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 )

Flat | Top-Level Comments Only

A) Oh, snapple

[ ...well. This is a thing.

A whooooole lot of ice. And an island? Welp. He stands right there for a couple of seconds, just staring ahead at the rocks in the distance. He looks around both sides...and nothing.

Huh.

He cups his hands by his mouth. ]

Hellooooooo?

[ ...nothing.

He picks up the knapsack he doesn't remember bringing with him - he doesn't remember ending up here to begin with - and ruffled through the items. It's his name on the thing, but...

Another look around, still nothing.

Hepicks his shield off his back and swings the knapsack on one shoulder, starting to step his way towards the island.

He's keeping his eyes on the rocks and the trees, squinting his eyes to try and see literally anything living, any person, anything that might give him a clue. Did he really just wake up in a random sheet of ice? Is this another weird island dream? Maybe he went a little hard on the mead last ni-

Crackle. Snap.

He freezes.

Glancing down at his feet, he notices...little cracks. On the ice. Spider webbing out away from his loafers.

Crack...]

...welp.

[ Time to fucking diiiiiip.

Because a large, burly, heavily equipped man running through breaking ice is a good idea. ]

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B) Exploring

[ Hey! Climbing!

For now, he's trying to get the lay of the land. Axe in hand, shield in arm, he's trudging through the rocks, trying to find any sort of life.

Anyone.

Anything.

Anything at all.

Why is he here? How is he here? He's gonna need to axe some questions.

Haha.

No, seriously, what the fuck is this place?]

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C) These fish people are alright!

[ Hey, fish friends!

After a tense showdown where he thought he was about to cut down a couple of merdudes, turns out that these guys are pretty friendly! They even gave him a really fucking itchy blanket and something to eat!

His hole face is on fire and it's probably gonna hurt a lot more coming out.

He's heard mention of a battle, and their leader, and he's pretty much set on going around and figuring out what the fuck is happening. And probably fight something, by the sound of it!

Right now, he's still enjoying his free meal. ]

Holy shit, have you tried this?

[ Yes, complete stranger, he's talking to you. ]

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D) Go wild

[ Anything you wanna do, my man, go hogwild here. ]

Edited 2018-01-08 01:30 (UTC)

[ Magnus will doubt have even more questions, considering the nature of the person he's about to meet. The Knight hops from rock to rock with unknown purpose - possibly just for fun, it's hard to tell - but stops when they see someone trudging through the wilderness.

They strike the rock they're on with their sword - once, twice - to catch the person's attention - it rings out - and then raise a nubby hand in greeting. No reason not to be rude! This person looks new, and lost. ]

[ Magnus stops and looks towards the sound, for a moment just pausing to look at the stranger.

But, agreed, there's no need to be rude! He raises a hand in return.]

Hail and well met, masked friend!

[Magnus, jesus, you pick the weirdest times to go full fantasy-ass hero.]

Can you, huh, tell where we are?

[ Where they are? Well, they're on a strange island, brought here to help (?), or to tell stories. Something to that effect.

Not that the knight has...any real way to communicate this at all...that doesn't take up a lot of time. Being mute is more of a trouble than they were expecting, but they've never had so many people who wanted to really talk to them before.

However, they do know how to write, and they know the island's name. So they hop down (now that they're not on a rock, it's revealed they're very small) and scratch out the name of the island in the snow.

chol ]

[ Oh. Oh! Oh my god, look at how tiny they are. What even are they?

Since they don't seem eager for a fight - and, you know, Magnus doesn't really think that it'd be much of a contest here - he approaches this new small friend, so that he can read the word in the sand. ]

Ccchhh....Coal? Choal...Chol?

[ He can read, sure. ]

That the name of this place?

[ They nod.

camp, and they shift snow around to make an arrow pointing further inland to accompany this declaration.

After a moment's contemplation, they draw a fairly decent if simplistic picture of what looks like a human face with...fins? Spikes? Another arrow, drawn from 'camp' to this simple rendition.

friendly : )

The tall, blue-skinned being had responded favourably to the image of a smiley face, so they figured they'd better try it out with others. ]

[Magnus scratches at his chin as this little guy draws on the snow, trying to take in the message as well as he can. ]

A...fish person? In a camp?

[ Close enough. ]

So it's...safe to go up there?

[ Well, it's literally the only lead he has, so it's not like he has much of a choice? Magnus looks in the direction the around points, thinking, partly trying to see if he can hear or see anything from where they're standing.

But, hey, dude's true to his ideals, so he's going to fucking Rush In. Plus, potential fish people? Hell yeah!

But, before he takes a step, he stops, looking down at the small friend again.]

You wanna come with me?

[ Can he have a tiny buddy? He can ride on his shoulder! Wouldn't that be adorable. ]

[Well howdy there, stranger. Your meal companion has, in fact, tried this. He's even holding a cup of it right now, as if constantly having some will chase away the worst of the chill.

(It is helping more than not at all, so there's that.)]

Don't think they'd let me stay here without forcin' me to have some.

[His voice is dry, amused, and he raises his cup in greeting . Normally, he'd tip his hat - but he's currently trying to huddle in on himself and pulling his arms out of the warm huddle of his blanket sounds like the biggest mistake he could be making right now. Fuck that, honestly.]

Y'one of the new arrivals?

[Because boy is this batch of fresh meat in for a bad time.]

[ Hail and well met, cowboy stranger dude! Magnus likes his hat. And his beard! Mad respect. Maybe they can become beard bros.]

I guess so?

[ He's met a couple of people on the way to the valley, and some of them looked kind of confused, so, maybe??? ]

Do people, huh, end up here often?

[No bonds are greater than the bonds forged over mutual appreciation for having rad facial hair.]

Well, can't say I've seen you around here before so...

[He cracks a grin, leaning his elbows on his knees.]

Y'could say that. Seems every four weeks or so more people show up, an' generally when they show up there's some sort of catastrophe happening. Whether that's intentional or not, I don't know.

[But it is something of a pattern. People show up, something terrible or confusing happens, and it repeats like clockwork.]

[ Well, doesn't that sound familiar- wait no that's not how it actually worked.

Anyway. ]

Aaand how does that happened, exactly?

What kind of catastrophe are we talking here?

No.

[Hello, complete stranger!

And holy shit she has not. The reactions of the people around her gave her cause for concern and she's avoided the drink for some time now. Boiling hot and boiling hot seem like a dangerous combination.]

It's good?

[ Ignore those people. They are wrong and weak. Magnus is absolutely the best example for the best choices, specially when it comes to food. ]

S' really fucking good!

[ Magnus, language. ]

I can't feel my face anymore!

[ He is dying, but it's a good death. ]

That's because your hands aren't there.

[Where is there? She means his face. That's why you can't feel it. Gosh. She holds her hands up to her cheeks to demonstrate how he can feel his it again.]

You can feel your face if you do that and-

[HERE WE GO. Might as well use the word he did. It probably means something good? That's what she gathered, in any case.]

It's fucking nice. It makes you warm.

[ He watches this whole scene, this whole play-by-play of face feeling. And his response is: ]

Fair enough.

[ But back to the awesome food. ]

You should have some of this, though, it's really good. Try it!

[ Oh, Magnus, don't kill the girl. ]

[That's right, fair enough. She helped the bean figure out where his face is and learned a new word in the process. This is a great day.

Still, she's not exactly brave in any respect and the drink in his hands is concerning. He says it's good though and it might be.

And all that pointless treasure hunting did make her cold so-

C'est la vie.]

Okay.

[And she grabs some poor fool's cup-whoever had been sitting there before and sorta holds it out? Nice. ]

Does it taste like the ocean?

[Just try it?? Gosh. Stop harassing this poor man.]

Huuuh, maybe? Not...really. But it's good!

[ He's fine! She's nice! He's always okay with meeting new people.

He holds out his bowl, friendily "clinking" it with hers. ]

Cheers!

[ And down the hatch. The rest of the whole thing.

Don't do that, Ren. For the love of all that his holy, don't do it. ]

[She's gonna do it and copies the way he gulps he down, drinking the remainder from that little cup.

And it's hot on her tongue. The temperature itself making her shake her head before the actual heat starts to just-]

[It's hot. It's too hot. She's not used to things like this okay?? The elves and Guzma have given her a taste of real food and that's grand. Super good. Fantastic. But before this she looked for pieces of food on the ground that were only kinda moldy so this-

She hates this and sits in absolute silence, unwilling to move because her face is on fire. Everything is fire. Her entire body is going to burst into flames-she's 200% sure of this. Little did the scientists know, spices would kill her before her disease did.

And she does the only logical thing one would do in this situation. She grabs a handful of snow and shoves it into her mouth. Then another batch of snow to press right into her face are you proud of yourself Magnus???]

We ate fire. That's-They put the fire in this thing.

[Somehow!!! Someway!! There is literal fire in this meal.]

[ Magnus's face is on fire too! Like, 5 times on fire, since that's how many bowls of this thing he's eaten. But he's okay with spicy food and it's a nice comfy feeling!

But he just watches her...eat...some snow? ]

Holy shit. [ He's kind of amused. Since, you know, it's kinda funny. Not kids getting hurt, just, the whole thing she did. ]

Hey--not, ah, into spicy food?

Water doesn't help, you need something else, like, huh, bread or milk or some shit.

[ Magnus, you ass. ]

[Let her live? The snow is her new best friend, even if he's right and it's doing little to ease the fire raging in her mouth right now.

But she half listens to him and presses a handful of snow to her cheeks instead. That gives her some instant relief.]

I don't have that-[NO BREAD NO MILK JUST SNOW]-That stuff's not on this island.

[EVERY WORD HURTS?? And she decides to stop talking, moving her glass so it rests closer to him. En-heckin-joy friend. Take her portion-not that was hers to begin with. Germs?? What are those?? It's fine.]

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c!

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Re: c - A cute approaches!!!

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the poor kid

she deserves it its fine

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