[MU] - NOVEMBER STORYTELLING

[lifeaftr_mods]

After the chaos of last month's Storytelling, it's probably nice to have a little routine involved. Compared to the bombast and terror of October, tonight is downright peaceable.

Maati still awaits. But for now, you can rest and relax and trade tales of your exploits.



It is time, once more, for you to tell a story. The setting will be familiar for oldcomers, and newcomers will recognize it from the introduction they received in their dreams. This too is a dream, and the ink-black dark is illuminated only by the bonfire surrounded by log seats. And seated around the fire are your fellow islanders, many of whom doubtless know the drill by now.

One by one, you will each have the opportunity to share your stories, as stories possess a certain undeniable power. Newcomers can tell whatever tale they wish, but for those who have been in LifeAftr for at least one Storytelling, only stories of their time in LifeAftr will count down the road. The story need not be long, or conventional, or even verbal; as long as the Storyteller knows it has been told, it will qualify. Those of the nonverbal persuasion have, as of a request issued by Ren (catpiper), an alternative means of telling their stories if they so choose, in the form of the Chamber of Glyphs.

If you prefer to keep your mouth shut, that's always an option, though you're more liable to benefit if you do. Perhaps you'd rather not relive any of your history, varied and variegated as it must be. Or maybe you're something of a compulsive un-truther, prone to embellishments and long, fanciful tangents. As long as the core of the story is true to its spirit, you are free to spin your tale however you like.

So choose well.

Comments

OOC || FORM

[lifeaftr_mods]

Reply to this comment, having filled out the corresponding form, if you wish to participate in the Storytelling for non-compulsory AC. Non-compulsory AC allows for IC rewards such as Item Requests, but is not mandatory - though it will ICly benefit your character to try and participate, even if they're not the storytelling type.

Remember that those who have already undergone one Storytelling cycle must tell a story of their time in LifeAftr in order for it to count. Newcomers may tell whatever stories they like!

<b>Player Name:</b> <b>Character Name:</b> <b>Character Journal:</b> <user name="NAME"> <b>Number of Offerings:</b> List character's number of offerings here. A maximum of THREE STORIES can be told each Storytelling. <b>Offering(s):</b> Describe the story related here. A link to a past game or a wiki will suffice if you'd rather not write it all out, but it is helpful to note if your character was an engaging or enthusiastic storyteller, plainly unwilling and undetailed, or anything else of note! <b>Public/Private:</b> Is this story told for all to hear, or to the Storyteller (or their altar) privately? Please let us know!

[uptightness]

Player Name: Nina
Character Name: Agent Carolina
Character Journal: uptightness
Number of Offerings: 3
Offering(s):
1. Running across a robot, who's not a robot, although seems fairly robotic... Carolina didn't actually pry too deeply about it's exact make-up, although did talk about the species, and a little bit of what happened where Legion is from.

2. 'Making 'friends' with guys... aka trying to help them, or pester them, in the case of not tasting that drink. She wasn't buying Lance's bullshit about the drink. Shiro seemed to have a head on his shoulders though.

3. Meeting up with CT, and talking about 'becoming farmers' - about CT suggesting that they might try planting a garden.

Public/Private: Private

[catpiper]

Player Name: Lexy
Character Name: Ren
Character Journal: catpiper
Number of Offerings: 3 (1 for Lupnet)

Offering(s):
Story 1: All about talking to the bird. They can read hearts and minds very well and people should be nice to them. They're doing their bird best on this earth and she thinks they might be lonely.

Story 2: This excited little ramble won't end until someone cuts her off because she loves Egg, her second cat. A special cat, gifted to her by her family, whose image she happily doodles in the chamber of glyphs. Though it looks no different than any other cat she's ever drawn. Whatever, love Egg. She does. He's ESP's new brother.

Story 3: About the incredible magician that can make treasure appear behind someone's ear. She tries to re-enact the moment, but she can't make something come out of thin air from her own ear. She probably tries to pull something outta the ear of whoever's nearest to her. But nope-doesn't work. It's a Molly special. Contact him for more information.

Public/Private: Public.

[thegoofball]

Player Name: Nick!
Character Name: Lance
Character Journal: thegoofball
Number of Offerings: 3
Offering(s): •Inexplicably, Lance's first story is about...a game show called Garfle Warfle Snick. Hosted by an alien named Bob, Garfle Warfle Snick is a show comprised of multiple minigames that the Paladins compete in. Apparently, at some point, Lance was dubbed "the dumb one" of the Paladins, and he's NOT happy about being called dumdum like 18 times. The twist to this story is that, apparently, Bob is a jerk - but more than that he was an ancient cosmic entity that tested the mettle of great warriors. Yeah, he doesn't get it either.

•Lance's second story is more subdued - it's the story of reuniting with his family on Earth. He was happy to meet them, and his niece and nephew have grown up a lot. More than he was expecting. Apparently, there was a bit of shenanigans out in space that meant the Paladins disappeared from time for three years. Whoops? Reuniting with his family was good, though. They were safe and in good health and his sister Veronica was even working for the Garrison, now.

•The last story is about, well. Earth. During the three years the Paladins were missing, the planet was overtaken by Galran forces. Major cities were destroyed and much of the population was enslaved to work on large canons intended to be a trap for Voltron - if it ever showed up. The Garrison put in effort to fight the Galra off - essentially becoming the base of the resistance - despite being largely outmatched by the alien's technology. When the Paladins returned, they had to drop to the planet covertly to not tip off the Galra. It was...bad.
Public/Private: Public. Ya boy has no concept of privacy.

[piercetheheart]

Player Name: Sera
Character Name: Gladiolus Amicitia
Character Journal: piercetheheart
Number of Offerings: 3
Offering(s):
Poly is complicated - Breaking down all the drama between him and Prom and the final resolution thereof.
Especially with Ardyn as a metamour - There's also Ardyn being so tolerant before he vanished? It was super impressive and Gladio is really excited about the progress.
And then there's this clusterfuck - Because CT is kinda afraid of spending too much time with Gladdy but without her memory of Varric she's killing him by being exactly his type. Fuck.
Public/Private: Private holy crap. Tory help him. How is this his life?

[forwearemany]

Player Name: Shiny
Character Name: Legion
Character Journal: forwearemany
Number of Offerings: 1
Offering(s): Another story about working together with friends to accomplish something useful, because that is one of their favorite things.
Public/Private: Public.

[devilstongue]

Player Name: Draiol
Character Name: Mollymauk Tealeaf
Character Journal: devilstongue
Number of Offerings: 2
Offering(s):

1. He tells a mostly bullshit story, because that is what he's going to do unless forced to tell the truth. This one is enthusiastically told about bravely escaping the stampede thanks to his guardian angel, and together they explore the island, fighting scary beasts that he just makes up on the spot. Molly's a very convincing storyteller, using his whole body to make grandiose gestures and all his ridiculous colorfulness to draw in people. After telling the intriguing climax about saving some people in distress and nearly getting his tail chewed off by a monster, Molly takes a flourish bow, an entertainer through-and through.

2. The second story is much more somber, because sometimes you need a sad story to feel better. It sounds counterproductive, but it actually works. This one is about the moon watching over a beautiful young woman who is heartbroken that she's lost her best friend to the evil monsters of this land. Her grief is so strong that the moon calls a mighty warrior over to tie the bereft girl to a tree, lest she hurt herself in her sadness. Days pass as the moon and the warrior speak to her of all the good things in life, until the painful memory of her lost friend is turned to a soft ache rather than an open wound. When released, the girl comes to live with the warrior, and the moon still watches over her.

Public/Private: Public

[postictal]

Player Name: Zero
Character Name: Tim Wright
Character Journal: postictal
Number of Offerings: Three
Offering(s):

1) Teamwork makes dreamwork. The details of said teamwork are kind of vague, but this story mostly doubles as an advertisement that hey, they've got hella farm supplies in their shed on the farming islet now! That's pretty great.

2) Reacting to a React Channel. Watching his own death was...surreal, but he doesn't complain. It's just reassuring to know that the Queen didn't actually manage to get him, see, and he means that genuinely. The recitation here is pretty clinical, which goes at odds with how intensely personal the events actually were.

3) Don't get lost in heaven the temple, they got locks on the gate. Boy, the Storyteller's Temple was not in a good way in the beginning of November, was it? That's a real shame. He could've ended up with worse company, though.

Public/Private: The first is public; the second two are private!

[hyperlit]

Player Name: Zero
Character Name: The Drifter
Character Journal: hyperlit
Number of Offerings: Three
Offering(s):

1) Learning about pumpkin carving. The Drifter was not familiar with pumpkins or the act of carving them, but they were happy to have a teacher in the form of a very well-informed little girl. She even really liked their sword. How neat is that?

2) We have a library now! They worked very hard with a group of people to cultivate some papyrus plants on Nuidan, and were rewarded with a library building on H5, near Denny - furnished with a small number of writing implements and books, in addition to two shelves, one desk, and four chairs. They're also sure to thank each individual by name for their help: Hector, Legion, the Knight, and Connor.

3) Bees. They learned so much about bees, and got some bee houses on the farming islet off the coast of Ensō in the process. Again, they're certain to thank Chip, Muffet, the Knight, and Grimm for teaching them so much about how bees work!

Public/Private: All public, using a combination of text and illustrations in the Chamber of Glyphs.

[lightlessfuture]

Player Name: Ruka
Character Name: The Knight
Character Journal: lightlessfuture
Number of Offerings: 3
Offering(s):
- A story about comfort. This one, the Knight doesn't write down; they sign it, even though they're still having difficulty signing.

- A story about speech. This, too, is conveyed only through signing. Apparently they feel both stories are too close to their heart to be shared with others.

- A story about bees?? The Knight is puzzled as to what kind of bees these strange people have. Clearly not ones they're used to.

Public/Private: First two are private, the other is public.

[want_to_belong]

Player Name: Eisah
Character Name: Prompto
Character Journal: want_to_belong
Number of Offerings: 2
Offering(s): #1. He'll talk about meeting future Gladio and the kid he and Ignis apparently have.
#2. He'll discuss losing both of his friends and how difficult it was :(

Public/Private: #1. Public
#2. Private

[counterblows]

Player Name: Zero
Character Name: Agent Washington
Character Journal: counterblows
Number of Offerings: Three
Offering(s): As always, Wash's tone for these "stories" is less of a story and more of a post-mission report. He's clipped, formal, brusque, and probably not terribly interesting to listen to.

1) Meeting someone from his future. This was less bizarre than is maybe expected, particularly because it means he could contextualize the glimpses of the future he got during October's Storytelling.

2) Dead friends. He has a harder time relating this one. But he's had ample practice parroting back what it is to recover the bodies of people he used to know. Pyrrha is mentioned, but not by name; he keeps the narrative as clipped and impersonal as possible.

3) Lance is back. And the Storyteller's Temple was...not in a good way on top of it, boy oh boy. It was largely more of an annoyance for him than a legitimate concern, but he didn't very well appreciate it all the same.

Public/Private: Private, as per fuckin usual.

[savedbyasong]

Player Name: Katy
Character Name: Shion
Character Journal: savedbyasong
Number of Offerings: 1) He learned a Language. He will even demonstrate some of it.
2) It was Aster's Birthday and Shion hasn't told everyone how amazing she is in a while.
Offering(s): He is a lot more nervous seeming this month- more like he was early on in his arrival on the islands. His stories are more halting and he seems self conscious.
Public/Private: Public

[crosslaced]

Player Name: Star
Character Name: Laurent
Character Journal: crosslaced
Number of Offerings: 1
Offering(s):

> Laurent would like to announce that there will be a party on the 24th! Also, full disclosure, he’s invited the Storyteller along.

Public/Private: Public.

[vagabone]

Player Name: Naz
Character Name: Héctor
Character Journal: vagabone
Number of Offerings: 3
Offering(s):
- Welcoming Lance back. The story is told in two drawings, one with the two of them grinning at each other, and the other has them looking more somber, apparently discussing a... black circle in the sky???

- Portal-hopping with the Drifter. Three drawings of three locations, an ashen wasteland, an abandoned city, and the Storyteller's own temple. The Drifter definitely looks better equipped, with their nice red cape and sword out in every drawing.

- Pumpkin paranoia. The outline of some generic human...ish person pointing at a pumpkin and looking absolutely terrified. (No, he still has no idea who that was. Yes, he's rude.)

Public/Private: Public

[barberian]

Player Name: c
Character Name: yasha
Character Journal: barberian
Number of Offerings: 3
Offering(s): 01. taking a trip to a field of flowers, with beau. while yasha tells her stories rather haltingly, and with little extra detail, it's clear that this is a happy memory. she describes the flowers for a solid thirty seconds.
02. the m9 getting their asses absolutely handed to them by the iron golem. yasha talks about a brief fight that turned into an extremely hasty retreat once they fully realised what fighting was going to be like without any of their spell casters along for the ride (also, there's a sentence or two dedicated to beau being very proud about having done something impressive, but yasha isn't really sure of what that something was. she wasn't paying attention).
03. her final tale is about meeting a wolf. before now, she had never 'met' a wolf before, and certainly not one so friendly? it had acted very humanlike toward her. yasha is obviously still trying to puzzle this one out. there are little pauses in the story too as if she is waiting for the storyteller to chime in with some sort of answer. she seems to have the wrong idea about who the wolf might really be!
Public/Private: public.

[shatteredlenses]

Player Name: Neko Sandy
Character Name: Ignis Scientia
Character Journal: shatteredlenses
Number of Offerings: Two
Offering(s):

Story One: Last month was fun for pretty much no one and waking up with such vivid reminders of things he'd rather not have shoved in his face (ha) every day didn't help make it any better for Ignis. What did help was actually letting himself relax and have fun. In this case, that took the form of the not so blind trying to teach the very much blind how to braid without it becoming a complete mess.

Honestly, he and CT are probably lucky Gladio likes them so much.

Story Two: Continuing the trend of doing fun things, Ignis jumped right into offering to cook something for Aster's birthday when Shion asked. The discussion quickly turned to talk of magic, though, because Ignis knew that the way Eos' magic works is quite different from how he's discovered it working on the worlds of others he's talked to while being here. He's found Shion's very good at putting information of this type together, so if he can find some kind of pattern that includes even oddball Eos, they might really be onto something!

Public/Private: Both are public this time.

[thermalwind]

Player Name: Sam
Character Name: Keith Kogane
Character Journal: focusedroar
Number of Offerings: 2
Offering(s):

1 - He talks of the shades that were following everyone, specifically his father. His story is a somber tale about the similarities and differences between the shade and the real man. It ends when he mentions that he told the shade what he once wished he could do for his father. Say good bye.

2 - His second tale is about Mu. He talks about the fragmented memories he has of things he can recall before people arrive. He has a feeling he's missing a few. It's the nature of a dream not to be entirely remembered, but from his tone, it clearly unsettles him.

Public/Private: The first is private, the second is public.

[flask]

Player Name: Javid
Character Name: Nott
Character Journal: flask
Number of Offerings: 3
Offering(s):

1. Nott tells a tale of how four idiots tried to take on a sentient mountain (i.e. the earth golem). She stresses the whole time that she was against fighting it from the start (a lie), and somehow manages to blame the whole thing on Beauregard.

2. Nott describes her first time experiencing pizza almost like someone might experience their first religious awakening. She goes into great detail about the flavors, textures, and tastes... and then begrudgingly admits that maybe it was really so good because she was mixing liquors at the time she was eating it.

3. Nott tells a rather clinical, halting story about seeing a ghost of "someone very important to her". She starts taking heavy drinks of her flask while she recounts his pleading with her to try to reach him. The story has an unsatisfying ending, with a simple, "But I couldn't do it. That's all." No additional details are given.

Public/Private: First two are public, the last is private.

[lesbeau]

Player Name: Alex
Character Name: Beauregard
Character Journal: lesbeau
Number of Offerings: 3

Offering(s):
1. First, she starts with a badly told but incredibly enthusiastic story about her incredible ascent to the spire on Maati. While she does let everyone know there wasn't anything of note up there, her point here is looking as impressive as possible, and semi-subtly letting them know that if people need shit climbed, they should consider hiring the Mighty Nein for cool climbing tasks.

2. And of course, this leads into the second story, about what else they found on the island. While Yasha touched on this and Nott full ass called her out, Beau makes it very clear this was not her fault, and makes it sound a lot more like they got some good hits in before figuring out they couldn't take this thing. It decidedly leaves out the part about how she got punched so hard she doesn't actually know how they retreated because she was full ass unconscious.

3. Finally, and almost hastily like she forgot about it, she brings up what she and the Drifter encountered earlier this month at the storytellers temple. She mentions that while she hasn't seen some of the other islands this place may have visited, she kind of wants more deets on that big lava-fire-hell-world, and wants to put it out there that something's likely up.

Public/Private: Public!

[deathfindsaway]

Player Name: Alex
Character Name: Kravitz
Character Journal: deathfindsaway
Number of Offerings: 3

Offering(s):

1. Kravitz starts by detailing his encounter with the newest god, noting it's rather strange that he's been unable to get some clear answers out of them about the nature of the island, other than there are "limits" that they'll discover. He suspects that has something to do with the symbols that have appeared on most of them, and warns everyone to stay cautious.

2. And speaking of doing things with Gods, he mentions that he's the one who set up the stones of farspeech for Harv and Anbaki, and encourages everyone to give them a call if necessary or to offer their assistance. He goes into some details about how it's important to keep their communication lines open, and to keep these gods friendly, giving the subtle cue for no one to piss them off.

3. Finally, he talks about his rescue of Legion at the top of the month, and about the chalk on the walls coming to life. He's a little clipped on his description of this, but he seems plenty worried about the ordeal, and what may come in the future.

Public/Private: Public!

[antepone]

Player Name: Michelle
Character Name: Mira
Character Journal: antepone
Number of Offerings: three.
Offering(s): 1. She talks about the apparitions last month and how she came very close to dying... again. Mostly, she talks about how she's frightened someone else important to her will disappear and they'll come back to haunt her.
2. She talks about how she worries that she'll forget things again. She desperately doesn't want to, and she talks about her fears of meeting someone else who knew her, but whom she forgot.
3. She talks about how she doesn't want to return home ever again, that this place is more a home than her own world. She talks about how happy she is that she's accepted here and found so many close friends.
Public/Private: it's all private, naturally. :')

[ladytakamaki]

Player Name: Coco
Character Name: Ann Takamaki
Character Journal: ladytakamaki
Number of Offerings: 2
Offering(s): 1. Birthday shenanigans. Ann talks enthusiastically about how she spent the day with friends, and even got some very generous birthday gifts!

2. Going home. Ann left for a few days, but a little over a month passed in Tokyo. A lot happened in that month, including infiltrating Sae Niijima's palace and planning an elaborate scheme to trick Goro Akechi. She seems pretty neutral about the whole thing, but grimaces when she starts talking about Akechi.

Public/Private: First is public, second is private.

[yourattention]

Player Name: r
Character Name: Connor Murphy
Character Journal: yourattention
Number of Offerings: 2
Offering(s):

• pretend like i did the usual thing where i was very on top of shit and wrote the actual songs that go with these which i will add later
• but basically first a retelling of PUMPKINS. he loves??? decorating pumpkins???? but also apparently some people hate orange, which is fair.
• it's just the bee movie but he changed the bee to a butterfly and made it gay. that's the second one. i don't know what you were expecting from me.

Public/Private: The first is private but the second is public.

IC || STORYTELLING

[lifeaftr_mods]

If you wish to thread out the relaying of your story so that other characters may react to it, you may do so here!

[thegoofball]

i; let’s play the feud

[Lance is sitting in front of the fire with his legs crossed, and when it’s his turn to tell his story, he actually...spends a moment thinking about what he wants to talk about first. Things have...Happened. A lot.]

Well, let’s start this off with something fun. [He claps his hands together.] So! We’re out in space, travelling, trying to get back to Earth, when one night we wake up on a set. A game show set! We don’t have any idea what’s going on, when this guy [read: alien] Bob pops up and starts going on and on like nothing strange is happening at all. He says we’re on this show called Garfle Warfle Snick, we’re the contestants, and we’ll be trapped on the show for all eternity unless we can get quazcenbullion credits.

I know, right? [Right?] Anyways, Keith - [And at this he points across the fire, to where Keith is sitting.] - is first up, for Pictation. He has to draw things within blazzle hoochas, everyone else has to guess, all that jazz. He’s not a very great drawer, so we were kinda screwed on that one, and then Zarkon shows up [and yes he expects you to know who Zarkon is] with Haggar and Lotor and some...guy. And then Lotor decides the next person going up has to go it alone and decides to pick the dumb one.

And then they say that’s me! And everyone starts calling me a dumdum, and they do that like, 18 times! [He huffs.] I’m not that dumb!

ii; touching family stories

[Garfle Warfle Snick out of the way, Lance...is a little bit at a loss for what to tell a story about. Hmm.]

We did make it to Earth, though. I got to see my family again - my niece and nephew were so much older and bigger than I remembered them being. [He shifts, bringing a knee up.] We had gotten caught in some…weird bit of time, and what we thought had only been a trip of a couple weeks had been...three years. So to my family, it’d been four years since I’d left Earth.

It was good seeing them again, even if it wasn’t for very long. [He lets out a sigh.] Anyways, they’re okay. That’s all the matters.

iii; welcome to earth

Kind of hard to believe it, what with...everything happening there. [His other knee goes up. It’s...quite the change in attitude from his story of Garfle Warfle Snick.] Those three years we were gone, the Galra were moving throughout the galaxy. Sendak decided he would go after Earth and take over the planet.

[He...is having a harder time talking about this than he thought he would. Unfortunate.]

It was rough, going back and then...immediately we had to find a way to liberate the planet, or else everyone was just going to- going to die. And we couldn’t just let that happen. Too many people already had.

[Mmmm…]

Anyways, it’s fine. We managed to fight off the Galra in the end. It took a lot of fighting, but we did it.