[Couronne] Horsing around

The cultural heart of South Daravin, where the Entente play their hands.

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Arkash
Posts: 1058
Joined: Wed Jul 01, 2020 6:03 pm
Location: Imperial Badlands, Daravin
Character Sheet: viewtopic.php?f=43&t=745
Plot Notes: viewtopic.php?f=78&t=873
Character Secrets: viewtopic.php?f=20&t=760

Sun May 01, 2022 9:45 am

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"Blood M-?!" Arkash rose his voice and caught himself with a hard press of his lips. He glanced about the yard, then looked over his shoulder to the estate, where his eyes trailed the windows. "...That mark is blasphemous, it's several times more depraved than even the worst abominations Necromancy can create," Arkash justified as a good Daravinic citizen would.

He eyed the boy wearily after the comparison but otherwise continued as the conversation preceded with the jot of a mental note. "And in fairness, if you stray far enough north and land yourself in Lorien, necromancy is illegal." Arkash smiled a little, though there was an obvious degree of bitterness in his eyes for a moment.

"Dependent on the doctor, everyone benefits from Necromancy. A Briomancer can repair even the worst deformations and perform miracles in surgery... It's just human nature to go to the highest paying client first." Arkash spoke with a curl of his nose, as though the notion disgusted him.

A slight shrug was offered at the apology and the advice to steer clear of veterinarian impersonations. "Yeah... Definitely don't want to be kicked," he appeared to agree prior to delving into the story of the village.

Arkash rose his brows at Vivian's confession, of how he quite liked the Rathor. A smile began to pull at his features though it was laden with concern. "...You," he began, then shook his head with a press of his brow. It really wasn't his business, he supposed.

Nonetheless, he continued his story, and Vivian appeared to be genuinely perturbed. "...Close to what you do?" Arkash asked with a raise of his brow. Was Vivian some sort of race that could change shape at will? Or was it that magic that allowed people to turn into beasts?

"A Rathor from that village, some sort of snake, came to me and asked for my aid. I believe she's out there now, feeding it to keep all the working parts... Fresh." And that was the last he'd seen of Selkie, an order to stay with them and make sure they had everything they needed.

"Your own magic..." Arkash trailed in thought. Was there magic that allowed the manipulation of flesh? Or magic that would allow him to gain the knowledge of animalistic anatomy...? His brows rose. "You're one of those mages that changes shape, then? You can become an animal?" He did smirk a little with a confused press of his brow but began to smile warmly before he bowed his head. "...I would be honored to study any of your templates, kind sir," the Rathor spoke with a bow of his head.

He nodded at the boy's declaration, then rose a brow as the conversation shifted to Degare. The Necromancer scratched at his neck with his free hand and peered up in thought. "Yes, so I've been told. His lordship does often indulge in the pleasures of flesh..." He cleared his throat. The slightest smirk pulled at the corner of his lips before he adjusted his vest once again and settled his eyes on the boy.

"Just for the record," Arkash began. "Were you raised here in Daravin?" He asked with something of a curious squint.



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Vivian
Posts: 342
Joined: Tue Apr 12, 2022 9:50 am
Location: Amoren
Character Sheet: viewtopic.php?f=43&t=1882&p=8295#p8295
Plot Notes: viewtopic.php?f=16&t=2156&p=9611#p9611
Character Secrets: viewtopic.php?f=20&t=1891

Tue May 03, 2022 1:20 am

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Vivian cocked an eyebrow at the man’s reaction to blood magic. Certainly he’d heard the horrible rumors, but from the perspective of the slums. Quite honestly, between being used as the Entente’s toys, the weather, the starvation and crime, Vivian hadn’t given much thought as to condemning blood magic as a whole. Besides, was it so different from Necromancy or Malformation? He found magics like Mentalism, where a man could peek into his head, or Resonance where people could use sound as a weapon, far more terrifying than blood magic. Then again, all he knew about blood mages was rumor and conjecture. Perhaps they were truly horrid. On the other hand…he’d heard nastier rumors about himself, and some of those weren’t true at all.

“Blasphemous? Oh please. If someone’s going to clutch necklaces over something it shouldn’t be that. What right do we have to judge them, as fellow mages? You’re a Necromancer. You could just as easily use your powers to twist and deform just like the horrid creature that did that to those Rathor, couldn’t you?” Vivian reasoned. “I can turn into all sorts of monsters…I can combine animals to make new ones. That doesn’t mean I’m any more evil. It doesn’t mean you’re evil. I’m willing to give blood mages the benefit of the doubt. Besides, I can’t very well condemn a man for his vocation can I? Given what I am.”
Vivian shook his head. “I’ll not hear it. Not until I can meet one and form my own opinions.”

He eyed Caro. So then, he also didn’t like catering to the vanity of the Entente. Maybe there was hope for him yet if he prized his magic as something more than just a toy to make people look pretty with. “Maybe you can prove some of the men in Lorien wrong with this, then. We save the Rathor and help people see your kind isn’t so bad.”

He nodded as Caro properly pegged him as a shapeshifter. His forms weren’t too impressive at the moment; he heard of Malformation mages who could change into dragons or huge hulking creatures. Even fuse dragons with other animals. The most terrifying form he had was one of his own creation, but hopefully it would serve them in combat if things came to that.

“I suppose I can try and make the change a little slower, so you can watch my anatomy change. It’ll probably be a little disturbing, but I imagine so would trying to peel a person out of an amalgamation.” Vivian considered, and shed his jacket. He threw it over a nearby fence, smirking back over his shoulder at Caro. “Yes, in the slums. I don’t think people really care about anything other than survival down there. I certainly didn’t. Degare was kind enough to take me in and teach me.” He sighed wistfully. “And gods, is the man handsome and good in bed…”

Probably not the best time to be thinking with his cock.

“I can make the change as slow as possible, so you can see one form deforming into another. It’s probably less strain on me anyway to take it slow.” Vivian said, and took a deep breath.

Slowly.

The first to change was his hands. His middle and ring fingers slowly fused, becoming one fingernail at the end, while his thumb, index finger and pinky shrunk and eventually disappeared. The bones shortened, his wrist crawled away from his knuckle to become the knobby knees of the mule. His elbows shortened rapidly, shrinking to his sides, and his scapulae fanned out from his spine and crawled down to settle against his rib cage. His spine thickened and lengthened, extending his neck out. New muscles roped themselves to his shoulders and his swiftly bending collarbone. There was a large gap between the hollow of the throat and Vivian’s breastbone now, that layered with muscle to become the barrel chest of a draft mule.

His skull deformed nastily, with strange pops and cracks. His forehead flattened, his eyes crawled to the side of his skull and his jaw lengthened. Long ears sprouted from his own and traveled to the crown of his head. His hips broke in half and aligned along the spine like a saddle. His heels lengthened and became hocks, his femurs shrinking drastically.

Muscles layered over the new skeleton one by one, standing out in sharp relief under human skin. The last to come was fur. Vivian flicked his tail and reached his head out to Caro curiously.

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Arkash
Posts: 1058
Joined: Wed Jul 01, 2020 6:03 pm
Location: Imperial Badlands, Daravin
Character Sheet: viewtopic.php?f=43&t=745
Plot Notes: viewtopic.php?f=78&t=873
Character Secrets: viewtopic.php?f=20&t=760

Wed May 04, 2022 12:50 am

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Arkash merely blinked at the boy’s response to Arkash’s foreboding reaction to Blood Magic. From the corner of his lip, he almost began to smile. A deep exhale saw Arkash shake his head. “Alright then,” was all he seemed to have to say on the matter; it was obvious he was talking with someone who would not so easily have their reality challenged. Was there then any point to his question?

It was at the notion of changing Rien minds that Arkash laughed quite loud and forceful just a breath or two before it abruptly halted, and his face dropped with lack of amusement. “Rien folk are about as easy to convince and convince as Ulen’s faithful,” Arkash dismissed, then grinned briefly before he looked away.

Arkash was much too inexperienced with the Candor; it was so very difficult to tell if Vivian really was as genuine as he appeared or if his personality was a rouse for information. For a moment after, the necromancer appeared to think, contemplating behind his pensive stare, only to return his attention to the boy as the offer to change slowly was made in return for his asked favor.

“That would be very helpful,” Arkash said with a remark of surprise; a demonstration of magic was really quite considerate. He said nothing about the grotesque nature of the change, however; a mistake on his part.

As the boy continued with his fawning of the Veir, Arkash grinned a little, then smiled warmly and put a hand to his chest. “That’s very sweet of you,” he said with a bashful smile. “I do my very best with his lordship, thank you,” he said with a bow of his head, as though it was his handiwork that gifted Degare his looks. In a backward way, Vivian would have been complimenting the Necromancer to put Degare’s visage together. While it wasn’t Arkash that had built him, he was certain he could replicate the bone structure and musculature of his face with enough time.

As it was revealed before that, Vivian had no concept of the Candor, of the games higher society played. Was that true? Could Arkash trust him? Vivian was a street rat in his own society, comparable to Lorien’s Nameless. He couldn’t help but wonder...

But before he could begin to think too deeply about it, Vivian began to transform once his coat was off. Arkash looked up from his thoughts, then stepped closer as the man began to change. His eyes were alight with fascination as bones and skin melded, and Arkash even bent down to get a better look at the way his frame shifted beneath his skin, which also drifted and rippled in coordination with the other fibers of his being. It was like a machine, perfectly orchestrated to perform the grand alteration of Vivian’s entire body.

Utterly captivated, he shut his eyes and basked in the sound of muffled popping from joints and the alteration of creaking bones. Reflexively, he slurped at his salivating palette and swallowed before he shut it and blinked quickly.

The alteration of the spine and the brutality of the forced posture correction saw Arkash’s features alight with something sinister, though he said nothing as he stood from his crouched position with all the weight of a feather, and exhaled deeply while he hung his head. Again, he looked up in time to see the warp of the boy’s skull, the elongation of the bones in his face, and all sorts. The way Vivian’s eyes drifted further apart, bulging as they grew and darkened above the outward growth of his gums and teeth before the skin enveloped them was surely the stuff of nightmares for many Rien peasants, but Arkash felt only warmth in his chest at the display.

There was something homely about watching the transformation; it was very much Rathor in its technique, but subtly different. “Wow,” Arkash said as Vivian extended his head toward him. “Truly gruesome,” he said as he began to clap with the last of his coat growing through. “I’ve never seen anything like it; truly fascinating! Remarkable!” He applauded.

It was undeniable that the ambiances of shifting flesh and cracking bone had deepened the emptiness of his stomach, but Arkash was reserved in his hunger.

“Can you talk?” He asked, and reached out a hand to brush down the nose of the beast.

“…As much as I appreciate the demonstration, I really am concerned with the organization of the internal anatomy. I just can’t imagine that human organs are all placed in the same order in a Rathor,” he said with a nod. “If it’s no bother, I’d quite like to visit the cart horses too,” he said with a nod.



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Vivian
Posts: 342
Joined: Tue Apr 12, 2022 9:50 am
Location: Amoren
Character Sheet: viewtopic.php?f=43&t=1882&p=8295#p8295
Plot Notes: viewtopic.php?f=16&t=2156&p=9611#p9611
Character Secrets: viewtopic.php?f=20&t=1891

Wed May 04, 2022 1:26 am

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Vivian scowled a bit; he didn’t appreciate being laughed at. “I despise the religious, always poking their noses into other people’s business like it’s them who were personally appointed by the gods. I can’t imagine judging a mage based on his very magic any more than I could judge Bara for his ears.” He groused. In Vivian’s experience priests and the faithful used whores like everyone else, and hid their crimes behind a mask of vanity and self righteousness. A few of them twisted it further into fetish; one of Vivian’s clients liked him to pretend he was Izonata. He pitied Caro; he couldn’t imagine facing that sort of discrimination. “Damn the faithful then, for judging you like that.” He said matter-of-factly.

Caro seemed…sweet. A little bumbling and easily fooled, but he could see why he was in Degare’s employ if he was half as capable as the Veir. Vivian could see himself having a drink or relaxing with Caro. If they pulled this off, perhaps a friend. Vivian did want friends. Degare was keeping him around for his magic and his well-rounded arse, not out of any sort of affection. At his core, Vivian was lonely. He’d survived alone for a long time.

He did grin when Caro was eager to take credit for Degare’s looks. “Well, remind me to engage in the services of a Necromancer when I get to be that age; no sense losing these good looks. I wonder if you’ve worked on yourself; is a Necromancer’s own face his resume? Because if so…you’ve quite the work of art on your skull.” He purred with a wink.

Vivian changed, and throughout he was rather grateful that the Necromancer wasn’t shocked or disgusted. Tweaking someone’s nose was one thing; seeing a man’s skull deform into that of a draft mule was another entirely. He extended his head and lipped at Caro’s fingers in a friendly manner. He certainly couldn’t speak, and was more animal than man at this point. The mule’s needs and wants were strong, like a foggy pall on his brain, and he had to resist the urge to wander off and start mischievously nipping at Bara’s ears. Was this how Bara thought? Always an eye on mischief? No wonder the mule was a pain in the ass to train.

Ah, but the man made a good point about the horse dumping ground. Internal anatomy was the key here. Vivian released the form slowly, and the changes reversed. It was a few minutes before he was able to stand, his skull shrinking back and his eyes snapping toward the front. His orbital sockets rearranged, and the fur sunk back into his smooth skin. Vivian rolled his jaw and blinked.

“Ergh, it is hard to go from seeing behind your own head to this.” He mumbled, smirking at Caro. “Alright, dumping ground it is then. Want a ride? I don’t think anyone will question you, especially if you’re one of the Entente. Besides, I don’t think anyone but a few of the servants and Degare have seen me use my magic…it’s a bit fun to show off.”

Vivian gestured to the man’s bag. “Shall we? The longer we stay here the longer they suffer.” He changed again, and this time…there were modifications. His skull flattened and dissolved entirely, like someone had reached in and yanked his skull out. His features disappeared, and flattened out into a shape very similar to an axe blade. A fleshy axe blade devoid of hair. His neck bones were next, popping out of existence one by one and lengthening. The rest of his transformation was much like the mule, with the exception of a long, muscular, fleshy tail. He didn’t grow fur, but rather a striped pattern rippled along his skin. A tiny pair of eyes settled on top of the strange head, and he yawned experimentally. A mouth opened up under the lip of his strange head, showing a vast vascular network of sensory organs that he unfurled like a plant unveiling a new leaf, and curled back just as quickly. He knelt, leaning down on his knobby knees.

Caro would find his back broad, and…surprisingly squishy. Unlike the firm spine of a mule, Vivian had layered more of the forgiving flesh of the hammerhead worm over it, making for a rather comfortable ride. Well, if one ignored the layer of mucus over his body. Vivian’s tail slithered back and forth in the grass, bonelessly, like a tongue. He’d never carried a man on his back before. Usually they rode him in other ways.

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Arkash
Posts: 1058
Joined: Wed Jul 01, 2020 6:03 pm
Location: Imperial Badlands, Daravin
Character Sheet: viewtopic.php?f=43&t=745
Plot Notes: viewtopic.php?f=78&t=873
Character Secrets: viewtopic.php?f=20&t=760

Thu May 05, 2022 5:05 pm

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His eyes were wide at Vivian’s words, of how he despised the faithful, and the tirade that came after. Arkash pressed the index and middle fingers of both his hands to his temples and squeezed a little as his jaw pressed hard below his strained eyes. “Okay! Okay okay! I get it!” he spoke to quiet the younger man, a hair’s breadth from holding the boy’s mouth closed. He lowered his hands and again looked about the garden, eyes darting between each window of the estate with the precision of a scalpel. When Vivian was done, his gaze returned to the younger man with no shortage of concern in the sharp glare of his stare.

A deep breath saw him expel that tension before he shook his head. “Everyone judges,” Arkash dismissed. “The wealthy judge the peasantry as dull and ill-mannered, the beggar judges the wealthy as pompous and wasteful; It’s just a matter of perspective.” Arkash grinned and scoffed under his breath. “And apparently I judge entire classes of people at a time. All the same, I… Appreciate the gesture.” He bowed his head.

A brow rose as Vivian expressed interest in receiving superficial alteration, and he grinned afterward. The boy didn’t know how right he was, but such was left unspoken. Instead, both brows rose at the delivery of his compliment, and Arkash looked away as he pocketed his thumbs. “That’s very sweet of you, thank you,” he said with something of an unfortunate smile. “…If I might, I was under the impression you’d already seen a Necromancer; it’s rare of nature to bless someone with such beauty.”

Then came the change, and Arkash stared with fascination. He wasn’t sure how such a reaction might be received, but it wasn’t something he considered. There was a notable degree of restraint or tension in his hand as the Mule’s mouth met his skin; triggered by some instinctual drive to avoid the mouths of other animals, but it was easily suppressed once he’d caught himself. As made evident by the lack of reply, Vivian was unable to speak as a mule.

Arkash took some degree of fascination with the changes when Vivian began to reverse his transformation, too. His eyes trailed over certain details while the man reverted to his true shape, and watched with keen interest through the minutes that passed.

The younger man agreed to the trip to the old cart horses and even went ahead to offer a ride. Arkash rose a brow, then rose the second when the younger man expressed uncertainty toward whether or not his persona was Entente.

“Why yes, I-“ he began his agreement to travel right that second, but before he could question the ride, Vivian was already changing.

The assumed form was different from the last one, as it appeared a number of bones were missing, skull included. As the flesh of his head warped to form the crescent blade of an axe, Arkash furrowed his brow. The shape was… entirely un-mule-like. Though it was fascinating, Arkash had never seen an animal of those features. It was alien, unlike anything the likes of his kind could produce. There was nothing familiar about the thing that Vivian had become, which was both exciting and oddly unsettling.

Almost hesitantly, he collected his bag and approached the side of the once-boy. A gentle hand met the skin of his back as that mouth unfurled in all of its disastrous biology. A press of his lips saw him hum in consideration as he returned his gaze to the fleshy back of the beast, then took the handle of his bag into his mouth to secure it before he pressed with both hands and deftly lifted his upper body from the ground, leaned forward, and twisted his lower half to lift a leg over the beast’s back, then slipped.

Both his hands went different ways and he dropped to his chest before he slipped down the side of the worm’s body. He clung for dear life and dropped to his knees as his kit fell from his mouth, and he fell to his back on the grass when he finally released the beast. Evidently, Arkash had never mounted a horse before, let alone a horse that was covered in mucus.

He exhaled deeply while he lay there, then wiped off his hands before he sat up. “...Please don’t tell anyone about this,” he spoke quietly at the worm mule, got up, brushed himself off, and attempted the mount again. This time, he tried with his body closer to the beast, and simply leaned over and maneuvered his weight lengthwise over the body of the worm. Slippery fingers clutched his bag as he strenuously sat upright on the beast, ignorant to the silvery trail the worm’s mucus made to his attire.

“Okay, onward!” he declared while he clung for dear life.



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Phantasm
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Sun May 22, 2022 2:59 am

☠ Horsing around ☠
☠ Points awarded:
  • Arkash - 8
    Vivian - 8 {Can be used for magic}
☠ Lores:

Arkash

Acting: Feign offense
Acting: The appropriate reaction to being told your fake name is fake
Acting: Consider your own emotional responses before acting
Acting: A different occupation is difficult without some research ahead of time
Acting: Channel your emotions through your character
Animal Husbandry: The appropriate method of lifting an animal's leg
Animal Husbandry: Check the teeth and hooves on a mule.
Animal Husbandry: The appropriate way of opening a mule's mouth (don't grab the tongue)
Animal Husbandry: Mules do not have enamel
Biology: Enamel is responsible for keeping teeth white
Biology: Manipulation of tendons can force movement
Mount: Keep your body close to the horse
Mount: Do not climb the horse
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[PC] Vivian: Appears human
[PC] Vivian: A malformist
[PC] Vivian: Openly advocates for Blood Mages
[PC] Vivian: Openly blasphemes
[PC] Vivian: Evidently unfamiliar with the Candor
[PC] Vivian: Too perceptive
[PC] Vivian: Might be a problem
[PC] Vivian: Offered to help you
[PC] Vivian: Knows about the amalgamation

Vivian

Malformation: Shifting slowly to facilitate control
Malformation: comparable anatomy of humans vs equines
Malformation: the art of targeted shifting
Malformation: shifting around one’s anatomy in a form to accommodate a rider
Malformation: strange monsters will draw excessive attention
Necromancy: The art of changing a face.
Necromancy: Taboo in the north, a utility in the south.
Necromancy: Requires study of anatomy.
Seduction: Occupational flirting
Seduction: Ah, the double entendre
Mount: Opening an equine’s mouth.
Mount: Squeeze, lean, and oh look! A hoof.
☠ Loot:
  • N/A
☠ Injuries:
  • N/A
☠New Mage Blight:
  • N/A
☠ Notes:
  • Your thread has appeased the vengeful spirits and saved your soul from damnation, congratulations!
    If you feel I missed anything contact me and we will make adjustments!
    enjoy your rewards!
word count: 360
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