December Intro: Don't Come Home for Christmas

[lifeaftr_mods]

INTRO LOG: DECEMBER

Who: Everyone!
What: New souls arrive to the archipelago of LifeAftr
When: December 3rd and onward
Where: Monsun
Warnings: Mark as needed!

The Overview: Uncharted Waters
Stay alert, new adventurers; instead of the white-sand beaches of Enso, you will instead be coming to on one of two sides of the relatively uncharted lands of Monsun. Most of the information regarding this peculiar land can be found in the informational post linked, but as a quick-and-dirty rundown: Monsun's western side is a hot wasteland of a desert prone of disasters and mishaps, but will affect your character's emotional and psychological state in a positive sense, while its eastern side is a verdant forest filled with endless resources...as well as a tendency to bring out the absolute worst of your character.

To start with, all new arrivals will be showing up in one of two squares that characters uncovered last month! We are leaving it up to player discretion as to which side of the island your character arrives on, but bear in mind the psychological repercussions!

All new arrivals will additionally awake with knapsacks, their names stitched to the front. The contents of said knapsacks can all be found in your acceptance notices!

Monsun, C4: These Are Your Good Years
You wake to the hot sun steaming overhead, rapidly drying your clothes and belongings, waterlogged from washing upon this desolate shore. The heatwaves shimmer at your vision, distorting your view of the horizon. But if you really squint, it looks like there might be something dark green fringing that pipecleaner skyline, like a lush woodland awaits you on the other side of this desert nightmare. A mirage, maybe?

Whatever it is, you don't get very long to contemplate it. Beneath your feet, the ground has begun to shake as a many-headed horror erupts from the earth. Great streams of pale sand slough from its dry, scaly hide as multiple horned heads unfurl in a hissing inflorescence. The creature's eyes are all pale as grubs; it is quite blind. But that does not mean it cannot smell you. Boasting both a thick hide and a chitinous coat of sandy-colored scales that blends them perfectly with their surroundings, Sand Hydras sleep several feet under the sand until they sense the vibrations of potential prey aboveground. While they are significantly smaller than their mythological counterparts - they can only span eight to twelve feet in length - Sand Hydras are cunning creatures nonetheless with a number of heads that can vary from one to as high as ten. Their weakness, on the other hand, is simple: water burns them like acid. It seems they may flourish only in any moisture-poor environment.

Assuming your character lasts that long, remember: as physically destructive as Monsun's west may be, your character's most admirable traits will be amplified to their fullest potential by the twenty-four hour mark.

Monsun, D3: Before You Bury Yourself Alive
Those waking on the eastern side of the island, on the other hand, will face a far more pleasing tableau. The temperature is perfect, the sun shines modestly through the canopy of deciduous greenery above your head, and the air is thick and sweet with the smell of fresh fruit.

That's right - within minutes of their arrival, your character will discover several plants laden with fresh wild blackberries. Should that temptation arrest their attention, should they be vulnerable to the foibles of greed or hoarding or paranoia, your character may very well wish to keep this treat to themself. Or...perhaps not. Perhaps they'd much rather search out a fight, or try to steal someone else's supplies, or embark on a poorly-advised mission to swim out into Monsun's surrounding waters.

For that is, after all, the catch: as physically soothing as Monsun's east may be, your character's most hateful traits will be amplified to their fullest potential by the twenty-four hour mark.

---

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!

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LOGS ● OOC ● STORIES ● MAIN NAVIGATION

( CODED BY BOOTYCALL )

Comments

[bloodyashes]

It looks like decent metal. Pass it here.

[He sits next to Akira and extends a hand. Let him have a better look at that thing, dude.]

[covertizer]

[ he just... eyeballs asch for a moment or two. like he's weighing up the pluses and minuses of handing over one of his weapons to a total stranger - which, incidentally, is exactly what he's doing.

and then he lets the knife drop, catching it by the flat of the blade between his fingers, and offers it out.

he does have another one, if need be. ]

Knock yourself out.

[bloodyashes]

[Akira, kid. This guy is carrying not one but two swords - one at his hip and the other strapped to the back of his considerably nicer backpack - the point is that if he wanted to shank you he has much larger, sharper tools at hand.

Instead, Asch just settles in and pulls a whetstone out from his belt. The shing-shing of sharpening a blade fills the air for a moment, before Asch holds the dagger up to the light, turning it so that the bright sun plays off the place he was sharpening it.]

Yeah, that'll at least take an edge, though I don't know how well it'll hold it. It'll take a while, though.

[He shifts the blade back to his lap and gets down to sharpening it with a practiced hand.]

Might as well ask any other questions you've got while I work on it.

[covertizer]

[ Asch, you're the same age as him. And he's less worried about the shanking and more worried about the blade shattering and being rendered useless.

But hey, then the whetstone comes out and Asch seems to know what he's doing so... he'll just lean back and watch how he does it. Might come in handy if he can replicate it later one, if they need re-sharpening. ]

If I ask if there's an easy way off these islands and home again, I won't get a positive answer, will I?

[bloodyashes]

[Hey he's a little older, he's almost eighteen!

Also you're a highschool student turned magical boy and he's a high ranking military officer, so.]

I wish.

[Slightly dark chuckle, then a sigh as he keeps sharpening.]

No, everyone seems to be stuck here for the time being. I've been here about four weeks, and I was part of at least the second group.

[covertizer]

[ So sorry he's not from fantasy land where teenagers can become ranked commanders without having to finish or even go to highschool like urban-fantasy plebs like himself... ]

Four weeks?

... Did they say why we're here? Accidentally? On purpose? And if that's the case, for what purpose?

[bloodyashes]

[Hey, hey, Asch went to school! ...It was JRPG Fantasy Officer's Seminary and he hated every minute of it with the spite that only a kid in their middle teens can muster but, he did go.]

The Storyteller claims to not know what's responsible for us being here, so it's a big blank.

[He pauses to flip the blade in his hand - not quite Akira's dexterity, but quick-fingered enough.]

You want a right or left-handed edge on this?

[covertizer]

[ yeah yeah, mr JRPG fantasy BS. fantasy school for fantasy teens. ]

Helpful.

[ so... there's not a lot he can ask, if there isn't much they actually know about how they got here. good to see he's totally in the dark here. ]

Either, or. I use them interchangeably.

[ he raises both hands and waggles them at him. ]

[bloodyashes]

[Asch snorts.]

Should've figured, with dexterity like that.

[Back to work!]

There's a couple other islands like this, though none of them are quite like this. [He gestures to the desert around them with his whetstone hand.] The other major island is tropical.

[covertizer]

[ Akira just shrugs, and grins. it has something of an air of 'cat that caught the canary' about it, as relaxed as it seems. ]

What can I say? I'm good with my hands.

[ speaking of, he might as well do something with them while Asch is busy with his knife and they're having this little chit-chat. sorting through those items he unceremoniously dumped everywhere might be a start. ]

Is it nearby? That's a pretty sharp change in climate if they are. [ tropical to desert?? ]

[bloodyashes]

And there's a temperate forest on this one, over there.

[He jabs the knife in his hand in that direction briefly.]

I don't think it's supposed to make sense.

[covertizer]

[ Akira stops digging through his stuff. And turns his head to squint through the haze of heat in the direction Asch had indicated. ]

Huh.

[ Fancy That. ]

So if I need some shelter from the heat, or am sick the sight of sand... just head for the forest that just happens to exist in the same space as a literal desert. Got it.

[bloodyashes]

Just mind the psychological effects.

[Asch is about the only one who isn't beating around the bush in regards to the island fucking with people's heads? Congrats Akira.]

The forest turns everyone into bastards and the desert makes everyone nice. I've been going back and forth, but I'm starting to get whiplash.

[covertizer]

[ akira picks up the Y shaped fork out of the jumble of items and twirls it around in his hands thoughtfully. ]

How long does it take? Before it starts to hit you. How long until we start braiding each other's hair, and bonding?

[bloodyashes]

You don't have enough hair to braid.

[Completely deadpan.]

I'm not entirely sure. You can feel some difference near-immediately, but...

[How long until the worst - or the best - sets in? He's not timing that.]

[covertizer]

Wanna bet?

[ because he is already bunching and grabbing pieces of his hair, and tugging them into some kind of... pigtail, braid hybrid. With a dowsing fork still in one hand. Stylish. ] ... I could do pigtails, at least.

[ he drops them when he starts focusing on that horizon again, face a little more quite and thoughtful. ]

So there's a desert-- [ he holds up one finger from his free hand. ] -- a forest-- [ two. ] and a tropical island. [ Three. ]

And if none of those appeal...?

[bloodyashes]

[Asch gives that a skeptical look. That's not any kind of braid, man. He has three feet of hair, he knows braids.]

Then you're shit out of luck, because those are the options.

[covertizer]

Oh. Goody.

[ Look, he's working with what he's got. He'd look cute with pigtails, he knows this.

Actually, while he's thinking, his free hand moves again, this time to absently mess with one of the curls of dark hair falling in his face. Kinda like someone playing with worry beads, only the beads are hair. ]

Out of the three the one that isn't going to randomly mess with my head sounds like the safest option.

[bloodyashes]

[Hey, same stress tell!]

Justifiably so, but there's no easy way from here to there right now. The only means of transport is on the far side of the forest.

[covertizer]

[ fingerguns.

Or, y'know. He would but he's still holding that dowsing rod in one hand and a lock of his hair in the other. ]

And it takes how long to make it there? Assuming you start from the edge of the forest, or the edge of wherever those effects start kicking in.

[bloodyashes]

[SHRUG.]

It's a couple miles, so it depends on how fast you walk. IT's the glowing water pool on the coast - you throw one of the flowers in and concentrate on where you want to go.

[His expression says he is fully aware of how ridiculous it sounds.]

[covertizer]

Pretty fast. That should be doable.

...

... So I throw a flower in, click my heels three times and think about tropical pastures new and [ he makes a waggling motion with his hands. spirit fingers. ] voila, I'll find myself on that island?

[ ... ]

I guess thinking really hard about home is out of the question?

[bloodyashes]

If thinking really hard about home worked, most of us wouldn't be here.

[Sad but true. Sadder, it wouldn't be all of them.]

There's a couple pools on the other island, and the little chain of them that have people's homes on them, but that's pretty much the story, yeah.

[covertizer]

So someone did try it, then?

[ That's. A kinda cute idea, actually. Shame it didn't work.

... It sounds a bit like when people first formed communities. They gather around a water source. This sounds similar. ]

Sounds like as long as you've found yourself a mana pool you're good to go then. And sticking by one is a good idea.