lifeaftr | August Intro: These Days Are Feeling Dark

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August Intro: These Days Are Feeling Dark

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.

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 )

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[Upon seeing Tim curl and uncurl from the strain, she reaches out a hand to help him stand up should he wish to take it. She shakes her head.]

No, not particularly. I just want to make sure that it doesn't go after anyone else. But...

[She looks after it, assessing.]

We did injure it pretty severely. If it attacks anyone again, they should be able to take it down quickly. Are you ok? Did it get you?

Just winded.

[He's still got that heavy smoker's cough. For all that he's been attempting to quit, one doesn't recover from a lifetime of respiratory health issues over a period of months.]

[The hand might be appreciated, but he stands under his own power. He's not hurt badly. He'll live. He'll get over it.]

What about you? Are you good?

[No hard feelings about the hand; sometimes just having the option of help is as helpful as true action.]

Nothing more than a few bruises here and there. Not the worst I have ever been.

[She gives him a sort of lopsided smile.]

Shepard. I think I have seen you around for quite awhile now. Forgive me if you can though- I can't quite remember if we have ever actually talked before.

Tim.

[One name, no saying if it's his first or his last. Which is just fine by him. He can just be "Tim" here, and no one has any associations with that. He doesn't have any associations with "Shepard" either, so it's a two-way street. And that's fine.]

I was with the first ones to show up. You?

[Tim, Tim, Tim... it doesn't ring any bells, sadly. Not terribly surprising, given her intense isolation but the lack of any idea who he is nags her.

Especially when he says the next bit. Then she feels a twist in her gut, frustration at herself and her damnable self-pity and wallowing.]

...So was I. There's not as many of us left from the first batch, is there? When we washed in on those rafts.

[When was the last time she saw Prompto? J? The Kid? All people she saw and grew to know in the beginning. There were more, of course, but they were among the first. And she lost track of them. And then they were gone.]

Something like ten of us, maybe.

[He could probably count them off, one by one, but he's pretty sure that wouldn't accomplish much besides depressing him further.]

I haven't really been keeping track. [Which is a lie. He has. It's just not something he tends to broadcast, because it's not something that usually cheers up anyone.]

[Ten huh? Shepard grimaces a bit, shaking her head.]

I don't know whether to be happy about that or worried. If they're going home that's one thing but...

[Do they know if that is actually where they are going? Or are they going to an entirely new and different hell?]

I know Muffet was keeping a list for awhile about who left. I don't know if she has kept up with it though.

I think the rock out by the temple has a list of the latest. The one that used to be the bulletin board?

[Only the latest, though. How many of them are people he's never met, never taken the time to get to know?]

[It's better not to think about it. Happy, sure, if they're heading back to a life that they genuinely want to live. Worried? There's no point in worrying about something you can't change. But when's that stopped anyone? When's that stopped Tim?]

...Right. I haven't. Really been paying attention to things lately. Been mostly keeping to myself.

[There's a sense of shame to her words and she tries not to wince. She sounds pathetic. And if she went to that rock, who would be there? How many names would she recognize as people she cared about and then just let them fade away? Never got to say good bye. She grips her hand tight.]

We still have no idea what brings and sends people back and forth from here, huh? All this time we've been here and we still don't know.

Death, sometimes.

[He should probably sound less droll about it, but he's nothing if not desensitized to that shit by now. He's died. Most people he knows have died at some point. He doesn't really have it in him to feel much of anything about it anymore. Or to feel much of anything about...a lot of things.]

[Shepard scoffs a bit but nods.]

That's how I got here. Died in the line of duty and then woke up on that old raft...

[She looks to him for a moment, chewing her tongue, then speaks.]

What about you? If it's not something too personal to tell.

[In the line of duty. So a soldier, then, or something more or less equivalent to it. Not really a hard thing to guess, considering the way she handles herself.]

I was in a castle for a few months. Fighting a war for some horned guy, though there wasn't really a lot of fighting. Mostly just getting stuck in cages and waiting for rescue.

Guess you could say I died in the line of duty too.

[That's deliberately fudging what really happened - that he was killed by a child who wanted to cut their soul out of his. But no one needs to know that.]

Is that where you were originally from? Some strange castle?

[That sounds, honestly, awful.]

I'm sorry that happened to you. As morbid as it is to say, I hope your death was a quick one. It's all we can hope for these days.

No. Originally from Alabama, if you can believe it.

[The Castle was only for a few months. Somehow, that was more than long enough.]

[That's probably the first time someone's lobbied that his way after hearing that he got killed. She's not wrong, though. It was definitely the quickest death he's had, and in theory the least painful.]

[In theory. He's just not the one who suffered for it, is all.]

You're real cheerful at parties, huh?

Alabama…

[She chews over that name for a moment, trying to process where, exactly, that is. Then she remembers her old history classes.]

Oh. From the old country of the United States, correct?

[It’s been a long time since she spoke those words but she’s relatively sure she got it right.]

Oh absolutely. I certainly cause a lot of cheer when people get to see my horrible dancing.

[She gives a wry grin.]

Between that and my charming way of being so morbid at the drop of a hat, and I am usually the life of the party.

[Old country, huh?]

[Says a little bit about where she comes from. Or when, rather. Not as weird as it could be. He's heard weirder at this point, so he takes that in stride.]

Not so old from when I come from, but I guess you figured that out already.

[Well, it's not as if he can say he's any less of a downer.]

Oh, yeah, same here. Everybody loves gallows humor.

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August Intro: These Days Are Feeling Dark

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