April Intro: Better Get to Digging

[lifeaftr_mods]

INTRO LOG: APRIL

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

Waking up to the gentle proddings of what appears to be very curious, sentient trees isn't the worst wake up call LifeAftr has to offer. For our newest arrivals, however, it may be a tad…odd.

Situated in the valley between two mountains, Elower is a scenic village filled with the friendly Roaka, tree-like beings that are rather peaceable and happy to assist those who have just arrived. I'’s a peaceful location for one to start their adventures - though, unfortunately, it doesn't stay peaceful for long.

Cahypdo: You'll Bury Me Low
Those who have explored the new island of Cahypdo in the last month will undoubtedly recall the series of quakes that shook the island throughout March. With the arrival of LifeAftr's newest adventurers comes Cahypdo's largest tremor to date, striking without warning and more than enough force to throw even the steadiest and sturdiest of your number to the ground. With a low rumble, the mountains heaped on either side of the island will start to shed an abundance of slag and debris, pouring down their slopes. Anyone who's scaling those peaks risks being flung bodily off them when the outpouring of shale comes roaring down those mountains, and anyone at the mountain bases risks being crushed beneath.

As one might expect, unsuspecting newcomers aren't all that have been shaken up. Though protected by netting and retaining walls, the cliffs around and above the village of Elower can only take so much pressure before giving way - a threshold that has been crossed entirely. With a sound like thunder, rocks fall.

Everyone dies? Only if you don't act quickly. Roaka housing is sturdy in build, enough to protect a decidedly less sturdy body from all but the heaviest of boulders. Hiding inside any of their village constructs built into the sides of the mountains will certainly save you from taking a new weight onto your shoulders. They will not, however, save you from being buried alive.

For those who become trapped inside any of those abodes, your options appear limited. Work to free yourself, or wait for help to arrive. Though, speaking of help, those outside may think to offer the Roaka a helping hand in getting their trapped people - and yours, at that - a few breaths of fresh air.

Before you suffocate.

Cahypdo: Stay Acting Brave
Such seismic activity will also stir up the local wildlife, of course. Those unfortunate enough to come across them will recognize the restless shark-dragon hybrids, hydrac, now prowling across the shorelines, while the wickedly fanged wabbits will also be far more frequent, traveling in larger numbers in the jungle and at the bases of the mountains. Taking care to avoid them would be wise - though another creature may make that venture much more difficult.

Lorbies have been unlocked in the bestiary! A strange mix between owl and serpent, the recent quake has clearly startled these usually reclusive creatures into the open. Alone, a lorby is a rather skittish animal, prone to hiding from most perceived threats. Useless for food due to the toxicity of their flesh, lorbies do have the potential to be tamed...but this comes with its own risks.

A lorby may be prone to flight rather than fight when encountered solo, but in groups, these feathery critters are far more hostile. A defensive lorby emits a piercing cry alone, but a group is an almost ear-piercing experience, capable of rendering the unfortunate unstable on their feet at best, and unconscious at worst. For the days that follow the severe earthquake that so rocked everyone's foundations, any hope for silence is lost in the infrequent bursts of almighty screeching by colonies of lorbies who have so rudely had their homes overturned and disturbed.

While the lorby is omnivorous, it may not think to take a bite at anything so much larger than them. That doesn't mean that conflict with these fluffy creatures won't attract something much more willing to take advantage of the fact that you may or may not have been reduced to a prone sack of meat. If something else does arrive, you best hope that it's a friendly face.

If you're interested in keeping a lorby for your own, bear LifeAftr's companion limit in mind - two per character, and no more. The lorby is omnivorous and can survive off of most odds and ends: insects, fruits, berries, critters it can dig up in the sand, and more. However, the process of trying to tame a lorby is not always successful. We recommend use of a d10, with the following guidelines:

Rolling a 10: Critical success! This lorby will love and adore you, and may even feel comfortable enough to drape itself along your neck like a beautiful, furry scarf, churring softly all the way.
Rolling 7-9: This lorby will prove high-strung and timid, even if safely befriended, and will take several weeks to warm up to you. But once it does, it's yours!
Rolling 2-6: Failure. The lorby enters a state of distress and starts screaming. Hope you brought earplugs, or you'll be snoozing for several long hours for your efforts.
Rolling a 1: Critical failure. Not only does the lorby start screaming, but its panic attracts a colony of its friends, and they all start screaming too.

Bear in mind that these are only guidelines; you are free to predetermine successes or failures as you'd like, presuming your character can sustain the companion! Our discord channel has a room for dice-rolls, if you prefer.

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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.

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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!

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LOGS ● OOC ● STORIES ● MAIN NAVIGATION

( CODED BY BOOTYCALL )

Comments

Kiriya Kujo | OTA | will match format

[truthkills]

[A]
There's noise from under some of that rubble. Weird noise. Some sort of strange nonsensical yelling. " GASHAT! Let's Game! Metcha Game! Mutcha Game! What's your name?! I'M A KAMEN RIDER." There are also a few faint electric guitar riffs.

A weird chibi armored guy the same size as a grown man bursts forth from the rubble and gives a low whistle. "Man, they build their houses pretty sturdy around here!" And then he's running off...and making video game kind of sound effects as he runs...looking for rubble to clear away.

[B]
It's easier, and perhaps a little lazier, to go rolling through Cahypdo as a bike following all that seismic activity. He needs the practice off-roading, and being a motorcycle will let Kiriya respond quickly to any cries of help or anything like that. This is totally a responsible superhero patrol kind of thing and not a farting around joyriding kind of thing, so Kiriya claims.

He hadn't expected to come across a weird snake-owl-thing in his travels, and it might have been better if the thing hadn't been crossing the path he was trying to cross. "Hey! Watch it!" And there's an accompanying honk of his horn in an attempt to get the critter to move on.

Big mistake.

The startled lorby, presented with the horror that is a talking honking neon motorcycle, immediately begins screaming its head off, which summons more lorbies, which also scream their heads off, which creates a hideous vortex of screaming lorby doom that Kiriya is not quite quick enough to outrun. The force of the screaming lorbies is enough to stun the intrepid motorcycle, knocking him out, and also knocking him out of his transformation. Judging by the tire tracks suddenly skidding off into an unconscious guy just lying there with a weird bulky neon belt around his waist, it really looks like he's had a motorcycle accident and the motorcycle's gone missing. He's just going to lie there unconscious, surrounded my madly screeching lorbies, until the lorbies move on, at which point he'll continue lying there unconscious for a little while longer.

B

[lightlessfuture]

What the Knight has worked out about these new creatures that have been stirred up by recent events is that they scream. They scream a lot. And apparently so loudly that other animals are rendered completely unconscious.

In complete disregard of all common sense and survival instinct, they've started to run towards screaming than away from it as fast as possible, in case someone's in need of help.

And in this case, it's someone they recognise, even. After the lorbies have slithered onward (still screaming in alarm), they cautiously come out of hiding to, uh...

Sit there and wait for him to regain consciousness, mostly. After a few minutes of waiting, they take advantage of what's available to them (namely, naturally cold hands) and pat gently at his face in an attempt to wake him up.

[truthkills]

[Kiriya twitches a little, groans a bit, and kind of absently tries to brush away the cold hands as he stirs.]

Five more minutes...

[lightlessfuture]

[ Clearly, their job is done. They sit back, watching him silently (the only way they do anything) for a moment, before deciding their time is better spent looking out for something that might have gotten attracted by loud noises.

So Kiriya will likely awaken to the sight of a very small figure with a sharp weapon in hand, pacing around the area or standing guard. They're Helping. ]

[truthkills]

[It takes Kiriya a couple more minutes to fully shake himself awake, but he gingerly sits up and...well. There's a helper.]

Uh...where's the screaming noodles?

A

[motherfucking_ghost]

Church mostly just stares. It's all he can do. The noises and guitar riffs drew him in, but then the...the weird...the...super deformed mecha? Just fucking busts out of the rocks and makes a bunch of game noises and he has no idea what the fuck to do with that.

"Uh." Super eloquent, Church. "That's, uh. That was...impressive?"

[truthkills]

"Oh, you darn well better believe it's impressive!" Kiriya knows his armor is weird; he just doesn't care that it's weird. It's only Level 1 anyway. "I'm offering a one-of-a-kind rescue experience, you can't beat that!"

[motherfucking_ghost]

"You could, y'know, beat that by not needing to be rescued in the first place, but circumstances what they are...? Yeah, I guess you're, uh. You're right." It's just like one of his japanese animes, etc. "Is that...your body, by any chance, or just armor?

[truthkills]

At least he hasn't turned into a motorcycle yet, there is that. "Just armor, man." He sort of thumps on his chest with a fist...or at least kind of attempts it because his arms are short in comparison to the rest of his body, and there are some motions that just aren't super possible. "Super advanced stuff, really."

[motherfucking_ghost]

"Nnnnonono, this is super advanced stuff." Church can thump his chest with a fist. "See? Arms. And a normal sized head. Like, super strength seems like a pretty good payoff for looking like a giant mecha cadbury egg, but also, you look kind of ridiculous, man."

[truthkills]

"Dude, this isn't even my final form, this is just enough to bust up some rubble and take care of a little light monster-fighting if applicable." Kiriya waves a hand. "This gets way cooler and way more advanced."

[motherfucking_ghost]

"Did you just--did you just meme at me? At me. Did you just meme. Jesus. Well, okay, then like, why not show off your cooler stuff?"

[truthkills]

He's allowed to meme, too much of his life has been all about video games up until this point. "Oh, you asked for it." And he throws the switch on his belt, transforming into a motorcycle.

"So," he asks cheerfully, revving his engine a bit, "wanna ride?" There is a very heavily-implied suggestive eyebrow wiggle in his tone of voice, since he does not appear to have eyebrows in this form.

[motherfucking_ghost]

"Holy shit. I don't know how conservation of size works in your universe, but...it doesn't. You just turned from an egg-shaped giant armor guy into a motorbike. Sir, are you aware that you're a motorcycle?"

The flirtiness is hardly lost on him, just, give him a second, you just turned into a bike. Just let him consider the fact that this happened.

You know what? This might as well happen. "Guess it's a good thing I'm wearing protection." Oh god no now there's two of them. "Do you actually let people ride you, or are you just being a tease?"

[truthkills]

Kiriya just laughs. "Oh, you're prepared, I like that in a man." He revs his engine. "If you really wanna ride, I'm game for it--so long as you don't mess with anything on the dash." Mostly because that would be dangerous.

A

[triggerhappytraitor]

Tachibana had just gotten himself and Garren out from the rubble when the yelling of Kiriya's transformation caught his attention. He hadn't quite started to process just what on Earth all that noise even was until the last line.

Meaning that when the SD Rider burst out of the pile, there was a centaur (with an SD Rider of his own sitting on his back,) looking at him with a raised eyebrow.

"...The hell does your Belt sound like that for."

[truthkills]

Kiriya manages the best approximation of putting a hand on a hip he's capable of in this form. "Says the guy who's suddenly packing hooves."

[triggerhappytraitor]

"It was more practical than my armor considering the situation," Tachibana pointed out matter-of-factly.

...and also implying how unpractical that loud yelling belt was.

[truthkills]

"I dunno, man, uneven terrain, I thought that wasn't too great for horses." Kiriya waves the thought away. He's got some serious questions here, but he's not going to let on or ask any of them just yet. "This is practical enough for a little light rescue."

[triggerhappytraitor]

An amused snort answered that observation. "It was good enough to climb Mount Olympus; it's fine for something like this," he returned smugly.

Also faster, and didn't require him to un-bury himself before he could transform.

[truthkills]

Is Kiriya supposed to be impressed? His chibi expression remains impossible to read. "Yeah, well, I don't need to climb. This form? It's pretty damn bouncy. Some of us get by with the basics!"

...the gaudy, neon basics.

[triggerhappytraitor]

Tachibana would like it if someone found him impressive, yes. Sooth his poor battered ego

"And a bit more agile than being stuck on two wheels?" Tachibana returned. There were enough similarities between the bike and the SD form in front of him to easily make that connection, at least.

[truthkills]

That actually gets Kiriya to laugh. "Did you finally figure that out?" How long had it been? How long? "Come over here for a ride and I'll show you exactly how agile I really am."

[triggerhappytraitor]

A small amused huff escaped even if any innuendo went right over his head. "Maybe some other time," he countered, smile relaxed. "I think this form might be a bit over your weight limit."

Garren, however, had clambered up his Slammer's back to perch on his shoulders and raised his hand, waving excitedly.

"..Garren would like to take you up on that, however."

[truthkills]

That innuendo went so far over Tachibana's head, Kiriya's pretty sure he heard it audibly whooshing by "Yeah, sure, we can scout way ahead of you!" He loosens up a bit, pulls a lever on his belt, and the transformation into a bike is just as loud as his initial transformation had been. "Alright, little guy, hop on, just don't touch anything on the dash."