lifeaftr | June Intro: Let's Sea How Far We've Come

INTRO LOG: JUNE

Who: Everyone!
What: New souls arrive to the archipelago of LifeAftr as the island of Ziziphus begins to crumble
When: June 4th and onward
Where: Ziziphus and Ensō...and Monsun
Warnings: Mark as needed!

Ziziphus: At The Start Of The End Of The World
Since Bliss's destruction, the extensive root network they've threaded throughout every inch of the island of Ziziphus has begun to crumble. June 4th marks the beginning of the inevitable collapse of the island as it starts to sink into the sea...coincidentally coinciding with the arrival of LifeAftr's newest adventurers. Between the dead trees surrounding Bliss's empty husk, great cracks in the earth start to widen, the dead god's absent root system leaving vast gaps underground which simply cannot support the life above.

It almost sounds like thunder rupturing from the ground itself, wild tremors preceding each vicious boom until gaping chasms lay between venturing parties and the safety of the mana pool - only water waits below, for those unlucky enough to lose their footing.

And if the immense pull of mile wide chunks of landmass sinking beneath the waves isn't enough to suck you down, the heavy rain of debris from Ziziphus's rapidly destabilizing edges will certainly help. Want to avoid a watery grave? What you need to do is simple:

Escape.

Sorry, newbies. If you showed up on Ziziphus, you're in for a very athletic entrance to LifeAftr.

Monsun: Just Like Every Other Morning Before
Adventurers aren't the only creatures on Ziziphus attempting to outrun its collapse. Creatures great and small, from the largest spindlank to the smallest tigerlily will be heading south in an attempt to escape the worst of the quakes. Unlike offshore adventurers, however, these poor creatures don't have a mana pool waiting for them to escape through. Their extinction, it seems, is imminent.

Unless you have something to say about it.

Already exhausted from their attempts to get through to and then actively dispose of their fellow god, the Storyteller will break their traditional manner of communication to announce a potential solution to this problem with a single broadcast to the Stones of Far Speech in a strained, weary tone:

"The mana pools on Monsun are now open. If you are willing, save what you can."

True to their word, characters will discover that the island of Monsun will be accessible once more for a short period of time. From prey to predator, obstruction to catastrophe - multiple species of flora and fauna can still be preserved, should you choose to do so.

Be wary of the psychological effects of both sides of the island. Those who are new to our setting and wish to explore, the island of Monsun has a peculiar side effect to its stark divide: the eastern half is rich in resources, but brings out the very worst of you, while the western half is a tumultuous wasteland that accentuates your best qualities. More information on said island can be found on its entry on the Locations page, or its introductory info post.

Due to these efforts, the Storyteller will not be available for contact from the 4th to the 18th of June. Item Requests will also be unavailable at this time. They will, however, make a rather strained announcement to ensure all are aware that access to both Ziziphus and Monsun will cease on June 10th.

Ensō: I Wonder What It Means If It's Gone
The native fauna of Ziziphus aren't the only ones on the move, it seems. Those who wander the shores of Ensō will be delighted to witness the appearance of creatures akin to both turtles and dugongs drifting through the waters, gravitating around the island's eastern coast, rapidly gaining in numbers over the following days.

Kaleidoshells have been unlocked in the bestiary!

With spring close to ending in the archipelago, these peaceful creatures are looking to make good use of their natural nesting areas; hope you're open to sharing the beach for a little while. While a few braver individuals will make their way to the shores between C4 and D1 to begin digging nests, the vast majority won't be coming to shore quite yet.

They do, however, make a very fine sight around the waters of Ensō, especially in the evening. Luminescent, their rainbow patterns glow underwater, drifting mood lights for the increasingly warmer evening breeze.

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

[It's nice, amidst all this, that Barry is respectful. He does understand that he was fucking with something incredibly bigger than him, and that Kravitz represents that- it's a far cry from the way he's been treated by nearly everyone else on these islands. He knows how to talk to him, and also how to suck up. It's important to do this conversation properly. So he listens, narrows his eyes as Barry finally explains about moving between dimensions. That's why. That's why.

As he talks, Kravitz looks away and closes his eyes for a moment, before a large book appears on his lap that he begins to flip through. If Barry takes a peek, it's not actually his information he's searching over right now- the page he lands on is Taako's. And sure enough, there's a number near the top, a circled eight, that he brushes his fingers over before he replies.]

When I encountered Taako, Magnus, and Merle for the first time, their death count was not just high, but incredibly irregular. I was able to grant them pardon because they had not actually escaped the Astral Plane- they had never been there. There was no evidence of their souls crossing over, which... I don't love, but certainly explains things.

[He closes the book, laying his hands on it on his lap, leaning his elbow against it as he props his head up, fingers over his mouth as he tries to consider the options here. He only moves it to finally speak, after a few seconds of intense deliberation.]

Did you consider that perhaps, the time you experienced was only linear because it was the progression of your individual consciousness across parallel timelines? So it didn't matter if you died, your form wasn't-- it was the pulling of your soul between worlds as tied to this Light.

[Okay, but wait, Taako had been around in Faerun a while. Long enough to make a number of costly mistakes- he's still got at least one more question.]

So... what stopped this? I know the boys had been in Faerun for some time. If you jumped every year, what stopped that here-- or well, what managed to distract it long enough for it to only come now?

Could be. [Answers some questions- opens some new ones. Just like every other theory he's got.] Not to discredit you at all; you'd know more than me, but I don't think it's something we'll ever have a concrete answer to unless it's studied in action-- which, obviously, none of us want to. Ever.

[Just in case he was thinking they would. The next part, though? That... that's so much harder to answer. Barry goes silent for some time, lips thinning as he recalls- everything.]

We arrived in Faerun with a plan. The Hunger was getting faster. Smarter. Escaping it at all was starting to become a near impossible feat- we needed more time, and you'd think we had that in spades, but... it was running out. Fast.

We'd discovered that what it had been tracking wasn't so much as it was the Light of Creation, and having picked up a couple tricks over the last hundred years, we... uh- [Wow yeah you know what this sounds way worse than he remembers?] Considering how long we'd been studying it in person, this is safer than it sounds, I swear. We broke it into six pieces and channeled each of those fragments into new, considerably powerful items. You've... seen one of them in action, before. When you first met the boys.

Which leads us into the biggest flaw of that plan.

[He nods with a hum at the start, because-- it's true, that's not much of the point right now. Kravitz always wants to figure something out, deal with the puzzle before him, but that's not the objective of this conversation and Barry won't even be able to give him an answer. Maybe he can ask the Raven Queen when he returns, or even Lady Istus. Taako mentioned they were affiliated.

But he shakes his head a bit to clear that, because he needs to hear what Barry says next. And what he says is certainly interesting.]

Wait a moment. That large scrabble, not long ago-- that was you all?

[See, the thing is, the Voidfish does not work on the undead. Meaning from, you know, Death's perspective, an incredibly large amount of people started dying for nearly no reason, and then stopped just as abruptly, for reasons he has never been able to figure out.]

Now that, that was an incredible mess. Somehow, I should have guessed you all were involved from what I've seen Taako accomplish.

June Intro: Let's Sea How Far We've Come

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