🏝️ 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

[chronosynthesis]

[Ah, well.

Once he orients himself to being so big and warm (is this what Norn feel like inside--?) He runs a hand back through his hair and turns to... walk down one end of the hall as random. He's curious about the note he just stuffed in his boot, but he should find... his own room? First? He hopes he can tell where that is.]

[bluminescence]

[ The hallway stretches out before him, long and empty. His footfalls carrying if not taken carefully. Above him, winding serpentine lights light the path before him, and behind him. There are rows of identical doors, identical rooms like the one he had just exited.

Down and around the corner come the muffled echoes of boys and the clink of utensils. One of the rounded enclaves along the way is a bathroom, as the steel plate reads in Groscian. ]

[chronosynthesis]

[Hm... He's going to slip into the bathroom. He'll check if the main door locks, first, or if it's stalls he'll shut himself in one of those. At least he has the sense to realize this letter must be private.]

[bluminescence]

[ The bathroom stall, like the letter itself, is indeed private. Stone and white porcelain, it is just as utilitarian as the rest of the building.

Pulled from the space in his boot clearly meant for a dagger that isn't currently there, he will find the texture is rough, parchment like. Folded neatly, a wild flower of the depths drawn with fine lines and cross shading above his name. Should he unfold it, the note is more haphazardly written than the front. There is an attempt at fancy writing, but time was not on the teenaged author's side.

Forever in my thoughts.
Forever in my dreams,
A life without you would
Tear me at my tender seams,

You are the light that keeps me,
The reason I breathe through the day,
Even when our lips, eyes, and hands are barred from meeting,

I love you so completely
That forever, I will know this feeling.
Seared into my heart

Can he feel it, then, an echo of the way Kaspar's chest swelled and his knees felt weak? Like anyone in love for the first time, swept up in the romance of it all wherever they might find it. There is no thought to the complications of the future.

Complications that begin as the sound of classmates start to pour into the hall outside, a few boys chattering near the door as some enter the bathroom. Kaspar is taller, broader than every single one of them. Though they all wear the same matching uniform as Kaspar. Light hair, white uniforms, and glowing softly in the dimmer lighting of the bathroom.

What will he do with the note now? ]

[chronosynthesis]

[Oh.

He does know this feeling. From when he was younger and his feelings for Trahearne were fresh, and he found fleeting touches and his presence at the front of the army linger too long in his memory as he finds his confidence for Tyria.. From Adelis when he tries to talk sideways around the things he likes, but tells just enough for Syrlya to cling to and learn a little bit more about the heart protected with thorns. From--

He starts as he hears the bathroom door open, the stall the only thing keeping his moment private. Hurriedly he folds the letter--this is private, meant only for the one who wrote it and the one it was written for--and shoves it deep into his boot.

He flushes the toilet for good measure before exiting the stall, and then heads for the sinks to wash his hands and wash himself of suspicion.]

[bluminescence]

[ The boys near him don't hide their glances when he emerges from the stall. Wariness and something else as they use the urinals, something between futile distaste and uncertainty. They look away if spied. The stances of those at the sink remain subtly defensive.

Students in any path of his choice step aside though there is little reverence in their begruding respect. From the hall outside spills the hum of conversation, the shuffling and scraping of leather on stone from the boys that now litter the area. Words, broken conversations, whether he stays in the bathroom or braves the crowd of eyes--

"Hurry up. Next bell is soon--"

"Blumlund will have your hide--"

"How many merits--" ]

[chronosynthesis]

[Huh. That's... strange. And discomfiting, so he hurries out of the bathroom so that he can instead get lost in the crowd of the hallway. Or try to. Kaspar is so tall.

He isn't totally sure where he's supposed to go for class? So he, once again, picks a random direction down the halls and gets walking.]

[bluminescence]

[ It is nearly impossible to be lost in the crowd. His shoulders resist relaxing. The unease at being watched creeps up on him, soothed only by the pride he finds in the stifling of his own whims to maintain military posture. The fear of breaking it, of being even more seen, is a hot coil in his belly.

It only becomes clearer that Kaspar is the tallest boy in school as Syrlya finds Kaspar's feet remember the familiar path if he lets them follow it. Young boys, all lacking pigmentation in their hair and skin, march in line together down distant halls in similar uniforms, only shorts instead of pants. Walking alone or in pairs, the older ones are free to find their own way to class. The older the boys look, the more color in their hair and skin. Mostly blond, with some light browns, reds, and slate greys. But they all wear the same white uniform.

A man, an older teen, the same height as Kaspar steps out from a room in front of him. Kaspar's gut clenches, tension he seems frightened of outwardly revealing, and it will be difficult to resist the pull to salute him properly. The man's height and the light blond color to his hair mark him as an adult. His more impressive uniform marks him as a graduate.

He resembles Kaspar in color and dress on the island. Save for his eyes in every way. He levels them on Kaspar, light red and hawkish. ]

[chronosynthesis]

[At least Syrlya knows military. It isn't hard to march on posture, pretending to look less lost than he is. Where the hell is he going.

He stops before he runs into--well, humans that look so similar to each other are usually related, aren't they? Maybe this is a brother or father to Kaspar.

He gives into the urge to salute, because even if the are family his rank appears to be higher and they are in some sort of... base? School?]

[bluminescence]

[ The salute carries his hand to his chest before it touches his forehead, palm facing the man before him. Other boys straighten up at the sight of the man, eyes all scraping the stone floors in hopes he catches no infractions.

He nods, protocol satisfied. As his cloak shifts, the metal strip affixed to the breast of his uniform becomes visible. Imprinted on it is his last name: "Blumlund." His eyes narrow on Kaspar as he goes on.

"I'll be observing the elite class today. Don't be late." He warns coolly as he leans in, and then slips by close enough to clip his shoulder. Strangely, Kaspar's feet wish to carry him another direction, to another entrance. One found through a stone archway decorated in gold facades, older by design elements alone than the rest of the structure. He has the option now, to move forward or turn back. But the bell is upon them and a choice must be made as the pleasant chime rings out its final warnings. ]

[chronosynthesis]

[Ah... he supposes he doesn't need the verbal confirmation, then.

This is a memory. Or a dream? And not his own, as he recognized Kaspar's face in the mirror. Going to class would be the responsible thing, but... there's no real consequence no matter his choices here, is there? He is only walking through a dream.

So he follows the heart's urge, through the stone archway.]

[bluminescence]

[ Through the stone archway stretches a short hall that empties out into a large round room. Cavernous and smooth, built to carry the sound of music and not leather boots. Faint and chipped remnants is all that remains of whatever art used to grace the ceiling.

Other students, already arranged in rows, glance to him. Their
expressions are even less friendly than the boys from before. Light blue eyes seek light grey first, kinder than the rest where no one but Kaspar can see. Behind the boy with blue eyes, across the room, there is a balcony of stone that curves outward. A platform for overseeing with no apparent way up or down.

Kaspar's chest aches and his hands ache to hold the shorter boy's. But there is an empty spot waiting for him in the front, between other students. ]

[chronosynthesis]

[He didn't take Kaspar to be so unpopular. He's just such a mild-mannered and unassuming guy.

A part of him wonders, with that urge, if this boy is the one who wrote the poem stuffed deep in his boot. He moves forward, passing the boy in particular and meeting his gaze for a moment, before he takes what appears to be the empty seat. There will be time, surely.]