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 )

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...what did you just do. [A voice says then resolves into Keith, eyes still wide. Kosmos had ignored the situation and decided not to join his scouting mission. He stares upwards.]

...did you make sure the rocket was aligned properly?

[Kravitz looks towards Keith, giving him this pathetic little look that's at least 30% desperation and 20% apologies.]

I-- I don't know! The instructions were unclear. It seemed very simple.

[Surprise! It was not. You'd think a man who ran what amounted to the entire afterlife would be able to figure out some fireworks, but that gives him a lot of credit. Mostly he just looks defeated.]

I've never used something like this before.

[He bites back asking how he can navigate cutting through space and can't do this. There's no winning there. He can't understand half the jokes that go around and didn't know how to relax for a long, long time.

Keith strides forward and peers up again.] It's fine. I have and I'll teach you how to work it. How did you do it before?

[He tosses his braid behind him and nods once.] We got this.

[Thank goodness Keith is encouraging- Kravitz is used to being mocked when he does something this ridiculous and loud. And the difference is that's magic and this is technology- which he has no fucking idea how to operate, not even a little. He swallows, letting out an exhale to steady himself.]

Okay-- okay. You're right, we can figure this out.

[He tries to gesture to the mouth of the cannon, but seeing as it's spinning, that's very hard. He just makes a sweeping arm motion anyway.]

I thought I had loaded it properly, but maybe I made it too heavy? You're supposed to fill up the whole thing, right?

[He looks back up for the third time. A swift calculation crosses his mind. He did demolitions for the Blades and before that being a pilot required accurate math of his fuel.]

...I see how it happened now. I'll be right back.

[Keith slips away and returns with another cannon under his arm and his pack slung over the right.] You only fire one off at a time. It's like the chute to guide it on its path.

Help me set this up and I'll show you how to load it.

[Oh. Well doesn't he feel like a big ol fool right now. As much as Kravitz would like to be competent, that just doesn't seem to be happening today, so here he is. He's a little sheepish as he approaches Keith, trying to pointedly ignore the canon going off in the background.]

Right, uhm-- here, I'll get it anchored.

[At least he did that part pretty well.]

They don’t have any instructions here. Don’t blame you for thinking it worked like that.

[He waits until the cannon is anchored then he loads it.] Fireworks back home have clear instructions. You find them along the side. I don’t think gods get they need to teach things instead of just expect us to know.

[He offers Kravitz the flame with an expectant look in his eyes.] Here. Light it the same way you did before.

[It's almost strange to have someone so confident but also being so genuinely encouraging to him. If Kravitz didn't have other experience with Keith, he feels like he would imagine this as fake. Part of him wants to puff up and claim he was competent all along, but it's only him here. Perhaps he can just fix this and any perceived failure can just be their little secret.]

There is plenty gods don't know. Though I imagine their folly is often thinking no one knows if they don't, so instructions are likely not high on their list of priorities.

[But he nods as he takes the fire gently, lighting the cannon and immediately taking a few steps back, just in case. If that was wrong, he's still missing baseline for right, and even that is likely to be big.]

Sounds like they're not that difference from us. [Keith kneels down out of the firing range just as the firework stretch up through the cannon and up into the sky. The resulting burst of colors across the sky brings a smile to the pilot's face.]

And now you know what they might not. [He says as he stands up and loads it again then steps back to let Kravitz load it. He pauses and says,] ...how much do you remember of last month? I uh. I remember all of it.

[Oh, somehow he was not expecting this. Kravitz smiles along with him as he watches it go off, about to repeat his motions, but he does freeze for a moment as Keith brings up that. He chuckles a bit, reaching up to rub at his neck.]

Yes, I-- right. That. I'm sorry if I made you uncomfortable though our conversation. It... certainly would have meant a lot to me back then.

[He feels the need to totally clarify though, because he feels like they've had a conversation like this before, and he wants to make sure he knows what he's talking about.]

You're not actually a half elf, correct? I know we had some discussions about this, it's... I feel we may have been at the hands of a rather interesting coincidence.

[Keith pauses in mid-step back. He glances at Kravitz and smiles, something small and lopsided.]

...my mom looks like a dark purple elf, but no. I'm not half elf. Mom's people are the Galra. ...I think we've really stumbled across a coincidence because being Galra isn't a good thing to most people.

They've been terrorizing the universe for over ten thousand years. Mom's part of a resistance movement within the Empire. [He looks away and crosses his arms adding,] And if I get hit with enough energy or my emotions are high I start looking like her. You didn't make me feel uncomfortable. I was glad to make you feel less alone.

[He chuckles a bit, when Keith explains. Just similar enough to have different words, different explanations. But it all kind of sounds the same. It's been a long time since he told this story, largely because he didn't remember it before he was sent back to being a child. He's written it down now, tried to keep it in his mind, even if it's very hard to recall firsthand now.]

I am a half elf. But while my mother was human, my father was a type of elf known as a drow. They're considered to be dark elves, evil creatures that live underground. It's... not a good thing to be one of them, either.

[So... maybe not that different. Just a little off.]

My skin ended up dark enough to hide his tone, and there are many more ways for someone to have elven blood. He... mostly hid, among us. Truthfully, I no longer remember much about them at all. But it... would have meant a lot to me then, I'm sure. Or I suppose it did, in a circular sort of way.

...what happened to your memory? [He bites back all the explanations he could have said. It’s been easier and easier to just talk to Kravitz. The sense of kinship and odd overlap between what they are aside. He’s just easy to talk to.

Their stories diverge there.] But, glad you got even some idea of it back. Maybe this place does some good after all.

[Tiny bits. He still feels a bitterness about the islands. All of the death and suffering.]

[They are similar in that respect- Keith has always been easy to hold a conversation with, even on deeper issues. He's understanding, and it's appreciated in ways he really doesn't have the words for.]

It isn't anything... sinister, or whatever you might be thinking. I was... well, not alive, but in existence, for a very long time. While I may only appear to be a few decades old, I am in fact over a thousand.

[That's about as far as he can pigeonhole, anyway. Maybe after this, he'll work on going back to where he grew up (if he can remember where that is) and try to find records of his birth. The Raven Queen might know, but he doubts she tracks things in mortal years either.]

I simply don't remember a lot from back then. Time changes things. Things that aren't brought up fade away. And the rest of my family has been dead for a very long time. It's... I don't know. Perhaps I feel it should be emotionally difficult, but for the most part it simply is.

For a long time, I did not have people worth remembering. I think this is as symbolic or literal there as I'd like to imagine it.

[Keith falls silent. One by one the pieces come together. All their conversations before slot themselves into the puzzle. He takes a couple steps forward. This is someone he has let in sometimes because of circumstance but from the start because something resonated between them.

He doesn't touch him but his voice lowers.] I don't...I can't imagine what that's like. I can relate to not having people worth remembering but...that many years.

[He drops his gaze to the sand for a moment then back up.] I think, how it feels is up to you. You're used to being an existence, right? This living in the moment thing isn't something you're really used to.

You spent the most time just being.

[He doesn't expect Keith to know. Frankly, he doesn't expect any mortal to know-- not that Kravitz isn't mortal, but few live quite as long as he has. He's stuck in the middle in so many aspects, a racial divide compounded onto an identity split where he exists alone. The lifespan of a god without the knowledge of one. The knowledge of a mortal without the definitive end to spur change. He had no idea what an essential piece that was until he was missing it.

At least Keith is always easy to talk to, when it comes to issues like this where he doesn't know who would understand. He's good at empathizing, like that.]

I suppose. I had a job to do, in the end, the bargain I made. So most of my objectives were just, you know, job to job. Going where I'm needed. To be so... loose, I suppose? Directionless, is strange. It's just odd to be that person again that I do not even remember truly being, a person that does not feel like myself anymore.

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May Adventure: I Want to Go Where Everyone Goes

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