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Post by ikeru on Mar 28, 2008 12:56:30 GMT -5
Alright, Ikeru would admit it: she was getting a little bit cocky. What other emotions could be expected? She was standing on top of a huge column made out of rocks for Spirit's sake. Throwing back her head and uttering a noisy laugh that sounded more angry than amused (she was still pretty pissed about being robbed, after all), her pride was cut short as Jochi barreled towards her pillar and threatened to tear it down with her still on top of it.
"Oh, hell no," she growled, jumping to the ground before being buried alive beneath tons and tons of rocks. She swiped the back of her filthy hand over her equally filthy forehead, which had begun to bead over with sweat from the sunlight that had seemed so pleasant only an hour ago. Once back on level ground with Jochi, Ikki fell into a common stance of spread legs and knees bent outward and began vigorously stomping the ground, kicking up boulders the size of her head and hurling them at the World's Lamest Midget-Clown.
Damn, it was a wonder why no one had shown up yet to break up the fight.
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Post by baoli on Mar 28, 2008 14:19:18 GMT -5
Bao Li leaned against his cart, rocking on his heels and watching the fight. Benders really were something else when you let them rail on each other like this. It made him wish he could do this kind of stuff, but he hadn't exactly been born lucky on this front. Or any other front, for that matter. Sighing, he dusted his hands against his knees and stood up. He figured the fight was going to continue this way for a few hours, if no one had tried to get those two benders to quit yet. He had better things to do with his time, like go find some pastry or something. He absently patted his thin vest, making certian the one coin he had managed to lift was stil there. Grinning as he felt the bulk of it, he turned on his heel and was about to leave when the voice rumbled across the battlefield.
"Everyone stop where you are! One more person bends and you'll get it back tenfold! Drop out of stance and hands behind your backs NOW!" Three men had emerged from the far side of the market, their forest green, high collared robes with black shoulders blowing slightly in the wind. Their hands flexed at the ends of the long, wide sleeves, just below hay-coloured cuff designs and emerald accents. One already had on a set of gloves made of rock, a popular bending effect for Ba Sing Se's elite cultural guardians. They all wore pointed hats with black tops and a band of forest green around the rim. Feathers trailed off the back of the hats. They were clearly of Imperial station, as if the sigil of the Earth King on their chests was not proof enough.
Bao Li's eyes widened as he took the scene in. Dai Li. Things were about to get really bad in the market, and he wanted no part of the fight. He managed to move back into the crowd, burying himself in people and all but disappearing. He'd stay and listen, of course, but if there was a chance the two benders would find him, he wouldn't be bothered to actually watch the event.
It didn't matter if he did or didn't watch it anyway - all these fights went the same way. The Dai Li dragged off whoever caused the ruckus, and they either were not seen or heard from again, or came back as model citizens some time later.
The two big jerks deserved everything they got, in Bao Li's opinion.
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Post by jochi on Apr 1, 2008 11:39:35 GMT -5
Dodging the mini-boulders that whizzed around him, Jochi soon heard voices from behind. Bolting away from the affected area, Jochi caught sight of the three men just as they sounded their threat. Scowling at their fancy-pants clothing, Jochi hardly took the men seriously.
Their threat to return force so powerfully was only childish bragging in his opinion. Being a master in the art of boasting, Jochi would know. Plunging his hand into the earth, he pulled up a slab and kicked it forcefully. The impact of his foot reduced it to bits of rubble, which flew somewhat like a tiny sandstorm at Ikeru. Not the city guards themselves, but Ikeru.
There was no need to guess he scoffed at their authority. The sandbender was basically ignoring their warning, more concerned at his fight with the woman than anything else. If they wanted to interrupt with earthbending might, then by all means...
But if they wanted to just stand their and bark orders like little girls, then Jochi would suggest they shut the hell up.
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Post by ikeru on Apr 5, 2008 18:21:06 GMT -5
Ikeru was halfway through sending another attack at Jochi when the sudden voices rang out through the deserted marketplace, clear as footprints in fresh snow: "Everyone stop where you are! One more person bends and you'll get it back tenfold! Drop out of stance and hands behind your backs NOW!" That abrupt interruption instantly snapped the young(ish) woman out of Tora! Tora! Tora! mode, and she fell out of stance and just stood there like a fool, gapping open-mouthed for a moment or two while she put everything together.
High collars...weird hats...an undeserved air of demanded respect and all-around creepy authority abuse... "Oh shit!" she cried, hunching her shoulders up and going wide-eyed. "It's the feds!" The feds, of course, were the Dai Li: Ikeru's worst nightmare. Why, oh why, did she start that fight with that crazy midget? Why did she have to get unwanted attention like that? A sudden image of her in metal shackles being carted off to jail was branded in her mind, and it remained there, burning white-hot, as she began to lay the blame of the market's destruction on that freakishly short, freakishly bald man-child over there. He was the one who wouldn't give her money back. Yeah! If anyone was going to get arrested, it should be that guy! There was no way in hell she was going down for this.
She was just about to explain that awesome-sounding idea when a sudden barrage of rubble zipped past her. Instinctively, she lifted a thick wall out of the earth to shield herself from most of the attack, but managed to get her ear and fingers pelted with thick chunks of rock. All of her earlier worries about jail time and the po-po melted away as she rubbed at her hot, smarting ear and discovered it was bleeding. Sharp anger fueled her next attack: inhaling and exhaling deeply, Ikeru spaced her legs together at a slightly less-than-normal width for the usual stance and punched the air with her bloody fists. The ground beneath Jochi's feet at first trembled, then quavered, then shook as if in an earthquake. Beads of sweat popped out on her forehead as she forced the earth holding Jochi, and even a few deserted carts, into the air, holding the immensely heavy object suspended no less than fifteen feet. All at once, she reared back her arm and swung it down, dropping the enormous mound back to the ground and plunging the entire battle-scarred marketplace into a thick layer of dust.
The Dai Li had been pushed to Ikeru's back burner, to say the least.
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Post by baoli on Apr 7, 2008 7:21:41 GMT -5
The remaining crowd in the market scattered on instinct as the ground shook under Jochi, a combination of fear of being rounded up by the Dai Li and not wanting to be crushed by the continuing fight. Amidst the screaming and trampling mob Bao Li ducked and weaved, moving only fast enough to stay hidden among the people while keeping an eye on the fight. Both of the benders had continued their little war after the announcement of the Dai Li commander, dust and debris flying all over. Rubble coated everything in range of the fight, carts were overturned and merchandise spilled everywhere.
Bao Li managed to grab at a small fruit tart that had spun across the market square from one of the now destroyed carts, dusting it off a bit before shoving half the pie in his mouth. Berry filling dribbling down his chin, he shuffled in behind two adults and watched from between them.
The Dai Li man with the rock fists fell into stance first, driving a foot into the market square and thrusting both fists forward. The rock gloves launched from his hands, straightened to a knife-hand style attack pose and aimed for Jochi's upper arms.
A second agent fell into stance beside the first, sweeping a foot to one side suddenly and slamming the heel down while lifting both arms. A rumbling shot across the field of battle. The ground in front of both Ikeru and Jochi split and spiked up, a pair of earthen waves threatning to engulf them both to the neck.
The apparent leader of the Dai Li grinned nastily and mirrored the manouver of the second Dai Li agent with little more than a slight twist of his body. This twist was enough though - instead of the grasping columns of earth, both the rogue benders were suddenly backs to walls - he had raised sudden stone barricades behind them.
Bao Li let out a low whistle, barely audible to those patrons of the marketplace closest to him and partially impeded by pie crust. He had to admit, as scary as the cultural guardians were, they were going to make this fight really, really interesting.
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Post by jochi on Apr 7, 2008 23:54:46 GMT -5
To say it happened fast was an understatement of epic proportions. Jochi didn't expect to be lifted from the ground on a gigantic dirt mound, but he did have time to brace himself for impact. When it slammed to the floor, he leapt off only to be covered with a fine layer of dust and dirt that joined the filth that already covered his skin. Scowling and snarling, Jochi was about to dive at Ikeru and send wave after wave of earth and silt...but fate spoke otherwise.
A firm grasp, inhuman, wrapped around his firm and toned bicep, then pulled him backward. As he was imprisoned in stone, unable to resist or combat the mysterious earthbending, his scream of outrage pierced the grimy air. Were they the woman or her lackeys? Possibly those interloping guards? Not quite considering the latter, he thrashed about like an animal and shouted obscenities that would make a pirate's toes curl. He didn't quite know what to do after that. Jochi was trapped and unable to move. Despite his vulgar threats, there was no course he could foresee.
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Post by ikeru on Apr 12, 2008 15:59:41 GMT -5
Watching as Jochi jumped away from her attack at the last minute, Ikeru prepared herself to counter or block anything that maniacal midget might have planned. If Jochi was covered in a grungy coat, Ikeru herself looked much worse: her tunic, which had already seen better days, had sustained an enormous rip down the right shoulder, and the knees of her pants were absolutely obliterated--it was by the grace and good will of the Spirits alone that her pants were able to hold on. A rather thick trail of blood, brought on by the renegade rock from Jochi's earlier attack, cut a track through the ever-present dirt on her face, sloping down the curve of her cheek and smearing at the hinge of her jaw. She was breathing heavy and was quite tired, having lifted a positively massive hunk of earth, all while operating on a surge of adrenaline. Now, though, the adrenaline was beginning to waver: her heart thumped in her chest and her fingers trembled.
Ah, but he wanted more? Fine then. She dropped into stance and prepared herself for another wave of attack...and couldn't squelch the cry of surprise as what appeared to be a stone fist came shooting out of nowhere and wrapped its rock fingers around Jochi's biceps, yanking him backwards and basically handing Ikeru the victory on a dirty rock platter. There was no point in questioning the origin of the surprise attack...Ikeru had won, after all. "Hah!" she called, straightening up to plant one filthy and bleeding hand on her hip while the other made a casual V-sign with her index and middle finger: V for victory! "I win! Now gimme back my g--" Her words were cut off as the very earth beneath bare feet quaked and buckled.
"What the hell...?" she murmured, and had turned to leave, already planning on collecting her stolen money from the Tiny Terror later on, but discovered that she was not able to even make a single step away: two thick slabs of earth clapped about her body, sealing her up to her neck in stone. This wouldn't have been such a problem if Ikki wasn't so damn tired, and an enormous stone barricade hadn't suddenly erected itself behind her. Her gaze flickered frantically from Jochi to the menacing Dai Li agents to the overturned and trashed marketplace to that little bastard kid, hiding behind adults and stuffing his face with pie. He was not about to get away with starting this whole fight.
"Hey!" Ikeru snapped to one of the closer Dai Li agents. Once positive she had someone's attention, she jerked her head in Bao Li's direction and glared. "If someone's about to be arrested, that sneaky little brat should get pinched, too! It's all his fault!" But what about it being Jochi's fault just a few minutes ago? Hell, it was anybody but Ikeru's fault today. She had the high score in the blame game.
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Post by baoli on Apr 21, 2008 8:00:37 GMT -5
Bao Li knew what was coming even before Ikeru yelled the words into the Dai Li agent's face. It was all but inevitable - every time something involved authorities around here, somehow he got dragged into it. Granted, he had tried to steal a few coins from the irritated woman, that was true. But he'd tried to help her, and certainly wasn't out to kick her across Ba Sing Se, like the little bald guy. Ignoring the pie filling on his chin, he deftly removed his lockpick kit and the single gold coin from his vest. Slipping the coin into the kit, he tucked both into the nearest cart as the crowd parted. The Dai Li agent's gaze followed Ikeru's head-bob and landed on the young boy's pie-stained face.
Bao Li blinked as if surprised at this turn of events, his lower lip quivering as the hardened government agent stared him down. The Dai Li agent handed control of Ikeru to his partner and walked over to Bao Li, who was smart enough not to move an inch. Somehow, Bao Li actually managed to look even smaller than he already was. The agent came to a halt a few feet from him and stared down at the dirty, bedraggled youth. "Alright boy, what happened here?"
Bao Li's eyes, wide as saucers, looked up to the Dai Li agent's face. He worked his mouth a bit, as if he were in shock at the sight of the cultural guardian. When he finally 'forced' the words out, they spilled fast and furious. It gave him a spectacular illusion of fear - and honesty. "I...I..I was just hungry, sir! She lost her purse, and I tried to help her get her money back," he pointed at Ikeru as he spoke. "I got some of the coins that had gotten away. I tried to keep some, and she caught me. She stuck me to the floor! I gave back what I kept, but she still wouldn't let me go! And then this guy," he pointed to Jochi "This guy, he stole some of them that got away, and the two of them got into a big fight. I was lucky one of them accidentally bent me free, or I'd have been killed! I was right in the middle of it, sir!"
"Where did that berry juice come from, if you gave back her money?"
Bao Li's hand shot to his chin, as if he'd forgotten about the juice in the sheer shock of being approached by the authority figure in the first place. He touched the drying goo, pulled back his fingers and blinked. "Oh! I...I'll pay for that. I can get money from home, I think. Or I can work it off with the pie seller, if I gotta. I found the tart in the dirt after the pastry cart had been smashed, and figured it would be squished anyway. I was hungry, so...so I ate it," he explained, keeping himself as pathetic-looking as possible, his eyes turning towards the dirt as if ashamed of his actions.
In reality, he was glad he'd found the pie, and he'd eat another dirt-covered one if it was offered. The filling was so good...
Snapping himself back to the task at hand, Bao Li looked back up at the agent, his eyes absolutely frantic, but this did not stop the Dai Li agent from considering him still problematic. He frisked the young berry-covered boy, turning up nothing but a single rice candy and a tiny utility knife, both of which he kept. He grabbed Bao Li by his upper arm and dragged him over to the benders. "Is his story true? Was this a fight over stolen coin?" The agent shot a glance at Ikeru, still holding tightly to Bao Li's arm. "And considering he gave back what he took, why is he being implicated?"
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Post by jochi on Apr 22, 2008 0:50:42 GMT -5
Jochi didn't care, because there was no reason. Not about the Dai Li, not about the skinny woman, not about the little kid, not even about the coin clutched greedily in his leathery palm. Whatever anyone said, the diminutive sandbender basically ignored every word. Struggling to break free, he could easily feel a force far greater than his own constrain his movements.
The Dai Li agent restricting Jochi showed so little effort keeping him in place, even going so far as to put his hands behind his back. This, naturally, infuriated Jochi, but the most he hissed at the man was some vulgar statement or another. At that point, the rocky prison tightened in manner most predictable. Huffing and groaning, Jochi eventually gave up...or appeared to, at least at an onlooker's glance. He still wouldn't give up, but he had calmed himself to the point where he could now think rationally - if that was even possible.
With a grunt, he happened to hear the Dai Li's accusation. Almost ready to spit in his face, and maybe even at the woman and child for his own amusement, Jochi spoke up before even weighing the matter at all. Thrusting up and down in his earthen snare, which kept tightening to the point where he could move no longer, the sand nomad growled. "He's lying! Throw the little gnat in the brig and let him rot!!!"
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Post by ikeru on Apr 22, 2008 18:23:16 GMT -5
Ikeru watched with tense narrowed eyes as the Dai Li agent questioned and frisked the young boy, and was rewarded with nothing more than a small piece of candy and a crappy knife. It looked like maybe the sly little doof was going to get in trouble after all! Oh, happy day! If she wasn't completely beat and surrounded by benders at least twice more powerful than she, Ikki would have broken free of her restraints and done a happy little jig right in the scarred streets.
Ah, but it seemed she had almost-celebrated too early. She watched as, crestfallen, the Dai Li agent dragged Bao Li over and shot questions off at her. Suspicious questions. Questions that, if not answered correctly, Ikeru would probably be thrown into jail for. Time to think and think fast! Blinking rapidly, she gaped open-mouthed like a fish and struggled to find the perfect words that would switch her and Bao Li's roles: he in restraints and her scott-free.
But words failed her, and all Ikki could manage was snapping her mouth shut. She ignored Jochi's words, although she whole-heartedly agreed with them, and could only shake her head slowly. "I...he...he's being implicated because..." Think, Ikki. Think! "Because...he...he burned down my house!" Her words clanged in the dusty, humid air like a cracked bell, but she was starting to gain momentum. "He's Fire Nation! He's been sent here all sneaky-like to spy and burn stuff down! He torched my home and my tea house and even my little puppy!"
She even whipped up a few theatrics of her own, shiny eyes and trembling chin included. For Jochi and Bao Li, there was no doubt she was pulling lies out of her ass, but for Ikeru...she hoped it was enough. It didn't dawn on her that Ba Sing Se probably didn't enjoy random acts of propaganda like that, but a girl's gotta do what a girl's gotta do.
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Post by baoli on Apr 22, 2008 20:15:47 GMT -5
The Dai Li agent holding Bao Li's arm looked from the yelling bald man to the frantic - and now tearing up - thin woman. His eyes remained expressionless, his stance never changed. He was like a rock. Bao Li blinked at the woman, shocked she'd consider such a bold-faced and outright insane lie - there was no evidence Bao was anything but a common peasant from the Lower Ring, and her lie was just making things more complicated on them all.
Bao Li was about to speak when the agen't voice spoke for him. "You," he said pointing at Jochi, "What evidence do you have for him lying? If your side is true, there's got to be at least one witness willing to speak such in this market." He nodded to the now cowering crowd, and some of the members of it ducked farther back. "Can anyone come forward and attest to this man's claim of the child being a liar? In any respect?"
"And as for you," he turned his attention to Ikeru. "Aside from the rather outlandish claim of this boy - who had absolutely nothing on him, aside from a candy - burned down your house, what difference would the boy being Fire Nation make? We are not at war with anyone, this city and the whole of the Earth Kingdom is peaceful. To claim otherwise is baseless instigation, and we cannot stand for it. You are clearly disrupting the peace of Ba Sing Se with your actions here, and if you are lying, even moreso by planting seeds of doubt among our people. What do you have to say for yourself?"
Through all this, Bao Li kept silent. The less he said now, the better - and the sooner he was likely to be released. There was little to no chance he'd be seeing his candy any time soon, but as long as he got out of this with his head on his neck, he'd be happy.
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Post by jochi on Apr 24, 2008 16:54:08 GMT -5
Jochi couldn't believe his ears. Monstrous lies so laughably wrong were stated by the Dai Li, obviously meant to delude the masses. He wondered if anyone around them actually believed that tripe, or if they kept quiet for safety's sake. If anyone even knew or kept their mouths shut to save their own asses, or if they were all brainwashed to believe contrary to actual fact, either way made Jochi sick. Cowards. If the guards were raring to break up such a tiny scuffle that he and the woman engaged in, what else would they pitch a fit about? Probably anything and everything, those disgusting frauds.
As his stone constraints left him unable to move, Jochi glared and scowled as the guard questioned him. The question was obvious as the coin in his possession, though that was probably long gone and spent on something frivolous. Jochi on the other hand was still clutching a gold piece in his greedy little fist, leaving him a dead target in case of a sudden investigation. But did he care? Did Jochi ever care?
"That's the dumbest sh*t I ever heard," Jochi growled at the Dai Li agent. "I'm a sandbender, and I even seen some of what the Fire Nation's done."
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Post by ikeru on Apr 24, 2008 17:42:35 GMT -5
A range of emotions passed across her face like gray storm clouds over a grassy meadow: shock, disbelief, defiance; fear, worry...it finally settled on anger, the well-worn feeling. How could they deny the goings-on of the war with the Fire Nation? For the Avatar's sake, it had been raging since before she was born! Not that Ikeru was old or anything...
Her emerald gaze flitted from the Dai Li agent's own muddy brown eyes to make eye contact with one of the few stragglers hovering on the hinge of the battle area. She tilted her head forewords and knitted her eyebrows together, questioning the Dai Li agent's bogus claim with her face. The bystander looked bewildered and, admittedly, a little bit frightened at the prospect of being dragged into the middle of the fight. Shrugging his shoulders, he slunk off into the shadows, hands deep in his pockets until he was gone.
That was...bizarre. Ikeru blinked rapidly, shook her head, and began to wonder if she was going crazy when Jochi re-established her faith in her sanity. At the teeny-tiny Sandbender's declaration, Ikeru grinned. "Yeah, buddy," she scoffed, confident that this was all some big joke--how could the elite guards of the largest city in the world not have any idea about a war being fought on nearly the entire continent? Silly Ikki! "I dunno what you been smoking, but there's been a war with the Fire Nation for about a hundred years."
Grinning widely now, she puffed a chunk of bangs out of her eyes and locked her eyes back on the lead agent's. "There's towns and cities that've been destroyed by the Fire Nation. Who're you fooling?"
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Post by baoli on Apr 24, 2008 21:19:31 GMT -5
Bao Li's eyes were as wide as dinner plates. Sure, he had a feeling something was up outside the city walls. Everyone in the Lower Ring did - the Dai Li had been dragging people who said as much off for a long time, many of whom were never seen again by family or friends. If there really was nothing wrong out there, why would the cultural guardians be trying so hard to hide it? Couldn't they just suggest people go to the city's outer walls and look for themselves? The whole situation was fishy, sure. But no one with any sense in their heads would say as much out loud, in public and directly into the faces of three Dai Li agents. It was practically asking to be erased from the face of the Earth Kingdom.
The reaction among the agents to the new developments with their prisoners was instantaneous. Bao Li's arm was released and he was all but thrown to the ground. He scampered back into the nearby alleys, certain that if they wanted him, they'd seek him out. They were Dai Li; they could get to anyone in the city. He watched from relative safety as the rest of the incident went down.
The three Dai Li agents coordinated movements, all dropping into the same stances simultaneously. New rock gloves formed on all of their hands. Two of them thrust their open hands forward and sent out the gloves, which made a beeline for their prisoners' mouths, aiming to clamp them shut. The third agent sent his rock gloves to both their collars, fixing to drag them close together. If the moves went off correctly, the two prisoners would be forced to stand next to one another silently as the Dai Li dragged them off.
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Post by jochi on Apr 25, 2008 15:39:33 GMT -5
They earned their retribution. Jochi and that emaciated hussy had said the wrong things at the wrong time to the wrong people. Everything was just so wrong at that moment. As his rocky constraints returned to the ground, he made a feeble attempt to escape the fray as quickly as his stocky little legs would take him. But he was soon subdued once more. Gagged by an earthen hand while another grabbed his collar, he was dragged backward across the dusty street like a common criminal.
His violent cursing muffled, veins bulging from his reddened face, he didn't know where he would be taken next. While uncertain of his destination, he was far more angered than afraid. Despite his enraged and irrational mind buzzing like angry scorpion-bees, Jochi assured himself there was nothing to fear at all. In his thirty-one years of existence, he had probably endured much worse.
Bring it on, Ba Sing Sei. Bring it on.
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