Coye 6.5

Chapter 5 - Stripped Down

Tiph chugged a potion to calm her as she stormed away from the Guild, but it did nothing to stem the poisonous rage coursing through her veins. Her expensive boots slammed into the cobblestone alleys of Cransmere, brushing off and ignoring the many greetings of all the gutter trash she slung her products to. Soon as they realized she was in one of her moods, all of the town's ne'er-do-wells trying to score some high-quality potions promptly fucked off lest they incur her wrath. She needed to go back to her shed- back to her lab. It was the only place she could work out her feelings, the same as it always was ever since she was a child.

In Tiph's desperation, her immaculate white coat got caught on a patch of bramble that cropped up on the way to her shed, causing her to yank it away. It ripped, giving her another reason to be sour at the world. "Are you fucking-" she yelled at the malicious plant life. "This coat was over 12,000G! Agh!"

She waited for a response longer than she was proud of before shaking her head and marching up to the front entrance. Undoing the many magical locks and slamming the door behind her, Tiph finally made it to her little hideaway where everything would theoretically be okay. That wasn't the case, and she dramatically ripped off her coat, scrunched it up into a ball, and tossed it onto her mattress.

"That stupid, drugged-up little bitch!" Tiph huffed, so fuming that the irony escaped her. "This has to be some sick fucking joke. Liiiike, seriously...?"

Somebody was having a bad day, even though things started off promising enough.

Now that Britni finally sobered up, she and the girls planned to find themselves a decent quest and go on an adventure together. Tiph was looking forward to that. The time she spent with her friends out on the road was precious to her, and not only because of the chance to gather ingredients. Getting out of town would've done her some good. It'd been one thing after another lately, and she could've used the chance to decompress. Her brief overnight trip with Coco helped a lot, but all the good hanging out with her favorite puppy did for Tiph was undone when she met up with Coye upon her return. If only that were the worst of it, but it wasn't.

The drama that morning was entertaining at first, aside from that green-skinned bitch and her knife. Tiph always enjoyed watching Britni lash out at others, and Dorothy was always a fun target to mess with. She didn't have some grand moral reason for disliking the Guild Mistress like Britni did. It just made her spiteful self feel better to pick on someone she saw as below her. Now, though? Now that Coye went and did all he did, suddenly Britni was telling her to ease up on Dorothy. Yeah, right. It was like she hadn't just spent the last year mercilessly fucking with the stupid bitch.

What the fuck did Britni see in him? Was he really so special that he could turn Britni of all people into a good little girl? No. He wasn't special at all. Everyone else in the realm might've been dancing to Coye's tune and shoveling every last ounce of the shit he was selling down their throats, but not her. Tiph was the only one who knew the truth.

She walked over to a giant corkboard hung on the wall beside her bathroom door. This was where she planned out her most important projects, and it was a scrawling mess of hastily written notations, alchemical diagrams, and long, drawn-out equations connected to each other by strings and pins. One colossal project dominated the center of the board- a tasteless potion meant to make Britni want to quit drinking of her own accord. The problem was that Britni could detect nearly anything Tiph tried slipping into her drinks, owing to whatever bizarre, fucked-up conditioning her body went through to become a true Viking or whatever. Not that Tiph regularly drugged her friends without their consent, but she felt bad for encouraging her when they were at the bar together and wanted to help in her own way.

That and certain problems required creative solutions- Coye being one such problem.

In a delirious frenzy, Tiph ripped away all of her progress from the board, clearing out every last piece of parchment. Sitting in the center of her work floor on an elevated stool was a small cauldron of acid that Tiph planned on using to strip the protective coating off of a rare component in the near future. That could wait. For now, it had another use. Tiph dumped all her notes into the cauldron and watched as the static green liquid dissolved them in seconds.

None of that mattered compared to the call urging Tiph to return to her old ways. The temptation was too great, and she'd never been able to help herself. Her impulses cost her many things throughout her brief twenty-three years, and here she was again on the cusp of giving in.

Returning her gaze to the now blank board, Tiph visualized potential. In front of the board was a standing desk full of journals, loose parchment, and expensive magical pens. Taking one of these pens in hand and preparing a sheet of parchment, Tiph went to work. The first step was always to create a centerpiece for the entire project, so she sketched a quick illustration of Coye to pin on the board.

A wicked smile played upon her puffy, purple lips as she stared at the quick doodle. For a quick sketch, it was relatively accurate save for the fact that Coye was rendered like an exaggerated buffoon and had his tongue sticking out. She was really doing this. Her impulses were getting stronger- Tiph would return to her old self in no time.

Wait... was she really doing this?

Tiph's smile faded. This wasn't right- none of it. She might've believed she hated Coye, especially after today, but Tiph caught herself wondering whether or not he really deserved the same treatment she'd given to many of Perlshaw's most despicable men. The answer was obviously no. Back then, she rarely ever sought out men who personally annoyed her. There was no shortage of abused women coming to her with suitable targets as it was.

If she acted on this, Coye wouldn't be a target. He'd be a victim. Not only that, but she was barely considering how her petty desires to humiliate Coye and bring him down a peg might affect Britni. For all her faults, Britni was Tiph's closest friend- the one who gave her a new lease on life after years of disillusioned emptiness. And what did Tiph ever do to repay her for that? Heal her with potions now and then while scheming behind her back to mind-break the guy she had a crush on.

Some friend she was.

"Gods fucking damn it all," Tiph pulled her hair, leaving the standing desk and the portrait of Coye.

Nervously stumbling across the room, she went to one of her many cabinets that stored bottles upon bottles of her most favorite creations. Mellowmilk, siren slush, pink tongue, fogfiller- all there and then some. Most of it was harmless junk with amusing psychedelic effects, but some pretty robust uppers and downers she'd experimented with were mixed in here and there.

Just because the mood stabilizer she drank on the way home didn't work didn't mean nothing would, right? Maybe there was something else she could try. Petaldrip might help her crash and sleep this off- or she could down a vial of soothesilk if she was desperate enough not to mind the itchy tongue it came with. Tiph continued rifling through her options, but the more she did, the more reality sank in.

None of this liquid piss would help. A bottle of this or that might calm her, but it wouldn't make Tiph a better person. Nothing could- this was just who she was. Tiph considered herself self-destructive, impulsive, and unable to stop herself from lashing out at anyone who mildly annoyed her... even if it meant risking the only stable relationships in her life old in the name of some petty vengeance. Mindlessly rebelling for the sake of it- doing stupid things simply because she could.

She felt the stinging pain of a fierce hand striking her cheek. Even many years later, it was a pain so vivid that she re-experienced it perfectly whenever the memory unconsciously surfaced. Tiph ground her teeth together, remembering him and all he'd said and done. Only one person in all the realms deserved more hatred than he did, and that was herself for proving him right.

Fuck it. If people really couldn't change who they were, why not embrace it?

Tiph again dwelled on the fight between Coye and Auguris- that garish spectacle. It amused her initially to find out she and Coye had much more in common than she knew. Tiph never would've assumed he was the type that needed help to escape from his personal flaws, but somehow or another, Coye got his hands on so much pixie dust that it was warping his entire personality. If he was just a druggie, though, why did things play out the way they did?

Everyone loved him now like he was the fucking main character of the entire Guild or something. Tiph couldn't imagine herself showing up there for work day after day, seeing people idolize him and his false persona. It would only get worse if someone didn't unmask him for the fraud he was. Someone like her.

"You think you're so much better than me...?" Tiph laughed at the imagined slight, scanning her potion cabinet a second time.

This time, she knew what she was looking for. It wasn't something that would chill her out or make her a nicer person, but rather the opposite. Fuel for the fire. Something to give her courage and make her crueler still.

Hidden behind a row of multicolored glass bottles on the top rack was a small wooden box with several strange symbols etched onto it. When translated from Tiph's personal alchemic code, the characters spelled out 'Toxibitch'.

She opened the box and found a single beaker filled with a glimmering red and purple liquid.

In all her years of experimentation, this was one of Tiph's personal highlights. Toxibitch was a mind-altering substance that heightened the user's intellect while drudging them into more bottomless pits of negativity. It helped focus all her most spiteful thoughts, sharpening them each to such a fine point that they felt like needles inside her brain, begging to explode outward into her enemies.

Toxibitch was rarely a first resort, but why the hell not?

Tiph uncorked the potion, a swirling vapor pluming out of it in little wispy curls. It smelled of success, hatred, and elderberries. She pressed it to her lips- a moment's hesitation stopping her as she did. It was so close that Tiph could almost taste it. There was no telling what would happen if she committed, only that it wouldn't be good. This brief delay was her last chance to stop herself from going off the deep end, and what did Tiph do with that chance?

Bottom's up.

The potion slid down her throat like raw, venomous serpents. Tiph's eyes shot wide open, and her esophagus caught on fire. A growing sensation of hostility brewed within her gut. Everything sped up. Her heart, her breathing, the machinations of her mind- all charged with virulent malice.

Tiph stumbled back a few steps before laughing and shaking her head. "Why the fuck didn't I do this sooner? It's all so clear to me now..."

In that moment of overflowing bitterness, Tiph's mind was made up. There were no two ways about it- Coye needed to be brought down a couple of pegs, and Britni had nothing to do with it. Hell, she'll probably thank Tiph once she realizes the truth about her precious, doped-up little idiot. She returned to the desk in front of her board with a confident smile.

Pathways started forming within her mind, strands between one wicked idea and the next. Scenarios repeatedly flashed through her mind, and Tiph saw herself humiliating Coye and exposing him to the world in myriad ways. At the same time, she mapped out many variations on each potential plan and what to do if things spiraled in a direction that wasn't expected. Tiph cataloged each and every one of these thoughts all the while as her hand speeded across many loose sheets of parchment. The liquid hatred fueled her creativity, pinning one devious idea to the board after another.

Because of how deeply she sank into her altered state of mind, Tiph couldn't tell how long she spent there in front of the desk. It was starting to get dark out, but beyond that, she only knew that the board was doing quite well for itself when she was done. Tiph filled up over half of it, but plenty of space remained. That was where she found herself stuck.

Tiph nervously bit at her thumb, tapping her foot on the ground as she contemplated all the empty space remaining. There were still too many variables remaining. It wasn't in her habit to pursue things before she'd calculated total success, and the core problem here was that she simply didn't know enough about Coye as she would've liked.

In some ways, people were a lot like alchemical components. Anyone could be broken down and stripped to their basest form if you knew how to trigger the proper reaction. But how would she accomplish that, she wondered?

Her attention turned toward three additional sketches she'd made and posted around Coye- one of Dorothy, one of Byng, and one of Suzette. Dorothy's depicted her passing out from exhaustion, Suzette's rack was exaggerated to the point where it was clearly causing her pain, and Byng was drawn resembling an offensive caricature of a Karnallian goblin. If Tiph wanted more info, those three were the best place to start. It wouldn't be easy, especially not with Byng, but it would be worth it in the end. Anything to knock Coye down from his high horse.

Just as Tiph started truly reveling in the possibilities of her schemes, an icy chill coursed through her veins. The heated sensation of vile bitchiness was cooling over, and Tiph was coming down from her high. As with most potent drugs, toxibitch brought along an equally powerful crash. Its price was a steep one. When fully processed by the user, it left them feeling lower than low. Like a husk that had dried out in the sun for days. Foolish as she was, Tiph forgot to prepare something to perk her up during her crash. She was too consumed by her one-track mind at the time to care about such things.

Now devoid of energy, Tiph had to drag herself back to her cabinets. Her legs gave out halfway there, knocking into one of her empty cauldrons. She stumbled forward and steadied herself by grabbing onto the stool in the center of her lab. Her face was inches away from the cauldron of vivid green acid, so close she could almost taste the noxious chemicals. Tiph stared into it for a grueling amount of time, just taking in her reflection before she could wrestle herself away from whatever gazed back.

Purposefully refusing to dwell on how close she was to an untimely demise, Tiph gave up her plans to make it to any of her shelves or cabinets. Instead, she dragged her feet slowly and carefully across the floor on the way to her mattress. Each step was painful, the ache of her crash affecting her poor body that never asked for this abuse. When she got there, she collapsed, hurting her shoulder as her weight gave out.

Tiph felt like an even bigger idiot than she usually did. Knowing that it was the drug making her feel this way didn't help. Tiph wondered what he would say if he could see her right about now? No doubt he'd call her a drug addict playing at alchemy, and the worst part was he'd be entirely right. Only a drooling imbecile would get high in their laboratory- let alone on such an unstable and powerful substance.

Again, Tiph laughed out of pity for herself. Not only did she break every rule he ever taught her, but that apparently wasn't good enough. She had to keep finding lower and lower lows to stoop to until she'd no longer be able to stoop. It might've been the crash talking, but some of her wondered whether or not that would be so bad at this point.

No.

Tiph shook her head. No, she couldn't think like that. She wasn't that far gone. She wasn't.

Somehow, she summoned the strength to crane her neck and looked back at the board. Tiph wondered why she went to all that trouble. Putting Coye in his place wouldn't make her happy, just like ruining the lives of all those men who had it coming never did. It would only spread the pain she felt to other people, which seemed all Tiph was good for.

Tiph was poisonous. Toxic. Acidic. Everything she touched would be corroded and broken down to nothing.

She'd eroded her life, her dreams, her family... it was a miracle she hadn't yet destroyed her friendship with Britni and the others, but she was working on that one, too. A weak smile appeared on her face. How did that old fable about the frog and the scorpion go again?

Tiph laughed a pained, hollow laugh.

There was still time to change her plans- to change herself. Her info on Coye was severely lacking. She needed to find out more personal details before pursuing this. Maybe Tiph could pull herself out of this mess between now and then? Yeah. She could work on her attitude, try acting nicer, and lay off all the harder potions that fucked her up to this extent.

It was true when Tiph told Coye that anything she brewed was nonaddictive, but it was only a half-truth. Anything was addictive when you had a self-destructive personality. The problem wasn't the potions; it was Tiph.

Always Tiph.

She wondered if she had the willpower to make that change before remembering what she was taught her so long ago. Alchemy was the science of change. Elements could be broken down, added to, combined with, and subtracted from, the results often seeming magical and wondrous to behold.

The same couldn't be said of people, as they couldn't be made better than their whole. You couldn't add to a person or combine them with something else to make them better than what they already were. You could only subtract from a person, removing aspects of the self until what remained was something so much lesser than what you started with.

Tiph was living proof of that.

"What the fuck is wrong with me...?"

The light of the setting sun was too harsh. Tiph took her pillow and sat it atop her face, embracing the wallowing comfort of the false dark. She needed to sleep on this and give it some additional thought. Making any more rash decisions when she felt like this would only be asking for trouble, so Tiph closed her eyes and drifted off. For as poisonous as she was, Tiph's tears weren't quite corrosive enough to ruin her pillow.

Not yet.