“And that does it!” Amez said, looking over his latest body enchantment with a satisfied look.
The thing was a red sparrow, etched into the lower leg of a pink-haired mecha-gnome woman. She’d been resting belly down on his cushioned table, but perked up as the tattoo artist made his declaration. Rising to her knees, she twisted her torso to look down at her shin. The sparrow drawing glowed slightly in red, orange-tinted magic.
“You like it?” the tattoo artist asked.
“It’s beautiful” she murmured, taking her good time to watch the glow rise and fall on her leg. It must’ve been an odd thing, seeing a piece of her own skin there, bursting with magical power.
“Why don’t you give it a try?” Amez smiled handsomely at her, stepping away to give her space to jump down.
She pushed herself over, letting her legs fall flat on the floor.
“Outside though” he gestured to the shop door. The gnome walked around the table, before her eagerness and her giddyness overcame her, and she started skipping across the floor to the handle. She half-flung the door open as she reached it, and ran out into the dirt street, excited like no other. As she disappeared, Amez hastily followed until the doorframe, where he stopped. There, just in the nick of time, he saw the woman activate her new magic and jump, HIGH, at least thrice her own height and soaring above nearby walking urbans elves and carts pulled by humans. Then her body began to fall, with gravity accelerating her downwards. Soon she was plunging towards solid earth at harmful speeds. Just half a meter or so from impact though, and that speed was arrested by a sudden flash of red. Finally, feet hit the ground, and her momentum in landing was no greater than if she’d made a normal, vertical jump.
“WHOAAAAAAA!” she screamed with delight. “I’m going to kick ass so damned hard! THANK YOU, AMEZ! Thanks a lot!”
The clean-shaven man waved a little hand at her. She sprung up to him. He reached out his hand, and she grabbed it with both of her own. A fervous handshake followed, stars of appreciation in her eyes. “Thank you! You just added 10 years to my life expectancy!”
“Well, it’s my job” he replied, his humility basking in the freely offered admiration. “Thank you as well, for recognizing its value. Means a lot to me.” He put an emphasizing hand to his chest, palm smacking himself lightly, while returning her star-filled eyes with his own.
The gnome soon departed down the streets, happy and optimistic. Inside Amez though, her departure only reminded him of what day it was today. It was the day. The day I become an adventurer. He went over to the tree-stomp in front of his shop, sitting down on it. Am I really ready for this? Why do I feel so nervous. Rum’s team sounds amazing. I’ll probably do fine. Or at least I won’t suffer any injury that Rum can’t take care of... right?
Internally, his own feelings of excitement and determination wrestled with the anxiety of his own choice to join a team of seasoned dungeoneers. Seasoned, that is, except for Rum. Still, my mage brother appears to have done good enough for himself. And while he has the benefit of years of worldly experience, how many stories and discussions have I not been privy to from my customers? How much second-hand experience and wisdom have I not heard, overheard, and from ramblings endured? I surely must’ve gained a lot foresight from having all of these people’s failures, successes, and methods explained, time and again.
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As the man sat there, thinking deeply, a large creature came up to him. At first he didn’t notice it at all, and so when the creature came close, it positioned itself right in front of him, blocking out the sun. The creature, having 2 heads no less, looked down at the young man with both.
“What’s the matter with you?” Electroblade asked.
Amez glanced up, only to see Electroblade strapped up on White Rose’s front in a harness of leather straps and metal rings. For a moment the tattoo artist was caught speechless, the sight in front of him just too odd and attention-grabbing. Electroblade held a lightly curved saber in her hand, with a matching scabbard strapped on the side of White Rose. Speaking of, the latter wore zes usual black veil and black fully covering clothes. The leather was, fittingly, also black. The metal rings, meanwhile, glinted in surfaces so polished as to remind one of mirrors. The gnome’s bright torquise hair, pointing straight upwards across her back-to-front middle, fit the overall aesthetics to produce in Amez’s eyes this strange and ominous vibe he’d never before seen. As one took into account the steel implanted leg, and that other bird-like full steel pegleg, and the missing arm, and the number of scars, this overall vibe that Amez was experiencing converged into a theme, new and inspiring, in his imagination. If Amez had to describe this theme, it would only need 4 words: steel, cold, brutal, death. An amalgamation of suffering descending to its ultimate end, the coldness of metal; the stillness of death. As an artist, Amez felt the aesthetic in front take hold of something deep inside of him, willing itself forth like a surge of creative potential. What would come of this sensation, of being exposed to this sight, that he didn’t know. But this was undeniably a moment of inspiration, an inspiration planting itself inside his heart and his mind, and taking roots, never to let go.
“Something’s got your tongue?” Electroblade prodded. She used the rapier’s tip to gently tap at his left cheek. From this position they were roughly the same height.
Amez eyed the blade, then decided to slightly move his head to the side and out of its tapping way. “I was just admiring you 2” he met the gnome’s eyes, “the way you’ve come together” he glanced up towards White Rose’s veil, “it is certainly something” his eyes gave the form a lookover, before returning to the gnome.
Electroblade smiled. “You like it?” She retracted her outstretched blade, pushing it up to rest against her chest, pointing skywards. “I like to think of it as our new battle form. I’m the stabby front” she flung the blade back in front and stabbed at the air, a ferocious grin overtaking her, “and ze” she moved the blade up to tap at White Rose’s bony shoulder, “is the hard muscled back. Together, we’ll be unstoppable.” The grin did not stop as sparks of electricity fluttered around the blade, mildly surprising Amez, who was feeling somewhat bewildered by show.
“I do” he said after a brief silence between them. “I like it. Very...” he gestured with his hand to their whole general form. “Very striking, you 2.”
“Thank you” Electroblade’s smile turned into less of a bloodthirsty grin and became something of an appreciative blush. “But why you sitting out here, looking like your head’s up in the sky?”
“It’s nothing” Amez waved the concern away with a hand. He stood up. Turning to face his shop he sighed unwittingly, before walking towards the door.
It was clear to Electroblade that there was something, because “that sigh wasn’t the sigh of nothing” she mumbled to herself. However, she resolved not to prod any further. “Onwards, battle machine!” She pointed her arm and rapier to the door being opened by Amez, and White Rose stirred into motion.