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 have seen one other.

(Mollymauk. Another fierce wave of relief and happiness at knowing he's here rushes over her again and she even smiles a little from the force of it. When Kravitz produces his stone of farspeech, she simply nods, and dutifully hefts the pack from her back to take it out, turning it over in her palm.)

I thought it was just a rock? I don't know how it works.

[Alright, she's not alone here. Perfect. That's-- at least he doesn't have to babysit her, even if she seems much more competent than a number of people who have come through here.]

No, it's-- it just looks like a rock. It works as a communication device. If you simply speak into it, it goes out to everyone who has one. But if you first speak the name of someone you wish to speak to, if they are here, their name will appear on this screen.

[He points to where he means as he talks, to help illustrate it.]

If they don't appear it's likely they aren't around. But it may assist you in finding more of your friends. As long as they also have their stone, they'll be able to speak to you.

Oh.

(Yasha looks faintly embarrassed that the explanation is that simple, even though the last thing she ever would have thought to do with a rock would be to try and speak into it. Why didn't they think to include some kind of letter of instruction in the pack with everything else?

... Anyway. The whole thing seems very simple, so she'll happily give it a go. She clears her throat and says:)

Jester.

(But her name does not appear. Yasha looks flustered over this outcome, but tries again:) Caleb? (Like a question. Still nothing. Uh oh. She glances at Kravitz expectantly, as if waiting for him to tell her why it isn't working. Perhaps she got a broken one...)

Beauregard, (she says, and gives it a impatient shake; the rock immediately lights up in response, titling Beau's name back at her across its surface. Yasha inhales slowly. She looks pretty relieved.)

[He's got more experience than most with these things, seeing as they psuedo-originate from his world. These are... rather different than the ones he knew, but the learning curve is at least easier for him to parse. He nods at her encouragingly as she tries the first name, then two, and begins to look a bit nervous.]

Sometimes, uhm, people from your world aren't here, so--

[Oh thank goodness it lit up with one he doesn't have to shepherd her somewhere and feel guilty. She's nice to him, he'd like her to have some support.]

Ah! There you go. Like I said, it's-- the people that are drawn here are seemingly at random, so it may not have brought in everyone from your world, or any at all. But it seems at least one of your companions is present.

Yes. Two, now.

(Beau, and Molly. It's better than nothing.)

... If you come here when you are dead, do you come back to life?

(She has no idea what makes her ask the question so suddenly, only that there's still a tiny, doubtful part of her that thinks of Molly's reappearance as some kind of trick.)

[Well good news, you've asked the most qualified person to answer that one.]

They do, actually. If you die here you are also revived back to these islands, to ensure you are able to be sent home one day. It's... well, not right, certainly, but convenient.

[He'll contain his salt on that, seeing as he was at the receiving hand of that once already, and he's thankful to still be here. Hypocrite, he knows.]

(Yasha shakes her head even as he starts to talk. For a moment it looks like she's going to interrupt him, but she forces herself to stop and wait. Kravtiz may notice that her posture has tensed, her shoulders rigid.)

No, (she says, insistently. She's staring at him in that quiet, fathomless way of hers.) I mean, if you die in your world and... arrive here, what happens to you? Are you allowed to go back to your home when the time comes? If you are, do you return to life again?

[He isn't used to this quiet demand out of a person, a stalwart resistance he isn't accustomed to. It reminds him of serious faces he used to make in the past, which is doubly odd to have that turned back on him. He studies the question more than her when she speaks though, trying to puzzle through it.]

Now that... I'm unsure of.

[At least he has good bedside manner, because he manages to sound sympathetic here.]

I suspect they will no longer be alive, when they leave. The Storyteller's goal is to return us from whence we came so our stories can commence- if theirs is at an end, it may be that end.

[They were at least interested in preserving the natural order back there, more than he's seen on these islands.]

I would think the Storyteller gets that determination-- but no one should be returned from the dead, if that is where they lie.

(This is not the answer she had been hoping for, and for a moment, it's obvious. Yasha seems to deflate as Kravitz speaks: her shoulders drop, her expression pinches, her brow furrows. She recovers quickly though, smoothing over her disappointment in an attempt to appear unfathomably neutral once more.)

I understand.

(It would have been too easy to take Mollymauk back with them once the Storyteller allowed them to leave. She hasn't given up hope just yet though. Yasha refuses to believe that her options are either staying here with Mollymauk and staying uncomfortably put, or leaving the island, and losing him for a second time. She sighs. She'll have to talk to him about it.)

Thank you for explaining.

[He nods. There's a lot to unpack here, but he doesn't really know the details. For the sake of him not getting angry about death circumstances, it's probably best he simply doesn't.]

Of course. This place adds those... complications, of deciding the dead may not rest. It seems opinions are split on it's usefulness.

[His. His opinion is it shouldn't. But shhhh.]

Regardless, you should connect with your friends. They may have been here longer than I and know other things.

(She nods, hiding despondency. This revelation has shaken things up for her, she's not sure where exactly to go from this point. Yasha does know that she would like to be alone, though.)

I will.

(She takes the stone out again, smoothing her thumb over its surface. Now that she understands how to work it, she can wait to contact one of the others, just to give herself time to gather her thoughts.)

Thank you again.

(And with that, she's just going to... turn around and leave awkwardly...................... there she goes......)

[He nods, like he might have more words, but she just... goes. Alright. That's just how people be. Saves him the formalities of wrapping up this conversation and doing it himself, even if it is a little weird to be on the receiving end.]

Uhm... no problem!

[And then he'll just?? Also go?? Might as well get back to camp.]

October Intro: I Think We Should Run

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