middleofsomewhere | The Mountain Top: Grasshopper 25

The Mountain Top: Grasshopper 25

After the strangeness of their second day on the island for some, with memories and conversations in a cave, the third day goes calmly.

At least until mid afternoon. As the day winds on into evening all of those who have been sharing memories with others will feel a pull.

A pull to climb the mountain in the north. It is a good feeling, that mountain is where you need to be. A sense of belonging, friendship, camaraderie. You don't need to be alone, just climb the mountain.

For those that climb they will find worn wooden benches spaced around the lip of the caldera in concentric circles, the centre set up like an amphitheatre. The Jema syrup spills from crevices around the edges, running down from the peak in well-worn grooves and channels.

The sun sets slowly on Jema’grethy, slowly sinking into the ocean over a period of a couple of hours. During that time pairs of Voidtreckers will feel drawn towards the syrup, to touch the surface.

When they do they will receive a memory and find themselves back in that cave once more. For those watching it is as if they are in a trance, lasting a few moments.

People feel moved at different times and so there are always people aware, sat around the mountain top. It might be that there are other friends they wish to speak to about what they see. It might be that they wish to sit silently and avoid everything, if only their friends will allow it.

But it is a place to be together nonetheless.

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Zelda was in luck, not that she or Nita knew it. But there's a whale not far from the shore, listening.

/Want to think out loud about it? ... Or mind-to-mind, if you're all right with that./

Nita was using the Speech, though for the moment it was 'out loud'. Perhaps if no one else came nearby...

"...Nita?"

Her head snaps up, and after a few minutes her eyes settle onto a non-human figure out in the waves.

"Should I assume you've become a whale again?"

/Yep. Didn't have much of a chance to talk to you the last time, though, so.../

She fins a shrug.

/It'll make people think twice about approaching, even if they're curious./

Well, hopefully anyway.

"Perhaps," she agrees, and sighs.

"I assume you've been receiving your share of the visions which have been going about?"

/Yeah. Talking about them with the people they're from, too./

Well, almost all the people they were from.

/People fleeing cruel royalty, tales of past Voidtreckers... those are the ones I've received, anyway. What about you?/

Nita is keeping it vague enough so as not to share private information, but she was still thinking about what she'd seen.

Maybe she would be for weeks.

"Most of them belonged to a young man on the train. He must be new; I hadn't seen him before."

And given the nature of the visions, Zelda's as reluctant as Nita is to go into details.

"There is one, though, which I think must be a young woman's." She pauses. "In fact... Nita, have you ever been been on the moon? Or a moon, I suppose?"

/... Yeah?/

She'll put aside the matter of the new young man for now; she might know him, she might not.

/Though - did you end up in some sort of mind-sharing cave to talk about that one? I was wondering why neither of the people I met with last time had a memory from me./

Had someone else gotten Minako's memory from the first time around, then? Nita sounds quite concerned.

She shakes her head.

"No, there was nothing but the memory. Not unlike the first one, after we arrived here."

/Did you find the person that first memory was from, or was that the 'young man' you mentioned?/

This was all so confusing! Maybe that was why not many were talking about it.

In addition to memories being private, of course.

“That was the young man’s. Gerome- tall, dark-haired, wears a mask.”

It’s entirely uncomfortable being privy to the secrets of someone you’ve barely spoken to, but what else is there to do but try to keep them?

“This one was on the moon... there were a few others there, as well.The young man’s name was Kit, and there was a woman named Irina.”

/He's a friend of Inigo's, as well; I've met him./

They weren't friends themselves, necessarily, but Nita liked him so far.

/That would have been - well, it was called the Invitational, but it's more of a pan-planet wizardry competition. We were on the moon for the final round, watching the contestants. Kit's my partner-/

And boyfriend.

/And Irina's the planetary for Earth. She takes care of- a lot of things that effect wizardry planetwide, and that effect the planet for all life on it./

She drops the mention of kernel, a term Zelda had no reason to recognize.

"He was in one of the memories, yes." She hasn't spoken to Inigo much, but she has to note, "It's an interesting contrast in personalities."

She had figured about the boyfriend thing.

"It's some sort of game, then?"

/You can say that again!/

But they were lucky to have each other as friends, that was for sure.

/And sort of? People have to come up with new wizardries, and those tend to be used to help save lives - so it is serious in a way, but also fun at the same time./

Provided you did alright in a competitive setting!

/Kit and I were working as mentors in that event, rather than participating - our Ordeal had been too long ago, or something./

She isn't fully sure herself what excuse the Powers had used, especially since (from her perspective) it's been a few months since then.

"So it's like a squire's tournament? You'd need to be young to participate?"

Nita's timeline must be a miserable thing to navigate, given everything.

"It must provide an interesting perspective, at least- acting as a mentor, I mean."

/Young for humans, anyway./

Though with the matter of late-set Ordeals, that wasn't always the case.

/And... yes, it really did. We ended up all helping each other, even, though our mentee was a real pain./

Hopefully Penn was making behavioral improvements!

She bites her lip.

"That's no small benefit," she muses. "Even if the student was difficult."

It's hard to imagine any student deliberately screwing up. A game, she supposed, was not so important in the grand scheme of things (though tell that to the Knights of her youth, who took their tournaments so very seriously) but Nita's brand of magic had always struck her as far more important than that sort of affair. Why any student wouldn't take it seriously....

But no matter. "I suppose there's no broader significance to the memory?" she asks. It doesn't seem likely, given the others, but who knows? Something might turn up.

/Kind of have to accept it was for good, when it even ended up aiding our own star.../

Zelda definitely had the notion of 'importance' right.

/It might fit into a pattern with the others, and the order they were received, but that doesn't explain why you had it, no./

"Just a messenger pigeon to the wrong place?"

In some ways, that's a bit more uncomfortable.

"I do wish that if the island were to spill our secrets without our permission, it would at least take care to limit the people who hear them."

Nita snorted - which was quite funny when she was surfaced like this.

/We should leave a review, if we can't trace the sharing party while we're here. 'Undermines consent,' or something like that./

That pulls a quiet laugh out of Zelda.

"Unfortunately, I'm not sure anyone would pay attention."

/Eh, true enough. We are thought to be smugglers by the void ministry and all.../

Nita submerged herself more, giving herself a break from the sun.

/Think I'm going to go catch some lunch. Want me to bring you back anything?/

She'd done it for Spark, she could do it here just as well.

"That would disincline other people to listen to our warnings," Zelda agrees.

"And thank you for the offer, but I'm all right for the moment. Besides..."

She looks around thoughtfully, "It's been a while since I've had to hunt my own foot. Perhaps I should practice more while I can."

/That's fine. I'll leave you to it, then?/

She can't properly bow as a whale, but she lets herself gently drift further out into the sea.

Zelda returns a small wave.

"Until later. Enjoy yourself."

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The Mountain Top: Grasshopper 25

2! Have a whale.

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Zelda has no idea. XD

Given her own experience with mentoring, she really doesn't

XD Penn was no Link!

tbf, who is?

Re: tbf, who is?

as the song says: damn few

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