June catch-all | OPEN

[emet_sulk]

🧙 WHO: Emet-Selch and anyone
⚔️️ WHAT: It's time to go a-questing again, alchemist continues to hone his craft
🕒 WHEN: Throughout June
🗺️ WHERE: See individual prompts
⚠️ WARNINGS: None (will update as necessary)

1. Do it for the Vine 🗡️

I seek assistance in exterminating an overgrowth of seedkin. I will be departing three days hence.

Even if one doesn't see the message he puts out, one can find him at the scene: on the outskirts of Camelot, Emet-Selch surveys the damage with pursed lips. Fire would be a sure way to exterminate the vines yet it runs the risk of torching everything else as well. Especially magical fire. He has flammable concoctions made especially for this task, but he's hesitant to use them. Perhaps when they locate the parent...

If you happen to be crossing paths with him at the scene, he doesn't immediately take notice. He seems preoccupied with his own thoughts, though he will very quickly look over if someone decides to leap in and start attacking things.

2. Thunderbird 🗡️

The pursuit of unusual alchemy reagents takes one to odd places sometimes. Emet-Selch is not someone who would ordinarily volunteer to go rock-climbing, yet here he is doing just that. Unfortunately, he isn't the fittest of men. Scaling the rocks to reach one of the birds' elusive nests is trying his endurance - and patience.

About halfway up to one, he manages to clamber on to a small ledge and slumps there tiredly, breathing hard. "This had better be worth it," he growls under his breath as he takes a swig of water from his canteen.

--Or perhaps, instead, you meet him at the nest itself, tiredly setting up one of the observation cameras. Whilst technology isn't...unknown to him, he seems to be struggling with this modern brand of it. It's far more compact and advanced than that which he's accustomed to.

"Confound it," he mutters, staring at the pieces in frustration. "Why must they make it so damned small?"

3. Wildcard

Got another idea? Feel free to PM this account. He has a top-level on the TDM as well.

Comments

[emet_sulk]

[ A few beats pass as he stares at her rather...dramatic introduction. For a short time, there is merely silence.

Then beside him, his familiar offers an odd, raspy cough. He shoots the dark gwiber a frown and the dragon-like creature straightens innocently. ]

Yet another one claiming to watch over the dead, [ he finally sighs. ] I have alchemy and death magic at my disposal. Mayhap we can coordinate.

[queenofkur]

[ Okay, that was going too far...! How did that man dare say she "claimed" to watch over the dead with such a tone? The insolence! ]

T-This is not a baseless claim! I have been watching over the dead since the dawn of humanity!

[ She pointed an accusatory finger at him. Coordination? Yes yes, it's coming but first: ]

I may not be the most social goddess, but I will not stand for my authority being questioned...!

[emet_sulk]

[ Emet-Selch is not blessed with the most delicate of tongues. However, he finds her outrage amusing enough to correct her without offence. ]

Calm yourself, girl. You are the third such individual I have met or heard of besides myself who claims to oversee the other realm - although I am far from a god.

[queenofkur]

[ She was going to get offended at him calling him "girl," but thankfully enough something caught her attention. ]

A mortal in charge of the underworld? [Blinks blinks.] I suppose humanity in your reality must be more advanced than in mine...

[ She thought mortals had a lot of potential and all, of course! But if they were to be put in charge of the underworld, she imagined they'd turn the place into a total mess ]

[emet_sulk]

[ Oh, now THAT ticks him off. ]

I beg your pardon? I am not mortal any more than you appear to be. I have lived some tens of thousands of years and you will address me with the appropriate respect.

[queenofkur]

[ The appropriate respect? This man was so full of himself...! ]

Y-You have shown me nothing but disrespect since we started talking...! [That's it, she points an accusatory finger at him.] I will show you respect when you start behaving as befits a Keeper of Death!!

[emet_sulk]

[ Despite his irritation, his lips threaten to twitch upwards at her quick-tempered response. Even if she has a point (which she doesn't!!!), she is hardly acting any better. ]

Oh? Then pray tell, how should a 'Keeper of Death' behave?

[queenofkur]

With dignity and respect...!

[ Pot meet kettle. But she's annoyed enough that she doesn't realize her current behavior isn't the most dignified one ever. ]

You do not represent only yourself, but all the souls under your protection. Do you think they would be proud of their keeper should they see your attitude?

[emet_sulk]

[ Unexpectedly, that wipes the humour off his face. He sucks in a sharp breath and looks away, expression blank. For a little while it seems as though he won't reply. But then come his quiet words. ]

...You are right. I apologise.

[queenofkur]

[ ... Wait what? It had worked? That... That was new. Had she suddenly gained points in charisma? Clueless as she was to what what reasons may have caused Emet-Selch's change of mind, Ereshkigal was taken aback. ]

... ... I, um... [An awkward pause. She should just take the win, but-] I apologize as well for the lack of dignity I have shown.

[ She had spoken the truth, but that didn't excuse a lack of manner, right? Why, she felt bad now! She should say something... Which would be easier done if she had better social skills. After a bit of hesitation- ]

What is your name, if I may ask?

[emet_sulk]

...Emet-Selch.

[ He sighs and squares his shoulders. While they've been bickering, he has nearly forgotten his original reason for being here: the vines. ]

Or mayhap you would recognise 'Hades' instead? It seems to hold significance amongst some.

[queenofkur]

Hades... [Ereshkigal paused as she did recognize the name- Thanatos had mentioned it and she'd done her homework on the underworld as it existed in other regions.] You-You are Hades?!

[ What? By the way Thanatos had worded things she had expected for him to be very unpleasant to talk to and to be fair so far that was pretty accurate, but- ]

It's the name of my counterpart in another culture. B-But I thought you were a god...!

[emet_sulk]

I am not a god!

[ He says it testily. What did he just say, girl?? A moment later he grimaces and moderates his tone. ]

I have heard that it is the name of a deity. But I am no such thing. That would be beyond arrogance to claim. It just so happens that my position as Emet-Selch calls for me to keep watch over the aetherial realm. As I said, however, I am no mortal. My people were long-lived and could live for an eternity if they did not fall to accident or sickness.

[queenofkur]

I see...

[ It's not that she's persistent (she is), but while he is no god, she feels the need to mention: ]

From a mortal perspective, that makes you virtually identical to a god. Should they decide to call you one, you might be elevated to the status of a god through the power of their faith.

[ At least that was how it worked where she came from. There were the actual gods that had come into existence before humanity, just like her, and the gods who had reached such a status because mortals observed them and conferred them the status through their faith. ]

[emet_sulk]

[ Now there's a horrifying thought. ]

If I hear so much as a whisper of them attempting to deify me, I will reach out of the Lifestream itself and throttle it.

[ No-one needs a primal version of him running amok in the world. It's an all-too-real possibility. ]

But I think it unlikely given that I have not given anyone cause to venerate me. I'm sure they would rather spit upon my name.

[queenofkur]

[ Oh. His words hit a little too close to home. ]

Oh, so mortals behave that way too towards Keepers of Death where you come from...

[ That made her feel sorry for him now. She knew all too well how mortals were so scared of anything related to death, they would rather revile them than try to understand them. ]

[emet_sulk]

[ There is brief confusion on his face before he realises what she means. ]

No. I mean they would not venerate me because I spent the past ten or so millennia sowing death and chaos amongst their kind.

[queenofkur]

...... Oh.

[ Why if that isn't super awkward. So he's that kind of keeper of death, huh? The kind everyone keeps thinking she is. ]

Then I suppose that's... Understandable.

[emet_sulk]

[ There is a brief, awkward silence before Emet-Selch sighs and starts to explain. ]

I say that, but that was not what my duty entailed. My sight is what granted me the privilege of the title, but in truth I was usually only called upon to assess the integrity of our people's creations. That I could interact with the souls of those long past was something of a footnote in my list of responsibilities. 'Twas only after our world was torn asunder that I styled myself an agent of chaos.

[queenofkur]

Um...

[ She wasn't sure what to reply to that. So he wasn't really a keeper of the dead...? So why had he gotten so annoyed earlier?! And his world had been torn asunder? Had he been trying to fix it like Ritsuka had with the Lostbelt and Singularities? Or had he been more like Goetia and the Alien God? It was getting increasingly awkward. ]

M-Maybe we should take care of that seedkin issue.

sorry for wait, xiv update consumed me!

[emet_sulk]

[ It is, unfortunately, Complicated. Perhaps some other time he may explain further. ]

Yes. Yes, we ought to.

[ He glances back towards the creeping vines and their haphazard sprawl. ]

Well, I suppose if we combined our powers over the dead, we could use the corpses to distract the plant whilst we prepare something else to cut through.