[11:07 PM] Amasuro: ==End RP==
[12:59 PM] Kwakado: Within the broken halls of Fort Ikkigane, rebel soldiers travel down well-remembered shortcuts, sharpening their weapons, sharing boastful tales, or delivering meager rations from the mess hall. They lack the typical discipline of an army, with improvised outfits and a wide variety of techniques. The main thing denoting their common status as rebels was the use of green throughout their uniforms - a symbol of cooperation and trust among the people of Khlin.
So the red-robed Dwabi stuck out like a sore thumb among them, earning quite a few shocked glances from the new recruits as he continued his conversation. The man across from him, a stout samurai with a pointed, oily nose, paces in circles around Sula. He speaks with a low, slow voice:
"You said, you would secure it...She says, the kingdom is neutral. You say, she already swore to support....My, my~" The green-armored man crosses his arms. "Ain't. That. Confusing?"
"Ha, quite right, sir Saba-to. But I am sure you understand, Lunare-o's first step on the path to our victory, is ending her war."
"Gallaran..eh?" Sabato purses his lips together, remaining quite calm. "Funny...none of our men there reported anything like it.."
Sula raises a single palm. "I am afraid the rhythm of the world is not ours to decide. But those who wait warmly, will find Kwemo. Freyzen-wald will come to our aid, sir...if we have patience."
"I think you mean...If we've still got our heads." Sabato gives a shrugging tilt of the head. "Until then...stick with her. Make sure she remembers who's in the right, around here...Sula the Blackwing."
And with that, the samurai takes his leave, plodding up a cracked staircase to the upper levels of the fort. Sula lingers a little longer, letting out a droning Om to himself.
[1:01 PM] DiurnalKnight!: Yavae did not overhear the men's conversation, but does pass the Samurai as he leaves. She was wandering the fort mostly, though she wouldn't admit it she was quite lost.
[1:03 PM] DiurnalKnight!: She does, luckily, enter the room Sula is in "Hm? Oh, it's the Dwabi."
[1:18 PM] Kwakado: "Ya-va!" Sula takes a surprised step back, but straightens out with a smile. "Kwemo! Taking a look through the fort as well, hu?"(edited)
[1:19 PM] DiurnalKnight!: "Uh... Yes, just examining the fort. It's a strange place, I'm not used to all the forts of this continent"(edited)
[1:22 PM] Kwakado: "So strange, ha...and so much of a mess, now." He looks out a crack in the wall at the parched grass beneath. "It looked a little better, before the war came."
[1:23 PM] DiurnalKnight!: "My people tend to not make buildings like this, war is not done in a way which requires it."
[1:23 PM] Kwakado: "What sort of war is that?"
[1:26 PM] DiurnalKnight!: "We fight directly, if you wish to face someone you let them know."
[1:27 PM] DiurnalKnight!: "There is no need to starve someone out or lock oneself in a fort."
[1:27 PM] Kwakado: "Yet you have, armies, ha? Leaders who send them into other lands, for victory?"
[1:42 PM] DiurnalKnight!: "We rarely must go to war, but when we do, yes. We have not gone to true war in some time."
[1:44 PM] Kwakado: "Omm..." Sula turns back to her, opening his eyes. "The Dwabi know little of war. We have no need, as long as we hold the blessings of the Woyuda."
[1:45 PM] DiurnalKnight!: "Yet you still have strong warriors, as I have found. I would like to meet more of them, honestly."
[1:52 PM] Kwakado: "Ah, yes..." Sula coughs suddenly. "Woushatu. Those who are chosen to bear the blessings of the war-gods. Cause enough trouble in Dwabi and you will learn all about them, ha ha ha!"
[1:54 PM] DiurnalKnight!: "Ha! The one I met wasn't much trouble!" She says with a chuckle and a large grin
[1:59 PM] Kwakado: "You must not have been drinking that time, ha." Sula recalled their arena match - a moment of shame for them both. "But how far is your land, for a Dwabi to visit it?"
[2:00 PM] DiurnalKnight!: She gives an annoyed glare at the drinking comment, but lets it slide "I did not meet one in my homeland, I met her in Freyzenwald."
[2:09 PM] Kwakado: "Here? Ah...the Dwax. There is no pride, in fighting their kind."
[2:09 PM] DiurnalKnight!: "Dwax...? What does that mean?"
[2:15 PM] Kwakado: "Dwabi, who have chosen madness over their humanity. They are nothing but twisted beasts..."(edited)
[2:17 PM] DiurnalKnight!: "Hmph, as foolhardy and strangely happy with pain as she was I would not call this girl a beast. I have met madmen, she was simply strange."
[2:18 PM] Kwakado: "Just take care that you do not expect the same, from a true Shatu."
[2:18 PM] DiurnalKnight!: "True Shatu? Speak sensibly, Dwabi!"
[2:18 PM] Kwakado: "The holy men of our people. You may call them....chiefs?"
[2:20 PM] DiurnalKnight!: "I see. I look forward to an honorable battle with one. A shame to discover that Poar was not as strong as she claimed."
[2:29 PM] Kwakado: "Ha ha ha! The flow of fate is not for us to decide...but hope will keep the heart alive." Sula spreads his hands plaintively in the air. "But, perhaps we can depart from this strange building now...Is there more you seek to see?"
[2:34 PM] DiurnalKnight!: "Very well, I would not mind you helping me see more of this place. I would also like to know more about your people's warriors."
[6:19 PM] Kwakado: "Ha, mo-womi." Sula shows her out of the room, its door flanked by earnestly-stitched verdant banners. They head down the stairs towards the training halls, where Onis grunt and Diviners meditate.
"What is it you seek?"
[6:21 PM] DiurnalKnight!: "How do people in your culture become warriors and learn their ways? And how do they fall from this path?"
[8:51 PM] Kwakado: "The path of Shatu starts in the heart of Okolo Mountain, the top of the land." Sula smiles cheerfully to her. "Those brave enough to seek such power, throw themselves into the fire within...then we see if the gods accept their will, ha."
[8:57 PM] DiurnalKnight!: "Hm, interesting test. Have you completed it?"
[8:58 PM] Kwakado: An even bigger grin. "Of course!"
[8:59 PM] DiurnalKnight!: "I am unsure whether I should believe you, but I will for now."
[9:01 PM] Kwakado: "Oh?" They round the corner once more, past a mess hall much more packed with people than it is with food. "Do your people not know of the gods' might?"
[9:03 PM] DiurnalKnight!: "Ha! Of course we understand the power of gods, Dwabi man. We have faced their wrath in the past, and that is not what I questioned."
[9:06 PM] Kwakado: "I see, I see. Then there are those, who have not forgotten. But where are your people? Where is their land?"
[9:07 PM] DiurnalKnight!: "We live far away, on a different continent altogether. The trip here was annoyingly slow."
[9:10 PM] Kwakado: "But it must have carried a great purpose, then. To what end, were you sent?"
[9:38 PM] DiurnalKnight!: "Uh..." She decided that "I ran off" wouldn't sound particularly good "I am afraid I cannot tell you, it is personal business of the Fire Tribe."
[9:44 PM] Kwakado: "The...Fire Tribe? Dwabe-fale?" Sula's eyes seem to take on a stonier hue. "Ha, that must be very big business, taking you so far from home."
[11:20 PM] DiurnalKnight!: "It's private, as I said. How do your warriors fall from grace?"
[1:38 PM] Kwakado: "Well!" Sula lets out a jovial, rhythmic laugh. "It is not a path I know from my own feet! But those who break from their duties, the Shatuko...They become Nanshatu, and their shadow stretches across the world. If a demon eats it, the becomes Dwax."
[3:43 PM] DiurnalKnight!: "You tend to use words in your own language even when you are fully able to translate it. It it's quite annoying."
[3:46 PM] Kwakado: "Truly?" A look of bewilderment washes over the Dwabi's face. "Forgive me. I have not spent much time in these lands...sometimes it is difficult, ha ha."
[3:50 PM] DiurnalKnight!: "It is just irritating to have to stop after every sentence to ask what something means."
[3:52 PM] Kwakado: "Of course, of course..." Sula shrugs a shoulder. "The, huu, ones who fall off our path, they may never return to the Dwabi. There is more monster in them, than human."
[3:53 PM] DiurnalKnight!: "Never return? Your people do not believe in redemption?"
[3:55 PM] Kwakado: "Even the best of chefs...cannot feed a corpse. Those who hold the name, Dwax, are the same."
[3:56 PM] DiurnalKnight!: That's.... A very strange explanation."
[3:58 PM] Kwakado: "It is a strange happening. The Dwabi are protected by the blessing of the, dragon gods. For one to fall so far, is not common. Even less, among the holy men."(edited)
[4:04 PM] DiurnalKnight!: "I see. Do you know anyone who has fallen?"
[4:05 PM] Kwakado: "..."
[4:08 PM] Kwakado: Sula runs a hand through his dark hair before finally answering. "They say it brings bad luck, to speak of them. Please understand--I cannot bring that kind of danger to our group right now, ha. Not with so many wars here."
[4:42 PM] DiurnalKnight!: "Haven't we already been speaking of them....?"
[4:44 PM] Kwakado: "Only the idea, ha. There is speaking of the Fire tribe, and there is speaking of Ya-ve."
[4:45 PM] DiurnalKnight!: "Ah. Still, I don't put much stock into luck."
[4:47 PM] Kwakado: "Well, that is something to say of our warriors..." Sula grins. "They never refuse a blessing."
[4:50 PM] DiurnalKnight!: "Our warriors rarely need a blessing"
[4:54 PM] Kwakado: "Truly!" Sula's eyebrows raise as they pass through an impressive-looking colosseum. Yet, instead of weapon racks and fighting rings, the entire space is filled with card tables and other odd diversions.
"So what do your people count on, for protection? If not armor, if not blessings, then..."
[4:58 PM] DiurnalKnight!: "Our own power. Men may betray, gods may be fickle, armor may shatter, but you may trust in yourself."
[5:03 PM] Kwakado: "What a...noble idea, ha."
Sula walks ahead to a table and turns back to her, smiling warmly.
"It has brought you this far, at least...perhaps the strength of men is the greatest of all?"
[5:04 PM] DiurnalKnight!: "I never said all men have the greatest strength, but the fact remains that ones own strength is the most reliable"(edited)
[5:10 PM] Kwakado: "Ommm....."
Sula's eyes slide open, feeling a strange warmth under his soles.
"And what do you do, when that strength fails? When you betray even yourself?"(edited)
[5:12 PM] DiurnalKnight!: "If you cannot rely on yourself, there is nothing you can rely on."
[5:28 PM] Kwakado: "I see, yes, yes...then I pray that you never find yourself off of that path." Sula folds his arms, tilting his head toward a large set of stony stairs. "That way, should take you back to camp. I think I will stay here for now...practice some poker, ha."
[5:29 PM] DiurnalKnight!: "What, done talking?"
[7:24 PM] Kwakado: "Mm, I simply thought you would not prefer to sit here."
Sula sits in the nearby chair, pulling another one out.
"The choice is yours."
[7:27 PM] DiurnalKnight!: "What is this card room for? Gambling?"
[7:29 PM] Kwakado: "For some, ha. But also to keep the mind sharp...without exhausting the body."
Sula smiles wistfully, and his fingers fiddle with the deck of playing cards on the table.
"It was a woman of the Water Tribe, who first taught me of this way to wage war."(edited)
[7:56 PM] DiurnalKnight!: "Bah, cards are not war. They are a game."
[7:58 PM] Kwakado: "Oh? Then it must not be true that the people of Khlin, used to solve their struggles with these cards..." Sula smirks. "But a guest must master the madness of their host. Perhaps these little symbols could be their own sort of blessing..."
[8:07 PM] DiurnalKnight!: "Hm, your people put so much stock into chance... I shall have to ask fala is she is similarly inclined, if she is still alive."
[8:09 PM] Kwakado: Sula's face contorts suddenly, sharply, like a snapping twig.
"And what is chance - but the will of the gods, the rhythm of our fates?"
Sula rests his forehead on his fingers.
"..You stand taller than I. That is why."
[8:12 PM] DiurnalKnight!: She notices his reaction, and is clearly confused "What do you mean?"
[8:15 PM] Kwakado: "That is why...you do not yet understand, how small you are."
[8:25 PM] DiurnalKnight!: "What? Where is this coming from, old man?"
[8:29 PM] Kwakado: "From youth. From power. From a people that teaches you to trust in your own Kwemo, above all."
Sula lets out a droning hum, letting the words sink in as he composes himself.
[8:31 PM] DiurnalKnight!: "I meant your random insults, old man.'
[8:31 PM] Kwakado: "Nothing in this world is random...Your own strength blinds you to this."
[8:35 PM] DiurnalKnight!: "I'm asking you for the reason behind it, pay attention!"
[8:43 PM] Kwakado: Sula folds his arms, leaning back in his seat. "You find our, stock in chance to be strange...and I have told you why. Forgive me, if such words are an insult."
[8:48 PM] DiurnalKnight!: "An explanation is no insult, but stating that my people's beliefs could only be the result of childishness is a grievous insult."
[8:52 PM] Kwakado: "Oh, of course, of course." Sula smiles disarmingly, unfolding his hands into plaintive palms. "I am sure that your tribe's masters, are very wise, and your teachings are more than childish."
"But this is Khlin."
[8:54 PM] DiurnalKnight!: "Your point?" She asks, annoyed
[8:58 PM] Kwakado: Sula's voice darkens and slows.
"This land has a way, of testing our truths....stirring them around, in boiling waters. Keep your eyes open here, Ya-vi, and you will see the power of chance."
[9:09 PM] DiurnalKnight!: "I'm beginning to regret not helping fala break free, she was annoying but at least more sensible than you... She would certainly make a more enjoyable dwabi ally."
[9:19 PM] Kwakado: "Omm..."
Sula shrugs serenely to her.
"I do not seek to make my words, enjoyable. Only valuable."
Sula flips up the first card of the deck - a 7 of clubs.
"This is a war, larger than either of us. And when your strength falls...do not let your soul, go with it."(edited)
[9:20 PM] DiurnalKnight!: "If I lose in battle, then so be it. My people face an honorable death in battle without fear."
[9:22 PM] Kwakado: "Ha." A cold puff from his throat, weary and weathered. "I am warning you now: Honor does not exist here."
[9:24 PM] DiurnalKnight!: "It does for me."
[9:27 PM] Kwakado: "You imagine yourself, a god?!"
[9:28 PM] DiurnalKnight!: "No, but honor that exists only when others allow it is not honor."
[9:40 PM] Kwakado: "And honor that exists with nothing but your own wishes..."
"Hoy, Sula!
A man in a tight green jacket, with spiky brown hair, saunters up to the table.
"Who's this, your bodyguard?"(edited)
[10:06 PM] DiurnalKnight!: "He wishes."
[10:14 PM] Kwakado: "Of course!" Nodding, Sula grins to the man, raising a palm in greeting. "Ya-ve is a great warrior. But we were just, touring the fort, ha."
The rebel tightens his bandanna.
"Yeah, I see that." He turns to Yavae.
"So, whatcha think?"
[10:16 PM] DiurnalKnight!: "I can't say much, my people tend against these kinds of buildings in war so I have little to compare it to."
[11:00 PM] Kwakado: The man tilts his head up.
"ey, you can talk straight to me. It's a real shithole, ain't it"
[11:07 PM] DiurnalKnight!: "Obviously, I just don't know how shit it is without something to compare it to"
[11:16 PM] Kwakado: The young man's lip purses up, and he nods lightly.
"Ehh, good point there. Not much to say 'f you ain't got forts back home."
[11:28 PM] DiurnalKnight!: "I suggest using the holes in your walls as arrow slits"
[11:35 PM] Kwakado: "Heyy, not bad! But believe me--"
The rebel agent pulls a bronze-forged star from his pocket, twirling the weapon dramatically on his finger.
"Arrows ain't the only things that fit through there!"
Sula laughs rhythmically at the man's little routine.
"Go-ro is a ninja of Khlin, with good taste in noodles!"
The ninja bows.
"Pleasure to meetcha."
[11:41 PM] DiurnalKnight!: "I am Yavae, daughter of my tribe's chieftain and a proud warrior of the fire tribe."
[11:46 PM] Kwakado: "...the Fire Tribe? Like, the one from the legends?"
[11:47 PM] DiurnalKnight!: "Legends..? Which legends? There are many about us."
[11:52 PM] Kwakado: "You know...King Sableshell. The greatest man of all the Fire Tribe!"
Sula turns in his chair, curious to hear what she's heard.
[11:56 PM] DiurnalKnight!: "Sableshell... The one who failed to retain the throne and fled from the tribe? He is far from the greatest of our tribe."
[11:59 PM] Kwakado: Goro is taken aback. "What, seriously?!"
With a furrowed brow, Sula ponders Yavae's account. "The man forged his legends in Khlin, not with his people. Quite the sacrifice, abandoning his place with them, to save those here, uu?"
[12:01 AM] DiurnalKnight!: "He fled his people after repeated failures, he is not remembered kindly by us."
[12:05 AM] Kwakado: "Well, ya look out that arrow-hole there..."
The ninja moves to the side, pointing through a crack in the fort at a glittering speck off in the distance - Intetsu, the capital of Khlin.
"We remember when he built that. Nothing gets through those damn walls, I tell ya."(edited)
[12:09 AM] DiurnalKnight!: "He fled his people to build walls for someone else?" She scoffs, annoyed that he was considered a hero here
[12:13 AM] Kwakado: "...Yeah, dunno how it happened. I figured he just really wanted to help out." Goro stows his shuriken. "Anyway, you guys were about ta try a round of cards? Don't mind me, I'll play the winner."
[12:14 AM] DiurnalKnight!: "I wasn't planning on playing, he was simply complaining about my lack of respect for luck"
[12:21 AM] Kwakado: "Whaaat? Who ever heard of needing to respect luck?" The ninja raises an eyebrow at the Dwabi. "But that's Sula for you. Finds something stupider to say every day."
Sula slams the table theatrically. "Go-ri! If you respected luck, then you would not always lose to me at Truco!"
"H-hey, I don't...ah, you Dwabbi nutjob." The young rebel practically hops into the open seat, snatching up the deck and shuffling it nimbly.(edited)
[12:25 AM] DiurnalKnight!: "So, respecting luck isn't something everyone here does?"
[12:35 AM] Kwakado: "I mean...it is what it is. Most of us outside the walls ain't got any luck in the first place...for now.
Goro tosses the 8s, 9s, and 10s out as he shuffles, stacking them back in the middle of the table.
"But that's gonna change once we smash the old council. We're gonna bring in a harmonious society...someday."
[12:45 AM] DiurnalKnight!: "Well, I wish you luck then. Its a shame this is not my fight, I believe it will be one to remember."
[12:48 AM] Kwakado: Sula clasps his hands together earnestly. "Indeed...May your people find peace, at last."
"Hey, uh, thanks, guys.."
Guro slams the shuffled deck down between him and the Dwabi.
"But first, you can remember this throwdown! Feast your eyes..."
He deals three cards to himself, then three to a hesitant Sula.
"Hu ne...You do not need to stay, Ya-ve. These rounds tend to run long, ha ha."(edited)
[10:14 AM] DiurnalKnight!: "How is this game played?"
[12:16 PM] Kwakado: Sula smirks. "Some skill...some chance...and a lot of tricks."
"An' that last one's all the damn Dwabbi's got on his side, just you wait n' see!"
[1:36 PM] DiurnalKnight!: Yavae stays and watches the men play
End rp
[2:11 PM] ColdToiletSeat: =====End RP=====
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