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

[motherfucking_ghosttype]

...And you didn't...punch him? I-I mean it's okay, technically, if you did, everyone gets a freebie and I'm not allowed to throw down for it, not that I would, uh, not that I'd even remotely try to have a go at Noct's Mountain Man, and--

Wait. Youuuuuuu know who I am. Did we meet? You can't ever really tell what with multiple universes and all that super fun bullshit.

Or. He showed you pictures, huh.

[piercetheheart]

I didn't punch him. Almost made him fall out of a tree though.

[Holy shit this man rambles almost as much as Prom.]

Of course he showed me pictures. I'd do the same if anything fuckin worked around here. It was Leonard, right?

[He offers a hand. Doing this all proper like look at him.]

I... uh.... might end up calling you Leo by default. 's my cat's name.

[motherfucking_ghosttype]

[Oh! This is...this is going a lot better than he thought! Handshake like a normal person and everything!] Uh. Church. Leonard Church. I uh, I guess you can call me whatever you like? Ardy's the only one that calls me Leonard. Unless I'm in trouble.

Sssso you're not going to punch him, I take it. Despite...things. That he did.

[piercetheheart]

[Oh, last name kinda dude. That works. ]

Things yeah it's a shit show but your hubby seems like a pretty damn good outcome for him... wish we could get our firestarter to make even a fraction of that kind of progress.

[motherfucking_ghosttype]

Well, slap him in a reality show of murder, make him lose his memories for a while, and bug the shit out of him every day for months, I guess, until eventually he loses the scourge inside him and goes native?

It's hella complicated.

[piercetheheart]

This place is no reality show but there's been plenty of dying. And some weird effects that have fucked up memories and other ones that made him lose the scourge temporarily. It's been three years.

[Gladio scrubs a hand over his face, exasperated but also... look he's jealous okay. He wants his Ardyn to be adorably happy like that.]

At least he vaguely acknowledges that he'd rather Ignis not die.

[motherfucking_ghosttype]

Dude. I lived the experience, and even I can't tell you how the fuck it happened. It just did.

Like, I think if we started out and he was his angry unfeeling fuckfaced self right from the beginning, we probably wouldn't have hit it off. But he didn't remember that. He remembered when he was human and someone that actually gave a fuck. So I kept reminding him that I liked that guy that was in there somewhere, I guess, and...it just worked out, somehow.

[piercetheheart]

I'm glad it did. He seems pretty happy.

[As much as he might be jealous he's also just stupidly happy that somewhere out there Ardyn got to be happy.]

He deserves it. No matter how much he argues.

[motherfucking_ghosttype]

Right? Ugh, swear to god, sometimes it's a nightmare dealing with his airport full of baggage, like, I love you, you idiot, and now you're stuck with me loving you for the rest of your totally natural days, deal with it.

God, he's gonna age. I'm gonna age. That's so wild. He's gonna be a silver fox. Like he's gonna start getting grey streaks in his hair and I am gonna lose it.

[piercetheheart]

If the rest of the line is anything to go by he'll be hot as hell with the silver streaks.

[Gladio actually heaves a sigh, one hand coming up to scrub over his beard, already lightly salted, never mind the thicker streaks of silver at his temples. He's only 35 but... life has been pretty damn crazy for awhile. Besides, Clarus went grey pretty early on too.]

Lucis Caelums lucked out on that. Helluva lot more than we did, anyway.

[motherfucking_ghosttype]

[Church is like 11 and his beard's going and he doesn't know how he feels about it but! Ardyn seems to like it! So he won't color in his scruff. Too often.]

Right? Where does Noct get off looking so regal and kingly and hot, for one thing. I haven't seen what his dad looked like when he was younger, but even older it's like, yeah, I can definitely see that. Good genes. Strong genes. They lasted several thousand years. It's unfair.