(hi everyone! i thought i would get my island journal started here. you'll have to forgive my goofy self-indulgent creative writing here -- i'm writing these entries in the style of an NPC who has accidentally come across the island and is journaling what they observe, just because i haven't done anything along these lines in a very long time. i hope you enjoy!!)
vagary (n.)
1570s, "a wandering, a roaming journey," from Italian vagare or directly from Latin vagari "to wander, stroll about, roam, be unsettled, spread abroad," from vagus "roving, wandering" (see vague).
Or at least, that's the island's name in common parlance. When the creatures who live here say it it sounds a lot more musical than it does when I do it. Maybe just the island's influence. Being a local. I'm not sure.
Supposedly, the place is such that it's impossible to find your way here intentionally; you must receive an explicit invite from a resident, or else come across it accidentally. I belong to the latter category. My memory of the time before I washed ashore here is pretty hazy, and time seems to move oddly in this place. I think in my life before I'd have found it more unsettling, but this place is calm and peaceful in a way that seems to erase most unease.
Still, it's a little strange here. The locals speak in hushed tones sometimes of the fae presence, but aside from the fairy circles that I could swear sometimes dot the island, I find it all hard to believe. Not malevolent!, they are quick to assure. Friendly, peaceful, watching out for us.
And really, when I force myself to suspend my disbelief, I find myself thinking that it's possible that the fey are simply hiding in plain sight here. Juno introduced themselves to me as the island's resident representative when I first arrived. Their manner of dress is erratic and odd, sometimes opting for sweaters and beat up jeans and other times for renaissance style dresses, and their mannerisms are at times even odder. They were the one who greeted me and gave me my initial tour of the island when I washed up here, but when I made the mistake of asking them how they came to run the island, they were quick to correct me:
"I don't run the island, I just maintain it!"
But as I said before, the flow of time seems interrupted here, and the only being here who seems entirely unbothered by it is Juno. They flit around and the ground sometimes seems to flower where they step. Sometimes they dash off at such a breakneck pace to some task or another that it makes my head spin. The earth and water on the island sometimes shift and change, and I when I tentatively asked Juno about it the mischief in their eyes as they told me "That just seems to happen sometimes! You get used to it!" led me to believe that they're somehow behind all of it.
I don't know. They don't seem malicious, so I'm doing my best to trust them.
I was given two maps upon my arrival. One, Juno told me, was a map of what the island looked like right when they arrived. One was a map of what the island looks like now, after the water and earth have moved to their present locations.
I've drawn up a mock-up of the first map, here:
and the present day map, here:
I'm going to close out this journal entry for now, but I will be writing about the denizens of the island very soon. For as odd as this place is, they're a pretty enchanting group of creatures.
vagary (n.)
1570s, "a wandering, a roaming journey," from Italian vagare or directly from Latin vagari "to wander, stroll about, roam, be unsettled, spread abroad," from vagus "roving, wandering" (see vague).
Or at least, that's the island's name in common parlance. When the creatures who live here say it it sounds a lot more musical than it does when I do it. Maybe just the island's influence. Being a local. I'm not sure.
Supposedly, the place is such that it's impossible to find your way here intentionally; you must receive an explicit invite from a resident, or else come across it accidentally. I belong to the latter category. My memory of the time before I washed ashore here is pretty hazy, and time seems to move oddly in this place. I think in my life before I'd have found it more unsettling, but this place is calm and peaceful in a way that seems to erase most unease.
Still, it's a little strange here. The locals speak in hushed tones sometimes of the fae presence, but aside from the fairy circles that I could swear sometimes dot the island, I find it all hard to believe. Not malevolent!, they are quick to assure. Friendly, peaceful, watching out for us.
And really, when I force myself to suspend my disbelief, I find myself thinking that it's possible that the fey are simply hiding in plain sight here. Juno introduced themselves to me as the island's resident representative when I first arrived. Their manner of dress is erratic and odd, sometimes opting for sweaters and beat up jeans and other times for renaissance style dresses, and their mannerisms are at times even odder. They were the one who greeted me and gave me my initial tour of the island when I washed up here, but when I made the mistake of asking them how they came to run the island, they were quick to correct me:
"I don't run the island, I just maintain it!"
But as I said before, the flow of time seems interrupted here, and the only being here who seems entirely unbothered by it is Juno. They flit around and the ground sometimes seems to flower where they step. Sometimes they dash off at such a breakneck pace to some task or another that it makes my head spin. The earth and water on the island sometimes shift and change, and I when I tentatively asked Juno about it the mischief in their eyes as they told me "That just seems to happen sometimes! You get used to it!" led me to believe that they're somehow behind all of it.
I don't know. They don't seem malicious, so I'm doing my best to trust them.
I was given two maps upon my arrival. One, Juno told me, was a map of what the island looked like right when they arrived. One was a map of what the island looks like now, after the water and earth have moved to their present locations.
I've drawn up a mock-up of the first map, here:
and the present day map, here:
I'm going to close out this journal entry for now, but I will be writing about the denizens of the island very soon. For as odd as this place is, they're a pretty enchanting group of creatures.
