Beckyann smiled, standing in the middle
of her quarters. It was time to prepare herself for her patrol, and
today was to be a 'special' day as it were. As it turned out, the
patrol route that was scheduled for today would match a patrol being
conducted by the Argents, and it was imperative that there were no
issues between the two groups as they scouted the Plaguelands. As
such, Beckyann had assigned her own name to this particular route and
hand-picked some of the best of the initiates to accompany her; it
wouldn't do to make a bad impression. The key would be to project
might without frightening them, and Beckyann knew just how.
She snapped her fingers, the three
ghouls she'd summoned and prepared bustling about the chambers as
they began to prepare. Two of them brought a floor length mirror
before her, setting it up on a stand so she could examine herself in
it. She looked at her reflection, studying herself for imperfections.
She wore only two garments at the
moment. The first was a tight fitting bra, designed not for comfort
or style but to keep her flesh in place. One of the advantages of not
having to breathe except to speak was that the material could be
tighter, allowing her armor to be pressed close to her flesh and
providing extra stability and mobility. Her second garment covered
her from the tips of her toes to her waistline. It was thick
stockings that would have been uncomfortably hot for a woman wearing
a dress in the summer. For Beckyann, temperature was meaningless and
the somewhat elastic material was designed to help anchor her armor
pieces in place where necessary; she often wore either a
half-stocking or full body stocking depending on the set of armor
she'd be using for her patrols.
For today, she planned on wearing her
favorite armor, and she nodded to the ghouls to signal that she was
ready to begin. She stood with her legs apart, her hands planted on
her hips as they began to fetch portions of the armor. Made of black
saronite with highly polished, silvery looking portions, the armor
was a work of art. Each piece had been specially crafted to
Beckyann's specifications, fitted perfectly to her body and designed
to reflect not only the power of what she was, but the very imagery
of death. While she often pretended to be a living human when
wandering amongst the living, when she was actually performing her
true role as a Knight she wanted to present a completely different
image. The armor was meant to be a warning and a mark of pride; it
showed her strength and the power of the Ebon Blade.
Two ghouls approached her, one from
either side and each carrying a cuisse. They knelt beside her,
attaching the saronite plates to her upper thighs and tightening the
buckles to keep them in place. A living woman would wish for more
padding under such armor, as it could pinch the skin, but for
Beckyann such concerns were irrelevant as she had very little feeling
in her flesh anyway. After each piece was firmly in place, the ghouls
turned to fetch each poleyn and greave, bending down beside her to
begin affixing each of these parts in place over her knees and shins.
Each piece fit perfectly against the next, allowing her legs a full
range of motion and ensuring that the armor would not bind up or come
loose during combat. Once all three pieces were in place on each leg,
the bone and silver flame motif present on the armor was visible, and
she smiled as she tapped one of her metal encased thighs.
“Very nice. Now the sabatons if you
would,” she said pleasantly.
A ghoul knelt before her while another
ghoul placed one of her sabatons on its back. She brought her foot
up, slipping it within the armored boot and leaning on her minion as
she began to tighten the many laces that held it in place. With this
done, she repeated the process with her second sabaton, her body now
half armored. The lower half of her armor was completed with the
addition of a belt bearing a skull emblem to ensure that the armor on
her legs and her stockings couldn't slide down if she took a good
blow in melee.
“Excellent! My breastplate if you
would,” she said, admiring herself in the mirror.
Two of the ghouls moved away again,
returning with both halves of the breastplate. This particular piece
of armor was Beckyann's favorite, and it consisted of two sections of
saronite that fitted around her upper body perfectly. A deep black
color, the front of the armor was polished to resemble a ribcage
going up her body, with her bust highlighted in sparkling silver
metal. The armor joined at the sides, tight buckles holding it in
place.
Unlike a living person, Beckyann
sacrificed protection of her belly by forgoing a large plackart or
fauld to protect her lower abdomen. While this would be fatally
unacceptable for a living person, Beckyann's belly had no vital,
functioning organs within it that could cause her to die of a slash
wound. Instead, the lack of these armored parts allowed her
breastplate to move freely and independently of the armor on her
lower body, giving her a much wider range of motion. Only if her
spine was severed would the lack of armor really represent a serious
problem for her, and she was willing to surrender some of the
protection for the mobility. The tight-fitting breastplate was also
molded to the contours of her body, which was less functional than a
flat plate piece but more cosmetically appealing. Again she didn't
consider this an overly dangerous flaw given that a stab or slash at
a breast would not cause her to bleed to death as a living woman
might. Besides, she thought it looked damn good!
While the breastplate had no gorget to
protect her neck, the shoulder pauldrons she wore with the armor had
curved saronite pieces that ringed her neck like a collar, serving
much the same function. The silver and black metal fit over the top
of her breastplate perfectly, the dark runes and death motifs
inscribed on it going well with the overall look of her armor.
As with the protection for her stomach,
Beckyann's armor on her arms was lacking a rerebrace and couter to
protect her upper arm and elbow. This gave her more mobility with her
weapon, although in this case it was a more dangerous flaw and one
she addressed with magical wards to avoid having her arms severed by
a lucky blow. Her ghouls brought her gauntlets to her as she held out
her arms, slipping one onto each of her hands and all the way up to
the end of her forearm. Each was affixed with tight laces, and she
fastened these herself as her ghouls waited, ensuring she'd have a
firm grip on her weapon.
After this was done, one of her minions
carried her head protection over to her. Beckyann liked to have a
full range of vision on the battlefield and she was much more
difficult to knock unconscious than a living person, so she wore a
thick saronite circlet that protected her temples, forehead, and
flared up enough to catch a blade that was descending on her golden
head. It required no straps, the metal having been forged to fit just
so along her brow, and she smiled at herself in the mirror as it was
set in place, reaching up to adjust her hair so it looked perfect.
The final touch of her armor was, of
course, a cape bearing the colors of the 1113th. It would
not do to go out without emblems of her legion after all! Her ghouls
brought it to her, clasping it to place along her pauldrons. She
affixed the final catch herself, which bore her rank emblem and was
placed near her throat. The rank pin contained her comm and allowed
her to keep in touch with the rest of the unit. Beckyann smiled at
herself in the mirror, turning this way and that to ensure that she
looked exactly as she wished. With a grin she reached over and
plucked a rose from a nearby vase; a rose she'd stolen from one of
the graveyards in the plaguelands. She affixed it near her ear,
admiring the dying beauty of the flower beside her own.
With a nod, she dismissed her ghouls,
taking her runeblade up and sheathing it. It was time to go meet the
Argents. She grinned, blowing herself a kiss in the mirror before
turning and walking from her chambers.
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