[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

Families and Futures

[attheclocktower]

((cw: references to character death))

[If you've heard Xion mention the Tower... well, now is your chance to see it. Or at least floor Thirty-Eight, which is one of the nicer floors to tell the truth. A comfy sort of lounge, with all kinds of chairs and couches. Windows too, not that there's particularly much to see outside. Just clouds and fog. The only thing interrupting the view and the chairs is a single column - a staircase, the spine of the Tower.

That's not how Xion enters though. A window of darkness opens up onto the floor, and she appears out of it. A strange man in a uniform steps up behind her, tapping her shoulder. At first, she doesn't recognize him, but then she does. And it's clear she's relieved and happy that it's him.

To anyone who saw her memory of Castle Oblivion, it's worth noting that he bears a striking resemblance to Axel, though not perfect.]

I was worried he'd be mad. I'd... I'd messed up. I'd gotten us killed; I didn't want that, but I don't regret what I did.

[A statement that is explained as their conversation continues - he'd been hurt, and she'd gotten into a fight over supplies that he needed. They debate about it back and forth for a bit, before she finally does end up apologizing.

Then he asks about the seashell.]

... one time back home, I was... sick. I wouldn't wake up. So my friend Roxas left seashells for me. I've tried to keep every one. Picked up some new ones, too. They're... they're my treasures, but especially those first ones. So when I worry about someone, when I care a lot... I give them one of those shells. It's like... a part of me is with them, always.

[The "narrator" doesn't bother to explain that Reno is important. In fact, the memory here seems shocked at the suggestion that he might not be. He lays it out, explains it. Reminds her that he's not a good person, done some really terrible things. How can she who makes friends with so many good people, protagonists and princesses and the like, choose him as one of her most important people.

And to that... well... she has a lot to say.

"If all we are is the bad things we've done... if that's all we're ever defined by... I don't want to go home. When this is over, if we manage to fix everything, and get our worlds back... If we can make the Tower safe I want to stay here, or else maybe go to another world. But not mine. I don't know if I have a future there. The thing is, if I don't go though... then I'm hurting everyone in my worlds somehow. Either they never come back... or I never give Sora his memories back. And Sora's the one who's saved all the worlds. Who can actually fix everything.

If we're only defined by the bad things we've done, then... I don't see how I'm much better.

But I don't believe that. I think... we're more than just our mistakes. There's good in us too, and you've shown that. You've helped me so much. You've taught me how to protect myself and take care of myself and my friends. Even in a place like this. You gave me a family."

And that was why.]

Dad...

[Moved as he is by her words, Reno takes both her hands in his, and tells her. She's theirs, if she'll have them. Him and Elena both, who joins them not too long after, as it's sinking in what he actually meant.

And no matter what, he'll support her decision.]

[shatteredlenses]

[Ignis isn't sure at what point during Xion's memory the shell slips from his pocket and into his hand, but by the time the memory ends, it's there being run across his fingers and rubbed as one might a worry stone. Before Altissia, cleaning his glasses had been a nervous gesture often used to buy himself time to think. That no longer an option, the smoothness of the shell had been a close enough replacement to the feel that the shell hadn't left his pocket since it was given to him.

To be honest, he has more memories of the King and his Shield, his Uncle and the Prince, than he does his birth parents. Ignis doubts anyone would blame him for being angry about that, but he never had been. He supposes it's easier not to be when he never felt at home with his parents. His home was the Citadel and those who lived within.]

The best parents never seem able to see their own worth, minds too clouded by the things they could have done better to see the good they have already done.

[Ignis' fingers tighten around the shell as a empty pain blossoms in his chest. Regis had been a good father--despite what others might have said--not just to one boy, but two. After all, Ignis' Uncle had no intention of ever having children and had no idea what to do with the one that was just dropped in his lap. He'd done his best, from a distance. But Regis...

Ignis swallows hard, tilting his head downward.

Astrals, he misses Regis. He misses Lord Clarus and he misses his Uncle.

He misses home.]

[attheclocktower]

Yeah.

[She knows that Reno would argue about being called one of the best parents. Knows that there are others she knows who probably would too.

Doesn't really care.]

I don't think it helped that... I don't think he ever expected to be able to have something like this. Like me and my brother.

[He'd never expected to be able to do that kind of good, she's pretty sure. Help someone every now and then maybe, to be a mentor, at most. But nothing like what'd happened.]

Places like this, like the Tower... they can change a lot.

[shatteredlenses]

I can only hope that is the case. There is one who is like a brother to me, and I very much wish for this place to change his fate. He deserves better, and I would give everything I am to see it done.

[Ignis' head bows down toward his hands as if he is looking at the shell that slowly appears as his hand relaxes. He allows it to slip carefully between his fingers a source of familiarity and yet also a symbol of change.]

I suppose part of the power these places have is that they allow us to learn that home doesn't exist in a specific place. Instead, it resides in those that you love.

That really didn't take long at all jeez

[attheclocktower]

Yeah. And it gives those of us who never... really had a home the chance to find one.

[She can't help but smile a bit, seeing that bit of seashell peek in between his fingers. By the sounds of it, they're more alike than she could have realized.]

Your friend, your brother - he... doesn't have a good future waiting, back home?

Right? :-D

[shatteredlenses]

[Ignis shakes his head, voice sad when he speaks.]

We always knew he was fated to fulfill the prophecy and bring back the light to our world, but we didn't know how much it would cost him.

[His voice tightens then as he fights to keep it from shaking, his hand closing tightly around the shell.]

No one told us we were leading him to his death like a lamb to the slaughter. I've raised him since he was three! H-How can they ask me to allow this?

[attheclocktower]

[She sucks a breath in.

For a long time, she doesn't say anything. When she finally opens her mouth again... She talked to Ignis before, and he'd seemed nice enough. But she wouldn't normally say this much, this soon. But this had started hitting way too close to home, way too fast.]

When I was... [She hesitates, her voice faltering a little as she tries to work the mental math.] eight... nine...? months old... I was asked to make a choice.

When I was made, something... had been taken from someone else, someone important, to make me. But... without that, this person was... sick, in a way. He couldn't wake up. And unless I gave that part back... there was nothing anyone could do. But without that part... there'd be nothing of me left. I was hurting him, just by existing.

[Her voice warbles slightly. Her breathing shakes.]

From what I've learned... I'm supposed to say yes, when I do finally go home. That I'll go back.

I'm three now.

[The last point seems... almost stupid to add. But it seemed to link, to what Ignis had said.]

[shatteredlenses]

Made?

[The word causes Ignis to raise his head with a startled gasp. Made. Not born. Created. Like Prompto. Like Luke. Well, not exactly like. They come from three different worlds, created in three different manners, but they all are expected to do too much too young. To live only to die.

It makes him just as sick now as it did the first time he heard of such a thing. Mortals who create their own chess pieces are no better than the gods who use those already living as chess pieces.

Eventually, a small fact slips into focus through his anger and disgust. She's three. Just like Noctis was when they met. She has the same short dark hair and the same deep blue eyes.

If she smiled would that smile fill him with light too?

Ignis swallows hard, knowing he's been quiet longer than polite, but still struggling to pull himself back under control. In fact, despite his efforts there is a soft shake to his voice when he speaks.]

You're three now. That means, you didn't go home? Or did you find another way? A way to change fate for yourself and those tied to you?

[attheclocktower]

[There admittedly had been a knot of anxiety forming in her stomach at the long silence. But it eases a bit when he finally speaks up again, moreso as she answers.]

I wasn't home, yeah. I was a place like here. A nexus. I...

[No... she doesn't need to explain how little time she had left if she'd been at home, with no interference. It wouldn't make either of them feel any better, nor would it be helpful in any way.]

The thing about nexuses... about places where universes meet... Alternate timelines. At the Tower, we were all from different ones. Some of them were almost identical and, others...

[Not at all.]

There's a universe where I make it. Where I never go anywhere, but... I'm two there. I never met her but others did.

I know I told Dad that I wanted to stay in the Tower, or go with him. I know, but... I couldn't leave everyone like that. It'd be wrong. So... when I was on my way home then, when I finally leave here... I'm going to try. To fight for a future where I can.

[And if... if she can do it, why can't he?

...is what she'd like to say. But she knows there's a fatal flaw in her plan - she isn't home yet. She hasn't changed anything.]

[shatteredlenses]

[Alternate universes. They are, admittedly, something he hasn't thought much about since he was a child reading books on anything he could get his hands on. Anything, no matter how strange or farfetched the theory.

Alternate universes. Some theories say there are infinite numbers of them, a new one created each time a decision is made. Others say there is a more finite number, new ones only being created each time a major or key decision is made. No matter which theory may be right, the important point is that there are chances for things to change.

So many chances. Even if he does go back and miss one, who says there won't be a chance for another? Ignis knows he can't let hope falter no matter what happens. He's the one the farthest back, that means he has the most chances to change the course of events so that Noctis doesn't have to die to fulfill his destiny.]

You can do it. You'll find a way just so long as you don't let the light of hope in your heart die.

[She can do it and so can he.]

[attheclocktower]

Yeah...

[It all sounds so easy, when he says it like that. Just hold onto hope. Believe you can.

And yet, wasn't that the point she was trying to make? That was why she'd brought this whole thing up. She'd made that decision, when fighting Riki. That no matter what, she wouldn't stop fighting, trying to make a future she could believe in and be happy with.

It's funny, it feels like the tables have turned. She'd started out as the one trying to give hope, and yet now she feels like the one desperately searching for answers in a hopeless situation.

Or maybe, without the momentum of fighting Ruana and the Tower sustaining her anymore, she's trying to convince herself as much as him, and doing much better at the latter.]

I have to get home first.