An Unorthodox Appointment (Malikai)

[Leon Loire]

The evening chills of the school-year's fourth weekend brought a sort of lazy alertness to an ex-Varronite Senior, his steps treading over the recent fall of salty rain across the streets of the Californian city. In this time of year, Leon Loire had grown used to the wintry winds of New England, the necessity of scarves or gloves expected in the fresh months of a new year.

But, as a born native of the Californian state, Leon was oddly surprised to find the evening temperatures were in the mid 50s of farenheit, a chill that required a jacket perhaps, yet definitely no sweater or heavy coat. Remembering such days of a warm lifestyle from his youth in Sacromento, Leon Loire followed the lifeless concrete earth of the sidewalks, his laceless tennis shoes a comforting contrast to his typical deceptive attire.

Turning a corner and walking down another pair of sidewalks, Leon found himself at the door of a small restaurant (OOC: sorry, you left me without details of the place). Gazing through the windows for a moment, Loire could not succeed in locating Malikai; it seemed it would be necessary to enter and search for him after all.

Pushing his palm against the cool bite of the glass door, Leon entered with a chime and a sliding air, as his form led itself toward the back of the building. Locating an employee busy with dishes, Leon ignored the slight noise of waiters and customers, and lightly requested for the location of his contact.

"Hell, I'm here to see Malikai. Have you seen him around lately?"

[pinefresh]

"Malikai your off go home."

~God damn that man and his bastardly mentality~ Malikai thought to himself as he hear the distinctly annoying voice that was the shift manager kicking him out. Many would think that the phrase 'kicking him out' was a rather strong way to describe his managers feelings. Of course thats why many people are stupid and should keep their mouths shut about things they do not understand. This man was as ugly as he was mean and let it be said this man was mean. Malikai assumed that it was due to the fact that you could not stare at the man for more than 60seconds without needing to look away.

Generally Malikai gave him the benefit of the doubt on such things. He rationalized that he was mean to hide how much it hurt him that no one was able to stand the sight of him. After a while of trying to be nice to the man Malikai learned that he was so far gone that he had become the person he used to hide his insecurities. Now, Malikai just saw him as a pain in the ass and a prick. He was however happy to be off shift and able to go home.

~Back of the Restaurant~

Bruno was standing there washing dishes as a good dish boy did. He loved his job, it was easy and he made $8.00 an hour doing it(OOC: Since I have no clue what minimum wage is in the U.S.ofA. I just set it as 25cents higher than my minimum wage) The only problem with the job was that he occasionally got burned by the scolding water. He was lost in his own little world thinking about the joint he had waiting at home for him.

"Hell, I'm here to see Malikai. Have you seen him around lately?"

Bruno jumped, taken unaware at the fact that someone could be standing right behind him. Whipping around with a look of irritation on his face he looked at the boy in front of him. "Jesus Christ! Way to give a man a heart attack there buddy."

Bruno took a deep breath and looked and thought about where Malikai was. He remembered the shift manager kicking him off the floor about five minutes ago. That meant by his slow stoner logic that Malikai must still be changing down stairs. He knew this because Malikai always left by the back door after shift. At least he was sure Malikai did, it's hard to remember this crap when your baked half the time. "Malikai should be still downstairs changing...He got off about five minutes ago...ummm yeah five. Anyways if you wait there he'll come to you." With that said Bruno turned back around and went back to work and dreams of being baked.

~Three minutes later~

Malikai made his way up the stairs out of the basement which also housed the change area for the staff. The basement was slightly dank, dark, and very cold considering the cold storage was down there. Malikai was looking down as he walked past Bruno toward the door. Bruno of course was too occupied with his own crap to know his head from his ass half the time didn't even notice Malikai pass. As he raised his head to step out the door he was greeted by a familiar face from school.

Malikai knew the boy as Leon Loire former Captainish person of the former Varron. Smirking toward Leon, Malikai bowed his head and stepped out the door. 'I was wondering when you were going to show up. Come, we have much to talk about."

[Leon Loire]

Leon felt his eyes widen a bit as the employee suddenly jumped up in surprise, but after the man filled the Senior into the situation, he simply nodded in a neutral reply, still a bit out-of-tune from the scare. Standing by one of the tables for about three minutes, Leon felt a bit of satisfaction at seeing the man in question.

"So, what is it you wish to discuss? I'm still unsure of your intentions, so we might as well learn them now; that way we can start planning as soon as possible."

Pulling out a chair and sitting himself down, Leon couldn't help but wonder where Malikai stood in school politics. Perhaps he stood with Varronites; perhaps with Hircine. Either way, it was something Leon had to find out, so that way he could know how to react.

[pinefresh]

Malikai walked out the door from the kitchen and stopped behind the bar and reached into the bar fridge. The fridge was full of different bottles of imported beer that was not available on tap as well as various cans of pop, juice, and water. Malikai grabbed two 550mL bottles of Perrier water and left a five for the tender who just looked at him. Malikai never took anything from the restaurant even if it was free, this was new for him.

As Leon grabbed a seat at a table Malikai placed a water in front of him and took a sip of his own. He sat down as Leon began to speak asking him of his intentions. It had been a little since he and Loire had spoken and Malikai could not recall what he had told him in the first place. Clearly it was good enough to get him here, and Malikai supposed that was all that mattered.

Malikai checked his watch before replying, carefully noting the time. "I have been at Hircine High school for over a full year. I have lived under the rule of those three tyrants for a full year longer than you. Perhaps tyrant is a strong word, tyrants are people in full control of the situation, these three are just puppets of the principal to the best of my understanding. Anyways apparently the school used to be in a very bad way before I came, like your Varron and these three and the principal cleaned it up. Instead of just taking backseat control they took the front seat and began systematically taking full control." Malikai took another sip of his water before continuing.

"You see how the students act, most of them do it out of fear not loyalty. The rest act because they know, or have good reason to believe, their actions are protected by the pillars. Like that student dean who beat the crap out of the student. Had you and I not been there to speak up that would not have ended until the dean decided to stop. Trust me on that I know from first hand experience, no one will stop it.

I come to ask your help in ending this...I guess the word would be corrupt oligarchy. I do not believe the school should not have leaders to govern the student body...but it should not be out of fear. Look at your Varronian's look how they fight not only the Hircinian's but even your own. You stand divided and weak, they will use this do not think they won't. Trust me, when they do they will have one of your own do it."

Malikai stopped and focused his emerald contacts on Loire. It was his turn to speak and Malikai's to listen.

[Leon Loire]

'So he wants a Revolution... interesting, this feels a bit familiar to what the Founders must have felt... well, sort of.'

Leon leaned forward, his eyes set on the unopened water bottle before him. The conflict was relatively clear: unite the Varron population, and resist Blayne and his followers through whatever means necessary. The problem, however, was how to even hope of accomplishing the first danger...

"I agree on the Pillar's crimes, and I certainly wish to repel them..." Leon whispered, unwinding the bottle's cap and swigging a cool bit, "But the facts are pretty clear to me: even if I organize every single Varronite, we'd still be surrounded by your fellow Hircinians ten to one. Yes, I can assume most of the student body would stay uninvolved, much less sympathize with us, but that still leaves a matching, if not doubling force of Hircinians backing up Blayne and the Pillars to the fullest."

Placing the bottle back down, Leon leaned back in his chair and sighed. What Malikai was situating made sense, strategically and politically, but the matter of attack was not. They were outnumbered, with every possible situation against them. If they hoped to rebel against the System, they'd need to either convince Blayne to support their battle, or dethrone him. More then likely, the former possibility was rare to occur, and that only left an option that would be both dangerous and difficult to succeed...

Looking back at his host, Leon nodded, "For now, I can guarantee my intentions to unify the Varron population. We're all still hung up on old rivalries and battles, and now that we're in this new situation, we can't allow that to hold us back. I feel the best way to unify us, therefore, is to hold a meeting somewhere, with all the Varronites invited to discuss things..."

Leon leaned forward now, his eyes still just as sternly set as before, but without any hostility or negativity. It would be difficult, but it was necessary; "Understand, however, that there are some groups of Varronites who will be willing to assimilate, some groups who would prefer to be left out of any political clash, and some that will resist our efforts simply because of my past with them. That leaves us with a good number of possible supporters, but that still leaves us severely outnumbered for a direct assault.

"As I'm sure you've guessed by now, we need to convince a few of the Hircinians to support us openly. I'm sure there are some in your population that would be open to rebel, even covertly, and anyone we can get to support would help. Even if we intend to keep this quiet, even if we hope to simply show some muscle to frighten Blayne into giving in, we need to be extremely cautious, and need as much aid as possible..."

Leon took another swig of the water, before looking around him throughout the restaurant. It was desolate; Malikai was a safe one. "I promise to unify the Varron population as best I can, if you can promise me this: you'll search for as many possible Hircinian allies as possible, and keep them silent for now. This has to be kept quiet, or else Blayne or the Principal will be countering us before we even hope to succeed. Does this suit you?"

[pinefresh]

"I've already to a degree been doing that." Stated Malikai rather plainly as he took another sip of water. "I have been looking and as I can recall I found one. Though one may not seem like much, where there is one there are many."

Malikai could not exactly remember what the boys name was but he was a tall fellow who seemed to enjoy the idea of chaos. Though Chaos is not a good thing, it generally worked very well for drawing attention away from what people should be looking at. Though he at present could not remember the name he remembered the voice clearly and would search for the boy at school. His height would make him easy to find. Tall with dark hair, dark eyes, and a dark manner, rather intelligent though, but dark none the less.

Malikai was intrigued by this idea of a meeting. A meeting however could be dangerous venture if the wrong people get in. Thats when it hit him like a tonne of bricks, something his pen pal said. ~That bastard Loire is a good man and used to be a half decent fighter. You can trust him to back you and to take it too far at the same time. With him you're playing with fire, feed it to fast and it will burn brightly, burn you, and have to be put out. If you feed it only enough to keep burning bright enough to be seen, warm enough to be near, you may keep it going forever. In case your dumb ass did not understand the brilliant analogy I just used I'll put it to you simply. DO NOT LET HIM GET OUT OF CONTROL OR YOU'LL BE SORRY!!!~

Yes even Malikai had to admit that having a pen pal was lame as hell but it was really the only way he kept socialized enough to be around human beings. Besides he had gained valuable info from his pen pal about many of the students who formally attended Varron and how to deal with many of them.

The whole pen pal thing started a long time ago back when he was maybe 9 or 10 his parents concerned for his well being, set Malikai up on some pen pal program. It was there he met his pen pal (whose name will be given at the end of the post ;D) and really only friend he knew. They both had much in common, both back then were fat, both were bullied and both were to a degree alone. They kept contact all the way through everything no matter what and Malikai was ecstatic to hear his friend would most likely be sent to Hircine following Varrons closing. As all good things, that did not happen and the boy was sent to a military boarding school to serve out his remaining years of high school.

Malikai shook his head slightly and rubbed his eyes with his left hand and returned to reality. "Sorry about that I'm just a little tired at the moment do forgive me. I understand what you hope to achieve with this meeting however there is a problem here. The problem as you said is we have no idea who to trust so I propose a variation to your idea. We only invite the group leaders to partake in your plan. Like in the army the generals come up with the plans with the officers which is then passed onto the lower ranks in order to keep tight control. Control is key here because we do not want Darren to find out about this."

Malikai was certain Leon would see the reasoning here whether he agreed with it or not. Or so he was told it would be the logical thing to do in such a situation should it arise. Leon always liked to involve "the people of Varron" in everything which was usually a bad idea.

"Oh and before I forget, I was charged to tell you something. Now what was it...Oh yes I remember. You're a crazy bastard for trying this shit again especially without Genaht to back you or put you down when you get to high. So you better do the smart thing and listen to Malikai as he is the vessel through which I will be helping you or hindering you as needed. Oh and in case you have no idea who this is just remember you owe me a rematch for your lucky victory in that tourney, you are a bastard, and should I come to visit you're so going to get an ass kicking. Good luck, Pine."

Malikai took a deep breath after saying all this and watched for any reaction that may be present. Just to prove it was not a lie Malikai lifted his right sleeve revealing the arm band worn by all true Genaht followers. Of course, the band was only on loan until Malikai had finished what Pine had instructed him to do.

[Leon Loire]

Loire held the bottle of water lightly in his right hand, before placing it on the table as his host finished the explanations of his own side. From what Leon had picked up thus far, the personality of this Malikai was very similar to another he had known at Varron - and as the man finished his 'message', he could not help but smirk rather strongly, feeling a bit of nostalgic memory... and painful irony.

"Heh, I've been wondering where he's been! How interesting to hear who your connection is. I'll be honest to say I'm somewhat surprised to hear back from him, and you can let him know that if he ever comes here, I'll make certain of rewarding him a true rematch; that rather heated encounter of words when Genaht when mad at Varron didn't count."

Leon took another sip, his eyes sulking a bit now; Pine - and Malikai, therefore - brought up a point that concerned him a great deal, and it didn't help that Malikai presented the band of that gang's symbol.

"Let your friend know that any chance of aligning with Genaht is now forfeit. There have been rumors running through the school of witnesses seeing Ein Gilsin speaking with the Captain and his Pillars, and their conversations were far from hostile. People are saying he's not only siding with the local system and conforming, but he's actually become a Pillar."

Leon took another sip, barely holding back another laugh at the interesting twist of the situation. After all, it was rather amusing to find out a possible ally was connected to someone you once held a strange rivalry with, "Any chance of allying with Genaht is gone, and you can let Pine know that.

"In the meantime, I suspect your suggestion of keeping with the leaders of the Varron population is a wiser choice, although not the final one. We'll have to collect allies from the heads of power in the Varronites, and once we're sure they'll back us, we'll go to gaining supporters in lone fighters that we've investigated, normal Varronites that we can convince, and even suggest to other Varronites to march when we march. We'll have to choice our words wisely, but in the end, we'll gain what we wish."

[pinefresh]

"Shit...that is not good at all..." Malikai said looking down at the bottle of Perrier that was half finished sitting on the table. Ein joining the Pillars meant a huge blow to their movement. Malikai looked back up at Leon as if to ask him how this could have happened? Out of all the gangs at Varron Malikai was left to understand that the two most organized and meaningful gangs at Varron were Genaht and some nameless mass.

The others were basically just glorified Honor guards that defended the weak and innocent. Then there was that one gang that just liked to cause trouble and fight with the other two. In truth they lacked much purpose in the grand scheme of things. Sure good and evil hold a place in the scheme of things but in a high school full of troubled teens they just give them reason to fight.

The nameless mass had an agenda and it was indiscriminate about who it absorbed. For all the chaos it was claimed to have caused, the gang itself created unity throughout the gang world of Varron. The unity stopped much of the warring between the lower gangs who caused most of the trouble in the first place.

Genaht on the other hand was a neutral in the truest sense. They never (save once) showed any type of outside aggression to anyone who did not do so to them first. They were trained to hold their tongues and take their beatings much like soldiers in a modern army. Their overall discipline and loyalty to their leader made them a force to reckon with. Probably what helped the most was their ability to think. Ein forced them to think long and hard before making any movement. They were taught to find logic and meaning in all they had done or were about to do.

Now his greatest Allie was about to become his greatest enemy. Malikai had wanted to join Genaht and fight as Pine had for it but now he was likely to end up fighting it. He knew of the members and how they fought, how they thought, how they worked. Standing up against a legion of them scared him.

"Perhaps there is still time to change Ein." Malikai said with some sort of thought. "I know he will never fully back us but if he could become a neutral, like he was in Varron, we'd be much safer. I'll have to discuss with Pine how I might go ahead with this and if I have any hope of succeeding. Shit I would rather be fighting beside Genaht then against them. I know what they did to your school in a matter of an hour, I would not like to see that happen to us."

[Leon Loire]

Leon looked to Malikai's concerned appearance with a bit of worry of his own own; it seemed Pine's overwhelming loyalty to Ein Gilsin had already been absorbed by the possible ally, and now the possibility for Gilsin's neutral ideology to rise would only worsen the hope of unity; or worse, Ein's new belief in conformity would eventually wrap all of his former members, and possibly new ones, into following Blayne and the Principal as well.

Malikai had just proven a major complication in their possible alliance, and Leon wasn't liking it.

Standing up and taking a final swig of the water, Leon could see that his time to leave was upon him. Malikai was truly a possible ally, but he was uncertain of who to trust. Pine eventually dropped out of favor with Leon - what said Malikai wouldn't do the same?

"I admit, Ein Gilsin is a significant obstacle if he chooses to battle us, and knowing him I suspect he would now that he has a new lifestyle. He's no longer the neutral idealist your friend Pine believed him; he's one of them now, and we'll have to find a way to change his views. I can't do it. He's lost patience with me it seems, and now he has no care to deal with liberals like me. Our only chance is for you to speak with him yourself, and without any direct connection to me."

Tossing the water bottle into a nearby bin and looking back to Malikai, he nodded in thanks, "I appreciate the drink Malikai, and the alliance opportunity as well. But honestly, I think your overestimating Gilsin too much. He was a powerful force in Varron, yes, but only of an elite few. Now that he's with them, he's dangerous, but only as much a danger as Shen or Kurtz. His old followers of Genaht don't seems to be directly following him anymore, and that discredits him. He's only a warrior, and if necessary, we can take him down if need be. Remember where your own wishes of loyalty lay Malikai: with this school, or with your friend's past. Do you wish to be Malikai, or Pine?"

Turning on his heel, Leon waved to the Benedict one last time before exiting, "Think on that, and I'll talk to you soon. Either way, have a good night."

And with that, Leon Loire was off to his own rest.