June Intro: Playing With Your Mind

[lifeaftr_mods]

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 )

Comments

[egin]

I suppose I can see what you're saying. ( it all, especially her first run-in with yukio, felt oddly real. perhaps that was the sadness (and the anger) coming through though in both interactions. ) But at least we can be for sure that it's real now.

( but, good, she thinks. the sooner he finds everything out the better. maybe. probably? )

Near the campsite so a little bit of a walk but I'm sure we can spot him easily. He... sorta glows, in a way, I guess?

[flashover]

Oh yeah, he does glow, doesn't he.

[Rin shrugs]

This place is really peaceful, so I don't mind walking. I think I will make an iced tea for the road, though!

[as he goes about prepping some iced tea, he keeps talking]

Maybe too peaceful...

[egin]

I guess peaceful is a word I could use for this place. ( or suspicious but she holds her tongue on speaking those thoughts. ) It's sort of oddly quiet now without the fireworks constantly going off.

( she lingers but glancing back before stepping off, heading in the direction she came from once he's finished making his drink. )

Makes better sense for us to walk together then just in case.

[flashover]

Yeah... I don't know. The Carnival I came from... we went to a buncha parties and worlds where everything seemed peaceful. Then it all went to pot!

[Rin makes sure the bees are good with him taking the drink with him, and they cheerfully inform him that as long as the cup doesn't leave the island, they're happy! So he nods and follows after Yuri]

Right. I can protect you if something weird happens.

[egin]

You lived at a carnival? Huh. I think I wanted to be in a circus when I was kid too.

( she wanted a lot of things when she was a kid though, anything to help fill the spaces left after her guardians died and yuri was only just getting used to asylum. )

You're nice but don't forget that I'm an exorcist too. I can carry my own in a fight if needed.

[flashover]

Yeah! A faerie carnival. Originally I got stuck there because I played some games without paying, but... I ended up staying even after I worked off my debt.

[fond memories! Even all those times he almost died!!]

I was planning on going home soon, but... now I'm here.

[he blinks, then snaps his fingers]

Oh! Right! Tamer. Do you have any summoning papers, though?

1/??

[egin]

A faerie carnival, huh. That must of been quite the place but it doesn't bother you that you didn't get the chance to go home?

( still the question earns him a grin and chuckle. )

Of course, I do! What kind of Tamer would I be―

[egin]

Huh? They were right here. ( excuse her as she stops, patting down her coat pockets in almost a rhythm. )

[egin]

( and in one glorious gesture she pulls out a wad of... soaking wet paper. oh. oh, dear. )

DONE

[egin]

Ah! All of my summoning papers!!

[flashover]

Well, there was some time dilation stuff, but-- Oh no!

[Rin holds out his hand for the wad of wet papers] Maybe I can try something?

[egin]

( yuri quietly (and sadly) holds her papers out without a word. if rin has a plan then she is all for it especially if it helps save her summoning papers. and no, she's not going to cry. probably not. maybe. )

[flashover]

[Rin teases out one of the paper carefully, only tearing it around the soaked edges a bit. He hands the rest of the wad back to Yuri.

Then, he holds out the paper between his fingers so it's dangling like a flag. He takes a deep breath and blows a gentle plume of blue flame over the paper, focusing hard on just sort of blow drying the paper and not torching it]

[egin]

( it's so strange.

all her life the blue flame has been an odd little constant. her only friend. now, here it is, alive and thriving inside one of her sons. a son that looks so much like satan but is a world of difference from the god he had recently proclaimed himself to be. there's a part of her that wants to reach out, touch it or pull him into a hug but for now she just stands back and watches. )

[flashover]

[It seems to work, and only the edges get scorched, though it has the texture of old newspaper now-- but the symbol drawn on the paper is intact and the ink's only run a bit from the sea. He hands it back to Yuri with a bright grin]

Here! Now you have at least one! It... should still work, right?

[egin]

I don't see why not! ( she says as she takes the paper back, carefully tucking it away in her breast pocket and smiling. ) Thank you, Rin.

[flashover]

You're welcome! Hehehe, I guess in a pinch, I can use my powers like a hair dryer! Nice. I learn new stuff all the time~!

[He'll be quiet as they keep walking, still carefully teasing apart the papers. Many of them are too far gone, and tear in pieces before he can get them untangled from the others. By the time he's done, there's six more usable summoning papers.]

Sorry, the rest kind of fell apart on me.

[egin]

It's something good to know because you never know what might happen in the future.

( she'll happily walk beside him and watch, clearly curious. seven papers aren't a lot but it's better than none at all. she'll have to be careful until she can get something else to replace them. )

Don't worry about it. You've done a lot more than enough for me in getting me these many.

[flashover]

Yeah... I'm sure there's some paper around here somewhere. It's not like we're on a deserted island or something, ha!!

[ha. right??? right?????

anyway

he blinks, then points through the trees at the colorful tents of the campsite]

Hey, that's it, right?

[egin]

If not there are other measures I could use if needed.

( like drawing out her circles in blood but she'll save that for when it's really, really needed. instead she focuses forward with a nod as the colorful tents come into view once more. )

This is definitely the place.

[flashover]

Right.

[Rin walks into the middle of the camp, cups his hands around his mouth, and--]

HEY!!! YUUUUUUU-KIIIIIII-OOOHHHHH!!!

[egin]

( oh my sweet lord in heaven. what the hell, rin. yuri will just stand quietly looking somewhere between confused and alarmed. )

[flashover]

[WELL RIN IS JUST GONNA KEEP YELLING UNTIL YUKIO COMES

summons hydok]

1/2

[reflash]

[Rin doesn't need a summoning circle, apparently. He has summoned Yukio just by hollering real loud.]

Nii-san you don't need to yell! [Here he is. Look how puffy Yukio's tail is right now.]

2/2

[reflash]

[OH SHIT MOM'S HERE

let's not get into a dumb yelling match when mom can see.]

Oh.

Yuri-san, I see you found my brother.