(no subject)
Mocha #27. Over My Dead Body and FoTD - 11/4/09 - Skullduggery
with Hot Fudge
Story : knights
Rating : PG (with grossness)
Timeframe : 1275
Word Count : 550
Word of the Day : Skullduggery - Devious, dishonest, or unscrupulous behavior or activity
Reida was laughing. Wrist deep in the soft, pink gut of the mock cadaver, she had her head thrown back, and her shoulders shook as she produced a sound one might well have labeled maniacal.
Kairn had expected the door to be locked, come with a few dozen questions and accusations, answers ready for her inevitable excuses. When he’d strolled right into the lab, unimpeded, to find the thing out on the table and Reida mucking about its innards, the whole carefully composed interrogation fled his mind.
Instead, like an idiot, he’d said, “So, you’ve got one too.”
The first coherent thought to break through the stupor was that, clearly, she had intended for him to walk in on her, and he wondered just how many sessions she’d spent here with the door unlocked, grinning to herself as she waited for him to stumble through it. The body wasn’t as complete as Sethan’s. The skin was an eerie, uniform white, not a sigil on it anywhere. It was lacking hair and eyes, and half its organs, he suspected, but it was only a matter of time.
The laughter faded, Reida blinked and ducked her head to swipe, with a shoulder, at her eye. “Of course I do.” She pulled her hands, slick with remnants of synthetic tissue, from the opening and wiped them on a rag. “I suppose you’ll be asking me next what element she is.”
“I don’t have to.”
She paused, the rag, drenched in sickly stains, still dangling from her grasp, to look him up and down. “What do you mean, you don’t have to?”
Kairn drew a deep breath, edged a step back from the table and the lifeless shape splayed across it, and let the words tumble out. “You thought you covered your tracks. Even Sethan didn’t know. But I…I saw you.” Her eyes narrowed, and he drew his tongue hastily over dry lips. “I saw you on the battlefield,” he said. “With Rune.”
The second laugh didn’t hold half the conviction or the threat of the first.
“Sethan thought you were working for him, helping us stay safe until he was ready to come take Shamino.” She was glaring at him, the rag twisting slowly between her hands, and he backed a little closer to the door. “He figured seeing a god was enough incentive for you. But it wasn’t, was it?” He gave the body between them a nod. “You wanted to own one.”
She stared at him in silence for a moment, and he swallowed hard. Then she laughed, a lighter, more human sound, but disconcerting all the same. “And what,” she said, “are you going to do about it? Run and tell Sethan like the loyal bitch you are?”
“No.”
“No?” She quirked a brow and cocked a grin. “You going to help me then?”
“No!” he said, a bit more forcefully than he’d intended, and his voice cracked. “I’m going to stop you. Both of you.”
The full force of the first laugh returned. “You?” she sputtered. “You don’t have the balls.”
“We’ll see.”
“You know,” she said, as he reached for the door. “You’ve already made your first mistake.”
Kairn paused, hand on the knob, to look back. “O-oh?”
“Coming here to tell me?” she said. “Nice move.”
with Hot Fudge
Story : knights
Rating : PG (with grossness)
Timeframe : 1275
Word Count : 550
Word of the Day : Skullduggery - Devious, dishonest, or unscrupulous behavior or activity
Reida was laughing. Wrist deep in the soft, pink gut of the mock cadaver, she had her head thrown back, and her shoulders shook as she produced a sound one might well have labeled maniacal.
Kairn had expected the door to be locked, come with a few dozen questions and accusations, answers ready for her inevitable excuses. When he’d strolled right into the lab, unimpeded, to find the thing out on the table and Reida mucking about its innards, the whole carefully composed interrogation fled his mind.
Instead, like an idiot, he’d said, “So, you’ve got one too.”
The first coherent thought to break through the stupor was that, clearly, she had intended for him to walk in on her, and he wondered just how many sessions she’d spent here with the door unlocked, grinning to herself as she waited for him to stumble through it. The body wasn’t as complete as Sethan’s. The skin was an eerie, uniform white, not a sigil on it anywhere. It was lacking hair and eyes, and half its organs, he suspected, but it was only a matter of time.
The laughter faded, Reida blinked and ducked her head to swipe, with a shoulder, at her eye. “Of course I do.” She pulled her hands, slick with remnants of synthetic tissue, from the opening and wiped them on a rag. “I suppose you’ll be asking me next what element she is.”
“I don’t have to.”
She paused, the rag, drenched in sickly stains, still dangling from her grasp, to look him up and down. “What do you mean, you don’t have to?”
Kairn drew a deep breath, edged a step back from the table and the lifeless shape splayed across it, and let the words tumble out. “You thought you covered your tracks. Even Sethan didn’t know. But I…I saw you.” Her eyes narrowed, and he drew his tongue hastily over dry lips. “I saw you on the battlefield,” he said. “With Rune.”
The second laugh didn’t hold half the conviction or the threat of the first.
“Sethan thought you were working for him, helping us stay safe until he was ready to come take Shamino.” She was glaring at him, the rag twisting slowly between her hands, and he backed a little closer to the door. “He figured seeing a god was enough incentive for you. But it wasn’t, was it?” He gave the body between them a nod. “You wanted to own one.”
She stared at him in silence for a moment, and he swallowed hard. Then she laughed, a lighter, more human sound, but disconcerting all the same. “And what,” she said, “are you going to do about it? Run and tell Sethan like the loyal bitch you are?”
“No.”
“No?” She quirked a brow and cocked a grin. “You going to help me then?”
“No!” he said, a bit more forcefully than he’d intended, and his voice cracked. “I’m going to stop you. Both of you.”
The full force of the first laugh returned. “You?” she sputtered. “You don’t have the balls.”
“We’ll see.”
“You know,” she said, as he reached for the door. “You’ve already made your first mistake.”
Kairn paused, hand on the knob, to look back. “O-oh?”
“Coming here to tell me?” she said. “Nice move.”