expiationlogs | August catch-all (open)

Who: Emet-Selch and anyone!
Where: Aldrip and nearby outskirts
What:
- Emet-Selch attempts to do some actual work for once at the clinic, healing people's hurts (shock, horror).
- He takes the device he found around for walkies, finds other ~~hot new single~~ users in his area!
- Encounters a morbol in the wild and it tries to follow him home. Or take him home. Hard to tell with these smelly things.

Warnings: None, will update or list in comment headers if necessary

(Will match tag format, action brackets are fine)

1. The Ascian will see you now

Having returned from the desert, it's business as usual at the clinic. Emet-Selch doesn't really like working but he did make a deal with that young woman to put in the time here. Besides, the pay is going towards the weapon he is commissioning from a local blacksmith - one eager enough for the challenge of an unfamiliar weapon and understanding enough to accept payment in installations.

So the Ascian puts aside his ennui and dons the more agreeable veneer of Solus zos Galvus as he attends to those still recovering from the hurts of the past two months. Being one of the Chosen, he's usually also first to be called on to look at other Chosen who walk in.

a) Greeting walk-in patients:
The smile on his face almost resembles a smirk as he walks up to you. "And what trouble have you gotten yourself into, hmm?"

b) Interrupting him whilst he's busy:
He glances up, from whatever or whoever he's working on with a frown. "Do you need something?" he asks, tempering his impatience with effort.

2. Tindr? More like Findr

After putting out a request for help and cobbling together some semblance of a working device, Emet-Selch can be found trying to access some of its other features - to not so very great success. Having noticed that it seems to randomly react to something, he takes the thing outside and tries to locate the source.

Which is how he comes across someone else with another device.

Emet-Selch looks at you, looks at the device in his hands. Frowns.

"Why is this reacting to you?" he asks irritably.

3. Friends Forevermor-bol

Further afield, outside of town - or even perhaps closer to the forest's edge - Emet-Selch has come across a familiar creature.

Or perhaps, rather, it finds him.

The creature in question is a towering mass of thick, vine-like tentacles and a gaping, putrid maw. Like an upright land octopus that is at least as tall as a man. Emet-Selch, surprised to come across something from his homestar, is too stunned to move before the seedkin notices him and starts to undulate over.

"No," he says emphatically, jabbing a finger at it. "Stay."

As if this creature can be trained like a dog. He remembers that gift sent by one of the provinces and how it terrorised the imperial gardens before somehow escaping out into the snowy tundra. Morbols and their ilk simply do as they please.

--and this one attempts to reach out and grab him.

He vanishes into a rift, materialising a distance away. But the morbol advances relentlessly, vines reaching for him.

"Of all the creatures to make their way here from our star, why this one?!"

4. Wildcard

For closed threads or custom scenarios etc., feel free to hit me up on the CR meme to plot.

Flat | Top-Level Comments Only

How quickly he turns to look at her when she mentions Hythlodaeus does cause her to jump slightly. Though it's less out of fear and more out of reflex to react should he try to do something. Luckily, he only seems to be scrutinizing her.

"Fandaniel was a little more than simply touched. I'm sure aware that some aspects can be etched upon a soul, things that will follow them from one life to another. Like Azem's desire to help others and experience all there is to experience is etched upon my soul. That moment when Hermes' learned the truth was etched upon his. Possibly made worse by the fact he had then erased his memories. Even as Amon, he tried to find the answers that Hermes sought. It drove him crazy over time and I guess it... broke him. Without the Unsundered around he decided to finally put an end to everything. No more life, no more death, just oblivion."

She lets out a hum. "I won't disagree with you about his test. However, it's what he decided and there was nothing any of us could do to stop him."

She pauses again, brow furrowing as an idea comes to mind. Venat had helped her focus the Echo so that she could access memories in the ambient aether. She still didn't quite understand how it worked but perhaps she could share her memories with someone else if they were willing instead of being forced to experience another's memories.

"Emet-Selch, I could try to show you what I experienced with the Echo. If you'd like, that is."

"The Echo."

He repeats it flatly. It's a good idea on her part, admittedly. There is no way to truly lie with it. He can even help her manifest it if she's serious about showing him her memories.

Does he want to know? That is the question here. Everything that she has said has been a lot to take in already. His mind is whirling. It's all he can do to focus on some singular points of her story and digest them. Fandaniel: the agent of the star's destruction from the very beginning. Hythlodaeus: reunited with him in the aetherial sea. Venat... Venat knowing this entire time and sharing nothing of it with anyone. She let their people die.

He feels another surge of anger towards her - towards Hydaelyn - and takes a deep breath to calm himself, closing his eyes.

"What difference would it make?" he mutters. "If the root cause lies in the past, with Fandaniel, as you claim, then nothing I have done for this star matters. Its destruction was assured long ago and we were only prolonging its death. There...is...no...point."

He doesn't want to believe her. It's easier to think that she's lying to him, that he still has some agency in how events play out. But say he manages to change the future to one he desires - according to her, the star will remain in peril from Fandaniel's creation. They will be trapped, forever fearing that which lies without.

If instead he chooses to let his future play out as-is then it means giving up on his long-held duty. He can't do that. He can't fail his people.

He stands abruptly. "I'm going to step outside," he says stiffly, not really looking at her. "Is there anything else I should know?"

She bobs her head in a quick nod before waiting to see what he wants to do.

She can't blame him he denies the offer. She also can't blame for him feeling like all he's done was in vain. That in the end nothing mattered because the answer had been right in front of them but they'd had no memory of it. Save Venat, who could have chosen any path other than the one she had but she had chosen to preserve the future that was to come in hopes that the future would do better than the past.

It did bother Yuja a little that Venat chose the path she did. But she supposes that if Venat had told others they might not believe her. Why should they? The entire thing sounded preposterous.

Her heart really does ache for him. Perhaps this was a mistake, but it would come to light eventually.

Is there anything else? Well, she supposes there is Hydaelyn's fate. A small victory for him, she guesses. "I mentioned Ven-- Hydaelyn's final test. It was a test of strength, one that ended in her finally letting go and giving us all of her that remained."

"I see," he says tightly. Then that's it then: both Hydaelyn and Zodiark, in her time, are gone. The star will continue to turn, oblivious to its glorious past, and mortals will condemn themselves to a perpetual cycle of ruin and rebirth.

Without another word, he makes for the door. There's really nothing more to say at this point in time, is there?

She watches him go before flopping back on the bed, grimacing as the movement causes her side to ache. Being careful really isn't in her nature.

"Well, that's that." She mutters as she closes her eyes.

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