lifeaftr | May Intro: We're Going Down, Down

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May Intro: We're Going Down, Down

INTRO LOG: MAY

Who: Everyone!
What: New souls arrive to the archipelago of LifeAftr
When: May 4th and onward
Where: Ensō...and above
Warnings: Mark as needed!

Floating Islet: And Sugar, We're Going Down Swinging
While new arrivals may generally be expected at this time of the month, one factor that has continuously failed to maintain consistency is their point of arrival. And indeed, it appears that this month has once again exceeded even the Storyteller's expectations as to where arrivals may take their first steps on this world.

Those who were with us in February will most certainly remember the floating islands hovering far, far above the mainland. While they currently remain inaccessible, they are still steadily floating overhead, shifting appearance as if made of the clouds themselves. And so while waking up on top of the world may be a surprise, at the very least new arrivals will have a bird's eye view of Ensō to enjoy for a time...until they take notice of a rather sinking sensation.

In fact, that sensation would be the island itself, starting to sink out of the sky.

So that's nice.

On a crash course for the ground at F6, the Storyteller will eventually slow the island's progress to the ground below, though a rather profound impact is, simply put, inevitable. Characters with the ability of flight will find the island skimming low enough to reach on their own. Others may wish to utilize their resourcefulness to find an alternate means down.

Or, perhaps, you'll simply deal with whatever awaits you at the crash site.

F6 and Beyond: In An Earlier Round
Thankfully, the Storyteller's intervention will ensure that no one still on the not-so-floating island upon impact will escape with minor injuries at worst, the island itself crumbling to pieces and taking down more than a few thick trees. The pieces of the island will very quickly begin to blacken, crumbling underfoot as the floating island turns to dust. Anyone still aboard may wish to make a very quick departure.

The ripples of this impact, however, are far more significant than two pieces of land bumping up against one another.

Previously, visitors to the floating islands may have experienced some...oddities, during their time above the clouds. For the next few days, these oddities will spread across Ensō itself, leading to some rather awkward scenarios:

[ ♆ ] Some may find their weapons are... behaving oddly, though all are still functional. Weapons, in this instance, may also include fisticuffs, if the intent is to use your fists as a weapon.

[ ♆ ] Equally as irritating are those who find themselves coming down with a severe case of NPCitus: periods of time in which they find themselves incapable of saying more than one or two lines of the same, repetitive dialogue.

[ ♆ ] Equal parts nostalgic and irritating for some are the instances of lag (walking forwards, only to find oneself back where they started), Swimmer's Ear (incapable of movement unless swimming through the air), and clipping (suddenly stuck halfway through the nearest rock are all common, regrettable side-effects).

[ ♆ ] Other unfortunate side-effects may also transpire, as varied and wild as one's imagination.

Though many of these may be hindering or even dangerous in the right situations, they are, for the most part, passive. The Storyteller will assure anyone who asks that these oddities will disappear in the next few days.

You are free to create or utilize glitches you are particularly fond of, though keep in mind that any potential content warnings should be mentioned in your toplevel! You may peruse some of the past glitches here, or create your own along those lines! And a special thanks to our local Donn-mun, Jake (

venesection), for the first glitch on the list!

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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I mean, yeah. I glitched the fuck out on the floating islands too, but it's not -

[How the fuck does he explain his theory without getting weird and technical about video games? Because that's what he's been comparing this to: the floating islands were obviously some kinda buggy alpha build shit. They're basically unfinished models and everything went to shit when everyone started fucking around on them. It was like letting a bunch of morons fuck around in Garry's Mod. Or installing too many mods in Skyrim.

. . . Honestly, this all really was Todd's fault.]

- it's not that. It's the whole system. Haven't you ever wondered why it feels like we're constantly in someone else's story?

Because... [He hasn't thought it that way, in terms of a story. Not surprising considering that stories weren't... they were something new to him these last few years but he understands.]

We aren't in control... someone or something is controlling us. We knew who it was in the Tower, Ruana... she... the Tower was hers and we were just... she had absolute control. [Playthings in her games, subjects in Jason's experiments and now... characters in someone else's story?] We don't know here though. The Story Teller seems... I don't think they are ultimately in control either...

That's the problem. They're not the "Author," they're just the Storyteller.

[That's semantics, maybe, but it's what the Storyteller is going around asking to be called and names mean something. Names have power, and maybe there's a reason a god is marking themselves down to a mere storyteller.]

. . . They asked me something interesting, when I wanted to know if the new islands would always disappear: did anything you make last?

Just the Story teller... [A good point, though why gods did anything was beyond Shion, until three years ago he would have told you that there were absolutely no gods, nothing that couldn't be explained with pure science. He's learned a lot since then. He remembered his own conversation with the Story Teller, it had been strange and not all what had expected. They were a strange god, not that Shion had ever met a god. Unless he was counting Ruana. Which... he probably should, she was as poweful as any god he had ever read about.]

They told me that nothing in the archipeligo including themselves had the ability to create from nothing, they could only use what was here already. That... You think they are creating the islands? From... the other islands?

[Reusing things, nothing would last because they only had power within what was here... They weren't an... Ceej had probably hit on the best example, author. They couldn't make up what was here but they could use what was here already.]

Yeah, I do. Did you fuck around at all up there? I made an exact replica of something back home, but I couldn't create anything I hadn't seen.

[He tried to create flowers in octarine, which in retrospect might have been a Stupid Idea since even if octarine did exist? He wouldn't be able to see it, being as he isn't a wizard or a cat.]

It's like - you know, there's no such thing as an original idea or whatever, but I think this goes beyond that.

It was mostly subconscious but I was able to change things... change things into nicer places. I made a meadow for Ren... [He hadn't even tried to make anything he hadn't seen himself. He hadn't even thought of doing so.

No such thing as an origional idea...] So those floating islands make up the bigger islands? [He thought back to his conversation with the Storyteller] They said that on the small islands we were like gods, the islands molded themselves to us, like someone who goes to a new place and molds themselves to those they meet. That we had to look inward.

[Maybe what the Story Teller had told him would make more sense to Ceej]

I think - [Connor hesitates, visibly uncomfortable for a moment before it slips away. His voice is quieter when he speaks again.] You can make whatever you want from clay. It's infinitely moldable until you fire it or it dries out. The islands are more like sand, maybe: you can make as many castles as you want, but eventually water will wash them away. Just because you can mold things doesn't mean they stay that way - not even a god can force people to bend to their will.

[There's a metaphor in what he's saying, maybe. A hinting at the dark thing that's always hiding behind Connor: the fact that people tried to make him into something he wasn't, forced him to give up himself so that he could be acceptable. Safe.]

Does that make sense?

Or at least they can't keep forcing people for long... [It was the one thing not even Ruana and the administrators could do. They could brainwash people for short amounts of time. They controlled them enough to get them to do basic tasks when they thought they were sleeping. They turned people into monsters. But they couldn't keep it up indefinitely. Ruana could have lived forever if she could have kept them passive and obedient the whole time.]

So the island itself is like a person, you can try and... they can try and make it what they want it to be but it has a mind of it's own and will always fight back?

Something like that. I think - there's other gods here too, on some of the islands that we've been to.

[The Standing Water, for one. The God on Monsun, for another. Connor doesn't say any of that, though. Instead, he asks a different question:]

The Storyteller always talks like anything that happened here happened ages ago. Do you ever wonder what happened between now and then? Is this just - [Connor brings a hand to his mouth and nervously worries a hangnail.] Sequels are never as good as the original.

Sequels are never as good? [So they were not the first people, that made sense considering the ruined buildings. But what had happened to the first people? Where had they gone and what had happened in the meantime?]

Have they ever said? About who was here before? [He doubts it, the Story Teller seemed to not wish to explain much, either because they did not know or they did not think the islanders needed to know. But Shion has only had one conversation with them, it's not much to really judge]

I haven't really asked. There were - you know my house? There were other people there, recently. I didn't build that. [He doesn't mention who lived there. It's irrelevant to this conversation.] But I don't think they were the first either. I think - I think the first might have been the sunken city.

People were there recently? When we were here? [He hasn't heard of this, but he hasn't been here as long as Ceej has.] What sunken city?

[There was so much he didn't know, he reached into his backpack to grab his notebook, flicking to the pages of notes he had made at the islander meeting to add to them]

Right before I got here? I dunno, before I got here definitely. Tim told me.

[Actually, a couple people told him about the monkeys but Tim is the only one he's friends with so. Tim is who he remembers.]

Anyway, there's buildings - [Connor's eyes narrow, trying to orient himself. He points to the west of Ensō and then to the south.] there abd there, off the coast. I'd investigate them, but I'm not a diver. I guess I could ask the Jormun, but I don't like bothering them for this kinda thing.

[Tim told him, Shion could ask Tim. When Tim was...

He's not thinking about Tim. The other buildings... Shion is not a diver either] Maybe we could ask around, someone might now how to dive or maybe the jormun have already explored before. They are your friends right? So they probably won't mind telling you if they know about it.

It needs equipment, probably. I don't think you can free dive in deeper water.

[Might be able to make do with a snorkel, but he's pretty sure the buildings he saw were farther down. If anybody was going to investigate, it would probably have to be the Jormun and he's - Connor knows that he can ask them for stuff like this, but he doesn't really like to bother people with petty shit.]

I'll ask the Jormun about it, though.

Yes, they might have already explored. [He gets that it's weird to ask the Jormun to investigate for them, but asking if they already have and if they will share information that's different.]

The Story Teller is wary... maybe even afraid of the water. [Can gods be afraid?]

That makes sense, doesn't it? Ensō is an island and islands only exist if the sea doesn't reclaim them.

[There's a story Connor vaguely remembers, about a god who ate his children so he couldn't be killed by them. He thinks that maybe, a hierarchy exists here too. Maybe the Storyteller is a young god, afraid of anything older and what they might do to protect themselves.]

So the sea might reclaim Enso... I guess. The other islands went back into the ocean. Monson I mean...

[Enso stayed, was that because the Story Teller? Were they fighting to stay up and not be submerged?]

Maybe. The Storyteller said it wouldn't, but you know. How much do we really trust the Storyteller?

[Connor's general feelings about this are neutral to middling, honestly. He doesn't actually dislike the Storyteller, but he doesn't like them either. It's complicated.]

What do gods even really know about mere mortals?

I don't know, I asked during the meeting we had and most people's opinions were that the Story Teller was trying their best but didn't really know what they were doing.

[He frowned, what did gods know about mortals? As much as a rock did about the sea Shion would have guessed.] I guess as much as we know about them. [Shion's opinions on the Story Teller were also complicated. He didn't trust them but...] I think... I don't think they would hurt us intentionally. If they wanted to they would have already, unless they are waiting but still... We are in their power they don't need to pretend to be nice to us.

[They would be powerless either way.] But not hurting us is different than being someone we can trust.

. . . The people that hurt you the worst are the people that are trying hardest not to, because sometimes the person you'd take a bullet for is behind the trigger.

[Connor delivers this solemnly, like he didn't just quote Fall Out Boy. It's good fucking advice, okay? It doesn't matter if Pete Wentz made it up first.]

[Shion blinked but nodded slowly. He guessed that was true. Being hurt by those who you cared for hurt more than being hurt by stranger.

Ceej is probably lucky that Fall Out Boy never did and never will exist in Shion's world, Shion had no evidence that the advice wasn't the wisdom of Connor himself.] You're right.

[There is (1) upside to being from a normal canon, and it's that nobody has ever listened to any of the music he keeps passing off as sage advice because it doesn't exist. Tim is the only person he doesn't do this to and it's literally just because he's afraid Tim's going to call him out on it.]

I'm not saying - it's just weird, yeah? If there's all these Gods on these islands, but . . . [Connor looks away, in whatever direction the shore is closest.] If I just kept sailing, do you think there would be an edge? Or does it just loop back around?

An edge? [Was the world even a whole world? Was there an edge? It was a good question. A terrifying question but most good questions were.] Where... In the world me and Aster were in before we came here, everything was just wire and metal and this film that hosted a glamour system. We were in a tower but it looked like... there were floors that were a whole forest, or a volcano, or an dersert. You could get lost for days but it was still just... a floor of a tower.

[He's not saying this world is completely fake and their minds are being decieved but... He sort of is.] This is... a lot of this world works like it should. But there are enough anomolys... Maybe we should try... just sail and see what happens.

[For science.]

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May Intro: We're Going Down, Down

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