March Intro: The Night Begins to Shine

[lifeaftr_mods]

INTRO LOG: MARCH

Who: Everyone!
What: New souls arrive to the archipelago of LifeAftr
When: March 4th to March 9th
Where: Ensō
Warnings: Mark as needed!

The Birds: Talk 'Til Dawn
As promised, the Storyteller has withdrawn to see your path to the island you chose. It is for this reason that their presence may be somewhat less evident than usual, even at the site of their temple. It may take some time to reach them whenever you should require something or another, and it seems that they might not be paying attention to what is occurring on the island at all.

This is not necessarily a good thing.

After the firebird's flight in January, the sun has assumed its regular position in the skies of LifeAftr, warming and lighting the archipelago with a reassuring regularity following the horror of the continuous night. And with the Storyteller's intervention, a fresh wave of cloud has come to blanket the floating islands that travelers last month had the brief opportunity to explore. However, come March, little dollops of gray-white may occasionally come streaking from the sky like ashen comets; the firebird's sheer distance from LifeAftr has delayed their arrival somewhat, but it has come nonetheless.

LifeAftr's sun has begun to molt.

The phoenix's fiery red plumage is more of a dulled-out gray by the time it drifts down to the sands and treetops of Ensō, but that's not the only peculiar quality about it. No; the real strangeness is the fact that the molted feathers aren't really feathers at all. They're chicks. Tiny and slate-gray to start with, cheeping feebly in heaps of ash, they'll nonetheless start to sprout yellow-orange pinfeathers within a day. Other than being rather passive, miniature versions of the great firebird that swarmed into the sky in January, the chicks are rather simple creatures - they require no food or water aside from the sunlight cast from their cousin in the sky, and they mature into lean, fiery birds the size of ospreys within a matter of weeks.

What is notable is their rather unpredictable capacity to burst into flame. Oftentimes they'll simply regenerate from the ashes and begin the cycle anew, but that doesn't necessarily mean it's pleasant for whoever might be nearby - or if someone happens to be holding them.

In fact, it seems that the risk of this occurring seems significantly higher when someone initiates physical contact. At least now you'll stay toasty!

The Bugs: You Would Not Believe Your Flies
Come the night, the island has one more surprise for you, dear adventurers. Your new avian addition to Ensō's ecosystem sleeps during the night, much like the sun in the sky above, and thus is not much use for lighting up the dark. However, something else is. Something that perhaps many of you might recognize. These fireflies are much more luminous compared to the typical variant, and a good deal more sluggish too, as it's quite easy to catch them and store them in jars. Unfortunately, they don't last long in contained environments; they flourish in open spaces, and as long as they are not caught and contained into extinction, will continue to light up Ensō's nights for weeks to come. They hover in lazy droves, stirring into the sky in the occasional luminescent spill.

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All new arrivals will awake with knapsacks, their names stitched to the front. The contents of said knapsacks can all be found in your acceptance notices!

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

[finethanks]

[He's not blind to that, and while he watches his burns vanish, he knows that magic can't be happy and simple even if it does exist. Watching her exhale like that has him stepping closer, concerned.]

How are you able to do something like that? It's not possible, is it? Are you alright?

[shineinside]

I'm fine, I'm fine! [Living here, it's easy to forget that the laws of physics weren't always so optional. Anyway, she pushed herself much further than this back when the sun died.]

I used to think things like that were impossible, too. It's kind of a long story, but I was granted special powers in order to become my ideal self, or something like that.

[finethanks]

Your ideal self? How nice that must be.

[Ah, he's missing his healthy body again from the floating islands. Still, if she seems fine, and now he's fine... He has to thank her. He bows his head a little with a grand gesture to his own chest.

It's still... a little too revealing now, with his clothes burnt, but at least he's no longer injured.]

Thank you.

[shineinside]

It's fine, but...

[That... reminds her.]

Sorry if this is a rude thing to ask, but if you don't have any powers, then what is that outfit for? [She had sort of assumed it was some kind of magical boy situation.]

[finethanks]

This? Fufu, does it seem as though I'm magical? A being descended from above, perhaps?

[That's the idea, so he hope so, extending his hand in a showy gesture.] I am an idol. A performer, you know?

[shineinside]

Ohh! [She's interested in this right away!] Like, you sing and dance and stuff?

[finethanks]

Precisely. I'm the leader of a unit called fine. Made to look like angels that have descended from heaven, able to reach down and touch the hearts of our fans.

[He smiles fondly.] Do you like it? Well, I suppose I should have asked that before it was burnt away like this.

[shineinside]

[SERIOUS EXPRESSION.]

Can you teach me how to dance?

[finethanks]

[That fond smile gets about ten times fonder. A fan of dance? How cute.]

Of course. Is there something in particular you'd like to learn? As far as dances that can be properly learned outside of an idol routine, my strength is ballroom dancing, so anything like that would be easy.