PM to join [Ino Vations] An unexpected reunion

[Irriari]

The girl that stood near the entrance of the lab was obviously spooked by her appearance. More than anything, her muscles ached to scare her further. Pinning her to the wall was an option, but only if she wasn’t a friend to Nolan. Sensing that this wasn’t the case, Irriari instead turned her attention away from the girl and back to Nolan. Irriari found herself laughing at Nolan’s explanation. She knew how mushrooms grew, at a basic level. She had never heard the term ‘mycellial’, but her time spent with Sevrai harvesting mushrooms deep within the colony had taught her about the conditions needed to grow and harvest them. The zith had never considered using that part of the mushroom to make poisons. To her, the mycelia were nothing more than an elaborate system of roots. All these years she had carefully been harvesting mushrooms for use in her poisoncrafting, she had never considered harvesting anything more than the stalk and cap. No wonder so few of them ever produced anything worthwhile. Irriari blushed. “Haven’t you heard that the zith grow mushrooms deep within the tunnels? Well, we don’t, but the slaves do. I know about the part of them you were discussing, I just didn’t think it could be used for anything.” Irriari didn’t understand what Nolan meant by ‘owing her’. In her eyes, the debt had been paid when they limped out of the wilds alive. It was refreshing to see a human that didn’t look for every possible way to swindle her, but she was unsure how to react. The shocked expression painted on the face of the girl told the zith that Nolan’s understanding of the wildleash was something that not many others knew of. Perhaps no one outside the lab knew. She had no intention of selling the information or talking to anyone about it, of course. Poisons that lacked known antidotes were all the more effective and better to sell. Irriari nodded and smiled lightly at the girl. It was odd to be in the presence of two humans that she didn’t want to rend in half. They weren’t slaves, and they weren’t citizens of Ravok on the streets. They were simply people that didn’t instantly want to kill her. The Elders had sworn up and down that it wasn’t possible, that every human was nothing more than a target to be annihilated. In some ways, Irriari still held true to the logic. If anything, her time in Ravok had made her more cynical in that regard. But the few positive interactions she had found among the humans staved off the loneliness that threatened to unravel her. It made the bad days tolerable. Irriari’s head swam at the list of directions. Did Nolan string his sentences together in an attempt to see just how many words he could cram in before he took another breath? The zith breathed slowly and repeated the directions in her head five times before she moved. Any less and she would forget, any more repetition would simply infuriate her. She grouped the tasks together in order of actions that needed to be completed. Placing the materials was first, then steaming the cotton balls, then placing the cotton balls into the water mixed with the solution. It was no more complicated than her lessons at the IHL, but she didn’t know the purpose of why she was doing all this. Deciding to forge on anyways, the zith took her place at the counter and began soaking the cottonballs in the solution until they were fully saturated. She took the seeds that were laying on a nearby dish and placed them side by side on the upper rack of the steamer, being careful to leave enough room for the cotton balls. Her claws made gripping the seeds near impossible, so she simply pressed the pad of her thumb against the seed until it stuck. As long as she didn’t apply too much pressure, she could move the seeds around slowly. A soaked cotton ball was placed atop each seed and she turned to Nolan for help getting the flame to liven up under the water so it could be brought to a boil. With his help, she managed to get the water boiling. As the water was starting to boil, she began preparing the dishes that would hold the solution and the water. A capful of each of the solutions was poured into the dishes. A couple of the capfuls were overfull. The water came next and she stirred them briskly until the water and solution were mixed. With her dishes prepared, the zith waited for the seeds to be ready. The steam moved upward and she listened intently, eyes closed, focused entirely on the nearly imperceptible pop of the seed pods opening. After a few more chimes of waiting she heard the noise she was looking for and began moving the soaked cotton balls to the dishes. Sweat beaded her forehead, and she took a moment to wipe it away. This is why the zith had slaves. Such work required far too much concentration. Irriari looked at Nolan expectantly, waiting for his opinion on the dishes that were lined up on the counter top.

[Inoadar]

Inoadar Vera crept to Inoadar's side and whispered, as she watched Irriari to see if she looked at her. "Master Nolan, isn't she the same monster that attacked you in your old shop? Is this safe?" Inoadar chuckled, "Lots of monsters have attacked me in my various shops, Vera. By Rhysol's will, none succeeded. And more than once, the bungling of battle resulted in an unexpected mixture that has benefitted me. Maybe if Irriari attacks me now, I will make another discovery." He made no attempt to prevent his Zith acquaintance from hearing him. And patted Vera on the head. She in turn, looked with wide eyes at the visitor, her face alternately blanching and blushing with terrified embarrassment. "Now go and get me those votive candles, dear." he said to the distracted little girl. For himself, he greatly enjoyed flaunting his knowledge. He had the impression that Irriari had not retained a great percentage of his last spiel. He decided to give her another opportunity; and himself another chance to show off. "You see, seeds are a tremendous and versatile source of reagents. They go through a number of stages, each one yielding a different class, if properly coaxed. At first, the seed is in a development stage and the introduction of an accelerating metabolizer will encourage the release of a triggering catalyst. "Then when fully developed, and awaiting the ripening of the surrounding flesh, they generate an inhibitor. And an 'open' one at that, meaning it can still be modified to react to almost limitless triggers. It is not a 'locked' inhibitor until the flesh begins to rot, usually after being dropped from the branch. "But plant it, and then the real fun begins. You can acquire both mutagens and combining enzymes just prior to germination, and the accelerating metabolizer I mentioned before, right after. This was all discussed at length in 'Sa'griel's Discourse on Floral Hybrids'. It's in the IHL library, but for some reason, they put it in the Arboreal section. Really it shouldn't be in the Floral section either, though the title would suggest otherwise. The Master made it required reading during my Fungal session." He could see that he'd lost Irriari's focus, and turned away to hide his grin. He waited for the cotton balls to swell, and then checked the color. "Outstanding, a sort of...red wine color." He reached under the table top and lifted out two small sacks. looking inside each one, he replaced one of them. He handed the other to Irriari. "Just drop them in here and shake them up like you were coating a piece of chicken in flour. Then let them dry to where the outside becomes like a bubble of crust. You can wipe down the steamer racks while you do that." He lifted out a small metal box, set on a tripod, and a dish of fuel. He also got out a small blade. "Then we bake them and cut them open." Vera came back in, looking nervously at Irriari and set down two sealed dishes. Both had samples of an odd, dried blue leaf in them. One had only one, the other had several. Inoadar scowled. "Vera, what is this? I said get me the votive candle, not the Lotus sample. Take these b-...oh forget it, just get the candles." Vera had already reached the door at a run. He looked at Irriari with a shrug, "I'm sorry, I really didn't think she'd be so scared of you. I can only assume she's met other Zith in the wild with her former master. He was a fat lazy oaf, and probably did little to give her cause to feel safe." he absent-mindedly set the blade on top of the small oven.

[Irriari]

Irriari found herself zoning off during Nolan’s lecture. A few words made it into her head, but without proper context and understanding of the overly large words Nolan used, the words were little more than meaningless. The more she learned about complex poisons, the more Irriari understood why the Elders had tried steering her towards more practical pursuits. ‘Learn to skin and tan hides’ they had implored. They even commended her few attempts to craft with bones and skin. They had proudly presented her attempt at a necklace to the other members of the colony. Their plan backfired. The Elders had expected the other zith to mummer their approval and awe at her crafting. Instead the response was typical of the colony- overwhelmingly tepid. So she continued with her experimentation and study in the art of poisoncrafting. The words Nolan used made her wonder if they were even discussing the same damned topic. To the zith, poison was a means to an end. It allowed her to manipulate and hurt humans in ways that traditional weapons could never replicate. The crafting of the poison was analogous to maintaining the edge on a blade- boring but needed. By the time Nolan had stopped his tirade, the zith had finished her own reminiscing. She looked at the cotton ball. It was indeed a red color, reminiscent of blood that had just started drying on the skin. Irriari found herself blinking at Nolan. “Chicken? In a bag of flour?” Much like his essay on the properties of seeds, the zith lacked the proper understanding to make any sense of the metaphor. As she finished speaking, Vera came back in, nervousness apparent in every small motion that she made. Her steps were timid and the girl’s heart was beating entirely too fast. Irriari breathed in sharply, allowing herself a brief reprieve to savor the fear radiating off the girl. Every bone in Irriari’s body ached to move towards the girl as she placed the dishes on the table. Simply walking towards Vera would cause the girl to jump or run away. Either of the two reactions worked, and they both opened up a world of possibilities. Instead, the zith breathed in and glanced over at Nolan, trying to refocus her attention on the reason she had visited his shop in the first place. There would be plenty of toys to break elsewhere. For now, she had a job to do. Her job had something to do with chicken and crust bubbles, didn’t it? Damnable memory. Nolan had told her what to do not a chime before and she had already forgotten. ‘Maybe if he didn’t talk in terms of food, I would be able to remember it.’ No. The fact was plain as day, even if she refused to knowledge it- she wasn’t suited to the lab environment and each second that she remained within the lab caused her more discomfort. It would be too damn simple to run, but she decided to see this through. Her pride demanded it. Knowing that she would have to ask Nolan to repeat his instructions, she stalled for time by looking at the delicate lotus petals that Vera had accidentally retrieved. She touched one lightly with the tips of her fingers, noting that the texture was far different from that of daisies or orchids. The petal was thin and ribbed with lines that ran from the base all the way to the tip. Irriari picked up the petal and held it towards the light of a nearby sconce. The flower maintained its opacity despite being far thinner than any petal she had seen in the wilds. Irriari walked forward holding the petal, gazing intently at the lavender surface. “What is this from? Why can’t we use this instead of boring see---” With all of her attention focused on the petal, the zith had managed to walk forward and collide directly into Nolan. Perhaps he hadn’t expected her to be so clumsy. Whatever the reason for his lack of movement, the end result was the same. His body provided no give and the zith began falling downward. Instinct kicked in as she fell forward. The petal was crushed in her palm, as her clawed hand extended outwards, grabbing at Nolan’s chest in a desperate attempt to remain upright. Her clawed hand ripped into his skin but found nothing to anchor herself to. Her knees took most of the impact of the fall and she winced in pain from the collision. Irriari looked up at Nolan and began to apologize. While rending a human’s flesh with her claws did make her happy in 90% of scenarios, this was not one of them. Blood dripped down from his chest and onto the floor. The petal had adhered itself to Nolan during her fall. Irriari glared upward at it. It was bad enough that humans in Ravok caused her trouble- now she couldn’t even look at a petching flower without a minor catastrophe.

[Inoadar]

Inoadar Inoadar realized he had been presumptuous to assume that Irriari had any experience with such cooking techniques. He hesitated to call her out on it by appearing to wait and watch, only to have her need to get a hint or two. Maybe Vera thought she was helping by returning with a bag and a couple of wet cotton balls. First though, she went to hand the candles to Inoadar. So, for a moment, neither she nor Inoadar were watching Irriari as she examined the rare and unique lotus petals. He was setting the now lit votive candles beneath the little rectangular metal enclosure which served as a drying oven. Vera had returned to do a display run of the bag powdering technique, when she looked up and saw "the monster" messing with her Master's prized lotus petals. The child slapped the side of Inoadar's thigh and pointed, mouthing her alarm voicelessly. "Shyke!" Inoadar muttered and moved to protect it from potential carelessness. He took his eyes off Irriari long enough to make sure he was not going to bowl Vera over. But in that time, the Zith woman had already began to step towards him, holding the single petal. Inoadar would have been happy to have been mauled in exchange for no damage being done to his lotus. It felt like the loss of a slice of his life's work to see Irriari crush the thing in her hand as their collision bounced her back. The tear to the skin of his chest was nothing by comparison. Even though he had a few more such petals, there were not many, and he'd intended to be far more careful with them than this. "Priskill's Piss! Be careful with that!" he roared. Irriari had the nerve to actually seem annoyed at the situation, which only made him angrier. He needed to yell at someone. "I didn't tell you to touch anything but those damn cotton balls! Especially not something as petching rare as my lotus petals! In my entire life, these are the full sum of all I have ever come in contact with! Don't you know better than to just go around grabbing shyke in a poisoner's sample dishes?" Then he whirled mercilessly on Vera, who was already on the verge of horrified tears. "And YOU!" his accusing finger sapped the last of her will and she burst into guilty sobs. It did nothing to assuage Inoadar's rage though, "None of this would have happened if you could follow simple instructions! Idiot! I TOLD you Irriari was a friend. But you were so damned scared you ran like a preachin' coward instead of listening! How am I supposed to replace this?" Finally, his anger was appeased enough to see the crushed spirit of his young protege. A stab of guilt made him look away, back towards Irriari. His hand snaked out to grab the wrist of the hand he'd seen her holding the petal with. "Well? give it back!" he hissed, twisting her hand to reveal an empty palm. He had not realized it was stuck to his own chest. It was too much for poor Vera. She sobbed in unabashed shame and covered her eyes with her hands and made to run from the room. Her elbow hit the small oven as she ran by and knocked the tiny precision blade from atop the little appliance to hit the table with a metallic clatter. Inoadar grit his teeth in fury at the ongoing chain of misfortunes, the very pettiness of this last one only making it all the more infuriating. He snatched up the blade angrily before it rolled off the edge of the table. Even as the pain registered, the sound of sizzling flesh could be heard, the smell a tick later. The knife had been sitting atop the heated oven and was now spinning reflexively through the air as Inoadar roared in pain and surprise. It was natural to him to worry more about damage to his utensils than damage to himself and he slapped the thing against his chest to keep it from hitting the floor. Two things struck his awareness immediately. The lotus was stuck to the blood on his chest where Irriari had clawed him, and the blade was now burning his clawed, exposed flesh through the thin petal. He cursed everything that came to mind as he tossed the knife into the corner and peeled the petal from his chest. He knew that the dried petal had been crushed to pieces when the Zith woman had crushed it in her fist, and it didn't register right away that it came away in one piece, as he slapped it back into its dish. "Look what you've done!" he shouted, first facing Irriari, then the doorway where Vera had disappeared as he spoke. His hand gestured to the dish, and he looked at it to get a handle on the petal's condition to better describe the irrevocable damage the two females had caused. "Look at it...It's ruined! it's de...it's...." His jaw hung open as his eyes widened. He stared at the petal, mouthing silent incredulity. he finally managed to croak, "How...in the...world?" the petal was not only undamaged, it was whole and vital again; soft and fresh as if newly plucked. There was no blood to be seen on it. Nor was there any hint of a burn. "How in the world...?"

[Nemesis]

Inoadar

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Lores

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Consequences, Injuries, Expenses, and More!

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Irriari

Skills	*	*
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Lores

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Consequences, Injuries, Expenses, and More!

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• Ino, if you decide to return, fling me a PM and I'll post your grade.
• Irri, you know the drill...