the sun in my disgrace [OPEN + MINGLE]

[rangerbecket]

WHO: Raleigh Becket
WHERE: 6I village, Inn
WHEN: 21 August - mid morning
OPEN TO: All + Mingle
WARNINGS: Put on your Eclipse Glasses TBD

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Raleigh had been on his way back from his normal morning routine of checking his traps and fishing for a while when he noticed the sun wasn't quite the way it normally looked - he'd caught a glance at the reflection and saw that the sun, normally perfectly round, was looking a little like a lemon that had gotten beaten up at the grocery store. Huh. An eclipse. He hasn't seen one since he was in Ranger training and he hadn't gotten a good look at that one because he hadn't been directly in the path of it (and, obviously, he'd been preoccupied).

This one, though, looks like it's just starting so Raleigh has time to go to the Inn and tell the people there that there's an eclipse starting and they should get something to try and look at it. He's not exactly sure of the science behind it but he remembers being a kid and making something with a box and earlier he'd done pretty well with the water. Maybe they can take pots outside with water and just look at the reflections? Might work. Maybe, too, one of the scientists has a better idea of how to get a look at the thing.

For his part, it's just something that's different from the norm. Raleigh hopes it's not a sign that the sun's going to start moving backward or staying up all month like it had a few months back and that it's just a perfectly normal, natural event. After earthquakes and people getting sick with some kind of crazy illness, it was good to just have something...mundane to focus on.

Comments

[learntthehardway]

Diana's grin widened and she nodded. Moana seemed to be catching on rather quickly, which was really impressive but not all that surprising. There was something about the young woman that had told Diana that she was very smart and she was glad that she'd been right about that.

"Well, the planet is constantly moving. And I know that you would expect to feel something, right? Well we don't feel anything because all of the motions are almost completely constant and we're moving along with those motions. Now if the planet suddenly started spinning in the other direction, we would feel a big jolt but things would slowly go back to normal."

[chosenbytheocean]

Moana listened and then nodded. She supposed that made sense. If you were always spinning then you wouldn't notice it because it was something you had always done. It was interesting and it made her wonder about other things. "There was a time when the sun wouldn't set here. For over a week it was always in the sky."

She looked over at Diana curiously. "How could that happen if we're always spinning and everything is always circling. Wouldn't day to night always be the same?" Moana was having trouble wrapping her head around the event.

[learntthehardway]

Diana's eyebrows rose a bit and truly she didn't know what to tell Moana. "I don't know," she said honestly. "This place, well, it doesn't seem to follow what normally should happen." They had after all been brought there without any explanation. Somehow she'd been stripped of her abilities.

"I think in a place like this, rules of nature don't matter. Things we think we know? Don't matter." She looked at Moana and shrugged. "I wish I could explain why this place is different. I wish I had answers for your question, but I don't and I'm sorry."

[chosenbytheocean]

Moana shook her head. "It isn't up to you to have all the answers. Thank you for answering what you could." She flashed Diana a warm smile. "May I watch the rest of the eclipse with you?"

She didn't know what to explain but she wanted to see it for her own eyes. Even if it was just watching the shadows on the ground.

[learntthehardway]

Diana nodded but she couldn't help but feel a little unsettled. It was strange knowing that things she'd been taught wouldn't always help her in the village since laws of nature didn't always seem to apply.

"Of course you can." She looked over at Moana's pig and then back to her young friend. "And your pig... Does he, ah, have a name?"

[chosenbytheocean]

"Ah, yes!" She smiled and shifted so that Itiiti could peek up and look over at Diana. "This is Itiiti. He was hiding behind me when we first met. He's been a little skittish after the earthquake and hasn't liked going out into the woods alone."

Which was problematic because Moana relied on Itiiti to find mushrooms and roots in the forest that aren't poisonous.

[learntthehardway]

"I admit I do not remember him being there when we first met, though... That whole day is a bit of a blur." She'd been having to deal with so much strangeness when she'd first arrived that she was truly lucky she remembered anything from it. "Did he come with you?"

She watched Itiiti and smiled. She'd never had a pet, hadn't had the time for one. She didn't count the animals when she'd grown up because every animal seemed as though it had belonged to everyone on the island. "He looks well now though."

[chosenbytheocean]

Moana nodded her head in a brisk gestured. "That makes sense. He was hiding behind me anyway and trying not to be seen." She looked down at Itiiti with an affectionate smile. "See that, you weren't spotted." Itiiti snorted sounding very proud of himself as Moana answered Diana's question. "No, Itiiti showed up in a box with two coconuts one day. I don't know who left him for me but I was excited to meet him. I used to have a pet pig and rooster on my island. Pau and Heihei." She missed them.

"Yes," Itiiti belonged to Moana in the sense that he had arrived at her front door but he often had the habit of wandering around on his own. Moana didn't stop him but like any other family member she'd worry if he didn't come home at night.

"If you need Itiiti's help you just need to ask him. He's good at finding eatable roots and mushrooms. I can't always go out with him and when he goes out by himself he eats everything he finds." He was slowly becoming a fat pig.