lifeaftr | time is...fleeting....

Entry tags:

time is...fleeting....

Who: Mercy or Gobbet and YOU
What: Realizing that some time may have passed
When: Nov. 24th
Where: Islet 1, Islet 5, Storyteller's Temple.
Warnings: None!

i) gobbet

[Gobbet did not consider herself afraid of heights.]

[Therefor, upon awakening from a particularly peculiar dream, the feeling of fear that permeated her soul was foreign and unwelcome. She couldn't remember a great deal of the dream, or what exactly had frightened her so badly, but the feeling was so persistent that, after only a few minutes of trying to pretend wakefulness hadn't reached her, she gave up and got started on her day.]

[The ork girl was not one for routine, but the island had a way of warping her into whatever shape was necessary for survival. Lately, she'd taken the shape of a gardener of sorts. Quite frankly, she hadn't thought she'd been doing that poorly either. Just about every morning she got up, watered her garden, headed to the beach to pick through the latest debris, and then committed to whatever tasks struck her fancy for the rest of the day. So you can find her out in front of her shack on islet 1 with a large plastic jug, easing water into a lightly "tilled" (disheveled, more accurately) patch of land.]

[Or, if you aren't the early morning type, you can find her at the new message rock, squinting at the smudged writings of those before her and wondering how so much got written seemingly over night.]

ii) mercy

[The local doctor, on the other hand, is a big fan of routine.]

[Though her dreams unnerved her, she brushed them off as just dreams and returned to her daily schedule. Up before either of her companions, feeding herself just enough food to get her going, and preparing to perform the necessary tasks for survival.]

[Today, Mercy intends to look over the temple for signs of a specific plant she's been hoping to collect some of for her medicinal stores. You can find her in and around her cottage on islet 5 during the early morning as she prepares to head out, or at the storyteller's temple in the late morning and afternoon.]

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...oh. Well shit.

[That means...her food stores. Well, at least she would have some compost now.]

That's, uh. The word "unfortunate" comes to mind.

[Man, she was going to have a lot of work ahead of her. She'd stocked up about a week's worth of fruit and dried fish. It would all be rotten or scavenged by animals (and people, realistically) by now.]

[Come to think of it, that was probably what she smelled when she woke up this morning.]

What'd I miss?

[Muffet nods sympathetically- she's sorry to be the bearer of bad news, although it's better that Gobbet know what's going on as soon as possible, so she can deal with it.]

Hm... I don't think there have been any island-wide events, thankfully- it's largely been people trying to get by day to day. The two most notable things I can think of... some people ran into some particularly dangerous creatures while exploring the eastern edge of the main island's coastline and came back injured, approximately a week ago.

The other is more recent and more broad: the Storyteller has informed us that there will likely be a new island to explore soon, inhabited by one of their fellow deities. They've been asking for volunteers to go look into it.

[The news isn't very exciting, up until the new island bit. At that, Gobbet perks up considerably. She pushes herself to her feet, dusting off her hands and setting the jug of water aside.]

New island, huh? Now that's more my speed. [Gobbet glances at her garden patch and wrinkles her nose.] ...But I have some maintenance to do before I can go exploring.

What about you? Both "How've you been?" and "Are you volunteering?"

[Muffet smiles, glad to see that Gobbet isn't too disheartened by this setback.]

'Well enough' to the former and 'absolutely' to the latter. I'm taking the time to make sure I've got a good amount of supplies and then I'll be off. Speaking of which- if you'd like some extra supplies to take with you, I can offer you some. I can only carry so much, so I thought it better to make more food than I needed and let others put the rest to good use.

Oh man that would be awesome, I'm gonna be pretty short after that little disappearing act.

[Gobbet wrinkles her nose again. She's been doing that a lot lately. A side effect of thinking things through. Which, admittedly, she doesn't have a great track record of doing before now.]

Wonder what causes that and where I went. All I remember is having a weird dream last night - er, several nights ago for you guys I guess. Think the Storyteller sent me off somewhere?

I've got plenty to share, provided you don't mind coconut. I try to add a bit of variety, but in the end it's best to work with what's most common.

[She tilts her head thoughtfully, making an uncertain gesture with one hand.]

Mm... it might be their doing, yes, although I think they've been trying to get better about asking people to volunteer for things instead of just sending them places- and beyond that, they've said before that people sometimes simply vanish from the island because they've been somehow pulled back to their home, as though this place suddenly lost its' grip on them. Given that this has happened before, it makes me wonder if people can also... fade out for a bit, and then be pulled in again, as whatever keeping us here gets stronger or weaker.

I suppose we've no way to be certain, right now. Do you remember anything about your dream, though? Both of the other people I recall this happening to mentioned odd dreams as well...

Well, I remember being really high up in the air. I could see the whole island and a few other islands, too. Honestly it was really pretty to look at.

[Gobbet frowns. There's another part, but it's fuzzy. She reaches deep in an attempt to remember it, but it's as if that part of the dream has been smudged out. The image in her mind's eye is blurry and warped. It's there, and it even sparks the same unsettling feeling that it did when she saw it in the dream, but she can't describe or remember it properly.]

There was something in the sky with me that really freaked me out, I remember that, too. But I can't remember what it was.

[She shrugs.]

I've had worse dreams for sure, but it left a bad feeling in my gut.

Yes, I wouldn't be inclined to discount it, either. I remember that both of the others had unsettling dreams, too, with a vague feeling of danger in both cases- but I'm not sure either of them were seeing things from the air...

Think it's who or whatever is keeping us here? Like we're catching a glimpse as it pulls us back?

Hm... You know, I hadn't thought of that before, but it would make a worrying sort of sense. The danger had a slightly different presentation in all three cases, but if the Storyteller can shift shapes so easily there's no reason to think this thing couldn't take on multiple forms as well.

[Gobbet frowns, cursing under her breath.]

Man, I wish I could still sense the astral plane here. I bet this place would have a lot to see. If there is some big looming danger in the sky, it's obviously not on the physical plane. [She gestures to the clear, blue sky above.] Well, not right now, anyway. I guess it could pop into reality at some point.

[After all, they all popped into reality on LifeAftr, why shouldn't the local forces that be do the same?]

[Muffet blinks, tilting her head curiously.]

The astral plane sounds like another difference between your world's magic and mine, I think- we tend to just work with the one plane of reality, such as it is. Although that does sound like a very interesting change of perspective...

I mean, I say "see" but it's more of a...[She waves her hand about vaguely, scrunching up her face as she searches for the words she wants.] Kind of a blur of colors and feelings. Some things, spirits and the like, only exist on the astral plane.

[Gobbet recalls the way reality flickered and warped in Qian-Ya's presence. The way horrific beings just appeared and disappeared, the way the terrain appeared gore-slick one moment and returned to grimy steel the next. Yeah, planes of existence were not in short supply where she was from.]

I knew a guy who used to use his astral perception to help solve murders. When you can conjure up the victim to tell you what happened, or sense the motive at the crime scene, it's a lot easier to catch your guy.

[Muffet nods in understanding- she can remember trying to explain magic and how one perceived things with it to humans well enough to have an idea of the trouble with trying to describe things in terms of senses they were more familiar with.]

My, that sounds impressively useful- albeit perhaps a somewhat depressing line of work. If you're quick and lucky, in my world, you can catch a soul before it departs, but I don't think anyone can call one back once its' entirely gone...

[Monsters have a frankly miniscule crime rate, as a society, but Muffet's been living around humans long enough to get the concept of murder being a problem that occurs frequently enough to require professional attention, even if it's still a little odd to her.]

In fairness I'm not sure you can call back a spirit that's at rest. Most murder victims feel like their business is a little unfinished, though. That's the thing about being forcibly ejected from your living flesh prison: you aren't usually ready to go.

[She says this as if it's great sage wisdom. It's a lesson she only recently learned, herself.]

But on a sunnier note, new island should mean new resources. Maybe even new people. If we're really lucky, maybe even new people who know more about our situation.

That seems like a reasonable complaint for them to have, under the circumstances.

[She'd certainly be very annoyed if she died tomorrow. She's still got shit to do, dammit.]

We can but hope- and I certainly do hope so. There's apparently one of the Storyteller's fellow deities in residence there, so that's at least one person to speak to about the situation.

Oh shit, another deity? [This excites Gobbet significantly.] Let's hope they're a cooperative one. Nothing worse than fickle deities, man.

Well, I'll take your expert word for it- that sounds like an experience I'd be just as happy not to learn from in person.

[They sort of are and sort of aren't, it turns out. At least they'll be consistently inconsistent?]

[Strictly speaking the only direct interactions she's had with gods have been either fantastic or terrible with nothing in between. She's just assuming it's unpleasant since it doesn't fall under the category of "desirable traits" in her book.]

[Gobbet yawns, stretches absently.]

Well, I should probably stop holding you up and start getting ready to repair the damages. Gonna have to start searching for less perishable foods in the future. Thanks for the food, by the way. That's going to help a lot.

[Muffet smiles, waving off the thanks with an airy gesture.]

Oh, it's no trouble, dearie. Best of luck with your repairs.

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time is...fleeting....

ohhh I thought you were referring to Gobbet, my bad

No worries, I was kind of vague in phrasing.

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Probably getting close to wrapping.

Gotcha!

Wrapped unless you have more to add.