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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[wheeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeee

Asgore shifts his weight to keep his claws from dragging against the ice, and all in all it's not a wholly unpleasant trip. The pads of his paws are freezing and will probably hurt later, but that is the way it would have been anyhow. Once he's close enough, he picks his way over the rocks and onto the comforting solidity of the beach. Success.]

I did not know you used purple magic. It is rather uncommon, these days...

[He seems to just be making small talk, for the sake of something to say. Now that he's here, he'll release the line, and - there's so much he really should be asking, of one of his people who has too long been alone in a foreign land. He doesn't know how long, but any length of time is long enough, when you have lost your home.

At least she has gotten to see the Surface. He's glad. He'd just hoped to...perhaps to put off being King again for a little longer? Is that what he's been doing?

Well. It was a foolish idea.]

Have you been in this place very long?

[Muffet greets him pleasantly enough, with a wave and cheerful smile, letting the threads of purple magic dissipate as his long sliding journey comes to a stop.]

Oh, I've just always found it one of the easiest to work with, it seemed a shame not to learn how to use it properly.

[She doesn't seem particularly inclined to demand much of him, at least, her tone calm and unruffled as she responds.]

At this point I believe it's been about five months since I arrived, though I'm told time can run differently in places like this.

Goodness. That's quite a while.

[At least twice as long as he's been away. Though, of course, they might not have been taken from the same point in time. She doesn't seem at all surprised to see him alive, that must mean something.]

How are you doing?

Speaking personally, I'm doing quite well- I've managed to avoid any injuries thus far, met plenty of lovely new people, and haven't had much trouble providing for myself. It's more the overall situation that worries me, the fact that we still don't know exactly how or why we were brought here in the first place.

And yourself? I hope your arrival wasn't any more unpleasant than unexpectedly waking up in a strange world already is in and of itself.

[Thanks to having spoken with those who've dealt with the issue before, Muffet is also aware of the potential for being taken from different points in time, which is why she asks her next question.]

On the subject of time, your majesty... May I ask what the last thing you remember is, from before you arrived here?

I am well enough! Though -

[ohhhhh, that's something he doesn't want to tell her. luckily, he has a very good distraction:]

- well, the last thing I remember is settling down for the night in an entirely separate strange world. [He smiles, a little sheepishly.] This is the second time that this has happened. It is all a rather complicated story...what is the last thing that you remember?

[Some small part of Muffet, the part that's been carefully honed by trying to survive in the dangerous world of human businesspeople, quietly nudges her and says that something isn't as it should be. But he's right, that is a very good distraction, and her curiosity is piqued immediately.]

I've heard from others, who had experienced strange things like this before, though I'd had no idea you had been in any of the other worlds they mentioned. What was it like there? Maybe one of them knows you, here.

As for me... nothing terribly exciting, really. I was just in my shop, cleaning up for the evening.

[Something nags at her again, an insistent little piece of her subconscious, pointing out that something is... off, here. It isn't until she catches her gaze drifting absently towards the shine of his armor that she realizes: she hasn't seen him wear that since the Underground. She doesn't know him, not on a personal level like Frisk does, but even though they don't really stop and chat she's still seen him in passing, tending the gardens at Queen Toriel's school or on television, giving an interview about monsterkind...]

[And he hasn't seen him wear armor instead of comfortable street clothes, not once. But he's wearing it now.]

[A suspicion begins to dawn, all their talk about different points in time taking on a new relevance now. There's one easy way to check this, though, one obvious historical event that he can't have missed if he's past that point, so she adds:]

In my new shop, that is. The one I opened on the Surface.

Edited (typo) 2018-01-14 19:35 (UTC)

I suppose that is possible! Has anybody mentioned Beacon Hospital?

[Their population was rather small, so the hope he allows himself there is a small one. Still...still, wouldn't that be nice? If they must be trapped yet another place, at least they could be together.

YEAH THOUGH, Asgore cannot hide his shock at that late addition, nor does he really try to.]

You have already reached the Surface?

[What...what happened? He sent the child away! Did they not make their escape in time? Surely, if another fell, Toriel would have protected them?

He should be happy. But all he can think is, was there a war after all?]

I'm afraid I haven't heard it mentioned, though someone else might know something if you ask around. There's a place we leave messages, so you could write one and see if anyone responds.

[Welp, that look confirms at least one of her suspicions:]

I'm fairly certain you and I are from different times, your majesty. When I was taken here?

We had been on the Surface for over a year by that point.

[That's an interesting amount of shock for someone who'd made it clear to his people that reaching the Surface by any means necessary was his goal for substantially longer than Muffet herself has been alive- though admittedly she's of the opinion that he went about in a thoroughly inefficient way, one that caused far more suffering than necessary.]

[Then again, he was willing to change his tune about "taking back the Surface from humanity" awfully quickly once Frisk found a slightly more peaceful way to bring down the Barrier... Which- now that she thinks about it- is likely another point she ought to mention for his peace of mind, if nothing else.]

Things were very tense between humanity and monsterkind at first, but we managed to avoid any violence, and we're managing to live peacefully with them quite well by now. I suspect seeing a human willing to speak on our behalf helped a great deal in those early days when no one really knew what to make of each other- exactly how they brought down the Barrier without a seventh death I am still thoroughly unclear on, but I was never an expert in soul theory. I'm simply grateful that they did, in the end.

[Truthfully, she... may have gotten a few more details about that part of Frisk's journey recently, but she's not going to talk about those without asking if they're all right with it first. It's not her story to tell. ...And honestly, even knowing more about it, the whole thing genuinely is still pretty damn confusing.]

Oh!

[Yep, and there's some relief. He shouldn't have reacted that way to begin with, probably - he has always tried to keep up some level of public appearances, regarding how he felt about...everything, for precisely the same reasons that he kept on with the plan to begin with.

Asgore already misses not having to be a king for anybody; is that terrible of him? He smiles.]

Well, that is very good to hear. The Barrier was still intact, when I was taken from the Underground.

[Did that child really return with a solution so quickly? Muffet didn't seem very surprised to see him alive. Shouldn't she have known from the outset that he was from her past, for him to be standing at all? No, there's definitely something off about all of that.

Regardless. Without a war, that is...that is very good to hear.] His smile softens, and he leans forward a little.]

Do you happen to know how Undyne is? She always spoke of wanting to see the ocean, if she ever reached the Surface.
[He doesn't really expect Muffet to know her personally, but he does expect she'd recognize the name.]

~~[Look, she didn't vote for you.]~~

[Muffet smiles impishly at his question, and answers:]

Last I saw of her, she and Dr. Alphys were quite happy together- they make quite a lovely couple, as it turns out.

[Okay, yes, there may be more important things going on here, but there's always time for shipping gossip.]

Gosh, really? It is long overdue - those two talk about each other nearly every time I see them!

[there is always time for shipping gossip]

I once saw the good doctor get so distracted by the captain stopping by to get a donut at the same time she did that she walked right into a table- which our gallant guardswoman then offered to suplex for her, in order to punish the offending furniture. I think the only people who didn't see this one coming may have been the happy couple themselves.

[Monster priorities are the best priorities.]

Apparently there was a betting pool on how long it would take for one of them to finally confess, although I don't know who was running it. ...Which, based on past experience, means the answer is probably Sans.

[Pretty much any quick money-making venture back in the Underground could be traced to either Sans, Mettaton, or herself. If Mettaton was responsible for it everyone would know, because he'd have probably filmed himself interviewing whoever made the winning bet, and she knows it wasn't her. So by process of elimination, this one was definitely Sans' fault.]

Ha ha ha! That does sound like him!

[Apparently Asgore knows Sans personally? Sans probably knows everyone, somehow.]

I remember when I was first considering Alphys for her position. Undyne had met her well before I did - she spent nearly forty-five minutes telling me very loudly why Alphys was "the greatest!" I believe I lost a chair to it.

She is a bit prone to property damage- though to give credit where it's due, I've never seen her fail to pay for a replacement for what she breaks.

[After all, she did pay for the table. ...Although given who signs Undyne's paychecks, technically Asgore may have paid for that table, by proxy.]

Gosh, no. She has grown into quite the upstanding citizen.

[His smile grows softer, more fond. He'd say she was raised well, but he did enough of it himself that it feels a little too prideful.]

Very enthusiastic, yes, but we all know that she means well for everyone.

[The smile, his almost fatherly fondness, is sweet to see... even if it makes her think of his children here, a quiet pang of sorrow at the thought.]

Ah, perhaps we should head further inland- it's cold out here, and likely will only get colder.

Ah - yes, I suppose so.

[Now that his bare pawpads aren't on the ice, he feels okay. But he has thick fur, and a sweater, and a cape blanket.]

Are you living somewhere on this island?

No, I've made my home on the islets- most of us are staying there, I can show you the way. We can get from island to island using this rather fascinating thing called a mana pool, it transports you instantly from one place to another.

[She's genuinely still curious about how those work, but she suspects the Storyteller is a bit too busy to answer questions about them.]

Ah, like a shortcut. [And he does means Sans's here, that's basically what this is] That is handy.

I wouldn't be surprised if they were something similar, yes.

[She's always wondered about those shortcuts of his, although she's never been able to figure out the trick of them. Sans, of course, never gave a straight answer.]

[She begins walking toward the location of Chol's mana pool, motioning for Asgore to follow.]

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January Intro: I Know the Winter's Getting Colder

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