The reddening October trees, that hardly sway before a breeze

[baldrshand]

Who: Ethlyn and open
Where: Around Aldrip
What: September was a hell of a month, and it's time to recover
Warnings: None, probably thinking about her death and stuff


A. Taking it slow

[Her son, fifteen years going on fifty. Her daughter... who looks all the world like Travant's handpicked successor.

Ethlyn hasn't slept all that well since seeing those things, since having to relive her fate around so many other people. Earlier in the summer she would have thrown herself into her work, ignoring her mounting internal distress until it hit a breaking point. But she's already tried that, and it didn't work.

She's not one for taverns, but she is one for walking about town and the fields--sometimes practicing her sword drill by herself, sometimes simply sitting and watching the clouds on a bench. And often, now, watching the children of Aldrip as they run about at their daily chores or play.]

B. An unexpected chill

[Something has changed in the weeks since the labyrinth. As the temperature of the air begins to drop with the coming of autumn, Ethlyn notices that the temperature of the townsfolk seems to be going down as well.

She's been hearing the rumors about angry garden vegetables, which before this summer she would have taken as stories from those who came through home through their gardens the worse for drink, but after the enormous plant-beast of May... well.

And yet, here she is knocking on a resident's door, having an argument with the muffled voice from within.]

Please, I'm not here to do anything but help you, your son said you got badly bitten--no I'm not here to take your whiskey, what a notion!

C. Those Who Were Sus

[Ethlyn pushes open the door to her favorite little bookshop, but instead of the friendly greeting that typically accompanies the sound of the bell, she finds a dark room and silence.]

...Hello?

[With no answer, she'll start looking around. What if the owner is ill today and couldn't make it downstairs? What if he suffered some fit and is lying on the ground in the back rooms? Leaving the door open in case she needs to carry anyone through it, Ethlyn starts methodically searching through the place. Only when she returns to the till does she find the note lying there: a time, a place, a signature from "Those Who Were There." That's how anyone else walking in will find her. But if no one else does, she will walk outside to flag down the nearest Chosen and investigate.]

D. Wildcard!
[Got another idea? Toss it in, or hmu via PM/game discord/compassinks to plot!]

Comments

[baldrshand]

[Ethlyn looks up from her continued knocking on the door to see Ange. She sighs. This has certainly dragged on long enough that she can believe that, but still...]

It makes no sense that they don't believe me. I'm sure they would have let me in at the start of last month. And they must know that I'm a healer--I've been here since the beginning!

[entreats]

Their attitudes suddenly completely changed.

[ It sounds like a ridiculous thing to say. Like something that doesn't happen in reality. Sure, sometimes people's opinions change, but usually not so out of nowhere, usually not so extremely.

But Ange knows it's what happened here, somehow. She isn't sure of the exact cause, or its machinations, but there's no other way she can describe what's suddenly happening in town. ]

It seems like they stopped trusting absolutely any of us.

[baldrshand]

Yes, as though someone pulled a lever. [Usagi thought it might actually be mind control, but that's seeming more doubtful. Ethlyn's experiences this week have been of people who are clear-eyed and lucid. They're speaking their own words from thoughts they're having themselves. The only thing that doesn't seem sensible is why, especially when they're so often people that she's known for months now.] It changed after we went through that labyrinth. I wonder if they've heard what happened to us in there.

[entreats]

[ Ethlyn is right, isn't she? It's like things changed the moment they came out of that maze. Though it feels strange for the locals to judge them over that of all things at the same time.

Ange frowns, clearly still thinking, even as she slowly speaks up. ]

Maybe it's because of some of us.

[ Does she have to name names, Ethlyn. She's trying to be good and not name names! ]

I mean, have you seen how some of the other people trapped here with us act?

[baldrshand]

[...ehhhhh. Yes. That is a good point. She remembers how much hostility Usagi got for suggesting that people not go out and commit crimes.]

...That is true. [She shakes her head. Mostly at herself, though. A few weeks ago she would have keep all the following to her own thoughts... but now she may as well say it aloud. Ange doesn't just know, she saw.] I do have a tendency sometimes to forget hat most other people here didn't arrive by--well--thinking this was an afterlife, the way I did. That they see it as a prison rather than a strange but mostly benign little town.

Still, that isn't an excuse to take out their frustration on people who have treated us with nothing but kindness up until the present.

[entreats]

[ She shrugs. ]

I agree.

[ It's not something Ange would admit so easily - at least, not in the same words that Ethlyn is using here - to just anyone. It might make her look too kind, too weak.

But considering what Ethlyn has been like so far, it feels relatively safe enough to admit to it right now. ]

Even if they don't really care for the locals the way I do, the least they could do is just ignore them instead of stirring up trouble. But trying to tell them that their behaviour is just bringing us trouble never seems to stop them. [ She huffs. ] Trust me, I've tried.

[ And it felt like the absolute most pointless endeavour of all time. ]

[baldrshand]

If only unreasonable people would respond to a well-worded scolding. [Ethlyn shakes her head.] How is it that I could tell my three-year-old to eat her carrots and it would be impossible to tell a fully-grown adult that they shouldn't antagonize the people whose town they live in.

[It feels like probing a sore tooth to speak of Altena. But one thing the labyrinth has given her is the assurance that her daughter did survive. Survived in the hands of her enemy... perhaps even grew up to think like him... but she is alive.]

It's going to be an uphill climb to regain their trust.

[entreats]

.. are you going to try?

[ Considering it's Ethlyn.. Ange figures the other will probably try. It's just what she's like.

And it's not like Ange really disagrees with the cause, since she would like for the locals to treat them a little more naturally if they're all going to be stuck here together-- but she also definitely isn't social enough to work on it as directly as Ethlyn is suggesting here. ]

To me it kind of seemed like trying to clean up a water spill while the water is still flowing, you know? You won't convince them of anything while there's still people acting like-- [ Well, Ethlyn's comparison is apt enough, so.. ] -- like toddlers, you're right.

[baldrshand]

Of course. [There isn't much choice as far as Ethlyn is concerned. Whether it's for a few weeks or many, they live here, in this town that doesn't belong to them. The townsfolk could have treated them as invaders from the beginning and been right to do so. It simply isn't just.] ...but it is going to be challenging, you're right.

Still, we might be able to show them that not all of us are rogues and troublemakers. We're individual people with our own good points and bad points, just like them--if we didn't deserve reverence, then we don't deserve to be totally reviled either.

[entreats]

[ The girl slowly exhales, seeming to consider Ethlyn's point.

It's not all wrong, but it's not all right either, Ange thinks. More than anything, the point the other is making mostly just seems like Ethlyn, through and through. ]

I'm not sure if things really work like that with the locals.

[ Had this place been any different, she might have agreed. Ange doesn't necessarily believe in the good nature of humankind - far from it, really - but she can at least see the point when it comes to ordinary people.

The problem here being that the townspeople never felt ordinary to her.

It makes her shake her head. ]

Going from the way they worshipped us to the way they're acting right now.. It seems like it's all just black and white to them. In their eyes, either we're gods, or we're monsters.