New Island: Maati

[lifeaftr_mods]

NEW ISLAND: MAATI

The votes are in! And despite the abstracted nature of this round of voting, most characters elected to vote for the fourth option presented: the one represented by golden flames, a set of scales, and a number of shapes that resemble birds.

The newest addition to LifeAftr can be found on our Locations page. The Storyteller alert explorers on the night prior that the new island will be ready for exploration via the mana pools on November 10th.

Transportation
The Storyteller will manage to link Maati's mana pool with Ensō's. As they are still in a state of recovering from the havoc the fabric of Mu has played on your psyches, as well as the multiple resurrections they had to enact all at once, they do not - or rather, cannot - inform you of any specific dangers or things to watch out for on the island of Maati.

The mana pool is present on the E5 square, should the characters choose to arrive via that method. In addition, characters are free to sail there on their own, if they so choose.

The Storyteller does mention the name of the island, at least, in the initial dream.

MAATI has now been added to the Locations page.

Be the Power to Compel Me
The island itself is relatively bare, surrounded on all sides by cliffs. The cliffs are sheer, so much so that attempts to climb them will come with a high chance of failure unless characters invest a few stories into proper climbing gear. Those with powers of flight and teleportation will also be incapable of reaching the top until these areas have been explored...or otherwise made available to them.

This land lacks very many natural resources due to how rocky and desolate it appears to be. However, that does not mean that nothing can be uncovered in this area at all - old tools and equipment can be uncovered with enough searching, as though a great many struggles or battles were fought here, a long time ago.

However, from a distance, it can be discerned that Maati is a peculiarly shaped island: a seven-pointed star. While the center remains the only part of that land that can be initially charted, the different prongs of the star are each walled off with a large door, each bearing a different, glowing sigil. Those who remember the caves underneath Ensō might recall this occurrence as worryingly similar. No matter how they are approached, the doors refuse to open; they will not yield to magic, to pleas, to prayers, or to brute force attack. Yet that doesn't mean they won't ever open. As for the rest, you'll just have to wait and see, won't you?

Won't You Liberate Me?
The avatar of Maati, similar to Harv, will make their presence known rather quickly. Their temple can be found at the island's center, and it will be fairly obvious when one draws close: some of the only green on Maati can be found there! Their temple is a fairly simple thing, built of iron and copper. Yet more copies of the same seven sigils that can be found on the doors are inlaid periodically across the exterior, carved from differently-colored variants of jasper. Twined about the metallic construct, woven neatly throughout the composition of the building, several chestnut trees rear out into the sky. And everywhere you look, the symbol of the eagle can be found - fanning wings, hooked beak, outspread talons - carved into the walls, in the form of simple ornaments mounted on ledges and peaks. Maati's avatar will answer to a great many titles: Tyreg, Utag, the Iron Will, and others. For their part, they prefer Anbaki. Their shape is unsurprising to anyone who has so much as glanced at their temple. Anbaki takes the shape of a golden eagle, slightly larger than average, but despite the fearsome curve of their beak, they are surprisingly gentle.

Surprisingly gentle, we say, because Anbaki is the avatar of justice. And they might be able to explain those symbols mounted on all those doors, too...

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Comments

[counterblows]

Player: Zero
Character/Username: Agent Washington (counterblows)
Prior to coming to LifeAftr, what is an aspect of your character that they struggled with - be it a shortcoming, a fear, a bad habit, or eccentricity? BOY WHAT HASN'T HE. Guilt. Self-destruction. Paranoia. Internalized rage. PTSD. He has a Lot that he's lived with over the years. His sense of justice and accountability feeds into his desire for vengeance and preexisting anger issues, as well as a general inability or flat-out refusal to forgive himself as a result. A fraying of his sense of self due to how many memories have been thrown into his head and utterly skullfucked him. While he's better than he was, he also tends to assume the worst of people; betrayal is an inevitability and an expectation, not a possibility.

What do they struggle with now? Is it the same as the above? LifeAftr has exacerbated Wash's feeling of vulnerability in regards to his psychological health. While his road to recovery has been far from a straight line, the effect of recent events have plunged him into self-doubt regarding his sanity. After October's event, he's tripped straight into the pitfalls of "oh ha ha Guess I'm Going Crazy Again!!!" which has intensified preexisting feelings of loss of self-identity. This has also exacerbated his trust issues, paranoia, and ongoing struggles with PTSD.

What personal demons, specifically, haunt your character from canon or from past game experiences? Epsilon is the biggest one - memories of Churches, plural, still fuck him up on the daily, as well as the sensation of Epsilon self-destructing innnnn his head. As of last month, he's also dealing with guilt over Maine and CT, and an inability to save either of them. With CT especially, his failure there has renewed feelings of always being "the guy who went crazy" - his word might never be worth trusting, because who's to say he's completely compos mentis?

What is the type of person your character hopes to become? Someone who can fill the gaps in the lives of others until such a time that he's no longer needed. Wash views himself as a stopgap measure in a lot of respects, essentially. He's the leader of Blue Team until Tucker can step up to the plate. He's a replacement friend for Caboose until he can get over his codependency. That, for now, is good enough, and "good enough" is the best he's had in a long time so he's not going to wish for anything more.

What is the type of person you hope your character will become? A little more predisposed to think charitably of people? He defaults to distrust and holding people at arm's length so fucking often that it gets in the way of his capacity to actually be of much use in a ton of situations. Also being able to define himself outside the scope of what's happened to him - so much of Wash's method of self-identifying revolves around what was done to him and the shitty things he's done as opposed to the good he's certainly done and been capable of doing, time and time again. Someone a little less prone to default to self-destruction and viewing himself as collateral.

Do any of the Seven Deadly Sins stand out as applicable to your character? Why?

WRATH - This is one of the keystones of Wash's...everything. He's someone with a long, long history of anger issues, and he tends to keep that all under wraps, playing the long con to the max. He can keep his anger on hold for years until he has an opportunity to act on it. While he's on the road to letting grudges go, it's notable that his choices to do that almost never occur internally. If he chooses not to act on that long-standing anger, it's a choice made by people he trusts that he respects. He's not predisposed to show mercy unless properly motivated, and forgiveness is a tough thing to manage when you don't tend to forget someone else's sins, let alone your own.

Do any of the Seven Virtues stand out as applicable to your character? Why?

DILIGENCE - this man is a fucking cockroach. He's incredibly difficult to kill. He's not above abandoning an effort or giving up if he feels like the situation calls for it, nor is he driven by what is necessarily most ethical. He's pragmatic; it's only when he's reached absolute peak desperation that he's willing to throw a more practical understanding of the situation out the window and drive himself past his limits.

HUMILITY - NOT IN A GOOD WAY, IF WE'RE HONEST HERE. Wash is first to read himself as collateral in any given situation. A low-key self-destructive streak has almost always been present in his actions. His goals have simply gone from "self-destruct in the most practical way possible" to "well if this plan needs someone to take the fall i will be that person" and it's not necessarily something he's always aware of. When it is, he honestly doesn't see a problem with it!

[lifeaftr_mods]

At some point after November 20th, Agent Washington will awaken to find this curious symbol emblazoned on the back of his hand. It emits a strange, colorful glow, and not unlike a tattoo, seems to exist almost beneath the skin. Attempts to remove or destroy it appear futile. Its true meaning, whatever that might be, will only come to be clear in time. -- ⥮ --