lifeaftr | November Intro: Red Sun Rises Like an Early Warning

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 )

Flat | Top-Level Comments Only

[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.]

[ 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...

[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.

[ She coughs-- it's fake but convincing. She looks tired, and given the fact that she was just tossed around in the water for goodness knows how long, she doesn't have to fake a lively face for them.

She stands up. It's a little wobbly but a very good act. For wiping their hand on her dress, she spits out one last seashell at their feet.

Her feet sink into the sand with the gait of a newborn fawn until she finds her satchel. Stitched into the front is her name-- great, now she can't lie to anyone about it. Her hand sneaks in and she's immediately comforted by the smooth feeling of her scissors. It's really hard not to grab them by impulse and stab Chara. ]

I don't need your help. [ There's no where am I? What am I doing here? Sachiko is versed in this shitty line of questioning over and over. Where? Doesn't matter, you were spirited away. For what reason? If you were meant to know, you'd know. ]

This place is sinking... [ But she doesn't ask where the high ground is. She literally just said she doesn't need their help. ] What are you doing on the shore?

[The moment she begins to move, they withdraw. Allowing her to do as she pleases, stumbling up to her feet and tottering over to her backpack, hand slipping inside- to feel out her supplies, most like.

There are some children on this island who shouldn't be here. Some couldn't take care of themselves if their lives depended on it- and more often than not, they did.

This little girl is not one of those children.]

Is it? [A flat question- wow, Sachiko. They hadn't noticed.] Amazing. That would explain all the potential bodies washing up on shore.

[No comment, as to why they're here. They're here. That's that.]

You look unwell.

Do I?

[ It's spoken with outright sarcasm. Sachiko doesn't care much about hiding around children than she does the adults. Plus, it still fits in with her standoffishness that's part and parcel with her fake personality. Look, she knows she's gray, her dress is a mess, she's got fingerprints darkening her neck. The fact that Chara doesn't care about it makes her feel like she shouldn't act like she does, either. ]

Must be the ocean. Cold in there, you know.

[ That's such a blatant lie that Sachiko has probably reached the point where she's no longer resisting letting a bit of herself slip through. ]

Where am I supposed to go?

[Oh good.

There's something wrong with this one. If her cold mannerism wasn't indication enough, certain features certainly shed enough light as to why, perhaps, she was acting this way. Chara slowly smiles; not so much a pleasant thing in itself, and tilts their head.]

You should try further inland- there's an incline to the south east that would be sufficient to avoid the worst of this. I imagine others have already congregated there.

[There may also be a black hole in that, specific location- but details.]

November Intro: Red Sun Rises Like an Early Warning

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

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