One hell of a Mother

[Rey'na]

Rey'na listened intently. Her outfit? Lissira clearly had something in mind, but what exactly? Thus far, she'd aimed for subtlety in the simplest way. This method, however, was confusing. Did it count as subtle if she was wearing an "outfit" especially for the job? She didn't doubt that her mother had something planned, however. Anticipation overwhelmed her - and she wasn't disappointed.

As Rey listened, her smile widened and her eyes started to glow with joy. A cloak, a full face mask, leggings to hide wounds, gloves and a hood. It was perfect. It was amazing and incredible and it was so perfect Rey couldn't put it in to words. But she didn't need to word it, her laugh said it all. A small giggle, the most genuine she had ever had. It was if when Lissira spoke, the egg in her head was echoing whatever she said.
"It's beautiful" Rey said quietly, almost as if telling herself. Her eyes looked up excitedly to her mother. "With the money I can try and make, I can do more than just buy that outfit. I can buy an arsenal of poison, a way to grow poison, a way to make it. I can do anything you need, just tell me what to do" she said excitedly, gradually building up in volume as she spoke.

The final sentence, however, was what hit her hard. People would assume she was effectively made just to poison, to do Lissira's will? Would she really be that feared? On top of that, Lissira would make a disease just for her? One she could spread and yet walk among safely, spreading her toxins to everyone in her wake. Just the thought of it made her shake with excitement. She would finally be on the way to walking in her 'mothers' footsteps.
"I...I'll do it. I'll make you proud. Tell me where to start. Let me show them the true power of Lissira and her children."

[Basilisk]

Lisirra grinned at Rey'na's eagerness to do something for her, then reached out and patted her shoulder. "I know your eager, my dear, but we don't want to push to fast. After all, people might look at it suspiciously." she said, her tone somewhat calmer now, though she had reason to be. "After all, we don't want you getting into trouble before we have time to set up your delightful alter ego, hmmm?" she said, before a thought occurred to her.

"We may also want some way to modify your voice when you're disguised. That could be fun to play with. I'll see what can be done about that." she said, before giggling again. "But while we don't want you to get into trouble, we don't want you getting bored and rusty, either. So, once you have your job, or some other source of income, there's something I want you to do for me." she purred, her voice soft with dark malice. "It's nothing major, but will be good practice for you. I want you buy a poison you've never used before, make sure it's fatal before you buy it. Then, find someone who won't be missed, a low servant, a slave, a beggar. Test it on them, study their symptoms for yourself and see what you can learn from that." she said, smiling darkly as she spoke.

[Rey'na]

Rey listened to Lissira's commands, and wanted to welcome it by being calm as well. But whether it would take a Break or an Arc, she would be waiting with anticipation every Trill of it. However, as her mother had told her she needed to be patient, she would be - as much as she could. But as soon as she had the money, that outfit was hers. For safety, she'd buy it from different people - perhaps even in different parts of Rynmere to avoid being recognized.
"I will be careful and patient, mother. After all, I can't bring chaos to Andaris if I'm on the brink of death, can I?" she said, the idea of bringing chaos making her shake with excitement. It was like her body didn't know how to respond, as if it wanted to do so many things. She wanted to laugh, wanted to quietly hug Lissira, wanted to start training immediately - so instead it just shook. Her head rushed with thoughts and ideas. What would her mask look like? How scared would people be to see that? Would she get to hear them scream?

When she thought about the voice being changed, she pondered how that would work for a moment. She had a few ideas, but no idea how to go about doing them. For her, however, magic was out of the question - unless Lissira specifically ordered it. She didn't trust any kind of magic if it wasn't used by one of Lissira's servants or Lissira herself.
For Rey, it was as if the day kept getting better and better. Now she had orders to kidnap someone and experiment on them. That was the breaking point for her. She let the voice of Lissira, both outside and inside her head, take over. She felt herself start to tremble, then sweat a little. Such intense emotions like this were rare for her, unless it was disgust at the drunkards that plagued Andaris. Adrenaline flooded through her at the idea of it.
After spending a few Trills looking down, catching her breath, she looked up to Lissira. "Make it two. I'll go to the market soon, I know exactly what it is I'll be buying, and I know just the way to get my hands on one" Rey said, her breathing steadying as she did so she didn't make herself get too excited. She knew that she would damage her performance if she let herself lose control in any way.

"Once I have the income, I'll buy two slaves. Then we can watch the symptoms. So that adds a few new things to my shopping list. I need the outfit, the poisons and the slaves. But there's just one more thing" she pondered for a second. Then she smiled a little. "Rope. We wouldn't want them to get away, or scream, would we?"

[Basilisk]

Lisirra considered Rey'na's response to her order for a moment, then smiled wickedly and nodded. "Very clever, my dear." she purred, her tone showing her approval. "And rope is good for preventing escape, but cloth works better as a gag." she said, smiling slightly at some memory. "As you get more skilled, you'll become familiar with paralytics that will aid you in preventing people from escaping." she said, before looking around the room.

"Hmm...at some point, you'll probably want more room. After all, if you get to the point where you have guests who don't know who you are, you'll want to make sure they don't stumble across your experiments." she said cheerfully. "A basement, or a secret room, either would work. One thing you could do is cultivate a friendship with someone who has a house that would suit the purpose, persuade or drug them into leaving the house to you when they die, then after waiting a suitable amount of time to avoid suspicion, don your disguise and get them out of the way." she said, her tone rambling before a thought occurred to her. "Oh! You'll probably want a name for your alter ego. After all, someone might wish to hire you to eliminate someone for them." she said cheerfully.

[Rey'na]

A shiver went down Rey's spine as Lissira purred with approval. Knowing she'd done something to help her mother made her feel incredible, like the egg that was planted in her head would finally be at rest if she was doing something right. She considered for a moment. She would need a few chairs that were expendable and weren't fragile, some rope and a gag.
"Cloth, understood. As for paralytic, I used some Scarf Rot recently. Put the man to sleep almost instantly. I don't know if you saw, but he tried pulling a move on me and wouldn't take no for an answer. It didn't paralyze him, but it worked well enough."

Rey looked around. She'd never considered another room of some kind. Then again, it wasn't until now that she had planned to kidnap people and experiment on them. But if she wanted to follow in her mothers footsteps, this was one way to do it. She considered the options.
"Well, a basement would work well. I could keep my tools there as well. A chemistry area perhaps, to make poison, and a small place to grow some of the poison that I don't want hanging around in the open. I can get to work on that right away."

What really got Rey thinking was her alter ego. A name for it would be interesting, because there was no way she would go for a normal name. She would want people to associate her work with Lissira, so she could achieve what Lissira said - becoming a monster that people could only assume was the Immortal herself. But being hired to kill, people knowing what she did and wanting to hire her for it - that sent adrenaline coursing through her.
She thought for a moment, a hundred ideas flowing through her. "A real name would be too much, a nickname of some kind. A name that people hear and tell stories of to their hellish children when they refuse to stay in bed, or that they tell soldiers to try and scare them into obedience" she said excitedly.

"If it's a disguise, a facade, then why not associate it with exactly what it is?" she asked, clearly having an idea in mind.
"Something like....Masque."

[Basilisk]

Lisirra smiled as Rey'na came up with a name for her alter ego, before pulling her "daughter" into a hug. "Excellent my dear." she said before she stepped away, grinning. "I must go now, can't leave my servants in Rhakros unattended too long, not since that spot of trouble with Etzos. Why, they might decide to poison that whole place without me! Could you imagine that?" Lisirra giggled as she spoke.

"I'll be keeping an eye on you though, my dear. If you see a little bug around your house, just now I'm watching." she said, before pausing in thought. "Unless it's a spider, I don't look through their eyes." she said, before grinning again. "I'll probably be back to check on you before too long, my dear. In the meantime, do be careful." she said cheerfully before she spun in place and vanished on the spot.

[Rey'na]

Rey embraced her mother and smiled. She didn't mind saying goodbye to her mother, she knew their next meeting would be an incredible one. She would have the outfit, have the training and be ready to commit to her job. She would torture the poor souls, as her mother asked, for the sake of experimenting. She would have expanded her house. But most important, she would be ready to spread the disease her mother would make for her. She would make Lissira proud. If Andaris wouldn't bow for Lissira, they would die for her.
"I am sure they would do no such thing, mother" she giggled. "Not if they know you at all. Besides, that just wouldn't be fun would it? Very selfish."

She smiled as her mother said she would be watching, giving an understanding nod. She then stood and watched as her mother disappeared. Careful, her? When was she not careful? It wasn't as if she was about to go and buy a murder outfit, torture some people and then attempt to train enough to poison all of Andaris with a life threatening disease, was it? Oh, wait - that was exactly what she planned on doing.
She held her old mask up by her face, then looked at it. A smile spread across her as she put it down. She then, still wearing her expensive dress, picked up a throwing dagger and looked at her reflection in the blade. She stopped and thought about her face. It was what everyone recognized her as, how the world saw her. Denebah, her father figure. Sintih, the man she had danced with not many trials before. Civilians she met and spoke to. This was what they saw.

Not for long.

[Basilisk]

REVIEW

EXP

Structure: 5/5
Story: 5/5
Collab: 5/5

Knowledge

Disguise: Naming your alter ego
Disguise: Masque: Your future alter ego
Disguise: Convince people they've seen you and your alter ego together
Disguise: Outfitting your alter ego
Medicine: Lizard-Born disease
Lisirra: Your "Mother"
Lisirra: Will help you set up "Masque"
Lisirra: Knows how to create an alter ego
Lisirra: Expects great things from you

Loot

+1 Quest: Obtain and torture-test two slaves
+1 Quest: Finish the Masque outfit

Notes

This was fun to write, if a little difficult in places due to how tricky it can be to get into Lisirra's head. Definitely looking forward to seeing how Rey'na grows in the future. =]