October Intro: I Think We Should Run

[lifeaftr_mods]

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.

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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!

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LOGS ● OOC ● STORIES ● MAIN NAVIGATION

( CODED BY BOOTYCALL )

Comments

yasha (ota)

[barberian]

01 run??

(For a while, Yasha is completely distracted by her surroundings: the sprawling green-gold of the fields, the vibrant rainbows arching across the sky... an island, locked in perpetual spring. She takes a few moment to sit, and to stare. She's never seen anything like it before.

It's beautiful.

There's a pack in her lap with her name stitched across the front flap, and she opens it curiously, but is immediately interrupted by a low rumble in the distance. Placing a palm flat on the ground has her glancing toward the horizon, where a large cloud of dust has been kicked up. Seems best to get out of the way of that, but this is much easier said than done: fields don't provide a lot of cover from what is most likely an oncoming stampede.

Yasha puts a hand over her shoulder, and finds the reassuring pommel of the magician's judge resting at her back as it should be and so she... draws it???

Honestly, she's not entirely sure what to do with herself: there's no where to go, and she's facing down a wild herd of something rushing up from the distance to meet her. There's no time to outrun them, so perhaps she can intimidate them into leaving her alone? She positions herself steadily in front of the pack, and holds the great-sword out in front of her with both hands, doubling her grip on the hilt.)

02 if not you then who

(There's something kind of nice about an empty temple. It's quiet, and there's nobody there trying to talk to her, and Yasha can sit at the entrance and go through the pack with her name on it in relative peace. There's a package of salted jerky, which she sniffs curiously before stowing away again; the knife, similarly is glanced at before being moved aside.

Her hands find something rough, and flat. She pulls out a large... scale? It is huge, if that is what it is. Yasha stares at it curiously, rubbing her thumb against its smooth edge, and then promptly drops it as something flickers at the edge of her vision.

Blinking, she squints into the darkness. Something is wrong, though she can't quite tell what, and so the knife in her pack is promptly returned to her hand. Just in case.)

... Hello? Is anybody there?

03 wildcard

(i'm down for anything if you want to plan something else out! you can reach me at blisters )

2

[lightlessfuture]

( More people in the temple, filling it with sound, making it feel less empty. It's something the Knight is drawn to, almost instinctively.

A silent, hooded figure, bone-white mask with seemingly empty sockets highlighted strikingly in the light of a glowing lantern they're holding in one hand, peers out curiously at Yasha from the darkness. If they weren't barely scraping two feet tall (and that's with their horns), it might be frightening.

They raise their free hand to wave, slowly, in her direction. Hello. ]

[barberian]

(Yasha blinks, then does a quick double take just to make sure she is seeing something that is actually there instead of something fleeting out of the corner of her eye again. To be sure, it does not move. Even so, she does not let go of the knife; she is feeling jumpy.

When the little figure raises a glowing lantern, and then waves slowly at her with its free hand, she lowers the knife a little. Curiosity is overriding cautiousness.)

... Who are you?

[lightlessfuture]

( Their head tilts a little at her defensive stance. She's not completely lowering her knife, so they won't draw their nail - even if it is to write. It might be taken the wrong way.

So, they fish out a piece of paper from under their cloak and hold it up to the lantern's light, to show her. ]

NAME IS KNIGHT
CANNOT TALK
NICE TO MEET YOU

[ That all seems straightforward enough, at least. ]

[barberian]

(Yasha squints for a moment as she stares at the paper, lips moving soundlessly as she reads. After another moment's hesitation, she stows the knife back in her bag, then pauses, and searches through it for pen and paper. Hmm. She has a small sewing kit, but that's about it. Hopefully the person has more pre-written signs, or at least their own materials.)

Hello, Knight.

(They... can hear her, right?)

2

[liveasmyself]

[Ray's relationship with religion has always been somewhat contentious (and contemptuous, even) but ultimately practical. She's come to appreciate the temple here--helped by the fact that it's not the kind her mother would drag her to on holidays--for its peace as well as the simple shelter.

She's stepping inside to relax but stops in her tracks when she sees the wary woman inside.]

Oh--it's only me. [She holds up one hand in something that's somewhere between a wave and a gesture of surrender. Look, she's entirely harmless.]

Are you okay? I don't think anything dangerous is in here.

waves

[barberian]

(So it is.

Yasha relents, embarrassed for having pulled a knife on what looks like an unarmed, young girl. The blade goes back into her pack. The scale is fished up from the ground again, and dusted off on Yasha's pant leg. For a moment, she turns it slowly over, letting it catch the dim light of the temple, and rubs her fingers across what looks like words etched into the underside.

Suddenly aware that she's still being watched, she stows it safely away in her back.)

I am fine, thank you.

(Surely... she should ask too?) Are... are you okay?

/waves!

[liveasmyself]

[Oh, good, the weapon is gone. Ray isn't surprised that the woman isn't hostile--most people here aren't, in her experience so far--but she's still relieved.]

Yes, I'm fine.

What was that? A horseshoe crab?

[It doesn't look quite right; the shape is wrong, and it doesn't seem to have a tail. But she doesn't have a closer frame of reference.]

[barberian]

(Yasha shakes her head no, and then takes the scale back out anyway. It seems silly to be secretive about it when she doesn't even know what it is, she may as well show it around and see if anybody else has any insight.)

I... think it's a seed.

(Almost. It's a scale, but she's assuming because of its tough outer casing it is a seed.)

Have you seen anything like it before?

1.

[hyperlit]

[She is not alone in facing them.]

[The Drifter is far more equipped for speed and agility than they are for direct attack. They do not recognize the person who draws her sword to face a herd of beasts that likely will not care who confronts them, and are generally likely to simply trample the pair of them for getting in their way.]

[They do have one recommendation in all this. Unfortunately, their means to communicating this is limited. The shape hovering at their shoulder, a prismatic thing roughly the size and shape of a soda can, chimes quietly and projects a line of faintly transparent text in the air:]

should run

[barberian]

(The sound of the chime does not register to Yasha, who finds she is well distracted by the thundering of hooves drawing ever nearer, and the sound of her own heartbeat in her ears, but the floating text is pretty hard to miss.

She blinks, and reads it. And then reads it again.

Where did it come from? The person next to her? She glances at them suspiciously, still holding her sword high, ready. She has to shout, in order to be heard.)

To where?

[hyperlit]

away

[Helpful, no? The Drifter is laconic, and often to a fault. It is not, however, something that anyone has pointed out with any frequency, and so they've seen no reason to make their short, direct responses any clearer.]

temple or coast

[barberian]

(This means nothing to somebody who has only just arrived. Yasha turns her head uselessly, as if during the last time she has looked and now, cover will miraculously spring up from nowhere. It does not. She shouts aloud, in pure frustration.)

Which way.

2

[catpiper]

I'm here.

[The temple is the first stop for most people, so it shouldn't surprise her that a person is using the entrance to get their bearings. She hadn't meant to sneak up on anyone-just wanted to walk through the temple before she went home for the night.

She doesn't move closer and stands completely still a few feet away. There's something in the other person's hand and the general trend with islanders seems to be a weapon. She doesn't want to find herself at the business end of that kind of item.]

I'm safe-I'm not scary at all. It's okay.

[barberian]

I'm not scared, (Yasha says bluntly, and puts the knife away. She's embarrassed to have drawn it so easily, but... well, considering she has no idea of whereabouts she is, it is better to be safe than sorry.

The person standing a few feet away looks wary of her. Yasha raises both of her hands to show that she is unarmed.)

Who are you?

[catpiper]

I'm Ren.

[The weapon was the only thing keeping this kid from bothering the newcomer and she might come to regret lowering it. Because without it, the fear lifts from her body and she ambles closer to get inside the temple's bounds and-

There are treasures in this woman's hair, woven into braids, and it's hard for her to resist reaching out to touch them. But she doesn't know this person and it seems like a bad idea to start patting the hair of someone she met 0.2 seconds ago. No matter how much she wants to. ]

Do you have a name?

2.

[mamaterasu]

[The creature Yasha sees is definitely not hiding itself, and even in the darkness, she'll see it perfectly. Ammy is, after all, rather brilliant. Her fur glows white, like it were a light all its own - pale and soft - and her dark eyes blink back at the woman curiously. Oh...she didn't expect anyone else to really be in the temple, or at least this deep in, and her head tilts to one side curiously.

Another newcomer, no doubt, and her knife is easily spotted. Ammy gives it a careful glance before laying down passively, though she's still just out of arm's reach of the large woman. She doesn't seem to make any threatening moves or gestures, just rests there and keeps her eyes on the woman before slowly blinking at her after a few minutes in still silence.]

[barberian]

(No, this is very clearly a dog. A wolf? It's a larger animal, coat shining brilliantly in the dim light of the temple. Yasha pauses, waiting expectantly, but it does not attack. It does not even growl... and so she stows her knife away again, back into her bag.

It response, the wolf lies down.

Yasha glances about herself, and over her shoulder, as if searching for an owner. Surely it has an owner? It seems tame. When nobody makes themselves apparent, she crouches, and extends a hand fearlessly to the animal.)

Hello...

[mamaterasu]

[If Ammy had an owner, there's nothing on her to indicate as such - no tag, no collar...nothing. In fact, she's a bit musty smelling and probably in need of some brushing, there are certainly small sticks and grains of sand in her fur, especially around her stomach and legs. Keeping her ears up and out, Ammy's eyes slowly squint shut and her left ear folds back against her head... A good sign, if one knows the body cues of a canine; she's curious, and relaxed about this newcomer, especially when the knife disappears.

Blinking her eyes open again, Ammy moves forward toward Yasha's palm, her nose immediately pressing into her palm as if searching for something - probably a treat. I mean, she wouldn't take it, but...if she's really offering... >__>

Pulling back after giving the woman's palm a swift lick, the wolf sniffs and licks over her nose and tilts her head to one side. Are you going to stay here in the dark? The Storyteller isn't here for answers, and there have been strange things happening with the island that they warned about while they'd be gone...it's probably best not to keep in the dark too long. It tends to press in very bad ways sometimes.]

Wrouf. [She responds, a low boof, and turns her head up as something seems to flicker outside of her peripheral. Mm...that's been happening too much lately. It's unsettling.]

1!!

[lesbeau]

[Beau's been trying to keep busy out on the new island. She has to do something while she's stuck here or she's going to go nuts, especially after the initial panic had simmered down. Fine, she's alone again. Fine, maybe she's kidnapped in a death chamber. Who knows! Not her!

What she does know is she's gotten herself into wandering around, and doesn't expect feeling the rumbling of an oncoming animal storm- and the woman who, she should know by now, can always be found at the onset of one.

She's only got a moment to balk though before she sees the sheer mass of the animals cresting the ridge of the hill, and knows she has to act and fast. She doesn't know this area incredibly well, but she does know where the mana pool is, and that's probably their only hope of a quick escape.

So she cups her hands over her mouth, and screams.]

YASHA! COME ON!

[barberian]

(Yasha, who had almost resigned herself to the painful inevitability of this situation, immediately feels relieved at the sound of Beau's shout carrying over the top of the stampede. She should have known one of the others wouldn't be too far behind her. She doesn't waste time looking about herself, simply sheaths her sword and dutifully follows the sound of Beau's voice.)

Where are we going? (She pants, falling into step with her automatically,) I looked but– I couldn't see anywhere to hide, or to climb.

[lesbeau]

[She's already shifting her weight from one foot to the next as Yasha moves, falling into a quick step as soon as the other woman hits her side. She could go faster- should, probably- but she can't leave Yasha behind. (Especially since she just got her back.)]

Look for a pool of water, surrounded by these yellow flowers-- it's this way!

[She points her finger out towards an oncoming temple, of sorts- it's a certain kind of structure at least, and they don't seem far.]

I know this is gonna sound stupid crazy, but just trust me for like, five minutes, and then I can answer stuff. Or as much stuff as I have.

[A moment's pause, and then--]

Also, hey, hi, how ya doin', uh, super glad to see you're not dead.

2 :3c

[deathfindsaway]

[Every time Kravitz thinks he understands what the fuck is going on around here, it somehow gets worse.

It wasn't enough to just be on a weird island, oh no, he had to start seeing things. At first, he doesn't give into it- this place won't get the better of him, he swears it. But after an hour or two it's driving him up a wall, and he can't get the thought out of his head that maybe there's wisps running about, ghosts of spirits, and he can't just sit around and let that happen.

Of course, that means he ends up rustling about not far from camp and turning around to see a very large woman with a knife. Not ideal.

Kravitz steps out of the foliage, hands in the air near his head.]

Sorry, I'm-- sorry. I didn't mean to startle you.

[Please don't make him fight you, it'd be terribly annoying. And probably messy.]

[barberian]

(The rustling is what tipped her off, why she has the knife pointed at him so bluntly when he appears. At least it's a person and not some kind of strange animal though. Yasha has really had enough of animals for today.)

... You didn't startle me. (He absolutely did. After a moment's hesitation, she puts the blade away again. He's unarmed, after all. If he tries to pull something on her, she's more than ready to take him on.)

What... is this place? Do you know? (She's encountered people who seem just as lost as she is right now.)

[deathfindsaway]

[He raises a slight eyebrow at that, because no one pulls a knife on someone rustling nearby if they're not startled. That said, he still doesn't want to be stabbed, so he'll keep his mouth shut.

Still, when she drops her weapons he lets his hands fall to his sides. He's not dressed as fancily as he was on his arrival, his button-up only clean by the grace of his wizard boyfriend, but the sleeves are rolled to the elbow and the tails are tucked in to a plain looking pair of black pants. He certainly doesn't look like someone unaccustomed to the area, at least.]

The island is a place called Ensō. It's the main hub for an archipelago ruled by a god of stories. I... you're new, aren't you?

[He sees that backpack. It's becoming good shorthand for when someone is new here or settled.]