Description: Honoka and Oboro discuss plans for going back to school.
Not every cast member in the Twilight Star has their own trailer -- in fact, very few do. Honoka is one such person -- and there's a darn good reason for that. It's true that she's paranoid as heck, and it's also true that she keeps very few of her secret schemes documented or written down, but every so often, such as now, a large whiteboard she keeps on one wall of the trailer is filled with... some sort of writing. It's a code -- letters are positioned in different arrangements, with lines drawn between them. Honoka's been -busy- today.
Well, she'd been busy this /morning/ anyway. She's been sleeping till now, and it's on the cusp of 2pm. When you're basically running the show you can pretty much set your own schedule, after all. ... So she's still in her Ainu attush -- a softer garment similar to a yukata, but with slight differences. Best not to question her. She also tends not to -care-, since tonight's a show night and she'll have two hours of makeup and prep before the show.
And she's left the door wide open, as she's expecting company. A yo-yo snaps from her fingers as she looks over her whiteboard, occasionally pausing to scrub out letters with her attush sleeve and rewrite them in new locations. "Mmmmm."
A discreet knock, and then Oboro's head appears in the doorway, his expression--as it almost always is--nonthreatening and mild. It's his public face, not his showman's face, and it's perfect for blending into a crowd. Similarly offduty, he wears what could be considered his own native uniform--a black silk button-down and slacks, black polished shoes--he very much puts out a gangster air.
"You asked for me, Empress?" he asks, though of course he very much knows she did--showing proper deference. It was something implanted in him during his time trying to get into the Yakuza--and while they didn't earn that level of respect, well... Honoka certainly has.
Casually, he leans in the doorway, not deigning to enter the room just yet.
Aside from her eyes casting over to Oboro, Honoka doesn't move a muscle. Once she identifies Oboro, she offers a small smile. "C'mon inside."
That yo-yo snaps out, just once, before returning to her palm. She waits for Oboro to do as bidden -- one of her favorite qualities about the pro assassin -- at which point she flips a small switch. White noise generator: these trailers are paper thin after all.
"We're going back to school, Oboro. Gedo High school, to be precise." She sets the yo-yo down on the counter, then hops up onto it; if Oboro hasn't already seated himself, he's free to sit on the bed, or on the office chair she dragged out of somewhere or other. "You see, we've been assuming control of eastern Japan. Gangs... respect the Empress. And when they don't, of course, we pay them visits." She balls her fist for emphasis. "They understand violence. They fear it."
Crossing her legs -- it's a long attush she's wearing, so there's no risk to her modesty in such -- she gestures with open hands. "But this... school. It's a bunch of delinquents. A bunch of future crimelords in the making, if you follow me. Perfect targets for our... educational program, let's say."
She smiles broadly, her eyes narrowing predatorially. "But one man's already done all the work for us: Daigo Kazama. He's broken them. Yoked them to some crazed notion of order -- but he rules by violence already. All we have to do... is step in and take the reins."
Oboro slips into the trailer like a shadow, the door clicking shut behind him as quietly as a Hollywood silenced gun. He nods at the white noise generator, then leans his weight against the wall of the trailer nearest the door. His hands slide into his pockets.
He raises an eyebrow a fraction of an inch. Of course he's familiar with such schools--he was a product of them, or at least, of his school's delinquent population--and look how -he- turned out. "It seems as though it would be a ripe ground for finding..."
"...apprentices." A thought occurs to him then, and he shifts his head slightly.
"Unless you mean to turn them into shock troops? Cull the few who qualify... use the rest as a distraction?" Is Gedo High centrally-located enough for that to work? A telepathically-induced crime wave of teenagers?
"Both are intriguing possibilities, to be sure." Honoka bares her teeth in a grin, gesturing to the whiteboard beside her. "It... really depends on what's actually going on. Something interesting I found out through rumors is that there's actually a power play being made by... someone I don't know yet, already. They've replaced the Principal. So we may be forced to act fast, depending on what this... Principal decides to do." She gestures to the letter P on the board, right up top, with a bunch of question marks surrounding it.
"But... I'm also getting a sense of some -other- sort of action entirely. You see, Southtown... as I think I mentioned... is going to be a tough nut to crack. So at the very least... shock troops. Exactly as you say." Honoka steeples her fingertips before her. "I tried out one or two of them, just on a lark. Like putty in my hands... all I would need to do is supply them with an appropriate goal."
And this is when Honoka reaches for her diabolo wand. She uses it as a pointer, tapping it along each of the other letters, most of which are the letter O. "These... folks... here... I need to know more about them. Ideally, I need to know about -everyone- in the school. So I can know what their likes and dislikes are. So we can turn them appropriately."
Folding the diabolo wand on her lap, her smile fades as she goes into teacher mode. "Remember... for us to get the best out of them, we have to convince them. Brute-forcing them to fight means it only works once, and it'll backfire."
"Mmm," replies Oboro. If there are other forces at work, it might be best to pull back and take the leftovers. But... that isn't Honoka's style, really, is it?
"I can make some inquiries as to the nature of this President, but my contacts aren't the best for school-related things..."
He nods, hearing that the students were malleable. Honoka can be very persuasive, as he well knows, and these aren't people who would be particularly... strong against her talents.
"I wasn't thinking of brute-forcing them, per se..." He glances to one side, gathering his thoughts, then continues, "But the students who are... intractable, but malleable... perhaps all they need is to be pointed at something..."
"Indeed." She'd butter Oboro up, but she actually does respect his intuitive abilities -- and from time to time, she does want to hold off on the bitter condescension her Empress persona tends to impart upon her actions.
"Pointed... guided... instructed. I have a curious plan in mind, and... I want to know if you're up for it." A -choice?- "If you're not, you see, the entire plan could be in jeopardy. The plan is... we will enroll as transfer students." She holds up a finger. "There's already a plan underway by other factions at Taiyo, so we will initially be viewed with distrust." She points the diabolo wand to a 'MIKO' and... a blank line. "So our first job will be to gain the students' trust, by not standing out much, and... as we are in Gedo, we learn how to act as the Gedo students do. Hold your tongue, ask the basic questions, but don't pry... we're better than that." Another predatory grin.
"And... we will need aliases. And we shall not be talking to each other, as... we will be working opposite sides of the fence. Once established as their peers, I'll be attempting to bolster the local boss -- Daigo, if you recall -- while you will be seeking out and nurturing those who oppose him."
Folding the diabolo wand back onto her lap, she cocks her head to the side. "What do you think?"
"That is an... interesting idea. I haven't been a schoolkid in.." He pauses. "In a long time. I'm not sure I can really pass."
He smiles thinly. "But if they're -delinquents-, then they're my people... that will work in our favor," he says. He can manipulate delinquents. He knows how they think--he was a delinquent once. Now he's... a higher class of delinquent.
"I see. So... in essence, you want me to play the bad guy." He smiles a little more. "I suppose I can do that," he says, not quite mockingly--sardonically, really.
A lazy shrug. "I'm sure I can get them on our side. Even if you appear to not be on our side... And I'm sure they'll not need the same persuasion that Inazuma-san needed." He straightens his back.
"When do we start?"
'His' people, he says. Honoka does so enjoy talking with Oboro without having to play nice or put on airs. "Indeed, I had figured you would take well to the role. To attune yourself to the criminal mind, and steer their attention to exactly what we need. Subtlety... is going to be the critical strategy here. And once they're swaying with every bob and weave... then we 'agree to disagree' in such a fashion so that neither side feels they lose anything in the bargain." A sardonic smile, and two open palms: "Putty in our hands."
She taps her name, 'MIKO', on the board again. "I'll be Miko Kobayashi. Daigo thinks he teased my real name out of me, after rightly surmising that these anti-establishment punks wouldn't really take well to outright 'Imperial Rule,' so to speak. Proving he's got a good head on his shoulders, even though his feet walk the narrow path of so-called 'righteousness'." She hops off the counter, leafing through some index cards she had placed on the table, and then shrugging placidly, deciding instead to hand the cards to Oboro. "We start tomorrow. Trains head into town, I've already told Taka we're going on day trips for a while. You, my dear friend, just have to pick yourself out a name so we can run some paperwork." And on the cards are a list of names specifically picked out so as to not draw any attention whatsoever.
A name... a name. Hmm. A name. He nods. Snaps his fingers. "Kage Shimomura." That it's an actual name of an actual person, that he keeps to himself. Or at least, sort of an actual name of an actual person... someone he once knew, or thought he knew. His little joke.
"I suppose I will give you a couple of days to establish yourself first... I'll need to acquire documents and the like as well." He pushes off the wall and muses.
"I should start making my preparations."
"That sounds fine. And... staggering our entrances is an excellent idea. It... may be a bit tenuous to balance schedules with performances, but... I'm not intending this to last terribly long." She chuckles faintly, nodding her head in approval. "That is all, Oboro. I'm looking forward to this next phase."
Log created on 21:24:45 11/19/2014 by Vuong, and last modified on 00:11:40 11/20/2014.