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

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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 )

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[His mom used to think he was cool. :c

Kravitz wasn't- he didn't seem... okay, no. Kravitz could be cruel, if that's what it took to fulfill his duties. It's something Barry had seen firsthand, something he'd intended to then help the tres horny boys deal with before his focus had been- elsewhere.

Attempting not to fall apart had been rather integral at the time.

But his words don't seem to be a pointed reminder of that; he's a guy missing his home just as they all had, the first couple of decades. Barry can sympathize, with that. Empathize even.]

Yeah? Sounds... nice. Peaceful. [Obviously.

Boy, he's bad at this. Barry sighs, rubbing at the back of his neck as he shuffles closer.]

I figure we've got a few things to talk about, like it or not. Uh... [Haha boy, he really isn't the guy for this.] Maybe it'd best to start with what you already know? And, y'know, take it from there.

[Kravitz hasn't been the guy for social interaction effectively ever, Barry, trust him. He feels that. But as much as he knows this topic will have to be breeched at a point, he hates that it's here. What middle ground could they possibly come to? He has his duties. It's not as simple as disobeying orders, as letting something slide. Kravitz could let it go for a long time. Until something happens. But that puts his life on the line, and the lives of everyone close, and what about Taako--

He shakes his head just a bit, trying to clear out some of that jumble. He's too far in the future in his thoughts. He needs to come back.

Barry wants reassurance. So does he. They'll have to speak eventually. So... perhaps it's time.

Kravitz sighs, and motions for Barry to sit down with him, moving back a bit to where the grass meets the sand.]

I'm not sure what there is to-- to know, exactly, in this situation. I know you and your partner are undead beings of immeasurable power. I know, also, you're Taako's family. He... explained to me that you were outrunning a rather formidable foe that appears to have made it's way after you to our realm. But I'm obviously slight on the details.

[He tilts his head enough to catch Barry's eye.]

I will give you a chance to tell your side of the story. Provided I am also able to voice mine.

Yeah, that's-- the skinny version. [Extremely skinny, which isn't much of a surprise. It's Taako. Taako's not great at...details. Relevant ones. Taking a seat, Barry rests his arms on his knees, meeting Kravitz' gaze evenly. It's- this whole thing is terrifying, sure. But he's faced so much worse. His family has been through so much worse.]

Not that any of it is wrong, per say. Lup and I, we are liches. And I- we, we gotta answer for that someday, no matter our reasons for doing what we've done. But uh, I think it's worth telling you, about it. In more detail.

He doesn't want to have this talk, he really doesn't. And he gets that Kravitz doesn't either, but the fact is? They can. And obviously, they have to.]

So uh- you go ahead. I'll listen, but I don't-- there was never an intention to disrespect your position, just, just so you know. Or the Raven Queen. And I'm not gonna tell you not to do your job, uh... yeah. [A lame finish, but what's he supposed to say? Reap us and you won't have a job? That's a little...

That's a little too Lup, for him.]

Go ahead. I'm listening.

[This is quite possibly the worst scenario to find themselves in. They have to learn to get along- Kravitz knows this. As much as he's sure Taako wishes this issue would resolve itself, there's hard work involved in these sorts of things, work that Kravitz doesn't necessarily want to give but knows he'll have to. On the other hand, they're on more equal terms here- Kravitz can't report him immediately, and therefore incurs no penalties or issues for not doing so. He assumes Barry's abilities are equally weakened.

Maybe... this is where they should be talking. Somewhere far away from it all.

He breathes in, looking away at his hands as he tries to formulate this.]

I'm not naive enough to think you did this on purpose to spite me. Few people wander about directly disrespecting a god, and I'm certainly not the first line of defense there, but respectfully speaking, you aren't the first I've heard by a long shot.

[He doesn't even know if this will matter to him. It doesn't, to most. But he also doesn't get these chances to them. This opportunity.]

No one wants to die. Death is a representation of all of the things living beings fear- it's an uncontrollable, immeasurable shift of the self. It is a loss of everything that people find precious. I'm not saying I don't understand why people turn to these things.

[He's gesturing now, unable to sit still and talk, reaching for a way to explain this that's a little more kind than his usual speech.]

But there are some things you simply can't cross. Some things you simply can't do. When you tear down the boundaries between realms and worlds you risk the destruction of everything. You simply can't put the singular self before the world. I let one person though, one group of people running about getting to break all the rules, and the entire planar system could come down.

[Kravitz sighs, finally looking back at him.]

The ultimate thing here is that it isn't about you, it never really was, it's about preserving the laws of the universe. But-- [A very, very distinct finger waggle--] --and I put this with a large, large caveat- I have made certain exceptions for particular behavior before. So I want to hear... more of this. More of what that thing was that invaded the Astral Plane. More... context.

[He wouldn't have added that last bit, but-- he has stakes here. Not as large, certainly, as the group of them. But stakes he'd like to understand.]

[The more Kravitz says, the harder it is to keep quiet. It's... really something, gently chewing on the inside of his cheek as Kravitz indirectly calls him a selfish coward- calls Lup a selfish coward. And his first thought, in order to avoid making a scene (to not snap defensively, when that response won't help anyone) is to console himself with the thought that Kravitz wasn't intending to offend, except-- that falls through pretty quick. The man makes it more than clear what he thinks of them both, that their actions make them criminals. And that's all he thinks of them- all he ever would, if it wasn't for Taako.

So Barry thinks of Lup.

He thinks about all the possible responses she'd have to such assumptions. On the outside, probably... a defensive retort, something witty and scathing and so flawless that he wouldn't be capable of thinking it up himself, would have to hear it falling from her lips like a mic-drop. Internally, however, she'd be hurt. Angry and insulted for herself, for him, immediately critical of the person whose judgment was stemming from... from utter ignorance of what they'd been through, what they've lost. The sacrifices, the guilt, the pain they've endured to get this far. All of them. Magnus too. Taako.

How afraid she'd be, that someone so oblivious might just have the power necessary to tear them all apart. Not hard to figure out how quickly things would escalate, from there.]

...Sorry, just- it's a lot to think about. [Barry says slowly, a full minute after Kravitz has finished speaking. He's- he thinks he's got it now, the best way to approach this, this pointed lack of kindness. Just stick to the facts, Barold, and it'll be fine.

Probably.]

It's- the best way to do this is to just, lay out the facts from the start. Which is gonna take a while, so far warning. [He clears his throat, tone awkward.] Around... one-thirty, one-forty years ago, something fell from outer space onto our- my original homeworld. It was a power source, mostly. Well- a lot of other things, too. This thing came to be known as the Light of Creation, and it...

Well, scientifically it advanced our world a good couple of centuries in a few decades. It's how we came to understand it as the Light of Creation, an instrument that had literally been used in creation. As in, creation.

[The big one. Creation starter pack.]

[He adjusts his stance, slouching his back and leaning forward to rest his forearms on his knees as he listens. He's just trying to absorb this for now, as much as he can, nodding along the way.]

Creation itself? That's... dangerous, I would think.

[But that's not really important, and he shakes his head a bit.]

I'm sorry, I-- go on. I don't mean to interrupt.

[He is just-- bracing for it. For the moment this coagulates into something he's heard before, crystalizes into excuses and doubt. He knows it's coming, but he said he'd be fair and hear him out, and he's going to, his reservations aside. But as much as he tries to bring his posture down, relax himself, his hackles are still up for the slip into the all too disliked familiar.]

It's fine; you're not wrong, really. [Barry smiles humorlessly.] None of us were thinking about that at the time. The Light just...allowed us access to so much more. Part of that was what we were involved in, the Institute of Planar Research and Exploration; inter-planetary travel and research. There were seven of us altogether, Taako, Lup, and Magnus included, kitted up and given a ship to explore the farthest reaches of our plane. We called it- uh...

[Uh. Barry breaks off for a moment, ears tinging pink. Not important, Barold. Not at all. Reaching up to rub at his neck, he pushes on.]

Nevermind. Not important, sorry. So, we're set to take our maiden voyage, and the day was... cloudy. Dark cloudly. Aside from that, we had no issues with the pre-checks, so we took off without a hitch. Made to go up through the atmosphere, smooth as you please when- it hits. Really hits.

Dozens, hundreds of black- masses, tendrils, slamming into the ground below us, some a mile wide, more than that. They just- blanketed everything, our whole world in what felt like seconds. And we're flying right in the thick of them thinking, shit. Looking at that stuff, you'd think... it was just darkness. Living darkness. We're all dead. Everyone on the ground is dead.

[Their world. Their families. His mother- Barry swallows, pushing on.]

We kept flying. Had to. Going back would've been the end of it, and- hell, what could we have done? Our captain, he was- the best. Even then, we're still in the shit, flying for the edge of our plane-

And everything goes fuzzy. Something about escaping, something about the ship; I dunno, there's too many variables to figure out what makes it all click, but it does. This thing attacks a world, we run, and something causes up to hop through dimensions. This black stuff; we'll call it the Hunger since... hell, that's just what we call it, uh- it...eats the worlds we leave behind, usually. Whole dimensions.

That's. That's the short of what we've been dealing with. Doesn't really do it all justice, but- a hundred years is hard to condense.

[He listens, dutifully so, hands clasped in front of him and watching Barry's movements as he goes on. It isn't until the part where he talks about living darkness that he feels his heart grip itself, chest beginning to tighten. That thing. That thing that he finally worked the name out of Taako of, the thing they knew.

He didn't realize it had been a hundred years. He also doesn't know how long it took him to start breathing more quickly through his nose, finally aware of the way his chest rises and falls, the lump in his throat that he has to push down.

Everything goes fuzzy. He agrees.

He can't stop himself from sighing as Barry concludes, wanting to follow up with something more detached, more apart from this, but he can't.]

Living tar that moves like the ocean, in waves. Full of wisps of color, lines of red, blue, and yellow. It sticks like syrup but worse because it feels like every moment of it is hands that want nothing more than to drag you into the deep. To consume.

[He's looking ahead at the ocean, not at Barry, but it's not a stare he'd want to train on the other man anyway. This one seems serious and lost in thought. After a moment, he closes his eyes and lets his shoulders fall in a sigh.]

Before I came here, it attacked the Astral Plane. I barely escaped the initial onslaught with my life, but I was only able to do so by barricading myself in the Eternal Stockade. I had no contact to anyone. I have no idea if anything else survived.

[It's made coming to a world full of water only slightly traumatic. His eyes slide over to Barry, hands still knotted in front of him.]

Taako gave me the name, when I finally brought it up. But he didn't tell me the scale. That... thing. It was attacking the whole system? Across-- a hundred years?

[He's still got questions, reservations about this, but he's trying to take it one step at a time.]

[He looks at Kravitz instead, even it's a look not shared. All the better that it isn't, really- he has a chance to look, whilst the Reaper describes it. Not just hear the accuracy of the description, but confirm those- the usual indications, the tightening of his jaw, the quickened breath.

It's a look of experience. No wonder things were starting to wig out on the physical plane- the others must already be...]

Yeah. The Astral Plane and most of the others, I imagine. Picking off any potential sources of resistance... magic, higher beings. That's- what it does.

[It. He. Hard to say if the entity known as John really identified in a manner that mortals could really parse.]

If our time lines up right, then most things are still- around. I can't... I can't guarantee that, but- if experience is anything to go off, I theorize that the Hunger works to cut the Planes off from each other before it-

[Consumes.]

About a hundred years; more now. It goes wherever the Light of Creation goes; that's how it gets the power to consume at the...magnitude, it does.

Edited (CUTE THE PLANES OFF) 2018-10-23 00:07 (UTC)

[Trying to introduce a concept that this thing wasn't just a thing but was headed by a man would probably just be too much to handle right now anyway. Not that it's possible to keep this simple, but extraneous details like that are probably best circled back to later.]

Well. That's certainly a... magnitude I wasn't expecting.

[He'll give that concession, that relent. But he's not done yet, pieces still missing, and he remembers suddenly back to the first time he met the boys in Lucas' lab. The book, the bounty, the lack of actually getting to the Astral Plane. That doesn't make sense.]

I'm afraid I'm still missing pieces, though. I understand this is a formidable foe, an experience I'm hoping you understand that I do know, but why become liches for this? Fear of not carrying on the mission? If this was so dangerous, how did all of you make it without all becoming undead?

[He barely escaped the onslaught, and he knows he's more powerful than the average person. How did a group of 7 mortals all survive for a hundred years? There has to be something missing here.]

[Hey, it's something. Progress, of some kind. Enough to crack a smile as Barry allows himself to relax, slightly. There's still plenty to answer for, sure, but- this isn't bad. It's going okay.]

Yeah... uh, I guess the first two questions sort of answer the last? But some of this is...theoretical, sorry. Too many variables, too much we never had the resources to measure. [Barry squints, the glare of the sun bouncing off the waters stretched out before them starting to get to his eyes, a little. Man, should've brought along more sunscreen.]

You had a bounty out on the boys- we probably all have a bounty like that. With the Hunger on our heels, our original mission...stopped mattering, that much. I mean, it mattered; we still documented as much as we could everywhere we went, but- wherever we were, the Hunger was going to show up eventually. Obliterate it. Documenting things, it became more about- about preserving something, making sure we didn't forget everything that's been lost.

Before we even talked about it, I think... I think we all started looking for a way to take back everything the Hunger's taken. To- to defeat the Hunger, to make sure no more dimensions suffer the same fate ours did.

[He huffs, smile a tad self-conscious.]

It might- Okay. It sounds a little conceited, but- we knew what we were up against, at least. And from all the information we had at the time, we... we figured we couldn't die for good, if we just took the right precautions.

[He glances at Kravitz, smile gone. Barry can imagine what that sounds like; a group of mortal creatures treating death like something temporary.]

It was- ignorant and presumptuous. Of course we died. But only in the dimension we were occupying at the time. When the Hunger came, whoever was left would take the ship and gt out of there. So long as one of us got the ship out, then that-- that exact second it hit a new dimension, there we all were. In the exact same state we'd been in when we first left our world. I hypothesize it's because we haven't died in our original dimension, maybe; each time we hit a new dimension, it treats us as if we had only just left it behind... but uh, I couldn't tell you if that's even remotely accurate, really.

But we uh, we used that to our advantage. Pushed harder than we should've, a lot of the time, but it was worth it. The knowledge we gained, the experience, it was necessary if we wanted to have any chance of succeeding in defeating the Hunger.

So, yeah. Both of those- searching for a way to defeat the Hunger, making sure there was always someone left to fly the ship- that's why I asked Lup to become a lich with me.

[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.

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

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