May Adventure: I Want to Go Where Everyone Goes

[lifeaftr_mods]

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?

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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

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LOGS ● OOC ● STORIES ● MAIN NAVIGATION

( CODED BY BOOTYCALL )

Comments

[counterblows]

Yeah, you and everyone else.

[Bitter? No, he's not bitter. Not in the slightest.]

So, that's something to keep an eye on. The last time it happened we got some kind of warning, but...who knows, at this point.

[the_archivist]

[If it's personal things, that is- well, mortifying and embarrassing, but if it's- well, work things, it might be downright dangerous.]

Oh trust, me I always keep an eye on things. [He says it dryly, with just a slight curl of his lips at the morbid joke.]

Thank you for the information.

[counterblows]

I haven't been here as long as most. I'm probably not the best person to ask.

[There's a subconscious twitch in the back of his head, the stirring of an instinct he never quite packed away after the Project crumbled in earnest. Thank you for the information. The sensation of having just handed the keys to someone's destruction to the hands of someone who - ]

[Irrational.]

[He doesn't know this man. He breathes.]

[He's supposed to be taking this time to relax.]

[the_archivist]

Still, it's useful. Anything is at the moment.

[And the smile that he gives is genuinely grateful. He's a little out of his depth, although nothing outright tried to kill him yet.]

Of course, if there's anything I can help with- let me know.

[counterblows]

[That sort of offer is a dangerous one to make, Jon.]

Help how?

[the_archivist]

[Jon shrugs, thinking about it.]

I don't know. I'm an Archivist back home, a researcher. I don't really know that there's much call for that skillset here.

[counterblows]

You might be surprised. It's not like anyone's made any compendiums of information here. Pretty much everything travels by word of mouth, if that.

[He remembers Umui. He's...not sure how much of that information has just been lost by now.]

[the_archivist]

Well, part of my job is taking statement from people.

[Maybe he could help. Maybe it would help him. Or maybe it would just be nice to go back to the thing he'd originally been hired to do at the Institute. ]

[counterblows]

So you're a cop.

[Somewhere across universes, Kaikaina Grif is laughing.]

But...a historian cop.

[the_archivist]

[Jon blinks and gets a look of vague horror.]

God no. I'm really- I have a somewhat strained relationship with the police at the best of times.

I work for a place called the Magnus Institute. We research the esoteric and paranormal. Part of that is taking statements from people about their experiences.

[Daisy would laugh her arse off if she heard that someone was calling him a cop.]

[counterblows]

Any reason you keep saying its name like that?

[That's the third time he's said it, like maybe he expects it to matter here. Naturally, Wash hasn't heard of it, which isn't so shocking - he hasn't heard of a lot of things that frequent other worlds. Universes. Dimensions. Whatever the scientific term is.]

People just...report to you about this stuff?

[the_archivist]

It's just.. it's important.

[To him, to his continued existence. He's a little unsettled by being able to apparently leave for such a long period of time. He wonders how long he has before it starts to- to make him sick.]

Yes. They come to tell us their stories. Most of them are rubbish. Bad drug trips or dreams. Some of them are are- they're real. People like to get things off their chest and they know there's no point talking to the police.

[counterblows]

Sounds like you do a little of what the Storyteller does. Only you actually do something about what people tell you.

[And the Storyteller, to Wash's knowledge, doesn't do anything but listen and keep track of how many stories you've told.]

[the_archivist]

Maybe a little. Not-

It's complicated.

[He cant track down every statement giver and help them. He can piece together what he needs to know to stop another ritual though. Hopefully.

...or to complete the Beholding's.]

Mainly we just look into them, verify what we can. Often it's too late to save anyone.

[And sometimes they get taken right out from under his nose in his office because he hadn't noticed the door that didn't exist.]

[counterblows]

[It sounds a little like the kind of process you'd anticipate from a cop, but - yeah, he's not going to go there again. It sounds more prone to doing something of use than anything the Storyteller does, so that's already a point in Jon's favor.]

"We." You got other people who work with you?

[the_archivist]

Yes. I mean, in the Archives specifically, there's my- [Friends] Assistants. Melanie and Basira and Mart- Um, Melanie and Basira. And Daisy is there too most of the time. Basira is off a lot recently investigating.

[And Melanie is only just starting to talk to him after he removed the Slaughter's bullet, and Daisy is shattered, and Martin is- And of course the Avatar of the Twisting Deceit which is still hanging out in the basement with them.]

And upstairs there's librarians and people from artefact storage and my- my new boss. Supposedly.

[counterblows]

Supposedly. You don't know your boss?

[Would be great if that were less common than it apparently is, but one-way blinding seems to be the go-to if someone wants to protect their identity.]

[the_archivist]

I know who he is. I've never met him. I'm- I'm not sure anyone working there has except-

[Except Martin. And that fills him with dread. But what can he expect from an Avatar of the Lonely?]

It's complicated.

[counterblows]

["It's complicated" is code for "I don't want to explain this." Or maybe, alternatively, "I don't know how to explain this." Wash frowns, but doesn't push. He's trotted out that phrase enough times himself to know better.]

...I'll take your word for that.

[the_archivist]

[Complicated, potentially deadly. And he doesn't really know enough about Peter Lukas to say for sure what's going on. He should probably remedy that.]

I'm still trying to work out if he's worse or better than my previous boss.

[counterblows]

Was your previous boss..."complicated" too?

[Because!!! boy!!!!!!! Wash's sure was and he sure is not about to get into that, preferably ever again!!!!!!]

[the_archivist]

Very complicated.

...he's currently in prison for double murder. He let the police think it was me who did it for... a while.

[Not to mention the manipulation, and invasion of Melanie's mind and Martin's mind.

And Jon misses him. Sort of. He was a known quantity, and they served the same master and-

He wishes he hated him. It would be a clean emotion.]

[counterblows]

Sounds like a...very charming man.

[Heavy on the sarcasm, as per usual.]

I'd say it's hard to be worse than that, but I know from experience that's not true.

[the_archivist]

He- he has his ways.

[There had been times, even when they'd been planning to remove him from power, when Jon had realised how very easy it would be to get dragged under by Elias. To let his words and the promise of knowledge and that undeniable draw towards their Master guide him. He is still amazed that he resisted.]

Yes. Yes, so do I.

[counterblows]

No chain of command around here. One of this place's few perks.

[At least unless that C.O.C. manifests in the form of your dead ex-boss, who doesn't have any of his bureaucratic clout but does still have a temper and a weapon and all of his unresolved baggage.]