Happily ever after with a little flavor

[missrecalled_mods]

Sponsors for the ship? So... Sponsor'ship?

Rare had an hour seemed so long on the Isle, or carried so much hope. The King and Queen spoke to all who wished to speak with them, and to Yen Sid. At one point they even opened the barrier enough to go back to the ship where they conferred inside a silence spell with Sylvando. And once more for the King and Queen to return a few minutes later. Then back on the Isle they pulled a few individuals aside once more. Oddly, not those from the Isle this time. Aqua first. Then Lea. Then Æn'kae.

Finally the hour came to an end and the King and Queen called for everyone's attention. Mal stepped forward to address everyone.

"Alright, so here is how this is going to work," she told them without preamble, once she had their attention. The wind pulled at her purple hair, pulling it like a banner behind her. "Here are the terms by which we will take the people we will name to Auradon. Each person will be assigned a sponsor. If you want to change sponsors you may let us know once we are back in Auradon. Your Sponsor will be watching out for you. You need to check in with him, her, or them, regularly. How often that will be will be between you and your sponsor, but the sponsors will report to King Ben and myself. Behave and you'll get to stay in Auradon, and we will let you know when your probation is over and you no longer need to check in with your sponsor. Break the rules of Auradon, hurt anyone, steal.... depending on how bad the act and how many were harmed, we may, with your sponsor decide to give you a warning... or you may wind up back here. This is a chance to prove that the sorting magic was wrong, that you are good people. Or can become good people given the chance." Mal looked and sounded like she was clearly waiting to make her own judgments.

"As I list each name, please go to your sponsor if he, she, or they is here. If not, come stand with the king and I."

She took a deep breath. "Xion, your sponsor is Lea." she pointed to him, suspecting that she didn't actually have to, but it was good to set a pattern.

"Utau, you are with Sylvando, who is on the ship so come join us." Then a bit of a wicked grin. "He's also keeping an eye on Nadeshiko and Nagihiko, why not let him keep an eye on all three of you," she said, knowing she was throwing fuel on an explosion waiting to happen. But she trusted Sylvando to sort out which of the kids actually belonged on the Isle.

"River you are with Æn'ki. Hope you like animals," she said with a grin that wasn't all that softer than her last as she gestured to him.

"Morgana and Emporio, you are with Aqua," she added nodding to the woman with the blue hair. "Of course we understand if any of you want to stay..."

She turned to the Headmaster. Doctor F.... We're aware of you, and your efforts, I assure you. We'll be speaking with those heading to Auradon. But for now, stay where we can see you while the rest of you, those coming with us? You have ten minutes to get your stuff if you have any and say goodbyes to anyone if you want to. Goodbyes with the headmaster will be supervised so we can make sure he is being as good as he claims these days. Alright. Ten minutes, starting now!"


**************************************************

The gathering of belongings and saying of goodbyes was accomplished in the allotted ten minutes without much trouble. Getting everyone onto the boat, then equipped with lifejackets- thankfully the boat's owner was a bit over prepared so there were enough for everyone, if only just-, and reasonably settled for the trip back took a bit longer, however. The boat was a large catamaran, painted mostly in blue and purple pastels. The life jackets however, were the standard safety orange, and so stood out as sharply as they were meant to. The water was still rough so once everyone was equipped, Sylvando advised those unused to boat travel to settle down somewhere until they were in calmer waters.

Getting back to the mainland took time as well, though not quite as much as getting there had, as the tide was in their favor for the return trip. Still, there would be plenty of time for conversation, awkward silences, or angry glaring during the trip. And Sylvando himself wouldn't be adverse to conversation, provided it didn't interfere with the steering of the vessel. Those without their sea legs would also want to be careful walking around, as the boat-while large for a catamaran- wasn't large enough to prevent it from rocking.

Once they'd reached the harbor and the Bibbity Bobber had been secured in her berth, her passengers and crew disembarked and began the trek back up to the school. There seemed to be an inordinate amount of junk that had once been clearly blocking the road before the path to and from the harbor had been cleared. All of it was the sort of things one might expect to find in a modern city- cars, sign boards, fallen trees and lamp posts, etc- but there seemed to be too much of it for the simple vanishing of the populace to account for it all. Very odd.

Once they arrived at the school, they were led past the pretentious sign and statue of King Beast and directed into the lobby. There, they were issued phones and information sheets. On account of everyone being exhausted, no formal welcoming ceremony was planned for that evening, and those staying were directed to the dorms to get showered and settled in. Since that was sure to be a process in itself, Ben, Mal, Sylvando, the other sponsors, and anyone who still had the energy would likely be around for all that as well until everyone got settled. Thankfully the exhaustion had been anticipated, and it was announced that there was soup in the kitchen's refrigerator that had been premade and portioned out and needed only to be reheated for supper at each person's leisure.

The next morning however, proved that Auradon was still Auradon and couldn't really go without some kind of official welcome, as those who came down to the lobby would find a simple but tasty breakfast of muffins, fruit - provided by Malia-, tea, and coffee waiting for them along with the eternally chipper Sylvando, ready to answer any further questions they might have.


****************


Professor Yen Sid and the Headmaster stood and watched the ship through the barrier until they could no longer see it. Then the headmaster, looking bitter, turned on his heel, stalked back to the school, muttering under his breath about needing to speak with someone. He did not say who, but it did not seem like it was likely to be a pleasant conversation.

Yen Sid, on the other hand, turned to those who chose to remain. “Shall we get these supplies in before the humidity destroys them?” he asked, gathering his things into his bag before grabbing it and one of the boxes.

Comments

[elvendryad]

(( cw: talk of violence and death. and also cut because long tag is long, oops? ))

Another little pause, considering it. "I hardly remember much from when I was far younger, but my life has primarily been spent as guardian to my forest. I would defend it from humans' more unwelcome intentions... not that they were always. Most often, their hunters were simply hungry, and would eagerly trade the life of their small quarry for an encumbrance of willingly given food, for which none had to die. But then there were some who were true monsters, who relished in sowing fear and causing pain and in ending lives. There was no understanding within them of murder being wrong. They felt themselves to be above others. They did not hunt out of need... they hunted innocent people that they refused to believe were people.

"And there could be no mistaken hope that they may not have been so twisted; I could feel that within them, just as surely as I can see this place around me now.

"Those, I would teach better. The fear they refused to hear in their victims' screams, I made them understand. Those animals they'd slain, which the ents and I could not save...." He'd gotten a little quieter, but took a breath and continued on anyway. "...Those, I felt also, and returned the experience to the ones responsible, that they would understand that which their actions had wrought, and then I sent them away again."

Another little pause. "I. Killed. None."

...That he was aware of, at least....

"I would disarm them, as well. They were fond of showy excess, even in their weaponry... of gold and silver and jewels. Those, I gave to the people who clearly needed such more, that they might better their poor situations." There, a confirmation that he understood something about at least basic economics, despite apparently being a hermit out in the wilderness....

Though he hadn't raised his voice once so far, he was a just a little quieter yet. "I may have also... returned a few arrows to their owners, while upset. If they so thought that limbs were acceptable places to put those, then they should have had no qualms using their own." He didn't sound sheepish or even halfway guilty about it, though. He very much wasn't. Those humans had earned their injuries, as far as he was concerned. It was the Golden Rule in action.

Finished with unloading another armful onto the shelf, he paused in working on that to turn more to Yen Sid, serious. The guy wanted to hear, he'd said... so he'd tell him. "I cannot say that I have no regrets. The battle in which I fell... I allowed the deaths of an entire family of innocents. Kin. Parents... children. They ran into my forest seeking safety, and I failed them. I did not reach them in time.

"I was not thinking clearly. I was too blinded by their pains. I hurried. I bid the ents lead the two parties apart, separate them, block the hunters' way and heal the family... and it was a failed gamble. By the time I reached them, they could not be saved. They were too weakened, too hurt... they'd exhausted too much of themselves, in attempting to heal their injuries, even with the ents' attempts to help... and I was never gifted in holding spirits to begin with, let alone ones so young and fragile still.

"I don't... quite remember exactly what happened after that. I think I remember those hateful ones breaking past the ents to reach us... and I most certainly remember being near blinded by grief and anger. I remember attempting to turn it on them, as I had other monsters like them, so many times before...." He shook his head, pausing briefly again to... well, it looked an awful lot like he was having to make an effort to maintain that calm, closing his eyes and apparently swallowing, but he continued on. "And then I remember yet more pain, but this time, it was my own."

He brought a hand up, indicating something across some of his chest's armor. It wasn't too terribly obvious; Yen Sid would have to look carefully to see it very well. If one didn't know any better, they might even think it was a few mere surface scratches from a pin or something, marks that may have been no more than superficial, maybe even scuffs in the polish of his plating that had happened simply by venturing too close to the thorns outside and being less than careful. And the thin, mostly straight little ridges, scars, really, in his armor, weren't only in that one spot. They were, if one were to look, rather scattered all over him, including one that suggested that the hunters had tried beheading him.

Or that they'd managed?

"I fell. And the ents did what they needed, to end the battle, that there might be something left of me. ...I remember that they'd had to gather my pieces... and they held onto me, that I might heal from it, and I let them. I was too exhausted to do more for myself... and I slept. I know not exactly how long it has been since then... others came to the forest, and it did as I would have done, giving food and protection and defending itself from attempts to harm it... and I think perhaps more than a few centuries passed, and I... could not seem to wake still, even when..." A slight pause, trying to figure out how to phrase it, "...When that tired kindred spirit came to find solace in my forest's company. Or after, when the brother who was so brilliantly joyful came, and led the forest elsewhere. Not until those dreams, which led me to meet brother Skisan, who helped me finally wake, and then here."

He eyed Yen Sid again, taking another slow breath to make sure he was still at least seeming calm outwardly. Despite how much time had apparently passed -- though to be fair, he'd just claimed he hadn't been properly, or even mostly, conscious during it -- he was still quite bothered, and pushing it aside. If he was going to let himself be upset about it, it wasn't going to be here and now. "If my ending up here was because I made the wrong choice when it mattered, rather than because I am needed here, or because it was indeed mere chance... if my failure so long ago is the deciding factor in all of this...? I would have even more questions about how just any of this could possibly be."

It didn't sound like he was intentionally leaving anything out, at least. If there were more to be recounted, either he wasn't aware of it, or didn't consider it important enough to mention. The fate of the hunters that'd hacked him to bits was probably a case of the latter, considering how he'd phrased that, but if he were being accurate about it, he hadn't even been the one to do anything to them directly. He'd mentioned what was probably him having control over the odd trees, even remotely... so him having been in literal pieces on the ground at the time might not have ruled out the possibility that he'd actually been behind it anyway.

But how often was anyone a truly objective, reliable narrator, when it came to their own stories? Everyone had a bias, though some were far better than others about recognizing it. Just because he'd said he was certain he'd sent all other the human hunters away alive didn't mean they stayed that way, did it? How many had had things go wrong for them after the injuries he'd inflicted in areas that wouldn't have otherwise been life-threatening to have an arrow or sword shoved into? ...How many had he utterly traumatized over the centuries, ruining their lives despite never once drawing blood in dealing with them? It really wasn't clear at all. Nor was it, what established laws in the area he or the hunters had broken, exactly, or whether his forest was even subject to any in the first place.

"The funny part about all of this, however... if indeed there is any humor to be found in it so far...." He turned to step aside again, beginning to gather another armful from the box. It was easy to tell that he was making an effort to stay calm despite the subject... and it was also easy to tell that whatever he was going to say wasn't actually funny to him in the slightest. "...Is that I have ended more lives since coming here... than I have in all my centuries prior to this, combined." ...So he meant the fish he'd been catching for everyone. He was counting those.

[misery_called_npcs]

He would address the rest in a moment, for now... "Ended lives since coming here? I am afraid that I require some... clarification..."

[elvendryad]

Another pause, though a brief one, and he looked back to him. It hadn't been something he'd expected to have to explain... did he not know? Had he not put together already, about the sudden abundance of big black berries, and the circumstances around it? "The fruit I was giving everyone... I had been unable to create it as I always could before, until then. It has to do with the magic here, or lack thereof. Healing and creating food and drink are among the things all of my people are accustomed to doing; it is learned as children."

He shook his head, quieter. "Were it not for the lack of magic, I would happily have been creating those berries and more this entire time, not... resorting to killing other creatures so that those here would not be hungry."

[misery_called_npcs]

"So you feel guilt over the killing of fish to feed those who are here?" he asked, to be certain.

[elvendryad]

He looked down again, focusing on the box's contents. "Whether I feel guilty about it changes nothing about whether it must be done. And if not by me, then it would be done by another; everyone here needs to eat." So... sidestepping answering the question, then.

[misery_called_npcs]

"An answer that neatly fails to actually be one." Perhaps Chell had a gift for teaching...

[elvendryad]

That did get a quiet sound, just a little huff under his breath, not quite a quiet laugh, but... he'd been called out and he could admit it. "I will deal with it. My feelings are no one else's problem, nor should they be. Just because I have failed to already accustom myself to something needed, hardly means anyone else need suffer for its lack."

[misery_called_npcs]

"Is not a community built by people who are concerned about one and another's feelings and needs?"

[elvendryad]

"And what would be the point in dwelling on it? I would feel far worse, if I should decline and leave others wanting. I do know what hunger feels like, and I would not wish it on anyone, let alone those I care for. While I cannot now conjure a feast from naught but my own will, I can do this much."

[misery_called_npcs]

"Perhaps allowing those who care about you in return to help carrying your burden, perhaps."

[elvendryad]

"Anyone I suspect would care or understand doubtless already knows, or isn't present here," he said, glancing back to him again. "Did you have questions about the rest, though?" Oh look, a topic change! Back to the previous! As far as he was concerned, this didn't need to be about his feelings on going fishing.

[misery_called_npcs]

"Do you think that you do not presume those of us here would not care for the same reason the people of Auradon are concerned about those who are here?"

[elvendryad]

"I neither said, nor implied, anything about that. But unless you can explain to me a direct relationship between a discussion of my enjoyment of doing what is needed, and it being done, we are done with this topic." He sighed, shaking his head, though he didn't look back to him yet, simply kept moving items over. "You wished to know about my life prior to being here, and I explained. Did I leave out anything I ought not to have, or that you wish to know more about, or that I might clarify?"

[misery_called_npcs]

"I could, but I suspect you prefer if I hold off for the moment. As to your story, I am beginning to get a glimmer. Though I would like you to expand upon your feelings on a topic such as vengeance."

[elvendryad]

He paused again, having to think about that, judging by the faintly confused look on his face when he peeked back to him. "...What do you mean?"

[misery_called_npcs]

"The concept of vengeance, in general and in specific, what do you think of it?"

[elvendryad]

"'Vengeance'?" He frowned, still trying to figure something out. "...As in, punishment? ...As opposed to trying to teach better?" That wasn't just confusion, that was some bit of disgust in his tone, too.

[misery_called_npcs]

"As in doing harm to others because of the harm they did first."

[elvendryad]

"But not to teach them better, and make them understand what they did wrong, and why? But because someone is upset with them?"

[misery_called_npcs]

"That leads to a whole other question... what differentiates an intended lesson that fails to be learned from pain given in response to pain taken?"

[elvendryad]

Chell eyed him. "I am beginning to think you are actually speaking about this place."

[misery_called_npcs]

"I am actually speaking of multiple things, including your own story."

[elvendryad]

He got an eyeroll for that, and Chell turned back to finish unloading the things from his shield again. "I never did violence to those monsters simply because I was upset at them for having done violence first. I prefer making them understand what they did, because something in them was broken, for them to be unable to comprehend that other beings feel pain too. For enjoying causing the death of innocent people."

[misery_called_npcs]

"but if you say that something in them made them unable to comprehend, then how do you think what you did could have changed that?" His voice was mild with no obvious censure in it.

[elvendryad]

"I made them know what they had done." He paused to glance back again. "....The same way that I could feel that they had been unable to understand."