AUDIENCE FOR: Estelle

[guestservices]

this is what you get until you give me a shitpost

Comments

[guestservices]

[ they visibly perk. ]

Tell me about one you're working on?

[mustbepurged]

It's about a prince who falls in love with a tree spirit. The spirit takes the form of a young woman, and the two become happily married... but the nobles have her cast into exile, leaving the prince alone with his loneliness and grief.

But as a tree, she grows taller than any other, stretching her blossoming branches so high that even he can see them from the castle, where he weeps. He's comforted by the sight, though he doesn't know that the tree was actually his lost love...

[guestservices]

[ oh... they listen along, and then: ]

... That's beautiful, Miss Estelle. [ a beat. ] Think I like stories like that. Ones that are a little bittersweet.

[mustbepurged]

You really like it?

I want to write stories to help people think of the kindness that can be found, even in the darkest of times.

[guestservices]

Yeah. I really - it reminded me of one. There's this old fable...

[ they pause for a moment, tilting their head, as if thinking. ]

About a paradise in a time of trouble. Kinda similar. Basically, there was a huge war that was causing a lot of people to starve to death, and get killed in battle, shit like that. Someone was in a boat and trying to escape it out of desperation, yeah? And they got in and they floated down river, and accidentally stumbled upon this total paradise that had been totally untouched by war. They'd not had any contact with any outwards civilization or anything at all.

And so the people in the little paradise village took care of the guy - they made sure he got to rest, and relax, and got a moment of peace. They sent him home with food for his family. Course, the guy promised that he'd come back, but the people of the paradise told him he'd never be able to find it again, and no matter how much he looked, he couldn't find it. He didn't believe 'em, but that was the case.

So... it didn't fix anything, but it was kinda like that. A little moment of kindness and paradise, good for your body and your soul, even if it's short lived.

[ there's a definite smile in their voice as they recount the story. ] Iunno if I got all the details right. Been a while since I've heard it. But I still remember it, cause it stuck with me.

[mustbepurged]

...

I think that's a wonderful story.

I hope we can create that here, too... moments of respite, for those who need it most.

[guestservices]

I think so too.

[ there's a smile in their voice, there. ] And... that'd be nice, huh? Iunno. As far as I've seen, in these situations, you guys tend to band together. I don't think it'll be impossible to create a peach blossom spring or two.