PC’s: Sarinzan Kodai, Mnemon Koal, Cathak Adan Wepat

ST: Sesus Ormi

 

-= OOC =- Inauspicious Carp says, "Kodai, you've been hired to kill Auspicious Carp. Specifically, you've been hired to talk to him, extract the name of his real employer, and *then* kill him. You don't know who's paying for it."

 

 

An odder bureaucratic pair is hard to find. Mnemon Koal, the massive Strategos, whose passive presence makes the visitor wonder if the Earth Aspect is disgusted with the shipping logs or with the cursed tea this modern facility of a skydock cafe chooses to brew. With all of Creation just a shipment away, it serves only one standardized brew that seems to have been partially composted in shipment. Koal listens to the man, quietly nodding when appropriate while motioning Wepat to take notes just to keep her from satisfying some nervous violent tick. Their cafe is an open one in a lounge in the docking facility, surrounded by potted plants shipped from the Isle for show and a yellow colored fountain with an odd aroma...which Ayesha swears is classy and filled with perfume. Obviously, the modern life sits not so well with those used to the cavernous wilderness. "I'm sorry, what did you say?" Koal asks trying to recoup where he lost track.

 

 

The man across from Wepat and Koal smiles serenely, his thin spectacles of dark-tinted glass resting on his round nose. "It's very simple," he says in his round, throaty voice. "It's very significant to our logistics train to know how you pack the salt. It may be possible for us to provide - for a small fee – anti-packing agents which will prevent the salt from adhering in shipment."

 

 

People thing. Wepat is only happy when she's hitting things. She never really understood how they got that idea. Honestly, just because she starts clenching her jaw whenever she's asked to play secretary, it's not like she has NO other interests. For example, there is... Um. I'll let you know when I think of them. She takes notes for Koal, for such is the will of the dragons (oh gods, tell me THIS is not your plan for me?) with a brush on a long scroll of parchment. Salt packing. Seriously?

 

 

"What do you mean adhering? What packaging did Ayesha leave in place before? I didn't realize you had a problem at your end. Are you telling me the mighty Chronos can't open a jar of salt?"...Koal says, miffed, but maybe not at the man as one of his long arms casually reaches out and pours the tea on one of the plants to see if it survives this obvious attempt at poisoning.

 

 

The plant does not burst in to flames or anything so dramatic. The little god within, however, weeps at this petty sacrifice.

 

 

The plant in question might survive, but the man leaning against it hastens to move out of the way before the caustic liquid can drip on his spotless blue silk robes. He shakes his head at the man, but not in distaste. More in a 'you should be more careful' way. He gets no response, of course, as he is currently not visible as more than a slight outline, easily lost in the other hazes in the air. He shakes himself again, and resumes listening in on the conversation.

 

 

Wepat amuses herself with vigilance. Surely spotting the assassin in the crowd will be more interesting than stenography? Take he guy in the blue? Two obols will bet you he's up to no good. Hey, are we still getting paid? I need to check on that....

 

 

The man tsks. "It's not a matter of a jar of salt. The question is optimizing storage. Salt that doesn't pack together can be shipped like water, flowing freely. But salt packed tight in to jars wastes weight on the jars, and jars don't pack perfectly together anyway!"

 

 

"You mean you want square jars so you can stack them? What do you mean wasting weight? If the jars are harder packed you get more salt per jar don't you?" Why does this guy go on and on? Did Daana'd have to get things written in triplicate before sealing away the Underworld. Koal thinks not. This was only supposed to take like fifteen minutes.

 

 

Sarinzan Kodai sighs, mopping his brow and glaring up at the sun. Then, he heads over. Once the assassin gets bored, you're kinda fucked. In this case, that means that he doesn't throw the needle at the man from across the square. He walks right up and shoves it into his eye.

 Oh, and this one isn't poisoned. So, the man will merely bleed to death.

 

 

Auspicious Carp shrieks! He falls back, thrashing, blood pouring from his eye.

 

 

     Wepat grins! Combat. And judging from the acceleration of the needle, that thing wasn't thrown, it was stabbed. Which means that the guy who did it is about ... three feet to my right. Her spear shoots out rapidly, with a precise controlled motion, nine inches exactly.

 

 

Sure Koal didn't like the guy, but no one deserves to go that way. Reaching down he snags his one-handed goremaul and swings it around in a low arc to snag the recently watered least god of potted foliage and hurls the elegant Isle crafted antique pottery to smash to into the invisible attacker and cover him with mud and sap while the plant bleeds over him. It's least god files a quick report about exalted abuses that will be ignored and never even make it out of the Yu-Shan postal room before Creation ends.

 

 

Sarinzan Kodai looks at the man on the ground scornfully. "It's just a flesh wound. You should be fine, if you get a doctor." He sees the spear coming, but needn't even change his intent as he stoops down to kneel over the man, and the spear misses him by a wide margin. He smiles, and calls over his shoulder. "I have no business with you. Stop this foolishness, and I won't have to change that." He turns back to the man. "Now. Please tell me who your employer is, and I'll make sure you get a doctor before you die of blood loss."

 

 

Sarinzan Kodai jumps up as the pot hits him, suddenly covered in mud. He shimmers into view, scowling, and turns around. "That was uncalled for. You just ruined one of my best suits, Lord Koal. And probably all possibility I have of getting any info out of this cretin. Please excuse me as I try and do my job?"

 

 

"Kodai!" Koal blurts out. "By the Dragons man, I could have killed you! What in Pasiap's name do you think you're doing? This is a clerk from Chronopolis. Wepat, still your attack! He's a police authority." Koal commands.

 

 

Cathak Adan Wepat says, "A police authority who just tried to murder a man in front of you!"

Wepat protests because Koal ALWAYS seems to have some noble reason why she can't smash the bad guy

 

 

Sarinzan Kodai snorts at Wepat. "I don't try, miss Wepat. He would be dead, if I wanted him dead."

 

 

Koal and Wepat begin arguing over who should die, while Kodai calmly questions his target.

 

 

Cathak Adan Wepat says, "That's TALONLORD Wepat, to you."

 

 

Sarinzan Kodai shrugs. "I'll remember. Now, if you'll excuse me." He turns back to the man on the ground. "I had a question for you. Do you remember it?"

 

 

"Wepat, all is not always as it seems! Though Mela was never seen at the battle, still she turned aside the venomed tips of the Yozi's rage. Give him a chance to do what he needs to do and explain." Koal admonishes.

 

 

Inauspicious Carp shudders on the floor. "Some assassin," he chortles. "You never understood... you never knew...!"

 

 

Sarinzan Kodai crouches down, hands crossed on his knees. "Then enlighten me. Tell me what it is that you know about my job."

 

 

"Fine." Wepat salutes her superior, but menaces Kodai with her spear "But I'm watching you!"

 

 

Sarinzan Kodai ignores her entirely.

 

 

Inauspicious Carp says, "You'll never be the greatest assassin... how else..."

Inauspicious Carp paws forward blindly, reaching to touch Kodai with an empty, bloody hand.

 

 

Koal just sighs, turning to Kodai to listen and wondering if he should call for a medic...surely Kodai knows what he is doing.

 

 

Sarinzan Kodai looks down at Carp, arching a brow. "Hmm. I know that, yes. But it's taken me almost a decade to realize it. How would you know? You, a salt-packer?"

 

 

Inauspicious Carp 's fingertips touch Kodai's hand. Darkness pours from them across Kodai's skin. "There are routes to power," he laughs, "That you see not."

 

 

Sarinzan Kodai looks down at the darkness spreading across him, raises the other brow. "Looks like someone's had there hand in the cookie jar where it doesn't belong. You've been 'gifted' with this power of which you speak. But, you know not how to use it, not being among the Exalted. Please, tell me more of this power."

 

 

"Kodai! Take care! I do believe it is trying to bedevil you. What sort of unclean creature is this...? Is he possessed by a ghost?" Koal asks.

 

 

Cathak Adan Wepat says, "What sorcery is this!?""

 

 

Sarinzan Kodai waves a hand at the other two. "Hush. Either open your minds further, or close them off entirely and stop being a nuisance."

 

 

Wepat glances to Koal, for reassurance that he STILL won't let her stab 'im

 

 

"All it takes is understanding," whispers the man. "And desire. A desire stronger than Heaven!" He leans up, gazing with a ruined eye. "You too can have this power... if you desire it." And there is a strange feeling that neither Wepat or Koal can see, as a dark blessing is laid upon Kodai.

 

 

Koal stares grimly at the macabre scene as some creature of darkness and an associate that lives within that darkness vie in a contest of will. Without even looking, he waves Wepat to still her hand, knowing that the fires of Heseish that burn within her soul call for this thing's destruction.

 

 

Sarinzan Kodai shivers, mouth suddenly dry. He holds out his left hand and looks at it, and it vanishes swiftly, returning in moments. No one else would know the meaning of that, but suddenly it's easier for him. He has a hunch that everything else will be as well. He looks back to Inauspicious Carp. In a low voice, barely more than a whisper, he says, "Show me."

 

 

"Fulfill your mission," whispers Carp. "I am your employer."

"Unless you do not truly wish to be the greatest assassin."

 

 

Sarinzan Kodai nods. "Right. As I thought. Find a better life, scum." His voice is pitched for Koal and Wepat to hear him. A blade appears in his hand, then disappears, buried in the man's chest. It doesn't get removed, as that would cause a blood splatter. He stands up, dusting his hands off, and looking wistfully down on the corpse.

 

 

Koal's sensitive ears pick up the creature's temptations. "Kodai! Don't do what it says! Daana'd did not listen to the temptations of the Underworld to leave the Gate open no matter how she was tempted. Let us cleanse this thing in a pure manner as the Dragon's inten....." his words are silenced by Kodai's actions, like a falling boulder silences the entrance to a cave.

 

 

Wepat's spear is poking at a soft spot on Kodai's back, right above the kidneys. She can't run him through fast enough to prevent him from killing the monster/tempter/thing, but "So much as TWITCH and you join him, assassin!" She looks to Koal (stupid stone of loyalty!)-- would Daana'd have shown forbearance here, as well?

 

 

Sarinzan Kodai spits on the corpse, then looks to Koal. "There was no point in leaving him alive longer. He would've merely spread more of his corruption. It matters not how his end is accomplished, only that it was. I have proven what I came here to find out. Your trading partners are poisoned. You should look to fixing that." He is still ignoring Wepat.

 

 

"Poisoned with what Kodai? What is this stench of darkness that touched the man, just what am I supposed to look for?" Koal questions.

 

 

Sarinzan Kodai spreads his hands. "I am not cryptic on purpose. I have told you what I know. Perhaps you should look to the Solar Anathema who sprung up out of nowhere, offering you salvation in your hour of need. I have heard that they consort with demons. That their unholy power is stolen from the gods themselv-" He pauses in midsentence, struck by a revelation. Softly, he says, "Oh, that son of a bitch. Sneaky son of a bitch." He shakes his head, and looks back up. "Anyway, that is my information. Is it sufficient?"

 

 

Koal nods. "It is. Regardless of your dark demeaner, you've proven yourself time and again... We'll cleanse this thing properly. Let me know if you hear anything more, and I will look into things as you suggest." Koal answers, turning to Wepat. "TalonLord! I'm summoning a cleansing crew to put as true an end to that thing as we can with the proper rights. Meet them along the way and give them specifics while I secure the scene from aimless innocents here." once more to Kodai "Sorry about the clothes, it was reflex. Give me a warning next time. ;) " yes, he just winked a large grey granite eye at him.

 

 

Cathak Adan Wepat says, "...""

Cathak Adan Wepat says, "Yes, strategos."

Cathak Adan Wepat says, "Of course, strategos."

 

 

Sarinzan Kodai nods his head. "Just use something easier to get out than mud next time. I don't tend to warn people that I'm coming. Loses the point, you know?" He shakes out his robes, getting all the mud out that he can, then shucks off the over-robe and wads it up, dirty side inside, and threads it through his belt. Then, with a short bow, he vanishes again.