BZPRPG - Le-Wahi

[Mr. Lightning Bolt]

IC Jrahann:

 

Jrahann resisted the urge to tug at the cloak and make sure it covered Dia properly, and stood up. The Fe-Matoran was more weight than she was used to carrying on her back, and she had trouble not stooping for real. Jrahann took a few steps experimentally, getting used to the feeling.

"Let's get going, I don't want anyone seeing us out here and getting suspicious."

IC Asuno:

"Right", Asuno replied. "Let's move."

The two made their way towards the stadium, hoping this plan would work out.

[Ghosthands]

IC (Merror)

 

"Of course," Merror replied, with a hint of a knowing smile. "Any sign of Liacada?"

 

He hadn't mentioned Aerus to Sisk or Agni, but the mysterious little Matoran was certainly not forgotten. He had no doubt that Echelon's erstwhile assistant would be found if (and only if) he wanted to be.

Edited June 30, 2014 by Ghosthands

[shadow pridak money gang]

IC:

 

Naria smiled, standing. "Not a problem, Kongu," she said, about as informal as ever, before stepping to the door. "Good luck with your endeavors, and also, you should be careful that I don't steal one of your Le-Matoran and convince them to stay in Ga-Koro." She winked at the Akiri of Le-Koro, and then stepped out the door, looking around for Cysero after she did so.

 

IC:

 

Cysero strolled out of the market and into Naria's vision, arms outstretched and gym bag clunking against his side. He smiled at her widely and threw an arm around her shoulder. "Everything go okay with Kongu? I'm guessing it did, he took the wine and you still have a smile on your face. Come on, let's go to the Kolhii pitch."

 

"...Where's the fruit, Cysero?"

 

Cysero's eyes narrowed in confusion, and then widened. "...Oh. Whoops. Knew I forgot something."

 

Naria stared at him incredulously, and then shrugged away from his arm with a facepalm and began walking back towards the lift. Cysero trailed her the whole way, trying to explain that it was an honest mistake and he got caught up at looking at all the different fruits and thinking about how much fun her visit was going to be to buy some, but Naria just kept facepalming until they reached the Kolhii pitch. The Ga-Matoran found a Kolhii stick in one of the dugouts and walked back out into the center of the pitch, grinding her foot into the grass half-heartedly. Cysero had disappeared to go get his gear, he said, and--

 

THWOOOOOOOOPTHUMPTHUMPTHUMPTHUMP!

 

The Le-Matoran had snuck up behind Naria and, cackling, dumped a gym bag's worth of pears, melons, peaches and plums onto the Ga-Matoran's head.

 

-Tyler

[otter]

IC:

 

"You just bruised about sixty percent of the peaches, a few of the plums cracked open, I don't even want to think of what might've happened to the pears, and those melons hurt."

[shadow pridak money gang]

IC:

 

"Baby! You're being a baby!" To prove his point, Cysero lifted up one of the peaches, peeled part of the skin back, and took a bite. "Baby's first fruit avalanche!"

 

-Tyler

[otter]

IC:

 

Naria frowned, looking for all the world like she was annoyed and determined to pay Cysero back, and picked up one of the melons.

 

"I'll count to five. You have until I reach five to start running." She looked down at the melon, inspecting it for any weak spots. Satisfied, she began to count.

 

"One."

[shadow pridak money gang]

IC:

 

"You ain't gonna hit me."

 

-Tyler

Edited June 29, 2014 by Plank Sinatra

[otter]

IC:

 

"Two."

[shadow pridak money gang]

IC:

 

"You're chattin' waffles."

 

-Tyler
 

[otter]

IC:

 

"Three."

[shadow pridak money gang]

IC:

 

"You ain't about that life. I bet you don't even roll deep."

 

-Tyler

[otter]

IC:

 

"Four," Naria said, raising the hand holding the melon up in preparation to throw it.

[shadow pridak money gang]

IC:

 

With the quick instincts and the natural reflex of an athlete, Cysero's hand swept out of his gym bag and clutched his Kolhii stick; swinging it in a riposte he knocked the melon out of Naria's hand and let it splatter against her torso. By the time she looked down in shock and up at him with the intent to murder him, he was already running halfway across the pitch, making "WHOOO HOOOO HOOOOOO" noises and clambering up the goal post. When he was balanced on the top of the structure, he turned to Naria and stuck his tongue out.

 

"LEAP THIS HOOP IF YOU'RE SO GREAT!"

 

-Tyler

[otter]

IC:

 

In actuality, the melon just bounced against Naria instead of splattering against her (well, okay, it may have splattered a bit, but it wasn't like the entire melon just blew up on her). What Cysero didn't notice, however, was that she had filled the net end of her kolhii stick with a bunch of plums and peaches with her foot, and as he clambered up the goal post, she flung the bunch of ripe, juicy, and somewhat bruised or broken open fruits at the Le-Matoran with an accuracy that could only have come from years of practice flinging small spherical objects around.

 

As Cysero started to challenge Naria, he was then hit by the group of fruits - almost as though it was an orbital bombardment of drupes and juice - and was sent rolling back down to the ground covered in bits of fruit flesh and sticky, sugary juice. Thankfully, the few fruits that hadn't hit him were there to break his fall, giving him an easily broken and even stickier cushion to land on.

 

"I'm sorry, I couldn't quite hear you."

Edited June 29, 2014 by The Otter

[shadow pridak money gang]

IC:

 

"You still didn't leap the hoop!" Cysero groaned from the sticky ground, reveling in his half-victory.

 

-Tyler

[otter]

IC:

 

"I never accepted your challenge anyways. I didn't have to."

[shadow pridak money gang]

IC:

 

"Still didn't leap it." Cysero groaned again and sat up, rubbing his head and face, leaving peace juice stains where his hands traveled.

 

-Tyler

[otter]

IC:

 

"Cys, you need a shower."

[shadow pridak money gang]

IC:

 

"Think so?" The Kolhii forward looked up at Naria and grinned wolfishly.

 

-Tyler

[otter]

IC:

 

"Cysero, wipe that grin off your face before I do it for you," Naria replied, though she smiled back. "I know what that grin means, and that's not what I was thinking of."

[Eyru]

IC (Greed)

 

The Toa of air stood against the storm of words that assailed him on all sides, and smiled. He never stopped smiling, showing his teeth in a sort of shark's grimace that had less to do with joy and more to do with warning his peers that he was still dangerous. A wounded lion still has his claws, and Greed's were sharp enough to kill.

 

He waited until the words died down, then opened his mouth for his final speech. This was his last chance to convince these sinners that his cause was a worthy one; if he failed, he had no doubt they would slink off, back to their shadowy dens and blood-soaked lives where they could live well enough without him. One or two might stay (he knew Anthyn would, at least: his impassioned call for pure destruction and violence had been, no doubt, music to her ears), but the majority would scatter, leaving him powerless again.

 

He would not let that happen. He was a king. He would win their power to his cause, and baptize this filthy land in fire and blood.

 

"Three turns of the moon ago, I walked with Echelon. I and others with similar pasts swore to preserve the legacy of our Master, the Makuta, and bring this island under the sway of shadows once more. We were powerful, and our names surely caused many hearts to quake with fear. We could have done anything.

 

"But I left before long," he continued. "Though the Necromancer was not lacking in zeal for his Master, he never moved in strength. Afraid to extend his hand without the support of the Darkness, and convinced that lurking in the dark would do more than killing in the light, he led us from shadow to shadow, and no farther.

 

"I abandoned his cause, and my steps took me to the bowels of Mangaia, to the door that even the Maru could not open. It was there that I, Ketan, the bane of Ga-Koro, discovered the secret of the Abettor. Yes, it was I who first met this behemoth of metal and magic, and dared to question it. I learned things that day, my brothers and sisters, and have kept them close to my heart ever since.

 

"Shortly after this, it became known to me that strange feet walked our shores. I have little doubt you already know the rumours: these Dasaka hailed from a distant Archipelago, across the endless ocean, and wielded powers we have only dreamed of."

 

He looked from one sinner to the next, gauging their reaction. "I seek the destruction of this land because it is not worth my time or yours to rule. This Archipelago will be ours, and, with it, the secret hidden beneath the Kini-Nui. You are all sinners, so I count you as my friends: I will lead you to all the simplest power of the world, and we will take it for ourselves."

[shadow pridak money gang]

IC:

 

"Right. Okay."

 

-Tyler

[otter]

IC:

 

Naria glared. "I doubt you'd be very good, anyways," she challenged, smiling slyly. "From what I remember you weren't the best."

[shadow pridak money gang]

IC:

 

"You think I am a lesser man, to rise to your bait as such," Cysero said calmly, wiping peach juice from his jaw. "You forget my monk-like fortitude in the face of challenge and mockery."

 

-Tyler

[otter]

IC:

 

"No, but I do think you're covered in fruits, need a shower, and need to practice on your humor. Also, I don't recall very much monk like fortitude the last time I challenged you to any sort of a contest."

[shadow pridak money gang]

IC:

 

"In the stalwart face of your cruelty, I shall turn and retreat with honor and dignity to the shower," said the fruit covered Le-Matoran sagely, standing and bowing deeply. "If you wish to accompany me on this most wondrous of journeys down the beaten path towards true enlightenment, I would welcome your company." 

 

He turned around and, to the athlete's credit, made it about a dozen steps without laughing.

 

-Tyler

[otter]

IC:

 

"I don't think enlightenment is supposed to be sticky, but you're leaving a fruity trail along that beaten path."

[shadow pridak money gang]

IC:

 

"Are you coming or what?"

 

"Not if you're trying to make me."

 

Cysero turned on his heel, shrugged, and threw Naria over his shoulder on his walk back to the locker room.

 

-Tyler

[otter]

IC:

 

Naria sighed, and shrugged herself.

 

"Oh well, at least I get to be lazy this way."

[Observedhalo]

IC: Wrath

 

"Greed, we are but seven, eight counting the servant. What hope do we have of exterminating these "Dasaka" as you call them? Supposedly they have a Navy far stronger then our own and like you said, power beyond our wildest dreams. They are rivals, and rivals deserve to be crushed underneath our heels. However, in our current state we are in no position to fight them."

 

Criminals, all of them. Akura was half disgusted to be in their presence, half surprised he had fallen in with such a group. Unlike the rest of them Akura had noble intentions. These Daska could put Mata Nui's fate in jeopardy, something he couldn't afford. In this case, the end justifying the means.

 

Anyone who dies will have stood in the way of the greater good, something that they deserved to be punished for. At least, that's how he justifies it. The day he killed that innocent Matoran, something inside him snapped. He could never go back again. He sensed something different about one of the other though. She was different.

[shadow pridak money gang]

IC:

 

"I may not be the smartest branch on the smart tree, but at least I'm not mean. Unlike some Matoran."

 

-Tyler

[Eyru]

IC (Greed)

 

"We need not exterminate in order to rule. I once brought Ga-Koro under my heel without drawing a blade."

[shadow pridak money gang]

IC:

 

"The ###### is that?" I asked Praggos, when we drew closer to shore. The one-time Mark Bearer of Contempt and I had never been exactly what you'd call drinking buddies (though I have poor enough relationships with a lotta my drinking buddies for him to qualify at this point) but if the insides of his throat grew fangs, dislodged his larynx and spit it out I would at least take notice of it, which was more than I could say for most of the old crew. Our gazes were aimed square at the monstrosity that had begun to swallow up the Xa-Koro lighthouse. Praggos' tone was as confused as my face must have been - after all, I'd been there the morning the Islets died, and if the structure that jutted out from the lighthouse like a tumor had survived the carnage, I'd remember it. But I didn't, and apparently neither did Praggos.

 

Tuara, ever the cop, had the answer: "It's an outpost, ############."

 

That made me look at it in a whole new light. My version of warfare was a bit more unconventional than Tuara's (get in quietly, always look comely, kill, leave with a bang; whereas all Tuara ever did was look comely and bang [and I would know OHOOOOOOOOO]) but I knew enough of fortresses and sieges to know that this place would be a nightmare. The fortress' walls were hard stone built in a semi-circle around the lighthouse, with archery turrets in lieu of towers, which could be more easily mounted and clambered over - a grate, made of steel and furnished with bronze, was raised when the sentry caught sight of our ferry and creaked loudly when it left its supports. From the sound of scraping metal against scraped surface, my guess was bedrock. That guess was confirmed when Cael motioned for me to look at the statue on the right - a statue of Toa Gali that was about a third the size of the lighthouse, crafted of bronze and bluish metal, with feet planted to hard rock and a single-masted longship docked by the inside of her right ankle. Gali's sightless eyes wandered over our boat as we crept towards the gate; if you garrisoned the statue with the right firepower, then any forces trying to break the grate would get crushed between the statue and the fortress walls.

 

The village really nutted up. Ketan's in for a couple shocks if he wants his vengeance, I thought, and for a second I was surprised at how much I cared.

 

The creak of the gate snapped me out of my thoughts, and when the ferry crept through my eyes wandered over the inside of the settlement. The buildings and homes - sparse as they were - were constructed on lilypads not unlike those that were the backbone of Ga-Koro itself; the lilypads that were still being grown around the edges of the lighthouse held the promise of further construction. The lighthouse looked to be the center of most of the hustle and bustle, though - it had been the only remnant of Xa-Koro that wasn't wiped out by Ambages and Aurelia, and even without the fortress the structure could have held out under siege for weeks. For the first time in weeks, I thought of Brykon, and thought of my time under the Peers; I looked at the complex with the eyes of Aurelia's lieutenant, and what I saw made me laugh to myself.

 

Separating the settlement proper from the walls was a moat, about ten yards long; if you fired any sort of projectile over the walls it would hit the water and harmlessly sink, unless you were directly at the base of the walls themselves, in which case you had no business firing projectiles. As our boat passed through the gate, and the steel monstrosity closed behind us, I looked to my left and saw that there was already a port, with dock workers and a few Matoran and Toa wearing the Marine trident, waiting to see where we would dock. When I followed Utu's angry, wary gaze to the right, I saw it was the same story. Even if you breach the gate, the Marines would be on you in seconds. Sending a fleet in one ship at a time is asking to get rammed to shards. I laughed a little louder, thinking of Aurelia's prized army of convicts and scum. Scanning the ports and handful of streets with my eyes, I could see maybe a score of Marines. They alone could hold the fortress against a force five times their size, easily enough to fight off whatever remained of the Peer mercenaries. Factor in the rest of the colonists...

 

By then, the ferry had pulled into the starboard dock; Cael had already gotten off, and Tuara and I, side by side, followed Praggos, with Utu trailing behind us in the rear position. I didn't like having the big Toa of Ice staring at the back of my head without seeing what his hands would do, but I was quicker than Utu and stronger than I looked/he remembered, and I could take him if I heard him making a move. Out of the corner of my eye, I saw two bright blue flickers of movement - at the walls and from the foremost lilypad, two pairs of Marines had secured massive, grid-shaped squares of rope to the ground and fastened them into a sort of taut hempen drawbridge that could support the weight of people walking from place to place. The pair of Marines at the walls regrouped behind a Ga-Matoran of above-average height and a stocky, muscular build; one was a Toa of the Green, long-legged and lean with wary eyes that combed over our party and stopped on the three former Mark Bearers for a second or two longer than I liked, while the other was a genial looking Toa of Sonics with laugh lines and eyes that crinkled a bit when he smiled. The Matoran stepped forward to speak to Cael.

 

"...Commander Thessa, head of the garrison here at Rockwall. Yadda yadda yadda, you should know the protocols by now, Doctor, you and your party are subject to Ga-Koro law, yes yes, Airu, stop staring, it's rude.. Intentions for docking here, Doctor?"

 

-Tyler

Edited June 30, 2014 by Plank Sinatra

[otter]

IC:

 

Allow me to say now that, despite the fact that this settlement was made relatively close to the Koro I had made my home in the time since I had lost my Mark, I had never once noticed it being created. Yes, indeed, though I would often go outside at various times when I wasn't working to drink and relax, I had never once noticed that a large Ga-Koroan outpost was being made in the remnants of Xa-Koro, or if I had, I never remembered it later.

 

One thing I think I recognized, however, was the name of the guard who was speaking to us. My eyes narrowed inquisitively as I looked towards her, speaking up.

 

"Thessa?" Said I, my tone slightly incredulous. "Weren't you one of the Marines who spearheaded the removal of the Mark Bearers from Ga-Koro way back when?"

[Eyru]

IC (Cael)

 

"Geological inquiry into the stability of the islets beyond the lighthouse, as well as the possible recovery of any artifacts," Cael replied. She could almost hear Dor's mental applause at how the brazen lie slipped through her lips, smooth as silk. "I'm accompanied by my associates, including Doctor Kurisha of Le-Koro, and Deputy Drigton of the Ta-Koro Guard. We plan to dock here at least a day, and we'll be happy to comply with any procedures Akiri Hahli has deemed appropriate under such circumstances."

[shadow pridak money gang]

IC:

 

Thessa gave Cael, then Praggos, then Tuara the once-over; her gaze went back to Utu and I and I leaned into Tuara and whispered something along the lines of "maybe you should have stuffed me in a barrel and rolled me across the settlement," to which the love of my life replied, "I am literally always tempted" and elbowed me in the ribs. Finally, she looked at the Toa of Plant Life meaningfully and nodded once. The team kept moving, and with a glance at Tuara I fell back a couple steps to sidle up next to Utu. He looked at me with disdain; clearly he hadn't quite forgotten how I'd nearly concussed him against the boat, or the words that had preceded it.

 

"So," I said casually, "they definitely recognized us. You, probably. You're kind of conspicuous, big guy."

 

-Tyler

[Observedhalo]

IC: Akura/Wrath

 

"Then how do you propose we do this? Ga-Koro is just a mere fishing village. A Tarakava once held the entire Koro hostage. I am sure that we would be subjected to the same scrutiny that we apply when outsiders arrive on the island. I do believe that we can pull this of, but I would just like to know what you plan."

Edited June 30, 2014 by Observedhalo

[Relapse]

IC: (Viera)

 

An eighth figure stumbled behind Anthyn, unremarkable and (preferrably) unnoticed. She stood in the shadows, hoping to be as unimposing as possible- one would be quite wary to intrude on a group such as this. The feeling she got when she saw the eyes on these abominations was ineffable. When Anthyn had spoke to her of these people, Viera had believed she would almost fit in. She believed a group of dark, hateful sinners would be just her crowd. But now, when she her their voices and saw their faces, she realized they were far beyond her. She wished she could sinj further into the ground, her usefulness rapidly decreasing now that Anthyn had a coalition of what she likely saw as assistants.

[Akavakaku]

IC Jrahann:

 

Jrahann did her best to look calm and natural as she headed to the gates of the arena with Asuno, but she was worried that the guards would be suspicious and discover Dia, and was doing her best not to tremble from the tension. As she passed through the gate, she could feel the eyes of the guards and their pet beasts upon her, and deeply hoped that none had X-ray vision.

[otter]

IC:

 

Tur, in slight interest while still ignoring most of what was going on between the seven standing near him, looked to the ninth figure to arrive, stumbling up behind Anthyn. He quickly looked over her, and just as quickly decided that she was one of the least likely to prove a threat to Kaihoro, though, as with all the others, he would watch her carefully.