lifeaftr | 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

It's the only way we can get there.

[You'd think that would safer, but Lance has the feeling being around people is going to be their best bet. Where else are people going to gather but the one big meeting place they have that's not closed off?]

Right, yes...I suppose it would be.

[She angles herself in the general direction of east, based on the sun - which has begun to blot over with dark spots, like ink droplets spilled on the sky - and tries to look confident. Guzma would want her to be confident. She has to make it to the Denny with Lance. That is simple. She can do that. She has to do that.

What is not so simple is whatever is happening to the sun, the rising water, and the natural dangers of the island of Enso. In her bag, Nebby is still and quiet, feeling her fear. With it's strange powers, her biggest concern is that they'll wind up very far away from their target location if they run into any trouble...]

Um...you should know that Nebby- well, if we run into any trouble, it might use it's power again.

[It's like he's on a mission - protect the girl. It should be easy enough, compared to everything else he's had to do in his life, and it gives him a purpose.

But things will be fine. It's getting dark, but that doesn't mean there are things that go bump in the night. It'll be fine.]

Is that how you got all the way out here?

[He looks down at her, raising an eyebrow. He's seen Nebby - that fluffy, cloudlike thing - before, when all the clothing showed up, but... It can teleport too, then?]

You know, my friend has a wolf that can teleport. Maybe you and him can form a club.

Oh, no, I just woke up on the beach and...ran. But Nebby is definitely scared and it might warp us away if the water gets too close, or if we find hostile wildlife and the like.

[Lillie offers a nervous laugh because she has no idea what else to do. Her eyes flick from Lance to the setting sun. It won't be good to travel in the dark. Right now the sun is her only real way of telling which direction they're headed. So she takes a tentative step towards the trees as she speaks.]

Your friend has a pokemon? Has he met Guzma yet?

Hopefully we don't see anything like that, then.

[Lead the way, Lillie! So far you're on the right track - but Lance is more than familiar with these islands by now, so there shouldn't be a problem getting there.]

And I don't think Kosmo is, uh, is a pokemon? [what that] He's some sort of... cosmic wolf. [There's a pause.] Keith might know Guzma, though.

[Oh no, she's not the leading type. Once Lance starts to follow, she matches his pace as they begin to make their way to the Denny. But it's nice to have something to talk about that isn't the present situation.]

I see...'Kosmo' really does sound like a pokemon, though. Nebby is actually a species called 'Cosmog'. Considering how mysterious Cosmog's origins are, it's possible they could even be related to each other. If Kosmo were a pokemon, anyway. I suppose you might not even have them where you're from...

[What an awful thought.]

[Be assertive! Lead them to safety! You can do it, Lillie!]

We might. It's a big universe out there, and we're not even sure what Kosmo's species is. Keith found him on a whale and saved him, I think, but he could maybe be a pokemon. There's no reason to say he isn't, anyways.

[He's not a pokemon, but he's close enough.]

[On. A whale. Is that like a Wailord? Lillie senses there's no use in asking that particular question and instead chooses to puzzle over how a space creature found its way into the ocean. Though things are falling out of space all the time, really. Maybe it just. Landed on a "whale".]

It sounds almost like you're from space, yourself. I don't mean that negatively, of course! It's just that you talk like you've been to more than one world, or know of more than one.

[Lance isn't even mentioning the fact it was in a cosmic rift of time shenanigans, so Lillie should count herself lucky that she's getting an explanation that kind of makes sense.]

Well... I have. [He scratches the back of his neck.] We were in space for almost a year, and we got to see all sorts of different planets.

[...And realities. Meeting Sven was so weird.]

Then I ended up here.

Oh, wow...this must all be very tame for you, then. And very different, I imagine.

[She thinks of all the sci-fi tropes: Shiny, sterile tiles and messes of buttons and screens...and he's been downgraded to a magical rock for communication and the clothes on his back. Yikes.]

I dunno, some of the stuff that happens here is just- unreal. Definitely makes me miss being back home.

[Not to mention all the terrible things that happened here! Back home he wasn't at risk for growing flowers for keeping secrets.

Or, you know. Everything else.]

December Intro: Pressure Building

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