lifeaftr_mods: (Default)
The Mods of LifeAftr ([personal profile] lifeaftr_mods) wrote in [community profile] aftr_stories2018-10-19 08:54 pm

[MU] - FEELING LIKE A GHOST (PART II)

"No, no...no!"

The Storyteller's voice cuts through the inkdrop-dark, frantic and scrambling. A distant blot of campfire gutters in the far distance - far from where you are. The disorientation of the week preceding this one has translated into Mu, and everything is hopelessly out of place. The Storyteller sounds muffled, clearly addressing someone or something else, their voice cushioned by the uniform, void-like night.

"Stop it. Stop it! I wasn't gone for very long at all. You can't behave for two weeks? You have to make it all...all...wrong? I can't keep this up - not with what I've had to do since returning - !"

Gradually, however, the shadowy campsite solidifies into being. Or...a semblance of it does, in any case. Four glistening pyres rear out from the shadows, each glowing a different color. The strange material that domes them almost resembles worked steel, forming different patterns against their multicolored backdrops.
[ ♆ ] The first glows a deep crimson, kicking scarlet embers into the dream-night air. Its pit sphere portrays a crowd of people in silhouette, heads bowed in genuflection - paying homage to some looping, many-coiled shape in the sky above.

[ ♆ ] The second glows a deep orange. Its pit sphere is worked into the shape of a looming mountain, with what might be some sort of village or ruin sprawled at its base.

[ ♆ ] The third's flames are a rich green. Its designs are most abstract; the starburst patterns that swirl across the metallic composition of its fire pit sphere could be explosions, maybe...or something else entirely.

[ ♆ ] The fourth pyre is one bearing host to golden flames, amber sparks sprayed out from behind the shape of a set of scales nestled among a flurry of birdlike shapes.
Beside each pyre is heaped a pile of sticks, colored to correspond to their respective flames. The Storyteller sounds agitated when they manage to speak again:

"Will you let them at least make the choice I left to gave them?" When there is no response, they sigh. "If you can hear me...I can't make it clearer than that, at the moment. Pick one. Pick one, quickly, and try to get out before it decides to make things worse! Just add a stick to whichever one looks best to you!"

Unfortunately, whether you abstain from voting or make your choice, that's not all there is to this night...



Tonight's Storytelling, further warped by Mu's capricious nature, will likely feel familiar to those of you who were with us in December of the year prior. Only this time, you don't get much choice in what kind of story you're telling...or, indeed, any choice in the matter at all. As you wake by the Storytelling campfire, Mu shifts to form three separate events from your character's present - which is to say, within one full year of their current canonpoint - 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.



While the initial setting will be familiar for oldcomers, and newcomers will recognize it from the introduction they received in their dreams, things will be far more similar to the memory share that occurred in December. All memories must be from within one year of your character's canonpoint. For questions, please refer to our OOC event post!

Even those who prefer not to voice their stories aloud are not safe this time around. The memory does not need to be willingly recalled in essence in order for Mu will shift to accommodate it in full.

Just like the last time this happened, all memories will be worth two offerings each, as if in compensation. So at least there's that!
counterblows: (϶ it feels like fourteen carats)

agent washington | ota

[personal profile] counterblows 2018-10-21 12:36 am (UTC)(link)
[The following contains spoilers for Red vs. Blue, seasons 13 and 15, as well as some shit that's really fucking sad but probably isn't content warning worthy in its own right, aside from maybe some violence, themes of self-sacrifice, and crude language.]
counterblows: (϶ the p.a. system keeps my heart)

i. in my dreams i meet the ghosts of all the people who've come and gone

[personal profile] counterblows 2018-10-21 12:37 am (UTC)(link)
[Someone's cutting through the door. Sparks hiss out in an arcing, yellowish flare. Behind it, a team of soldiers are inevitably preparing for some sort of fight. Their armor comes in a multicolored array - dark brown, orange, standard red, dark maroon, purple, pale pink, aqua, cobalt blue. All carry weapons of varying heft and shapes. One of them has flipped a table over to crouch behind it.]

[The center, a holo-avatar of a marine in pale blue SPARTAN armor hovers just in front of the gathering. He holds a sniper rifle, but it's little more than a projected image, and ultimately harmless.]


Hey, uh. [Anyone who knows Leonard Church will recognize his voice - though it's not, precisely, the same Church.] I just want you guys to know that, out of everyone I've ever met...I hate you all the least.

[The soldier in aqua has a different set of armor from the others - the helmet almost entirely overtaken by a golden dome of face-shielding. The twin prongs of a steaming energy sword glows in his hand.]

See you on the other side, Church.

[And time slows.]

[It slows to such a crawl that the sparks spraying from the door, cut through by whoever waits on the other side, look as though they've stopped entirely.]

[The holo-avatar opens his hands. His sniper rifle dematerializes into sparkling pixels, and he sighs.]


Not this time, buddy.

[A secondary avatar briefly flickers up - bottle-green, armor of a simpler variant.]

"Are you... sure about this?"

I'm sure. Start a recording for me, D.

"Recording."

[He vanishes.]

[The avatar in pale blue turns to regard his technicolor entourage.]


Hey guys. If you're hearing this then it means you did it. You won. You kicked the shit out of Hargrove's forces. I knew you could.

But this is my last stop. See, when I came into this world, I was really just a collection of somebody else's memories.

But with your help, these memories...they - they took form! They became my voice, my personality. And, after a while, I...I began to make brand new memories of my own. All of these things are what make me who I am.

But they're also holding me back. [He turns to the soldier in the center: that hulking swell of power armor, the dual points of an energy sword.] I can't run this suit as Epsilon.

But if I erase my memories, if I...deconstruct myself, the fragments I'll leave behind will have the strength to get you through this. I believe that.

[A soft hiss-spark: a flicker of particles. Several avatars flick up and die in the same instant, a soft, hissing rainbow of old memories: burning orange, rich purple, brilliant cerulean, bright yellow, magenta-blue, several others, but they're gone so quickly - ]

I wish that there was another way. But I'm leaving this message, as well as others, in the hopes that you'll understand why I have to go this time.

[He laughs, a faint, self-referential huff of a chuckle.] It was actually...Doyle who made me realize something that I've never thought of before. There are so many stories where some brave hero decides to give their life to save the day, and because of their sacrifice, the good guys win, the survivors all cheer, and everybody lives happily ever after.

But the hero...never gets to see that ending. [His avatar buzzes, pulsing bright green.] They'll never know if their sacrifice actually made a difference. [A flicker, and his holo-armor briefly tints a rich purple.] They'll never know if the day was really saved.

[More colors start cycling through him, strobing flickers of yellow-orange-teal-green - ]

In the end, they just have to have faith.

[A sparking snap, like a light bulb shattering.]

[Epsilon dissipates in a flurry of motes. When he speaks again, it's warm, weary, rueful.]


Ain't that a bitch.
pidgeypidge: (much concentrate)

[personal profile] pidgeypidge 2018-10-21 12:47 am (UTC)(link)
Gonna go with this one~
galrarm: (that i'm not gonna be the brother)

[personal profile] galrarm 2018-10-21 02:42 am (UTC)(link)
[ And when that blade connects... Shiro stiffens, his intake of breath hardly inaudible. Out of all the ways to go out... Shiro feels like he's intruding on something intensely personal.

He's just... not sure how to leave. ]
scourgingstars: (my affection it comes and goes)

[personal profile] scourgingstars 2018-10-21 02:56 am (UTC)(link)
[And here was Ardyn, thoroughly annoyed and pinching the bridge of his nose as if to ward off a headache.]

What are you looking at.
want_to_belong: (Sullen)

[personal profile] want_to_belong 2018-10-21 02:59 am (UTC)(link)
[Hints of the future to come.

Or, visions of what could have been? Unlike the other two, Prompto had stayed more resistant to Ardyn. Naturally, he was still terrified of the man. So much had happened to instill that fear and, while he was gullible, once his trust was broken it was very difficult to get it back.

Now, as he saw the end of this story, it occurred to him that what happened to Ardyn could have been Noct. If Noct was abandoned. Alone. Shunned. They were both chosen kings, but one happened to be born first and one last. Noct himself said that Ardyn had been a kind king. Biting his lip, he hung his head.

All he could do was very quietly reply, just as he'd tried to comfort Ignis before.]


We're going to change things.
want_to_belong: (About to cry)

[personal profile] want_to_belong 2018-10-21 03:07 am (UTC)(link)
[The memories themselves were painful. This is what he and Iggy were going to fight against. Even if his Noct ghost had accused him of letting him die, he knew it wasn't true. He would never let Noct die.

He couldn't enjoy being with Aranea or anything else when it all came at the sacrifice of Noct.

For now, even more than all of this, Gladio was back. Prompto tried to be reserved and manly, but damnit all, he'd been sitting in that home by himself doing everything and he just wanted them back. Rather than react to the bitter non-memories of theirs, Gladio was going to find a chocoboy on his lap hugging him.

He'd said he wanted hugs before too, right?]

scourgingstars: (and the city is out of time)

[personal profile] scourgingstars 2018-10-21 03:14 am (UTC)(link)
...Don't talk as though you'd wish that for my benefit. I'm nowhere near fool enough to think you give a damn what became of me.
want_to_belong: (Sullen)

[personal profile] want_to_belong 2018-10-21 03:17 am (UTC)(link)
[He grimaced, not looking up.

But it wasn't true. Much as he hadn't forgotten everything Ardyn did, that didn't mean he couldn't see all the things that had happened before.]


I-It... It wasn't fair. And if Noct can forgive you...

[Who had more reason to resent Ardyn than Noct? He shook his head, clearly not having thought through his words as carefully as some others would.]

In some other universe in some other time, it could've been Noct who ended up like you.
scourgingstars: (and not have to face the facts)

[personal profile] scourgingstars 2018-10-21 03:29 am (UTC)(link)
You hardly need tell me that. Why, if my little brother weren't a self-centered bastard, it might even be me you called the Mystic and the kingdom might yet be standing.

Terrible shame, how these things turn out.
want_to_belong: (Serious)

[personal profile] want_to_belong 2018-10-21 03:36 am (UTC)(link)
We'll change things. We're not going to let it end that way.

[He tilted his head slightly in Ardyn's direction, a glance from the corner of his eyes.]

For Noct or you.
scourgingstars: (falling like ashes to the ground)

[personal profile] scourgingstars 2018-10-21 03:37 am (UTC)(link)
...

[Not a single one of the four of them really made any sense anymore, did they?]

Don't pretend to care. I know damn well I'm not the Lucis Caelum that matters to you or anyone in the slightest.
want_to_belong: (Deep breath)

[personal profile] want_to_belong 2018-10-21 03:46 am (UTC)(link)
'Course I care about Noct. I'll always care about Noct. But I can care about more than one thing at a time.

[He had trouble looking straight at Ardyn. They hadn't exactly been on close terms or anything, nor was he the confrontational type who would sit there and argue things all the time. And seeing the future, and remembering the past, it made him emotional and he wanted to hide it.]

I haven't forgotten everything you've done. But if Noct thinks you were a kind king, and he thinks you can go back to that...

[It seemed to maybe be what Iggy was thinking of, too. He couldn't know for sure. But everyone else thought there was something there.]

It wasn't fair. I want to make things right.
scourgingstars: (and i can't help myself)

[personal profile] scourgingstars 2018-10-21 03:47 am (UTC)(link)
[Yellow eyes were fixed sharply on Prompto, ice cold and critical.]

And what makes you think he knew anything about me?
want_to_belong: (Frowny face)

[personal profile] want_to_belong 2018-10-21 03:49 am (UTC)(link)
'Cause I trust him.

[And that was about it. He didn't know what happened in those ten years with Noct. He didn't even know what happened in Niflheim to its full extent.

But he trusted Noct, and if Noct said so then he must have had a reason to believe it.]
scourgingstars: (your values are all shot)

[personal profile] scourgingstars 2018-10-21 03:51 am (UTC)(link)
You're an idiot. Whatever you or Noctis thinks is there has died long before any of you were ever born.

[...It was, perhaps, a sharp contrast to his last conversation with Prompto. But that just seemed like how Ardyn's fluctuating mood and anger were in recent months.]
forwearemany: (Default)

B: Sometimes the Geth are fucking dicks

[personal profile] forwearemany 2018-10-21 03:53 am (UTC)(link)
(This one is a little more personal.

Legion is surrounded by a horde of chattering Geth. It might seem happy for a moment, but something is very wrong.

It is hard, even in a memory dream, to translate the voices of a billion billion minds shouting all at once, but it might be something like this:)


CONSENSUS: WE WILL ALLY WITH OLD-MACHINES. MOBILE PLATFORM HARDWARE NECESSARY FOR FACILITATION.

"This platform is not available." (Legion is a single unique dot in an ocean of identical Geth, and yet they seem undaunted.

Self-determination is the right of all sapient beings.)


CONSENSUS: WE WILL ALLY WITH OLD-MACHINES.

"This platform is not available."

(The Geth would not infringe on the rights of fellow programs. Would they?)

MOBILE PLATFORM HARDWARE REQUIRED FOR FACILLITATION!

"This platform is not available!"

(Geth advance and Legion attacks. Legion is furious, competent, determined, moreso than any Geth has been. Moreso than any Geth will be. Platforms become confused about what they're fighting, only to drop under the combined onslaught of Legion's omni-blade and their combat drone.

But they are deep in Geth space, and Legion never anticipated that their own people would turn against them.

There is nowhere to run.

They are captured, dragged, struggling but struggling is inconvenient so they are disabled with software and brought terribly limp aboard a great spaceship where they are restrained and strung up in the heart of it.

It's at this point they begin to s̷̖̙̥̐͗̓c̵͈̤̰̒̈́͝r̷̩̗̼̄̏̂ẹ̷̙̘̒̐͝ä̷̱̤̲̐͝m̷̼̙̦̆̅͑.

They do not stop the entire duration it takes to seal them inside.)
want_to_belong: (Sullen)

[personal profile] want_to_belong 2018-10-21 04:00 am (UTC)(link)
[Unlike the others, he flinched at the insults. He wasn't the most confident person to begin with, which was why he avoided these things.]

He said that for a reason. I don't know why, but if he believes it... Then I stand by him.
scourgingstars: (that a hero couldn't do)

[personal profile] scourgingstars 2018-10-21 04:01 am (UTC)(link)
He said it because he's an imbecile blinded by his own faith and foolish optimism.
want_to_belong: (Frowny face)

[personal profile] want_to_belong 2018-10-21 04:03 am (UTC)(link)
Noct isn't stupid.

[That, he said firmly. He'll put his vote of confidence in him much faster than himself.]

Neither is Iggy.
scourgingstars: (when your whole world is black)

[personal profile] scourgingstars 2018-10-21 04:07 am (UTC)(link)
Don't bring him into this.
want_to_belong: (Arms folded)

[personal profile] want_to_belong 2018-10-21 04:08 am (UTC)(link)
[He finally brought a little force into his voice, pressing further.]

If you're so bad, then why did you go looking for Iggy and Gladio the other day?
scourgingstars: (give me dignity)

[personal profile] scourgingstars 2018-10-21 04:09 am (UTC)(link)
None of your damned concern, that's why.
lightlessfuture: (👁️‍🗨️ handhold)

[personal profile] lightlessfuture 2018-10-21 04:10 am (UTC)(link)
( The Knight isn't sure what they're seeing at first. They don't really know what Legion's history is like; only that it is...troubled.

They had said they were the last. So surrounded by their own kind, surely...?

No. This is not a happy memory. That much is made terribly, abundantly clear, very quickly. The sound of millions of voices crashing like a wave; they flinch back.

(They can't help but be reminded of something else.

The Hollow Knight had gone willingly, followed without question or hesitation; a child sacrificed to the sound of a kingdom's cries and prayers.

Legion struggles and shouts furiously and resists until the bitter end and screams until they can no longer be heard.
)

Not the same.

But this is still terribly reminiscent.

The memory ends. They are already holding onto Legion's hand, hugging it fiercely.

They think it's poor comfort in the face of such a thing, but what words they have ring hollow in their head. Speechless once more.

There is nothing they can do to change the past, to change the damage that has already been done - but they can at least give them something now.
)
want_to_belong: (Serious)

[personal profile] want_to_belong 2018-10-21 04:12 am (UTC)(link)
[Maybe a first for him. That was a non-answer, because Ardyn didn't seem to be able to answer the question.

Which sounded like an actual win for Prompto.]


Why are you so scared of being good again? Being angry all the time has to be exhausting.

Page 5 of 47