prelude {{ Log 01.

[imaginarymods]

Island Prelude ; Log 01

Life's a beach—

You wake up on the beach.

Okay, scratch that: you wake up on a beach. Some beach, somewhere. You don't know where it is, much less why you're there. You can feel the warm sun and a light breeze on your skin, along with the insidious prickle of sand worming its way into your fantasy Nikes. You have no memory of being here — but then again, you might not have any memory of being anywhere else.

At least you're not alone. There are other people scattered along this beach, toes trailing in the surf as they brush sand out of their shirts or shake seaweed from their weapons. Each and every one of them has an unremovable bracer locked around their wrist. Maybe you should get up. Lend a helping hand, or ask for one. Maybe somebody else knows more about the situation than you do. Maybe somebody else knows where that music is coming from. Is there a beach party going on?

—& then you d̵̡̪̻̿̽͒i̸̟͓͍͌̾͐ë̸͖͇̪́̔͊.

There's only so far you get before noticing that something's wrong, though. Even if you've got no memories but your name, something in you knows that trees aren't supposed to look like that. They're not supposed to be so . . . low-res. Right?

But these trees, not to put too fine a point on it, kind of suck. Some of them, anyway. Every few trees has one patch that flickers in and out of existence like an old neon sign. Every couple rocks seems to have spasmed and frozen up in one large pixel blob. If you touch these glitched spaces, nothing happens to you, but it certainly doesn't feel right. It doesn't feel like you're touching anything at all.

Looking back to the space you woke up, you might notice a pattern. The section of beach strewn with newly-conscious amnesiacs is exceptionally glitchy. There are a couple small patches of sky that seem to just be missing. And out at sea? There's way more of them out there.

If you're a strong swimmer, you might try swimming out toward the horizon. There's only so far you can go, though. After about half a mile, you hit some kind of resistance and blip back onto the beach. Watch the sea long enough, and you might see some boats making the same mistake — although they just end up closer to shore rather than beached, fortunately for them. Boats are expensive, and the barrier, whatever it is, seems to be doing its best not to damage them.

(Jaws Theme)

Walking up the beach towards the source of the music, you start to feel a little bit watched. Turn, and there's no one there. Just a quaint thatch-roofed vending machine with a strange cat face on the plate. Innocuous, though, and certainly nothing to worry about. So you keep going.

Except then you feel it again. And if you manage to pause in time, you'll hear this shuffling sound, like wood dragging through sand. Turn again, and the vending machine is right behind you. Like, right behind you. There's no way it moved fast enough to close that distance, and yet.

There are some options here. You can run — but it'll catch up. You can try to fight it — but you'll just hurt your hand (or other appendage). You can try to reason with it — but it's unrelenting. What it wants, as you'll soon discover, is to yeet a small bottle of dark, thick liquid at your face. It's also very insistent that you drink it. If you don't, it'll just fling another one at you, and keep flinging them, until you're crushed to death by vials or drink one, whichever comes first.

Everyone gets this treatment. The vending machine is never in two places at once, but its ubiquity might make it seems as though it is. When one inevitably breaks down and drinks the Kool-aid, it tastes just awful, but at least it's over and done with now. Surely this will never come up again.

This sparks joy

If you follow the music for long enough, you'll find yourself in easily one of the busiest places on the Island. The marketplace that spreads out before you is known as the Boardwalk, a fact that's easy to discover from any of the friendly locals. For most of you, these will be the first people you've encountered who didn't wash up on the beach alongside you. They're very fuzzy faces, too. The Animalians, a menagerie of anthropomorphic animals, almost all speak Common and seem pretty unfazed by the cluster of bewildered strangers. After all, new faces mean new customers!

There are a truly ridiculous number of things for sale on the Boardwalk. The predominant one is food, of course, and the smells hanging over the canvas tents and open-air stalls are positively mouth-watering. There are a wide variety of foods represented here. Maybe one or two of them will strike you as familiar, or trigger a memory? Pretty much all of them are delicious, though, so there's nothing to lose by digging in. Other goods include clothing, weaponry, art, and jewelry in a variety of styles. If you're lucky, you might find a tent that sells beautiful locally-made instruments — a Bard's dream!

Lack of coinage won't be too much of a handicap here. Barter is welcome, and should you not have enough to barter with, most sellers are happy to trade goods for services. It's highly likely that a newcomer or two will be found up to their elbows in dishes by the end of the night, or doing similar odd jobs for vendors.

Still, no one gets through an excursion to the Boardwalk without being swept into at least one dance. It comes out of nowhere: an Animalian's paw or claw on your elbow, a gentle nudge at the small of your back, and you're swept toward the gazebo, the source of the music that's been swelling all day and into the evening. It's joyous and captivating, the Animalians' love of dance infectious. Even buzzkills might be tempted to softshoe just a little.

What's this? What's this?

The Island seems to be sprouting miscellanea. Extremely distinctive weaponry stuck up a tree, books half-buried in sand or earth, clothing neatly folded or possibly being worn by an animal, or Animalian . . . At some point, it just becomes chaos. There's a great deal to recover, or to steal if that's more your bag. On the other hand, you might choose to be helpful and match belongings with their owners. You never know: a found item might help someone find the memory that goes along with it.

Just west of the Boardwalk, there's something else that might be familiar. At the center of a saltwater lake, easy to get to by rowboat, is a miniature island and swim-up bar. Each place is adorned by a menu listing strange and deja vu-inducing items, from nanchos to decaf espresso paradox. Some are helpful. Some are harmful. Some are just weird? He'll make you anything on the menu, but nothing more. Strangely, should you be overcome by the urge to ask the chef for something special and unique, he will gravely extend one of his tentacles and place a single, smooth, heart-shaped stone in your palm. The squid does not speak Common, but you understand an IOU when you're delicately, slimily handed one.

There's so much to explore here that, by the end of the day when you stumble back to the cabanas and attempt to sort out where you're going to collapse for the night, you haven't covered more than a sliver of it. There's tomorrow and the days after for looking around more, for stumbling across more of your belongings (or other people's), for discovering ruins and murals and memories. No matter how much time you take to fuss over sleeping arrangements, everyone ends up more or less in the same place: an open-air cabana, with the breeze blowing over them through the night and into the morning.

Everyone dreams — peacefully — of the moon.

OOC

Welcome, everyone, to the first Island log, our Prelude! While we will not be taking RNG requests during this log, we encourage you to stretch out, explore the space, and get your sea island legs. For questions pertaining to this log, go here. For general questions, head to the FAQ. For more places to explore in this first log, check out the Setting and NPC pages.

NAVIGATION ⯈



code bases by tricklet

Comments

[spacerock]

A
[When Rose Quartz wakes up on the beach, the feeling of sun and sand is familiar enough that she's not really worried until she realizes she doesn't remember how she got to this beach, or much of anything besides her name, which glitters bright and important in her mind. Rose Quartz. Just Rose.

Standing up, she wiggles her toes in the warm sand and, impulsively, darts forward to meet the waves as they crash onto the beach. It's cold, and she laughs, and she's not really sure why but it's fun anyway. When she spots someone else, she waves a them with a similar level of delight.]

Hello! Do you know what this place is called?

B
[Rose is drawn to the music and the dancing. She needs no encouragement to join in, whirling around with motions that come naturally to her, even though she doesn't remember ever learning. Her long white dress swirls around as she spins. She's still barefoot, but it doesn't slow her down any. Anyone she spots lurking on the sidelines is liable to get grabbed and pulled into the party.]

Come on, join in! It's really fun!

C
[It starts raining at 5PM on the dot. Rose doesn't know what time it is, but the downpour catches her by surprise just outside of the cabanas. She stands there longer than she should, until her hair is soaked through and her dress is sticking to her skin, before she runs to the nearest cabana, laughing all the way, sand stuck to her feet.]

It's really pouring! [Rose starts talking as soon as she's just barely inside, heedless of who else might be in here sheltering from the rain.] Isn't it great?

[She can't remember anything, but she still feels like the way she felt that rain was special somehow.]

D
[Wildcard! Come up with a scenario, or hit me up at maiiau!]

B

[myliteratureclub]

Ah woah-!

[ Monika is easily swept up by Rose into the dance. She had been watching innocently, but woah she's in it! She stumbles a bit as she tries to get her footing, looking up at the giant woman. ]

How are you so good at this?

[spacerock]

It just happens when I listen to the music! [She imagines she must have learned at some point, but that's just one of a lot of things she can't remember right now.] It's easy if you do that!

[myliteratureclub]

O-Okay!

[ Monika tries along to the music too, but she's admittedly a little stiff. She's just all out of sorts. It's hard to focus on what she's doing. ]

I don't know if this is for me.

[spacerock]

You're just worrying about it too much. [Rose moves to spin Monika around, being deliberately silly about it.] Relax!

[myliteratureclub]

Ah!

[ She spins with her which almost forces her to loosen up honestly. Monika tries to let out a laugh and that helps a little too. This just feels so unnatural for her. But she wants to enjoy it. ]

Again!

[spacerock]

[Rose spins Monika again, this time dropping her into a dip, too. Even if Rose can't remember, her body clearly knows how to dance with someone else. She laughs delightedly.] Just like that! You just have to have fun!

[wrightingwrongs]

Do I know - what this place is called?

[Phoenix, dragging his three-piece-suited self out of the surf, looks up. And up. And up Hello, miss. You're uh. Very tall.]

Uh, I... don't, I don't think. I don't even know - (Who I am? No, I know... Phoenix. I don't know anything else, though...)

I'm not sure I know much of anything, miss.

[spacerock]

Really? [That's a little disappointing, but then she realizes that the way he said that, that he doesn't know much of anything--that sounds similar to her situation.] I don't, either! Isn't that strange?

[wrightingwrongs]

Wait - you don't remember anything either?

(That's... interesting.)

I'm - I know my name - Phoenix! [Said like he's hoping he doesn't forget his name.] Anything else... I can't recall.

Does that sound like what's going on with you?

[spacerock]

It sounds exactly the same! [Rose is definitely excited about this. Maybe that's not quite the right mood for this kind of thing, but it's good to know she's not the only one.] I'm Rose Quartz. But everything else is just--gone.

[wrightingwrongs]

(Is she... worried or excited her memory's gone? Or maybe she's just happy someone else seems to be experiencing it, too.)

W-well, it's nice to meet you, Rose! Even if it is under weird circumstances. [He laughs, a bit nervously.]

[He does take a moment finally to examine their surroundings a bit, his brows furrowing.]

Is this... an island, you think? Were we... shipwrecked? [Why would they be on a ship? Phoenix doesn't know, but that sounds like something that people end up on an island from.]

[spacerock]

Maybe? [It sounds as plausible as any other option. She looks back at the ocean and then at the surrounding beach.] But I don't see any wreckage... Unless that washed up somewhere else.

C for cee

[hxppythxughts]

[Sayori is watching the rain from the cabana, feeling— feeling a lot of things, for some reason. It...makes her sad in a way that's hard to describe, but she also finds it kind of beautiful? And...comforting? The way that the surrounding darkness of being entirely under a blanket is comforting. Or something like that.

That tall pink lady seems to be having so much fun, though. Sayori can't help but grin with the infectious enthusiasm as she rushes under the cabana.] Yeah! It's so cool! It makes a nice sound, doesn't it?

[spacerock]

It does! Like music. [Really rhythmic music, but Rose likes it anyway.] It wasn't as cold as I thought it would be.

[hxppythxughts]

Oh! Really? [She realizes, at that moment, that she expected it to be cold too.

A beat follows that response, and then Sayori stands up and approaches the edge of the Cabana's canopy. Then she sticks her hand out from underneath it, palm facing towards the sky to catch the rain.

She speaks again after a few seconds, thoughtful.] Wow. It's really warm.

[spacerock]

Is rain always like that? [Rose isn't really sure where the thought is coming from, that she expected something a little different, or why she expects the girl next to her to know, but hopefully she'll get an answer anyway.]

[hxppythxughts]

...I don't really know. [And she's not sure if it's something she doesn't remember, or something she doesn't know. But she's continuing before she realizes:] I don't go out in the rain much.

[spacerock]

Oh. [Rose considers this answer.] Maybe I didn't either? [That might explain why she's surprised?]

C/D - rain on a later day?

[spaghettimonster]

[It's been a few days, and this is one of the more reliable patterns to it all: mid-afternoon, it rains for a little bit. People who lose track of the time get to enjoy the fun of rushing into the nearest shelter, or risk their fragile recent purchases - books, fruit, and the like - from getting rain damage.]

Yeah, it's great!

[Maybe a little sarcastic, given the circumstances with which he's ducked into this cabana, but Papyrus grins up at the sky anyway.]

Like a walk-out shower, every day! I love the convenience of it... And I'd love it more, if it came with a warning.

[spacerock]

Part of the fun of rain is it doesn't warn you! [Rose couldn't articulate exactly why she feels like that, but she's sure it's true. She definitely gives Papyrus a curious once-over, seeing that he's a skeleton, but she doesn't feel as if it's actually too strange to see yet another different species. It's just interesting! There's probably something she forgot that would explain that.] It just happens when it wants!

[spaghettimonster]

And that's part of the appeal?? I don't know...

[He considers Rose with skepticism. Maybe it's that nearly everything he's experienced since waking up has been a surprise, and the enjoyment of surprises is wearing thin. Or maybe he just likes feeling in control of his circumstances.]

Are you going back out in it?

[spacerock]

I might! [Rose hasn't decided yet. She's mostly been acting on spontaneous desire.] It might happen again tomorrow, but maybe it won't.

[So it's worth taking advantage of now.]

[spaghettimonster]

It's rained every day so far, why stop a good thing?

[Like clockwork, he would realize if only he was carrying a clock. Or doing anything structured and scheduled with his life. Instead, he digs around in the paper bag and pulls out a fruit.]

[spacerock]

But that doesn't mean it will always rain every day. [At least, Rose is pretty sure rain doesn't have a schedule. Admittedly, she can't remember previous rain experiences.] But a day where it doesn't rain at all would be fun, too!