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

[There's no fear in his eyes as he looks up at the sky and his lackluster response to all of this makes her pause once more.

Brave people don't see the world through the same lens she does, but it's gone for the time being and that reprieve is something she can appreciate. If the temple can keep out shadow monsters, then weird elevators are probably banned from zooming through. The problem will be leaving the vicinity and the thought of that fills her with absolute dread. Doubly so if she has to find a way to hide this new person who doesn't seem keen on ducking behind rocks to avoid Problems.

But she does step forward from her terrible hiding spot, taking some comfort in his smile.]

It doesn't scare you? That weird thing?

No.

[Kaworu's smile persists, changing slightly for the confidence of his response, though his eye contact with her remains unbroken. It's not a normal level of eye contact. It's like he doesn't know when to stop. Or that he's ever supposed to.]

It ate a bird, and then left. I'm not a bird.

[It's delivered lightly, like this is pretty obvious to him.]

[The staring contest doesn't seem to bother her in the slightest and she meets his gaze head on. There are a couple socialization kinks that need to be worked out with her, but she does enjoy looking at people, being with them, listening to their words, so-

Stare away. The point she wants to address is his view on the machine. It's not on an bird diet.]

It likes people too, but I think we taste bad, so it spits us out.

[Which is fine by her. Please don't eat her family.]

That's why you have to hide if you see it.

[What?

That doesn't make any sense either.]

...but if it spits you out, then what's the danger?

[Honestly. Humans.]

Because it's scary.

[And more importantly, sometimes it throws people into trees or drops them off in the middle of centipuppy feeding frenzies-it's not great, friend.]

That's why.

Then it's not dangerous.

[Humans... scared of something that isn't dangerous. He'll never stop finding them fascinating. What is scary when it's not dangerous?

[It's spiritually dangerous. Her heart pounds when hellavator comes into view and that's enough reason for her to bolt for the hills and offer the same advice to anyone she comes across.]

If it hurts your heart, then it's dangerous. Scary things do that to you.

[Brave people work differently than her, she realizes that, but damn son. Just hide. She's trying to protect him!!]

If it hurts your heart?

[That... is such a human thing to say that Kaworu can't help but repeat it back at her, even though he's still smiling.]

...you mean, if it causes suffering?

Suffering isn't dangerous. But it's painful, right? So you avoid it. You could have just said that, though.

[They're on two totally different wavelengths because suffering and dangerous are synonymous in her mind. It's all bad and there's no harm in lumping every negative thing together.]

That's dangerous too. If it hurts to much, you'll turn into a bad ghost. That's why you have to hide from 'suffering' and scary things.

[His mindset is dangerous-this person has to learn how to hide. Why are the islanders like this?? She has so many concerns. She didn't expect 'hide from the demon elevator' to turn into this, but here they are.]

[....]

....what?

[What?]

[Oh good, is he finally listening to her? All it took was the vague threat of becoming a ghost? See, this is why everyone needs ghost lessons. It puts the fear in you.]

That's how it is.

[Does that count as an explanation? Yes, absolutely.]

.......hm.

[Kaworu has no idea what just happened to this conversation but it went someplace confusing and strange very quickly.]

What's a ghost?

[It got weird and that's as per usual when dealing with her. She's not concerned about the topic change itself, especially when he points out that he doesn't know. It's fine if someone wants to be brave, but they need to arm themselves with the terrifying knowledge of what could be lurking around.

And she's more than happy to explain it, except this is the first time someone hasn't known what a ghost is. People have asked for descriptions on their appearance, about the sounds they make-never what. It makes her falter and pause. How do you explain ghosts??]

It's-they're scary things. If something dies, they turn into that. They look weird and want to hurt you. Sometimes they look like people and they aren't very mean, but-

[Another pause. This is horrible.]

Sometimes those ones want to hurt you too, so you have to hide from all of them to be safe.

........

No.

[What? No. When things die, they're dead. They return to the Chamber of Guf when the Doors are opened during Imoact, but--]

Dead things are just dead. There's nothing to be afraid of.

[See, Kaworu, that's the logical assumption to make and for the vast majority, that's the case. The population of her previous world was a number she couldn't comprehend and most died peacefully. Some didn't. She was chased by those remnants for most of her life-they aren't just dead.]

They die, but they don't go away. Not all the time. That's how ghosts are. That's how it is.

....

[Kaworu is giving her the most aggrieved look. He's not just perplexed, he's actually cross.

Or whatever passes for it, with him; it fades into something flat and disaffected very quickly.]

No.

A soul can be salvaged and brought into another form, but it is an abomination to perform such an act against God's will.

There is no return from death.

[There's never been an explanation for it, outside of her own idea of how the malicious thoughts formed. Creatures that were born from the negative thoughts of those who passed on, ghosts that would linger near bodies, sometimes their own, other times wandering around and-

She's never met someone who doesn't know this can happen. Who doesn't believe, think, or even seem to want to entertain the idea.]

That's how it was where I lived before. I don't think we had a God.

[No Storyteller, no white dog-nothing to keep that from happening and despite how confusing the words are, she can decipher enough to figure out her world's lack of a 'god' might be the issue here.]

That's why people came back sometimes. It was scary.

[And it makes her wonder-]

Did your world have a Storyteller?

God doesn't exist?

[That's funny to him, visibly so.]

Then who created life? Lilim?

[Don't answer that, Ren, it's a trap.]

Mankind is the Storyteller of my world. They tell stories to shape reality, creating a world that reflects their images and their imaginations.

[Well that's just So Many Words, pal. There were no gods on her world and she doesn't know where life originated from. Her own started in a lab, others were born-other ways? She never really thought about it before. Where do people come from?

Well, it doesn't matter because they're here now. She's content with that. No sense in digging around that topic.]

It was like that? Are you a Storyteller too?

[He said Mankind and this person sure looks human to her.]

..... no.

[Where do people come from, indeed. Maybe a better question is "what do you consider a person? Does 'a person,' by definition, possess humanity?

What then, is 'humanity?']

I am one of their stories.

[If he's a story, then-

He's not a ghost. Doesn't look like a robot, though she can't be sure. Crow looks incredibly human despite his mechanical nature. She quickly circles him, as if there's a piece of wiring she missed.]

You're not human?

Well. There's more than one kind of human.

[It really depends on your definition.]

[Is there? Human is human, whether you were born in a lab or grew up with a family. There aren't many variations on that-none that she knows about.]

What kind are you?

[There are two ways to answer that question.

The way that answers nothing, and the way that answers more questions than this person asked. Both would be factually correct. But only one can get him into any trouble.

He smiles gently.]

The kind that doesn't tell stories.

[But, not to leave this person hanging too much, he adds:]

And you are the kind that does.

[What does that mean?

The smile doesn't fit his words and she finds herself reeling at an attempt to decipher how that makes him a different kind of human.

It's best to take it literally, maybe-]

You can tell stories. I can teach you how. It's easy.

July Intro: Upsy-Daisy!

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Whoops, I didn't get a notif??

notifs always hit the betray button!!

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Holy fuck I'm so sorry he's like this

don't be he's great

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