OPEN | let's change from the heart, let's shout

[nomorules]

Who: Anyone and everyone! That means you! Yes, you, c'mere.
Where: The stream and the lake.
When: July 12th, evening.
Rating: PG in case any of y'all get wild with that decorating.
Summary: Come and take part in a mini lantern ceremony, Wonderland-style. Mingle away, comrades!
The Story:





The evening of the 12th, visitors who feel like moseying their way to the stream where it empties out of the forest will be able to enjoy a summer celebration in the Japanese style. Outdoor lights illuminate the area, and tables hold all manner of art supplies and blank paper lanterns waiting to be decorated.

Didn't catch the network 411? Someone around will surely explain: it's a nod to toro nagashi, the paper lantern ceremony meant to guide the souls of the departed by decorating lanterns and setting them loose. Maybe you have a departed soul you'd like to remember, or a prayer to make. Maybe you'd just like to write a note message-in-a-bottle style. Maybe you just feel like taking the air and enjoying the sights. The choice is yours!

Either way, once the sun has set and lanterns have been decorated, the candles inside will be lit (remember fire safety, kids!), and the lanterns will be released into the water.

Gather at the lakeside afterward to watch them empty into the lake and enjoy the ambiance with some food and drink. Because we could all use a little more light in our lives, no?

Comments

[pleasereset]

A white candle... okay.

[Asriel hasn't used fire magic in a while, it feels like. But it's easy enough to use a little magic to light a candle.]

Really? [Ah, so someone else knows how it feels.] ... Was it weird for him?

[determinedest]

It was weirder for everyone else. [They've achieved enough distance to be able to smile at that, now, the hard beat of panic that clouded their mind with a fuzz of indescribable static.]

He didn't mind it.

[Well, no. That's not exactly true.]

[A little soberly, they add - ]

But I think it made him sad.

[pleasereset]

... Yeah. I guess it would.

[Video games have set endings, there's only so many lines of dialogue, only so many things you can do...

How awful that would be, to have that kind of awareness.]

Was he happier here? Everyone here has told me this place is nicer. Well, sometimes.

[determinedest]

Sometimes, [Frisk agrees softly. A soft admission, and not a wholly honest one. He hasn't seen how bad it can get. They would hope that he never does, but they would never be so lucky. Neither would he.]

[And Zacharie?]

[Was he happier here?]

...sometimes.

I think he knew he'd go back someday.

[The game needs its obligatory merchant. Doesn't it?]

[pleasereset]

["He knew he'd go back someday."

He wonders if it'll happen to him, or Frisk, or any of the monsters here. But that's... good right? That's where Frisk and the other monsters belong, is on the Surface. Not trapped in some weird place that occasional turns into a ski resort or something like that.

And as for him, he needed to go back. There just wasn't any question about where he was meant to be at the end of everything.

But as for Chara...

Well, there wasn't really a happy ending for either of them. But if Chara's alive this time, then maybe...?]

Maybe he'll be back to visit someday.

[Asriel is no optimist, not by any means. But Frisk seems to miss Zacharie enough to make a lantern in his memory, so he can at least try to be comforting.]

[determinedest]

Maybe.

[Asriel...certainly was, wasn't he? They shouldn't hide it. Not from him. It's more than a little awkward, but perhaps it's...something that needs acknowledging. In more ways than one.]

[They turn over some of the lanterns to reveal two near the bottom of the pile. They should look familiar - one a beaming flower, and the other a goat wearing a green and yellow striped shirt.]

[(* Everyone's smiling.)]

You were.

[pleasereset]

[Asriel looks closer, a puzzled expression spreading across his face as he looks at the two lanterns.]

It's... me?

[Lantern memorials for him. And...]

And Flowey...?

[determinedest]

[It's me.]

[Only...don't think of that as "me," okay?]

[Of course not. It's not really him, is it? It's not really him at all. He'd laughed the same, and made the same noises, and said the same things, but they made a promise. Let him decide how he wants to be named. Let him decide what they call him.]

[Don't take that away from him.]

[Frisk nods, almost imperceptibly.]

You've been here before.

[Twice now.]

[pleasereset]

[Asriel's mouth is open, but all he does is stare. You've been here before, Frisk says.

You've been here before.

His mind turns over every timeline, every RESET, searching for some kind of missing memory. Some moment that feels skipped over. Something that doesn't connect. But even during his time as Flowey, even those last moments as Asriel... nothing feels out of place.

You've been here before.

Asriel realizes he hasn't said anything yet, for several long, awkward seconds.]

I was here before?

...

I was here before.

... I can't remember it?

[determinedest]

[They nod with a small hum of affirmation. Their features are blank, unreadable, an involuntary flattening of all the edges and softness, leaving nothing but the lidded eyes, the horizontal line of a mouth, the slight drop to their chin that directs their gaze back to the marks on the thin paper.]

Sometimes people disappear. And sometimes they come back.

Sometimes they don't remember ever being here.

[It happened with Papyrus. Maybe it'll happen again.]

[They wouldn't know.]

[For once, they wouldn't know.]

[pleasereset]

[Asriel finally finds his voice even though his mind still feels like it's spinning.

... Haha, so is this what it's like? To be on the opposite end of a RESET and just, not remember anything? He was here, he was gone, and sometimes you just... don't remember.]

How - how long ago?

[He remembers how cautious he was around his parents, around Mettaton-]

Who else knew? O-or met me when I was here?

[He was here, and he was here as Flowey... did any of them make the connection?]

[determinedest]

[It was going to happen eventually. Inevitably. One of the two. He may as well hear it from them.]

It was a while ago.

[And a lot happened since then. And...during then. Not a lot of people met him, they don't think. People who did might not even be here anymore. It's hard to gauge. Particularly since they...]

[Ha ha.]

[Whose fault is that?]

Some of those people aren't even here anymore.

[pleasereset]

[Asriel lets out a tense sigh. "Some" isn't comforting, but so far no one really seemed to recognize him as being here before...]

... I really can't remember at all.

[And he sounds kind of unhappy that he can't. He bites his lower lip, nervously. There's a lot of questions he wants to ask, and he probably shouldn't overwhelm Frisk but...]

Was I... happy here?

[It's an odd question to ask, probably. Mettaton did mention something about finding happiness here in Wonderland. But maybe, if his previous self found something of a life here...]

[determinedest]

[Was I happy here?]

[He certainly smiled a lot when he was a flower. He laughed, and he cried, and the world played havoc with his emotional state. And he smiled, sometimes, in other moments in time, when his shape was more recognizable as belonging to the crown prince of the Underground.]

[Was he happy here?]

I don't know.

[No.]

[Not really.]

Sometimes people come and go, and they forget in between.

Papyrus did too.

[pleasereset]

[... Of course.

That made the most sense, didn't it? This wouldn't stay, he'd go away, and everyone would continue to exist without him. Why was he even unhappy about that, anyway? That's what he wanted. To be forgotten and left in peace while everyone else moves on.]

Maybe... it'll be different, this time.

[Even as he says it, he doesn't sound very convinced. He doesn't really want to deal with it, or pour his heart out to Frisk yet again, who was only trying to tell him the truth.]

Papyrus too, huh? I imagine he didn't mind too much.

[That guy is the physical embodiment of optimism. Asriel isn't sure how he does it.]

[determinedest]

[Maybe he did; he came from the same bad ending both times.]

[Asriel may have to work harder to sound adequately convincing, both to himself and to Frisk. They can't claim to know for certain, nor can they put forth that they do without uttering a lie.]

[An ugly truth over a beautiful lie. It's what they've begun to learn is best.]

Maybe it will.

[Their tone is even, one of placid neutrality. Neither agreeing nor disagreeing.]