video | un: captainkenway

[jackdawvision]

WHO: Edward Kenway and you!
WHERE: Kaisou rooftops.
WHEN: post-dragon showdown/post-Copenhagen.
WHAT: Edward gets his gacha goodwill goodies. Edward…is freaking out a little bit.
WARNINGS: some level of body horror in the linked picture.

[It’s a nice winter evening in Kaisou. The sky is a light blue, the snow is gently falling, the yokai aren’t plaguing the city anymore, there’s a half-skeleton thing on the rooftop just chilling out—

—hang on back up what the fuck.

The camera is a little shaky, but it focuses in on the half-man half-skeleton thing. It looks very much like the image of a stereotypical pirate, only there’s little to no flesh left on the skull and on one arm. One eye socket is covered with a red bandana, and dark hair with wisps of grey smoke cascades down the thing’s back. It taps sharp, ice-blue claws on the ledge of the rooftop, unconcerned it’s being filmed.

Then Edward, behind the camera, says:] This may be my fault. I summoned it—him. Conrad, I believe his name is, but I haven’t the faintest idea what he might be.

[A beat.]

Other than the ghost of a dead pirate come to haunt me, but I’ve never even met a Conrad in my life.

How do I un-summon him?

Comments

text | un: Zoltraak

[beyondtheend]

Not sure, I haven’t ever seen anything like that before.

Can I study him?

voice | un: laluna

[crisantemo]

[ Wowie.

Lapis, if it's any help, is remarkably chill - if a little curious. Maybe a little too curious. ]

Oh, you can summon the dead too now? [ Actually nevermind she's no help. ]

How did you summon him, though? Or did he just appear?

[jackdawvision]

Sure, you can, but I don’t know if he’ll be staying long. Even ghosts fade in time.

[beyondtheend]

Perhaps, but there are many kinds of magic in this world.

And no one ever fades completely—-not when there are people around to remember them.

[jackdawvision]

Summon the—lass, if I could summon the dead, there’d be a lot more ghosts than just the one around here.

[So many of his friends are dead and gone and now here’s a walking reminder of them, half a skeleton and half a man. If this is what happens to the ghosts that Edward can somehow conjure up, maybe it’s a good thing he can’t summon his old dead friends.]

I don’t—I don’t rightly know, I just felt as if I had to call him into existence. I spoke his name out loud and he just appeared out of nowhere as if he’d always dropped in, like we were close as neighbors.

video | un: yoru

[bethorns]

Oh, but are you sure you want to send him away? Maybe you could be friends!

[ She thinks pirates are cool. ]

un: silverrose

[fionnuisce]

You too? I had the same thing happen while we were fighting Orochi, but mine's a lot different than yours.

text; un: oneforsorrow

[bleakdecember]

[Something about this scratches at the back of his mind. Too bad he hasn't dug up those old memories yet. That strange feeling keeps him from being too mean, though.]

Doesn't look like the usual supernatural parasite
Are you sure you can't find some use for him?
A summoned ally might come in handy, considering what happens around here

Video: UN: hotgoss

[bebest]

...Well. That's sure a thing huh? Very...pirataey.

Have you tried shoo? Never dismiss the power of a good solid shoo. Otherwise, idk, you could threaten him with something pirates hate. Like sobriety. Or baths.

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[jackdawvision]

I did! I wouldn’t be here asking otherwise.

[There’s a beat. Then, mock-offended:] I take baths, I don’t hate them. But hang on, you may be on to something.

[He’s thinking, he’s thinking.]

Oi, Conrad, if you don’t leave, I’ll cut your rum ration in half, how about that? [A beat. Then, to the phone:] Does he even have enough flesh to drink rum? Seems to me it’s all just ice in there, from his breath.

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[jackdawvision]

I don’t know how I know this, but I’ve a feeling that even if I dismiss him, he wouldn’t go away completely. And that’s fine with me, because you’re right that a summoned ally may well be useful, but I need him gone for the moment.

[Because looking at him is digging up painful memories that Edward doesn’t want to look at right now. At least not sober.]

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[jackdawvision]

Not half as devilish-looking then, I take it?

How did you summon and dismiss yours, anyway?

[fionnuisce]

No, she looks relatively human. As to function, it's difficult to put into words--it sort of felt like an innate thing I already understood how to do. I summoned her in the middle of a fight, and she disappeared after casting a spell. Have you tried focusing on simply willing it to vanish?

video

[jackdawvision]

[He’s a walking reminder of all my dead friends so uh no.]

There ain’t much between us to talk about. Not a good way to start off a friendship.

[jackdawvision]

And you’re an expert in magic, then? You may be just the sort of person I’d like to talk to.

Not while their name’s still spoken, aye. But sometimes their story gets twisted about after they’re too dead to protest. [Poor old Thatch, his name smeared across the centuries.]

[bethorns]

[ Valid and fair and that fact would have changed her mind if she knew... ]

Well, I hear salt is good to ward off spirits? [ Though she's foggy on how. ]

[beyondtheend]

Yes. In my previous life, I was a mage who lived over a thousand year. In this life, I'm doing research on the history of magic.

Then it falls on their companions to keep their memory alive.

[jackdawvision]

No, but at this point I'll try anything. Hang on a moment.

[A couple minutes later:] He's gone. And a headache along with him as well—hadn't even known I was having one.

You know something about their nature?

[jackdawvision]

I've some salt in my kitchen, but I have a feeling my rat might object to such a waste.

[jackdawvision]

You were what now.

Do you think this is some sort of ghost, then? I'm not certain myself. All I know is that the shopkeeper down in Undertown might have something to do with this.

Would that it were that easy. But the stories are persistent.

[fionnuisce]

Functionally, no. I recognized mine as a figure from mythology, but as to the 'what' and 'how' that's a little beyond my ability to guess.

[bethorns]

Do rats like salt?

[ She knows nothing about rats and is immediately distracted. ]

[bleakdecember]

If he's polite, maybe he'll go away if you ask nicely
Hah
Try some meditation or something. I don't know.
What did you do to trigger him showing up?

Text | UN: sardemon

[sardinelover]

It depends, really. He might not be able to be dismissed until he completes a task for you. Or he may need to accomplish a goal of some kind before he can pass on. If I had a prinny suit I could probably just turn him into a prinny and make him work off his sins so he could reincarnate, but alas... I'm afraid I am currently suitless.

You could also just try beating him up. That's usually my go-to when it comes to hostile spirits.

[bebest]

Maybe he doesn't, you don't know, he might be a bath-phobic pirate.

[He watches as Edward tries to reason with the skeleton.]

I dunno. Maybe he can like... imagine the taste or something still? Like muscle memory or something. How did you summon him? Can you do the reverse of that? Maybe that'll get rid of him?