lifeaftr | September Intro: The Fields Are Painted Gold

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September Intro: The Fields Are Painted Gold

INTRO LOG: SEPTEMBER

Who: New arrivals, and you!
What: New souls arrive to the archipelago of LifeAftr
When: September 4th and onward
Where: Primarily Ensō, though Umui is also likely
Warnings: Mark as needed!

The Beach: And the Sun is Coming Through
When you arrive on the archipelago of LifeAftr, it is on the shores of Ensō - turquoise waves dragging through the pale sand of the beach. The breeze carries the tang of salt on the tropical sea spray. The sky overhead is a blue to rival the aquamarine surf. All told, the atmosphere is almost...pleasant. Not far from the cream-colored beach, the jungle beckons.

Above the treetops, however, something seems to be drifting overhead.

Bright spots of color drift on the wind like motes of dust. On further inspection, one might be able to discern what, exactly, is the cause of this lazily wafting, brilliantly colored confetti.

They are flower petals, being funneled up into the sky. Petals of every color and shape imaginable, thickening the air with golden currents of pollen, being lifted from one specific point. They are streaming freely from the Storyteller's Temple, as it happens, though this may not be clear to the newly arrived. The Temple has at last begun to shed the floral trappings that have ensnared it since the end of last month, and the breeze carries this out across the ocean skyline.

There's no mistaking it: it is very beautiful. Unless you have allergies.

Inland: The Trees Are Filled With Memories
This influx of flowers on the breeze, aside from being a potential source of unpleasant reminders to those who died choking on said flowers last month, have had additional consequences. The creatures rescued from Ziziphus flourish in such pollen-rich environments, which has led to a fresh budding of their young. Baby mosslings crawl like lumps of lichen over the trunks of trees, and the loud peeping of arboreali chicks can be heard in the branches above. Most of these creatures are not tameable, but some, such as flowccus, can be kept as livestock.

Just take care, when venturing into Ensō's verdant jungle. If Ziziphus's prey animals have begun to spring forth, then its predators have begun to reproduce as well. Young spindlanks and rootwyrms are not nearly as vicious as their adult counterparts, but you may have a bit of trouble getting rid of them without killing them - you did, after all, bring them here to preserve them.

Most notable, however, are the fresh litters of tigerlilies that have begun swarming all over Ensō.

Tigerlilies can be tamed and kept as pets, though despite their fearsome appearance, they not terribly vicious. They subsist in much the same way any other plant would; off of water and sunlight, primarily, though they might also graze like an herbivore from time to time.

If you're interested in keeping one for your own, bear LifeAftr's companion limit in mind - two per character, and no more. The process of trying to tame a tigerlily is not always successful, either. We recommend use of a d10, with the following guidelines:

Rolling a 10: Critical success! This tigerlily will follow you to the ends of the earth.
Rolling 6-9: Taming and training this tigerlily will be like educating a stubborn housecat, but will be nonetheless successful.
Rolling 2-5: Failure. You get sprayed with soporific pollen, which will affect you for several hours.
Rolling a 1: Critical failure. Not only do you get sprayed with soporific pollen, but the tigerlily in question decides that you're their new cat toy. Tigerlilies are not carnivorous, but their teeth and fangs are still very sharp, and not highly pleasant to contend with.

Bear in mind that these are only guidelines; you are free to predetermine successes or failures as you'd like, presuming your character can sustain the companion! Our discord channel has a room for dice-rolls, if that's your speed.

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 )

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[You know what you should definitely not ever, under any circumstances do?]

[Willfully startle a fully-armed, fully-armored space marine with deeply rooted paranoia and crushing PTSD as well as a history of shooting first and asking questions later.]

[Really, it's amazing that he doesn't shoot her on the spot, though his rifle jerks sharply up to brace against his shoulder, mere seconds from firing until his heart arrests itself in his chest and his breath hikes:]

Jesus christ what the fuck.

[See, in her world guns exist, but we're talking in the range of flintlock pistols vs anything he's toting. People are dangerous, sure- swords and magic and the whole nine yards. All she has is a crazy high dex score and her fists. And yet, she keeps fucking doing this shit. This is why you keep getting the shit kicked out of you, Beau.

She seizes when he jerks, a quick and sharp motion to bring her staff between them as some kind of block, but she has no armor on at all- just a long blue robe over a cropped shirt and flowing pants at her hips.

It's some kinda sight. She's not backing down though.]

Hey! Did you hear me? Is this place some kind of fucked up illusion, or-- no, wait, back up, where the hell is everyone else??

What do you mean, everyone else? Can you just -

[He's not about to drop his weapon when she's clearly still game for a fight, but he backs up several paces to allow himself some...space. Some space against all of this shit.]

- maybe not jump people in the middle of the jungle?

[It's cool, she'll only start getting punchy if he doesn't answer. So at least he's talking. She lets him take a few steps, confident she could cross any distance between them easily if she needed to, but at least she plants one end of the staff in the ground instead of continuing to point it at him.]

Listen, I just apparently woke up in another universe minus all the assholes I've been with for the last couple of months. Why should I trust you?

[It's. It's some sort of point.]

Besides, I got your attention. So now you're gonna tell me where everything is around here.

[Okay, well either she's utterly unafraid of the possibility that he might shoot her or she doesn't recognize what guns are, and both possibilities are lamentably possible, given the people he's met since ending up here.]

So is this an "or else" kind of situation, or...?

[He just sounds tired, frankly. He'd just like to know if he's being threatened before he does anything, honestly. Or if he refuses to do it out of spite.]

[She sure doesn't register that's a gun, nah, sorry buddy. She also has no point of reference for what getting shot feels like, and seeing as she's reckless on a good day, that probably wouldn't be something she fears anyway.]

Wh-- Yes! What! I'm--

[She gestures to her outfit, like that's supposed to mean something. Which it only sort of does in her world, so it's not a super good move all around.]

I just jumped you, what part of this isn't or else? I had some fucked up rabbit dream and now I'm alone, answer my shit or I'm gonna hit you!

You're going to hit a guy in full armor. Who's fully armed.

[Granted, she might be the kind of person who can hit exceptionally hard, but when he measures up the titanium-composite shelling that coats him head to toe, it just seems...comically unbalanced. In his opinion.]

I don't think that's going to go well.

[She can hit pretty hard. But not that hard. She's wildly out of her depth but the last thing she's gonna do is admit that.]

You don't know what I can do.

[Just for that, she falls into a comfortable stance, staff in hand, her other hand out and ready.]

But you're gonna find out if you don't tell me where my friends are.

[Wash shifts back his weight, very slightly. He'd prefer not to waste ammo firing on someone to prove a point, but he's also not above doing that if it comes down to it.]

If you showed up here alone, you probably are alone. You can try the rock you showed up here with, but if they don't answer, they're not here.

[She can tell he's not backing down, which is more than enough to be cautious. Sadly for her composure, the sentence he says is only half comprehensible, and she has a retort all too quickly.]

A rock? You want me to talk to a rock?

[What the fuck is that gonna do?]

And what do you mean came in with? I didn't have some rock in my pocket when I laid down before all this.

You showed up here with a pack, right? There's a rock in it.

[You sound crazy.]

[Thought doesn't feel like it's his. It's his. It's his? Yeah, it's definitely his; no one else would be so scathing. It's fine. It's fine. He doesn't need to think about it - about the fact that he sounds like everything they said he was. Certified Article Twelve.]

[There's a rock in it.]

Among...other things.

[He does sound absolutely crazy. But she squints at him, staying perfectly still, and then just... slowly slides the backpack on her back off her shoulder and shoves her hand in there, not breaking eye contact with him until she, sure enough, produces a rock.]

... Is this some magic thing? You just talk into it?

[Her world doesn't have much for long distance communication.]

How do you know you're talking to the right person?

[She's fortunate that he is, in fact, looking back at her. The visor makes it hard to tell.]

Because there's a screen on it that tells you. Everyone says it's a magic thing.

[Said somewhat huffily, like someone who very much does not want to acknowledge the existence of magic. Or the possibility of it. That's not a thing where he comes from, okay? Allegedly.]

Oh. Huh. Like a message spell?

[Does she have to keep it to under 25 words? Jester always goes on and on. Hesitantly, she raises it to her mouth, not sure who she should call first. She decides on the person she thinks is most likely to pick up.]

Caleb? 'Ss Beau. Where are you? I'm in the forest.

[A very slight pause.]

... You can respond to this message.

[But there's nothing. She waits a few seconds before shaking it when there's no response, trying a few more names.]

Nott? C'mon, don't ignore me. Keg? Fuck, Fjord, Jester, Yasha, come on!

[She groans, finally readdressing Wash.]

How do you know it works?

It works for people who are here.

[He can't even blame her, because he did the same thing. Tried his comm in the few short minutes when it still worked before it became inexplicably fuzzed with static due to water damage that shouldn't even have been possible.]

[He was just fortunate enough to have not arrived alone.]

If they're not answering, that means they probably can't hear you. [Meaning they're not...here. Yeah. Sorry.]

[She drops her shoulders with a groan, like of course this is happening to her today, and shoves the rock back in her pants pocket.]

Cool, so the magic rock got to let me know I'm the only one who got kidnapped. Just great.

[Beau rolls her head Wash's direction, squinting as she looks him up and down.]

... You don't know anybody named Lorenzo, do you?

[She doesn't expect him to say yes. But what she is looking for is for him to get squirrely about it or not to see if he's telling the truth. If she was kidnapped while she rested, now captured somewhere... it'd be powerful magic. But maybe it would be necessary. Keg did say he liked to break his victims, and she'd expect him to keep his hands off to save his own skin.]

No. I don't.

[It's flat and direct and not the least bit squirrely. Sorry, Beau.]

You're not still going to punch me, are you? [He'd prefer not to deal with that, thanks. He's not sure what she'd do against a full suit of titanium nanocomposite armor, but some people here are a good deal tougher than their external appearance would suggest.]

[She's right on the cusp of calming down when he says that and her face screws right back up.]

You know saying that just makes me want to punch you more, right?

[She's wising up at least slightly though. Beau's not dumb enough to punch platemail, and this guy does look pretty set up. Not that she'll really admit defeat though.]

I can agree not to hit you for the rock thing. I guess. But if I find out you're lying I'm coming right the fuck back. You got that?

Sure.

[That sounds like a great plan. Not even going to point out the absurdity of assuming he'll just be sitting here politely, waiting for her to waltz back and punch him for something that has, honestly, nothing to do with him.]

You have fun doing that.

[It's not about that he'll be sitting here. She'll find him. She'll just know. Woosh. Danger.]

Well you have fun being condescending to kidnap... ee. People.

[Ooh, comebacks are not often her thing. She'll just make a 'come at me' face at him instead.]

...right.

[Consider him unimpressed. Or just...generally nonplussed, as a rule.]

Are we done here?

[This happens more than she'd like. If only she had a little more charisma, maybe she'd know how to look scarier than... whatever this is.]

Fine. Only 'cause I got stuff to do.

[And she needs to investigate this rock more, so she'll sling her stuff back over her shoulders, fix a pointed stare at him again, and then turn and run off.

She has no idea where she's going. But there she goes.]

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September Intro: The Fields Are Painted Gold

inland because let's start things off right i guess

fucking incredible

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