[CLOSED] Zahliyaquest...2

[purifier]

Who: Zahliya, Luca, Joshua, Wolfwood, Dipper, Mamika, Siffrin, Loop, & Kiera
What: A gargoyle needs task-doers for character development
When: Mid-August, yes during the rainstorms, good luck
Where: ??? :)
Warnings: Typical Sticks trigger warnings apply, suicide, time loops resulting in multiple character deaths, Wolfwood just shot someone executioner style, more to be added


OOC notes, here is a rehash of your rules:

• Mod tags will come either a) after everyone involved has tagged in or b) after 24 hours have passed since the last mod tag. This means if you are absent for any reason, the thread WILL move on without you.
• Interaction in this log will be redeemable for MAIN AC, not just Bonus AC like most of our NPC threads.
• This questline will shape Zahliya's outcome for the rest of the game, and may or may not result in an almost-full Corruption cure and therefore gamewide impact. I will let people know midway through the quest if he's currently aimed at aggression/confidence/staying in the Grove, or if he's on passive/indecisive/leaving the Grove.
• The old OOC plotting post for this is here!

Comments

[ghostharasser]

[Dipper frowns, wishing he had an ounce of usefulness here, but he really doesn't know enough to help. He settles down on his knees opposite to Siffrin as they work.]

...They're in really rough shape. Like, this is probably a job for someone like PV.

[His voice drops, and he says the thing he has been wondering since he saw them. He looks more to the floor as he speaks, banishing away a particular face from his memory. of the way she begged him to be released- For all the bravado he showed up to this point, he finally seems to crack.]

Would it be kinder to just... you know.

[start_again]

[It takes Siffrin to place the nickname. Someone he hasn't really talked to, when he's already been trying to keep his distance from these people and avoid getting too settled into a place he has no intention of staying. And that's on top of his memory issues. But he nods absently anyway, not really listening since he's more focused on trying to keep these people alive.

At least, he wasn't really listening at first. That follow up has his eye snapping up to the kid, jaw tightening.

That's...a hell of a thing for a teenager to be suggesting. But glancing back down at these almost-corpses, he can't exactly deny the pragmatism of it.

Still.]

...If I'm gonna do something like that, then you should leave too. I'm not letting a kid watch me mercy-kill someone.

[ghostharasser]

[Dipper takes a deep breath, steeling himself. He shakes his head.]

...It's something I've had to do before. If we do it, I'm not letting you do it alone.

[start_again]

[If that's supposed to comfort him, then it's definitely a failure, as Siffrin's jaw only tenses more.]

Don't tell me that. You're like, what, thirteen?

[ghostharasser]

I'm sixteen in like two weeks.

[Does he have a baby face? Does this keep happening because he looks young? Ugh, it's so annoying. At least annoyance takes place of the vaguely shell-shocked expression he just had.]

Besides, the universe has never given a damn about whether or not I'm a kid. If it did, I wouldn't be missing an eye and I wouldn't have scars from the multiple times I've died. Just let me help.

[start_again]

[I mean, yes, but mostly Siffrin's just lowballing it on purpose. Maybe the inherent joke of that would be more obvious were they not surrounded by corpses, or if the topic of conversation were something else.]

Is that supposed to make me feel better about it? I'm the adult here. It's my job to prevent that kind of thing. That doesn't just stop being a thing because some bad stuff has already happened! I'm not gonna go, "Well, the kid's already been through a lot, so it's fine if we traumatize him a little more!"

[ghostharasser]

[Probably, but points for trying, dude.]

Yeah? Obviously? I'm already too messed up anyway, so it might as well be me!

[But Siffrin's words sound...a lot like something Stan would say to him in this moment and it rips the air from his lungs in a deeply uncomfortably way. His own words echo in his ears for a moment and he just kind of sits back, winded.]

...Oh.

[start_again]

[And Dipper's words sound...a lot like something Siffrin himself would say. But it's fine coming from him, he's an adult and just generally less important anyway, but he doesn't wanna hear that shit coming from a kid. It's hard not to project, not to imagine Bonnie sitting there insisting they can help and don't need protecting.

He doesn't know what kind of realization Dipper just came to there – hypocritically, they hope it's something along the lines of "wow that was a fucked up thing to say" – but he just exhales and shakes his head.]

Either you leave for a minute, or we sit here and I keep trying to heal them, okay?

[That might be a little fucked up in itself, effectively putting the choice of whether or not to kill these people on the teenager's shoulders. But it's either that or bodily shoving the kid out, so.

¯\_(ツ)_/¯ ]

[ghostharasser]

[Yeah, more or less. He doesn't have the time right now to unpack everything he just said, or to try and figure out where it came from. Maybe he'd thought this for a long time and this situation just forced it out of him.]

[Something to talk about in therapy, probably. Man, he hopes Mizuki appreciates what a repeat customer he is.]

Okay.

[To walk out, and perform a mercy for these people but leave the act in someone else's hands, or to stay and try and improve a situation that may be far beyond their ability. To prolong a suffering that could be worse than hell.]

[He doesn't decide right away. He watches Sif try one more time before he lets out a shaky breath and stands. With an uneven step, he heads for the temple doors.]

[start_again]

[Oof. Well, that made that choice for him. He can't wimp out now. For all he'd sounded very practical and cool-headed about it, he still can't look down at these people – helpless, and probably scared if they're still in their right minds – and not feel some hesitation. They're people, after all.

Ugh. It was so much easier using the dagger on himself.

Can't waste time, though. He did tell the kid to just step out for a minute or some. Siffrin draws his dagger, takes a slow breath in and out and focuses on the many wounds still seeping blood despite his best efforts and the gurgling sounds the people make.]

Sorry. I'll make it quick.

[Subconsciously, he can't help but mutter it out loud under his breath, "Please be quick, please be quick, please be quick." Prayer turned to habit, born of rituals long forgotten.

He does indeed make it fast. Two quick stabs, one each, slotted neatly between the ribs right into the heart. Hopefully that's less painful than slowly bleeding out from a slit throat or something.]

[purifier]

[Excellent news: The mercy kill does, in fact, do the job Siffrin wanted it to do. If a dying person could be grateful, they would be, though they're quite incapable of expressing that fact.

Throughout it all, there's the idle clopclop of hooves on the stone floors as Zahliya checks every room, photo in-hand. Not that this place has many rooms to begin with. As far as he can see, nothing is out of sorts in the other ones. They're all normal. Corpseless.

These people didn't get too far.]

There's no one else— [Where tf did Dipper go,] ...no one else here. Just this lot.

...why did you not let them suffer?

[start_again]

[Sitting there on the floor with blood literally on his hands – and he is pointedly not looking at his, his stomach twisting whenever he sees that awful color – Siffrin glances up at Zahliya's approach with the flattest expression. He stares for a long few moments at that question before shaking his head and slowly getting to his feet.]

I'm not that terrible a person.

[Definitely pretty terrible, in their own eyes, but even now, with magic rocks fucking with their emotions and all the bullshit of this place heaped on top of the bullshit they were carrying from before, they still don't have it in them to be that cruel.

It certainly doesn't improve his image of Zahliya, though.]

I'm going to go get the others.

[And he just turns and walks away without waiting for a response, sticking his head out the front doorway.]

I'm done. And he said there's no one else here.

[purifier]

[Is it terrible to want vengeance? Those people let the Black Sun out of his prison, and Zahliya sees no reason to be kind to people who would allow a fallen god to slaughter everyone in sight. Had they only listened to Aldric, none of this would have happened.

He frowns. Looks down at the blood on his hooves that he carelessly stepped through.

Is he wrong to think that people who wrong others should suffer to the fullest extent? Unkind? Do humans want to show sympathy to evildoers now?

Zahliya pinches the bridge of his nose between his thumb and forefinger. He needs to go kill that thing before it does more damage. But these kids, these humans (source needed) are still out there talking, and they won't be safe here. They probably won't be safe at home either, so maybe he should just keep them with him and protect them and ugh this is such a difficult decision.

Finally, he steps out, glancing around at everyone.]

You will follow me. I've delayed too long in slaughtering the Black Sun. [Whoops, he's decided this for you now.] I don't want anything to happen to you, so stay close.

[He opens his mouth to say more, but another voice, this one foreign and unknown, speaks up. It's a disgruntled, feminine voice that resonates all around you, as though something from outside is watching.]

Ugh. You guys weren't here in his original memories. Could you kindly get out?

[And then another voice, recognizable as one of the voices that rang out before you set foot into the ruined Temple, shortly before winding up in the past:]

...there's a bit of a problem. Hold on, you'll be a little dizzy.

[...and then everything goes dark.]