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

[Yes you have, Ardyn, just think carefully - while Asch watches that sword flicker and vanish with, well, slightly disguised envy before shaking his head.

Even at his best, the way lacking his own power makes him feel vulnerable doesn't disappear. It just makes it possible to admit to it.]

Power of Lorelei, remember? It may as well not exist here. I knew the Planet Storm impacted the level of Seventh Fonons on Auldrant, but I didn't think it'd be this much...

Ah--right. [Normal people using magic was...weird, honestly.] My apologies, magic works a bit differently where I came from.

It probably does in every world, I think, from what I keep hearing.

[Bright side of being on the good side - not dwelling on the depressing things like he normally would.]

Fonic artes aren't even really considered magic on Auldrant - it's a science, but good luck convincing anyone here of that.

Well...I do suppose there's an occasionally unclear line between the two, otherwise we'd not have magitek to begin with.

[A shrug.]

But most skills such as mine are uncommon, to say the least.

Our line is perfectly clear, it's called harmonic physics and at this point I should by all rights have a degree in it.

[He can explain it while half-asleep which is the metric they use to hand out degrees, right?]

Specialty in combat applications, fomicry, and hyperresonance.

[...Anyway that's not actually what he wanted to talk to Ardyn about, oops, it's easy to get derailed by other things he cares about.]

Seventh Fonists are uncommon but anyone can learn to manipulate the rest. I take it that's not the case for yours.

What a fascinating-sounding subject.

[apart from the psychopathy and starscourge, he was head of research for a reason: ardyn is a nerd.]

But no, to answer your question. Magic ability is something that can potentially be shared, but it is only innately used by a select few.

[...Oh for fuck's sake, Ardyn, just say who???]

You can tell me things without dancing around them for half an hour, you know. I'm not going to be scared off.

You could ask outright, you know.

[even at his best, ardyn was still kind of a smartass.]

...Only the blood of the Chosen King can naturally wield the magic granted by the Crystal's light.

...I'd say that you could just say it from the beginning and save me the trouble, but that would show complete ignorance of who I'm talking to.

[Yeah he knows you're an asshole. Sigh, even Jade was more straightforward.]

You're a quick learner.

[and ardyn has a lot of shit he doesn't like to talk about. oops.]

[A whole ton of shit! Not that Asch doesn't understand, but it's like comparing a chocobo to an adamantoise.]

And you might be getting slow in your old age if you think that's the only thing I meant.

[You're so??? busted, Ardyn.]

That's terribly hurtful. I've no idea what you're talking about.

Let me say it straightforwardly, then.

[He says that with a slight smile that indicates that this is not at all going to be a straightforward way of saying it.]

We talked before about the miasma that once poisoned Auldrant, but I didn't really get the chance to give you much detail beyond it being a poisonous gas and mostly an environmental hazard.

Bearing in mind, of course, that these sources are over two thousand years old and biased, indications are that it appeared shortly after the discovery of the Seventh Fonon, in the aftermath of the war to initially try to control the power of the Score. Legend says it was created from the anger and grief of those killed in the war - I'll leave you to judge the truth of that one for yourself.

[Can you guess where this is going, Ardyn? Can you guess?]

In order to save humanity from the growing poison, Yulia and her followers undertook a great project to lift the crust of the planet from the mantle, where the miasma was most saturated. By harnessing the power of the planet's core - and probably Lorelei within, but the myths are always iffy on that point - they managed it. Landmasses and sea beds, near all the world, ten miles into the sky.

What was left behind came to be known as the Qliphoth, by those few in the Order allowed to have such knowledge. A featureless sea of mud, not only poisoning the air but sucking down anything that had the misfortune to fall into it. Maybe that's not what it was two thousand years ago, I don't know, but it certainly didn't matter after two millennia with the Outer Lands blocking out all sun.

And when the deed was done - a temporary solution, and everyone involved knew it - the entire act was wiped from history. Only the highest members of the Order knew that the land was not solid beneath their feet, that the poison would someday return.

[Is this starting to sound familiar yet?]

The highest members of the church... And those who still lived there, down in the dark. A shining city of glass and metal, shaped like a mountain peak, the only source of light within the endless dark - Yulia City, because of course they called it that. The City of Watchers, once a last bastion of humanity in case the plan didn't work, became the isolated observers of Auldrant, most of them living and dying without ever seeing the sun -

All of them, living and dying, averting their eyes from the truth just outside their perfectly sealed windows. Not one of them willing to look out at the dark, much less open the doors, breathe it in - just a breath, miasma's a slow killer - and face it.

[He closes his eyes, just briefly, and the smile becomes something more genuine - if a bit self-deprecating - before he opens them again, making eye contact with Ardyn and not letting go.]

Once, on the tiniest thread of hope, I went there and made them open the doors. I faced that sea of miasma without fear. I'm telling you this, so that you know, that faced with it as a person - I don't intend to turn away from you, either.

[A small frown crept across Ardyn's face as he listened to Asch speak; not exactly angry, but some odd mixture of annoyed on both his behalf and Ardyn's own. Whre was this coming from? Sure, he'd said....a little too much, thanks to Muffet's alcohol and his own lack of impulse control. But what Asch was telling him now was too laser-focused, too intent on a single facet of the mountain of problems that made up Ardyn Izunia's existence. Who would have told anyone abou-]

[...Oh, that absolute bastard.]

...My, the adviser certainly does like to talk, doesn't he? I'll have to have a word with him later.

Edited 2017-12-08 21:43 (UTC)

Don't be too hard on him. I did ask.

[What was that about how he could ask outright? Like you ever would have given him a straight answer about this, Ardyn, and you know it.]

You could say I got tired of following breadcrumbs.

[Two thousand year old bread is incredibly stale.]

It's not a matter I particularly like to discuss, I'm sure you realize. Even now--no, perhaps especially now I find the whole ordeal a troubling matter to think about.

So with that in mind: what exactly is your point here?

That I don't think it's fair that you don't know that I know? That I don't think I could bullshit my way through pretending to not know in the future? That I'm not going to be scared off by what you think is your worst? That I think you deserve at least one person you can be honest with? That maybe I need that too, and would like it to be on even ground?

[...Okay the last might be a little too real he's going to stop there.]

Take your pick, I'm sure there's more options.

[Ardyn answered with a laugh, short and hollow.]

...I see no reason to trust a single person here. Not you, him, Muffet, or anyone else insistent upon such a sentiment. Oh, I've no doubt you mean it in the moment...that you're sure such promises and attachment will hold fast and refuse to fail. But you're wrong.

Mortals are fickle and flawed creatures, and things like 'trust' and 'friendship' only earn them pain in the end. You say 'I won't be scared off by your worst' and yet you know nothing of what that 'worst' truly is. You scarcely even know me as I am now, much less the monster I'll surely return to if I leave this island. The immortal Accursed that the world created, whose only joy is in vengeance and the end of everything.

Did he tell you of the populace that turned upon their very savior at a mere word from a god standing on high? Because there is quite a bit more I'm very certain he can't possibly know. An entire kingdom's gratitude for their king turned to revulsion and hatred; people the savior loved and trusted turning on him as if he had never mattered to begin with.

...Do as you will. But I don't--as I am now, I do not wish to hurt you should this change prove temporary. And I have no desire to be hurt myself in turn, so it is preferable for everyone's sake if you simply forgot this odd sense of attachment.

[It's no less than he expected, really. In any other place, at any other time, he'd say something much the same.

With, you know, less in the way of exposition.]

And we've already been over the fact that I don't give a damn for gods on high, so you can throw that argument for how I'll inevitably turn on you out the window.

[He closes his eyes and takes a deep breath.]

I'm not offering you some - perfect story of redemption, or something. I'm not saying that no one's going to get hurt, because living hurts. I'm saying that I'm willing to try anyway, because that's what living is.

[But then he opens his eyes, and rolls them. Hard.]

One minute you're nothing but pain and hatred, the next you don't want to be hurt - which is it? Surely one more hurt won't matter in the long run. Maybe it'll even be good for a laugh.

[It's not a hard guess that Ardyn laughs at everything, really.]

You're as fickle and flawed as the rest of us, after all. You were born mortal, even if you're not now.

...

[It suddenly occurred to Ardyn that this wasn't the first he'd been called on contradicting himself. And...he wasn't sure why he kept doing it. He meant both sides of it--objectively he was nothing but malice given form. But at the same time, right now he didn't want anyone pretending they gave a damn about him when he knew mortals lied just as much as Ardyn himself did.]

[...The conflicting thoughts really didn't make any sense, and so he chose not to examine the implications.]

Don't hold me to the same standards as humans. I've not been one for two thousand years, and I'm quite sure I've forgotten how.

I'm not holding you to any kind of standard at all. I'm just being honest about what I think.

[Cheerful, and... maybe even gently mocking?]

You should try it sometime.

[And don't think he didn't notice you not at all answering what he said there, either. There's nothing worse for a politician than someone who is inherently honest... And smart enough to keep up.]

I'm in politics, I'm never honest.

[this is a pleasant smile and not at all someone who is dying inside]

You're on a series of bizarre magical islands without a system of government. Maybe it's time for a new hobby.

[This is a pleasant smile and not at all someone who is getting one over on their local two thousand year old beanpole.]

Perhaps. Or perhaps it really doesn't matter anymore.

Of course it matters.

[Another of those too-honest looks.]

If it doesn't, then what's the point of standing up instead of laying down in the sand and waiting for the end?

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