lifeaftr | July Intro: Dancing in the Dark

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July Intro: Dancing in the Dark

INTRO LOG: JULY

Who: New arrivals, and you!
What: New souls arrive to the archipelago of LifeAftr
When: July 4th - July 10th
Where: Primarily Io, as well as Ensō
Warnings: Mark as needed!

Last month, the island of Io saw a massive overhaul, as Eleu reunited with their lost half, Zum, to take their rightful place as the island's Avatar of Fun. Eleu'zum is aware that Io will not be remaining in the archipelago for much longer, and thus have opted to go all out in the celebration of their rejuvenation.

New arrivals may awake at any of the locations listed below.

Waterslides: Don't Let Me Get Down
For this week only, the waterslides threading throughout the bathhouses of Io have been equipped with some special new features, namely the light-up water jets laid out across the outdoor areas, as well as diving boards placed at extreme heights for thrill seekers. Sure, you could just sit around and relax in the heated water, but where's the fun in that?

The supplies at the bathhouses have also been outfitted with wide varieties of inflatable tubes and pool toys, pool noodles, beach balls, dive toys, and squirt guns of every shape, size, and color. And yes, we really do mean every possible type you can imagine.

So have a blast, get soaked, shoot off of high-speed waterslides, or try and avoid the chaos to get a little relaxation time - the choice is yours. But enjoy the bathhouses and pools while you have access to them, before Io disappears.

Go-Karts: Don't Lie Me Down
That new go-kart track by the vineyard is in dire need of some test drivers. With corkscrew turns and twisting roads, those tracks look very much like they might be a tad hazardous, especially if your kart goes off-track...but don't fear! No matter how badly you spin out, you'll find that your kart will never leave the road, thus keeping spectators safe from any and all roadside dangers.

However, just because they're safe from you doesn't mean that you're safe from them. You've got plenty of items to use against your fellow racers, but you've got nothing to protect yourself against the turrets mounted at the sides of the tracks, placed for the enjoyment of spectators who feel like getting a little more participatory. The roadside turrets are capable of spitting all sorts of additional threats upon racers: banana peels, balls of fire, jets of water, and so on.

However, bear in mind that this feature is a two-way street; climb onto one of those turrets to target racers, and they'll find that they'll have no difficulty targeting you in retaliation.

Whether you're here to watch, here to race, here to make things difficult, or simply here to place bets and keep score, you've still got plenty of drinks to wash away the shame of defeat, or celebrate your first place victory.

Hedge Maze & Butterfly House: Back into the Easy Days
Newly mounted atop the tea gardens is a brand new butterfly house, hosting a spectacular abundance of gloriously colorful specimens. With jewel-bright wings and unusually bold dispositions, one will find that these butterflies are very, very easy to behold up close. They don't seem to mind visitors at all, and will happily flutter down to light on the hands, head, and shoulders of whoever draws near, assuming they don't swat them away. The butterfly house comes equipped with small dishes of sugar water to feed them, if you desire, though you could just as easily simply spend time here to relax and look out across the island. From up here, you have quite the spectacular view.

The tea gardens have also gained a rather grandiose hedge maze threaded around the tea trees. The paler pathways are for leisurely, scenic strolls, or playful games of who can reach the finish line first. The darker pathways, on the other hand, are for the more competitive, as well as the more daredevilish; those who take those pathways will quickly find themselves racing to reach the exit before some rather large bees catch up to them.

Despite their potentially fearsome appearance, these creatures are quite harmless, but there's still nothing quite like turning around and seeing that buzzing loudly after you. If they catch you, the bees will promptly burst into a large cloud of multicolored glitter that will coat you from head to toe. And if anyone has any experience with glitter, that can be quite a pain to get rid of. You'll probably be shaking it out of your hair and brushing it from your joints for weeks.

Rollercoaster & Carnival: Overlooking Trouble Gone Bad
The rollercoaster is the newest addition to the Honeycomb, and it's as much a thrill to behold as it is to ride. There are no lines, no tickets, and no entry fees; simply climb aboard! Once the cart is full, or if no further passengers enter, it will take off at breakneck speeds, twisting and loop-de-looping in a breathtaking series of physics-defying turns and arcs.

That's not all, however. The campsites on Io have also opted to make some slight alterations to celebrate the Avatar's return to form. Those large, colorful tents have gone from mere sites of sleeping and relaxation to a full-blown carnival. There are booths where you can play simple ring-toss games and the like, as well as stands for the acquisition of cotton candy, popcorn, and just about any snack you'd find typical of a carnival...as well as a few flavors that might seem a tad bit unconventional. But, hey - as long as it's here, why not sample what's free to eat? Even if you might run into seaweed ice cream, squid-ink sundaes, crab-cake kettle-corn, and many more besides, peppered among your more ordinary flavors.

A small collection of rides have also been provided, of course; what carnival would be fit without them? A carousel with cariborn- or beowolf-styled mounts might be a bit strange to behold at first, but it rides just as well as any other. A small ferris wheel allows you to oversee the sights of Io at the peak of its curve, while whirling teacups can make for a delightful if potentially nausea-inducing escapade.

The island of Io will be disappearing from the archipelago as of July 10th, so you'd better enjoy these additions while you can! For once, there will be no strings attached!

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 turns around at the voice, a few butterflies resting in his fluffy, white hair scattering, but the moth on his hand stays right where she's perched, seemingly not fussed at being handled by this big, big man. The Atlas moth is truly a titan of a moth, its wingspan perhaps the entire length of Ren's forearm alone. Like Guzma said, it's nothing to the size of various Pokemon - you can ride some of those - but for an insect o these islands? It's pretty big.]

Dope Ripped, yeah! [He throws his head back and laughs, startling more of the insects and even the moth gives an agitated twitch, letting Guzma calm himself a second later.] Oops, sorry, sweetheart, forgot you li'l guys don't like them loud noises, yeah? Here, you wanna hold 'er, darlin'? She ain't too heavy so much as solid. [Like an absolute fucking Unit.] But y'all gotta keep your hand still so she can get a good grip, yeah.

Careful now, her feeties kinda tickle. [He'll hand over the colossal moth to Ren if she wants, and try and catch others, or look around for some kind of index or placard somewhere with information about what these things are called.] Man, I dunno what sorta bugs these are...there ain't no books or flyers or nothing here? C'mon, man, gimme a break!

[And his Pokedex is useless on non-pokemon.]

[No matter how big and fluffy it is, moths are a far cry from cats, so she takes her cues from the way Guzma's holding the creature, listening to how she needs to keep her hand still and how they don't like them loud noises. She keeps her arm extended, using her other hand to grip her forearm for support. If she were auditioning for a tree, the part would be hers.

And she stays like that, until its huge wings flutter and she rapidly blinks her eyes back at it. Might as well communicate. She doesn't have wings, but eyelashes are the same thing, right? Probably not. It doesn't seem to be working. ]

Will she go into a pokeball if you ask?

[The huge moth definitely takes some coaxing to get onto Ren's arm, but Guzma is old hat at this, he's handled bugs all his life, and knows how to cater to their specifics. The big lady is placed carefully on Ren's palm, where she flutters her wings a bit, crawls around to find a secure and comfortable spot, then sits there calmly.]

Nah, I don't think this gal's a Pokemon, though she does kinda look like a Mothim from back in my world. Those are male only though, so definitely not. 'Sides, I don't have a spare Pokeball to test it out anyway, and the lady seems happy 'nuff here, yeah? Got a bunch'a munchies and a nice, big, open space to breed when she's ready. [Speaking of--] ...Y'know, I'm surprised there aren't many cocoons or larvae here...unless they're using some dang good camouflage.

[She wants to pet it.

The urge, the compulsion, the desire is so strong that it takes every inch of willpower left in her tiny body to keep her fingers from swiping over the moth's head. There's a lot of self-restraint happening here that Guzma won't ever know and it's a TRIAL.

But she doesn't move her arm, despite how heavy it's starting to feel being lifted up for this long. The blinks do nothing, even as she tries to flutter morse code 'where are your babies.']

They're hiding the babies. It's safer if they do that. They might be very far away.

[There are certainly ways to pet a moth - Guzma would know - but one has to be very gentle, slow, and careful that the insect first trusts you and is comfortable enough to allow itself to be touched. Despite its massive size, Ren is still much larger, and probably seen a potential predator to the poor thing.

Guzma can see her arm straining though, and reaches back, slowly, to take the moth into his hands instead. He'll probably end up putting the creature back where he found her, but he can't held but snicker softly.]

Well, I can't count for how these things lay their eggs, but most wild Pokemon species - 'specially bug types - put their eggs in a sac or lay the eggs directly under a leaf that they know their li'l kiddos like to eat when they hatch, and it's usually way more'n just one or two you find at nurseries... Like, uh--wild Ariados can lay several hundred eggs at a time, whereas human raised species only produce maybe three at a time, if that.

But you're right, usually the parents make it so their eggs are safe and outta sight o anything what'd eat 'em before they hatch. [He sets the enormous moth back on a stump, where she climbs off his hand and suns herself a few minutes before flying off again.] Didja know some moths make silk? Like Ariados does, but higher quality.

[School is for losers and this is why-all she needs is Guzma and an open field to teach her everything she needs to know.

And what she needs to know is where these babies are hiding. Under leaves, apparently, which is what she had been munching on earlier and that's something people make tea with, which makes her a little nervous. But she would've noticed and other people would be able to tell if there was a nest before dunking leaves in hot water. It's probably fine.

So she watches the moth while it moves around on the tree stump, jumping when it flies into the sky to little moth worlds unknown and-]

They can do that kind of thing?

[Bugs are so neat???]

What can ants do? And butterflies? And cockroaches? Can they make fabric too?

[BUGS ARE THE BEST. And, immediately, her questions and genuine interest seem to lift a fog that's been around Guzma for days now. His face lights up, his expression shifts into a more sincere, honest happiness and excrement. His posture becomes more loose, relaxed, animated. If there's one things he's passionate about, it's bugs - all bugs. He's been picking up a few things here and there from the little library that opened up on Enso, learning about insects and arachnids that aren't necessarily Pokemon. It's fascinating, and only makes his love of them grow more and more.]

Well, firstly, ant-like species of bug Pokemon - Durant specifically - live in huge colonies underground, made up'a thousands of the li'l critters. They all follow a queen, which is usually the largest of the bunch, and lays all'a the eggs. S'been found in, I...think Unova? That a colony of Durant basically was spread out over miles and miles under a certain mountain range, and the width of their tunnel network was said to circle the Unova region eight times, if it was laid out. Can you imagine? And durant also can keep their nests hot an cold - they create a network that lets in and out hot or cold air. And they have their own designated rooms for, like...waste, food, sleeping, it's nuts! They're so freaking smart--

[He goes on and on...for how long? No one really knows, but each topic moves onto others. Guzma talks about the various wing patterns of Vivillion, the unknown evolutionary chain of Wurmple to either Silcoon or Cascoon...and how scientists still haven't figured out what makes the change to either or, and the migratory pattern of Butterfree, and how far they can fly in a single day, to lay their eggs in a warmer climate.]

Bugs are so dang cool, yo. And they come in all sorts'a shapes and sizes... There's apparently a story 'bout like...a kinda beetle that's said to have rolled the sun up into the sky or something? I don't know much, but I read it in a book that was here... Gotta go back and reread it.

[The bug content itself is interesting, but that's not what's holding her attention. It's the animated way he talks, arms moving, voice excitedly talking about all the things these creatures can do. She knew he liked bugs, but it's especially apparent now and even she can't help to try absorbing the material.

Even with her short attention span, she focus long enough on this subject because that's what he's interested in. Plus, she knows that ants are smarter than she thought and that feeding them is the right choice. They've got a lot of mouths under the dirt to take care of.]

Can we go and read that story? Will you read it to me?

[Guzma loves bugs. There's just so many types, and each one is shaped differently, acts differently, and sometimes even eats different things. Even bugs in the same genus are totally different than others. Plus, they're so beneficial to the environment, despite being seen as "pests" in most cases. His passion for entomology is borderline manic at some points.

And getting to share that love and passion with someone he cares about? It's great, and makes his smile grow wider.]

Yeah, sure! I only browsed the book a little bit [That's a lie, he looks through a quarter of the rather thick book.] but I can snag it from the library, no prob'. Uh...it is pretty scientific, though, kiddo...dunno how interested you'll be in it. There's pictures and stuff, but mainly it's kinda just telling folk 'bout how them critters live.

[It's basically an educational text or people interested in the subject, like himself.] Ain't no storybook... Plus, there's some pretty creepy, or just downright gross things some bugs do... [He won't go into detail about, uh...any of the parasitic variety of insects, to stave off nightmares.]

I'll listen to that one.

[Picture books are her preferred method of reading and she can already sorta forsee what he's describing. Big, thick books with words she doesn't understand. That sound boring. And she's not sure how long she'll be able to focus on that type of novel, but he likes them, so she wants to try. Plus, he'll probably cut out the bad parts and just tell her about like, colors they are or something. That's the hope.]

And then I'll find a different book with lots of pictures of bugs and we can read that one too.

[Guzma smiles with an airy chuckle and a shake of his head, because he knows - he knows - Ren would easily get bored with a book dedicated to entomology. He's, obviously, fascinated by all things dealing with insects or arachnids of any kind...but not many share his passion. It's cute that Ren is trying, but he's...not really here or pictures of bugs. Sure, they're cool and pretty to look at, but what's a picture do for someone that wants to learn what the thing is? How it lives, what it eats, how big it gets... All that. He's in it for the information he can glean, and soak up.

But he'll humor her, like she's doing for him.]

...Alright. If we ind a picture book 'bout bugs, I'll let you read that to me, yeah? Deal? N' i y'all got any questions, I'll answer 'em for you. ...As well as I know, anyway. [He shrugs. His knowledge about real world insects is....limited. Listen, when all he knows are Pokemon insects, since they're all that his world has, it gets hard to learn about anything else okokok.]

[Oh, poor foolish Guzma. She's going to have so many questions, regardless of whether it's a picture book or some kind of entomologist manual. He opened the flood gates and nothing can save him now, but-

They're in a place that's way better than a library. They don't need books, when she can just point out random stuff and get the explanation first hand.

So she ambles a few away, pointing in some random direction and-]

I saw more bugs over here! Let's find them.

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July Intro: Dancing in the Dark

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cw: brief parasite mention

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