ＣＯＮＴＡＣＴ （ＩＣ） 🔥 ( ＡＣＡＴＡＬＥＰＳＹ. )

[sunborne]

ic inbox

Hey there! It's Daylight vis Lornlit. Sorry but I'm kind of busy right now so I'm not around. Hence the recording, haha.

But! Feel free to leave a message and I'll get back to you!

text . calls . video . code

Comments

[sunborne]

I can! Not as well like my mom or dad could but I think I can carry a decent enough tune for the festival.

Letting people show off their talents is a great idea! It'll be a neat way to bond and unwind after all that went down in the last few months, you know? I can start working on the decorations for the festival now, if you want! I have plenty of time on my hands.

[tranquilforest]

I look forward to hearing you sing, Daylight.

Actually, there might be something else I need help with other than the decorations, if you have time.

[But she feels just a little awkward about asking...]

[sunborne]

[ since miss jing is one of his most favourite people here in the temple ever, daylight is quick to respond and he responds with enthusiasm. ]

Whatever you need, I'm your bot! What is it?

[tranquilforest]

One of the things I liked best about the festivals at home was seeing the lanterns reflected in the water. We don't really have a river or pond close by, but I talked to Waver, and he suggested that he could summon up some water and keep it in motion using magic.

But we need a place for the water to go first.

[Basically a bunch of people need to help dig a trench...]

[sunborne]

[ he quickly catches up to what he needs to do and is happy to go along with it! honestly? wouldn't be the first time he had to dig something up but this time... hmm... no. this is a pretty incriminating train of thought and he's pretty sure someone here in the temple has telepathy or something.

anyways-! the lanterns! right! ] If you need someone to dig up a spot for the water, look no further! More than happy to help you out with this, Miss Jing. :D

That's a really pretty festival activity to have too, by the way! It kind of reminds me of the one Dust Tumbles has for their remembrance feast.

[tranquilforest]

A few other people have volunteered to help with that, so you'll certainly have company. Thank you again for your willingness, Daylight.

[Oh! Well, now she's curious.]

You grew up with festivals like this in your home as well, Daylight?

[sunborne]

Yeah! Dust Tumbles is famous for throwing lots and lots of festivals and stuff!! :D While it is mostly a base/hub town of operations for NODICE, it’s still a town that has people who love to celebrate and have a good time.

The remembrance feast is super important since it honours those who passed away during the Legacy War but my super duper favourite festival are the flower showers. When spring rolls in and all the flowers are blooming and everyone wants to welcome spring back in style. It’s super pretty and colourful and fun.

[ mostly thanks to mom’s gardening and the florabots’ efforts to bring life back into the old farmlands. there’s a reason the old farmlands are unofficially (and better known) as the flower valleys. (when he was last there, of course. he wonders if that petition to change the land name ever got approved.) ]

[tranquilforest]

That sounds absolutely lovely. It's a shame that we missed the height of spring while we were in El Minha. Maybe if the seasons work in the same way here, we can try to do something similar here next year.

It sounds like your home is a very happy place, Daylight.

[sunborne]

Hopefully! I would love to show you guys all the games and sort of snacks we make for the flower showers. :D They're awesome (the games) and delicious (the snacks, allegedly).

[ he takes a little bit longer in replying to the latter part of the message. he debates simply not answering it, period, but the intense guilt he feels at the thought of snubbing miss jing like that is enough to make him reconsider it. ]

Yeah. I loved living in Dust Tumbles while growing up. It was where all my aunties and uncles worked and sometimes lived and where my mom lived and met my dad's boss and stuff like that. It has a lot of meaning and everyone there was super nice and friendly and did their best to make me feel belonged there.

I wish I could have stayed longer, but I get why I had to move when Auntie Laura and Uncle Leeds couldn't take care of me anymore. Auntie Breakthrough tried but the moon can't beat a nice desert town, you know? :P [ 'oh man this is getting too emotional. time to make a bad joke and use an emoticon.' ]

[tranquilforest]

[Sigh...]

It's inevitable that we should miss our homes and what we are used to, where so many of our happiest memories are, no matter how long we may have spent in a new place.

[Well, time to make her own attempt...]

Even though I've never experienced it myself, I must imagine I would also find the moon generally less hospitable than any other town I might find on the earth.

[sunborne]

[ getting emotionally honest with someone is difficult? and scary??

have mercy on daylight, miss jing.

daylight can't help but smile while reading her message. he's really grateful that miss jing is trying her best whenever daylight is, um, daylight. ]

If anyone ever offers you the chance to live on the moon and stuff, don't take it. It's super boring up there. Nothing but rocks and occasional old equipment from others' exploring there.

And! You got to actually travel, Miss Jing! You got to meet new faces and have adventures way before arriving to the Temple. It sounds super cool from what you've told me so far.

[tranquilforest]

[It's a...very novel feeling, to have someone else trying to cheer her up, more or less, and she's a little out of practice accepting it. At the same time, she appreciates the effort a lot, so:]

Perhaps we will end up on a moon at some point in our new travels together. We'll have to rely on your experience to take care of all of us in that case, Daylight.

[sunborne]

Oh no! You definitely don't want me to be the one to get advice from on how to handle moon stuff. Or how to handle things period. :P That would be my Auntie Breakthrough's area of expertise since the moon base was hers. Or mom's.

But!! I'll do my best to protect you and the others if we are on a moon. The least I can do for you!

[tranquilforest]

I firmly believe you are stronger and wiser than you truly know, Daylight. Your best will be more than enough.

[Oops, got serious again, backtrack...]

But if we arrive on the moon that I'm familiar with from my stories, you can come with me to meet the Jade Rabbit.

[sunborne]

[ the backtrack is a welcomed backtrack. more so when he learns from miss jing- ] You have a rabbit on the moon where you're from? That's awesome!

I think? Is someone taking care of the rabbit? I hope it's not all by its lonesome up there. It can get pretty lonely up on the moon if you don't have someone to spend time with.

[tranquilforest]

The rabbit serves as the companion to Chang'e, the moon goddess, and has the task of compounding the elixir of immortality.

But these are only stories. Since people have truly made their way to the moon and even
settled there, I imagine there is no chance that the goddess and her companion were also there.

[sunborne]

Only in our worlds! Who knows? Maybe Chang'e is real in other universes that we haven't met yet or know about. I mean- I bet there aren't things like me where others are, right?

But can I ask why the rabbit and the lady are living on the moon? Isn’t it lonely for them up there?

[ and boring? he wants to say it's a weird place for them to live but she is the goddess of the place. maybe it makes sense to... be on the moon itself? maybe miss jing's moon is a nice (and funner) place to be. ]

[tranquilforest]

That's true. I suppose I may be too quick to dismiss them as mere stories.

This one is a little sad, as in my view she lives on the moon alone with only the Jade Rabbit due to a mistake and a misunderstanding. But others say she chose to do so, and perhaps in that case she doesn't miss her husband so much.

[Have they really gotten to bedtime stories? She could've picked a better one, probably...]

Well, you are one of a kind to me at least, Daylight.

[sunborne]

And you're one of a kind to me, Miss Jing! I don't think I've ever met someone who was elegant and nice as you before! [ and its true! daylight isn't saying this to be, like, flattering or whatever. he's stating what he thinks is a fact.

miss jing's type of nice was different from auntie chris' type of nice. her type of elegance is reaaaaaal different from auntie laura's elegant. different but a cool different, you know?

that said- something about what miss jing said about chang'e sticks out to daylight. more specifically: something about the bit about the husband has his core spark with sadness. he suddenly finds himself thinking about auntie breakthrough and oomph. this is not the time, day. ] So there are different variations to her story?

If you ever have the time, can I hear the story that you believe in?

[tranquilforest]

[Well, the only polite way to deal with such an egregious compliment is to gently deflect, but it's a lot harder to do that in text, and in the face of such obvious earnestness, so all she manages is...:]

I would be happy to relate the different versions of the story to you, Daylight. Hopefully if we can find a time when both of us aren't too occupied or busy with other things.

[sunborne]

[ thankfully, it seems daylight misses the dodge and then some.

in fact he seems excited by the prospect of swapping stories with her and is focused on that alone. if the amount of exclamation points he's using in his next reply is to be believed: ] Oh wow!! Wow wow wow!

That'll be awesome, Miss Jing!! Let me know whenever you want to, okay? I would love to swap stories with you!! I have, like, so many cool stories and tales and aesops that I wanna share with you and the others. [ he just. you know. never had the right time to tell such things, given how busy they've been.

this is most certainly a chance to make it the right time. maybe. possibly. hopefully. ]

[tranquilforest]

I look forward to hearing those as well. I still feel I have so much to learn from you.

[She hesitates a moment before sending her next message, hoping the gently teasing tone rings true in her written words:] After all, you're almost twice as old as I am, aren't you? You must have a lot of amazing stories to tell.

[sunborne]

I am pretty old compared to humans but I lived a pretty boring life up until I decided to join dad's starship. Before that, the most exciting thing to happen was moving away from Dust Tumbles.

Buuuut if you don't mind awesome stories about Auntie Laura and Uncle Leeds and mom and dod than yeah! I got lots of cool stories to tell you. Like. Sooooo many. :D

[tranquilforest]

I can think of nothing I would enjoy more than hearing about your family.

[Particularly since he seemed very partial to the idea himself.]

They may not be the most exciting, but those quiet, seemingly insignificant moments of shared fellowship between friends and family may come to mean far more than any particular thrill.

[sunborne]

They are! They're really the best bits to hear, in my opinion.

I mean, yeah, stories of adventures and battles and scuffles are great and all but you can learn a lot about someone from their family. How they talk about them, how they tell their stories, how they look while remembering stuff.

It's really fascinating, Miss Jing!