07-22-2018, 08:09 PM
[font=trebuchet ms]Lantern wishes? He was uncertain of what sending away lanterns on the water had to do with making wishes come true, but then if throwing away his bottle after the entrance ritual had granted him some peace of mind, maybe there was something to sending objects out to sea after all. Paper walked up and stared out over the field of lanterns, briefly entranced by their warm colors and soft glows. The arrangement of hues was oddly comforting, as silly as that might have sounded.
Finally, taking a blue lantern, he headed over to a vacant patch of sand and set the lantern down. As he took a seat, he could feel Mira scrabbling up his back and perching atop his head. The young reptile was growing quickly; even if he had a few years before he became an adult, he’d dwarf the rest of the crew’s members in no time. He was still small enough not to drag Paper’s head into the sand by weight alone, though.
Staring at the lantern, Paper pondered. He was supposed to write down his wishes, but he wasn’t entirely sure how to put them into words. Wishing to become Dealer, or even to become Captain, had the potential of being fulfilled in the worst possible ways- he wouldn’t put it past the cosmic forces at work to grant his wishes by killing everyone else in the way, and while a younger him might have been okay with that, the him of now certainly wasn’t.
With a sigh, he closed his eyes. What did he truly want more than anything else- enough that he would give up everything else in pursuit of it? What did he want enough to forsake everything, unlike with his attempts at becoming Dealer, or at advancing through the ranks?
His eyes flickered open. On one side of the lantern, he wrote “Papercutter” across the surface. Then, he turned the lantern over to the other side, and wrote a single sentence on it.
“I wish to make them all proud.”
Pushing the lantern out into the water, Paper watched the waves carry it away, a light blue speck in a dark blue ocean. Insignificant in the grand scheme of things, perhaps, but it meant something to the one who wrote it, even as it disappeared into the horizon.
If he did as the Typhoon expected of its crew, then everything would come from that. If he did even half as much as Miragelight had thought he could do, then that would be enough. The safety of his crewmates, and the strength he needed to get, would both follow along.
Finally, taking a blue lantern, he headed over to a vacant patch of sand and set the lantern down. As he took a seat, he could feel Mira scrabbling up his back and perching atop his head. The young reptile was growing quickly; even if he had a few years before he became an adult, he’d dwarf the rest of the crew’s members in no time. He was still small enough not to drag Paper’s head into the sand by weight alone, though.
Staring at the lantern, Paper pondered. He was supposed to write down his wishes, but he wasn’t entirely sure how to put them into words. Wishing to become Dealer, or even to become Captain, had the potential of being fulfilled in the worst possible ways- he wouldn’t put it past the cosmic forces at work to grant his wishes by killing everyone else in the way, and while a younger him might have been okay with that, the him of now certainly wasn’t.
With a sigh, he closed his eyes. What did he truly want more than anything else- enough that he would give up everything else in pursuit of it? What did he want enough to forsake everything, unlike with his attempts at becoming Dealer, or at advancing through the ranks?
His eyes flickered open. On one side of the lantern, he wrote “Papercutter” across the surface. Then, he turned the lantern over to the other side, and wrote a single sentence on it.
“I wish to make them all proud.”
Pushing the lantern out into the water, Paper watched the waves carry it away, a light blue speck in a dark blue ocean. Insignificant in the grand scheme of things, perhaps, but it meant something to the one who wrote it, even as it disappeared into the horizon.
If he did as the Typhoon expected of its crew, then everything would come from that. If he did even half as much as Miragelight had thought he could do, then that would be enough. The safety of his crewmates, and the strength he needed to get, would both follow along.
[font=trebuchet ms]some weirdo