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

Tachibana blinked, eyebrow rising. "How the hell--" he broke off, face screwing up slightly more. "Don't tell me some idiots think that kind of bullshit is something to he happy about."

One did not have to be telepathic to be able to tell what Tachibana's opinion on telepathy was. Even if he had to admit the Psychic Network had been useful, he still hated it and one of the first skills he had learned was how to block it out to avoid flinching every time he heard a voice in his head....

"It's a partially reasonable assumption when you've never experienced it yourself, I guess. They all just think you have complete control."

Which his bullshit. The control Jules has managed to gain took a lot of work, and it's still control over the other abilities more than the telepathy. That part just happens.

"As if control of anything comes easily," Tachibana half snorted.

..unless you were someone like Kenzaki who just seemed to have a natural aptitude for things like that. But he was over that jealousy. ~~Just still a little sulky~~

"Oh not at all."

He can only control what he reveals and how he reacts when he hears something. The hearing it is totally out of his control.

Tachibana nodded again before letting out a long, slow breath.

"...for lashing out like that.. I'm sorry," he apologized, a little awkwardly. To get angry at someone for something they had no hand in and couldn't fully control... it'd be like blaming Mutsuki for everything done under the Spider Undead's influence. It just wasn't right.

Jules glances behind him like he expects Tachibana to be talking to someone behind him. Only no one is there.

"Pretty sure you forgot a few words there. Nobody just says "I'm sorry" to me without something else attached to it. Normally that something else also involves a lot of harsh language."

And an attempt to kill him, though that's not a guarantee every time. Sometimes people would just prefer to eviscerate him orally instead of literally.

Tachibana blinked, eyebrow raising slightly and feeling.. almost a bit insulted. He didn't often apologize, and whenever he did, it was always honest.

"The hell shouldn't I?" he half demanded, a touch defensive.

"Shouldn't isn't the right word. More like doesn't. Nobody apologizes to me. They'd have no damn reason to. At least in their minds. Best I would get is "I'm sorry, did I not beat the shit out of you enough?" or other variances of that."

He's the one who is always expected to apologize, though it's never good enough. Not that he has bothered in more years than he can count. Better just to be an asshole. Then you know why you're being shit on.

"...for something you didn't ask for, that you don't have full control over."

Despite his reputation for shooting first and never bothering asking questions ~~until someone pointed out that he was wrong and then left so he couldn't keep arguing~~ that was a bit much even for him.

"Titana rael. You actually think that doesn't happen."

He made it sound like Jules was kidding or completely insane to think someone would react that way when they knew the other person hadn't asked for it. That's been Jules' reality as far back as he can remember. He's never had to ask for it. In fact, when he was younger he'd done everything possible not to ask for it, and he'd still gotten derision directed his way or the shit kicked out of him.

Edited (yay html fails...) 2019-04-19 01:14 (UTC)

Tachibana shifted awkwardly, looking a touch uncomfortable. "It shouldn't happen," he returned, tone defensive.

..so he was a naive moron. Tell him something else he didn't know.

"This place has a serious lack of containers of any sort."

That probably didn't sound remotely connected at all to their conversation, but Jules is choosing to ignore Tachibana's rosy view of the world and how it should actually work. Instead he's focusing on the thoughts he'd picked up because why not? It's not like his ability isn't already out in the open. And he's a jerk.

Tachibana blinked a few times. "...What?"

"You wanted me to tell you something you didn't know. There is it, so now you know."

Hey, at least he shared something somewhat useful.

Tachibana tensed, eyes narrowing. "It's an expression of speech, not an invitation for you to make fun of me!"

Tachibana's irritation rolls right off him, and he grins widely, exposing his fangs.

"If I wanted to make fun of you I would have picked better ammunition. Trust me, I don't need to use any Trisani abilities to find that either. I had enough experience before I could read minds."

Garren looked between the two, making a small, unhappy sound. Why was this going like this....?

"Save it for someone who deserves it!" Tachibana snapped, only the awareness of Garren's unhappiness keeping him from lashing out properly.

"Uh, yeah. That's pretty much what I did. Like I said, if I wanted to make fun of you I would have picked something a hell of a lot better."

Tachibana has been decent to him, so Jules is returning the favor in kind. The problem is, Jules' personality is a special one. People who know him would realize this is his typical reaction to anyone he doesn't hate or who hasn't shown him disdain or hatred. For Jules, what he'd said was incredibly tame.

Tachibana scowled darkly, crossing his arms. "Worse than Hajime..." he muttered under his breath. ~~totally not sulking~~.

He's not used to this being "normal" for anything. Even with the... often augmentative and antagonistic friendship he had somehow developed with Hajime. Not that he really had had that many friendships to compare things to.

Jules snorts. He has no idea who Hajime is, but he's really not surprised he's worse than the guy.

"I'm worse than all but one person in the entire Ichidian Universe, so says an oh so joyful poll done about me. I take the silver medal to a self proclaimed emperor who basically committed genocide against most of his population and imprisoned the entire Caronese people with his homicidal lunacy. With all of my assholeishness I just couldn't beat that. I certainly couldn't win a poll on anything decent, but I'm not even good enough to win first place in a poll of shitheads. Darn."

With how often the pair had fought (and that Tachibana had insisted that Hajime had to be sealed) it would have been an easy assumption to see the pair as enemies. That they had somehow become all but brothers....

At the litany of misdeeds, Tachibana couldn't help but stare in utter shock. That-- what? Even having dealt with the discovery that a man he had looked up to was planning on the wholesale extermination of all human life... it had been a very impersonal ending of the world Tennouji had gleefully boasted about. He was... fairly sure Tennouji had never directly dirtied his hands in that way.

Hearing that someone else had... and that somehow, this was the only thing worse than... whatever it is that Jules had done....

It takes him a moment to overcome the shock enough to ask; "The hell did you even do to be on that sort of list....?"

"I had the audacity to be born and not die the instant I entered the world."

He says it entirely matter-of-factly. There's no joking tone in his voice at all. The most that's there is a hint of dry sarcasm. The problem is, however, Jules isn't really being sarcastic. For all intents and purposes, that's the legitimate reason he's so hated. Sure, there are other reasons involved in the matter as well, but generally speaking they can all boil down to that one point.

Tachibana blinked. Then blinked again.

"...that's it? Just-- you existed?" He blinked once more, utterly baffled. That... that couldn't be the reason... could it?

Unless...

There's a moment where memory overtakes him, a montage of moments of him staring down at Hajime from behind his Rouzer.

'Jokers existence... will destroy everything!'

He looked to the side, pressing his lips together. ...was it something like Hajime's existence? Someone who's very presence threatened the world's safety...

Those images flash though Jules as well, and he bursts out laughing. At the same time the thought nearly guts him. If only it had been something like that. A reason like that he could understand. But no. It had never been something understandable.

"Minsid hell, I wish. That would at least explain why I was so hated. Nobody ever tried to kill me for any reason so noble."

And people were constantly trying to kill him. His first clear realization of that was when he'd been five years old, and it hadn't stopped since.

Tachibana's discomfort visibly grew as he looked away. "Stop commenting on my thoughts like I'm saying them aloud, damnit," he returned, though there was no bite behind the words, just discomfort and frustration.

"The hell reason did they have, then? Or even pretend to have?!"

as I just now notice the runaway italics whoops. :D

Been there, done that.

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The contrast of threads is cracking me up :D

Oh I know! I was just thinking how little Jules tried so hard to get this reaction and couldn't.

If Tachibana was any age other than hella old, he would likely have :D

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