RP:Ichorous Decomposate Purloined!

Part of the The End's Not Near Arc

Summary: To fund their scheme, Reginae and Hureig steal the formerly melted remains of the naga assassin from Muzo's lab.

Muzo's Lab, Abandoned Corridors

Reginae wasn’t sure where Muzo was and that made her nervous. Not in the way one might be nervous with concern about someone’s well being, she trusted Muzo to be fine almost always. A little jumpy but he was a smart cookie that didn’t need Regi to defend him. She was nervous not knowing where he was because it didn’t give her a time frame. A skilled thief might track their mark for weeks, learn their schedule and plot an precise moment to act. The self-proclaimed Queen and now thief in training squirmed with these nerves while she waited for Hureig. It’s obvious that they shouldn’t both slither through Muzo’s lab. Reginae could have a reason, fumble through an excuse on command. But Hureig? Who knows what he might say when faced with a curious Muzo returning to find not only Reginae, trusted ally, but a Frost Giant sneaking around his lab, poking things. That’s why Hureig would be the body guard and Regi would commit the so called crime. She tries to swallows her nerves but each time, they grapple back up out of her stomach and into the back of her mouth like acid, guilty guilty acid. She’s wearing dark robes, contrasted by snowy tresses and an alert icy gaze that drinks in the darkness.

Hureig had spent what time the two conspirators had had apart preparing for this daring, dastardly mission. What were his preparations? What was his master plan? How was he playing this thievish game? He was in the kitchen. He was eating. He was rambling on and on with the lowest of the lowest, stopping in his horfing down of food to help cleaning pots and pans to spick and spans. But during all of this eating, this labor, and this bonding, he was garnering trust, gaining friends, and, most importantly, he was asking questions. 'This Muzo fellow. What does he eat?' 'That Muzo lad. When do you bring him food?' 'Hey, you. Yeah, you, ya bastard! You said Muzo liked to take his supper where? At what time?' It was a fishing expedition above all else, and the Frost Giant was fishing or a Naga as much as he was information. Needless to say the servants had caught wise to his gambit, and only after answering the bare minimum, giving him just enough information to suss out Muzo's whereabouts, and were ushering him out with playful banter! Not to mention he had gone through most of the prepared sweets; those where his favorites. So it was without much care, without any worry, and with much hands filled with pastries and his lips covered in sugary goodness that he plodded up to Muzo's room. He caught sight of the darkly dressed Reginae, and he would've laughed if the sight of her had not taken his breath away. She looked stunningly beautiful; she also looked very, very guilty. "If we are to dress for the task at hand, you have most certainly dressed guilty." He couldn't help but smile his sugar coated smile as he stepped before her, as a plopped a cupcake in his mouth so he could open the door to the lab. "We are safe for an hour. Perhaps an hour and a half if we are lucky."

Reginae isn't sure how Hureig snuck up on her, but when he makes this announcement about her guilt, she spins her wide eyed gaze in his direction and holds him there. Her empty hands flutter over her chest, resting lightly where her heart threatens it's escape and a sigh is formed, of relief and composure. "This is what I always wear," She replied, in a flat tone. Then she looks down to confirm; black robes, nagas, crest...yep that's all in order and very much normal for her. Only when she turns her attention back to Huregi does she notice the guilty trails left by whatever sweets he'd been eating. She now gestures a thin finger at her own face and speaks this contradictory statement. "You have something on your face," while pointing to her own in the mirrored places he should address. When Hureig starts into Muzo's lab without an introduction, she swivels in a panic to get ahead of him, and in doing so finds herself in the lab as well. Both equally unannounced. Her brain catches up with his explanation, replaying this bit about knowing how much time they had. She lofts one snowy white brow in the Frost Giant's direction; a silent inquiry as to how he came by that information.

Hureig was a little taken aback when the Naga slid in the door before him, though it was more physical than it was emotional; he was quite literally pushed back. That did give him enough time to finish the pastry, and what a glorious pastry it was: flaky, chewy, and oh so sugary. "Oh!" He exclaimed when she gave him her silent inquiry; he lofted one of the cream puffs high in the air, the trajectory bringing a perfect landing where Reginae's hands should be. "I have come to find the best way to put on weight quickly is sweets. Seeing as I have the trunk of a Frost Giant whose been in a coma for months, I think a little weight is necessary." he was quick to realize what he was asserting with giving her a treat. "Ah. Not to say that you are too thin or too large, Queen Reginae. It is just common courtesy to bring a gift to a regent." The merchant was used to scales, coin, bushels, sacks, and boxes. He was not accustomed to the sights, sounds, and smells of a lab! So many vials! So many burners! So many...things that Muzo would have in his lab! He was in awe and enamored by all of the things that had names he did not know and uses he couldn't even fathom. "I have always found it best to gather some information before snooping." It was idle chitchat, something to do with his thoughts after he had stuffed his sweets into his pockets and was now hovering his hand over experiments and tools alike. "Everyone eats, so the first stop is always the kitchen. I learned enough about Muzo's routine from the servants...and a few friends along the way!” How many Naga were endeared by the Frost Giant’s charms is open for serious debate. “How about you tell me what some of these do?”

Reginae catches the cream puff and flips it over to examine the bottom. Was it really cream or just custard? Only time would tell. Of all the times she'd met with Hureig, being few and far between until his recent venture into Alithrya...he'd become more and more animated. She anticipated a serious partner in crime to coldly and methodically deliver results best suited for the situation but each time, he sprinkles this attitude of 'fun' on their outings like powdered sugar. Like asking her what some of these vials and tools are for. Her eyes guilty shot for a giant bell jar, covered in a thick cloth. Ah good, so she wouldn't have to try and explain that. Her mouth opens wide, hovering on a thought before she sinks her fangs into the cream puff instead. Oh holy day, it's actually cream. One digit is extended, the universal sign of 'just one moment while I chew this bite' and when she swallows her prey, she grins foolishly with satisfaction. "Of course not," she dismissed his concerns about the implications of giving her sweets. She was always the perfect size; her own. "This is a loupe," she explains, holding up a monocular with varying degrees of magnifications slotted next to larger, front section of glass. Reginae uses one hand to hold the instrument in place and slowly flick down the side bits of glass. She reluctantly hands it over to Hureig to examine, feeling like she doesn't have the right to touch ANY of this stuff. There are several sealed vials in a glass case, held up by a rack. Some of them are familiar to her, potions that Muzo used to travel. Others were dark or cloudy and indistinguishable. Leave it to Muzo to keep an excellent log of what's what though, each vial is labeled and scribbled on in hurried penmanship. She mumbles the names until she comes across one marked " ichorous decomposate". It can only be this vial. "Hureig," she whispers, gesturing to the case. "We need to find the key to this case."

Hureig waited patiently while Reginae chewed down her sweet, and try as he did not to watch her eat it, more often than not were his eyes upon her. Only part of the time was it a leer; he regretted sharing his cream puff once he had whole-mouthly swallowed his last one. The other portion was just to admire the naga in her brilliance. Every day things, eating, drinking, sewing, hold up a finger to beg for a moment, held greater meaning for the Frost Giant than all of the balls, pomp and circumstance, and high falutin' manners in either the mountains or the Nagaland. He positively beamed when she brought out the loupe and handed it to him. "Ah!" He exclaimed when the tool was handed to him, and Hureig spent many moments flipping the glass, spinning around, and examining every thing around him, little or small. He had the poor judgement to turn the loupe on Reginae, the magnifying contraption held squarely on what portion of her cleavage was showing. He had caught not a salacious glance-now-stare. What he saw were scales, tiny, radiant scales, too small for the naked eye to see. Hundreds of them in their brilliant luminescence, catching the light and yet somehow dulling it to look like the hue of her skin. He looked long and hard, hard and long, and only when she said his name did he pull the loupe from his eye. "Yes?" He blinked life back into the eye furiously, looking from the case to the monarch and back to the case. "I have a better idea." It was not a better idea. Not by a long shot. Hureig looked over the many vials that were in front of him, and he was...singing? The song ended when his finger bounced on one of the cloudy vials, and with little warning, he picked it from its rack and tipped it over the lock. Just a little of the murky liquid fell into the lock, as much as the laymen Hureig deemed appropriate, and he placed the vial back in its place.

Reginae was watching the vials when Hureig's antics ensued, otherwise her modesty would have caused her to follow his line of eyesight and shield herself from his impromptu glare. Luckily, he was saved by the fact they were on a MISSION. Also that she was still eating a cream puff. Food is heavenly and distracting. When Hureig grabs the questionable vial and pours it's contents on the lock, the metal begins to hiss. Singing out it's own call and reply to whatever song Hureig had sung moments before. As the metal fizzled and crackled off the lock, the remains dropped heavily onto the table the case was sitting on...and then through the table, still hissing that high pitched note of discord as it began to drill through the floor. Aramoth be damned, the liquid pooled itself into a neat little hole all the way through the floor into blackness. If it was still hissing through the center of the earth, they'd never know. Azurite eyes follow the path of the acidic compound with growing panic. There's no way to hide the damages. They'll be found out as SOON as Muzo gets back and Regi, in her guilt, will spill every last bean to the male. "Gods above..." The naga queen sighed as the hole turned to a pea sized bottomless pit. Her hand, no free of cream puff, smacked against her forehead while she growled with concern. "Uuuuugggghhh." She tilted her head back, casting spider silk off her shoulders and looking overhead for some sign of what to do now. Muzo would know it was her. She was the only one who could have done this. Accepting her fate, dooming her and Muzo to some conversation about telling the truth and what she presumed to be honesty between....significant others? The proper term for their relationship was unclear. Partners might have been effective though they had little interaction beyond co parenting certain secrets which will remain nameless. Shell shocked and bewildered, Reginae simply opened the case with a permanent frown and pulled out the vial cleverly marked with the chaotic energy. It radiated, pulsing still like a heartbeat of magic. Could Hureig feel it too? The odd urge to drink the contents washed against Reginae's impulsive mind but her reasonable notions dismissed this thought. No reason to go poisoning herself ahead of schedule, she thought, handing the stopped vial to Hureig with a note of disappointment. "I'll have him add the poison to the necklace." Him being Muzo, the necklace being the murder weapon / symbol of her rank in Alithrya. The rank of Queen. "All your assassin has to do is present the necklace to me on a pillow, both of which I'll supply if you can find someone willing or capable of doing this simple thing." She hated how her eyes burned, the back of her wrist rubbed into them with her now empty hands. "The fumes are getting to me..." She complained with watery eyes, backing away from the unlocked case and closer to the door.

Hureig was unaware of the fumes and of the significance of what he had just done. It all seemed rather par for the course, and a successful mission to boot: find vial, take vial, and leave. Let the Gods and Goddesses worry about the little details like keys, subterfuge, and guilt...Deities and the Queen, it would seem. Much like his kind, he was nigh immune to the magic that rolled off of the vial, and the fumes were acrid yet not too unpleasant. He even took a deep whiff of what the vial threw off and was little worse for the ware. But something was happening to the Frost Giant as the gaseous magic saturated his body through his veins, as it filled his consciousness with strange, strange thoughts. All his morals, his foundation, his internal and eternal compass to fairness and justice seemed to twitch. They fluxed, as though the once solid world within had been influenced by something far more primal, far less ordered, and supremely chaotic. He felt it when he turned to Reginae. He saw it when he looked upon her. His whole body moved…away from her. He turned his back to her so his belch would not be aimed squarely at the Queen, nor would it puncture her eardrums; try as he might to dampen it with his hand, it was still a prodigious belt. “Aramoth above,” He exclaimed, both exasperated and fatigued. “That vial’s stench should not be mixed with sweets.” The fumes, in all their mighty immenseness to bend the wills of weaker creatures, gave the noble Hureig gas. “Assassin. Pillow. Necklace. Your will is my command, my Queen.”

Reginae struggled with her own demons. They all had names and faces, blurring the room with ghostly voices that did not exist. Chaos, pure and sweet throbbed in the vial. Even now, she could feel it and there was a element of desire to possess it. Destruction and madness was oh so beautiful in the right frame. She shook her head again and cleared her throat, watching what she thought was Hureig about to be sick. "If this doesn't fetch a worthwhile assassin, I don't know what will." The magic contained within the vial was ripe enough to do significant damage. The power was temporary. To drink it would flood the user with mild madness and seemingly unlimited power. There would be a notable 'down' to counter that 'up', Reginae wagered. So lost in thought is the naga that she nearly misses the Frost Giant's reply. My Queen? Was he confusing her for Hildegarde again or did he mean to call her so on purpose? His words made her reject the chaotic urges. Dismiss them as below her. Reginae did not need magically conviction! She could accomplish anything with faith and friends. A naga tail as old as time itself. Was her cunning not sharp? Was her form not athletic? Were her hands not weapons of their own accord? Who, then, could deny her? She laughed. A high, carrying sound. Let Muzo find her here. Let him tell her it's dangerous! Who was he to lecture her on the right and wrong paths of science?! Azurite eyes narrow on the covered bell jar, imagining it's contents swimming in thick blood. She felt dangerously cocky. "Hureig! I think I've been hearing whispers around the castle about what a charmer you are....female and male naga alike..." She goes on to lead him from the hall, her grin refusing to be extinguished. The lock and whatever melted it continued down, down, down into what ruins could hold it. The case remained unlocked, unhinged and missing a 'vital' component. Reginae's guilt slide itself into the recesses of her mind to be excavated at a more opportune time. This was the price of war...there would be time to apologize later. Muzo would understand, wouldn't he?

Hureig watched all of Reginae's thoughts cross her beautiful face. Worry and fear, corruption and contempt, and then the bright light of redemption, strength, confidence, and foolhardiness. It was all in her eyes, and even though the specifics were out of reach, the Frost Giant still marveled at the drama that unfolded. When she returned to her true right of a Monarch, Hureig nearly whooped with the joy and admiration of those who adored her. Reginae's positivity, her strength, her glory, was enough to keep the vial's magics from seeping any further into his body than indigestion. He wore the biggest and brightest smiles when he was led out of the hall, and he kept it bright and brimming until the Naga mentioned his proclivities. Could a Frost Giant blush? Most assuredly, but the depth of the redness to his cheeks and brow would have him become a new species of giant all together; he was a Beet Giant. "Ah. Well. You see..." He bore his guilt as openly as she bore all of the marks of her race. "In a world as bleak as ours, kindness and sincerity can be quite charming...or it can be seen as something to exploit. But all I can be is sincere. If that endears me to a few female or male nagas? Well." He rolled his shoulders in a playful shrug. He has grown far too accustom to Reginae's presence. Too much, by all measures, for the next words that came out of his mouth were a doozy. "Truth be told, the only Naga's tail I want wrapped around my waist is yours." The vial in his pocket flared, the chaos within dropping both inhibition and good sense. "I mean," His moral compass, his propriety, his common sense, warred against the magic that thrummed through the vial, through his pocket, through his thigh, and into all parts of his body. "I enjoy your company immensely. You are a good friend and an even better person. But, Aramoth above, if you knew all the things I wanted to do to you, you would exile me from your kingdom for three eternities!"

Reginae’s guilt melts off her shoulders with Hureig’s modest antics. Sincerity –was- so difficult to find. Elusive, as well as kindness. In a world where people were tortured for being too trusting, there’s something satisfying about hearing his explanation. She’s laughing, high and bright until they run smack dab into this statement of his. At first, her brow quirks like he’s about to tell a joke with an odd punch line. A tail wrapping around a person wasn’t necessarily suggestive at it’s base. When he starts again… ‘I mean…’ she’s expecting a valid clarification of facts ie the punch line to whatever joke this is. The air feels thick with apprehension. ‘I enjoy your company immensely. You are a good friend and an even better person.’ Her lips flash a fanged smile, hovering over the ledge of thanking him and repeating his kind words in his direction. He too was a kind and generous person that she was happy to know! But he keeps talking and what follows makes her face blank out altogether. She’s tempted to stop mid-stride but she slithers forward in silence, blinking rapidly to process this…information. Did he know about Muzo? Surely this was the chaos magic talking, she deduced internally. Having just overcome it’s effects from holding it for a moment, she couldn’t imagine the magic at work on the Frost Giant who held the vial in his pocket. There was no way to ignore this. “That’s very kind of you.” She decides to say, with an uncertain tone in her voice. “Quite a compliment, really, especially to hear from a non-naga. I’m sure that Muzo will be flattered with your interest.” Seeing as how, well…she’d technically stolen this vial from her partner? Like, they held tails sometimes and he brought her kebabs and they kissed once? Also, what the heck kind of thing required exile for three eternities? No, no Reginae. Better not to ask and risk fanning this flame. Normalcy would settle in once they got rid of the vial…and by Aramoth, she hoped it was soon.

Hureig was quite as bit as confused as Reginae was for things that were closely related; what in the Gods and Goddesses did Muzo have to do with any of this? Why would he be flattered with his interests? He'd never met the scientist, his only relation to the naga was stealing something from his lab! Did he not make plain that it was Reginae he was interested in and not the male naga? It was then his mind realized what he had done; he had put in words his deepest, darkest fantasies. He was mortified! He was frazzled! How could he had let his manners and propriety fall so fast in her presence! His heart was racing, his blood was pumping, and with every passing moment the magic that he absorbed through his pocket flooded his body to nigh complete saturation. "Things sure have taken a turn..." Hureig said that just as they turned down another hallway; it was a comical joke to ease the tension he himself had created. 'Ah. Well. When in Alithrya..." The way he said it, the way he was resigned to it, the way it seemed to be an old saying...this was not good. "I must say that I am usually fiercely devoted to one partner and one partner alone, but I realize you and...Muzo, was it?...aren't my kind. I am well aware that customs are different in different lands. If Muzo must be brought into the bed with us, I am willing to do that for you." It was as though he was not thinking before he was speaking, as though his mind was unteathered and, more importantly, unhinged. He was speaking hard, honest truth to his friend, and he stopped dead in his tracks when it was over. His hand dove in his pocket in a flash, perhaps not a good sign with the conversation at hand, but it came back just as quickly with the vial in his grasp. "Perhaps we should put this in a...box." An iron, steel, platinum, mithril lined, magically sealed box.

Reginae paused the moment Hureig halted, her face slowly filling up with blush beneath her humanoid skin. Uuuuuuuuhhhhh. This conversation is now officially out of her wheel house. "I'll ask Yozenra to find one post haste." She mumbles, deciding it best to ignore these outbursts to save them both the embarrassment. There was no bed. There was no box. And there would be no repetitions of this conversation. "Best we diverge, I think." She offered him a small smile, trying to be understanding and stop herself from being stiff. People had secrets, and Hureig told her one or two of them in a fashion now. Why are all these secrets so...complicated?