[WORLD ONE | SEPTEMBER INTRO LOG]

[spellbindmods]

Who: The new coven members, old blood & Palai people
Where: In and around the city land of Aimintas
When: Day 61
Open/Closed: Open to All

The initial setting information found here should be utilized for threads here.

There's no official OOC account for the Palai people. You're free to roleplay their actions and reactions on your own, as in depth as you want -- asking questions, hand-waved interactions, becoming best friends. The new world is your oyster!

All characters are told briefly what their powers are by Genette -- no extemporaneous details. For instance, if your character has the ability to detect lies, they'll be told as such -- no warning about limitations, repurcussions or the like. They'll also be given a variant of this letter so they aren't totally ignorant of the situation -- though of course adapt this letter to the current setting and surroundings of the game.

This setting may be familiar to you -- maybe you caught a glimpse of it when you first visited. Maybe this is your first time experiencing this weird world and the panic is setting in. If you're totally lost, a tall human woman with a long scroll of paper will stop by to give you the run down. She'll also give you a letter, which may give you more questions than answers since the information is a wee out of date. (Maybe someone else can fill in some gaps for you). What you may not know is that this world recently experienced something of a tragedy. You wouldn't be able to guess this based on the festive energy in the air. The main marketplace where you've shown up finished reconstruction last night, and after grief comes joy to the Palai -- those lizard creatures you see wandering around. They're now hosting a festival to celebrate their success and the lives of those both still present and those lost. It's also a chance for them to host one of those big celebrations like they'd previously seen in human books. However, their resources are limited -- don't blame them if things are a little cut-and-paste! A ▢ One of the preferred methods for masking grief in the Palai world is playing games. Because the Palai are still on their shrimp kick (the old blood characters are probably sick of them at this point), the shrimp are being used as part of a few festival games: Shrimp Scoop: Live prawns have been placed in a tank of water. Instead of paper scoops, players are handed small scraps of cloth which they may then dive into the six-foot tall tank to try and grab the prawns with -- no hands! And no magic or your prawn will be revoked. For extra incentive, sacks of golden coins have been tied to the prawns. These coins can be exchanged for goods and prizes, though what your character receives for their coin -- no matter how bland or wacky -- is up to your character. Shrimp Shock: Dead shrimp have been placed in a wading pool. Your character and another character enter the pool while Elto shock the shrimp out of the water. With about 20 shrimp in the water, the character with the most shrimps caught out of the air wins an allotment of coins. Whack-a-Shrimp: Eltos have powered six large, stuffed shrimp dolls (made with cloth), that will pop out of cut holes in a large game board. Hit the shrimp as many times as you can in 30 seconds, and your number will amount to the coins you receive. Shrimp Fest: Is your character a big eater? Your character is given a plate of cooked jumbo prawns. If they can eat all 50 jumbo prawns in 30 seconds, they win 100 coins. B ▢ What good is a festival if there's no face painting? Don't worry, you have more options than shrimp. Palai have an assortment of paints and are making colourful designs on both their kin and coven members -- your request may not look exactly as you want it to since they have bumpy hands and claws that get in the way.

This is all pretty juvenile, but fear not! For the mature sort and adults of Aimintas, there's a more quiet part set up that may cater to your older interests. A softer atmosphere, away from the excitement of things. If you want to wind down from the thrill of being magicked away to a new world, this is probably the best way for it. C ▢ Fans of alcohol will find that the Palai have broken out their best spirits for themselves and the coven. Some of these aged spirits are decades old and have aged accordingly, giving them a bitter flavor with a nasty bite of alcohol. Others are more recently distilled or imbued with magic for an extra buzz. Accordingly, some drinks can get you inebriated pretty quickly. Some drinks are essentially giddy truth serums. Others may have an effect on magic or telepathy. Pick your poison! D ▢ The environment in this more secluded area of the marketplace is supposed to be more relaxed, but it's also the best place to sit if you want a front row seat to the fireworks exhibit the remaining Eltos are putting on. Through balls of dye and their electrical powers, they're quickly blowing up the sky with arcs of color that rain down in the form of bright pieces of glitter once the spectacle is over. They also have a special service they're offering -- the Eltos have a grasp on electrical magic, which means they can draw certain things in the sky with these dye balls. If you have a request for a written message or a drawing of some sort, they'd be happy to comply with your wish! For the real adult experience, however, you may want to check out the large rolling cart that Palai are pushing around the marketplace, landing it in the fireworks area. This cart is filled with all of the eggs that were a product of their mating season, and this part of Aimintas is the warmest. E ▢ For newbies and those who missed the egg train, your character can instead be Egg Parent for a Night. The Palai are holding their eggs to warm them for the evening, but (like most parents with new babies) they're certainly trying to show off their creations. Hold them, pass them around -- or maybe even act a fool and fend off a fiercely angry Palai parent.

Finally, the Palai are getting used to the standard familiar faces, so they aren't unaware that there are quite a few new faces in the mix. Based on how familiar your character is, they'll receive a nice little gift from the Palai. Older coven members will receive a scrolled parchment that lists them as honorary citizens of Aimintas and a handmade, harden clay sculpture of their likeness. It may not look a lot like them, but they tried. F ▢ What about new members? Well, they get the Aimintas Starter Kit: an unmarked vial containing Palai mating pheromones (makes your character affectionate, etc), a bag of cooked shrimp, a collection of their baked goods and energy drinks (containing Elto magic that makes magical abilities hard to handle), and a harmless paper flower. Your character likely isn't used to the dangers of some of these items, so maybe someone can help them...or is it too late? G ▢ Because the Palai recognize new faces, these new coven members will be dragged to other coven members who they do recognize. In an effort to help make introductions, the Palai are trying to connect new members with old members in order to foster friendships. Say hi to a new, awkwardly introduced covenmate...? H ▢ Wildcard! How will your character interact with this new and unusual world?

Comments

[nockpoint]

The last Servant standing wins the Grail War, don't they? I've earned the break.

[ and without a grail's compulsion to fight, what reason do they have anyway? he doesn't want to fight.

despite all evidence to the contrary. ]

[cuchulainn]

[ . . . ]

Huh? You won?

[nockpoint]

There certainly wasn't anyone else left alive to. [ because, also. a sacrifice can't win the war anyways ]

[cuchulainn]

[ there was a long, long silence before suddenly-

lancer started to laugh. ]

Ah, geeze. This is what I get for dying, eh?

[ what on earth does that mean? don't worry about it. lancer eventually shrugged and shook his head. ]

I suppose that's it, then. I just hope your old master managed to make it out of there after everything I did. [ and yeah, he also secretly hoped she managed to kick some shape into archer, but with the way he looked now... there were too many questions. damn. forgetting would almost be better than this. ]

[nockpoint]

[ archer looks up, watching lancer laugh in silence, before he relents, leans back against the wall again with a shrug. ]

She did, despite her best efforts to put herself at risk.

[ doing heroic shit like saving shinji matou's ass. the sigh he lets out is resigned, half relieved, over something that happened an entire month ago — but the tiny smile on his mouth as he looks out over the off green sea-sky is genuine. he recovered enough from the end of that grail war to have some bite, but he's too tired to hide the fondness for rin he has, despite his own shit decisions.]

[cuchulainn]

[ it was probably for the better that lancer couldn't see that expression, seeing as it conflicted so much with the archer he had encountered in the past. betraying her made it difficult for him to believe that archer cared for her well-being in the least, but at least he did give an answer.

should lancer believe him? maybe not. but he did. ]

That's good.

[ better than the alternative, at least. ]

Well, maybe next time I'll get what I want.

...Right. Did you get what you wanted, Archer? [ lancer shouldn't really care, after what he had seen, but asked anyway. ]

[nockpoint]

[ he had to ask. god dammit. archer scoffs, looking away, all trace of that smile from before gone and dead. ]

Don't pin your wish on that thing they call a Grail. It was never meant for Servants to begin with.

[ a tidy, contained swerve away from answering any questions about what he wants — wanted? whatever it is — and all that he failed at, the sins he committed in the pursuit of that failure. he doesn't even know what he wants. he can't undo it, he can't (shouldn't) be ashamed of what he was, but. where does he go from here? ]

[cuchulainn]

[ it wasn't as though lancer was particularly big on having a wish for the grail, in fact what he wanted was more of a simple 'desire' than wish. simply existing as a servant was enough to fulfill it. but- ]

Really? Now you've got me curious.

[ now was archer going to explain or just leave him hanging? ]

Not that I had much of a wish to begin with, though.

[nockpoint]

[ he waves his hand at the air, ambiguous. ]

The ritual that the mages built for the war — it requires certain things to manifest the Grail. The heart of Illyasviel von Einzbern as its core, a container with magic circuits to inhabit, more than a handful of valuable sacrifices...

[ do the math. why else does the grail never show up until more than half of them are dead? ]

[cuchulainn]

[ ah. now what kotomine had planned to do with rin made even more sense.

at least he managed to kill the bastard. ]

That seems like exactly the sort of thing a mage would come up with.

[ ...as a simple way to put it. he knew he was oversimplifying the matter but, well. it wasn't like lancer to sit and fret about the injustice of it all. not for long, anyway. ]

But it sounds like no one managed to summon it. Or am I wrong?

[nockpoint]

[ don't remind him of the fate he sold rin off to, he spends too much time thinking about it already. ]

It wasn't completed, but... with you dead there were enough Servants to start the process, yes.

[ a beat, and archer goes to stand, tired of sitting and looking up at lancer. ]

You can thank Kotomine's Archer for that.

[cuchulainn]

It was a Servant? Not a mage?

[ well- that's right. there weren't many 'mages' left to complete the ritual, and he didn't think shirou or rin would be keen on it.

but, kotomine's archer... the 'how' was an obvious question, but with kotomine involved, it seemed possible. ]

Looks like I really did have the worst Master. Heh, at least it didn't work out in the end.

[nockpoint]

Gilgamesh. Left over from the fourth war, and he used his own Master for the vessel to boot.

[ standing next to lancer, archer looks out over the city and massages at the building headache behind his temples. its like opening floodgates, and he just cant stop himself from talking. ]

And then Rin had to go and be heroic to save his ass instead of just destroying it with Saber at the start.

[cuchulainn]

That kid, huh...?

[ well then. ]

Yeah, that sounds just like her.

[ which, while archer saw it as a bad thing, lancer found it admirable. and he wasn't exactly sure what to think of archer opening up like that but he didn't have it in mind to stop him. archer was his enemy, and even now he didn't like him, but it was interesting. ]

Guess I should have killed him when I had the chance.

[nockpoint]

Probably.

[ of course, an open floodgate means nothing if there's no path for the water to travel on. ]

But the Grail is gone, Gilgamesh is dead with it, and we're here now — so it hardly matters.

[ except that, no, it still does, because so much of the situation was his fault for happening that way. the tiny redeeming moments solidified into a rain of arrows and a single bolt in the middle of a skull. ]

[cuchulainn]

That's true.

[ otherwise, well- no, it didn't matter. he didn't have the means (well, not the means he'd rather have) or the reason to fight. and they already crossed that bridge a while ago. being able to talk about the past battle at all meant lancer could leave it behind, as well. ]

Heh, it's odd. I don't think I've ever lived without a war to fight. [ lancer shrugged. ] Guess I'll have to get used to this.

[nockpoint]

Shame you just missed the invasion.

[ there's the answer: he's been here long enough that he witnessed that. ]

I imagine you of all people wouldn't have been too troubled by fighting unarmed.

[ S H A D E. ]

[cuchulainn]

[ god dammit archer. ]

Invasion? [ yes, he was parroting this back at him. also, that was rude. he's not the same kid he used to be. ]

I'd be more troubled than you think. Unlike you, I like to stay true to my name. [ just give him a fucking stick he can sharpen to a point or something. stop calling him out. ]

[nockpoint]

Invasion. [ parrot all you want he's not going to be helpful in return.

n_n ]

That sort of attitude won't get you anywhere, Lancer. I might have been willing to help remedy the problem otherwise.

[ false, he hadn't intended to do anything, but. now that he mentions it... he does know all he needs know about the gae bolg... ]

[cuchulainn]

[ why are you like this??

also, that response has lancer looking at him with more suspicion than anything. not that it's easy to see in the darkness. ]

You say that as if you didn't start it.

...Also, are you really the Archer I knew? [ or did someone else replace him??? ]

[nockpoint]

[ shrugs unhelpfully. which one is he not answering? we just don't know. ]

How the hell would I prove it to you if I were, hm?

[cuchulainn]

[ don't mind him heaving the biggest sigh possible. ]

How should I know?

[ the easiest answer: fight him. otherwise? no clue. anyway, he was joking. mostly. ]

But offering to help... Sheesh. You know if that happens, we'll just end up fighting again. Is that what you want? [ not that he minded. lancer would happily kick archer's ass again, given the chance. ]

[nockpoint]

Don't ask questions you don't know how to find the answers for, then.

[ looking down at the city below, archer spots the palai that agreed to watch the egg they gave him while he went to "take care of things." might as well go and get the little thing back, then. ]

It'd be easily preventable, so I doubt I'd need to worry about it.

[ok thanks, adios, he's gonna go walk off the edge of the roof now, see u later lancer.

(pls follow him) ]

[cuchulainn]

[ he's going to kick you in the face you piece of ]

Ah? Isn't that what a question is for?

[ also, what does that mean?? lancer watched archer walk off before shaking his head. archer had given him to opportunity to leave but now he was annoyed, simply by the fact that archer had decided to ditch him. ]

Wait up, you-

[ cue him jumping down to the ground to follow him. ]

I'm not done talking, you know. [ good luck shutting him up ]

[nockpoint]

[ FUCKIN SCORE --!! god he loves being an annoying piece of shit sometimes. ]

Oh, you're not? Right when it seemed like you were running out of material, too...

[ stop him. someone. someone please stop this man. ]