[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

[bloodyashes]

[Honestly LV isn't going to look too great in Asch's case either. Compassionate assassin kid is still an assassin kid.

He nods.]

A human touched by the divine, but if that makes him not human, then I'm probably in the same boat.

[He's pretty much accepted that Lorelei is a god to everyone else's understanding of the thing even if it's technically wrong, the same way fonic artes are not technically magic as far as he's concerned.]

[prettypurpleparlor]

[Definitely not great, yeah- but less than two decades of not great versus over two millennia of not great? Ardyn is definitely the more worrying prospect here.]

The divine and the daemonic, from what I understand, though it's hard to be sure which of the two gave him more trouble.

But yes, I'd be very surprised if you didn't qualify as having a soul, given that you're still a person, all godly meddling aside.

[bloodyashes]

It's not having a soul that's in question, it's whether mine pings as human or not.

[He shrugs.]

Physically I'm no different from any other human, but...

[For a moment - just a moment - the memory power of this night lives again. The deep voice of the memory brings with it pain, the pain of a mind to mind connection with something that no human can ever truly comprehend -

Luke. Fragment of my soul. Heed my voice...

- coming not from anywhere but from the very atoms of the Asch of the memory.

And then it fades away, just as quick as that, though Asch is still rubbing his head.]

...I don't miss that.

[prettypurpleparlor]

[Muffet winces briefly at the sound, thoroughly inhuman herself but clearly not quite the same breed of inhumanity as what speaks to Asch in his memory. She's much too mortal for that.]

I certainly don't blame you, it seems a quick way to give oneself a headache. I take it that was the... voice, for lack of a better term, of the divinity in question?

[Lorelei needs to turn it the fuck down, jeez.]

As for whether such a thing would change the nature of your soul, it seems unlikely- but I admit I have no way to tell without actually checking directly. This is, as far as I'm aware, rather unprecedented as it is.

[bloodyashes]

Headaches are the primary symptom, yes. On rare occasions, it caused me to pass out.

[He rubs at his temple one more time, before dropping his hand away. From what he was able to pick up, Luke passed out even more frequently - probably a difference caused by their very different compositions.]

That was Lorelei, yes. I'm not sure how much a fonon sentience actually counts as a god, but there's no other equivalent term that doesn't take me ten minutes to explain.

[Well okay not really that long but long enough. Simpler to just call them gods and be done with it even if it's not technically correct and the pedantic side of him gets annoyed.]

...I don't mind?

[It sounds more like a question than a statement.]

[prettypurpleparlor]

[Muffet nods sympathetically, not surprised to hear that- if that one sentence was the norm, she can easily imagine that an actual conversation would knock someone unconscious.]

I'm perfectly willing to take your word for it- after all, it's not as though I'm a theologist. Or an expert on fonons, for that matter. In my world, the former is unproven and the latter... apparently nonexistent, as I've never heard of them at all, unless it's just something where we have different terms for the same thing.

[His last statement, though, that gets her to blink in confusion. Did he just offer... what she thinks he did?]

You... wouldn't mind what, exactly?

runs out of breath screaming about airlocked, inhales while doing this tag, goes back to screaming

[bloodyashes]

Energy particles. Elemental affinities decided by frequency.

[In other words, magic.]

There's seven kinds, and if you get enough of them together they develop a consciousness of their own.

[Hence 'the Seventh fonon,' a term she's probably heard thrown around a bit by his memories or just, you know, being around him in general.]

Lorelei and I have the same frequency, which is how that is possible.

[And she just... gets a faint shrugging gesture in return.]

If you wanted to look.

Nods wordlessly, continues own screaming

[prettypurpleparlor]

Seven colors of magic, seven fonons... now I do wonder about parallels between our worlds, though now probably isn't the time to experiment. I'm assuming frequencies are meant to be more-or-less unique to each individual person?

[At his confirmation, she nods slowly, looking serious.]

If you think it would help, I have no objection to the idea- any knowledge might be useful at this point. I just want to be certain that you're comfortable with it, I'm not willing to pull out someone's soul without permission if I can avoid it.

just us on a month old post holding each other and screaming

[bloodyashes]

More than 'more or less' - even identical twins or replicas don't normally have the same frequency.

[Let's save the text barf until after the fancy soul magic mojo though.]

...I don't think comfortable is the right word. But I'm willing to try.

[Hello, still has trust issues. He looks - uncertain, but determined. Which might say all she needs to know about what color she's going to see, if she thinks about it.]

RP is a Fun and Relaxing hobby

[prettypurpleparlor]

I can respect that.

[Muffet takes a deep breath and looks at him, carefully raising one hand.]

Are you ready?

[She'll give him a moment to prepare himself- after all, it's his soul, you're not going to just yank it out like a stray hair. That would be rude.]

[bloodyashes]

As I'll ever be.

[Is there something he needs to do here come on just go for it.]

[prettypurpleparlor]

All right, then.

[Muffet reaches out with her magic, focus on Asch, and pulls. There's a brief glow about his chest, and then something small, bright, and red appears, floating just in front of him.]

[So far, so good...?]

[bloodyashes]

[So far, so good!

It is, indeed, a mostly human-looking soul, though one with a pair of trailing attachments that are... not entirely normal? One turns slowly towards green as it trails off into the distance before stopping, while the other shifts in color like oil in sunlight.

Asch himself seems... well, a bit uncomfortable, but not in any kind of distress.]

[prettypurpleparlor]

[Muffet blinks in surprise and peers carefully at Asch's soul, looking it over with a thoughtful eye, although she still makes sure not to get too close out of respect for his boundaries and because the bright red color stirs a few uncomfortable memories for her, ones already close to the surface tonight.]

That's... odd. Not the soul itself, the shape and color are all what I'd expect from a normal, healthy human being but- See this here?

[She indicates one of the trailing lines, pointing at it but not actually getting in touching range.]

I have honestly no idea what this is, it's not a part of a soul I've ever heard of before. I'm... not entirely sure it is your soul, exactly- or not entirely yours, somehow. It certainly starts as part of you, but it goes far beyond you, much too far for me to reach.

[bloodyashes]

... No, that actually makes sense.

[He's... a bit wary of touching it, himself, for fear that something weird will happen, but he does point at it firmly, specifically at the color-changing one.]

I've seen a similar shimmer to this sometimes when Lorelei contacts me. Which means the other would be Luke.

[prettypurpleparlor]

Ah. Well, that does answer our first question, at least: definitely a human soul, just with some unexpected additions. The way it shades into green, here, makes me suspect that would be the color of Luke's soul.

[bloodyashes]

Probably. What do the colors mean?

[Weirdly, perhaps unlike most would expect, Asch would assume that Luke's soul is just as human as his. In Asch logic, a replica of a human is a human, too, just... A slightly different one.

Not that that actually removes his prejudice - humans are biased against each other all the time - but such it is.]

[prettypurpleparlor]

[Well, it's sort of progress.]

Green for kindness, red for determination- your respective virtues.

[She sounds briefly... wistful as she mentions the latter, still remembering another red soul.]

[bloodyashes]

...Part of me almost isn't surprised they're complimentary colors.

[He and Luke are just... like that, in some ways.]

Determination... I think I can see that. Just a little.

[Tease tease. He can poke fun at himself once in a while.]

[prettypurpleparlor]

Yes, somehow I'm not surprised... Look, it even matches your hair.

[She respects your soul's commitment to your Aesthetic, at least.]

[bloodyashes]

[Sometimes aesthetic is all you have left.]

And the green our eyes, for that matter.

[prettypurpleparlor]

[Life is a mess, but the aesthetic is still on point.]

My, you're both very well-coordinated. ...Though I don't know what that says about Lorelei's fashion sense, in that case.

[All those shifting colors...]

[bloodyashes]

Probably somewhere on the list of human things it doesn't have a clear comprehension of, honestly.

[prettypurpleparlor]

[She pauses, struck by a sudden thought.]

Did it actually have enough of a physical form for fashion to be an issue? I suppose a disembodied voice would never have to worry about what to wear...

[Her only knowledge of Lorelei comes from getting like two seconds of somebody else's headache, okay. She doesn't know.]

[bloodyashes]

Not exactly disembodied, but in its natural state, Lorelei is a cloud of Seventh fonons.

[So yeah fashion is kind of not even a thing there.]