“So, what now?” Sera asks the skeleton across the table from her, hoping it-he, that’s going to take some getting used to-has a better answer than ‘nothing’, which is what she has. Vey’s new, larger eyes are also going to take some getting used to, as Sera feels currently like they’re boring into her as opposed to looking at her. Based on his description of them… that might be exactly it…
“I… Don’t know. I was just trying to… I felt like I should after what you said back in the hallway…” Vey’s natural voice is also going to take some getting used to for Sera, but admittedly she likes it. It still sounds like it isn’t coming from a living creature with a throat or anything, and to be fair it isn’t, but it does convey Vey’s emotions and tones better than before. “Do you still want to leave?”
Sera contemplates on that. She’d threatened to leave or… kill herself… but that wasn’t what she wanted. She was just angry at the time. Sera thinks she still is, actually, but she finds it a little hard to try and yell at Vey now that he… Sera’s thoughts derail entirely, and her mouth moves far faster than her brain can tell it not to.
“Do you still want me to stay? And if you do… in what way?” Sera adds that last part with a tiny bit of thought, but not enough to stop her from being embarrassed at the potential implications of her own questions. The only way she manages to salvage her composure is not giving Vey time to answer. “I want to stay with you, but only if… I don’t want you to try and keep me here, I want to be free here, as equals, like…”
Sera’s momentum vanishes as she realizes she was more honest than intended. Thoughts like ‘Is that really what I want’ or ‘Would he even let me’ or ‘Where would I go if I left’ long abandoned, nothing but mere hallucinations of a scared, broken girl. Actually, she still is that, but she’s not going to lie to herself anymore, so long as Vey doesn’t lie to her anymore.
She looks at the skeleton, who simply folds his fingers together and focuses on a spot in between the two of them on the table. Vey looks about as conflicted and confused as Sera supposes her can with only a rigid skeleton to emote with, but she doesn’t want to throw the skeleton a bone just yet. I want you to say it. I’m not going to do that for you.
“I don’t know if I could just agree to that right now… I don’t want to hurt you, Sera, but I don’t want to risk the people you might go back to coming to hurt me either. I don’t want to accidentally do or say something that makes you threaten me with… suicide is the word, right? I don’t want you to do that, and I don’t want you to run because you don’t either, and I don’t want the conclusion of that to be-”
“Stop talking in circles, Vey. It won’t help us get anywhere. But I get it. I’ll try and think of something.” Sera does her best to look understanding for Vey’s benefit, even though what she really wants is to just outright deny or correct him. Vey forms a bridge with its-his-fingers, before turning over a boney palm and examining it.
“Would you… Stay here until you’re ‘fully grown’, whatever that is for an elf? I think that might be fine, but I don’t know when that is.” Vey puts his hand back down flat on the table, and tilts his head back up. “I know we documented how your body was growing, but are there any other factors, or reasons that plan wouldn’t work or be acceptable?”
“I turn sixteen years old in twelve days… It’s tradition for… Humans… They give gifts to their children when they come of age, like I am about to… Most humans at least, and some elves, like my family, did it as well because we lived with them.” Sera’s cheeks and ears burning with hot blood, she looks away from the skeleton, down at the empty plate in front of her. “If… you… if you can grant every request I write on the fountain wall by then, I will stay here, as your pet, the same as I am now. If you can’t, I’m free to leave at any time, and you will command the undead to ignore me.”
Sera finally looks up again at Vey, whose eyes are… not quite dilated, exactly, since they’re just blue circles in black sockets, but they’re almost certainly ‘surprised’ looking to her. His left hand’s middle finger scratches at the wooden table, quickly producing a sizable groove before he stops, and focuses on her properly once more.
“Ok. And in-between now and then, you will teach me what… all of this that I’m feeling now is, I’m beginning to find your previous definitions… lacking, for what I have become. Things like the difference between gender and sexuality you mentioned long ago, or that there were different types of ‘care’ and ‘desire’, that sort of thing. If you leave, I will need to know these things before you go.” Sera listens to Vey, and winces as he slips into his old voice at several points, but she nods her head at the skeleton.
“I’ll agree to that. For my first request, I want you to teach me how you fight, what spells you use, that sort of thing, and I want you to take me for a walk outside. And I want to be able to follow you at all times, you don’t get to wander off just because I fall asleep. And-”
“Slow down. I’ll forget some if you don’t write them somewhere. Or. No I won’t, but you said they had to be written down on your wall for them to count.” Vey points out the obvious as he cuts her off, exposing the flaws in her plan to just ask him for a bunch of stuff to ‘win’.
“Fine… But if you’re going to force me to follow the rules, we should add more.” Sera answers nonchalantly, but Vey’s eyes go wide, and he stands up, and starts walking over to Sera. She rises from her own seat to meet him. The height Vey gained from his evolution is evident now, standing only a foot apart from each other. Earlier, she would still have been able to kiss the skeleton where its lips would be without having to stand on her toes, but now she would. That’s not exactly the best way to think about it, you idiot!
“I’ll also be adding some rules then, should we carve them onto the wall?” He puts his left hand on her shoulder as he speaks, and Sera pushes off the arm, but takes the hand for herself in her own right hand.
His skeletal hand, cold and hard, but attached to a skeleton that loves her, even if it doesn’t know the words for that yet. She doesn’t know if she loves the skeleton the same way, or at all. The skeleton called Vey, now white as snow, with piercing eyes of arcane light, a wizard, monster, killer, and torturer. Her skeleton, if her achievements are to be believed, and Sera hopes that it wasn’t lying about its titles, since that would mean she’s his elf as well. Whatever that means for a magic skeleton and monster taming elven child, she doesn’t know.
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The two stand side by side, Sera holds the rock she uses to scratch things into the stone wall in her left hand, Vey stands ready with his right claw, and Sera inhales, a bit of shakiness in her breath, eliminated by the time she exhales. The first rule… Something simple, something that needs to be here, something that neither of us can break accidentally.
“Rule one: Neither of us will intentionally obscure the truth from the other-”
--
Elsewhere
“Max, give it a rest already, just because some dumb bitch of a princess way the fuck out towards the sea says she had a prophecy, that doesn’t mean they’re going to try and draft us into any wars.” June tries, futilely, to calm her beloved swordsman down. June knows Max won’t be able to let the thought of being dragged into the problems of that kingdom leave his mind lightly, but if anyone can try and help him, it would be June. Kayle, Marra, Setris, Vaye, and herself all failed to do anything more than distract him the previous night when they shared him, so it rests on her tonight to use her ‘turn’ to try her best.
June drags her hand across the front of Max’s muscled chest, and pushes her elven ears into his human ones, being careful not to actually let their heads collide just yet. How many times has it been now, since the first? The dark elf tries to remember, but can’t find a number that feels accurate, given how many times the party has all gotten blackout drunk, or intentionally used(or perhaps abused) Marra’s body swapping trick to trade ‘turns’ for magic items or other random things. The answer probably doesn’t matter, either, since she knows Max wouldn’t remember them either, even without all of that.
“I know you don’t like politics and kings, or that kingdom, but you don’t have to worry about it, ok? No matter what happens to you, or who you wake up in the next time you die, we will always find you, ok?” June swings her body around to the front of Max, and eyes his face, melancholic and with a hint of rage beneath the surface, yet clearly visible, she presses her bare breasts against his chest while pushing in for a kiss, which Max returns as gently as he can with the spiky beard of his current body. “Let’s just rest for the night, we have to finish that giant-slaying quest tomorrow, that should be good to clear your head, right?
All she gets in reply is a nod, the watery look in her love’s eyes, and an arm around her waist pulling her closer.
--
Pactbound(Vey and Sera Eranda Eclir Luvil)
Sometimes words and rings aren’t enough. Pactbound individuals share more than flesh and bone, curses inflicted on and blessings given to one are mirrored on the other. Should one individual die or break the pact, they will receive the Pactbreaker curse, as well as the Claimed by the Faithless One curse.
Terms:
Pactbound forbids intentional falsehoods, unless agreed to by both Pactbound Individuals(henceforth Pacters)
Pactbound prevents physically harming the other beyond 50% of maximum hp unless agreed to by both Pacters
Pacters will never restrict the physical movement of the other for more than 3/100 hours unless agreed to by both Pacters
Pactbound forbids intentional abuse, misuse, or willful exploitation of Pactbound terms to the detriment of either Pacter
Pacters will share certain knowledge, namely status, pacts, curses, blessings, vows, oaths, and titles with the other at all times unless otherwise agreed by pacters on a case by case basis
Agreements made to temporarily bypass pact terms need not be verbal, and new terms and standing agreements can be added to the pact, or old ones removed, by consensus of both Pacters
The Pacters’ may remove the pact without consequence by agreement of both Pacters.
--
Level and Hit Die:
14, 14
Current HP/MHP
178/178
Armor Class
14
MP
N/A(Non-caster)
Class:
Fighter 5, Barbarian 5, Warblade 4
Name:
Maximillion Caul
Race:
Human
Inhabited Body:
Human[Male, Adult, 32]
Age:
67(32) [Overwritten: 23]
Alignment:
Chaotic Good
Height
6’3 ft
Attributes:
MHP
STR
CON
DEX
INT
WIS
CHA
SPD
LCK
NAC
Base:
5
14
16
12
15
13
18
30ft
5
10
Inhabited Body:
0
2
3
2
1
1
2
0
0
0
Inhabited Race:
0
0
0
0
0
0
0
0
0
0
Blessings:
0
3
3
3
1
1
1
10ft
10
0
Curses:
0
2
2
2
-1
-1
-1
0
-10
0
Total:
5
21
24
19
16
14
20
40ft
5
10
Proficiencies
Skills(Passive)
Skills(Active)
Magic Effects
Pacts and Curses
Simple, Martial, and Exotic Weapon Proficiency
Greater Sundering
Skysplitting Strike
Pactbound Mindlink(Maintained by Pacter Setris)
Curse of Reincarnation
Simple, Advanced, and Master Tool Proficiency
Titan’s Strength
Conqueror’s Stance
Inhabiting Body
Curse of Silence
Light, Medium, and Heavy Armor Proficiency
Warlord
Dragon’s Breath Stance
Godsblood
Blessing of [Deity Not Found; Rebirth]
Greatsword Mastery
Dual Stance
Bonecrusher
Curse of Eternia’s Scorn
Unarmed Combat Mastery
Greater Rage
Vow of Fertility
Pactbound(Kayle, June, Marra, Setris, Vaye)