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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[ Oof. She stops just short of actually wincing, but she doesn't look at him. ]

... I know.

[ It's just-- ]

I think I'm just afraid that if I start, I won't be able to pick myself up if something bad happens here.

So what's the alternative? You just never let yourself think about it?

[Wait until another Umui happens to deal with it - or not? Until it kills you because you don't want to deal with it?]

You know how it is. It'll sit there until this place can use it against you.

[ She's thinking about it, too. Umui, the sickness. How because she hadn't talked about those things she'd stubbornly pushed down came back, filled her lungs and throat and pushed through skin like it was nothing. She never wants to feel that again.

The sparkler's gone out, by now, and she rolls the stick between her fingers. ]

... It shouldn't be this hard. Letting yourself feel the hurt. [ A pause. ] But you're right. I don't... want to suffer because I couldn't talk about my feelings.

Talking about feelings is probably everyone's least favorite activity around here, but it kinda seems like none of these islands are gonna let us just...refuse to deal.

[If it's not the flowers, it's the Shadows. And if it's not those, it's your own goddamn rock deciding to say things that are better left unsaid. Better left unremembered.]

Look, I can't...pretend that I'm qualified to be anyone's therapist. Near as I can tell, I make a pretty shitty shoulder to cry on.

But, uh...offer's open, I guess.

[Way to make yourself seem like an appealing route, bud.]

[ Even so... it's the sentiment that really counts. Mira hesitates, before nodding. There are a handful of people she trusts here, counts as friends. People she thinks she can open up to. It's now that she realizes Tim might be one of them. ]

... I really appreciate it, Tim. I think you're probably better than you think you are.

And-- the offer is open for you, too.

Eh. I mean, you gotta have feelings to talk about 'em.

[His delivery is just a little on the deadpan edge, just enough to hint that that's a joke. Or rather, it mostly is. It's hard to say, sometimes.]

It's all right to feel what you're feeling right now. 'S all I'm saying.

[ Oof. Judging from the look on her face, she's definitely concerned... but at the same time, she doesn't want to draw attention to something he might not want to talk about. And at the same same time... she wants to be there for him.

In short: Feelings bad. ]

I... forget that, sometimes. It's good to have a reminder. [ She fiddles with the stick in her hands before she sits and lets out a breath. ] It feels weird... being on an island like this without him.

[Tim draws another sparkler from his stock and offers it out to her. She doesn't have to, if she's not feeling it, but sometimes it can be...cathartic to watch something burn.]

[He'd know.]

What was he like?

[ She takes it, waving it in little circles once it's lit. ]

I don't know if you ever met him--Lance? He was... He had a lot weighing on him, I think. But he was still kind. Good. Better than he thought he was. Being with him--it made everything easier, here. He once said that.... things would be okay, if we were together.

I don't think I've ever really had anyone who believed in me like that.

Lance, huh?

[Oh, he knows Lance. Knows him a little too well. They swapped bodies. And that was just...an awkward enough time for him to never feel like they should talk about it with each other again.]

Yeah. We met a few times.

[That's the easiest way to put it. It's better than changing the subject. Making it all about him, when Mira's finally talking? Yeah, no way.]

It sounds like you two helped each other.

[ She nods. ]

He was... the type of person to draw people to him.

[ The kind of person with a good heart, even through all the bad things. So she's not surprised they knew each other. ]

I think we did, too. And I'm glad that I could, even if it was just a little. It's still hard for me, to really trust people but... meeting him, and getting to know him made that easier.

It's hard to open up.

[He gets that. He's the same. He is a liar - and what does he get, every time he divulges anything? The same bullshit. The same terror, spilled into everyone's lives.]

'Specially if you feel like it'll just hurt someone else.

[ It crosses her mind to ask if he feels that way, but it's a too-pointed question. She doesn't want to be the cause of any discomfort, so the question dies before it even gets a voice. ]

Exactly, [ she says instead, softly. ] If I seriously hurt anyone I care about... I don't think I could forgive myself.

That's the risk all of us run every day. Just by being here.

[That's the risk Tim runs. At home, it was enough to know someone. Just to know them. Not to tell them anything, or share any secrets. Just - to be a friend.]

[That was enough to make their life hell.]

... That's true.

[ She pauses. ]

Sometimes it's hard to remember that good things happen here.

Hey, you and him happened. That's pretty good, right?

[It's issued a little hesitantly - like he doesn't entirely trust that it's his place to say that, but if he doesn't, who will?]

Sometimes it's worth it, even if it...sucks when it's over.

[ She softens a little, and somehow, she manages to smile. ]

It was. I'm glad I met him... and I wouldn't have traded it for anything.

[ She falls quiet for a moment before she looks up at him. ]

You know... earlier you said you were a shitty shoulder to cry on. But you've made me feel better.

[What do you say when your end goal actually works out?]

...good. I mean, I'm... [glad that I'm good for something.] Hope it helped. Even a little.

It really did.

[ She gives him a smile. ]

Thank you. It... means a lot.

Don't worry about it.

[An awkward not-smile from Tim, some mild not-advice - that's really all he has to offer. Somehow, that's enough. Or maybe in theory.]

I'm around Denny most days. You ever just wanna stop by, you're welcome to.

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June Intro: Playing With Your Mind

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cw uhh overgrowth descriptions

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