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

[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.]

[scourgingstars]

Is that supposed to be funny?

[piercetheheart]

Maybe?

[Siiiiiiigh]

A little?

[scourgingstars]

...I hate you so much.

[piercetheheart]

Oh come on, no you don't~

[You know he's getting to you, Ardyn.]

[scourgingstars]

You have five seconds to step back before I remove your arm.

[piercetheheart]

[He tilts his head, obviously contemplating whether or not this is a legitimate threat.

And in the end? He crosses his arms over his chest and very firmly doesn't move.]

[scourgingstars]

...

[Ardyn held out his hand, red-toned Blade of the Mystic appearing in a flash of crystal.]

I'm really not interested in playing games today.

[piercetheheart]

[There's another moment of hesitation and then he finally acquiesces, raising his hands in surrender.]

Alright alright.

If you want help or company or... anything. You know where to find us.

[scourgingstars]

[The sword vanished again after a moment, Ardyn looking just as unamused as ever by the offer.]

Highly unlikely. I suggest you not expect me anytime soon.

[piercetheheart]

Yeah, I know. Don't hold your breath.

[You are so frustrating sir.]