Corrupted (Solo)

The final thread in the Mikey series.

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Center of scholarly knowledge and shipwrighting, Zeltiva is a port city unlike any other in Mizahar. [Lore]

Corrupted (Solo)

Postby Minerva Agatha Zipporah on August 18th, 2012, 6:50 pm

As darkness began to fall, Tock grew tired, and needed to rest. The sun was low in the sky, not yet set, but long shadows stretched across the mountainside, casting their pall over her and the shambling corpse she traveled with. "Ya tired sweetie?" she asked it, running her fingers through its hair. Silence answered her. Tears falling from her eyes, she asked it, "Mikey, please say somethin'? Please?"

A dreadful feeling she didn't want to accept was building in her gut. She cupped the corpse's face with both hands, tilting it up to look at her. "Mikey..." she whispered in a choked sob. "Please, Mikey. I need ya... I need ya, okay? So jus' please, say somethin'? Show me yer 'ere..."

Blank stares. Cold skin. Silence.

She pulled Dira out of her pack, holding the puppet out to the corpse. "'Ere Mikey," she said, raising the puppet's arm to make it wave. "'Member yer favorite? 'Member the puppets? Go on," she placed the puppet in the corpse's hands. It started dancing the puppet around crudely, like a child with a rag doll, going through the cold mimickery of the motions she'd programmed it with when teaching it to 'play.' But there was no joy in its eyes. No curiosity or wonder. Just a puppet playing with a puppet, mimicked motion moving wooden limbs in a mockery of life.

Tock's hands rose to cover her mouth, and she swallowed a thick sob. Her hands shook as she watched the corpse fling the puppet around with no more understanding of how to move the puppet than it had of how to move its own decomposing limbs...
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Corrupted (Solo)

Postby Minerva Agatha Zipporah on August 18th, 2012, 8:27 pm

She tried to feed it dinner, but it wouldn't swallow, couldn't actually eat. It just mimicked the motions. With tears in her eyes, Tock tried sticking the food in the corpse's mouth herself, and rubbing the throat, as she had in the infirmary, trying to prompt the reflex to swallow. But dead muscles had no reflexes.

She tried holding it close to her, whispering tender words in its ear between painful sobs. The corpse wrapped its arms around her, the same sort of programmed reflex Handy had when he stroked her hair. But it was done without meaning. Without emotion. There was no response when she tenderly rubbed her fingers across its face, trying to push the dead lips into the weak smile she had come to love.

"Mikey..." she cried out in agony, "pleaaaaase!" She shook the corpse by its shoulders, eyes red with unstoppable tears, desperate to find some trace of the little boy she loved. But he wasn't in there.

Her precious boy wasn't there.

She screamed, her pain and loss echoing through the empty woods. She clung to the corpse, prodding it with desperate fingers, begging it for a response. The little hands could wave, could work the buttons of its shirt, could weakly throw something she placed into them. But they couldn't reach for her, the way Mikey had so eagerly each time she came to visit. They couldn't cling to her sleeve, the way he had when begging her to stay a little longer, when making her promise to return the next day. The dead lips couldn't smile. Couldn't whisper words of thanks, or love.

The heart that beat was cold. Artificial. Lacking any true life. The dead ears heard her words without the body being moved by the deperation in her voice. The lifeless eyes stared blankly, looking upon her without truly seeing her.

And her haunted eyes looked at the corpse through her tears, and she didn't see him. She just saw a thing, brought about by murder and dark magic...
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Corrupted (Solo)

Postby Minerva Agatha Zipporah on August 18th, 2012, 8:41 pm

She stared at it for a time, hugging her knees to her chest, watching it as the sun began to set. Her tears dried, the pain in her heart settling into a cold understanding. He was gone. She had failed, and this horrible mimic before her was no substitute for the little boy who had loved her, and who had stolen her heart only to leave her before she could realize what it all meant.

And she slowly realized the magic wouldn't fade. The body wouldn't rest, wouldn't drift to sleep. It would just continue, an Animated abomination that wouldn't end until the body decayed so far that it had nothing left. A dark reminder of her crimes, the murders she had committed for no reason. Lives taken to make way for a failed experiment.

It watched her, eyes following her movement without ever focusing on her. She waved her hand before its face, and it didn't blink. It just mimicked the motion with its own hand, a programmed response without meaning.

She closed her eyes, laying her head against her knees, and taking a deep, slow, shuddering breath. She knew what she had to do. She just didn't know if her heart would survive it.
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Corrupted (Solo)

Postby Minerva Agatha Zipporah on August 18th, 2012, 8:54 pm

"Mikey," she said, rising slowly to her feet. It looked up at her, its dark mother, its killer and creator. There was no recognition in its eyes. Yet she knew, on some level, it knew she was its mother.

"Lay down," she whispered. It lay on the ground, understanding enough of her words to follow the simple behavior. It had memories of Mommy tucking it in, kissing it goodnight. Protecting. Caring. The way a mother should be.

Tock pulled out her hatchet.

It stared at her, incapable of fear. It didn't understand what was about to happen. Tock grit her teeth. "Close yer eyes, sweetie," she whispered, and it obeyed. "Time ta sleep now. Mommy's..." she raised the hatchet in a shaking hand, "Mommy's gonna make it all better. She's gonna make it all go away..."

The night was dark on the quiet mountainside. The corpse lay silent and still. Tock knelt beside it. She touched the lifeless face, then leaned down to kiss its forehead one last time.

She raised the hatchet.

"Mommy loves you..."

She took a breath, steadying herself for what she had to do.

"Don't be afraid..."
Minerva Agatha Zipporah
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Corrupted (Solo)

Postby Arcane on September 7th, 2012, 3:38 am

Rewards and Treasure!


Image


Experience Points
+1 Disguise
+1 Stealth
+2 Observation
+4 Interrogation
+3 Intimidation
+3 Weapon: Dagger
+3 Brawling
+2 Persuasion
+2 Butchering
+3 Glyphing
+5 Animation
+1 Running
+2 Wilderness Survival


Lores
Holding Hostages
Committing Murder in Cold Blood
Disposing of Bodies
Glyph: Rune of Merging
Animation: Transferring a SoulThis is to signify the entire process where Tock tries to transfer everything she knew of Mikey
Animation: Limitations of Soul Transfers
Animation: Human Muscle Memory
Forbidden Animation: Reanimating a Corpse
Mikey is Truly Gone
Wilderness Survival: Making a Bonfire


Miscellaneous
Receipt Approved.Cotton Cloak 3 sm
Cap, cotton 8 cm
Cosmetics, common 10 oz/ 1 sm

Ledger: +20gm
+Inventory: Random trinkets and accessories worth 30gm
Consequences: As we have discussed.


Comments
This is a wonderful thread. The desperation is evident in your writing, and it makes me sadder how Tock is being this way. Whatever happened to our resident cheerful builder :( Nothing much for me to say here, since we've talked on AIM. Keep being awesome and rock on!

Note: You qualify for +5 Animation despite your current skill level due to the difficulties and novelty of the animation job, and of course, the quality of the writing.

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