Post by Astrid Vess on Aug 30, 2022 17:09:03 GMT -5
Astrid was . . . unhappy with what she was going to do. Mind you Astrid wasn’t typically a happy sort but today she was going to learn how to do something that was more up Alastor’s alley. I.E., solidify deals that were made between him and another. Astrid, while able to think at a higher level, could not comprehend why exactly she needed to learn to do this. Sure, her time with Amori had shown that she may have to do deals with others to get something or get something done, but was it really that important for her to know? She’d thought about this a lot given her interaction with Amori went smoothly enough. Then again. . . Amori had been the one to actually make the deal binding for the both of them. Astrid groaned mentally as she recalled that fact. Despite her best efforts, she couldn’t call the means to bind someone to a deal unimportant but. . . it was just stupid in her mind. Either someone would help, or they wouldn’t. You MIGHT be able to convince them or more easily force their hand. . . but really what did you expect? She was a hellion; she was going to get betrayed as soon as possible. That was the nature of her existence in any realm. . . Aside from maybe Hueco Mundo.
Her packmates were the closest beings she could call upon. And she knew two of them. Marik. . . might be someone she could call upon if she really needed it. . . but he still weirded her out. Thus, she wasn’t really fond of interacting with him at any point if she didn’t have to. Sonadora and Akando however, she could get behind. Truthfully, between the three of them Astrid wasn’t actually certain what could seriously stop them, assuming they all worked together. But that might only become possible once Akando was a bit more. . . “there”. Astrid knew pretty well what he was going through and how thoroughly dominated by his hunger he was. Nevertheless, it’d take time. But if Astrid was going to get help aside from them, namely, and heaven forbid, hellions to help, she’d need this stupid ability.
Needless to say, just because she could EVENTUALLY come to terms with needing it didn’t mean that she had to like it. And honestly? It was only really there as a backup plan for things that were absolutely that important. If someone didn’t agree to help her, assuming she asked, she’d likely just kill them or leave them be. Depending on what she wanted. With the mental gymnastics done however Astrid looked at the abode of Amori. She groaned loudly but continued to walk forward anyway. Thankfully she didn’t even need to enter the abode because Amori, with oddly precise timing, walked with a tome book. Her smile, wide and friendly. . . for a hag anyway. “Ahh dearie you’re back~ Why I almost thought you’d run away from the lesson AGAIN. Not to worry, I’ve got the sigil right here so we can make sure you get all the help you require. Hehe, trust me dearie, once you get over the silly hunger, you’ll realize that sometimes you need to make friends to get something you want. Like you did with me~”
Amori just began laughing like the entire thing was a joke to her. And in some capacity, it was. Astrid had no doubt that Amori had plans to get the better of her and while Astrid wasn’t sure how to work around her plans, she did know that when it came to the sigil teachings, she was bound to be truthful and not afflict her with manipulation. With that in mind Astrid walked up to Amori and just gave her a dead gaze. Amori felt it was necessary and thus Astrid was going to have to learn this. She tried to keep in mind how this might be useful, but her patience was thin. Amori however just chuckled to herself as they sat on her porch, and she flipped the pages of her thick tome to the specific sigil she was going to teach Astrid. “Alright Astrid, let’s be clear, per the terms of our agreement I cannot actually have a practical demonstration with you because that would fall under manipulation. Possibly. So, with that in mind, I’ll show you how it works by using a subject of mine. BARTHOLOMEW GET YOUR ASS OVER HERE!!” Astrid raised a non-existent eyebrow as she looked up at Amori. The question was very prominent, who the fuck was “Bartholomew”?
Thankfully that question was easy to answer. Bartholomew was a fish man of sorts. Astrid’s eyes grew in size because it was swimming through the air. It held a trident in his right hand, was scaled all over with a fish tail for its lower half, and the upper was some would be humanoid thing. The face was like a catfish while the structure was humanoid aside from the gills, fins, and webbed hands. In truth, it took Astrid a moment to realize the fish thing was. . . too subservient. Namely because the form it took was just that surprising to it. Amori smiled before starting to speak again. “You see Astrid, Barth here, made a deal with me long ago. He wanted to become strong, become something different. Not unlike yourself actually, however he was content to remain tied to Hell. He didn’t think there was a way out, so he decided to sit “atop the grand pile of bodies” as he called it. Now while this is a VERY stereotypical deal to make in Hell what you see now is the consequence of having made that deal Can you tell what I asked for in return?”
Astrid looked over at the servant and took note of where Amori’s sigil was. While it may have been somewhere else initially, it was now on his forehead. And it looked like a bleeding hand as far as the sigil itself was concerned. She glanced at Amori who was smiling wide as she expected Astrid to get it very easily. “You agreed so long as he worked alongside you?” Amori howled in laughter for several minutes, even managing to tear up some. Eventually she managed to calm down and speak to Astrid. “You’re on the right track dear. I told him he’d be my servant. A weapon if you would. The implication was not, however, what he thought it would be. Upon agreeing to this I made him strong. Allowed him to revel for a short while. And then I made him into a weapon of a true worth. He does not think of himself. His former sentience is replaced by open orders. Oh, he can still think and take care of himself so long as I say nothing, but he is my weapon. Strong, capable, and unable to plot against me. This, Astrid, is the true power of this sigil. With careful consideration on the terms, you can bend others to your will and there is naught they can do about it.”
“There is however. . . one thing to realize. When you learn this sigil, you’re not actually learning the same sigil. No, you learn how the sigil works in concept. And from there you craft your own sigil. This is done so that there is no mistake in who they are bound to. Unlike, how if I taught you my sigil, you’d simply make deals on my behalf. I could allow them and yourself to create and apply said dealings but ultimately, they fall to me. Thus, you will create your own sigil using my tome here. Although, the purpose of the tome at this point is completed. You understand what you need to do, it's now time you created the means to do such. That will be your task for the remainder of the day, create your binding sigil and then have Barth here, become bound to a simple deal. I’ve already told him to agree in earnest to whatever your terms are. But I recommend for the sake of this deal that you start small, so you have an idea of how it all works. Once you’ve the basics you’ll be binding many to your will before you know it~ Anywho, I must go make supper. Take your time dearie!~”
To say Astrid was stumped for awhile . . . would be an understatement. Astrid tried many times to create some sort of sigil that symbolized her will over another. Tried something that was similar to the Soul converter rune. Astrid even tried mimicking the shape of Amori’s just to see how it’d work. Ultimately, they all failed. She could make a symbol and fill it with energy. But even when she put intent behind it. . . The symbol collapsed or just didn’t take effect. And true to Amori’s words, it wasn’t for a lack of Bartholomew agreeing to sincerely crazy terms. Without fail, he’d agreed to anything Astrid said as a terms. But never did the sigil stick. Nor did its effects take place. It wasn’t until Astrid finally just decided to go for a simple design and a simple command that this finally changed. With no care for if the sigil actually worked Astrid just decided on a whim to equate herself to a form of Yggdrasil. She’d seen a rune dedicated to it summoning a manifestation of the tree. So why not compare herself to it? After all, her abilities were based on the tree she spawned on her person and the flowers were her spirits. Her existence was a mockery to the meaning of the flowers she grew anyway, so why not mock something else while she was at it? What was going to happen, she went to a deeper level of Hell?
Thus, she created a simple circular tree. Circular only for the sake of being easy to draw and as mentioned, a tree since that was one of her main features of herself. From there she reinforced the symbol and then filled it with energy of her own. Initially it turned a deep dark orange-gold before fading into a deep veridian. This. . . was not normal for any of Astrid’s sigils. They’d simply stayed her reiatsu’s natural color. With a tilt of her head, she looked over at Barth, standing or more accurately, floating still, since he’d been summoned originally. With his lifeless eyes and his barren voice Astrid had only one genuine desire for him. To leave her the fuck alone so she could leave. She put the sigil on the backside of her right hand and then spoke to him. “Take my hand so we can agree to these terms. Bartholomew, you will leave me and not speak to me again. If I see you again, it's too fucking soon. In return I’m not going to consume you or just outright kill you for being the shit filled puppet you are. Understood?” Bartholomew immediately agreed and that’s when the sigil took effect. With a bit of channeling on Astrid’s part the sigil immediately moved from her hand to his hand.
His eyes changed and became veridian for a moment as he looked at Astrid. Then he immediately, albeit rigidly, swam away. He didn’t look back. He didn’t say anything. He just swam off in the opposite direction. Astrid saw the same sigil appear on her hand before it faded away moments after she lost sight of him. She stood there for a few minutes as she pondered what she’d done differently that time. Was it the sigil itself? Was it her unwillingness to actually continue on with this facade of a “teaching”? Perhaps she’d simply channeled reiatsu properly this time. Whatever the case it didn’t matter to Astrid anymore. She was burnt out from learning this sigil she really DIDN’T want to learn in the first place. She was going to tell Amori about what happened and leave shortly thereafter. Sadly, Amori had already figured it out and was clapping behind one of the windows. Astrid narrowed her eyes before starting to get pissed off at the thought that Amori was watching her the entire goddamn time. Fuck this. Fuck Amori. FUCK LEARNING ABOUT THIS SIGIL I’M DONE. Not a moment later Astrid produced the World sigil and teleported away so she could do anything other than work on this sigil further. All the while knowing Amori was laughing her ass off at her reaction to her success and numerous failures.
OOC: 10 paragraphs for TTP
Her packmates were the closest beings she could call upon. And she knew two of them. Marik. . . might be someone she could call upon if she really needed it. . . but he still weirded her out. Thus, she wasn’t really fond of interacting with him at any point if she didn’t have to. Sonadora and Akando however, she could get behind. Truthfully, between the three of them Astrid wasn’t actually certain what could seriously stop them, assuming they all worked together. But that might only become possible once Akando was a bit more. . . “there”. Astrid knew pretty well what he was going through and how thoroughly dominated by his hunger he was. Nevertheless, it’d take time. But if Astrid was going to get help aside from them, namely, and heaven forbid, hellions to help, she’d need this stupid ability.
Needless to say, just because she could EVENTUALLY come to terms with needing it didn’t mean that she had to like it. And honestly? It was only really there as a backup plan for things that were absolutely that important. If someone didn’t agree to help her, assuming she asked, she’d likely just kill them or leave them be. Depending on what she wanted. With the mental gymnastics done however Astrid looked at the abode of Amori. She groaned loudly but continued to walk forward anyway. Thankfully she didn’t even need to enter the abode because Amori, with oddly precise timing, walked with a tome book. Her smile, wide and friendly. . . for a hag anyway. “Ahh dearie you’re back~ Why I almost thought you’d run away from the lesson AGAIN. Not to worry, I’ve got the sigil right here so we can make sure you get all the help you require. Hehe, trust me dearie, once you get over the silly hunger, you’ll realize that sometimes you need to make friends to get something you want. Like you did with me~”
Amori just began laughing like the entire thing was a joke to her. And in some capacity, it was. Astrid had no doubt that Amori had plans to get the better of her and while Astrid wasn’t sure how to work around her plans, she did know that when it came to the sigil teachings, she was bound to be truthful and not afflict her with manipulation. With that in mind Astrid walked up to Amori and just gave her a dead gaze. Amori felt it was necessary and thus Astrid was going to have to learn this. She tried to keep in mind how this might be useful, but her patience was thin. Amori however just chuckled to herself as they sat on her porch, and she flipped the pages of her thick tome to the specific sigil she was going to teach Astrid. “Alright Astrid, let’s be clear, per the terms of our agreement I cannot actually have a practical demonstration with you because that would fall under manipulation. Possibly. So, with that in mind, I’ll show you how it works by using a subject of mine. BARTHOLOMEW GET YOUR ASS OVER HERE!!” Astrid raised a non-existent eyebrow as she looked up at Amori. The question was very prominent, who the fuck was “Bartholomew”?
Thankfully that question was easy to answer. Bartholomew was a fish man of sorts. Astrid’s eyes grew in size because it was swimming through the air. It held a trident in his right hand, was scaled all over with a fish tail for its lower half, and the upper was some would be humanoid thing. The face was like a catfish while the structure was humanoid aside from the gills, fins, and webbed hands. In truth, it took Astrid a moment to realize the fish thing was. . . too subservient. Namely because the form it took was just that surprising to it. Amori smiled before starting to speak again. “You see Astrid, Barth here, made a deal with me long ago. He wanted to become strong, become something different. Not unlike yourself actually, however he was content to remain tied to Hell. He didn’t think there was a way out, so he decided to sit “atop the grand pile of bodies” as he called it. Now while this is a VERY stereotypical deal to make in Hell what you see now is the consequence of having made that deal Can you tell what I asked for in return?”
Astrid looked over at the servant and took note of where Amori’s sigil was. While it may have been somewhere else initially, it was now on his forehead. And it looked like a bleeding hand as far as the sigil itself was concerned. She glanced at Amori who was smiling wide as she expected Astrid to get it very easily. “You agreed so long as he worked alongside you?” Amori howled in laughter for several minutes, even managing to tear up some. Eventually she managed to calm down and speak to Astrid. “You’re on the right track dear. I told him he’d be my servant. A weapon if you would. The implication was not, however, what he thought it would be. Upon agreeing to this I made him strong. Allowed him to revel for a short while. And then I made him into a weapon of a true worth. He does not think of himself. His former sentience is replaced by open orders. Oh, he can still think and take care of himself so long as I say nothing, but he is my weapon. Strong, capable, and unable to plot against me. This, Astrid, is the true power of this sigil. With careful consideration on the terms, you can bend others to your will and there is naught they can do about it.”
“There is however. . . one thing to realize. When you learn this sigil, you’re not actually learning the same sigil. No, you learn how the sigil works in concept. And from there you craft your own sigil. This is done so that there is no mistake in who they are bound to. Unlike, how if I taught you my sigil, you’d simply make deals on my behalf. I could allow them and yourself to create and apply said dealings but ultimately, they fall to me. Thus, you will create your own sigil using my tome here. Although, the purpose of the tome at this point is completed. You understand what you need to do, it's now time you created the means to do such. That will be your task for the remainder of the day, create your binding sigil and then have Barth here, become bound to a simple deal. I’ve already told him to agree in earnest to whatever your terms are. But I recommend for the sake of this deal that you start small, so you have an idea of how it all works. Once you’ve the basics you’ll be binding many to your will before you know it~ Anywho, I must go make supper. Take your time dearie!~”
To say Astrid was stumped for awhile . . . would be an understatement. Astrid tried many times to create some sort of sigil that symbolized her will over another. Tried something that was similar to the Soul converter rune. Astrid even tried mimicking the shape of Amori’s just to see how it’d work. Ultimately, they all failed. She could make a symbol and fill it with energy. But even when she put intent behind it. . . The symbol collapsed or just didn’t take effect. And true to Amori’s words, it wasn’t for a lack of Bartholomew agreeing to sincerely crazy terms. Without fail, he’d agreed to anything Astrid said as a terms. But never did the sigil stick. Nor did its effects take place. It wasn’t until Astrid finally just decided to go for a simple design and a simple command that this finally changed. With no care for if the sigil actually worked Astrid just decided on a whim to equate herself to a form of Yggdrasil. She’d seen a rune dedicated to it summoning a manifestation of the tree. So why not compare herself to it? After all, her abilities were based on the tree she spawned on her person and the flowers were her spirits. Her existence was a mockery to the meaning of the flowers she grew anyway, so why not mock something else while she was at it? What was going to happen, she went to a deeper level of Hell?
Thus, she created a simple circular tree. Circular only for the sake of being easy to draw and as mentioned, a tree since that was one of her main features of herself. From there she reinforced the symbol and then filled it with energy of her own. Initially it turned a deep dark orange-gold before fading into a deep veridian. This. . . was not normal for any of Astrid’s sigils. They’d simply stayed her reiatsu’s natural color. With a tilt of her head, she looked over at Barth, standing or more accurately, floating still, since he’d been summoned originally. With his lifeless eyes and his barren voice Astrid had only one genuine desire for him. To leave her the fuck alone so she could leave. She put the sigil on the backside of her right hand and then spoke to him. “Take my hand so we can agree to these terms. Bartholomew, you will leave me and not speak to me again. If I see you again, it's too fucking soon. In return I’m not going to consume you or just outright kill you for being the shit filled puppet you are. Understood?” Bartholomew immediately agreed and that’s when the sigil took effect. With a bit of channeling on Astrid’s part the sigil immediately moved from her hand to his hand.
His eyes changed and became veridian for a moment as he looked at Astrid. Then he immediately, albeit rigidly, swam away. He didn’t look back. He didn’t say anything. He just swam off in the opposite direction. Astrid saw the same sigil appear on her hand before it faded away moments after she lost sight of him. She stood there for a few minutes as she pondered what she’d done differently that time. Was it the sigil itself? Was it her unwillingness to actually continue on with this facade of a “teaching”? Perhaps she’d simply channeled reiatsu properly this time. Whatever the case it didn’t matter to Astrid anymore. She was burnt out from learning this sigil she really DIDN’T want to learn in the first place. She was going to tell Amori about what happened and leave shortly thereafter. Sadly, Amori had already figured it out and was clapping behind one of the windows. Astrid narrowed her eyes before starting to get pissed off at the thought that Amori was watching her the entire goddamn time. Fuck this. Fuck Amori. FUCK LEARNING ABOUT THIS SIGIL I’M DONE. Not a moment later Astrid produced the World sigil and teleported away so she could do anything other than work on this sigil further. All the while knowing Amori was laughing her ass off at her reaction to her success and numerous failures.
OOC: 10 paragraphs for TTP
{Bartholomew reference picture}
{Astrids deal making sigil}
