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

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?

[piercetheheart]

You don't need to drink doesn't mean cold water wouldn't feel good if you've got something stuck in your throat.

[It's easier to to offer Ardyn solutions than think too hard on what the fuck just came out of his mouth. It was just Scourge, right?

Right?]

That's... new, isn't it? [Fuck]

[scourgingstars]

Why, exactly, should you care? [He shook a few loose petals--purple stained black--off his hand, scowling.] I've no need for your feigned concern.

[piercetheheart]

[The petals start to fall and Gladio reaches out, stepping closer and bending down to snatch one out of the air. He's careful to use the hand with his bracer so the petal lays on his leather covered palm as he examines it.]

Ardyn... [And now he sounds even more worried, brow furrowed.] When did this start? This is not okay.

[scourgingstars]

And it is also not your problem.

[why are you like this.]

[piercetheheart]

[You're as bad as Laurent, stop.]

The fuck it isn't. Answer the question. How long?

[You're not the only one that might be affected by this by the way, asshat.]

[scourgingstars]

...A day, if that.

[piercetheheart]

[His fingers close around that petal, making a fist and clenching his jaw.]

Has it been getting worse or have you been coughing this shit up the whole time?

[scourgingstars]

...

[Ardyn didn't say anything at first, just glaring for a second or two.]

You think this is the first infection that we've encountered in this ridiculous place? It doesn't matter.

[piercetheheart]

How the hell doesn't it?

[Just because it's not the first time doesn't mean it's not dangerous.

Why does he curse so much more with you around, Ardyn?]

[scourgingstars]

Because nothing matters around here. So what if any of us should die? They'll just come back the same as I do, if on a bit more of a delay. And I'm not foolish enough to think you care what becomes of me of all people. Even if you did, I've died hundreds of times in every imaginable way. One more is nothing.

[piercetheheart]

Why's it so impossible to bel-

[He stops himself mid sentence.

Stupid question, frustrating as all hell but stupid question.]

Look whether you want to believe it or not just pretend with me for a minute that y'know people care about each other. Why would we want anyone to suffer through some kind of freaky flower disease?

You, me, anyone. I get it been there, done that, but doesn't it fucking suck?

[scourgingstars]

[Ardyn shrugged, wincing slightly at the motion and rolling his shoulder as if it ached somehow.]

I make it a point not to carry anyone else's problems anymore, actually. I don't care what happens to me, and I care even less for anyone else's fate.

[piercetheheart]

[He watches that movement carefully, gauging as best he can how bad it is by Ardyn's response. The fact that he would even show discomfort in front of him might say more than he means to.

But the words just... make him sigh, something sad in his expression even if he knows it'll just piss Ardyn off.]

Who's gonna look after Hresvelgr if you keel over, huh?

[scourgingstars]

Oh, you say that like I don't have preparations back in that charming little mess I call a house. She'll be fine for a few days or so, however long it takes to reconstitute this body now.

[piercetheheart]

That's... kind of fucked up, you know that right?

[How can you be so flippant about your impending doom, Ardyn?]

[scourgingstars]

Not only have I died more times than even I can count, I have done so in very literally every way imaginable so far as I can remember.

I'm used to it.

[piercetheheart]

Which makes... sense? Still fucked up.

[He frowns though, crosses his arms, considering.]

Even being used to it if you can stop it why wouldn't you? It's gotta suck and hurt like hell.

[scourgingstars]

Because I don't care, and perhaps one of these times it might actually stick.

[piercetheheart]

[He legitimately can't fathom that. It's so unnatural to think like that.

Congrats, Ardyn, he's at a loss for words.]

cw: suicidal ideation

[scourgingstars]

What? So shocked that an immortal might have a casual disregard for living? I'm actually quite tired of it, really.

[piercetheheart]

Just... seems like an awfully miserable way to go about it.

[But it's not like he has any solutions.]

No wonder you're such a bastard. [He's teasing, really.]