Open: And they're gonna bend their branches down to lay their fruit upon the ground

[vineleaves]

Dionysus is in a kitchen, apron tied over a purple dress with vine details, singing to himself as he uses a melon baller to scoop out a watermelon. The large bowl next to him is already full of honeydew melon and cantaloupe, and he's got a few other ingredients nearby ready to add in once he's done with the watermelon. Mint leaves, some honey, some lemon juice, and some lime juice.

It has been quite an eventful time lately, but overall his life is pretty great right now.

Comments

[vineleaves]

"To say nothing of all the pollinating! I'm a plant god, of course, so it's a little bit near and dear to my heart."

[sporesprouter]

"It would have been nice to have more plants on the rock I grew up on."

[vineleaves]

"Not a lot of vegetation there, I take it?"

[sporesprouter]

She shakes her head. "A tiny little salt rock island? Not at all. There are some potted plants, and there was a tree for a while."

[vineleaves]

"What happened to the tree?"

[sporesprouter]

"Oh, it died. A few years back."

[vineleaves]

"Oh, the poor dear," he says, with the exact same tone you'd respond to someone if they mentioned a deceased relative or the like. "I hope it had a nice, good life."

[sporesprouter]

Tress is somewhat skeptical that a tree really enjoyed living on a saltrock island in any case, but it's beside the point. "So do I."

[vineleaves]

"I was raised by trees," he says, and it's totally not out of nowhere because they were talking about a tree, so it totally makes sense for him to offer up this bit of information. "Well, wood nymphs."

[sporesprouter]

"That seems pretty unusual."

[vineleaves]

"I suppose. I'm a pretty unusual person though."

[sporesprouter]

"The more I think about it, I think that most of us here are unusual somehow."

[vineleaves]

"I suppose if we're all fictional that would check out. Unusual situations are common in plays and books and stuff, after all."

[sporesprouter]

"What's that?"

[vineleaves]

"What's what?" A pause. "Plays? Do they not have plays in your world?" It would make sense.

[sporesprouter]

"No, the 'if we're all fictional' part."

[vineleaves]

"I'll get to that in a minute, but how d'you have plays if I don't exist in your universe? How'd they get started? I'm very curious. On Earth they started because of me."

[sporesprouter]

"I... don't know? People like to tell stories, and that's one way to do it? They've been around for forever."

[vineleaves]

"Hmm..." he thinks this over for a moment. "It is the best way to tell stories, I'll be the first one to point that out. And -- I mean, it's wonderful that they exist in your world! A world without plays is incredibly sad, don't you think?"

[sporesprouter]

"I haven't seen too many of them, but I agree."

[vineleaves]

"What have you seen? What are the names, I wonder if I could find the scripts in the library... I know all of the ones from -- well from at least my time on my planet. ...Except one, I guess, but that one I lived through so I think it still counts. Wait, maybe it counts as two¹, but -- well, that's not overly important right now. I'd be very interested in tracking down some plays from your universe and reading through them."


1. It actually counts as three, but close enough Dionysus.

[sporesprouter]

"Oh, um. There was one about the disappearance of the Iriali? I'm trying to remember what it was called...To the One, I think?"

[vineleaves]

"What's the Iriali?"

[sporesprouter]

"Oh, they were a society of people that just vanished from my world about three hundred years ago."

[vineleaves]

"Where'd they go?"