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

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

"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!

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[It feels strange to have her be comforting him, when their roles are so much more frequently reversed. Kravitz doesn't fall apart like this, doesn't lean on others because there hasn't been anyone. In situations like this, he just had the Raven Queen to pick him up and send him off.

He believes a lot in her, of course. But what else does he have?

But Ren's fingers aren't her, aren't her voice or hands or face. It's different, even though that doesn't have to be bad. If his Lady is a reminder of that place, and Ren symbolizes the humanity he's been forced to learn... perhaps right now he needs a little mortality in his life.

Hah. Life. Words take on such different meanings when colloquialisms are made for the living.

He closes his eyes, breathes in, and out, feels the ground beneath him. It's alright. Just a memory.]

I know it can't-- I don't think it could find us here. I just... wish there was more I could have done. More I could do, other than sit and wait for the world to end. I don't want to just do nothing, but I can't... all of that, you know? Not alone.

[Because, you know, where else would he be but alone?]

[The cruel truth of the matter is sometimes the world does end and there's so little, so pathetically little, a single person can do about it. It takes someone with a big heart to think like that. To know they can do more and let it shake them because of all the lives on the line.

A mindset that was always beyond her. One she's slowly beginning to understand, because of the people so close to her side. The connections she doesn't want to lose hanging on a tentative thread this world was created on. She knows how easy it can be to lose everything and Kravitz lived that.

But he's breathing-that's important. And she's patting down and running her fingers through his hair, because that's what she can do. Because it's something that calms her down. He's not quite there yet, the pause in his words still pronounced and-

It hurts to see him like this. This scared of whatever darkness awaits him outside of this place.]

Taako will come rescue you. Sometimes you have to wait to be saved and-

[There's nothing you can do until then.]

That's when you can 'do something.' He'll find you. You won't be there for a long time-not when someone loves you. When that kind of thing happens, you aren't alone, and they'll do anything they can to find you. That's how it works.

[He doesn't know if he'd call it compassion, or a big heart, or caring. It's just not right, to see the world be destroyed like this. It's not just, and Kravitz, a man whose job lies in judgement, is incredibly concerned about whether or not something is actually, truly fair.An enemy sweeping in, destroying everything in its path, the absolute ending of all things, it's just-- it isn't--

Those decisions aren't theirs to make. It's his, or the gods' not just an invading force. So of course he'll fight. He has to. It must be fair.

But the reassurance she gives is really what takes him by surprise, the idea that he just needs to wait for Taako, that everything will be okay once he thinks of it. And well, Taako is very good at that kind of thing-- an edge case to end all edge cases-- but is he strong enough for this? Does Kravitz even want to imagine putting Taako in a position where something could happen to him, nevermind what was happening to him before it all--

He reaches up to put a hand over his mouth, cough once. There's nothing there. There's nothing there.]

I don't want to hurt him. He has his own-- problems, and things he needs, and--

[Kravitz lets his hand slide up his face, muffling his voice, praying that Taako isn't nearby or hearing this.]

I don't know what I'd do if I lost him too. I can't let it get him, if he comes to the Astral Plane he can't leave. I can't do that, not with all this, not with everything.

[It takes a special kind of person to recognize their case is hopeless and to prioritize the safety of others over their own. He wants to protect Taako by keeping him far, far away, but to her-

She wants them both to be safe. To be protected by whatever gods or raven queens are in their world. They would be able to get him. She saw visions from her family's eyes and learned about their travels, their world and while she doesn't know the details-can't even begin to understand the full scope of what they're doing-

If they knew Kravitz was out there, they would rescue him. If they know, it wouldn't matter what he said now, because they would absolutely come for him. They would get in and be able to leave-she's 100% sure of that. There's nothing the elves can't do. They turn the worst situations into impossible victories and even the few suffered losses don't feel so bad, when they're always around to make everyone feel better.

It's a lot and Kravitz's waxing and waning emotional output here is enough to prove it.]

He's good at rescuing people.

[She starts, slowly. The dawning memory if sitting in the middle of a dark, damp cave and having him speak to her-one of the first people to talk to her. That day saved her and he'll never understand how much he did, just by speaking.]

He'll find a way to keep you very safe. Even if he uses his words, I think there's a way to do that. Even if you're alone for a long time, you'll feel better, because you'll know he's there. No matter what, he'll save you.

[But there's still the potential of him being choked and taken down by that dark force looming around his home.]

And-

[There's a short pause in the gentle strokes she's giving his hair, pressing her palm against the back of his head.

Because the Astral Plane-she remembers him talking about it before. If it's where the dead go, then-

She doesn't want to say I might be able to hide you. Her short life is bound to end soon, but she has no idea when and admitting that now-

He won't ever know, but she'll try to find him too, among that murky, terrible darkness. If she passes on, she might be able to join in that search. If she's brave. If she can be brave. It won't matter because she'll be dead and maybe that's the push she needs to be more like Seto and-

It doesn't matter, right now. What matters is he's here.]

Someone will find you. You won't have to be in that scary place forever.

[He wants to believe in Ren's reassurances here, wants to fall into them and let them wrap him up like a blanket that he can give up inside. It's a nice thought, it's all comforting thoughts, but it's hard to take them to heart when Kravitz has spent so much of his undeath so alone. He's always had faith that the Raven Queen will find him, of course-- She is always there when he needs it, when he can call out to her-- but can he possibly think Taako is greater in power than a goddess? Can he give that trust to someone more on his level, another mortal, can he promise--

Kravitz nods, slow motions to not disturb her hand, trying to simply accept. Listen. Shake off the encroaching darkness of perfectionism and planning that gripes in the back of his head for fear of the unknown.]

I... you're right. Something has to happen. It can't just... it can't end there.

[He knows a lot about endings. Very little about beginnings. But this cannot be an end, cannot be the wrap at the end of an unsatisfying, unfair struggle. He has to win. He has to.

Kravitz heaves another breath, tilts his head back, and reaches up to put his hand on top of hers.]

Thank you, for your reassurance. I'm sorry you had to see that at all. It... it isn't here. You're safe.

So are you.

[The pitch black blob doesn't feel like it's choking her. It isn't making her shake and shiver under every slight touch. She's had the luxury of hiding behind some powerful people and even in the face of this unknown terror, she knows they're around. She knows they're strong enough and he'll be okay.]

It's okay if scares you. I'll help you run away if it hurts in you in your dreams or in your heart. I'll make sure you can hide from that kind of thing.

[Because despite the little power she has, there's one thing she can always do. Make sure he's tucked in at night, not so tight that he feels suffocated, but enough to feel like there's a hug always enveloping him. Watch him when it gets too dark at night. When there's no light around. When there's no one but the two of them and his hand begins to shake, shake, shake because he can't stop being afraid.]

I promise. If you reach out, I'll listen for it. No matter where you are.

[She turns it back on him, so easily, with such a decisive strike. Kravitz is so, so used to being alone, to watching his own back, that the first step she got him to here- the trust and knowledge that he'll be saved- is just barely holding grip. Trying to accept the next bit, that he's safe, that there are people to keep him safe and who will stand by him when the world is dark just seems so-- so--

He breathes a shaky breath, like he's forgotten how. In a certain way, he has.]

Thank you Ren. It's... it's not required of you, but.

[Why can't he just accept a compliment, why is he so worried? Is it because he knows he'll outlive her? Is it because he knows there's a real chance he'll never reach her? Is it because for once, in all the fear Ren had of being abandoned in her own world, it's really only been his- the thought that he, too, would be trapped here until he simply became nothing?

He doesn't know that part yet. But perhaps, this will help to illuminate to Ren why he was so adamant that he would get her out of that darkness. That he would not leave her alone in a small room to wither away, forgotten.]

I've... never had the luxury of running from something. Not in a long time. I'm the only one who can keep the balance of the world, it... it can't just be left.

[I'm the only one sounds so lonely and to her, there's no reason for it. He's not the only one. Growing up in a world that she knew once had millions, maybe billions, of people dwindle down to maybe just one. Maybe two. Maybe it was never more than them, but she knows the number of living people remaining is so incredibly low that running into another person before death is rare.

But it's not her place to say, when by all counts he is alone right now. In that dark room, that scary place, surrounded by a being he can't fight back against.

And she tries to keep that smile forced on her face, to give him some kind of grounding in this situation. She promised to hide him, to help him run, to do all the minor things she can, until people with far more power and strength can help.

They will help because It can't just be left sounds too much like I don't want to be left and it makes her heart ache in a new way.]

It won't be. You won't be. With those kinds of people reaching out to you with their good hearts, they'll save you from that scary thing. Strong people like Taako and Lup and Seto-that's what you're good at.

[And-]

You too. You're good at that kind of thing. You'll be okay once you find each other.

[It is lonely. It's always been lonely, no matter what, across years and years. He's just learning what it means to not be by himself, but in a different way from Ren's. He thinks himself extremely capable, so-- why need others? He's being trusted to handle himself. He's being depended on. So he must, he must, he can't just not, when lives are on the line.

But he closes his eyes, and tries to believe her. Just this once, if he can really feel what she says, he can just... try.]

Thank you. I'll do my best to keep that in mind.

[At least he feels like he's breathing again. That's a start. An amount of time to just recover, even if new memories will be coming soon, and he only has so much time.]

I'm sorry to have burdened you with this. I'll do my best to protect you from now on.

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

:^)

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im so sorry this took so long omg

it's been less than a week u adorable nugget

i know but i wanted to tag it back IMMEDIATELY

it's the curse of wanting to die and be dead

(yells)