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

[growingpains]

Yes you can. [His voice quiets down, traces of previous anger still lingering there despite the flame going out. ]

People do it all the time. That's why you'll need a picture to remind you.

[ungrieved]

If you’re forgettable enough, sure. The trick is to not make yourself forgettable.

[Thanks, Gabe. Helpful of you to say. Extremely.]

People can’t ignore you if you don’t make yourself easy to ignore. They’ll always remember someone who reminds them of what they’ve lost.

[growingpains]

[That's not how it goes. People forget important things, -- people --, just as easily anything else. Love and care doesn't have anything to do with it.

However, isn't that what he's doing the same as him? Taking photos of himself with other people and print pictures for them so that they wouldn't forget him? He doesn't want to be that forgettable.]

So. In the end you weren't the one who was forgotten at all. When you lose a memory it won't come back.

[ungrieved]

You sure?

[He's living proof that that's not true. They rid her of her memories, scrubbed her free of it all, and he still lingered. He still came back, certain as anything.]

[And without warning, Gabe grins wide and lunges, reaching for those ridiculous, tufted cat-ears so he can try and grab them and pull.]

[growingpains]

[He's sure. He would know thank you very much. When the memory is gone, really gone, it won't come back no matter how much you want.

But he barely has time to open his mouth to reply him before he's jumping on him, arms reached forward.]

Hey--!! [He yelps and tries to move further away from him. But, unfortunately, he's barely half of the adult's size and there's nowhere he could escape to. The camera is dropped down on the snow when the fingers pulls his ears. He cries out in discomfort and raises his hands to swat him away, not caring that the rope burn marks around his wrist can be seen under his sleeve's cuffs.]

The hell you're doing!

[ungrieved]

[Gabe immediately sits back on his heels with a cocky smirk. Interesting. The kid's wrists look...damaged, like something got tied around them, or something. He stores that little tidbit away for later and folds his arms across his chest.]

You gonna forget that anytime soon?

[growingpains]

What is wrong with you! Creep! Pervert! [Just what kind of adult goes and grabs kid's ears? What a weirdo!

He keeps growling and once he's backed off Ritsuka bends down to save his camera. He swipes the snow off and quickly dries it to his jacket,hoping that it didn't damage any further. Then he slides it back to his bag, looking absolutely pissed.]

You're impossible! That-- that didn't prove anything, you idiot!

[ungrieved]

Sure it did. You're not gonna forget that someone did that to you, huh?

[That's how you stick in someone's memory forever.]

[You make yourself impossible to forget. You rage, you scream, you rant, you cry. You claw and tear at every barrier that keeps them from remembering, until you break through.]

[That's how you keep yourself from being forgotten.]

Doesn't it kind of stand out?

[growingpains]

SHUT UP! [He screams, much louder than he meant to. His hands are squeezed hard into shaking fists]

You don't get it. [He doesn't get it and Ritsuka is mad. He's mad at himself for staying and listening to him, for hoping that he'd actually know something. But he's just another dumb and childish adult who's only serving himself. The worst kind of person who preys on others.

Ritsuka is mad that he got so worked up about this. He's mad that he's feeling tired.]

When you forget it's all over.

[ungrieved]

It's never over.

[It's practically growled out; any amusement has abruptly evaporated. His eyes narrow.]

You think I don't know how it feels? To be...forgotten? I've been forgotten. I've been the thing no one wants to remember! Are you calling me a liar?

[growingpains]

All adults are liars.

[It hurts. If he can't remember how can he tell what's real? Especially now when the truth he had accepted as reality has crumbled?

It hurts and he's scared. He can understand that the other person is too.] It's frightening when you forget or are forgotten.

[ungrieved]

Is that what you think I am? An adult?

[He straights slightly, adjusting his posture from a kneel to a crouch, as though in preparation to shoot to his feet at once.]

[growingpains]

Of course. You don't have ears.

[Duh.]

[ungrieved]

'Course I have ears. [He flicks at the very ordinary, fleshy nubs at the sides of his head with a look that plainly suggests that he thinks Ritsuki is an idiot.]

Everyone has ears.

[growingpains]

[Ritsuka does not miss the meaning of that look. Is he playing with him again?]

You know that's not what I meant.

[ungrieved]

Yeah? Well, not everybody is from your freak world, where people have freak ears.

[Not that he minds being considered an adult. He's almost eighteen, right?]

[Right.]

The maturity around here is astounding

[growingpains]

Freak --!! [He hisses at him, the hairs on his tail standing up. Oh now he's really offended him.

The whole concept of the ears is such normal thing for him like humans walking on two feet and having two arms that idea of them being abnormal hasn't even crossed his mind.]

W-what about you? Is everyone born as creepy perverted adult in your world?! That's gross.

[ungrieved]

I grew up, like anyone else.

[He says it a shade too defensively. Like anybody else. But he's not...like anybody else, is he? Not really. Not truly. He's just a memory that wouldn't let itself be cast aside.]

[And now he's like this.]

[Better dead and remembered, than alive and forgotten.]

I'm almost eighteen.

[growingpains]

Really? Could've fooled me. You're more childish and immature than any of my classmates.

[ungrieved]

Well, you've got more cat ears than any of mine, so I guess that makes us even.

[GABE, YOU NEVER HAD CLASSMATES.]

You lose 'em when you're eighteen, or what? Do they fall off like antlers? Do you have to graft them on when you're born? [He darts forward to tug at one of those stupid ears again, providing he moves quickly enough, because this boy is awful and someone needs to stop him.]

[growingpains]

[It's really starting to hit Ritsuka that this guy isn't fooling around. He really doesn't know about the ears, which is a though that makes him even more uncomfortable. And he's definitely not going to have this discussion with a weird like this guy!]

Of course not! Don't be ridiculous. There's obviously difference between growing up and being an adult, idiot.

[Luckily he's better prepared this time! When the hands reaches out towards him for second time he moves to the side, avoiding him while swatting him away.]

Stop that!

[ungrieved]

What's the difference, then? Huh?

[The reaction only seems to delight Gabe further. Keep away, tag - he always loved games like those. Was always a pro at hide and seek, because no one could ever find him. He never liked playing for very long; it would start to remind him that, unless it was his mother searching, he'd never be found.]

[growingpains]

If you've really "grown up" [which he is really doubting rn] you should know that.

[ungrieved]

We don't all come from your dumb world, buddy. Help me out here.

[Or he'll keep poking your stupid ears. Look, he's doing it now. He'll do it again, if you don't stop him.]

[growingpains]

No!

[He scoffs and raises his hands back up to fight him off when the fingers touch his ears again.] Why would I tell anything to bully like you! And if it really is that dumb then why do you even care?!