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mayorityvote) wrote2024-03-10 05:51 pm
mayorityvote) wrote2024-03-10 05:51 pm
Your New Life
Another New Life
You wake up to the sound of surf, much, much closer than you've ever heard it unless you moseyed down to Puffin Pier back in the old days. What old days...? Why, the days when you had a body, of course. The memories are probably coming back by now, jumbled along with everything else you lost. What a wake-up call.
But at least the ocean is real, unlike your dubiously fragmented remembrances. This little island out in the middle of nowhere sports a crude sign reading
Here, you're free, albeit... kind of incorporeal, as you'll soon find out. The island is covered in pretty little trees that don't quite form a forest, bowed over the really beautiful sandy beach that is way prettier than the one on the mainland. One, slightly rickety treehouse -- bare of anything, because incorporeal ghosts don't need furniture, of course -- peeks out from between the leaves. This is, apparently, your home away from home now.
Finally, there's a small bay-like area on the island that leads you to a strange-looking storm drain, marked with a symbol that's not-quite-an-apple. Stepping in will wash you alllllll the way back up to Puffin Pier, right where the sewers normally let out.
Oh, and once you step onto the mainland? You're now a duck. What kind of quacking afterlife is this.
((OOC: the tldr; about death is here!))
no subject
I don't have any other little flowers on me, but if you want me to change the shape of these for your house, I can do that.
[ it's hard to do in duck form, but he does his best to fold some of the paper still nearby him into something bird-like and then crumple others into a neat little ball. that's nice and distracting for puffins, right? a total mood-raiser after all that? at least he hopes so. ]
Did you need more of these for your nests?
no subject
Two sorries! Two presents! Two visits, two presents!
Then the one that first received the glass jar waddles back into its burrow and comes out with... a sheaf of lined journal papers. It places it in front of the papers that Keito is assembling.
Two neighbors, two presents.
Judging by the way it's tapping its beak against the folded papers, it seems rather pleased. Apparently, there is some sort of trading going on.
These particular papers contain extensive text that seems to be written in some kind of code. What Keito can read is probably what appear to be little puffin, duck, and other bird emojis written down and sprinkled throughout the entries. There doesn't appear to be a way to read this just yet.]
no subject
Oh, thank you so much, that's very sweet of you! I'll be sure to keep it safe, so you should take this in return, Puffin [ -san ].
[ time to work particularly hard on making a nice fish-shape out of non-code paper for the puffin! and also small talk. puffins are hopefully even friendlier with more small talk, right? ]
It's such nice paper. Actually, it makes me curious where you got it from.
no subject
Just as there's a loud BEBEEEEEP from Amy's direction, it begins:
Under neighbor. To those who live under us. There are those before who went under, and never returned. There is only paper, and fruit, and forest neighbors left. We are all--
There's one more grumble of puffin noise that never gets translated at all; looks like it's time to move on.]
END
Chronicle LXVII
This is only a preliminary hypothesis, but the Junimos’ special connection to birds and their very possible connection to the movement of souls could be related; I’ve long suspected that the cycle of life here – metaphysical life, that is, in addition to the physical – is somehow localized by the forest and to the town thanks to some miracle. And what is more miraculous than the forest spirits?
It’s said that the concentration of magic in an area is strengthened by the concentration of souls – and this may indeed be why the cycle of the Junimos and the Astera exist as well. By making sure the concentration of souls in the area remains stable, self-sustaining or even growing by other means, the Junimo are able to maintain their own magic and the magic of the soil. There is no greater fertilizer out there, and not in the sense that blood is spilt here.
Therefore, and this is speculation from my own observations over many seasons and from interacting as closely with the Junimo as one might be able to only here in Puffin Town… the Junimo may be tied to the cycle of death and rebirth as well. I’ve not been able to confirm whether or how souls are reincarnated – though I have a sneaking suspicion about those puffins on the cliffs – but the fact that signs of the Junimo are frequently spotted at funerals, at cemeteries or in areas that have seen great bloodshed in the past can be no coincidence. They do not show themselves as they do at the festivals; perhaps out of respect, or perhaps because what they must do is not for mortal eyes. But I feel confident in the ideas that I must now test, as the domains of magic and of souls have always been two sides of the same coin.
Chronicle LXIX
Having attended numerous Puffin Town funerals, I'm not sure why it didn't strike me before now – though the ceremonies differ according to the wishes of the deceased, there is one common feature throughout: the Enlightening, or airing of burdens, to put it simply. All of the gathered bear witness to any grievance, grudge, or complaint that the deceased carried in life, recorded in a manner similar to a will and read aloud to all in attendance. The belief is that in letting past burdens float off into the clouds rather than be buried in the ground with them, it lightens the soul. And making the soul lighter is an essential part of the rebirth cycle, for a bird cannot take flight weighted down.)]