lifeaftr | 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 )

Flat | Top-Level Comments Only

[Shit. No wonder he doesn't know what the fuck's going on, isn't just taking the dimension hopping in stride. Lup looks even more heartbroken, if that's even possible, and no, his timing on that question isn't the best? But it's very Newt. She almost has to laugh fondly, if it wasn't so messed up.]

We all got here at the same time, as part of like, the first wave of interplanar castaways? We built civilization up out of the fucking ground with our bare hands here. And like, Taako and I, we're scientists too? You were mad into that, and we were kinda short a nerd at the time, so... Yeah, we hung out a lot. [She squeezes Taako's hand and doesn't mention the honestly super fascinating science talks, still having him try out new creations for the store after that first trainwreck of a free sample, throwing the most incredible party this sorry island had seen in a millenium with him. Doesn't have the words for it, just now.]

But listen, you'd been to a bunch of planes before coming here, and maybe they weren't like, the coolest places, but I don't-- How is that all gone?

[Thank Lup for Lup. He could not have summarized their camaraderie so succinctly and accurately. He can, however, feel that unvoiced loss in her grip, and squeezes back. They've kind of made an art of not talking about losing people.

But they haven't lost this nerd, because he's here. Just kind of needs some shoring up is all, they can get through it. Timeline and multiverse bullshit, who needs it? These things happen, probably. Forgetting a long history of plane-hopping is all the rage these days.

It's just unlikely that this can be fixed with a swig of fish juice, and Lup's question isn't really helping, so he offers a gentle course correction.]

I don't think he's gonna know that, Lup. Might be a better question for the rabbit, this is kiiind of a weird one. Point is, [He turns his attention to Newt,] this isn't your first rodeo. Except maybe chronologically. Or maybe not. [He shrugs.] But you're here now. Again. Which is, you know, a mixed bag? Could be worse.

[It's....really strange. Hearing about yourself from other people. This must be what amnesia feels like. Or dementia. Newt shudders at the thought, discomfort trickling down his spine. A bunch of other planes? Sure, it sounds like him to be hanging with other scientists, and sure, he'd probably be useful building a civilization because he definitely watched more than enough Man vs Wild but...how is that all gone? How can they apparently have these memories of him, but here he stands with nothing? He's never even traveled to another dimension before.

He rubs the back of his neck, looking more unsure by the minute]

It feels like my first rodeo. [he huffs] Seriously, I have no idea what's going on, other than what that rabbit said. But that was also pretty vague, honestly.

[What little fervor she'd worked up for her distressed question deflates at Taako's gentle redirection, ears dropping sadly with a sigh. He's right, of course, fresh-off-his-OG-wild-ride Newt is pretty much the last person on the planet who'd know what kind of interplanar or temporal bullshit happened to him. All he's got to go on in this is what the Storyteller told him, and that-- yeah, that's bound to leave some questions unanswered, let's just say. She musters up a faint chuckle.]

Yeah, they're always like that. You'll get used to it. [Oh shit, how's he gonna feel about the god, without all his previous baggage? They used to be in the anti-rabbit camp together but he missed all the growth the god went through, all the ways they showed their care for the islanders. Maybe there is something they know about this, something they can do, like skipping forward in his story, releasing some patch notes, whatever.

She just hates the idea that the Newt they knew is gone for good.]

But like, if you've got any questions-- shoot, I guess? We're not gonna leave you hanging just cuz you don't... [She looks away, catches sight of his knapsack in the sand.] Your old house kinda uh, got burned down, but there's plenty of places you can crash.

[Does Lup mean their jungle goblin city when she says that? Not that Taako is opposed, even if it's Newt Remix and not Newt Classic. Hell, he didn't complain (much) when one of Lup's guests literally stabbed themself and terrorized Death with spooky magic, he's not exactly the strictest about who gets brought home anymore.

He just isn't sure that would fly from Newt's perspective? Newt, who has only just been downgraded from category 'freaking out' to 'just kinda huffy.' He can't really blame the guy; he remembers how shitty being dropped into all this was, way back when, even though he's pretty sure he was never this dramatic about it.]

Yeah, the Storyteller really takes the old 'show, don't tell' advice to heart. Minus the 'showing' too, I guess.

[It's always been a little aggravating, but honestly, Taako is over exposition as an idea anyway. Even he can't blame the rabbit for slacking on that.]

But you know you're on an island, so you basically got the gist of it. And hey, now you don't have to care about all the stuff that happened while you were gone, since it won't make any sense anyway. I think we're all missing a silver lining, here.

[wait Lup say what??] Dude, did you just say it got burnt down?

[what the fuck even] ....so yeah, I'm definitely gonna need a place to stay.

So, uh....what's this silver lining? Because I'm still not seein' it, dude.

[Chill, it was therapeutic arson, a toddler had some shit to work out, or at least that's what Lup kinda assumes. Taako's not wrong, there's no reason for him to care about his old house.

Lup's gonna leave the silver lining talk to Taako, for once, because honestly she's not seeing it either. Instead she slips out from under his arm to grab Newt's pack.]

Let's, I guess let's start by taking you to the mana pool? There's a couple islets off the coast with all the uh, free real estate you could want.

[Oh cool, they're gonna just dump this fool in a brand new house, Price Is Right style apparently. That probably works.

Unfortunately, his conversational gambit didn't. Which is fair, the silver lining was pretty thin to start with. And Lup's taken the only really useful task, leaving him to drift kind of awkwardly Newtwards, like he's something someone lost in an airport. Should he be taking some kind of responsibility here, or is Newt good?]

Yeah, guess that's not really much, uh. Not as good a consolation prize as I thought, getting to skip the cut-scenes. Though, a lot of it was prrrrretty nasty, so you know what actually? I stand by it. Now, you're gonna love the mana pool thing, it's so dumb. Me 'n' Lup tried to fight it, way back when we didn't know what it was.

[Newt blinks as Lup grabs his pack, and he looks like he's about to make the token protest, but Taako's quickly cutting in, drifting closer.]

You tried to fight it? [he's arching an eyebrow at Taako, but he's already moving to follow Lup because, well...she's got his stuff????? But he also looks uncertain about these mana pools] What is it, exactly?

September Intro: The Fields Are Painted Gold

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