Closed [The Pig's Foot] Inspection (Richard Blow)

[Thaloyss]

Thaloyss inhaled deeply, trying to quell the rage that burned within her. She took a step back and closed her eyes. When they opened she spoke. "You sseem to know a lot for a sstupid Sspiritisst. I ssuggesst we remedy that."

And with that her hands were at her shirt, then at the hem of her skirt and suddenly she was free and changing. She knew she would be vulnerable, but as her legs fused and lengthened into a tail she figured Richard would be too horrified to attack. She hoped so, anyways.

The shifting was quite exhilarating, really. One might think the whole receding hair and skin hardening into scales might be painful, but it wasn't. Her arms rippled with incredible strength and the muscle spread downwards from her chest and back to her hips, curves turning into a solid trunk. She sensed her face flatten into a much more serpentine appearance, canines becoming fangs and round pupils turning into slits.

Once the thirty ticks of shifting were up a cruel grin cut across her lipless mouth, her forked tongue flickering out into the light that made her black and white scales shimmer. Her eyes had closed during the process, and when the lids slid back she felt something drip into her eyes. With a delicate touch almost comical considering her current form, the Dhani wiped away the congealed liquid.

After staring at the offending object for a moment she realized that her prey had gone. Her head whipped around and she let out a low hiss, coils twisting around to propel her towards the street. Her fingers dug into the ground and pulled her along to augment her speed as she tasted the air for the quick little Spiritist, the mouse she hunted.

Thaloyss rounded the corner and reared up, her tail bunching beneath her. "Richaarrdd..." she breathed, far more feral in her movements than before. "Richaarrdd, come out, little moussse..."

[Richard Blow]

Richard was eternally grateful that he was a Sunberthan, and not some simpering foreigner who would no doubt be frozen in shock and terror. For him and all who grew up in the chaotic city, the rules were simple: When someone wants to kill you, you make it hard to chase you, then run. If they won't give up, you grab five of your buddies and go to work with two-by-fours, or stab them in the back. Thaloyss didn't have to look far for her prey. He was on the far side of the tavern wall with Merv, both with their arms crossed across their chests, and both failing to look tough due to the look of quiet awe on their faces. "Holy Dira, she's bigger than the tavern!" Richard chuckled breathlessly, his eyes wide and pulse racing. "How did anyone miss her?" "I'unno..." Merv said absent-mindedly, his eyes still fixed on the Dhani. "I was inside, they were drunk." After a tick, the older Sunberthan got over the fact that he was staring at a half-ton behemoth and barked irately "Thaloyss! You're done. Ain't no way to hide the truth now. You can change back and get the petch off my property, or I can get the boys out here and we'll make boots for the whole bar. The choice is yours!" "Yeah! What he said!" Richard shouted with a look somewhere between "bluffing gorilla" and "peeing himself." Merv just looked at him with a look of ultimate exasperation, then sighed and rubbed his temple.

[Thaloyss]

Thaloyss took pleasure in the fear emanating from Richard and the awe on both of their faces. Her tongue flickered out between her fangs, the teeth bared in a grin. She could almost taste Richard's quivering limbs, almost feel the bones snapping in her grip. She decided she simply must have a bite, just to savor the moment.

But Merv. He was the problem here. Him and his precious tavern stood between the Dhani and her prey. Well, he would probably fire her anyways even if she did destroy part of the tavern, let alone if she ate Richard. She extended her arm in a smooth motion and made to grab the shaking Spiritist, but once again he was too quick.

She withdrew her hand and lowered her chest to the ground, hissing. "How isss thisss for monssster, little moussse?"

Her head swiveled towards Merv, giving him a stone-cold glare. "You bring anyone out and I'll sssqueeze the life from their puny little lungsss. However, sssince you were too ssstupid to put two and two together when the disssappearancesss began and I kept my job, I will ssswitch back," she growled.

The rustling of her scales and the slow, massive breathing accompanied by her barely audible heartbeat were the only sounds as she slithered back to her clothing pile. A chime later she returned looking as human as ever but for the deadly look she shot Richard.

Thaloyss' hands went to her messy hair in an attempt to smooth the strands back into some semblance of what they were before. After a moment she gave up, putting her hands on her hips and standing with her legs akimbo.

"There," she snapped, "you happy? Now your boyss won't end up in a gutter -- or rather, my sstomach. All that sshifting makess me hungry, though... You sshould've let ssleeping sserpentss lie, Merv. I got a meal and you got more money from me making dealss with my food. They buy more drinkss, I take them out back with a promisse of private time. What they didn't realize iss that it meant they would've been eaten."

The Dhani examined Richard with a cold stare, looking down her nose at him. "And you sshould've sstopped poking around once you caught on. You wouldn't have been sso afraid, sstupid little mousse."

[Richard Blow]

Merv's eyes narrowed at Thaloyss' threat. "You must be new to Sunberth. Those are fighting words here." "Merv, she bent metal with her bare hands." Richard muttered under his breath. This did not seem to faze Merv. When she came back as a human, Richard was still on edge, but the old man just looked ornery. "You're fired." he said bluntly. "If I see you around my tavern, I'll kill you. You got five chimes to scram." With that, he turned around to leave. "You got stones, kid." he said with a small nod as he walked back to his bar. It was around this point that Richard realized he may have ruined somebody's life. After all, how was Thaloyss going to find work if (in Richard's mind, when) word got out that she ate people without permission? More importantly, how was she going to get booze? While it was hard to feel guilty about screwing over someone who wanted to kill him, somehow Richard managed it. "Hey, uh... Sorry about your job." he said sheepishly as he took a step back for safety's sake. "Just doing mine. If it's any consolation, I just called you a monster 'cause I needed to wind you up. I mean, your snake queen form was pretty awesome. Scary 'cause of the wanting to eat me part, but awesome." The little voice in the back of his mind woke up along with the rest of his higher faculties now, noting his unfortunate lack of muscle, how dangerous- but lucrative- the job he just completed was, and how nice it would be to have a beefy colleague. "There's not much scarier than twenty feet tall snake beasts..." he admitted to himself. Of course, she did hate him, but maybe that could be worked around for professionalism's sake. "So... Do you only eat people, or do you also eat other big things, like, I'unno... Deer? Alligators?" Richard asked cautiously, sucking his lower lip in. " 'Cause um... If it's the second one, I know a guy who'd be interested in giving you a job." "Smooth."

[Thaloyss]

Of course she was fired. As if Merv needed to tell her that. She'd been eating his customers. Whatever Richard had told him failed to change the tavern owner's expression. The threat of death only made her laugh. "I've been around one-hundred and sseventeen yearss, Merv. I've lived in the jungle ssince birth. I've sseen more than you have, death threatss mean nothing to me."

She watched the old man go, amused by his attempts at scaring her. When you could turn into a massive snake-human hybrid, what could a pathetic elder do to harm you? Ah, right. Nothing. Unless he happened to be a practitioner of magic, though he hardly seemed the type. Most Sunberthans liked to avoid it.

The Dhani's unblinking gaze flicked to Richard, giving him her full attention. Oh, now he was apologizing. Her lip curled in disgust at his pitiful condolences. "Do not ever call me a monsster. I will wrap you in my coilss and ssqueeze the life from your body until you lie in Dira'ss armss. You may not even be worth eating, you lying fool."

She crossed her own arms over her chest, bringing her legs together. "I am not a queen, either. I left Zinrah and my nesst in favor of Ssunberth."

The former barmaid listened to his offer and went unusually quiet. Eating deer, that she could do. Eating alligators... A fellow reptile... She wasn't keen on it, but they weren't snakes and were slow and stupid, though quite powerful. Her arms dropped to her sides as she thought over the Spiritist's words.

"I asssume you are the one you are talking about. Eating a fellow reptile iss not ideal, though I will... handle it, if you will. If I do not have to kill it I will not. Other than that, I ssupposse I accept... for now."

[Richard Blow]

The elder didn't react to the woman's words, his business apparently finished. Richard for his part did his best to play it cool. "I'm sure. Whaddaya prefer instead? I think I'm done making you mad." he said with a faint chuckle. Thaloyss' speed at getting to the point threw the Spiritist for a bit of a loop. "Okay. Straight to business." he said, blinking a couple times. "You probably won't ever have to eat a 'gator. I was actually thinking of punching monsters in the face. As you may have noticed, I ain't super strong, an' you are, an' I'm really good at finding stuff out, and..." he stopped there, not wanting to offend her again so soon. "Well, the talents go well together. It'll be great! Thayloss an' Blow's Paranormal Investigations: We do monsters." he said cheerily, gesturing widely at an imaginary sign. "Ooh! I can add that to the plaque!" he chirped with a little hop before gathering himself again and motioning away from the tavern with his head. "We should probably go before Merv starts handing out nets an' axes. Booze?" Offering the whiskey bottle wasn't the most graceful of conciliatory gestures, but it was a start.

[Thaloyss]

She didn't trust him, of course. It was difficult to trust someone who revealed your race, got you fired, and then turned around and offered up a new job. It was almost as if he'd planned it, though it was probably just happy coincidence. She was against his use of the word 'monster' in any form, applied to her or not.

Thaloyss snorted. "If Merv handss out weaponry I will sshift again. Humanss are too weak to do much harm to me."

That was most likely not true, but she enjoyed thinking she was invincible. Nobody had really stuck around long enough to do some damage. In her mind, there were few threats to her life and well-being. Other Dhani, maybe a Zith, and magic were the first she thought of. The last one was rare in Sunberth as was the first, so all she really had to worry about was some annoying Zith diving at her.

"Other than that, you might want to sshorten it to Loyss insstead. Ssoundss more human, and it might throw ssome for a loop before they realize it iss me. I sshould get to eat any pessky humanss that get in our way, too..." she murmured thoughtfully.

The Dhani waved away the bottle of whiskey. She did enjoy drinking, but not after someone else and especially not the little mouse of a man who got her fired. Despite all that, perhaps her new job would be more interesting. Punching creatures would be a good workout, and she might get a few meals out of it every once and a while.

[Richard Blow]

Richard sighed at this. "I see you've had a cushy season here. Now, I'unno how 'civilized' Zinrah is, but I bet you had one of those 'governments' that told you all what to do and how to settle arguments." he said seriously as he started walking. "Down here, the rules are different. If you come back, Merv ain't gonna walk outside and engage in fisticuffs or whatever y'call it in fancy town. An eight-year-old's gonna come up behind you and shiv you in the kidneys. If you make the wrong people mad, they won't show up and say you're hurt their feelings and they wanna fight; they'll bar the doors and windows to your house and set it on fire while you're sleeping. Y'get the idea? It's important you get the idea." Thaloyss grunted. "Imma take that as a yes." "Really..." he paused to pop open the whiskey bottle and take a swig, "You're lucky we ran into each other before you got your throat slit." 'Anywho, I like the new name!" Richard chirped, his good mood returning along with a bit of color. "An' sure, sure, eat who y'want, jus' don't be scared about it. Own it! Do it in front of their friends! Make a name for yourself! But uh... For the first season maybe ask permission first. If you eat a Daggerhand, you really will get people coming to murder you in your sleep. Oh! An' before I forget..." The Spiritist dug four gold mizas out of his bag and tossed them to Thaloyss. "For whatever. I'unno, figure you deserve some of my fee for being such a good sport. Y'know, I think this'll be a'ight! We get to solve mysteries with exotic edibles an' tons of gold for a living! Y'sure y'don't want any booze?" He kept this line of babbling up as they cleared the Pig's Foot until Thaloyss shoved him into a garbage heap.

[Sayana]

Thaloyss Skills: Skill EXP Observation +5 Intimidation +5 Acting +1 Socialization +3 Hostessing +1 Planning +2 Rhetoric +2 Interrogation +2 Subterfuge +2 Tracking +1 Unarmed Combat +1 Negotiation +1 Lores: Location: Pig's Foot Tavern Merv: Owner of Pig's Foot Tavern Richard: Paranormal spiritist investigator Richard: Got her fired Acting: Putting on a friendly face Subterfuge: Blame disappearing people on zith Paranormal: Out of the ordinary, magic-like Intimidation: Switching to dhani form Intimidation: Death threats A new job as a mercenary Sunberth: Basic street smarts Loot : Gain 4gm from Richard Comments : Great thread. Fun to see how Thal dealt with covering her tracks and what happened when they weren’t so well covered. Richard Skills: Skill EXP Observation +4 Socialization +3 Investigation +4 Interrogation +3 Teaching +2 Rhetoric +1 Acting +1 Planning +3 Persuasion +2 Spiritism +1 Intimidation +1 Negotiation +2 Lores: Location: Pig's Foot Tavern Merv: Owner of Pig's Foot Tavern Thaloyss: Pretty ex-bar maid Thaloyss: Giant snake-monster Interrogation: Asking leading questions Planning: Setting up a ruse Negotiation: Hiring an employee Planning: Business slogan Ledger : Subtract 4gm for the coins given to Thaloyss. I think it's already updated on your ledger. Comments : Nice thread. Richard is quite the character getting into all that trouble like that. Remember that it’s probably not safe to admit that you’re a wizard in Sunberth. Otherwise, it was a fun read with a nice twist at the end. Don't forget to edit/delete your grade request in the grade request thread. However, make sure to keep the link so that the DS can review graded threads with ease. If you have any questions or concerns about your grade please feel free to send me a message (like really, I’m all ears if you feel like I missed something). Enjoy.