lifeaftr | April Undercurrent: Breaking Barriers

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April Undercurrent: Breaking Barriers

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 )

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--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.

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.

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?

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.

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

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

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

...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.]

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

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.]

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.

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

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.

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

[Yukio nods.]

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

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

[Yukio nods. Ginko gets it, thankfully.]

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

[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.

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.]

[It takes just a moment for Ginko to remember the significance of Yukio saying that, and when he does his tail gives a couple pleased little taps against the floor. Very rarely can it be said that Ginko's face really lights up, given the limited range most of his expressions exist in, but it definitely does something.]

Same to you. [He just hesitates a moment before adding,] Y'know-- if I've got to have check-ups like this, I'm glad you're the one doing it. It's a lot easier, when it's a... built-in chance to talk.

[There's blue high on his cheeks and the tips of his ears as Ginko smiles, and Yukio's tail wags without him noticing.]

Thank you, but you don't have to get injured just to create an excuse to talk with me. You could do that any time.

Ha. Don't worry, I'm not going to start jumping into ditches. It's just nice to be able to talk while this stuff has to be done - and to know we can keep working together and all after I've healed.

[It might not sound like much, but being able to keep hanging around someone he likes talking to still feels like a rare luxury to Ginko. Even if it also makes him nervous sometimes.]

It is. [It's nice. And when it comes to situations, "nice" isn't something Yukio thinks very often.

But talking with Ginko has been nice in a way that Yukio isn't used to, and for right now, he'll take it. Ginko brought it up, Ginko is the one saying it's nice, and while Yukio still feels a little bit like at some point Ginko's going to realize he doesn't actually want to talk to him, for right now at least he can take this feeling of quiet warmth and hold it tightly without the twisting sick edge of selfishness spoiling it all.]

I'm glad we've been able to work together.

Same here.

[He doesn't need anything else, really, but...] ...If it's alright with you, I might stick around for longer today. If there's nothing else to do, I can help organize supplies or something.

[Yeah, it's a pretty transparent excuse to keep hanging out with Yukio. He meant what he said about liking being around him, after all - and, frankly, his empty (except for his tigerlily) cottage gets pretty depressing if he stays there too long.

Shit, when did he get so dependent on having company?]

Of course. [That wagging tail gets more intense, like an excited puppy.]

There's always something to be done here. [Even if most of Yukio's work is self-inflicted.]

[There's some satisfaction to seeing Yukio start wagging his tail like that. For one thing, it's kind of adorable.]

Exactly. [And the workload makes a convenient as hell excuse.

Ginko finally drops his sleeve back down over his arm, making sure the excess fabric stays rolled-up.] I can get started, then. Should I do an overall inventory check, or have you gotten that done already?

(no subject)

reflash - 2020-08-02 15:23 (UTC) - Expand

do we wanna wrap here or keep going?

onegreeneye - 2020-08-16 04:32 (UTC) - Expand

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