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

[thermalwind]

[Marvelous. He puts a hand over his mouth and swallows hard. There's an itch in the back of his throat. He turns his head and coughs.]

Thanks for telling me, Arum. Anything else about this that you think I need to know since we're in the area of exposure?

[aftrnpc]

Unknown.

[They look at him for a moment. Then, again, they assume that same automated tone as before - that clipped, direct, phone-message voice that suggests some kind of programming that runs beneath:]

Thank you for your cooperation. ERIA-87 will be your designated handler for the duration of your stay.

[thermalwind]

[His eyes widen as icy dread closes around his heart. He had been turning to go and now he turns back to Arum. His voice is very quiet.]

...What did you just say? What...what's the number for? Eria?

[aftrnpc]

All new patients are issued guardian units upon arrival. That would have been yours.


[It seems that some of their diagnostic systems are still in place after all.]

[thermalwind]

[The knowledge sits in his chest like a heavy rock. Hunk and Lance need him. Shiro is gone. The rest of the group...he’s been reaching out to them and finally opening up a little to this community. It’s almost laughable.

He turns back to Arum-25.] Where would I have reported to? Where is Eria-87?

[aftrnpc]

All new arrivals reported to Alpha Site Asphodel.

[Another shift - back to basic programming, to something cold and impersonal:]

Please indicate which of the following has been contracted:

ALSTROMERIACEAE
AMARYLLIDACEAE
APOCYNACAEA
AQUIFOLIACEAE
ARACEAE
ASPARAGA-------

[They trail into a sequence of ERROR prompts, unable to finish.]

[thermalwind]

[His jaw locks. He wants to hit a wall or yell. Neither will do any good and he knows it. It makes him angerier. Keith forces himself to speak,]

The only one with Eria in it is Alstromeriaceae.

[aftrnpc]

ALSTROMERIACEAE. Alstroemeria family. Guardian designation ERIA. Currently in its 80th iteration.

[thermalwind]

80th iteration? What does that mean? Are you talking about the handler or? [Well at least he has some idea what is going to possibly kill him. Possibly. Keith frowns at himself. He is going to have to calculate his energy levels as he gets into later stages.

If they don’t stop it.]

[aftrnpc]

The ERIA line of guardian units entered their 60th iteration circa A.E 1703. Guardian units ceased construction circa A.E 1889 without proper maintenance.

The ERIA line was never completed. It had reached its 80th iteration when further construction could no longer be facilitated.

[thermalwind]

Okay, where were they being constructed? Why did construction stop?

Was it just the previous iterations couldn't do it or did the engineer die?

[aftrnpc]

Coordinates unknown.

My memory circuits are incomplete.

[thermalwind]

Okay. How many iterations is the Arum line of guardian units up to? [Might as well ask. There might be a clue there.]

[aftrnpc]

Unknown.

Numerically, it is likely similar.

[thermalwind]

...did anyone ever have any idea what spread this sickness? Or at least...a possible idea on how it might be stopped?

[aftrnpc]

Evidence would suggest no.

[They do say "evidence" because...there's no one left to say, one way or another, which implies a pretty grim fate for just about everyone.]

[thermalwind]

...We'll go looking. Do you want me to come back here and report our results if we find a cure?

[If he survives that long. He has no idea if he's screwed or not, but he'll make sure some of them make it.]

[aftrnpc]

I will attempt to notify who I can upon location of my memory circuits...or of any further data that may be of use.

[They kind of got the question flipped around there, but the sentiment is the same.]

[thermalwind]

Alright. We can talk more about this when we have more information.

Thanks for talking with me.

[aftrnpc]

I am sorry I could not relay more useful information.

[The sentiment, for all of its hesitance, is genuine.]

[thermalwind]

[He shakes his head. Keith tries to lock his gaze with Arum's or what he perceives as their gaze. He can't leave without making something clear.] You've been more than helpful. Without what you told me I wouldn't know what to expect out of this sickness.

...and now I know what to look for. It's a start.

[aftrnpc]

Good...luck.

[It's said with something that one might even call misery, of bowed head and dropping shoulders, as if they know full well the uselessness of the statement, of the gesture.]

[thermalwind]

Thanks. And good luck to you too. [He nods once and walks away. It's only when his face is turned away that Keith lets his teeth grit. He's scared. He's so damn scared but he can't afford to let it slow him down.]