WHO: Cairngorm and others
WHERE: the harbor, around town, gem haus which has air conditioning
WHEN: late july into early august
WHAT: Cairngorm comes back from dying! They zone out by the water for a while before wandering back into town after their existential crisis.
WARNINGS: possible mentions of suicidal ideation


i. the wallowing option

[ When they wake up, they’re in one piece.

Miraculously, maybe. Whether it’s by fate or by the hands of a mysterious other power here, they can’t ever know, but when they wake up, their sketchy body is one white blob as opposed to several dismembered white blobs. With the number of people who have died, it’s only natural that no one can tell who they are with this vague appearance - practically everyone is trying to suss out who each white blob is. That’s fine by them. They don’t make an effort to try and let people know who they are, not responding to people’s guesses or flat out avoiding making contact with others. They aren’t ready to speak to anyone, and it’s a comfortable familiarity to shrink back into inexistence, especially after something so hard for them to grasp going through.

Once they start to regain color and their features, they take to laying near the cliffs overlooking the harbor, legs dangling over the edge. They either don’t care that their weight could send them tumbling down the cliffside into the water below (people like Magilou are the first to know they break these cliffs when they get too close to the edge), or don’t think it’s a possibility - but with Cairngorm’s characteristically cautious attitude, it seems more likely that it’s the former.

They can be found laying there at any point in the time of their transformation back into full gem-ness, sometimes staring blankly at the sky, merely taking in sunlight, and at other times, eyes closed calmly. If seen from a distance, it might be easy to guess that it’s them lying out there with the unnatural stillness that they lay there for more than a full day, not needing to eat or do anything else - and most of all, even letting insects crawl and land on them without so much as a flinch. It seems like they’re wholly zoned out, not even reacting to any obvious sounds of someone approaching - to any onlooker, they truly look like a lifeless statue. ]

ii. the not wallowing option

[ With the heatwave that’s in town, they’re spending as much time in the sun as they can. Will taking in light from the sun reverse the effects of their death? Probably not. But they suspect that they still need the sun’s rays to completely heal from being broken apart like they were in the forest - there were still seams at their neck and thighs from the breaks, so they’ve washed off all their powder, leaving them walking around town in their powderless form. It may be the first time since many people of the town have seen Cairngorm’s powderless form, dark and inky as opposed to the stark white powder they have on. What’s more is that they seem to be lacking their usual luster on the account of still regaining all their features, the living jewel seeming strangely matte despite the lack of powder that mutes the shine of their skin.

When they finally come back to town from ruminating by the harbor for a few days, definitely later than some of the other revived, they do what they can to act normal, taking a path straight through the center of town back to their home in Flavo. Whether they catch your eye because you’re a friend relieved to see them back, or just someone surprised by their dark form, they give you a Look that’s half confusion and half concern. ]

...Staring at me, are you?

[ It’s awkward, and they’re hoping hoping hoping it’s just the luster that’s earning them attention rather than their brush with mortality. ]