"Ky, this is Jerica," Sera said, standing beside her.
"The Imperial need for control is so desperate because it is so unnatural. Tyranny requires constant effort. It breaks, it leaks. Authority is brittle. Oppression is the mask of fear. Remember that." -Karis Nemik
From the way this girl — Ky — was looking at her, Jerica knew that the girl knew exactly who she was. This wasn’t the first, and Jerica sure it wouldn’t be the last, time that people panicked over her very presence. Whether she did anything threatening or not. And it stung every single time. Still, if this was a Loquitur, which Jerica was pretty sure she was given what Rickard said, she needed to soothe her. Somehow. “Um… hi?”
“Hi,” Ky squeaked, voice small and terrified.
Jerica was so perplexed by this girl. She didn’t look like Ash. Which means she figured she didn’t look like Loquitur, either. It must be the adopted girl. But it was confusing because the person she looked like— “You look like Rek.”
"u and rina are systematically watering down the grammar of yws" - Atticus "From the fish mother to the fish death god." - lehmanf "A fish stole my identity. I blame shady" - Omni [they/he]
"The Imperial need for control is so desperate because it is so unnatural. Tyranny requires constant effort. It breaks, it leaks. Authority is brittle. Oppression is the mask of fear. Remember that." -Karis Nemik
(Yep! But there can be freaky instances where two/three are identical and one/two are fraternal (non-identical) which is what I did with Jerica when I was a dumb teen lol the fourth sister Sadie and Ky are identical, but Rana and Jer are fraternal. Rana still looks pretty similar to their paternal lineage but Jerica ended up looking like their mom where the other girls + Rek + uncles look a lot more like their shared paternal lineages)
“T-thank you?” Ky managed weakly, trying to resist the urge to flee. Fat chance that would save her even if she tried it. Jerica was a far, far better assassin than the ones that’d come after her at the ceremony. And Zander wasn’t here this time to save her.
“I’m not going to hurt you.” Jerica still hadn’t managed to get the tongue of her sword belt slid through the buckle and reached down slowly with her left hand to undo the clasp then held on to the buckle for the sheath to slide to the ground without dropping too fast. Then she let go and stepped to the side, further away from both it and Ky. “Promise.”
Ky looked at the sword, then at Jerica, still fearful. Assassins didn’t need swords. Jerica was the weapon. They both knew it. Why was she trying to make Ky lower her guard?
“Are you from the South?” Jerica asked.
Ky nodded miserably.
“Rhaebaki?”
“No ma’am,” she squeaked.
Jerica hummed thoughtfully. “Well do you have any relatives from Rhaebaki?”
“No ma’am,” Ky said weakly.
“Hm… well it’s really weird how much you look like my cousin.”
"u and rina are systematically watering down the grammar of yws" - Atticus "From the fish mother to the fish death god." - lehmanf "A fish stole my identity. I blame shady" - Omni [they/he]
Sera's brow furrowed, and she glanced over her shoulder. She was wary of leaving them alone; she'd stay here for now. And Rickard couldn't fetch Gaius or Tomhas.
"The Imperial need for control is so desperate because it is so unnatural. Tyranny requires constant effort. It breaks, it leaks. Authority is brittle. Oppression is the mask of fear. Remember that." -Karis Nemik
(Yii ^^ I may end up playing around with that a bit more honestly. I just always envisioned Jerica with black hair for some reason and Rana blond and never could visualize Sadie until I recently yeeted her into an RP and decided there needed to be some semblance between them lol)
“That’s what he said,” Ky agreed with a nod.
“Who?” Jerica furrowed her brow. “You met Rek?”
“N-no ma’am!” Gods. What was Ky doing? Referring to ghosts in front of them.
Jerica blinked, getting even more confused. “Aren’t you a Loquitur?”
Ky nodded fearfully.
“I’m not a ma’am, then,” she said. “You’re just as noble as I am.”
Ky’s eyes went even wider.
"u and rina are systematically watering down the grammar of yws" - Atticus "From the fish mother to the fish death god." - lehmanf "A fish stole my identity. I blame shady" - Omni [they/he]
"The Imperial need for control is so desperate because it is so unnatural. Tyranny requires constant effort. It breaks, it leaks. Authority is brittle. Oppression is the mask of fear. Remember that." -Karis Nemik
(Haha the eternal struggle) (Tho it feels justified tbh. My maternal grandma has hella strong genetics. I am almost identical to my sister even tho she’s 10 years older than me. Her daughter looks super similar to both of us. We both look like our mom, and my little brother does as well. And most of my aunts/uncle on their side and their kids all look like my maternal grandmother too. And then there’s my other sister who looks nothing like any of us and vaguely resembles my dad but not even then fully. It’s the weirdest thing) (and the stranger thing is I can’t even consider the very, very, very tiny possibility of infidelity since the rest of us look like my mom not our dad so in theory my sister should look like us too lol)
“Yes m—“ Ky nodded.
The girl looked like she was going to have an aneurysm. Jerica took another step backward. And here she’d thought traveling thousands of miles away would save her from being viewed as an absolute monstrosity. But it clearly didn’t.
“Well… um…” this was awkward. Jerica didn’t know what to say. “I… would say it’s nice to meet you… but um… it seems like I’m upsetting you.” She dipped her head to the girl. “So… perhaps I should go back to the barracks now?” She glanced at Sera.
"u and rina are systematically watering down the grammar of yws" - Atticus "From the fish mother to the fish death god." - lehmanf "A fish stole my identity. I blame shady" - Omni [they/he]
(That is very strange My siblings and I all look pretty similar and we have a pretty solid blend of both sides but I'm often mistaken for my aunt)
Sera thought for a moment. "I suppose so. I'll walk you back."
"The Imperial need for control is so desperate because it is so unnatural. Tyranny requires constant effort. It breaks, it leaks. Authority is brittle. Oppression is the mask of fear. Remember that." -Karis Nemik
(Interesting haha I often got mistaken for my sister growing up which always infuriated me as a kid haha like my moms friends who hadn’t seen her in forever would be like “little ___! You’ve gotten so big!!” And it’s like bish she’s ten years older than me it’d be a problem if she looked like a big nine-year-old at nineteen lol but then she had a kid and everyone said she looked like me and it was like heheh karma)(and the funniest part about it all is my niece decided to call me ugly a few years ago — just an off handed mean comment by a little kid, you know how it is, she’s not like it at baseline — but I was like lmao bro you look just like me what a self-own and she got SO mad xD) (There was another day that cracks me up to this day lol my sister is really high up in a bank. Like I think she’s like third in command or something. Very, very influential and has authority over most of the employees in the bank. I do my banking there. I went walking into one of the branches one day close to where I live, which is not the branch my sister usually works from, and the employees like leapt to their feet panicked and I was like …? And they then tell me they thought I was my sister and they didn’t know what they’d done wrong to get a surprise visit from her. Like damn sis what you do to these tellers hahaha)
“Okay.” Jerica dipped her head and took a step in that direction, but glanced back at Sera. “Could you grab, my uh…” she gestured at the sword vague. She didn’t want to scare Ky by picking it up herself.
"u and rina are systematically watering down the grammar of yws" - Atticus "From the fish mother to the fish death god." - lehmanf "A fish stole my identity. I blame shady" - Omni [they/he]
"Certainly." She took up the sword and offered it to her.
"The Imperial need for control is so desperate because it is so unnatural. Tyranny requires constant effort. It breaks, it leaks. Authority is brittle. Oppression is the mask of fear. Remember that." -Karis Nemik
“Thanks.” Jerica nodded to her and took the sword, holding it by her side upside down and backwards so it’d be obvious she couldn’t draw it quickly. She took another step backward and glanced back at Ky. Why did this girl look so much like her family? It didn’t make sense. She nodded to her then turned and started down the hall. She wasn’t good at social situations like this.
"u and rina are systematically watering down the grammar of yws" - Atticus "From the fish mother to the fish death god." - lehmanf "A fish stole my identity. I blame shady" - Omni [they/he]
Sera followed after her, glancing at Rickard, who gave a little wave and a nod.
"The Imperial need for control is so desperate because it is so unnatural. Tyranny requires constant effort. It breaks, it leaks. Authority is brittle. Oppression is the mask of fear. Remember that." -Karis Nemik
Ky turned the opposite direction and started walking away quickly.
"u and rina are systematically watering down the grammar of yws" - Atticus "From the fish mother to the fish death god." - lehmanf "A fish stole my identity. I blame shady" - Omni [they/he]
"The Imperial need for control is so desperate because it is so unnatural. Tyranny requires constant effort. It breaks, it leaks. Authority is brittle. Oppression is the mask of fear. Remember that." -Karis Nemik
