Corpus Rahkshi

IC Kat: I watch the Surahk's expression carefully.

Siblings, huh? Must be nice.

"I was an... Only Child, I suppose. Guess I've got a lot to live up to. The only weapon of a Makuta I've never met." I snorted. "Doesn't sound like my idea of fun."

My face became one of curiosity, "You REALLY don't like them, huh? Phogen, Tridax, the Other Makuta?"

IC: Love Guurahk

"Oh Green you got everything set?"

IC: Fang

He was relieved to get off the topic of Hoto. Luckily, his vague answer was enough, but it only lead to this question.

"My 'morals' are too much for them. I see suffering, even in the eyes of the Matoran, and I want to do something about it. We have been given this gift of intelligence, and no one quite knows why. Do you know what I think? I think it's to show us how blind we were. The Rahkshi were servants, following orders, no matter the implications. They destroyed because they were told to. But we, the new Rahkshi, we have a choice. The Makuta cannot control us, or they wouldn't need this facility. Still, there are Rahkshi like Phogen and Exxan who cower behind what they know: serve the Makuta, don't get in the way, do what it takes to win. Phogen is smart, I will admit that, but she is not smart enough to see she doesn't have to do this anymore."

Just the thought of this made him clench his fists in anger, face setting into that mask of cold rage. 

IC Kat: I see the anger in his eyes, and I feel sympathy for him.

"You want the freedom to be your own being, make your own destiny," I spoke the words that had been banging the walls of my mind for some time.

I'm not sure why I'd begun feeling this way, I'd been more than happy to follow orders given until just recently. Maybe it was because I'd become level two? I shook my head.

"You could, you know. Leaving wouldn't be hard, Karz, Tridax wouldn't find out for weeks, and by that time.... You could be anywhere....."

IC: Fang

"What's the point of walking out?! Even if I could, the Rahkshi before us have caused so much destruction! They are feared! Hated!" His eyes flashed, but he sank down again like a wounded Rahi, ready to lash out at a moment.

"Even if I wanted to, no matter where I go, or any other Rahkshi for that matter, we would be cast out, attacked, or even killed. There is no point in running. We have to meet the threat at the source, show the Makuta that we are not their servants any longer. Then, and only then, you..." he looked at Kat, stuttering for a moment. "...we could be free. All of us. No more plotting, no more backstabbing. But until then, I intend to fight for it!"

He grew a little shy as the fire faded from his eyes. "I... I shouldn't talk about this. It has only ever gotten me into trouble. I'm the only one who cares. There was another, but he never felt like he could do anything about it. When the time to decide came, he chose their side, not wanting to dare stand up against the Makuta or his friends.

"I'm alone, and I should learn to acknowledge that."

IC Kat: I ponder his words for a long moment, then clap him on the shoulder.

"Consider your lone wolf days over, then. I'll stand with you. Heck, maybe we'll live long enough to get out of here. Make a new name for the Rahkshi."

I was only half joking about that last part.

IC: Green

"Yep. Good to go..."

OOC: Might as well continue to play while waiting for approval for things I've forgot to ask. I just won't battle for the time being. And if I do, I'll just use the older weapons.

And the Twins are still in the infirmary right?

IC: Toxin

He heard what Fang said as he went to the infirmary.

"Same here," said Toxin. "Bullseye heard those same words from some guy. And we've been silent for some time trying to work by ourselves. We also found the same problems you had."

He stuck his hand out for a handshake. He was as serious as he could be.

"I might not sound sincere enough. But I hope we can gain your trust."

IC: Fang

Fang looked at the two with a skeptical grin. "Are you sure? It will not be easy. My injuries are only the beginning. The whole school is against us. Those you currently call your friends will fight you. Do not take this lightly. I will not stand by one who will falter at the time they are needed most."

His eyes burned through them, searching for any sign of hesitation or weakness.

"I only wish to give you a fair warning."

IC: Love Guurahk

"Great, let's get started." 

IC: Omega

Tears slipped down Omega's faceplate as he slept. You're a failure. You can't do anything right. Exxan will always be better than you. ALWAYS. Phogen will never consider you a friend. You will always be the ugly brute with no intelligence. Just leave them and become a traitor. Become what you truly are. An ugly, dumb traitor. 

IC Kat: I returned the grin, "danger around every corner, with little to no chance of survival? If this is all an experiment, well...."

I punched my hand into my palm.

"Let's add a few variables."

OoC what terrible joke have I unleashed upon the world?

IC: Green

Green isolated a sample of oil in a vial and dripped the Stelt III in...

... It worked. But it was hard to tell at first glance

After staring at the vial for about fifteen seconds, Green sighed. "I suppose that's the best it can do..."

Stupid Stelt III

IC: All Three Brothers; Toxin, Bullseye, and Stronghold
Bullseye and Stronghold walked in and the former asked what Toxin was doing here in the halls. Toxin told them what was going on and introduced both to Fang.

Bullseye looked Fang straight in the eye. Both Bullseye and Fang were serious.

"He probably told you everything about us. And I just wanted to have my say in. And I say we're in."

"And regarding to your question about our friends."

"What friends?" said Toxin, a big grin on his face.

Metal / Infirmary, Open for Interaction IC:

It took a minute longer of talking to himself for Metal to realize that Melody had left. With an exasperated sigh, he lay his head back on the pillow and waited for the pain to subside. Eventually, the warm embrace of sleep overtook him despite the surrounding noise. He was probably not gonna wake up for a bit.

IC: Love Guurahk

"So what was your hypothesis?"

OOC: They're in the halls on the way to the Library, not the Infirmary.

IC: Fang

Fang's gaze continued to search the two and the new arrivals. Kat's cavalier attitude was concerning, but Fang felt he could trust her, to an extent.

He turned to the trio. If anything, his searching glare grew more intense. "I am afraid I have not made your aquaintance. Please excuse my hesitation at accepting your offer." The apology was hollow and cold. They may be offering help, but they had not earned his trust. Yet.

IC: Omega

Omega woke up, breathing quickly. His back had been healed and his head had as well. He tried to get up, to go outside to get those horrible thoughts out of his head. He walked outside to see Fang standing, talking to Kat. He listened in quietly. Traitor. TRAITOR. Shut the up.

IC: Green

"The Stelt III works somewhat, but not ideally. Now to the gruel."

Green performed her test

"... Not that much fat, from the looks of it."

Green turned to Love Guurahk. "From what I've gathered so far, it seems that this gruel contains sufficient starch and lipid levels to provide sufficient energy for ideal functioning. Some of our more martially inclined classmates may find the protein levels in the slop insufficient, however. There is also the obvious lack of simple sugars in this gruel to be noted." Green took a breath. "I have yet to determine the presence of several vital minerals and other chemical compounds."

IC: Love Guurahk

"So basically it just provides the bare minimum?"

IC: Bullseye

Bullseye paid attention to his voice, his eyes, and realized that Fang was doing the same thing. Analyzing. Finally he spoke again.

"I see you don't trust us. That isn't surprising. Personally if I were you, I'd do the same to us, too. So I guess we'll give you our names. I'm Bullseye. The ninja Lerahk is Toxin, and the honorable Rahkshi of Limited Invulnerability is Stronghold."

Bullseye proceeded to leave.

"I'm going to the Refectory to eat, bros. See ya back at the dorm."

IC: Stronghold

He headed out too.

"I'll be sparring in the gym, Toxin. See you."

IC: Toxin

He said bye to his brothers. Then he looked back at Fang.

"So...find either of us or send us a note at our dorm if you find some way for us to prove ourselves to you."

He left himself to the infirmary.

"HEY!" he shouted. "Hey, Silencer. Can I talk to you personally?"

OOC: Bullseye is open for interaction, Stronghold open for sparring.

OOC: The Twins are still in the infirmary. 

IC: Silencer.

Silencer looked up from the bed to see Toxic standing in the doorway of the infirmary. What did he want? "Yes?" he groaned groggily. 

IC: Green

"In some regards, yes. None of are classmates are getting overweight, by any means."

OOC: I'm so confused. So Fang and his conversation happened in the halls and the Twins are in the infirmary. People are everywhere honestly. I'll just pretend everyone's in the correct locations.

IC: Toxin

He walked up to Silencer.

"You owe me a solo rematch. Just you versus me. You put up a good fight on your own there, even with my poison. It was fun, too. Minus the fact that I was spurting blood everywhere."

IC: Love Guurahk

"Do you think it's enough? Because like, this is in essence really a fighting school yeah? To me, I think it'll need more proteins and stuff for that."

IC: Fang - Hallways to Library

They had passed his first test. Through his scrutiny, Bullseye was already proving to be a shrewd individual. But they were going to need a lot more than that before Fang was ready to welcome them with open arms.

With them gone, Fang turned to Kat. After his outburst, Fang's light mood was gone, replaced by his usual cold manner. "I have been meaning to give my blade a power of heat resistance so it can better withstand my Plasma. The Library has a large section on forging, and I have found much useful information. You are welcome to accompany me, though I would understand if you have somewhere else to be. I would hope you would accompany me to the mainland later to acquire the appropriate disks."

He continued his walk to the Library, finding his way to that familiar seat. The one where it all started. Once again, he found a book on forging, set Venom on his lap, and began sharpening it in his hot fingers as he read.

OOC: Fang open to interaction.

IC: Silencer - Infirmary. 

"Later..." Silencer groaned, "...much later. Give me a few days to recover." 

IC: Omega - Hallways

Omega simply leaned against the wall of the hallway, lifelessly and miserably. 

Metal / Infirmary, Open for Interaction IC:

Despite his consciousness coming and going, one overheard conversation awoke Metal. Still unable to move more than a little, Metal weakly called out to Toxin, Silencer, and (he assumed) Illusive, "Hey, Toxin, thanks - hurgh - for the assist. And you - reagh - two, good fight."

IC: Bullseye/Refectory --> Library

He contemplated while he sat. He made up the excuse to eat to think carefully about what he was getting himself into.

"If he was just testing us as I him, then we passed. He just needs some tangible proof."

He went to the library to see whether he could find a book on arrow types. He would use them to improve his archery arsenal. His new scope for his bow was already useful in improving his accuracy just a little bit. But he wondered about other types of arrows.

IC: Toxin/Infirmary --> Dorm

"Okay."

He walked up to Metal.

"You're welcome, dude."

Nothing else better to do at the time, he decided on sleeping at the dorm.

IC: Stronghold/Gym

He began punching dummies into pieces. Not wasting his flame bursts, he just put on the spikes and kept smack every dummy.

OOC: If you are curious about Stronghold, go to his profile. I'd also like someone to spar with him.

Anyone in the library can interact with Bullseye.

Last post for the day.

IC Vaalku

Vaalku left the gym. After a little while he caught up with Fang in the library. He didn't look good.

Vaalku stepped up to him and said, in his lifeless tone, but so soft sounding it was like a Rahk couldn't even speak that way. "What happened?"

IC: Exxan - Refectory. 

Exxan continued waiting for whoever had left the note on his door. 

IC: Fang - Library

Fang looked up to see Vaalku. Those two words seemed to be all he ever said. "Nothing. Actually, I had a few other Rahkshi offer to join me."

OOC: Fang's not upset, this is just his regular sour mood. You probably should get off to Exxan.

OOC: Bloody forgot! *smacks forehead*

IC Vaalku

"Oh, um, pardon me a moment." Vaalku dashed off rather oddly, and after a short while he reached the refectory. He stopped right outside the entrance and walked in calmly.

There was Exxan. Hopefully he hadn't been keeping him too long. "hello. I've been meaning to talk to you."

IC: Exxan.

Exxan looked up from the knife he'd been toying with and indicated the note he'd left sitting on the table. "You sent this?" He vaguely recognised the Rahkshi as one of the many onlookers from during his talk with Fang, but didn't know much more about him. 

IC Vaalku

"Precisely. Things have escalated much quicker than we thought, and in order for me to make the right decision I have to know the truth."

IC: Exxan. 

He had to know the truth, did he? This guy had some serious entitlement issues. "I'm sorry," Exxan cut in, "can we backtrack a little? Who are you and what's your involvement in this whole situation?" 

IC Vaalku

He was going technical. All right, i'll try to please him. "I am Vaalku, and I am here to cut short this undiplomatic war that is going to ring through the schools." He leaned in a little closer. "Already Fang is gathering several allies in an attempt to destroy Phogen." Vaalku had no actual clue what Fang was doing with his group, but his constant attacks towards anyone associated to this "Phogen" gave him a general idea. "He's going to lose for sure, but otherwise several Rahk will be killed, and for something unreasonably pointless. The entire school will be affected by this, and if Tridax finds out-"

He stopped short, because he realized he himself didn't even want to know what would happen if Tridax found out. He started over slightly. "There will be no more sensibility in this school if this occurs. Everyone will be forced to join sides and fight to the death. So. That is my involvement."

IC: Exxan.

"No." Exxan said flatly. "Right now, this is between Phogen, Fang and I. He disagrees with the way we operate. We have the numbers, and he knows it. After our talk earlier, I don't think he wants a war any more than the rest of us do. Frankly, the more people who get involved, the greater the risk of the events you just described occurring. So perhaps instead of demanding answers for yourself, you should be spreading the word to everyone else to mind their own business, and stay out of things that don't concern them." 

He was getting very sick of this whole Fang situation. If Fang didn't back down soon, this Vaalku might end up being right about everything. Exxan didn't want any of the students to die, and he certainly didn't want to be the one to deliver the killing blow to anyone - not even Fang. 

IC Kat: As fang left, I called to him, "you know where to find me if you need anything!"

Now what...?

I considered the consequences of joining this fight for freedom. I wasn't sure if I shared all the same values that Fang did, but....

The guy was gonna drive himself into his grave if someone didn't help him. And beyond his rough exterior was a warrior, fierce and loyal to his friends.

I smiled. A like minded sort of Rahkshi. Hidden under a different mask, but it was there.

His behind one of anger, mine behind one of confidence.

I should check in on Hoto.

I loped off toward the infirmary.

OoC: open for interaction.