[They're already wearing their cloak, so they're plenty warm, but they certainly won't protest. The gesture is harmless, and almost touching, in a way. They allow her to arrange the blanket however she would like, until it well and truly has them covered.]
[A blink of their eyes, a moment of consideration, and a nod. Yes, they think they must be sufficiently tucked in.]
[Seto smiles brightly when Ren starts tucking the Drifter in, and if she keeps going he's not gonna stop her. If they wind up telling stories to a pile of blankets that's fine.
It's all good. And he'll keep explaining stuff.]
It's um....like going to bed but someone is helping you because they like making your heart warm. Ren did it for me when I couldn't sleep.
[After the Water, but he's not gonna bring it up.]
[That's right. The ultimate goal is making someone's heart fill with warmth and joy and there's no better way to do that than to wrap someone in blankets. Maybe in the middle of the afternoon isn't the best time? The glyphcave is relatively protected from the intense island heat though. It's fine.]
Now we tell you stories and you'll be very happy. That's how it works.
[She's intently matter-of-fact in a way that has now become familiar - this is how the world works, for her, and thus, that is how it will always work. Perhaps, in coming days or months, this worldview will begin to flake and crumble, as things as simple as blanket forts and stories fail to smooth away whatever might trouble someone else.]
[But that will not be their doing, if they can help it.]
ok
[That is what the children would like to do, and so that is what they will allow.]
[Maybe one day they'll lose something like this. Stories and blanket forts were a bandage against inevitability but it's something Seto will take if it means he can be with Ren and the Drifter right now.
So until then. It's story time now.]
Okay. I've got a story that my Grandpa really liked called Beauty and the Beast, if it's okay to start with that.
[He can't tell it as well as his Grandpa did because the older man liked using big words, but it's a nice story in the end.]
It's going to be scary, but it's okay because there's a happy ending.
[Says Ren, the walking spoiler, who has the common courtesy to not give away the entire plot because she doesn't know it yet. And now that she's done tucking them in, she's not longer interested in standing and plops down next to their blue bean burrito friend.]
[Yep, they have no idea what this story is, or why a caterpillar would be involved, but hearing the tales of others is a bit like recovering lost fragments of an old world’s history. Stories are an important part of how a civilization preserves itself, after all.]
[Despite the potential that a story might be considered “scary,” the Drifter has decided they’re amenable to it. They’ll brave it.]
[Yup. Stories passed on and through a filter from the imagination of two gremlin children. It's gonna get interesting.]
It's about a man who lived in a big, pretty castle. He had a lot of stuff but he wasn't really nice, so when a lady wanted to stay in his home and he didn't let her, she turned him into a monster. She gave him a rose and told him he needed to meet someone who loved him back before it fell apart to turn back. So that's why he's called Beast.
[There's some chalk lying around so Seto shuffles some blankets around to draw a monster and a lady with a rose between them. They're....well it should get the point across about the whole 'find love before the rose rots' bit. He points at the lady.]
He met Beauty later but things didn't go really good for awhile.
[The problem with this is that Seto's a good storyteller and she nearly forgets that she's supposed to be helping with this incredible tale. Right, assisting. She's ready. She can do that? He's told her this story before, but the pause between her moving away from Drifter's side to the chalk drawings probably makes it apparent she. Uh. Forgot.]
They weren't friends? And then they were friends and-
[IDK, here's an elf drawing. That's a good addition regardless of its true place in the story.]
Then this guy came by and they ate dinner together. Then they were happy.
[Yep, they’ve never heard this story before in their life. How wonderful that it’s being artistically rendered for them, right here and now. The Drifter looks on with mild interest up until Ren’s last pronouncement. That sounds like an ending to them, maybe.]
[A nicer ending than what they got, but nearly any ending would be.]
[Hey, it's a little abrupt, but they can agree that it is, indeed, a story. It had a beginning, a middle, and an end. They were friends, and they were happy. What a nice ending.]
[That hardly needs any consideration. The Drifter shakes their head, no. No, they have not.]
But that's fine, she sorta knows this story? And she can make up her own ending, since the boy doesn't know the tale either.]
Three bears were hungry, so they ate porridge at a table. That's what a family does and-
[Something, something-a girl? Came in?]
Another person ate porridge too. Then the caterpillar came by to eat, because they were very hungry too. Then a drifter came by when they smelled the nice food.
[She doodles ALL OF THESE THINGS. The caterpillar (a snake??), Drifter, some bears (big cats). Horrible.]
They wanted to play in the sky, but no one knew how to fly, so they ate cotton candy and became clouds. That's how it works. [Pause] They lived happily ever after. That's what happened.
[It's a good thing the Drifter has no idea how the pacing of these sorts of elementary fairy tales are meant to play out, because the story kind of meanders and they're not sure what the central conflict is meant to be, or what the moral lesson one is meant to take away from it is, but by golly at least Ren is committed.]
[Yeah this story is all over the place. Not the first time it's happened - Seto's Grandpa had gone on a weird ramble mid-story once and it was probably the longest he heard the older man talk. Ren's story has easier to understand words at least. And it is neat in it's own way.
Unique is probably the word his Grandpa would use.]
Did they have more adventures after?
[Why yes he is encouraging more stories of the Drifter and bears and caterpillars. Hey, if Ren likes telling these kind of stories, Seto's going to encourage it.]
[Good stories come from the heart, you uncultured swines. Goldilocks is garbage, cotton candy Drifter is our new best friend. Eager to get into the riveting sequel, she nyooms into her next wild ride, acting like she's told it 10000 times before, despite how made up and Horrible it is.]
They became pirates and went to the moon on a bunch of pretty horses. Drifter said 'hello' to the ghost that lived there, the caterpillar ate all of the treasure and everyone came back to the island. [Maybe it's time for a trilogy]
Then there was a prophecy.
[S T O P H E R]
It said 'an angel will save you, if you pet many cats' so everyone did. They purred a lot.
[The Drifter, for their part, does nothing but watch and listen and nod approvingly as they sit there in their blanket burrito, aware of nothing being even remotely amiss. There is no plot, no story structure, and no characterization to speak of. But that's fine, as the Drifter is fully aware of who the characters are.]
what angel
[Please explain the nature of the "angel," Ren. They're so terribly ignorant and unaware.]
[Winged creatures that live in the sky. Their association with such things tends to be less kind than what Ren is implying. Not the mages of the northern mountains. Not the egg-breakers and zealots that would have cut the world apart.]
[Drifter, not everything that bears esoteric words about an arcane past and an equally abstract future is a god. Sometimes it's just a strange person, or a concept that has very little to actually do with anything at the moment.]
[Because now they're all hopeless off-topic, and the Drifter, wanderer that they are, is hardly the person to get them back onto it again.]
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[A blink of their eyes, a moment of consideration, and a nod. Yes, they think they must be sufficiently tucked in.]
what is the purpose of tucking in
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It's all good. And he'll keep explaining stuff.]
It's um....like going to bed but someone is helping you because they like making your heart warm. Ren did it for me when I couldn't sleep.
[After the Water, but he's not gonna bring it up.]
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Now we tell you stories and you'll be very happy. That's how it works.
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[But that will not be their doing, if they can help it.]
ok
[That is what the children would like to do, and so that is what they will allow.]
we will tell stories
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So until then. It's story time now.]
Okay. I've got a story that my Grandpa really liked called Beauty and the Beast, if it's okay to start with that.
[He can't tell it as well as his Grandpa did because the older man liked using big words, but it's a nice story in the end.]
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[Says Ren, the walking spoiler, who has the common courtesy to not give away the entire plot because she doesn't know it yet. And now that she's done tucking them in, she's not longer interested in standing and plops down next to their blue bean burrito friend.]
The caterpillar is in this one too.
[It's not.]
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[Despite the potential that a story might be considered “scary,” the Drifter has decided they’re amenable to it. They’ll brave it.]
ok
how does it go
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It's about a man who lived in a big, pretty castle. He had a lot of stuff but he wasn't really nice, so when a lady wanted to stay in his home and he didn't let her, she turned him into a monster. She gave him a rose and told him he needed to meet someone who loved him back before it fell apart to turn back. So that's why he's called Beast.
[There's some chalk lying around so Seto shuffles some blankets around to draw a monster and a lady with a rose between them. They're....well it should get the point across about the whole 'find love before the rose rots' bit. He points at the lady.]
He met Beauty later but things didn't go really good for awhile.
[They were two different people after all.]
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They weren't friends? And then they were friends and-
[IDK, here's an elf drawing. That's a good addition regardless of its true place in the story.]
Then this guy came by and they ate dinner together. Then they were happy.
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[A nicer ending than what they got, but nearly any ending would be.]
that is a nice story
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Yeah it is. I think my Grandpa really like it.
[Seto didn't know why, but it was the one the older man told him the most so he guessed that was his favorite.]
Does anyone else want to go?
[Seto has a lot of stories but he didn't want to hog all of their time. So anyone else want to step up for a bit?]
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Do you know the one about the three bears?
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[That hardly needs any consideration. The Drifter shakes their head, no. No, they have not.]
what is the story of the three bears
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Can you tell us Ren?
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But that's fine, she sorta knows this story? And she can make up her own ending, since the boy doesn't know the tale either.]
Three bears were hungry, so they ate porridge at a table. That's what a family does and-
[Something, something-a girl? Came in?]
Another person ate porridge too. Then the caterpillar came by to eat, because they were very hungry too. Then a drifter came by when they smelled the nice food.
[She doodles ALL OF THESE THINGS. The caterpillar (a snake??), Drifter, some bears (big cats). Horrible.]
They wanted to play in the sky, but no one knew how to fly, so they ate cotton candy and became clouds. That's how it works. [Pause] They lived happily ever after. That's what happened.
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[So the Drifter nods approvingly.]
did not know i was in this story
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Unique is probably the word his Grandpa would use.]
Did they have more adventures after?
[Why yes he is encouraging more stories of the Drifter and bears and caterpillars. Hey, if Ren likes telling these kind of stories, Seto's going to encourage it.]
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They became pirates and went to the moon on a bunch of pretty horses. Drifter said 'hello' to the ghost that lived there, the caterpillar ate all of the treasure and everyone came back to the island. [Maybe it's time for a trilogy]
Then there was a prophecy.
[S T O P H E R]
It said 'an angel will save you, if you pet many cats' so everyone did. They purred a lot.
[And-]
It was happily ever after again.
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what angel
[Please explain the nature of the "angel," Ren. They're so terribly ignorant and unaware.]
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[W-wrong book Seto. Also he's asking Ren too. Please define what an 'angel' is. He's got nothing.]
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Which means she's going to answer nothing and pass the buck. The heck is an angel? Who knows. Not her.]
Yes, they have chicken wings and come down from the sky. They live in the clouds. I think Kidwun knows a lot about them.
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are they good
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[So no need for chicken-winged people murder. It's good.]
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[But the real pressing question is-]
If they have chicken wings, do they lay eggs? Did the books say that?
[Drifter should pretend to sleep and escape this nightmare once and for all.]
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[Drifter, not everything that bears esoteric words about an arcane past and an equally abstract future is a god. Sometimes it's just a strange person, or a concept that has very little to actually do with anything at the moment.]
[Because now they're all hopeless off-topic, and the Drifter, wanderer that they are, is hardly the person to get them back onto it again.]
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