lifeaftr | January Intro: I Know the Winter's Getting Colder

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 )

Flat | Top-Level Comments Only

[ They hold up a nubby hand and open their knapsack. They remember hearing something sloshing around, and a slight warmth through the fabric; now they triumphantly produce the jug of...

whatever this is. Some liquid. But it's warm and smells fragrantly sweet, so they doubt it's going to be bad. (Not that the knight knows much of a difference at this point. As long as it's edible, it's good!)

They offer it to Otus. They don't have a cup, but they can probably get a bowl from the Jormun, if Otus doesn't want to drink straight from the jug. ]

[ what are manners, anyway? Otus reaches out to take the foreign liquid from the Knight and...

...it's warm. His knapsack was warm like this, too-- or, uh, the one with 'OTUS' on it, but the jury is still out on whether or not that belongs to him. The bottle is held against his chest as somewhat of a temporary gesture to warm up his upper body and his bare biceps. And...he looks so happy. This is good. What a good. A+.

He thinks it's being offered to drink, but just holding it is nice. He'd drink it when his arms stop trying to impersonate two popsicles. The art of becoming warmer is a Thing that is happening now. ]

[ As a further gesture, they note Otus' bare arms and pull the blanket from their knapsack with little difficulty.

Then they sort of...offer it to him, because...they're not really tall enough to put it around him. But more warmth is better, right? ]

[ this little creature is so nice. Otus reaches out and takes the blanket from them with a soft touch and a somewhat ashamed eye. Is it okay to be cold? He is, but...it's hard. Otus glances over his shoulders and looks around. This is just a perplexing situation, and he's almost 95% expecting someone to come out and yell at him for being so weak.

Advent was depending on them, after all. Too weak to make a difference.

He takes the blanket and hangs onto it while holding the jug. Maybe...just focus on the positives, for now. He's not sure where in the big, black spaces of the small knight's helmet their eyes are, but he looks like he's feeling pretty guilty. ]

[ Some things are beyond the scope of the Knight's current sphere of experience. Worrying about what other people might think has never really occurred to them; who would have been there to bear witness to their trials?

They did what they thought was right; that was all there was. Only you, in darkness.

They recognise that Otus is feeling bad, though, and so they go for a familiar gesture: a comforting pat on the hand. Trying to reassure him that it's okay. What's okay, they're not entirely sure, but something must be. ]

[ With that soft pat, Otus feels some relief. He didn't mess up completely, and this is good. It's good for now. Time to move forward.

To...wherever they are. The blanket is thrown around his shoulders and tied around his neck like a cape to be able to hold the jug in his arms, and despite being able to see his breath, it is much, much warmer. At least he has his friend here. Whoever they are.

Otus bends down in the dirt and begins to scribble.

Normally, he'd...take their hand and spell it into their palm. Knight's hands, however, are exceptionally small. Everything about the little friend-shaped bean is small. This will do nicely instead. ]

[ This must be this larger creature's name. It's a nice name; though they can't speak, they listen intently to the sound of other's voices, how they fill the silence with words, and they can shape what it might sound like, in their head.

Round, sharp, round, with a hissing curve at the end. Soft, like their new acquaintance is.

They nod. But, feeling that this is not enough to convey approval in this case, they draw a little : ) underneath. They like Otus' name, just as they like him. ]

[ the little smiley face makes Otus' whole expression light up a bit. Yes, that's his name, and his little friend seems to like it. What a nice feeling. What a good and nice feeling.

But...they're not sure how to address their new friend yet. Not that they could speak. And it looks like they can't speak either, which is...actually, kind of nice. There's no bullying pressure exerted to speak. He can't defend himself. He doesn't talk, like he could just start talking if he wanted to...but he can't. He's tried. It isn't going to happen.

In the snow, he draws an arrow toward them with a question mark attached to the end. Do they have a name, too? ]

[ A name? People seem intent on asking names, but that's only fair.

no name .

They've never had one. The ones that could apply to them most uniquely are not very useful. Names are another shell around their identity, like the mask that defines them; given freely, as gifts, by strangers.

any name is fine . ]

[ No name? Otus has...never come across someone without a name. It is an identity, but...it feels kind of wrong to run around using his fingers as mock horns next to his head when he's searching for his little friend. He awkwardly twiddles his fingers, trying to think.

Otus has never named anything in his whole life-- not even a pet, so this is particularly strange for him. He begins to write a word in the snow slowly.

Friend?

as a name? Are they friends? They just met. Maybe he wants to call the Knight 'Friend'? Otus seems a little overwhelmed with giving them any sort of identity. Friend would work just fine, probably. As long as they're okay with it. ]

[ The knight draws another :) in the snow, next to that word; they accompany it with a firm nod. 'Friend' is fine - it's familiar to them, even.

(and then they think about Quirrel again, and wonder what he's doing, and if he's doing well, and get a little sad, but that's neither here nor there.) ]

January Intro: I Know the Winter's Getting Colder

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