lifeaftr_mods: (Default)
The Mods of LifeAftr ([personal profile] lifeaftr_mods) wrote in [community profile] aftr_stories2019-08-23 07:16 pm

[MU] - AUGUST STORYTELLING

Those of you who were unlucky enough to perish following the current events will find yourselves waking just in time for the backdrop of a dream to swim into view. By the stroke of midnight on the 23rd of August, all the effects of the shattered merotome will fade.

You are yourselves for the night. Tomorrow, the penalties for the dead will settle in.

Better take advantage of your health while you can.



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 ([personal profile] 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.
hyperlit: (if i could fly id be a bird)

[personal profile] hyperlit 2019-09-02 05:26 pm (UTC)(link)
know how?

[The Drifter doesn't know very much about how to take care of bees, or mosslings, or flowers, or much of anything. They've never had to know. They only know how to destroy things, curtly and ruthlessly and efficiently.]

[The intricacies of creation...evade them. They don't know enough about it. They've never needed to.]
catpiper: (oh my god why is tequatl a thing)

[personal profile] catpiper 2019-09-07 02:13 am (UTC)(link)
[Don't be a fool, Drifter. She has no damn idea what to do, but her intent is pure and true. Her love for that small bug is truer still and she's not about to let their home decay in their temporary absence.]

No, but I'll try very hard.
hyperlit: (◈ ғᴇᴀʀғᴜʟ ᴀɴᴅ ᴏʙsᴇssᴇᴅ)

[personal profile] hyperlit 2019-09-07 03:08 am (UTC)(link)
can learn together

[The Drifter is going to have to learn, to make sure that the place remains...intact. So that it does not fall into disrepair. So that all the little things that the Knight so carefully tended to do not fall to waste.]

[If they can learn, perhaps so can she.]
catpiper: (pic#13117565)

[personal profile] catpiper 2019-09-08 01:49 am (UTC)(link)
Okay.

[Smiling's impossible with the state of all these missing friends, but her heart feels a little lighter at can learn together.

It's been awhile since she's done something with them and they're never unwelcome company.
]

We can go there when we wake up.
hyperlit: (i need your STRONGEST POTIONS)

[personal profile] hyperlit 2019-09-08 03:14 am (UTC)(link)
know where it is?

[The Drifter...didn't, for a time. They didn't, because they didn't ask. They never thought to ask. There are so many, many things they simply never thought to ask.]

[Things they cannot change now.]
catpiper: (did you make them all eyeball pancakes)

[personal profile] catpiper 2019-09-08 04:50 pm (UTC)(link)
Yes.

[She's been there. Sat with them as they carved intricate details into rocks and made beautiful treasures for all their friends and family.

Drifter probably has one hidden in that home, she thinks.

She hopes the Knight made one for themself too, as a way for all to remember them.
]

I played with them there-I remember where it is.
hyperlit: (i want ONLY your STRONGEST potions)

[personal profile] hyperlit 2019-09-08 05:56 pm (UTC)(link)
good

[Everything is still right there, they think. Everything stays, right where they left it. It stays, but it still starts to change, bit by bit.]

will take care of it
until they return
catpiper: (pic#13117569)

[personal profile] catpiper 2019-09-08 09:21 pm (UTC)(link)
[It's what they have to do.

The bug deserves more than anything they can offer, given the limited supplies, their limited knowledge-it's not going to be perfect.

But it won't matter, at the end of the day. They'll have a place to return to, creatures waiting for them, flowers still bright and alive, and treasures proudly displayed on the floor of their home.
]

And when they come back, they'll be very happy. We'll feel their heart smile at us.
hyperlit: (this game controls like a bag of turds)

[personal profile] hyperlit 2019-09-08 09:35 pm (UTC)(link)
if they come back

[The Drifter isn't so naive to believe that they will. But there is something...less permanent about fading away, as opposed to the utter brutality of death. And even here, death is not final.]

[It is a mere possibility. That is all they can ask for.]
catpiper: (wheeze la wheeze)

[personal profile] catpiper 2019-09-08 11:04 pm (UTC)(link)
[To her, it's not an if. It's a when.

And she knows that's hard to think about, when that moment isn't here now. The timeframe of their return is impossible to pinpoint and the Drifter is dealing with the grief of missing their family.

So she doesn't argue-only fumbles with her hands until she can sign it's okay to them.

It's going to be okay.
]
hyperlit: +sprite (◈ ᴅᴇᴇᴘ ɪɴ ᴛʜᴇ ᴄʜᴀᴍʙᴇʀs ᴏғ ᴛʜɪs ᴡᴏʀʟᴅ)

[personal profile] hyperlit 2019-09-09 12:16 am (UTC)(link)
[They don't really believe that, of course. They do not put their stock in worthless platitudes. They cannot know if things will be okay, or if they will not be.]

one day
maybe
catpiper: (pic#13117565)

[personal profile] catpiper 2019-09-09 01:53 am (UTC)(link)
[One day it'll be easier to manage.

They'll be able to look at doodles of the Knight and while that feeling of loss will never vanish, it'll get easier.

The same way it got easier to be without Seto. It hurts every single day, knowing the life he's missing out on, the people he's passing by, the ones leaving before he ever gets a chance to know them-

But it gets easier. And it will for Drifter too, she hopes.

If anything, she can watch over them while they fix up that space together and figure out how the Knight kept their home.
]

I miss them.
hyperlit: (◈ ғᴇᴀʀғᴜʟ ᴀɴᴅ ᴏʙsᴇssᴇᴅ)

[personal profile] hyperlit 2019-09-09 01:57 am (UTC)(link)
yes

[She would.]

[The Drifter doesn't specify what they mean by that - if they mean that yes, they miss them too, or yes, they understand why she would. It's possible they mean both simultaneously. It's also possible they don't entirely know themself.]


they will be remembered
catpiper: (they didn't give you a kill option)

[personal profile] catpiper 2019-09-09 02:05 am (UTC)(link)
[They will and that's the takeaway from this announcement. The most important one.

They will be remembered and their active involvement in their previous home will help that.

Maybe Drifter will stay there. It probably hurts too much to do that, but it would be easier for them to have a home, easier for the Knight to return when someone they call family is there.

But all she does is fiddle with her fingers, trying not to count down the one, two, three people who have vanished recently.

Trying not to think of how many more are going to leave.

And she wants to say she won't forget, but this month has proven otherwise, so instead-
]

My heart will remember them. It'll always know who 'The Knight' is.
hyperlit: +anubis (◈ ᴇᴠᴇʀ-ᴘʀᴇsᴇɴᴛ)

[personal profile] hyperlit 2019-09-09 02:07 am (UTC)(link)
most one can do
remember them
who they are
what they did


[Never let their legacy die.]

[That's all they really can do, with a memory.]
catpiper: (pic#13117560)

[personal profile] catpiper 2019-09-10 02:00 am (UTC)(link)
I won't. I promise.

[And she'll remember-

That they were like a brilliant shining star who always sought out others to help.

That they were kind and gentle. That they escaped from their world, fought for every bit of life they could and helped others do the same.

She won't forget that they were similar. That they had so much more to do here and that-

They'll come back. Even if Drifter doesn't believe, she will for the both of them.
]
hyperlit: (◈ ᴀsᴘɪʀɪɴɢ ᴛᴏ ғɪɴᴅ ᴀ ᴄᴜʀᴇ)

[personal profile] hyperlit 2019-09-10 02:24 am (UTC)(link)
won't remember?

[Ren honey isn't that backwards.]
catpiper: (if they can't catch me)

[personal profile] catpiper 2019-09-14 08:01 pm (UTC)(link)
No, I won't forget. I know that kind of thing.

[Maybe it's the LEXY that's backwards.]
hyperlit: +sprite (◈ ᴀ sᴇᴀʀᴄʜᴇʀ)

[personal profile] hyperlit 2019-09-14 09:28 pm (UTC)(link)
good

[That's all they can ask. They can't commemorate - they can only commit to memory.]

[It's better if the people who will live longer can remember. The Drifter's memories are fated, inevitably, to die when they do. It's best if someone who will endure can hold these memories in them, for longer.]