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.

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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

[daydreamy]

[ Oh! That's another person, as far as she can tell. Kyouko drops her knapsack and hops up and down on the spot for a moment, waving both hands -- just to be extra, extra sure that she has indeed been spotted. ]

H--heeeeeey! D'you think-- could you come a little closer? I dunno if I can make it all the way up there...

[greatcleavage]

[Roy waves again to acknowledge the request, then begins picking his way down the dune. Yelling isn't productive, not to him anyway -- he's been out in this damn desert so long he feels obligated to maintain his strength where possible.]

[Once he gets a bit closer, though, he lifts his voice enough for it to cross the distance between them.] Everything all right?

[daydreamy]

Yeah! Yeah, I’m good, I’m just… phew, gimme a sec…

[ She’s doing her best to meet him half way but her already plodding pace is slowing to a bit of a crawl. She’s clearly exhausted which is underlined by the way she drops her knapsack to the ground and stoops along with it when she feels she’s reached an acceptable distance. ]

Just gotta catch my breath an’ then I’ll be… I’ll be a-okay!

[greatcleavage]

[Wonderful. Another kid. If Roy were capable of losing heart on this side of the island, this would just about do it for him.]

[Instead, he motions for her to stay there. His endurance and strength are, without bragging, greater than pretty much anyone's; slogging through the sand isn't the burden to him as it is to her, so he takes it upon himself to cross the rest of the distance.]

How long have you been out here? Are you feeling at all dehydrated?

[daydreamy]

[ Kyouko gives him a smile -- or at least, her best approximation of a smile. But as worn out as she is, it's not bad enough that she can't pop him a hasty thumbs up. ]

I'm not sure...? It's been a while though, I'm kinda beat! And I haven't had any water since, uh. I got here. Which was kind of a while ago.

[greatcleavage]

Right. [Roy is in motion even before she finishes her answer, swinging his knapsack off his shoulder and dropping to a knee to start rummaging in it. The supplies he seeks aren't deep, so a moment later he pulls out a slab of walking cactus.] Sorry this isn't anything actually good, but it's nutrition and water as well.

[daydreamy]

… Hm!

[ Another of those inquisitive sounds, like she’s just too taken aback by the Everything that this is all turning out to be to voice any of her actual questions like “what’s that” and “you’re sure I won’t die if I eat it?”. She does take the hunk of cactus though and starts examining it with a curious eye rather than immediately digging in. ]

Are you sure? I mean, I’m not really gonna say no, but I don’t wanna eat all your food.

[greatcleavage]

I have more, and there's more to collect around here as well. [Not that either are considerations for him. He's far more capable of enduring starvation, in his estimation, than she is, and more prepared for it.] I'll be fine, I promise.

[daydreamy]

Alright, then I’m gonna dig in!

[ Th-that was fast, considering how apparently reluctant she was before. Kyouko takes a huge chomp and starts… working on chewing whatever it is she’s eating. ]

What the heck is this anyway?

[ Asked with her mouth full. Rude, Kyouko. And she probably should’ve asked something like that before starting to chow down. ]

[greatcleavage]

Walking cactus. [Roy pays no attention to her rudeness; it's entirely understandable.]

[daydreamy]

[ CHOKES ]

IT'S WHAT?!

[greatcleavage]

Walking cactus. As near as I can tell it's actually a predator, despite being a cactus. [Roy shrugs at that. He has many Knowledges, but Nature is not one.]

[daydreamy]

S--so what the heck does this even count as? Animal, vegetable, mineral?!

[ IS SHE DRAWING SUSTENANCE FROM THE BLOOD OF A LIVING CREATURE... GRUESOME ]

[greatcleavage]

My working assumption is 'plant'; I'm familiar with other animate or ambulatory plant creatures that definitely retain that classification despite their mobile nature, and I presume this one can be categorized similarly.

[daydreamy]

How can it be just a plant if it walks, though? It's gotta have muscles and stuff.

[ ... she's going right back to eating, though. apparently she is not That Moved by the plight of the walking cacti. ]

[greatcleavage]

I'm taking it you're from a relatively low-magic world, then. [Possibly none at all, an idea which continues to be strange to Roy.]

[daydreamy]

Mmm...

[ She gives a thoughtful little hum while her mouth's still full and then gives a little shrug. ]

Not... exactly? There's plenty of magic just, not a lot of people can see it or use it. And the stuff that is magic usually doesn't have anything to do with plants? Especially walking plants.

[greatcleavage]

Huh. [Well, now Roy isn't quite certain what direction to approach this from, and he sits back on his haunches with a slight frown.] Well, I can say that on my world, we have creatures quite similar to this, and it isn't considered exceptional.

[daydreamy]

Hm... well, we've got monsters back where I come from. Uh, only in some places, though, they're not everywhere? And they definitely don't look like this and you super can't eat them unless you like breaking your teeth on like, rock and crystals and stuff.

[ they're very #aesthetic, basically. ]

[greatcleavage]

Sounds like you have a sort of earth-elemental theme going on there. [That's interesting...] What we've seen are mostly more conventional. Walking cacti and hydra are trouble in this desert. There are other, worse beings back on our main island...

[daydreamy]

I guess? But it's more sparkly than like, muddy and dusty.

[ that's earthy, right?

munch munch. ]

So there's monsters here in this place, too... what kind? Apart from the cactus things.

[greatcleavage]

Well, on this side of the island, hydras. Sand hydras, I suppose, if they have to have a type. Are you familiar with the term?

[Roy's learned to start at basics.]

[daydreamy]

Those're the things with like, a hundred heads and they grow more if you cut them off, right?

[ ..... she's. she's getting there. ]

[greatcleavage]

These ones don't appear to regrow, fortunately -- or if they do, it isn't instantaneously. This variety also appears to be limited to a single digit's worth of heads.

[daydreamy]

Are they tough to take out? How big do they usually get?

[ She still has her Shard and that means she should be able to transform if she needs to... but it's better to have an idea at least of what she's up against. ]