March Undercurrent: Lost Connections

[lifeaftr_mods]

MARCH UNDERCURRENT

Who: Everyone!
What: We remember those lost, and connect with one another
When: March 3rd to March 19th
Where: Everywhere!
Warnings: Please mark anything as it comes up!

From Stardust to God

Those months since the Water's introduction to you all have been...tumultuous, haven't they? These two gods have more or less been trying to consistently undermine each other, and you all have been caught in the middle of it - whether or not you wanted to be! Kind of a miserable state of being to be stuck in, right?

All that is going to change.

For the duration of this particular month, both the Storyteller and the Water will be operating under a tentative ceasefire as they commit their efforts to one singular, joint goal:

They wish to remember those who have been lost. Those who have left the archipelago, those who have died, those who have come and gone, those who you lost in your homes...and these gods will be, also, commemorating those who they have lost. This commemoration will be facilitated with the use of memorials and offerings to those long past.

The Storyteller will provide you with materials to craft paper lanterns that can be illuminated and sent sailing into the ocean waters. They can be decorated with colorful paper, cut designs, and so forth. The Water will guide the currents to allow the lanterns to drift to...wherever it is they need to go. You can send as many lanterns as you like, and as many nights as you like. The skies will always be clear, and the water will always guide them to the horizon, where they eventually fade from view...

Both the Storyteller and the Water will be available for discussion for the duration of this event.

The Highs We Trade for the Lows

This month isn't only about remembering what's been past. To conjure Ai'tuoh back to the archipelago, it will also entail that all of you do some reflecting on what has been lost in your lives, and sharing in that pain together. This may be a somber month for some of you, or it may be an introspective one.

At any point during this event, your character may wake to discover that one or more thin threads of colorful light appears to be emanating from their chest and trailing through the empty air. These threads cannot be removed or influenced in any fashion; attempting to grab at them will simply cause one's hands to phase uselessly through them, as though they are ethereal constructs of some sort.

The purpose of these strands of light might not immediately be apparent, but if you spend enough time observing your fellow islanders, it might get a bit clearer. Each tether connects you to someone else - someone who has a pain similar to your own. Should you follow your tether to whoever it has linked you to, you may find yourself compelled to comfort or relate to the other party. This compulsion can honestly vary, from a gentle nudge to a sudden impulse and anything in between. There may or may not be a subtle pressure on your thoughts that may help you discern what you might have in common with this other person, whoever they might be. This facet of this event is completely opt-in, naturally, and we encourage you to interpret this however you like. What counts as shared pain? It can be as literal or as figurative as you like. Whether characters underwent the same events in this game or another, or whether there are certain parallels you wish to explore within certain canons or across multiple ones...or if you just want your character to have a nice sit down and talk about their problems for once, the choice is yours. Your character can be connected to as many others as you like - there is no limit to how many characters you can share any related trauma with!

Should you choose to reflect on that which you have endured, and the shared pain of others, what follows is fairly intuitive. The tether binding you together will fade, though hopefully a stronger bond will be forged, and ideally you'll all feel better afterward...but that's not necessarily a given, now, is it?

This is No Place Like Home

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 February's Undercurrent Event, as well as any of the other minor events listed on our Monthly Rundown post. And, of course, 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!

March Timeline

[ ♆ ] March 1st: "The Return of Your Special Lifting Friend" begins and lasts until March 10th
[ ♆ ] March 3rd: "Lost Connections" begins and lasts until March 19th
[ ♆ ] March 12th: "Spring Forth" begins and lasts until March 21st
[ ♆ ] March 20th: Ai'tuoh returns to the archipelago
[ ♆ ] March 22nd: "The Happy Hang Glider Vacation Society" begins and lasts until March 31st

LOGS ● OOC ● STORIES ● MAIN NAVIGATION

( CODED BY BOOTYCALL )

Comments

[motherfucking_ghost]

I think I never really knew her. I think I only thought I knew her, and, well--when a good number of the memories I thought I had of her turn out to be fake and cobbled together from the scraps I could grab, it's hard to know what's actually real.

...You probably know all about how that feels. [Not that the memories in Wash's head are fake, but does it get hard for him to separate what's his and what isn't? What's real and what's pulled from elsewhere?]

[counterblows]

...little bit, yeah.

[Admitting it feels wrong, like forcing a connection that might not really exist, but - but if anyone would get it, it'd be the guy who had Church's memories dumped into his head, right?]

I don't think that changed how she...how you guys felt about each other. I mean, wiping away your memory couldn't change that.

[motherfucking_ghost]

I definitely still loved her.

[...He'd gotten used to thinking in the past-tense, and then Wash showed up and got his hopes up, and then it was all weird. And then they all died. But then she was here. With them. If his brow could furrow, it would.]

I definitely still love her. Pretty sure that's one thing about me that will never change. Pretty sure I know why that is, now. So even that feels...I mean I know it for certain, in my god damn bones, and yet I have to wonder how real it is.

[counterblows]

[A beat. He's...not sure of the wisdom of this. Comparisons to Epsilon feel inevitable, but also...cruel. Like a reminder of something he isn't.]

Church, those parts of yourself...they weren't just these static entities. They grew. They learned to be their own people in a way, through the experiences they had. So whatever you were, whatever you came from - what you are now isn't just who you used to be.

I'm saying...trying to say that - that if it's real to you now, then I think that's as real as anything gets for anyone.

[motherfucking_ghost]

...See? You're an all right guy when you're not being an ass.

You, uh. You been sending any lanterns out?

[counterblows]

[Hey, coming from Church, again - high praise. Wash laughs a little, a faint huff of sound that curls one side of his mouth upward for half a second.]

A few.

[He's...seen too many people leave to not to.]

Feels like I should at least say goodbye when I never got the chance to.

[motherfucking_ghost]

I don't think of it as saying goodbye. I don't like goodbyes much. I think of it more as like...acknowledging, I guess? I miss this person who is gone. I feel mournful for the absence of this person. This person is dead and that feels shitty and I will acknowledge that it feels shitty. Something like that.

[counterblows]

Hate goodbyes, huh?

[He can understand that. Didn't always, but...it wasn't an instinct that originally belonged to him, anyway.]

I guess some people say that you're not really dead as long as people are around to remember you.

[motherfucking_ghost]

[He laughs, fit to choking on the irony.]

With you around, nobody'll ever really be dead.

[counterblows]

Well, hey. Surviving impossible shit is apparently my one superpower, so I guess we're all set there.

[motherfucking_ghost]

I mean, don't get me wrong, I'd much rather be alive than not be. Seems I'm pretty hard to kill here. Maybe you're rubbing off on me.

[counterblows]

I owe you anyway, right?

[Maybe he's bleeding some of those cockroach tendencies onto him. Who knows?]

[motherfucking_ghost]

You're always doing that. Thinking in terms of owing me. Is--I mean--like you're not really wrong but is that the only reason why you bother being around me? Cuz you owe me?

[counterblows]

No. No, I -

[He, uh...didn't realize that was a thing he was doing, honestly.]

Sorry. I guess that's kind of...instinct. Got used to feeling like I owed them. The - the Reds and Blues. Figured that was the only reason they kept me around at first.

[motherfucking_ghost]

You think they were gonna give up the idea of having an actual fucking soldier on their side? The only problem from that point is them fighting over if you were officially a Red or Blue.

[counterblows]

I couldn't figure it out. Honest to god. I'd spent weeks hunting them, hurting them, I shot two of the Reds - they all thought I killed Donut. I mean, I thought I killed Donut. And they still turned around and just...

[There wasn't a whole lot of discussion, even. He didn't get much of a say in it. They just said he was one of them.]

[motherfucking_ghost]

The Reds killed Sarge at least once, and Donut got a sticky grenade to the face. And let's not bring up Caboose's teamkilling tendency.

You have to understand. The bar to clear here is so low it's underground.

[counterblows]

See, I keep telling myself that, but...I don't know. It took a while to sink in.

It was the first time that I'd been around people who didn't...you know, stab me in the back. It took some getting used to. And I think a big part of me is still getting used to it.

[motherfucking_ghost]

Oh yeah, we do all our stabbing frontwards. You'll see it coming, and you'll see it's real fucking stupid. The upside to being adopted by a bunch of idiots, huh?

[counterblows]

Yeah...you could, uh. You could say that.

[He laughs a little at that one.]

...they missed you a lot, you know. Caboose especially.

[motherfucking_ghost]

Well. No shit. He thought we were best friends. [He stares off out across the sea, at the twinkling remains of lanterns.] Probably totally lost without me around.

...

I thought about making lanterns for them, too. But I mean. I'm the one that's dead. They're all still alive and kicking, far as I know.

[counterblows]

...little bit, yeah.

[Hence why he was so eager to wake up Epsilon, apparently. But bringing that up's probably gonna make this conversation even weirder, so.]

I don't think it's a bad thing to say...goodbye to them. Never really got a chance to back home.

[motherfucking_ghost]

N-nah, it--I mean, this should be for mourning the people who are actually gone, right? I shouldn't even be here, man. I'm just a ghost. [And he means that this time in a literal sense.] Think it'd, uh, work better if it was like...if I got to see them. And say it to them. Y'know?

And--they've probably...they must--I mean after this time, they gotta be over me now, right? They've said their goodbyes. Un...unless Epsilon's messed that up, but I, uh.

...Tell me again they're all doing okay?

[counterblows]

[Unless Epsilon's messed that up.]

[Well, he kinda did. Kinda made a whole thing out of it, and broke Caboose's heart, and...fuck if that was a messed up way to go out. Postmortem recording. Pretending that everything was all good, right up until it wasn't.]

[That's not on Alpha's shoulders. That's on Epsilon.]

They've gotten to retire. Get away from it all. And...they grew up.

You'd be...proud of them.

[Is that a weird thing to say?]

[motherfucking_ghost]

The last I saw Tucker, we were getting reassigned. You couldn't manage to round his ass up, huh?

[That's not Wash's fault, by far. The not knowing...not getting to be around him for over a year and then just being--gone? That must've been awful for Tucker. The not knowing.]

Can't believe they got to retire. That's way too grown up. Let me guess: they retired to the Vegas Quadrant? Eternal spring break? Oh oh oh--amusement park. Enough thrills for Sarge until he either gets arrested or has a breakdown from not having anyone to fight, enough mild stuff for Doc to play with, don't think Donut would like it much, too gauche, but Caboose would love it. Simmons does nerdy shit, runs numbers, helps design rides. Griff's in charge of food. Eating it, I mean. Tucker's trying to show off his skills at arcade games to pick up chicks and fails every time.