Board Thread:Roleplay Forums/@comment-25614524-20160530015912

Arika Kataka sat in the diner that was below her apartment. She had a bowl of some grainy gruel-like food in front of her, growing cold as she listened with rapt attention to the old man sitting across from her. Kataka’s blouse was only slightly more vibrant a blue than her wide joy filled eyes. Beside her were a pile of papers. Each one was a hand written flier. She had spent half the night working on them.

The old man’s hands waved up and down as he spoke, emphasizing his words, “That’s when the Komodo Rhino reared up over the councilor of the Fire nation. Don’t tell my wife this, but I just ran under there and tickled its rib cage with my old sword. To get its attention, you know. That Rhino jumped right over the councilor. It jumped so high it brought down a cloud with it. Those things are made of water you know,” The old man looked excited and leaned forward, “That councilor just froze right up and then started screaming. You’d think she was a tea kettle. Her voice was so high pitch every window in the buildings around that courtyard just fell into pieces! To this day I hear security insists it ain’t the Rhino’s you gotta watch out for, but wet Fire Benders!”

Kataka laughed appreciatively at his silliness, as she reminded herself to put him on her list of people to kill. It really was a shame in her opinion, but he simply had to die. He was part of the problem. She could let him live and enjoy his stories for a little while longer though. She had bigger targets in mind first.

The old man had launched into another story when three young men wearing gang colors came in. Kataka reached a hand out to touch the old man’s arm for a moment.

“I’m sorry, but my friends are here,” she said.

“Huh?” the old man turned around and saw the three. Unusually, he seemed happy to see them. “Boys!” he exclaimed, “It’s so good to see you again. I thank the spirits for the day you three took on watching over this old home of ours. It’s been so much more peaceful here. Sit down and have some breakfast on me!”

One of the men clapped the old man’s shoulder and sat down next to him, “Another time pops. We got work to do right now. What ya got for us, Lady Arika?”

She removed one of the papers up and showed it proudly with a smile. “I have fliers!” she sing-songed while waggling the paper.

The page was amateurishly made. At the top, it declared it to be The Soup for the Poor specialty kitchen event. In a month’s time, there would be a charity party for the poor. As a way to give back to the community, she was looking for volunteers to help serve soup to the needy and homeless. All potential volunteers were welcome to contact her for more information. Her home address was written in neat and perfect script at the bottom of the page, and the site for the event was written write next to it. Amazingly, they were nearly the same.

“They told me I could host this right here!, Kataka said excitedly, “I still need a couple bigger pots to make enough soup, but everything else is already ready!”

The man took the flier and looked at it like it was a two headed elephant. He held it upside down when he finally held it. Obviously, he couldn’t read. One of other men looked over his shoulder then smacked his head. He put the paper right with a muttered “Dummy.” Kataka took a moment to wonder about local education. She would add that investigation to her growing list.

“So, we get the word out to the wealthy kids. The ones who keep trying to join you guys to prove they’re tough. We DON’T tell their parents,” Kataka smiled mischievously, “cause then they’ll all do it. Mommy and Daddy can’t know they are out with the poor after all. That would mean they were being something they shouldn’t be. Best part is, we get to help out those less fortunate!”

The man winced at that last syllable, which had a much higher pitch. Kataka made a note of that. It could be useful later. The old man took one of the fliers and looked at it myopically.

“Are you sure it’s safe?” he asked.

“Of course. I mean, who’s going to know all those rich kids will be there? The poor? Like they’ll talk. Their parents? That’s the idea. No-one will mess with them, because no one is going to know they are there, till afterwards. Then the city will see that the rich do care! It’s a fool proof plan!”

All four men, the young and old, looked like they wanted to say something, but Kataka’s eager, excited face convinced them otherwise. The old man put the page back on the stack. Kataka pushed it all over to the young men.

“Can I count on you guys to make sure these get out?” she asked.

“Sure thing, Lady Arika,” one of the standing men said, taking the papers.

‘Yeah,” the sitter said, scooting out of his seat and getting up. He sounded odd when saying that, as if he were agreeing to something else. He was obviously fighting laughter as he said “We’ll get right on that.”

The man who smacked him hit his shoulder and jerked his head towards the door. He looked sullen and muttered something that sounded like either yeah fine or possibly something profane. Kataka wasn’t terribly sure. The three men started for the door.

Kataka waved her good byes with a sunny, “Thanks again guys! I’ll see you later!”

She settled back down into her seat and smiled at the old man, “Can you really get me a chance to meet a city counselor, Piro? I mean, I know you did all those things as security, but I find it hard to believe I could meet one!”

The old man looked uncomfortable for a moment. Something was eating at his mind, but the change of subject got his attention back on to his reminiscences. He started off again, “I tell you again young lady, they’ll never say no to Piro the Proud! Why all I have to do is walk in there and remind that poor excuse for a security chief about that time when he was a young pup in the squad.”

“What did he do?” Kataka asked breathlessly.

The old man launched into another long winded tale of his glorious youth when he helped to guard the council of nine. This time, he spoke of the younger members of the squads and their antics that he had to hide and sometimes clean up. Kataka’s smile only grew wider as he spoke. It helped to know who she would be meeting in there. Almost as much as the handful of fliers her boys were going to ‘accidentally’ pass to random gangs were. No-one would know about that but she and her boys though.

Listening to the old man go on about a troop of Monkey lizards in the barracks, Kataka thought to herself, ‘I’m going to miss him when I have this place burned down.’

((OOC: t all players; I will be starting this soup for the poor RP on June 17th, 2016. All are welcome to bring their characters, their gangs, their problems and If desired, their fights as well. My plans are what they are. Arika Kataka shall feed the poor.

That said, I invite everyone to rp a flier or word being received if they plan to (RSVP) have character(s) attend, that way it’s publically known who is coming. XD ))  