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

[suspecteverything]

"Altered?"

He knows what that word means by definition, but not exactly how it should be applied to this situation. What, exactly, is altering humans? And why?

[triggerhappytraitor]

"Someone who's taken on an aspect of something else." He'd seen at least one other person already who looked like a fusion of human and... something else.

[suspecteverything]

Jules is so flabbergasted by that that he doesn't know how to respond for a while.

"Titana rael. Why would anyone want to do that? I get hell for it when it wasn't even my minsid choice!"

[triggerhappytraitor]

"I don't know," Tachibana answered honestly. "I don't even know if they did have a choice." After all, it wasn't as if he had chosen to keep anything from Galen, and yet....

[suspecteverything]

"Sometimes I seriously don't understand humans. Not that I understand Androkyn any better at times."

Generally speaking all beings could be jerks and make decisions that made absolutely no sense in Jules' mind.

[triggerhappytraitor]

A small, faint huff of amusement escapes Tachibana as yet again, he can't help but think of Hajime making the same general observation. "Most humans don't even understand other humans," he half shrugged. "Or even ourselves, sometimes."

He was very much a prime example there. If he understood why he did half the things he did...

... no, he likely still would have made the exact same choices and mistakes.

[suspecteverything]

"That at least I do understand. Not saying I make good choices, because I don't, generally speaking, but I understand why I make the decisions I make and act the way I act at least."

Nobody else really did, but he also understands that. Unless someone lived his life they wouldn't get it. Most people don't even believe him when he tries to explain it.

[triggerhappytraitor]

"Better man than me, in that regard," Tachibana replied, self deprecatingly. The knee jerk responses, the idiotic naivety, the endless trusting of people who in retrospect were clearly untrustworthy...

He had spent far more time simply blaming himself for his failures than he had trying to understand why, even after more than 12 years, he still was the same idiot he had been since the Battle Fight had restarted. Easier to just take responsibility for his actions and do what he could to repair the damage they had done then to deal with his inner demons.

..even if that very thing had lead to him falling inside of his own mind and needing to be rescued from himself by his friends.

[suspecteverything]

"Not a man, but I get the idea. Not that it's true. Pretty sure there are only a small handful of people you could consider me better than, and those beings set the bar pretty low for "good.""

They would pretty much all be included within his family too, with an odd exception here or there. Jules hadn't faced his own demons of his own will for the most part. It was about the only way he'd even stood a chance of surviving.

[triggerhappytraitor]

Look, if Tachibana can stubbornly insist that Joker, the Undead that exists only to cause the world's destruction, can be human and thus a man, you're getting pulled into that umbrella as well, Mr "my name is a weapon."

A small huff of amusement escaped Tachibana at that, as he shook his head. "I may not be a good judge of character, but that Garren isn't afraid of you and already considers you a friend means that you can't be that bad," he countered.

[suspecteverything]

Except Jules isn't human. He's Andarion, and Andarions don't take well to being called human. It's a pretty high insult. And his name is not a weapon! He's named after a Andarion legend of goddess created warriors known as the Dagger Ixur.

"Because Garren is smart enough not to poke a lorina."

Jules is decent enough until someone sets him off. Then it's over.

[triggerhappytraitor]

Tachibana blinked once, even as Garren made a small pleased sound. "A lorina?" he repeated curiously.

[suspecteverything]

"Ah. Sorry. It's an Andarion wild animal. Big cat. Very protective of it's territory. Basically if you leave a lorina alone, it'll watch you calmly but not do you any harm. Poke it and draw it's full attention though and you'll die, usually painfully. Lorinas are vicious."

Jules pretty much works the same way. He won't attack someone that leaves him be, but once someone targets him it's over. He won't stop until they're done for, and he's pretty brutal himself.

[triggerhappytraitor]

A faint smile touches Tachibana's face, the description bringing to mind the Tiger Undead. She would be proud to hear of that sort of species being similar to her own, no doubt.

"Garren has more discretion than I do, in that regard," he admitted. "More reasons I trust his judgement."

[suspecteverything]

Jules glances at Garren and can't help grinning.

"Well, at least you have a friend that can do that. The few friends I have work along the same lines I do. If one of us doesn't poke the lorina that other one will just for shits and giggles. Or more likely because they think it glared at them."

Pretty much all of his friends except for Jupiter are full blown assholes who attack first and ask questions later. It's just safer that way.

[triggerhappytraitor]

Garren waves a small victory sign at the grin, looking very pleased with himself.

"I'm more the sort of idiot that'll attack it because I don't realize it's not a threat," Tachibana admitted with a touch of chagrin. "Less so, since retiring, but that sort of instinct doesn't go away so easily."

There's a reason his default icon is "shoot first, questions never"

[suspecteverything]

"I'm not far from that either, but that's probably because most of the people around me are a threat."

Hard to be discriminate when most of them do actually want to kill him. Those that leave him alone are perfectly safe though.

[triggerhappytraitor]

"Not here, I'd hope."

Not that he had met too many people in this new world, but the ones he had seemed... standard Traveler types, really. With a few less of the "looks normal on the surface" and more of the types that he wouldn't be surprised had never even heard of Earth.

...and far less yelling over the network. Reasons that it was likely for the best that Jules hadn't given him his actual name. Even if he was utterly nothing like the panicky gargoyle who shared it.

[suspecteverything]

Jules would be one of those people who has never heard of "Earth," though at least he wouldn't be surprised to learn there's another plant out there. He's aware those within the United System can't be the only ones.

"People specifically, no, but you're in for a rude awakening if you think this place is remotely safe. My life isn't at risk quite as often as at home, but that says very little considering at home there was usually an attempt on my life every single day. Here this place itself is just constantly trying to kill us."

Which is almost worse given Jullien can't kill a place to protect himself.

[triggerhappytraitor]

"A hostile environment is a bit easier to deal with than a hostile population. Less motive and more being in the wrong place at the wrong time, for the most part," Tachibana reasoned.

"Thankfully, I do have a few means to keep my family safe." And for his own skin... that wasn't anything he had worried about even before Galen's ichor had infected him with immortality....

[suspecteverything]

"I would put a lot of creds on there being hostile intent and motive here."

He doesn't believe for a second that the disasters here aren't caused specifically to harm those dragged here against their will in one way or another. Jules' general bet is that it's all done to amuse a higher being.

[triggerhappytraitor]

Tachibana paused, blinking. "...You think the land itself is alive?" he asked. "Or more of... whatever it is those paper birds are supposed to be warning about."

[suspecteverything]

"I think this place is ruled and controlled by an incredibly powerful being that likes to toy with our lives."

Whether that's the Storyteller or not he can't say for sure, though he thinks the Storyteller is just a peon.

[triggerhappytraitor]

Tachibana looked down at the underside of his wrist, where his Mark was just barely visable, peeking out from under his watch band.

"Wouldn't surprise me if it were something like that. Last place... the ones in charge didn't seem to understand much at all about the people they brought in to be in their game."

There's a bit of a tired scowl as his thoughts drift to the utterly passive broken robotic mess that was the Hanged Man. It still irked him that it had claimed they were at all similar. Even at his worst, he had never given up that completely....

[suspecteverything]

"If you're just a piece of a game you don't need to be understood very much. Just enough to be used and manipulated well."

He knows that from experience. Ever since his birth the most he's ever been is a piece in his grandmother's game. Used by one person and then the next, Jules had always been controlled and manipulated by other people. That's one of the reasons why being here is so abrasive for him. He'd just managed to escape the worst of it at home, and now here he is being thrown right back in again. Just because it's a different game doesn't make it any better.