Apprentice (for Cutiexx)

[Cutiexx]

Dellana didn’t comment about her mother’s patience. She’d hardly had a mother at all, and had no idea where the woman was to this day, but Hermine had no way to know that.

But all thoughts of her mother soon left her head. Dellana’s mouth opened in shock, forming a surprised little o, as Hermine graphically described how the ginger was used.
This was shocking to the girl on multiple levels. First of all, she’d never heard a respectable adult use that kind of language, and describe that kind of perverted act. Words like “ass” were usually uttered by low-lives and the more uneducated class, and until that point, Hermine had seemed more respectable than that to Della. She guessed things were different out in the country. Still, it was rather improper.

But second and most of all, she couldn’t believe this was used as punishment for young girls. It seemed a treatment fit for the worst criminals, like rapists and such. And maybe schoolboys now that she thought about it. She seemed to recall that in the worst cases, boys were caned along with a drop of ginger extract inside of them, though she couldn’t remember how it was done, since that was of no interest to her at the time. And again, that was only resorted to when the boys were displaying high levels of violence and bullying. Dellana had never imagined once in her life that she might be subjected to a similar punishment, like Hermine seemed to be hinting at. Invading a girl’s body like that, and with an irritating agent on top of it, why that was simply barbaric!

And yet.

Dellana couldn’t ignore that she’d grown sexually aroused yet again. Hermine’s description of her daughters struggling to do chores while their back doors were stuffed with a rod of pain was incredibly and disturbingly enticing.And really, it was just practical. Of course a hard working woman would need to keep her strength and energy for more important things than punishing wayward teenagers. ‘But Dellana, she still spanks them with a belt, with the ginger inside!’ She protested to herself. But she cast that thought aside. There was probably a perfectly reasonable explanation.

“...Yes... soup...” she replied faintly. “Or in Fënir, we like to serve candied ginger, as a special treat,” she added, her voice becoming more normal.

They walked to the house and entered the kitchen. Immediately upon seeing Thaddeus, Dellana experienced the very strong, very intrusive thought of him shoving a peeled ginger root inside of her, and she almost stumbled from how hard that hit her.

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a treatment fit for the worst criminals, like rapists and such. And maybe schoolboys

((xD))

The woman was amused to see Dellana grow pale, she hadn't expected such a sweet and sheltered-seeming girl when she heard they had a new witch-ling moving in.

She prattled on as they walked towards the house, mentioning that she'd never in fact been invited in for tea before, but she'd just love a chance to sit and talk before she had to head home. Truth was, Thaddeus almost never allowed anyone inside the cottage and Hermine was curious as a cat.

Inside, Thad had set the table and prepared a light lunch. Bread, sausage, butter, milk, the table was set for two. He was searching the pantry for other foodstuffs when he heard the door and came back out to the kitchen. "You all done with the cleanup Dellana? Did you remember to cut me a switch, I - Errr ..." He paused, surprised to see the smiling Mrs Holzer following Dellana inside, both of them carrying ginger.

"Oh, Mrs. Holzer, did my apprentice invite you inside? DELLANA!" He took a surprised step towards the girl who seemed to loose her footing for a second, but Hermine was faster, gripping Dellana by the shoulder.
"Oh my, little lass, you'd better sit down." She glanced at Thaddeus with a wicked grin and added. "She must be exhausted from all that work you put her through, you's better whip up some tea for us so'n she can gather her strength." The woman planted herself on the chair, then added. "Now why'd you ask her to cut her a switch I wonder?"

Thad stood frozen, quite unable to cope with the situation. Hermine Holzer didn't hold the same reverence for 'the wizard' as the villagers, probably because she lived so close to him and saw him more often, but this was a bit much. In other circumstances he might have thrown the cheeky woman out, but at this moment he was more worried about his apprentice.

"Dellana" he said softly, taking the huge knotted ginger out of her hands. "Are you alright?"

[Cutiexx]

Dellana was sat on her stack of books, and got her bearings once more. Mrs Holzer had plonked her chunk of ginger straight on the table, and seemed intent on staying. Meanwhile, Thaddeus was radiating unease so hard Dellana could almost taste it. He also looked worried for her, which sent a pang of gratitude through Dellana’s heart. It was so nice to have someone actually care. She didn’t even care that he’d let Mrs Hozier know about the switch.

“I am alright sir, thank you. I just lost my footing.”

She stood up and took the half of ginger that was Hermine’s.

“Let me wrap this for you Mrs Holzer, so you can get on your way. I’m sure the farm and your daughters need tending to, and as you probably know, it would be abysmally impolite to have you over for tea when we only have one chair.”

She found a clean piece of cloth, and made a small package with the ginger for Hermine to take with her. While she did that, she shot a wide-eyed look at Thaddeus, that screamed help me get her out of here.

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((I was thinking, It's fun to bring in new characters from time to time. You're welcome to do it too if you ever feel like it))

Thaddeus sent Dellana a worried look that told her he didn't quite believe her explanation, but he agreed with her assessment that there would definitely not be teatime with Mrs. Holzer.

"Ahem, I'm afraid Dellana is right Mrs. Holzer, I don't really entertain guests and you can see I don't have enough chairs."

"Oh, that's quite alright, I'm sure you have a milkin' stool out in the barn you can use. D'ye mind?" She reached across the table for a loaf of bread and sausage. Thad pinched the bridge of his nose and took the packaged ginger off of Dellana and slammed it down on the table in front of Hermine.

"I'm afraid we don't have time Mrs. Holzer. I keep Dellana on a very strict study regiment and I don't want her to fall behind."

"Surely the lass can read while we talk Master Wizard, 'n she's gotta eat the same as us."

"Mrs. Holzer, really, you need to get back to your daughters remember?"

"Oh psh, the ginger won't spoil if we prattle for an hour, 'n those naughty butts'll still be there waiting for it."

That took Thaddeus off guard and his reply turned into a minor coughing fit, meanwhile the farmwoman continued unabated.
"D''ye believe your wee apprentice has never been figged in her life? She was all appalled at the mere mention, weren't you dear?"

"GO HOME WOMAN!" Thad seemed somehow larger, his face like a thunderstorm, his voice magically amplified and coinciding with a strong gust of wind blowing the door open. Hermine made a small sound in the back of her throat, stood up and picked up her ginger.

"I'd best be getting home then" She said, eyes wide. Thad nodded his head in agreement and the woman made a very quick curtsy before storming out. The door closed itself behind her.

Thad stood for a moment, not sure what to think of what just happened, then slumped in his chair and looked at Dellana in silence to gauge her reaction.

[Cutiexx]

((I’m laughing so hard omg I love this.))

The sheer gall of this woman was a force to be reckoned with. Dellana witnessed Thaddeus shutting her down three times and Hermine not backing up. It was impressive, really. Somewhat dangerous, somewhat stupid, but brave nonetheless. Dellana listened to the back and forth, somewhat fascinated, expecting Thaddeus to blow up any second.

“The ginger won't spoil if we prattle for an hour, 'n those naughty butts'll still be there waiting for it."

Thaddeus started choking, in outrage perhaps, or perhaps he wasn’t as familiar with figging as Mrs Hozier thought.

"D''ye believe your wee apprentice has never been figged in her life?” All blood rushed to Dellana’s face and her eyes grew huge. She didn’t want Hermine to go put ideas in Thad’s head. It was bad enough those ideas were in Dellana’s.. “She was all appalled at the mere mention, weren't you dear?"

“Eerrrrmm...”

She was. It wasn’t all she was, but appalled was definitely one of the emotions she was feeling.

”GO HOME WOMAN!”

All pretense of politeness was thrown out the window as a gust of wind blew the door open, and Thaddeus used a spell to seem more intimidating. Dellana was still struggling with the figging thing, but she appreciated the look on Hermine’s face immensely. All cocky jokey leering was wiped right off, and replaced with a healthy dose of apprehension.

The woman hurried out with just enough decorum to be able to later claim she’d left of her own volition, and they were alone again. After a few seconds, Thaddeus dropped down in his chair, and looked at her. Everything stayed in suspense for a short while. Dellana didn’t know what reaction he was expecting of her, but her nerves were too fried for her to fake anything right then. She snorted, then started laughing helplessly at how ridiculous that all was. A fully realized wizard, and his apprentice get steamrolled by a farm woman. You’ll never guess what happens next!

“Will, will she ever come back?” Dellana managed to ask between giggles.

((And yeah, I’m definitely into making additional characters. I already have one idea for something that would take place much later in time, but now there’s the two Hozier daughters as well! So good))

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((Uhh sounds interesting))

Thad was holding his laughter back until he got a sense of Dellana's mood. He didn't want her to think he was mocking her if she was shook up by Mrs. Holzer's comments. When she started, he joined in with a deep, bellowing laughter that brought tears to his eyes.

The laugh released the tension in the room and brought a nice distraction. Thaddeus was in fact very familiar with figging, at least in theory. It was years ago he had first heard of that creative form of correction and growing bigger, stronger ginger roots was the main (sole) reason his interest in herbalism had been reignited. Hearing Dellana and figging mentioned in the same sentence had put some very strange thoughts in his head. Luckily, sheer anger at the annoying, gossipy woman and the humor of the entire situation served as a nice distraction.

"Heh, she'll - heh - she'll be back, when she needs something again, or her boredom wins over her fear. Hermine isn't a bad woman by any means, but she's curious and a horrible gossip. No-one lives closer to here, and I think she enjoys being the main source of news on the village warlock. That's the exact reason I never invited her inside before, don't want to give her ammunition. I probably shouldn't have sent her over to you, but I figured someone else could bother with her for a change."
He shrugged apologetically with a wry smile.

"She has twin daughters about your age you know. They take after her, I caught them spying through a window once and hauled them back to the farm. Unlike Hermine, they had the good sense to not keep coming back, though I think they're more afraid of what their mom did to them then of me."

((I don't want to influence how you play your characters, so take this as a mere suggestion. If Dellana was curious about ... things ... she could probably do some clumsy scrying. Water scrying would be some combination of water control and illusion magic, and there would definitely be a guide in one of her books if she didn't already know how. Again, just an idea :P ))

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((hey, you mentioned you'd like me to draw Dell and Thad, so I made a couple pictures based on the rp. The first one is like a dual portrait, the second is just some candy for my male gaze based on when Dellana was bathing :P ))

[Cutiexx]

((Dude, you know I was going to have her scry
The art!!!! I'm really happy you drew them, thank you so much! I love the dual portrait. As for the eye candy, glad you had as much fun as Thad, if not more ))


Giddy from the tension being released, for the first time since her arrival really, Dellana let herself speak more plainly than she usually would.


"I thought she was quite charming, until she started describing that, the, her, her barbaric use of ginger. I can't believe it's wasted like that? Ginger costs so much in Fënir, you'd make a small fortune selling your roots over there. How did you get them to grow so large..?"

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Thad pulled the plate that Hermine had been using over and started eating, gesturing for Dellana to do the same.

"A fortune? You really think so?" He said surprised. "I ... suppose it would be possible, but I think it would be frowned upon. There are very good reasons why magic-users are expected to generally use our powers for good and not to gain personal power. Using plant-based magic to save a starving town from a bad season would be one thing, but bringing in large quantities of 'enhanced' produce would upset the market. The common ginger importers would be on us with torches and pitchforks." He stared into his plate for a moment, then shrugged.

"Admittedly a pretty silly example, but you catch my meaning. Gingers plentiful in these lands, so people can just grow it themselves, and I'm not ruining anyone's livelihood. And yeah they have been getting quite big, haven't they? Stronger as well, you need to be careful when using them to spice food, as I imagine the Holzer girls are about to discover ..." His eyes glazed over for a second, then he shook his head.
"Ahem, as for how I get them so big, it's been years of experimentation, nutrition, soil sampling, and brute force earth and water spells applied over a long period - honestly my methods and experiments could fill a book ..." Thaddeus trailed off when he realized that he didn't really have a good explanation for why he had started the whole project.

"Heh, anyway, I don't know about barbarism. There's no chance of damage, no bruises, it seems quite practical really. Painful and humiliating, no doubt, but that's the point of a punishment." Thad went quiet and just stared at the clump of ginger root on the table, then continued to eat his lunch.

((If you want me to write shorter replies, for a more conversation-like scene, just tell me. Alternatively we could do something with chat again for more rapid fire scenes.))

[Cutiexx]

"Herbalism is hardly a sinister pursuit," replied Dellana, dismissing Thaddeus' counter-argument. "And a healthy competitor would stimulate the market. But I suppose the Council would want to regulate such a trade, and get their cut of the profit," she added, wry.


She sat down on her stack of books and joined Thaddeus with the meal. She ate and listened, interested, as he described his research process. It seemed like a wild ride, full of gritty research and mistakes. She'd love to read about it, if Thaddeus actually did write a book describing his process some day, and she said as much.


Her appetite dwindled somewhat hearing him praise the use of ginger as a punitive instrument. He looked at the root pensively, and Dellana couldn't but speak her mind.


"Surely punishment is meant to teach rather than humiliate, Master," she said quietly.


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((I'm good with how things are Do you want to change things up? I think staying flexible with response-lengths can make things seem more natural than having a fixed "Five sentences minimum" rule. Although I'll admit I don't remember if we ever had such a rule for this RP x) ))


((Edit: I don't know how you were able to embed images, so I just uploaded my drawings of them in my gallery xD Here's a link! And Thad is defo not wearing anything under his robe ;P))