aftr_stories | [MU] - DECEMBER STORYTELLING / MEMORY SHARE

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[MU] - DECEMBER STORYTELLING / MEMORY SHARE

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.

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[Muffet steps forward without any further prompting, her arms coming up to wrap gently but firmly around him, one hand softly patting his back. She's a pretty good hugger, it seems- monsters are more prone to open displays of affection than most human cultures, she's used to offering comfort to friends in need.]

[Her body temperature feels just a little bit cooler than a human's, but she's still warm enough for it to be clear that there's another living person in his arms, solid and real.]

[Eventually, his arms settle around her shoulders. He's clearly not used to this, but - he's a little less tense, maybe.

He's alive here, in spite of everything.]

...Thanks.

You're quite welcome, dearie.

[Muffet seems unbothered by any awkwardness in his embrace, holding on as long as it seems like he wants her to. This place is strange and dangerous, but here and now, they are alive.]

[It's a bit before he lets go, his hands eventually falling to his sides.

They're alive, somehow, even those of them, like him and Ardyn, who shouldn't be.]

Doesn't change it, but...

[Muffet steps back and lets go when he does, still standing close by. She nods in understanding, picking up Asch's meaning.]

We can't change the past, but we can give you something to center yourself in the present- and maybe if we can do that, we can make the future a bit better.

[She's got a better idea what he means than he does, in that case.]

I don't know if there's even a future to have. But I'm trying anyway.

[All right, maybe she's just guessing. But even if neither of them really knows what they're doing right now, one of them might as well fake it until they figure something out.]

Well, we've confirmed by now that we're likely to still be here tomorrow. Tomorrow, we can see if we're going to be here the day after that. If we can keep that going long enough, we may well end up with a future eventually.

Either way, I'd say it's worth the effort.

[The chuckle she gets in response is shallow and almost bitter.]

Maybe. But people do disappear from here -

[He looks around the circle, briefly.]

And I don't exist anywhere else, anymore.

[Muffet nods grimly, not needing to look around the circle as the faces of people she's known and lost in her short stay here pass through her mind.]

I can't promise you a certain tomorrow, only a likely one. But in the end that's true of any mortal life- we can try to prepare and be cautious, but there's always the chance of a sudden unexpected end to it all. All we can do is keep going.

[She meets his gaze directly, her expression gentle but unyielding.]

There are some things we can't do anything about. But whatever I can do for you, I will.

It's different when you know why you're expecting to die, instead of just potentially popping out of existence at any time.

[He'd know. He's lived alongside his own death for longer than anyone should have to. Asch and death are almost old friends, with how long it's hung over him, how many times he's dealt it out.

When she meets his eyes, he looks away.]

It's still hard for me to believe it when people say that. I'm not sure it's ever real.

I'm not sure it's the kind of thing you're expected to believe right away.

[Her tone is calm and accepting, not ignoring his comment but not put off by it either.]

Hopefully over time you'll have more and more evidence of it being real, and eventually you'll be able to believe it. But it's not something you need to rush. ...Though, if it makes you feel any better, I suspect that you're still a little further along on that front than some people.

[Not that she's naming names, Ardyn.]

[Well, really, the only reason he's willing to believe that it might be possible is that he means it, himself, towards their local plague in a meat suit.]

Trying matters. I'm determined to try, even if some people aren't.

[One of his hands, almost idly, runs through his bangs.]

I don't know how anyone else feels about seeing their best self in the desert, but for me - it's something I'm determined to work towards.

[He can be better. Little, by little, by little...

Not like he has anything else to do.]

[Hey, whatever works. She just appreciates that she's not the only one who wants to save several thousand daemons in a person suit from himself.]

I have seen determination do things I hadn't thought possible, before. And I know for a fact that persistence is a virtue.

[She nods approvingly.]

For what it's worth, I think that's a rather healthy way to look at it- not something to be feared, or something unattainable, just something to aim for.

Or a man come back from the dead?

[Why stop at one callout for their weird friend in too many coats?]

I used to wonder sometimes what 'Luke' would have been like without the kidnapping. That place is probably the closest I'll ever get to an answer.

Unfortunately, I think it's not the 'dead' part that bothers him so much as the 'man'.

[Muttering it under your breath doesn't make it any less of a callout, Muffet.]

Perhaps... I have a few what-ifs that I wonder about myself, but I don't think they're the sort Monsun can answer for me.

[He smiles, a little, because she's right.]

"Ardyn Lucis Caelum" had far more of an existence than "Luke fon Fabre" did, as much as he's denied now. I don't think he - likes any reminder of that, but especially the reminder of who he was before all of that pain. I know I don't.

[Yet people insisted on reminding him anyway, sometimes to the point of ignoring who he was now.]

But it's important to remember that the Ardyn in the desert isn't him, either.

You're not wrong. But I'm more and more certain that the Ardyn outside the desert isn't exactly him, too. There are a lot of people he isn't, at this point.

[It's just trading one kind of mental influence for another- the desert or the daemons, but not the man underneath it all.]

The real question, I think, is who he is. And I suspect it's not one he really knows the answer to.

After two thousand years, the question of who he'd be without the Scourge is pretty meaningless, isn't it? Even if we could remove it -

[He pauses, and then sighs.]

Depending on what exactly it's done to his body, he'd probably die. And as much as he'd welcome that, it means that who he would be after that is a pretty pointless question.

Mm, not necessarily, I think?

[She makes a noncommittal gesture with one hand, pausing for a moment as she tries to articulate her exact thoughts on this matter.]

From what I'm given to understand, the Scourge is a direct, active influence on him at all times. An influence he's gotten used to over the centuries, certainly, to the point where it's nearly impossible to tell whether any given impulse he might have belongs to it or to him, but still a distinct thing outside of Ardyn himself. The Scourge has shaped who he is to a great degree, and even if it wasn't directly influencing him any more that would still be true- I certainly doubt he'd just return to being Ardyn Lucis Caelum without it- but I don't think he'd be exactly the same without it directly acting on him, either.

Perhaps it might be more accurate to say that I don't think who he is outside of the desert is all of him. The Scourge suppresses his more positive traits, just as Monsun suppresses the negative. It's a tad presumptuous of me, maybe, but I can't help but feel that someday I'd like to meet the entire Ardyn, instead of just whichever bit of him the universe didn't decide to smother today.

As for whether it would even be physically possible...

[She shrugs.]

I'm not saying it absolutely can be done, but given that I know for a fact that the Storyteller can revive the dead, I'm not willing to say it can't be.

No Storyteller. Or any other gods.

[Everything else will take thinking to articulate and reply to, but this - this is firm and absolute and, for once, Asch has something of the bearing of the royalty he is. Shoulders set, back straight.]

Not unless he specifically says otherwise. He gets to have that respected.

[Muffet might not understand what it means to have gods and prophecies taking away your decisions, but Asch does. Even if the Storyteller or some other god could just snap their fingers and make Ardyn right again - if he doesn't want it, then Asch will absolutely fight for his right to refuse it.

Everyone has a line they will not cross.]

...If I had my full power here - enough Seventh Fonons for a real hyperresonance - I could probably do it. I think I could, even if it might take years to figure out the details.

But I don't.

[It's bitter. He hates being powerless. He sighs, and tries to get his thoughts together to respond to the rest of what she said.]

'Ardyn Lucis Caelum' is dead, and I doubt he'd appreciate being treated as that person any more than I do when people treat me as 'Luke.' As for who he would be - in the hypothetical?

I doubt even he would know. I'm still figuring mine out, and there's no parasitic miasma plague attached to me.

Fair enough. He's had enough choices taken away from him, angels know, I've no desire to take any more.

[Muffet doesn't understand what it's like to have your life ruled by gods and prophecies the way Ardyn and Asch do- and what's more, she's entirely aware of that. It's why she trusts him more on this subject, to know more about what would be more helpful for Ardyn than the rest of them would. She's thankful not to have personal experience with that sort of pain, and she wouldn't wish it on anyone, but if the knowledge is useful then she won't ignore it.]

I think I'd just like for him to have the chance to find out, regardless of what he discovers.

[Her mind is quietly going over what he said about his full power, wondering if... It's not as though she's been keeping it a secret here, really. It's just... not the kind of thing you talk about casually. Not with what it led humanity to do to her people, for the fear of it.]

[But it might be useful for him to know.]

On the subject of our own powers... part of what my type of magic allows us to do, how it works, is the ability to manifest a person's soul physically, in a way that it can be interacted with.

Both one's own soul or that of another.

I know for a fact that this power, at least, still works here. [Bless you for your reckless curiosity, Newton Geiszler.] I can't say if it would really do anything to help, and I won't do it without his express consent, but... Perhaps it might be part of an answer, if we can figure out the rest.

[Probably a good option. Asch would only really trust Ignis - as equally enraged at the hands of fate as him or Ardyn - to make those kinds of decisions for him.

He pauses, putting a hand to his chin, and hums thoughtfully.]

Could be useful as a diagnostic if nothing else - give me more details.

[To see how far down the infection goes, on a metaphysical level, maybe - if there's even anything to separate out at this point, which Asch isn't sure there is.

After all, Lorelei called him and Luke 'fragment of my soul' - if his power is rooted that deeply in his being, there's no reason to think that Ardyn's, both as a Lucis Caelum and as the host of the Starscourge, might not be as well.]

[Muffet nods agreeably, recognizing the same sort of curiosity about new and strange magic she felt about hearing of other worlds, herself. It's a shame they have to focus on more practical matters than just having fun learning about different magical systems, but needs must.]

Generally, a soul looks like a small shape of glowing light, and hovers above the person's chest when called out. It's easier to do it to someone willing, but they don't actually have to be. Just manifesting someone's soul doesn't hurt or harm them at all- but it can be attacked directly while it's outside of a body, so most people don't like to risk making themselves vulnerable like that unless there's a good reason for it. However, you can move your own soul around by willing it, even while it's outside your body, so even if someone was attacked that way they wouldn't be completely defenseless. You can see...

[She pauses briefly, wondering how to explain a *CHECK to someone who likely had no familiarity with the concept at all.]

...A few basic things about them, generally things like how powerful they are or a general idea of their health, but it doesn't really go into much depth. The most obvious thing is generally the color of their soul. Monster souls are always a sort of grey-white shade, but human souls can come in seven different colors, each representing a different virtue: red for determination, orange for bravery, gold for justice, cyan for patience, green for kindness, blue for integrity, and purple for perseverance.

[If only. Though most people on the islands would probably zone out once Asch really got rolling on harmonic physics.]

I imagine that both power level and general health are going to be at extremes in Ardyn's case.

[Because he's the scariest, sickest person on the islands, and there's no way that won't show.]

Have you gotten the chance to test on anyone that wasn't human or your kind of monster?

Of that, I have no doubt.

[She's not sure what two thousand years of apocalyptically vengeful madness ends up translating to in terms of LV, but she's suspects she won't like it.]

No, I haven't- though I can at least confirm that it works on humans who aren't originally from my world. There's no way to be sure until I try, but Ardyn did start out as a human, and whatever else he's become he certainly still remains a sapient being, so it seems likely to work.

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