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

[a_shadow]

[ Tex's eyes snap open. He's here. She hasn't seen him since the second time he appeared and disappeared from the Moira but she's arrived here and he's here.

She doesn't let her surge of gladness show, though. ]

Hey, it seemed like it could be fun.

[ She rises and approaches him, feeling momentarily much less tired. ]

I guess this is the part where we go over what we each remember about where we came from.

[motherfucking_ghost]

...It is?

I-I mean. Yeah. I guess...it is. [That's Tex. Straightforward and blunt. Usually straight forward through an obstacle using her blunt fists, but this works, too. He rubs the back of his head for a moment. God. She's here. And they're both dead. A couple times over, if Wash's story pans out.]

You do remember Blood Gulch, right? And the ship you and Omega stole with Wyoming's helmet and Andy and Junior? Are we both clear on that point at least?

[a_shadow]

[ Her heart sinks. ]

You don't remember the Moira. Do you.

[ She looks off to one side for a moment. ]

I remember those things, yes. The last thing I remember from home was the emp.

[ She looks at him again. ]

That was over a year ago for me now.

[motherfucking_ghost]

...So you've been somewhere else? Before here? Was it also a trippy interdimensional jungle purgatory, or was it somewhere cooler?

[a_shadow]

It was a space ship. We stopped at different planets. Sometimes they were like this, sometimes different.

[ She doesn't bother to elaborate that he'd been there, or that they'd already had this conversation twice over. That doesn't really matter to this version of him. ]

[motherfucking_ghost]

Oh. ...Yeah, I didn't, uh...go anywhere. After. Other than waking up on a beach and getting shot with paintballs.

[a_shadow]

[ She sighs. ]

It's all right, Church.

[ Just in case he was upset that they'd been separated for over a year of her being elsewhere. ]

We're here now, right? So it'll be okay.

[motherfucking_ghost]

Will it?

Cuz from what I understand, if we ever get to leave, it'll just be to go to some other multidimensional bullshit hopping adventure. Like with your ship. We can't exactly go home again.

...But I guess...if you're here, then it doesn't matter so much if we can't.

[a_shadow]

Exactly.

[ The last time she'd seen him, she hadn't been very measured—she'd fallen right into his arms, as a matter of fact. The whole situation was a mess, really. So she's glad she gets another chance with the slate wiped clean of that. She'll be more steadfast this time around, bide her time better.

Still. She would like a kiss. Smirking, she unseals her helmet and pulls it away. The last two times she'd seen him, he'd been blown away by her appearance. It didn't even matter to her now that her body was a clone. She'd gotten used to it. So she doesn't really consider that his reaction will be anything but delighted. ]

[motherfucking_ghost]

...Whoa.

[She's both exactly as he remembers and not. Because he...doesn't actually remember her outside her armor, does he? And yet he's pretty sure he does. But doesn't. Hm. Let's not examine those crossed wires too closely.

The point is, she has a body. A human body. That she shouldn't have. And she's beautiful.

And just because he's dumbstruck, let's say it again.] Whoa. [He's very articulate.]

[a_shadow]

[ She enjoys his awe, but she doesn't really intend to let that show. She rolls her eyes instead. ]

Really, Church?

[motherfucking_ghost]

Yeah really, I can't believe how hideous you are, put that thing back on. [There's joy in his voice he can't filter out, so the snark falls pretty flat.] Wow. You're just...wow. Can I...? [He reaches out to touch her but has a terrible fear, irrational but deep, that this won't be real.]

[a_shadow]

[ Tex rolls her eyes again, but the way she's smiling makes it pretty clear it's an act. When he holds out his hand she takes it, holding it away from herself. ]

Take yours off first.

[ He'd been handsome both times she'd seen him, and she wonders if he'll be in one of those bodies this time, or another. She releases his hand and looks at him expectantly. ]

[motherfucking_ghost]

...Uhhhh.

That's way, way easier said than done, unless you know a way for me to pop my whole head off. Which, I like it where it is. Y'know, helps me see.

[a_shadow]

[ She gaped at him for a moment. ]

You're in your robot.

[ The way she said it sounded like an accusation. ]

[motherfucking_ghost]

I went from home to here. Yeah. Kinda still a robot. I dunno what happened to you that you got to get a nice hot fleshy human real girl body to inhabit, buuuuut I didn't go anywhere like that.

[a_shadow]

That's not fucking fair.

[ She huffs. Then she gives him a sidelong look. ]

You still...want to touch?

[motherfucking_ghost]

Uh, no, you having a body isn't fucking fair. I'm stuck in this! I can't even like...leave it. I tried! I'm stuck-stuck.

[Two can play the huff game!]

...But yeah. Like of course I wanna touch. If that's not too dumb and gross for you to get greasy robot fingers on you.

[a_shadow]

[ She rolls her eyes. ]

Believe me, if you're stuck in one of these during a fight, you'd rather have one of those.

[ Not that he...fights that much. If at all.

In response to that last, she lifts her chin slightly. ]

Go ahead, then.

[motherfucking_ghost]

Not like I wanna break any bones, yeah. [But still. He's pretty sure if they could switch places, they would.

But with permission granted, he reaches out tentatively, brushes his fingers across her cheek, teasing into her hair.]

Do you look like this cuz you...remembered looking like this?

[a_shadow]

[ She eyes him, as if she hadn't given him permission to do this. ]

No. Near as I could tell, the Ingress cloned another woman who arrived at the same time as me, and put me in the copy.

[motherfucking_ghost]

Oh. That's...pretty fucked up. No, hold on, that's really fucked up. They didn't have your body to put you in? The robot one.

[a_shadow]

[ She presses into his touch, just lightly. ]

No, but I got one in the mail later on. To hop back and forth to.

[motherfucking_ghost]

[Y'know what? He reaches up his second hand to frame her face. So it's some other woman's face. That's weird. But it's Tex's now, and that is what matters.]

In the mail? What, they FedEx'd a whole-ass robot to you, in space?

[a_shadow]

The Ingress pulled things in at random and they could match the world signature to figure out who it should belong to.

[ Another long look. ]

Church...

[ She sets her hands on his wrists. It's not an indication that he should release her, she knows but he might take it that way. ]

You can't hop bodies? Like...if you were around someone, like Washington, who has UNSC implants, you still can't?