Max Davis Voicemail | Seasons

[melodymania]

Thanks for calling. If you're reaching out to sell your soul, I'll already know and I'll be there soon. If you're calling to just talk, leave a message and I'll call you back when I can. Which will probably be soon. Talk to you then~

Comments

let's! learn! earth!

[roundandaround]

[Rinku knew she'd have trouble with the other elements. If they worked the opposite direction, it would've been fine. Desire, hope, and joy came easily to her, she'd have air no problem. But no, Summers who max out their initial skill tree have to learn earth first, and Autumn's emotions feel more foreign to her than any country.

Mostly.

But now? Now when she's walked through hell and seen the cruelty the demons there visit upon anyone and everyone, prisoners, nobles, commoners, pirates, soldiers, whole settlements, rescue parties -- all of them made to suffer and twist and die, and then have the same demons laugh and mock their existence and keep their belongings as trophies? Now that her little sister's harbouring a dangerous vengeful fury with no target, and her older sister's pretending her own death is no big deal (and Rinku doesn't know the half of it)? Now that they went to end the danger, but they only managed it once that danger tricked the barrier and followed them home to the city? Now, the happiest person in Ellipsa is fighting to not feel sad -- sad and desperate and alone, even when she tries to put her smile back on.

So she goes out to train. Not in the Summer Guild like normal -- this time she's out in the Autumn Segment, by the side of the road, close to the city. Anyone passing to one of the quests or anywhere else can see her trying to concentrate and managing a skiff of dirt on the ground.]

Re: let's! learn! earth!

[melodymania]

[Max visit the Autumn Guild quite often. Especially for quests. He is on his way to check out the quest board again and decide what he wants to do. Though something more interesting catches his eye. Rinku is nearby, on the side of the road, trying to move earth, from the looks of it. And not doing too good a job at it either.

Though it is her song that eats up the majority of his attention span. The song is not nearly as bouncy as it usually is. It's like a slow reverbed version. Like when someone tries to remix a happy song to sound sad. He walks over to her and watches her next attempt before he says anything.]

You want any pointers on how to move rocks easier, Rinku-chan?

[roundandaround]

[Rinku jumps a little. She looks up and blinks at Max, looking almost lost.]

Can you, please? I thought I'd be able to do it now, but... [She looks back down at the ground.] I guess I must still be missing something.

[melodymania]

Earth is stubborn. Solid. It isn't like Water or Air. The main movement is in the spin and rotation. When it moves, it breaks like an earthquake.

Which emotion are you trying to use to coax it to move for you?

[roundandaround]

[Spin, rotation. Spin, rotation... Rinku's fingers start moving without thought, and her hands rotate as she looks down again at the dirt that's gathering.]

...Sadness. I. Kinda have a lot of it lately.

[melodymania]

Sadness needs a direction. Like the earth itself.

Determination is another one from Autumn. Sadness and determination together. After all, you are sad and a determined person.

Let's try an exercise. The sadness you feel, reach for it, and then focus it into the idea of how you will work against it. Let your determination fuel how you will stand up to this sadness and its source in the future. Then pour that into moving the dirt.

[roundandaround]

[Rinku breathes in slow. Then out. Tears prick at the sides of her eyes, and she wipes them with her sleeve.

Working against sadness, against just how broken this world that was so wonderful feels? She wants to. Part of her is already rising up and saying she's got to, even under all the pain. She pushes that energy forward, not moving the pain aside, just adding it to the force.

The dirt moves more. Faster. In greater quantities, until a skiff becomes a dust devil, then starts picking up rocks in the swirl.]

[melodymania]

There you go. Just like that. Now remember, don't lose yourself in the sadness. Don't let it consume you. Use it as fuel. And slowly slide in determination as well.

Determination and Courage will be your main draws likely. Just knowing you.

[roundandaround]

[Rinku sniffs. She looks up at Max, eyes shining with forming tears instead of their usual sparkle.]

I don't want to keep hurting. I just want all of this fixed like it never happened at all.

[The end of the sentence is punctuated with more feeling. Dirt clods start lifting themselves up out of the ground.]

[melodymania]

I'm sorry Rinku. But...unless you tinker with your own memories, that isn't going to happen. Pain and hurting...it heals. But it will always have happened. You will remember. And it might scar.

But you will be happy again. Happy Around even. You are only brought this low because you've gone so high before. And you will rise again.

[roundandaround]

[Rinku takes this in. The dirt and dust swirl around, and she thinks, sniffling.]

Yeah... I know you're right. Really awful stuff has happened. Usually I just don't get hurt. But this one felt like, I dunno. Like the whole world's gone wrong, and even now that it's trying to get back to normal, it's like... pretending nothing happened. Not actually nothing happened.

[melodymania]

Maybe it's time for you to talk about what did happen. Because keeping it inside isn't working, is it? I'm here to listen, if you want. Tell me what happened when you went to Hell.

[roundandaround]

[The dirt drops to the ground. Rinku takes in a breath slow and deep, holds it, and lets it out. She looks up at him with eyes glassy with almost-tears.]

I know demons and hell are supposed to be bad and everything. I was already afraid because of the stuff I've heard about the idol hell, even if it's not the same one. But it was just like I imagined. I mean, no idols or corner stores, but the other stuff. The way the demons only wanted to fight, how they copied stuff they saw without understanding it, how they hurt people just because they could.

There was some old stuff there. Maybe from when all the old people in town were kids, when the dragons got locked away in the mountain. Maybe even older, I dunno. But people have been dragged in there to get tortured and die -- prisoners, pirates, civilians, whole armies and villages -- for a long time. There were flags no one recognizes, who knows how many people or even whole places got wiped out? And why?

[melodymania]

The most egregious evil never has a reason, Rinku. It simply is evil because it is evil.

[roundandaround]

You really think so?

[She sniffs and wipes her eyes with the back of her arm.]

It feels wrong. Even a bad person has reasons. They might not be good reasons, and they might not be able to be saved, but it's always worth it to try. But... even if we did try, these guys wouldn't have listened.

And then -- and then it followed us. [Her voice cracks, dry and straining.] The danger followed us home.

[melodymania]

That's usually true. Most people usually have a reason for the things they do.

But not all evil is like that. Some evil simply is evil. It exists without rhyme or reason, Rinku. It's about learning how to discern which is which. These demons? The ones who follows people back? They are evil simply because they are evil.

I am sorry you've faced those things, Rinku.

[roundandaround]

[Rinku sniffs. She shakes her head. Even now, she wants to understand, to stop all this somehow without bloodshed.

But she hugs him, shaking and barely standing up.]

...I'm sorry too. For everyone.

[melodymania]

I don't think you have anything to apologize for. I will say if it is in my power, I forgive you. I forgive you for being sad. If that helps, at all.

[roundandaround]

[Rinku shakes her head again. It's not being sad. It's just not being enough. She hiccups, clings, and sobs on him for a while.]

...

[melodymania]

[Max holds onto Rinku tightly.]

I am sorry you feel bad. That maybe you don't feel like you're enough. But I know most people would tell you you are for them. More than enough in Evangeline's case definitely.

[roundandaround]

[Rinku cries, just listening and shaking. She hugs back tight and manages to breathe enough to finally reply.]

You really think so?

[She knows it's true, of course. Evangeline would never say it if it weren't. But to hear it now, and from someone who knows Evangeline so well, not to mention this specific person after what happened a year ago, overwhelms her. She starts to glow again.]

[melodymania]

I wouldn't say it if I didn't think so. I mean it all, Rinku. You are enough.

[roundandaround]

[Rinku sniffles. She relaxes her hold after a while, but doesn't let go.]

...thank you. I'll do my best, okay?

[Not just with the earth magic.]

I'll try, Davis-san.