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
[That's fair enough, actually.]
Well, I happen to have fire magic too, but I'd probably still need something to help it along, like petrol... unless there's actually a way to get it hot enough to incinerate bodies just like that, but that'd honestly concern me a little.
[The last thing they need is fire mages on the dark side of life starting to immolate people left and right.]
no subject
no subject
[He doesn't realise that it's just a force of habit for Cecelia, and in any case he's already well on the slippery slope of wondering just how effectively an undead army could be in a pinch... so much for that.]
But yeah, that's my combo, elemental and death magic. Fire's my specialty, even, but it's just... well, normal fire. Isn't yours?
[He distinctly recalls seeing her use elemental magic in the Hall of Mirrors!]
no subject
or not, she doesn't care!
in any case:] It is, but not all who manipulate the dead and commune with spirits have the same combinations, right? So it would put others at a natural disadvantage to do their own wheelhouse abilities than you.
no subject
I'm telling you, I'm not advantaged! I can burn stuff, sure, but I can't burn corpses like they're pieces of paper, and in any case I wouldn't do that to begin with! If I raised them from the ground, then they can just burrow back down there when the party's over!
...
If I were a necromancer!
no subject
It's not a question of your ethics so much as what's within your purview...
no subject
no subject
she rests her head in her hand, nearly doing a full-on Picard facepalm as she sighs down at her notes.]
That doesn't make sense from a practical application standpoint, is the thing, and that's what bothers me. It doesn't matter what I have or don't have if what I do have can't be fully utilized...
no subject
[They clearly have very different approaches...]
If we stick with the corpse problem, I don't think there's any magic type that can just destroy bodies without the usual amount of work involved, and again, as a policeman I think that's a good thing.
no subject
then squints.]
Fire and earth. Elemental spells. You...can't generate your own flames? Even from your familiar?
no subject
[He summons a flame in his open palm, seemingly without any effort.]
But still, even if we burn those corpses, it'll take fuel to keep the fire going, and there'll still be remains left afterwards, and just dumping some newly summoned soil on those isn't going to do the trick. Ultimately we'll need to expend the same amount of effort as anyone without elemental magic. Those bodies will need a proper cremation and a proper burial.
[Since when did he become a funeral advocate?! Back home he never bothers with all that. Of course the Shinsengumi buries and mourns its fallen members, but Hijikata generally has to focus on keeping the survivors organised.]
no subject
You and I may need something of a lesson on elemental sorcery, I think.
no subject
[Talking about this feels like they simple can't reach a consensus, so he tries to steer the conversation elsewhere.]
Look, let's imagine a different problem. Let's say there's a cat stuck in a tree. Someone with wind magic can probably float themselves up to get it, and someone with kinetic magic can probably float the cat down, and someone with animal magic can probably encourage it to jump into their arms. There are different solutions to different situations, and different magic types are going to be more or less useful depending on what's going on, and that's just like it is with any normal - I mean, non-magical - kind of skill or talent.
no subject
[she's abandoning her cause to save herself a greater throbbing in her head; conjecture's not going to change what is and happens to be, no matter how much she wishes.
isolation is one helluva drug: she's spent so long managing things on her own that the prospect that one couldn't just wrap things up on their own is one of the last things on her list when planning a course of action. collaboration begins and ends with itemizing all the things other people can do entirely without her and sending them on their way.
group work is always miserable, no matter how many centuries pass.]
no subject
...
Lady, you really are a theorist, aren't you?
[He, too, is used to being in charge, but he actually relies on his subordinates a lot back home. Having do to everything, especially the information gathering, on his own here is a pain, but he manages well enough, and evidently he trusts everyone else to do their best too, by and large.]
no subject
she's doing her best to try and cover all her bases, gather up all the intel she'd have been given beforehand...backend work in the front-end, for all the good it can do for her.
at 'Lady,' one of her ears twitches, and she looks back up with an arched eyebrow.]
Why do you think I would stop at theory-crafting?