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]

[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?!

[ungrieved]

Because I’m bored. [Because he’s genuinely curious, more like - not that he’s about to let that slip if he can help it.]

And because if you don’t, I’ll tell everyone that it’s because you skipped your medication. [Does Ritsuki take medication? Gabe doesn’t care.]

1/2

[growingpains]

[growingpains]

[...]

You really are a child.

[He's a child, stubborn and rude. It was only the face of an grown up that fooled him.]

[ungrieved]

[That isn’t supposed to happen. People aren’t supposed to pick up on that unless he tells them. Gabe’s eyes narrow at that, suspiciously.]

I’ve lived longer than any kid you’re thinking of. [For a certain definition of “lived,” sure, but unfortunately, there’s no way to make the words sound anything but sullen.]

[growingpains]

[There's no direct denying, which must mean that he's somewhere close. The annoyance quiets down from Ritsuka's voice, pulling back to sleep inside his small body for now.]

That doesn't matter. You can grow and grow but still remain a child. [There is the difference.]

[ungrieved]

How would you know? [This isn’t right. Why isn’t the kid snapping at him? That was more fun. That was way more fun than whatever this is now.]

[He isn’t certain, but he thinks he might not like it.]

[growingpains]

I know. [Words are spoken with unwavering confidence like they were the absolute truth. He keeps the eye contact, it's strict and knowing. "Power to dominate with words," that was what Soubi had. He could shape the reality with his words. Maybe he could too keep the tables turned around with that same power?]

You were.. You were forgotten, right. Is that why you can't become adult? You can't grow up and become an adult because you have to remind someone that you are here.

[ungrieved]

Shut up.

[The turns have abruptly tabled, and Gabe makes the ultimate decision that he does not like this!!!! He liked this kid way better scared - not eerily knowing, like some part of him peeked onto what Gabe’s non-life was like before - ]

You cheated. You didn’t just - someone told you, didn’t they?

[growingpains]

[His ears droop down a little. He can't say to like this either. The man -- no, a child -- reminds him from something. He's almost like the high school girl who under great distress would deny feeling pain in her body.. The way she had looked at him when he had discovered her secret.]

You told me.

[ungrieved]

[No I didn't.]

[But he did, didn't he? Maybe...he's not used to people being able to read between the lines in that specific sense. He's not used to people picking up on it so quickly, without being showed.]

People can't usually guess.

[growingpains]

People don't usually listen.

[Well to be honest. This person doesn't really do that good at hiding things. The more vague and pressing he tries to be the more he reveals. And well... Ritsuka has more experience with these things than most people his age.]

And people are stupid.

[ungrieved]

Look at that. We can agree on something.

[He stops regarding Ritsuka with the mocking, almost predatory leer that colors his immediate reactions to everyone, letting it blend into something more considerate, more thoughtful. He underestimated him. The ears were a distraction, he's going to decide. It's easier to blame those than it is his own lack of foresight.]

Do you wanna know the best part?

[He tries to grin. It doesn't quite succeed, his shoulders too tense and his body too hunched, as if by curling up around himself he might fend away the phantom shivers that recalling those moments always summon to mind.]

[Or maybe they're not so phantom after all. It is rather cold.]

[growingpains]

[Ritsuka almost wants to ask if he's alright because he sure doesn't look like it. He had claimed him to be a child but his reaction appears to be more complex than that. The tantrum is over but he appears to be more calm despite all the pride than petulant and stubborn.

In a way that seems more adult than before.]

What is it?

[ungrieved]

I wasn’t just forgotten.

[His smile is too bitter to be genuine, too cruel to be intended as anything but a weapon, his eyes glittering with something fierce and so, so alive.]

I died.