Poison Testing with Esh [8/9] Accursed Dev

[13:21] Ardith says, "So. I talked to Ark a lil' about this thing."
[13:22] Eshmun Hirai asks, "Yeah?"
[13:22] Ardith says, "He didn't know much, but it's strange. He said he wasn't able to affect it with his nature magic like he might do other things."
[13:22] Ardith says, "This type of thing is apparently known for being pretty stubborn."
[13:22] Eshmun Hirai asks, "Oh?"
[13:22] Ardith says, "Yeah."
[13:22] Ardith says, "See. The /idea/ was."
[13:23] Ardith says, "That if the poison didn't melt my insides, to attach it to my arm so I could sorta' drain its essence."
[13:23] Ardith says, "If that makes any sense to you."
[13:23] Ardith says, "Because of my mutations, and a lil' clever rune work, I can metabolize occult energy like demons do."
[13:25] Ardith says, "Not possible, apparently. I got another idea, but it depends on whether or not this turns my giblets to soup."
[13:26] Ardith says, "-Not possible to make it grow around my arm, I mean."
[13:27] Eshmun Hirai asks, "So you want to make this poisonous occultic thing grow around your arm, then use it less as a poison and more as a constant tonic to your occultic prowess?"
[13:27] Ardith exclaims, "Bingo!"
[13:28] Ardith says, "So I could metabolize it by contact."
[13:28] Ardith says, "But as it is it's a big bulky branch and I'm still not sure it's going to not be terrible for me."
[13:30] Ardith asks, "So that's step one. And where I need your help, right?"
[13:30] Ardith says, "And since I won't be able to have it grow around my arm, since this thing's stupid fuckin' stubborn. I got another idea I want to run by you."
[13:31] Ardith says, "Again, provided this doesn't murder me."
[13:38] Eshmun Hirai says, "Provided it definitely doesn't do that."
[13:38] Ardith says, "Yeah."
[13:39] Ardith says, "Provided that ain't happen."
[13:39] Ardith asks, "That's why I got one of Agartha's finest alchemists with me, right?"
[13:39] Eshmun Hirai exclaims, "Of course!"
[13:40] Eshmun Hirai says, "But first, mind tossing me the shard? I actually plan to give one of these to Tahl."
[13:40] Ardith says, "Oh, 'course."
[13:40] Ardith says, "What's she need it for?..."
[13:40] Ardith says, "Figured she was on the opposite end."
[13:40] {Item} You drop Celestial Gemshard.
[13:41] Eshmun Hirai says, "You know...She probably is, but I do feel you could probably 'purify' these."
[13:41] Ardith says, "Pfft..."
[13:41] Ardith asks, "I guess?"
[13:41] Ardith says, "Sounds lame though."
[13:41] Eshmun Hirai says, "Sounds lame, even though everyone hates on Belial."
[13:41] Eshmun Hirai says, "At least he has a cool name."
[13:43] Ardith says, "You won't catch me worshipping the guy, but I ain't see the big deal."
[13:47] With their now dominant hand, fleshy fingers reached out to take hold of the belial gemshard from Ardith. Upon touching it however, a strange tingling sensation overtook his being. It was peculiar, something that he could ignore and continue doing something else with. But as their fingers fully captured the thing, the golden smiling ring on their finger began glinting. Its diamond smile seemed almost real, as in disbelief, he watched it slowly grow out of the ring.

"What in the..." Their voice stilled, as they actually didn't feel a single need to stop it from doing what it was doing, which ended up being the diamond teeth wrapping around the shard and...Eating it? Bits were crunched off, the belial shard vanishing rather quickly into the ring, never to be seen again.

"...Shit." Was their only word said as their eyes looked up at Ardy, confused, but not panicked in the least.
(Eshmun Hirai)
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[13:50] Ardith stares in dumb, silent fascination as she watches Eshmun's rather gaudy, macabre ring come to life. Its fangs enlarge, engulf the shard and then...

It's gone.

"Wh...what the fuck is that?" she whispers, drawing in close to inspect the sinister trinket.

"Fuck, I thought I had the market cornered on hinky jewelry."
(Ardith)
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[13:50] Eshmun Hirai asks, "So...remember that expedition?"
[13:52] Ardith says, "Yeah. The one you ain't invite me on. Hmf."
[13:52] Eshmun Hirai says, "We ended up meeting a 'collector' of rare things."
[13:52] Eshmun Hirai says, "For now lets portray him as the avatar of Greed, named Avarice."
[13:53] Eshmun Hirai says, "Through defeating him, then selling something to him, we all were given one thing of his."
[13:53] Eshmun Hirai says, "This was his 'ring'."
[13:54] Eshmun Hirai says, "And it just ate the belial shard."
[13:55] Eshmun Hirai says, "I think I'll need to check this thing out later."
[13:56] Eshmun Hirai asks, "Shall we ignore the interesting ring and get on to melting your insides though?"
[13:59] Ardith says, "Avatar of...Greed."
[13:59] Ardith says, "What the fuck."
[14:00] Ardith says, "Uh...Yeah. Sorry."
[14:00] Ardith asks, "So. You need to get anything prepped before I stab myself with this thing?"
[14:00] Eshmun Hirai says, "Pff."
[14:00] Eshmun Hirai says, "You shouldn't be sorry, I'm the one with the sudden eating ring."
[14:00] Eshmun Hirai says, "Honestly, seeing that makes me want to feed it more things...But I have a feeling its picky, seeing as it has only just now eaten something."
[14:01] Eshmun Hirai says, "Mmm..."
[14:02] Eshmun Hirai says, "I'll have stuff to be able to save you, I've got an assortment."
[14:09] Ardith casts another curious glance over the bit of Eshmun's jewelry. But hey. Questions can wait. One thing at a time. She turns towards the little box, props up the hinged lid, and grabs the branch by one of its less thorny parts.

"Alrighty. Now. Let's see how we wanna tackle this..."

The safest route would be to prick her finger with one of the thorns. Or rub some of the sap on her gums. There are a couple of safe, logical ways to go about it.

Those are boring ways and evidently none of them suit her, because she wraps one hand around the far more spiny portions and clenches it into a fist.

Occultic poison is immediately transferred from the thorny branch and into her bloodstream. The delivery method is sure as Hel swift enough. Her pupil's shrink to little pin pricks, tiny motes.

What's worse is her breathing seems to stop entirely. Her heart doesn't. It hammers at top speed like she's running a marathon; the Accursed drops to a knee, clutching at the armor over her heart.

That might have been a poor decision.
(Ardith)
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[14:18] Across from the accursed testing their body, Eshmun seemed oddly rather calm, watching them inject their body with the occultic poison. When their pupils shrunk and their breathing worsened, he actually wasn't feeling any 'need' to help in a speedy manner. Instead of possibly rushing to inject them with something, he instead, slowly began to reach into a nearby chest.

"Having issues breathing?" Their amber-hued eyes looked upon Ardith, discerning the immediate effects. No breathing, a rapidly beating heart. It was signs of poison, for sure, but was it signs for concern to the magi? Strangely not.

"As long as it only stopped your breathing, you should be fine...Though that heartbeat can be a problem, I think you'll be fine, as long as it doesn't get too much faster." While they spoke, slow decisions were being made...Should he just go with the age-old Lax Essence cure-all, or toss her a Magibane to fight the poison in her body?

This was a great decision.
(Eshmun Hirai)
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[14:25] Eshmun Hirai says, "iz aight"
[14:25] It's a sudden and immediate shock to her system. Given that the worst she's ever dealt with as far as foreign substances is booze and reed? It's no wonder. At some point she's let go of the branch, which is probably for the best since it won't be injecting more poison into her.

That's a good part of the battle is adjusting to the sudden rush of adrenaline, the spike of panic and energy that courses through her system as her heart beats faster and faster. The Accursed is used to depressants, downers, and she just got a huge face full of occultic uppers. Punched right in the jaw with it.

Her breath returns with a sharp gasp, ragged at first as she gulps air and her lungs get back to work, remembering what they're meant for. Her heart hammers and labors like it's going to burst.

She's not dead though.

"Hoooo fuck. What the shit," she swears, struggling to regain her bearings.
(Ardith)
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[14:37] As breathing begins sounding once again, their hands stopped messing with things in the chest. Looks like it was as he thought, the poison wasn't life-threatening to the accursed, at least that dose wasn't. All thoughts on rage potions, lax essence, and healing potions were tossed to the back of his mind.

"How does your insides feel? So far you don't seem to be melting." Speaking aloud, a smile obvious in their voice, he went into his nearby herb chest and removed some sinka, poppy, and soothe reed.

With just a small movements, bits of each were torn off, and in his hand was now about a teaspoon of dust. Taking a nearby jar, they filled it with some water, threw the powder inside, mixed it up, and held it out to Ardith.

"Drink it, you look like you need a pick-me up and something to push away a bit of the pain."

Though they saw the nearby branch dripping poison onto his carpet, which was sizzling...Eshmun was actually quite a bit against touching it, only for the reason his ring had eaten a gemshard not too long ago.
(Eshmun Hirai)
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[14:41] "No...Fuck. No. Not melting," she curses again. With a shaky hand she takes the offered tonic. It gets shaken up in transit to her mouth, but it goes down with little issue.

The blessed concoction smooths out the sudden case of jitters she's wracked with, making the tremor in her limbs more tolerable as the poison works its way out of her system.

She gives her head a vigorous shake, rivaled only by a Labrador that's just dredged itself up from a long swim. Oof.

"That was. That was somethin' else."

Words fail her, as they often do. All she does otherwise is stare down at the poisonous branch that sizzles away unhindered on the carpet.
(Ardith)
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[14:46] Slowly they'd move closer to Ardith, and a small pat on the horns is given to the head shakes. Motioning to the nearby table, he'd pretty much just be trying to get her to take a seat, "Come on, take a seat, or lay down in the bed, alright?"

Taking their own seat on one of the cushions, his sights would settle upon the sizzling branch, "You can deal with picking that up after you calm down and all the poison has left your system...Don't want those jittery hands grabbing the barbs and then shaking them into the skin again." Already they'd be hand-brewing the horrible tasting medicinal reed tea they always brewed.

Which for a water, fire magi? That was pretty easy to do with no instruments but a kettle.

"Did you not expect it to feel that way? Just so you know, I was actually literally waiting for your organs to start failing before I was going to save you."
(Eshmun Hirai)
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[14:52] A seat and rest sounds ideal, even given her usual inclinations. Her pupils are still far too small and her eyes unfocused. She heaves herself up and onto one of the plush cushions at the table across from Eshmun.

"Yeah, yeah. Jeez. No. I had no idea what it was gonna do," she confesses.

"I just knew the thing made people who ain't occult sick near it. Didn't think it would do that."

It hadn't been exactly painful. Just shocking. Very shocking and unexpected. That's what she gets for grabbing it whole hog though. Hopefully Eshmun doesn't mind a little blood on his nice floor pillows. Whoopsies.

"So. We've confirmed...that it's not gonna melt my organs. That's pretty fuckin' great."
(Ardith)
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[14:58] "We definitely now know it won't melt your organs...But if you hold onto that thing for long enough, more then likely you'll end up seizing and having issues from that." Fingers slowly tapped against the table while thoughts slowly spread through his mind.

No issues were found with the bleeding on the floor pillows, since...They were already having to replace the carpet already anyways. That's if he cared to actually replace it that is.

"Which means you can use this for ink to place upon yourself, or you can try to make a tonic out of it...Or do what you kind of already planned on doing, the whole 'bracelet' ordeal. Just would need to have it crafted in a way that it would only go into you when you want it to. Though you could do that after getting used to the kick it gives."
(Eshmun Hirai)
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[15:05] "Yeeeaaah...I can see that. Y'know. Becoming a problem," she remarks, glancing back to where the branch is on the floor. Minding its own business, as even occultic branches tend to do.

"Do you think you could...combine it with a potion I already got, actually? Ink's an idea, sure. But I ain't want to shove too much into one pot of ink. Guess I could do it in layers..."

There's a thought. She regains her wits and gears slowly start to churn as she ponders. The Accursed pulls out another goody, a potion gained from the upper markets, and sets it beside Eshmun's tea set.

"Got this bad boy. I've been thinking of what to do with it."
(Ardith)
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[15:05] {Item} You drop Power Potion.
[15:12] {Item} You picked up Power Potion. Dropped by Ardith. .
[15:12] Without even asking, he picked up the potion and began looking it all over. Quietly he'd tilt their head in curiosity, "Well to be honest...Not actually too sure what this thing is even, I cant even tell whats been put into it." Curious he popped the cork off and gave its contents a sniff.

It was musky, but...No discernable reagents actually popped out to the alchemist, "It definitely at least looks rather useful, what is it for?" Corking it up once again, they placed it down onto the table, for the accursed to take back.

"Also you say too much into one pot of ink...But this thing plus that horn, might be an interesting intense occultic combination." As they were talking about it did a sudden remembrance hit him!

Brightly smiling their eyes lit up, "I almost forgot to tell you about this! During the expedition, we went through an Illyothian Rift Gate! It had runes like yours spread across multiple stones, that all attached to one another and created a 'rift'. It was an impressive sight."
(Eshmun Hirai)
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[15:19] "I ain't understand a whole lot about it, honestly. The seller just said it increases someone's rate of magical growth for...say. About a year? Figure if we can juice it up with occultism, that'll just make it better for me, right?"

She's got no idea how it technically works, but surely in her mind it all makes sense.

"Well, I'd have to test how the two even interact if I went that route. Just because it's all occult ain't mean it'll play nice together if I put it into ink. What's more is Ark warned me about runic tattoos needing to be reeeeaaaal specific.

"As much as blowing myself up cuz of a tattoo sounds awesome on paper, I enjoy living."

Her interest is piqued again, and for good reason.

"Yeah? Illyothian rift gate? Did you take notes? I've sort of been...looking into the art. Purely for scholarly reasons."

Ardith does not need another reason in the open for the world to stab her and hoist her up on a crucifix.
(Ardith)
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[15:27] "It increases your rate of magical growth?...That's actually amazing in multiple different ways." It was something unheard of to the alchemist, but also something extremely welcomed. This was an avenue, one that he wanted to always at least learn more about.

"I understand that...Need to do tests before actually putting together a true ink." Smiling they gave a brief nod, pouring a cup of tea for their self, "Living should be the first thing on your list, and also...I didn't take any notes, at the time we were rather rushed and couldn't actually memorize anything. Since it was a 'lot'." No immediate words were placed upon the 'Scholarly reasons', as a guest had entered the back room.

Which quickly he went and got togetherthe supplies needed for a certain potion, which would be tossed their way.
(Eshmun Hirai)