RP:Rest For The Shifted

Part of the The End's Not Near Arc

Summary: Reginae seeks out Kreekitaka, King of the Uyeer, in her search for Muzo. The twisted, humorless hand of fate sought to bring all three of them together. Reginae suggests Kree ignore Muzo's request for amnesty on the grounds that it's a naga affair and should be handled privately, amount the naga. The Uyeer refuses, believing Muzo to be trustworthy and like-minded to this clan.

Gentle Sound Of Water

Kreekitaka wasn't going to make this difficult for anybody. The beach, as it happened, was where he was at present. Moving back and forth between the water and the sand, he was helping offload crates of material from a convoy of trilobites, alongside several of his underlings. See, Cenril had just been covered by a gigantic bubble shield recently to help keep out the machinations of a certain villain, and as such, it was now the safest place Kree could think of to place his main stockpile. Now where -precisely- in Cenril he was going to put it, he hadn't quite decided yet, but this felt like a good precautionary move. Thieves might be present in the city, but so would be uyeer soldiers--and between those two, the king would only have put money on one.

Reginae had heard about the insanity that struck Cenril’s shores, but to be frank, she had bigger snakes to find. The recent discovery in Larket surrounding Muzo’s work with the crown had given the Queen a bit of a complex. She needed answers as to why the single conscious mind she trusted had, in her humble opinion, betrayed her. Betrayed them. It overrode her thoughts of Alithrya, the need to find Muzo and shake him senseless. Then she focus; emotionless, void of regrets and doubts. She could move forward and concentrate on the ask of freeing her home from her uppity older sister. Just now, she’s kicking past the corpse littered Cenrilian beach to find the uyeer, shifted into the form of a male rogue. Clad in black and a merciless stare. His slicked back jet black hair was unruly and windswept when he fearlessly approached the king crab. “Oi!” He called, with no preamble about his presence, getting as close as any nearby soldiers would allow. “I need a word with you, if you are Kreekitaka.” It’s hard to not place him in a crowd. Her contact had given -very- specific details, including a strange speech pattern and grandiose appearance. What wasn’t grandiose about a giant crustacean? The male’s hazel eyes scan the crates with disinterest. Unless they housed some nagas, she couldn’t care less.

Muzo sits on the tattered remnants of a retired pier, fishing pole in hand and a bag of grubs beside him. Earnestly, he'd been here here for a good hour, now, watching the Uyeer offload whatever aquatic cargo they've hauled up from the deep. Kree, as always, was an unmistakable hulk of a creature, little different from when they'd first met on the bridge to this very city. Squat, jowly, and covered in hair, Muzo's chosen to wear the skin of an elderly dwarf, bulbous nose and all. A monk's robes compliment his portly figure, complete with a neatly shaved head and a long full beard of iron-colored hair. An eye patch covers his left eye, and perhaps this has hindered his quota? He's yet to bag a fish. No bother. He casts out again, prepared to wait. Prepare, that is, until a familiar rogue waltzes onto the scene, prompting a double take.

Kreekitaka placed his crate of whatever down once it was in the sand, and turned to face the male with a rattling of his paddles up and down. A soldier might move to intercept, but a gesture from the king had him instead continue with the crates. He crossed his arms and approached, not entirely taking a liking to the man's tone, but willing at least to help him out--everyone was on-edge following the attack, a slip-up in proper decorum was forgivable. "I am he," he said, nodding lightly. "An' you are...?" Sadly, distant dwarfs dallying on derelict docks don't get discovered deftly.

Reginae’s male form eyed the gestures, his shoulders slacking slightly with the modest response. Hmm. Not as bad as she thought. “I’m looking for someone. I heard that you might be able to help me. I’m an envoy of Alithrya.” Obviously she couldn’t divulge her true nature to this stranger. “I come on behalf of those that remain loyal to the memory of Queen Reginae.” She hated how foriegn her own name sounded with this male’s gruff tone. “I seek her - “ The male clears her throat, casts his hazel eyes out to the open ocean before speaking again. “Her Royal Scientist.” His tone is a touch sarcastic, like the real title she’d prefer was more poisoned. “I have direct orders, not from any other realm but for the nagas alone to find him. Muzo. Rumor has it you’ve worked together in the past. Have you seen or heard from him?”

Muzo blinks, rubs his eye, blinks again, then grabs his pole, untidily ravels the line in, and scampers onto the sand, his sandaled feet shuffling awkwardly over the sand, rather like one who still has his sea legs. Bait, rod, and tackle he deposits unceremoniously on the beach. With much hustle, bustle, huffing, and puffing, Muzo shuffles over toward crab and rogue alike. "Ah, ho, hey, ho," he waves a pudgy finger. "There now. Do pardon," winded, he pauses a few yards away from the scene, hands on his knees as he half-squats to catch his breath. "There now, hey... ah... you. Two there." The dwarf points in what he hopes in vaguely Regi and Kree's direction. "You're the, uhm. I need to talk to you."

Kreekitaka shifted his weight a little bit, considering the question and the tone in which it was asked. He liked to think he could read people. "NoTAH! a personoh fan, I imagine?" he asked, but continued before the other had the chance to respond. "Hm. As much as I wish I haDAH! seen him, recenTAH!yee I hear he has been busy esswhere w--oh for Hyu's sake." Tonight was a night for interruptions, it seemed. "Are you yooking for me, or HHHTHe human working for HHHTHe naga?"

Reginae’s male form turns to regard the dwarf who approached them. His lips are curled in a snarl along his right jaw line. His canine’s pointed enough to pass for fangs. His hazel eyes takes the dwarf in, his body tensely on edge. No dwarf had ever needed to talk to her, especially not in this form. Did this mortal have some news of Muzo? The rogue’s pupils dilate on the man and she waits with the single silent expectation of hearing why they’d been approached out of nowhere. His ebony brow was lofted on his sun tanned brow. “Well?”

Muzo is still in the process of catching his breath as he plods up to join them properly. "I know," he raises both hands, pointing an index finger squarely at the massive crustacean and the naga-turned-rogue alike, "both of you." Nodding in self-affirmation, he straightens his back, straightens his brown robes, and straightens his eyepatch. "Believe I'm looking for you," he inclines his head toward Kree, "and you're looking for me," then to Regi. Yes. That should sort things out nicely, shouldn't it? The rosy cheeked (and rosy nosed) seems to believe he's just cleared everything up perfectly. Hasn't he? "So now we can get down to business. Amnesty and terms and such." Eagerly he nods and twirls the index fingers of each hand over one another or, well, tries to, but mostly manages to flop the ends of his sleeves around. "Or have I gotten ahead of myself?

Kreekitaka didn't have a clue that nagas could shapeshift and was sort of left entirely confused by this statement. "Uh." What? The phrasing sounded a little familiar, but that was definitely not Muzo. Muzo was half-snake. And she was looking for Muzo. Ergo: "Perhaps you mishearDAH!. He is yooking for Muzo. A naga. You are noTAH! a naga." At least, not any sort of naga he'd ever seen before. Looked more like a dwarf. "I -can- offer amnesTAH!ee of a kinDAH!, however I am sure you unDAH!ersTAH!anDAH! I mus' have more information, sir...?" Dwarf hadn't given a name.

Reginae’s rogue lofts a brow at the fumbling dwarf. There’s something familiar about it. It takes his continued speech for it to piece together behind her shifted eyes. Quickly, her fangs jut through the male’s lips, mouth pulled back in a low hiss. Hands ball at his sides as, claws grow out of the male’s fingertips. The only thing that gives her pause in her pursuit is the existence of Kree and his many soldiers. She’d be easily outnumbered if she tried to do anything harmful to the suspicious male. The rogue’s posture becomes impossibly stiff. He’d shifted. Muzo had shifted. Now she’d seen all things in this realm that interested her. Death was on the horizon. Her world continued to shift upside down by this...cad. Liar! Liar! It pulses like a heartbeat through the back of her mind. “Why would you give amnesty to a self absorbed liar?” His gruff tone addresses Kree, aware that insult could be taken. Ah, but she’d heard. They had a kinship of sorts. Muzo had helped him recover from something. The rogue chuckles mirthlessly, letting his fingers slack at his sides, claws retracted. Still, he’s sneering. “I’d advise against it, Kreekitaka. Not that you know me but he is a naga and has crimes to answer for under our law. It might be best to just let us handle our own affairs, privately.” While he spoke with tact towards the Uyeer, his eyes were boring into the dwarf.

Muzo purses his lips, looking quietly away from Reginae's fearsome stare. He clears his throat and adjusts his collar. Tactful or no, these are very strong words. Muzo clears his guff dwarven throat. "She is correct in that I am a naga," working up his courage, he manages to look his fellow naga in the eye. What he sees there isn't... quite what he'd hoped. Well then. Muzo swallows and looks back up to Kree. "Had hoped we could reach a sensible accord. Would prefer to keep my options open and unhurried. Would also," his tone lowers, and he looks down at the sand, stern jawed as his arms cross over his rotund belly, "assert that I am neither self absorbed nor deceitful. Except in that, ah," his head cocks to one side as this occurs to him, "I have not appeared here as myself, well, yes, so excusably deceitful, perhaps. Pragmatically deceitful? Cunning? Covert?"

Kreekitaka had to take a moment to comprehend that. Hold on. That speech pattern really -did- sound like... and if... whaaaaaaa-- "Muzo?" Okay. This was Muzo. Which meant this was the world he lived in, now. "Crimes, you say?" Immediately, the king regained much of his regal demeanor, puffing himself up somewhat and rippling his paddles. "If HHHTHe crimes warranTAH! DAH!eaHHHTH or yong-TAH!erm imprisonmenTAH!, I am afraiDAH! iTAH! is noTAH! in my besTAH! interesTAH!s TAH!oo senDAH! him wiHHHTH you. Muzo, as I know him, is trusTAH!worHHHTHy enough, an' I have ofTAH! enough neeDAH! of his services HHHTHaTAH! Io gyaDAH!yee accepTAH! him among my own." He carefully avoided making this too personal. Wouldn't want the royalty thinking this was a friend looking out for another, despite it definitely being that as well. "You can consiDAH!er his senTAH!ence TAH!oo be exioh, if you wish." He looked between the two of them, gesturing with his claws. "I have no DAH!esire TAH!oo impeDAH! jusTAH!ice, however I aoso wish for his TAH!ayenTAH!s noTAH! TAH!oo be wasTAH!eDAH! or yosTAH!." The proposal seemed sensible enough to him.

Reginae forces a deep chuckle. “Glorified -excuses-.” He snaps, fangs still outlined against his lips. “All fancy words for ‘liar’,” the rogue adds with forced disinterest, arms crossed against the black fabric of his shirt while Kree defended Muzo’s intentions and character. She’s tempted to say something emotional but refrains, for the sake of whatever dignity she still possessed in the face of this betrayer. The male’s fractal gaze becomes momentarily azurite until he turns away. “Exile won’t be enough.” But, at least, she knew where to find him if she wanted to challenge Kreekitaka’s charge. And she did. Displeasure is written clearly on the human’s face as he scuffs and turns to walk away from both of them. “I’ll be sending word soon enough, King of the Uyeer. Do try not to fall in love with him. It didn’t end well for the last idiotic creature.” Before long, the rogue’s silhouette melts into the low clouds on the overcast evening and he’s out of sight.

Muzo scratches his chin as he continues flipping through an internal thesaurus, only to be shaken up from the depths again by continued accusations from the rogue-Regi. Not about to exacerbate the situation with quibbling, Muzo holds his replies, and it pays off. Kreekitaka's gracious offer has the dwarf's shoulders visibly slumping in relief, and Muzo sighs aloud. Well, this worked out astonishingly well, all things considered. "Deeply obliged," he nods eagerly, "and yes, believe she, er! Believe HE means what he says," the naga-dwarf quickly corrects himself, hoping Kree doesn't see anything revealing in the slip-up. Meanwhile, Muzo's eye follows Regi to the vanishing point. It is agony resisting the urge to run after her. "Believe I owe you a lengthy explanation, Mr. Kreekitaka."