[WORLD ONE | OCTOBER INTRO LOG]

[spellbindmods]

Who: The new coven members and old blood
Where: In and around the hub island
When: Day 92
Open/Closed: Open to All

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, repercussions 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 She'll also give you a letter, which may give you more questions than answers since the information is a wee out of date.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 is at first painfully obvious is that you're ill-equipped. Any magic or powers you had previously are suddenly replaced with an empty hole in your being. That's not all that's gone, but perhaps that's what's most pressing. Another thing you may notice is that there are others just like you, wandering around and just as confused. If you feel so inclined, you may want to ask around and see if anyone else knows what's up. A ▢ If one of your characters isn't looking to introduce themselves to others, someone's willing to do it for them. Genette is trying to make sure all newbies are accounted for and have a buddy, so she's grabbing them when she finds them and tossing them at the first coven member she sees. "Hi, so-and-so, this is so-and-so! They're new, so show them the ropes -- be friends, okay?" You get the gist. Your character may be paired up with another newbie, a seasoned character or both! Five times, even! Timelines in RPing are weird! B ▢ Let's say that instead of milling about and doing nothing entirely productive, your character has decided to try and venture off to find a way off this huge floating rock. That's nice -- but be warned that the forest is filled with interesting things. For instance, they've happened to find a hollowed out tree that happens to be where a hoard of land crabs are living. They move fast -- run quick! C ▢ Other characters may want to establish shelter before they do anything else -- and that's their right! The problem is that if your character wants to be well-supplied, they're going to have to do things for themselves. There's something of an assembly line set up, but not a lot has been done in way of making things workable. Genette wanted all new coven members to have a little food parcel to take to their hut, but time constraints, you know? If you want any food for now -- or for later -- you may want to cook some of this (poisonous) eel, salt some boar jerky or cut into one of these rabbits. You've also got some berries to eat in the meantime, if you want something simple!

By the time afternoon sets in, everyone should be a little more adjusted -- or, they should at least be a little more aware of the situation. From there, things still need to be done and exploring is always an option! D ▢ For those characters who want to stick around the base camp, there's something worthwhile in discovering the buildings around the area. One such building is the mansion, which contains extra supplies and a renovated kitchen. The kitchen is now functional with electricity and running water, with a few raw ingredients for making whatever your character would like. It's minimal, but also not totally useless. E ▢ If you mill about too long, you'll be put to work. Run into Genette and you'll be sent to pick western part of the island to look for strawberries, wheat and deer (good luck hunting if your character doesn't have the capabilities, but maybe someone else can help?). Run into Genette and she'll offer your character an ax to chop wood with (is this a wise idea? probably not), or a request to go fishing in either a stream or the ocean attached to the island on the eastern side. Or your character can do both if they so choose...? F ▢ With all of these new people milling about, telepathy is on the fritz again. At least, it certainly is for those who are new! Your character may not realize their broadcasting frustrations to the network, or maybe a stupid secret. Their mental filter is certainly broken, but that's at least a great conversation starter. Night finally falls on the exhausting day, and it's time to rest. Thankfully the island is beautiful at night, especially the sky. The night is filled with space worms, relaxing mist and wondrous sights in the stars. G ▢ Adding to the excitement of the beautiful night, Genette has set up something of a...talent show? In an effort to get new coven members acclimated with their magic, she's asked them all to use their magic in some way -- it may take a volunteer, or maybe they can show it off all on their own. In any case, show me what you got. H ▢ Of course, some characters aren't going to be up for this fancy display and will want to go about their own business. There are plenty of places to sit and stew on this island, both private and in plain sight. The stars are spectacularly bright, and the higher up your character gets the less it seems like night time. If they're lucky, they may catch sight of a shooting star, though it's of course much larger than usual. They're directly in space, after all! I ▢ Wildcard! How will your character interact with this new and unusual world?

Comments

[splinten]

[Dirk isn't stupid, and he isn't blind. He registers it: the faintest indication of surprise, as muted as any emotion he has ever failed to have the practice to express. The too-long silence. The allusion, to something Dirk can't possibly reach at.

He remembers what Jay suggested. He wonders how many of them are from broken moments, places where the records of their lives glitch into intolerableness.]

Dirk Strider. What's yours?

[reckoner]

[ Vidar. But, she took his mask, and he'd already retaken his name. All that waiting and hoping, for this. ]

Gaelio Bauduin.

[ Opening his eyes, he only then processes the darkness, the cooler air, that he'd lost focus and with it the illusion. Gaelio blinks, tipping his face toward the stars, then glances over. ]

What would you like to see, Dirk?

[splinten]

[His gut says, home, but his mind can't name it. It isn't a vast and empty ocean, striking endlessly against support beams. It isn't a cold green planet, descending into darkness and suffocation. It isn't anywhere that no one would catch him if he drowned. And what right does he have to the people? Man, how sad is it that he couldn't even be tricked by a Lotus-Eater Machine because there's nowhere in any world or even an illusion of one his fucked up mind has managed to make into something like a home?]

An unbelievable shitty skateboard.

[Monotone. Looking Gaelio dead-on. Apparently genuine.]

As shitty as you can imagine it.

[reckoner]

[ What a kid. Gaelio looks back, inexpressive, but allowing another moment to pass in the mild night breeze, as if waiting for Dirk to reveal the joke. Another second and that similarly impassive face would crack, exposing the hollow center of that apparent sincerity.

It does not come, and Gaelio drops his eyes to the ground, musing, confronted with having to produce a skateboard. He's never seen one off the page or screen, never mind held one. Even the motorized and elaborate boards were considered far below a Seven Star's time, and his father had his limits in indulging commercial whims. It wouldn't do for an heir to be skating around; really, an impossible image.

Maybe his inexperience will assist, because his idea of it keeps vague and televised. A board, obviously, sort of rounded edges. Plain wood should do for "shitty," as though it might splinter, and some kind of wheels. Four, right? Sort of... there and there? With a motor in the back, beneath...

He puts out his hand, trying to convince himself of how it feels, and in nudging it, how the wheels would sound and turn. In trying, too, to push it out, to make the visual more convincing, he pushes the sound too, and not yet adept at separating sensations that blur so easily firsthand, even without touching it, Dirk might briefly feel rough wood beneath his fingertips.

But, yeah, as he stares at the empty space that fills with this contraption, it's definitely some ridiculous rich kid's loose idea of what a poor street punk might have hobbled together and fallen regularly off of. The motor rat tat tats and the wheels wobble, each a different size and color. Not yet looking up -- ]

Like this?

[splinten]

[It's interesting watching him trying to craft it: the slip of sensation, the awkward and uncertain working towards some end. Dirk knows skateboards from key examples, but this.... This is none of them. This is something entirely else.

This is hilarious.

Yes. Exactly like that.

[He loves this thing holy shit.]

[reckoner]

[ Should he feel a flare of pride? Of course not. The task had been "as shitty as you can imagine," making a good job definitionally a bad job. Still, though it flits and fades quickly, his mouth arcs, sharp enough to be a smirk. ]

How useful.

[ As it's clearly anything but. How far could he go with it? If he tried to stand on it, or if Dirk did, could he make him believe it moved beneath him, and replicate skating, the sky passing more swiftly overhead? Though he never moved at all? He presses his hand harder against it, both trying to convince himself of the wood, and trying to get through the illusion. Funny, that it feels real enough to resist, though nothing's actually there. How easily and thoroughly even his own mind can be mislead -- trigger enough stimuli in the brain, and believe in what feels real.

Only, knowing what is real, after half a minute, his hand pushes through and meets the cold rock below. As the board flickers, he feels both air and wood digging into his wrist. ]

You won't get much use out of it.

[splinten]

That tends to happen with illusions.

[Curious, Dirk tries to straight-up step on the shitty skateboard.]

[reckoner]

You have experience?

[ Gaelio leans back, pulling his hand loose (from nothing). In theory, even in practice, he knows he should be able to effectuate this. Though without meaning it, he had deceived himself, then McGillis, with his own death. The scar tearing open on his face, the crush of metal -- it had been real for both, felt it, until he understood and stopped.

If he could do that, relive and project his death, then why not a skateboard?

except that he's never skateboarded and doubts thinking, all right, you're skateboarding will do it.

Keep it simple, maybe. He has to step up first. Just that sensation -- as if an actual step, or a curb. Only, rickety, because wheels, and. Shitty. ]

[splinten]

I've watched tv.

[It's better than experience: it's research via fiction. He's impressed by the realism of the step. It really pushes back, unbalanced and uneven. And shitty.

Time to try the other foot. Will he fall through? Will he get to kind-of-ride an unbelievably shitty skateboard? only the future can tell]

[reckoner]

[ A sudden, quick expulsion of air, as if it had wanted to be a surprised chuckle, but died in conception.

Television, yeah.

It seems to be holding so far. The second foot's easier, or should be, the same principles applying. Gaelio holds onto the image of Dirk stepping up, rather than what must be the reality, that he stands in place, maybe moving his legs, maybe just looking pretty weird to anyone far enough. ]

How is it?

[splinten]

Surprisingly effective.

[He decides to push Gaelio's limits, because he never learned to leave well enough alone. He sets a foot down on the ground and kicks off. Glide, shitty skateboard. Glide.

Or force a wipeout, he'd be fine with that too.]

[reckoner]

[ Here the challenge.

What should this feel like? He knows wheels on rough terrain through driving or sitting as a passenger in vehicles, both on Mars and Earth. He's surfed, skied on water and snow. Begin with the similarity: a board.

Don't mind the brief scent of saltwater. Motion giving pull to the air through hair, like a breeze. The night terrain not blurring quite yet, but quick. Rickety, wobbly, the wheels -- jittering with ever pebble and crack, and why not just popping off?

Would he actually fall if he felt like he was falling? Gaelio can't tell just yet, can't see himself what's real and what he's done. ]

[splinten]

[The illusion flickers a little, as the sea scent calls to mind different memories of Dirk's own, but it's pretty solid. As for the fall, well—

On reflex, once Dirk senses his balance shifting, he automatically shifts off and drops into a solid, secure stance.]

That was really impressive. I'm starting to wonder if we should come up with more utilitarian applications.

For example, making boar meat taste and feel like Doritos.

[reckoner]

Hm. Thanks for testing it.

[ An open question, then. If someone would fall if well-enough deceived. Gaelio had only a fleeting investment in it, spurred in that moment, without actually wanting a wipe out. Dirk's recovery serves as another notch of interest.

Though his head aches in rhythmic pulses now that it's faded, he's surprised it worked that well. Even if just enough to satisfy Dirk, who seems to have at least a passing familiarity with skateboards.

And Doritos.

Gaelio suspects an ironic application of the word utilitarian. But he can't be sure, because -- ]

Maybe. What are Doritos?

[splinten]

They're cornchip triangles covered in fake cheese dust.

[And he loves them]

[reckoner]

[ The first and obvious question is: why do those exist?

Gaelio refrains from asking.

Even a Seven Star had gotten his hands on junk food, so it's not like he's never tasted artificial cheese dust. ]

Nice priorities.

[ Idly, but even he might get sick of boar meat. Gaelio looks at his hand, palm turned skyward. Triangle corn chip. Fake cheese dust. ]