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

"The place Garren and I were before, there was a group of us who went between different worlds -- most of them were something was about to happen; anything from the end of the world to ridiculous garbage with aliens interfering with a battle of the bands." He shook his head with a faint huff that bordered amusement. "Most of them were something in between."

"Define worlds."

That is... so not a sentence Jules ever thought he would hear himself say. Before coming here he never would have considered needing to. Now, well, world could mean more than a planet.

"Alternate existences, or realities; Like how this place isn't native to most anyone who is here now."

Jules appears to deflate a little bit. He was hoping it would be something he had more understanding of, though at least Tachibana's question answers whether or not he understands the type of games this place can play. A moment after that he realizes something else, something even more important.

"How did you get out?"

Maybe it would work here.

There was a long silence before Tachibana let out a long, slow sigh. "...I'm not sure."

Because if he knew how... maybe he could get back.

"The way that we Traveled, we could go between Liminal and the World we were visiting, but not back to ones we had been to before, or to our own worlds."

Not that he had wanted to go back there.....

Well, that's not as good as Jules had hoped, but it's something at least. He's trying to force himself to be hopeful. He hasn't had any good news in a while.

"Could you get back to that Liminal place now?"

At least if Jules could get there, wherever the minsid hell that was, he would probably have more technology, or resources at the very least, than here.

Tachibana shook his head. "I can't access any of it, not even things I would normally be able to on a Jaunt. And I've been cut off from the Network as well. However we got here... severed our connections to that place."

Garren gave a small, lamentful nod. He didn't even have any of his toys that he had stuffed in his Slammer's hammerspace...

"Tch. Covered all their minsid bases, didn't they?"

It seriously pisses Jules off. He absolutely cannot stand being without a fully functioning link.

Tachibana paused, looking a bit curiously at Jules. "By 'they'... who do you mean?"

"The storyteller and all the other so called deities that run this place."

Generally speaking Jules blames the storyteller, but he's aware that there much be others out there too.

Tachibana's frown grew, thoughts turning. "...you think they have something to gain, by us being here." It wasn't so much a question, so much as asking for confirmation.

"Or they're just assholes who enjoy toying with us, though entertainment is something to gain I guess."

Jules doesn't know any of that for sure, but he's pretty confident of it. At the very least not everything is being done or offered that could be.

A small, almost bitter snort escaped at that. "Hell of a lot of energy to put out just for something as unimportant as entertainment."

If there was one thing he had learned (and really, learning just one thing had been... a herculean task, all things considered) over the years, it was that if there was someone manipulating a situation, there were normally large, or very personal stakes involved. Tennouji's gambit, the Arcana's game... Hell, even Takuya's subterfuge-- All of it had been for something of world-altering status, even when that world had been a single existence that revolved around a small, deaf child...

"When you have a lot of power, entertainment can become really damn important. It can also be a power trip and a means of keeping control and holding onto your power."

That's one thing Jules knows quite well. He was born a prince of two planet nations and lived under the "wonderful" tutelage of his grandmother. She lived for entertaining herself by tormenting or killing other people. That destruction only benefited her more since it could eliminate any potential enemies or rivals and make everyone fear her more. Fear would then give her more power.

Tachibana was quiet a long moment, expression distant. "... Power with no reason behind it really does only cause suffering, doesn't it?"

Jules blinked, completely confused by that.

"I'm sorry?"

Tachibana shook his head, forcing a smile. "Nothing. Just the reflections of a tired old man," he dismissed, packing away the mess of memories of borrowed lives and glimpse of things he hadn't had the time to reflect on while the Battle Fight had still be ranging.

The fact that he was barely 38 and still looked young for his age likely did not make the statement make any more sense than his last.

There are far too many images for Jules to make any sense of, and all it does is give him a headache.

"Tired old man, my ass. You're not old even for a human."

...Tachibana really didn't quite know what to say when people called him out on that sort of thing.

"Old from experience," he shrugged. "Having lived through the beginning of the end of two different worlds, and losing almost everyone and everything I cared about and believed in..." he trailed off. "It's enough to make any one feel old, no matter how many years they have left to live."

...even if that amount was infinite.

"Not that any of that sounds peachy or amazing or anything, but at least you had people you cared about to lose."

Jules had been through a hell of a lot of shit himself, and it had started when he'd been 5 years old. From that point forward there hadn't been a whole heck of a lot he could lose. He hadn't seen any worlds end, exactly, besides his own personal one.

Tachibana's own life had been rather idealistic before the ~~fire nation attacked~~ Undead had been unsealed. Then it had been a very intense nightmare fighting against the immortal creatures who would have destroyed the world, only to fail at the last battle and leave his junior to sacrifice his human life to halt the world being returned back to the beginning blank slate.

Living as Galen had been more the life Jules would have found familiar - a solitary existence being shunned by man and feeling nothing but disdain for the others who shared his shape, but not his mind; and one where he had started his journey up Olympus to berate the gods for the state of the world falling to ruin, only to wind up saving the very god he had yelled at, and taking on his power and responsibilities to stay the world's end.

And yet, somehow, Galen's life had been the easier one to bear; having the responsibility to tend to the world's recovery instead of being left suddenly alone and without purpose in a world that he no longer knew how to be a part of.

Garren, for his part, looked between the two unhappily before leaning forward to hug his Slammer's head best he could, as if that could chase away the morose thoughts the man was sliding back into.

It was, thankfully, enough to pull Tachibana out of his head and he reached up to pat Garren's back (awkwardly.)

"And have found new ones after, yeah," he agreed, as if reminding himself.

Garren nodded emphatically, hugging tighter.

As those thoughts threaten to engulf Tachibana, they also threaten to engulf Jules. They flash though his mind in bits and pieces, but those bits are relateable enough that Jules has a hard time facing them. His breathing alters very subtly, but otherwise his face remains completely unchanged. He doesn't ever let other people realize when he's in pain.

As Tachibana gets his thoughts under control, it allows Jules the opportunity to do the same. He has to fight down his own memory too and struggles to box everything back up again. Those are memories he definitely does not want to examine.

"That's good then."

"Yeah," Tachibana nodded. "The major benefit to being pulled from one world into another; you get a fresh start at life, if you're able to take it. ... and meet a wide range of others on similar paths," he added, giving Garren a warm pat on his helmet that resulted in a warm, pleased sound from the small Pog.

"Easier than being forced to do it yourself, I guess."

It hadn't exactly been easy for Jules to make a new start on his life when he'd still been somewhere people knew him. Not having anything to his name to help him survive had made it difficult too. And the whole major bounty on his head thing didn't help either.

Tachibana nodded. "Yeah. Never figured out how, back home," he admitted.

There had been too many echoes. Carefully rebuilding BOARD from the ashes, making it be the company he had thought it had been when he had joined it... There had always been some reason-- some excuse to linger in that minefield of memories. It hadn't been until he had been forcibly removed from it that he'd finally be able to even start to see past the events of seeming so long ago.

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