"Which way ought I go from here?" [Open and one Closed]

[blindwatchersees]

Who: The Daedric Prince of Madness and YOU!
What: Who knows? Could be anything!
When: Mid to late September
Where: Various
Warnings: Body horror, general existential dread, transformation horror, other warnings to come


 "You must be mad, or you wouldn't have come here" [Atrium]

There's a new gentleman about the Serena Eterna. Or perhaps he's something other than a gentleman. Perhaps he's a cat, or a cloud, or a bad idea. The face he wears is different for whoever he meets.

Currently, he's leaning against a balcony railing, looking down into the atrium of the Serena Eterna, whistling like a mockingbird. Do you approach, coaxed or driven by fear and fancy?


"Sometimes I've believed as many as six impossible things before breakfast" [Closed for strangearchitecture]

"Helen!" he slides up beside her, holding a plate as if it's a steering wheel. He, of course, does not actually have a vehicle; that would be against the rules. His appearing next to her is inexplicably accompanied by the sound of a window being rolled down, however, because comedic effect.

"My dear semi-sinusoidal seductress, I don't suppose you've heard the rumors of the infinite cheese shop on board, and the fortress of cheese that lies within its depths?"


"A grin without a cat is the most curious thing" [Hallway outside Stellar] [CW: potential body horror]

Amongst all the flowers, a fungal grotto has appeared in the hallway outside of Stellar. It's a strange sight indeed, filled with curtains and irises of fine, wispy mycelium and dotted with fruiting caps of vibrant yellow-oranges and metallic purples. There are also woody roots and stumps, out of place in a fungal environment, that periodically release clouds of green, sweet-smelling spores. If you pay close attention, the bursts of spores almost seem to come and go at a rate suspiciously like someone breathing.


"At least I know who I was when I got up this morning" [various] [CW: transformation horror]

The Prince of Madness is in a frightfully fickle mood, and without much warning, perhaps not having even given you a customary greeting, he brandishes a staff in your direction and lets loose a blast from it. In a peculiar sensation, rather like becoming water and going swirling down a drain faster and faster, you find yourself stretched and squashed into a new form. Perhaps your mind is unaffected, or perhaps you immediately begin wondering if you've always been this way, and the thing you were before was but a dream. In either case, it's going to be a weird couple of hours while the effects wear off.

(In particular I'm looking for at least one person to become a sentient pinball, but I'm up for anything, in the direction of both something harmless/inanimate and something large/dangerous. The suffering can go both ways here)


"I can't explain myself, for I am not myself" [stern, various] [CW: general existential dread]

Across the stern of the ship, in various places, there's a sound like a man howling and weeping, and the sound of fingernails scratching against metal and chalky paint. In a twisting line, the words "The sea knows what isn't. The sea knows what can't. Is the sea a thing that is? Am I, because it is?" are being scratched into the paint and the metal of the ship over and over again.

"A most uncivil offer" [Sports Deck]

Oh tarnation! Oh tribulation! Here he is in a place where he might ply his craft with sword and crossbow, yet he's brought neither. But perhaps someone eager for a sparring partner might offer to lend him one?

"Is it labelled 'poison?'" [Wildcard]

Comments

[blindwatchersees]

"Strictly speaking, I didn't. I did everything I could to try and do so, mind you. I sought out a witch at the behest of a noble friend of mine; this friend sought a cure for his wife and believed that this rumored witch knew of one. And she did, but the cure worked only on a very particular strain of vampirism. I was unaffected upon taking it. After that, I sought the aid of many of the Daedric Princes, but they either could not help me, or the task they asked of me in return that was something that would mean forfeiture of my soul, both metaphorically and literally. I had lost hope and fled my home in shame, fearing that I would bring ruin upon my family, when my paths crossed with Sheogorath. And I was given a proposal: were I to stop the Prince Jyggalag's Greymarch and save Sheogorath's realm, I would have all the power I needed to set myself free from the chains of my vampirism."

[abhorrently]

She's not blind to what it all means. He practically pushed the puzzle pieces into her hands to fit them together. So long as he looks at it out of the corner of his eyes only, then it's safe. She can look at it directly, but not reach to touch and make it different. Nowhere and never there, what is and what isn't. How much tricking the world is mostly tricking yourself?

For a long moment, she's silent. Lets the words melt away, before they wander too close to whatever edge and balance is being kept. It's courtesy that keeps her from asking - the sound of his voice. He's wanted to say this for so long, hasn't he. To someone removed from the context. Someone who's just...there.

"You've lived an extraordinary life, anyone can tell, even by the pieces you give me. Legendary, really."

Something that people would whisper myths about around the fire.

[blindwatchersees]

"A legend, with a first page and a last. It isn't the only story of its kind, where what happened happened, and after the last word is spoken, the hero went on his way and no one knows what became of him. It's the song of the world, and I was glad to be a part of it. And I was glad to have my rest, in the aftermath."

Pause.

"At least as much rest as being free in one's madness can be."

[abhorrently]

"It has to be more restful than frantically searching for a cure, or making deals with gods."

Though she doesn't know what it's normally like here. It could be chaos itself, and no rest could be found ever.

"...How much of what you've told me is safe to talk of? When I have to go back."

[blindwatchersees]

"Sheogorath is more capable of discussing things that aren't than most gods. I believe it's a unique purpose he serves, in the grand scheme of things. Nevertheless, do keep what you can to yourself. Even the Madgod has his limits, and it's agony for him when he reaches them."

[abhorrently]

"I'll put up a few walls in my head. Doubt it'll keep him out if he's determined, but it's how we stopped everything from bleeding over, connected in that network I told you about."

Everyone respected them, in camp. They would have had no peace otherwise.

[blindwatchersees]

"I suppose that's one thing worth noting about Lord Sheogorath. He at least occasionally obeys such boundaries. And I think he'll back off if he catches even a whiff of what lies beyond those walls."

Something suddenly seems to occur to him.

"Oh, but I should clarify that he does remember what transpired. He just doesn't think too hard about it."

[abhorrently]

"Thank you for telling me that before I went and embarrassed myself in front of you and he brought it up later. I'm glad to avoid that particular stickiness."

But she won't bow to calling him Lord, unless the time absolutely calls for it. So far, the relationship felt just fine without it.

[blindwatchersees]

"Don't worry too much about what rules you need to follow around him, either. He's ever-changing, but if something is important to him- really, truly important- he'll tell you. Maybe not until it's nearly too late to do anything about it, but you'll at least know."

A pause.

"Shall we keep going?"

wrap!

[abhorrently]

"Lead the way."

However much time she spends here, when she wakes back in the halls of the Serena Eterna and checks that it's the same day, she'll have to laugh. But there will be so much to think on, and she hopes that it's not going to be too long before she sees him - either him - again.