[GRO] Eostre Diazzi - Adult

[purplerosesbeauty]

The damning information here was almost staggering, falsified reports, fraud, suspicious items... One of Bastia's inhalers, puzzlingly enough. A news clipping about the death of Ophero. All incredible. Just what she'd need to take down Khmera, without a doubt.

With the sudden sound of a door opening, Eostre didn't have much time. "s**t," she muttered under her breath. She couldn't exit, so all that was left was to hide. She ducked under Khmera's desk, thankful for her small frame and soundless clothing. Eostre was silent as possible as she waited.

Sypon

 

[Sypon]

"You must realize, he's going to take a serious pay cut if he takes the position," A strong voice cut through, obviously Khmera.

"He's a blueblood. He'll manage." Bastia's gruff voice seemed labored, as though their meeting started long before they reached the door. The sound of her wheels and Khmera's boots clicking approached, but stopped in the middle of the room near the meeting area. Khmera sat down to level with the seadweller.

"So, you've heard things about the Violet Knuckles, have you?" The atmosphere in the room suddenly dropped a few degrees, Khmera's voice appropriately icy.

"Muayia. You know the fighters talk. They're starting to feel like some of their peers are performing a little too well, or a little too poorly, and it looks bad. That's it, you know."

"Do you believe them?"

"All I believe is what I see with my own two eyes." Bastia leaned forward, her chair squeaking. "Rutegg hasn't lost in a perigee, and he's not been training in-house. Eats like a snoutbeast, looks like a beanpole. Chessi's faded from the spotlight: Mojaan keeps throwing her under the bus with her matches, no reason for that I can see. Not to mention Moguro, Rennie..."

"Hmm."

"Am I wrong here? You should know all of this. We've got to prune some bad branches, Mua."

There's a distinct pause. Khmera got up and went over to her desk to retrieve something. The tips of her boots appeared in the cracks underneath. She let out a heavy sigh.

"You're right, Bastia. I've been letting this ivy overgrow, huh?" A click of something. "I promise you I'll do something about it. Get rid of some old growth, make way for something new."

The robust, choking smell of smoke drifted through the air. Khmera lifted the cigar from her lips, to look down at her guest. Bastia swallowed thickly, though her voice was still even.

"What... do you think you're doing?"

"Oh, this? I'm so sorry, I forgot about your sensitivity. Accidents do happen though, especially given you've been training with your little protegee Lepori, and working yourself up into quite a tizzy. It's tragic what you've been through, and how you passed away, but I'll always remember how you were there for our little community... Our, what's the word? Family."

Bastia growled and reached into her bag, stopping cold when she realized that nothing was there. She tried to stifle a nervous cough in her throat, but it turned into a wheeze. Khmera scoffed at the sputtering seadweller.

"You lost your status as royalty long ago. But, you'll make for a fantastic memorial service. Maybe we'll name a championship title after you. Maybe I'll even let Lepori win it."

purplerosesbeauty

Do you ACT or do you WAIT? Dun dun dun!

 

[purplerosesbeauty]

Eostre was relieved when Khmera didn't sit at her desk. She evaded immediate suspicion, maybe could even slip back out when they were done. She listened to the conversation, more details, more damning evidence she could report back.

She covered her mouth as Khmera approached the desk, and her eyes grew wide as she realized what was happening, as the woman lit a cigar. The inhaler - she must have taken it from Bastia. She didn't have much time if she was going to act. As Bastia began to sputter and wheeze, Eostre moved carefully to the third drawer, where she remembered one of the inhalers were. She opened it quickly, seeing the unused inhaler.

Eos picked it up. Khmera was likely a bit too distracted to hear - it gave her the surprise advantage. Bastia wasn't involved in the criminal activity - one of the few clean people in this whole operation it seemed. Now, Eos was never one to lay in wait, was she? She had her chance, but only for a moment.

Eostre stepped to the side of the desk closest to Bastia, and tossed the inhaler to her, on the balls of her feet, still crouched down. She had only a few seconds to make the most of this.
She slipped the knife from her boot and threw it at Khmera.

Sypon

act act act

 

[Sypon]

Bastia, facing the desk, spotted Eostre before the device was flying through the air. It gave her milliseconds to react: for an ex-military weapons expert, that was plenty of time. However, it was also time for expertly trained troll in the room to react to what was happening.

Khmera's body went taught and into battle position by the time Eostre had moved for the second time. She was an expert in thrown blades: it showed. The blade grazed her shoulder lightly, eliciting a hiss. She immediately reciprocated with a snarl and a blade of her own, hurling a concealed knife from within her shirt sleeve towards her attacker.

"A set up?! You're smarter than I thought, Bastia. Didn't think you were one to stage a coup." Khmera whirled around behind Bastia's four wheeled device, where the seadweller was regaining her breath. Out of the other sleeve came another knife, held tight against Bastia's gills.

"Don't make another move."  

[purplerosesbeauty]

Eostre moved away from the incoming blade, but not quick enough. Her arm was sliced and she sucked in air, wincing. Her clothes were torn and her cut was bleeding slowly. Khmera made it to Bastia before Eostre could even think - the difference in ability and age was obvious now. She was standing beside the desk as she looked from Bastia to Khmera, hands down at her side.

"Well, I suppose it's great to finally get some time with you, Khmera," Eostre said, not dropping the Bunnie disguise. She could likely get some mileage out of Khmera's paranoid assumption, her fear of a coup. The idea she was in league with Bastia... it was wrong but the truth was not any more helpful right now. Eostre wasn't about to compromise herself, even to save someone else. "Not exactly how I hoped we'd meet, but oh well. It sure is impressive seeing you in action."

Fighting would be hard with a hostage in the mix. If she could get Bastia free... Caution. Stall for time. Try to separate them. "Is this how you solve all your problems?"

Sypon

 

[Sypon]

“Can it, Lepori,” Khmera sniped. “You’re not worth my time. I should have smelled a squeakbeast as soon as you set foot in my club and started schmoozing.”

She adjusted her grip, keeping a watchful eye on both trolls. The inhaler that Bastia had used caught her gaze. The gears started turning, nearly visibly, in her thinkpan. “Hm. And you appear to be quite the locksmith. Put my files on my desk. Where I can see them.”

She gestured with her wrist while drawing a bead of royal blood from Bastia’s gills. The seadweller flinched and hissed underneath her to no avail. “How did you get the password to my office?” Khmera inquired, her voice suddenly tauntingly sweet.

purplerosesbeauty

 

[purplerosesbeauty]

A squeakbeast? She could almost hear her lusus' voice indignant at the phrase, but no matter. Eostre clenched her teeth. This mission was quickly going down in flames. Her rescue plan didn't seem to quite work out the way she wanted, and it seemed like she might lose the information needed to take down Khmera. Well, if she had to make a choice... her mission came first.

Kneeling slightly, Eos slowly opened one of the drawers. "Oh, you know. Lucky guess. They seemed like a good set of numbers." She kept her voice even, if a bit bored, as she pulled out files. "I hardly noticed anything here was even locked."

 

[Sypon]

Khmera’s eyes narrowed into slits. “Hm. Cheeky.” Eostre’s cool tone had caused something spiteful, poisonous, under the ringleader’s surface. Her gaze was focused on the agent’s movements, scanning for sleight of hand. She reached down to her wrist and slid a slim metallic band into view. “If you and Bastia are close at all, I think I can fancy a guess.”

A look of realization caused the seadweller to blanche. “No…” She began to protest, but Khmera was already speaking.

“Piazio, are you in the building?”

The voice of the bookkeeper returned through the small speaker, tinny but sure. “Yes ma’am, just settled the books for tomorrow’s opening and about to head out. Did you need anything?”

“Meet me in my office.”

His response was cut off by Khmera adjusting the band and getting back into a threatening position. She felt Bastia’s neck tense under her blade. The seadweller grimaced.

“He’s done nothing but serve the Empire and yourself. Don’t bring him into this.” Her tone sounded like a warning, but the words were a plea.

“I don’t have time for betrayals and weak links,” Khmera responded smoothly. “Bunnie’s made sure to sign his execution order, as far as I’m concerned. Speaking of.” She turned her gaze back to the blueblood. “Are you almost finished? You’ve started quite a timer.”

purplerosesbeauty

 

[purplerosesbeauty]

Another person getting involved now. Though it was true Piazio was how she got the code, he had no knowledge of it, as far as Eostre knew. While she stacked the papers neat and orderly, she was trying to form a plan. A way out. To save her mission. To manage not to compromise everything she'd worked the last few weeks for, training and gathering intel and building the case against all these corrupt trolls - orphaners and embezzlers, ruining what would otherwise be a good thing in the Empire.

She needed the papers to take out the whole network of them, another rotten branch in these old trees that Eostre was asked to prune. More failures obsessed with the clink of beetles over glory bestowed by the Queen. Eostre wanted to get recognized as the one who managed this little clean up, to get ever closer to her own goal, to be the spy and spymaster Regina saw in her. They couldn't possibly understand her. Not once in all this time did anyone suspect her, to see through her and figure out who she really was.

That's why she'd win. Why she had to win.

"Almost," Eostre replied to the purpleblood, her tone even as she knocked the pile of papers backwards with the flat of her hand, pushing it behind the desk as she vaulted over to Khmera. She'd have to be on this side if she was going to fight, and her first priority was to attempt to disarm the older woman. It would be easier to fight with only her fists, despite having a few weapons still.

She reached for Khmera's arm, her feet light, body angled away from the woman. "You don't know me at all," Eostre said. She worked great under pressure.

 

[Sypon]

Khmera’s mouth pulled up into a scowl. Lepori wasn’t as invested in the life of her new mentor as she was about turning her in, it seemed. The realization clicked. Bastia was no longer leverage. As Eostre launched over the desk, she tensed her arm against Bastia and pulled a rough cut from gill to gill.

The seadweller gasped, her hands shooting up to her neck to press against the gushing royal wound. Her body began to lose tension, struggling to stay seated.

Khmera simply sniffed at Eostre’s comment. Her bloodied wrist was now caught by the fighter, at an awkward angle that forced her to consider dropping the weapon.  

[purplerosesbeauty]

Eostre couldn't help Bastia now. If the old woman was as tough as she seemed, maybe she'd manage to scrape her way past this, waiting for help. Beyond that, it was no longer her concern. It wasn't her mission. Eostre's grip tightened on Khmera's wrist, twisting more. "I so looked forward to fighting you," she said. "I heard you were an expert."

Her own training, augmented by the last few months of being here at the Violet Knuckles, had Eostre feeling confident. Sure she wasn't quite an expert but she was damn good. She won most of her fights. She went up against Regina, against more powerful trolls before. She'd trained her whole life to be perfect.

 

[Sypon]

"You heard right."

The knife clattered to the floor as Khmera's wrist relaxed, rotating now to wrap around Eostre's and yank her sideways with a powerful twist of the hips. Her leg pistoned out to snap at the back of Eostre's closest knee.  

[purplerosesbeauty]

Eostre grunted as she was pulled and hit, but she kept standing. The pain was dull and manageable, and her legs still worked. Keep going. She leaned forward and slipped from Khmera's grip, jabbing quickly before hopping back again.

 

[Sypon]

Khmera took a jab, contorting to dodge the worst of it. She skipped forward in time with Eostre, putting pressure on her and pushing towards the obstacle of the desk. A low jab with a cross straight to the head came after in rapid succession.  

[purplerosesbeauty]

The blueblood put up an arm to try and block the blows, taking steps back as they landed. Eostre returned blows as she could, quick sharp blows aimed for Khmera's torso. She knew she was being cornered, but it didn't make her outmaneuvered yet. Eostre feinted, then pressed forward the opposite way so she wasn't facing Khmera straight on, her back to the door.