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

[hyperlit]

[Both titles are unrecognizable. Not from Caelondia, nor are they from any Boundless Sea. They've no notion of where they are now, in fact. They can simply understand that they're elsewhere.]

no.
a dying world
far from here.

[builditstrong]

[A dying world. Sounds familiar.]

Calamity?

[Did it really affect the entire world...?]

[hyperlit]

an immortal cell.
corrupting the world at its core.

["Calamity" is not the word they would use, but it would apply nonetheless.]

[builditstrong]

[He's not sure what a cell is, but he understands "corruption." Rucks always talked about those Calamity stones like they were a sickness.]

[This doesn't sound quite the same as the Calamity. He's pretty sure that if that were the case, the first thing the Drifter mentioned would be how the world is floating in pieces. But it still sounds like a calamity. Something just as bad.]

'M sorry.

[hyperlit]

[A shrug. There is nothing they can do now to fix it, or make it better. It simply is. And that...]

[At least now, that may well change. If the jackal god's final, imparting visions were any indication, the toxic pink will turn to water, and the world's corrupted lungs will finally breathe clean air.]

[They must be content with that.]

fight to fix it
you always can

[builditstrong]

[A shrug, which is pretty much exactly how he would have responded to such a comment. "Sorry" isn't particularly novel, or useful, but it's nice enough to hear. It's a kind of camaraderie.]

[He's quiet for awhile after he reads the text scroll across the Drifter's HUD, staring somewhat blankly down at the sand.]

What 'f fixin' it's the wrong choice?

[hyperlit]

[That...]

[A single blink of their dark eyes betrays their surprise. They'd not expected to hear a question like that. What if fixing it is the wrong choice? But what, then, is the other option? To simply watch it fade?]

[Or is there another choice entirely?]

[The Drifter ponders that in silence before finally the text erases itself, replaced by another line in turn.]

[Not an answer, but another question.]

what is the alternative?

[builditstrong]

[He's not looking at them. It was only...what, a few days ago. The explanation had been so fast. He'd barely had any time to think. There was just...that sense, when Rucks had said his piece. That sense like they'd all been there before. Like he'd stood in that hidden room, had one last decision thrust upon him, and had made a choice.]

[Like it had all already happened.]

[It felt wrong.]

[He scuffs a boot in the sand.]

Take what's lef' an' go.

Go anywhere.

[hyperlit]

[Did he intend, they cannot help but wonder at that, to come here? Did he take what's left and go? The Drifter glances out across the clear water - dangerous and beautiful and transparent, so unlike the cloying thickness of the toxic magenta that floods their lungs.]

[Is this better than a world in pieces - corrupted or lost beyond all hope for repair?]

go here?

[builditstrong]

[They were certainly heading somewhere. Rucks had said they'd reach the edge of the Boundless Sea in a few days. The sea and everything beyond it was supposed to still be intact.]

Mebe. But they ain't here. Don't matter 'f they ain't here.

[hyperlit]

[This, too, is fair. If they are not here, there is no point in believing otherwise. There is little hope in speculating and entertaining what-ifs - the world will not halt for hypothetical situations.]

[It is best, always best, to concentrate on what is.]

here is new

[builditstrong]

[He almost answers immediately, because of course this place is new. But the meaning feels deeper than that. It is new, isn't it? He can't see any of the remains of Caelondia from here. Can't see the Bastion. And it sounds like the Drifter has never heard of this place either. Kid gets the feeling the Drifter is more well-traveled than he is.]

...Feels like a long way fr'm home. Yeah?

[hyperlit]

clean.
no corruption.
new.

[Not fragmented in the least, which is...a new and strange sensation, they will be the first to admit. They've not learned what it is, just yet, to exist in a world that is not struggling to keep itself alive on every basic level.]

[builditstrong]

[He nods at that. No corruption, no Calamity.]

[Maybe they're not in the Boundless Sea at all, then. Maybe this is all a very vivid dream.]

Lotta ques'ions.

[hyperlit]

[On that, at least, they can agree - though the Drifter would have been content to simply let the questions fade to the background. If they had to know anything, it was simply what could be done in the immediate moment for the benefit of exploration.]

no answers

[A pause. Then:]

yet

[builditstrong]

[He looks away then, gaze traveling over the beach, the cliffs, the jungle, the faintest glimpse of the ruins.]

Lot t'explore. Yeah?

[The Drifter had asked for help mapping the island back in that strange dream. No reason they both can't do that again.]

[hyperlit]

[That's far more their speed, yes. They cannot claim to be very good at diplomacy, or much of anything at all - save for their capacity to cover vast stretches of land and chart what needs charting.]

yes.
mapping?

[builditstrong]

Ain't so good at drawin' 'n such. But yea.

[Someone else can handle the actual drawing of maps. He's always been more of a scout, reporting back what he's found.]

[hyperlit]

[Ah, but that is where technology comes in handy. The sprite projects a secondary HUD - larger and wider, and blank, but with a matte background that may make its purpose obvious.]

map

[builditstrong]

[He studies it for a moment, rubbing at his chin through his bandanna. He doesn't understand the technology at all, but the purpose makes sense.]

That th' sorta thing I could use? 'R just you?

[That little floaty...thing next to them seems like it's connected to them specifically.]

[hyperlit]

just me.

[Perhaps drifters in his world do not make use of companions. A peculiar occurrence, but one they will have to work around.]

it intuits what i need.

[builditstrong]

[The Drifter has their speed, and they have their technology that will let them make a good map of the island.]

[It's sounding like they won't really need Kid's help at all. He would likely just slow them down.]

So, what kin I do?

[If anything.]

[hyperlit]

[What can he do, as opposed to what should he. The phraseology does not escape them. Their fingertips pause, briefly, before they skitter across the screen and reorient.]

are there hostiles

[builditstrong]

[Hostiles. He can almost hear Rucks listing them off one by one, every type of Windbag, every type of Wild creature. He glances at the jungle. That part of the island certainly looks like the Wilds, but he hasn't seen anything alive yet.]

[There's the people, but it makes no sense for any of them to be hostile, at least not until food and water starts to become scarce. If it isn't already.]

Dunno.

[He knows his own usefulness. He can explore, he can build, he can break, he can destroy. If the Drifter needs him to fight things off and keep them safe while they explore, so be it. He's not really one for asking questions.]

[hyperlit]

there might be.

[And if there are, they can only last as long as their illness does not claw at their insides. They are a liability in the fight, this they know well. They've required help on multiple occasions.]