May Intro: I'll Be Scrolling Through Your Shrine

[lifeaftr_mods]

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 )

Comments

[ideismo]

...Both of them seemed a little unfortunate, to be fair to all involved...

[Our choices were kind of either Explosions Island or Let's Join A Cult.]

[journalname]

I was not here for the last island before Cahypdo that had people living on it. But I have heard that it was...

[how to understate this]

...they had some very rigid beliefs. That they expected others to follow. [All the islands are cult islands]

[ideismo]

And Cahypdo itself seemed to be a...somewhat friendlier...version of that...

[...]

...I see.

[journalname]

[..........]

If I am to be...blunt...I think the only island that did not carry something terrible with it was Nuidan. That was just abandoned farms in large part.

[ideismo]

[...]

Well, judging by the motif around here, I suppose all stories' protagonists have to go through something on a regular basis, otherwise it's not a terribly interesting story...

[We're in a goddamn isekai.]

[journalname]

[Asgore looks down at the ashes in his pot and in his fur, thinking again of Wheatley. That conversation has always stayed with him: two villains, properly struck down, all things as they should have been.]

I suppose we would be the protagonists, would we not...

[ideismo]

Always of our own stories, at least. It's not really within our ability to be the protagonist of anyone else's.

[He had tried being the hero that Terca Lumireis needed for so long. They just didn't want a hero, so he'd ultimately done what they asked of him.]

Do you disagree, then?

[journalname]

Ah, no, you're quite right.

[What is he going to do, confess the whole thing? That's a lot to dump on somebody out of nowhere.]

[ideismo]

[Mm.]

I have my own arguments with the role I was ultimately selected to play back home. No regrets, but arguments nonetheless.

But if this world wants to put the element of choice back in my own hands, I'm not going to complain.

[journalname]

I do find it...easier not to call myself a king here. It is not as if it matters, so far away from home.

[Asgore's had to admit to himself, finally, that he's happier not being a ruler at all. But his feelings about those feelings are still pretty mixed. Even if it was only an accident of birth, he still has - had - has responsibilities.]

[ideismo]

Honestly, I'm glad that you've had the opportunity for even that much.

[He still considers himself Commandant, he still introduces himself as such, but that's more a matter of personal preference than thinking it matters; he imagines this is closer to Lady Estellise's situation than anything.]

...We always do end up discussing such heavy things; I apologize. I'm afraid I'm not terribly accustomed to having...friends, simply those I speak to through duty.

[It's awkward, and the pause before the word accompanies an implied question mark after it, though he's quick to move past it; he doesn't know what he should consider this - friendship is another of those things that's always been out of the question for him and frankly disinterested him, always secondary to his work, but life here is already so goddamn weird.]

[journalname]

Oh, golly, I'm sure it is my fault as well.

[It's very true. But their lives seem to share certain commonalities, and...well, Asgore knows that he has not been the greatest company of late. The speed of life in Beacon, never having time to reflect on one death before there was another, was a difficult thing; still, without that driving force he so often seems to just get stuck.]

But it is good to have friends! I spent a great deal of time among my people, but I was only truly close to the Captain of my Guard, and that is not the same.

[Of course they're friends!]

[ideismo]

My second-in-command was probably the one I spoke to most openly - but as you've said, it's quite the different thing.

[Were he a different sort, this might have given him pause and led him to question what his relationship with Schwann actually was. As it is, he knows; it was...uh, bad. It was bad? It was bad.]

What was yours like? This captain.

[journalname]

Ah, Undyne. I have known her since she was a child - she came to the throne room all by herself to challenge me to battle!

[It was? Adorable??? Even with Asgore's low-key trauma about children showing up to fight him, honestly.]

I trained her for years, after that. She is still as brash as ever, but she only wants the best for our people. [His smile turns a little melancholy.] I do hope she is doing well.

[She's the only person he's really sorry about leaving behind. Toriel clearly will not miss him, and he rarely saw Alphys in person anyway. But Undyne has a lot of friends, and she is so full of life. She will be alright.

But hey, let's not nosedive directly into heavy again!]

And your second-in-command?

[ideismo]

[He's quiet for a moment, not disliking the question but trying to find a way to answer it.]

His name is Schwann Oltorain. He was a commoner that joined the knights once he was old enough to do so, serving a brigade I was overseeing myself.

He's a quiet person. Stoic, but not unkind. Not the sort that likes to fight, but when he does he gives it all he has. I took him in myself after the war, as he was gravely injured and had no one else; he returned the favor later when there was an incident at headquarters that nearly killed me. He looked after me for months.

[It's not something he usually thinks about in so many words, though that's exactly what happened; it's a little awkwardly-stated, but then Alexei has never really been great at discussing such things to begin with.]

He's had difficulties in the past with finding meaning and purpose in life; he lost everything during the war. For a while he only had me. But he seems to be finding his way; he's changed quite a bit. He speaks his mind more often; he tells me things he never would have before. He has friends now. It's been interesting to see it.

[journalname]

Oh, that is nice to hear!

[he's fighting you while you try to do something terrible isn't he]

It was good of you to be so kind to him.

[ideismo]

[we're currently having some slight ideological differences]

...I think he's far kinder than I am, to be honest. He's had many reasons to resent me over the years, but he never seems to.

[journalname]

[Oh, that sounds like something Asgore's been accused of doing a lot.]

I am sure he has his reasons. Perhaps it was not as bad as you think it is?

[ideismo]

[Mm.]

What happened to him during the war was unforgivable. It's possible your kingdom is a fairer place than the Empire, but as Commandant, I bear responsibility for the well-being of our people. If something happens to compromise that, it's likely my error. I can see where, in this case, that is undeniably true.

[In other words, as far as the Empire is concerned, everything is his fault - even and especially when it isn't.]

[journalname]

...I can understand that.

[Asgore figures pretty much everything that's ever gone wrong in the kingdom is his fault, too.]

[ideismo]

I thought you might.

I did what I could, but it wasn't enough. It's the way of things sometimes, but that doesn't make it excusable. He's had every right to condemn me for it, but he hasn't.

...He's tried to reassure me, as you have. To try to tell me to not blame myself, and that what I've been trying to do is worth it. It's good of him.

[journalname]

[Asgore listens quietly, and nods. It's all very familiar. Frisk, for all that they've taken the space he's tried to give them here, was quite the same.]

If you did your best, that is all anyone could really expect of you. Regardless of your position, you are only human.

[and other sage advice Asgore gives and doesn't take!]

[ideismo]

I imagine you likewise understand the notion that sometimes one's best isn't enough, and that one's position makes all the difference, unfortunately enough. Faltering in one's work as a commoner is one thing; those in positions of power are responsible for far more lives than their own. Lives have been lost due to my decisions. It's not something I'm proud of, but something that happened regardless.

[He'll pause then, though.]

...I don't want you to think that your words aren't appreciated, howwver; you've always been kind to me, and I admit that these are things I don't often hear. So perhaps it's just that I'm unused to them that makes me debate the point so much.

[The Empire is kind of full of assholes? There are many assholes.]

[journalname]

[Asgore lapses into silence, looking off over the waves. After a moment, he forces a smile. Of course he says such things to a friend; how could he not? But if somebody said something like that to him?]

I admit it is far easier to say things like that to someone else. I do not think I could accept such words for myself, either.

[ideismo]

I imagined so.

[He's quiet for a moment.]

We seem to have a fair amount in common, really. It's good to have found someone that understands.

[Even if that someone isn't human; he likely would have tried to kill Asgore without a second thought back in Terca Lumireis, just to see if his soul would crystallize if he forced enough aer into it. Even if he hadn't, the idea of friendship with monsters would have disgusted him; is this what it was like for Duke, then...?]

As difficult though such things are to accept, I still do think it important that we should try. Even if our best isn't always enough, I never find trying to be meaningless