Beware the Scorpion
"Ahh!" Screamed Salem's latest minion as he ran around the hallways of the castle like his life depended on it. Actually, his life did depend on it due to the monster chasing him. "Leave me alone!" The withered looking man cried out as he turned another corner and smacked into someone, knocking them both to the ground.
As the man was trying to get up to continue his escape, he managed to get a look at who he ran into. And his blood turned to ice.
Salem scowled at the man who had knocked her to the ground, totally unamused. "You have one chance to explain yourself." Salem said in a dangerous tone.
At that moment the monster chasing its prey rounded the corner. Scorax stared at the man it had been chasing for a while now with hatred gleaming in its eight beady eyes. Scissor Claws at the ready and the tail cannon pointed at its target.
Salem took note of this and then she looked to the man and noticed that he was holding a bouquet of flowers in one hand. "Did you pick flowers from Scorax's garden?" Salem asked pointedly.
"Uh... Y-yes." The man said, "And suddenly this thing started chasing me for no reason!" The fool seemed to gain more courage as he pointed the bouquet at Scorax. The arachnid Blade clicked its fangs furiously.
"This stringy meat bag stole my precious flowers, it says." interpreted Tyrian who found this scene bizzarre.
"Is that so?" Salem said with a kind smile as she got off the floor. Dusting off her dress, the Grimm Queen gave the scorpion Blade a pointed look, "Unfortunately for you, this one's assistance is necessary. So, I cannot let you kill him."
Scorax clicked its fangs furiously and pointed its tail cannon at Salem's head.
"Scorax!" Tyrian screamed in horror and moved into his Blade's way. "You stand down in front of your goddess!"
Scorax clicked its fangs in response.
"Blasphemy!" Tyrian freaked out and prepared his claw weapons and stinger.
"Enough!" Salem commanded before looking to the stringy man who still had the bouquet. "Give those flowers back."
"B-but lady- ""Now." Salem's lines around her face and irises glowed red as she spoke.
"Fine." The man said dejectedly and offered the bouquet to Scorax. The Scorpion Blade dismissed its claws and snatched the bouquet from the idiot's hand. Then the Blade started caressing the flowers like it was mourning for them.
"Now then, I believe you had a job to do." Salem said to the man.
"Y-yes." The man said before hurrying away. As soon as the man was out of earshot, Scorax clicked its fangs again.
"You don't make demands of Salem!" Tyrian yelled at his Blade.
"What did it say?" Salem asked now intrigued. "And do give me the full translation."
Tyrian turned to face Salem with a fearful look. "A-as soon as his usefulness ends, tell me, Scorax said."
Salem let out an amused huff. "Once I have no need of him, you will be the first to know." The Grimm Queen said before continuing her stride to her own destination.
Judging by its relaxed stance, Scorax was satisfied with the answer as he started moving partway to the same direction to return to his garden. Although it did hope that the wretched flower thief's usefulness would end very soon. Poor flowers. Cut from their beautiful stems which now denied them their growth and ability to produce seeds that would allow Scorax to grow more. And for what? For that wretch to attract a mate? How dare it! The revenge will be sweet. So sweet.
Tea Time
It was a meeting between Salem and her cronies. Especially their new recruit. Seated around the large rectangular table, everyone was waiting expectantly on Watts to confirm if the man had delivered.
"Yes, this should make things easier for me." Watts said with a small smile.
"Very good, in that case-" Salem's speech was interrupted when Scorax burst through the doors with a tray in hand. The tray in question had teacups, a sugar cube bowl, a small jug and a teapot. "What is the meaning of this?" Salem asked from Scorax who immediately dashed to the man who looked apprehensive about the scorpion Blade. Scorax placed the tray on the table in front of him before clicking its fangs and grabbing the teapot.
"I thought I should offer refreshments, it says." Tyrian interpreted.
"I didn't order any." Salem said in a warning tone as Scorax poured tea into the cups and gave one to the man.
Scorax clicked its fangs as it began handing over tea to all the other members who had varying reactions to the service. Emerald looked at the steaming drink in apprehension. Mercury's face said he hated tea. Hazel gave both the teacup and the Blade that served it a suspicious look. Watts took a whiff of the tea's aroma. Salem quirked an eyebrow at the Blade when it served her a cup.
"That doesn't mean I shouldn't provide any, it said." Tyrian shrugged as he received his cup of the tea.
"I didn't realize it knew how to brew tea." Watts said as he lifted the cup, blew a little on it and took a sip. "Hmm... Not bad. I prefer coffee myself, but maybe I can make an exception with a cube of sugar and some cream." Watts had barely finished that sentence when Scorax brought the tray and dropped a sugar cube into Watts' tea with tongs and then took the jug and poured in a little of the cream in the small jug. "Why thank you." Watts thanked, looking surprised. The doctor then started stirring the tea with a spoon that was provided along with the cups.
"I don't like tea." Mercury said, glaring at the tea.
Scorax clicked its fangs angrily even as Hazel took a sip of his own tea.
"Aww, Scorax is offended." Tyrian said, faking sorrow. Then the assassin tried the tea himself. "Sorry, Scorax, but tea isn't my thing." Tyrian shrugged but still drank it.
Scorax clicked its fangs and nodded as it then dropped two sugar cubes into Hazel's tea at the large man's request.
Even Salem had taken a sip of the tea, and she looked surprised. "Well, this is a pleasant surprise." Salem said as she waved the scorpion Blade over as it was pouring cream into Emerald's tea at the girl's apprehensive request. "Two sugars, please." With that order, Scorax dashed in and dropped two sugars into Salem's tea. The wicked witch then stirred the tea before taking another sip. "Perfection."
Mercury had received cream and six sugars which allowed him to stomach the taste.
"Could I have three cubes here?" the man asked, but unlike the others, Scorax didn't serve him. "Hey! I said three cubes of sugar!" The man called out more loudly.
Scorax clicked its fangs and came in with the tray but made no move to serve the man.
"Self-service for parasites, it said," Tyrian laughed before finishing his tea and putting it back on the serving plate that was provided.
The man looked annoyed but reached for the sugar cubes. Only for his hand to be slapped away before Scorax pointed at the tongs. "Disgusting freak." The man grumbled as he used the tongs to add his three sugars.
As everyone enjoyed their tea, Scorax ran out of the room, leaving the tray and the teapot behind.
Everyone enjoyed their tea to each to their own preferences. But it didn't take long until Scorax returned with another tray, this time with tall glasses filled with colorful liquid. On each of the glasses was a tiny umbrella, except one of them. Scorax clicked its fangs as it began to give a glass to each member of Salem's crew.
"And now for something much tastier, it said." Tyrian interpreted as he got his own drink that had cubes of ice and a tiny umbrella.
"What's the occasion, Scorax?" Salem asked as she was served hers. "You haven't done something like this before."
Scorax clicked its fangs as it served Watts and Hazel, until finally giving the man the one without an umbrella.
"This is an experiment of mine. I would love to see what I can mix with some fruits that I was able to procure, it said. " Tyrian interpreted as he took a sip of the drink. "Hmm. Fruit juice. Better than anything served in even Vacuo." Tyrian commented as he drank greedily.
Emerald also dared to taste the juice and she was blown away at the sweet fruitiness with just a hint of sourness to make it feel refreshing.
"This is good." Mercury commented, "You should have just served this from the start."
Hazel too drank it, gaining a small smile on his face at the tasty juice.
Salem too drank the fruit juice and she too nodded in approval.
But the man didn't drink as he looked at the small umbrellas on the other people's glasses. Then he looked to his own glass that had no umbrella. Warning bells rang in his head at this.
"I must say, Scorax. If you had been awakened by a different Driver, you could have opened a successful juice business." Watts complimented before taking a long gulp of the wonderful nectar.
Scorax clicked its fangs with its arms behind the back, trying to give an impression of a bashful... girl?
"It took a few tries to get the taste just right to balance sweetness and sourness. And also to cover the taste of the-" Tyrian paused in his interpretation and looked straight at Scorax, "Wait, what? What antidote?!"
Now everyone looked at the Scorpion Blade with varying levels of horror while Emerald looked sick to her stomach.
Scorax clicked its fangs gleefully as it pointed at the teapot that was still on the table.
"For the poison in the tea?!" Tyrian screeched out.
At that moment everyone looked at the teapot and then at Scorax who's body language implied pride of its crime.
At that moment the man quickly took the glass and downed it all in one go. He did not want to die.
"Explain yourself." Salem said in a dangerous tone.
Scorax clicked its fangs making motions with its arms like it had no care in the world.
"I wanted vengeance for my flowers this worthless stringy meat bag ripped from me. So, I decided to brew the tea to poison him. It took me a while to figure out how to serve it without raising suspicion, but then I came up with the perfect plan. I would serve the poison tea to everyone so he wouldn't be suspicious and then serve the antidote in the juice." Tyrian interpreted Scorax's master plan.
"But if the antidote was in the juice then doesn't that mean he will also be saved?" Emerald asked just before the man started to look sick.
"Wh-What is happening." The man said as his vision began to blur.
Scorax clicked its fangs again.
"Oh, did I forget to add the antidote to your juice? How terribly clumsy of me, it said." Tyrian interpreted in a false sympathetic tone. Scorax then clicked its fangs more. The scorpion Faunus had a hard time not to laugh as he started interpreting, "How does it feel to be killed by the poison tea brewed from the very flowers that you dared to rip from me?"
"H-Help me." The man wheezed just before he collapsed to the floor and became completely motionless.
Emerald looked horrified at the man dying like this before shifting her terrified gaze to Scorax who's eight beady eyes seemed to gleam at its accomplishment.
"You brewed the tea from the flowers that man picked?" Salem asked, more astonished than anything.
"If I may ma'am," Watts interrupted, "I was curious about Scorax' garden, so I took a picture of it and tried to identify some of the flowers in it. I found out that there seemed to be a common factor in all the various beautiful and fragrant flowers our arachnid Blade has grown from seeds. All of them are poisonous."
"Poisonous." Salem repeated, looking to Scorax with quirked eyebrow.
Scorax started clicking its fangs and Tyrian soon started interpreting, "I love flowers, especially poisonous ones. So beautiful, so deadly and I feel at peace when I crawl in them. The feeling of their deadly stems, flowers and buds across my body is exquisite." The most disturbing part was that Scorax hugged its body in what everyone else interpreted as glee, wrapping its tail around itself for good measure.
Emerald thought that Tyrian was creepy, but this Blade just took it to the next level.
"Interesting." Salem said as she laced her fingers together and rested her chin on top of them. "While I don't appreciate being served poison, the tea itself was well made. And the juice was also exquisite. How would you feel about doing this more often? Without poisons or antidotes, that is."
Scorax scratched its carapaced chin in thought. Until it began clicking its fangs again.
"I suppose I could. Trying to make tasty drinks was fun, it said." Tyrian still looked annoyed as he interpreted his Blade's words. But then Scorax clicked more, "For the record, I know you are the only one the poison wouldn't have killed, but why should I let you suffer the experience, it said." Tyrian's voice strained at the last part.
"Thank you for that." Salem said with a smile. "Now, I appoint Scorax as our official Refreshment Expert."
Scorax's body language indicated it was happy, but Emerald and Mercury weren't sure if they could ever trust anything this thing made again. Neither were Watts and Hazel.
AN: There we go, another Halloween skit. This time starring Tyrian's Blade, Scorax. A scorpion that loves poisonous flowers and will inflict their vengeance upon anyone who dares to pick them.