TALE AS OLD AS TIME — o, entrance ritual

[MARCELLUS]

HEARTFELT PROMISES { .:*・°☆ } ——— [size=10pt]TAGS

It was time. He had been dreading this moment a bit from the start but at the same time, he had been wondering how this would play out and why exactly was this so bad. He had finished his nap and informed two NPCs to get him when everything was ready so until then, the male had slipped out of his new shack house and sat on top of his hammock where he laid his head down and gave a small yawn, his eyes only opening when he felt a prod at his side, the cheetah turning his head roughly to see that they had returned to come get him. It was almost time. The sun had began to set and he would have to move quickly to get to the island on time. First he went up to the dock where an NPC laid the drink in front of him, Marcel bending down his head to began to lap up the drink until there was nothing left, the sour taste making him visibly cringe. For the first few minutes nothing happened and he shrugged his shoulders, beginning to make his way down the dock to the ship.

Upon boarding the dock, the male turned his head to see Haven Island in the distance, squinting though he couldn't see much that way. Looking back to the NPCs, he nodded to them and with that he was off, the ship beginning to sail to Haven Island. He moved to lean his paws on the side of the ship, enjoying the fresh spray that the ocean gave off to his pelt. He wasn't sure what to expect or what was on that island that had freaked everyone out, but he was determined to see just how bad this ritual was though all the more hoping that it wasn't that bad. As they got closer to the land he could begin to make out a large shore with a few trees, realizing how small the land was. Nothing bad could survive on this land with how small it was, so why was everyone so freaked out when they came back? No matter, it was his time to find out. He felt the ship come to a complete stop at the dock, the male leaping down onto the dock but not without nearly tripping over, catching himself before he could completely fall over. Behind him the ship had began to leave and sail back to the bay, leaving him stranded on this island.

Alright so far so good, he was okay and didn't feel any different, so he would begin to look around the island for an hour or so, quickly the sun disappearing and the moon coming out to bestow darkness upon the land with Marcel barely being able to see a thing in front of him. Lord he might as well have been tripping over his own paws at this point. He was just about to head back to the main shore when he heard a few steps behind him, the male whirling around to see nothing but darkness. "Hello?" His voice sounded confused, yet he heard nothing. "That's not fucking funny, cut it out." He unsheathed his claws and narrowed his eyes to try to look into the dark but nothing. All he could see were the shadows and outlines of trees and plants. Hesitantly he turned back around and began to walk towards the main shore of the island until he felt a sharp yank on his limp leg that pulled him back. A whine escaped his mouth as he turned on his back to fight off his attacker but there was nothing there.

Just empty air.

Marcellus began to take deep breaths with fear, his eyes widening as he looked around. "What the fuck? What the fuck! Okay Marcellus, it's okay. Deep breaths. Deep breaths." What the hell did that water do to him. Shaken up, the male got to his paws and began to walk to the tip of the shore, stopping when he felt a cold chill up his spine which had caused him to whirl around to face the figure, shaking when he saw..

No.

No not them. Anything but them! No!

Right in front of him stood a human standing in a lab coat, a large sharp object (a needle) being held in his hand and a sinister grin plastered on his face. "G-Get away from me, GET AWAY FROM ME!" He screamed and shot out a paw to try and rake them across the face of the hallucinated human, backing up in disbelief when the human disappeared out of thin air. His heart raced and he could begin to feel panic spread through his body, his body beginning to shake and shiver with pure fear. What the hell was this? Some sick fucking game? He jumped at the sound of crashing
coming from the trees, the sound of metal being dropped against the ground. He quickly ran towards the area to see a person picking up a scalpel and turning around to look at him.

"I'm so mad that you left us, Spots. But don't worry. You won't be gone again. We'll watch you real close." That name. That stupid stupid name. Spots. The name given to him by the humans when he was in their captivity. The name they cooed at him and tried to get him to respond to. No, his name was not Spots. His name was Marcellus and he was going to let them know that. The king cheetah bared up his lips to reveal his teeth, a snarl planted on his mouth as he narrowed his eyes and ran forward with a leap, trying to pin down the imaginary human, but it seemed as if he got caught first.

Marcellus felt the scalpel rake through his entire side, pain surging through his body. He yelped and leap off only to feel something or someone grab him by the scruff and jab something into the back of his neck. Within moments he felt himself daze off and finally, sleep. He slept throughout the entire night and woke up in the morning when someone had nudged him, Marcel barely recalling the events of last night but when he did, he jumped up and looked around frantically, fear clear on his face and his body violently shaking. The NPC began to lead him to the ship where he climbed on, practically curling into a ball and looking around warily.

He felt the ship come to a stop when they reached the docks to Barracuda Bay, practically leaping off with relief to be back on this island and get away from that cursed piece of shit island. Never again would he be going to Haven Island, even if his life depended on it. As instructed, he grabbed a glass bottle and a piece of paper. Oh lord, writing had never been his strong suite so he wasn't sure how to exactly spell but he would give it a try anyways.

"i hupe thiy suffir four wht thiy did."

(i hope they suffer for what they did.)

The handwriting was sloppy but he barely cared about the handwriting right now. The male began to roll up the piece of paper and drop it in the glass bottle, picking it up in his teeth and chucking it as far as he could into the water. There, now he was an official crewmate all at the cost of some emotional trauma.

[adomania]

[align=center][div style="borderwidth=0px; width: 55%; line-height:115%; text-align: justify;font-family: calibri;"]He was still putting off his own initiation, dreading whatever would await him once he drank that poison (it was the only thing he could call it, at this point, given recollections of others.) It seemed like he'd be one of the last ones from the most recent of newcomers to do it, and he briefly considered asking if he could go with someone else to not have to deal with his demons alone.

But that was pathetic, and most importantly useless. He had dealt with his demons time and time again without company, alone with the shadows of the night and a cigarette clamped tightly in his jaws. This wouldn't be any harder and didn't require any special kind of attention.

All he needed was a little bit more time to prepare mentally.

So for now, he was there to greet whoever came back from that accursed island. This time it was Marcellus, someone that Gabriel still knew nothing about other than a name and the fact that, apparently, he was not that good at hunting. Neither told him much, and so his entire view on the man was as neutral as it could possibly be, and his concern ended up being genuine as he made his way over to where Marcellus seemed finished, chucking the bottle into the sea.

"Hey," his voice was barely above a murmur, hopefully calming as he was putting genuine effort into keeping it that way rather than his usual rough way of speaking. "Do you need anything?" There was no use asking if he was okay. No one came out of that island okay except one in a hundred who happened to hallucinate about some grand dreams that they had. He was willing to bet that Marcellus was the same, even though he strongly hoped he was wrong.

[CAESAR CIPHER.]

IT'S ALL IN YOUR HEAD !

CAESAR CIPHER. MALE. THE TYPHOON. OFFICER.

Caesar had a bad experience himself with the entrance ritual, having been sent back to the night he set his Home Dimension. Although the demon acted like he was proud of what he had done, it was quite the opposite deep down inside. He was ashamed of what he had done, and regretted his actions very much. He would never admit that out loud, and he often tried to hide the fact that he regretted what he'd done by pretending his was proud of it. Caesar didn't know that the entrance ritual caused you to hallucinate, and he had honestly been quite spooked whenever they started. He was a dream demon, he used to be able to control hallucinations, but of course, coming to Earth, his powers had been stripped from him so he had to earn them back. Unfortunately manipulating the mind wasn't one of those, so Caesar had been absolutely petrified when he started to hallucinate. Funny how a demon that supposedly knew everything about the mind couldn't find a way to stop what he was seeing nor know tricks to ease it.

"Entrance ritual, huh?" Caesar spoke as he made his way over to the island, following after Gabriel. He heard rumors that Marcellus had went off to experience the ritual, and the demon made it his personal goal to greet those who went through it. "You're an official Crewmate now. Congrats."

#psychosocial.

[MARCELLUS]

HEARTFELT PROMISES { .:*・°☆ } ——— [size=10pt]TAGS

After throwing the bottle he had kind of just sat there on the beach, watching as his bottle drifted a little before sinking to the bottom like everyone else's. There it goes, gone. He wanted to forget, forget about his entire ritual that taunted and poked at his traumatic pass. He ran to get away from them, not see them again. The cheetah felt a shiver run up his spine at the thought of them again, never would he leave this place. Here he was safe, mostly that is. He wasn't planning to leave just to be hunted again. Marcellus lied down into the sand and tucked his paws under his chest, soaking up the rising sun and looking out at the water as the sun came glistening down on it. Today should of been a relaxing day at the beach, but now he was shaken to the bone and couldn't shake off what had happened, the male closing his eyes until he heard pawsteps approaching and then a voice, the cheetah opening his eyes to look over his shoulder at Gabriel.

"No. I think I'm fine. Thank you, Chain." He nodded his head to the dire wolf with a small smile, an obvious fake one but he wasn't going to try to even manage a real one. He was too shocked and frightened and he wasn't sure what to do. He knew now that they were only vision, hallucinations that couldn't hurt him, but what if they had been real? He would of been dead. "Hey, good luck on yours." He nodded to Gabriel as he wished him good luck. While the guy didn't look as nervous as Marcel did, he would give the luck anyways because whether the dire wolf needed it or not, it was a good thing to have especially on an island like that. He flicked his ears as he heard another voice, Caesar who was a guy he didn't have the opportunity of meeting. "Yeah, and thank you." He dipped his head to the Officer. Yeah that was a positive he should be focusing on, the fact that he's now a full crewmate. He passed his trial, the big test, and now he was ready to officially serve the place.