[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

[flask]

[When Nott turns away from the conclusion of the memory displaying itself for all to see, who does she see but one of the very people she was talking about.

In a way, she has interrupted something private. That conversation was a really personal one, one she's only shared the sentiment of with Caleb, and Yasha may be slightly pink, but Nott has flushed a much darker green.

She folds her arms and tries to lean against the tree to her right, but there is no tree to her right, so she stumbles a bit and barely recovers, running a hand through her hair and knocking the hood off of her head instead.]

That was, um. You missed that one. Well, I guess everyone did, but you were all... kidnapped and stuff.

...

Yup.

[She can feel her pulse pounding in her ears. Gods.]

[barberian]

(Whoops– when Nott stumbles and nearly falls Yasha makes a weird jerking moving as if she had been about to reach out to catch her. Thankfully, she finds her balance. An awkward silence follows her words.)

Yeah... (Yasha says after a moment, and chews her lip, and tries again:)

Um, I never said thank you, you know. For coming to save me.

(She looks at Nott openly. She's thinking about the book that Molly had left her. It's always best to try and maintain eye contact when you are expressing gratitude. It shows that you really mean it.)

Thank you, Nott.

[flask]

[Nott keeps trying to break Yasha's gaze, but Yasha is getting all tender, and Nott can only fidget and bide her time for an answer so much.

Eventually, she takes a deep, shuddering breath and attempts to respond.]

Well, you know... We couldn't leave you. You're... You know, you're one of us, even if you like to go... run off chasing lightning or whatever it is you do.

[Nott's eyes are at Yasha's feet.]

Plus, you are super good at killing people. Me, Beau, and Caleb weren't going to get anywhere on our own.

[barberian]

(Nott isn't looking back at her, which means she can't actually make any of that all-important eye contact. Hopefully Nott will know that she is being sincere anyway? Yasha's palms are a bit sweaty.)

Yes, (she says, grateful that Nott is immediately making this about how useful she is to the rest of the group because that's easier to respond to,) yes, I do that, a lot, so...

(you're... welcome...?????? can she say that. abort abort)

Was it weird, just being the three of you?

[flask]

[Was it weird?]

Yes. It was weird. Very, very weird.

[The projection sort of explained it. It was just Caleb and Nott for months, and they were... struggling. It seemed like time was running out for them before they got caught and killed this time. They came close multiple times.

If it came down to that again...

But it wasn't really just the three of them, right?]

It was weird because it wasn't just the three of us. Keg and this firbolg named Nila and... eventually Mr. Clay were there to help. It was... pretty close to normal, but just a few degrees to the left.

They don't replace you guys, and that wasn't why they were there, but I know without them that would've been the end of all of us.

[The Mighty Nein is only strong when they're all together. Nott's gaze finally meets Yasha's for more than a few seconds, now.

Part of her wants to tell her not to leave again. She just doesn't know how to say it yet.]

[barberian]

(She gets it. When you find yourself down three party members all of a sudden of course you have to find other people who are willing to help.

... And yet, even with three other people in tow, they weren't able to keep Molly from harm. The thought wells in the back of her throat like bile. Yasha grimaces, and shakes her head and folds her arms across her chest. That isn't fair.)

Good, (she says after a moment's careful pause.) ... None of them chose to stay?