concoctive | SCAWWY 😱 ash

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# catchall,
scawwy

SCAWWY 😱 ash

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That's good.

[ she knows that it's kind of rude to come ask for information from someone who's hurt? but doesn't really know how to offer any comfort or help with the hurt part so she's just trying to brush past it awkwardly. ]

So... I wanted to know what happened. In more detail.

[ he will pat the spot next to him for her to sit, clearly fine with this despite how tired he is.

alfyn also doesn't want to be alone. ]

S'okay. Pretty sure a lot of people are gonna wanna know - stuff keeps happenin', better to know and be ready for it.

[ she comes and sits down beside him. ]

I guess... start from the beginning?

I was headin' over here, from the village, first thing this mornin'. Through the fog.

... but we all got lost in the fog, for a while. All apart, at first, 'til me and Tot found each other and then saw Geto and Pickles. In a big castletown with white stone walls. But the streets were empty and the people... they were scared, hidin'. Like I've seen folks be durin' wartime and plagues in Orsterra.

So there were other people there?

[ interesting. ]

What time was it?

Yeah. I saw 'em closin' their shutters, stayin' off the streets - 'cause we couldn't tell at first, but the guards that were patrollin'... they were dead. Raised dead.

[ who could blame them? ]

... y'know, I don't think I could tell. It was so dark and dreary. Clouds were grey and everythin' was just ghostly.

Not everyone was dead, though. That's... something.

[ good? not sure. she just nods at that second bit. ]

Nah, definitely not. I hope... [ of course he hopes they were okay. he didn't see them, after things started getting real bad ]

... there were some others that were dead, though. Some folks from here. Some we knew before the village. The lady responsible for it was controllin' 'em.

[ thinking about this. HUH? ]

Wait, people from here? Besides the group of you that came back together?

Don't think it was real, 'cause you're all - [ gestures.

... it takes him a moment to actually confess who it was, though. ]

Cam, Marina, Gojo, Robin, and Rondo, for sure. Pretty sure I heard Mr. Daan and Kate, but I didn't see 'em - think Tot and Pickles did.

How would that work? Someone's power? Or something else?

Somethin' else, I think..? It didn't feel like part of all this, at least not until we were leavin' and got some stuff in a weird room.

'cause I don't know how else it'd work, with just the four of us really there. But it wasn't... great.

So maybe an illusion or something...?

Maybe. They - [ he touches the wound at his chest, through his new shirt. ]

They could hurt us. And we could touch 'em. Maybe like the undead we saw on Sunday, with Karlach and Mr. Boothill? Fake versions meant to hurt us.

[ mmm hateful. she wishes this place would just stop doing that. ]

So you had to fight them.

Mm... a little, before we got split up, but definitely at the end.

There was - a tree. At the center of the castletown, and it was dead, too, but had this kinda rot that was everywhere in the castletown. Like it was the source of all the bad energy and dark magic.

Somebody had hanged... people we knew dressed as us. And when Geto and me tried to cut 'em down, two revived. We had to fight 'em off.

Dressed as you...?

[ i mean that's not the worst part but it sure is creepy! ]

Some kinda message against us... extra personal, considerin'...

[ a deep breath. oof oof oof. ]

... the one that tried to strangle Geto, when he revived, was Gojo.

... It definitely sounds the same as what happened on Sunday.

Yeah. The person, for me, it was a friend of mine from home. She... she didn't attack, 'cause I didn't get close to her - I had to cut Gojo down so he'd stop chokin' Geto - but she just looked at me and screamed.

... last thing I remember before things got even stranger was gettin' Gojo off of Geto, and that was it, just black emptiness. I woke up in a bed, and the village, everythin'... it was all a nightmare I'd had. The lady controllin' things made me think I'd lived in that castletown all my life.

[ ashlyn grimaces at that first part. seeing your friends but... wrong is so deeply unsettling, and she can imagine it too well. ]

So it just... stopped?

Yeah. Like it never even happened - everythin' back in Orsterra, here at Scawwy, and then there at the tree. All of it was just a nightmare, a dream, and I was in the castletown as a villager. Nobody was undead.

But I saw... I saw somebody from home again, just didn't realize it. [ he reaches up to touch the cut across his left eye. ] He brought me to the castle, sayin' somebody needed help. And even if it was all fake, I was still a healer - I still had to help.

But I couldn't. She - the woman controllin' things, she was there, askin' me to save this little girl that was sick. But she did somethin', and the guy from home... he was givin' me poisons, and I didn't even realize it until it was too late and I'd used them to make medicines for her. An illusion or somethin' to look like helpful things, instead of harmful.

[ sorry to ashlyn, but alfyn begins to tear up the more he says, bitter and miserable. ]

... son of a bitch already betrayed me back home. But I didn't remember. If I did, then maybe...

[ ohh nooo. she is really upset for him because that sounds horrible, but also, she has no idea how to handle people crying. she usually just kind of lets them do that and someone else handles it? ]

You can't help but believe the things that are right in front of you. If someone else is tampering with it, that means they're the one doing things. Even if they're using your hands.

I think.

[ is this comforting. probably not since the end result is still someone getting poisoned?! ]

[ to be honest this is usually the best course of action for alfyn, he can manage his own crying if left to just do it so he eventually takes a deep breath and rubs his eyes with a fist. ]

No, you're - you're right. [ a weak laugh ] Just a whole mess after that. Had a lot of time to think about it, and it still... it all still ate at me, y'know. They accused me of killin' her, said I was a witch and ran me out of town. And everywhere I went, they chased me off, or tried to attack me, 'cause somethin' came off that little girl. Some bad magic.

So it was just me, for a while. Months. And I still thought "could I have done somethin' different?" I know better than that.

It makes sense that you'd keep thinking that. The situation stayed bad and everyone kept blaming you.

You didn't have time to sit down and think about it and about how it wasn't your fault.

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