lifeaftr | May Intro: I'll Be Scrolling Through Your Shrine

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May Intro: I'll Be Scrolling Through Your Shrine

INTRO LOG: MAY

Who: New arrivals, and you!
What: New souls arrive to the archipelago of LifeAftr
When: May 4th and onward
Where: Ensō
Warnings: Mark as needed!

With potentially odd dreams connecting you to people you've never met, in addition to the dream-lecture only recently received from a horned rabbit, LifeAftr surely doesn't need to try to be disconcerting upon arrival - and yet, it somehow continues to go the extra mile. While new arrivals will find themselves upon the now (mostly) safe shores of Ensō, there is one, small problem with where, precisely, they've happened to appear.

Chamber of Glyphs: It Was Written On Your Wall
Within the temple of the Storyteller, one may find a very special room. Betwixt the reality of waking and dreams, the Chamber of Glyphs appears to hold many unique features that allow it to appear wherever one may seek it, both in waking and sleep.

It is not, however, a good room to arrive within. Those seeking out the newest members of LifeAftr's adventuring party - and those who are simply looking to draw - will be greeted, upon entering the Chamber of Glyphs, with the most alarming sight. The small pile of backpacks, unattended, might be the first thing you notice, as well as the fact that they all seem to be adorned with names of those you might not know. Or the names of those that you do, but haven't seen in some time. Perhaps you met them in a dream...

And those of you who are newly arrived, you'll be able to see them searching. Unable to break the barrier between you with sound, you might feel the urge to wave your hands for attention, attracting searching eyes to the walls. Walls that you are now a part of. Hopefully this reduction to the second dimension is only temporary.

Those who took part in April's Test Drive Meme may have the benefit of familiarity, for what is etched onto the walls of the Chamber are never lacking life, regardless of the matter used to draw, paint, or sketch those contents.

With maneuverability somewhat akin to a sidescroller - always left or right, up and down, but never outward - the variety of scenes, animals, places, objects, and more are simply all the more to your advantage. Leap to the vantage point necessary to be noticed, as your fellow adventurers may be able to help you out of this predicament with a simple offer of their hand to tug you off the wall. It's an easy solution to your predicament, at least! All they need to do is take your hand to free you from your two-dimensional containment.

If it proves more difficult...well, at the least they know you're there to point out thanks to a very tired Storyteller, who will be certain to let anyone in the vicinity know that you're in need of help within the Chamber of Glyphs, before one of the many, many monsters that have been scribbled onto stone lay claim to you instead.

What kind of monsters, you ask? All of them, of course.

Ensō: Rain Hell
But maybe you don't wake up written on the walls! Maybe you're just relieved to get unstuck from those walls and need a breath of fresh air. Or maybe you don't have any reason to go poking around in search of new arrivals at all. That does not mean, however, that you won't be encountering a new arrival of your own in the interim.

The sky is clouded over and gray, despite the sun overhead and the generally warm weather. The nights are filmed over with a screen of pale dust. This has little to do with the forecast and more to do with the volcanic eruption that occurred just a few weeks prior, on another island in the archipelago. You don't need to worry about the nature of the ash still drifting on the wind currents - aside from the more standard obstruction of sight and airways, it is, at this point, more or less perfectly ordinary. Though if you've got some fragile lungs, you might want to stay out of it as much as possible.

More important is the creature that the hazy cast of ash and dust has coaxed out of hiding. Perhaps you've heard of it in folklore: resplendent with dark gray, furry wings, and glistening red eyes. Or, perhaps, you're less fortunate, and you've no cultural experience regarding the strange monster known colloquially only as...Mothman.

At over seven feet tall and with a wingspan of about fifteen feet, the Mothman makes for far more fearsome a sight than it does a threat. For all intents and purposes, despite the devilish red of its glowing eyes and its large, hairy stature, the Mothman is ultimately quite harmless. It does, however, tend to inspire paranoia in fear in the hearts and minds of those it encounters. And this smokescreen in the air has created the perfect environment for it to hunt.

It doesn't want your flesh, or your bones, or anything so base. It only wants your mind, in a sense; your fear and whatever primal terror it may ignite by preying on your paranoia. It will stalk you, rustling the leaves behind you, snapping twigs to your left, allowing you a glimpse of bright crimson eyes before dispersing into the surrounding, ashy murk. The good news is that once it has you scared, it has no intention of sticking around - and its wings makes it incredibly fast, when it wants to be. Anyone who attempts to attack it directly will discover just how speedy it can be, assuming that the air from its wingbeats don't end up pinning you flat to the ground from the sheer force.

The Mothman can be killed, most likely...but there are a lot of you, and only one cryptid for an entire island. It's not likely to want to stay in one place if it feels it's outnumbered, or that it's about to be attacked by someone who isn't so easily stricken by the fear and suspicion it endeavors to ignite. Those who wish to escape it can at least take heart in the fact that the Mothman abhors open spaces, largely preferring the sanctuary of woodland and greenery; all one has to do is reach Ensō's shores to be largely safe from its influence.

Though you could try killing it too, of course. If you wanted.

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

[In summary: both of these idiots have a tenuous grasp of reality at the best of times. They cannot be considered reliable narrators in regards to their own lives in any respect. They never know what's going on and Klaus thinks it's just very sexy of them to be like that.

But, yeah, even without the added effect of... pulling a person into the third dimension, Klaus is still kind of struck speechless for about half a second at the mere concept of Ben having warm hands. It's still most likely Five's power, honestly, because... Klaus doesn't want to handle the idea that he might have upgraded from seeing ghosts to manifesting ghosts to reviving ghosts. He'd rather go back to numbing himself if the other option was having to deal with bringing random people to life uncontrollably. What if he trips over Andrew Jackson's grave the wrong way. What if.

But, well, he doesn't have to think too hard about that, so he doesn't. For now, it's just Ben being the anomaly as per the ush', which Klaus is somewhat comfortable with.

Somewhat, because he's also kind of not letting go of Ben's hand yet, kind of flinging it around in a haphazard gesturing as he talks.]

Look at you. All solid and shit. You're remembering your breathing lessons, right? In and out, like a person.

[We're ignoring the insults to Klaus' genius because they don't need to be addressed, thanks. Klaus knows he's hilarious.]

I'm pretty sure your breathing lesson was more like "stop! don't do that!" and it was useless, actually.

[No, he's not going to let that one go. They're brothers, twelve years from now Klaus is gonna bring up that (1) time Ben smacked the back of his head and Ben's going to be like "you told me to stop breathing!" and Five will probably be sipping a margarita like "I miss being alone in an apocalypse wasteland."

Sibling culture is absolutely never letting go of tiny, insignificant slights.]

Have you seen anybody else yet?

[Klaus makes an incredulous face. Really. You're still holding onto that.

(Of course he is.)

But, well, okay, serious time. Klaus finally releases Ben's arm, scratching at his eyebrow a little. Actually, as he talks, he... scratches a few different places.

He's fidgeting.]

Technically, yes. No one we know. Just... people. Around.

[He gestures at the knapsack at his shoulder.]

Each of these little welcome gifts is for a specific person, I guess.

Were you looking through them for drugs? [Ben's eyes narrow.] Is that why you were looking through the bags?

[It's not even necessarily that Ben doesn't trust Klaus. It's that he knows Klaus and stressful situations tend to mean getting high. Is this a stressful situation? Well. It's stressful for Ben, so he assumes it's probably stressful for Klaus. Just maybe, uh. Not as stressful? Since Klaus has actually been alive recently and didn't have to learn how to breathe again.]

Ugggghhhh.

[The groan Ben's heard a million times. Because this is far from the first time he's attempted sobriety, or at least pretended to. Just, you know, also his longest streak.

Yes, his longest streak is two days.]

No, I wasn't looking for drugs, I was looking for your bag, mom. God! You want me to turn my pockets inside out for you too, while I'm at it?

[And then, because Klaus can't do anything not completely dramatically, he makes a big show of pulling out all his completely empty jacket pockets.]

See? Totally clean! You can even frisk me if you want, since you know, you can do that now.

Oh, sorry for caring about your wellbeing. [Ben rolls his eyes.] Stop being a drama queen, you could've just said no.

[Is Ben acutely aware that asking Klaus to stop being dramatic is like asking him to stop breathing? Yes. Has that stopped him from saying it? Absolutely not.

He does roll his eyes before actually going over to the bags to find his own though. It might be useful and uh. He doesn't actually. Own anything else? At all? So.]

[Klaus also rolls his eyes, because fuck you is why. And while Ben's back is turned, he's going to stick his tongue out at him. And then flip him off.

We're extremely mature over here. 29-going-on-13.

As soon as Ben glances back, though, Klaus just tries to look casual and like he totally wasn't doing or saying anything.]

You know the monsters are omnipotent, right?

[They actually are, but not in this dimension. Anyway Ben's got his bag now. Wow! Much stuff, many bag.]

And really? Making faces? You're like 30.

[Ben actually definitely does not know for a fact that's what Klaus waz doing and is absolutely just guessing based on a decade of hanging out with Klaus exclusively. It just sounds cooler if he pretends like he's omnipotent and not just guessing or using information Klaus accidentally told him while high.]

What the fuck, that's cheating! You can't phone a friend in!

[And, yeah, obviously Klaus doesn't question the fact that Ben can just see everything everywhere. Like he knows how anything works. He doesn't even know how his own power works.]

What have you got, anyway? Mine had this urn guy— [oh right Urnest is still here, it's basically just sitting around now since Klaus hasn't left its side] —who is I guess in love with me, and... a hammer? That's not gonna get used correctly, for the record.

[Because, like, Klaus also... kind of had nothing on him when he came here, too. We Are In The Same Boat.]

You phone friends in all the time!

[They're just. Different. And also not technically friends.]

Oh, gross. Do you ever just consider not saying half of the things that come out of your mouth?

[Because of course Ben understands exactly what Klaus is implying there. He has seen too much, too many times. He does obediently go through his bag though.]

There's a saw, a plastic thing - oh, good. I have a first aid kit for when you do something dumb and get hurt. Also a bunch of rocks.

[Why does he have so many rocks.]

My friends aren't freaking Elder Gods!

[Also, like, Klaus hasn't fully decided what the hammer's going to get used for yet, truthfully. He was just being gross on purpose. You're welcome, bro.

He just also isn't about to go around learning carpentry.]

Does your rock have a TV on it? My rock has a TV on it.

[Klaus also pulls out... a rock. Amazing.]

Yeah, I got one of those and then this.

["This" being the seed that grows a tree. Which actually looks like a gemstone, but in Ben's mind that's just a sparkly rock. There's also the rock candy but he's definitely not sharing that so. He's just not gonna show Klaus.]

This is apparently a tree?

[Klaus... looks at the weird gem seed. And then just shakes his head with a sigh.]

Ben. Ben, Ben, Ben. Did you really forget what a tree is? They're those big tall things with the brown wood and the mostly-green leaves. We can go out and see if there are any and I can introduce you again.

[He is 100% intentionally being a dick right now. This is who you've chosen to live with.

Not that either of them had much choice, but.]

We time traveled and rocks that turn into trees is where you're drawing the line? Seriously?

[He knows what a tree is!!! He's seen trees recently!!!]

I have a portal to another dimension under my skin, you can see ghosts, and our sister just tried to cause the end of the world. A rock that turns into a tree is the least weird thing we've seen recently.

[Wow, don't remind him. As soon as Ben mentions Vanya, Klaus goes from looking like he's stifling laughter to a grimace, rubbing his temple.]

This is a very different kind of weird. This is a fantastical sort of weird that isn't actively killing anyone.

[...Wait, when he puts it that way, it sounds kind of great. Klaus looks back up at Ben, face deathly serious.]

Do you want to see what kind of tree it is.

We can't plant it here.

[Ben's just giving Klaus a Look™, one that Klaus has probably seen before. It's the one that means "You're stupid. I can't believe we're related."]

[The look Klaus is giving Ben translates, in response, to "I fully admit to being a complete idiot and we're doing this now. I have zero regrets."]

You're the one insisting it's a fucking tree! Slap that sucker on the floor! Come on! Let's see it!

[And, since Ben is taking too long in Klaus' opinion, he just marches over and tries to knock it out of his brother's hand to see what happens. DOES IT NEED TO BE BURIED? Who knows, Klaus doesn't.]

You're supposed to bury it, stupid. Don't you remember how plants work? Should I draw a picture for you?

[He says it slightly mockingly, because he's stressed out and Klaus is the only one around to take it out on. Ben does pick it up and shove it into his pocket, though.]

If you'd think with your head for like two seconds, you'd realize we don't have water. You know, the thing plants need to grow.

That's NOT a seed!!

[Klaus isn't giving up at this point, even if Ben is using things like "logic" and "reason", because now he's annoyed and just wants to hassle his sibling. And, like, we're all stressed out here, it's a great time.

So he just tries to violently steal it back out of Ben's pocket.]

It already doesn't work like plants do, apparently!

[Ben forgets for a second that he's, like, solid? Because usually when they fight Klaus goes right through him and so he stands still and doesn't move until Klaus actually bumps into him and then Ben remembers that happens now and reflexively shoves at Klaus. Hard, because Ben still hasn't quite worked out the difference between when he was dead and being alive.

It has been like five minutes and they could not keep it together long enough to figure out where they are. Ben is alive again and they're just immediately getting into a fight. This absolutely scans and yet. And Yet.]

[Klaus has all the constitution of a wet noodle on his best days, of which this is decidedly not one. Ben, meanwhile, isn't exactly Luther, but he doesn't have to be. Klaus flies backward, falling prone on the stone floor of the temple.

Already keyed up, he just kicks at Ben's ankles from the floor. He doesn't, like, plan on actually hurting him? But he also isn't planning anything else in particular, as usual.

Really, he's just acting out at this point.]

[It's been a pretty bad month for Five, all things considered. The whole scavenging thing was really the least of his worries, once he'd found the Denny and learned there may not be any coffee, but there is a steady supply of alcohol available. Having frustratingly vague ideas on how to factor a whole entire new universe into his calculations is another big one and he's been running out of space for his thoughts since pretty much day one.

But no, turns out losing his entire family again was going to be the main drain on his sanity.

And then a goddamn volcano erupted, choking the air with ash for weeks on end. The first few days were a blur (literally), but eventually he'd managed to determine that no, he wasn't the last person left alive around here, and all other concerns had taken a backseat to trying to wait it out holed up in his hideout.

Of course, now that Dolores is here, she's kicked him out immediately to make himself useful and that's why he's checking out the general ruckus that seems to be happening in the temple. Despite the tropical heat, he's dressed protectively in some of the remnants of the clothes pile - actually sensible if too large trousers, a jacket that doesn't make him look like an escaped Hogwarts student, and something that used to be a leopard-print tshirt covering most of his face.

He hears Klaus' petulant voice from somewhere within the ruins and almost doesn't dare go after it, could be a trick of acoustics, he'd barely known his siblings' adult characteristics, probably just some other loud annoying idiot he doesn't want to deal with.

But realistically, when is he ever wrong?

Though he definitely wasn't expecting the two-for-one bargain. Not only is it very much, very appallingly Klaus, there's also Ben looking considerably more solid than the last time Five saw him.

You'll forgive him for feeling slightly like he's seeing not just one, but two ghosts.

In fact, he's shocked enough he watches their entire toddler-tier squabble play out from the doorway. Oh, how he hasn't missed this. The shoving is where he draws the line and he pulls down the cloth from his mouth to shout at them.]

What are you-- Stop it, you morons!

[Thank god nobody will ever know he was happy to see them for an entire 2.5 seconds there before they ruined it.]

He started it!

[In some part of Ben's brain he's like barely 17 and "he started it" is a valid excuse for being stressed out and wanting to go home. He always wants to go home. Ben's easily stressed out and he doesn't like new situations and he doesn't like that he's alive and solid but his body is all weird and wrong.

And you know, telling Five that Klaus started it is the first thing all day that's felt kind of normal.]

[Klaus has evolved to just, like, kid-wrestling his brother, basically. He's attempting to get Ben into a headlock. He's not doing very well.

But hearing Five's scolding voice is still an immense relief.]

Five, thank God you're here, you need to time travel Ben back into a ghost, you've accidentally made him insufferable!

I-- What?

[Hold on, it's been long enough he's almost forgotten that trying to parse anything Klaus says is absolutely pointless. He sighs as if trying to center himself amidst a storm of idiocy.]

You sure you want to be throwing stones in that particular glass house, Klaus?

[Next he glances at Ben, who is-- or at least used to be, slightly more informative.] Where the hell did you guys come from?

[If anyone was expecting him to physically break up their baby fight, fuck off, he's not the damn nanny.]

May Intro: I'll Be Scrolling Through Your Shrine

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