Mother, Tell Me What To Do- Event

[missrecalled_mods]

It began with flowers. Now, flowers were nothing new to Auradon, but these were clearly no ordinary flowers. For one thing, they were distinctly not native to the area, looking much more like they hailed from somewhere far more tropical, though even should anyone- Missrecalled or local- be familiar with such things, they wouldn't be able to identify what species they were or exactly where they might be from. For another, rather than growing over time, they'd all just simply appeared overnight. And they'd appeared everywhere. From outdoor spaces where one would usually find flowers, to all sorts of places indoors where one normally wouldn't find them. Draped in living garlands around the shoulders of suits of armor. Twining around the legs of tables and chairs. Literally sprouting right out of the woodwork or wallpaper in places. 

Avoiding them entirely would be difficult, though doable if one were particularly determined. Fortunately, aside from their mysterious appearance and their sudden ubiquitousness they seem to be harmless. They even smell nice, though no two people will be able to agree on exactly what the smell is like, just that it's pleasant.

However some of the flowers will randomly cause something odd to occur. Touching one, or breathing in too deeply from one of the random flowers will draw forth a memory for all nearby to see and hear. Only one memory will display at a time, and anyone in the area can see and hear it, but only those close enough to have caught the scent of that particular flower will get the full effect. They'll see the figures and setting as solid, and may experience subtle additional effects related to the memory, such as the feeling of a breeze or the smell of cooking food. Anyone else will see and hear everything fine, but will not experience any additional sensations and will see the scene as somewhat transparent. The figures aren't solid, they just seem like that to anyone who was close enough to smell the flower when it triggered.

The memory, oddly enough, will not be from the perspective of the one it belongs to; they and their companion or companions will be observing from a third party perspective, thus allowing a person to see their own face in the memories without the aid of a mirror. Nor can the memories be interacted with; those viewing them are observers only, and while they'll be able to hear the figures in the memory and each other speaking, no one in the memories will be able to hear or perceive them in any way. The memories vary in content and tone from person to person, for obvious reasons, but a common thread will soon be spotted: all the memories involve the person's mother or similar maternal figure. Generally they are more likely to be positive memories, if such memories exist. 

Once the memory fades that flower looses its ability and becomes just like any other flower in this event. However another flower nearby might have been activated...

Picking one of the flowers and taking it back to their rooms- which are one of the few places that remain entirely flower-free, for some reason- will result in the person having vivid dreams of their mothers or maternal figures. Again, while the content of those dreams will vary widely for obvious reasons, in Auradon, the tone will be generally positive. Perhaps bright and cheerful, perhaps nostalgic and somewhat melancholy, but the dreams will be generally good ones, and those who have them will wake feeling generally refreshed and like they slept well. The dreams are just that, dreams. Even those with no memories of their mothers can have these dreams - but in the drams they will have a mother, and the dream will center around that maternal figure one way or another. Again, these are dreams and our minds can create the sweetest fantasies when so inspired. These dreams will linger one day past the event for every day the flowers had been kept in the bedroom. Also, oddly, of the flowers people pick will show no signs of wilting or drying out, even days after being picked no matter where they're left.

Then, after a week, all the flowers- whether picked or left alone - vanish overnight, just as suddenly as they appeared. A strange phenomenon, to be sure, but once it's over, other concerns will likely take precedence once again. After all, something like that couldn't possibly happen again, right? 

Comments

[queen_butterfly]

"About whoever you'd like to tell me about. I could tell you about someone I've been reminded of too, if you'd like....?"

[nadenagi]

"If... if you want. I'm not as good at being a friend as my sister... but I am good at listening..."

[queen_butterfly]

"I don't think I'd believe you're not. You're plenty capable of that, poppet." Just because she didn't know him very well personally didn't mean that she had doubts there; this was a kid, and children, well... they were quite often capable of more than they expected.

"Would you want to tell me about someone first, or ought I tell you first?"

[nadenagi]

He pushed some hair back, flushing a little. "You can..."

[queen_butterfly]

She nodded a little. "One of my oldest friends," she said. "He seems to know me better, sometimes, than I know myself. Always knows just what to say, to help when I've been upset. We could always tell each other anything. And he would always be there to help me, and I, him. He's one of those people one could spend the day with, not say a single word, and still feel like you've had a wonderful conversation.

"Some time ago, I was..." How to put it? Well, she didn't want to lie.... "I was hurt. And it was such that I couldn't do something I had intended to do. I couldn't give someone a present I'd planned. And he came to visit... he wasn't even able to come speak with me first, and I know he was very upset about what'd happened... but he remembered so well what I'd wanted to give them, and he gave it for me." She smiled faintly. "I think things quite possibly turned out even better for those people, than if I'd been the one to give it myself.

"I had to be away for a long while after that... but he was one of the first people I met with again after. He helped me fix my home... rebuild my castle. He helped me clear the ash and debris, and get my garden started. A long time ago, I'd given him a few bits of the roses from my garden... and he'd cared for them, and brought them back to me for my new garden."

She reached up to her hair -- surely this one was of her magic's making, given that she'd planted the real ones some time ago -- and she pulled down a little blossom, a darker, intense sort of deep purple, matching the hems of her gown, and offered it over to the child, intending to simply gift it away. "I really don't know where I'd be now, if it weren't for him. I owe him so much...."

[nadenagi]

He nodded, listening intently. "He sounds wonderful," he said quietly.

[queen_butterfly]

She nodded. "He's always been there for me... and I've tried my best to be there for him, as well. I don't even remember when it was that we met; I know we had to have, at some point, but it feels as though we've always known each other...."

She set the little rose in Nagihiko's hands, quiet, her smile soft. "There's so much that I don't remember, from when I was younger... and much that didn't happen for me, as it would for a good many others.

"...What's it like, having a mother the way humans do...?"

[nadenagi]

He held the rose gently. Cradling it like it was precious.

"I'm not sure I'm the best one to answer," he said softly. "Nadeshiko knows our mother better than I do. But... she's firm. Kind where she can be, but firm. Focused. I still... don't really know how..." he trailed off. "It's hard. Nadeshiko really is the better one to ask..."

[queen_butterfly]

"But I'm curious what you've experienced. Everyone sees something different.

"I remember seeing human mothers with their children... singing them to sleep... feeding them, when they were very small... giving them hugs, when they fell and hurt themselves a bit...." Quieter, "I don't remember ever quite being so small that I was treated the same way, precisely...."

There were downsides to practically beginning one's sapient existence as a form of adult, after all. Some were never that interested in the things they missed out on. Mallia, on the other hand, was curious about everything.... And though there surely had been some instances of having been so little physically, things were sometimes lost over the centuries.

[nadenagi]

He hesitated, then nodded. "Not since I was really little, but... yeah. Mom... she's as driven as dad is, in some ways. About dance. About teaching us, though she mostly teaches my sister. She... she can be kind. But she also doesn’t like it when I sneak out to just... be myself... by myself... but she has her reasons," he said feeling compelled to defend her.

[queen_butterfly]

"People always do." She didn't seem upset, simply agreeing with the boy. Was he going to continue?

[nadenagi]

Not unless pressed. He looked down at his feet.

[queen_butterfly]

Quiet, tilting her head to somewhat peek at him despite the angle, "What sort of things did she teach you? ...What sorts of dance has she done?"

[nadenagi]

He hesitated, trying to figure out how to answer, then a small smile ghosted his lips and he stood. "Do.. you want me to show you?" he asked, holding a hand out to her.

[queen_butterfly]

"I'd be honored." She shifted to stand, reaching up to take the offered hand gently.

[nadenagi]

He smiled and, holding onto her hand. started leading her through the first steps of one of the simpler two person dances for a male and a female that he had learned. It was a good one, he had been taught, to use to asses someone's skill. Because it wasn't well known enough to be insultingly familiar, or to seem to be too easy. But it was easy enough to pick up and follow, even for a beginner.

As for Nagihiko himself, as they started dancing, something started to come alive in his face. His smile seemed deeper than she'd ever seen, and more natural. It was as if when he danced he was... somehow more himself than most of them usually got to see.

[queen_butterfly]

She did her best to go along with the dance -- most certainly not one she'd ever tried before, it was clear, but at least she did catch on. She moved well enough; perhaps it was something she'd practiced often herself?

But her attention was on the child there as he moved, not just to try keeping up with him, but enjoying seeing the change in his demeanor for it. It was... nice. Seeing him lowering his guard like this, to show her something that clearly meant so much to him....

She'd have to remember this all for later. Perhaps she could figure out some way to play into it eventually for him as a gift?

[nadenagi]

His smile brightened as he led her through the dace. She might notice a slight motion in his little caplet that his motion and the wind couldn't account for. He seemed unaware of it. "Let me know when you want to try to go a bit faster," he said, sounding happy. Truly happy.

[queen_butterfly]

"If you'd like to, we can," she said, deciding not to mention the movement... the last time she'd asked one of them about similar, they'd fled, and more importantly, she didn't want to distract from what they were up to right now.

[nadenagi]

His smile was brilliant as he nodded. "Alright then!" And he shifted to a speed that he judged from dancing with her so far, was hopefully the kind of speed that would lead her breathless with no time to stress or think, just react. Just give herself over to the dance as the thing in his cape wiggled even more.

[queen_butterfly]

She was having fun, certainly, doing well enough at keeping up as she caught on to what was expected and went with it. In truth, she probably wasn't actually doing some of the moves quite right; should someone have been video-recording it, they might've caught her fudging foot positions in the playback now and then, subtly, sliding into place were she shouldn't have been able to... of course, it helped that her lower half was hardly visible under her skirt....

Perhaps it would be interesting sometime, if she were to simply take to literally floating around rather than attempting all the footwork one might assume went into some dance or other? But another time; this was more for him, now. She'd simply carry on so as to not hold him back, should she mess up somewhere....

[nadenagi]

As he picked up the speed - seeing as she was keeping up, even if not perfectly - she would see the shaking strengthen, then with a low cracking sound it suddenly stopped.

[queen_butterfly]

Still following his lead, she'd be ignoring it if he was, in favor of their dance. She'd learned before not to draw attention to one of the twins' little pets, and she was assuming that this was simply that.

[nadenagi]

He almost hesitated to go faster. So much of his life limited by having...

But no. He wasn't Nadeshiko. He wasn't a girl. He was Nagihiko. He was a boy. And no one told boys they couldn't play as hard as they wanted. He could push himself now. He didn't have to hold back. He didn't have to pretend to be weaker or slower or anything to the point where he actually became those things. He could go faster. He could go as fast as he wanted. And if Mallia couldn't keep up, he could gently let her go then go faster on his own.

There were so many kinds of dance out there, and he no longer had to stick with slow traditional Japanese fan dances. He could move, he could push himself to the very limits... He could... take control of his own rhythm!

The egg floated out of his pocket to hover between them. His dancing skidded to as safe a halt as he could manage given the speeds they'd been going.

"It certainly has reached me," an oddly echoed voice said. And it... came from the egg. "Your rhythm!" The egg developed a crack around its middle quickly and then... the shell flew apart into a top and a bottom and a small Chara popped out from where the egg had been in a quick blast of sparkles. He was about the size of Nagihiko's hand.

Nagihiko stared, as if awed, as if he had forgotten that Mallia was there. "Shugo... Chara..." he whispered.

The small creature had its hands in its pockets and did a flip in midair. "I'm Rhythm! Are we gonna stand around, or are we gonna have some fun?" he asked.

"Rhythm..." Nagihiko repeated in a whisper, still seeming stunned.

[queen_butterfly]

Curious, she stared at the little figure for a moment.... and the sound of her phone falling into the grass was soft to begin with, easily missed in light of the current focus. She'd certainly missed it herself.

And the reason it'd fallen? Was that she'd taken a form almost as short, though a good deal more delicate, giant black and purple butterfly wings attaching to a very small humanoid with a fluffy black dress, exactly the sort of look that had probably inspired many a folklore fable, rather than being an obvious large insect.

She didn't say anything just yet, simply flapped a few times, and then a few times more, bobbing more or less in place there, looking between Rhythm and Nagihiko. This wasn't what she'd expected, back when something had moved in Nadeshiko's pocket. A mouse, she'd not have been surprised about. But what was going on here?