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 Posted: Tue Oct 19, 2010 7:30 pm
 Malodore adjusted the last jar of eyeballs on its shelf and took a step back, examining the bookshelves with a growing sense of pride and accomplishment. This was all its very own, and even though the plague doctor was aware of the other undead around, above, and below its lodgings... this little space was all its. Magnifico.A faint squeak caught its attention; it turned to see a small gray-and-orange scrags-rat perched atop a skull on a lower shelf, one paw worked into the eye socket for balance. "Ah, Parassiti, bella," it murmured, holding out one claw to the little rodent. Parassiti squeaked again and stepped onto Malodore's offered hand, wrapping her own digits around the plague doctor's for balance. "We will be happy here, won't we? Far better than at the Casa..." Malodore's rigid mask was incapable of producing a scowl, but the sense of emotion was still present even without that visible expression. A family grown stiff and stagnant, wallowing in leechcraft when there was so much more... not that there was anything wrong with leechcraft, as such; it certainly had its place. But to eschew modern advancement for the sake of tradition was the very height of lunacy. In Malodore's opinion, at least. An opinion which had not been popular - were the Cirugien family not venerable, if not quite as ancient as some beings of Halloween? Had they not been birthed in the humans' Renaissance, grim masked spectres that stalked a living death? And so they moldered in their villa at the edge of a leech-filled swamp, reveling in ancient arts that were ever more irrelevant. Malodore had seen the shape of the future. The humans had developed ever so much more interesting horrors, deformities, diseases, terrors of operation and surgery far more advanced than the first plague doctors could have ever dreamed of. Here, it could learn. Here, it could move its family into a new age of fear... and service. And all the stagnant complainers would be dragged kicking and screaming behind it. Parassiti twitched a bit. She'd seemed on edge ever since leaving the Casa... but Malodore put that down to simple nervousness. Hadn't it been anxious as well? No, no, of course she'd be happier here. Malodore reached up one hand and drew a claw down the spine of one well-loved book. "Ah, modern medicine." True, he'd have to expand his connections - the family Cirugien was also far too rooted in the undead, which was completely boring. Monsters were far more varied and fascinating, demons as well; reapers lacked true variety but at least had interesting reactions. Ghosts were a non-entity, and if Malodore wanted to experiment on the undead, it could - and had - do so on its own flesh. But beyond these cold and undead walls was an entire campus of possibility. " Si. We will be happy here indeed," Malodore muttered, as Parassiti slipped free and went to curl up in the skull again, occasionally shooting it baleful looks.
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Posted: Wed Nov 10, 2010 11:02 pm
Emergency Aid with Nurse Cricket - HomeworkMalodore At last, a proper course! The other offerings were either wholly unsuitable or inappropriate for my qualifications. Though the coursework seemed inadequate at first, a bit of persistence allowed for some hands-on experience. Not quite the level of coursework I was hoping to find, but far better than I'd feared. I anticipate future work with Nurse Cricket will be very interesting... we shall see.
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Posted: Wed Nov 10, 2010 11:03 pm
Running Afoul - Malodore & Temes Malodore An unexpected kindness. I will remember this.
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Posted: Wed Nov 10, 2010 11:04 pm
What Are Friends For? - Malodore & Gargantuan Malodore It... hugged me. It bent my feathers. And yet I can't say I'm displeased with the results of this meeting. Gargantuan could be very interesting... very interesting indeed...
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Posted: Wed Nov 10, 2010 11:05 pm
Literature with Dr. Alabaster Malodore A bit simple to start, but it seems all the courses will follow this pattern. The professor, at least, is a suitably learned monster. Hopefully he will have much of substance to teach.
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Posted: Wed Nov 10, 2010 11:07 pm
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Posted: Wed Nov 10, 2010 11:08 pm
The School StoreSosiqui Malodore dutifully followed in the footsteps of its fellow students, offering caged carefully in its claws. The mostly-dead bat had winged itself into Malodore's window; after confirming it really was a bat and not some unfortunate student, the plague doctor had resolved to bring it here for disposal. (A pity it hadn't been a student, though. Such fun there could have been...!) The bat's eyes were glazed over, and it flopped very weakly. "Quite fresh, signore Blob," Malodore said, simply, and pushed one claw through the bat's body. It squeaked and, at last, found peace. Malodore left the bat on the floor for the... store-thing. Sosiqui The notebook was quite handy, even if it tended to flip its pages about at random. It also made interesting noises when pinned down to the desk. The school supplies definitely merited further study, so Malodore was back for another go. This time, the offering was as different from the previous day's as Malodore could manage - the blood-stained wrapper of a JollyMeal, its face fixed in a maniacal grin despite the tears and wrinkles that rippled through the 'paper'. Or was it skin? Regardless, the plague doctor smoothed out the crumpled visage and offered it to the gelatinous cube. "Here you are, signore." Sosiqui Well, that hadn't worked at all! Time for yet another experiment. This time, Malodore had brought... a rock. A simple rock, dug from the graveyard behind the undead dormitories, with good thick graveyard mud clinging to every available surface. It carried it pinched between its fingertips, lest the mud get on it. "Try this one today, signore," it offered, setting the rock down gingerly in front of the gelatinous cube. Sosiqui The rock had been singularly useless. Garbage and rock had both been ignored, so the only solution was more freshly-dead. This time, Malodore had obtained a fat spider, neatly jarred, its legs twitching against the glass. "For your dining pleasure, signore," Malodore said, just before puncturing lid and spider alike with one claw. The freshly-killed arachnid was placed in front of Mr. Blobby with some ceremony. Sosiqui The experiment was apparently a success! Malodore returned this time with a jar of bugs left over from feeding its Dionaea. "More freshly-doomed organic matter for you, Signore Blobby," it announced. The bugs in the jar - which had no holes punched in the lid - were moving ever more slowly, and would soon perish. "Consume at your leisure, por favore." The plague doctor set the jar down in front of the gelatinous cube and took a courteous step back. Sosiqui Utter failure. Thoroughly perplexed - and more than a little irritated - by this point, Malodore threw the scientific method to the wind. This time, it was bringing what was closest at hand. It turned out to be a jar of eyeballs, floating in brine. Potentially delicious? Malodore set it down with a possibly sarcastic flourish. Sosiqui Malodore may or may not have developed an irritated twitch that caused its tail to sweep rapidly back and forth every time it thought about Mr. Blobby - and the precious school supplies it still needed. Haunted scissors would be a marvel for its surgical technique, and the pen would... well, it would complete the set, wouldn't it? This morning, Malodore had brought a snotball, balanced in a careful array of tissues. Yum...? and be blue Mr. Blobby hadn't scoured the food clean this time. By the end of the supplies, spat out into eager little hands, he was so saturated with delicious goodies that they still floated whole in his innards, the best bits saved to be slowly broken down later: Alcyone's Meal Worms Lizzy's delicious Intestines Amnita's Jumping Beans Daisuke's Fizzy Spider Cupcakes Tahki's Pickled Puss Warts and Collete's Shrieking Carrot and Israfel's LOLWUT pear singing [read: shouting loudly at each other.] He was pleased, his attention following poor Malodore around. Maybe he'd taken a liking to the plague doctor, and his failure to spit up goodies was a way to keep him around. Or maybe he just liked watching the kid twitch. Sosiqui The blob was toying with it. Malodore's beak was incapable of forming a scowl - which was probably a good thing, or else the plague doctor would have been wearing the biggest scowl in a looooong time. There was no rhyme nor reason to what the blob accepted or denied - even the things now entombed within its translucent mass were wildly varied! Hmph.But staples were needed, just in case, so Malodore was back. Again. This time, the gift was a long shin bone of undefinable origin, dripping with 'luscious' rotting meat. " Buon appetito," Malodore muttered as he placed the thing in front of Mr. Blobby. Sosiqui Maybe skipping a day's visit would make the gelatinous cube relax and spit out the stapler Malodore so craved? The plague doctor approached - after a well-deserved (in its opinion) break - with a beautifully vivisected frog. "Here you are, Signore, nice and fresh," it said, resigned. .... Success!
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Posted: Wed Nov 10, 2010 11:09 pm
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Posted: Wed Nov 10, 2010 11:09 pm
Student Council Voting!Malodore Well. Those speeches - and the lack of a few - had given Malodore... very little to think about, actually. It hadn't been paying very close attention to the booths, and had only really listened to what had been said on the podium. And those who hadn't spoken, well... Time to get it over with. Malodore picked up its ballot and filled it out with swift, sure strokes before folding it neatly and putting it in the box. Well, that was a thoroughly useless endeavor.At least Malodore got a little pin out of it. It might be good for drawing blood. From someone. Somewhere.
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Posted: Wed Nov 10, 2010 11:14 pm
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Posted: Wed Nov 10, 2010 11:23 pm
Battle of the Bands Sign-Up!Lucifer Force Kasumi braced herself. Was she really up for this kind of thing? Could she even perform on stage? Obviously she could deliver a speech, but delivering a song was something else entirely! Gingerly, she picked up the pen to sign down her name, along with the others who had banded with her (haha, banded) in this endeavor. Their name would be Barbed Doctor and the Organic Nation! Grudge Lead Vocals: Kasumi Doctor Who? Guitarist: Malodore ANIMAL Drummer: G Their specialty? Kasumi agreed with the others when their genre was decided. They were so heavy metal that 'heavy' wasn't heavy enough. No, they were... Gargantuan Metal. ................. Malodore sighed as it closed its dorm room door behind it, taking only a few steps forward before collapsing into the couch and knocking its hat askew. How had this happened?! It was Gargantuan's fault, it was quite sure - one meeting with the swamp monster and it was now, apparently, his very very best friend. It'd never even met Kasumi, their singer, and it had no idea what 'metal' was other than in the strictest, scientific sense, and while it was evidently better suited to guitar than to singing or drums (there had been no question about who the drummer was going to be), it had no experience... This was going to be horrible. And yet, when faced with G's earnest smile, the plague doctor still couldn't say no... Horrible. Horrible horrible horrible-Malodore smashed its face into a couch cushion, muffling the small stream of Italian curses that flowed freely from its beak.
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Posted: Thu Nov 11, 2010 3:58 pm
Battle of the Bands: The Old Crypt Rockout!Quote: It probably wasn't a good idea to give Gargantuan an instrument and hope for any sort of positive outcome, but that was where their band was different. In all honesty, they managed to at least look the part; G was sporting a thick, spiked dog collar around his neck, and the tips of his fins had been fitted with cardboard spines for the occasion. The beast was audibly nervous about being on stage again after Student Council speeches, but he was prevailing valiantly. Lyrics? They didn't need lyrics. Apparently all they needed to be was loud! A spine-shivering wail from Kasumi was enough to set the tune for the 'Gargantuan-metal' that would soon rock the stage, and G needed no further encouragement. Loud! He was good at loud! Lifting his heavy hands, the monster proceeded to bash every single drum and cymbal he could reach as hard and fast as he could. The resulting uproar probably scared the grog right out of the ghostly server's hands. From the bash and clash of the drums, the roars and screams that Kasumi was managing to make, and the keen of the guitar, well, it was certainly a smashing entrance all right. There was even an explosion at the end, which would undoubtedly draw a few gasps of surprise. Only then would people realize that G had managed to take a bite out of his drum, and that rather lessened the effect of the awe. ........... Who else but Kasumi packed the pipes for a song that was going to rock the entire school??? As the rather questionable melodies ricocheted off the walls and ceiling, the ghost took another deep breath and... well, more or less started to scream. Nails on a chalkboard? Got it. Souls being dragged into Hell? Check. Only when one listened closely did they actually realize that there were words in said screams. Sweet dreams are made of G
Green like swamp sludge
and frozen peas
He travels the world
and the seven seas
He can't remember...
...he's lookin' for somethingReally, that was some rather impressing roaring from such a slender girl! ........... This entire thing was completely ridiculous. Malodore wasn't entirely sure how it had ended up in this competition to begin with - the only thing it really appreciated about stringed instruments was that the strings were often made of guts. But Gargantuan had been awfully persuasive, in the way only a massive swamp beast with no idea of the force of his hugs could be... Malodore's fingers were, fortunately, limber and pointed and therefore suited for plucking strings. 'Metal' was a good enough name for the sounds they would produce (Malodore could hardly trust G to do anything less chaotic), given that the examples of that genre the plague doctor had listened to seemed to be based solely on a great deal of noise and screaming. Therefore, when Kasumi launched into the first volley of screams, Malodore was ready. The plague doctor brought its claws down on the strings and raked them across the whole set, producing a series of ear-splitting chords that seemed to do auditory battle with Kasumi's 'lyrics', all pinned down (and then beaten up and stuffed into a locker) by G's drumming. Malodore belatedly wished it had thickened the bandages around its ear-holes. If noise was what 'metal' meant, then this was extraordinarily metal. The plague doctor added a few experimental shrieks of its own to the rabid menagerie of sound, wherever it felt appropriate. It really was rather exciting, with all the adrenaline and the sound lifting the three of them up and- The explosion ended with a sudden strangling of chords. Malodore blinked, and realized that it had - entirely unconsciously - leapt to its feet and smashed the guitar against the stage, apparently possessed by the Spirit of Metal. The guitar made a mournful wail as it twitched in Malodore's hands. "... Oh," was all Malodore could manage. Paula Fabghoul Well, another guitar bites the dust! I do have to say that was a rather uh smashing performance though. I hope you three are ready to perform just as rocking and hardcore in the shows to come - you guys do have a spare guitar right?
Paula's Score: 9.5 /10 Rowdy Jaxxson YO DAWGS THAT WAS ONE OF THE BEST BLITZED PERFORMANCES EVER OF ALL TIME, EXCEPT I CAN'T HEAR MYSELF ANYMORE AFTER THE FIRST COUPLE OF NOTES DAWGS. DANG SPANKY!
Rowdy's Score: 7/10 Slimin' Cower Dear Jack, it was like going to a circus side-show instead of a concert. I kept looking around for a monkey in a top hat collecting tips.
Slimin's Score:4/10 FINAL SCORE:
Barbed Doctor and the Organic Nation! 20.5 + gnomes scoring bonus of 22.5 = 43!
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Posted: Thu Nov 11, 2010 4:04 pm
Parassiti had visited the shed many, many times before... and Malodore didn't even bother calling out for the ratling this time. No more wailing. No more wheedling. By Jack, it was going in and it was going to have it out with Parassiti once and for all! Exactly as How To Train Your Plague-Rat said! "Parassiti, if you don't come out this instant, I shall..." There was a pause as Malodore quickly leafed through the aforementioned book. "'Discipline you firmly yet severely!'" Nothing happened, except possibly a distant snh, snh, snh. Malodore sighed, tucked the book back into its sleeve, and headed in... ....... About half an hour later, Malodore exited the shed - but not via spring-loaded trap door, odd rattling laundry chute, or screaming with crabgrass-seeds hanging from its extremities. Instead, the plague doctor had an odd expression on its face (inasmuch as its beak could be expressive), and it was slightly hunched over something hidden in its coat. It patted at the odd protuberance once or twice as it headed up the path away from the shed - and was followed, after a moment, by a thoroughly perplexed Scrags-rat. What on earth had happened...? All Parassiti knew, as she clambered back into Malodore's dorm by way of a drainpipe, was that her master had a new lantern on its shelf, and that it kept looking at it and... ... Parassiti was jealous.
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Posted: Thu Nov 11, 2010 4:13 pm
Battle of the Bands: DEMON STADIUM!Malodore That wasn't musical at all. Not even the smallest amount. It seems this tournament of musical skill is more of a battle than any of us realized... poor, poor Gargantuan. Terrible, seeing such instruments being abused in such a fashion.
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Posted: Tue Nov 23, 2010 2:02 pm
It happened very suddenly, while Malodore was busy working on its homework. It had just finished making a careful list of plants deadly to werewolves when it caught a flicker of movement in its peripheral vision. Malodore had placed the lantern on top of the bookshelf nearest its desk; the flame burned constantly, and while the candle had slowly grown shorter the burn rate was far, far slower than any ordinary candle. It had almost forgotten about it, truth be told, growing accustomed to the faint, constant flicker. But now... ... Now, the plague doctor looked up just in time to see the very last bit of wick and wax puff into smoke. The world seemed to hold still for a moment, and then the lantern tipped off the shelf of its own accord. Malodore didn't reach it in time, though it tried, shoving its chair back violently and flinging itself across the room. The lantern smashed into the cold flagstone floor, its metal frame deforming on impact, the glass panes shattering. But even as it did so, the last glow of the candle wavered. Wavered, and split into not one, but two points of glowing light... And then, suddenly, there was a warm, wiggling creature in Malodore's arms, covering its masked face with licks. It took a moment for the plague doctor to figure out what had happened, and a moment more for it to secure its grip on the animal accosting it, but at last it had the thing in hand. It was... " Una cucciola?" Malodore said aloud, startled. A white puppy, with floppy ears tipped in red, and bright green eyes that had a faint glow to them. There was no sign of the broken lantern. The puppy barked and wagged her tail, squirming a bit in the plague doctor's grip. When it leaned in to study her more closely, she licked its beak once more. " Benvenuto," Malodore murmured, opening its beak in a small smile. She really was very cute. "I'm going to let you go now," it advised the pup. She squirmed, but as soon as the plague doctor released her, she turned around and jumped into its lap, curling in a circle once before laying down with every sign of enjoyment. Malodore stared down at the puppy. Slowly, it reached out one claw and scratched gingerly behind one floppy red ear. The puppy leaned into it, her tail thumping happily against the plague doctor's leg. Its smile grew a bit larger. "What shall we call you, hm?" it asked the puppy, now thoroughly entranced by the little canine. "Lanterna... no, hm. You have the light in your eyes. Luce?" The puppy yawned, tongue curling, and nestled her head into the crook of Malodore's elbow. "Luce, then," the plague doctor said, giving her another skritch.
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