April Undercurrent: Breaking Barriers

[lifeaftr_mods]

APRIL UNDERCURRENT

Who: Everyone!
What: Normal boundaries are made malleable, for a time
When: April 3rd to April 19th
Where: Everywhere!
Warnings: Please mark anything as it comes up!

Keep Me In Your Clouded Mind

As days pass, and the Water begins to exert their pull, your surroundings will begin to grow hazy, almost dreamlike. Though some might find this sensation to be unpleasant, the feeling will soon pass, and the world will seemingly right itself. Perhaps a fit of vertigo, and nothing more...?

But come the morning of April 3rd, the island's skies and seas will paint themselves anew in faded guises - every colour it's possible for a sky and sea to be, from sunrise to sunset - bleeding into each other like ink in water, until the horizon vanishes. And from that vanishing point, where sky and sea meet, you will begin to see...rafts. Rafts bearing familiar paper lanterns - some crumpled, some stained from their crash into the water, but recognizable all the same.

Remember those lanterns that you made last month? It turns out that they've actually served as beacons. And, as those rafts drift closer, you might find that the lights you set free, forged in your grief and longing, have managed to guide the subjects of that longing to you...at least for a time. Of course, it's not all people you know. Those on the rafts are just as likely to be strangers, people who have simply drifted in on the tides of dream. Or they may be both familiar and not - the people you knew, who have changed in your absence or theirs.

They might even be you, though not as the island has made you. Perhaps they're the person you once were, or the person you will be. Who knows what the tides may bring?

To distinguish such temporary visitors from those making a more permanent stay, those brought in by these strange waters often look faded or filled with an ethereal light. They may also have a strange translucency to them, though this will not affect their ability for physical contact, interaction, or their solidity.

This month, no special tasks are required of you other than to interact with these new visitors, whether they bring you joy, grief, or the mutual, fleeting bond of a first meeting. The more you accept them as part of your lives - temporary as they are - the more power you produce.

Their stay might be short, but their impact is no lesser, and recognition of that is necessary to pave the way for Elytlan's arrival.

---

♆ FOURTH WALL EVENT ♆

We'd like to welcome anyone and everyone to LifeAftr's Fourth Wall Event! We'd like to start things off with a few points of clarification, if necessary:

[ ♆ ] This is an IC event. All characters will remember the fourth wall event and any characters that pass through it.

[ ♆ ] You are free to enable and post with absolutely anyone! For this event only, all rules regarding doubles and duplicates are to be considered null and void. Doubles, CRAUs, player-made AUs, original characters, whoever you like who can be brought to interact with the islands is free to do so! Characters who might be re-visiting from their past experiences in LifeAftr can recall as much or as little of their time in game as you like.

[ ♆ ] Please be aware that visiting characters will likely notice that their powers have been slightly or greatly dampened. While they will probably still be capable of smaller or more ordinary things, any game-breaking or world-ending powers will have no effect on these shores. You are free to nerf them even more if you want, though! We certainly won't stop you.

[ ♆ ] Only members of LifeAftr will have posting access, but all characters and players outside of the game are welcome to comment anywhere in this log, unless a player wishes to opt out of the event entirely.

[ ♆ ] This does include posting to the network, over at lifenet! Newly arriving characters will have access to the Stones of Farspeech that enable long-distance communication, but they will not be able to make their own posts - only comment to the posts of others.

[ ♆ ] We ask that any visitors be mindful of our game rules. Most characters will likely be arriving on the island of Ensō or the islets just off of its coast - feel free to read up on those pages for more information, and don't be afraid to ask questions!

[ ♆ ] This event will only last up until April 19th. At that point, all characters who have been brought to the Fourth Wall event and are not currently in game will fade away. Due to the ethereal quality to them while on the islands, the temporary nature of their stay will likely be apparent. That being said, this log will remain open once the event itself is complete - backtagging is both welcome and encouraged.

[ ♆ ] As the game will be entering endgame shortly after this event, we will not be opening Applications after the event unless you are a returning player who would like to be present for endgame.

[ ♆ ] If anyone has any questions about this event, please ask them HERE!

Color in My Sheltered Mind

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 April'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!

April Timeline

[ ♆ ] April 1st: "Make Libations" begins and lasts until April 10th
[ ♆ ] April 3rd: "Breaking Barriers" begins and lasts until April 19th
[ ♆ ] April 12th: "Isn't It Dreamy?" begins and lasts until April 21st
[ ♆ ] April 20th: Elytlan arrives at the archipelago
[ ♆ ] April 22nd: "Got Your Goat" begins and lasts until March 31st

LOGS ● OOC ● STORIES ● MAIN NAVIGATION

( CODED BY BOOTYCALL )

Comments

[postictal]

[It's weird. Being on this end of it. It's weird and uncomfortable and he always figured it would be but it hadn't occurred to him the extent of which it'd itch, the growing discomfort of the realization that this person knows you but they're nothing more than a stranger.]

[Inwardly, he tenses up. Outwardly, he answers steadily.]

...sorry. I don't think I'm the same guy you knew.

[choosetruth]

[Georgia knows her side of this experience far better than she’d like to. Her mouth firms into a thin line as she looks at him, staring through her sunglasses like she can read his entire life story from his face.

She can’t, not quite, but she can get enough of an idea to see that he’s not messing with her. He really doesn’t know her.]

Right. [She nods sharply.] Georgia Mason. Journalist. I know you from well-known fucker-of-memories, Wonderland. I’m happy to answer any questions you have about me or my relationship with you, but let’s get two things straight. One, [She holds up a finger] I am not Jay. I’m a real fucking journalist and that means I’m both a hundred times more competent and not about to post your medical records online. Two, [She holds up a second finger] don’t lie to me. I’ll know, and we’ll both end up frustrated. `

[postictal]

[The strange expression that flickers over his features might be hard to place at first, considering that the Tim she knew seldom if ever actually looked this way. It might be hard to pick up on it, considering that he's not smiling, but it's something that verges dangerously close to amusement.]

I didn't think you were Jay, but okay.

[He shoves one hand into the pockets of his jeans - new and therefore still recognizable as jeans - and angles his head.]

Sure you don't want that coffee?

[choosetruth]

I never said I didn’t want coffee, and I’m just curtailing the inevitable.

[Maybe she won’t remind this Tim of Jay. He seems a lot better adjusted than the Tim she knew, though that’s a low bar. She crosses her arms and gives him a sharp nod.]

Lead the way.

[postictal]

All right.

[He rolls his shoulders and adjusts his course so they're heading for Denny. It's a hard place to miss. Big wooden walls, the mural painted on one of them...it stands out.]

So...Wonderland, huh?

[choosetruth]

Yep, and it was just as fucked up as Carroll always made it sound. [She squints through her sunglasses.] "Fre sha vaca do?"

[postictal]

I didn't paint the mural, and I didn't ask what half of that shit meant.

[He just kinda lets Connor do whatever, honestly, if it means he's likely to talk him away from something legitimately dangerous.]

Sounds fun. And...I was there too?

[choosetruth]

You were.

[She looks away, her expression as emotionless as she can make it, which is easy with her sunglasses. There's tension around her eyes, for those who know to look for it, but most people miss it behind the sunglasses.]

We were friends.

[postictal]

[Well, damn. That's gotta be a first. Someone telling him that he was actually friends with them. It's a weird feeling. It makes him appreciate all those times that he remembered people from before and understand how it must've felt for them to have to deal with that.]

We were...close?

[Shit, how much does she know, exactly?]

[choosetruth]

[She shrugs.]

Neither of us are exactly the touchy feely type. But I guess.

[postictal]

Well, yeah, not usually. [At least, he knows he isn't.] Sorry. Bet this is kinda weird. Guy with a friend's face who isn't your friend.

[He's been on one end of this conversation enough to know that it's kinda weird, yeah.]

[choosetruth]

[She turns towards him and tugs her sunglasses down to give him the full force of her black-eyed gaze.]

I'm the clone of a dead journalist living in a world filled with zombies. I can handle kinda weird.

[postictal]

[All right, fair enough. Tim takes that in with his head tilted to one side a little bit, eyebrows lifting slightly. He lives with someone with red eyes, so it's not as much of a shock as it would be otherwise.]

Guess so. Either way, though. Sorry. Can't say I dunno what it's like to talk to somebody you know and have 'em not remember you.

[choosetruth]

[That gets a raised eyebrow as she slips her glasses back in place.]

This kind of thing happen often, then?

[postictal]

More often than you'd think, but not often enough for me to've gotten used to it.

[So like...a few times. Not enough to throw him off. But enough to make him wary about what he says.]

What about you? This happen often?

[choosetruth]

In Wonderland? All the fucking time. [She hunches her shoulders, shoving her hands in her pockets.] People would vanish and then come back with no memory of the place.

[postictal]

Sounds kinda like here. Wasn't super common, but you could say it's happened enough for people to expect it.

[Tim was lucky. It only happened a handful of times to him.]