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Post by Zuni on Jun 4, 2015 20:50:43 GMT
The Barrel was not one of Cacumber’s more sparkling bars, it was, in fact, a total dump. Situated in a rough neighbourhood right by the spaceport, the buildings beneath the flight path of heavy freighters and frigates were almost constantly bombarded by the roar of engines, the blast of jets, and saturated with the stink of runoff fuel. It was a hellish place, not truly suited to habitation by any form of civilized life, and yet this was the squalor that the Saiyan underclass was forced to survive in. Was it any surprise that they spent most of their time trying to drink to forget?
The bar itself was crowded, and had presumably seen better days – though those days were so far behind it now that what they may have looked like was anybody’s guess. Peeling paint and cracked furniture was the main theme, along with cheap (watered-down) beer and cheap (water-logged) food. Most upper-class Saiyans wouldn’t be caught dead in such a pit, but to the regular clientele, that was practically an advantage.
It was, in other words, the perfect place for Zuni to continue to establish her Inuz persona. She knew she was being watched, but in a place like this, the kind of people the Queen or House Stormtail could send to watch her tended to stick out like a sore thumb. Their armour was too perfect, their appearance too fit and their attitudes too refined. Some of the poor souls she’d forced to follow her in here actually ate the bar nuts. The bar nuts! Only the most foolish or foolhardy would even think of grabbing anything the proprietor of this place offered for ‘free’. It would surely be paid back ten times over in gastrointestinal distress.
The woman stands out too, but mostly because her attitude demands that she do so. She’s wearing old-school Saiyan armour, impressive shoulder pads and all, and her skin is dark, her hair arranged in a series of incredibly irregular black spikes. The woman’s tail is fluffier than any pureblood Saiyan’s has any right to be, and her bright blue eyes speak further to a merely half-saiyan heritage. She’s also tied a series of brightly coloured ribbons into her tail. The first night she’d come here, some of the regulars had made fun of her for it. None of them quite seemed to have the urge to do so any longer.
Instead, she took her seat at the bar and gestured for a glass. A tankard of pale yellow piss-water followed, and she slugged down fully half of it before belching loud and long to announce that she had arrived in the place.
“Now that’s what I call good beer, can’t taste it going down, won’t taste it coming back up.”
She beamed from ear to ear, and some of the regulars chuckled at her little joke. The bartender seemed less than amused, though.
“How long’re you gonna be here again?” He drawled in his thick, rough accent. She merely shrugged.
It wasn’t a question she could rightfully answer. Zuni wasn’t going anywhere, but Inuz? If things went badly over the next few days and weeks, she might be forced to abandon the persona sooner than she would like… or perhaps the Queen would see fit to reward her with a medal, titles and land for her service to the Empire. Really, she wasn’t sure which would be more inconvenient in the long run, as all of those things would get in the way, but she had to keep up the pretence that she was here until her job was done, and then she’d be moving on home.
“Tough question to answer there, Tater, very tough. Depends on how long the Queen takes to realize my undeniable genius and brilliance and reward me accordingly, you know?” She grinned at the old man and his scarred, pock-marked face. “What, are you so eager to see the back of me?”
He harrumphed, snorting and shaking his head, “You’re a freak, but so long as you’ve got money, you’re welcome to be parted from it here like the rest of these fools.”
Ah, who could ever get tired of that famous Saiyan sense of hospitality?
(Thread PL: 5,452)
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Prince Luffa
Archived
Transferred to Swees
PL: 85,110
False Super Saiyan(x6)
Zeni: 512
Tag: @luffa
Posts: 77
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Post by Prince Luffa on Jun 5, 2015 23:38:56 GMT
(Thread PL: 9,786)
One of the more unsavory factors of his family’s recent fall from power was Luffa’s required presence in these sorts of places. The common-house was huddled under a derelict wing of the spaceport, with a faded grey banner hanging limply from its cracked façade in a desperate guise to be considered a proper battlehall for the resting warrior. Only an idiot could think so, though. Grease from a thousand idling spacecraft left a permanent stain across the building’s crown, and scorch marks crisscrossed its cavernous, cave-like doorway where more than one patron had been thrown out on the end of a ki blast.
The boy prince sighed woefully. Years ago, his father had servants and seneschals for the collection of tributes and taxes. If there was a problem payer, it was sorted by soldiers. Nowadays, every small issue was left to Luffa himself. The proud House of the Bone Moon was bankrupt, and it was up to him to make it right. He drew his six meter cloak of shimmering gold around his emerald aegis and raised his chin high, crinkling his nose at the foul cloud of heavy stink he was entering as he approached the bar. The entryway was frothed with heavy scours of wet mud, making stepping through it unsoiled an impossibility. Luffa briefly considered floating, but thought that less dignified.
A two-headed alien at the door barred his entry and began clattering at him in one of the slave tongues, and Luffa answered him with a slap across his uglier face that sent him flying sideways into a midden heap. He made sure the alien didn’t repeat the mistake by killing him with a shrieking beam of ki that lit the rotting pile and the freak aflame.
The young Minister stepped briskly inside.
The place was even more disgusting than he’d imagined possible. It was worse than the Wastelands -- seething with filth and the lowest sort of Saiyan one could find. His aunt held some sort of queer respect people of the Radditsu District, the people he’d been appointed to represent, but Luffa saw them for what they were – walking, talking garbage.
Luffa twisted his mouth in distaste at a spiky-haired woman with ribbons in her tail before stepping surely to the bar. He had to shoulder his way through some hulking and burly brutes, levitating until he was eyelevel with the bartender. “Fetch me your laggardly layabout of an owner straight away, or I’ll tear out your guts and turn this cesspit to cinders.” Luffa ordered in a matter-of-fact voice, earning him some incredulous stares from the scum standing directly to his left and right, stares he met with fierce glares of his own.
He may be little, but everyone here would be fools to underestimate him.
The old and pock-marked bartender seemed to recognize Luffa from the propaganda, breaking away with his conversation with the ribboned woman and giving several nervous bows before turning to run up a rickety stairway between two spirit cases.
“And someone get me a glass of red.”
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Post by Zuni on Jun 6, 2015 5:46:10 GMT
Zuni can't sense energy, but she has ears. The sound of an energy discharge and a shriek from outside brought a faint pout to the demon's lips. Why was it that saiyans always went right to killing each other and their slaves? It was bad enough that they bothered keeping slaves at all, in her opinion, but killing them was downright wasteful.
When the kid wearing noble colours strode imperiously in, Zuni's heart sunk. This was, without a doubt, proof of everything she felt was wrong in Saiyan culture. She'd travelled the galaxy, and she could count on one hand the number of species whose children were half as prone to this kind of too-serious pomp and arrogance. As the little man strode across the sticky floor, he received stares from many people in the bar - the woman with the ribbons in her tail wasn't unique in that aspect. Where she does differ is that rather than looking on him with fear, respect or jealousy... the look in her eyes was one of disappointment - though it seemed likely that the young man was arrogant enough not to notice or care.
The bartender scurried away obsequiously, and Zuni was left to look the boy up and down as he did. She could already see how this was going to go; some of the drunk saiyans would take it on themselves to try and teach the kid some manners, he would presumably prove to be overwhelmingly strong and destroy them, or else they’d prove too much for him and in their overzealous excitement probably beat him to death.
There was no room in the calculation for her to go on enjoying her evening of drink and banter with her friend.
“Well hello there! What’s your name?”
Zuni’s cheerful voice broke the tense silence, and she hopped up onto the bar, scooting across its surface on her rear to come down the other side and grasp the neck of a bottle of wine. He might not approve of her tail, but she is one of the few Saiyans in here wearing actual armour; she’s a warrior, if an unorthodox, half-breed one. Here’s hoping that’d buy her the ounce of respect she needed to distract him from his murderous quest.
He was also just a little kid. What were the chances he knew how to handle his drink?
Grabbing a full pint glass, she buffed it on her sleeve and then poured the wine until it was almost overflowing. The woman then hopped once more over the counter, not spilling a single drop as she landed, twirled on her heel, and came down on one knee, glass raised up to the Prince. It was an impressive display of acrobatic prowess; one which brought chuckles from some of the other patrons, all the better to puncture the atmosphere of simmering hostility.
“My name is Inuz. Maybe you heard of me? I impressed the Queen a couple days back, exposed House Stormtail for the pack of lying, cheating scum they are.” She flashed a grin – and if the young noble was keeping up with rumours around the court, he probably had heard of her unorthodox display in the palace, and the fury of House Stormtail, who have fallen on all manner of hard times of late and were currently being investigated for corruption.
“I’d be honoured if you joined me for a drink and a story. Life’s too short to spend it upset, that’s why we’re all here. Tell me, do you know the story of the monkey and the snake?”
If he’ll allow it, Zuni will wrap her arm around his shoulders after he’s taken the drink, and guide him towards the barstools where she had been sitting. Sure, they’re filthy, gross and uncomfortable but they’re also somewhere to sit!
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Prince Luffa
Archived
Transferred to Swees
PL: 85,110
False Super Saiyan(x6)
Zeni: 512
Tag: @luffa
Posts: 77
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Post by Prince Luffa on Jun 7, 2015 6:57:44 GMT
Luffa’s glares staved off most of the brutish jealousy and aggression bubbling under the filthy skins of these low lifeforms, and the one nearest to him wizened up after a moment of locked eyes, staggering over to a dark corner to drain his sorry life into his emptying cup. Luffa let his muscles relax and the ki building in his palm dissipate. Had any of these mangy mendicants thought to test him, they would have met painfully slow deaths.
A table slave moved to serve him, but the ribboned woman stole her initiative. She bounded quickly across the bar in acrobatic form, sliding across the scarred top until she handed Luffa a tall glass of smoking red. It was an impressive display, Luffa admitted. He took a fierce gulp without even gagging. The boy prince had a high tolerance for alcohol ever since living in the methanol pits of the last siege world he’d cracked and sold.
When she introduced herself, Luffa raised an eyebrow, assessing her closely. She had the armor of a warrior, and there was something very strange about her, something he could not quite place. It was something both alien and familiar. He nodded slowly after a moment’s contemplation, mulling over her words before taking another swig. “I am Luffa." He said. Simpletons such as these would never understand proper titles, they were better working under three syllables, he'd found. "Stormtails are blackguardly vermin, and so is half the peerage.” He agreed, before a self-assured smirk came to his face. “Never heard of you, but let me guess -- another low-class Saiyan riding the new Queen’s coattails?”
He shook his head when she asked him of the story, and pulled her arm from his shoulders, but followed her all the same. There was something interesting in her, that didn’t immediately make Luffa want to kill her. Perhaps, with her simple and confident manner, she reminded him of his aunt, who’d always been among Luffa’s favorite people. “I’ll listen to your story, but if there are any clowns involved I will destroy you.” Luffa said before moving to the bar stools, hopping up on one, his booted feet dangling a good foot or so from the floor. For all his high manner, he was exceedingly short.
(Zuni, posted This is fun.)
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Post by Zuni on Jun 7, 2015 12:52:33 GMT
The idea that she was riding anyone’s coattails got a burst of laughter from Zuni, and she shook her head as she slid herself back up onto her seat. She paused long enough to drain some of her own beverage – moderately impressed that the young Prince could handle his liquor so well, but Saiyans always had been a hardy lot – and then she turned more fully towards him. Luffa now had the distinction of being the most interesting thing in the bar – so long as she could keep him from any further acts of murder, this could well prove to be a fun evening.
“Half right.” She said, “Much like me.” A self-depreciating joke as she grinned from ear to ear. “Low-born, yes. I don’t actually know who my father was, he left me as something to remember him by for my mother. Riding the Queen’s coattails? Nah. I found out the Stormtails were stealing from the Empire, so I decided to call them out on it. I’m hoping I can watch Lord Stormtail get his head put on a spike, then go back home.”
It was all lies, of course, but lies came so easily to her. The personality and history she’d constructed for Inuz was actually quite fun. The woman she pictured in her mind’s eye was just the sort of Saiyan she’d like – if such a Saiyan could ever actually exist- strong, yes, and proud of herself – but with a sense of humour and enough self-confidence that her pride was difficult to wound.
“Anyway, I’m not very interesting. The story, though, that’s far more important.”
Zuni clapped her hands together, and gave a devilish grin, looking the young man right in the eye. “The story of the Monkey and the Snake is one of my absolute favourites. Let us begin.”
As she spoke, Zuni’s eyes sparkled with mischief. The woman’s voice was strong and proud, rising and falling in dramatic time with her tale.
“Once, there was a proud snake who was in charge of a great and glorious garden. He had been given the job because he was a sly, manipulative creature, and he thought the garden would give him great prestige. As the years went by, though, he came to truly love the flowers, shrubs, and trees. He tended to them with meticulous care. Next to his garden there was another, smaller one where there lived a very old monkey. The snake hated the monkey because the monkey never seemed to want to work, and let her garden run out of control, and yet the monkey’s garden was given just as much prestige by their betters, and in fact, the monkey often seemed to have many more visitors!
One day, when the snake was expecting a visit from his betters, he took extra care in tending to the garden. He pulled the weeds, trimmed the shrubs, combed the moss, and spent a long time meticulously raking up and carefully arranging all the dry autumn leaves. As he worked, the old monkey watched him with interest from across the wall that separated the two gardens.
When he had finished, the snake slithered back to admire his work. "Isn't it beautiful? They’ll love this. Someone as lazy as you could never be as well-respected as me!" he called out to the old monkey. "Yes," replied the old monkey, "but there is something missing. May I come over this wall? I'll put it right for you."
She paused in her story then, grinning from ear to ear, “What do you think the snake did?”
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Prince Luffa
Archived
Transferred to Swees
PL: 85,110
False Super Saiyan(x6)
Zeni: 512
Tag: @luffa
Posts: 77
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Post by Prince Luffa on Jun 8, 2015 21:21:05 GMT
Luffa gave a noncommittal shrug to Inuz’s question. It sounded like one of those parables his wetnurses would sing to him. It was, in all honesty, very nearly nauseating so far – there wasn’t even a good fight in it. She had brought him a drink, at least, so he thought to at least entertain her. Briefly. “The worthless snake crawled over the wall to view the stupid monkey woman’s garden.” Luffa surmised. “Is this a tale that is going to end with a half-hidden plea for me to pretend to be nice to people? Or make it seem that your unwashed and uncultured people are somehow just as good as true nobility?” He asked before taking a quick chug of the drink and allowing her to continue, letting out a loud belch.
The more he thought of it, the more Luffa decided there was something different about this one. He’d never seen a low-class soldier with the gall that she had, and who wore ribbons on their tail besides? He would have to investigate this point further, when the time came. As he listened his eyes moved from the woman and the bar to the stairway, waiting for the owner. He would give the place five minutes. If there was no response from the debtor after that time, he’d have to start incinerating people.
Luffa crossed his ankles under the bar stool and folded his gloved fingers together, somewhat patiently listening as Inuz continued her tale. At least listening to it distracted him from the foul odors emanating from every foot of this blasted hellhole. He gave her a full-body scan with his scouter as she spoke, out of curiosity, but found nothing out of form. There was some deeply buried instinct that was confused by her, however. He decided to wait and see.(Nice story )
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Post by Zuni on Jun 9, 2015 5:49:51 GMT
Zuni cackled – and that really was the only word which could be used to describe the noise that burst from her lips. The Prince’s reaction was more glorious than she could have hoped for; and of course, she knew just how the story ended. She always liked it when she felt like she had one up on someone else.
“Do I seem like the sort of person to make pleas?” Zuni asked, when she’d finished her monkey-like cackling. “No, no, no. I don’t even think this is about class. I think it is about something else entirely, but what do I know?”
She paused to take a long slug from her drink, polishing it off and then she brought the empty stein down on the bar top. The owner appeared shortly after – an older man with a vicious scar down one eye – which probably explained how he wound up running this awful dive.
He opened his mouth to speak, only to be shut down instantly by a glare from Zuni, who raised her fingers before his face. “Ah-ah-ah. I am telling. A story.” She said, snapping her fingers, “Make yourself useful and refill my friend and I’s drinks, and make it snappy. Now.” She clapped her hands together, turning in her seat to face Luffa again.
“The snake was an ambitious creature, and it had always wondered what the source of the monkey’s prestige was. The monkey always seemed to do very well, and the snake suspected that he was missing something. So, he said “Of course my friend, please come and help”. Which the monkey was more than happy to do.”
“The old monkey woman climbed over the fence that separated the two gardens, and she walked around the space.” As she says this, Zuni walked her fingers along the bartop, “She inspected the flower beds, the trees, the little stone garden bits. Everything was kept just perfect. The snake got annoyed with her taking so long, and began to wonder if she hadn’t just claimed that she saw something wrong to enjoy a walk in his garden. “Well?” He demanded, “What is the flaw?”
At this, Zuni made a show of turning her fingers towards her refilled beer stein – the owner having been too scared to really dare to interrupt something that might be entertaining the Prince, even if in reality the boy found it utterly boring. “The monkey stopped in front of the tallest tree in all the garden and grasped it firmly by the trunk. “I never said there was a flaw.” She replied, and then, with all the might in her old bones.” Zuni’s fingers curled around the handle of her stein. “She SHOOK the tree with all her might, sending leaves raining EVERYWHERE!”
Zuni, predictably, flung the glass around – but Luffa may be entertained to notice that she makes sure the disgusting, watery ale only risks splashing the bartop, the owner, and some of the other patrons – it never comes close to him. She wants to see if she can make him laugh; making him angry hardly seems like a challenge, and the cries of shock and outrage from the people who are splashed are muted by the fear of the young man next to her.
Their dismay, though, has Zuni laughing so hard it looked like she might just fall off her barstool.
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Prince Luffa
Archived
Transferred to Swees
PL: 85,110
False Super Saiyan(x6)
Zeni: 512
Tag: @luffa
Posts: 77
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Post by Prince Luffa on Jun 9, 2015 21:52:22 GMT
“He heh heh.” Luffa chuckled appreciatively. “So it was a ruse to sabotage her rival?” He stroked his chin with his fingers. “I suppose I like that story, even though there wasn’t any blood in it.” He gave a toothy grin, noting with satisfaction that she was making quite certain the other patrons knew their place. He finished his smoldering glass of red and got another, and was just beginning to mull over whether or not to fly up the stairs and start his slaughter when the bartender returned, with an unhappy-looking owner in tow. Luffa’s dark eyes slid away from his new acquaintance towards the two weak old Saiyans.
“The Barrel hasn’t been paying its dues.” Luffa snarled. “Perhaps I should withdraw my protection from this establishment?” He asked dangerously, lifting up an index finger in gesture.
The owner’s eyes went wide and he bowed, throwing his face down on the bar top before him. “Forgive me, m’lord! I had no idea your House was still intact, or I would have most certainly paid you! I’ve been stong-armed by a vicious bunch of gangsters, they’ve been taking tribute from me. I don’t have enough to eat, let alone pay your lordship.”
“Gangsters?” Luffa scoffed. “Which ones?”
“The… the Red Wealders, master. Please don’t kill me.” He begged. “I’ll do anything.” He pushed some glimmering imperial coins across the bar stool, which Luffa quickly snatched.
“Of course you will. I am feeling very generous today, so I won't kill you yet.” Luffa announced, before turning his head to Inuz. "I have to go to the other side of the spaceport and deal with more simpletons. If you care to join me, come along. If not, it’s been... fun.” He said, before raising a hand in farewell and turning in his stool. If she would speak further, he’d stop, but he was intent on burning the Red Wealders out of their hidey-holes.
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Post by Zuni on Jun 10, 2015 21:37:01 GMT
"Was it?"
Zuni grinned as she challenged the assumption of the Prince, though her words remain quite breezy, as though they don't really matter either way. "It could be that she wanted to sabotage the snake... but I don't think she ever saw the snake as her rival. He hated her, she was totally indifferent to him. Maybe the moral of the story is that where some see virtue in perfection, others see it in.... chaos."
She lets the word chaos hang there as Luffa and the owner of the bar explain their differences. It isn't pleasant to think that the boy will be running off to murder some pack of unfortunate gangsters, but he was also clearly capable of looking after himself, and the gangsters had infringed - knowingly or not - on the Prince's turf. Hrm. This was a tough situation. The gain was obvious; an ally, especially a young one whom she could help shape into a man, would be very useful to her... but the risks were equally clear. Who knows how strong gangsters will wind up being? And fighting in general really wasn't her favourite thing in the world...
"Or maybe it is just a funny story about a snake and a monkey. Who knows?"
The woman rocked on her barstool, and finally made her decision by tossing the empty beer stein over her shoulder, where it bounced once, twice, and then landed in the sink out the back with a faint splash, her tail twisting around behind her as she rose.
"I suppose I could use a little walk. Besides, a commoner shouldn't turn down an offer from a noble, right?"
There's just something so impish in her grin as she says that. The words might sound sincere had they come from any other lips, but it is quite clear that 'Inuz' is just having fun, and sees the Prince as a way to extend her good evening. It completely belies the calculation going on behind those carefree eyes - Zuni might be a gambler, but she's the sort to count her cards rather than take every random chance that comes along.
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Prince Luffa
Archived
Transferred to Swees
PL: 85,110
False Super Saiyan(x6)
Zeni: 512
Tag: @luffa
Posts: 77
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Post by Prince Luffa on Jun 12, 2015 20:36:39 GMT
Luffa left the Barrel and walked the streets with his new friend in tow. “I appreciate chaos. Entropy has a nice feel to it. And yes, you happen to be one commoner who knows how to treat their lord... Inuz. That’s an odd name. You low-class Saiyans will name children any sort of trendy oddity.” He moved down a darker side alleyway under the hunching shoulder of the spaceport. The slime was thick underfoot here, and the smells were the acidic stench of vented spacecraft fluids and the cloyingly sweet undertone of organic rot.
“I suspect my cloak will need a deep cleaning, when all this is done.” Luffa remarked, bringing a hand to his scouter and firing up the light beam, letting the streaming cone of photons color his way in the deep and dusky gloom. He lit up a small ball of ki above his palm as well, using its light as an auxiliary lantern as they moved past the shivering and wretched denizens of the slum’s shadowy dead ends. “I’ve heard of the Red Wealders. They’re a bunch of slime-sucking toughs that pay tribute to my aunt and her mercenary cadre.” Luffa explained as they descended down a flight of timeworn stairs, into the pitch-dark underbelly of a spaceport substation.
A burly and gigantic Saiyan nearly three times the size of Luffa stood before a rusted iron door, wearing the roughspun red clothing of the Wealders. “Ho ho ho! What's this, a little lordling and his servant?” He asked with a gap-toothed grin.
“I’ve a message for your master. Go fetch him right away.” Luffa said in his high and proper voice, raising his chin and crinkling his nose in distaste.
“Think I gotta listen to you?” The rough slapped his large belly. “My breakfast was bigger than you, and this ain’t your sorta territory. Why don’t you piss off before I get mad?”
Luffa hmphed and sprang from his feet, his long golden cloak trailing like a banner as he delivered a hard left hook against the rough’s large jaw. His fist met the big ugly face with a crack, and the man stumbled back in shock.
Luffa floated menacingly near him. “If you want another, I suggest you keep mouthing off. Or maybe I’ll let her handle you.” The boy prince said, tilting his head back at Inuz, a wicked grin on his face.
(Zuni figured we could have some action )
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Post by Zuni on Jun 13, 2015 6:58:04 GMT
“Well, my Dad didn’t exactly stick around when he was done, so Mom named me. Maybe I should change it to something more Saiyan…”
Zuni kept up the conversation with a fairly casual air. She had to stop herself from laughing when the Prince says that she knows how to treat her betters; that’s an accusation she hasn’t had against her before, but she’ll take it as a sign that she’s doing a decent job.
“It is a very nice cloak… but I don’t know if I’d trust even a deep clean to save it after all this stink. This place is disgusting.” Zuni’s distaste is utterly genuine. She never really liked cities at the best of times – loud, unpleasant, cramped places in her opinion, and it was always very difficult to figure out where people might be coming from. When you’ve made as many enemies as her – and continually make more on a daily basis – that can be a very unnerving realization.
Still, the Prince seems to actually like her – which is a good start. She’s starting to get the feeling the Prince isn’t nearly as harsh as his attitude would lead one to believe. He had all the vaunted saiyan arrogance his family have probably worked hard to instil in him – an overbearing attitude, a hatred of ‘low class’ saiyans and aliens, bla bla bla… but when it came down to it, he was just a kid, and he wanted a friend as much as any other kid.
Of course, most kids couldn’t threaten to break the jaw of a hardened criminal thug, but Zuni is willing to look past details like that.
The demon snickered as the large oaf stumbled around in shock, and she wiggled her fingers as he looked to her, grinning from ear to ear. “Hi!” She declared, stepping neatly around Prince Luffa’s side, and reaching up to slip her arm around the back of the gangster’s neck and drag him down to her level so she can talk in a stage-whisper.
“Look.” She said, “This is Luffa. THE Luffa. Scourge of more worlds than you or I can count, never met a man he couldn’t humble, prodigy, genius, one of the most dangerous kids on Vegeta!” She pauses to slap the thug’s cheek, making sure he’s paying attention to her.
“And because you guys haven’t cleaned up your territory since the last time you changed your tunic, now his cloak is all dirty. I’m gonna do you a favour and suggest you go get your boss, before MY boss decides to see if your blood will get the stains out, okay?”
With that, Zuni turned the Saiyan around and shoved him back into the door, hopefully that’d do the trick.
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Prince Luffa
Archived
Transferred to Swees
PL: 85,110
False Super Saiyan(x6)
Zeni: 512
Tag: @luffa
Posts: 77
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Post by Prince Luffa on Jun 15, 2015 7:32:38 GMT
Luffa puffed up as Inuz told the simpleton brute the reality of the boy prince’s greatness. It was one thing for the little lord to go meting out justice and correcting slights against his station, but it was infinitely more effective when an underling did the work for you. It showed distance between peasant and Lord, and reinforced the correct social structure of the Empire. He folded his tightly-muscled arms across his chest and floated up to eye-level of the ogre. “That’s right.” He said, giving a chuckle. He floated down the stairwell, leading the way as the giant crouched by the door. He spurred through it with a forward burst of his kiai, and then brightened the bulb on the hinge of his scouter.
He made his way down into the a low service tunnel, then further into the flooded catacombs, where a noxious sludge made its permanent home, the leavings of generations of chemical boosters firing off, pushing conquerors into the bright pink skies. There was a makeshift catwalk of sorts for the regular denizens of this cesspit, but Luffa did not wish to stain his boots on whatever horrible concoction coated the grid-work.
Through another set of double doors, and they found their way in a smoky den, lit by torches and a roaring fire pit that spewed its smoke into a large circular vent that must have been for exhausting overdriven fuel on old rockets. “Well, well, well.” Luffa said dramatically as he entered, powering up a bright blue ki ball on his clenched fist. He grinned wickedly at the shadowy figures gathered here. The largest power was only a third of his, easily killable. “The mighty Red Wealders, at last. It’s good to know the faces of the scum who think to steal a Lord’s tribute. How about you convince me and my friend here why we shouldn’t kill you all, right now?”
( Zuni sorry for the wait, crazy days. )
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Post by Zuni on Jun 15, 2015 21:31:19 GMT
Zuni really hated slimy places like this. It might be very easy for Luffa to float around out of the muck, but she couldn't. The best she could do was try to keep a minimum of it on her shoes, tip-toeing her way through the underground as Luffa led the way, the stunned guard in their wake behind them.
Hang around enough dank places and you learn a thing or two about the sort of people who live in them. Saiyans were, in many ways, unique in the galaxy - but beneath the surface, a desperate thug is a desperate thug, and all that vaunted saiyan pride meant nothing at all. It was sad, in a way. But down here, Zuni should feel more at home - they are less like the prideful, stubborn creatures she purported to hate and closer to the ideal she was supposed to be driving the saiyans toward.
So why was it she hated them just as much for their snivelling and their stupidity?
Half of the Red Wealders looked terrified, the other half looked ready to jump Luffa just because he was there. The Prince's threat was the only thing keeping them at bay at first, and Zuni can feel that isn't going to last long... so she steps forwards herself, smiling from ear to ear.
"Hey hey, everyone. Now. I know what you're thinking. You're thinking, what sort of noble is suicidal enough to come down here and try and shake a few measly zeni out of us? Well. Let me put it like this."
Zuni can't sense power levels, and she has no scouter; she has to assume these guys could pulverize her, if not the Prince, so she stays light on her feet, prancing from saiyan to saiyan as though she were putting on a show - in actually, she's making it hard for any of them to draw a bead on her.
"You've stepped on some toes, and this? This is Luffa. He's the guy whose toes you've trodden on. You thought you were just muscling in on a bar. Fine, fine! We can all appreciate that. Maybe Luffa could even use you guys, help collect the 'rent'." A wink, a nudge, a twirl, "On his behalf. But you should have asked first, right guys? You were interviewing for a job, you weren't trying to insult anyone. ESPECIALLY not a guy who can vaporize you as easy as blowing out the candles on his birthday cake."
She smiles, again, really hoping her speech will help keep things calm. It is usually a vain hope, where saiyans were concerned, but a girl can dream, can't she? "Am I right, or am I right?"
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Prince Luffa
Archived
Transferred to Swees
PL: 85,110
False Super Saiyan(x6)
Zeni: 512
Tag: @luffa
Posts: 77
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Post by Prince Luffa on Jun 16, 2015 20:20:32 GMT
Luffa was immensely pleased with Inuz’s showing. She had all the proper makings of a fine servant, a rare find among the simpletons that choked the Capital half to death. Perhaps he’d bring her on as a full time retainer, if she continued to show the good gratitude an underling provides her master. She was steadfast, appeared to be loyal, and best of all was completely amusing. At his core, Luffa was still a child, and was somewhat starved when it came to that sort of entertainment.
“Luffa? You mean that pipsqueak of Bone Moon? Your House is dead. I used to serve in your father’s guard. Saw Viceroy Mustad drive a fist through his liver and out the other end of his spine. That was the last Lord of the House. You’re just a boy, trying to fill shoes ten times too big for you.” A grizzly Saiyan wearing an eyepatch stepped into the wavering torchlight, his body slashed with old scars and war wounds. “Go back to your gilded apartments. This place is not for you.” The man warned, cracking his knuckles audibly.
“Heh heh. Not for me?” Luffa asked. “A boy, am I?” He lowered himself to the floor and walked slowly towards the soldier. “I think I recall you. Leke, were you?” He twisted his mouth in an evil grin. “Leke the Reek. That’s what they call you now, living in this swamp.” He waited until he was right upon him, then glared up at the man, unafraid by those who surrounded him. “I’ll give you one last chance to submit. Then you’re going to regret all the things you’ve said.”
“Shove off.” The man replied, throwing a punch down at the little minister.
Luffa sidestepped quickly to the man’s blind side, and threw his weighted cloak up, fanning it cross the man’s face. He swiveled up into the air behind him, keeping the weighted material tight around the idiot’s head as his arms flailed in protest. “Oh, this is fun!” Luffa exclaimed, pulling his strong legs around the man’s neck, pinning himself around him from behind before pushing the cloak back to jam his finger into the man’s good eye, wiggling his digit around into the mushy socket as the man convulsed and shrieked from the attack.
“Two eyes blind! Now die!” Luffa yelled, twisting his hand harshly and snapping the fool’s neck.
A few of the more-loyal Wealders still faced off against him as he sprang down to his feet. “Those who help me kill these treacherous slimeballs will be rewarded with positions in my Household. Luffa said, falling into a martial stance. “Those who oppose me, will meet the same fate as Leke.”
He waited, glancing over at Inuz to see if she acted.
(Zuni, posted Sorry for the violence. Luffa is a violent fellow!)
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Post by Zuni on Jun 17, 2015 6:14:00 GMT
It isn't that Zuni dislikes violence; she's a demon, she appreciates blood and pain... but death? Death is so wasteful. She looked on with glee as the young Prince blinded his enemy; in Hell, the mutilated fool would then be put to work, having to spend a few years blinded and grovelling until the sensory organ was restored or grew back naturally... but saiyan culture demanded a more final price.
Zuni's smile faded along with the life in the mercenary captain. It was unfortunate, but she couldn't really do anything to stop it; perhaps later she could try to explain the reasons why a living reminder of dominance was better than a corpse, but for now, she had more important things to deal with - like the saiyans who want revenge for their fallen Captain. Either they would wind up dead, or Luffa would - either way, the outcome wasn't one she would be happy with unless she stepped in right now.
Both arms hung loose at her sides, and the demon gathered her energy, letting it swirl about her for a moment. She doesn't waste time charging for anything too elaborate, though, instead she brought her hands snapping together in front of her and declared a loud:
"WEESH! WOOSH!"
Some might assume it to be the worst attack name in the history of attack names; for her, it is the spell she's casting, forcing her mana to flow as the Demon Wind, and the result, in either case, was quite dramatic.
A twisting burst of wind shot from her outstretched palms, slamming bodily into one of the loyalists and crashing him into the next - the attack breaks bones and knocks the wind from their lungs, but they won't die from it, they'll just be... most likely... quite humiliated by the experience of being flung around like rag dolls and forced down into the dirt.
"You really should think hard about whether it is worth dyin' for a dead man." She said, in the aftermath of it, her voice ringing out with a theatrical echo to it. "Bend your knee to Luffa, and you'll get better pay and a Lord worthy of respect. Stick it out with Leke, and you're serving a guy who pooped his pants when he died."
That isn't exactly a fair criticism of the man; everyone does, because death is not allowed to be a dignified thing... but as arguments go, Zuni feels like she's on a winning line there. Here's hoping that the saiyan underclass can be convinced to listen to their greed more than their pride. With most races it'd be a sure thing... with saiyans, you never could tell.
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