lifeaftr | August Intro: You Think...You Wink...You Do A Double Blink...

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August Intro: You Think...You Wink...You Do A Double Blink...

INTRO LOG: AUGUST

Who: Everyone!
What: New souls arrive to the archipelago of LifeAftr.
When: August 3rd
Where: Ensō
Warnings: Mark as needed!

Part I: Get Wrekt
You rouse to a splash of sea salt drying on your skin. A haze of glass-white sand glitters in your vision, dappled by lush palms and thick, curling foliage that disappears into a jungle of deep jade. From behind, crackling wood and sawing rope groan from a mangled life raft ran ashore. A petering wash of tide over pebbled sand fills your ears as you struggle to gain your bearings in a vast portrait of tropical color…

No...no, no, that’s not precisely how this story starts.

Why don't we start over?

You rouse to a splash of sea salt, spraying across yourself and the wooden floor beneath you as it breaks across the edge of the platform. The light as it dances across the sea is blinding, dappling white spots across your vision as you slowly come back to consciousness and realize that - this is not where you last remember being.

The middle of the ocean is likely not a place most recall being at all. As you struggle to fully comprehend the new scenario in which you have found yourself, three things become quickly apparent. The raft you find yourself upon barely constitutes as something that should float, never mind a boat. In the distance, perhaps a few hours away at most, a large island beckons to you, a wide strip of beach surrounded by cliffs making it very clear where the most fortuitous of directions shall be.

Lastly, of course, you’re not alone. Hopefully your new companion(s) are just as keen to get ashore before nightfall as you, or voyaging together will not be the most positive experience. At your side you will find a knapsack, one to every member of your raft party, and upon inspecting its contents, you will discover any rewards you may have accrued - as well as a few other items to give you a fighting chance.

A note to those who participated in the Test Drive Meme: those threads, if all parties involved would like, can be game canon in the form of dream-like memories involving a place very much like this one, though the layout is considerably different.

Part II: Choose Your Own Adventure

By fortune (or misfortune, as it were), you eventually find your feet meeting sand, blessed shore to stagger upon as you shake off your newly found sea-legs. There are those that may find this place familiar, as though it appeared in a dream, though the expanse of shore certainly seems larger. The beach stretches off into the distance on both sides, curving around sharp ridges and cliffs, mist obscuring the view the farther along it goes.

So here you are. You’ve found land. Company. Supplies. The sun is now beginning to trek rather low upon the horizon…spending the night outside in such an unfamiliar land is unappealing at best and outright dangerous at the worst.

There is one silver lining in the midst of this mess. Directly ahead, the beach curves up a gentle slope until it meets forest, some manner of building visible through the trees. Further exploration of this area will reveal a dilapidated building of sorts; the architecture is indiscernible to even the most skilled eye. Despite looking as if it has seen better days, there are areas that offer some form of shelter...and who knows what else. Just because it appears uninhabited doesn’t mean you won’t wind up pleasantly, or unpleasantly, surprised.

So what shall you do from here, traveller? There is land to be explored, strangers to meet, friends to reunite with. Supplies to inspect and plenty of questions in need of being said aloud. Choose your path, make haste, and above all else: survive. And whatever you will, take heart.

Your story is about to begin anew.

Feeling a tad adrift? Make sure to check the Locations Page, which has details regarding the starting areas and a handy map for those who feel better with a bird's eye view!

LOGS ● OOC ● STORIES ● MAIN NAVIGATION

( CODED BY BOOTYCALL )

Flat | Top-Level Comments Only

[Oh hey, a spider! She... has a few too many eyes, but whatever. It's nice seeing such a mixture of species again - it's almost like home, though he has to admit it makes him pretty annoyed that he still looks almost human instead of having his natural form back. His tail and horn are the only real giveaways.

So, yes. Yes, Espio does want to say hello.]

Looking for anything in particular?

[She looks over, her gaze lingering briefly on the horn and tail. Oddly human-like to be a fellow monster, but definitely not standard features for any of the humans she's ever met.]

[Well, no sense in being rude.]

Anything that might be a useful food source, at the moment. I doubt I'd starve, but the idea of just barely getting by on seaweed isn't terribly appealing either, so I'm hoping to find more plants to work with.

Good luck. The last real plants I ran into - before here, obviously - were parasitic. This place looks a little...

[Safer? Espio's pretty sure that's not the word he wants - there's probably something threatening lurking nearby, going by past experience.
That, and...]

More varied.

Hopefully nobody eats anything poisonous.

[She winces delicately at the thought.]

That does sound terribly unpleasant. May I ask where this was?

I'm not sure I'd have much to worry about personally- between being venomous myself and having more magic than I do actual biology, poison doesn't seem like it would present much of a problem- but humans seem to have much more of a struggle with those sorts of things and I think there are a fair few of them about.

Place called Between. You don't want to know the details, but it was practically dead. We didn't have much in the way of plants, or water, or animals of any kind.

[He looks around them, pointedly. Observe: LIFE.]

Just a few things here and there, and you couldn't rely on them to stay.

Goodness, what a hostile... well, lack of an environment, really.

[She adds curiously, but without much hope:]

I don't suppose you know how we all wound up here, being so well-traveled yourself? I haven't been able to figure it out at all.

My first thought was mass hallucination.

[It's happened before. Multiple times.]

But if it's not, I'm gonna take a wild guess and say... magic?

Well, probably magical in nature, yes. But it would be nice to know more about the exact kind of magic we're dealing with.

Who knows? When you're dealing with multiple realities, there's too much variety in magic to pin it down.

I take your point. It's still something of a new concept to me, working with more than one world.

Not me - I've always known of other worlds. It's just in the last five or six years I've been exposed to so many. You can never know what people's realities are like unless you ask, assuming they're willing to tell.

[She smiles warmly, and asks:]

Well, assuming you're willing to talk about it, may I ask what your homeworld was like?

[Home? He doesn't talk about it often, but sure. He'll indulge her a little.]

Insane, or so I hear. I've not heard of another reality where you can row through space yet. Lots of different kinds of people, lots of different powers and abilities.

Most worlds I hear of are mostly human, though. It's kinda nice seeing such a mix of people again.

My, how cosmopolitan. [She seems genuinely delighted at the idea- if only at the thought of so many untapped potential markets.]

I've heard of the Riverperson doing some interesting things with their boat, but I'm fairly certain they've never left the planet.

As far as I'm aware, it's only humans and monsters back where I come from, though we do tend to come in a rather larger array of physical forms than humans do. I suppose there could be aliens out there somewhere, space travel is still relatively new.

[Ah, so this is a monster. Once again, Espio is reminded that different worlds have different definitions of monster.]

Technically, to you I'm an alien.

Ah, a lovely discovery for us to make someday, then. How many species are usually around where you come from?

Too many.

No joke, it's practically countless.

That must be an interesting place to live. If it's not rude to ask, which species are you from?

And- [She winks.] -are they all so handsome?

[Is she serious? Eh. He's cute and it's been a long day, a fun little bit of flirting sounds like a nice way to blow off some steam. Besides, giving someone a compliment is rarely a bad idea.]

[She'll stop if seems uncomfortable, though- no sense upsetting someone when you're trying to joke around.]

[The colour of his skin shifts subtly to a slightly pinker shade, Espio not that used to casually flirting from strangers. He doesn't look that uncomfortable, but...

Yeah. Please don't. He has just come from a reality where your options were sex or death. He doesn't really want to think too much about that at this precise moment, thank you.]

I'm a chameleon. I didn't always look like this, either - it's recent.

[She's unaware of the depths of the issue, but his discomfort is clear enough that she backs off on the flirting immediately- people who get flustered and start spluttering are hilarious, but not someone being actually upset.]

I've met a few reptilian monsters over the years- our royal scientist is one, a woman by the name of Dr. Alphys.

Hm, I can't say I've ever heard of someone changing species before, either- I know ghosts can take on physical bodies by merging with an object, but they're still monsters like the rest of us.

[Bah. Ghosts. Espio... doesn't like ghosts very much. Bad experience.]

That's just magic for you.

I didn't want to look like this. I'm normally smaller. More scaly.

I'm used to magic being a bit more... well, expected, I suppose. It's just part of life, back home.

I know it existed in my homeworld, but I never really encountered any until I got pulled out of it. A sorceress in another reality warped time and space with magic, and it pulled me there.

...never saw my homeworld after that.

So yeah, I have mixed experiences with magic.

Ah. I'm sorry for your loss... or your world's loss, I suppose it might be more appropriate to say, since it's still where it was.

[Yeeeeah, about that...

Espio shrugs, taking extra care to keep his expression neutral.]

I miss it, but I knew so many displaced people I can't complain.

August Intro: You Think...You Wink...You Do A Double Blink...

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