But For A Stone (A Matou Shinji Series AU)

[Skull Leader]

None of these options give me warm and fuzzy feelings here.

Sleep: Great idea until you die horribly
Wake Selina: What is the point of no one being rested? At that point you might as well explore.
Tough it out: Shinji falls asleep, or spends a super long time going mad. Plus I think this pushes Shinji to the breaking point, in that he barely has sleep, hasn't eat much and keeps casting magic.

Right we need to buy a plain old not super expensive old-timey pocket watch. Add that to our list of survival stuff that we need.

Rolling a die here for what option Shinji picks here...you darn noble fool.

[X] Tough it out till Selina's time to...wait a minute, there was no light from outside, and he had no timepiece. Until she woke, then.

[Daiki]

[X] Tough it out.

[alfheimwanderer]

[X] Tough it out.

---

Whether it was due to him putting chivalry over reason or simply due to him not wanting to get his nose broken by Selina's surprisingly powerful right hook, the boy decided to tough it out, his footsteps echoing on stone amid the crackling of the verdant flames. Though...he wondered, as he passed them time and time again if they were true flames.

'If they are real flames, is there enough air for both us and the torches?'

And if not...what were they burning? Was this pyramid structure drawing energy from ley lines? Was it perhaps burning the life energy of those who entered into the place?.

For that matter, what manner of place had this once been? A palace? A temple? Something else entirely?

As the hours dragged on, the boy found his thoughts wandering so, with him trying his best to focus on the present by examining his surroundings more closely, attempting to puzzle out if there was a pattern in the randomness of the flickering, and if something really was moving, or if he was imagining it entirely.

That was when he noticed that as he came closer to the torches, the crackling of the flames almost sounded like whispers - well, if one tried to imagine what the whisper of a troll might sound like.

Atra. Noshraka. Nifle. Ait. Ushara.

Was that really there, though? Or was he only imagining it, his mind giving meaning to meaningless noise in an attempt to make sense of nothingness. The mind abhorred a vacuum, after all, and would do what it took to fill it with something, no matter how strange that something sometimes was.

[ ] Repeat the nonsense words aloud
[ ] Inspect the torches closer
[ ] Climb the stairs, maybe this will clear his head
[ ] Choose one of the tunnels - one of them seems to have a faint shadow at the end...

[skulkidcachi90]

[ ] Repeat the nonsense words aloud

[Skull Leader]

Can't we just wake Selina up? I didn't before cause it felt like again she just went to sleep. No point keep making her sleep to wake her up five minutes later. But at this point it has been at least some time.

Sigh

Words have power and repeating unknown words in this place sounds like a bad idea. As well as going down a tunnel on his own. And staring into light is a great way to ruin your vision and not see something creep up on you.

[X] Climb the stairs, maybe this will clear his head

[Daiki]

[x] Climb the stairs, maybe this will clear his head

[alfheimwanderer]

[x] Climb the stairs, maybe this will clear his head

---

Thinking that perhaps getting away from the chamber would help him to clear his mind, the boy made for the stairs, proceeding to climb them slowly, forcing himself to breathe deeply as he did so. Yet as he stepped, as he breathed, he felt the world itself shifting and wavering around him, as if there was some kind of odd boundary he was walking through - and as he stepped above halfway, the green firelight seemed to wink out, with the boy finding that the world had twanged.

'What?'

With a mutter of Lumos, he peered downward, only to freeze as he saw that the central room was mostly in ruins, and that against the wall - which he'd missed - somehow, there were sarcophagi. Some closed, some open, some cracked with bits of white bone peering out.

'What on earth...'

This wasn't a temple. No...it was a mausoleum. And none of the murals he'd seen before were there at all.

Had it been an illusion? Or...

...was it the dream of the dead?

What does Shinji do?

[ ] Escape - if he goes down there again, he might be caught in the illusion again
[ ] Go down and wake Selina - they have to get out of there
[ ] Go down, wake Selina and discuss options
[ ] Just go back down and sleep - if this is a shrine to the dead, there's nothing living here that can hurt them
[ ] (write-in)

[skulkidcachi90]

[ ] Go down, wake Selina and discuss options

[Daiki]

[x] Go down, wake Selina and discuss options

[shanagan]

[x] Go down, wake Selina and discuss options

[alfheimwanderer]

[x] Go down, wake Selina and discuss options

---

Selina seemed somewhat grumpy when woken, with it being evident that she hadn't gotten an excessive amount of sleep.

"What is it?" she asked, glancing up at Shinji in the dim glow of the flames. "Is it my turn on watch?"

"No...there's...a situation."

"What is it?" she repeated.

"These torches - this central chamber - none of it is really here."

Selina blinked, glancing around, her eyebrow lifting quizzically.

"Explain."

"I went up the staircase a bit, and after a while, the torchlight seemed to die. I lit my wand to see what happened, but what I saw..." He shuddered.

"What?"

"Bones. Rubble. Dust and ashes. There are no torches. The walls where the murals were are caved in. We are in the middle of a mausoleum." The boy swallowed. "A troll mausoleum."

"Well...that's something," Selina murmured. "But if there's nothing, then..." She gestured to their surroundings.

"An illusion, I think. Or a memory playing through our minds."

"A memory? From--"

"The dead," Shinji intoned. "Something is here with us. Something that isn't dead, even if everything else is."

"It's showing us this place?"

Shinji nodded.

"There has to be a reason then..."

"Does there?" the boy asked. "What if there is no purpose, no reason at all?"

"There aren't many things for which there is no purpose or reason at all," Selina noted, with Shinji nodding reluctantly. "But if things are as you say, perhaps we are being shown this place for a reason. Perhaps we are meant to explore one of the side passages?"

"Or maybe we should just leave while we can," Shinji suggested. "The hail must have died down by now."

"Maybe," Selina related. "Still, we've come this far, it would be a shame to fly away from here, leaving it unexplored."

What does Shinji suggest?

[ ] Explore one of the passages together
[ ] Take the stairs to the exit and take their chances
[ ] Just go to sleep again, there's no point in running
[ ] Repeating the words he heard, and asking if she could make sense of them

[shanagan]

[X] Explore one of the passages together

[Skull Leader]

At some point in the near future we need Shinji to actually sleep as he has yet to sleep for this day after only getting a few hours from the previous night. He is going to go crazy and/or make big mistakes if we do not fix this issue. The question is thought is this still a safe place for Shinji to sleep? I am not sure.

And if we can find some food that safe for consumption (and is not someone else's dinner) that would be great. But that might be asking for the moon at this point.

[X] Explore one of the passages together

It is this or take our chances to sleep. Running out of this place might be the best move to remove ourselves from the place's influences but given that Shinji has not sleep, and the dangers outside with undead trolls, and weather, I suspect that Shinji is not ready to go for hours more out there without falling asleep.

[Daiki]

[x] Explore one of the passages together.

Sleepless Shinji is becoming a meme this year.

[alfheimwanderer]

[X] Explore one of the passages together

---

"...do as you like," Shinji grunted, knowing that his judgement was impaired, and trusting Selina to do the intellectual heavy lifting, since she had actually gotten some amount of sleep. Well, that and she was the one who'd grown up going on adventures, much like him, as the closest he had come to being on an adventure was being sent to boarding school in Britain during the Fourth War.

He watched as the blonde stood, snatched a torch from the wall, and headed towards the lone tunnel shrouded in darkness - the tunnel along which there were no torches, oddly enough.

"Why there?"

"Because if you're right about this whole area being under an illusion, I'd wager that the darkness is where the illusion doesn't reach," Selina reasoned, with Shinji nodding slowly.

"That...I guess that makes sense," the boy replied. "You sure you want to go into there?"

"Well, it would make me feel safer if I had your wands at my back," the blonde answered, with the Hufflepuff sighing.

"Let's hope you're right," Shinji grunted, gesturing at the pitch black mouth of the tunnel, ringed by torches. "Ladies first."

They walk into the darkness, bearing aloft a torch of green. In this tunnel, there is something thick and cloying, with the darkness less the absence of light than something almost tangible, just beyond his ability to reach out and grasp. Slippery, oily threads sifting through his thoughts like a metaphysical skein.

They walked.

They walked.

They walked.

They--

The boy reels, the world spinning around him, as the darkness is torn away, with the two of them finding themselves standing amidst...

'No...'

Shinji feels his nerves begin to run backward, his emotions frozen and red hot all at once, as the room around him was not empty. All around him - around Selina - there were worms - innumerable worms. A great rotten living mass of worms, writhing and squirming and slithering about.

'What.'

What is before him is impossible, and yet...and yet it is before him even so. Worms, hissing. Worms, burrowing. Worms, screeching. Worms...taking the shape of a man. Worms forming misshapen feet, skin, ankles. Worms burrowing into worms, with a sound that he found familiar yet terrifying.

Not a mere handful of worms. Not a mere dozen. Not hundreds. Not thousands.

Tens of thousands. Hundreds of thousands. So many that if a human was to be swarmed by the black carpet, they would not last even a minute, with all their bones and meat taken by the worms, skin melted away, leaving nothing.This...this person, this being, this thing could not be here, his mind screamed, but humans weren't really rational creatures, for all they pretended to be.

And so the boy shivered, staggering as worms entered the mass, as mad laughter filled the room, with the one laughing being an old, withered man, a man that Matou Shinji called...

“…grandfather.”

The abomination looks at him, through him, past him, not even acknowledging him, as if he was invisible, looking at...

...looking at Selina.

"Die," growled the worm that walked, and its servitors - an infinite swarm of worms - surged forward to devour them whole.

What does Matou Shinji do?

[ ] Let himself go mad - destroy this false world
[ ] ...perhaps now would be a good time to use some cursed blades?
[ ] ...throw himself in front of Selina, if he protects her, she'll surely know what to do
[ ] Use both wands and attack with Verdimillious Tria
[ ] Break down hysterically in the face of the end

[skulkidcachi90]

[X ] ...perhaps now would be a good time to use some cursed blades

[Skull Leader]

How is the curse knives going to deal with the worm horde that is immediately attacking our pair? It seems like a bad idea at this moment, especially when it is not the anti-dark Sting knife anymore.

Going mad here is an amusing option of let's kill this dead NOW option but in front of Selina? No thanks. Break down hysterically, ah the classic. Remember the good times when we did that before. Sure Shinji pray that this is a boggart and that Selina will not think you are mad for this.

Which leads me to protect Selina and hope she can do something or go sith...ah dark wizard here, and cast that lightning spell to fry the worms.

[X] Use both wands and attack with Verdimillious Tria

[Daiki]

[x] Use both wands and attack with Verdimillious Tria.

Yeah, at some point he needs to face his fears and confront them, even if he ends up beaten.

None of these options sound ideal in this situation, what with the number of worms, but you're probably better off trying to fight back rather than having a freak out episode or turning into his berserk form in front of yet another person.

I wouldn't consider knives here however, because you can't make enough to pin each worm. That would take a crazy amount and we don't have the time nor the ability to multiply them that fast yet. Besides, if the worms turn into a wave I doubt stabbing some would have a significant impact. Meanwhile the spell can hit a broader range and maybe push them back long enough for options to open.

[alfheimwanderer]

[X] Use both wands and attack with Verdimillious Tria

---

Matou Shinji had had enough of being ignored. He'd had enough of being dismissed. He'd had enough of being thought of as no threat at all - as nothing even close to a threat. Yes, it was true that compared to Matou Zouken, he was nothing - for what worth could someone like him hold next to an archmagus who had devised a way to control existences on the order of Heroic Spirits. But this thing before him - it wasn't Matou Zouken.

It might look the same. It might sound the same. It might even hurt the same.

But in the end, it was only an illusion, a memory given form and substances by the power of the tome he was exploring, bound by its rules.

'That's right. You're not real. You're only a fake pretending to be something you aren't.'

...much like Shinji himself.

The boy's wands came up, a cry of Verdimillious Tria already on his lips as purple-black lightning hissed across the distance, flash-frying any worm which dared come near. The jagged lances of power sped forth, coming not just from his wands, but the space between, creating a veritable wave of dark power that erased that which was before him as his blood pounded in his skull.

Destroy. Destroy. Destroy.

Perhaps the world might crush him, might tear him apart with its careless disregard for human life, but he would not lose to something in his mind - to a mere memory trying to make him the same as it.

"I will never be just a memory," he snarled, reaching into himself, taking his fear and tempering it into anger, taking his anger and refining it into hatred, taking his hatred and turning into power, pure and unrestrained. "I will become someone!"

Before his onslaught, the worms - and their originator - shattered, as a claw of shadow gripped what was left and squeezed, eradicating the being before him as Shinji laughed and laughed and laughed.

"Was that a monster?" Selina asked him. "An enemy from your deepest nightmares?"

"...no, that was my grandfather," the boy replied tersely.

Selina, of course, has questions...

[ ] Tell her about his family
[ ] Tell her about his "dark powers"
[ ] Tell her nothing - she doesn't need to know
[ ] Tell her you'll answer her later, now is not the time

[Skull Leader]

"Was that a monster?" Selina asked him. "An enemy from your deepest nightmares?"

"...no, that was my grandfather," the boy replied tersely.

They are one and the same, Shinji. Welcome to becoming a Sith. Nats must be proud.

[X] Tell her you'll answer her later, now is not the time

I am inclined to have Shinji tell her stuff like his family as I suspect she would be good at giving him perspective from a outsider point of view. But Shinji needs to calm down at this moment and talking about his family will just stir him up more at this moment. I think we need to table this talk for now until Shinji cools down and they have a better time/place to talk about this. Maybe at some point later in this adventure.

On the other hand if we wait until the adventure is over then I think Shinji will clam up more on the subject when he does talk, especially if others are around to hear it like Ernie.