The Mountain Top: Grasshopper 25

[voidtreckermods]

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.

Comments

[blitzcheer]

Scary?... "Something like that."

It hurt to watch. A wound that had been forming from recent talks, and it was the last slice needed to make him face what he did. What they all did. There was no other choice, but... Zanarkand...

"I remembered," he says carefully, but softly too, "when I got told I wouldn't see home again. My home... it isn't around anymore. I miss everyone."

His teammates, that old life. It's been so distant, but--it was still real, once. It was seventeen years. He can remember faces, friends...

He swallows a breath, to push down the rising emotion.

[myblueskies]

"That is scary, mister Tidus. And sad..." It was really sad to not ever see your home again and to miss your friends. He missed the heavens, even though he hoped he would see it again.

"It's always sad when you aren't going to see people again." People disappeared a lot, from the train, from the heavens. He's not sure if people disappeared from where he had been before then, but now he knew people had died. Alfredo had died.

"But I think they will always be your friends, even if you are far far away from each other!"

[blitzcheer]

He can't get emotional in front of a kid, he knows, as hard as it is to agree with him. Even though Romeo is from some kind of afterlife, from heaven. So he grins, chuckles lightly before nodding his head.

"Yeah. Plus, now I'm having another big adventure. I'm meeting new people. I got to meet you," he adds, tightening that grin as he turns it to Romeo, swinging their hands once.

"I wouldn't get to if I were still...there."

There--wherever there is.

[myblueskies]

"It is a big adventure!" He nodded with a smile, smiling as their hands swung. He had made so many friends and he was sure Tidus had too, Tidus was so nice and always had fun ideas, so it would be easy for people to be friends with him.

Though it was sad he was parted from all his friends from before. "When I was alive... I only got a few memories... But my friend told me. He said 'There's only one day like today in your entire life. When all else fails, keep living.' So even if things were scary today, we got to keep our spirits up."

It was important. Those words. So much more... Now that he had seen what he had seen. Because Alfredo had died. Because his days had been cut short.

But he had been brave and he had been so kind. Right to the end.

[blitzcheer]

"...No matter how dark the night, morning always comes."

It's close to the same sentiment, similar in that fashion, and Tidus echoes it without first remembering where it came from. Who...? Lulu, he thinks, but he's not sure when. It was a good way to look at things, and he agreed, even if his heart wasn't entirely behind it in this moment.

But that didn't matter more than the young boy trying, and for that-

"Your friend was right. And you know? It's okay to get sad, 'cause it's not the rest of your life. Things will get better. Life goes on -- even if it's different."

[myblueskies]

No matter how dark the night... morning always comes. He likes that, it was true and it also meant that scary things couldn't last forever, things always got better.

And it was alright to get sad? He wasn't sure that was... He looked at the blight on his arms. Sadness didn't cause that, but other bad feelings did.

But life went on, even if things changed. "I think you're right mister Tidus, things change all the time. Here is really different than it was in the heavens and there was different than where I was before I think. But some things are just the same... And there's good things and bad things about every time, so you just got to..."

He's not really sure what all his words are trying to say, so instead he just lifts the hand that is holding Tidus'. He holds on tight and brings both their hands to the sky. "This is how you keep your spirits up, when it's really hard!"

[blitzcheer]

Tidus lets Romeo easily manoeuvre his hand, his arm, laughing lightly at the declaration and spirit in his voice.

"That's right!" Tidus declares back, and squeezes their hands, lifts them just a little bit higher. "You remember your friends, and everyone who's ever counted on you. You keep on going no matter what!"

[myblueskies]

Even higher! That was even better for their spirits! He nodded firmly, "No matter what!"

That was the important thing, when you had friends around you, when you could remember your friends, even the scariest, darkest times were not too terrible after all.