who managed to "slay" my god, "It might be... uncharacteristic of a Maru to ask for assistance, no?"