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Week 7
Weather: All Week - Clear Skies
- A New Week
It’s the week of the event, and now’s your chance for any last-minute preparations! The entertainment area is coming along just fine with the new chairs and decorations and the lineup of musicians ready to put on a concert for everyone. A concert is the perfect way to get someone like K.K. Slider’s attention, surely! Furthermore, with a library underway, the bottom left hand area of the island is coming along nicely.
Tom Nook’s announcements are all about the event, too. You have a big weekend coming up, after all!
“Hello, everyone! Thank you all for your hard work with the event these past few weeks. We’re not done yet, but I’ve gone ahead and copied all of the flyers. Orville is helping me mail them all out to residents all over, so we’ll hopefully have a great turnout to the Isle Sonrisa concert this weekend! Now…
“For more preparations, I’d urge you to consider food for the event as well. Perhaps today may be too early to start preparing anything, but as K.K. Slider will be here on the 15th, maybe Friday evening would be a good time to do so. Oh-! Speaking of food…”
Tom Nook will turn towards Ren with a smile on his face. “I went ahead and added a few little bits to Cafe Leblanc. I thought it might be a popular spot this weekend, so I went ahead and added more tables and chairs for people and added some wooden plank flooring for you! Yes, yes -- er, if you’d rather me take away these changes, I can do so, but I hope you do enjoy them.”
Then, he’ll turn back towards the rest of the group: “Ah, the only other thing I have for you is a little Q&A for our island residents! I thought that our visitors would enjoy getting to know those responsible for putting on such a fantastic event and creating such a nice island. Normally I’d ask you to write it on a piece of paper, but… I thought it’d be fun to do this over messaging so you can all learn more about one another, too! Assuming you all don’t know enough about one another already… Of course, if you’d rather it be private, then you can submit it to me personally in writing.
“I’ve sent the questionnaire to each of you in a group chat. Please give me your answers as soon as possible.”
The questionnaire is as follows:
What would you do with 10 Million Bells?
What do you like most about Isle Sonrisa?
If you could describe all of your fellow islanders (as a group) in one word, what would it be?
Name one of your favorite Isle Sonrisa memories.
Is there anything you want to say to all of your other islanders?
--
For anyone checking the bulletin board, there are a couple of requests, just like when Snake asked you all for items! One is from Raymond:
I don’t like to think of myself as too picky, so anything that would be at home in an office is good for me. Printers! Plants! Fax machines! Coffee makers! The sky is the limit... I think.
Another is from Audie!
Thanks bunches!
Possible Objectives
1. Fill out the questionnaire
2. Do the quests for Raymond and Audie
3. Any other last minute event preparations
Monday / Tuesday / Wednesday / Thursday / Friday
5.0 spoilers i'm so sorry
[Scintilla cleared her throat, pulling her knees to her chest and speaking a little more clearly.]
Once there was a distant star, and on it lived a people advanced beyond even imaginin'. They lived in peace while wantin' for nothing, because they had the magic of creation at their fingertips--whatever they thought of, they could bring to existence. The society they built was one based in education and intellect, where ideas were debated and...a fair bit of bureaucracy was done.
[there was a godsdamned DMV. she waited in line. this was a real quest objective.]
The--guess you could call it capital--of the star was a city called Amaurot, and that was where the leaders of the people gathered. The Convocation of Fourteen; they did all kinds of work to ensure everything ran smoothly as they were the star's wisest and basically its guardians. But then...then something began to befall the world, a and the Convocation had to work harder than ever to determine how best to handle things before disaster came to Amaurot. They argued and debated, and for the first time in all memory...couldn't agree. One of them; the lone dissenter to the Convocation's ultimate decision, even gave up her seat entirely.
The Final Days came, and- [She paused, and when she spoke again it sounded as if she was repeating another's words entirely.] 'The fabric of the star began to fray, and the unchecked energies of creation begat malformed beasts'. The stars fell from the sky above, the city burned, and through it all their dread manifested as their deepest fears.
Ultimately the remaining thirteen enacted their plan: to make the will of the star a living, breathing creature. A god--a primal called Zodiark. Half the still-living population of the world was sacrificed to give it life and stop the horrors destroying their star. Another half of those survivors were then taken in order to restore the barren world and let it support life once more. From there, the plan was to sacrifice the lives of what would develop on that world in order to restore Amaurot and all her people to the way it was before the Calamity.
[Almost idly, Scintilla picked up a small stick and began tracing shapes in the sand: one large circle, with thirteen smaller ones arranged around it in a circle themselves.]
Some of those who remained objected, and in the conflicts that followed they summoned a second primal: Hydaelyn. She fought Zodiark and shattered Him into fourteen pieces; not just that, but shattered the entire world and the souls of all those involved save for only three.
...One of those three told me all of this and asked me to remember them. Because they can't ever come back if the world as we know it is gonna keep livin'. Savin' my world means leavin' Amaurot dead, so when he knew everythin' he'd struggled for and everyone he'd ever loved was gone for good, he...told me to remember.
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That's so sad! And people just had to keep dying to save everyone else?
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Your guys's worlds sound pretty scary. Are you sure you're gonna be okay?
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[ cuz...y'know. all this talk of stars. this is quite an unfortunate story, though. ]
Sounds like you were trapped in a cycle of sacrifice.
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[So basically, a trauma response in the entire goddamn collective unconscious.]
Whole thing's a damn mess is what it is. I can't even hate 'em anymore, even with all the shit they've pulled.
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[ a lot of terminology there but he thinks he gets the idea. ]
Living in a place like this must be a good reprieve from all of that. Though...perhaps it's one you didn't really want, from how things sound in your world.
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[It's a hell of a story she's telling, with no small amount of tragedy. Though he doesn't get all of the details, she tells it in a way that he can essentially understand what happened.
Ren can't possibly imagine what it must have been like to live in days like that, to see the world you know go up in flames around you. To be so desperate, you'd make sacrifices to that extent.]
Sacrifice your people, sacrifice others, just to bring your world back... Without being in his shoes, or any of their shoes, I can't imagine what kind of choice that would've been. I see why there were objections. It sounds like they were basically going to raise people to send to the slaughterhouse. But...to lose everything like that...
[He sighs, shaking his head.]
For what it's worth, without some magical, miraculous third option, remembering is all you can do. Amaurot seems to be dead and gone forever, yeah? So... All you can really do is keep it living in memory, in history, so it never really disappears.
very vague 5.3 spoilers
[She frowned, tail lashing around in a slow but agitated motion.]
Lahabrea was out of his damn mind after so long--they ain't got physical forms, Ascians, so they hop between living ones. He'd gone off the deep end after switching between so many for so long. Elidibus...don't know a lot about him. But he's got the body of somebody important to me, and he's a right prick about it. So I'm guessin' we're gonna have to deal with him next once I get outta here.
[She guesses correctly.]
The one who wanted me to remember--he recreated the entire city with that creation power. Both before and while it fell. I saw the whole thing front to back, and that's how I know all this to start with. Despite all he did, all the empires that rose and fell at his hands and all the Calamities he helped to cause...
[She bit her lower lip briefly, ears pinned back in frustration.]
I got no way of knowing if what I think about the whole thing is me, or the Ancient whose soul I'm a part of. Cause I think...I think that person was someone important to him, and I got a bad feeling I know who it was. But even all that aside, even knowin' I had to kill him and not regrettin' it for an instant...I don't know if what I'm feelin' is sympathy or what. But I know I gotta follow through with what I promised, even if it means leavin' that world dead and probably endin' up killin' Zodiark too someday.
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Funny how that goes, huh? Thinking that if you were in the shoes of the person you fought against, you wouldn't be any different. Things just aren't always black and white. Guess we have another life experience in common, then.
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...He came to us actin' like he wanted to cooperate. And he did do that, more or less--helped us out of a few tight spots, even if he was an insufferable bit of work 'bout it. Did hurt my friend and want me to turn into a giant world-destroyin' monster to cause a Rejoining, but that's kind of in line what we actually expected from an Ascian.
[jesus christ, scintilla.]
'The victor shall write the tale, and the vanquished become its villain'. I wanted to think it wasn't gonna end like we both knew it would, but it came to that anyway. Didn't matter how much I understood him or how much he cared about someone I used to be thousands and thousands of years ago. Only one of us was gonna leave that fake Amaurot alive.
...Emet-Selch was his title, but he's the only Ascian that's ever given me his name: Hades. 'He who shall awaken our brethren from their dark slumber'...bleedin' dramatic bastard, he was.
[Scintilla laughed in much the same way--a short and bitterly tired thing.]
Sorry, kid. Wouldn't wish that one on anyone--still hurts a hell of a lot, no matter whose emotions I'm feelin' about it.
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Hades, hm? In my world, that's the name of a mythological god. Greek god of the underworld, associated with death. I doubt there's any kind of connection, but it's interesting. Pretty unique name.
[He does shake his head at that last part, though.]
It's okay, no need to apologize. It is what it is. The guy in my own situation shot me in the head--well, a cognitive version of me--and I miss him more than anything, so I'm the last person to judge. I understand how complicated these things can be.
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...Given he went and recreated a dead city full of walkin' and talkin' Amaurotine shades, I almost wanna guess there's more connection than you're thinkin'.
[At this point, she wasn't sure much would surprise her anymore.]
Wanna tell me 'bout him? Since I'm talkin' your ear off 'bout my own bad choices n' all that.
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[He's quiet for a little as he figures out where to start.]
Goro Akechi. Detective prince, media darling, at least that's what most people saw. I first met him at one of his interviews, when my class was on a field trip to the TV studio. We hit it off pretty quickly, and I didn't have any reason to suspect him of anything at first. I don't know if he had any reason to suspect me, either, but he's more clever than he lets on. And trust me, he lets it on.
[He gives a little huff of a laugh.]
I don't know when he realized I was part of the Phantom Thieves, the group he was in part going after. And it took me a while to put the clues together and realize that he wasn't exactly what he seemed, either. He's a fantastic actor, and I might have been completely tricked if it weren't for the fantastical kind of situation we were in. Turns out he was one of the people we were trying to go after, the person who was causing people to have cognitive shutdowns and...in most of those cases, die. Two of my friends had parents die directly because of his actions. Things like that, I can't forgive, but...he was also a pawn. Manipulated by his dad, who was really controlling things behind the scenes, and by the god that used me as a pawn as well, who...right, really was controlling things behind the scenes.
The thing is, me and him? We got put into similar situations. Awakened to these mysterious powers. But I had support. He didn't. He had a shitty, traumatic childhood. He was completely alone, angry at the world, no one giving a damn about him. You put a gun in the hands of a kid like that, and what do you expect, really? In his shoes, I could've ended up the same way. I was angry too, getting arrested and charged and expelled and shipped off for a crime I didn't commit, but I ended up having friends and people around me to support me. It helped me pick the better path.
Even though he eventually realized that I was a Phantom Thief--leader of them, at that--and I realized that he was going to try to pull a fast one on us, we still spent a lot of time together. I like to think all of that still meant something. Akechi didn't have to tell me the actual details of his past the way he did. Sure, you can argue that he was trying to gain my trust to lower my defenses, but I just...feel like there was more to it. Hard to explain, but... I could tell that there was something genuine to it. Genuine to him.
[Just something he felt. And maybe it's wishful thinking, but he has a good feeling that Akechi didn't simply spend time with him to manipulate him, either.]
So of course he betrays us, tries to kill me, shoots me in the head. But since we got wise to what he was doing, we figured out a way to make it so my death was faked, and he was none the wiser for a good time. 'course, I still ended up getting arrested and beat up and drugged in custody, but hey, no death.
[But not a fun time.]
We fought. But ultimately, he ended up sacrificing himself for us, to get us out. To stop his asshole dad, the guy who got me charged of that false crime to begin with, the guy really behind the mental shutdowns. And we did. We stopped him, we stopped the god manipulating it all, too. And despite everything, it was my biggest wish for Akechi to somehow come back safe and sound.
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In the end, it's about protecting what's important to you and sometimes that means taking away from others.
[ ... ]
It sounds like he has suffered long enough.
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...Just hope he gets a chance to rest after all that.
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[ Since it's about remembering people, he might as well ask. ]
What was he like?
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Hm... [She adjusted her glasses, thinking over her answer before speaking up again.]
Dramatic, in a word. I got a friend, Urianger--he says five words where someone could use one, know the type? Emet-Selch, though, he made Urianger seem concise. Gave a whole lecture where a sentence could do fine, made a production out of every word and gesture in ways the other two unsundered don't.
[Then again, Lahabrea came close. But he'd been more unhinged, dramatics turned to something manic and insane.]
Real obnoxious, too. Acted like he knew everything, probably 'cause he did for how long he'd been around. Actin' like he wanted to cooperate with us while at the same time like...it was all a game. Like nothin' mattered to him, leastways nothin' about us or what we were doin'.
[She sighed, tail lashing slow and lazily against the ground.]
...But th' longer he hung around us, more it was clear there was...more to it. Below the surface, y'know? When he told us of the world's history and sunderin' was the first it hit me that he just seemed sad, like none of the other Ascians we'd fought before. He talked about Amaurot like I'd talk about Ishgard, soundin' like he missed it so bad that it almost made me miss it, and I'd never even heard the name before. Talked too damn much, but he was good at it at east.
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[ Importantly, though: ]
... He does sound obnoxious and complicated. Also sounded like he held expectations if he did aid you at all.
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[ Because why else wonder? ]
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