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

[reflash]

[Yukio frowns slightly, holding out a hand to take a look at the arm.]

I've been trying to improve the healing spell I'm using, but that hasn't been as successful as I would like. [He hasn't been able to improve it at all, he's hit some kind of plateau since arriving here, probably because he has no access to any of the fae resources he'd had in the Carnival, and he doesn't know the underlying logic well enough to improve. It's frustrating, especially because the spell itself works on reducing healing speed based off a percentage of time left for complete restoration of the injury, so it's less and less beneficial with each use.]

[onegreeneye]

[Ginko nods and pushes his sleeve back to his shoulder so Yukio can check his arm.] Yeah? It's working pretty well for this, at least... I wouldn't have expected the wound to be healed this far by now.

[reflash]

[That frown stays as he looks over the healing injury. The external wounds are more than healed by now, but the internal is still causing pain.]

I'm glad it's helped. I just wish it was faster.

How frequently is the pain occurring?

[onegreeneye]

Can't blame you for that. But, sometimes it's best to accept "good enough" for what it is.

[He's got nothing against striving for self-improvement, but, well. Yukio doesn't exactly need more encouragement in that area.

Besides, he can't really complain when an injury that would probably have gotten infected and possibly killed him under other circumstances (even if the amputation was performed at all, and that stone virus didn't take him out) is closed off and healed this far after just a couple months.]

Uh... maybe every few hours, doesn't usually last more than a few seconds.

[reflash]

[Yukio casts another healing spell, blue light flickering around his fingers before settling into Ginko's skin.

He doesn't address that first statement, because "good enough" has never been good enough for him.]

That's good. If the pain gets worse, or more frequent, or starts lasting longer, let me know. [There's a danger of a phantom limb after an amputation, and Yukio... he's read about what to do with that, once. He's not confident about being able to treat it.]

[onegreeneye]

[He watches the light settle in. It's as fascinating as ever, even if all he can see is the light from the magic itself, and not its effects.]

I will. Thanks.

[Then, after a moment of hesitation:] How are you doing?

[reflash]

[Yukio pauses, still looking down at Ginko's arm.

His tongue flicks out for a second, as he tries to figure out how to say something that won't ruin everything.]

Shiemi-san arrived here late last month. [That... sort of works.]

I've mentioned her before, she's my... [student? schoolmate?] friend. [is he still allowed to say that? He must be, because he can say it, so it isn't a lie yet.]

She brought her greenman with her, so you'll have a chance to meet a demon from my world.

[onegreeneye]

--Shiemi?

[Ginko raises his eyebrows, and there's more recognition in his face than one would expect from just remembering a single conversation's mention of a "friend" back home.] Didn't realize she was who you--

[Wait. He doesn't know that this is the same Shiemi. He fumbles, just for a moment.] --I've met her. A version of her. But, uh-- not the greenman.

[reflash]

There was a... version of her in the Carnival as well, but she arrived here from our world.

I'm sure she'd like to meet you.

[onegreeneye]

And I'd like to meet her. [It's... difficult, thinking about doing this all over again. Meeting someone he already knows for the first time.

He didn't know Shiemi as well, though. He hopes that might make it easier.

Yukio, though... he knew Shiemi in his own world, so he wouldn't have had to start entirely from square one. But it must still be difficult, having the time spent in that carnival reset like that.]

...How long were you two in that place at the same time?

[reflash]

Not very long. A few weeks, at most. That happened sometimes, we were supposed to be there for a year and a day to fulfill our end of the bargain, but the Ringmaster didn't actually keep everyone she gathered.

[onegreeneye]

Why not? Was there some... test period you had to pass?

[He's got no idea how this whole fae kidnapping thing worked, alright.]

[reflash]

No, I think it's much more likely that the Ringmaster simply got bored and let people slip through the cracks on occasion.

[onegreeneye]

...Huh.

[Yeah that's his thoughts on that, because, seriously, what the hell.]

Guess it is true that powerful beings aren't necessarily all that... careful. [Or competent.]

[reflash]

Demons don't seem to be that different between worlds, unfortunately. They rarely care much about what humans want or expect.

[onegreeneye]

I thought the Ringmaster was a faerie?

[He's pretty sure those are different? Or at least they were in Ryslig, which is... pretty much his whole familiarity with both those concepts.]

[reflash]

Fae are demons in my world. I don't know if there's... a distinction of some kind in other worlds. It's more complicated than it should be, in my opinion.

[onegreeneye]

Aah, right. They were very different types of creature in Ryslig; I think that's what threw me off.

[reflash]

It's like [a flick of his tongue] mushi, I suppose. "Demon" is the overarching term, and then there are lots of different types of demon.

[onegreeneye]

And fae fall under that category... alright, that makes sense. I can see how it'd make getting used to other worlds' categorizations difficult.

[reflash]

[Yukio nods.]

It would be like if someone suddenly told you that grass isn't a plant in their world.

[onegreeneye]

Aaah, yeah. Completely bizarre. Yeah, can't blame you for just calling fae demons.

[reflash]

[Yukio nods. Ginko gets it, thankfully.]

Oh, is there anything else medical that you need from me today?

[onegreeneye]

[Oh, right, the reason he was here to begin with. It's always so easy to get distracted talking to Yukio, going back and forth about the worlds they've been to and the things they've studied there, but he probably shouldn't keep wasting Yukio's time.

He shakes his head slightly, offering a small smile.] That was about it - thanks a lot, though.

[reflash]

Of course. Thank you for coming, it's always good to see you. [And he says it calmly, like it's just something to say, just the appropriate and polite comment. But Yukio knows that Ginko knows that it isn't, that the only way he could say it is if it's true.

He says it, "it's always good to see you", and it's true and he says it intentionally, and his smile doesn't falter (not yet) even though maybe... maybe he shouldn't have said it at all.]