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

[triggerhappytraitor]

There's a small, tiny gasp, Garren's gloved hands moving up to his mouth in timid alarm as he shrinks back and stares up at the super tall person who had appeared out of the woods.

There is a definite moment of hesitation before he realizes just what had been done and his tiny frame relaxes. Even though his mask is unchanging, the large smile behind it can be seen in his posture. Worries banished (for the moment,) he half runs over to the branch, reaching out to carefully grasp it. One boot up on it, he carefully tests his weight on it before cautiously starting to climb up.

[suspecteverything]

The fear followed swiftly by happiness washes through Jules, and he can't help grinning himself. While he doesn't look it, nor does he want anyone to ever know, he's actually a big softy. The arrival of his daughters a few years ago only made that more evident to those who know him. Here there are very few who see that side of him as he keeps it hidden behind anonymous good deeds.

"It's safe. Go on."

[triggerhappytraitor]

Garren makes it to the top of the log, standing upright and looking over at the very tall person with a soft, pleased "heeeee" before flashing a victory sign and then waving.

[suspecteverything]

Jules snorts out a laugh.

"Yes. Yes, you did it."

With a lot of help in truth, but he's not going to burst the little guy's bubble. Let him celebrate.

[triggerhappytraitor]

Team effort!

Moving very carefully, one booted foot in front of another, Garren starts making his way down the log towards his new friend. It's a little bit slippery so he's a bit slow with the progress, but his entire tiny body is brimming with determination, fortified by team effort! so he's not about to be thwarted.

[suspecteverything]

Watching Garren reminds Jules of his daughters when they were little more than infants. They would toddle around on unsteady legs and still be unwilling to ask for help, yet every tiny thing was a major accomplishment. The thought sent of surge of bittersweet feeling flooding through him. He missed them terribly.

[triggerhappytraitor]

Asking for help was something Garren did for other people. If his Slammer or any of his friends were in trouble, he would be running as fast as he could to get someone to help them. For himself... he had to try first. Else he'd never stop being timid and scared of everything. At least, that was how Blade had put it. And he trusted his best friend's wisdom far more than he trusted himself!

With so much concentration on walking on the log, he missed any signs of melancholy that might have shown on Jules' face. (Even if he was well acquainted with the "I'm not having a Moment, of course not" look from his Slammer's own emo moments inner reflections.)

Having gotten close enough he paused, looking up at Jules, head tiling as he waved again. Hello, new friend!

[suspecteverything]

There's no way to stay upset when you're unexpectedly bombarded with happy feelings from other person's mind. The mental greeting is like being touched by liquid sunshine.

"Yes, hello to you too."

[triggerhappytraitor]

Garren again made a very pleased sound. He raised his hands, starting to sign before pausing with a small Aaa! of remembrance and hurriedly reaching into a small pouch off his belt. Very carefully, he pulled out a small, messy stack of laminated index cards, awkwardly shuffling through them before perking up as he found the one he wanted. Replacing the others back into his pouch, he held up the card for Jules to take.

Written in a very neat (adult) hand writing, the note read:

"Hello! My name is Garren. I don't speak, but I understand what you say."

[suspecteverything]

Well, that's certainly interesting. Jules has the sneaking suspicion that Garren was not the one who wrote that, and it's not a good suspicion either. It makes Jules highly nervous actually. There aren't any other signs of people nearby though, so for the moment he's safe.

"Yeah, kinda gathered as much."

If the face that Jules' Trisani abilities allow him to see Garren's thoughts didn't exist, he could still have figured that much out. Toddlers speak sign language, weird noises, and body language too.

[triggerhappytraitor]

Garren very much had not written that. His own handwriting was about what you would expect from someone who had very tiny hands hidden in gloves. And rarely words.

He pointed to then card, then himself before outlining the shape of the diamond in his chest plate with his gloved hands. Then he pointed to Jules, tilting his head curiously and raising up slightly on his toes.

[suspecteverything]

Was that asking what Jules' name was? It's the best Jules can translate out of that. He's a little out of practice on the whole non-verbal speech thing.

"I'm Dagger."

Garren might not be human, but Jules still isn't willing to give out his real name that easily. Most people at home know him as Dagger anyway.

[triggerhappytraitor]

Garren bounced once before tilting his head in thought. After a moment, he nodded and held up his gloved hands, having one flat and sideways, and the other with two fingers pointed outwards and the rest curled in. Keeping the flat hand still, he moved the other, mimcing stabbing motions twice before giving a double thumbs up.

(Yes, the sign for Dagger was functionally "stabby stabby" at a sheet of paper.)

[suspecteverything]

"Guess that's pretty appropriate."

Though really Jules is more likely to get all "stabby stabby" at another person than a piece of paper. As a matter of fact, paper isn't very common where he's from. Pretty much everything is done by link.

[triggerhappytraitor]

Another curious head tilt before Garren brought his hands together and mimed swinging a sword about and then pointed to Jules questioningly.

[suspecteverything]

Jules simply reaches over his shoulder, grasps the massive hilt of the Samari warsword, and pulls it over his shoulder. The jewel at the base of the sword gleams red as he balances the point on two fingers of his left hand.

"That answer your question?"

There are a rather ridiculous number of other blades, both hidden and visible, on his body, but the warsword seems the most self explanatory. Jules is a warrior to the core.

[triggerhappytraitor]

The small Pog's hands go to the mouth of his mask as an impressed gasp emerges. So big...! He perks up at the red gem and almost soundlessly applauds, bouncing carefully on his toes. Red was his favorite color, especially flame-colored red. (or the maroon of his and his Slammer's armor~)

He holds up a finger in a "one moment" gesture before reaching down to his belt where his Rouzer is holstered, pulling it out to show off. It very very much looks like a toy, but he's still very careful to hold it in a way that's not pointing it at anyone.

[suspecteverything]

Flame red definitely suits Jules and the Samari bloodline as they're a line of Andarian fyrebloods who also happen to carry the Stralen gene. Jules' eyes gleam the same brilliant red as the gemstone.

He's not exactly sure what the Rouzer is, but it looks close enough to a gun of some kind that he has to assume that's the basic use of it. Given they were talking about weapons before, that makes the most sense too.

"I've got something like that back at my place."

He's stopped carrying the blasters around most of the time since the charges are limited.

Cool to have Tachibana showing up soonish?

[triggerhappytraitor]

Garren head tilted curiously before putting his hands together, then spreading them widely apart. If Jules's sword was that big...

Yep! Whenever!

[suspecteverything]

"Hah! No. Probably has the same size ratio to me as yours does to you."

Though the difference in their sizes is so drastic that it's kind of hard to judge that for sure.

[triggerhappytraitor]

The small pog made a pleased sound. Holstering his Rouzer, he outlined the diamond on his chest plate before pulling his hands apart to echo the shape bigger before pointing to his Rouzer and repeating the bigger motion. Like how his Slammer had a bigger version to match his bigger armor!

He pauses, head tilting up as he looks over in the near distance, entire body perking up. Thinking of his Slammer...!

Tachibana isn't too far away, following the feel of the bond he shared with his partner at a very casual pace, and it's likely Jules will have no trouble spotting him if he follows Garren's gaze.

[suspecteverything]

Jules' gaze does indeed follow Garren's and he stiffens an instant later. He does not have a good history with other people. Everyone generally dislikes him, or worse, and he never has to actually do anything to earn that dislike. The fact that he can feel the bond between Garren and this newcomer isn't a good sign either. With his luck he'll be accused of doing something to hurt the little creature.

Unfortunately there's no escaping now. Jules quickly sheaths his warsword and keeps his hands carefully visible. The less threatening he can look, the better. Not that it will slow him down any should he need to protect himself. He has other means at his disposal that don't involve bladed weapons.

[triggerhappytraitor]

Even without the empathy, it would be hard to miss the excited waving, Garren bouncing up and down on his toes as his Slammer approached. Or the very warm, soft, parental smile on Tachibana's face as he gave a much smaller, far more reserved wave in return. Followed by a few quick signs, which Garren emphatically returned.

His Partner greeted, Tachibana looks up at Jules, giving him a small nod of acknowledgement. "I thought Garren might have made a new friend," he greeted, tone still warm and pleasant as he held out his hand for a shake. "Sakuya Tachibana," he introduced.

[suspecteverything]

Jules offers his hand in return no matter how strange it feels to him. The greeting has always felt foreign no matter how many times he's had to use it recently. Ignoring the gesture, however, would be asking for trouble. Jules gets more than enough of that without needing to ask.

"Dagger."

It's the most he's going to offer. Only one person here knows his real name, and even Shion calls Jules by Dagger.

[triggerhappytraitor]

Garren waved his arms before making the "stabby stabby" sign he had made for Dagger and making a pleased sound, which pulled a single puff of amused laughter from Tachibana. If that was the sign Garren wanted to use...

"Nice to meet you," he returned, his shake very formal and accompanied by a small bow of this head, the salaryman reflexes still very much with him. "Hopefully Garren hasn't been any trouble."