10/29 --- Δ Haggard Traveler’s Reprieve?????

[gluttoning]

Who: ??? & you!
What: Something's starting...
Where: Δ Haggard Traveler’s Reprieve (Twilight Shoreline)
When: Sunday, 10/29
Warnings: Will be added as needed.

( Perhaps intrigued by the mail allegedly sent by CC Corp, perhaps visiting the Shoreline by chance, gating into the Area goes as it always does, until the music stays cut for longer than it should, and the black, liminal transition screen lingers for a little too long. The seconds tick on. They near turn to minutes. You can't struggle, you can't argue— you can only simply be, and it occurs to you that maybe you'll be trapped midway here, conscious, for maybe forever.

And then you hear static. Your vision warps; pixels strain into words, blurred and unstable. You see them combat for your attention; you see— )



( And then you load in. )

( POST NAVIGATION )
( Sign-in Comment (Mandatory) • How to Play • Mechanics

Phase 1 • Round 1 • Round 2 • Round 3 • Round 4 • Round 5 • Round 6

Phase 2 • Round 7 • Round 8 • Round 9 • Round 10 •
Round 11 • Round 12

Epilogue )

Comments

[tablescraps]

( After calming down, uh, as much as a Mithrun can when he wants brutal and violent revenge, Memoir eventually helps Mithrun over to a quieter portion of the beach (thanks homie), where a very sneepy Nanashi sits.

Mithrun doesn't broach the quiet at first, and he debates leaving it be, possibly forever. But, eventually, he does: )

Sorry.

[justonezero]

[Nanashi just kind of regards him with a weary confusion up until he actually, you know. Says something.]

-Eh? What for?

[tablescraps]

You don't know?

( ?? )

[justonezero]

No?

[Obviously anything he did as Macha doesn't count?????]

[tablescraps]

( Mithrun, who still refers to Macha's and his past self's actions as his own,

He doesn't understand exactly why Nanashi apparently doesn't think there's anything to apologize for, but he does know Nanashi is weird, based on their previous conversation. For all he knows, Nanashi may forgive him simply on the basis of being human, which requires a level of nuance to tackle; that's probably best left to people who aren't learning to care about people as a whole as of literally today.

So. Instead. )

... Then I'll say thanks instead. You didn't die before all this, and you kept everyone alive. I really was going to kill everyone.

( The healers very specifically, )

[justonezero]

Oh... you mean the fight?

It's okay! It's kind of what I'm here for, so...

[tablescraps]

( He looks at him. )

Do you love yourself?

[justonezero]

[UH-OH,]

...

[tablescraps]

( yeah ok he figured )

You should figure out how. He ( tips his chin up at Deto who's [ Not Here ] ) loves you a lot.

I don't really care about myself, so I'd never really thought about it before, but. I think just liking other people isn't enough. I guess... learning how to care about yourself is a way of loving the people who love you.

( fucked up right )

[justonezero]

[Also glancing Deto's way before he looks to Mithrun again.]

...I'll try.

[Even if it's woefully insufficient.]

[tablescraps]

( A nice person would say "trying is enough," but Mithrun, )

You'll figure it out or you'll hurt him. Or hurt him trying to figure it out.

( Reassuring. Nevertheless: )

But I guess that's part of being human.

( Lots of "I guess"es. He's still figuring this out, too. He wasn't and isn't really like Nanashi in energy, but, in concept, as outsiders with little regard for themselves, they're similar.

Unfortunately, the players very much need Nanashi and Hector up, still, even with these annoying—oops, sorry, no longer a boss—extremely helpful healing cores. Unfortunately x2, he's pretty sure Nanashi and Hector are in the business of low self-worth, which is, like, not Great for life expectancy when you need to make a split-second decision in combat. )

[justonezero]

[Mithrun please, he can still hate himself while understanding that he is not the single person on a track in the trolley problem thanks to his class.]

...Is it?

[tablescraps]

( He doesn't trust either of their PC Harvest Clerics tyvm. )

That's what it seems like. I wasn't really interested at first.

( in. being human? Apparently, yes. )

[justonezero]

...In being human????

[MITHRUN??????????]

[tablescraps]

There isn't a particular benefit in it, is there? Not if you're alone.

[justonezero]

You weren't interested in other people, either?

[tablescraps]

Not at first. Before my accident, I didn't trust people, and the people I did trust were wrong. After... I just didn't care about anyone else. But people started caring about me.

( For some reason... )

[justonezero]

...I'm glad people started to care.

[tablescraps]

( ...

How did he feel about it? Indifferent, at first. He didn't really owe them anything for liking him when he didn't want nor care for it, cruel as that is to say. But it's seeped into him, over time; he didn't realize it at first, and didn't want to, eventually, but... )

... I'm lucky they still do, despite everything. I'm not easy to like.

( He's not even saying that to be mean to himself, it's an objective statement. He's fully aware of what he's like, and fully aware now of the stuff he was too callous to see before.

He doesn't feel guilty about any of it, but he knows most people would've been right to walk out at any point... especially when being Macha made him less than human. )

[justonezero]

[That's relatable, albeit for different reasons.]

A lot of people turned out for you.

[tablescraps]

... It surprised me.

( Moreso, now that he has all his memories back. Last time he had a big alteration of personality following a series of bad choices, after that accident, no one came for him. )

... I remember I used to try hard to get people to love me, back when I was different. ( Before The Accident (TM). ) I just ended up more alone. But when I stopped caring, people started coming for me. I don't really know why.

( He doesn't think he's more pleasant than he was back then; not fake, surely, but otherwise... )

[justonezero]

Was it mostly the people here?

[tablescraps]

Nearly every single one.

( The remaining handful is a slightly more involved story, but he doesn't need to split hairs with Nanashi. The point is, yeah. Fragmenties, man... )

... The people here are surprisingly forgiving.

( Is "forgiving" the right word? It doesn't feel perfect, but he's not sure how to better put it. )

here but pretend he’s not here

[deto]

…

[ sitting next to yoshi, staring at mithrun1 like he knows under that coiffed gray wig, mithrun1 hides a fleshy cavern full of meat juice ]

[tablescraps]

( is deto wrong tho )