August Intro: All Will Fade and Petrify

[lifeaftr_mods]

INTRO LOG: AUGUST

Who: New arrivals, and you!
What: New souls arrive to the archipelago of LifeAftr
When: August 4th and onward
Where: Primarily Umui, though Ensō is also likely
Warnings: Mark as needed!

New Arrivals: Bury Me Alive
When you wake, it's initially to darkness: musty, stuffy, and dense. Your eyes may take some time to adjust, but when they do, something will rapidly become apparent - namely, the fact that you're underground. Exploring your surroundings will reveal a few more unnerving discoveries. Take, for example, the fact that you're currently trapped in what appears to be a number of buried houses, walls and ceilings compressed against one another thanks to time and pressure. The walls may have held up the weight of the soil above your head for a time, but it'd likely be best not to hold out hope that they'll continue to last. Your supply of air down here is rather limited, after all.

Unfortunately for you, it's not merely earth that separates you from the surface. It's also flowers in rich abundance - an untold, innumerable weight of dead and decaying plant matter, twined around the ancient bones strewn underground along with your sweet self, pressing down from above, peeking through the cracks in the metallic folds of whatever material once comprised these buildings' ceilings, walls, and floors.

Whether it's a mass tomb or something more sinister, you'd better figure a way out, and quickly. If you didn't show up with a shovel or some means of teleporting yourself out, you may very well need to resign yourself to digging your way out or making a lot of noise to attract someone who can, before this becomes a more dedicated grave.

Everyone Else: All Will Change and Calcify
As for the rest of you, well...if you're anywhere near the regions of G5, you might hear the sounds of a not-insignificant number of people finding themselves displaced underground, and requiring your imminent assistance in getting out. Perhaps you'll recognize the place. It is, after all, very well marked. They'll probably be properly grateful if you mind offering the help, and hey - it's a welcome break from the eerie, ever-present silence that clouds almost the entirety of Umui. As long as you don't mind digging around that old cenotaph half-buried in the flowers and scraping through sheets of metal, a lot of flowers, and...oh, yes. The first bones you'd be finding since arriving here.

If you've been hanging around the laboratory near the island mana pool, on the other hand, you'll definitely be getting a break from the silence - namely in the form of ARUM-25, whom a number of you have been devoted to repairing since their discovery, learning that a great deal of their systems have come back online, right around the time that the newest arrivals are properly unearthed.

Including their diagnostic systems.

The warning, repeated shrills will undoubtedly be heard by anyone who passes:

ALERT: STAGE ONE DETECTED
ALERT: STAGE ONE DETECTED
ALERT: STAGE ONE DETECTED
ALERT: STAGE ONE DETECTED
ALERT: STAGE ONE DETECTED

And that's probably fine. Right?

---

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

hifumi togo | ota

[shogis]

a. buried alive

[ hifumi's never woken up underground before. the only place she ever really wakes up in is her own bed, and it takes her a while after waking up to realize that she's lying on soil and earth. she blinks her eyes open, taking a moment to process what's going on, then panics.

it's stuffy, and the air is thick and riddled with dirt. she can't see anything, and her first instinct is to call for help while letting her feet take her in any direction, holding her hands out to try and feel for anything that might be blocking her way. ]

Kurusu-san? [ nothing. ] Can anyone hear me? Please, I need help!

b. post-rescue

[ somehow, hifumi's made it out alive before being collapsed on. she's covered in dirt, some of her clothes are torn up, but hey, at least her knapsack's in tact, right? she seems visibly shaken, though, and she looks around at her surroundings, completely and utterly confused.

but she doesn't like feeling this way. immediately, she goes up to the nearest person and asks with a voice rather calm and leveled considering how shaken up she is: ]

Excuse me? Could you please tell me where we are and what's going on?

c. wildcard

[ hmu with whatever! ]

b

[everylittlesecret]

[Sorry, Hifumi, even with how calm you're trying to be, Nari knows how to pick up on panic. She looks the girl up and down, shrugging.]

Depends. Do you want a logical answer or a fantastical one?

[shogis]

[ nari pls. hifumi just wants answers, and really, her decision is out of the question: ]

The logical one, please.

[everylittlesecret]

Good choice, though it's gonna sound like I'm making shit up anyways. [General sweep of her hands as she motions to everything around them.] You just showed up on a literally different world. This isn't Earth or any of the other planets I've personally ever been to, you're not going to find much modern amenities wise, and if you need help surviving, there's plenty of people around to help.

[shogis]

...Forgive me, but I believe I asked for a logical answer. I don't think now is a very good time to be joking around.

[ yet, she feels very real, primal fear at nari's answer--almost as if a part of her believes it. ]

a

[salschef]

[ That's not a familiar voice, but Hunk will take anything at this point.

Looming in from the shadows, Hifumi will see- a large teenager, in bright white and yellow armor, carrying what looks like a futuristic gun, covered in dirt. ]

Hey! Thank quiznak I'm not alone in here-

[ There's a pause as he actually sees her, and his eyes widen ]

Wait, are you human?

[shogis]

[ the first thing she thinks of when she sees hunk is that he's some sort of cosplayer.

but at least he's got a prop with him? even if it won't work, maybe they can use some of the materials for scrap. (little does she realize that this is, indeed, a real gun.)

...at his question, though, hifumi raises an eyebrow. ]

...Excuse me? [ what kind of question is that?! ] I am definitely human; what does that have to do with anything?

[salschef]

[ Holy quiznak, an actual human! ]

Seriously? That's great, how did you get- [ Here, he's about to finish, and then there's a weird shifting of dirt, and he interrupts himself, eyes wide with returned alarm ] actually, do you know where here is?

[shogis]

I...I'm not sure--Tokyo? That's the last place I know I was in. Unless we've all been transported to another area somehow, I believe we're stuck under the city.

[ oh how little does she know. how little does she know. ]

B

[thisisourfuture]

[Hinata looks up from cleaning the blade of his axe. He sets it back down on the ground and motions for her to sit down.]

Do you remember any dreams you had before you woke up? Let's start there so I know how much you need to be explained to you.

[shogis]

[ at first, she doesn't understand his question. dreams? she fails to see how those would relate to any of this, but...when she mulls it over a little more, she can recall something about being on a ship...and a campfire. dreams that were far stranger than ones that she normally has. ]

I...I remember being on a ship in the middle of the ocean. The waves were huge...terrifying. The boat had almost tipped over several times...

[thisisourfuture]

Do you remember anything that was said in them? Did anyone talk to you?

[He pulls a jug from his pack and pours water into a mug. He holds it out to her. Her arrival here had been a terrible one. As bad as when people woke up in monkey cages over boiling pots.]

I'm Hinata Hajime. We don't know why we're here. Storyteller is a being who has been helping us while we try to figure that out.

[shogis]

Yes. I remember a girl with long, red hair and green eyes. And then...there was one other dream, where I was sitting around a campfire and telling stories. I know I spoke to a few others in that one as well.

It's nice to meet you, Hajime-san. [ she offers a little bow. she figures that he's probably from japan, too. ] Could you tell me more about this "Storyteller"? How have they been helping us?

a, i guess

[dedamastai]

[It takes a moment for him to work out what's going on - he's here to look at the monument itself, see if it's the same words that haunt him from his time on Ai'tuoh. He knows what things burrowing underground sounds like, but it doesn't concern him at first until he remembers there are no animals here. Then, he hears muffled speaking. He can't make out any of the words, but that's not really an issue - what matters is there are people, alive, under these flowers.

A shovel would probably be more helpful for this task, but he only has a sword and that's what he uses to hack his way through the flowers. It's not exactly effcient, but beggars can't be choosers.]

Of all the days to bring a sword.

[Why does he never have his lance when it would be useful? He'd assumed he might need to hack and slash at things, not dig.]

sup dad #1

[shogis]

[ there's certainly at least someone who's alive under all the flowers, and hifumi's still panicking, still struggling to gather her bearings. her mind starts leading her to places she doesn't like--someone possibly tried to sabotage her career and bury her alive--but then there's the sound of someone...moving? digging? doing something from above.

there's still hope. hifumi stops and looks upwards. ]

Is someone out there? Please help me!

[dedamastai]

[Once the flowers are gone, which takes a fair few minutes because there's just so many of them, it's just dirt and (bizarrely) metal. It's the metal that's the problem, really. His sword doesn't do much against it and he doesn't just want to punch it down aimlessly and risk hurting whoever's underneath.

This is a situation where Laurent's magic might be useful, Damen thinks, but that would take too long.]

Can you hear me? [He hopes whoever is down there can.] Stand back, I'm going to try and pierce the metal.

[It's probably not great for his sword to slam it point down into metal repeatedly, but that's what we're doing now.]

A.

[prettypurpleparlor]

[There's been a fair amount of shuffling and noise down there already, it seems- enough to have drawn quite a few of the less recently arrived castaways to the land above the unfortunate newcomers.]

[Muffet is one of those digging into the dirt from above, pulling off her gloves and working with swift efficiency until she finally hits metal.]

[Pausing for a moment, she breathes deeply, getting her energy back and considering her next move, how to get past this... And then she hears a young woman's voice, muffled but intelligible, calling for help.]

[Well. That certainly answers that question, at least.]

[Mind made up, Muffet crouches lightly above the metal, raises one delicate-looking hand clenched into a fist, and punches.]

[Straight down.]

[Her hand goes right through the metal. Like most arachnids, she's much stronger than she looks.]

[shogis]

[ dear god.

hifumi definitely hears someone getting to work from above, and she wants to believe that someone's heard her out there and is helping her out. she keeps calling for it, even as muffet works, wanting to make sure that people know she's down there.

and then there's suddenly a fist coming through the ceiling??

oh my god.

hifumi shrieks. she's very jumpy right now, ok. she backs away from the fist until she realizes...oh. someone's...here to help? ]

...H-Hello?

[prettypurpleparlor]

[A polite voice replies from above, sounding like a young woman:]

Terribly sorry for startling you, dearie- I'm sure this must be a very stressful situation for you. Are you injured at all?

[From up top, there's further sounds of movement and scraping as more of the dirt above is cleared away to widen the hole. For a moment, before the hand withdraws, Hifumi might notice that the skin of it appears to be a rather pale shade of... purple?]

[Then again, maybe not. The lighting down there probably isn't very good.]

b

[postictal]

[He was on Umui when the initial kerfuffle began, so it wasn't difficult to gravitate toward the epicenter of activity. Tim has a cigarette stuck between his teeth, but it's unlit; he hasn't had the time for stress relief even if, for all appearances, he seems rather calm about the situation.]

[He looks her over, quick, appraising, before answering:]

You hurt?

[shogis]

[ she's had the basics laid out to her by nari, and all hifumi's been left with is confusion. she's got a few scrapes and cuts, but it's nothing serious. she's used some bandaids from her first aid kit to patch herself up, too. but more than anything, she wants a bath.

she's a little startled when the man approaches her, eyes widening when he speaks, but she quickly collects herself again and shakes her head. ]

I'm alright... Thank you for asking. Whoever is responsible for bringing me here was generous enough to provide me with a first aid kit, so...

[postictal]

Nice of them.

[It's just wry enough to suggest that generous isn't the word he'd be using, but maybe she's more predisposed to be discerning than Tim is. He wouldn't be surprised; paranoia is a state of mind he seldom departs from.]

[The cigarette juts out awkwardly between clenched teeth as he starts to rummage through his knapsack.]

You're new, right?

B

[tokenflavortownie]

[Pyrrha is doing her best to not seem completely shaken up by the sudden appearance of people under the ground, and their need for immediate rescue.

It's not working out, but she's trying.]

Huh? [She's being spoken to? Oh.] I'm sorry, I... this is all just... so much.

[Breath in, out.]

Do you think you could tell me the last thing you remember. Like, if you were somewhere else, before you were underground.

[shogis]

[ she's... ]

You're--you're the girl from my dreams...!

[ look she doesn't mean to sound like a creep, but things are just happening So Much and with hinata asking her about the dreams, she can't help it. ]

C

[tokenflavortownie]

E-excuse me?

[But now that she thinks about it, there is something familiar about this face...]

Wait, yes... I think I've seen your face before.