it's a newwww dayyyy.

[crittersheep]

WHO: you! and you! and others too!
WHERE: everywhere all over
WHEN: Day 25, mid-day

[ Well! It's been an eventful day for some so far. Between trips into the mist and innocent handshakes for kitchens, what else could possibly go wrong today?

who knows but the day is still young. so what're y'all doin' today. ]

Comments

[strateelgic]

[He wipes at his eyes a bit.]

Ah... forgive me, I'm a bit overwhelmed. It's rare that anyone takes my interests seriously.

[Except for his brother, perhaps? Probably. It would be nice to remember.]

[finalbows]

...objectively, I... can understand many pursuits interested in the natural world. I don't personally like to get it on me, but beauty is beauty, is it not?

_{[ ...he'd talk about the graceful symphony of a true, wild, living ecosystem, but... that'd make the artificiality of his work painfully stark. ]}

[strateelgic]

Am I actually supposed to get on it? I feel as though I shouldn't even be allowed to touch it.

Goodness, I don't have proper hiking clothes...

[finalbows]

_{[ ... ]}

You know...

If I made the spire with my magic... and Blood Fiend dug and hauled the dirt... and Shadow Fiend fetched the mosses and such--

and it's all for you, we ought to be able to manifest at least one measly specialty outfit out of all that, right? It's practically a-- herd relay race.

[strateelgic]

That... seems a bit unfair, to make something more for me as a reward for making all of this for me.

[finalbows]

Fine.
Then use it to make me a pretty crown and we can crown me the oh-so benevolent new tyrant-king of the realm.

I bet if you do climb it, something will have to happen.

[strateelgic]

You realize if you get that crown we will all insist you wear it all the time.

Did... did you want me to try right now?

[finalbows]

Only if it's actually pretty.

Anyway. Yes. Climb. Climb for my entertainment, serf.

<sub>[ goes and sits on the top platform next to the little stone shrine up all the way up at the end.

There's a matching shrine, marking the beginning of the route. ]</sub>

[strateelgic]

[Well. Looks like he's doing this.

The thing about climbing mountains is that they're just big hills. They're extensions of the earth. The ground follows you all the way up.

There isn't quite as much ground following him in this scenario.

It's fine. All he has to do is imagine that the path he's following upward is surrounded by ground on all sides. There's enough space for him to walk easily. This is a gift and he has to take advantage of it!

He puts a big smile on his face and starts on his way up.]

[finalbows]

_{[ so mad I can't write about his tail swishing because of how it's invisible all the same time. please know: you can't see it but it's swishing while he waits. ]}

[strateelgic]

[The closer Pond Fiend gets to the top, the slower his ascent becomes. He seems to find frequent excuses to stop, whether it's to look at a grouping of mushrooms or lightly chastise a small hooved animal for being where it shouldn't be. (Though who's he to say where it should or shouldn't be, honestly.)

When he finally reaches Angie's location, he smiles widely at him - all the while occasionally suffering full body tremors because he's absolutely terrified. It's fine. The structure is stable. It's fine.]

You did such a wonderful job with this. I can see all the effort you put into it.

[finalbows]

<sub>[ angel devil is a person accustomed to understanding harm, and how it happens. he knows exactly how to recognize malicious intent in another person, how to stir it up to a fever pitch and make them potentially abandon their higher reason.

He is accustomed to searching out resentment like panning for gold, and to finding fear and twisting it to his purposes--

but he's also not used to trying to do things for people in earnesty and being humored for it. the nagging familiarity of what he's watching happens clicks, midway.
which is why, even though he'd talked about making this "more exciting for hi " with Muffin, he stays his hand. Puts a quiet focus, to keeping his work as steady as possible.

...people kept saying, 'what a nice thing to do'... but he wonders, idly, if he might have done the exact same thing some mere months back in his old life, explicitly to be cruel.

A white light shines in the second shrine, when Pond Fiend reaches the apex of the spire. Angel Devil sits straighter up with his knees to his chest, leaving plenty of space to sit on the flat platform.

I could fix that, he thinks. If there was a single spark of genuine calm left in him, right now. But it's not worth trying to pull, if there isn't.

And anyway, for the same reason he prefers to do his agitating of others by hand-- this, he wishes that he could, too. ]</sub>

Pond Fiend. I have... a question.

...what is it that climbing means, to you?

<sub>[ he certainly didn't see it, in his trip up that spire.

(he was hoping to, but instead he saw something else.)]</sub>

[strateelgic]

[The merman sits down heavily, gratefully. Is the structure moving beneath them? Surely not. He's just imagining things.]

It's not just about the climbing. The mountain ecosystem is fascinating to me - the way it changes from the base to the top... Under the ocean one wouldn't have to bother climbing such a structure. It would just be some raised earth and sand that one could swim around the same as anything else.

On land, climbing a mountain is an experience. You can reach great heights and be given a view of the world around you for miles while still having solid ground beneath you.