It's automatic, you've gotta have it

[roundandaround]

WHO: Rinku, you
WHAT: Playing with animal transformation, research attempts, rolling gacha with touch energy, and watching a Sobble buy groceries.
WHEN: Early March
WHERE: Solarpeak, Amberfall, Nightwake
WARNINGS: Some NSFW discussion in threads

[1) Solarpeak Lake]

[There's a fish in the Solarpeak lake/pool today. A specific fish, and one that seems to be diving into the bottom of the pool and then dragging stuff up to the shore in its mouth. Mostly cool-looking seashells, come to think of it... What's with that?

Anyone who comes to shore to check it out will be greeted by the fish speaking in Rinku's voice when she surfaces.]

Hi! Are you looking for shells too?

[2) Amberfall Library]

[Rinku's last trip in here to try and study didn't go well, mostly because she's really bad at it. But she's trying it anyway, and right now, with a basket full of romance novels (again?), she's wandering the cookbook section with a growing frown.]

There's a lot of books about cake, but I don't see any about blood yet...

[3) Gacha Arcade]

[Hey, remember the Gacha My Heart quest? Because that game store's still going strong, including the machines that run on touch energy, and Rinku is all over it today. This time, she's hit up a machine that advertises gift certificates for restaurants around the city. She pulls a ticket and reads it over.]

Aww, please play again? Okay!

[She looks and waves to the nearest person.]

Oh, hey, can you help? I'll need more touch energy to pull a bunch more!

[4) Grocery Store]

[Rinku is outside a grocery store, peering in from behind a telephone pole. If someone approaches, she'll look over, wave, and whisper to them.]

Shh! I'm following to make sure Mecchan does okay. He's on his first errand!

[Sure enough, when she points toward the shop doors, there's her Sobble, dragging a shopping tote bigger than he is behind him into the store and holding a shopping list in the other hand.]

Comments

[roundandaround]

Wow, really! That's so cool!

[Rinku makes a happy noise. She nearly bumps into something sticking out of the silt, reaches in, and pulls out... a broken thermostat, with a bit of effort.]

...eh? I guess the litter patrol missed someone... but why a thermostat?

[urtitan]

Hm... people will throw just anything away. Maybe it belonged to a fancy boat?

[Learning of temperature control devices almost blew her mind, but she can imagine that rich people would want it to be cool in her boat's cabin in the Solarpeak heat... then again, that type of person wouldn't just rip it off the wall and throw it in the water, even if it were broken, would they?]

[roundandaround]

I dunno. I don't wanna leave it here, though.

[Rinku gathers the pieces amd starts looking around the floor of the lake.]

Do you see anything cool?

[urtitan]

Hm...

[Swimming to and fro a little, she does spot a beautiful big spiral shell - but when she picks it up, the hermit crab inside jolts and pulls its legs in protectively.]

Aw! Someone's living in this one! We can't have it!

[She gently sets is back down and watches the crab scurry away.]

You know, Rinku, I'm happy even if I don't find anything. I already have everything I need.

[The real treasure is the shared mermaid time!]

[roundandaround]

[Rinku giggles and waves at the crab as it runs away.]

Really? There's nothing you want in the world at all, Frieda-chan? That sounds nice.

[urtitan]

Oh, there are things I want - but nothing material.

[She lets herself sink down on her back, looking up at the light above and extending a hand as if to reach for the sun.]

I want hope for my world, a future for my people, happiness for my family... but those are wishes that may be too big for a single person.

[roundandaround]

[Rinku settles down beside her, looking up at the Pokémon playing.]

Maybe. But it's not just one person who wants everything to turn out right. It's lots of people! So if we all work hard together and do what we can, then I bet everything'll be good.

[urtitan]

That's true.

[She thinks of her fellow Eldians who vetoed all her ideas, but are putting their faith in the Research Centre. She remembers, too, what Levi said about the curse of the titans being broken within everyone's lifetime - well, the survivors'. Turning to Rinku, she smiles.]

My faith may not be as strong as yours, but I won't give up on hope until my last breath!

[She'll believe in herself because Rinku believes in her!]

[roundandaround]

[Rinku lays down and snuggles on Frieda, making happy noises.]

I definitely believe in you! There's stuff I'm scared of, too. I think it's the same for everyone. Neechan... She did something because she couldn't wait on the Research Centre anymore, or wait for everyone who's been trying so hard to find a solution.

[Little does she know that not only does Frieda already know this, the fallout of that inspired the aforementioned ideas.

But something, maybe an echo of the dream of her heart, pushes her to confess further.]

I've been trying my best to be happy for her. Even though she promised she wanted to stay here, in the life we all built in Ellipsa. That that was what she'd asked for. She's going to a whole other world because she didn't have a choice. And I knew I didn't have the right to be sad about it, even though I was already afraid of her going away.

At your guys's Yuletide party, someone lit one of those candles that makes people confess what they're really feeling. If they hadn't, I probably never would've told Neechan how I felt about it. Or anyone.

[urtitan]

[To hear that it was her Candle of True Feelings that brought about such an important talk between Rinku and Evangeline makes Frieda feel like she did the right thing in lighting it. She's grateful that, no matter how indirectly, she was able to support them.

Holding on to Rinku, her expression turns wistful.]

Evangeline had the right to make the choice she made, but that doesn't mean that you can't be sad about it. Separation from a sister is always painful.

[She would know.]

When you told her, what did she say?

[roundandaround]

[Sniff. Rinku hugs Frieda and nods.]

It surprised her. It made her feel bad, too. She said it wasn't that she didn't love us anymore, home was still here, but she couldn't go back to the City and hope someone could find a way to save them in time.

[Rinku sniffles again and hugs Frieda tighter.]

She even tried to find another way... But I can't let her go back there, she couldn't go back there, she looked terrified. [squeeze] The... the best anyone has is to keep putting faith in the Research Centre and Fajra-chan and anyone else who's been working hard for years about it, but by that time she'll probably be happy in that other world anyway. But she did say.

[urtitan]

[Even though it makes her sad to see Rinku so conflicted, it feels comforting to hold her in her arms at the bottom of this safe, clear sea. Stroking her hair and seeing it float up whenever her hand passes, she reflects on her own experiences in Evangeline's world.]

You're both right. We can't let Evangeline go back to the City, nor could she leave her parents there. It's... it's a cruel place. Have you ever seen it?

[In a simulation, or in a dream, or in one of those Memory Portals she heard about?]

[roundandaround]

[Rinku shakes her head, holding onto Frieda.]

Not a lot. Neechan showed me a few things, but nicer memories. She's told me a lot of stuff she thinks is normal, and every time, it scares me. It makes me wanna fix it, even if she says it's probably not possible.

[Squeeze.]

And I met dream versions of a couple Abnormalities. Fragment of the Universe-chan and the Dreaming Current-chan. They were both really nice, I can see why they're her friends! But Neechan told me even they both do a lot of damage and hurt or kill people without meaning to.

[urtitan]

I "visited" the City twice now - back when Evangeline was doing research on something cursed and it caused a simulation, and again recently, due to that dream glitter. It's as you say. The Abnormalities aren't evil, but they can be terribly dangerous. Even so, seeing them caged and, in some cases, hurt for energy... it's not right. And it's worse outside that facility. I tried to help someone, but...

[She shakes her head. She doesn't want to tell Rinku what happened.]

The only way I could fix that place is if I had the same power over the people there as I have over my people. If I could change their hearts, maybe thing could be different.

[But messing with people like that, as her ancestor did in erasing their memories of the world's history, has consequences, she knows that. After all, she has a dozen or so fellow Eldians feeling variously betrayed by her on her hands here in Ellipsa.]

[roundandaround]

Change hearts...? Maybe that's what Fragment of the Universe-chan was trying to do. They tried to teach me their song. It's supposed to be really important, but I guess for most people, it hurts them instead.

[Rinku snuggles Frieda and looks up.]

Did you meet any of the Abnormalities yourself? I liked the ones I met.

[urtitan]

Yes, I did. So That No One Will Cry, Spiral of Contempt, Will You Play?, Star Luminary, Laetitia, and Blue Star. Some of them were friendly, but the ones that didn't speak... they were hard to understand.

[She'll never be able to forget seeing her workmates die while trying to work with (respectively contain) half the Abormalities she listed.]

They're victimns, too... but at the same time, some of them are too dangerous to be allowed to wander freely. They're born from people's emotions, aren't they? I think that's what Evangeline said.

[roundandaround]

Some of them. There are some who came from science experiments or the wilderness or I think space. I wish we could help them, but Neechan says the only one who won't hurt anyone even accidentally is the one she brought here.

[urtitan]

[The hopelessness of the Abnormalities' situation is depressing. It reminds her of her people, turned into titans, mindless and functionally immortal, enemies of humanity.]

...

I try to be as optimistic as you, but there always are things that no one can fix, aren't there? It's really hard to live with that knowledge.

[At least she has to perspective of the titans' curse being broken in the near future, but how many lives will be lost on the way? Eren told her of the casualties in the Walls - titans included.]

[roundandaround]

[Rinku frowns, curling into herself a little.]

Like how we can't undo Darkness corruption yet, right? Like with the fae and the monsters.

[urtitan]

Hm-m, like all of that.

[Once again, she thinks of the dark fae Barghest had to kill on their quest, of the natives who fell victim to monsters in countless horrible ways, of the stories they found in the library about the suffering of those corrupted by the Darkness. Looking up at the pokémon splashing and flitting around at the surface of the water, she tries to not let the negative thoughts overtake her.]

Some people advise to focus on what's within our control - our immediate family, friends, and neighbourhoods -, but it's hard to feel like that's enough when we were called here to save this world, isn't it?

[roundandaround]

Hm... I dunno. I mean, aren't they part of the world? Every quest we do, every mission we go on, everything that helps our neighbours or at our jobs, all of that's right here in Ellipsa. And it all helps. We've done little things and we've done big things, and it's all made things better! So even if things aren't as good as they could be yet, I'm sure we'll find better ways! Ways to purify the Darkness, or stop the people trying to hurt everyone, or even convince them to help!

[urtitan]

You really think "the" people would join forces with us? After they've been causing so much harm? What could possibly convince them?

[Much as she admires Rinku's idealism, sometimes her reasoning simply eludes her.]

[roundandaround]

I dunno. Some of them definitely wouldn't, but some we barely know at all. And we do know some people got tricked into working with them in the past. Maybe someday, we could help somebody out who wants it.

[urtitan]

I feel like the core group must be set in their ideology - otherwise, they'd long have broken apart from each other. But the locally recruited followers--

["-- can perhaps be convinced", she wanted to say, but a commotion at the surface draws her attention: Hina seems to have fallen into the water, presumably after colliding either with a water projectile or the jumping Magikarp.]

Oh, Hina!

[Despite the other pokémon already coming to the Zubat's aid, she quickly propels herself towards them. It has to be scary to get submerged when you're blind!]

[roundandaround]

[Rinku immediately swims after her. Hina flaps her wings in a panic, and Mecchan tries to hold her up and gets knocked away. Rinku swims, swims -- and eventually breaks the surface.

Just in time to scare away a bird coming down to see if the weird creatures are edible. She gathers Hina and Mecchan up into her arms, disregarding Mecchan's tears making her cry too.]

You better not be bullying my babies!

[Hic. She helps hold Hina up and get her to cough out the water, then sniffs and holds them both gently.]

Are you okay? How about you, Karpje-chan?