016 | The Good Old Days

[godsoffortune]

Who: Everyone!
What: Ageswapping
When: July 15-17
Where: Everywhere
Summary: A breach in the space-time continuum is messing things up.

Edit: OVERFLOW is here!



The Far Shore has been dealing with a lot of space-time pulsating through the past week or so and everything is culminating on the night of the 15th, even though the Heavens are preparing for an all-out Obon bash. They had planned to have the celebration on the 15th itself, but Amaterasu asked to postpone a day due to the horrible feeling that is permeating the Far Shore.

And it turns out she was right to postpone everything. In fact, it will have to be postponed another whole month at this rate...



Before

Late in the day on July 15th, the new batch of shinki will arrive to a Far Shore with a thick, tense atmosphere. All night on the 15th it feels like something is about to happen - and it's difficult to tell whether that something will be good or bad. Any attempts to contact the management of the Far Shore have fallen on deaf, slightly harried ears and so everyone is left to their own devices to try and figure out why things are so tense.

July 16

Just after midnight, an explosive shock wave rips through the Far Shore, bringing on the age changes with it. Even the spirits of the Far Shore seem to be affected - for example, the library goblins are either toddling around on wobbly legs or are dragging themselves from place to place and looking decrepit. There are a few gods and shinki that seem to have been exceptions from the change, though it is not clear why.

July 17

Another wave of energy comes in the early morning of the 17th. Fewer people are affected this time and it seems to alter those people's ages a second time. There is no rhyme or reason to who is being affected further. Several of the library goblins have just dropped dead from severe old age. Oops.

Aftermath

Late on the 17th brings about one final burst from the energy that has been plaguing the Far Shore. For a short moment, every new temple glows with a soft light, seeming to beckon to their owners. But the light is gone quickly and everyone will find themselves back to normal with complete memories of everything that happened during their age adventures. The goblins that died, though, are still very dead. Looks like the library will need to get some new help soon.

In Summary:

• Meet the newbies
• Get aged or de-aged
• Deal with other too young/too old people
• Try to handle the consequences
• Have fun~

Comments

[nibelungvalesti]

[She looks up abruptly, only now realizing she'd spoken aloud, then quickly sniffs hard and wipes at her eyes to try to get some semblance of composure back. Why is a little girl standing here in all this weirdness? Is she hallucinating?]

Lucian was... was my friend.

[So much to unpackage in those words, more than Platina herself knows, let alone is capable of addressing.]

[kagenonadeshiko]

Oh. I see.

[She doesn't really. 'Friend' is a familiar word but there's no strong personal feelings attached to it. It feels more like something Ayumu's merely heard about or read in a book once rather than something she actually knows.]

You must really miss him.

[nibelungvalesti]

He... saved me.

[Did he? Is there any salvation? Everyone in her life, everyone except maybe Lucian, hated her... wanted to use her...]

But he is better off without me. I hope he lived... lived and went far away, somewhere happy.

[kagenonadeshiko]

[Little Ayumu frowns, looking very serious and confused.]

Why would he leave you behind if he saved you?

[It just doesn't make sense to her but a lot of things older people do don't make sense. She just does what she's told.]

[nibelungvalesti]

...I thought I was dead. He had to flee the poison...

[What other answer could she give? She went to sleep in a field of poisonous flowers, and yet here she is now. What sense is there to be made of it?]

[kagenonadeshiko]

Why'd you stay in a place like that? Poison's bad for you. It's dangerous. Deadly.

[Is this girl daft? A halfwit? How stupid does a person have to be to stay behind where there's poison?]

[nibelungvalesti]

It was dark. We didn't realize the plants were poisonous until we were already among them, and by then...

[Slipping away from life, an empty life with nothing in it, had been so easy.]

[kagenonadeshiko]

By then, what? What'd you do to make him leave you?

[Ayumu's always been a little on the harsh side, even as a child. Perhaps even more so since her world had been so lonely and small and she never really learned how to interact with anyone until she was older. But she still has the same drive to investigate and lay bare what's hidden, even the information stays only with her.]

[nibelungvalesti]

I... died, I think.

[She had felt herself slip away. She had felt slumber, numbing unconsciousness, embrace her. But why is she here? Why is she awake? She doesn't understand...]

[kagenonadeshiko]

Why didn't you leave, too? If you were together...

[If this Lucian had time to escape, why didn't this girl? It doesn't really make any sense. Unless her friend died, too... Ayumu has no way knowing what happened exactly.]

[nibelungvalesti]

He's a boy, and older than me. He was stronger... I didn't have the strength to move, but he must have. But I don't know what happened, not after I -- drifted off.

[That's the simple truth, sad and profound. She doesn't know. She doesn't know any of what is going on.]

[kagenonadeshiko]

Oh, I see.

[He must have had a stronger constitution then. She does look a bit on the skinny, delicate side. Ayumu shrugs a bit.]

Today's been really weird.

[There's a flicker of something like sympathy before it vanishes again. She's not a very expressive girl at this age; something about showing emotion feels weak somehow.]

So what are you gonna do?

[nibelungvalesti]

Today has been a very, very long day.

[She can't help but nod to that. Finding out she had been sold? Running away? Dying, apparently?]

I don't even know where I am...

[kagenonadeshiko]

I don't know either.

[What little information Ayumu had learned in the hours before whatever phenomenon had occurred to turn her into a child again had been lost.]

Everything's new.

[Including herself. The seal on her memories remains intact despite the mental de-aging.]

[nibelungvalesti]

[Despite everything, Platina can't help but laugh. Just one quiet little laugh.] I have to agree. This is all very strange to me... Have you seen anyone else?

[kagenonadeshiko]

I've seen some people around but you're the first one I've talked to.

[The girl didn't look very threatening, huddled against the wall crying like that. She'd seemed like she might be just as confused as she is in this situation.]

[nibelungvalesti]

[She may be one of the least-threatening people here, honestly. Drawing her hands up to her chest, she worries her fingers against each other as she looks around.] It's so... different. I've never seen any place like this.

[kagenonadeshiko]

Me either.

[She sounds a little uncertain of this. How can she be sure of anything without any memories? For an instant, there's a flicker of fear in little Ayumu's eyes but she quickly suppresses it, looking down at her hands. Fear's useless.]

But I don't remember anything before waking up here.

[nibelungvalesti]

...Maybe you're lucky.

[So much Platina doesn't want to remember. So much she wishes she never knew, never experienced. Her eyes scrunch up for just a moment before she bites down on her pain and forces them open once more.]

[kagenonadeshiko]

[As a goddess, Ayumu would have agreed wholeheartedly with those words. She'd been in a similar position of overwhelming pain and grief and desiring nothing more than to simply forget it all. She'd seen the memory loss shinki experienced more as a blessing than anything else.

As a child and a shinki herself, she's quiet for several moments before speaking up.]

Was it all bad? No good things at all?

[nibelungvalesti]

I... I don't know. I don't know what happened to Lucian. Maybe he died too... or maybe he got away, but was very ill. Even the good things turned out bad.

[There are bad things, and things waiting to become bad things. Are there any other choices?]

[kagenonadeshiko]

[There's another thoughtful silence. Her instinct is to chastise the girl, something about her apparent mindset rubs her the wrong way just a little. But another part of her kind of feels sorry for her, just a little. She's kind of a pitiful sight, blubbering instead of just picking herself up like that. It's kind of annoying and she probably shouldn't do this but she can just leave someone like that by themselves.

With a sigh, Ayumu stands up and holds out her hand.]

Come on. Let's go somewhere else.

[nibelungvalesti]

[This is a girl who'd been so brutalized by what had happened to her in the past few hours (as far as she is concerned) that she'd simply slipped into death from a poison she might otherwise have been able to escape. And yet nothing had improved.]

[Platina blinks up at her, a few times because her vision is hopelessly blurred.]

...Where is there to go? Do you know this place?

[kagenonadeshiko]

Not at all.

[Ayumu shrugs.]

But we're not getting anywhere just sitting here. So let's go somewhere else. I bet there's a lot more to see than what's right here.

[Though her tone's rougher, her expression blanker and a little more irritable, there's already hints of that no-nonsense, older sister brand of kindness she displays as an adult.]

Two of us have a better chance of figuring things out than just one, don't you think?

[nibelungvalesti]

We should find someplace safe, first of all. Someplace we can hide if we have to. [She is no match for warriors or even thugs, and she doesn't believe Ayumu would be either. And they can only run for so far, and so long.]