BZPRPG: Kentoku Archipelago

IC: Higashi

"You were too busy chumming it up and getting wasted," said Higashi drily. "While I was making sure that didn't crash."

IC:

Someone - one of the guests flooding from the Dragon Hall, one of the handmaidens or retainers, maybe even the royal family itself - had obviously dispersed the knowledge that the Rora had been murdered, because when Jasik Dastana stepped into the royal apartments his sister turned on him with fury he hadn't seen in years. The very sight of his irreverent, open smile set his twin off; with her mind she flung an ornament from one of the mantles at him with such force that it would have broken a rib or two if he hadn't neatly sidestepped it. The piece broke against the wall loudly. Jasik stepped away gingerly and took off his mask, setting it on the mantle. Arsix took a step towards him threateningly; his hands instantly went to keep her from throwing it at him.

"I think you're having a bit of a kneejerk reaction here," he started.

The mask batted Jasik's hands and fell to the ground. Arsix growled and reached out a hand to catch a second ornament. The cold slap of the vase hitting the palm of her hand sounded sharply in the air before she grunted. The Heir raised it like a weapon, preparing to strike her brother with it. The twins had fought like this before and were no strangers cuts and bruises. But just before Arsix moved to break the vase on Jasik's cheek, she elected to smash it onto the floor between them, the shards skittering across the floor. She moved awfully close to him, the ice of her eyes burning like the sun, "Kneejerk reaction?"

Arsix jabbed Jasik's heart-light with her finger, teeth grit like vices, "You knew all along and you didn't tell me anything!" She hissed, trying to remain somewhat quiet, "You left me in the dark and forced me to improvise! How do you expect me to react when something like this happens?"

"Something like what? Are you blaming me?" Jasik tilted his head and smiled coyly, with a single emphatic blink. "If you think I had a part, tell me so."

Arsix's eyes rolled and she suddenly felt as if her eyes had never stopped rolling. They then shifted again, and she bore holes through her brother's skull, "The Rora you ####."

"The Rora was murdered before the lovely eyes of her daughter and heir, from a shot that a hundred witnesses all watched each other fire," Jasik recited, pitch perfect. "It was an awful tragedy."

She punched him.

Her fist slapped against Jasik's cheek - hard; her blows had always been heavy - but it did nothing to dampen Jasik's enthusiasm, only darken his cheek. The Dastana First Son pouted at his sister for a second, but then his face turned into another lazy smile.

"I didn't realize you placed such high value on the well-being of a decrepit old woman."

"Value?" Arsix scoffed, "I valued that enfeebled pure-blood as much as you did! What I value Jasik, is your life and the lives of mother and I!" She growled, "You've put the lives of half our clan in danger with this stunt of yours, and I'm not going to let you throw yours away so easily."

"This stunt of mine," he repeated.

The mask flipped up into Arsix's hand, "This! This stupid mask! You couldn't have picked a worse night to wear it! Really Jasik, it's impossible to pick a good day to wear something like this!"

She spoke with her words while simultaneously imprinting thoughts into Jasik's mind, :She fell with a hole in her chest Jasik!: topaz licked the edges of his sights as she thought at him. Her willhammer speaking to him under the sound of her voice, "The chojo will have our heads. If you had told me ahead of time we were going to wear something so offensive I might've saved her the trouble and cut them off myself!"

:Don't pretend I've never seen you! I know the extent of your discipline! Why didn't you tell me?!:

For the first time since arriving on Sado, Jasik Dastana's face grew serious, and he stood back up and tilted Arsix's head by the chin to meet his. Her neck stiffened under his touch, but he forced it up anyway, until the two twins were looking eye to eye. Her eyes had a bluish glint to their topaz depths; his were gold and gleaming, and for the first time in his life he was holding secrets back from his sister behind their folds.

"Your face is the first face I saw in my whole life," he said softly, potential surveillance in their apartments be . "You were the first person who ever punched me, and the first person I ever punched. You were my first kiss, my first friend, and my first rival. You were at my side at home and you were at my side in the Yards and you will be at my side until the day we die. Look me in the eye, Arsix. Look me in the eye right now and tell me I did this."

Arsix scanned the color of Jasik's eyes, looking for even the slightest hint to what he meant by it all. It was rare for the Heir to lose confidence in herself, but even rarer for Jasik to pull back and treat a situation with sincerity. It might've been that fact which caused her to believe him. Or maybe it was because she couldn't read him, and for just a second she remembered that they were eternally cursed by each other's uncanny ability to best and be bested by one another and that it was often impossible to tell who was better.

She believed for only a moment that she could be bested here before throwing it all away.

He was right. There was nothing more in the world that they cared for more than each other. Jasik had kept things from Arisix before. But nothing this serious. Arsix couldn't believe that she would be lied to by the only person in her world which she truly loved. She knew Jasik felt the same way.

:Nod if you're telling me the truth Jasik.:

Jasik smiled - almost sadly - and kissed Arsix's forehead with a slight move of his head.

:You had nothing to do with it.:

The Heir relaxed.

"Of course it was you Jasik, you told me you already knew what we were going to wear! You asked me to let you handle it! How dense are you?"

:From here, we never leave these rooms alone. Understand? We're going to be looked at. Vetted. Together, we're impenetrable.:

"It's irrelevant either way," he said, all empty charm and smiles again as he sat down casually on a sofa and pulled his sister down beside him by the neck. "Yusanora's death leaves us an opportunity. A few of them, actually. Yumiwa needs a consort and she has a younger sister. From here, we have bases open. I did what I had to do."

:I understand.:

"I thought about that already," she confirmed, "I figured you could make it work," Arsix lifted the mask up to look at it before quickly shifting a hard expression to Jasik, "If you actually lift a single ####### finger around here."

She straightened up her back and the pride in her posture returned again, and although her anger still lingered, she was at ease. All was well and now her eyes had turned once more to ambition. Jasik was right - she hated to admit - they were impenetrable, "I have a few ideas."

IC: Higashi

 

"You were too busy chumming it up and getting wasted," said Higashi drily. "While I was making sure that ###### didn't crash."

"I wasn't chumming it up. I had to ask the Hogo members... Suffice to say, I wasn't making friends.

"And I wasn't wasted. I just talked like Noshima."

IC: Higashi

"Whatever you say."

IC: Akone

Sigh.

Why was it that they had become so hostile to each other now? Maybe their politics, or they were just no longer kids anymore.

IC: Higashi

"Still, never woulda expected you of all people to get drunk."

IC: Akone

"I only took a few flutes of champagne. I'm not used to alcohol anyway, and my only noticeable sign of being intoxicated was my words. I wasn't bumping or barfing around."

I think.

IC: Higashi

"Wouldya have stopped if our glorious leader didn't mention it to you?" asked Higashi, the guard placing extra sarcasm on the words: glorious leader.

IC: Akone

The acid in Higashi's voice struck Akone hard.

"What? The Toroshu?" Akone felt confused and defensive at the same time.

Then she remembered. Higashi detested Noshima.

"I would have done so sooner or later, I suppose," she answered carefully.

IC: Higashi

"Riiiiiight."

IC: Akone

"Why are you speaking like this? You're more annoyed and annoying than you usually are, and I don't think that's because of the Rora's death."

IC: Higashi

"The Rora's dead, Akone."

IC: Akone

A little too touchy. I'll leave her alone for now.

Akone nodded silently.

"Let's do our job then."

IC: Higashi

"When I wanted something to happen, I didn't expect this."

IC: Akone

"This is quite the something.

"Now may not be the best time, but... What is your view on our Toroshu's policies?" Akone blurted out.

IC: Higashi

"Did she put ya up to this?"

IC: Akone

"..."

Whoops.

IC: Higashi

"Tch."

Higashi stretched her shoulders outwards.

"Figured so."

IC: Akone

"Yes, it was.

"But I'd like to know too. Our clan is at a crossroads at this time. I won't get you executed or anything, you know?"

IC: Higashi

"Noshima ain't going to execute me. Sets a precedence."

Higashi snorted.

"That's one thing she's doing intelligently, at any rate. Keeping her rep clean."

IC: Akone

"I meant that as an exaggeration."

"So you are... Unsatisfied with her other dealings as clan leader?"

IC: Higashi

"Duh."

IC: Akone

"Specifics? Other than 'everything'.

IC: Higashi

"She's reckless. Far too reckless."

Higashi snapped her fingers.

"Caution's been thrown to the wind. I don't think she even thinks out the she pulls."

IC: Akone

Hmm. Interesting...

"Such as?"

IC: Higashi

"She's pushing the clan right into trouble, ya know? We don't work well with targets painted on our backs."

IC: Akone

Ohhh.

"So we'd be better off abstaining from inter-clan disputes and involvements?"

IC: Higashi

"People expect me to be biased now when I'm guarding . It ain't cash."

"Hey, mom.




"What should I do?"


 

IC: Soraya

There was no response save the sigh of the building settling around her. A few rays of moonlight sliced through the gloom of the workshop and landed at Plangori Soraya's feet, but the Dashi paid them no heed. She wrapped her arms around her knees a little tighter, shivering even in the warmth of her work jacket. The party dress and mask lay in a heap on the other side of the room.

There was no reason for her to be awake. Every muscle of her body was screaming for rest, and some part of her brain understood that when the sun rose, the world would start moving again whether she liked it nor not.

But reason had gone along with the Rora.



The Chojo's sister was already turning away, and she gave chase-



"This whole thing's just... stupid, huh?" Her voice was small and tired. "Empresses, princesses, missions, murders -" her head sunk lower. "Exactly the kind of cloak-and-dagger stuff that Morie's always warning us not to get involved in. Bet you'd be warning me the same."



She was out of breath by the time she caught up, all too aware that she'd ditched Morie in the party hall. "Desde, wait-"



"Part'a me just wants to turn tail and run. 'S none of my business. I'm better off a merchant back home. Right?"



The Chojo's sister turned back to her, and there was pain in her eyes, but it was the wrong kind-



"This whole Sado job's been a waste. Nothing but chin-wagging and walking on eggshells. I'm sure you'd've hated it too."



The words she said were wrong too; they spoke of family, but they were twisted and sad and already dead-



"But I- I-"

She let out something halfway between a groan and a sigh.

"Am I supposed to walk away from this? Just - go and cover up my ears and pretend none of this is happening?" Pretend there aren't two sisters without a mother now? Pretend one of them isn't already afraid and tired, and the other isn't oblivious enough that she'll bury everything around her without even meaning to? Pretend Mata Nui isn't either going to hate us or be ground into dust by us?

"If you were here, what - no, what would you tell me?"



"It will change you, like it did the rest of us."



"..Not tonight, huh." She laughed - a sharp, bitter sound. "Nah. Guess not. A few dusty old memories don't a perfect font of advice make." She put her hand to her face and tried to rub away her exhaustion. "Y'know, those little koans of yours - the stuff I still remember - they're nice and all, but they really don't come in handy in situations like this."

She climbed off her bed and went to the window. In the distance, the Imperial Palace was still abuzz with activity. "They're lucky. They'll have most of a lifetime to go off of. Paintings of her. More mementos than I could sell in a year. They'll never forget her face." She chuckled hollowly. "And hey, murdered in front of them - at least it's a lot more final than what I got. Could even argue it's better than what that woman Nihi got."

She leaned her face against the glass. "I had it all figured out, y'know? I was going to give Yumi a piece of my mind. Tell her she can't just use people like pawns, tell her she's hurting people, that if she sails off like this to Mata Nui she'll have them all at our throats before the day's through." Another chuckle. "Listen to me. Planning to go tell the royal family how to run their expeditions. Morie's not gonna be happy with any of this.

"But I'm right about all this stuff. What happened tonight doesn't change that. Still, charging in and being the grand high jerkface sounded a whole lot easier before - well, before I got to watch those two go through in about thirty seconds what took me a good half a year."

She slid her face down the glass. "Zuto Nui. I just want-"

What, Sor? What do you want? Your mommy back? Permission to go prance around the archipelago - or beyond - and shirk your duties? To go show those snobby castle-goers once and for all-

"I want things to be real again!" She slammed the window with her fist; it clunked dejectedly.

She stood there, breathing heavily.

"Alright, mom? That's what you and a life without you taught me. That working for the clan is good, that selling your wares is good, but that sooner or later you have to drop the masks and the titles, and that's all that people here are. But they're the ones deciding how life for the rest of us is going to go. And I - I don't want a world of masks."

The words sounded stupid even to her, but there they were. Wearily, she stepped back from the window and collapsed back onto her bed. Her last thought before sleep took her was a resigned Morie, you either picked exactly the right or exactly the wrong person for this job.




When Plangori Soraya awoke, she lay motionless for a moment or two, then got up, pulled out her ceremonial robes from the chest at the foot of her bed, dressed herself, checked that none of her dye vats were disturbed, collected a plain gray robe and three vials of midnight purple dye, went downstairs, locked the door behind her, stepped into the street, pointed herself at the palace, and began walking.

She had a job to do. And she had people she had to talk to.

IC: Akone

Hmm. The lack of trust by others in Hogo now...

Akone had to admit it was troublesome.

"It's affecting our job, you mean?"

IC: Higashi

"Duh."

IC: Akone

"I agree..."

IC: Higashi

"You been having trouble too?"

IC: Akone

"A little. But our clan... It should have a voice in politics in our Empire. We are a loyal clan like the others, I don't see why we shouldn't make our views known. Or at least, the Toroshu's."

IC: Higashi

"Really," drawled Higashi. "So we shouldn't do the thing that's been working out fine and dandy for our job, and instead start throwing opinions around that aren't our place? Opinions that might turn other clans against us and make it way harder to protect everybody?"

Higashi gestured towards where the now-deceased Rora had been standing.

"We're the "Rora's Shield", but we ain't just protecting her."

IC: Akone

Akone did not have a good response to that. She knew that they deserved a voice, and that it did not interfere with protecting the Rora, but still...

"Zuto Nui, what a mess."

IC: Higashi

"I'd kill for a drink, but ya know, gotta make sure us Hogo aint seen drinking on duty."

IC: Akone

"Of course not."

Akone swiped a small glass of water from a nearby table and passed it to Higashi.

IC: Higashi

"Thanks Akone."

Higashi quietly gulped all the water, and with lightning ease, threw the glass back onto the table, its mass sliding gently across the surface to a halt.

"Say, do ya remember when we were kids, and ya locked me in that booth in the market?"

IC: Akone

Akone smiled.

"Makes me sound like the villain. You were making fun of me about something..."