'Nora' the Lilligant
The Gracedia Order
Lytala city, the Blood Pit Arena Stands
Affected RPers: @Death's Spook
THIS IS STUPID

“Honestly, what is with you people? I am married.” The Mimikyu gives the Lilligant a once over, a joke in his tone, as he emerged. “Also, you are much too young, regardless.” Nora kept his eyes on him-she kept the fact that she had somehow managed to mistake him for a common Mimikyu (as if Mimikyu were common to begin with) well in the back of her head. Sometimes, the coincidence is a coincidence... Though she did keep the other Mimikyu on the back of her mind.

"Hey, hey, I'm twenty-nine and just fine, still in my prime," Nora said, half-ignoring the joke.

“That being said, some of us are single and ready to mingle, if you’re up for it. And also don’t literally have a stick up--”

"Arlington," the Mimikyu interrupts, not without a dollop of amusement, “We are here for business, not pleasure.”

"Eh, why you gotta be so boooring?" Nora asked, mildly bemused. These people knew what they were doing, though, in the fact that it was all a reasonably lighthearted exchange. The fact was that while Nora would be at a disadvantage in a sudden fight, everyone here knew that spycraft was not exclusively the act of killing your rivals. It was more the leverage. Nora kept her eyes peeled for anything odd, just, anything odd at all, a brief skim of the area left, right, behind, down and up, before turning back to the Knightly Mimikyu, just in time for his words.

"As I do not doubt you’re aware, I am Anthony Carpenter-Weaver, leader of the Seven Knights. Now, you are a member of the Gracidea Order, and would normally be opposed to us. In fact, I remember your voice from the fiasco in Petrox: the Lady is furious at you, even though she does not know who you are."

"...Well, rut." Nora cursed. Then, as an afterthought, "Well, take solace in the fact that you didn't have to deal with the-"

"Fortunately for you, this isn’t about that."

"...Oh." Nora said.

"I am going to arrange for your teammate, Athena Pallas, to not only leave alive from the arena, but emerge victorious. The only thing I ask in turn is that I hire you to spy for me.”

"What?" Nora asked, incredulous. Her head darted to-and-fro again, ensuring no unwanted intrusion. This would be one of the best days for even the lowliest Black Lotus goon if they caught this conversation. Or one of the worst.

“Not on the Order, to be clear. I do not ask for you to give me information on them, or betray them in any way. I merely want to facilitate an exchange of intelligence on The Lotus, because no matter the differences between your group and mine, I believe I speak for both of us when I say Queen Taiya and her companions need to be stopped.”

Nora rubbed her chin thoughtfully for a moment, after yet another moment of darting her eyes-she takes twice as long with the ceiling this time, thinking a hanging dust bunny is something less passive. Then she turns back, rubbing her face, pretending to be in slightly deeper thought than she was. In truth, there was an obvious way this exchange would end, in a yes. It was unusual and Nora knew there was more to this-most likely Anthony trying to scoop information on the Gracedia Order through her actions to him-which meant how she treated him would affect his next moves.

Scratching each others backs and trying to stab each other in the back the whole while. Typical. Willing to cede the first match to their agent was sufficient, disregarding how she now heard the announcer note the passing of all the Steel Scavengers (via teleport) save the Grand Lady herself.

Cocky pricks.

"...Hmph. So you're thinking it's a bit-hrm, a bit unlikely, too?" Nora asked. 'Unlikely' was the closest she could get to 'loaded to the teeth in the Black Lotus'es favor.' And no doubt he was aware enough to know that the landmine(s) that killed Axiom (and those two Steel Scavvies) weren't landmines. "Sending messages to everyone at large with your, hrm, uh, uncanny actions?" Nora asked, remembering Durkon being killed by the Grand Lady-a teammate to the outside observer. The Announcer sure went to town on that particular comment, even himself somewhat baffled but always mocking. Uncanny to kill your own teammates because they were spies on your own death games, indeed. "So I then suppose you're not so much here to fight as you are to just steal the show?" Nora asked, knowing that no-one would, in context, be dragging one of their biggest targets right into the ring and leave the others so closeby if they were so assured that the games were pointless. This meant they had either a way to murder Taiya (and preferably the smart way, unlike the failed 'tongue of death'), or take the entire reason that everyone was here to begin with-the Master Blaze Jewel-right out of their hands. Or just felt that the mass slaughter of their own units was a sufficient way to kick Taiya in the balls.

Nora sighed. Competition.

...She thought back to the Rotom.

...Maybe? ...No. No, Nora. That thought in your head is indeed absolutely insane. Anthony was well known to be 'heroic,' and live up to his name of a Knight. Chivalric code and all. But... No, no! No, it must be insane even for him...

...

"...Those 'rebel' groups are just so busy bickering over themselves with unimportant derivatives that they can't even oust the kako."

Nora didn't like politik. It was maddening to deal with. It was why she still craved her former independence, even though the GO had its benefits. Touchy relationship cr*p was even worse when you were dealing with it head-on, especially since Nora was more a piece than a player of the great game of spycraft. And no doubt did that stupid Rotom think so too. No doubt did others. Perhaps there were even more? And perhaps the quietest signs of the alternative, perhaps that would be... Motivating?

Nora had acted on gut instinct before. She was less likely to call it stupid as her gut instinct happened to be the gut instinct that 9 times out of 10 saved her life on the streets, but she knew it was stupid all the same, gambling on him being that much of a knight, something that even Nora knew better than. But it was worth a shot.

"A few minutes ago I was talking with someone-they mentioned how we're too busy bickering with each other over stupid scat. To be frank, I'd probably be on your side if I hadn't gone to Petrox..."

Nora did another quick turn of the head around the area. The back of the stands were clear-and they were really clear. Nora's tone didn't quite enter whisper territory but it was quieter now.

"We both know the games are a sham, and we both can't have, erm, uh, my more 'traditional' counterpart get away with... With the White Dragon," Nora said, shaking her head. Stupid spy-speak. It never seemed to come naturally. The White Dragon. Reshiram. The Master Blaze Jewel. "I'd agree to help with you, but quite frankly information trade isn't gonna cut it. The games are a sham. Your plan is something out of a Prankster's guidebook, strutting your stuff right into Taiya's face... But that would be pointless if the White Dragon's everything they're hyping it up to be. And nothing, no-one, no plan, no nothing, is perfect."

Nora really didn't want to say this, but something else compelled her. It was stupid. Nora's face crunched up, the puffs of her cigarette became more agitated, the need for a cold one floated into her mind, and she reflexively kept checking the area, paranoid of an intrusion by even the lowliest Black Lotus grunt. No, nothing still, that was good. Good enough. No misplaced stripes of red anywhere or the like. Her tongue rested near to her Blaze Jewel even though it was just mentally activated in a flash-it would certainly help escaping the ghost-type, though! And she may really need to just kill him right now, too, in case his language didn't quite add up. But that wasn't her problem, inside.

Her plan-It was so stupid it transcended stupidity altogether. This wasn't stupidity anymore, no sir, it was something else. This wasn't your average-every day stupidity, no sir, but this was common for gut instinct to progress a step up. But this was special-it was even beyond the more respected threshold of advanced stupidity, the kind of stupidity that lead to you becoming an internet meme or the target of scorn for one's thoughtlessness, the kind that gets Onyx Circle killed by Taiya herself, no, no, no, well beyond even that. This absolute boldness was descending right into madness. She was casually informing the leader of the Steel Scavengers of the plan of the Gracedia Order-hoping that her teammates do not in fact find out about this relationship for actions that they would have responded to by pulling the pin of a grenade-and forcibly giving the Steel Scavengers unprecedented levels of leverage both on her and the actions of her own plan, all to hope that if nothing else it wouldn't be them coming out with the Master Blaze Jewel-or perhaps better, that they could be said to be Gracedia Order at the end of this. and yet, one niggling fact was drawing her to this madness.

The Steel Scavengers were outcasts. Traitors to the Black Lotus, almost exclusively. It was personal to them, far beyond either the Prankster Platoon or the Gracedia Order. The Gracedia Order seemed to at least have a vision of Liao's future that was somewhat less bleak than the one shown right now-the Steel Scavengers were motivated by revenge. Would the Steel Scavengers care if they lost the power struggle between the three, if it meant that they'd get to watch the Black Lotus so bitterly fail?

"... I think it may have become mildly obvious what my proposition is," Nora asked. "It is, beyond question, one of the stupidest things I have thought of without being on anything other than like eight kinds of drugs. Probably even exceeding that as I don't have the excuse of eight kinds of drugs."

"You came together to topple the Black Lotus, fair. WE agree on this. What after that? You say you're on top of the totem pole of the Knights-I suppose you'll have some kind of vision. Wouldn't it be better if we could just, you know, forget about the times we did some very uncouth dirty dancing on each other's backsides?"

Nora was struggling. Oh, the price of conscious stupidity! She'd be having a very long time with Swift after this. But no turning back now.

"... I'm suggesting a step up. That we will-quietly, to ourselves, beneath the surface-agree that things like Petrox never ****ing happened to begin with, march together and hope that at least one of us comes out on top, without looking it. Yes, yes, let us not fool each other. I would like my side to come out on top, and you would like yours. I enjoy Jadeblossom's fresh air, you enjoy... Uh, I don't actually know what you enjoy of the Steel Scavengers because I'm not a flipping psychic, go figure. I'm saying this because you'd think it'd be all in your propaganda to say that we're gonna be better than the things you're gonna try to topple, what kind of thing you'd do after you're done-my question is, would you care if you didn't get to rule Liao if it meant that you got to see the goal you're working towards pan out? The big ol' 'Rut you, Kako' that you've been dying to say more directly, I mean. As far as I can tell you want a better Liao and to give the Kako some rude gestures. After getting rid of the kako... then what? Would you be comfortable backing us-all the way-even if it just meant you wouldn't win the stupid power struggle?"

Nora paused briefly, to catch her breath. She was speaking fast now-faster-she puffed a cloud of smoke to the side. She was shaking, mildly. This was stupid. Everything in her head told her this was stupid.

"...Those 'rebel' groups are just so busy bickering over themselves with unimportant derivatives that they can't even oust the kako."

Everything in her stomach-her heart was too self-centered for that-it told her that this was going to work. And that was valuable advice.

"... The only reason I'm asking this is because I find the power struggle between the scrappers-the growers-the nutters-all of it-rutting ret*rded with this newsflash in play. I can't say I'm an altruist. I care for myself. I want this plan to work because if it didn't work I'd rutting die, and that's basically it. And I'm referring to pretty much all of them at this point. Including the plan to basically tell you exactly what the **** we were going to do and expect you to help us do it as the exchange. Because it's the ****ing dumbest thing I've thought of, period."

"We're going to steal it. The whole shebang. Everyone with a brain knows this is loaded-but it's not the Black Lotus that have it, you know. It's Blacklocke. If it could be stolen, no threat of the Black Lotus winning something that may make them near-invincible... Possibly even the very thing we'd need to beat them into submission, if it's really all its cracked up to be."

Nora winced. It was downright supernatural the chill on her spine from stating that obvious fact. This was it. She was either losing her mind or a genius beyond her own understanding.

"... Let's face facts. I can't seriously take you up on your offer, because I know for a fact that it's a shitty bet to even expect it to work to begin with, even with what's going on. Sudden traps and all that jazz. No-one'll win if they can't, they'll be petty like that. I'm betting I'm gonna rutting die in there tomorrow and that'll be the end of the plan as I know it, and that's with me trying to think of how I should go about this as if I didn't have a team to back me up-because I'm so terrified of the prospect of losing. We know the rules are a laugh. There are no rules and we know it, and I know that you have something else going on here as we speak-you wouldn't put this many eggs in one basket if you didn't think you had this place locked down as tight as a choke-hold."

"... I was speaking with someone else out there. He was so pessimistic about the odds. Saying how that it was all rigged, yadda yadda... And also that the way things are now is barely better. Un-united resistance kicking each other as much as the thing they were jointly conceived of to fight. He looked the type to help out, to readily jump up and join, but the bickering between the three was just that much of a detriment..."

This was stupid. This was stupid. This was stupid. She shouldn't be doing this. It would get her killed, it would make her an outcast to the GO, it would be stupid.

... She was doing this. It wasn't like she could rewind time, after all.

And hey, if things didn't work out, a switch of teams after her disgrace was always a prospect. The Steel Scavengers would be understanding of her position. And she said it herself, didn't she? She wasn't an altruist.

"...This was the stupidest thing I have ever done," Nora said to herself, taking a deep breath of cigarette, refusing to keep her eyes away from Anthony and Arlington. Her tongue rested upon the fake tooth, her eyes peering right into Anthony's eyes-his real eyes. "You understand that I can't really take that back, and that it would be a d*mn rutting shame if I gave you that much for nothing. I can't give you the finest details, not until you agree... But I gave you far more than I would have if I didn't hope you'd agree to this. This, this idea... This mad idea... That we could work together."

Madness.

Or, perhaps, genius.