Aesop's Falls

## General Overview

Aesop's Falls is a zany town located on the east coast of America about an hour or two south of Toon Town. It is made up of 4 main areas - Toyland, The Candy District, The Woods and Sweethaven. Many, though not all, of the residents are zany and this has made Aesop's Falls itself somewhat zany. For instance, there is always "background music" playing in the town. This music changes depending on which of the four areas one is in, what is about to happen in town and if a resident is experiencing strong emotions. There is no discernable source of the music and it stays at a steady volume until around the end of the Choco desert when it begins to fade out (Ch 297).

Despite its zany nature, Mayor Canola May has ensured that Aesop's Falls is safe for all with her League of Animated Undercover Gag Hunters (LAUGH) campaign. After meeting a zany toon who had been suffering horribly from bad luck due to the various "bad gags" happening around them Canola decided to create a program to protect people from these harmful gags. The league is composed of two branches- researchers who analyze the bad gags and how to stop them and a branch who actually goes out into the town to run it accordingly to as few bad gags as possible happen. LAUGH has made many of the citizens of Aesop's Falls much happier as not only are the zany citizens safer but the non-zany citizens are watched over so they aren't accidentally caught up in a zany antic that goes too far (Ch 298).

## Toyland

This is the district of Town where the toys live, located right before the Candy District if one was travelling away from the ocean. In this district, the buildings consist of large dollhouses, giant toy chests, bins, bags hanging from poles, and little wooden cubbies with curtains. There are a number of important locations in this section of town such as the constable's office (Inky Extras Ch 111).

The toys in Toyland can often be seen working to repair and replace broken parts on other toys. This can be anything from crafting new metal legs to giving a toy toon some extra buttons. There is a hospital area in town where toys can drop off any extra materials/parts they don't need so they can be used to repair others. They will also ship in materials such as tin when needed. Not only do the toys repair other toy toons in Toyland but they also ship things out to toy toons who live in other places. While the toys do have to pay for these repairs the cost does not seem very high (Ch 297).

Toyland has a number of streets with names referring to what is on them such as Hopscotch Lane actually being a giant hopscotch while Canola's tailoring store is located on Patchwork Parkway. Some of these streets have certain rules that must be followed while travelling on them. On the previously mentioned Hopscotch Lane people must stay inside the chalk lines and only use one foot per square (Ch 297).

### Train Station

The train station is located near the border of Toyland and the Candy District. Casey Jr., a little zany train, regularly runs the journey from outside ordinary train stations to Aesop's Falls and is presumably the only train into town. The train tracks travel from the station through the Gumdrop Desert, then along the beach and out of town (Ch 297).

### Canola's Tailor Shop

Canola's shop is one store in a long line of cubbies located near the constable's office (Inky Extras Ch 111) down Needle Street on Patchwork Parkway (Ch 297). Canola's shop not only makes clothing but also patches up the various toy residents of the district. Inside the shop is a table and chair for Canola to sew at and a stand for the toys to pose on as they get sewn up. The entrance door has a bell in it that chimes when the door is opened (Inky Extras Ch 111). Since her election as Mayor Canola has not personally run the shop, though it is still in operation (Ch 297).

## The Woods

The woods are a relatively normal forest located just a short fifteen-minute walk from Toyland (Inky Extras Ch 111) via Hopscotch Lane. A pathway runs through the woods with boulders peppered along the side of it. The path leads to an arched, cobblestone bridge made by the Tinny Ants and that has stood for decades. The bridge crosses overtop of the Sweet Stream (Ch 297). There is also a waterfall located somewhere in these woods (Inky Extras Ch 111).

### The Sweet Stream

The Sweet Stream is a stream of carbonated, fizz-whizz-like liquid that runs through the woods. The stream is safe and refreshing to drink from as it was sent out to be professionally tested by the mayor and there were no unusual/dangerous elements found in it. Liquid from the stream has a vanilla taste to it and has "the perfect amount of sweetness" (Ch 297).

### The Micco Ruins

If one walks for about ten minutes in the woods and then climbs a boulder-covered hill, then the Micco ruins will come into view (Inky Extras Ch 111). The first part of the ruins visible is the half-buried stone statue of a Micco warrior. While it was originally almost completely buried with only the top half of its face and spear visible careful excavation by Holly and her parents have unearthed everything from the chest up. The statue itself is that of a sharp-faced male soldier with a cold and arrogant expression. He is wearing a helmet with at least 12 horns layered across his head like scales. The helmet then swoops downwards to create two sharp points on either side of his face. His chest is covered with more scale-like armour in which each link ends at a sharp point. The statue warrior has a sharp, two-pronged spear whose blades continue alongside its shaft, creating v-shapes between the blade and the shaft. A thin diamond is embedded between its prongs with intricate lines and runes also carved into the blade. The statue is enormous with the face alone being approximately five feet and six inches across (Ch 298).

Behind the statue is a domed, oval-shaped building whose roof is in two layers (Inky Extras Ch 111) the diameter of which is at least two football fields long. On top of the dome is a tiny spire. An open archway wide enough to easily accommodate two cars leads inside the half-buried building. The dome of the building cuts in abruptly four feet down from the top of the archways, leading Holly to remark that it looks somewhat mushroom-like (Ch 298). The stone of the building is laid in circular patterns underneath each of the archway indentations in the walls (Inky Extras Ch 111). The archway is inscribed with runes to give a blessing to the minds of all who enter the building. The known runes that are a part of this blessing are the Peace, Awareness, Mind, Opening and Slowed Time runes. These are not the only external runes as the entire dome is covered in them. Inside the ruins is just a large empty space, although the inner walls also have runes on them. In the centre of the engraved runes are the runes for mind, body and soul all spiraling together that seem to be connected to some kind of rune array. This whole domed structure is also very sturdy and stable, as Holly has been able to climb all over it many times before (Ch 298).

Holly attempted an amateur 'excavation' of these ruins when she was younger and confirmed that these ruins went much further down into the earth. The fact that the ruins have remained mostly undisturbed for so long is truthfully a miracle (Ch 281).

#### Amish's Forge

In these ruins, there is a piece of wall that is actually a hinged doorway into a small compartment. Inside the compartment is a circular indent with what seems to be an inverted version of the mind, body and soul pattern on the ceiling. This matches a small metal medallion that was in the possession of Aspen May.

## The Candy District

The Candy District sits on the side of town furthest from the ocean, right next to the Gumdrop Desert. As the name implies. everything in this district is made of candy. All the houses are decorated gingerbread houses and the whole area smells of sweets. The residents of this area are primarily living cookies and Popeye mentions that they have an issue with people trying to eat the resident cookies. Each year the residents throw a carnival to crown a queen (Inky Extras Ch 111)

## The Cocoa Dunes

Located between the chocolate forest and the town proper the Cocoa Dunes consist of a large expanse of rolling dark dunes of cocoa powder. Luckily, the dunes aren't too dangerous to traverse as one does not sink into the powder as they walk anymore than if one were walking on sand. That being said it's still not the easiest terrain to travel across even with the lack of any actual danger of sinking into it (Inky Extras Ch 111)

### The Hot Chocolate Springs

Scattered around the Cocoa Dunes are various Hot Chocolate Springs. These are bubbling springs of hot chocolate with marshmallows floating in them and pools of thick creamer usually located nearby. There are various plants that grow around these springs that change depending on the season. For example, during the summer raspberry gummies grow around the springs while during winter time one can find candy cane bamboo growing there (Inky Extras Ch 111)

### Gumdrop Desert

This is a large area that sits between the Cocoa Dunes and the Candy District of Aesop's Falls where a variety of gumdrops grow. it's no unusual for some of the local residents to use loose gumdrops as soccer balls (Inky Extras Ch 111). In recent years the town has also begun mining for candy crystals in this area (Ch 297).

## Dandies' Wood

Dandies' Wood is a chocolate forest located on the other side of the Cocoa Powder dunes and Gumdrop desert that surround the town. There are a variety of chocolate trees in the forest, such as the white chocolate oaks. However, the most common tree in this forest seems to be the chocolate pine-nut tree, the bark of which ranges from lighter milk chocolate variations to very bitter dark chocolate. The "bark" is often flaky and can be easily peeled off and eaten. The green needles on these pinenuts are mint and the pine cones are peppermint. As well as tree there are also other forms of chocolate plant life thriving in the forest such as chocolate-honeysuckle that sprouts M&M's (Inky Extras Ch 111)

## Sweethaven Island

Also known as The Bay, Sweethaven Island sits just a mile outside of Aesop's Falls (Inky Extras Ch 111)

## Trivia and Notes

### Notes

* This location was originally called Sweethaven in the Inky Extra's story A Changing Wind until author Mercowe discovered the name Aesop's Falls from the original animations and changed the location's name in the story. Sweethaven was then changed to the name of just one area of Aesop's Falls