Feed Me Sensates, Feed Me!

[*Orlitoq]

"More!! Bring More!!" Ghyrryn bellowed.

At a table in the Spice Rack sat a large gnoll who salivated as he watched a feast of raw and cooked meats set before him. Piled upon platter after platter were enough fat, gristle, bone and meat to easily feed six starving humans for a full day. Scattered among those plates were tankards of ale, and goblets of wine and mead enough to quench any thirst ten thymes over.

Soon, fat and grease smeared Ghyrryn's muzzle as handful after handful of food was being shoveled into it, and plate after plate was cleared of every last scrap of food. Gristle, fat, and bone were devoured as well. Nothing was spared his gluttonous desire. The gnoll only stopped eating long enough to call out for more food and drink.

Once the table was cleared and the gnoll's distended belly forced him to push back his chair, a series of loud burps erupted from Ghyrryn's maw. These were followed by a series of short, sharp barks of laughter.

"Now, bring stones! Ghyrryn show what means to eat good! Bring stones so Ghyrryn feel what meals you have, then Ghyrryn show what real eats is like!"

[*Selebius]

A bit away from the gnoll an elf is talking to a female water genasi. The man is dressed in fine robes, some bagpipes slung over his shoulder, an unusual instrument for one of his kind and under his robes an armour of boiled leather can be seen.

The woman wears some baggy outfit, her fingers still stained with the many colours she used for her painting- her canvas being living flesh today.

"I really dislike this ones manners.", the elf says.

"He pays and he is just looking for experiences, as simple as they might seem to us. Have we not all started a bit like this?", the woman answers.

"Me?! Never!", the elf says with some disgust as he watches the gnoll devour another few selected delicacies. "I hope he will not spread fat and gravvy all over the sensory stones."

The womans laugh is light and elegant and she touches the man's arm gently before she approaches the gnoll.

"Hello friend. I am factotum Shli of the Sensates."

She looks over the remains of his meal, sends the sensates who brought him the morsels away with a small wave.

" I see you started to enjoy all the wonders the Festhall has to offer, are even interested in our sensory stones. However.. before you get a sample of our experiences I ask you to share one of your own with us."

Sitting down on a nearby bench the woman looks at the gnoll expectently.

[*Orlitoq]

After a momentary pause Ghyrryn narrows his eyes and leans in to sniff the water genasi. Ears laid back, hackles slightly raised, a rhythmic alternation of chuffs and snorts echo deep from within his chest as the gnoll inhales Shli's various scents.

With a loud huff the gnoll leans back in his chair. One paw gently pats his distended belly, while his other paw idly grabs a plate empty but for congealed fats. Ghyrryn keeps a wary eye on the water genasi as he licks the plate clean.

Between slurps at the plate's surface Ghyrryn barks "Tell what Shli wants! This just little snack. If Shli want real meal be shared, Ghyrryn eat many!" The clean plate is tossed back onto the table with a clatter and another is taken up for a diligent scouring. "You want know eat baby from mother's womb, Ghyrryn knows! You want know cook feet first, eat elf while still live, Ghyrryn knows! You want know sneak into boneyard to find body just two week old for snack, Ghyrryn knows! If be eat, Ghyrryn knows! If be eat Ghyrryn want to know!"

Dumping the last empty plate back onto the table the gnoll leans back and chirps out a high-pitched giggle. "You want what Ghyrryn knows then Ghyrryn share." The gnoll's eyes abruptly narrow and focus intently on the woman before him and his voice drops low in tone. "Ghyrryn share, but only for feel more eat... Your nose too small to smell what Ghyrryn smell. You never smell meat way that Ghyrryn do. You teeth too blunt for crack open bone, suck out marrow from screaming slave who try run in night." Quick barks of laughter escape from the gnoll as he pauses to enjoy the memory. "Yes, Ghyrryn share but must take from stones for each one share."

[*Selebius]

She listens, sits down with a sugary sweet smile, leaning forward as the Gnoll speaks.

"Yes. Those are the experiences I want to know, I want to feel. I want to know how a gnoll feeds on still living flesh, on carrion on.. whatever you can share.

We will fill a stone of your own with this experiences and then you may access our vault."

Her voice is far from matching the smile- it is a low predatory hiss and a closer look reveals shark's teeth in the woman's mouth.

"Now can you do it? Share something more than words?"

She tosses an empty sensory stone to the gnoll, leans back, still smiling.

[*Orlitoq]

A fur covered paw whips out to pluck the sensory stone from the air, catching it fast despite the fat and gravy the greasy paw spreads over the stone's many facets.

A short trill of high-pitched giggles escape Ghyrryn's throat when he catches a glimps of Shli's razor teeth. The gnoll looks the water genasi in the eye and says, "Ghyrryn come right place..."

"Shli want hear tinkle of laugh before prey know Ghyrryn and pack near? Shli want smell happy turn fear when prey learn of trap? Shli want hear tendon rip and tear when prey-man hamstrung, when prey-child scream for mommy? Shli want see prey-mother tears when all baby dead and she made watch? Shli want feel impact as pack beat prey-mother with own babies 'till legs so broken she no walk again? Shli want watch prey-mother be captive while prey-childs bodies let dry like wood for fire for cook prey-mother? Shli want hear prey-mother beg, barter, plead for life... beg for death? Shli want feel hot blood pour down throat? Shli want know taste of life eaten, swallowed life just as prey die?"

The gnoll's hyena-like features are twisted into a cruel grin as he studies the water genasi and says, "Yes... Ghyrryn come right place. Ghyrryn share all these things for things be just one hunt, and Ghyrryn hunt many hunts..."

Taking his eyes off of the genasi for a moment the gnoll looks down at the smudged sensory stone, and his cruel smile turns to a look of frustration. "Now Ghyrryn let you tell Ghyrryn how stone work..."

[*Selebius]

"Shush! Stop talking start showing my dear." She lifts an elegant finger to point at the stone- then starts to explain.

"Concentrate on it, open it for you and open yourself for it. Once you are attuned pour all your emotions and feelings into it, let it drink your memories. The more intense they are, the more genuine the better they will serve us in future."

Tilting her head she puts a hand on the gnoll's clawed limb and he feels her mind extending leading him through this process the first time.

[*Orlitoq]

Lost in the sensation of satiation of his recent gluttonous feast, and drawn in by his eagerness to access the trove of sensory stones that awaited him, the gnoll forgot for a moment the dangers this stone, and this genasi, represented.

Bright green eyes looked deep into the heart of the gem just as his own mind cast itself back to the night Ghyrryn and his pack came across the small woodsman's cottage.

As if enhanced by the gem, each memory gained a crystalline clarity. Each falling snowflake stood out starkly from the others. Their shapes captured as if by a master artisan sculpting a multitude of individual, incorruptible, and eternal incarnations of winter itself. Branches of barren, bent trees rustled like thunder in the gnoll's memory and each delicate thread of scent was plucked from the air as sharply; a finely tuned string on a delicate instrument in the hands of a virtuoso.

Each sight, sound, touch, and smell was perfectly called up from memory and etched into the heart of this small amber coloured gem, but each of those sensations was a whisper against the clangor and tempest of the flavors Ghyrryn poured out of himself into the stone.

Every drop of blood and gobbet of flesh, raw, cooked, or rotten, screamed with furious puissance its flavors and textures as they slid across Ghyryn's tongue and down his open throat.

From the hunt's beginning to its wrathful end, Ghyrryn recalled richly each and every facet of sensation that he had carried around within him; a treasured memory of pain inflicted, suffering savored, and sated hunger.

As the pack departed the fire pit where they had roasted the woodsman's wife on the the corpses of her loved ones, Ghyrryn let the memory fade. He looked away from the gem, and back to the eyes of the water genasi, Shli.

[*Selebius]

She touches the crystal globe gently, then snatches it up, tussing it into the air before catching it again nimbly.

"An intense memory, a good, rare experience." Another toothy grin follows and she gestures to one of the other sensates. "Allow him access to our sensoriums."

Turning back to adress the Gnoll she then adds: "As a member of the sensates you will find many more like these."

She pats the stone, then continues, smiling. "So many lifetimes worth of memories and experiences to explore... just do not get lost and remember to add you own whenever you can."

[*Orlitoq]

With a loud burp, Ghyrryn pushes himself up out of his chair. The gnoll wastes no thyme and calls out to the same Sensate Shli just addressed, "Show Ghyrryn eating memories!"

As the gnoll follows the sensate towards the exit of the Spice rack Ghyrryn swipes a bottle of wine as he passes another table, and guzzles down on the path to the Sensorium.

__________
OOC Question: Does the character still retain the memory he just placed within the stone? Was it merely copied, or wholly taken from him?

[*Selebius]

Quickly he is lead down a corridor, up some stairs and into a room with shelves filled with similar stones. There are hundreds, perhaps thousands and he realizes Shli did not lie: It would be easy to spend the whole lifetime exploring other people's memories.

(( It was shared.

He still has it and perhaps he might even attempt a second recording later as the quality often increases with the practice.

The stones just record his memories and sensations in great detail but they do not take anything away.))