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

[lifeaftr_mods]

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.

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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!

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LOGS ● OOC ● STORIES ● MAIN NAVIGATION

( CODED BY BOOTYCALL )

Comments

[boundwitch]

You should have just said that, [Sieglinde says, lecturing and utterly unruffled. Then she turns her attention to Tibia.]

Hello, I like your mask.

[ishotyouuu]

[IXNAY ON THE ULL-SKAY, SIEGLINDE. Wade does his best to ameliorate the situation, pulling an exaggerated face and cutting a hand swiftly across his throat in an attempt to warn the young girl of the can of worms she's in danger of opening, but the damage has already been done. Tibia bows her head sorrowfully, her claws already signing out her answer.]

It's my mother's skull. I wear it to remember her.

[boundwitch]

[The use of an actual sign language is strange to Sieglinde, and she watches Tibia's movements with blatant curiosity.]

My mother is dead too. [A similarity between her and this creature. But... well, Sieglinde doesn't have anything from her parents except her intellect.

There's nothing more to be said on that front, so Sieglinde goes back to eating her fish.]

[ishotyouuu]

[And at that piece of revelation, Tibia can only stare at the girl. In her childlike way she had always thought she was the only one to lose a mother, that it was a horrific situation that only she suffered. To meet someone who had to deal with that same loss left her both vindicated and sad for Sieglinde's sake. Reaching out to gently touch her hand, Tibia makes a fist with her other claw and moves it in a circle above her chest.]

I'm sorry.

[boundwitch]

[Sieglinde's eyes go a little wide as she stares down at the little creature.

An "I'm sorry" seems like too much, because Sieglinde... she isn't hurt by it, not in the way that needs sympathy. She'd thought her mother was dead for her whole life, and then she discovered the woman had only thought of her as a tool for destruction and a sort of reincarnation of a dead man.

Any pain in Sieglinde's chest is just the old bruised ache of a childish desire that could never have come true, the wish for something that could never have happened. (Or for other people, people who were not her mother, people who only pretended to care). ]

It is all right. I have Wolf to take care of me, like you have that man. [Except...

She looks up at "that man", brow furrowed slightly in sudden concern.]

Have you seen a strong man with blond hair? He would have been very concerned and looking for me. [Of course Wolf is here somewhere. He has to be.]

[ishotyouuu]

[These poor kids. Wade feels a surge of sympathy for them both-- dead mothers were never a good thing to bond over, and he marvels over them taking it both so well. He wonders, vaguely, whether Sieglinde's nonchalance over the subject was genuine or whether it was just a front to mask her true feelings. It seems rude to ask. Instead, he focuses on the question she's just poised to him. A strong man with blond hair isn't very much to go on, but at this point it's an easy enough question to answer all the same.]

Haven't met anyone with that description, sorry. I just got here.

[An awkward silence passes, before something in him-- perhaps the grieving little boy he'd once been-- compels him to add his own two cents to the conversation.]

My mother's dead too. F-for the record. She died when I was about your age. So... y'know. I, uh... know how it feels. S-sorta.

[Wade, you don't always have to spill your guts out of your mouth.]