January Intro: I Know the Winter's Getting Colder

[lifeaftr_mods]

INTRO LOG: JANUARY

Who: Everyone!
What: New souls arrive to the archipelago of LifeAftr
When: January 5th and onward
Where: Chol and surrounding waters
Warnings: Mark as needed!

The Overview: New Lands
New arrivals will not be waking in the typical hub of activity; instead, they will find themselves coming to on the small island of Chol. While the island's fringes are little more than an unforgiving spread of craggy, canyon-like rock and coastal cliffs, the island dips down to form a fertile divot of edenic woodland in its center. The people living there will even be helpful and polite to you, should you inquire after them.

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!

Icebreaker: This is the Winter of Our Youth
Unless you're someone with a fondness for the cold, you'll undoubtedly be waking with more than a slight chill in your bones. The appearance of the island of Chol has signaled a coming event of great import in LifeAftr, and unfortunately, the signs of that event's approach have already been set in motion. The temperature has begun to drop as the sun's rays begin to die, faster and faster, leading to an impressive cold snap in the ocean waters - particularly those surrounding Chol.

It is for that reason that you won't be waking on Chol, per se. Instead, you'll be waking on a thick crust of ice that's mantled itself over the ocean waters, freezing solid enough to bear your weight...for the most part. The ice won't hold forever; it isn't meant to. If you happen to be particularly vivacious in your waking, or especially active in general, thick cracks will start to spiderweb out from underneath those impacts with low, warning chunks and wrenches of fracturing ice. Better hurry to land soon, unless you care to take a little dip into those freezing cold ocean waters.

Mainland: When We Pick Over the Past
Should you make it to the land of Chol, braving the iced-over waters surrounding its craggy shores, you'll encounter something at least as startling - the people who have elected to set up a rudimentary encampment upon its lands. While a bit on the scalier side, the Jormun are nonetheless allied to you land-dwellers, and will welcome you to the island. Most will be preoccupied with preparations for an approaching siege, but many will comment idly that the cold is a sign of the coming battle. Some may point you to their leader, known to most as Munin, but others will venture hospitality based on the actions of those land-dwellers that came before you, who were successful in allying themselves to this sea-dwelling people.

Those who might have braved the cold a little too fiercely will quickly be offered some rather rough blankets - perhaps more on par with burlap sacks in terms of texture - as well as a hot brew that the Jormun call brrkshavak. Heated to a boil just prior to being served, the drink will be more than adequate in warming your weary bones, though it bodes mentioning that it is both scalding hot and made with a fleshy kind of undersea herb that is akin to crushed chili pepper in taste.

It'll warm you up, all right.

---

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

[hyperlit]

[Someone...someone else?]

[Someone else.]

[Someone like them. Someone who cannot speak, for one reason or another. Not someone who can speak with hands, the way Tibia can - but someone who can see them speak, and it would be cruel to consider that a blessing, but...]

[It would be cruel. They do not pursue the thought, and instead answer.]

none
you?

[lightlessfuture]

[ They shake their head, pointing to the blankness of their mask, the smoothness of the features. No mouth, no voice.

made without

"No voice to cry suffering." Mute children, born from darkness, lifted to painful light. But they have no interest in conveying such a thing; it's not relevant to the conversation.

Their gaze, such as it is, is switching between the Drifter themselves and their little companion. They seem genuinely fascinated by both, in equal measure. ]

[hyperlit]

[Made.]

[Made is a peculiar word for it, and it is indicative in its oddities. So the mask is not merely a mask - it is a part of them. They are not like the Drifter, whose illness ravaged away their vocal cords and robbed them of voice; they never had a voice, to start with.]

cannot speak with hands?

[They lift both gloved hands in indication, forming a few letters in the way of sign language, only pausing to regard the Knight inquisitively.]

[lightlessfuture]

[ not taught .

listen instead .

They're a good listener. And they don't meet people without a voice, not usually. This is the most work they've had to do to carry a conversation in a long time.

They do a passable imitation of the Drifter's letters out of curiosity, though it's quite hard to see with their very small fingers. It might be somewhat difficult to do the smaller gestures in a visible way. ]

[hyperlit]

[Listen, instead.]

[This will not do. There are others like them, who cannot speak with voices, but that does not mean they have to be completely bereft of any and all means of communicating. Perhaps this means they are a fast learner...]

[But with that answer obtained, they move on to the next, pressing question, pointing at the Knight with one slightly pointed, gloved finger.]

drifter?

[lightlessfuture]

[ They can write and draw; they're not completely bereft. But writing means little in combat, and time is precious in communication.

They stare for a moment, and then shake their head. Though they recognise the word, it's not important to them the way it clearly is to the other party in this conversation.

vessel .

Though it is not what they became, in the end, it was what they were made to be.

drifter -> you ? ]

[hyperlit]

[Vessel.]

[A curious word for it, as well. The more they uncover, the more questions arise. The Drifter nods, at that, because the answer is easier than proposing a question they do not particularly know how to phrase.]

of many

[lightlessfuture]

[ In lieu of words, they surround the word 'vessel' with crude drawings of differently-shaped masks. Different horns, different mask shapes.

They, too, are one of many; that is what, at least, they are attempting to convey.

Then, they brush them all away. Erasing them from the surface, smudging them out.

you also

only one ?

They don't know how to express their acute loneliness, the thing that holds them apart from others. But it is there, all the same. ]

[hyperlit]

[So they are also of many. Many different shapes and sizes and looks to vessels such as they, but the same general principle.]

[Only one?]

[Only one...what? They are not the only one suffering; not the only one dying; not the only one to be displaced from the desolate world they know. They are not the only one who has no true life to go back to. They are not the only one in...]

[In a great deal of things, they are no longer alone. That had not properly occurred to them until it was all but pointed out.]

[The Drifter blinks, slowly - the sole indication of this belated, muted realization.]

of my kind
yes

but not alone

[lightlessfuture]

[ Not alone.

They stare for a moment; then they nod, firmly.

good !

: )

(They can't forget their siblings, existence made painful by the light inside them. Lives they carried the responsibility of extinguishing. That makes them feel lonely, in themselves.

But knowing there are still good things for people to experience is something that makes them less weary.

Even in Hallownest, the ruined husk of a kingdom, they'd found friendly faces. It makes them...happy? to see that it seems to be the same here.) ]

1/2

[hyperlit]

[...!]

2/2

[hyperlit]

[They have yet to meet anyone else who would make use of that smile. Those little paired symbols, forming something whole and genuine and sincere.]

[It's...]

[It's a strange thing. A little like looking at one's own face, in a world apart. Does that make sense?]

[Likely no.]

you are not alone anymore either

[lightlessfuture]

[ If they knew the Drifter's inner thoughts at that exact second...

...they'd probably be more confused, to be honest.

will do my best .

They want to help; they don't want to sit idle, especially when people seem much less hostile here. But as for not being alone...

...they don't feel like they've 'earned' that, to their satisfaction, quite yet. ]

[hyperlit]

[That's not precisely the answer they were imagining, but - it is an answer, and it is not one they will pursue. They are not one for arguing, or debating, or anything that requires an excess of words.]

[This is how it is, with creatures such as they.]

new?

[lightlessfuture]

[ They don't need to write to nod to that question. They had a dream about an island, and then a giant fluffy creature talked to them (???) and now they're here.

It seems straightforward enough, as weird dreams go.

how long ? They look up to watch for the Drifter's answer. They seem to be studying the other person, for...some unknown reason. ]

[hyperlit]

[How long...]

[They have to consider that for a moment. Marking time is difficult here, when the world does not turn on a regular axis. But eventually, they settle upon a number that seems right and agreeable. Their sprite chirps to deliver their answer, accordingly:]

approaching 6th month

[lightlessfuture]

[ They just nod. It was more of a passing thought than anything; they have nowhere to go, nothing to do, nowhere to be.

(They don't conceptualise time in more than the cycles of the moon as it passes through the sky; they live a simple, sparse existence, and they always have.)

Another long pause as they scratch away at the ground; they don't seem to be focusing on writing a question. Occasionally they look up at the Drifter, then quickly back down again.

It is, in fact, something that involves no words whatsoever.

They step back, apparently to look at what they've drawn. ]

[hyperlit]

[...it's them.]

[It's unmistakable. The sprite, the cloak, the helm - it's a neat, simple rendition, and for a long moment, they do not particularly know what to think or say of it. Does it have a purpose? Was it done on a whim? What understanding does this indicate? What...]

[Eventually, the scramble to manifest questions to ask falls short of the pathos that leads to the cupping of black eyes into pleased little crescents, and has the Drifter lifting one hand to form a vague u-shape with two fingers, held just over the mantle of cloth swathing the lower part of their face from view.]

[It's a smile.]

[lightlessfuture]

[ They walk over and pat the Drifter's hand, gently. It seems that they're happy with this interaction, and pleased with the reaction it's garnered.

In return for that smile, that crinkle of the eyes, they trace a curve on the smooth surface of their face, where a mouth could be. Despite the lack of certain, usually necessary components, it's a smile all the same. ]

[hyperlit]

[It really is incredible, the rate at which nonverbal language such as this can spread. They are a quick learner, to be certain, and the Drifter is quick to add:]

can teach you too
to speak in hands