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!
want_to_belong: (Thoughtful)

[personal profile] want_to_belong 2018-10-21 06:21 pm (UTC)(link)
You love Fressy, and you like Iggy.

[Astrals, why was this sounding like the preschool bickering about which girls someone liked?]
piercetheheart: (♔ intense)

[personal profile] piercetheheart 2018-10-21 06:21 pm (UTC)(link)
Yeah. [A soft snort, shaking his head. Of course Ardyn wouldn't understand.]

Just doesn't make sense... especially if you really wanted everyone to forget.
want_to_belong: (Sullen)

[personal profile] want_to_belong 2018-10-21 06:23 pm (UTC)(link)
I tried to find you but... No one else was there to feed the chicks or anything. Ardyn said he would look.

[Of course he hadn't sat inside of the house the entire time, but there was only so much area one man could cover, and he had to get back to the house each time because the animals needed him.]
piercetheheart: (♔ downcast)

[personal profile] piercetheheart 2018-10-21 06:30 pm (UTC)(link)
[Ardyn said he would look

For Ignis, of course but- he'd known they were together.]


I'm sorry... thank you, for looking after the girls. I-

We should've come home once we figured out what was happening but I was so stubborn. I just wanted to get things done and... I kept insisting that I was fine. It was my fault.
scourgingstars: (and the city is out of time)

[personal profile] scourgingstars 2018-10-21 06:32 pm (UTC)(link)
[...]

[. . .]


I didn't.
scourgingstars: (when your whole world is black)

[personal profile] scourgingstars 2018-10-21 06:33 pm (UTC)(link)
I'm going to throw you into the fire in a minute if you keep this up.

[Children.]
want_to_belong: (Sullen)

[personal profile] want_to_belong 2018-10-21 06:44 pm (UTC)(link)
Yeah. All your fault.

[There was absolutely no conviction behind his words. Rather, it was more like he was snubbing them.

He shook his head, eyes down.]


I wasn't even there.
piercetheheart: (♔concern)

[personal profile] piercetheheart 2018-10-21 06:44 pm (UTC)(link)
[And even that small admission makes Gladio smile a little. See Ardyn, it's not so awful talking to him, is it?]

I don't know that I'll have much say in the matter but... I'll do what I can to make sure your story gets told. That people remember and we don't make the same mistakes again.
want_to_belong: (Arms folded)

[personal profile] want_to_belong 2018-10-21 06:49 pm (UTC)(link)
Haven't you heard the ancient nursery rhyme?

Iggy and Ardyn, sitting in a tree,
K-I-S-S-I-N-G...

[Which would be funnier if it wasn't so damn weird saying 'Iggy and Ardyn'. He really wasn't sure he was into that.]
scourgingstars: (don't pin it all on me)

[personal profile] scourgingstars 2018-10-21 06:51 pm (UTC)(link)
[Ardyn frowned, holding up a hand and summoning a Fire spell to it.]

Last warning.
scourgingstars: (don't pin it all on me)

[personal profile] scourgingstars 2018-10-21 06:51 pm (UTC)(link)
It doesn't matter anymore. No one would ever believe you even if you did tell them.
piercetheheart: (down thoughtful)

[personal profile] piercetheheart 2018-10-21 06:52 pm (UTC)(link)
[Gladio frowned, ignoring the way his hands tingled for a moment to squeeze Prompto to him.]

And you'd just have ended up in the same situation if you were.

I'm glad you were safe.
piercetheheart: (♔doubt)

[personal profile] piercetheheart 2018-10-21 07:05 pm (UTC)(link)
Well it's apparently on a fucking wall so they better.
scourgingstars: (over and in last call for sin)

[personal profile] scourgingstars 2018-10-21 07:16 pm (UTC)(link)
One can put any manner of nonsense on a wall, that hardly means anyone will believe it.
piercetheheart: (♔ cautious)

[personal profile] piercetheheart 2018-10-21 07:23 pm (UTC)(link)
The idea was... to help people remember. To not start a cycle of repetition. Once was enough.

[But he knows Ardyn is right, unfortunately.]
journalname: (Default)

[personal profile] journalname 2018-10-21 07:31 pm (UTC)(link)
mmmmmmmm sounds like home
want_to_belong: (Side glance)

[personal profile] want_to_belong 2018-10-21 07:40 pm (UTC)(link)
[Ardyn could at least have the satisfaction that he did still scare Prompto. He immediately leaned away from the fire, much like back at the caravan.]

Fine, O Lord of Darkness, have it your way.
want_to_belong: (About to cry)

[personal profile] want_to_belong 2018-10-21 08:31 pm (UTC)(link)
You're not mad?

[He'd completely failed to protect them or even know exactly where they were.

Although, given the circumstances, with Iggy and Gladio out together and Prompto alone, most would have assumed Prompto would have been the one in danger.]
postictal: (do you know what a meme is)

+1

[personal profile] postictal 2018-10-21 08:40 pm (UTC)(link)
He's guessing either civilization or ruins they can salvage. Either way, more supplies is always a good thing.
scourgingstars: (i'll never wear your broken crown)

[personal profile] scourgingstars 2018-10-21 08:41 pm (UTC)(link)
Whether one starts again or not...it just doesn't matter.
piercetheheart: (♔concern)

[personal profile] piercetheheart 2018-10-21 08:56 pm (UTC)(link)
Why the hell would I be mad?

[Very much the opposite, dude.]

Proud of you for using your head while the rest of us just... fell into old habits and got ourselves killed.
piercetheheart: (♔ hmm?)

[personal profile] piercetheheart 2018-10-21 09:00 pm (UTC)(link)
Maybe not to us but I'd kinda like to leave things better for-

[Gods it was weird to think about. Elle was pregnant. He was going to be a dad.

But for that to be true he had to go home, go back to a world where Ignis would never be his.]


.... for the future, I guess.
scourgingstars: (sing you've got the power and control)

[personal profile] scourgingstars 2018-10-21 09:05 pm (UTC)(link)
...wt a revolting sentiment.
want_to_belong: (Deep breath)

[personal profile] want_to_belong 2018-10-21 09:10 pm (UTC)(link)
Don't know how much I really did. Everyone was telling me to be careful of Noct, but I... just wanted to hang out for a while.
hyperlit: (weaker potions)

[personal profile] hyperlit 2018-10-21 11:12 pm (UTC)(link)
[They knew some of the story. They knew some of the origin. They knew the scorn and outrage the Knight held for the king, the father, the god, the ruler that did this to them - that created a being solely to be made into a sacrifice for the sake of a kingdom.]

[It helps to have a visual put to patchwork words.]

[It is not the same as corpses, skinned and peeled and stripped and bleeding in heaps, spilling into the water. But it evokes the same grim reality: shells of failed vessels, clattering lifelessly against one another like bones. Horned, empty heads with gaping holes for eyes. Masks packed so tightly together that they cleave endlessly down into the ground. Raining from above, discarded souls. Dead things rattling to dust.]

[They recognize the Knight by the prong of their horns, and then - the other. The one they fought so very hard to get to. The one they are now intent on protecting. They are older, larger now, but the Drifter recognizes them, too, by the serrated edges of their horns.]

[The Hollow Knight turns back, and looks at them. It's only a moment.]

[The door thuds shut with a dreadful finality, and the Knight begins to fall.]

[Oh, but what is there to say? I'm sorry. Sympathy that is pointless to extend, hopeless to exact.]

[What they do have is...a question. Not the most pertinent of questions, and a troubled one at that.]


do you know
how many

Page 9 of 47