• Graded • The Old Familiar Sting

Gar'rek, ya loser.

Etzos, ‘The City of Stones’ is a fortress against the encroachment of Immortal domination of Idalos. Founded on the backs of mortals driven to seek their own destiny independent of the Immortals, the city has carved itself out of the very rock of the land. Scourged by terrible wars of extermination, they've begun to grow again, and with an eye toward expansion, optimism is on the rise.

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Mara
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The Old Familiar Sting

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Date: 24 Ashan 717

Several breaks had come and gone since Mara had been able to leave work. And still, she waited. The shadows crept longer, their spindly fingers reaching out as if to swallow any last vestiges of light that remained in the workshop. The Gardener's Grace was not, by any means, a graceful place; the place was a jumble of vials and colours, and strange smells seeping from cauldrons and opened bottles. Still, Mara found the place calming; the scents of everything bottled and contained gave her stillness.

Mara sat by the desk in the upper area. She was not usually here, given most people's fear in doing business with a Naerikk, but Mr. Gardener was content to let her stay downstairs in the workshop. There, she toiled, for him and his business, and after dark, if she stayed and worked on her own business... well, Mr. Gardener looked the other way. Indeed, after she had finished her work for the night, she had cleaned scrupulously, wiping down the desks and storing away what she would need for her midnight plans.

They had gotten in a shipment yestertrial, from the Hotlands, a container of dead scorpions that looked innocuous to those who might not know better. Mara hadn't, but Mr. Gardener had told her what they were: scorbon scorpions, from the Hotlands. Their poison was a paralytic. Mara had lit up inside when she'd heard this. Oh, the things she could do with something like that... and she'd made a decision then and there. She'd work on it. Test it. Coax it lovingly out of its shell, transform it into something deadly and beautiful.

But. And she hated saying this. She needed help. There were too many things that could go wrong, too many variables, and Mara needed someone to assist her. Furia, as much as she loved her, was useless - she'd be distracted far too easily, or chat at the wrong moment. Even "accidentally" knock it all over when she was bored. So that left ... Gar'rek. The beast she reviled and was in awe of, simultaneously. She had asked him - or told him - to join her this morning. Maybe she'd even let him have a scorpion to eat.

So Mara sat and waited for the slinking cannibal to find her in the shadows.
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Last edited by Mara on Sun Apr 16, 2017 3:40 am, edited 1 time in total. word count: 396
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The Old Familiar Sting



I'm not a fucking dog. Garr seethed as he set out from the abode he shared with the Naerikk sisters, using a sharp tooth to scrape the dried blood from beneath a dirty fingernail. The jagged nail ground against the front of his tooth, issuing a sound reminiscent of sandpaper on tree bark and sending chills through him. The old metallic taste of dried blood brightened his senses considerably, though his mood still remained foul.

Mara's summons had ruined nearly his entire trial, though it hadn't stopped Garr from eating. He'd trapped a rat behind the house, placing a bit of a cheese in a wooden crate. He perched above it, motionless, for breaks before the rat wandered in. He dropped and grabbed the rodent, biting into its neck as it squeaked and attempted to scurry away. It stopped thrasing in trills as its lifeblood spilled over Garr's hands, warming them. Rat wasn't his favorite, but it would hold him over.

But the blood took forever to remove completely, as he remembered when that last fleck of blood melted in his mouth. Hungering for more, Garr's glowing eyes scanned the streets as he hurried, trying his hardest not to become distracted by the hunt. Mara was insistent that he show up, and Garr knew he would please the Lady of Pestilence if he followed her instructions. Not that Lisirra cared for the Prostitute-Beggars of Audrae, but instead that Gar'rek indulge himself in the toxins of the scorpion. Having never been to the Hotlands, this was Gar'rek's chance to sample the poison. The Plaguedaugher needed no secrets, except those hidden in the caustic fluids of the insects of the desert.

The Gardener's Grace was not difficult to find, nor did Garr need to stop and ask directions. In fact, he knew where the shop was before Mara ever weaseled her way into a position there. He always knew where to find the poisons, and should he ever need them, would find a way to procure them. He entered through the front, weaving deftly between the precarious stacks of salves and tonics to find... an empty space.

The Sevir crouched on instinct, feeling that he was being watched. Glowing eyes scanned the room, noting an outline in the shadows to his left. He flexed his clawed fingers, snarling into the dark like a cornered predator. In a deep, commanding voice, he called out in Xanthean.

"Wätäkïlä ke’ui, tïlästä." Show yourself, sneak. He repeated it in Common the best he could.


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Mara
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The Old Familiar Sting

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Mara waited, folded into the corner by the desk next to the stairs, letting the shadows wash over her with peace. She sat straight backed against the wall, her eyes open, the shadows scintillating across her pale skin. Her tattoos itched, and she wanted more than anything than to shift. And she did. Effortlessly, she let her form change shape, her skin growing darker and melding into the shadows around her, until nothing but the whites of her eyes remained, gleaming. She did not disappear, but her form became yet another shadow in the darkness of the workshop. Mara let the shadows become one with her, and she sighed.

And then: a door opening and clothing, and the shuffle of feet. Mara could not see the door, but by the sharp breath and the light growl in the rumble of his throat, Mara knew it was the savage. She grinned. He had come, then. For all of his protests and complaints, Gar'rek deferred to Mara and her sister. So much for dislike. Or perhaps the dislike garnered respect, and meant that Gar'rek could not help from following her orders. But then again, it may just have been the promise of the poisonous scorpions that brought him to the workshop.

He growled in his savage tongue, before speaking in broken Common. Mara stood, ghosted towards him. If he noticed the moving shadow, he would see only the gleams of her white eyes, and the sharpness of her nails scintillating in the dark. Her form was larger, stronger, more horrible and less feminine in her shadow form, but still, it was undoubtedly Mara, as her stride was as graceful as ever. Mara approached Gar'rek, ghosted around him, and brought her long nails up and around his shoulders and chest, stroking him as if he were her lover.

"The boy came, then," she murmured in Grovokian. "Too weak to stay away? Hmmm," and she wandered round to stand in front of him, her eyes gleaming down at him. "Good Garr," she said in Common, grinning like a cat. "Good boy, coming. Garr want poisons to eat?" Mara suddenly shifted back into her Naer form, her body seeming to shrink, everything coming back to her less intimidating form. Her eyes and nails still gleamed in the light. "Come, boy. We go play." And Mara turned, and started to walk down the stairs to the workshop beneath the first floor.

She ghosted down the stairs, barely noticing if Gar'rek followed. She came to a large workbench, where an alembic, many beakers with strange coloured liquids, and a box, closed, lay. Various tools of the chemist were organised neatly for their midnight experience. "Hungry, Garr?"
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The Old Familiar Sting

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Overview

Such a shame that this thread ended so abruptly, it was setting out to be really interesting. I love the glimpse into your pc that I got and I look forward to seeing her in a full and completed thread. Since you are just about half the word count, I've given you 5 points. In future, I'd urge you to finish off the thread yourself, to get up to the word count and ensure that you're able to get yourself the full knowledge. Any questions, please drop me a pm. Thanks!

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XP: 5

Devotion: None
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Poisons: Scorbon Scorpions
Location: Gardener's Grace
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~~Red in hoof and claw... ~~


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