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.

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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

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[forgetmenow]

[Oh. He should have known not to say that so casually. He's gotten too used to people who are used to him, so he barely thinks of it anymore.]

...You're upset. [Which is like the opposite of what Cole wants anyone to be.] It's... not what is with me, it's just... what I am.

I'm sorry. Should... I make you forget I asked? Would that help?

[...At least he's polite about it, but Cole no???]

[bloodyashes]

[Cole definitely not that's a bad idea especially to someone who's already having memory issues and isn't great with his temper oh dear that's a sword.]

Did you do this?!

[He doesn't bother to explain what 'this' is. The bastard's already in his head, he'll know.]

[forgetmenow]

[Well, he's really screwing this up. This is why he doesn't talk to people he doesn't know unless he can make them forget about him. Making them forget isn't always just for their sake.

The Inquisitor would've known better. Varric would know how to talk to Asch. But Cole is just Cole and he doesn't know.

The weapon makes him move back instinctively, flinching. Cole's fast and he knows it. There's no reason for him to worry, but--

Heavy gauntlets clutching a blade, pointed right at him and fast - too fast - blinding pain in his shoulder, the Lord Seeker staring him down.

"So desperate to have your prey, demon?"]

No. [His voice is smaller than he'd like, but still determined. He means what he says.] I can't... couldn't, wouldn't.

All I can make people forget is me. Nothing else.

[bloodyashes]

[There's a long, tense silence, where Asch judges if that statement is honest or not.

Eventually, he comes to the conclusion that Cole probably doesn't do lying in the same way normal people do. The blade lifts away from being pointed at Cole, but doesn't go back into its sheath.]

Never. Not now not ever, do you hear me?

[forgetmenow]

Yes.

[He doesn't hesitate in agreeing. Not because of the sword, even with the bad memories that were brought to the surface. But because he understands, feels, how important this is.]

I'm sorry. I didn't...

[Didn't know, didn't understand. Feeling isn't always enough.]

People always used to forget about me, whether I wanted them to or not. I forgot that... it's painful sometimes.

[bloodyashes]

[Actually Asch would probably finish that "I didn't" off with "think," from his impression of this guy. Talk about being lost in your own head... or not your own head, as the case might be.

He watches, still wary.]

So you never learned to not be like this.

[That's not quite a softer tone or a softer thought, but.]

[forgetmenow]

It's hard to learn not to be what you are.

All I did was learn... remember how to control it better. People usually want to forget me anyway.

[Whether they realize or not.]

[bloodyashes]

[Now, Cole, you weren't even intending that one to hit home, but it did! Because Asch had to learn not to be what it is in some really painful ways, and even if his memory is slipping gears he still knows that much.

Something in him sets, firm.]

You can always learn to be better. But that takes actually living through your mistakes, not just erasing them.

[forgetmenow]

But mistakes hurt people.

Isn't it better for them if they're gone?

[Better for them. Because obviously nothing else factors into this.]

[bloodyashes]

[Oh boy it's one of these. Ugh. He hates these. Have a thought in your head for yourself.]

Isn't it better if you learn so that you stop making so many mistakes in the first place?

[That he knows how to argue with the Self Worth Error doesn't mean he likes it. And yes, he doesn't expect that the mistakes will entirely stop. No such thing as perfect.]

People deserve the choice. Don't you already know that, on some level?

[After all, he did ask.]