Joscelin Fitzthomas (![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png)
dredefulchilde) wrote in ![[community profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/community.png)
thenearshore2018-09-21 01:52 pm
dredefulchilde) wrote in thenearshore2018-09-21 01:52 pm
#vampireproblems
Who: Joscelin Fitzthomas, the forces of Heaven, and you.
What: A distraught, blighted shinki goes on a rampage against Heaven. How will you react?
Where: All over.
When: January 23-25
Warnings Violence. Will update with anything else.
Liberties taken with NPCs are mod-approved.
At first, it's all rumor. On the twenty-second of January, there is a report of a small, hooded figure attacking one of Heaven's white robed shinki with a knife, then vanishing too quickly to be caught. There is another attack the next day on two of Amaterasu's shinki near her temple, and this time there's a complication: there are clear signs of blight on the small hand that holds the knife. By the third day, the mysterious attacker is clearly disfigured, all fangs and claws and multiple eyes. The number of victims--all injured, none dead--mounts.
Something is happening in Heaven. And it clearly isn't good.
What: A distraught, blighted shinki goes on a rampage against Heaven. How will you react?
Where: All over.
When: January 23-25
Warnings Violence. Will update with anything else.
Liberties taken with NPCs are mod-approved.
At first, it's all rumor. On the twenty-second of January, there is a report of a small, hooded figure attacking one of Heaven's white robed shinki with a knife, then vanishing too quickly to be caught. There is another attack the next day on two of Amaterasu's shinki near her temple, and this time there's a complication: there are clear signs of blight on the small hand that holds the knife. By the third day, the mysterious attacker is clearly disfigured, all fangs and claws and multiple eyes. The number of victims--all injured, none dead--mounts.
Something is happening in Heaven. And it clearly isn't good.
no subject
She's keeping around the area the shinki were attacked and slowly spiraling outward when she spots the sheen of a borderline. Popping over to check it out, her own fingers ready to slash and draw, she spots in front of the barrier and looks down at the feeble figure.
The blight is bad, distorting his features, but she can make out enough. Joscelin. What happened? Ginia crouches in front of him, mouth thinning into a line at his request for help. She nods, pulling out her phone, the glow of the screen illuminating her face, breifly considering who to contact before sending out a text message to Unmi. Dread forms a pit in her gut, but there's no time for fear right now.
I need help with an ablution. Can you meet me at [x location]?
Message sent, she turns to Joss and types up a message for him to hear.
"I'm calling a friend. We're going to do our best to help you, but you have to work with us, okay?"
no subject
With word of the attacker spreading around, he'd done what he always did: set out to find what was happening and to stop the attacker. He might not be able to Rend it alone, but he could beat it down and trap it in a Borderline, then ask for help -- and he absolutely didn't want Marinette involved in this. She was not ready to fight with him in his vessel form, not against something this dangerous and deadly.
But though he was focused, he wasn't mindless. He'd chased what he thought were sightings or tracks this far, and when they ended he took to the top of the nearby buildings in the hopes of gaining an advantage. A good thing, too, because from that vantage he spied the figures down below, the Borderline separating them, the lack of hostility on either side.
"I'm coming down," he said, quiet voice carrying as if he'd spoken right next to them. Warning enough so no one would panic or misconstrue when he landed some feet away, cloak swirling around his feet as he rose from the crouch.
Down here, the sight was clearer, impossible to misconstrue. He spun his sword into a forehand grip, but only because that made it easier to sheathe.
"This is... a really bad one."
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A simple response beeps onto Ginia's phone, although it might take her a moment to get to it, with her sudden visitor. Unmi means what he says, however. It doesn't take a lot to guess what the ablution might have to do with, when there's a warning from the Heavens right there on the BBS. It only takes a moment after Dust has landed before there's another presence popping into existence there in the clearing. Cradled in one of Unmi's arms is Ebisu, arms wound tight around his shinki's neck. His other hand is free, pointed out and ready for a borderline.
Just in case.
It turns out there's no need to defend himself, not yet, and Unmi quickly surveys the scene with a grim look. "There's no time to waste," he says, circling around the twisted and pathetic sight that's curled up against the ground. "Jitsumi, and you there, sir- do you know the ablution chant?" He assumes that Jitsumi does, considering that she'd asked him for it, but it doesn't hurt to be careful.
With his own expression solemn, Ebisu speaks up as well. "I can bring back some of the others, if we need them."
no subject
“Are you here to kill me? There’s an order out.”
Joscelin almost sounds pleased, but tears stream from his one blue eye.
He likes that Ginia is here. She’s a strange one, but he respects her as one of the few adults who seems to take him seriously. If he’s going to die, maybe it won’t be so bad if she’s the one doing the killing.
no subject
"I do. This is not my first."
She answers Unmi before turning her attention back to Joscelin. He was never a normal child from their conversations, but behind his twisted appearance is the smallest she's ever seen him.
She can only be honest. May it encourage him to do the same.
"I know, but we're not here to kill you. We want to help you. We're going to perform an ablution on you. All you need to do is be honest and confess your feelings to us and let us know what's bothering you. If you do not, you'll continue until you turn into an ayakashi and die. No one wants to see that happen."
no subject
But that amusement could only last a second, his expressing darkening as quickly as it had lightened. He turned to face the blighted child. "I won't kill someone I can still hope to save." Flat, his voice and his tone left no room for argument. Though he was turned to the borderline and his eyes were hidden, offering no clues, his attention is on Ebisu, watching him carefully for the moment. Would he allow this, or insist on obeying the order? Or argue that this almost-lost shinki was too far gone, and that they needed to strike rather than save?
So far, he didn't seem like he disagreed with their choice, though, or else he'd have stopped his shinki immediately, wouldn't he?
no subject
Ebisu nods, wordless, and lets himself be ushered behind his shinki. Kiwami is a good choice, he knows. Unlike Aomi or Kimi, who are sensitive to other people's emotions, Kiwami is able to get a job done and save his emotions for after the dust has settled. Takami is out of the question, in his state, and Kunimi is exhausted as it is. Kiwami is their best bet.
With that promise made, Unmi turns back to the scene. "Then, we'll need the boy's name, and the name of his god."
no subject
At this, he breaks down, choking on a sob that turns into a scream of pain when a pair of small bat wings bursts from his back, destroying what remained of his coat.
“She’s gone. My Mistress is gone because they took her.”
He’s shaking now. The blight is spreading quick.
“B-but I...I also have Nari. I am...I was a nora.”
no subject
It doesn't matter now. Or, it does because Joscelin is hurting, but there's no bringing her back. But they can still save him, his other god too. They have to.
"Joscelin, stay with me. What god is Nari representing?"
With every second taking Joscelin closer to becoming an ayakshi, it's time to wall up anyway. Ginia opens her jacket and keeps a tight grip on her phone, ready for the long haul. She clears her mind, steels her resolve, and slashes out a borderline on the ground. The barrier pops up in front of Joscelin, close, but with an arm's length to spare.
"Ebisu, can you talk to Joscelin's god on our behalf?"
no subject
"I'm Dust," he said softly, letting his voice carry in to Joscelin. "I'll help take care of you. I've done this before. You're in good hands with us, I promise."
sorry i'm late, lost this in my inbox for a hot second
Right now, that's a blessing, and Unmi nods to his god even as he places him down on the ground. "Thank you, young master. Now please listen to Jitsumi. We'll hand it from here." Ebisu frowns, concerned, but nods. In just a second, he's gone.
That's one worry off his back.
Taking a deep breath, Unmi steels himself. "Then, let's get started." There's no time to lose. With his hand outstretched, he draws his own line, connecting it to Ginia's, and recites the incantation.
"To safeguard the name, dedicated to Neptune, and have its spirit wiped clean… Cast off thy impurity and extinguish thy carnal mind, thou bright, meek, upright soul. Strip thyself of uncleanness and be thou also pure. Purgatory!"
no subject
Joscelin lets out another anguished cry, the wings on his back flapping wildly as he twists in pain.
“It hurts! Stop! Please!”
no subject
Ginia's hands snap through the air with each sign, resolve and resolution steeling her spirit. What strange twist at play is there to make her second ablution the shinki of the target of her first? It only sets her determination to see him safe, to do whatever it takes to save his life.
And if he doesn't want to save himself and turns completely, then to honor what his life was by killing the ayakashi he becomes. Hopefully it never turns to that point.
"Joscelin, please. Talk to us."
She types and plays the word as she keeps her hands steady in front, her energy and will sustaining her wall of the triangle.
no subject
In this moment, Dust's will was his Borderline, as surely as it was his sword, his being. His purpose was to save, and no other outcome would be acceptable.
"The pain you feel comes from inside you," he said, soft but carrying. "Tell us what hurts."
no subject
All they can do is... "The more you talk," he says, trying to make up for the gentleness that he knows Ginia can't quite manage with a phone and that their third shouldn't manage on his own, "the less it will hurt." It's not quite true, but it's the best that can be offered right now. Hopefully he doesn't get so distracted by the pain as to stay silent.
Timeskip!
After hours of screaming insults and filth at the three shinki who are performing the ablution, his twisted little body slumps in the center of the triangle, too exhausted to continue. He’s ready to give up and let the blight take him. Death would be preferable to this torture.
“I miss her,” he whispers, almost too softly to hear. “I miss her and it’s my fault she’s gone. I push everyone away.”
This is progress. He’s finally confessing; he can be saved.
no subject
(Later, when there's time to contemplate, she'll dwell a little as she sorts out what he meant in honest anger and what was a low bow.)
When he finally begins to talk, Ginia holds back the breath she wants to release as a sigh. Not yet, it's not enough yet. His words are hard to hear, but she catches enough.
"Ayumu didn't leave because of you, but let yourself miss her, be honest about how you feel."
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When the boy finally speaks, after a long and arduous process... Unmi finally lets out a breath. There might be a chance yet. They're just not out of the woods.
"What could you have done?" he asks simply, striking a balance between the two opposing arguments that Jitsumi and Dust both give. "And, more importantly... What are you doing now? Would your god wish that you suffer like this?"
no subject
That, beyond everything else, is the main source of his guilt and his grief. He hadn't noticed. Drugged with Hakkai's tea, he'd slept through the whole thing and awakened in the morning on a hard, cold patch of ground where the temple had been, the name she had given him erased from his stomach.
"She did so much for me but then when she needed me most I didn't even notice. Then I try to get revenge and I botched that too."
He's sobbing now, and it feels so good to cry, to unburden himself. "I've hurt so many people. Right now, Nari is dying because of me. And when I try to make it better, I make it worse."
no subject
Still, too cold and the shinki going through an ablution may close up again. He's talking, unloading his feelings. That more than ever is a good sign. There's barely any skin left unblighted, but it isn't worsening now.
"We all hurt people, intentionally or not. When you do, you apologize. You're doing the right thing right now, talking about how you feel. Ayumu wouldn't want to see you in pain, but I think she'd be proud of how much you care for her."
no subject