Endgame: Discussion

[lifeaftr_mods]

ENDGAME: DISCUSSION

Who: The gods...and you
What: The gods have a discussion with themselves, each other, and all you adventurers
When: May 3rd to May 17th
Where: Primarily Ensō
Warnings: Please mark anything as it comes up!

Keep Me In Your Clouded Mind

So, by now you're probably aware that things have shifted massively in the past few days. The Historian has arrived on LifeAftr's shores to spill a few mountains' worth of beans, and now all of you are stuck having to deal with it. But that doesn't mean that you're going to need to make this discussion alone.

The fate of LifeAftr - and the fate of all of you - is now in your hands. And while all of you decide what you will about how you plan to deal with that, the gods are busy having a long overdue familial argument. Consider this log a catch-all for you to discuss the fate of LifeAftr among yourselves, react to the various revelations, ask the gods questions, or just sit and eat some popcorn while they argue amongst themselves.

Remember - you have until May 10th to come up with any solutions that other player characters can vote on.

So think long and hard about where you want things to end up.

But Now the Stars Have spoken

Of course, you are always free to create your own individual logs and posts as needed. You may also use this log for characters to discuss and react to things with each other and argue amongst themselves; consider it a catch-all for IC endgame discussion.

If you have any questions, please feel free to ask them over on the Questions header on our Endgame Rundown post! If you come up with a solution that enough player characters agree can be voted upon and that is feasible for endgame, be sure to drop it on the Voting header on our Endgame Rundown post once voting opens!

Endgame Timeline

[ ♆ ] May 3rd: Discussion regarding the fate of LifeAftr begins.
[ ♆ ] May 10th: Voting for endgame begins.
[ ♆ ] May 17th: Voting for endgame ends.
[ ♆ ] May 20th: Preparations for endgame begin, and you deal with the fallout of any decisions.
[ ♆ ] May 31st: Endgame begins and lasts into June.

LOGS ● OOC ● STORIES ● MAIN NAVIGATION

( CODED BY BOOTYCALL )

Comments

[story_teller]

[The Storyteller merely looks at him tiredly.]

Do you see this book here?

[They nudge the tome that lies at their paws.]

Every page is one such recurrence.

[burntvideocassette]

[Fuck.]

[This is worse than he expected.]

[Every single one of these pages is a loop, a full time loop that he was forced to forget, forced to start over, forced to repeat none the wiser.]

[How many times did he figure it out? Was this the first time?]

Lemme see.

[He's already scrambling forward, disregarding both the Storyteller's personal space and opinion on the matter. Is it a list, or are there details? What has he figured out during the other loops that he didn't this time? What is he supposed to know by now?]

[story_teller]

[The Storyteller makes no attempt to stop him. It will become apparent why that is the case, once he gets a look at those pages.]

[They're all blank.]

Not a thing easily discerned, I'm afraid.

[burntvideocassette]

[Ah.]

[Of course it's not that easy.]

[The impulse to drive his muddy sneaker into the pages, to chuck the book against the wall, to smash his useless goddamn camera rises in him, and he can't quite throttle it. It's been years, and nothing's made sense. It's been months since he arrived, months without the tapes or that thing or any scraps of evidence he could have turned up in Rosswood. Here, he gets answers, but every answer he gets raises ten more questions and sets him up against a god who won't just tell him what happened, what will happen, what's supposed to happen, whatever.]

[He doesn't harm the book. He doesn't harm his camera. Instead, he kicks out at the wall of the temple, at the rock and the thick, ancient vines growing in the cracks, hard enough that pain shoots through his foot. He might have broken it. He doesn't care. Fuck.]

Then how do you know?

[His voice cracks. He knows he sounds like a kid, sounds petulant, but at least back home there were rules he understood.]

[story_teller]

I am a god.

[The answer is phrased as though it should be obvious.]

You...aren't. Even for me, it took quite some time to discern the things that happened on these pages. I have difficulties perceiving them now.

[burntvideocassette]

[Jay...deflates.]

[Still, he squints at the pages as if maybe, something might show up for him anyway. It won't. He's not a god. He can't use magic, doesn't have advanced technology. He's just some loser from Alabama.]

Like, how long, do you think? [Is that rude? Are you not supposed to ask a god their age?] I mean, like, years? Centuries?

[story_teller]

That is a...difficult question to answer in a way that would make sense. When time has been repeating for a while, then does that count as the same length of time, or should it be counted as several?

I find the question difficult to contemplate.

[burntvideocassette]

[Figures.]

Yeah, Osoru told me something similar.

[Guess the perspective of some loser from Alabama's too far off from a god's to really let them answer his questions. Or--]

Wait, did you, like, uh... [Jay gestures, trying to find the word.] ...make Osoru? I mean the version I met, not, not..the original one.

[story_teller]

I suppose I did. It wasn't a conscious decision. I missed them, as I missed much of my family, so I...I did what I could to remember them.

This world's fabric is far more malleable to my wishes than it ought to be. That was the result.

[burntvideocassette]

[He...can't fault them for that. For missing someone. For trying to remember.]

Good memory.

[He snorts.]

This whole world's just...whatever you want it to be, right? [He looks up at them for confirmation, but he continues before he gets a response.] So, then...why'd you pick...y'know, us? Like, us, specifically?

[story_teller]

I didn't. Mu did. And Mu...is complicated. I'm not sure it chose consciously. Or how it chose. But - it seems it did, and you are here.

As you have been before.

This world isn't tailor-made to my wishes. I shaped it in the ways I could, I wrote some things in and out of existence, but my influence on it is...volatile. And it does not always respond as I intend it to.

[burntvideocassette]

Huh.

[The anger in his chest's basically fizzled out. They're actually talking to him, actually giving him straight answers for once. Guess that's enough to get on his good side. Too bad nobody back home could figure that much out.]

So, you're able to affect it, but not control it. Guess that makes sense.

[He fidgets with the strap of the dead camera. He wonders if they'd have given it to him in one piece, if they'd been able.]

I was in kind of a... [Jay ducks his head.] ...bad...situation before this place picked me up. So. Might've been for the best.

[His voice drops to a mumble.]

I dunno.

[story_teller]

I'm sorry to hear that. [They really do sound sorry.]

And I'm...sorry for all of this. How disorienting this all is. It is difficult for me to wrap my head around at times, and I contain infinitely more multitudes than any average mortal.