lifeaftr | May Adventure: I Want to Go Where Everyone Goes

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May Adventure: I Want to Go Where Everyone Goes

NEW ISLAND: IO

Who: Everyone!
What: Io appears!
When: May 10th and onward
Where: Io
Warnings: The possibility of drug use and alcohol may come up. Otherwise, tag as you go!

Things Are Shaping Up to Be Pretty Odd
As of May 10th, the mana pools on Ensō and its islets will now allow for travel to Io. Though you could always opt for sailing, if you wanted. As we mentioned on the island's introductory post, no exploration is necessary! The island is small enough and easily traversed, and with a minimum of dangers, you have plenty of time to visit each of Io's six draws.

The temple is the easiest place to get in touch with the local avatar, though you can contact them just as easily by striking up a conversation with just about any honeybee you see in the vicinity. The lazy drone of them can be heard all over the island, though they're quite complacent, and not at all prone to disturbing adventurers. The temple itself is twined with grapevines and smothered with inlays of rubies, proud and sparkling. Inside, it smells of honey and wine, and seems to exhibit a naturally contented glow. Just outside, numerous fruit trees sprout all about the temple's courtyard, to be sampled at your leisure.

The bathhouses are located just south of the temple, and are prime locations for some rest and relaxation. Bathe, swim, take a spa day! There are innumerable rooms to do exactly that, and more space than be reasonably filled by some sixty-or-seventy people.

Or maybe you're interested in getting absolutely sloshed instead. The vineyard is perfect for that, located to Io's northeast on one of its long, tapering peninsulas. Rows upon rows of grapevines lead up to the crown jewel of the region: a proud winery with enough goods to satisfy even the most parched.

For those less keen on mind-altering substances, the tea gardens are a far safer bet. They practically emanate tranquility, with their soft paper lanterns, thickets of tea trees, and a tea room with a seemingly endless supply of every supplement to your drink that you could ask for. And if none of the teabags or tea leaves in there suit your preference, you're free to wander about the gardens yourself and sample whatever you like.

The Honeycomb at the island's heart is much more akin to a play structure or jungle gym than anything else, but its interlocking passageways and erratic, hexagonal architecture aren't for nothing. It's an ideal spot for play or exercise, if you're into that kind of thing - or for getting positively sick on honey sticks.

The campsites ensure that you don't truly have to depart from Io, if you don't want to. Tents full of chairs and cushions and blankets make it a wonderful place to spend the night if you're so inclined, and the lockers full of food and drink are assurances that you won't go hungry. And with all these massive bonfires and firework cannons, why would you ever want to leave?

Welcome to the island of Io! Please, enjoy your stay and make full use of this island's many faculties! For further information in regards to the island, or plotting, the following links may prove handy:

[ ♆ ] OOC info and introductory post
[ ♆ ] Io on the Locations page

LOGS ● OOC ● STORIES ● MAIN NAVIGATION

( CODED BY BOOTYCALL )

Flat | Top-Level Comments Only

Perhaps so. I did not ask how much it would be for a similar amount of prepared tea. But even if it is a little extra work, it feels safer to be able to provide for ourselves in the future.

[You need those renewable resources. It's like how they couldn't simply rely on the garbage from the Surface; that brought boons sometimes, yes, but they needed their own sources of food, power, goods.]

Shall I request the cacao tree, and you the apple tree? I would like to see if the Storyteller can provide a little information about how to help cacao thrive, while I am there.

[It has absolutely nothing to do with wanting to feel a little more responsible for the thing that might bring Chara some joy. Definitely just practical reasons.]

Sounds good to me.

[He has carefully avoided discussing Chara, or Frisk, or Toriel, so there's just these three elephants in the room sitting there on top of the fact that he and Asgore met each other when they were kids and it was fucking awkward.]

[They can only discuss tea and logistics for so long.]

You, uh...talked to Chara at all?

[fuckin smooth]

[Tim. Trust Asgore, you could have talked about tea and logistics for literal centuries!]

Oh...I have, yes.

[It's awkward, talking to his child's new guardian, when he actually thinks about it that way. Of course he's happy that Chara and Frisk have someone, it's just...well, that's selfish of him, but he doesn't know how to make it stop.]

[He's nicer about it than Toriel was. Is? It's weird with her too, but things are already awkward without involving Toriel in this...mess.]

I didn't know if they'd be coming back.

[Immediately, his shoulders drop and he glances away. Why'd he say that? Why is he admitting that?]

Edited 2019-05-15 01:19 (UTC)

[Asgore's hands still, midway through preparing his tea.]

Neither did I.

[That's a different thing with everyone else than it is with Chara. Because he loves them, of course, but not only that - they're dead. There's no going home for them. As far as Asgore can tell, it's here or nowhere.

...he'd never wish Beacon on them, but...he wonders often why he, of everybody, was the one who got revived.]

What were you gonna do? If they didn't come back?

[Toriel was confused. Didn't understand how he could be so calm in the face of losing someone so important, so vital, that he wasn't sure what he would've done if it was going to be permanent.]

What is there to be done?

[He'd keep on living alone. When has there ever been anything else to do? But that came out a little too real; Asgore keeps his face turned away, with the excuse of focusing on his tea preparations.]

My companions from the last world I visited and I...we had these devices that could allow one to travel from world to world. To different times as well, I presume. We were only just learning how to use them, but I had thought, perhaps...

[His children. Of course he'd thought that. It all happened so long ago in his Underground; Asgore doesn't understand how these things work, but he doubts that he could change such things for himself. For other worlds, though?

It all seemed too vast, full of more implications than he could grasp. He had wanted to talk to somebody about it.]

...but we had not even concluded our own affairs, before I came here.

[He'd only had time for the one trip. Maybe if he ever goes home, there could be more. It's not as if he's wanting for time.]

[He thought. He might as well, right? If Tim had that kind of power - to back to any time, anywhere - he already knows what he'd do with it. It'd be just as selfish in its own way, but even more doomed.]

[It's not shocking to know what Asgore would have considered doing with that kind of power.]

Toriel was pissed.

[Why the hell did he bring that up? Maybe Asgore can relate - Toriel being pissed at him.]

Like she expected me to do something about it. I didn't know how to tell her that there wasn't anything to do.

[That is so, so deeply relatable.]

She is new to this. She will see how it is soon enough.

[He doesn't like to speak against Toriel, but that's just a fact. People will show up all ready to fight back against the universe - to force the Storyteller or someone to send them home. But it doesn't work like that.]

I am sure she will not stay angry at you.

Staying angry at people seems to be a talent of hers.

[Maybe shut up, Tim. Maybe don't shit-talk Asgore's ex right in front of him based on information that you weren't even there to witness firsthand? Let's make this even more fucking awkward than it was. He's only vaguely socially adept. Not nearly enough to justify this.]

...sorry. Shouldn't've brought that up.

[Asgore shifts uncomfortably, fiddling needlessly with the kettle to delay having to go and join Tim at the table like a normal goddamn person. He's not wrong. But the two situations aren't exactly comparable.]

You've done nothing wrong.

[Whether by not panicking over the children or by bringing up that Toriel hates Asgore now is unclear!]

Yeah, except bring up the two topics that I'm sure you're wild to discuss.

[The last few weeks have been a rollercoaster, sure, but is Asgore really the right person to dump all of this on? Lord knows the man has enough going on, to be sure.]

Do not worry about my feelings. I am always available to discuss Chara or Frisk, if you would like to.

[Is that overstepping? It almost certainly is in the case of Frisk, but leaving them out felt mean. For Chara...well, despite what their Light told him, it doesn't seem as though they want a great deal to do with Asgore. That is their right. But if he can be of help to their current guardian, then he will. His feelings don't matter.

(Talking about Toriel is probably something else. But, again, if he can be helpful...)]

Yeah, well, if I don't worry about your feelings, who's going to?

[Clearly Asgore does not worry about Asgore's feelings if he's willing to just go ahead and discuss this shit, right? God, why'd Tim bring this up? He's a disaster. An unmitigated social disaster.]

[All these questions pushing down on his shoulders are one of the reasons he was trying to unwind with some tea in the first place. Lotta good that's doing him.]

.....oh, well......

[Asgore has no response for that!

He fusses a little longer, but he's already delayed long enough that it's really obvious and awkward, probably. Asgore turns with his tea to join Tim. He's silent for a few moments after, trying to figure out what it is he wants to say.]

It is...alright, really. I know we do not know each other very well, but you have been there for my child. You are helping them still. [And in this, he does exclude Frisk, because if Chara does not want to be associated with him he can't imagine why they would.] I would be happy to help you in any way I can.

[It's not as if he gets much chance to do anything for them directly.]

Is it all right, or are you just saying that?

[Is he just used to it? Is he like Tim, in that regard - so used to anticipating the worst that he'll accept it as it comes with barely a murmur, because some part of him never stopped believing that he completely deserved it?]

[He's not positive. Never shared Asgore's SOUL with his own, after all.]

It is alright.

[He taps a claw against the side of his teacup uneasily. Tim...is perceptive, is he not? But Asgore rather suspects that he can be unhappy and know some more about how Chara's life is going, or be unhappy and keep on not knowing. There are no paths left to him that involve his own happiness, and he has no one to blame but himself.]

[He can't think of any eloquent way to push that - as if he ever does anything eloquently. As if he ever has.]

I can't speak for them. Either one of them. But I don't think... [How does he put this in a way that's diplomatic, god.]

Look. The way it happened - that wasn't supposed to be a long-term thing. It just kind of happened like that. They take care of me more than I do them, which is why last month was...

[Which is why it was rough, to put it lightly.]

Oh - of course, I could not ask you to speak for them.

[Asgore seems slightly alarmed at the idea. He hadn't quite thought of it that way - going behind their back to get information they don't want him to have. Tim wouldn't allow that, right? Still, maybe he shouldn't have...he never can seem to find the right thing to do.

It's too late now. He tries to put that aside.

He's sure Tim's giving himself too little credit. It does sound like both of the children to take care of him, as well, but that does not lessen what Tim contributes. They need an adult around, someone they can trust, and they chose Tim. Whether it was initially meant to be long-term or not, they're...something like a family now, perhaps. They all deserve that. Asgore does not deserve to have feelings about it.

He should have known losing them would be difficult for Tim, too. Even if they're not friends, he should have at least gone to check on him and offer support.]

I'm sorry. It was foolish of me, not to think about that...

No, it's fair. At the start, we were the only three from...before. From where we were before we came here.

[That's not entirely true. He is a liar, and this hasn't changed. One skeleton and one mercenary, they remembered him well enough - but not the children who doused their SOULs in guttering flame and frothing steam until it tore them into something so fragmented that only raw and concentrated determination could rip them away from that.]

You have anyone from where you were?

...oh. I see.

[He didn't even know they had been somewhere else. But that makes sense. Of course it does.]

Yes - Wesker and Krauser. They arrived only a few months ago. The men in the...black leather? [The dudes hanging around the tropical island dressed like Matrix characters.] Before they came, it was...rather lonely. I do not mean to say anything negative about the people here! Everyone has been very kind. But things were very different in the other world - in Beacon. There were fewer of us, and we all...it was different.

[You cannot come through an experience like that without bonding closely, perhaps. He's been here two years, and he is not as close to anyone as he became to his fellow Patients over the course of two months. All his own fault, of course, but he could not help missing it.

He supposes Tim knows a little of what that's like. Although, terrifyingly, Asgore's only heard of people coming from places too similar to his:]

You were not in another of the murder experiments, were you?

[Can't say they sound familiar, though he's probably seen them. But Tim's not likely to just walk on up to a couple of dudes in dark glasses and leather and say hello, either. People approach him, generally. He reserves judgment until then.]

[Hopefully this won't turn around to bite him later. He figured everyone knew that Chara and Frisk came from a Castle, but - maybe that's just him. His memories, slipping loose. Proving susceptible as ever.]

Murder exp - no. Nothing like that. [Well...] Usually, anyway. It was a Castle. Castle in the Mist, war between shadow and light. The guy in charge needed footsoldiers, and we were it.

[I'm pretty sure that's new IC information but maybe I'll review some stuff? ANYWAY, Asgore frowns.]

That does not sound much better.

[Summoning children to be soldiers sounds even more egregious than summoning random people in general, but we're all aware of that already.]

It wasn't great.

[They weren't killing each other - most of the time. Sometimes they were. Sometimes it was for people's own good. Sometimes it was so that children could carve out the little pieces of their SOUL they suspected were still trapped inside someone else.]

Sorry. I don't think I - I don't remember who I've told this to.

No, no, you have not told me before.

[Asgore takes a sip of his tea - not wanting to press for more details, not sure if this is information he should be getting at all, and desperately wanting to know more.]

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