[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

[want_to_belong]

I have total reason to be involved. There's things that can happen other than death. I mean, like, if Iggy was getting married, you don't think I'd be at the wedding?

[Okay, so a wedding was going to happen, but the point still stood. Stuff that happened to Iggy mattered to him.]

[scourgingstars]

....What the hell does that even mean.

[want_to_belong]

It means there's more to life than just killing! Iggy's my friend, and anything that happens to him matters to me. Good, bad, or... whatever.

[Did it even classify as a 'good' thing if Ardyn liked Iggy? That was highly questionable.]

So you can't just tell me I have no reason to be involved.

[scourgingstars]

I wouldn't know, I don't have friends. You'll just have to take the matter up with him for all I care.

[want_to_belong]

You could have friends.

[He shook his head, quieting.]

But I'm not gonna sit here and argue with you. It's probably pointless to do that.

[scourgingstars]

Oh, do allow me to get right on that and meet new and interesting people who shall brutally stab me in the back.

[want_to_belong]

...

'm not even gonna blame you. If Noct stabbed me in the back, I don't know how long it'd take me to trust again.

But there are good people out there.

...

And, if it's Iggy you're trusting, you chose the right person.

[scourgingstars]

I don't trust anyone.

[. . .]

...But I despise him less than most humans.

[want_to_belong]

That's a start.

[Quieter than a bit ago, but he truly wasn't trying to argue here. If anything, that might be quite something for Ardyn to admit.]

[scourgingstars]

...I've no intention of hurting him. I don't know what I'm doing, but that isn't currently on the table.

[want_to_belong]

I'll trust you on that. Even if it might be incredibly stupid of me to do so.

[Thus far he hadn't, and from what little he knew Ardyn had done things to protect Iggy. That was promising, at least. But he'd put on a show of helping back at home, too.]

...Iggy's a good person. He'll do whatever he can to help.

[scourgingstars]

I'm long since beyond 'help'. Whatever Noctis thought I used to be isn't someone that can be saved.

Sorry if a double post happens, connection error

[want_to_belong]

I guess we'll see.

[For a moment he went silent and it didn't seem like he would continue, but he added a genuine question.]

Have you ever considered the possibility that you could be wrong?

[scourgingstars]

I don't know, have you considered the possibility I know myself better than you?

[want_to_belong]

Not even you can know what the future holds for sure. A lot of people are seeing something that you aren't. Maybe you just don't know how to see it anymore.

[scourgingstars]

More likely, the rest of you are deeply deluded.

[want_to_belong]

If we were, I think, there wouldn't be any change in you.

If there's some speck of light left... we'll find it.

[scourgingstars]

And when you discover there isn't? What then?

[want_to_belong]

Then I'll wonder why Fressy's been safe in your care.

[After all, if he was just an irredeemable monster, there was no reason for him to care for any creature.]

[scourgingstars]

For the hundredth time, I'll tell you that chocobos are better than humans.

[want_to_belong]

But pure evil and hatred doesn't like anything. How many demented daemons stop to coo over puppies and kittens and chicks?

[scourgingstars]

And how many of them talk to point out how much they despise you? I'm a remarkable singularity of anger passing vaguely for human.

[want_to_belong]

You love Fressy, and you like Iggy.

[Astrals, why was this sounding like the preschool bickering about which girls someone liked?]

[scourgingstars]

I'm going to throw you into the fire in a minute if you keep this up.

[Children.]

[want_to_belong]

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.]