August Intro: These Days Are Feeling Dark

[lifeaftr_mods]

INTRO LOG: AUGUST

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

Our lucky new adventurers join the archipelago on a new chapter of our journey, with the new island of Nastrandir playing host to their arrival. With the events of last month leaving many questions in those more settled in LifeAftr, all will find they soon have…other things to think about.

New arrivals may awake at either of the locations listed below. Or they may wander!

A4: Show Me Distraction
In comparison to the warm welcome characters experienced on Io, the land of Nastrindir is not at all promising. The strip of coast hosting the mana pool is a scoop of rock and cliff, and rather unforgiving. To the east, however, it looks as though nearby wetlands leave the horizon lost in a foggy haze. The mana pool is generally a comforting, reliable constant on any island...generally. There looks to be something wrong with this one. The rocks surrounding it are blackened, various spots across their surface almost glass-like under the summer sun. After a brief inspection, most will probably gather that the pool has been set on fire in times past.

More annoying still is the tampering that's occured within the pool. The pool is partially obstructed, due to a blockage of tumbled rocks and boulders that seem to have fallen from the surrounding rocky landscape and toppled into the raised plinth. The choking of the mana water will make return trips to Ensō…inconvenient, to say the least. The rocks are an annoyance that will need to be removed before anyone will be travelling anywhere. Also of note are the old statues that stand at opposing sides of the mana pool. In their prime, they may have towered a good fifteen or twenty feet tall. Now, however, one has been tipped onto its side, and there are large, crumbled chunks taken out of the other. Both look blackened, much like the mana pool, as though they were also set on fire at some point in their history. Whatever they may have meant to depict has been lost to time...but the parts of them that have survived look to represent smooth, rounded coils of something or another.

It might feel, to the particularly wary or those prone to paranoia, like these statues are watching you. Like they're representative of something else that might have its eye on you, even now.

Or they might not! It could be all in your head. What's way more important is the local flora in the vicinity. The parts of the land that have soil are currently host to some delightful plants that are known, colloquially, as candyplants. And, yes - they're exactly what they sound like. Candyplants are odd plants that are not unlike a melon vine, except that their fruits take the form of giant candies. The candyfruit is quite edible, though much higher in sugar content than your more bog standard varieties of fruits and vegetables. The variation in the shapes and sizes and flavors is tremendous - some are shaped like fruit, and will have a very similar taste to the fruit they represent. The only exceptions are the ones that look rather like overgrown candy corn, which taste like...marshmallows, for some reason. But they still taste sweet, and they're still full of some of the nutrients you'd expect to find in ordinary fruit!

While candyplants are somewhat less sugary than their real candy equivalents, it's still not recommended that you gorge on them overmuch. They're probably pretty bad for your teeth, if you have any. Candyplants do keep for quite some time, though - particularly if dried, packed in jars, or otherwise preserved.

Candyplants grow in temperate areas near quantities of fresh water - which Nastrandir has in abundance. Most of them grow in shaded, open areas along the ground, like melons; plants that bear smaller candyfruits may instead behave like grapes and other climbing vines, especially when they would be otherwise crowded out by other ground plants. The plants and fruits are quite harmless, though the sweet, sugary smell that tends to linger around areas of rampant growth during hot weather can cause one hell of migraine.

B4: Snakes Are Biting at My Heels
Those who arrive a little ways away from the mana pool or find themselves daring enough to start exploring will end up on the B4 square, which is closer to the swampy environment more characteristic of Nastrandir's inland. The further east one progresses, the wetter and softer the ground underfoot will get, until you're slogging thigh-deep in freshwater algae and muck. It's pretty dirty work, but it's probably more advisable that you go roaming into the wetlands rather than sticking around in the rockier regions. - especially because those regions happen to be occupied.

That feeling of paranoia that may or may not have settled on the back of your neck on A4 will turn out to be justified. Flickers of motion in the corner of your eye, the sensation of something watching you, the clattering of pebbles and rocks sliding down the sloping inclines on Nastrandir's craggy landscape - all signs indicative that something else frequents this region.

And something does. Something large, scaly, and very hungry.

Rocobra have now been unlocked in the bestiary!
The spiny protrusions on this creature's long, sinuous body will make it quite difficult to distinguish from its surroundings; these beasts tend to disguise themselves as the surrounding mountain rock where they live. Mild chameleonic properties allow this predator to blend almost seamlessly in with a rocky environment of almost any texture and color. And, given the size of them, it's very possible you won't realize that you're stuck in one's coils until it's too late.

With thick, scaly hides, large jaws, and venomous teeth, the rocobra is deadly fast despite its significant bulk. Even at their smallest, the rocobra is often as thick as a tree trunk in girth, and can range from thirty to sixty feet in length. Rocobra specialize in draping themselves in a circle, concealing themselves among their surroundings, and waiting for unsuspecting prey to wander somewhere in their coils before drawing tight around them to constrict them into a slow and painful death, so they might be devoured.

The good news is that rocobra only ever hunt and live in solitude; it is highly unlikely you'll find more than one in any one area. Most cannot spit venom, but can deal a paralyzing strike with massive fangs that are just as likely to impale you as they are to poison you. The good news is that they do have a weakness, and that weakness is numbers - when there is more than one target for the rocobra to focus on, it can get hopelessly confused over who it should be striking first, and can be easily distracted and led along by a well-coordinated team or pair. It's advised that you strike it at the mouth, if possible, as those scales can be awfully hard to penetrate.

While the danger rocobra present is very real, that doesn't mean they're completely useless. Rocobra can potentially be harvested for venom, meat, or their tough, scaly hides.

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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

[postictal]

And to clear up this mess, yeah.

[No one likes a mana pool full of rocks. Not fun for anybody coming in.]

Might come in handy. I wanna see if we can dry 'em, or make 'em into a jam or something like that. If we can store them somewhere, or even grow them on Ensō, that might make a pretty good food source.

[catpiper]

[Well, she can help speed this process along. The rock she had been showing off is slipped into her pocket and she picks up a bigger one, tossing it off to the side. Her balance is pretty good. She didn't fall over?? But it also didn't help that much. At least she's making An Attempt.]

Sometimes the food I have gets very dry or turns into 'jam.'

[Thanks to the power of nature and her desire to hoard. It's never her intention.]

I'll see if this stuff does that kind of thing and then we can share it.

[postictal]

[Look, she's not getting in the way or falling in. That's good enough for him.]

Yeah, that's what happens when you don't eat it in time. There's ways to store it that keep it from going bad. Drying stuff out means you can keep it for longer without worrying about it making you sick.

[Food Preservation 101 is coming a bit late, but he'd rather she not get sick eating something that's gone bad, okay.]

[catpiper]

[Those days have come and gone. She's an expert on how to eat around mold and on how much jam you can really consume before you Don't Feel Great. The answer is usually a little bit and she's keeping her stuff for emergencies only.

Iron stomach, thy name is Ren.]

You put stuff in 'freezers,' right? So it won't change color and taste weird. That's how it works?

[postictal]

That's...one thing you can do, yeah. We don't have that here, but maybe we could figure out how to fix something up.

[Look, he's been there. He's had to eat shit that he wouldn't ordinarily bother with, because he was broke and living on the road and rationing your funds to afford the gas necessary to keep driving occasionally meant eating something that would come back to bite you later. Or just not eating at all.]

[catpiper]

[Then join the rotten food club Tim DAMN. Stop stiffing her creativity. Klaus appreciates her skills, in a way.]

We could use cold magic. Someone might know that kind of thing.

[postictal]

[NO]

Yeah, probably. I think one of Guzma's pokemon might be able to do something along those lines. Just not sure how to keep it cold, you know?

[catpiper]

You can put it in the ground-it's cold there.

[Or at least cooler than the hot island air.]

And hide it in the shade and then blow ice on it all the time.

[TECHNOLOGY IS SIMPLE they don't need scientists.]

[postictal]

I'm not sure it's that simple, but it's a thought.

[He doesn't know enough about the science of this to tell her all the ways that it's wrong, but he's pretty sure he doesn't want to store his stuff in the ground for an extended period of time. A basement, maybe...]

I could just ask the Storyteller for an icebox or something like that. You ever seen one of those?

[catpiper]

[The one they have around camp might be an icebox? She doesn't know. It keeps food relatively chill, probably. She doesn't actually know the details and it's probably time she changed that. Maybe this afternoon she's gonna heck around with the camp equipment.]

I don't know.

[postictal]

It's kind of a...I mean, it's a box. Obviously.

[God, how do you explain the concept to someone who's probably never even had a soft drink? He's not sure he should be the one to introduce soda to her when sugar highs are definitely a thing for little kids, but also - doesn't she deserve to know what that is?]

You put drinks and stuff in it and it keeps them cold, even if it's hot out.

[catpiper]

Can you sleep in it?

[Because she's thinking that kind of bed would be nice in a tropical environment. If all you have to do is lay in a box and nap-that would be great.]

[postictal]

Not that big a box. And also...not very safe to do.

[Or comfortable? Who wants to lie down on a bed full of ice cubes and soda cans?]

[catpiper]

[Maybe she does TIM. Maybe she wants to hoard her treasure in a frozen box and then lay on it to stay nice and cool instead of baking in the hot sun.

She's a genius. This is fine. Give her an icebox.]

If it's scary, I won't do that.

[But she'll be the judge of how spooky that is when she sees it.]

I want to put my treasures in it too. Then they'll be safe.

[postictal]

[Tim closes his eyes for a period of time just barely longer than a standard blink.]

Iceboxes are really best for food and stuff. But if you want, I can make you a box to keep your stuff in. Outta wood, and you can do whatever you want with it.

[He's not sure if he could manage a lock and key. Probably not...and that's probably not a good idea. She might lose the key. Or hide it, because it's a treasure in its own right, or something.]

[catpiper]

[He can't mentally call her out like this, but yeah no lock is wise as hell.

She looks interested? Extremely interested at the possibility of a treasure box.]

Can I watch you make it?

[postictal]

Yeah, if you want. It's not very interesting though.

[Just...carving blocks of wood down into something that someone can put things into. The hinges will be the hardest part. Maybe he should ask the Storyteller for those. Wood hinges might be doable, but...that'll take a bit.]

[Or he could just make it an open box with a lid, rather than something complicated. That'd be easier, and probably harder to break.]

[catpiper]

That's okay. I think it's very fun just to sit by you.

[If she had any inclination or desire to do work or put effort into anything, she might pick up a thing or two. Tragically, that won't happen.

But she likes being with Tim and wants to see him create this dank thing.]

I like doing that.

[postictal]

If...that's what you want, sure. I guess we don't have television here.

[So you go out and make your own fun, or something like that. Does she even know what a TV is? He's got no idea. That'll be a bit more of a stretch to manage than an icebox.]

[catpiper]

[She whispers Television to herself because what does that mean, Tim.]

Is that like darkvision? Does it help you play hide and seek?

[postictal]

Nah. It's...it's this box that plays pictures of things, kinda. It's hard to explain.

[God, especially 'cause she has no reference point here. Why did he bring this up. Now he has to explain it.]

Videos, mostly.

[catpiper]

[Guess what? The explanation does help, because she helpfully remembers-]

I know that kind of thing. The cameras took videos and played them where the- [Well, Tim can probably guess.] Where they were.

[She was on TV all the TIME before the apocalypse.]

I like watching people when they're in front of me. So it's okay we don't have a 'television' here.

[postictal]

[Oh, thank god. She knows what a TV is. Probably not the best connotation, but...yeah. All the more reason to show her a better TV than the one she got.]

Not everything on a television is, uh...like that. Sometimes they show funny stuff, or music, shows for kids. Stuff like that.

[catpiper]

[It's hard to visualize all that-she doesn't know what it means. It was easier when she could associate them with security cameras, but, well-

Weird. What even are kid shows??? ]

Did you like television? Did you watch a lot of things?

[postictal]

Not really, no. Not until college. Wasn't a lotta TV where I came from, y'know?

[He knows that she knows. He didn't get a lot of chances to watch much, in a hospital.]