Items: Central System, 2 x Energy Pistol (2 upgrades), EDI

task:

Rokuju was now all alone amongst the rubble of the village that the pirates had just raided. Their battle had made it into a warzone, and she didn’t know if the villagers would be able to rebuild it. Regardless, she had done the job she had been assigned. That was the eradication of the Mongrel Pirates. It was unfortunate that they had amassed a much bigger crew than she had imagined they would. It had been simply too much for the soldiers and her trap to take care of. That had ended up meaning that she had to join the fight, and with it, the use of her Glint Glint fruit. Luckily, there had been no witnesses to the battle, so her cover still had not been blown. The sole survivor of the fight, she began to make her way back to Alabasta. She stopped on the way to tell the soldiers that were guarding the villagers that had been camped out a ways away that the battle was over. They were shocked to hear that she was the only one to live. Thankfully they didn’t suspect the feeble young woman could be capable of such destruction. She had a guard accompany her back to the capital city Alabasta and check in with the border guard. From there, they would send word to the king in a report of what had happened. Hopefully he would be pleased that their side had been victorious. Hopefully there would be a great reward for all her effort. But for now, she would retire to the room at the inn she had hired. The day was coming to a close. As she left, the guard instructed her to be ready to meet with the king in the morning. She nodded her head and trotted off. It had been a long day and she couldn’t wait to have a snooze.


Morning came, and with it, so did the meeting with the king. Rokuju had prepared herself and walked up to the palace. She was kept waiting only a few minutes this time, before she was ushered into the throne room. There the ruler sat atop his throne, left arm propping up his head as he looked down his nose at the young woman who had entered his estate. Ro walked forwards and curtsied, waiting to be addressed.
“Elena Veil. You have returned from your mission. According to the report, all of the pirates are dead. Is this true, are all of those wretched beasts disposed of?”

[424]

Ro lowered her eyes as was custom, but just for a moment and then responded. “Yes, they have all perished. It ended up being quite the fierce battle, your soldiers fought bravely and in the end, the sides seemed to destroy each other.”
The king was quick with a retort. “You see, that is something I find difficult to believe. You were the only one to live in that horrific battle. Not one pirate nor any of my men. Not only that, but the village was all but destroyed. You know what? I just want to be done of this whole situation. Take your pay and begone.” He flicked his wrist dismissively.


Rokuju didn’t care for whatever the King felt about what had happened, it was no big deal because at the end of the day, she had still done the job and was getting payed for it. One of the king’s servants came over to her with a sack in his hand. Ro could already feel her mouth water as the heavy sack filled her hands. But something was off, she knew the weight of gold well.. Looking inside, she could see the lackluster gleam of copper and silver coins. What the hell was this? This is peasant’s pay! “Your highness, there must have been a problem, this is not worthy pay for the work I have done for you!” Ro looked up at the king with exasperation, forgetting her position as a lowly commoner for a second.
“You are damned right there is a problem! I hired you to end those pirates and what happened, the whole damned village is destroyed and my mean are all dead!” This pissed off Rokuju to no end. It simply wasn’t fair.
“There were twice the number of pirates than I was told there would be, and as for your so called ‘men’, their incompetency was laughable!” Not bothering to hold back at this point, Ro raised her voice to royalty like no mere woman should. But it was true, to expect anything better than what had gone down was a joke. She had been given half a dozen of low grade soldiers, barely 3 years of experience between them, and was put up against a far superior invading force. If it hadn’t been for her own power, they would have been wiped off the map completely. She knew for a fact that no one else on the damned island could have done any better than what she had done.

[423]

“You dare lay blame with my soldiers? I have Hamilton breathing down my neck and you are whining about some insignificant pirate infestation? How about this? Guards, take her away!” The king had obviously had enough of her insolence for now, he had commanded his men to imprison her just like an all powerful leader could.


Well, look where her big mouth had gotten her now. She doubted she would be receiving even a penny now. The guards surrounded her, clad in their metal armour, two at her side, one at the front and one at the back. The guard at either side grabbed her arm with rough and began to lead her away. Right in that moment, Ro was so riled up that she had half a mind to take the king’s head right then and there. She reckoned she could do it and be back in her place before anyone had even realised what had happened. But she had more sense than that. She couldn’t afford that reckless with her moves, it was just plain unhealthy. No, she would be making a next move for sure, today had given her furnace plenty of fire. Now it was just to select which dangerous weapon she would choose to forge with it.


Slowly she was taken down the stairs and down a corridor. She assumed she was being taken down to a cell or something. Who knew what they had planned for her now? If she was just a normal person there was every chance that she would end up rotting away forever in some dank dungeon. It looked like they had descended down to the first basement level. They had left the main palace, no nobility would ever see these forsaken halls. No one was around and Ro was just about ready to take her leave. While the guards hadn’t taken the boxes on her wrists, not realising that they were really pistols, she couldn’t really use them in the small confined area such as this. They would cause too much collateral damage and make too much noise. It looked like she had to rely on that power one more time. How many times did she have to make a deal with the devil inside her?


Rokuju glowed like the sun, sending out rays of pure energy as her form changed into a yellow mass. The rays radiated out in every direction from her body, piercing through the bodies of the guards before they had even realised anything was amiss.

[425]

The rays pierced right through armour, muscle, organ and bone alike before reaching the walls on the other side, reflecting back and running them through again. What the average person would see was a flash of yellow lines criss crossing through the section of the corridor that the guards stood in. And the moment after the flash faded, the bodies crumpled to the ground. Ro would move, still in her logian state, over to the grate window that lead to the backstreet behind the palace. She seeped through the gate in her yellow form, solidifying back into flesh on the other side. There had not been anyone on the street to see her, thankfully. Quickly, she scurried back through the backstreets. She wouldn’t dare return to her original inn residence, this time, she would lay low in a dingy hidey hole while she worked on her next move.


Three quarters of an hour later, she had managed to find a nice little possy, an abandoned apartment that reeked a bit too much. However it would do for now, it was clear from the piles of rubbish that this place had been abandoned a while back. Now, to business. “EDI, power up” The little box on her back unlatched and slowly booted up, whirring.
“Good morning Rokuju, how may I be of assistance?” It asked in a mechanical yet smooth and slightly feminine voice. This was the little bot she had made, initially to help her with her research. But in the end, she kind of ran away with the idea, creating a fully fledged AI. Sometimes she even booted it up to have a conversation with when she was lonely. Although sounding a little pathetic, she didn’t really have anyone else to turn to. She just could not trust anyone with the truth of her situation.


“Give me info on the Hamilton-Alabasta conflict.” Ro wanted to be briefed on what the deal was. She was already aware of most of the situation, as she kept herself up to date with all politics and goings on.
“The micronation of Hamilton is a seafaring nomadic group, more akin to a clan or a family than a crew. There was an incident twenty years ago, when Hamilton attempted to dock at Sandy Island’s main port. Initial trigger is unclear, but what resulted was a domino effect of back and forths for the years following. Records show that in recent years, there have even been large scale raids on fringe towns by Hamilton, with the Alabastian court responding with an attempted naval genocide. Tensions are currently very high, and both sides are gearing up for conflict.” Ro nodded her head, pacing back to forth while she processed the information. If she could find a way to spark a war, she could use the situation to her own advantage.

[478]

resources:

“Alright, put a call through to Steve 212. Hamilton should be on Drum at this time of year. I want you to tell him to relay these words to them precisely.” From there she would rattle off a few choice lines. She told them of how she knew that the king of Alabasta was plotting against them. She told them of how they disrespected the noble sea folk of Hamilton and of how with every breath, they ushered disdain upon their great name. She promised them her support through supplying them for whatever course of action as well as telling of her ability to provide them with inside information on the inner workings of the Alabastian court and military. She wove a web of words and half-truths, aiming to manipulate the clan into a conflict against the king. 212 was one of the employees of the Germa organisation, and he was stationed over on Drum Island. Ro intended to use what influence Germa still had to encourage Hamilton to pay a visit to Sandy Island. Yes, this was the sort of power play that only the Vinsmoke bloodline were capable of. Her ancestors had clawed their way to the top of the dog pile and she was attempting to do the same. Rokuju twitched with anticipation. If all went to plan, this could be the beginning of a very important series of events.


What she didn’t expect, was who came knocking at the door next. On her toes, Ro was instantly alert to her surroundings. Drat. She had been caught up in thought and some people had entered the apartment complex. But why had they come all the way up into this stank room? And why were they knocking on what should be an abandoned house? The only explanation was that someone had found her. Her heart rate rose as she padded her way to the door. If they had ill intention, they would have barged in here already. She didn’t know who it was, but she was curious all the same. Her suspicious mind second guessed, but it wasn’t enough to outweigh her curiosity.

Opening the door, she found a palace guard. Within half a second her pistol was already trained on the man's chest. He looked a bit taken aback, like he wasn't expecting to meet resistance. Then a familiar voice came from behind him. "Now now, this isn't really the time for that, why don't you invite us in for a cup of tea?"
-to be continued-

[428]
~exit~
Thread Closed

Turn 1: never left summary mode

Turn 2: King asks a really big and dramatic question, then gives up a moment later because it's too much work. He's going to make a huge accusation like that, then roll with it.

Turn 3: The dungeon seemed like a cool place to use rp wise. You developed it fine, then got rid of it in the same instance.

Turn 4:I understand that EDi is a story telling device,but why does it know the alabastan politics without being rp'd in a manner that it would? It just seems like you called it up to give you an answer like you'd expect from a sci fi movie,but it's not connected to any databases like in the sci fi movies to give you the info. unless you've rp'd the EDI to read a library full of albastan books, I'd expect it not to know this since ro can't know these things out of thin air either.For future reference, even use a flashback of how it got the information at least.

Turn 5: The least you can do is actually talk to the person you're relaying the message to. As opposed to summarizing it and then sending it like it's natural. If this Steve 212 on drum can communicate with you, then show it by actually writing that out.

Beli:350k
Bounty:750k
Exp:7k
2 SP