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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Checking that the Coast is Clear

[ It really wasn't a bad way to wake up, especially if you didn't expect to wake up at all. That dream has been weird, and made little sense in the context of what he last remembered.

Spitting in that bastard's face. A few snowflakes on his skin. Darkness.

This was definitely different. Not what he had expected at all - it should have been more serenity and moonlight, as far as he had gathered - but nice enough.

Molly brushes sand off his coat, sighs at the destruction of his incense and disguise kit, and is then ready to look through this weird knapsack with his name on it (his name, he's still Molly). That's when the rumble reaches him, the dust at the horizon which far too quickly turn into some kind of creatures running wild.

Immediately, he's trying to dash for cover, because this was the worst welcome committee he had ever seen. Molly's not going to be able to hide in his colorful outfit, looking like he tumbled through a craft store - but at least it makes him easy to spot just in case someone would be kind enough to give the disaster tiefling a hand before he gets trampled.

Mollymauk is definitely not impressed with this shitty excuse for an afterlife any more. ]

'Cause They're Already Ghosts

[ Stampede madness and other bullshit dealt with, there was another island to see. Molly kind of regrets it immediately, because it feels really empty and weird. Maybe he shouldn't stick around here on his own, but he wanted some more answers. Anything to explain more of this bullshit.

There's something strange going on, though, because the little flicks of weird just in the corner of his red eyes is making his tail swish agitatedly. Maybe this wasn't a good idea at all.

It's not so strange that the next time he hears something, the colorful tiefling puts a hand on a scimitar and turns around quickly to face whatever was following him. It's not what he expected, however.

Maybe it's even you. ]

[The peculiarities floating in the air aren't the only thing that arrest the Drifter's attention. A distant silhouette that proves to be more reassuringly solid draws their attention simply by virtue of being sufficiently different from the swirling of light-motes and shadowy not-shapes that have always been so bitterly indicative of the Immortal Cell's creeping presence.]

[The Drifter is ordinarily a good deal more alert than this - call their attention scattershot as a result of aforementioned shadows and shapes. Their pace slows, their attention diverted by a flicker of motion disappearing behind a tree, and when they turn there's something drawing a sword.]

[While they are not an easy creature to read by nature - the stripe of cobalt skin they keep visible is limited in expression to their dark-pit eyes - it's apparent that the Drifter is startled when their hand flies to their side. Their blade springs to life with a hum of hard-light energy, a blaze of cyan glowing at their side.]

[Little more than default, defensive instinct - you startled them.]

[ Well, that's not good. Molly backs off a bit, his lavender hand not leaving the hilt of the sword. That glowing light blade is not something he's seen before - glowing weapons, yes, but not one that appeared like that. It would be nasty to fight.

Then again, they both looked equally startled and defensive. Maybe he could work with that. ]

Are you the ones causing these things?

[...]

[The response is not to answer potential hostility with equal or greater hostility, but to ask questions. The Drifter blinks, slowly, and allows their blade to dissipate as they shake their head.]

[The most obvious thing: they do not speak. They instead tilt their head very slightly to one side, and the strange shape hovering at their shoulder - roughly the size and shape of a soda can, green-and-maroon, chimes quietly as it projects a transparent HUD into the air and inputs a line of text over it.]

what things

[ That was... good, he guesses? At least the sword-sheathing part. The shake of the head is enough to make him take his hand off his own weapon and instead try a more friendly approach.

The other reaction from the creature was just confusing the tiefling, however. Molly was not a great reader in the first place, and reading it on a screen was a bit more of a challenge when you were used to ink and paper.

He squints for a moment before he thinks he has it figured out. ]

I keep seeing things. Which, now that I say it out loud, makes me sound insane.

Mollymauk Tealeaf • OTA

ghosts

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Coast

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coast >:-)

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