[CLOSED] PLAYER PLOT: The Ashes Underneath His Nails

[amygdalae]

WHO: Jim Kirk, Hermione Granger, Adelaide Leblanc, Herian Amsel, Anders, Inessa Serra, Raylan Gibbs, Ciri
WHAT: The Inquisition sends a group of agents to uncover the truth behind a string of mysterious disappearances.
WHEN: Kingsway 1st - 8th
WHERE: Emprise du Lion
NOTES: Plotting post is here - feel free to post in there still for queries and concerns and further stuff where needed. Warnings for blood, violence, talks about death, experimentation horror, abomination-related stuff etc and eventual on-screen child death. ALSO no tag order - just respond when you feel like you should and I'll try to hit it back if it feels appropriate!!

QUICK JUMP LINKS TRAVELLING TO FROMAGE & FROMAGE GENERAL THREAD ROUTE INVESTIGATION SEEKRIT CAVE ENTRANCE INTO THE SEEKRIT CAVE CAVE INVESTIGATION - LEFT TEAM CAVE INVESTIGATION - RIGHT TEAM KID ABOMINATION THREAD BACK TO SKYHOLD

(—he remembers the chill of the frost and snow biting at bare skin, its usual pure white now tinged a horrid pink from the blood on his hands. He's far away from them now, the danger and the pain and everything else, but the blood will forever be on his hands no matter how much he tries to wash it away. His father had been right all along. He truly was a monster of the greatest kind.)

QUEST: THE ASHES UNDERNEATH HIS NAILS (PART I) The message had come swiftly, the letter itself hastily written with a shaky hand. The request itself was simple; a plea for help from a village at the outskirts of Emprise du Lion, whose people have been mysteriously disappearing over the last few weeks. Considering the ongoing civil unrest that's still transpiring in Orlais the Inquisition made its decision to send out a team of agents to look into this message and see exactly what was going on. The eight agents tasked with the mission were given enough time to prepare for the trip ahead. They would all meet up first at the Inquisition camp set within the Emprise and from there travel for about a day until they reached where their destination was - Fromage, a quaint little village that rested at the outskirts of the area. From that point on, it was up to the agents of the Inquisition to solve this ongoing mystery. The mission: to discover the truth behind these disappearances - and to stop it, if possible.

Comments

[ichaer]

"If I have one regret it is that Nessa has suffered yet again. First Weisshaupt and now here, I should have not stopped my attack but..."

But what? For a brief moment she might have believed it possible to save the kid? It seems such a tiring thought now and she simply returns her focus to applying oil to her blade. In the end, she can only shake her head. She will not make the same mistake again.

The question earns him a thoughtful sound as Ciri holds the blade up allowing the lights of the fire to dance around the polished surface. "Thankfully not anything I cannot repair despite the grip he held on it. My hands and clothes suffered worse."

[justice_is_blond]

"You said yourself it's not wrong to believe things possible. Hope is hard. Rare, anymore. But isn't it preferable to give hope a chance rather than move to eliminate chances before you know for sure?"

It's obvious what he thinks, even though he's sorry he made the wrong call.

"I don't want Inessa hurt, and I'm sorry that she's hurt again. If you'd struck right away, though, you and Herian, how would you know you'd done the right thing?"

Not to mention it would have taken him much longer to tell them how to kill the child, because he wouldn't have been sure it was needed. The group would have been divided at best.

"On the other topic, if your hands are still injured, I could help with that." Or the clothes, but hands are most important.

[ichaer]

Tilting the blade, she watches the light of the flames dance around it.

"It is also not wrong to believe you are in the right even when everyone stands against you. Hope is hard in any situation but you have to know when it is too late. You have to know when to react so more do not suffer. I learned that the hard way in Weisshaupt."

She frowns, raising her free hand to touch the scar on her face. "I will be fine for now. They will simply serve as another reminder for the time being."

[justice_is_blond]

For several moments, again, he's very quiet. Then, voice low, offered with a tilt of his head:

"Or, sometimes, you learn that sometimes staying your hand even though everything looked hopeless would have been the best path. That sometimes hope deserves its day, needs its day."

Rushing to kill a possessed boy isn't on the same tier as what he did, but no one had known whether there was hope or not until the boy had clearly been lost. Who knows what would have happened if everyone had stayed calm?

"What happened here you'll remember, either way. Can I at least ease some of the physical pain?"

[ichaer]

"I did not draw my blade out of hopelessness. I drew my blade out of hope for those innocent ones that might suffer should we fall."

She takes no pride in having killed a boy but she considers them lucky it was only a small boy. If it had been an actual mage who knew how to control their powers, eaten by red lyrium and possessed then some of them might not even be here now.

"Of course... but this is ultimately my decision. I do not require your healing."

[justice_is_blond]

He could reframe what he'd done as well, hope for those he might save, but he knows what was at the root of his actions. Maybe she's right, or maybe she's in denial. He can't say; he doesn't know her well enough.

"All right." There's really nothing else to say to any of that. Instead, he returns to seeing what he can do for his blade and staff. Replacing it will take time so it needs to last a bit longer.

It'll be nice enough to work on his weapon in civil company. He doesn't need agreement here.