SO BELOW - EVENT LOG

[pluviosamods]

SO BELOW

With a slightly bump that can be felt throughout the ship, progress levels out. The skies above are threatening rain, but there aren't any drops falling from the sky... Yet.

Not that you'd know it, looking out the windows. A foreign ocean stands outside, on the other side of the glass - the ghost of an ocean, long gone from the truth of this world.

Just like so many other things, which have become visible to those who are willing to pay attention.

This is the event log for SO BELOW. Information for the first part of the Event (days 15 and 16) can be found here, along with sign-up options for the second part of the event.

Comments

[helborn]

"Exactly. ... I think they might be. I'm not sure... I mean, it's a little hard to tell which is normal weird and which isn't?"

Too many people are weird here, it's almost impossible to tell.

[luciacorina]

"I've... holes in my memory, finding myself in places with no recollection how I got there, told I did inexplicable things." She pushes her hair behind her ear, looking down. "I don't know... what brings on the... spells."

[helborn]

"... I'm sorry." He looks down and closes his eyes for a moment. He... he shouldn't tell her, not if she doesn't already know. He'd tell someone at home, but she's a friend. He doesn't want her to have a crisis...

A long breath out and he looks back at her. "I think I'm... easier to control because of my... situation. But for other people, I don't know."

[luciacorina]

She smiles a little, humorlessly. "I think the elves' enthrallment lingers upon me, makes a place of entrance for... any else. Gulda used it, when she guided my hands against my friends. I saw none of it, only the Hall, again and always."

[helborn]

"... I'm sorry, Lucia Corina. You shouldn't have had to go through that." He shakes his head. "I'm just... it's my own foolishness that... let me be this way. It's... sorry. You're having a hard time, I don't want to - mm."

[luciacorina]

"You needn't pretend you're well for my sake, Casper. Pain shared is pain halved, as they say--I know well that I am not the only one who has... suffered aught." She steps forward to rest a hand on his arm, light and hesitant. "You should not have had to go through what has harmed you, either. Foolishness is not a crime. We are all foolish, at times."

[helborn]

He swallows and looks away. "Most foolishness doesn't get you killed, though. I... yeah." He shakes his head and closes his eyes. "... It did for me."

[luciacorina]

"Foolishness certainly is not a crime worthy of execution." She moves a little closer-- Casper appreciated a hug before, after the plants... "And you are only young, are you not? The young are foolish, and should be held safe." She hesitates a moment more, because it is forward, but... he truly seems to need it. Lucia Corina wraps her arms around his waist and hugs him. "You do not deserve to be hurt, much less killed." She'll wonder how he's walking around seemingly entirely alive later. It's less important than his distress.

[helborn]

He just laughs weakly, relaxing into her arms a little bit. "Sorry, not... not laughing at you. But I... trusted people I shouldn't have. Did things I shouldn't have. Picked a fight I shouldn't have. And for that I got sent to my mother in Helheim and... and had to convince her to let me go. I'm just a pawn to her and my father. Just a piece to be used in their game."

Frustrated tears spring from his eyes and he turns to press his head into her shoulder. "I'm... sorry. This whole thing has just... I keep realizing over and over just how weak I am, even with all of my strength."

[luciacorina]

"You are your own. As long as you can walk on your own, you can choose." That has to matter. "No matter what you've done, your future is yours to make. And you are far too kind for me to think you irredeemable."

She squeezes him a little, trying to be comforting. "It is not a crime to be weak, either. I am far from strong, but I am certain you do not think I deserve to suffer for it. You need only be yourself. I am glad of you."

[helborn]

"Well I have a false leg, so walking on my own is an issue." He knows what she meant, but he's... the idea of so many people concerned about him is weird. "And no, I don't. But I -"

He pauses and takes a breath, giving her a gentle squeeze back. "I'm just... I don't have very good self-confidence. The world's never been kind to me."

[luciacorina]

"The crime is that of those who have hurt you, not yours for having been so hurt. You deserve as much kindness as anyone does, Casper, at the very least. And you are terribly kind in your turn, which certainly merits return. And if you cannot walk on your own, then you can take a hand stretched out to support you." She leans back to smile up at him. "You deserve that, too."

[helborn]

He takes a deep breath. She's right and he knows it, it's just... difficult. "Thank you. You're very kind. I'm not sure what I did to deserve so many kind people here, but... it's nice."

[luciacorina]

"Perhaps you were finally granted what you deserved all along." She squeezes him again, trying to convey the reassurance she wants to give. "You have been terribly kind to me, in your turn. And it is nice."

[helborn]

"Maybe that's true. ... I just wish we had more freedom here. The ghosts also aren't helping - I don't mind them, but they're being frustrating and I don't know what to do about them."

[luciacorina]

"Yes. The ship is a large cage, but... a cage nonetheless." Her mouth twists bitterly.

"Frustrating how?" She turns to look at the nearest ghost. "I assume you mean something other than their mere presence. What would you do about them, ideally?"

[helborn]

How to even explain it? "Ideally I'd pull them to the nearest gate to the Underworld, where the various gods can sort out who gets who. But these are less... solid? They're less people, more echoes of people. If you act too far from what they expect, they just 'reset'."

[luciacorina]

"I wonder..." She cocks her head to one side. "In Gulda's tower, there were echoes of all the people who had been there when she lived, but none of them were true ghosts, only echoes. They were just... brought back as pale imitations around her. Do you think there's a true ghost somewhere rousing these echoes from sleep, to make of the ship what they expected in life?

[helborn]

"Maybe. I know the ocean isn't actually there, despite what we see through the windows. So maybe the ghost... of the ocean... brought them back?" It's a logical enough conclusion, it just sounds stupid when he says it out loud. "I don't know how or why, but that's... that's the only thing I've got."

[luciacorina]

"None of them seem drowned, so I don't suppose they died in the sea, though they could have died atop it. Perhaps the lost of this world... sink." She wrinkles her nose. That sounds absurd phrased like that. "All the dead drifting down to the lowest places?" Lucia Corina sighs. "I will be glad when we are no longer in this seabed, whatever the cause, and even if our--new companions--follow us on."

[helborn]

"I've got no idea. But I'll be glad when we're out of here, too - it's not a good place for any of us. Ghosts or people, it's still creepy and frustrating." He doesn't have enough information to start drawing conclusions, which is the worst sort of state to be in. ... Almost worst.