lifeaftr | January Intro: It Grips Me

INTRO LOG: JANUARY

Who: New arrivals, and you!
What: New souls arrive to the archipelago of LifeAftr
When: January 5th and onward
Where: All over Ensō
Warnings: Mark as needed!

Shores of Ensō: The Sun's a Harsh Reminder Why
As dawn arrives - and with it, new adventurers to Ensō's shores. It appears the Storyteller is not about to allow a repeat of last month. The ever watchful pages that have guarded the shorelines the month prior now begin to move closer inland, circling the landscape in closing, careful arcs. To the particularly astute, their purpose may quickly become clear. Anything foreign to Ensō's natural ecosystem will be met initially with wary hovering, ruffled pages flocking to nearby trees and wheeling overhead. Now and again, a particularly brave little page will swoop down to tap against the top of an unsuspecting entity.

Foreign entities, in this instance, just so happen to include...well, all of you. These partially sentient notes can be found flitting across the entirety of Ensō and the neighboring housing islets, intent on surveying every little nook and cranny of the tropical landscape. While they may little more than a vague irritant, their attitude towards a person they’re surveying can absolutely get worse, depending on the response they receive.

Though responses may vary (and creativity, encouraged), the pages are looking for indications of anything that is not only out of the ordinary, but also that which is acting suspicious. Unfortunately, they're not quite experienced in determining what does and does not count as a genuine threat, and thus they might very well interpret even the smallest signs of surprise, anxiety, and (justified) irritation as signs of hostility.

Unfortunately, their response to this is likely to be just as unpleasant as it is abrupt. Those of you who protest a little too vigorously may find yourselves abruptly doused with a viscous black ink - a marker to return and inspect you again in future. Where more aggressive behavior is…noted, you may very well find yourself swept up in a tornado of angry paperwork, only to be abruptly (and not at all comfortably) deposited at the Storyteller's temple. A very weary Storyteller will do their best to apologize as they slowly smooth out the kinks in this new security system.

But surely you agree, dear adventurer, that this sort of security system is indeed necessary.

Ensō, Inland: Who Knows Where Our Limits Lie
Unsuspecting adventurers aren't the only creatures the pages seem intent on harassing, it seems. Across Ensō, the activity of the native fauna will become much more apparent as creatures are driven from their usual haunts by invading paper. From the smallest of snaplings to herds of cariborn, it will take some time for the wildlife to settle down as many disturbed creatures will find themselves displaced miles away from their natural homes, seemingly at random. Unfortunately, this also includes the creatures most would prefer not to have on the move.

For the unappraised, Ensō happens to play host to a particularly horrifying brand of wildlife known only as the fustercluck: a large swath of appropriated limbs with katamari-like qualities, if katamaris were more well known for digesting the majority of their victims and using what little remained (usually the hands and feet) to propel themselves towards their next meal.

Despite Ensō being home to two such creatures, very little has been discovered about them, aside from how unfortunately indestructible they seem to be. Magic, guns, bombs - name your poison, and a fustercluck will most certainly be impervious to it, including poison itself. Should you be unlucky enough to wander into the path of a fustercluck, your best option is to run - or lend the fustercluck a hand.

And another hand. And your entire body, since you offered so nicely.

The fusterclucks have a more directed path than most creatures - they can be found moving up and down the rows of G and H until January 10th, when they appear to settle down...unless they're diverted elsewhere first.

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

[Every single time she thinks she has this place figured out, it pulls out some bullshit. Beau is just out for a run, trying to get herself running in the morning, when she's forcefully stopped by a guy barreling right into her. She's dexterous enough to regain her footing quickly, but not before she's dropping into a stance and swinging a punch towards whatever hit her.

When she realizes it's a kid, she at least doesn't swing again.]

Hey! Dude!

[The hit catches him off guard. He'd stumbled after he collided with a person (he hadn't been able to stop in time). He has a second to realize the stance and then brace himself.

Pain is more grounding than he ever wants to admit. It defined his life in little shades. He winces then turns and points at the flesh ball floating among the paper cranes.]

Look up, then come on. We don't want to stick around that thing and I don't think you want to find out what it does.

[He adjusts his board under his arm and motions. The strike smarts. It does but he'll shrug off the pain for now. Life saving first.] Let's get while it's not on the ground.

[She's stuck in her stance for a second before letting her eyes glance up to see what he's talking about-- at which point she drops her shoulders.]

Oh what the fuck--

[Beau may solve 99% of her problems with her fists, but she does not want to hit that.]

Is it chasing you or is it just... doing that? Better question, what is that?

I was hoping you would know. Witness my surprise that that thing is a horrifying mystery to both of us. [His expression hasn’t changed at all. He starts moving away from the god awful thing above and behind them.]

It’s not chasing me. I saw it and decided to advance in the opposite direction. Speaking of that. I suggest we get to it before the universe decides to have a rolling good time with our fucking fates.

[Coming from someone who looks pissed 90% of the time, she gets that.]

Even if I did do that, I wouldn't take credit for it, I mean look at it. Yeesh.

[But you don't have to tell her twice, making a direct about face and starting off anywhere that thing isn't.]

Well that's screwed up. Every time I think this island can't get weirder it absolutely does.

...I'm not sure how to respond to that. [Dirk takes the path he knows will lead him back to the beach. It's better than being in the forest with the creepy thing above them.]

So, what's this island usually like? I'm Dirk by the way. So you know my name in case this goes really south and it comes after us anyway.

[She just shrugs. At least he admits he doesn't have a clue instead of bullshitting it.]

Beau. And it usually sucks, honestly. I mean, it looks great, and then decides it wants to try and kill you in a bunch of weird ways. Hope you're not one of those magic people or it'll blow up in your face more than it'll work.

[He can't help it. The review is so refreshing that he quietly laughs.] My special abilities never helped me. No need to worry about that.

[There's something visibly off his back as he moves a little faster with more purpose. He'd accepted his powers and the destructive nature of its active use. He'd surrendered to the passive hell of being unable to escape himself.

The idea of not having it around? It feels like chains falling away.]

I'm fast and good at solving martial problems with a sword. No so much real problems, the ones involving people.

[Might as well get that one out right now if their lives on going to depend on shielding each other.] But sometime's wrong with my speed. It takes way too fuckin' much energy.

[Well shouldn't they all be so lucky. But his assessment of himself makes her snicker, because that's a damn mood. Real blunt with it too. They'll get along fine.]

Eeh, people aren't great. You can handle yourself, you're fine.

[And she leaves it there, moving right onto his next point.]

Was it like a magic thing, or even like, something you were special trained for? Because I don't do magic but it's hard as shit to do all the cool stuff I can do back home. Sucks.

Biological. I was born with my speed. [Or rode his ass down a giant meteor after being created with it. He sticks to the saner way to explain it as he slows to account for the sand ahead of them.]

Sounds like anything above a certain level of ability is being cut or suppressed. [He prefers not to have soul ripping powers so that works for him.] Sucks about the speed. But I'll live.

So what weird ways has this island tried to bump people off?

[Born with it is so much easier than trying to explain ectobiology, and she would not understand even if you tried. She just marks that off in the racial trait section of her mind, and contemplates if this guy is a half elf or half halfling or something. Some of them look pretty damn human if you don't pay attention.]

I mean, whole place flooded with shadow creatures that tried to kill everyone last month. Not great. Lots of us also got kidnapped and sent through a hell dungeon based on the shit we were bad at. So that was just the last like, thirtyish days.

[Probably not a great intro, but leave it to Beau to cut right to the shittiest parts.]

New islands show up and they basically always suck, from what I've seen. Except the one with the dog. Dog island was fine.

January Intro: It Grips Me

katamaahhhhh

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