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?

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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.

---

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

[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?

[thisisourfuture]

...We all appear with a pack. I think those packs are their doing. Anyway, to get down to it as we explore these islands Storyteller lends us their knowledge as much as they can remember.

...but their range is a little limited. That's alright, some of this we have to do ourselves. [He sighs, shaking his head. That sounds damn confusing.]

They appear in many forms. I think they can become anything they've seen or witnessed in the story of their own lives...or maybe ours. Their knowledge comes from a similar kind of place, I think. Those who believe in stories they can tell a great deal about. ...those who rejected them, not so much.

[shogis]

I see...

So this Storyteller could be anywhere, taking on any form they choose? And I'm assuming they don't know how we were brought here, either... I'd almost like to say that I'd like to speak with them, but if there's nothing they can do to help, I don't know if troubling them would be the best idea...

[thisisourfuture]

It can't hurt to talk to them. Your best chance would be to try at their temple in Enso. [Hinata stares straight ahead over the grass and the land around them. He absolutely doesn't like what might be happening. His brow furrows and he lets it go.]

We haven't found anything about this island, Umui, that's good news. All of it is on the rock message board. If you'd rather find out from me I'll tell you about it.

[shogis]

[ she's going to assume that's another island, but she'll save that for later. right now, she needs to get herself situated and her head wrapped around what's going on. ]

Could you show me where this message board is, Hajime-san?

[thisisourfuture]

Yes. [Hinata packs his things away and rises to his feet.] It's good to take you anyway. You need to know where the mana pools are and how to use them.

[He shoulders his pack and turns, orienting himself. He knows the way back to the Mana pool...the walk will give him time to think.]

This way. [He steps off in that direction with a small backward glance.] I can prepare you for what we found but...can you tell me about where you appeared? What it looked like.

[shogis]

Mana pools?

[ sounds like something straight out of a fantasy novel. most of this does, though, to be fair. ]

When I woke up here, I was underground. I could see a little, though, and it seemed like we were trapped under some fallen structures...and dying flowers that...

[ ugh. ] ...well...were wrapped around a bunch of old bones.

[thisisourfuture]

[The pieces fall into his mental hand but he doesn't have a complete picture. Where would bones be?

The answer comes to him as he looks at her,] You mean...you were under the memorial? And the Mana pool, it's best to explain it when we get there.

[shogis]

Memorial...?

[ holy yikes. her eyes widen in horror--the bones should have made it more obvious, but knowing that it was some sort of gravesite makes her sick to her stomach. ]

I...yes, it must have been...

[thisisourfuture]

[He gives her a moment to let it all sink in. It's for the best he didn't bring up how many people had been buried there. She'll know when he shows her what they've found on the message board.

But...his eyes are full of sympathy.] For some reason when there's another island close to Enso, newcomers arrive on the new islands.

I'd thought you might appear on the shores like the supply crates we've found.

[shogis]

I would've liked that much more...

[ exponentially more, actually. hifumi feels like she's tarnished something sacred by arriving in a memorial site. she feels...awful about it. she frowns as hinata leads her to the message board, but she still manages to walk with grace. prim and proper.

but the expression on her face reads that she doesn't feel so dignified right now. ]

But...in any case, thank you for your help. I appreciate it, despite everything that's happened.

[thisisourfuture]

I'm glad to help. We're all on these islands for reasons beyond our control. Least we can do is help each other through this. [They've walked far enough that the glowing green waters of the mana pool are visible in the distance. He points to it.]

That's the mana pool. We use them as quick transport between the islands. It seems crazy and surreal. But you pick a flower from the edge and tell it where you want to go.

We'll be taking it to the temple on Enso.

[shogis]

Ah- that's very convenient. I have some sort of one-time teleportation device in my knapsack, but I think I'll save that for emergencies, if we have a system like this already in place.

[thisisourfuture]

[He blinks. There had been others with stuff they got when they first arrived. The coffee in his bag that should never be used (in his opinion). Hinata swallows.]

Y-yeah you'll want to save that until you really need it. Especially if you don't know where it might send you.

[shogis]

Alright.

[ she nods in understanding. she'd nearly used it when she was underground, but thankfully decided against it. perhaps there'd be a more dire emergency that would call for drastic measures to be taken, but back there was not one of those times. ]

I'll be careful. [ once they get to the mana pool, hifumi stares for a moment. takes it in. it's...quite beautiful. ]

So...I take one of these flowers, place it in the water, and say which island I'd like to travel to?

[thisisourfuture]

[Hinata kneels down and takes one of the white flowers into his hand.] Yeah...I've heard you never want to go into it. But in an emergency, you can drink the water from the pool.

[Hinata takes a deep breath and casts his flower into the pool.] Enso, the temple.

[It feels like the world falls away. He appears inside the familiar walls of Storyteller's temple. Three walls. He steps away from the pool and turns to wait for his companion. The familiar stillness is comforting. It reminds him he needs to speak with Storyteller sometime soon.]

[shogis]

[ the world fades, and suddenly, they're inside somewhere new. somewhere that feels more comforting than where she woke up. ]

Incredible...

[ she's still in awe at how they were able to just...teleport like that. it'd be her first hands-on experience with the magic of this place--something she truly needed to experience to believe. ]

[thisisourfuture]

It's hard to believe, right? I had a pretty hard time with it when I first got here.

[He looks out at the three walls (more like two and a half, one is damaged). Vines are draped over the stone and he knows from a distance this temple is harder to see thanks to the foliage.]

It felt like a dream to me.

[Hinata shakes his head and heads for the entrance to the temple.] This way. Oh and welcome to Enso. We're in Storyteller's temple.

[shogis]

It is very dream-like, indeed. It's...magical.

[ for lack of a better word. it's the most amazing thing she's seen yet, and there's something about the temple and all of its foliage that makes it all the more beautiful. ]

So this is Enso... It's quite nice in here.

[thisisourfuture]

...it's a nice place. There are predators and the usual kind of problems from having to survive on what we can find but...

[He smiles as he emerges into the sunlight. The wind tugs at his hair and he can smell the salt from the sea nearby.]

We'll make it somehow. [It's rough going. Yet they make do. He gestures for her to follow him.] It's this way.

[shogis]

Predators? W-What kinds of predators?

[ she should have expected this, honestly, being in the wilderness and whatnot. still, she can't hide the shock on her face, even though she follows him easily. ]