[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

[savedbyasong]

[Shion just smiled, though it did sound harsh he had seen friendship like that before. Friends who showed care by jibes rather than kindness. Shion didn't quite understand it, but there was still much he didn't understand.] It sounds like you care about him a lot.

[suspecteverything]

I owe him a lot. I wouldn't have the life I do right now without him. Trajen is what is known as my father by the Tavali. In order to be admitted to Tavali training you have to have a sponsor, so to speak. Trajen has never done that for anyone. I still haven't quite figured out why he decided to break his streak for a bastard like me.

[savedbyasong]

He must have thought a lot of you. [It was good, that Dagger had someone who believed in him.]

What are the Travali?

[suspecteverything]

Apparently, not that I understand why.

Pirates. Simply put at least. The Tavali have been around for a while. We're a group of outlaws and pirates that have a pretty intense loyalty system to other members.

[savedbyasong]

An outlaw family. [Shion nodded with a smile. A group that stuck together no matter what. Like the Turks.]

He thought a lot of you because your a good person to know.

[suspecteverything]

We're a little bit more than that, but basically.

I definitely wasn't at the time he met me. I was a piece of trash who had absolutely nothing and was barely clinging on to life.

[savedbyasong]

Then he must have been insightful to be able to see through to who you really were. Who you could be if someone gave you the chance.

[suspecteverything]

You continually surprise me. Why you think so little of yourself I have no idea. Not just anyone would recognize what you just told me.

[savedbyasong]

It's... [He blushes and looks down.] Reno did a similar thing for me. I was a mess... I was weak, couldn't fight at all. I was even worse than I am now. I crumbled whenever anything was hard. Couldn't get through a day without panicking. [Which says a lot, because he is still not strong. Still not as strong as he needs to be.]

I was out of control. [That week after the labyrinth and his subsequent punishment he had barely gotten out of bed. Barely spoken. Not eaten. Until he had snapped and attacked the drone worker who was changing his collar liquid. Getting himself killed again.] But he... he saw past all of that and for some reason thought I could be more. He gave me a choice, to accept his teaching and training or he was writing me off. He saved me but he gave me the skills to save myself... He gave me a family and a reason to keep going. [His voice breaks a little there. He misses Reno. A lot.]

I'm not saying... You were weak or anything. But if you were at your lowest and he could see through it to who you could be... Then you are very lucky to have known him.

[suspecteverything]

Trust me, I was weak. I would have been dead, guaranteed, a few hours before he met me if my life hadn't gone the way it had. I'm grateful every minute for having met Ushara and Trajen.

Sounds like you met the perfect person too. Every so often the universe throws one of those out. I still find it amazing how none of them ever realize how their supposedly small acts in their minds mean so much to others.

[savedbyasong]

It does. For all... For everything bad about the Tower I found Reno there and Aster. There is no way I would have met them if all of that hadn't happened and Reno made me a better person. [Not as good as he should be. But it was a start. Even Shion can see in himself how much he has grown from the child first pulled from his world.]

It's good to know though, that sometimes you don't have to do something massive to make a difference. A small act of kindness on your part can mean everything to someone else.

[suspecteverything]

Most people don't realize how important those small things are though. They think they understand sometimes, but they don't. Not really.

[Ushara hadn't truly understood how much her small act of kindness in bringing him clothes to wear had meant until Trajen had used his abilities to show her that day through Jules' eyes.]

[savedbyasong]

They don't. Especially if they haven't been on the receiving end of such kindness. I guess many people fear they can't make any difference at all when things are bad, because they don't see that the small things are so important.

[suspecteverything]

They don't realize how important that small act is either since to them it is small. They take it for granted since for them it's a given to have what they just offered.

[savedbyasong]

[Shion nodded, agreeing. There was a lot people took for granted.] I'm glad you had such people in your life though, who showed such kindness.

[Because though it might have felt small to the giver Shion knows that dragging someone up from their lowest point is not a small thing and it is not easy.]

[suspecteverything]

A few, which I am very grateful for.

[They completely turned his life around and gave him something he'd never had before.]

[savedbyasong]

They were very lucky to have you as well and I am sure they are grateful. [Or would be when they were not frozen in time.]

[suspecteverything]

Grateful most of the time. Other times they just want to kick my ass or wring my neck.

[savedbyasong]

I'm sure they don't really. They just... That's how families like that are.

[suspecteverything]

Oh, sure they do. It's how we show affection.

[savedbyasong]

[Shion just smiled, glad that Dagger had had such people. Another reason to work harder at finding a way out of here.]