14th of Frost, 4622
Arkash was quick with the Sinew gun; swiftly he passed over the length of bone as it formed, building the construct longer with every pass. In no time at all, the Radius and Ulna were done, and came the construction of the various bones of the wrist. Quickly, he formed pieces of bone as growths along the Radius, and expertly stopped at the right volume and distribution for each squeeze of the trigger. Then, as quickly as he'd made them, he shaved them off with a swipe of the carving sickle and began to smooth off the residual bone growth from the Radius's surface.
"Wow," said Izzy. "There's something oddly satisfying about watching you work," she said as she leaned back in her chair.
Arkash grinned, then stepped a little to the side to grant her a better view of his work. One by one, he shaved off the excess for the Lunate, the Scaphoid, the pisiform, triquetral, hamate, the trapezium, the capitate and the trapezoid. In time, the wrist bones were done, and he placed them in loose order around the ends of the bones of his forearm. He breathed a sigh of relief, then looked up to grin at her. "You're having fun?"
She yawned, as if on cue, and nodded sleepily to the Rath.
"Oh I see," he spoke with a grin. "Well, I don't want 'ew 'avin' too much fun, so..." he trailed on as he collected the mortar and pestle.
"...What is it?" she asked at the promise of a task, and stood up to stretch her back with her hands overhead.
Arkash grinned at her and flexed his brow. "I thought 'ew was 'avin' fun fallin' asleep in 'ew chair, what happened?"
"Don't test me Ark," she spoke through the strain of her stretch. "You've got something for me... Let's have it," she asked again as she let her arms down.
The Rath nodded knowingly, then presented her with the Mortar and Pestle. "This tool makes Sinew Foam, all you gotta do is drop meat in and start grindin' it with the pestle 'til it's all milky-white paste."
The look on her face was that that of disgust as she accepted the tools.
Arkash laughed a breath or two. "No, it's not hard! The stuff's converted really easy, it's not like an actual Mortar and Pestle," he explained. "So the problem with Sinew Foam is that it copies the composition of whatever biological matter it touches first, so if it touches your skin..."
"I'll have a big ol' growth where it touched me..."
Arkash nodded in affirmative.
"Okay, so mix up flesh and don't touch the goop. Sounds easy enough," she spoke in confidence, then set the mortar down on the table. "Oh, that's the stuff in the gun you're using, right?"
Again, the Rath nodded. "Yeah, need a lot of it for this project," he said with a gesture to the life-size arm bones atop the table. "You're doin' me a 'uge fava' mixin' it for me; I can just keep going."
She nodded in return, then took a pinch of the dead skin Arkash had discarded the night before, threw it inside, and began to mix it with the pestle. "Well the sooner we get your arm done the better, right?"
"The sooner we can take care a' this place," he spoke in reference to the Derelict.
She smiled a little. "You were thinking that too, huh?"
Arkash had already returned to the construction of additional bones, the metacarpals of each digit as growths on the Radius; he built small spires of bone in the appropriate scale.
"Ark," Izzy spoke with a little more force.
"Huh? Wha'chya say?"
"This place, these tunnels. What were you thinking with them?"
"Oh," he said as he set the gun down, then looked about the room. It was sizeable enough, with a variety of shelves carved into the walls and stone tables large enough to support the body of a human or two each. "Well for this one, I was thinkin' it'd be good for my Necromancy experiments; like it's cool so the elements won't wear down on the bodies..." He began to ramble.
"No, I mean the whole thing, Ark," she clarified.
"Hm? Oh, the whole thing?"
"Yes," she set the mortar down with the pestle leaned over the edge. "It's a lot of space, what will we do with it?"
Arkash was quiet for a moment, his eyes rested on the shapes of the metacarpals as he'd built them. For a moment, his occupied mind was sucked back to the task of constructing the arm, but he peeled his thoughts away to force his gaze on the woman. "Long term? I don't know," he said at last. "For now, it's shelter, a place to put our things without worrying about it being stolen or raided; no one else knows we're here."
Izzy nodded at that, eye lost in thought.
"I wanna conduct research here, experiments...." he began. "Experiments with that thing," he spoke with a motion of his head to the Essence Calcifier, "experiments on the soul," he continued, "experiments with Sunderscraps-."
"-Wait," she interrupted. "Go back, experiments with the what-? The soul?"
"Yeah," he affirmed. "It's this thing that the Gods supposedly gave us if 'ew believe in all that stuff. 'Ew can't see it or-"
"I know what a soul is Arkash, I'm asking what kind of experiments you're planning."
He blinked a moment, eyes tracing the girl's features in all her stern seriousness. "Well, the Umbralplasm; I met a Nightfallen 'ere in the Badlands who told me it was stuck on my soul; it's what's stoppin' us from usin' our magic."
"And you want to find a way to get it out..." She surmised. Arkash nodded. "Ark..." She started with an obvious frown to her voice.
"We had a deal," he reminded.
She exhaled deeply. "Don't make me regret that," she started. "You don't need your magic, Arkash. You're plenty strong without it, and you're miles from Valentin and whatever Veir you've got business with; you're safe enough here to not need it."
"Sure," he returned with a nod. "For now," he continued adamantly. "Izzy, you think we're doin' alright now and it's just going to stay that way? It's not. Life's never that easy, it's never that simple. I've made agreements that I can't back out of, I've killed people that haunt me, whose families hunt me," he gave pause to breathe, and just exhaled while he watched her. "My transgressions go as high as Brilan Ald, and the monarchy of Lorien. It's comin' back for me one day whether I'm ready or not, so I choose to be ready."
She was quiet for a moment, a long moment while she considered his argument. "Well, what about me?"
"What about you?" Arkash crossed his arms.
"I can fight; I can help you figure out Relics and kit you out proper. We don't need magic, neither of us, we just need..."
"...Izzy," he picked up where she fell quiet. "Relics, Sundering, come from mages. It's still magic, just stolen and accessible without the initiation." He spied her chest, where her heart raced. She was upset, that much was obvious. "Alright," he said with both hands raised. "Look, this isn't worth arguing about. We can try it your way and just go nuts, accumulate Relics and get as strong as we can... And then go from there."
She crossed her arms. "...Are you sure?"
The Rath sighed. "...Yeah. I mean I'm not even sure if its possible to cleanse the soul without a stygian, so I don't want to bother if it's just going to cause friction between us," he explained.
"Alright," she nodded. "Thank you, and I'm sorry."
Arkash shook his head. "No, I'm sorry. You've got a lot of work ahead of you, teaching me how to Sunder." He grinned a little; she wouldn't get out of their arrangement without some sort of penalty. That penalty, he'd decided, was her effort in training him.
She laughed a little and shook her head. "You're a smart lizard, you'll get the hang of it fast," she spoke in assurance. "I think you'll be especially good with the Sunderstrike," she offered as she recollected the Mortar and Pestle.
Arkash, caught in his thoughts, lifted his gaze to her. "Hm? Sunderstrike?" He collected his Sinew Gun once more and began to build the ivory pillars of his bones.
"The tool that... Creates Sunderscraps," she explained in brief as she scraped the Sinew Foam from the Mortar into a jar. "I've seen the way you move in a fight; you're fast, accurate, you'll get it easy."
"Hm," Arkash hummed as he shaved off the carpals he'd made, and began to shave off the excess with a few scrapes of the Carving Sickle. "I have to kill the mage, I'm guessing..."
"Yep, oh yes," she dropped more dead flesh in the Mortar and began to grind it into more Sinew Foam. "Completely, the entire mage turns to crystal, and a single Sunderscrap is left in their chest afterward."
Rather quickly, Arkash was done with all the bones of his phalanges, and the carving sickle was half way through the smoothing of surfaces and the removal of excess bone. Steadily, he shaped them appropriately and arranged them above all the wrist's bones in order. "I suppose that's where I strike them?" He reached for the jar of Sinew Foam, and began to empty the contents into the gun. "Yeah, that should be easy enough. You'll just have to tell me which one if they're not casting in the moment." He looked up from his work then to find her grinning. "What?"
She looked up to meet his eyes for a moment, then returned her stare to the milky white paste of the Mortar. "Nothing, I just think we'll be a good team," she clarified as she poured the foam into the emptied jar. "Don't you?" She stole her gaze from the process to look at him.
"Yeah," he agreed with a nod of his head. "We're gonna cause some waves."
Arkash was quick with the Sinew gun; swiftly he passed over the length of bone as it formed, building the construct longer with every pass. In no time at all, the Radius and Ulna were done, and came the construction of the various bones of the wrist. Quickly, he formed pieces of bone as growths along the Radius, and expertly stopped at the right volume and distribution for each squeeze of the trigger. Then, as quickly as he'd made them, he shaved them off with a swipe of the carving sickle and began to smooth off the residual bone growth from the Radius's surface.
"Wow," said Izzy. "There's something oddly satisfying about watching you work," she said as she leaned back in her chair.
Arkash grinned, then stepped a little to the side to grant her a better view of his work. One by one, he shaved off the excess for the Lunate, the Scaphoid, the pisiform, triquetral, hamate, the trapezium, the capitate and the trapezoid. In time, the wrist bones were done, and he placed them in loose order around the ends of the bones of his forearm. He breathed a sigh of relief, then looked up to grin at her. "You're having fun?"
She yawned, as if on cue, and nodded sleepily to the Rath.
"Oh I see," he spoke with a grin. "Well, I don't want 'ew 'avin' too much fun, so..." he trailed on as he collected the mortar and pestle.
"...What is it?" she asked at the promise of a task, and stood up to stretch her back with her hands overhead.
Arkash grinned at her and flexed his brow. "I thought 'ew was 'avin' fun fallin' asleep in 'ew chair, what happened?"
"Don't test me Ark," she spoke through the strain of her stretch. "You've got something for me... Let's have it," she asked again as she let her arms down.
The Rath nodded knowingly, then presented her with the Mortar and Pestle. "This tool makes Sinew Foam, all you gotta do is drop meat in and start grindin' it with the pestle 'til it's all milky-white paste."
The look on her face was that that of disgust as she accepted the tools.
Arkash laughed a breath or two. "No, it's not hard! The stuff's converted really easy, it's not like an actual Mortar and Pestle," he explained. "So the problem with Sinew Foam is that it copies the composition of whatever biological matter it touches first, so if it touches your skin..."
"I'll have a big ol' growth where it touched me..."
Arkash nodded in affirmative.
"Okay, so mix up flesh and don't touch the goop. Sounds easy enough," she spoke in confidence, then set the mortar down on the table. "Oh, that's the stuff in the gun you're using, right?"
Again, the Rath nodded. "Yeah, need a lot of it for this project," he said with a gesture to the life-size arm bones atop the table. "You're doin' me a 'uge fava' mixin' it for me; I can just keep going."
She nodded in return, then took a pinch of the dead skin Arkash had discarded the night before, threw it inside, and began to mix it with the pestle. "Well the sooner we get your arm done the better, right?"
"The sooner we can take care a' this place," he spoke in reference to the Derelict.
She smiled a little. "You were thinking that too, huh?"
Arkash had already returned to the construction of additional bones, the metacarpals of each digit as growths on the Radius; he built small spires of bone in the appropriate scale.
"Ark," Izzy spoke with a little more force.
"Huh? Wha'chya say?"
"This place, these tunnels. What were you thinking with them?"
"Oh," he said as he set the gun down, then looked about the room. It was sizeable enough, with a variety of shelves carved into the walls and stone tables large enough to support the body of a human or two each. "Well for this one, I was thinkin' it'd be good for my Necromancy experiments; like it's cool so the elements won't wear down on the bodies..." He began to ramble.
"No, I mean the whole thing, Ark," she clarified.
"Hm? Oh, the whole thing?"
"Yes," she set the mortar down with the pestle leaned over the edge. "It's a lot of space, what will we do with it?"
Arkash was quiet for a moment, his eyes rested on the shapes of the metacarpals as he'd built them. For a moment, his occupied mind was sucked back to the task of constructing the arm, but he peeled his thoughts away to force his gaze on the woman. "Long term? I don't know," he said at last. "For now, it's shelter, a place to put our things without worrying about it being stolen or raided; no one else knows we're here."
Izzy nodded at that, eye lost in thought.
"I wanna conduct research here, experiments...." he began. "Experiments with that thing," he spoke with a motion of his head to the Essence Calcifier, "experiments on the soul," he continued, "experiments with Sunderscraps-."
"-Wait," she interrupted. "Go back, experiments with the what-? The soul?"
"Yeah," he affirmed. "It's this thing that the Gods supposedly gave us if 'ew believe in all that stuff. 'Ew can't see it or-"
"I know what a soul is Arkash, I'm asking what kind of experiments you're planning."
He blinked a moment, eyes tracing the girl's features in all her stern seriousness. "Well, the Umbralplasm; I met a Nightfallen 'ere in the Badlands who told me it was stuck on my soul; it's what's stoppin' us from usin' our magic."
"And you want to find a way to get it out..." She surmised. Arkash nodded. "Ark..." She started with an obvious frown to her voice.
"We had a deal," he reminded.
She exhaled deeply. "Don't make me regret that," she started. "You don't need your magic, Arkash. You're plenty strong without it, and you're miles from Valentin and whatever Veir you've got business with; you're safe enough here to not need it."
"Sure," he returned with a nod. "For now," he continued adamantly. "Izzy, you think we're doin' alright now and it's just going to stay that way? It's not. Life's never that easy, it's never that simple. I've made agreements that I can't back out of, I've killed people that haunt me, whose families hunt me," he gave pause to breathe, and just exhaled while he watched her. "My transgressions go as high as Brilan Ald, and the monarchy of Lorien. It's comin' back for me one day whether I'm ready or not, so I choose to be ready."
She was quiet for a moment, a long moment while she considered his argument. "Well, what about me?"
"What about you?" Arkash crossed his arms.
"I can fight; I can help you figure out Relics and kit you out proper. We don't need magic, neither of us, we just need..."
"...Izzy," he picked up where she fell quiet. "Relics, Sundering, come from mages. It's still magic, just stolen and accessible without the initiation." He spied her chest, where her heart raced. She was upset, that much was obvious. "Alright," he said with both hands raised. "Look, this isn't worth arguing about. We can try it your way and just go nuts, accumulate Relics and get as strong as we can... And then go from there."
She crossed her arms. "...Are you sure?"
The Rath sighed. "...Yeah. I mean I'm not even sure if its possible to cleanse the soul without a stygian, so I don't want to bother if it's just going to cause friction between us," he explained.
"Alright," she nodded. "Thank you, and I'm sorry."
Arkash shook his head. "No, I'm sorry. You've got a lot of work ahead of you, teaching me how to Sunder." He grinned a little; she wouldn't get out of their arrangement without some sort of penalty. That penalty, he'd decided, was her effort in training him.
She laughed a little and shook her head. "You're a smart lizard, you'll get the hang of it fast," she spoke in assurance. "I think you'll be especially good with the Sunderstrike," she offered as she recollected the Mortar and Pestle.
Arkash, caught in his thoughts, lifted his gaze to her. "Hm? Sunderstrike?" He collected his Sinew Gun once more and began to build the ivory pillars of his bones.
"The tool that... Creates Sunderscraps," she explained in brief as she scraped the Sinew Foam from the Mortar into a jar. "I've seen the way you move in a fight; you're fast, accurate, you'll get it easy."
"Hm," Arkash hummed as he shaved off the carpals he'd made, and began to shave off the excess with a few scrapes of the Carving Sickle. "I have to kill the mage, I'm guessing..."
"Yep, oh yes," she dropped more dead flesh in the Mortar and began to grind it into more Sinew Foam. "Completely, the entire mage turns to crystal, and a single Sunderscrap is left in their chest afterward."
Rather quickly, Arkash was done with all the bones of his phalanges, and the carving sickle was half way through the smoothing of surfaces and the removal of excess bone. Steadily, he shaped them appropriately and arranged them above all the wrist's bones in order. "I suppose that's where I strike them?" He reached for the jar of Sinew Foam, and began to empty the contents into the gun. "Yeah, that should be easy enough. You'll just have to tell me which one if they're not casting in the moment." He looked up from his work then to find her grinning. "What?"
She looked up to meet his eyes for a moment, then returned her stare to the milky white paste of the Mortar. "Nothing, I just think we'll be a good team," she clarified as she poured the foam into the emptied jar. "Don't you?" She stole her gaze from the process to look at him.
"Yeah," he agreed with a nod of his head. "We're gonna cause some waves."
Image source.
