January Event: Setting Fire to the Sky

[lifeaftr_mods]

JANUARY EVENT: SETTING FIRE TO THE SKY

Who: Everyone!
What: The sun dies, and the creatures of the night emerge from the depths
When: January 21st - January 28th
Where: Everywhere! Ensō, Monsun, Chol, and the Islets
Warnings: Character death, possible body horror and violence. Please mark any additional warnings as needed!

So We Can Take the World Back From the Heart-Attacked

The night of the 21st, the sun begins to dim. It dips in the horizon, sinks to nestle itself in the center of Chol like a star falling in slow motion, where it begins to smolder quietly - massive, smoking, and hot, like a massive egg. The night grows colder, the sky reduced to an inky black. The surface of the surrounding water is still but for the occasional ripple, the odd, strangely subdued wave, with not even the hollow lights of distant stars to glint off its reflective waves.

The Jormun gather around the sunken, dying sun with their scaled hands on their weapons, their expressions grim. They fan out across the island of Chol with arms in hand. Their fortifications have settled around the island's center in a dense ball of bristling weapons. They have been preparing for this. They are ready to fight.

Are you? No island is safe. From the well-trodden mainland of Ensō and its islets to the stark dichotomy of Monsun to the craggy shores of Chol, all manner of strange things have begun to haul themselves, dripping, from the watery dark.

No more preparation. No more running.

From here on out, it is fight or die.

One Maniac At a Time, We Will Take It Back

As the Storyteller has promised, there is sanctuary in their temple on Ensō, which will keep out the worst of the creatures. It will not, however, protect characters from the cold and dark, and so they will have to keep themselves warm some other way.

The Jormun fight fiercely, but they do not fight alone. Aside from the help that the willing of your number have offered, you may glimpse the Storyteller battling alongside the rest in a flurry of strange, shifting animal shapes: a heavy-antlered reindeer, a shrieking owl with outstretched talons, a slavering grizzly bear with the Storyteller's signature tome strapped across a broad, furry back, to name but a few. Those creatures that the Storyteller defeats will burst into a flurry of paper and dark, spattering ink, rather than being felled in the conventional manner. How odd.

As this is an event with a high risk of death, the Storyteller will impose death penalties for one week only. However, deaths succumbed during the event will count towards the character's total.

Then I'll Raise You Like a Phoenix

Come the sunrise on the 28th, the sun will launch itself into the air with a victorious shriek, its wings trailing plumes of fire behind it. The phoenix takes flight, reborn from the ashes. The shores of Chol are littered with corpses, both shadowy and scaled, along with an even smattering of crumpled paper and splotched inkstains. Despite the triumph of the fight, it did not come without its costs. The Jormun gather their dead and prepare to mourn them quietly. Those who perished in the fight will not see the sunrise from this unique perspective, watching the murk of the night tint to soft, milky yellow and pink, and then to a glorious new day.

Munin will greet the survivors with a mixture of solemnity and relief, thanking them profusely for their help. There is not much more that her people can offer you, at this point - they must grieve their dead, and she must return to the sea to prove that she has cemented her worth as a leader in the eyes of the other Jormun - but that does not mean that your stories will part forever.

Event Timeline

[ ♆ ] January 20th: Monthly Storytelling occurs as usual
[ ♆ ] January 21st: The dark arrives, the temperature drops further, and the first hostile creatures begin their assault
[ ♆ ] January 28th: The dark ends and the sun rises
[ ♆ ] January 30th: Those who perished are revived, suffering from a reduced death penalty

Event Specifics

[ ♆ ] If you have any questions, feel free to look over our OOC Info Post.
[ ♆ ] Feel free to make your own logs if necessary!
[ ♆ ] If your character perishes in this event, please let us know!
[ ♆ ] Item trades with the Jormun can be found on the OOC plotting post here! Even if you were only recently accepted, you are free to participate!

LOGS ● OOC ● STORIES ● MAIN NAVIGATION

( CODED BY BOOTYCALL )

Comments

[bloodyashes]

[It's too dark to sparkle and yet]

That's better.

[He's still not letting go of you on the walk back to camp so shut up and lean on him, Ardyn.]

[scourgingstars]

[fine, shorty]

...that coat looks ridiculous on you, by the way.

[bloodyashes]

It looks ridiculous on you, because it's a ridiculous coat, but it's warm and I don't care.

[He's packed like four layers underneath, too. Ardyn should be proud.]

[scourgingstars]

You might as well be wearing the whole tent for how ill-fitting it is.

[that's just how fashion works]

[bloodyashes]

But it's warm, and I don't care.

[You are far too late to rescue this particular fashion disaster. On top of everything else, the Storyteller gave him jeans.]

[scourgingstars]

I will want it back later, remember.

[bloodyashes]

It's not like I'm going to want to keep it after the weather stops being cold.

[Even if it is, weirdly, reassuring to have. Proof that in spite of all Ardyn's complaining, he actually can grow close to people.]

[scourgingstars]

How reassuring. Lucian black does suit you, however.

[bloodyashes]

I've always looked better in darker colors. ...Luke pulls off a white jacket with yellow accents somehow and it completely mystifies me.

[They're supposed to be identical, and yet, somehow, that.

Oh hey look we're actually at the camp now. Fancy that, Ardyn, your usual seat at the mana pool has been left open.]

[scourgingstars]

[fine, mom, he'll just sit down and totally normally keep a hand near his face like that's going to hide the fuckface at all.]

[bloodyashes]

[That's a good dad.]

I'll be right back, I'm just getting some food.

[Don't even think about getting up, nerdlord.

At least over here, a good distance from the fire, Ardyn can be reassured that fewer people are going to look to see his fuckface.]

[scourgingstars]

Calm down, I'm not going anywhere.

[He pressed a hand to his eyes; by the time Asch got back, at least some of the markings and corruption would have slowly started to fade from his face.]

[bloodyashes]

[Asch comes back with a canteen of melted snow and a wrapped box tucked under one arm, and he sits rather unceremoniously beside Ardyn on the dais. If he yet finds anything disturbing about the fuckface, he's kept it from reaching the surface quite well.]

Here. Muffet said you could taste these.

[This accompanied by a wrapped package of cabbage rolls nudged at Ardyn's lap.]

[scourgingstars]

...She did, hm?

[That was strangely touching, but the desert-imposed selflessness made it hard to accept. Hresvelgr, on the other hand, ambled over to poke at the box with her beak curiously.]

You two should have them. We're liable to run low on resources, and I don't need to eat to survive.

[bloodyashes]

You get plain cabbage, Hraesvelgr, don't beg.

[Don't worry birb he brought something for you, too.]

Unless my sense of time is completely off, we're beyond the halfway point, aren't we? So it should be fine to spare a meal for you.

[Asch has, as usual, been keeping careful track of their resources.]

Especially since Ignis isn't back up to solid food yet, and might not be until sunrise. I'm more worried about running out of broth than I am these.

[scourgingstars]

...

[Ardyn went quiet at that, petting the black chocobo idly as the corruption in his eyes gave way to a distant, tired look.]

...Do you think he'll be alright?

[bloodyashes]

Given time. He's been getting steadily more responsive - you can usually tell when he's 'awake,' now, instead of actually sleeping.

[It's small progress, but progress.]

When you've recharged here, you should sit with him a while. He still responds best to touch, but I think he's starting to hear and process what people are saying again.

[scourgingstars]

I think...it might be better if I didn't. Things may be a bit more complicated than he or I initially realized.

[bloodyashes]

[Yeah, complicated like having feelings, Ardyn?]

Maybe, but that might also be exactly why he'd appreciate it.

[Asch isn't stupid; he knows the two of them are enemies in their world, because of the things Ardyn did in his desperation to finally die.]

You're the one who brought him back, too.

[scourgingstars]

It isn't that straightforward. Perhaps it was, before, but...things have changed. It matters strikingly little if I was the one who helped him or not.

[bloodyashes]

[Oh fine, Asch thinks with a sigh. He can tell when the stupid stubborn is kicking up and he doesn't really have the energy to fight it right now.]

Suit yourself. Eat your cabbage rolls.

[While he uses cabbage leaves to keep the chocobo out of his.

...To be fully fair, he definitely gave Ardyn a smaller-than-normal portion.]

[scourgingstars]

[fine he'll eat the damn cabbage rolls while Hresvelgr is practically in Asch's lap munching on cabbage herself.]

...At what point does this cease to balance out, Asch? What do I have to admit to having done for all of you to understand I'm not worth this attachment?

Because at this rate, I've more than likely done it.

[bloodyashes]

...It's not about what you've done in the past.

[There is no balancing it out. There's only the road in front of them.

As many times as it takes.]

It's not even about who you are, at this moment, or about who you could be. It's about the whole thing.

...And maybe a little bit about how my best self is the only one that knows how to be selfish.

[It's not about what Ardyn can give him. It's about taking it, given or no, and learning that trust again.

For both of them, probably.]

[scourgingstars]

[That was the problem, wasn't it? The whole thing, the bigger picture was one colored by haphazard splashes of black and wide gashes ripped into the canvas. Ruined, destroyed beyond all recognition, and unsalvageable.]

['Oh, what good is a world that only ever lets you down?']

The 'whole thing' isn't something worth being selfish about.

[bloodyashes]

[Only as good as the people in it.

And Ardyn, for all he is, is in the almost unique position of not having let Asch down even a little. Not even once.]

The 'whole thing' has already given me more than my own damn family.