2023.03.29 A Lovely... Drinking?

2023.03.29 A Lovely... Drinking?
Wulfra happens to stumble upon a certain Trish's lair
IC Date	03.29.23
IC Time	Afternoon/Night
Players	Wulfra, Trishna
Location	Windstorm Isle - Cliffside Forest
Spheres	Bygone

After presumably sneaking up onto the island... be it via air as her vulture-like bird form or via waterin her newly learned water-dragon form... Wulfra finds Sark to be nowhere around, and thus decides to spend her time exploring the rest of the isle a bit. Never having ventured into its forest... and having taken quite a liking to forests as of late... she meanders into it in her proper dragon form since it's well-covered. She sniffs around, staring and analyzing the various plants and animals therein.

Trish was back on the Island after a few days in the city. The food had run out, after all, and Sark certainly wasn't going to help her feed the rats....Deep in the forest there is a cavern carved into the face of a large hill, the mouth of which gapes and looms in the shadows of a heavily overgrown thicket of trees...A strong nose, however, might detect a /strong/ concentration of life within. Rats. Hundred and hundreds of rats. Cages on cages on cages of rats, hundreds of pounds worth of food stacked up in large sacks. This lay a few hundred feet within the cave, scattered about, a table and three chairs placed in the center of the 'room' which was just a large chamber within the cavern. Trishna is pacing around, hand feeding the rats. One Pellet at a time, whispering sweet little nothings to them as they chitter and screech endlessly.

<---======##====================[ Dice Roll ]=====================##======---> Wulfra rolls Perception(3) + Alertness(2) (5 dice) vs 6 for 1 successes. 2 3 4 5 +7 <-------------=============++++++++++++++++++++++++=============------------->

Wulfra continues perusing the forest for a long while, catching a glimpse of some small wildlife that quickly vacates the premises in her presence. She almost considers poking her nose into the Umbra to feel it directly from there... but decides against it, being so close to Sark's lair. Eventually, she comes across a rodent that happens to not have a hidey hole nearby... and thus runs straight away from her. She gives chase, even her small dragon frame making very audible pounding quakes as her paws stomp across the woodland. She's not fast enough, though, to catch it... and it soon finds a hole to hide in.

Letting out a huff, tail swishing a bit as she enjoys the exercise after eating a lion's share of fish earlier, she starts walking further around the area laden with holes in the ground. Before leaving it, though, her nose twitches... and she catches a very curious scent from... somewhere. It takes a few minutes longer, but she eventually finds a larger cavern entrance in the side of a hill. It's not big enough for her to slip into in dragon form, so she retakes her human frame... and slips in, following the curious sensory input.

<---======##====================[ Dice Roll ]=====================##======---> Trishna rolls Perception + Alertness vs 6 for -1 successes. -1 -1 2 4 <-------------=============++++++++++++++++++++++++=============------------->

Trishna is usually very intune with her cave. But not today. Today Trish is deep in thought about the nature of human society and the disgusting lack of consistency from person to person. At some point she has freed one of the rats and it gently, lovingly petting it. Stroking its matted fur as she grumbles to it. The rat is having /none/ of it and is wildly squirming in Trish's iron grasp, teeth sunk deep into her finger. Trish doesn't even seem to register it. Not the pain or the creatures panic as she finishes hefting handfuls of food into each cage, oblivious to the 'intruder' in her home.

Wulfra, thanks to her perfect vision in the dark, navigates teh cave perfectly... though she moves slowly. As she begins to hear the *chittering* of a tsunami of *something* in there, she grows much more wary. Ever so slowly and carefully, she steps further and further down... until she sees the first of the rat cages. With Trishna unawares, she curiously watches them for some time before continuing on... peeking around a corner to see Trishna, occupied, feeding the curious rodents in her hands.

Wulfra stands there, debating what to do for a bit, before softly speaking out. "...Trishna?"

It didn't matter how 'softly' Wulfra spoke. She was an intruder. An intruder deep within Trishna's home that she had not noticed. The reaction is swift an immediate. It isn't a scream. No, its more like a thrum. A vibration in the air that shakes the eardrums as Trish whips around. There is a swell of blackness, like boiling tar, that 'splashes' up from her shadow and explodes outwards, splattering sticky strands of...Something...Against the walls, its almost like a web, the tendrils boring into the cracks in the rock-walls and gripping tightly as Trishna is elevated dozen or so feet into the air, suspended by dozens of inky, undulating appendages that continue to bleeed and seep, slowly consuming the walls, covering an ever growing area in a slick inky ichor. "WHO DARE?!" Is bellowed, a sound less of a voice, and more of rushing water and thick mud somehow strangled into words.

Wulfra's eyes widen from her position leaning around the corner of stone and looking into the chamber. They follow slowly as Trishna explodes into an absolutely terrifying mass of *something* before her. One part of her is screaming "you REALLY shouldn't have come into here" while the other is in pure awe at the extent of Trishna's form altering abilities... and glimpse at her 'true' self.

After standing there, frozen, thankfully far enough to not be caught in the initial deluge of blackness, for a few moments... she says something back in her pitiful human voice to the creature. "Oh... *oh...* this is your cave, Trishna... I did not know! It is Wulfra!"

There is a thrum, a deep churning noise. There is nothing in Trishnas face. No spark of life. No tension. It is slack, jaw gaping open and head lolled back like an abandoned puppet without its strings, limbs likewise limp. As if the bulk of her 'consciousness' may have been contained in that ever spreading thin layer of slime. The entire 'mass' shakes fora moment...Then there is a WHOOSING burst of speed as all the tendrils propel her body forward, feet slam to the ground inches in front of Wulfra as the tendrils flail around wildly behind her, snapping back into her 'flesh' like honey being drizzled back into its pot, just sped up to a 100. "Wulfra!" She chirps happily, just Trish once more. Pale and tiny and soft looking, big doe eyes blinking up at her guest. "...I could not find you.." she says softly, sounding...almost.. a little sad. Had she been looking?

Wulfra's eyes are still a little wide, but the edges of her human mouth start to turn up into a smile as she lets out a long huff. "You... could not find me? Ah... well... I suppose I have been a little all over the place lately... what with taking residence in Stena's lair, exploring the 'sea', and sampling many a shop in the town...."

She steps forwards fully from behind the corner, leaning her head down and nudging shoulder to shoulder with Trish. "After a display like *that*... I am glad that you consider me a friend. Heh, and to think my Mage said I had a natural talent for shapeshifting... you are even better than I."

<---======##====================[ Dice Roll ]=====================##======---> Trishna rolls Willpower vs 6 for 2 successes. 2 4 5 +7 +7 <-------------=============++++++++++++++++++++++++=============------------->

Her smile remains. It doesn't move. She doesn't move. Just stares for a very long time. "OH!" They proclaim eventually. "Oh, well, YES!" The smile turns into a toothy grin. A...Very... Toothy grin, the corners of her lips cracking, almost unzipping to make room for a inhumanly wide grin. "Because you /don't live here/. HA! How SILLY of me." Laughter! Or, well. Something close. A sharp titter of a gurgling giggle. "We should have known." The last statement is delivered flatly. Dead and devoid of any emotion. The bubbling abundance of it shut off as easily as flicking a switch. "It is easy to change ones form...When one has no form to begin with.." She adds, turning on heel to start to walk away then. "I am going to have a drink." if proclaimed as they stomp towards the sacks of rat food to retrieve a bucket...Because She isa /classy/ little slime and doesn't just drink from the jug. The bucket is clanked down the table and she returns to her stash corner to return with two large plastic jugs.

<---======##====================[ Dice Roll ]=====================##======---> Wulfra rolls Intelligence(3) + Academics(1) (4 dice) vs 6 for 2 successes. 4 5 +6 +7 <-------------=============++++++++++++++++++++++++=============------------->

Wulfra nods. "Yes... to be honest, I found it somewhat... awkward, living with a dragon of my same age and opposite... presentation." She seems to be staying purposefully vague. "But it does not stop me from visiting here, especially with all the delightful goodies and places to stretch."

She tilts her head a bit as Trishna starts off with her speech about getting a drink, but shortly Wulfra's face twists into one of excitement. She follows behind Trish, to the table... though she gives many glances to the thousands upon thousands of rats around. "That is... certainly one way to populate a lair. It shall take some getting used to..." she says, shaking her head, before looking to the bucket and jug. "Is this... the drink you mentioned you would treat me to?"

"Did Sark attempt to Make Fuck upon you? I have heard him express his displeasure at not being able to mate with humans." Trishna asks oh so very casually. "This is a similar drink. I do not have...Many things on stock." She replies in a clipped tone. "This is bleach." She states. "This is MoldMight." the second jug is listed and dropped. "An amonia based mold killer." She states before pouring a generous amount of bleach into the bucket. "It creates a gas that is...Very bracing. The softlings Die when they inhale it." She says, rolling her eyes. "But they are weak." She says with just a hint of disgust in her voice...The bucket and bleach and the jug of mold killer are shoved towards Wulfra then. "I would advise pouring slowly, face low for full effect. Or if you want to be...Flashy... You can ingest them rapidly and let the reaction happen internally...It has an...Interesting Pressure."

Wulfra blinks a few times, glancing away at her remark about Sark. "I... er... maybe?" If she had her tail right now, it would most certainly be curling around her... but she glances back when the conversation changes to the topic of the beverage. "Ammonia... bleach... hrmmmm." She leans forwards, slowly, before grabbing the jug of mold killer and pouring some into the bucket as directed. Then... she leaaaans her head down into it, taking a sniff. Her eyes immediately shoot open wide, amber color turning to pure fire as her hair starts flickering up and smoking at the edges. "Ohhhh... *oooohhhhhhh....* this is like..."

Seemingly *partially* without her meaning to, scales erupt over Wulfra's flesh as her four wings and tail pop out her back... face pulling forwards into a muzzle as her body smokes and sludge-ily remolds itself... but she retains the upright, human stance, and arms, with now clawed fingers... as well as her clothing, save for her shoes, which would not fit on her pulled up clawed paws. She pulls up from the concoction for a moment, looking at herself as her now four eyes glance over her half-and-half form. "I... am glad I am in here with you. It seems this triggered some kind of... instinctual reaction."

<---======##====================[ Dice Roll ]=====================##======---> Trishna rolls Perception vs 6 for 1 successes. 3 4 +6 <-------------=============++++++++++++++++++++++++=============------------->

Trishna doesn't always 'get' social cues or discomfort in other people...But when Wulfra seems to grow almost bashful, a soft churning growl rumbles out of her chest. "Did he hurt you?" She asks in a soft, hissing tone--Slick and dripping with hardly contained malice. But that seething look of mixed hate, confusion, and fear withdraws slowly into something more akin to awe and rapt fascination as Wulfra warps and transforms, the 'sludgy' shifting stirring a must softer sound out of her as she fall silent. "...I am glad...Also." She says softly, hands pressing down firmly on the table. "Did I need to..I..." A pause, a frown. Its a clear struggle playing out on her face as she wrestles with her impulses and settles on falling silent for now.

Wulfra lets out a huff of smoke... which immediately mingles with the gas rising from the bucket. Her eyes glance to Trishna, now much more expressive than on the human form what with their swirling fire on full display. "Hurt? No, no... Sark is nice... very nice. Has done me no wrong yet."

She shifts in her seat, her thick tail sticking out from above her pants and underneath the back of her sweater sticking through the hollow space between the chair's seat and back, effectively locking her in place unless she threaded it fully out. Her smoky gossamer-fur mane flickers at the ends, still smoking a bit as if she were mid transformation. "Did you need to... what?"

Trishna seems to shrink, ever so slightly, loosing maybe a centimeter or two of height as they hunch in on themselves and look, for a moment, embarrassed as they grumble their reply to the question "Make him...Sorry.." She says, picking through her words slowly and carefully settling on something softer than what she may have meant, eyes shifting slowly to look at everything in front of her other than Wulfra. Eventually she finds the jugs and takes a swig out of both in rapid succession. She shakes for just a second. A full body vibration, and then she belches a thick cloud of toxic gas, fumes coiling out of her nose and seeping from her eyes and ears as if everything was just sort of...interconnected. "...is it enjoyable?" She ventures timidly. "There are other, stronger, tinctures.." That's not a tincture, Trish. It's just poison!

Wulfra tilts her head a bit, letting out a soft rrrrr under her breath as she studies Trish. "I am fine... you are fine... we are fine... that is the only thing that matters currently." Upon Trish asking her if the mixture was enjoyable, she remembers what they were actually sitting here to do. Wulfra glances down to the bucket before picking it up between both pairs of hand-claws, sniffing a bit before downing a *large* gulp of the dangerous-gas-emitting mixture. Her typically reddish fiery eyes seem to flash a bit *green* as the tiny near-transparent trails of smoke from her nostrils suddenly grow *dense* and *black* as the night. She belches up a few ember-filled clouds of her own as she makes a very growly noise resembling a series of chuckles. "Now *that*... *that* has a kick... way more than that near water stuff they drink!"

"It is not all that matters." Trish ventures to disagree. "...But if you say he is fine he is fine. If you are fine, I am glad. I will...Miss the idea.. Of you being near." She says, licking her lips slowly and sucking in a deep huff of air. Trish doesn't breath, so ths must have been some attempt to 'swirl' the vapors in her. It seems to work as the seeping from her eyes grows first stronger then trickles to a stop. "It is not as strong...But I am very fond of a product called Lemon Pledge. Sometimes I break it down inside me and secrete its scent from my pores. It is...Pleasant...in aroma, if not different than the pleasant burn of this mixture." She says, watching Wulfra closely. Every shift, ever little billow of smoke...She seemed capable of only two mods of observation, at least towards her present company. Nervous avoidance and rapt staring. The latter she seems to have settled on. "...You are very pretty." She says softly, a pause, a soft correction. "..THAT...What you are /doing/...is.. Very aesthetically pleasing.."

Wulfra is in the middle of taking another very large series of swigs of the substance, clearing out what was already poured into the bucket, before looking back at Trish. Her own black smoke mixes with the greenish smoke of the vapor, swirling in a hazy helix above her muzzle naturally. "Miss the idea of me being... near? Am I not right here?" She leans forwards a bit, blowing a bit of her mustard-gas-mixed smoke playfully into Trishna's face. "The thing I'm doing?" She tilts her head a bit. "The drinking? Are you not doing that too?"

A Sharp huffing noise pushes from her, swig, slam, swig slam. Another nip from both jugs then then another roil of toxic fumes. "We.." Huff! Fumes. "It is...Yes, you are close. Now." She settles a bit, setting her gaze on the table for a long moment before dragging her eyes up to try and look Wulfra in hers. Dead, sharklike orbs of blackness seeking out equally alien eyes...The smoke hits her face, rolls around it. Her nostrils flare as she inhales it deeply, the smallest quiver running up her spine as she does. "..When you.." a pause, but she doesn't look away. "I find you're natural form to be beautiful. I cannot say...why..But it comforts me. It feels...Like I have eaten.."

Wulfra stares back at Trish, multicolored flame swirling in its mesmerizing, deep manner in all four of her own orbs. Then... she leeeannsss forwards, a large huff of the black airborne particulate billowing out from between her jagged, alien teeth as the edges of her mane fibres lift up and smoke even more... her scales shifting over her moving flesh in such a way as an air hockey puck hovers over the table as if suspended by nothing. "Comforting.... like you have eaten? You mean like... a nice warmth in your core?" She grins, a bit of red-green flame licking out of her maw under the smoke. "I am glad... it has been strange seeing how everything seems to have... a different number of *things* than I here... so it is nice to just... be as I am."

With that, she grabs the two jugs, leans back, and pours them into her open maw. Her eyes go wide once more as she lets out a large roar-belch of the mixed-colored smoke, a short trail of flame temporarily lighting up the surrounding cave. Her soft smoke seems to have settled in a full on haze-cloud around them at this point... making their surroundings harder to see... like they're in their own little world of soothing, warm darkness.

Cowering would be the wrong word. Diminishing feels more accurate. Trishna Diminishes at the burst of flames, hunkering down against the table, her mass spreading slightly, truly flattening away..Its a quick motion, but one that truly highlights the non-euclidian nature of her physiology. She melts upwards from the press, coalescing briefly into a puddle of seeming endless depth and darkness before a central point of burbles, thousands of hair thin tendrils floating out of the sputtering mess, waving and weaving slowly into the torso of a vaguely female humanoid that resembles a much less 'finished' looking of Trishna's usual facade, like the rough sketch of a drawing yet to come. She soaks in the haze, her response a low rumble of on the air and nothing close to anything resembling a 'voice'. Closer to the impression of words vibrating directly into your skull. "We wish you to be nothing but yourself. Even amongst those who...Know me...See me...I am not myself. We are never ourself. We have no self.... Please? Be nothing but yourself, if only here, in my sanctuary?" The thrum of her speech fades, replaces only by the terrified clawing and screeching of the rats forces to inhale the toxic fumes and witness such sights.

Wulfra watches intently a Trishna... melts... then strings themselves back together... as much as it can be *called* together. As they 'speak', Wulfra's lipless, smoking maw curls into a wry smile as she closes her eyes and leans back into the chair... showing near complete comfort. "I thank you, Trishna... you *know* how I feel in a way I have seen in no other. I... will be myself here, I promise it. It would be a waste to be anything else for you." With that, she stands up from the chair, pulling her tail out of it... and her clothes erupt into fire, flashing into smoke and vanishing. Wulfra's form seems to finally *complete* its change as she leans down onto all fours, neck lengthening such that her head can crane up and look to Trishna. She knocks over the chair she once sat in with her long tail as she stands next to where the goo sits, still bearing the smile. It is difficult to tell the ends of her less-than-hair-thin mane fibres from the swirling, beautiful, soft smoke that clings and mingles with Wulfra's fluid form. "But... you are incorrect about something. You say you can never be yourself because you have no form... but the opposite is true. No matter which shape you wear... or none at all... you bear the same essence... the same feeling, the same aura. I could never mistake your sense of thing sfor another. Because you have no form... you are *always* you."

The 'head' of Trishna tilts slowly, rivulets of black carve into the pale white face, sink it, reform into a more defined human face, though ringed with a deep gout of black that seems to leave it floating, disconnected from the hazy form below it. "We...Understand what you speak. It is a beautiful way to view things.." The same microstrands that had weaved themselves into her current form flutter from the void around her face, whisping out flagellum like to oh so lightly brush against the whispy ends of the Dragons mane. Silence and stillness from the Trishna until finally. "You live with Stena, then?" The face is placid. For once, the voice is calm.

Wulfra sits on her haunches, face pointed down towards the table and eyes closed, as she lets out a long rumbly sigh. The position lets Trish look have full sight and access of the mane of the not-very-tall dragon. "Yes... Stena knows of the lands I come from... of my struggles... she and I are kindred spirits, perhaps deeper than either of us realize yet. Sark has Cypha here to protect him... and now I have Stena. Plus... caves are *much* more homely to me than sleeping out in the open with that much too bright 'sun' coming around so often...."

"We do not know why but this makes us angry." Trishna replies flatly, no chance in tone or notable stability, innumerable fluttering feelers drifting slowly to explore the strange hazy mass curiously. "We do not hate Stena. We are not mad...At you..But we are.." A long pause. "..Not angry. We feel, pushed from ourselves." Eyes roll back, vanish into totally black sockets and reform in the dozens across her upper back and shoulders, peering around the cave, at the many dead rats and few live ones remaining. "...Yes.. We would feel quite unsafe without our Caves and Sanctum in the city. We have grown...Soft... In this way."

Wulfra rrrrrrrs a bit at the feeling of the feelers 'petting' around her mane, the wispy strands feeling as soft as the surrounding smoke. She turns two eyes on the side of her head facing Trish to look at her, speaking in a quiet and rumbly tone. "Hmmmm... perhaps you are angry because it makes me farther from your cave? She is protective of me, yes... but she does not own me. Or I would not be here."

She gives a rumbly chuckle at Trish's last line. "There is nothing bad about feeling that way. The lair is... very important... very cozy... it does not make you soft, just well established."

"Yesss..." Trishna half hisses in agreeance. "Wise...Wise.." She murrmurs, sinking slightly, loosing most of her lower torso into the puddle on the table. "We are /established/." She confirms. "...We do not like not knowing how to look for you. It felt like being lost. To seek so blindly..." Trishna nods once, splashes down and then slides off the table like a sheet of hot wax, right on the verge of melting into a liquid. Splooshing onto the floor she extends, forming a semi-circle of darkness around the dragon. "If we let you leave you will visit us? I will show you my...Apartment..In the city, if you like...So you may know how to find me. So you do not become lost."

Wulfra brings one of her forepaws to the semicircle of goopy darkness, gently placing it upon it. "Yes... of course. We dragons are beings of freedom... so, even if you do not know where *I* am... no matter where *you* are, I can find you there. I found you here, after all." She strrretches her wings out a bit, flapping them to whip the smoke cloud around them up... and clear it some, making her own form appear less hazy. At this point, her eyes seem to be back to fiery red. "And yes, certainly! I would like to see the... human abode you have made. I have not seen many of those... they are so interesting to look at."

Its hard to read the reactions of a puddle...But it does ripple slightly when its pawed it. Trishna is a strange consistency. Soft, pliant, bending to any touch but never yielding, simply forming around and gently pushing back. She feels like she might be moist? But she isn't, just...Slick somehow. A clinging oily texture that doesn't transfer. "We must go...Find me soon? We will show you." and with that the puddle moves at startling speed, a liquid shadow merging into the deeper darkness of the cave system and then vanishing.