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Post by Strangers and Travelers on Jul 8, 2017 15:53:44 GMT -8
Smacking the icy tendril with her tail seemed to work, and it retreated out the door. However, the burning cold would be excruciatingly painful, especially on the metal. The masked man walked up to the two of them, leaning casually against the wall as they struggled to hold the door shut.
"Would either of you like to buy any replacement parts? It seems to me that the wraiths are about to get in. The way I see it, you two should be able to fight them off...but they'll probably cause some serious frostbite. Would you like a spare finger, or perhaps a whole hand? I've got some to spare..."
Reaching into his pocket, he pulled out a severed hand. It twitched and grabbed at his fingers, clearly still alive and well.
"I've got other bits and pieces as well, if you'd like those. I could probably build a whole person with the parts I've got in here. Some of them are going to be pretty expensive, though."
He glanced out the window, and added:
"You know, I could bottle those wraiths up too, if you want. You'd have to pay, though."
The sculptor immediately nodded.
"Yes! Yes, get rid of them! I don't want to have to buy any hands!"
The masked man turned to Zrixiana.
"Well...how about you, miss runaway? Would you be willing to pay me to get rid of them? I don't have to, you know. If you two die, I can use you for spare parts. I don't think I have any snake bits."
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Deleted
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Post by Deleted on Jul 8, 2017 16:01:47 GMT -8
Seeing the hand actually move almost freaked the poor Naga female out, but she tried to focus on keeping the door shut - despite the chill that ran through the metal of her rattle to her snake tail, and what was permeating through the building and slowly cooling her blood. She was starting to ache all over again.
But at the idea of stopping the wraiths - she nodded her head eagerly, the trinkets and gems bouncing about her horns and head with the motion. "Please, please stop them," she begs, straining as they slammed once more to the door.
As much as she didn't want to see her master again, she wasn't keen on dying...
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Post by Strangers and Travelers on Jul 8, 2017 16:12:24 GMT -8
The masked man nodded, then opened the window and stepped outside. Immediately, the temperature in the cabin dropped as the howling wind blew inside, throwing snow over everything. The sculptor stared, slack-jawed.
"How did he do that? Those windows don't open, they've never opened. They don't even have hinges! How are they open?"
Regardless of whether or not the windows were supposed to open, they stayed open until the odd salesman stepped back through and closed it again. He held six glass bottles, each filled with what looked like a swirling blue liquid.
"There we go, six wraiths all bottled up. That should be...oh, twelve gold pieces each. Cheaper than buying a hand, don't you agree, miss Zrixiana?"
The sculptor began rummaging in his pockets and couch cushions, scrounging about for his 12 gold pieces.
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Post by Deleted on Jul 8, 2017 16:32:25 GMT -8
The banging ceased on the door, and Zrixiana was happy for that... but the howling winds that blasted into the cabin made it extremely difficult for her to move, even after the strange individual came back inside and closed the window.
She looked to the vials that were filled with... wraiths? They certainly didn't look like any sort of creature that was bashing against the door...
When the sculptor began rummaging around for the money, she found herself in a bit of a dilemma - she didn't have any money on her. Watching her look herself over in a shaky state was a clear indication of that. But she came up with something else, and tried to force herself into moving to retrieve the metal bands studded with gems that they had removed from her body in the first place. Granted, it was steel lined with gold or actual silver, but the gems were real. There had to be some worth to them.
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Post by Strangers and Travelers on Jul 8, 2017 16:39:23 GMT -8
The masked man waited patiently as she sluggishly made her way over to the metal arm bands on the table. He accepted the jewelry, as well as the sculptor's lint-covered coins that he'd found in various places around the cottage, and pocketed them all.
"Well well well...giving away your master's trinkets. Aren't you a tricky little runaway. I don't mind, though. The gems are as good as any, and I do so love gems. They're so useful, I use them to make eyes. Do you want to see?"
Without waiting for a response, he pulled a small case out from under his coat. Opening it up, he revealed a collection of glass eyes, each one different from all the others. They swiveled in the case, turning to stare at the sculptor and Zrixiana as they looked.
"I started off just selling these, you know. It's just recently that I branched out into other body parts. They're not all that hard to collect, really. You just need to know where to look. There's frozen bodies on this path sometimes, so I gather bits from here every now and then. What do yo do for a living, miss runaway? Besides steal totems, that is."
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Post by Deleted on Jul 8, 2017 16:50:20 GMT -8
This man was unnerving in a particular fashion... seeing the eyes swivel about to look at her made her stomach turn a little, and she opted to sway away from him with her eyes closed - trying to bring her serpentine body close to coil about her for some means of maintaining warmth.
She gently shook her head at the question. "I do nothing... I entertain Master, but I ran away," is all she can offer in response.
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Post by Strangers and Travelers on Jul 8, 2017 19:56:16 GMT -8
The salesman nodded, hood flopping ridiculously as he did so. He put away the case, and stuffed it into a pocket that was clearly far too small to fit it. Still, the case somehow vanished into the pocket without a trace.
"Entertainment? That's always worth something, I suppose. Can you sing me a song, miss runaway? Or tell me a story? I do so love stories. People tell me the strangest stories sometimes...One time, I even heard one about a boy who chased a duck and fell into a fish's mouth! It carried him to a faraway land, apparently...but that's just silly, there's no way for something like that to happen. I'm sure you've got some stories, though. Tell me one!"
He sat down crosslegged in the middle of the floor, looking up at her expectantly.
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Post by Deleted on Jul 13, 2017 0:31:18 GMT -8
The expectant eyes of the strange masked individual made her skin crawl - an irony of sorts, considering her breed - and she shrunk a little from him. More so as the cold continued to sink in further to her blood. It was becoming painful to move again, but at least not in the burning sense of the frostbite from her bands along her arms. Said arms came about to wrap around her near naked figure as she tried to retain what little heat she had left.
"I... I do n-not know any, sir," she replies meekly, having trouble looking at his mask. He was so strange, and she'd seen her fair share of strange at the hands of her master.
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Post by Strangers and Travelers on Jul 13, 2017 20:57:29 GMT -8
The man in the mask leaned forward until the blank white mask was barely an inch from Zrixiana's face. Even from this distance, Zrixiana wouldn't see a single flaw in the smooth white mask, and there was nothing but blackness in the eye holes. However, the voice wasn't the slightest bit muffled, even though it came from within the mask.
"Well then, what sort of entertainer doesn't have any stories? You're not a very good entertainer, Ms. Runaway. Everyone has stories! Is that why you ran away? You were such an awful entertainer that you couldn't bare to face the shame any longer?"
The sculptor rose from his seat, annoyed.
"Hey, leave her alone! Don't just barge in and talk to her like that!"
The salesman's head swiveled around with an awful snap, twisting 180 degrees to stare directly back at the sculptor.
"Was I talking to you, stone carver? I don't think I was. Sure would be a shame if one of these wraith bottles were to break, wouldn't it?"
Turning his head back towards Zrixiana, he continued.
"What can you do, then? Do you juggle? I do so love jugglers, especially the ones with knives and fire. Are you a musical snake? Sing me a song! Do something, at least. You're awfully boring, just sitting there and shivering. Are you cold? How could you be cold, look at the fire!"
In the fireplace, a huge fire roared. Hadn't that hearth been cold and damp just a moment before?
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Post by Deleted on Aug 18, 2017 22:54:02 GMT -8
This... this man in the mask was very unnerving - and she almost had a panic attack when that head snapped around like an owl but nowhere near as awe inspiring as one. And the questions... how did she explain this?
But at least the fire was rather soothing. The warmth was already fighting back the cold air, and warming her blood. The ache of the cold was starting to ebb away again. Her hands steadily rubbed at her arms, trying to regain some feeling in them. But now she struggled to look into the hollow sockets of the eyes of the mask as she thought of how to respond.
"... Master is an Incubus. He... he enjoys doing things to us. I - He placed a rune. So I can change my shape. It's hard - I'm not very good on legs," she says, gesturing subtly to both the odd man and the sculptor - specifically their legs. "My balance is bad. But usually he wants me lying down, and he... he gets on me. He hurts me. He hurts all of us. But he growls and moans and laughs - it makes him happy. Entertains him. Sometimes we dance, too."
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Post by Strangers and Travelers on Aug 19, 2017 8:56:50 GMT -8
The masked figure listened quietly, staring at Zrixiana with blank eye-holes as she recounted her woes. Once she was done, he nodded, causing the twin points on his hood to flop back and forth. The sculptor bit his lip and sat back in his chair, clearly uncomfortable.
"Well well...legs, you say? Legs are always nice. It's certainly better than slithering about, although I suppose you're probably used to that. I've always been good on legs, myself. Sometimes you need more than two, though."
Reaching into a pocket, he pulled out a human leg, complete with a boot on the foot. There was very clearly no way for it to fit in his pocket, but he didn't seem to care about this blatant disregard for the laws of physics. He placed the leg down, and it hopped up and down a few times before standing up straight.
"If you ever need new legs, or if you want to sell yours, let me know. As you can see, mine are very well balanced. Besides, I'm sure snake legs will be very valuable. After all, it's not as though you see snake legs every day. Considering your old master, I assume they're rather shapely too. Hmm..."
The leg hopped up and down and leaned back and forth in an impressive display of balance.
"So what will you do now, Ms. Runaway? Try to find the desert where you were born? Will they take you back, after you've been stuck full of pins and needles?"
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Post by Deleted on Aug 19, 2017 21:18:39 GMT -8
Watching the leg stand and hop about on it's own was almost enough to send the poor Naga into a panic attack - this being was just becoming stranger and stranger. She shrunk away from him further, into the coil made with the length of her tail.
At the mention of home, though, her eyes lit up momentary before the hope dimmed away. Her clawed hands fidgeted a bit in uncertainty. "... I... would like to return home. But I do not know where it is. I don't know if they will take me again. But I rather be there than here - the sun. Warm. The cold will kill me."
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Post by Strangers and Travelers on Aug 19, 2017 21:45:47 GMT -8
The salesman laid down on his stomach, propping his chin up on his hands and kicking his legs in the air like a girl at a sleepover. It was a disturbing image, such an innocent pose combined with a decidedly creepy figure.
"Well...I'm sure you'll get there eventually. Why, the warm sands are just a hop, skip, and a jump away! Or rather, a slither, in your case. You should find your way home soon enough, if you believe!"
He glanced out the window, twisting his head around at an unnatural angle once more.
"Why look, the snow's stopping already! Go on, step outside and take a look. Or slide outside, if you'd rather not step."
Getting up, he opened the door. The view outside, shockingly, wasn't a snowy mountaintop at all. In fact, the sun burned down, and a fine, warm sand blew through the door. Rolling, golden dunes could be seen all around, and would look very familiar to a desert-dweller such as Zrixiana.
"Why look at that, it's all right there! I wonder what it's like out there. Hot, probably."
The sculptor stared in shock, jaw hanging open.
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Post by Deleted on Aug 19, 2017 23:11:11 GMT -8
Zrixiana didn't really believe that the desert would be anywhere near - not after appearing in snowy mountains in the first place. But as soon as the door opened she felt the dry heat rush in like a wave, and she sat up straight immediately. Curiosity got the better of her, and she dared to peek around the wide door to look outside... her own jaw dropping a bit in utter disbelief.
The expanse of sanded dunes, rolling on for miles... no more snow. It was, unlike to most, exceptionally inviting. Forgetting and semblance of manner, she moved from her little corner in the cottage and rushed out the door, letting out a pleasant gasp as she felt the hot grains beneath the belly of her Naga half. A part of her wanted to cry, more so as she lowered herself to allow her human belly to rest on the sand, too. The rest of her followed suite, bringing her head down carefully to settle her cheek down and her arms and palms.
The sand... she'd missed it so much.
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