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thecrossinglogs2025-04-19 09:44 am
thecrossingmods) wrote in thecrossinglogs2025-04-19 09:44 am
THE CROSSING #2
THE CROSSING #2
It's that time again.
For more detail on the particulars of the event, be sure to refer to our info and planning post!
For more detail on the particulars of the event, be sure to refer to our info and planning post!
always keep moving
— CLOUDS ON THE HORIZON
The Desert is sprawling. If you've ever gotten turned around in the rolling dunes, it may have once felt endless. But in the weeks and days before the descent of The Crossing, something appears on the horizon: first a dark smudge of storm clouds, not unlike the others that have rolled through before, then growing — wider, darker, and more threatening.
You feel it, too. For some of you the feeling is new; for others it's a reminder of a trial you've been through before. It's a weight in your body, a solidity of your self, a vulnerability to whatever is approaching.
The storm overtakes the oasis. As the first drops of rain begin to fall, The Ferryman speaks in your mind.
It's time. Those who are prepared to pay the toll are instructed to gather on the bank of The River. As for the rest of you... we hope you have a plan.
taking refuge
— THE RIVER OF MUD
The storm hits hard and fast. Even as you gather around The Ferryman, the rain grows from spitting droplets to a desert monsoon. The Ferryman's protection only goes so far: even if you're promised safety from danger, you'll still have to cope with the cold, the wind, and the water.
As before, The Lantern's Light grows dark. As before, The Ferryman gathers memories one by one, consolidated into a mote of light in their palm that becomes the new center point for the growing temporary bubble of safety. But this time— what it was too dark to notice in the Cavern before— you realize that The Ferryman themselves is changing, too. Their form fades as the light in their hands grows, becoming as fuzzy and insubstantial as mist... not unlike the wraiths, outside of The Crossing.
The sparkling white salt flat before you begins to melt and grow murky, exposing the sticky, grasping mud beneath. The Ferryman glides out over the roiling muck of The River, and so do you, your steps as light as if there were still a crust of salt to separate you from the mud before.
You must keep moving, though. Linger too long, and you'll start to sink... and the mud might not let go, this time.
— A HAVEN FROM THE WANTS AND ILLS OF LIFE
The journey is arduous, and the storm is unrelenting. The Ferryman, unfamiliar as they might be in this form, leads confidently through the blur of lightning, wind, and rain. As before, the mote of light created from your memories follows in their footsteps, illuminating the path to follow along the wide expanse of The River.
Even with The Ferryman's protection, it is exhausting work. It's as mentally taxing as it is physically draining. As such, when the path forward begins to shudder and shift, it may come as a reprieve. The wall of wind and rain finally breaks, the Desert around you replaced by... somewhere else. A place you may recognize, or may not.
Whatever stress or fear you may have been feeling from your journey wanes, replaced by feelings of calm, peace, or joy. If the place you are in is unfamiliar, the feelings are muted, as if they don't quite belong to you... but surely this is better than returning to the monsoon? Perhaps you can rest a while. Play a game, recover in shelter, or take a meditative walk through a maze. What's a few minutes, anyway? Time hardly means anything anymore.
Just don't forget: if you linger too long in any one place, the mud of The River will start to suck you down. It's best to stay alert— and to keep an eye on those traveling with you, as well.
storm chasers
— SWEPT AWAY
The Desert isn't designed to weather a storm like this one. Beyond the pounding rain and cracking lightning, those of you who have decided to travel without The Ferryman must also navigate the environment itself. Flash floods sweep through lower-lying places in the dunes, where the sand isn't able to absorb water quickly enough. Creatures that may have been docile before are now panicked, and might impede your progress, or even lash out themselves.
And, of course, there are the wraiths.
They're easier to spot this time around, across the rolling dunes. It's easier to make out just how much they've changed as well: the claws, the teeth, the exaggerated proportions... and the unmistakable pain and fury in every movement, in every shriek and wail.
You are vulnerable to any and all injury during this time, whether from the wraiths, the wildlife, or the elements. As long as you follow your gut, you'll know where to go — but we hope you have a strategy, all the same.
— AN EYE IN THE STORM
At least in the Cavern, you had cover. Nooks and crannies, branching tunnels, rocky outcroppings... But out here, beneath the wide-open sky of the Desert, there's very little in terms of shelter. The odd plateau, or cave entrance, or inexplicable feature might grant you some reprieve, but there's always more sand to cross in-between.
On occasion, however, you may spot a strange sort of wraith watching you at a distance. Some of you may even recognize it: an eerie, dissembling creature that some have dubbed the Smart Wraith. Its form, like the others, has solidified into something grotesque and painful, as if its body has been plucked like clay by a particularly spiteful child. Unlike the others, though, it does not attack, or even approach. It simply watches, as it always have.
If you have the presence of mind to notice, however, you may find that there are occasional reprieves from wraith attacks, especially across longer stretches of dunes. They're brief, but often crucially timed (such as when someone is significantly injured, or when a flood has just rolled through), and always correspond to a moment when The Wraith can be found watching from some far-flung vantage point.
It's odd, certainly. But do you have the luxury of looking a gift horse in the mouth?
stormbreak
— CLEARING SKIES
Eventually, the storm calms. Your body lightens. The atmosphere realigns.
The Crossing ends.
The thick, sucking mud of The River has become shallow and waterlogged. It's easy to wade through now, if a touch... unpleasant. Fibrous plants and reeds line the sloped banks, inexplicably dotted with bright orange flowers. Light is low, though the sky has cleared, as if wherever you are now lingers in perpetual dusk.
If you were traveling with The Ferryman, the mirages that dogged your journey finally fade and stay gone. If you were traveling on your own, any wounds you sustained heal rapidly on their own. As before, the healing is natural, but on fast-forward, and thus may not always resolve perfectly.
For both groups, memories bleed away from you - perhaps literally, perhaps not. Anything you found in the Desert, unless given to you by The Ferryman, is gone from your pockets.
When you look again, The Ferryman appears just the same as they were before The Crossing began. Let's take a break, they say. It's been a long journey.
It certainly has.
Image credits: 1, 2 + OMORI'S STORY, and stock imagery unless otherwise noted
The Desert is sprawling. If you've ever gotten turned around in the rolling dunes, it may have once felt endless. But in the weeks and days before the descent of The Crossing, something appears on the horizon: first a dark smudge of storm clouds, not unlike the others that have rolled through before, then growing — wider, darker, and more threatening.
You feel it, too. For some of you the feeling is new; for others it's a reminder of a trial you've been through before. It's a weight in your body, a solidity of your self, a vulnerability to whatever is approaching.
The storm overtakes the oasis. As the first drops of rain begin to fall, The Ferryman speaks in your mind.
It's time. Those who are prepared to pay the toll are instructed to gather on the bank of The River. As for the rest of you... we hope you have a plan.
taking refuge
The storm hits hard and fast. Even as you gather around The Ferryman, the rain grows from spitting droplets to a desert monsoon. The Ferryman's protection only goes so far: even if you're promised safety from danger, you'll still have to cope with the cold, the wind, and the water.
As before, The Lantern's Light grows dark. As before, The Ferryman gathers memories one by one, consolidated into a mote of light in their palm that becomes the new center point for the growing temporary bubble of safety. But this time— what it was too dark to notice in the Cavern before— you realize that The Ferryman themselves is changing, too. Their form fades as the light in their hands grows, becoming as fuzzy and insubstantial as mist... not unlike the wraiths, outside of The Crossing.
The sparkling white salt flat before you begins to melt and grow murky, exposing the sticky, grasping mud beneath. The Ferryman glides out over the roiling muck of The River, and so do you, your steps as light as if there were still a crust of salt to separate you from the mud before.
You must keep moving, though. Linger too long, and you'll start to sink... and the mud might not let go, this time.
— A HAVEN FROM THE WANTS AND ILLS OF LIFE
The journey is arduous, and the storm is unrelenting. The Ferryman, unfamiliar as they might be in this form, leads confidently through the blur of lightning, wind, and rain. As before, the mote of light created from your memories follows in their footsteps, illuminating the path to follow along the wide expanse of The River.
Even with The Ferryman's protection, it is exhausting work. It's as mentally taxing as it is physically draining. As such, when the path forward begins to shudder and shift, it may come as a reprieve. The wall of wind and rain finally breaks, the Desert around you replaced by... somewhere else. A place you may recognize, or may not.
Whatever stress or fear you may have been feeling from your journey wanes, replaced by feelings of calm, peace, or joy. If the place you are in is unfamiliar, the feelings are muted, as if they don't quite belong to you... but surely this is better than returning to the monsoon? Perhaps you can rest a while. Play a game, recover in shelter, or take a meditative walk through a maze. What's a few minutes, anyway? Time hardly means anything anymore.
Just don't forget: if you linger too long in any one place, the mud of The River will start to suck you down. It's best to stay alert— and to keep an eye on those traveling with you, as well.
storm chasers
The Desert isn't designed to weather a storm like this one. Beyond the pounding rain and cracking lightning, those of you who have decided to travel without The Ferryman must also navigate the environment itself. Flash floods sweep through lower-lying places in the dunes, where the sand isn't able to absorb water quickly enough. Creatures that may have been docile before are now panicked, and might impede your progress, or even lash out themselves.
And, of course, there are the wraiths.
They're easier to spot this time around, across the rolling dunes. It's easier to make out just how much they've changed as well: the claws, the teeth, the exaggerated proportions... and the unmistakable pain and fury in every movement, in every shriek and wail.
You are vulnerable to any and all injury during this time, whether from the wraiths, the wildlife, or the elements. As long as you follow your gut, you'll know where to go — but we hope you have a strategy, all the same.
— AN EYE IN THE STORM
At least in the Cavern, you had cover. Nooks and crannies, branching tunnels, rocky outcroppings... But out here, beneath the wide-open sky of the Desert, there's very little in terms of shelter. The odd plateau, or cave entrance, or inexplicable feature might grant you some reprieve, but there's always more sand to cross in-between.
On occasion, however, you may spot a strange sort of wraith watching you at a distance. Some of you may even recognize it: an eerie, dissembling creature that some have dubbed the Smart Wraith. Its form, like the others, has solidified into something grotesque and painful, as if its body has been plucked like clay by a particularly spiteful child. Unlike the others, though, it does not attack, or even approach. It simply watches, as it always have.
If you have the presence of mind to notice, however, you may find that there are occasional reprieves from wraith attacks, especially across longer stretches of dunes. They're brief, but often crucially timed (such as when someone is significantly injured, or when a flood has just rolled through), and always correspond to a moment when The Wraith can be found watching from some far-flung vantage point.
It's odd, certainly. But do you have the luxury of looking a gift horse in the mouth?
stormbreak
Eventually, the storm calms. Your body lightens. The atmosphere realigns.
The Crossing ends.
The thick, sucking mud of The River has become shallow and waterlogged. It's easy to wade through now, if a touch... unpleasant. Fibrous plants and reeds line the sloped banks, inexplicably dotted with bright orange flowers. Light is low, though the sky has cleared, as if wherever you are now lingers in perpetual dusk.
If you were traveling with The Ferryman, the mirages that dogged your journey finally fade and stay gone. If you were traveling on your own, any wounds you sustained heal rapidly on their own. As before, the healing is natural, but on fast-forward, and thus may not always resolve perfectly.
For both groups, memories bleed away from you - perhaps literally, perhaps not. Anything you found in the Desert, unless given to you by The Ferryman, is gone from your pockets.
When you look again, The Ferryman appears just the same as they were before The Crossing began. Let's take a break, they say. It's been a long journey.
It certainly has.
Image credits: 1, 2 + OMORI'S STORY, and stock imagery unless otherwise noted
YES <3 Also, bless Nagito’s memory (see Nagito! You are useful!)
Once Sunny realized what Nagito was doing - that Nagito remembered - he started sketching out the details the other mentioned.
It wasn’t quite the same - the tree branches were a different shape, and the bean was maybe a bit too large on the plate (why was there a bean? Sunny wasn’t able to answer that either), but slowly it started to take shape.]
Like… that…?
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But the staircase would look better colored…
So he nods, shuffling a bit so Nagito could sit or kneel nearby (whichever is most comfortable) and have access to the page.]
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Ah, there was a snake on the staircase, as well. [He skips the step it was on so Sunny can add it in before Nagito colors that one.]
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Snake… [Sunny’s eye lights up. He’d been wondering where the snake had been. That’s right… normally it didn’t really leave the room. Now though…
He drew the little snake, looking a bit happier about it, and then handed the notebook back to Nagito.]
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[Well, it's a snake--it must be able to move around outside as well, right? Wherever the staircase originally went to.]
Let's see, what else... There was a cat-shaped hole about here. [Nagito points.] To the left of the playing cards. There was a television here... A big--yellow cat, sort of--looming...? But friendly looming! Ah, hang on...
[Nagito pulls out his own notebook so he can draw an approximation of the yellow cat for Sunny to see. He's sure he isn't describing it right just with words--he's making it sound alarming.]
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…gives allowance… Clams…
[Right. How would he even have funds to purchase Candy with?
Nagito’s own explanation plus drawing have Sunny understanding. It’s just… it was strange. He should remember what the Big Yellow Cat looked like, right? And yet… staring at the exhibit Nagito draws, Sunny feels a sort of detachment. This… was something in his dream…?
Why could he remember the snake and not the cat? (Maybe it was a fact that the snake could leave. Maybe it was that the Giant Yellow Cat was so integral to Neighbor’s Room that Sunny’s mind couldn’t think of it as existing anyplace else.]
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This was a memory of a dream, right? [That's the impression he got, anyway, especially when he compares it to Mari's and Kel's memories.]
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[It was a strange thing to say of a snake, and honestly, in this case, clams were clams. The economy in Headspace ran on clams and tofu… most days.
Nagito’s question has the drawing process screech to a halt. Sunny’s head tilted slightly, before he nodded.]
It was… [A dream. A safe space. Maybe even more than that, if Sunny thought too deep about it.]
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It says something that Sunny's chosen safe space was a dream. Of course, Kel and Mari had taken two things that might have been options for him, based on how those two talked about it, but-- Well, it's notable, that's all!]
My dreams are much more mundane. If you saw them, you'd definitely be bored.
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Nope, his world wasn’t a cartoon, not really, but it did have cartoons. Headspace was just… different. His.
Sunny had talked with Kel about potential memories to give up (or as much as he normally could talk about it, anyway), so at least they had some sort of ‘plan’ in place to help each other remember…?]
I can’t… dream hop… [Unless that was a new power he somehow unlocked but… with how he couldn’t (feel safe enough to) dream here so far, he doubted that. Just so Nagito didn’t get any potential ideas… and Sunny really couldn’t attest to whether his dreams would be boring or not!]
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Nagito’s question has him fidgeting in place, his fingers grasping the fabric of his shorts.]
Vivid… dreams…? [Did he mean the color? The fact they were so real? Suddenly, Sunny isn’t sure where this conversation is going, but he’s not backpedaling (yet).] A… lot…
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But giving too much of them up would lead to… nowhere.
”Come back to me, Dreamer, when you are ready to choose your path.”
Yeah, no way he was able to get back to the basement of a castle. (Not that he could see himself giving that up as a ‘safe’ memory either. They would all probably just be chased by sprout mole guards!]
Y-yeah… I could… try… [Nagito does have a valid point though.] Yours… too…
[Something in Sunny’s eye lights up at the way Nagito describes their collaborative drawing as ‘fun.’] I… don’t mind… is… fun…
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[...What did he give up again?]
Whatever I gave up.
[Nailed it.]
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Nagito wants him to draw that, right?
Soon, he’s turning to a new page, the beginnings of a sketch - another room, or more specifically, Nagito’s room as Sunny had seen.
You see, Sunny didn’t have much, but he did have a good memory! Seems like he could put it to use now.]
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A tatami room... [Which means it could be a lot of things. The decorations are vaguely familiar as they appear, but he can't really place them. The books, though--]
Ah, it's a room from my house.
[He knows his books.]
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It’s like a game of hangman!
Books. Books. So many books. And the mats even have the correct number of woven lines! (Sunny paid attention, counting them when his attention had lapsed)]
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[When he pictures the layout of his house, there's a space for the living room. He knows where it is. But it might as well be a blank box labeled "living room".]
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If he could give this to Nagito like Nagito had given him the details of that room-
It would make him… almost happy?
(It was a foreign feeling, and suddenly Sunny feels as though he can understand what Nagito meant about hope and despair. He’s so hopeful he can make something for Nagito. He’s so scared he’ll do it wrong.)
Sunny understands that feeling well though. Where Neighbor’s Room once sat in Headspace, there is simply another white room, devoid of color and decoration save for a dead tree, empty countertops, and a monochrome staircase.
Not that Sunny knew that, but he did understand there was a blank spot there. Just like with Nagito’s house.
He finishes sketching the details and hands the notebook out towards Nagito.]
Want… to color…?
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[He knows what color his books are, for example, and he knows what color tatami mats are even if he can't remember these specific ones.]
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Collaboration~ Collaboration~
Normally Sunny wouldn’t want other people to touch his notepad, but this was for Nagito, and Nagito had helped him so…
Nagito has special privileges. Makoto would be so proud…?
The teen worked on coloring the sections that Nagito didn’t - the low end table, the walls, anything that the other needed help remembering.]
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[He's extrapolating based on the rest of his house; almost all of it still has the decorations his parents left behind.]
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Changed…? [The implication is that Nagito didn’t change anything in his house, but why would he have…?]
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Not Sunny wondering if Ferryman has a whole stash of Makoto stickers somewhere XD
they should, those are important
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Wrap here or with yours?