July Intro: Upsy-Daisy!

[lifeaftr_mods]

INTRO LOG: JULY

Who: New arrivals, your lif᷆t̕i͗n᷅ģ f̧̞ͅr̡̦̃ḭ̅ͭe̩᷅̂n̟̣̤d̨̬̏, and you!
What: New souls arrive to the archipelago of LifeAftr, and everyone makes a new friend!
When: July 5th and onward
Where: All over Ensō
Warnings: Mark as needed!

Like a Bat Out of Hell
At this stage, the appearance of new arrivals to Ensō's shores is hardly a surprise to anyone but the arrivals themselves. Whatever mysterious force is responsible seems to have taken a vaguely nostalgic route this month, depositing the new and unconscious across the shoreline of the beach closest to the tumbled stone bastion of the Storyteller's temple. At first, that seems to be all there is to it. The arrivals stir to the smell of salt and the summer sea air, and the cycle of questions, searching, and settling begins.

For about five minutes. Perhaps ten.

Almost like an afterthought, something else shows up, plummeting straight out of the sky and landing with a veritable explosion of water some hundred feet from the shore. A large, rectangular shape breaches the surface after a few moments, bobbing, cork-like, in the foam-crested waves before ever so slowly beginning to sink into those aquamarine depths. For those familiar with such objects, it makes for a rather odd sight. That most certainly was an elevator, or you can be...fairly sure it was?

Give it another minute, and you'll be certain. The elevator streaks out from the ocean like a creature possessed. Maybe, in those split seconds prior to its approach, you'll be able to note the elevator's distinct features: a disturbingly smiling face on its doors, and a set of teeth framing a very organic mouth.

Meet Upsy, your lifting friend. In case it wasn't obvious by now, Upsy is far from a conventional elevator by any standards. What's more, Upsy has not taken to LifeAftr as well as some others. Armed with the ability to move in any direction, the rogue contraption takes no prisoners - by which we mean, they take as many prisoners as possible. Upsy proceeds to swoop across the shoreline, combing the beach in the most haphazard and patternless path possible, scooping up anyone slow enough to be caught in their maw. Once you're caught up in their jaws, it comes down to the winds of fortune, in regards to wherever Upsy proceeds to spit out their cargo. While the journey itself will be rough and...sticky, it is not inherently dangerous.

Hopefully, the same can be said for wherever you end up Ensō hosts a great deal of predators, environmental hazards, and worse. Though you could always end up belched into the ocean. Hope you can swim!

When the Metal is Hot and the Engine is Hungry
Upsy’s reign of terror isn't restricted to mere adventurers. Those with livestock or animal companions may be in for a small shock or, perhaps more likely, a very large one, when flying elevator sucks up those cuddly critters with a grin and spirits them off into the great unknown.

Though your phoenix, chocobo, or tigerlily may not be where you saw them last, you can at least be assured that they are still on Ensō. All you need to do is round them up. And if this isn't good enough news, well...at least you don't keep bludrocs.

Whether you're out searching for an animal or not, be careful traversing Ensō for the next three days. If Upsy is empty, they'll most certainly snap you up. And if they aren't? You may find anything from birds to horses spat out at you.

The velocity of these organic projectiles tends to vary. Dramatically. Upsy's reign of terror will end on the evening of July 9th. At that point, the elevator will fly off to greener pastures...and our RNG spreadsheet for potential encounters in future. Sweet dreams.

---

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 )

Comments

B

[savedbyasong]

[Shion has spent the day frantically searching for Cobweb, his tigerlilly who had disappeared that morning. At first he had no idea what had happened but the situation had soon made itself apparant.

An elevator that ate people. That's... new. There's not much that surprises Shion anymore but an elevator with an organic mouth... He's spent a lot of today running.

He still hasn't found Cobweb. He knows that the tigerlilly should be fine, but there are many dangers on Enso and Cobweb is not used to them, it is Shion that took him from his natural habitat and so Shion who is responsible.

He's not really surprised when he is hit by a falling person and ends up sprawled on the ground. Really it's surprising this is the first person he's been hit with. He scrambles up and looks at the man, quickly assessing him for any injuries.] Are you alright?

Re: B

[crystallying]

[ Lucas mumbles 'ow, my everything' into the dirt before sitting upright with a pained groan. Shion gets a skeptical look-over from over the rims of Lucas's smudged glasses. ]

I mean, as much as I can be after falling from that height, yeah? Nothing's broken, as far as I can tell. Are you? You're the one who got used as an accidental crashpad!

[savedbyasong]

[Nothing was broken, all the parts of him that were meant to be inside were not outside. He's alright. From Shion's quick assessment anyways. He smiles and then takes a moment after the question to assess himself. He's a little bruised, nothings broken. It's fine.]

Nothing broken, it seems we both got lucky. Did you get taken by the elevator?

[His tone is quite casual as if people eating elevators are an everyday occurance.]

[crystallying]

I... y-yeah. Wasn't really expecting that, it must be going pretty haywire.

[ He starts wringing the... hopefully water, not saliva, out of his labcoat. Gross. ]

[savedbyasong]

Yeah... I guess not many people expect to be eaten by an elevator. I've not see you before, are you new?

[Strange things sometiems happened at the same time as new people arrived. Not always, but often enough for it to be noteworthy.]

[crystallying]

As of about... half an hour ago, yeah. Just landed, so to speak.

[ ... Wait. 'Are you new?' That makes this kid sound like a longtime resident, which doesn't bode well for Lucas's hopes of getting off this dang island. ]

... Howwwww long have you been here?

[savedbyasong]

[Half an hour, not long at all. Still in the first stages of utter confusion caused by finding themselves on a new world.]

Five months. There are people who have been here longer though.

[crystallying]

... Holy shit, what.

[ His jaw drops, and Lucas looks absolutely horrified. ]

What the hell kind of pocket dimension beach vacation is this?! Nobody's managed to escape?!

[savedbyasong]

No. Not yet. [Alright Shion, let's try and do this without utterly terrifying the guy.]

A pocket dimension is probably close to the truth. We are in another world. There are quite a lot of worlds like this, that snatch people up and imprison them. We don't know who is behind bringing us here. The Story Teller, that's the rabbit you may have met in a dream, claims it is not them.

So far there is no way out that we are aware of.

[crystallying]

[ Lucas just stares at the kid for about ten seconds before he speaks up again. ]

Ohhhhhhh my god.

[ ... Yup, he's taking this well. Lucas scrambles to his feet and starts pacing back and forth, rifling through his backpack as he goes. ]

No. No, screw this, I have too much work to do to be stuck on a fucking desert island! Where's that damned elevator! I'm repairing that stupid thing and getting the hell out of here if I have to reprogram it with a goddamn hatchet!

[savedbyasong]

[Yep. He's taking it as well as anyone ever does. Shion can only be glad that he no longer has to try and explain to people that there worlds have ended, that everyone they knew was dead. It still was hard though, being stolen to another world was hard enough. People fought the thought. Disbelieved, reacted with anger. Decided to reprogram their maneating elevators...]

Wait? The elevator that's eating people? You can reprogram it?

[crystallying]

[ Look, everyone has their own ways of coping! Lucas's way just happens to involve lots of pacing, and lots of flailing, upset hand-talking. ]

I don't know! I could if I were back in my damn lab, but this isn't... this would be the equivalent of trying to delicate surgery with a... a....

[ At this point, he pulls out a small hatchet from the backpack and just stares at it in open disbelief for a few seconds. ]

... A literal hatchet. Shit.

[ He sits down heavily, turning the thing over in his hands with an air of resigned exhaustion. This has already been one hell of a day. ]

For the record, it isn't eating people, it doesn't have a digestive system. That's just how its doors open.

[savedbyasong]

That's a relief. [Especially since Cobweb was still missing. He looked at the hatchet and at Lucas before reaching out to touch his hands.] It will be alright. If it's not actually eating people... I can help you find it if you wish and try and help you reprogram it. I don't have a lab either but I've been here a while. I have more than a hatchet.

[crystallying]

[ ... Wait, what? What the hell?

Lucas just blinks at the kid, totally thrown off. He can't remember the last time someone just... took his hands and offered to help. He can't remember the last time someone wouldn't rather have punched him in the face, honestly. ]

... Wait, do you know programming? Are you serious?

[savedbyasong]

[Shion keeps holding his hand. Touch always helps him when he's panicking. When everything is wrong and the world doesn't make any sense. He nods with a smile.]

Yes. I used to be a park cleaner on my first world... programing cleaning robots. The... The language is probably different but I'm a fast learner. I can help.

[crystallying]

What the hell, you're like twelve.

[ He sounds pretty rude, but honestly, Lucas is just flabbergasted. Computers are barely a thing in his world, and he and his late mother were some of the only people on the entire planet who knew how to program them. Finding someone else who can code is like finding a unicorn in the middle of the desert - vanishingly rare, and completely baffling in its unexpectedness. He's skeptical, yeah, but... can he really afford to be choosy, with Upsy rampaging around? ]

I mean, if we can get to it, then sure, I guess I could use another set of hands? As long as you don't mind getting, uh, a bit slimy. Upsy's inner workings are disturbingly organic.

[savedbyasong]

[He blushes and looks to the side slightly.] I'm nineteen.[ He's aware he doesn't look nineteen. But he'd like to think he looks older than twelve.

Then again he had been perfectly capable of programming when he was twelve as well.

He nodded, determinedly. The elevator might not actually be eating people but it was grabbing them, throwing them round and scaring them. He would help.] Slime doesn't bother me.

[crystallying]

[ That is met with a shrug. Lucas is in his mid-to-late-twenties, so anyone under 24 is still practically a baby to him. ]

Good, 'cause there's gonna be a lot of it. Just... I'll check the elevator out first, alright? There's no telling what could've been damaged or short-circuited after it got dunked in the ocean.

[savedbyasong]

[Why is probably a good question to ask here. Why is the elevator full of slime? Why design an elevator to look and feel like a mouth?

Shion's learned not to ask questions like that.]

Alright. We need to find of first though.

[crystallying]

[ LUCAS'S GRANDFATHER HAS A LOT OF THINGS TO ANSWER FOR! ]

R-right. C'mon then, I guess.

[ And AWAY THEY GO! Upsy is an elusive beast though, one that cannot be tamed. They won't have much luck! ]