auroraexpress | (no subject)

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(no subject)

Who: you??
When: Day 48, evening and night
Where: the library and beyond

[As sun sets today, everyone will receive a message on their Chain:

☆: Good Evening my precious, charming heroes!
☆: It's been awhile since we had a party, so I was thinking you guys could use a pick-me-up.
☆: If you're interested, come down to the library ♥

Should you take the suggestion, you'll find the library has been decked out in fairy lights, with pink glittery star-shaped decorations all around. In the hallway are tables with trays of fruit tarts and fizzy drinks, and there's cheerful electronic music playing over the intercom.

In the center of the library, there's a new hexagonal bookshelf, accessible from every angle. It spins, allowing passengers to browse without bumping eachother around, and on it are a new collection of books. Some you might recognize from home -- if you ever wrote a book yourself, or had one written about you, it's here. Everything from formal biographies to grade school story projects has been brought in, in a delightfully embarrassing celebration of the passengers.

And if that wasn't enough to make you blush, there's also a slew of new books about you... The trains Heroes have been written in to a variety of fairy tales. In one story, you may find yourself a knight on a white horse rescuing your teammate and riding off into the sunset. In another you're a fairy godmother. You may even be a witch or a dragon! Given enough time, you'll probably find a story that puts you in just about every role, in a cast with just about every other passenger, teammate or no.

Be careful, though -- at random chance, reading a story about yourself might make you feel like acting out that role in real life! Those effected by this will consider other characters from that story to be their roles as well -- if your teammate was your Prince Charming in the story, you'll think they are in real life! All in a harmless, bond-promoting way, of course. This effect will wear off after an hour or so, and one character can be afflicted multiple times.

Will you get lovingly teased by over-the-top fanfiction? Probably. Will the library be covered in glitter forever? Definitely. Is it worth it...?

Well. Prince Cardamom thinks so. He's also joined in for the night, and will gladly play out stories with you, or face your ire. Enjoy the party!]

[[OOC: There's a prince toplevel here, though as always threads are subject to mod energy levels. If you'd like to handwave your character asking questions/etc, please feel free to poke Cleo#9893 @ discord and I'll work out what kind of information you might get! Thank you!]

Flat | Top-Level Comments Only

Fine fine, I'll save some for later.

[There's a photo of her, she's young with ash blond hair, quite a beauty. The article is talking about her distinguished background and how she's one of the youngest martial artists to achieve mastery etc but also about her bold efforts to free citizens from the tyrannical opression of the false emperor-- there's actually not much about Rean? A mention of the intervention of the Ashen Knight preventing high civilian casualties.]

Heh. Not that you don't seem to have an endless supply as it is.

[ It makes sense, Crow thinks, that there wouldn't be much mention of Rean. He was supposed to be the tool, not the focus of the events. Even if Crow himself doesn't think of Rean that way, it doesn't mean he's blind to the reality.

Still, he's curious now and is looking for more articles. He sees those fairytale books but let's look at news first. ]

Edited 2019-11-29 19:48 (UTC)

[Rean quiets as Crow reads.

What do you want, canon, triumph, failure, or tragedy?]

[ Failure and/or tragedy sounds interesting. ]

[Failure:

A different Ashen Chevalier. A young man barely in his twenties. A memorial piece explaining how he fought hard to restore peace to Crossbell but died proecting civilians during some large conflict. There's no real mention of Rean or what he was doing that prevented him from protecting his Awakener, just a mention at the end that the Ashen Knight is currently with the Crossbell government, which is arranging the young hero's funeral.

Tragedy:

Hundreds killed in Roer due to crossfire. However the Ashen Chevalier ultimately reigns triumphant. With the help of the Ashen Knight yet another rebel town has been brought under the glorious and rightful reign of the government. The Chevalier is in his late thirties but he looks younger, charismatic, and intense. He has a message for the empire, and it's frankly frighteningly dogmatic, though poetic and deceptively, persuasively eloquent. Renounce rebel sympathizers. Glory to the state. All who threaten the peace and stability of the country are traitors and will be exposed and rooted out. By the end of the article you could almost say a few hundred civilian casualties is no big deal in the grand scheme of the greater good blah blah]

[ Crow is quiet when he reads the articles. The first is heartbreaking and sounds like exactly the sort of thing that would have devastated Rean, that he would take as a personal failing.

It's the second that really catches his eye, though. A man eloquently speaking a "truth" he wants you to believe, passionate to the point you can find yourself nodding and agreeing.... ]

"For the greater good" indeed.

[ It's a quiet, cynical comment to himself. It's not that Crow is as deeply concerned as Rean tends to be about casualties-- though it's not as if he seeks it out, either-- but the lie rings hollow to him. Innocent lives lost are still blood on your hands no matter the pretty words you surround yourself with. Don't paint yourself as the good guy for doing terrible things.

He glances at Rean. ]

...Have you remembered anything?

[Rean's looking at an article about... himself. As a human, presumably. Something something civil war.]

Hm? Oh, bits and pieces.

[He looks absently at nothing, expression distant.]

Impressions. Scenes. A voice or a conversation, sometimes events, but it's still mostly vague, like looking through fog. Why?

Just curious how much of this sounds familiar to you.

[ He gestures broadly at the articles in general. ]

Some of it. When I read the words... sometimes it's line I can see what happened, but sometimes it's like I'm reading about someone else.

It sounds pretty disorienting.

It's not that bad. More like... feeling like you've forgotten a word and then it suddenly comes back to you. Only uh, more vivid and detailed than that of course. Or in other cases it doesn't come back, I guess.

[He sets the article he's holding down.]

Some of them... My Awakeners, I remember a bit more. Time spent together, details. Others are more impressions, feelings to go with the photos.

...I think, I really did care about each of them, deeply.

[Even mister facist regime.]

It feels... almost disrespectful to have forgotten them. Their dreams and goals. Even if that's part of the system.

They all fought relentlessly for their beliefs, I know that much. Each and every one of them was passionate about something.

Edited (OK BOOMER) 2019-11-30 08:22 (UTC)

I can't imagine anyone qualifying to be your Awakener being anything less.

[ Even if he thinks that one guy can go fuck himself. For some reason, that guy really bothers him. ]

I agree it sucks the system makes you forget 'em, but I don't think it's disrespectful. The past, the people that touched your life and whose lives you touched... they're important to remember, but so is looking forward. And I'd bet any one of them understood how it all goes.

[ Crow pauses for another moment. ]

You know, there's something I've been wondering...

[He smiles listening to Crow talk, wistful but also... sad a bit. He doesn't resent the situation but it's also... strange to know you've forgotten so much, over and over.]

What is it?

The Divine Knights... I was just wondering. I know back in our day, there was more than one... even if they were a bit different. But now you're one... are there any others? Well, if you remember that part yet.

I think so, yes. I know I'm not the only Divine Knight. But I don't know--I don't remember much about the others except that they exist.

...We all had some purpose. But I don't recall what.

[ Crow nods, listening as Rean talks. ]

Yeah, that makes sense. I'd imagine those details aren't gonna be as fast in coming back.

[ There's a flirtatious comment floating through Crow's mind about how he's more than willing to give Rean a hand with remembering, but he keeps his libido in check for once. Somehow, it doesn't seem right for the current atmosphere. ]

[He can almost feel Crow holding himself back, it's endearing if a bit embarrassing.]

It's not as important to me as remembering you and Randy and Rufus.

[He doesn't know about Jusis yet. Also he doesn't know remembering the other knights IS remembering Rufus and Crow after a fashion.]

[ That last tidbit will be a fun time for everyone. ...Though Crow would be lying if he said the idea hadn't crossed his mind. He just wasn't sure if he wanted to lend credence to the notion. ]

I won't lie, I'm pretty impatient for you to remember me. But I've only remembered bits and pieces myself so I can't really judge.