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

[shogis]

I... I'm very much human, Miss.

[ aka no, she doesn't have any powers. no, she doesn't think she's anything special. not even her shogi "talents" are worthy enough to mention at this very moment. ]

I apologize... This is all very confusing and disorienting.

[everylittlesecret]

That's fine. Some of my dearest friends are complete normies.

[This might be confusing to the new girl, but Nari reaches into her shirt and pulls out....... a galaxy patterned pigeon. She walks over and puts it into Hifumi's hands.]

Here. Hold Kipsie. She'll make you feel better.

[Kipsie looks up at the girl and coos softly. Hello!]

[shogis]

[ that is...a very colorful pigeon. hifumi just stares at the bird for a few moments with wide eyes, and she just sort of awkwardly holds it as it coos. ]

O-Oh, um...hello!

[ this is very, very odd, and she's really not sure what to make of this. any of this. but she is grateful that someone is trying to assist her, even if none of this makes any sense. ]

Thank you. I appreciate your help.

[everylittlesecret]

[Kipsie starts cooing something that sounds a lot like "Don't Stop Me Now" by Queen.]

No prob, kiddo. We were all newbies here once. Some of us more prepared than others. Majority of peeps are friendly as fuck, then you got your loners, and then there's my wonderful girlfriend.

[shogis]

[ hifumi does not know what song that is, but it's a cute melody. (i love that song silas) ]

Wow...it knows how to sing?

[ anyway. ]

I hope to get along with you all. I promise that I will do my best to help out in whatever way I can. My name is Hifumi Togo.

[everylittlesecret]

Yep. A very dear friend of mine from back when I lived in a mansion taught her and her sisters how to sing.

[What a polite girl.]

It's fine even if you don't get along with anyone here. I'm Nari Nishitani.

[shogis]

[ finally, for what feels like the first time today, she smiles. ]

Your friend must be very talented. And it's nice to meet you, Nishitani-san. I appreciate your help.

[everylittlesecret]

Oh, no, not really, he was more a tiny green pervert, but he was sweet.

[Nishitani-san...] Nari is fine. San is a little too formal and would suit my Chairman more than me.

[shogis]

O-Oh...I...I see...

[ nari is very...blunt. it's actually oddly refreshing. hifumi's smile gets a little wider at that. ]

Very well, Nari. Please feel free correct me if I ever slip up.

[everylittlesecret]

[Blunt to the point where one wished she was kinder and more tactful....]

Not a problem. And if you ever get curious, no, that's not my original last name. My last name is French originally. Not a drop of Japanese in me, even if I had a few people who would have loved to try and add some. [DON'T TALK LIKE THAT IN FRONT OF KIDS] Anyways, you look like a tired mess. Want me to show you where to go, or do you need to rest?

[shogis]

Ah-! I see. I didn't want to assume anything, but I admit that I was a little curious about it.

[ luckily hifumi does not get that innuendo, my goodness nari, but. she definitely is a tired mess...and yet, she doesn't feel like resting just yet. ]

Please show me where I should go next. I may be tired, but I want to learn as much as I can while I can still keep going.

[everylittlesecret]

Nishitani is the last name of my Chairman, and I kind of took over the family after he died. He's yakuza.

[Which makes this lady a yakuza.]

Then follow me. I'll be nice and slow, and if you need anything to eat or drink, I have some things. A medic must always be prepared.

[shogis]

[ at the mention of yakuza, hifumi freezes.

she doesn't move. she doesn't follow. she just looks....terrified??? ]

[everylittlesecret]

[Nari stops, looking back.]

You oka-..... oh. I keep forgetting yakuza ain't exactly a cheery thing in Japan. [She clears her throat.] I'm yakuza in name only. I would rather fix people up and make sure they're healthy than kill someone.

[shogis]

...I see.

[ honestly, she'd be a lot more hesitant to accept help, even after what nari's said. but then again, she's learned that not all people who're made out to be criminals are bad. akira kurusu and the phantom thieves are the prime example of that, after all.

she lets out a quiet sigh and eases up. just a little. ]

I will take your word for it, Nishi--...Nari. I apologize.

[everylittlesecret]

Thank you. [She suddenly giggles a bit.] My friend Junpei used to call me Aneki. Just to be an ass about me being a yakuza, but it was cute in a way. He and my friend Yuuri taught me all different kinds of word for respect and such in Japanese.

[Nari motions for Hifumi to keep following.] I'm German Irish myself. We have very different ways of addressing people.

[shogis]

Mm. Well... If you'd ever like some assistance with your Japanese studies, should we ever have the time, please let me know if I can help. It's the least I can do for you showing me kindness today.

[ she's still a little uptight, a little unsure about all of this, but...maybe that's just to be expected from a newcomer. ]

[everylittlesecret]

You sure? If Japanese is as easy as Irken, I'm all for it.

[She could add a fourth language under her belt!

Kipsie coos at Hifumi to try and calm her down.]

[shogis]

Irken...?

[ what.

well...kipsie is a good, soft friend. hifumi is going to try to pet the pigeon gently. ]

[everylittlesecret]

Irken is the language the Irken use. It's not hard to learn, I had to on the fly. Never had to use it here, though...

[ :D

Kipsie is very happy to be petted, settling down on Hifumi's hand.]

[shogis]

What...is an Irken?

[ ????

hifumi continues to pet kipsie. she finds it very calming, and continues to do so as she follows nari to...wherever they're going. ]

[everylittlesecret]

Little green alien bug species that uses a PAK to get around, have little AI buddies, and really love sweets. Kip was one and I broke the code on his diary and learned the language that way.

[Welcome to Airlocked.

Kipsie has gained +1 friend. This is a good day.]

[shogis]

I--

[ i don't understand, she almost says. but right now, hifumi's sort of just resigned herself to not understanding 99% of what's going on. ]

...Okay.

[everylittlesecret]

[No one understand things 100% of the time anyways.]

I think he'd like you. There's just something about polite people that makes him a little more compliant. Though you look under eighteen, so that would save you from being hit on.

[shogis]

[ oh my god. at that, hifumi blushes. how embarrassing?? ]

I will be eighteen soon enough.

[ but yes please don't hit on her??? ]

...Do you happen to know what today's date is?