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Castlevania: Now with 100% less backtracking [OPEN] [Action]
Ted donned his ill-used thinking cap. Where to find the madman's lab, with the prized elixir of life?
The skeletons might narrow it down to two fifths of Genessia: Fayren, and Everglade. And, Ted found, no matter how he mentally hemmed and hawed, he could not logically choose between them. Alchemy, necromancy, healing potions...either place could house them comfortably.
But if not mentally, perhaps emotionally? The laboratory he saw was, to make poor use of his vocabulary, creepy. A dirge from an organ would not be out of place. Put that way, it seemed right at home in Everglade. Fayren knew its share of the fantastic, true. But it seemed a sunnier, earthy, more wholesome thing. His journey's destination resonated most strongly with the dark, the old, and the spirits of Dickens.
So much for deduction. Now, Ted set upon Everglade, beating pavement, asking obvious questions. Have any witch brews made themselves especially pungent? Any mad scientist cackles roiling through the air? Did they know of a man with clothing as ornate as his heart was black? The night wore on, moon watching ominously overhead.
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She did pause in her celebration after a moment though. "Emerald?" She reached into her pocket and removing the Frenzy of Wind. "It looks more like jade to me. Or maybe even malachite-" Her correction was cut off, however as Ted grabbed her by the arm and spun her about, the little youkai giggling uncontrollably as he did so.
She spun once when he let her go, a little lopsided in the air for a few moments as she corrected herself. Fortunately the mood shift managed to calm her down fairly quickly. "Not what you wished?" She blinked. "Mister Spades? You know I'm a four-hundred year old psychic monster of myths and legends, right? I should tell you more about satori youkai sometime. Sis is better at telling stories than me though but if she's not around I'll try my best." A pause. "Also, what did you wish that you were? I think you're fine just the way you are."
As for the spoils? "You can keep the stone too if you want Mister Spades. I got to eat so I'm happy. And I don't think I know anyone who is hurt and needs a healing potion. You should save it for sometime or for someone who really needs it. Okay?"
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"If that's conventional, the strange Youkai must be truly unorthodox. I don't know; that phantasmal shield that hung about me was rather gracious. I rather enjoyed not being flattened like a pancake every now and again. But you're the expert in these things."
"Hmm, maybe take the stone to one of those...what were they called, oni smiths? See if they know anything about it."
Ted may not be the fastest thing on two legs, but he was never second rate at evading questions. "400 years? Hah, I suppose at that point there's no need to be less than forward." Women Ted knew tended to be a bit shier about that information once they got into their thirties. "You age well; I'm tempted to say not at all. Well, if I didn't know it now, I'm certainly starting to get that impression." He tried to let go of his preference for 'fairy', but that would be a hard-fought loss.
"Oh, and here's your hat." He placed Mister, garland and all, atop its rightful place. "Another thing: mum's the word on the potion, all right? Private victories are sweeter, for one, and for another, there's no telling what sort of unsavory types might want to get their greedy hands on it. If you must boast, do so only to the trustworthy, if you please."
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Koishi did tilt her head a bit at the comment though. "Not at all? Nooo satori youkai age. We get taller. Slowly. Her smile grew."Some of the oldest ones were a whole foot and a half taller than me when I left home. But I was shorter then..." She looked thoughtful. "But I'm not that old for a youkai. Some youkai can live ten thousand years or more! The oldest satori I knew of was over two thousand, if he's still alive..."
She giggled softly as her hat was placed on her head, her left shoulder and the corner of her mouth twitching involuntarily. She closed her left eye before it started to darken again, quickly removing it once more. "I'm going to wait for the bump to go down before wearing Mister Hat again."
A pause... "Who is this 'mum' person? I wont tell anyone about the potion but make sure mum doesn't tell anyone either."
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"I certainly wouldn't say no to more pins like that. It was rather fun to play astronaut. Will you be needing the flight pin back?" Ted tried not to be too covetous, but he couldn't help but enjoy Koishi's gifts, especially seeing as how useful they were for the preservation of his life.
"Oh, I see. Yes, you definitely have a measure of youth about you." Ted guessed that 400 may just as well have been 8, in Youkai years.
"Hah, just an expression. Should my mother arrive, however, I'll be sure to swear her to secrecy." Ted, unfortunately, would blurt out the results of their adventures during the upcoming election, though he had nothing to do with it at present.
Ted stood quiet, for a while. True, he was exhausted, but he could feel the flowering of something tender, and precious, that he didn't want to abandon just yet. But what more was there to say? He gazed at Koishi as his mind ebbed and flowed. Ted bore loss poorer than most, even if it was something as silly as a name, or a role, he had misguidedly assigned. His gaze contained a lot of feelings, mixing together into a look of love; the kind he might just as well have given to a fairy. Less godmother, more little sister. And then it hit him: a name.
Ted could hardly help being sentimental, and a few tears welled up as the product of their evening. His voice remained steady. "Oh, Koishi. You've given me so much, more than I can ever repay. But there is one gift I can match, I think: a nickname. Would you like it?"
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"Youth? Well I'm an adult satori youkai. We just don't ever stop getting taller is all... At least... I don't think we do. We're a very tiny species of youkai mostly."
Koishi did tilt her head though. Expressions did sometimes confuse her, and she didn't really understand why this one existed, but at least she knew of it now. Her brow knit a little in confusion when she saw his tears though, third eye drifting higher and closer as she read his emotions. "You're really happy. So why are you crying? Don't cry Mister Spades. You can give me a nickname if you want to."
At least he wouldn't be calling her fairy anymore... probably... maybe...
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He thumbed the pin. "Thank you. Yes, I'd like that. I could use more recreation. I think...magic like that will probably be all right. So long as it remains impersonal; from without. Allegiances and blood are where it gets tricky. But nicely." Ted did not want talk of sorcery to spoil the sliver of night they had left.
He wiped his eyes on his sleeve. "sniff Ahah, have you lived so long and yet not known this? Well, I don't blame you. It confuses me too. Sorry, I'm dithering. Better compose myself before waxing poetic." He took a deep breath, smiling nervously.
"That gives it away doesn't it? Ah well. All this time you had seemed so innocent, so childlike. I looked at you and saw the sun. This...was a hasty error. I know now that you're too fierce to be innocent, and too old to be childlike. But you are so like! How could it be? Unless you did have the sun's light, though it did not originate with you." This was not levied as an accusation, but gentled as an innocent fact.
He looked towards the perpetual, celestial backdrop of Castlevania. "The second of my follies was my assumption that even that lunar sphere was but another tool of Castlevania, making madness, and wolves of men. Alas, that such cynicism should infect. Truthfully it is a safeguard; a light to make sure even the deepest shadows do not overreach.
Do you see it now? You're The Moon. A reflected light that guides through the dark; a radiant reserve that survives the encroaching gloom. Your eyes even eclipse." He smiled, repainting the visage that had struck terror into a joke. "You were my guide into the unknown; a lamp to light the path. Every time my base nature threatened to undo me; flight and fight, those two wolves nipping at my heels, you thrust them back deep into the waters of the subconscious.
With your second-hand light, you've brought peace to journey. Again I dub thee: The Moon. My little lunatic."
He finished, exhaling again. Ted then promptly blushed, having escaped the moment he was caught up in. Most normal people would've filed a restraining order by this point, so Ted was counting on Koishi's abnormality to let it slide. "Hah, I'm sorry. I may have gone too far..."
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"Ah..." For once Koishi looked slightly embarrassed. "I'm sorry Mister Spades. I'm so used to reading emotions that seeing one reaction and feeling another can confuse me. I'm better at it than Sis though. She's really bad at reading people if her mind reading is blocked. She get's really nervous and fidgets a lot."
Innocence? Youth? Hardly Ted. Koishi is anything but in the brief moments she regains her senses. But her brash and happy nature certainly could convey otherwise at times. She might have said something but Ted continued, Koishi tilting her head to one side.
"The moon?" She tilted her head the other way. "In my world, gazing at the true lunatic moon when its at its highest and fullest drives people insane. Humans and youkai alike. Even the reflection on the water's surface. I can be the moon and help you Mister Spades. It's perfect. My eyes are green, not red, so I don't have the power of lunacy that the moon rabbits have." Her eyes brightened significantly, lighting her face. But I can break minds and drive away danger. You can always count on me from now on and I promise to do my very best! Okay?"
Oh dear Ted... What did you do?
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Heaven knew. "What a terrifying world you must have come from; I understand, a little, why you're armed so." He even sympathized with her sister, having never considered the arrest mind reading would make on one's sociability. It was possible that even Ted knew more about it, having had to learn the hard way.
If he may think so himself, Ted did feel the nickname very fitting. He wasn't altogether comforted by this moon, but given its portents, perhaps that was all right. An ideal moon...what would it look like? It would, above all else, be an advocate of peace. That darker thing, lower than even instinct, would cease its attempts at life, drowned forever under lunar auspices. It might even make the dark safe to play in. Of course, Koishi had been doing just that.
But then Ted thought of what sort of spiritual swamp creatures he'd have to bury, and inwardly shuddered, a look of terror passing over his features in an instant. An ideal moon would indeed be able to calm the deeps, but first it would have to look upon them, albeit mercifully. Ted found the thought abhorrent.
So absorbed, Ted hadn't realized the awkwardness he created by his conversational withdrawal. He forced a laugh to clear things up. "Sorry, it must be the late hour that makes me so silly." Of all the faces he could present, Ted chose the old standby: a dim smile. It didn't display everything, but it displayed enough. "Beware of rash oaths," he chided playfully. "Personally I never promise to do my best, for it's rare enough even on good days. But who knows? Maybe Youkai are nearer to perfection than I suspected. You have had centuries of practice, after all. But so long as you're making oaths, might I suggest an alternative?"
He paused, taking another moment to look and think of Castlevania, the setting of chaos. "Strive for clarity; for minds unfettered. Madness, I've found, is cheap, but calm is precious. You are so much lovelier as a soothing balm, than a shattering bomb." Goodness, at this rate Ted would overtake Dracula in unbridled arrogance. All the same, Ted did think so. That removal of fear had propelled him to new heights...perhaps she might teach him of loss' proper place; she likely knew enough of it, given her amputation.
Too much thinking, too much imagination, as is the moon's wont. "Goodness, if we go on like this, we'll spoil everything." Ted was well-versed in the fanciful, and the imaginative. With Koishi, those fancies amplified, and Ted wondered if he might get lost in them. All things in moderation. This moon had craters, and this fool had a long ways to go. Going to bed was as good a step on that journey. Ted decided he'd end simply.
"Thank you, Koishi, and good night, and thank you for good nights."
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She waited quietly as Ted thought to himself, tilting her head one way, then the other. She didn't interrupt his musings, however, nor did she seem off-put by the large stretch of silence.
"Does lateness make humans act silly?" A blink. "Rash... Oh! But I mean that Mister Spades. I always try my best for my friends, but my best on some days is better than my best on other days. I'm not perfect though. Miss Maid is really close to perfect but she puts lots and lots of effort into everything constantly so that makes sense..."
She looked a bit thoughtful, her eyes dimming a little, third eye opening a sliver. She was seriously considering Ted's words. She sounded astoundingly focused when she spoke. "I'm going to try to be as clear as I can, okay Mister Spades. Calm is nice and ideal but it's easy to breed chaos under it. Without breaks in the calm we will never be able to see what is going on beyond it before it is too late." She seemed to flicker, becoming less defined for an instant. "And the appearance of actions is important but less so than the actions and their effect. Hands that kill can also heal. The real value comes in knowing which action to take."
Don't preach to your elders Ted.
Koishi wavered, listing a little in the air as her eyes closed. She looked disoriented, her outline swimming into focus again. It had been a mentally stressful day, after all.
"Oh... Okay Mister Spades. I'll keep you safe on your way home, then I'm going to chase some rabbits and bring them home to Sis. She has been restless and some meat that's not fish will probably cheer her up!" Koishi faded from view, even difficult for Ted to see. Likely the state she took on when following and 'protecting' Satsuki.