November Intro: Red Sun Rises Like an Early Warning

[lifeaftr_mods]

INTRO LOG: NOVEMBER

Who: Everyone!
What: New souls arrive to the archipelago of LifeAftr
When: November 3rd and beyond
Where: Ensō
Warnings: Mark as needed!

The New Arrivals: Hold My Hand
When you wake, it will be to the lapping of waves, frothed with foam...pulling at your hair, your skin, your clothing. The sand is soft and wet beneath you, but it's several inches submerged. And the longer you stay here, the more obvious it will be that the water level of the ocean ringing this strip of island has begun to to rise, and not merely because the tide has started to come in.

And what's more? You can tell that something else about this entire situation is horribly, horribly wrong.

Perhaps you've lost some special power. Perhaps some piece of your memory is freshly and disconcertingly blank. Perhaps you've just discovered that one of your senses is missing, or that you've been rendered unable to speak, or you've been struck by a debilitating fatigue. Not only are you stranded in some unfamiliar place, stuck on a rapidly flooding beach, but you aren't even doing it in full possession of all your faculties.
For those who agreed to put themselves at a disadvantage for a stranger, these are your consequences. If you're unclear as to the handicap your character has been assigned, if any, please check your initial acceptance notice!

All new arrivals will additionally awake with knapsacks, their names stitched to the front. The contents of said knapsacks can also be found in your acceptance notices!

For All: It's a Long Way Down
The water isn't a problem for the newest arrivals, either. It seems that the waters all over Ensō have started to rise, slowly at first, and then with a steadily increasing rate. At first, you might be forgiven for assuming the tide must simply be unusually high, or maybe that the island's begun to sink. But the longer it endures, the more obvious it becomes that neither is the case.

The water has begun to rise. Something is wrong with the island itself, or the being living on it, and now there is nothing preventing the water's inexorable approach as it steadily washes over and over the mainland. In fact, if you listen closely, you might even be able to hear a peculiar sound tearing over the cold rush of the coastal wind; something akin to a desolate wailing.

Either get to high ground - and quickly - or find out what's causing this. But either way, we suggest you hurry...because there are a great deal of newly arrived, very disoriented folk on the beach that could really, really use your help.

---

As a final note to those who participated in the Test Drive Meme, bear in mind that 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.

---

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 )

Comments

sachiko shinozaki / corpse party

[foreverafter]

hold my hand
[ This child on the beach doesn’t seem to be moving, even after most people have gotten up.

Her dress is a mottled red and white, and with each roll of the tide, it takes shades of red and orange away, as if the red, rot-smelling ‘dye’ is nonpermanent. Sachiko has had everything taken from her; the numerous puppet strings which control Tenjin Academy, the thing that held her together. At the very least, she feels her power beneath this skin— ugh, skin. She’s not alive, but she isn’t dead either. She can tell by the way her heart doesn’t beat, and if she forces a gasp of air, her lungs feel like brittle paper bags.

She has to make a plan, quickly. Attack or disguise. Disguise is the smartest, she still looks like a seven year old despite behaving more like a brat. Putting on the cute act that let her vanish when she was last corporeal will help her through this.

Trying to teleport just sends a small buzz down her spine. Looking up her arm, she’s a clammy, dead gray, but not necrotic. One less thing to worry about. She’ll have to examine the rest of herself later.

Sachiko lost her mind while she was a child spirit, so she’s still about one mentally, if just extremely versed in the cruel and as knowledgable as what she picked up around Tenjin. So almost like throwing a tantrum, she closes her eyes and waits to see if anyone notices her limp form before struggling to get up. ]

[achievementhunter]

[Hey. So what's up with this lost, dead child?

She's absolutely tiny. A miracle they spotted her at all, in this weather. It'll be a further miracle if she's even alive, though her pallor isn't particularly promising. Chara can't even contemplate looting her corpse- standards just slightly higher than coldly rooting through a dead child's belongings.

So then, how to approach this? Staring down at her, they suppose the first thing is confirming her condition. Sighing to themself, they crouch, a few less than pleased words escaping their mouth as a wave sprays water over them, and hold their hand just shy of her mouth and nose. If she's breathing, they'll drag her a little further up, until some adult who gives a damn takes her.

If she isn't, good for her.]

cw: eye squick, emeto (not being able to keep saltwater down)

[foreverafter]

[ She breathes, but it's wispy and wheezy.

Unnatural.

Like she remembers the beat but not the tune of remembering how to breathe. Despite this, Chara can still feel telltale breaths, even if they're cold, and if they glimpse at her face, one eye is closed, and the other is open... bits of sand sticking to her white eyeball where she was lying face down. She doesn't seem to react, despite having a new person's pack and a pair of sharp scissors sticking out from it.

Then, what she didn't anticipate-- everything she let flow through her body in the water comes rushing out of her mouth, from saltwater to bits of sand to even a small shell or two. Something is functioning in this ugly corpse of hers and its her gag reflex-- karma is such sweet sorrow. Or something. ]

...... n....gh...

[achievementhunter]

[She's been laying around in the cold, soaking wet, for Storyteller knows how long. The fact that she's breathing at all is enough- though when she abruptly coughs water all over their hand, their expression goes from guarded to positively disgusted.]

Oh, wonderful.

[She's alive and probably minutes away from covering them in snot, to boot. Chara wipes their hand off on the front of her dress, speaking to her like she's conscious enough to understand them.]

I'm going to drag you further up the shoreline- so unless you're ready to walk, consider this your warning.

[unpurify]

[So between dying to a child's blade a little while ago - if at his own request - and the island currently being flooded, it's been one heck of...however long it's been. The Batter doesn't really keep track of the time unless it's required.

As a consequence of his death, the Batter's Competences have been sealed for an undetermined amount of time but that doesn't mean he can't do anything. Getting the apparent new arrivals to higher ground was a priority and getting them going was still something he could do.

Even if it appears that whatever brought them all here had decided to bring a child's corpse along for the ride.

The Batter kneels in the sand and examines the body without touching it. The girl certainly looked like a corpse but he cannot see any visible injuries, at least at a first glance.

He will watch to see if she's still breathing. Sachiko has that long to demonstrate she's still "alive" before the Batter leaves. Evidently he doesn't care much that he's found the corpse of a small girl or doing anything about that.]

cw: eye squick, emeto (not being able to keep saltwater down)

[foreverafter]

[ She will demonstrate that much. Now that she senses someone nearby, she'll let her bones heave in a way characteristic of breathing. She's still mostly face down in the sand, with one white eye unfortunately sticky with grains of sand. But she's breathing. It sounds like a wheeze, a subdued dryness before all of a sudden, saltwater and what looks like various strands of dark kelp pour out of her mouth.

If he looks at her neck, there are strangling marks there.

Somehow, that white eye turns to look at him, perceptible only by the sand moving to gather at one end. All of a sudden, she's filled with a rush of warm energy. A happiness, even. She's smiling. He's a really pretty monster! So she drops the act. She weakly takes the backpack on her shoulder and looks inside it to see her tools and her precious scissors. She lets the tide wash away the sand in her eyes. ]

... hello... Mister Savior.

[ She doesn't know how on the nose she is; merely calling him that based upon the fact that he came for her. ]

[unpurify]

[He can see the marks but if that, the sand in her eye or anything else bother him, it doesn't show.

The Batter is not expressive normally but even less so now. Monsters do not have emotions. He tilts his head slightly and simply stares for a moment, one large white eye watching the girl.

He normally does not speak when people see him like this. But this is not a usual situation, so he does.]

We need to move.

[Or else she'll drown. Death is not permanent here but that does not stop it from being inconvenient.]

[ishotyouuu]

[If Wade could have only one word to describe his state of being right now, he's pretty sure soggy would be at the top of the list. He isn't sure if it was the island's water main breaking or whatever, but the mainland's starting to look like he imagines the Blob's apartment looks like every time he needs to drop a deuce. The new arrivals to this little corner of paradise (and he uses that term with only the utmost sarcasm) are in for a rude and wet awakening.

A splash of crimson suddenly catches his attention in the white of the ocean spray, and against his better judgement Wade finds himself making his way over. A little girl, younger than Clementine, her long hair stringy and saturated from the waves.

...Shit.

Wade acts purely on instinct. In one fluid movement he scoops the child up into his arms, staggering a bit as a wave chooses that exact moment to slap the back of his legs, and carries her over to a relatively drier portion of the island before setting her down and inspecting her. It doesn't look good-- he can tell that by the ghostly pale tinge of her skin, and he hears a notable absence of a heartbeat when he presses his ear to her chest.]

Okay. [Almost in a whisper to himself.] Okay. Lemme see if I can remember how to do this. Sorry I didn't brush my teeth this morning, kiddo.

[Pinching her nose gently with two fingers, he tilts her head back, coaxing her mouth open with his other hand. He clamps his mouth tightly over hers-- she smells and tastes like stale death and rotting ocean detritus, but he manages to suppress his revulsion long enough to give her two strong breaths into her lungs. Shifting position, he places his hands crossways on her chest and begins to push downward, willing her heart to beat or her lungs to fill with air.

This place isn't exactly a tropical resort, especially for little kids, but hell if he's gonna let this girl have such a terrible starting run.]

cw: can't hold down her seawater

[foreverafter]

[ WHAT?

NO. NO. NO. Especially not a grown man trying to force her to breathe when she died by one strangling her last breath out of her! Rage overwhelms her as she thrashes against him in a hollow scream, finally raising a hand to freeze him in place because she doesn't have her scissors on her and they're usually her go-to for mild offenses like this.

But the paralysis takes a chunk of her energy, and as she sits up, she's back on her knees hurling up all the seawater that accumulated in her lungs and stomach. Long, dark strands of seaweed choke her on the way out, making her look full Ju-on, before her hand angrily snatches them and rips them out of her body.

He recovers from his paralysis as easy as [mash A to struggle free], but Sachiko is still hacking out shells and stones and god knows what else got into her mouth in the ocean. A baby octopus, sure, she spits one of those out too. ]

DONT... TOUCH... ME!!!

[ It'd be much more threatening if it weren't spaced out with gags and hacks of blinking sand out of her eyes. ]

[souris_keteer]

[Mickey had begun to approach her just as she begins trying to get up. Poor kiddo. He kneels down nearby, trying to speak gently and quietly.]

Easy, easy... you need any help there?

[foreverafter]

[ ooc; Mel, your Mickey is the best on dreamwidth and I'm sure the world, but because of Sachiko's canon I'm actually super afraid for him. Could you look these over and fill them out for me? I WOULD FEEL AWFUL IF I HORRIFIED MICKEY I LOVE HIM SO MUCH.... ]

[ She gives up the ghost (ha ha) and flops back into the quickly rising water. A soft groan eminates from her body, just to reassure him she isn't dead, but goodness, is she sizing him up. He's not a monster, well-- from her perspective, he's neither man nor beast... what was he?

He looked too friendly to be a threat... ]


Hnnn...

[souris_keteer]

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<small((OOC: sorry about that! made sure to drop a line in the permissions asap.))</small>

[<i>Mickey smiles, offering her a hand if she'd like one.</i>]

Easy, you don't have to rush. My name's Mickey Mouse. I'm here to help.

[despairing_hope]

[Komaeda had been watching the child curiously, wondering 8f she was as dead as she looked. When she started moving he was surprised, everything about her had seemed otherwise. A proper adult would probably offer her help, but he had no such feelings, instead opting to talk.]

I'm rather surprised you can move, I was quite sure you must be dead.

[He still made no offer to help.]

[foreverafter]

[ To be honest, Komaeda, she doesn't deserve it. Kick her back into the ocean. ]

Do I look dead...?

[ Her words are clear but garbled through the outpour of seawater from her mouth. After all, it's easy for a dead body to drown again, so she's picking the remnants of some stringy, long kelp out of her throat and coughing up what remains of the sea. It's really, really hard not to flip the switch against this guy's casualness. But anger is different from outright malice, so she can remain angry and still keep up a face. ]

If you answer that, I will probably kill you.

[ ah, so much for that ]

[maku]

[ Oh hell, someone really did drown. She knew it. And... it kind of looks like they've been drowned for a while? With how grey her skin is and she's not moving and oh my god did a corpse wash up on the beach why is this happening to Karin who has never once done anything wrong

Okay. Okay! This is cool. It's fine. She's going to go and find someone responsible who can deal with this better than she can and-- haha no, of course she's not. Karin's going to go and find the longest piece of driftwood she can carry and then from a healthy distance she just. gives the 'corpse' a poke. Just to make sure it's all the way dead.

What? That's a legitimate concern around here. They had monkeys and evil crystal demons. Who knows, maybe zombies are the next logical step. ]

1/2

[foreverafter]

[ The moment she does that, Sachiko's hand reaches up and crushes that driftwood between her fists. Faster than lightning, if she was having doubts about a zombie. ]

2/3 actually omf

[foreverafter]

[ ... temper, temper. She can't let these fools know she's walking evil right off the bat, but there was something about the sheer indignity of being on the other end of someone's stick to make sure if she was alive-- SHE WASN'T ALIVE BUT SHE WASN'T GOING TO TAKE IT LYING DOWN.

Sachiko rises from the water unnaturally. She doesn't push herself up, it's like gravity let go slowly with her feet as an anchor to the sand. Her dress is now only mostly red at the top. She has to fix that. The one downside to her favorite dye.

Through the part of her hair, with the rest of it clinging to her face, Sachiko's white eye sizes her up as if she's going to lunge. ]

[foreverafter]

Do you know how rude that is?!

[ Now she's locked into her Bratty Act picked up by numerous girls who had died at her school complaining about the conditions, their friends, how gross it was. It was easy to imitate, like impersonating a cartoon character. ]

You see gray skin and black hair and you think "must be a dead child?!" I don't have to explain my appearance to ANYBODY but the fact that you would check with a stick before you'd even help me up is disgusting! Shame on you! I'm like, seven years old, so you just thought it was fine to poke a possibly drowning little kid with a stick!

I was tired! I had to fight the current a lot! I don't even know what I'm doing here, but if everyone's like you--!!

[ HUFF ]

[demonpuppy]

[Chip isn't really expecting to find another kid on the beach, much less one they don't recognize. They frown and hurry over, intending to drag her away from the water before trying to wake her, but--they freeze just before grabbing her arm. The color is different, less brown than Foster's, but...]

[That's. Definitely not living flesh.]

[They yelp and stumble back to land on their rear, looking around nervously to try and figure out what to do. Did she...did she drown already? What should they do?!]

[foreverafter]

[ Sachiko stays in place for just a moment. They're not off the mark with her being dead, after all.

Her fingers twitch, now that she's almost entirely submerged up to her chin by be rising waves. More and more of the red 'dye' is being taken off, but to be honest, she'll need some bleach and not sea water to get those kinds of stains out. It's more how the clear waves carry the red from her, making her look like she's bleeding...

And then she looks up at Chip, arm outstretched, a la icon.

Sachiko doesn't fake a personality, like in a few of her other conversations. She rises from the sand without bending an elbow or a knee to do so, as if gravity gave up on her until her feet were flat against the ground.

Tmp. Tmp. Tmp. She takes a few steps forward, towards Chip.

Then immediately turns to gather up her bag at the beach. She unbuckles to see her scissors, and that's all she cares about for now.

But now she's just standing there. Menacingly. ]

[catpiper]

[It's not the first time she's seen a dead body and even though she had hoped those days were over, the small corpse on the shoreline ruins that streak.

She almost ignores her, honestly, choosing to stay away from anything that could spawn a spirit. Almost, but doesn't, because there's been a steady stream of newcomers on this shore and despite her gray appearance, there's a chance she could be alive too. Maybe.

Hesitant, this doofus takes her sweet time getting to the girl's side, eyeing the area around her for anything weird. And once she's there, she realizes instantly that she has no idea what to do for a girl soaked in red. That despite all her years under the care of doctors, she doesn't know how to make people better.

No clue.

But Seto knew how, she thinks, and she remembers he touched her face to check if she was alive all those months ago.

So. Hey. Small blood soaked child? Have a useless girl. A useless girl that reaches out to touch her cheek instead of doing anything remotely useful.]

cw: emeto 1/2

[foreverafter]

[ Sachiko is as cold as ice. As cold as the ocean around her. For all intents and purposes, it certainly must feel like touching a corpse's cheek. Sachiko rolled her lidded eyes, and though the indignity of being spirited away herself is certainly festering with a desire to lash out at the first person who touches her cheek, she can't stop herself from spitting up the saltwater, sand, and what-have-you that built up in her lungs and stomach. Stranger still, it's all at once, not in gags. Like she was a sponge wringing itself.

A few strands of seaweed hang from her mouth, which she rips out with no hesitation. She hasn't made a single groaning noise or sound of pain or choking sound through the whole ordeal.

She had already been agitated back home. If this was the result of those students messing with her source of power, then nothing could make this worse.

ThinkThinkThinkThinkThinkThink. What if the whole shitshow hinges on play nice and you'll get to go home? That means it's probably a bad idea to stab this girl and fix up her own dress with her arteries. There's also the fact that there are multiple people around... some don't even look human. She knows how to act, but it's so completely at odds with how she feels that she keeps her face down so this girl can't see her twisted-up face. ]

[foreverafter]

[ｆａｋｅ ｉｔ ｆａｋｅ ｉｔ ｆａｋｅ ｉｔ ｆａｋｅ ｉｔ ｆａｋｅ ｉｔ ｆａｋｅ ｉｔ ]
[ ｆａｋｅ ｉｔ ｆａｋｅ ｉｔ ｆａｋｅ ｉｔ ｆａｋｅ ｉｔ ｆａｋｅ ｉｔ ｆａｋｅ ｉｔ ｆａｋｅ ｉｔ ｆａｋｅ ｉｔ ｆａｋｅ ｉｔ ｆａｋｅ ｉｔ ｆａｋｅ ｉｔ ｆａｋｅ ｉｔ ｆａｋｅ ｉｔ ｆａｋｅ ｉｔ ｆａｋｅ ｉｔ................................ ]

[ She stands up with a blank look on her face. Kind of nods, and then walks over to the backpack she'd been eying just a little up the shore. She feels her scissors in them and the impulse is so immediate she jerks her hand within the bag to let go. ]

Sorry.

I was born with this disgusting skin color. No wonder you didn't want to touch.

[ She puts the satchel over her shoulders and begins to walk, """"presuming"""" Ren wouldn't want to talk to a girl so disgusting after that. ]

[prettypurpleparlor]

[As it turns out, someone does notice- Sachiko may hear a set of swiftly approaching footsteps, quickly followed by a concerned-sounding voice:]

Hello, there- can you hear me? Oh dear...

[The tone and words sound much like any helpful bystander, a friendly young woman stopping to help... which may make it a surprise if she looks up, because the person the voice is coming from seems to be visibly less human than Sachiko herself.]

[foreverafter]

[ It's a surprise...

... but a joyful one, just like her reaction to the Batter! It's not hard at all to fake the happy glee of a seven year old's face when meeting a spider monster. She's interrupted by coughing up some seawater, some sand, and a... baby octopus no bigger than a fingertip. But she recovers right away! From now on, until she can re-color it, she'll just say her dress is a natural tie-dye that she made all on her own (and worked out poorly).

She stands up in the water, only four feet tall, her hands flapping against her sides. ]

You're so cute...! Ahhh! A real spider girl, not some dumb superhero! I want an autograph~ I want an autograph!

[ Something interrupts her 'cheer'. The childish realization that something is very wrong. She starts to shiver. ]

H- hey... where am I?