🏝️ dulces sueños group excursion! 🏝️

[hearthwarming]

🏝️ who: intrepid adventurers (vacationers?) and more!
🏝️ what: ori organized (origanized?) a group trip to the resort! mass memshare ensues.
🏝️ when: fall 9-10
🏝️ where: dulces sueños resort
🏝️ warnings: threads will be marked as needed for memshares.

[ Hopefully everyone had fun on the Arco Lunar! The morning after the boat departs from the docks, a letter arrives to your mailbox: ]

Hello, intrepid adventurer!

I am excited to have you along for a group excursion to the mysterious new island! In two days' time, let us gather in the town square and set off from there! Please be prepared to stay the night. It will be so fulfilling and memorable for everyone to spend a night on an adventure together!

If you have any questions or concerns, please come find me at my flower shop in town or at the forest farm where I live!

Sincerely,
Oriphi

[ If she accidentally delivered it to a few wrong mailboxes, then... Oops!

On the promised day, once everyone (and likely a few surprise tag-alongs) has gathered or been gathered, Ori distributes little paper bags of snacks to everyone. Inside are cookies, oat snacks, and a freshly-picked apple from her and M-21's orchard. Do with them as you please... Just don't let her catch you throwing it into the sea or something. 🥺 ]

Alright. I think we should head out, then! Thanks for coming along, everyone! I hope it'll be a great time. Oh, and please don't forget to drink plenty of water and use this incredible ointment I discovered on this island! It's called "sunscreen!" Tieflings don't really get sunburnt, but you should use it!

[ And with that our intrepid adventurers set off to the mysterious, dangerous, unknowable... resort island! ]

( This is the ill-fated mass extinction memshare event. Please refer to the event for details on the resort and the plotting post for any specific details for characters' memshares! There are toplevels for each area of the resort (and for the memshare). Enjoy! )

Comments

[passthrough]

[He squints.

"Whaddya mean?

If you're expectin' me to be all majestic and caring to you like my brother, then you gotta get your head outta the dirt and remember that I ain't him. I've got no reason to not speak my mind, even to things like you."

With a firm nod, he drops to a seat, sighing and looking up towards the moon.

"Besides, it's not like the gods gotta place for somebody like me anyway. Why should it matter if I irritate 'em a little?"]

[framestory]

[ Things.

Ellis can feel his irritated state absolutely soar. Even if Otegine originated from an object, he's a person now with things even if he doesn't understand them. Ellis felt like that at some point in his life. He's not real. He's from a story, after all. He's a character from a story that some god wrote because he was pining after someone.

Then with the purpose torn from him. His fists might curl dangerously to the point that the nails might dig in more than they might. It's not even about being a god, or lesser than a god--even if it's between people, this is-- ]

Since you're the one asking for help, shouldn't you be prostrating yourself? At least be a little nicer? You don't have to be a saint, but you could at least behave like a decent human being.

[passthrough]

["You want worship or somethin'? At a time like this?? I thought y'all had more important things to worry about.

What are you gonna do if I say no? Leave me to die just for givin' you a bad attitude?"]

No. [It's frustrating, to know you're both aware of your job here. But you can at least try to be the one with some sort of respect for your position.]

Just because I'm irritated doesn't mean I'll stop doing my job. You don't need to ask for that much.

Besides, if you die, who knows what it'll do to history.

["Nothing will happen."

Your throat locks up for a moment, and you look back to him, assuming he's pulling your leg. But for once, he looks serious.

"I'm erased already, remember? If I were to die right now, the story of history would keep goin' on without me, and nothin' would change.

You don't gotta treat me like I'm gonna be remembered like my brother. I'm not a noise that gets myself an echo. I know myself best, after all."

The fear comes up again, vibrant and hot and distressing. The fear of being lost.

Red. Thundering. Amounting to nothing but ash.

What does he know that you don't? Why... is he so comfortable with this? Isn't he scared, too?]

[framestory]

[ Thanks. He hates everything about this.

Otegine's distress and fear affects Ellis too when he was already distraught by the answers and reactions. Someone can be unpersoned but they can still affect history, even if it isn't the "main" history, is Ellis's firm belief. If Sadachika wasn't here, they wouldn't have had this conversation. Otegine and his fellow sword men are already unpersoned to begin with in this particular timeline right this second. They're not fully erased from history, but they aren't supposed to exist here. They technically don't exist, yet here they are. It feels as if they're on a different dimension entirely to him. His head is starting to hurt from all this, and he hates all this rushing through his mind.

Also, he doesn't want worship!! Does he have to worship everyone who he has a decent conversation with?? Is this guy stupid?! This is the most emotions Ellis has ever felt throughout his existence. Congrats, Otegine. Thanks. He wants to scream.

brb he's blue screening ]

[passthrough]

[...

...

"What? What's with the weird look?"

You shake yourself to attention, your knuckles white against your spear.]

...I...

Can I ask you something?

[He squints at you, but relents after a moment with a nod.]

If we lose the reason for our existence, that means we cease to exist ourselves... right? So...

Being erased... what does it feel like?

[It's not as easy as just finding another reason for existence. It doesn't work like that for a spirit like you. And at the core of your fear bubbles the same line of thought, over and over...

This is borrowed time you exist on. Talking to Sadachika, fighting, being. What happens, when there's nothing left? Others will get to go to rest, but...

What about you?

...

"...It makes no difference to me.

It has nothing to do with what allows us to exist, or any reason for it. That we even existed in the first place, no matter how or where... that's reason enough.

Because I know I'm here now. I know I'm happy and alive. So long as I know it... then that's good enough."]

[framestory]

[ Ellis freezes when he hears himself as Otegine ask that question. The words that tumble out of "his" mouth and the words make him want to curl up. It's fine. It's fine. He's living out that life already. He got kicked out of his story, ceased to exist, his only purpose in being created was nulled, why did he live? Living inside a void for so long. He was already on borrowed time, but with the wish bingo, his life is no longer on a timer.

But why is he s til l h er e . . . ?

He doesn't understand what Sadachika is saying. Ellis doesn't think he answered the question. Saying nice things like that to divert the attention is something that he uses all the time, so he'd notice it.

Even if Otegine won't laugh, Ellis will. It's so absurd. ]

1/2

[passthrough]

[He hasn't answered the question, and that alone is fearful enough. But you can't accept his answer entirely, even so.

The fact of your existence was enough?? What was that even supposed to mean? Was it that simple???? When your existence relies on more than just "being", when you have to have a history to have a "you", does that even count?

Ellis feels like he has to laugh, and Otegine, in tragic opposition, feels his chest burning with what might turn into anguish, if he lets it go any farther.]

Even if...

Even if no one remembers you?

[It's meant to be a challenge. But your voice cracks despite itself, and rather than answering, Sadachika just looks at you, an expression that you don't understand and can't label, complicated and shifting from harsh and confused to a careful, momentary empathy.

"...Why are ya asking?"

You catch yourself, swallowing hard, ripping your posture away to look anywhere else. Stand guard. Do something. Do the job you were meant to do. Your... at least temporary purpose.]

...N-nothing.

No reason.

[...]

[passthrough]

[The silence stretches for far too long.

Then, at the top of his lungs, Sadachika yells at you.

"Then you should just remember me then!!"

It catches you off guard, and you silently look back over at him. Him, with that determined face you know from your master that is no fault of his own, with his chest held out and his fists clenched and his eyes filled with emotional determination.

"If you're that worried I'm gonna vanish, then remember me! Commit me to memory, Otegine!!

And in turn... I promise I will remember you!!"

...

It's still not an answer. Maybe... there isn't an answer, truly. But the swell you feel in your chest, at just the notion of someone wanting to remember you... not history's version of you, but this you, the lost you, with nothing left to anchor your future and only a void of nothing to take rest in at your end...

You don't think you could forget this boy even if you tried. This bratty, forgotten boy. Maybe... wherever his spirit led, he would think the same of you.

For you.

Surely, you don't need to hesitate over this.

...

...

The memory ends, a drifting of starlight and crickets into the void of sleep. Sadachika is gone. Otegine is gone.

Ellis is Ellis once again.]

[framestory]

[ Otegine is Otegine.

Ellis is Ellis.

This sort of interaction leaves Ellis to feel conflicted over his own thoughts on the matter, but at the moment, he'll shove it to the back of his mind. He can "process" it later.

In any case, he hopes that this helped Otegine in some shape or form, even if he knows it wouldn't for himself. ]