lifeaftr | December Event: No Rest for the Wicked

DECEMBER EVENT: NO REST FOR THE WICKED

Who: Anyone and everyone
What: Your trials by fire
When: December 15th - 18th
Where: On Maati and Ensō
Warnings: Character deaths and violence are both likely - please mark as you go!

The Trials: Only Then Can We Begin

As noted in the OOC info post, your Trials will all begin on December 15th. As many of you will not be deposited into your trials with food and water (or any items of your own at all, in most cases), the Trials will last only as long as December 18th. If you've failed to complete your Trial by this deadline but have not used up all the deaths allotted to you, you will awaken by Maati's mana pool at the event's conclusion. If you have not failed your Trial by using up all your deaths, this will not count as a character death, and you will not need to submit for a penalty; you simply won't be able to obtain the reward you would get if you had succeeded!

When your character wakes in their allotted Trial, they will discover that their starting chamber has been inscribed with the name of the Trial, the names of those participating, and the number of deaths they have remaining - though the latter aren't labeled in any way. You'll simply have to learn it the hard way; every time your character suffers a death, the number will go down by one. If it wasn't obvious what those numbers stood for at first, by the time the dying starts properly, it certainly will be. And you probably don't want to see it go all the way down to zero...

Should you reach the end of your Trial, you will step out onto the rocky cliffs of Maati, exiting from one of the seven doors set into the cliffs at the seven points of the island's star shape. You see, those doors you discovered earlier weren't the entrances to the Trials at all. They were the exits. And set into the towering cliffs...why, those house the winding mazes that comprise the Trials themselves.

There will be a top-level below for each Trial. Remember to plan with your groups and communicate with your thread partners! Whether you choose to do mingle-style threads or lengthier group threads is up to you.

Once you know the outcome of your Trial, success OR failure, please do let us know so that we can ensure your character gets the reward that befits their triumph...or lackthereof.

Remember also to let us know if your character uses up ALL their deaths during this event. While death penalties will not be inflicted during Trial deaths, if you use up all the deaths allotted to you and die for real, your death penalty will NOT be reduced.

The Water: Don't Let Them Get Away

The rest of you have plenty to contend with as well, of course. If you've opted out of this month's event, be advise that the waters creeping across shores of Ensō, along with the rest of the island, aren't going to take evasion kindly. They'll seek you out, spread along every inch of the island if they can, until they can find you.

There is a top-level below, if you're intrigued! Though if you end up top-leveling yourself, we may very well reach out and find you anyway...

Event Timeline

[ ♆ ] December 15th: The Trials on Maati begin, and the water begins to rise.
[ ♆ ] December 18th: The Trials reach their end.
[ ♆ ] December 19th: Those who have "perma"-died in their Trials are revived.
[ ♆ ] December 20th: The monthly Storytelling occurs.

LOGS ● OOC ● STORIES ● MAIN NAVIGATION

( CODED BY BOOTYCALL )

Flat | Top-Level Comments Only

[She might as well be vibrating at this point. This has been one of the worst days of her life, and this is coming from someone who watched a close friend die because of her fuckups. Her-- hah-- rushing in. So despite their screams in her ears, her clenched fists, and the too-harsh breathing, she's doing it. She's fucking doing it.

Until they hit the glove in the middle, and Beau's eyes just widen as she looks, before speaking through gritted teeth.]

I want to hit that more than I've ever wanted to hit anything in my life.

[What, does she want a fucking gold star for doing it? Lup's right behind her, breathing just as tight, steps just as painfully careful, ears pinned so far back they're almost invisible in her hair, like that's gonna mute the heartbreaking screams making her want to tear down these walls with her bare hands. Like she hasn't had to do this for ten horrible years before, so-called patience shoved down her throat while her family was suffering.

So you better sit the fuck down, Beau.]

If you do, babe, I'm gonna kill you before that glove gets the chance. [Said ever so sweetly. We're all friends here, right? Friends with an ever dwindling life counter.]

[Oh, if only sitting down was a thing she was capable of doing. She's Magnus but Worse, and the way her head rattles with Mollymauk's voice, Yasha's cries, Jester and Fjord somewhere off while Nott and Caleb run for cover, it's just-- fuck, it's so goddamn much. It's not real, can't be-- or she prays it isn't. But that patience she's been forced to exercise here is a barely held back rage, a necessity to not get fried or her heart ripped out by some monster or a foot to slip on a floor into a pit--

This sucks.]

This is a fucking-- it's mocking us. It can't just let us get through this, now it's just putting it right there! What if we all have to hit it, huh? What if that's what opens the door!

[She is so, so at the end of her rope here.]

[Listen, Lup's been through a puzzle where the solution is to find keys under a bunch of garbage like ten billion times, and this is still the stupidest fucking thing she's heard all day. Or days. Or whatever, at this point. She groans loudly, dragging her hands down her face, just a little to keep out Taako's frightened pleading.]

What. In the fuck. About the past fifty billion attempts. Makes you think that's the solution? Do you-- like, you remember me exploding for daring to try a door, right? Or, or how about that time we all got fried like fucking shark dick at the carnival?! Use your brain or whatever's left of it, after a lifetime of just kind of punching everything that offends you, I guess!

[There just isn't any more rope to go around.]

[Well that at least got her to turn around to really square up against Lup's face.]

Yeah, same as I remember getting impaled by a billion spikes and my heart getting pulled out, along with sitting on those stupid plates every fucking time!

[She was here too, okay?]

I'm not stupid. But it's not right. All the rest of these were complicated fucking challenges, this is just insulting! There's no point to it being here!

[She also wants to hit it progressively harder the more they all tell her no, but that's neither here nor there.]

[Oh you wanna go? You wanna fucking go??? Lup practically puffs up, not budging an inch.]

Well you could've fooled me, thought maybe you were zoned out the entire time! [But Shepard calls for her backup and they can't keep doing this. Lup digs a hand into her hair, taking a deep, shaking breath.]

If there's no point, just fucking ignore it. Okay? We're gonna-- If we get to the door and there's no, no this is how it's done, dipshits fucking mural or whatever, we'll double back and you get dibs on punching it, alright? That cool with you?

Don't fucking patronize me.

[Tensions are high, and as far as she's concerned, people aren't listening. It's not about if she's going to- or well, it wasn't before this- it's about its presence. Of course she's going to take the time to complain- it's wrong, no matter how much that arises. She's looking for commiseration, the understanding that this hell is not served alone, and nobody gets that.

But y'know, now it's sure as hell about her hitting that thing, because no one tells her what to fucking do.]

I know what I'm doing and I'm not a goddamn child.

[ Castor is just about on her own last legs; dragging her feet, and long since devoid of commentary. Her hair tie is long gone and her mane is a mess of knots, sweat and the odd singed bit. When Beau speaks, she stops and looks between the other woman and the glove. ]

Aye, I feel the same, but I'm not inclined to find out another new an' interestin' way this place has te kill us all. Please don't.

[She's grinding her teeth and clenching her hands as she looks at it, not even looking in Castor's direction when they speak.]

It's just-- it has to be involved, it can't just be "walk past it", and if it is it's an asshole! What does it fucking gain from doing this to us! It's crap and you know it, don't sit here and tell me this is just okay.

[ It takes Castor a moment to reply as she studies the glove a little longer. Breathe. Breathe. Ignore the sounds of friends and loved ones screaming and pleading for succor. Breathe. She turns back to Beau. ]

Way I see it, there're two options. First: Hittin' that damn thing will open the door over yonder, in which case we'll be back te beat on it later. Second: Hittin' that damn thing'll jes kill us in some excitin' way it hasn't managed to yet. Maybe toxic gas? This ain't okay, but everythin' we've just sloged through has needed us all te slow the hell down and think about it. Impulse is what's gettin' us killed, and I swear to every single one've the Twelve, if I have te sit on those damn switches again, I'm killin' all of ye meself.

[ Oops she may have raised her voice a bit at the end there. ]

[Don't you raise your voice at her you wanna go m8

Beau screws up her face into a glare and a scowl at the same time, hands clenched straight next to her. No one's realizing the problem here, the absolute insult of it all. It has the gal to do all of this and mock them for it. It's exactly the thing the monks always did to her, it's exactly the thing her parents did to her, it's everything that's ever been done to her through her whole life.

So she doesn't hit it. Right now. But what she does do is shove Castor, not hard enough to knock them over, but enough to know she meant it.]

Don't fucking threaten me.

December Event: No Rest for the Wicked

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