shellphones | text; un: pinksidekicking

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text; un: pinksidekicking

Type: Text
Sender ID: pinksidekicking (Nimona)
To: Everyone
Subject: Since everyone seems to like surveys around here, I've got one for you!
Warnings: Possible talk of canon deaths?

I've noticed that people around here like surveys and I thought I'd join in on making one! Some of you may know that our first year anniversary of our arrival here in this world is coming up real soon. Like two weeks - give or take a few days. So I thought I'd see who else has been here as long as I have! I feel like I've seen at least most of the "veterans" once or twice and if we haven't talked yet:

Hi, I'm Nimona!

Right... the survey! Feel free to answer anonymously!

1. How long have you been here?
2. Are there other people from your world here? (Optional: How many?)
3. Have there been people from your world that have already gone home? (Optional: How long were they here and how many?)
4. What was your first "event" in this world?
5. What's been your favorite "event" so far?
6. Are you here to live out the rest of your life, or are you looking for a way home? (Optional: Why?)

I'll answer it first!

1. 16 days away from a year.
2. Nope!
3. Like briefly one person on new arrival day and then never again.
4. Ghoul's Moon.
5. Same answer as above. It was pretty fun fighting all the undead. I guess the Masquerade Ball was pretty okay, too.
6. Maybe? I dunno, this world is a lot better for me than my own.

Now it's your turn!

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Your girlfriend - whoops, I mean your fiancee, right? As the one who's here.

Hm, in your case? Which event did you decide was the least troublesome? Or maybe you even might say you maybe smiled a little? Was it the dragons? I bet you liked having all those dragons around.

That's fair. Maybe I wouldn't mind doing it that way. You know, staying a long time and then going home someday.

Betrothed, yes.

An event that made this venerable one smile? This venerable one has been made to smile because of magics and would not count those that did so in a favorable light. If it's something that his one is supposed to have 'liked'. However, this venerable one supposes, if there is an event that he finds least troublesome and would not necessarily be against occurring again... Though he is not pleased with the forced transformation, the time spent in the deeps with the merpeople would not be met with frustration.

[Especially if Orchid was showing her stomach again and even more if it was just him and her trapped somewhere the sun could shine on her scales and no one else could find them. Leaving them to their own secluded realm where he could pretend time was standing still.]

We are immortal. We can afford the time. Mortals cannot. There are some who desperately wish to leave and at one time, this venerable one would not have cared or even attempted to understand the urgency. This venerable one still finds it difficult to understand.

[But he does care.]

Your future wife.

Yeah, I'm not talking about the ones that forced you to smile. I definitely mean the corners of your lips turned upward because maybe there was a tiny warm fuzzy feeling in your chest. So you favor the time we were merpeople. Good news, I hear you can still do that. It's just not a whole big thing, more like a leisurely thing you can do whenever you'd like.

[ So his chances were definitely good to have alone time with Orchid if he did that and took her with him. ]

Humans are so squishy. Maybe not everyone understands that time is basically standing still back home. Maybe they're worried that that will change someday. I don't really understand it either, honestly. But I was curious so I thought I'd ask.

This venerable one is uncertain that time is 'standing still'. It may feel like that, but Orchid was taken from a time several weeks after this venerable one. There is not enough evidence to say for certain how exactly the flow of time differs or if it is the same for everyone.

...you are a woman. Sometimes. Always Nimona, but sometimes also a woman, yes?

Yeah, I wonder if anyone could say that for certain. She didn't say you were missing for any length of time back home?

Uh... yes? I am currently a young woman right now. Do I need to be a more adultier woman for some reason?

When she learned of the time this venerable one last had memories of, she did not indicate that there had been any noticeable absence of himself in her own memories. However, this does not mean there was none. It has been made clear to me by another that some people who know each other may not come from the same worlds. They may come from similar 'reflections' of their own broken worlds. The Three Realms is the only perfect world, but the Ruins of Ten Thousand Heavens exists because there are infinite broken worlds that did not succeed before the coming of the Three Realms. While this venerable one finds himself feeling uncomfortable when considering it, it is entirely possible that one of us has come from an imperfect reflection of the Three Realms and not from the same, perfect world.

[He was certain he was from the singular perfect world that was the Three Realms... but if he was from a broken realm, how would he know for certain if it was not as obviously broken as Escordvi was?]

This venerable one does not need you to be a more 'adultier' woman. He simply wishes the opinion of a woman and he has not spent a significant enough time in a female body to understand their perspective to be certain of his own thoughts on a matter.

Oh yeah, someone else talked about his brother from another version of his world. Why not ask her more? If you don't want to know your future, you could at least confirm your shared memories, right? At least if those are the same, you're probably both from the same uh... Realm.

Ok. Do you want me to call or text you privately for this opinion?

We have confirmed enough shared memories that this venerable one is certain that even if we come from different realms, our histories are not different enough to be significant.

[Orchid had scolded him enough for him to be certain of that at least. Also, the curse had worked exactly the same, so as far as it was concerned, they were the same people they had always been to each other. Which... he probably shouldn't draw as much comfort from the One-Heart Curse as he did. But, well, he did draw comfort from it. Enjoyed it, even. Because when she took the hairpin out, he could feel all that Orchid could feel and the depths of her emotions were such that he wasn't certain he'd ever reach. They were intoxicating. Addictive. He would happily drown in them now that he understood his own desire to feel and be more than a tool, a weapon of war.]

There is no need for privacy in this. You brought up that we can revisit the underwater realm which this venerable one had not considered worth attempting unless the God-Beasts brought us back around. While we do have our own ship, the Raiders of the Lost Arts still mostly follow the God-Beasts in their travels, much as many other ships and crews do. But if we were to return for a reason-

Would you consider it a good place for a celebration of some sort? Would it be 'fun'?

Well, so far most every one else I've talked to hasn't said much about having different memories from the people they know. So maybe it's not a common thing here yet.

[ The one guy is openly talking about it on the network, but Nimona does know of another person who said there were differences between her and someone else from home. Not that she's going to name names. ]

Hm, well. Maybe my opinion would be different from someone else's, but I thought it was fun and wouldn't mind going back with a bunch of people for a celebration. From my point of view, I've never had anyone to hang around with and I scared away every animal and person no matter how much I looked like them.

So honestly, anywhere I go that also has my friends or the people I like is gonna be fun for me.

[He had perhaps walked into that. Nimona didn't identify strongly with any form except 'Nimona'. But she was always honest with him, so he felt... safe... asking her for advice. And even if it was less gender-based than he had hoped for (he'd really been hoping to hear 'girls like...'), it was was still good advice.

Probably better since even as someone who predominately maintained a male-bodied form, his emotions were not tied to his gender as he knew others were. His emotions were tied to other experiences. People.

Friends.

Orchid.]

This venerable one... was hoping to celebrate something... that would be considered 'special'... in a 'special' place or 'special' way. This venerable one has read in many of the romance texts that those of a female mind are often excited about important occasions being singled out and treated as 'special'. To 'celebrate' them.

[He's never cared about an anniversary since his emotion tree was killed. At one point, in the long past, he had cared about his father's birthday. He... wasn't sure he could anymore. And his father's deathday was just as fraught with pain. But the day Orchid came crashing into his life (literally)... Even if he had not been kind to her then... He thought it was important.]

[ ... It takes a brief moment to figure out what he's really asking here. Romance isn't really something she's had any experience with so Nimona's in the same boat as Dongfang here. Nimona would feel a little honored to know that he's asking her because it feels safe. ]

Okay, I think I get it now. Honestly, I'm not sure the location has to be a place we've already been in that case. If the view is appeasing to the eye, you can make any place special. String up some soft lights, lots of flowers, maybe some instruments playing quietly in the background, some favorite foods.

You could pick some place closer to where you frequent, that way, one day you can go back there and really see how special it became to you too.

But if you're really considering previous places, that beach island a few months ago where people were doing the romantic feather exchange would be a good place if you want to stay mostly dry. Or maybe the island where we saw all those dragons.

[ That was about the time that Dongfang's betrothed showed up (even if they weren't betrothed then), so it would have special meaning to them both. ]

[He was thinking the place with the merfolk because they had shared a nice, peaceful moment over the clam fields, interrupted only by the otters. It had been very pleasant. And she had looked beautiful in the filtered sunlight refracting through the water and off every surface that sparkled even a smidge. But privacy-wise, the night with the fireflies and the lotuses was also... very well lit. Had some flowers. He could probably hire someone to play instruments... ~~He could try the 'Kiss the Girl' angle~~

But the world beneath the waves was appealing for another reason.]

Our first kiss... the first kiss that mattered to this venerable one... was under water.

[They had agreed it was because he was sharing air with her. But the flustered way they stood after and had to hurriedly agree on what it was... the way his heart stirred... the way his fingers lingered on his lips while he stood still soaked to the bone, not even bothering to dry himself... the way he kept finding excuses to justify doing it again...]

[ Ah, the kiss that started it all. Whatever "it all" actually means for him. Maybe it was enough to restart his emotions. Sounds a little fairytale-ish, the kiss of "true love" breaking a curse or something, but from all that she's learned about Dongfang, she know what it means to him. ]

So being underwater is special to you already. I mean, if you both liked being mermaids, then I don't see why it wouldn't be romantic. You could still sort of do the rest of it. Bright colored plants to make it pretty, there's all kinds of glowing sea life out there, and the merpeople probably have their own kinds of instruments that work underwater.

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