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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[Pharah has been sticking close to McCree since the whole boiling pot fiasco. She's down to three shots left in her rocket launcher, but that's been stashed on the back of her power suit for the time being. If she needs it, she can have it back in her hands quick enough, but for now they're both more concerned with making sure that others are handling the situation okay.

This place is nothing like she's seen before, so she doesn't expect to find anyone else that she knows. At least not until Mercy comes upon them, clearly just as surprised to see McCree as she was--and just as surprised as Pharah is to see her as well.]

Angela? What are you doing here? [At least she was someone that Pharah had a little more contact with after her mother disappeared and Overwatch disbanded. More than with McCree, anyway. But with the two of them here, she can't help but wonder who else they might run into. This is too strange to be a coincidence.]

[If there's one thing stranger than seeing Fareeha Amari in a suit of armor, looking more like her mother than ever, it's seeing Dr. Angela Ziegler in the middle of a jungle. This whole thing has been - well, strange.

It takes every odd thing he's seen since joining up with Blackwatch and twists it. He's run into intelligent simians, and now there's a tribe with them. He's gotten taken prisoner, now he's only avoided being boiled alive by his captors by the grace of someone who's practically his sister. It's taken running into dangerous people in dangerous places and given him the staunchest pacifist he's ever had the pleasure of meeting.

He doesn't know where he is or why he's there, but the fact of the matter is he barely has time to consider that.]

Damn, Ang- y'look like you've seen a ghost.

[The tone of his voice doesn't settle well with him. Angela is a field medic. She's not meant for war, and the panic clear in her eyes...It makes him wary.]

[That voice...]

Fareeha?

[But older, wiser. In a soldier's suit of armor. Somehow that part didn't surprise her. The Amari name was practically synonymous with "protectors" and Fareeha had always shown an interest in Overwatch.]

[Her face hardens, tone firm and as neutral as she can make it given the fact that people she considered close as kin were now in serious danger.]

Worse, I've seen you. [It was fine if it was just HER trapped on a bizarre island full of hostile monkeys. Speaking of which, a spear flies past her shoulder and imbeds itself in the ground behind McCree.] We need to secure as many people as possible and exit immediately. These apes are seeking revenge, they will not take prisoners twice. There is a temple north of here that should be safe.

[To some degree, Pharah understands why Mercy would be distraught at finding them here. Meeting loved ones on a battlefield where you don't expect them to be is jarring. McCree's poor ribs can probably attest to Pharah's sudden sense of urgency when she realized that McCree was here and in danger. She stills has to apologize for that--but later.

But for the moment, there's more important things to consider. The fact that there's a temple nearby that might serve as a shelter from all of this is promising. So long as they all manage to make it there. The spear that goes flying past has Pharah moving to the side, making a small triangle between them--so that her armor might shield the other two just a little better while also giving her some visibility behind them.]

How far north? And how defensible? If they're after revenge, we should assume that we may be followed. [At that they may need to make a stand to protect the innocent and the injured.]

[It would be less fine if it was just Mercy. She's a non-combatant, living on her own in the wild? That's not good.

That's very not good.]

If these monkeys want people to pay, they're goin' to do more than just follow us.

[He turns, taking a moment to line up a shot before putting down the spear-thrower down. It's quick, efficient, and that's one more bullet gone. Is it smart? Probably not, but it gives them a bit more of a reprieve as he holsters Peacemaker.]

Ange, you got any idea how many there are?

[How many people who need help. How many apes are out for blood. It's a vague question with vague answers but there's no time to get the nitty-gritty until they can get out of here.]

A good distance, admittedly, but it offers sheltered areas and choke points to defend. We should consider that the Storyteller will more than likely appear to defend his home as well, potentially lending us extra firepower and defenses.

[How many people needed help? There were nearly 30 or more on the islets and she didn't know how many were on the mainland. How many had just arrived today? How many did the monkeys get their paws on in the first place?]

There's no way to know for certain. [She concludes helplessly.] There are at least several dozen apes.

[But they're falling fast. They were not at all prepared for this level of retaliation. Mercy curses the capabilities of cornered humans, trying to block out the animalistic screams of dying monkeys.]

[The mention of the Storyteller gets a bit of a look from Pharah, but she doesn't question it right now. It there's some advantage they can take from usher these people into that temple, then she'll go ahead and take it. She can worry about the strange dream creature later.]

[Nor does she seem concerned with the plight of the monkeys. As far as she's concerned, they started this. She's just helping to finish it.]

Alright. We'll send everyone in the direction of the temple. You should go on ahead and meet us there, Angela. Take anyone with you that's already clear of the apes and their cages. We'll bring the rest to you.

Jesse, I'll need your help guiding these people out of here. Focus on the noncombatants. Send everyone you can find towards the temple. We don't want any stragglers left behind. We'll make a full sweep of the area before pulling out.

[Well now is exactly the time that McCree is going to ask question.]

Who exactly is this Storyteller fella?

[Storyteller is more of a title than a name, a descriptor. Doesn't sound like the kind of thing somebody's called for no reason.

He chews on his bottom lip as he watches Fareeha. It's a poor replacement for a cigarette, but. Well. He's all out, now, the cigarettes he had on him oddly waterlogged and ruined.]

Y'sure that's the best course of action? Splittin' up could cause us more trouble than it's worth.

[He'll do what's asked of him, in the end, will leave the leading to the people who want to take up that mantle, but he can't help himself from questioning orders.]

He--[Neutral pronouns, right. They had talked about this once in a dream.] They claim they are a god.

[Mercy doesn't believe much in anything. Belief can let you down. Belief can be wrong. That's why she buries herself in facts and hard science. If the Storyteller wants to call themselves a god, that's their prerogative. All she cares about is the fact that they can and most likely will help. Probably.]

We have no choice. I am without my staff and you two are armed. [They were going to have to kill the apes. It was out of her control now. She breathes into a sigh.] I would be a liability.

It's the best plan that we have at the moment, Jesse. [Jesse may be injured, but Angela is unarmed, as she just mentioned. She won't force a medic to stay on the field without even a sidearm to defend herself with.]

[She doesn't particularly want to send either of them off by themselves, but she has to trust them. They've been at this longer than she has, after all. They should know how to stay alive.]

A god? God of what, exactly?

[He grimaces, but there's not much he can argue. They're at a clear disadvantage here, ill-equipped and ill-informed, but there's safety in numbers, isn't there.]

The Doc's not got a weapon and our enemies ain't gonna make the mistake a takin' prisoners again.

[Which everyone already knows, but there's a point he needs to make.]

'Least one a us should make sure Ange can get to safety.

[The worst place for an unarmed medic can be is on the field, especially one as chaotic as this. There are bizarre feats happening everywhere Jesse looks, and it's not hard to think about how someone could easily get caught in the crossfire.

If the safest place is the temple, the most dangerous place is going to be right outside. It's not a complete leap of logic to make.]

Stories.

[Angela gestures helplessly. She knows, Jesse. Believe her, she knows. But they're the best lead they've got at this point.]

If someone can get me to the gate, I can get myself to the temple. You two need to focus on freeing the hostages.

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October Intro: Louder than Sirens, Louder than Bells

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