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

[ohnehalfte]

"I"m just sayin' that in terms of interesting, unique choices in names, you're on that list too, food truck." Newt shrugs, though his face betrays him as he smirks, clearly pleased with himself.

[ohshitsweetflips]

Newt is clearly pretty sure that's a good joke, but Taako is gonna have to squint and chalk that one up to cultural differences for now. He appreciates the spirit, at least; he is already being a boon to this godsforsaken hell island with his scintillating personality alone, fuck magic. Maybe he's just got that food truck aura on top of that. "I didn't mean anything by it, I have actual lizard friends. And friends with really dumb names. I'm not here to judge." He might be about to have to give up his self-awarded 'most accepting of weird shit' mantle, though. "I'm guessing you aren't either. Most people are less into monsters trying to wipe out humanity. In my real actual literal experience." Let's unpack that.

[ohnehalfte]

"...you have actual friends who are lizards?" He looks more bemused about this news than anything, the corner of his mouth quirking upwards. But as for the monsters trying to wipe out humanity--Newt huffs, itching idly at the face of one of the kaiju on his upper arm, the designed marred by the scarring of what looks like some sort of puncture wound. "Well, people were more into them when we were winning before we were losing, but it's less that I'm "in to" them and more that they're my field of study. I'm the world's foremost kaiju expert. It's my job to figure out who or what they are and why they're attacking us."

Not to brag or anything.

[ohshitsweetflips]

Taako nods along, looking only somewhat mockingly impressed where that seems appropriate, making the right uh huh's and sure's at the right intervals during this recital of nerd pedigree. Look, he heard you the first time, when what you said was basically 'the world's not all bad, there are huge fuckoff monsters!' and yeah sometimes that's a mood, and sometimes it's what keeps someone else having a job, but it's almost never the socially acceptable response, is what. Even with all that Parlay stuff, no one probably ever went as far as calling the Hunger 'cool and interesting.' "So what'd you find out? Were they having an existential crisis, or what? That's how it was, with our thing."

[ohnehalfte]

If there's one person who is good at picking up on social cues, then it is certainly not Newt. So the 'uh huh's and 'sure's are more than enough to keep Newt talking. As for that question..."Turns out they were attacking us under orders from their masters, who were connected to them via this mass hivemind. The whole hivemind thing was pretty fascinating, and the way their consciousness worked was pretty different from ours." Newt pauses, though, blinking. "...wait, what thing was having an existential crisis?"