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 Posted: Wed Oct 27, 2010 9:00 pm
Knife, Check. Drill, Check. Scoop, Check. Needles, Check. Bowls, Check.
Sin sliced into her first victim, her knife carved an easy circle at the top and she pulled away the stem. She slid on a glove and started to scoop out guts leaving a few smears of orange on the counter top as she worked. Ahh, it was almost therapeutic the way she worked on the large pumpkin in front of her. She loved this time of year when pumpkins were in abundance and she could carve to her hearts content. Of course it was different now, she was at school and using regular tools of the trade. No fancy extras for her to help herself with, no power saws or servants to do the hard parts.
She gazed into the pumpkin and then scared at it's innards again with renewed fury determined to get it nice and clean. She didn't want a single seed left inside, a single stringy bit of it's pumpkin guts. She even shaved away some of the inner flesh, it would make the detailed carving easier later, a trick her father had taught her. She missed her parents most at moments like this, moments that they had once shared as a family. It made her feel so utterly alone now that she was at school. The thought was so distracting she almost scraped right through one side of the pumpkin. She quickly stopped and set the scoop aside.
"Well...that's not bad..." She murmured to herself as she eyed the insides again and looked around half hopeful someone else would come along. Surely someone else would need these tools eventually, and maybe she'd find a carving partner of sorts.
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Posted: Sat Nov 27, 2010 10:12 am
Really, Malodore would have much preferred to practice its pumpkin-craft inside its own room, but its tools were more suited to cadavers (or the living) than to mere vegetables. Thus, it had settled for the kitchen outskirts, where there were communal tools a-plenty.
Or, at least, there were supposed to be. Malodore glared at the lack of available tools. Every single pumpkin-blade seemed to be already in someone else's hand. Grumbling to itself, Malodore picked its way through the other students, looking not at them but at the tables, looking for any unattended carving implements...
Ah.
It set its pumpkin down, gratefully, then realized belatedly that what it thought was an abandoned set of tools was, in fact, taken. By what looked to be a demoness, no less. But now that it had arrived, Malodore had no intention of backing off. "Mi scusi, but may I...?" it said, politely, gesturing to the tools on the counter between their two pumpkins.
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Posted: Tue Nov 30, 2010 4:39 pm
Hmm, ask and you shall receive, Sin hadn't thought her parents motto would actually still be effective in school. She smiled though as Maladore arrived and gestured to the tools.
"Be my guest, I only just finished my prep work but I carve rather methodically so I'm sure sharing the tools won't be a problem." She quickly took a towel and wiped off her hand of slimy pumpkin guts before holding it out.
"I'm Sin, Sin Err." It was always good to attach a name to a face, and more facts if you could manage. Knowing people was important, mother had drilled her over and over. School wasn't just about class time every waking hour should be spent finding ways to improve her future, make friends, make alliances, and gather intel on her future fellow citizens.
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Posted: Tue Nov 30, 2010 8:25 pm
"A pleasure to make your acquaintance," Malodore said, a little surprised; some demons could be very uppity about the undead. Sin evidently wasn't among them. "I am Malodore."
The plague doctor selected one of the larger carving knives, one that Sin probably wouldn't need for detail work, and began cutting into the pumpkin's top, cutting out the 'lid'. Though, the more it looked at its pumpkin-mate, the more familiar she seemed. "Were you... Student Council?" it guessed.
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Posted: Tue Dec 07, 2010 1:20 pm
Sin knew better then to be outwardly uppity no matter how she felt about any race. She might be mildly elitist at her core, but she worked hard to maintain an open mind. Sometimes it was very, very hard still she managed well enough and she'd even made quite a few non demon acquaintances. Friends would be too strong of a word, though she was working on those too.
The words 'student council' clearly affected Sin, she tried to hide it but the way she viciously stabbed the next hole into her pumpkin revealed mild tension. She offered a forced smile and gave a small nod, oh yes, she had tried indeed.
"Yes...I ran for Vice President..." At least someone remembered her effort. "It was Temes who won though." The last part was said softer in an attempt to control the lingering bitterness. It wasn't that she was a sore loser, okay maybe that was it a little, but it just seemed wretchedly unfair to have been beat out by a crying, unconfident, little monster like Chuppi. For goodness sake she was picked on all the time, and she hugged her thermos like a security blanket. How could anyone be expected to respect a Vice President like that? Still she had been beat, it just stung her pride more then she had expected.
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Posted: Tue Dec 07, 2010 10:20 pm
"I thought I recognized your voice," Malodore said with a nod. "I believe I voted for you. Your speech was well done. ....Perhaps in the next election?" it added, politely, as it saw the additional strength put into the next stab of the pumpkin.
Mental note: don't anger demons with carving implements.
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Posted: Wed Dec 08, 2010 11:24 am
Sin was actually surprised, she looked at Malodore a moment uncertainly before nodding softly. Someone had voted for her, listened to her? She had thought she had been quickly written off as another demon trying to grasp at power. Knowing now that others, not just demons, had actually listened to her, believed in her...it was...strange. She felt sort of warm inside, and while she hadn't thought to put herself up against Chuppi ever again Malodore's words gave her back some of the confidence she hadn't even realized she had lost.
"Yes...next time...I'll probably run for VP again, I really do...want to help." Except this time she didn't say it with strategy in mind, she said it almost sincerely. Maybe she had been to ruthless to warrant winning this time, everything had been a fact or a number an alliance or an enemy. Yes she had discovered what people needed or wanted but she hadn't taken the time to ask why or take feelings into account. Maybe her mother had been right, maybe Chuppi had needed to win, needed to feel confident more then she did.
She slowly moved back to her carving slowly slicing out chunks of pumpkin and then moving in with a tiny blade to carve away the back and allow light to shine through better.
"So are you carving for yourself or as a gift?" She glanced at Malodore curiously.
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Posted: Wed Dec 08, 2010 4:36 pm
"I'm sure there are more ways to 'help' besides the official," Malodore said, shrugging. "All that being on that Council means is that people have to sit in a room while you talk. It doesn't mean they'll listen to you. You probably have a better chance of that with those you know." Cynical, perhaps, but there it was.
Malodore wrenched the lid off of its pumpkin and rolled up one sleeve, revealing its skinny, neatly-bandage-wrapped arm beneath. This part it didn't like, but sometimes it was impossible to avoid a mess during surgery.
Her question caught it a bit off guard, even as it plunged its claws into the pumpkin guts, long fingers tangling through the stringy pulp inside. "For... myself." It had never considered giving the pumpkin to someone. Did it know anyone well enough to want to give a pumpkin to? "My family didn't approve of useless dissections, so I've actually never done this before," it said, after a moment. Sin's openness seemed to encourage the same out of the plague doctor.
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Posted: Mon Dec 13, 2010 10:44 am
"Yes forming friendships and standing united is probably more effective as far as being heard. The voice of many ring louder then the voice of one after all." Funny, because that seemed to be exactly what demons had been using to stay in power for as long as they could. They formed alliances, made deals among the elite and made sure their wills were always known.
"Oh? My family used to do this all the time, we'd all carve together. My father is an expert, he can create almost anything given enough time and the right tools. We always give them away though as gifts, little signs of friendship and such for our neighbors." She bent low to carefully carve away a section and then glanced at Malodore watching him remove the guts.
"Messy isn't it? I hate that part." She had almost chipped a nail trying to grasp and yank out all the stringy pulp within her pumpkin.
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Posted: Mon Dec 13, 2010 8:50 pm
"I'm given to understand that my parents, in their youths, would occasionally vivisect in tandem," Malodore said, dryly. "Such impulses were long since wrung out of them by the time I came along."
It shook its head and wrenched out a gloppy clawful of pumpkin guts. "One must occasionally get dirty in surgery. A hazard of the trade." Pumpkin goop was hardly on the same level as blood, bile, and the other humours, but the clingy strings had an unpleasant texture. Malodore much preferred to work with tools between it and the mess.
At last, though, it had scraped out the innards, piling them to one side, taking one seed as a sample just in case.
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Posted: Thu Jan 20, 2011 9:21 am
"Really? That sounds like it would be interesting to watch, you really have to know someone to be able to work...effectively with them I think. At least that's true for me, I don't cooperate as well with strangers as I do with friends and family. I suppose I ought to learn how to since everyone here is pretty new to me." She sighed and then looked back down into her pumpkin, yes that was about right.
She glanced over the tools and picked up a small slightly curved looking saw and began to rhythmically saw out chunks of the pumpkin. "It seems like so much work for something that can turn out so simple...and something that will rot away in time, but it's still fun. I suppose dissection is like that, not fun perhaps but rewarding despite it's effort?"
She glanced curiously as it took the seed sample wondering what it would do with it later.
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Posted: Thu Jan 20, 2011 10:24 am
Malodore tilted its head to one side. "Dissection is fascinating. I find it highly entertaining... though I'm sure not everyone feels that way." It opened its beak in a slightly disconcerting grin, then studied its pumpkin. "As for these vegetables..."
The innards were terribly boring, honestly. And, given that pumpkins were supposed to spawn fearlings, it was expecting something interesting. Maybe some extra membranes or tubes or some kind of unformed fetus, perhaps? Ah, well. It had come this far - it would be rude to get up and leave now.
The next step, apparently, was Art. This variety of Art was not Malodore's strong suit, though of course it could draw. How else would it render physiological diagrams? The plague doctor reached out one claw and began drawing into the pumpkin's flesh, just scratchings on the surface tht it could carve out later. "What does one generally depict on a pumpkin?"
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