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

[ The nickname doesn't even faze her. Not anymore. Among other things, she's grown up. She doesn't worry so much about measuring up, about something so inconsequential as a name making her sound too young and inexperienced.

She worries about other things now. ]

So that he could go to you, instead?

[ She isn't being fair, she knows. Even if she'd stayed, it wouldn't have changed anything. Carolina would still have claimed both AI. Wash would still have been next on the list.

But it had still hit her like a punch in the gut, to learn that Wash had gotten Epsilon and she hadn't even been there. Hadn't even known. ]

That was never supposed to happen to you, Wash. You were never supposed to -

[ Turn into this. ]

...I would never have left you there, if I'd known.

I'm not dead yet.

[A cocktail of paranoid and crazy and someone else's memories slurried all throughout in multicolored streaks, but hey, he's alive.]

Being slotted for Epsilon is one of the only reasons I'm still alive. [Not that I always wanted to be.] It's one of the only reasons that Freelancer got put into the fucking ground like it was always supposed to.

That was the cost.

[Better that it was him who paid it. Him, and not C.T., who already paid the last price in the form of Tex putting a hatchet through her.]

I know.

[ Maybe that's enough. Maybe she's making too big a deal out of it. Wash had survived, and so many of them...hadn't. Herself included.

But she remembers what Church had told her about what happened, remembers how Wash had been in that field with the flowers. Remembers how his first act here had been to demand proof that it was really her, and his second had been to hold her at gunpoint until she could prove it for good. The goofy, naive, optimistic Wash she knew is gone, and the jaded, paranoid, ex-Article Twelve soldier in his place is someone that, more often than not, she barely recognizes. ]

It shouldn't have been.

[ She shakes her head. ]

I never meant for anyone else to pay.

[ That's why she'd taken the risk in the first place. Committed a crime of her own - desertion, treason - and betrayed her trust in her friends, knowing she'd likely never win it back. To put a stop to it. So that no one else would have to. ]

That wasn't something you had control over.

[It's not pointed, or edged, or even remotely sharpened.]

Maybe you didn't get them, all of them, in one swing. But you were the start of it. You were the reason everything began to fall apart. [She didn't shatter Freelancer from its foundations, not in the moment, but she did throw a stone, and the ripples still haven't stopped shivering.]

[That's everything, Connie.]

[Maybe, now, it is.]

[ He keeps saying that, and she knows it's true. It had even seemed like enough, when the Counselor had first told her. Project Freelancer is over. The Director is dead. Her goal, seen to completion. Did the rest of it really matter?

She hadn't thought so, then. But that was before she had seen the aftermath for herself. Seen Wash, and what he'd been through. Years spent picking up the pieces, cleaning up after Freelancer in the worst way possible. Changed forever by Epsilon's implantation. ]

...I'm tired, Wash.

[ Tired in general, and tired of this. She scrubs her eyes with one hand. ]

I thought I was finally free of it all.

Out of the frying pan and into the shit.

[It occurs to him only after he's said it that he hasn't thought about Four-Seven-Niner in - a while. It also occurs to him that he doesn't recognize the association that coils in the base of his chest cavity, constricting like a fist around his heart.]

[It takes him a moment to recognize it as the absence of grief.]

[He's too certain of the fates of too many of his old teammates, and the lack of knowing what happened to Four-Seven aches. It aches in the way working an old muscle aches, after years of neglect.]

Yeah.

[ Her lips quirk up a little in somber recognition of the joke. One more lost friend.

She almost asks after Four-Seven-Niner, and then...doesn't. What good would it do, to hear if she'd died, too? ]

[He lets the unvoiced question linger and then peter out. Rouses himself, straightening. Like the friendly, affirming clap of Carolina's hand to his shoulder or the side of his face, the right-handed weariness in her reassurance: you're good.]

Come on.

Let's see if we can find your fiancé.

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

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