Tabula Rasa: Adventures In A New World

Other than that bit of excitement in the morning, the rest of Krvavy’s day has been... rather boring. Completely uneventful, really. She has just been going back and forth between her cave and the bandit camp, loading herself up with as much ‘loot’ as she can possibly carry and lugging it all back here, one trip after another.

This is far from the most interesting way to spend her time. But is also not the worst. The hike isn’t that bad, despite how repetitive it is.

At least it gave her the chance to level up some of her skills. Though not a lot of them. Mostly just Seismic Stomp. It turns out that burying bodies is a lot easier if you just dump them into a ditch and cause the already unstable hillside to collapse onto them.

In hindsight... this may have just been a waste of a day. It was a lot of work and yet she has very little to actually show for it. At least it is over now though.

“Phew...” A feeling of relief washes over Krvavy as she drops the last bit of ‘loot’ onto the ground. She gathered up everything even remotely worth taking from the bandit camp and brought it all up here, to the platform just outside of her respawn point. Because she apparently wanted to make a tedious job all the more annoying.

It definitely would have been a lot easier if she had just found somewhere lower down in the cave to store all of this stuff. But... this is a nice and safe place for her loot. A good spot for a wannabe dragon’s meager hoard. Aesthetically speaking. The view up here is amazing...

Krvavy takes a moment to stretch and roll her shoulders. She hasn’t just been bringing her new stuff up here and dumping it at random. No, it is all sorted well enough for her to find something if she needs it. And while this space isn’t arranged too neatly, looking it over does still make Krvavy feel rather satisfied with herself.

Next to the illusionary barrier is a spot for her more valuable loot, right up against the wall. Though at the moment the only thing there is the chest full of coins and gems. She left a fair bit of space around it for other more traditional treasures, even if it will almost certainly remain empty for quite some time.

Off to the left of the chest is where the weapons go. Which, at the moment, is really just the Orc war-hammer and the heavy crossbow (plus its many bolts). There are a few knives here as well, but those are a bit more practical for everyday use and might end up getting taken away because of that. Krvavy doesn’t really know how long she’ll keep any of these weapons here. Which is why she unstrung the crossbow. No need to risk it getting damaged from the constant stress. And hopefully that treasure will stay up here for quite some time. She isn’t looking forward to having to restring it.

The fact that Krvavy didn’t bother taking any other weapons from the bandit camp really says a lot about their quality. Some of the axe hafts would have made for good firewood, but that’s about it.

Further along the wall, closer to the path down to the living area, is the spot for the various foodstuffs that Krvavy has looted. She doesn’t exactly have a pantry to store things in, so this will have to do for now. Currently the only things here are sacks of grains and oats, a few bags of flour and spices, and the small pouches that she previously got from the Orc camp. Sadly, there wasn’t a single piece of meat in the camp. Well, none that were worth taking. She doesn’t want some dingy, half-eaten jerky.

Across from the foodstuffs and close to the edge of the platform is the rest of the kitchen related loot. It shouldn’t be too much of a problem if any of it falls down into the cave below, as it is just a bunch of metal pots and pans, wooden bowls and plates, and various utensils. Nothing particularly valuable or fragile.

Still along the edge but further away from the path is the next pile of loot, this time the crates of sheets and other bedding. Again, not much of a problem if they fall down into the grotto. Unless they land on someone... The crates, not their contents. A couple blankets or spare bedrolls – ones that were clean and entirely unused – aren’t going to hurt anyone even if they’re dropped from this height.

And that leaves the last group of loot, which is also along the cliff edge but a bit closer to her respawn point. This group is pretty much just the miscellaneous stuff and trinkets, which includes some folded canvas sheets from a few of the tents, coils of ropes, metal tent pegs, a stack of blank paper to go with her new inkwell and pen, a nice looking letter opener, and a basic nail file.

In other words, her ‘hoard’ is full of a bunch of very boring stuff. But at least most of it will be useful to some degree and isn’t just junk...

Shaking her head, Krvavy heads back down to the living area. She is hungry and wants to have some dinner now. Passing by the small stack of firewood, Krvavy heads straight to the pot placed in the middle of the campfire and starts getting some stew cooking. She had the foresight to fill it up with water already.

Thea is sitting on their bedding off to the side, fully clothed in her now-clean though still pretty damaged dress. Much like she has been doing all day, the noble girl is giving Krvavy the silent treatment.

Which is pretty understandable. Krvavy more or less enslaved her, after all.

Though, to be completely honest, Thea hasn’t been doing the best job of ignoring her captor. At times it really felt more like the bratty girl was trying to get Krvavy’s attention just to show that she was ignoring the barbarian. From loudly huffing out in annoyance as Krvavy passes by to exaggeratedly pouting with her arms crossed, Thea’s cold shoulder has actually been rather cute, if a bit immature.

The girl is almost certainly bored out of her mind.

Though probably not quite as much as when she was trapped in a cage... At least here she has something to do: taking care of the Orc. The noble brat definitely isn’t happy with that new duty, clearly finding it embarrassing and humiliating. But she did feed the Orc earlier. Not that Krvavy saw it happen, but there was a faint splatter of stew on that unresponsive woman’s green-skinned breasts...

Krvavy doesn’t really mind the bratty noble pouting like this. It is actually kind of nice not having to listen to the girl speak, as at least half of what she says is just insults and slurs. Kind of a shame that this isn’t going to last... It is only a matter of time before Thea starts swearing at her again.

“You want some dinner?” Krvavy calls out to the bratty girl. “Or are you just going to sit there and pout some more?”

Thea remains where she is for a few seconds, before slowly getting up and heading over without uttering a single word. She continues to completely ignore Krvavy, refusing to take the bowl that is offered to her and instead picking a different one to fill up with stew on her own. Grabbing a spoon, she sits down near the fire and turns away from Krvavy.

“As much as I enjoy not having to listen to you speak, we do need to talk about what happened this morning.” Krvavy idly comments as she fills her own bowl of soup.

The noble girl turns and glares at Krvavy. After a few moments of trying to kill the barbarian with her eyes, Thea exasperatedly huffs and breaks her silence. “Are you finally going to apologize to me? You degenerate! Filthborne beast! Pervert!”

“Oh there we go...” Krvavy stifles a sigh. “No. I am not going to apologize. If you weren’t such a bitch then maybe I would.”

“YOU KIDNAPPED ME!” Thea furiously shouts, her face scrunching up as hate fills her soft-blue eyes.

“Eh, debatable.” Krvavy retorts, deciding to not take this all that seriously purely just to annoy Thea even more. “I found you in a cage and took you home with the rest of my loot. That is what you are to me. Loot. But that’s not the point. How’re you doing? Enjoying my home?”

Thea shakes in rage as she struggles to put her anger into words, mostly just making cute little furious noises. After a while she huffs and points a finger accusatorily at Krvavy. “You! You are holding me hostage in a dark and dingy cave! Cur! I am not doing well! Wanton beast! Degenerate lowborn! Go die!”

“Now that is just straight up wrong,” Krvavy dramatically shakes her head, “I’m holding you captive. Big difference. I’m not ransoming you off or using you as collateral. But that is just semantics, and for some reason I feel like you aren’t quite in the mood for that...”

“Filthborne beast! Pervert! Rapist!” The incensed noble girl spews out.

“Look, I just want to know how well you are acclimatizing to your new life.” Krvavy honestly admits. “I know it has only been a day so far, but–”

“MY NEW LIFE!?” Thea screams in rage, after having taken a few seconds to process that information. “You are deluded if you think that this is my new life! Deranged! It is only a matter of time before I am rescued! Before armies come marching through these hills! And I will make sure that you suffer the most agonizing of fates when they come for you! Man-thing bitch!”

“Bit dramatic, aren’t you?” Krvavy replies with a disappointed shake of her head. “I honestly can’t tell if you are one of the stupidest people I have ever met or if you just don’t know what self-preservation is. You seem so committed to antagonizing me even though there are so many things I could do to make your life absolutely miserable.”

“What, like making me eat your foul seed?!” Thea indignantly shouts back, clenching the spoon in her hand so hard her knuckles turn white.

“Sure. We could see how long you’d last on a cum only diet. But I was thinking way darker. Like cutting the tendons on your legs so you can’t walk kind of dark. Or just removing your limbs in the first place. Gruesome stuff like that, you know?” Krvavy nonchalantly replies. She doesn’t even slightly intend to do any of that, but she isn’t above giving Thea a bit of a scare by bringing up those grim possibilities. In fact, that might just be what the spoiled girl needs.

“You would not dare!” The noble brat shouts back, clearly not taking those threats seriously. Which really should have been expected.

“Do you want to risk that?”

“Filthborne beast! Bitch! Violent savage! Disgusting pervert! Wanton degenerate! Cur!”

“I liked you better when you were pouting... You at least looked cute like that.” Krvavy gripes and sighs again. “Now, whether you want to accept it or not, this is your new life. Get used to it. But hey, look at the bright side: you don’t have to marry that Duke anymore!”

Thea’s eye twitches in rage at that. “I might be engaged to a tyrant, but I would take that any day over you! You violent savage uncivilized beast! A loveless political marriage is better than being kept in a cave and raped!”

“Hey, I didn’t rape you! Coerced and molested, yes, but I haven’t technically raped you! Still isn’t good that I have to bring technicalities into it, but that’s not the point.” Krvavy furrows her brow and slowly trails off, before brushing all that aside and continuing on. “Getting back on topic... I’m not entirely certain what to do with you. You’re still going to have to care for my Orc, obviously, but what am I going to do with you beyond that? I decided to be a bit generous and le–”

“GENEROUS?!” Thea interrupts with a shout. “You dare say that you are generous?! Delusional degenerate! Disgusting cur! Doxy bitch! Harlot!”

“Yeah, I am being generous. Now shut up and listen to your choices.” Krvavy says, beginning to grow tired of dealing with Thea. “You have three of them. How would you like to hear them? Best to worst? Or, well, nicest to meanest, I guess?”

“Go die! Filthborne beast! Wanton savage!”

“Okay. I’ll go worst to best then. Bitch.” Krvavy grumbles and glares at the girl. Time for her to improvise and come up with some terrible choices for this bratty bitch on the spot...

“The first I’ll call... rapebait. It’s pretty self-explanatory, really, but I’ll still explain it for you. With this choice I’ll rape you whenever I want. It is that simple. I’ll be rough and aggressive whenever I fuck you. But you can keep acting like a complete bitch if you’d like. It’d really make it easier for me. You are acting like I am a complete and utter monster, so I’ll be one for you.”

“Why in the world would I ever choose that?!” Thea incredulously questions, her shouted voice loud and shrill enough to be plain annoying.

“To keep a semblance of dignity? So you could tell yourself that you ‘stayed strong’ and didn’t willingly give in? I really don’t care. The important thing is that this is the default: if you don’t choose one of the other two, than this is what you get.” Krvavy seriously states, honestly starting to consider that as something more than just a threat. She’d rather leave it as just a threat, but if this NPC doesn’t give her a choice...

“Oh, what a good way to make me choose!” The bratty noble sarcastically shouts. “Just threaten to violently rape me! You indecent animal! Filthborne beast! Disgusting savage!”

Shaking her head and ignoring Thea, Krvavy continues. “The next one would be... lets call it fucktoy. With this choice I’ll treat you like I do my Orc: I’ll fuck you whenever I want to.”

“How is that any different from the first choice?! You are just going to rape me no matter what, are you not?!”

“Well, its different because I’ll fuck you however I like.” Krvavy explains, trying to find a way to actually make it a different choice. It can’t be too good, or the girl might actually choose this over the final choice... “I’d always be rough if you chose the first option, but if you are my fucktoy then it’d depend on how I’m feeling. I wouldn’t purposefully hurt you though, which I can’t guarantee if you choose rapebait.”

“These are terrible choices!” The noble protests, sounding incredibly whiny. “You are asking if I want to be raped violently all the time or just raped violently on occasion!”

“You still have the third option, though with how arrogant and stuck up you are I doubt you’d choose it.” Krvavy comments while staring down at the smaller girl. “And that third option is for you to become my loveslave. I was going to call it ‘the girlfriend experience’ but I don’t think you’d understand that. This option would have our sex be gentle, loving, romantic, sweet, all those things. We’d cuddle a lot and you’d be treated amazingly. The only issue is that you’d have to actually act the part, and I don’t think that you are capable of being nice. Especially since it would have to be believable.”

“You vile fiend! I hate you! Go die! Degenerate! I am not choosing any of those!”

“That’d make you rapebait, remember? But don’t worry,” Krvavy reassures the fuming noble girl, “you don’t have to make your choice right now. Take some time to think this through.”

Thea is unable to form a response to that, as she is too busy shaking in rage. That anger only gets worse when Krvavy reaches out and pats her on the head, though the bratty noble girl doesn’t do anything in response.

She’ll leave this decision hanging over Thea for quite some time. Who knows, maybe it will help that brat become less of a bitch? Probably not, to be honest.

But still, Krvavy is kind of curious about which one Thea would choose. She has quite a bit of pride, so her begrudgingly choosing to be Krvavy’s fucktoy is a possibility. But Krvavy is expecting her to pick loveslave if push comes to shove, as that is kind of the only positive one. Even if the brat might find it humiliating.

And, as pathetic as it may be to admit, Krvavy really does want this girl to pick that one. It’d be nice to have someone at least pretend to care about her... Someone she can cuddle and hug and... love.

Though, thinking about it, the bratty girl will definitely just hope that Krvavy forgets about all of this and just never make the choice on her own...

“Well, guess that’s it for today.” Krvavy nonchalantly says, placing her now-empty bowl down and stretching her arms above her head. “Might as well go get cleaned up before bed, and then it is goodnight.”

“I should just slit your throat while you are asleep...!” Thea forces out between clenched teeth.

“Sure, you go do that. Have fun starving to death when my food supplies run out.” Krvavy offhandedly comments as she rises to her feet. The fact that she can respawn makes that threat mean very little to her, not that Thea knows that.

“You...! Filthborne beast! Take me seriously!”

“No.” Krvavy curtly responds. “Don’t forget to feed my Orc her dinner.”

With that Krvavy heads off, walking down the path towards the hot spring, leaving Thea furiously glaring after her.

That girl is really going to be quite the handful, isn’t she?