Don't Be Afraid To Be Who You Are - Isle Side

[missrecalled_mods]

The Rain Rain Rain Came Down Down Down

Just over a week after the Isle visit people would find themselves drawn outside. The weather was finally getting warmer, but that wasn't all of it. A strange foul smelling - and fairly toxic - mold had begun growing in some of the classrooms. Thankfully not the ones where people were sleeping but it was still enough to make it unpleasant to remain indoors. Some might blame the growth of the mold on a certain obsessive compulsive cleaner, though others might say that he just discovered it and accidentally gave it access to oxygen and such.

Whichever the reason, sleeping outside for a few days was sounding like a better and better plan with every passing minute. Even the drizzling weather couldn't make the indoors terribly appealing for anyone with a sense of smell.

And it was over night on one such night that the rain was... different. Warmer and a bit tingly. And some people would awaken quite a bit older than when they fell asleep, perhaps. Their memories might have caught up with their age, or might come to them slowly. However it happens, there might be some very confusing moments as those who seemed to be young just a moment before are now... less so.

Gift In Time Gift In Time Nary A Reason Nary A Rhyme Gift In Time!

Weirdly, there was something good to come not long after the rain. In addition to aging some folks up, it also seemed to wash away the worst of the mold, allowing people to return indoors once more. And each of them would find, soon after, in some place that they considered theirs... a small gift. It was rare that positive things happened on the Isle, but perhaps this was a sign of things to come.

Or perhaps even a broken clock is right once in a blue moon...

Comments

[mist_the_point]

Foulques listened, expression grim. Things that had to do with playing with expectations of how such games tended to work, he had to take Ian's word for. But the rest... the rest made more sense. A disturbing amount of sense. "So that is the grim future we caught glimpses of in the visions," he said. "Except perhaps the one of Flowey, as it doesn't seem to fit with such a sequence of events, but that is beside the point."

He was silent for a long moment, considering. "I come from a world at war, the threat of the Garlean Empire ever looming over Eorzea, the only one of the three great continents not entirely brought under its heel. The Garleans view anyone not of their race to be 'savages', to be subjugated at best, exterminated at worst. Yet Eorzea itself is no better, its peoples generally showing similar distain for the various tribes of beastmen, likely the closest equivalent to the monsters of Chara's world. Even some members of the so-called 'civilzed' races of mankind are not immune to such, including my own people, the Duskwights. Add to this that even five years hence Eorzea has yet to fully recover from the events of the Seventh Umbral Calamity- a disaster so terrible and all encompassing that it left no individual or group entirely unscathed and reshaped the continent forever-, and you begin to picture the would that shaped me."

"Hydaelyn is not a safe world, nor a kind one. It is harsh, with violence, fear, and death seldom far away. And before my arrival here, this harshness was all that I could see. I was a man driven only by rage and vengeance. The 'courage' I thought that I had found was only an expression of how little I valued my own life. In the end I expect I was more than a little mad. I can't say that my face melted, but... I expect that I was little better than that version of Chara, save for the fact that my power was not so great, nor my ambitions so lofty."

"And then I arrived here. I was falling from a cliff to my assured death, and was plucked out of the air by this place's magic. And here I encountered Professor Yen Sid and later Chell, who treated me with kindness I did not deserve. ...That I still feel I do not deserve. I met the young King and his entourage who showed me the much kinder nature of this world, and how it has shaped him. I find I envy the boy, and how he can offer the hand of friendship without fear that the hand he gets in return will be holding a dagger."

"Then Sun and Chara arrived. Two very different individuals, yet both have reacted to my offering the most basic care and consideration as something remarkable. They have each called me a hero, a title that I know I do not deserve. If anything, it is they who have given me new purpose, something beyond mere survival to rise for each day. Some hope that I may one day be able to look into the mirror and not hate the man I see."

"Chara Dreemur will not walk the same dark path that I did. I will not allow it. I swear on what little remains of my honor that the dark tale you've just told me will remain no more than that; a tale. A dark dream that can be set aside in the light of day."

[ubuntu_programmer]

That was... a lot. But Ian nodded.

"I wish my friend Ben were here. Not the king in Auradon, my friend Ben Song from home. He... He's the one who always knows just what to say. But since you're stuck with me I'll try and do my best to think about what he'd say. I think, if Ben were here, he'd probably say that sometimes all it takes to be a hero... is to be there for the person who needs you most when they need you. And I'll add from myself... it is not just being there then, but when you keep showing up for them." Ian took a deep breath.

"You see the thing is... we don't always know the impact we have on the world, and on those around us. For good or for ill sometimes things we think are huge and we are ashamed of ourselves for... or even proud pf ourselves over... go unnoticed or unremarked upon. And then sometimes we do something so simple... something we do reflexively... is everything to someone else. It's like...." They considered for a moment how to de-tech this example. "Ah, okay so let's say you built a bonfire. You could have built it to warm people or to give light if you were being kind, or if you were being intentionally horrible, maybe you made the bonfire with important papers and someone's treasured ph.... notes. But if it is a hot day at high noon, very few people will see the bonfire at all. But if it is a dark night and you light a candle you happened to have... you were probably doing that for yourself and didn't think it was anything special. Anyone would do it. But to everyone in the area that don't have any candles... they all see you and probably appreciate the light more than you realize."

Ian rolled their shoulders. "I can't say anything for myself if you are a hero or not, but what you just said, about making sure Chara doesn't walk down that dark path? That sounds pretty heroic to me."

[mist_the_point]

Perhaps oddly, Foulques first response was a bit of a wry chuckle. "And thus is my own advice turned back on me, as frequently happens," he said. Then explained, "I gave Chara much the same advice about the meaningful nature of small acts of kindness when they were upset and frightened before the boat arrived. Partly in hopes that they would at least attempt to behave like a civilized child, but also because it is true. Your friend, it seems, is wise. Or at the least, very good at putting into words for people what some part of them already knows."

"That said, as is the case with many things, keeping Chara from a dark path will be a deed much easier said than done. I expect that having witnessed small glimpses of it without the added influence of this other child's perspective has already gone quite a long way to that end; after that, they wished for nothing more than to return to their adopted family and live peacefully. But for such determination to last, the root cause of its opposite must be addressed, and in large part, for Chara, that seems to be fear, as is the case for many of Eorzea's internal troubles."

"In this dark future, they dealt with this fear by lashing out at anyone and anything in their path until nothing was left and they themselves were twisted by it, becoming a monster in a far truer sense of the word than those they came to know in the Underground. It can, to some degree, be soothed away by a gentle hand and kind words, yet these things are often a poor shield when one must stand on their own. Thus do I plan to institute a program of exercise for them, to increase not only their strength and endurance, but confidence and discipline. One who has confidence in their own ability does not need to resort to desperate or underhanded means in order to achieve power, and with discipline, one learns to judge when and how it is appropriate to use their strength. To become a protector, rather than a destroyer."

[ubuntu_programmer]

"You... sound a lot like someone who is in Auradon right now. Could have sworn I heard Aqua giving a similar speech a few times. Still, sounds good so long as you're not including me in that exercise regimen. I can do that or I can help Sun and work on the tech here and this equation that I need back home. Can't do it all, and given the choice I'd rather do what I'm here to do and leave physical workouts to my characters in video games."

A deep breath. "Still, if there is som other way I can help with Chara, let me know?"

[mist_the_point]

He honestly wasn't sure how he felt about being compared to someone in Auradon, but outwardly waved it off slightly. "Tis a fairly widely used method, so far as I'm aware," he said. "But you needn't worry. If you have the patience and discipline to learn to understand even half of this-", he gestured to the mass of scrawlings- ,"then I doubt there is anything you could learn from me in that regard. But if there is aught you might do to help with them, other than helping Sun- which I suspect will go a long way in itself-, I'll let you know."

"Though speaking of Sun, I must also tell you some about the abominable way he was treated by his former masters before his arrival here. How much of it may be relevant to repairing Moon- if any- I don't know, but I feel it's important that you know regardless, if only to better understand him."