User:KiTA/Stories/Statuesque

From Grigbertz

A silly idea, probably too close to Magical Rings. What of a beautiful young lass, cursed to be a living, breathing (literal) object of desire?

Dana was well known to the people of her town as "a scamp." A young waif who had grown up in and out of the local orphanage, the people of her city had always pegged Dana as destined for the rogue's guild; indeed Dana had trained with and shown some talent for those arts, but fortunately for her she never did lead down a serious life of crime.

It was a meeting at a local noble's gallery that would seal Dana's far more unusual fate.

Known for being eccentric, young Lord Ranis, himself hardly older than Dana, often would rent out space near the marketplace for various "high brow" displays. These expositions would be open to the public, sometimes for a trivial fee, and allowed the lower and middle class of Dana's town to appreciate the art and culture that the upper classes typically held close to themselves.

Young Dana had little interest in these; she would often visit them, half to see the oddities, half to watch the milling throngs of people. While she never preyed on them, occasionally a purse string would accidentally snap off just in time for a heavy bag to fall into her waiting hand, but never one from one of the intended audience -- often the nobles would come and visit the exhibition merely to sneer at the lower and middle class rubes that were visiting Lord Ranis's little adventures, only to find that one of the rubes had proven themselves craftier than they.

It was one of these events when Dana made a rare visit inside the event; the event had attracted far fewer people than normal, those that had attended leaving in a flustered hurry, all of which itself piqued Dana's interest.

Inside, she found row upon row of statues -- some of precious stone, like Jade or Cobalt, others of metals such as Bronze or Gold, still others of exotic materials such as Glass or Oak. Each was of a young woman, utterly nude, frozen in a lurid, provocative pose.

Dana's stunned blushing attracted the attention of the old woman in red robes walking around the event; introducing herself as the head priestess of the goddess of art and beauty, she calmly explained that the statues, while provocative and almost lewd, were also beautiful, and the goddess of beauty taught to appreciate even the provocative parts of life - and love.

Further explanations were interrupted as a young noblewoman, slightly younger than Dana and with the strangest firey red hair, began screaming and shouting at the onlookers. "Disgusting! Objectification! Horrific!" She shouted even as the town guard dragged her away. "This is not art! It is obscene!"

Dana, vaguely embarrassed already, backed quietly out of the gallery when she turned back from the noblewoman's display only to be greeted with the sight of an arching woman in polished brass, the glistening folds and moisture on her fingers preserved forever in the metal for anyone and everyone to see.

"You." The young noblewoman said as Dana tried to slap the blush off of her face outside of the venue. "You seem like a self respecting girl."

And it was with that introduction that led Dana to find herself shortly afterwards in a local pub, still slightly dazed even as the young noblewoman put drink after drink in front of her. The woman barely paused to sip her own drink, the ravings of "obscenity" and "fake art" and "the gaze of men" filling the air. Long after the pub had emptied out, long after the strange noblewoman had left, and long after Dana should have stopped drinking the free ale, Dana sat, her mind swooning with strange terms and a vague anger towards the statues and their sculptors. Did they not know that women deserved respect? That such displays were simply wrong?

It was with those thoughts in mind -- and no small amount of alcohol -- that Dana kept with her as she crept silently back to the gallery, a torch in hand. Setting fire to a building, even in the merchant district, was not hard -- Dana often felt that they had used tallow and kindling in places instead of stone -- and with a bit of sneaking and a tap or two of her flame, the building -- and it's statues -- went up like a roaring flame.

Satisfied with a job well done, holding the word "objectification" to her chest much like she held the now extinguished torch, Dana turned on one heel, swooned, and promptly passed out face down in the dust and mud, scant meters away from the now blazing building.

Awaking in a cell the next day barely able to string two coherent thoughts together from the hangover, Dana's morning rapidly went from bad to worse. The magistrate calmly listed the value of each statue, in turn, all of which were complete losses. Each far, far eclipsed the not-inconsiderable cost of the building itself, as well as the damage to the buildings around it.

Lord Ranis was the first to visit. A quietly furious young man, he simply stared at her wordlessly through the bars before walking away.

It was the Old Priestess that followed that was the first to speak to her other than the Magistrate. Dana did not meet her gaze, simply sipping quietly at the mug of water the Priestess insisted upon giving her.

"I have the authority to forgive your sin." The priestess said, quietly.

Dana stared up at her.

"Will you swear to make it right?"

"I could never afford to." Dana turned and muttered into her mug.

"Not with funds, of course not." The priestess kneeled down, her knees creaking with age, her strangely shining eyes meeting Dana's gaze. "But it wasn't the money that was the valuable thing lost yesterday. The goddess doesn't care about money, she cares about beauty. If I were to give you an opportunity to make it right, would you?"

Dana thought back to the discussion the guards, sneering with malice, had recently made sure she was close enough to hear. Talk about how after a certain value, it was not uncommon to simply hang the vandal. "Yes, of course."

The Priestess smiled. "Then I ask only that you trust in the Goddess. She will help you." Dana watched her pause and speak with Lord Ranis, who Dana discovered was watching from the hallway.

The next day, Dana awoke to the guards shouting at her through the bars. Confused, but blessedly without a hangover, she quietly allowed them to cuff her and lead her out of the jail, back from the poor section of the city, straight to the merchant quarter. They did so in stoic silence, one in front, one behind, their spears making it quite clear that any attempt at escape would be a bad idea.

In front of the still smoldering ruins of the gallery, the old Priestess and several other younger women, all dressed the same, awaited her. The young girls smiled at her happily from under red hoods, their gazes not quite meeting hers.

Lord Ranis stood quietly aside, watching on. Behind him, several men dug through the burnt ruins, dragging large pieces of molten metal and shattered materials out.

Sensing a spectacle, onlookers began to arrive. Already a busy day at the Marketplace, still more seemed to crawl out of the woodwork -- those that knew her, those that knew the gallery, those that loved a good show.

But even still, there seemed to be more people in attendance than even a busy day would suggest. There were people from the slums, a few she recognized as nobility, still others from her favorite pub. Why would they all be drawn here?

The old woman spoke, breaking her out of her thoughts. "Dana. Two days ago, this building was destroyed by a fire. Do you know who did this deed?"

Dana paused, glancing around. The old woman's voice seemed to bellow across the marketplace, which became whisper silent in response. What felt like a halo of light surrounded her, illuminating her even in the early morning sun.

"Trust in the goddess." The old woman said, her voice a whisper.

"I... I do." Dana said, finding her voice. "It was me."

A hushed muttering went about the crowd.

"Why did you do such an act," the old woman said, her booming voice silencing the onlookers.

Dana sighed. She had just confessed, why not play along? "Ale. Ma'am. A noblewoman kept filling my cup after she was thrown out of the gallery, all while raving about the disgusting statues therein." Dana smiled slightly at the nodding of a goodly number of the onlookers. "I suppose after listening for so long, I believed her."

"I see." The voice echoed strangely, seeming to come both from in front of her and behind. "But it was not your place to judge the art as wanting. Do you accept that you cost the world irreplaceable beauty in your drunken actions?"

Dana blinked even as the strange light seemed surround her, causing the audience to fade. "I do."

"Do you swear that you will find a way, no matter how long it takes, to bring beauty to the world?"

"I... I do?" Dana inwardly shrugged. It was a silly request.

"Will you make an oath that you will accept the Goddess's aid in creating beauty, until such time that you have undone the damage you did?"

"I do."

"Good." A strange voice said from behind her. Dana looked around, discovering that the guards, the townspeople, even the town itself had vanished. In it's stead, the firey haired noblewoman stood among a sea of white.

"You?!" Dana said, gasping. Behind her, she heard the priestesses drop to their knees.

"Oh, this will be so much fun." The noblewoman -- goddess -- said, smiling.

"You tricked me!" Dana sputtered. "You made me destroy that building!"

"No. You chose to do that." The goddess grinned. "Just like you just swore to me that you would bring beauty to the world, no matter how long it would take. And that you would accept my blessing in doing so until the damage was undone."

Dana's veins went cold.

"And you did so on holy ground." The goddess smirked, pointing downward. "It takes a senior priestess and 4 disciples to consecrate ground like so, but we had it done this morning."

The runes, in a large circle that Dana found herself directly in the center of, were glowing faintly.

"Did you know that if you swore to a goddess on holy ground," The goddess smiled kindly, but there was no kindness in her eyes. "Those oaths become law?"

Even Dana could feel the swell of magic surrounding her. "What... What are you doing?"

"You will not replace those statues. They are irreplaceable." The goddess reached out, and pushed through Dana's tunic, leaving a hand shaped hole as she caressed Dana's breast. "So, Instead of creating art, you will BE art."

Dana gasped as her tunic began to burn away, even as the goddess's fingers traced lines down from her breast to her hip. "W... W...."

"This your gift to the world to replace the statues. Your body." The goddess slid her hand down, the cloth vanishing as she did, the motion cutting Dana's trousers clean in half. "You will never conceal it again."

"Stop..." Dana muttered even as the goddess slapped her now bare ass.

"You will spend your days a monument to the beauty of the nude human body. A walking piece of art."

A tingling filled her body from the handprint on her ass, Dana gasped as a strange colour seemed to overtake her flesh.

"From sunrise to sunset, you will seek out an audience, so that people may gaze upon you."

Dana glanced at her arms and legs even as she spun to keep up with the goddess. They were quickly dyed brown, then metallic – Brass. Her skin had changed to brass, to match the lewd statue that she had last seen.

"You will show deference to my church and their teachings, as I am charging them with your responsibility."

"Yes, My Goddess," The old woman said.

"This will be my blessing upon you, and the world." The goddess smiled. "Now, go forth, and bring forth beauty."

The strange light vanished, and with it, the town reappeared. As did the townspeople.

Dana fell to her knees after the gasps and exclamations started. The old woman stood up proudly.

"Thus, the goddess has given her forgiveness and blessing upon this young woman. And with this we consider this matter closed."

Dana stood up shouting, her arms slapping over her breasts and pussy. "We most certainly do NOT!"

... At least, she intended to. Instead, she found herself spreading her legs lewdly, one hand sneaking down to her nethers, the other starting to coyly beckon the onlookers.

"I... I... I'm not doing this, I swear to the gods." Dana muttered even as the shocked and lewd looks -- and comments -- spread throughout the audience.

"Not the gods, the Goddess." The old woman said, smiling as she pulled Dana to her knees. "Now, stop trying to cover yourself, the Goddess' blessing was quite clear about it, and we don't need your maidenwater spreading throughout the cobblestone."

"What did she do to me!?" Dana muttered, her hands finally stopping their molestation once she stopped trying to conceal herself.

"Oh? I thought it was quite clear." The priestess said. "You destroyed those statues in your drunken stupor, so now, now you get to replace them. The Goddess has seen fit to make your beauty into a gift to the world, which you swore to assist her in."

"I can't go around looking like an obsce..."

"There is no such thing, silly girl. There is only beauty and art. The Goddess cares not about such trifling morality." The priestess said even as she slapped Dana on the bare ass, her handprint matching the Goddess's perfectly. "The Goddess found your beauty to be precious but underappreciated, so she schemed to share it with the world."

Dana stammered, even as the priestess walked away.

One of the younger priestesses walked by, running her hand across Dana's torso. "You will find yourself trapped outside, showing the Goddess's gift off to the townspeople until Sundown. Afterwards, please visit our Temple so we may discuss things with you."

"But... but..."

"Yes, you have a cute one." One of the other younger priestesses said as they walked by, her hand gently squeezing her as she did. Dana realized with a dull horror that the idea of stopping her didn't even come into her mind until it was over. "Do not fear. The Goddess does this sometimes. She calls it 'performance art.' It will last a year or two. A decade or two, tops. Until then, you may as well enjoy it."

With that, the 5 women left Dana there, even as the audience started to disperse.

"Well, I suppose this is punishment enough." Lord Ranis said with a chuckle, Dana spinning around to face him. She instinctively went to cover her breasts, instead she found herself putting her arms behind her head and shaking her bosom at him.

"The priestess allowing me to salvage the materials from the statues should pay for the building," he said, making no effort to hide his stares. Dana resisted the urge to try and cover her honeypot from his eyes, knowing that it would only cause her to display it that much more blatantly. "And this way, the townspeople get to see a beautiful piece of art every day."

He clasped Dana's hand and brought it to his lips in a kiss.

"I guess we will call this one even. See you around, little one."

Dana stared as the nobleman walked away, complicated feelings in her chest. With that, she quietly stared at the milling mass of people, many of whom were either openly watching her or glancing at her bemusedly as they went throughout their day. It was a great many hours until sundown, she realized, and she was already starting to think of better places where she could be appreciated by more and more people.

Rules

Dana's cur... blessing is that she is a walking, talking, piece of nude art. She must show herself off from Sunrise to Sundown. She is free to do what she wants from Sundown to Sunrise, although she remains magically blessed to look like a statue.

• Dana looks like a nude statue of a young woman (herself, much to her annoyance). This does not affect her in any way -- she is still flesh and blood, she still eats and sleeps, she merely appears as a statue made out of a solid piece of material.
  • Each morning, the material Dana looks like changes at random. Jade, Marble, Gold, Glass, Chrome, Oak, etc -- anything a statue can be made out of, she can appear like.
  • Her eyes, hair, tongue, nails, etc all appear the same -- she is monochrome from head to toe.
• From sunrise to sunset, Dana feels a compulsion to be in public and visible to people. She can go inside, but only if she knows she will have an audience. Throughout the day she feels wanderlust -- she feels an urge to move from one position to another, especially if people are not paying attention to her.
  • The people of the marketplace often have her do odd jobs for them such as delivering packages or messages, she also often is given donations by adventurers.
  • Oversleeping does not work -- Dana will wake up in public, her body having moved her there while she slept. This counts as "concealing herself" and she will wake up in a very obscene pose.
  • Trying to lock herself in also does not work -- Dana's body will literally barrel through doors, walls, etc to get outside if it has to.
• Dana cannot "conceal herself." The most obvious is wearing clothing - her skin causes cloth to vanish in divine flame. This includes anything like jewelry, footwear, towels, et cetera - she must be absolutely stark naked at all times.
  • "Concealing herself" also includes doing things such as covering herself from view, or intentionally hiding from people. Doing so will cause her to do the exact opposite.
• If Dana is not actively doing something, she strikes poses like a statue or model. Nothing lewd, but sensual and artistic, like a Greek statue or a pinup from a magazine. This does not prevent her from doing things, and if she actively tries to she stops herself she can, but if she is just "standing around" she strikes these poses. This is like a bad habit she can never get rid of.
  • This includes when Dana is asleep. When asleep, she strikes a statue's pose and holds it until she awakes. Dana eventually learns to pose on a pedestal or fountain in town square when she wants to take a nap. (Cheater!)
• If Dana actively tries to conceal herself, she instead strikes a particularly lewd pose as punishment. This will often be the opposite of her intention -- if she attempts to hide her bosom, for example, she will draw attention to it. If she is attempting to hide herself from view of a certain group of people, she will seek out their attention.
• Dana is "blessed with eternal beauty" -- she cannot age, cannot get sick, and always looks clean and beautiful. People who see her find it difficult to try to harm her or object to her (charm person). She has no pubic hair (the goddess doesn't like it). She does not realize any of this.
• Dana must "take advice" from the Church of Eternal Beauty -- while not a slave, she finds it hard to disobey them. They consider her a gift of their goddess so mostly ensure she is taken care of.
  • They provide her a room in the temple to sleep and rest, as well as a pedestal in front of their building for her to pose on. They often have her pose for students to paint / draw / sculpt artworks of her.
• Dana's blessing will end once she achieves one of two goals -- replacing each and every statue she destroyed, or learning an artistic trade and creating a legendary masterpiece herself. As the statues were each created with divine inspiration by masters, it is not likely she can replace them, and she has no artistic training so creating a masterpiece is unlikely. She does not know about this (the church does, but cannot tell her) so the chances of her being freed is very very low.
  • The Goddess has blessed Dana with a hidden talent at sculpting, but only of lewd statues of naked women. She did not tell Dana, and she would still need to train for many years to become good enough at this to replace even one statue.

Daily Routine

• ~1 hr before sunrise: Wakes up, finds a mirror to examine herself; cleans herself (unneeded, but it feels good) and has a light breakfast.
• Sunrise: Visits the Marketplace and greets the various shopkeepers. Helps with any odd jobs. Visits the orphanage in the slums and provides them with any donations she and the temple can help with.
• Before Midday: Chat and light meal with Priestesses from the temple, often on the edge of the town square.
• Midday: Attends sermon with the Head Priestess in the town square, who shows off any new art the students at the temple have created. (The students come from her orphanage.) If she is tired, she rests on a pedestal, with her blessing causing her to keep a pose.
• Noon to Sundown: Continues with odd jobs, visits the noble area, often has meal with Lord Ranis, who shows her off to visitors and guests.
• Sundown: Visits the local pubs, who have agreed to provide her with free drinks if she visits. (She attracts a crowd.) Often is convinced to attend fancy dinner parties that Lord Ranis hosts; sometimes as art, sometimes as a guest.
• Sundown to Bedtime: Attends study at the temple.
• Bedtime: Sleeps either at the temple (often in the bed of one of the Priestesses) or on a pedestal, depending on her mood.

D&D

Dana is a multi-class Rogue (level 1) / Cleric of the Goddess of Beauty and Art (level 1). The Goddess's domains are similar to Sune from Forgotten Realms -- Love/Lust, Skill, Good, Protection, Travel, Beauty, etc. She is Chaotic Good, with maximized Charisma.

Note that Dana does not realize she is a Cleric, and has not received formal training. She does not realize the training she is receiving at the temple is Cleric initiate training.