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

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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 )

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"Hey now, it's all right. We're all friends here."

She's going to need to look down to find out where that wayyy too cheery voice comes from.

"It'd be kind of silly for them to put anything in our drink at this point anyhow, it'd serve no purpose. They need our help just as much as we need theirs."

...Okay, the more she sees here, the less she knows what's going on. This whole thing seems for all the world like the fae are responsible, but for some reason there are merpeople here, or at least something that looks a lot like them, and now there's...

This. Guy? Mouse? She has no idea.

Erika makes a face. "Yeah, I bet they need our help. Why else would they be tryin' to trap us here?"

"But they're not the ones who trapped us here." Mickey says, staying calm and chipper. "That's one of the big mysteries we've been trying to solve. We've been here for months, and these fellas only just popped up recently."

That... sort of gets her to back off, a little bit. But she doesn't look convinced.

"What makes you so sure they're not? Or that they're not workin' with them?" She gestures at the poor Jormun, who may well be retreating by now. "Mers 'popping up' out of nowhere is kinda suspicious, don't you think?"

"They've been living underwater this whole time. We're the ones suddenly popping out of nowhere. If anything, they should be suspicious of us." He shrugs a little. "I bet they've been wondering what to make of us, and decided to take a chance and offer their help. In fact..." He counted on his fingers. "Since they can breathe in water and land, they're kind of already better than us in some way. They really would have no use for us if we were prisoners, we'd just get in the way."

"Oh, great, that's reassuring. They've been here for who knows how long and you people didn't even know?" Unfortunately, that clarification doesn't do much to dissuade the biggest assumption she's making here.

Erika makes a face at Mickey and makes a quick, almost frantic lip-zipping gesture. "Jesus, dude, don't fuckin' say they're better than us in front of them! Vampires are full of themselves enough already whether they're aquatic or not, < i>nobody needs that."

"Vampires?" Mickey blinks wildly. Now that's a new one. He was about to say those are just made-up fairy tales, but given all he's seen during his stay on the island...

"I don't think they're vampires." He finally adds. "I mean, don't those things drink blood and stay out of the sunlight? These guys WANT the sun back. And nobody's been bitten."

Honestly, that might be for the best; on one hand, Erika could assure him in no uncertain terms that vampires were absolutely real where she's from. On the other... honestly, the idea of having to explain to someone that vampires existed might not be something she's prepared to deal with.

Though she is already talking to a bipedal mouse, so... maybe it wouldn't be that big of a jump in weirdness.

That said - wanting the sun back is some definite evidence in their favor. Erika frowns, and makes a contemplative sound. "...Okay. I'm not saying it's not possible that they aren't vampires, but have you considered they might have some kinda long game here? If all their prey dies, they're kinda screwed."

"But doesn't that mean they were already... in trouble..." He's not going to say screwed if he can help it. "Before we got here? They've been here wayyy longer than us. We only started arriving a few months ago. And look at them - they've been here for years and years! The wildlife here is plentiful! There's lots of plants too! You really think they'd suddenly change their diet just because we showed up?"

He then offered a helpless shrug. "I just don't think we look that tasty, miss."

"Who said anything about changing their diet? Vampires aren't dumb enough to let all their food sources die off; they could easily have just been living off what's around."

She tilts her head, her mouth twisting in a thoughtful frown. "How do you people not know this stuff? Seriously, what's your deal?"

Of course, in Mickey's case specifically, she has some additional questions regarding 'his deal', but one topic at a time.

Might as well go for the obvious answer for the obvious question. "... Well, uh, miss, some worlds don't have vampires. Like mine."

At the very least, he hoped it didn't!

...Okay, uh. Give her a moment to process that, because honestly what the fuck.

The fact that he does seem to be some kind of talking mouse admittedly makes it a little easier to swallow, given that whatever... world, or plane, or whatever he's form must be pretty weird to begin with.

"...Huh," she replies, finally. "Lucky you. Also, no offense but what the hell kind of 'world' do you even come from?"

Mickey shrugs, not quite sure what answer to give. After all, his home is normal, and everyone else's are the strange ones - isn't that everyone's opinion of their own home? "Well, my world's called the Disney Kingdom. It's very nice, and has lots of good people. So, we do our best to give everyone a chance."

"And is... everyone there some kind of. Giant talking mouse?"

Listen, she had to ask at some point.

"Aw, we got all types! Dogs, ducks, cats, turtles, cows, horses, chipmunks... shoot, the only thing we don't have are humans." A pause. "And vampires." Gosh, he really hopes they don't.

"Huh. That's, uh... cool, I guess?" Her mouth twists as she tries to decide if she actually agrees with that description or not.

She's leaning toward no, since it mostly sounds to her like some kind of kids' cartoon more than anything, but he doesn't need to know that.

"Okay, now I gotta know - what about werewolves? And interplanars, for that matter. Y'know, angels, demons, fae." If they don't have humans or vampires, who knows what else just... doesn't exist.

"Only in fairy tales." Mickey shrugs helplessly. Is she saying her world has THOSE things too? If they have all those things, are their fairy tales empty? And how does anyone get any sleep? It must be scary all the time!

Erika snorts, a smirk pulling at her mouth.

Then she looks at Mickey again.

"...You're serious, aren't you."

He raises one hand and puts the other hand over his chest. "I swear on my honor as a musketeer!"

"...Right. 'Course you do." God this mouse guy just... doesn't have a sense of irony, does he? She's not sure he does.

"So your world... legit doesn't have, well-- any magic beings? Or humans, just, uh. Talking animal people."

"Yep, that's exactly it." Mickey nods, wondering how long it'll take for Erika to believe him. "Never heard of humans before I came here, never believed in magic before I came here, and now both have changed."

Erika looks at him for a moment, then just... sighs and pushes a hand through her hair, pushing a few stray strands out of her face.

"Well. Then I'm guessing that you'll, uh... understand if this is kinda tough to process. Like, it's just... it's a lot? This is a lot."

"Well, that's all right." Mickey offers a kind smile. "But you're not alone in it, you know? We're all experiencing something new and doing our best to understand."

"Ugh. Guess so." She gives a quick shake of her head, because holy shit she is done thinking about this. "Hey, what's your name, anyway? Guessing you've got names over in your animal world."

Get ready for another eye-roller. He offers a friendly hand to shake. "My name's Mickey Mouse! It's nice to meet you!"

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January Intro: I Know the Winter's Getting Colder

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