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

[antepone]

Thank you.

[ She looks through it and ends up taking quite a few of the items, before she hands over the apple. ]

I'm Mira, by the way. I've been here for... a while, now.

[shogis]

[ and with that, hifumi feels more comfortable taking the apple. she holds onto it before placing it in her knapsack, along with everything else. though...the bag of rice is kind of heavy, so she's going to leave that out for now. maybe just lug it around or something... ]

I'm Hifumi Togo. Thank you for your generosity, Mira-san.

[ but it's what mira says next that unnerves her. ] How long is "a while"?

[antepone]

It's nice to meet you, Hifumi. A-and, just "Mira" is fine, if you're comfortable with that.

[ She pauses. Well... she's been here for.... uh. Apparently a long time. But it's easier to just say-- ]

A few months.

[shogis]

A...A few months?

[ not days. months. ]

How...how could something like this happen?

[antepone]

There are some people who have been here much longer.

[ She may as well be honest with her. ]

... But there are others who've left after a short time here. I'm not sure what decides that.

[shogis]

[ beating around the bush certainly won't do hifumi any favors, indeed. not after everything she's just been through back at home. ]

I see... There seem to be so many mysteries that have yet to be solved about this place.

[ there's a moment where she feels extremely anxious, but hifumi takes in a deep breath. she nods firmly. ]

Very well. Please let me know where I can help, Mira-sa... Mira, and I will do my absolute best to assist you all.

[antepone]

Too many, I think.

[ Ah. The anxiety hits her hard, and she at least manages to keep her expression even. But it's knocked her the tiniest bit breathless. ]

Right now, we're all trying to figure out what's going on with this particular island... [ She frowns. ] You all just woke up down there, didn't you? In that gr-- Th-that place underground.

[shogis]

Yes. I ran into a few others down there, but there only seem to be a handful of us.

[ she certainly hopes that nobody else was left behind down there. that would be devastating...and horrifying. ]

Could you tell me what you've discovered so far?

[antepone]

[ She nods, glad it's only a handful of people. Alright. That's good. ]

Well... The first thing you should know, if you haven't been told yet, is that this isn't the only island. There's another, where we all live; I can show you later, if you would like. But islands come and go here. This... is the latest. We were told we'd find resources here, and we did, but...

I don't know exactly what happened here, but it was terrible. A lot of people died here, very long ago. There is an automaton here, too; I think people have been working on fixing them up, but... there are so many things we still don't know.

[shogis]

[ that last part is terribly concerning. the mention of death makes hifumi tense, and she lightly bites on her bottom lip as she tries to formulate some sort of plan of attack. she tries to put things into perspective--if this were a shogi game and the board was in your opponent's favor, what would you do?--but things as they stand right now don't seem to be quite that simple.

she knows too little. she comes up with nothing. ]

I'm...I'm not quite sure where to start.

[antepone]

[ She smiles a little wryly. ]

... It is a lot to take in. I'm sorry.

[shogis]

No, there's no need to apologize. I'm only trying to get myself situated.

[ hmm. ] I...I suppose a good place to start would be getting to know the other people who live here. I'm not sure how much help I'd be in investigating this island until I'm caught up to speed.

[antepone]

[ She nods, and gives her a little smile. ]

Well... I wouldn't mind helping you with that. If we're working together, then we should definitely get to know each other.

[shogis]

[ that gets her to smile in return. ]

You're right. I think it'll come naturally, the more we work together, but I thought I'd throw that out there anyway. Do you think you could tell me about some of the other inhabitants?

[antepone]

Of course.

One of the people here is someone I know from home, actually. Her name is Nari; if you meet her, she can sometimes be very blunt, but she speaks her mind and if she likes you, she'll have your back no matter what. She has a girlfriend named Pyrrha, who's very much a warrior. But she's also kind and fun to talk to. I think she's the sort of person who anyone would want as their best friend.

There's a girl named Ren. She's young-- [ God, she hopes Ren doesn't get whatever stage one is. ] --but she's very sweet. She likes looking for treasure. I think... she's had a rough life before coming here.

Ignis Scientia is someone you'll want to talk to, if you'd like the most excellent food you've ever had. [ She's smiling a little. ] He's kind, too, which is a quality quite a few people have here. He's... steady, and being around him is calming. I feel like... he's the sort of man who would go to any lengths to protect the people he loves.

Lance is... [ hm. ] I met him when he'd lost his cow. It's kind of a weird story, but I helped him look for her. I don't really know too much about him, but I think he worries about things more than he lets on.

Keith is... a valuable ally, I think. He helped me when I was digging you out, and without him, I don't think we would have gotten you all out so fast. He's got a good heart, I think.

Prompto has an animal called a chocobo, and he's a photographer, too. He's very talented, actually. A little shy around girls, I think, but he was very sweet with me. He and Ignis come from the same world.

[ ... she pauses. ]

There's someone else who comes from Prompto and Ignis's world, too. Ardyn. He's... I'm not sure what to think about him, but I feel like there's more to him than he shows.

[ She smiles a little sheepishly. ]

But there are a lot of people here, and they're all worth getting to know, I think.

[shogis]

[ this is really helpful, and hifumi tries to remember everyone so she knows whom she can trust. ]

I've met Nari already; she's very sweet, and she's been nothing but helpful to me. So... Ren-san, Scientia-san, Lance-san, Keith-san, and Prompto-san. And...Ardyn-san.

[ she says the names quietly to herself again, just to make sure she remembers all of their names. ]

Thank you, Mira. I'll be on the lookout for these people. They all sound like good people.

[ THEY ALL SOUND LIKE GOOD PEOPLE. ]

[antepone]

Nari is one of the best people I know, even if she... doesn't believe it or show it.

[ ... oh. COUGHS. ]

I, ah, would be a little careful around Ardyn, maybe. He... seems like he'd much rather be left alone.

[ and yet she keeps leaving greens for the chocobo, for some reason ]

[shogis]

She does seem like a good person.

[ one who really helped her out when she was lost. ]

...Oh, does he? Then...maybe I shouldn't bother him, if he'd like to be left in peace.

[antepone]

That... may be for the best.

[ crisis averted. good job mira!! ]

A-anyway, the others are really friendly. And like I said, Ignis makes some of the best food I've ever tasted. I could... introduce you two?

[shogis]

Oh, yes! That would be very kind of you. I hope that I can make a good first impression...

[ because :eyes: at good food ]

[antepone]

I'm sure you will.

[ Hifumi seems like a genuinely sweet girl. And Mira is... a little worried about her. But if Nari has helped her, then that's good. ]

How is your appetite now?

[shogis]

...A little better, now that I think about it.

[ and she does have that apple in her bag, thanks to mira. ]

Maybe now wouldn't be a bad time to start on that apple...

[antepone]

Mm. You may need your energy to make it to the mana pool, if you're not used to this sort of terrain...