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 Posted: Tue Dec 22, 2020 1:34 pm
A few weeks had passed since Ai awoke in the home of the shifter. At first the healing was slow going. The alkidike’s inability to simply ‘rest’ meant the wound to her abdomen was constantly being stretched and messed with, despite any efforts on the earthlings part. Inevitably it became infected again and perhaps it was that second round of fevered hallucinations that caused Ai to finally calm down enough to heal.
When Ai was finally at the point where she could roll herself into a seated position on her own the warriors ire seemed to drop a bit. Having that smidgen of independence back meant the world to her, but it didn’t mean she was anymore tolerable. She still snapped at the shifter any time she felt the need to defend herself, and sleeping was an ordeal. If she wasn’t outright exhausted then Ai just couldn’t seem to relax. Part of her expected to wake up with a knife in her belly or strung up by the throat outside, but every time she opened her eyes in relative comfort she became more and more agitated. It was confusing to say the least.
And her arms...The left was still completely out of comission and banaged tight against her chest. The right was mildly better. It ached if she moved it too much, but at the very least she was able to use her hand to ‘attempt’ holding a cup or a utensil. ‘Attempt’ being the key word. Losing two fingers meant that Ai had to rethink the way she did everything and she couldn’t count the amount of times she’d dropped something out of sheer clumsiness or simple exhaustion.
Grunting, the alkidike shifted her legs until they were underneath her, doing her best to balance with both arms in slings around her shoulders. With a determined set to her feature’s Ai raised into a crouch, sucking in a hiss as the muscles in her torso contracted. You can do this; you just have to stand, dammit!
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Posted: Thu Apr 29, 2021 4:31 pm
Somehow, despite everything, Ai hadn't murdered her. Because Ai was her name, Lucijah had learned, though only out of grudging necessity and not any sort of affection. Ai was a horrible patient, always pushing before she should, refusing to rest - and when she got sick again, Lucijah suddenly found a grudging respect for her own estranged mother who had always wrangled her so well, though not without complaint.
When Ai snapped, Lucijah smiled at her - but not in the way a dullard would, without a trace of offense. No, her smiles were tight and a bit sharp, but never came with the blade or noose that Ai expected.
All things considered, Lucijah actually found her a more pleasant companion than her previous one. At least this one didn't treat her like a servant - Lucijah had to help her and kow tow a bit, but Ai hated it more than enough for any sort of weird power dynamic to form. If anything, Lucijah was in control, which... was a sobering thought. Having someone's life in your hands.
As a prentice, she'd like it - had even thought having someone rely on you was empowering. Funny.
This time, Lucijah came into the little home they'd come to share burdened with a large pack of supplies - only to see Ai struggling to stand. Just as she'd learned to, the shifter pointedly ignored her efforts, and instead moved around her, dropping her bag next to the many baskets and hanging lines of preserved meats that lined her wall, opening the top of one basket to start depositing the newly gained goods.
"Got some protein today! If you want, we could try to climb down and ... y'know. Burn it and eat it."
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scarlett arbuckle Vice Captain
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Posted: Thu Apr 29, 2021 4:47 pm
The shifter was damnably frustrating.
Ai refused to call her by the name she'd given - Lucijah - and every time her barbed remarks were met with tight lipped smiles Ai was left more incensed than if the woman had outright insulted her. The fact that she had yet to strike left the alkidike confused, if not incredibly tense, and just overall mentally exhausted. She was as capable a caretaker as one could ask for which was something she certainly hadn't, but even through her ire Ai wasn't stupid. She knew that without her help the alk would have passed long ago and that....that burned worse than anything else.
With a cold sweat popping out over her skin, Ai ignored the presence of her 'roommate' in favor of finishing her task. After a shaky inhale Ai grit her teeth and pushed through the pain lancing through her sternum to fully stand. It was incredibly lopsided and uncomfortable as hell, but knowing she had done it herself was beyond validating.
The way she shambled forward off the pallet was reminiscence of a toddler or perhaps even a nightmarish ghoul. "What did you get?" Protein sounded good, though so she wasn't about to say as much. Still, after spending so much time by herself Ai's attention was peaked. "How the hell am I supposed to get down?" When she looked at Lucijah her tired eyes were pinched into a much less feral look and one of pure disdain.
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Posted: Thu Apr 29, 2021 4:57 pm
Well, at least Ai was talking to her. Lucijah flashed a smile, all full of canines and giddiness. "Fresh aldabuck! A caravan came through with a small herd, and one of them broke a leg. I was lucky enough to be there to help dress it, so I got a bit to take."
It was a bit sad, since she thought the creatures were rather cute, but - she also liked meat.
As for the other question - Lucijah didn't seem too put out by the sharp response, and instead fixed Ai with a flat look. "How'd you think I got you up here? You're massive! There's a platform. ... Well, it means you'd have to sit on it and trust I won't drop you, but if you can do that then you can come sit beneath the tree while I cook."
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scarlett arbuckle Vice Captain
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Posted: Thu Apr 29, 2021 5:08 pm
Aldabuck? How long had it been since she'd even heard the word uttered, let alone consumed it's flesh? She vaguely remembered what they looked like from her youth, but beyond a fuzzy mental image of something with horns she was left at a loss. A kill is a kill; doesn't matter what it looks like.
"You should have taken it all." Ai curled her lip and gave the shifter a firm look. "All that muscle and you've squandered it." It was the equivalent of having a quhar that was kept as a house pet and not as the work tool it was meant to be. Why even build herself up like that if she had no plans on using it for something practical? If she was strong enough to lift Ai all this way then she should have been able to handle it easily. "Break the neck at the top of the spine, cut the skin like a wild beast and move on." Faking an accident was basic; had she been taught nothing?
"...even if you drop me I can't get much worse than I already am." It would just be the catalyst she needed to prove once and for all she was being set up. Ai tried to straighten herself a little, failed and settled for a hunched over position that was decidedly more forgiving on her still healing gut. "What do you need?"
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Posted: Fri Apr 30, 2021 11:41 am
[3/10] The shifter blinked at the alkidike, her head tilting more as the normally quiet woman spoke. It sounded like an insult, but behind it Lucijah thought she heard a bit of a compliment, which made her smirk a little, tempted to tease the woman about her back-handed approval of her size, if not her actions. But somehow she resisted, in the name of not antagonizing her guest any more than necessary. "Well, that'd get me an aldabuck now, but the shifters in town'd never wanna work with me again, which would make it hard later." She shrugged, but let the subject drop.
As it was, she was startled enough by Ai's strange brand of trust. After weeks of staring at her suspiciously, now she was just... fine with trusting her? Strange. But Lucijah gave the woman a proud look. It almost like a parent watching one's child be kind for the first time to a stranger.
Or... something. "Oh! Well- yeah, first we just bring walk you to the platform."
Which- was easier said than done. Ai was forced to rely on Lucijah to lean on. They left the nest, and stepped out to where the vine-rope ladder that led down to the jungle floor was. Around the side of the nest, though, was the basket - woven from more vine-rope. It was large enough for two earthlings to sit side by side inside, with their legs dangled beneath them - but for Ai, it was just about her size. It took a bit for Lucijah to get it ready - for the moment, the basket was secured along the canopy, but there was a pulley system (which her people had learned from the Belrean immigrants) that needed to be set up. Jauhar was so humid and rainy that the metal pulleys rusted quickly - so they had to be kept inside, and set up whenever the platform needed to be used.
Before, platforms could be lifted and lowered by a number of shifters working together, but since Lucijah lived alone she had to use this Belrean system to do it herself.
With Ai waiting impatiently, Lucijah climbed overhead, thighs clamped on a thick branch as she ducked down to set the metal pulleys in place, looping thick rope into each. There was one for each corner of the basket, and once set up the vines were lowered down to the ground level.
The act of lowering the alkidike was... tedious, and Lucijah didn't think she'd be up for it as often as Ai would probably like, but maybe getting her out of their living space would improve her mood at least a little? The shifter carefully lowered the basket, legs braced and shoulders and arms thick with corded muscle, carefully lowering her at as smooth a rate as possible so as not to jostle her wounds - but, finally, the basket hit the jungle floor, and Lucijah could release the rope, flexing her hands with a grimace of brief discomfort. "Right - just gimme a minute to get the fire goin'." She panted out, brushing an arm across her lightly sweating fringe.
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scarlett arbuckle Vice Captain
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Posted: Fri Apr 30, 2021 2:02 pm
Ai tried her best to make it to the platform on her own. The alkidike's stubborn pride only got her so far, though and in the end she was forced to rely upon the very thing she wanted to distance herself from. While it wasn't her first time being outdoors after the attack it was the first time she was being encouraged to leave completely and that made the slight breeze pulling at her skin all the sweater. It was warm, with barely enough gusto to make going outside in the sun worth it, but the little taste of freedom was enough to temporarily subdue her.
However, if she had a crystal for every shifter she'd met who thought vine ropes were a universal tool...The specific nature of the platform was new enough to catch the alkidike's attention and through a sharp side eye she watched as Lucijah rigged it all together. There were parts she'd never seen before - bits of metal that didn't look quite like those the yaeli had used - but it was all still similar enough for her to get the gist.
Waiting in the basket to reach the ground was agonizing. Not only because it felt as if it were taking an eternity, but also because each drop, or the simplest shift of the basket, caused Ai to temporarily lose control on her balance. It sent a jolt of unfamiliar anxiety through her which just made the naturally hot tempered alkidike all the more grouchy.
Still, when they reached the ground, Ai pushed through her discomfort to stand. The feeling of terra firma underneath her bare feet for the first time in weeks was enough to still any sort of brutish reaction. She took a hesitant step forward then another and another until she was standing firmly in the longest patch of foliage she could find - which, given the area, wasn't long at all - with her eyes closed.
Ai inhaled deeply, savoring the remnants of the evening and the taste of a late night. Her antennae flickered, stretching out as the rest of her body couldn't to absorb the fresh air.
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Posted: Fri Apr 30, 2021 7:13 pm
[4/10] As Lucijah regained her breath, she paid little attention to what the alk was up to. But... after a few moments, she straightened again and looked, and... had to take a moment to just watch as Ai seemed to revel in the forest floor. Lucijah couldn't imagine what it must feel like, to be in the situation Ai was in - with a stranger, in an unfamiliar place.
As much as she wanted to just watch her in the evening light, Lucijah tugged her gaze away and, instead, set about getting the fire started. Soon, it was blazing and she began skewering the meat, looking at the other woman out of the corner of her eye. "S'good to see you moving around. Probably good to stretch out."
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scarlett arbuckle Vice Captain
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Posted: Mon May 03, 2021 2:22 pm
It would have been so easy to run away in that moment. If she were stronger, if she had her weapons, if her arms had healed already...When Ai opened her eyes and looked out over the landscape she was overcome with the desire to bolt. She'd fought a war, slaughtered countless earthlings, brought her enemies to the brink of sanity and now she found herself turning towards a shifter of all things. You're a disgrace. The growing sense of 'normalcy' that was clinging to her every waking day was baffling. For a beast to resign itself to this was...Well, at some point if she'd had a blade Ai may have taken her own life to spare her pride. In her youth it wouldn't have been a question, but now...
Now she found herself responding.
"I'm not used to this much rest. I'll be glad when the wraps are removed." Ai couldn't even begin to look at her arms. At least one was usable right now, if only in small intervals. The other may as well not even exist. Ai watched Lucijah work and subconsciously took a half-step forward. She could jump her then, she wouldn't expect it; a swift kick to the back and pressure to her head would burn the flesh right off her skull...
"Why is it your clan never visits you? I thought shifters stayed together, like Maglardilla"
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Posted: Mon May 03, 2021 5:09 pm
5/10 It wouldn't be the first time Lucijah had made casual, one-sided conversation with her guest - it helped to fill the silence and, to be completely honest, she was just as likely to talk out loud if she was by herself. Already, she'd focused once again on her task of skewering the meat, crouched as she was next to the fledgling fire.
But. Then, she heard a voice - once that was familiar enough, but was generally rougher than it was in this moment. And it was, easily, the most... verbose... Ai had been with her since they'd met.
Lucijah blinked, glancing quickly at the woman, but let her face turn back to her work when she realized she was being watched. She expected that paying too much attention to the alkidike might make her regret speaking in the first place - when really, Lucijah was elated to have her talking in the first place!
"I know, and 'soon' just isn't soon enough." She mused, shaking her head. She managed to finish up most of the meat (thin sliced as it was, it bunched up like some strange sort of ribbon on the metal Oban-made rods), when Ai spoke again.
If the nosy question bothered her, Lucijah gave no indication of it. Instead, she shrugged a shoulder, flashing a smile at her companion, "Yeah, well. I left home years ago. Went to Oba. Might be back here now, but that doesn't mean I wanna just - go back to how things were either. I like being on my own." Lucijah jammed the end of the first few skewers into the ground, at just the right angle to begin roasting one side of the meat in the fire, lips pursed against her teeth as she debated whether to speak more or not.
"You should be relieved. It's made it easy to hide you out here, with no one snooping around? You excited to get back to your family?"
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scarlett arbuckle Vice Captain
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Posted: Mon May 03, 2021 5:35 pm
Bit by bit the alkidike made her way closer until she was a respectable distance away from the fire. The smell of roasting meat caused her stomach to rumble, Ai's appetite having come back in full force over the past couple of days, and the sight of curling flesh in the firelight brought back some strange memories. Even without giving Lucijah direct eye contact she kept the shifter in her sights at all times. She didn't trust her under the best of circumstances, much less around hot metals and unprepared meats. Ai knew enough about poisons and venom from working with her keldari to trust someone else touching her...food...
How long had it been since she'd seen them?
She curled her lip at the mention of Oba. Seems like all of Jauhar's rejects flock to the desert. "I am. The lack of being awoken to a shifter's blade in my gut has been a welcome surprise." Ai shifted her weight from one hip to another. As much as she was loathe to admit it standing was still a sore spot for her and the alk would need to sit soon. "I can't say I dislike the silence." If anything it meant less people to report her survival and a less likely chance that the others would return to finish her off.
Maybe it was that tiredness that was making her more open, but as Ai finally gave in and started the slow descent to the ground she kept talking. In all honesty it was probably a tactic to keep her mind occupied while her body tried to keep moving. "Family..." Ai shifted her legs under they were crossed in front of her and she was finally able to get semi-comfortable. "My daughter is taken care of, so I'm not worried." At first she wasn't going to mention Fiya at all, but earthlings responded better to children than threats, that much she'd learned. Something else entirely occurred to her as well. "You've lived in Oba...you could lead me across the desert." If she'd been across at least twice by now then she could do it again. She would do it, if Ai had her way. "My sister lives in Oba and I haven't seen her since I was very young. I was trying to find her when I was...attacked."
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Posted: Mon May 03, 2021 5:49 pm
[6/10] As the meat began to cook, Lucijah busied herself assembling a polished wooden board with a few options for side items. Pickled vegetables was one option - another was a somewhat dense loaf of flat naan-like bread, which she tore by hand, not seeming to care about etiquette enough to cut it properly - and a few balls of mashed up starchy, more savory sort of fruit. All of the items came from a bag she'd carried down from the storage baskets upstairs.
Already, she was starving - but after the work out of dragging Ai down here, she was doubly so.
Lucijah snorted and flashed a sharp-toothed grin at the first statement, unable to disagree, and the smile brightened the moment the Alkidike moved to settle down. It felt like a hard won victory, and she felt giddy as she peeked at the near-stranger.
The mention of a child was - a surprise. It probably shouldn't have been, since the woman was clearly old enough and Alkidike, but - she'd somehow imagined a person as sharp as Ai wouldn't ... have children. Then again, her old partner's mother was proof enough that having children didn't always soften a person, so - perhaps she shouldn't have been surprised at all.
The next suggestion, however, definitely startled her. First, Ai was dreading her company, and now--
"Aww. You really do like me." Lucijah teased, winking cheekily at the woman next to her. But she knew better than to try and elbow her, like she was tempted to do- instead, she set about rotating the sticks. "I could. Done it plenty of times before - it pays pretty well, usually." There was a knowing look there - one that said Lucijah was well aware Ai wasn't considering paying her. "Is this sister like you? All flashing blades and death wishes? Am I the one with stabbed guts in my future, if I help you?"
That, and Ai had never disclosed just WHO attacked her in the first place... that would be something to learn, before Lucijah agreed to anything.
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scarlett arbuckle Vice Captain
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Posted: Tue May 04, 2021 5:47 pm
Watching someone else do all the work felt strange. Ever since arriving on Yael Ai's meals had consisted of the basics; warm broths, fire roasted meat and the occasional vegetable. Things like 'pickled vegetables' existed, but not in her home. Anything that took more than a few moments to prepare was deemed a waste of energy since she had bigger concerns on her mind, which left bread pretty much out of the loop. She'd seen it plenty over the years, but eating it just felt...gross. It sat heavy in her mouth and when she chewed it she felt like some sort of prey beast spitting on grass.
"I despise you." It was clear from the way that Ai's lip curled over one fanged tooth that she meant it to her very core. There was absolutely no sarcasm in the tone, but there was a little shocked, if not outright disgusted, surprise. Was Lucijah ill? What had ever given her the impression that Ai was warming up to her? She'd known the shifter was already mentally touched by all the winking and smiling, but Ai had at least thought her healthy enough...
At the mention of payment Ai kept silent, leveling Lucijah with a look that mirrored the shifter's own. They both knew damn well that even if the alk had money Lucijah wouldn't receive a drop of it. "No, she isn't like me at all. She is...softer." She settled with a growl. "You wouldn't find trouble with her." She may even wash your feet for you and follow you like a whipped radaku.
"...It would be difficult to stab you without my swords." Ai responded cooly. Of course there were other ways she could kill a shifter, she knew of many, and it wasn't as if she couldn't find something new to stab her with too.
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Posted: Thu Jun 17, 2021 1:51 pm
[7/10]
Ah, well. Even if Ai didn't enjoy her jesting, Lucijah did. She hummed and shrugged her shoulder, conveying just how little she was affected by Ai's disdain. Still, she paused in her work and raised her eyebrows at Ai, sitting back and resting her wrist against her knee. "Oh, I'm sure you'd manage, somehow." She said, almost as if reading Ai's mind. Once again, she wondered why she was doing this - helping such a feral thing, who likely would turn around and slay her then laugh at how foolish she'd been to help her in the first place.
She really couldn't help herself - she'd always been weak for strays. "So you hate my guts, would kill me in a second if you had the chance, and have already almost died once from some group of people who clearly don't like you. You're gonna have to give me a reason to help you across the desert." Lucijah went back to cooking and, finding it done, removed the spit from the fire,. stabbing the ends into the dirt to cool. She distractedly licked some of the dripping juices from her fingers as she moved to sit more comfortably.
"What are you gonna do when you find your sister?"
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scarlett arbuckle Vice Captain
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Posted: Tue Jun 22, 2021 4:30 pm
Ai chose her next words carefully. The shifter had the right of it; if given the chance she would disembowel the other woman and create a soup bowl from her skull. Still, she needed help, as loathe as she was to admit it, and that would require sacrifice.
"She owes me an explanation." Lying to Lucijah at this point would only prolong the inevitable, so Ai chose a more abrupt method. "When we were younger the two of us fought on opposing sides of the war. She should have stood by my side, but she made her loyalties clear the moment she chose a male over her own blood." The alkidike's tone was absolutely scathing. Even years after the fact she was still consumed by a rage that had yet to quell. There were so many things she could over look and adapt too, but the betrayal...that ran deep.
"I want what is owed to me."
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