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 )

Flat | Top-Level Comments Only

[Nott squints at the text. Well, that's... an attempt to be helpful. Not what she expected from the odd person who had just drawn their very magical-looking sword.

But they just apparently sheathed(?) it, so. They're not trying to be menacing, after all. Nott doesn't put her crossbow away, but she doesn't point it at them anymore.]

I've only got little legs. Better to hide than to run.

will not keep safe

[She is...small, but they doubt they could carry her. They could outrun her, they think - because they can outrun most people, in their experience. They cannot think of any better way to underscore this, so they merely repeat, with marked emphasis:]

should run

[Nott glances between the person and the encroaching horde. Gods. Okay.]

Fine! Fine!

[And she sets off across the grass, not sure where she's going but hoping she'll find somewhere decent to hide before she runs out of steam. It's a blind run. She doesn't have a real plan, here.]

[Well, that's all right. The Drifter is plenty fast - they speed out across the grass with the blur-hum of a perfectly executed chain-dash. They can't keep this up indefinitely, they've learned from experience, particularly here, but it is the one thing they can do easily: move quickly.]

[The problem is that she really doesn't move quickly, as ventured. It seems cruel to simply leave her. Maybe they once would have, but now...]

[They stop to allow her to catch up.]

[Because it seems the thing to do, she adjusts her heading to follow after the person, allowing her flight to become a little less aimless.

In comparison to the Drifter, she lags behind, and though her initial dash starts out strong, she doesn't manage to keep up that momentum long, even if she's able to move her little legs about twice as fast as the average full-sized human.

When they stop, Nott noisily heaving breaths as she goes, she nears them and calls out.]

Don't stop! Stopping is the worst thing you could do!

[Apparently, she doesn't appreciate the courtesy as much as she maybe should.]

not leaving behind

[If they could impart an emotion behind those emotionless words, it would be a sort of stern admonishment - but their expression is difficult to read beneath so many layers of cloth, shielded by their helmet.]

[They point at her.]

how heavy

[As in how heavy are you?]

That's... a rude thing to ask.

[She starts to catch her breath now, panting starting to wane.]

About 30 pounds, I suppose?

[They're not certain whether they can shoulder thirty pounds. They're not certain it matters. They cannot carry her, maybe, but they can reach out, a whip-crack of motion, and try and seize her wrist in an attempt - ]

hold on

[ - to resume their breakneck dash across the grasslands, hopefully with this little goblin girl in tow.]

Wh—

[So much for catching her breath. Nott immediately starts outright shrieking as she's pulled along, at a pace that far outmatches her own. She stumbles, unable to keep her legs moving so fast consistently as they start to ache, and at certain points is outright dragged.

When they finally stop, she simply collapses in a heap on the ground, inhaling grass as she breathes beleaguered gasps and not caring.]

[The Drifter skids abruptly to a halt, throwing up clouds of dust and dead grass with the abruptness of it, turning to face the strange little creature as she lies there panting. They could not carry her directly, but they made a fair compromise, they think.]

did not stop

[See? Just like she said!]

[Through heaving breaths, she squints up at them to see their message, and simply rolls over and continues inching closer almost gratefully towards death.

Unfortunately, it seems death is far off for now.]

You're just... the worst.

[The Drifter contemplates that. In terms of verbal excoriation, that is rather tame. She does not even couple it with something more intent, like a thrown rock or a curse.]

[What else do they say to that...]

ok

[...other than to accept her judgment?]

[The thing is, even though it was utterly awful, it was still in the efforts of getting her to a safer place. While she hated it, she can't really resent them for it.

Which is the worst.

Nott just stays on the ground for now.]

Who are you anyhow?

drifter

[A title, a name, a simple response, all wrapped up into one.]

you

...Robert. My name is Robert.

[No sense in giving out her real name until she's sure it's safe, after all.]

Are you a... native of this place?

["Robert" is exactly who they're going to assume she is from here on out, because the Drifter is the kind of person who is often straightforward to a fault. They completely straightfacedly, earnestly called one of the sextuplets "Shittymatsu," because that's simply how his brother introduced him.]

no
came here > year ago

I have no idea what that arrow means.

[I'm Nott, I'm 9 and I never fucking learned how to math.]

But you've been here a year I guess? That's too long to stay in one place.

[Nott makes a face just imagining it.]

[Hm. The Drifter regards the symbol, then amends the statement.]

over a year
it is

[They are a wanderer by nature. Imagine their frustration when it turned out there was a finite amount of space to wander to.]

Even worse. I haven't stayed in one spot in all my life.

[Even though her clan had an area they frequented, goblins are mainly nomadic. All their "tents" were really just wagons they'd boosted off of unfortunate merchants coming in and out of Felderwin.]

And especially not lately. I guess we were planning to wander out to the coast, but this isn't really what I had in mind...

[Neither has the Drifter. They do not exactly hate it (hating anything is not terribly productive unless one can convert that into raw energy to act upon it), but it does not agree with them. It is an adjustment they are still, unfortunately, needing to actively make.]

no way back
other islands come and go

They just... float on through?

[Nott has to take a second to think about that one. It doesn't sound logically sound, but she doesn't know enough about islands to counter it.]

At least there's some change in scenery, then.

appear some days
disappear others

[They don't seem terribly concerned about this. This is what gods desire and make so, and the Drifter accepts that at face value.]

[Okay, that grabs her attention.]

...What happens to the people that are still on the islands when they disappear? Is this island going to disappear? Should we be leaving right now?

[The Drifter's sheer lack of concern for this bombshell might be an answer in and of itself:]

gods warn us
many days before

Fair. Fair. What if, say, you overslept that day, and you're really hungover, and you just sort of... snooze through the announcement? And you end up still on the old island when it disappears.

That's definitely going to happen to someone someday. I'm not saying it'll be me, but it'll definitely happen.

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