Almost as soon as she'd awoken, Sora had known that she needed to find someone to shear most of this awful rock off her face. She could very well handle a piece of it, but it needed to be at least half the size it was. Of course, she knew it was possible to break a stone -- you just had to get it against the crystal pattern -- and she knew that her life wasn't contained so much in this one... but that didn't mean it wasn't going to hurt when she cleaved it off. Regardless though, she needed to find someone with a weapon strong enough to cut it. Chrysoberyl was strong, like she was. It didn't easily yield.
She'd done some asking around, and had heard tale of a mercenary called Venari. Sora didn't exactly have much to offer, but she'd figured that asking what Venari wanted couldn't hurt, either. However, she had brought her bauble, which she dropped on the ground and gently placed a foot over so she could speak. "Hello? Is there a giant bug called Venari here? Diamond scythe on her face?" Sora called half-heartedly, her head tilted to the side awkwardly. "I've got a problem I need solved."
She was resting between outings where she'd scout her territory for new residents; not that she'd do anything to them, but she just liked to know what was supposed to be familiar and what might be strange. Her strung-up baubled items that Oliver had made for her were still hung near the painting of her chrysalis that Deli had done, and the entrance to her den was lush with flowers.
When the voice came in, the entire den seemed to shift and move as her body curled and uncurled, twisted and turned to produce a head from under folds of chitinous length and ticking, wriggling legs.
"Bug?" she echoed, as her body continued to twist, collecting itself behind her so that her upper-half was now at the forefront. The creature that had called to her was small, white, and guarding what seemed to be some kind of tiny glowing piece. Venari was interested.
"Hmm, yes, I am good at solving problems," hissed the crackling of her voice as she rubbed her mandibles with some of her front legs. She lowered herself and regarded the Gembound thoughtfully. "Who might the problem be?"
@Sora
Sora grimaced. "I'm gonna be honest, its not a 'who' problem. Its fine if that's all you take care of, but I figured it would be in your wheelhouse anyway." She adjusted the way her chin rested on her shoulder. "So, I'm sure you've noticed the giant chunk of chrysoberyl sticking out of my face. This, uh, isn't part of my gemstone -- my gemstone is just right there over my eye. This thing showed up after I chrysalised and its driving me crazy because its way too heavy. I was hoping that sick diamond scythe of yours could help me. I'm looking for more of an amputation." Sora definitely heard herself. She knew she sounded crazy, and knew that a reasonable Gembound was going to assume that she was lying about the whole "not connected to her gemstone" bit, but she was really hoping here.
"I was hoping you'd be willing to cleave like, half-to-three-fourths of this off as quickly and cleanly as possible. And yes, I'm aware that its going to hurt like... well, I don't know if you know who the Masked Merchant is, so I guess the metaphor would be lost. I don't know what kind of things you like as payment, but I have this baubled earring -- its two pieces, but it clips onto a thin layer of skin if you're dextrous enough -- and you can also have the piece of rock you cut off my face if it doesn't disintegrate. Is that enough, or is there something else you'd like me to get you?" Fair was fair, and this was bound to be a traumatic experience for both of them. Then again, Venari was a mercenary from what she'd heard, so maybe trauma wasn't quite the right word.
Venari listened to the request with great interest, her eyes following the words as she leaned forward to inspect the gemstone chunk that had grown out of the gembound's face. Huh. She'd never seen that before. Was it some kind of error? Her eyes then followed to the earring. Well, she couldn't wear that. But keeping the chunk of gemstone sounded cool, and maybe she could have Oliver bauble it later.
Several thin legs reached out to touch and inspect, turning Sora's head gently as she took in the size of the gemstone structure and where it did and did not connect.
"Hmm, I see," she said finally, retreating back to a comfortable distance. "I can make sure you are asleep first, if it might help with the pain? Or we can just go for it," Venari offered gently.
@Sora
Sora paused. She hadn't... actually considered that whatsoever. "Uh. I don't know, actually, but I imagine it would be a little less awful as long as you aren't going to like, hit me to knock me out or anything. Magic is fine, though. I don't even know if there's magic that can do that..." Sora didn't know much about magic. She was very... physical. "I have a pretty solid pain tolerance, though." She thought back to the icy-sharp claws of that trial, of sparring with Kini-yolotl and Morganite, of that time Ifrit accidentally stepped on her and messed up a couple ribs. Pain didn't get to Sora.
Granted, this was going to be an otherworldly type of pain that no creature was meant to withstand and survive, but. "Be careful not to get my eye," she advised, "because that would definitely kill me. That's my real gemstone." Then, Sora tilted her head as straight as she possibly could to give Venari a good angle, nudged the bauble closer just in case, and waited.
Hmm. Well, Venari didn't know any magic honestly, so she gave a quick "sure", nodding, agreeing to the plan and taking the careful notes that Sora took the time to explain. Without a second breath, and without any other words, Venari bonked Sora straight on her head with the heavy, diamond scythe and caught her body with the other.
"Hmmm," she hummed, lifting Sora's body with her many legs and turning the creature to the side, then the other, then placed it back on the ground; she turned the body so that the stone was at the perfect cleaving angle, and then lifted the diamond carefully—
There was a sharp shiing! sound as her scythe passed through the gemstone, and a good portion of it slid right off and into the grass. Venari turned Sora's head slightly, examining her work. Well, she had never tried to... not have that be fatal, but she supposed for her first try, it was pretty good. Probably not as good as Sora had hoped for, so Venari scratched and scraped a little at it to file it down. She didn't want to push her luck and have Sora wake up during this part, though, so she did as much as she could as fast as she could, and then gently lay the gembound in the bed of flowers.
She pushed the tiny baubled item back toward Sora, and took the gemstone chunk for herself. Sweet.
@Sora
Sora was pretty distinctly sure she'd told Venari not to knock her out (Sora was small enough that she was very worried about being seriously injured), but she wasn't exactly big enough to resist it and her last thought before she went under was that Venari was probably smart to do this, actually. She probably wouldn't have been able to hold still during the shaving-down part.
In the end, the crystal was jagged and certainly looked like chrysoberyl. It still obstructed her hearing, but now it was small enough to the degree that she could walk around with her head level. That was all she'd ever really wanted.
Sora came to several minutes later, a quiet groan bubbling out of her throat. While the exposed portion of stone didn't hurt, per se, it was tingling. She hadn't even known that stone could really have feeling in it, but it felt a lot like nerve damage. Still, the pain that come from it didn't hurt, exactly -- she'd been unconscious for that -- and Sora got to her feet after taking a moment to breathe. She waved her head back and forth, admiring that she could actually move now. She looked over and noticed the faint glowing of her bauble. "Thanks," she said sincerely, moving towards her little light. "I'll keep you in mind if I ever need a murder done." Her tone left uncertainty about whether or not she was joking.
Sora picked up her bauble, nodded at Venari again, and set off. She wasn't exactly comfortable sticking around the lair of a known killer.
> exit sora
Venari was careful to keep an eye on Sora and make sure the smaller creature woke up just fine, and it didn't take very long for her to come around. When she seemed fine, and tested the weight of her head, Venari offered a small smile. It felt nice to know she had done a decent job, at least to satisfy her customer. It was something she had never really done before, so she was secretly nervous how Sora would be when she woke up; thankfully though, all seemed well.
The Hunter nodded as Sora spoke, and—oh, it occurred to Venari she hadn't caught the creature's name, but that was okay. If she needed to identify it again, she had the gemstone as reference.
"You're welcome," she said in turn. "Thank you for teaching me something new." When the other mentioned keeping her in mind for a murder, Venari let loose a hissing laughter.
"Yes, please do," rolled her voice as her body sunk back into the den. "Farewell."
She took the chunk of chrysoberyl and set it high upon one of her several self-dug shelves. Hmm yes, that would look very cool if it were glowing. She'd keep it in mind if she saw Oliver again sometime soon!
- exit venari!