Your Friends Have Turned To Stone
May. 15th, 2025 02:28 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
missrecalled_mods posting in ![[community profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/community.png){kind=small}
kingdoms_of_auradonIt happened one fine spring morning. A sudden - and brief - windstorm reduced visibility outside the school to nothing for all of a minute right at dawn. Anyone down by the docks or asleep indoors would never have noticed anything amiss at all.
When the storm passed however, the front quad of the school was now filled with exquisitely detailed statues. Most were human. Or humanoid. Each looked captured mid motion, with stone looking as though it had moved as cloth and hair and feathers had. A perfect likeness, each of them, of someone caught in a moment of joy. A laugh, a smile, a toss of the head. The statues were utterly still and yet managed to convey a sense of life and motion and happiness.
The statues seemed to be made of stone at a first glance. Alabaster, marble, jet, and lots of precious and semi-precious stones rendered each in full colour as true to the person's actual coloration and clothing as stone can go.
However, despite looking like they were formed of stones, the statues would be impervious to any and all magic that might affect normal stone statues. No stone magic could move of break them.
Which is a bit of a problem because as lovely as they are, there are a lot of them crowding the grassy area, and they are all randomly every which way, like they formed a lose maze. In other words... they were too jumbled up to properly appreciate them the way one in a museum and they were in the way.
A closer look however would reveal one detail more. The various Missrecalled would find that they know who some of the statues are of. Because every statue is a representation of a friend or loved one of one or more of the Misrecalled. These could be people from their pat in canon or CRAU or even just someone they met.. once upon a dream. But they are all people who a Missrecalled has positive memories of. From fondness to love, there is affection there.
While there seems no normal way to move them, for they are too heavy for even the strongest to budge, they can instead be moved emotionally. If someone who knows the person the statue is of tells a positive story or recalls a memory that could be seen as happy about the person to someone else in front of the statue... The statue will fade away slowly in a cloud of harmless pink and blue glitter. When the statue is fully gone gone what remains where the statue had been is a small non-magical keepsake to remind the Missrecalled of the friend partially covered by the glitter. This keepsake could be a mini-fig sized version of the statue, or a photograph of them, or maybe a copy of a hair clip they always wore. Nothing high in fiscal value or of use in a practical sense. But something likely to be loved and cared for all the same.
A week after the statues arrived, any that remain would vanish, as would the abundance of glitter in the grass. The keepsakes would remain, however. Each person, when they next either woke or returned to their room would find a small plastic jar of glitter for each statue they removed. Each jar of glitter would be in the colour or colours the Missrecalled most associates with the person the character the statue had been of.
When the storm passed however, the front quad of the school was now filled with exquisitely detailed statues. Most were human. Or humanoid. Each looked captured mid motion, with stone looking as though it had moved as cloth and hair and feathers had. A perfect likeness, each of them, of someone caught in a moment of joy. A laugh, a smile, a toss of the head. The statues were utterly still and yet managed to convey a sense of life and motion and happiness.
The statues seemed to be made of stone at a first glance. Alabaster, marble, jet, and lots of precious and semi-precious stones rendered each in full colour as true to the person's actual coloration and clothing as stone can go.
However, despite looking like they were formed of stones, the statues would be impervious to any and all magic that might affect normal stone statues. No stone magic could move of break them.
Which is a bit of a problem because as lovely as they are, there are a lot of them crowding the grassy area, and they are all randomly every which way, like they formed a lose maze. In other words... they were too jumbled up to properly appreciate them the way one in a museum and they were in the way.
A closer look however would reveal one detail more. The various Missrecalled would find that they know who some of the statues are of. Because every statue is a representation of a friend or loved one of one or more of the Misrecalled. These could be people from their pat in canon or CRAU or even just someone they met.. once upon a dream. But they are all people who a Missrecalled has positive memories of. From fondness to love, there is affection there.
While there seems no normal way to move them, for they are too heavy for even the strongest to budge, they can instead be moved emotionally. If someone who knows the person the statue is of tells a positive story or recalls a memory that could be seen as happy about the person to someone else in front of the statue... The statue will fade away slowly in a cloud of harmless pink and blue glitter. When the statue is fully gone gone what remains where the statue had been is a small non-magical keepsake to remind the Missrecalled of the friend partially covered by the glitter. This keepsake could be a mini-fig sized version of the statue, or a photograph of them, or maybe a copy of a hair clip they always wore. Nothing high in fiscal value or of use in a practical sense. But something likely to be loved and cared for all the same.
When The Glitter Fades - A week later.
A week after the statues arrived, any that remain would vanish, as would the abundance of glitter in the grass. The keepsakes would remain, however. Each person, when they next either woke or returned to their room would find a small plastic jar of glitter for each statue they removed. Each jar of glitter would be in the colour or colours the Missrecalled most associates with the person the character the statue had been of.
Prompto OTA
Date: 2025-05-15 11:20 pm (UTC)At first, he startled at the seeming silent crowd scattered about the yard, but after a heartbeat too many of stillness, he looked close enough to realize they were all made of stone. Bizarre. He shivered, unnerved, and debated turning and heading back to bed. Though, the laughing face he could just make out on the nearest statue gave him pause. She nearly glowed in her obvious joy, or maybe that was the glittering stone catching the sunrise. Either way, it eased some of his discomfort.
He shook his head at his own stupidity and stepped out into the morning, letting the heavy door close behind him. If the statues came to life, he would tell himself he told him so, but his curiosity was undeniable.
Besides, a little ways into the yard, he could just make out the carved likeness of a painfully familiar pair of dappled wings. They were spread wide, the only reason he'd noticed them from here. He as-close-as-he-could-to-cursed himself under his breath and started carefully towards them. He had to duck and weave around sprawled limbs and grinning faces frozen mid laugh. It was a surreal picture, and he thought he should maybe be more frightened than he was. But something about the expressions made it hard to be afraid. The statues' joy was nearly palpable in the air. He pushed himself over someone's hunched form, the stone surprisingly warm under his palm, and finally rounded to the front of the statue he was looking for.
His breath caught in his throat. It was him. Cor. Why was he here? Well, a stone statue carved to look like him at least. Who had put it here? How It wasn't just like Cor either, the details were unfathomable. The colouring of his wings had been recognizable from across the grass, he wore the same casual Kingsglaive garb Prompto was so used to seeing him in. Down to the last button. The loose thread on his left cuff that Prompto had been telling him to fix. He stood with his wings spread and arms crossed, weight leaning into one hip and a warm smile on his face. He'd turned this exact expression on Prompto right before Prompto left to accompany Noct to Altissia.
Prompto reached out a hand, letting his fingertips brush over the unreasonable detail of the faint stubble across Cor's jaw. The man's face so rarely left the severe frown he usually wore, when he smiled like this it wrinkled all over his face. It was only a small smile, but that was a grin on him. It folded the skin at the corners of his eyes, pushed creases into his cheeks. His eyes shone with all the warmth his expression kept hidden.
Suddenly and completely Prompto felt sick. Grief, homesickness, longing, more emotions than he could name twisting up his stomach and around his throat. He didn't care if it was just a stone statue, he flung his arms around rigid, unmoving shoulders and let his weight fall against the stone. One thing this statue had in common with the real Cor was it's unwavering support. Cor never flinched in the face of Prompto's hysterics, and neither did the stone likeness of him. It brought a fresh wave of grief and tears. He tucked his face against a hard shoulder and let the emotions shake him apart.
Re: Prompto OTA
Date: 2025-05-16 11:54 am (UTC)"What the actual happinesses? Another Praevolo?!"
Interesting way for Prompto to meet grown up Kaylin, wasn't it? Though if he recognized her as the little girl from the boat that had tried to glare at everyone but who kept staring at his wings and Sephiroth's wings... who knew. She certainly didn't have a small pale dragon looking thing on her shoulder at that point, and she did now. And it was making a hissing noise that somehow managed to sound like a laugh.
Re: Prompto OTA
Date: 2025-05-16 09:58 pm (UTC)He didn't recognize the woman. He hadn't known Eli well enough to pick out her features now that she was grown. "What? Sorry, I um- I don't-" He felt shaky, thrown off kilter and having a hard time catching his footing. It didn't help that her words made no sense to him.
His eyes darted from her face, to the creature on her shoulder, back to her face. Was it hissing at him? Like a cat? It almost sounded like laughter. He stood, and stared, and felt stupid and small.
Re: Prompto OTA
Date: 2025-05-17 07:51 am (UTC)She flicked the creature on the snout with her finger, but her eyes were still on his wings as she spoke.
"That statue.. Is Illumen Praevolo?" she asked in her best trying to keep a witness calm voice. Sadly she stunk at that, and usually left it to her partner. But at least her usual impatient edge was softened by watching his wings.
And alright fine, maybe Teela was right... she was still biased. She should be angry thinking about what the other Aerians did to Moran and she should be focused on that. But part of her... she couldn't ver think ill of a child and she couldn't stop herself envying th Aerian gift of flight....
Re: Prompto OTA
Date: 2025-05-17 11:33 am (UTC)He glanced back to Cor and then back to her. "No, um. It's of my- it's Cor. He's one of the Kingsglaive from back home." Which didn't really explain why he had just been sobbing and clinging to the stone statue, but she'd have to work harder for him to reveal that.
Re: Prompto OTA
Date: 2025-05-17 12:06 pm (UTC)Of course she was human and they hadn't exactly taught the Illumen Praevolo myth in racial integration class. No that stopped anyone from making her feel stupid for not knowing who she had invited into her home. "Look, unless you committed a crime I'm not here to arrest you, and frankly I'm half your size and lack wings," she said wings the way a starving man might say food. So why the actual happinesses are you acting so ocean walled scared of me, exactly?"
Sadly Kaylin was a bad liar, and even an indirect pseudolie like this... the fact of the matter was unless he flew she had a pretty goo chance of taking him down if he attacked. If he flew she'd give herself even odds. And she kind of missed the fact that she'd slid into her habitual rest stance which left her ready to throw herself in any direction she needed, with her hands resting lightly on the pommels of her daggers. Not that she was yet aware they were nowhere near as deadly as they were at home.
Re: Prompto OTA
Date: 2025-05-18 04:55 pm (UTC)He shook his head. "Your world must be different from mine. There's nothing out of the norm about Cor's wings, sorry." If she was hung up on colouring, she had the wrong one between the two of them, but he wasn't about to tell her that. Still, if her world was also one with winged people... The ache in his chest was familiar, even if he hated his wings, he would never envy a Flightless. But he wouldn't ask her what happened either, it seemed a sensitive subject for her.
His pulse was a steady drum under his skin, but he didn't react to her somewhat aggressive stance. Being underestimated had so far been working out for him, so if she did choose to make a fight out of it he would be ready. She didn't know he could only barely fly anyway.
"I wouldn't say scared, but you did startle me, and you have a funny way of showing 'friendly'." He looked pointedly down to her loose grip on her weapons.
Re: Prompto OTA
Date: 2025-05-21 12:30 pm (UTC)