Advertise/Affiliate Other Forum Main Page The World Before You Play

And She Also Made False Teeth (temple, Fang Ruan)

Started by Cobalt, May 15, 2015, 07:32:19 PM

Previous topic - Next topic

0 Members and 1 Guest are viewing this topic.

Cobalt

( @Rhi-Rhi )

If anyone had ever wanted to see Zea as much as rich people wanted to see formerly-rich corpses, odds were good she'd have died and gone to some particularly cruel and distracting hell.

Some people were into that sort of thing, though. This girl, for example. Something had dissolved most of the bones in her face without damaging the skin. Zea had had very little opportunity to poke around beneath the decreasingly-stretchy layer of empty face before she'd had to get to work. The family was hovering. She hated it when they hovered. Still, they'd made a fairly sizeable donation to the temple and that meant they got corpse sculpting expert and apparently had also bought themselves the right to hover.

What a gigantic waste of time. She was going to spend quite probably hours teasing bone out from elsewhere in the dead girl's body to remake the hard parts inside the face, and all so that they could lay the corpse out and almost immediately burn it. She'd been told to be nice, too, whatever that meant. Was she supposed to talk to them? Were they the comforting small talk sort of people? Or did they honestly expect her to root around inside a pile of bone-in cold meat in perfect reverent silence?

The crying was particularly distracting. Did they want her to get this done or not?

The crying stopped when Zea abruptly sat up with a cry of victory. They stared at her, too stunned and numb with grief to properly connect her reaction to any imaginable event.

She pointed down at her work. "I got the nose," she said. She watched the realization dawn all over again that they were yes actually still talking about a dead person they used to know. They were not keeping up. "Noses are hard."

Obviously.

Finally they left to go walk the gardens or something, leaving Zea to her corner of the temple to do her damn job. Honestly. Some people thought the whole world revolved around them. What a pain.

Rhindeer

[brb, dying of lulz.]

"Sometimes, I think, it's better to just listen," Fang said as she stepped inside the room where Zea was tending the poor mess of a corpse. She had passed the family on the way and instantly knew what had happened--considering those who weren't in hysterics were sniping angrily.

Zea had spoken. Something about a nose?

And as Fang knew, she had all the tact of, well...of someone who interacted more with the dead than the living. And Fang thought that affectionately! She could relate, after all, though her work required her to be more sympathetic and gentle. Spirits tended to be pretty sensitive about their...spiritness.

"I passed the family on my way here. They were...er, needless to say, I got an earful. I think I managed to calm them well enough? Suggested they head to the front for some tea, assured them their daughter is resting peacefully, which, ah, speaking of that!" She stepped in closer to Zea and leaned in, her voice lowering and eyes shifting toward the door.

"You haven't felt any cold spots, have you?" She grimaced, ran a hand over her face. "I'm a terrible human being, but they just...they looked so upset, so..."
Adamaris // Aderyn // Aki // Alexander // Angel // Axieva // Beatrid // Briar // Cadmus // Corryn // Einin/Owl // Emery // Fang // Faolán // Faris // Frost // Hayate // Ife // Jayari // Jirou // Juniper // Katxiel // Khaiya // Kota // Kyran // Liam // Makani // Max // Maya // Mei // Nakato // Naovi // Nasrin // Niaaki // Niamh // Noor // Pepper // Qiana // Qismat // Quinn // Raxta // Riyarin // Rook // Sachi // Sahar // Siobhan // Simonea // Sita // Song // Summer // Valor // Yasmin // Yiroa

Cobalt

And now they were complaining? They did loud disruptive grieving while Zea was trying to work but then they had gone away and she had foolishly allowed herself to hope that this meant they were done screwing up their dead baby girl's funeral. Noooo no. Of course not. No, they were going to complain to perfectly harmless people like Fang who would just believe that they were being sincere and not think ill of miserable people.

This was the problem with Fang.

Zea stood, still up to her second knuckle in a dead person's face, and rolled her shoulder to rub an itch on her cheek where her hair was tickling it.

"Look as far as I can tell, their daughter is fine. I'd much rather she be yammering in my ear then those people snotting all over my workspace. At least she and I would have something to talk about."

It wasn't worth addressing Fang's hilariously baseless assertion that she was terrible. If she thought she needed Zea to opine on her moral failings, Fang wouldn't know Terrible from a hole in the wall.

Rhindeer

Fang let her eyes slide down to the dead girl's face. It looked a lot better than it had the first time she'd seen it, but Zea still had her work cut out for her. What had even happened to her? Fang knew it was selfish, but she kind of hoped she'd encounter the girl's spirit just so she could ask.

It was horrible. Had she been murdered? Had she dabbled in something she shouldn't have? Had it all been a tragic accident? Either way, it would be nice to know, so that it could be prevented in the future--and so that any guilty parties could be brought to justice.

"I hope she's fine," she said with a sigh that made her bangs flutter. "That couldn't have been a pleasant way to go, whatever happened to her. It's the sort of tragedy that binds spirits here. That's why, in all honesty, I've been a little troubled that I haven't sensed her hanging around. It's all a little strange, don't you think?"
Adamaris // Aderyn // Aki // Alexander // Angel // Axieva // Beatrid // Briar // Cadmus // Corryn // Einin/Owl // Emery // Fang // Faolán // Faris // Frost // Hayate // Ife // Jayari // Jirou // Juniper // Katxiel // Khaiya // Kota // Kyran // Liam // Makani // Max // Maya // Mei // Nakato // Naovi // Nasrin // Niaaki // Niamh // Noor // Pepper // Qiana // Qismat // Quinn // Raxta // Riyarin // Rook // Sachi // Sahar // Siobhan // Simonea // Sita // Song // Summer // Valor // Yasmin // Yiroa

Cobalt

Zea followed Fang's gaze down to the work in progress which had once housed a person, immediately looking back up to gauge the response from her new audience. Not exactly giddy bouncing and clapping, but considering how much work was left... maybe that was only natural. Fang would probably be happier when the gore had been reduced, or at least when the face had been closed back up again.

What a mess that had been. It really did look like an unpleasant passing, but thankfully the family was wealthy enough to have had some art hanging around Zea could work from. Assuming it wasn't too generous in depicting her, she might even be recognizable when Zea was done. Maybe the girl would return for that part.

"Maybe. Though maybe it was the last straw and she just said fuck it and moved out of reach." Zea tilted her head to get a different angle on the peeled layers of facial tissue, then tilted back again. "Can't say I wouldn't."

Rhindeer

Fang looked again at the girl's mutilated face, and looked away again. Gore might not bother her as much as it might bother those who didn't deal with the dead, but that didn't mean it wasn't still disturbing to look at. She could have never done what Zea was doing, for example. Looking was one thing, being knuckle-deep in a human face was quite another.

"True, but that's not always within our control. Trauma can bind a person here and keep them repeating it. If she's truly passed, thank Inima. I can't imagine what it'd be like to keep reliving..." She grimaced, and glanced again at her face. "That."

She paused again and scrunched up her brow. "Er, 'reliving' isn't really the right word here, but you know what I mean. What do you think happened to her?"
Adamaris // Aderyn // Aki // Alexander // Angel // Axieva // Beatrid // Briar // Cadmus // Corryn // Einin/Owl // Emery // Fang // Faolán // Faris // Frost // Hayate // Ife // Jayari // Jirou // Juniper // Katxiel // Khaiya // Kota // Kyran // Liam // Makani // Max // Maya // Mei // Nakato // Naovi // Nasrin // Niaaki // Niamh // Noor // Pepper // Qiana // Qismat // Quinn // Raxta // Riyarin // Rook // Sachi // Sahar // Siobhan // Simonea // Sita // Song // Summer // Valor // Yasmin // Yiroa

Cobalt

The words reached Zea's lips and were halted when Zea actually looked around at Fang. This was Fang. Sure it was a little bit of a bother to be subjected to asinine trivia while she was working, but Fang meant well. She meant well and for some reason she seemed to actually like Zea slightly.

Maybe she didn't want to know the details. Broad strokes?

"A, uh." What was considered a typical level of interest in causes of death? Zea made circular gestures generally at her own face with one filthy hand. "Vine. Through her head. If the family hasn't killed that plant they probably should. Doesn't sound native."

That meant it had to go, fascinating as it was. Also it killed people.

Rhindeer

A...vine...?

Fang blanched, expression twisting with abject horror. Her reaction was less about the death--that ship had already sailed, the girl was already dead, the grisly results had already been viewed--and more about the method, the idea that a plant had done it. And sure, much of the vegetation of Thanatos was deadly in one way or another, but not to the extent of...plants spearing people.

She covered her mouth with her hand. "Did she fall on the vine?"

Maybe it was a stupid question, but she was reallyreally hoping Zea wasn't talking about sentient murderous plants, here!
Adamaris // Aderyn // Aki // Alexander // Angel // Axieva // Beatrid // Briar // Cadmus // Corryn // Einin/Owl // Emery // Fang // Faolán // Faris // Frost // Hayate // Ife // Jayari // Jirou // Juniper // Katxiel // Khaiya // Kota // Kyran // Liam // Makani // Max // Maya // Mei // Nakato // Naovi // Nasrin // Niaaki // Niamh // Noor // Pepper // Qiana // Qismat // Quinn // Raxta // Riyarin // Rook // Sachi // Sahar // Siobhan // Simonea // Sita // Song // Summer // Valor // Yasmin // Yiroa

Cobalt

Zea blinked a couple of times at Fang. She'd been pretty vague, but even that had been too much? She was so shitty at gauging what other people were going to be squeamish about, and situations like this were why she so rarely tried. It didn't even help. Nobody drew the line in places she could understand but their lines were so damn important to them and everybody's freakouts presented their own unique hazards.

At least Fang was probably not going to attack her or do something even worse like cry. Zea hated that shit.

"N...o..." Zea said. "I don't know what she did to get its attention since she's not here to ask, but someone's going to have to take care of it." With one hand covered in undifferentiated flesh slurry, Zea gestured at the corpse. "I don't need to be mushing together any more heads like this one."

Rhindeer

"So you're telling me it's a killer plant. An actual murderous plant. A plant that kills people. A plant that actively kills people," Fang said, words slightly muffled as her hand still covered her mouth.

"Oh sweet Inima. What if it breeds? What if it's already released spores or something! Or little fluttery seeds like...like dandelions? Something like that could spread really far really fast! Or really take over the vegetation! Goddess, that's horrific!" To her, at least. She was well aware that some people ate stuff like this up like candy. Mei, for example, wherever she'd run off to. And Zea, definitely. Fang didn't always get it, but...

Well, the world needed people with bizarre interests, didn't it? Otherwise you'd never learn about important and relevant things like murderous plants, or have people around to put broken heads back together!

"People have been notified, right? To take care of it? Maybe we should send some people to handle it. It might be too dangerous for the family, and I'd imagine it'd be heart-breaking, too, facing the thing that killed your daughter."
Adamaris // Aderyn // Aki // Alexander // Angel // Axieva // Beatrid // Briar // Cadmus // Corryn // Einin/Owl // Emery // Fang // Faolán // Faris // Frost // Hayate // Ife // Jayari // Jirou // Juniper // Katxiel // Khaiya // Kota // Kyran // Liam // Makani // Max // Maya // Mei // Nakato // Naovi // Nasrin // Niaaki // Niamh // Noor // Pepper // Qiana // Qismat // Quinn // Raxta // Riyarin // Rook // Sachi // Sahar // Siobhan // Simonea // Sita // Song // Summer // Valor // Yasmin // Yiroa

Cobalt

Someday Zea was going to stop trying to shelter people from how terribly strange and awful the real world was. For the most part, that day was sometime prior to her birth, but with some people she somehow kept convincing herself that perhaps she could keep them in a nice little bubble with all the Zea stuff outside where it wouldn't bother them. She'd be doing fine and then someone like Fang would come along and press her for details.

And Fang kept coming back.

Zea didn't... think Fang had some kind of learning issue, but here she was, once again asking Zea for details on ambulatory murder vegetables. Why? Why, Fang?

"I guess?" Hearts came broken. It was their essential nature, their inherent flaw. Sometimes when people got all weepy and waily about completely mundane facts of life like occasionally getting murdered by plants, what Zea really wanted to do was give them something to cry about. Privately she congratulated herself for her self control because truly... the urge was strong. "If it were my mother she'd have to be stopped from torching the whole island as a warning to all the other plants, so I mean. I guess I figured they'd want to do it themselves."

Once, when Zea'd been having a possession issue, some higher caste kids had pushed her into a latrine. She hadn't said so outright, but Quinn had definitely strongly implied that knew what had happened to their family pets and the platforms raising their houses. Was this atypical? What did other parents do? Cry?

Rhindeer

"Your mother sounds like a force of nature," Fang commented with a forced smile--because she was still stuck back on the whole murderplant thing. Why wasn't Zea more disturbed about the fact that there was a murderplant murdering people? That was kind of an urgent matter! Because of the whole part where it could spread! And that a girl was laying there with a missing face! Basically!

But maybe Zea was so calm because the issue was being dealt with? Maybe it wasn't a mature plant? She really wished Zea wouldn't be so cryptic sometimes!

But Fang managed, with some practice, to keep the panic mostly internal. Mostly. Goddess, spirits and ghosts were one thing, it was the living world that was full of freaky things!

"To be fair, I like to think mine would likely do something as drastic--but with less destruction toward the nation she runs, and minus any human casualties." Fang paused thoughtfully, tapping her chin, and looked at Zea. "...But seriously, that's disturbing. Ah..."

She spared another daring glance at the girl's ruined face. "Do you need...help...with anything?"
Adamaris // Aderyn // Aki // Alexander // Angel // Axieva // Beatrid // Briar // Cadmus // Corryn // Einin/Owl // Emery // Fang // Faolán // Faris // Frost // Hayate // Ife // Jayari // Jirou // Juniper // Katxiel // Khaiya // Kota // Kyran // Liam // Makani // Max // Maya // Mei // Nakato // Naovi // Nasrin // Niaaki // Niamh // Noor // Pepper // Qiana // Qismat // Quinn // Raxta // Riyarin // Rook // Sachi // Sahar // Siobhan // Simonea // Sita // Song // Summer // Valor // Yasmin // Yiroa

Cobalt

Force of nature, indeed: like a meteor out of nowhere or the clap, the sort of seemingly-pointless destructive nightmare that only Inima knew the function of. Everybody and everything had a purpose, but sometimes it was deeply obscure. Aside from carrying and birthing Zea herself, perhaps Quinn's purpose was to thin the global population. It'd make as much sense as anything else.

These lofty matters occupied Zea's thoughts rather than consideration of appropriate responses to aggressively-invasive flora. They occupied her thoughts a fair bit. They were the second-greatest mystery of her life, and the one she felt least likely ever to solve.

"If you're bored, sure." Zea waved Fang on over. Obviously Fang would not have offered if she were put off or elsewise unwilling. In her place, Zea would not have. Clearly that meant Zea had a genuine volunteer!

"I have a little cavity under her ribs full of little scrap bits." She pointed down to a neat little incision in the body's midsection. "So if I need more bone than her face has, I can just get it from under there. Like, uh..." She scrunched her mouth to one side and reached to hold her place with one finger pressed against the hard palate. "Yeah, here. Gimme a piece about the size of your pinky."

Inside the body, should Fang venture near or into it, was an empty space made by cramming the lungs further up. It was filled with what could only have been the crumbled remains of every second rib, broken down to be repurposed at the head. There were some rubberier bits that were not bone, and some much much softer tissue that was wet and stretchy but otherwise unremarkable.

There was a proverb for this, something about omelettes and eggs.

Tags: