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.

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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.

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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!

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LOGS ● OOC ● STORIES ● MAIN NAVIGATION

( CODED BY BOOTYCALL )

Comments

1.

[mamaterasu]

[Welp, there certainly is someone on the shore - but not any one person. It's a dog--no, it's a wolf, white as the snow covering the bank, and she's barking pretty loud. Her attuned ears can catch the snaps and cracks of the ice below the young child, and despite Clem's warnings, she's already testing the ice on the shore to see if that will support her. She's fast, in spurts, and Ammy certainly has the skills necessary to keep them afloat for a while if the worst does happen. Honestly, she's more concerned about the child than herself, and scrambles out to where Clem lay, her claws scratching on the frail ice.

This isn't like the ice she used to cross earlier, which was thicker and easy to run on. No, this ice can't be more than maybe a few measly inches thick, and certainly not enough to support anything more than a small animal or so. She has to be quick, and she has to be careful. One wrong move, and the child can go plummeting under the water. Ammy's not sure a lily pad here would be of much use... But darn if she's not going to try anyway.

She races forward, as fast as she can, paws barely touching the ice, a trail of frost-bitten flowers following her path.]

[walkietalkie]

❰ just a second or so after clementine calls for the wolfdog to stop, recognition dawns in her eyes. something about the precise pitch of her bark, or the texture of her coat (somewhere between a cloud and a flame), or even the determination in her eyes as she tests the ice regardless, brings the name to mind: ammy. short for- for amaterasu, wasn't that right? the specifics are still hazy; the distinct memory of burying her face in that fur, though, is far more lucid. she remembers how it could comfort her, no matter how upset she was. ammy was 'her dog', but she was so much more than that. something ancient and wise and untamed by anyone or anything.

and for that reason alone, clem swallows up any further objections, hands tight in worried fists as she watches the wolf pad hastily out across the ice toward her, maybe even keeping ammy afloat with the sheer intensity of her wish-hopes as she wordlessly urges, you can do it, you can do it, you can make it.

and when they finally unite, clem's crouched and waiting, greeting the wolfdog with both hands in the ruff at each side of her neck. ❱ You did it, ❰ she congratulates, and if it weren't obvious already that she at least thinks she knows ammy, it's pretty obvious in the familiarity in her tone.

...but then she stops, retracting her hands a little. tentatively: ❱ You remember me, right?

[mamaterasu]

[Wishes are quite similar to prayers, you see, and maybe...maybe those little bits of faith - you can do it, you can make it - were all that really mattered. Power is prayer, prayer is power, a motto Amaterasu lives by, quite literally in some cases. Though the ice splinters and shifts as she runs, and Ammy has to weave and zigzag a bit to avoid treading over the cracked ice again, but sure enough...she did it.

She did it.

And though Ammy allows the affectionate reunion to occur, whining softly in happiness as her thick fur is run through by gentle fingers, they can't linger here on the ice for very long. Even now, or especially now, the ice is thin and giving under their combined weight. Ammy turns her head to look at all the fractures forming in the ice, even if they move slowly and carefully. They need to get back to land, it's plainly not safe out here.

But...Ammy pauses as she lowers herself for the girl to climb onto her - she can support a grown adult easily, it will just be awkward, given Ammy's on the small size, even for a wolf. Does she remember? Not...really, no. Perhaps there was a time when a girl like this existed on the islands, but if so...sh does not recall. And anything past that? There is no recollection at all. It's been that way for several people now - to have known her in another life, another time. It makes her heart ache, not to know them, but that will never mean she will not love them, or be honored to get to know them again.

But now is not the time to think, it is the time to act. A large crack forms in the ice below them, and Ammy can feel water wetting her paws. They have perhaps seconds now to move.]

[walkietalkie]

❰ the reunion ends as quickly as it began, and as the wolfdog lowers toward the ice underfoot, clem hears the crack of ice splintering to their left- no, to their right.

her gut clenches in panic, and without a moment's hesitation, she throws a leg over the ammy's back and grabs firm handfuls of fur for balance. ❱

Go, go! ❰ whether ammy remembers her or not is a question for a later, when they're safe on the shore. ❱

[mamaterasu]

[Thank the gods for her speed, even if she can only go in three swift bursts. The moment Clem is secure on her back, Ammy flings herself into a full-force run, the icy flowers creating a trail behind her, but not for very long at all. The wind howls in her ears, flecks of snow and ice racing past her peripheral, but the space they were on just moments ago? It's gone.

The last and final crunch of ice creates a small surge of water, as pressure from below pushes the water below out and the fractured bits of ice in. Were the two still on the frozen waters, they'd be sucked down into the bitter-cold darkness of the frozen sea, lost perhaps, the the current that still flow freely underneath... There would be no escape from the water, the cold. Only darkness, only death.

But, as the last of Amaterasu's speed bring her to a halt, she wheezes as her paws touch the shore. Here, the water is still as frigid as ever, but only perhaps an inch or two deep. Her paws will recover so long as she can dry them off, or lick at them to warm up, and Clem's shoes should protect her ten times over. They're safe. Cold, yes, but safe.]

[walkietalkie]

❰ the second they've stopped, clem's scrambling off of the wolf's back and hurrying toward the shore, one hand still in ammy's ruff. ❱ C'mon, c'mon - ❰ because whether or not there's ice shattering beneath them, they still need to get out of the frigid shallows. she's not sure what kind of not-a-regular-wolf ammy even is, or if she's immune to things like hypothermia from wet and freezing paws.

once they're finally on the frosty dirt of shore, clem drops to her knees with a breath of relief.
then, eyes finding the wolf's: ❱ Are you okay?

[mamaterasu]

[Oh, Ammy is far more mortal than most gods, and frigid paws definitely would ice over if exposed to the cold for too long, and not tended to properly. She is, of course, built far better than Clem is for the cold - a dense double coat to lock in heat and keep moisture out (which has bulked up during this freezing period), and her paw pads are rough, but stave off the freeze of the ice and snow she has to traverse. She's not immune to the dangerous temperatures, but she has a much lower risk for freezing.

And she is wholly aware of that, and that Clem does not share those traits. When their eyes meet, Ammy licks the girl's cheeks and nose - a sign that yes, she's fine, and also to get some warmth onto her skin. Her breathe may stink pretty darn bad, but if Clem can tolerate it a little bit, it'll at least keep her skin from cracking in the dry, frosty air.]

[walkietalkie]

❰ clem can definitely tolerate it — she may have had some unnerving close calls, as far as roving packs of wolves are concerned, but ammy has always been a distinct exception. comforting, not unnerving. someone she can trust.

so she wrinkles her nose at the feel of it, but makes sure to offer a little appreciative hum so ammy doesn't misinterpret it as legitimate disgust. ❱

[mamaterasu]

[Pulling back, because she knows many humans, or persons in general, don't usually enjoy a tongue bath. Heck, Issun made it a point to tell her at every opportunity, and though Clem isn't exactly vocal about it, she's a pretty perceptive canine. Not only that, but she knows the way to the encampment where Munin and her tribe will welcome this little one wholeheartedly and offer her some food and drink, and a place to shelter herself from the biting cold.

Pacing back a bit, Ammy yips to get Clem's attention and treks a few feet away from the cold, damp sands toward the craggy cliffs of Chol. They shouldn't dawdle here out in the snow - frostbite can set in pretty easily, after all. Or, though not necessarily fatal, a cold and fever wouldn't do the poor girl any good, either.]