[MU] - DECEMBER STORYTELLING / MEMORY SHARE

[lifeaftr_mods]

Something is wrong.

This may not very well be obvious, at first. The Storyteller is not present to put forth yet another diatribe, informative or apologetic, and the backdrop of guttering flame and sandy campfire is as present as ever...albeit briefly.



Those who tell their stories will start to notice something...odd taking place. Indeed, no matter how they intend to begin their tale, the land of Mu will immediately start to warp to accommodate it, or something utterly unlike it, until storytellers and listeners alike may find themselves in an exact recreation of a seemingly random memory, in the most stark and painstaking of detail. There is no altering the memory, nor is there any preventing it once it's begun to play - you will simply have to witness memories that are not your own this go around.

Furthermore, stories that take place in worlds other than LifeAftr will be, frankly, inevitable. Those memories, too, will be recreated, to be relived by the teller and lived by the listener.

---

It is time, once more, for you to tell a story...with a slight twist! This is, in fact, our first player plot, as provided by Dragon! The initial setting will be familiar for oldcomers, and newcomers will recognize it from the introduction they received in their dreams.

Yet for this Storytelling only, people can imagine whatever stories they wish, from both their homes and their time on LifeAftr, as long as they don't mind the fact that others will be reliving those stories in the form of an impromptu memory share.

Even those who prefer not to voice their stories aloud are not safe this time around. If the memory is recalled in essence, Mu will shift to accommodate it in full.

There is, however, a benefit to this: those who venture memories to be relived will receive both a befuddled apology from the Storyteller, who will assert that this was most definitely not meant to happen (they're the Storyteller, not the Rememberer!), as well as a tired promise that the relived memories will be worth two offerings each, as if in compensation.

Not that it counts for much, probably.

Comments

[achievementhunter]

Why is she witness to two?

Their voice sticks in their throat as they watch themself- practicing. Practicing their name- the new name that had, for a brief moment of time, belonged to them.

Dreemurr. Chara Dreemurr. They still remember the moments after this; the difficulty of putting practice into reality. The way they'd choked the first time they'd attempted to say it to another, fleeing in embarrassment and fear that such a blatant fumble would be the end of this- so ungrateful. So awkward. Too much of an embarrassment, to keep up this pretense of having adopted a child.

Toriel had taken fifteen minutes to find them. Slowly soothing until she'd pulled them into her lap- they'd stayed like that, for the rest of the night. She missed the entire function.

She'd said she didn't mind.

And again, they have to laugh. But this time, the exhaustion is prominent, eyes dull as they fix onto Lup, despite being lost in more memories- ones she isn't privy to.

"Don't be.

There was never an option to stay."

[hellawrath]

God it's been a long night. Still though, how can anyone look this exhausted in a fucking dream? How much of this have they had to go through, bits of themselves dragged out and thrown up on some dang canvas like the latest blockbuster scroll? This is bullshit. It's fucked up. Especially this one, probably the last time they'd really let themself trust in any kind of safety, and how hard they had to fight for that, only to lose it in some way. They didn't deserve being reminded of that kind of loss.

"Yeah, I know. I know it feels like that. Like you were a fool for thinking it could last in the first place." She remembers the bitterness just fine, of course good things aren't just, just handed to you without a catch, you're a family curse, after all. So fuck all the haters and their empty ideas of what a family even is, time to take all that shit into your own hands. That's what had driven the twins out into a life on the road, after they'd lost their aunt. They'd been so sick of being handed around, so abandoned, so angry in their grief. So she's not trying to sound comforting in her sympathy, or optimistic. It's just that - knowing how it feels.

She wishes this could have been like the memory of her aunt, full of loss for sure but so indescribably warm, too. So treasured. But they haven't had a lifetime between this place and where they are now, decades of clawing victory after victory for themself despite every circumstance being stacked against them, starting out in the dirt and landing among the stars, followed by a hundred years of making a family that's so welded together by hardships that it would never, ever fall apart. She wishes she could tell them they still have a chance at that, too. But she'd have flipped off anyone who'd try to come at her with that kinda line, at that age, in that mindset. And from what all she's seen of them in the past months, they're even more lost in bitterness and fury than she was back then. She might as well ask them to believe in Santa, for how real it would sound.

"But listen, it's not stupid to think that. It's, it's way tougher to let yourself believe in good things than to cut yourself off from everything. Bonds are what make us who we are. Even the ones we lose eventually." Sorry, it's hard to be Lup without at least a little positivity. She hates how she feels like she's lecturing them though, so she sits down in the dream sand, at least be on eye level with them. "I bet they were glad to have you for however long you got with them. And there's people who are glad to have you now too."

[achievementhunter]

They understand what she's trying to do. Find the wound, the boo boo, slap a band aid on a sucking wound and call it a day. It is truly a shame that she does not understand the full impact of what had occurred- assuring them of a family that had wanted them, a family that Chara no longer wishes to have anything to do with.

"On the contrary, ma'am- I was there because I had something they needed." The only way to pass through the Barrier. One-seventh of the power needed to break the spell entirely.

The future of humans and monsters.

"Once I was gone, it was only a matter of time before I was forgotten entirely. There's no need to try inspiring some sense of familial inspiration- there was never a true family to begin with." They lightly run their fingers through the sand; drawing the very same crest that had adorned the purple robes they'd worn, that day. "Inevitably, I fulfilled my purpose. And that was the end of it."

[hellawrath]

Aww shit, she's been ma'am'd. Her ears drop, chastened, even before they make clear how much she's misstepped. She'd assumed too much and gotten it at least partially wrong. It had seemed so much like how her aunt's place had made her feel, but maybe that's not what it had turned out to be at all. Or their view of whatever happened grew rotten over time, but she's done assuming and ready to listen.

She glances down at the crest in the sand, follows the lines they're drawing with her eyes. Her voice is gentle when she speaks, pretty much expecting to be rebuked, but she'll try anyway. "What purpose?"

[achievementhunter]

"The future of humans and monsters." They say, and there's no hiding how bitter the words are. Recanted like a chant that's been turned on them far too many times- because it was. Words that may have been meant kindly, and yet, they'd figured it out soon enough. One human, one barrier-- two SOULs required to cross it.

Not two bodies.

"There is something I have- something my sibling has- that the people who adopted me didn't. Without it, they were trapped. And obtaining it from me required posthumous actions."

Their smile is a mirror of that same bitterness dripping from their tone.

"It matters very little what bonds they pretended to foster- my death would always have been required."

[hellawrath]

That- title, or whatever it is, sounds like a big load of horseshit to put on a kid. She has no idea what monsters it's referring to, but the future of humans? That's ludicrous, they're like twelve. Who the fuck came up with this? These, these Dreemurrs?

Posthumous actions sends a cold shiver down her spine; she'd known they've been through the resurrection grinder a few times in other worlds, either first- or secondhand, but that confirms they've done the dying themself. They've died so somebody they trusted could take something from them, use them for their own ends like, like they weren't a child who'd felt safe with them. The injustice of it feels like it's going to burn a hole into her chest and she digs her fingers into the sand, ears pinned tightly because she can't allow herself to go off right now. They deserve the room to talk. She keeps her eyes glued to the sigil in the sand, frowning darkly.

"And how did that turn out, for anybody?"

[achievementhunter]

"How do you think?" Laying their palm down, they wipe the sigil away with one, brisk motion. "Nobody really gained anything. At the end of it all, the Dreemurrs-- everyone else. They were worse off than when they'd started."

And that's their fault, isn't it? Perhaps, if they'd been more capable of dying properly-

But they hadn't. The things they wouldn't have to know now, had they only stayed dead.

What a pity.