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.

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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.

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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!

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LOGS ● OOC ● STORIES ● MAIN NAVIGATION

( CODED BY BOOTYCALL )

Comments

[tokenflavortownie]

Pyrrha parks herself next to Kaworu, a metal broom in-hand, ready to put herself between whatever's in the water, and this new face. It's something she'll do even instinctively, so bring on the... the...

"Do you mean, the turtle?" She asks, confusion dipping into her tone. There's no threat here, and she can instantly recognize the rainbow hue of one of those slow-moving creatures.

[braceforimpact]

Pyrrha's readiness is admirable, even if it's totally wasted on Kaworu. Not just functionally, as there is absolutely nothing dangerous about turtles, but even performatively, since Kaworu has no idea what it's for.

Kaworu blinks at her, just once, in a way that's reminiscent of a cat.

"Yes. What's a turtle?" It's matter-of-fact, but fairly polite in tone. There's no trace of a joke here: just sincere inquiry, and a seemingly guileless but puzzled smile.

[tokenflavortownie]

In Pyrrha's mind, a bit of readiness isn't wasted on anybody.

"It's..." She looks back at him, and immediately notices his expression. This was a person that really didn't understand, and wasn't just pulling her leg, wasn't it? Oh my.

"Uh... Well, it's one of those creatures, the colorful ones with the shell." Teacher-mode activated. She points with the long end of her broom to the rainbow hues just under the waves. "They're creatures that live around here. Don't worry, they're basically harmless."

[braceforimpact]

Basically harmless? What does that even mean?

He gives Pyrrha a quizzical look, then stares back into the water. He's not afraid of the turtles, mind. It's a bit absurd to think about things in terms of their 'threat' to him at all--especially given his objective purpose.

But humans like their labels and definitions.... he'll just have to try again.

"But what are they?" Tell him something he doesn't know, Pyrrha.

[tokenflavortownie]

Humans do like to define things by a name or a category. Pyrrha's a history buff all her own, and this place was just full of interesting names and terms.

"What do you mean?" How silly of her. This guy obviously wanted to hear more. "They're called 'Kaleidoshells' if that's what you're asking. They've been swimming in the waters around here for over a month now, and they were actually just on the beach here, laying their eggs."

That was an interesting day. She got smacked in the head with a staff.

[braceforimpact]

If there had somehow been any doubt that this place was untouched by Second Impact--

'Unspoiled' might be a more human way to put it. But the events were inevitable... it didn't really matter to him.

"I thought they were called turtles."

Kaworu is half-serious, but he knows humans have multiple names for the same things. It's part of their nature as beings of mind. Definitions, divergences, and so on... even he has two names, meant to ascribe different meanings to his existence. Language, created by the human mind, also shapes the human mind. But his existence doesn't change no matter how many labels they affix.

[tokenflavortownie]

This world was definitely more full of life than the vast emptiness of space, but it was always the things that filled that space that made it special.

"...Well, that's also true!" Sorry, she can't stop herself from letting out a little laugh. It's not even that funny, but his statement is true enough, even if it wasn't anything she expected him to say.

"I'm sorry, but, I'm guessing that you're new to this place? Maybe we should start from the beginning." She brings a hand to her chest, gesturing to herself. "My name is Pyrrha."

[braceforimpact]

Kaworu's brow furrows at her laugh, but not in annoyance--he's more bemused by it, if anything. It's like he told SEELE... humans are contridctory and excitable, unpredictable reactonary beings. They're so strange. It's really incredible.

'I don't tire of it.'

And it's still true.

So he raises his own hand and presses it to his chest in return, smiling back up at her with bright red eyes.

"Kaworu Nagisa."

[tokenflavortownie]

It's a small gesture, him mirroring her actions, that still manages to catch her eye. A bit strange, but who was she to decide what is and isn't strange? She'd read up on the Boner Uprising far more than she wished to admit.

"It's nice to meet you." Really, it is. Meeting new faces was always fun. "This might sound like a strange question, but you wouldn't happen to have woken up here recently, did you?"

[braceforimpact]

"That's not a strange question," Kaworu is a little amused. "And yes, I did. You could say I'm a bit.... lost. Though I probably shouldn't be here."

Not 'here' on the water's edge, but 'here' in a bigger sense--much bigger, in fact, but after a certain scale it stops being about the island or the Storyteller and starts being something else. It's just one of those things where existing at all is inevitably 'out of place' for him.

Regardless, leaving the world with the body of Adam in embryonic form and the soul of Adam nowhere to be found, while Lilith's body and soul--though equally divided, if not more--remain behind?

He has no horse in this race, as the saying goes. (He has never heard that saying in his life.

Be that as it may, it will make things... complicated.

[tokenflavortownie]

"That's fine, honestly. I don't think anyone is really here by choice, but it's where we're supposed to be anyway."

The Storyteller needed them for things, clearly. What specifically they were here for... well, that remained to be seen.

Plenty of time to get her bearings, now that she wasn't on a dying island, or in space like she was.

"It's understandable, being lost. Coming to a new world at all can be pretty ridiculous at first."

[braceforimpact]

Supposed to be?

Kaworu's smile fades long enough for him to frowns slightly. It lasts only a few seconds, but it's clear enough while it lasts.

"No... I don't think I'm supposed to be here."

Not when Adam isn't.

Just... him.

The soul of Adam, that which resides solely within him as vessel, but not the body divested of its power?

"But I don't think there's anything I can do about leaving." His smile, back already, is accompanied by a shrug.

[tokenflavortownie]

"Unfortunately, there doesn't seem to be anything anyone can do about leaving." She frowns, but only for a moment. "But... that doesn't mean we can't make our stay here as good as possible?"

It all depends on what you do with your time. She'd been trapped in new places for the past year or so, and she came out of it feeling better than ever before.

Just takes a certain perspective on things. A good sense of humor doesn't hurt.

"Just last month there was this lovely party, you should have seen it."

[braceforimpact]

There's some silence as he stares at her.

Humans will do anything to forget their pain.

That's right.

She thinks he's upset about this. He can see that here; she's trying to help him think about something that isn't painful. That's such a bizarre realisation.... it's also pretty funny. He has no idea what he's supposed to say to that. So what he says might not make any sense in context.

"I see... thank you."