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Post by Vanitypirate on Apr 30, 2019 14:34:53 GMT -8
It was almost a conscious effort not to sneak and skulk through the alleys as she was accustomed to. Even when Tilly was not particularly up to no good, there was some benefit to be had in making herself small and going unnoticed.
But now, in her new, feathered hat and silk coat, beneath which she wore her typical jerkin and patchwork jacket (while protective, did indeed feel quite stuffy to wear), she felt strangely brazen walking through the street.
Strolling through the sanitarium, now, she recalled the path to Sicherlein's room from memory and hoped that she had not been relocated since they'd last spoken.
Knocking on the door with one hand, the other, ring hand held a humble plate of cheese from the wedding the night before.
"Hello-o-o-o!" She called, sing-song, to the door, "It's Tilly!"
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Post by Bloodtrailkiller on Apr 30, 2019 14:55:48 GMT -8
/Sicherlein/
Days... maybe months had passed since she'd heard anything remotely close to pleasant beyond the dull and claustrophobic silence of her cell. She'd sat on nigh every cobblestone in that span of time, stared at every angle imagineable; she swore she could kill twenty men in armor, blindfolded, in this room if she wanted.
Though, as she craned her neck about to look over her shoulder at the distant iron barred door, her neck popped and the motion itself felt utterly draining. How long did it take for her to pace from stone to stone anyhow? Her limbs had drawn thin, her knuckles and digits and become knobbly as the flesh had deteriorated. Her soft white skin had grown sallow, drawn tight about her bone structure... She was happy the water they gave her was dark and opaque. She wouldn't want to see the gargoyle that looked back.
"I can't tell if you wish to gloat or guilt me in my busy schedule... but the door should be unlocked." Sicherlein called out, her voice hoarse but still biting and toxic. She looked to her belongings still set upon an evidence table in the corner, to the table at the center of the room that had a pillow and blanket set upon it to make for some spartan design of a bed... to the chain that linked her ankle to the post, that had chaffed against her skin until her weight faded in the absence of care. Now the shackle hung loosely, if she wished, she could probably escape... though in all the machinations she'd concocted, none ended pleasantly from her escape.
"I heard you and the Blood wed; I can only offer my heartfelt congratulations... I'm sure the nurses and guards have taken anything of value on my things, but you are welcome to anything you wish, if you want." She continued, though her words fell to a mutter as she found that she didn't care to ensure the woman heard her.
She rose, slowly, and made to stand feebly beside her bed at the center of the room; her nature all but thin, perhaps daringly thinner than Tilly, as her sunken blue eyes still glimmered with a sharp, but distant, intellect and wit... like the shell of a spider upon a cobwebbed corner.
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Post by Vanitypirate on Apr 30, 2019 15:19:32 GMT -8
"We did indeed!" Tilly confirmed cheerily, though without many more meaningful words to add to the matter. To describe the high points of the event would be salt in the wounds to a woman in shackles, but to delve into the grim moments of last night would be tiresomely convoluted to explain.
So she simply entered the room.
"I brought you some food from the event. And I wanted to cheeck in, see how you were doing..." Tilly explained needlessly, setting the plate onto the foot of her table-bed. With a growing grin, she added,
"And I was wondering if you were still interested in killing Gunsches?"
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Post by Bloodtrailkiller on Apr 30, 2019 15:24:50 GMT -8
/Sicherlein/
Her blue eyes simply followed Tilly's hands as she spoke, poignantly, the plate she held with them.
"Ah... thank you, for the food..." She offered simply with a nod, as she pushed off from the table and ambled over to the plate, where she plucked up a portion of the foodstuffs daintily in her bony fingers before looking to the fellow Rogue with some amusement.
"... though, as for Gunsches..? Pff..." Sicherlein sighed and rolled her eyes, a motion that nigh made her nauseous but sass demanded it.
"... I could barely kill a fly as I am." She mused, though she was bereft of any sadness it seemed; only a dull and cynical acceptance fogged her eyes as she popped a block of cheese into her gob and quietly relished the flavor of something closer to food than base fulfillment of one's mortal coil.
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Post by Vanitypirate on Apr 30, 2019 22:33:12 GMT -8
"Well, obviously not right now. You've still got some healing to do." 'Healing' was rather plainly an understatement; the sanitarium seemed to do as much damage as it mended, and it seemed that she fared worse in captivity than even Tilly did.
"But once you're out of here, and you've been fed and watered, you'll be up to snuff in no time. And that's not even considering your knowledge and wit..." She shrugged and smoothed her coat lapels.
"All that matters is your enthusiasm, I suppose." She smiled as though she were making pleasant conversation about the weather, though it turned sheepish as she clarified, "...To kill Gunsches, and to not kill... er, me and my family. I'd feel rather silly if I told the guards to pardon you and then ate steel for it."
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Post by Bloodtrailkiller on May 1, 2019 8:49:50 GMT -8
/Sicherlein/
With her skull so visible, it was rather clear that her jaw tensed, despite having long since swallowed the dainty chunk of cheese. She shrugged her brows and emphatically blinked as she pushed some of her gilded locks back behind her ear; to her credit, her own attention to those strands have let them retain their luster. It was, perhaps, the one thing they'd yet to blemish.
"Oh, of course, just some... healing. It's not like I am in the Sanitarium, which does healing..." She hummed on cynically, before she scoffed and took a few more bites. She could almost hear the chunks plopping into her belly, but she relished the growing sensation of fullness.
"... I've lost meat, not my mind; I remember I swore to protect you, and your family... S-speaking of..." Her words suddenly bled their poison and took on a desperate sense of care,
"... Your child? Have you checked if it's... it's well? Since our tussle, it's the only thing that haunts me anymore."
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Post by Vanitypirate on May 1, 2019 17:00:39 GMT -8
"Ah, well, if you think you're healing better here in the Sanitarium, by all means you ought to stay here." Tilly supposed, though she could already guess what her choice would be. Nobody stayed in the Sanitarium if there was anything they could do to help it.
It's just that much of the time, they couldn't help it.
"Everything I did was to keep the wee one safe. It's well. In fact," She assured her, with a smile perhaps a bit wider and a bit warmer than she intended. "I... felt it move for the first time, just a few weeks ago."
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Post by Bloodtrailkiller on May 1, 2019 18:45:42 GMT -8
/Sicherlein/
"Oh yes, this Sanitarium does wonders in emphasizing one's good bone structure..." Sicherlein lamented under her breath, a biting incapacity to not have the last word lingered in her still as she glanced away in some admittant shame as the topic shifted and she found herself rather greedily finding another and another chunk of cheese to slip down her gullet.
"... Th-this is... That's good, I think. I wish I was more able to give some insight, b-but I..." She shrugged sheepishly, a measure that was far easier to accomplish with her shrunken shoulders. She rather entirely shrank away from Tilly as this inadequacy surfaced,
"... I've handled and learned to rear children, I used to obsess over it before my own husband was killed." She huffed, the words came easier but the fact was still difficult to face with aught but grim resolve.
"But this Sanitarium..." She began desperate, before she scoffed and held her gaze to the cobblestones in shame, idly rubbing the calloused pad of her foot against its familiar rock,
"... when there's nothing to see but stone and stone and nurse and needle; it becomes difficult to remember more than your own name." She explained, her hands clasped together, wringing and clenching as if struggling to make the shape one ought when begging.
"S-so I'd... It would be nice if you would voice a pardon for me? O-or speak in my favor; I can work, or fight o-or whatever! As long as it gets me out of here..." Her voice drew hoarse and shaky as she spoke on, her blue eyes felt the need to weep but no tears came. Anxiously, she pinched the bulb of her nose and looked up to Tilly again, at last, with a slightly arched brow. Somehow, still finely trimmed.
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Post by Vanitypirate on May 1, 2019 21:27:50 GMT -8
"Oh, good gods-- of course. Captivity doesn't suit you." Tilly assured, fishing in her coat pockets for her lockpicks; perhaps it would have been easier to simply ask the guard outside for a key, but she feared that her skill in cracking locks would weaken in want of practice.
"You are hereby..." Kneeling a tad awkwardly beside the bed, so as to examine the lock to her shackle, it only took a few quick motions of a hooked pin and a needle to coax the lock open, "...Pardoned."
Satisfied, she pocketed the tools and then, bracing a hand against the bed, she rose.
"No need to make you wait any longer than you already have. I'll just let the guard know you're good to go when we see 'em."
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Post by Bloodtrailkiller on May 2, 2019 14:38:15 GMT -8
/Sicherlein/
The weight of iron off her ankle was like being given wings; though that might have well just been the nausea of eating perhaps too much food in one go of it.
"O-oh? You're not..." She began warily, as she swiftly slipped her ankle free of bondage and looked to her gear again. She hadn't thought to ever don that jack and hat ever again. She wondered if they still fit. Lightly, she brushed off some dust that had collected upon the leather, before making to don those layers again.
"...I'm not sure that's a particularly official way to go about this, but I will take it." Sicherlein gave a weak laugh as she felt the weight of her typically light garb... though even still, she noted a particular lacking in her well thought to be hidden pockets. It was a frustrating thing, but she supposed it was fair... Though she wasn't keen on letting those pockets remain so flat. Without her capacity to requisition from the Gunsches, doing so would be markedly difficult.
But that was a trial for another day. Her hideout was no doubt ransacked due to her lacking presence, but it may serve well as a place to live yet.
"It will take me some time, you know... to recover." she intoned as she set her trousers about her waist and saw to slipping her long boots up her thighs...
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Post by Vanitypirate on May 5, 2019 8:38:32 GMT -8
"I'll let the guards know you're free to go, mind-- I doubt they'd have a care to argue." Tilly averted her eyes politely as Sicherlein dressed herself-- not that she was indecent beforehand, but to watch her dress was a tad too intimate for someone she'd nearly killed only a few weeks ago.
She let her hands rest in her pockets, where she'd stowed away her lockpicks. Picking open those shackles was satisfyingly easy.
"You'll recover in time. I don't expect you to go hunting assassins right away." She shrugged, idly counting the floor's stone tiles. "If you ever need a place to stay, or a meal, you'll always be able to visit me and mine at our house. It'd be a shame to let you out only for you to go cold and hungry."
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Post by Bloodtrailkiller on May 5, 2019 20:55:36 GMT -8
/Sicherlein/
She scoffed, a touch of old cynicism bleeding in through her skin as she donned her old garb in full; the tricorn still fit, which was honestly what mattered most. Its good leather was dusty and a bit stiff, but it would soften with how rainy the weather here was.
"Guards are always like that, aren't they..." She sighed as she tightened the buttons about her thinner physique.
"... And... yes, I'll need a place to recuperate." Sicherlein agreed, her leftmost hand lingering on her right shoulder. It was still difficult to flex her fingers, let alone make a fist. She noted Tilly's averted eyes and was grateful she didn't notice this glaring weakness... she would keep it quiet, she didn't need to know.
"I appreciate the thought, you are very kind." She proceeded, a bit stiffly as she struggled to put words together as her mind whirred on. It was a thin line she was walking upon; one false step and she would certainly go very, very cold.
"If you trust, I am a very good cook, and I've had to make my own livings clean for most of my life. Lady I was, but nothing so rich to have Maids for my every whim and need." Sicherlein chuckled and let her right hand rest behind her back; the less attention the better.
"Either way, if you'd lead me to this... home of yours? It would be good to see the outside again." She smiled widely and knocked her hat back an inch so the visor wouldn't veil her eyes too menacingly...
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Post by Vanitypirate on May 5, 2019 23:47:16 GMT -8
With a few stolen glances as she gathered her clothes in entirety, Tilly noted the woman's wiry physique. Spindly-limbed and lean, there was something admirable, to Tilly, in doing without excess. To stay light was to live within one's means, waste as few resources as possible, to stay agile in combat...
She was all too aware that what Sicherlein was, she was not. While Tilly would become slow and soft by her hearth, Sicherlein was certainly better suited to ambush assassins and hunt monsters.
"Ah, if you'd like to cook and clean, I won't argue. But I won't hold you to it," She told her with a smile that pained her, making to fasten a button or two of her coat, so as to close it. "...You don't seem the type to enjoy staying at home, doing chores."
She opened the door and held it open for Sicherlein for her to depart, first from the room, and then from the Sanitarium itself.
"I'll show you the way, put in a good word with our good Lekalis and all. Just to be thorough."
[To the Hamlet Streets?]
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Post by Bloodtrailkiller on May 6, 2019 8:26:14 GMT -8
[Awaaaay!]
/Sicherlein/
"You would be surprised, frau Tilly, I used to dream of it..." She sighed as she nodded humbly to Tilly and made to follow her out of the grey cell that had been her world for what felt like years. She'd forgotten how open the world was, even the long halls of the Sanitarium were wildly expansive in comparison to her familiar square.
Departing from that realm entirely... that was a true undertaking that seized her heart with the wings of freedom. And fear.
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Post by Machevelli on May 21, 2019 7:24:55 GMT -8
Missy stirred as Rellen carried her into the sanitarium, struggling against the strange man carrying her.
“Who are you?! Where are we? What did you do to me??” Her eyes widened as she spoke, soft voice pushed to the top with urgency and terror. Her movements agitated her wound and she looked down, glancing back up at Rellen as she noticed she was wrapped in a filthy bloodstained coat.
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