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

Ardyn Izunia | umui | ota

[scourgingstars]

[a; 8/5; i'm falling down into my shadow]

[Something was wrong.]

[Although with Ardyn specifically, many things were 'wrong' in a physical sense--but this was different. It felt familiar in a sense he couldn't immediately place as reminiscent of the crystal caverns; a creeping sense of something creeping and taking root in the human-shaped form he called a body. There was a strange sensation in the back of his throat, something he couldn't say he was familiar with. Every so often he'd cough into his hand, usually with a brief cloud of black miasma and scattered purple petals.]

[...That wasn't normal. Not even for him.]

[b; 8/10; grasping onto every breath as i await the deadly night]

[Ah, this really was annoying. He could barely even move, purple blossoms having broken out beneath the layers of clothes he wore to guard against the sunlight.]

[Sitting with his back to a tree somewhere around G5, Ardyn made a sound that was somewhere between a laugh and a cough--pulling his hat down slightly to cover the few flowers that were visible in red-violet hair. It didn't quite hurt as much as he imagined it would for the more human of their number, but the fact remained that this corporeal body just didn't respond correctly now. Just as it hadn't back in the crystal caves, when he'd been so careless and stupid.]

[Oh, well. What was one more death atop countless more? Maybe this one would even stick.]

B.

[prettypurpleparlor]

[Of course, not everyone might be inclined to agree...]

Ardyn?

[Muffet's voice is concerned, gentle as she approaches, her eyes widening slightly as she catches sight of the blooming flowers twined around him. She'd been worried, when she heard someone cough, but she'd still hoped- well. There's no time for that now, there's work to be done here.]

I take it there's no point to asking if you're all right, then.

[scourgingstars]

And what do you want?

[His voice was hoarse from either coughing or any number of plants that had taken root in an already blighted body, but Ardyn's tone was no less cold and his smile no less mocking for it.]

I've not much interest in idle chatter today.

[prettypurpleparlor]

No, I can see why you wouldn't be.

[Muffet kneels down beside him, getting a closer look at his condition. She doesn't seem to like what see shes.]

Given the circumstances, I'll get directly to the point: what can I do to help?

[scourgingstars]

When did I ever say I wanted your help-

[Ardyn half-snarled that remark, the end punctuated by a sharp cough into he back of his hand.]

b

[tuskenlancer]

Holy shit.

[ He's done a pretty good job of covering himself up, but even Ardyn's layers and layers of clothing can't hide all of the flowers now sprouting from his skin. It's the worst case CT has seen so far, and for a moment she just stares, stricken.

Then she drops to her knees beside him, cautious not to get to close or touch him. Yet. ]

Fuck, are you...

...does it hurt?

[scourgingstars]

Pain is the territory of mortals.

[He glared at CT from under the brim of his hat, pulling his high collar closer to hide a few more small blossoms at his throat. Notably, any and every sign of blood around the growing flowers was black and smokelike rather than any ordinary red.]

I've no need of or use for your help, so do spare me and leave.

[tuskenlancer]

[ Jesus. She rolls her eyes in exasperation, unable to stop herself, and mutters mostly to herself. ]

Okay, drama queen.

[ And then she frowns, both in annoyance and in worry as she notices the black, unnatural blood trickling from around the flowers. ]

...is your blood...supposed to look like that?

[scourgingstars]

[connie honey you have no idea the depths of ardyn's drama, if anything being in a murder reality show calmed him down]

Oh? And here I thought you claimed to know me. [A quiet laugh, exhausted but still carrying a trace of mockery.] You don't even know what I am, do you?

B

[everylittlesecret]

[Well shit. Nari doesn't know if she should approach Ardyn right now or not, seeing as she herself was never going to get that bad. She's figured out what the issue was in regards to the flowers, but knowing Ardyn, there was no way this man would talk easily. Not with her at least.

But she can help in a different way?]

Hey... I can give you some relief. I have the ability to kill plants... I don't think it's permanent, but it would make things a little easier. I'm no healer after all.

[scourgingstars]

...I don't want your help.

[He sounded just a little tired of arguing the point by now.]

[everylittlesecret]

I'm not offering help. I'm offering relief. Honestly, I know how to fix you, but I know you, dad. [That's his name still.] The way to help you you'll refuse. So that option is out.

[Deep breath.] Would you prefer fire or cellular death?

[scourgingstars]

I would prefer neither, quite frankly.

B

[shatteredlenses]

[There's something darkly amusing about the fact that Ignis finds Ardyn so near the memorial.  He's sure the man has very purposely chosen the spot he has.  Always with the drama and what is more dramatic than waiting for death near such a thing?

And, Ignis has no doubt that is exactly what Ardyn's doing.  Emotions are so strongly tied to this little plague and he doesn't do emotions.  Not outside hate and rage, that is, so the only option is to wait for death.

It's rather sad that Ignis can't help but wonder where this kind of death would end up ranking compared to the other horrible deaths the man has had to live through.

Ignis pushes away that dark thought and refocuses himself on walking as carefully as he can.  He's removed some of the more annoying growths with very precise use of a fire-imbued blade, but it's only temporary, and while the fire doesn't spread, it still burns when he's not as precise as he needs to be.  There is more than one bandage wrapped around his hands and wrists and more than one hidden under his slacks on his legs. Of all the times for him not to be able to use Regroup.  At least he has the magic beans that the Storyteller gave him.  He has a feeling they are going to come in very handy before this is all said and done.

He stiffly follows the sound of Ardyn's breathing until he finds himself near the man and then smiles sadly, the wind catching his hair and allowing a few bright yellow flowers peek out from between the strands.]

You're just going to let it happen, aren't you? 

[This is familiar.  Far too familiar to the Crystal Caves and Ardyn just let it happen there too.  It makes Ignis feel sick to his stomach to know that so little has changed in a year.  Are they really doomed to keep going in this same circle forever?]

[scourgingstars]

And what does it matter if I do? Perhaps this is what I want and no one actually cares enough to simply let me decide that for myself.

[shatteredlenses]

I believe it's the opposite problem, to be honest. We care too much.

[Ignis takes what is suppose to be a deep breath then, but it ends up being something truncated and painful instead. Still, he pushes himself forward to a spot next to Ardyn and then sits, nearly--but not quite--falling when his knees refuse to bend right.]

Were there a promise of final death and it was really want you wanted, I would let you go, but this is no final death and you know it. It is suffering only to return again. You need no more practice with that.

[scourgingstars]

One never can tell. Perhaps if I simply die a few more times, the Storyteller will tire of the effort and simply refuse to play with this little revolving door. It isn't as though it matters-

[That was cut off by a harsh and sharp cough barely muffled into the back of his hand.]

-after all, what's one or two more at this point?

A

[tokenflavortownie]

[Pyrrha catches notice of the coughing before she sees who it is. Truthfully, she felt for whoever seemed under the weather. There'd been a tickling in the back of her throat for a while now. She didn't want to be a coughing mess, there's too much talk of illness as it was. Hopefully, it would pass.

That's besides the point, anyway. As she goes to investigate and who does she find but-]

Ardyn? [Right! She'd heard that he was here, only... it wasn't their Ardyn, was it? There was a simple way to find out.]

Are you feeling alright? I heard coughing...

[scourgingstars]

...I'm spectacular, who are you and what do you want.

[...he's having a day, pyrrha.]

[tokenflavortownie]

I'm... Pyrrha. You haven't met me.

[That'll take some getting used to. Hoo boy. She was glad that Touko wasn't around to witness Ardyn's lack of memories yet.]

I just heard the coughing and came to see who was... [ahem. She feels something in her own throat.] I'm sorry if I'm bothering you?

[scourgingstars]

...You must be another of Noct's new little entourage, then.

[hoo boy]

I'm not interested in your sympathy.

A

[piercetheheart]

[Things have barely gotten started, even Prompto hasn't run off yet and Gladio, for his part, feels absolutely fine.

Not to say the warnings everyone's talking about aren't distressing.

Honestly, though, he really doesn't think anything of it at first, making the trek back home with Leopold at his side. It's even late enough that it's not that weird to see Ardyn out and about. Should he say something? Should he leave things well enough alone?

But then Ardyn coughs and that is not normal so now he's... worried? Yeah. Worried. He detours back towards the local apocalypse, Leo rumbling unhappily and throwing himself on the ground in the middle of the path. Home has food. Why is dad walking away? How dare!?]

Hey. Ardyn. You don't sound so good. [Braced for the inevitable verbal assault.]

[scourgingstars]

Go away.

[Weird, how easily that could sound like 'go fuck yourself'. Especially with the hoarse edge his voice was starting to take on.]

[piercetheheart]

[Wow no sassing or anything. He must not be feeling well.]

You at least want a drink before you tell me off?

[Holding out one of the bamboo water bottles he carries with him, it even has filtered fresh water~]

[scourgingstars]

I've no use for that and you know it. Are you taunting me for a reason, or are you simply bored?