August Aftermath: Make Me Okay

[lifeaftr_mods]

AUGUST AFTERMATH: MAKE ME OKAY

Who: Everyone!
What: After the harrowing events of mid-month, it's time to process what you've been through
When: August 24th and onward
Where: Ensō and/or Nastrandir
Warnings: Discussions of violence, injury, forcibly altered mindsets via magical influence, and character deaths. Other than that, tag as you go!

Nastrandir: Can I Fight When I Don't Know How
The morning of August 24th, the day after a Storytelling that was notably later than usual, you will wake to the restoration of your average selves, barring any extenuating circumstances due to recent deaths. The dead will rise again on Ensō, at the Storyteller's Temple, while everyone else will simply wake where they last laid themselves to rest. There's nothing left to do but, perhaps, try to come to terms with all that's just happened.

You've probably witnessed some terrible things, over the past few days. There's a very good chance that you were the one doing the terrible things. Whether you were responsible for the slaughter of a fellow adventurer, watched the fray from the distance, or suffered the spontaneous combustion that seized everyone who hadn't managed to shake away their false memories in time, it's at least all over now. Or...mostly. Any stray sirens that haven't been smashed by the event's end are still shrilling away, though their dangerous effects seem to have been rendered inert without the aid of the broken merotome spilling its memories into everyone else's heads. Likewise, a handful of automatons still wander the island of Nastrandir. Those that have not succumbed to mud and rust and irreparable damage are still capable of firing upon hostiles. Anyone who may have fought by their side before will discover that they're now far less friendly, and will treat former members of the Red Team just the same as they would with any other intruder: with deadly fire.

So you can pick yourselves up off the ground and clean up what remains, or you can say to yourselves: Fuck That, and instead head back to Ensō. Or you could elect to keep exploring Nastrandir, if you're truly a glutton for punishment.

Ensō: Am I Bleeding From the Neck Down
On Ensō and its accompanying islets, it's begun to rain.

It's not a genuine downpour, but more of a gentle, melancholy drizzle. The rain is cool and likely refreshing, particularly if one is just coming away from the humidity of Nastrandir.

Potentially as a form of apology, anyone who goes digging through their belongings will discover that one of the following has ended up in their packs:

[ ♆ ] If you were a member of the Red Team, you will discover that you now own a rather awkwardly-shaped object, about three feet in length. A set of written instructions will inform you that this is known as a redsword, and that, upon placed upon any wet area or body of water, will drain and dry it out over the course of five minutes. This item is single-use, and only works for a ten-foot radius.

[ ♆ ] If you were a member of the Blue Team, you will discover that you now own some very fetching footwear. A set of written instructions will inform you that these are called skip-skops, and can be used to walk on water or wet land without sinking or getting wet. Standard limitations when crossing between islands or attempting to go beyond LifeAftr's limits will still apply. This item is single-use, and will dissolve after one hour total.

[ ♆ ] If you were Neutral, you will discover that you now own, er, this. A set of written instructions will inform you that this object is called a furball, and that it works as a sort of miniature, diminished version of the sirens you spent all that time destroying on Nastrandir. Once planted, it will rapidly grow into a tall, screaming tree full of lorby-like creatures that automatically causes all natural animals in the vicinity to become aggressive for one hour, maximum. This item is single-use.

It's not much, but it might make some of the hell that you suffered through over the past few days worth it! Almost, anyway. In the meantime...relax, lick your wounds, and try and forgive yourselves for what's happened. Please remember to let us know if your character perished in this event! Remember also that death penalties will be reduced following this event; characters will only need to contend with them for a week, and participation in Non-Compulsory AC will not be necessary in removing them.

---

If you're interested, the following links may prove handy:

[ ♆ ] OOC Event Info and Plotting Post
[ ♆ ] Nastrandir's Intro
[ ♆ ] Nastrandir's Locations Page
[ ♆ ] Search Requests Page
[ ♆ ] Deaths Page

LOGS ● OOC ● STORIES ● MAIN NAVIGATION

( CODED BY BOOTYCALL )

Comments

[motherfucking_ghost]

Okay okay okay, so, wait a second. You're a demon, and there are angels, and there's the afterlife, but you seem to be heavily implying there's no capital-G God.

...Does the concept of gods exist where you're from, anyway? Cuz I mean, whew, we've got, there are so many.

[eudaimonikos]

Technically, we did take the terms "demon" and "angel" from human myth. They line up, more or less, it seemed easier.

[Some people don't care for them, but Michael himself doesn't much mind anymore. There's differences, ones that have become very apparent since an actual Biblical angel and demon appeared here, but the word "demon" still communicates the most important bits.]

Yeah, we have the concept of gods. Humans can't go two centuries without making up a new one.

[motherfucking_ghost]

And then the aliens and their religions! I don't know if it's a case of, if everyone in the universe makes things up the chances that someone's right increases, or if everyone has to make up a story that makes the chances decrease.

[eudaimonikos]

You know -

[He leans forward, suddenly more interested.]

- there was a human once who accurately guessed how the entire afterlife worked. Ninety-eight percent accuracy! His name was Doug Forcett, and he was a teenager in the 60s who had just smoked quite a bit of pot.

[motherfucking_ghost]

...That makes so much sense. Of course weed and LSD would be the key to unlocking how the universe wor--wait, do you guys get aliens in the afterlife, too?

[eudaimonikos]

Technically, a human could say that we're aliens. But no, we don't get any other deceased species.

[There's certainly some out there, he guesses. Seems statistically improbable that there wouldn't be. But they've always been so focused on Earth, and they keep busy well enough, so...so maybe that's fine.]

[motherfucking_ghost]

So your afterlife, it's just a human thing.

Are there people who don't go to an afterlife?

[eudaimonikos]

No.

[...well.]

It's an automatic process. There were four humans recently who died and didn't get sent there, but that was due to certain...illegal intervention by immortals.

[motherfucking_ghost]

Oh? Sounds like juicy gossip. What's special about these guys, these people who didn't get sent?

[eudaimonikos]

...well, a lot, but...

[But he gets that you're probably not asking him to rave about his besties?]

Janet brought them into her void, directly from Earth. The process did technically kill them, since living things can't really handle that environment, but her void is a separate pocket dimension. Not connected to the afterlife at all. They couldn't have gone back to Earth from there, but no one could have dragged them out except Janet herself.

[motherfucking_ghost]

So your AI technically killed some people to pull them...out of existence?

[eudaimonikos]

She's not my AI.

[Well, she kinda is? Only he gets to say that though!]

And we were surrounded by demons at the time - it was that or let them get dragged directly to Hell. Trust me, it's bad enough being a human down there when the higher-ups haven't taken a special interest in you. Janet did the best she could.

[motherfucking_ghost]

This sounds like the start of an urban fantasy series, except instead of there being one chosen one type hero, it's a couple of them.

[eudaimonikos]

Four. And they were chosen by me, so not really.

[He's not somebody high-ranking enough to make Chosen Ones, probably]

[motherfucking_ghost]

I thought the...Janet. Chose them.

[eudaimonikos]

I'm the only reason we all knew each other to begin with. I picked them out for a torture experiment I was doing, and I stole her from the angel warehouse to help. She didn't know she was helping with torture, I just lied to her a whole bunch.

[motherfucking_ghost]

You stole-- What the fuck, every other sentence you say makes this story wilder and wilder! You stole an afterlife AI from an angel warehouse to help with a torture experiment.

And I thought my life-and-sort-of-afterlife was weird.

[eudaimonikos]

It's not as though it was guarded. Angels are very stupid.

[Because that's the problem here.]

Janet's my best friend. We're - we're partners.

[motherfucking_ghost]

Maybe they thought no one was crazy stupid enough to break into heaven's warehouse for an interdimensional robot with a gullible OS!

[eudaimonikos]

How was it crazy stupid? They never noticed. I faced exactly zero consequences for that.

[For, uh, everything else he's done, sure. But not that specifically!]

[motherfucking_ghost]

Because who thinks of robbing angelbots! Had nobody ever tried before?

[eudaimonikos]

I doubt it. We've got our own series of Janets, we usually just use those. But they're demon-made, and they - well, they wouldn't have worked for what I needed.

[motherfucking_ghost]

They wouldn't have worked for a torture experiment.

[eudaimonikos]

No.

[man why do you need so much elaboration on this?]

I was trying to torture people psychologically, instead of the regular old flesh-melting routine. Demon Janets don't have any subtlety.

[motherfucking_ghost]

Well damn, buddy, you didn't imply that. They're just like stabby robots, fire and brimstone--do you have demons to do that? Don't you do that?