daybreakacademy | When You Made Wishes: start! (player plot)

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When You Made Wishes: start! (player plot)

Imagine Wist's surprise when April rolled around and their plan for a great prank was foiled on account of all those students just...leaving??? Truly, they have become the April fool... It's what they wanted, of course -- for the pitiful humans to find freedom -- and sure there are some stragglers around, but...in the end, they decide to take the win and enjoy a short break of their own. Good thing, too, or they might have pulled out all their hair in frustration when Spring Break comes to an end and the swarm of students and faculty willingly return to their prison.

While settling back into the academy and resigning themselves to a routine, the people of Daybreak will be soothed by a gentle tune rising up from the forest. It isn't a song they've heard before, and yet, somehow...it's nostalgic, isn't it? The soft notes of the pan flute stir up something in their hearts, tugging at old memories and drawing forth a feeling of dissatisfaction and longing out from under them. Let the song lull them into taking a moment to withdraw from the hustle and bustle -- hey, turns out they sort of need it. Maybe they're coming down with a cold, or just some quick little bug...
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>> user M3G4M4G1CH4XX posted on April 6th, 2019:
Why did you come back? You don't have to live like this.

Weren't things better back then? Try to remember what it used to be like.
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The odd message from an iris account that doesn't exist isn't up for long before the spell kicks into the next phase. However they manifest and from when differs from person to person, but those affected will all have the bizarre experience of watching some ghost of themselves from their past be born from their soul's memory. Don't think there are those that can escape this fate just by returning at a later time, either -- Wist can keep up this panpipe nonsense all day, every day if they have to. If that what it takes to get their point across...

Good luck trying to comprehend whatever point that may be, because now Daybreak is the new home to a bunch of familiar-looking rugrats and has to contend with whatever complications they may bring along with them.
---
[For more information on this plot, please see this ooc infopost!]

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He's older now than he was before. He doesn't know how or why-- his memory feels all mashed up-- but he is. But that part he noticed after his fingers. The tips of them were cleared away to bone and since he noticed, his whole hands. He's not afraid as he should be, but he's afraid enough. More than that, he's had enough. It's been fun here, these weeks he's stuck around, but he wants to go home.

There's not much to pack. It's just the guitar and clothes on his back. He takes some money off Señor R. which leaves him feeling too guilty to leave a note. The last thing is pulling on a stolen set of gloves and a hoodie, then he's out the door.

He ducks away from every adult he sees but there may be one or two children he stops for. And possibly, teens he stops to make an offer to. Otherwise, best to catch him before he ventures too far.

"Tale of a place, a deep forest
Dark with grace,
There he lives, blooming inside,
A wild field
Of big eyes
And there he is
Skin so blue
His eyes shot red
The moon, the sky
Tell him only lies
He doesn't know
She waits inside,
She lost her mind
Many years gone by..."

The eerie song is sung softly in a child's voice somewhere nearby, almost sleepy and distracted. Once again Avery's managed to slip away from his older self, this time to stargaze. It feels like ores been ages since he's gotten the chance, and even without a telescope there's something about it all that satisfies that craving for childish wonder deep inside of him.

An eerie song indeed. There's part of him that fears he's going to walk into some horrible trap lain by a monster. But more than that, it's nostalgic. It makes him think of the mothers he heard singing the lullaby of llorona to their children. A scary tale in itself, but sung in that way, he could understand the longing.

He's diverted from his path, wandering until he finds the boy in the mask.

"Avery," He says with surprise. "Your Papá's still letting you stay out?"

Avery sits up and pushes up his mask to rest on his head, revealing the little scowl on his face. "That creep's not my father," he says sourly. "He can't tell me what to do."

"Oh." He looks guilty. He didn't mean to make the boy unhappy. "Disculpamé. He looks like you and he didn't seem like your brother so I thought maybe..." Well, it doesn't matter. "Are you okay? He didn't yell at you or anything did he?"

Avery shakes his head. "No, he's just asleep. I wanted to look up at the stars so I left." He lays back down, arms folded behind his head.

"Have you ever had a dream that lasted weeks?"

There's pause from him, and then slowly he moves to join Avery in the grass. He shifts the guitar off his back to lay down too, next to the boy. It would be nice, the kind of thing he'd do back home, but this isn't home and Avery's question reminds him both of that and the tightening grip of dread around his heart.

"...I have now," He admits. "But I don't think dreams are supposed to last like this." I don't think it's all a dream anymore.

Avery's chest tightens, and for a moment he debates pulling the mask back on, suddenly feeling very vulnerable and small.

"Have... Have you heard of Subcon? It's my home."

He glances, unhappy, over to the boy to his side. He can hear it in his voice. It's not the exact same but it's not far off from what he's feeling.

"Sorry. No. I've never been to Europe before this. I've always been in México. The only time I left home was when I got new fosters and they tried to take me away. So I ran away back home." Those memories hadn't been with him when all this started. They're there now.

"Is your home around here?"

It's a no, which he was afraid of, but it's at least a no that makes sense. He's never heard of the country Héctor mentioned either, so why would he know of his?

"Yeah. It's supposed to be. But I can't find it on any of the maps here. Or in any of the books. It's Luke... like it never existed. Like it's been forgotten."

This time he does reach up and pull his mask down, his voice growing a little shakier. "I... I think that creepy Atchison guy is the Snatcher. It steals away things that are lost and forgotten. No one knows where. But... if I'm here, and no one remembers Subcon, then what if...? What if...?"

He hadn't thought to look at any maps or books in the past few days. Not those kinds of books. He hasn't any idea if Mexico is still where it should be.

Like it's been forgotten. A new fear settles in his guts. Even if Avery doesn't manage it, he can hear what the boy's trying to say. He turns over sitting up.

"Hey, no! I remember you! You can't be forgotten because I'm here!" Do the people back home even remember him? Maybe they're both forgotten... No, no, he can't think about that. "And you remember your home which means it's not stolen either."

He falls quiet a moment, then reaches into the pockets of that hoodie, pulling out some money. He doesn't know how much french money is worth but he counts out what he hopes is good. "I... was going to run away back home," He admits. "But maybe with this, you can go home instead."

Avery looks down at the money and back up at Héctor. He doesn't know how much it's worth either, still can't quite wrap his head around the idea of paper money, but it's nothing compared to the kindness being paid to him now.

"You're... giving away your chance to go home for me?"

His lip doesn't quiver this time but he does avert his eyes a moment. He wants to say he'll find some new way home but his fingers are turning into bone and he's not sure what that means.

"... No one will notice me if I'm gone. I don't have anybody. Except my friends, and I don't really have a lot of those either. If you're my friend, then I want to be a good friend. But even if you're not, you're younger than me and you... you deserve it more than I do. I don't want you to be forgotten so... yeah."

His mouth presses. He swallows hard and sniffs. He's too old to cry. He won't. But...

"Just don't forget me, okay?"

Avery narrows his eyes and pushes himself to his feet. His shoulders are squared when he pushes his mask up, revealing a determined scowl and reddened, wet eyes. "No. You're gonna come with me! We'll find a carriage and get on together!"

He blinks at Avery as the boy rises up. He takes in those teary eyes with a twinge in his heart and he takes the rest of it with bewilderment.

"You- you mean a car?" He asks dumbly, before the actual important part sinks in. "You want me to come with you to Subcon?

He has no idea what a car is, but it seems short for "carriage," so he's going to assume that's what that means. It just seems so silly (not to mention embarrassing) to ask after he made himself sound so proud and certain before.

"Yeah! You can stay with me and my family. We can even make a mask for you!"

For what it's worth, to Héctor right now, Avery sounds really cool. Like Ernesto when he got really into his stories.

But it's also maybe making his throat a little tight which Ernesto's stories never did.

"Like... adopt me?" He asks, uncertain. Far from Santa Cecilia, from Ernesto and Imelda. But if he let Avery go, he wasn't going to make it there anyway. If he went to Subcon, he might have a chance. And Avery would be there. And maybe, some terrible part of him thinks, Avery's family would actually like him. Probably not. Just long enough he would be fine.

Finally, he smiles a fragile smile. "The mask thing sounds cool. And it'd be fun to see your home."

Edited 2019-04-05 08:10 (UTC)

He didn't say anything about adoption, and honestly he doesn't even know how that would go over with his family. A ward, maybe, especially if Héctor helped him escape this place and get home (if his home is still there--but no, he can't think that way).

"Yeah! I'll show you all the secret passages in the castle, and we can escape into town to have fun whenever we want!"

"You live in a castle?! With secret passages!?" What!? That is the coolest thing ever! Avery is cool. His friend is cool.

"Okay! Yeah! Lets do it!!"

Which led to this whole... actually doing that thing. "Do you remember if there are any trains going through where you live? There's a train in Santa Cecelia. It's really old. Like, a hundred years old."

Avery stares at him blankly. "What's a train?"

"Oh. Uh..." Wow, he really thought trains were more common than this. Guess that ruled that out. "It's this really cool thing that can take you places. Like a car but it's even bigger and longer and older and someone else drives I think. I'll show you a picture or something another time. I guess this means we should find a car." And... drive it...

That shouldn't be too hard, right? He's seen movies.

Now he's even more confused. "Is it really that hard? We just have to find the stables and borrow some horses first, right?"

His face falls. What was Avery even talking about? He thought he'd (somehow) worked out this English thing but he's really confused.

"... I... guess we could take horses..." There's nothing really stopping them... "But if we wanna go far we should probably take a car. You can sleep in those, sometimes. You can't really sleep on a horse. And sleeping outside isn't fun after the first two times."

"Yeah, but you have to hook the horses to it first. How else is it going to move?" He folds his arms and frowns. "Are you sure a car and a carriage are the same thing?"

As if he hadn't been the one to decide it was.

"............"

He stares.

"You don't know what a car is, do you?"

There's more staring. Maybe Avery was from one of those really middle-of-nowhere places. But to just not know...?

"I'm gonna show you what a car is," He says decisively. "Come on, I think I heard the garage was this way." He sits up and climbs to his feet.

Teto - Enough

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