[CLOSED] Zahliyaquest...2

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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

a special chapter for our favourite troll and angel

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[The itching is going to go super un-ignored in a second when Mamika's hearts throw her aside re: other thread, she's going to start fuckin scratchin'. Josh will at least feel satisfaction in that one of her surface thoughts is how much the itching fucking bugs her, like wtf does she have ants in her hair or—

So, Josh digs into the Edgelord's Brain and discovers some fun facts (or unfun facts, depending):
- In terms of traditional values such as "home" or "friends" or something, she instead puts a lot of stock into loyalty, but in a dark and twisted way where it looks like she views anyone who is against her as completely disloyal. Her loyalty goes both ways; she has no reason to be disloyal to the Black Sun, it seems, though most of her "loyalty" value is again aimed at herself and what she wants.
- To that end, she is pissed at Moder (who was uncorrupted and cured when they used to be on one side), and she is perfectly willing to hold onto Zahliya's memories/erase them entirely until he's loyal to her, too.
- ...Also she values her physical appearance, and likes to be & appear clean and put together. This may be why she stood there completely calmly while holding her shirt on after being shot.

Anyway moments later she tumbleweeds across the ground thanks to Mamika and the smoke monster that is the Warden wraps around her, but Joshua is free to continue poking.]

[leggierissimo]

[ oh lol get rekt girl byeeee

The bit about loyalty is interesting, though. More so than physical appearance - anyone can value their physical appearance, but that drive for loyalty seems to have the potential to be a real raw nerve. Desiring loyalty so strongly indicates something very potentially delicious, here.

So, that's the thread he'll follow this time. Where did this desire for loyalty come from? Suri doesn't seem like the type to hand out hugs like promotional merchandise - is that the source? Could it be something they could use in the future? Or does it stem from something else?

If the rest of the team keeps this up, he may not have much time, so he has to focus. He isn't usually on a time crunch when picking out an entry fee, after all. It's a personal challenge he'll gladly take. ]

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[It's so hard to throw a tantrum when there's a dude poking around in your brainmeats. 🙄

A lot of her memories will grow scratchy at a certain point as she tries to defend herself from psychic attacks, but Josh will get the gist of it. He'll get blips of memories — of the Black Sun crafting Zonari out of stone, likely in a mockery of how the Sun and Moon made Zahliya eons ago. She went unnamed for a long time and was simply referred to as "my daughter" or "my child", and Joshua will get the impression that names were not top of the priority list; the Black Sun doesn't know his own, after all. She got hers after he caught wind of the human children naming Zahliya.

That said, it seems like he's been good for her, a stark contrast to how he is with everyone else (especially you lot). She entertains his requests to dangle off of his arms like a child would, despite her being at least 6ft tall. He puts up with her dragging him into a lake deep in the woods, not the one Callan lives in but another one, and yelling at him to bathe. He praises her when she does a good job — corrupting someone, killing someone, messing with memories, and other similar mook-type tasks that she's happy to take. She has command of certain things; the Warden listens to her, Corrupted Moder listened to her, even that snake the Black Sun keeps listens to her sometimes. More than that, she seems to be valued, in a way that the Black Sun is not known for.

It also seems like this loyalty is programmed into her, in a similar vibe to how Zahliya's instinct to cure Corruption and kill Corrupted things is programmed into him. It's unnatural, but both gargoyles are children of deities, after all. Her loyalty, however, doubles back into what seems to be slight narcissism; she thinks she's right and has never been wrong, and she doesn't care about heroes and therefore doesn't understand why you people are so obnoxious, and even though she likes the Black Sun and everything both of them are, the argument of "why destroy the world when you fucking live on it" is going to fall flat with her. She believes, in a pseudo-suicidal way, that the world ending is better for everyone.

More than that, if she can just kill her so-called sibling that she was modelled after, she wouldn't mind dying here. Better to die here than stand in the shadow of the "superior" older brother.

Anyway, Joshua is getting beaned back in the skull with an earth-shattering, severe-migraine-inducing psychic attack, and Zonari's mental voice screaming at him to get out of her head.]

[leggierissimo]

[ Huh. That's... not what he was expecting. Charming, in a way, despite the context of what it is that she and the Black Sun do. So he had been a fairly loving and doting "father" after all... But that issue with loyalty was crafted into her whole being. The Black Sun never did anything to earn her loyalty - he installed it. She never had a choice, and that now extends to not being able to see the perspective of others. Only her own matters.

The logic of one world means nothing in another. Joshua can hear his own words from only a few years ago echoing back at him. He had once been this closed off, too. The only difference is that he has the capacity for change. Does she? ... could she?

He can feel her fighting back against him now, and knows that he doesn't have much more time. But, he can't waste even a single second of this opportunity. Anything can make a difference in their struggle. Anything can be weaponized. Anyone can be weaponized. If he can just slip in an Imprint, tiny but strong, just a seed of doubt that could bloom like an invasive plant, that could overwhelm and overtake--

But Zonari wants that twink obliterated, and the effect is like yanking him backwards when he's got his fingers dug in deep. The blast of pain disables him, sending Joshua to his knees while clutching his head and muffling noises of pain, immediately withdrawing from Zonari's mind to get away from the horrendous screaming. He has no way of even knowing if his Imprint stayed attached or not, but his window has now been slammed abruptly shut, right on his metaphorical fingers.

Well. So much for that! At least he has information. ]