lifeaftr | April Intro: The Flower Ripens in its Place

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April Intro: The Flower Ripens in its Place

INTRO LOG: APRIL

Who: Everyone!
What: New souls arrive to the archipelago of LifeAftr
When: April 3rd and onward
Where: Ziziphus
Warnings: Mark as needed!

A9: Sow the Seed
Unbeknownst to new arrivals, the archipelago of LifeAftr has recently seen the appearance of a new island, as chosen via voting - and they have been unceremoniously placed there instead of upon Ensō, where most newcomers would typically appear. It's probably for the best that the island of Ziziphus is so outwardly peaceful.

There are worse places to find yourself, all things considered. The mana pool glimmers with a greenish light, the stone ring containing that peculiar fluid set firmly into the earth. The surrounding land fits neatly into that general aesthetic: rippling fields stirred by the occasional crisp breeze alternate between amber-golden and rich, verdant green in coloration, and irregular patches of color signify the presence of a great deal of flowers of all sorts.

It's a peaceful scene.

We're sure you're all about to make it go horribly wrong.

B9: Reap the Harvest
For the unluckier, or the more adventurous, something far less tranquil awaits. Perhaps you woke up on this particular map square instead, or you saw fit to journey a little farther, just to see what might happen. In any case, you'll quickly discover that this may not have been the best idea, when an ordinary grassy mound abruptly detaches itself from the ground, hauls itself upright on bristling legs, and starts scuttling near.

SPINDLANKS have now been unlocked in the bestiary.
What might initially appear to be a leafy hillock will very quickly prove to be something far more...mobile, if you get close enough. That clump of grass and red ferns will abruptly hoist itself up on six vine-like tendrils, crawling for its prey like a very large, mossy spider. While it's fully capable of swiping at its foes with its massive, leafy arms, the spindlank's favored method of dispatching its prey is simply to scuttle forth until it's positioned directly above you and drop down. If its weight does not crush you and choking on the clods of earth doesn't smother you, don't worry; the spindlank intends to eat you alive with a set of fleshy jaws set deep in its center, buried somewhere in its underbelly.

For despite their appearance, spindlanks are very much carnivorous. Their size can vary from anywhere between six and ten feet tall when their appendages unfurl entirely. They are, in essence, very large plants, and thus can be easily dealt with, if you can burn them.

Just try not to get overwhelmed.

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.

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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Somehow, Myia's shrieks suddenly grow silent in complete shock as the grass and vegetation currently trying to shake her off erupts into flames. Fire is effective against a thing made mostly of leaves, and when its legs are cleft apart it collapses under her.

Myia is thrown off at the same moment she tries to jump, the awkwardness of which causes her to stumble off in an arc, trying to catch herself with her wings on the way down. She's not built for heavy flight, though, and lands on her hands and knees.

She snaps her head up to look for the face of the person who saved her. Another weird looking person. Why is everyone she meets lately, whether she's asleep or awake, a completely unrecognizable species?

But that's beside the point. This person saved her from the monster-plant. She can't think of any ulterior motives he can possibly have to rescue her. But he's got to have one. Food, maybe? Maybe he's seeing her as an easy bite to eat?

"Don't taste good! Too thin! No meat! All chitin!" she barks at him, recoiling away from both him and the fire.

Perhaps fortunately, he completely misinterprets what she's trying to say.

"Yeah, maybe don't eat the plant-things trying to kill you," he says, torn somewhere between confusion and irritation. The spindlank isn't going down quietly; none of them ever do, it seems like. Its tendrils whip about wildly, and Tim has to duck to keep from being brained across the head with a flaming vine.

More importantly, at least, now he can check on the...bug-lady?

"You okay?"

"Not... eating that. No fruit," she dejectedly replies, confused at his answer. Why would she try to eat a big thing made of grass? "I'm a fruit fly, not a rabbit."

He approaches her, and she startles for a moment, but he's clearly checking on her when he asks if she's okay. Alright, so... he's not trying to eat her? She shoots him another suspicious look, then picks herself up, dusting herself off. She's also a six foot tall fruit fly, which might not be what you'd expect from such a normally tiny species of insect.

"Just skinned knees and palms. Why?"

“Pretty big for a fruit fly,” he says slowly, though then again, he can’t really afford to judge. He’s seen some weird shit since ending up here, and even before then. It’d be stupid to start drawing arbitrary lines in terms of believability now.

“‘Cause this thing is pretty pissed, and I think we’d be better off - ” He breaks off as the spindlank surges for the pair of them anew, apparently bent on taking one or both of them down with it. He starts scrambling backwards at once, one hand splayed our to try and herd Myia away - however necessary or unnecessary that might be.

He ushers her away like... like a concerned parent with an adventurous child? Or the way Maybel stops Emet from walking into danger? Both of these imply much different intentions -- at least if Myia's interpretation of Maybel's intentions hold any water -- and she's still completely clueless as to why this odd stranger with the sideburns is helping her.

Maybe he's just super dumb. Like, really, really dumb, and doesn't know to just walk by and thank God it's not him.

Myia is much smarter than that.

Which is why it's clear she's not thinking when the monster swipes at them again and Myia grabs the strange man by the arm and attempts to drag him with her as she dashes away. The spindlank appears frenzied by the fire and commotion, thrashing this way and that to try to grab at least one of them.

Well, he wouldn't disagree with that sentiment - this is probably a bad idea, and it was from the start. Still, the things will burn well enough, even if he risks setting fire to the rest of the damn island in the process. That's just about the only way he can be useful. Burning things down.

He doesn't expect the bug-lady to seize him by the arm the way she does and start hauling him back. To say the sudden movement takes him aback would be an understatement; he trip-stumbles over his feet as she tries dragging him backwards, with mixed results.

"We can't just leave it," he finally protests, digging heels into the grass. "It'll set the whole place on fire."

And whose fault is that?

Myia nearly falls over herself when he stays put as she tries to drag him away, and she bristles and buzzes her wings as she rounds on him to glare. She wants to argue that it doesn't matter if the whole place goes up, but she barely knows anything about where she's at and if half the vegetation got burnt up she'd be down several food sources. And that wouldn't be a great start to figuring out how to get back to Maahi from this weird plant-isle.

So she simply says, "You started it! How will you put it out!?"

She implies that it's up to him, but then she takes out her bag and starts looking through the contents to try and figure out what she can use here. She pulls out a set of flint and tinder and tsks at it. Next.

Sack of sugar? Maybe...

"I didn't think that far ahead," he admits, breathless. "I was more worried about making sure it didn't get you."

She's already up and going through her things, but even if there was a jug of water somewhere in there, he doubts it'd do much in the face of all this. Jesus. This is why he doesn't do things - because they inevitably end up blowing up in his face, and in the faces of everyone around him.

"We can lead it to the water, maybe?"

"Why, though!??" That, she still doesn't get. Why did he step in randomly, if he's not looking for an easy meal? She tosses her stuff back in the knapsack and unhooks her fishing pole from the side of the bag.

"Lead it to water. Only possible way," Myia agrees. She sets her jaw and waves the strange man away, and starts poking at the monster with the pole. The line would snap if she just tried to drag it over, it's far too big, but she can probably agitate it and get it chasing her pretty easily.

"Because it's trying to eat you?" He can still spare a moment to shoot her a look of utter confusion. Why wouldn't he? They're all in this together. Sure, maybe she's new and still adjusting to what it is to have to work in a group out of necessity, but the idea of someone trying to help can't be that foreign by default, can it?

Maybe she's just decided to cut to the chase - leap to the part where someone only helps because they want something out of it.

At least she has a pole weapon. He swaps his hatchet for his spear and starts mimicking her, jabbing at the spindlank to start luring it toward the water, and not a moment too soon - some of the grass beneath it has begun to smoke ominously.

Honestly, it can't be that hard to lure it to water. Surely the thing doesn't enjoy being on fire. It is struggling with a lot of confusion due to that fact, though, so the poking helps as it lashes out at the two.

Myia's a bit annoyed, because she wanted the man out of the way in this process, but he's helping so she can't be too mad. She pokes it with her fishing pole again and dodges out of the way as it swipes at her weakly. It's not doing too well, being on fire as long as it has. It reaches the beach as they lead it, and it kind of collapses in the sand.

She blinks at it and just starts kicking sand over it. This works too.

You know what? Yeah. This works too. It only takes him a minute to decide to cut his losses and start following suit. It doesn't take long to smother the sizzling remains. The spindlank still twitches feebly, but one final, decisive thrust of his spear stills it.

It's easier, when he can't see if it has a face or not.

It feels like it's always getting easier, these days.

"...all right," he breathes out, sinking the butt of his spear into the sand to lean up against it in lieu of actual support. "Okay. That's taken care of."

Myia stares at the dead monster, breathing hard, hand over her chest as if to still her heart. She's killed plenty, at this point. It's just a drop in the bucket, and this thing doesn't even have a proper face.

The thing is, it also doesn't seem to have much more than dirt and grass and the occasional flower to it. Its monstrous form doesn't really lend itself to consumption the way that plants in her world tend to. She rests her chin on a palm, looking down at it with a confounded expression on her face.

"...We should eat it. Right?" It makes sense. After all... "We killed it."

Uh.

That's...not really his first instinct, when he comes up against something like this, but you know what? That's fine. It's plenty valid. Especially considering that she just turned up on a relatively deserted island with a pack full of dubious goods with no guarantee that anything edible might be forthcoming, from her perspective.

Tim rakes a hand up through his hair to push it out of his face. It's getting too long again.

"Doesn't look edible," he says, skeptical. "I mean, I guess it makes good fuel if we need to light a fire again."

"Not too... fleshy," she agrees, tilting her head at it. "Not fleshy at all."

Though accompanied with her flint and tinder in the knapsack she was gifted, it may still provide some form of edibles in one way or another.

"Could use it for a fire. Got flint and tinder. Make real food. Must be fish in the ocean. Got a pole."

She holds the fishing pole in her hand up.

"Wait. Do you live here? Are there houses? Don't see buildings on this island. Haven't seen none at all."

"...no," he says at last, after a moment of due contemplation. She's getting her bearings still. That's...normal. "There's other islands all over, but right now we only have...two. The other one, Ensō, that's where most people live."

On the islets just off its coast, but - details.

"This one's a new island. They, uh...come and go. I know it doesn't make sense. Just go with it."

One day he'll be good at this.

Myia blinks at the man. So the islands are temporary? But Ensō isn't, or no one would live there. Myia doesn't know shit about geology, so for all she knows islands could sink or reappear or whatever. She's only just barely learned that things exist outside of the Metropolis and its surrounding forest. She only barely knows the ocean is real and not some kind of fairy tale.

So yeah. Temporary islands. She shrugs.

"Makes sense to me. Go with it, go with it," she agrees. Multiple islands puts into perspective the information about flower-porting or whatever that she heard in her dreams from that strange Storyteller rabbit.

"And who're you, man from Ensō? I'm Myia."

"I'm not from - " He abandons the attempt to correct her before it's even fully formed. Does it matter? Not particularly, since she doesn't have a frame of reference for what Alabama is, most likely. "...Tim. I'm Tim."

Myia. Well, she won't be easy to forget. She kinda stands out.

"You're gonna wanna be careful. Some people might think you're...uh, something from around here." He gestures loosely in the direction of the heaped mass of spindlank, limp in the sand. They might attack her on sight for looking kind of insectoid, is his point.

Myia narrows her eyes at Tim. Then follows his gesture to the lump of burnt nature on the ground. Then looks back up at him.

"...Wwwwwwhy? Just a fly. You don't have flies here?? Flies are everywhere. Don't lie to me. You're lying. What are you anyway?? Some kind of plucked chicken?"

She inspects him a little too closely, looking around him to try and find what wings he may or may not have. He looks like a lot of the other people she saw while dreaming. Which is nothing more than the word "weird". She has no name for why these people are so ugly.

He flinches.

It's incredible, the way the word can still get to him. The way it can jab in like a sliver of a knife between his ribs, because it's like a pale twig of a man crammed in the corner of Tim's living room spitting out you're a liar with all the venom he can muster, some shadowy, vengeful remnant of what he used to be, and it all hurtles back.

He is a liar. And he has a lump of a brown hoodie shoved down at the bottom of his pack to prove it.

"I'm - " He can't finish. What semblance of rationality he could cling to in scraps has dissipated, and he shakes his head. "I'm nobody."

Well, that doesn't answer her question at all. That's very annoying. He's not being very helpful, is he? She squints at him for a few more seconds before folding her arms around her fishing pole and deciding she's pleased enough with this much.

"That's fine! Don't care, don't care at all. Making talk like I'm a plant monster, when I'm just a fly and you're just a nobody, pointless anyway! You're a very rude nobody, Tim."

And then, only because he apparently stopped to help her out of... the kindness of his heart(???), she offers, "So, do you need fish? Good at fishing. Caught adults and children. Taught by an old fisher bear. Very good at fishing."

Edited (consistency) 2018-04-14 03:36 (UTC)

"I'm not saying I would." Clearly he doesn't and wouldn't, given that he just did the opposite of that, but logic be damned, right? "Just that some people here shoot first and ask questions later. It's not like I want - "

Fuck it. Again, he discards the thought before it can properly manifest, and shakes it aside. What's it matter? If her mind's made up, then her mind's made up.

He'll do the easy thing. Play along. He can always manage that.

"...sure. Sure, I need fish."

Honestly, the better thing to do when dealing with Myia is to play along. Fighting her on every fool thought that enters her brain would get real tiring real fast. Emet learned to pick their battles very quickly into their time living with her.

Of course, she still makes it difficult to actually pick battles in any sort of meaningful fashion, with how quickly she talks circles around people with no form of logic along for the ride.

"Good! I can get the nobody fish," she says, pleased with herself as she grabs her fishing pole. "This isn't good for catching adults 'cause they're so heavy, but we're only two anyway. Won't need that many fish that won't go bad 'fore we can eat 'em. No freezers! What a stink island."

Without ceremony, she plucks a piece of vine off the burnt spindlank corpse and attaches it to the hook for makeshift bait's sake, and walks off towards the edge of the water, casting a line expertly into the sea.

He's just gonna be "nobody" forever now, huh?

He can live with that. That was how he was supposed to live, technically, until he was yanked laterally along the edges of his world and dumped into another, apropos of nothing. He sure as shit isn't nobody now, no matter how much he's tried to the contrary.

"You're gonna wanna be careful," he says tiredly, with the expectation that this won't necessarily yield anything but more annoyance on her end. "Sometimes there's dangerous stuff in the water, too."

Myia shrugs in response, waiting for something to bite.

"Dangerous stuff everywhere. Who cares? I got a shiny knife and fish'll get gutted. Sharks too. And you, if you gnashed your teeth at me."

She turns back to him, as if she didn't just threaten to flay him.

"Are the fish like the plant monster? Not people?"

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