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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[it probably speaks to the level his exhaustion has reached, considering that, for a man whose job was to keep on his toes, that he doesn't budge when at stranger sneaks up on him. usually there's at least the leveling of one of his weapons, his knife, or just snapping at the stealthy offender for giving him a spook, but here? reyes manages to crane his head up a little, expression three shades of annoyed, to just dead-eye the newcomer.

or oldcomer. who knew, maybe the kid's been here a while?]

No shit. What gave it away?

[whatever uplifting mood he had been in on the other side, despite the sun, the sand, and the general feeling of being in hell, is completely gone. the frustration from his somehow weakened body, having to swim, and this weird kid creeping up on him are all rolled into one big ball of pissed-off.]

Everything.

[Said with the glibness that suits the snapped-out response. Gabe smiles faintly, a flicker of something bizarrely, viciously amused. Like he enjoys watching him struggle, trying to pull himself to his feet, sopping wet and snarling and gruff and glowering.]

I think you're going to like it here.

[with great effort, reyes manages to drag himself to his hands and knees. the pack sitting laden on his back he slides off, setting it just off to the side. only enough distance to allow him to move, but close enough that if this weirdo decides to try something, he's ready to snatch it up. maybe he shouldn't be so paranoid and distrustful of the first guy he meets in a forest, but hey, it's not like he has any other reason to do otherwise.

especially not with the way the kid's smiling at him.]

Yeah? You gonna give me the juicy details or leave me in suspense?

[reyes slides the sodden beanie off his shaved head, ringing out the thick cotton with a few good twists.]

[He looks...older. Older than Gabe. That's not saying much. Gabe himself looks older than he is, which is something like eighteen months old (so cold).]

[He's no Diana Goodman. But he'll do. Won't he? It doesn't matter who Gabe's tied to - or who he thinks he must be tied to, because that's the only way he can have any sort of fair existence in a world like this one. Now that he's sunk his teeth in, he'll never let go.]

[He can never let go.]

It's a world where we can be free.

[...............o k a y. despite having the situation explained to him (by a large, talking rabbit), told that no matter what nothing will happen back home until he goes back, he wouldn't describe this place with so much reverence. how exactly could they be free here?

if anything, reyes feels more like a animal in a very small cage, being watched through one-way glass. there's a weighted ball of wariness growing inside of him, slowly sinking into the pit of his stomach.]

I'm not sure where you came from, but there's nothing liberating about this place.

[too prevent himself from rolling his eyes or anything else equally derisive, reyes shakily gets to his feet, slowly taking his body armor off to get at his water-logged hoodie.]

[Speak for yourself. He's alive, like this. He's alive in ways that other people can perceive, that other people can see.]

Maybe you just haven't been here long enough. [He tilts his head to one side, watching Reyes like he's a profoundly interesting specimen. It hasn't occurred to him that some people might not like to be scrutinized so. Or rather, he hasn't yet been in a position where people are aware that he's scrutinizing them.]

You just need the right perspective.

If I ever get that complacent, I'll make sure to throw myself in the next deep hole I see.

[it's against his very nature to trust anything at first glance. some people might say it wasn't in him to trust anything ever. while reyes wouldn't go that far, as a man fresh from a world war, anything with the potential for peaceful normality made him jumpy. considering he had been greeted by a monster and almost eaten when he had awoken, he'd say his lack of trust was the right decision.]

How long you been out here, kid? Eaten anything weird lately?

[because he must be out of his mind to tell reyes he needs to look on the bright side.

and then comes the staring; studying. maybe he should be used to that kind of treatment, after being a literal science experiment for an extended time. he wants to turn around, to ring his hoodie out without the weight of eyes on him in his peripheral. but he doesn't turn. no reason to give the kid a reason to do something funny.]

[Complacent isn't a word Gabe would associate with the liberating exhilaration of accepting your lot in life. And yet...is he right? Is it complacency? Is it accepting things without pushing up against them?]

[No. Clearly not. He's wrong. Gabe is - he's every song that has stayed unsung. He's old as time, forever youthful. He's beyond the scope of truth and morals and right and wrong. He can't be wrong.]

No holes here. Just berries and rabbits and everything you need to start a new life.

[talk about simple. if that's all this kid needed for a jumpstart on a new life, then he could have at it.]

I'll pass on a new life. Need to wrap up the old one first.

[despite the shitshow he would eventually return to, reyes wouldn't give up anything that had happened to him. he had done too many good things, met too many good people to just throw it away.

there was nothing else he could do about the rest of his wet clothes except hope they dried out naturally. when his hoodie and beanie didn't look like they would release a deluge of water inside his pack, he threw them in and fixed his body armor back on his torso.]

But I won't say no to something else besides lizard meat. [reyes makes moves to set off into the thick line of the trees, slinging his pack over his shoulder.] You gonna survive out here by yourself?

[Gabe stands slowly, smoothly. He has full memory of moving in a body like this one, flesh and blood and bone, but it's a whole different sensation entirely, to actually have it. All things considered, he'd like to think he's quite coordinated.]

[He moves to follow. Or, more accurately, to shadow. A few steps behind, if he can.]

I've always survived. [Great. Thanks, Gabe. You're three for three as far as esoteric non-answers to perfectly reasonable questions go.]

Have you?

[this is, by far, one of the weirdest encounters of his life. gabriel wasn't really expecting the young man to follow him, his question of survival more off-hand than an invitation. though he doubted the kid would care if reyes invited him along or not. it was almost like he had latched onto the drenched soldier, deliberately studying and following him for...

what reason? did he just not want to be alone? was he lost? though the stranger tailed him a comfortable pace behind him, as to not invade his personal space, gabriel could feel his annoyance mounting higher. maybe the kid would get bored and wander off.]

Considering I'm still alive, I think that's obvious.

[gabe can spin all the non-answers he wants, gabriel will gladly snap at all of them.]

We're all alive here.

[He says it like it's something extraordinary, which, for him - it is. It is. He can breathe the air and smell the sea and feel the crunch of leaves underfoot and it is exhilarating.]

[But he hasn't yet learned that he's his own independent entity, at this point. He hasn't learned that he can exist without someone else's misery to ground him. And so, this man seems like an adequate target for his jests and jeers. Why not?]

But that's not the same thing. Surviving, and being alive.

[if reyes had rolled his eyes any harder, they might have fallen out of his head.]

Next you're gonna tell me that life has no meaning if I'm not living, right?

[he's heard it before. the whole life isn't worth living unless you're actively doing something with it. at least, that's what he thinks the kid is trying to tell him. surviving is surviving, period. what does personal fulfillment matter if you're dead anyway?]

In this situation, they're synonymous.

Life has lots of meaning, even for the dead.

[He says it with the air of a private joke. Not that he’s dead. Was he ever? There’s another joke buried in that, but he isn’t in the mood to untangle it just yet.]

You haven’t even been here this long. [Not that this little twerp here has either, mind.] Maybe you’ll meet something that challenges your perspective.

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December Intro: Don't Come Home for Christmas

SLIDES IN HERE sorry for the late reply

eyy no worries!

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