The Bird and the Worm [Closed]

[Scoria]

Scoria's scowling expression didn't falter as he landed with a soft thud on the ground. The oversized druid glanced up at his health bar, noting the chunk of void that now occupied the space where the green light of his health bar had once been. Not that void could occupy anything. Rising from one knee and dusting himself off, the scowling adult glared at the rooftop behind him. No one was standing there. No one was standing there, but he had definitely been pushed off. Very well then. Someone was playing games with him. He'd deal with that later, probably. "..." The druid turned around to see a small kid, probably around the age of fourteen, tugging at his shirt. Glaring down at the pipsqueak, Scoria didn't need to hear more than 'uncle' and 'help me' for him to reply with an immediate and resounding, "No." There was no way that Scoria was helping some sniveling kid out with his problems. The scribe had more important concerns, like food and eating. Without so much as a goodbye, the man brushed the kid's hand off and walked forward through town. This was annoying. This whole thing was annoying. Scoria had spent enough time figuring out the workings of his interface, but now he had other concerns. Namely his choice of subclass and crafting class, as well as his first skill. Familiar: Alraune had sounded so good when he picked it, but what good was that going to do him now?

With a scowl, he moved through the streets and went to go buy an apple. That would probably hold him. He had found out quickly that it wasn't necessary to eat, but he'd be damned if he wasn't going to taste something every so often. It wasn't as though Allure was active, as he wasn't in a conversation with the so-called 'People of the Land', but he had a presence. As he walked down the street, the retreating figures of other humans as he moved reminded him of home. This was how it was supposed to be. Every so often, someone would come along to challenge his authority and attempt to walk right in his path, but there was a benefit to having a strong stride and a size advantage. Any time someone attempted to stand in his way, he simply continued to walk, breaking his stride for nothing. The complete disinterest in others was much like playing a game of chicken, the loser was the one who backed out. If no one backed out, then both suffered. The only thing was that Scoria never suffered, because when someone bumped into him, he didn't fall over. He didn't stop. He continued forward like a steamroller, his steps moving him past the people he had knocked down. It wasn't as though he was going to apologize either. He was simply walking and people moved out of his way. To those who intentionally got in his way and tried to keep him from advancing, what apology did he owe them? None of those who got in his way did so accidentally.

[Scoria]

There was no difficulty in reaching the marketplace. He simply had to walk straightforwardly, stepping past anyone who obstructed him. Almost mechanically, he spun on reaching a certain point, making a ninety degree turn and heading straight for a shop. Allure, active. The shopkeeper, one of the many People of the Land, looked a little nervous. Everyone did. As long as the man sold Scoria what he wanted, he didn't care. He burned people on contact, but that didn't mean that he didn't want basic luxuries. "One apple, please." The voice was sharp, caustic in its tone, but not sarcastic. It was simply unreasonably blunt, without any frills or hope for nonsense attached. It spoke with the proper measure of politeness, without any intention to haggle or get some sort of deal. There was no threat behind the voice. Still, the shopkeeper stuttered and brought out two apples, placing them on the counter. "I only have money for one." Scoria placed a few gold pieces down, indicating that the amount he held was really just enough for one apple. Again, there was no nonsense in his voice. He had forcibly activated Allure so as to prevent the shopkeeper from making too much of a fuss, but this particular one seemed to be intimidated and pushed both apples forward. Did he not understand? Scoria was not extorting anything. He wasn't attempting to haggle or get something for free. All he wanted was an apple.

"One, thank you." Despite the shopkeeper's attempts to insist, Scoria only picked up one apple, sliding the other apple back towards the shopkeep and staring him down. The shopkeeper gulped as Scoria's sharp gaze cut into him, the slowly roasting embers of his red eyes reminiscent of hellfire, but he nodded. The druid gave a nod of his head and backed up, taking his one apple and biting into it. Despite how he looked, he wasn't a thug. He just didn't have the patience to deal with bullshit, nor did he have any interest in catering to the needs of the whiny or obnoxious. He didn't have any interest in making friends. Better to be alone than lonely. Taking a bite of his apple as he walked, the courtesan savored the vibrant taste, chewing slowly so as to enjoy it. His expression was hard, but he was enjoying the apple. Even if his sharp jawline and cutting gaze told everyone else he was likely to stab them all to little bits. Taking another bite of the apple, Scoria glanced upwards just in time to miss something barreling into him. No one overtly barreled into him until now, so the druid was properly knocked off his feet, landing on his backside as his hand opened reflexively. There went his apple. There went his apple. Staring down whatever had barreled into him, he found that it was the same kid that had grabbed his shirt before. Orbs of brimstone stared down this kid as the brat scrambled to his feet. Scoria might have considered apologizing, perhaps, but he was the one who had been knocked over. Certainly, he had been partially to blame, but this boy had downright barreled into him. Not only that, the kid hadn't so much as muttered an apology. He took one look at the druid, recognizing him as someone who had already rejected his plea for help. As Scoria slowly stood up, the brat moved to leave.

How about no. Leaning on one hand, Scoria reached out with his arm and grabbed the backside of the brat's shirt, pulling him back via his collar and forcing him to fall back over on his back. They might have been considered even, but Scoria was not satisfied. Standing at his full height once more, the druid stared the small boy down. "Apologize."

[Scoria]

The brat did not. Scoria's scowling expression as the figure retreated was evident to all, but the druid knew better than to go chase after a lost cause. He was just annoyed at being pushed around and treated like he was some sort of pushover. Anyone who knew him from outside this world knew very well what kind of person Scoria was. Ice Bitch. The Meanest. There was no need for compassion or sympathy, because those things were completely useless in his line of work. He had never had any need to be compassionate or caring, he simply poked his nose in other people's business and did what he needed to do. In that way, Allure was really the perfect skill for him. It turned his usual practice of making people curl up and cry into something somewhat manageable. Still scowling at the retreating figure of the boy who had knocked him over, Scoria crouched down and picked up his now dirty apple. Great. It was more or less covered in grime and muck, making it basically inedible to the player. He didn't want to throw it away, however. Wiping the apple off, Scoria took a small walk towards one of the nearby fountains. Washing the apple off slightly, the player focused briefly on using his only spell. Familiar: Alraune.

In front of his eyes, he watched a bud sprout and rapidly expand, forming a proper flower with a girl in the center. This was weird. This familiar was straight-up weird. It was basically a plant lady. Scoria stared down at the miniature human, subtly activating Allure in an attempt to smooth over this first meeting. He wasn't quite sure if it was going to be the same Alraune every time, or maybe different ones, or maybe it was possible to summon several of them at once, but he did want the first meeting to go as well as possible. As well as someone who was supposedly forged of hellfire meeting a forest sprite could go, at any rate. After a few seconds, the little sprite opened her eyes and stared up at Scoria, locking eyes with him. He stared back. This continued for a few minutes, the meeting between the two continuing forward without any clear start or end. Brimstone red met with the red of roses, both creatures staring back at one another until finally, the Alraune pointed her finger towards Scoria's face and proclaimed her impression loudly. "Turtle!"

What. He was not a TURTLE. This creature. This bloody creature. So much for the Allure skill. "I am not a turtle." Scoria stared the sprite down as she made a harumph noise, crossing her arms in front of her chest and turning around. She clearly didn't like him and was probably a little scared. What a pain. Scowling, Scoria rapped her on the head and offered her the apple. It wasn't like he was apologizing, but they would be working together for a while. "Please take care of me." The standard greeting and a peace offering was all that he was offering, not out of kindness, but necessity. His sharp tongue and cold expression clearly made the sprite a little nervous, but she accepted the half-eaten apple anyway. She wasn't too annoying, thankfully. Knowing his luck, he'd have gotten some obnoxious brat as a familiar.

[Scoria]

While Scoria wasn't particularly concerned one way or another about Alraune's apparent state of undress, people were starting to shoot dirty looks at the creature. The forest sprite had a 'skirt' made out of petals, certainly, but her relatively open torso was perhaps a cause of concern for those a bit more conservatively minded than Scoria. Not that he really understood, considering this was a fairly standard skill and from what he had seen of some games, skimpy clothing was almost a staple. Maybe because they were actually living it, people were having problems? Whatever. "Do you have a name?" The familiar's classification might have been 'Alraune', but in the same way, Scoria's classification was 'Human'. It was just a race, nothing more than that. He had no intention to call someone 'human' when addressing them. Not unless he was intentionally trying to piss them off, anyway. The familiar in question stuck out her tongue and made another 'harumph' noise. Scoria briefly considered calling her Alraune anyway at this point, after the legend of the mandrake, but thought better of it once more. Maybe the Allure skill was doing its job after all. Scoria guessed the brat actually did have a name, but she just wasn't giving it away, so Scoria was going to have to resort to giving her obnoxious nicknames repeatedly. The first one would obviously be 'brat', because this kid was acting like a serious brat. What a pain in the neck.

Still, the whispering was starting to get annoying. Social convention was a pain in the arse, that much was certain, but it'd be a lot easier if the comments were only directed at him. Time to jack some materials off of someone then. "We're on the move, brat." The druid didn't phrase it like a command or an invitation, simply stated it like it was fact. A moment later, he was standing and walking through town, Alraune stumbling to try and keep up. It seemed like she couldn't be too far away from him without concern about being desummoned or getting lost? Even if she didn't openly like him, they would have to work together to some extent. Fine. Continuing his walk forward, Scoria glanced backwards and scowled. The forest sprite's tiny legs couldn't keep up with Scoria's naturally long stride, a pace that outmatched even those who were about his height. His longer legs made his walking pace a bit faster than most other people and he wasn't about to slow down to accommodate the forest sprite. "Slow." The appalled look on Alraune's face was priceless, but Scoria couldn't allow the brat to be offended forever. They had more important things to take care of. Namely, social formality. Being a courtesan meant a little adherence to the basics of social norms, after all. Turning around and gripping Alraune by the arm, Scoria rudely dragged her up off the ground and turned her around, forcing her arm around his shoulder. Left with no choice as she squealed and made sounds of pain, Alraune gripped onto his back and held on tight, arms around his neck and weird vine-feet-appendages wrapping around his torso. Taking that as his queue to let go, Scoria moved his hands back to his pockets and continued his scowling. So long as Alraune didn't decide to strangle him, he'd be okay.

[Scoria]

Walking swiftly through the streets now, Scoria paid no mind to those who gave him funny looks, except to scowl and glare at anyone who thought he had time for their shenanigans. He didn't. A brief look at his mana told him that it was steadily decreasing, probably as a result of having Alraune out, but he was one of the magic classes. Even if he was a healer, druids relied fairly heavily on MP. Continuing his walk through the ocean of idiots, Scoria stepped past the crowds and finally into the marketplace. Without any major hesitation, the player walked straight up to the area where tailoring was done and nicked a few of the cheap fabrics and silks. It wasn't as though he could tailor himself, but he wasn't about to rely on some idiot who thought that charging him a 100% markup for the cost of materials was the appropriate thing to do. How about no. How about no, a hundred times. Instead, Scoria signaled for Alraune to disembark by sharply rapping her on her head, prompting the creature to jump down and make another harumph noise. Scoria briefly considered the possibility that the only thing she could actually do was harumph, but she had called him a turtle once, so that was clearly untrue. Crouching down to inspect her size, Scoria quickly took a few measurements and eventually decided on a fit that seemed right.

Signaling for the brat to come forward, Scoria tied a few pieces of fabric and silk together into several sharp and tight knots, creating something akin to a loose shirt. The object in question fell easily down to her skirt of flowers and covered everything there was to cover, even featuring weak sleeves. It was a crappy job, certainly, especially considering he wasn't even a tailor, but it did what it was supposed to do. Alraune stared up at him questioningly and he rapped her on the head once. "Some people don't like it when you walk around shirtless." "You're a dumb turtle." Again with that turtle shit. He wasn't a goddamn turtle. Was the only time she ever opened her mouth to insult him and call him a turtle? Scoria scowled down at the forest sprite and scoffed. Fine. Whatever. For someone like him, having a caustic asshole for a familiar was perfect. Moving his hand down to grab Alraune's arm again, Scoria watched the forest sprite grab his arm first, preparing herself to be hoisted up. Seemed like she realized that she was going to get pulled up one way or another and decided to make it as painless as possible. Good on her. And by that, Scoria meant it was good that he wasn't going to have to keep dragging her places. With the toddler of a forest sprite attached to his back once more, Scoria set out once again. He didn't have any particular destination in mind this time, but he preferred to get out of the area with all the crafters. He had no intention to do writing at this point in time, frankly.

[Scoria]

Scoria's scowling expression didn't fade even a smidgen as he walked through town once more, eyes set forward on the road in front of him. The druid's thoughts weren't on anything in particular, simply moving around to survey the town further. London wasn't exactly a familiar town to him, so he was going to need to scout it out a bit. As he continued to walk through the bustling streets, Scoria sidestepped past several individuals and minded his own business right up until someone tripped next to him. He moved to sidestep her, not caring about people and their clumsy behavior and knowing what happened when he tried to 'help', but he felt his body get tugged backwards. He had avoided the girl entirely, he knew, so unless this girl had grabbed onto him... Alraune, you bitch. Scoria shot his arm backwards and grabbed the falling woman by the back of her collar, hoisting her back up to her feet quickly as his stance spread outwards slightly. Her bag of groceries was promptly caught by the forest sprite on Scoria's back, resulting in a zero loss interception. Zero loss except now Scoria was going to have to talk to some idiot. Turned out Alraune had grabbed the falling woman with her one free arm, apparently pissed off that Scoria didn't give a neep about other people. Great. Good work, you nosy and annoying as anything familiar. Perfect job there.

And now she was talking about something. Thanking him or something? He hadn't wanted to save her, it had just been so he wouldn't fall over. Scoria shot Alraune a scathing glance every few seconds or so, frustrated that she had gotten him into this mess with some idiot in the People of the Land category. Just what Scoria needed, really, social interaction with NPCs. Still, now was the time to reactivate Allure, since apparently he was going to have this conversation with this lady, whether he liked it or not. Alraune passed the woman back her groceries as Scoria stared her down, brimstone orbs seemingly burning a hole straight through this individual. Scoria almost felt bad for her. Almost. And by almost, he really meant not at all. "Thank you!" "Yeah." "I'm really so clumsy! It was a good thing you were there to help me, otherwise I might have lost all my groceries!" "Okay." "I'd like to repay you somehow!" "No need." "I know, since I would have lost my materials for lunch, why don't you eat with my family?" "N-" "YES!" "Excellent! Follow me~"

Was this the effect of the Allure skill? People were stupidly nice to you? They ignored how much you glared at them and how curt and obviously uninterested your answers were? Scoria scowled at the woman and then scowled at Alraune. This forest sprite. This freaking forest sprite had gone and signed him up. Who was the familiar here? Huh? This sprite... Now he had to go eat lunch with some idiotic family of NPCs. Stupid obligations. God neeping dammit.

[Scoria]

Scoria kept his sighs internal as he stepped slowly behind the brunette, watching her bob cut hair bounce slightly as she walked. It wasn't as though he had any particular interest in this person except for that she had invited him to lunch, but his eyes could only drop so low before he looked like a defeated child following after his mother. That was what happened when the person leading you forward was about a half a foot shorter than you were. His stride was slow, almost to the point of being downright lazy, his motion much like a stray leaf lazily tumbling forward. He took steps carefully, but slowly, each movement deliberate but uncaring, lazy but decisive. The natural consequence of following someone with a stride half as large as yours. Alraune yawned lazily on his back as he followed the lady, casually stepping to her left as they continued down the street. The number of people bustling about were starting to get on Scoria's nerves and he wasn't interested in boring a hole into the back of this lady's neck anymore, so he simply stepped to her left and kept in step with her instead. Now that he was thinking about it, he didn't have this woman's name, did he? Allure. "Name."

The sharp voice cut into the otherwise peaceful walk, a rather powerful glare directed at the woman he was walking with. "O-Oh! U-Um, excuse me! It's Angelica." Scoria almost scoffed. Really? Angelica. Wow. What a naming sense her parents must have had, really. He let out a scoff and continued forward, keeping in step with Angelica, eyes now focused on the street in front of him. Last thing he needed was this woman bumping into someone and dropping her groceries. Again. Scoria would have continued forward without issue as well, had Alraune not unlatched her hands from around his neck and rapped him on the head. What was she annoyed about? It wasn't Scoria's fault this lady was tripping over her words. Alraune's pouting and unhappy expression refused to waver even at Scoria's glare, as though she was already used to it. Great, now he was really getting pushed around by this bratty forest sprite. Fine. "Right. I am S-""turtle!" "..." Scoria didn't have words for how obnoxious Alraune was currently being. Angelica's giggling wasn't helping either and she didn't seem that fazed by his scowling expression and burning expression. Fine. If they both wanted to think of him as a turtle, whatever. He wouldn't give them his name anyway. It didn't take too long for them to walk into some of the less populated areas of London, leaving Scoria glancing about at the various buildings. The whole place was clearly in a state of disrepair and the condition and atmosphere of the surrounding area led him to believe this was something closer to the poorer or more dangerous parts of town. Not like he cared. "Elise, I'm home!" Scoria watched the woman fiddle with the door, lifting it up and turning it with some effort in order to get it to open. The hinges were clearly not doing their job and the door seemed to be in such a state that it wouldn't open even if you unlocked the front door and turned the knob. Seemed like there was a trick to opening it. A little extra against robbers by accident, it seemed. Stepping inside, Scoria watched Angelica latch the door shut with a deadbolt and a chain before humming and moving further into the house. Okay. Clearly that much security was required. The male was somehow expecting a Jack the Ripper scenario at this point, all things considered.

That "Jack The Ripper" never came, however. Scoria was forced to accept, at least for now, that this was a group of normal people. Angelica, with her bob cut, had disappeared into a side room that Scoria could only assume was the kitchen. Sitting at the table was an older woman, getting into her later years, no doubt ready to impart some completely unnecessary life wisdom onto Scoria. Just what he needed. The soft padding of feet from another room and the opened door that revealed a kid perhaps just into her double digits, the "Elise" from earlier, perhaps. Well, that wasn't any spider lady, that was for sure. She moved forward, not noticing the looming male in the room until she was already within a few feet of him. It was at that point she seemed to realize that he was standing there and took one look up at the giant, let out a shriek, and promptly fell on her butt. Scoria made no move to help her up.