Private ✪ Finweald Bad Desire

[Lune]

That one day of the week when the Folkstreet Market opens finally came, and Lune came all the Finweald just for one reason. In her left hand was a scuffed advertisement poster for potions and most likely other services from an individual known as Imoogi. If she had one coin for every person with a Korean word as a name, she'd probably have three.

She didn't know the person, but she was sure that they would have crossed paths somewhere, maybe even several times. In times like these, she was more likely to trust Starcalled often than not. Technically, there was one other alchemist, but she would rather that the woman doesn't know about her condition(s). And also the fact that the white-haired incarnation of the devil herself probably wasn't that specialized in alchemy and potions, really.

It was at the peak of noon, so the market was at its busiest time. Lune could barely hear her own thoughts as the cloaked woman tried to slip through the crowd of buyers and merchants alike, trying to find this Imoogi person's stall. Everyone's too busy to stop and look at the weird hooded person with a horn.

"Hmmm....."

In theory, it should have been easy to spot a Starcalled even in this ruckus, but Lune had circled through this exact street twice and did not find anything indicative of the shop at all.

Her steps stopped just in front of an alley as her pair of red eyes caught something. There was a... blanket with stuff on it? This is not narcos stuff, is it? Intrigued, Lune peeked into the alley before deciding to walk closer. Sometimes, the shady path is the right way, if RPG games were to be trusted.

@Imoogi

 

[Imoogi]

Snake Oil
Potions and Brew
Commissions Open!​

The handwritten (more hand-carved, really) sign set next to the makeshift "stall" was little more than scrap wood. The blanket was ragged and stained. Even the goods being sold looked unimpressive - more boggy slime than glittering brew, sealed in mismatched bottles salvaged from various locations.

Imoogi, though - she was confident in her motley stock, and the alchemist's toolkit she'd set up looked as pristine as the day she'd joined Terrasphere. It was that confidence that came forward as the horned woman approached. Now that was some kind of player. She shifted her position from cross-legged to kneeling and waved.

"Hey! You looking for potions?" Her voice was raised, but not shouting - the last thing she needed was to get run off by a guard again. "I've got healing pots, stat buffs, poisons... got some special stuff too, if you're interested!"

Imoogi grinned, fangs bared but not aggressively. She'd practiced her speech. It was a good speech. Even if she hadn't made any sales yet today. But making money was about persistence, right?

@Lune

 

[Lune]

After walking closer, the horned woman could finally read what was carved on the makeshift sign. She managed to hold her chuckle back upon reading Snake Oil. What can she say? She appreciates good puns.

Once she set her gaze on the goods, though, her brows furrowed. Those things didn't exactly inspire confidence, but she was not going to judge a book by its cover. Besides, the girl who was selling them looked pretty nice. She assumed that she was the Imoogi, as there were some hints from her appearance.

"Ah, yes, I'm looking for potions. Healing ones would be nice."

The woman nodded, slightly lowering herself to inspect the potions further. The closer she looked at them, the less impressive the brews became. "Stat buffs, too. Probably ones for the more long-term."

Lune then stopped to think about this special stuff that she's offering. There's this way that she said it with a grin that screamed 'illegal things'. But she can't lie that it got her pretty intrigued. "Special stuff, huh..." She put her hands on her chin, raising her head up to look at the alchemist.

"... What kind?"

@Imoogi

 

[Imoogi]

A customer! An actual customer, and not some Lions goon asking about permits! Imoogi began to point out potions on her blanket. "Right, so I've got basic healing potions ones over here, and these ones work faster but might make you sick..."

She wasn't even bothering to suppress her hissing lisp as she explained what seemed to be half her visible stock. "And if you're looking for stat buffs, these are all short term, but I can probably boost 'em..."

In the midst of her spiel, she nearly missed the woman mentioning her 'specials'. Imoogi's eyes practically gleamed as she looked around, then beckoned her customer a little closer.

"Y'see, with the right ingredients, I can make some really good shit. Y'know, for when you're up against a final boss or expecting some PvP. But getting them is tough..." Another glance around, and then, "...and it works best if they're fresh."

Imoogi leaned back again. hoping that the horned customer would understand just how "fresh" she needed things to be. Landers didn't really approve of it, and they could be listening.

@Lune

 

[Lune]

Lune ignored the poor and varied conditions of the potion bottles, as she picked up one and swirled the contents like it was a wine glass. "Give me the fast-acting ones. My body should be able to cycle the side effects somewhat quickly."

Using animancy as little as possible would be really great now that she had finally reaped some nasty side effects from it.

"And strength buffs, please. All that you have." It didn't seem that the girl had that many in her stock, anyway. She seemed too eager to see a customer; perhaps she doesn't usually have regulars? The alley was shady, after all, but it seemed like the products were genuine.

The horned woman stood back up with one brow raised as she crossed her arms. "By how you said it, I take it that those specials are illegal?" For a reason, definitely. Even in this world, things like potions and experiments are still monitored and regulated. "Don't worry, I'm not interested in semantics. You can talk to me."

Now she's extra interested, mainly because she doesn't know the extent of potions. Maybe there's just one that could somewhat minimize the growing Syndral Fracture symptom hiding behind her right sleeve.

For now, she'll just ask for more information.

"Those ingredients, how hard are they to procure?" Lune looked around. "Freshly, as you mentioned. Money also isn't a problem."

@Imoogi

 

[Imoogi]

Oh, this was gonna be a good day. Imoogi began shifting potions around, separating the good ones from the cheap ones with surprising care. As she did, Imoogi continued to chatter.

"I wouldn't call them illegal, really." She paused a moment to inspect one of the potions, a muddy green one that she wasn't sure was potion or poison. "But you know how NPCs get about 'forbidden magic'. They get all touch and start talking about the wrath of the gods or whatever. Normal NPC bullshit, y'know?"

She paused, contemplating if she should dig into her personal stash as well. She decided against it. "It just depends on how big a thing you wanna kill. A bear's got more to it than a bug. And more than both of those..."

Imoogi stood up, and with the quickness of a striking serpent she snatched a few hairs from Lune's head. She didn't hesitate to stick them into her mouth, tasting for the telltale spark of Starcalled power...

"...bleh!!!"

She suddenly spat out the hairs and wiped her mouth, eyes flashing at Lune. "Ugh, gross. You've got some shitty energy, lady..."

@Lune

 

[Lune]

"Ah,"

So either it was those types of potions, or it probably had some help from the magic itself within it. Whatever it was, she didn't care really much. It's the end result that matters.

"I see. I'm a practitioner of said magic myself, so it's not like they are going to judge me more."

Lune was waiting for the girl to finish her explanation, but the sudden move surprised her. Her hair was kinda dry and brittle, so it didn't take too much effort to snatch some strands away. What raised her brows was that Imoogi immediately put those same strands into her mouth without any elaboration.

"Ugh, gross. You've got some shitty energy, lady..."

She had no other response to that opinion other than a shrug, even when it sounded kinda offensive. "That doesn't look like a ladylike and healthy habit, Miss." Shaking her head a bit, she then slowly slid off the sleeve she had on the right side, revealing patterns of scars and gashes along her right arm, and some wounds were even perpetually open.

It doesn't look malformed enough, but it was easy to see through the eyes of people with some knowledge that it's an early symptom of Syndral Fractus.

"Probably not a good idea to consume anything that comes from me."

@Imoogi

 

[Imoogi]

"Look, lady, if you want me making custom pots for ya, I gotta get a read of your vibes." Imoogi wiped her mouth, trying to scrape the lingering taste of life gone sour from her tongue. "Taste's the quickest way to figure that out..."

Imoogi's voice trailed off as her would-be customer revealed the state of her arm. Her tongue flicked a few times, but she didn't need to taste the air to sense the distortion beneath her skin. She leaned close, pupils dilated near to roundness. "Holy fuck. What did you do?"

Her voice portrayed equal parts horror and fascination as she hovered near, barely holding back her desire to just grab the arm already. "I don't think I'd even want to taste this..."

It looked... vaguely familiar, actually. Memories of an entity that had tried to take her rightful property from her surfaced, causing Imoogi to back off.
"Right, so I think I'm gonna need to... ugh, study this if you want something that'll work right. My stuff's made for normal people, not... this."

@Lune

 

[Lune]

"Apparently, Animancy was deemed taboo for this exact reason." The horned woman crossed her arms, "Misuse it a bit too much, and eventually it'll warp your body further."

The alchemist had never seen anything like it either, which gave her the impression that the condition was somehow rare. But then, she remembered that several other players also had used Animancy, and yet no one seemed to be afflicted by this condition. Not even Yugam, who relied on it religiously.

Probably Lune's usage with it might be five, tenfold what a sane person would.

"They call it Syndral Fractus. That's the extent of my knowledge."

She was sure someone else would have more insight on this, but at the moment, the woman could only get so much from a public library.

"Hence why I'm looking for more ways to bolster my regeneration, probably the more natural way." Turns out, closing every stab wounds, cuts, and missing arm with Animancy wasn't exactly the best thing. That was the first time she learned that one of the masteries in the game has a drawback.

Wonder if it also exists for others.

She was basically presenting her right arm for Imoogi to look closer at. "Been around for a while and never seen anyone with it. Are you saying you'll need to study me?"

@Imoogi

 

[Imoogi]

"Syndral fractus? That's a stupid name." But Imoogi put it to memory anyway. "You were using animancy on yourself?"

Granted, Imoogi had done it before, but it had felt weird, so she'd stopped once she'd figured out the potions thing. But her customer apparently lacked her restraint, and now she was a walking billboard for the consequences.

"I mean, yeah, I could get regen pots for you, but you're all... leaky. My strongest potions might make things worse, oooor they might just not work at all." She shrugged, giving her customer her personal space back as she started reshuffling her potions around.

The mention of studying her, however, made Imoogi pause.

"...would you let me?" There was an odd hint of excitement in Imoogi's voice. She'd meant studying books, but if this was an offer to get some hands-on experience, then she wouldn't say no...

@Lune

 

[Lune]

"You were using animancy on yourself?"

"Yeah. Or am I supposed to inflict this misfortune on someone else?" Lune slightly tilted her head. Of course, isn't that the purpose of having an all-powerful, life-force encompassing magic? "Unless you can suggest another mastery that lets me move my organs to avoid a fatal stab, or grow back my hand overnight."

At the mention of that her potions might not work, the woman took a step back and raised her hand to her chin, deep in thought. She didn't expect this to be as bad as she thought. Then, with a slightly different tone, Imoogi asked if she could truly study her.

Either people are bad at concealing their true nature, or Lune was just that good at reading them. Thankfully, those who were up to no good seemed not to hang around the game that much anymore, sparing Luthien and Yugam from dealing with a bad actor who kept trying to push them cartoonishly evil deals.

Regardless, she didn't sense any malicious intent from the girl, and besides, who else would understand it more than a fellow Animancer who had experience with experimenting? "Sure," the Oreo-haired shrugged. "Nothing could be worse than what I did to myself anyway, might as well."

Perhaps they could exchange information that would benefit each other. The worst-case scenario is probably going to be more ailments.

@Imoogi

 

[Imoogi]

"Yeah. Or am I supposed to inflict this misfortune on someone else?"

"I mean, yeah??? Don't get high on your own supply or whatever." Imoogi had tried Animancy on herself before, in an attempt to enhance her own fangs to proper viper-y functionality. But it had felt weird, and now they kept dropping out and regrowing on her. Painfully. "Makes it easier to get good drops from mobs and shit."

She still had the taste of the woman's hair in her mouth, twisted lifeforce and all. The offer of experimentation lingered too. She was good at alchemy, but her only test subjects were hapless forest critters and Pudding, who was more garbage can than creature.

"Y'know what, deal!" Imoogi stowed her potions into her inventory en masse and clapped her hands together. "How 'bout this - you help me get the mats and I'll let you have the experimental ones for free."

Imoogi hesitated a moment, rolling her next words in her mouth, and then somewhat reluctantly continued. "...and a discount for the regular ones." It was a gamble worth taking, if it meant she could master alchemy, and then the Handler would have to let her go on proper quests.

"What's your name, anyway? I'm gonna send you a friend request." She opened her interface, not bothering to state her own name. It was on the sign, after all.

@Lune

 

[Lune]

"Look, I get injured a lot." Lune sighed. In hindsight, it was something she could have taken a precaution against. It'll be unfair to discredit how powerful it was, though, like that one time it saved her from bleeding to death after being stabbed in a forest after a training gone wrong. "If it gets me out of the clutches of death, it's better than nothing."

It's not like this was her first rodeo of being experimented on. The Yugam stuff, then the Animancy techniques she used on herself. At this point, she wasn't sure why she wasn't already a walking abomination.

The horned woman nodded confidently, her arms crossed. "Should not be too hard," Which might not be true. In her current state, sometimes she even had difficulties dealing with a group of normal enemies. But that's not something she needed to state openly. "Just give me detailed information about that stuff, and we should be good to go."

It was basically a win-win, even perhaps a big win in her book. If those do work, future batches would be cheaper. Call that an investment.

Looking at the girl opening her player UI, she went ahead to introduce herself.

"Call me Lune. Lu-nae."


@Imoogi

 

[Imoogi]

"Well, maybe don't do that, at least until I dial these pots in right."

Imoogi's mind was already whirling with possibilities. There were so many ingredients she couldn't get her hands on, either because she was too weak or too poor. The lady in front of her...

"Lu-nay? Got it"

Lune was clearly both strong and loaded, and thus perfect for a budding alchemist in need of a little leeching. The friend request was sent into the aether, and Imoogi clapped her hands together.

"I'm Imoogi, and I'm looking forward to working with you!" She held out a hand with a fanged grin - specifically her left hand, a rather transparent attempt to avoid touching Lune's twisted arm. "Just give me a sec to pack my shit up and I'll start working out a plan..."

Unfortunately, all of this meant studying. But studying forbidden magic was way cooler than math or science.

This was going to be great!

@Lune