ayto | Week 1 Date;

Entry tags:

!date,
!week 1

Week 1 Date;

❤ Week 1 Date

The winners of the first challenge have been announced: Cyrus and Douki-chan, Milla and Jeritza and Ash and Diamond. The Overseer extends her earnest congratulations and promises to meet them on Wednesday morning to take them out on the island for their date.

Everyone will be expected to wear a swimsuit underneath any clothes they have on (and the Overseer has thoughtfully provided a change of cute/cool swimsuits in lieu of the Super Sexy ones this time) as they're taken out on a boat to the middle of the ocean and given floaties or snorkeling equipment in order to--

Swim with the dolphins! The dolphins are very eager to make new friends and help anyone who has trouble swimming, though if Diamond chooses to forgo floating and chill at the bottom of the ocean, the dolphins will be able to hang out with them down there too. There's also three floating platforms where our couples can enjoy a delicious picnic lunch and some bonding time while watching the dolphins frolic! If they want to swim over and hang out on one platform as a six-person powwow, this is also fine.

As the sun starts to set, the boat will take you all back to the house.

Enjoy!!

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From the beginning, if you would.

[Everything is exciting to him.]

You got it.

[ Ash gets comfy on the dock before he starts, then just launches right into it. ]

It all started cause Queen Nilla issued a call throughout the land to lay waste to the Dragon who had been terrifying her citizens. The castle was packed with plenty would-be heroes and adventurers, those who wanted to make a name for themselves or those who were there for duty or whatever. I was there cause the reward was good, along with Mar.

I tried to recruit who I could, but most people were paired up to start, or were trying to get in with the Ivory Order— they're a bunch of sanctimonious goody-two shoes who travel throughout the kingdoms to help others.

[ He rolls his eyes in unabashed judgment. ]

Anyway, we wound up meeting up with Mage named Melanie, and I eventually let her join our party since she didn't care about the reward. You following so far?

[He nods. Ash's opinion of folks like those in the Ivory Order is not new to him, so he doesn't so much as bat an eyelid at the obvious disdain.]

Yes. Please, go on.

[There are questions he'd like to ask, but Ash may end up answering them just by continuing the tale. Cyrus will be patient.]

Good. So the first thing we needed to do was find the Dragon which for how big it was, wasn't as easy as it should have been. We ventured from one town to another and picked up a lead that meant we had to go through the Forbidden Woods which is a headache as you might have guessed. Most people wind up trapped in there or turned around until they nearly starve. We escaped both those fates, but we did wind up with a ditzy elf who almost set the whole forest on fire. Ridis is who I told you about before, but long story short she was sold this scam and then got taken even further with fire insurance...all cause she can't play a tune to save her life and kept summoning hell hounds trying to pay her debt off.

[ A pause cause. That's a lot. ]

[Ridis sounds very innocent. A shame that unscrupulous souls took advantage. Cyrus is surprised—pleasantly—that it sounds like she ended up accompanying Ash.

He nods, acknowledging the pause.]

What happened after that?

Well Ridis ran on her debt, and having an archer wasn't the worst idea so we took her along. [ Some grumbling about splitting the bounty escapes his lips but he does move on. ]

We found the village we were supposed to after that but it was —Unionville, founded as a land where human and monsters could live in harmony, but the Mayor ate them.

He tried to eat Mar too, so I tried to kill him. [ Said plainly. ]

Stuff was a bit of a blur after that but we wound up needing to find an apothecary to heal up after. I can heal most things, but the Mayor had this special kind of poison and not everything works like it should on Mar.

[Splitting the bounty for practical reasons, is it? The story's outrageous contents are tempered by Ash's blasé tone. It's no surprise that there are poisons that healing magic can't reverse, but in terms of biology . . . ]

Beg pardon, Ash . . . but exactly what is Mar?

[ A long blink. ]

Mar is Mar. He's not a monster, so don't even try to say he is. [ That probably doesn't answer much, but it's said with a gravity completely unbefitting of how Ash usually speaks. ]

[It may not answer much, but it speaks volumes about the things left unsaid. Cyrus doesn't miss a beat as he shakes his head.]

No, I would say that he's your friend. . . . So? Were you able to find an apothecary to treat him?

Mar's more than that. [ ... ]

But no, not an apothecary but a nutritionist. They know more about curing illnesses than most apothecaries do, probably because of their training...

[ The extents of said training are better left unsaid. ]

It took us a while, but once we gathered all the ingredients we needed, we were able to cure Mar. And the nutritionist's son, Bruno, wound up accompanying us too. He wasn't interested in the bounty either, so it was fine.

[He nods, deeper than usual. More than that, then.

Ash ended up with quite the party, didn't he?]

Where did you go next?

Bruno's father had caught sight of the Dragon nesting on a nearby tower, so our next objective was pretty clear. Finally. [ Said with a sigh cause it wasn't a short journey to this point, even looking back. ]

Luckily the dragon was still there, and when we got to the top we jumped to action over its protests. Who knew dragons could be so whiny? [ Ash should really look in the mirror. ] We almost had it won, but then it's steward came and healed it completely...and it flew off AGAIN, telling us to stay out of its business.

[He blinks at a certain point in the story. Oh, this is very fascinating.]

Are dragons capable of speech in your world?

It's not like we have a lot of them, but that's what I hear, yeah.

Incredible . . . ! In what manner did this particular dragon speak?

Huh? Like we're doing right now, there wasn't anything special about it.

What of its speech pattern? Does it speak in much the same way as you?

[Tell him more. Tell him everything!]

[ Blink. ]

Kinda sounded like you, actually. Wise and smart and all of that, but it was hunted for its tears and not its brains.

[Oh.

Now isn't that interesting?]

Do its tears bear unique properties?

They're the main ingredient in all healing potions, lesser and greater.

How ironic. The dragon that wreaked havoc on countless citizens was none other than a source of their healing . . .

[It begs the question of what exactly comprises the tears of said creatures.]

The dragon had a steward, you said? What happened next?

Yeah, his name was Vince. And we didn't know that the Dragon's tears did that when we first met it. It should've told us that from the start.

Anyway, they flew off together towards this remote island, so 'course we followed it. The island, the village, it— [ He rubs at his head with one hand, then tussles his hair. ]

It was a headache, and that's enough said about that.

[ I forgot how they were arranged for this thread but regardless of whatever position he's in, Ash closes his eyes for a moment. ]

[Across, probably. Cyrus watches Ash, pondering what this means. He allows the moment to wash over them before he speaks.]

What of Vince and the dragon?

[ .... ]

We caught up with them eventually, and this time the Dragon didn't try to run on us. Said we had earned the "truth". Told us about how its tears are the main component of potions, and how it was tortured sunrise to sunset so that supply met demand. I pretty much said the same thing you did, that well the Dragon caused a lot of problems so it made sense even if it a terrible thing to do.

...but all of that was fake too. Vince explained how the Dragon bringing calamity and destruction was just a nice cover story so no one would try to help them even if they did find out about the Dragon Tear.

All the Dragon wanted was peace, and at this point it didn't care if that meant it had to die. The Dragon wanted us to kill it, cause death was better than being a test subject for a bunch of people who thought you were a monster.

[ He lets out a breath that almost sounds like laughter. ]

...so I went to do just that. But then the order showed up and stopped me, stopped us. They always had the knack for showing up at the right time, like being lucky was their God given right or whatever. 'Cept this time...their leader turned it around on them and killed the dragon himself.

And a bit after that...I decided to come here.

[Cyrus' brow furrows faintly as the story goes on. How dreadful. Cruelty, no matter where it's directed, is still cruelty; even monsters should be afforded more dignity than what the dragon was forced to endure. The darkness that lurks in the heart of man is truly insidious.]

I do not understand. Why did the Order stop you when your objectives were the same?

[For the reward? That's incongruous with the picture of them that was painted earlier.]

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gomen for late cries in Canon review

my arms are always wide open for ash

<3

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cw; suicidal implications

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