lifeaftr | July Intro: Upsy-Daisy!

July Intro: Upsy-Daisy!

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 )

Flat | Top-Level Comments Only

[Y'know, Kravitz kind of had an idea that he knew how this island worked. Every month, new people showed up, and sometimes it was fairly calm but sometimes it was a fucking disaster. His first month was just an island. His second, absolute glitchy bullshit, and his third, the end of the fucking world, kind of. But the thing with all of those is that they were absolutely avoidable. He could go to the mana pool, and walk back to camp, and lay down in Taako's hammock and Not Think About Things.

This? This was in no way avoidable. This was hell.

He heard Upsy before he saw him, and in the time it takes him to get caught, spit halfway across the damn island, and come back, he's figured out that if that horrible thing is there someone from that lab must be here, also. If it's that woman he had to take back, he's going to be a level of pissed not currently charted by humanity. As it stands, when he catches up to the thing and sees the man chasing after it, it's hard enough not to bust a fucking gasket.

Still holding his scythe, he points it towards Lucas, just a slight distance away.]

You.

[ Lucas flinches, slowly turns to face Kravitz, and then does what any sane man who'd once been chased through his own laboratory and menaced by an angry Grim Reaper would do:

He goes pale, screams bloody murder, and runs away as fast as his skinny legs will carry him. NOT TODAY, DEATH! ]

[YES TODAY, DEATH, GET BACK HERE YOU SKINNY LITTLE NERD.

He growls, clenching his teeth and following quickly, knowing he's going to have to time this right. Keeping Lucas in sight line, it's only a few seconds until he cuts a portal sideways and steps through, basically a foot in front of him, planting his scythe and his feet into the ground with intent to hold fast when a barreling pile of dork collides with him in 2.5 seconds.]

LUCAS MILLER!

[Ooh, he sounds pissed.]

[ Lucas slams into Kravitz's chest full-tilt and goes stumbling backwards, til he trips over his feet and lands square on his ass. He is not having a good day, and Kravitz looks even more terrifying from this vantage point! ]

I-I-I didn't... I didn't do anything!

[ He's sort of wheezing for breath at this point, but that was the most important thing to say up front! ]

What the fuck! What the fuck! What are you even doing here?!

[It's a little bit of a struggle not to fall over himself, seeing as he's a little less strong around here, but he's managing out of pure anger.]

I thought I told you I never wanted to see you again. Or there would be consequences.

[Is this unfair? Absolutely. Has Kravitz wanted someone to blame for like three months at this point? Also absolutely.]

Also, follow-up question, why and how the hell is that thing moving.

[He gestures behind him now to where Upsy is disappearing in the underbrush.]

Edited 2018-07-19 02:30 (UTC)

Look, I, I didn't mean to crash your... beach vacation, or whatever the hell this is! This is purely circumstantial, and I'm getting out of here as soon as I can!

[ He struggles to his feet and starts nervous backing away, hands held up in what he hopes is a placating, 'look at how harmless I am' kind of gesture. Unfortunately for everyone involved, that follow-up question strikes a chord with Lucas, and he can't resist launching into an enthusiastic explanation. ]

Oh, well, actually, the answer to that is pretty cool! My Grandpa, Roman Miller, was the inventor of the elevator, and his experiments in bioengineering and arcane science eventually lead to him to discovering the basis for anti-gravity technology! Upsy runs on a combination of upgraded anti-gravity boosters and--

[ This may take a while. Nerdlords gonna nerdlord. ]

[Goddamnit no he didn't want him talking that much. He can't make an imposing noise with his scythe, so he'll just draw it on Lucas instead.]

No, no, just-- forget that, I mean why is it eating people. What is your plan here, Lucas Miller? It certainly doesn't look like you've been laying low since we met if that exists.

[He knows he's being unreasonable here, but also, He Doesn't Care Come At Him Scrub, Fight Him In The Floor.]

[ On one hand, Kravitz has entirely the wrong idea about... well, everything, and Lucas's indignance is finally starting to outweigh his sheer terror. On the other hand, it's difficult to articulate his defense properly when there's a literal scythe being aimed at his face. First the giant armored guy with the gun, now this! Today is the worst!

Lucas just keeps backing away, speeding up considerably once the scythe is brandished, until he backs into a badly-placed tree. Dammit! ]

Okay, okay, okay, look, first of all, it isn't eating people, it doesn't have a digestive tract, that's just how Upsy opens its doors. Second, I didn't make Upsy, my Grandpa did, so... so take it up with him in the afterlife, I guess, and... and third, I don't have a plan! I'm not some Machiavellian mastermind, I woke up on a beach, and apparently my Grandpa's elevator somehow followed me here and started malfunctioning, since it got dropped into the ocean from a hundred miles up! And I don't know how I'm supposed to repair it with a bunch of rocks and a hatchet!

[He narrows his eyes, making a face that doesn't look incredibly happy with that answer.]

Hm. A likely story.

[Does he even know what he's saying right now, probably not.]

Then what have you been doing since your little necromancy stunt? I was very generous in not punishing you for that, Lucas. What are you doing with this-- this consuming elevator that can possibly be good?

[Maybe he'll tell him how long it's been since then. He kind of has a finicky view of how much has passed.]

[ Lucas bristles. That 'little necromancy stunt' had taken months of hard work and had been the obsessive focus of his grief. He knows that he fucked up, he's getting better at accepting that, but having the incident dismissed as if it were just a petulant temper tantrum stings... almost as much as the reminder that he's on thin ice, and was told under no uncertain terms to 'do good'. ]

Yeah, it's likely because it's the truth.

[ Ok Lucas, maybe don't sass Death himself! ]

I just use Upsy to get around my laboratory. I've been repairing it over the last few months; between the crystallization and the Reclaimers barging through everything, it got pretty janked up.

[Frankly, to him, it was exactly a petulant temper tantrum. The amount of times he's had to show up somewhere because some jerk tried to raise their dead parent, or a fallen child, or on more than one occasion the family pet-- it's at least 40% of his job. The crystals were new, as were the fact that Maureen's escape and usage of the Relic almost got him killed, but it was originally a pretty routine mission. He wouldn't ever go so far as to thank Lucas for doing it (even though it sure is how he met Taako, and he is thankful for that part), but that's exactly what it was, on a cosmic scale. He was a little boy throwing a fit. The misunderstanding of a child.]

Hm. Alright. Fine, I will accept that for now.

[For now, Lucas. For now.]

So it hasn't been very long for you, then? A few months?

[ Oh good, he'll accept that "for now." Lucas can't hold back a sneer, and barely stops himself from rolling his eyes. Man, Kravitz might be a terrifying incarnation of death itself, but what a pompous asshole! ]

A few months, yeah. What about you? Are you taking some kind of tropical beach vacation, or did Death Himself get kidnapped like the rest of us?

[ Once again, Lucas's self-preservation instincts are at odds with the fact that he's getting really annoyed! ]

[He curls up a lip at him for a moment, showing a moment of a fang before he goes back to his stoic faced stance.]

Kidnapping is for mortals. I'm here on the behest of the diety in charge to help preserve the natural order.

[He's also a big fucking liar but doesn't want to admit even one thing to Lucas right now.]

So do not test me, Lucas. It would be a kindness for me to take you to the Astral Plane after all this, so I can let you stay here for now.

[ Oh shit. Kravitz isn't just on the clock, he's here on official business and... in cahoots with the rabbit thing, if Lucas understands him correctly! He blanches and presses back even further against the tree, as if he's trying to hide in it. ]

H-hey, what?! You... you already said that my bounty had been revoked, and I haven't done anything since! What part of throwing me in ghost jail after the fact is a 'kindness', that's, that's not...!

[ He trails off and gulps, because of course this isn't fair. Death as a concept is painfully unfair, why should an emissary of Capital-D-Death be any different? If anything, it makes sense that he's a petty, vindictive jackass who holds a grudge.

Just for a moment, Lucas wonders if he somehow died without realizing it, and is trapped in some kind of purgatory. The only thing that stops that train of thought is the fact that he's already seen the afterlife, and he doesn't remember seeing any tropical islands in the sea of souls. ]

... Fine. Whatever. I'll stay out of your way, I don't want any trouble.

[Really, he should not be doing this. Eventually his lies are going to catch up with him, but until then, he's going to revel in someone being scared of him and having all the power until that comes. Thanks, Lifeaftr, for giving him One Thing.]

I said your bounty was revoked on the condition that I never saw you again, and yet. Here you are. But as long as you are keeping to yourself, I have no reason to continue to hunt you.

[He pulls his scythe back, dissipating it easily.]

Just... see what you can do about stopping that elevator. Technology oft doesn't function here, so it's more likely possessed than malfunctioning.

[ If anything, that just makes Lucas go even paler. The scythe being put away is a small relief, but it's one that's deeply outweighed by the realization of just how screwed he is, and not just by the fact that the friggin' Grim Reaper has him in his sights again. Lucas had been assuming that Upsy was just damaged from its drop into the ocean, not... not completely nonfunctional and possessed by some kind of horrible vore-spirit. Part of him had still been hoping to repair the elevator and get the hell off the island.

(Once he realizes that Kravitz is full of shit, the reaper will become slightly less terrifying, and Lucas will become absolutely unbearable.) ]

R-right... I'll just. I'll just get on that. Possessed? Like... by... ghosts, or malevolent entities, or what? If it's ghosts, I had nothing to do with it!

[Kravitz, you got nice introductions to this place, why can't you throw this guy a bone. You're digging your own grave for the future. But right now he's just lording with it.]

I doubt it's ghosts, but trust me, I would know if you had something to do with it.

[No he wouldn't.]

Regardless. No, it's likely a magical issue. Magic doesn't always connect properly here, so let that be my warning not to do anything fishy. It'll likely backfire in your face faster than it will do anything to help you.

[He crosses his arms, looking down at the other man.]

Now. Behave yourself, or you'll be seeing me again sooner than later.

[ God, its like having a horrible, supernatural, all-knowing parole officer. Lucas can't hold back a shudder, but he nods. ]

Yeah, thanks for the tip, n-nobody wants that. I'll... I'll stay as far away from you as possible, but if we do accidentally run into each other please don't instantly decapitate me with a scythe or something ok, bye!

[ He'd started edging away from Kravitz at 'decapitate', and by the time he finishes the sentence, he's just straight-up running off into the woods. Bye Kravitz, it's been terrifying!]

[He won't move to stop Lucas as he bolts, continuing to stand there with his arms crossed looking intimidating until the other man is out of sight line. At which point he smiles, doing a little tilt of his head in absolute pride. Oh, that felt wonderful. Finally, to have someone give him the respect he deserves. Fantastic.

Despite any previous frustration with Upsy, he heads back to camp with his head held high, for once feeling like things are righting themselves splendidly.]

Flat | Top-Level Comments Only

July Intro: Upsy-Daisy!

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