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!

---

LOGS ● OOC ● STORIES ● MAIN NAVIGATION

( CODED BY BOOTYCALL )

Comments

[thermalwind]

Then don’t. I’m not leaving you on this side of the river.

[He reaches out to grab for the wrists. He should just flip him over his shoulder. The thought spurs action. Keith drops down and darts forward in an attempt to catch him around the middle. If successful he hauls him up onto his shoulder.]

You’re coming with me. So get used to it.

[Flashes of cold rage dance inside him. This is how he leads. How he is. Why he makes a terrible leader. Shiro never should have trusted him to head the team. The laughter still rings in his head like a reminder that he could cause untold harm.

It’s what he’s good for.]

[ungrieved]

I'm in your soul. I'm in your soul. You can't just get rid of me!

[It isn't working. It isn't working. He's scrambling, desperate, trying to cling his way into this world, trying to hold onto a life that doesn't want him anymore and it isn't fair. He won't be forgotten. No one - ]

[No one deserves to be forgotten.]

[He's fighting, he's fighting with everything he has, but it's doomed. It's a flailing, uncoordinated air - at best, maybe just unpredictable enough to take someone off guard.]

I won't let you forget me again!

cw: physical abuse because keith mad

[thermalwind]

[His temper has never been great. He explodes like a volcano so often people could predict his eruptions. The desperate scrabbling and calling out have grated on his nerves like a knife. He stops, and then like any other time he erupts. He moves to slam Gabe up against a tree.]

Are you even listening to me?! I’m taking you with me! When the hell did I ever say i’d forget anything?! I can’t! Won’t! Leave you here!

Get that already! [He has to get them across the river. Or he’ll get worse and worse and then like Zarkon he’ll just be another Black Paladin that went bad. Another tyrannical Galra.]

Tell me you understand! I’m not forgetting you! I’m not leaving you!

[ungrieved]

[It hurts.]

[It's like a shock to his system; like being drenched in cold water. It's the chill of blood in his abdomen, of clotting organs and writhing intestines. He cried, and he cried. They couldn't figure out what was wrong, and all the while he cried, and that pain was the thing that killed him.]

[It shrieks from between gritted teeth in a tearing of sound, a startled, desperate sound.]

You can't take me over there! You can't get rid of me!

[Not again. He isn't disappearing again.]

[thermalwind]

[He snarls like a wild beast and resumes their trek. He's had enough. He never did waste any time on pointless things. If someone doesn't listen that's their problem. He drags Gabe and the sound of the river tells him that soon this will be over.

It would be over so much sooner if he'd just had paladin armor but he'd given that up. Unfit to lead. Unfit to run with them. He'd turned to the Marmora to learn how to be better.

Except that didn't happen, did it. He spots the river and stops. One breath in. One out. He sprints for it.

He misses flying the lions.]

[ungrieved]

[The rush of water. They're approaching. He can struggle all he like; he doesn't have enough of a foothold. He'll fall through. He'll fall through the cracks and be gone and he isn't going to be gone again.]

Stop. Stop, stop it, please -

[He strains with a burst of adrenaline as the water splashes up to soak at his jeans. There's no purchase in the water. There's nothing but silt and mud and the arms that will drag him over and away.]

[No, no, please, please, you don't understand he's scared he's so scared - ]

[He sounds like he's about to cry.]

I'm not dying again!

[thermalwind]

[His mind is settling back down as he wades through the water. The fires of rage are ebbing the further he gets from the forest. His voice is quiet but it carries in the night.]

I'm not killing you. If I'd set out to do that you'd already be dead.

[It makes him feel a little sick but he sucks it up and moves forward. Gabe's struggling is desperate, and the tone is scratching at his heart. Yet, this is the choice that will see them through.]

That forest was messing with you, making you want to stay. You're better off with us.

[ungrieved]

[He keeps waiting.]

[He keeps waiting for his influence to fade, for the world to keep moving without him in a bleak slurry of gray as his memories bleed out from the corners. She forgot him, after weeks of careful administration. How do you know how much memory you've lost, if you've lost it? In nineteen years, it was all...]

[The water surges with icy irregularity. Real. Real. Real.]

[What's happening?]

You can't...you can't get rid of me. [The desperation in his tone is weakening, his struggles less sincere, muddled with a haze of confusion.]

You can still see...?

[thermalwind]

Yeah. [He reaches the other bank and climbs up one handed. His muscles protest the weight but he settles on the desert side and scans the area for anything that needs killed. Nothing moves. Keith lowers Gabe to the ground and steps back ready to intercept him if he keeps trying to get back.]

You’re alive. Ready to move? Camp that way. [He points towards the north. He knows the camp exists but chooses to be by himself. He can watch for trouble and step between the people and the beasts while satisfying his need to be solitary.]

[ungrieved]

[This doesn’t make any sense. Why hasn’t he faded from everyone’s memory? Is he still there in their souls? Does he still live between the pressed pages of what could have been? There’s an atypical clarity burning in the forefront of his mind, sharp in the way he digs fingers into loose, burning sand. It slips between grasping fingertips.]

[The overwhelming sense of vitality doesn’t come with the vicious satisfaction that swelled before. It’s awed, enchanted, wondering.]

[He’s real.]

I’m still here.

[And, without warning, Gabe bursts into triumphant, rapturous laughter.]

I’m alive!

[thermalwind]

And to stay that way we have to get you to camp. [He draws his blade, changing it from knife to sword as he pivots to scan the desert behind them.]

...I told you. I wasn't leaving or killing you.

[ungrieved]

You have no idea.

[It should sound scornful, but it merely emerges victorious. Keith didn’t know what he was doing, what he might have been condemning this what-might-be to. But in the end, it hardly matters. The medicine failed and the doctors lied. He’s alive. And it’s that euphoria that trims away the lingering resentment that he was almost stripped from someone’s mind. Again.]

You had no idea what you were doing, huh?

[thermalwind]

[Keith jerks his hood back over his faceto shield it from the desert heat. He has no idea what Gabe is trying to say.]

What are you talking about? I did what I set out to do. I got you out of there. That side of the island messes with the mind.

[The laughter grates at his nerves and sends dashes of alarm through his mind. It feels vaguely familiar. Whatever Gabe is going on about he lets it go. If it comes up he’ll deal with it then. He walks the edge of the river and takes a step towards camp.]

Come on.

[ungrieved]

[Gabe merely laughs. There’s a wealth of context Keith is operating entirely separate from. It’s roiling beneath his skin, coursing through his veins. He can’t help but breathe it all in with a triumphant lungful of air. He’s alive. No one dictates him. He can slink at the edges of Keith’s imagination and let the world feel his power and obey.]

What’s this camp?

[As long as Keith wants to believe it to be a quirk if the landscape, he’s welcome to. Gabe won’t contradict him. He can be patient. He’s good at that.]

[thermalwind]

It's a bunch of people who banded together to defend against all the creatures on this side. [He points out at the desert stretching out to their left. The night had stripped the gold from the sand making it almost silver.]

Hydras hide in the sand. Your only warning is the ground shakes. [Then it's too late. He can still hear that accusation ringing in his ears.

'You have no idea what you were doing, huh?'

It applies to far too much.]

I heard there's some kind of walking plant that roams near here? Don't want to stick around to find out.

[ungrieved]

[A far cry from the abnormality lying beneath the guise of normality, the psychological absurdity of a suburban wife trying to pretend her life isn't torn open at the seams, all while her husband tries to pack the stuffing back inside.]

[It's a world full of monsters. As far as Gabe is concerned, he has nothing to fear just yet. He's always most solid to the person whose mind he chases.]

A real fantasy world, huh?

[thermalwind]

It's not as bad as somethings I've seen. [He can think so much worse like a giant planet-eating space worm.]

If we run into anything I'll deal with it. [It would be good for him. He'd have a moment where the world made complete sense. Keith strides off, completely expecting Gabe to follow. He'd done so a lot so far.

If the pattern changed he'd be shocked.]

[ungrieved]

[His assumption is absolutely correct. Gabe shadows him with an eager bounce to his stride, laden with a sharp enthusiasm for the life he now knows without question he has. He's still smiling, wide and slightly awed. At least he's lost the predatory edge, somewhat.]

Keith. [He draws the other boy's name out slowly, deliberately, drawing the end syllable to a close with a low hiss.] I remember you.

[thermalwind]

[He keeps moving. Keith glances over his shoulder to show he’s listening as he creeps soundlessly along the edge of the bank. Is something comes up on them he can stab it three times before the body hits the ground. ...maybe. Armor tends to make that harder.

He glances back again.] Yeah...? Where are you going with this?

[ungrieved]

[By contrast, Gabe isn’t nearly as careful. He doesn’t necessarily blunder, but he certainly isn’t taking care to pad his footsteps or particularly ease Keith’s way here.]

I guess I should thank you for remembering me. [For drawing him inward, and bringing him into being. That’s how it must have happened. Right?]

[thermalwind]

...why wouldn't I remember you? [He's terrible with names but faces do tend to stick in his memory. Especially lately when he has to memorize names, dates, and faces to recount them back for intel. Keith wrinkles his nose at the not so quiet elephant behind him.]

Could you move quieter?

[ungrieved]

You'd be surprised.

[Not everyone does, after all. And those who do - well, they like to pretend that they don't. And that denial might be enough to sharpen his unfocused edges, but it's those edges that cut him to the core.]

[He regards the sand and dirt beneath his sneakers. Then, very slowly, very deliberately, he locates the most pebble-y and craggy spot of ground he can]



[and grinds his heel into it.]
[Loudly.]