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]

[Sure enough, they're certain they recognize her. It's hard to forget someone who goes out of their way to be polite - even if she's conspicuously missing the boxes of coconuts they helped her reel in.]

[But sporting a pack of her own, which is a plus.]

[The HUD springs to life far faster than it has for anyone else thus far, words ticking out at a speed that might just be quantifiable as vague if sincere relief.]

we have.

[prettypurpleparlor]

[Muffet smiles, pleased and a little bit relieved. Not being entirely sure what was and wasn't real had been a bit worrying, it's nice to have some independent confirmation.]

Ah, I'm glad I recalled correctly. It was a bit strange to just go straight from wherever that island was earlier to waking up on a raft, it almost made me think that I was dreaming.

Still, at least it meant this island came as far less of a surprise, once I made it here.

Do you need help with anything? I've mostly been looking around to see what the shoreline's like, but I haven't encountered much of interest so far.

[hyperlit]

[It felt like a dream, in the same way that the Immortal Cell's great prongs of ink-black influence jabbing through them, tearing them to pieces, had felt like a dream. It may not very well have been.]

[Again she offers help, this time apropos of nothing. The Drifter blinks slowly, once, before formulating an answer.]

mapping.

[prettypurpleparlor]

[Muffet nods thoughtfully.]

That seems like a sensible choice. Does your equipment record things so you can keep track of what might be useful?

I don't have much to offer in terms of technology, but if an extra set of eyes and ears would be welcome I'd be happy to accompany you.

[hyperlit]

[Perhaps their sprite would have, once, registered the world automatically as it swept past. But now - no longer.]

requires manual input

[...]

help
?

[prettypurpleparlor]

It would be a pleasure.

Would walking along with you and pointing out anything potentially useful I notice for you to make note of suffice for input, or does it require something more complicated?

[hyperlit]

[Why is she electing to help? They are still in her debt for rescuing them from the cliff face, a fact which they have not forgotten and have no intention of forgetting.]

i will input what is necessary.
are you sure

[prettypurpleparlor]

Reasonably certain, yes.

[She looks at them curiously. Muffet goes out of her way to cultivate a tough reputation in business, but this isn't a boardroom meeting and even a stern and practical monster is still a monster, with all that implies about their nature.]

Is there a reason I should be more dubious? I admit there's the possibility of encountering something dangerous, but I doubt wandering around by myself is any safer.

[hyperlit]

[It's not the external dangers that arrest their concern, no. Again, the roadblock of why she would even bother has begun to prickle away at them - and they cannot wholly conceptualize a way around it.]

there are plenty others

[Plenty others who are not fundamentally - sick, and broken, and undesirable.]

[She has a choice now. She no longer needs to settle for a creature such as they.]

[prettypurpleparlor]

[She is, if anything, even more confused.]

Yes, we do seem to have a good deal of company in our unexpected travels. But that's hardly any reason for me to slack off on helping, if I just assume someone else will handle it then things may very well not get done at all.

[hyperlit]

[They're not being definitive enough. The Drifter pauses, perhaps the nonverbal equivalent of awkwardly breaking off mid-sentence, until finally they can stitch across the pink glow of their sprite's HUD what needs saying:]

why me

[prettypurpleparlor]

[Confusion levels maximum.]

Well, why not you? At no point have you been anything other than polite and reasonable towards me, and we worked well enough together in... whatever that strange place was.

[hyperlit]

just a drifter
there are those better suited

[Better suited than a solitary drifter like them.]

[prettypurpleparlor]

Perhaps I'm missing something, as I doubt we're from the same place, but... I'm not sure people are ever 'just' anything. They tend to be a bit too complex to be reduced to one or two convenient things.

Besides, you seem perfectly well-suited to exploring to me- you were already doing quite well even before I offered to help, it seemed.

[hyperlit]

[They are, though, aren't they? They are simply one drifter among many, and a rather despicable one at that - their race does not particularly put them in a good position for anyone's good graces.]

not well.
cliffs in the way.

[prettypurpleparlor]

Well, perhaps that's an area where I can be of use- after all, I am rather naturally well-supplied with climbing rope.

[hyperlit]

how high?

[As perplexing as her insistence of offer her help is, they're not about to give that offer up - not simply based on their own perceptions. Not when they've not met anyone else capable of scaling the cliffs surrounding them.]

[prettypurpleparlor]

[She waves a hand in a noncommittal gesture.]

In terms of sticking a line directly to the top of a cliff, I'd need to able to see where I was aiming it.

In terms of how long a line I can produce, period... honestly, I'm not sure there is a hard limit to it? If I kept trying to make more continuously without any food or rest, I'd eventually collapse from exhaustion, but not having ever actually tried that I couldn't say how long it would take.

This is the magical ones, admittedly- I'm not completely sure what my threshold for making just plain silk lines would be, either, but I know it's far less than my ability to keep using purple magic.

[hyperlit]

[Hm. They've food on hand, at least, and they're well-accustomed to enduring for a long while without needing additional sustenance. Not recommended, precisely, given their general state of illness, but it is best to place one's resources in a healthy basket. Not a sickly one.]

might cut through ruins.

[prettypurpleparlor]

I've no objection to that. I had been staying further out on the edges to avoid risking any hidden dangers until I knew this place a little better, but going in with two people seems far safer.

[hyperlit]

[They cannot say they necessarily feel the same; drifters are independent by nature, and solitary almost by necessity, with so few of them wandering the world's surface. But their journey had been expedited, no doubt, by the presence of a fellow drifter the last time they committed to such an undertaking.]

[Experience now suggests that accompaniment would be wise.]

alright

Wrapping and picking back up at the mingle, maybe?

[prettypurpleparlor]

[She smiles, and turns to face the ruins.]

After you, then.

sure thing!

[hyperlit]

[And then the Drifter dumped like half a dozen coconuts on the ruins floors HOW'S THAT FOR PAYING BACK THAT DEBT]