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I see no flaws in this plan. [nephero!]

Started by Rhindeer, May 06, 2014, 03:04:23 PM

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Rhindeer

Mei probably would have made it to Zantaric before nightfall, if the forest around it hadn't distracted her so much. Old and decrepit and full of dead trees, it had instantly attracted her attention, and she'd spent the better part of the day wandering through it, scribbling notes and theories on the back of her map. There were several species of tree she hadn't seen before! Perhaps an extinct species, and preserved over time. She drew a couple rough sketches for reference, noting the leaf shapes and patterns--indicative of a deciduous species--And then there was the mystery of why the forest was so sparse and dead, when it appeared to have once been a thriving ecosystem.

It was all so exciting!

So exciting, she wound up not paying attention to where she was stepping, and stepped right into a patch of some kind of poisonous, leafy plant.

Which was also a variety she'd never seen before!

As the angry rash spread up her right leg and over her foot (sandals were a bad idea; also, short pants were a bad idea), Mei crouched down and scribbled another charcoal drawing, this time of the poisonous plant. It took some time, because it was hard to draw when she was fidgeting and trying not to scratch at herself, but eventually she got an accurate picture down, and by then the rash was really red and starting to grow a little purple in the middle.

Jeez. She hoped she wasn't dying or something!

In any case, that concluded her dead forest adventure. With her drawing in hand, her traveling satchel over her shoulder, and her leg turning interesting colors, Mei grit her teeth and marched into Zantaric, which was difficult to do with her leg an itchy ball of misery. She knew nothing about the city, except that it was on her map and was in the area, but they must have people there that specialized in this...issue. Unless she was dying, in which case, she hoped she'd get there before the poison spread through her bloodstream and closed her throat, so she could at least request all her valuable research be sent home!

Fortunately, nothing so dramatic happened. She didn't die, she just got a lot of strange looks as she limped through the town, which smelled funny and seemed rather dirty, but she'd come to expect that of the Continentals.

Marching up to the first person she saw, an older, scruffy man that was picking the few teeth he had left with a knife (gross!), Mei squared her shoulders and tried not to dance in place, though she kept twitching as her leg screamed SCRATCH ME!

"If there anyone here that deals with poultices and potions?" she asked, voice strained. "Healing, perhaps?"

The man flicked a chunk of something out from between his teeth, grunted, and jerked his head toward a building just behind him. Then he continued to stare at her, eyes drifting slowly to her satchel. Mei made a face, but quickly smoothed out her expression, smiled, and made a quick bow.

"Thank you! Oh! And you should try swishing with salt water, sir. That will help with your--" She made a motion toward her mouth. "--condition. Helps the gums! Bye!"

And then she was off, practically jogging toward that building, and by the time she got there she didn't even care, she was dancing in place as she banged repeatedly on the door.

OOC: @nephero BEHOLD MY ROBES RAMBLY MESS.
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nephero

If Mei hadn't asked for direction, it would have been easy to overlook the building in question. It was no less dirty than any other along the battered dirt road that cut through the edge of Zantaric, nor any less smelly-- in fact, the potency seemed increased the closer she got to the door. It was only up close, and with the assistance of a small, sputtering lamp, that the sign beside the door became visible enough to read: Herbalist's Bones; healing, potion making, general thaumaturgy.

The only visible window was wide open, the dingy glass pushed aside to allow some kind of ventilation-- and judging by the plumes of pungent purple smoke, the place badly needed it. Almost invisible against the snaking pine-scented fog, a cat (if such a decrepit creature could be called that) lay sprawled across the windowsill. It looked dead; at least, it did until Mei began her knocking. Its tail swished, its eyes opened, and every bony joint movement dripped malice as it turned to look at the source of such an ungodly amount of noise. It only looked more indignant the longer it was ignored-- as if a baleful glare alone should have been enough to cause her to cease and dissist this instant.

Luckily, for either one of them take your pick, the building's proprietor chose that very moment to answer the door. It swung open, alleviating the steady thud thud thud that had surpassed ninety nine other things on the cat's List of Things I Hate Most. For half a moment, the proprietor seemed unsure; his single eye flicked to the cat and then back to Mei, as if he wasn't quite up to speed on what should be done. Which was rare but fair, as a man could hardly be expected to... well, expect a tiny hopping girl on his doorstep.

Shea Ru was used to far bloodier work.

Her oddness notwithstanding, he allowed the door to finish its rotation. It swung against the adjoining wall, and Shea Ru kicked a heavy stone over to keep it that way. Another, thicker cloud of smoke escaped as a rsult, carrying a subtle if strange combination of pine, mint and... something else, something juicy that lingered at the back of one's throat yet had no name.

With a quick sort of courtesy smile, the alleged potion maker gestured inside, or more specifically, to the high set bench at the furthest wall.

"Have a seat, prop your leg up, and don't scratch."


VIGILANCE WALKING THE TOAST
Characters here!

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The Territok Orcs // The Oratok Orcs // Fausteth // The Ashmen

Rhindeer

"Oh...hello."

Mei stared up at the man. And by "up", she had to crane her neck. He was a good foot taller than her and shockingly, sickly pale, and it took her aback for a second. She still couldn't get used to how tall people were in these parts! Giants, the lot of them! But despite his paleness and the lack of an eye, he wasn't unattractive. Quite the opposite.

Then again, Mei had always been attracted to the unconventional, and for several miserable seconds, she was seized with how horrifying this was. How embarrassing. Of course it couldn't have been an old, wrinkly man! No, it had to be someone like this, and already she could feel the curiosity bubbling up as her mind ran a mental tally of questions.

She broke her trance just long enough to catch what he was saying--and to remember her misery.

"Right! Thank you!" With a quick bow, she rushed inside to a face full of the interesting smoke she'd seen wafting out. Wrinkling her nose, she waved it away as she went, coughing as it tickled her throat. She plopped down onto the bench, dropped her bag at her feet, and stretched her leg out on it.

It took all of her effort not to scratch. Instead, she rubbed her leg against the edge of the bench in a vain effort to relieve it, and thrust her drawing out at the man, tapping the specific plant with her finger. "This is what did it!" she said with a nod.

"Are you familiar with it? Because I've never encountered it before! How it thrives in a dead forest is quite interesting! Perhaps it is parasitic, feeding off the rot in the wood. Or perhaps it's predatory, choking other plants. I didn't get a chance to get a good look, but the effects at least seem somewhat similar to poison ivy--which, by the way, isn't actual ivy!--though I'd say a little more potent. But I only speak from subjective experience on that matter. By the way, what's that smell? It smells like a mix of pine and mint, but it's got a note of something that's...hmm...thick. I'm not quite sure how to describe it. Oh, by the way, I'm Mei!"
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nephero

If Shea Ru was aware of the effect he had, he was polite enough not to show it. He kept the door open for breathing's sake-- while he was used to such smoky conditions, his clients rarely were, and it was always so difficult to pry information out of people who insisted on coughing so much.

As soon as the girl was seated, he returned to his place at the hearth, and gave the pot there a good stir before replacing a heavy lid atop it. That task dealt with, at least for the time being, he was able to devote his attention to this latest-- if atypical-- client.

She was small, smaller than he was used to without dealing with some kind of child's pox, but that was certainly not a bad thing. He wasn't quite sure what to make of all the metal jewelry in her face, but that wasn't so bad-- it actually accentuated her natural features quite nicely, and really, who was he to judge personal modification?

He glanced down at her mouth, at the twin hoops there, and he silently admired the way the symmetrical bow of her lips was broken by the very asymmetrically placed piercing. It was unsettling on some bizarre, irrational level, and Shea Ru had always liked unsettling.

And then the talking started.

He took the offered drawing from her, though the motion was largely automatic-- every bit of his attention was thrown into overdrive in order to absorb everything the girl was saying. Or, failing that, the important bits. Still, by some miracle, he was able to school his face into something resembling polite interest, rather than his first instinct to place his hand over her mouth and just... make it stop.

It also kind of helped that his hands were currently occupied. Reminded of what he was holding, he broke his nearly stunned trance and looked down and-- well.

This was actually good. Very, very good. The scratched shape of the leaves was nearly perfect, as faithful a representation as any other he'd seen, even in some of his books. He noted the points where the strokes seemed smudged, rushed, and he wondered if Mei had stepped in the plant before attempting to draw it. That was almost admirable, considering she had no idea what the plant was, and for a moment his previous repulsion was again replaced by interest.

He gave a distant nod to whatever it was she was (still) saying, before he realized that it had all ended in a paused prompt for him to reply. Well, that was embarrassing, and he mentally chastised himself for not paying attention. He hummed, as if he had simply been lost in thought (not untrue), and tapped the paper with one knuckle.

"Never encountered it, no, nor would you. It's called Persu's Touch, or occasionally simply the Crimson Death." He paused to let that take effect, always enjoying it when a malady had a grossly disproportionate name. "Not many are familiar with this nasty little weed, and believe me when I say, you don't necessarily want to be involved with anyone who is."

Shea handed the drawing back to her, and moved across the room to where a long counterspace was set up, various herbs hanging from drying racks on the cieling or otherwise stuffed into jars and glass-pane cabinets. He pulled a pair of thick leather gloves on, before setting to pulling out different jars and bowls from unlabelled shelves. He stuck a twig of an herb in his mouth to better free his hands, and brought the lot of it back to the bench where Mei still sat.

After the various ingredients were set down on the creaking wooden floor, he dropped to one knee by the bench, and carefully lifted Mei's afflicted leg up to better inspect it.

"I take it you've done nothing against the rash, yet-- which is good, don't worry. With water, the lot of it just becomes easier to spread around. Just in case you decide to go back to... wherever it was you found it."

With that little tidbit of information, he pulled a tub out from beneath the bench, placed Mei's leg in it, and proceeded to pour vinegar all over the afflicted skin. After that, it was largely just automatic-- clean, rinse, dry, crush the herbs, mix them into a paste, and apply.

"Ah, that smell would be the marrow oil mixture on the fire. And I would be Shea Ru. By the by... where did you find the Touch...?"


VIGILANCE WALKING THE TOAST
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Rhindeer

Crimson Death? Mei paled at that and looked down at her very reddened leg and then back up at Shea's face. He didn't look concerned, though, so that was a good sign! Probably meant her leg wasn't going to go into necrosis and fall off.

Taking her drawing back and reaching into her pack to pull out a charcoal stick, she started to take notes near the drawing while Shea worked. Don't rinse with water, she wrote. Spreads rash.

"Ah!" Mei was snapped from her writing as vinegar went down her leg. Involuntarily, she jerked. "Oh, sorry! That's just cold! Anyway, duly noted, no water. Good thing I didn't try! See, once I stepped in that, I knew I had to find someone who knows what they're doing. I didn't tamper with it a bit! After my run in with poison ivy--Inima, I hate that name!--I learned the no touching rule fast, trust me. Oh, what's that you're using, by the way? Vinegar, obviously--who could miss the smell, and what doesn't it dilute? But what herbs?"

She tapped her stick against her page and smiled. "For my notes. You see, I'm cataloging my journey, noting interesting and important discoveries, and it's also just practical. If I'm out on my own with no potion-maker, what would I do if I stepped in more of the stuff? One can never be too prepared, I always say! Though I suppose it's unlikely, if it's so uncommon...ah! Right! Where I found it?"

She made a vague motion in the forest's general direction. "Off in the woods, of course! It was wrapped around a dead tree's base, sort of in a shadowy area, and bunched up a lot at the bottom. I don't think it likes the sun--but it's also not very sunny out, so it's hard to say."
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nephero

Her leg certainly wasn't in any danger of something so severe as necrosis, not with how relatively immediately she had sought medical attention. Shea had heard of instances where the Touch was allowed to continue to fester, and while the constant layers of large and angry blisters were mightily painful, they were hardly fatal. Perhaps letting the rash open and get infected would lose someone their limb, but this was not one of those cases.

Though, Shea made a mental note to try that out sometime, see just what real damage the weed might be able to do. At best, he would have a very effective future deterrent at his disposal; at worst, he would manage to kill a few days time with something interesting.

Shea continued to smear the paste over Mei's leg, making sure to coat every individual bump and reddened inch, and coat it liberally. The effect was almost immediate-- the chalky looking aspects of the paste seemed to work as a sponge, soaking up the residual oils and keeping the skin from becoming further inflamed, while the other ingredients acted as a balm, cooling and soothing whatever it touched.

He cleared his throat a bit, figuring it wouldn't hurt to at least give the girl something of a chance against further encounters with the weed. Plus, his explanation might actually get her to be quiet for a few minutes, and he'd be lying if he said that he wasn't prepared to do anything to achieve that. While the paste worked its figurative magic, he sat back on his ankles, and lifted up the jug he had just emptied over her leg.

"Vinegar, obviously. Apple cider, to be precise, I find it's less caustic. It strips the oil without necessarily stripping everything else with it, though you need to rinse it afterwards. Water will be safe at this point."

He replaced the jug on the floor, instead lifting the large mortar and pestle, and pointing at the green stain still present inside.

"The paste is a combination of milkweed sap, mugwort, and jewelweed. You crush the lot of it, mixing it with water and clay, until you have a paste like so... the plants are meant to both soothe the heat and to ease the blistering, and require nothing by way of preparation, while the clay you'll want to have baked and crushed into a powder before reintroducing it to water."

He gave a small shrug, finally returning to his original task of keeping Mei's leg nice and coated, inspecting and reinspecting for any missed spots.

"It's much the same as any of the poison plants-- ivy, oak, you know. The only real difference lies in just how stubborn the oil is, and where the little devil grows. Which, as you have correctly guessed, is largely not in direct sunlight, and always in the presence of rot."

He seemed to consider her for a long moment, then, his hands stopping their rubbing motions and his single eye trained directly on her face. He was debating with himself, that much was obvious, and finally he took a little breath, finally prepared to continue.

"Not just any kind of rot, though. It has to be unnatural, forcibly made, in order to generate the necrotic energies required for the plant to grow. Whatever was in that little cluster of wood you found, it was not pleasant, and you are quite lucky to have only gotten a rash for finding it."

He stood up then, gathering his various jars and putting them back where they belonged, the tub taken just outside his front door to be emptied into the street before being replaced under the bench. The remainder of the paste he scraped out of his bowl and into a smaller, clay jar, and then promptly into Mei's hands.

"And that would be that. Keep your leg dry for a few hours, and then rinse it with warm water. I recommend washing it with oats for the next few days, but you should see significant reduction in redness and itching. Reapply the paste as needed, but you won't need much more than a small layer at a time."


VIGILANCE WALKING THE TOAST
Characters here!

__guilds, yo__
The Territok Orcs // The Oratok Orcs // Fausteth // The Ashmen

Rhindeer

Mei was running out of room on her page, so her notes began to circle the plant picture and cram so close together there was hardly any space between characters. She'd be able to make sense of it later, but gods help anyone else who tried to read it.

In any case, Shea got lucky for the few minutes he spoke. Mei was a blabbermouth, but she was also a good student; as long as he had interesting things to say, he had her full attention, and she absorbed and recorded everything he said. That, and she was also rather shamelessly enjoying having an attractive man rub stuff all over her leg. Even if that stuff was a gross-looking herb paste, and even if her leg was inflamed (but feeling drastically better as the paste did its job--and, you know, the doctor was his own sort of medicine).

She stole glances at him from over her notes, and couldn't help the disappointment when he finished up. She did her best to mask it as she accepted the jar and tucked it away in her pack. When Shea returned from dealing with the tub, she perked right back up again.

"Thanks!" she said with a smile. "It's already feeling a ton better! I swear you've got like magic hands." Her face warmed as soon as she said it. That...might have been an awkward thing to say. Subject change!

"So! Okay, backing up a little! You know that thing you said? About necrotic energies feeding the plant? I wanted to ask you about that. So you mean like, a murder, maybe? Some dark ritual? Oh, oh! Maybe a human sacrifice!" She tapped the charcoal to her chin, leaving behind a dark smudge.

"That could do it. The combination of death magic, life energy, and trauma would leave a powerful impression. Those sorts of impressions can be left even with a normal death, like an accident, so a combination like that? Goodness. That would leave quite the stain. But strong enough to kill a forest? Hmm. I'll have to go get a better look later." She glanced down at her bare legs. "After I invest in some breeches and boots. Oh! Speaking of necrotic energies and the like!"

Mei motioned to his hair. It had been bugging her ever since she'd first seen him, and now that her leg was no longer driving her crazy she felt it needed to be addressed. "Your hair...why is it half red? Is it naturally red or naturally dark, or does it grow half and half like that?" That didn't even make sense, but magic could be a funny thing.

"Either way, I'd cut the red if I were you. It's unlucky, and I doubt you want bad luck with a job like yours! Though it looks like you may already know that, considering..." She tapped beneath her eye. "Is that how you lost it? Some accident? Hm, no, that doesn't seem right. It looks a little too precise for a mere accident. The line's too clean!"
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nephero

It was actually a rather amazing transformation, and one that Shea was not at all displeased to bear witness to. It had been a long time since he had bothered teaching anyone anything-- both for lack of interest on many an individual's part and his own apathy towards the idea. But Mei was that rare breed of student, both capable of absorbing what she was told and yet still actually processing it.

Again, it was as if he were perfectly oblivious to the fact that it wasn't just what was coming out of his mouth that had her attention. Which he was-- at this point he was actually finding himself invested in his teaching, even going so far to add little hand gestures for the proper technique for the herb grinding, before his hands returned to Mei's leg.

Well, perhaps she wasn't so bad after all. A little chatty, but give her something to study and that problem cleared right up. Everything had a cure, if one just applied the right remedy and enough force to it. He might have even ventured to think he was disappointed it was over so quickly, and that soon the girl would be out into the world and far away, stumbling into other rash-inducing plants.

And then the talking started again.

That residual feeling of disappointment completely obliterated, he again donned a look of polite interest, completely skipping past the semi-awkward moment and straight into 'let's try and filter some of this out, shall we?'

Well, it wasn't as if she was that far off. Human sacrifice would, in fact, be enough of an event to allow for the Touch to grow, and technically, human sacrifice involved a very wide amount of acts that may or may not have been exactly what he had done. The term, like 'necromancy', just seemed to sit on his tongue wrong, and he disliked seeing it used. It felt... superstitious. Unenlightened. Prone to getting one run out of an entire country by an angry mob.

He blinked a bit, roused out of that unpleasant memory by Mei's assertion of... wait, she was going to what?

"You're going back? I thought I told you--" his words seemed to fall on deaf ears, and really, what warning he might have been willing to reiterate died in his mouth faster than the forest did when she gestured to his person. He stiffened a bit when she asked about his hair, and every bit of his willpower was sunk into attempting to not look defensive.

Especially when she suggested he cut it off. Cut it off? Unlucky? What, no, he did not "accidentally" lose his eye because of hair color, what was she even--

No, Shea Ru, calm down. He chided himself for getting riled, and forced himself to loosen the fist he had been making. Not quite trusting himself regardless, he folded his arms across his chest in what he hoped was a perfectly casual and not at all threatening manner.

"I'm afraid, young miss, that we are not at all at a stage in our relationship to be asking personal questions of that sort." He had to bite his tongue to keep his tone light and not at all angry, not at all, though he found that even with his arms crossed his hands wanted to make fists. "Now, if I might again try to convince you to not go to the woods again, that might be a pertinent topic."


VIGILANCE WALKING THE TOAST
Characters here!

__guilds, yo__
The Territok Orcs // The Oratok Orcs // Fausteth // The Ashmen

Rhindeer

Mei gave a merry laugh, oblivious to his anger. "Oh, but we could get to that stage! If you've got any questions for me, any at all, I don't mind answering! Nothing's too personal!" For she liked to live life like an open book, and how else could one share knowledge but by being totally open?

Then she realized something and gave a little start, holding up her hands. "Goodness. I just realized how I might have sounded! I hope you aren't offended! I don't mean to imply there's anything wrong with you. The hair is risky, but red is a pretty color, both lucky and unlucky depending on how its worn. And scars are the imperfections that make us more interesting than statues. I wouldn't want to hang around statues, would you? No, there are stories and memories in scars, sir! I'm curious to hear yours."

She grinned. "Just as I'm interesting in learning of that forest's tale! You bet I'm going back there. Now that I've got a poultice and experience to arm me, I can't fathom what could go wrong."
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nephero

For a moment, the notion that the girl wanted to get to another stage struck a chord with him. The very idea filled him with some vague sense of unease, which was rapidly becoming far less vague and far more intense the more their conversation continued. Shea Ru took deep breaths, more than a little anxious at how it didn't seem to be filling his lungs as fully as it should, which only compounded the growing sensation of having a thousand angry snakes fighting in his belly.

He couldn't believe just how rapidly he was losing control over this entire situation. It was embarrassing, and infuriating, and the more he stewed over it the angrier he became at himself, which did not help the snake-belly-situation at all. This was not how someone his age should be behaving, and it certainly was not something he should find this upsetting. There were far worse evils in the world, far greater terrors that lurked in the murkiest depths of the furthest planes of existence, and here he was having hysterics over informal interpersonal interaction.

Get a hold of yourself, man.

Another deep breath, and he let it out in a long sigh, relishing the bit of relief that gave him. It was enough, enough to keep him from spiraling further out of control, at the very least. And enough to respond like any human being theoretically should be able to.

"No, I don't have questions, I... no, it's fine, just..." he sighed again, though this was more of the long-suffering sort that one usually made when one was being forced to do something one really had no inclination for doing, "Suffice to say it is for religious reasons, let's just leave it at that and be done."

He touched at one temple, rubbing small circles there while he regarded the girl and just... the level to which she would go to sate curiousity. This was all beginning to give him a headache, and he actually marveled at the fact that he was still capable of getting headaches. Huh, that was actually interesting.

"Oh, I can name a few things," he muttered, amusing himself with mental projections of Just What Could Go Wrong?, all of them involving the complete loss of the ability to speak. That was mildly satisfying, if completely fantastical. "...I could actually use some samples of the weed for experimentation. If you don't mind the company."


VIGILANCE WALKING THE TOAST
Characters here!

__guilds, yo__
The Territok Orcs // The Oratok Orcs // Fausteth // The Ashmen

Rhindeer

"Not at all!" Mei said, a little too quickly. She hoped it wasn't too obvious that she was kind of starving for companionship. Traveling a foreign continent was fun, but it was also lonely.

And okay, so there was that part of her that was shamelessly excited at having an attractive guide. That was an added bonus.

"I would love the company! Why, you're so knowledgeable and familiar with this area, I'm sure you could answer a lot of my questions! And it's always wonderful to have someone you can bounce ideas off of. I'm sure I could help you with a lot of things, too! I may not look it, but I know a lot. Oh..." She winced. "That makes me sound full of myself, huh? I don't mean it like that, I just mean scholarship is kind of my thing! What kind of experiments were you thinking of doing, because I could probably--"

She cut off short, for it was only then that she noticed he was rubbing his temple. "Are you okay? If you've got a headache, I recommend feverfew!"
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nephero

Under normal circumstances, Shea would never have described himself as an egotistical person. He was confident, to be certain, but that stemmed more from years of experience and learning versus some kind of inate self-assuredness. But for some reason, Mei's words puffed him up like a peacock, and he found his dislike for her verbosity lessened somewhat.

Alright, so maybe he liked the flattery. He was very knowlegeable of the subject at hand, so it wasn't like the flattery was ill-deserved. And he was firmly of the opinion that knowledge was not something to be ashamed of. Guarded, definitely guarded, but never out of shame.

He shook his head to dissipate his wandering thoughts, and hopefully any sign that he was overly pleased with Mei's words.

"Mm, it's minor, but yes. I'll make something for it later." His headache, however, was the very least of his concerns now-- his interest was thoroughly picqued, and while Mei was definitely overly chatty, a chatty scholar was not someone to brush off, ever.

"Actually... I think it would be unwise to go trampling in the dark for Persu's Touch, regardless of our preparedness. We should go when it's light again. Perhaps, in the meantime, I could bribe you into sharing some of your scholarship? Over dinner?"


VIGILANCE WALKING THE TOAST
Characters here!

__guilds, yo__
The Territok Orcs // The Oratok Orcs // Fausteth // The Ashmen

Rhindeer

"Yes, please!" Mei blurted, scarcely giving Shea a chance to finish his sentence. Her cheeks colored a after, for she hadn't meant to be quite that zealous, but Shea had just gone and suggested all of her favorite things. Food? And scholarly talk? With an attractive man in his home full of interesting things she couldn't wait to get her hands on? He didn't even need to ask.

She cleared her throat. "Ah, that is, yes. Please! That would be wonderful! I would love to stay for dinner! Actually, come to think of it, I think I forgot to eat today. Hmm...yes, I don't think I did." She laughed, scratching the side of her head. "You know how it is when you're researching. It's so easy to get lost in your work! But oh, I have so much to share! I don't what kinds of things you're interested in, but..."

Turning to her satchel, Mei opened it and tilted it so he could see inside. Various loose papers filled it, along with a large, bound book where she copied all her notes down when she had a spare moment, transcribing them into a more legible hand in a more logical order and expanding upon her thoughts and theories. "I've got quite a collection! We might have to make an all-nighter of it!"
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

nephero

It was hard to tell if Shea was put off by Mei's enthusiasm. Certainly, there seemed a momentary flash of discomfort on his face, but that passed as quickly as it had appeared.

He smiled down at her, though the gesture became far more genuine when Mei opened up her bag and displayed-- Azang within, were those all notes? Shea barely suppressed a shiver, and he reached out for the book before suddenly remembering himself.

"Ah, you might just be right," he said, near breathless in his excitement, "but let me get dinner started first. It'll be easier than trying to pry away in the middle of... all this."

He gave the bag one last look of longing-- all that information, all that learning, all that potential-- before he returned to the blazing hearth. The bubbling pot from earlier he removed, and instead placed a smaller, empty cauldron over the steady flames. He left it in favor of crossing the room, to a cupboard set just a small distance from where Mei herself sat. A gust of frozen air hit the both of them upon opening the wooden doors, though Shea was largely unaffected by it, even as he pulled out a small slab of frosted meat wrapped in parchment.

"I hope you don't protest the consumption of meat?" Shea gave the packet a little shake to dispell most of the ice, "I fear I'm not much of a cook otherwise."


VIGILANCE WALKING THE TOAST
Characters here!

__guilds, yo__
The Territok Orcs // The Oratok Orcs // Fausteth // The Ashmen

Rhindeer

"Ah..." Well this was awkward. Mei was aware that most people here ate meat, and for the most part, she had been able to politely avoid it. It was easy when she stayed at an inn, because she was paying for hospitality then and could be a little more picky, but to be a guest in someone's home? That was different, and she didn't want to be rude or difficult.

Wringing her hands together, Mei tried not to grimace. "I...don't actually eat meat?" she said, and quickly added, "Sorry! I don't mean to be difficult! It's just not something we do, where I'm from! Spiritual reasons and all, not wanting to take violence into ourselves. Oh! Not that I'm judging you or anything, we just consider it morbidly impure." Her eyes widened and she clamped her mouth shut as soon as the words escaped. She wanted to kick herself.

"Not that I mind if you do it!" she said, waving her hands. Though she totally minded if he did it; Shea was so pretty, she really didn't want to see him sticking that stuff in his mouth! "It's normal for your culture, after all, eating animals like animals, so you wouldn't know better if--"

She pressed her lips together. This was going bad fast. "I can help cook, if you want?" she suggested with a sheepish smile.
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

nephero

Shea laughed.

He just had to.

The look of growing horror on Mei's face was just too much for him, especially when her reasoning for abstaining were just so... spot on. He made a mental note to ask more about these bizarre practices, but for now, for now simply breathing was at the top of his list. He could scarcely catch his breath, and he pressed his hands-- meat and all-- to his sides in a vain attempt to alleviate the stitches there.

When had he last laughed like this? Genuinely?

The thought alone was sobering enough, which was good, because Mei had to have been fretting her way through the roof by the time he calmed down. He cleared his throat then, and gave a pacifying wave of his hand.

"My dear little inquisitor, it's fine. I would be happy to learn from you." With that, he replaced the packet into its cupboard, and instead started for the front door. "I have a modest garden out on the side, there should be something ready enough to eat... there should be some milk in that cupboard, too, I assure you that wasn't taken in violence."


VIGILANCE WALKING THE TOAST
Characters here!

__guilds, yo__
The Territok Orcs // The Oratok Orcs // Fausteth // The Ashmen

Rhindeer

Oh, Inima, he was laughing at her! Mei's face heated up with fast-building mortification and her mind scrambled for some way to fix what was turning into a disaster! She had just thoroughly insulted him! And his entire culture, for that matter! Goddess, he must be so pissed! She knew people that laughed when they were angry, that derisive, angry laugh that screamed, I'm so livid that laughing is the only way I can process this, and she expected that, at any minute, he'd throw her out on her ear.

Leave it to her to be culturally insensitive! And after she'd researched popular customs and everything...

Her hands were clammy by the time Shea wound down, but to her surprise, he just waved away the infraction.

And, once again, Mei could breathe. Shea hadn't been the only one rendered breathless.

"Oh." She pushed her hair back from her face and let out another relieved sigh. "Whew. Okay! Wonderful!" She wiped her palms off on her pants and rose to her feet--and tried not to cringe at the sensation of the caked on poultice. Shifting a little, she spaced her feet apart and followed after him, walking funny since she didn't really want to  touch her legs together and get goop on both legs.

"Though, ah, I'm not sure how you'd violently milk a cow. Is that something that's common here? Do you kill the cows you milk? That seems rather wasteful. Oh! Speaking of that cupboard, I wanted to ask about that! How does it work? Is it magic? Obviously, there has to be some magic to it, because where would you get ice here? I've heard of ice houses, but never seen something so small!"
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

nephero

That mildly sadistic moment of mirth over, Shea fell into what was rapidly becoming a familiar kind of silence. Rather than being overwhelmed by the amount Mei was throwing at him, he felt himself becoming used to it, and quickly. He kept his pace slow, to let the girl catch up and walk beside him, rather than having to awkwardly hobble after him.

He let her finish her string of questions, his arms casually folded as he led the way out and around to the small garden he had growing there. It, like the sign outside his shop, was barely lit by a single, fragile lantern, though the low light didn’t seem to bother him any. The same cat from his window hopped up onto the short fence that separated the garden from the rest of the dirt, and it scowled at the both of them from its perch.

“It was mostly a joke, but now that you mention it, I’m certain there are ways if one is sadistic enough. I doubt anyone has that kind of funding, though—and if they really could afford the time and money to torture cows for their milk, I somehow doubt they’d be satisfied for very long.” He gave Mei a very pointed look, complete with an exaggerated grimace that seemed more to drive his point home rather than out of disgust. “Those types rarely stick to animals.”

He bent down in front of a leafy patch, and sifted through the vegetation, plucking a few carrots up when he deemed them worthy of a meal. He lit up, however, when the topic turned to his cupboard.

“Ah, that is magic. Of the elemental family, I find myself particularly fond of water-based, specifically ice, magic. The trick of it, though, is less in the magic and more in the cupboard. You build it with hollow sides, you see, a layer of wood, pottery, straw stuffing, pottery and then wood again. And you do this for all six sides,” he was steadily becoming more and more animated, no longer focusing on his garden and more abstractly waving the few carrots he had unearthed around, as if in demonstration.

“It works much the same as say… a bed mat or something like that. It keeps warmth, or in this case, a severe lack of it, from leaving the cupboard. The magic portion is inside the cupboard. To one side, you build an iron box, and inside of the box, I blow a little frost into it—cold enough that it normally takes the better part of a sunny day to melt it—incidentally I highly advise against handling it with your bare hands, you will get one hell of a burn for it—but back to the topic at hand, slim iron rods fit into the box, and extend to the walls of the cupboard, and act as the shelves. And it all keeps it all… ah… quite… fresh.”

He seemed to realize then, just how much he had been talking this time, and his mouth snapped shut with thorough embarrassment. Well, that had all gotten far away from him, hadn’t it? He quickly moved to finish grabbing some vegetables, far less picky now that he was trying to hide his shame at just how damn excited he had gotten.


VIGILANCE WALKING THE TOAST
Characters here!

__guilds, yo__
The Territok Orcs // The Oratok Orcs // Fausteth // The Ashmen

Rhindeer

As Shea lost himself in the moment, Mei was enamored--that, and it was a nice change from the much darker topic before it. She watched him, transfixed by the change that came over him, how animated he was! Even gesturing with the carrots, which looked really silly on a man of his size who had, upon meeting him, seemed so serious. But she'd since seen him laugh, and now he was all excited, and dear Inima but there were few things so attractive as a man that was passionate about learning.

Her fingers twitched, itching for the parchment and charcoal she'd left behind in Shea's home. She would have to sit him down and get him to go over it again and do a detail sketch of his cupboard. It was brilliant!

When he trailed off, Mei didn't let the silence linger very long. If she had noticed his shame, she didn't show it.

"That. Is. AMAZING!" she gushed, hands clasped together as she gazed up at him. She followed after him, sticking close.

"Such wonderful technology! That's pure genius! Oh, you're going to have to go over it again, in detail, with me later! As you can imagine, keeping things cool in a tropical climate is tricky at best--only the rich can afford that sort of thing, everyone else has to preserve their foods the old fashioned way. Oh, unless they're an entropymancer, but as you can imagine, even that gets tricky! But this? This sounds so much more accessible. Granted, the magic is problematic..."

She rubbed her chin, smearing more charcoal from her fingers onto her skin. "Where I come from, elemental magic is...well, no offense intended, but it's not good, I'll put it that way! One shouldn't dabble in things we weren't meant to dabble in, natural order and all that--oh! But mind you, I'm not opposed to you doing that! A scholar must be open to observing the ways other people do things. And between you and me, I can see the practical uses of such an ability. It would certainly be useful! Just not a very good idea. If everyone started using ice magic in a tropical nation, what would that do to the land? I'm talking about Thanatos, of course. That's where I'm from, if you couldn't guess."

And maybe he couldn't, if he'd never met someone from there! And while she had a Thanati accent, her Common was rather flawless. She'd learned it from a young age.
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

nephero

Oh, oh, now she had him. It took him a moment to realize that the odd feeling in his chest was flushed pride, his prior embarrassment completely forgotten in the face of finally being appreciated for his work. Given, the icebox was merely a tool he had had to come up with some time ago just out of necessity, and it hardly counted as more than a side-project. But for once, it wasn't all about the devilry of magic and how it would doom them all.

Azang within, sometimes he felt like beating his head against the wall.

But here, here was a little delight who appreciated the endeavor, small thing that it was, and he found his fondness of her growing exponentially. It was like looking back through time, to what he had once hoped for-- a little imprint on the world that wasn't just the hoarding of knowledge but rather the imparting of it.

The tang of bitterness stronger than he had expected, he abandoned that train of thought. He frowned a bit, confused by just what she was trying to say. No elemental magic? No meat? What kind of bizarre culture was this? Had he let himself slip up on current events that badly?

This entire jump was just becoming one giant mess. A complete disaster. Good job, sir, you are proving yourself quite capable and not at all losing your mind.

"I don't... I'm sorry, I seem to be having difficulty wrapping my head around it all. You don't eat meat... and you don't study elemental magic? I mean, I suppose you could hire an iceman if you really wanted to avoid it, but... to openly reject the holiest of things, I just..."

This was all dizzying. Far more dizzying than the ban on magic altogether. At least that had a perceivable source-- fear was a powerful thing, that was easy enough to understand. Or maybe he was reading this all wrong. Maybe it wasn't rejection so much as overdone reverence? But even then, why wouldn't one want to take the divine into them as often as possible?


VIGILANCE WALKING THE TOAST
Characters here!

__guilds, yo__
The Territok Orcs // The Oratok Orcs // Fausteth // The Ashmen

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