December Undercurrent: Opposing Viewpoints

[lifeaftr_mods]

DECEMBER UNDERCURRENT

Who: Everyone!
What: Oh, inverted world...
When: December 3rd to December 20th
Where: Everywhere!
Warnings: Nothing of note; please mark if anything comes up!

I Wish You Could See the Wicked Truth

The island of Monsun is known for the split down its middle, and how it tends to bring out people's best and worst sides, depending on which side you're on. Some might remember it from previous appearances, but if you've never been, you can read up on the island's details on our Locations page and get yourself caught up to speed! Just like with the previous month, the Water is taking it upon themself to summon the island to the archipelago. And just like with the previous month, this will entail some effects upon the local populace: you.

Given that Monsun hosts the avatar of Balance, don't be surprised if things start to get a little inverted, a little out of balance, a little flipped, a little turned upside down. What do we mean by that, exactly? Well, it can mean all sorts of things. And you get to pick how many of these inversions if any, are going to be affecting you and yours for the duration of the month, at least until Monsun surfaces...and how much each one affects you. Starting on December 3rd, adventurers may find themselves influenced by any of the effects listed below. You are free to vary the intensity and level of each, as well as how many end up being relevant to you. They can start as a slow build and ramp up gradually through the month, or emerge at full force right out the gate. You can be affected by multiple at once, or one every few days, and so on. The only limit is what you're willing to do!

[ ♆ ] Friendflipped: Do you have someone that you love in your life? Perhaps a best friend, a significant other, a member of your family? They might even be on the island with you. That just makes what's about to happen even more unfortunate, if that's the case, because all of a sudden, you're going to learn that you can't stand the sight of them. That's right: your best friends become your most hated foes. You'll find yourself positively despising those you would ordinarily get along with, all with a vicious, unchecked enthusiasm. Perhaps even more unfortunately, that goes the other way, too: your worst enemies are now your best friends.

[ ♆ ] Casual Obsession: One of the critical aspects of having any sort of hobby or preference is balance. It's always good to not go overboard! Which is why you might find yourself losing all inhibition. Your likes, dislikes, hobbies, desires, and so on will become utterly stripped of any balance the might have had. Do you have a mild sweet tooth? Well, now it's a full on sugar obsession. Do you dislike golf as a sport? Now you hate it with a fiery passion - and all those jerks who play golf, they can go to hell too!

[ ♆ ] One or Nothing: Most people will agree that emotional balance is something we should all strive for. That's about to get a lot more difficult. You might find yourself experiencing only one emotion for an extended amount of time, with only varying degrees of intensity to indicate any actual shift. Alternatively, you find yourself experiencing no emotions at all: a complete, deadened shutoff of any emotional instincts you have.

[ ♆ ] Skill Swap: Hobbies are one thing. But what about your personal skill-sets? Well, those are about to get some serious remodeling. Are you a talented musician? Now you can't read music, much less play it. Are you good in a fight? Not anymore, you're not! Now you can barely throw a punch without bowling yourself over. You'll find that your abilities have become seriously scrambled, to the point where you've lost any natural or trained skill you might have in certain areas. This can extend to magical knowledge, technological know-how, or even basic proclivities like stealth or how light you might be on your feet. The flip side of this is that you might find yourself preternaturally skilled in other areas that you've never so much as touched before. Maybe now you're a pro at climbing, or intensely good with social charisma and persuasion. In general, these swaps will work with a one-to-one ratio; one skill will suffer and another will be boosted as if in compensation, but you're welcome to experiment! Maybe you just want to make your character a completely useless loser for a few weeks. You're certainly free to do just that!

[ ♆ ] Interface Screw: In case it wasn't opposite day enough, you've also got the chance to have your personal orientation of the world completely reversed. By which we mean: left is right, right is left, up is down, down is up, and so on. This might manifest in varying ways. Maybe the sky looks like the sea, and the ground is so far above your head...and you feel like you're walking on thin air, even if to everyone else, the world appears more or less normal. Maybe this isn't even a purely perceptual thing as opposed to a literal one, and to everyone else, you're actually walking upside down. How this manifests is ultimately up to you, but you can interpret it as you like.

These effects will all die down by the time December 20th rolls around. Again, you can choose the rate at which this occurs, and whether it's a slow and steady decrease or a complete shut-off all at once. Either way, by the 20th, you'll all have been restored to whatever passes for your mental and emotional equilibriums, and Monsun will resurface on the archipelago!

But I Settle For a Ghost

Of course, there's a lot going on in the background as well. You're free to use this log as a catch-all for the duration of December's Undercurrent Event, as well as any of the other minor events listed on our Monthly Rundown post. You are very, very free to let your dreams about magical mistletoe and snowgoons become reality, and you are always free to create your own individual logs and posts as needed.

If you have any questions, please feel free to ask them over on the Questions header on our Monthly Rundown post!

December Timeline

[ ♆ ] December 1st: "Attack of the Deranged Mutant Killer Monster Snowgoons" begins and lasts until December 31st
[ ♆ ] December 3rd: "Opposing Viewpoints" begins and lasts until December 20th
[ ♆ ] December 10th: "Mistledon't" begins and lasts until December 22nd
[ ♆ ] December 20th: Monsun returns to the archipelago
[ ♆ ] December 21st: "Breath of Cold Air" begins and lasts until December 31st

LOGS ● OOC ● STORIES ● MAIN NAVIGATION

( CODED BY BOOTYCALL )

Comments

[infailtration]

[ She doesn't pull away from him. That's the only thing York is parsing about this at the moment -- she doesn't have to squeeze back, she doesn't have to move in. for him to be encouraged. He keeps hold of her to reassure himself while she speaks, tilting his head at the bubble in time and space thing. Like a dimensional pocket, he's familiar with the concept from lessons on alien teleportation, but from his understanding things like that exist in stasis. This definitely isn't stasis. They're moving and talking and touching, and he draws breth to ask another question but Carolina beats him to it.

The last thing he remembers?

York glances at their hands rather than those beautiful green eyes, thumb tracing a little nick in the paint of her armor. ]

You sure you want to hear about that?

[ But she does, of course. Fun. Okay... keep it light, he tells himself, but when he does speak again his voice is low and serious. Oh well. There's really no other way to get through this so he'll just spit it out. ]

The pain fading, and Delta deciding to stay with me. I was trying to tell Tex not to let him, but I don't know if she saved him or not.

[uptightness]

[It makes no sense, this place, and Carolina had been more than a little skeptical when she had first arrived, but it had been Wash giving her the information, and she trusted him. Add to that the fact that shortly thereafter she was all but choking on plants that were growing from her body, and Carolina couldn't deny that this place played not only by its own rules, but changed them all the time.

She is watching him, aware of that seemingly heaviness that settles over him, and which his words only confirm. She had already gone through a myriad of emotions when she had learned about his death, although shame and regret had always been the foremost. And he might try to keep it light thereafter, but she knows it's not.

She hadn't exactly functioned with Iota and Eta, but Epsilon...

Now her hand does give a squeeze on his fingers, although it crosses her mind that she doesn't deserve to do that. Had she not- but those aren't new thoughts to her, for they chase her most nights, haunt her dreams, ghost her waking moments. Her fingers loosen a little and there is a soft huff of breath.]

He ended up being encrypted when you-.

[Although ultimately, like many of the other AIs, the activation of the EMP would destroy him. Not that Carolina had been around for that, but rather she had heard it.]

I- [There's a thickness to her voice, as there is so much to say that she doesn't even know where to start. She had fucked up. She hadn't died. She hadn't wanted to be found. She hadn't cared about anyone or anything but getting revenge on the Director. It had taken Wash and Epsilon to really rattle her cage, to break her out of that cycle she had been stuck in.

But it's her turn to find some spot that won't catch his eyes, focused but not really focused on his shoulder, as no doubt he would be confused.] I was able to get my grappling hook out. You- you weren't exactly wrong, even though it was Texas that you found. I didn't want to be found York. I thought- it doesn't matter what I thought, because I know I was wrong. About everything. Everyone. If I had listened-

[And it is likely the most that she has said together in some time. ]

I never got to apologize... And I don't expect- but I am sorry, York. About everything.

[infailtration]

[ Encrypted? So he was okay, he -- wait, she knew? York looks back up at her, eyes shining because he was right, she'd been alive, he--

But she keeps talking. Tells him she was wrong and had believed otherwise which he knew, of course, but it's not as clear as that. He hadn't explained the situation, hadn't made it so she could believe him. It wasn't just her mistake, they just hadn't lined up in that crucial moment. York listens to the apology, watches her expression twist with grief and regret until he just can't anymore. ]

I knew it. I knew you were alive, but. No, Lina-- Carolina, it wasn't on you. I should apologize too, I didn't want to fight but I could have been so much clearer, I should have told you... shit, everything. You deserved to know everything and I screwed up, made you think I was on the wrong side. There's so much I should have said.

[ He does squeeze her hand tighter now, trying to get her to look up at him. ]

We've got now, right? We're both sorry but none of that matters anymore because we're here and... I still don't understand what this place is really but we're okay and everything else we can figure out. Tell me what else happened.

[uptightness]

[He had been, for a time, although that had all changed. Yet she can't quite to bring herself to tell him that just yet. Whether AI or Freelancer many of them had deserved better than they had received. She knew the absolute fate of some of them, but others were not known to Carolina. It would likely be wishful thinking to hope that they had found their own desert island or cabin in the woods or whatever else they had dreamed about after Freelancer. As for her, she had never really thought beyond the Project when she had been in it, too caught up in everything.

It's that low laugh, as she shakes her head. He knew how she could be. She wouldn't have believed it if he had said it, showed her the evidence, because how could the Director, how could her father, have done that. She had all but worshiped him, wanted him to acknowledge her, and hell would have frozen over before she turned. No, it wouldn't have made a difference. She had been too riled up, too busy seeing Texas as the enemy that when York had 'sided' with her...]

You don't have anything- It wouldn't have mattered, York.

[The squeeze doing as he intends, for her eyes to rise to meet his. She can confirm that about herself. Not even a slap in the face would have taken her eyes off of the prize that she had been focused on. Hindsight is twenty twenty, and it's only that hindsight that has shown her how everything had been manipulated, how they had been used.

Her brow does furrow slightly.

This place... It isn't home, although it's not always horrible either. It had given her the chance to see CT and Maine again, and York.. If he is actually here and not some hallucination. With her luck, he would be, although it's not like she deserves any better considering all the shit she has done.

But York. Still the same inside despite it all. Apologizing to her, as if that were a thing that needed to happen. She doesn't quite know where or how to begin]

I'm not even certain where to start. Project Freelancer is no more. They were brought to justice for their crimes. Some people and tech slipped through the cracks, but I've worked on some of that.

[infailtration]

[ It actually does give him some peace to know that no matter what he'd said or done, she was going to fight him. He still isn't okay with placing all the blame on Carolina, but at least he didn't fail. It wasn't his fault... it just wasn't hers, either. York chooses to put more blame on the Director and Counselor, the ones who brainwashed them and encouraged her mindset in the first place. If they'd cared at all about their soldiers, things might have been different.

Because he needs to blame someone, even if it's over. Even if he never brings it up again, there's got to be accountability. It sounds, from what Carolina tells him next, that she understands that too. That they were crimes, and she's working to fix it, but... ]

I did mean with you. I'm glad they got justice, but I care more about you. You seem... so different.

[uptightness]

[York... Carolina knows that she had cut him out once, that he had given her an exit strategy, and she had slapped it away. And yet, there is so much that she does want to say. It's silly, perhaps, but she won't lie. There have been nights where she did wonder, although she had tended to push those aside. What was the point in wasting time in something that would never be a reality? Those entries that Epsilon had recovered had already been more than she would ever have thought to have gotten.

She knew that she had lost focus on the things that had mattered, worrying more about succeeding and beating Tex than her team. She'd withdrawn, become colder, more determined on the end result than the process of getting there. It had been that that had been the snapping point for Wash, Epsilon and the rest. She had gone in with a mentality that they'd been pieces to be used. That need to prove she was good enough had eaten at her, given her that inferiority complex, and it's not like it just vanished, as there are times she does still doubt herself, but she's also realized that when she falls, there is a hand there to help her up.]

I'm still stubborn and ambitious... And your lines still suck. But- [She mulls that over, as feelings and talking about them still don't come that easily. She may have more regard for others, but it's still awkward to discuss herself.] But, I've learned to let things go. Sometimes. It... is a work in progress still.

[York, who has seen her at her best and seen her at her worst. Just how many missions had they been on together? How many times had they had each other's backs? She knew he had lost sleep watching her train, and that she hadn't bothered to acknowledge it back then. After all, she hadn't asked him to... Yet it is somehow easier to admit things to him, and god, had she missed him, she thinks, as she takes a deep breath.]

I ended up in a bad place, wanting only to hunt the Director down, no matter the cost- I forced Wash and these Sim Troopers to help me, pressed them hard and fast, until they refused, and I threatened to shoot them. Wash- he stopped me, so I went on my own, and likely would have died, but they came to help me despite everything.

[infailtration]

[ The realization hits York like a slap to the face, when she phrases it that way. She's learned to let things go. ]

...I guess I should, too. You found my logs. How did you find my logs?

[ Does it even matter? York listens, absorbs what she's telling him. It sounds like she wound up an even more extreme version of herself, angrier and more determined, ready to sacrifice whatever it took and... Wash and the Sim Troopers saved her from herself. Not just being killed, but from losing herself. He looks into her eyes and sees someone older and wiser, maybe not certain of who she is yet but he thinks he knows. He always knew how amazing she could be.

She's changed for the better. He doesn't know if that's true of him. ]

They came, huh? Then I hope I get to meet them someday.

[uptightness]

Well, it was either that, or chase the ghost of Tex around forever.

[See? Her humour is still pretty crappy, but there is an attempt at it there.

Her expression does turn slightly quizzical, as it's not like York had been the one who had been like a dog with a bone, refusing to yielding it to anyone until he had destroyed it. No, he'd always been... Better than her. A true friend, who had tried, even when she had pushed.

Yet they had all been changed by Freelancer, one way or another. Wash wasn't that newbie anymore, and carried his own scars as well. Carolina had let her ambition get the better of her and grown to have trust issues.]

Long story short, Epsilon. He was able to recover a few fragments. Pickup lines are important.

[There's a mixture of fondness there, and something deeper, a sorrow over losing that idiot AI that truly had been a brother to her in the end. It had been sweet of Epsilon, looking back, an attempt to- well, she wasn't really certain. Give a peace offering? He had known that it would be something that she would want to see, and while she might not have exactly been a ray of sunshine, she does not appreciate it.]

I'd only heard the first one though.

[Which may make her earlier comment make more sense now, if he picks that up.]

I'd gone back, to the fortress... To apologize. Found your lighter. Have it here.

[Not that he would ever know that she had actually done that as her fingers give a little squeeze. Although his last comment has a noise from her. The Reds and the Blues. An annoyance. A pain in her side. The bane of her existence- okay, the last might be overshooting a little. They are family, quirks and troubles aside, and she would defend them with her life if need be.

She's also kick their asses, if need be.]

You would probably get along with them.