lifeaftr | 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

I'm... Cassie. Just arrived today.

[That might explain part of why she's so jumpy. And, naturally, the name is a lie.]

What does that armor mean? The armor you're wearing. Is it... special or something? What's the deal there?

[It looks really weird, which usually means something. At least, that's what Nott's decided.]

[That would explain some of it.

As for the questions... It's not like the armor exactly means anything. If anything, it is more like a second skin to her, something that she does feel comfortable in. It might not look the most cozy and it is heavy, but she's used to it after all these years.]

I was a- [What exactly?] - soldier back home. Was wearing it before I arrived here.

Oh, like the Righteous Brand.

[Which probably sounds like complete nonsense to Carolina.]

So those are your nation's colors, then. It's just shaped really strangely. I've never seen anything like it.

Righteous Brand is a... regiment?

[Some group? Doesn't exactly sound like a planet, although she supposes people will call their planets whatever they want to. Knowing Caboose, he likely would have gone with something strange, like Church is my Best Friend, if he'd been given the opportunity to name a planet.

That shake of her head.]

No... We could choose any colour we wanted. Some, like the Sim Troopers, were split in to either red team or blue team.

It's the Empire's military. There's the Crownsguard, for in the Empire, and then there's the Righteous Brand, for out of the Empire. That's how Caleb explained it to me.

[She shrugs. She knows about as much about the Righteous Brand as Carolina does at this point.]

That hardly seems logical. How would you know which side was yours if you're all different colors?

[Ah. Designations then within, to distinguish which branch goes where. It's not exactly relevant and she has no need to drill any other information out of her. Not like they are at her world.]

Take the organization I was with before. We trained, an elite group of us, and we all know each other's armor. It's only if you end up with different armor that it might be an issue, but you can always comm or signal who you are. Plus, you do get to know their fighting styles.

[Maine, for example? Not too many men his size. But how they attacked and defended had been as much a tell as anything else.

And the Sim Troopers had, more or less, been Red or Blue- aside from the seemingly colour blind group that Carolina had ended up with.]

I'll take your word for it. I wouldn't know the first thing about keeping soldiers.

[Obviously. She's just a little green girl in a tattered cloak and the smell of dirt and otherwise following her wherever she goes.]

So I guess you're a super badass, then?

[There is a peculiar tilt of her head, but she brushes it aside. She knows well enough that different people speak in different ways, that there are sayings that she isn't going to be familiar with.]

I suppose that depends on who you ask. I am a trained soldier. Good at what I do.

But you don't do what guards do. You just... fight in wars. Right?

[I.e., she doesn't uphold the law, keep watch for tricky creatures like goblins, etc...

It's sort of important that Nott knows whether this person is liable to be a major threat or not.]

Like, if a person, say... stole a bottle of wine, you wouldn't have to find and snap their neck with your ankles, right?

[She takes a moment, as doing what guards do does vary from place to place, and Carolina's role has evolved. She doesn't have an organization to work for anymore.]

We used to have missions, tasks to complete. Obtain this or that. We tended to go to the place and retrieve it. Now, there has been more fighting. Trying to stop enemy soldiers from hurting a population.

[Thinking back to Chorus.]

Uh, no. I might punch them and take the bottle back.

October Intro: I Think We Should Run

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