lifeaftr | 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

Oh, I know, look at me.

[A weak sort of grin.]

But I think my kind of dead guy has a lot more, ah, options to do things.

Oh, not necessarily. The dead still have other dead people around, in the best case scenario. That's all you need.

[Maybe they don't have ghost capitalism or something, but it matters how they treat each other.]

That's true, I guess. Kind of a nasty way to get people to bond.

['Kind of', hell.]

[Michael just shrugs.]

Can't make them do it on Earth. [Outside of a few extremely specific cases, and anyway - he puts his cards down:] I win.

[My, doesn't he look nervous. He should have tried harder, perhaps. Too late now.]

...Congratulations. Uh. Now what?

[Michael holds out a hand for Hector's cards; he's already taken his own and placed them back into the deck.]

I dunno. Another round?

[He hands them back, glancing up at all that rock.]

Sure, I guess. You really can't get us out? No, I don't know, zipping off somewhere?

No, my portal key's not working.

[He takes out what's basically a car keyfob and clicks it a few times. It's got a cute frog keychain on it.]

I can try abandoning my physical form, go see what there is to see? But it's not on this plane of existence, so not great for lifting rubble.

Can it--you, can you talk to anyone like that? Tell them where we are?

Can anybody here see in nine dimensions?

[honest question, like, he doesn't know the species spread here]

[And he does??]

Maybe? I don't have a clue. Plenty of weird people around, someone might?

Well, okay, worth a shot. Keep an eye on this for me? I have to say, I've grown fond of it.

[Michael lays himself down against the wall like he expects to go entirely limp presently.

He does not.]

What the fuck... [He sits up sharply.] What the fuck? No no no no no...

[He starts to claw at his face and neck in, frankly, an alarming manner.]

[He flinches back, bones clacking against each other as they all jostle in their sockets. Not good, not good!!]

What?! What is it?! Dios mío... was he possessing you?!

What? [At least that question snaps him out of his panic for a second.] It's still me, you - I can't get out of here. Why can't I get out of here?

[And we're back to panic! He shakes his hands violently, like that might somehow just fling him free. Michael doesn't consider his body a prison, per se; it's more like one of his suits, something he wears so he can go about his business. An old, reliable tool. Something he even cares for, in a way.

But being trapped in it makes everything seem rather more claustrophobic.]

I need you to kill me immediately. How can you kill me, how can you kill me... [That's not even really directed at Hector; he's just mentally running through how he can be killed. Demons make much higher-quality bodies than humans; they can take a lot of punishment.]

What?! [Any more of this and he's going to be stuck in 'what' mode forever, sheesh. Too damn much. Someone please be digging him out up there...]

No! I'm not going to do that! What's the matter with you?

I'm trapped in a flesh prison! I thought I made that very clear with the yelling!

[aaaaaaaaaaaaa he'd try it himself but he didn't see anything sharp in here]

[There is that glowing knife, which he hasn't put out. You know, like a moron.]

I don't know how to perform an exorcism! I didn't even think that kind of stuff was real!

They're not! That's just another dumb thing humans made up to torture each other with! We don't even possess people!

[Which isn't the same as "we can't possess people", but really Michael doesn't see the point in doing that? He holds out a hand, waggling his fingers.]

Lemme see your knife.

No! Don't you dare!

[He snatches up the knife from where it was, wedged between his metatarsals, and holds it behind his back, 'breathing' rapidly.]

You are not going to leave me down here with a dead body!

You are a dead body!

[But he doesn't make another go for the knife, just scratches at his wrist around the cuffs of his sleeves, leg jiggling. He was fine before; now he's all anxious.]

It's not like I've spent a ton of time out of it anyway. Pretty much none, past thousand years or so. But I knew I could, you know?

Like hell I am! [Gross, bad. No.

Also. Seriously. What is going on??] No, I don't know. I don't know anything. I didn't do anything.

What do you call all this? An anatomy display?

[Michael gestures sharply at All The Skeleton going on, but otherwise subsides into something more like a great sulk.]

I never said you did anything. You couldn't do this.

April Intro: Better Get to Digging

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