lifeaftr | Returning Island: Nuidan

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Returning Island: Nuidan

RETURNING ISLAND: NUIDAN

Who: Everyone!
What: Nuidan returns to the archipelago of LifeAftr
When: Backdated to November 20th, and onward
Where: The harvest island of Nuidan
Warnings: Nothing of note; please mark if anything comes up!

Looking for Clear Water
Welcome back to Nuidan, adventurers.

For many of you, however, this might not be such a familiar experience. You might not have been here before. If you haven't, you'll probably be happy to know that the island of Nuidan is largely a peaceful one. New explorers can read up on the resources, dangers, and ephemera of the island here, but the most important part is that it is an island divided into quarters, each representative of a static and unchanging season. The north relates to spring, with rain-swept, windy hills; the east to fall, with orchards heavy with fruit and fallen leaves carpeting the ground; the south to winter, full of snowy plains and fields of ice; and the west to summer, blanketed with warm sand and ripe with the lazy drone of bees. At the island's heart is its temple, where the local avatar of harvest, known most commonly as Harv, can be found.

The last time you met them, they took the form of a hardworking sheepdog, determined to not let a single moment go to waste. Now, however, you'll find them looking and acting a little...different.

They're considerably calmer, for one, and also a good deal larger. But their disposition has remained more or less friendly, as can be gleaned from the state of the island around them.

Nuidan's lush woods, blustery tundras, sun-warmed sands, and rolling fields are still the same as they ever were, and it seems as if the whole island has been waiting for a triumphant, colorful return. As all of you managed to rack up an impressive number of crystals - around 135 total - the island can be assumed to be in splendid health. An air of anticipation lies mantled across the entire island, and the orchards, fields, and animals you worked so hard to tend, maintain, and corral the first time you were around are ready for harvesting in whatever way you see fit. No longer are fences unmended and decrepit, or orchards choked with weeds.

You're more than welcome to go combing the island to take in the spoils, as long as you don't mind the presence of the occasional, noisy nirnroot that can be found speckling the topography of Nuidan. That's right - you can find them here, too, those pesky things. But your attention might also be eaten up by the wooden stands and display tables set up around Harv's temple, like those you might see at a farmer's market. Because this is a time of harvest, and also a time to share in that harvest.

And after harvest comes celebration.

Playing It All For Gods Yesterday
The avatar who holds sway over this island has been waiting for many hands to make light work. Pitch in a little here and there, and you'll find that when the crops have been taken in, the food all stored, and the animals bedded down, the quite literal fruits of your labor and efforts will be transformed into a feast that beggars belief.

We do recommend that you exercise some caution, however - some food and drink might make you a tad more open-hearted or open-minded than you expect. All kinds of harmless but entertainingly strange effects might happen to those who are brave enough to sample some of the products on display.

[ ♆ ] Caramel Apples: These treats come in all sorts of varieties - sprinkled with peanuts, candied sprinkles, or drizzled with chocolate. They do have some unusual side effects, however. Anyone who eats one or more of these caramel-coated delights will discover that they now have the ability to levitate about a foot or so off the ground. And, by concentrating hard, you'll find you can also go zooming about at high speeds. Careful not to go colliding into any tables of goodies, or any of your fellow party-goers!

[ ♆ ] Deviled Eggs: Sprinkled with chili powder, sage, and chopped shallots, these appetizers can easily be scarfed down by the pound. It's recommended that you take care with how many you eat, however. These deviled eggs will make you incredibly proud of yourself. Eat one or two, and you'll find that your self-esteem has been massively boosted, and you'll feel like you deserve to celebrate your accomplishments! But consuming too many will almost certainly inflate your ego, and quickly make you more prone to bragging or making up outrageous exaggerations of your accomplishments which, while not fundamentally dangerous, might put you at a higher risk of getting decked in the face.

[ ♆ ] Pepper Poppers: Peppers that have been breaded and stuffed with cheeses and spices can make a delightfully spicy treat, though these come at a small cost. Eating just one of them will make you more predisposed to verbal quirks - making bad puns, indulging in copious alliteration, sesquipedalian loquaciousness, and so on. You can wash out this effect by drinking just about anything...but when you're cracking jokes that good, why would you?

[ ♆ ] Maple Bars: A doughnut topped off with a silky maple glaze can make for a delightful treat, though most don't tend to cause the people who eat them to exhibit a soft glow. Nonetheless, you'll find that the more of these desserts you eat, the brighter a glow you'll emit. What's more is that this glow can and will change its color depending on your mood. Don't think you can hide how blue you're feeling when the color itself is streaming right from your skin!

[ ♆ ] Butternut Squash Fritters: These fritters are hot, crispy, sprinkled liberally with salt and sage, and also have the fun side effect of making you far more complimentary than you might be otherwise. Did you mean to insult that guy over there? Too bad! Instead, you're telling him how much you love his hat, or how good he is with his words. The good news, nay, the better news, is that this effect is double-edged; after eating just one of these, you also can't insult yourself. You have no choice but to be wholly complimentary of anyone and everyone, your own good self included!

[ ♆ ] Pumpkin Pie: A staple of any kind of harvest-based celebration, of course, and a perfect example of it. Flaky crust, silky custard, topped off with nutmeg and whipped cream...and prone to making almost everything around you seem unbearably funny. Eat one slice of this, and you'll find that you just cannot seem to stop laughing! It might just end up being the best abdominal workout you get in years.

[ ♆ ] Leafy Crown: For those of you who aren't predisposed to eat anything, don't worry. You can still participate in the fun, if you want! Some tables carry crowns of colorful leaves that you can wear to showcase your festive spirit. It will also increase your festive spirit, and make you far more inclined to break into song and/or dance. What's that? You're not particularly talented in either of those areas? That's a shame! Fortunately, or maybe unfortunately, self-consciousness isn't likely to affect you once you've put one of these things on. No matter how poor a singer or dancer you, in actuality, are.

[ ♆ ] Harvest Candle: A table full of all sorts of beautiful candles invites you to light one as the day grows dark and the sun sinks over the horizon. You're certainly welcome to, but be warned: lighting a candle from this table will vastly increase your confidence, to perhaps a dangerous extent. While you'll feel less inclined to any shyness or second-guessing of yourself that might ordinarily plague you, you'll also be less susceptible to any sort of fear or warning signs that maybe you shouldn't be doing things that might be considered, ah...foolish. Like, for example, deciding you're going to trek out into Nuidan's southern region to ride a popo. Things like that.

Other than these, you'll find that almost everything else that can be consumed and otherwise interacted with will have no additional effects. What a relief!

Looking for Clear Water

Of course, there's a lot going on in the background as well. You're free to explore any other minor events listed on our Monthly Rundown post. You are also always free to create your own individual logs and posts as needed!

If you have any questions, please feel free to ask them over on our Monthly Rundown post!

LOGS ● OOC ● STORIES ● MAIN NAVIGATION

( CODED BY BOOTYCALL )

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Aziraphale simply looks at him blankly as he’s eating. “Oh, don’t be silly. Though I did notice something or other in the mess hall. Can’t assume its quality, however.”

He takes a look towards the booths again, vaguely wondering about their existence. “I would like to get in contact with the local deities, however. Nobody seemed quite convinced that they have the answers, but their existence is quite the concept to begin with.”

Another taste of the pumpkin pie and he sounds rather pleased. “Oh, this is surprisingly delicious.”

Little does he know what it’s going to start doing very soon.

Crowley feels very strange indeed. Perhaps he's finally gone mad on this island. One can't be too sure. Aziraphale has just told him not to be silly, however, and he does very often have the urge to do the opposite that he's told.

"What happens when the dieties fond you surprisingly delicious?" Crowley holds up another pepper and bounces it about, putting on a very exaggerated impersonation of Aziraphale's voice. "Oh! Hello! I rather think there's been a mix-up--" he mimics, quickly tossing the pepper into his own mouth with an almost cartoonish CHOMP.

"You see what I mean?" he asks, mouth full.

Usually, Aziraphale would have simply progressed the conversation and mostly ignored Crowley's comedic or sarcastic attempts, whether by them flying over the angel's head or him just flat out ignoring them, but not this time. This time, it gets a giggle out of him, and he holds the back of his hand to his mouth to cover it.

"I'm sure we would have heard something about that from the other residents."

Crowley chuckles back, mouth still full. "MM--" he swallows the pepper back, hands clearly starting to reply before his mouth does. "Nnnnoooot if they were eaten. See m'point?"

He grins, surprised that his mimicry didn't get him a scolding and that Aziraphale seemed to be in such a pleasant mood. Well, of course he would be, this was the first full meal they'd been offered in this place. It made sense, didn't it? Didn't explain why Crowley himself was feeling so loopy, but he wasn't too worried about it.

Well, so much is true - having had to resign himself to simple meals for the first time in millennia, and having to actually eat by obligation, had been something that bothered him entirely too much. Not the top priority, sure, but he was definitely not happy about it.

Now, finding this absolute feast, he was more than happy to partake and just enjoy it. Granted it's no five star restaurant, and there's a lack of beverages, but he'll take it. His mood's already severely improved! Perhaps a little much. The chuckling is coming a little too easily, when he hasn't had a drop of alcohol to begin with.

"Oh, dear boy, I'm sure it's not quite that severe. I--hope, anyway."

"Maybe not." he shrugged, toying with other treats at the table. "But something screwy is going on here. Hungry gods or not."

Crowley flashed Aziraphale a smile, amused by the chuckling. "Awfully giddy today, aren't you? Are we finally losing our minds?"

Aziraphale practically snorts, breaking into a giggle. It seems to catch him by surprise, and he's usually not one to fall into this sort of giggly mood without being intoxicated.

He stops himself and and covers his mouth slightly, taking a moment to compose himself. "That is no laughing matter." Which would probably have a bigger impact if he wasn't trying to pull himself together just now.

"You sure about that?" he scoffs, the laughter is infectious. Crowley can't help but snicker back. "I think we're a bit delirious, don't you?"

It would make sense. Crowley isn't used to being restrained by such a mortal form, and he'd certainly never dealt with hunger in this way. Finally having a meal after going days wondering when you'd ever see a full meal again would do that to a demon, let alone a person.

It's been one of the worst parts about this, he'd say, feeling so...mortal. Granted they still have some of their powers available to them, but it's still all so different.

Well, at least this strangely sudden feast works well enough to keep them distracted for a little while. And...amused, apparently.

"Oh, I believe we may be." That smile might as well be glued to his face. At least he's settled down enough to take another bite of this scrumptious pumpkin pie.

Crowley feels almost drunk, which in and of itself is strange, but it's manifested itself in very loopy conversation, pitch change, weird voices or accents, the type of thing that is bound to happen when he's drank several bottles of wine, except without the slurred speech and muddled brain. Scratch that- slightly... less muddled brain.

"What a wonderfully whimsical eternity this would be. An angel and a demon, banished from Earth and placed in some pocket universe where nothing makes sense and we're constantly the butt of all jokes. Lovely."

Drunk feels about right, or as close enough as they could get. In Aziraphale’s case, it doesn’t quite change his way of speaking or any other matter of his being - he tends to go for more dramatics than flash and affectations -, apart from making everything seem incredibly, almost overwhelmingly amusing. Maybe its the food, or maybe they really are delirious.

He thinks to retort what Crowley said. Something about questioning the concept of banishment, posing the idea that they would have certainly known if She was keeping pocket dimensions scattered about, probably. He thinks about Eden and he thinks about avoiding the concept entirely. He certainly goes to answer, but all that comes out is another giggle, and the angel flinching forward a bit so not to accidentally spit out his food. That would be far too much of a mess.

Crowley's laugher echoes Aziraphale's, but only because the angel's laughter is so delightful. He didn't think anything he said was particularly funny to begin with, but it seems to have tickled Aziraphale in a way, and laughter itself is quite contagious. Crowley can't remember the last playful moment they've had since arriving, if there even was one, but he's certain others are staring at him now, and he tries to clear his throat.

"Should probably save some of this." he notes "Come in handy next time you're prickly from not having any food around."

Alright, now he's fairly sure Crowley didn't say anything particularly amusing, and yet the impulse to laugh is far too strong. He's all for playful moments, and they do need a break from the mood that has settled ever since they first found themselves here, but he's beginning to wonder if he should be concerned.

But it's probably nothing.

The comment catches his attention, and so does the chosen adjective but he once again has to suppress a giggle, this time having to actually cover his mouth.

"Prickly?"

Crowley grins, plucking a piece of crust from Aziraphale's pie for himself, which he dutifully plops in his mouth.

"I think the current slang used is 'Hangry'." he says, grinning.

“Really?” Said in the utmost incredulous and amused tone, seemingly fine with Crowley just handling his food like that. The giggles, they may be too powerful.

“I would say I handled it just fine.” And he would be wrong. But he’s sure taking the implication rather well.

Crowley chuckles slightly, ever smitten by Aziraphale's good mood. "Sure, about as well as a starving porcupine, perhaps."

He pauses for impact. "Y'know. Prickly."

And that absolutely does him in. The angel fails to take in another bite of the pie, as a laugh is just far too powerful.

Not quite the most natural reaction, but here they are, and that might have been a bit much.

Aziraphale's cackling brings out more laughter from Crowley, who now more than ever has absolutely no self-control. He leans onto the table, trying to hide his own laughter as he watches the angel completely break.

He's done for. Completely gone. Demolished. It's a good bit of laughing heartily over something that should have gotten Crowley no more than an eye-roll and a harmless judgmental look, but it seems that they're quite the fantastic mood, and somehow lacking in any alcohol.

Eventually he regains some of his composure, setting his food down and having to actually wipe the tears from his eyes.

"Oh, you demon." He could do with more days being like this.

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Returning Island: Nuidan

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so do we wrap this up soon, drop it, what?