(Collab with
@Xaltwind)
Standing in the elevator, casually looking at her hand and spread out fingers, as if inspecting them for any signs of dirt, grime or otherwise - which of course there was none - Charme gently hummed to herself. Her meeting with the Chateau's Librarian was done and dealt with, and the only thing that truly remained to do were a bit of practical field-testing of some of her
equipment. While normally she would've just conjured or made a simple dummy target to test her bombs, acids or other offensive capabilities of, the short of it was that the alchemist simply didn't have the resources currently to waste. On anything.
Even mundane materials like wood and stone wereen't stored in excess, and as such the silver-haired homunculus had to be frugal and thoughtful of what she made and how much she used to make it. Hopefully, this little excursion that Rodias had planned for her and Kath would yield some valuable, or at least useful, information regarding native alchemical ingredients and harvestable reagents. While Zouyu's garden could provide some materials, she still would prefer to have a more varied selection of goods.
As these thoughts passed through her mind, the elevator suddenly stopped with a whirr, and the doors slid open. The woman stretched her arm slightly, before walking out of the transport-box, looking around with a modest interest at her surroundings.
Why had she come to the City of the Lost, first Chapter of the Chateau and the domain of Salem? Simple. Since she couldn't afford to make practice dummies or targets herself, she had inquired one of the bone butlers after she left her Well, asking if there was anyone who could suitably fulfill her need. The response she had gotten was that 'Young Master Salem had offered and invited all members of the Chateau to his domain, should they need to familiarize themselves with the outside world.' or some such. In truth, Charme hadn't paid full attention to the skellington, they were a dull bunch and their overexaggerated mannerisms and code of conduct made them slow and the sort to take their time getting to the point... Charme didn't particularly care for those that beat around the bush.
Still, as she walked, the heels of her ... Well,
heels, clicked softly as she leisurely looked around and examined the area. This was probably the first time in years that she had been outside the Wishing Well and actually gone to another denizen's domain. Though judging from her unplussed face and slightly bored expression, it didn't seem that she was all too impressed with what she saw. Curiously though, she hadn't seen any of the supposed residents of this floor, none of Salem's minions or subjects had come out to greet or, given Salem's persona, ambush her... It was a bit odd, to say the least.
Still, she could appreciate the calm and silence. It would've been annoying if things were too lively and noisy, she didn't much care for such places either. Though as it were, the only real landmark of any kind in this cross-breed of Nightmare before Christmas and Alice in Wonderland, was the little settlement-like set-up a ways away. It looked like a poorly thrown together childrens' rendition of what a town might look like, but given the nature of the Chapter and its over-arching theme, that made a lot of sense.
With no other place of interest to go really, Charme proceeded towards the 'hamlet' of Salem's design. Notably though, she had brought her Case of Endless Flasks along with her, which hung with its strap slung over one of her delicate shoulders and resting at the side of her hip as she walked, gently swaying ever so slightly with each step. Whatever tests she was planning to conduct, no doubt her precious case was going to be involved. Amusingly, she had neither announced her presence, nor made any effort to contact Salem upon arrival, either because she didn't wish to be noticed and bothered, or because she figured Salem would've undoubtedly noticed her presence regardless.
The City of Lost Things was at its core a mathematical simulation, and one thing that it simulated was population dynamics, with the main 'population input' being crafted in The Factory and dumped into the City of Lost Things. With the mimics taking 90% of all material input into the Chateau, The Factory's throughput would understandably be impacted, and by extension, the population of The City of Lost Things would be negatively affected as well. To make matters worse, Salem had rounded up a fair number of the remaining population and set them to the task of replicating the lives of the people of Amberden within the replica of the town that Salem had created, meaning that the rest of the City of Lost Things was very sparsely populated, and this would be something that would be noticeable to Charme if she had any memory of visiting the City in the past. It did mean that the City was very poorly defended, but gone were the days where the Chapter Keepers and their subjects had to fend off guilds of enemies seeking to plunder the Chateau's riches, and life for a boss monster had become truly dull.
In the Amberden replica, Charme would find the denizens milling about, wearing crudely-made name tags. many of them simply went from building to building aimlessly, following a vaguely defined schedule. After all, unlike Salem, who actually had eyes on the village, the denizens of The City could only mime whatever Salem had told them to do without any knowledge or vision of the people they were supposed to be pretending to be. They left Charme alone for the most part, but one teddy bear holding an oversized sword and wearing a nameplate that read, 'Mars', approached and greeted Charme. "W-welcome to Amberden. I'm...Mars. Um...I train the...soldiers? Y-you l-look suspicious...! What brings you to our village?" It was obvious that the bear was simply playing some half-assed role.
Charme looked down at the laughably non-threatenign teddy bear, an eyebrow raised. Was this part of Salem's grand design? Or was the puppet so bored that he had orchestrated an elaborate play for no particular reason other than to amuse himself? Whatever the case, Charme felt that, as a guest, it would be rude to just outright ignore the effort put in, even if she had no inherent interest in it. Thus, crouching down, coming as close to eye-level with the sword-wielding defender of the village, she looked at the cuddly thing with a smile.
"Suspiscious? But I'm just a harmless travelling merchant, valiant sir." The homunculus replied, and though she smiled friendly, her eyes did not... Of course, a thing with stuffing and fluff for brains probably couldn't tell facial expressions or read too deep into them anyways.
"Is the Lord of the village present, perhaps? I'd like a word." She said in continued pretending.
"So Charme was here on official business," the teddy bear realized, its shoulders loosening. Giving up the act, it directed her, "Lord Salem's residence sits just outside this village, though they probably already know you're here." The bear's eyes flitted to a doll head mounted on a nearby fence spike.
As if on cue, the hovering Chapter Keeper rounded a corner and came into view.
"Tsk, tsk, tsk. Breaking character are we, Mars?" Salem questioned threateningly. The teddy bear flustered; on the one hand, it wanted to apologize and beg for forgiveness, on the other hand, it worried that doing so would be considered a continuation of breaking character. With no recourse, it simply ran in the opposite direction.
"I'd kill it for its mistake, but as you can probably see, resources are a little tight. Graft's production has slowed, though I doubt he is to blame. What brings a woman of elegance such as yourself to a dump like this?" Salem turned their attention to Charme, smiling. Charme had been a favorite among the Supreme Beings, her abode a frequent gathering spot for their celebrations, and for that Salem harbored a slight envy.
Charme watched the little teddy bear flee in panic, as its Lord reared their head and began to berate it for... Whatever reason, honestly, Salem didn't really
need a reason to harass its minions. It was rather well-known, even to a recluse like her, that the Lord of Lost Things enjoyed tormenting its subordinates on the regular.
Rising from her crouched position, certain chest-relevant assets doing a bit of jiggle-bouncing as she straightened up, Charme looked at Salem with a pleasant and friendly expression. A
practiced pleasant and friendly expression.
"You don't say?" She replied upon hearing about Graft and the situation regarding resources - something she was already aware of, given that her own stockpiles were laughably low as well. "Perhaps the dear Baron is bunkering up for the winter?" She suggested. "Or perhaps he's just a miser unwilling to share..." Her eyes, at this point, had a certain edge and sharpness to them - though it faded quickly. "But to answer your question, sweetie." Charme said, now smiling to Salem once more, and putting one of her hands into the case hanging alongside her waist. "I thought I'd stop by and let you play with some new toys I made~" She said winking at the doll playfully.
Pulling her hand out, she now held a small, tube-shaped vial in between her fingers. Inside was a strange liquid that seemed to be releasing an ominous orange gas, while the liquid itself resembled something like molten metal, yellow and intense. The entire flask gave off a voaltile orange-yellow glow. She then proceeded to hold the little glass container out towards the floating Chapter Keeper, gently rocking it back and forth in the air, as if implicating that it was alright for Salem to take it.
"I thought you might be a bit bored of your usual games, so I brought some things to ...
Spice things up." Although she still smiled, her eyes were dangerously cold at this point. "After all, me and the little librarian are heading out soon, and I'd like to see if my mixtures could cone in handy, no matter the situation." She half-explained. "So.......... Would you like to help your big sis out, hm~?" Charme asked, tilting her head and continuing to gently dangle the vial of - what was most undeniably explosive - liquid.
Salem ignored Charme's attempt to stir up suspicion between the doll and Director Graft. Though Graft had threatened to cut off the flow of material and seize Salem's assets, the agreement between The Factory and The City had been forged not by Graft and Salem, but by their creators, Brushen Penn and Dr.Drd, and if Graft was willing to keep Tabula around despite the threat she posed to his position, then Salem was confident that Graft would not do anything to breach a covenant between Sable Lords. As Charme presented the bottle, Salem looked at it skeptically for a moment as the doll often did whenever they were being handed anything. Salem was incapable of wielding an indestructible object as doing so would put the doll into a near-death state and rob them of their ability to wield items for a period of time. Of course, very few knew of this particular weakness and it was unlikely Charme came all this way just to play a practical joke. Charme would feel an invisible tug on the vial as Salem's telepathy took possession of it. Inspecting the vial, Salem assumed it was a consumable, something to be used once and forgotten. While it fit the theme of The City of Lost Things, what was Salem to do after the item's initial use? And while the City of Lost Things was intended for testing, what it tested were things that were more permanent, specifically attributes that could be forged into weapons or items. Even if Salem gifted the vial to a denizen of The City, the creature would likely use it within the next ten minutes and destroy a chunk of the Amberden replica.
"What is this? Is it a grenade? I'm sure I'll get a kick from throwing it and causing a bit of destruction, but that's only a short instance of fun. Unless of course, you plan to create more and provide them to The City of Lost Things. But if you want to test it, then shouldn't you be around to document the effects? Or perhaps this is only one of many toys you plan to introduce me to? Though you are right that I am getting somewhat bored of my games, unfortunately, Lord Rodias has given me a task that requires me to leave the Chateau for a while. So unless you want me to test these toys outside, then you're probably better off discussing this with Graft," Salem said. It wasn't that Salem didn't want to help her, but the circumstances made it difficult, and Salem doubted The City was the ideal place to test consumables. The decrease in resources was also an issue, if any weapons Charme introduced to The City were too powerful, the steady-state population of the City would dramatically decrease, potentially to the point of unsustainability. Were the population of The City more robust, Salem wouldn't mind letting The City ramp up into a vicious arms race.
Charme smiled as Salem took the vial from her through the use of his telekinetic abilities. As he questioned what it was, the woman covered her mouth elegantly to hide a small laugh.
"Sweetie, I wouldn't come here just to give you a single piece of candy. I brought a varied selection of treats." She said in amusement, though it was hard to tell if it was an act or genuine. She continued quickly. "Don't worry, these tests won't take up much of your time, and yes, that most certainly is something you throw at others." Charme replied to Salem's earliest question, though she did ignore the part about speaking with Graft. "Why not give it a try? See what kind of fireworks it lets loose?" She smiled.
What Salem was now holding, or levitating, was a
[Vial of Blasting], a mid-tier alchemic concoction that, once thrown and coming into contact with anything that could shatter the glass container, would explode violently. It was by no means the most powerful bomb one could make, but it was very cost-efficient to make.
At Charme's insistence, Salem shrugged before telekinetically chucking the vial what Salem considered a safe distance away from the Amberden replica. Salem kept an eye on Charme's reaction; obviously if she flinched or ran in the opposite direction, Salem would grab the vial midair to prevent it from detonating, but if she remained still, then he had likely tossed the vial a sufficient distance.
The ensuing explosion was spectacular, very much like a real world grenade. Unfortunately, or perhaps fortunately, due to the already lowered population of The City, the place Salem threw the vial was unoccupied, so its effective lethality was not tested. Salem mocked 'rolling on the floor' in midair, laughing and giggling.
"What good fun! Not much collateral, but that's perfect for the cramped alleys of The City. I'm curious to know what other goodies you brought for me?"For Charme's part, she didn't seem either particularly pleased or disappointed by the blast, merely looking at the explosions with arms folded under her chest and a hard-to-read expression. She looked over at Salem once he started his laughing-fit though, and smiled.
"Glad to hear it, precious." She said, before reaching a hand into her case once more.
This time she withdrew what looked like a light bulb-shaped flask out, containing a very bright blue liquid which seemed to be accompanied by white, swirling vapor inside the bottle. The thing also had a certain pale blue shine to it, and though Salem likely wouldn't feel it, the bottle was cold to touch and had traces of condensation along its outside. Holding it up in front of herself for a bit of inspection, the alchemist then turned to Salem and balanced the bottle in the palm of her hand.
"This one's next, I think." She said with a casually lyrical tone. "It's called an
[Icicle Prison Cocktail], and as the name would imply-" She held up for her other hand, pointing upwards with her index-finger as if to make a point clear. "-it breaks on impact and unleashes a small barrage of sprouting icicles that'll pierce and impale anything caught in the area of effect." The woman explained, very clearly. "This one has a slightly smaller radius of effect than the last one, but the lingering effects can be amusing, if you're so inclined." Charme added, a small and mischievous grin on her lips.
To be exact, the potion had a blast radius of around 10 feet, and would trap any creature or object caught in its area of effect by causing sharp, frozen spears of ice to burst from the freed liquid and shoot up in random directions. Not only did the icicles pierce and damage the target, but they also froze and kept any victim held in place until the ice became so brittle as to break. Even after the ice was completely gone, it left a sleek puddle that could cause the victim to trip or fall down, though this was more a comedic side-effect rather than an actual quality of the potion itself.
With Charme being a little more explanatory about this bottle's effects, Salem felt more inclined to try it out on one of The City's subjects. Grabbing a fake denizen of Amberden and slamming it into the ground, Salem threw the Icicle Prison Cocktail at the hapless mook, watching with glee as conical shards of ice erupted upon impact. Salem laughed as their subject struggled futilely, hurt, but still alive, and certainly trapped until the ice thawed. Given the creature's low level, it would be a long time before the ice would become weak enough to release it.
"Next one! Next one-" Salem cheered before stopping abruptly,
"I won't have to pay for any of these will I? The City has never had much to offer, so the only payment I can give is favors and promises, and I'm sure you can see how unfair that is. The last time I tried to get someone to pay me in such a manner, it was quite unthinkable to the other party, yet such was expected of me. We've only just been freed from our masters, so you can imagine that I'm not eager to return to a life of indentured servitude."Charme merely watched the spectacle of Salem using one of his own domain's inhabitants as a guinea pig, and seemed rather unphased once again. Neither nodding approvingly or scowling in disappointment, the woman merely watched the effects of the icy bomb, noting down the effects in her mind. When Salem asked her about payment though, the homunculus turned her head to the doll, an eyebrow raised an a quizzical look on her face.
"Pay? Precious, i told you I came here to test thes, didn't I?" She asked, slightly cocking her head to one side. "If I wanted payment, I would've offered to sell them to you. I'm not like our good friend from The Factory." She smiled again, though it wasn't a good smile. "I'm not interested in
pointless things like profits, cost efficacy and other such nonsense. You're helping me test my work and I get to let you try some new toys, I think that's more than fair, don't you?" Her smile had turned to a more pleasant one at this point.
Moving on, Charme pulled another flask from her case. However, this one looked outright dangerous. It was a slender-necked flask, filled with a liquid that glowed with a neon green, self-luminescent liquid inside. To make matters worse, it was making a strange hissing noise, as if steam or vapor was leaking out from somewhere - though the container was completely unbroken and safe to handle.
"This one's my personal favorite." Charme mentioned, holding the eerie concoction up and in front of her own eyes, marveling at it with almost sadistically gleeful eyes. "It's called
[Gluttonous Acid]." She said, lowering the flask and holding out towards Salem, carefully. "It's quite remarkable really... It's an acid that can chew through most anything, metal, mineral, organic... Even granular things like sand." The woman explained, retrieving something out of her own personal inventory.
Much to Salem's possible confusion, what Charme had pulled out was a simple stone. In fact, it was one of the stones that Rodias had brought to her as payment earlier, with his cart. Gingerly tossing the rock a ways away from the two NPCs, she watched it tumble a bit further, before stopping. The stone was about as big as a volleyball, give or take. Satisfied, she looked back to Salem.
"Why don't you try hitting the stone there? I suppose you could test it on one of your
friends here, but I don't think you'd get a proper idea of just how ... Potent ... This stuff is if you did." Charme suggested.
To put it mildly, [Gluttonous Acid] was pretty much like an acid-form of lit thermite, on steroids. It would eat through anything and everything viciously. It's main weakness was that it only lasted for a short time, before dissolving itself. Still, it was a voracious and volatile weapon that could melt things to goop with ease.
"Quid pro quo; I like it, no numbers, no math. I help you, you help me. Not as business partners, but as...friends..." Salem chuckled, doubting Charme's sincerity.
Salem gave the new vial a look of revulsion. Anything with the ability to destroy item durability was a particular weakness of Salem's, so though Salem held the vial of Gluttonous Acid, they held it at a fairly long distance. But before throwing it, Salem asked,
"If you already know what everything does, why are you testing it?" But before Charme replied, Salem simply shrugged and threw the vial at the stone indicated and watched the effects, though with significantly less glee this time. Graft already possessed an item-destroying tool, and the thought of another member of the Chateau having a similar capability was unsettling to Salem. The tense atmosphere that pervaded the Chateau as of late did not instill confidence in Salem that the others would not turn on the doll if the chips were down.
"Simple, precious." Charme replied to Salem's question. "I know exactly what they do and how they act, in YGGDRASIL." She watched Salem toss the flask and beheld the spectacle of the stone being quickly chewed through, as if it was made of pudding. The effects didn't last very long though, and while a large portion of the stone had been melted through, much of it still remained. Charme looked a bit disappointed at this as she placed on hand on her hip. "But this is a new world, and we can't expect things to work the same as they once did. " Charme continued.
She turned away from the half-melted rock and focused her attention again on Salem. Her blue eyes seemed distant and cold, despite the fact that she was smiling in a friendly manner. She wasn't reaching into her case for anything new either.
"I told you when I arrived, didn't i?" She asked. "I'll be leaving the Chateau soon on the request of our Rodias. Testing the effects of my potions when I'm already out and about could prove disastrous if something's changed." She explained. "For example, the
[Gluttonous Acid] back home had a much longer period of working before dissolving and the
[Vial of Blasting] had a wider area of effect. Only the
[Icicle Prison Cocktail worked just as it should." Charme finally revealed.
She now withdrew her slender white pipe from
somewhere, and lit it. Putting it to her lips, she took a quick drag before letting out a small cloud of light-grey smoke, aimed carefully away from Salem so as to not have him get caught in the exhale. Such a thing would be rather rude, especially since he'd just helped her and the fact that this was
his home.
"Now then, I only have one more thing for you, sweetie." She said. This time though, she didn't fish into her bag to grab a potion, but instead conjured something from her own inventory. It was a strange, orange-colored flask that looked to be made out of plastic. It had a red cap on top of the neck and there was a pair of exaggerated, cartoonish words written in white on one side that read 'Wood Glue'. Holding it out for Salem to take, Charme's eyes grew more gentle and and seemed to now match her mouth much better.
"This is something for you." She said plainly. "I know you like keeping your durability high, so I made something that could help with that. It's just a
[Basic Adhesive], but it should be able to repair any of your own, or your
friends, if they get scratched up, by a little bit." The alchemist concluded.
With that said, Charme quietly continued to smoke casually, while waiting for Salem's response, casting a lazy glance over the City of Lost Things, and the poor mook who was still caught in the ice prison, struggling futilely.
Salem hadn't considered how the laws of the universe would change in a different world, even though Kaldorna had announced how running low on mana affected them differently here. Salem had been too preoccupied wrestling with the emotional ramifications of losing their creators.
"Ah, I...I see," Salem said, feeling somewhat bashful at having made such an oversight, wondering if they should see if anything about their own 'kit' had changed. Perhaps Salem should leave The City alone to run itself for a time instead of bullying its denizens and see what attributes or combinations of attributes crawled its way to the top of the food chain as Dr.Drd was wont to do after every 'patch'. But rather than thinking of such foresighted solutions, Charme had beat Salem to it.
But as Charme produced the wood glue, Salem received it happily, actually taking it with their hands instead of just taking it through telekinesis.
"Wow! With the supply of mannequin parts from The Factory slowed down for the time being, this is most useful! Thank you! I hope The City has served you well, you're free to visit anytime. Oh, but before you leave, I'm curious, how are you taking the sudden absence of our creators?"Gently tapping her pipe, then putting it back into... Somewhere... Charme readjusted the strap of her case over her shoulder and turned around. Though at Salem's question, she turned her head to look over her own shoulder, back at the floating little doll. A slight smile and with half-closed eyes, showing incredible disinterest in the inquiry, Charme replied dryly.
"Our fickle stags and does? Come now, Rodias is still here. Isn't that enough, precious?" Charme replied, before walking off, a slight sway to her hips and humming a quiet tune as she headed for the City's elevator. She had business elsewhere and no time to spare for further pleasantries. Though she did raise one hand and giving Salem a brief wave goodbye.
"Thanks for the help, sweetie." She half-called back to him, without turning her head.
"Enough?" Salem thought,
"More like, 'one too many', though that remained to be determined." It was understandable though. Not only did Salem look like a child, when Dr.Drd was around, Salem would follow him much like a child would, so it stood to reason that Charme might be trying to assuage Salem's perceived fear of abandonment, and might not have guessed that Salem's current struggle had more to do with what to do with their newfound freedom, and whether Rodias was even necessary or not. Whatever the case, Salem felt that Charme was also fairly irreverent when it came to the Sable Lords, referring to them as 'fickle stags and does'.
"Perhaps 'enough' is the right word," Salem said aloud,
"You're welcome ,and I wish you the best of luck out there." With that, Salem let Charme leave, allowing the doll to finally prepare for their own departure.
The Irish Tree,
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