[open] i really don't care about nothing at all but i think the world of you

[incinerating]

Who: Emil Västerström and whoever!
When: During the "Dream A Little Dream" event and/or other times in the month.
Where: Emil's memories, or wherever else
What: Memory sharing and catch-all for any other random threads.
Warnings: animal suffering mutation/violence and death, gun and knife violence, general body horror via infection/rot/mutation



Prompts in comments.

I will post a couple of starters with various 'phases' or parts of the memory sequence, since complete arcs in SSSS tend to be on the longer side. If you'd like to join in at any one particular phase of the memory or just want to go through the whole thing from the start, let me know in the subject line. I'm only going to post the first couple minutes of the memories and then we can walk through more in the thread! Emil will likely be watching the memory with your character, making commentary or trying to distract them if he thinks that what's happening is too embarrassing.

I genuinely don't mind going through the same memories with multiple people because who he's with will change his reactions, so feel free to tag one even if there's another taker.

Memory One: Let Them Eat Cake (on the mingle log) - In which Emil is a spoiled teenager snarking at his nanny, but conveniently providing a place for anyone needing a bit of levity and cake among all the misery.

Memory Two: Cthulhund & Kitty - In which Emil encounters a Rash-infected dog Beast, tries and fails to put it out of its misery, and then assists with the attempted rescue of a family of cats. Only Kitty survives.

Memory Three: Left Behind - In which Emil and his friend Lalli stay behind as the rest of the group moves on, and Emil ends up having to drag Lalli's unconscious body halfway across Denmark with no food. Also they are almost killed by dusklings.

May add more if I think of notable moments!

Comments

☆ cthulhund & kitty (cw: cats and dogs suffering infection, violence, exposure, euthanasia, death)

[incinerating]

☆ Phase One: You Can't Go On Living Like That

[The memory starts with Emil, dressed in his original white and blue expedition uniform with its wide collar, bandolier of explosives, and carrying a semi-automatic gun. It is raining hard, and he is moving cautiously through the rotting ruins of a city, following the sounds of cats crying and yowling as if they're fighting. As he's about to turn away and leave the cats be, he sees the form of a Beast walking by.

The creature looks like a large dog, maybe an Afghan, with a pink collar barely visible under the thick fur at its neck. But that's where the resemblance to a dog stops. There are dark smudges in the fur under its eyes that look like old dried blood, or perhaps some other kind of dark bodily fluid, the fur is thick and matted, and when its eyes are visible you can see worms crawling through and around them. As it moves, the Beast softly whines, a pathetic 'nyuuuu' of misery. The creature pads slowly over to a stone pillar where a cat with a large gory injury on its head is trapped, hissing at it.]

Okay, then...

[Emil in the memory sounds hesitant, but he lifts his gun to his shoulder and aims at the Beast.]

Don't move for a tiny moment, I'll take care of this. That's it, good boy.

[As he speaks, his voice soothing and cautious, the creature turns to look at him, only just noticing his presence.]

It'll be over very soo-

[The sentence is cut off by the creature lunging toward Emil, and the shockingly loud report of gunshots.]

☆ Phase Two: Kitty's Rescue

[After the Cthulhund outruns him, still whimpering and crying in pain, Emil finds himself back at that pillar, where he sees Sigrun, a tall redheaded woman in a uniform similar to his own, reaching up to try to coax the injured cat down so they can take care of it. The rain is coming down harder now, soaking his hair and the collar and shoulders of his uniform, and his gun is slung against his back now. He's about to approach Sigrun and the wounded cat when he hears a soft 'miu' - the sound of a kitten's cry - and follows it to a hole about the size of an outstretched hand in the foundation of a nearby ruined building.

Kneeling down, he reaches inside carefully and withdraws a tiny, cold bundle of wet fur...]

☆ Phase Three: A Funeral and a Mercy Killing

[It is nighttime now, and the rain is still falling in freezing cold sheets. Emil is standing by a small pile of rocks with his arms crossed. Beside him stands a boy around his age but much thinner, with a hood and jaw-length ash blond hair. Emil looks angry now, sulking, petulant like a teenage boy, and he doesn't look at the other boy when he speaks.]

...If you have some death rites you'd like to perform, maybe get them over with so we can go back inside.

[When the other boy doesn't respond, Emil says 'Hey.' to catch his attention, but stops as he realizes that the other boy is looking at something off to the side. Emil follows his gaze, and both boys watch as a wet, furry form crawls out of the pitch darkness.]

☆ Reference Pages

Phase One: p.336 to p.346.
Phase Two: p.347 to p.355.
Phase Three: p.356 to p.360

☆ left behind (cw: comatose character, gun violence against monsters, mild emeto in phase 5)

[incinerating]

☆ Phase One: Undeniable Proof of Magic

[The memory starts with action. Emil and another boy are running away from something, obviously terrified, at full tilt. Both of their faces are full of obvious wide-eyed fear, although Emil in particular looks as if he's bordering on panic. As the two of them run out onto a wide empty stretch where there's nothing but flat untouched snow, Emil's foot suddenly breaks down through the surface, to the knee, with a squelching splash. Wincing, he pulls the foot up and continues, but on the next step, his other foot breaks through the surface as well, this time all the way up to the hip.

It's obvious that they're running out onto frozen-over water, and that the ice won't hold his weight, even as his lighter companion keeps going.]

Lalli! I can't go over there!

[As his companion sprints back toward him, Emil sits cautiously on the ice with one foot underneath himself.]

It won't hold me.

[Before either of them can say anything else, there is a sound behind Emil and both of them look up as a Giant the size of a two-story building lumbers out of the ruins. It is a horrific creature, with a large central body that looks like a mass of tumours and boils, with impossibly long thrashing tentacles.

There is no way they can face this.

Except then Emil's companion steps between Emil and the Giant, eyes wide and face solemn, with both of his hands raised. Emil can do nothing but watch in horror.]

☆ Phase Two: Holing Up

[Emil is sitting on a small chunk of ice, barely big enough to hold him and the unconscious body next to him, and 'rowing' their way toward shore with another shard of ice or wood - it's difficult to tell because it's dark and a slushy mix of snow and rain is pelting down on them.]

Almost there. Almost. Almost...

[Emil is talking to himself, encouraging himself to carry on as they finally make it to shore and he finally drags the limp form of his companion off the ice. Exhausted, he collapses to the ground with his friend's head in his lap and catches his breath for a few moments.]

Okay...we have to keep moving.

[And he does, dragging his best friend along with him. It's a long walk, but eventually he makes it to a house that looks sound enough, breaks in, and leaves his companion's limp body lying on the floor.]

Wait here! I'll make sure this place is safe.

[And he sets off.]

☆ Phase Three: Compassion is Weakness

[It's some time later when Emil can be seen traipsing through the desolate, ruined wasteland of what used to be modern-day Denmark, pulling a mat with a pair of cloth straps. On the mat is his friend, still unconscious. Emil speaks, though, as if he's speaking to someone who is responding, though only Emil can hear the voice. He explains that he's done walking for the day and decides to find a place to hole up for the night.

Spotting a house that looks decent in the distance, and commenting that it even has a fireplace, Emil starts moving only to stop abruptly next to the ruins of a building. Standing still, he stares at the writhing mass of black spiritual filth that he couldn't previously see, eyes wide. Despite the protests in his mind that only he can hear, he stays still and keeps staring, and a tremulous voice that could be many voices speaking together can be heard.]

You...you can see us...you can hear us...

[Still staring at the thing in the building, Emil's expression goes a little distant, as if he's not entirely aware of where he is or what he's doing.]

It's...it's talking to me.

[And then, as Emil stands there, seemingly frozen in his tracks, that voice comes again.]

Please. Help me...help us...
You have to help me...help us. You have to help us.
I'm trapped, I can't move, I'm so tired. Please help me. Help us.
You can help me. Help us.
You have to kill me. Kill us.

[Expression still blank, Emil's whole body sags just a little, and, ignoring the cries from inside his mind, the cries of his unconscious friend who has somehow hitched a ride in the back of his mind, he brings his gun to his shoulder, ready to go inside, probably to his death.]

☆ Phase Four: Under Siege

[It starts with a tremulous little voice, more concrete than the ones before.]

Hello. Food.

[Emil, who is still holding the straps on that makeshift travois pulling the body of his friend, looks up in surprise to see a small rotund creature with thick almost wooden-looking scales across the back and top, and two glowing eyes.]

Uhh...I don't have food for you. Sorry.

[A pause, and then, as if to clarify its point, the little creature speaks again.]

Hello, food.

[Instead of engaging again, Emil seems to gather his thoughts and carries on walking, focusing on carrying on a conversation with that voice in his head again, ignoring the creature. But it keeps following him, calling him food, asking him why he's leaving, moaning whenever it gets in the sun because the sun hurts. Eventually, Emil is tired and sick of the creature following them, and impulsively, against protests, brings his gun to his shoulder and shoots the creature only for a chorus of almost identical calls of 'Noise?' to emanate from a nearby house. Dozens of the little trolls - dusklings - are crowding out of it to look at what happened.

The creatures are afraid of his gun, and can't go into the sun, but as the shadows grow longer and he keeps conversing with his friend, he realizes that they're going to swarm him once the sun sets and he doesn't have a chance of outrunning them. After a quick debate with his friend about leaving his body behind, Emil refuses and decides to bunker up.

A few minutes later, the two of them are holed up in the bedroom of the sturdiest house they can find, a pile of furniture barricaded against the wall. And then they wait. Some time passes, but it isn't long before the dusklings find them and start slamming and scratching against the door.]

Food! Food! Let us in! Let us in!
Please! We're so hungry! We just want to eat you!
Let us in! Let us in!

☆ Phase Five: The Sweet Escape

[Emil's friend has woken up, finally. Woken up and immediately vomited, actually.

Emil is glad to see him, of course he's glad to see him, but they're also holed up in a bathroom, where Emil had to retreat after the bedroom was broken through, with dusklings slamming themselves against the barricaded door.

This is it. This is the moment he's going to die, he thinks, and he looks at his newly-awakened friend with a sort of manic expression.]

It's great that you're back among the living again, but the bad news is...we're about to die. Sorry. I did my best but we're a bit cornered. I've accepted my fate! Try to do the same real quick if you can!

☆ Reference Pages

Phase One: p.774 to p.780.
Phase Two: p.786 to p.791.
Phase Three: p.841 to p.851.
Phase Four: p.910 to p.954.
Phase Five: p.953 to p.971.

☆ Phase One: Undeniable Proof of Magic

[silentsavant]

(( I'm cool with letting it progress through all of the memory sequences! ))

[The black dragon finds himself a spectator of the memory, standing a ways away on the ice but not so far that the conversation fades out of earshot. The first thoughts that filter through his mind flow as follows: Emil. He recognizes Emil, which is why all that warm glimmer and fire tempered by moonlight bordering his mirror stood out to him so much more than others. The landscape sprawls into a frozen, treacherous wasteland, far colder and more inhospitable than any place he's ever been. As a reptilian creature, it renders him uncomfortably sluggish.

This must be what Sweden is like, he surmises.

And that hooded figure over there, the twiggy one scurrying back to Emil's side — the blonde wedged in broken ice calls for him, and Lalli becomes more than just a name to him.

So when the horrendous mass of tentacles disturbs their progress, Soren anticipates exactly what will happen when the mage he'd heard of before throws his arms out like that: a flash of bright... force.

But what devastation springs between him and the monster is far more catastrophic than his imagination led him to believe. He watches entranced as the blinding surge of magical energy annihilates their foe with enough power to rupture their very surroundings. ]

cthluhund & kitty, can start with the first and hit all briefly?

[nishiki]

( he has no idea what to make of those rainy streets, of civilization that he doesn't know much about. the time he spent in cities was awfully brief to begin with and aefenglom has given him an appreciation of sorts when it comes to living in buildings and walking along manmade paths, but this is... very different. dilapidated buildings?

a dog. it looks like a dog, he recognizes what one is: they would chase shapeshifted kitsune and humans would use them to track them down. it looks like it's in poor shape and kaden has very little sympathy--- most of it is used on the cat that looks trapped.

and then kaden has to cover his ears. his tail tucks between his legs and it takes all of his strength to not go to his knees. so loud, that gunfire, and the kitsune shivers. he squeezes his eyes shut. )