The Other Other White Meat (Thundiirn)

by **Gad** on February 7th, 2013, 5:54 pm

85th of Winter, 512 A.V. The Storage Houses, Sunberth

A rhythmic pounding sounded in Gad's ears, kept in time to the throbbing of his right brow. His eyes opened, wearily, and the surroundings came into focus. As the haziness of the resolution cleared, Gad began to make sense of the area. He was indoors. A place dark and sparse that smelled of old grain, and something more familiar to the young wizard. He could taste the aroma in the subtle clouds of smoke diffused about the room; brunt flesh. Human flesh, he was sure of it. He struggled for clarity in the darkness and his eyes reflexively sought sources of light.

Nearest him were pure white columns that shown down from high above him. It was pale sunlight, the kind you see and instantly know there's snow on the ground, and it was no doubt coming from windows cut in the walls, high above his head. Near the base of these columns he could make out clearly various captives, bound tightly with rope. The more tightly bound ones were simply "stacked" in a pile, they writhed and struggled and moaned, but their binds and gags kept them relatively still and quiet. From the looks of them they were mostly orphans and beggars. He'd seen many of them loitering around the Sunset Quaters.

A crackling caught his ear, the sounds of kindling aflame, and Gad craned his neck around to the opposite end of the room, to see the source of the foul meat smell. In the red warmth of the cooking fire several Myrians stood, at least ten, mostly men, but two or more females towered over them, chattering. There were others amongst them, humans, but they seemed to be getting on pretty well together all things considered. In bowls and in bare hands were chunks of pale flesh, some burnt and some nearly raw. Gad's glazed over eyes rolled in their sockets, and scanned the dark corners less illuminated by the blaze to see what looked like a large metal dog kennel, pressed against the wall opposite him. With in it were another group of captives. They weren't bound as tightly as the first he'd noticed, mostly just hands and feet tied. He did see something more alarming though; there was a man writhing in pain, missing both arms. Gad couldn't see all the details but he assumed that's what the horde of cannibals was snacking on at the moment, Probably burned the stumps...keep him fresh Gad surmised as he leered into the dark.

The man stopped struggling, which caught the attention of a few men dinning nearer the cages, they let out a few curses in their native tongue on the nature of the man's mother and seemed displeased with his early demise. They opened the kennel and yanked him out forcefully, and proceeded to butcher him, dividing the meat amongst themselves. Gad was in a similar predicament it seemed. As he drew his focus nearer he could make out the wiry cross bars of his own cage. He flexed his shoulders and felt pain from a combination of sleeping with his arms bound behind his back, and from the beating he was sure he received on capture. A thick strip of leather, probably a belt, was wrapped around his head and through his mouth. Doing his best to be silent, he twisted his ankles around, and as he'd guessed, they were bound as well. He let out a low sigh and leaned against the cage, wincing in the process. The he noticed.

His ear twitched, and then the presence of another in his cage was clear to him. The form took an undefined shape in the dark, but it was a man, he thought, and a pale one. Muffled through the gag, Gad tried to get this captive's attention " 'Ey...'ey guy...'ou a'ake?" The stifling scent of man flesh assailed Gad's nostrils anew, as his numerous captors prepared their lunch.

by **Thundiirn** on February 11th, 2013, 6:29 am

OOCCan we date this the 85th of Winter? We could have been captured on the 84th, and the Winter Calendar states that on the 85th the cannibals did a raid on the Pigs Foot Tavern. We talked about getting captured a second time, what if we escaped, and then were caught up again a second time in the Raid?
Thundiirn rolled over to view his cellmate. Ah, the man was awake, good. The man who was the reason for his current predicament. Thundiirn didn't blame him by any means, but it was a fact nonetheless.

And quite a predicament it is... he thought, looking around. Some insane-looking (and rather dimwitted, from the experiences he'd had with them so far) hunched figures, holding what would appear to be one of the prisoners arms, presumably for consumption. Luckily, given the rather rotten state of his flesh, it seemed unlikely that this would be his fate. But, as a witness, this did not by any means make him safe. He would need this man's help if he wanted any chance of escape from this petched up situation.

"Why yes, yes I am good sir." He replied. He smiled slightly as his cellmate's eyes widened at seeing him unbound. He explained, with a slight shrug. "My physical form is rather... weak... at the moment. They didn't see me as a threat. Though they clearly aren't the smartest, putting me in a cage with another who I can easily help release."

He glanced over to see if the man gave any reaction to this. It was important to see whether he did, or whether he was just as dull as their captors. "Tell me, do you remember how you got here?" Thundiirn asked, reaching over to ungag him.

by **Gad** on February 11th, 2013, 7:02 am

OOCI dig it

"Ptuah" Gad went as the gag was unstopped from his gullet. He considered this new alley for a moment Good Sir!? He thought this one was obviously up to something. Nobody that's about to be eaten is that godsdamned chipper. His cellmate's demeanor aside, it seemed there were other things to focus on. Not the least of which was the man's question. Gad considered it for a moment, but the welt on his head throbbed each time the thought got nearer to his conscious mind. "Mmmnah, not really. There was...there was maybe some drinking...." Gad smacked his lips and tasted his breath. "Mmkay, there was definitely some drinking. I was shooting dice with this one guy...then....I thought they were coming at me to settle up a debt or something but...yeah sorry guy. Heh, actually?" He started with a wistful tone I wish there was someone who could tell me what happened."

Now Gad got a clearer look at the man. It was odd he was entirely unbound. That was good though. Whatever they thought they could get away with, these cannibals had obviously underestimated The Great Wizard Gad, and he wasn't about to squander any chances he got to escape. "Hey, get to it buddy. You can untie me and talk at the same time. Just do it real quiet like." Gad's tone was on the demanding side but not altogether rude or crass, just subtly urgent. "So what about you? What's your deal anyways?" He said as he did his best to writhe out of his binds.

by **Thundiirn** on February 14th, 2013, 3:01 am

Thundiirn smiled, amused. Oh, this man wanted to be untied? How strange, it looked so comfortable. He'd have to try harder than that. Everything costs something.

The man didn't seem too strong, rather lanky in fact. Thundiirn wasn't sure how much use he'd be in escaping from this little situation, though of course as long as he had intelligence anything would help.

"Soooo... you want to be untied, eh? What would be in that for me? What can you do? What do you know?" Thundiirn was still somewhat self-conscious of the new changes to his appearance, the black tongue especially, but it wasn't like he could go the rest of his unlife without speaking. Nevertheless, he turned his head some as he did, hoping that the man would discount the blackness to weird shadows.

Then, to make sure he had made himself clear and that the other prisoner understood what Thundiirn wanted, he added, "I am not releasing you if you are going to hold me back from escaping. I'll certainly send help once I escape, but you aren't coming with me unless you can be useful. So tell me, what can you do? What do you know?"

Then, before the man could begin, Thundiirn decided to speak first to gain a bit of trust from the man.

"I am here because they caught me witnessing your capture. Yes, you were drinking. I'm not sure where, though from where I walked across your abduction and the direction you had been stumbling, I would guess the Drunken Fish or the Seacow. They came from the same direction you were coming from, coming up behind you. It was only after they hit you over the back of the head with what looked like a metal pipe that they realized I was standing not 20 feet in front of you, watching the entire thing. They surrounded me, and let me choose. Come with them peacefully, or die. My body is weak, I cannot fight. And so I came with them. They tried to bind me, but my flesh is rotten and the ropes would have ripped my skin and made me bleed out. I convinced them not to, on account of my cooperation and because I was too weak to fight anyway. Clearly they're petching stupid, since they stuck me in a cage with someone who potentially can, completely able to unbind him. But for that to happen, that someone has to be able to help me somehow, so start sharing."

by **Gad** on February 14th, 2013, 4:48 am

"Well, that explains it, I guess..." Gad smirked crookedly in the shade of the cage. He leaned back and raised his nose in the air a bit. His eyes darted over this person appraisingly, pupils wide behind slit-like eyelids. He considered each question with a gentle nod of his head and near inaudible "hmph"s and "hmm"s. Gad's posture shifted slightly when this person began to recount the events of the night before, the memories hazily reforming and blanks being filled in. When Thundiirn was done, Gad spoke. "Hmph. Clearly, you aren't in much of a position to bargain yourself. If getting tied up too tight is enough to break your skin, then I doubt you'd be of much use to me. Since you've already taken out my gag, I could probably chew through these ropes before any of these goons noticed, and after that, well, I don't see why someone like you'd be of any use at all to me." Gad's voice wasn't threatening or demanding, rather, he did his best to keep a jovial and matter-of-fact demeanor. "And besides, a bloodied soft-skin corpse might be just-the-thing when I need a distraction..." He added, and a jet of air poured from Gad's nostrils to emphasize the point. He wasn't exactly lying, but he'd rather not let this one know just how much more he'd rather have the man's help than not. The way the odds looked, he'd need all the help he could get.

Gad inhaled slow and deep, here came the sell. "So, as you can clearly see, looks like you need me more than I do you. Why don't we cut to the chase, huh? This'll go real smooth if we stick together and you pay attention. You untie me, we come up with a way of finding out who has the key and get them to come closer, then I Project my hands, snatch it, and break out the both of us." Gad's assumed emphatic tone rang low and calm. "And as for what I can do and what I know, you'll settle for an introduction: I am THE Great Wizard Gad. Make sure you remember it friend." He figured a dramatic flair couldn't make things any worse than they were.

by **Thundiirn** on February 14th, 2013, 9:01 pm

A mage. Great. Just what he needed. Still, it sounds like the man could be used to help me out. If he could actually project, this could become significantly easier.

"Very well then. But you can be unbound AFTER you get the key. You don't need your limbs unbound to project."

Then, before the man could argue, Thundiirn called out to the guards.

"HEY guys! I need to use the bathroom! Let me out a minute!" he shouted. They looked up, then looked at one another and shrugged. One stood, and broke from the rest to come over to their cage, presumably the one with the key.
"Whatchoo mean, freak? YER DEAD!" Thundiirn winked to the damned wizard, a display of confidence but secretly he was suddenly worried he hadn't given the man enough warning and that he was gonna mess it up.

"My friend, you do NOT want to know what constitutes a bathroom break for a dead person. Now come on, you know I can't run. Just... give me some privacy for a moment. It's a rather messy process and I don't think you want your next meal," here he made a nod towards Gad, "saute'd in that." The captor wrinkled his nose at the thought, and begrudgingly pulled the keys out of his back left pocket to unlock the doors.

He was rough pulling Thundiirn out, but not too rough. Of course he had lied, Nuits had no need for such things but the captors were dull and didn't know that. Nevertheless, he walked to their bathroom, stood around a few minutes making sure there was no way out for him to take without the petching mage. There wasn't, and so after a short time he walked out and let the captor escort him back. As soon as he left, he turned to the mage. "You get the key?"

by **Gad** on February 16th, 2013, 1:40 am

Gad glared at the Nuit with a fiery intensity that let him know just what he thought of the man, then his eyes closed and his scowl contorted into a soft smirk. From his mouth, he produced the key and it feel to his lap. "O'course, whaddya take me for?" He remarked with a measured nonchalance. He felt rather proud of his performance under the circumstances as he'd only really had the span of a wink to prepare. Indeed, getting the key was not as easy as he made it out to be. Gad had been startled when Thundiirn decided to put the plan into action so...immediately. Normally, when projecting, Gad took a few moments to breath and slowly slough out the layers of his spiritual body, but in this incident he had no time for such luxuries. His magical hand was barely free of it's fleshy container when the guard had put the key back into his pocket was steadily moving out of Gad's range, and the young wizard nearly missed his window of opportunity. None-the-less, here was the key, and now he could think about step two.

Gad considered reattaching his ghastly limb, however, he considered equally how it might help to have an arm handy floating about, just in case. "Well, that's gotten the hard part out of the way. Now for the harder part. Shaking over a dozen hungry Myrian cannibals." Gad writhed in his ropes. "Hey, we had a deal. Now you untie me." Gad looked at his cell mate with a flat expression. He wasn't sure exactly what he could do at this point, being in a compromised position, with a cellmate who really didn't need his permission to just take the key and run. No matter, all he could really do was hope for the best, and plan for the worst. "Even if-- when, we get outside, if they notice we're gone they'll come for us. People will put up with a lot in Sunberth, but I doubt these guyses...dietary persuasion... would go over so well with a mob, and no matter how dumb they look, they have to know that." Gad's jade irises searched around him, pegging this location as probably some type of food storage facility. The Storage Houses? Even if they got out, it could be a long cold hike in the snow before they were safe again. Well, as safe as you could get in Sunberth.

by **Thundiirn** on February 18th, 2013, 7:42 am

"O'course, whaddya take me for?" the mage replied. Thundiirn ignored this comment, adding a quick "shhh" as he tried to listen to what the captors were saying.

Cocky petcher. At least he pulled through.

"What'd the corpse want?" he heard one of the captors call out.
"Eh, just ta use da bafroom" replied the now-keyless wonder. They all laughed at this. Apparently a dead guy needing to pee was hilarious. Better than suspicious, Thundiirn supposed. He began to turn his attention back to his cellmate, who was saying something about such or other, but was taken aback when he heard their next words and tuned back in.
"We's gonna need more stock soon. I thinks it's time we's hit up da Pigs Foot full force." the keyholder spoke.
"Hey, we had a deal. Now you untie me." Thundiirn shushed him again.
"When's we's gonna go?" the first speaker said.
"Tonight". The keyholder again. He seemed to be the leader, and as he said this he gave a very disturbing, toothless smile.

That was likely all the useful information he was going to get out of the hopeless brutes, so Thundiirn turned to this great wizard again, and remembered the guy was still bound. He had been talking, but Thundiirn only caught the last bit of it as he finished listening to their captors sick and twisted plan.
"...would go over so well with a mob, and no matter how dumb they look, they have to know that."
He really didn't care what the man had to say. All he wanted was to get out of this damned cage and away from this damned mage.

"Are you seriously still tied up? You just picked up the keys without touching them! Untie yourself!! Eyris save you!" One could tell Thundiirn was annoyed when he began sarcastically invoking the names of the gods, of which his parents had made him learn as a child. It wasn't that Thundiirn didn't believe in them, there was too much evidence throughout this world of their existence, but if one had ever walked the streets of Sunberth he or she had most likely left quite quickly and vowed not to return. It was just that sort of place. No city better deserved the title "Godforsaken" than this one. Their current predicament, the motives of their captors, the mere existence of his cellmate, all of it was perfect evidence of this fact in Thundiirn's eyes. All of it was perfect evidence that they either ignored him or hated him passionately simply for being born here. However, if pressed to choose he suspected it was the first option.

He reached over and grabbed the key from the man's lap and, feeling better after his outburst, patiently waited as the man fumbled to untie himself. Thundiirn wouldn't help him unless he was completely helpless, watching the man struggle was cheering him up too much.

by **Gad** on February 18th, 2013, 9:10 am

"That wasn't the point." Gad said gruffly as the still floating hand tugged at the ropes. "We had a deal. If I can't trust you to hold up your end of a simple bargain, then I can't trust you to do much of anything, can I?"Gad said this last part to himself, it was clear his associate was disinterested. The ropes fell from around Gad's body, he rubbed his limp right hand with the left, feeling at the numbness as oxymoronic as that seems. Incidentally, he wasn't crazy about having revealed himself to this guy without receiving much in return. It wouldn't do well to fly this coup, only to have his new friend rat him out as a mage- aspiring or otherwise. He rubbed his throat with the available hand, and considered the predicament, such that it was.

The two of them escaping would be easy to spot, and easier to stop. Gad wondered if another distraction might work, he often preferred to employ subterfuge when available. Then again, where ever practicable, audaciousness was the best refuge one could find. He looked on at the dead man with a thin grin. Gad snatched from him the key and quietly unlocked the cage, then gently pushed to the door open. "Not much to it but to do it." He said solemnly. In his mouth, Gad conjured up nearly half a cup of saliva, which he pushed back and forth through his teeth until it was a frothy foam. With his still active left hand, Gad gripped the dead man's shirt tightly. By now the opened way was being noticed by the cannibals, who stood slowly with suspicious and unanimously inquisitive expressions. The apparent leader stepped forward, looking equally parts enraged and confused.

Gad took a swift inhale through his nostrils, then with a sudden forcefulness surprising in light of his build, pushed the dead man out of the cage. Gad took a calculated stumble out after him and did his best to yank the man to his feet, as he was afraid the guy couldn't support himself. The chief of the outfit was closer now, about seven arm-lenghts from the would-be escapees. "Oi, whatchu doin outta ya cell?" He asked, his voice full of bravato and commanding posture. "Ya got tree bells, get back in da cage boys, fore we gut ya an make sausages." The leader took slow measured steps towards the two and counted as he went. "One" he was now six arm lengths away. "Two." He was an arm-length closer, now Gad's stratagem would unfold. The wizard's eyes rolled back in his head, and his body, namely his torso, began to shake and twist, and he let out a low pained moan. The lookers-on shifted in their chairs and some made symbols holly to them in the air, while others traded concerned glances and whispered 'magic'. Gad's moans rose in intensity and he spoke in a ghastly drawl "Cuuursed." As he did this, the foam accumulated in his mouth dripped out down his chin. The fellow in charge seemed to have an unwavering resolve and crossed his arms in defiance to the ruse, but of his compatriots, more than not seemed to buy it. "Curseeeed, Curssseed by the deeeead." Gad groaned out as he slumped over forward a bit, yanking his ostensible ally along and hopping he'd take the cue.

Ever defiant, the leader of the cannibal troupe took his last step. "Tree." He was now just four arms away from the two, and just in range of Gad's projected hand. With it, the young wizard reached out grasping, and clutch tightly to his target. From the leader's perspective, he'd suddenly been struck by the incomparable sensation of having his nads crushed. As the man keeled over screaming in pain, Gad shambled closer to the exit, his hostage undead in tow and a tight vice still attached to his foe's nether region. "Curseeed, curseeed by the deaaad." He continued edging closer to the exit and the man-eaters who seemed quite prepared to give him a wide berth.

by **Thundiirn** on February 21st, 2013, 1:43 am

Well now, perhaps he isn't quite as useless as he seemed. Perhaps I should give him more of a chance... Thundiirn thought to himself as he was dragged along for the show. They were still 5 feet from the door when the chill hit, but they didn't exactly have a choice and had to keep moving. As his eyes adjusted to the harsh sunlight (coming from every direction imaginable with the piles of snow), he saw that they were at the far end of the Castle Commons, in one of the old food storage warehouses. Thundiirn laughed at the humor in this. The cannibals, camping out in an abandoned food storage warehouse as all but the wealthiest and the cannibals slowly starved to death or were eaten. But he didn't have much time to muse.

"I must say, I'm impressed." Thundiirn said, reaching up with his gloved hand and knocking a frozen saliva icicle off of his teammate's chin. "But no time for cheers. We've got to move, before they summon up their courage and their nads and come after us. We won't be hard to track in all this snow. he finished, as he began walking, assuming Gad would follow. He turned back a moment, and called over his shoulder "I'm Thundiirn by the way. Don't think I shared my name in the cage."

And with that, he began moving south towards the Gated Community, where he would either be able to take shelter or turn eastward to go warn the patrons of the Pigs Foot what he had overheard. They hadn't gone far though before footsteps and shouting could be heard behind them, and they had to duck into a darkened, snowy side alley.