synflux | ( closed ) life like the unplumbed sea;

[ The answer is more the latter than the former, though she hasn't forgotten what he specializes in.

... All the same, it's a bit of a surprise to see him light up so happily within a few seconds of her explanation and her gaze lowers to his hand for a few seconds. She does nothing with said hand, because why would she? It's probably just another dramatic gesture of his.

It's helpful information he offers and the confidence doesn't appear to be insincere for the sake of a deal, but first-- ]

And what do you want for that? [ That's materials, time, and effort. None of that is free, no matter where you go. ]

[ Elysium would very well offer bits and pieces of information freely, but it's true that an entire map is on a different scale. So, even he's not above bartering. Beyond that, even Elysium would believe that it's necessary to have some contingency when dealing with new faces, regardless of his personal opinions and interest. ]

The fairest trade would be expertise for expertise. You said you were something of a mercenary, weren't you? So when I'm in need of your services, I would hope that you wouldn't turn down my request. Though, you'd be free to if you deem it unreasonable.

[ It at least proves he's not an idiot, though the fact that he's still alive likely proves as much--that or he's incredibly lucky. The ones who did something for nothing were few and far between and Gebura could do it only because she'd had faith in her own strength after enough time to make anyone who tried to mess with her regret it shortly before they died.

That's not the case here and she hears out Elysium's terms quietly before she closes her eyes briefly, then nods. ]

Fine with me. If you've got a need, I'll hear you out when that time comes. Like you said, no obligation I'll agree to it, but even you should know better than to abuse that sort of thing.

[ No calling her out for stupid things, but she can protect him or fight her way through a problem in exchange for information, sure. ]

[ i don't know that line is cracking me up still. ]

Were you? [ it's a quick quip he makes in return. zero credibility given. granted, it's pretty clear that yuwon seemed the type who was skeptical by nature. though, he does eventually drop it. especially, since elysium did have a mature take on the entire farce.

...

until, he hears that bit about a verbal order. ] Can a bartender afford to be so mouthy? [ lol, ] I was going to choose the new item that's being recommended, but I'll just take some bourbon. [ why did i type this with my own hands. see what you led me to do here. ]

[ Who is going to be the first person to call him Rizzley to his face.... But also, where is Elysium going with this?? Wriothesley gives him a sidelong glance as he steps out the door, though waits for Elysium to follow and lock the door behind them both before answering. ]

So I've been told.

[ Is this where he talks about being in the top five most talked about guys at girls' night.....no, he will save himself and not mention that. He ushers them down the hall and towards the exit, their footsteps echoing lightly. ]

You're quite the handsome man yourself though. [ Username @ hottie. No comment about personality just yet though. ] I'm sure I wouldn't hold a candle standing next to you.

i. everything is (not) fine,

[ 'Going back now means taking a massive risk. Elysium can't help but ask himself: Is he really that attached to the town? Hard to say. Probably not so much that he should risk his life for it. He's only been there a few months. But he also understands that he can't just stand by and watch, can't just wait for the storm to pass. And there's no point in thinking about what he can't do. He needs to focus on what he can do.'

There is black, and then there is shaking.

Literal shaking, as the ground beneath quakes with angry roars. Dusk kicks up, there's a heaviness to the air, and there are distant screams of Catastrophe and to take shelter. They might be more concerning if it weren't for the pressing matter in the sudden splinter of a pillar right next to your character. As the roof above them begins to cave into itself, try as they will, their feet will remain paralysed where they are.

Their heartrate will spike. Their eyes will close. They will brace for impact——but then, there is that nothingness again, until the startling sensation of being yanked.

Next thing they know, they're pressed against Elysium, having narrowly been saved from being trapped under rubble. Despite the side of his arm bleeding profusely from the action, Elysium is smiling down. While the injury is worrying in of itself, there's something else about it that's deeply upsetting from the influence of Elysium's memories, though they won't be given time to contemplate it just yet. ]

Whew! That was a perfect rescue, wasn't it? A judge would've given that ten out of ten. What do you think?

[ Rather than answer that question, perhaps one might want to say—now's not the time, especially with the utter chaos going on in their backdrop. Welcome to the life of a humble shopkeeper, whose body they're now free to move. ]

ii. home is where the heart is,

[ "A city in gray, drab colors. Depressing. Boring. Is that all?"

"I really don't have much to say about that place. It was a simple and boring place to me, and that really is it for me. Home... huh? I wonder what it's like now. I wonder if it's still packed with buildings, and the wind is still so humid, with that salty scent to it? Are the streets there still empty, and everyone there's as quiet as they've always been?

Tell me, brother, do you think we'll ever have a chance to go back, having run away from that place? I don't think I want to go back.

But I can't help but think that, perhaps one day... I'll go back."

A series of vignettes plays from Elysium's memory: from the same gray, drab, city to the Inquisition, a formerly religious organisation that rules Iberia with an iron fist. There's a distinctly suffocating quality to these memories as they ebb and flow from one memory to the next, as characters are both made to bear witness to the persecution of Ægir, a race of marine humanoids, and the general paranoia that's suffused into the population from the resurgence of a cult in the Church of the Deep.

But go back Elysium does, and your character will suddenly find themselves thrust in the midst of a cluster of Seaborn, Elysium's back to them. ]

It's do-or-die. Find something, anything. [ There are rocks, a flowerpot, and an umbrella. The pickings are slim. At least, Elysium is armed with a sword… so it could be worse. ] You gotta weaponize.

[ This memory finds them in the body of Jordi, a caretaker of a local church. ]

ex-stage i & ii,

[ The follow-up option that can be bundled alongside either of the above or be taken separately, if you'd like to have his memories beamed into your character instead. Whether or not he's realised that your character's been made privy to them, he is absolutely and blatantly turning on his heel the moment he sees anyone he recognises.

a.) This will go on for a good week if he isn't chased down. b.) After that? He's back to business as usual. In theory. He might then be caught in one of the many hotel lobbies loitering around their amenities, looking uncharacteristically melancholic. The moment he senses someone approaching, he whips around to hold a bottle of water out, stiff smile in place. ]

… It's important to stay hydrated. [ Ah, geez. He regrets this already. He nudges it forward once, twice, and if it still isn't taken he'll bend down to slide it into their hand. ] Take it.

Edited 2024-06-01 00:21 (UTC)

( ooc: for the more "lighthearted" memories that can still involve Elysium's condition and commentary on his world if you so desire. Leave me a comment with your character's kemonomimi of choice (this is not an option it is a must, there are no humans in Arknights!!) and I'll customise these on an individual basis based on what parameters you might be interested in below:

I.) RHODES ISLAND TOUR.
• Your character is a new operator for Rhodes Island, a paramilitary organisation, and Elysium is tasked as their tour guide
• A landship that is at least 800 metres long, it's host to all sorts of facilities: a garden for herbs and flowers, acres of farmland for crops and livestock, a school, dormitories, a cafeteria (with a notice board for club postings), bars, a blood bank (we have vampires, btw), an armory, a workshop and robotics facility, storage vaults, stores for non-essentials, a department for literally everything (medical, engineering, fieldwork, human resources, logistics, procurement), and recreational spaces for all ages.
• There is honestly so much. Too much. Everything here is also considered fair game
• But especially of note: an incineration facility to safely dispose of Infected who have reached their end of life without risk of infection spreading and a memorabilia room for KIA operators' equipment
• It's capable of movement, dwbi
• OPTIONAL: This can include any "treatments" and or "screenings" your character may have to go through if you'd like them to get the know for Oripathy, though not all operators on Rhodes Island are necessarily Infected

II.) A DAY IN THE LIFE.
• Your character is either an operator in a temporary squad helmed by Elysium or one of the Infected they're tasked with saving
• Experience their full discrimination, basically. Someone they'd consider a friend or family would quickly turn on them the moment they're considered Infected, and most regions will have them exiled to slums or outskirts entirely
• Oripathy side effects be wild: can dull/damage any of the five senses, affect speech patterns, cause various states of psychosis, mutate body parts (overgrown claws, horns, tails), the sky's the limit if you'd like your character to experience any of these effects or any kind of effects, really, real-time

Just lmk what you'd like! Also, if animals aren't to your liking, there are all manners of fantasy species as well. We can have fun with it! )

Edited 2024-06-01 00:26 (UTC)

[i said so on plurk already but placing this here for both of our reference... give me the II option and make netzach a lop rabbit. furry that robot. let him see how things suck in your world, buddy.]

[ reporting in for my arknights au lupo brawler guard wrio shibari thread ]

[ i am but a sims who is controlled by ly, so vampires & give me the treatments & screening. i need that sweet oripathy lore alongside every single ability in arknights explained to me in essay format. thank you. ♥ ]

[ I am also here for Oripathy Lore and to make fluffy ears canon as discussed on plurk, before Elysium is exposed to projmoon trauma. ]

[ You know, this is kind of annoying.

Gebura has been in a few situations where she's been trapped in a different form, or something similar, though it's nothing quite like this. She's in some kind of area where the roof is caving in and, rather than do anything about it, a call to action that she knows she's capable of, she's more or less paralyzed.

And then suddenly she's pulled close against someone and it's Even Worse because there's been a strange kind of familiarity, an emotional recognition to whoever was dreaming this, the feeling of "I shouldn't do this, but I need to." Not something she can focus on right now, not when she recognizes the person who just saved... whoever she's supposed to be. And additionally recognizes there's some other implication to his arm being injured, but regardless--she braces a hand against his chest, leaning back to give him a very unimpressed stare.

Surely just like the NPC Shopkeeper would have done. Surely!! ]

Now's hardly the time to joke, is it?

[He's having a restless night.]

[Sampo moves through the streets, feeling off. Did he drink too much? No. Can't be that. Something is wrong. He holds his head, moving into a building but-]

[Where he is becomes a different space entirely. He feels nauseous, his head pounding as he tries to regain his senses from the onslaught.]

....Huh?

[How disorienting. The smell of the sea buries itself in his nose, his mouth, and he feels like he's choking on it. Sampo topples forward, feeling something shift behind him. What, is there a creature there? He twists around, alarmed, but whatever it is drags around him and he almost trips on-]

[His own.....tail? A large, dark blue snake tail.]

[His mouth feels different. He can't understand why.]

...What the hell?

[ Elysium is no Cautus, but there's a commonality between many of the ones that have found residence in Rhodes Island, at least of those who hail from Rim Billiton. A story concocted from Elysium's own memories of what he's seen and heard of their circumstances, nestled amidst rugged terrain, Netzach will find himself in one of its mines, surrounded by peers of his age and younger.

He may realise he's "lucky." Instead of being equipped with a pickaxe, armed with explosives, or made to drive carts towing loads of black ore by the tonnes, he's a safe distance away from the brunt of the work, clipboard in hand in full protective attire. More precisely, it appears "he" had been inspecting the health of these workers, their life expectancies in full display before his eyes. Not many of them will have many years to live if they have any left at all. They spare the occasional furtive glace in his direction. They do not look unwilling, necessarily, but they do appear to bear an exhaustion that's beyond physical. As covered up as they are, there's no hiding the peeks of black crystals on their skin, some more overt than others, spanning entire sections of it or simply dotting along the lines of their necks.

A voice will supply: who'd want to work in a mine willingly? Rim Billiton may employ Infected unlike most other territories, but work such as this couldn't be considered a grace when it all but guarantees a shorter life. The dream shifts to similar fraught conditions in Infected losing work merely because they've developed the ailment, clinics they'd once been accepted at turning them away, and fellow citizens withdrawing from being in proximity, their glances anything but friendly. And yet again, this is considered "kinder," as they're at least permitted to exist in the same space they've always had.

The final cut before the memory settles might be, "Look, I'm just as upset as you that your parents died… but dying of work-related illnesses is how it is around these parts. You have it easy here. Why do you have to go?" Another story, unfortunately, that isn't terribly uncommon amongst the uninfected Cautus in Rhodes Island. The desire for change. For improvement. ]

… Welcome aboard. [ Before him is Elysium, standing bent at his knees with his hand extended out, presumably for him to take to climb into their vehicle. His smile is complicated. ] I heard you wanted wanted to join the research team. They do some pretty incredible stuff! You must be a smart guy.

[ Because I am a simple creature that knows what it wants and I refuse to give you context when you don't need it:

This memory opens up without decorum. And, it doesn't really need to, when Wriothesley will startle "awake" to a distinct searing in his chest. It pulses from the centre of it and threads uncomfortably through his veins, leaving trails of fire ignited by deposits of ash that intensify by the second. Perhaps against his better judgement (if he's making any judgements at all), the body thrashes instinctively. It yells. It generally makes a mess of things in the clinic he's awoken to, sending a table with various instruments careening as if the actions would serve to quell its condition. But it doesn't, and his attending doctor is left to page for additional assistance when she isn't quite equipped to deal with his current episode alone.

So, the sequence of events is as follows: Elysium, the combatant who happens to be closest, responds to her distress signal with immediacy. There's no subduing him into the bed's restraints when he's already ripped them off, and there's the thought that they should've placed him in a higher security ward, it seems. But Elysium will move to slam him onto the ground and his front; in an active struggle, there's no consideration for being gentle, only effective, preventing further harm to any involved parties. If he ends up with a cut lip… oops.

Conveniently, what Elysium he has on his person by means of effective restraining is rope. Holdover, presumably, from an earlier mission. His knee will dig into Wriothesley's back considerably, arms pulled back and held against him. It probably won't be an easy task keeping him down, but… you know how it goes. If he has to exert more force, he will. ]

Behave a little, won't you? [ That sure is his voice directly behind the shell of Wriothesley's ear. ] The nice lady won't be able to treat you if you're this rowdy. Don't be any naughtier than you have.

[ to shibari or not to shibari … anyway, yeah, assume that there's some paranoia effects or what have you, we live free ]

[ To Elysium, who's wandered this dreamscape for far longer, he isn't quite going through the same adjusting pains Sampo is. In this dream, he happens to be one of Elysium's comrades, one of the few operators he'd been entrusted with to lead a small squad out for reconnaissance. Except, that squad is down to two now that they've been separated from the rest, and all he's capable of thinking about is how Sampo sure is standing still and clumsily moving about as a deep sea slider quietly crawls in his direction.

Something of a knife flies past Sampo, possibly scuffing him in its trajectory. It lands dead centre in its eyes before Elysium's running up to him and grabbing him angrily by the arm. ]

Stole the words right outta me! What the hell, man? [ A hiss, but they aren't given the luxury to stand back and argue. He'll roughly urge Sampo to start running by means of yanking the same arm before releasing it. ] Get moving already!

[ Where the first one had appeared silently and almost sluggishly, an entire cluster of them begin to advance at an alarming rate. Do-or-die, friend! Do-or-die. ]

[ It may be the movements of the dream he's following, but Wriothesley's never liked being tied up. There's too much danger inherent to being bound and restrained, left with no defense other than the sweep of a leg or the sharp bite of his canines. Somewhere in the midst of it all, the dream struggle becomes real, his instinctive urge to be free taking over. The pain doesn't help, and only fuels the adrenaline rushing through his veins.

He fights Elysium, torso twisting on the ground as he tries to buck the other man off him and legs trying to kick back. His lips pull back in a sharp grin, voice raspy and low with exerted effort. ]

If you really want naughty, you'll have to get me into bed first.

[ He means the medical cot laid out but like. If the others in the room want to take it another way, that's their prerogative. Anyway, there's your yaoi. ]

Is this how you treat all your patients? Your bedside manner could use some work.

[ 0/10, would not recommend. ]

Huh-WAH!

[That was a CLOSE one, the HELL! Sampo leaps to the side, but the new tail is hard to balance with, and he almost falls, not before Elysium manages to grab him. That's a familiar face, but-]

El- [He can't even manage to cough out his name, he's already being told to get a move on. Confusion abounds, and not in a good way. Fuck, there's a lot of them coming-!] I-I-I got it! Okay! Moving!

[And he will DO HIS BEST with NEW SCALESONA FEATURE like geez....this things kinda heavy.]

Where are we going, pal-?!

[just how it is around these parts...

well, that might be true. it rings true with what netzach has always known in his actual life, too-- all of this does, making it easy enough to fall into place in this dream. day in and day out, things are the same; people suffer, and are told they're lucky for it (lucky to work here, to be in this position, despite everything).

when netzach blinks and opens his eyes once more, looking at the hand offered out to him, he takes it without much expression at all, gripping elysium's hand so he can climb up.]

Well... I guess I wouldn't expect too much. [he says with a little shake of his head, long ears swaying.] Not that special or anything.

[ Where are they going? Good question. He knows where they should go immediately, which is to a shelter just beyond the hill and in one of the abandoned buildings further north. But what about after that? The other members that comprise their squad are missing, the nethersea brand that marks the Seaborn's territory crawls further and further inland as the days pass, so they couldn't just stay there for forever, not to mention their resource situation. They clearly couldn't conduct any meaningful operation when they were the ones who needed a rescue squad now, but who knew if their path back home was still clear?

A captain of one didn't make him any less of one.

That is, Elysium would very much like to answer that question if they weren't in the midst of an emergency and that it'd involve a whole lot more of a loaded answer than merely a single destination. First things first: ]

Anywhere other than here, obviously! [ Just shut up and follow, please, but at least he seems to clue in on Sampo's source of distress. His tail? … Okay. Fine. People have gotten hung up on weirder things. He'll bend over to heft it into his arms as they run, even if it isn't ideal. ] What's gotten into you?

I should be asking you that?!

[Because really, he can't explain anything like this. Wait, maybe he's crazy? Naaaah. This feels too real. Elysium grabbing his tail suddenly makes him jolt up in a way, like electricity up the spine, and the thing curls itself around the other's arm. Who needed their spine to be this long and prehensile? Sheesh...]

[He's running like the dickens, though.]

What is going on here, man...?

[ damn way to make him admit to his failures before he can even so much process them

Still, it probably is the best time to get an objective account… ]

I lost the others when we got ambushed.

[ As if that clarifies the situation any, but look, how would he know what they're working with? His tone brooks Sampo not to push this point further, arms wrapping around Sampo's tail that much tighter in tandem with its curl. Like it's a lifeline—like he doesn't intend to lose Sampo, too. ]

Rather than go down together, I made the order to split. It's possible that they're still out there somewhere… but someone needs to tell people what happened. [ meaning: they have to leave men behind. ] The whole city—it's compromised.

[ unstated: he imagines the rest of the country shares a similar fate. ]

[ catastrophes are common enough in ishmael's world that they don't even come with a capital C. her own body is screaming at her to get out of the way before the building collapses in on her, but she knows it's futile. she doesn't need the dream paralyzing her entirely when her innate prey instinct can do that for her just fine.

but then a flash of white hair and red swoops in just in time, and ishmael blinks owlishly up at elysium's smiling figure, blood dripping from his arm and onto her freckled cheek. she's going to assume that the injury came from the rubble and leave it at that for now. ]

Mm. Could be better. [ a shrug. ] Just... where are we, anyway?

[ also can ely move a little, he's getting way too close for comfort here.......... ]

( can i have a crumb of ii featuring a rescue squad. please and thanks. )

Edited 2024-06-02 03:40 (UTC)

( closed ) life like the unplumbed sea;

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→ semi-open, june 2024 pre-fight top-levels.

→ city of dreams.

→ city of dreams, cyoa.

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i

you know what this is, june 2024

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dissociates immediately

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i.

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