closed | salt of the river

[theferryman]

WHO: The Ferryman, Sunny, and Nagito
WHAT: Questin' & Investigatin'
WHERE: On the bank of The River
WHEN: After the next Crossing Toll is revealed
WARNINGS Claustrophobia, being buried alive, mental & physical pain, more as noted

[The Ferryman is as they ever are: watching The River with preternatural stillness, the weight of The Lantern barely swaying in the winds that sweep across the flat landscape. There is no movement in their facial expression or body language, but restlessness hangs over them all the same. Worry. Unease.

They are waiting. Before them are two rectangular holes cut from The River: through the topmost layer of salt, and into the mud below. There's no way around it; they look like shallow graves.

When their two volunteers arrive, before any preamble begins, The Ferryman reminds them:]

If you decide you want to leave, you can. At any time.

Comments

BEFORE

[theferryman]

[For questions/comments/clarifications with The Ferryman, and psyching-up with each other.]

[blindluck]

[Nagito listens with his usual smile on his face, as calm as he almost always is. Then, without any hesitation, he pulls off his jacket, beginning to fold it neatly.]

Remember, Sunny-kun, you're already dead. This isn't actually dangerous.

[solitarynote]

[…was that supposed to be comforting?

Maybe it was Nagito’s own brand of comfort, but between that, the Ferryman’s reminder, and the verifiable graves in the ground… Sunny can already feel a nervous sweat make its way down his back.

Maybe it’s just the heat. Hopefully.]

Can still be… scary… [A reminder of his own, an admission. Saying the words out loud, a deep breath in and out… like he’s releasing their control over him. (Hopefully.)

Even in dreams, even when he wouldn’t succumb and his friends could be revived with some jam, even then… things that are dangerous still have a cost.]

[blindluck]

I suppose that's true. [Now that his jacket is folded, he removes his shirt. Nagito is thin enough his ribs are visible, and his torso is covered with various scars, but he doesn't seem to care about being seen shirtless at the moment.] Let's see, how about--this is only temporary! You don't have to do it forever, just long enough to get things done.

[solitarynote]

[That sounded easier. Just enough to ‘get things done.’]

OK…

[Sunny could do that. Treat it like a quest of some kind. He had volunteered. The Ferryman needed their help and… Sunny couldn’t just sit back and do nothing (well, he could, as he had been sleeping a lot here, but still…).

Nagito was getting undressed, which left Sunny to look down at his own clothes. Did they have to…?] Off…?

[blindluck]

Oh, it's up to you! [Nagito, having put his clothes in a pile, now pulls off his prosthetic arm along with its silicone padding, revealing long, nasty scars that contrast the clear professionalism of the way his arm ends.] I'd just rather not wash mud off of everything later. Especially this. [He indicates his prosthetic.] It's very resilient, but there are so many little spaces for mud to get in, I'd be washing it for days.

[solitarynote]

[Nagito made a very good point. If Sunny kept his clothes on, he’d get muddy. And then he’d have to wash his clothes. And Mari would fuss over him until he did…

At the same time, the thought of the mud touching bare skin sounded like an unpleasant sensation. And it seemed like he might be having a lot of those during this current task…

Sunny took a long, silent moment to think, then took his vest off. That left his shorts and short-sleeved button down but… one less thing to wash later.]

Hinata… might be upset… if it got dirty…

[It took Sunny another moment to remember the name of Nagito’s talented classmate - he had a lot of those - but… focusing on something other than their present made it a bit easier to get his hands to stop shaking.]

DURING

[theferryman]

[As explained by The Ferryman, the request is thus:

• — Sunny and Nagito must lay in The River and allow themselves to sink.


• — While doing so, they must try to focus past any familiar sensations and pay attention to any unfamiliar ones. They are looking for gaps/static/anything that might suggest a memory might have been altered or incomplete.


• — Either of them may tap out at any time, at which point The Ferryman will pull them both from The River.


• — The Ferryman may also intervene themselves if they feel it necessary.]

[blindluck]

[Nagito has removed his jacket, shirt, and prosthetic arm. He approaches the hole dug for him, considers it for a moment, and then turns and lets himself fall backwards with a wet slap. The exhaustion hits him first, folding familiarly around him. There's a pain like his bones are throbbing--that's familiar, too. His thoughts feel sluggish. Mind over matter, though. Or something. He hadn't been the. The best with words and such at the end. He tries to force his way through it with sheer stubborn intent.

The Ferryman told him to focus, so that's what he's going to do, but he does spare a brief thought for hoping Sunny can get through this alright.]

[theferryman]

[It's easier in the beginning, if only because it's singular, and familiar. The Ferryman stands at the edge of The River, closer even than their typical vigil. For all their stoicism, the reason is fairly clear: they're concerned. Of all the souls to volunteer, there may be a part of them that wishes it wasn't this particular pair.

Nagito might take some solace in the fact that the flood of foreign memories hit him much sooner than they reach Sunny, making it difficult to get distracted by any kind of reaction from the grave beside him. Many of them are violent, though not all of them— and perhaps more impactful than that, there are simply so many to sort through.]

[blindluck]

[The memories hit him all at once. Like a great wave. Like a spear to the stomach. Violence is something Nagito is too familiar with, though it's a little strange like this. He's not exactly in his most right mind while buried in mud, but he's far from in despair, so it all feels a little different even as it feels familiar. He holds himself stiff and still, eyes closed, not breathing as the mud covers his face and puts him in darkness.

Easier to focus that way. And he's going to, because he can be useful like this. He inspects each foreign memory as best he can, with all the care of going over clues to solve a murder. He's trying to hold onto all of them and sort through them even as his mind slips around. But he's worked under conditions that put him close to death before, and this isn't even really dying. He's already done that part. So he tells himself this is easier and he keeps going.]

[theferryman]

[The Ferryman is still, watching, unblinking. To an outside observer, the uncharacteristic tension wrapped around them would be obvious; Nagito and Sunny, on the other hand, might be a bit too preoccupied to notice.

It isn't clear how much information The Ferryman is able to glean from the situation beyond the five ordinary senses. (The Ferryman is, of course, hardly ordinary.) For now, at least, they seem to judge that Nagito has control of the situation. For now.

His approach is reasonable, and, provided he can keep his concentration, works well. One after another, the memories come up against him and then rush past him, seemingly normal, consistent, unremarkable... Until, eventually, perhaps one isn't.]

[blindluck]

[All of Nagito's attention--now as sharp as he can make it--is on the memories. It might be easier that they're not his; it's like reading a novel, a little. He can convince himself of that, anyway, and work as if they're not real. He's often a step or two removed from the plights of others, even when he's trying not to be; it's a problem when socializing, but it might come in handy now. He's kept his focus when he was starving, he reminds himself. He's kept his focus with a knife through his hand and a dozen stab wounds. This is nothing. If he says it, it's true.

At the first sign of a memory that stands out--like an especially talented person, or a potentially decisive clue to solve a murder--Nagito snaps his attention to it immediately.]

[theferryman]

[It takes time and concentration to notice exactly what is wrong with the memory, but once he happens upon it, the inconsistency is unmistakable. Perhaps it's a gap, or a sequence of sensations that doesn't quite make sense. There are only a handful of memories like it, out of the many that Nagito is having to sift through, but once he has a few more for comparison, it will likely get easier to spot the things that make them different.

Above him, The Ferryman is becoming restless. It's not a common experience for them.]

DURING

[solitarynote]

[Maybe surprisingly, thanks to Nagito, Sunny isn’t looking as terrified when he approaches the mud tomb.

He’s removed his vest, folded it into a little square that he lays nearby, but still has his shirt and shorts on. They’d need washed after but… he didn’t like the idea of the mud touching his body more than necessary.

His one eye focused on the Ferryman, and he nods, voice small but… trying to be brave.]

I’m… going to try… my best…

[Then he takes one step into the ground, nose scrunching a bit at the feeling of the mud.]

[theferryman]

[The Ferryman smiles at him in their way, more in their eyes than anywhere else on their face. They nod.]

Thank you, Sunny.

[The mud forms a quick suction around Sunny's ankle, dragging up to his knee alarmingly quickly. It will continue like this, reintroducing Sunny's own memories to him first the further he sinks beneath The River.

Sunny has the benefit of a slower introduction of foreign memories than Nagito; it will take some time before something unfamiliar begins complicating the picture.]

[solitarynote]

[Sunny was good at reading unspoken language, so that smile in their eyes… it actually sits better with him than an actual ‘smile.’

The teen nods, though it takes a moment for him to realize the mud’s rapid approach… and once he does, his heartbeat speeds up.

Panic. It crosses his gaze for a moment, fleeting as he looks to the Ferryman again.

Breathe. Calm Down.

Sunny is used to fear. He’s used to trying to cope with it too, so the small voice, sighs of soothing instructions, actually takes better than he thought it would.

Once last breath, he closes his eyes and focuses… memories. Though they’re his own? That’s good and bad. He’s used to his own memories, muddled by Headspace dreams as they are.

He promised he was going to do this. To help the Ferryman. To help everyone.]

[theferryman]

[The Ferryman remains where they are, not a half-step away from being in The River themselves. They meet Sunny's backwards glance with calm surety: they will be here, whatever happens.

As Sunny allows The River to drag him down, new memories begin to flit across his consciousness rapidly and unexpectedly, like hares darting from one bush to another. The challenge here is essentially the opposite of Nagito's: there are fewer memories to sort through, so there's less risk of them bleeding into each other, but the ones that do emerge come at irregular intervals, and may be hard to catch before they're gone again.]

[solitarynote]

[Sunny blinks at the newly emerging memories, as irregular and less as they are.

This is almost preferred… blanketed in the safety(?) of his own memories, with little emergences of the unfamiliar.

Like rabbits…

And with that, Sunny reaches out to grab one-

And misses entirely.

That was… kind of annoying. He pouts inwardly, letting himself sink deeper. It was alright. He was used to chasing the unfamiliar, to a rabbit always being around no matter what new biome he traversed.

Sunny has to remind himself… this isn’t a dream. But, maybe in treating it like one, he might just be able to make it through.]

AFTER

[theferryman]

[Recovery, questions & final wrap-up with The Ferryman.]

[blindluck]

[Nagito is sitting on the shore, running his fingers through his hair in an attempt to get some of the mud out. It's feeling kind of futile right now, but he doesn't stop. He's lost the exhaustion of his death, but the memory onslaught still tired him out, so he doesn't look quite as energetic as he often does. Still, his eyes are bright.]

Was that enough to draw any conclusions?

This can be a separate talk between them or include Ferryman, whichever works ^^

[solitarynote]

As disoriented as Sunny was from suddenly being pulled from the mud, it takes a minute or two for him to realize that Nagito is back.

They are both thoroughly covered in mud (the feeling of said substances drying on his hair, clothing, and skin already making him itchy), and while Nagito is hit with exhaustion… Sunny looks to be pouting.]

…OK…? [He sits near-ish to the other, relieved to be on solid ground and yet… still feeling as though he isn’t quite here. Nagito looked tired though, and that has Sunny wondering what he must look like right now.]

slides in

[theferryman]

[This may be the first time anyone in their group has seen The Ferryman sitting down! There's no reason to loom while the two of them are resting, so they've sat cross-legged just a little bit away, to give them both some space.]

It was enough to give me a place to start, at least. [They bow their head, grateful.] Thank you. I know that it wasn't an easy thing to ask.

[blindluck]

I'm fine. [That's more to Sunny than the Ferryman, though the Ferryman had maybe looked a little concerned when they pulled him out of the River, so maybe it isn't entirely not to the Ferryman.] I'd be happy to help again if you need it! [Though maybe he'd bring some towels with him next time...] Most of what I experienced was violent. Is that relevant? Or could you tell when it was happening?

[He's not entirely sure how far the Ferryman's knowledge of what's happening in the River extends.

As far as Nagito actually being fine or not, he's maybe a touch too cheerful, leaning a little toward mania. Still, it's only a little, and he'll calm down eventually.]

Oh gosh, I”m so sorry notifs didn’t let me know >< changed that now

[solitarynote]

[Sunny is glad that Nagito… seems ok? Maybe? The other seemed calmer than he had in the Cavern Crossing, so maybe that was a good sign.

And the Ferryman sitting down too certainly puts Sunny more at ease! There, nothing formal.

He still looks like he’s pouting, but more at his lack of progress (what he thinks) than anything.]

Violent…? {Sure, Rabbits could be violent, but Sunny’s hadn’t been.] They were… fast…

[Is this too disjointed bits of information?]