lifeaftr | 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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He nodded in agreement to her sentiment. Disapproval of the Storyteller seemed to be the glue that bound all islanders together.

"It's Starflight," he replied, "I'm a Nightwing, and so far I think I'm the only dragon that's been brought here. At least, most people seem surprised when they see me."

He slipped his own bag off from around his neck and turned it so she could see the embroidered letters.

"I suppose it won't mean much to you, but this is what it looks like written down."

"Starflight...finally, someone with a sensible name."

Lucky dragon wouldn't end up getting renamed in cat-terms. Probably. Nightwing. Dragon. She tucked those words away to think about later. Yellowfang eyed his bag. Sure enough, it bore Twoleg scratches on it. A few of them even looked like the one on her bag, if a little larger.

"Hm," was all she had to say about that. Yellowfang boldly stepped toward this towering creature that could end her in a single bite and sniffed him. "I should expect any cat to be surprised to see you, big as you are. The closest thing to you in my forest was hardly longer than a whisker."

Starflight nodded. She must be talking about some sort of reptile, but even the lizards on Pyrrhia were larger.

"Everything here is really small, compared to back home. Except the humans. Scavengers? 'Twolegs'? They seem about the same size."

He tilted his head to one side, eyeing her critically. Now that she wasn't moving around as much, she didn't quite look like squirrel.

"You're...some sort of panther, right?"

A purr rumbled deep in Yellowfang's chest as she laughed a little. For some reason the cats of the Clans knew what lions and leopards and tigers were, it was no stretch that they also knew of the sleek and dark panthers.

"Me, a panther. Now you're just trying to flatter an old cat."

He smiled meekly. That hadn't been his intention, but he was glad to see she was pleased.

"I am sorry about your bag. I'm guessing you were looking for something in particular?" He gestured toward the pile of discarded objects. A few of them were familiar from his own bag, even though he still wasn't sure what they were.

Yellowfang followed his gesture and wrinkled her already wrinkled nose.

"Someone's replaced my herbs with Twoleg nonsense. There's no finding them now."

She did not, however, seem too upset about the Stone of Farspeech. She could see her reflection in it. Call her vain, but sometimes it was nice to have the company of another cat, even if that other cat was you.

Yellowfang scooted the stone over to the bag and started to fumble with the buckle.

"You're welcome to any of that you like," she said, gesturing to the hand drill and the other starter pack items.

"Really, you don't want any of it?" Starflight went over to inspect the pile closer. Admittedly he wasn't sure what was or wasn't useful, but if it came in one of the backpacks it probably had some purpose. It seemed a waste just to throw it away.

"I don't think I have anything to give you, though....I don't have any herbs, though if I find any I will bring you some."

He opened his his bag, digging through it to confirm if he had anything of use.

"I have this, but I don't know if you would want it. It says it's some kind of milk, but I haven't opened it." He said, pulling the sealed jug out of his bag.

Yellowfang made the executive decision not to be insulted. This lizard had no way of knowing what a kittypet was or that proud warriors and medicine cats alike would never dream of lapping milk from a bowl. Milk was for kits! No matter how sweet...

Something then occurred to her as she observed Starflight's shyness and eagerness to please.

"I don't know anything about...dragons," she hesitated as she used the new word. "But how old are you?"

Well that was very considerate considering as far as he was concerned it was just another food item. Though since she didn't answer he was left just kind of holding it awkwardly.

"Uh, Six."

The unspoken 'why' hung on the end of his answer.

Yellowfang let out a little self-satisfied humm and let it be.

She mistook Starflight's six harrowing years as six moons. If only she could fathom the fact that there were dragons walking and talking well over a hundred years old.

"I think you'll do well," she said at last. "You seem smart."

"Thank you." he responded politely, still a little unclear on the question.

"If you are ok with me taking this stuff, I promise bring you any herbs if I find any. I think the tea gardens might have some, but I don't know that we should be taking things from the island. I'm still a little unclear on what is and isn't allowed.

June Intro: Playing With Your Mind

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