October Intro: Louder than Sirens, Louder than Bells

[lifeaftr_mods]

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 )

Comments

[scourgingstars]

Apologies.

[maybe watch where you suddenly appear, gosh.]

[forgetmenow]

It doesn't matter to me. But other people might not be careful.

[And he just looks at Ardyn, now. Really... looks.

And almost instinctively he takes a step back, quickly, as one might do if startled by a loud noise. This despite not seeming bothered with the big sword being swung around just before.]

1/2

[scourgingstars]

[The things that were in Ardyn's head were...unpleasant. The closest memories were bad enough; flashes of bright fire and blades, rain from a blighted and blackened sky. 'A war of attrition, then,' he'd said in an exhausted voice that still managed to have the strength to be mocking and arrogant.]

['When the prophecy is fulfilled-']

['-this time, you can rest in peace.']

[A young girl looking to him with compassion and sympathy in her dying moments. A man with clear blue eyes extending the same compassion ten years later. Blue eyes that matched those of a red-haired man who spoke a millennia-old order of execution in a voice that was overlaid with static and long since forgotten. Burning, beheading, impalement, hanging, why can't I die I'll kill every single one of them for this and through all of it the armored silver-haired knight who had sworn to protect him did nothing.]

[('Such a pitiable waste', he'd said in almost a melodic tone as he watched the capital burn so many ages later. Let them die, he almost envied them for having the ability.)]

[A body that had once been human, degenerating into something black and monstrous beneath the weight of his own sacrifices. Betrayal, agony, a hundred years or so left alone in a prison of stone and forgotten. Centuries upon centuries of wandering the planet under countless illusions and aliases, the name Ardyn Lucis Caelum never once spoken on the planet again until he said it himself to a boy vanishing into a shining Crystal.]

[Two thousand years of memories and all of it colored by a harsh current of rage, of hatred and anguish that hid the deep and immeasurable exhaustion of immortality.]

[scourgingstars]

[Ardyn glanced over his shoulder at the reaction, as though he expected another threat to be rearing up behind him. When none presented itself, he looked back at Cole with a small frown, uncertain as to what prompted his reaction.]

...What? Have I already said something wrong?

[forgetmenow]

[It's a lot.

A lot.

It's not the amount of time. He's felt more. Ages upon ages, the vast expanse of time reaching back to the Golden City itself, memories of a Magister so old even the songs don't remember. The ancient sorrows of one who slumbered for centuries, the old wolf dreaming of a time long gone, wandering, waiting, wondering if anything was still real. The old songs, heard only by the tainted ones, ancient gods desperately calling out.

But this is almost a concentrated amount and it's all at once, catching him off guard. He would have heard this, felt this from a distance, had all the fighting not distracted him. It's harder when there's fighting.

It would have been better if he had heard. He's unprepared now and it's as if touching a hot stove without thinking. His whole being wants to recoil, but he just stands there.

It's loud and bright underneath the dark and searing hate consuming everything and pain and pain and pain and pain and pain and pain.

Compassion wants to reach out, wants to help, but there's so much, and so little time. No, too much time, that's the problem, so much, endless time, never ending, why won't it stop, why does it just keep going?]

It keeps going. It always keeps going.

[It's wrong. This is wrong. Demon is a word that enters his mind and it's not correct, but it's not wrong, and somehow that's more frightening than the alternative.]

But it's so dark... How can you even see, when it's so dark?

[Does this answer your question at all, Ardyn?]

[scourgingstars]

...What? [Yellow eyes narrowed in uncertainty that turned to outright confusion; as a matter of fact, that only raised more questions.]

What are you talking about?

[forgetmenow]

[It never hurts that it hurts. Because feeling the pain means he can find it, help it. So it doesn't bother him, then.

He doesn't know where he would begin with this.]

Dark and loud, everywhere, all around... [He can't help when he can barely process all of it. But he's trying.] It clings to you... No, burrowed inside, but still reaching out.

And it won't stop.

[Like the ancient elvhen in Arlathan, never stopping.]

"Such is my blessing and my curse."

[scourgingstars]

[That time it was Ardyn's turn to step back like he'd been burned, something actually stunned briefly crossing his face.]

How...could you possibly...

['But then I remembered I'm immortal.']

[forgetmenow]

Cold, so cold. Her cold, but not the right cold, it's too fleeting. Death's chill wind, but not its embrace.

...I felt it.

[An answer, this time. Actually acknowledging what Ardyn is saying, if perhaps not the clear and direct answer he might be looking for.]

[scourgingstars]

[In a twist he'd almost have called ironic, Ardyn felt himself freeze solid in a way far different than he had beneath Gentiana's touch. The untold horrors that made up his entire body and soul were screaming kill him--for knowing more than Ardyn was willing to allow, for daring to imply he understood as the girl with the compassionate voice once had, or just because he was feeling an uncertainty that he found distressing and uncomfortable.]

[But something--shock, curiosity, or a fleeting and nameless whim--stayed his hand. The greatsword was entirely forgotten, vanishing in a scattering of white crystals as it all but fell out of Ardyn's hand.]

...Who are you?

[forgetmenow]

[He feels all that, as well. There's some relief, that trying to kill him won't be the first step. He could make Ardyn forget, if he had to... if it would work. Would it, on someone like him? He's never tried.

He'd prefer not to chance it.]

I'm Cole. Just Cole.

[A boy of no consequence.]

But... that's not the answer you want.

[A statement, not a question. But a slightly awkward one, like he's trying very hard to figure out the right way to answer.]

[scourgingstars]

What, then, if it's a matter of mere phrasing we're to be arguing today.

[forgetmenow]

Not human. Just like you, but nothing like you.

[It's different, the demons he feels from Ardyn. Not like what he knows. No one is like what he knows.

It makes explaining harder. And he's nervous to try, because people knowing what he is... doesn't always go over well.]

It's... complicated. I'm a spirit.

[The easy answer.]

[scourgingstars]

... Stranger things have happened, I suppose.

[It was difficult, reestablishing the false composure that always hid spite and anger. He'd been soundly thrown off by this, in a way only Lunafreya had ever managed as far as he could remember. This child hardly looked like a Mindflayer, but he was quite hard pressed to think of anything else he could remotely compare this to, daemonic or otherwise.]

[forgetmenow]

[It's probably pointless to bother with the composure in front of someone who can feel all the emotions underneath. But that's fine, really.]

Like you?

[Because boy.

You're pretty weird.]

[scourgingstars]

Now that's just impolite.

[it's be a smartass or go even crazier, i guess.]

[forgetmenow]

Oh, sorry.

[An honestly sincere apology.

It's better, now that he's acclimated a little to it. It's still there, hot and dark and loud, but he sees where it is now. Knows how to reach in without burning up.]

...I don't think anyone here can know exactly what I am. No one knows what the Fade is.

But everyone is still so loud.

[scourgingstars]

It's not a term I'm familiar with.

[None of this situation was, and that alone left even him unsettled. How much had he even seen--far too much, that was clear. Ardyn was so used to holding an advantage in all his interactions that he had no clue what to do once the tables had been turned.]

You can do that with anyone?

[forgetmenow]

Most people, yes. Some people are too quiet or too bright. ["Like counting birds against the sun."] But that doesn't happen often.

You're very loud.

[scourgingstars]

I can't very well do anything about that.

[forgetmenow]

No.

[He can't.]

It's not... wrong. Sometimes people just are loud, because there's... a lot. [A lot of what, he doesn't specify. But even without proper context, no one can deny that Ardyn is A Lot.] It just makes sense.

It helps me know where to go.

[scourgingstars]

I don't suppose a polite request to stay out of my head will be of any use.

[If Ardyn was capable of sympathy, he might almost have felt it right about then. The frustrating and infuriating invasion of privacy aside, even he couldn't quite find it in him to wish something like this on anyone.]

[forgetmenow]

It... doesn't really work like that.

[scourgingstars]

Somehow, I suspected as much.

[forgetmenow]

Things never work the way we want them to. They just... are.

[He fidgets, still slightly nervous even as he's getting used to it all.]

I'm sorry.