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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[He wasn't...honestly certain he'd ever see this lady again after The way their last interaction went, but - fine. Whatever. Apparently he didn't so thoroughly scare her away that she never wants to talk to him again. She's probably decided that he's objectively stupid, which, while Tim would be inclined to agree, isn't necessarily the kind of impression he intends to make.]

[He lowers his mug as he looks at her.]

More of a coffee guy myself, usually.

[Joke's on you, Tim, everyone is Jester's friend whether they like it or not. She's going to drag him kicking and screaming into becoming best buds ever if only to make up for the fact she accidentally hurt his feelings that one time.

And maybe the bright smile she gives him when he doesn't immediately just run away might give him a hint about that.]

Oh yeah? I've never had coffee before.

[That's a weird anecdote that probably doesn't need any investigating.]

But I know this guy who makes the most amazing tea, I bet he'd really like it if he were here. I think I'm gonna take a bunch of these home just in case he shows up. What kind is this?

It's all right. Depends on who made it.

[He wasn't a coffee connoisseur or anything like that. Just needed to dump caffeine into his shitty corpse daily, just to keep himself thriving. Needed his nicotine-caffeine fix like nothing else in the world, just to keep moving.]

[It's hitting harder now that he's trying to quit.]

Uh, the stuff I'm drinking now? It's black tea. Got a pretty high amount of caffeine, so it's pretty much the closest I'm gonna get to actual coffee.

[Thankfully they're not talking over coffee right now, because Jester is the type of person who absolutely does not need a strong shot of caffeine. The whole island would regret it so hard that Io would just leave early, no questions asked.

But as it stands, tea has much less caffeine generally, so we're safe.]

Yeah, but who's it made of?

[Said as if that's not the single most horrifying thing anyone could ever say about a beverage.]

Like a drow or something, probably, right?

It's not made of...it's made of tea leaves. These.

[He picks up one of the tins of tea leaves and shakes it slightly.]

Leaves. That you grow. [Does she drink powdered corpse juice? He doesn't want to know. He's now very certain that he's going to end up knowing whether he wants to or not. Which is just. Awesome. He doesn't love this.]

Yeah, duh, of course it's made of tea leaves.

[This doesn't contradict what she asked? Tim, do you not know how tea works?]

Okay, I guess you don't know then! My friend who made tea always told me the story of whoever it grew from first. That was actually my favorite part, because a lot of tea is too bitter, so I'd just sneak a bunch of milk into it when he wasn't looking. Don't tell him.

[As she just starts perusing some of the tins, trying to inspect any labels... Whatever she finds interesting or particularly colorful she just shoves into the side pockets of her bright pink leather bag.]

It doesn't grow from people. It's...a tree. What is tea like where you come from?

[He's not even going to call her out for stealing, because Tim's been lifting things from the island too, here and there. Mostly he's just concerned about what she's just implied about tea from her world. Or...what she believes tea to be. He's honestly not sure at this point.]

[Asking for clarification isn't really helping.]

[Okay, now she's confused? She's seen Caduceus' cemetary—wait, graveyard, he always corrects her—and she knows that the bodies of those buried there were the... fuel for the plants and flowers that would be made into his tea.]

Uh, well... Before I left home it was usually spicy, you know, sometimes there were cinnamon or cloves in it... But it wasn't super popular in the Empire, you know? So I only saw it a lot again when I met Caduceus, and he was from this temple, in this graveyard in the woods, and the flowers and plants and stuff grew from the old families and stuff that were there?

[She shrugs.]

He knows a lot about tea and who it's made from.

Okay, so - in most worlds? You don't make tea from people's, uh, graves.

[That's slightly less horrific than what Tim was envisioning, for what it's worth. He didn't want to think about the ethics of making tea with, uh, powdered corpses.]

I don't think any of this stuff grows from people's graves. [God, he sure...hopes not. Great. Now he's just gonna be thinking of that instead.]

[Jester thinks she knows what Caduceus would say, if he were here. He'd probably say everything grows from something's grave, whether we know it or not.

But Jester isn't Caduceus, and for all she knows other worlds grow things differently than Exandria. And she's also not by any means a biologist.

So she just shrugs.]

I guess I don't know that much about tea. You'd have to ask him if he ever comes here. Do they have the flowery kind? Um, like with rose petals and lemongrass and stuff... Or cinnamon? Something like that?

[She's... trying to describe some form of herbal tea.]

I think this place has just about every kind, if you look hard enough. I just kind of added different things until I liked how it smelled.

[He can help with at least one of those, though, by combing through the shelves until he emerges with a tin of cinnamon sticks.]

Cinnamon's here. A lot of this stuff looks like it's herbal, though. You want something caffeinated, or not?

Oh! Cinnamon is one of my favorite flavors. Thank you, Tim.

[She snags a few cinnamon sticks, then glances some more over the shelves at other tins.]

Hmmm... I don't know if caffeine is important or not? Oh!

[She picks up what looks like a tin full of red tea flowers. Hibiscus. And she finds some berry as well...]

These sound good, right? I like the ones that are sweet.

It gives you energy, basically.

[For someone as perpetually exhausted as Tim, it's a necessity. He eyes Jester, who probably doesn't need more energy when he's pretty sure that she hasn't slowed down her pace of processing and responding to information a single time since he's met her.]

Hibiscus is pretty good. Fruity teas are gonna have more flavor, probably.

[Tim would probably not be surprised to know Jester's a morning person.]

I don't think I have problems with energy, and I don't think it works for running out of spells...

[Because Caduceus would for sure have mentioned that before. But more flavor sounds good, so she's gonna snag a few of those as well.]

Oh, you helped finish the library, right? Have you noticed anything weird about it recently? Like, are people looking way more happy when they leave?

[The least suspicious thing to say ever.

She did not, in fact, put a dick on the shelf. You're welcome. She's just slipped a few homemade pamphlets in between some of the books.]

Uh, I helped move some shelves and stuff, sure. Not...to my knowledge, though.

[That's going to get you a suspicious side-eye, Jester. That's definitely not how you keep people from looking at you and wondering what the hell you actually did.]

So what'd you do?

[He remembers the dick on the shelf conversation, all right. Maybe she didn't end up doing that, but clearly she ended up doing something.]

[For a cleric of the trickery domain, Jester sure sucks at lying sometimes. She can't help but emit some giggling when he starts being immediately suspicious.]

Nothiiiiing!

[It's the sort of "nothing!" someone says when they are just way too pleased with themselves to commit to pretending it was actually nothing.]

Remember how you said the Traveler definitely, definitely isn't here?

[She, uh, did Not mention him by name, so it would not be surprising if Tim did not remember that very well.]

[Heavy sigh. If he ends up having to clean up after her, he's gonna be...not surprised, but very weary of it by the end of things. She's all but guaranteed that now he's gonna have to go back there and look for himself at what she might've done, and who has that kind of time?]

I remember you talking about your...god, or whatever.

[Not anyone she put forth by name, he doesn't think. His memory's shit enough that he's not one hundred percent on that.]

Yeah, my "god or whatever".

[She doesn't look any less thrilled. In fact, she sounds like she's liable to burst into more laughter at any moment.]

Well, I know for really real now that he's definitely really here, and you were definitely really wrong, but that's okay, I forgive you.

[He looks at her for a minute, gauging her reaction. Then he shrugs. Joke at his expense. That's what everything always is, so. Fine. Laugh at him.]

[So he sighs, his expression flat.]

'Kay.

[Wait, what? Apparently, that's not the reaction she expected. He's supposed to be excited about this, she's pretty sure. Or at least skeptic. But he just doesn't react at all.

She looks a little confused for a moment.]

That's it? You're not even gonna ask how I figured it out?

Just think it's funny that your god hasn't whisked you outta here by now. Y'know, if he's definitely really here.

[His deadpan might make it hard to gauge his tone. He could be completely serious, or just seeing how far he can take the joke.]

Why would he do that?? I'm doing exactly what he wants me to over here just as good as anywhere else. He doesn't do everything for me, what would the point of following him be if he had to do the whole thing himself?

[See? It's only logical. Gods are pretty pointless without the free will part of the mortals that love them.]

Fine. Good job for the both of you.

[Whatever reaction she wants out of him, he's pretty sure he's messing it up. That's just about the only thing he's consistently good at. Messing shit up.]

There a point to this?

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May Adventure: I Want to Go Where Everyone Goes

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