[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

[unpurify]

[Ren is right about how his change in appearance worked. And this form was not permanent by any means. One day she might see a human again.

But he doubts it. The Batter sincerely doubts it.

She can sit and wait for as long as she wants. For as long as she feared him, the Batter would remain as a monster. It's not something that's Ren's fault, however. He condemned himself to this and got exactly what he expected.

(Not quite because Ren still here and the Batter is trying not to think to hard about what that means)

He continues to stare, unblinking at the girl before him. He's smiling, technically because he can't close his mouth and the teeth forces it into a weird shape. But he feels nothing.

There's absolutely nothing.]

No. I can't.

[The Batter was once the man who ended the world and who's mere existence was like that of a paper knife. He can't escape that. He can't escape all of the lives he's ended, all of the destruction he's caused. There was only one option and the Batter couldn't have it in this place.]

Escaping from your purpose is impossible.

[There's something incredibly final in those words. They were the last words the Batter ever said before he flipped the switch OFF and ended the world. The phrase that filled his soul and stayed there like a weight that was stronger then what he felt when his form changed.

"Escape is impossible. And remember, you were made that way."

So Ren can stay here as long as she wants. She can say what she wants.

But nothing will change.]

[catpiper]

[The problem with brave people is that they don't realize they can run. To a girl that runs from everything-

To a girl that ran as far away as she could, for as long as could, to avoid hurting others by the hands of a man who couldn't escape his dark thoughts-who couldn't see the light at the end of the path he had set down.

She couldn't escape on her own, bound and held back by a fear of the unknown. She had listened to him, gone with his plan, because she knew no other way to live. There was no one to tell her there was another way to live.

It was impossible to escape from her purpose until-

Seto.

Until she met Seto. Until she left markings on walls and floors, begging him to find her. Expecting him to ignore the images left in her wake and seeing him-

Seeing him there beyond the sewer's fence. Beyond the glass in the elevator that separated them. Feeling him-knowing he was looking at the small tv hooked up to the camera in lab.

She could escape. She had escaped because he was there. And with a finality all her own, words quiet and shaking, she says-]

You can.

[She's not Seto. She's not brave. But the courage he gave her by standing by her side through it all-by protecting her, by fighting Shin so she could live in the world next to him before they even exchanged names. Batter doesn't know it can be like that yet.

And Ren, with the fragments of courage she can make from Seto's memory, sits up straight. She's scared-that's undeniable, but she's still there. No longer frozen in place, but sitting of her own free will.]

When someone is next to you-you can do that. That's how it is. When-

[His hand touched the glass door on the elevator, making an imprint her eyes fixated on the entire way down. That made her feel a surge of hope she hadn't felt for years.

When she realized he was trying to save her.]

Someone wants to be with you. You can escape.

[unpurify]

[And she's...staying.

She's staying despite the fear in her eyes and staying under her own power and simply not frozen to the spot. Ren wants to be here.

The Batter opens his mouth and snaps it shut almost immediately. Looks like she's managed to stump him for a hot minute.]

...why?

[He's asking for a lot of reasons. Why is Ren staying, why does she think he can escape with someone at his side? The Batter had that before. The Queen was beside him for a long time. He did not hate his creator either.

He loved the world and wished the best for it. He dug and dug to find a way to keep it safe and well. The Batter ripped out the guts of the world and stuffed them down his own throat until he was given an answer. An answer that simply boiled down to the Batter.

The purifier lost more then he cared to admit. He was simply a monstrous puppet and he wanted to remain that way. He wanted to stay where he was.

He wanted to die at the end of the world. Yet here he was.]

If you love someone and know them at their best, you do not let them suffer at their worst. So why?

[Why do you care Ren? Why are you here?

Just...why?]

[catpiper]

[His words show her how outside of her realm she is. It isn't a matter of love and not love-to her it's far more simple. You try to help those that are hurting and-

It's so beyond her. This whole situation. There's nothing she can think to say or do in response to that.

All she heard was the voice of a man who said he couldn't escape. That he felt he was unable to run and hide from his purpose. That's what she fixates on. Tries to repeat over and over in her mind that he's like her in this small way.

Tries to see the hurt underneath all that bloodshed he was a part of.

And shakes her head to avoid thinking of that bloody metal bat and the story he told her when her mind wanders.]

I don't know what that means.

[Concepts like love. The answer to 'why'? She can't wrap her mind around any of it. ]

I know I can stay here. That's something I can do for you.

[unpurify]

[The Batter's mouth opens and shuts with a loud snap.

It's actually an involuntary action on his part and genuinely not meant to scare Ren. The thing about this form was that it was brought about by those who saw the Batter in a negative light and the Batter himself was affected by his own views as well.

And he hated what he saw in the mirror. An emotional thing that couldn't control itself and himself staring back, over and over again.

So this appearance was more expressive then the human. Somehow. Or maybe the Batter genuinely did not know how to proceed.]

....if someone you know or care about is suffering it's better to end things, even if it means ending their life. Physically, emotionally. Metaphorically.

[He can't explain it any more then that. It's a personal view of the Batter's. He would not let someone he loved suffer. Although what he means by 'metaphorically' may go over Ren's head and he intends on it.]

Can you?

[It's not a request. The Batter's face isn't the only thing that's changed. His arms have lengthened and his hands have been shaped into large claws. They look weak, long but so thin that Ren doesn't have to look hard to see bone. But they sharpen to points that were effective in tearing apart flesh and bone.

He reaches out to Ren with one claw. The Batter has zero intent on hurting the girl and if she waits him out, she'll find that the purifier won't even touch her.

The Batter was trying to make a point. Ren saw this form, she knew what he had done. So was was the point in staying? There's nothing here!]

[catpiper]

[If he can't explain it beyond that, that's fine. Ren doesn't want to hear anymore. Even her basic understanding behind what he wants to say is something she fundamentally disagrees with. Seto and Sai must've disagreed too because they saw redemption in a bitter ghost who wanted to connect the hearts of others by killing them. Deserved an opportunity to pass on. A chance to see a brighter side of their ruined world.

She doesn't move. The second the claw heads towards her, she can see Shin's hand. The moment she blinks, she can see someone who felt trapped, reaching out.

She sees a man who smiled at her on the beach. A man that tried to find happiness in the rainbow colored seashells between his hands, even if he couldn't see it at all-he tried. She saw him look down, knew he listened to her response of it might someday and took it in him like it might actually be the truth.

He feels like he can't escape and she doesn't know if any part of her is strong enough to help him see that he can. But she knows how to wait. She knows how to sit down and wait for doctors to finish running tests. She knows how to sit in a machine with a whirring noise that she tries to pretend is a lullaby, while she waits for a boy to save her.

She knows how to sit and wait, even as a tremor of fear runs through her, because she thinks a man that knows how to smile at seashells wouldn't hurt her. She's scared. Maybe he's scared. She can't tell, but he's reaching out and it reminds her of a hand. And it might not be the intention, but it makes her think he wants the comfort of someone holding onto him.

It looks sharp, like a cat's claw, which is a realization that gives her a small bit of comfort in all this. It's what pushes her over the edge and makes her slowly raise her arm up and-

She places one hand over the top of his claw finger, if he lets her, barely touching it, but the meaning behind it is clear. Please don't hit the betray button.]

[unpurify]

[And the Batter...freezes.

He wasn't planning on hurting her. To everyone else all this looks like is a man reaching out to a child, not a monster. Ren's probably too scared to notice that and it's...not fine. It's not. But-

The Batter always dug his grave but this is the first time in a long, long time someone's smacked the shovel out of his hands and started filling it back up, as unintended as it may be. Ren was afraid. It'd be very strange if she was completely fine with this form. And given the circumstances surrounding the change, he isn't surprised that she was afraid of him. She should have run.

Yet here she was, reaching out. And his hand jerks back and drops, seemingly caught off balance for once in his life.

And Ren is right. He is scared.]

...why?

[The Batter is repeating himself, asking a question he knows he won't get a proper answer for because he doesn't want it. He doesn't want it. The Batter asked once before and it resulted in everything being broken to pieces.

He doesn't want to know why Ren is here, trying to comfort something that's nothing but a monstrous puppet. But he can't stop. As always, the Batter can never stop.]

Why are you trying to help me?

[The Batter's claws scrape against the ground as he looks up at the sky. Now it doesn't sound like he's addressing Ren anymore.]

Why won't you let me go?

[He wanted permanence. Why won't anyone give it to him? It's on the tip of his tongue to ask that, but the purifier still has have a mind to not say it. Instead...]

I'm not 'here' anymore. So why?

[catpiper]

[She sits in dead silence in response to all his questions because she doesn't have an answer for the twisted, contorted man in front of her. But something pulls her in and-

It's not a new feeling in the slightest. For as long as she's been alive, she could read the hearts of others and sometimes that came in the form of scattered dialogue and memories, if they were strong enough. She could push the terrifying emotions leftover from Shin's consciousness into Seto's heart so he wouldn't have to be alone. It's second nature to a child who had been twisted herself in a lab that no longer exists.

And so it feels natural to think so this is his memory and these are all words that touched his heart enough to leave an impact. She's vaguely aware this is for all to see-to hear-because it doesn't form in her heart the way Shin's did. The shiver that runs down her spine is because of how aware she is of that. It's around her, like a ghostly echo of something she needs to run away from. It's weird. She doesn't like it.

She reaches out for Seto's hand to see if he can make sense of it-

But there's no one to reach out to, she remembers, and clutches the fabric of her pants instead, hearing the-

Please help me louder than any other whisper. It rings like the-

Please save me she remembers thinking when Lup called her lil sis and come find me in chalk pressed against the ground with a shaking hand because she feared Seto would.]

That's your heart?

cw for body horror, dissociation and disturbing thoughts

[unpurify]

[And the world

Warps.

He's...not sure where everything is now. The campfire is gone. Ren is gone. He's alone with only darkness and his thoughts.

And then that other darkness comes. It doesn't come from nowhere but boils in his stomach like acid. It burns as it claws its way out of the Batter's throat and spills past his lips. Black and oozing like tar, like an impurity he couldn't fix because nothing could fix him or Hugo or anything beyond what he offered.

There was only one truth. Even without the Batter, something else would have had to kill Hugo.

Only choice. Only one. Only you.

He can't stop the flow even if the Batter slaps a hand against his mouth. Nothing to stem the tide as he retches, darkness and nothingness spilling out from his mouth and it takes the form of teeth, eyes and hair. White hair like he remembers of the Queen and pretty purples eyes of the girl that once stood before him and smiled and he wants to tear everything to pieces. The Batter can see the inside of his own throat and how it was being rubbed raw from words unsaid and said and answered and not answered.

Please help me, said a child.

Please help me, screamed the world.

And the eyes stare at him with that innocent question and the teeth are his - his or the monster that is him and what are you thinking?! - but he has an answer to stop the flow and tears at his throat and stomach until they burst like fresh fruit and spill his guts and that darkness all over the floor.

The monster thinks it's laughing. The man thinks he's crying. They don't know what's going on. All they know is pain.

Buried under all of those voices screaming for help was another: It. Him. You.

But it couldn't say 'me'. It couldn't say "Help me." It has no voice, you see.

All it can do is see because it knows those pretty purple eyes have erupted onto its skin. Because when you look at it, you stare back at yourself. You don't see it. Telling her to look at it was pointless because that was asking someone to find something within a blank doll.

No it, no him, no you.

"You can't help me ████."

It dug this hole, it set up the nooses for everyone and then walk to its own. Its digging its claws into its arms because that is grounding, it's fine. The eyes are going away. The eyes are being gouged out. And all of this is in the Batter's head, once again.

It's fine.
Help me.
I'm fine.
Please God, help me!
The Batter stumbles to his feet as reality slowing begins to come back and takes one shaking step backwards.

And then another.

And one more before he suddenly bolts. Sorry Ren, but that's not something he's going to answer. Not now, not ever.]