lucetilogs | Post-Event Blues

Entry tags:

Post-Event Blues

Who: Everybody, everybody!
What: The battle is won. Now what?
When: The eleventh, twelfth, and onward
Where: Luceti
Summary: With Zompano dead and the cultists routed, Luceti is restored. Kind of.
Rating: F for Feels

On the eleventh, things were slowly breaking down. Memories of their true lives were breaking through. The village, scarred by the battle with the cultists, began to rebuild itself. Community buildings that had vanished were returned to their rightful places. The battle dome was uncovered from the earth that had covered it. Hundreds and hundreds of fake homes slowly faded away. Paved roads gave way to trees and grass. It was an incredible sight for anyone who was willing to sit aroun and watch it happen.

Things wouldn't be easy for the villagers, though. The memories perpetuated by the last ten days would not be easily removed. The feelings and hatreds it had created would take time to conquer and remove. Perhaps, in a way, that was Zompano's nastiest trick of all. The village itself may heal from his invasion, but it would take far more than a few Shifts to fix the people left behind.

Towards the end of the day, their wings returned. Much like some of the buildings, they seemed to just reappear, as if they had never been gone. Their barcodes became visible again as a singular reminder that they were, ultimately, just the property of another entity who as a whole were not much better than Count Zompano.

By the twelfth, the village looked as though nothing had ever happened. Sure, the contents of buildings might have been messed up or destroyed during the battles, but things were otherwise as they were supposed to be. The night before, people would have had to find their old beds to go sleep in, as they no longer possessed the old ones granted to them in another life.

The village was peaceful.

Modly Note: That wraps up the event. As noted in the prose above, you have the option to play up the after effects of the event more than in other ones. While it won't have the same impact universally, the Shift was constructed in such a way that people may have difficulty shaking off the emotions they developed during the event. In effect, it was a cruel send off to Luceti so they would have to deal with the loathing and hatred that came with the less desirable parts of it. Of course, that means the feelings of familial bonds will also persist for awhile as well. It's up to you, as players, to decide how much or little to play with it!

Flat | Top-Level Comments Only

If I want to go home now, which way do you think I'm going to go? [No, she still isn't looking at him.] To the lake? Or the north end of this tiny village?

[He knows the answer. It's a question he's been struggling with himself, in the past hours. He was able to find clarity, himself, an answer - but he's still shaken by Nephry asking it herself.

To the lake. The lake. He remembers sailing through that lake occasionally with Shayera and the kids. Whatever he felt, he was sure that it wasn't love. But he knows that, especially at times like that, he really did enjoy their company.

But they're all lies. He spends a moment dismissing those thoughts before he answers.]

I can't imagine Nephry Osborne living in any direction other than north. [Or, specifically, it always happened to be northwest.] Why don't you try following me?

Edited 2013-08-17 23:19 (UTC)

Why are you being so considerate?

[That was one thing her split mind could agree on: Jade was an instigator, a trouble-starter. He liked to do things just to see how she would react. Maybe this was one of those things.

He was not a compassionate man.]

I suppose that every monster has its limits. [He says with a quiet adjustment of his glasses. He doesn't feel remorse, exactly, for his other life - it's something that's not his, anymore. But he certainly can't leave Nephry wandering in such a condition.] But the flattery can wait. I'd like to get us all home and properly awakened from this nightmare.

I'm awake. [It does not feel like a nightmare. She has those. They almost have a system of warning bells, an intangible dream signal that says things are about to go sour very fast.

This life, that life, had no such thing. It had happiness. Her real present feels like the nightmare, and there is no waking up from reality.]

Your concern is unusual, but- I didn't call you a monster. [Not this time.]

You're right. At the very least, you didn't say it aloud.

Regardless, I suppose there are a number of reasons why I would choose to aid you at this time. But perhaps it should suffice that out of the possible reasons which come to mind that are at least partly true, none are particularly malevolent in nature. [He shrugs.] It can even be as easy as experimenting in helping one re-adjust to reality.

I've had enough of being an experiment.

[She does at last turn away from the building, crossing her arms as she begins in the direction of house one.]

My apologies. It's not often that I make such a poor choice of words. [He says somewhat quietly as he strides near her.]

[He really is being...kind. Gentle. Nephry finally looks at him, though without intending to catch his eye.]

What's on your mind?

[He's exhausted in many ways. He doesn't see the need for a firm hand at the moment. They're no longer business rivals in any sense, after all.

He gives a soft glance back as he moves on. And he replies simply.]

Keterburg.

[The memories that rooted himself again.]

[Keterburg was on her mind every day. Except now, there was a week that existed without it, without dreams or thoughts of any snow at all.]

You never visit when you have the means to. Surely you can't miss it now that you don't.

[It's all the tease she can muster.]

I think at this point it should be fairly obvious that I lack the capacity for "missing", Nephry. [He says with a slight smile.]

Still, with how tiresome travel can be for an aging man, visiting one's memories of a place alone can often suffice.

It isn't obvious at all, no matter how much you want it to be. [She knows better than to think he has memories of Keterburg that he can enjoy without even a warped sense of guilt.]

And you're not aging.

It's a shame, then. I do think of the place, in a variety of contexts.

[He tries a slight smile.]

You just want to believe that now that you're catching up.

Think what you will about that, then.

[Banter like this does seem to set her straight. Nephry shakes her head, banishing another dual set of thoughts.]

Ion is having trouble. [I'm having trouble, she almost said.]

I'm not surprised. [He says calmly. Assessing in plain terms.] Especially for someone like him, it must be quite the blow to so swiftly be deprived of a real family. I imagine that it's a similar difficulty for all of those who were living the existences they dreamed of - the impossible. [He surely wasn't part of that group. He'd been the opposite - living what he hadn't wanted for himself. But Nephry? Nephry had domestic bliss with the emperor.]

To be honest, Jade, I don't know how to begin thinking about what is and is not impossible anymore.

Mm. [He gives a nod as he tries to understand.] The way that this world works certainly seems to encourage that type of thinking. Does anything seem truly impossible to you anymore?

Living a normal life ever again. That seems impossible.

Setting aside that 'normal' is a very subjective concept... I would be disappointed if you gave up on such an idea so easily.

Far be it for me to start hearing about the ways in which I disappoint you.

[When in fact she knows that there really aren't many of those, at least not for the "real" Jade - that he finds more fault in her soft heart than in anything else. But this one, a blend of colonel and shrewd businessman?

Regardless, that was a strike meant to sting. Nephry might regret it.]

Either we go home changed, or we go home with no memory or mark of this life at all. I'm not sure I can accept either of those.

[He just quietly adjusts his glasses with a gleam at her comment.]

I see. Of course, the latter choicer would technically be a return to our normalcy. But it can only truly be so if we find a way to keep people from getting pulled here. I suppose that I'm living proof of that.

Now that I have lived through this 'normalcy', I'm not as willing to call what I knew before 'good enough'.

So the gambler is left unsatisfied with her choices that can be bet upon. I suppose that it's a natural reaction. The only solution one could think of would be trying to think of a third option, but I understand that is particularly cliche.

Edited 2013-09-26 03:33 (UTC)

What makes you call me a gambler, all of a sudden?

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