October Aftermath: Crystal Clear

[lifeaftr_mods]

Who: All!
What: You're back, for better or worse. Time to recover.
When: Backdated to the 24th and beyond.
Where: The Monkey Compound, Islets, etc.
Warnings: Mark as you go.


No matter where you are on the morning of the 24th, things will very abruptly go dark.

Unless you're dead. In which case, things are already dark. And you do not see this.

For the rest of you, however, the Storyteller appears only briefly. Gone is their seemingly indifferent nature; as the rabbit hops too and throe, the pages of their tome flick back and forth in an erratic pattern, stopping on a blank page for only a moment, before continuing on. Despite the pages always turning in the one direction, there seems to be no end to them, not at all.

"I'll keep this brief, for the moment. All of you have now been removed from the caverns below," A haggard sigh- and a reluctant addition. "Those of you still alive.

"Your efforts have allowed me access to what lies below. I have sealed off the entrances- from now, the responsibility of cleaning up the mess is upon me."

And that appears to be it. Darkness returns, along with the sensation of lying upon the sand. Birds call out from the jungle, joining the rhythmic shift of the waves. No matter where you were on the island; underground, or above, you awaken upon the shoreline near the Storyteller's temple, along with the rest of the survivors.



"For what it is worth, I am truly sorry."

---

[[If you have yet to do so, make sure you confirm your character's death here!]]

Comments

[unpurify]

[If at first you don't succeed try, try again.

It's something the Batter had experience with. His deaths across his journey did lessen over time as he became stronger and the Puppeteer kept going. Neither of them stopped.

But this time, it was different. He was learning things that had nothing to do with purification and pain. Survival in a world that didn't need 'the Batter' but had him in it just the same. Standing here in an ocean with a little girl, holding seashells in a crude shape of the rainbow. An attempt to make him feel better because the Batter didn't understand how his own mind worked and ran into walls after walls because he couldn't feel either.

He was never meant to answer the question 'What now?', yet here he was. Clawing after a purpose because he felt even more empty and lost without one. What to do, what to do?

"I don't know."

An easy answer.

But not quite what the Batter wants to say here.]

I'm not sure if it will do anything. But...I should try? I will try.

[It's...the Batter doesn't know if it's a good thing or not. "Good" is subjective and he didn't understand what it meant to be good. But it's bridging a gape he normally didn't.

Try, try again.]

[catpiper]

[Wrapping her mind around I will try is difficult. A part of her understands he doesn't think the way she does, doesn't feel the way she does, that he has to try to understand the warm feeling that comes from a holding pretty flower in your hand or looking down at a rainbow in your palms.

A feeling that Shin didn't understand either. Ren can hardly remember how he acted before dying, but the cold emptiness she felt from him. The pain and misery he went through, stored only in the heart of a strange cat that knew her name-

Sometimes when she thinks about Batter, she's reminded of Shin. The resemblance doesn't scare her-they're different people. But it's difficult to listen to him, to look into his eyes, and know that he feels nothing. Hear that there's nothing.

Because she doesn't want him to end up feeling nothing. Doesn't want to see him turn into ghost that acted like he felt nothing, when the truth was he was hurt far too much.

Maybe she wants to help, for once, and hearing I'll try from his mouth is-]

These things will make your heart warm someday.

[If he lets her, she's going to reorganize some of the shells in his palm, pushing the shiny ones close together and mixing some of the colors up.]

You'll look at this kind of thing and feel good.

[One day he won't have to try anymore, she hopes. The feeling will come on its own.]

It'll make you smile.

[unpurify]

[If there is one thing Ren doesn't have to worry about, it's the Batter turning into a ghost. He'd take care of matters if that happened.

Which would...solve a lot of thoughts. But he's not going down that road again.

And the purifier lets Ren rearrange the shells in his hands as she sees fit. Some are shiny and the colors vary in a way they normally didn't back home. Everything was one solid color.

And then it was all white. And then it was nothing. That was his own doing so there wasn't any use about examining his thoughts on it. The Batter had dug until he ripped his own nails off to find a solution that wasn't him, that wasn't answering the calls for pity and tightening the noose around the world's neck before stepping up to the gallows himself.

But it had to be done. He was judged, found guilty and won. "The hero has slain the beast." Only the beast was the hero and had commended them all to the Nothingness. Just...just stop.

Maybe one day the Batter's heart will feel warm. Maybe one day, he will come to understand the simple logic behind finding joy with flowers and seashells. Maybe, just maybe, these stings will vanish with the memory of the Puppeteers and the Batter could smile like he once did in a photograph taken long ago.

But for now, he can only try. For now, the Batter could only be what he was, for better or for worse. A creature with no sense of self. But he's still going to try. Right now, the Batter is going to try to smile even if it doesn't come out right, even if it looks like he doesn't understand how it's supposed to look.]

Maybe. I don't know what will happen.

["Can I be saved? Can I smile a real smile again?"

...the Batter doesn't have the right to wish for something like that. But it's a small glimmer of hope in the darkness that is his soul. The Batter and the world fell together.

Maybe this time he could walk beside it.]

[catpiper]

[She almost misses his expression while adjusting the shells in his hand in a way that might elicit a reaction from him. Trying to form them into a rainbow, his own special one, that he might like because the first rainbow didn't make him feel anything. When she presses a couple big shells together, moves a few small ones towards his pinky and looks up to see-

Maybe he doesn't know, but Ren can see a flicker in what might happen in the shoddy attempt of a smile that crosses his face. It doesn't make it any less genuine than the one that crosses her own face when she recognizes that something changed for him, maybe, just a bit.

Nothing might happen, but she got him to smile right now. Saw a glimpse of a future where he could feel happiness. He may not see the warmth and comfort and safety in all these small things, but smiles all the same. The recognition he's supposed to do that, that he can do that, is enough.

It won't change anything-

But it feels like something did.

She tries to commit the nonsensical shell arrangement in his hand to memory. It's pointless to try, and she realizes that instantly, because she won't remember the three big sand covered shells were pressed against one with a red tint. She won't be able to make this shape again, but-

She's going to try. To see his smile again, even if it's not quite right. Even if it doesn't take the same shape as the one she's seen on the other people here-]

Do you want to look at the pretty water together?

[unpurify]

[Inevitably the smile fades, like everything surrounding him does, and the Batter can't do it again. It hurts, physically and...emotionally, for once.

He was sure that he had loved and been loved in turn, a long time ago. A series of moments in time that had long ago faded from memory because the world decayed and he discarded everything he could along with it. Perhaps, in a way, he lost a lot more then he cared to claim.

It was at that point the monster who was the King became the man known as the Batter and he was given his mission.

"Escaping from your purpose is impossible."

That may still be the case. Once the Batter reached the end of whatever road this place had laid out for him, he could still find oblivion was all that was left. It certainly was back home. Leaving this island meant returning to his coma, for good this time. It was still his ultimate desire to return to it. Perhaps he shared a lot more with Hugo that was healthy or maybe that was just 'The Batter' alone.

He couldn't understand creating something you loved or hated. Or maybe it was simple out of both his and Hugo's control. Something tainted by memories long past, a horror a child and a windup toy didn't understand but doomed each other with.

Maybe.

There's a lot of 'maybes'.

But it's all he's got.

It's all the Batter has because this island didn't offer one final decision. He didn't have to dig into the intestines and bones of the world until his fingers bled to only receive one single answer that boiled down to the Batter. Black and white mixed into grays and he just didn't understand how it worked. He lost that ability a long time ago and perhaps a chance to regain it would be something to be celebrated, it wasn't.

It just left him confused and alone. Again. It probably didn't help the Batter wasn't about to try. Picked a stopping point and stayed there.

He wasn't meant to exist for a long time and without his mission, the Batter was losing his sense of self even more. It wasn't anything Hugo or the world did to him. He did it himself and now the Batter could barely recognize himself in a mirror.

All he saw was himself staring back, in every sense of the word. There's nothing like being judged by yourself, to see your eyes stare back and hear your own voice whispering in your ear.

"Don't you want to see what's beyond the rainbow, your ███████?"

And so on. But something changed.

Something changed despite his claims and he moved with the world rather then stayed where he was. It doesn't solve everything, that smile. It's not going to magically make him better. Maybe it could have fixed things before but the past has been set in stone for a long time. They all saw it coming.

But maybe it could help here.

So his answer is pretty simple and slightly more relaxed. He can't smile again, probably not for a long time, but the Batter closes his hands around the shells and nods.]

Okay. I think that would be...nice.