Cleaning and a proposal
Well, they may have neglected stating some working hours, but you might as well get to work. You take your sword and shield, and notice something's... off about your shield. The part where the bog unicorn nuzzled is covered in a very short bits of moss. It's green and very soft, and it doesn't look like it'll do anything bad to the shield. And, of course, trying to scratch it off proves to be nearly impossible and rather dirty work. You'd need some proper tool for that. You shrug and go outside, after telling your father you're off to work. He mumbles something, being somewhat dazed from waking, but he gives a thumbs up in-between his yawns, so he probably understood. The moment you step outside you notice that there are a lot less people here in the morning than anywhere else in the city. It's honestly weird to see the streets completely empty, and it gives you a lonely feeling. That changes as soon as you reach the more reputable parts of town, however, as people of all sorts are wandering already. Dogs, too. Many people seem to be walking their dogs, bringing them to the patches of nature so they can relieve themselves. It's usually little more than a small square containing a tree, but it's preferable to just having it on the street. On that note, you realize that there hasn't been any rain to warrant the puddles in the refugee districts.
Ew.
Most of the walk is uneventful. You can cut through quite easily from the market to the nobles' district. People don't even look up all that much when they see you, although some people still stare. You adjust some of the belts on your costume as it still makes you a little self-conscious, but it doesn't really bother you that much. In the nobles' district, there is absolutely nothing walking around. Most of the windows are closed, as well. It's a bit odd, does nobody do anything in the morning here? When you reach the tower, you see the door has grown a face that is currently intoning your name as you come closer.
Apparently, people HAVE been busy in the morning. You open the door and walk through, too tired to really care about the door's opinion on the matter. It grunts a little, but it doesn't seem that affected by your action. Looking around, nothing seems too out of place, apart from a small bed of flowers in the left side of the room. You need to get your cleaning supplies, but meanwhile...
Your lizard and your mouse are on clean-up duty for the flowers. They tear into it, ripping the flowers out of the stone and mulching them with their teeth. You'll clean up the compost when you get to the bottom. As you go upstairs, some new faces are seen in the tower. Men in white robes are experimenting with a collection of animal parts on the floor for necromancy and similar things. They wore strange bird-masks, but seemed quite harmless as they moved around the room. One of them stops to stare at you from behind his staring mask. It creeps you right the hell out, as those masks are a bit... creepy, when you look at them.
When you reach the top, the door is already open. Kasimor is working behind his desk, and doesn't even look up when you enter the room. It looks like he's writing something, quite furiously from the look of things. Eventually, you cough to get his attention. He doesn't react, but he does speak to you, while still writing his letter. With a disinterested voice, he tells you to get your supplies from the closet with the mirror on it, and to disregard anything the mirror displays. You find it an odd statement, but you walk towards the cabinet anyways. When you stand in front of the mirror, however, it becomes clear why you shouldn't pay attention to what's displayed. A disturbing reflection of you is visible, with red, swollen flesh and sharp teeth poking through the skin. You make a noise in disgust, and open up the cabinet. Inside, you have a mop, a full bucket of clear water (somehow?), a dustpan, and an ordinary broom. They look rather simple, mostly. You also spot a sponge inside the water bucket. You shrug, and put most of the stuff on your back, using your ample behind to store most things. You carry the bucket yourself, however. Wouldn't want to spill any water of Kasimor's carpets. When you close the cabinet again, the mirror shows you a different image. It looks like you, if you were ten years younger. Your hair's in pigtails, and you look really cute. The outfit's a bit strange though, as you never, ever wore a ballgown.
You decide to start working from the top of the tower, and to then go to the bottom. Your first stop is the room with the aquarium and massive humidity. There's very little to sweep here, so you just mop up some of the puddles, of which there are very few. The ceiling, however, could likely use a dusting. You crawl up the wall, holding your broom, and then begin sweeping the ceiling while hanging from it. It still makes you a little uncomfortable to hang upside down like this, as you're working against gravity itself using little more than what must be existing magic in your system. Normal spiders hang using the hairs on their legs, but your legs are covered in smooth carapace. And yet, you can hang just fine. It's probably best not to think about it too hard. There isn't that much dust here, though, as the humidity seems to prevent too much of a dust build-up. The stone is damp, and you have little more work than cleaning out a spider's nest in a corner. The little guy sprints away into a hole in the wall, and you don't care enough to pursue it. As long as it doesn't make its webs in visible spots, you're fine with 'em. You're finished fairly soon. This couldn't have taken more than around half an hour. You crawl back to the ground, and shake your head to clear away the dizziness from hanging upside-down. One floor down, seven to go.
The animal room is a downright mess. The rabbit/turtle thing from yesterday is gone, but it left quite a collection of scales, from the looks of it. There's also the piercing aroma of dung in this room, and you find a couple piles of the stuff. You use your dustpan to gather them, and throw them in the bin in the back of the room. Cleaning up poop isn't as bad as it sounds, apart from the smell. Just a couple nuggets you really don't want to touch, is all. After that, the real work begins. There's dust everywhere, so you start with that. You start by scrubbing the ceiling, so you can gather it off the floor later. The dust buildup isn't nearly as bad as on the ground, but it still needs to happen. After loosening the whole ceiling, taking the occasional break to deal with being upside down, you get to work getting all the dust in one pile. You start humming a little song that doesn't really go anywhere as you gather it up in a corner. You'll have to come back with a bin or something, later. You were about to start mopping the floors, when one of bird mask fellows appears. He walks close to you, soundlessly. He wears a long, covering cloak, obscuring most of his features, and the long beak of his mask is very distracting. You keep an eye on his, and then he gestures for you to follow him. Considering that he's a wizard, and you're a cleaner, you decide to just follow him. It's probably important.
He brings you to the room where a group of his colleagues are at work with animal parts. They all work soundlessly, the only sounds being the billowing of their cloaks and the occasional sawing of flesh or bone. It's a very, very creepy situation. The one who brought you here coughs, and reveals that he is either very young, or a woman. The rest look you over, to what end is a mystery to you. Eventually, one of them speaks. He is wearing a darker robe than the others, and his mask is slightly different, bearing a greenish tinge and a shorter beak. His voice is rather raspy.
You have been dabbling in interesting things. We would like some small samples from you. We will heal you up, and you will be very well compensated. He has already grabbed a scalpel, and his colleagues are standing all around you. This went from creepy to nightmarish.
Try to leave.You don't need to answer to this. You don't ask people for things while holding a scalpel.Politely refuse.You've got work to do, and you're not entirely comfortable with giving out pieces of yourself.Accept the offer.This is free extra payment, for pretty much nothing! Not to mention, they could help you with your magic or even removing your mark.Other.Level: 4
HP: 19/20
Mana: 8/8
Stress:45/100
Equipment:
Drider Shirt
Items:
Around 88 coins
Steel sword
Mossy iron shield
Old shirt
Leather armor(rough)
Magic:
Resurrect vermin: Allows you to resurrect very small creatures such as rats(1) (invests 1 of your max mana)
Reshape minion: Allows you to slightly change the appearance of your resurrected minions. (//.......) <== advancement bar
Minion Vision(weak): Allows you to see what a minion sees. The minion must have eyes.
Skills:
Poison Stinger (Potentially lethal)
Major experience in blocking and swords.
Climber
Crafty: Bolas
Cooking skill: excellent
Corpse Cutting: Awful.
Animal handling: inexperienced.
Author
Topic: Web of Life: A Drider's Adventure (Ended) (Read 189879 times)