February Event: Just One Mist-ake

[lifeaftr_mods]

FEBRUARY EVENT: JUST ONE MIST-AKE

The flight of the phoenix and the restoration of LifeAftr's regular day-and-night cycle brought with it a peculiar occurrence - strange, distended shapes suspended in the sky, ordinarily quite well-hidden by the cloud cover, now growing increasingly exposed. The firebird's passing seems to have burned away quite a bit of that concealing moisture, and as the days pass, more and more of it will begin to wisp away and reveal something...quite strange suspended over the central island of Ensō.

The Sea of Cloud Under the Moonlight By February 15th, the cloud cover will have dispersed entirely, revealing several small islands clustered several hundred feet above Ensō. They float, apparently perpetually suspended in midair without any perceptible mechanism as to what might keep them airborne, casting shadows on the mainland below.

But even stranger is the fact that, when one examines them closely, they will notice that the islands seem to be...shifting. Their shapes are impermanent, constantly changing, warping, morphing: one moment assuming the fragment of a rocky plain, the next a blistering, desertlike patch of sand, the next an arctic wasteland, and so on. As small as these islands are, they seem adept at emulating any number of habitats and climates in the span of mere hours.

At this point, characters who are capable of flight or teleportation will be able to reach these islands.

And, what's more, from February 16th onward, many of the characters who use a mana pool for transportation will discover that, instead of their intended destination, they have a high risk of ending up on one of the floating islands. There doesn't seem to be any obvious way of getting down without assistance, so it seems like you might be trapped here for a while.

The malfunctions of the mana pools will be irregular, and will fluctuate wildly; some characters will be transported to the islands hovering in the skies above Ensō, while some might simply end up on another part of the mainland proper. Your character is not required to end up on the floating islands if you do not wish it, but please note that if they do, they may have difficulty getting down without help!

Data Insufficient: Landscape Buffering

So now you're here, far up in the sky, above even the clouds, perched on any number of the seemingly infinite, miniature islands peppered in midair. All told, the largest of their number is no bigger than maybe half a mile in length, and the very smallest are little more than rippling, hovering boulders. You're certain to wake up on solid ground, at least, so you won't be plummeting to your death unless you're eager to see what jumping off one of these floating islands is like.

Hopefully you're not scared of heights. In fact, if you aren't scared of heights, you might be able to note that your bird's eye view of Ensō and its surrounding waters grants you an excellent look at what appear to be several buildings, located deep underwater, to the west and north of the mainland. Strange, that. The landscape of these floating islands is, as indicated, extremely malleable, and not just a general sense. The longer you stay on any one of the islands, the more it will start to "mold" itself, so to speak, to whatever subconscious desire or memory might be wrapped up inside you. With enough concentration, provided you stay on an island for long enough, you may find that the landscape starts to feel more...imprinted to you, almost intuitive in how it will shape itself into something you can find familiar.

Perhaps you'll watch a fragment of home warp into being, a piece of a familiar building, or an untethered remnant of landscape. Whatever it is, the islands are limited in physical appearance only; nothing sentient seems to truly live here. Plants and vegetation may form, if you stay for long enough, and you might even be able to structure it into something that almost looks cohesive, but that's more or less the extent of it; no resources from your world or any other will form here. It is, after all, just memory.

At first.

The islands aren't the most stable, as witnessed by their warping shape. The more people that congregate on the same piece of land, the more confused it may become as a result, leading to manifold "glitches" that wouldn't seem out of place in a broken video game: rocks appearing several feet above the air, pieces of buildings welding together, multiple fragments of remembered landscapes fusing into bizarre amalgamations, and, eventually, even the spontaneous displacement of your good self across other sections of floating land, like your very own form of unwanted teleportation. While these transformations are not necessarily painful, they are also not known to be pleasant, either - and, in some cases, they can result in ghastly consequences.

Whatever these islands are, they weren't meant for your presence, and before long, they simply won't be able to sustain it. The more you meddle with them, the more you might even witness something...else, working its way into the mottled landscape. Twisted remnants of something terrible, heavy with the scent of ash and decay. Bare, blackened landscapes that look as though they may have been blown to fragments. Portions of some foreign and unknown world clawing its way deeper and deeper into yours, until even your carefully created structures and landscapes may begin to crack and fragment underneath the powerful strain of this dark, volcanic corruption.

Once it appears, there's no getting rid of it - and the more you try, the more swiftly it will spread.

Restore to Factory Settings and Wipe All Data?

Fortunately for you, the islands don't seem terribly eager to let their shapes reach that disagreeable state. Every night, at midnight, the islands collectively undergo a strange sort of shift that can only be described as a "hard reset" - a restoration to their earlier, unblemished state, eradicating both whatever pieces of your worlds have been worked into their shapes and the strange, dark corruption that may have begun rooting its way in. Unfortunately, this doesn't bode well for those that are still stuck on said islands.

Upon nearly every island rests an untarnished, unchanging circle of land encased in a tumble of stones - stones that roughly correspond in size and shape to the mana pools that can be found all over Ensō. As long as characters remain inside those circles of land when the "reset" sweeps across the land, they will remain safe from all adverse effects. The "reset" starts from the edges and creeps inward, until at last the deterioration closes around those peculiar, circular imprints...and halts.

Those that don't make it to those particular safe zones in time, however, may find themselves in quite a pickle. The repercussions will vary, but if you're interested in inflicting some sort of penalty on your character, you may comment on our top-level below! All penalties, unless otherwise noted, will last until the next night's reset.

If Wishes Were Horses, We'd All Be Eating Steak

But the adaptive nature of these islands, short-lived as it will have to be, will take things one final step before the event's end:

They will grant one wish, whether physical or metaphysical, with lasting implications.

Is there a memory you've lost that you've always yearned to reclaim? Is there a memento you've lost track of, an important object you wish you could still carry? Is there a scar you've always wanted removed, or a person whose status in canon you want to be certain of? Before the event's end, it will be done.

There will obviously be a number of stipulations here. We will also require that you refer to our top-level below to make sure that your wish can be granted.

[ ♆ ] Physical persons will not be recreated. Whatever long-lost relative or deceased significant other you might be wishing to see, the islands sadly cannot achieve that request. They can, at most, allow a brief glimpse into that person's "status" in canon (at a point of your choosing), in the form of a dreamlike memory.

[ ♆ ] Reasonable restrictions should be accounted for. If your character's deepest desire is to see someone dead, for example, or to literally see the Roman Colosseum in all its heart-pounding glory, the islands simply won't have the power to sustain that request.

[ ♆ ] The desire can be conscious, but does not have to be. If there's something your character is in private denial about, even to themself, that does not need to limit you, as the islands are pulling from innate desire.

The wish, whatever it may be, will be granted at any point before the event's end. And if it is possible for it to be so, the effects will be permanent; reclaimed memories will not fade by the event's end, sentimental objects will not disappear, and so on.

You Meddling Kids

By February 20th, the Storyteller will be extremely disapproving of your trespassing onto the half-formed islands, and subsequently whisk everyone back down to ground level. The only reason you managed to get as far as you did for such a long time, it seems, is because they were busy straightening out the mana pool network - the Storyteller will claim that Monsun and Chol's simultaneous disappearances left it in something of a wreck.

The islands will be hidden away beneath those protective veils of cloud cover once more, paired with a stern warning that venturing to them again is exceptionally dangerous - as the landscape had eventually begun to glitch and degrade, so would that have spread to your own mortal selves as well, to a very unpleasant effect. Indeed, anyone who tries to teleport or fly to the islands again will meet a very strong headwind that will force them away, or will simply end up in another location entirely.

As disgruntled as they'll be at your intrusion, the Storyteller also understands that this was not necessarily your intention, and will thus see this transgression forgiven. What's more, the Storyteller has decided to offer you a choice.

During the Storytelling, they will allow you to vote in regards to which sort of land to which you'd like to venture next. While they can promise a certain resource or incentive to travel to each new land, they cannot be certain of the specifics or the dangers: that, they say, is up to the deity that resides there.

---

In the meantime, feel free to use this post for plotting and questions!

Event Timeline

[ ♆ ] February 15th: The floating islands appear
[ ♆ ] February 16th: The mana pools begin malfunctioning, and characters begin ending up on the floating islands
[ ♆ ] February 20th: Monthly Storytelling occurs, along with a vote as to the next land adventurers will brave. Upon waking, the Storyteller returns everyone to Ensō, and shrouds the islands in cloud once more

LOGS ● OOC ● STORIES ● MAIN NAVIGATION

( CODED BY BOOTYCALL )

Comments

WISH REQUESTS

[lifeaftr_mods]

In order to ensure that your character's wish can be granted, please inform us about it here. If you want your character to be allowed a wish, filling out this form is required. Bear in mind the aforementioned stipulations, and also take note that the wish can be conscious or subconscious.

In the case that a wish is too complex or widely encompassing to be reasonably granted in full, we are willing to work with you to ensure a compromise!

<b>Player:</b> Your beautiful name here <b>Character:</b> Name and journal <b>Wish:</b> Please give us as much detail as you can. Is this wish conscious, or unconscious? How complicated is it? Is it as simple as regaining a memory, or more complicated? The more information we have, the more we can work to ensure that your character's wish is satisfactory.

[unpurify]

Player: AB
Character: The Batter | unpurify
Wish: A full 24 hours of sleep with no way of waking him up during that time. It's a both conscious and unconscious wish of his, so please knock him out ASAP island.

[finethanks]

Player: Ash
Character: Eichi Tenshouin finethanks
Wish: To be healthy! Which, as worked out in the questions, will only last until the 20th.

[dedamastai]

Player: r
Character: Damianos (dedamastai)
Wish: Damen wants to fucking marry Laurent. No, well. Actually they're already married in his mind - what Damen wants is a like. Wedding ceremony? Which involves rings and holy water and also a feast, so like. Realistically, just give me some rings so we can have a gay wedding. He'll make the rest of it up himself in a bizarre blend of Akielon and Veretian, like everything else he does.

[thatsmymagic]

Player: Azazel
Character: Gobbet (ratsinadaze)
Wish: Gobbet's wish is a conscious desire for Food. Any food. In any form, but especially in instant noodle form. In any quantity. Obviously the larger the quantity the better, but she'd settle for even one at this point. Alternatively she'd kill for a good fishing rod since spearfishing has probably been a nightmare for her.

Character: Akko (thatsmymagic)
Wish: Akko's conscious and subconscious wish is and always will be to become a great witch one day - this wish is present with her 24/7 so the island would likely pick up on it before anything else. This is a huge, vague wish that the island probably could not even begin to grant, but I thought it was worth mentioning that it's the most in character thing in her case. Her secondary, smaller wish right now is to have her Shiny Chariot poster and/or trading cards with her.

[souris_keteer]

Player: Melissa
Character: Mickey Mouse | souris_keteer
Wish: As defined in the questions above, Mickey will ask to be "stronger" in the sense that he's better at combat. To quote - "he can improve his understanding of how to most effectively use the moves available to him now".

[attheclocktower]

Player: Gorse
Character: Xion attheclocktower
Wish: Xion... the primary feasible wish that she'd have is to know if everyone else from the Tower is alright, if they made it home and are safe (well, as safe as can be expected depending on whatever worlds they happen to be from). It's both a conscious and subconscious wish of hers. So just... being able to see a few of them briefly in their own alive-again worlds, with some indication that they remember their time from the Tower (it is Animus canon that Zo was able to preserve their memories when he sent them back) would probably be more than satisfactory.

[ungrieved]

Player: Zero
Character: Gabe Goodman
Wish: His music box. His mom would play it to help him fall asleep when he was still uhhh alive and also kept it as a memento. His dad smashed it, so getting it back is like symbolic of his desire to not be forgotten

[achievementhunter]

Player: Bird but also I'd just like to note that Zero has the most handsome name?
Character: =) achievementhunter
Wish: This wish is an entirely unconscious thing, but Chara would like Wade (and any others who come in from Sol Raveh in future) to regain their memories of the children.

For ease of not like, shattering character's minds with sudden influxes of six months of memories or more, it'd be swell if the rate of memory regaining was up to the mun of the characters affected! I have approval from Kaiya to make this request.

[hyperlit]

Player: Zero
Character: The Drifter (hyperlit)
Wish: What the Drifter wants more than anything is A Cure. Instead, they'll get to be healthy and un-sick up until the 20th when the event ends :)

[encircling]

Player: Michelle
Character: Mira + encircling
Wish: A conscious and unconscious wish. Consciously, Mira wants a place where she can grow things like vegetables, fruits, and herbs. Slightly more unconsciously, she wants something that can benefit a lot of people. Therefore, she'll be asking for a greenhouse. It doesn't have to be huge, but just a safe place where she can tend to plants and such would be good.

Also, if possible, perhaps a few starter plants inside? Herbs like basil, thyme, etc., and some vegetables like carrots and potatoes, or some fruits. If the plants aren't doable, then please disregard that part!

[rubberpirate]

Player: Dany
Character: Monkey D. Luffy | rubberpirate
Wish: Luffy wants nothing but meat. Tons and tons and tons of delicious beef. The more, the better. It's a wish that's both conscious and unconscious, because he really, really wants meat.

[savedbyasong]

Player: Katy
Character: Shion savedbyasong
Wish: So he wants to know if Safu's going to be okay. In that he wants to know if in his particular future he manages to rescue her, because he has his suspicions after seeing all possible futures in a blur of confusing mess but he's clinging to hope. It's mostly unconscious in that he refuses to speak his fears that he might not rescue her in time to anybody and is being stubbornly hopeful about the whole thing.

Obviously this is probably complicated as he's wanting to know his future but if showing the future is not something the islands can do then a glimpse of her status now would be enough.

[shatteredlenses]

Player: Neko Sandy
Character: Ignis Scientia / shatteredlenses
Wish: Ignis' greatest wish--both conscious and unconscious--is to find a way to keep Noctis from having to die when he returns the light to Eos. Directly, this wish is obviously beyond the island's power, however, Ignis has recently started to realize that the last time he felt like he had power to change Noctis' fate was when he had the power granted to him by the Kings of Old through the Ring of the Lucii. This has caused him to unconsciously wish for the ring's return so that he can try again, no matter what the cost, to change things. There is just one problem. He knows very well that he has no right to wield the power of the ring, so if possible, I would like him to have his wish granted in the form of being given a version of the Ring of the Lucii, but one that has no power whatsoever.

Sometimes, knowing your exact place in the world really sucks...

[crosslaced]

Player: Star
Character: Laurent, crosslaced
Wish: he's got some deeply buried things but those are too out of the way for the islands so! Laurent's primary, conscious concern has always been:


It’s technically “get Damen home in one piece” but it’s the same. As discussed, this will manifest as a protective charm for the bae!

[postictal]

Player: Zero
Character: Tim Wright (postictal)
Wish: He highkey wants to see Jay again, alive and well, but this definitely isn’t possible. So like to compensate he can just end up with Jay’s signature brown hoodie as like a memento or something lmao

[yourattention]

Player: r
Character: Connor Murphy (yourattention)
Wish: Connor misses having things to do that aren't making baskets and like. Shitty survival stuff. He just wants to read a book or some shit, honestly, so he's been thinking a lot about his favorite books which are:

01. The Little Prince
02. Inkheart
03. Titus Groan
04. Alice's Adventures In Wonderland/Through The Looking Glass
05. The Complete Tales of Winnie-The-Pooh
06. Howl's Moving Castle
07. King Dork
08. The Princess Bride
09. The Phantom Tollbooth
10. Wrinkle in Time

more or less. So, like. Any combination/number of those??? Or just random - FUCKING GIVE ME MORE CHUCK TINGLE FOR ALL I CARE????

Re: WISH REQUESTS

[suspecteverything]

Player: Bry
Character: Jules Dagger Samari suspecteverything
Wish: Jullien would like his poison testing kit. It contains a vial of solution that when placed on food will turn a different color if it has traces of any common poisons. His wish is internal.

[bloodyashes]

Player: Nai
Character: Asch @ bloodyashes
Wish: Slightly different conscious and subconscious wishes that lead to the same result. The conscious one is wanting to know what happened at/after Eldrant; the subconscious one is wanting to know if anyone at home misses him. Total result: one glimpse at post-canon Auldrant.

Which... Won't be the most pleasant for him, because we know that canonically (from two different sources, the anime and the post-game guidebook timeline), after Van is defeated and the credits roll, there's only a single grave erected at Fabre manor, with the name Luke on it. Presumably this is intended to represent Asch, because everyone is in denial about Luke dying and search parties are still being sent out for him for at least a year after the fact (even though Luke was dying and only had 1-2 months to live and wouldn't have left a body to find afterwards). It's also possible to interpret it as a single grave for both of them.

Neither of these is going to make Asch exactly happy, given his constant pushback against being called Luke. Even if he accepted it seemingly before his death, uh, some acknowledgement of the name and identity he lived under might be nice, guys...?

tldr wants to see home, gets a Really Unhappy Result, heck him up fam

[bitch4bitch]

Player: Maggie
Character: Erika (bitch4bitch)
Wish: Simply put, Erika want to have access to makeup again. This is very much a conscious wish, as she is VERY tired of not being able to pick out Looks or anything and just generally not being able to have any control of your appearance. So even just a couple shades of red/pink lipstick would be very much appreciated.

Character: Ginko (onegreeneye)
Wish: Ginko wants to know what happened to his friend/canonmate/adopted sister Tanyuu, who he last saw back in Ryslig, where she was being turned into a spider person and it sucked for everyone. This is both a conscious and unconscious wish. The answer to this (as discussed with Casey, who was Tanyuu's player in Ryslig and has decided to be nice) is that she ended up back home in their original world, reverted back to a human form, but honestly how many details of that he gets would be up to you because as long as he knows she's Basically Safe he's good.

[seafriends]

Player: kori
Character: Kanata Shinkai | seafriends
Wish: Consciously, Kanata wants to be close to the sea and water in general but more unconsciously, he doesn't want to worry his friends, so I was hoping he could receive something akin to a kiddie pool or really anything that's just large enough to fill with water and uh, sit in. That way he can soak without straying out to the dangers of the sea while staying closer to his companions without giving up his need to just be..damp...all the time.

Re: WISH REQUESTS

[want_to_belong]

Player: Emeryl
Character: Prompto want_to_belong
Wish:

First attempt: His first wish would be to prevent Noctis from having to die at home. I'm sure this is something that's undoable, so...
Second attempt: His second wish is for Iggy to have his eyesight back. There's a possibility Soma will ask for this, so if that wish has already been asked...
Third attempt: If Soma already wished for Ignis' sight back, his third wish would be to have his barcode removed.

These would all be conscious.

[power_of_dominance]

Player: Ki
Character: Soma Cruz power_of_dominance
Wish: This wish is a subconscious one, partially born from the knowledge Soma has from a previous incarnation: he misses having music on the islands, and while Soma himself is likely thinking of something more modern, one of his previous incarnations was a violin prodigy. Since he wants to share music with his friends in LifeAftr but there's no way to charge an iPod, his wish can take the form of a violin and the few necessities to care for and protect it from the elements. It can be a completely mundane and not at all fancy instrument, as long as it's permanent and in good condition? (Maybe he'll even get to play for the Storyteller sometime!)

[souldeterminant]

Player: Angel
Character: Frisk (souldeterminant)
Wish: Frisk realizes that the charades known as Kidwun and Kittu are coming to an end. A likely very painful one, if certain others discover the reason for the ruse in the first place. Though they've developed the stance that they'll accept whatever consequences result from this, the truth is that they subconsciously want a means to figure out where they went wrong, or if anything can be done differently. They also long for a connection to the disappeared Sans, whom they wrongly used to facilitate their ERASURE in the first place.

In short, for both practical and sentimental reasons, they're severely wishing they still had research that was

very

very

Consequential.

[ichininyaanshi]

Player: Angel
Character: Ichimatsu Matsuno (ichininyaanshi)
Wish: A long story condensed, Ichimatsu wants to become more of a reliable, stable person. He knows that this means working on improving his general mood, which he consciously desires, but that's about as far as his acknowledgement goes. Subconsciously, he knows he has a problem but loathes to admit it, and would be more accepting of unconventional approaches to the topic.

Namely: something holistic, which would most easily come in the form of mood-boosting St John's Wort supplements. Ideally, this could fall under the medication policy as a replenishing item, but since Ichimatsu's situation isn't inherently life-threatening I'm perfectly fine with him having to request replenishments himself in the future!