MISSION 011 Sidelogs

[etrayamods]

WHO: Individual sign ups for mission 011
WHEN: September 19th - October 3rd
WHERE: Etraya
WHAT: Mod-driven threads!
NOTES\WARNINGS: Psychological horror, hallucinations, paranoia, body horror, violence, death imagery, loss of autonomy, existential horror. Mother thread will have parental abuse to a child (physical, emotional, and verbal) as well as neglect. PATHOS thread will have severe dissociation and assisted suicide.

Please indicate in the subject line if you're specifically looking for a mod response to a tag. A simple o7 will do! Otherwise I will use my judgment about where to pop in.

Comments

[oblige]

[ Dion finds the reaction surprising. Scylla posed but two options: his metaphor of orderly lines against lifeboats. The latter he seemed to favor, and Dion had agreed. Hoping for an ideal scenario, for a hero to achieve a miracle, could lead to senseless losses. Yet the twist to the man's expression suggests something else altogether.

How curious.

If all he could save was that many...well. Dion would aim higher than that, for then if he fails he may yet save more than he'd be given to expect of himself. He is possessed of none of the Phoenix's boundless optimism. Now he wonders: does Scylla only believe himself capable of saving "someone he loves", or is there something more to it?

His eyebrows press together. The question burns on his tongue.

All the while, Clive has watched Scylla with a silent, burning intensity befitting his Eikon. His companions would recognize this as the look the man gets when he's trying to take his measure of someone, evaluating motivations and risks, as his hard life has taught him to do. It's Clive who speaks up first, voice low and cautious. ]

“You said you know who you want to save. Who is it? What do they look like?”

[ Sleipnir, meanwhile, murmurs something to himself about how choosing would be easy. He has already tucked the paper away, intent on sharing it with his liege at the first opportunity. ]

[scynful]

[ It's sharply, exquisitely personal for Scylla. If the reality is that you can only save a few people, how do you decide? There's no scenario in which you get to get out of that decision. Refusing to make it is its own abdication, possibly the worst one because you try to absolve yourself of any responsibility at all.

This is a slow-motion disaster playing out on a cosmic time scale. Wanting to save everyone you can isn't enough; it's an intent, a belief, but not a plan.

They all have to choose eventually. ]

I can't say, [ he answers in a measured tone, though he appreciates the question. ] I'm not being difficult, I literally can't. But it's someone I love very much. [ There's zero hesitation in that admission, his voice even and firm, something Scylla declares as a fact that needs no further explaining. ]

I don't know if I'll be able to get in here again, so saying I'm looking for allies is a stretch. I wanted to check if they're here, and they aren't. So I'm leaving behind what I can to give you a chance of your own.

[oblige]

[ How long would it take, Dion wonders. How many painful experiences would one have to endure before deciding they would choose but one life to preserve? As a man dedicated to the whole of his nation by duty and nature both, it's difficult to fathom accepting that.

His brow furrows, lips thinning into a pensive line as he wonders this. It wouldn't be right to ask, nor would another's answer ever be the same as his own. A part of him dreads ever knowing what his would be.

Where Dion is contemplative, Sleipnir remains openly skeptical. His gaze is blade-sharp, looking for something he neither announces nor names, yet the air is heavy with that sense of searching. Evaluating. The paper alone seems more puzzle than aid for one such as Sleipnir.

It's Clive who speaks up again, still holding onto that thread of conversation, that subject which stokes his personal interest. ]

"Can you tell us how you and your loved one got separated and how long ago that was?"

[scynful]

[ It had not happened quickly and was not a conclusion Scylla came to easily, Dion is right about that.

This is getting highly, uncomfortably personal, especially since the only version of this answer he can give under the geas centers on himself and his own feelings and actions. Scylla gives a grimace. ] Time doesn't mean a lot to me, so I'm not sure -- but I couldn't stand to watch what was happening to our world anymore. So I left.

[ His expression tightens. ] That was a mistake; I shouldn't have. I just didn't realize it would be impossible to find them again.

[ But that's about all he can take of that little digression. ] Look, I have a lot more to do and I can't close the vent until I leave, so I need to get going. Good luck with this.

[ He doesn't have a lot of faith so this comes out somewhat perfunctory, but he still says it -- and he hopes they're interested enough in getting the vent closed as soon as possible that they'll let him go. ]