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.

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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

[unpurify]

[Unnatural yes, but the Batter has encountered many people with different powers here. It meant there was a chance she could defend herself. For now he'll continue to observe her but otherwise it doesn't matter much to him.

The Batter stands as well and he can feel sand against the tips of his fingers - claws, for now. There were a number of cumbersome things regarding this side of him and one of them was the exaggeration of his arms and trying to keep track of where his limbs were.

Ultimately it doesn't matter. There were more important things at hand.]

I don't know.

[Forever, probably. Maybe getting trapped somewhere is Karma on your part Sachiko.]

[foreverafter]

[ She's dead, but she gets to walk along the Savior himself. In a strange way, it feels like a blessing. A lot of her magic came from both Japanese and Western mythology, after all... thanks to that book. He's very pretty, in the way most seven year olds feel when they want to decorate a pony with ribbons. Her equivalent is wanting to see him tear something to bloody pieces.

He's very straight to the point, but how could she fault him? So was she. Playing with all her cards face down until she understood where she was. ]

Not knowing is better than lying about it, anyway.

[ She follows him in jagged steps. Her legs weren't broken before or anything, it's just a bit of a thing you get as a zombie. Your joints aren't the best (or they won't be until she gets to a mana pool and understands what one is. ]

Mister Savior... [ She doesn't care about his real name, so she doesn't ask it. ] How long have you been here?

[unpurify]

[If the 'name' is something that bothers the Batter it doesn't show. But so far it appears he has the emotional range of a brick. And Sachiko isn't wrong to begin with.

As he walks the Batter allows his hands to drag in the sand. Depending on Sachiko's point of view, the 'tracks' left behind are there or they aren't. It doesn't really matter. Her movements, on the other hand, are strange. The girl's legs don't appear to be broken, but it may be due to disorientation. It's not something the Batter can fix with his abilities sealed anyways.]

There's no point.

[In lying, that is. He has to think for a moment regarding Sachiko's second question before answering.]

I don't know. Awhile.

[Longer then that, maybe. He didn't keep track of the time.]

[foreverafter]

So this isn't the first time...

[ Of course it's not. Sachiko can feel many souls around her, mostly on this beach pulling up the stranded and drowning. It's finally happened-- the one who spirits away has been spirited away. After years and years and repeating loops of being in Heavenly Host, the change is aggravating and welcome, like being cozy at home but forced to spend some time at a tropical resort. She snorts. That's not a comparison, that's literal.

He's so fun-looking and she wants a piggyback ride. ]

Mister Savior, can I ride on your back?

[ She doesn't really have a filter, by the by. What's the worst he can say? No? Bite her head off? She'd love that. Saturn Devouring His Son. She'd especially love picking up her own mutilated head and finding the grooves to snap it back on and heal over. ]

[unpurify]

[Well Sachiko can now add being side-eyed by an actual monster to any list of new things she's experiencing. The Batter opens his mouth, revealing absurdly sharp teeth before snapping it shut. No, not quite.]

No.

[It's incredibly blunt but (un?)fortunately the Batter isn't about to bite her head off for asking. The visual, depending on the person, gets...interesting if he tries. But regardless he's going to be a spoil-sport and say no every time she may ask.

He wasn't made to entertain children, after all. So he won't.]

[foreverafter]

That's so mean.

[ But her voice is as mildly cheery as ever. She'll get her piggyback ride eventually. She loves the idea of seeing him rip things to shreds! What a big, gaping maw. In Sachiko's soul, there was absolutely no remaining kindness left that wasn't locked under a series of trials and tasks and offerings and begging for forgiveness. Therefore, as he is, Sachiko cannot see the Batter's human form at all. Not even if she tries to squint and see him with double vision. ]

You've killed someone, haven't you?

[ Hard not to notice with that big, gaping maw. And really, isn't this the most important question she could be asking right now. ]

You look like you were made to kill.

[unpurify]

[Very few people greeted this form with any sort of interest. Generally, it meant all forms of conversations were over and a battle was to begin. The final fight with the Judge came to mind, when the guide finally could see what kind of being he had been helping.

It was all for naught as the Batter won and flipped the switch off.

But that doesn't seem to be the case here. Why, exactly, he doesn't know or much care. If this girl saw a monster instead of a man, so be it. Her question, on the other hand...]

Yes.

[Although to which of Sachiko's comments the Batter is agreeing with, he won't say.]

[foreverafter]

I think that's very interesting.

[ And the really strange part is-- there's no haunting giggling voice behind that, it sounds the same as a seven year old thinking a fun fact is just as interesting. ]

But you're helping people. You helped me. How complicated... usually, that's a big determinant between heartlessness and having just a bit of a soul.

[ Not to discredit other crimes which could be horrible, terrible, mind-rending. He seemed very placid for a monster, but a monster who kills or was made to kill and doesn't bother to clarify the difference tells her plenty about his nature. He didn't care either way. ]

If I had to guess... um...

Ｉｔ'ｓ ｂｅｃａｕｓｅ ｄｏｉｎｇ ｓｏｍｅｔｈｉｎｇ ａｔ ａｌｌ ｉｓ ｂｅｔｔｅｒ ｔｈａｎ ｂｏｒｉｎｇ ｙｏｕｒｓｅｌｆ ｗｉｔｈ ｎｏｔｈｉｎｇ.

Right?

[unpurify]

[Again, it is strange that a little girl can walk side-by-side with a monster and hear him admit he's killed. But Sachiko was right once again: The Batter didn't care.

He was a being ruled by perspectives. What others saw was what they saw. Which is why his answer contains no emotion behind it. The Batter was simply stating a fact, the same way he had corrected another child who had been half wrong about his nature.]

No.

[The Batter can easily stare at someone in this form without turning his head, which he does so.]

I was on a mission to purify the world. That's all.

[He turned off a world that was beyond saving. There was nothing else that could be done.]

[foreverafter]

What does that have to do with my question?

[ Gently egging him on, she holds onto his sleeve for steadiness as they traverse up the unpaved mainland in her bare feet. Being corporeal is going to take some work... after all, Sachiko isn't a fighter, she preys on the weak and wears them down with the darkening back home-- which she doesn't have here. She's kind of an anti-purifier, which makes this pretty funny. ]

Purify the world? Does that mean helping old grannies at stop-walks and helping children out of the water?

[ That's such a unique word to use, 'purify'... cleanse the world. And if she sees this monster uttering those words, they definitely take a different definition.

A corporeal ghost like herself might be in real danger around him! ]

To be more direct, why did you help me?

[unpurify]

Because.

[It's what he's created for. Although his creator's idea of help....well, that was God's will in the end. That was fine.

Regardless the Batter isn't going to take the bait. He doesn't care if the girl wants to poke holes into his reasons. Sachiko was going to have to get creative if she wants to get anything out of this monster.

He reaches down to try and pry off Sachiko's grip...although he has to try it with one clawed finger because of the size of his hand now. The Batter's skin doesn't feel like real skin anymore. Annoying, because he can feel it crawling.]

Let go.

[foreverafter]

[ She'll definitely feel weird to the touch for him-- she's not like a spook back home, but she is full of malevolent energy and the tinges of Darkening, which has to be some kind of anti-purified state? In comparison? She'll let go of his crisply holy shirt despite his monstrous appearance.

Angels in the bible were monsters, rarely beautiful, especially in the paintings Michelangelo did to spite the Pope.. She shouldn't be surprised. ]

Sorry, Mister Savior. I just wanted to stay steady. If you're a Savior, holding onto a kid shouldn't be that big of a problem, right?

[ She's only taunting because he'll say no again. If he did pick her up, at all... he'd have to kill her, wouldn't he? She doesn't know that, though. ]

Um... I'd feel safe if I stayed on your island! Or wherever higher ground is!

[unpurify]

[The Batter isn't in the habit of touching corpses. Visual issues of fighting while appearing in this form aside, it just simply wasn't something he did unless it was part of a puzzle or some other requirement.

But there's something wrong with this girl. The Batter's change in appearance was not a true sign. Many people have come to this island, people with different abilities and different points of views. There was even a chance that either of his forms were irreverent to someone here and they saw something else entirely.

No. It's like the crystallized infection the Batter had suffered through a little while ago. The creeping sickness crawling under his skin up until a child slammed their knife into his skull and ended the Batter's life before the man could take matters into his own hands.

She is...something. What, exactly, he doesn't know. But for now the Batter ignores her first comment and instead addresses the matter of finding somewhere safe.]

There are other places. [The Islets, really.] Follow me.

[foreverafter]

[ The longer he stays around her (especially considering their shared fifth islet), the more he is going to see the black tar rot that escapes her in every way. Her hanging tree she sleeps beneath. How things decay and stink at her touch and go pure again when it leaves. The Batter is the most likely of all to see through her, but she doesn't want to spoil her fun with him now.

He's the only monster she's met. She'd love to have her head bitten off, but not right away. Therefore, she keeps up the cheery disposition despite how cold a child like her should be after washing up on the shore in nothing but her clothes. No shoes, nothing. ]

Follow the Savior! [ She shouts out, cheerily! ] I'm already on it!