lifeaftr | April Intro: Better Get to Digging

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April Intro: Better Get to Digging

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.

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

Garren's sudden appearance is a surprise on top of a surprise. And with her reflexes calibrated towards 'if it's small and cute it can probably kill you', she automatically scampers a step or two back from him. She does not break into a run because it looks like a tiny version of Tachibana's Garren armor. That's... familiar, so maybe that's... good? Something else?

"Y-you've been gone three days!" Which isn't that long, really, in the overall assessment of things... she presses her lips together in a similar fashion, and breathes sharply through her nose. Calm, calm, she needs to be calm. "Where were you? And..." She then looks back down to Garren, very unsure. "...what's this?"

Garren looked up, almost hurt. She didn't recognize him...? He outlined the diamond on his chest plate before holding it up and outwards to the pair.

"That's Garren," Tachibana explained, taking Sayoko's hand to give it a reassuring squeeze. "It's been..." he hesitated again. "I wound up back home, in our world," he explained, voice soft. "...For ten years."

He'd. Wait for the shock of that to pass before continuing.

That bit of diamond-outlining is entirely new to her. She blinks perplexedly in response. She can get the feeling that the little armored creature apparently knows her, though. So while she takes Tachibana's hand and holds it quite tightly, she bends over a little, and speaks softly. "Aah. Hello, Garren. You seem like you know me...?"

And then she is snapping right back up again, turning towards Tachibana. "Ten years?! You were away ten years? But... but how... I mean..." So he didn't look tired, he was older....

Tachibana gently squeezed her hands, offering silent support. "I'm not quite sure how this place works, but... after those years... I wound up in a different world. One a little bit like this one, with people from other realities, Traveling from world to world. That's where I met Garren--"

The small pog made a pleased "heeee" sound, waving a victory sign.

Tachibana couldn't help but smile at that before he continued. "And after a while... you arrived there too," he continued. "With no memories of this place, same as I didn't remember it there either. That's why Garren knows you. ... This version of you. In his world..."

He hesitated a moment, looking at her to try and read her expression. How much to explain at once...?

It is a lot to take in, even if Tachibana is explaining it quite simply and straightforwardly. Though she nods her head along with each new leg of Tachibana's trip through time and space, she can't think of anything to say. At least until things turn to Garren. "In his world, I was...?" Her brow furrows. She must've been something to this little creature. Was there a tiny version of her somewhere out there?

She gives Tachibana's hand an encouraging squeeze, then lets go so she can kneel and be closer to Garren's level. "It's good to meet you again, Garren. You look like you're ready for anything, with that armor of yours!"

Garren made a pleased sound, nodding again before going into his victory pose.

"In his world, you were his first Partner," Tachibana explained, a soft, if slightly sad smile on his face.

"Partner?" She looks up at Tachibana, hoping for an explanation... but then looks back to Garren, for it seems likely that he's going to sign or emote in some way. She doesn't want to miss it.

The signs that came were a bit fast paced and not the easiest to follow as Garren attempted to explain things.

"The world I met him, there are two worlds that have a bridge between them, the human world and the Pogemon world, where Garren lived," Tachibana half translated, half explained. "When Pogemon go to the human world, they bond with a Partner there." He paused, trying to think of a the best way to explain it. "The way fighting works in that world works a bit like a game. The Slammer can give power ups and often dictates the strategy that the Pogemon who fight act out."

Having Tachibana's explanation to go with Garren's signs is very helpful. She's still not very clear about them, but she thinks she's picking up on a connecting idea here and there. "You were brought to a world, to travel between worlds, and there's two worlds in one world..." She has to laugh at the ridiculousness of it all. It's so much! And yet... nothing's impossible anymore, is it?

"So... we fought together, Garren? But it was for fun, not serious?"

Garren hesitated, swaying from one booted foot to another before looking up at his Slammer.

"...It was supposed to be just for fun, but..." Tachibana hesitated a moment. "There was someone in that world, like in ours that took advantage of things for their own gain... and people were hurt," he explained softly.

Garren nodded, wringing his hands unhappily before toddling over the few steps to reach his hand up to Sayoko.

When Garren looks up, Sayoko looks up as well. And she listens intently to the explanation, immediately understanding what the parts were that went unsaid. "...and she was killed, wasn't she?"

Maybe later, she'll think on how uncomfortable an idea it is, that even in other worlds, a version of you dies in the same sort of way. But for now there's a new little friend that needs comforting... and she's had a bit of time to come to better terms with her own death. She holds both her hands out for Garren. "I'm sorry it turned out like that. I might not be her, but I'd be glad to be your friend here."

The tiny pog's hands were almost comically small in Sayoko's, but that didn't matter to him. With a soft, warm sound, he gently hopped up onto them to give her as much of a proper hug as his tiny self could.

She had expected some sort of handshake, not a full-on hop in for a hug... but she rolls with that easily enough. Though he's a bit heavier than he looks, he's not so heavy that she can't pick him up and bring him in close. "We're friends, then! That's good, that's good..."

While the hug continues, she looks up to Tachibana. "...there's a lot left for you to tell me, isn't there?"

Garren snuggles in, acting as both comforting presence and being comforted at the same time as Tachibana nods.

"There's... a lot that's happened, yeah," he agreed before giving a faint smile. "Not sure how much of it is anything more than stories to explain stranger things I can do now," he added with a small huff.

The little pogemon's presence is surprisingly comforting. After three days essentially alone and without the one person she was closest too, that contact and presence is very welcome. Her arms settle comfortably around Garren, keeping him close.

"You can do stranger things?" He says it so simply, so casually... but the idea of that is enough to make her eyes go wide again. "What kinds of things?"

"Transform into a centaur," Tachibana explained with a hint of a smile. "And a seahorse merman, but that's a little less useful, all things considered."

There is a bit of a pause. "...what?" That's not at all what she'd expected. So much so that she looks down at Garren, giving him a tiny nudge to be sure that she has his attention. "He's... he's joking, right?"

Garren shook his head with a pleased sound before signing awkwardly with one hand.

"Garren can turn into a small dragon as well. And a small dog," Tachibana explained.

Garren nodded emphatically before making a small dramatic wave of his arms--

--and suddenly it was a small husky puppy in Sayoko's arms, tail wagging happily as he barked up at her.

"What?" What else is there to do but question that? Right up until she's holding a wiggling puppy instead of an armored Pogemon. She jolts and shifts her grip on puppy-Garren, boggling at the sudden change. "H... how... that's..." She wants to say it's amazing, but she's too stunned. She's not completely numb to unexpected strange things yet, after all.

Garren just reaches up to lick her face lovingly, tail wagging all the way.

Tachibana, for his part, tries very hard not to laugh at the pair, smiling warmly. "Far as I was able to determine thought testing, it's similar to how the Rider System works, a temporary alteration of DNA. Something from the worlds we experience stays with us. I'd mapped it out in the lab, but I'm afraid that's all back in Liminal and not too helpful for showing you here."

How can you not laugh when there's a puppy licking your face? Sayoko laughs and tries to pet him to settle him back down. "Aah, that tickles, that's enough!"

She's still laughing a bit the next time she looks up to Tachibana. "That's... interesting. What's Liminal? Is that the name of where you were before?"

Sayoko's laugh was still a magical sound that Tachibana has to take a moment to savor it, a positively doofy smile on his lips even as Garren settles down, nuzzling against her happily.

"Yeah," Tachibana nodded. "It was an in between state that was always in flux. Malleable matter at its core that could be shaped and bent into forms with enough mental energy. It was the resting space between worlds we visited, and the base of operations in many respects."

A relaxed and snuggly puppy is a very pleasant thing. Unexpected, maybe, but it's just one more thing to help her relax as she comes to grips with just where Tachibana had been and what he had been doing. She continues to gently pet Garren.

"That sounds amazing. Does that mean that you could just... make anything that you wanted? We could use something like that here, that's for sure."

If dogs could purr, Garren would be purring. (as is, his instincts left over from his dragon form do make him want to try, but there's just not really a good mechanism for it, so instead, the tag wags and he pants happily.)

"Once I learned how, yeah," Tachibana nodded. "Going to miss that," he half lamented, half smiled. And pestering Hajime for meals.

There was an unexpected pang at that thought that caught him off guard. First Kenzaki, and now him... Hopefully Lyall would be able to keep Hajime from falling into himself too far....

That's a very wistful bit of trailing off. She doesn't know what sort of sad thought that he's having, but he is having one, she's quite sure. So she reaches one hand out to sort of tap lightly at his leg, before it returns to the busy work of petting Garren. "Here. Sit with me. It's nice. I've missed you."

April Intro: Better Get to Digging

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