lifeaftr | December Intro: Pressure Building

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December Intro: Pressure Building

INTRO LOG: DECEMBER

Who: New arrivals, and you!
What: New souls arrive to the archipelago of LifeAftr
When: December 4th and onward
Where: All over Ensō
Warnings: Mark as needed!

It begins on a mild autumn day, one where the breeze is gentle and the sky a deep, cloudless blue. Ensō is quiet as the adventurers that call it (if only temporarily) home begin to awaken and go about their daily business- for those who have been here long enough, this may consist of searching for those new arrivals, undoubtedly lost and likely confused. It is a normal day on Ensō. Then the water starts to rise.

Northern Beachfront: Let Me Get Off the Ground
For newcomers waking on the shoreline and those who have come to greet them, the rapid swelling of the ocean's surface will be immediately noticeable. Just a few, short miles from the shore, the water continues bulging upwards to terrifying heights, obscuring the sun and throwing warped shadows over the majority of Ensō's northern landscape. It towers there, wobbling, inexplicably retaining its shape even as it ripples, flowing, and sends great streams of saltwater streaming over the ocean's surface.

Though the sun is barely capable of piercing the immense mass, those with a keen eye will see...something moving within, coiled far above sea level. Some dark mass, too distorted by the water and the lack of light to solidify into any easily recognizable shape, nonetheless makes its presence felt regardless. All nearby will find themselves stricken with a growing sense of being watched by a gaze that pierces flesh and bone…one that is none too appreciative of what it sees.

Retaliation to this apparent threat is both vicious and immediate. Bursting from the trees and whipping through the air within a tornado of motion, thousands, then tens of thousands of ink-stained pages whip out from Ensō's jungle and across open water like a flock of ferocious birds, striking at the liquid mountain with unceasing fervor.

Now may not be the best time to gawk, adventurers. With this attack, the raised water will begin to collapse - and the giant waves resulting from the sudden upset will bear no mercy for anyone swept off their feet in the churning swells.

Storyteller's Temple and the Rest of Ensō: I See Your Corruption
Those seeking shelter and answers will find them limited in supply, if not entirely absent. For, you see, the mana pools on Ensō have ceased functioning, leaving characters stranded wherever they may be at the time the assault begins.

No safety can be found within the temple walls this day, with more and more black pages erupting from every door and window. Attempts to approach and even push through won't be harmful, or at least not intentionally - rather, the pages will force back anyone who attempts to come between them and their current objective. Those who may not get the message the first time may just find themselves flying quite a ways away.

The above will quickly become the least of anyone’s worries.

Those who remember the rebirth of the sun back in January will not doubt recall the creatures of the night faced during those darkest hours. As the waters around Ensō continue to churn in response to the offshore assault, large waves act as ferries for those precise beasts, clambering onto the shore in droves. Though the sun is obscured in many spaces, these shadowy creatures will always make for the treelines during daylight hours, seemingly sluggish at best under natural lighting.

Unfortunately, the Storyteller will be occupied for quite some time - and once night falls, those deadly beings will be on the hunt.

For the duration of the assault, the islets will remain relatively safe during daylight hours, so long as your character is capable of accessing a boat to travel there. Once night falls, however, they will be as dangerous as the mainland.

Both the shadowy creatures and the risen water will retreat on the morning of December 10th, leaving Ensō silent once more. The hovering pages, however, will continue circling the coastline for some time like great papery seabirds.

The doors to the Storyteller’s temple shall remain closed.

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

Mmm...Nebby is more of a friend to me than a partner - not like Guzma's pokemon are.

[It's a thin line. Lillie smiles fondly at Nebby, stooping down to pick it up and let Tim have a better look. It doesn't complain, eager to have a better look at Tim, too. She tries to clarify:]

It can't battle and is very fragile, so even if I was a trainer, it wouldn't be the one I use.

[It's the first time in a long while she's considered that possibility. Of her as a trainer. She's thought...thought of asking Guzma if he could show her how to use a pokemon one day. Maybe Ariados? Maybe...yeah. Questions for another time.]

[Another mouth to feed, then. Or...he doesn't know, actually. He never bothered with the Pokemon Daycare back in Sol, though that's where the key to his cage ended up. Unsurprisingly. It just wasn't his area. Still isn't.]

Not hurt too, is it? [He's got no idea what kind of medical care a pokemon would require, either - though presumably Guzma would.]

Oh, no, I don't think so. A bit tired, maybe, but not hurt. Thank you for asking, though...

[Tim, she has just decided, is very good people. It's pretty clear he doesn't really understand pokemon, or at least is not very familiar with them, but his concern extends to Nebby anyway.]

There was a Pokemon Daycare back where I was. [It's not like him to divulge information about himself apropos of nothing - but it's not information about himself, really. It's information about Sol Raveh, and another world that wasn't his.]

Still don't really know what they eat or anything, though. I didn't really go there a whole lot.

[It just ended up being wildly fucking pertinent to his continued existence is all.]

[October is just never a fun time for him, is it?]

[Lillie's eyes light up at the mention of a Daycare - was she wrong? Was he from the same world as her...? It didn't really sound like it, but where else would there be Pokemon Daycares? Either way, she can't resist sharing a little knowledge.]

Most Pokemon are omnivorous, feeding off of what's available and able to eat most of the same kinds of food we do. Some even consume abstract concepts, such as electricity or dreams. A lot of regions have specific treats they feed their Pokemon in order to make them more affectionate. In Alola, we give them special beans that grow locally - they're nutritious and full of flavor, so Pokemon love them.

[She's reciting mostly from books, but some of the trainers in her life (Luna, Hau, the Professor...) have taught her bits and pieces as well.]

If you ever want to learn more about that kind of thing, Guzma and I can help you.

Guess it'd be good to know, just in case.

[In case someone needs to take care of them, and no one else is around. He's not sure what the general percentage of pokemon in the vicinity is, anymore. There were more when Luna was around, but now he'd put it at - two, three, four, maybe?]

[Either way, talking about it seems to be distracting her from the horror of present circumstances.]

So yours is...omnivorous? Eats whatever?

Well, it can eat fruits, vegetables, and even meat, but Nebby is very picky. It likes sweets and sweet things, so I've had a harder time getting it to eat steadily here...

[Mostly berries and sweeter fruits. Those things don't keep long, though, so Lillie is pretty much constantly foraging for Nebby's sake. But since their return, it's been branching out more and more. Perhaps she'll request some star candies, or a starter plant for pokebeans, from the Storyteller. As a special treat.]

Mana pool water doesn't go down well?

[Given that it tastes pretty much like watered down orange juice and is just about as appetizing, he wouldn't put it on a picky eater to particularly gravitate toward it.]

I guess the Storyteller could get you some candy if you asked. Had a story or two to give.

[To tell the truth, she didn't know you could drink mana pool water. Or if she knew, she'd forgotten.]

I might, yes...I don't remember if I had any left before I disappeared. I'll have to ask the Storyteller.

[The Storyteller. Locked up in their temple, but clearly trying to protect them if all those pages are anything to go by. She'll ask when everything has smoothed over and calmed down. She adds, as an afterthought:]

I hope they're alright...

They'll bounce back.

[He has no idea if they will, actually. His eyes darken, briefly, as he glances out in the direction of the temple - too far away to see, particularly at night, but he knows where one would have to go if they were set on trekking there on foot.]

Their temple was the only real safe place from these things the island had.

Do you think this is the influence of another deity...?

[It's mostly asked to herself. Her brow furrows as she considers the possibility further.]

It really seems like not all the different island deities are friends, from what Guzma has told me. We had island guardians back in Alola, too. But they only battled the Ultra Beasts that invaded our home, not each other...

It's hard to say.

[He doesn't interact with the Storyteller all that much. Or at all, really, if he can help it. He doesn't trust gods by default, but that has more to do with how paranoid a bastard he is at baseline than anything else.]

The water's always been a problem for us. For...them. This is the first time it's done something like this.

That's so strange...

[Looking out into the darkness, Lillie imagines the creatures crawling out of the rising sea and onto the shore, commanded by whatever dark shape was twisting within the wave from earlier. Living in Alola, one learns to respect the water because one is surrounded by it. Many people personified the water in some way, though not with any specific name or face. Perhaps there was more truth behind that philosophy than she thought.

She imagines the Storyteller pushing back the water, constantly and consciously radiating some unseen force to ward against the creeping tide. The poor thing must be exhausted.]

What kinds of things has the water done in the past?

It's supposedly the reason none of us can keep anything going here, tech-wise. Phones fried, stuff like that.

[He says supposedly, because they really only have the Storyteller's word on that. And he doesn't know how much he particularly trusts that, if at all.]

Island's been flooded a couple times, when the Storyteller was...distracted, I guess.

'Supposedly'? You don't believe that?

[It is, perhaps, unwise to trust first and wait to be burned, but that's just how children tend to be. Not all, of course. But some. And with the Storyteller's resemblance to the island guardians of Alola, they've gotten a free pass from Lillie. She has no reason to believe they would lie.]

I don't trust anything right out the gate.

[Their only word is a god who has, by their own admission, kept things from them before, and he doesn't trust like that. Granted, he doesn't trust much of anything; trusting no one is one of the first lessons he learned, and for damn good reason.]

It's been a whole year for you though, hasn't it?

[Isn't that enough time to prove whether or not someone is trustworthy...? And they do seem to be making an attempt to protect everyone, even if their doors are closed right now. She just can't help but wonder what Tim has been through on these islands. What he knows about the Storyteller that she doesn't.

Would it be too forward to ask?]

Longer, actually.

[It was in August, he remembers. So, by February, it'll be one and a half years. Doesn't feel like it should've been that long, but at the same time - life before this, before the islands, before Sol, feels abstracted, and more distant than it has any right to be.]

L-Longer? Wow...I'm sorry, that must be very difficult for you...

[She wonders if she'll be here a year from now. Two years? Forever? It's a scary thought, but in some ways she doesn't mind it either. Home seems very far away to her now, both physically and emotionally, and really she'd rather be here with Guzma and Ren and Bugsy and Sunny.]

And you still don't trust them, after all this time?

[Tim shrugs. It's better than home, in some ways. It's better than Sol, though a lot of things probably are. Any place that doesn't turn your remains into murderous, shadowy distortions of yourself are sure as hell better than Sol, which is almost all of them.]

I don't trust a lot of things.

[It's wry, but that doesn't rob it of its sincerity.]

Call it habit.

[Lillie is quiet a moment as she considers this information - and her stance on trust. She used to trust very quickly, though when she took Nebby she became very afraid to trust like she used to. She wonders if Tim is afraid of something, too. If he doesn't trust a lot of things - she'd venture to say most things, if he's made a habit of it - then he probably doesn't trust her enough to confide in her with such a personal thing. So she doesn't ask what he's afraid of.]

I think people are happier when they trust others. There's something very special about sharing bonds and forming friendships with trust. It's difficult, sometimes, but really worth it.

[Half a second later, she adds:]

Oh! But I imagine you have your reasons, of course! I know that life...well, it doesn't always give us the chance to trust freely.

[It's nice of her to say it, but unfortunately, happiness simply can't be very high on his list of priorities these days. Tim's personal happiness, on the long list of things that need to be protected and can be, conceivably, sustained, plain doesn't make the cut.]

[How do you tell a kid that a psychological difficulty experiencing happiness isn't about to be scrubbed away with nothing but trust and good intentions?]

Not so much, no. Easier said than done, most of the time.

[There's the immediate worry that she's said something too bold or forward, then a profound sadness that Tim seems like he not only doesn't get to feel the happiness of a trusting bond, but possibly can't. Whatever lead him to this state of mind, she sincerely hopes that one day he can grow out of it. Grow into a happier person.]

I'm sorry...I hope you can trust Guzma and I. He means well, really, and we're both just trying to get by. You can count on us if you need help, okay?

Sure, [says Tim, because it's easier than engaging in some sort of warped, philosophical discussion on the nature of trust. He doesn't manage a smile, but one side of his mouth twists in a way that he hopes conveys a sort of wry acknowledgment.]

No problem.

[Somewhere in her heart, Lillie knows that it very much is a problem and he very much doesn't trust them in the way she hopes he does. But she lets herself believe for the moment that he means it as her fingers wander over her fresh bandages. He trusts her enough to help her. Or pities her enough, perhaps. There's something connecting those two concepts, she thinks, but she's hit with a wave of tiredness before she can really start to dwell on it.

Being in your own head all the time is exhausting. As is darkness, lurking monsters, and constant dull pain. Lillie lets out a long breath, taking a moment to smooth out her clothes and shake away some of the dirt and leaves stuck to her shirt.]

Thank you, again, for the supplies. I know you said I don't need to repay you or replace them, but if I get the chance to make some natural remedies I'll drop them off some time. When this is all over.

December Intro: Pressure Building

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