Young Writers Society

This here is a roleplay between me and @Magebird as we explore the world of The Dark Crystal! I'll be playing a Skeksis OC while she plays one or two Full Metal Alchemist characters! There's not much of a synopsis to put here, but basically we'll be trying to get her character(s) home.
The OOC: Beginnings and Endings OOC

It was early morning on Thra, and the Castle of the Crystal was silent. Fifteen avian-reptilian forms had gathered around the Dark Crystal, bathing in its purpled rays as the three suns rose. Today was a day of difficult decisions.

The Emperor of these beings known as Skeksis was conflicted. What the Chamberlain had said about the Gelfling was true; they would dismiss Rian's ravings as madness. That being said, there was no guarantee. Something needed to be done, especially about Rian's friend in the guard. skekSil had been wise to apprehend him quickly, but that didn't mean others wouldn't get word of it.

The Chamberlain, skekSil, was plotting as usual. Things were not ideal for the Skeksis in general right now; they could very well have a coup on their hands if things were not done correctly. However, skekSil was prepared to reap the benefits. If skekSo were overthrown he could step in to restore order. There would be the difficulties of navigating between other Skeksis with similar ambitions, but in the end skekSil was confident he would triumph. He was clever, after all. Patient. Diplomatic. Everything a Gelfling would want to see in a leader and everything the other Skeksis needed in an Emperor. Yes, things could work out very well for him if he played his cards right.

skekRa the Mortician was waiting for the ritual to end so he could return to his mortuary and work on the preparations for another Podling Nosa had brought him. It was tedious work, but it allowed him to better explore the creatures' anatomy and it meant she was better inclined toward him for his supposed kindness. He wasn't sure why he cared what the Gelfling thought; she was far below him. Perhaps it was similar to how skekTek felt towards his little birdling pet. Either way, his affection for her annoyed him and he had been attempting to shy away from it ever since she started coming down to visit.

After what had happened in Liore with Cornello, Reyes and the Elrics, it should have been a normal day. William hadn't exactly been excited to leave Liore and head to one of the military's headquarters, but trains had never been all that bothersome. And they weren't exactly upset with finally putting miles upon miles of sand behind them.

Traveling from Liore to the East City, however, usually meant stopping in at least one random town overnight - especially when the train suddenly needed repairs. So here they were in Youswell, fighting to get a bit of respect from adults who shouldn't have been mistreating literal children simply because one of them worked in the military. It was a miracle Reyes hadn't attacked one of them yet.

They had thankfully gotten a room to stay in for the night, but William had never been comfortable with staying near other people when they slept. They were sure they hadn't made changes in their sleep in years, but it wasn't worth the risk. It was a miracle the Elrics and Reyes had let them join their little group despite knowing who and what they were.

William sighed.

At least they would be departing for East City in the morning-

Something suddenly felt off - something that felt like alchemy. But the Elrics were the only alchemists in Yoswell, so how-

They glanced down.

There was a glowing transmutation circle underneath them.

"Oh, fu-"


When William opened their eyes again, they found themselves laying face down on the ground. They groaned and rolled over on their backs. The air smelled different here. It felt different, too. Whoever had put that transmutation circle down must have brought them here while they were knocked out.

But where was here? It didn't feel like they were underneath Central; this wasn't their father's doing. It didn't feel like something the other homunculi would do, too, especially considering that none of them should have been anywhere near Liore or Youswell.

A pair of Gelfling soldiers were in patrol outside the Castle of the Crystal. They were chatting idly about the disappearance of Rian and the illness the Skeksis had announced he had. It was a concerning thing, certainly. They'd never heard of any sickness coming from dreamfasting.

As the suns dipped out of sight of the Crystal Chamber's skylight, the shimmering purple rays faded from the Skeksis' eyes. All at once they shook themselves, groaning in disappointment.

"Shorter every time," skekEkt the Ornamentalist groaned, dabbing at his face. "Still wrinkles everywhere!"

"What can you expect?" skekLach retorted. His pustules were oozing worse than ever. "The Gelfling essence is so much better!"

skekRa had to agree with that. He was already slipping away from the gathering, back down to his catacombs and precious mortuary, but he paused as he heard Emperor skekSo speak.

"We will be gathering more Gelfling soon," he announced. "We must wait until Rian is captured, and then we will have all the essence we want!"

There were footsteps coming from nearby.

William rushed to their feet.

Regardless of if the footsteps were coming from whoever had brought them here, it wouldn't be a good idea to be caught off guard. They needed to be prepared for a fight.

They glanced at their surroundings. There wasn't anything to hide behind. There also wasn't anyone or anything to use as reference - no clothes conveniently hanging on clothes lines, and no people walking around in the distance. William would have to face this head on.

...Which was one of the things they hated doing the most.

They groaned and waited.

The footsteps came closer and closer. They had never paid much attention to how footsteps sounded, but these were still...off. Almost reminiscent of Pride's when he actually bothered to make noise, but they were slightly louder than that.

Their owners came into view.

William blinked.

And then they pinched themselves to make sure they weren't dreaming, because they had never seen humans that looked so small or so strange.

(Were they even human? Reyes had mentioned experiments...)

Both gelflings stopped short as they saw William. They froze for a moment, not sure exactly what they were seeing. Was that...was that some sort of long Gelfling?

"Who goes there?" one demanded, leveling a small spear at William. "What are you and what is your business with the Skeksis?"

~

A cheer went up from the other Skeksis. skekRa remained silent; he was eager for more essence, sure, but more essence meant more Gelflings taken, and more drained Gelflings meant eventually the other Skeksis would go looking for Nosa.

She was an annoying little thing, certainly, but skekRa enjoyed her company. Few living things ever bothered the Mortician down in the catacombs and usually he preferred it that way, but Nosa was an exception. She was quiet, sometimes inquisitive, and she was excellent at identifying herbs that would soothe skekRa's aching secondary arm.

Deciding the conversation was going to go the same as it usually did, skekRa disappeared down the corridors, heading for the stairs that led to his precious catacombs.

William blinked.

(Again.)

They had the strangest feeling that the two...whatever they were were speaking a language William had never encountered before. It might have been some remnant of Father; it might have been the transmutation circle. No matter what the reason was, the combination of the unfamiliar language and the people before them reaffirmed the suspicion that things were very, very wrong.

William glanced down at the spear.

It didn't seem that harmful, even without the ability to regenerate. They put a hand on the staff part of the spear and carefully pushed it away from their chest.

"My name is William," they said, the lie easily rolling off of their tongue after years of practice. "William Drago. I'm..."

They paused. These two likely hadn't seen a human before if they were questioning what William was. Theoretically, they could have said the truth. But there was still a chance that they knew what a homunculus was - or what a human was - so William knew they couldn't take the risk.

"...human," they finally said.

They glanced over at the castle.

"I don't have any business with the Skeksis," William said. "I ended up here by accident."

The two Gelfling looked at each other in bewilderment. "What's a human?" one asked at the same time the other said, "People don't just come here on accident. Are you a spy for some enemy? What do you want?"

skekRa reached the catacombs and made his way to his mortuary. It wasn't difficult to find; anyone with a nose could smell the death and preservatives from the stairwell. Even with the door closed, sometimes the other Skeksis complained when they came down. skekRa always responded that they ought to leave him alone if they hated the smell so much. He himself didn't mind it at all, probably because he had spent his whole life around it.

Besides, the perfume he used to sprinkle over esteemed Gelfling generals and the like often masked the scent when it got too bad.

skekRa arrived at the locked door and drew out his ring of keys, fiddling with them until his stiff fingers selected the heavy iron one. He inserted it and turned the key, then pushed.
And pushed again.

"What--?" skekRa gave the door another shove and turned the key a second time. There was a click and the door swung open.

"I'm sorry!" Nosa's shrill voice sounded the second he stepped into the mortuary. "He's hurt, and we couldn't go to the healer." skekRa blinked in the dim light, lips curling back as he saw Nosa standing beside his examination table. Another Gelfling was lying on the table, a Sifa by the look of him. He was bleeding profusely from a wound in his head, but he appeared to be conscious.

William groaned and resisted the very strong urge to face-palm.

This was not how they wanted their day to go today. This day just kept getting worse, didn't it? With their luck, they were probably countries away from Amestris. Civilizations like this didn't appear overnight. Father - and the Amestrian military, likely - would have had already made these people's presence known. A giant castle wasn't exactly subtle.

"I'm not a spy," they said. "I don't even know where here is."

"This is the Castle of the Crystal," the first guard snapped. "The Lords of the Crystal reside here. Where did you come from?"

~

"No one is supposed to be in the catacombs at all except you," skekRa hissed, circling around the table to loom over Nosa. She cowered slightly but stood her ground.

"The healer is ill and can't help him," she said stubbornly. "I couldn't very well take him to the Scientist, and we're....we're friends so I thought..."

"You were wrong!" skekRa glowered at the Gelfling on the table, taking his head roughly in his claws and tilting it this way and that. The Gelfling cringed, shutting his eyes tightly. "It's hardly a scratch. You could fix that yourself! You're excellent at healing, or so you claim."

"I don't have anything to stitch with," Nosa explained. "I thought you might."

William almost groaned again, but they knew doing it would get them nowhere. Worse, it would probably aggravate the already irritated guard in front of them. William had no doubt that they could easily handle the guard, but they really didn't feel like getting into a fight right now.

"The last place I was in was Yoswell in Amestris," they slowly said. "I'll go out on a limb and assume that neither one of you has heard of Amestris before. All I know is that I stepped on a transmutation circle while walking around town and found myself laying right here a few minutes ago."

The guards looked at each other again. One kept his spear pointed at William as the pair began to murmur back and forth. Then they straightened.

"We don't know half of what you said," the second guard said curtly. "But seeing as we've never seen the likes of you around and there seems to have been...magic involved in your arrival, we've elected to take you to the Skeksis. If Emperor skekSo is willing, you will be granted an audience and they'll know what to do with you. Come on." He jabbed the spear lightly at William.

~

"I do," skekRa retorted. But he had a limited supply of thread and when he ran out he usually had to go to skekEkt the Ornamentalist, which almost always ended in a hissing match. "But I'm not in the habit of wasting it on Gelfling who aren't dead." He released the Gelfling on the table and stalked to the drawer containing thread, rummaging around.

"Just this once," Nosa pleaded. "I wouldn't have asked if it wasn't important! Look at him, my Lord. He's lost so much!"

skekRa grunted a noncommittal reply. She was right, of course. The Gelfling's hair and clothes were beginning to turn pink with all the blood coming out of the head wound.

"How did this come about?" he asked after a long moment of stalling. He pulled out a needle and thread. Both would need to be disinfected, of course, which meant more time lost. Nosa and the other Gelfling exchanged an uncomfortable glance.

William was wary of those with power on principle, but they knew they didn't really have a choice in this situation. The Skeksis - whatever or whoever they were - could have the information they needed to get back to Yoswell.

They sidestepped the spear and took a step back.

"I'll come with you," William agreed. They stood and waited for the two guards to bring them to the ones who were presumably in charge of this castle.

(Hey, sorry this took forever! I've been super super busy and it probably won't be much better this week. I'll try to be more active.)

"This way, then, the Gelfling said, gesturing for William to follow them down the path toward the castle gates.

~

"He fell down some stairs," Nosa said finally.

"Nebrie dung," skekRa snorted, dropping the needle and thread into a jar of alcohol. He tossed a rag at the other Gelfling. "Here, put pressure on the wound. What are you two hiding from me?"

After giving their surroundings one last glance, William followed the two guards towards the castle. They could hope that the government here wasn't anything remotely like the Amestrian government. If they were going to end up in a strange, foreign place, William at least wanted a break from everything related to the Amestrian military. They would gladly take a far less competent set of leaders.

The guards led them through the gates into the halls of the castle. It was eerily quiet inside, and the walls were oddly jagged.
"The throne room is this way," one of the guards said, pointing down a hallway as he walked. "The Emperor is likely in there."

~

"He was in a forbidden part of the castle," Nosa mumbled. "The blacksmith's forge." skekRa's head jerked up. That was very forbidden indeed. More so than the catacombs. HakHom's chambers had been there, many many trine ago. When he died in the split, skekSo had ordered the forge sealed off.

"A crawlie startled him," Nosa went on. "He knocked over a rack of tools and gashed his head there."

"Foolish," skekRa sniffed. "If I were any other Skeksis I'd have you before the Emperor in seconds, do you know that?" Both Gelfling lowered their heads, and the one on the table drew back slightly.

(Can't promise frequent responses still; kinda in a rut right now.)