RP:Disasterpiece

Part of the On Stranger Tides Arc

This is a Devout's Guild RP.

This is a Necromancer's Guild RP.

Summary: Bradyn happens upon Khitti as she works on piecing together the puzzle that is Emilia's new hand. As per usual, there's not very many nice things said between the vampire and the human.

Dimly Lit Room, The Black Library, Vailkrin

Khitti || Deep within the recesses of the library, there lurked a Khitti. Okay, so she always lurked in the library. That’s not the point. The point is that she was currently flipping through an anatomy book, and carefully marking off pages as she went through it. There wasn’t any of that dog-earing nonsense--that was book sacrilege after all. No, she was doing what a good book nerd would do and put small bits of paper in there as bookmarks. One would find Khitti in a place situated away from other students that would dwell there for a time, somewhere off to the side and in a corner. She was practicing social distancing, you see. Khitti wasn’t too keen on anyone else peeking at what she was doing. And what was she doing? Honestly, it looked like she was making an ice sculpture. Of a hand. So far, it was just the bones. Khitti had carefully crafted each carpal, metacarpal, and phalange that came with a typical humanoid hand. Except, when Khitti flexed her own hand, the bony bit of ice would flex when she did. She tested each one of the fingers, ending with the thumb and forefinger, making the universal sign for ‘okay’ at the end. The movements were a bit rigid; it was expected somewhat, of course. There was no lubrication between each connection, no tendons or ligaments to ease the movement itself. That would soon be remedied, of course, but for the moment, Khitti focused on the most basic part of the hand she was constructing.

Bradyn :: When wasn't Khitti practicing social distancing? This is actually not a thought that crosses Bradyn's mind though, for in his perception...? Were you to compare the two of them? He was the one who had more experience in the area of social distancing, he viewed her as far more social than he. Were it not for the fact that Khitti is working on something that does strike Bradyn as semi-curious, then there is a high probability he would not have approached her at all! I mean it's not like they're friends, he's pretty sure she usually hates him. I guess he's a jerk or something. As he is going to establish in just a few moments. Rather than approaching Khitti and greeting her with a, "Hi, how are you?"...as most normal people would? Bradyn just sort of manifests out of the shadows right next to Khitti and when he does the words he speaks are, "I wonder what would happen to that little hand were it to encounter fire..." Bradyn snaps his fingers together, as if he were expecting fire to manifest on command with that gesture. To be fair...? It's not like Bradyn is incapable of doing so, but he does not actually. Ruining someone's research so intentionally is typically beneath him. In most cases. There are always exceptions to rules.

Khitti looked up at Bradyn once he appeared. For a moment, it looked like there was a ghost of a smirk, but whatever was there soon vanished in favor for a sickeningly sweet smile. “If fire should happen to consume my creation, then I’m certain someone would be getting stabbed. Not you necessarily, but -someone-. There’s a whole city of victims just north of this cemetery after all.” Khitti finished tweaking what was needed on the skeletal hand, the pages in the anatomy book flipped to where she’d had her first marked off section. “And I remember what you said about practicing magic in the dragon graveyard, but this is a bit too intricate for that place,” she said, cutting him off at the pass. She assumed he’d bring it up, anyway. In a roundabout way, she was disobeying his orders. Over top of the ice, shadows started to pool, the thin wispy bits lacing themselves around here and there. Some mimicked ligaments, others muscle. “Unsurprisingly, I’ve taken on another project. And I’ve actually decided to set aside my work from the Devout’s Guild and the bakery for a time until this is finished. Emilia, the leader of the Healer’s Guild is in need of a hand… and I offered to make her one.” Another layer of shadows weaved themselves over and under and around the first, adding more meat to the hand. “There’s only one problem: my object permanence is not the greatest. I don’t need things long term when I’m fighting something. And most long term anything, when it comes to magic, that I use are runes or enchantments. I guess I can go that route if I can’t achieve it on my own, but…” Her words trailed off, her concentration on the hand obvious.

Bradyn was not aware of enough of the details surrounding Emilia to have any understanding why an ice hand might be suited for her. He also does not ask, because that would imply that he might care something about who this Emilia being is. He does not. Khitti's assumption that Bradyn would harp about disobeying orders is wrong, but he will not give much clear indication that she is mistaken in this. All he does is lift a brow when she brings this to his attention. "Were we talking about grafting flesh to flesh, this would be an area that I would be able to speak on with confidence." Even though Bradyn has spent years studying a variety of the dark arts, the Black Tides was never an area he has claimed to be an expert in. "What you are trying to do is going to require experimentation. I would be highly surprised if your first attempt is going to be a success." There is no concern what for how any testing might affect Emilia, that would again imply that Bradyn cares. The ice genasi can be a guinea pig, Bradyn is fine with this.

Khitti || “I’m aware. The woman is an ice genasi. Hence the ice hand. One that apparently has metal grafted to her bones as well. She was all too ready to allow me to crack her open and look to see what metal it is. I declined, of course. Imagine if you had gotten to her first for this,” Khitti said with a knowing smirk. If anyone knew Bradyn even just the slightest, it wouldn’t take much for them to find out how much he’d revel in the opportunity to vivisect someone that potentially could not even feel it. “And this -is- an experiment. Just one of many. I -need- to achieve object permanence.” Khitti attempted to flex the hand, now that it had its newfound sinew. But, as if on cue, the shadows suddenly unravelled and dispersed and the bony ice melted away into nothingness. Khitti just sat there for a moment, staring at the spot where her creation had been. Her frustration was soon made evident by her slamming her fist down onto the table. Not so much that it harmed the poor inanimate object that suddenly became the fixation of Khitti’s fury. “Do you realize what I could do with this if I can make this hand? To give life to something by way of shadows?”

Bradyn listened to Khitti, at least partially. The part of him that was not actively dedicated to hearing her words was mulling over...if she realized how she sounded right now? Just a little mad scientist, and unfortunately for her she is not discussing these ideas with someone who has ethics and morals. Well, more accurately, Bradyn does but they're just twisted and skewed. "Oh yes," Bradyn says, instead of trying to even offer any sort of sincere moral guidance in this area. "I am sure you will be able to run out and save the world with this discovery, if you are able to." This might be a moment where Bradyn would roll his eyes, but that would require he display emotion. He is being sarcastic right now, but the lack of tone to does tend to make discerning these details challenging. "No one will ever have to fear the loss of a limb again. They'll be able to visit Khitti, shadow extraordinaire." Would they really? They could, Bradyn did not know. But honestly the Maharan is hoping that this is one of those situations were even the best intentions go horribly awry. He is a jerk like that.

Khitti sneered at Bradyn’s words as he spoke, but kept quiet until he was finished. In the meantime, she recrafted her skeletal ice hand. “You’re just as bad as everyone else, thinking I’m some do-gooder. I didn’t ask for the light, Bradyn. The light found me. But that doesn’t mean I’m some stoic, silent hero that goes around saving maidens and slaying evil in the name of Cyris. You’re still unalive, after all. I would’ve killed Quintessa without hesitation were that the case. I would’ve taken the route of a paladin. And yet, I did not. And here I am, in your library, creating things that likely should not be created and planning to do things with said knowledge that in other parts of the world, my homeland included, would get me a nice trip to the stake with all expenses paid for a fiery end. You’re not looking at the bigger picture.” The shadows reclaimed their places on the bony appendage, the action done quicker now than last time. Quickly, she coated the shadows in another layer of ice, in hopes that maybe it would stay just a little longer. “We have a serious security problem, what with that Vasili taking up residence nearby. And how do you remedy that? With a guard dog.” The ice was rigid at first, until Khitti smoothed it out, using a bit of shadowfire to essentially sand it down. “Imagine this--” The redhead flexed the hand once she was done, various motions made to indicate its ability to move at all. “--but on a much larger scale.”

Bradyn :: Khitti would be allowed to go on her little rant about how Bradyn is just as bad as everyone else. He offered no corrections to these assumptions either, if only because it suited him just fine to let her run wild with this logic. If she was so intent on proving to everyone that she was not really just some crazed do-gooder, well that suited Bradyn -just- fine. He may not have a degree in psychology, but it seemed like he was pulling the strings to keep Khitti closer to the darkness just fine. If he is able to keep her on this path, he may get to see her turned back into a vampire just yet. "Oh yes, security. Why, if you can progress in this area no one will ever again have to lose a life because of war. There will be plenty of security to be able to fight for us." Did he really think that? No. Was he just being a dick and twisting this point to make Khitti feel like he was just assuming she was a do-gooder? Yes. Be angry, Khitti, rage over this point. "I suppose Vasili is prime enough of a target to help you perfect this work."

Khitti just glowered at Bradyn. Just as she walked the line of ‘Will this piss Bradyn off?’, so too did he with Khitti. And it was working. Her fingers itched to summon up that holy fire of hers--and she did. Except, it wasn’t Bradyn that would go up in flames, but rather the hand she’d built. It’s fine. Totally fine. The thing was gonna go poof soon anyway, right? Leave it to Khitti, though to be unlucky enough that -that- hand might not have disappeared. “Does nothing please you? Besides ever so carefully vivisecting or dissecting a person, that is.” She wasn’t expecting some great spectacle. Oh no, that sort of thing was reserved for normal mages. Normal mages that got excited over new discoveries of magic or otherwise. But his constant twisting of her words was beginning to grate on her nerves. His need to make it sound as if everything she said was so damned obvious set her rage to boiling. “You wanted this place protected. Preserved. From idiots like Vasili who threaten our way of life.” Or unlife, in most necromancers’ cases. “And I’m trying to work towards that. It might not be as quickly as needed, but I don’t see anyone else doing it. Creating full-on anarchy isn’t enough. It will never be enough. If it was, Larewen would’ve taken the crown years ago after she helped start all of this vampire house chaos to begin with.” Khitti’s book was shut, the redhead careful to mind the places she’d marked. The urge to leave the Devout’s Guild and take the Necromancer’s Guild for herself was strong at this moment. Being Bradyn’s subordinate wasn’t suiting her at all. At least, at one point in time, they had been equals--even if it had only been in rank.

Bradyn :: The view that Khitti has taken on that she is Bradyn's subordinate was more of a personal opinion that the Maharan did not share. If she thought there would be any improvement to his attitude, well then....We'll just say that if she does ever become the guild leader, she can demote him and even remove him by his attitude will remain the same....if it does not get worse. The Maharan continues on with his jerkish behavior by not really justifying much of what Khitti has said with a response. Why? Well not because he holds any views that she is a subordinate, but because he views much of what she has to say as coming from a place of rage and emotion. He was content enough to knock her into one of those states by just being generally irritating, intentionally so. Offering up too much in the way of arguments back to Khitti would also break the trend of Bradyn not attempting to correcting any of her own assertions about him or his thoughts. The only detail that Bradyn actually hones in on is the 'our way of life' statement. "Our way of life?" Bradyn's lips curl up into a grim smirk, if only because he wanted to make a point of flashing those vampire fangs at the red head. In this case, it was not a threat, just a reminder. "I think my way of life is very different from your way of life." The smirk fades, as Bradyn sternly reminds Khitti, "No fire in the library."

Khitti || Pretty much at least half of what Khitti says on a daily basis came from rage or various other emotions. If only Bradyn -were- a psychologist, he might help her tame these emotions. No, no he wouldn’t. If Bradyn were a psychologist, he’d be the type to run an asylum where they experiment on people. Khitti does not need more people experimenting on her. “Clearly I don’t mean vampirism, Bradyn.” Perhaps Khitti was not seen as a subordinate to Bradyn, but there was only so much manipulation she could snark and rage at. She sighed, and pinched the bridge of her nose in vague irritation. “If I can manage this, would it suffice as a replacement for the reanimation portion of my test? And I don’t mean just the hand… I mean something bigger. I’m tired of sitting at the same level as my student. It was different, when you and I were teaching each other. It felt like we were on common ground, even if we were more adept at different subjects. I will never be able to reanimate the dead in the normal way. That ability was not returned to me. Using all of the abilities I had before Facilier “took” them from me, likely would kill me at this point, considering where my magic comes from. And I am -not- a paladin, so my holy magic is limited in the ways that it might resist the corruption that nearly killed me once before. I am trying to work with what the gods have given me and it’s increasingly frustrating every time I come up against a new barrier that might’ve been easily passed through by other sorts of necromancy that I no longer have access to.”

Bradyn considers what Khitti is asking in all seriousness. The Maharan is not so much reciting the rules to Khitti because he believes she needs the reminder, he is well aware there was a time that she contributed to the existence of some of these rules. They might be her words. The Maharan is more brainstorming out loud. "Ah, I suppose one of the most important details about making it to the rank of Thanadule is showing advanced skills in at least one area of necromancy." Bradyn issues a shrug. "Yet it is also the rank where one earns their skeletal familiar..." Which Bradyn was trying to set up having Quintessa and Khitti summon their own as part of their advancement test. After a considerable chunk of silence the Maharan shrug, as best as he could interpret the qualifications were murky. It became more clear when one wanted to obtain the rank of Provectus Malus. As Khitti has seen Bradyn do numerous times, the Maharan male is consumed by shadows. HIs body disappears from sight and she is left with, "Keep practicing, and don't give me reason to ban you from my library." This is about as close to a yes that Khitti is going to get from Bradyn, it also serves as a "pleasant" goodbye in this instance too.

Khitti || A familiar. Right. Khitti -did- have one of those at one point. But… having the undead follow her around did not always suit her. And it suited her even less now. Not because she was human, but because the people on the Tranquility were a ridiculously superstitious lot. Bradyn disappeared and Khitti was left to ponder on his words. “Hrm,” she said in response, though its recipient would not hear it. Perhaps, she would have to make her own familiar. Perhaps, it was something she could work on as she dealt with the rest of her Black Tides issues. But, for now, it was time to get back to practicing that hand. Khitti would achieve object permanence or die in that library trying--and she wasn’t ready to do the latter just yet, lest Bradyn get a hold of her body.