[ oh you can bet this dude is in the kitchen. he's in his canon outfit, chopping up vegetables to put them in a pot with something that smells diabolically spicy. his tail wags gently behind him.
his ears swivel a bit when he hears footsteps, and he glances over his shoulder. a pause. ]
[ fidelio is also in his canon outfit which i'm not going to link because you know what it looks like! he's also got his backpack on.
anyway, oh, the other paripus. he gives a nod of acknowledgement. ]
Little bit.
[ sniffs the air... oh, that smells like it would probably kill him. ]
...I'm pretty sure me brother'll find his way here before too long and start cookin' up a feast of his own, though, so I'm not lookin' to fill up too much before then.
[ at this point i think it's funny if every one of our threads starts with him being unenthusiastic about food so he's at the boardwalk, looking at the fry place judgementally. ]
Seriously, what is the obsession with these things around here?
[ we're still in the library this morning! he never left, he just kind of sat down in a chair and didn't bother. right now he's slowly and methodically combing his tail fur out with his fingers.
his ear twitches when he hears fidelio, though, and he glances at him. ]
[ comes to also lean. it is harder because his tail is huge but he manages. ]
I think we did as well. [ ear flick. ] But this choice did have an air of those questions we get on Mondays. What is your impossible answer to an impossible choice - only, with real consequences.
[ help me i totally missed the neighbourhood locations update because i was just looking at the new ones on mobile while i watched my het toilet get installed so LET ME START OVER ]
[ well. they probably took basilio to the hospital together once they did the initial triage at the meadow, and since then fidelio has been mostly standing back and playing the assistant role for the person who knows better, radiating a sort of desperate nervous energy all the while. ]
it's fine, jiaoqiu doesn't seem to mind the jittery anxious energy. in fact, he's maybe exceedingly calm to make up for it. he gives fidelio instructions - helps keep both of their pairs of hands busy. but once they're finished, and it's a little more quiet, bas resting, jiaoqiu glances in fidelio's direction. ]
You did well today, with the first aid. [ gentle, but not condescending. he's being genuine. ] He'll be alright, Fidelio.
[ we're just jumping into it, here - somehow, you're in the memory fuckhouse, and there's a memory playing over the glass, vibrant and loud. if you can, watch the videoclips to go with it because the voice acting does really make it so much better.
The ship is deathly quiet.
You have good hearing - so much that sometimes it hurts to stand in the middle of a crowd of people. You have never heard this ship, or any of the Xianzhou ships, fall this silent. A bad omen.
You have a good sense of smell, too. You could smell the borisin that crept their way onto the ship like vermin, digging their claws into the metal and peeling it away to release their leader. There was not much you could do. You told Feixiao. You led the young ones, too young, the children with swords and no dreams of anything but serving in battle - you led them to the right conclusion, and you hate yourself for it, but what don't you hate yourself for? That doesn't matter. What does matter is you've laid the groundwork. They will do the rest. Your General, and the future you both want.
Ah, right. Your good sense of smell. You can't smell anything other than blood. It's a good thing you lost most of your taste a long time ago. You imagine the taste of iron would be unbearable, here on the ground in this back alley.
You can't breathe right. It hurts so badly - you've never been very good at suppressing pain, and it blares like the loudest of alarms in your heart. You're a healer, you know what the body's limits are, and you know you're stretching them. You know you don't have long.
You look up at the hulking beast in front of you. He looks a little like you - not you, but your species. He's not. Hoolay is a borisin, but somehow, they've managed to all hide their true visages. He grins down at you, teeth and claws stained red with blood. The blood on his claws is yours, but you don't want to think about why his teeth are stained.
"Secrets are a weapon that a hunter cannot live without," Hoolay is saying. "Those who have no secrets are no more than prey, cut open and waiting for death."
You drag in a breath. Choke on it a little.
"What you’re saying is, in your eyes, I am not more than prey that has exhausted all of its secrets, and is simply awaiting its death?" You ask, staring down at the floor rather than Hoolay. Already, there's darkness curling at the edges of your sight, and you know that isn't because you're dying. A side effect.
"Do you think you have some other escape route? Jiaoqiu, I have already peeled back your disguises and defenses layer by layer. I know all the secrets that you and your general have buried so deep," Hoolay growls, voice amused. He thinks he knows. You told him nothing that would hurt your people. You told him things that could sound like secrets, but weren't. That is what you're good for - a clever tongue, quick to lie and persuade. It's all you're good for.
Well. There's one other thing.
"But you have told me all of your secrets too, Warhead," You murmur, eyes still on the floor. Not out of any sense of submissiveness. You simply don't want the borisin to be the last thing you see.
Hoolay laughs. "But you will never have a chance to use them. You will be buried with them right here. Although, you are a fortunate one... After all, you will avoid having to see the tragic future that awaits your general. I'm sure she understands her fate far better than you ever will. One day on the battlefield, she will be overpowered by her ever-intensifying Moon Rage, and finally be torn apart by her own fury and transformation."
He talks too much, you think. But that's alright. That's what you want. You want time. The longer he is here, gloating over you, the longer your General has time to come up with a plan.
"Not even your God can save her from this fate. Although... THEY can lead her to liberation. And the only way to save her is here, in my hands."
Another bloody grin. You huff, and cough, just a little.
"Are you the healer or am I? Are you really that certain of your own judgement?" You ask, idly. Your voice is starting to fail you. It feels like gravel, like trying to enunciate around marbles in your mouth. Gingerly, you rest a hand on your torso, where the worst of the claw wounds are, and turn your head a little, looking out over the wall. Past Hoolay. To the sky, to the world outside this alley, to the sister-ship of your people. You look at the sky.
"I must leave, foxian," Hoolay says, shifting his weight. "But before I go, you know what I must do, don't you?"
And weakly, you reply: "Drink bloodwine... I hear it is a borisin custom to kill prisoners and drink their blood before battle to stir up their madness."
"You really did put hard work into researching us. It is a shame that this is where your journey ends."
And he moves forward. You flinch, knowing what's coming, but it's okay, it's alright, this is your plan. He's right, you did do your research. You knew, since telling Moze to run in the prison, that this might be the outcome, and you are at peace. It's going to hurt, though.
And it does. Hoolay rips into you. Tears flesh from your neck, your torso, like a wild animal. Frenzied, with razor sharp teeth and claws that dig into your arms to keep you still, to stop you from reflexively trying to get away. You can't help yourself - it hurts, you're being mauled, and you cry out, voice ragged and raw, breaking on your screams. Nobody can hear you. Nobody comes to help you.
Hoolay eats and drinks his fill, and tosses you to the ground, wiping his mouth with the back of his sleeve. He must figure there's no point to killing you outright, or perhaps he doesn't even realize you're still alive. He's driven mad by the smell of blood, the taste of blood, and he lets out a roar of laughter before bounding off towards battle - towards Feixiao, your General.
You are left alone, in an alleyway full of bodies.
Clinically, you know you're seconds from death. You can almost see the autopsy report. Bite wounds that extend over a large area, from the patient's neck to his chest. Fractured clavicle. Toxins in the wounds caused flesh to decay and atrophy. Disturbed blood circulation, massive internal bleeding, neurological atrophy, optic neuropathy. Damage to the liver and kidney, impaired lymphatic and immune system. The only part of that report that was Hoolay's fault are the bites, though. The rest was your own doing.
You smile, weakly, opening your eyes to look at the sky one more time.
Enjoy the taste of my fresh blood... Hoolay. Unfortunately, I am not a man without secrets. I still have one little secret hidden up my sleeve.
Your vision is nearly gone. The sky is a smear of pristine blue.
Tumbledust... I drank it a while ago, and the poison is already flowing through my veins. Sooner or later, you will begin to feel the effects. If the most lethal poison known to this world is able to save innocent lives... then it can also be called a great medicine.
You close your eyes for the last time.
I will do my best to cure you... Feixiao, I kept my promise. At the cost of this insignificant life. Bring victory to the Yaoqing.
[ ...ah. this is somehow very different to how he was imagining this scene from the brief explanation jiaoqiu gave him before. he'd thought dying to a "wolf" meant a typical unintelligent monster, a brutal but fast attack that would be over quickly.
seeing how quiet and how drawn out it all was in reality, and how there was no one there with him when he died... ]
...Wasn't picturing that scene quite right in my head before.
gives you a general wound overview: he has like, stab wounds everywhere. it's his shoulder, his legs, and in his stomach. they look like someone was trying to run him through with a sword with the shoulder and stomach, but the legs are more shallow, thinner. one of his arms is just absolutely useless - a gouge near the inner elbow/forearm, something that looks like it was made with some sort of sharp teeth. it's messy. there's also some sort of gouge-y bite wound on his shoulder, too.
he's got slash marks across his face, too. kind of claw like. and his left ear is ripped in half - it's missing the top half of it, so he's just got half an ear. it's all bandaged as much as it can be.
he looks up in fidelio's direction. he's sitting up in bed with a blanket. ]
It is starting to... to feel a little targeted. [ he says, with a weak smile. ]
[ sometime in the evening after they've wrapped up their first day at the tavern, fidelio's finally getting out to look at things!! and still has relatively positive vibes that have carried over from that.
so here we are exploring the castle... there are so many locations in here my god. ]
[ i forgot to mention it earlier but jiaoqiu looks more healed! he's still missing his ear, but he looks less like he's in massive amounts of pain at all times, so that's good. he wanders after fidelio, tail swishing behind him. ]
Isn't it? I can't imagine living in a place like this. [ he runs his hand along the wall. ] I don't know that I'd want to...
[ WELL HE'S GOT THREE GUNSHOT WOUNDS IN HIS CHEST AND ONE ON HIS FOOT SO IT AIN'T GREAT, but much like louis he miraculously managed to avoid getting hit in the heart or anything.
the chunk out of his ear and the cut around his neck are weird because they actually seem kind of old? more like scars? they're bloody, but it doesn't look like they've actually bled in a while. ]
[ just so that he has a full list of what got injured - and like, jiaoqiu probably helped walk him through it because it's a doozy:
glass shards embedded all over his front and side, which have since been removed and bandaged. split skin from something bubbling up from under it. his eye is completely fucked, it's either ruined or gone, it's hard to tell. multiple layered lightning burns, black cracked skin in various places. melting icicles stuck in his shoulder and gut, which have since been removed and bandaged. stab wound around his neck and torso area, but that's shallow. and he seems to be having trouble talking here and there, with a ring of bruises around his neck.
this is just for fun and not an injury but every so often when he speaks his teeth are bloodstained. ]
Don't overwork yourself. [ he says, quietly, not even bothering to look up. he can't see for real now!! so!! ] You're doing a fantastic job.
[ why did we make two catchalls for our room and then never use either of them, i feel like we should rectify that before the game is over
anyway i guess he's out at the park or something sometime after the meeting because he's in a terrible mood and doesn't actually want to be at the tavern right now. ]
[ he's curled up in the tavern tonight with booze and a blanket, staring out... a window, i suppose. idk if there are windows. there are now for the sake of this thread. his ear flicks at the sound of someone approaching, and he glances over, with a smile. ]
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w0, SATURDAY
his ears swivel a bit when he hears footsteps, and he glances over his shoulder. a pause. ]
Hello again. Hungry?
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anyway, oh, the other paripus. he gives a nod of acknowledgement. ]
Little bit.
[ sniffs the air... oh, that smells like it would probably kill him. ]
...I'm pretty sure me brother'll find his way here before too long and start cookin' up a feast of his own, though, so I'm not lookin' to fill up too much before then.
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w0, monday
Seriously, what is the obsession with these things around here?
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[ he's amused, as usual, hand resting on his chest as he approaches. he's a little slow with walking, sorry. ]
Hello, Mr. Fidelio.
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w0, SATURDAY 2
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there's a lengthy silence before he finally says something. ]
How d'you know him?
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w1, monday
it's nearly midnight, and he's sitting on a bench in the village with a mug of mulled cider. ]
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he'll... wander over? jiaoqiu probably shouldn't be up but here he is. he'll come sit down next to fidelio, squinting at him. ]
... You're a victim of the body-changing as well, are you.
[ jiaoqiu himself is semi-transparent. you can see through him like a ghost. ]
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w1, FRIDAY
his ear twitches when he hears fidelio, though, and he glances at him. ]
Strange to think there was a body in here, hm?
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Thought that last week, too.
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w1, saturday
Think we made the right decision, but it still feels pretty bloody terrible.
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I think we did as well. [ ear flick. ] But this choice did have an air of those questions we get on Mondays. What is your impossible answer to an impossible choice - only, with real consequences.
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w2, MONDAY
he's busy planting something... ]
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You plannin' to grow somethin'?
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w2, thursday
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it's fine, jiaoqiu doesn't seem to mind the jittery anxious energy. in fact, he's maybe exceedingly calm to make up for it. he gives fidelio instructions - helps keep both of their pairs of hands busy. but once they're finished, and it's a little more quiet, bas resting, jiaoqiu glances in fidelio's direction. ]
You did well today, with the first aid. [ gentle, but not condescending. he's being genuine. ] He'll be alright, Fidelio.
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w3, MONDAY
and then the room is silent. ]
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seeing how quiet and how drawn out it all was in reality, and how there was no one there with him when he died... ]
...Wasn't picturing that scene quite right in my head before.
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w3, thursday
You really got some of the worst luck in this place.
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gives you a general wound overview: he has like, stab wounds everywhere. it's his shoulder, his legs, and in his stomach. they look like someone was trying to run him through with a sword with the shoulder and stomach, but the legs are more shallow, thinner. one of his arms is just absolutely useless - a gouge near the inner elbow/forearm, something that looks like it was made with some sort of sharp teeth. it's messy. there's also some sort of gouge-y bite wound on his shoulder, too.
he's got slash marks across his face, too. kind of claw like. and his left ear is ripped in half - it's missing the top half of it, so he's just got half an ear. it's all bandaged as much as it can be.
he looks up in fidelio's direction. he's sitting up in bed with a blanket. ]
It is starting to... to feel a little targeted. [ he says, with a weak smile. ]
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w3, saturday
Well, that was a mess in every sense of the word.
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Yes. Yes, it was. I'm not even sure what to say about it.
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w4, monday
so here we are exploring the castle... there are so many locations in here my god. ]
Shite, this place is massive.
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Isn't it? I can't imagine living in a place like this. [ he runs his hand along the wall. ] I don't know that I'd want to...
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w4, THURSDAY
he probably was right behind basilio on the way to the hospital but. aaaa. ]
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the chunk out of his ear and the cut around his neck are weird because they actually seem kind of old? more like scars? they're bloody, but it doesn't look like they've actually bled in a while. ]
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w4, SATURDAY
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he sits down on a bench, also with pretty fucking tired vibes. ]
Hey.
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w5, monday
immediately getting launched down a slide ]
Bloody hell—!
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-- Fidelio?!
[ IS TOSSED AFTER HIM wheeeeee ]
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w6, MONDAY
his thought process is basically are they serving this to people... is this what chao eat?
also he's not bald, but he's like, holding his tail very close to him like he's AFRAID HE'S GOING TO BE AGAIN. ]
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Feelin' better now?
[ also looks at the food. eugh. ]
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w6, thursday
Bloody hell, your luck really does get worse every week.
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glass shards embedded all over his front and side, which have since been removed and bandaged. split skin from something bubbling up from under it. his eye is completely fucked, it's either ruined or gone, it's hard to tell. multiple layered lightning burns, black cracked skin in various places. melting icicles stuck in his shoulder and gut, which have since been removed and bandaged. stab wound around his neck and torso area, but that's shallow. and he seems to be having trouble talking here and there, with a ring of bruises around his neck.
this is just for fun and not an injury but every so often when he speaks his teeth are bloodstained. ]
Don't overwork yourself. [ he says, quietly, not even bothering to look up. he can't see for real now!! so!! ] You're doing a fantastic job.
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w7, wednesday
anyway i guess he's out at the park or something sometime after the meeting because he's in a terrible mood and doesn't actually want to be at the tavern right now. ]
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he's wandering about out here, absently. notably, he isn't running into things or being cautious with how he moves? so that's nice.
he will pause when he sees fidelio, and then comes to stand with him, offering a little bit of calm and reassurance in his emotionshare. ]
Unhappy with the reveal as well, I assume. [ my fellow god hater ]
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w7, SATURDAY
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fidelio comes and sits nearby with a drink of his own. he doesn't smile; he's never been one to fake them. ]
Hey.
[ ... ]
Back to bein' disappointed even when expectations are already low, eh?
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