February Event: Just One Mist-ake

[lifeaftr_mods]

FEBRUARY EVENT: JUST ONE MIST-AKE

Who: Everyone who ends up on the floating islands
What: February's event
When: February 15th to February 20th
Where: The floating islands above Ensō
Warnings: Mark as needed!

Sky High

Those curious floating landmasses far above Ensō have only grown more prominent in the coming days. Whether you've chosen to explore the islands purposefully or have ended up there via a mana pool malfunction, you'll doubtless discover their unique properties soon enough. You might even take advantage of their impressionable nature to mold them to your own desires, shaping pieces of the places you once knew, or maybe a place you wish you could be.

Either way, the repercussions to using the floating islands as your modeling clay will be evident by the time midnight rolls around, each night, and the islands impose a regular reset cycle to wipe away whatever changes have taken place, including that peculiar, almost volcanic texture that seems to affect the lands sculpted by your mentality. Just make sure you're not caught outside the depressions in the shape of mana pools centered on each island, lest you bear some unpleasant consequences for a day.

If you haven't signed up for a Reset Penalty and wish to, you can still do so here!

Check Your Wishlist

But of course, it's not all doom and gloom. It's quite the opposite, in fact. If there's something you've been wanting, simple or complex, something that has been making its way into the texture of your thoughts with a frequency that's almost noteworthy, the islands will attempt to see to it that this wish of yours, this yearning, is satisfied in some way or another. Some of the effects will be temporary. Some won't.

Regardless, at some point during the event, if your character visits the islands, the possibility is there.

If you're interested in a Wish Request, let us know here! Remember that filling out this form is required if you want to take advantage of the islands' "giving" nature.

Event Timeline

[ ♆ ] February 15th: The floating islands appear
[ ♆ ] February 16th: The mana pools begin malfunctioning, and characters begin ending up on the floating islands
[ ♆ ] February 20th: Monthly Storytelling occurs, along with a vote as to the next land adventurers will brave. Upon waking, the Storyteller returns everyone to Ensō, and shrouds the islands in cloud once more

LOGS ● OOC ● STORIES ● MAIN NAVIGATION

( CODED BY BOOTYCALL )

Comments

[unpurify]

A decision made once, repeated. Here we are again.

[Although that is mostly said to himself.]

But that is the thing. I was not made to care. I was not made to deal with things. I am the fate of corpses left to rot away.

[The Queen of the Flies and the King of the Rot. Titles give to lovers who rarely used each others names. And he can't quite stop talking the way he is now, even if Kittu bothers to request it. Metaphors and perspectives built up beings like the Batter and were one last guard against another possibility.

A third option.]

You once asked of me what I thought of a world where it's killed or be killed. I'll ask you now. What do you see in me? A man? A monster? What's reflected in the mirror of your eyes when you look at the Batter?

[Who are

* You?]

[souldeterminant]

[*Who are they? Ha ha. Easy.]

[Some child who climbed a mountain. kid. Punk. Demon. Ambassador. Kittu. Frisk.]

[It's still just them, Batter. It's still just Frisk. They're the one who made every decision, and dealt with every consequence. Some of them were wrong; the ones that counted up inside them with numbers as the Underground's declined. They weren't made to care, either. They were made to fulfill a prophecy one way or another. Empty the Underground.]

[The Batter asks them a question, and they feel it again; the swell inside them, that familiar, cold drip. They're not that afraid of it anymore. They don't like it, but they have just enough of it now not to be afraid. It's them. It's in their eyes, as they gaze up at the Batter and see --

See what?]

[Not a demon. Not a monster. Not a human. None of that matters; everyone can be a bad person.]

I see your L̹̼̻̗̬̼̙͈͠͝O̧̱͔͓̫͘V͈̜̝͈͜͡E̤͈̜͎̩̘̩͜.̠͕̹͟

[unpurify]

[LOVE. Not a monster or a human. Something different from even how the Queen saw him.

A room that appeared pure white but was really stained black. A prevalent question in the back of his mind when he saw Hugo and though to himself

"Why did you make me if you feared the darkness?"

But knowing the blame did not lie on the child's shoulders. The world was doomed the second he saw the rot in the center. Once the Batter consumed everything and then tore his own stomach open.

He was the one who went on a quest for purity. He shouldered the responsibility of being the one who would end the world. If you know someone at their best, you do not let them suffer at their worst. That was something deep within the Batter's soul. He would not let them suffer.

He would let them sleep.

But face-to-face with the concept of continuing in a way the purifier could not fathom stumped him. Living when he was meant to die at the end stopped him in his tracks. The responsibility of death was something the Batter would shoulder but the gift of life was another story.]

And is one with LOVE well and truly able to escape? I cannot hide from my purpose and fate. This place only extends what I do not want.

["Escaping from your purpose is impossible."

"Hence nothing remains except for our regrets."

Which one is it? Or is there something else left? Something else that isn't those extremes?]

[souldeterminant]

[Despite everything, Frisk smiles.]

[They don't think this is very funny. They're not laughing. But they think they get it, now. They were sort of wrong before. It's not exactly that the Batter is filled with Determination, is it? Or maybe... just not enough. LV without Determination. It's possible, of course -- not every SOUL is like theirs. Some are brave. Some are kind. Some have integrity; some persevere. And so on.]

[So, they know who they are...]

do *You?]

[Maybe that's what Frisk is here for. Two LVers stare over the edge of the cauldron of hell. Will they fall OFF? Not until they've exhausted the script, and then beyond.]

[They're still just Frisk. If this part of them is who they have to be, right now -- then that's fine.]

[They know this game, too.]

What you want doesn't matter. You are not above consequences.

[unpurify]

[The King of the Rot. The executioner at the end of the world.

The Batter.

But never a name. Never a name to call but a title. Himself in every sense of the word but no word to call it. So if Frisk knows who they are...

Does it matter who he is? Because at the end of everything, God is dead.

God is dead and gone and there's nothing the Batter can do but laugh.]

Then there's no reason to hide. No reason to escape. Here we are. Here I am.

[The world shudders under the weight of those words and the voices seem to reach fever pitch before becoming a loud, unintelligible drone.

And the white begins to erode back to a blood red. As for the switch? It too erodes under the Batter's hand, as if his mere touch is corrosive before falling to the floor in pieces.

This is his new answer, a third option. One that doesn't involve escape or regrets nor destruction or leaving things as is. If what he wants doesn't matter then he'll continue. If there's no way to stand above consequences, then he won't try. They'll come to him as is. The Batter would eat them and continue.

He knows this game too.

"And you thought I was wrong."

So he may as well revel in it.

The Batter finally turns around and for the first time Frisk will see him smile. All four of his eyes are open and bright. He feels much more alive now. There's freedom in finding that nothing will change, after all.]

And this is a world where things continue. Where the King of the Rot once ruled.

[And then a monster became a man and began his journey.

And now a man and a monster came together to continue yet again.

* It's always been me.]

[souldeterminant]

[he laughs. it's so funny, he can't stop. tears stream down his

what?]
[that d̳̫i͕d͉̻̣͓n'̘͍̦̯̤t̲̜͙̞ ̼͙̮̭͚̞̫h͔̲͙̳̱̪ap̹̦̗̺͎͞pe͉̙̫̻͔̜͘n̠̖͇͉̯̙̯?̤̗̞̺̳͎]

[He turns around to face them, smiling with all four eyes. But it's not funny. They smile back. But it's not funny. you look horrible, building up your mountain of rot. why are you even alive?]

[Why are any of them alive?]

[switch this world to OFF, and move on to the next.]


[]


[honestly, Frisk has no buisness drawing those kinds of conclusions. Not at all. But it's hard not to project a little, staring up into those eyes and settling on meeting the bottom pair. If they were privy to his thoughts, they'd be glad that he felt freed. Once upon a tale, they'd been informed that it was something to be happy over; excited.]

[For now, they simply stand here. In the judge's chair. isn't that what this is about, you King in the Mountain?]

I Continued, too. For a long time. Then someone taught me that I should just learn when to QUIT.

[he's gone now. He would have no memory of them as the anomaly, besides. Frisk knows they're not above consequences, but the truth is -- they just don't want to hurt anyone, anymore. They don't want to build their LV back to 20. Maybe they could. But they don't want to.]

[Not that it matters what they want. They're not a player in his game.]

Have Fun.

[unpurify]

[If they're playing by the rules of the game, yes. A cat child stands before the ████ - monster. Frisk may not be a player in his game but they are filling a role even if combat doesn't happen.

Because someone always would stand on the other end of the hallway.]

Yet here we are.

[Despite the rotting insanity the room has coated itself with from the Batter's mere presence, despite the freedom he found....the Batter genuinely sounds sad. Of course, what the child means by continuing and quitting may be far different from what he's thinking of, but at the end of the day it sounds the same.

Despite everything, here they are.

Here with their consequences.

But it's fine if they choose to project. He's a mirror, after all. A mirror where you see a man, a monster and now something else. Whatever that meant to you.]

And it is time to return home. Wherever that may be. It is time to watch the wood rot away.

[The Add-Ons shudder and jerk in a strange manner but nothing else happens to them. The Batter doesn't look at them and instead opens his hand and allows the pieces of the switch's handle fall.

He's tired, but he's saying good-bye the only way a monster knows how to. And as for having fun...]

If there is no escaping my consequences, I may as well have fun with them. That's all I can do now.

[souldeterminant]

[And just like that, Frisk seems to lose something inside them; or more accurately, something that was already there and simmering, that smelled the blood and corruption in someone similar and came out for a look, recedes back to where it came.]

[Until next time, maybe.]

[For now, Frisk's eyebrows draw loosely down, and their posture loses its sharp edge, and they fold their hands in front of them in a genial, slightly bowed way. As if they're a child recalling a harsh and slightly embarrassing punishment they'd once been dealt for misbehaving.]

[They smile, a bit sadly.]

I didn't. But maybe you can.

[Are they rooting for him? It's difficult to tell.]

Enjoy it while it lasts.

[unpurify]

[And within that moment, something seems to shift. The room does not lose its corruption but it's almost as if a weight has been lifted. Neither of them have chosen to play by the rules of an old script that said a battle had to take place at the end of a conversation and a choice had to be made. Because names weren't slotted into place - the Batter and the Judge or the Batter and Frisk, it didn't really matter - nothing happened.

Nothing happened and he can breathe.

It's not -- the Batter can't say it's freeing in any respect. The tension in the room has evaporated but not in his body. Under his skin there was a kind of jumpiness the man couldn't place and from head to toe it felt like he was vibrating and it's not a pleasant feeling. If anything all of this could have simply tied him to something else. The dead Gods of Many, of the Puppeteers were gone.

One thing to declare he was going to have fun with his consequences. Another to put it into practice. Because once those words are out of your mouth, there's no one else to lay the blame on. Nobody but you.

However that is defined. Human, Monster or something else.

But for now the Batter can breathe and the room breathes with him in turn. There may be a small bit of method in his madness and a room covered in the purifier's insanity. Destroying the switch truly meant he could no longer run away. He couldn't return to his coma anymore.

He won't die. The Batter will have to continue living.

No, there's no freedom in this. But a smile forms on the Batter's face despite himself. It's the small, awkward smile of someone who's never really done it before - only two people on the island have seen the Batter smile and he can't remember his past. Yet despite everything, he looks happy.]

I will.

[No just 'trying' this time.

On Enso, on Monsun, on Chol and wherever this place is...he's here.]

And now it's time to return to that rainbow.

[There's one last thing left to do. The Batter reaches up with both hands and grasps something above his head. It may take a second or two for Frisk to see it but clenched in his hands are fistfuls of what looks like fine silver thread, almost invisible due to how thin it is. Following the trail of it will show that it's been wrapped around his limbs all this time and extends somewhere passed the ceiling.

But the Batter isn't going to wait for any questions regarding what he's doing. He pulls down as hard as he can to drag down his dead Gods and for once the fact he was made to win will finally work to his advantage. The strings rip, tear and fall to the floor in pieces until everything -

Everything goes dark.

But it's not the abrupt, world-ending nature of the switch - far from it. All Frisk has to do is open their eyes and they'll be back on the island, minus the room. They can take their time doing this - there's no rush. Honestly they may have well been standing in the middle of this place with their eyes shut.

Regardless, whenever they open their eyes, the Batter is long gone.]