lifeaftr | 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 )

Flat | Top-Level Comments Only

Prompto and Damen are both idiots, and have never thought out a decision ever. But there's nothing to it. He doesn't know a thing about selfies but he's thought about Damen in a picture, glowing under the Enso sun, and he knows what he wants. He's never thought about putting himself into the picture but if he had to-

“Damen,” Laurent says, like he's about to start admonishing, and leans up to kiss him.

This is a wedding photoshoot I guess.

It took Prompto by surprise and nearly caused him to forget to take the picture, but fortunately he was a professional! He would snap pictures regardless of rain, shine, or if his friend's face was currently being eaten by Jabberwockies. He tried to snap several, knowing that his camera often malfunctioned now. One right after another.

When he swiped through the photos he instantly saw the first few failed, which left one of the last ones to be good. A little disappointing - he was hoping to get a perfect shot right at the 'climax', so to speak. But what could he do?

"Ah... Well, I tried." He was already somewhat apologetic even though it wasn't likely that either of them knew a thing about 'good photography'. "My camera has had issues since I got here, so only the last shot turned out."

He went ahead and flipped it around to show them the screen.

It takes a second for Prompto's comment to sink in and Damen to (reluctantly) pull away from Laurent. He has garbage priorities: if Laurent's around, he mostly cares about Laurent and then anything else that might be happening.

"But it did turn out?" He's not the one who wants the photos, really. Like, they're nice and all? But Damen is the kind of person who completely unironically would say that pictures can't compare to reality. Regardless, he knows Laurent will likely demand they do it again until it does turn out if he doesn't like whatever Prompto's witchbox captured. "I don't know enough about art to tell."

“You had one job and a good half a minute.” Laurent points out. But thanks to the fact that he has no shame, the one working photo still catches them with their faces pressed close- just breaking off the kiss. I rolled a 5 out of 10 on RNG, so. Also, Laurent looks softer here than he will ever be onscreen; it looks like the camera lucked out and captured something human eyes can't witness. He's looking at Damen from under his lashes and smiling, just a bit.

“...it's adequate,” he says, like he knows anything about art either.

"I can't help it. Ever since I got here it hasn't worked quite right. Most the pictures just came out as, well, scrambled."

Intense frowning. His camera was his everything and it sucked for it to work like this. On normal moments he could continue taking a landscape shot until he got it right. When it was a candid shot? He had to keep shooting hoping at least one of them worked. This was the definition of pain.

"I wish I could fix it but there's no parts shops around here." He let out a sigh. Couldn't they hear the torment?

"Could you not ask -" Wait, no. Nevermind, he knows exactly how that shit goes. "No, nevermind. I think that request would be too complicated."

Gods are assholes anyway. All they ever do is come down in the form of animals and fuck your wife like they don't have better, more useful shit to be doing. Or they tie you to a rock so a bird can eat your liver because you tried to do something nice for mortals and give them fire.

"Thank you for taking the portrait."

“Keep trying, if it can be repaired you'll find a way.”

Unfortunately they divide the labour very well in this relationship and Damen is responsible for the sympathy. Laurent is very no nonsense about this- have a problem? Fix it. Be systematically denied the education you need to survive? Find an alternative. Get stabbed? Just walk it off and then pretend you're not in debilitating pain, it's fine.

“You didn't seem to catch the dimple he has, but I'll count it.” Hooray for your horse feeding coupon! “ Anyway, where were we?”

"I'll definitely get to it. We've just had a lot of other stuff come up."

His camera had to take a backseat. Still, it was one of many things he wanted to get working in the future. He smiled softly at Damen, "Hey, no problem. Anytime."

Enough of that. For now. Much as Laurent could be brusque, he had a point. "Yeah, so, which way do you guys wanna go? We don't really know what's in any direction."

"Then let's go that direction." Unfortunately, Laurent is also the smart one so. Damen literally just points in a semi-randomly chosen direction. Seems good! "Any discovery of resources would be good and I don't think anyone's gone that way yet."

Feel free to disagree, of course.

April Intro: The Flower Ripens in its Place

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