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Dusty:
Race: Construct
Age: ??
Height: 3 meters
Weight: ??
Class: n/a
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Zurssaroi:
Race: Mercury Dragon (bidepal form)
Age: 800* (at the very least)
Height: 235cm
Weight: n/a
Class: n/a
"do i deserve this?" "am i worthy of this?"
so irrelevant. do you want it?
Session 66 - Tower Defence
Vinny, Mars and Cimmorro mess around in the evening.
After the party have begun settling in and amusing themselves around the tower, Vinny takes on Mars' offer of help in transporting their traveling gear as well as the items he'll need for their dragon heart experiments.
They set the items around one of the desks in the acolyte dorm room at Vinny's instruction, preparing parchment, glass beakers and rune inscribed accoutrements, alongside vinny's travel brewing gear. Vinny also sets the heart out on top some wax paper, doing his best to cover the expanse of the desk so none of their messing about leaves any mess behind, almost a little too neurotically as he does his best to be a good and cleanly guest.
As they go about it he chatters along to Mars about various wayward thoughts about dragon biology that have no real bearing on the experiment, and is more-so related to his chattiness having been brought out by their prior conversation with mars' prompting. It takes a bit of time but as they finish setup vinny leans back and folds up his sleeves with a satisfied huff
Vinny: "hmm.. i think that should be all we need, thank you again for your assistance mars" Mars: "Its a lot more than I thought..." He comments, whether he means the dragon biology tangents or the various knick-knacks Vinny tries to keep clear is a bit uncertain. "Ah- but its really no trouble at all, happy to help." Some of this is his stuff too. A small portion of it. Off in a corner- anyway. "So when are you starting this whole..." He gestures to the whole setup as he tries to recall what the name is all this equipment being set up, but his mind simply draws a blank. "This." With one final gesture he tries to imply the whole thing. Vinny: he smiles at mars before putting a hand to his chin in thought, glancing back at the table, cutting off his dragon tangents for the time being "Well, whenever cimmorro comes by to find us, the heart wont exactly spoil in the mean time. This took us a little longer than i expected to set up so i imagine he'll come around soon" he glances back at mars "if you're hungry though feel free to grab something to eat in the meanwhile" Mars:"Think I'm good for now..." For now he just lets Silva out to let her stretch her legs. While he's sorting through what little belongings he managed to have, Silva curiously inspects the room, hopping on surfaces and bobbing around to get a better understanding of it. When she's finally bored with one corner she makes her way to Vinny, who she regards with a bit of shock and then more beady eyed curiosity. Vinny: he nods at mars before glancing at silva as she flitters around before landing on one of the nearby bunkbeds. he glances towards her before tilting his head with an easy smile "hello again, no need to be scared, er... what was your name again..." he stares at her in thought trying to recall it
Silva: She seems a little affronted that she's been considered scared as she hops up on to the table and lets out her most quiet screech, as if Vinny can somehow understand that she's named Silva. And right as she walks over to inspect Vinny's more delicate looking equipment (all while looking at Vinny still...), Mars speaks up without turning around, stopping the bird in its tracks. Mars: "Silva, stop bothering the man." Silva: Annoyed that she's been foiled, she simply sits still on the table, this time glaring at Mars instead who finally turns around, exasperated. Mars: "Apologies Vil, she's a little bored." Vinny: he glances at silva completely uncomprehending of her body language like :NYORON: ❓ as mars speaks up, he turns his head back in his direction a little amused "no problem, and that was her name, yes!" Jasper: in the midst of these two's conversation, a familiar scribble of void comes to view: jasper. she trots by the opening of the door but doesn't cross its threshold. her eyes dart around every corner of the room as she inspects, giving an extra moment to stare at the setup on the desk before settling her saffron yellow orbs between mars and vinny.
Vinny: he glances at one of the tiny circular shaped windows in the wall "well, could always open one of these up and let her go for a little night flight-" as he's speaking he glances back at mars, though abruptly stops mid sentence as he does, noticing jasper in the doorway. He stares for a few seconds before realising its actually her. A sunny smiles soon blooms on his cat-biased face "Oh, Jasper! what're you wandering around on your own for girl..." he starts to walk over towards her by the door like kitty... kitty... ☺️ Mars: A night flight's not a bad idea... Even Silva's intrigued at the suggestion. Though when Vinny stops speaking midway through, the two of them turn to see what's caught his interest: One Jasper :CATGE: . Still somewhat new around her, Mars stays still to see what she'd do next, which is the exact opposite of what Silva does, which is to hop on over to inspect the new, similarly sized creature. Jasper: she eyes silva, similarly curious since the last time they got close the other didn't seem to welcome her, but her attention gets caught by vinny calling to her. she regales him with her signature genial blink and attempts to approach until she seems struck with a realization and steps back instead. here, she stands up straight on her hind legs, posture flawless as she tips her head, lifts up a wing and meows.
Vinny's not really sure what she's conveying. it's strange at least. not something you've seen her do. she gets back on all fours and leaves down the hall without so much as another blink. she's never denied you before! puzzling... Mars on the other hand garners she's doing a salute with her wing and an affirmative nod, as if her inspection of the room is to her satisfaction. even though she somewhat looks like a child that's playing pretend, she seems to take this seriously and probably heading check the room where the other half of the party is at.
Vinny: he pauses his approach as she does wondering if if he's somehow upset her with a wrong move, though doubtful, before she hops to her hind legs and lifts a wing. He pauses instead curious now, before watching her trot off on her own satisfied down the hall "hm, off to do something I suppose...?" he's somewhat perplexed but more curious than anything, though he does wish she might have let him pet her a little before she went on her way... maybe cimmorro sent her to do something? might explain why she's on her own. Mars: the gesture seems to be understood by the two, who for once seem to be in sync. While Mars just quietly regards her display pleasantly before waving her off, Silva leans out the doorframe and does her best to wave her off from there"Think she's just checking up on us, y'know, making sure we didn't break anything." The last statement seems to make him look pointedly at Silva, who sheepishly flies back from the door and rest on his shoulder. Vinny: vinny glances down the hallway before walking back towards the desk "i wasn't aware she was so dutiful!" he smirks as he messes around with a few other items on the tabletop idly "im sure silva knows some of this is very sensitive equipment... i would hate for her to blow a couple feathers off her head by accident" he saying it as a joke to mars but in the way a child wouldn't be able to tell if he was being serious or not Mars: At that, Silva seems to screech at Vinny in a manner that seems insulted, likely over how she's being treated like a child. She's a woman with a job for heaven's sake!!!! Without looking at the bird flapping on his shoulder, Mars chastises her. "Now, now Silva. You did want to rattle the man." And suddenly she's quiet, unable to beat the accusation. After a solid pause, she lets out a quieter peep, were she a humanoid it'd seem like she was begrudgingly apologizing. "She says she'll be careful from now on." Vinny: vinny laughs a little under his breath at how quickly she got worked up at his comment but tempers it before he turns around to face the two again with a neutral expression "I appreciate your cooperation silva, thank you" he leans back against the table, folding his arms with a smile Mars: Feathers still ruffled, Silva let's out a final sound of resignation, though she's far from downtrodden. The kind of petty anger one has from knowing they've been embarrassed. At the very least, she won't be actively messing with Vinny anymore, as she sits perfectly straight upon his shoulder. "She'll warm up to you. Eventually." Shame they won't have time though... Unless Ezra makes him visit Vinny. Maybe? But that's way off in the future. Vinny: vinny tilts his head amused "let's hope with the little time i have i'll end up charming her"
Cimmorro: around the hallway, cimm's voice can be heard in the distance, chipper as he catches up to some more clergy members that noticed his arrival now. it doesn't take too long for him to finally announce his presence at the mouth of the door, however. "ahem," he clears his throat and leans by the doorframe with a flourish of his hair. "i was told that this room lacks sex appeal. i'm here to fix that," he says, choosing to emphasize his conceit with a smug twirl as he welcomes himself in.
Vinny: he can hear cimm's approach from the hall and smiles, though as he enters the room he stares in silence. After a few seconds he turns his head with a snort, laughing silently into his hand for a moment before turning his head back "you do know how to make an entrance..." Mars: There's a noticable silent, maybe awkward pause before Mars just let's out a single laugh at how absurd and sudden that was. Clearing his throat at the sudden loss of composure, he speaks with his mouth hiding behind a fist. "Think you're in the wrong room." Cimmorro: cimm gives the two an elated side eye before letting out his own laughter, pleased he's amused them so. he then shifts to playing huffy, standing in front of mars, acting like he's sizing him up. "confident, are we? prove it." go on, twirl for me. Mars: "I think I'm ill suited for such a thing. You wanna give it a go Vil?" With carefree nonchalance. Vinny: he blinks over at mars and laughs to hide the embarrassment at the sudden prompt "w-why do I have to prove it when you said it...!?" Cimmorro: cimm turns to mars like this rn
Mars: "Well. You see." He's got nothing. Though he looks to Vinny like we both do not wanna do this lets be serious now. "Anyway! The potion?" Cimmorro: cimm's ego practically grows enough in size that it's suffocating in this room even though he's not really doing anything but triumphantly laugh like an ojou-sama. "a smart man knows how to pick his fights, i'll commend you for that!" more ojou-sama laugh Vinny: vinny holds back from laughing again at their exchange but smirks and shakes his head a little at mars as if to say 'you did this to yourself'. Though soon enough he uncrosses his arms and pushes off from the table he was leaning against "yes yes, if were all still interested in it" he turns and glances back at the desk "everything's all set up, should be good to start messing around..." he begins to stroke his chin as he ponders the first steps he wants to take Cimmorro: "there, there, marsy. it's great you've joined us, anyhow," he chirps as he pets mars' cheek a couple of times before cheering, "the more the marsy-er...!" when he turns to vinny, he looks just as ecstatic as a child with a new dollhouse seeing the setup as he waddles over to the desk. "my, oh, my! where do we begin? and... will i be able to assist or is this only observational?" he pries his eyes from the appurtenances to look up at vinny with sparkling, pleading eyes-- ever so eager a learner. Mars: he just looks like this while waiting for vinny to start with a tiny little "bluh." at the horrid pun, failing horribly at maintaining his usual neutrality.
Vinny: vinny shoots one more amused glance at mars before relenting to help him save a little face. cimmorro's exuberance is a little more distracting either way, and he gives the man's expression a sunny smile while patting him on the shoulder "you'll be able to assist! there's a few parts i wont be able to do on my own without all my tools" he glances back at the heart where it lays "first thing ill be trying to do is extract some of the magical essence from the core to brew a potion..." he leans over the table and picks up a small metal weight, the size of his thumb and presses it against the flesh of the heart. as he releases it it stays in place, clinging to the exterior as if magnetically attracted "though i recommend you remove any jewellery on your hands beforehand" he laughs "good sign though, means most of it is still in there.." he eyes it curiously before looking back at cimmorro and mars "after that, we brew the potion and let it set, and then if you want we can do some anatomical study on the rest of it" he puts a hand to his chin in thought "flesh should be good to eat too... maybe...?" Cimmorro: he doesn't do it, but he's not hiding at how he would've jumped up and down in excitement knowing he will have a hands-on role in the experiment.
Cimmorro: continuing to listen and watch closely to vinny's explanation and demonstration though, he goes, "oh!" at the precaution of jewelry then nods. he isn't wearing much as he usually would and is actually a little bit more dressed down for the evening, so it doesn't take long for him to peel the handful of pieces off (he also took off the ones that aren't on his hands just to be sure!) and set them aside. the excitement dwindles a little at the topic of the probably edible flesh and cimm makes an unsure expression. "um, i wouldn't know how to prepare that.. what if it's like pufferfish, you know?" he stares at the heart on the table for a moment, now wondering the same for the other meat they've carved for rations. "maybe we can find a recipe for it in the archives after this..." food poisoning on the road would be horrible, especially from a source he's not familiar of. Mars: Mars is mostly focused on trying to remember everything Vinny talked about earlier regarding this process and what he'll need from them. Though considering how much Vinny actually said, maybe it'd be better to have him tell them what to do as they come. The sudden talk of eating the heart makes him pause fiddling with a vial though. "...Wouldn't it be... kind of gamey?" He seems like he's giving heart eating some solid consideration, but the practicalities are holding him back. The heart's a muscle right... and the Cobalt Dragon was a big dragon. Half heartedly, he thinks eating the heart of a dragon they slew sounds like something out of some fairy tale, but here they are considering it like any other meat for a barbeque in a dorm room. Vinny: he continues smiling at cimmorro's excitement as he goes to remove his jewellery. He didn't expect his last question to garner much interest, he glances back at them with a raised brow, still smiling "ive read a few accounts of people who've cooked dragon flesh before, its one of the exotic meats scholars are usually overeager to write about" he glances back at the heart "granted... it was the more exterior flesh not the heart... but the flesh didn't seem to need any special preparation outside the usual, red dragons apparently have an inherent salty heat to them, iron's a bit like old coins..." he tilts his head staring at the heart again, thinking "rather than for pure enjoyment as a cooked meal, im more just curious what magnetism tastes like..."
Mars: Is magnetism really something that has a taste... well now he's also curious. He just stares at the heart deep in thought as Vinny continues on and thinks he's rather enthusiastic about this. Speaking of enthusiastic people. "... Think Plum would like this." He thinks aloud idly as he recalls them vaguely saying something about the liver. Cimmorro: "if you put it that way... i can't say i'm not intrigued by the flavor of it now too..." he crosses his arms and goes hmmmmmm... what to do... he looks almost swayed by it until mars brings up plum, to which cimm can't help but have his face sour a little as he recalls their stomachache problem. what if it worsens it?! "...err, we can decide if we are to consume it later since we need to extract first anyway, no?" Vinny: he turns his attention to mars "true! i should speak to them about that brew they wanted to make again..." he seems a little chipper about the prospect as he turns to cimmorro with a laugh after at his concern "i wouldn't ask anyone else to try any of this, these are mostly my own whims after all" he glances back at the heart though, understanding of his attempt to shuffle them along to talk not relating to consuming it.
Vinny sidles up to the table proper and ushers them to stand on either side of him.
Vinny: "i've already mostly prepped the potion base, so we can immediately combine it after extracting the essence..." he gestures at mars and indicates towards a small cauldron containing a semi clear blue liquid, a heated stone laid beneath "you can add a few more components to that while we extract" vinny slides mars a few vials and a tiny stringed bag containing what looks like rock salt, indicating the amounts and order to add. staring at the tools, cimmorro recognises them from when he brewed the potions on the airship with him and han.vinny then gestures between cimmorro and the heart and smirks "you want to hold it or cut it?" Mars: Overly complex potions never really were his strong suit... And he's not the one who typically enjoys the process of brewing potions in the first place. So he does his best to follow Vinny's instructions to the letter. Who knows when one of these might blow up in his face Cimmorro: envious of it, cimm pouts the slightest when mars gets assigned to mixture duty. but i wanna do that, too..., he thinks briefly. but whatever droopiness he had the moment prior to vinny's question gets wiped clean off as he perks up with an open smile. "oh! oh! incisions~!" he makes grabby hands over the table where the heart rests. mixing he can do any day, but dissecting a dragon heart? well, that's a once in a goddess-bestowed-lifetime opportunity! Vinny: he glances back over at mars briefly as he watches him carefully go about the potion mixing process with an easy smile "take it slow, you've got it" he'd clap mars on the shoulder if he didnt think itd jostle him out of his concentration. at cimm 's eagerness he refocuses on him and smirks again "i figured you would" he leans over the table and hands over a tool similar in size to a scalpel before he moves slightly, positioning himself to the side as he takes hold of the heart at the base, keeping it steady with both hands "you'll need to make a series of T incisions riiiiiight at the top, leading to the centre with that" he tilts his head after at another tool on the desk that look like long tweezers "then, cut the core from the centre, extract it, and drop it into the cauldron over there" he glances back at cimmorro's face as he finishes "simple enough process, just do your best to not pierce the actual core with any of the tools. It'll be radiating arcane energy so once we cut in itll spill out a little, dont be too surprised by the small burst of energy that blows out"
Cimmorro: cimm takes the scalpel and examines it as well as the heart in vinny's hands more closely while listening to him. pretty used to patients having seizures during operations, he thinks he'll be fine regarding vinny's small warning, but it's nice to know anyway, so he gives him a affirming nod. after taking a moment to slide a couple of hair clips to affix his fringe away from his eyes, he assumes a focused and well-trained position as he positions the blade at the top. he doesn't start yet, but shoots a glance at vinny as if to check if the man is as ready as he is. he'll make the first incision as soon as he gets an affirmative. Mars: "Riiight..." Well he wasn't nervous before, merely concentrated, but now he is. Does his best not to let it show though. The fact that the vials feel too thin in his hands is not helping. Worrying's pointless though, so he just keeps at it. He does occasionally stop to take a peek at what Cimm and Vinny are doing. He'll likely pause to watch the first cut made because what the hell does "it'll burst out but don't worry" mean. Vinny: pleased with how mars is going along he keeps his eyes on the heart. Waiting for cimmorro he almost instinctively takes on a teaching tone of voice and manner the other mans probably already familiar with at this point. "The first few layers of flesh will require more force, as you get in you'll need to ease up gradually. Nothing too complicated, same position each time" he gives cimmorro a nod as if to say go ahead. Cimmorro: "right," another nod then announces, "making the incision-" and for both mars and vinny, cimm's demeanor completely shifts to diligently focused which would feel like a complete stranger if not for this sight being familiar to both of them. to cimm, there's nothing else in this room but him, this blade, this organ, and vinny's voice guiding him as he cuts through the first layer. Vinny: Vinny watches cimmorro cut in with careful attention and nods pleased at his efforts.
After the initial puncture a small gust of energy, tinged a siver and blue colour, expels from the cut and they watch the heart decompress ever so slightly. After it settles, Vinny nods for Cimmorro to go on. A combination of Cimm's familiarity and Vinny's guidance allows them to make quick work of cutting through the outer flesh, hard to think its Cimmorro's first attempt at cutting open a dragon heart.
Once he reaches the section closest to the core he can see a mass of tough red and blue flesh pulsating with light and an arcane energy.
Vinny: Vinny gestures to it as he speaks "That'll be the core, see the smaller veins leading all around? That's where you'll make the cuts" he then moves one hand to gesture at the specific location "Tha-aat is the tissue infused with magic, which is why its turned that blue colour, acts as a good guide. The colour changes depending on the dragon type, this ones fairly easy to differentiate" he settles both his hands again as he waits for Cimmorro to make the more delicate incisions. Mars: A complicated series of thoughts go through Mars' head as he pauses to watch the sudden light show, such as how he didn't expect the heart to be blue. But ultimately he just tucks that all away as 'Cool' in his head as the two make more cuts Cimmorro: as the flesh finally gives way to their goal, he breaks out of his focus and pulls back in awe at it as he would when discovering a gemstone he deems worthy for offering. he oohs and aahs while studying the layers of tissue and muscle that surrounds it, as well as planning the swiftest route for the next round of cuts. as vinny points and explains the arcane tissue, he tilts his head curiously at it. "do we use that for the potion as well? and wouldn't eating that bear more interesting results?" he asks straightforwardly. it seems as though his earlier hesitation of the idea of consuming any of it has left the room.
Vinny: he glances at cimmorro and raises a brow somewhat amused "came around quickly, did you?" he looks back at the heart while smiling as he goes on, explaining further to both men "we need to distill the energy from the core, placing it in the brew dilutes it and makes the energy more effective on the one intaking it, and safer for consumption. We wont actually be eating or drinking the physical part we extract" he glances back over at mars handling the cauldron then down again "you should never ingest something strongly infused with arcane energy directly, its not unlike taking poison. Most peoples bodies aren't built to handle it... hence why i only considered trying the outer flesh" he briefly recalls giving finn the same warning after he bit into the dragons throat gland and laughs a little bitterly to himself "This is also the reason most crafted for-sale magic comes in the form of potions, the diluting process inherently makes them safer to ingest. Most alchemist study is about learning how to better retain a components arcane potency during said process, and not have it become too weakened.." as he speaks he continues eyeing the core as if taking mental notes on how it differs from the one he'd handled years ago Cimmorro: cimm listens to the end with a curious hum while eyeing the heart. he figured as much, though can't help but wonder what the actual symptoms it would incur on someone so that he can identify it when needed. "you say it's like poison... so, lethal stomach ache? paralysis? or something more venomous?" if cimm were to think out loud, he'd say it would a little disappointing if these were the case, in an arcane scholar's eyes, at least. for something magically concentrated, he'd expect something more grand... as a medic, however, this is more... merciful for those that end up succumbing to it. Mars: "Maybe more... Disintegrating from the inside?" His tone is one of indifference, and he's hardly an expert, though he imagined eating something that concentrated would be the equivalent of eating fantasy battery acid. As the theatrics subside, he goes back to following the next step in Vinny's instructions
Vinny: he nods at the both of you "it can differ depending on the type of magic... though yes the more intense the power the more dangerous" he tilts his head as if recalling something told to him years ago "simpler things would let you off with a stomach ache for a few hours, its usually just referred to as arcane poisoning in that case. If you ate something elementally infused with water you could end up puking buckets the entire time though" he makes a lopsided face picturing it "as i said, effects besides the stomach-ache vary..." he taps his fingers against the heart idly as he goes on "As i recall the more potent the more similar it becomes to ah... as mars suggests, complete bodily rejection, too raw to infuse with the person, very quickly lethal if not removed" He glances down at the heart once more "though dragons carry potent natural arcane energy, it is dispersed throughout their entire larger bodies. So even eating their core theoretically, wouldn't be as lethal as..." he realises what hes about to say sounds extremely morbid despite only meaning it in the theoretical, but he coughs and continues on "...swallowing a pixie whole, but i would still advise against trying it... unless you'd like to weather the stomachache" Cimmorro: at the mention of magic essence being spread along the creature's body, there's a trace of satisfaction in cimm's expression that essentially clicks as 'that makes sense,' so he nods with as he ohhs. "perhaps my ma was on the right track to be so fixated on them," he looks up thoughtfully and curiously. "if i knew we were going to encounter one at all, i probably would've paid better attention to her documents of 'em... but now i have a reason to dust off her office after this. swallowing a pixie sounds like a wild trip though- painful, but imagine the things that would flash behind your eyes!" he snickers at the thought. Mars: He was joking about total annihilation. He didn't think that was real. The pixie example gives him pause though. "Why would anyone eat a pixie." Seems a bit rude really.
Vinny: he lets out an awkward laugh "well... some people do hunt them for their components, i wouldn't be surprised if i'd heard its a delicacy in some parts" he nods his head after "though, yes. i agree. very, uh, hard to picture." he shakes his head raising an eyebrow at Cimmorro's suggestion that eating one wouldn't be unlike getting high before glancing at him, slightly curious about the mention of documents "your mother has such an interest in dragons?" Cimmorro: "maybe, rather than willingly eating a pixie, i can imagine the pixies themselves using it as a last act of defiance. like a honeybee stinging a predator even if it kills itself-- or, like finnian diving into that dragon's nasal cavity," he laughs at the thought again before turning to vinny with a nod "she's filled her office with stacks of books, scrolls and just about anything about 'em," he almost scratches the side of his face as he recalls it, catching himself before the bloodied fingers make contact. "it was something i'd hear willow make side comments of every now and then. so, if i wanted to learn more about this," he points at the heart. "i'd start there." Vinny: he considers the thought a little confused recalling his own various encounters with the creatures "they probably have a few more tricks up their sleeves before they'd have to resort to jumping in your mouth..." he starts to shake the thought away as the man continues on about his mother "she wouldn't mind you snooping?" he smiles "would have been nice to go though before we had to fight it though, i agree" he glances back at the heart as if to gesture for them to continue extracting the core while chatting, shooting another glance at mars's brewing progress. Mars: he's not sure if pixies are that tenacious but a lack of experience with them leaves him a little unsure... He makes a vague mental note that cimm's mother is interested in dragons, maybe a hobby or something? Dragon enthusiasm isn't entirely strange considering... well everything about them really, he can see it happen.... As for his brewing progress, its starting up again, slowed down slightly by the heart's light show and getting back into this task. But he's keeping apace, though the conversation around him starts to fade in the background a little as he tries to focus.
Cimmorro: "if she doesn't want me to snoop then she should be around to stop me!" he harrumphs with a pout. "...and besides, all those informative books could find more use in the archives." he starts to route his incisions again as he prepares to continue their extraction, eyeing vinny the same way to signal he's ready. Vinny: he looks a little amused at cimmorro's pouting "knowing your tendency to spelunk who knows, maybe she left you a little treasure hunt in there..." he own thoughts are piqued by curiosity at the supposed informative tomes that lay within, a high priestess of a church dedicated to protecting knowledge is sure to have quite a few strange things. He steadies the heart for cimm to make the incisions around the core for extraction, tilting his head to indicate which spot would be best for him to start cutting. Cimmorro: "for someone who voices out his concerns about my snooping habits, you sure know how to incentivize me..." he looks at vinny with an amused raise of his brow then starts the next round of incisions. Vinny: he lets out a tired laugh "i've given up trying to convince you otherwise at this point, maybe finding you a chaperone instead will keep you safer. besides your mother would probably be the most lenient of your targets... i hope...?" he thinks the way he's discussed her before they probably have an amicable enough relationship but his brief self doubt voices itself nonetheless.
As Cimmorro moves on to make the final incisions he carries out the work with a speedy grace, immediately intuiting the exact points to cut with the briefest guidance from Vinny. after a few minutes the core is free from its fleshy confines and held easily in Cimmorro's grasp, carefully and expertly between two long thin stone tools, acting like tweezers.
Vinny: he smiles as he leans back, removing his hands from the heart as he no longer needs to hold it steady "ahh incredible work, cimm! your prior experiences probably helped, but you took to that like a duck to water, not a single blemish on her!" he beams outwardly pleased at the extreme success, staring intently at the core with curiosity. he babbles a little as he points at sections of the core, as if to elaborate further on cimmorro's good handling before looking back in the direction of mars and walking over to glance at his progress "give this another twenty seconds id say and we can drop it in..." he softly pats mars on the back, cheered on by cimmorro's success still smiling "great work as well mars" Mars: The blue-ish parts of the core intrigued him somewhat now that he can see it a bit more clearly. Blue blooded or even blue fleshed creatures do exist, but he hasn't seen one that had both. <- everyday he learns something new. A bit of tension leaves him as Vinny says it'll be over soon (yippee he didnt somehow accidentally mix bleach and chlorine to make mustard gas). Though he's not sure how deserving he is of praise considering he was basically just following instructions. Still a part of him can't help but be pleased still as he bashfully lets out a "... Thanks." Before continuing to fiddle and stir for the next twenty or so seconds. And stir he does, when the second's up and the solution's properly mixed he announces his completion. "Its done." Cimmorro: i'm envisioning the exact thing my surgeon did to me when he was reattaching my nerve endings on my finger and it was him humming to a song while he was digging into my flesh and, out of nowhere, just taps me on the shoulder to excitedly show me my open finger without any warning whatsoever (he was like a 4 year old child excited to show me a house and sun drawing he did) TLDR IT WAS NASTY anyway that's what i imagine cimm's doing rn to that core, holding it out to give vinny and mars a chance to see it, going "look, look!" and pointing out parallels of it (and ones that are unique to it) he can compare from humanoid bodies, chiming in between vinny's own babbling. intertwined with cimm's excitement is of course his own smugness that the other two are well familiar of, and is expected after all the praise he's gotten. (insert sherlock dgs 'that deduction was so hot you'd hardly believe this detective is single and lonely' except it's incision and surgeon.) when mars signals for the mixture, he cheers as well with a quick "yay!" then he glances between mars and vinny. "do either of you want to do the honors?" he offers while holding out he core for them to take. he's had his fun, and he wasn't oblivious to how fascinated both of them were so he wants to share the experience.
Vinny: as the nerd babbling with cimmorro ends, vinny wipes his hands briefly off on a nearby cloth before folding his arms, still smiling excitedly at the display "it's your first, i should leave the honours to you! the rest of my job kicks in afterwards anyway" he gestures at the remaining ingredients he seemingly has yet to instruct mars to add to the brew "not a worry though mars, i can take over for you from this point" Cimmorro: cimm just goes o3o "if you say so~~" then turns to mars "what about you, marsy?" he juts the core towards him and back like he's baiting a fish. Mars: Mars scoffs a little bit in a lol manner, not in an arrogant or asshole kind of way. "Go ahead." And he lets cimm and vinny do what they need to do o3o. Cimmorro: cimm's going to briefly blow raspberries at mars' direction thinking he's no fun before he dunks the core in, following vinny's directions if there's any Mars:
Vinny: vinny briefly 'haha's' in his head over their exchange like watching two old friends bicker before waiting for cimmorro drop the core in, the brew pulses with the small light the core lets off and makes a faint fizz and pop. he smiles afterwards and claps cimm on the shoulder "great! now i'll just..." he moves to stand in front of the brew and grabs a few of the untouched components on the table, dropping a few in in increments and stirring it gently "those, to stabilise, and then..." he thinks for a moment a hand on his chin before grabbing two corked vials filled with the throat gland fluid from before "this should have some sort of additional effect..." he empties the vials into the brew, as he does the surface takes on a blue silvery sheen and he grins "interesting, they're definitely effecting something... i guess we'll see when its done?" he idly continues stirring it for a minute or so Mars: 0_0 <- whoaaa it changed colors "When's it done then...?" Cimmorro: once again cimm watches in awe in between taking mental notes of what vinny put in, likely asking some questions regarding the components as well. he looks like (the gif) as he watches the mixture for a moment longer, grateful that mars raised one of the questions in his mind. "and nothing's exploded so far... i take it we're going in a good direction...?" he recalls vinny's previous hesitance to attempt this experiment.
Vinny: he continues to stir it while he speaks "i'll do this for another minute or two and then we let the mixture sit for the night..." he glances inside at its general look again "come tomorrow i'll drain the liquid, keep it as pure as possible in the process and bottle it..." he looks back at the other two smiling "afterwards it'll be ready to drink, and i'll know by then if the additional fluid has given it any other properties. The original brew is one that allows someone to gain the benefits of a dragon's constitution for some time, maybe even traits since we cut it so well. I'm hoping the throat gland fluid may allow for breath abilities... but we'll see" he finishes stirring at the end of his explanation "but it looks promising so far...!" Cimmorro: "aww, that long, huh?" not really that miffed by it, he shrugs, well aware all good things take time. as vinny explains, he moves over to help clean the work surface, wiping the tools and whatnot. "assuming it's completely stable, how many potions would it be able to make?" he asks as he eyes the pot. it's small so probably not a whole lot, he thinks. Vinny: he covers the cauldron with a small lid akin to a pot's before helping wipe up himself, and put away his own tools "that's pretty short time honestly, but the items we got were pretty fresh so it's easier to bring out the purity" he looks back over in cimm's direction as he thinks "hmm... id say two good doses at best? if all goes well anyway" Cimmorro: "y'hear that? be a good little mixture for us, pretty pleaaase~! we worked so hard and so are youuuu!" he dotes on the cauldron in a singsong way, hands still busy on cleaning. now with most of the things being put away, the rest of the heart sticks out like a sore thumb on the desk. "do you still plan on taking a nibble outta that?" he glances at vinny and points at the flesh left over. lonely and miserable. Vinny: vinny laughs to himself at cimmorro before he glances back over at the heart. he puts his hands on his hips as he stares at it in thought for a moment before responding "cut off some strips and compost the rest..? maybe we can roast them in a stew" Mars: "Should help soften it..." He squints as if he's actually contemplating it now.
Cimmorro: "... are you guys not curious of the raw flavor?" he asks genuinely also a bit surprised. am i the only freak here <-- guy who was suggesting to cook it earlier Mars: "What- No- Well-" Mars' expressions hop from surprise to rejection to contemplation. The only thing meaty thing he'd consider eating raw is fish, and even then only under some conditions. "... I was under the assumption you shouldn't eat terrestrial creatures raw." But what the hell even is a dragon. Is it a lizard? Its certainly not mammalian. It had an underwater den, so its probably amphibious right? But can you even eat frogs raw? He doesn't know enough about any of that. Vinny: he raises a brow at cimmorro "you were the one who was apprehensive about it, no?" he seems slightly amused at how quickly flipped on the idea as he folds his arms, also taking in mars complaints "i figured cooking it would just make it taste better in general, but it'd be easier to compare to the taste of other meat... how often do you eat raw beef?" he gestures at the heart after Cimmorro: he responds to mars with "well, not usually but now I'm curious...!" and surely the goddess wouldn't let him keel over such a petty ailment! nuh uh! 🙂↔️ he was almost decided on it until vinny brings up his points. he stares blankly at the heart while also deliberately ignoring the man's first comment. but cimm does agree on the latter argument... he doesn't even recall the last time he ate raw meat, or if he enjoyed it at all. "fair enough... but we could boil some strips first and see what the natural flavor is... then the rest we can cook into a stew...!" he nods at himself, feeling satisfied with his own plan. "if it's good enough for one, of course!" Mars: Vinny bringing up beef makes him think it just tastes like beef now. Cimm's suggestion they boil it and try it without anything just earns him an 'eeehhhhhhh' as he contemplates a bit more, which is then followed up with a ".... Sssssure, why not." Might as well have it unseasoned if they're planning on actually doing anything to it. Vinny: he nods his head pleased at cimm "sounds like a sound plan" he walks in front of the heart and picks up a small sharp utensil to begin cutting into it "i'll start carving her up then, thank you er, miss cobalt dragon" he pats the heart gently before beginning to take strips out of it, laying them side by side on top of the wax paper he laid out on the table while continuing to chat "don't worry mars if you're still apprehensive about it i don't exactly plan on forcing you to try the thing, despite how quickly cimmorro's come around on the idea"
Cimmorro: "well, i want mars to eat with us!" he half-jokingly exclaims, huffing a bit with his hands to his hips. "we already stored away some of the meat for travel, anyway! he'll have to eat it at some point!" Mars: "Just because its a little dubious doesn't mean I won't try it..." Where'd these two get the idea that he wouldn't have a nibble? His apprehension? He'll try anything once tsk tsk. He does find the fact that they're starting with maybe the more outlandish cut of meat, and then working their way towards the rest of the dragon a bit amusing. Vinny: he smiles at Mars before finishing up his stripping of the outside "As long as were all willing im perfectly content" he crouches down to grab another pot, smaller than the one with the brew in it already and pours a cup of water inside, before setting it to a quick boil with his enchanted tools. After a minute or so he drops a few of the strips of flesh in watches them simmer "how long did we want to boil these exactly..." Cimmorro: he didn't expect to be doing this immediately but hey, why not. for science...! "they were pretty tough... maybe a good 30 minutes for starters? then we can check," he suggests while taking a seat on one of the beds. "would you two have anything to compare it to? based on what other monster flesh you've handled before." (cimm will open the ones in the room for ventilation) Mars: He's just eyeing the flesh strips in there when Cimm goes to sit. "Well I don't exactly do this often but if I had to gauge based on it's toughness..." Honestly? A giant crayfish is likely very different from a dragon, so... "I've no clue." He says after a long pause to catalogue what he's tried. "Cook till its cooked, I guess?" Vinny: Vinny leans against the desk and folds his hands again while he thinks "I don't eat much exotic meat, so no..." he continues thinking while glancing at the pot "if you had to guess do you think its closer to a frog or a lizard..."
As they stare at the pot, after a few minutes of boiling they do note the meats definitely changing colour slowly.
Cimmorro: "you guys are so helpful..." cimm comments sarcastically but no bite while he opens the window. "would be funny if the steam caused some sort of unintended effect though." Vinny: vinny snorts but tilts his head at the question "what...magnetic steam?" he glances at the pot once again silently as if beginning to head down some mental theoretical thought Mars: "What?" Mars is caught in between no that wouldn't be funny we'd be snorting the worst vape ever and the idea things might start levitating around the room. Because of magnetism. So yeah actually its good that cimm opened that window Cimmorro: cimm pouts once more. "watcha mean 'what?' come ooOOOooOOonnn... i thought we're here to study and experiment! a little theorizing can go a long way...!" he notes vinny starting to head off to his own world again and points at him. "see! look, i got your gears turning!" he points out with some sort of petty pride before he huffs. "well, if not the heart then i could talk about myself all night instead if you so wish!" half-jokingly offering it as a sort of grand favor they're being given the privilege of. he sighs like, woe is me. Vinny: vinny half laughs at being pointed at "well, i dont see any physical effects coming off the steam..." he waves a hand over it briefly to both indulge cimmorro but also his own curiosity at the thought before looking back at him "and after the amount of drinking games we've all done together, i don't think there's much i don't know about you" he tilts his head "unless you have more menacing geese stories to tell" Cimmorro: "ohhh! smart guy, huh? okay how about this: let's play a trivia game about... meeeee!!!!!" he makes a fanfare about it by conjuring confetti and trumpet noises around himself. think you're an expert of cimmjo now?! well let's put it to the test...!!
Mars: Clueless as usual, mars just looks between the two like this is what we're doing now, he supposes. Vinny: he glances at mars then back again at cimmorro folding his arms again slightly amused "i suppose we're not doping anything else for the moment..?" Cimmorro: he smirks. "if you two fail to answer correctly, you have to tell me an embarrassing secret! first questionnnnn.....!" of course he doesn't wait for them to object. "my birth was on a night like this," he begins and brings his hands together as he reminisces it dramatically (as if he had memories of it), swaying side to side. "but during the potent age of autumn instead. the coastal breeze chilly as they wept in harmony with my first cries! an unforgettable night for a first-time mother such as my own... for more reasons than one...!" his eyelids flutter as he looks up at the ceiling whimsically before turning to them with both hands to his hips, all expectant. "what phase was the moon in during my night of birth? you have 10 seconds!" the tapping of his foot initiates the countdown in motion. Mars: He was eyeing cimm a little suspiciously, in a where is he going with this manner, that when he hears the question he ends up a little indignant. What the hell kinda question- what kinda conditions!!! He never agreed to that <- futile. "Like you'd know?!" Unfortunately that is not an answer, and he knows it so he keeps racking his brain like he'd somehow come up with something and just looks at vinny like he suddenly doesn't know what the moon is. Cimmorro: he looks even more smug than before if it were even possible. "...9...8-- oh, but I Do! ...6..."
Vinny: he laughs at the question and also continues to be amused by mar's apparent stress at the question as if something grave were at stake here if he were to get it wrong "well we've got a 1 in 8 chance of guessing it right..?" he taps a finger to his chin as cimmorro counts down idly before speaking "waxing?" Mars: vinny you fool you don't get it this is life or death with cimm. "new moon." he says after vinny says waxing. Cimmorro: "correct!" he cheers towards vinny's direction. "specifically, a waxing crescent-- but i'll be merciful here, for both your sakes~" he chimes sweetly in mock innocence. "anyhow, the same night of bonfires and offerings in the scarlet sorceress' altars in all temples across portcus! some say i'm both a gift from and to her grace herself!" in reality it was mostly his mother that said that. nevertheless, he's undoubtedly enjoying the spotlight on himself right now. "this means marsy has to share something with us, how exciting!" he brings a hand over his mouth with a snicker before side eyeing vinny next. "but you! you won by guessing, so i'm not exactly impressed! hmph!" talk about knowing cimmjo but guessing anyway?! in the wise words of jinglyshine, pshkoh! Vinny: vinny continues smiling "it was an educated guess" he tilts his head slightly hand still on his chin "id heard about it before, that phase being special. I figured if it was something notable enough for you to remember then the two probably coincided, indeed a very special gift" he chuckles as he drops his hand, waving it "no credit for my thoughtful deduction i see" he eyes mars after like ehe sorry ^_^;... Cimmorro: cimm eyes vinny contemplatively, trying to not look too appeased by that by hiding it with a petty scowl. "...i'll think about it!"
Mars: His feeling of betrayal towards vinny is brief. Mars grumbles as he's told he has to share something and continues to :plumface: as the two explain their reasonings. How the hell is he supposed to know any of that? And a new moon is plenty poetic isn't it? He doesn't even know what'll be embarrassing enough for cimm, and he'd rather not have to share a second. Every tidbit he's got that he thinks is appropriate just has a little tiri like voice append him and go wahaha!!! Dude... that's so serious!!!. So mars just scratches his head in begrudging confusion. "I got... nothing?" What even counts for this freak, the very act of sharing is embarrassing enough. Cimmorro: he puts both of his hands to his hips. "are you trying to piss me off." it wasn't a question, not at all Mars: "Yes, its a little funny no?" He says dryly as he racks his brain for something embarrassing. As he thinks and taps his earring further and further in thought, he tries to think of the last few days. Both of them already know of his. Horrible trap incident with ezra that got him here, and they both know he's yelled at finn, as humiliating as it was to lose his shit so soon around new people. What's something they both don't know... His tapping stops momentarily when he remembers the moment he saw the two of them in the night before, where neither noticed him, and it was a frankly embarrassing moment for everyone all around in his opinion. "Ugh, fine..." he looks at the two and pouts. "That dinner your... noble friend treated us to, left it early not long after you two, yeah? And you know, something did happen to me that night..." Vinny: vinnys eyes widen a crack before he puts a hand to his mouth trying to play it off "o-oh? I didn't know you left too" he laughs a little awkwardly, it was in the city renowned for rowdiness at night... maybe a drunk just puked on him..? surely. surely. he starts to sweat a smidge Cimmorro: cimm's been staring at mars, unamused, as mars tried to think of something. this better be good, he thinks to himself. and when mars finally opens with something, cimms attention is immediately caught and he perks up. "oh...?! OOH....!!!" he brings both of his hands over his mouth while he gasps. "did you... DID SOMEONE TRY TO HOOK YOU UP?"
Mars: ohhh maybe he gets it a lil. He looks at vinny a little knowingly. "Yeah, couldn't remember why, wanted to turn in early I suppose." He really can't recall actually, probably something to do with being left at a dinner table with a guy he just yelled at. When cimm suggests that though he turns to him a bit amused. "What? No, nothing that exciting." He lets it linger for a second. "I must've been so tired i nearly fell off the platforms trying to get down, silly me." Vinny: he doesn't like being given a knowing look because he'd like to believe mars saw nothing and that's making this worldview difficult to continue inhabiting, and he's not about to ask how much. His face gets the slightest slightest bit red before he coughs briefly at cimm's interjection going in a completely different direction, he lets out a little sigh as he goes on "they should get higher railings, i was also a little curious how often drunks go tumbling off the sides...? then again maybe the mercenaries are tough enough they walk it off" Cimmorro: cimm looks like he's about to lunge at mars for delivering something so boring. but he did play by the requirements of "embarrassing secret," so... fuck! maybe he should've been more clear on how embarrassing it should've been. additionally, he notes that vinny has been so intrigued by the likelihood of people falling off of these since last night, so maybe it is that interesting to outsiders? whatever!! "we should've spent the night in the weary rest just so you could witness how many people get wheeled in. i don't think my words are on par with the experience. something to consider next time you two visit, i suppose." vinny can watch mars get wheeled in then! <-- being absolutely petty beyond belief. Mars: On some level he knows how cheap that was, so he just lazily takes cimm's want to pop his other eye out of his skull. It does take him a second though to realize what cimm's implying and he just shrugs at what he's detected as cimm's annoyance. "I don't typically get that tired, that was a new kind of cliché for me too." It would be embarrassing if its true, at the very least. Vinny: trying to continue the flow of the conversation he keeps on the railing route despite cimms frustration at his own game being sidestepped somewhat amusing him, though he is also somewhat perplexed by the pathways "id say its a safety hazard but what isnt in that city at this point. Youd think the sunite and jasidians would join forces on the former's beautification front to enchant them and bring injuries to an all time whopping city low" vinny is already doing his best to forget mars implied anything
Mars: with that backfiring, he'll take the small, unrelated victory that he managed to accrue and stops digging into it. he didn't intend for it to actually get to vinny so he just sheepishly adds to the city's safety problem with a shrug. "I feel like if it was a bigger problem, they'd do more about it. so the fact that it is what it is, probably means its pretty rare that anything even happens really." He wonders even if the sunite church and jasidan church can do anything about it. He does eventually turn to cimm. "well, was that good enough for you?" AKA: DROP THIS. Cimmorro: cimm sticks his tongue out childishly at mars, completely uninterested in the fence talk. if they tried to bring up the fences to the sunites, they'd likely protest about it blocking the view of the coastal sky and sunsets anyway! and on some degree he can agree on the sentiment... whatever. "is that done yet?" he gestures to the dragon meat. Vinny: his soul now settled he tilts his head as he's asked, glancing back at the pot like he's missing something "well its only been about ten minutes...?" cimm's petulance seems to be making him forget how cooking works Cimmorro: cimm groans impatiently and just... defeatedly lies down on one of the beds face down after saying "you guys can shower me with compliments instead. i'm tired of trivia games." Vinny: he snorts a little at cimm's antics "defeated after one question..." he glances at mars as if to ask if he's any ideas on how to pass the time while he stays leaned against the table Mars: eugh....... he'll have to rely on that huh? "Well what else is there to do?" Cimmorro: cimm on the bed rn. have fun without MY contribution, losers!
Mars: mars just looks at vinny now a little expectantly to just say literally anything
Vinny notices suddenly that the way mars is looking at vinny is a bit weird... he's observing him to pay attention specifically to how/what he answers him with, its a bit hard to tell what he's looking for specifically, but his gut thinks he may want vinny to answer with a statement for some reason Vinny: vinny briefly wonders what mental battle mars has concocted to excite himself with when he in turn is just trying to have a relatively banal evening (cutting a dragon heart open is not banal to most people) "i can grab my deck and we can play a game of cards until its finished, unless you want to swap embarrassing ezra anecdotes?" he snickers a little glancing at cimm spread out on the bed like he would at a pouting but adorable child Mars: he looks like he's thinking... did that count? Technically it did didn't it...? Or is that a non-sequitor. This is why he hated this option, he's never been the best at it. Agh, whatever it counts. <- what the fuck is bro thinking about. The ezra route might be easier... but he'd rather not embarrass him with knowing shit, he doesn't even have an anecdote probably. "What card game are you thinking of?" Cimmorro: cimm frowns at the ceiling while hearing all this. how dare they even think about talking about ezra instead of him! and now they'd rather play cards than talk about him or even mars apologize to him for being so stiff! in his own house too! he contemplates about leaving to do some office work then just come back when the meat is done.
While pouting Cimmorro realises Mars is playing a game he's introduced cimm to before on the road called questions. Its a game where the participants have to continuously ask questions while still moving the conversation forward, and the first to say anything but a question loses. Lose 3 times and they strike out. He's explained the rules before, the questions have to be;
related to the conversation (no sarcastic unrelated ones basically i.e; 'are you free right now?' 'Is the sky blue?'
Not a repetition of a previously asked question
Rhetorical
Mars seems to be getting the vibe that everyone's so quiet right now so he might as well chuck a party game he knows about in here.
Cimmorro: cimm studies the ceiling as he figures out if it's worth playing along or not. screw mars! but maybe it'll be funny to hassle vinny a bit (it always is) and maybe beat mars in his own game he one-sidedly started. tch! "it's not go fish, is it?" Vinny: he glances back at cimmorro a little surprised hes already over his moping "...do you have something against go fish..?" he smiles amused as he goes over to his bag to get the pack of cards Mars: How the fuck is he supposed to get a question out of that??????????????? "Doesn't everyone have something against go fish?" no!!!!!! He doesn't hate it!!!!!!! But fuck!!!!!! its a bit dodgy, but it could count as a repetition foul if cimm wants to call him out on it since its similar to vinny's question. Cimmorro: cimm deadass just tries not to laugh and turns to his side, facing the wall and trying to hide his face Vinny: he glances over at mars now confused while rummaging through his bag "...no? what?" he pulls out the deck of cards while glancing at cimm "are you two messing with me?" Mars: He's. He's fucking with them right. "What??? Nnnno- augh, fucking hell i've nothing left." He digs the base of his palms into his skull. "Sorry, vil, i kind of was a little." He actually does look apologetic before finally (humiliated-ly) explaining 1) the rules of the game 2) he was told that youre supposed to jump this game on people (VERY DUBIOUS ADVICE). At the end of it, he flusteredly goes "sorry i couldn't think of anything better." Cimmorro: cimm about to lunge at mars again
Vinny: he stares at mars still confused before he explains, after which he folds his arms and gives him a mock serious face "so you have hidden mean streak too mars... no wonder you get along with ezra...whats wrong with cards..." he then turns to cimmorro still turned away on the bed and half seriously pushes on his back with his leg to roll him like you would when hitting a friend when they annoy you "id chide you too but i already know you enjoy torturing me! after i helped you two cut open a heart too..." hes pouting in a joking manner though half seriously after mars tried to embarrass him for no reason earlier, hes a little annoyed by the double down Mars: Well he can't really deny it was a little funny how well vinny carried on despite being clueless. "Again... apologies, vil, i've no excuses." 😅..... Cimmorro: he lets out a surprised 'gah!' when vinny pushes him then a laugh as he turns to face him. "nono, i was trying to get him!" he points at mars. "he did this to me too! but he ended up eating his own foot before i could do anything! you got him good!!" he puts both of his hands up in defense much like a startled cat on the bed, still cackling. Vinny: he makes a 'hmm' noise with his arms still folded before he cracks a smile again, seemingly placated for now by cimm. he turns back to mars "we can take your failed attempt as karma then, shall we mars?" he lifts up the deck in his hands making a serious face again "however, you do have to play me in old maid now" Mars: He gets the feeling he's gonna lose.... not that he cares that much really, so long as the other two aren't too bummed out "Okaay...." he says in mock haggardness. Cimmorro: cimm sits up but stays on the bed for now, swaying side to side while anticipating this showdown. fight fight fight fight!
Vinny: he picked the game on purpose to bully mars back a little so its not a shock when he sweeps him quickly in the first two rounds with a grin on his face. He's not exactly trying to hold back even if he's a beginner. When mars suggests a third for fun he acquiesces, he has no qualms with prolonging his success streak. Though his sudden luck nearly turns the tide he quickly shuts it down with some clever thought and maneuvering. Feeling a wave of satisfaction roll over him on the third round at the close steal, he folds his arms with a smirk after setting his hand down "i think i can find it in my heart to forgive you now, mars" Mars: yeah he has no clue what he's doing, despite it being explained. card games are simply not his forte. well as long as vinny had fun 😅....! "I'll endeavor to not make the same mistake in the future." HOW IS THE FUCKING MEAT Cimmorro: cimm blinks and stares at them a bit dumbfounded by a couple of things: 1) that game went on almost too fast for him to register anything, even if vinny did explain the rules; 2) why's vinny so crossed by mars messing with him-- shouldn't he be also crossed with cimm if that's the case? (woman doing equation meme.gif) am i just that special? is what he concludes in his self-centered mind. goodness gracious! vinny really likes him! sorry mars, you got the short end of the stick! he brings both hands over his mouth scandalously, not knowing where to look before he shakes his whole body to get his mind off of it. let's not think about that for now--! "glad you two had fun?" he says, almost failing to try not to laugh. Vinny: he gives cimmorro a sunny smile in response "plenty" as he stands up again with a stretch. he then glances back at mars with his smugness dissipating as he returns to normal, giving him a regular grin "we can probably check back in on the meat now" Mars: ezra the guy who picked you up has a vindictive streak himself..... "if vil had fun... i guess it was?" 😅😅😅😅😅. HOW IS THE MEAT 2
Vinny: he walks over and glances into the pot once more "they seem cooked through if either of you want to try it now without anything else..." Mars: In an act that's almost like taking a bullet, mars looks at the unseasoned meat and goes. "I could do it..." though he does look at cimm, like hey if you wanna eat unseasoned boiled meat be my guest Cimmorro: cimm waddles over and glances at the cauldron with its contents, eyes expectant of something interesting-- yet it's simply plain, pale, boiled meat. oh well. that in itself is a discovery, he supposes. he prods and picks a piece up with a fork (that i've conveniently manifested) and brings it up to mars' mouth. "whoah! marsy so eager!" the sarcasm was seeping through his voice. "here you gooooo! open wiiiiiiide! aaaahhh!" he's clearly messing with him. Mars: he was observing the meat like he's considering a plan of approach when cimm waggles it in front of him like that. Arent they supposed to cut it up 💀 this is like bite sized. Eyeing it and cimm suspiciously for a second, he just leans over and takes a bite from the offered fork with crossed arms.
Chewing away Mars notes that it tastes like plain unseasoned boiled meat... He feels it has a hint of strange metallic tang to it, though not like if there were blood, quite literally metallic. Not very strongly though.
Cimmorro: cimm watching mars if he's about to break out in hives or some shit
Mars: he was about to say its rather plain when the metallic tang kicks in and leaves a notable aftertaste. "Its bland, but there's kind of... its a little like liver but made of metal? But subtle." (Liver apparently tastes blood-metallic) He says, chewing through his thoughts. Vinny: vinny tilts his head, also growing curious now that the answer isnt simply 'meat' "metal liver...?" he strokes his chin and eyes the other one in the pot Mars: "Uh- I mean..." He swallows, bit rude to speak and chew. He'd rather not talk about the culinary blood taste aspect of livers though so he tries to pivot. "It tastes a little like how I'd imagine it'd taste like to lick a sword? But... not as strong. I dunno, its a bit odd." Vinny: he continues staring at mars curiously before he stares down into the pot again "interesting... i suppose no matter what it's going to leave some sort of reminiscent flavour..." he continues mumbling under his breath as he stares at the other piece of meat inside the cauldron. soon after he reaches in with a utensil to pick up and stare at instead, before remembering to glance at cimmorro "ah, you or i?" Cimmorro: "oh, go ahead. i'm here in case you two get a stomach ache." he waves his hand around but stops. "unless the purpose is you want to feed it to me too! 😌" for all his teasing, he seems content at observing both of them for now. Vinny: he glances between the meat and cimmorro idly for a second before lifting it higher mindlessly and wobbling it slightly "choo choo...?" *authors note trains don't exist yet Mars: Okay i think genuinely mars pretends he is not there again
Cimmorro: cimm genuinely seems lost for a moment like 'wtf is choo choo' ????????? vinny, and if mars would want to have the choice of even seeing this at all, cimm looks genuinely confused but eats it anyway if it just meant he could question vinny what the hell that was. Mars: i think he has no choice but to see this but he's just. Blinks Vinny: he adds on after seeing cimmorro's confusion "...the sound of an airship?" vinny wonders if this is a cross country cultural difference Cimmorro: ours didn't sound like that--? is what he thinks to say to that, but his attention is being tugged by that strange metal taste mars was talking about so he just makes a disjointed expression. he rolls it in his tastebuds for a little longer before politely spitting it out on a napkin behind a hand, not really intending to digest it in the first place (can't take too much risks. he has a morning mass to lead tomorrow!) after wiping his mouth, he's still not sure what to think of it. "it's meat with... i don't know- seasoned with steel filings, i suppose?" it's not exactly appealing but it's not abhorrent... might as well get used to it since that's what they have packed for the rest of their trip. Mars: "See? Weird." He shrugs, electing to ignore all that. They're gourmands rn for fucks sake Vinny: he folds his arms now thinking again as he glances between them "the metal taste opinion seems to win out then..." now that they've sated their curious appetites he begins the process of stripping the rest of the meat as much as he can and packing it away for later use in cooking for them, as well as disposing of the rest either as waste or for composting "guess you ought to start thinking of a way to season it compliment the flavour" he says it a little amused, maybe they aught to ask plum. Cimmorro: cimm starts to list down things that taste good with liver since that's also the closest thing he can think of... but he already doesn't like eating liver as a main component! augh! agony! he notices vinny didn't get a piece though and tilts his head. "not planning to make more for yourself tonight?" Vinny: as he keeps working he glances at cimmorro "mmm, id rather put my tools away for now, though i can save myself a piece for later and give you my review" Cimmorro: "hmmmkaaay. maybe marmar can feed you next time," he jests while gets on his two feet and gives a noogie to mars where he sits and coos at him annoyingly. after which he beams at the both of them like good job gang :3 🙌 "I'll have some soap and rags brought over for you guys to clean with."
Mars: He just lets himself get noogied and nicknamed with minimal complaining (he'll allow himself a little 'agh!!!!!' though) at cimms direction before he's let go. "Yea, yea, if vil would even let me." Mars says it sarcastically, though not in any mean way, in a he doubts this will ever happen kinda way, as he ruffles his own hair back to normalcy Vinny: he continues working away with a chuckle at the joking, offering his thanks to cimmorro for sending things to assist with the clean-up "yes yes, very few have the exclusive right to feed me, so far the lists only my parents and my future children" he says it sarcastically as he ties the meat together Mars: "And where do I fall in that designation." He asks off handedly with a shake of his head as he also busies himself with something to clean up around here. Vinny: he twists some straw string closed before properly glancing in mars direction still amused "unless you're looking to get adopted, joining my cats in sisterhood, id perhaps say not quite there" he puts a hand to chin jokingly while laughing "or are you implying you're after my parents..." he shakes his head mock seriously "very shameful to break up a strong marriage, mars..." Mars: He's genuinely taken aback at the implication. What in the world!!!!!!!!!!!!! "Wh-!" But then he realizes vinny's messing with him by some miracle. "Never in a million years, I'd rather join your cats in their sisterhood." He just says exasperatedly. Vinny: he properly bursts out into laugher at his response, not expecting mars to take it seriously for a moment. He puts a few things aside so his shaking doesn't knock them over, after he stops he wipes an eye "y-yes, next time ezra c-comes to visit you can come with and give them the good news..." he's still got a grin on his face as he takes a breath to calm down Mars: im not joking actually he's just looking at vinny like this rn
Cimmorro: cimm rolls his eyes with a snort at the display. "my, how heartwarming to see vinny's family expanding! must be the ruby goddess' good fortune. you two can come to my office to finalize and sign the adoption papers tomorrow morning," he adds jokingly as gets on his two feet. he looks just about ready to adjourn their evening and take his leave. Vinny: hes wiping his eyes a little still smiling to himself "y-yes, make sure to take care of it before you all leave" he lets out another huff of amused air before calming down "i'll so miss our talks" he finishes with a still slight joking air Mars: mars just grumbles at the notion of being adopted in this scenario, though there's no bite to it nor any actual annoyance. Lightheartedly standoffish, he just starts cleaning up around the table a little, its about time they head to bed anyway. Cimmorro: despite the joking manner, cimm seems to appreciate the sentiment while he smiles at vinny half mirthful and half affectionate. "you say that but i know you'll have the entire archive to help you move on quickly...!" he fake huffs and leans over mars dramatically like he's a pillar for an ailing damsel. "just me and marsy forgotten long after we depart...! replaced... by tomes and scrolls! woe is us!" Mars: Mars was carrying something fragile when cimm suddenly leans on him. A little mirthful and resigned, mars manages to keep it away from cimm's dramatic collapse and also remain steady. "Haven't even signed the adoption papers yet, and so cruelly abandoned." He deadpans. Vinny: vinny snorts "it'll be hard to forget you when stalking the halls of your own home, after a week i'll start seeing you in the portraits..." he wiggles a hand omionously, as if to imply cimmorro were a ghost before rolling his eyes good naturedly at mars "far as i remember im the one being left behind here, bring your sisters a souvenir when you come home to dear old dad..." Cimmorro: cimm straightens himself up from his theatrics, but makes no comment to vinny's words (another joke?) he finds it a little difficult to look at him now as a sense of bashfulness mildly washes over him. he thinks vinny probably doesn't realize how much of a romantic notion what he said just now was, but he's also aware the man's a little too smart to be ignorant of it. for a moment cimm just scratches the side of his face and looks off to the side like >3>;;
Mars: Heyyy he thinks he's read a sunite story with a line like this (more he had it read to him, he wasn't really paying attention). The implication takes a second to kick in though since he's suddenly now acquired sisters, yet when it does its a little noticeable. Its one again his cue to make an exit from his own room 🙂↕️. "Yeah well speaking of fatherhood, i gotta take silva out for a quick night flight." With cimm peeling away from him, he tucks away the last few beakers and flasks in an organized enough state for vinny to sort in whatever manner he sees fit. Flitting into existence again, silva perches on the door handle and peeps. "Yeah, yeah, 'm coming. Anywhere I shouldn't go, cimm?" Cimmorro: cimm's turn to do the viktor shrug gif. "weren't you helping with cleaning-? ah, whatever. so long as you don't go past 12th floor without permission, i shant order the clergy to punish you by throwing you off the cliff," he declares with jest as he waves both him and silva off. "if you find jasper, tell her it's almost time for bed." Mars: he's viktor shrug. gif too. Wh- he cleaned up too- Gah, nevermind. nothing's ever enough when it comes to cleanliness for cimm. "So 12th floor with permission, got it." He jests back before waving at the other two. "I'll keep an eye out for her, 'night cimm, i'll be back in a few." He addresses the last part to vinny, but mars does say night in case cimm isn't here when he comes back. Which. seems likely, but what if he's not...? well then it'll just be awkward for him. oh well. Vinny: cimm's sudden silence is curious to him but he brushes it off after mars' sudden need to go for a walk. He supposes the smell of what they've been brewing and dissecting in here would make anyone want some fresh air. he gives mars a wave as he finishes organising what he left for him on the desk "oh, see you when you get back then!" he's a thought to ask for a snack from the mess hall if he passes it, but he's already strolled out the door when he thinks of it. he looks back over in cimm's direction after with a smile again "gonna run off on me now too?"
Cimmorro: he sends mars off with a final yet playful sneer then turns his attention back to vinny. humming in pretense of being in thought before responding. "depends. do you want me to?" there's a certain smugness in his voice that vinny is well acquainted with by now. Vinny: he huffs a little amused "only if you must...! what with all those jasidian duties one needs to take care of, you sounded quite busy, even if having you around is nice" he finishes up the sorting and storing of his tools and moves to sit on his bed again, cleaning up the discarded card deck idly Cimmorro: "actually, most of the clergy have shooed me off duties today," he wilts dramatically. "told me i was getting in the way of their schedules this late in the day and evening" and goddess forbid their routines be desecrated! "i'll have my chance tomorrow. but today, i'm being temporarily laid off..." he puts a theatric air to his venting, but there's some genuine grievance to it... woe is him. home finally after years and can't even see to his duties... "i'm the lonely one here, boohoo!" he goes, bringing both hands to his face in a fake cry. Vinny: he raises a brow smirking "ah, theyre being nice to you on your first day back, huh? i see why you had the time to come do some surgery then" he shifts in his seat to face cimmorro again "you can stick around if you're feeling that lonely, i don't think anyone staying in here's retiring for the night quite yet. though i don't know where the other two got off too..." he cranes his neck briefly as if that'll help him see them before turning back "it's been a long day, maybe you can take a dinner nap" he raises an arm to pat cimm's lower back placatingly like there there workaholic <- hypocrite 🙂↕️ Cimmorro: cimm's like 😒 but lightheartedly. "i bet you just want to watch me sleep while you still can..." Vinny: he starts idly shuffling the cards in his hands as he tilts his head chuckling "if i wanted that specifically im sure i could've just asked" Cimmorro: he puts both of his hands to his hips, acting offended. "oh! okay! so, you don't want it (me again!)! i'll see myself out then."
Vinny: he waves a hand in the air as if to chase him back playfully despite cimm having not walked off yet "i just said to stick around..!" he's not taking his huffiness too seriously but smiles at him proper to help express his genuineness over the offer to stick around "really, no need to run off and hide in a corner by yourself, try and relax for a bit, i'm only going to be reading anyhow" Cimmorro: grrr grrr! cimmy don't want to rest! cimmy want to do anything but rest! grrr!! he did nothing but sit in the caravan all day!! grrrrrrrr!! "hmmmmm... what are you reading?" he huffs and settles on leaning on the desk for now, still acting hoitytoity while checks his nails idly-- to him this is some form of seduction and this hurts to write. Vinny: he tries to not laugh at cimms attitude as he reaches for his bag, satisfied that cimmorro hasn't run off for now "do you remember the novel i spoke to you and mars about during that one time on watch?" he continues shuffling for a moment before pulling a book out and sitting up again "i now have the sequel, good fluff to turn the brain off towards" Cimmorro: "ah! now that nap sounds tempting. a lovely bedtime story from you," he smiles, a bit sinister, as he settles comfortably on top of one of the beds. "i wish i had my eye mask but do begin. chop chop." Vinny: he makes a somewhat flustered face at the expectation that he's now to read it aloud but shakes his head and resigns himself to the task with an eyeroll "j-just know im going to stop when someone else walks in so i'd advise you to start dozing away quickly..." Cimmorro: "that depends on your performance...!" he says that but he is trying to hide how surprised he is at the fact that vinny is actually going to go through with it. he just meant to hassle the man but.. this could be nice! if not funny! Vinny: he gestures to cimm to come lay on the bed he's sitting on instead so he doesn't have to read at the top of his voice at him across the room (so people outside in the hall don't hear him doing this) "i will humbly ask for mercy in your review after this..." he's fighting the embarrassment by wondering if it'd be fun to do actual book review discussion after this even if cimm's intention is to fall asleep to it
Cimmorro: when vinny gestures him to move beds, cimm eyes him incredulously for a moment. what.... is he suggesting....?? does he even realize how suggestive he's being?? his eyes dart across the room like, is anyone else seeing this? no? okay. and yet, he still trundles over, gives vinny a brief stare before slowly lying down and setting his head on vinny's lap wordlessly. Vinny: he's happy he seemingly didn't have to coerce cimmorro to come over as well but as he lays his head in his lap his mind briefly turns off. he had intended for him to just lay next to him with his feet kicks up or behind alongside him and doze off at his own pace not... place his head in lap.... he stares back at him silently as his face goes red before glancing back up with a cough, putting all his effort now instead into trying to relax and look casual. he doesn't want to chase him off by reacting strangely or make this any more awkward by calling him out on the misinterpretation, so he simply shifts to sit more comfortably in this new position "ah. r-right, well..." he clears his throat a little as he picks up the book and starts quickly scanning the pages Cimmorro: cimm sorta just stares at the ceiling, avoiding staring holes at vinny as this compromising position is already starting to making him flustered as well. it doesn't help how awkward it is, no matter how hard vinny tries to smooth it through. the fact that vinny doesn't say anything about it and even adjusted his sitting to accommodate him just confirms it in cimm's head that this is what vinny asked him over for. okaaaaay. "so much for not messing around..." he comments quietly while his eyes slowly shut. he's definitely not falling into that nap, but he'll indulge in a few minutes of this. or until vinny snaps and regrets this. whichever comes first. Vinny: he splutters a little but valiantly attempts to get comfortable in spite of the fluttering in his gut "it w-wasn't exactly my intention..." he rubs his nose shyly but continues on and begins his attempt to read, mentally shuttling them along to greener pastures. the prose is hardly the most embarrassing thing anymore so he gets going easily enough, paradoxically trying to forget their position but also make sure cimm can at least enjoy and relax a little as he goes.
Mars: after around... 15 minutes, mars comes back without much warning, a couple of snacks in hand, silva placated and jasper sufficiently informed that its her bedtime soon, and walks into. Whatever the hell this is. He has half a mind to say the first thing that popped up in his head, but decides not to. Guess cimm's sleeping here for the night. He just sets down the snacks on the table wordlessly and slinks off to his bed to quietly take stock of his shit with silva. Vinny: vinny makes an indecipherable embarrassed face at mars as he waltzes back in, he should have expected his re-entrance really but he was too caught up in his mission of helping cimmorro relax. he stops reading aloud when he hears him coming, pretending like he was instead reading to himself the whole time, and continues on silently with the book instead as he gives the man a strange silent wave with one hand in greeting. he's no idea if cimmorro's actually fallen asleep in this time and it feels rude to move him, he silently prays he has just to ease the embarrassment here for all parties. Cimmorro: of course someone walks in. that's what he gets for stalling for so long. the footsteps, the rustling on the desk and vinny shutting up were all he needed to hear (and not hear anymore). after a moment, he sighs and turns to open his eyes to take a gander at who entered. seeing mars again is a relief, at least. someone from the temple would've spelled trouble for vinny who'll be staying behind. cimm then smiles innocently at mars, finding no need to explain himself and the position he was in, as he sits up and stretches his neck. "have you spotted jasper?"
Mars: Well. He knows that mars knows now at least, in a roundabout kind of way, he technically won? Weird. Uhhhh, anyway. He just scoffs a little. "Yeah, though i could go back and keep her company if you two are. Busy." He's careful with his word choices here. Vinny: vinny just continues to smile awkwardly at mars, attempting to look perfectly genial as cimmorro sits up (damn he was pretty warm) he's trying to think how to respond to the question but starts sweating a little instead, still smiling. his mind is somehow racing and yet so so empty, eventually he stumbles out the words "n...not at all..!" and says nothing else Cimmorro: he tries not to find vinny's stammering funny and continues smiling. "clearly we weren't busy enough, if anything. but i shall take my leave now then. both of you have already taken too much of my time from my daughter... be prepared to repent in her wrath tomorrow!" knowing jasper, she doesn't really give two shits about this, so cimm's really just making fanfare of his leave much like how he first entered the room. "nighty night, you two," he says more sincerely with a wave. "let hanny and rokstar know i wish them a nice evening as well." Mars: for the second time that night he says night to cimm again and waves him off. He decides to. not tease vinny any more than he thinks he's already been teased though. The silence is a lil awkward tho... "Didn't mean to intrude like that, sorry vil." he eventually says as he's starting to prep for bed Vinny: he waves at cimmorro as he goes, less awkwardly than he did at mars "w-will do" doing his best to give a semblance of a decent goodnight farewell. as mars addresses him he turns with an embarrassed sigh and puts a hand to cover his still somewhat red face "n-noo.. our own fault. i mean m-my own fault. nothing is happening. lets not talk about it." he starts to go through his things again on his own side of the room to help dispel the air, well at least he brought snacks...
Keva and Psalm later on in the Evening
Later on in the middle of the evening, while everyone's bedded down for the night, Keva lays awake struggling to find any semblance of peaceful respite.
Keva: she simply cannot take it anymore. she can't do it. fuck what cimm thinks. this has to be punishment. with a frustrated grunt, keva shoots straight up from her bed. as if the shrine in the room wasn't enough to unnerve her, a painted portrait of wee jas stares back at her with the smallest of smiles, like she's getting some sort of sick enjoyment out of her misery. to her right, a coffin rests on the floor between the two bunks. sure, it looks like a suitcase, but it was a coffin holding someone rotten to the bone all the same. and then, and then! she picks up her pillow and chucks it at psalm, who's been mumbling away to himself all goddamn night in the other bunk, before she begins her climb down to the floor. she hasn't managed a single wink of sleep, and she has to get out of this room before she loses her mind. Psalm: "And I just don't really see the need for all these stairs-sure back home it was more of a labyrinth cave type situation given the whole needing to be secret thing rather than a giant spiraling tower or whatever this is but-ghfhfgppbbfftttgk,"Psalm says before he's hit square in the face with a pillow. He'd been chatting as quietly as possible with Ghester which, evidently, was not quiet enough. His fault, he'll admit, but he hadn't really expected anyone else to be awake at this hour. He peeks over the top of the pillow to see Keva. Keva: he finds her sitting on the floor as she puts her boots on. she wordlessly wraps her cape around her shoulders before striding toward the door, not acknowledging her sudden assault on psalm. at least, until she opens their door and stops just short of the threshold. faced with the echoes of the tall tower and the painted eyes she can feel on her even through the darkness, keva thinks twice about leaving the room. but staying here won’t do her any good either… so she turns to psalm and jerks her head in the direction of the hallway, urging him to come along and whispering, “since you’re clearly not sleeping either” Psalm: "First the abuse and now an invitation," Psalm sniffs, pretending to be affronted. He moves the pillow aside and crosses his arms. "Don't tell me you're scared of the dark now all of a sudden?" Possibly not the best thing to say, knowing Keva she'd just as swiftly rescind the offer which would be a shame. He himself wasn't having an easy time falling asleep either and something to stave off the boredom would be appreciated.
Keva: "it's not the--!" dark i'm afraid of. but she won't tell him that. she tsks instead and, now driven by her embarrassment at being called on her cowardice, strides out the door. "fine," is all she says, though she notably leaves the door open. Ghester: as she strides out ghester pipes up once more "perhaps we should apologise for bad manners…" though he only seems half genuine, mostly amused Psalm: "I'm sure she's already over it…" Psalm mumbles but he follows anyways. He is not excited to encounter more stairs, but admittedly he is curious about the other areas of the tower. He closes the door behind him silently. Keva: when keva hears the clacking of cloven feet behind her, the tiniest of relieved smiles tugs at her lips. but by the time she stops and turns around, she’s shaken it off and gives psalm a mild look of annoyance instead. she waits for him to catch up to her, pulling her cape a little tighter around her shoulders, before continuing her previous pace. amos sleepily slinks his way to her shoulders, acting as a much-appreciated small scarf. “anything in particular you or ghester want to see? Ghester: ghester pauses at being addressed, not really expecting to have his own interests considered "…the archives are quite interesting, but i dont know how much fun you'd have blindly searching those shelves… though maybe they've also got a section for precious artifacts for us to view" he chuckles "otherwise im sure the view from the top is stunning this time of night, should you fancy breaking and entering" Keva: "oh, well, lucky for you, old man, breaking and entering is my specialty" she flashes her thieves' tools and a toothless smile for a moment "the top is my goal, but i don't mind looking at a few dusty scrolls since it's on the way anyway. might as well make it worthwhile for psalm if we're dragging him up."
Psalm: "I doubt there's anything this musty old temple could have that'll pique my interest," Psalm says bluntly , "but since you're so generously catering to my interests then yes, we might as well take a look." He gestures for her to go ahead. "I'll follow your lead." Keva: “as it should be,” she jokes as she makes her way to a stairway. “you’re not curious at all? i thought you liked reading” Psalm: "I do, yes. Just not very hopeful about what it is they might have to read here is all." Keva: "mm… well, never hurts to keep your expectations low," she says, keeping her voice and stepping lightly to make a little noise as possible. not that there's a point, with the clopping behind her. "the archives aren't for like, 7 more floors though, so you might want to find something to look forward to on the other side." Psalm: "That would happen to be my life's motto, in fact. The only two things I have to look forward to are more of these lovely staircases, and an end to the boredom of staring up at the ceiling," Psalm says, yawning through his words despite not feeling the least bit tired. He's not doing a very good job of keeping silent, he thinks, but eh, if anyone finds them he'll just tell them they got lost looking for the bathroom or..something. He lets a few more beats of silence pass before he asks, "Why are you awake, again? I was joking earlier but it's not actually the dark is it?" Keva: "oh, you mean other than all the mumbling coming from your side of the room?" she looks over her shoulder at him, only a little accusing, before turning back to the rising stairs. "let's see, there's a coffin on the floor, there's the goddess of death staring at me from the walls, her shrine in the corner… real cozy. what's your excuse?" Psalm: He just shrugs," Guilty as charged…" He snorts at that, "I'd say what's in the coffin is worse than its exterior. But as for me, I just have… a lot on my mind. The hour ran away from me is all. Not a fan of the goddess of death though? Could've sworn you said you'd prayed to her before."
Keva: “she’s pretty popular back home, and desperate times call for desperate measures. but like i said, it’s never worked for me, so really, it feels like she’s the one with a problem with me.” she gives a shrug herself. “which is nothing new, but it is still hard to relax enough to sleep here. i’d ask what’s on your mind, but i wager you wouldn’t answer anyway?” Psalm: “Maybe you should ask Cimmorro to inquire on your behalf about her feelings regarding your requests,” Psalm says half-jokingly. “I’m guessing desperate times involve your friend Orin?” He gives a half-hearted shrug. “It’s nothing especially exciting. Nothing worth hiding. We’ve picked up a new party member, I can never figure out who hates each other here fast enough be for the next day things are smoothed over, the nature of Vorde’s mission for us is still a mystery–quite a bit on my plate is all.” Keva: "oh, cimmorro’s convinced it’s aaaall in my head,” she says with a tone that suggests she doesn’t agree. “doesn’t matter much anyway—i gave up ages before the whole thing with orin. fool me once, fool me twice, yadda yadda.” she snorts a bit as she listens to psalm list off the things on his mind. “bah, not much of that you can really do anything about. i think you just need to tire yourself out. that’s one thing these stairs are good for.” Psalm: "Not surprising considering the…well…everything about him really. That's the thing about clerics," Psalm says this with a hint of disdain. He nods along at her explanation, before adding:"But that's why I admire you're pragmatism. And you'd think the earlier jaunt up and down the stairs would've done the trick…but if climbing is what we must do…"
The two chatter while walking the dormitory floor, hit the stairs and head up, walking up past the chapel and main shrine floors. The dormitory has a hush to it at the moment, mostly quiet due to the time of night but there are a few acolytes milling about in a general area at the circular centre of the floor, they can hear very distant chatter. The mess hall is seemingly closed at this time as well.
On the shrine floor some do night prayers that can be heard echoing to the stairs when they pass by, this floor by comparison to the others seems to also have been intentionally built taller but nothing else is notable about, other than the entrances from the stairs being built with more grandiose designs.
The first archive floor is above that, and reveals again the library they'd visited briefly before to meet Cimmorros sisters. Most of the tower is finely decorated, not alot in particular sticks out to the two amongst the dedicated care and aesthetic everything's already given.
Keva: keva’s not interested in anything on the shrine floor, but i think the prayers in the distance bring her a strange feeling of familiarity, something she might hear at home but maybe with some regional variation. she defers to psalm and ghester for how long they’d like to stay in the library, but she’s definitely going further up, with or without them Psalm: Psalm's also not really interested in anything here since he's seen it already and can pretty much take a look at it in the light of day when time and stealth isn't of the essense…! He gives Keva a disinterested shrug as a sign that they can continue on.
As they traverse up the stairs to the floor past the first floor of the archives, they come face to face with a door set into the stairwell itself blocking their passage further. Like everything else in the tower its frame is carefully decorated and carved into the stonework. Gold and ruby designs decorate the door itself, as well as a heavy lock situated beneath its handle.
Psalm: Psalm looks expectantly at Keva… she is the party rogue here… Keva: keva regards the door with a bit of disdain for a moment--bit much for a door--before reaching for her thieves' tools
The lock takes a bit of extra fiddling, especially in the dark but Keva manages to click the heavy lock open and crack the door to the floor above.
Keva: keva does a tiny little fist pump when she gets the lock open lmao Psalm: Psalm claps soundlessly
Moving through the unlocked door to the floor above they traverse the stairs more stealthily knowing they're now accessing areas restricted by their visitor status. As they climb the steps they reach the 11th floor, an archway allows entry to another section of the archives, similar to the floor below its filled with bookcases piled high with tomes and long tables, no less carefully decorated however.
They eye the entrance and note a black metal sign with careful handwriting inscribed on it, psalm quickly reads it as 'Practical Guides & Methodology' he assumes it's a descriptor for the type of tomes stored on this floor. The staircase spiralling the outer rim of the tower continues upwards.
Keva: keva just kinda scrunches her face and wonders what’s different about these books compared to the last, but meanders about a bit to give psalm and ghester some time to decide if there’s anything interesting to them. keva picks one at random and flips thru to see if there’s any interesting pictures “which do you think has more of these things, this place or the palace library back in shorewater?” Psalm: "Hard to say as we've only just started exploring. I'll give you my answer as we continue."
The two continue their way up the steps to the next floor of the tower, and are stopped once again mid flight by a delicately crafted door and a heavy lock.
Similarly to last time, though it takes a bit more fiddling, Keva manages to crack the lock, the hinge hanging heavily as it comes undone. Walking through silently and climbing the steps they eventually reach the archway to the 12th floor.
A quick glance shows off another section of the archives, looking similar to the last, piled high with books and scrolls and tomes. Though a metal black sign near the entry archway reads something else time time. Psalm quickly reads 'Philosophy and Religious Theory' scrawled across it.
Keva: keva wanders through the floor, hoping to see anything new other than books, and finds herself disappointed. what is so special about these that they lock up every floor? she pulls one at random and flips through to see if there’s at least any pictures to occupy her while psalm looks about…
As Keva pages through some of them she sees illustrations of wee jas but more technical than all the paintings in her image she'd seen before, more pencil sketching's with the underlines still visible beside swathes of text. In one book she sees different depictions of her put side by side from the same angle, and she realises how they really do all seem to differ more than she realised. in another book she sees complicated charts and organised lists with elemental symbols she cant hope to decipher.
Giving the area a cursory glance Psalm struggles a bit identifying the exacts of most of the tomes as a lot of it seems to be outside his personal expertise. He's starting to guess that some of the reason these are kept away from general access is due to the difficulty of them being approached as beginner texts. The most he gathers is the tomes are probably relevant to jasidian worship, copies of and records of sacred texts of religiously relevant essays, theory or discussion, though alot of it also seems to include spellcasting he cant make heads or tails of.
Psalm: "All of this seems pretty boring," Psalm says, "although I can't say I expected the subject matter to be any different given where we are." Keva: keva's twisting the book with elemental symbols sideways like it's going to make things any clearer to her when psalm pipes up. she tucks the book back and replies, "let's get a move on then, unless there's anything ghester wants to see."
They head up, and Keva finds she's starting to struggle picking these locks, this one she cracks by the skin of her teeth as it latches open. Heading up the stairs the layout of the tower is now becoming quite familiar to them.
They once again see an open archway leading to the floor above. This time on the black sign Psalm reads the words "Main Research Floor" scrawled upon it, glancing inside they see the familiar shelves of tomes but they also see large tables filled with apparatus.
They seem medical but a few also remind them of the items and tools they'd seen in the back of Vinny's store, items used for magic and arcane crafting or experimentation.
As Keva steps ahead of Psalm and pokes around the room (excited by less books in here perhaps) she spies a strange set of black crutches laid on one of the desks, there's a note with writing next to it but she cant quite parse it. She gets a feeling something about them has been enchanted just from a glance, she also spies a bright green book sat next to it, an image of a slime inscribed on its cover.
Keva: keva calls psalm over with a "pssst!" and a wave over. she hands the note to him while she opens up the green book to peruse… Psalm: psalm will just read it aloud
Eyeing the note Psalm sees a few words crossed out before he begins reading whats legible "slipbane crutches? - should adhere firmly to any surface without slipping, still releases with ease when pulled on. find stable base for enchantment?"
Next to him Keva pages through the book, she sees images of oozes and slimes in various states but also other monstrous beasts and constructs in what looks to her like their natural environments. She's not sure exactly to what end but the images are very well detailed.
Psalm: "More boring stuff," Psalm says flatly. "Unless I was trying to rob some treasury or climb a very high wall." Keva: "speak for yourself!" keva already has the crutches in hand. "does the note mean they don't work yet?" Psalm: "Well it says they should work, but if you want to test them out for yourself be my guest. Although I'd be remiss to add that taking one of Cimmoro's peers things out of their designated place to fool around with would probably put you directly on his shitlist." Keva: "i never said i was going to take it," she says with a finger up to correct him.
Keva moves to press it against the wall, as she does and releases it without pulling back it seems to stick. When she pulls up again with a slight amount of pressure it comes off simply and easily.
Keva: keva turns to look at psalm with a clearly excited look on her face Psalm: "Just making sure…!" Psalm says. Admittedly it is funny how excited Keva is about this though. Keva: "how about this, i'll put them back on our way back down." Psalm: Psalm snorts "I have zero intentions of getting caught wandering around one way or another so that works for me. I'll pretend that I didn't see you swipe them and anything else hereafter though on the offchance we do." Keva: she gives a pleased "hm" and takes both crutches with them for now… never know when sticking to the wall might come in handy.
The two head up to the next floor, new medical appartus in hand. They realise on the way up that the floor above this one also seems to comprise the 'research floor' and the two don't have a locked door between them on the stairwell up, allowing them to make it to the locked door to the 15th floor soon after.
Keva finds she might be getting the hang of these locks, she cracks this one expediently and walk carefully through to the next floor. This time on the black sign Psalm reads the words "Cultural Repository" scrawled upon it, glancing inside they see less shelves filled with tomes and more cases holding items within them. Most of them from a distance look greatly varied from one another.
By their powers combined they ascertain that this floor seems to gather texts on various magical cultures, languages and curios and artefacts. Though they're sorted so strangely and esoterically its hard for them to understand what most of things they're looking at are.
They see what look like regular items, a set of medical bandages locked away tightly but then a set of strange enchanted broken teeth left out in the open. Most of the notes around are written in arcane jargon too complicated for either to read or understand.
As Keva moves to grab the teeth from the case she sees the case and its exterior light up in a bright purple magic glow. A faint buzzing sound begins to resound from it, she gets a feeling she's tripped some sort of enchantment.
Keva: keva does the like panicked juggle, puts it back where it was, rushes over to psalm and starts to push him toward the door to the next floor "we gotta go we gotta go" Chip: as you put them back the light and sound cease Psalm: Psalm, having watched this unfold, just snorts and lets himself be ushered outside. Not like he's super interested in what the room has to offer anyways, but he is making note of Keva's unwise habit of fiddling with things she has no clue about. He's hoping this doesn't bite them in the ass later.
As they scuttle up the stairs to next floor they dont hear anything like people running at light speed to check on whatever that was… regardless it spooked Keva enough to push them on. Another door on the stairs and another lock lays ahead.
As Keva scurries up to the door, whether it be from the stress of tripping something or the increasing complexity of these locks, she struggles to crack this one open until after a few minutes of struggling. Breathing a sigh of relief she hurries them up the stairs. This time the words scrawled upon the black sign read "Historical Archives'
Keva stresses wanting to get farther away from the previous floor before slowing down so they continue scuttling upwards. They realise this section of the archives also takes up alot more than they'd realised, they pass by one, two more floors before hitting another set of locked doors on the stairwell. With one of the core jasidian tenets being about preserving knowledge they suppose it makes sense the historial section is the biggest so far.
Glancing at this door and lock it seems somewhat more intimidating to her than the last few, bigger and more set, and decorated with more carvings in the black stone.
Keva: “i think we’re close to the top now,” keva whispers as she studies the carvings.
As she examines this one with a bit more scrutiny she gets the sense something about the extra carvings is arcane in nature. There may be an larger enchantment on this door and its lock. Though she doesn't quite know what.
As keva points out the strange carvings on the door Psalm give them a closer look. He realises after a few moments that in addition to being locked that this door is magically trapped. His best guess is, similar to the case before, it'll set off some sort of alarm unless its disabled before attempting to open the lock.
Keva: keva’s cheeks puff out as she blows out some air before looking around for an alternative route. spotting the window on the stairwell, she’s going to pop it open while asking psalm “can you do anything about the spell?” Psalm: "Not really my area of expertise but I can give it a go," Psalm says.
As Psalm begins fiddling with the enchantment he feels like he might slowly be getting somewhere before some of the inscriptions completely stump him.
Ghester: you hear ghester pipe up in your ears afterward in a mock teachers voice "time to start taking your studies more seriously, young man…" Psalm: Psalm just rolls his eyes at Ghester's comment, "Who asked you?"
Though he didn't set anything off, breaking the spell manually seems beyond Psalm's abilities right now.
Looking out the window, Keva sees the blackness of night from 18 stories up, in one direction the dark sea crashing against the cliffside the tower sits on in the moonlight. In the other direction the town down the hill slightly sparkles a little, illuminated in the evening by small lights.
The tower stands alone on the hill, it has nothing on its outsides save for smooth stone walls up to its top, where an overhang pops out for the top floors balconies. As she glances down Keva notices a few jasidian acolytes down outside on the grounds below in the graveyard holding lanterns. They seem to be doing some sort of upkeep work on some of the tombstones. Though she's quite a ways above them, it may be possible for them to spot her if they look up.
Keva: keva pulls her head back in from the window and turns to psalm and lays out her plan—he casts invisibility on her, she’ll use the crutches to scale the side of the tower to the balcony (which is keva’s goal), and she’ll unlock the door from the inside for psalm. “not sure if the spell will trigger or not if i open it from the other side though… you still up for it?” Psalm: It'd be a shame to have to turn back after all this time though, so risky as it sounds he might as well go with Keva's plan. "Fine with me. Just try not to fall ." With that he reaches out and places his hand on Keva's shoulder, turning her invisible. Keva: "no promises " is all she says before the spell takes. crutches in hand, she tests them one more time before climbing into the window. she takes a moment to take in the lovely view before mentally planning her route, taking a deep breath in, and beginning her ascent before the thrill turned too far to fear.
Taking her time she scans the distance she needs to traverse up the side of the building. Using the crutches to help her climb she holds onto them near the ends with one in each hand, removing and re-sticking each one at a time as she goes, almost as if they were picks she were digging into the wall instead. With the aid of Psalm's spell all anyone would notice of her ascent is a window opening and closing in the night on high. She's careful not to look down as 18 stories to even the most seasoned climber can be quite intimidating when hanging freefall like this.
Still, her experiences of doing this all her life comes in handy. She easily scrambles up to the balcony overhang where she then finesses her grip to help herself flip upwards onto the railing, and safely back on stationary ground.
Finally reaching the top of the tower she finds herself stood on a balcony connected to a large circular room, the doors to the balcony are kept wide open and she sees why as the light of the great magical pyre lit at the top of this tower burns away at the centre of the room. The colour of it changes from green to red and blue, in a rainbow of bright hues as it projects out to the night like a lighthouse.
Keva: once she reaches steady ground, keva lowers herself to the floor, checking below once again to make sure no one's sounding any alarms. seeing everything as it was before, she laughs a bit breathlessly to herself and gives herself just one moment more for her heart to slow before being drawn in by the sight of the pyre. she often used the twin pyres back home as her guiding lights if she ever got turned around back in shuk kuyu, but never imagined ever getting to see the beautiful colors shifting and flickering so close. she's almost entranced for a few seconds, before remembering there's someone waiting for her on the other side. she comes back to, and takes a quick survey of the rest of the room.
Walking from the balcony into the circular room she sees, paying a little more attention now, that the pyre seems to be coming from a magical circle drawn in the centre of the room. Right outside of the circle is a black decorative metal railing directly running its edge, going about as high as keva's chest. She dooesn't feel any heat coming from the magical fire but regardless it appears to be separated off so.
Directly across from her on the other side of the fire is another set of open doors leading to another open air balcony like the one she climbed up on, other than that she sees two more doors leading to what appear to be the only two rooms on this floor. The doors look like the stairwell ones, more lavishly decorated than those lower down. You also spies a door leading to what she assumes are the stairs up to this floor
Glancing at the doors she can tell at a glance they all have locks on them, though she appears to be able to open the stairwell one on this side of it without needing to pick or unlock it first. It seems opening it from this side also counteracts any magical alarm from activating.
The doors to the other two rooms she cant say the same for however, and now that shes noticed, she sees the same locks and arcane alarm mechanisms on their outsides as well. The doors to the two rooms also appear to have black metal signs inscribed with gold script set upon them that she cant read. The rest of the floor is carefully decorated as the rest of the tower, icons and images to wee jas cover the walls and a few sitting/waiting couches and side tables are placed surrounding the pyre. A gorgeous rug runs the length of the circular hall surrounding the pyre as well.
Keva: satisfied (tho a little curious about what’s behind the two locked doors), she goes ahead and carefully opens the stairway door for psalm “guess taking the crutches was a good move after all” he can’t see her face, but he can hear the in her voice Psalm: "Oh ho, nicely done," Psalm says, clapping silently. "I'm glad our little adventure hasn't ended here for the night." Keva: "well, it might still. there's a couple more doors with some signs and magic alarms on them in here."
Heading up to the pyre floor Psalm glances at the two doors and the signs upon them, he notes they're written in common. The plaques read "High Priestess of Magic, Diamond Circe" and the other "High Priest of Death, Diamond Willow"
Psalm: Well Psalms gonna relay this information to Keva and then he's going to say quite firmly, "Hard pass on entering either of those rooms from me. Keva: keva gives an unsurprised scoff and says, "what happened to figuring something out?" exaggerating her slight disappointment to give him a hard time. "i guess we'll just have to settle for this view then" she adds as she makes her way back out onto the balcony, taking a much-needed seat and letting her legs dangle over the edge as she looks out into the night "a nice reward for all that work" Psalm: "Did I say that?" Psalm feigns innocence before he adds, "I'm all for exploring the place, but I draw the line at the big boss' private office," Psalm says as he takes a seat next to her. "That only seems like it'll be a massive pain in the ass if things go wrong. But the view up here is nice." Keva: "well," she leans her head against the railing and angles her head a bit to him, "thanks for breaking and entering this far with me anyway," and she gives him a smile, one just tired enough that maybe she can fall asleep this time when they head back down. "ah, you, too, ghester… though you didn't really have a choice." Psalm: "Any time," Psalm says, "feel free to wake me up even if you're ever in need of a partner for another expedition even."
SESSION 66 - Tower Defence 19/7/2025
> 🎵 Belldandy / Ah! My Goddess! OST
We pick up once again at the jasidian tower in Coralwash, childhood hometown to our party’s resident cleric Cimmorro. After making it to the town and the temple, the group have all settled in for their stay here for the next few days or so, meeting new people and taking in the alien and familiar practices of the acolytes. After moving their belongings up to the dorm rooms, they all idled the rest of the day and evening away until it came time for bed. Ready to sleep after a long day of travelling, the party all soon begin to snooze away in their respective rooms.
Though a couple of them make off for a cheeky night time excursion through the upper floors, psalm and keva skulking around together where they aren’t quite permitted. In the middle of the night the two stand on one of the top floor balconies overlooking the sea and the sleepy town nearby, backlit by the iridescent glow of the pyre situated at the very top of the tower.
The evening is peaceful and calm as it should be. Though these sorts of things don’t seem to last around here for long. All of a sudden a great quaking sound shakes the ground, reverberating throughout the whole of the tower as the rumbling shakes it and its foundations.
Those asleep in their rooms wake from the sensation of experiencing what feels like a sudden strong earthquake, It doesn’t last too long but the strength of it is alarming. They can hear others in the tower stir from the shake and pick up tones of tired and hurried conversation begin to start up throughout the floor.
The two of atop the very top floor of the tower also feel it, the sudden shake causes the two of them to nearly fall from their perches on the balcony. Managing to stabilise themselves they see something as they look out across the night landscape.
A nearly gargantuan figure, as if dropped there from thin air, suddenly appears between the tower and the town. Clouds of dust and dirt puff up from around the ground, displaced by the beings' sudden appearance on the long hilly path up the cliffside between the two locations. The size of it stuns the two of them, the dark of the night also makes it hard to understand quite what they’re looking at as they squint at it. After a few seconds they see it begin to slowly move with a groaning sound of what sounds like the sound of giant tree trunks being stretched and bent.
Keva realises after a few more moments of shocked staring as the being seemingly moves into a ‘upright’ position, what they're looking at is a gargantuanly sized treant, an animated tree creature.
Psalm: "I must've fallen back asleep without realising surely," Psalm says Keva: "(jesus fucking christ equivalent)" is all she says at the sight, and then remembers where they are. the two high priests surely will be there shortly. keva slides one of the crutches to psalm to use to help him stay anchored on the ground and gets up onto her feet "you dream of gigantic treants usually?" Psalm: Psalm accepts it gratefully as he would rather not fall to his death."You don't?" He asks sarcastically. Ironically his only dreams have been related to his giant smokey friend recently. "Let's head back before we fall or worse-it spots us." Keva: "haven't had the chance, no" she makes her way out the doors and down the stairs, moving as quickly as she can without falling and hoping to get back down to the unresticted levels before anyone spots the two of them
Finn: finn was going to ignore the earthquake but its more intense than anythings hes experienced so he decides to pop out of his coffin. hes not really surprised his roommates are long gone, a couple weeks ago he would've felt jealous that psalm didnt take him out for a fun night adventure but hes sort of past the point. for now. he realizes plum is still there though "plum did you, uh, feel that?" Plum: "damn…that means i didn't just imagine that…" they say, sitting up groggily in their bed. Finn: "unfortunately. i wouldve preferred such a reality as well" he fidgets with the hem of his sleeve for a moment "soooo, do you think we should, like, look for the others? i mean it was just an earthquake but i mean, say, if theres a chance it was, like, another dragon that caused that…. i bet theyd want us there" Plum: "yeahh, let's go" plum says after a moment of hesitation. "they're probably all awake doing the same now too." they crawl out of bed and wait for finn so they can go find the others
Han: han jumps up like what the fuck was that and then looks to rokka and goes to wake him up to bother him Mars: [sends silva out the window to investigate] Rokka: rokka jolts awake WHUH HUH WHAT IM UP IM UP Han: "did you feel that?" then turns to mars "anything?" Rokka: "i thought i was just dreaming it…" rokka keens his ears to try to hear anything
Looking through Silva's eyes Mars sees the exact same as keva does atop the tower. He’d almost guess the thing was as tall as the tower itself from this distance, it’s size is so massive even from a ways away. They saw nothing like this on the way over to the town, and he's got no idea where such a creature could have been hiding in the landscape here to have suddenly appeared now. He also thinks for a few seconds, noting that the type of tree the treant is also isn't native to the area.
Pricking up his ears Rokka hears telltale sounds of bark stretching and leaves rustling, groaning sounds of wood that all support mars' words. Something about it seems a little strange to you though, you feel underneath all the natural sounds of the tree a very very slight squishing sound is also sounding out beneath it all.. its an unnatural sound.
Mars: "Um. There's a giant fucking treeant out there." He's also puzzled as to why or how it came here if its not even native. Vinny: vinny jumps awake at the sound making confused faces at you all as he tries to also get a look out the window "a treant..???" Mars: "Yeah, uh… those big tree creature things- its a" And he describes whatever non-native tree this is as he's hurriedly getting ready to go out because this can't be good, as silva swoops in from the window. Han: following suit, han also goes to grab her weapons "oh, living wood… fire?" shes gonna start putting slathering a couple arrows in oil once shes up and ready to go out Rokka: he furrows his brows and tilts his head as he listens, speaking out loud to everyone in the room "it does sound like a…tree? but…squishy…? Squishy tree?" Mars: "Maybe…" He's kind of worried actually that something that big on fire might just burn the town down. And when Rokka mentions its squishy he's a little puzzled, considering he didn't hear that at all. "…? Wait what do you mean squishy?" Han: "it.. rotted?"
Cimmoro: cimm runs out in his pajamas and just do like. immediate check on everything and everyone he passes thru, and looking for his sisters esp Malaya: you find your two sisters stumbling out of the rooms on the same floor as you looking panicked, as if suddenly awoken from their slumbers by the sound. malaya scrambles over to you “c-cimmy! What was that sound?” Mahalia: mahalia by contrast looks much more groggy and confused “we have an earthquake..??” Cimmorro: still recovering from being disoriented himself, he looks just as groggy as her but still somehow alert (thanks wraiths for ruining cimm's body clock and preparing him for this) "it seems like it, why now--? anyway," he grunts in frustration and rubbing his eyes "try to stay on the ground floor and tell everyone else you see to do the same in case of aftershocks. get ulle too, okay?"
The two of them nod at Cimmorro and begin scurrying down the stairs ahead of him, Mahalia slower than Malaya as she grumbles about her beauty sleep.
Cimmorro: okay i think cimm is going to head down to the ground floor but also he's going to announce for everyone to go there too as he makes his way down (making his voice louder with thaumaturgy)…. THEYRE ON A CLIFF.. THEY CANT FUCK WITH AFTERSHOCKS…
The two outside still anxiously watch the creature, they see lights coming on in the town, and others indoors also hear the distant sounds of bells being rung, it appears the tower isn’t the only thing being thrown into slight disarray by this things appearance.
The creature continues moving with a loud groaning sound, those outside finally see its hollowed out face, its eyes lit up in the darkness as it glances between the town and the tower. After a minute or so they hear another loud groaning sound as it slowly begins walking up the hill in the tower’s direction.
Mars glances out the window again to get a look at it, he notes the creature has a definite worrying purposeful intent about its movement, he doesn't have a feeling the thing is coming towards the tower to warmly greet its residents. Treant’s aren’t necessarily prone to harm or violence, they live in the wilds and nature and defend themselves accordingly when necessary, but you don't know of any that come to towns and villages to raze them to dust. The way it’s acting is very very strange. From this distance in the dark he cant quite tell what could be responsible for what rokka's sensitive hearing picked up on. The four in the room make to start heading down to the ground floor.
Rokka: Shrugging his shoulder, "not sure…like i hear all that natural tree branches and stuff for a tree man, but there's this slight squish underneath all that sound" Mars: alarmed mars just notes that he'll keep an eye out for whatever made that squishing sound because waahhhtht the ffuckkkkk treeants don't usually do this, let alone should one have appeared here so suddenly LIKE YOU THINK WE'D HAVE NOTICED IT A LIL SOONER W/ HOW BIG IT ISSSS
Inside the party can hear Cimmorro's voice from above loudly shouting though they cant quite percieve what, they can tell he's coming downstairs though.
Cimmorro: just repeating smth like "to the ground floor everyone, quickly-! but don't trip over each other!!" over and over each floor he passes by
Plum: "i think i can hear cimmorro..?" plum says and heads out the door. "let's head to the ground floor in case it shakes again… there's this constant rumbling sound too" Finn: finn rolls his eyes at the sound of cimms voice, despite the situation. tsk. but this is hardly the time to complain to plum about him "lets take a look outside when we're there? not like we'll find cimmorro in the crowd anyway" Han: before following her roommates down, han is gonna pound on your door "WAKE UP! HUGE TREE! ABOUT TO ATTACK!" Plum: huh--what? WHAT?" plum yells after han to no avail. they look at finn in confusion and then turn back to han's retreating back, pinching their eyebrows in frustration. "let's hurry!" they say and pull finn along with them downstairs.
The party all coral themselves down to the ground floor one after another amongst the crowd of acolytes and other guests and patients and eventually sight one another. It's understandably much more crowded now that the whole of the towers made their way down here at cimm and other's behest.
Pushing themselves out near to the front where the large open temple doors are they all now see the gargantuan treant in full making its way closer and closer to the tower with every lumbering step, from the ground floor it looks even more massive to them all, a few of the people here begin to panic, saying small prayers or trying to move people indoors.
Plum: plum loudly saying "umm what the fuck is that?" Keva: she's still getting out of the tower and having to push past people… i think somewhere along the way she grabbed psalm by the arm to make sure they don't get separated by crowds while they push out and forward
Glancing out into the night most of the party cant percieve anything else about the trean't movements other than its Big and Its Coming Over Here.
Psalm and Finn examine the creature as closely as they can from a distance and notice something in the moonlight, a purple webbing stems out from the centre of the treant’s chest. as if a rot has taken root in the base of the being's large trunk, it spreads out towards the rest of its limbs, giving it sickly looking colouration. the treant’s face and glowing eyes similarly appear dulled as it seemingly moves purely on instinct rather than intellect.
Han picks up on this as well, but she also notices, by the way the trunk and its body twist, the way the treant is moving… this thing is gearing up and is about to take a running swing at the building.
Psalm: Psalm like well wtf am I supposed to do with that info Jk hell tell Keva this and then he'll say "You know anything about any enemies the jasidians might have or…" Han: han readies an arrow "IT WILL HIT TOWER" han forces her way thru and lights her oiled arrows up and tries to shoot the treant Keva: "fuck if i know, but that thing showed up out of nowhere so i doubt it just stumbled here on accident. we should aim for the rot" seeing what han's doing keva's going to follow suit and aims for the chest Rokka: rokka starts to panic now that he's taken the time to look out UHHHH GUYS? Cimmorro: once cimm notices the tresspasser, he pushes himself further to the front of the crowed with a face that looks half-shocked and half-offended and he addresses the treant with an accusatory point. "EXCUSE ME, WITH ALL DUE RESPECT, WHAT THE FUCK ARE YOU?! DO YOU HAVE A PERMIT TO BE HERE? THIS IS HALLOWED GROUNDS." he keeps pointing at it and shouting Finn: finn looks for a moment at that creature and then at plum. and then at the creature. he vaguely hears cimmorro yell something really annoying. well if hes gonna die… if he dies? he'll probably die for real. his coffin is in that tower. and the vengaboys…. theyll……. finn bolts directly for cimm and grips his shoulders "is your tower equipped with any defensive measures? do you have any catapults or dedicated fighters for this kind of situation? youre not gonna get through with talking"
The treant doesn't seem to take notice of Cimmorro's words at all as it continues its advance, at Finn's question he recalls that the tower is in fact fit with a number of barrier spells to keep out would be robbers or assailants. Being located in a relatively remote area the church does its best to protect the spells, tomes and artifacts it houses and archives. Though he also knows these spells weren’t exactly created to defend against a creature of such gargantuan size- and as he thinks that-
> 🎵 Pantry / Virtue's Last Reward OST The treant begins to dash as it closes the distance and moves to strike the tower with one of its towering limbs. As soon as its limb meets the tower a magical barrier flashes into existence the moment it strikes the wall. A purplish glow flashes across the entire outer surface of the tower, deflecting the treant’s blow. The pyre at the top of the tower also briefly flashes brighter at the exact same time the magic appears and disappears.
There is a definite shake felt inside the building however as the impact pushes it back from the tower, heard alongside it are the many cries of the residents and acolytes in the building, out of either shock or fear. Keva and Han both feel themselves jostled before they can let off any attacks.
They quickly move to stabilise themsleves and shoot at it again.
Han: seeing you with ur weapon out, han yells "come!! take arrows from me!!" while shooting off Keva: keva falls into line with her and fills her in on the fact she saw this thing literally appear out of nowhere "someone's behind this" Han: han's eyebrows furrow "what the fu…"
Using her knowledge of portals, Han thinks to herself. One this large is definitely possible to create, but it would take a great amount of power, or strange abnormality to allow something this big to teleport through, though with a sudden dragon also appearing in the area too this seems all the more likely to be the case
Finn: as the treant strikes the tower, finn instinctively pulls cimm close as if to protect him even though thats not going to do anything. hes surprised to see the flash of the barrier but all the more relieved, he quickly lets go of cimm and his eyes clearly say 'IF YOUR TOWER HAS A CANNON NOWS A GOOD TIME TO TELL US ABOUT IT' Cimmorro: cimm watches the scene unfold rendered speechless and instinctively ducking for cover, only to be grabbed by finn, yet he seems to take no heed at the gesture and focuses on the treant, perplexed and more furious now as he turns to finn almost pushing him aside so he can think. "nothing for this caliber of a pest! tsk!" that barrier doesn't look like it's going to last long at this rate. Finn: "then" he notices the others launching their assault "then get your followers to help with what hans doing over there" he gestures at han for emphasis
The two girls both let off both their next strikes and they hit true, luckily the rot seems pretty pervasive on the treant, and the target is wide. They see small sparks light off from the flames on their arrows. though the treant doesnt seem to react at all to the damage, they see small embers flit around its chest in the dark. Mars follows up after, letting off a magic missile and while it defintely strikes the treant, its just a scrape as a single plank of bark is plicked off its exterior.
Staring up at the treant, Plum goes through the catalogue of parasitic plant infections they've got in their head but cant seem to find anything quite like this in memory, at the very least that does tell them its definitely not something from around the area. They would guess it was something inflicted on it, something like this isnt exactly a known issue for these creatures as far as they can guess.
Psalm has a thought as well and shoots a quick glance around the crowd, but among the panic he cant pick anything strange out,
Ghester: you ghester pipe up in your head "eyes are failing us it seems" Psalm: Psalm's gonna address the others "If there's someone controlling this thing they're probably nearby, not that I can see anything worth a damn in this crowd. ghester is now really the time" Ghester: "i like to remind us of where we stand"
Following after Psalm's suggestion, Rokka and Mars eye the crowd. Rokka tries to listen in around you but with the crowd sounds surrounding him he cant make out anything in particular that's noticeable. Mar's glance around the room assures him that no one in here seems to be commanding this treant at the moment, though he cant say for anywhere else. Nothing on the ground floor also looks like it'd be too helpful in tower defence
Mars: mars just lets out a frustrated sound that the source of this isn't anywhere he can see here, and there's kinda not much he can do from down here. at psalm specifically though. "There's no one here." I think he looks like he's about to start scaling this thing like he did with the dragon Plum: "i think it's possible that it doesn't need to be controlled anymore…" plum says at psalm's suggestion, after observing the rot on the treeant… Psalm: "Damn,I was hoping we could just find and beat the tar out of a regular guy instead of that thing," he waves in the treants general direction Plum: "agreed…" plum mumbles. they've just been watching, not really sure how to deal with something that size this time.
Trying to think of how to deal with this, Keva continues staring at the treant, the only thought she's got to deal with something this huge is to knock it down, someway or somehow that'll also impede its movement.
At the front of the Cimmorro racks his brain for defences, being the current highest ranking member in the tower it's almost his responsibility now to lead your clergy out of this predicament. Trying to recall ever being told what to do in the case of a dire emergency by either his mother or willow he starts to sweat.
Something comes to him though, a conversation from years and years ago after his mother and Kavach had left the tower that Willow pulled him aside for. Should something truly horrid threaten the tower and he doesn't know what to do, run to their office and…what was it again…? he cant remember.
Cimmorro: cimm sees the others begin to attack sees the caravan in his peripheral vision so he gets an idea. the broom can get him up to the office quicker than his legs could. in a rush, he turns to the crowd to find his sisters, and eventually just announces w/ thaumaturgy again: "provide my party with what they need; fire, and anything that can slow this thing down! i need to get upstairs!" then he's gonna pick up the broom wherever they left it Vinny: as you run off to find the broom you find a hand grab your arm from behind through the crowd, whipping around you see an out of breath vinny holding the broom clutched in one hand "h-you- shouldn't, r-run out" he continues wheezing as he holds it Cimmorro: "i'm not- i'm trying to get to the the offices- there's something we could use up there. i was just looking for that, too!" he eyes the broom and reaches a hand out for it, wordlessly asking for vinny to hand it over. Vinny: he hands the broom to cimmorro wordlessly with a nod "the- the barrier wont protect you if you g-go outside? maybe" he glances back inside the building "f-fly up the stairs?" Cimmorro: "that's what i was planning! thank you thank you!" if the doors are locked then he can resort to flying out a window-- (thank u psalmkeva if u didn't lock them again) he takes the broom and he looks like he's ready to jet off until he realizes something. "wait- come with me. i might need your help- hurry!" Vinny: he blinks for a second before stumbling after him "ah- right right" he starts mentally going over his prepared spells as he hops on side sadle Cimmorro: we head up, cimm's going to briefly be like 'why tf are the doors open- nvm maybe some of the clergy were too panicked on the way down' in his head and focuses on getting to his parents' offices as fast as he can get them there Vinny: vinny nods his head as the two of zip off at a speedy pace in a circular motion up the stairs as fast as you can, the spinning nearly makes you nauseous on the way as you head up
As the two zip up the stairwell on the broom, the rest of the party goes about distracting the treant and trying to knock it off balance.
Finn decides its time to spring into action as well. He figures in this chaotic situation no ones going to notice, he shapeshifts into a bat and flies as close as he can to the treants crown and circles it. Though as he zips around the treant's head he sees it turn its gaze in his direction and raise an arm to take a swing at him instead.
At the same time, recalling the strange cutlass she's kept around, Keva smacks it aghainst the wall a few times to fully activate it, before throwing it at the treant's feet, watching the explosion go off as it connects. It seems to acually shift the treant slightly with the impact, it staggers slightly off balance, it doesn't fall, but it does distract it. More flaming embers dot its feet as flaming bark hits the ground.
Thankfully the explosion below distracts the treant's gaze from Finn's form as a giant limb the size of the thickest tree trunk he's seen in his life whizzes past him. With the time he has now he observes the treant, he doesn't sense anything controlling this thing thats a person (no mech pilot), but with his echolocation he does feel a pulsing coming from the trees centre where the rot it situated.
He can also tell it goes deep, deep into the trunk. The tree isnt hollow so he cant climb inside it but there many nooks and crannies and holes around the tree he can climb in through and around, thinking he'd have to get closer to inspect it.
In the meanwhile Mars and Psalm look up at the tree and begin thinking of a way to get close to the rot at the centre of the treant's chest.
Han: "you going up? here-" she casts spiderclimb on you Mars: "Am i-" He doesnt know what psalm is deviously brewing. (is casted on)
The two come up with a plan to dimension door to its chest, and grab hold of the branches nearby for steady footing, plum backing them up with a sanctuary spell first. In the meanwhile Keva shoots off another fire arrow at its chest, letting off another exoplosion, burning wood hitting the ground as the treant jostles slightly.
Psalm casts the spell and the two hit their point on the treant after Keva's last explosion, but Psalm immediately slips. Luckily with a quick hand from Mars he manages to keep himself from tumbling off the treant immediately, getting stationary. The treant however notices the both of them and looks down, raising one of its limbs high into the air.
Mars: "Shit- Get out of here-" He's gonna hurriedly try to aim for the rot before the treant slams down, and then if he has enough time he might misty step out of getting slammed.
Han moves outside, situating herself under Mars and Psalm ready to catch either should they fall while letting off another arrow of her own. It hits the lower half of the tree away from the centre where the rot is, she defintely does some damage to the bark but without the fire its hard to tell if she's making any progress. Keva lets off another fire arrow at its feet again causing it to stumble.
Seeing Han run out Rokka joins the fray, deciding to risk it with the help of his ancestors as a last ditch attempt on his end. He rages before striking at its legs.
Up above both Mars and Psalm risk taking a hit by sticking around to stab into the rot on the treant's chest, on the backside of the treant Finn also transforms back into his eleven form to strike at it with his rapier.
Mars' instinct to strike at the centre of the rot seemed to be correct as the group all hear a louder groaning from the bark than usual, his precisions seems to have hurt it a little more.
Seemingly noticing the sudden barrage the treant strikes out to his the four men currently assailing it in melee range. Mars, Rokka and Finn all dodge the attacks from the treant with expert ease, getting used to its pace. Psalm also manages to dodge out of the way JUST in the nick of time, though the giant tree trunk whizzing past his head do terrify him.
Psalm: Psalm goes "WHOA " and briefly considers that maybe he should invest in being as athletic as the other three.. Mars: i think if mars had the time to react he'd be stressed out monky clutching its head at psalm rn but he's got no time for that. keep hitting that rot
Down below the two archers continue to let off their rounds as Plum attempts a reduce spell that sadly seems to have no effect.
Back up the top of the tower, Cimmorro zips his way up to the top floor at top speed with a anxious vinny gripping him from behind. The two find themselves finally deposited at the topmost floor, the pyre burning brilliantly in front of them. From the balconies the two have a good and easy view of the fight as it goes on below them.
Cimmorro shoots off a quick path to the grave that ends up strengthening one of Han's arrows before he runs over to Willow's door with Vinny.
Cimmorro: i'm going to turn my attention back to the doors and looks at vinny "my parents set up arcane locks on these things, would you happen to have anything to get them open?" he asks in a rush, very telling now why he wanted vinny up here Vinny: he glances from you to the door as he adjusts his robes recovering from the sonic spin dash up here "ahh… let me give them a look…"
Cimmorro casts a quick guidance spell over the man before he sets about trying to unlock the door in earnest.
Vinny: vinny squats down in front of the door inspecting the runes for a second, after some hurried examination he blinks as if out of recognition. he quickly moves casting a spell, you see a snapping purple light flash through the air over the lock. afterwards vinny grins and grips the handle in a very specific way. jiggling it left then to the right, he follows by quickly thrusting his arm down, snapping off a section of the runes around the lock off the door. after that a purple light snaps through the air around the frame of the door, disappearing through the air. he spins back in your direction "got it!" Cimmorro: [voice of gratitude] i will impregnate you
Back outside the party continue striking away to distract and topple the treant. On its chest Mars strikes more spiritedly than Psalm as he stares at the webbing confused. After another good hit to the rotted wood though they both see a a purple liquid spurt from the centre.
The two of them are so surprised by the burst of liquid they fail to move out of the way as it coats both of their arms gripping their weapons. The acid burns their arms though both fighters have bonded in some way or another to their blades, making the dropping not too much of an issue as they quickly resummon them.
Ghester: you drop ghester and hear him in your head say"psalmmmmm……!" pretending as if he were actually getting away from you Psalm: "thats what you get for talking back to me earlier you bastard" <- as a joke
Finn: finn is calculating his next move, should he move on? surely the treant will attack again anytime now, he needs to brace himself when suddenly… why is he thinking now of all times that if this were a game, and the outcome of these actions were determined by numbers, he and mars just rolled the same one? the thought really pisses him off. but hes going to channel this anger into the tree, finn decides hes going to start pretending what hes hitting here is mars.
As the group keep on, the treat moves to strike the men once more, all but Rokka dodge this time. A giant trunk comes smashing down onto him, like a person stepping on a bug, though his rage allows him to shrug a chunk of it off. Plum shoots off an acid arrow at the centre of the rot, doing a good deal of damage but also mixing in with the rot starts to make it look weirdly toxic up there.
Deciding to relocate to the gound, Finn attempts to slide down the tree but does so very poorly, bumping and scratching his way the whole way before landing again on the grass.
Finn: having arrived with less damage than anticipated, finn shakes his head and tries to snap back into focus "rokka?" he calls out to the vengaboy "can you keep going?" he asks and tries to help rokka where hes left off by also attacking the same leg rokka was Rokka: shaking off that hit from the tree trunk, he answers finn as he readies to continue his strike "got it!!!" Finn: finn nods in unity….lets fight together rokka-kun….his determined gaze seems to all but speak these exact words…..may they reach rokka… Rokka: rokka feeling the power boost…….for the flames of friendship and not dying grows stronger…!
As the party continue their barrage the two upstairs rush into the room.
Cimmorro: cimm CHEERS and shakes him but only briefly as he needs to rush inside and try to find anything that can jog his memory.
The two run into Willow's office, turning anything and everything over that could possibly be what they're looking for, while Cimmorro also searches the niggling part of his memories from what they were told that day. Eventually it comes to him while emptying a desk drawer, a red cupboard they have at the very back of the room.
In one of the drawers they’ll find something that’ll call for help. He dashes over nearly tripping as you rips the 3rd drawer inside the cupboard open. Inside he sees intricate and confusing runes carved all alongside the drawer and in its centre an old dusty looking pressure plate inlaid into the design, asking to be pressed.
He bashes his hand against it, pressing it, a burst of purple arcane light blasts from it, blowing his and Vinny's hair back as they squint their eyes shut.
The rest of the party outside fighting look up and see a giant purple magic circle suddenly appear in the sky out of nowhere, smoothly arching its way open until it completes itself.
They watch it spin slowly as it begins to glow and pulse for a few seconds before a bright light tears the centre of it open and they see something spat out of it. a small silhouette falls through the sky.
> 🎵 Magic Spear II / Ace Combat 7 OST
Psalm, Han and Plum in the dark and the distance can't tell what exactly is falling through the air, but the rest of the party sees what almost looks to them like the silhouette of a person twisting and tumbling through the air. After a few seconds though another flash seems to enshroud the silhouette and they watch before their very eyes the visage of an adult dragon suddenly appear in a flash of purple light in the sky.
Those outside stare gobsmacked as the light of the magic circle overhead and of its own transformation dance across its white iridescent scales, its not a kind any of them have seen before in their lifetimes.
Vinny and Cimmorro rush towards another balcony to see as it twirls gracefully through the air, the dragon smoothly glancing across at its surroundings. The size of it could easily be half the length of the Jasidan tower itself, though before fear can overtake the party at the appearance of another great beast, they watch its eyes zero in on the treant after a second or two.
Mars: mars is gonna grab psalm and start just bolting down the treant Psalm: by all means go ahead
Han: han is going to start backing up seeing mars grab psalm and run down this thing, motioning for rokka and finn to fall back to Rokka: Rokka looks away from the sky and quickly makes one last slash at the treant before he starts running back to everyone's general area Finn: finn thinks this might be the greatest thing hes ever witnessed…. to think hes part of such a grand battle. that dragon has got to be on their side, right? he really doesnt want to run. the thought of fighting alongside such a beast thrills him, arouses goosebumps on his skin……but how could an ant hope to aid a lion? still…… everything in his body refuses. a warrior… stays on the battlefield. he continues to attack the leg but also keeps looking to the dragon Keva: keva says "fuck my fucking life" and still attacks from earlier at the treant's feet Cimmorro: i think vinny just hears cimm do a string of curses both common and infernal and its like "WHAT WERE THEY (&%(#$%& THINKING (#&%(@#&(% IS THIS (#&(@(#%" and he's like PANICKING Vinny: vinny has his jaw dropped next to cimmorro on the balcony as he stares at the dragon in the sky speechless while cimmorro rants and raves
As he runs down the treant with Psalm in tow, Mars eyes the dragon again, realising its a mercury dragon. Though in all the drama his brain doesn't give him much information on their exact nature.
Mars: not that i think he's audible between all the loud ass sounds and kaiju battling but mars does yell out "why the fuck is there a mercury dragon nOW" Psalm: I think Psalm can probably hear him so he just goes "This kind of thing tends to happen whenever we're around."
The group all get out a last round of attacks in after the appearance of the dragon causes some of them to retreat back to the tower. The barrage causes it to send out another loud twisting groan of anger but aslso seem to distract it from the appearance of the dragon at all.
In the distance they see the dragon watching for a few more moments before it swoops down, charging at the treant with an incredible speed. The dragon pounces onto it, knocking into the ground and away from the building, shaking the ground with great force as they all once again feel the ground shake and the earth morph.
Cimmorro: cimm and vinny holding on the rails and each other from another earthquake
Mars and Psalm manage to hold their ground safely from the blast of wind from the dragon's impact, Mars acting as an anchor point for psalm to not go flying. Finn is a little less successful as the blast sends him flying about 20 feet or so, about to crash into the ground again. With a quick featherfall from Han however, he instead floats carefully to the ground aways away from the two beasts instead of becoming paste on the grass. As Plum glances at Mars and Psalm they send off a round of healing to the latter.
Mars: sets psalm down like WDYM THIS IS NORMAL Psalm: "Bad luck I guess…" Mars: he did not express that verbally at all and yet somehow psalm still got him anyway. he's just. what the fuck now as he looks back up the dragon and treeant dueling again. Whatever. Go level 2 magic missile Plum: plum is only barely paying attention to healing because they're watching the treeant and the dragon fight Han: rokka so busy watching this WWE match his rage is dissipating sssssssssssssssssssss
Finn: finn is shellshocked when he.. just survives but transfixes his gaze on the battling beasts Han: "FINN!" LOCK IN Finn: finn whips his head around to han and blankly stares at her. whats he supposed to do now? hes not an archer like her and if he hits the dragon…… he looks at his sword in contemplation
Cimmorro: after the shaking settles a bit, cimm's literally just like and goes "WELL.. IT'S WORKING- BUT WHAT THE FUCK ARE WE SUPPOSED TO DO AFTER?!" he's not really looking for an answer from vinny and is still just venting. he's eyeing the broom again to head down this time from the balcony instead of the stairs now that the two creatures are preoccupied Vinny: after standing shellshocked for a little longer vinny shoots a white as a sheet look at cimmorro "d-d-did you, well i g-guess you didnt know, they h-had a dr…..dragon…???" hes holding the railing for dear life Cimmorro: "i did not!" he replies immediately as he prepares the broom then cursing his parents again with an annoyed grumble. "get on!" Vinny: he shuffles on silently after cimm instead gripping him for dear life Cimmorro: he feels a little bad about how shaken vinny is but it only gets worse if they stay up there so down they go! to where the rest of the clergy is and keva
Plum: "that's not going to become a problem afterwards is it….?" plum says out loud Mars: The way mars grimaces at plum makes them believe he thinks its going to be. Plum: 🙁 Keva: "prepare like it will be!" Mars: 😟 Psalm: "That seems poorly thought out."
Finn: he decides to charge into the fray once more!…..hes gonna try and assist somehow…..stab at the treant on the ground, probably get hit by a stray claw…..
Keva: she keeps her eyes and bow trained on the dragon but remarks to cimm when they arrive "you guys have a dragon problem we should know about?" Cimmorro: "i didn't even know we had one so don't blame me for that!" he growls as he lands safely with vinny. "this is apparently my parents' idea of an emergency plan… without fucking telling me!!!" he's so so crossed
Mars and Han let off a couple of more ranged attacks as they watch the dragon tear the treant apart, as if providing it artillery support. it notices in the midst of its attack and lets out what could only be described as a 'chuckle' though more like its amused than being disparaging. Rushing up Finn strikes the treant once more, plunging into the torn open bark the dragon holds with its claws.
Though once again the impact of the dragon's strikes flings him back through the air towards the direction of the tower. He goes oh boy paste time again but then sees the dragon flick its wing as if to provide him another gust of air to aid his landing. He doesn't hit the ground as hard as he'd expect, tumbling in the direction of the tower.
Finn: finn barely feels- okay thats a lie he feels the pain alright (his previous tumble down the treant may have been a bit much) but he doesnt have time to focus on that when it dawns on him that the dragon aided him. he starts blushing and grinning and grips the earth between his fingers, ripping out some grass along with it. this is it. this is what he was born for! powered by ecstasy and belief, finn gets up and-
Mars: I think mars just looks at it with some kind of resignation that if it does actually turn its attention away from the treeant and towards them, they're fucked. its literally playing around. Keva: keva looks up at that for a moment "you summoned this thing?" and re-aims her bow for the treant, filling cimm in on what she saw re: transformation Plum: "so we won't have to fight it then?" Cimmorro: "yes…." he drags his hands down his face but goes, "what???" at what they saw. then turns to the direction of the dragon again, just more puzzled than before…. WHAT!!! "i don't… i don't know! i don't think my parents would use something unreliable but… keep your guard up just in case." his earlier frustration just turns into something more bereft and confused. Psalm: Psalm just shrugs, "Well we got practice dealing with dragons beforehand at least, but I doubt unleashing a dragon on the city is something anyone would do." Plum: "alright…" they say, looking at cimm a bit worriedly. he's obviously stressed considering this is his home being attacked and all. "i think it'll be alright," in an effort to be comforting they say after a moment. "the tower's still standing at least."
With Finn out of the way the dragon opens its jaw wide and uses it's breath attack to spit acid directly into the treants chest with a large burst of arcane energy. The treant twists and snaps beneath the dragon as it continues to hold it in place for the barrage. The treant strikes the dragons head with its larger trunks a few times but the dragon seems to shrug the attacks off easily.
The treant anchors one of its legs to try and deliver a final kick to the dragon to remove it from where it lays over it, knocking it into the air. though the dragon merely bellows as it uses the momentum to soar back down and snap its chest in two with the momentum. The impact sends off an earthquake-like shake again around them all before the treant seems to let out a last loud ominous groan. It stops moving as it lays in the dirt, while the dragon eyes it sitting on its chest, checking if its prey has been properly slain.
> 🎵 Ocarina of Time: Forest Temple - OCRemix / Andrew De Lange
Most of the clergy stare shellshocked, in awe, or pray while standing in front of the patients coralled to the hallway.
Finn: finn watches the beast as it finishes its prey off in such a magnificent and brutal way. finn is bewitched… if only the treant were a more.. fleshy creature. surely he'd be dancing in a rain of blood now ! but the honor to behold this moment was already more than he could ever ask… without hesitation finn trots toward the beast again, just to be in awe up close Han: honestly han is on her guard, arrow notched but pointed downwards, but inside shes having a finn-like fangirl moment Mars: i think seeing keva and han still so guarded mars is also gonna still cautiously regard the dragon. because. what the shit. Keva: i think seeing keva and han still so guarded mars is also gonna still cautiously regard the dragon. because. what the shit.
In the sudden silence and peace Mars tries to recall what he knows about mercury dragon's but finds his head empty. Psalm on the other hand thinks to himself. He knows they're generally chaotic creatures, not known to be evil or good they mostly do whatever their whims take them to in the moment. they're known to be animated and curious and whizz between things to an almost confusing degree. having a beast like this in ones employ is certainly a strange choice if you were going for a protector but the thought isnt immediately offputting.
Psalm: Psalm is slightly impressed with the Jasidians for doing something so random
Cimmorro: cimm looks back at the tower and the residents as plum says that, also feeling a bit of wind getting knocked out of him in relief but he stays cautious of the dragon now passively just. sitting…. but like earlier with the treant, he also pushes forward, taking initiative of the situation. clearly his parents were in on this so it should be fine? "er- thanks…? i think-- with all due respect, WHAT ARE YOU?? I'M NOT TALKING ABOUT THE DRAGON THING. IT'S JUST--" he gestures wildly and undecipherably, as if to just say WHAT THE FUCK. hes not as hostile as he was when he was talking to the treant tho, but hes definitely perplexed, also has the broom in hand in case he needs to bolt Keva: keva's going to follow close behind cimm with her bow still ready, just in case ??: seemingly satisfied after examining the treant's remains the dragon turns its head in cimmorro (and the temple's) direction as he begins to approach and speak to it. the dragon gracefully hops off the top of the treant and onto the grassy hill once more letting out an amused bellowing laugh before speaking in common, its voice heavy and deep as its laugh as it exmaines cimmorro carefully "were you the one to call for my aid?" Cimmorro: when it starts to trot on the grass, cimm suddenly, for once, feels small, and he doesn't like it. he frowns but replies a somehow polite "unknowingly, yes…?"
The group eye the dragon as it begins to speak. Han and Plum, despite having slain and spoken to a dragon last week are just like woah that thing is talking………!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Similarly Finn and Rokka dont notice anything strange about the beast, they're almost too wowed by the colouration of its scales.
The rest of the party take in the form of the beast before them and note a few things. This dragon looks to be on the older end rather than young, they spy a few scars on its undercarriage from other battles its no doubt had. They also notice after finally paying attention that the dragon's also missing one of its front arms, it's right one. They were too stunned by its prowess to notice until now.
Eyeing it, Cimmorro notes that despite its size and apparent strength he gets no feelings of hostility from this dragon at all, if anything right now it seems pleasantly satisfied after taking care of the treant. It's eyes are open and curious as it regards him and the people and the temple almost warmly.
??: "unknowingly, yet right on time" the dragon nods its head with a wicked smile full of sharp teeth "a good decision" Finn: "thank you for coming to our aid!" finn blurts out, unable to keep it in "it was an honor to do battle by your side" he smiles and his cheeks are still rosy (also he trotted along with them) Mars: after silva relays that to him, the number one thing mars wants to know now is what happens now, like. okay good fight or if this aid came with a cost, though it was not one he got knowingly. But he's still a little too shellshocked to ask something that crude right now. ??: the dragon angles its head to look down at you "only doing what im ordered, i think i nearly squashed a few of you there, my apologies for that" the dragon lets out another loud laugh Plum: "no.. thanks for your help.." plum says awkwardly Psalm: Psalm just nods along kind of quietly Mars: "Oh um… its fine." It kinda has to be actually. he's kinda sheepish saying this actually bcs of how jovial this guy is and here he was thinking he'd have to get killed by them… in these two combat rounds mercury dragon you have become my friend
Finn: "that wouldve been fine if it had been me…" finn giggles and looks down at the grass, feeling weirdly shy all of a sudden Cimmorro: "i can't say i'm that reassured yet…" he looks skeptically at the wounds and the arms its missing. "what do we owe this service? hopefully not a sacrifice," he says as a VERY dry joke. he genuinely has no idea if the pay is coming out of his own pockets right now. cimm tuning out finn rn for his own sanity Keva: keva can't help but make a face of disgust "get yourself together" Psalm: "Should we shut him up or…" Psalm says so Finn doesn't hear. Mars: i actually think mars cant hear finn he's too whoa dragon to think to call finn any slurs ??: the dragon merely squints at finn amused before turning back to cimmorro at his question "my service is already paid for, for a very long time going. you dont need to worry about compensation for what ive done tonight" the dragon flutters a wing and you can tell it speaks the truth on this "but…" it gives another sharp smile "if you have a present i'll take it" you feel like its almost joking but would probably also appreciate a gift of some sort Finn: "a-ah… " finn looks at keva all embarassed and frowns… "youre right….." he fidgets with his sleeves and tries to avoid everyones gazes……… this prevents him from suggesting a night with him as a present to the dragon
Mars: i think mars just looks at cimm a little distressed bcs he is extra broke right now all he's got is just shit in his noggin like wisdom of the ages or other meaningless rubbish like that and like. 75 gold. Han: han looks at cimm like i got nothing too dawg sos Finn: "i still have some scales from the cobalt dragon" Plum: "i only have a few random bottles of poison, (and a heart shaped gem iirc)…" Rokka: everyone in their pjs trying to offer stuff to the dragon
Cimmorro: "uhhh… any present? or do you have a preference…?" ??: "anything at all" as it stares at you you get the feeling it really would enjoy anything at all Keva: keva digs out all the jewelry she stole off a noble at the ball and offers it to cimm to give Cimmorro: this is what cimm looks like when u hand the shit u looted which he recognizes
Cimmorro: cimm just lets you put them in his hands a little exasperated but clearly not in the mood to argue about it. "well she wants to offer these…" he deadpans. "if you have a moment, i could get some of my things… but- sorry, your name?" he raises a brow Zurssaroi: the dragon lets out another loud laugh almost like a giggle as it takes in the items "this is enough, you dont need to worry yourselves" the dragon looks genuinely pleased as it leans its head and neck down to be eye to eye with cimm. it uses its snout to knock the items into the air out of his hands before snapping its jaw shut around them and swallowing them "safe keeping…!" he leans back up to its full height with a laugh before blinking and deciding to answer the last question "you can call me Zurssaroi"
The party stares at the new beast before them as it introduces itself, wondering exactly what to do next...
—-
Notes
👨👩👦👦👨👨👧👦The Party defended 🗼 The Coralwash Jasidan Tower!
👨👩👦👦👨👨👧👦The Party met a 🐉Dragon named Zurssaroi
cimmorro (2025!!!)
my dnd pc and @noctilin's for an halloween/valentine's day art exchange!

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Ulle
Race: Satyr
Age: 20's (probably 26)
Height: 165cm
Weight: n/a
Class: n/a
Session 65 - Meeting A Friend
> 🎵 Hajimete Date / Ah! My Goddess! OST
We come back to the party having newly climbed eleven floors of the tower, meeting Cimmorro’s sisters in one of the lower levels of the tower archives. After the party all introduce themselves and little gifts and pleasantries are exchanged, Cimmorro seems eager to meet his friend Ulle back in the clinic on the ground floor while they chat. Thus, the group begin the journey down the tower stairs once more, accompanied by the two women.
Cimmorro: cimm just continues to familiarize everyone with each other but makes a special note on vinny's stay. "i'll be leaving with the others after a couple of nights or so. but vinny will stick around, however long he may like." he pats vinny's back as he speaks to his sisters "i entrust him to you two, kay?" Vinny: vinny blinks as hes touched as if pulled out of whatever mental spiral he'd been going down back to the present, he quickly bows his head again in the direction of the two girls "a-ah i dont intend to be here too long! but yes, thank you for your hospitality…" he tried his best to look prim as the two eye him then glance back at cimmorro Malaya: she speaks up first "running away already cimmy~" Mahalia: she follows politely as if still taking the man in, a little quieter "nice to meet you" Malaya: she follows up with "there a reason hes staying?" eyes curious Cimmorro: "not so much running away as i'm in demand, as usual. such is life when you are this perfect." he sighs after flipping his hair flamboyantly. at the question he goes, "he's doing me, us, a great favor-- but also, i wish to share the archives with him as he's shared so much of his with me," with a flash of a grin he makes a show of the spellbooks. "i'm sure you'd benefit from exchanging formulas with him as well." Vinny: he tries to school his face to not react too much to the words of praise and instead starts to idly mess with his jacket as they continue to descend, growing somewhat embarrassed. Malaya: she looks at him again with bigger sparklier eyes "formulas you say…" her grin seems to grow "you brought around a scholar to the tower just for me? you shouldn't have cimm!" she laughs and smacks him on the back Vinny: he startles him as he lets out a cough, laughing awkwardly after her Mahalia: she rolls her eyes "what's the favour..?"
Cimmorro: "yes just for youuuu~ don't expect any more birthday gifts from me this year." he continues the descent as he hums at mahalia's question. "well, you'll see it soon enough, maybe! either way, it's something to look forward to." Mahalia: she squints her eyes "why so stingy…" Malaya: she keeps smiling as you all keep walking downstairs. Vinny: he returns to his mental mind palace to escape the onslaught upon his person.
After trudging back down the stairs they reach the ground floor again, soon after the girls lead them on as they pass through the large open main hallway through to the right wing. They enter an area full of what seem to be large open rooms dotted by sick beds, as well a few more recreational rest rooms flush with soft carpet and lounges for people to relax in.
They spy a few acolytes being taken through an examination led by someone who appears to be their senior as they study and take medical notes. Others mill about as they’re tended to by the equivalent of nurses to get checkups for things that appear of a less serious nature. Some areas are shut behind doors, they assume for more private consultations or for people who are here for more permanent stays.
The floor is not unlike a small hospital or clinic, if a bit more carefully decorated, coated with black paint and jasidan portraits on the walls. The bright lights and view of the ocean from the windows keep any dour feeling from settling in however, as well as the smell of various medicinal herbs and incense being burned.
In each of the portraits the party see a woman, she looks slightly different in each one, depicted with different a hairstyle or face shape but judging by her detailed flowing clothes and her ruby jewellery this is intended to be the same woman in each portrait, the lady Wee Jas herself.
Cimmorro: cimm quietly observes everything and everyone as they pass through, still making sure everything is in order. he doesn't really disturb anyone right now, only greeting those he makes eye contact with before moving on. he eventually speaks up, addressing to the ones behind him. "i don't suppose i have to remind you guys that i'd prefer if you don't bother the clergy as you explore about the next few days, especially in here, yeah? i'd appreciate it." he speaks calmly but seriously. Mars: "Aye aye" <- casual Han: "you're going to see your friend, right? the lava puking one? would they want to see our mugs?" she points to the rest of the crew Cimmorro: "they'd appreciate anything from the outside, believe me," he waves a hand leisurely Han: han's eyes sparkle with curiosity and mischief "ill come with, then. say hi" Plum: "same. i'm pretty curious, to be honest." Cimmorro: "yes yes, i encourage you all to. don't worry, s'not contagious." Rokka: "no clergy. got it!" Cimmorro: he laughs a little at this. "clergy is fine! just not the busy ones in here! some of them actually enjoy showing people around. so if you ever get lost, they got you covered." Rokka: "ok! no busy clergy!" he nods multiple times making sure to take good mental notes ensuring he is on his best behavior for his friend as it's his first time "visiting a friends home" Psalm: "I'll try to be on my best behaviour." Finn: finn nearly misses what cimm is saying about being respectful in the clergy or whatever, hes so transfixed and … taken aback by these paintings. why do they look like…? what han says about coming with cimm snaps finn back to reality, he figures itd help to know more about cimm if he wants to suck up to him during their stay here so he positions himself next to han, signaling his accompanying them as well.
> 🎵 Belldandy / Ah! My Goddess! OST
As the party all walk on, Cimmorro easily recalls Ulle being situated in a permanent care room, and trots off with those accompanying him in its direction. Finding it easily enough they see the doors already open when they arrive. Looking inside they spot his friend idling on their bed with the curtain wide open to let in the breeze. In their hands are a few seashells they’re staring at in thought, their tongue stuck out.
As the rest of the group give the interior a glance they note it definitely gives off the feeling of more so being someone's personal room as opposed to the more clinical patient beds out in the sick bay. Though the entire tower is decorated, in here there are piled trinkets and knickknacks displayed across the place more haphazardly, and not entirely of the same aesthetic sensibilities of the ruby lady’s. They give the place a nice personal touch, alongside the more sunny and whimsical patterns on the bed quilts and clothing dotted around the place. Among them though are medicinal bottles and charts around, to help soothe and track the daily fluctuations of the resident occupants' malady.
Cimmorro: at the entrance threshold and upon finding who he's been looking for, cimm inhales sharply as if winding up. "YOU!" he shouts with a point of his finger, and goes in for a running tackle. Ulle: they whip their head over at the shout and register you for a moment shouting back "CIMM-!" before you tackle into them knocking them back onto their bed as they start laughing, slapping you on the back in return Cimmorro: he holds them into a hug for a few seconds before he pushes himself up to examine ulle at rapid speed, eyes scanning, hands flying, as if a choreograph they've practiced all these years. "how's the blood pressure? no, change in diet recently? looks like you lost a bit of weight-- tch. how's the temp in here," he pokes a couple of fingers into their mouth. Ulle: they let themselves sit lax as cimmorro whips them around back and forth as if completely used to this treatment from him and anyone else. "nothing out of sorts that i can think of other than the usua-" they're abruptly stopped from speaking as the fingers go in, dealing with is as simply as everything else.
Finn: finn wonders if he should've jumped off the stairs if it would've meant getting treated like this by willow Psalm: Psalm is just watching this exchange go down like is this how you treat a sick person in Jasidian temples and makes a mental note to up his VItamin C intake. he turns to plum and just whispers this Plum: plum just rolls their eyes and snickers. then they whisper "surely the group cleric knows what he's doing…" Psalm: "True let me not be so quick to judge." Han: "oh, so this isnt normal behaviour, okay" han sounds relieved that its just cimm thats a freak Mars: "I don't know about that." Mars says when he notices a chance to mess with han a lil. Han: 🙁 Psalm: "I'm starting to think what constitutes normal might be different for our friend Cimmoro." He raises his eyebrow at Mars Plum: plum looking at him like "❓️" Finn: finn wants to say he would feel better if a hot guy did this to him but he doesnt want anyone (most notably psalm) to feel any more uncomfortable around him than they already do…. but more than that, he doesn't want to inflate cimms ego should he hear. finn will reveal this information in private someday, hes sure.
Cimmorro: he pulls his hand away without so much as a blink as he wipes it off with a cloth. "well, good," is what he says but part of him is half hoping something at least changed. maybe it could've lead to more options but, so long as they're still breathing he can't really be too greedy. "weather's nice today, surprised you're keeping yourself cooped in here. ah- also, i brought, uh, guests. yes." he gestures to the rest of the group. Psalm: Psalm waves politely. Plum: plum also waves politely. Mars: mars just nods politely at ulle Rokka: rokka waves at Ulle with a big grin "HIYA IM ROKKA!!!" Finn: finn bows noble style and does an embarassing anime pose after "and i am finnian barvotte!" (finn has opted to exclude his middle names from now on… maybe theyre not as cool as he thought) Han: han waves a hand half heartedly at ulle, but very loudly asks cimm "are you always so" she mimes the forceful action "with your patients!?" Cimmorro: "no," he doesn't seem at all appalled by what he did nor the question. "just this one. and when i really have to." Ulle: ulle gives a big toothy grin sitting behind him as if going tee hee pyon at the comment "hi eveeerybody!" they wave before they glance back at cimmorro briefly "i was out earlier, scavenged some stuff with one of the acolytes!" they gesture to the seashells you knocked about with your tackle
As the group settle in the room and look around, both Mars and Plum eye Ulle's charts and remedies. He sees salves and the like for burn wounds, he guess they help alleviate the burning symptoms they experience from puking lava, the potions are probably for drinking to aid the interior of the throat as opposed to external use like the salves.
Plum eyes the labels and charts and see written down the name 'combusting cough' and a brief description of the symptoms, categorized as a plague-like hex by the jasidians. Seems it's magical in nature, said to burn its victims slowly from the inside out. The church doesn't seem to have a known method to raise this particular curse, and has been experimenting with methods to soothe the pain as opposed to curing it at this time.
Plum: plum wants to ask them some questions but they're not sure if now would be the right time or if cimmorro would really want that so they just hold off for now..
Cimmorro: "ah! nice find!" he comments as he picks them up to place back in their hand. "reminds me, i also got some for you," he calls jasper over. "open up her pack, she got some dragon scales and shells from shorewater." as ulle does that, cimm turns to everyone else. "long story short, this is ulle. some of you already know, but i've been looking for a cure for them for a while now. it's difficult for them to leave the tower otherwise, with the magma puking and all." he does a throwing up gesture "but it's safe to be around them, like i said, not contagious." Psalm: "Nice to meet you Ulle, I'm Psalm." Psalm is wondering if the puking gesture is really necessary but figures Ulle and Cimm are close enough for them to not mind it.. Han: han does a more commited and excited wave after her fear of cimm and points to herself "am han!!" Finn: finn nods "and i fear cimm has introduced us as mere guests… however, we are the vengaboys! cimm himself came up with the name…and together we have slain the dragon whose scales you now hold!!" finn says this proudly while pumping his fist once with enthusiasm Cimmorro: cimm gives some sort of look at finn but finds himself amused anyway
Ulle: they look at you with widened before they clap like seeing a performance "nice to meet ya finnian! you're in a musical troupe now…?" they glance back at cimmorro asking the question before nodding at psalm and han in turn pleasantly Plum: "yep," plum says immediately. Keva: keva gives a small but violent shake of her head behind plum Mars: "No." The rejection was instinctual and confusion sets in quickly. "You guys were in a play???????"
Cimmorro: he snorts. "well, we kinda were one at some point. sort of." he thinks back to the theatre dlc fire emblem event. Han: walking around the room and looking at the trinkets, han sighs and goes "i wiiiiish…" in response to ulle, and then at The Boys "maybe we can do another play!?" Rokka: "YEAHH" he agrees half excited and half nervous, hearing Ulle's request for the kids Rokka doubles down as it reminded him of his street performance days "YEAHHHHHH" Finn: finn was too pissed off at that time… he would love to take part in a play actually… but he gets embarrassed at the thought of looking too enthusiastic and jumping at the idea so he just keeps his mouth shut but looks at han for a moment too long, wishing that someone else will weigh in and say theyll do a play Ulle: they laugh a little "glad to see you branching out in yer' travels!" at han's suggestion they raise a hand excited "i wanna waaatch! ohhh, you should perform for the kids!" Cimmorro: "we do have a lot of stories to share, for once it's my turn to regale you." he crosses his arms and nods proudly. at mars he says "for the great olidammara too, no less!" he continues to nod popuko style Han: "ye, back in shorewater!! the theatre was like, haunted, and mint needed people to help, cause everyone was scared of it" ^_^ she also does the popuko nod like glad u understand Psalm: Psalm watches this exchange go down and just says to Mars "I'll fill you in on the details another time." Mars: At Han and Cimm's explanation he just goes. "I see." He straight up cannot imagine it. "Must've missed it then." He says apologetically to them both. At Psalm's offer of being summarized this play (aka us reading the recap together) he turns to him and mutters 'what the hell. sure' in orcish. "That sounds nice."
Vinny: vinny stares alongside mars silently also learning this for the first time before turning to cimm "you guys really cant go anywhere, huh…" Cimmorro: at this he just snickers, just finding it all funny now as opposed to how stressful everything's been during the time. we moving forward ✈ "aaaand i'm sure there'll be plenty more…" he says with a somewhat weary smile Vinny: vinny lets out a weary laugh to compliment cimms expression "well… no worse for wear hopefully"
Ulle: they snicker behind, looking up after playing gleefully with the new trinkets Cimmorro handed over "so you and you're troupe all just swing by for a visit? i've never seen anybody's faces here before, so these 'vengaboys' gotta be a new development right?" ulle elbows cimm, looking quite pleased at him seemingly making friends, and so many too… and now theyre even going to put on a play… it warms the heart more than the lava… 😌 Psalm: Psalm is watching this go down like if Cimm engineers this scenario into us being unable to refuse having to put on a play he's going to kill him with his own two hands. Cimmorro: "yeah, not staying too long. we got hired by this guy," he points his thumb at finn. "probably to dance at his manor or something. i don't know… then after that, not sure if i'll beeline back home- well, that really depends on vinny's efforts." he turns to vinny as he mentions him. "i'm not sure when you prefer to do your test, but i won't hold you from getting some rest for today. we had a long trip on the road after all." he turns to looks up the ceiling in thought, he'd like to do some offerings anyway once everyone decides to go about their business for the rest of the day/evening. Finn: finn pouts and crosses his arms but doesn't seem genuinely offended
As the talk seems to veer on the more medically personal, Psalm and Keva duck out of the room to excuse themselves. Keva finds she's not exactly comfortable with all these paintings seemingly staring at her, and opts to join him as they go find the acolyte they met in the hall earlier. They quickly enough bump into him holding a mop this time.
Freddy: "oop- hello again honoured guests" he speaks formally, though you get the sense he doesn't take the title he speaks all that seriously Psalm: he's tired from all the fucking stairs. "Hello again, I was wondering if you could point us in the direction of where we'll be staying?" Freddy: the man nods "i was about to come find you all actually, they're made up and ready to bring your bags in if you like" he glances in the direction of the stairs and smiles "the dormitory starts on the fourth floor, your rooms are at the very start of the hall on the left" he puts a hand into the pockets of his robs and pulls out a ring of keys, tossing them to you. you note even the keys are strangely elaborate in design "i'll give the rest of you the other one when i see them, but feel free to head up and relax as you like" he twirls the mop in his hand a little Psalm: Psalm tries not to grimace at the idea of there being more stairs as he catches the key. "Thank you, you've been very helpful." He smiles.
Keva: keva snorts a bit at psalm's restrained reaction and offers to help him carry something of his anyway. "s'it very flat where you're from?" Psalm: Psalm nods in thanks and then shrugs. "Eh, it's coastal so somewhat. There's cliffs but I'm not in the habit of climbing them every day. Especially not to get around my own home." Keva: "well, looks like a few days here and climbing those cliffs will feel like a stroll" Psalm: "Oh perfect, I was thinking I needed a new cardio routine anyways." 😞
As the two reach the dormitory they note the quieter ambience up here compared to the clinic floors, its almost akin to a library. They find their room simply enough, its furnished similarly to the rest of the temple, if not more simply to allow for more day to day wear and tear. The walls remain delightfully decorated with lit scones that light the room, and two bunkbeds bracket the walls on either side. The floor has a plush carpet thrown between the two and plush woven pillows pile both sides, its more roomy than they'd expected. A small shrine to Wee Jas sits in the corner, most likely used for things like quick daily prayer.
Psalm: Psalm looks at the shrine and just rolls his eyes, before dropping his stuff on the floor by one of the beds. Keva: keva raises her brows at psalm's reaction, not expecting it. "what was that about?" Psalm: "Oh..um. Nothing, I just find the uh," he waves his hand around, "how do I put this." He pauses trying to think of what to say, a bit caught off guard. "I think there are better ways to spend ones time than praying or minding temples or whatever, I suppose. Not that I care what people choose to do with their lives." Keva: keva scrutinizes him for a second longer than is comfortable, before tossing her lone bag of belongings onto one of the top bunks. "praying's never worked for me, especially to this one" she jabs a thumb in the shrine's direction. "so i don't disagree. hungry?" Psalm: Psalm places a hand on his chest and comically breathes a sigh of relief. "Phew, thought I'd answered wrong, although it's not so much the outcome more than it is the er–stuffyness of it all." He shrugs and then adds, "But don't tell Cimmoro I said that. And sure. Guess we can make finding the dining hall our next set of stairs to climb." Keva: "we all have to work for our food one way or another" she laughs a bit as she makes her way out of the room to find some free food to eat Psalm: "I'd rather kill another dragon," he laments as he follows her.
Back downstairs, Vinny steps forward as Cimmorro points him out to Ulle, clearing his throat beforehand a little.
Vinny: "ah… cimmorro informed me of your condition, i think know a couple things i could attempt that could help alleviate it" he holds a serious expression on his face "though none i know of for sure… but regardless i'll do my best" ulle gives the man a sunny smile, their demeanour unchanged as they regard him " i see.. i 'preciate the effort buddy!" vinny smiles at their geniality despite his own still furrowed brows before glancing at cimmorro "i have a… spell i could try now, if you don't mind?" Cimmorro: he's slightly surprised, but smiles back as an approval and gives him the space he needs but keeps relatively close. "let me know if i can be of assistance." he assumes that distant-calculating demeanor he had the night before with keva as he focuses on observing. Mars: mars is a liiiittle curious about ulle's condition so if vinny and cimm and ulle doesnt say SCRAM he's gonna stay for a bit longer| Han: shes doing this too 🫣 Finn: "hey should we like… yknow.. give you guys some room for this?" he looks at ulle actually "do you want us to leave ulle? we can come back later" Ulle: ulle smiles over at you "i dont mind, i like having people around, and spells are the least crazy thing ive had done on me" they laugh heartily Han: han looks over curiously "whats the most crazy thing you had done to you?" Finn: finn stares at her like ARE U OUT OF UR MIND Plum: plum wants to watch so they're glad ulle is okay with it bc they did not think to ask, they are shocked finn did actually Rokka: same
Vinny: vinny nods at cimm "it's just my go-to for these sorts of things, nothing too crazy…" he reaches a hand out and tap it to ulle's temple "best case they're cured instantly, worse case it'll tell me something maybe…" he focuses as he speaks the incantation, brief wisps of light swirl around ulle's body for a second before they see a flash and shimmer of light cover them, they settle as little sparkles on their body before disappearing. they ogle them curiously as if entertained while vinny moves his hand away, eyebrows still furrowed as he puts a hand to his chin.
Watching the scene Mars quickly guesses that Vinny had cast 'remove curse' and judging by his reaction assumes it was unsuccessful.
Cimmorro: cimm's just patiently waiting for vinny rlly but gets the sense that spell was familiar Ulle: seemingly pleased to wait for vinny to think, they respond respond to Han's question "hmmmmmmm throat surgery was pretty crazy!" Han: han oohs in sympathetic pain "like, lava so bad it went thru your throat…?" Vinny: after a minute or so of thought, vinny huffs to himself as he puts his hands on his hips and glances at cimmorro "well… either it's not actually a curse, or its a great enough one that the magic i know had no effect" he glances back at the ceiling in thought "which limits the avenues of attack i thought available…" he tries to hide his slight frustration at the failure, it seems he held a faint hope that the spell might have been successful after all "anything else i attempt ill have to look into first… but well honestly, there aren't too many" he glances back at ulle seriously his brows furrowed again as he bows his head "i… apologise, really…" Ulle: ulle tilts their head with a smile sympathetically, almost like they consider this someone elses problem before they pat vinny on the shoulder "dont mind it, dont mind it~" though he stands up again, vinnys face remains somewhat stricken Cimmorro: after vinny explains, cimm takes a moment to himself, just a second to shut his eyes and breathe slowly. it's not that he didn't have any faith in vinny, but he quite expected this outcome. it couldn't have been that easy. nothing worth it ever is. he smiles again, and steps in front of both them, clasping his hands together. "well! like i said, every failed attempt helps us narrow our options. it's not all for naught. we'll get the one we need eventually." he elbows vinny lightly, his downtrodden state not going unnoticed. "if i'm not around by the time you find something interesting, make sure you leave notes for me, hm?" he turns and watches ulle talk to the others with a soft smile on his face. at least they're still here, it's not too late to try anything, he thinks. Vinny: he tilts his head, expression still apologetic but he doesn't say anything more as he clasps his own hands together more solemnly and nods simply at cimm's statements. Ulle: they smile next to cimmorro "if i'm not worried you can hold your head high too, fella"
Ulle: they turn to respond to han's original queries after "yep, you can imagine before they worked out some things to keep it at bay-" they tap their throat with their hand "this thing got burnt up prettttty fierce" Finn: something about all of this….strikes a nerve with finn. but he cant quite place the cause yet. he frowns and thinks for a good minute before speaking up "if you dont mind my asking, for how long have you been dealing with this affliction?" Ulle: they tilt their head back in thought "i think it's been going on four years now…" Plum: "and how'd you get it?" Ulle: they scratch their chin as they think "i don't quite remember, but i think i came across something in my travels that gave it to me… some kind of ahh.. something i'd met i dunno, my memory kinda blacks out after. the jasidans at the church here found me washed up on the beach after, i'd had it when they picked me up" Finn:
Hearing this Mars thinks to himself, he knows of creatures that like to hex and curse people, or even take things from them (the dreaded eyeplucker…) but nothing in specific comes to mind in regards to something like this, his most likely assumption is a person did this to them rather than a beast. Plum also thinks, other than having had a very similar experience in their own life, they havnt heard anything about coughing lava in specific, they also come to the same conclusion as mars though, a person defintely did this to them.
Plum: "oh okay," plum says a bit stiffly. "uh, thank you for answering…." Han: :O "what were you travelling for? any reason?" Ulle: "just what i do! i like to wander around all sorts of places and see all sorts of things, can't do that anymore though, but this aint a bad place to be settled at all~" they kick their hooves up in a chipper recline on their bed Han: oh, thats why cimm didnt mind us staying, han realises. "aw man, that sucks. i was only stuck in one room with cimm for two week, and i felt like it was breathing fire." if theres a chair nearby, shes gonna plop into it, curious about ulle "whats the last place you got to wander?" Ulle: they smile at han "ive always loved the sea, so honestly couldn't've have asked for a better view" at her question they think "before… whatever accident i got myself into, i was rolling around down near ackran, they've got some crazy architecture there from yeaaaars ago during that old war. i was waltzing around so much i got a bunch of scholarly types mad at me for stepping into architecture sites" they snicker to themselves
Cimmorro: cimm rolls his eyes lightheartedly at vinny and walks behind and past him, but not without messing with the back of his hair. he approaches his sisters and sounds like he invites them to something before turning to everyone else. "i've not much else planned for today, but i'd like to visit the altar with my sisters and do our prayers." he shoots a glance at ulle-- "you are coming with, too--" and addresses the party again with a welcoming smile. "you're free to join us. otherwise, you lot can wander around as you please. upmost floors are off limits though, do keep in mind." Finn: "ill see you all later then.." finn simply says before wandering out into the hallways… hes got some exploring and pondering to do Ulle: ulle gives the departing people cheery waves as they get ready to depart themselves, still chattering away
Vinny: the mussing seems to distract vinny enough from his contemplating that he yelps a little, glancing back at cimmorro, breaking his solemn reverie. he sighs, trying to perk up a bit "i'll go ahead and bring my things in, there's still that dragon heart experiment i wanted to set up…" Mars: "Oh you need help with that…?" Mars looks like he wants to ask vinny something but then he mentions the dragon heart experiment so he's like what thu… But either way he's gonna use helping vinny as an excuse to TALK TO him. Cimmorro: "okiedokie~ but don't start without me, ah!" he reminds with a pout. "if you need help with the luggage, some acolytes might be around to lend an extra hand, but i'm sure marsy's got you covered." he shoos them off with a hand but in a casual way. "freddy should be around to guide you to your rooms." Vinny: he glances at mars "sure, extra hands would be nice" he then gives cimm a nod after, amused by the pout "after all that buildup i gave you? i wouldn't dare dream of leaving you out" he's smiling again finally as he turns back to mars "the setup might take a bit though, so we can get it ready while he's busy" he tilts his head in the direction of the door "let's go stumble onto the acolyte shall we?" Mars: Despite the external neutrality internally he's a lil in disbelief??? but whatever. He just nods at Vinny's plan to go stumbling into acolytes apparently. (mars just says bye to everyone else in the room still)
The party all wander off in various directions to amuse themselves for the day or settle into the temple proper. Freddy eventually is chased down by Vinny and Mars and tosses them the other room key, aiding with the already existing party split as they mosey along.
They idle away the rest of the tower as they settle into their new surroundings for the next few days...
--
Notes
👨👩👦👦👨👨👧👦The Party have a new roof over their heads.
We had our DND anniversary Valentine-Halloween exchange yesterday :-D Plummy and their nurse Seth :9
art of my lovely friend jude's pc with his mind harem for our dnd anniversary + valentines art exchange, plus some new npc art for charas they've met recently in church (lol)
our dnd group held a secret valentine again this year :)

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an introduction to intimacy
Mahalia
Race: Tiefling
Age: 19
Height: 5'3/155cm
Weight: n/a
Class: n/a
Malaya
Race: Tiefling
Age: 23
Height: 5'7/172cm
Weight: n/a
Class: Wizard