2/11/2003
04:11
PM
Logfile
from Ichijin.
Royal
Elizabeth-Penthouse 1
It is a
penthouse, a swanky penthouse at that. Plenty of windows, wood flooring,
elegant lines and a modern look. You've got your sunken living area, long and
dark dining table close to the windows that overlook a balcony decorated with
topiary and such. Off to some side is the way towards the bedroom, double-doors
left open just enough to get a hint of a large bed and more expensive
furniture. All in all, it looks like a place that could use a far better
description.
Lexie
and Akurei are here.
Obvious
exits:
Exit
Reese
holds her hand up and makes it talk, an unfriendly mimicry coming out of the
thing's mouth. "Meeh. My oni'd flip, blah blah blah. Let's not mention
that this guy is an /evil bastard/."
<Phone>
Lexie says, "Sounds fine, sounds fine.
I'll call you then. Bye, Nick. Reese'll send in her paper and I'm glad
for your professional ethic."
Lexie
hangs up her phone.
Lexie
sighs, shaking her head. "He's not. He's a pussified moron. But okay."
Reese
stands, crossing her arms and making a face. "I'm am very disappointed in
you, me no miko. You're supposed to be representing us, and you know very well
that the gods would have a hard time summoning another one of you. Now going
off and nonchalantly making dinner dates with what could be our most dangerous
and least friendly enemy. And the guard is an /afterthought/?" She taps
her foot and grumbles. "You're precious goods and you expect us to protect
you, but only after you fling yourself impetuously every which way." Damn,
she's starting to act like one of /their/ mikos.
Sebastian
emerges from one room or another. Maybe he was here the whole time, maybe not.
Who knows? Who cares? Doesn't matter, because he is here now. "Who does
Lexie have a date with?" he asks, looking from Reese to the miko and back
again.
Lexie
snorts, pouring herself some whiskey. "To the contrary. I'm going through shittin' hell because my
oni are a bunch of weak defecting bastards." She lights up a cigarette.
"He's the one who enabled me to escape anyways. I'm not just precious goods. I'm precious
goods who can fight and shoot and believes in our cause and sometimes I think
I'm the ONLY one!"
Reese
runs up and glomps Sebastian, leather-clad and all. "Nicholas," she
informs, spitting the name syllable by syllable with some amount of scorn.
"Na-ka-go." The woman stalks back towards Lexie, shaking her head.
"Don't even think that way. Morwen and I worked our asses off this
afternoon for you, and the best you can do is pin the guilt on us, Lexie? Come
on, some of us aren't that dumb. You might be able to fight and shoot, but
what's that going to do against a fucker who mentally threw the equivalent of a
hummer at us. The cause is gonna go to hell if you don't live for it."
Sebastian
eyes the whiskey-drinking, smoking miko for a long moment. But, well, he
glomped by a... double-take, 'leather-clad' Reese. Oh. Well... "Oh? Is
that the one I knocked on his rear and then he tried to squash me." No, he
won't take it personal or anything. Business. "Whyever would you want to
go socialize with him, Lexie?"
Lexie
slams the emptied glass down on the ground, shattering it. "That's right. Go buy a couple of
things. Put yourself out." She snarls,
angrily. "I live for it. I live
for it, but it doesn't mean the same thing to me that it does to you, and
not.." She points at Sebastian, "To you. I don't know what you want.
Hell, I don't even know you guys that well. Not like Minai. You're just a bunch of random strangers who
signed up with a few gods, and you'll run off the minute you get a better
offer. So help me, I bloody well don't
want to see you get your asses kicked, and the way things are going now, we're
in for the biggest ass whupping of our lives. We need that scroll back and I'm
tired of trying to rule by fear. I can't make you guys obey me, hell, there's
no reason you should. You guys aren't
even friends. You shouldn't have to
take orders from a mechanic in her late twenties who's just had one screwup in
her life after another." She grabs
her windbreaker, shoving it on.
"If you've got some plans to miraculously turn this around, let me
know."
"Uh-huh,"
Reese answers, rolling her eyes. "That's the one. And if I might gently remind
you, Minai was the one who ran off with the other gods. You've got us, and
we've got you, and that's all we've got, besides eachother. Don't you dare go
flinging around that holier-than-thou attitude." The woman stalks over to
the freezer and throws a plastic bag at the door, which results in a nice
matrix of crystalline red blocking Lexie's exit. "We're not gonna get our
asses kicked, but if we separate, we're all gonna die, job undone, with angry
as hell gods. Rule by fear?" She laughs, and it's not an altogether
friendly effect, between the outfit and the sentiment in the room. "You
never ruled. We listen, and you can't fault the people in this room for that.
Our abeyance is a big thing, but your survival is more important. I can't speak
for everyone, but I just want this whole damned thing to work."
Sebastian's
lips draw into a fine line at the shattering, watching her with a silent stare.
He slowly shakes his head from side to side, drawing over to the miko,
"Are you quite finished with the dramatics yet, dear?" Chin drops
just the lightest to peer down at her, "No, you can't... because you are
not the ruler here, Lexie. You are the figure-head though. The miko. The one
needed to grant a few wishes and such forth. Don't even try to play that you need
to rule by fear, or give us orders, or any of that which you seem to want to
place upon your shoulders to try to dictate to the rest of us and force us to
do your bidding. We aren't your minions, but you seem to think that way."
He takes a breath before continuing, flickering an agreeing glance to Reese.
"Clearly, we need to regroup, assess where we are now, and decide what
needs to be done. Lick our wounds and move from there."
Lexie
snorts. "Oh, yeah, two whole seishi.
I'm just doing smashingly. Not
that I didn't have to threaten Malachai to do his job. Not that I didn't have
to shoot Dylan, mercy no." She
grabs her keys from the rack.
"We're already seperated if you didn't notice. I can't fault either of you for listening,
but it's not the same thing. The seishi
have a solidarity which we're only a pathetic mockery of. You want holy? I /am/
holier than you. I'm more full of holes
from four gods who can't be bothered to send me adequate personnel and have to
steal seishi.. Byakko seishi! To accomplish what they need. A population of billions in the world, and
she had to pluck up two Byakko, just so they could all laugh at us and gloat on
their stunning 'rescue'. And now, now
you get protective. How nice. How
charming. Now unblock the goddamn door, because I'm getting out of here. I hate this place and I'm not living here
anymore, because it hasn't done me a whit of good. You're a college student,
and he's a businessman. And that's
where your lives still are. I don't see
any seishi getting their asses kicked, and I don't see us acheiving any of our
objectives. All I see if a bunch of
selfish twits playing their little games and enjoying mint juleps and posh
penthouses. You lick 'em. I'm going
home."
Reese's
barrier glitters almost mockingly. "No, I'm not taking this down until we
resolve this. You're the miko of a feckless people, and you can't blame us for
that. Blame the gods, then spit in their faces. You wanna back down from this?
Be my guest, go off and fuck a few more seishi while you're at it, so the Yang
gods can have their little giggles, sitting on their pedestal and watching
their world go to hell while they're at it." She crosses her arms and
growls. "Or have you forgotten that we're in the middle of a war for control
of this earth? You said you would send us against them, but wouldn't attack
them directly yourself. Well, now that we're outnumbered four to one, I think
the time for niceties is over. You want me to quit school? Fine. You want me to
find you an army? Fine. You want me to deal with your hypocritical bullshit
while you wax glorious and high and mighty? That's something that I leave to
the Yang gods, and I refuse to do it." The woman pulls a gun from her
holster and aims carefully for Lexie's head. "You wanna dump us because we
let you down? Say so, and the gods can start looking for a new miko right
now."
Sebastian
chuckles. Yes, chuckles. It isn't particularly mirthful, but it definitely has
an amused note to it, if a bit dry. "You have quit." Gaze lifts and he
watches Lexie. "You have actually quit. Unbelievable. Of all people, I
expected you to be the last. Amazing how things work." His gaze
intensifies. "A set-back... loosing an oni you couldn't even keep a reign
on in the first place, and, granted, Minai, your pet. So, now you are going to
run off to whatever hole you came from and pretend like none of this ever
happened? You are going to cower and whine and let it simply be? She who enjoys
telling at every moment how pathetic her life was until she was chosen. How
much she owes to the gods, and now you are going to quit?" He shoots a
glance to Reese. "No, let me, dear... After all, when I gave myself to
Homasubi, I might as well give her the justice of ridding him of her in the
ways he sees fit." A glow forms just over the palm of his hand. "You
are always exclaiming about how down and dirty you get, lady... and when we are
there, you flee. Fitting. I expected better from you." A moment, and then
he continues. "Prove me wrong, Lexie."
Lexie
takes out the colt and chambers a round without looking, staring across at
Reese. "I'm not backing down. You guys seem to be pretty sure I'm just
good for summoning, so who'm I to argue? You get all seven together without
dying, you call me. We'll do lunch and summon." She spins the barrel, snapping it back into place. "A war for control of the earth.."
She states, mockingly. "You can't even pass a class that has a seishi
professor, yet alone. As for screwing
seishi, unlike you, I don't have an active sex life. Sorry to dissapoint you. "
She aims in return, with a dark smile. "Wanna see who has better
aim, girlie? Wanna see if Sebastian can take me down before I blow your brains
out?"
Reese
blinks at Sebastian's chi, then smirks, nodding her head approvingly. She puts
the safety back on her own weapon, tucking it back into place before slowly
drawing out her skinning knife. "You're not just good for summoning, but
against other things, you might be helpless. Will you yell at us for not
protecting you, while you run into a rain of bullets just to test our
devotion?" She runs the knife across her palm in a swift movement, letting
the blood drain down her fingers. Before the droplets hit the ground, Reese has
them under her control, and she licks her lips, a spiderweb of wire-thin blood
cells swirling before her. "We are the servants of Homasubi, and will do
as he commands. You're not backing down? Prove it. Next time you see our
traitors, show us that you're not afraid to shoot the enemy, instead of just
blasting those who fight for you. Show us that you've got the will to survive
this with us. Or you could shoot me right now, and we'll see the power of the
secular over that of the celestial. I promise you, Nakago would not even have
waited for you to load that pistol."
"Well,
why don't we just save the seishi their trouble and end it all right here. I'm
sure Rathan will enjoy coming in later to see the carnage." Seb remains
silent though as Reese speaks, only to move around so that it is actually him
between her and Lexie. Bet they wouldn't have ever figured he'd do that.
"This is no way to go about summoning, Lexie. Idiotic, really. The seishi
would be laughing to tears if they could see us now, and I would not blame
them." A breath. "And stop this inane need to rule by fear, dear. It
is ridiculous. You want us to listen to you? To actually pay attention? Acquire
our respect. This is no way to go about it."
Lexie
finally lowers the gun, with a sigh. "I would've used the desert eagle on
Nakago." She murmurs. "Fast loading
clips and I always keep one in."
She holsters it, snorting.
"They already laugh themselves to tears if you haven't
noticed. I don't need to prove
anything. I'm not supposed to be the
heavy artillery. That was your promise, Reese, and Minai had to save your ass
in a laundromat. You want to move into
heavy action? Sure could've fooled me. "
She arches a sharp eyebrow. "Respect. Respect from a guy who asked for a new miko
the minute he met me. Yer so rich."
Garanto
comes home.
Rathan
steps out of the kitchen into the main room, despite not having been in the
apartment mere moments before. With a
bright smile on his face, he raises a hand to wave a greeting to any and all
present... but the smile fades away rather abruptly, leaving a rather confused
new oni staring in bewilderment.
Reese
blinks at Sebastian and juts her jaw, arms crossed as she flexes her hand,
letting more blood drop and feed into the stock she has already floating
through the air. "Respect," she echoes, with a scowl, "and maybe
just the smallest hint of survival instinct. I did say I was the artillary, and
I made a mistake - no body parts can hit teleportation, and if I'm unconscious,
I can't do anything. My bad: I'm not going to go all rambo and attack random
people anymore. Happy now? As for the seishi laughing, we almost had all of
them. We could've gotten away with everyone, until the Seiryuu hit the scene.
We had to drag ourselves away from that, and you want a dinner date with
them."
The
scene so far: Sebastian stands between the miko and Reese; Lexie's gun has just
been put away. There's a piece of gore blocking the door, and someone is making
a ribbon of blood float menacingly in the air.
Lexie
lights up a cigarette. "That 'dinner date' is to convince the most
dangerous sei there is why we should parley for a temporary ceasefire until we
get our scroll back, which we /can not/ get without the Yang seishi. You know? Our summoning scoll which is stuck
in a dimensional rift? In the Yang
temple? I was /trying/ to help. I was
/trying/ to stop any more of us from getting our ever lovin' asses
kicked!"
Sebastian
shrugs his shoulders indolently, "I was expecting someone with a bit more
class and a lot less panache." Ah well. Must deal with the cards given.
The raw chi glimmering above his hand slowly dissipates, but not entirely. He
shakes his head slowly from side to side, flickering a glance back at the
entering Rathan. Just another family squabble, yes.
"Did
I come at a bad time?" Because if
he did, Rathan can leave as quickly and quietly as he arrived. No skin off his back. Attention is torn between the floating gore
and the subsiding glow around Sebastian's hand. "If you are having some sort of... discussion, I can come
back later." He's already beginning
to inch backwards into the kitchen.
"Wouldn't want to interrupt anything important."
Reese
shakes her head, sighing. "All right. So the most dangerous seishi knows
we don't have access to the scroll, he knows that we're weak, and he knows that
we're outnumbered. What's to keep him from giving you the coup de grace right
there? We'd be all that, a bag of chips, and down a miko to boot. I'm just
saying, maybe you should watch yourself, so that you don't get all gung-ho and
killed, so we can all do our jobs and live happily ever after." The girl
blinks at Rathan, tossing over a bright smile. "Oh, no. If anything, you
should pay close attention to this... it's part of your duties, to a certain
extent. You can learn about the family," she adds, easing her jaw from
side to side.
"Truly,
Rathan. Reese has a point there. Best to understand how dysfunctional we really
are as a family. Never a better time than the present." Seb draws back now
to stand at Reese's side, before looking towards the door. *sigh* Yet another
thing he is going to have to pay the cleaning lady a little extra to ignore.
And the woes continue.
Lexie
resists the urge to wave the gun around again.
"No." She states, sarcastically, "The Suzaku and ALL of
the seishi know because if you didn't notice they flung it in there before
kidnapping me. " Looks like she could boil eggs on her
forehead. "He already had the chance because I had to get my own ass out of it. It wouldn't take a bloody genius to so simple math, for that
matter?!" She grabs the bottle of
whiskey, angrily. "Did I /mention/ that he was the watchdog when all the
Suzaku passed out? He's not going to
kill me. He's a freaking shrimp in this lifetime."
Rathan
still does not look to certain about remaining to witness this little 'family
squabble,' but if both Sebastian and Reese are urging him to stay, then he
knows his place is here. "Would it
be rude of me to ask what's going on?"
His voice is even softer than usual, as if he isn't certain he wants to
draw any more attention his way.
"I know it has to be tiresome to keep explaining things to me,
but..." He shrugs his slender
shoulders in a mixture of 'I'm clueless' and 'Please Don't Hurt Me'.
"Okay,
fine," Reese says, closing her eyes. "So we're a little screwed. The
senshi piss you off, everyone knows we're outnumbered, and we haven't got our
summoning scroll. You're dodging around my point. Would it really be so bad to
have a little protection, in case, god forbid, the badass of the Yang gods
decides to have a change of heart?" She rubs her temples, sighing deeply.
"I was merely stressing the importance of the fact that Lexie has to live
in order to summon our god. It seems we are heavily outnumbered, in great
danger, and ill-equipped to do anything, let alone challenge the incumbent
pantheon."
Sebastian
sighs, rolls his eyes, and simply flops into the nearest chair and Lexie goes
about into her dramatics once more. Drama queen. He nods as Reese explains
though, smirking now and again.
Lexie
tosses up her hands. "I'm not
dodging any point because you don't /have/ one! You heard me. I can take along
one of you guys just fine. Old news!
Nainokami's ass.." She stalks
towards the bathroom, slamming the door.
Yay Malachai's cards. She wants to go get some food and cool down.
Rathan
scratches the side of his head. Reese's
explanation helped somewhat, but not enough.
"If the biggest problem is that we're out-numbered..." His voice is quite hesitant as he asks,
"Are we in any real rush? I mean,
it's not like the world is going anyplace without us, except further down the
path of corruption. I may not be very
old, but I've seen enough to know that most people rush and scramble to
accomplish their goals, and end up causing themselves more problems than they
solve." He swallows
nervously. "Reese had mentioned
seven warriors of Homasubi. Unless I
just haven't met the other four yet, we seem to be a few short by my
reckoning."
Reese
grumbles whole-heartedly. "What time?" the woman yells at the
bathroom door, retrieving her plastic bag and drawing all the gore back into
it, her own blood wrapping around her sleevie for further use. Muttering
curses, she pecks Sebastian quickly on the cheek and storms to the bedroom,
ruffling Rathan's hair on the way. "Don't worry about this. She's just a
character, our Lexie is." Nevermind that frustrated scream when she
finally does slam the door behind her.
Sebastian's
gaze draws over to Rathan, and he can't help but nodding. "Exactly."
Precisely his point. But, as Lexie scurries to the bathroom, he is left to
chuckle softly. "Unfortunately, we've been blessed with a miko with a hot
head." And then Reese is storming into the other room. He winces at the
slam and scream. "Women." That pretty much well explains it all there.
Lexie
flushes, washes her hands, and stomps out.
"Why can't you be more like him?" She asks, stabbing a finger
at Rathan. "he's cool." She
grabs the whiskey, and jingles her keys. "I'm going out for food. You
should be glad I'm not depriciating your property values." *whistle.* "<Here babies! Come on
babies!>" Oh, is that barking a
stampede in formation?
Rathan
can't help but grin at Sebastian's final comment. Wisely, however, he waits until Lexie and her pack of rotts have
passed out of earshot before he quietly speaks. A tinge of red does rise in his cheeks in response to the miko's
comment, though. "I've noticed
that short tempers are as common to men as to women, but I know what you mean,
sir. Some people get so caught up in an
argument that they forget what it was they were arguing about in the first
place." The grin slips away,
replaced once more by a puzzled frown.
"'Course, since I just got here, I don't really know what the fight
was about, either. Seems like it was
about more than just numbers and danger...
Something about accompanying the miko?"
Sebastian
smiles faintly, looking up to Rathan. "My, she likes you... are you sure
you aren't a Byakko in pig's clothing?" Ouch. The leaving dogs are eyed
with something of a sneer. One of these days, the whole pile it going to find
itself thru a quick portal into a far off corner of the world. And praise be!
when that happens. "If there is one thing to understand about Lexie, it is
that the smallest thing can set her off to extremes. Granted, this time it
wasn't quite so small..."
Lexie
lights up a cigarette, only to extinguish it on one of Sebastian's more
expensive pillows out of spite, before leaving. Yepperoos. She's a character. On this game thing, y'see. But some poor resteraunt is about to get a
bunch of junkard dogs and her. Pity them.
Lexie
walks out of the apartment.
Rathan
has had enough of an introduction to all things seishi from Reese to understand
Sebastian's casual insult. "I am
as much Homasubi as you are, sir."
His jaw clenches and his backbone straightens. "I may have just been introduced to this whole affair, but I
can assure you I seek only to brink Homasubi into this world to wash away the
detritus of modern civilization."
This is a sore point with Rathan, as Reese earlie discovered. "I've been told about the lapdogs of
the Yang gods who are trying to stop Lexie...
All they seek to do is maintain their own power in this sinful
world. Do not ever imply that I am one
of them."
Sebastian
watches Rathan speculatively, eyes searching the young man as he speaks. Ever
so slowly, a grin tickles at the corner of his lips, and then he nods his head,
drawling slowly, "Duly noted, and appreciated." He continues to watch
him for a long moment before continuing once more, "Have you been
introduced to any of the seishi yet?"
A
quickshake of Rathan's head indicates a negative response. "So far I've only met you, Lexie, and
Reese. I haven't even met any of the
servants of the other Yin gods, let alone any of the vile seishi." A pause indicates a moment's thought before
he adds, "At least, I don't think I've met any of them. I don't really know how I'd tell them apart
from anyone else."
Sebastian
is amused. He nods and then points a finger to the side to point at... well,
the wall. "Our neighbors. And I believe that there are even a few that
live in the floors below us. It is full of the... vermin, I suppose." A
breath. "But I believe in the old saying, keep your friends close... and
your enemies closer." A sigh, "You need to be introduced to Morwen
and Malachai then."
"Our
neighbors? Perhaps I will have to
introduce myself," Rathan comments with a slight smile. As for the two names? "More of /our/ kind," Rathan
guesses. "I would be honored to
meet them, sir. But should there not be
more of us? Many more?" Reese had told him there were four Yin gods. Seven warriors for each god. He may not have finished high school, but he
wasn't stupid. "You, Reese, and I
are three. Morwen and Malachai make
five. What of the others?"
Sebastian
frowns for a moment and then nods. "I apologize. I'm not explaining this
to you very well." He sits up in the couch, hand moving over to push his
long braid of hair to his back. "There are the four Yin gods, correct? Homasubi
is but one of them. You, Reese, and myself are three of the oni that are in
service to him. Morwen is in service to a different one of the four, as is
Malachai. Of the Yin, there is only us five, and Lexie. That is all. From what
I hear... of the others, there are very, very many."
"Are
we awaiting the arrival of the other oni?" Rathan still stumbles slightly over the word; it had not been
part of his vocabulary until very recently.
"If the others do not know who they are... if they had forgotten as
I had, could they still arrive? No
matter how numerous the seishi may be, I do not doubt that we will succeed in
bringing the End Time to this sad world, but should we not await the coming of
our brethren?"
"It
will be difficult. Extremely. But, while we do wait for the others to arrive as
well, as each of us already has, we must do what we can to prepare for it. Our
lost scroll must be regained once more. As we need to keep the seishi and their
mikos from arriving to the point of summoning before us. We have /much/ to do
while we wait for the others to arrive." Seb frowns for a moment before
continuing. "Sitting and waiting has its time and place, but we also need
to make sure, /absolute/ sure that those of Yang do not accomplish their summoning
before we can. Otherwise, all will be lost, Rathan."
"Would
it not be good for one of our number to go among them, then? To learn of their actions so we know when
and how they plan to act?" Rathan
takes a step towards the seated Sebastian.
"I do not know enough yet to be of much use in our preparations,
but maybe I could serve Lexie in that fashion.
The enemy does not know of me. I
might be able to befriend some of them and learn of their plans before they
interfere in ours."
Just as
Seb was planning on keeping in anonymity until his fellow oni felt the need to
repeatedly say his name before them. See what he has to work with here? Do you
blame the one god taking two Byakko for herself? Never mind the dysfunction
there either. "An admirable idea. Very much so. And definitely something
to consider. If so, you might want to avoid the neighbors then." He sighs
and draws to his feet. "I need to find us another warehouse, seeing as the
other is compromised." He offers Rathan a wry grin, a bob of his head, and
then he is moving away.