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

[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. ]

[catpiper]

[On one hand, she can take solace in the fact that Seto's always right. He knows how to save people, even when he's not here. A touch of the hand is all it takes for this girl to come back to life, even if she spends the next few seconds throwing up the entire ocean.

On the other hand, what.

It's a relief to see any movement at all-the water and sand and everything coming out of her are proof she's alive. She doesn't turn away, concern for this young child ebbing away any immediate desire to just not watch. She's not used to this sudden, almost violent, lurch of life, but it's fine. The labs had sick kids-had dying kids. Though drowning looks like a whole other ballgame and she makes a mental note to stay away from the water from here on out.

And like that, she's up. Before Ren can ask the obvious are you okay. Before she can touch her hand, her cheek, anything to see if it got any warmer. Before she can even react, the nearly drowned girl is grabbing her bag and walking away.

But guess who's following her? Ren's not winning any awards for supervisor of the year or anything, but she's able to keep a cat alive and kids are kind of the same thing.]

It doesn't hurt you anymore?

[U KNO, almost drowning. Slow your roll, jellybean.]

[foreverafter]

Of course it hurts, dummy. I can still feel sand in my throat.

[ Sachiko marches on at a pace to keep the same distance between them. If Ren touches her again, she'll notice that she's colder beyond cold, when at first it could have been attributed to the ocean lapping her skin. For a seven year old, she can keep up quite a distance. Hiding her features are probably for the best until someone finds them out one by one and she has to deliver some tearful backstory.

Can corpses still cry? Who knows, maybe there's enough salt water in there she can fake it once. ]

I felt the ocean rise up around me. This place is sinking.

Just need to find high ground.

[catpiper]

It's Ren.

[The insult rolls right off and lands straight into the rising ocean waters, where dummies like her should probably stay. There's a brief moment when she wants to offer her some water, but uh. She may have had enough for the time being.

It's impressive to watch this girl though. Trailing behind her is proving to be a challenge and she's having to make great strides to keep her in sight. There's no way she could know where she's going, but Ren's not going to stop her just yet. The dangerous caves are sealed right now and flooding would make other dangerous areas impossible to traverse. Wherever she wants to go is fine, she guesses.]

Sinking?

[That's news to her and not great news, either. Probably the worst she's heard since 'people are dead' and 'you're stuck in a cave'. ]

The islets are far away-[A pause]-and high. That's a good place to hide.

[foreverafter]

Show me the islets?

[ And then, after a seriously long pause, as if to weaken herself against her willful nature... ]

... Please? I'm cold and... I'm scared and I just want to be dry and warm and lay down somewhere...

[ See these tears coming out of her eyes? They're not produced by her body. She's forcing ocean water out of her sinuses to make it look like crying. One of the genius things about a living corpse drowning-- nothing goes away until you get rid of it. That's absolutely disgusting, Sachiko. Still, she shivers as if she's biting back real sobs. ]

I don't know where I am or where mama and papa are...!

[ She skitters forward, as if stranger danger is a main concern and she wants to keep her distance... Can she fake body heat? Not while she's all soaked like this. ]

[catpiper]

[It's not an option to stay on the main island right now and she doesn't need an extra reason to drag a crying child to the islets, where she'll find comfort and warmth in spades in whatever house she decides to plop into. It hurts to watch her cry out for parents who are unlikely to be nearby. To hear she's scared and cold and in need of sleep-]

It's okay. You'll be okay. I'll take you to that place.

[It takes a moment for her to readjust to her surroundings with the rising water submerging most of her landmarks, but she manages and takes mental note of what's in her bag that could comfort this girl once they arrive.

She's no stranger to kids with a flight response, being one of them herself. The distance between them makes her think this girl might be that way and it's the only reason she doesn't force herself into that space.]

Can you walk farther? Does it hurt you to do that?

[foreverafter]

It doesn't hurt!

[ She insists, but the grain under her feet and the rocks on the beach must hurt, right...? (they don't. At all. Though she makes a show of wobbly legs, she absolutely doesn't lose any pace. ]

Just tell me where to go, I... it's so cold...! My chest hurts and it's so cold!

[ Now she's breaking down into actual child tantrum, so it's probably best to get there fast-- ]

[catpiper]

You can follow me.

[She starts to walk back towards the temple ruins, eyes falling back to the girl to see if she's staying close by. Between the rising waters and the jungle, it would be difficult to find her if she ran off.]

We have to go this way and then throw a flower.

[Makes sense right?? right.]

[foreverafter]

Oh! Like a magic spell? You're talking about a magic spell, right?!

[ She seems so enthusiastic about that part...! ]

[catpiper]

I don't know if it's magic.

[The way the girl perks up is a good sign. Too bad she doesn't know enough about any of this to answer her question in detail.]

The bunny would know that kind of thing.