Palace Game 6/3

[fujimaru]

The Dreamer In The Grand Temple
Humanity Foundation Value: ????

What has been will be again,
what has been done will be done again;
there is nothing new under the sun.

Comments

[cultfavorite]

[Oh he's used to this, though Hinatsu doesn't usually squeeze this hard,

Nearly automatically, with just the barest thought going into it, he reacts the same way he would in that situation: he brings his other hand up to give the tentacle a little flick with his nail.]

No. Bad.

[fujimaru]

Yeah this one is definitely doing its best to pull his hand straight off. It recoils a little at the flick, a second before he feels a sharper stabbing pain.

Tentacles don't have teeth, but this one apparently has some sharp bits.

[cultfavorite]

Ahhh—

[He, he sways forward suddenly to bite it back, grimacing, and he is avoiding biting any eyes and isn't trying to rip a chunk out of it or anything with his teeth but! Chomp!]

[fujimaru]

Oh my god, Saturn,

It tastes awful, for one thing, like putrid meat and bitter dust, but it does let go, recoiling back... and as it does, he can see that there is the glitter of something gold underneath the base of those tentacles. Hm.

[cultfavorite]

Augh. What the . . .

[He reaches for it. By now, Crobat is sitting up attentively, glaring daggers at the tentacles. Saturn mlem mlem mlems at that mess, ewww.]

[fujimaru]

That's what you GET for BITING THE EYEBALL TENTACLE, SATURN POKEMON. A bad taste and a bleeding wrist!

The tentacle coils around the gold flash again, the gesture apparently protective. All of those little red eyes are glaring right at him.

[cultfavorite]

You started that. I only retaliated in kind.

[This time he reaches out to try and pet the tentacle with one finger, gentle.]

[fujimaru]

It bristles under the contact, but then slowly, slowly, starts to relax. It has no mouths (though it managed to bite, somehow? who knows how?) but slowly begins to uncoil. Not entirely; he won't be able to simply grab the thing he can see, but at least this seems to be a better course of action.

[cultfavorite]

[SIGH. He scritches at it, leaning on the head of the bed, chin on his draped arm.]

I'm sorry. What are you doing here? Protecting that? You hardly match the rest of the decor.

[fujimaru]

Some of those eyes blink for him, then it uncoils a little further. At this point, now, he can see that the thing it is guarding is a gold ring of some sort.

[cultfavorite]

You are guarding that . . . may I see it? Do you want to come along with me? I could carry you.

[Soothingly, while still petting with his finger, very similar to how someone might give a bird scritches.]

[fujimaru]

It rustles, then slowly unfurls under the petting the whole way. Now, maybe, if he's very fast, he can make a grab for the ring.

[cultfavorite]

[Oh no, first he leans in to kiss it gently on its little tentacle body, avoiding any eyeballs again because uhhhh. But as he does this, he does make a grab for the ring.]

[fujimaru]

This time, it does make an offended noise, somehow, but it does not actually fight him when he grabs the ring. Once it's in his hand, it subsides back, going still in the same position as when he'd first entered the room.

The ring itself is heavy, solid gold, and he can feel that it is buzzing with some sort of ambient energy--less muted than what he felt in the first room, but something that is stronger, sharper, more immediately present. It is the same aura as being in the presence of the Beast, though somewhat muted.

[cultfavorite]

[Saturn looks the ring over with a curious little frown, then slips it onto his right ring finger, and then he reaches up to pet the tentacle again a few times. Thank you.

Is the dokkaebi the last thing on the shelf? He has to pick that up too.]

[fujimaru]

This one doesn't appear to have any memories or anything like that attached to it--there's just a sense of curiosity and tentative interest. It's something that leaves a warmly fond feeling in its wake, though there is, just at the edges of awareness, a sense of the same loneliness he'd gotten from her during that game.

[cultfavorite]

[He kisses this too. Crobat rolls her eyes behind his back. Then he gets to his feet, skimming over that shelf to make sure nothing else is on it, and hovering his hand over the tentacle as he considers taking it with him, but if it's gone completely dormant again, he won't.]

[fujimaru]

Saturn, please.

When he looks around the room, he can see there is something glowing on the wall on the opposite side of the bed. It looks like the outline of a door...? It was certainly not there before, but it's there now, slowly forming itself into existence.

[cultfavorite]

[Ah. That's . . .

Does it look like it's forming and staying, or like it might go anywhere anytime soon? He wasn't quite done poking around this room! But this looks important!]

[fujimaru]

It appears to be staying--when it's finished, it's an ornate golden door, just there in the wall where it wasn't, and it's not going anywhere for the moment.

[cultfavorite]

[OKAY GOOD. He's first going to go seeking out anything that is in Cerberus colors. What does she have around here that's that shade of purple!]

[fujimaru]

As it turns out, exactly ten items that have that color on them somewhere:

A leggy hound dog, with a Saber symbol tied to its neck.

A puppy with little deer antlers with a Caster symbol on its collar.

A disgruntled-looking fat rabbit with a blindfold, with an Archer symbol printed on the blindfold.

A dragon curled around a full moon, which has a Rider symbol etched among the craters.

A slim-bladed sword, with a Saber symbol etched into the hilt.

A sleek dark-furred cat with a Lancer symbol under her paw.

A dragon with a scroll in one clawed paw, a Ruler symbol printed on the unfurled paper.

A model of the planet Saturn, with a Crobat perched on top of it and a Toxicroak seated beside it. The Crobat has a Caster symbol in one claw.

A fluffy round dragon, not unlike a Squishable, with a Rider symbol in her teeth.

A mutt dog with a large red heart in its mouth, with the Lancer symbol on it.

Admittedly, Saturn might not immediately recognize those symbols, but he did at least get that crash course from Ritsuka about them.

[cultfavorite]

[He's gonna FIND THEM ALL and put them all on the bed together along with the bingo card and the Sun tarot! And the dokkaebi plush! He shows the Saturn model to Crobat, who lets out a pleased shriek. Yes that's right, she's the one on top! Superior!

Then he goes to do one last curious pass of the other assorted objects in the room, unless something happens when he does that with those ten.]

[fujimaru]

It does depend, honestly. Some of them just give a vague sense of fondness as he carries them, though not all of them are particularly intense.

He might note that the puppy's antlers are very similar to the ones Ritsuka had, in the throes of her possession, and that one--along with the Saturn model, and the fluffy round Rider dragon, have a much more immediate and deeper sense of affection when he picks them up. It feels like a hug, the weight of a body leaning fondly against his.

The longer he holds them, the more these feelings will intensify and clarify.

[cultfavorite]

[CUTE . . . okay surely it's fine to sit on the bed for just a little while and hold these and enjoy the schmoop, that's cool right,

. . . Can he pick up the tentacle this time. What happens when he tries. He's going for it with his left hand.]