At the Ulubelle...As the guards leave,
Scott tries to get his arms to work again!
He is pleased when he realizes he's got one fully functional arm! The other, though, is broken in far too many places to be good for much. Maybe he needs a replacement. Still, he helps
Sigmund up and walks over to
Mark, who appears to have come to the conclusion that the trail is cold as winter in Freezebottom. Against his better judgment, he indicates his lack of a jaw to the tree-headed skeleton.
Mark gets the message well enough, taking Scott back inside and shoving him into a seat. Ah, there's not as many bodies as he would have hoped, but he supposes that might be enough. Time for the daily body harvest.
It's too bad that the materials aren't very inspiring here. The three dead drunkards have very little in terms of teeth or reasonably nice faces, the dead guards appear to have been smashed in a great many places that make their bodies unattractive prospects as well... only thing left is the Madam. Guess he'll use her bits, then.
[Mark "medicine" roll: 4+1]
He removes the Madam's rather interesting jaw with his surgeon's tools and adds it somewhat seamlessly to Scott's face, then uses some of the proprietor's bones to replace the ones in Scott's arms. In but a few moments, Scott is perfectly serviceable again, if a bit weird-looking with that womanly jaw. Fits well enough, he guesses. Okay, next up is... aw, poor
Sigmund! Look at him try to carry his arm in his teeth! It's rather cute, Mark thinks. He goes over to the vampire, pats him on the back and forces him to take a seat as he tries to make it all better.
[Mark "medicine" roll: 6+1]
As he takes a look at Sigmund's arms, an idea arrives in his foliage-covered head. Sure, he could do things the easy way. Sewing the arm back on? Eh, that's nothing. It's gruntwork, like what he did for Scott. Not
artistic, one might say. Mark gives Sigmund a sidelong glance as he quickly retrieves the rope belt of one of the drunkards and silently runs over to Scott, throwing a loop around him and securing him around the chair he sits in by the legs. Then he takes another bit of rope and ties the fellow down by the gut. Can't have him try to run away, after all. With the subject secured, Mark sets to work. First he removes the arms of the three drunkards on the ground, then their heads - one was already conveniently decapitated, fortunately. He then picks up the arm of the Madam he hasn't de-boned yet and the least broken of the guard's arms, fixing the latter with bits he scavenged from the rest of the place. Finally, he also removes the heads of the three dead guards. Sigmund uneasily wiggles in his tightly wound ropes as he realizes that whatever's about to happen, it's unlikely to be good for the mind.
Mark then sits down in front of Sigmund. It's better to let the subject see the process, after all. And boy, does Sigmund see more than what he bargained for. Mark begins attaching arm to arm, slicing and perfecting the seams until you hardly know that they're there. Eventually he's prepared two branching, fleshy arms, utilizing the fattest drunkard's arms as a base to which he can attach the other ones - some at the bicep, some at the elbow, some at the forearm. When those are ready, he goes about the final step, wherein he begins attaching the removed heads to the arms, making sure to keep up a reasonable degree of seamlessness.
At the end of it, Mark shows to Sigmund the result of his work - the heads are now attached to the arms, resembling ripe, horrified apples on a tree. When he's allowed Sigmund a moment to appreciate the work, he attaches the arms to his stumps rather easily, then unties Sigmund.
Sigmund is pretty sure that he can fully control these things - every last bit of them, including the heads. It feels incredibly weird. Not to mention that their brains appear to work as well, which somewhat disturbs Sigmund. It's almost as if there's six other people in there with him, though their thoughts aren't very intense.
Sigmund now has
Flesh Apple-Tree Arms!
Unfortunately,
Niklas is not here to appreciate Mark's work, as he has gone off to the shrieking ship, broken arms and disappointed rage in tow.
At the shrieking ship of Shriekpot...As he stands and considers the path ahead,
Morton looks back a moment. After all, that's what you're supposed to do to appreciate how far you've come.
What he sees, though, is Niklas coming his way in a dejected fashion, his arms hanging limply, his weaponry missing, his only friend having abandoned him. He is a humiliated man, but far from defeated. As he approaches the ship, Morton attains a partial understanding of the man's misfortune, and that is almost enough to make him cry. Though that's only because he isn't sure his tear ducts actually work.
"Oh dear! What happened to you, chef Niklas? Are you quite alright?"Well, he clearly isn't, so it's not even all that relevant that Niklas says nothing. He approaches the Artiste.
"I need you to kill some people for me in the most painful way possible. Do this and I'll make some more human stew for you.""Human stew sounds good, buddy! Who do you need dead, then?""Is there a way to help him back to normal? Heal him?""Sure, I guess. Not a problem. Just ask Erin.""Ah, REVENGE! Quite the FINE MOTIVATOR, if I MAY SAY SO MYSELF!"Down below there is yet another extremely loud magical discharge as the ship trembles briefly. A moment later, Erin, still glowing brightly, walks out of the ship, followed closely by Evelyn.
"Right, then, got mosta yer requests down, now for the ship weaponry. What kind would ya prefer? I'm familiar with a few. I swear, the best part about studyin' transmutation is all the engineering courses."
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Topic: Life Begins At Death - Epilogue: We Live And Live Again (Read 562606 times)