You wanna get ahead?

[breaksthecuties]

Ariane Emory, Ari to those that knew her well, was a busy woman. When the call had come that Khamja were holding a meeting she nearly ignored it. She didn't attend Khamja's concerns often; they were a sideline, a way to keep an ear to the ground for rumblings in the distance. When you ran such a high profile laboratory complex as Reseune, it helped to know what was going on in the outside world. The shifts in politics might not impact science, but they could impact things like funding, or where those holding the purse strings wanted you to direct your attention.

The actual day of the meeting, however, had fallen into a gap in her schedule. It was a convenient gap, all the more convenient because of what she expected the meeting would be about. Khamja liked to keep its fingers in multiple pies, and the ongoing tension between Niflheim and Lucis was the bigger concern within Niflheim, but whisperings of the outbreak of war on the lowerworld of Spira had reached even there.

Galbadia had taken a Gotei Captain hostage on false charges, and said Gotei Captain happened to be one of the two resident Captains in Archades. One was the lead scientist at Draklor, the other was supposedly a kindly, benevolent figure that had influence in Archadian upper echelons. Ari had her doubts about the kindly and benevolent part; no one rose to that sort of position by being nice, but it was the common rhetoric.

She'd taken the journey time to educate herself on the political situation, and the individuals involved. Galbadia and the Archadian Empire had tense relations. Politically speaking, they'd been eyeballing each other for some time. Galbadia's military were highly effective. If they weren't they'd be an Archadian territory by now. Their remit thus far seemed to have been defensive, but now they'd taken an action that was distinctly offensive.

And curious. Arresting someone whose role lent them diplomatic immunity and a pass to cross borders in the pursuit of their duty was treacherous ground to walk. There had to be some reason other than mere trespass. Possibly, they believed he'd been spying, but that seemed like very dangerous accusations to make right now.

There were people in Khamja whose entire reason for existing was the sourcing of information that couldn't be obtained by other means. That was why Ari had gone to the effort of attending. It was likely Khamja knew more about what was taking place than any single given side of the affair right now.

Her two personal azi accompanied her. She rarely went anywhere without them. They were bodyguards, but they were also companions; people she could trust to listen and retain information without spilling it to undesirable ears. There had been no reason not to bring them.

Ari had been to Khamja's Desert Palace only once before, some years ago. It had been a brief visit for the purposes of her induction into Khamja's ranks. Still, some memories sparked along the way as they moved from the airship port to the main entrance. She remembered the main entrance, and it, it seemed, remembered her, opening to a touch of a glyph. It was a magical defence system. Ari couldn't say she approved. She much preferred more high tech methods of protecting information. Passwords and retina scans were less prone to failure over the course of time.

Though this would have been put in place by Kuja, who she remembered was rather proud of his ability as a mage. Perhaps he was confident the wards would last, or perhaps he carefully reapplied them on a regular basis. It was a complicated bit of magic, she had to grant him that.

The first entrance took them into a corridor, and beyond that lay another entrance. Catlin and Florian were probably working the Room in their heads already; a bottleneck like this would have them on guard. The next entrance opened out into a much larger hall, expensively decorated and, Ari had to admit, a little grander than she remembered.

The place also thronged with the reiatsu of people. It certainly hadn't been this well occupied the last time she'd been here.

Comments

[gracefuldahlia]

Marluxia saw little point in being early. Not to this, at least. They'd already met and scoped out the bubbling cauldron of Khamja members that had come to attend.

A new one arrived just as Marluxia was preparing to head for the meeting. Someone arriving at the last minute, no doubt. There had also been someone yesterday that Marluxia had yet to meet. That presented a whole two unknown quantities in the meeting. Enough to make him curious, but not enough to make him wary.

Lumi, he expected, was going to be invisibly armed to the teeth, so neither of them had much to be concerned about.

When he got to the designated meeting room he was almost pleasantly surprised by the fact that reiatsu wasn't being flashed about. It was a typical way to posture, he'd found, but right now people seemed content to simply observe each other as they settled off into their little groups. Kadaj, Vexen, and Zexion had gathered together, an unlikely trio. Hojo was smoking, and Integra, someone Marluxia hadn't been a hundred percent sure of the gender of when they'd first met, looked as if she was considering joining him. Her ill trained lapdog lurked at the back, one eye on his master without openly appearing to be watching her.

Kreeth hung back from the crowd, as did L who was probably watching everything and taking notes. Tyki and Road were here, too. They might end up cracking a window for a smoker's corner before long if the meeting didn't start soon.

The newcomer was plain to see. A stern looking woman in plain clothes, flanked by two bodyguards, and they were definitely bodyguards. They had that attentiveness to them.

He glanced towards Lumi. Doubtless he was sizing them up himself, but there wasn't anyone here that might actually pose a threat. For now, anyway, and not to Lumi, at least.

[thesilentstorm]

Lumi was, of course, sizing them up.

He'd first clocked Alucard, the one he considered to be the most dangerous of all the hostile forces in the room. It wasn't that people like Kadaj and Even weren't thoroughly dangerous, it was just that they weren't as openly psychotic as Alucard seemed to be.

He suspected that many of those in the room considered him to be the most dangerous person in it. Those who knew him tended to fear him, in spite of having never been given a demonstration of his abilities and those who didn't know him were made rightly nervous by his demeanor and lack of reiatsu.

He looked at Marluxia when he glanced at him, catching his eye for a moment. He thought they were bodyguards too, that was without doubt. If anybody was feeling nervous about them, it would be their demeanor too. The exceptionally calm and observant tended to put people on edge.

Lumi didn't say anything. He didn't really need to. They had that way about things. Entire conversations could pass between them without a single word said.

[shieldoftheprince]

Gladio headed for the hall with Ignis.

He hadn't wanted to be early, but Ignis had insisted on not being late. Gladio hadn't given much of a care for politeness, but being late was too unbelievably rude for for Ignis to contemplate, so they'd left it as late as it was safe to leave it and hoped they wouldn't be some of the first.

Observing and watching everyone in a room together could prove useful, especially depending on how everything could play out, watch the watchers and see who paid attention to who... but there'd be time enough for that. What he didn't want was to walk in too early and be watched by a room full of predatory eyes.

He watched Marluxia and Lumi enter as he walked down the stairs.

"We're not that late," he said, pointing.

[thatsit]

"Good," replied Ignis. He hadn't expected that they would be, but he hadn't wanted to leave it any longer. Of all the people that would be in attendance, they were the only ones that were merely representatives of someone else. It wouldn't do for them to arrive last, as if they were uninterested.

Although Gladio had a good point about not wanting to arrive first, either.

"Will you be playing dumb bodyguard again?" he asked, quietly, just before they entered the room. Gladio had been content to let Ignis do most of the schmoozing up to now, unless his charms had been needed against certain female residents.

Ignis had done his best in the run up to the meeting. Neliel's absence had allowed him to step in and take over. The quickest way to men's hearts was through their stomachs, whether that was the variety that went up and under the ribs or the more disarming sort that involved tantalising the tastebuds.

Forge alliances. Take note of who is there. Gather information. Ignis had done as much as he could prior to the meeting, and now he was going to have to do a lot of listening and watching. Who might be useful to Lucis? Who might be inclined to be useful to Lucis?

Inside the room he saw, many, many faces he knew. Hojo was a rare presence Ignis had seen only in passing, and L was yet rarer still, although his fondness for confections had brought him across Ignis's path. The Noah were already present. Sir Integra looked a mix of contemptuous and bored.

Ignis hadn't had many encounters with Even, or Ienzo, although he was aware of them. Kadaj had warmed since their initial meeting, a scared boy surrounded by sharks that was trying to survive without getting bitten.

He felt his breath catch at the sight of someone flanked by two bodyguards dressed in black. He'd heard of azi. They were an insult to the Lucian crown; slaves that were only permitted to wear black. With their strangely neutral expressions and attractive faces, and the expert attentiveness to their charge, there was little question of what the two must be. Azi were raised to serve, and trained only for those purposes.

That raised the very important question of who exactly they were accompanying. There weren't many in the upper tiers of Niflheim society that were known to keep azi. Even fewer of those were female.

[lesstravelled]

Road gave a quiet giggle. She didn't much like seeing the world from down here on her own two feet, but it wasn't the best time for her to be sitting on Tyki's shoulders, either. On the bright side, it did make it easier for people to pass her over as unimportant.

She watched as the Lucians entered the room and came face to face with Ari and her bodyguards. "Do you think they know?" she asked, eyeing the two Lucians before casting her eyes around the rest of the room.

The weird one called L was sitting on a chair like she would. The difference was, Road did it to unnerve people, and because sitting normally was boring. Alucard was sitting back too, safely out of the way, but she could feel his eyes boring into her anyway.

She wasn't going to show that it bothered her.

[theheirapparent]

Arc ... was nervous.

He'd appealed to Kuja to allow him to join, something he wouldn't have dared to when his father was around. It was underhanded, being initiated into Clan Khamja while his father, the main blockade to his potential for becoming a member, was imprisoned, but there was no better time. All he'd needed was somebody to vouch for him, his potential to be of use to them, and he was in. He'd got it.

Part of him wished he'd been refused, especially with a meeting he was expected to attend, but it was too late for regrets now.

He could feel his heart beating in his chest and the blood in his ears rushed loud enough to drown out the strange silence emanating from the meeting room. Kuja had said that it was going to be held in the ballroom, but there was nothing coming from it. It was eerie. He knew Khamja weren't generally on good terms with one another, but for there to be that amount of quiet in the minutes before a meeting..? Surely he wasn't the first to arrive.

Surely.

The sound of heels clicking on the marble floor a short distance away distracted him from the oddness of the situation. He slowed his step, looking up to see who else was on their way.

The Jyllandi woman. He'd heard from a few of them that she was horrible, though that was putting it lightly. She was shorter than him, but definitely not short, and her face had the sort of harshness about it that suggested she was used to getting her way. Somebody had told him that she was Jyllandi nobility of some sort, but they'd not bothered to elaborate. She'd avoided most people, apparently. She hadn't been friendly to him, but she hadn't been unpleasant either. He gave her a nod, and walked in.

[thesilentstorm]

Lumi looked up as he heard two more sets of footsteps approach the door. He half turned, knowing there couldn't be many more people to come now. Gin, perhaps. Kuja. One of the Jyllandi visitors.

When the first person entered, he raised his eyebrows a fraction, though his expression didn't alter otherwise. He glanced at Marluxia and then back at the door, intending to direct his gaze to where he was looking. The quiet in the room made him disinclined to speak.

Aizen's son. Arc.

Had he been invited on account of his relation to Aizen? Was he an uninvited guest? It would be a brave and yet dangerous thing to be in a Clan Khamja meeting, though there were already a small handful of underlings in the room.

Out of the corner of his eye he watched the two black-clad bodyguards of the newly-arrived woman react a slightly as he did with every change to their gathered number. They were good. It seemed they didn't miss anything.

[intangibleman]

Tyki pulled a cigarette out of the silver case he carried and had one halfway to his mouth when the two newest additions walked in.

One of them was the Union noblewoman, a bitch so uptight it would be impossible to remove the stick she had up her arse with a highly trained team of professional potholers, and the other...

He smirked, a flash of white teeth showing from between dark lips.

"They planning a replacement, do you think?" He muttered in an undertone to Road, opting not to speak in Standard.

[cruciohappy]

Once this meeting was over and done with Bellatrix could return to her home, where the mudbloods and assorted filth knew their places. That was the only reason she was glad to be in the meeting.

A hume boy nodded at her as he passed. Bellatrix didn't favour him by returning the gesture. A nod was hardly an appropriate greeting.

She wrinkled her nose as she stepped into the ballroom. An Al Bhed and two Selkies stood together in one part, a pair of disgusting Selkies looked directly at her and the boy, one pink haired, one white. Integra Hellsing and her vile pet lingered. Two dark skinned mistants looked on as well.

The place was rife with them. Even the humes here weren't untainted. She could spot the lighter colouring on one with glasses that showed a mist mutation somewhere in his family tree, just like Integra.

A nasty little man in a white coat and an ill behaved boy perched on a chair were the other examples of pure hume blood in the room. It was disgusting, frankly. The lowerworld was beyond reprieve.

She drew herself up. The sooner she was out of this place, the better.

[lesstravelled]

Road perked up at the sight of Arc. Aizen's son, and eldest, wasn't as far as she knew a member.

"Maybe his daddy is going to rot in prison," she replied to Tyki, her voice quiet, but there was still the risk of it carrying in the quiet of the room.

[gracefuldahlia]

Marluxia looked to where Lumi's attention was drawn. The Jyllandi woman looked as if she'd walked into a filthy stables and wanted a word with the stablehand.

The interesting one was Arc. Marluxia raised an eyebrow. That was certainly unexpected. Had he joined, or been asked to sit in? They were going to be discussing his father, after all, but then, that didn't have to concern Arc, and didn't concern him any more than it would concern Refia.

[breaksthecuties]

The attention of the room turned, almost as one, towards the door. Ari turned with it, and felt a smile settling across her face. This journey had some unexpected benefits, then.

She fixed the young man with a charming smile. "You're an unfamiliar face," she said. "What's your name?" Judging by the curious reactions of so many others in the room, he wasn't an expected person to be joining the ranks.

[lawlietschiffer]

L had been one of the first to arrive in the ballroom, and he'd taken up his perch to watch the others come in. Who went and stood by who, who greeted who, it was potentially all interesting.

Aizen was the main topic on the meeting's agenda, but it was the byproducts of that which had summoned everyone. Lucis had seen an opportunity and sent an envoy, Niflheim had sent theirs. Other countries, with other political concerns were looking at the brewing tensions on Ivalice and looking for ways to profit.

L only wished he was the reason Aizen was locked away. He'd done what he could to get into the Galbadian systems and dig up information. D District prison was terribly secure, secure enough that L would have designed something similar himself. That was where Aizen currently was, they knew that. He wasn't the only member of Khamja currently residing there.

They kept dangerous people there. Obviously they suspected Aizen had done more than merely trespassed on their territory, but what they believed he'd done was a whole other matter. There was no way they could have held information on Aizen's activities unless it had come from within Khamja.

That was L's biggest concern. That, and the fact that the finger of suspicion for orchestrating a leak would fall on him.

As such, L knew where he believed the leak had originated. But proving it would be a different challenge.

"This meeting is for members," he said, addressing Arc, "you shouldn't be here without invitation."

The subject of whether underlings could stay was one he intended to let the rest of the clan sort out for itself. No one was going to tell Integra Hellsing to move Alucard, just as no one would get Ariane Emory to dismiss her azi.

They were waiting on Gin and Kuja, still, and then this could start.

[catlinandflorian]

Florian half-turned as the strange man in the back spoke.

Catlin, meanwhile, kept her eyes on the newcomer. He was young, bespectacled and tense. Catlin could see that in the set of his shoulders. He looked nervous, a situation not at all helped by the fact that he'd essentially just been asked to leave.

[hagsfiend]

Kreeth grinned.

She'd been around enough to know that the boy was Aizen's son. Some people had been so helpful as to comment on how alike the two were, age aside. Brown hair, brown eyes, apparent difficulty focusing on things in the distance without aid. It was helpful, really. She had no idea what Aizen looked like. She knew very little about him, save for the fact that he was imprisoned by some Ivalician country or other for ... as yet unknown reasons.

Oh, they were likely known by somebody there. That was the point of the meeting. It was almost exciting waiting for the information, but at the same time, knowing in advance would have given her more ... or less, reason for coming in the first place.

She eyed Aizen's son with interest, wondering what he'd do. Would he insist he had a place there due to his relation to the missing man..? Or leave quietly. After all, there weren't meant to be underlings present, but there were certainly a handful there.

[theheirapparent]

That happened faster than expected.

And from L, too. L had a problem with his father, Arc knew that. He'd be surprised if L wasn't the entire reason that he was locked up. He wasn't completely sure why they didn't like each other, but given that his father was a sneaky bastard who pretended to be nice, and L was a sneaky bastard who didn't, they probably just got on each others nerves generally. If there was anything deeper... well. That might just come out.

It didn't matter, though. It rankled that the one person who displayed open hostility to his father was the one who had opened his mouth about his being there. He narrowed his eyes.

"I don't need an invitation," he said, looking past the gathered others to L. "I joined the Clan."

[lawlietschiffer]

Arc Aizen had joined the clan. L hadn't been aware of that. Usually he did background checks on prospective members. Of course, with someone like Arc, they knew his background, so they wouldn't have bothered to call on L to check he was who he claimed.

While the cat was away the mice would play. Arc had joined in his father's absence. It didn't take a genius of L's calibre to work out that Sosuke Aizen might have disapproved of the appointment, but he wasn't around to voice objections, and so Arc had made his move.

"Who supported your bid?" he asked.

Whoever it was, they either had a bone to pick with Aizen, or didn't care if they upset him.

[thatsit]

Ignis watched the growing conversation. It didn't make much difference to himself and Gladio if this person, Ignis was vaguely aware of him as Aizen's son, had joined the clan or was merely sitting in as they were. That he'd joined was interesting, but not critical information.

The reaction to his announcing he'd joined was a little more interesting. It was as if the room had spied fresh meat. Was it because of who this boy was, or was it the entertainment value inherent to the situation? He'd walked into a room and declared his right to be there. A right that was his own, and not lent to him by his father's name.

It was difficult to tell who was looking at a potential new ally, and who was looking at a potential tool in their arsenal. And for some, he might be both.

Already the Nif with the azi was trying to worm her way in to his graces.

[joinmyreunion]

Kadaj eyed Arc.

He'd joined, had he? He folded his arms and shifted his weight, watching he conversation. He tried not to let it piss him off that others got to just walk into the clan, whether they'd walked in as prisoners like Ienzo, or of their own volition like Arc, but it still got under his skin.

Kadaj had been treated like a jumped up underling, was still a jumped up underling, but others got the respect membership should have lent to them from the start.

It bothered him a bit that Arc had walked in so easily, and it would have been because of who his dad was. He wanted to know, like L, who'd put him forward.

[lesstravelled]

Road grinned.

Baby Aizen had joined, had he? "Do you think he wants to play with the big boys?" she asked Tyki in Jyllandi, her eyes alight as she tapped a finger against her bottom lip.

His dad might be a Gotei Captain that was part of a nasty, underworld clan like Khamja on the side, but that didn't mean he was prepared for the rest of them. He'd just walked into a room full of snakes.

If he stepped on a tail he was going to get bitten.

[shoottokill]

Gin approached the ballroom on silent feet, suppressing his reiatsu to the point where it wouldn't be felt beyond those already gathered. It was lost in the noise, like the delicate sound of a pin dropping to the floor at a Blitzball match.

He stood in the doorway, not obscured, but not the centre of attention. He was good at that. He smiled at Arc's declaration, a response to L's question. To his credit, his voice didn't shake. Of course it had been L that had pressed him. Some of the others didn't know him, some of them wouldn't care, but L... Aizen's son being there, apparently uninvited ... L wouldn't have been able to resist sticking his oar in. It gave Gin the warm fuzzies, especially when he questioned Arc further.

That was when Gin stepped forward, hands hidden in the opposite sleeves, a smile cutting across his face like the fixed grin of a midgardsormr raised up to strike. If Arc had just stepped into a viper's nest, he didn't have much to worry about. The biggest snake in the writhing, venomous ball of hissing monsters was reared up behind him, tail rattling enough to warn the others off.

"Oh," Gin said, speaking just loud enough to be heard over the sound of his own footsteps. "That'd be me."

[theheirapparent]

Arc hadn't felt Gin approach. He hadn't heard him, either.

To his credit he didn't jump. Instead he fixed L with an expression every bit his father, saying nothing. Gin had said all that needed to be said. Instead he cocked his head to one side, just fractionally, a challenge for L to argue with him.

A challenge for anyone to dispute his right to be there.

[lawlietschiffer]

So it was Gin. Somehow that information both made the most sense, and presented the biggest surprise. There weren't many others who knew Arc well enough to have put him forward. Supporting someone's bid for membership meant putting one's own reputation on the line. Transgressions made by a new member could reflect badly on the person that had stood for them.

On the other hand, Gin should know perfectly well how the elder Aizen was likely to feel about the appointment. The two were friends, as well as allies, and cohorts.

Perhaps that was why Gin wasn't concerned about Aizen's disapproval. He was the most untouchable one here.

"His father won't be happy," L pointed out, simply. He spoke over Arc's head, to Gin directly.

[joinmyreunion]

Of course it was Gin.

Kadaj shifted his weight and tried not to be irritated. Gin was up to something. Gin was always up to something. Whether that something was smaller scale mischief like winding someone up, or whether it was something bigger you could never really tell. The best thing you could do with Gin was hope you weren't in his way.

And that he liked you enough not to be aiming for you.

Whether Gin was using Arc to do something right now, or he was just bolstering Arc in that weird, indirect way of his remained to be seen. Nothing Gin did was ever straightforward.

It might not even be about Arc and Aizen, in the end. They were just the obvious conclusions. Gin wasn't someone you wanted to play chess against.

[declaregamuza]

Nearly everyone was there. It was almost time.

Nel slipped in the doorway and stood to the side, her hands behind her back as if she was on duty. Functionally, she was. She might not be guarding the band of reprobates that made up Khamja, but she was here for work purposes.

She'd got back late last night, and it didn't feel as if she'd got enough sleep. The sight of Aizen in D District haunted her. She'd never seen him like that before. How much of his confidence and strength had been a front? He wouldn't have allowed himself to seem weak in front of any of them, but surely, after this long, he was feeling the effects?

She pushed the memory out of her head and concentrated on the room. No one was really standing together, they were accumulating in their little groups and pairs. Even, Ienzo, Kadaj. Ignis and Gladio. Lumi and Marluxia. A woman Nel didn't recognise and two dressed in black, flanking her like guards. Road and Tyki. Kreeth, and Hojo, and L, all off on their own.

She hoped whatever was going on with Arc at the moment, and the question of what Arc was doing in here burned in her mind, was enough to distract people from her presence.