SKELETAL SALUTATIONS | OTA

[spaghettimonster]

WHO: Papyrus the Skeleton and You! - (OTA)
WHAT: Catch-all of misc skeleton prompts!
WHERE: Network, Oasis, Riverbank, other?
WHEN: post-river rescue, pre-second Crossing
WARNINGS toll discussion, fears re: memory loss, possible discussion of death - will edit to add more if relevant


(1) 💀 NETWORK:un: CoolSkeleton95

SO, ABOUT THAT 'ENVISION' MESSAGE...
I GUESS YOU CAN'T REMEMBER,
BUT REALLY, HOW MUCH MEMORY DO THESE TOLLS COST???
A MOMENT OR A LIFETIME ARE VERY DIFFERENT AMOUNTS.

[He's a little alarmed by the sheer quantity of memory that could potentially be uprooted, here. Losing his own name before coming to was unpleasant, for all the Ferryman said it shouldn't have happened. But if he was involved in choosing to forget that, he certainly doesn't remember it! So, taking agency in choosing what to lose this time... it's different.]


(2) 💀 OASIS: INTRODUCTIONS & NAMES

[His first while after rescue from the river, the skeleton spent a lot of time loitering along the Riverbank and wandering the (nearby) dunes. Between his utter disinterest in claiming a bed to feign sleep, the lack of his own belongings to gather in a room to use anyway? The restless energy of the ever-changing sky and the newness of his death, let alone the awkwardness of introducing himself to more alarmed humans? There just wasn't much need to hang out in the Oasis right away.

But with a few chance encounters and network conversations reminding him that this next 'Crossing' is only a few weeks away - less time than since he left the underground! - he starts hanging out in the Oasis more. Watching the life in and around the water, grinning brightly at people who cross his path - no matter how alarmed they might be.

And if they respond to his varied greetings by approaching and making conversation, well, sooner or later he'll remember to reach in his scarf/capelet to pull out a crumpled paper with a list of rules and suggestions about names so far!]


(3) 💀 RIVERBANK:

[For all he's been reassured that the Ferryman knows when people are starting to emerge from the river, and that they'll even intervene if no one else is around... He's still finding himself patrolling along the riverbank fairly regularly. It's a little bit like being a sentry, without the human-catching or puzzle-maintenance elements. On the lookout, solely to try to help people. And that feels some kind of rewarding!

...It might be moreso if he were actually finding signs of additional people emerging, on any of his passes along the salt-crusted mud. And he doesn't actually want to want people to die, especially not any familiar people, for all he's still homesick and wondering how they're all doing, wondering...]

...Why did they kill me?

[It's meant as a question to himself, but he's not one for really lowering his voice, and sound can carry in these open spaces.]


(W) 💀 WILDCARD

[Got another prompt in mind? Feel free to poke me in the discord, by pm here, or plurk at swirlingflight to get the gist figured out!

Comments

[urtitan]

Opinions are quite divided. Based on the Ferryman acting as if we aren't here for the first time, but rather returned, I imagine that our souls are being made into blank slates to perhaps be reborn - but this is unconfirmed speculation. In a way, it is a mercy that we lose ourselves so gradually... but then, an abrupt end would have been a mercy in its own way.

[Surely, there are souls in the group who find this far more tormenting - and it isn't easy for her either, but getting to experience this time together means a lot to her.]

[spaghettimonster]

BLANK
SLATES?

[There's something hard to pin down but horribly familiar about the notion of his memories being wound back until he's some previous state of himself again, ready for someone else to remake him. Forgetting not just events, not just other people, not even the decisions he's been making... Forgetting himself?

The gnawing absence of his own name in his memory has never stood out his thoughts as badly as right now.]

WHAT A, REMARKABLE SPECULATION.
WHERE DID THEY COME UP WITH THAT IDEA?

[urtitan]

To clarify, it is MY theory - based on the Ferryman telling me that it was nice to see me AGAIN, welcoming me BACK here. If this is the place where our souls were born without memories, then I can see the logic in removing from us the memories of a life that has come to an end.

[She may not like it, but how else is she supposed to make sense of the Ferryman's words?]

[spaghettimonster]

I... SEE.
THOSE ARE CURIOUS AND, CONCERNING WORD CHOICES.
I DON'T THINK THEY SAID ANYTHING LIKE THAT TO ME...

[Admittedly, his conversation with the Ferryman had focused mostly on the topic of names rather than welcomes, so if they did say something like that, it's since slipped his mind. Hopefully just in the non-eidetic memory sense, rather than off roaming with his name.]

BUT I DIDN'T KNOW MY SOUL COULD STICK AROUND FOR SOMETHING LIKE THIS.
THIS AFTERLIFE THING IS FULL OF SURPRISES!!

[urtitan]

It certainly is. I don't know what I expected, but getting to meet people from other worlds and eras is beyond my wildest dreams.

[That, frankly, is worth undergoing this slow, gradual, harrowing loss of herself: She's not alone, nor in the company of the people of the Walls whom she withheld the truth of their world from - that would really have crushed her with guilt.]

[spaghettimonster]

I -DO- APPRECIATE CONTINUING TO EXIST IN SOME MANNER!

[There's a pause, as he starts to type another message about 'the world not being ready to lose the great--', only for his thumb to hesitate over the keys uncertainly. Not even trying to not think about it and just work off (metaphorical) muscle memory calls anything back... He shakes his head, and the whole matter off with it.]

WHAT'S THE COOLEST THING YOU'VE HEARD ABOUT ANOTHER WORLD SO FAR??

[urtitan]

Need's world has magic! In my world, magic only exists in stories - dragons, too, which exist in the flesh in Soo Won's world! And Kel, Mari and Sunny's world has comic books!

[Clearly, those things are all on the same level!]

[spaghettimonster]

INCREDIBLE!!!
DESPITE ALL THE DIFFERENCES, EACH OF THEIR WORLDS HAS THINGS LIKE MINE!

[...Okay, so, they are all on the same level by at least one metric, for sure! But, the dragons he's thinking of are not exactly on the same scale as the ones in Soo Won's world.]

MAYBE THAT'S ANOTHER OF THE SECRET RIDDLES AS TO WHY WE'RE ALL AWAKE TOGETHER.
THE QUEST TO DISCOVER WHAT WE ALL HAVE IN COMMON...

[urtitan]

Really, your world has all these things? That's amazing!

[As for his next message... well, does she have a surprise for him: A definitive answer.]

I've wondered about our commonalities too - I think all of us have. When I asked the Ferryman, the answer was that we're here together because we're attached to our lives more than most souls are. I wouldn't have thought that about myself, but I have no cause to doubt the Ferryman.

[spaghettimonster]

[What a mix of moods in this conversation. He doesn't know what his face is doing, but fortunately texting - or writing - means he doesn't need to worry about his face.]

YES TO ALL THOSE THINGS!
IT HAD ITS PROBLEMS, TOO, OF COURSE...

[As he assumes all worlds do. Nobody here seems to have lived a long, happy, comfortable life... Or, well, nobody here.]

DID THEY REALLY SAY THAT?
MORE ATTACHED TO OUR LIVES...
I WOULD HAVE THOUGHT, MOST PEOPLE ARE.
AND ONLY SOME SMALL NUMBER ARE READY TO JUST, LET GO OF EVERYTHING.

[urtitan]

[Frieda doesn't know whether she should feel comforted or disillusioned to have it reconfirmed that there's no such thing as a paradise. Her ancestor's dream was impossible from the start, wasn't it? The Walls were never a perfect place - far from it.]

I thought myself part of that small number, but apparently not.

[Granted, she doesn't know how she died anymore... her last memories are of being with her family. What happened? Did she fall down the stairs? Did somebody assassinate her? But no, that can't be - nobody knew that hers was the true royal family. She shakes her head at herself. She shouldn't dwell on this.]

Regardless of how we feel about it, that seems to be what we share in common.

[spaghettimonster]

[Alas, the underground wasn't a paradise. Overshadowed by the literal stone and their captivity, with the added pervasive sadness that came of pinning all their hopes on war and murder... The surface hadn't been either, but it had the opportunities that came with freedom from those things, and still had most if not all of the good things of the underground. He wishes that time had lasted longer...

Well, if everyone here is a victim of murder, assassination, sudden illness, or - choosing to fall down, as her first comment slightly implies - he doesn't want to bring it up. Better to question the whole situation for a minute.]

HMM...
MAYBE THEY'RE FIBBING, AS A MOTIVATIONAL SENTIMENT.
AND ACTUALLY MOST PEOPLE TRAVEL IN GROUPS EVENTUALLY.

[urtitan]

[Frieda reads that twice, but ends up in mild disagreement - on both counts.]

I suppose I can see how it might bond us together to believe that we share something in common, but I think the Ferryman really meant it. I wouldn't be surprised if some of us - myself included - misjudged ourselves.

[Leave it to her to put more stock in the Ferryman's words than her own feelings...]

And while it may hold true for your world that most people end up traveling in groups, I'm from a place where people stay in one place their whole lives.

[In fairness, they can't leave the Walls! But even if they could, she's not convinced that travel would become a widespread phenomenon.]

[spaghettimonster]

I DON'T KNOW...

[It's an incomplete thought, but a true one in itself, too. He doesn't know what he thinks of The Ferryman yet, or the reality they've all persisted through death into. Whether to accept everything they say as truth unvarnished, or whether to search for riddles meant to puzzle them until enlightenment strikes... He just doesn't know yet!

So, instead, he continues onto the part he does know, and can speak a little more confidently about.]

I DIDN'T HAVE ANY EXPECTATIONS OF TRAVELING IN MY DEATH, GROUP OR SOLO.
AND IN MY LIFE...
THAT MIGHT BE ANOTHER NOT SO DIFFERENT THING!
MOST PEOPLE STAYED PRETTY MUCH IN ONE PLACE, FOR PRETTY MUCH ALL THEIR LIVES.

[Up until a pretty significant change, a couple months before his death.]

[urtitan]

[In the end, they all don't know for sure - the Ferryman's true intentions, the purpose of their journey, and all the other things they're wondering about.]

If people in your home were also sedentary, why did you conclude that travel is inevitable?

[Do uprootings regularly occur where he's from, or..?]

[spaghettimonster]

OH, WE WEREN'T SEDENTARY BY CHOICE.
THERE WAS A MAGIC BARRIER.

[You know, a magic barrier. One of those. Things that just happen sometimes, in worlds with magic. There were downsides, like he said.]

BUT I WAS THINKING OF THE TRAVEL HERE! WITH THIS CROSSINGS BUSINESS
IMAGINE THE FERRYMAN, ESCORTING ONE PERSON AT A TIME...
ALL THE QUESTIONS AND PESTERING AND BOREDOM.
BETTER TO TAKE PEOPLE IN A GROUP, TO ENTERTAIN AND ENRICH EACH OTHER!

[After all, if it was just one person, spending all their time talking at and getting frustrated with the Ferryman's tendency towards cryptic and mysterious comments? Nobody would be happy with that, eventually.]

[urtitan]

[So his people were caged, just like hers.]

I agree with you - being together is enriching.

[If only she could tell her siblings that she met a friendly skeleton monster! But they probably wouldn't believe her.]

[spaghettimonster]

YEAH, IT IS!!

MAYBE INSTEAD OF LOOKING FOR THINGS IN COMMON,
WE SHOULD BE ENJOYING ALL OUR DIFFERENCES INSTEAD.

[This is at least half-joking - it's easier to appreciate differences when there's also similarities connecting them, after all. But it's another facet to the puzzle of why them, together for him to mull over in those spans of time between his own turns at pestering people.]

[urtitan]

[Rather than sending a full response back to express her agreement, Frieda sends a small, simple drawing of a heart - she's seen some of the electric devices users doing that!]

♡

[spaghettimonster]

YEAH, EXACTLY!!

۵

[Well, it's the best he can do with the text feature of the phone, unless he wants to select a spade (not exactly accurate) or start exploring text symbol art again.]