And Somehow It Gets Worse From There
Nurgle watched raptly as the last of the shivers passed and Isha weakly righted herself to sitting once again. A sheen of sweat clung to her skin, even as the patchy mix of raging flush and deathly pale evened out into her usual skin tone.
He chuckled to himself, a series of horrid, rasping guffaws. There was a sort of twisted irony in finally getting another success just as his interest waned completely.
His face itched. Bloated, yellow-purple fingers reached up to scratch as he mused on the concoction filling the cauldron. With a wet splat something gray fell into the mixture. He couldn't find enough motivation to care about it as his mind wandered. He tipped the cauldron into the drain, sending to rain down upon the Materium.
It was a strange feeling. The sensation he should be doing something, yet a total loss of his enthusiasm. A malaise, a malady he's never really encountered before himself. But apathy was part of despair, right? Couldn't quite remember, been a while since he touched the stuff. Probably nothing to worry about.
A gasp from his prized possession broke him from the musing. "Hmm? Is something wrong, my dear?" A twist of his bulk to face her was interrupted with a wet 'splort' as the rotting flesh of one arm dropped away with the motion.
From beneath, a glittering, moist limb of pristine chitin emerged. Its surface stamped with lotus seed pod-like holes, its form perfect and healthy, its talon stingers dripping something toxic.
Nurgle stared at the arm. Flexed it. Released a buzzing cloud of flying vermin from it.
The Aeldari goddess stared too, eyes still just a little glassy.
"Insects!" The deamon grandfather concluded excitedly. "When was the last time I made some new insects?"
Ever since that damned panacea had spread across the human sectors, he'd hit a bit of a slump. The work he'd loved had become drudgery and the fear of disease vanishing from much of the Materium hadn't helped at all.
Goodness, he'd been putting off working on them for so long! They must feel so neglected.
Well. No more. It was time to make something really special, a gift that every species could appreciate together! The personal touches to tailor each plague to a different spacefaring race were a service he'd enjoyed giving, but the time between each new gift was far too long.
For a brief moment there was a temptation to kick the cauldron aside, but no. It had served well this far and would again later. Picking it up, he carefully placed it on the shelf beside the key to the rusted cage. There. Safe and sound. But for now... oh, where had he put his tweezers? And he'd need some new biomass as well.
"Isha, my sweet, I'm heading out to collect somethings. Don't fret, I'll be right back with a surprise. Oh, you'll love it. To you, it'll be even more new and exciting!" So saying, Nurgle strode out of his person manse, shedding most of the bulk from his lower half as he went. Hmm... Did he want venom or poison for this first attempt? No wait, both! Oh! And bloodsucking, that way he could tack on a disease so that Isha wouldn't end up feeling ignored!
This was going to be great! His best work yet! And he knew just what worlds to put it on to spread it to every sentient controlled planet! Not relying on hosts to travel was such a boon!
For a brief moment Nurgle considered locking the door behind him, but it was fine. He'd left the key at the usual distance, where his beloved test subject could see it and despair over never being able to reach it despite being so close. Besides, how long would take him to find his insect crafting tools again? They had to be somewhere pretty close by, right?
He chirped a jaunty cricket tune as a cloak of gnats and flies billowed out around him from all his trypophobia holes to feast on the festering lands, transforming rot into maggots, larva and silk as they expanded.
AN: At first I was going to write this about all the positive parts of Nurgle's portfolio being brought to the fore by disease getting way less attention. Then I started researching those traits and got distracted by "wait, he's the Ruler Of Insects and Lord Of Flies too? Does that mean he can do plagues as in the biblical sense as well?"
So now the distraction got made instead of what I intended to write.