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 Posted: Sun Nov 04, 2012 4:44 pm
~::The Lesser of Two Evils::~
The Mystic Lady, Information Brokerage - Location Unknown Go anywhere in Japan and you will hear the rumors...the mystic woman with the ability to tell the future, the woman with the silken voice who can tell you where to find anyone you might be searching for, the mysterious lady who can prove to you the existence of demons. She's been a growing urban legend that spans from Tokyo to Sendai to Nagasaki, with rumored appearances in Sumaru and Oshu, from Okina to Iwatodai to the rural and supernatural hotbed that is Inaba. The stories are all usually the same, a strange woman met peddling her information in an alley...who answered some impossible question as though it meant nothing. She was exceptionally beautiful, youthful, and aloof yet intent in her work. It almost felt as though she were from another world...and just as soon as your question was answered, she was gone. Never seen in the same alley twice...
And for once, the stories do not greatly exaggerate. However, for the very few who are privileged to know her, there is a single shop hidden within the range of her stories where she can be found. This shop is her home, her central location, and the place where she compiles the information she gathers to share with her employers...the ultra-nationalist organization known as the Yatagarasu.
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Posted: Sun Nov 04, 2012 10:23 pm
Aishe, The Mysterious Fortune Teller The room was dark. Aishe thought about it as she walked over to sit on one of the many cushions at the far end of the room, looking at the weak rays of light leaking under the door and just barely reaching for the floor from the small window. It had always been a dark room, candles and lamps being the only source of light, illuminating specific spots around, even during the day. She preferred it that way, though. Made it easier to focus, when she needed to...or to relax and ponder freely, like was the case at the moment. It wasn't a big place, used solely as a resting space for her, and to speak of the information she had gathered with her employers. Still, on its own, and if anybody out of that circle were to find it, the dimly lit room was nothing but a small shop with mystic objects and fortune tellings with incense strongly impregnating the air at times, giving it an even more mysterious look to it.
A cup pressed against wine colored lips as the young woman gazed at the seemingly disorganized cards on the small table, frowning. The Crows were even more restless lately. That one of the Heralds had come to her, not at their usual time, and to ask about something completely different than her usual messages told as much. Amber eyes looked up as they had back the day before to gaze at the black cloaked woman. To ask about Ichiro wasn't extremely unusual, Aishe had to admit, the man being looked for by the organization day and night...but there was something more to this. Something that was ruffling the black feathers of the Yatagarasu...something that she could already guess. Still, her answer had been the same she always gave when asked about that particular person: she hadn't heard about Ichiro Kuzunoha since that time so many years ago...That he was one cunning man who knew how to hide his presence well and that when she were to get some news about him, she'd do all the necessary to get the information to them. In a way...she hadn't been completely lying.
Ichiro Kuzunoha had taught her most of what she knew, and he disappeared one day when she had been years younger...a girl still. But the man behind the name...well, he was more than just a teacher, and she saw him as a completely different person. Not the one serving the Yatagarasu, but the one who walked his own path, searching for a world of complete chaos...the one who never aged, for whom time was completely still. He had found her, helped and pulled her up to her feet when she had been so lost and scared. She had been even younger then, just a little child and he was the same as ever. That man she saw at times even now, coming to her with his usual drowsiness and lethargy. When and where he came from, Aishe honestly didn't know. Cesc came and went as he pleased, and would only show himself whenever he wanted to be noticed...whenever he needed something from her. She wouldn't speak about him, though. Not now, not ever. Her loyalty was his, and betraying him was something she would never do.
The magenta cloak she usually wore over her clothes shuffled behind her as she shifted on her position, eyes once again moving over to the small window at the other side of the room. Morning was moving slowly...and still she could feel the time slipping past her. Soon...it'd be time again for the spell...if she wanted to hinder the ticking of the clock for a brief moment, until she found a way to stop it forever.
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Posted: Mon Nov 05, 2012 3:01 pm
Cesc Fabregas, the Great Summoner 'Ichirou'
"The cacophony of chaos...white noise to help me sleep...""It's been a long time, Little Aishe," a smooth voice drawled suddenly, piercing the morning's slow silence with a presence that at once seemed to simply linger and fill the room with its impressive power, its strength, its magnitude. He was both the ongoing bastion of hedonism he had always been...long, lithe limbs laid lazily about on her mystic office's comfortable couch, stretched as though he had been there in a half-daze for hours...and the unsettling and intimidating person that he had always been for those who really knew him. After all, this man was no simple visitor coming to hear his fortune, nor was he a simple messenger who came to ask her questions about the rumors and tidbits that found their way into her ears during her travels and work. He was a man to end worlds, or save them if he had the inclination to do so. Once he had been the strongest and most powerful of the Yatagarasu's Great Summoners, until he had taken his leave of the organization entirely. Though he had never really been loyal, even on the day he saved a small girl and brought her into the group to fulfill the role of gathering information for them. His goals were his own, and they always had been...his trial taking him here and there, wherever the next piece of the long puzzle fitting together towards his endgame might be. And that path had lead him here to this place, to this person with whom he had shared much more than nearly anybody who had ever claimed to really know him. Pulling her out of that life that had almost killed her had granted him more than good karma, but an ally within the group that he had abandoned. If he cared for her, she would have a hard time knowing...between the carefree way that he lived and the easy way words of rebuke or affection flitted from his tongue for anyone, it was near impossible to tell if he ever meant a word he was saying to anyone. However, at the very least he seemed to trust her...enough that coming to her shop did not seem to trouble him at all. The very idea that this woman would sell him out to the Crows was inconceivable. She was loyal to him, indebted, and there was something about her that made him believe she would never turn on him. It was a look in her eye, that dark and driving ambition for something different from what she had now...a desire for something that only he could ever give to her.
Would she turn on even him if there were someone else who could extend the same offer to her one day? He wasn't sure...but it was moot because they couldn't. And if he were to be completely honest with himself, there was a part of him that liked not knowing. That wine-colored smirk and those deceptive eyes of hers were alluring, had likely fooled many unsuspecting idiots into forking over considerable sums of money for information they didn't even need. He wasn't fooled by her. But she had no need to deceive him, either. Even though he could trust her without condition, she kept him on his toes...and as long as she never bothered too much in trying to lure him from his respite, never keeping too long from him that which he desired from her, it was a trait that always kept him coming back to see her. That feeling of uncertainty...of chaos...that made for the most relaxing of melodies to his ears.
The mere memory of his last visit brought a lax smile to the corner of his lips, and the black and green bowler cap that adorned his green mop of shaggy hair shifted slightly from the path of one emerald eye, peering out at her as if to gauge her reaction to the return of this layabout into her life once more. Somewhere in the back of his mind, he knew that she always enjoyed when he came to see her; it made it all the easier for him to talk with her and get to the point of what he wanted, though he never seemed to be in a great rush to do so. Haste wasn't his style, and neither was it hers. They were a pair of languid individuals, and he appreciated her ability to slow the world and crawl along with him when they were speaking together. A slow sip of wine, a long nap splayed out over the cushions of a sofa in her office, and winding conversation that often drifted into complete and comfortable silence from time-to-time were the orders that he preferred when he came to see her. Days could pass before he would ever find the impetus to move from that couch, and she never seemed to mind his presence there, even for a moment. And when he finally left, it was as a ghost...as silent and sudden as the moment he arrived. Now he was here again, and the pathetic half-wits waiting for their fortunes to be told outside her door could wait until he had decided it was time for him to move on before she opened her doors again. They had business to discuss, amongst other things as well. He watched for her to turn to him, waiting for that telltale smirk and the brightening of her dark countenance, the slight lifting of her veil of mystery that could only be shown to someone who had known her before all this...to him, alone. Was she just another pawn to him to be played when the time was right? Only he really knew the deepest places of his mind and what they truly thought about anyone. But this place, the lazy moments spent on this couch around the girl he had saved, now grown into a resourceful young woman with ambitions of her own, he could certainly deal with. It was much more peaceful than the Trench, at any rate.
"Did you miss me?"
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Posted: Wed Nov 07, 2012 7:28 pm
Aishe, The Mysterious Fortune Teller Aaah, speak of the devil...
Eyes flickered to the side, following the path up to the couch, to find him laying down as if it was the most normal thing in the world; as if a complete organization of great power in the country wasn't searching everywhere for him; as if there weren't any worries...And well, were there? By the way he seemed to lie on the couch for hours without moving it may seem as if there really wasn’t anything to worry about…as if they had all the time in the world. For him, that was true. It would be completely foolish to underestimate him. The moment he decided to appear before her, the change in atmosphere was almost palpable. A presence she had known so well, and knew not to mess with. Not that she was intimidated or feared him then. Despite the extremely enigmatic aura…even if she didn’t know if he’d ever return to her…or dispose of her when he had gotten all and anything he needed from her…use her merely for the sake of having a contact inside the Yatagarasu…It didn’t matter. Or at least, she told herself each time that it didn’t. She had gotten so used to him, though. She owed him her life…and he had what she had always looked for. So if he never came back…she would lose quite a bit. But, he did return. Were they days, weeks or months…he always come back to visit her.
The smirk he knew so well peeked from the corner of her lips at the sound of the little nickname, as she turned completely to face the man sprawled on her couch so comfortably. “It’s been a little too long for my tastes,” her silky voice answered in something akin to amusement, as amber eyes locked with his with a sly glint. He didn’t seem to be on a hurry to speak about what brought him to her this time, all his visits varying from one another…but the woman wasn’t about to push him. She didn’t need to…didn’t want to. Besides, it was useless trying to hurry him into action. That she had learned as a child during the first years of knowing him. How she had hated seeing him sleeping all the time, when she, being an impatient girl, wanted to keep working, learning. With the years, she had learned to accept that particular trait of his…understand and enjoy it.
“I was starting to believe you had forgotten about me, Cesc…” Aishe muttered in a fake hurt tone, as hands moved over to the hood shadowing her face, pulling it down in one smooth move. “You know I always miss you when you leave.” How much could he trust her words though, well… only he knew.
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Posted: Thu Nov 08, 2012 6:40 pm
Cesc Fabregas, the Great Summoner 'Ichirou'
"The cacophony of chaos...white noise to help me sleep..."From the outside, it would have been easy for anyone watching to see the two figures inside of the mysterious shop as having something of a casual conversation; it might have looked almost normal, were it not for the bare torso of the man (but when was it ever not?) and the languid, familiar sort of way he looked at the beautiful woman who owned the place. It was easy to think that the two of them might have merely been old friends, or that he was even one of her customers, albeit an eccentric to be sure. But their relationship was anything but normal, dating from their first meeting to this most recent one. And neither of them could be considered, in and of themselves, a normal person. Cesc was a timeless man who wandered about in search of the right combination of parts to set the world spiraling into a momentous chaos, and Aishe was a fortune teller who desired the eternal chalice of beauty, willingly trading forbidden information from shadowy sources for each additional step closer towards that goal. Together, they were anything but normal. And he rarely knew what to expect from behind that smile of hers, only that he never really felt any inclination to distrust her. He was all the more weird for it, he supposed, but not once in his life had he ever considered for a moment what someone else might think of him. Passing from one place to the next, out of one life and into the next, those who knew him knew only what he allowed. But of all the lives he had passed through, it could be said that few if any knew more about the man beneath the languid facade than this person in front of him. Did that mean he could trust her? When she said that she had missed him, did she really...or did she merely hope that his return would bode well for her own designs. Any man with a hint of restraint inside of him wouldn't believe it...perhaps that was why he never seemed to question her sincerity. After all, he was never a man to adhere to what was deemed as normal. He liked how easily she could say those words to him, how difficult it should have been to trust her, and how carelessly he did. Perhaps he had been away too long...after all, these visits were always...peaceful. In their own way. Though for a man who slept best in situations where one must keep an eye open for trouble...who knew what that really meant.
The renegade summoner was a man all his own, and now that he had passed through the doors of her shop again, the information broker he had known for quite some time now could expect that things were going to become interesting soon, well, relatively soon for her. His eye seemed to drink her in as she spoke to him, mocking hurt and playing with him that game of cat and mouse that could keep any man on his toes (but could not move him from his cat-like perch upon her couch). There was purpose in the curl of his lip, the sleepy but focused glimmer in his eye. Surely, there was a point to this particular visit...even if it might take a while to get there.
"Do you?" the words dripped like ambrosia from his tongue, the way he watched her showing a lazy sort of amusement, even as his body stretched taut on the couch before her. The words were phrased as a question, but he did not seem as though he expected her to refute them. It had been a while, after all...and he did come bearing good news, didn't he? Some news, at any rate. "Hey...I need a pillow," a yawn suddenly escaped him, breaking the strange mood just a little as he lifted his head and his eyes half-lidded, a hand tapping one of the cushions beneath his green hair slowly in a plain invitation, "Join me...if you want to hear something good, that is."
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Posted: Sun Nov 11, 2012 2:28 pm
Aishe, The Mysterious Fortune Teller She laughed, velvety chuckles filling the room as the dark haired woman listened to his words. Despite her playful silence as her answer and the unreadable gaze in her eyes, Aishe really did miss him each time he disappeared for long periods of time. Not in the sentimental and loving sort of way, for that was mostly for fools and their dreams, but in a more...how to put it... practical sense of the word. Without him, she tended to fall in a boring monotone, every day whispering little secrets to her superiors; murmuring words her clients wanted to hear; breathe small lies when necessary. She looked for her goal in each and every corner, always finding a dead end of some sort. When he was there, it was as if she got her aspiration back in sight. With him there, she knew she'd get one step closer to the timelessness she thirsted for. And it'd be terrible to deny that their little mind games and time together made for a very interesting and entertaining occasions. In those games though, she knew he was the one with the upper hand, but for the information breaker...perhaps she didn't mind losing.
A hum rumbled softly in her throat as he raised his head slightly, the invitation plain to the eye there. Eyebrows arched in interest, the woman standing at once from her seat at the other side of the room. "Hmmm...tempting. I am always interested in a good tale." The magenta cloak brushed softly behind her, the golden coins embroidered to it and her skirt tinkling with each step. She sat on the couch without a word, leaving her lap be the pillow he was asking for if he wanted, like he had done so many other times before. “So, what do you have for me today?” she finally asked after a moment, fingers idly brushing moss colored hair.
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Posted: Tue Nov 13, 2012 5:13 pm
Cesc Fabregas, the Great Summoner 'Ichirou'
"The cacophony of chaos...white noise to help me sleep..."As the girl made her way across the room and languidly took her place at the head of the couch he was set upon, her lovely lap making for the most comfortable pillow in the room for a layabout to rest his head upon, the forest-crowned summoner was reminded yet again just why he liked this particular member of that pretentious organization of supernatural sleuths. It was hard to tell for anyone who might have been watching whether or not she was simply humoring him, or if she took a sort of deep-rooted pleasure from this unusual interaction of theirs. Nonetheless, when he spoke she did not hesitate to respond to him, and at his request she had been quick to acquiesce to him. He liked that decisiveness about her, how she could take such perfectly prompt action without ever really tipping her cards; still, he could read her as well as anyone could. Perhaps she didn't enjoy the little dance the way that other, less scrupulous women might have, but there was some measure of satisfaction visible upon her lips as she smirked and crossed the distance, the sofa melting beneath her gently as she welcomed his head into her space with a soft, tempered touch. ...It was nice, this lazy sort of intimacy that demanded none of the frustration and focused attention that the volatile members of his eight-headed snake required, but at the same time, as comfortable as the timeless man looked in his stretched-out, tired-seeming perch those who really knew him could scarcely imagine him staying just like that forever. For all his sloth there was a hulking avarice inside of him, greed that wished to swallow everything in the world that could stand between he and the world that he envisioned for so very long. Did that mean he had no time for moments like this one? Of course it didn't...he did everything in his own time, and detours like this one, particularly when they were out of plan, were what made the trip from Point A to Point B in his grand scheme all the more interesting. And in particular, there was a certain feeling of...again, satisfaction that came with these visits to her. But all that aside, he had promised her something good for her company and he wasn't lying...this time. His eyes closed as he felt the warmth beneath his mossy brow sink into him, lulling him into what must have felt like a half-conscious state.
And yet as he spoke he seemed entirely lucid, though his chest raised and fell as though he were sinking deeper into some sort of heavenly reverie.
"Is my presence not enough to satisfy you?" the rogue summoner's lips curled sleepily and playfully, as though he were daydreaming as he spoke to her, "...Does the name Jezebel pique your interest?" There was something knowing and self-satisfied in the way he asked the question, as though he knew the answer before he had ever let it slip past his lips. And in all likelihood, he didn't need to tell her just what the sentence he had just spoken meant to her. The Crows were well versed in the specifics of the ongoing Tournament of Bel, most of them posted with multitudes of accurate information on the subject, including the two eliminated parties, the human Mataki Hito who had been dragged into the conflict by the machinations of a trickster, and of course, the remaining 'Bel' Demons which had yet to make themselves known to the more visible contestants. Among that lot was Jezebel, a devious and beautiful devil with designs on crowning herself the Queen of Hell. Her power was immense and she had a penchant for taking over the minds of her subjects, allowing her to manipulate humans and devils into acting as her foot soldiers against those who would wish to confront her. But what made her truly intriguing was her obsession with her beauty, which those who knew of her were known to proclaim as everlasting. It was this last part of which Aishe had probably heard in rumors and stories, and what made the mention of her name a subject of particular interest to the information broker. Something of which the wayward Great Summoner would be most keenly aware...
"A little bird whispered in my ear that the self-proclaimed 'Queen of Bel' has shown herself...just before I ate it," he smirked devilishly from her lap, emerald eyes suddenly opening themselves with a meaningful look that caught her gaze and held it immediately...waiting for the realization to dawn on her just what all of this might mean for her, "Would you like to meet her...little Aishe?"
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