glocksuke | Jingle Mingle...2

Jingle Mingle...2

Some of you may be used to this by now. For some of you, this may be your very first time being swept away in a flurry of snowflakes. (Though some of you may have been particularly naughty and were shoved into a burlap sack before disappearing into the storm.) As usual, it seems as though the time for bloodshed has passed and when you open your eyes you're greeted with...

...a ski lodge.

Worry not! This isn't the lodge Krampus had taken residence in but it's a rather large and cozy getaway. You may even find that your clothes have changed into something holiday-appropriate for the occasion. It seems as though someone has gone around decking the halls with boughs of holly, lights strewn along the walls, Christmas trees in large corners, and plenty of food and drink to go around. (Yes, this includes alcohol. Please do try to be responsible though, hm?)

Similarly, some of you may recognize the frosty patterns that lightly dust the walls and surfaces and the usual staff and their assistants are back in action. Should you require anything, you may ask one of them and they'll be at your service!

The lodge has plenty of rooms filled with furniture, fireplaces, games and more. And for those of you feeling a little more adventurous, you may venture outdoors. To the left there's a sprawling garden with gazebos, firepits, flowers and lit topiary displays. To the right, you may follow the path down to a hot spring. And straight ahead? There's the path leading you right to a rental shack holding skis, snowboards and snow mobiles.

This almost seems...quaint, doesn't it? And perhaps it's a little too easy, but you should know by now everything comes with a price.

Sprigs of mistletoe are pinned up in every doorway once again, bright red bows and dustings of frost lingering around them. Don't try to escape to the outdoors to avoid it! Ice sculptures appear in every direction each decorated with the mystical plant. You could try to avoid it, really, but avoiding it too long will earn a chilly breath of air directly in your ear as you're pushed straight into the nearest person. Wouldn't you rather choose on your own?

Well! The choice is yours, and you might want to make it fast. There's no way out without paying the kiss tax, after all.

[ooc: it's mgcu time! this mingle is open to characters from the following:

reapsody,

grimmoired,

plasmatio,

subdivided,

thotordie,

bluesclues,

tropicalgetaway,

notagain,

redactable,

snowend,

7rings,

seasonality, and

chasma!

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[massive concern here, mostly from me because sora can't read hovertext but i sure can. he's mostly using his beverage to warm his hands at this point rather than drinking it, nodding along with that.]

That's definitely a good thing then. Everything could always be a little worse, but...as long as you know what you're working with. It'll be fine. [he knows a little bit about how things work in her world based on things she's told him, but it's still somewhat daunting.

granted, it's also daunting to think about the nature of that question.]

...it's a little of both to be honest. I want to be there because I know they're looking for me, and we have to find that guy in the black coat that we met in the Realm. But I don't think I could go anywhere else before then anyway. I've lost all of my ties to return right now. [he glances around the room at large and the people mingling around them.] Guess that's why I like coming to these things and don't mind hanging out for a while.

[even if he always has to go back, at least there's something out there allowing him to return.]

[ it's fine don't worry about it!!! i say, definitely reassuringly as i still wonder about how exactly i broke madoka canon. ]

... It is good that at least, you still have ties enough for whatever it is these happenings are.

[ she's already said to him how she wishes things could be different for people like him. though speaking of MoM: ]

But ... that's right. You recognized him. Who was he?

[the amount of canons we broke in redacted...hysterical. but there's another thoughtful sound. he doesn't verbally agree, but the sentiment is there. it's a good thing, and it's the thing that's giving him hope that things are going the way they should be going. on the note of mom though...that's a little harder.]

I don't know yet. He said that we're closer than we think, and he knew about some people I've met and fought before. That black coat he was wearing is a sign of this group called the Organization, but he claimed he was wearing it before they even formed. But whoever he is? He's up to no good.

That much, we can be sure of, considering what he put us all through for no good reason that I could discern.

[ and for what, MoM. if he actually does turn out to be demyx or whatever the popular theory is right now i'm gonna go find nomura and yell at him. ]

I know many of us can say that it wasn't all bad ... but that it's a qualifier we have to make at all really is just an indicator of how the entire thing went.

[ people having to look on the bright side of 'hey, at least we made some friends' while splintering and other murder happened. ]

It wasn't like he was ever gonna tell me the truth. So I just have to figure out a way to find him and get the answers I want.

[and possibly fight him, as you do when you're from a squeenix canon. but...he pushes that away and there's something of a sheepish grin.]

Qualifier or not, it's true. And it's important to remember that, I think. [otherwise they'd all just be living in despair and that's not great.] But I do kind of wish we remembered the other cycles.

Good luck. ... You think the potentiality of other friendships and other bonds might outweigh the rest of what might have happened?

[ more deaths, more backstabs ... most likely less working together? how many bad end cycles were discussed postgame. ]

We know all the other cycles ended in failure, after all.

I do. [he sounds so sure of that.] My friends have always been the ones to get me through anything, even when things were at their worst. I want to believe the same could be said for others, too.

Even though the other cycles failed, there must have been something that stuck. We gravitated toward the same people each time, I bet.

... Maybe. No matter how many times it was we must have repeated, and how many things about the situation he changed, some things will have stayed the same. It's just a matter of how much.

[ she probably knows that better than some others would be able to say. but she also knows how friends in one timeline are at odds the next.

she's not going to say that, though. hmm. ]

Do you think the teams might have changed around a bit, throughout the cycles?

Yeah. When I went back to save everyone...there were some things I couldn't change even if I changed bigger things. I've always thought maybe it was like that.

[that's a good question though.]

Maybe a little. We might not have always been with Swan, or even on the same team at all. I'm not sure who else I would've been with though.

[ ... she tilts her head. ]

It's strange to think of, for you. She and you always seemed to get along so well.

[ which is funny that when we were trying to pin down swan traits sorawas the one outlier. ]

Though I suppose that's just you in general. Perhaps you would have gotten along with the other leaders the same way?

I guess that's true. [this is said fondly.] Swan and I felt the same about a lot of stuff and we had a lot of the same tastes. Maybe that's why. I liked all of the others a lot, too, but it's a little harder to think of them as my Leader.

I didn't know Goat as well as I wanted to, and I feel like maybe I didn't always understand Fox. But they all deserved the same treatment in the end. [...so yeah that's. just him. he would have gotten along with the other leaders as best as possible regardless of the cycle.]

It's really that easy for someone like you to make friends wherever you go, isn't it? ... I didn't really speak to that many of them in private, myself. Just Swan, I think, and Goat a few times. But that might have had to do with how we were meant to contact them.

[ making wishes for it, that is. ]

I think part of me, even when I didn't remember, subconsciously balked at the idea of it. I wonder what I might have done on other cycles, considering that it seems the coordination we had as a group wasn't necessarily shared across all the other teams.

[there's a light laugh.] I like meeting people and I like helping people. And it's always easier to make friends than fight them.

[he's done both. not a huge fan. but there's a look of understanding as she continues.]

I think...you are who you are, but maybe in another cycle someone told you it was okay to wish for things. Or maybe you had someone who made wishes for you to help. Maybe in other cycles there were other people you got along with better and you had a better team, but...I dunno. We did get along pretty well. It was kind of surprising to hear the other groups didn't always work like we did.

[like...fiora aside, all of the swans really were just on the same page about stuff.]

Is there anything big you would've changed if we could? Besides the obvious.

[ poor fiora, the one swan not down with regrettable but necessary murder. ]

Outside of the obvious...?

[ like making it so that all the murder was unnecessary? trying to make sure their teammates didn't die? not getting roped into this at all? ]

I'm not sure I can think of anything that isn't obvious. I would have been more careful with my bombs, perhaps, but that's... relatively minor.

Burdened people less, perhaps.

[git good, etc. but also look, sometimes friendship means asking probing questions because you obviously both would love to avoid murder and keep the people you actually like alive.

her answer does surprise him though.]

Do you really think you were a burden?

Not strictly like that, no. But I know I was... difficult, and could be erratic, with the state of my memories in flux.

[ she broke down on xie lian how many times. ]

I would rather that I have done more for everyone. Or tried, at least. [ instead of spending at least a week or two lowkey wondering how she was going to end herself in a productive manner, as a being that shouldn't exist. the nutcracker witch, use played out, marching to her own execution... another reflection, another time. ] That's all.

[that makes sense. when she phrases it like that, it's less of a question.]

I think I get it. It makes me wonder what other memories we lost in the other cycles and how it changed us. So many of us lost our names and key parts of who we are...even if they were still there, not being able to remember really screwed everything up.

[there were plenty of times lup not remembering things was terrible. sora himself got away without memory trauma and got different trauma instead.]

Think about it this way. We needed every single one of us at the end to make things right. That counts. That was enough.

[ i keep nearly tagging you with roxis help ]

... Mmm. Strictly speaking, I can't really lay claim to the name Homura anymore, but unlike back then, I'll still answer to it.

[ so many of the memories she lost... forgetting that the time loops were anything but terrible, forgetting the reason she did it all in the first place, forgetting why it was she was still fighting. coupled with a witch's nature, it made for a very specific sort of disposition, even if academically she knew there had to be some sort of reason. ]

Some other cycles likely were kinder in the memories we lost, and likely some were harsher. We might never know. But what about you? What would you have changed?

[the roxis is a surprise...

her case is, in a word, interesting. sora's aware he's lost his own memories before but he never gained them back after naminé fixed everything for him. he's gained memories from roxas, but those weren't truly his either. so to think about the particular situation she's found herself in is a little bit of a struggle that he won't pretend to entirely understand. but he can at least sympathize.]

If there's something else you'd rather be called, I want to know. You're still you even if the name changes. [but...you know. he agrees. some cycles were better and some were worse just by nature of existing. he should have expected her to ask the question back to him but it still takes time for him to think.]

Maybe...there are some people I would've tried to understand better. I know not everybody thinks the same way I do, and I should have listened to some people more and spoke less. Who knows if that would have really changed anything though?

It's fine. There's a feeling I have... We know who we are, but we don't tell anyone our true names. So using what you're familiar with is acceptable, since at this point I seem to be a fairly unique case.

[ a sane witch, more or less. ]

... Perhaps you and they would have ended up where we did. After all, you know what my feelings on your kind of self-sacrifice are.

[ rather, the kind where those who burn brightly burn themselves out that much more quickly for it. no one said you had an obligation to light yourselves on fire to keep others warm. in a way it's a precious, admirable trait, she wouldn't change them or their choices, but she's also... so tired of seeing it happen and not being able to do anything about or for it other than remember. ]

... yet despite any differences of opinion we might have, we get along well enough, don't we?

That makes sense to me. Then...Homura it is. [names are important so it made sense to ask.

he scratches his cheek semi-awkwardly because...yeah. he sure does know. it's something they've talked about and something he's still coming to terms with. like yes, self-sacrificing is a bad thing in some regards, especially for those left behind, but it's almost always necessary to keep people safe.]

I do know. I've been thinking about it lately ever since I got back. [ever since he left a realm where he met new friends and found people he cared about only to leave again.] But you're right. Somehow I've never really had trouble spending time with you. [and because it's phrased that way, he clarifies.]

We're friends. That hasn't changed. [even if it's a word she may not use herself, it's out there.]

[ sorry to make you think thinky thoughts at a party like this, sora. ]

... Some would say you use that word too easily, probably. I make a poor friend. I'm gloomy, and depressing, and pessimistic ... and that was when I was human. Now that I am what I am ...

[ contrary to her words, though, her tone is... light? ]

But you're you, after all. Please don't change.

[that's just canon at this point, but he snorts a little derisively.]

I know I do, but that doesn't change how I feel. And it's not like you're the only friend I have who thinks that way about themselves. I don't care. I still think it's true.

[so. he won't change and homura now has to deal with the power of friendship. congratulations.]

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Jingle Mingle...2

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