Winter Catch-All

[chtholic]

WHO: Enki and whoever else is putting up with him.
WHEN: Late Dec-March
WHERE: All around Etraya!
WHAT: Oh, you know, Enki things!
NOTES\WARNINGS: Will update as needed, each thread will be marked, but let Enki be his own warning as a necromancer who does not care one wit about annoying things like ethics.

[ooc: This will just be a convenient place to toss starters as needed! If you wish to plot anything or want a log with Enki, please feel free to hit me up on discord (Zanono) or at ZornSable!]

Comments

Closed to Ragnvaldr! Late December Egg hatching time!

[chtholic]

[Enki honestly could have taken better care of the egg, but he did enough of the job to make sure it hatched at all. Were this a normal egg, it would have hatched with minimal health issues, maybe not the strongest of creatures to break free of its shell-prison, but enough to have lived a healthy enough life! Still, the lack of warmth from Enki impacted what the egg produced regardless, and so when it begins to shift and show signs of cracking, there is a malevolence that radiates from it that should serve as its own warning.

Enki, however, is busy reading one of the manuals he found in the apartment. He didn't know what a microwave was before, but now he has a better idea of it. Though when the distinct feeling of yearning for blood enters his mind like a suggestion might his ear, he is immediately pulled from the page explaining defrost settings. His eyes falling to the egg that's cracking upon its nest of sheets and other unused bedding, perched safely upon the kitchen table.]

...Outlander—do you feel that?

[He knows Ragnvaldr is in the other room, he knows he can probably hear him.]

[devowr]

[With food plentiful and the weather cold, Ragnvaldr has taken to sleeping longer hours. His own egg is rather large with a strong eggshell, and he’s kept it warm against his body like a hen. So, when Enki’s eggshell breaches, Ragnvaldr wakes in a sudden manner to what he can only describe as a killing intent. He hears Enki’s words right as he fully wakes, standing from bed ready to deal with someone or something.]

[He picks up a length of wood that he keeps by his bed with nails driven through it. He comes through the bedroom door dressed in a sweater and loose boxers, gaze searching.]

Ja. [His eyes fall to the egg in the otherwise silent room. But he pauses before he acts. ]

What is it?

[chtholic]

What are you—

[Enki bristles seeing Ragnvaldr's large frame coming through the doorway, armed with that plank of wood. There's momentary distrust in his eyes as he watches him, as if he's concerned that Ragnvaldr has been possessed by that yearning for blood, but then when he stops and asks, he relaxes.

But barely.

He blinks his gaze between the egg and Ragnvaldr for a few seconds, the remnants of distrust still within him, before he settles it upon the egg as it cracks more. Part of the shell falling to the table top, and the feeling becoming more intense.]

I don't know what it is, but doesn't it feel similar to—

[And as if on cue, more of the egg breaks apart, and they can see a single purple eye staring back at them. It is...smaller than the eye they might have expected from Miasma, but what is inside of the egg is considerably smaller than the Miasma they know. More of the shell falling reveals this to them, and Enki finds himself lost for words.]

[devowr]

That eye…

… Was Miasma originally hatched, not forged?

[He sets the piece of wood aside to get closer without crowding the space. He sits at the kitchen table and looks down at the thing.]

[chtholic]

Considering its more biological aspects, I do not know if we can claim it was forged in any way we are familiar.

[Forged by the God of the Depths, perhaps, but that does not mean that it was beaten into its shape through heat and hammer. Enki approaches, looking at it as the egg quivers and cracks, the rest falling apart as the miniature sword seems to take its shape and form from the remnants of the shell. It stands on its blade tip, that bulging eye looking around its surroundings before locking onto Enki.

It is not just his mind that fills with its demand:]



B̵̢̪̭̰́͐̈́͋̓́̆͊͊̉̎͝L̸̡̮̯̩̬̞̻̯̹̪̀̏̀̏̀̓͗̋̈́̓̀͑͘͘͜͝O̴̻̠̲̪̗͉͈̗̓̉̅̃̕O̵̡̨̡̘̝̻̝̤͕̩̺̘͑͋̏͋̌͗̓͛̿̑͆̾͜ͅD̸͚̫͖̭̝̪̼͊̇̓̑̀̎͑̐̎̓̓̅͝͝.


[Enki glowers at it. Here he had thought the cursed thing was left behind, but it just found a new way to burden them.]

...I should not be surprised, and yet...

[devowr]

Ah… It stood up.

[A beat.]

And what will happen if it is not fed blood? Will it weaken, or will it only become angry?

[on that note, Ragnvaldr fishes the egg out from his sweatshirt.]

[chtholic]

[Enki frowns more deeply at the questions, though his eyes stay locked on the pathetic excuse for a sword.]

It might grow more aggressive. Wear at the mind to get what it desires.

[It has been nice not having to deal with the ever pressing darkness of the dungeons, his mind not feeling as though the yarn of it was fraying under the constant strain. Now there's this. He could abandon it, but that meant someone else might get their hands on it...who knows what might happen if they did, and if they wet its appetite.]

What of yours?

[He pulls his gaze from Miasma, looking to Ragnvaldr and his own egg.]

[devowr]

[It starts to crack as an egg tooth comes through right on cue. Ragnvaldr continues to hold it in both hands, watching in fascination. ]


It had been moving around all day.

[And then, with some more effort, it cracks the rest of the egg shell and pushes it properly apart. This was quick by any creature’s measure, but he had just watched a sword hatch-]

[Hes almost wary that something gruesome would hatch when he sees the wet sparse fur over pink skin, then relaxes as soon as he realizes he’s holding an incredibly newborn puppy.]

Look. A dog-

[chtholic]

...

[Enki scowls at that. He isn't jealous, but somehow he finds himself annoyed by this. How odd all the same. A dog from an egg, and a would-be sword from an egg? What is this place? He's almost wondering if they are somehow still in the dungeon, or somewhere in Mahabre? None of this makes much sense...

As he peers at the dog in Ragnvaldr's hands he does notice something odd.]

Are those—does it have four eyes?

[They're slits, sealed from being newly born, of course, but they do not look like the usual wrinkles of being a puppy. He's pretty sure those are closed eyes.]

[devowr]

Ja, yes. I believe you are correct.

[He gently tilts the creature in his hand and peers at it carefully.]

This… This couldn’t be Moonless, could it? Ah… And without a bitch to nurse it. [He clicks his tongue.]

And here I am without a spouted bottle… Perhaps the shop has one. She is too young to be brought outside. Enki, I know you are not one for idle favors… but…

Closed to Kirk; Early January

[chtholic]

[Once Enki had gotten Ragnvaldr to bring him an adequate amount of sweaters (five), and a fur coat which could stand up to the winter wind, not to mention the (green) knee-high snow boots, he finally set out to explore more of Etraya. In part, he wished to learn the lay of the land, where everything is located, and what he might be dealing with. The other part is he needed to figure out where he might place his Blood Portals so that he and Ragnvaldr could more easily traverse the area. It's a rather spacious realm they have found themselves in, after all, with different buildings and resources holding great distances between them.

He refuses to walk in the snow for over an hour every time he needs tobacco, or something else!

Which is why, now that he has made it to Kwik Trip, he has cleared off a spot behind the building from the snow. A mix between shoving the snow around with his boots and blasting it with a little bit of flame to achieve that end, he begins to use a strange weapon with a single eye to carve into the concrete some ritual symbols. The first part being a large circle with four lines coming off of it, and then a second smaller circle will come after. Granted, the first one is taking him...quite a while. He isn't the most physically strong, after all, even with his weird little demon blade in hand.

He is so focused, he doesn't seem to notice if other people are watching him. Or maybe he doesn't care? Either way, he doesn't look up, nor cast Kirk a single glance as he continues to noisily carve into the concrete. His winter clothes makes him look like he has the normal girth of a healthy person his size (5'9), but rest assured, that is the bulk of those sweaters doing all the work on this frail skeleton of a man.]

[godsandbats]

[So far, most of Kirk's days in Etraya have been spent in his lab and working on various projects. One of more pressing ones is his food supply situation. Technically, it could be worse but Kirk doesn't trust anything provided by Aurora or Echo. He would rather get his own food, so to speak. But he can only go so many days without blood before slipping into madness again so he's tried out the blood and artificial plasma from the hospital. It seems fine. He's also been making his usual artificial plasma using the ingredients from Etraya's stores, not that he has much of a choice in the matter. He's still weighing his best meal options with the assumption he might be in Etraya for a while.

Artificial plasma making is what brings Kirk to the Kiwk Trip once again. Unlike Enki, Kirk isn't very bothered by the cold. His body temperature is noticeably lower than a human's so all he needs on this winter day is a thin layer of thermals underneath his Batman suit.

He had just come out of the store with a bag of his ingredients when he smelled someone close. He turns his head towards where the source is and hears shoveling. He also sees steam rising up. Curious he quietly walks towards the rear of the building and peeks around the corner. With his infrared vision, Kirk sees a frail-looking man overly bundled in winter clothes. Kirk eyes follow where the man is focused and sees the symbols carved into the ground.

He frowns, now thinking if he should interrupt or if whatever he's doing will make things worse]

[chtholic]

[Enki takes a moment, his poor hands and weak arms tiring from the carving, but not only that...the weapon in his hands keeps filling his mind with its usual demands:

B̷͚̖̬͂̎l̷̝̍̽o̷̘̐͒̋̋ȍ̸̳̙͝d̵̘̿̍ ̸̝̘̭̦͌̓̀̀B̵͓̖̰̌̓L̴̠͠O̷͇͕̞̚O̴̙̼̼͛͑́͂D̷̢̬̳͚̕͝ ̷̨̘̫̒̈́͛̉b̷͎̠̱̋̋̉ͅl̸̢̳̪̦̓́ȏ̸̍ͅo̷̹̍͊͋d̸̼̓!̴̣̍̚

He stares at the eye as it stares widely back at him, but then its gaze flicks to Kirk with an almost excited fervor. At least, as much as a weapon can express with nothing more than a large eye. Enki pinches his brows together, his mouth thinning to an even tighter line than it usually is, and he reluctantly looks to Kirk. He isn't really in a social mood—not that he ever is.

His circle isn't complete, and the Blood Portal isn't even established yet, had he been a little faster, a little stronger...]

...Are you in need of something?

[He speaks with a light Italian sounding accent, and his tone is about as frigid as the snow around them.]

[godsandbats]

[Underneath his cowl and behind the red goggles, Kirk keeps a stoic expression. He's not at all bothered by Enki's icy tone]

Curious about the ritual you're doing.

[It's a guess based on how deliberate the symbols in the ground appear to be and the unusual weapon Enki is armed with]

[chtholic]

[Enki looks to the partially carved ritual circle, then to Kirk again.]

I am not surprised you do not know what this is.

[Though he doesn't look like he wants to explain it either, especially with the pause he allows to hang in the air for a few moments. Letting out a little white puff of air against the cold, he shakes his head.]

It is an all-purpose ritual circle. Or will be, once I have finished. Does that satisfy your curiosity?

[Probably not, because it's kind of a non-answer, but Enki certainly tries to worm his way out of explaining himself if he can.]

[godsandbats]

[Kirk isn't at all surprised by the man's annoyance. He's just a stranger butting in into things he doesn't know. However, Kirk knows the blade Enki is holding can't be normal and it's what keeping Kirk around. There's an unusually powerful smell of blood coming from it. Weapons that have been swung and bled their targets stop smelling like blood after a while. Either because they get cleaned or the smell simply fades away. The weapon before him smells like it's been soaked in blood and gore for a long while. But there are no recent bloodstains around that Kirk can smell.

Then there's a sensation Kirk is having a harder time pinpointing. Normally he would smell it from his targets. When fighting or running for their lives, of course their bodies would produce chemicals that signal their aggression, their fear, their stupidity and so on and so far. What he can't explain is the powerful hostility coming from a sword of all things]

Seems like your sword has something to say too.

[It's a test. Maybe a stupid one that might land him in a lot of trouble very soon but Kirk wants to see how they'll both react next]

[chtholic]

[The casual annoyance that Enki holds shifts into something else when Kirk hones in on the blade in Enki's gloved hand. Not because he holds any shame in having this weapon, nor the history the weapon holds, but rather he knows what the weapon can do if it falls into the wrong hands. Into the hands of someone susceptible to its influence. That Kirk can sense something about it, can feel the murderous intent that exudes from it that most tend to not fully realize the origin of, is concerning.

Is Miasma affecting him? Is it trying to leave Enki because it has failed to claim purchase in his mind?

There is tension in Enki's posture and wariness in how he stares at Kirk, his hand tightly gripping the hilt of the blade. By all means, the priest looks as though he is ready to retaliate if he needs to, caution subsumes him completely.]

Do you intend to listen?

[Miasma's single eye flicks between the two, clearly tantalized by the prospect of the potential altercation that might happen, its hunger becoming more apparent as the tension builds in Enki.]

[godsandbats]

[Interesting. There's no denial and Kirk sees the eye moving excitedly]

Can't listen when I'm not fluent with it. Smells like its been busy too.

[Kirk doesn't intend to fight for now but he's ready to leap back if Enki chooses to strike first]

[chtholic]

[That answer does ease Enki a little. Here he had expected a possible struggle. That Kirk might try to take the blade from him and then use it on him. It is hard to know who this sword might be influencing, and to what degree.]

It is better to shut out whatever miserable nonsense it tries to tell you then. If you have your mind still, then do whatever it is you can to keep it that way.

[Enki looks to the small blade in his hand, frowning at it, but his eyes do not linger there long. He's set on keeping watch for whatever this man might be up to.]

It hasn't been busy here if that is your concern.

[Though Enki has fed it some of his own blood. You know, to shut it up. But that isn't unusual for him. Offering his blood to eldritch beings are all par for the course for him.]

Closed to The Custodian; Early January

[chtholic]

[Enki cannot simply burden Ragnvaldr every time he wants for something, and so he finds himself at the Bangsan Market. It has a respectable, though foreign, array of food. Many of which is easily made without needing to be much of a distraction from more important matters. Look, there's a reason college kids turn to ramen, and it's not always because of its inexpensive nature. Not that Enki by any means is a college kid, but he is an academic, and he has the self-preservation of someone who would do all nighters by slamming ten red bulls on an empty stomach.

However, before Enki can even get in the door, he takes notice of the Custodian, an interesting sort he had spoken with before. Someone he does not take total issue with, which for Enki, is moderately high praise. Still, that does not mean he wishes to speak now, he much rather get in the building, shield himself from the cold of winter—but then the Custodian's companion catches his eye, but so too his ear.

Or so he thinks. Pausing in his gait, he turns to look at them as they approach, his hawkish stare going from the construct to his insect-like companion. For Enki's part, he is dressed up in many sweaters and a coat, all in an attempt to capture what little body heat he naturally produces, but on his hip fastened with a makeshift sword belt is an interesting blade with a single eye. It is smaller than it should be, a little longer than a dagger at the moment, though Enki has observed it beginning to grow as it is fed little drops of blood.

Fascinating, really.]

...What is that creature of yours?

[Most people say "hi" when they see a familiar face, maybe ask how they've been. Then there's Enki, just cutting to the chase as always.]

[lastonetodie]

[ He doesn't really need to eat, and so he is here on a far less urgent errand - to satisfy his own curiosity. He reads the text on the banners with every sign of genuine investment, as if he has never seen such a thing before. The bug chittering companionably in his robes is most of his audible sound; he is quiet even with his staff, preferring to balance it rather than lean on it or use it as support.

(Its voice is strange; it speaks in fragments, almost melodic in a odd way. It chatters about oceans of stars.)

He watches Enki as he goes past, silently identifying him as an acquaintance, but otherwise...it surprises him, a little, when the man speaks.

And...is that a sword? Some kind of tool? With an eye? ]

It is...a Xoran. Classified by the Drzyr as livestock. They were once common on the Drzyr's original homeworld, due to their explosive population growth in shallow water.

[ There is no water, hums the little insect, only sky.

(Though really it isn't that small; it is about the size of the Custodian's hand. A respectable size for a creature such as it.) ]

That weapon you wear...does it have an eye? For what purpose?

Closed to Yuri; Mid January

[chtholic]

[Etraya is both too large and too small. The fact they are trapped within this bubble is disconcerting to say the least, but more over the fact that they are expected to go everywhere on foot, more or less, is daunting. This is why Enki has chosen to only do such pilgrimages once, staking out where his ritual circles might best be placed so that he has some easy between locations. Always better to approach these things with a modicum of intelligence, than to suffer needlessly. Life is already full of suffering and hardship, why seek it out when the benefit is not an equivalent exchange?

However, he did not expect to come across Garreg Mach on this particular excursion, but he's fascinated by the find. Certainly it cannot be unclaimed, there is bound to be some master of this monastery, yet it is nowhere near as busy as he might otherwise suspect. Still, looks can be deceiving, and so it is with care that he traverses its bounds, looking for anything of value.

Anything worth coming back for.

Such is made apparent when he takes note of the greenhouse. It isn't exactly easy to infiltrate without garnering notice, with its remarkable construction and stone walls, and while it may have its own entrance to the outside...one does not simply walk in through the front door. Which is why he doesn't.

There is much taken from you going to the dungeons of Fear and Hunger, but to the opportunist, there is much to gain as well. Enki is ever just that, and through it all he's garnered him some extensive forms of magic, some which prove rather taxing on the mind, as it can be dangerous for the body. Most cannot simply phase through solid objects, but most are not Enki. A rare and nearly lost form of magic granted by Alll-mer, Enki employs the god's mastery over boundaries to phase step through the wall. Appearing within an instant on the other side.

And what a bounty he has found.

Quietly and swiftly, he makes his way to inspect the plants, looking for any and all herbs that might be of use to him—particularly those of more medicinal properties. He's trying to be stealthy, because while he is certain he can dispatch whoever might try to stop him if he must, that is something he would rather avoid if he can.]

[wolfish]

[ Stealth is well and good, and it would work with most. It's just that most aren't one Yuri Leclerc, who'd been a thief and hired assassin since he was alarmingly young. The result is a man who, without any such impressive magic tricks to employ, simply seems to appear in the doorway without a sound, watering can in hand. Whether Enki can sense eyes on him or not, Yuri makes no effort to conceal his presence, casually leaning against the door frame. ]

Are you familiar with that species? Fussy bit of business.

[ If not properly trimmed at the right intervals, a number of these plants are liable to overgrow and die. There's a reason the monastery housed more fussy plants, their natures making them ill-suited to surviving the elements, but they served their purposes as well. The one Enki's currently nearest happens to make a fine relaxant for the nerves.

Put enough in someone's tea and they might just have themselves a nice nap, even. Thus far, Yuri hasn't had much opportunity to gauge how similar Fódlan's flora is to other worlds, so color him curious. In this case, that must be some shade of purple. ]

[chtholic]

[The sudden sound of someone's voice causes Enki to stand bolt up right, pivoting on his heel with the swiftness of a viper's strike as he raises his hand as if to cast a spell.

He stares at Yuri with a threatening intensity, and there's a whorl of magic dancing between his gloved finger tips. But then he stops, the words, the question sinking in and he's left wondering if it was genuine or simply mocking him.

Enki lowers his hand, loosely crossing his arms over his chest as he keeps his eyes on Yuri.]

Are you the groundskeeper?

[He's not going to bother with chatter about the plants until he knows this man's intentions.]

[wolfish]

I'm the only one here to maintain the a place, so I guess I am by default.

[ Yuri jiggles the watering can, the water within sloshing with the motion. Back when he'd first purchased "Garreg Mach" in half-jest and half-test, it hadn't been just him here. Now, though, he's the only one to remain.

In some cases, admitting that one is alone would be dangerous. Here, if someone offs him, he's just going to come back annoyed and vengeful. Not that he plans on dying, mind, but a man has to consider the possbility. ]

When I attended the academy, I often had greenhouse duty.

[ Because he was too damned allergic to horses to tend the stables, but he'll not go announcing that. ]