lifeaftr | October Event: Feeling Like a Ghost (Part I)

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October Event: Feeling Like a Ghost (Part I)

OCTOBER EVENT: FEELING LIKE A GHOST

Who: Anyone and everyone
What: Your past returns to haunt you
When: October 10th and onward
Where: All over!
Warnings: Character death, as well as potential for discussion of trauma and suicide ideation - please mark as you go!

Try and Hear Me, Then I'm Done

You can find most of the information you need in the OOC info post! In the meantime, feel free to use this log as a catch-all for the duration of the event. While this log will focus on the past portion, you're free to use it for the future portion. As always, you can also make your own logs if that's your preference! Come the 21st, however, we'll likely get an additional log up for those who want to play around with their future echoes as well. Remember also that the present portion will be played out in Mu, during this month's Storytelling.

Remember to let us know if your character dies during this event. Bear in mind, however: death penalties will NOT be reduced for this event.

Event Timeline

[ ♆ ] October 10th: The ghosts of the past appear.
[ ♆ ] October 20th: The warped Storytelling occurs, the Storyteller returns, and those who have died are revived.
[ ♆ ] October 21st: Future echoes replace the ghosts of the past.
[ ♆ ] October 25th: With equilibrium restored, all visions vanish, and life returns to how it was.

LOGS ● OOC ● STORIES ● MAIN NAVIGATION

( CODED BY BOOTYCALL )

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[Man, this sucks so goddamn hard.

She knows it's fake. It looks real, sounds real, feels real, but it has to be. Everyone's talking about seeing people only they can see, and she knows from Nott this is getting damn dangerous. Part of her feels like this is some sort of joke, that everyone out here is having a severely emotional crisis and she just has a ghostly memory of her last flame trying to seduce her into death, but maybe that's just as far as she goes. Maybe she should be thankful it's not something worse. Beau can think of plenty of people she'd rather not see.

Maybe that's the point. Maybe this place was just really reaching for someone who actually wanted to see her. Figures.

Keeping up with Nott has been a constant maitnence, and thankfully Molly has his head about him, so the rest of this has just been riding it out. Yasha has been helpful, so Beau figured there was nothing to be worried about. Or well, she hoped there wasn't-- Yasha wasn't an issue that could be fixed by tying her to a tree. Yasha would take words, and convincing, and it's difficult for Beau to say something real and meaningful on a regular day, let alone one where she has a dwarf smoking like a chimney at her back and demanding her attention. She's heading to the beach just to find a single goddamn quiet moment, maybe use the crashing of the waves to drown Keg out, when she sees Yasha.

And in the few seconds where she realizes Yasha is going out, not just standing, she drops her shoulders for a second and mutters 'goddamnit' before running to where she is, parallel to her on the shore.]

Yasha! Hey! Where're you goin'? Do you know how to swim?

[Please just be going for a swim. Fully clothed. A fully clothed swim.

(Actually, if she does know how to swim, Beau would prefer it wasn't fully clothed, but that's neither here nor there.)]

(Pretty cold day for a fully clothed swim! Yasha pauses amongst the waves with a slight sigh, her jaw clenching. Beau is... difficult. She is both insistent and genuine, and finds little ways to sneak in underneath of Yasha's indifferent front, hook her fingers in. It amuses Yasha. She isn't entirely sure why she goes through all of the trouble, but it's certainly nice to get the... attention? Whatever it is. She's fun to be around.

What's difficult about it is knowing that she has to leave.)

I'm leaving, (she calls. She doesn't look back when she says it. Lately, Beau and a handful of the others make faces like they are disappointed at her leaving, and it makes her feel strange to see them.) I've... been having visions, I have to– the Stormlord would like me to go, now.

(She's already up to her thighs in the water; she starts to wade out again, stepping out to her waist in the surf.) And I do know how to swim, thank you Beau.

[Beau's good at getting under people's skin. It's a special talent that makes the vast majority of those who know her hate her goddamn guts. Because Beau just doesn't invade, she demands. She asks questions, she collects information, she makes herself important. She becomes someone who must be dealt with. Someone who must be handled.

It doesn't lend well to friendships. Somehow, Yasha still pauses. At least even a roadblock can give pause.]

Are you-- shit, you're seeing your god??

[Fuuuuuck this is gonna be so much harder and sound so much worse.]

Look, Yasha, tons of people have been seeing stuff this week. You saw Nott, right? Getting worked up over fake Caleb? How do you know it's the real deal?

[She knows Yasha's smart. She can figure this one out. Either that, or things are gonna have to get violent, and that'll be bad for all parties.]

(She stops again, listening. This is a good sign, even if it doesn't really look like it, that she's taking the time to listen to what Beau says instead of simply walking away from her. After what they've all been through, she owes Beau that much.

And what Beau is telling her isn't exactly ringing false. Yasha had been there to see Nott talking seemingly to herself, convinced that Caleb had come to try and bring her back home with him. She'd helped to keep her from hurting herself in the attempt, too. They all had. The Stormlord had been appearing on the edges of her vision even then, but she hadn't mentioned it.)

... It's different.

(Is it?

She sighs, and closes her eyes, tries to think. It's different because of course the others can't see the Stormlord... but he has been appearing very frequently as of late. It's outside of visions, now. During calm weather, now.)

I... I think. (Her voice is soft. She sounds lost.)

[Beau has absolutely no idea if this is working. She's not responding like most people do, but-- well, Beau's talked to a lot of people. Convinced a lot more. There's tons of tense moments like this where she can't promise what she's doing is the right action, but that doesn't mean she won't try.]

Yasha, it's... it's different. I mean, it's-- I know I can't prove if you're seeing stuff or not, but everybody's seeing things they're not sure of right now.

[She steps into the waves, letting the surf hit her ankles and holds out her hand.]

We can talk about this a little more. If you come back.

(If she goes back...

She's not supposed to stay, she's supposed to go. She's never ignored this call before. Yasha's not entirely sure what will happen if she doesn't go, if she purposefully takes herself off of the Stormlord's path. Will... would he abandon her? She just doesn't know what to do. It takes a very long, agonising moment for her to turn around to look at Beau properly. She's in the surf now, her hand outstretched. Yasha hesitates, but then she finds herself taking one step and then another, out of the water and toward her.

She reaches out, and takes her hand.)

... Okay.

[She kind of doesn't expect this to work. It's not like she can claim to know Yasha, as if she can really claim to know any of them, but Yasha most of all. She's dipped in and out from them, always keeping to the sidelines, always waiting for one of these signs. Maybe it didn't work out when they got kidnapped, but-- she knows she's watching the horizon more than she's ever watching Beau. Beau couldn't ask for it to be any different anyway. As much as she'd love Yasha to take notice, that's-- a pipedream. A desire fueled by a physical attraction and nothing more.

But when Yasha starts to move, their fingers brushing together, everything in the world starts to shift. Beau feels her heartbeat skip and stutter, her stomach tightening as her head feels light. For a moment, everything is silent. There's no waves or gods or distance, only Yasha in her hand and the look that they share.

She pulls herself out of it, of course, to grip Yasha's hand in hers and pull her back towards the shoreline, trying to recover from the force of the moment.]

Hey, it's... it's okay, alright? We can stay here or just, uh... find somewhere else. If it'd make you feel better.

(Maybe it's because Beau reminds her of Molly a little, just in that moment where she stood patiently and held out a hand to her, waiting. Something in the gesture and the feeling behind it makes Yasha want not to disappoint; she takes Beau's hand, and Beau simply stares at her in return. Yasha does not look over her shoulder, even though it feels like the ocean is trying to suck her back out into it.

This moment lasts only seconds, and then Beau is moving again, pulling her by the hand from the waves. Yasha lets her, goes willingly from the surf and shivers when the cool air hits her wet legs. When her feet find the shore and sand again, she glances back habitually, before she can stop herself.

The Stormlord is gone. She has no idea what that means.)

... Somewhere else, (she says after a beat. Her chest feels tight. Though she feels nervous, she does not yet feel abandoned... so there's that? But it would be nice to get away from the water before she loses what little control she has left and charges right back in.)

I want to go somewhere I haven't been before. (It will be a good distraction.)

Edited 2018-11-10 23:29 (UTC)

[Beau couldn't see the Stormlord on the horizon if she tried, but that's not even where she's looking. She's keeping herself fixated on the surroundings, on Yasha, on this... thing that's happening. She's forgotten Keg not far down the beach entirely. None of it seems to matter right now.]

Uh, yeah. Right! Yeah.

[Shit, now she has to make good on that promise. She's only been here a month though, that's not long enough to really do anything, know anything. She has an idea though with the short list of things she knows Yasha likes, so she keeps her hand on her and starts dragging her inland.]

Come on, we're gonna go through one of the pool things again.

[She's spent a lot of time on Nudian since her arrival, so she just drags Yasha through the mana pool and north into one of the hotter regions. It's a little bit in silence; Beau doesn't really know what to say that's going to help, but at least they can travel quickly between the two of them. Finally though, the grazing animals give way to calm, soft skies and rows of chamomile flowers, the scent calming, the color white and gentle.]

Is this, uh... does this work? Is it... good?

(Silence is okay with her. She's still mulling everything over in her head and it helps to be pulled, directed where to go. Even if it's through one of the pools again. Yasha has decided she's not entirely sure about them, but that might be because they still make her feel a bit sick but it's all a good distraction. She listens to Beau say the name of the island (Nuidan again, okay) and drag her into the water, and then they are somewhere else, just like she asked. The churning in her gut from the traveling is soon replaced by a hint of curiousity as Beau marches the pair of them off north of the mana pool. Where are they going exactly?

It's a nice walk. The weather is good, and the changing scenery keeps Yasha well occupied as they tramp across flatland, weaving in and out of little herds of aptonoth minding their own business, in search of something that only Beau knows about. When they finally stop and she gestures out across the rows of flowers, Yasha finds her mouth opens a little in awe.

It's really beautiful. The white and yellow flowers, the earthy smell of the ground, the calm blue skies above them dotted sparsely with clouds... Beau's really hit the nail on the head with this one. Yasha finds she's made surprised by the thoughtfulness of this gesture, but pleased nevertheless. This is exactly what she wanted.)

Yes, (she says eventually, once she's found her words again.) It's... very good. (And she glances away from the fields at Beau, her expression soft.)

Thank you.

[Yeah, she kinda figured silence was good with Yasha. That seems to be her thing a lot. But she's tense until the other woman finally speaks again, meaning she can drop her shoulders and cross her arms. See, relaxed, just... not vulnerable. It's cool.]

Yeah, well, I knew it was like-- I thought maybe you'd wanna punch some shit but there's really nowhere to do that here, which is dumb. Unless you like trees? Trees are boring. So then I thought, you know, you like flowers, and I found this place a while ago, so...

[So uhhh flower thank you have a nice day.]

I think this is, uh, one of those flowers you can eat? Or stuff. Duce would know, he had all this shit growing when we got him.

[She's probably drank a lot of tea in her life and paid very little attention to most of it. Just how much attention she pays to everything.]

(Beau has the air of somebody who is not really paying attention a lot of the time; it's nice that she remembers this. Yasha is touched.)

... I do like flowers.

(She's going to crouch down and take one, plucking it out of the ground. It smells very nice, a little earthy. Sweet even, mellow. Something like that. She has the book in her pack that Molly gave to her and she retrieves it now, opening it up and thumbing through the pages to find a nice place to press a few sprigs of the chamomile. She likes how yellow the center of the flowers are.)

But I think I will wait to try eating one... who is 'Duce'? (One of Beau's friends on the island?)

[Well, that's good. As much as Beau rests often on her laurels of not giving a shit, at heart she gathers intel and watches trends. Yasha's journal was a point of interest, which made the pressed flower memorable. She likes them, insomuch as Beau likes anyone with the way she keeps them at arm's length, so... yeah, small details. Just those kinda things.

She doesn't know if she's ever gone out of her way to do something kind for someone, though. That's kinda new. It... feels alright. Let's not unpack that one right now.]

Oh uh, Caduceus. We picked him up to help break you, Jester and Fjord outta Lorenzo's uh, murder house. He likes dead things. Weird guy. But uhh, he had flowers growing from graves and stuff. Kinda cool, but also weird. Did you end up meeting him?

(With her flowers pressed safely into the book, Yasha shuts it again and tucks it back in against her furs and tunic, happy to keep looking around. Honestly, it's very nice to stand just on the edge of the field and watch the flowers sway in the light breeze rolling across the plains. Very soothing. She wants to go out into the middle of it and lie down, close her eyes and be enveloped in that mellow smell the field has, but that would require squishing a good many of the plants, so. That one is out.

The name 'Caduceus' does not ring a bell. Yasha shakes her head, her arms folded across her chest, but the movement is not defensive. It's loose, easy.)

No.

(The situation at the time was a bit... complicated.)

Who is he? Is he still with you?

[Without having the context for where Yasha's from, the future she's heading towards, she has no way to think of jogging Yasha's memory for him.]

Uh, he's one of those cow guys. Grey fur, pink hair, pretty tall. Worships a god, the Wildmother? Really chill. Like the epitome of chill. So chill I like, get a little bit worried just looking at him.

[How can someone exist without tension in their shoulders? Beau sure is the wrong person to ask.]

He was pretty alright, though. Offered to come help without like, any pretense or knowing anything about you guys, so that was sweet. We needed all the help we could get.

A firbolg?

(She has met a few during her travels. Yasha crouches and starts selectively picking a few flowers, pinching little gaps into their stems with her blunt thumbnail, threading them together into a little chain. Molly taught her how to do this. She is going to put it into her hair.)

I would like to meet him, if only to say thank you for helping out while Jester was gone. (That must have been difficult to manage at first, without somebody to heal all of them. Yasha is glad they found people to step up to the plate so easily.)

Is Keg one of the people who went with you too?

[She snaps her fingers in recognition.]

Yeah! Yeah, that's it. Those guys. I'm pretty sure he's sticking around with us, so. Guess you could ask Nott if he's still around.

[See, this is chill. This is a good experience. It's the last line that throws her from this whole thing, making her eye twitch.]

Uh. Yeah, we, uh. Keg used to work for Lorenzo. She escaped, wanted to help kill him. Soooo.

[Don't ask why, just let it go, maybe she hasn't heard her talking to herself or anything. Shhhh.]

Okay.

(She will, she's curious now! In much the same way she's now curious of Beau's reaction to her asking about Keg. None of the others have really spoken about her, just Molly, and even then that was a brief mention. Yasha doesn't know anything about her.)

So she came to help you? Has she stayed, like Caduceus? (She's still focused on her little flower chain but Beau sounds a little twitchy back there! She glances over her shoulder to look at her properly.)

Uhhh.

[Why is she interested all of a sudden? Who told? Does Yasha know that's who's trotting around after her making weird comments and trying to seduce her because that's even weirder.]

She was with us when I got here, yeah. But we also hadn't uh, gotten you out when I got here. So I dunno if she stays after that, she just wanted to, uh, kill Lorenzo.

[She shouldn't act strange about this. It'll only draw attention.]

Why?

I dunno, (Yasha says, and shrugs,) Molly said you had other people in the party with you while we were gone, so.

(Just wanted to know more about them, that's all. She might have to come back to him for any extra details, Beau is being a little cagey about the whole thing.)

It sounds like we have a lot in common, (she continues lightly, only half joking. She'd very much like to kill Lorenzo too.)

[She crosses her arms, nodding along with what she says.]

I mean, yeah, I think a shitton of people want to kill Lorenzo, he's a fucking asshole.

[This would be less weird if Fantasy Keg wasn't in her thoughts and not far off. It sucks she can't shake her, even if Yasha has no idea.]

I mean you're both, uh. You know, big weapons people with lots of murder. You're bigger than her, though. But that's just a dwarf thing I think, that's not her fault. She's doing her best with the whole, uh, muscles.

Ah, (Yasha says knowingly,) so, your type.

(She's teasing now, her gaze innocently trained on her steadily lengthening flower chain. If she finds one of her braids in her hair, she can tease it apart, and start to thread the stems into it. Anyway, this is what Beau gets for being so weird about it. Yasha doesn't care if Keg ended up being a person of interest.)

[YASHA WHY]

What, big, could ruin me, has asked to ruin me on a bunch of occasions? I mean maybe.

[You're so lucky you're cute, Yasha. Gosh.]

Thinkin' about my type, huh? Just curious if you fit in or jealousy? You don't need to fight for my attention.

(BECAUSE)

No. I'm just making conversation, Beauregarde. (She knows exactly what she's doing, and she's thoroughly enjoying herself.) That's what friends do, isn't it? Gossip about each other's types?

[NO!!!!!!!!!!!!!]

So what? Do I get to ask what your type is now?

[Is she just subtly posing a little? No, she's not, no. Why would she be like, flexing a little bit. Or showing off her abs. Nah, she's not doing that.

(Yes she is.)]

I mean, you haven't talked about it much. What do you like in a wom-- person?

[Not everyone's a lesbian Beau, you're just hopeful.]

2!

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ive wanted to use this icon since i made it

IT'S CUTE...

UR CUTE

no!!!!!

yes!!!!!

throws u

y e e t

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