isleofavalon | LATE AF SEPT CATCHALL

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LATE AF SEPT CATCHALL

🧙 WHO: Kadoc and a bunch of people, including perhaps your character?!
⚔️️ WHAT: There sure is a lot of dumb shit happening in the month of September. Both OPEN and CLOSED prompts, the latter in the comments!
🕒 WHEN: IT'S—the month of September. (More specifically, the span from the beginning of the month to the first part of the event, ending before any dragon problems!)
🗺️ WHERE: Here there and everywhere, including Celliwig, ~the club~, straight up prison, and other assorted places around Camelot.
⚠️ WARNINGS: Eventual branding/tattoo/pain stuff, the subsequent servitude that comes along with that prompt, language, sexual themes in ~the club~, likely violence/actiony antics in the jailbreak, animal capture and implied slaughter for food in the event prompt, and I'll add anything else!

1. Kadoc the Stubborn Husky (early Sept., OPEN, thanks a lot Claude)

[Kadoc needs a second opinion. Maybe even a third, fourth, and further opinions. Claude is a lovable scamp and all, but Kadoc is a paranoid bastard, and he can't quite convince himself that he's not being had with the whole—howling thing. He sounds fine to his own ears! He's probably not an Animal Mage, although boy would this be a typically embarrassing way for that to make itself known if he were!

He needs confirmation, but after how that went with Claude, he can't quite bring himself to walk up to anyone and just start talking. What if he really is making dog noises?! So, instead, he's gathering his courage to approach people he recognizes as offworlders and . . . hold up his tablet, on which he has a Notes file open, with this typed in a large, visible font:]

I NEED YOUR HELP. NOTHING DANGEROUS.

[ . . . This could have been ~~an email~~ a network post, but he's not exactly on his game right now. Who can blame him?]

2. Jailhouse Rock (early Sept., CLOSED to Kate, Jailbreak quest)
Here!

3. Amanita Bigger Basket (early Sept., CLOSED to Ritsuka, Celliwig's month of magical mushes)
Here!

4. Super Smash Bros Part 2: The Revenge of the Smash (mid Sept., CLOSED to Itaru, The Pain-Tolerant Badass)
Here!

5. Your Obedient Servant (mid Sept., CLOSED to Rinea, The Caring Badass)
Here!

6. Lukewarm Knights (mid Sept., CLOSED to Gareth and Ritsuka, Hot Knights quest)
Here!

7. Jailbreak Part 2: The Great Goosening (late Sept., OPEN, the cute part of the event)

[Kadoc has had, to say the least, an unlucky month—but here finally there's a break, or at least a small pleasure. He's already spent plenty of time out in the wilderness gathering mushrooms this month and was debating whether to bother going on an end-of-month hunt, only for the hunt to come to him for once. A chance to grab a pre-fattened goose for their table to go with all those mushrooms? Don't mind if he does!

The geese have other ideas, of course. By now, Kadoc's managed to humanely return several of them to the farm; his Light magic helps there. It's no big deal to snap them up in cages of hard light and then carry those back to where they belong. But geese are smart. Geese are watching him. And when he finally snaps up the fattest of the geese he can find to take home for himself, shutting it up in another light cage and hefting it under his arm, that's when they make their move.

Catch Kadoc racing down the streets of Camelot, vaguely in the direction of his home, but mostly just in any direction that's away from the ten furious honking geese in hot pursuit of him. He's only barely watching where he's going. Watch out, or you could get swept up in this disaster and end up a feather pillow yourself!

Or save him. Someone, please save him from this entire month.]

(( Check out my plotting meme post here if you're interested in setting anything else up with Kadoc this month outside of the upcoming event; I'm happy to oblige! Also if I forgot to get one up hmu. It was a lot lol ))

Flat | Top-Level Comments Only

. . . You know why I can't take that too seriously, right?

[He doesn't actually want this to be a fight, so he's delicate in saying it. It's not an accusation; it's a genuine question, and the beginning of an explanation. Maybe she really doesn't know. She should, if she doesn't, and he'll just have to tell her. By now he's just sitting on the ground, cross-legged, relaxing with his shrooms for the moment.]

The situation's changed. Whatever she told you about me, I bet it was before I turned my back on Chaldea. Or at least before she knew I had. The same goes for Kyrielight and everyone else. They had a certain impression of me, but there's no way that hasn't changed. . . . I played a hand no one expected me to be holding, and they're not dumb enough to not take that into their account of me now.

I know. But I also think you aren't giving either of them enough credit.

[ Ritsuka isn't the sort of person who tends towards paranoia or worry, but she's at least had experience with people who do. And Kadoc isn't even the most heavily skewed in that direction of all the many types she's met in her career as Chaldea's Master. ]

You don't have to get it, and you don't have to believe me, but I'd bet you actual money that you'll be surprised at how she treats you.

[He goes to argue, and can't, so it initially just comes out as a low grumble instead. And with that he pushes to his feet again to grab the basket. Onward they go. Finally:]

I'm not dumb enough to take that bet. I've already been surprised enough by you to know it might shake out that way . . . if I ever see any of them again. But I'll never take that for granted, either. I'll never let myself believe it unless it actually happens.

That's okay. I can believe enough for the both of us.

[ Enough for the both of them, and for an entire world that may or may not be beyond help. Ritsuka would personally say that her greatest strength is her inability to give up--but she is aware that she has a certain capacity for belief that might verge on madness, to some. That's fine. She's comfortable with this part of herself.

She falls into step next to him, occasionally looking around for any other patches of mushrooms, but mostly keeping an eye on his face. ]

Why would you want to? . . . It sounds like it makes you happy that someone might forgive me for everything I've pulled. I can get you thinking that's the way things are. You know them all better than I do at this point, however many years I lived with them. But it's one thing to know, and one thing to be all chipper and shit about it!

[He grimaces at her. Seriously, what is her deal? Why is she like this, and for him in particular? Was she that emotionally scarred by his death? . . . He would have expected her to feel nothing but disappointment for the loss of his valuable information.]

[ She shrugs at the face he makes; no matter how grumpy he is about it, he can't bring her down. ]

I just think it's better for people to be able to get along. And before you go off about that, I don't mean just like, people gritting their teeth and pretending for whatever reasons. You definitely would just be fooling yourself if you think that they'd just be faking it to spare your feelings.

Call me whatever you want. I'll always think it's a good thing.

Trust me, I know they wouldn't be doing any sparing my feelings.

[That feels like the least likely conclusion, really. His feelings don't deserve sparing. If they're going to act like they forgive him, it'll be because they do, unless it's part of an overarching plot to take him down instead . . . but while that feels more likely, he also knows it's not their strength, and they'd be too smart to try something they'd suck at.

After some more mushroom gathering, once all their baskets are full, Kadoc begins to lead the way to Celliwig's gates, nodding Ritsuka along.]

We might end up needing to stay the night tonight.

[No, he already knows they will, and has planned to, but time to bring it up casually.]

...ha?

[ She freezes midstep; it's the sort of thing where she actually stumbles, though she manages to catch herself after a few skittering steps. What? Seriously? ]

Can't we just... uh. Can I just, I dunno, sleep in a tree or something...?

[ She doesn't have any money! She's still broke! Which is part of the point of this expedition in the first place, but she needs that money to do things like--eat. Maybe buy herself a better knife. Maybe eventually move out of the inn?? Staying at hotels is expensive! The only reason she's managed at the one in Camelot is because it's free! Some of us haven't been here long enough to rent a separate place, Kadoc. ]

Nope.

[For now, he's just going to give her that one word in response. See how that works out for them. A test! Kadoc isn't always great at being terse, at least not in this sense, but sometimes it's not worth starting the argument until she does. And she's definitely going to, but let her bring it to him instead of him anticipating it this time! . . . Even if that goes against all his instincts.

Either way, they're going to be having this argument within Celliwig walls, because he's leading her in now and then over out of the way while he pulls a map up on his tablet.]

What do you mean, "nope"??

[ It doesn't matter if he doesn't technically have a say in what she does, in the end. They've come this far together, and she's not really thinking about splitting up. For one thing, she'll need his help getting back to Camelot, and for another... there's something about this that puts her in the mind less of Chaldea and more of when she'd been in high school, going on trips with friends and classmates. ]

I don't have the money to get a room here. Even if we make a good haul with these mushrooms, I've gotta save that?

Uggghh.

[Kadoc has to grumble first. It's just his way. This is exactly how he knew this was going to go! And he knows how this next part is going to go, too, but there's only one way forward, and it's through this conversation. He crosses his arms and looks at her, basket hanging off the crook of one arm.]

I'm paying for us. Don't even bother arguing with me, because I'd love to save us both the time. Consider it my thanks for you giving me that egg and helping me carry the baskets. I can afford it, I've got incentive to do it, so I'm doing it.

Wh--hey--no?!

[ No?!? Kadoc?! She stares right back at him, surprised and more than a little confused--seriously? Is he trying to make this a back-and-forth of owing things to each other? Ritsuka's all for having a floating amount of favors between friends, but they're barely that at this point. More-polite acquaintances at this point, maybe. Ex-enemies? Something! ]

You don't have to pay for anything for me--you don't owe me for the egg, I already told you that!

I'm not doing it for that reason! That was supposed to make it easier for you to accept. I'm doing it for myself, if that makes you feel any better. See? Still a selfish son of a bitch. So at least argue with me on those terms instead.

[Well, he does feel somewhat like he does in fact owe her for the egg, but that isn't the primary reason, it's true. He glares at her childishly. They can do this all day and all night. That'll show them both!]

That makes even less sense?

[ They can do this all day. Maybe that's what they'll do instead of resting before they head back. She crosses her arms, staring back with a flatly exasperated expression. ]

How is this you being selfish, when you're insisting on paying?

Because it means I don't have to deal with worrying about where the hell you're sleeping all night, and you'll be better rested and prepared for the trip back, so that'll go more smoothly too. I get to throw money at a problem and solve it. You have any idea how infrequently I get to do that? Let me have it this one time!

[Money solves some problems in mage society, as Marisbury Animusphere could tell you, but it never had anything to do with the kinds of problems Kadoc had had. Being wealthy wouldn't have made anything any easier on him. But now he gets to be a normal person who pays for things to suck a little less! Surely she'll understand this much?]

Since when would you worry about that?

[ She can at least concede on the last point. Fair enough! Money can't solve anything, but it can at least help a lot. At this point, Ritsuka has gone so long without having any money to her name that she's not even sure what she'd do if she had any at all... but she'd probably do similar to what he is right now, if their positions were reserved.

But that first part? No way. ]

Because of that "truce" thing? No one's going to get mad at you if I do me. They know me.

Do you think I just wouldn't even think about it or something? . . . I wouldn't have come on a trip this long with someone I don't even bother applying object permanence to. I can't believe you think you could just walk off to sleep in the woods and leave me in town and I wouldn't spare a thought to that until morning. What the hell?

[It's so outlandish that he can't even be offended by it. Kadoc doesn't even consider himself a good person! And he doesn't exactly consider them friends, either, and if asked if he likes Fujimaru or not . . . he legitimately wouldn't know how to answer. Does he? It's a weird question to ask himself, and so he hasn't at this point. Everything's too complicated there. And yet, all of that taken as fact, he still can't wrap his head around the thought that he wouldn't obsess all night long over something potentially happening to her and be unable to sleep with the worry.

Wouldn't anyone?!]

Is it an object permanence thing...?

[ Isn't that like, a thing applied to babies? She blinks at him slowly, her head tilting in bemusement. ]

I'm not saying you wouldn't give it a second though, just--I didn't expect you to worry about it? I kind of thought you'd just, I dunno.

[ "Not worry about it" is about the only thing she can think of, and she doesn't really want to repeat herself. It's not going to convince either of them more if she does. ]

...You only kind of put up with me at the best of times, so I didn't really expect you to volunteer to get me a room?

. . . Fine. So you didn't expect it. Whatever. That's no reason to turn it down. Are you really fighting me on this, or are you just surprised?

[It's not like he's going to reassure her that no, he totally likes her, really! That could end up just as awkward and complicated as their relationship. They don't need to have a conversation about exactly where on a scale of 1 to 10 he gives a shit about her. All they need to do is settle where they're sleeping for the night, because while they won't be together-together for it or anything—]

If you're staying in a tree or some shit, so am I, so enjoy that.

[He crosses his arms firmly over his chest. It's more defiant than he usually is when he makes this gesture.]

Who wouldn't be surprised?!

[ Come on! Seriously! Seriously. It's not that she thinks he's a completely selfish bastard, or the villain that he tried so hard to act, but--all things considered, given their very specific circumstances and relationship... who wouldn't be surprised? He's always been weird and cagey whenever she's tried to be nice to him! Turnabout is only fair!

But when he threatens to also sleep in a tree, she lets out a sharp breath, rubbing the back of her neck. It's not like she actually wanted to camp out or anything, it's just what she'd expected. And she certainly doesn't want him to be put out because of her. ]

...But okay, fine. If you're really sure, then okay. Let's find a hotel to crash at for the night, once we've unloaded these mushrooms.

. . . Good.

[He gives her a look, opaque and uncertain. Good! That's settled! He's still going to feel weird about the whole conversation, and the compulsion to continue it somehow is strong, but he fights it back. Kadoc knows when just babbling on for the sake of dragging out the argument is a bad idea. (Practically always.) But it feels unfinished, somehow, and that feeling is going to linger.

Still. Mushrooms first. He nods them along back onto the nearest walkway to head to the apothecary first. The poison mushrooms are easier to unload; he already knows he doesn't want to keep any. Kadoc is the kind of guy who would in fact keep poison on him for various uses, but he'd go for something more refined than whole mushrooms. So they can unload the whole lot of these, and then decide whether to keep any of the good eatin' ones.]

I still might keep some of the edible ones. Gareth would be thrilled . . . she'll put them in a pie for us.

That'd be nice. I'm all for being fed.

[ Her tone is carefully neutral. Like him, she also feels weird about the conversation, a nagging sense of something unfinished. Maybe they can revisit it someday--it'd be nice if they could reach a point where they can have any conversation that doesn't feel fraught on some (if not multiple) levels.

She falls into step beside him, looking around curiously as they walk. New cities and new places are an interesting contradiction for her: of course it's brand-new, unfamiliar, but there are some things that are consistently the same. It's kind of comforting, in its own way. ]

...it's really pretty here, huh...

[At least moving the conversation along, if awkwardly, helps with that feeling of unspoken weight. And she's right: Celliwig is pretty. It feels so alien, a reminder that that world they're in really isn't their own at all.]

It's otherworldly. Which, you know, this whole world is otherworldly by definition, but by now I've gotten so used to Camelot that I hardly think of it that way anymore. It took me a while to come to terms with it, but now? It's not that hard to feel like it's just another place I'm living in. Maybe it's just that humans are always human no matter what, and the fae are far from human.

...That's true.

[ She thinks, briefly, of the other Lostbelts--even in Russia, where the yaga weren't truly human anymore, they'd still been human in their own way. There's no way to convince her that Patxi had had anything less than the metaphorical human heart, no matter how coldly he'd acted. And Scandinavia, and then China... surely the others will be the same, she thinks.

(She's got no idea what Britain's going to be like.) ]

I don't really know anything about them other than like... kid stories. I guess the closest I'd relate them to are the stories of kami? But even that wasn't that big in my everyday life, before all this started.

Shinto kami, right? . . . I'd be curious what kinda stories you did know about them.

[Look, he's a mythology nerd, and it's a topic he enjoys; studying folklore in a book is never the same as hearing something casually from someone who grew up in the culture. It's a whole other experience, with an added human element, and the human element of folklore is really the point of it. Kadoc peers over at her, a little shy, as they make their way down the alien streets to the fae apothecary.]

LATE AF SEPT CATCHALL

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