BZPRPG: Le-Wahi

IC: Helios (Le-Koro Fitness Center)

I stepped inside, with some difficulty due to all the stuff I was carrying with me. The place looked the same, just about.

I put my belongings away in the corner, and made it over to the kitchen table. For a moment I just sat there, staring at the knob for one of the cupboards. I shook my head, and looked over at Colx proper.

"Something's come up that got me thinking, it's not the shortest story, but I need some input here"

IC:

Colx moved over the kitchen counter, absent-mindedly shifting a pile of empty beer bottles to one side, before he turned and leaned against it so that he could look at Helios. His face was inscrutable.

"Well," he rumbled, "what's up?"

-Void

IC: Helios (Le-Koro Fitness Center)

"I was in Ta-Koro, recently, and I joined up on a treasure hunt while I was there. We found this stash of loot that'd been stowed away by a criminal."

"I got this out of it," I explained, and put my new bow on the counter, "it's magic or something, fires a lot farther than it seems".

"When we got back, though, we heard that some unknown criminals or terrorists had gotten the drop on the Koro while we were away, blew up a famous inn and killed a few people"

"It just... the destruction was so total where they'd been. I feel like I should've been there, done something" A clenched fist landed hard on the table.

"There's more" I continued, upon seeing Colx's mouth begin to open, "see, this treasure hunt was just that, a treasure hunt. A search for some fancy new toys, it didn't benefit anyone but myself"

"I just don't feel like I've got any sense of what I'm doing anymore."

IC:

The Skakdi took a deep breath.

"Look, kid," he said slowly, as if he was measuring his words, "you can't live your life ... well, just sitting on the hooks, waiting for something bad to happen so you can swoop in and save the day. You're in the are ###### goes down, fine; you can help out all you want, you can do the whole 'hero' thing to your heart's content. But I know what you're talkin' about. I saw it in the papers, and what I saw looked like something that no one could've anticipated. I couldn't have seen this coming, you couldn't have seen this coming. You gonna go blamin' yourself for something you had no idea was comin'?

"And as for this treasure hunt o' yours," he continued, "I don't see the problem. You think everything you do has to have some kinda altruistic angle to it? Y'expect too much o' yourself, Helios."

The edge of his mouth twitched upwards, almost into a smile.

"Lighten up, kid. World's too big and life's too short to go beatin' yourself up over every little thing."

-Void

IC: Helios (Le-Koro Fitness Center)

"I..." I began, then I stopped.

Colx had pointed to something I didn't even realize myself, even though it was really just common sense. Don't wait for whatever it was you wanted to fall in your lap, go find it.

Heck, that's pretty much what I'd been doing so far, walking around and asking if someone needed a hand here or there. How did I miss that?

Maybe it'd had something to do with the fact that I just didn't get the results I wanted at every turn, but that would just mean going about it the wrong way again.

I felt like I'd been slapped in the face to wake me up of the morning daze, it felt good, refreshing, I felt better about myself.

"I... thanks. I needed that"

IC:

"I'm a gruff mentor figure," Colx said, giving the Toa a toothy grin. "It's what I do. Now, you wanna beer or something, while you're here? I might have, uh...."

He eyed the array of empty bottles next to him.

"... one or two left."

-Void

IC: Helios (Le-Koro Fitness Center)

"No!" I said, very decisely, before I moved to float the unopened bottles out of the cupboard and into my hands "and you've already had enough best I can tell"

No I wasn't grinning, more like smiling awkwardly because I knew the risks of going over Colx's head.

IC:

In one deft motion, one of those unopened bottles was snatched out of the air by a Skakdi's hand.

"I just got out of a ###### gladiator tournament held by some wack-job of rich idiot, kid," Colx said, grinning. "I'll say when I've had enough."

-Void

IC: Helios (Le-Koro Fitness Center)

"Say whatnow?"

Huh, guess Colx was more active in his old age than I thought. I always felt like he was just somewhere in storage when he wasn't around, guy who dedicated so much of himself to us when he was around.

"I guess we've got some catching up to do, mail can only go so far" I said.

IC:

"What's to tell?" Colx asked, shrugging his massive shoulders. "Kidnapped, knocked out, then I wake up in a prison cell with some guy calling himself the Hedonist, or the Revealer, or the Grand Royal ###### Poobah or something puts me and a bunch of other folks into an arena to have us fight to the death. Say an old customer there, actually. And Vrina ... yeah, Vrina was there, too. I ever tell you about Vrina?"

-Void

IC: Helios (Le-Koro Fitness Center)

"No, who's Vrina?" I asked as I started making a cup of tea.

I may not be much of a Paladin-caliber hero, but I can sure make myself some mean leaf-flavored hot water.

IC:

"She was a ... what d'you kids call it now? A flame? A ... I don't know. A girlfriend or something? Something like that; we'd been seeing each other for a few weeks. She had a history of mercenary work, like me, so we hit it off pretty well. It was nice, y'know; it was nice bein' with her. We'd take these walks and sit on the benches by the East End and watch the sun set. Just ... talk about stuff. Peaceful."

Colx's eyes clouded slightly, and his grin softened.

"I know it sounds pretty sappy comin' from an old war Rahi like me," he continued, chuckling. "But it's true. It was nice."

-Void

IC: Helios (Le-Koro Fitness Center)

"What is this I don't even..."

"Colx," I said as I put my just-at-my-lips tea cup down on the table, "I think it's finally happened"

"Melna's rubbing off on you"

IC: Kunitu

 

The situation resolved, Kunitu went off to wander Le once more.

 

OOC: Open for interaction.

IC: Luta - Le-Koro

He'd wondered around for a while trying to sell his goods, until he came across another toa, he'd thought of quite the trick to play on the two toa who'd abandoned him earlier, and with what little success he was having lately he thought it might make him happy.

"Excuse me?" 

IC:

Colx let loose a bark of laughter, but there was an edge to it; something was off there.

"Maybe, I dunno," he said, eyeing the label on the bottle in his hand. "Doesn't matter now, I suppose. She's dead."

-Void

IC: Helios (Le-Koro Fitness Center)

"Well, that took a drastic turn"

I lowered the teacup again, taking stock of the Skakdi across from me.

"I'm... sorry for your loss?"

IC:

Colx brusquely waved the words away.

"Don't worry about it," he said, a little too quickly. "We both knew the risks. People with our backgrounds don't have good life expectancies. It's an occupational hazard, I guess."

-Void

IC: Helios (Le-Koro Fitness Center)

"If you say so" I replied, and finally got the time to get started on my tea.

"Say, have you heard anything from Melna? I haven't"

IC Lain

"Horizons it is!"

OOC

Road trip company maybe to somewhere?

OOC: @Kaneo: Sounds good to me?

IC:

"Sent me a letter a week or two ago," Colx said, a spark in his eye now that the subject was off of ... her. "Apparently she's travelling the island with a couple of chumps; some moody Toa of Sonics and a Po-Matoran. The latter ended up walking into a cave during a freak shower over in Po and got latched with a Parakuka. Said they were staying in Po-Koro for his recovery, last I heard."

-Void

IC: Helios (Le-Koro Fitness Center)

"I see... well, sounds like she's got decent company at least, maybe I'll drop by when I go back out again"

Halfway through the tea-cup, I had an epiphany, and looked up at Colx again.

"Say, Colx, what do you say to a round or two in the ring? I'd like to show you what's changed since I left"

 

IC: Kunitu

 

The situation resolved, Kunitu went off to wander Le once more.

 

OOC: Open for interaction.

IC: Luta - Le-Koro

 

He'd wondered around for a while trying to sell his goods, until he came across another toa, he'd thought of quite the trick to play on the two toa who'd abandoned him earlier, and with what little success he was having lately he thought it might make him happy.

 

"Excuse me?" 

 

IC: Kunitu

"How can I help you, citizen?" was the cheery reply.

 

 

IC: Luta - Le-Koro

 

He'd wondered around for a while trying to sell his goods, until he came across another toa, he'd thought of quite the trick to play on the two toa who'd abandoned him earlier, and with what little success he was having lately he thought it might make him happy.

 

"Excuse me?" 

 

IC: Kunitu

 

"How can I help you, citizen?" was the cheery reply.

 

IC: Luta - Le-Koro

"Oh it's just that two toa have been abusing their power, they hung me by the backpack to a tree"

He turned around trying to look weak and intentionally fell over, he was trying not to laugh at the idea of what he was about to do. 

IC: Kunitu

"Those fiends."

IC: Luta - Le-Koro

"Yeah look for two toa by the names of Toku and Raku, Toku's from around here so you might see him" 

IC: Kunitu

Kunitu sighed, pinching the bridge of her nose with her left hand. "What exactly do you want me to do?" she asked. "As a member of the Gukko Force, there's not much I can do if you just tell me that these Toku and Raku fellows have been teasing you, and it's not really an arrestable offence."

IC: Kunitu

 

Kunitu sighed, pinching the bridge of her nose with her left hand. "What exactly do you want me to do?" she asked. "As a member of the Gukko Force, there's not much I can do if you just tell me that these Toku and Raku fellows have been teasing you, and it's not really an arrestable offence."

IC: Luta - Le-Koro

"Oh well ah.... they have...a bomb, and they're gonna blow up...ah something"

He said knowing he was about to get caught for lying...again. 

IC: Kunitu

The lack of urgency when originally reporting to her.

The hesitation in tone.

Yeah he was lying to her.

"Let me guess," said Kunitu, "you have a personal vendetta against these two and are willing to lie to get them in trouble."

IC: Kunitu

"I'm not a metalworker."

IC: Luta - Le-Koro

"That might be, if you see them please don't tell Toku or Raku about this" 

IC: Kunitu

"I have no idea who they are and what they look like."

IC: Luta - Le-Koro

"And how do I know this isn't a set up?" 

IC: Kunitu

Eh?

Kunitu shot the other being a disbelieving look, before pointing at her badge. Her Gukko Force badge. The one that denoted her as 'Squadron Commander'.

"That was accusatory and hurtful. Really."

IC: Luta - Le-Koro

"Well how do I know if you hadn't already talked to Raku and you're trying to do well...something to me, it would explain why they left me in Ga-Koro" 

IC: Kunitu

"Eh?"

IC: Helios (Le-Koro Fitness Center)

IC:

"Hate to disappoint, kid," Colx said, his voice gruffer and more gravelly than usual. "But I don't know if I'm up to that."

-Void

IC: Kunitu

 

"Eh?"

IC: Luta - Le-Koro 

"Well why aren't you looking in my backpack, unless you know what's already in there..." 

IC: Kunitu

"Look, you came up to a member of the Gukko Force, attempted to get two guys I don't know in trouble, tried to sell me silver, and now you ... are accusing me of something?"

IC: Luta - Le-Koro

He began to climb a tree

"I'll be back!, but first I'm gonna go get someone else"

On the spot where he fell there was a mysterious green sludge.