[It was a mistake, and one that he berates himself for. He thought he saw someone go into the bamboo forest and went to bring them back out before they got lost, but the moon phase had shifted from full to new and he had become disoriented. Fortunately he has a small jar of moonflies with him to help light the way, but he still has to proceed with caution. What did they say? Find the lanterns...
OPTION 1: VISIONS OF THE PAST.
Thinking he hears a voice, Eustace frowns and turns—only to stiffen when he sees the ghosts of his family.
"...Impossible... No, this can't be real."
In his head he's know this must be some kind of hallucination, the thing they told him about, but they seem so real. He takes an involuntary step forward, but they crumble away in smoke and flame, everything around him suddenly set ablaze.
"...—!"
He knows he needs to get away, to end this, but he's somehow stuck in place, the sounds and memories of what he witnessed that day bombarding him.
Anyone who finds him like this will need to douse the flames to get to him as the flames are now a product of his own dreamotion and nightmare energy.
OPTION 2: FAILED TO SAVE THE WORLD.
Thick fog has surrounded him, and instead of the bamboo forest he finds himself back on the grounds where his group faced Diaspora. Its armor stripped away, all that's left is for him to finish it off. However, something is off.
Around him are the bodies of his friends and teammates, broken, mangled, and riddled with slashes and holes. He can't believe it—he refuses to—because this isn't what happened. Even as that voice of reason echoes through his mind, he glares up at the visage of the giant automagod and raises his weapon.
"Flamek Thunder...!"
But as soon as he begins the incantation, he freezes and stares wide-eyed at the rifle. It's silent, not responding to him at all.
Charging: 94%
"...What...no!"
No matter how many times he shouted, at first angrily and then desperate, there was no response from his weapon.
Charging: 98%
"Dammit, Flamek, awaken!"
As energy gathers around Diaspora's mouth aimed directly at him, the flood of doubts and uncertainties from that time flood back to him. How he couldn't figure out how to open up and connect to his weapon, how the pressure of knowing he was the reason they had to find alternative methods to destroy Diaspora, how if he failed the entire Skydom would fall, how everyone he wanted to protect would die—
Charging: 100%
Eustace can be found hunched over on the ground, gasping as his nails dig into the soil, his weapon discarded a few feet away from him. It clicks and crackles with electricity, as if trying to get Eustace's attention, but he can't hear it. All he sees in his mind's eye is the devastation of his failure to open himself up, of failing to awakening Flamek when he was needed most. Nightmare energy oozes out and around him, the Moonflies in his jar buzzing around like mad as they crave what they can't reach.
Should anyone find him, he will have some lunar flowers, the Moonflies, and a few small crystals in the satchel he had been using. It could be on him or it could have fallen to the ground. So far it'll be mostly just nightmare energy gathering around him with no real big changes...yet. Just be careful as he might think those approaching him are enemies or some form of the people he's hallucinating about.]
CW: DEATH/BLOOD/TRAUMA/ETC
OPTION 1: VISIONS OF THE PAST.
Anyone who finds him like this will need to douse the flames to get to him as the flames are now a product of his own dreamotion and nightmare energy.
OPTION 2: FAILED TO SAVE THE WORLD.
Eustace can be found hunched over on the ground, gasping as his nails dig into the soil, his weapon discarded a few feet away from him. It clicks and crackles with electricity, as if trying to get Eustace's attention, but he can't hear it. All he sees in his mind's eye is the devastation of his failure to open himself up, of failing to awakening Flamek when he was needed most. Nightmare energy oozes out and around him, the Moonflies in his jar buzzing around like mad as they crave what they can't reach.
Should anyone find him, he will have some lunar flowers, the Moonflies, and a few small crystals in the satchel he had been using. It could be on him or it could have fallen to the ground. So far it'll be mostly just nightmare energy gathering around him with no real big changes...yet. Just be careful as he might think those approaching him are enemies or some form of the people he's hallucinating about.]