lifeaftr | December Intro: Don't Come Home for Christmas

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December Intro: Don't Come Home for Christmas

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!

LOGS ● OOC ● STORIES ● MAIN NAVIGATION

( CODED BY BOOTYCALL )

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I think it can outrun us in its home environment. [Can it burrow? Quite possibly it can chug through the sand as easily as water -- or at the very least, more easily than they can run. And even if not, its large paws are much more suited to run across the shifting sand than the much smaller feet of humans.]

[Roy hefts his sword slightly, more a statement of policy than a matter of technique.]

I'll cover you.

I don't think we're going to kill it before we get heatstroke.

[ Not with one of them essentially weaponless, and the other having to do all the work while keeping that thing from getting too close to Akira. He could summon Arsene or Satanael, but too much of that would leave him drained.

But running is all he can really think of doing for the moment. At least until he comes up with a better idea, or they get to an area that monster can't follow.]

I'm reasonably certain I can.

[Roy says this as evenly as anyone could ask of a man -- not bragging, simply stating a fact. The hydra has all its heads focused on Roy now, the way a cat might watch a bug between its paws.]

That's quite the claim.

[ Oh look at that. It's focused in on its prey. Well... he's got not weapon but HAS got his Personas if need be. ]

Don't let me get in your way then.

Get to safety. There's a river to the east --

[The hydra strikes, and Roy responds by charging the damn thing, boots spraying sand backwards as he forces himself forward despite the desert's best efforts to drain him of all momentum. A pair of jaws snap shut right where he'd been, he elbows another violently away, and a third cut a long gash across the side of his head when one tooth scrapes along him.]

Ngh -- for fresh water.

[The blow Roy lays into it is even more brutal than the last, slashing deep into its chest and leaving a large flap of muscle hanging by just skin and scales.]

[

[ A river in a desert, where's he heard that before? Still, worth noting. Not worth running off and leaving an injured guy behind, though.

Might as well finish off that strike - if he's got the power behind him to do so. There's a flash of flame, and chains, and Arsene swoops down, cleaving into the wound that Roy had already inflicted, deepening it and weakening the limb even more. ]

I would say the same for you - you're injured now. Don't push it.

Huh? I'm barely hurt.

[Roy's definition of 'barely hurt' doesn't mesh with others, because his capacity for injury is ridiculous. He DOES, however, beat a retreat of several feet when a winged woman(?) lunges in like a summon to whack at the beast by his side.] What the heck!?

[ Man, actually! ]

And now it can't run as fast as before.

["Barely hurt", sure. Akira's done enough fearless leadering to at least know when to draw back when it comes to injured teammates. ]

Better to cut and run, than lose the chance permanently.

[All Roy knows is what he saw out of the corner of his eyes. Which still raises all sorts of questions, but never mind that now.]

[He weighs a few different potential scenarios and responses in his head at speed. He's reasonably certain he can take down the hydra at minimal relative harm to himself, and his first instinct is to do just that to minimize danger to others who might encounter it. But it is wounded, making it less of a threat.]

[What ultimately decides him is knowing that the other man has no away of knowing that, might believe him to be unnecessarily risking himself, and would potentially expend more resources in aiding or 'rescuing' him than is proportional for the situation. Bad deal.]

[So Roy backs away carefully, fending off a half-hearted bite with a swat of his sword as he puts some distance between himself and the wounded hydra.]

[ Well. That's a promising start.

Akira takes a few steps back, and summons Arsene one more time - this time there's a swirl of dark energy around the hydra's other leg, slashing and crushing against it for a brief moment.

He doesn't hang around to watch it though, he turns and starts running in the opposite direction of the hydra. Better to stay away and live to fight another day. ]

Keep up if you can!

[Surprisingly, he can; despite his armor, Roy can really move when he puts his mind to it, with only the shifting sand beneath his boots a major impediment.]

Be careful! Most overt magic is diminished here.

Yeah, I noticed!

[ Arsene is nowhere near as powerful as he should be, and what he can feel of Satanael ... is nowhere near as powerful as it should be. In no way whatsoever.. ]

Which would be why I'm running.

Right, but also, be careful about your usage in general. I understand it can be exhausted readily. [Already used to operating under a times-per-day restriction with his own power, Roy didn't feel particularly different about it -- but a hydra simply isn't worth expending a usage of his legacy weapon's powers on, even if it does mean a retreat that nags at his pride.] If you have more mundane utility, it's better to rely on that for the most part.

I have a pair of decorative knives. They might temporarily stun the thing, but then I'd be done a non-weapon and it'd be more pissed off.

[ He's used to limitations on how much he can use his personas without resting or recuperating, but not ones that are so strict. He'll have to adjust, or figure out a way of securing another weapon so his only method of defending himself isn't Arsene or Satanael... ]

But thanks. I'll keep it in mind - I might've overdone it with the personas otherwise.

[What a strange term, thinks Roy.]

[Still, they've put adequate distance between them and the hydra now. It seems disinclined to follow, after the injuries they'd inflicted on it, meaning they can slow their pace a little and catch their breath.]

You're otherwise okay? Not badly hurt or anything?

[ Thank goodness for small blessings. When it becomes apparent that they aren't being followed by a mass of ... giant violence and too many heads, Akira slows his pace down to a jog, then a walk and stretches his arms above his head. ]

I'm doing great. How about you - you're the one who took a cut to the head.

It's trivial. [It's a long slash, now clotted, but still, most people wouldn't classify it as such. On the other hand, Roy doesn't seem at all bothered by it.] Price of doing business, really...

No wound is trivial.

[ Case in point: ]

What if you get sand in it, hm?

That'll annoy me. [Though Roy cracks a smile at a memory.] I had to fight an army in the middle of a desert once, actually, so I'm familiar with how that goes.

[ oh. ] A whole army? Not just a straggler here and there?

[ still, he doesn't think it sounds very fun, getting sand in a wound, no matter how you got it. ]

[Roy refrains from mentioning the army was mounted on dinosaurs for the moment.]

Yeah, it turns out if your teammate's evil tyrant overlord father wants you dead, he's willing to expend some resources to make it happen.

[ Dude, don't refrain from that! That'll just make the tale 1000 times more epic and exciting...! ]

... Yeah, that tends to be the case. What about the teammate?

[But then it sounds like bragging! And Roy is not particularly inclined to brag at this moment, particularly since he'd already decided that engaging in this retreat is the most diplomatic course of action.]

He was fine last I saw him, and presuming that time does indeed proceed here at right angles to our own timelines, is therefore still fine. We all--

[Roy pauses, shuts his mouth, and then raises one finger as he starts again with clear and carefully-chosen words.]

Of my party, everyone came out from the battle with that army alive who entered it that way.

[ That warrants bragging. That ABSOLUTELY warrants bragging. ]

... [ The... careful choice of words is noted. But not commented on. Everyone has their secrets. ]

Hopefully he will be okay.

But that doesn't mean you should dismiss injury, regardless of how much experience you have. I think I have a first aid kit in that bag I found with me when I woke up.

Well, if you have supplies that are reasonably renewable, I can't object.

[Roy has given up on explaining the concept of hit points, and the notion that he has three digits' worth of them left to go before he's in any danger.]

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