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

[lifeaftr_mods]

"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!

Comments

laurent | ota

[crosslaced]

[[ooc: mention of medical equipment and implied death in the 1st prompt]]

[Throughout it all, Laurent is unusually distracted- he doesn’t even seem to register when Damen flickers to life at the center of the campfire, and stares into space throughout the Soulgemmed March Disaster. Maybe he’s tired, but it’s likelier that the past week hasn’t been kind to him. Maybe someone should. Let him know about this?]

i. will there be nothing left

[crosslaced]

[Three magi stand in a dark corridor, before a flickering screen. Undertale castmates will recognise two of their number: Asriel and Mettaton, dressed in unusual finery. Words appear on the screen:]

How stupid can you get?

Surely you could not have been stupid enough to think salvation awaited at the end of the road. Surely, you could not have thought you could wrest Miki Morikawa and Hoshiko Ohka unharmed from this place.

You will make one final choice. You will call the elevator up. Towards a shot at finding the one whom you hate so dearly and tearing them asunder with your own hands.

However. You will sentence the two of them to their deaths.

[Beyond the screen, the entrance of an elevator becomes visible. The three pull out their communication devices- on closer inspection, these are handheld mirrors- and several voices come through in a panicked chorus. ]

Don’t do it, Jackass! - You cannot stop here, you need to finish this!!- [the astute could pick out Laurent’s voice, but it’s easily lost among the others:]Abstaining.-

-Grow a pair and go. Otherwise, you've wasted all of our time twice.

[The three magi- bicker. They fight, and Pokey attempts to leave the other two but is physically hauled back by Mettaton. Even the small Asriel tries to fluff himself up and snarl- but there is a moment where a look passes between them, and Pokey mouths something to the other two, and you come to the realisation that they’ve come to an agreement. This fight is just for show, to stall the watcher until Mettaton rushes the elevator with Pokey and Asriel in tow, hoping to take their enemy by surprise.

Surprise kind of doesn’t work with elevators, though. It jams mid-descent, plunging its occupants into darkness, and the scene switches to a well-lit room crowded with magi. From every mirror in the room there is a furious scream.]

All you had to do was follow the rules! I gave you a chance to follow orders and save one of them, but look what you've gone and done!!

But a choice is a choice. If you thought abstaining from the vote would save them... If you thought you could rescue them...You're all more naive than I thought! There were precisely six votes for Miki Morikawa and three votes for Hoshiko Ohka. That makes Miki Morikawa the declared survivor... However, since you disobeyed the terms of our agreement, I'm afraid that there are no survivors. I will conduct the experiment on both girls.

[The room dissolves into chaos. Asriel’s voice issues from one of the mirrors, thin and despairing: We thought... we thought we had a chance-

Why did you go?
What did you do.
Hatsu-san told us to /stop/, there was no chance to take after that!]

What happens when you introduce a false grief seed to a magical host body? I wonder, I wonder... Let's find out together, shall we?

[A girl stands before two of her prisoners, holding up a misshapen gemstone to a mirror. The two bound girls are strapped to operation tables, struggling against their restrains. The girl with the gem steps beside one of her prisoners and sweeps their fringe back, revealing another dull gem set on the prisoner’s forehead. The other captive screams something. Unperturbed, Kagaku Yamashita touches the Grief Seed to her captive’s Soul Gem and pushes it in.]

[At that moment the vision breaks with the sound of shattering glass.It ends with a disturbing, violent outburst of energy- though not corporeal, you might feel as if it could really hurt you. Whatever happens next, you know that something awful and irrevocable has been done. ]

[savedbyasong]

[Laurent might not be paying attention but Shion is. He has seen Damen's memories, or futures, or whatever they are. He and Laurent have spoken of the world Laurent was in before this one. It is easy to figure out that this was there and not Lauren't first world.

The set up, the cruelty, the voices of people trying to stop this dreadful thing are all so familliar. How many times? How many times had Shion witnessed or been part of something so awful? It was some kind of sick game and then the rules changed, all so familiar even if it was nothing Shion had seen before.]

Laurent? [He doesn't even seem to be seeing this. Is that deliberate? Or is he trapped in panic? In memories he can't escape. Cautiously, ever so cautiously he approaches.]

[crosslaced]

[After a delay, he looks to Shion.]

...yes?

[He glances to the vision being played, re-orientating himself. But even as he seems to process the vision there's still no recoil of horror or pain. He just seems to be flatly watching it.]

Is there something you wanted to talk about?

[savedbyasong]

No... [Still a lot of wariness. He knows now that Laurent doesn't hate him. But that doesn't mean Laurent won't lose patience with him. But... Shion is worried so he stays.] Is there anything you want to talk about?

[crosslaced]

No. [But he sees Shion’s expression, and has to elaborate..] I don’t talk about my problems.

You came over for something, didn’t you? Is it this? [Glancing back at the wispy remnants of the vision as it fades.]

[savedbyasong]

I know. [Laurent has already proven that.

He looked at the vision again as Laurent spoke.] I came to check you were alright, I won't pry if you don't want to talk about it.

[crosslaced]

I’m fine. [A pause, as he thinks about what he’s just said.]I will be.

[He’s clearly not- fine, thus the self-correction, but he’s been through worse. Probably. But Shion is looking at the vision of Nyoi-Cho, seemingly misidentifying the thing on Laurent’s mind. He’s perfectly willing to discuss Nyoi-Cho. ]

That was one of our worst incidents, but we had it coming for a time. One of the worst I’ve experienced, anyway. There's no happy ending to it, that I know of.

[savedbyasong]

[I'm fine is always a lie. Shion would have hoped they had learned that lesson. But apparently not. The flowers had proven that most here would rather die than face the truth, after all.

His gaze returns to the vision.]

Was she the one in charge?

[crosslaced]

She set up a few traps of her own. But if she’s controlling our entire situation, I don’t know.

[..........]

I doubt it, she doesn’t have the personality. She might be part of a team, at most, but she would’ve gone farther much sooner if she had full control.

[savedbyasong]

I see. Did you not know who was in control then?

[crosslaced]

No.

We don't know who's in control here, either. I assumed it was a pattern.

[savedbyasong]

Where I was we knew. At first we only knew about four of the administrators. The one in charge, Ruana, we found out about later.

[Here they had no idea. The forces behind their kidnapping here where elusive. No sign of them seemed to exist. It was interesting that it had been the same where Laurent had been as well.]

ii. when tomorrow comes at last

[crosslaced]

[One would be forgiven for not recognising this vision’s source- because the image is that of Damianos, being dressed by a servant in the half-light of dawn. There’s a restless bustle outside the window, of servants rushing last-minute preparations, of an intense anticipation. Something big is Happening today. And it’s probably a good Something, because Damen looks out-of-this-world happy.]

You look like you’re the one being crowned.

[The voice comes from the doorway, where someone unrecognisable is standing with arms crossed. Nikandros has black hair and brown skin like Damen. He wears the exact look of a man who has been dealing with a best friend’s Questionable Romance Decisions for months and is now wearily resigned. Damen looks over and, somehow, his grin broadens.]

–Why should I not be happy for a partner?

[Nikandros sighs.]

–The king and kyros of Akielos, honoring a Veretian prince’s ascension. If you told me this would happen a year ago I’d never believe it.
–A Veretian king.
–[in exasperated resignation:] My mistake, Exalted.
–...it was one kingdom once. Vere and Akielos. Is it really so strange?

[A silence. The servant finishes tucking Damen’s Greecian robes into place- they are exquisitely formal robes, regal and of clearly expensive fabric- and picks up a bright gold pin. When Nikandros replies at last, his voice is pensive: ]

–... we have been enemies with Vere for as long as I can remember. But I’m glad it happened like this. Akielos is doing well, and the Prince hasn’t bitten your head off.

[Damen chuckles, a helpless besotted laugh, and Nikandros’ soul withers that much more.]

–Don’t take this as leave to spend another month in Marlas. There’s still much to do in Ios, we need you.
–But- it’s Laurent’s coronation. I have to stay with him.
–No, you don’t.
–Nikandros.
–...alright, I’ll stop needling you. What do they say in Vere? Long live the King?

-Long live King Laurent of Vere. [Damen grins, radiant with delight, and Nikandros groans softly in his hands as he leaves.]

[catpiper]

You're a king?

[Not that titles hold value to her, in that sense. Aunt and uncle hold more weight than king, but imagining him as one of the people in her storybooks is-

Cool. He's like a fairytale come to life. It's incredible.]

Do you have a castle?

[crosslaced]

No, a prince. Not a King.

[Yeah he definitely isn't seeing the vision right in front of him. There's nothing between him and 'kingship', theoretically speaking, but as far as he's concerned it might as well across the continent.

Anyway. Does Arles' palace count as a 'castle'? He's never really considered the conditions of his home.]

....I do live in one, I suppose.

[catpiper]

'Long live King Laurent'-that's what he said.

[He might not have seen it, but she did and she's got some news for you buddy. Not that it matters. A prince is equally as cool, but kings have bigger crowns?? Is that how it works? She isn't sure.]

[crosslaced]

[NERVOUS LAUGHTER AHAHAHAHA no, really. Laurent quickly laughs it off like someone very eager to yeet validation right out the window.]

He was probably fooling around. Anyway, I’m not a prince or a king here.

[catpiper]

You can be 'something else.'

[Taako's wise words resound through her mind, as she tries to pick apart what Laurent's laughter means. He might not be royalty here, in the same way she's no longer an experiment, but that doesn't mean he can't be whatever he wants.]

If you don't want to be a prince or a king, you can-

[She pauses, trying to pull together some words she knows.]

Be a wizard or a lobster or a chef or a musician.

[crosslaced]

[.....

.............

She's so young, he's not going to unload his problems on her. So Laurent just chuckles a little more, the sound less loaded this time. "Be something else", huh.

Children are smarter than most give them credit for.]

That's a very wise thing to say.

Perhaps I'll be a lobster.

[catpiper]

[He can be anything on this green green earth and she'll support him. If he wants to be a lobster out of that list of incredible things, then so be it.]

Okay, when you feel like being a lobster, you can come sit with Lobstar and hide with it. You can be its uncle.

[crosslaced]

[He was mostly joking, about being a lobster. But for some reason when Ren says the word “uncle” he goes unnaturally still, like she’s said the word “doctor” or “hospital” instead.]

-No. Maybe something else.

[It comes just a beat too fast to be natural.]

[catpiper]

[She picks up on that weird reaction-weird, because uncle is a word she associates with warmth, with family, with happiness and hair braiding and looting. But the quick shift in his expression, the way he denies that word, makes her wonder-

Wonder and say nothing. She won't bring it up, if that's a word he wants to hide from.]

You can be the lobster's brother? Or grandpa?

[crosslaced]

[his family life is Great.

At least he seems to be getting over it quickly!]

I'm much to young to be a grandfather. Maybe a cousin?

[catpiper]

Okay, you can be that. I'll tell the lobsters you're their 'cousin' now.

[Lobstar, specifically, but she'll keep an eye out for any other stowaway crustaceans.]