lifeaftr | June Intro: Playing With Your Mind

June Intro: Playing With Your Mind

INTRO LOG: JUNE

Who: New arrivals, and you!
What: New souls arrive to the archipelago of LifeAftr
When: June 4th and onward
Where: Primarily Io
Warnings: Mark as needed!

New travelers to our shores are in luck, in many ways - they are arriving on the decadent, raucous island of Io, where the local Avatar of Celebration resides. Here, you can bask in enjoyment of basics such as food and drink, as well as more extravagant affairs, such as sweeping bathhouses, sprawling campsites, rich tea gardens, and verdant vineyards.

Spinning Me Around and Around
If you are just arriving on Io, opening your eyes on the shores of LifeAftr for the very first time, it will be to...a potentially very rude awakening. More specifically, it will be to the sound of loud cracks and booms overhead.

You've arrived at Io's campsite, which has come fully stocked with all sorts of cooked meats, roasted vegetables, colorful tents, drinks of every sort, and, most importantly, fireworks. It seems Io is thrilled to welcome you to LifeAftr in the form of multi-colored starbursts, exploding out across the sky in flares of showering sparks. Particularly once the sun sets, the view will be spectacular.

If you go poking around in the containers and sheds where the fireworks are kept, you'll also find all manner of strange and exciting and potentially unfamiliar variants. You can find all kinds of handheld sparklers, in addition to steel wool fireworks, handheld firecrackers, confetti poppers, and little boxes of pop pop snappers for your general use and perusal.

The message here is clear: Io wants you to celebrate your arrival! So relax! Have fun! Make some noise! Watch some colors and explosions of light, and enjoy yourself!

And try not to set anything on fire.

Just Like a Carnival
It isn't all fun and games, however. Unfortunately, it's about to get a lot less fun around here...or a lot more, depending on who you ask.

After a month or so on Io, the local avatar, Eleu, has begun to notice that a great deal of little things are starting to go missing. Bottles of wine, tents, tea leaves...people seem to be lifting whatever they please from the island and bringing it with them back to Ensō. That won't do at all. For the next few days, if any of the bees buzzing lazily about the island catch you stealing, they will approach you and ask you to stop. They will not, however, take any definitive action to stop you - they can only warn you that what you are doing may disrupt things beyond Eleu's control.

Unfortunately, by now, it's already too late. Out of the corner of your eye, regardless of your place in things - whether you were complicit in island theft, whether you are newly arrived and therefore innocent, whether you only watched on the sidelines, or whether you were totally unaware - you'll start to see it. It will peek out from behind trees and the corners of buildings.

Smiling.

This...entity probably has a name. For the purposes of the games you've been playing with this island, however, you really only need to call it what it is: the Clown Box. Accompanied almost always by the tinkle of chimes and a soft, sinister chuckling, it is unclear how the Box manages to travel about, much less disappear if you try to approach.

For the first week or so of June, be prepared to find the Clown Box lingering all over Io, particularly near the mana pool. If it looks like you're going to try and lift something off the island, something that does not belong to you - the Clown Box may retaliate. This retaliation largely occurs in the form of a hand that appears to be gloved in silky, glittering material and colorfully polka-dotted cloth, slinking out to beckon at you, eerily. It seems unwilling or unable to actually hurt you directly, but it will grow incredibly persistent if you don't acknowledge it, and stop popping up all over Io with increasing frequency.

The Clown Box can be appeased by giving it a gift. What it's really after are perceived thieves: return something you have stolen, and the Box will vanish as quickly as it appeared. However, the Box is also not terribly discerning in what it is given, as long as it is something that did, at some point, belong to you. And, if you give it enough offerings, you might end up with a gift of your own. Those who give the Clown Box multiple offerings may receive any of the following:

[ ♆ ] Rubber Duck: These novelty toys don't seem to do anything in particular, other than be cute and colorful and utter happy little honks when squeezed. But there's a slight chance you might end up with a toy that seems...oddly relevant to your personal life. It might even be designed after you. Best not to question it. Just back away from the Clown Box, slowly, and be sure to thank it for the gift...

[ ♆ ] Snotgun: What appears to be an ordinary shotgun is anything but, as one will find out by firing it, it only shoots blobs of bright green acid capable of melting just about anything. So be careful not to aim it at any of your friends.

[ ♆ ] Silk Handkerchief: There's nothing particularly special about these tri-colored squares of cloth...except that no matter what you do to them, they will not stain, tear, or fade. They can be used to clean just about anything, or even serve as a delightful party trick.

[ ♆ ] A Very Shiny Nose: A bright red foam nose, easily attached to most human-shaped faces. All this thing does is inspire a general proclivity for causing mischief and trickery, though mostly of the light-hearted kind. However, the longer the nose is left in place, the more some pranks may skew toward the downright dangerous...

You are free to RNG any of the above rewards your character gets, or pick from the list above as you like! Bear in mind that the Clown Box is a stingy creature - it will not give more than one reward to any one person, though nothing is stopping you from trading others for any gifts they may have received.

The Clown Box will cease being quite so persistent in tailing characters by June 7th, but it won't go away completely. You can still catch glimpses of it from time to time, waiting, watching, giggling quietly to itself. Even if you try to attack it, enchant it, set it on fire, you'll find that these attacks are essentially useless; it will vanish before any of them connect, and when it returns, it will certainly be to menace you further.

It isn't doing anything other than scaring you, though.

Yet.

All new arrivals will awake with knapsacks, their names stitched to the front. The contents of said knapsacks can all be found in your acceptance notices!

As a final note to those who participated in the Test Drive Meme, bear in mind that those threads, if all parties involved would like, can be game canon in the form of dream-like memories involving a place very much like this one, though the layout is considerably different.

Feeling a tad adrift? Make sure to check the Locations Page, which has details regarding the starting areas and a handy map for those who feel better with a bird's eye view!

LOGS ● OOC ● STORIES ● MAIN NAVIGATION

( CODED BY BOOTYCALL )

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The Drifter, fortunately, stops. This figure isn't attacking them on sight, which is the surest sign that one might be hostile. This one, evidently, isn't. That's enough for the Drifter to decide not to make any further aggressive motion.

If that means they stay in one place for now, so be it.

The Drifter does not speak aloud. The lower half of their face, swathed in a scarlet cowl as it is, prevents much in the way of emoting. Instead, the little shape hovering at their shoulder chimes quietly, and projects a transparent screen with a line of text on it.

no
yours?

Horatio has to turn his attention back to the little floater after all - maybe the larger of the two has an internal transmitter? Something similar to Gimbal, perhaps, but with help she didn't have. Or is it the floater addressing him? Or the two of them could be partials, for all he knows, sharing sentences between them like others he'd met. Whatever the case, so long as he and at least one of them can communicate somehow, there's a better chance this goes peacefully after all.

"No. And I don't plan to claim it, either. I just needed a place to sit down and go through this bag in case that answered any questions." A shrug. "So far, it doesn't."

you
new

It's not really a question so much as it is a statement of inference. As far as the Drifter's concerned, he has all the appearances of someone who is new to the islands.

Unfortunately, the Drifter is one of the worst people to help new folks to adjusting to the islands. Still, that doesn't mean they're not about to try.

questions?

It wouldn't be quite accurate to say he relaxes, but Horatio considers the following series of messages to be reasonable enough confirmation that these people are only, indeed, a little odd after all. He'll take well-meaning-but-weird any day.

"That's right," he answers, and it goes for both statements. "It seems like it'd be too much to hope for that one of you knows how or why I blacked out and woke up here, though. But I also don't know why I would have picked up some of these things, or why anyone would have given them to me."

"Like this." He holds up the package of jerky. "Do you have any idea what this is supposed to be for?"

The Drifter peers at it only for a moment before nodding.

food
for consumption

...it's possible this might be useless for someone like him, who appears to be more or less inorganic. Appears to be - they have since learned that this is not necessarily the case for all. They had made the same assumption about Maine, who proved to be very much organic, and simply wearing a protective shell.

It is perhaps fortunate that Horatio hails from a world where robots do have vague notions of things like stomachs and eating, though it's the sort of concept that one refers to in passing without ever quite thinking too long about referring to a thing that no one has or does. The concepts, lacking their original context, simply linger.

"It's fuel? Huh." He presses one slender metal thumb against the outside of the package again. The materials inside still feel solid, tough.

"Well, I know I don't have the hardware in me to burn something like this. If either of you can run on it, you can have it."

Either...?

The Drifter glances at their companion, hovering at their shoulder, and then back to the creature before them. This misunderstanding has fortunately happened before - meaning they are more equipped to deal with it. Some have addressed their companion sprite as opposed to the Drifter themself, as though the sprite must be the sentient one of the two, to issue the response.

At least this isn't quite that.

sprite is to access functions:
communication
mapping
inventory

not separate entity

"Oh. Sorry." So the floater (sprite? is that a name or a model? should he ask?) with the projector is only a remote drone, then. An assistant device, like he'd wondered in passing. That makes sense enough, even if building drones never was something Horatio engaged in. Too quiet without another mind around. Much too quiet.

"It's hard to guess who's self-aware and who isn't just by looking, sometimes. And if I'm going to guess wrong, assuming someone is seems like the better mistake."

But there was something in that list that particularly caught the attention of his more practical sensibilities, and so he adds after a slight pause: "When you say mapping, do you have much about this area? My own mapping device was...damaged, but if I can fix it I'd be willing to trade something to copy information."

It's a strange avenue of thought, and one that tips the Drifter's head very slightly to one side. The assumption of personhood is an instinct that has seldom if ever been directed toward the Drifter, where they come from - when they are acknowledged at all.

They suppose they cannot begrudge that.

contain maps
must chart land first
this land is charted

And they open a secondary HUD, to display a rough map of Io. It favors geometric shapes and a lack of text, but there are general rhomboids to designate landmarks.

The lights of his eyes widen slightly, taking it in. He is a little surprised, though not unpleasantly so, to be shown even a rough map right away and without being pressed for some specific trade first. Not that he objects to conducting a fair trade (and doesn't plan to rescind his offer), but more than one artificial intelligence in his recent memory has been rather more predatory in their practices.

(At least Leopold, wherever he's gone, might be able to change for the better now. Horatio would like to think so.)

"Thank you. Even if I can't copy this down in my datapouch yet, even just seeing it helps. Hm. Really is an island, then. Is one of these the transport system?"

The Drifter points to one of the rounder shapes, highlighted in green.

mana pool
takes one to others of its kind

They're being remarkably articulate - perhaps because Horatio is asking direct questions that can be answered. They can respect someone who is direct in their intentions. The Drifter is an equally direct personality.

some make copies of maps
suggest library

Horatio makes, in particular, a careful mental note of the green mark's location and the approximate shape of the island itself; if he manages to memorize only one thing during this glimpse, it must be the way off this rock. Even if it only leads to other rocks. Always better to know your exits in an emergency.

He is indeed a direct creature, and fairly sensible, and accumulating useful information - like having tools in hand when staring down a problem - is something like a relief. He is certainly grateful, both for the navigation help and for this: "Wait - there's a library?"

Did someone say books?

yes

They indicate another part of the map - located next to a lake, with a few other clustered landmarks.

recent acquisition
contains reading material
maps

The Drifter does not mention that they were partially responsible for establishing the library building in the first place. They don't consider it important, so naturally they don't bring it up.

Okay, if he only manages to memorize two things, it's going to be the transport and this. The thought of entering a new library, even a small one, is like the possibility of finding an entire intact toolbox with everything still in its place, unharmed, inside: to him, a treasure.

"I've never been in a library I didn't have to put together myself." Well, one of his past versions had been the one to start the shelves and stacks of his collection, but that was still himself. He'd just...had a lot of selves. "I'll definitely go there as soon as I can."

He turns his head slightly, blinks, and now that he knows only one of these two creatures is actually alive he can more accurately direct this question than he would have at the start of this encounter (and to think, that first moment had seemed ominous). "My name is Horatio Nullbuilt, version five. What should I call you?"

There is more than one name he might have given, but for now that one will still do.

Horatio Nullbuilt, version five. It's the sort of name that would raise questions from anyone who was more accustomed to asking them, unprompted. But the Drifter accepts this at face value, as they do most things. That is his name. They will make a note of it. They are certain, at least, that they will not forget it - he stands out from the gallery of fleshy humans that make up most of their social circles.

Social circles. A strange thing to consider, as they've never had those.

At least they know how best to handle this question. A lowering of their head in gentle acknowledgment.

drifter

That's it. The only title they've ever required.

library still expanding
slow process
but getting bigger

Horatio is beginning to wonder if it really is the case that no one uses fabrynimics and version numbers here. Maybe that's just the way of things when you travel far enough, though, like Gimbal saying Built-By-Lapita instead of Lapitabuilt. (At least 'Drifter' seems a normal enough name to him; maybe their builder had exploration in mind?)

"Well, I won't complain about it being slow; some things are just hard work or rare finds and you can't do much about it. If I can help out with that while I'm here though, I don't mind pulling my own weight."

Honestly, it's taken them this long to even accept the term "drifter" as something of a name instead of just an anonymous title. Their knowledge of who fabricated them is so far back in their memories that it may as well not exist.

ask storyteller for more
supplied books the first time

The Drifter did contribute to that effort as well - but, again, they're not about to offer the information. It just doesn't strike them as important.

"That guy, huh? Of course it is. Why wouldn't it be?"

He makes a sound like a sigh, and really it's a very close approximation for someone without a respiratory system. What can one say, it's a sound he's had a lot of practice with. "Guess I can think of something to tell him. And he didn't say they had to be good. But..."

On any other face - which is to say, a face at all - there would have been a frown. A furrowed brow. A darkened look. As it is, Horatio's eyes only narrow slightly. "These trades he wants from us; a story's really all he takes? Nothing weird's happened to you after dealing with him?"

The last hidden price Horatio paid was far too high.

they have fulfilled all requests asked of them
asks of nothing but stories
no further cost

The Drifter is a pious creature. The Storyteller is a god, and therefore they have sought to fulfill their requests and obligations as needed. They need not do anything other than be a god to have earned the Drifter's loyalty. Others have not been so trusting of the Storyteller's motivations.

But the Drifter is not one to question.

"Hmm. Could be just an archivist kind of person after all, I guess. Not many of those around anymore. I only ever met one, and only for a few minutes." Actually, now that the thought crosses his processor, preserving some knowledge of Memento's brief life somewhere seems...fitting. The ghost of a ghost. It would be a small thing, but would she have liked the idea, in her way? And for such a cause as this?

"But yes, I'll do it then. Building up a library this way is weird, but you can only use the tools you've got."

This is the form Horatio's own piety takes, when all complicating factors like gods and Man are set aside: though the world end tomorrow, build something today. Yes, he thinks that he will talk about Memento, when the time comes.

The Drifter's faith in gods is not always a clever or wise thing, but in this case, they have no cause to question it. Stories will yield more stories - is that not fitting?

tell stories to god of stories to gain stories

See, it makes perfect sense.

very interested in history?

That does spark their interest in turn, dark eyes that fix on him anew. Their expressions are muted, as always, present only in the stripe of blue skin visible between their helm and cowl, but they look at him, long and curious.

Another sigh. He supposes he can't argue with Drifter's reasoning, exactly, or at least not with anything better than contributing to a library by telling random anecdotes to a robot wearing a fuzzy blanket, instead of by digging in the garbage like a respectable person, is extremely strange and I'm just being cantankerous about it. A tired old machine, starting to grumble.

Then the second note flickers into being, and he does not miss Drifter peering at him curiously. In the world he knows, muted expressions are somewhat the default.

"Oh, uh, sort of. Mostly I build things. I fix things. There's not much history left for anyone to find - but it leaves a void in the world, losing that. My own memory's taken some damage too, so maybe that's why it's always bugged my code a bit." A shrug. He has corrupted memory files, he's not ashamed of it.

"Wouldn't call myself a real archivist, but I know it matters when I find it." Oh, does it ever. "You?"

Build things. A mechanic? A gunsmith? They understand plenty of the words he says individually, but not in tandem - bugged my code sounds like something more akin to what Legion might utter. Still, it is not in their nature to ask. They seldom if ever ask anyone anything unless they consider it absolutely requisite - and if it is likely that they'll get a clear and concise answer.

yes
a drifter finds broken history
old technology
piece together what no longer is

Hence their interest in establishing a library in the first place, naturally.

'A' drifter? He'd wondered for a moment earlier if 'sprite' was a name or a model - maybe this is just how it works where they come from, using one for both. Well no harm in it if so, unless, he supposes, he ends up running into a bunch of them and designating a specific individual starts to get difficult.

"Guess that makes two real historians I've met, then. Well, good. Do you do much work with the old technology too, or does that go to someone else?"

The possibility that a historically inclined person might actually preserve ancient machines somehow never even occurs to him. Information is one thing, books are one thing, but he has been scavenging the remains of ancient relics (and dead robots) all his life. That belongs in a museum is not in his core logic.

use what i can

A moment later, they withdraw something from the folds of their cloak - a weapon, namely one of their guns. It is their zaliska they took off the Hanged Man's corpse in retribution for the number of times they died at the creature's hand.

It's clearly still working, though the Drifter isn't the one to thank for that. They'd done very little actual fixing of said technology, and it's not altogether clear how much of it is technology and how much of it is...something else, potentially magical.

The wonders of magitech.

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June Intro: Playing With Your Mind

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