November open log

[emet_sulk]

🧙 WHO: Emet-Selch and anyone!
⚔️️ WHAT: Having lost yet another close bond, this alchemist is running quests and collecting dangerous ingredients to distract himself
🕒 WHEN: Throughout November
🗺️ WHERE: (See individual prompts)
⚠️ WARNINGS: The Obsession(TM) quest may or may not verge towards sexual content depending on preference. There are also spoilers for FFXIV Shadowbringers 5.0 in the fourth prompt.


1. Lettuce Help You 🗡️ (Knight) or 🛡️ (Arcane Mage)

On the outskirts of the city, Emet-Selch is trailed by several bobbing heads of flappy lettuce as he forages for herbs and other alchemy reagents. The oddly-shaped creatures gently rise and fall with the thermal currents, creating something of a comical sight as he crouches in the grass to inspect some flowering plants. His familiar is accompanying him as well, keeping a more alert eye out. Should anyone armed approach, she will straighten, bare her teeth, and growl softly.

Emet-Selch glances over, wary, when he notices someone coming close. If you're a known face, his frown eases and he will nod. If you are unfamiliar, he will remain wary and ask, "Can I help you?"

...The more observant or rash types will notice several molted leaves in his basket from the creatures. He only has them because they've fallen off naturally from the creatures, but someone could easily leap to the conclusion that he's a poacher. Especially with the gunblade strapped to his back.

2. Be Nimble, Be Quick

How to obtain basilisk venom from a creature which can paralyse with one stare? Emet-Selch ponders this very conundrum as he steps carefully through the Forest of the Felled, searching for the flower to create the antidote to its stare. Most serpentine creatures are venomous in his experience. Venomous or with ample coils to throttle their prey with. They were created that way. Their use in a poison goes without saying, but what positive applications could it be used for?

Lost in thought, he fails to notice a vine loop on the forest floor. As soon as he steps into it, the noose tightens around his ankle and yanks him down.

"Argh!" He hits the ground with a painful thud. Above him looms a giant slime, ready to drown him in its gelatinous body.

"Oh, by all the gods," he curses quietly, trying to kick the thing back. Unsuccessfully.

3. Toxic 🛡️ (Arcane Mage) (MIGHT BE NSFW)

Emet-Selch makes sure he is thoroughly prepared to meet the Gancanagh before he sets out. Gloves, mask, sleeping potion - the works. He has no idea whether the warnings given in the shady request are exaggerated or not, but he would not have survived for as long as he (nearly) did by being reckless.

Getting to the spot is a trial all on its own but he manages that without too much fuss. Crouching well away from the thing, he carefully observes its movements from afar.

Perhaps if I toss the sleeping draught at its head? While he's dithering however, he notices someone else approach. Maybe towards him, or maybe towards the Gancanagh itself, not realising that he's there. How he reacts will depend on what happens next.

4. Amaurot (Extreme) (Sleep paralysis demon)

Fire rains from a dark and seething sky. The air reeks and tastes of smoke, ash, and charred flesh. Around you, towering buildings of some unidentifiable stone crumble to a horde of terminus beasts who pursue fleeing figures and slaughter them mercilessly. The largest ones fire beams of harsh light from their maws, slicing entire towers from end to end. Another explodes after grossly inflating itself and blows out the domed ceiling of a theatre.

Far below the once-elegant walkways, the sea roils thick and red. One would think the smell to come from all the death around them, but in fact the seas themselves are boiling blood. The sun looms too close and its heat is oppressive; the air is stagnant and offers no reprieve. The deep cracks in the earth seem to have no end.

The planet is dying.

A short distance away, a figure dressed in the same dark grey robes as all the rest stands resolute against the carnage. A red mask (left) covers the upper half of his face. Even as his brethren flee from the beasts, he faces the oncoming calamity: clenched fists trembling yet the line of his mouth determined to somehow make things right.

All of a sudden there is a thunderous crack. He swivels, eyes growing wide with alarm behind his mask as he thrusts out his hand towards you. "Watch out!"

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Comments

4

[mayoninofukucho]

[When Hijikata let the cognitive mages include him in their ritual to wake up the sleep paralysis victims he quickly chose Emet-Selch as someone he thinks he could help, but as soon as he enters his dream he thinks again. This is a picturebook-perfect nightmare. It's like the apocalypse. Despite knowing that it's a dream he coughs as he feels the sting of the smoke in his throat and covers his nose and mouth with his hand.]

Emet-Selch?!

[The stench, the heat, the screams in the distance, the horrifying beasts... is this actually hell? Hijikata's heartbeat picks up as he instinctively goes into fight-or-flight mode, but he tries to ground himself by addressing the other man, assuming him to be Emet-Selch simply because there's no one else nearby. Before he can step towards him, though, there's that deafening crack, as if the earth itself were breaking, and he's pushed - or grabbed?]

[emet_sulk]

[ Emet-Selch wrenches the other man towards him just in time to avoid a large wall collapsing over the spot where they had just been standing - too late to save others slower or unable to evade.

A bloodied hand sticks out from beneath ruined stone. ]

Flee! [ Emet-Selch attempts to shove Hijikata in the direction everyone else is fleeing. Not that there is any obvious way to escape when horrifying beasts seek to cut off every avenue of escape. ] If you see my chief of bureau, tell him he is needed at the summoning!

[ They're in a small plaza of sorts. The city could almost resemble any modern Earth capital, yet is incredibly more dense and sprawling - at least, so far as the eye can see with all the smoke and broken skyline. But, as is typical of dreams, one doesn't think too hard about how the dimensions are too large to have been built by regular-sized men. ]

[mayoninofukucho]

[Hijikata's heart is hammering in his chest after this near-death experience. This truly is worse than any battlefield he's stood on, even worse than the calamity that befell Prismatica which he experienced through an incident with time rifts back on that crystal world, because while that was about equally horrible in terms of death, destruction and noxious air at least it wasn't so grossly hot!! Everything here seems to be cooking, boiling or burning.]

Your chief?! How do I identify-- wait, no! This is a nightmare!! It's not really happening! You've got to wake up! Don't you recognise me? I don't belong here, right? It's because it's a dream!

[He ducks as a monstrous creature soars past above them. This is bad!! What's going to happen if they both die here?! Will that have repercussions in the real world?]

[emet_sulk]

[ He voices a despairing laugh, shaking his head. ]

A nightmare? I wish it was. How could it have come upon us so quickly--?

[ Breathing shallowly, he coves his mouth and nose as another building topples, falling across a walkway which had some robed figures fleeing across it. He watches despondently as their screams echo across the way. ]

Just go. I promise you, our new god will save us all. Have faith in us--

[ His voice breaks. He cuts himself off on what sounds suspiciously like a sob. He turns away though before anything damning can be seen.

In a whisper: ]

You coward, Azem.

[mayoninofukucho]

Your new god?

[He really doubts that anyone or anything can save this place anymore, but what else can he do? He has a feeling that grabbing and shaking Emet-Selch and forcibly trying to make him wake up won't be a productive course of action, so he actually turns and takes off running across the cracked, barren, crumbling ground, trying to find anyone who isn't headlessly running away. If he does spot the other man's commander he'll urge him to head back with him. Whatever that summoning entails, it seems to be the only tiny seed of hope they have left.

If he dies first he can only hope that that'll wake him up. Perhaps he can ask the cognitive mages for another method, because Emet-Selch seems too deeply immersed in this nightmare to easily be snapped out of it.]

[emet_sulk]

[ Emet-Selch's chief of bureau is nowhere to be found. All is chaos and terror, and even if Hijikata manages to get coherent answers out of Emet-Selch's dream shades, all that can be found at the Bureau of the Architect is a swathe of dead bodies - including one hauntingly familiar face: Hythlodaeus.

--But the Ascian is not where he was first encountered when Hijikata returns. As is the nature of dreams, it is difficult to recall the exact path one takes between one location to another, but one goes from the crumbling city of Amaurot to a platform of dark, violet crystal high, high above the surface of the planet. There, a monstrous beast lies dead. Several more robed figures stand near its head, looking battered and worn. Evidently they have just finished fighting the thing. All can be seen to wear various uniquely shaped red masks, just as Emet-Selch does, when they turn to look at Hijikata. ]

...You could not find him? [ Emet-Selch asks. He sounds...resigned. ]

[mayoninofukucho]

[Hijikata is surprised to still be alive after practically parcouring through the crumbling hellscape. His only advantage is that he is, at the very least, used to battles, violence and dead bodies, so the grim sights everywhere don't leave him paralysed with fear. The sight of some of the larger beasts, however, makes him wish he could wake up on his own and escape their view, that's how nightmarish they are.

He really couldn't recall how he eventually made it onto the platform, but he's not in the mood to question it either. Even in death the fallen creature, which almost looks more like a terrifying wagon than a living being to him, scares him... there's something about it that makes him feel like mortal eyes should never look upon it. He tears his gaze away from it to meet Emet-Selch's.]

No.

[While he's still catching his breath he scans the assembled group of people.]

Sorry, but who are you guys? What about the ritual; could you conduct it?

[Or did the best try to prevent it and they had to exert themselves in a fight against it until now? He feels out of the loop.]

[emet_sulk]

Not yet.

[ The other red masks turn to discuss amongst one another. Snippets of conversation ("Have the survivors assembled?", "Is the concept ready?") filter through over the muted roar of the cataclysm malms and malms below.

Emet-Selch steps closer so that he can speak quietly to Hijikata. ]

You should leave now.

[ Even behind the mask he looks...resigned. Behind Hijikata, others begin to appear, walking down the crystal platform towards Emet-Selch and his kin. But not only anonymous robed figures, no - there are people from Avalon too: Midoriya, Bakugou, Mukuro, Darin, and anyone else Emet-Selch has grown to appreciate in his time on the island.

They don't respond to being addressed. Instead they assemble in a group at the other Ascians' direction. ]

[mayoninofukucho]

Leave? But...

[That's when he notices the other outworlders walk past them in the crowd. When he recognises Darin's shock of blue hair and Mukuro's voluminous pigtails he dashes after them.]

Junko! Darin! Wait!

[They don't even turn around to look at him, and his attempt at physically holding them back is met with slight resistance as they pry his hands off their shoulders.]

Guys..!!

[He turns back to Emet-Selch.]

What's the ritual going to do?! Why are you telling me to leave, but not them? Where should I even go?! Everything's burned!

[emet_sulk]

[ For a moment, his shoulders slump. It is the posture of a defeated man. But he squares himself up and straightens, attempting to regain some of the dignified composure as befits one of his apparent standing. ]

A concept on far greater scale than any attempted thus far. We attempt to summon the will of the star itself: Zodiark.

[mayoninofukucho]

If everyone else is staying, then I'm staying too. A policeman doesn't leave civilians in danger.

[Sorry, Emet-Selch, he truly is stubborn...]

What can I do to help with the summoning?

[He has a bad feeling about it, but what else can they do? It's an apocalypse, and if this is the last resort, then he'll support it!]

[emet_sulk]

[ He doesn't look happy about the offer. Tired, resigned, but not happy. There is something...wrong with this whole scenario that leads him to grasp Hijikata's arm and squeeze tight. ]

Do not, [ he says softly. ] Please. You know not what you ask.

[mayoninofukucho]

[Emet-Selch's struggle to keep himself together is honestly more alarming than all the destruction - at least Hijikata can remind himself over and over again that the scenario is just a nightmare, but seeing the usually assured and authoritative man so resigned and defeated is plain disconcerting (not that he can blame him, given that to him this isn't an abhorrent dream but events that are unfolding in real time).]

Is there any alternative? This summoning is our last chance, isn't it? Whatever it takes, you're doing it, so I will too!

[Never mind that he's totally out of his depth, still has no idea what exactly is going on and who or what Zodiark is, never having seen the will of a star before - in the worst case perhaps dying will really wake them both up from this, much as he'd prefer to avoid that experience. In any case his determination to stay is firm, given the presence of their friends in the assembled crowd.]

[emet_sulk]

[ He shakes his head roughly and tries to push Hijikata back. ]

No. No, I have already lost so many--

[ He cuts himself off, looking confused for a moment as past and present memory collide. But he shrugs it off as part of the dream and steels his voice. ]

This is a sacrifice you need not make.

Continued from above!

[mayoninofukucho]

[(Continued from here!) "What would you do"... Hijikata pauses. Is Emet-Selch becoming more aware that this is a dream, a memory? Or is he just asking this way because Hijikata isn't the one calling the shots in the present assembly? Either way, a long moment passes before he responds in a low voice.]

I don't know.

[He's never had to make a choice this heavy and horrible, but he's had to make unpleasant choices. Was it right to enter the service of a shogunate that only serves the interests of the Amanto and weaponises them against the human rebels? It was the only way for them to still live as samurai. Was it right to harshly reject the woman he loved? Accepting her might have subjected her to violence and bloodshed no innocent person deserves to face.]

Sometimes there is no good choice. If we don't sacrifice ourselves now we'll have nowhere left to live, right? And if we do sacrifice ourselves there'll be almost no one left to live on the world we saved.

[emet_sulk]

[ Something that sounds like a sob tears its way out of his throat. He clenches his teeth, head bowing as though weighed down by the number of lives they had given. ]

That is what we thought as well... But as long as life remains, there is hope. What else could we have done? What else...

[ He draws a long, shuddering breath. ]

I tire of this nightmare. Let me wake or not at all...

[mayoninofukucho]

You did all you could.

[He has never seen Emet-Selch even remotely as crushed as now, and once again he wishes he knew how to console people better. Commander Kondou would at least put a reassuring hand on the other man's shoulder, but Hijikata feels like his own uncertainty would carry through if he tried it.]

Can you wake up, now? If not...

[Once more he looks up at the large form of Zodiark. If there's no other way he really has to hope that death will wake them both up.]

[emet_sulk]

[ The scene almost seems to continue on without them. Zodiark continues to loom above them as the rest of the Convocation discuss in low, sombre tones how to proceed. They are matters quite beyond Hijikata's ken however.

Emet-Selch doesn't respond. He tips his head up and stares blankly at their created god. The angle means his voluminous hood slips down, revealing stark white hair that looks as though it has been carelessly brushed back. It falls just past his ears. ]

What point is there in waking if I simply return to another nightmare...? I could stay here and dream of countless ways to change the past... I could stop Hydaelyn from sundering the world... I could even persuade Azem to come back...

[ A single tear slips out from beneath his mask and rolls down his cheek. ]

Hythlodaeus...

[ Hijikata may have to forcibly end this nightmare for him. ]

[mayoninofukucho]

[Hijikata's struggle to keep himself together in this desolate situation is getting harder and harder. His entire body feels heavy and increasingly cold. Emet-Selch's anguished musings and unexpectedly white hair register in his mind, but he doesn't react to them. It's clear that the other man can't wake up, otherwise he long would have.

He starts stepping forward to where the other sacrifices stood, painfully worried if he'll really find those he knew from Avalon alive and well on the other side, and reaches back with an open hand to invite Emet-Selch along.]

Come. Let's get you back to Hythlodaeus. He's waiting for you, and it won't be another nightmare. I promise. You can't just keep dreaming of the past here. You've got to look forward; it's the only way.

[He knows it's painful, all the more after a disaster of this unbelievable scope, but he's had to force himself to push onwards many times on his smaller, more regularly human scale. If Emet-Selch won't follow him, or if Zodiark won't accept their sacrifice, then what options does he even have left? Does he have to pull his fellow death mage down into the boiling sea with him (if it's still boiling now)? Suddenly going the way of the other sacrifices seems almost attractive in comparison.]

[emet_sulk]

Hythlodaeus is...alive...?

[ The dream says no. His head says yes. He puts a hand to his forehead, wavering as past and present collide. If he doesn't remember then what is the point? If no-one remembers what happened to them then history will repeat. And repeat. And repeat--

But he takes Hijikata's hand and lets the other man lead. The seas beneath no longer boil, no, and the earth is no longer being rent by ear-splitting cracks, although the scars of calamity still visibly mar the face of the planet. Nothing good awaits anyone down there. ]

Where is he...? Where...

[ He sounds lost. ]

[mayoninofukucho]

On Avalon. He's on Avalon. Can you remember it? I'm from there, too.

[Not natively, but whatever! He searches for any gleam of remembrance in Emet-Selch's eyes. No matter how long he looks at him, he appears so different with his hair all white and longer than Hijikata is used to... how come it apparently turned mostly dark later on?]

You two are together there, and happy.

[At least he's pretty sure that a couple must be happy in their union if the murder of one will result in an art trail of vengeance spread across the city by the other's hand.]

I came here to wake you up, so please..!

[They're already where the others stood before, so by whichever means they get to wake up, he'll take it. He didn't swing his sword even once in this nightmare, but he feels more exhausted than after a long, fierce battle.]

[emet_sulk]

[ A question Hijikata can ask the man when they wake. IF they wake. Although given Emet-Selch's visible struggle, Hijikata's words are managing to reach him somehow. If this weren't an old memory then it would be easier to believe that it was a nightmare. ​]

Is he...? I... But he should be...

[ He glances about, searching for something he can't see, then settles on Hijikata. ]

If this is a dream then why can't I wake up?

[mayoninofukucho]

It's a nightmare induced by sleep paralysis demons. They attacked our camp in the forest. I guess they trap people in their dreams.

[He hesitantly puts a hand on his sword hilt.]

If you really can't push through, then I may have to kill us both.

[Or perhaps only Emet-Selch, given that it's his dream, but he doesn't want to tell him that. This poor man has gone through enough; Hijikata wants to give him assurance that he'll stick with him until they both come back out on the other side.]

WHAT IS TIME

[emet_sulk]

Just kill me and be done with it... I cannot... My duty--

[ The weight of years yet to come weighs heavy on his shoulders. His gaze finds itself inexorably drawn back to Zodiark. In summoning their saviour, they have also bound themselves to Him. ]

Let me return to the star and see him...

An illusion... how is it Valentine's Day already...

[mayoninofukucho]

Alright.

[This feels so bitter. His voice is heavy, like it's lodged in his throat. He doesn't want to do it, but he draws his sword.]

I'm sorry. I hope you'll wake up quickly.

[A decapitation would cause him the least pain, probably, but it's also the standard method of execution in Edo, and Hijikata simply doesn't want to deliver what would feel like a punishment to Emet-Selch, who sacrificed everything. So he shoves the blade through his heart, twisting it quickly to hopefully damage it more thoroughly and shut the other man's body down faster.

When he pulls it back he catches Emet-Selch and lowers him to the ground, firmly grasping his hand. He won't let go until he's gone-- back to Avalon, ideally, and, if he may hope for that after doing this to him, not without him.]