Hijikata Toshirou (![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png)
mayoninofukucho) wrote in ![[community profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/community.png)
isleofavalon2021-08-08 01:40 am
mayoninofukucho) wrote in isleofavalon2021-08-08 01:40 am
Entry tags:
August Adventures
WHO: Hijikata and ✨YOU✨
WHAT: A ceremony, some research, TDM prompts, and a stymied attempt at stopping the animal mage hunt!
WHEN: Throughout August
WHERE: Celliwig, Lake Avalon, Underwater Town, Castle, Camelot City
WARNINGS: NSFW-ish content in prompt 3B (Hijikata takes a little too well to his temporary tentacles!)
1) Badge of Honour
[Hijikata doesn't feel like he deserves a special reward for his contribution during the battle in the Hall of Mirrors last month. Everybody fought equally hard, and without the healers exhausting their magic reserves there might well have been numerous casualties. But it seems like the Celliwigians are primarily concerned with the Pure of Heart and Brave of Soul Mirror, and since the death mages exorcised it they're the ones getting the honours. He doesn't want to make Camelot appear ungrateful, so he makes sure to show up for the event and be on his best behaviour.
After the ceremony (and several subsequent interactions with grateful locals) he's covered in black-and-white confetti, looking like he walked under blooming apple trees with his dark hair and uniform, and holding a bouquet of strange, glass-like flowers that are also black and white. It's not often that he receives flowers... in fact he can't remember the last time at all. Regardless, he can't help but feel like he's being given overly much credit here, so if he spots any other outworlder nearby he'll make a beeline towards them.]
This place and these people will never cease to confuse me.
2) Research Excursion (forsighsheavily)
[As discussed with Cecelia Hijikata prepared a totem to transport them both to the archivist's abode in the Forest of the Fisherking. Finding themselves inside the overgrown train wagon after walking through the smoke in the vicinity of her office in Camelot makes Hijikata let out a satisfied sigh.]
This sure is an improvement from the overnight trek across the Silent Shore! Now I just hope they oiled that goddamn elevator. It was so slow last time!
3) Lake it or not...
A ⦿ Elphame Expedition
[Hijikata is concerned about several things: King Arthur's state of health - no one is allowed to see him, but at least he's in a stable condition, if the court's official statements are to be believed -, the grim murders that have started to take place in Camelot every other night, and now the resulting mandrake problem. Since there's nothing he can do for the king, and discouraging people from pulling up the mandrakes is useless, given what hefty prices the locals are willing to pay for them, he focuses on the murder investigation.
Ultimately he puts even that on hold, though, to participate in the expedition to Elphame. Every potential lead so far turned out to be a dead end, and if he stayed behind he'd drive himself nuts by making up all kinds of scenarios of what dangers may await the volunteers out on the water. The lake is dangerous enough in the vicinity of Camelot, who knows what they may encounter out there? So along he goes. It's going to be a pretty exciting ride even if there are no incidents, seeing how they're braced to spend several days on their mounts, provisions strapped to their backs or trailing behind in (hopefully) watertight containers... but it'll also be an opportunity for plenty of small talk with his riding partner, which will hopefully distract him from fretting over what's going to happen in Camelot in his absence now (yeah, he'll overthink things no matter what, apparently).]
I'm honestly not sure if it's a good idea to head out there without King Arthur. If I were calling the shots we'd have waited for him to recover! Queen Elphame probably won't be happy to just have a bunch of citizens turning up... but on the other hand we also can't just sit around while he's out of commission.
B ⦿ Fresh Water (NSFW-ish towards the end!)
[Okay, so much for that!! Hijikata was just as aghast as everybody else when that enormous lightning centipede crashed into the umibouzu (he already felt the hair in the back of his neck stand up when he saw the former, but the later outright made his heart skip several beats - why is this place full of monsters?!). He yelled some instructions, but then one of the massive lightning-infused storm waves swept over him, his co-rider and their mount, and everything went black.
When he wakes up a very patient mermaid nurse fills him in on how her people saved the drowning land-dwellers by pulling them into their cursed underwater town, then leaves him to stare at his new octopus bottom. His tentacles are a grey-greenish colour, and they're giving him a boatload of flashbacks he really didn't need right now. He blinks those away, though, and gets up to check on everyone else.
It takes him a couple of hours to ensure that everyone is accounted for - no bodies were found anywhere in the vicinity, so anyone not in the village presumably managed to escape on the aquatic mounts -, then he finally takes a brief break. This whole time he's been acutely aware of the strange feeling of the floor under his tentacles... feeling it in so many places instead of just two feet is just weird. He can't help but feel curious... sure, they all need to leave as soon as possible, but how long can it take? 10, 20, 30 minutes? It won't make a difference. He deserves some stress relief, damn it. But he really needs to be discreet about it. He slithers around in a more quiet part of the building the outworlders are staying in, looking for a remote restroom. Yeah, this is kind of low, but look, he's only a man. If you see him glancing about himself all shadily as he slides about if a shifty manner... just ignore that.]
4) Taking a Breather
[Somehow Hijikata managed to get himself sorted out (whether he made it out of the cursed area in the lake in time or had to ask the Lady of the Lake for help... again... who knows). That said he got back to Camelot just in time to be hit by the animal spell instead (was it cast around this time, or earlier with a long-lasting echo effect - again, who knows?). When he finds himself with cattle ears (his own, no extra pair), two horns and a long tail he doesn't so much as bat an eye. At this point he'll simply take anything this cursed month throws at him in stride.
He attends the open house day at the castle primarily to help guard King Arthur's wing, because with so many people on the premises who's to say that there may not be some assassination attempts? But the guards send him away, assuring him that they're experienced warriors and mages and insisting that he should leave it to them and enjoy himself with the other guests. So he ends up wandering around, feeling a little unsure of what he should really do with himself.
Should he try some new food (yes, he'll drown it in mayonnaise no matter what)? Or enjoy a relaxing bath? Taking the opportunity to do some more research in the library would be the most responsible thing to do, really... but maybe a break in the gardens would do him good. Then again there's a bazaar to explore; who knows what treasures might be found there? He flicks his bull ears and snorts, feeling totally overwhelmed.]
The king really spoils us rotten, even from the sickbed.
5) Animal Mage Hunt (Quest)
[Okay, this is a shitshow. If Hijikata finds out which deviant posted that quest they'll wish they had never been born (no hypocrisy to be found here, none). As if to add insult to injury his horse won't let him mount it anymore, so he finds himself arguing with it in public, clearly in need of help from an animal mage, who are unlikely to feel safe identifying themselves in this current atmosphere... but then again Hijikata is a knight, recognisable as such by his emblem (three mayonnaise bottle caps swirling around each other in a circle, true to style).]
What's your problem, Black Star?! I'm not dirty or anything, and I didn't gain any weight either!
[OOC: If you'd like any additional prompts please feel free to hit me up on my plotting post! Also here are Hijikata's permissions.]
WHAT: A ceremony, some research, TDM prompts, and a stymied attempt at stopping the animal mage hunt!
WHEN: Throughout August
WHERE: Celliwig, Lake Avalon, Underwater Town, Castle, Camelot City
WARNINGS: NSFW-ish content in prompt 3B (Hijikata takes a little too well to his temporary tentacles!)
1) Badge of Honour
[Hijikata doesn't feel like he deserves a special reward for his contribution during the battle in the Hall of Mirrors last month. Everybody fought equally hard, and without the healers exhausting their magic reserves there might well have been numerous casualties. But it seems like the Celliwigians are primarily concerned with the Pure of Heart and Brave of Soul Mirror, and since the death mages exorcised it they're the ones getting the honours. He doesn't want to make Camelot appear ungrateful, so he makes sure to show up for the event and be on his best behaviour.
After the ceremony (and several subsequent interactions with grateful locals) he's covered in black-and-white confetti, looking like he walked under blooming apple trees with his dark hair and uniform, and holding a bouquet of strange, glass-like flowers that are also black and white. It's not often that he receives flowers... in fact he can't remember the last time at all. Regardless, he can't help but feel like he's being given overly much credit here, so if he spots any other outworlder nearby he'll make a beeline towards them.]
This place and these people will never cease to confuse me.
2) Research Excursion (for
sighsheavily) [As discussed with Cecelia Hijikata prepared a totem to transport them both to the archivist's abode in the Forest of the Fisherking. Finding themselves inside the overgrown train wagon after walking through the smoke in the vicinity of her office in Camelot makes Hijikata let out a satisfied sigh.]
This sure is an improvement from the overnight trek across the Silent Shore! Now I just hope they oiled that goddamn elevator. It was so slow last time!
3) Lake it or not...
A ⦿ Elphame Expedition
[Hijikata is concerned about several things: King Arthur's state of health - no one is allowed to see him, but at least he's in a stable condition, if the court's official statements are to be believed -, the grim murders that have started to take place in Camelot every other night, and now the resulting mandrake problem. Since there's nothing he can do for the king, and discouraging people from pulling up the mandrakes is useless, given what hefty prices the locals are willing to pay for them, he focuses on the murder investigation.
Ultimately he puts even that on hold, though, to participate in the expedition to Elphame. Every potential lead so far turned out to be a dead end, and if he stayed behind he'd drive himself nuts by making up all kinds of scenarios of what dangers may await the volunteers out on the water. The lake is dangerous enough in the vicinity of Camelot, who knows what they may encounter out there? So along he goes. It's going to be a pretty exciting ride even if there are no incidents, seeing how they're braced to spend several days on their mounts, provisions strapped to their backs or trailing behind in (hopefully) watertight containers... but it'll also be an opportunity for plenty of small talk with his riding partner, which will hopefully distract him from fretting over what's going to happen in Camelot in his absence now (yeah, he'll overthink things no matter what, apparently).]
I'm honestly not sure if it's a good idea to head out there without King Arthur. If I were calling the shots we'd have waited for him to recover! Queen Elphame probably won't be happy to just have a bunch of citizens turning up... but on the other hand we also can't just sit around while he's out of commission.
B ⦿ Fresh Water (NSFW-ish towards the end!)
[Okay, so much for that!! Hijikata was just as aghast as everybody else when that enormous lightning centipede crashed into the umibouzu (he already felt the hair in the back of his neck stand up when he saw the former, but the later outright made his heart skip several beats - why is this place full of monsters?!). He yelled some instructions, but then one of the massive lightning-infused storm waves swept over him, his co-rider and their mount, and everything went black.
When he wakes up a very patient mermaid nurse fills him in on how her people saved the drowning land-dwellers by pulling them into their cursed underwater town, then leaves him to stare at his new octopus bottom. His tentacles are a grey-greenish colour, and they're giving him a boatload of flashbacks he really didn't need right now. He blinks those away, though, and gets up to check on everyone else.
It takes him a couple of hours to ensure that everyone is accounted for - no bodies were found anywhere in the vicinity, so anyone not in the village presumably managed to escape on the aquatic mounts -, then he finally takes a brief break. This whole time he's been acutely aware of the strange feeling of the floor under his tentacles... feeling it in so many places instead of just two feet is just weird. He can't help but feel curious... sure, they all need to leave as soon as possible, but how long can it take? 10, 20, 30 minutes? It won't make a difference. He deserves some stress relief, damn it. But he really needs to be discreet about it. He slithers around in a more quiet part of the building the outworlders are staying in, looking for a remote restroom. Yeah, this is kind of low, but look, he's only a man. If you see him glancing about himself all shadily as he slides about if a shifty manner... just ignore that.]
4) Taking a Breather
[Somehow Hijikata managed to get himself sorted out (whether he made it out of the cursed area in the lake in time or had to ask the Lady of the Lake for help... again... who knows). That said he got back to Camelot just in time to be hit by the animal spell instead (was it cast around this time, or earlier with a long-lasting echo effect - again, who knows?). When he finds himself with cattle ears (his own, no extra pair), two horns and a long tail he doesn't so much as bat an eye. At this point he'll simply take anything this cursed month throws at him in stride.
He attends the open house day at the castle primarily to help guard King Arthur's wing, because with so many people on the premises who's to say that there may not be some assassination attempts? But the guards send him away, assuring him that they're experienced warriors and mages and insisting that he should leave it to them and enjoy himself with the other guests. So he ends up wandering around, feeling a little unsure of what he should really do with himself.
Should he try some new food (yes, he'll drown it in mayonnaise no matter what)? Or enjoy a relaxing bath? Taking the opportunity to do some more research in the library would be the most responsible thing to do, really... but maybe a break in the gardens would do him good. Then again there's a bazaar to explore; who knows what treasures might be found there? He flicks his bull ears and snorts, feeling totally overwhelmed.]
The king really spoils us rotten, even from the sickbed.
5) Animal Mage Hunt (Quest)
[Okay, this is a shitshow. If Hijikata finds out which deviant posted that quest they'll wish they had never been born (
What's your problem, Black Star?! I'm not dirty or anything, and I didn't gain any weight either!
[OOC: If you'd like any additional prompts please feel free to hit me up on my plotting post! Also here are Hijikata's permissions.]
no subject
[He keeps looking at the mirror, obsessively trying to split his fringe (to no avail; it keeps reforming into its V shape even underwater) before giving up and slowly turning around to his friend(..?).]
You like being alive, don't you? Why don't you tell me what just happened, hm?
[Choose wisely.]
no subject
Ah-- well. All I saw was a rude man barging in on someone else who was in the restroom.
no subject
[Crisis averted... never mind that this is probably going to hang over them as an awkward-as-hell element for a while.]
...
Are you doing okay?
[He doesn't look very... stable.]
no subject
I'm just having a really hard time adapting to this whole tail thing. I can't swim in a straight line to save my life.
no subject
At least for the moment, though, he deigns to help him out, offering his two backmost tentacles (no worries, he just washed all of them at the sink... which isn't actually a sink because they're, well, underwater, and rather just a little station with soap??? disinfectant??? something, presumably environmentally friendly, to clean up ones hands and other relevant limbs with.]
Hold on. I'll tug you along for a bit.
[He's going to get moving back towards the temporary central land-dweller collection point, pulling Zelgadis behind him like a toddler holding on to his mum's apron tails as he learns to walk, for lack of a better comparison. Man, they both really are going to leave a respectable impression on this town, aren't they...]
no subject
You don't seem to have too much trouble getting around. Was it difficult to get used to so many extra limbs?
[there, that should be a safe topic, right?]
no subject
It wasn't hard. I mean, it wasn't easy either, but...
[Damn it, even just feeling Zelgadis' fingers holding on to his tentacles' stupid soft skin and stupid little suction cups is distracting. Why is this happening to him?! Why did he turn out like this?! He was always so well-adjusted compared to all the goddamn kinksters back home!! God, he wants to die.]
I can handle it!!
[Did he just yell a little? No, right? Time to change the topic.]
What do we do about you? There's no time for a crash course in how to swim with a fishtail, so how are you going to get out of town?
[Isn't it obvious? You have to help him, Toshirou. That means no more chances of alone time... ugh!! This is for the best, though. Surely this is for the best.]
no subject
[It's probably not helping that Zelgadis is kind of fascinated by these stupid little suction cups and keeps absently prodding at them with his fingers. He promises he's not trying to be weird, it's just that everything is weird.
But anyway, he will gladly allow this subject change.]
Um. Well, we have a couple of days, right? I just need a little time to practice.
no subject
No, we don't have a couple of days. The people here aren't big on time-keeping, apparently, and no is sure how long we've been here already. I've got no clue how long we all were conked out, and it doesn't help that anyone who woke up and was filled in booked it out of here straight away - not that I can blame them. Anyway, if we dawdle we'll end up stuck like this.
[Despite what he was trying to accomplish earlier he really doesn't want to be stuck with these tentacles forever! Avalon is already dangerous enough on dry land, but this goddamn lake is so much worse, he doubts he'd survive for longer than a week. That's just not worth it!]
no subject
He's going to just refrain from pointing out how Hijikata was dawdling in the bathroom and yeaaah.]
Dammit. Guess I'm just going to have to figure it out along the way. Or. Piggy back on you the whole way.
[But that's not very dignified for either of them, is it.]
no subject
Let's see how far we get. Maybe you're just missing one easy step somehow? Try to swim in a straight line.
[Now it just looks like he's testing his soberness, but he really couldn't care less at this point. He crosses his arms and watches, trying to identify where the issue lies. Perhaps Zelgadis just got a particularly shoddy bottom half somehow? Maybe his fins are wonky?]
no subject
Right, right. How hard could that be?
[He starts off slow, and at first he manages to swim in a straight line. So far so good!]
no subject
[Which is... actually going to be a big problem, because currents aren't exactly a rare occurrence in bodies of water. He will have to pull him all the way out of the cursed zone, won't he?]
We're still leaving together to be on the safe side. You can already collect your stuff; I'll make one last round.
[He won't try any more bathroom detours, promise. Honestly, his efforts were doomed from the start, what with people already having left and continuing to leave in a hurry without signing out anywhere, but hell, he tried!]
no subject
[Sigh, this is going to be a long day.]
Ah well, I'll go grab my stuff. Meet you back here, I guess.
no subject
Whether he'll need to pull Zelgadis away from the snapping maws of giant mussels if he haplessly floats towards them, fend off fuaths, or leave the rumoured soul-eating lakemaids in an ink cloud as he dashes them both to safety, his tentacles will definitely get at least a worksafe work-out out of the trek home. There's always a silver lining! Or maybe this is just the opposite of the 'sour grapes' idiom: the grapes are sour as hell, but they're all that's on the table, so he's going to make the best of it.]