lifeaftr | November Adventure: The Good, The Bad, And The Dirty

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November Adventure: The Good, The Bad, And The Dirty

NEW ISLAND: MONSUN

Who: Everyone!
What: Monsun appears, and a new adventure begins.
When: November 24th
Where: Across the islands!
Warnings: Tag as you go!

I've Never Been Better- Or Worse
As per the Storyteller's advice, the morning of the 24th will find characters waking to the sight of land in the far distance; Monsun is now accessible for one-way travel. Your mission, should you choose to volunteer for it? Traverse to this new land, and locate the mana pool. All characters will be reminded on departure that they may not be capable of returning until they have, so pack wisely.

The land of Monsun, even from a distance, may strike travelers as a peculiar one. One half appears to be made up of lush, deciduous woodland entirely at odds with the coastal, tropical aesthetic that Ensō so boasts. The other half appears to be dry and bare, full of cracking cliffs and sandy wastelands. Indeed, once characters set foot on this new land, they will discover that this is precisely the case: the island is divided by a dark ribbon of water, an east side rich with life and a west side stark and rife with danger.

And yet, it isn't that simple.

Feeling prepared? Now is the time to make arrangements and collect what you'll need for the journey. Find companions, say goodbye to loved ones- and of course, take your first step forwards into new lands. Best of luck, adventurers.

You may need it.

Welcome to the new island of Monsun! As the island is now accessible, feel free to begin preparations and explorations in this log- or create new ones of your own! For further information in regards to the island, or plotting, the following links may prove handy:

OOC info and plotting post

Group Arrangements and RNG Group Opt-ins

Monsun on the locations page

Search Requests

LOGS ● OOC ● STORIES ● MAIN NAVIGATION

( CODED BY BOOTYCALL )

Flat | Top-Level Comments Only

Don't--don't. Just stay away from me.

[Ardyn pressed a hand to his face in a futile attempt to hide the corruption, scowling. Why did it have to be her that walked into this? He actually kind of-...liked was a strong word, but he'd certainly hated her less than most humans. Even if that streak of kindness was painfully infuriating, even if the insistent screaming hatred in his head was certain that she'd just be another example of what selflessness always ended in.]

It's not-...it isn't safe.

[...So why was he even bothering to care enough to warn her away?]

Edited 2017-11-27 02:08 (UTC)

[Depending on what timeline you were in and how you looked at resets, Muffet's stubborn insistence on helping her people had already brought her to a messy end at least once, but it's not as though she knew about that. And it's questionable whether or not she'd actually stop even if she did.]

[If she ever does stop, clearly it won't be today, as she pauses a little way away from Ardyn but makes no move to leave. The fact that he's coherent enough to talk to her is probably a good sign, it means she can ask him what he needs instead of just guessing how to help him.]

[Because just walking away and leaving him is not an option.]

What happened, do you know? Is this poison, or some sort of magical effect?

[She's not exactly an expert in human biology, but she knows enough to be sure that black goo coming out of them is Not A Good Sign.]

Edited (wrong icon) 2017-11-27 03:52 (UTC)

It's...neither, yet also both.

[On a technicality, a cursed plague was both magic and poison. Ardyn's voice was halting and hesitant as opposed to the usual calm tones, as if he couldn't quite focus on one line of thought for long.]

This is...it's what I am. What I truly look like. I'm not human, I've not been human for longer than you could ever know.

[The Starscourge: multiple kinds of terrible.]

[Muffet nods, listening carefully to what he's saying. If he's expecting her to be bothered by his inhumanity, he's certainly picked the wrong audience- the implication that he used to be human and then that changed at some point is curious, but she's never been human at all and has never particularly wanted to be.]

But even if this appearance is normal, it isn't normal for you to be in this much pain, is it?

[She keeps her voice calm and steady, trying to give him something to focus on outside of his own pain.]

[The horrible thought occurs to her that maybe he is always suffering like this, and she just caught him when he was too tired to hide it. She hopes that's not the case- she knows humans are much more physically durable than monsters, but that seems like far too much even for one of them. Or someone who used to be one of them.]

I can't...get it back under control.

[He should have been able to, hiding his true face and the constant shrieking fury coiling under his skin had become second nature over the centuries. But the more that flicker of humanity caught like a wildfire, the more it illuminated how wrong the presence of that shadow was. It was as if it registered less as a part of him and more some kind of terrible invader that couldn't be manipulated or repressed.]

Please, don't-...I've no desire to hurt you, so just turn around and leave.

I've no desire to be hurt- but even less to just leave you to suffer. I admit I'm not the strongest healer, but please... let me try?

[She can remember the caves, the feeling of bitter helplessness and frustration at realizing that her magic couldn't even touch the crystal infection, much less cure it, trying again and again to heal the victims without success.]

[If there's any chance she can actually help him, any chance at all, she has to try.]

It isn't...you can do nothing for this. Even if it could be cured, it is long since too late for me.

Perhaps not.

[Which of his statements she's replying to- either agreeing with the first or disagreeing with the second- is ambiguous. Muffet doesn't bother to clarify either way.]

[Instead, she holds out one hand, standing close enough to Ardyn that he can easily reach out and take it if he so chooses. If he looks, he'll be able to see a faint, green light glowing about her fingertips, the color oddly soothing and reminiscent of new growth in old forests.]

I may well fail, but I would like to at least make the attempt first.

[Ardyn practically flinched away like the mere concept of healing magic was a slap to the face. It wasn't going to work, at best it would do nothing as Lunafreya's had and at worst...]

[...at worst she'd end up just the same as he was.]

Why--why are you doing this, you've nothing to gain from it and might well be infected if you tried.

[Muffet blinks, briefly looking baffled at the question. Why wouldn't she want to help him if she could? He's never done anything to her, she has no reason to want him to be harmed.]

I've more than enough energy to spare, trying and failing would cost me next to nothing. The idea of catching this... condition does sound worrying, but we don't know if I even can. My species normally can't catch any kind of illness, our biology doesn't work that way.

[She doesn't try to touch him without permission, but she doesn't move back or lower her hand, either. She just keeps holding it out to him, patient and steady.]

Perhaps something from another world is different enough that it could infect even me... but by the same token, perhaps my magic is different enough that it can help where something from the same world can't.

These are not the lands we know. Here and now, we don't know what's impossible.

[One quick touch is all she'd need to try. All he has to do is give her permission and find out.]

I don't-...

[Ardyn trailed off, either uncertain of how that sentence would end or confused by knowing what the next words out of his mouth were going to be.]

...I don't want to hurt anyone. My life isn't worth that.

Rest assured, I don't have any intention of throwing my life away recklessly.

[Muffet's voice is calm and gentle, pragmatically acknowledging the danger but containing not a trace of fear. She raises one hand, still not moving the one held out for Ardyn to take, and declares solemnly:]

You have my word that if I hit the limits of my power, or if I feel that I am in any way about to harm myself, I will stop.

But having said that, your life is still a life, and I don't want to see you hurt if I can help it. I will gladly help with caution and with care, but please just allow me to try helping at all.

No, you don't understand. This is not going to kill me, and it could do far worse yet to anyone else.

It's fine. I'm used to it, this is just...unusual.

You aren't dying, that's good to know. But you are quite clearly in a lot of pain, and don't try to convince me that you aren't. I may not be terribly familiar with human- or formerly human- biology, but even I can tell you're hurting.

And if it comes down to it, what kills me... may not kill me, in the permanent sense. We've seen that the dead can come back here. I don't particularly want to try it personally, but in the end I wouldn't be taking a permanent risk.

...No one should have to exist like that. Dying only to come back and suffer through it again and again and again. It isn't fair; this world and the god which presides over it are both too cruel.

[Somehow, Ardyn didn't seem like he was talking to Muffet or anyone in particular with that much. He looked very, very distant behind the black corruption and hellishly dark eyes, slowly shaking his head.]

I doubt that you can help me and I am quite certain you should not. But I don't want...to be like this any longer.

Well, whether your doubt is correct...

[Here's a hand, Ardyn, held just a fraction closer and not wavering in the slightest.]

There's only one way to find out, isn't there?

[Compassion really was just...so difficult to understand.]

[Regardless, Ardyn only hesitated a moment longer before awkwardly reaching out with a hand cold as death to lightly take Muffet's, as if solid contact with someone else was something he didn't want or didn't have any idea how to proceed with.]

[Muffet reaches forward, smiling gently, and clasps Ardyn's outstretched hand in her own.]

[As soon as they make contact, the green magic at her fingertips spreads out and into him, doing its' best to soothe and heal. It feels oddly gentle- not a feeling of scouring and purifying, but more the sensation of being offered a kind word in the middle of your doubt or a chance of rest in the middle of your weariness.]

[...It wasn't a sensation he was accustomed to. Or one he particularly liked, all things considered. It didn't quite hurt in the same way that the endless fury in his head did, simply...defied comprehension. Ardyn didn't--couldn't--understand it, and dwelling upon the feeling only made him more aware of a nameless something he'd lacked for a very long time.]

[Whether he understood it or not, for the moment things were...quieter. Hardly cured by any stretch of the imagination, but driven back like a lit match pushed away the night's darkness. The markings on his face and neck had started to retreat, pallid complexion still stained black but eyes a little clearer now.]

...Why?

[There's too much here, she knows- her magic doesn't tell her what she's dealing with, only that it's still there, but she can feel it all the same. Something her healing is pushing back against, old and vast and unrelenting, like the depths of an ancient sea. Her will is strong, made stronger by the way the effects of this desert blend with her natural inclinations, and a monster's magic is their will made manifest- but in the end, she's only mortal, for all that she isn't human. No matter how long or how hard she tries to push it back, there is no doubt that she'll reach her limit long before it does.]

[Muffet holds for a moment longer before she lets her magic stop flowing with a soft sigh, keeping her word not to overreach herself. It nags at her to leave a job unfinished, but she knows her limits- and anyway, she did promise. Keeping one's word is a very important quality, in a businesswoman. Whatever little she did, for however little it lasts, will have to be enough for now.]

[She looks at Ardyn, her expression tired but calm, and gives the only entirely honest answer she can:]

Why not?

Because you've nothing to gain and more than you could ever know to lose. Because you scarcely know me, because selflessness like that is naught but dangerous, because nothing you just did will make a dent in anything that I am.

Need I continue?

[She meets his gaze steadily, counting off each point on her fingers as she replies.]

I gained a little more knowledge and lost only a few moments time and effort. I know that you are another person, capable of feeling pain. Selflessness is a gamble like any other, the potential danger matched by the possible success.

And, in the end?

The universe is an unspeakably vast place older than both of us and everyone we've ever met all put together, and I am a very small amount of magical energy holding an even smaller amount of physical matter together in the shape of a five-foot-tall arachnid. Taken as a whole, no matter how far I go or how great I become, my entire existence will be so insignificant to the universe that I may as well have never been here, let alone anything I've just done in the past five minutes- and yet I stubbornly persist in doing things anyway. If I haven't stopped trying in the face of that, why would I stop because of you?

...

[Ardyn laughed in response, a bitter and pained sound with no real humor to it. There weren't many things older than he was, and the irony of her saying that was funny in the way some things weren't funny at all.]

So you waste such a short existence upon a risk that will eventually backfire. Not 'might', but absolutely, unequivocally shall turn upon you in the grandest fashion.

[Even 2,000 years was only a tiny fraction out of billions.]

If you have anything specific in mind I should watching out for, beyond the general untrustworthiness of mankind and being careful around infectious substances, I'd welcome the advance warning.

[Her tone is hilariously polite, given the whole situation- she's being entirely sincere. She's fairly certain that if Ardyn's implying he intends to hurt her at some point down the line he wouldn't actually warn her, but it couldn't hurt to ask.]

Is that meant to be a joke? Of course that's what I would be warning you against.

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