arcanarumlogs | [EVENT] The Visitations

Entry tags:

!event log

[EVENT] The Visitations

Who: All Characters
When: November 29-December 19
Where: Your Home
What: The Visits
Warnings: For language and other dark elements.

This is going to go a certain way! Each time there is a visitation by a ghost, we will post a thread. Then, we will respond to that thread, if you indicate you want us to do so, or if you will have other characters in the thread. Remember, the Ghost of Christmas Past will have all your characters in the same moment of time, so if you want to be able to interact with each other, go ahead. Additionally, you will be viewing the moment in time that your denizen was killed from a third person perspective, so you can meet up with anyone during that time, but you cannot talk to your denizen. Once your denizen is dead, you are free to move around the island.

During the viewing with the Ghost of Christmas Present, you will be in the same situation, but only able to view things within your own canon. This means you can’t really speak to anyone but the NPC of the Ghost, which will be played by the mods.

For when The World shows up, we will have a separate thread for her and Kuma will be responding to you with her. You can freely talk to anyone here as well, in the game.

If there are any questions please respond to the thread provided below.

Flat | Top-Level Comments Only

[Last time, Waver was looking at the memories of another. This time though, this time he knows the world he’s being shown, because he’s looking down at his parents on 3 October 197-something, and there’s no baby, or even sign of pregnancy. It’s a hard introduction to the situation, and Waver feels his stomach knot up at where this is going.

Years fly by in the blink of an eye. His parents still die the same death and his maternal grandmother is still grief stricken, but that isn’t what’s important. There’s no family heir. The Velvet lines of mages ends with Sybil Velvet, two generations strong and to make no impact at all. That part hurts, but what comes after, what comes after kills.

He knows a summoning ritual when he sees it, he knows the words being spoken because he has intoned them before. But now, now it is Kayneth Archibald - Lord El-Melloi I, general smug git and one of the many bullies in Waver’s life, who drove Waver to enter the grail war to begin with - who has summoned Rider. His Rider, his Alexander, his friend, his mentor, his inspiration, his king. He’s under someone else’s command, someone with a traditional mage’s pride, too old to be bent and reshaped in Alexander’s image. Waver looks away, only to see what he imagines is one of many arguments between Rider, Kayneth and Kayneth’s fiance who apparently is providing the mana. Something about “transfer” is said, Rider laughs, and faces sour, leading them all back to arguing again. Rider’s own voice rises over the din and the scene changes again.

A fight this time - the one at the river against Caster. Sola-Ui stands where Waver should be, arguing against the Einzbern plans for reasons Waver doesn’t understand, and Saber steps out into the water, bent on using Excalibur. The sword deploys and the thing is destroyed, but Rider’s face shows no small amount of anger in it. Waver looks away as the bright light of the sword’s blast settles, and again, he’s gone.

The fights that follow are too quick in succession - some familiar, some not. Saber faces off against a Lancer Waver doesn’t recongize and kills him honourably - for all that a grail war can have honour - and then he returns to the Fuyuki bridge. A moment’s flash had showed him his former teacher’s death and Rider’s contract to Sola-Ui and now, now where he should be - where he needs to be, because this moment is where his life became a gift from two kings - is Sola-Ui, watching as Rider falls to Archer’s noble phantasm. Waver refuses to watch that again, and some horrible part of him fails to be shocked when Sola-Ui is cut down by Archer moments after Alexander disappears in a twinkling of gold dust. Waver’s breath hitches, terrified, his surroundings fade into familiar halls.

Clock Tower. His domain. The place that thought it could break him. But here, oh, his office is occupied by another man, traditional and huffy, chatting with - ah. The tenth head of the Archibald family, who the man calls Lord El-Melloi II. She smiles coldly at the title like it’s a burden and excuses herself, scowling as the door slams behind her. Waver sighs - the argument was about research and how not even her title could permit something that unorthodox and she has no reason to look into that anyway since the Archibalds have lost status so.

As he exhales, the scene changes again. He’s in Fuyuki now, standing in the parlour of the Tohsaka house. Rin’s sitting on the sofa, ages hands resting on her knees. Waver doesn’t want to speculate about her age, or the age of the young man who stands before her. A grandson, probably, with Rin’s hair and poise. there’s a relief in knowing that Rin has lived this long but when he pays attention to their conversation, his heart runs cold.

Rin lectures the young man on the history of the holy grail, tells him that he must win the sixth war or else bring shame upon the family. That he must get the cup and wish it out of existence, because that is the only way the thing can be destroyed. The boy replies that it will be done and leaves. Waver catches a glimpse of his command seals, then slams his eyes shut. If there is any more to the scene, he doesn’t want to see it. A mutter about failure drifts into his ears, still in Rin’s voice, and the tone is so hopeless that he could weep. Waver tries to replace everything with words of his own - any words at all - and soon enough, they come.

His Rider. His patron. His best friend. The three sentences loop themselves in his head mockingly, happily eroding at the things that have held him up his entire adult life. It’s at that moment that he opens his eyes to see that he is back on the miserable island, without his pillars and now with a strong reminder of why he needs to get back home. He wipes at his eyes, struggling to center himself. No one can be fought against in a state like this. His emotions will simply have to be transmuted into something else.]

[After a little while, a knock comes at the door, at first hesitant and then growing louder and more insistent.

Nessiah knows he looks a tearstained mess. At this moment he doesn't care. The only thought that grounds him at the moment is that being alone will do him no good.]

[Whoever that is can wait until Waver gets himself mentally capable of handling people right now.

Which means like, 15 minutes later, the door's opened]

[He brushes in like he'd been greeted in a timely manner.]

Thank you for your hospitality.

There's tea in the kitchen. Help yourself.

[And with that, he closes the door] S'Earl grey. Cups are in the cupboard to the right of the oven.

Thank you. [Nessiah goes to make himself a cup of tea.] I would ask if you had been well and such pleasantries, but you would rather I not, I'm sure.

From the looks of it, you're in no place to wish to give them.

[he flops onto the house's armchair - he'll never claim it to be his, that's agreeing to stay here - and the cushion sinks under his weight]

It was significantly more trying for me than the previous night.

[Understatement. The cup shakes in his hand.]

Sit before you fall over and shatter china everywhere.

[Waver readjusts himself, sitting so that his legs are swung over the armchair's side]

Confirm for me that you were subjected to a what if situation.

[Nessiah carefully sets down the cup and finds a chair.]

Yes. Specifically, one in which I had not existed.]

Then this is likely everyone else's current experience. Charming.

Perhaps others are taking it better.

You're the only person I've spoken to.

[he takes a beat to rub the bridge of his nose, letting out a long breath] Many I spoke to were disturbed by the last matter - likely because they're unaccustomed to death and its impact. This is going to be so much worse.

[and it is so much easier for him to think about other people right now and not his own special pile of Velvet issues]

I would rather watch a hundred other deaths, my own denizen or otherwise, than see that dream again. Pity I have no choice in the matter.

I concur with you.

But do we drown ourselves in sorrow?

No. I am well aware of the futility of such.

Mm.

[Okay, he can't do the Rider motivational speech right now. That takes too much energy and right now every memory of Rider hurts]

Do you wish to talk about it then?

Being reminded that you've done far, far more harm than good at your present state in life is unpleasant.

Ah.

[and silence, because what do you even say to that?]

Don't pity me. If you understood the situation you wouldn't even think of it.

I wouldn't dare presume to. It was an acknowledgement of understanding, nothing more.

Hmm. [He goes quiet for a moment.] ...There was a man there who I know to be dead in my own lifetime.

[Waver just nods to show that he's listening.]

In all my lifetime I have never met a man so noble in character, so honest and pure. He was kind to me and brought me in when I had forgotten what it felt like to be accepted into a family.

He perished in a war I started. It was necessary, you see.

Many wars are.

You're trying to justify your actions to someone who has no place to judge them.

Holy fuck APOLOGIES to people not familiar with Fate/zero

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