Who Ya Gonna Call? Cha-Roda! (Solo)

[Liandra]

Timestamp: Spring 27, 512 AV Time: Late Morning Location: Suvan Suites Liandra was fiddling with a piece of drift wood she had found earlier, making a lot of racket upon the table in the center of the room. She was using her sharpened shell in an attempt to shave away the wood, but it wasn't going well. She swore to herself that she would buy some sort of tool set later. This rackety place needed some fixing up anyways. She pinned the chunk of wood down with one hand, and held the shell unsteadily in the other. She brought her big blue eyes down close to the work area, and pushed the sharpened into the surface of the wood, tilted it back, and pushed it in, resulting in a single shaving of wood curving off the damp surface. Liandra didn't really know what she was going to make it into, but Nessela had told her to practice making trinkets, and then imbuing them with Soulmist. She dug the shell shallowly into the surface once more, slowly and surely a pile of shavings building up around the table. She had settled on making a simple circular disk, and then perhaps carving something in the center of it. Bells passed, shavings fell, and the drift would now looked like an oblong, warped... thing. It wasn't flat, it wasn't round, but it was hers. She turned the shell on its side, to get a carving angle, and began to carve grooves into the surface. She started by carving an awkwardly shaped circle. Then she began carving overlapping, sequentially smaller circles. This was hard work and her hands hurt from the constant pressing and gripping. She had managed to carve in a poor representation of a whirlpool and smiled down at it. It reminded her of the time Kylayia and she had jumped over that maelstrom in the southern seas. She set the token down on the table, and began gathering materials to make Soulmist, a process she was far from getting used to. She grabbed an egg, some cheese, and some flour, and a bowl, and set them on the table next to the token. She picked up the cheese, ripped it into small chunks, and set them in the bowl. She then poured the flour atop the cheese and then picked up the egg. She hadn't quite mastered this bit. She held the egg steadily in her hands, and set it against the lip of the bowl. She then pulled it back, then set it back again, several times, practicing for her strike. Her hand shot down toward the bowl, struck the rim, and the egg exploded in her hand and all over the bowl. She quickly scrambled to get all the gooey and yellow bits into the bowl with the other ingredients. She then began the gross and arduous process of picking out all the little shell bits. Hands thoroughly sticky now, she rubbed them against her shirt, wiping off as much as she could. Now came the unusual part. She grabbed her sharpened shell, and held out her hand over the bowl, hand shaking in nervousness. She still hated this part, as she held the shell over her outstretched hand. Biting her lip, she slashed downward, slicing open or palm, a loud gasp escaping her lips. She gnashed her teeth in pain, as the blood began dripping into the bowl. She began opening and closing her palm, to get more blood to flow. When she felt she had enough, she pushed her hands down into the ingredients and began squishing and mixing them together, kneading she thought Nessela called it. She kept at it until the entire thing was a sticky ball, strangely colored, an offwhite like. Her hand had stopped bleeding for now, but she'd need to clean it after. She then picked up the small ball, and prepared herself for the hardest part. She popped the ball into her mouth, and began chewing at it with her sharp teeth, a feat much harder than it sounds. Nessela said to focus... focus... Come on... Soulmist... Put myself into it... This is just gross... FOCUS! Put my own spirit into it... Liandra kept up this inner monologue for another half chime, despising the taste and texture in her mouth. She spit the Soulmist out into her hand, and studied it close. There was a faint glow coming and Liandra about threw it at the ceiling in celebration. She quickly grabbed a jar off a shelf and deposited it within, sealed it, and set it on the table. She started cleaning up when the door to the shop opened. Liandra looked up, and saw a stunning woman walk in, one who looked like she would never be seen in a rundown shop like this. The woman smiled at Liandra, "Hello, I believe this is where I inquire for assistance on... spirits?" Liandra perked up, and approached the woman, wiping her hands on her shirt, "Um, yes, yes it is. Nessela is out, but I'm, uh, her.. uh.. apprentice. What can I, um, help you with?" "Well, I know it must be intimidating for one of my status to be... here. I am Tsarahas, and I keep the Suvan Suites running smoothly. But no need to be nervous, I'm here on business, a few Mizas to throw at these beautiful men to fix the steps, while you watch them sweat while drinking something exotic. There is a disturbance in one of our suites, a disturbance of your nature. Could you please come take care of it, we need that suite immediately? We of course would pay handsomely." Liandra perked up. Normally Nessela wouldn't let her go alone, but Liandra wanted to prove that she could do something on her own. "Sure thing! I'll be right there! I just need to gather up my gear and I'll take care of that thing faster than Laviku can flip a Casinor!"

[Liandra]

The exotic woman smiled, and left, leaving Liandra to prepare and get to work. The Charoda woman quickly set about, grabbing anything she felt she might need. She went over to the corner that she had her stuff piled up and grabbed her knife. She made her way back to the table, and stuck the blade down into the freshly made Soulmist, and left it there to absorb the properties. She rushed over to the shelf, and grabbed two long strands of Spirits Beads. She wrapped these around her like a necklace, the stones weighing down and sinking between her breasts. She'd never tried to handle a ghost without Nessela around, but she couldn't let the shop down. They needed to build their reputation, they needed the money to fix up the shop, and they needed to help the spirits of Riverfall. She went to the table grabbed her knife, which had absorbed the Soulmist, grabbed another jar of the glowing material off the shelf, and started for the door. She stopped, looked back at her corner, and smiled. There was just one more tool to take. Liandra stopped before the pool out front of the Suvan Suites and looked down at her wavering reflection. Her confidence from before was as unstable as the Charoda looking back at her. What was she doing? She'd just barely scratched the surface of the world of Spiritism. She was a novice, an errand girl, a pupil. She wasn't ready. Just as she was about to turn back and go find Nessela, a loud crash filled the air, and a chair, shrouded in shards of shattered glass fell to the ground, splintering. Her eyes grew wide, and she quickly saw that the broken window was on the third floor. She began to run around the pull, jumping and stumbling slightly at the corners as shortcuts, and sprinted up the steps into the foyer. She sprinted past the front desk, the clerk terrified at the sounds crashing from up above, as Liandra found the stairs. She made to turn, and found herself slipping and sliding on the marble flooring. Her balance was compromised, and she began tipping toward her left. As she teetered, the momentum and shifting of her weight, brought her right leg up and around a bit. She carried with it, not fighting it, and her body spun a knee slamming into the edge of a marble step. Ignoring the throbbing, she scrambled up the steps, clearing the flights in a panic until she reached the third floor. She paused, trying to hear signs of the chaos, but there were none. Where was that room? She tried to remember the window. The chair had fallen, the glass shone in the sunlight, reflecting back in her eyes... because Syna had been at her back! The room was on the Syna side of the building. She looked down the hall, and saw a window with a long shadow skewing from it. That must be the far side! She moved opposite of that window made a turn down a fancy hallway, and saw a door half open, tilted. She had to be careful now, as slowed, taking careful, seemingly quiet steps. She peered in through the crack at the hinges of the door, trying to see the upset spirit. Her eye scanned the room, the furniture destroyed, decorations scattered and shattered, a royal mess. She scanned over the mirror, cracked and fallen, the carpets slashed and bunched up, a decapitated statue of some Akalak she would never recognize. But the bed was perfect. Not a wrinkle in it, not a speck of glass, looking as if it hadn't been laid in for years, without collecting dust. Kneeling down, she began getting her supplies out of her pack. She slipped the knife into the waistband of her bottoms, more as protection than to control the spirit. She pulled out the jar of Soul Mist, and grabbed the other tool in her pack, her barbed net. It hadn't been treated with Soul Mist, but it could put a barrier if the ghost managed to get ahold of her. Nessela had told her, if they can touch you, you can touch them. She looked up, to search the room once more, and fell backwards on her ass, as she had just stared into the cloudy, grey-blue eye of the ghost.

[Liandra]

"HOW DARE YOU!" The ghost didn't come out into the hall, but settled for screaming from within the room. "HOW DARE YOU TRY AND DEFILE HER!" The walls were beginning to shake, pictures in the hallway fell from their nails. Liandra flinched under the voice, angry, powerful. She grabbed her net and the Soulmist, and stood up and edged around the door. Meekly, unassuming, not wanting to further anger the spirit, "Defile who?" The ghost turned to her, and she got a good hard look at it for the first time. It was a tall Akalak, much older in the face than most that she saw, his body a smoky grey, the lines of his muscles still evident, even down to the curls of hair on his chest. His eyes were a piercing, icy blue and stared right through her, and her nerve almost broke right then. Her ears picked up a distant, ethereal singing, a woman's voice, beautiful, cheerful, serene.

"What do you care... fish? You're just like them, you want to just get rid of me and Kali, kick us out of our home, banish us to Dira's arms. You can do what you want to me, but if you even look at her, I will make sure you join me in death."

Liandra, as a show of good faith, dropped her net, "I'm not here to hurt you, or Kali, we don't do that. I'm just here to help everyone, you, Kali, the owners of Suvan Suites. Who is trying to defile Kali?"

[Liandra]

"DO NOT SAY HER NAME SPIRITIST!" The ghost rushed her, a powerful hand grabbing her by throat, and slamming her against the wall, shaking a picture loose. The grip tightened, the pain mounting, but Charodae couldn't choke. Her own hands grabbed onto his muscled wrist trying to free herself. But the ghost was just in strong in death as it was in life, and her efforts were fruitless. She began kicking wildly, trying to find any way to get out of the grip. Her feet and toes hit solid shins, thighs, but none of it was getting through to the Akalak who was staring at her with unbridled fury. Then his eyes grew wide in pain, her foot having struck him in the fork between his legs. The grip on her neck loosened, but he didn't drop her. She kicked up toward his groin once more, only to kick up through empty air and dropped to the stone floor, hard, landing on her shoulder. She rolled away, and quickly stood up, wobbling backwards unstably, before catching herself on a dresser. She drew her Soulmist imbued blade, and began looking around the room, the ghost gone, probably invisible. She began scanning anything that could move easily, to indicate location, curtains, blankets on the bed, flowers that were laying on the floor.

"I'm not here to hurt you, or her. What will it take to make all of this right?"

She heard a rustling right behind her, and she turned bringing her knife around in a slashing motion, only for her arm to be caught in a hand. "You're an awful fighter girl, you couldn't hurt me even if you really wanted to. Why do you want to help us? You could just banish us, or Dust us, so why go through all this?"

She looked up at him over her knife wielding arm, "Because ghosts are people too."

The ghost's eyes softened at this, and he let her go. "This room has been mine and Kali's for over a century, and we've kept it the way it was when... When I lost Kali and my son to be. She stays over there in the bed, mourning the loss of our child. She's gotten better in the last two decades or so, and she always found comfort in the way we had the room. But I went to take flowers to her sister today, and when I returned, they had begun remodeling the room. I tried to tell them to stop, but they wouldn't listen. And... I got upset. We've always paid for this room, I have a lot of money leftover from before I died. But since they changed it, Kali has withdrawn into herself, and I'm afraid it may be decades before she's better again. I don't know if I can bring her out again."

"Come with me."

Liandra and her ghost companion found themselves staring down the daggers that were Tsarahas' eyes. "You want to what?! After he wrecked my establishment, possibly permanently tarnishing our reputation!?! You were hired to remove him fish, not come to me with this shyke. Why should I do this for him after all this?"

"Because he's the best customer you have, he's been paying for that room since before you were born. Because you could be a mother one day, and I pray you don't have to feel the pain and loss his wife has. Because if you don't, I'll make it my mission to ruin that reputation you are so concerned about. And I have more friends like him."

"You dare threaten me fish? Do you have any idea what I could do to you and your ramshackle shop?"

"I am, and I do."

A smile broke out on the proprietor's face. "It's about time this place felt like the cloak and dagger of Ahnatep. Look, if he pays for the damage he caused, we will change it back to how it was, and will keep it that way. We can't go upsetting our VIPs can we?"

The woman handed Liandra a small sack of coins, that she didn't count, and the Charodae woman bid the both farewell. She entered High Spirits to see Nessela glaring at her, waiting. "Why haven't you finished making the Soulmist I asked for?" Liandra smiled and sighed, shutting the door behind her, preparing herself for the mucked up taste of egg, flour, cheese, and blood.

[Mist]

Thread Grading! Liandra XP/Skills: +2 Carving, +3 Spiritism, +1 Running, +1 Brawling, +1 Weapon(Knife), +1 Negotiation, Lore: Carving with seashells is not easy, How not to open an egg, Offering your blood to feed ghosts, Doing ones duty, Appeasing an akalak ghost Item/ Consequences: +5 GM Additional Notes: An interesting thread, I really liked the descriptive part of making the soul mist, though bear in mind when facing ghosts, possession is also a possibility. I feel like it ended a bit to soon, and it left me wanting more. Who were this couple, what happened to them! Very interesting bit there. -If you have any questions about the grade, don’t hesitate to PM me.