lifeaftr | 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 )

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[Drifting over from the stretch of beach to her left is the sound of polite, restrained applause.]

Well, you certainly seem to be making the best of things.

[Apparently, a spider lady is impressed by your pyromania. Yay?]

Oh dang, is that a talking spider? Definitely not the weirdest thing Lup's seen in her life, but it's not exactly usual fare either. That could go either way, really, but the applause earns the lady points for sure. Lup offers an exaggerated bow in her direction before replying with a disarming smile.

"A big fire always makes me feel better. Best to show whoever owns this place what they've gotten themselves into, right?" There's more explosions where this one came from, is what she's saying.

[Muffet smiles back at her.]

I do respect a can-do attitude- start as you mean to go on, as they say. Besides, fire has so many useful qualities when you're living off the land.

[She makes an annoyed face.]

Not that I'd intended to be living off this particular land, but apparently someone didn't care enough to consult me before whisking me away.

What a polite and put-together spider, Lup can't help being fascinated and walks over to a more comfortable chatting distance.

"Oh yeah, sounds like nobody was really given a choice about being here, as far as I've heard. Preeetty big oversight, if you're planning on throwing some kind of interplanar beach party. I'm giving our hosts one outta five stars so far." She says this with the authority of someone who once spent an entire year restaurant-testing her way through a world. "You got any experience in living off the land, then?" Well, she's a spider, weaving webs and catching flies probably counts? But she's wearing pants and spouting aphorisms straight out of Taako's ridiculous book, so maybe she's from like this whole spider society with their own jobs and stuff. That would be pretty cool.

[Aw, thank you, she tries- and she likes Lup's style, too, she's pulling it off well.]

Sadly, it's not my area of expertise in particular- I was always more fond of creature comforts than connecting with nature- but my people lived in a rather difficult environment for some time, so we tend to have a few more tricks for this sort of thing than, say, the average human.

Oh boy Lup cannot wait to find out what a spider considers 'creature comforts' to be. Frozen flies on a stick? Silk cotton candy? Bug Fantasy Skittles? The possibilities are amazingly gross and endless and she morbidly fixates on that instead of any of the other perfectly interesting things the lady just said.

"No shit, so what's your uh, your main go-to for like, rainy days? Comfort-wise?" Her voice goes a little high-pitched there at the end and her ears are pinned back in equal parts dread and eager anticipation, even as her casual smile doesn't slip.

Well, I'm used to living Underground, so rain is still new enough these days to be a pleasant novelty.

But when it comes to comfort food, I've always been rather fond of this one recipe for pistachio caramel brownies- it's an odd combination, but I do like that lovely texture you can get when they're nice and crisp.

It's... a baking spider. Lup doesn't know whether to be disappointed or amused or intrigued, so she briefly goes through all three before landing firmly on the latter. Kitchen talk is just too hard to resist.

"Oh man I hear ya, that sounds dope - do you mix the pistachios into the batter or is it more of a topping?"

[Oh, a fellow culinary enthusiast, how delightful!]

Personally, I like to mix them in with the batter, so you have a nice crunchiness to contrast the overall softness of the brownie, but you can chop them more finely and spread them over the top if you prefer it that way.

Hell yeah, baking! Though Lup leans back a little at the spider's suggestion of mixing the nuts into the batter, either considering or judging the idea.

"That's a choice, for sure. I mean personally, if you're gonna put anything in there it should be hazelnuts, or it's like, what are you even doing? Is a brownie with random crunch in it even really a brownie, if you really think about it? I don't think that's been conclusively proven." She doesn't sound as judgey about it as she could, she can respect other opinions, they're just wrong.

[Like all sapient beings, Lup has the right to be wrong about brownies. That's probably a law or something.]

Not entirely random, if you layer them in properly, you can get a more even and regular spread throughout.

Though, I've noticed most humans seem to prefer less texture when I'm baking for them than other spider monsters do? I wonder if it might be a species difference- if nothing else, the shape of the teeth might be a factor in enjoyment, there...

[Those are some pretty sharp fangs she's got there.]

Edited (typo, whoops) 2017-08-19 19:56 (UTC)

Oh she has definitely noted the fangs, and for all the pleasant chatting she's not about to step any closer, thanks. Still though, interspecies cooking.

"Oh man, you ever notice humans will go crazy for anything greasy? They can't get enough of that shit! I swear you can fry a hot dog on a stick and dangle it in front of them and they'll let you ride them into freakin battle." You can't prove that's an actual thing she has actually done, alright.

Oh, I know- I swear, some of them would live of grease alone if you let them. Just... I have seen people deep fry lard. Lard, I tell you.

We live in an age of madness, clearly.

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

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this is unconscionably late

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