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.

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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.

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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!

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LOGS ● OOC ● STORIES ● MAIN NAVIGATION

( CODED BY BOOTYCALL )

Comments

[motherfucking_ghost]

Ha, right. [What else can he do but agree? Buncha fuckin assholes, all of them. God he misses them.]

Just-? No, I've been around a couple months now? Tex and Maine a little less but didn't just arrive. Wash has just been here. For...a while. His whole thing is complicated and weird.

So nah, you're the only new one here.

[uptightness]

No, I'm not.

[That voice that seems to broker no argument and also says that he is wrong, all at the same time. It's a talent, really. Still, the list of names... How had she missed their arrival? Once, certainly, she had had issues with Texas, but Carolina understands now why some events had turned out as they had, and Maine? There's a reason why she is haunted by them in her dreams, was forced to watch them all die again and again in the temple...]

I've been here, what, all of four months, give or take?

[motherfucking_ghost]

Uh, no? Pretty sure you'd be living with us then. Or like, I would've seen you. Or Wash would've mentioned you. At all.

Are you...feeling okay?

[uptightness]

Islet 4, Cottage 3?

[Because, you know, take that.]

Other than a headache that is starting to form, I'm just fine.

[There may be more of a growl to her voice now, because how can he be even more annoying? Maybe it's the lack of Reds and Blues here that has had her forget just how much effort it can take at times.]

[motherfucking_ghost]

Yeah, you don't live there, or haven't for several months. So. You're some form of crazy, or you're some form of amnesic, or you're some form of time displaced.

Or all of the above. This place isn't exactly picky.

[He doesn't know how to react to her. He doesn't know her personality. At least with Maine, Wash gave him a little bit of a prepper, much as it was. This is nothing. This is, he has memories of things Tex told him, things that he's not sure she ever actually told him or if they were things his subconscious clung to, supplied to him to fill in the blanks.]

[uptightness]

[There's no relation there, no shared experience, no reason for Carolina to believe a word that he says. Sure, she may know more about the Alpha now than when she did in Freelancer, but given that the base was the Director- her father...]

Or none of the above.

[Surprise, she is stubborn, and starting to sound more than a little pissed.]

[motherfucking_ghost]

Whatever, because something happened, cuz you still haven't been here for months, aaaand that's just a fact you gotta deal with, lady.

[uptightness]

That's Carolina.

[And yes, there may be an annoyed growl to that.]

You should be able to remember that.

[motherfucking_ghost]

Oh, I definitely remember it.

Lady.

[Should he double down on this? Absolutely not.]

[uptightness]

Seriously?

[Because, seriously?]

Right. You certainly are an ass.

[motherfucking_ghost]

The first thing most people learn about me. I wish I could say welcome to Blood Gulch, but. We're a long, long way from there.

[uptightness]

First thing people say about you too.

[... maybe not, but screw you, dude. Close enough.]

Place has more or less been abandoned anyway.

[motherfucking_ghost]

...Yeah, doesn't surprise me after we were all reassigned.

[He looks back to the sky full of colorful sparks and booms. Nope. Definitely not still upset he never saw Tucker again before the end.]

You know time's real fucky here, right? Like...grabbing people from different times.

[uptightness]

[There's almost a sharp retort to that, although she holds it back. It's not like he appears to be a dick at the moment. Rather, just stating the obvious, at least in so much as Carolina remembers the place.]

Wash had told me, and I'd met CT here.

[motherfucking_ghost]

I don't know who that is.

I mean--obviously another Freelancer, but I've never met 'em, so they might not be here anymore? Wash has never mentioned them, so.

I guess, uh, Maine's probably the farthest behind. Timeline-wise.

[uptightness]

[Right.

Alpha. It's going to take some getting used to. So much has happened, and Epsilon knew much more. Baby steps, although Carolina isn't the best at those to begin with.]

And I was the furthest ahead.

[Possibly still is.]

[motherfucking_ghost]

...Ouch. I don't honestly know which is worse. I mean, on the one hand, I'm dead, and that sucks for me. On the other hand, Wash is...halfway to reasonable, and Maine's not the Meta. I'm always here for Maine not being the Meta. Shit, I didn't know he was so funny!

[uptightness]

Funny?

[Because she can't tell if he is being serious or if he is making a joke. Maine... is Maine. Dependable. Takes orders well. Not someone you want to face blow for blow, at least if you've a real body.]

[motherfucking_ghost]

Yeah! Doesn't need to say a lot to be funny. Didn't you know him well enough? [It's...an honest question. Given what he knows of how Freelancer went down, it wouldn't surprise him if they didn't really know each other.]

[uptightness]

I do.

[A slightly curt and to the point answer from her as she frowns a little.]

It's just not the first word that would come to mind for him.

[motherfucking_ghost]

Oh, yeah, no, totally. Big, usually is the first word. Big, real big, really really big, and quiet.

But I guess...that I'm glad I got to meet him when he's not the Meta. Cuz learning the Meta was a Freelancer was really not great news when I found that out.

[uptightness]

The Meta might have been Maine, but Maine wasn't the Meta.

[If that made any sense to him. It may or it may not. But, Carolina knows that the one had ripped her AI out and who pushed her from the cliff wasn't Maine.]

[motherfucking_ghost]

Exactly. Maine doesn't wanna eat me and kill all my friends for one.

[uptightness]

I don't think- [That the Meta wanted to eat anyone, although maybe it could have been seen like that, Carolina realizes. It had gone after all the other AI.] No, I doubt he would, unless you do something to piss him off big time.

[motherfucking_ghost]

Haaa, see, now I just wanna make a saucy comment about eating, but I'm not Tucker. [He sure never thought he'd miss all those perverted bow chicka bow wows.]

He's a buddy of mine. Coworker. A Blue, for better or worse. I don't, uh, know...how much you know.