On the shrieking ship of Shriekpot...
Sigmund, seeing the strangely portal-like fellow arrive, tries to logically deduce who it might be.
"It's strange, nobody usually goes inside of a ship and begins to dance out of nothing. And his clothes make things even stranger, but I have an idea."
He strolls up to the man and advances a question.
"Excuse me, sir, do you know that fellow there called Craig?" he asks, pointing to the tailor and his bags of assorted stuff slowly coming toward the gangplank.
"I'm Kevin, creepy vampire guy and artist master guy. It took me long enough to get here. That portal thingie dumped me in Emlocke," Kevin answers, not a fan of roundabout identity confirmation. Sigmund, pleasantly surprised at the lack of pretense, goes ahead and gives him some exposition for his trouble.
"Are you really Kevin? I see that you were really lucky in your transformation, not only you look like a normal fellow now, but you can also speak!. Let me tell you what has changed in the time you were absent. After a transmutation accident in which Niklas lost his body and was attached to a giant catfish, I think you can guess who was responsible for the last part, he swore to take revenge from Erin, so he was promptly transformed into that chair in which tree-head in now sitting. And also Morton has arms now, and Tailor Craig has joined our group, but we can't speak about our master's true nature to him, or anybody. We are currently waiting the rest of them to depart, so there are not may interesting things to do now, so you can relax."
As he finishes speaking, he notices Tailor Craig go up to the Artiste and ask something. The Artiste nods and starts showing him around the ship.
"Oh, cool. Where is Morton?"
"He is brewing some tea for the toymaker who made him arms, he should be back soon, I hope."
Kevin seems okay with this, so Sigmund heads to the crew quarters to find Art. Fortunately, the necromancer is wide awake right now, and is just exiting his quarters. Sigmund approaches him quickly.
"I have to ask you two questions related to souls and that stuff. The first is if emotions are only able to be experienced by beings with souls, and the second one is if plants do naturally have them. You would be amazed to know the origin of these questions."
"Well, that's- wait, who are you, anyway? And what are you doing here?"
In a toymaker's kitchen...
Morton, still lacking in feedback, takes a look at his handiwork by just grabbing the pot and looking inside.
Hm... well, it's definitely not quite up to a high standard. A bit too watery and colorless for that. It really needs work, Morton thinks, as it isn't really presentable to anybody who knows a thing about tea in this state. It probably needs more tea leaves in it, a little more heat, and some time. Too bad Morton has no sense of smell or taste, though.
In Karina's home...
Darren, flattered into compliance, assumes a tone of somewhat false modesty.
"Glamorous adventurer huh? I don't know about that..." he says, thinking for a bit.
"Well, I guess I'll just tell you the tale of how I ended up trespassing in your home."
Karina leans in, listening intently.
"Well, by then, I had been a ghost for maybe a few hours. I thought I was doing pretty well, got into a band, on account of my, apparently quite impressive ghostly wailing. After the band... Fell apart, I guess, I hooked up with some old associates, and we went to finish our job. This place though, was pretty weird. There's a pit that looks like it goes on for eternity, and floating above it, a house. Not some evil castle or anything, just a house. A pretty nice house, but that was all it was. I went in there, and something came towards me. Something strong. It reached inside my brain, tried to mess with me, but one of my partners shot some magic at me, and the house. Whatever was in there was blown off, and I rejoined them. Right after that, however, monsters we couldn't even see poured out from it, as did the monster that came from the house. We fought, but the monster took ahold of me again. With that, I did all I could, and prayed to Velusius. I was called into his presence, and we struck a deal. He would remove the monster, but I had to do him a favor, and get the Crown of Flowers for him. He dropped me just outside of the town this lies under, I came into the town, then down here, into your home."
"That's what happened. You got any interesting tales?"
Karina is surprised by the request.
"Do I have any interesting tales? Well... maybe. You'll have to be the judge. Now... where to begin?"
She flits around uncertainly, occupied with concentrated thoughts about storytelling, no doubt.
"I guess I'll tell you the story of this guy named Terry. He lived here once, a long time ago, actually, when we were all still... well, mostly regular people. He soon moved to live in one of the engineer neighborhoods, but he didn't do any of that magic stuff that they did, he just inherited the house from his grandfather, who was one of the crazier guys around in those parts. So when he moved into the neighborhood, he was kind of a fish out of water - all around him were mages, and the neighborhood was certainly the weirdest place in the city - you'd get giant metal insects marching about and doing the strangest things, occasionally one of the nearby houses would explode, only to be reconstructed the next day, and sometimes even the layout of the entire part of the town would change overnight. And his own house, it was like living inside an engine, he told me. There were all these moving parts, big red buttons, all unlabeled, of course, plus he said that sometimes he thought the house was talking to him. Still, he had to take care of the place. He thought he'd stay there for a while until he could sell it to the other guys who'd hopefully know what to do with it, then maybe buy a house in a more normal location."
She sighs.
"Well, suffice it to say that things got weirder with him - he told me when I met him that he'd been exploring the house, studying the buttons. And then he started talking about how he thought the house really was talking to him, particularly when he laid down to bed. Sang him lullabies, apparently. And he had once even carried on a conversation with it. Or her. He seemed to think the house is a she. I was kinda concerned about his health at that point, because I think he actually whirred at me once when we talked, and it was kinda like a mechanical laugh in a way. Creeped me out quite a bit. Then I didn't see him for a while, like about half a year or so, and when I saw him next at the market, I hardly recognized the guy. I think he was mostly made of metal, and he clicked with every move. I was going to step away from him quickly, but he noticed me and came up to say hello."
Her eyes widen and she shakes her head in recalled disbelief.
"He told me that he had married Lizzie, and I asked who that was. He said he was living with her, had been for at least a year. Apparently there was a kid on the way, even. I was kinda happy for him at first, but then, as we talked further, I realized he was talking about the house. Then I kinda took a step back and asked if he was talking about the house, and he launched this spiel at me about how looks aren't everything and whatnot, and how he loves her honestly and truly. We kinda... parted in an awkward fashion then, and I haven't spoken to him since, before or after my... well... expiration. I think he might still be living in that neighborhood, and when I passed by once, I think I saw this little metallic... well, creature run inside after there was this odd creak from the house. I then walked away - I didn't really want to find out more, being weirded out enough. That was the last time I wandered into the engineered neighborhood, and things only got weirder in the other neighborhoods from there on in."
"Well, that's kind of a story, right? What do you think?" she asks Darren.
In the streets of Shriekpot...
Willing minion in tow, Scott heads back to the ship!
"I'll show you where to carry it to, need to get some money, then we'll go to the pub."
"Yes, of course."
They reach the ship shortly, though only an unfamiliar weirdo and a reclining Mark are in sight currently, which Scott find mildly inconvenient.
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Topic: Life Begins At Death - Epilogue: We Live And Live Again (Read 561923 times)