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 )

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[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.

[She gives him a flat look.]

I am entirely serious. There is, sir, a very large difference between 'you cannot put your faith in others' and 'your downstairs neighbor is planning to lure you into an alleyway and stab you'- or, for that matter, telling me you're infected with something and telling me whether it's bloodborne or airborne.

I have, as you correctly point out, a short and precarious existence to my name. Ultimately, I cannot avoid every possible danger without spending the rest of it wrapped in padding and sitting in a small box somewhere. Yes, there are more risky actions and less risky ones, but it's always going to be a question of which risks I take, not whether I take any at all.

A specific warning might help me to work around the inevitable catastrophe- telling me only that there will be one gives me remarkably little to work with.

Either you believe that I am capable of avoiding disaster- in which case I would genuinely and sincerely be thankful for whatever information you are willing to offer me- or you believe that I'm already doomed by what I've just done- in which case I'm not entirely sure why you're bothering to warn me at all.

Edited (I'm not fussy about word choices you are shut up) 2017-12-03 04:00 (UTC)

...Bloodborne, for starters. Regardless, it's not--I'm not safe to be around.

[Ardyn frowned slightly, the look one tempered by concern rather than anger. At least...that's what he thought it must have been. Anger was easy to understand, and this was something complex. Something he couldn't quite explain or pin down. Was this what concern felt like? The desire to not want someone to walk the same worn-down path he once did, for their own sake?]

You can't simply...heal the afflictions of everyone you happen across. Eventually it will backfire, whether through disease or by the ingratitude of those you wished to save. Or perhaps both at once.

Edited (wait no different link) 2017-12-03 04:21 (UTC)

[Muffet nods politely, acknowledging the information.]

Thank you for telling me. I'll make certain to be careful of what I touch.

[Honestly, she's not thrilled with the amount of bodily fluids humans seem to have in any case. It just seems kind of excessive.]

[She could point out that he's gone back to being vague in his next sentence, but she has the sneaking feeling that isn't really talking about her- or at least, not just about her. He seems too insistent on the idea of good intentions ending badly to not be speaking from experience.]

[Normally, she'd brush off his concerns, talk playfully about her high-reaching ambitions, infamous greed, or simple stubbornness- and all of those things would be true, but she'd be using them to hide all the same. But having caught that small glimpse of sincerity from him, whether intentional or not, she feels she owes it to him to respond in kind.]

In all honesty? That was never what I set out to do- saving people was never my job, I simply wanted to take care of my family as best I could. I make my living as a baker, for angels' sake- I'm not a healer trained for these things, nor a member of the Royal Guard trained to defend people.

But no one from the Royal Guard is here, nor is any healer I know. I am. And so are these problems, and these dangers, and they aren't just going to go away if they're ignored. It isn't my job, and I don't have to... but if I don't, who will?

Someone else would, and I would warn them all the same. Healing is a miserably thankless job, and it's path no one should walk if they wish their health and sanity kept intact.

[Ardyn glanced away, some semblance of color slowly beginning to return to his face.]

...I used to be human. Ages and ages ago--now look at me. This thing before you is no more than the animate corpse of one long since worse than dead. Existing like this is a nightmare, and if anyone else were remotely smart they'd avoid the same path at all costs.

But if no one does, we may well all die anyway. Problems grow, if left unchecked, and diseases spread. If I simply walk away, then who's to say I won't end up facing the same thing somewhere down the line anyway, only worse because it's had more time to fester?

[She's fairly certain most of the healers she knows back home are doing fairly well, but she's also pretty sure Ardyn isn't just talking about being a medical professional- he means healing as a calling, not as a career. More and more, she's certain that's what he was.]

[She doesn't have the power to heal this, nor any real clue how to make it better. All she can offer him is an honest answer:]

I'm sorry. I wish I knew how to help you, no one deserves to suffer like that. May I ask... just how long it's been, for you?

...

[He didn't want to answer. If they all knew what he was, what they were living with...it would be the whole thing all over again. Even the people he'd pretended to be affable with would turn on him, try to get rid of him, Accursed, Usurper, monster-]

[And yet he didn't know what else to do. Ardyn Lucis Caelum wouldn't burden others with his problems, but he also couldn't help but to reach out in this first vulnerable moment in memory. If that was what happened...maybe this time he'd actually deserve it, for all he'd done.]

...I have cursed our planet for some two thousand years.

[Two thousand years. Unusually long for a monster, but unheard of for a human, as far as she knows. And he'd said that he couldn't die.]

[There is concern in Muffet's expression, but it's clearly for him and not for what he might do to her. There's surprise, sorrow, compassion... but no fear. After all, she's not used to the idea that 'monster' is a frightening word.]

[To her, they're just people. And she can't see any reason to believe that's not what he is, too.]

Among my people... we tend to live longer than humans, yes, but only the very most powerful of our kind would live that long- and even then, only because they choose to do so.

Bearing a burden as painful as yours for as long as you have... I can't even imagine what that's like.

...it hurts. It hurts and there's naught I can do but take it out on everything else, because all I feel anymore is anger and hatred. I'm a daemon myself and worse yet; all but a force of darkness and evil given form.

[Ardyn shook his head, pressing a hand to his face like that could stop him from speaking before he thought.]

I never...wanted this.

[Muffet speaks slowly when she replies next, like she's thinking it over carefully and trying to put the thought together in just the right way.]

I think... that if there's truly nothing else you can do, I can't rightfully call you evil.

Perhaps I'm wrong, but I would say that evil requires a choice in the matter- a man strangling someone to death is evil, because he could have done otherwise, but a snake crushing someone to death in its' coils isn't evil, it's just... doing as a snake does, which is all it can do.

It doesn't mean that people should just let you hurt them, of course, any more than they should just let a snake eat them. But if you don't have a choice, then I don't think you're evil.

And... if you are evil, then maybe you do still have a choice.

[She shakes her head slightly, looking at him with genuine sympathy.]

Though I can't say what that choice would be, if there is one, nor can I find it in myself to truly blame you if you do choose to hurt others in your suffering. No, it isn't right to do it, but... Human, or monster, or animal- we all lash out when we're in pain. It seems to be our nature.

[At his last statement, she simply looks at him and answers, quietly:]

I believe you.

[It's such a small thing to say, she knows, so useless and insignificant- but it feels like it matters somehow, still, that he know. This is a man who was once something more that what he is, so long ago that she can scarcely even picture it, and what he says sounds almost like a plea to her:]

['I never wanted this.' I'm not the kind of person who would have chosen to be this way. Please remember that this isn't who I am.]

[She has no idea who he really is- whoever Ardyn was in life she never met him, and she barely even knows him now. But dying men will ask even strangers to stay with them, just for someone to watch their passing and keep them from being alone, for the knowledge that at least one person will remember that someone was even there.]

[She doesn't know who, but she can acknowledge that someone was lost once upon a time, like bowing your head to an unmarked grave as you pass. He didn't want this. She believes him.]

[It was the truth, even if he didn't want to speak of it. Ardyn Lucis Caelum would never have wanted to curse even a world that had so coldly turned on him. He'd sooner have died and let that be that instead of turning into this. Better that than destroy everything he should have loved.]

[Right now this felt like the first ragged breath of air after drowning in an endless darkness for untold ages. It was a sharp and painful awareness he wasn't this person, the immortal Accursed that had long since forsaken and forgotten its own humanity. Scrambling to sort out his own thoughts, clawing for anything that would keep him grounded and in place rather than let him fall back and let something else go around pretending to be him.]

...I've never been allowed a choice.

[A bitter laugh left him, pained with the edge of something near-unhinged to it. No...he'd known, all along. Even Ardyn Izunia knew even his rebellion had been written in the stars, that even the endless night was all part of the prophecy.]

[He just refused to acknowledge that all he could do to rage against the gods was also exactly what they wanted of him.]

I fail to see why I should have one now, when it has long since ceased to matter.

I'm not sure it's a matter of 'should'- frankly, I suspect that if things were as they should be, you wouldn't be in this situation in the first place.

[The phrasing is light, but her tone is genuinely sympathetic and gentle.]

So by this point you may not have a very good choice, but you may yet have one still.

I don't understand--what choice could possibly be left to me now?

I can't be certain of every option, but... you chose to let me try to heal you, even though you could have turned me away. And it did have some brief effect, even though it was only a very small amount, where you implied that it would do nothing at all.

Even before that, you were saying that something unusual had happened, losing control over your condition where normally you would not. That's twice now that something has changed for you- not permanently, but it did happen. Did either of those things ever happen in your world, that you can remember, in two thousand years?

And, if not... maybe it might be worth your time to try and figure out what's so different about this one.

... [Ardyn shook his head slightly; no, this had never happened before. No, he didn't understand what was going on or why. No, he couldn't even begin to figure out what he was doing when ordinarily he'd have long since come up with a thousand lies and excuses to get out of this situation.]

And what if it should prove not to matter? That this was a single unprecedented anomaly and I end up back where I started?

Then if it does... are you any worse off than you were before? Wasted time, perhaps, but time isn't something you're short of.

[Considering that he's, y'know. Immortal.]

You tried to tell me, when I asked to help you, that I had nothing to gain here and far too much to lose. By that same token, don't you have nothing to lose and near everything to gain?

There's nothing I even desire to gain at this point. All I want is for this to be over, which is apparently a monumental request even the Storyteller won't listen to.

Then that is still something. The Storyteller is, demonstrably, not the only power of this place, nor do they know all there is to know of it. If you're going to be here regardless, why not see what you can get?

[She remembers their talk by the fire, during the last storytelling, and his dislike of unwinnable games.]

[Yes, the game is crooked- but it's the only game in town.]

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

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i'm sorry i could not resist the siren call of shitposting

Never be sorry for shitposting.

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