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 Posted: Thu Mar 29, 2012 9:59 pm
 If that feathered...frippery wanted to get into an argument with him and send him on some ridiculous fool's errand to get him out of the way for a few days, then Osteocyte's only regret was not being able to see Blodeuwedd's reaction when she found out that her precious death general had sent one of her soldiers out of camp when an attack from Burnt Sun or whatever could come at any time. Yeah. She'd pay for that. He'd find a way. In the meantime, Osteocyte found himself alone, hiking through the wilderness, and for what? He had been sent to find Retinadeath a bit of fluff picked from the tail of an algiedi. Big deal, right?
Ha! More and more algiedi are arriving in our area everyday, but they're hardly common! That obnoxious "general" is just hoping I die of thirst. She had sent him off into scrublands where water was scarce. Any kind of creature could be lurking here from hungry coyotes and wildcats to vultures. In fact, there were vultures, hovering above, and snakes, too, probably of the venomous sort. Osteocyte was dead, but that didn't mean he wanted to court trouble with a pit viper. So in a temper and hoping to find a snake he could take home to put in that pesky lyra's tail, he wasn't exactly paying attention when he ran straight into a pricklebush. His screams were probably loud enough to be heard over quite a large area, and they were quickly joined by foul curses from his mouth.
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Posted: Sat May 05, 2012 6:24 pm
 A solitary figure moved against the bushes, ignoring the loose bandages as they snagged against the branches until she kicked them free or moved her head around to n** at them. It did not matter to her if she lost all the remaining bandages. If they were doing any job of keeping her dried up body together, it was very small. There was more of the dark skin showing than there was coverage for it. Especially with her careless actions when nearing low branches or bushes. She would need to locate some more. Slowly losing them made her feel naked, without any of her other ornaments from life. No headgear, no jewelery, no silk covering her torso. Had been so long ago, she even forgot what color she had been.
A snake appeared in the Queen's path suddenly, at the same time a volley of curses and yells reached her ears. So out of the blue it made her jump, then curse herself at the show of being caught off guard if the one making the sounds was watching her. Laying her ears against the back of her neck, Nefertari raised one front hoof to flick the offending reptile into a nearby bush, feeling the brush of the fangs against her skin before it took to the air. Death had it's advantages. She need no longer fear it.
In no big hurry to cure her curiosity over these loud noises, Nefertari continued at her slow, thoughtful walk, even though her thoughts were now being broken up by the curses in a rather irritating way. New thoughts of killing the poor creature were not slow to enter her mind. Since her mouth had been freed, venting her anger on other creatures was a lot more enjoyable.
But when she came across the one making the noise, she stopped and tilted her head at him. The smell of death had approached her nose long before she had seen him, but his appearance was what drew her attention the most. He looked like the reverse of an undead mare she had met just a while ago. She wondered if there was anything not merely coincidence in this.
Standing back from any kicks or attempted bites from the stallion, the mummy mare shifted her weight and flicked a rock at his head. With her throat and voice so dry, she wouldn't be heard over the racket.
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Posted: Mon May 14, 2012 1:56 pm
Osteocyte was in the middle of a particularly foul speculation on his commander's ancestry when, just to add to his misery, a rock flicked against his head. Specifically against his eye. His next curse was almost unintelligible, so shrill was his scream. Once it was over, however, he stilled his struggling and looked all around for the individual who had flicked the rock at him. His eyes stopped their mad roving when he caught sight of an algiedi mare staring at him.
His first reaction was one of triumph--he had found one! All he had to do was scuffle with her and steal a bit of fluff to take home, and maybe a snake to show the general what he really thought of her. Y'know, one he got out of this pricklebush. His second reaction was one of surprise as he noted the dark color of her coat, as if it had been stained by some noxious substance, and the way that her throat was covered in nasty gashes. Her smell, too, was dry and ancient, bitter but slightly sweet. She was dead, like him, but her glowing eyes set him off more than most did. Any inclination he might have had to make a sound or struggle died with those eyes. Mesmerized by the apparition, he barely noticed his third reaction. No tail! It was impossible to get fluff from someone with no tail!
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Posted: Fri Jul 13, 2012 9:48 pm
Against the onslaught of the noise, Nefertari instinctively tried to flatten her ears back against the sides of her horns. All she got for her trouble was the sound of brittle skin cracking. Flakes fell off, what had been already hanging off her ears from the drying process of bodies, brushing against her cheeks and startling her. Despite the fright, her body remained still as stone, used to hiding all her emotions from the peasants of her past. A sign of weakness against something would be your downfall. Plotters and terribly ambitious people would descend on you like vultures to a carcass.
The glowing red eyes blinked while the mare merely stood and stared at the stallion. Against the harm to her undead ears, she said nothing. To his own staring, she remained silent. Just watching in her silently malevolent way. Like she was debating whether to walk away or destroy him.
Finally, a rasping sound came from the mare's throat. When she opened her mouth, a small cloud of dust bellowed out. Her eyes remained narrowed, showing clear her distaste for the stallion she had only just met.
"You need a rock to the other eye, boy?" Just like the body, the voice that came from the Algeidi mummy was dry and scratchy, like she was in bad need of a drink of water.
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Posted: Mon Jul 30, 2012 8:50 pm
The silent moment lasted an uncomfortable eternity. Thorns were still digging into his flesh, but he didn't notice them as he tried to think clearly. Gold...tar...the smell of old, dry things...bandages...He should know what she was...And yet the word kept just barely slipping from his mind like a blackberry pip in the teeth--bothersome, but impossible to find. And he refused to move until he could find the word. Well, alright, that wasn't technically accurate, but the truth was more difficult to take: he was so mesmerized by the lethal danger that he couldn't move, as if he was being faced by a large, angry serpent with hooves. That is, he assumed she was angry. There was no way she couldn't be angry with that expression. Or was there an expression?
He had been thinking and staring at her for so long (even though it was not long at all) that he had forgotten that she could even move. That she was something more than a statue, that she was alive (or undead, really). He was thus startled to hear her dry, scratchy voice. So startled, that the sound of her voice popped the word out of his mouth. "Mummy."
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Posted: Sat Aug 18, 2012 5:50 pm
Nefertari remained as a statue, barely even swaying to keep her balance. Had she a tail, even that would not be moving. Her ears remained perked forward, listening intently for the first time this obvious dimwit would speak without deafening her. If he had an indoor voice, that was. Some Stars didn't. If he was one of them, well...The internal conflict over walking away or destroying him would be an easy one.
When he finally did speak, she smiled in amusement. Like one would a child who had learned a difficult word after weeks of trying.
"Oh, very good. What gave it away? The wrappings or the thousand year old smell?" Snorting softly-for she didn't have much throat to snort loudly-the now defined mummy moved her limps, the dried skin and bones making a slight cracking sound to take her in slow circles around the stallion. "You yourself are an oddity. Like your bones have been dipped in something beneath transparent skin. You must be quite the sight in pitch darkness if they glow."
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Posted: Sun Aug 19, 2012 9:26 am
Osteocyte made the double mistake of relaxing at the comments about his bones. The first mistake, one he did not realize at the time, was that one should never relax around a dangerous star. The second mistake was a bit more obvious. He bit the inside of his cheek to prevent himself from screaming as he relaxed right into a particularly long, sharp cluster of thorns. Instead, he began a mad, frenzied scramble for thirty painful seconds to get out of the thorn bush. By the end of if, he had managed to drag himself out, but he was covered in cuts and scratches. He would need to find some herbs or perhaps some mud later. For now, though, the thought of his bones reminded him that whatever else a mummy was, a mummy was a dead thing, and so was he. "Mostly the wrappings," he said in response to her question. He was tempted to make a joke about the smell, but something told him he shouldn't. Instead, he responded to her second comment. "They do not, unfortunately. I wish they did. It would be easier to frighten people if they did."
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Posted: Thu Sep 20, 2012 6:29 pm
Nefertari was aware of the shifting of the stance to one more unusual to her in her presence. Back when she was alive this wouldn't have been uncommon for her to portray such an aura that calmed others. Once upon a time she had been a calmer Algeidi, well practiced in keeping her face, voice, and body language serene. One didn't win over the people by being harsh.
Now, in this state, it was very difficult to uphold those old believes. To think of that time was like thinking of another Star entirely. One she knew, once, but had lost contact with a long time ago. That kingdom's princess no longer existed. Not even a tiny shred of her remained. Everything was gone, from coat color, hair, even her tail and eyes. Gone.
Those same eyes glowed with a brighter intensity as the bearer watched with some amusement at the cheek biting and the scrambling to be free of the obstacle. Most unnecessary. But at least she didn't have to drag him out by the bony, sad excuse for a tail. Just the thought of touching a stallion enraged her enough to make her eyes flash a bright, dangerous red for an instant.
"Of course. No other civilization but my own ever thinks to wrap their dead." The tone of voice made it clear how she felt about such lack of practices. She shifted her stance, taking a few steps away from him as he pulled himself free. The mummy smiled at his last remark, like one would a nitwit in sympathy. "A pity, indeed."
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Posted: Thu Jan 03, 2013 1:16 pm
Was that...sarcasm that Osteocyte heard in the mummy's voice? She sounded amused, but it was a sort of amusement that could--and would--quickly turn to impatience, and then to ire, in a very short amount of time. As in, it was going to happen in the next five minutes if he didn't try doing something different now.
So...what did he know about mummies? Well, everyone in that long-ago kingdom (pharaoh-dom?) had been mummified, but everyone knew that if you met a living mummy, it was surely a member of their royalty. You never heard stories about someone who came across the mummy of some pissy stonecutter or farmer. It probably had to do something with the special ointments or charms for a royal mummy that poor people wouldn't have. Or incantations, or maybe it was a spell book, though supposedly that spell book had been made out of rock? Beyond common hearsay, the skeletal stallion was utterly and entirely clueless (and certain brightly-colored lyras would argue that he was always utterly and entirely clueless), but that was about as much as he had to work with. Some royalty. A princess or a queen or something. Or the pharaoh's senile old aunt, although "senile" definitely was not a word that applied to this stranger.
"Only, I find myself in need of frightening other people on a regular basis, your Majesty," he said. He added a brief but low bow on his scraped knees. Hopefully that would delay the ire for at least, oh, five extra minutes? Undead though Osteocyte might be, that was still a might. He had no intention of dying (or re-dying) today.
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Posted: Tue Feb 05, 2013 8:28 pm
Nefertari snorted, again, moving to his side to take in the sight of another undead now that he was freed of the bush. She couldn't help the wondering of how he had come to be dead, then rise back. She knew hers. It had been that book that the humans had found and foolishly taken into her tomb to read. She had never had the chance to go back and find it, again. Likely it would come in handy in the future, 'specially when raising her old empire back. Other undead like herself to share the misery with would be more welcomed than those who breathed air. Taunting her with their expanding lungs and skin they need not fear would flake away bit by bit until they were nothing but a pile of dust.
She stood a good distance from him, not close enough to reach without stepping closer to.
"You don't seem that scary. You do not seem to crack. Or flake. Nor have any gashes I can see. You just appear see-through." Circling around him once more, Nefertari ignored the proper use of her title for now. It still felt like only yesterday she was being addressed by this so often, it barely phased her. It was part of life. Nothing to get over-excited about. "Tell me. How did you come to be in this state? Drowned? Poison?" The last word was hissed, like it was unfit to lie upon her tongue.
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Posted: Fri Feb 15, 2013 8:00 am
Well, she wasn't ripping him to pieces, but she was circling him now. So did the title work or not? Better safe than sorry. "I make up for it with vim and vigor, your Majesty," he replied with a shrug. "I'm a fighter, and I'm not exactly the kind of soldier left on the home front to guard the kiddies. We attack people. It works for us." He followed her movement with his eyes, tensing up slightly whenever she passed into his blind spots behind his tail and in front of his nose. "And I'm not entirely see-through. No one can see my intestines. Your Majesty." The last was added at the last minute as he realized how rude that could have sounded. Well, how rude it did sound. Osteocyte was rude by nature, and normally it didn't bother him.
How had he died? That...gave Osteo pause. He'd never thought about it before. He closed his eyes and thought about it. Something...something a long time ago. It was a black cloud he'd never bothered to penetrate, never bothered to explore. He'd never had to think about it before. How had he died? And he was very insistent on that. He was dead. (Might be?) He was positive that he was. (Pretty sure.) Well, time to confirm that. Am I dead, or am I just necrotic? He pushed coherent words aside in favor of pushing at his blocked memories. His tail and head drooped in concentration.
...Cold...
Cold and...hurt...no move. Cramps. Got to move, get out. Held down...down...down...
"...Don't remember..." he said hoarsely. He pulled his head back up and emphatically suppressed a shiver. "I don't remember how I died." Well, now he could remember bits and pieces. Something cold. Pressure. A feeling of wet. Yes. Yes, he was definitely murdered. Though what the motive was, he wasn't sure. "Definitely wasn't poisoned," he added. Which was probably a good thing. She was definitely poisoned, by the way she said that. She probably wouldn't want to think that a stallion like him would be worthy of having been murdered like she was.
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Posted: Wed Feb 27, 2013 1:58 pm
The Queen ceased her circling, stopping once more on one of his sides. Trust for this stranger was nonexistent. She wouldn't risk an attack on herself by standing where he could easily come at her without giving her a moment to get out of the way. To the side she had that window to move. The use of her proper title and respect to her station was not enough for her to give him the benefit of the doubt. Anything could be a trick. It was unlikely he knew exactly who she was, but anything could be a trick for whatever reason. Silly to others but perfectly understand to her to keep her guard up. He had already confirmed she was a mummy. Mummies like her were not nature made. She wouldn't put it past anyone she met to think about using her to find her tomb and take the treasure they knew must be in there. For all Star-made mummies were buried with their worldly possessions to take with them to the afterlife.
It that was what this one was thinking behind his mask of meekness, he would be sorely disappointed to find her tomb. But when she had her treasures, oh what treasures they were.
The undead mare tittered as best she could with a dried tongue and barely a voice. It came out almost a hiss.
"Must not have been dramatic enough," Nefertari concluded, never once taking her unblinking red gaze off him. "I remember the fire in my blood. How hard my heart beat to rid itself of the venom."
"A fighter, you say? And what do you fight? Have I been awoken into a world filled with wars and bloodshed?"
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Posted: Sat Apr 06, 2013 6:00 pm
Not dramatic enough. Oh, shut up, you dumb biddy, and go back to sleep. Guess the kiddos didn't love Gramma enough to not slip hemlock in your porridge, huh? He would've said these things if he'd been talking to someone else (Retinadeath, for one). But he'd already died once. He didn't want to die again.
Wait, could he die again?
He suddenly found himself angry. Angry at this mare. She was a dried-up husk, after all, and chances were, she was clumsy. He was limber. He was in shape. He was strong, and she was, what, an undead noblewoman in sore need of lotion and a liver? b***h, please. He could take her any day of the week. But nonetheless...a head start would be nice. Right. Settled, then. No more "yes ma'am, no ma'am" for this soldier. He was going to leave, find some fluff, and shove it right up his commander's--
"Assuming I could remember my own past, I probably wouldn't tell anyone," he said. "Wouldn't want to give someone an advantage of any kind. And there's not nearly enough war and bloodshed, sad to say. My herd's at war with another, that's all, and we're kept in fighting fit."
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Posted: Sun Jan 19, 2014 8:16 pm
"And why would that be?" she would have purred had she the right voice for it. "Should one not learn from the mistakes of the past?' She sure did. Being poisoned had opened up a whole new world for her, completely changing her personality. Trust was hard to find in the world of today and patience was difficult to give. Everyone wanted something from someone else. Ulterior motives were all around her. She wasn't even sure how far she could or should trust Morrigan. "If you find yourself succumbing to the same death, it is more your fault than your murderer. You let your guard down." Tilting her head to the side, she gave him a questioning look, like she ever expected someone would disagree with her. To her, he seemed the type who would easily find themselves in the same situation as their death. 'Specially if he couldn't remember. There was danger in lack of memories. Some days she wished she could forget the pain of hers, but what would she gain from forgetting it? Ignorance. And ignorance would get her killed once more.
Nefertari allowed a smile to play across her dried lips. "A good idea, no matter the cause. What herd would this be?" It was always a good idea to scope one's surroundings. She kept her voice light. Casual. Like she was merely asking what the weather was like where he came from.
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Posted: Sun Jan 19, 2014 9:15 pm
Osteocyte had always liked to think of himself as some sort of king of snark, but if he was honest with himself--truly, truly honest with himself--he would have to admit that he was a mere peasant in the realm of snark. If this was to turn into a snarkfest--which, considering the cattiness of the mummy, seemed pretty frigging likely--then he would probably lose. Possibly lose more than just the contest, but his throat and his current vital functions, such as they were. But his blood had risen, and there was no way he was going down without a fight. If she was going to be a jerk, then she would soon learn that this peasant could outjerk her any day of the week, of that he was absolutely certain. Hell, he had character witnesses who would give their ears to attest to it all day and every day from now until entropy!
"I believe in learning from my own mistakes," he lied, "but letting my enemies learn from my mistakes is not an idea I endorse." Was she trying to purr? Pathetic. It just made her sound desperate. "And if I should succumb to the same fate twice, then it only means that my enemies are plagiarists. Chances are whoever killed me the first time around isn't around anymore. If they were, I would never hear the end of it. I like to think of myself as a memorable fellow, and I think my boss would agree."
Well, say what he would about the mummy--and he would, given the opportunity--at least he could condone her bloodlust. He liked a certain amount of bloodlust. He was a bully at heart, and killing had swiftly become a hobby for him. War. It was an idea that his herd embraced, and he embraced it too, aye, like a long-lost lover. But she could still be an enemy, and he did not want to get in a fight. Queen Blodeuwedd was a snotty punk who liked to think of herself as the leader of the most infamous herd in the world, but just a few weeks of traveling had made it abundantly clear to Osteocyte that the only herd that had ever heard of his own was Sunflare, and they were even more pathetic than the Shadow! "No one you've heard of...yet." He shrugged. "We plan to change that someday. What about yours? You come from some long-collapsed decadent civilization, long forgotten in the sands of time, the monuments you built now fancy quarries for lazy serfs?"
Okay, that was probably going to far. Meh, screw it.
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