The Midnight Prince

[Rokag]

This was a mess. Rokag was sure it was a mess. You didn't get into these kinds of messes if you could avoid them but the FUCK was she going to do now? "R-right. So...then a wh-" Rokag turned her attention to Carbonne. "Since his father...died? Just...regular died?"

[Shisou]

Carbonne blinks at Rokag -- an odd sight, given xir eyelids are a clear film rather than solid. "Storms if I know. Kid shuts down whenever anyone asks about him. Strangest thing."

Shisou swallows, looking at his feet, but doesn't contest it. Or say anything. 

[Rokag]

........FUCK! Fucking.... "<D>Cracked stone and wasted gold!</D>" Rokag got right back to pacing, this time with flecks of ice falling from her wake as she continued pacing. I'm dead. I'm dead either fucking way I could play this. I can't just...fucking run now. The Eels would acutally fucking track me down, get what they want and THEN kill me. She thought briefly about trying whatever she did with the demon, but that only works on things she could SEE and she couldn't fucking control it.

And now she knows that Shisou's father died and only Shisou knows what happened and no one fucking LIKES the guy but he's basically the most dangerous thing on this island and now she fucking KNOWS that. She could play dumb, but that's more likely to get her caught and have fingers removed to make sure she got the point. Okay...okay that's just....kinda a problem we're gonna have to figure out later.

She finally stops, the ice melting and drying up almost instantly as she does. Rokag takes a few breaths and then turns back to Shisou. "Alright...okay, so I didn't know that he was part of the Eels. That...changes a lot of shit. It means that even IF I was going to run, if he's been here a while and now wants something from me, I can't just fucking run. You probably ran into a couple of them if you're running around saving people at night in a skirt. ALSO means that I gotta...actually think this shit through rather than just going along with it."

[Shisou]

"W-w-w-w-e c-c--ccould d-d-d-do the r-r-ritual," whispers Shisou, eyes and cheeks burning. "G-g-g--give h-him wh-what he w-w-w-w-ants a-a-and n-n-nobody g-g-g-g-g-g-ets h-h-h-hurt."

Carbonne makes a disgusted noise. "C'mon, kid, you know better than that. Giving bullies what they want just lets them get a swelled head."

[Rokag]

"See, there's a problem with THAT, too." Even before we get into me being pregnant for who knows how long. "If we don't give him what he wants, he'll probably just try to fucking have me killed. And if it doesn't work..." Rokag took a long breath. "We can't do nothing, and I can't run." And I'm not sure what he'll do if he DOES get what he wants.

[Shisou]

Shisou looks at his book, in his lap. After a moment, he says quietly, "th-th-th-that b-b--boy I was m-m-m-eeting? Wh-wh-when we m-m-met? I n-n-n-never s-s-s-s-saw him a-g-g-gain a-after h-h-e f-f-found out."

After a beat he adds, even quieter, "n-neither d-d-did his p-p-parents."

[Rokag]

...Great. So...so that's just great. "Alright, but we don't know if he'd just kill m-wait...you were waiting for a boy?"

[Shisou]

Shisou nods. "I g-g--g-got c-c-caught m-m-m-meeting h-h-h-him. G-g-g-got my a-a--ass b-b--beat. Th-thought... w-w-w-w-anted t-t-to know if h-he was a-a-lright."

[Rokag]

Rokag slightly remembered Shisou being bruised when they first met. "Oh...right." Rokag gave a long sigh. "I...sorry. I mean..." She sighs. "Okay, so...we gotta try and figure out what we're going to do. And we can just...stall a bit while we figure it out, right? I mean, it'd probably take a while to get pregnant if we didn't use magic, right?"

[Shisou]

He nods. "r-r-r--rright," he stammers. "o-k-k-k-k-kay."

[Rokag]

Rokag's dreams were full of ice and tentacles and drowning so it seemed like sleep was going to evade her for now. She didn't mind, as she had a lot on her mind to begin. She quietly slipped out of her room and went about walking, eventually finding herself on the edge of a small courtyard with some fish in their own pond. She watched the fish swimming as she thought and planned and came to a terrible conclusion.

I don't think I can just run on this one. She wasn't someone to stick her neck out for people but this was...pretty bad. But what could she do? She was just some random kid that had ended up on the Shore. She hadn't even told him about her mother. How they'd shared a place for a while. How the place had burned down when she left to find something for her mother. How she didn't know if her mother had...no, she wouldn't think of that. It didn't matter. The important thing was that she was gone and hadn't come back. And she still owned Shisou....But I can't FIGHT the Eels. It won't work. She gave a sigh as she watched the fish, trying to think about something OTHER than her situation.

[Shisou]

Footsteps on gravel; soft voices growing nearer, growing audible. 

"--what to do, Carbonne. She deserves better than this. But I don't know how to get her free without crossing the Cicada family--"

"Your family."

"and incurring the wrath of Kuronue's husband--"

"Your stepfather."

"and potentially putting the children at risk."

"Your sisters. Your self. Kid, I'm getting real worried about this little quirk of yours."

[Rokag]

Rokag looked up towards the voices. That's...a little weird, even IF I didn't know he was here. Rokag took a long, slow breath and moved towards the voices. She wanted to take a closer look at her anyway, and it wasn't like sleep was coming any time soon at this rate.

[Shisou]

Soushi-hime, the Midnight Princess, looks, if anything, slightly more dressed up tonight. Her boots have a bit of shine to them, her hair is braided with ribbons instead of just ties; it's like she spent a little more time dressing up, though Rokag knows by now that it's a magic item doing it. Carbonne is back to looking exotic, just a little strange and unique, even for a lizard. 

"What quirk?" she asks, and she looks innocent, confused. 

"Kid," sighs Carbonne. "Fine. What are your options?"

[Rokag]

....the fuck IS up with the ribbons, ayway. Why would you even have them if you were gonna fight someone? She made her way a little closer. "Well, I know that running might not work, especially since there's no way they won't know what I look like."