lifeaftr | October Intro: I Think We Should Run

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October Intro: I Think We Should Run

INTRO LOG: OCTOBER

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

Nuidan: Checking that the Coast is Clear
This time around, newest arrivals to the archipelago of LifeAftr will open their eyes to the skies overlooking the relatively recent island of Nuidan. Namely, they'll be waking in the northern quadrant of said island, the region perpetually locked in the season of spring. This means rich fields of gold and green and buff-colored grass and skies swollen with unshed rainclouds. The scent of turned soil and petrichor mingles with the faint, earthy scent of manure.

It's not an unpleasant way to wake. There are doubtless worse places to rouse yourself. But the cloud of dust clotting up the horizon soon suggests that there might be a bit more to the circumstances of your arrival than some nice weather.

And, unfortunately, that's exactly the case. There's a herd of something charging directly for you, and nothing short of a natural disaster is going to sway them from their course.

A thick-packed herd of scaly aptonoth have been spooked, startled, or otherwise galvanized into a panicked stampede across the northern reaches of Nuidan.

Quadrupedal, herbivorous, and scaly, aptonoths resemble dinosaurs in appearance more than they do so in their generally placid nature. They are far more akin to cows in temperament, even if their skin is a good deal more leathery. Even the broad spikes at the ends of their tail or the heavy horns atop their heads aren't terribly dangerous unless the entire herd feels threatened. While aptonoths are typically easily tamed, in this case they are far from amenable to conceding to anyone's interference.

It's probably best to try and get out of their way. Fast.

Ensō: 'Cause They're Already Ghosts
Things are quieter on LifeAftr's mainland. They might seem a little...eerily so, in fact. Today officially marks the day that the Storyteller makes their departure, and seeks out new islands for you intrepid explorers to uncover. The difference that their absence creates is small, at first, and most prominently felt on Ensō itself.

The temple is the most obvious thing. It simply looks...defeated and empty, as hollow and unoccupied as it currently is. That aura of proud mystery is absent, though the Chamber of Glyphs at least remains as it was. But anyone who comes looking for the Storyteller themself at this time will find no one waiting for them. No flower-touched animal, no old, dusty tome. You're currently on your own.

Or...maybe not? The Storyteller was courteous enough to issue a warning last month about the nature of the dream-island of Mu. The effects of that island will start to make themselves evident in small, simple ways: namely, in the way you're going to start seeing things.

Nothing serious, of course. Just...flickers of movement in the corners of your vision. Something about your surroundings just being so slightly off. The color of that rock - it's always been that way, hasn't it? Or was it only always that way five minutes ago? While these blips and hitches in reality are decidedly non-specific, they can be unsettling for those who can't adjust for a bit of strangeness.

The source of these odd quirks in the fabric of reality is easily explained by the presence of clockroaches, one of Mu's wily dream-creatures. You'd be hard-pressed to catch a glimpse of any of them directly; they specialize in the ethereal and the ephemeral, and seldom reveal themselves to anyone if they can help it. But you might, if you're very attentive or very lucky, see some indistinct, silver-misted blur disappearing behind the trunk of a tree in a blink-swift ghost of motion.

But they are, in essence, harmless. At least...for the moment.

As of October 4th, the Storyteller will be unavailable for both IC Contact threads and Item Requests. If you need anything vital backdated, just let us know!

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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[She just stands there for a moment or two, staff drawn and in disbelief. She saw him dead. She saw his corpse, she took his fucking cards, they buried him in that stupid coat. He can't just be standing there, after all of this. Was he just spirited away to this place after he died? Is she actually dead here, did she go to sleep and never wake up before assaulting the Nest? Shit. Shit.

Beau, on the other hand, does not put her weapon away. Instead, she takes a few steps forward and punches Molly directly in the chest, to determine if he's solid. It's not as hard as she could go, but Beau isn't really thinking about that.]

What the fuck! What are you doing here! You can't just-- show up after all that!

[Great. Good. Wonderful.]

[ That was about what he expected her reaction to be, really. It wouldn't be beau otherwise, would it? At least it wasn't the face - but the wind is still painfully knocked out of him and he stumbles slightly. It hurt, and you shouldn't feel pain in the afterlife.

Another plane, then. He could pretend that was the truth. ]

I'm sorry, I really am.

[ Molly takes a breath, holding up a hand in 'defense' from more hits. ]

I don't know why I'm here. I... this is different from last time. Are you... did you get away?

[Can't be his face, because that needs to stay with whatever was presented to her. She needs to watch it for lies, for something off, for proof this is real and not some fucked up trick this place is playing. She's heard from other people in the month she's been here some of the things it can do, some of the ways it can make you see things that aren't true. She won't fall for it.

Her fists are gripped tight, shoulders tense, waiting, waiting, waiting.]

No no, we answer my bullshit first, we-- we fucking buried you, how are you here?

[Not that she knows where here is. The rabbit said the dead could be raised. She didn't dare hope it was something like this, where it could actually work.]

What do you remember?

[This could still be something from her own head, and it's jittering her too hard to take the gift presented to her. After a month alone, she's just trying to steady.]

[ He doesn't know what kind of things this place has to offer when it came to lies and weird things quite yet, which is probably a good thing or he'd question his sanity even more. ]

I don't fucking know!

[ He snaps back at her, and even if he kind of regrets it, emotions have been high since he got here and it was only a matter of time. Yelling at Beau was normal. Something he could handle rather than the thoughts in his head. ]

I died. I remember dying. That's it!

[He's yelling too, and everything feels so exactly as it should be she just wants to hit him again. Talking is so difficult. For once, can't she solve this with violence?

Probably not. She drops her shoulders, just looking at him still mostly mad.]

And now you're just, fucking-- of course. Of course you would do this.

[Beau what does that even mean.]

This place isn't supposed to literally be the afterlife! What the hell!

[She reaches up, running her palms down her face and resisting the urge to just scream.]

Well, fuck.

What the fuck does that even mean?!

[ See, he's wondering that as well.

Still, Molly's annoyance calms a bit as he looks at her. Same Beau as always. Ornery and unpleasant. It's so nice to see her again, even if it had just been a few hours for him.

No matter what that meant for them both. ]

Are you done or do you want to hit me some more?

[She lets her hands fall, only to cross her arms defensively. At least it has the unintentional signal that her fists aren't free to fly into his chest again.]

It's me, of course I want to fucking hit you more.

[Yep, same old Beau. But there's only so long she can keep doing this, especially with all the paranoia around right now where she's seeing shit that doesn't exist. Except he's real. Can this place just make people real again?

She subtly brushes against his deck in her pocket- still there. How can she have it and him have that coat if he's right here and not in the ground?]

If you're freaking out about this, this isn't like, the land of the dead or whatever. I didn't die. I think.

It better not be the fucking land of the dead, and you better not be dead!

[ Fuck this place and fuck this weird shit going on. He's so happy to see her and her bullshit and Molly doesn't care that she's going to punch his teeth in, he's on his way to grab her shoulder in as close to a hug as he dared.

It might be a lie, but if she's alive and safe, he's happy. ]

Will you tell me what the this place is now?

I'm not dead!!

[Two idiots hug and scream in the forest 10 hour mix. She won't stop him when he gets close though, even if she still isn't the best at hugs and everything still makes no goddamn sense.]

It's some kind of island, I don't know, I've been here on my own for like a month. Did you have the rabbit dream? It's just, it's some other world we got dropped into, I don't know!

[ Thankfully it's a little less awkward than the famous Beau-Caleb hug, because at least Molly knows about this affection thing that's going around.

...even if it ends in a slight noogie, because he's a dick. A happy, relieved dick. The way Beau protested this time that she wasn't dead made it seem more realistic, so at least he can try to hope. ]

You've been here for a month and the place is still in once piece?

[ He can talk rabbits later. ]

[She grumbles at him, slapping at his wrists as soon as this becomes a noogie thing. Fight her right here you purple menace.]

Hey, it's just been me around here, try picking up some of the slack.

[Beau crosses her arms as soon as she's able, but she can't hold back the sly little grin on her face from the whole experience. She doesn't know what's going on, but he sure seems here and whole. Maybe she just doesn't look a gift horse in the mouth on this one and just takes the free horse.]

Nothing's even happening around here. There are gods just chillin' but all they want to do is farm.

[ He slaps her hands back, because they're fucking children and Molly is eating up any kind of normalcy right now like he's starving. Being an idiot is a huge part of that, obviously. ]

You jinxed it now, give it a day or so and it's going to be chaos.

[ They were kind of walking disasters, after all. Moonweaver knows what the kind of trouble they'd get into without Fjord to at least try to steer them somewhere sane. ]

Farm? Huh. I have no idea how to farm.

[ It sounded boring - but that was the actual jinx, wasn't it? They'll suffer soon enough. ]

[She feels it too- it's always easier to hit this guy than it is to talk about feelings. So fuck it, time for punchies.]

Hey, I'd appreciate any chaos around here. Best I've gotten to do is fix a fence and determine where the beer is. There's only one tavern here, we're in that level of middle of nowhere.

[At least she has connections to that weird minotaur's secret stash. Leave it to Beau to find the one person banned from anything at all and instantly start making trades.]

Maybe you can use your horns to spar with some of the goats. Fit right in.

[ Molly's going to have a lot of bruises after this, isn't he? ]

Damn, it really is that sad around here? Tell me they at least have some decent booze?

[ He wants to get really drunk and forget what the fuck this is for a moment, ok? Let him know there's weed here, he's gonna be stoned 24/7.

At her mention of sparring with goats, he tosses his head a little bit, jewels and charms chiming as he puts on a sour face. ]

I'm not going to fight a goat for you! Plus I'm pretty sure you do not want to marry me. Tiefling traditions and all that.

[ He's so full of shit. ]

[This is punishment for throwing yourself on the pyre for her, ya fuckin goob.]

Oh, I mean, there is that. Couple of liquors, found another guy with a self-refilling flask so that's cool. Also it's all free but they'll yell at you if you get drunk and sleep on the floor.

[Not saying she's done that, necessarily. She wasn't on the floor. She was in the rafters.]

Why the fuck would you fight a goat for mar-- you don't know shit.

[He knows like 2 things, she's certain, shut up Molly.]

You seen anyone else?

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October Intro: I Think We Should Run

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