ᴄʟᴏsᴇᴅ ▸ if i wanna stay alive.

[lackluster]

WHO: Tartaglia & others.
WHERE: Around Stygia.
WHEN: November.
WHAT: Catchall for the month, mostly scenarios unrelated to the event. Plus some exploration and twerking.
WARNINGS: None as of now!

( ooc. just a closed log with the starters i owe for peeps! if you'd like a custom scenario with tartaglia, feel free to send me a pm or reply to my plotting comment so we can work something out.

Comments

[lackluster]

[ Oh? That's a brutal way to go. Even worse when Tartaglia digs his blade even deeper, making sure there's no way for the badaliscus to recover from this. Its dying struggles gradually weaken until it comes to a complete stop.

Once he's sure it's dead, that's the only time he pulls out his blade. ]

What did I tell you? I knew your shield will do some decent damage.

[prozaic]

Let's not get into this conversation now, please. [he chose to specialize in the shield for a specific reason. there are few opportunities to use it as a traditional killing weapon... and he can rely more on his arts. if he started using it to bludgeon, to kill, like his peers, it would be defeating the point of why he left the blade in the first place.]

I'll need to harvest this badaliscus... May I have my dagger back?

[lackluster]

Sure. Here you go.

[ It does strike him as odd that Shalem doesn't want to talk about this, but it's fine. They came out here for a reason and now they're just about to achieve that goal.

He hands back the dagger he borrowed before looking around the area. ]

I'll keep an eye out if any of its friends decide to come looking.

[prozaic]

Oh, I'm sure more will be coming. They're likely to smell a fresh kill and see if they can have a meal. [beasts will be beasts, after all. who cares where a meal is coming from, when it's a meal?]

I'll try to be quick, so we don't need to be here when they come.

[and already, he's kneeling in the sludge beside the badaliscus, propping his shield beside him to have something to prop himself up. it wouldn't be pleasant to struggle with skinning the thing and then just fall over face-first into its guts. especially when he's already struggling to cleanly separate the hide from the meat and muscle, and deal with the stink at the same time.

he knows how to skin a body, with the movements he makes with his dagger. but the badaliscus is very different from a person.]

[lackluster]

[ Rather than frighten him, that statement seems to make Tartaglia even more excited. Of course he's going to enjoy the prospect of fighting more of these things. Just killing one of them isn't enough. So far, however, he sees no friends coming for them. ]

Take your time. I don't see any of them coming for us just yet.

[ Which is disappointing, but it's fine. Might as well get out of this as soon as possible before they both die from the overall stink coming from the badaliscus. ]

[prozaic]

Well, you know the signs. Keep your nose out too. [then again, since childe is not terran, shalem has no idea what his senses are like.

his nose is in hell, though. he sneezes several times as he's gutting the badaliscus to spread it open and be able to skin it more easily to keep the back intact, and has to valiantly resist rubbing his nose. the stench is overwhelming.]

[lackluster]

[ The Harbinger just wrinkles his nose. ]

You got it.

[ He isn't looking forward to dealing with more of these lizards. One of them was bad enough with the smell as it is, so he can't imagine having more of them in one place. Both he and Shalem just might die from the stench alone.

But as time goes on, no more badaliscus show up, so they might be home free... as soon as Shalem harvests this dead one's skin. ]

[prozaic]

Nothing?

[shalem knows he would have heard something if an incident occurred, or even smelled it. but he's trying to make conversation, to distract his mind from the way his shadow is whispering to him, having become interested in the proceedings.

let him just skin this damn thing in peace... he's almost done, too. he just has to strip the skin off the back of the beast and cut the tendons.]

[lackluster]

[ When Tartaglia shakes his head again, he almost seems... disappointed. ]

Nothing. Kinda disappointing, if you ask me.

[ Of course he'd been looking forward to fighting more of the lizards. Just one of them isn't enough. He didn't even get to go all out, powerless as he is. (Well. Almost powerless.) ]

Are you almost done?

[prozaic]

[he's getting a good read on childe and his personality now-- not that it was difficult to before-- and he can safely say that the man is the sort that the troupe would have loved to have. if a bit difficult for them to control, and with an unknown acting ability at the moment.

probably none. other actors are usually easy to peg once he's had enough time with them, and they usually hide things better.]

It is done. [he sighs deeply as he gives the skin one last yank, and strips it completely from the beast's flesh. okay, that smells even worse, and shalem tugs out some black cloth from his pocket to wrap around the skin.]

We should go-- but I may stay here in the Shadowlands a little longer, and dry the skin here.

[lackluster]

[ It's true. Tartaglia isn't someone who would know how to pretend he's someone else even if his life depended on it (probably). He leaves that sort of playacting to the other Harbingers while he remains straightforward and easy enough to deal with. ]

Hm? If you're going to stay out here, then I'll stick by you. I need to check up on my home anyway.

[ And make sure no one managed to break in, that is. ]

Besides, maybe we'll encounter more of these along the way.

[ Congratulations, Shalem. For the time being, you have one bloodthirsty attack dog to keep you company for who knows how long. At least that means any monsters they encounter along the way will be easy enough to deal with... ]