In the Name of Science!

[DragonSong]

"No really, I'm...I'm fine--"

Ally tried to fight down another yawn, blinking determinedly in an effort to force her eyes open fully. By the time she'd managed to pull herself together, Samuel had already gone back upstairs.

She glanced around and another wave of exhaustion washed over her. She rubbed at her eyes. Stay awake, stay awake...

It wasn't that she didn't trust Samuel, exactly--okay, yes. It was that. But...well, he had helped her, and he'd protected her out in the forest. Maybe she could just...close her eyes for a second...

Her head lulled back as her eyes fluttered closed. Just for a few minutes...

[Kingfisher]

The small stand for the alchemic took almost no time and before long the host was returning.  He soon found the girl where he had left her; it seemed Allaeya had slumped down against the wall, unable to remain standing as sleep took her.

There was a brief dilemma regarding his next choice, but the assassin crouched down, scooping her up to carry the girl upstairs.  She would be more comfortable there in the long run...but really, it would give him greater security as he rifled through her grimoire.  After all, that was his reward for helping her, regardless of the dragon's opinion of him.

If she woke, she would find herself laying across a settee, Samuel having crept downstairs to look over the ancient work...

[DragonSong]

Ally stirred slightly when Samuel lifted her, but she didn't wake. She murmured sleepily as he placed her on the settee--possible something about formulas, but it was too indistinct to make out--and curled up a little tighter, one hand under her cheek.



She wasn't sure how much later it was when she finally next opened her eyes. Groggy, she pushed herself up into a semi-seated position and looked around, still frowning sleepily. Then:

"Oh!"

She suddenly scrambled to her feet, abruptly more awake--though not awake enough to avoid stumbling as she moved toward the window, intending to check on her solution.

[Kingfisher]

It had been nearly two and half hours - give or take; Samuel did not have space in his home for a chronometer - since the assassin began to transcribe notes from the borrowed grimoire when the sound of movement creaked through the floor above him.  Unfortunate but not unexpected.  Not wanting his work to be discovered, he slipped a parchment into his own nondescript tome before tucking it amid his other volumes, and closed Allaeya's own book before heading upstairs.

Finding the girl by his garden window, the host walk up beside her.  He made no effort to hide his presence, so it was likely the dragon would have felt his approach through the floor.  "It's still early yet," he informed, examining the vial along side.  "Don't worry.  I wouldn't have let you miss it."  It was true enough and his own curiosity spurred him on; he wanted to see if this potion the girl had made would even work.

[DragonSong]

Ally twitched her head toward him slightly when she heard his approach, but her attention was mostly focused on the vial, intently examining the silvery glint of the moonlight off the liquid.

...No, not quite ready yet.

Straightening up a bit with a soft huff, she offered Samuel a smile and a tired nod. "Right. Of course. I just...wanted to check." She rolled her head from side to side, wincing at the stiffness in her neck. "Gods, I can't wait until I fix this. All the involuntary shapeshifting gives you kinks all over."

[Kingfisher]

Samuel offered only a sideways glance toward the shifter.  "I'll have to take your word for that..."  Only his arm could shift and it had no foundational architecture to become strained.

Still, given how unaccustomed she was to her ability, it was clear it was no natural part of her.  "How does one attain the form of a dragon?" he asked.  "It is not something most would take for granted so readily..."

((@DragonSong - Sorry for the slow reply.  Heads been elsewhere...))

[DragonSong]

[No worries!]



The young alchemist twitched, almost flinched, and shot him a strangely wary look. Then she seemed to catch herself, sighed, and reached up to rake a hand through her hair, inadvertently turning it into even more of a tousled mess.

"Well...to my understanding, it is...not an easy process. And usually involves positively mad amounts of magical power and, if you're lucky, a bit of dragon ancestry." She huffed another breath and frowned down at her hands. "Or, if you're attempting to succeed in the one area where your absolute savant of a mother failed, it involves attempting to perfect an alchemical solution meant to imbue the human body with the power of a dragon." She dragged a hand down her face and looked away again, frowning. "And then it goes horribly, horribly wrong."

[Kingfisher]

Samuel went a long while without speaking, pondering the girl's words.  The former scenario seemed like it could be written off outright.  Meanwhile, the latter seemed specific enough to be what she had done.  He had little use himself for such a project as far as he could imagine but still, he wondered at its potential value...

Beyond that, there was not much left to say anyway and the pair waited for the new potion to finish charging.

[DragonSong]

"...Can I ask you something, then?"

She wasn't looking at him, the faintest flush to her cheeks. Embarrassed, and nervous. But she was a scholar, above everything else, and after a while her curiosity always seemed to get the better of her.

"Your, um...the arm. How does that...?"

She trailed off, flicking her eyes back toward him and then to the potion again. She wasn't sure how to finish the question--or even precisely what she was asking.

[Kingfisher]

It was far from an unreasonable subject to broach.  Glancing at his black palm as though it were some vague curiousity, Samuel shrugged.  "It's not something easy to explain," he remarked.  "I sought strength and was willing to trade away my right arm for it."

He was not ashamed about it.  To much was made of many punishing themselves for simply being who they were.  "I guess, unlike you, I knew what I was getting into, so it's not something worth worrying over."  A half-smirk crept to his lip.  "I admit, it was a bit off putting at first, but you'd be surprised by what you can get used to."

[DragonSong]

"It's demonic, isn't it?"

She was tilting her head at him. Now that he'd actually answered a question, she seemed to have the courage for more. "I mean, I thought it was. But I don't actually have all that much magic of my own--I'm just good with potions--and I'm not very good at identifying origins of power most of the time. But that..."

Her eyes flicked down to his arm, then back up to his face. She shrugged. "It seems pretty distinctly demonic."

[Kingfisher]

Ah, that was what she was asking.  Perhaps he was so accustomed to it he had forgotten how little experience most people had with demons.  Still, passing his guest a sidelong glance he admitted, "There's actually remarkably little 'distinct' about demons beyond their mere existance."  Much of the magic associated with demons was nearly indestinguishable from what mortals could achieve; "Even this," he said holding up his palm for Ally to examine, "Is remarkably similar to Thanati Primal magic."

"Why do you ask?"  An antagonistic smirk crept to his lips as he seemed to wonder.  "You looking to dabble in the 'forbidden arts' yourself?"

[DragonSong]

Almost despite herself, Ally snorted and shot him a dry look. "Right, sure I am. Because that's gone so well for me before," she said with a general gesture toward herself.

Still, with his hand extended in invitation like that, she really couldn't stop herself from stepping toward him for a better look. She reached out, hesitated, then looked up into his face, biting almost anxiously at her lower lip. "Um, can I...?"

For the moment, her alchemical solution seemed to be forgotten--they still had about a quarter of an hour left to keep it in the moonlight, anyway.

[Kingfisher]

He had no issue with the girl touching the creature, and the being had little real will of its own.  "Go ahead," he offered, holding the black arm toward Ally.  The black, leathery substance would shiver and ripple under her touch but aside from its uncanny nature, there seemed little remarkable about the thing unless Samuel chose to reveal it...

[DragonSong]

Once given permission, Ally had to work to physically restrain herself from just grabbing his arm in one hand and her notebook in the other and start asking questions.

Well. Maybe just a few questions.

"So is it a symbiotic relationship, or a parasitic one?" she asked curiously as her fingers traced cautiously over the almost oily-looking substance. Her nose crinkled, not expecting the leathery texture. "Or neither? Is it replacing your arm, or coexisting with it? Can you feel this?" She pressed her thumb into his palm, finally lifting her eyes to his face as she asked her last question. Her gaze was bright, fascination clearly lighting a new fire in her.

[Kingfisher]

( @DragonSong - Sorry for the wait )

Samuel found himself smiling at the girl's curiousity.  It was refreshing to see one who was not belligerent toward toward Demoncraft, even if he became little more than an oddity to them.

Answering in reverse order, even as the creature continued to wripple following her touch, he said, "I can actually feel through them; they have created a facsimile of most of the features of my arm: blood-vessels, nerves, muscles...replacing what was lost...  He paused, not inclined to go deeper into the specifics of that topic.

"We are partner's, after a fashion," Samuel admitted.  "I nurture them and in exchange, they serve me, guided only by my will..."  It was hard to know how much he could tell Ally.  There was danger in sharing too much...And the assassin did not want to traumatize her.

...At least, not just yet...

[DragonSong]

((No worries! ^.^))



"So is it...sorry, are they...sentient?" Her brow furrowed, then she abruptly realized she was still holding his demonic arm and pulled her hands back quickly, taking a sharp step back. Her cheeks were suddenly flaming and she shuffled her feet awkwardly. "I--I'm sorry, I'm being--I know I get sorta single-minded when I'm curious about something, I didn't mean to be rude..."

Ally tugged absently at a lock of her hair as she flicked her eyes away, glancing toward the window sill where the little vial of potion still sat before looking back down at the floor between their feet. "Sorry," she mumbled again, feeling bumbling and foolish, though her curiosity had hardly abated. She tried to keep a lid on it for the risk of putting her foot in her mouth.

[Kingfisher]

"It's fine," the demonlord assured Ally.  He withdrew his familiar, assuming his curious companion had finished her investigation for the most part.  She seemed suddenly nervous; perhaps her study had inadvertently revealed an embarrassing side of herself...

Samuel decided to wordlessly offer his guest some space, shifting away from her as he found the back of a settee to lean against.  "I don't think they are sentient...at least not the way you or I might consider ourselves sentient."  His gaze slipped high, as though searching for words scribbled on the ceiling.  "In theory, they can't think at all.  Yet, they can read and follow my own thoughts and follow my will with more precision than my real arm."  Though he had hypotheses, as Ally might guess, he kept them to himself, leaving his explanation there for the moment.

[DragonSong]

"Fascinating." Ally eyed his arm for a moment longer, then shook her head and shot him a quick smile. "Right. Ah...thank you. For letting me--ahem. Thanks."

She shook herself again and glanced toward the window, judging the angel of the moon. She drew in a deep breath. "Oh. Wow. Well, I think it--I might be able to stop the charge now..."

[Kingfisher]

The killer simply nodded to acknowledge Ally's expressed gratitude before attention shifted back toward her project.  He was not exactly sure what to look for regarding the potion's progress and so would have to trust he guest's judgement on the matter.

Samuel moved to the door to pull it open, giving his temporary cohort a chance to retrieve the concoction.