Armor Amore

Intern Rep! : 10 Location : GARhalla

Gracing the sand, a seemingly endless number of feet marched their way across the barren sea that was the Rajeh street life. Night time was raising its flag in submission for the time being, though not a soul doubted its inevitable return. The sun seemed to be cracking its head over the horizon with just the tip of its being, casting a myriad of cascading lights over the desert city. Activity levels were high already, evidenced by the heavy foot-traffic. People ending their night lives or after-hour jobs, mostly shady business not fit to see the rays of day, and people rising early to begin the morning filled with preparations for the noontime rush. Shops began the arrangement of their displays, and stock was being taken by morning crews, seeking to take over from the nightshift. Of the numberless group, only one among them stood with importance. Only one man, in the ground of innumerable people, was even relevant to the current situation and story. It was unfortunate, as he was highly unlikely to like the turn of events said story was destined to take.

The man, red hair still filled with sand from the rest of the night, sleep evident in his eyes, made no outward motion to address his tired posture. In his mind, he was perfectly awake. It was as if there was no need for sleeping in his life, truly an antonym-like relationship with his outer appearance. He paid it no mind: he would eventually even out, and it was unlikely anyone who would care for his appearances would make themselves known to him so early. Such people were rare enough in and of themselves, and if they gave such thought to looks, they would of course worry more about their own. As such, it was quite likely they would spend the early hours of the daytime fixing themselves up before going gallivanting around the town, seeking enjoyment at the merchant’s expense. Rashn decided he was allowed some time to go on and not worry about his looks. Being professional was important to him, but looking the part often had an unusually high cost of time and labor with little to actually show for it. So, there would be no clean looks and no freshly-shaven scents to grace him. His scruff face and sleep deprived body would move itself with surprising amounts of vigor (though said vigor was still less than a perfectly awake normal person).

After all, there was business to attend to whether he liked it or not.

Mystic Elder Rep! : 31

The shifting sands got between Iskra's toes as she made her way with mincing steps across the desert.

She was a very large hyena, the sort that might pull down an exceptionally large animal. Her white fur reflected the sun's rays and allowed her a bit of relief as she snorted the light dirt, sneezing it out before deciding that it would be better to sniff around rocks and landmarks, which held scents here better than the wind itself.

It was the wonderful discovery of a potent camel turd, however, that brought the carnivore to Nori's precise location. Her tracking skills were improving, slowly but surely, and she recalled the scent of her merchant friend's camels with perfect clarity. The smell was engraved upon her heart, for she knew it would always lead her to the auburn-haired one wherever he roamed.

So she walked over a yellow dune with the sunrise, her tongue lolling out as she cackled at the sights and scents of the scene down below.

The town wasn't quite bustling, still under the veil of its dead nighttime state to an extent, but she might or might not have drawn any attention as she walked boldly into the populated area, her nose locked on the aroma of camel.

Of course, when she found Nori, she wouldn't bother with formalities. She'd simply rush and leap upon him in an expression of undying affection.

[ EXP: 271 ]

Intern Rep! : 10 Location : GARhalla

Ignoring the now-beating rays of the encroaching sun, Rashn would stretch his body lazily. His whole body ached… not uncommon for a morning, but whatever. He wondered exactly how old he was at this point. When he awoke to the dawn, he was still what people called a child, but not by much. He was certainly no young man, but did that mean he qualified as an old man by now? His body told him he did, but he had no math to prove it. What age constituted an old man by today’s standards anyway? Perhaps it was more of a physical thing rather than a time based one? Like, when you can no longer lift your own weight, then you’re old. In Rashn’s case, you’d also be dead at that point, because if you couldn’t do at least that, your body wouldn’t be strong enough to live the life of a merchant.

For a moment he would push the thoughts of age from his mind, and instead focus on the day’s activities. Nothing special: just another day of peddling his goods, but he had some shops to check out, and his supplies were running low, so he would need to take care of those as well. These plans would take up the majority of his thought process, causing him to not be fully prepared to hear the tell-tale signs of danger which was the beating paws on the desert soil. ‘Don’t Turn Around!’ came the anonymous voice from within him. Huh? Who said that? Probably some sort of inner-conscious that was messing with him. Ignoring his advice, Rashn would, for whatever reason, spin just in time to hear the same voice mutter to him inside his head, ‘It’s A Trap!’, and be met with the body of some furry-like creature on top of him. From pure instincts alone he would move to cover his face and neck, protecting the most important parts, though it seemed the creature was… friendly? Had it made no attacks on his person within the first few moments of his guard, Rashn would take a peek through his hands and spot… that thing. That woman again. Much to his dismay, it was… her. An aggravated look stitched itself to his features as he frowned. “I-It’s you again, isn’t it…?”

Mystic Elder Rep! : 31

"Nori!" Iskra purred out in a growl that could be easily rationalized as the mere throaty articulations of the beast that she was. Mercilessly, she licked his guarding arms and any other bits that became exposed. Indeed, she tried very hard to get her tongue across his lips, as she knew a kiss was a common, human sign of affection.

But eventually she would relent, merely gazing down at the merchant before looking around to ensure nobody was in earshot to hear her whisper. She knew how uncomfortable it made the merchant for her to display any manifestations of magic in front of others, and she wished to have his camaraderie before she continued.

Now assured that nobody would be close enough to hear her, she leaned down towards the merchant's ear. "It is me, yes. I guess you associate with hyenas fairly often?" It was sort of a joke, a thing that she didn't often make. "You did such a good job of getting me my blades, but now I need something to cover my body and help defend me when I fight. Something to keep the magic outside of my skin and the blood inside."

[ EXP: 224 || +1 TEXP (5th post) ]

Intern Rep! : 10 Location : GARhalla

Much to his chagrin, it seemed that the animal atop him was indeed the one he expected. Fairly obvious though: what other hyena would come rush him and pounce atop him of all people? Who would, or could, go so far as to sneak into Rajeh and find him? He didn’t know any other hyenas or monsters in general who had the reason to, or the needs necessary to, track him down like that. The licks that crossed over his arms and face were, to say the least, annoying. Public displays of affection were something of the opposite of his strong suit regardless of whether or not they were from a human or beast. It wasn’t something he had practiced in anyway, but the point still stands. “O-okay, eno—ugh!” Rashn barely found the ability to mumble the words through the onslaught coming from the woman’s animal tongue, but thankfully it seemed to have some effect, as she seemed to stop at least for the moment. Taking advantage of it to catch his breath, the merchant would spread his arms and prop himself up, though her position denied him full usage of his body. Man, animals could be pretty heavy…

The whisper, however, would snap him out of his relaxed atmosphere and instead smack the grimace right back onto his face. She had made a joke, the likes of which was mostly over his head. It seemed like a stupid question, which was about all to him that made its joke status obvious. Associating with hyenas wasn’t really the right word, though: it was more along the lines of hunting them, and being revenge hunted, though both were rare. As he wasn’t stupid, he would only hunt one when desperate for food, which had not been for over a year now. Though, if only the beasts of the desert would return the emotions and leave him alone, his times out in the desert would be much more lovely. Coughing into a single fist, he would push the creeping feeling of discomfort from his body. Personal space issues were still there in him, and as always the woman-hyena… womyena, perhaps, had no concept of ‘don’t-touch-me’. She mentioned something about running a brothel, so maybe such physical contact was in her nature? He supposed he couldn’t fault her for that, no matter how uncomfortable it made him. “I see… I’m h-happy you’re content with your purchase, but…” he paused for emphasis. “…will human armor even work when you’re in… that form?” It was said with a point to it, as if assuming she had forgotten what she was right now. Though, if human armor didn’t work, maybe he could get her some guard-dog/horse/camel armor?

Mystic Elder Rep! : 31

Iskra tilted her head to the side, still whispering in a low murmur. "I can make it work. I'll need some for my human form, and if I have any other forms, I can simply change the armor with me when I change. It's simple. I should be able to adopt more shapes than the three you've seen soon."

She panted excitedly in his face, though hyena breath wouldn't be the best-smelling thing in the world to an average nose, especially considering her last meal: sun-dried carrion, seasoned to perfection by liberally sprinkled insect eggs and topped with fresh maggots. She didn't care for it as much as meat she'd killed herself, but old corpses had their own pleasant flavor, much like one might appreciate both wine and cheese, but prefer one slightly more.

Conspiratorially, the spirit looked around and leaned a bit forward again, her eyes narrowing as her mouth widened and tugged up further at the corners. "How rare would you say dragon bits are? I've got scales, meat, and fangs to spare."

[ EXP: 204 ]

Intern Rep! : 10 Location : GARhalla

Ah, so she was able to shift the armor she was wearing as well? Impressive, but it made sense. If every time you transformed you destroyed your clothes, then it wouldn’t be very profitable to just go around shifting whenever you wanted. A technique that would have to do with the altering of what you were wearing made sense when you looked at it like that, but then comes the disagreeable thought of her maintaining even more forms than she already possessed. Well, that was cool. More power to her. Just, so long as she didn’t show Rashn, he didn’t have any problems with it. Though, she seemed to be rather attached to him… he had never seen her interact with her other ‘friends’ or family, so he was not sure if he was special or this was normal to her, which would then make her special in a different way. Like, ‘special’ special. Or, maybe just easily excitable, if you’d want to put it nicely.

Then comes the mentioning of dragon parts, which was a much more comfortable conversation for him. It helped to ignore the foul stench of her breath, though it was not as bad to him as those who had spent too much time at the taverns, or wreaked of rotten meats. In the desert, you ate what you could… times were tough. “A Dragon… oh, yeah, I heard about that,” he would said vaguely, “sounded too dangerous though. Whatever. To answer your question, they actually wouldn’t sell for much, contrary to popular belief.” Most people heard ‘dragon’ and they immediately thought about fire-breathing, knights, heroes, and the spoils of war in its treasure trove. “Well, actually, it’d be worth a small fortune to the right person—“ but then again, what wasn’t? “—but you’d have to have some luck in finding them. I don’t know about dragon meat, though even if it tastes terrible, someone will pay top dollar for it since it’s so rare. Scales and teeth, however… well, people always talk about dragon teeth daggers or knives, and dragonscale armor, but you’d need an exceptional blacksmith if he were to work with those efficiently. One might not even exist in this world…” the last statement was said in more of a musing tone. The topic of conversation had, at the very least, distracted him long enough to forget the breath or the personal space intrusion cast upon him by the beast yet again. He wanted to get up still, but with them talking like this, Rashn could at least escape to the inner toilings of his mind.

Mystic Elder Rep! : 31

Iskra found herself sorely disappointed with his appraisal of her dragon-related items. After all, they were very difficult to get.

It was fine that he didn't think the meat was worth much. She rather liked the taste and would prefer to keep the dragon jerky to herself anyways.

"I see..." her bestial brow furrowed and she appeared deep in thought for a moment. Perhaps she could attempt to intimidate one of the merchants around. Humans were easily frightened little things. If behind the deal was bone crushing jaws and a demon that just didn't give a darn, perhaps the tune of the engagement might swing in their favor.

These thoughts she kept to herself, however. She simply stepped off to the side to allow Nori to stand if he so wished.

"We have to find someone who values rarities, then," she whispered matter-of-factly. "This particular dragon was very difficult to slaughter, and I have confidence in the quality of its bits. I will not accept anything less adequate than a full outfitting."

Of course, she'd have to shift into her human form for such a thing, she imagined, but she wasn't sure. Besides, it might be bad for her to go shapeshifting in the middle of town. Rather, now that she was having a steady business relationship with this human and was learning more on what constituted politeness, she actually cared to some extent what made her ally uncomfortable.

[ EXP: 288 ]

Intern Rep! : 10 Location : GARhalla

“Ah, Yeah… I’m sure.” The man, feigning attention, would push himself up to something of a sitting position. He’d heard everything she said prior, but at the moment he was just too busy trying to get comfortable again. His back hurt from the tackle, which was normal, but a bit more than he had expected. Getting up was hard, too. Was he getting old after all? He could only imagine how many years had been put on his life just from the bestial woman in front of him, and they had only known each other for a short while. Add into that the life he might’ve apparently lead before the dawn, and his age can easily start creeping up on him. Maybe he should start correcting people when they refer to him as a young man?

Satisfied with his sitting position, Rashn would realize now just how tall and intimidating of a beast the woman was. Normal animals were scary, sure, but she certainly was a piece of work. He knew she was large since the first time he saw her, but you have to really be on the ground to appreciate it. Looking at anything from above can make it seem small. “Anyway,” he would cough into his hand to clear his thoughts. No need to get overexcited here. “If it was difficult to kill, you must’ve had to go all out. Taking down a dragon is no easy feat, I’m impressed. But, assuming you really did go all out, I have to wonder: how good is the condition of it now? The ‘bits’, I mean.” Rashn was obviously referring to the possibility that her going full throttle on it might’ve caused the majority of the scales to be chipped, singed, or otherwise damaged. Any fallacies in them would make it a giant pain in the ass to get a good deal out of, and he needed to know what he was going to be working with, whether she wanted them all made into armor or sold. Hopefully it wasn’t too bad. “The teeth themselves don’t matter so much as they’re easily altered and fairly malleable, but the scales’ condition is crucial. As defensively powerful as they are, they can still be fragile. Otherwise, dragons would be as immortal literally as they’re made out to be figuratively.”

Mystic Elder Rep! : 31

The beast stared up into the air for a moment, and then reached around to her back, nibbling a spot as though a flea had suddenly bitten her.

In the course of the biting, she pulled something from beneath her coat and flung it gently forwards onto the sandy ground.

It was a leather bag, not unlike the one she kept her blade inside while she was using her woman form. The generation of the bag seemed almost magical in nature, as the bag was much thicker than the concealment of her fur would allow, but there was really no explanation other than that it was another manifestation of her ability to change shape.

The scales inside were fairly well-conditioned, and a few of them tumbled out with the momentum of the purse's motion. She hadn't picked the segments of dragonskin that had been injured by the fight and instead chose unscratched, unscuffed, largely unharmed ones, though some of them were a little bit dirty, as the woman wasn't completely sure how to polish them.

"How do they look?"

[ EXP: 206 || +1 TEXP (2nd thread) ]

Intern Rep! : 10 Location : GARhalla

Just as the man was beginning to obtain a feeling something closely related to comfort while in the beastwoman’s presence (though he was sure it was not comfort itself; there was no way it could be), the creature reveals itself to apparently be mange-infected. He suspected it was just fleas, but it still put him in a state of unease. Luckily to him, it seemed to only be her form of carrying her goods. As a merchant, he understood the need to carry your wares with you one way or another, so he couldn’t really fault her for her way of toting it around. More than anything, it was his fault for assuming. You know what they say when you assume, after all.

Rashn would push the thoughts aside as his hand tentatively reaches outward to the bag and its spillage. His fingers would draw themselves across the surface, garnering thin cuts over the fingers. Small, frail white lines would appear on his skin where he made contact with the edges, though no blood spillage would be let loose. He was that careful, at least. There was no telling what the woman would do at the sight of blood. She could very easily be hungry and that could set her off, as in his mind, he still was not sure whether to bundle her with the wild animals or with humanoids. Regardless of that, the ‘bag of spillage’ in his hands would prove to be filled with such scales. A good find. He wondered about the teeth. “Yeah, they’re good.” This was said with no emotion. Not out of unhappiness or aggravation or anything, but simply because too much focus was put into the contents in front of him at the moment. He was no expert on raw materials in general, and his direct experience with dragon pieces was minimal. Like gold to an ancient civilization, dragon bits were something someone would own as a one-off piece. Shed from the body of one as it flew overhead, perhaps.

Snapping out of it, he would turn to Iskra and try to do the best that he could do to help here. “The quality is good. Thickness is solid, they’ve got enough depth to help against both piercing and blunt strikes. They’re a little small, but you should have enough to make up for that.” Small, right. He was speaking as if he was a professional. The only thing he could compare it to was a similar amount of iron or steel, though he had a good mind that could roughly figure out how many would be needed to cover her whole body. “Luckily, your frame is fairly small. Humanoid-wise, anyway… I believe, at least. Not that I’ve paid that much attention to it anyway.” Rashn’s tone was hastened, obviously into the whole process. To him, this was something of a drug… new things to sell to new people! Even if he didn’t get to do it, the possibilities of new markets opening up was exhilarating.

Mystic Elder Rep! : 31

Iskra tilted her head to the side as the merchant examined the item. The flesh of his fingers seemed to give way, however small that giving was, easily to the rough, tough edges of the hardened scale. It protected its owner well in life, she could tell. Humans, on the other hand, were so fragile. She always had to remind herself to be careful around them. They seemed to break easily. Maybe that was the real reason that there were more kami hybrids than oni hybrids, at least in the general populace. A demon using his full strength on a creature so fragile...

Well, she never really tried. They were all hybrids or demons, at least the ones she'd been with. She'd seen a few kami in her life, but all of them seemed like sort of fragile creatures, and she never could suppress a vague yearning to make the angels suffer and to revel in their suffering. They seemed to have more in common with humans than they did with her kind, despite their shared taxonomy.

The assertion that the teeth were good brought her back to the present, and the grin widened across her bestial visage.

"Great. So do you know anyone we can talk to about trading for the armor?"

[ EXP: 237 ]

Intern Rep! : 10 Location : GARhalla

Oblivious to the dangerous thoughts going through the woman’s mind, Rashn would simply shake his head no at her question. “Not a clue. If you want to sell it, then yeah, I could find someone, but if you’re looking for someone to craft with them, then you’re out of luck.” Despite this, the merchant was still visibly absorbed in the scales, though his eyes were the only that betrayed his normal nonchalance at this point. “You’ve gotta’ understand, this is a pretty rare find here. Whatever amount of work you’ve put in to obtaining these, that was the easy part, as hard to believe as that is. Getting somebody to work with these and do them justice will take a while. Well, a regular smithy who’s a veteran could probably make it work to some degree, though not nearly to their maximum potential. I don’t know the process myself completely, but it’s still pretty complicated from what I understand. It’s not just pouring metal into a shaper and then tending to it…”

Then, Rashn realized, that perhaps he did know someone who could help them. Well, knew of someone. He had never met the man, and it was quite the trip to get to where he reportedly was. The man considered keeping this thought secret from the beast girl, as it would likely only lead to discomfort for him. If he was to take her with him to meet the man, that would mean the two would be alone together for a short time. And, that meant that… well… they would be together. Maybe that doesn’t sound too bad, but consider the merchant’s position. The woman, for however long he knew her, never brought any good fortune or direct comfort for Rashn. They were only ever together for short periods of time, yet without fail she was a magical annoyance. Like a merchant with a nose for deals, she seemed to always know the way to twist him the wrong way. Yet…

“Well, maybe…” Rashn would whisper this, as he began to consider things in his mind. As annoying as she was, and yes, she was rather annoying, she never seemed to be so out of malice. It was an innocent annoyance, like that of a crying baby: it didn’t understand anything, just that it was supposed to act this particular way. She was only being herself, and she seemed to think of Rashn as a friend of sorts… that kind of thought and kindness was not something such a modest, humble soul like Rashn could ignore, but, it would still be a pain! Even if it was the right thing to do, he knew he would regret bringing it up down the road. “No, forget it. It’s a long way away and you probably wouldn’t be interested. You should just sell this load and buy some standard armor.”

Mystic Elder Rep! : 31

The hyena's brows furrowed, and she seemed confused by his statement.

"Oh, I never actually needed it made into armor," she explained, forgetting that she wasn't supposed to use magic as a dark energy enveloped her form. It didn't actually engulf her, however, and her body was visible the entire time as large dragon scales grew from her body.

"I ate a piece of its soul," she explained simply. "So I just need a bit of armor to reinforce what I've already got. I fight with some beings that hit pretty hard, you know."

Perhaps consciously she wasn't thinking of Jack, but she knew that if she hadn't stunned him repeatedly the last time they fought, he would've unleashed all manner of hurt on her. His powers were frighteningly strong, at least as far as magic was concerned. Stunning him was challenging, and he'd gotten even stronger now. She knew this because he'd broken out of the bind she'd put him in and demonstrated a new power. It was very possible that other demons had such strength.

[ EXP: 206 || +1 TEXP (1st thread) ]

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Intern Rep! : 10 Location : GARhalla

Despite the man’s deep trouble in trying to come up with a way to help the demon woman, she decided to portray her popular character trait of completely face-slapping his efforts seemingly without even trying. His inner turmoil over whether to divulge his secret information was all for naught as she exposed yet another prior unseen ability. Did she just pull these out of her ass or something? Rashn was rather upset, and would make a face most sour at this development. To him, this was kind of like running out of money at a peepshow right before the good part. His mind had focused and harnessed itself to a goal and just when he found a way to go about solving the problem, he was just waved off with a simple ‘oh don’t worry I’ve got it covered’. Was this how a minor character feels when compared to The Hero, or one of the main characters? Unimportant, and with no real impact…

Yet it occurred to Rashn that he was still needed – clearly – as the woman, though weird and lacking in common sense, was not stupid. She wouldn’t have found him for no reason. Or, perhaps she would, but she would do him the favor of outright admitting to searching for him just to screw around. She didn’t seem to be one to have any qualms toward wasting time with small talk. The one thought by itself, however, gave him a small glimmer of hope towards redemption. Had his big plan been saved? Was it still going to be put to use? Like when you find a way to stop a terrorist holding the president hostage, only for it to actually only be a generic secretary NPC. You can still use your plan, it just won’t garner the praise and reward and adoration that you were initially lead to believe.

Admittedly the merchant considered just dropping it, and going about his business as he had intended to on that morning. It was no skin off his nose. It’d probably end up being more profitable by far anyway! But, perhaps due to the frustration of his plan being snubbed, he would opt to help the Iskra woman without too much internal arguing. He would even ignore her blatant use of magic in the town of a city where nobody really knew of its existence yet. “A-ah, I see. Yeah, I should’ve expected that from you.” Rashn would use this opportunity to put focus on speaking so that he could quell his inner turmoil and return to his default nonchalance. “Well, what exactly were you looking for again? How much armor are we talking here, exactly? If it’s only a little… I might know someone who’s much more reachable than what I was thinking of a moment ago.”

Mystic Elder Rep! : 31

The hyena tilted her head to the side in thought for a moment. "Well, armor isn't really a concept that I'm used to. In fact, I uhhh... well, you know hyenas. We don't really have much use for the stuff. I want to be different, though, so I want to start light. Whatever's the lightest stuff you got."

Then again, there was the whole problem of her changing forms. Likely, the stuff would tear when she changed forms as well, unless she could think of some way to get it to alter with her. That might be a problem, she decided. Then again, there was no reason not to give it a shot. Maybe she could experiment. After all, she could change people into alternate forms without much effort. It'd be a simple matter to change some unresisting substance to a more useful form.

"It'll have to be pretty pliable, though. I don't think that those umm... solid pieces of metal will do me much good because I change my shape so often. Actually..."

Maybe she hadn't thought this all the way through. "...are all of the things humans use to protect their flesh made of unyielding metal?"

[ EXP: 216 || +1 TEXP (2nd thread) ]