[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

[crosslaced]

[So Prompto has that safety net; how kind of the universe. Still, commenting on it would achieve nothing, so Laurent doesn’t. He’d much rather discuss the state of Lucis and how it really is surprising that they have any kind of crime. Laurent’s only guessing from the three-four Lucians he’s seen, but if they’re all like that then natural selection should’ve come for them a while ago.

Or maybe it’s a Damen Case. Oblivious until Ardyn decided to remind them with- some kind of play for the throne, presumably.]

It’s more surprising that you seem oblivious, if it exists. Corruption comes with power. Royal families have plenty of both.

[want_to_belong]

[He shot Laurent a confused look.]

Dude, what? Noct is like, the least corrupt person ever. He's more like the solution, not the problem. His dad... King Regis, I didn't really get to talk to him, but I've heard he was really nice, too.

[Just, dying. Slowly. And getting weaker.]

That might describe the Emperor, though.

[crosslaced]

[Most monarchs would look good to their own people, though? And then the enemy monarch would look super bad.]

My brother was something of an honourable prince. Then someone killed him.

If you asked me, I'd guess that someone would've taken out your King if the Emperor didn't.

[want_to_belong]

[He shook his head.]

I don't get why you'd say that. I guess there's been war for a long time... But there's been a line of like, over 100 kings and queens. It's not like Lucis has been weak.

If the daemons didn't start appearing, I think we could have held out.

[But who could predict giant monsters?]

execution mention???

[crosslaced]

You can't have had that many uninterruipted successions. [He's diplomatic enough to not be blatantly disdainful, but the very thought of such a thing is absurd.] A hundred?

At least some of those have to be usurpations. [Surely there's a way to rationalise that- ah.] From within the family. Younger heir kills the older- they'll rewrite the records so that their ascension looks legitimate. They wouldn't let their subjects know of any foul play, let alone descendants.

[Once he's started, it's depressingly easy to see how it plays out. It's what his Uncle would've done to him, isn't it?]

I'm just a cynic. Maybe none of what I said happened.

[....but now that he's thought about it, he wants to know. He doubts he'll like the answer. But he wants to know.]

Have any of the royal family been executed for treason?

[want_to_belong]

Noct is the 114th heir, so it's pretty long.

[Hey, he knows that one because Noct is his bud. He pauses to think about all the history classes he barely paid attention to. For him, this was just sort of weird on Laurent's end - why couldn't a line of kings be that long?]

Uuuh, I don't think anything like that happened? Unless you're talking about Ardyn. But, like, there were rough times and stuff in the past, but I think everyone always knows who the heir is because the crystal and the old kings pick them or approve them or something. [Sorry Noct, he doesn't know exactly how this process works. At this point he'd never even seen the crystal.] And if you can't use the ring of the Lucii, then you don't really have the power of the kings. Anyone who put on the ring would just... well, they'd... they'd die, or end up like Iggy did.

[He still remembered Nyx, though he didn't have the connection that Ignis or Gladio might have because he wasn't part of the palace or guard or anything. And Ignis... well, he knew now. It was getting hard not to know.]

[crosslaced]

[Because people are bad, Prompto, and Laurent will count it as proof if he ever learns that people ousted their- what? First king? Second?

But we are spared some rude smugness tonight as the blonde identifies another target. He's been listening with a slight but ever-so-judgemental frown, and the vague reference to Ardyn gets his attention, but there's also the vague reference to Ignis. He'd just rather have potential amno on the latter. It's not hard to sound surprised, somewhat concerned.]

What happened to Ignis?

[want_to_belong]

The scars and his blindness and stuff. That all happened because he put on the ring of the Lucii.

[In contrast, Prompto was genuinely sad, because he was talking about a permanent injury his good friend had sustained. Even if Iggy was doing much better now, he couldn't help regretting the whole situation and wondering if there was any way he could have prevented it.]

And I think... Ravus lost his arm 'cause of it? I don't know the details exactly. Nyx, he was here before, apparently died to put on the ring. [A small frown, and he looked at Laurent seriously.] Taking on the role of king is no easy task.

[He wasn't envious of it. He didn't even want it to happen to his friend, though he knew well enough it was Noct's role to take.]

[crosslaced]

[When Prompto ends the way he does his look is answered and held, by blue eyes coeurllike unblinking. Laurent’s expression has cooled significantly. ]

[sourly, ] I’m aware.

[want_to_belong]

[A somber silence. Noct wasn't some distant king they never met. He was the guy Prompto went to the arcade with. The traveling buddy on their journey across the world. His first real friend.

And here he was thinking about the fate that lay in wait for him. Partially reminding himself, he spoke softly, understanding the gravitas of the situation.]

That's why we have to do everything we can, to take some of the burden off of him.

[A reminder of why they needed to work so hard.]