Saturday, January 01, 2005

Twenty Two- Aggregati

I do not make a habit of "stalking" my targets, as you so unpleasantly put it. I merely study them. You wanted details- I provide them. For the price you are paying, you are entitled to more details than most.

He has black hair that reaches to the middle of his back; only the Azhdekhai have ever seen it unbound. At his most casual, he holds it back in a tail with a lacquered black and gold clip that was a gift from his Lord. In public, making official appearances as the Seventh's representative, he puts it up into two hundred very small braids and fixes them to his scalp in a tower with gold wire. The resulting effect resembles a sea anemone gone wrong. For classes and wandering around the cities, he usually ties it up into a bun to keep it out of his way. Don't look at me- or him- like that. It's a manly bun. If you saw him, you would have no doubts.

His seal, like all seals, originates between his eyes across the bridge of his nose. Unlike most seals, his extends across his nose and over his cheeks, rather than simply curving over his forehead and down his temples. The origin is shaped like a crown; this pattern is repeated in the center of his forehead and surrounded by stylized wings. The rest of his seal is a symmetrical lotus flower pattern that covers the rest of his face, his neck, shoulders, chest, and back. It tapers down to another crown and pair of wings directly above his navel, where it stops. He has a small lotus flower over each spinal ridge, and wings over his shoulder blades. All of the pattern loci are connected by vines and leaves, and each of the points on his seal is marked by a crown.

Different points are located in different areas of the body, depending on their purpose. His points are located on the bridge of his nose, the center of his forehead, his temples, the corners of his eyes, neck, chest, navel, shoulders, his shoulder blades, and in three places along his spine. The seal is symmetrical, so the third point, which is located on both temples, counts only as one point even though there are two loci.

The eleventh and twelf points are the ones on his chest and navel; they were added after his commissioning by the Azhdekhai. How? Sir, do I look like one of the Azhdekhai to you? I provide details, not Aggregate engineering degrees.

He has absolute control over his seal and can choose to manifest only part of it in a greeting. He can also alter it slightly; he can't completely remove any of the patterns, but he can shift them and turn them different colors. If his control slips, occasionally his loci will turn red anyway. His control very rarely slips.

He is not especially tall or imposing, and at first glance he doesn't seem particularly interesting. At second and third glance, however, you realize that his appearance is as close to a physical ideal as one can get. His build is average, his facial features fairly ordinary- black hair and dark brown eyes, straight nose, even mouth- but they are all placed in such a way as to be nearly perfect. Symmetry is incredibly important.

He is vain, and oftentimes cruel; all life but the Azhdekhai are inferior to him, and he likes to remind the world of this fact. As an Aggregate in the service of the Seventh, he has no peers. His pasttimes include planning wars, playing chess and other games of strategy, and killing things for the pleasure of the Seventh.

To her, there was nothing more pleasing than the sight of her favorite toy dressed only in the blood of his opponent. He occasionally forgets that humans have laws against senseless slaughter; he was not programmed to be polite or kind to humanity. However, to keep peace and to protect her toy from mobs, the Seventh installed a warning program into his eleventh point. If he kills too many people, it will momentarily stop his body functions.

"Too many" is an arbitrary number to the Seventh, and it changes according to her whim while she observes him. It seems to be any number between three and seventy-two. Aburame Vazini, like all Aggregati, is nothing more than an expensive and elaborate toy. He is, perhaps, the most perfectly crafted toy on the planet, but in the end, he is nothing more than a toy.

And toys are so easy to break, sometimes, sir. But that, thankfully, is not my job.

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