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!

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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

[postictal]

There are houses. Places people sleep.

[...god he just hopes she's not going to be alone in that.]

You...need help finding them?

[ofsterlingstuff]

Yeah. I guess so.

[She's not excited about it, but...gonna need something. At least having a house again seems like it might be nice.]

We can wait a little if that's better though. [Since like, outside is a whole thing right now.]

[postictal]

Yeah. That's...we're probably gonna have to wait.

[Until the sound of the aptonoth pounding over the earth fades. Who knows how long that's going to take? Tim shrugs his pack off his shoulders, lets it slide to the ground.]

You get one of these?

[ofsterlingstuff]

[!]

Oh yeah!

[The knapsack's strapped tight to her back, and she swings it off and around. It definitely says "HERO" on it, at least. She's digging through it now.]

There's some soap and a hammer, and....oh. It's a gun. [YEP THAT SURE IS A GUN]

[postictal]

...okay, well that's...great.

[Of course. Of course the kid gets the gun. It's not a coconut gun, but...christ, as if that's something they need.]

Looks like a flare gun or something. Does it say what it does on it anywhere?

[ofsterlingstuff]

Uh...no?

[She's handling it very carefully, at least, if not...in an actual way you should be handling a gun.]

It looks old.

[postictal]

Kinda does, yeah.

[Oh boy.]

Some people show up with...weird stuff in their packs. Once people got these guns that shot coconuts, but it was pretty obvious that they actually shot coconuts.

Careful with it. We don't know what it does.

[ofsterlingstuff]

[Hero just sort of...gingerly sets it down next to her. It seems kinda dangerous to carry it loose in her bag? She'll figure something out when they go again.]

What's this stuff? [It's a tinder kit and a piece of flint.]

[postictal]

That's flint and tinder. It's for starting fires.

[That's...not something Tim especially needs, given how good he is at starting fires when he really, really shouldn't be, but it can be handy when you're wanting for light or heat.]

[ofsterlingstuff]

[Oh...well, the tinder seems self-explanatory. Hero inspects the flint a little closer.]

Do you...hit the metal thing and this together?

[postictal]

Pretty much, yeah. You...I can show you, if you want.

[Letting her puzzle it out for herself would be better, but considering that it's playing with fire here, quite literally, it's probably best not to chance that.]

[ofsterlingstuff]

Yeah, okay!

[That sounds fun! Hero's gonna set the gun a little farther out of the way though.]

[postictal]

[She does that unprompted, which Tim can appreciate. A sense of caution is never a bad thing, particularly in a new situation. He considers that quietly, before taking up the flint and tinder to hold them out, one to each hand.]

You'll need something flammable, like some sticks or kindling, if you want to start a fire. It's good for camping and stuff. That's what the tinder's for - it catches fire easily. You gotta make sure it stays dry, too.

[He digs his multi-tool out of his pack and flicks the steel blade out.]

You use the flint on something hard to make sparks. It's kinda like...snapping your fingers. You gotta learn to do it quick.

[ofsterlingstuff]

[She scoots forward, resting her elbows on her knees to watch.]

I can snap my fingers. And I know how to use matches, but I'm not really supposed to.

[postictal]

You ever gone camping before?

[He'd guess she's not really supposed to use guns, either. But everyone's rules change once they end up on a deserted island, tasked with survival.]

[ofsterlingstuff]

Not really. We live in the city. But I've slept outside a few times! Once in this really big tree!

[They hadn't had fires or tents, though, so it wasn't really camping.]

[postictal]

That's what this stuff is for. You gotta strike the steel right here at an angle with the flint, and that'll make sparks you can use to make a fire.

[He demonstrates a few times, the harsh fft! of the two surfaces rasping against one another ringing out in the dusty old mill. A small spray of smarks hisses out from the impact, which he carefully holds away from the tinder.]

Like that.

[ofsterlingstuff]

[Hero watches attentively, and holds out her hands when he's done.]

Can I try? Not for real, just to see.

[postictal]

[It is her flint - meaning she's going to have to figure out how to use it safely sooner or later. Tim hands it over without complaint.]

Sure. I mean, it's yours anyway.

[ofsterlingstuff]

[Well, usually adults aren't into her messing with fire-starting stuff at all! But Hero takes it and strikes the flint and steel together a few times. She's not initially successful, but she does it until she is.]

Cool! Thanks!

[postictal]

Hey, look at that. You got it.

[He's not smiling, but he definitely seems pleased, in a way, that his teaching has...come through?]

If you ever need to start a fire, you'll know how to do it.

[ofsterlingstuff]

Am I gonna need to start a fire? Does everyone here just camp out?

[She's fine with that in theory, she guesses.]

[postictal]

Sometimes, yeah. There's a pretty cold area in the south - snowy and stuff. And in the winter it can get pretty chilly in the nighttime.

[Though he's pretty sure there won't be another week-long night, like there was last January. Hopefully.]

[ofsterlingstuff]

It's nice and warm now. Do the seasons go like normal here?

[Different worlds are weird, for all she knows it'll just be winter one day out of the blue.]

[postictal]

Kind of. This island's different. It's got all four seasons on four different parts of it, actually.

[Nuidan is an outlier and should not be counted.]