Curses !!
Lucrena - April 5, 2006
Just the sight of those little creatures makes my blood boil.
Curse curse them all. From the moment I can imagine they have
tormented me. Holding all the cards as if I wouldn't notice.
Curse all the little people. You will all feel my wrath.
LUCRENA
YELLS::::::::::AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAGGGGGGGGGGGRRRRRRRRRRRRR:::::::
Chavie and Caer Darrow: The Children
Chavie - March 31, 2006
"I, uh, I have this place... I can't tell anyone else where it is
because, well, you'd all want to go there... It's a wonderful
place, my secret, special place." - Fun Land; The Doll's House
"...and this will hardly be your first death, will it?" "You
mustn't kill me. You don't love me. You d-don't even know me." -
The Furies and Abel; The Kindly Ones
"Thus said Hashem: A voice is heard on high, wailing, bitter
weeping, Rachel weeps for her children; she refuses to be
consoled for her children, for they are gone." - Jeremiah 31:14
_____________________________
In the dank dirt cellar beneath the trap door, with a single
candle for light, Chavie wrapped herself tightly in her cloak,
snug as a burial shroud. She sat in the center of the circle of
children, tears and snot drying on her cheeks and cut-wide
harlequinn mouth. Rocking back and forth, she stared into
nothingness, and talked to the children.
"Hi did na fat mi," she whispered fiercely, rocking. Her throat
was sore, from yelling, but she didn't feel like healing it. "An
Yi Chi, an Zi Li Na, de her dit al." She turned her head to the
oldest of the children, a gape-mouthed girl with no eyes and a
missing arm and a doll sitting in her lap. "Ssu pid War Ne Sshi."
She had thought it was all a joke, at first. She was stressed and
was just joking around. It was nice, joking around and hearing
him laugh. Not many people could get Warneshi to laugh like that.
But then he had to make her mad. And then she was provoking him
on purpose, trying to drive him into a fury...
Chavie got on her hands and knees and crawled towards one of the
boy children. "Wat du yu du wen a chal is bad?" The boy's head
hung at a severe angle; his neckbones were all busted. "Yu pa nis
dem!" She hit the ground with her palm.
But when they had reached the inevitable conclusion--the duel,
the duel that always happened when someone made Warneshi mad--and
she met him at the gates of Orgrimmar... he refused. She had
called him an ugly soulless hateful toad and he just looked at
her and said he didn't fight people who were being irrational.
"Wa?" Chavie asked the little boy corpse. "Li Li was du el in Go
Lis, at te tem pel tu de. An... an... pi pul du it al te tam!"
She reached out to stroke the boy's hair; a clump fell out, and
she withdrew her hand. She sat back and hugged her knees.
Thrysta was acting strange. Zeelina had said the shadow priestess
had blessed a dwarf. Thrysta had helped an Alliance dwarf. Chavie
could almost hear Thrysta chiding, "Chavie, it is not becoming of
a priestess of the Dark Lady to bless dwarves." In the darkness,
Chavie laughed.
Vuudu's infection was growing. That was Chavie's fault. She was
the one who brought The Grim to Stormwind. She could practically
see that Anduin Wrynn, standing there with the dead
children--where he should be--but alive, and laughing at her. She
had taken such great care that night, and was even speaking
normal Orcish as best as she could stand. And Abric was breathing
down her neck, warning her not to fail... and then he was saying,
"We have failed. It is over." And she was yelling in wor sa fa
chal, begging to try again, one more time, just one more time...
And they did try one more time, and her valentine got bit by a
dragon.
Chavie looked to another child, the one she couldn't tell the sex
of. All its precious hair had fallen out and its face was caved
in. The Scourge probably did that. Beat its face in. It was more
rotted than the rest. Chavie wondered who exactly had killed it.
She scooted over to it and whispered, "Tis Ta was go in tu hep Vu
Du. Is t'ru. An den shi go kre zi. E mons was ha vin da gon pab
lems, an den hi go a we. Hi hep mi... Me ni tams. Hi was su pos
tu du el ssu pid War Ne Sshi wan mor tam, an Cha Vi was go in tu
wat chan si hu wan."
But he was gone, probably for good. Probably dead.
"Ready, set, GO!" a ghost child cried, above ground. The ghost
child never talked to Chavie, and could not be found, no matter
how hard she tried. Just like Te Chil Ren. They were gone. They
had grown up and moved on. Only Marson was left. And Vuudu...
She could hear Vuudu's voice asking, "Am I a Chal?" Te Chil Ren
were supposed to be Forsaken, but that didn't matter. Of course
Vuudu was a Chal. "A Chal is stan ger dan da gons!" Chavie had
said to Vuudu, after affirming her identity as one of Te Chil
Ren. "An te Gim ar stan ger dan da gons, tu!" They had rejoiced
in their strength, doubled by virtue of being both Chals and
Grim. They rejoiced there in the tailor's alcove in the
Undercity, where Vuudu had rushed to find Chavie after she'd
fallen asleep and accidentally dropped her hearthstone, all
concerned and worried... They had sworn to defeat this thing,
this dragon possession.
Chavie laid her head next to one of the dead children, and held
its withered and fragile hand. She'd sat them up along the walls,
in a circle--propped them up with rocks and things in some
places, to make a good circle. There were nine of them so far.
She had to save them from the rot hide gnolls, the graverobbers.
So she brought them here, when she discovered the trap door in
the shed. To Caer Darrow. Caer Darrow, where it was all empty
except for the ghosts. The ghosts Chavie couldn't even feel. She
ought to, she believed. She ought to be able to feel them...
It's your realm more than mine, a phantom memory whispered.
There is nothing worse than being held under someone else's
thrall.
"Wa du yu kil dem?" she heard herself asking Warneshi, an
eternity ago. "If de ar yor pi pul, wa du yu kil dem?" Because
they were in the thrall of his mother, he'd said. And Chavie
understood. Better to be dead than to be oppressed, mindless.
Then she remembered Warneshi snarling at her, calling her "little
corpsse", and then... brushing her off, refusing to duel like he
promised he would. He had started walking away...
There had been a troll mage, wearing the tabard of some other
guild--Echelon, maybe--and he was watching them. He had completed
his training, just like Warneshi, Chavie could tell. She
challenged that troll to a duel, and ran to Warneshi to make sure
he knew that even if he was too cowardly to fight her, to make
good on his promise to teach her not to insult and mock him, this
random stranger would.
And the random stranger had. But it wasn't right. The stranger
turned her into a sheep, and burned her from a distance. The fire
was almost comforting, it was a little exhilerating, but it
wasn't right. The stranger had stood so far away... didn't
actually touch her at all. He didn't even care.
She thought of Vuudu again. Vuudu, half-naked in Brightwater
Lake, showing Chavie how far the scales had spread. They'd talked
and comforted each other and then swam and swam, playing,
laughing, flirting. Vuudu said Chavie's butt glowed bright as the
moon, it was so white. Chavie said Vuudu's was as blue as the
water...
What if the dragon took Vuudu? What if Chavie couldn't bring her
back? Could she kill her valentine?
"No," whispered Chavie. No, she said, but the real answer was
yes. If Vuudu went past the point of returning, Chavie should be
the one to release her. She buried her face in the cloth of the
robe she'd sewn for the child beside her. Vuudu was a Chal, and a
Chal was stronger than dragons. And she was one of the only Chil
Ren left, she had to prove to all the ones who had left, to
everyone watching, that Te Chil Ren were strong, and nothing
could enslave them. She had to, they were the only Chil Ren
left...
Where were the children?
Chavie broke into a sob. Where were the children? Why weren't
there any children? Did the grain not affect them the way it
affected adults? Did they just die and not get up again? Did
their parents strangle them in their beds, did their older
brothers and sisters come in drooling and mindless to chop them
up? It wasn't right--no one should have to die so young...
She pulled the child's corpse down and hugged it to herself, oh
so gently, so as not to ruin its frail and beautiful body.
The Lich King didn't need children. They were just too weak to be
bothered with, not physically strong enough for his Scourge army.
Adults always underestimated children... But, what about
Sylvanas? Why hadn't she brought the children back? It wasn't
fair. It wasn't right. Sylvanas only wanted soldiers, didn't she?
She was just a creature of vengeance. She didn't love the
Forsaken. She wouldn't even give them back their children... she
just wanted soldiers, that's all she wanted, soldiers to avenge
her death, the stupid banshee bitch.
And again, she could almost hear Thrysta's voice, chiding her, so
very much like a mother... "Do not curse our Lady! Of course she
didn't raise the children. We're in the middle of a war, it would
be unkind and cruel of her. Perhaps when this is all over..."
It came to her, then. Chavie sat up slowly, letting go of the
little corpse she'd held. An idea, a grand and glorious idea. The
best idea she'd ever had. It had come to her disguised as
Thrysta's voice, but it was Chavie's just the same. It wouldn't
help her friends. It wouldn't make things right with her and
Warneshi. But it would help them. She would be their big sister,
and protect them when no one else cared to.
"Al brin dem bak," she whispered. A grin spread across her face.
"Al brin dem bak. Wen te war is o ver... al brin dem bak. Al mek
shur..." She looked around at her children's faces, so beautiful
and sad in the flickering candlelight. "Al brin yu bak!" she
whispered, fiercely. "An yu wil run an laf an ple, an al te For
Sa Ken wil sma yel, an laf wit yu... An de wil ri jos, bi kas te
chil ren ar bak."
First, she'd need to speak to the Royal Apothecary Society. She
needed a way to prevent the ones she'd rescued from rotting any
further. To keep them safe, here in Caer Darrow, until the war
was over and the Lich King defeated.
And Chavie would bring the children back to Lordaeron.
_________________________________________
"Thus said Hashem: A voice is heard on high, wailing, bitter
weeping, Rachel weeps for her children; she refuses to be
consoled for her children, for they are gone. Thus said Hashem:
Restrain your voice from weeping and your eyes from tears; for
there is reward for your accomplishment - the word of Hashem -
and they will return from the enemy's land. There is hope for
your future - the word of Hashem - and your children will return
to their border."
[Warneshi]
Warneshi let his snarl fall across the heartstone before he threw
it against the wall and let his presence fade from it. Warneshi
did not know what was wrong with the little undead, she had had
him laughing, for her humor was extremely morbid and he rather
enjoyed it, then she had started calling him an ugly toad.
Warneshi had first fought back in a joking manner, but then the
undead started repeating it over and over, soon starting to call
him a souless toad, and Grim sister or not, Warneshi was not
going to stand for that anymore. He had called her a little
corpse, warned her to watch her words, and it had seemed that
only made her more crazy and she had started repeating the vile
insult again and again, also calling Warneshi's words fighting
words, which they where.
Warneshi had waited for her at the entrance to the orc city, his
rage was fuming he could feel the voices of his mother and
brother screaming at him to murder the undead to drain her dry of
what ever precious soul she had left. Warneshi could feel the
fires rising in his gut, spreading to his arms and soon his eyes;
the world was going red, and all Warneshi could see was the
little beacons of differant colored lights from each other beings
soul. Warneshi was ready to kill her again, put her back in the
ground, and deny her her afterlife; the little corpse bitch would
pay for insulting the King of the Sandfury.
She was taking a bit longer then he had thought, and soon he
started thinking about other things, started thinking about what
Lilliana had told him. When she was near his urge to lash out at
the world subsided slighty, he stopped thinking about the demons
and brothers sitting on his shoulders and stopped thinking about
the world around him, and consentrated on her. Lilliana had told
him to do this all the time then, to stop giving his mother and
brother credit by thinking about them, and just putting them out
of mind.
Warneshi breathed slightly, his world coming back to it's normal
view, he could see the little lights of the other horde's soul;
but his hunger for them had all but dryed up. Warneshi tried to
remember why he was standing here, when he saw Chavie coming, he
remembered everything. The fire was starting to rise again, but
this time Warneshi put it out of mind. Warneshi knew this undead
rather well, and did enjoy her company, and realized she would
not all of the sudden begin trying to insult her close friends
without provocation. She did seem rather frazeled, and
disheveled, most likely upset over what was happening in The
Grim. Well that was what she was saying over the stones not to
long ago, so Warneshi had to assume that was it.
Warneshi could not strike her, she had only insulted him while
not being herself, and he would not slay her for that. Warneshi
told her as such and started to walk back towards the embassy.
Even when Chavie found another troll to duel her and beat her,
Warneshi just watched and wondered why she would submit herself
to such humiliation. Warneshi just thought perhaps she needed
sometime to cool off, sometime to think on her actions, so he
left her.
When she asked if she would speak with him at his embassy,
Warneshi figured she was going to explain what had gotten her so
riled up. Warneshi rode to his embassy, letting her know where it
was, only to find her sitting in it. When Warneshi approached,
she just laughed told his she had tricked him and road off.
Warneshi felt the fire in his gut begin to rise again, and looked
to Chavie seeing only purple, he allowed himself to let loose a
rather nasty snarl, then threw his stone across the embassy and
went back to his studies. If the wards he was carving didn't kill
him, then he may just kill everyone else...
[Chavie]
The note was sent in-game last night and I didn't think to write
it out somewhere. Oops!))
Chavie teleported out of Caer Darrow using her hearthstone. It
was so late at night that none of the other Grims were awake--at
least, she couldn't feel any other presences along the
hearthstone connection. As soon as she was in the Undercity, she
composed a note of apology to Warneshi. She used real parchement,
not paper, and made a scroll. The "to" part, where she tried to
use every title of his she could think of, and her signature and
its subsequent post-script, were each twice as long as the body
of the letter, which simply said, "i am sorry i insulted you. i
had a bad day." She made sure to include in the post-script that
she didn't really think he was ugly.
"Me bi if hi tak tu mi, a wil as kim wa hi di na fat mi," she
told herself, slipping the scroll into the mailbox. The thought
of him looking down on her was worse than the thought of him
hating her... He'd told her he used to respect her. She never
knew he had respected her to begin with. Maybe he would
understand and if not at least she tried... and maybe if he
didn't hate her, just looked down on her now, he wouldn't do
something terrible, like suck her soul out the way he did to his
father. She really didn't know. She was a little afraid now, for
making him angry. Chewing on her lower lip, Chavie hoped things
would be okay.
Then she summoned Bu Bat and rode him through the corridors of
the Undercity. It wasn't that crowded and even if it was, she
always had fun steering Bu Bat around the pedestrians... though
sometimes when it was really crowded he fell into the slime, the
stupid horse.
She was headed for the Apothecarium; when she got there, she
asked to speak with Master Apothecary Faranell.
"Huh?" The apprentice apothecary blinked stupidly at her.
"A SED, a wan tu spik tu Fa Ra Nel!"
"Ohh." He eyed her as if she had pink skin and sparkles. "Master
Faranell is busy."
"A yam Cha Vi Ski Ner. Ha Sis Ter af Te Chil Ren an Han daf Det
af Te Gim--"
"Has your brain rotted away? Even the jawless use better Orcish
than that."
Chavie ground her teeth together, and used normal Gutterspeak. It
made her insanely uncomfortable, made her brain feel scramled,
but she had to see Faranell. The stupid apprentice... she ought
to beat his head against the wall... "I am Sergean' Chavie
Skinner, o ke?" She pointed at her tabard. "Hand of Deat' of te
Grim. Faranell knows me. I led Te Grim on te raid on Stomwin!"
"I'll go get him." He eyed her suspiciously, and left. Chavie
hummed and hummed while she waited, putting her mind back at
ease. Finally the apprentice came back. "He'll see you, but you
must leave your horse where it is."
"Gu ba, Bu Bat." Chavie slid off the horse, landing wrong on
purpose, and stumbled, grinning. She slapped Bu Bat with the flat
of her palm. "Go ches te rats." His ears twitched, and then he
took off.
Chavie followed the apprentice back to Faranell. Faranell
dismissed the apprentice and opened his mouth to address Chavie;
she cut him off. "Wa du yu no a bao da gons?"
She had spoken to the Royal Apothecary Society about Vuudu,
without mentioning her valentine sister's name, and had sent
Vuudu a letter explaining what the RAS wanted them to do. Vuudu
was a Chal now, and Chavie was her High Sister. Chavie would take
care of her as best she could.
But in the meantime, the other children called. She had spoken
with the RAS about ways to keep corpses from decaying, ways that
could be recalled after an indefinite amount of time without
damaging the bodies. Simple embalming would not do, nor
mummification--not for Chavie's purposes. But she was no
necromancer.
...your realm more than mine...
Still, she would try. Her quests often involved conjuring some
form of magic beyond her ken; this would be no different. Once
she finally had some suggestions from the RAS, she wrote a letter
to The Grim and set to work on a spell that would keep the
children safe from physical harm--be it decay or sabotage--until
she was ready to wake them up.
She did not know how long it would take or how difficult it would
be, but it was something that had to be done.