lifeaftr | October Intro: Louder than Sirens, Louder than Bells

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October Intro: Louder than Sirens, Louder than Bells

INTRO LOG: OCTOBER

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

The Beach: For All the Rest
The shores of Ensō are far from the tranquil, almost idyllic tropical backdrop that they should be. And so it is that while you fish, or perhaps as you go about your daily business on the islets, the first thing you will note is the persistent sound hammering at the back of your skull.

A drumming.

And it's growing louder.

The source of the drumming will, like it or not, soon become apparent. At the fringes of the trees, wielding slings and hollow, wooden pistols, is a group of large and very displeased simians who have every intent of claiming this spot of beach - yes, traveler, this spot of beach you're standing on right now! - for their own, and by any means necessary.

And they certainly don't look interested in diplomacy.

If you came armed, you might be in luck, because this conflict will require your steady hand in its resolution. If you did not...well, you may be better suited to run, or risk capture at the hands of warriors skilled, cunning, and incredibly vicious. Laugh at their monkey business all you like; they are ingenious fighters and, what's more, they're just as good at killing as they are at capture.

For the uninitiated, this particular brand of chaos doesn't usually sweep across the entire island the way it has. But those who have been here for some time will recognize the monkeys in question, and might even recognize this for what it is: revenge.

Group I: The Squeakquel
Looks like your monkeying around last month has landed you and everyone else in a spot of trouble. The monkeys in question certainly weren't happy to be confronted with others on their lands, nor are they willing to share their territory. While you may have triumphed last time you confronted them, the apes have been planning their revenge in the meantime.

Some of you were unlucky enough to become targets. Overnight, a great deal of them silently invaded the islets. Their blow-dart guns are equipped with a fairly powerful sedative that is more than capable of knocking most living creatures out - and those that were immune were simply snatched up, gagged, and bundled away.

However, it seems that some of their prisoners didn't suit their purposes, for one way or another, and thus weren't retrieved with the intention of long-term capture. Which is why a number of you will awaken in regions of the island that you've already explored.

...the really, really dangerous ones.

Whether it's a Center of Gravity, a parade of centipuppies, a contingent of Lungblossoms, a Fustercluck, or something else entirely, one thing is certain: the monkeys wanted you out of their way.

So get ready to fight for your life.

Group II: Ape Escape
If you're not one of the slightly luckier newcomers that materializes on the shore, then you're one of the unlucky ones that's managed to materialize square in the middle of the jungle. Or rather, in the middle of one of the denser, more populated parts of the jungle. The abodes woven into the canopy are crude, built of mud and sticks, but they're nonetheless sturdy.

And, as an important note - they are also swarming with monkeys. Snarling, baying, armed monkeys. Perhaps they'd be more hostile toward an interloper...if you weren't already in a cage, along with several others.

Fortunately for the newbies, they've all got something the monkeys didn't anticipate, aside from the element of surprise. Most prisoners don't arrive with knapsacks full of newly-acquired gear, and it's a good thing, too - you may very well need it, and the help of the new arrivals, to escape this place. You could always wait for the cavalry to come, but are you really willing to take that risk?

Group III: Pot Luck
As for you, you terribly fortunate third group?

You'll find yourselves suspended in wooden cages as well, though this time, to the hot curtain of whitish steam clouding your vision. It smells an awful lot like smoke down there. An awful lot like something...burning? Unlike your fellows over in the second group, these cages aren't simply a means of containing you, no. These cages are currently hanging over what might be the largest cast iron cauldron you've ever seen. All of this is, of course, for one simple reason:

Some species of monkeys are carnivores.

The acrid scent of smoke is already hot and rancid in your nostrils; the pyre beneath you has been lit, and the hungry flames are beginning to boil the water below quite eagerly. We'd suggest you hurry up in freeing yourself and your fellows - being boiled alive is not a particularly pleasant way to go. At least the monkeys weren't expecting quite so many main courses so soon, which allows you the element of surprise.

As a final note to those who participated in the Test Drive Meme, bear in mind that 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.

All new arrivals will awake with knapsacks with their names stitched to the front. The contents of said knapsacks can be found below!

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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"Hrn..."

Gobbet twitches, fighting the sedative. Goddamn it's hot in here. The Bolthole was drafty and cold most of the time, what gives? She begins to open her eyes and notices two things immediately: The first is that the weight of her rats is missing. The second is the thickness of smoke in her lungs. A fire? Not quite, there's something off about this...

Shepard's voice breaks through the fog and Gobbet opens her eyes fully. There's a lot of information to take in all at once - the cages, the heat, the smoke, the person beside her, the weight of the knapsack on her back, the apes. Apes? Her eyes go wild as she sits bolt upright and tries to make sense of everything.

"Oh shit. Oh shit. Who are you? Where am I?"

Edited (Messed up the tenses.) 2017-10-03 00:46 (UTC)

The humanoid stirs and Shepard feels a small drop of relief.

"I'm Commander Shepard. You're on an island called Enso and we both have been captured by some pretty pissed off monkeys and it looks like they're trying to eat us. Don't panic, I'm gonna get you out of here."

She stands up again, going back to her observations of the camp around them and the makeup of the cages.

"Do you remember anything of what brought you here?"

She suspects she's new. She's never seen her or anyone like her here on the island before.

"No? Last I knew I was sleeping in a hammock on a shitty boat."

Don't panic? They were living in "Planet of the Apes" and she doesn't want Gobbet to panic? A familiar pull in her gut grounds her and she puts one hand on either side of her head, squeezing her eyes shut.

Madness and Folly were gone. Hopefully they were just at home and not in the pot of boiling water below. She was on an island, not in Hong Kong. This woman - Shepard - was a friend, not a foe. They were surrounded by hostiles. Fine. Situation assessed. She opens her eyes and takes a breath, following the pulling sensation to the apes at the winch.

"I can get them away from that winch. That should buy us a bit of time." Gobbet says, sliding the knapsack off her shoulders and offering it to Shepard. "Look through there and tell me if there's anything useful while I get ready."

Edited 2017-10-03 02:17 (UTC)

Shepard nods.

"Sorry for the rude awakening then."

The bars of the cage don't seem terribly strong so a good Nova to them might shatter them and get them out but she has to be careful about how long until her biotics are ready to be used again. The fatigue in her bones that prickles up her spine takes longer to pass now. There's something about this island that makes her less effective and in a situation like this, a second is all there is between life and death. She had considered a shockwave to the monkeys at the winch but that would have left it spinning wildly and honestly, she'd rather not take her chances in an impromptu monkey hot tub. When her cagemate offers her bag Shepard takes it.

"What's your plan for the ones at the winch? Do you have a way to make sure they don't pull the brake and drop us in unceremoniously?"

She opens the bag, peering through its contents. "Let's see here.... you got some oats, a sewing kit, a bar of soap, and..."

She stops, blinks, then lets out a quick bark of a laugh.

"Seems we're in a little more luck than these monkey's anticipated. You got yourself a wood saw in here... Gobbet, right?"

The knapsack, like every knapsack newcomers get, has a name stitched into it and she can only assume that since it belongs to the humanoid in front of her that that's her name. She pulls out the wood saw in question to show her companion.

"I can get them away from it and give them a painful reminder of who they're messing with." Gobbet growls, curling her fingers around the green mist gathering in her hands. "As for the brake? We'll have to take our chances."

She pauses, glancing at the wood saw and arching her eyebrows. Well that's handy. Maybe wood wasn't the best material to build cages out of, especially if you weren't going to search your prisoners. Come to think of it, why were they prisoners? Who pissed these apes off so bad they wanted to boil people alive? Questions for later.

"Yeah, it's Gobbet. How do you want to play this, then? Saw through the bars, shock the monkeys, leap out and make our grand exit?" That was her plan, anyway. Whether or not Shepard agreed, some apes were about to have respiratory issues.

Risky. But hey. Shepard won't complain. They don't really have time to fully finesse a full-proof plan. She eyes that mist forming in Gobbet's hands with a brusque curiosity, her attention quickly going back to the problem at hand. It could be a new form of biotics she's never seen or some kind of magic, but now isn't the time to talk.

"That's a good a plan as any. These fuckers have a storm a'comin."

Shepard versus the monkeys, round 2. Distantly through the steam Shepard sees the outline of the great door that leads out of the area they are in.

"Once we're out we're gonna have to get to that door. It's the only way out. I'll get you over there and cover you. After that I'll draw their attention and see if I can try to get everyone in the other cages out."

There's no way she's leaving while others are still trapped.

Gobbet nods, a smirk playing on her lips. Oh they definitely had a storm coming alright. She curls her arm up in a pulling motion and the mist flashes out of existence for a moment. It re-appears surrounding the monkeys by the winch. Immediately, they scream out in pain. Their fur seems to shed away on contact and the skin beneath turns red and blisters rapidly.

The cage lurches as they flee the lingering cloud and let the slack go. It doesn't fall, but it sways dangerously low over the pot. Gobbet grips the wooden bars to steady herself, turning to Shepard with a grin.

"Get sawin', that'll only last about five minutes, ten tops."

Shepard's eyes widen in surprise as Gobbet's attack, whatever it is, hits and the monkeys scream in agony.

"Remind me not to get on your bad side."

Hot damn she would not want that hitting her. The cage shakes and Shepard catches herself on the bars as well, wood saw in hand. "On it." she says and begins to furiously saw at the bars.

"Do you got more stuff like that in your arsenal?"

"I can do a single-target version that packs a little more punch." Gobbet offers, helping Shepard by breaking away whatever partially-sawed bars she can so they can move to the next one. "I can also heal a little and make you move like lightning. Not sure if I can summon here, but theoretically? That too."

Hey, she's proud of her skills. She spent years working to hone them to a fine point and wield them like a true warrior...Okay, so that was more poetic than the truth, which was that they came to her as naturally as breathing and she didn't know where she began and her powers ended most of the time. It was just something she could do. That distinction had been blurred even more by the island, which made every spell cast feel like spending a piece of her soul.

If you put her on the spot, she'd say she has maybe one or two more of those clouds in her pocket before she ran dry. Maybe a few bolts and a heal or haste if she could ride the adrenaline long enough.

Gobbet explains more about her abilities as she helps tear at the bars and Shepard shakes her head.

"Damn kid."

She knows she shouldn't be asking too many questions, but also, the RPG protagonist in her has to know.

"Summon what, exactly?"

There is no keeping the curiosity out of her voice as she continues to saw hard at the bars. It's definitely looking better already and hopefully soon they'll be able to jump out.

"Spirits. Elementals, really."

Gobbet takes a break to examine the water below. She makes a sharp pulling motion with her hand and the water pitches slightly, an ache running through her forearm as the spell fails.

"Well that could have been cool and useful." She mutters, returning to the bars. The hole is big enough to crawl out of, finally. Now it's just a matter of hopping out and trying not to break their legs. The cloud by the winch is beginning to disperse, and the monkeys there look royally pissed.

Gobbet is out first, landing hard in a crouch. It's not comfortable, but nothing appears to be broken. She turns back to Shepard with a grin.

"Can you make the jump?"

"Spirits?"

Spirits??? She talks about them like they're, well, real and not an old spiritual belief. Then Gobbet pulls with her hand and instinctively Shepard awaits the passive feeling of mass effect fields in the air, waiting for the sharp cut smell of eezo to hit her nose... but nothing happens. At least, nothing like a biotic Pull happens. Instead the water below them clearly reacts in some manner, but whatever it was Gobbet was hoping for doesn't happen.

Shepard can hear the disappointment dripping from her words but before she can say anything she jumps out and turns to her, grinning. Shepard scoffs a bit, amused despite herself, and follows in kind. When she lands she turns to her with a grin mirroring Gobbet's.

"It was a little shaky there for a second, but I think I made it through. Legs still intact and all."

"Good, because we should probably book it."

There are apes absolutely everywhere. They're struggling with the other escaping parties, trying to contain the chaos of the upset camp, trying to reclaim their lost prizes. It's not going well for them. Should of thought about the potential consequences of trying to corner humans. Cornered humans were unpredictable and really, really good at causing problems for their captors.

Gobbet tries to listen for Rat, searching for the familiar pull in her gut that tells her which way to go. It's distressingly absent here. Swearing under her breath, she scans the battlefield. There are brief openings in the pattern of combat as apes chase, engage, and fall dead. They'll have to be quick about it, but they can definitely take advantage of the tide-like fluctuation of the battlefield.

Gobbet looks to the battlefield, trying to find ways out, while Shepard looks to the cages behind them, still full of other captives. She shakes her head.

"I'll get you as far out of here as I can but like I said earlier, I ain't leaving until everyone is out of those cages."

She feels her biotics gearing up inside her, the familiar feel of a battlefield calling her name. The peaceful island life has never been her, even with the constant stress of survival. It's here that she thrives and while it's not the healthiest thing in the world, nor is this particular battle the best, it makes sense. Commander Shepard is a weapon and it's been awhile since she has been put to use.

Gobbet stares at her for a moment before sighing in resignation. Hey, maybe Shepard owes something to these people. Maybe she's just the hero type and can't sleep at night unless she does one good deed a day. It was no use arguing practicality versus heroics in the middle of a combat situation. So instead, she simply nods and draws up a spell. A gentle green energy, pulsing in her hand. She offers the ball of energy to Shepard.

"If you're bent on staying, I can't stop you. I can find my way to safety, but this should help you out."

If she should accept it, she would feel her muscles grow light and loose, her breathing becoming easier and fuller. Her movements will seem faster for the next thirty minutes or so.

Shepard knows that stare. It's the stare of someone who is used to saving their own hide unable to understand her brash heroics. It's nice. It reminds her of people she knows back home. The glowing green ball of energy she creates in her hands is something she doesn't know however and she looks to it for a brief moment before looking to Gobbet. She explains what it is supposed to do and there is a mixture of perplexity and curiosity inside her as she decides rather quickly to accept it. There's not much time to think logically about what this could do to her or if it will even work at all.

"Thank you, Gobbet. Stay safe, all right?"

She can already start to feel the effects of whatever it is that she's been given, her muscles no longer as heavy as before. She can feel her lungs expanding and a familiar level of biotic spark running up her spine. It's liberating and she can already feel a reckless smile tugging at the edges of her lips.

"I'll live."

Is the most honest answer she can give as she looks back to the battlefield. It's chaotic and messy and Gobbet feels strangely at home among the screeching and metallic tang of blood on the wind. There are openings in the tide of battle and she takes the first one she sees, disappearing into a sea of bodies living and dead.

Weaving through the fighting and occasionally slinging spells to cover herself, Gobbet finds exhaustion pulling at her muscles harder than it ever has before. This must be what the Storyteller meant by "needing to recharge". With one last look back at the cages and the pot, Gobbet shakes her head and plunges into the jungle in search of safety.

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October Intro: Louder than Sirens, Louder than Bells

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