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Post by Gandigan on Aug 4, 2023 12:47:29 GMT -5
"Who are you?" Gandigan asked. The Mazoku sage looked at him and smiled, before again ushering him into the seat which lay in the center of the room. The home was larger than it appeared from the outside, as though some sort of spell had been cast on it. Each side was decorated with a number of intricately designed carvings and other like baubles, the purpose of which he couldn't rightly say, though some part of him could feel a magical aura coming from within them.
Despite not closing any sort of door, the outside which had been a bright day appeared darker and dampened now that he was within. The power of the shadows from this hut appeared to push away the incoming light. The back of the room revealed stairs which lead to somewhere deeper, probably to where the old sage slept. The room they were in was centered on a long wicker chair, large enough for a man to lay on. Like with the rest of the ornaments Gandigan could feel a presence within that seat.
"My name is Balum. I have acted as the wise sage for many different tribes across the past two hundred and thirty years. I have been with the Muru tribe for the past twenty years. In that time I have cured many ailments, including the one which haunts you, young man." He knows? The power of magick. It was a power that Gandigan had taken interest in, but which he feared in others. He knew all too well how dangerous those abilities could be if in the wrong hands.
"You're a wanderer then? Where were you before the Muru tribe?" Balum had moved over to one of the tables to the left, where he began mixing together ingredients Gandigan didn't recognize. "Here and there. There and here. You know how things are, boy. The Outer Plait can be dangerous, especially for those who stick in one place for too long. Many of the tribes which I have tried to settle in... well, they didn't last as long as I have."
Gandigan raised an eyebrow. "That so? Is there a common reason for that?" The sage laughed. "You don't trust me? Yet you want to entrust your safety to my abilities? That's funny." Gandigan didn't have anything to say to that. Still he hadn't yet put himself in the chair; not until he got more about of him. "Magick is powerful, and sometimes can be used for great things. But it's equally dangerous. I have known more people to misuse it's potential than I wish to recount."
"You mean like the Kashvar? Or that funny Shroom fellow?" What? How did he- "Know that? Gandigan my child: your mind is an open book. Your inner defenses have been compromised." He didn't know what to say. "Let me put it like this: You invited someone inside, but when they left they forgot to lock the door. Anyone who knows this can easily slip in without you even knowing. A dangerous trait for someone with your power; you're lucky your friend Nero is good intentioned."
Balum placed his mixture into a mortar and pestle, grinding them into a thick paste. The smell was just as bad as when he had stepped in, but he wouldn't turn his back on this one. "You've been reading my thoughts then? For how long?" Balum laughed again. "For as long as you've been within our walls I could hear everything going on in that noggin of yours, son. With a power like yours it's quite hard to ignore. We really ought to close that thing up."
"That not's not wh--" Balum snapped in. "Yes, I know. You came to retrieve those memories tucked away, deep inside the recesses of your mind. Even those ones I cannot reach, not without some help. I suppose we can take care of that first. Here, you're going to want to eat some of this." Balum grabbed his mixture and pushed into the face of Gandigan. "Eat? My goodness. I thought that was some sort of skin ointment. You actually want me to eat this? You could at least tell me what's in it first."
"Children. You really should trust in the wisdom of your elders... but I suppose I can indulge you in this. We start with Ajisa juice, extracted from the eldest, most rotten samples we have. Next we add pure alcohol, which we have obtained from outside traders. Mixing those two ingredients together gives us our base. From there we add in Saffron, ground up worms, toad eyes, crab blood and a few sprinkles of shaved gold. An expensive potion for an extreme cause."
Again Gandigan held the mixture up to his nose, and again he was forced to back away. "Don't be such a child. You want your memories back or not?" Balum this time forced it into face of Gandigan, leaving him no choice. He took the mortar from the hands of Balum and chugged down as much of the potion as he could, dropping the mortar in the process and nearly falling himself.
Balum by now had gotten his hands on Gandigan, and slowly eased him into the chair while the Mazoku still didn't have complete control over himself. "Wha... what's happen...ing to...me?" The sage moved over to each side of Gandigan, tying his arms down. "The potion I made for you is one which opens the mind. It is most often used during interrogations, when our warriors want information, but our captives wish not to speak. It's unusual for someone to willingly take it."
Gandigan's strength was collapsing rapidly. "Oh, yes. I also forgot a few ingredients. Bile, Opium, Hemlock... general anesthesia. For someone as strong as you I required quite a heavy dose and, well, considering the ingredients I used are as poisonous as they are helpful I hope for your sack that I didn't get the dosages wrong." Another sickening smile appeared on the face of Balum, which was the last thing Gandigan remembered before losing consciousness.
When his eyes opened, Gandigan found himself in the Outer Plait. What had that mad scientist done to him? When he looked down to examine his body he found... things were different. His skin, which had oft been described as nearly black, looked a much healthier green. "Can you hear me down there?... Has the potion worked?..." Gandigan looked to the sky, though there was no source of the voice to be found.
"It's Balum you fool... are things working or not?..." He didn't have much choice but to respond. "Yes. I... I guess they have? Where am I?" It took several seconds for the voice to respond. "You should be telling me that.... they're your memories after all..." Gandigan got up and looked around. The fields were harsher than he remembered, probably because this was before Nero had made any sort of efforts to restore the Outer Plait.
A sudden fury caught him by surprise; several high powers were approaching his way. Gandigan put up his guard, but he could feel that he was so much weaker back then than he was now. Off in the distance he could see about a dozen Namekians honing in on his direction; was this going to be a fight? "Stop right there!" He shouted, hoping to scare them off. It failed, and on they came. But when they finally got to Gandigan they... kneeled?
"Gandigan, sir. What is it?" Their leader asked, catching Gandigan without an answer. He was a Mazoku not too dissimilar from himself, though he stood much taller. His power was around half of his own. "Sir? Remember that we're working against the clock here. Someone may discover what is it we plan to do, and then who knows what will happen. The others will probably come after us... what was it that you're doing out here in the first place?"
Again Gandigan didn't know what to say; he had to improvise. "Excuse me? Are you questioning me right now?" The stranger stood back; a look of fear spread across his face before he dropped down to one knee again. "No sir! I just... like I said, we need to hurry don't we?" If only he had any idea of what this stranger was talking about. "Yes, we need to... hurry. But why don't you lead the way? The others will form up around me."
The Mazoku got back to his feet and nodded, taking off into the air. Gandigan followed after, with the others doing as they were commanded and forming around Gandigan. It only took a few moments of flight for Gandigan to realize where it was they were going: the old castle. Suddenly the few memories he did have started to come back, though he knew this wouldn't be the same. Those memories were already known to him, and this one must have been new.
From the air it was much easier to see the efforts Nero had put into restoring the Outer Plait when contrasting it to what it had used to been. But the Mazoku surrounding him didn't seem to mind; this kind enjoyed the harsh environment he could tell. The old castle however stood as it always had, as strong as the stone which built it. Standing outside the castle were another group of Mazoku, seemingly waiting for their arrival.
Upon touching down the others knelt as the first group did, before one stepped forward to greet them. "Gandigan. I was surprised by your absence this morning. You know better than the rest of us the importance of our task here today. The sooner we get this done the better it will be for all of us... but I trust you had your reasons. As you ordered." The Mazoku held out an object that Gandigan instantly recognized: A Guiding Candle.
"As you thought: the Kashvar did in fact have a supply of Guiding Candles, though the price was... well, quite astronomical. We had to rob a dozen different Konatsians just to get our hands on one, so we should probably stay away from the planet for a while. I do hope you know for sure that this works; with just one we couldn't well test it." Gandigan snatched the Candle from his hand. "Don't worry. I know for a fact that this will work."
Every fiber of his being wanted to fly away right now, yet something in him compelled him to go on. "Fool... this is not time travel. This is a memory... you must go on, whether you want to or not." Despite having a pretty good idea on what was to happen next, Gandigan found himself moving inside the castle with the others falling in behind him. The moved into the center room where the group formed a circle around him.
"One you capture a Demon you're to find a way to extinguish the Candle and bring him back. Once we have a live subject we shall put our scientists to work studying the creature, and in time we shall find a way to unlock their power to travel between dimensions. Once we can invade the otherworld ourselves without the use of these Candles we shall have the power to recruit from a vast swath of Demons who I'm sure would love the chance to escape Hell."
Why was Gandigan going along with this plan? Was he really the one who had come up with it? He didn't know; he didn't want to know. This whole plan was nuts, and yet there was nothing he could do to stop it. It was as Balum had told him: this was a memory. He was a slave to the past, to what had already happened. Despite wanting once again to flee from this nightmare and return to the living world he instead found himself lighting the Guiding Candle, being instantly teleported back down to Hell.
Despite not closing any sort of door, the outside which had been a bright day appeared darker and dampened now that he was within. The power of the shadows from this hut appeared to push away the incoming light. The back of the room revealed stairs which lead to somewhere deeper, probably to where the old sage slept. The room they were in was centered on a long wicker chair, large enough for a man to lay on. Like with the rest of the ornaments Gandigan could feel a presence within that seat.
"My name is Balum. I have acted as the wise sage for many different tribes across the past two hundred and thirty years. I have been with the Muru tribe for the past twenty years. In that time I have cured many ailments, including the one which haunts you, young man." He knows? The power of magick. It was a power that Gandigan had taken interest in, but which he feared in others. He knew all too well how dangerous those abilities could be if in the wrong hands.
"You're a wanderer then? Where were you before the Muru tribe?" Balum had moved over to one of the tables to the left, where he began mixing together ingredients Gandigan didn't recognize. "Here and there. There and here. You know how things are, boy. The Outer Plait can be dangerous, especially for those who stick in one place for too long. Many of the tribes which I have tried to settle in... well, they didn't last as long as I have."
Gandigan raised an eyebrow. "That so? Is there a common reason for that?" The sage laughed. "You don't trust me? Yet you want to entrust your safety to my abilities? That's funny." Gandigan didn't have anything to say to that. Still he hadn't yet put himself in the chair; not until he got more about of him. "Magick is powerful, and sometimes can be used for great things. But it's equally dangerous. I have known more people to misuse it's potential than I wish to recount."
"You mean like the Kashvar? Or that funny Shroom fellow?" What? How did he- "Know that? Gandigan my child: your mind is an open book. Your inner defenses have been compromised." He didn't know what to say. "Let me put it like this: You invited someone inside, but when they left they forgot to lock the door. Anyone who knows this can easily slip in without you even knowing. A dangerous trait for someone with your power; you're lucky your friend Nero is good intentioned."
Balum placed his mixture into a mortar and pestle, grinding them into a thick paste. The smell was just as bad as when he had stepped in, but he wouldn't turn his back on this one. "You've been reading my thoughts then? For how long?" Balum laughed again. "For as long as you've been within our walls I could hear everything going on in that noggin of yours, son. With a power like yours it's quite hard to ignore. We really ought to close that thing up."
"That not's not wh--" Balum snapped in. "Yes, I know. You came to retrieve those memories tucked away, deep inside the recesses of your mind. Even those ones I cannot reach, not without some help. I suppose we can take care of that first. Here, you're going to want to eat some of this." Balum grabbed his mixture and pushed into the face of Gandigan. "Eat? My goodness. I thought that was some sort of skin ointment. You actually want me to eat this? You could at least tell me what's in it first."
"Children. You really should trust in the wisdom of your elders... but I suppose I can indulge you in this. We start with Ajisa juice, extracted from the eldest, most rotten samples we have. Next we add pure alcohol, which we have obtained from outside traders. Mixing those two ingredients together gives us our base. From there we add in Saffron, ground up worms, toad eyes, crab blood and a few sprinkles of shaved gold. An expensive potion for an extreme cause."
Again Gandigan held the mixture up to his nose, and again he was forced to back away. "Don't be such a child. You want your memories back or not?" Balum this time forced it into face of Gandigan, leaving him no choice. He took the mortar from the hands of Balum and chugged down as much of the potion as he could, dropping the mortar in the process and nearly falling himself.
Balum by now had gotten his hands on Gandigan, and slowly eased him into the chair while the Mazoku still didn't have complete control over himself. "Wha... what's happen...ing to...me?" The sage moved over to each side of Gandigan, tying his arms down. "The potion I made for you is one which opens the mind. It is most often used during interrogations, when our warriors want information, but our captives wish not to speak. It's unusual for someone to willingly take it."
Gandigan's strength was collapsing rapidly. "Oh, yes. I also forgot a few ingredients. Bile, Opium, Hemlock... general anesthesia. For someone as strong as you I required quite a heavy dose and, well, considering the ingredients I used are as poisonous as they are helpful I hope for your sack that I didn't get the dosages wrong." Another sickening smile appeared on the face of Balum, which was the last thing Gandigan remembered before losing consciousness.
When his eyes opened, Gandigan found himself in the Outer Plait. What had that mad scientist done to him? When he looked down to examine his body he found... things were different. His skin, which had oft been described as nearly black, looked a much healthier green. "Can you hear me down there?... Has the potion worked?..." Gandigan looked to the sky, though there was no source of the voice to be found.
"It's Balum you fool... are things working or not?..." He didn't have much choice but to respond. "Yes. I... I guess they have? Where am I?" It took several seconds for the voice to respond. "You should be telling me that.... they're your memories after all..." Gandigan got up and looked around. The fields were harsher than he remembered, probably because this was before Nero had made any sort of efforts to restore the Outer Plait.
A sudden fury caught him by surprise; several high powers were approaching his way. Gandigan put up his guard, but he could feel that he was so much weaker back then than he was now. Off in the distance he could see about a dozen Namekians honing in on his direction; was this going to be a fight? "Stop right there!" He shouted, hoping to scare them off. It failed, and on they came. But when they finally got to Gandigan they... kneeled?
"Gandigan, sir. What is it?" Their leader asked, catching Gandigan without an answer. He was a Mazoku not too dissimilar from himself, though he stood much taller. His power was around half of his own. "Sir? Remember that we're working against the clock here. Someone may discover what is it we plan to do, and then who knows what will happen. The others will probably come after us... what was it that you're doing out here in the first place?"
Again Gandigan didn't know what to say; he had to improvise. "Excuse me? Are you questioning me right now?" The stranger stood back; a look of fear spread across his face before he dropped down to one knee again. "No sir! I just... like I said, we need to hurry don't we?" If only he had any idea of what this stranger was talking about. "Yes, we need to... hurry. But why don't you lead the way? The others will form up around me."
The Mazoku got back to his feet and nodded, taking off into the air. Gandigan followed after, with the others doing as they were commanded and forming around Gandigan. It only took a few moments of flight for Gandigan to realize where it was they were going: the old castle. Suddenly the few memories he did have started to come back, though he knew this wouldn't be the same. Those memories were already known to him, and this one must have been new.
From the air it was much easier to see the efforts Nero had put into restoring the Outer Plait when contrasting it to what it had used to been. But the Mazoku surrounding him didn't seem to mind; this kind enjoyed the harsh environment he could tell. The old castle however stood as it always had, as strong as the stone which built it. Standing outside the castle were another group of Mazoku, seemingly waiting for their arrival.
Upon touching down the others knelt as the first group did, before one stepped forward to greet them. "Gandigan. I was surprised by your absence this morning. You know better than the rest of us the importance of our task here today. The sooner we get this done the better it will be for all of us... but I trust you had your reasons. As you ordered." The Mazoku held out an object that Gandigan instantly recognized: A Guiding Candle.
"As you thought: the Kashvar did in fact have a supply of Guiding Candles, though the price was... well, quite astronomical. We had to rob a dozen different Konatsians just to get our hands on one, so we should probably stay away from the planet for a while. I do hope you know for sure that this works; with just one we couldn't well test it." Gandigan snatched the Candle from his hand. "Don't worry. I know for a fact that this will work."
Every fiber of his being wanted to fly away right now, yet something in him compelled him to go on. "Fool... this is not time travel. This is a memory... you must go on, whether you want to or not." Despite having a pretty good idea on what was to happen next, Gandigan found himself moving inside the castle with the others falling in behind him. The moved into the center room where the group formed a circle around him.
"One you capture a Demon you're to find a way to extinguish the Candle and bring him back. Once we have a live subject we shall put our scientists to work studying the creature, and in time we shall find a way to unlock their power to travel between dimensions. Once we can invade the otherworld ourselves without the use of these Candles we shall have the power to recruit from a vast swath of Demons who I'm sure would love the chance to escape Hell."
Why was Gandigan going along with this plan? Was he really the one who had come up with it? He didn't know; he didn't want to know. This whole plan was nuts, and yet there was nothing he could do to stop it. It was as Balum had told him: this was a memory. He was a slave to the past, to what had already happened. Despite wanting once again to flee from this nightmare and return to the living world he instead found himself lighting the Guiding Candle, being instantly teleported back down to Hell.
