THE TRIAL // open, entrance ritual

[CAESAR CIPHER.]

SO NOTORIOUS !

CAESAR CIPHER. MALE. THE TYPHOON. CREW MATE.

Ever since he had joined, NPCs had been bothering him about doing this thing known as the 'Entrance Ritual'. Every time it came up, Caesar rolled his eyes and continued on walking. But they never fucking stopped bothering him. So, yes, Caesar eventually agreed to doing whatever this damn 'Entrance Ritual' was.

An NPC lead him to the docks and practically shoved him onto a boat. Once on the boat, that NPC gave him a drink. To which he refused for the most part, but again, just eventually gave in to get the NPC to shut up. The NPC seemed pleased that he drank whatever they made (which was hella salty, by the way), but as soon as they reached Haven Island, the NPC once again shoved Caesar off the boat and almost immediately went off back towards the main island.
"Hey, what the hell!" Caesar spat, running towards the ocean. He didn't get into the water, but he was definitely on the edge and definitely pissed. His claws dug into the sand, watching the NPC ride away back to the main island. Caesar inhaled once they disappeared into the fog and sat back, lashing his tail. Looks like you're stuck here. He growled to himself. And for how long? Who fucking knows. He'll give the group a day before he went swimming back.

By now, the moon had risen high in the sky, signaling that it was at least midnight. Being a dream demon, Caesar didn't sleep very often (if at all). That definitely had his body already sleep deprived, and drinking the salt water from the ocean wasn't going to help what was going to happen next. Which were the hallucinations. Caesar may have control over hallucinations in the Mindscape, but his powers were stripped when he came to this dimension. And even if he could control hallucinations, he had to be controlling them within somebody's mind, so he couldn't control his own mind nor just 'control' hallucinations in general. He had to alter the brain in the Mindscape to allow hallucinations to occur, but again... He had no powers here. Yet, at least.

"And his name is Caesar."
Caesar's jerked around to face the shore, ears pinned against his head. That voice... it was so fucking familiar. Eerily familiar. The demon crouched low to the ground, slowly moving towards the ocean once more. By the ocean stood the figure of his mother, curled around three tiny bodies. She looked extremely proud, beaming up at a serval. The serval himself looked happy as well, gently placing a paw on his mate's body.
Caesar stared at the scene that was happening before him, clearly perplexed. He almost looked... upset. Scared, even. The demon closed his eyes and shook his head, walking backwards. As soon as he did, the heat of flames made him stop and let out a yowl of surprise. Once again, he whipped around and faced the scene, and was greeted with the sight of his former home in flames. Something that was caused by him. Caesar's eyes widened at this, and he shakily made his way through the burning System.

Caesar found himself making his way towards where his family's den was, just how he did many years ago. The den was in flames, with his siblings, Vigenere and Atbash crying in front of it. Caesar stopped beside them, peering into the flames to see his mother and father. Both of them stared back at him with cold, accusing eyes. Wait. This wasn't how he remembered the event happening. Before he could think of anything else regarding that, Caesar was smacked across the face and forced onto the ground. Vigenere's claws dug into his cheek, with his older brother looking furious. Atbash stood behind him, looking away from the situation.

"What have you done!" Vigenere spat at him, digging his claws deeper into Caesar's face. His words were a statement rather than a question, and he was clearly pissed off. "You ruined any chance of us returning home! Of everything being back to normal!" He was hurt. Caesar couldn't understand why. The King had clearly condemned them to die, and although they believed everything would be back to normal, it wouldn't. Vigenere would never go back to the Guard. Caesar thought to himself. Atbash could never find somebody she truly loved, she could never be a Shamen. And he didn't want her to be a Shamen, not after the previous one spread lies about their family.

Caesar shook Vigenere off him and fled from the area, crashing into the ocean. The demon was forced out of the vision, and he suddenly realized that the sun was starting to rise. He sat down in the ocean, heavily breathing, before his body convulsed and he coughed, spitting up black blood. Oh, fuck. Caesar cursed, shakily making his way back to the shore and out of the water. His nose was bleeding, too, which was a clear sign of distress in dream demons. He was clearly not okay, and he was having trouble recovering from that last vision. Caesar collapsed onto the sand, closing his eyes and shivering.

//tl;dr:
- Caesar had his Entrance Ritual and started to have visions on the island
- He saw his birth (kinda; just his mother naming him), a brief vision of how he destroyed his home dimension, and of Vigenere attacking and accusing him.
- Caesar ran back towards the shore and collapsed; he spat out black blood and his nose is bleeding (which is a sign of distress for dream demons)

#psychosocial.