Smudge Pixelby

IA-920 wasn't moving, hadn't budged an inch from its curled position on the dirt. Its muscles had slackened. The arms of static were gone.

"D-don't touch that!" yelled Smudge from nearby, voice broken.

The spirit scuttled towards them, her flickering body entirely detached from the comatose girl, holding them firmly in the gaze of one huge curvilinear eye. Trundling along in its grip was the grim scholar's book, and... Another, grislier thing he had once treasured.

In a flash, Smudge buried herself back into her body's screen, carrying his... With her. Her arms dissolved seamlessly into the void beyond the glass. She stood up shakily, the book once again held in her arms.

"This's- is- This is mine now," whispered IA-920, still well past the verge of tears, as brain fluid began to drip from its face. "He's not using it."

@Overlord Thraka@Lmpkio

Half-elf? Nebulius didn't quite understand what an elf was, mostly due to the fact that he has never seen one before. He has seen many humans throughout his travels, but has never heard of their close cousins. Regardless, he didn't bother to ask about it anymore as he looks down at the little creature. The frantic girl collected back her book and actually ATE a man's brain in the process. The blue alien was disgusted by her nature, but he's still curious on just who she is and what she's doing here. The alien drops down to a kneeling position to be on the same level as the girl.

"Please," he begins to ask, with a hint of begging in it, "We mean you no mischief. We just want to know who you happen to be and the contents of that book. Perhaps we can help you find your way towards your destination if you can explain?"

Elise paused, offering Fionn a soft smile. "Yeah, sure, don't worry about it." She was just relieved the girl finally decided it was a good idea to train. Before long though, they were gone into the woods, which of course they happened to be heading the same way that the sphinx had landed only a few minutes after. As the pair finally found the clearing, Elise instantly tensed up, her hands shooting to her blades as she stared at the creature. She had not heard any pleasant stories of the creatures, though this one certainly looked different than she imagined - having a beautiful woman form instead of the usual humanish head she read about in fairy tales. Which put her in some ease at first.

She blinked again however as Scarlett seemed to be walking right up to the creature! "Scarlett! Shit! J-just wait!" It was a tad too late though as Scarlett had made her way over to Shiluuki, causally, as if not fearing the new arrival. Seeing as the creature didn't immediately attack her, she lowered her guard somewhat and also came closer, though her hands seemed ready to draw her blades with a moment's notice.

"Hello.." the redhead said at first, glancing around the sphinx before glancing around and looking confused - though unphased as per normal. "This is an unusual place for a sphinx, right? Aren't you more comfortable within the desert sands?" she asked, forcing Elise to raise an eyebrow. The warrior quietly wondered how the girl even knew that, as if she had encountered sphinx before, but where would an average girl encounter such an exotic creature? Mayhaps Scarlett was not so average.

"Pardon the interruption.." Elise finally said, seeing the woman sphinx looking at them calmly. "We only meant to come here for some training. Scarlett is.. well, curious.. as always. I am Elise, by the way." The fighter figured it might be best to be polite to the woman creature, lest they invoke it's possible wrath. She wasn't excited to see what a sphinx was capable of, after all. On the other hand, Scarlett just smiled softly, folding her hands in front of her.

@lmpkio @antarctic termite
Mergoux stares in horror at Smudge.
"You... you tore is brain out?!"
Her shock and revulsion is shown properly due to her lack of helmet/

Her anger wells up at the gruesome scene. If this creature ate human brains like this, then she had to be stopped be for someone else got hurt. Someone living.
Mergoux draws her crossbow and aims it at the creature.
"Hold it right there!"

Smudge Pixelby

A step back was taken. A bolt was loaded and it was reluctantly but quickly put back where it came from. Smudge squirmed, trying to angle her body away from Mergoux without moving her feet. "Mmy name is Sm-mhuc Smudge P-Pixelby," she sobbed, rivulets of pink fluid running down onto her shirt. Her voice went in and out of audibility under a layer of fizz.

"This book is a- journal from Qi Tiān- to Pale Harbour," she repeated dumbly. "It's got- all these details... It's the only copy," said Smudge, her snow fading as if picking up a signal, replacing itself little by little with folds of grey matter and veins. "He's c-can't even read it anymore," she whispered, as if that made all the difference.

The rest was just crying and swaying.

Nebulius holds his staff in front of Mergoux to stop her from firing a crossbow bolt at this 'Smudge Pixelby'.

"Don't get ahead of yourself." he explains to the warrior calmly, "We aren't here to eliminate. We simply need knowledge."

He slowly lowers his staff down as he looks at Smudge.

"So... Smudge. I'm going to ask you one last time. What contents does this journal contain? And why did you eat that brain? You don't look like one of these so called... 'zombies'."

As Shiluuki just finishes the 147th page in her book, she hears two different footsteps approaching her. She turns her heard around to see two girls coming towards her. She raises an eyebrow, wondering what they are doing this far in the woods? She closes the book that she was reading and stands up, followed by a quick down-doggie stretch, claw sharpening, and a yawn. She looks at the two people and smiles.

"Why greetings travelers." she speaks in a deep sultry-like voice, "What brings you this far into the woods?"

The redhead was the first to respond, who surprisingly knew what a sphinx was and where it would usually reside in. It surprised Shiluuki at first, as she initially thought that she somehow knew of her realm of Egytania, but then recalled reading one of this realm's books and remembered seeing their own "interpretation" of these creatures. And they weren't so much like her kind, species and personality wise.

"Why you are correct, dear." she replies calmly, "I should be out in the desert, but some unfortunate circumstances forced me out of the desert and into places like here. It's a rather long story."

Then came another girl, who told the sphinx that they were hear for some training and that her name specifically is Elise and the other being Scarlett. She smiles again at her response.

"Why those are some nice names." she responds with a compliment, "My name is Shiluuki, the Sphinx of Magic, but you can call me Shi if that's more convenient for you two."

Smudge Pixelby

"I..." Judging by its voice, IA-920 was utterly lost. "It's a warlock's diary," it repeated. "It's the only copy-"

Suddenly Smudge yells. Ihe mass of veins and grey matter rearrange and the eye is visible again, wide and shocked. "I didn't eat him!" she blurts, realising the mistake, her mistake, this is all some kind of horrible misunderstanding... "I saved him!"

@Overlord Thraka@Lmpkio

@LMPKIO @antarctic termite

Mergoux snarls at Nebulius, angry at his interference and trusting him less and less as the moment goes on.
"Speak for yourself. I'll eradicate whatever I see as a danger."
She gestures to Smudge angrily.
"And that thing qualifies!"

She glares suspiciously at Smudge.
"What the hell do you mean you saved him!? He's dead! and you ate his brain!"

Smudge Pixelby

A silence that was probably disbelief before Smudge started yelling at maximum volume. "I didn't eat him! I don't even h-have a mouth!" Shock and rage filled her voice, still choked. "What's your f-f-fucking problem! Do you want all those mm-memories to just rot? I saved him! He's in here!" She tapped her own head with her knuckles and winced, great eye squeezing shut. "Just like I saved this book from c-c-crumbling in the shelf of a blind man! I guess this is what I get for t-trying to do the right fucking thing!" Smudge was shaking like a leaf by the end, breathing hard. The pain in her chest still hadn't stopped.

@Overlord Thraka@Lmpkio

Clearly they are going nowhere the more they listen to Smudge. And the more confused. How can you save someone by eating their brain? And Mergoux's aggressive attitude wasn't helping either. Nebulius simply puts his hand over his head and shakes. Even he has his limits when it comes to patience. But just before he gives up, he suddenly remembers something.

"Wait a minute," he says, almost as if he's enlightened, "It appears I know how she 'saved' him."

Mergoux would've thought Nebulius was crazy, but she was going to receive and explanation.

"While the physical body has been eliminated by the demon we encountered, Smudge seemed to have eaten the brain to retain its mental data. Think of it as one of your land's... wizards, took the soul from a dying person's body and transferred it to another physical body. All she needs to do is reimplement the memories into another being's body, preferably a deceased one, and he will continue to live as if nothing happened. His body will be completely different, but his mind will remain virtually untouched. This is a method to achieve immortality, the ability to transfer one consciousness to another body, without having to relive the circle of life again. Does this make sense to you, Mergoux?"

"Well met, Shi.." Elise responded, still seeming very wary of the creature, despite Scarlett's apparent relaxed attitude about the whole thing. She kept her distance before finally relaxing her stance a bit, seeing as the sphinx didn't mean any harm, though she continued to watch Shi carefully.

"I'd imagine so.." she replied softly, sounding almost like she did know. Before long though, she smiled warmly. "Thank you! I like your name as well!" she beamed for a moment before settling into a more serious expression. As if acting like Shi was but a friendly vistor, she turned to Elise with a hard stare. "I don't blame you for not trusting her.. but I assure you she doesn't mean any harm. We really should start training."

Elise furrowed her eyebrows at Scarlett, gripping the handle of her blade for a moment and taking a step back. "... and how should you know? You lost your memory! I've never seen a real sphinx before - have you?" She cast a sideway glance to Shi. ".. no offense.." she added, realizing how it might've come across.

"I.. think I have.. I get glimpses sometimes.. of images and thoughts.. you don't have to trust me, but don't you think she'd be a bit more... aggressive, if she meant us harm?" She gestured to Shi, who was just calmly watching the pair - if anything, she had been nothing but absolutely pleasant thus far.

".. ugh, fine.. you've got a point," the warrior muttered before sighing. She reached for her back and produced two wooden short swords before throwing one to Scarlett. She really didn't expect the woman to catch it, seeing as Scarlett had never fought before, but it was meant to give her a taste of the training that was about to begin. To her surprise however, the redhead caught it with unusual grace, causing Elise to raise an eyebrow. 'This day is just getting stranger and stranger..'

Scarlett then glanced to Shi with a soft smile. "Sorry if this is distracting.. but we're heading to ruins to fight the undead.. and.. well, as far as I know - I need training in swordsmanship. Kind of important." She nodded to the sphinx, almost apologetically, but it was clear she was serious about pursuing the lesson given by the other warrior. Seeing her distracted, Elise lunged at her, not even bothering to give any instructions. She needed to understand Scarlett's reaction speed, to which she found herself gasping slightly as the seemingly innocent girl managed to barely parry her blow.

".. damn, are you sure you haven't wielded a blade before?" Elise asked, stepping back and slowly circling the common girl. Scarlett could only nod, though looking unsure of her own answer. The warrior smirked softly. "Well, if it's true, you've got amazing reflexes. First lesson, be aware of your surroundings.. opponents will never go easy on you, so you need to pay attention.." For fun, Elise swung again, though slower this time. Still, the woman parried, almost like she knew naturally how to react. 'Maybe she's a prodigy and no one knew,' she thought to herself, glancing to the sphinx once more.

@LMPKIO @Antarctic termite

Mergoux snarls at Smudge, her face contorted in anger and distrust.
"You want to know what my problem is?!"
She takes several steps towards Smudge, brandishing her crossbow menacingly.
"My problem is that for the last 8 hours I've had no idea what's going on, came across you, some... thing, stealing from a man, then attacked by a DEMON who seems to have a personal grudge! As it is right now, I'm ready to shoot you just to be done with this whole sh*tshow!"

Mergoux pauses as Nebulius explains how the monster saved the man. Her brow furrows then clears as she realizes what he meant with the soul example.
"So... if we find a corpse, we can give him his life back..."
She slowly lowers her crossbow and frowns at them both.
"...Fine. Let's see if we can't find some poor sod or a bandit to kill."
She slings her crossbow over her back, walks over to her sword and picks it up, sheathing it also on her back.
"Let's get moving. The sooner we help the man, the sooner we can deal with the... creature."
She jams her helmet back onto her head and looks between them both impatiently

Smudge Pixelby

"STOP!" Mergoux's early warning momentarily forgotten, IA-920 stepped back involuntarily when she stepped forward, pushed, as it were, by the tension in the bowstring. Its transformation was complete, now, and as voices rose the first snaps of electicity began to flash across its new face. "STOP IT!"

Exposed veins twitched.

"I am not a thing! I'm a girl! I'm a person! And I'm sorry your day was bad, but guess what? That doesn't give you the right to bully me like s-some kid in a playground! But I guess you wouldn't understand because you've always been lucky enough to pass for human, huh, half-elf?" IA-920's eye bored straight into Mergoux's, huge and eldritch. "Or m-maybe you're just some sick bitch who doesn't even care about people getting treated like shit so long as it's not you! So go ahead! F-fine! Shoot me! I guess that's just who you are! A sadistic, racist monster who abuses children for fun! Whatever!"

Pause.

"I can't bring him back," said Smudge. She was too tired to lie, or be angry. "I c-can't access that kind of data, or load a human being. If souls are real, his is gone. He's dead. I just saved him." The eye blinked wetly and she wiped it awkwardly with a sleeve. "Maybe one day I'll be able to archive him somehow. But it's not my fault he's dead, so stop looking at me like I can fix that."

@Overlord Thraka@Lmpkio

@antarctic termite @LMPKIO

Mergoux stops, sighs, takes of her helmet and looks at Smudge.
"You don't look like any girl I've ever seen, but that's not the point..."
She sighs again and looks at Smudge more...gently. Her glare is gone, but she still frowns
"I'm... sorry..."
Smudges burrowing eyes sense a great level of repressed anger, bitterness and pain. Suddenly however she snaps and walks right up to Smudge. She doesn't lay a hand on her, or do anything threatening, but snarls at her in fury.
"Don't you dare say you know what it's like to be treated like sh*t around me! Why do you think I wear the fething helmet!? It's because I'm a bloody Half-Elf! It's because I've got to appear human!"
She would go on but is too angry to, instead she just turns and looks away from Smudge, clenching and unclenching her fists

Nebulius was unequal regarding Mergoux's decision to go and kill and bandit or some person just to retrieve the man's body. One can say that was a good action, but at the same time killing, unless in war, is an act of criminality. Sure it will revive another good soul... but that can contend with someone else's philosophy. For the alien, it didn't matter. He's already doing a bunch of good deeds already... he'll need to balance it out sometime in the near future. Despite being unequal, he does bring up one thing

"This soul was already killed previously by the demon. This creature didn't~"

But before he can finish, Smudge seemed to snap at Mergoux and partially at him. She called Mergoux as a 'sick bitch' and threatened the warrior to shoot her. Then the warrior began to yell as they briefly had a heated arguement. While all of it went down, Nebulius simply looked on as if his mind is in a peaceful harmonious wonderland, perhaps with a stern look to him. This fighting was utterly pointless. Whoever this figure is must be in some sort of shock and panic from the events prior. As Megoux, walked away, Smudge simply responded the possibility of reviving him in the near future, but was not her fault in actually killing her. And she did have a point. The man was already dead, killed by that demon. She simply sucked up its brain, which was no longer functioning inside that man's skull. He leaves Smudge on the ground and approaches Mergoux and puts a hand on her shoulder.

"It is no use in continuing to argue with her," he says to her calmly, "Besides, the man was already deceased by the time the creature eliminated him. All she did was ingest his brain to save his mind from rotting. Whether or not she'll revive him doesn't matter at this point. There is no logical conclusion in continuing to argue with her. I suggest we leave her alone and pretend we didn't see anything. Do you understand?"

---

"You two darlings don't seem to be the type to cause trouble." she replies to Scarlett, and after Elise pardoning herself for not having seen a sphinx, Shiluuki simply chuckled, "Oh don't worry. I wouldn't blame you, especially if you two are native here."

Then Scarlett mentioned something about training in order to fight the undead. The sphinx's ears perked up, as well as her eyebrows, curiously.

"Hmmmmm," she hums, "Fighting the undead you say? That sounds like fun! If you two darlings don't mind, I would like to watch you both train for this event."

And perhaps they agreed and began to fight in front of her as she lies down on the soft grass. She watches as Elise attempts to train Scarlett as if she's new to battle. However, the more she watched, the more she realizes that Scarlett seems to have a natural attune in swordsmanship, at least according to the 'teacher'. As she glances at the sphinx, Shiluuki simply waved her paw at them.

"Ah, don't mind me you two." she replies in a friendly manner, "Please carry on as if I'm not here."

"Yes, I'm.. pretty sure.." she responded to Elise, stepping back for a moment, not complaining about the small breather as Elise regarded the sphinx for a moment.

"What?" she first responded to Shi. "You.. want to help us?" she questioned with some measure of surprise. "... guess Scarlett was right.. I mean.. if you wouldn't mind. There is no real telling what he might find down in the ruins." She paused, before pursing her lips and smirking ever so slightly. "Though careful with your words.. Scarlett is prone to flattery.." She smiled at the redhead teasingly, apparently showing some measure of being more comfortable with the creature.

Scarlett could only roll her eyes slightly, though her body language suggested the slightest measure of shyness, indicating that Elise knew her apparent pupil rather well - they had been traveling a couple months, after all. "Let's just continue?" she suggested, gesturing to Elise's wooden blade. Despite the light-hearted feeling that surrounded the trio, the woman seemed determined to learn.

"Hah.. very well. I suspect that perhaps you may have been a warrior before that memory loss of yours.. that or you read and learn movements like you breath air.. either way, let us test it!" Elise seemed in her element when fighting, unlike before, even relaxing more and finding a flow of sorts as she lunged at the other woman. Swinging and spinning, Scarlett seemed to parry most of the blows, taking only a couple hits here or there - surprisingly she didn't yelp or wince, but instead pushed herself past the pain like a true warrior or at least someone who was serious about learning. Before long, Scarlett started to fight back, little by little, as if picking up techniques and moves as the two just battled. It even got to the point where it forced Elise to try just a bit harder.

Then Elise spun and hit Scarlett square in the face, across the lips. She groaned and held her mouth as both paused, Elise smiling as she enjoyed the duel, though breathing more heavily than her companion. "Damn.." was all she could say for a few moments before realizing that not only was Scarlett bleeding, but the blood was.. blue? It made the warrior sober up a little more as the redhead wiped the blood from her lips and looked at her hand, also a bit puzzled.

".. are these wooden swords.. magic?" she asked, holding the back of her hand up for Elise to see the blue smear more closely. Elise could only shake her head, her brows furrowing softly at the sight. She couldn't think of a single creature that bled the color blue.

@CoyoteLovely@Lyla@LPRKN@Lmpkio



As Nakreyya walked away Fionn grabbed a piece of meat and hurried off after her. Now that the recruiting and planning were over he could afford to indulge his curiosity a bit.

He reached her just before she entered the forest proper, coming companionly close but not uncomfortably so. He was about to ask what were likely some fairly personal questions after all. Being rude would hardly help.

"Need any help?"

@lmpkio @antarctic termite

Mergoux stands aside, arms cross and fuming, though she tries to calm herself, it isn't working for her.
She shrugs Nebulius's hand off her shoulder and turns to face him.
"Don't touch me" she says, not rudely for once but instead more softly and politely, albeit without a 'please'
She listens to what he has to say then glances at Smudge, her mind slowly changing about the creature as she thinks of how she's acted. She claimed she was just a girl... and her actions had done well to reinforce that...
Mergoux sighs to herself and swallows her pride.
"No, if she's really... Well she shouldn't be out here wandering alone. It's dangerous out here, bandits and the like..."
She looks over at the girl, her anger receding to be replaced with pity, as she was in Smudges situation herself when she was in her 20s.
"Hey, you. What's your name?" she calls over to Smudge, again not meanly, but with less harshness than in her usual tones.

TC brought his head up from the plate of meat he was focused on to noticed that he had been left alone at their camp. His request for Parsepepper to Nak seemed to have rubbed her the wrong way. Hey I'm just sharing cooking tips here , no need to threaten, no need to get ya leathers in a twist. Fionn followed after her. The two girls had set off for their, past due and much needed, training session before they headed to the ruins. It was just Mr. Bywater and the Nightmare, Anzu.

TC set his plate down quietly then took a quick perusal of Nak's things. As he got close enough see what she had laid out in her campsite. He caught a look at Anzu's eyes. They seemed to stare right through him, piercing black marbles, like windows into oblivion. He froze for a moment, and rethought his actions. Maybe just wait for the good dwarven stuff. He calmly turned around like he was just stretching his legs and settled back into his previous spot, laced his fingers behind his head, and relaxed. There will be plenty for the taking soon.

@coyotelovely@silvan haven@lyla@lmpkio