[Zinrah] Collapsed part I

by **Soshakuakamamushi** on September 1st, 2013, 8:13 am

Collapsed Tunnel, 15th of Bell, 17th of Fall 513 A.V

"Ugh... why do I have to do thisss..." The Viper grumbled as she found herself facing a large corridor leading to a dead-end in the form of fallen rocks and debris. Senka, the Constrictor in Dhani form, upon hearing Aka's complain immediately smacked her head with a force a tad bit too much for her small frame. "O-OW! Why did you that for?!" Wincing in pain, the Viper in human form raised her right hand to rub her poor skull.

"Don't be so lazy, sssmall fry! We gotta get thisss fixed!" The Constrictor female bellowed with her usual brutish voice, she was hauling a basket full of rocks, passing it to the others. Reimancers and some guards were stationed to clear up the collapse in one of Zinrah's major tunnels. Aka was one of those reimancers, she had to do this boring repetitive job of fixing and reconstructing. Still, she motivated herself by convincing that it was for the good of the whole nest as this particular collapse caused a fatality, who knows what could happen if they didn't fix it? More collapses was a distinct possibility.

"Ugh... fine fine..." Complaining some more, Aka took a particular spot beside the other reimancers, she could see Sister Aspia was among them, acting as the leader of the 'construction' team. Why does everytime she worked as a tunnel-builder, Senka was the one who accompanied her? Fate must be messing with her. Shaking her head to focus, she held out her hands and flowed her Djed, exhuming them as gaseous reddish res from both of her palms. The res gathered into two ball of gas, then she willed it to attract the chuck of rocks and debris in front of her.

After a chime, two large rocks were floating near her, Aka immediately put them inside the large basket which her work partner, Senka, immediately picked up and passed it to the rest of the Constrictors. "Come on, Aka! We ssstill have lotsss of work to do!" Great, who was she, a slave driver? Sure, she may be Mamoru's slave, but not her slave.

Groaning, she held out her hands again and continued the work...

Thisss kind of job isss boring! I can't use my fire!

The Viper needed to realize earth reimancers were very valued in Zinrah... and it was her key to build up her reputation in the Nest.

by **Soshakuakamamushi** on November 9th, 2013, 1:43 am

Sister Aspia warned her to be extra careful in clearing the tunnels as bad earth-management could cause more collapse, creating more problems and victims instead of fixing it. Due to her experience in building the tunnels in Zinrah and witnessing first hand on how dangerous a structure collapse could be when she messed around with a fragile temple structure she got lost at in the Jungle Wilds.

"Aka! Don't laze around! Get to work!!"

Senka's bellowing voice brought her out of her self-induced trance. "Ha? Yeah yeah! Sssh! Be quiet!" With how loud Senka was shouting, it would not be a stretch for the whole tunnel to collapse right then and there, crushing them all with the falling debris. Nevertheless, the Constrictor wouldn't shut up unless she got back to work. Aka held out her hands again, this time facing a rather delicate-looking mess of rocks, a collection of smaller boulders were holding the others, one mistake and the whole pile could collapse. "Phew... alright, thisss isss hard." Aka scratched her head and twirled with one of her twin ponytails, this one was actually a challenge.

"Aka! Hurry up!"

"You're not helping! Ssshut up!"

Senka must be one of the worst work partners ever in terms of motivating people, she was a slave-driver and Aka hated being told on what to do. Even Mamoru got headaches handling her fiery attitude sometimes. Senka actually shut up this time, seeing the Viper looked really perplexed. The Constrictor wanted to help by just pounding her fists but even she could see it would result in a bloody mess of a humam-form Viper and Dhani-form Constrictor.

Aka crept closer to the architectural challenge, holding out just her right hand this time instead of both. She exhaled to steady herself and begin, emitting her usual gaseous res. This time, she commanded the res to cover the topmost rock instead of gathering them all at once. She covered the rock and slowly transformed it into air. She winced, half-expecting the structure to collapse. Thankfully, it didn't.

Heaving a sight of relief, she began again. Moving on to lower rocks, gradually transforming them into air each time. It all went well until a rumble in their particular 'workplace' was heard. "Ooops..." Aka immediately stopped, that was definitely not a good sign. She glanced back and actually found Senka laying on her back, apparently 'resting her eyes'. Now, who was the lazy butt again? Aka hissed in annoyance but decided to ignore the slacking Constrictor for now.

That rumble. She needed to be extra careful from now on, she was overconfident and went too fast. Emitting more res from her hands, Aka covered the remaining rocks, transforming them in an even slower pace than before. The process was painstakingly boring for her impsulive personality. The rocks dissolved into air one by one until...

*RUMBLE RUMBLE*!

She should have expected this, the ceiling was beginning to collapse under her. She did what she does best, flexing her legs to jump backwards as the rocks in front of her collapsed towards her. The pile of raging rocks barely missed her, Aka landed softly on the ground and heaved a sigh of relief.

"WATCH OUT!!"

"Eh?"

The bellowing voice of Senka immediately tensed her body again, she didn't get the chance to find out the reason why before she felt her robe's collar being grabbed from behind, then like a ragdoll, she was forcefully tossed backwards, her body flying through the air. "Ah... why?" She could only muttered the sentence before she crashed on the ground, rolling and tumbling due to the force. She grunted and screamed with pain on each tumble.

Aka skidded on the ground to a halt, bruises and blue spots forming on her pale skin. Aka was laying on a prone position, hissing in pain. She propped herself up with her left hand, her mind whirling to find on who the petch got the audacity to do such things to her. There was only one suspect she could think of, her 'work partner', Sikisenka. The Constrictor was looking at her, but her Dhani mug was showing relief instead of the usual smugness, Aka didn't care why.

"Ssssenkaaaaa!!" Aka forced herself to stand up and despite all the pain, ran forward to charge at the Constrictor. This was a foolish move as without her reimancy, she wouldn't even budge the Constrictor with her meagre strength.

"Aka! I'm glad you are alright!"

"Eh?" The Viper momentarily stopped to take in what Senka had just said. The Constrictor was glad she was alright? Even though she was the one who tossed her in the first place? Aka hissed in anger and looked up to the Constrictor, her cheeks slightly puffing in a rather childish anger. "WHAT IN THE NAME OF IV-... SSSIKU ARE YOU TALKING ABOUT?!! You tossed me like a sack of potatoes! And now you dare to say that you're glad I'm alr-... ah..." She was stopped, not by Senka, but by her own shock at a revelation. The previous spot where she was working was now covered in rocks and debris. If she had been there just moments ago ticks, she would be Viper minced meat. In other words, Senka had saved her. "S-sss-sen..."

"No need to thank me, sssahahaha!

"W-why?" It might be a dumb question but Aka was too shocked to even notice, the notion of the Constrictor actually caring for her was still rather impossible... at least until right now. Senka was a volatile friend to say the least, she bullied a lot, harassed a lot, but also taught the Viper in various things such as wrestling, the layouts of Zinrah, knowledge about those bronze monkeys, and now, she had saved her life.

"Why? Sssilly Viper! If you are flattened! I would have no more fun-sssized toy to play with!

Ah, typical of Senka, she always scoff off the reason behind her surprisingly generous actions. It had happened so often that even the gullible Viper would not fall for it again. "Heh... thanksss, Senka." It would be best not to push it further, the Constrictor wouldn't admit it.

"No problem!"

*SMACK!* "Gah!!" She took it back, with the 'playful' smack just now, Aka was in doubt whether Senka wanted to keep her alive or just waiting for her time to kill Aka herself. Rubbing her sore back, Aka glanced to the tunnel again. *Sigh*... More work to do...

by **Soshakuakamamushi** on November 10th, 2013, 6:19 pm

The Viper approached the tunnel once more, this time taking extra careful steps to ensure no more cruel rocks deciding to drop their load on her. She glanced at Senka sheepishly, feeling bad about her attitude to the Constrictor earlier. Senka had saved her life, she should be more grateful than just saying 'thank you', but now was not the right time, she could see the wrestler holding this as a favor. Ugh... please, no more wrestling matches. Aka would rather be crushed by rocks than having another round of wrestling with Senka.

With more distances than her previous spot, Aka took her stance. She held out both of her hands and exhumed her reddish gaseous res again. With the small collapse just now, she definitely needed to learn from her mistakes. With an inhale, Aka willed her res to gather the rocks once more, this time taking the bigger chunks of rock first. She made a mental note that smaller chunks held closely together actually ran more risk of triggering a collapse than individual big chunks.

This time, Senka went strangely quiet; when she looked back, for just a tick, the Constrictor was actually watching her with a look of concern before it quickly disappeared behind her usual smirking face. Heh... Aka could put herself in Senka's shoes, the Viper was also unwilling to show her soft-side due to pride. However, Senka did a lot better job at it as with just some push, one could send Aka into a blushing sobbing mess of a girl.

After about a chime, two large rocks were gathered near each of her palm. As usual, she gave them to Senka then went back to her work. She gathered the large ones and covered the smaller ones with res, transforming them into air. "Ha... phew..." She began to feel the first signs of exhaustion. She had been working for more than a bell now and while it didn't require much effort just gathering and transforming rocks with her expertise, the continuous use of djed still took its hold on her. Aka made her way back to Senka and sat down beside the Constrictor. Why did she do this? Wasn't she supposed to avoid the large female whenever possible? Oh yeah, she saved her life.

"Tired, Aka? You puny Viper, you! Sssahahaha!"

Normally, the Viper would be angry and spat back but she found herself calmly accepting Senka's playful tease this time. "Yeah, I do. Try usssing reimancy for a while and you'll ssse." At the mention of magic, the wrestler just waved her hand, her face not showing interest.

"I'll passs, magic isss dangerousss and boring, I prefer wressstling!"

As expected, she was all brawn and muscle. Aka didn't bother to press the issue further, no use explaining the glorious magic that was reimancy to a blockhead. "Yeah, whatever. Aaaah..." Aka plopped on the ground, stretching her muscles. She wanted to rest for the day, but this job was very important so the Viper opted to just rest for a few bells before continuing. At least Senka was here to keep her boredom in check.

by **Soshakuakamamushi** on November 14th, 2013, 8:21 pm

"So Sssenka, tell me about yourssself." The question came out of the blue, Aka was curious on the spirited Constrictor's past. She was both a rival and a friend, her jokes could get into life-threatening levels, but it was common in Dhani culture. Aka assumed the answer would be typical, a constrictor born and grown in Zinrah, just like most other Dhanis here.

"Hmmm why the quessstion, Aka? Hehe, sssomething you plan?"

"...nothing." She should have known, Senka would not just tell about her past to a small fry like her. Why would she gain from it? The situation was rather awkward, she was still half-expecting the Constrictor to demand her 'favor' soon. Patience was not of the wrestler's virtue as far as Aka could see.

"Ssso, Aka..."

Here it comes... Aka winced, now fully expecting Senka to drag her into a wrestling match. "Sssorry, I ssstill have work to d-"

"What's with your body heat?"

Huh? Now the question brought her to a pause. Why was Senka asking her of her body heat? There was something odd, the suspicious tone of the question made the Viper self-conscious. She grabbed around her own body, trying to find any unusual things. "What do you mean?" Asking her would be the best.

"Huh? You don't know? Well, my heat vision sees unusssual amount of heat coming from you. Why isss it? I know you are hot on fire and all, but I find it ssstrange that your body isss alssso literally hot." The Constrictor now raised an eyebrow, curious on the Viper not realizing her own unusual trait.

"R-really? I... I don't know. Maybe it'sss becaussse of my reimancy indeed." She had always feel attuned to fire and dislike water, being born in the hot Eyktol desert. Ever since she was exposed to magic, fire was her most proficient element and also the first to be mastered. This might result in her body heat being higher than her cold-blooded kin. At that time, she didn't realize it was Ivak's mark to cause the increased temperature.

"Hmmm, I sssee..." Senka didn't really buy it, but she had little knowledge of magic so she decided to let it go. There was something more to Aka than meets the eye, that was certain.

"Okay... I'll better get back to work." Aka stood up and approached the pile of debris once more. The Constrictor following closely behind her. This was going to be a long day.

by **Traverse** on December 11th, 2013, 3:41 pm

Aka

Experience:

Acrobatics 1 XP
Endurance 1 XP
Investigation 2 XP
Observation 3 XP
Reimancy 2 XP
Socialization 3 XP

Lore:

Whining Doesn't Get Work Done
The Importance of Calculated Geomancy
Saved by Senka
Noticing What Might Trigger a Rock Collapse
Getting to Know Senka

Additional Notes :

If you have any questions, concerns, accolades, complaints, etc about your grade, drop me a PM and we can most certainly talk it out.

As always, Safe Travels!

Completed [Zinrah] Collapsed part I