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

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.

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

Wow, yeah, that's really not her wheelhouse, is it, but he snorts quietly anyway. Not a pity laugh, more like gratitude? Yeah. Her commitment to their shared bravado is wholly appreciated. It's...important. It's dire. They have to just roll with this shit for now, like every dumpster dinner before this one, stretching back through literal decades. They're tired and disheartened and this thing with their magic just doesn't stop being so incredibly unfortunate, this is an infinite drama generator that they have to just forcibly unplug. And he has started to understand, now, the special horror wrought into that loss, her fears of being nothing, being forgotten, being useless. Which is all the more reason, he is absolutely dedicated to not letting that get off the ground again. Just gonna tourniquet all this. They're in retreat, but it's a controlled one. See what happens when you communicate? People know shit, and let it influence their behaviour for the better. Fuckin wild, right?

All the more reason he's not gonna let it be a thing that she kinda just stepped in it right out of the gate. There's not a good night for Wonderland callbacks, but if there were this wouldn't be it. It sucks and he hates the reminder, and the fun new added layer--wow! What a time for magic as a whole to shit the bed! And of the spells he's tried and flubbed today, Disguise Self defs isn't topping the list but it's just. Another thing, that has happened. Just one of way too many. Same shit, different plane. But what's really the worst here is the possibility of Lup feeling even more out of sync and emotionally left-footed than she already has. It's an act of real will not to pin his ears, let any defensiveness or plain old hurt creep into his bearing, but hey, that's not something he took a hit to, right? Plenty of stubbornness left. They'll get the hang of it. The generator has to be unplugged so they can get this turd of a day over, dammit. "And yet you're still volunteering. Your sacrifice won't be forgotten." It almost sounds right.

It sounds hollow, is what it does. Despite his admirable efforts, just hollow enough for her to notice, one ear twitching in surprise at him taking this lame joke the wrong way somehow. What, what is it this time? What supremely shitty thing did she miss by being locked away and forgotten and unable to stand at his side, again. It's not like, well alright, he is vain and so is she, but he's also practical enough to know their disheveled state is the least of their problems right now. So it's gotta be the worse option, like every other damn thing on this beach tonight.

She's fully blaming her utter physical and emotional exhaustion for how long it's taking to figure out, in the moment before it clicks. Sacrifice. She heard it in his voice alright, but she heard it in another elf's voice before that, only, what, a few days ago at most. And it's like ice in her heart to realize what she just stepped in, and she can't keep herself from really looking at him, wondering... how much of it is being tired and gross and caked in sand and tear stains, and how much is gonna be-- different, now.

But there's fire too, a wrath and protectiveness that's never going to extinguish until she herself does, and she offers him the only thing she can think to give. "You know I made Edward pay for everything he did to you, right?" she says with an echo of viciousness on his behalf in her voice, even now. "I crushed him."

Well, it was an admirable effort, until she had to go and really scrutinise him, and now it was all for nothing, because he is all averted eyes and cringed ears and frankly annoyed set to his mouth. Which is unfair, and unnecessary, what else is new. It's not even, look, the vanity is real, he's not gonna lie, but. How fucked up is it they're less identical now over some shit that didn't even have to happen? And how fucked up is it that there's nothing he can do about it? Giving something up but sweeping the rug out at the last minute and getting to keep it is a signature Taako fuck-you move, the down-and-dirty third option that's just 'my way, actually.' And this was certainly a less than perfect execution, but the sentiment remained for sure. And he doesn't get to keep even that! It's complicated and dumb and probably not real and he didn't want it looked at. Not to mention it just, isn't important right now, because they're surviving, fuck off. No more crises, no more missteps, that part of the night has been over and this wasn't her fault, wasn't A fault at all.

He's gearing up to express just that, but doesn't get the chance. He hears the viciousness in her voice and knows probably better than anyone still alive how that tends to shake down, and the involuntary teeth-baring grin it puts on his face probably does a lot more to make them identical than spellcasting would have. "Good." Who knew retroactive, vicarious bloodthirst could be such a warm fuzzy feeling? No one loves justice quite like people who don't see it that often. "I mean, I didn't know at the time, and I've been, uhh, a little busy since then. But now I know. He couldn't have ended up in better hands." He looks a little less thrilled about murder, but honestly, that was a good gift just now, Lup, and he still looks pretty bout it. "Sorry I said some stuff I didn't know I didn't mean, at the time. Basic liches get stitches. Better?" Please let them just. Put all of this away. At least for tonight if not forever.

She knows it was the right thing to say by his sharp grin, and it's a relief, and it's the same wild spiteful delight that's made them the last thing a lot of suckers have dared to mess with, no matter how many hits they may take. Anyone thinking one twin without the other was bad news? Wait until someone tries to get at them now. The corners of her mouth tick up in sync with his and her earlier inspection is moot; she could be looking in a mirror right now.

Also, her brother's approval is, as always, appreciated, especially considering it was the only thing she could do for him at the time, while she raged herself ragged in her prison, hearing his losses, feeling the weakening force behind his spells, utterly terrified of what would happen if the Game didn't end in time. She only regrets she didn't get to Lydia too.

His tacked on apology earns a genuine snort of suppressed laughter, tension gratefully draining away. It was a damn good zinger, which means he doesn't need the encouragement. "I dunno, how basic were they? I mean, you did applaud them like a fucking dork," she points out, tilting her head to look up at him with a shit-eating smirk. Yeah, all in favor of putting this away for tonight, how about pissing on their dead tormentors' graves instead.

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

no subject

no subject

the unjust got eaten by the just's umbrella

vore justice, or vorstice