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

[bloodyashes]

[Why indeed. Why indeed. He bends and picks up one to put in the scabbard at his belt.]

That's... odd.

[Seas going suddenly out is dangerous, he knows that from... somewhere. Something about an island.

But oceans don't generally come that far in, aside from the tide.

He looks up past her, at the and behind them, noting the higher ground.]

This isn't exactly a sandbar.

[esper_magic]

...

[ Pardon the confused silence from her because she's trying to figure out what the hell a sand bar is and why he would want to go to one. Who drinks sand? Or maybe it's made of sand? That... did not seem very structurally sound, Asch. ]

Um... this is an island... [ SO HELPFUL. ]

I haven't seen any bars anywhere here, let alone ones... made of sand?

[ It was a guess, it was either that or you drink it and she didn't think someone would drink it. ]

[bloodyashes]

[He turns back to her and blinks, and then... oh.

Why does this situation feel oddly familiar? It's the green hair, maybe.]

A sandbar is a kind of small island. They usually disappear at high tide.

[esper_magic]

Do they come back?

[ She glanced around pensively. Okay so this wasn't one of those. Well if it was they just had to get to the islets and wait for the water to recede again. If it sank though.. dangit there goes her plan to investigate the Storyteller's Temple. ]

This is the first time the water's risen this high.. I don't know if it's normal for it to do this. But I can show you to the mana pools... you will be able to go to the islet's from there.

[bloodyashes]

Usually, when the tide drops down again. Sometimes they wash away.

[He's fairly confident in that statement, anyway. Sandbars weren't super relevant to his life before now.

Her offer gets a nod, and a softening of his expression that... might have been a smile on anyone else.]

I'd appreciate it.

[Just let him grab that knapsack - poor soaked thing that it is right now - and strap the other sword into it to carry. Waste not.]

[esper_magic]

[ She suppressed a small shiver. ]

..t.hen it's a good thing this isn't a sand bar... [ What would even happen if the island got washed away..?

She nodded with a small, cautious smile to meet the 'almost maybe could be a smile if you squinted really closely' expression and response. ]

... my name is Terra. [ She offered, watching him gather up his knapsack and sword(s) curiously. ] ...what's your name?

[bloodyashes]

[Definitely a good thing. He settles the bag over his shoulders, the spare sword sticking out horizontally.

It takes him a minute to even come up with his name. When he says it, it's pretty confidently - but a sharp eye will notice it's not the name on his bag.]

It's Luke.

[esper_magic]

[ Lucky for him, she's not looking at the bag...right now. And she tends to take people at their word. Though the moment she notices the bag - yeah, she'll find it a little surprising he hasn't got the same name on his bag. ]

It's...nice to meet you, Luke.

[ She at least relaxes a bit more than when she first saw him. Leading the way towards the mana pool, she glanced over at him for a moment - or his clothes in particular. ]

Erm... were you in a fight...recently?

[bloodyashes]

[Bizarrely, he seems to startle at the name, as though it's not what he's expecting.

He keeps up well, in spite of the gear he's carrying. It's obvious that he keeps a watch on their surroundings, even as he's fixing his hair into something less "literally just washed up." The question doesn't even slow his footsteps.]

Yeah. It...

[Didn't end well. He doesn't want to admit that someone he just met, though.]

[esper_magic]

[ She can guess that it didn't end well, just from that response. HOW poorly, she didn't know, but he clearly didn't want to talk about it, so he probably didn't win. Maybe. She was also one of the lucky ones; her hair wasn't a mess despite her not having a brush or comb. Must be born with it. ]

Is it an unpleasant memory?

[bloodyashes]

You could say that.

[You could for sure definitely say that.]

[esper_magic]

...

[ She totally stepped on a prickly topic. SHAME on you Terra. ]

I'm... sorry. Should I not have asked?

[bloodyashes]

[He shakes his head. Even if he doesn't really like it... It's only natural to ask, given the rents in his clothes.]

It's just not something I've really dealt with myself, yet.

[esper_magic]

[ She.. didn't really follow that - did he mean fixing his clothing? But uh. Well obviously it was a topic he didn't want to talk about. She fell into an uneasy silence for a moment- they were halfway to the mana pools when she glanced in his direction and stopped short. ]

Oh..~! You grabbed the wrong bag...

[ That one definitely didn't say 'Luke' on it. ]

[bloodyashes]

[Which just nets her a confused look. He hasn't actually noticed the name on it yet.]

There weren't any others.

[esper_magic]

[ She glanced at the backpack again, and slowly pointed a hand. ]

...but that doesn't say 'Luke'.

[bloodyashes]

[A frown.]

So?

[Look he's... not going to admit to having memory problems right now and also not going to admit that he didn't realize he could have looked up his own name and solved all these problems much more easily.]

[esper_magic]

[ If he did, he wouldn't be the only one in the party here. Still, the 'So' gives her pause. And then a puzzled frown as she wonders if she was the one with the error somewhere. ]

...so.... doesn't that mean someone has your belongings...? [ Maybe they grabbed his bag by mistake? Damnit now she's confused. This is why she likes dealing with animals more than people, animals were less confusing. ]

[bloodyashes]

I have all of my things.

[The bag is his can you just??? leave it alone??? gosh.]

[esper_magic]

[ Hey it's not her fault it makes no sense that he's carrying around a bag that doesn't have his name on it thanks to RNG's shenanigans. Whoever's been putting their names on the bags all this time got it right. Wouldn't most people find it strange? Still if he had all his things and wasn't bothered by it not having the name he gave her - ]

Hn. Strange... [ Oh well. ] The mana pools aren't far from here now. You'll know them from the flowers.

[bloodyashes]

[Thank goodness she dropped the subject.]

Are they particularly useful?

[esper_magic]

Well, you can't reach the islets without them...and the islets are where the houses are, for people who have come here. [ So far she's been able to keep her private little home private, but one day there will come a time when she might have to -gasp- share her living space. Horrors. ]

[bloodyashes]

[Hey he gets it. Private living space is why he... ends up not living in the houses at all.]

I see...

[esper_magic]

[ Hopefully she can keep from burning the roof of her house when she starts getting stressed out. Ah, though living in the forest would be a bad option too, since ...forest fires. You just can't take her anywhere! ]

See - over there. [ She points over at one of the mana pools in question, with the flowers blossomed around it. ]

Do you have anything like those?

[bloodyashes]

[Sounds like someone needs to practice meditation or something.

Asch pauses to examine the pool, closing his eyes and almost seeming to listen - ]

There's a few places it reminds me of, but none are quite the same.