lifeaftr | 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 )

Flat | Top-Level Comments Only

[Roy lets out a slow breath. He ignores pain, but that doesn't mean he doesn't feel it, and its sudden absence allows him to relax muscles he hadn't been consciously tightening. Gods, he missed healing magic.]

Yes. Thank you.

[A quick assessment of her tells him -- well, not too much. She might be in the same straits as he was, stripped of all possessions, and without the fortune of having a weapon she could summon to her. Either way...]

If you don't have an escort and you're going to enter the fray to do more, you should stick with me.

[Well, she has her trident, but Lunafreya's not much of a warrior.]

I may, at that. I suspect Sir Ulric would have a number of stern words for me, were I to be injured out from beneath his watchful eye. And there's little time for stern words while the battle rages.

[She draws her hand back and dips her head gracefully in lieu of a full bow.]

Might I have the honor of knowing your name, sir?

[Roy can tell she isn't much of a warrior. For one, he can read movements well enough to get the impression that she isn't extensively trained in fighting. For the second, she's acting like she's trying to hedge a Diplomacy check on him in the middle of a combat while he's already agreed to accept her help and protect her. Definitely speaks to the kind of specialization she favors.]

Roy Greenhilt. I'll keep you safe to the best of my ability.

[Hey, not her fault all her points are in Medicine and Charisma and literally none in Constitution. Also not her fault she talks like a Tolkien novel. Lunafreya is a product of her society and also FFXV is rude about giving girls party roles.]

Thank you, Sir Greenhilt. Let us concentrate on aiding those who still fight; I will do my best not to burden you in the meantime.

[If Cindy showed up Roy would refuse to believe they were from the same world.]

Do you have any abilities besides healing? [In this moment he's all business, his sword held to parry or slash as he moves back towards the battle once more.]

[Well, in some ways, they aren't.]

I... can use my magic to repel an attack, but not efficiently.

[It's not a spell so much as a concentrated blast of light, unrefined and unspecialized. It doesn't even really hurt; Luna's a healer down to the very source of her power.]

I'll not be able to do so more than a handful of times, and any other skills I possess are of little use on the field of battle--at least, not this far from Eos.

Then let's try to avoid you needing to do that. [Roy nods. He can work with this -- oh. Wait. Crap.] Can you heal yourself?

[I'll take "Questions Final Fantasy XV Never Answered" for 500, Alex.]

I cannot.

[And she wouldn't, either, if it came down to a choice between her blood being inside her body where it may or may not belong and someone else's well-being.]

A vessel cannot pour into itself. So is it with the Oracle's power.

So your healing power comes from an internal energy source? That's unusual, in my experience.

[Roy is fully prepared to have a discussion about the nature of her power while wading back into the fray. Even as his sword hacks down a primitive wall to open up an escape route, he speaks like he's strolling down a boardwalk with her on a day off.]

[Well, okay. If he wants to have a casual chat about this while carving his way through the compound, who's Lunafreya to say no?]

My healing stems both from my own nature and the providence of the Astral gods. My bloodline, that of the Oracles, was long ago granted the ability and responsibility to commune with the forces that govern our world. Part of that gift allows us to serve as channel for the Light, but it takes something of us as well.

[She shakes her head.]

I cannot mend my own flesh when it is the medium through which that very power is made manifest. I can only do what I can to ease the suffering of those around me.

[He needs to understand in order to plan. The circumstances aren't convenient, but there's no help for that.]

Wait, so it is absolutely divine power, but the gods make you expend your own abilities rather than grant you spells?

[That's a weird and, in his opinion, terrible way to do things!]

October Intro: Louder than Sirens, Louder than Bells

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