>>2522385
>Demon hearts are black, knock first, your little shit.
> 28 male

>>2522396

"Demon hearts are black, and knock first, you little shit! You could have made me level the entire city if I wasn't so damned good at this!" Rin, your teenaged brat of an employee winces and closes the door before you're even finished yelling at him. You turn your attention back to your work. Gently... Gently...

The dried goblin snot falls unceremoniously into the concoction, which bubbles violently, causing the flask to shake and almost spill. But finally, the potion settles on a bright red color. At last, a potion of greater healing! This type sells for thousands among the nobles. Damned kid almost ruined everything with his shady customers and demon hearts and... wait a minute.

You don't just walk into a store and offer to sell demon hearts, let alone actually show them to whatever airheaded child you come across, official employee or not.

>*I* should be the one making this transaction!
>This goes beyond suspicious...
>Write in

>>2522407
>*I* should be the one making this transaction!

>>2522407
>*I* should be the one making this transaction!

>>2522407
>*I* should be the one making this transaction!
somehow. someway. I think he'd manage to fuck it up if we're not there.

>>2522407
>*I* should be the one making this transaction!
Got to make sure it's the real thing, too. Could just be dyed black.

>>2522445
>>2522483
>>2522496
>>2522517
(Sorry for the wait. Fell asleep. Also posting from phone but I am definitely OP.)

You leave your newly crafted potion to settle and burst through the lab doors into your store. It's not particularly large, like the smithies, but it doesn't need to be. Potions are small, expensive and rare, hundreds of gold worth of them can be stored within a few square feet. Of course that also means you had to open shop in a rather rich area. In your last shop you had at least three desperate orphans a night breaking in trying to save their ailing mother or some other lame excuse like that. Most of then we're probably just trying to make a quick buck.

Anyway, that's enough exposition for now. You squint as your eyes adjust from your dark laboratory to the bright daylight shining through your store's windows and door. You see your minimum wage slave negotiating with a tall, skinny cloaked figure who grips a large, black box in his almost skeletal hands.

"I assure you, the heart is in pristine condition, ripped not one week ago from the corpse of a greater demon," he declares. It's hard to tell if he's speaking so pompously out of arrogance or impatience for Rin.

Rin nods his head sagely, "Indeed, indeed. But how great *was* the demon?" The robed man groans.

Yeah, it's probably just impatience.

>Forgive my employees ignorance kind sir! (Shoo Rin away)
>Shut the hell up, Rin, and let me handle this. (Shove him away)

>>2522695
>Shut the hell up, Rin, and let me handle this. (Shove him away)

>>2522695
>Shut the hell up, Rin, and let me handle this. (Shove him away)

>>2522695
>Shut the hell up, Rin, and let me handle this. (Shove him away)
Wageslaves need to know their place. At least until he's proven to have good identification skills.

>>2522695
>Shut the hell up, Rin, and let me handle this. (Shove him away)
We're a dick, it's been established in canon.

>>2522695
>>Shut the hell up, Rin, and let me handle this. (Shove him away)

>>2522702
>>2522708
>>2522709
>>2522710
"Oh, shut the hell up, Rin. Get out of here? Let me handle this!" You shove him away. "My apologies, good sir! Welcome to the Gilded Flask, the finest, most trustworthy source of potions, elixers, and other alchemical solutions in all the great city of Thannis." You run through the motions of greeting a new customer. You think it's dumb having to repeat the same words every time a new customer shows their face, but it's guild policy. And you *never* want to be caught breaking guild policy.

The robed man (You assume man anyway) nods, acknowledging your greeting.

How do you handle this transaction?

>Eagerly. A greater demon heart! What an opportunity.
>Skeptically. There's no way he actually has one.
>write in

>>2522747
>Skeptically. There's no way he actually has one.

>>2522747
>>Skeptically. There's no way he actually has one.

>>2522747
>Skeptically. There's no way he actually has one.
So let's get down to it. Let me see the heart.

>>2522747
>Skeptically. There's no way he actually has one.
Also, grab some new gloves first. Have to keep yourself clean if it's the real deal.

>>2522749
>>2522762
>>2522769
>>2522777

You narrow your eyes skeptically. Rin asks, "If you're gonna be out here, you want me to go in back and fix that old shelf?"

"No," you respond. "We'll be headed back. We're following Guild procedure and making sure this heart is real. I'm sure you understand, sir," you say to your client with a nod. He shrugs, hefting the crate that he somehow managed to drag up your four flights of stairs. For such a lanky person, he sure is strong. He follows you into your lab.

"I don't know how familiar you are with the process of identifying alchemical reagents," you say as you head toward the back of your lab reaching for some new gloves. They hang precariously off the edge of the old shelf that your assistant mentioned. You hear him pop open the crate, which is likely full of ice and other preservative measures. You take his silence otherwise as a No, "It'll take only a few minutes. I'll have to mix together the identifying compound with a magical dye. I assure you, there will be no damage to the heart if it indeed came from a demon. And even if we don't manage to work out a deal, I can write up an Alchemy Guild certificate for you as proof that it's real, so that you don't have to go through the process again in the future." You turn around to face your client.

"I figured the mention of a demon heart would get your attention," he says. He's let his hood down, revealing a gaunt, bald head and an impossibly wide grin. "I'm afraid you have something that I need." You notice that there indeed was no demon heart in that crate, but a large, twisted black stick. A wand. Wands are bad. Illegal even. Deadly, dangerous, destructive. What the fuck is this asshole doing with a *WAND* in your store?! And why is he pointing it at you?

>Grovel for mercy. This person is insane!
>Negotiate. Find out what he wants.
>Grab for the fire breath potion!
>write in

((I dunno if you guys could infer from the quest name and brief intro, but it's basically a foregone conclusion that you're *going to die* this session. So don't worry about doing what's best. Do what's most fun. There are no wrong answers.))

>>2522813
((Also, this is OP of course, I switched from phone to laptop.))

>>2522813
>>Negotiate. Find out what he wants.
I don't want to burn down the store and groveling can happen soon enough.

>>2522826
It's okay. It's alright. You stay calm. If you could talk your way out of an alchemical malpractice deposition, you can talk your way out of anything. You swallow and ask, "What do you need? There's no need for violence." The man's grin fades as he slightly lowers the wand. He gives a quizzical look. You notice Rin peering wide-eyed through the door to your lab. He shuts it silently.

"I was hoping you'd have more fight in you. I have to say I'm a bit disappointed," he says as he starts walking around your lab, looking through your various ingredients. His eyes brighten when he seems to find what he was looking for. He reaches deep into one of your cabinets and pulls out a bright red carrot. He bites into it and chews thoughtfully. "Not a bad setup you have here, Mister... what was your name again?"

>What's your name? Also, additional dialogue if desired.

File: 1503030649026.png (24 KB, 235x234)

24 KB PNG

>>2522813
>Negotiate. Find out what he wants.
He obviously came here with something in mind. If he wanted to attack he would have done it at a more opportune time in a better way.
I'm going to guess and say he needs some 'special' potions, or a pocket alchemist for something we shouldn't want to be a part of.

>>2522836
>I go by the humble misnomer of Archer. Don't worry, it confuses lots of people.

>>2522836
"I am known as-" then chug the fire breath potion and melt his face.

>>2522852
"I go by the humble misnomer of Archer. Don't worry, it confuses a lot of people," you say casually, trying to play along to deescalate.

The robed man shakes his head, "There are no misnomers," he says. The lab door opens again behind him, and Rin walks in, holding a large, empty glass water jug by the neck with both hands. He creeps up behind the robed man slowly and silently. Damned, reckless child! "Your minion must make quite pretty copper working for an alchemist of your caliber. I wonder what he spends the money on?"

Rin gulps and hesitates as he raises the jug.

>Let it happen
>Grab the fire potion before your wage slave gets himself killed!
>"Rin, put the jug down."
>"Rin, *please*, don't. Think of your family."
>write in.

>>2522885
>"Rin, *please*, don't. Think of your family." You pause. "Mostly on his rascal children. He's a rather proud father."

>>2522885
>>"Rin, *please*, don't. Think of your family."

>>2522903
>>2522924
"Rin, *please*, don't. Think of your family." You pause. "Mostly on his rascal children. He's a rather proud father." You feel a tear roll down your cheek, which is strange. Nothing tragic has happened yet, so there's no reason to be crying, not that you likely would if something tragic. You wipe the tear away which leaves a red smear on your wrist. Oh, you're bleeding from your eyes. That explains it!

Fuck.

You feel weak. It's hard to stand. The robed man smiles, "If I wanted one of your ingredients, I would have taken it already. If I wanted one of your expensive little potions, I wouldn't have even come back here. Child," he says, addressing your employee, "You're about to learn whether your master was right about human and demon hearts!" He says with a triumphant cackle.

You feel your heart pounding, as if about to burst right out of your chest. You can't move. It has to be that damned wand! He wasn't threatening you at all, he was killing you incredibly slowly and inefficiently!

Rin shouts in a rage and smashes the jug over the robed man's head. It shatters, but the man is unfazed. He turns around, grabs Rin, and throws him across the room like a paper airplane (so that's how he got that crate up here so easily). He turns the wand away from you and directs it at Rin. You nearly drop to the floor, your strength completely sapped away. Your heart rate normalizes, at least for now. Your vision blurs slightly, and you see the wand quickly gather a field of red and black light around it. It fires a beam while Rin is still down, which tears through his gut and leaves a smoking hole. He screams in pain.

>GRAB THE FIRE POTION
>write in.

>>2522935
>>write in
Grab an antimagic potion, if you have one, and drink it. Maybe a potion that reverses spells on their caster. If we don't have any of those around, use the fire potion.

Get the potion of greater healing we just finished to Rin. Hopefully he can manage to drink it and live.

>>2522935
>GRAB THE FIRE POTION
>CHUG AND BURN THAT WAND TO A CRISP
>Then spill that greater healing all over Rin, dammit. He might be a minion, but he's MY minion! He deserves better than this!

>>2522955
>>2522960
Antimagic potion? You're a genius, not a miracle worker! Fire potion it is.

You stagger over to the old shelf that the potion hangs on, still sapped of strength. You have no choice but to grab onto it to reach the fire potion. You remember you stuffed it waaay back there. You hear a loud crack and the shelf gives way under your grip. You fall back to the floor, and all the shelf's contents follow you on your way down. Old, brittle bottles break all around you, and their (likely expired) contents don't seem all that happy about mixing with other potions. Some of them splash onto you. Some of them start dissolving your skin, while others make you glow green. No matter, you manage to catch the fire potion. You fight through the pain and chug as much of it as you can. You blow out, but instead of a huge stream of fire, a blob of liquid resembling napalm comes out and lands on your stomach. Now you're on fire. Guess that potion was expired, too.

FUUUUUUCK.

The robed man turns back to you, and your heart begins to pound quicker and harder. "Don't feel too bad, I'd say this was about the worst case scenario for me, too. Hopefully that heart of yours isn't too badly damaged. I tried to make this relatively painless, but I'm afraid now I'm rather pressed for time." You hear a pop as you feel the odd, extremely painful sensation of your heart being ripped out of your chest. It flies back to the robed man's wand and he leaves your lab cackling.

It hurts. It hurts *so bad.* Not just the gaping hole in your chest, but everything else. Whatever the hell those old concoctions were doing to your body, the Guild would *not* approve. You're burning, yet you also feel cold. You feel like your flesh is being torn in 100 different directions. You feel like your guts are melting. Fuck. You see Rin. He shouts your name, he himself unable to move. He shouts your name again. It looks like he's crying.

>Get the potion to him. Do anything you can to get the potion to him. [[+HUMANITY]]
>Drink the potion yourself. You're going to die anyway, but this'll make it less painful. [[+ALCHEMICAL POTENCY]]

>>2523017
>Get the potion to him. Do anything you can to get the potion to him. [[+HUMANITY]]
This will maybe result in SOMEONE living through the disaster.

>>2523017
>Get the potion to him. Do anything you can to get the potion to him. [[+HUMANITY]]
Our body just forgot how to stay dead, remember? We'll find a good wizard and skin this bastard alive for taking our heart later.

>>2523031
(You don't know that, metagamer! :P)
>>2523024
You don't know how you're still moving. At first you figure it's adrenaline, but that makes no sense considering adrenaline needs to actually be pumped through your bloodstream...
You push that useless line of thought out of your at as you crawl toward your work station. every time you claw your way forward, your hands scream out as if all your dead skin had been stripped away. You fight through it. You pull yourself up to the counter and manage to snatch the potion, and quickly collapse after. Your vision is fading, but the pain is only getting worse. You fight through it. You know you don't have enough strength to crawl any further. It feels impossible that you could help Rin in any way at this point.

You fight through it.

With a gasp, a mixture of pain and determination, you set the bottle on the floor and give it a strong push. It rolls over and rests just a few feet away from Rin. You see him reaching for it when your vision goes black. And yet, the pain doesn't stop for a while longer.

You see, there's a reason why the Alchemy Guild has such strict regulations: to stop this bullshit from happening. Now, some may call you an idiot, irresponsible, or unprofessional for keeping all those expired potions around in such a dangerously high location, but let's be fair. You were going to have the shelf replaced soon, it was relatively out of the way, and *nobody* would have expected some insane, superpowered madman to come in and basically murder you anyway. You'd like to see if any of your asshole colleagues would have done any better.

You're not sure if you managed to finish that rant before you finally lost consciousness. Heh, sooner than you would have thought.

...

(Will pick this back up in a couple hours. Thanks for participating so far!)

>>2523051
This is a good read so far, I like it.

You feel yourself die. People say that dying is like falling asleep and never waking up. They're wrong, because they've never truly died. You've died. You know it, you can feel it. It's something far worse than pain. Something indescribable, horrific. So was coming back to life.

Your lungs are screaming, your heart feels like it's going to give out (wait, you have a heart?), maybe it's an anxiety attack? You feel like you've just woken up from the worst nightmare imaginable, but you can't even remember what it was. Did you go to Hell and somehow escape? You are being quite thoroughly mindfucked at the moment, and can barely even notice your wage slave Rin yelling in your face to get your attention.

You are hearing colors and seeing sounds. You are smelling tastes and tasting smells. You can imagine both your eyes spinning in all directions trying desperately to right themselves. It's as if your entire body is going absolutely haywire as your brain attempts to reassert control. This is scary as shit.

"Boss!"

>Cry
>Scream
>write in (Nothing exactly coherent or useful for now. You're in pretty bad shape.)

>>2524462
Just try to tell him we don't feel well.

>>2524462
>write in (Nothing exactly coherent or useful for now. You're in pretty bad shape.)
Mate I'm trippy shite here oh fok'n 'ell lad this the 'ard shite fok! Dn't do drugs ya stupid git!

>>2524462
>>Shut the hell up, Rin

>>2524974
Fucking Support

>>2524974
This, of course.

>What happened? Where are we? Why are you yelling?

>>2524974
i like this, even while seven ways of fucked up, we are still stuck in our ways.

>>2524974
Indeedy

>>2524974
Lol alrighty. I'll get to posting later today.

>>2524974
>>2524983
>>2524992
>>2525019
>>2525082
Your eyes finally manage to focus themselves, and you can finally see Rin's face in front of you. You're sat against the door to your lab. Off to your left is where your insides got sprayed all over the room. Off to your right is where Rin got his insides sprayed all over the room. There are smoking holes in the floor on both sides, caused by a laser and and an alchemical accident. Yours was definitely worse though. Part of you is still convinced that you're dead. You're having a bit of a mindfuck on an instinctual level here.

Still, you manage to sputter out a, "Shut the hell up, Rin. What just happened?"

"Do you want me to answer your question while shutting up?"

"Amazing how I give you two sets of instructions and you manage to follow neither. This is why you only make eight silver an hour," you slur.

Ignoring your clever quip, he asks, "Do you remember the part where you pushed me the glowing strawberry juice? I drank it, and that made my gut get better. Then, well, uh, you might not believe me..."

"Sssspit it out!"

"The stuff that spilled all over the floor... stood up. It had a face and arms and legs. It looked like a person, just made of lots of different colors. It said something in a language I didn't understand, and then it sort of, uh, walked into you."

"What."

"Then you got better, mostly."

"Mostly?"

"Well, your eye's glowing. I think that might be bad."

>"I need a mirror"
>Write in

>>2525257
>"I need a mirror"
And possible sun glasses.

>>2525257
>"I need a mirror"
Yes we have succeeded in activating our sharingan

>>2525257
>"I need a mirror."
And sunglasses if possible. Else, a bandana over our eyes and a potion of truesight smoothie to get us to a cleric/fellow alchemist without too much attention.

>>2525265
>>2525273
>>2525274
"I need a mirror," you tell Rin.

Sunglasses? People wear hats to keep their sun out of their eyes. You do have glasses with polarized lenses though. That's for shielding your eyes from the more intense alchemical reactions. It would look a bit odd wearing them in public, but maybe not as odd as a glowing eye.

Rin grabs you a hand mirror. You don't remember ever buying or making a hand mirror, so you have no idea where he got it. Oh, well. You look at yourself, and well, he's not exactly right about your eye glowing. Technically, it's shining. Your left eye, you mean. The iris to be specific. It shifts between colors as if it were a brewing potion, and emits light. The more you look at it, the more it hurts. It begins to flash more rapidly and the ache gets worse and worse until you reflexively cover it. When the pain stops, you find that it has settled on a specific color, and the shine is less obvious. What color was it?

>Red (Laser vision)
>Yellow (Telekinesis)
>Purple (Truth seeing)
>Black (Precognition)
>Other (Write in. Be creative! Just not something dumb and OP like Omnipotence.)

>>2525315
What's truth seeing, is it just piercing illusions?

>>2525315
>>Black (Precognition)
And then we're gonna go to a casino.

>>2525315
>Black (Precognition)
>>2525329
It won't take long to figure out the shady sunglasses guy is cheating

>>2525332
We could wear an eyepatch

>>2525332
Nah, we'll just be the guy with heterochromia and a creepy black eye. Way better.

>>2525339
We'd probably need to be able to see with it.
If it comes to it, I'd say a veil.

>>2525327
Anything you would imagine truth seeing to be. Telling lies, piercing illusions, solving riddles, etc. That said, every power will have a soft limit. Use it too often, or try to do too much and Fun will happen.

>>2525315
Suggestion:
Blue, antimagic

>>2525315
>purple
I imagine if we truth seeing we might have been slightly better prepared and then not get our heart ripped out, we get melted and the world proceeded to taste like yellow.

I'll allow discussion to go on for a time until a general consensus is reached. Also, do QMs ever set up discords to let people know a new session is starting? I don't have Twitter and don't feel like using it.

>>2525353
HO shit never mind, this, I like this, just the ability to make a good ol beam o nope on bad magic is kinda cool, change my vote to this.

>>2525353
>>2525361
Choose an unnatural eye color. Sorry, I wasn't clear on that. Anti-magic is definitely a possibility though.

>>2525353
>>2525371
Ya know, that occured to me after posting.
Grey then

>>2525373
Let's stay with grey on anti magic.

>Black (Precognition)

>>2525382
Supporting.

>>2525382
Supporting

>>2525382
Supporting
We don't want anymore holes in our chest

>>2525315
>a kind of flesh like color of brains and blood mixed together? a pink with fleshy red in vein like patterns and splotches of white like bone (flesh shaping)
pink is the color of brain-matter and blood mixed

>>2525965
Shaping Flesh? Sounds cool and would probably have a lot more opportunities to be used than antimagic since magic stuff like wands seem to be illegal. Could also close up holes in our chest. Supporting this now

>>2526006
alchemy and the shaping of flesh we could make some interesting stuff

>>2526053
Yeah that seems like a better power for our guy

>>2525382
antimagic is good, but how specifically should it work?
I think we can disrupt the flow and control of mana in a specific spot while we focus on it. Maybe it scales with fortitude?

Either way, supporting.

>>2525382
Got my vote for antimagic. Maybe if brightens to a matte silver when it is actively suppressing magic?

black eye

>>2525361
>>2525373
>>2525414
>>2525424
>>2525588
>>2526137
>>2526224

Anti-magic it is, it seems. Keep in mind, I did mention that any power will have its limit. Your anti-magic eye can occasionally be overcome by powerful magic, though it will *very* rare occasions, since it also has the limit of doing jack shit against non-magic users.

A stark contrast to your natural brown right eye, your left eye settles on a sickly gray which seems to suck the very energy out of the air around it. The potions in your lab, as well as all your magical implements fade until they look no more magical than the floor you're sitting on. You close your eye, and their magic quickly returns. You groan, "That's going to be a bother. How am I supposed to do alchemy with only one good eye? Rin, do you realize how much depth perception brewing a worthwhile potion takes?"

"Uh, boss? Could I clock out early?" Rin asks, looking out the lab door. You may or may not notice that he has a rather worried look on his face.

>Hell, no! This place is a mess. There's cleaning to do!
>The world had better be ending if you think I'm letting you go early.
>Other (write-in)

>>2526959
>The world had better be ending if you think I'm letting you go early.

>>2526959
>>Other (write-in)
You know my price, Rin. If I let you off early, I expect you to make up time and a half.

>>2526959
>"Rin..." You give it a moment. He's nearly died today, but so have you. You could both do with some rest and some time to think through this...
>"... you can right after we get the chemicals cleaned up. Do you mind locking up the front? We're closing a bit early."

>>2526959
>Rin, if we leave now, another one of those somethings could come out of the mess on the floor. There's cleaning to do!
>...then you can go.

>>2526959
>Sure and while you're at it take some more of my ever so valuable healing potions since I just love to give you everything you want. Get back to work Rin there's cleaning to do

>>2527402
this.

>>2526959
>>Sure and while you're at it take some more of my ever so valuable healing potions since I just love to give you everything you want. Get back to work Rin there's cleaning to do
this sums it up nicely

>>2527484
Sarcastic jackass is the best type of protag

>>2526959
>>2527289
Seconding

>>2527289
support

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18 KB JPG

>>2527484
This.

Anyone there?

>>2541388
I think this thread is dead mate, too bad since it seemed to have potential

Come on qm pls continue, this is great, make it a conspiracy story about cultist blood mages wanting to make a huge powerfull flesh golem and take control of the nation or something, this is just really good I want more. Maybe they needed the hearth/hearths of powerfull people to make the flesh golem be able to bypass some magical bio identity checking defense spell around the nations leadership. And getting a high security clearance hearth from a grumpy friendless alchemist made the most sense.

Whoops, sorry for the downtime friends. I got some stuff to take care of today and in a few hours we'll get right back into it.

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((The votes seem pretty evenly split, so instead we'll compromise so that no one is satisfied!))

You open to your mouth to respond, but are cut off by a terrifyingly familiar voice, "Actually, boy, we'll need you to stick around a bit longer." It was feminine, yet somewhat horse and on the deeper side. You knew that it was years of shouting orders and battlecries that made her voice that way. Even after all these years, you could recognize the voice of Aia, Knight-Errant of the Thannisian Holy Order. You two go way back, but that exact relationship is a story for another time. Long story short,

((Choose your mutual backstory))
>She and you did some mutual favors that ended up getting you your shop, and also making you more than a few enemies. They weren't exactly your proudest years as an alchemist, but they're behind you now.
>She and you were brother and sister initiates in the Holy Order, but you left and pursued your current career instead. You didn't speak to her since, and you don't know if she holds a grudge or not.
>She investigated you during your malpractice deposition. You owe getting out of that mostly to your own brilliance, but there's no avoiding that if she had been just a little less forgiving of your (extremely few) mistakes, you'd be unemployed.

You thought you'd seen the last of her years ago, yet here she is now. You walk to your lab door and peer out into your store. Besides a few extra scars, she hasn't changed much. She stands about half a head shorter than you, clad in full plate. Her helmet rests between her elbow and waist, and her great sword is hefted over her shoulder. She looks you over, probably noting your burned, torn, and dissolved clothing and lack of visible wounds. Her expression is... hard. Hard to tell what's exactly going on in that head of hers. But it carries a certain intensity. Silence prevails for a moment, which she breaks, saying, "It's been a while, Archer."

Oh, dear, we're permasage'd!
New thread: >>2547178