January Event: Fade to Black

[lifeaftr_mods]

JANUARY EVENT: FADE TO BLACK

Who: Anyone and everyone!
What: Your true self comes to roost
When: January 21st - 23rd; January 25th - 28th
Where: All over!
Warnings: Dark subjects such as violence and self-destruction are likely to come to the forefront - please mark your content accordingly!

Down in that Darkness

This log is primarily for the Shadow and Light portions of the event, for ease and convenience. Your Shadow can be either the Persona-inspired sort - a "brutal, bitterly honest recreation of a character's worst flaws, darkest fears, and deepest secrets" - or the edgier, more laughable variant. The Lights, on the other hand, will do their utmost to convince their real selves of their best qualities, no matter how little they want to hear them.

Remember that the Shadows will be present from January 21st to January 23rd, and the Lights will be present from January 25th to January 28th.

On January 25th, we will post a separate log for Rejection Rooms!

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Some useful links, for reference:

[ ♆ ] OOC Event Post
[ ♆ ] Rejection Room Sign-Ups; remember to note your interest in these as soon as possible!
[ ♆ ] Deaths Page; death penalties have been reduced for the duration of this event, but still do let us know if your character dies regardless!

Event Timeline

[ ♆ ] January 20th: The monthly Storytelling occurs.
[ ♆ ] January 21st: Shadows of both initial variants appear.
[ ♆ ] January 23rd: Shadows of both initial variants disappear.
[ ♆ ] January 25th Lights and Rejection Rooms appear.
[ ♆ ] January 28th: Lights and Rejection Rooms dissipate. Those still trapped in their Rejection Rooms by the event's end will suffer a character death.

LOGS ● OOC ● STORIES ● MAIN NAVIGATION

( CODED BY BOOTYCALL )

Comments

[shatteredlenses]

Yes, I am a perfect, shining example of naïveté.

[Even as the sarcasm drips from his words, Ignis steps closer to Shoin's back. He doesn't reach out this time, remembering the anger of not long ago, but he wants to make it clear he's not going anywhere.]

Friends and family do not abandon each other due to weakness, liability or any other negative trait you can think of.

[Ignis know this first hand because if it hadn't been true, then he would have been left behind after he lost his vision and in the end, he wasn't despite how worried everyone was for him.]

And, for your information, I am very good at placing myself in situations where I may get killed. It's literally part of my job. I will hardly hold it against Shion should the worst happen, especially since I will have placed myself in the situation to begin with. Willingly.

[savedbyasong]

You should go away. [Shion is speaking to the shadow now. He will never get used to the fact that his friends don't leave him. That things like this happen and instead of recoiling and leaving him they get closer, stick with him.

It's what he would do, but he is still in many ways weak and naive.]

You would like that wouldn't you. To just cut me away, pretend that I don't belong. [It shakes it's head at Ignis.] To die for such an useless nutjob as Shion, it sounds like a thankless job.

[shatteredlenses]

I don't do what I do looking for thanks. I do it because I care about the people I am protecting.

[Ignis speaks to the shadow first before shifting his attention back to Shion.]

As much as I hate to come anywhere near agreeing with that thing, denying him will do no good. For better or worse, he is a part of you and you must accept that before you can truly work to better that part of yourself.

[savedbyasong]

I know. [Shion's voice is quiet. But he has known from the beginning. It is... He still doesn't know who or what controls this place but many of the things that happen seem determined to make them look inward, confront parts of themselves that they would much rather ignore.

If that's a choice then it's a strange one but not so different than Ruana's obsession with games, Jason's with twisting bodies or Riki's of weird and mind boggling architecture.

Knowing the rules made it easier and the rules seemed to be to confront the things he would rather ignore.

He turned to the shadow.]

I... I know you are part of me. Even if... [He shook his head.] I'm not going to fight you. Not here and now. You are part of me and it's a part I have to accept...

[The shadow, for it's part laughed unkindly.]

It's a fight you will never win Shion.

[It turned away though, seemingly satsified.]

[shatteredlenses]

[Ignis is quiet while the last exchange happens and continues to be so as he listens to the shadow retreat. After all the ugly words and insults, he can't help but feel that was too easy. Will the shadow double back once their attention leaves it? That is why he listens, ears straining even after its footsteps have faded. Only once he is convinced it's really gone, does he finally speak.]

It's wrong, you know. You'll win. I have faith in you. It will take time and patience for such deep changes cannot happen over night, but you will come out on top.

[savedbyasong]

[It is really gone, leaving Shion to his own thoughts. He knows he had done the right thing, he had known it had to be accepted but he does wonder if his shadow is right. This has been a fight he has been fighting for a long time, sometimes it seems as if it is not one he will win. No matter what he does.

It doesn't surprise him that Ignis seems to feel differently. Ignis is one of the people in Shion's life who seems to believe in him, no matter how many times Shion messes up.]

Thank you... I couldn't have... I couldn't have done that alone.

[shatteredlenses]

And there was no need to. That is what friends and family are for. So that you don't have to deal with things like this yourself.

[Ignis gives him a warm smile and then steps forward, arms raised slightly offering Shion a hug if he wants it. Just the time he was here with Shion was painful, and he has no idea how long he was facing the shadow alone before that. He must be exhausted.]

[savedbyasong]

I know. [He is very lucky to have friends. He knows that. He couldn't deal with most of the things he had done if he did not have friends to stand by him.

Even if he knew his shadow was right, he didn't deserve them. He didn't make their choices for them though, shouldn't make their choices for them. He accepts the hug, pressing his forehead into Ignis' chest.]

I'm sorry... for what it said.

[shatteredlenses]

You don't need to apologize.

[Ignis runs a hand lightly over Shion's hair.]

Truly, I understand. Dealing with the darker parts of ourselves is never easy. Especially when they are so good at twisting things and feeding our fears.

[savedbyasong]

It's not. Yet this place... It seems to like that.

[The islands themselves, whoever controls everything. They still don't know. It's so difficult to try and work anything out.]

Making us confront these things... [It couldn't be a coincidence.]

[shatteredlenses]

Yes, and yet I can't figure out if this places does it maliciously or if it really thinks it is helping us.

[At first he had blamed the Storyteller for wanting to make the 'story' more interesting, but they have shown enough distress over some of the occurrences now that he really can't fully bring himself to believe that anymore.]

[savedbyasong]

I don't know. I think it's malicious but... [If that's what it, they, whoever was behind this all believed that was a different thing. Often motives and actions did not quite match up, people believed themselves noble when they did terrible things.]

I wish we knew more... About a lot of things. We still are no closer to having answers.

[shatteredlenses]

Because they keep us too busy to properly look for them. That I believe it completely intentional.

[Malicious or not, they are definitely keeping secrets. Ignis' views on this haven't changed and are not likely to no matter how many times it comes up for discussion.]

I wonder if making a list might help us get more done. Questions we can pose to whatever new deities we meet on the next islands and the like.

[When all else fails, he falls back on organization. He's really not sure what else they can do.]

[savedbyasong]

Yes... It was the same in the Tower. We were so busy just trying to survive day to day, get through the next awful thing to happen that it took a long time for us to actually... Be able to fight back.

[Here was less awful. But it wasn't good and things just kept happening. One after another and it seemed every time they thought they were getting some answers something happened that threw everything off.]

That's a good idea. A list of questions we have to pose to every deity we meet until one of them answers. Or until we find answers another way... If we wrote them on the rock then the answers won't be lost if whoever knows them disappears...

[shatteredlenses]

Yes, we definitely want that kind of thing in a place everyone can access it.

[His expression grows pensive for a moment and then he nods.]

Do you think we should inquire over the crystals what questions people would like on the list? There is no doubt we could come up with a great many on our own, but we don't want to miss something another with different experiences from us may think of.

[savedbyasong]

That's a good idea, the more ideas we get the more questions we will have. [And hopefully some of them will get answered. Though that will depend on the gods in question. Many have not been all that forthcoming, at least about things outside of their immediate island.]

Once we have ideas we can compile a list, then as people get answers they can share them.

[shatteredlenses]

Or even parts of answers. We may figure out more by comparing the different things that we are told by each of them than we figure out just from what one of them tell us.

[Patterns. Blank spots. Contradictions. Things avoided. They all have their parts to play in solving this puzzle.]

[savedbyasong]

We might have more pieces of the puzzle then we think between us. [It had been the same in the tower, information held by people and groups and not shared. There had been harder, the network had been monitored and not even their own minds were safe.

Here... Was better. Shion didn't believe for one moment that the Storyteller was on their side exactly but they at least were not against the islanders. Not in the same way the administrators had been.]

[shatteredlenses]

I've wondered about that on more than one occasion.

[It's not that he thinks people would purposely hide information; Ignis just knows that it is easy not to realize how important something might be until it is too late.]

Most people are willing to share what they have learned, but that doesn't help if they don't realize what they've learned is important enough to share.

[savedbyasong]

Exactly and sometimes you find something out but then so much other things happen that you don't report it. And people come and go all the time so it's impossible to keep track of who knows what.

[There are many reasons, but that's why organising information is so important.]

A message would be a very good place to start.

[shatteredlenses]

[Ignis nods in agreement.]

Give me a few days to sort out what I would like to say, and I'll make an announcement over the crystals. We can gather the information and then go from there.

[savedbyasong]

Thank you Ignis. For that and... Everything. [He was a good friend. Someone who helped Shion a lot. Today against his shadow but countless other times in the past.]