Completed Return & Get Back (Inoadar)

[Amolina]

~ Amolina Moletta ~ ~ 11 th day of Season 513 AV, at Ino Vations ~ The poison shop looked like Amolina remembered it. A small brick building with a wooden door, and a sign over the window towards the street : Ino Vations. She hated that shop, she feared it and she hated it passionately! But she had suppressed the feeling in favor of trying to find an antidote that could cure what she wanted to believe could be long term effects of the poison she had got on her hands in that very shop. She had been so naïve and careless when she robbed it. There must have been poison everywhere in the rooms, invisibly guarding the place, more subtle and deadly than any human or animal could ever be. She had realized that when it was far too late. Then again, by returning here she hoped to find the antidote in the same place the poison had been. That made sense to her. The one that had made the unknown poison must also know the antidote. Hopefully. Or perhaps not – she had no big expectations on Nolan Parnell’s brains – the man had been as gullible as they came, that evening when she had spiked his drinks, while she smiled at him and waited for him to pass out. But though it wasn’t spoken about openly, he seemed to have gained a reputation in the city for being knowledgeable in his profession. So maybe. He might have an antidote. She had worked hard at her looks for that evening, and she had been masked. Now she was wearing her violet dress as usual - that dress was always right for all occasions. But she had put on the modest and boring assistant make-up and no nonsense hairstyle she usually reserved for her “volunteer” work in KRI. A dull style. She was going to act accordingly, and pretend to be the servant of an anonymous rich person, sent to the shop to discreetly buy a few things. She counted on that clumsy oaf Nolan Parnell not being able to recognize her. It was a whole season ago, he had been in a state of drunken stupor and she had looked different at the time. And as she remembered it the man had not been looking much at her face. Besides he had no idea she had robbed his shop. Not the slightest. So.This visit should be harmless enough. And if she was lucky she would find an antidote that could make her be just like before. Steeling herself against the uneasiness she felt, she pushed the dark wooden door open (wearing gloves this time) and went in. There was no one in the customer area. She walked over to the counter window and looked in. No one in sight. After all the peptalk and steeling herself to overcome a fobia, it really felt like an anti-climax. But she didn’t want to leave now when she finally had managed to go here. She sat down on one of the chairs in the customer area and waited …

[Inoadar]

Inoadar's suspicious mind flew into "scenario assessment" mode at the sight of Amolina Moletta. Just seeing her looking in was shocking enough to send him scurrying around into the blind spot by his higher market experimental work lab. And now she was just sitting there, in his lobby, as though he had no cause whatsoever to gut her like a fish and feed her her own lungs. He didn't know whether to drop to his knees and sing praises to Rhysol for giving him this chance to indulge his sadism for an afternoon, or to run in fear of the likelihood that this was a blatant set-up of some kind.

'But set-up for whom?' he thought to himself as he fought for control of his expression. As soon as she had entered, he had nearly had a seizure, a near climax of anticipation. 'Oh the things I am going to DO to her!' his heart sang hatefully. But caution and reason surged to prevent his outright assault on her smooth, soft, vulnerable flesh. Instead he turned his back quickly, hiding the effort it was taking to get control of his emotions.
Rapture: 'Thank the gods! I am going to kill her SOOOOO slowly!'
Anger: 'How DARE she come back here after what she did?'
Contempt: 'How stupid must a woman be to do something like this?'
Indecision: 'How shall I start? Skin peeling? Burn first? Blind first? Pull the toenails out? Pliers to the tongue and nail it to my desk? Impale her on my coat tree?'
Disappointment: 'Damn it though, I wanted to have the fun of chasing her down!'

Then the suspicions started intruding on his dreams and he had second thoughts. 'She knows I'm on to her. She HAS to know. She couldn't have forgotten what significance this place has. Doesn't she KNOW who I am? What I will do to her? There's something at work here that is escaping me right now. I've GOT to find out what it is. And what risk it holds for me...or what gain?'...Well, in the meantime there is one thing that is NOT escaping me. And that is HER.'

He called out cheerfully. "I'll be with you in a moment. I was in the back." He walked out, noting the way she turned her head away, yet still kept her eyes on him as he walked by. "Just one more thing and then we can...take care of business." his voice cracked slightly at this last, and he thought he may have betrayed himself. But it didn't really matter now, he was right by the door. He had her blocked in. He slipped a bolt on the door and flipped the sign to read "closed" to the outside world, reveling in the look of alarm that seized her face. The whites of her eyes practically lit the room.

He sat in the chair by the door, leaving a good twenty feet between them. He crossed his legs and nestled comfortably into the chair, fashioning a warm smile that didn't come close to melting the ice in his eyes. "Hello dear, it's been a while since I last saw you in here...Did you deliver my ledger as instructed?"

[Amolina]

~ Amolina Moletta ~ There was no trace of the drunken fool she had met in the diner that evening she had spiked his drinks and made him believe he was a happy man. This time, Nolan Parnell had acted with surprising swiftness, competence and force. What she saw and heard now was a man that knew far more than she had expected. The situation had changed completely in the blink of an eye. For a moment it made her stare at him in stunned disbelief when he suddenly bolted the door and locked her into the shop. But her actress skill had kicked in and she had given him a show, complete with wide scared eyes, and even a small sound of fear when she bounced up from the chair like he had attacked her. Just to conceal that she was thinking intensely, she told herself. There was a door at the other side of the room. She considered this option. If she could reach it, she could run through the lab she knew was behind it, then out through the back door she thought she remembered. If there really was a back door. And if that door wasn’t locked … Then again, she couldn’t let silly reactions to a shop rule her now. She needed the antidote. And the poison maker was actually just sitting there, smiling, and all he had done was ask her a question. Overreacting, wasn’t she? Nolan Parnell’s cold green gaze was focused on her, unsmiling. The contrasts between the warm smile, the way he spoke and his icy eyes were unnerving. Emotionless, she thought when she looked back at his smiling yet expressionless face. Void of feelings. Cold as a fish in Lake Ravok. A person who created poisons like the one that had nearly killed her. “I will not insult an intelligent man by trying to deny what he already seems to have figured out Mr Parnell” she said in a low voice. “You are right.” She didn’t dare to say more about the ledger she had stolen. “But I’m only a servant. It was nothing personal.” She paused. “I have been sent here anew …” At this point she shuddered slightly, just to suppress it abruptly, totally and nearly at once. She was only acting…but this was actually not so hard to fake, under the circumstances. “… with a request for an antidote” she finished the sentence she had left hanging in the air. While she spoke she took a step away from the chair she had been sitting on. She acted like it was just a random movement. But she was in fact moving a bit nearer to the lab door. Just in case she wasn’t overreacting after all.

[Inoadar]

"Well, Miss Moletta,..." he said, knowing the knowledge of her name would shock her, regardless of whether she hid it successfully or not. "...it seems that someone..." his tone suggested a strong doubt that she was acting on someone else' behalf "...doesn't place much value on your life, to send you back here."

"It's one thing for you to exploit a drunken fool in neutral territory, like a sidewalk cafe, like a whore...or should I say actress..." She looked about to protest. He raised his voice suddenly, violently. "SAVE IT FOR ANOTHER DRUNK, BITCH! You think I don't have the resources to track a sick, probably poisoned woman in a mask, most likely purchased from 'Jester's Corner', a shop I myself visit frequently."

He counted a second finger off, "Or that I can't find you through a little coin and persuasion within the cultural and theater community." He counted a third finger, "Or that paying the ravosalamen a seasonal stipend wouldn't prompt them to let me know about your ride to one of those NHC dumps. If I wasn't so busy lately, your headless, skinless body would have already been found under a carpet of maggots in the gutter outside your building!"

He took a deep breath, feeling the purge coming. "But it's another thing entirely to BREAK INTO MY SHOP AND STEAL FROM ME! THAT IS PERSONAL! THAT IS AN INSULT! THAT I DO NOT FORGIVE!" he stormed to his feet as he shouted.

He stood there a moment, then seemed to relax back into his chair. His smile resumed, with even less warmth. "So...you say you need an antidote. Can you return me my ledger? Would it matter if you did? No doubt all the information has been copied. You have nothing to bargain with, dear."

His eyes seemed to picture daggers protruding from her body as he leaned forward. "Then again, there IS information I want. If you are honest with me, you will live to exit that door. Who hired you to steal my ledger? I want to again stress the importance of honesty. There are issues you may not be aware of that affect my sense of propriety regarding how I choose to deal with you. Then, having answered that question with complete candor, I want to know, just who...is this antidote for?"

[Amolina]

~ Amolina Moletta ~ All this time, from early spring until now, Amolina had been thinking of Parnell as a pitiful fool. He had been such an easy prey, and it had been so simple to dupe him that it had been laughable. Just a smile and a few flattering words and he had been all eager desire and gone head over heels into the trap. She had laughed at the memory now and then, to be honest. But today he made her heart beat hard and fast with fear, and she felt like she had started to tremble. The extreme things he had said about her skinned, and decapitated dead body under a carpet of maggots were on repeat in her memory. She didn’t want to see it, but the worlds called forth a picture in her mind that nauseated her to no end. It made her feel giddy, unsteady, like her knees were going to buckle any moment. It creeped her out when he spoke about how he had had put dedicated effort into gathering detailed information about her. And the way Parnell had suddenly switched back and forth between “cold fish” and “explosive, volcano of anger” made her feel he could attack any moment, and start to make reality of his words. For a moment, when he came to his feet, she had nearly panicked and dashed towards the lab door, but she ended up just backing away, yet a few steps nearer to the lab door. Parnell seemed to have taken her job activities in spring as an extremely, utterly personal insult and attack he would never forgive. He had dismissed her explanation like he didn’t care one bit about her reasons and simply just hated her and wanted to kill her. But obviously not until he had made her really, really, really understand how silly she had been. The way he called her actress smacked of contempt and she did feel stupid when he kept asking her over and over again if she had though he wasn’t smart and resourceful enough to figure out who robbed him, find her and give her what he thought she deserved. This, and the aggressive, massive onslaught of cold rage, information, questions, insults and hideous threats he fired at her with lightning’s speed, crushed her initial plan to pieces. She would need to improvise. And the nauseating picture of maggots crawling on something dead, skinless and decapitated that has once been her own body kept bleeding into her thoughts, constantly shattering them anew in waves of sickening terror. She tried to suppress it, but it kept coming to her mind. Oh, how Parnell would laugh if she told him she wanted the antidote for herself ! How utterly futile it would be to ask him for it ! She quenched an impulse to simply panic and run to the lab door. She must think and she must answer. But. As soon as she had answered, she would of course have nothing left to give him and then he would kill her. So she couldn’t answer…not the way he expected. Being from Ravok she knew what the last resort was when all other things seemed bound to fail. Rhysol, what else. She had only that card now, but it was the Power Ace of Ravok. She played it with every ounce of acting skill she had. Parnell might of course suspect her for blatant and unusually shameless deception. But there would be no way for him to be sure of it or prove it… this was the beauty of it : you could doubt, you could suspect, you could be utterly sceptical, you could inquire, you could try to squeeze out the truth or betrayal of it - but you couldn’t know ! “I delivered your ledger on the Altar of the Black Shard, in the Temple of The Black Sun.” she said. “By Rhysol’s grace I’m alive despite the poison I touched in this ... shop.” She made her voice vibrate with fanatical conviction. “It’s your fault I’m ill! I believe He sent me to you, so you can redeem yourself by curing me !”

[Inoadar]

Inoadar was stunned. Although he was sure her original statement, about it being a "request" for an antidote, had been a lie, this back story took him completely by surprise. He himself had very recently felt the same sense of being "chosen" by Rhysol, both when he'd been given another chance despite his capital offenses against the government of His city, and by the fact of the Master, Wrenmae, selecting him, at Rhysol's own behest, to aid him in his research.

Inoadar was not consciously aware of the few steps he took back to flop into his chair. The whole time, he watched Amolina with every sense of analysis he could bring to bear. Either she was a much better performer than he, or she was telling the truth. Not only did his arrogance make it difficult for him to believe that she surpassed him in acting ability, something he'd found he had a natural talent for, But his new found devotion made her explanation entirely believable.

'The Altar! The Black Sun! Marcus!' All this time, he'd thought it was just a rival poisoner that had been behind the theft. He was going to make a statement about trying to undermine the incumbent poisoning master in town with a pair of horrific deaths, Amolina's and whoever her contractor was.

But now, this cast a new light on a number of things. It HAD been the Black Sun behind it. What did this mean to him? Why did Rhysol send her now? After so much time, what had changed to make it a necessity? The theft had occurred a season ago, but he'd still been accepted into Rhysol's fold. So her arrival now meant some new development. He'd had plenty of things happen since then, but she'd not showed up after any of them.

But now she'd shown up after a most recent, AND very significant one. He'd just had his incident with the bird skull. That was the only thing to occur that had significance to The Black Sun. So was Amolina an agent of theirs? Why should that incident matter? Who had been involved that might make this important?

Marcus for one. Okay, Marcus had not revealed his organization's involvement in the theft of the ledger. But that was understandable. Orders, a test of a prospect, himself. Then there was Wrenmae. His contribution to understanding the bird skull was invaluable. Plus, he'd been bidden by Rhysol to come to Ravok, probably in part for that very contribution. Inoadar started to scowl. That left only that...mage...that...Clyde. He'd known there was something about him he didn't like. Even though he had come to believe that Wrenmae's presence was somehow affecting his thinking, he'd never really had any doubt that this Clyde fellow was bad news. His desire to impress Wrenmae may have made his attitude somewhat volatile, but it hadn't made him believe he was wrong about Clyde, just foolishly hasty and outspoken.

An idea began to occur to him. The scowl turned to a smile, this time reaching his eyes with malicious warmth. "Alright, miss Moletta. I believe you. You have honestly admitted the theft, and you have honestly admitted the need for the antidote is your own. What's more, I believe there's more involved here than either you or I know. But I aim to find out. I will level with you, if it was only poison that was afflicting you, you would either be recovered or dead. None of the poisons you encountered would have such secondary implications. I think you are meant to be Rhysol's tool and this time it is I who direct your talents to His agenda.

It was gloriously convoluted. Rhysol had bidden she steal the ledger. It had been arranged, but done in such a way as to bring her to Inoadar's attention. And she'd been afflicted in such a way as to force her to return. But not before Inoadar had been given cause to suspect this Clyde of disloyalty. So, upon her return to Inoadar, he would get the truth from her, put together the pieces, of which only he knew all, and then he would direct her actions to give him the edge he needed. And he knew just what he needed.

"I will get your antidote. It will take a few days to produce. You, in the meantime will go to meet a mage. A mage by the name of Clyde Sullins. Use whatever approach you think will sway him. If nothing else, feel free to tell him that you are a victim of mine. He will surely help you then, if only to maliciously undo something he thinks to be some benefit to me. I need you to procure some bodily material from him, some hairs, nails, blood would be best of all, but I can see that could be very difficult. Get all you can, the more the better. Bring this back to me and I will give you the antidote."

OOC - Inoadar's part continues here.

[Amolina]

~ Amolina Moletta ~ He believed her. And he had said he was going to give her the antidote. The relief Amolina felt was so huge that it couldn’t be described. But alas, the relief didn’t last long. His quick acceptance of her explanation had come with new and very surprising conditions. She could hardly believe her ears when she heard him say she was sent to be his tool and be directed by him. Did he really believe it? Or was it a trick, a blatant and unusually shameless deception ? She could doubt, she could suspect, she could be utterly sceptical, she could inquire, she could try to find out the truth or betrayal - but she couldn’t know. Parnell started to give orders to his new “tool” at once, in a style like he was speaking to a servant. And now he said he would give her the antidote when she had delivered the things he wanted. She stared blankly at him. It had sounded just like he meant he would pay her with the antidote if she did like he told her. She could object. But what would happen if she didn’t agree with his weird reasoning ? If she questioned being “his tool” he might start to question the whole sent by Rhysol thing. And then … His words about skinned remains and crawling maggots remained with her. The picture of it kept showing up in her inner vision no matter how hard she was trying to suppress it. This was what he had imagined, while he gathered all that information about her, this was what could be found behind that smile. It disturbed her. It disturbed her deeply. She felt sick when she thought of it. She wanted to clasp her arms around herself, double over and whine. And perhaps she would do it, later, when she was alone in her NHC cubicle where she could do silly things like that without anyone knowing. But right now she would tell Parnell she agreed. She wanted the antidote. She wanted it badly. But as soon as he had given it to her, she was going to stay away from this cursed shop and it’s creepy owner. And she would never, never, never come back, she thought to herself. Amolina gazed into the poison makers green eyes and smiled back at him, hoping he would think she was stupid enough to trust him. “If you think that is what Rhysol meant by sending me to you, then I will do it. We cannot question His logics” she said pietously. “I will persuade that wizard to give me access to his body and let me gather whatever ‘bodily materials’ I can. And meanwhile, you work in your lab.” Continues in Ordeal's a Deal A Hair of Clyde

[Vanari]

Amolina

Intelligence	+1 XP
Observation	+1 XP
Acting	+2 XP
Disguise	+1 XP

Lores :

• In Search of an Antidote
• Nolan Parnell: Someone To Be Feared
• Rhysol, The Power Ace of Ravok
• Trading For A Cure

Inoadar

Intelligence	+1 XP
Acting	+1 XP
Intimidation	+1 XP
Interrogation	+1 XP
Negotiation	+1 XP

Lores :

• An Opportunity for Sadism
• Trading Life for Information
• In conclusion, Clyde!
• Amolina: A Tool For Me

Notes :

Always a joy to read ^_^ Nicely done!

I'm a newbie and will make mistakes, so please don't hesitate to PM me with questions, comments, or concerns! Also, please remember to either delete your grade request or edit it as "graded."