Bite My Thumb at Thee

Log Info

• Title: Bite My Thumb at Thee
• Emitter: Aryia
• Characters: Aryia, Murder
• Place: Fire Lodge
• Time: September 23, 2021
• Summary: Aryia checks out the Fire Lodge after getting wrung through the Colosseum, only to find a goblin going toe to toe with a large man. She partakes in the show, clapping once the goblin cemets a victory with a warning shot. Aryia gets them a drink, recognizing them as Murder, the goblin she got quite furious at for using magic so close to her before. They both agree it's water under the bridge at this point. Aryia explains a bit of her background with fighting arenas while Murder speaks about what they do to keep make up for the high difference. The mul'neissa takes some notes about a vrock and what dangers they pose from Murder's murder (legal) tale, as well as some history about the plague in the city. They depart on better terms than last time.

Fire Lodge, Midday

The Colosseum, over the past week, had been slowly opening back up after recent troubles that have finally been swept over. And in such, vetting for combatants has been going underway. Bright sunlight seeps into the Fire Lodge from a cloudless sky, and with it, one of the folks from said arena.

Stepping through the front doors of the Fire Lodge is a heavily scarred, and slightly bruised mul'neissa woman. The crowds outside too dense with the recent developments that going to the TarRaCe was out of the question for the time being. She had seen this place before, but never stopped by.

Aryia ambles in with a bit of a limp, her pulling off her silver shades and pinning them to the collar of her shirt. She slowly looks around, winces as she turns her neck the wrong way, and pads her way across the dirt floor to one of the benches to rest.

Near the central fire, a physical contest is in progress. A large bear of a man, a northerner from his looks and dress, faces off against a pale green Goblin. His weapon of choice are two large fists the size of hams, while the Gobbo is armed with a staff twice her height.

That staff is twirled about in her hands, which has given the man pause. He lunges, a feint, but gets a whack on the hand for his troubles. Hissing, he shakes the hand, and lunges again, obviously willing to absorb a whack or two. Of which, there are several, until, with a mighty thwack, the staff is caught. The Gobbo growls, and then huffs as she's lifted into the air, not willing to relinquish her weapon.

Aryia raises a furrowed brow at the spectacle. She just left such a place, was the Fire Lodge like this as well? A glance to the shrine off to the side confirms such suspicions.

She wets her lips and whistles at the goblin, kicking a leg up in the air in front of her and pointing to her face. Ah, yes. Kick 'em in the face!

The small shadow elf was no stranger to dealing with folk larger than her.

There comes squeaking noises as the staff is flailed about, but the Gobbo resolutely clings to the staff. He places one end of the staff upon the ground, and attempts to scrape the wee woman off with a foot. Scrabbling up the staff, she sinks her teeth into the meaty part of his hand, right below the thumb-knuckle.

The large man howls, his eyes opening wide in surprise, and attempts to shake the Gobbo free. To the howls of the others watching.

Aryia blinks before she raises a hand to cover her mouth in a snicker. She claps lightly, sliding down the bench to get closer to the action. Perhaps she could learn a thing or two from the smallfolk.

"Ahah! First blood!", the Gobbo cries out. She's promptly thrown to the floor, hitting with an unladylike grunt. The staff is lifted high, as the crowd begins to boo, and then there's a gout of flame. Which lightly kisses the man between his legs. The reaction is immediate, more howling, and he begins to flee for the doorway.

As the flames recede, licking at the Goblin's lips, she snarls, her eyes suddenly glowing red. She pauses though. watching as he flees. And then she laughs.

Aryia gives a thumbs down as the man claims his victory, but she snorts at the rebuttal given with crimson flame. She slips out of the bench to get a couple of drinks, dodging the fleeing man on her way over.

A few moments later, a stein is held out towards the gobbo, a vaguely familiar shadow elf behind the handle. There's a hint of a smirk on her scarred lips.

Wisps of smoke trail from Murder's mouth as she reclaims the staff. Which is then turned over to another man, who settles back onto a bench with it. She cants her head curiously at the offered stein, and is halfway through guzzling it down before recognition lights up her eyes. She huffs and licks at her lips, "I recognize you from somewhere. And thanks!" The stein is wiggled. "That guy doesn't know when a fight's over, do he?"

The bruised mul'neissa sits down at the bench just behind her with a small huff of smarting pain. Shimmery eyes take the goblin in, down and up, as well as the trail of smoke and fire before she snaps her fingers in recognition. "Yes. You pissed me off before," a hand flits about the air in front of her. She glances off to the fleeing man before chuffing and shaking her head. "Seem like he didn't. At least you didn't aim higher." <Handspeech>

The Gobbo's grin is toothy, and perhaps straying into evil-looking. "I missed. They must be smaller than I though, 'cos I never miss." Cackling, she settles into a crouch on the bench beside Aryia. "I pissed you off? Good. Means you won't forget me. What'd I do? Pee in your cereal?"

The mute woman snorts and shakes her head. "Note it for next time for that guy, then."

She sips at her own drink, raising a brow and looking into the cup before shrugging and accepting the taste. She makes a 'tsch' sounds before her hand elaborates, "If you pissed in my cereal then you'd remember me smashing it into your face. No, you almost torched me without notice. And I didn't like that very much." <Handspeech>

Murder grins at that, "Hah, maybe... but uh, if you are in a position to stop me, and you let me pee in your cereal... hehehehe." She snorts and shrugs. "Ah, I recall now. Water under the bridge now, yes?"

The mute elf rolls her eyes good naturedly, another 'tsch'. She shrugs as well. "Yes. Murder, right? Hard to forget that name," she motions, setting her drink down to use both hands. She pats her chest. "A-R-Y-I-A. If you forgot." <Handspeech>

"Yep, Murder's my game and Murder's my name.", the Gobbo says with more than a hint of pride. She nods, "Yes, I recall now that you mention it. Uhm, so why are you all beat up looking? Someone rough you up? I hope they look worse than you do."

"You should see the other guy," she smartly gestures back, crossing one leg over the other. "Colossum's doing their tournaments again after all that shit that happened. They like to vet the contenders. Only just recently managed to get in." <Handspeech>

Murder nods in reply, "Ah, I've had a few runs in the colosseum, it's a hard life but kind of fun. Have to get used to it. Got a few scars there in my time." Her head cants slightly to one side. "So how are you finding it, then? Good? Gonna go as far as you can?"

Now that was the question of the hour. She runs a finger around the rim of her drink. "It is a little difficult to fight in at times, as I usually break conduct rules. But it has been... okay. I don't really care about going far, I uh..." the hand trails off, eyes wandering about the Fire Lodge until it settles on the small shrine. She purses her lips, looks back down at her drink, then shrugs. "Know how some people don't like water? Or spiders? I don't like arenas. Trying to get over it." <Handspeech>

The Gobbo shudders. "I hate spiders.", she spits out, and nods. "I can understand. Er.. were you made to fight, then, under Taara?" She reaches out to lightly pat at Aryia's arm. "But, good on you for facing your fear and trying to conquer it."

Aryia gives a weak smile and rubs her arm where it was pat, not hiding the wince in her features. "Thanks. Uh... no. Yes? Sort of? Not under that bitch for sure. But I was forced to fight a lot. Charn has its own underground ring." <Handspeech>

"Aaah. Were you famous there? Win many battles? Rule with an iron fist?" The Gobbo shuffles a little closer, intently curious at Aryia's story. "How many people have you killed?"

Aryia blanches just a touch at the question, her looking into her cup. She was really not drunk enough for this. But, it was a stranger. And strangers were better with vague information than someone you know. "No," comes a simple, yet unsatisfying answer.

She sculls the last of her beer, and shoves it aside. "Wasn't famous. Mostly had to keep up with whatever my owner wanted me to do. Carry weapons, clean armor, things like that. But he had no more toys to throw in the pit... he threw me in. Didn't win a lot, was more worried about trying to survive than actually win."

The last question sets her pondering. Then she shrugs. "I don't know. Does it matter? Should I be keeping count?" <Handspeech>

The Gobbo's expression saddens a little, and she shakes her head. "No, in the end it doesn't matter, unless your god finds that to be abhorrent, or, makes it a requirement to get into their afterlife." She grins, then. "I was only curious as to your prowess. Warrior to warrior, yes?"

Aryia frowns a bit, then shakes her head. "Then nothing shall judge me," she cryptically quips. Though, at that, she raises a brow and shifts a bit to lean forward. "My prowess? Alright. I punch the shit out of people and monsters. The two are not mutually exclusive." <Handspeech>

Murder cants her head and shrugs. "No one escapes the judgement of Vardama." She rubs at the back of her head, and grins. "Sounds pretty decent. Do you help out the guild at all? Go huntin' monsters and rescuing cats and stuff?"

If the elf had a rebuttal for that, she didn't mention it. Though, she nods slowly. "I do help them out quite a bit. No cats. Had to delve into ruins for them before, as well as recover missing adventurers. Kill fiends and shit. Stuff like that. What about you? Aside from the fire- please don't do it now to show," she quickly adds before any demonstration could take hold. <Handspeech>

"I kill demons for the guild. Managed to kill a Vrock myself, and I have his skull as my warmask. When the rage hits me, his eyes light up red, and doing that in the dark, I have cause things to run screaming without a fight." Murder chuckles mischievously. "I sometimes paint myself up, an' the skull too, and go skulking in the woods, keepin' an eye on things."

Aryia just blinks. And stares. And stares. The only motion from her was the slight shifting shimmer of her eyes.

...

...

"That's creepy as fuck." <Handspeech>

Murder laughs and slaps her knee. "Isn't it, though?" She shrugs. "I'm small. I need every advantage I can get. So if weirding people out gives me a few more moments, while they work out 'what the fuck' in their heads, I'll take it."

Aryia gives a languid sigh and gives a slow nod. "I can see that. But still, shit, that's just terrifying to think about. I only do that sometimes when it's pitch dark, but I can't help that."

She wills for more beer to be in her cup, yet she was left wanting. A gesture is thrown out towards where the scuffle took place. "So what was all that beef then? Did he piss in your cereal?" <Handspeech>

Murder chuckles. "I'm a Goblin. We are supposed to be terrifying. We were monsters, once." She shrugs then, and chuckles. "Just one of those guys.. tough man, wanted to take on all comers, laughed at me when I stepped forward. So of course, I wanted to break him. He said it was only fair if I had a weapon, so I borrowed a stick. He insisted all he needed was his hands. Obviously doesn't know that first blood means first blood, an' the fights over pretty quick. They don't want us killin' each other in here. It's not the colosseum."

Aryia cants her head to the side. "So an idiot then. Those taller than us will never truly remember that even the smallest of people can still rip your ankles off," her hands splay a rhetorical before she shifts topics once more. "What's a V-R-O-C-K?" <Handspeech>

The Gobbo laughs, chomping her teeth together a few times. "Yep, just the right height to gnaw someone's ankle, indeed." She blinks and oooohs. "It's a demon. Think of a very large vulture with a humanoid form. It's kind of scary, 'cos it's pretty tall and big, compared to me."

The mute woman puts a hand to her chin with a ghost of a smile from her earlier observation. She nods, and rummages around in her small bag on her side and pulls out a journal with a pen. She scribbles something down, clearly taking notes. "And... does it do anything? Like, magic bullshit or...? How did you kill it?" <Handspeech>

Murder blinks at the notes taking. "Well, it can fly, obviously. And it's a tough bugger t'kill. It likes t'stay out of range, flying around and taking pokes at you with whatever weapon it has. It would be a real bugger if it had a bow, lemme tell you. Uh, dunno if it has magic, but they can poison you with this cloud they kinda breath out. And they have this nasty screech that they can make, kinda made me feel woozy for a bit, but it put down one of the other guild members. Knocked him cold." The Gobbo flexes her legs then, all wiry muscle. "I had my two handed sword, an' I jumped really high into the air, and killed it with one swipe!"

It was important to keep such information on hand should she ever run into the damn things. Scribble scribble scribble. Scri- She raises her head. Her turn to blink in surprise. "... well shit. Nice. Didn't know you can jump that high. No offence." <Handspeech>

"There's lots o'things you can do when sufficiently motivated.", she says with a wink. "That bugger was smart. Cunning. We were chasing a giant centipede...", the Gobbo shudders at the memory, "And followed it into a big cave. We went to cross over a Dwarven bridge, and the damned demon tried t'knock me off of it. Nearly succeeded, but I grabbed onto the edge and pulled myself back up. It blasted us then with it's screech, and tried t'poison us. The others were kind of poking at it, and I basically climbed up someone's back and jumped. Caught it just right and down it went."

The mute woman's lips mouth a 'wow' before she silently snickers. "I see. Did you all ever figure out what the demon was there in the first place? Those things don't just show up with no reason." <Handspeech>

"No, but we figured it had somethin' t'do with either Asumit, or the other one, what's'isname.", she says with a shrug. "And we didn't find out what the giant creepycrawly was up to either. We uh..." Her mouth shuts with a click. "Can't really talk about the rest.", she says, with a noisy swallow.

Aryia shrugs as well. "I don't know, I don't keep up with such things." Though that last bit makes her turn her head almost completely sideways, like a puppy finding something new and intriguing. Thankfully, she puts up both hands and shakes her head. "I've dealt with too much secret demon shit to bother even asking. I don't want to know." <Handspeech>

Murder lets out a long breath, and takes another in. "I was there when the plague was born.", she says, her voice cracking. "Though I didn't know what was happening, at the time."

Aryia blinks, then tilts her head the other way. "Plague?" She's Charnese, of course she wouldn't be aware. <Handspeech>

Her eyes go wide. "You've not heard of it? It lived inside people and leeched off of their magic. But it made everyone sick. If you tried using magic to rid a person of it, it would come out in the form of a slime and that would attack people and infect people. It would weaken people and kill them over time. It was terrible."

Aryia shakes her head, confused. "There was sickness amongst the slaves, but I don't think I met anyone afflicted with that. Sounds kind of fucked." <Handspeech>

The Gobbo rubs at the back of her head. "I managed t'avoid it, though I didn't do anything special. I did try to avoid big crowds and such, especially if they sounded like they were sick." She runs a hand through her hair, "Gobbos usually avoid notice unless there's a fire or explosion. So people didn't bother me much."

Murder says, "And yeah. It was really, really fucked."

Aryia gives a heavy sigh and nods. "And usually people don't trust me, so at at least they leave me alone. So I get what you mean."

She looks down and pokes at some of her bruises. "... I think I'm going to go get some rest after all of that. Good to see you again, and thanks for not lighting any fires." <Handspeech>

-End Scene-