|
Post by Jack on Jul 5, 2019 22:24:12 GMT -6
Elenore, hmm? Jack stared at the bird for a moment before realizing she wasn't quite sure what she was getting into. She had Kro stop behind her with the cart hooked up to him, the carcass of her Chiryma nestled in as well. It had been an accident, mostly, something had gotten loose and she had to defend herself, but Jack didn't know if this was the best idea. She'd never had one die on her before who couldn't immediately be resurrected at the Healer's Temple, she was a little out of her league. She'd been here before, a couple of times, though to make nodes and get a Tat-lung, mostly. She had never come to reanimate a dead animal, it seemed so... intriguing. She smiled a little, steeling herself for whatever was going to happen beyond the entrance, unhooked the cart from the Thundergug and started to pull it herself into the temple. The work was quiet, though she breathed heavily from the exertion, she didn't want to defile the temple with something unnatural, or at least more unnatural than what she was about to do in the first place. Looking ahead, she saw the cloaked man and nodded to him before letting the cart rest a respectful distance away. "Hello, my Chiryma was killed and couldn't be handled by the Healer's Temple. I was.... hoping you could help me," Jack said, bowing her head a little in deference to the man in front of her.
|
|
|
Post by NPC on Jul 5, 2019 22:41:47 GMT -6
Elenore provides a horrific noise of excitement, as she perches upon a brazier of blue flame against the wall. Curious and curios-er. She eyes the human for only a moment before looking at the cart with an obvious hunger. Below Elenore, a man stands, appearing to tend at a pit of similar flame, gazing over the top of it to the individual after a moment tending the flame. It was perhaps a bit difficult to get a read on him accurately from this angle and the bright unnatural light. It was almost as if he had realized that she was here before he probably should have been able to. The gaze could send shivers down the spine of a corpse; perhaps it even had before.
He steps around the flame to the side of it; perhaps to get a better glance at the individual? A gloved hand beckons, for a moment, after a flourished but somewhat... Abnormal grin. "Yes yes, an accident, I presume." Not a question, a statement. He looks directly into the eyes of the individual for a prolonged moment, without blinking. "Well well, let us see it. The body of course." A bit of a head tilt, and then a touch to his chin, curiously. "You brought a payment." He says. He wasn't sure what could have happened to a creature where that 'Healer' could not guide the soul back into the body. Was the individual aware of the cost, and of the differences?
Elenore's bright eyes glint, and another noise is almost keened. She was watching the hands of the individual sharply, now. "Pay... Pay!" The screech is heard, almost a cackle, and then a softer, almost whine... "Pay." She tilts her head, watching. Waiting.
|
|
|
Post by Jack on Jul 7, 2019 11:12:34 GMT -6
Jack merely nodded before stepping aside, only after briefly touching the soft feathers on the corpse's belly. She sighed a little as she saw the deep claw marks down the Chiryma's side and shook her head a little. A leg was barely attached, the wings almost gone. It was a hard sight to see, but one she needed to remember for the rest of her days. Just in case things went south again for her or her animals.
Another nod and she held up a black coin that radiated color around it. Shifting her fingers, another gold coin was produced behind it, and she held them out for the man to take and do with as he pleased. "A black coin for the return, a gold for your troubles," she told him somberly. She wasn't bribing him, or at least she didn't think she was bribing him, but whether or not that was the case, she wasn't sure what to expect from things just yet.
|
|
|
Post by NPC on Jul 7, 2019 16:47:17 GMT -6
The man's gloved hand fell to the poor misadventured creature, not even shy about touching the nearly dangling leg, lifting up what was left of those wings, and sticking almost his entire gloved hand into those deep claw markings. His eyes were almost blank; his expression far more nonchalant than could be expected. A smile worms his way to his face. "What a glorious accident!" The man proclaims, as if speaking to a crowd. Perhaps he was? "What was it, it had to be something quite large." It wasn't every day that he got to see the aftermath of such a brutal accident.
As soon as the black coin was produced; Elenore produced such a shrill cackle that one could hear it echoed in the temple itself; far beyond the curtain that obscured what lay within. A little late; the cacophony of noise smoothed out; but it almost sounded... Like it wasn't quite right for an echo of her voice. During that time; she swooped down from her brazier perch, razor-sharp claws closing around the coins sharply. The reversed toes within their circular middles and the other ones around them. The creature flew so close to the shudder of the flaming pit's fire that she should have been burnt; only to release the coins to it, POP POP! "PAY!" She shrieked, and this time landed a bit closer, on another brazier, closer to the corpse. Her hungry eyes stared at it. "What? What? Pay? What?" She was tilting her head this way and that.
The individual grinned at her, perhaps a bit too wide? It didn't travel all the way up to his eyes. "Yes, that will do, the offering will do. Now..." He said, feeling the creature a bit more through the gloves, practically toying with the joints and then trying to move the neck. "Tell me, about this one. I need to know more about them; before I perform the process." Most folks waxed poetic for this part, but he seemed to be enjoying 'testing' the corpse.
|
|
|
Post by Jack on Jul 7, 2019 17:06:33 GMT -6
Barely flinching when the payment was taken, she knew the bird wasn't going to harm her without having some consequences against herself. She smiled a little as the man played with the corpse, she wasn't sure how the Chiryma would have liked this messing with her, but that was fine, she wasn't there for the moment at least, and that was what mattered. She would come back, maybe better than ever, she really didn't know though. Maybe this was a mistake... But Jack didn't look back, she couldn't afford to second guess herself when it came to things like this.
"She's a protector, a mother. She adopts all the babies in the Kennel and helps them out, whether they're hers or not. Well, she's never had any of her own, honestly, but she acts like they're all hers. She's very... defensive, and that's how she died, protecting one of the babies, giving her life for theirs," she told him, tilting her head and not trying to give him a novel of what she had been like, "But she was always rather delicate in her fierceness, like a fire about to go out."
|
|
|
Post by NPC on Jul 7, 2019 17:22:30 GMT -6
The man couldn't help but be interested in the fact that she had smiled at his ministrations of the corpse. That was certainly a nonstandard reaction. Most of the desperate individuals ignored it at best, and he'd even had a few more... Argumentative individuals about such things. No matter; the Temple was the only place that could do this, after all. "Ah, a mother's love." His voice twisted on the last word. Elenore inched forward as much as she could, and repeated out in an eerily similar amount; "Lo-ove." In that same twisted tonality.
"Well well well-" He started, dropping the limb that he had been holding. "You must know that a sacrifice is required for our process. What do you think she, or you of course; would be willing to... Leave Behind." He said, turning more toward the curtained area and for the first time, away from the corpse. "The corpse is usable, but it is in poor condition, poor condition indeed." Then he tilted his head oddly, as if he was listening to something... Beyond the curtain. "Ah yes, and a boon. Request a boon for her sacrifice." He said, eyes focused on the curtain beyond the flame pit.
"What... Pay?" Elenore almost whined. If the fact that the corpse was a fellow avian was bothering her, she did not show such a thing. "Flesh? Flesh!" She looks ready to descend, leaned far forward on the perch.
|
|
|
Post by Jack on Jul 7, 2019 20:32:48 GMT -6
A small chuckle came from her, some people didn't understand it, and she didn't fully understand it either, not until she became a mother in the future, if she ever did that was. She tilted her head, looking over the Chiryma for a moment as she tried to figure out what would work best. "Her wings can be taken, she couldn't use them in the first place anyway so it's not like she'll mind I think. And her throat. She's never been all that vocal, so that won't be missed either. Please though, could you repair her legs somehow? She loves to run, always has, and I don't think I could take that away from her," Jack told him as she considered the corpse in front of her. The giant claw marks on her side were hard to see, but the woman was fine with whatever had to be done.
And a boon... "She needs to be quick on her feet so she can get in the attacks quicker if she needs to defend. To pick up what she's guarding and take it away to safety rather quickly, I think," she ended with a nod.
|
|
|
Post by NPC on Jul 7, 2019 20:46:09 GMT -6
Ah yes, that was what they needed. The man nods, turning back to survey the corpse before nodding. There wasn't much flesh on a chiryma. "Her legs are in very bad shape. We will try to... Repair those. They may not come back completely fleshed out, so to speak, but she should be able to run." His voice was a bit more somber now. "Neck and wings, of course, there are not much to wings at all. More flesh will need to be taken since the wings are small; perhaps the smallest tad off of the belly?" He reasoned, but it wasn't a question, more of... Thinking. He would come up with some way to retrieve the needed flesh for the offering of course.
He nodded gravely. "Speed we can do, certainly; though it is difficult to do with lessened musculature. No matter-" He spoke of it so clinically for a moment, and then more informally. "I will take the corpse now, you will need to go. In a few weeks; I will send for you, and you will return for your beloved..." He didn't even know the creature's name. "Mother." He said, simply. Then, he ascends the steps, and pulls back the curtain. Something from beyond emanated, it would make anyone's skin crawl, save for the man perhaps. Beyond, many preserved corpses were stacked, neatly on all sides, carefully. Thousands of dulled eyes glinted the light of the blue flare in a grizzly spectacle.
There was something sinister about this place.
"Go." He said, simply. However, a rumble emanated from behind him, like a deep primal feeling more than a noise altogether. Go.
Elenore looks wistfully at the corpse below, undoubtedly at those dulled eyes, before flying out over the top of the human's head. "GO go GO!" She shrieked, leading the way.
|
|
|
Post by Jack on Jul 7, 2019 21:01:47 GMT -6
Giving a nod, the woman also gave half of a bow before turning to leave, eyes lingering on the corpse for a moment before she paused and glanced over her shoulder, "Thank you, I'll wait for your message then." She figured that was a given, but it would be strange for the silent Chiryma to be missing from the Kennel for so long. It had taken her awhile to decide to do this after the Healer's couldn't do anything for her, much like her own mangled leg that had been replaced not long ago. Jack smiled a little, she would be like her she figured with another little nod. She left as Elenore flew over her head, wondering what she had truly done to get this done to her Chiryma, and if this had been the best choice, or if she should have let her be in death for forever now that her job had been done.
|
|
Darky
Flea Market Artist
Veritas et Aequitas
Posts: 1,268
|
Post by Darky on Sept 26, 2019 16:04:38 GMT -6
The first is a shriek, a shrill call in the middle of the market, catching you off-guard as the howl seemed so very unearthly. The bird perched on the awning of a nearby market stall, yet no-one else seemed to give it any mind. They had learned Not To. Not their business, not their business. The bird made eye contact and a low, rumbling, ominous, "Come.. come.. come.." Off she fluttered, to the next post, again calling and calling and enticing and enticing. Closer and closer she beckoned and eventually, close enough that the head seemed to reach out in welcome of a scratch, before sharply snapping at the fingers, just a little bit of blood drawn before the izer flutters away again in a mocking cackle. You learn to keep your distance then, but not too far. She leads you back, back to the crossroads, back to the Temple. Back to the Temple. And then, up, up, up those stairs, to where the brazier flickers in sickly flames at the centre of the room. Elenore lands on an awning above, shrieking in delight, "Master! Master!"
Behind the brazier the hooded man sits on a stone chair, flickering flames covering most of him from view, but he raises a hand from his lap to swing a dismissive wave at the izer, annoyed. Then, his eyes rise up to see you across and a smile creeps in, "Ah, there you are.." The hand lowers to pet something on the lap and his head tilts the slightest bit. "You are here for your creature, yes? Well, I shall not hold you long." The flicker of the flames in the brazier seem to shift and suddenly a beaked head rises into view from behind it. When the man stands, so does the rest of the chiryma from where it had been resting, circled around the chair. The priest's gloved hand gently pets the battered beak, almost affectionately, "Behold.. a mother's love.. undying." There's a chuckle, one which the izer gladly joins in on in her louder shrieks.
The chiryma stands to full height, bony feet clacking against the stone floor as ghost-flame flickers all along its body not unlike the brazier. Transparent veins circle and entwine around rotten gut and tarnished bone, filled with faintly iridescent greenish liquid. Though the movement of the chiryma is certainly a lot louder now, bone grinding against bone, it appears mobile and, above all, standing on its own. "It took a bit to figure out," the man lets go of the creature, "Most come so very fresh. Muscles still tense, intact. But I found a way, I did. To add a little bit more, you need to take a little bit.. more.." At a gesture, the creature moves forwards, towards you. "She will run. She will watch. And above all, she will most certainly make sure to take the young first.." the smile at the end could slice oranges.
"Take them! Take them!" Elenore shrieks, cackling, before taking flight in a flurry of feathers.
------------
NEW STATS ARE AS FOLLOWS
|
|