Event Log: Regret This

[hadrielmods]

Who: Everyone!
What: The Regret This event
Where: Throughout the city
When: June 25th-July 3rd
Warnings: Sorrow is resurrected, and everyone is immediately full of regrets

Hope has finally managed another god resurrection, and the people have spoken! On June 25th, he musters his powers and brings Sorrow back to Hadriel. An orchard appears across the river, in the until now ruined part of the city, and Sorrow's temple is also restored. Hooray! One more god to make things a little more livable in this place.

Of course, it's not that easy. It never is. Along with Sorrow himself comes a wave of regret and guilt that blankets the city. All those affected will be inclined to not only be sad, but to linger over past regrets and things they feel guilty about. They can distract themselves with everyday tasks or whatever else they please, but they'll find that their thoughts drift back to these regrets regardless of what they do.

And of course, the best way to purge a guilty conscience is confession, right? On top of these persistent sad thoughts, people will feel the urge to tell others about them, to air their past mistakes or misdeeds and possibly receive some kind of forgiveness. So what if your neighbor doesn't care that you cheated on your final exams all through school? You have to tell someone, and they're right there. If it doesn't make you feel better, that probably means you haven't confessed to enough people yet, or maybe you just haven't found the right person. Better try again!

On July 3rd, Sorrow has settled in and this urge to confess your sins will die down, along with the constant regret. Let's hope you didn't confess anything too personal. Remember, you're gonna have to see some of these people every day.

► This log covers June 25th-July 3rd.
► Feel free to make your own logs as well!
► Please tag headers of threads with content warnings where they apply
► Please put your character's name and open/closed in the subject line of your starters!
► If you somehow manage to end up regretfully dead, please remember to hit up our death post!

Comments

[muscovy]

[There is a long list. He thinks about what might be the most important ones, or ones that everyone should be able to connect to.]

The lives of nice people. Peaceful times. The summer. A festival. Years with good harvests. A nice meal. The night before a scary morning. Visits with friends or family.

[muscovy]

You don't have friends or family that can die?

[Because that is the only reason that he can think of why someone wouldn't be sad about people dying sometimes.]

[muscovy]

Why not?

[He lived for a very long time before making a first friend, but he always had his sisters. It's a state that he doesn't know in that intensity, to be completely without friends or family, but he can imagine it too well to not think that it is terrible.]

[muscovy]

Everyone who has ever died for me wanted me to live and become strong. That is why they died, yes?

And they never wanted me to not have friends ever. Many of them wanted me to be strong enough to have a lot of friends one day.

So you should not be silly and think that your friends would want you to not live or not have friends again, because they probably didn't think so and you are being very mean to them saying that.

[muscovy]

What do you want?

[It's an earnest question. Most of the time, it is important what someone wants. ...Always, really, because it influences their reactions to being told yes or no. But sometimes the things that people want are just silly and not viable.]

[muscovy]

Then I will make you hot soup. Hot soup helps when your feelings are sick and need to be warmed up.

[He makes a decision and takes a step forward to take Shadow's hand so he will be able to pull him with him, and away from the river that the ....whatever he is. Person is looking at yet again.]

You should tell me about where you grew up, yes?

[Going by the logic that he probably won't try to jump while he is talking. And talking about the place that they are from is nice for most people.]

[muscovy]

How was it different?

[Since Shadow seems to easily have accepted his taking his hand (even welcomed it, if he interprets that tiny squeeze correctly), Muscovy will now start to tug at his hand, seeing if he can make the hedgehog follow him so that he can lead him off the bridge and back towards the residential area.]

[muscovy]

Like a spaceship.

[Like the Tranquility. But why would you make a ship that doesn't travel?]

Why is it not going anywhere?

[muscovy]

[That... he cannot really imagine that. The Tranquility was already gigantic, in his view - it could have housed many castles, did house a huge oxygen garden, many floors and smaller spaceshuttles... To imagine a, well, building that big is a bit beyond what he can imagine.]

Why did it have to be so big?

[muscovy]

...Maybe they just wanted to show that they are rich and strong.

[In his experience, that can always serve as a reason for things that are needlessly big.

If Shadow lets him, he'll be leading him off the bridge and back towards the living areas.]

[muscovy]

Yes.

[And no. Encountering the temples here has shown him just how used he had gotten to being an individual, and the terrifying emptiness that he had felt at first had turned into something... comfortable. It's quite good to have his head and heart to himself, to know that his feelings and opinions and decisions are truly only his.

He had started to deal with the thought that he might never be able to return home after all after the Tranquility had fallen off the cliff. That had been a whole new dimension - until that point, he had considered his stay away from Earth as a kind of extended holiday. One that he wanted to last as long as possible because he had come to the firm belief, talking to others, that when he returned home no time would have passed. So he would have a place to return to, his people would still be his, history would be unchanged. He would just have spent a long time with adopted family that he loved and have become stronger.

To not be able to return at all... That was different. To not see his sisters again. To never see his people again, to never again feel the connection that he had with them. Not in that intensity - at most, there would be one or two from a future time, or descendants of people who would once have been his.

Though it is not much worse than returning after a long absence. Because if he was gone for long enough, his people would not be his anymore. They would have found different nations to belong to, perhaps a new one or they would have split up into already existing ones. If he was gone for long enough, there would be no place to return for him. Yes, he could see his sisters again, but... He feels much too young to go away from Earth.]

I a from the north-east, so it is very cold in the winter, but in spring and summer everything is green. But because it is cold in the winter, the trees don't grow taller than they should be, and the people can appreciate how nice it is when it is warm. [Casual disregard for warmth is still something that vexes him a bit.] And there are many flowers, and the children and young women will bind flower crowns when there is a celebration.

And I have two sisters. They are very pretty and a bit scary, and big sis is strong.

[muscovy]

[He doesn't remember, not exactly. The seasons were different where he came from and in the Drabwurld, and then there were no seasons at all on the Tranquility and the planet where it crashlanded.]

About three years.

[Or something thereabout.]

[muscovy]

It has been nice for the most time. I found new family and I was never raided.

[It is not the time that he spent away that bothers him, it's how coming home might work out.]

So there is nothing to feel sorry about.