[Flashback] Say My Name [Solo - Closed]

[Polla]

Timestamp: Day 87, Winter 511AV into Day 89
Time: Starts at Midday, Ends at Morning Day 89
Location: Nelavanya's home, Kalinor

Nelavanya regarded herself in her large, ornate hand mirror and frowned. No one as beautiful as her should be frowning as they viewed themselves, but Nela couldn't help it. The black tongue in her mouth was getting harder to ignore and the concealer she used to keep the dark circles hidden under her eyes was running low. The Nuit in hiding lowered her mirror and paced her room. she wasn't fond of having to initiate the Ritual so soon. Seradell, Nela's target, wasn't ready yet. Nela had met her three years ago at market after carefully selecting her as her next victim. They had grown to be easy friends, and from what Sera told her she was soon to be engaged. It was a loose end she would have to take care of once she was in Sera's body.

Nela would have to kill her friend, and kill her soon. It was a shame. Nelavanya's body was lovely and well preserved and because of that, had lasted longer than expected. Polla couldn't afford to become sentimental now. It was just a body, she told herself. A husk. A piece of clothing. And Sera was close to what Nela called the "peak." So close to being perfection in a Symenestra woman...

Nela brushed her long black hair. Strands fell out in clumps, causing Nela to sigh heavily. She would have to do it today. She cast aside the bone comb with her frustration and set to collect her things before calling Sera over for the ritual. Runes were pulled from their hiding place and candles were set up on the floor in a long rectangle. All the while she cleaned and set up for her ritual, Nela comforted herself by remembering her excitement when she had found Seradell. She was quite a vision, her long limbs graceful and her hair had a shine that she couldn't describe. Her eyes were dark, her nails like shards of onyx. Breathtaking, not at all like Nela's current state. Hair was faded to a dull black, almost charcoal. Ashen skin grew grey around her eyes, her lips cracked. Her cheeks were sunken in, not to mention the black tongue. It steeled Nela's resolve: Sera was going to die today.

With an makeshift altar in place Nela left her house. Hair was styled in a long drape over the darker of her eyes - she simply did not have enough concealer to make both eyes convincing. Nela sighed. This wasn't ideal, this was rushed.

At least Sera had a pleasant sounding voice, and was easy enough to invite over under the guise of sharing a meal. Nela talked with her nails in her mouth to hide the black organ.

A bell later, Seradell was naked. After being thoroughly examined for any unseen imperfections Nela deemed the dead Sera suitable for transfer. Nelavanya stripped herself and applied her runes on Sera's skin before climbing on top of Sera like a lover would. A graceful, delicate smile poured itself on Nela's mouth as she tipped Sera's chin down to open her mouth. A kiss, that's all it was. A kiss before the ichtor poured from Nela's lip to Seradell.

Within several bells of their long kiss, Nela's body fell heavy on Sera's as Sera gave a shuddering cough. the las of the ichtor had dripped into Sera's husk and now she was awake, Polla seeing through Sera's dark eyes. Quickly she pushed Nelavanya off her, looking thoroughly disgusted at the once beautiful Sym woman now decayed on the floor. She bundled Nela's body in a bedsheet slowly, trying to give as much respect as Sera had in her to give for the time spent in the older Sym. Her movements were shaky at best, and Sera stumbled often as she worked. A process that would take someone fully adapted to the body perhaps a quarter of a bell took Sera another full two bells to complete. Trying to find her way in Seradell was easier than most new bodies, probably due to the freshness of the kill. Sera would dispose of Nela the same way all the Syms disposed of their dead - like Nela was a surrogate, down the hole never to be seen again. Before that, though, Sera lifted her large ornate hand mirror, regarding her appearance with a keen eye.

"Seradell Orchid," she said, testing her new name on her new tongue. "It's been a slice, doll."
Yes, Sera had a pleasing voice indeed. The elongated body of Seradell Orchid stood as graceful as a marionette, her movements jerky and stiff. As the dark haired "Symposter", as she loved to affectionately call herself, made her way to Nelavanya's dead husk wrapped in its sheet she even fell to a crumple, completely losing control of the body. For another bell or two Sera lay in a heap beside her old body, trying to find her way back to move the limbs. She breathed easily enough and the shuddering, stunted breathing told her she was exhausting herself too quickly. She was moving much too fast to ensure her plans went well. When her breathing regulated she tried again to move.

Another bell passed before Sera was able to stand.

Seradell hoisted the bundle upwards to drag to the front of her house to drop down into the cavern below. Another long process. It was easily the middle of the following day by the time Sera managed to push the body off of the entrance of her house.


It was a life Polla had led well. Befriend your new body, gain their trust, let them think that you were falling ill with the dark bags under your eyes and blackening tongue. Lure them, murder them, take their body under the privacy of her own home. Several hours later after the ritual was complete, completely assume their life. Polla had been married several times in the course of her seventy years in Kalinor, favoring the life of the Sym well. Syms were beyond the most beautiful creatures Polla had ever seen, and the only bodies she thought were worthy enough in their beauty to be allowed the privilege to harness her voice. The problem was, Kalinor was small. She wasn't too fond of the close-knit community, preferring some distance, to hide in plain sight, but her life was a good one. Certainly better than how she imagined other Nuits to be faring.

Because of Sera's new position - a mourning friend, if not a suspect in murder - Sera could not afford to hide. This always caused problems for Polla in her first few weeks in a new body. She could never have the luxury of having a perfect ease of transfer, no. She couldn't naturally assume the body's limbs and move them as easily as she had the previous body. Thankfully, Polla had learned to adapt this shaky walking, this stumbling, to a frazzled mind. For a week or two in public, seeming a little scatter brained was normal, was it not, for a mourning friend?

Having made her way back to the large ornate hand mirror now that she had disposed of Nela, Sera gave the barest hint of a smile to herself, examining how Sera smiled now. It wasn't common for the Syms to smile, which was tragic, for they had such terrifyingly beautiful smiles. Sera's was no different, a crooked tug of her lip in sinister knowing. It was a smile that could haunt even Polla's dreams, if she could sleep. Sera returned her expression to a neutral stare. Much better, Sera complimented herself.

She adjusted her silks about her torso and hips, ensuring she was the vision of perfection with that perfect amount of disarray to suggest her frazzled mind. Midday Day 89 and packed with the rest of her embalming fluid and her money, comb and a few dresses, she stepped from her house, she gave a brave breath of air to steel her courage. With shaky legs on the ropes that connected their city together it wouldn't take much to send Sera to her death, Polla along with her.

Easing herself onto the tight rope, Sera had to encourage herself: she had walked these ropes countless times as Polla, and the body when it had Sera in it of its own right, had walked these ropes with confidence. Now they were together as one, and it shouldn't be any different. Sera couldn't display her mild fear as she crossed the ropes across town to the Woven Gate. She would leave for a spell, to "clear her head" of the loss of her best friend, and also wait for suspicions around Nela's death to die down. After all, she did need her embalming fluid, and that was something she definitely couldn't buy in Kalinor.

Nela had a great little set up with the Purging. Her skills allowed her to entertain the surrogates and their workers with Sym lullabies and dressing the pregnant women in pretty make ups, hoping to ease them into a gentle birth. It didn't help them much at all, but it paid Nela's bills and gave her a use to use her beautiful voice. A beautiful voice that was now Sera's. When she returned, she would resume that position.

Having made it to the Woven Gate, Sera allowed herself a private sigh of relief. Her hands were almost twitching in her fear as she had crossed town, and now she had to leave town again. She would return in a season or two, with enough time to find her new best friend. She had never been to Sunberth. Perhaps she would go there and sing again for a real audience.

[Poison]

THREAD AWARD!

Skills: Subterfuge 1, Acrobatics 1

Lores: When to replace a Body, How to get rid of a Body, How to avoid Suspicion when getting rid of a Body

Notes: The point in Subterfuge is for inviting Sera over under the guise of sharing a meal.

If you had described the scene in detail rather than summing it up in two lines, you might have received more points.

The point in Acrobatics is for walking the rope.

By the way, dead surrogates are not thrown down a hole. There is no hole. They are just thrown off the web so that the monsters below Kalinor eat them.