[DECEMBER INTRO LOG | WORLD TWO]

[spellbindmods]

Who: All coven members, especially new folk!
Where: In and around the new world’s apartment building where the coven is staying, as well as the rest of Shehui
When: Day 160
Open/Closed: Open to All

How did you get into this building? This apartment room? What the fuck is going on? Let's refer back to this page for a semi in-depth, wow so detailed, explanation of your current situation. Are you up to speed? Great. Now, here's the question of the hour: what are you going to do about it? A ▢ Unlike the other coven members, the newbies are coming into the apartment building with non-empty apartment rooms. Depending on how polite or cautious you are, your first instinct may be to find your apartment and knock on the door. But it is your apartment now, too, and you do have an ID card that'll get you in. What horrible calamity will you walk in on? What eccentric roommates will you happen upon? The wacky situational comedy scenarios are ENDLESS. B ▢ One of the jobs on the job board this week is fundraising -- neat, right? Before you even make it up to your apartment, you may be accosted by an excited citizen -- coven member or no -- that is trying to push something onto your character. Chocolate bars? Cheese logs? Cookie dough? Some other luxury item or overpriced snack food? Because this fundraising task is based on commission, the citizen in question may be a bit pushy...or you may be inclined to buy ridiculous amounts of goods and not know what to do with yourself.

New coven members showing up today are in luck. This week, Shehui is celebrating a Keep the Community Clean event. It's rare that they force jobs on people, but there has been an influx of new citizens and the population growth is leading to more trash. Fulfill your assignment and you'll be rewarded 1,000 credits. Don't? Be fined 500. Everyone has been sent a job to their ID, be it collecting trash, cleaning their apartment building or holding up signs/handing out literature about recycling. Sweeping, bagging...it's dirty work, but someone has to do it. C ▢ Cleaning up trash on the street might be hard, but it's fulfilling! Okay, that's a lie. It's demeaning and a lot of citizens don't really care about the minimal littering credit deduction as they toss trash from their cars or miss throwing it into bins. Volunteers are outfitted with gloves, vests and a roll of trash bags, but it doesn't prevent them from being rudely splashed with snow or having to pick up nasty things. Have fun! D ▢ For those who decided to pass out literature, you did pick the better job! It's a lot easier to avoid getting nasty, but it's also awkward...having to hand out fliers, be cheerful, regurgitate boring facts about recycling. Please sir, stop and listen to this exciting speech about why should put your cans in the red bins, not the blue ones! E ▢ There is a bright side to these jobs: local businesses are getting in on the outpouring of people out and about to try and get them into seats and buying things. Free samples are abound! There's a local coffee shop, Mooncents, that is handing out free small drinks to anyone who is actually working today. Come inside, regardless if you "volunteer" or not. It's warm inside with all that snow out there...

Speaking of snow! Most businesses and buildings in Shehui have paid to have snow falling every other hour, which coats the city areas in a fine, powdery dust of snowflakes. You may be familiar with snow, or maybe you've never seen it in your entire life! It's unavoidable either way, so you're going to have to deal with it. F ▢ Children in Shehui are usually in a school building somewhere, but snow days call for some leniency. School is pretty come-and-go anyway, so don't be surprised that there are quite a few kidlets out and about on the streets. They're also fully into the spirit of snow, throwing snowballs at unsuspecting strangers. Will you get in on the action, or will you plan the murder of innocent children today? G ▢ While it's unadvised to just go lay out in the street and make snow angels, there are plenty of parks in which to examine or play in the snow. You won't be the only one acting like a fool -- it's Shehui. You're allowed to live a little! H ▢ Finally, Coins! has bought the most snow as a means for their seasonal activity -- snow paintball. If you're looking to have a good time and enjoy Shehui for what it is, you'd best be inclined to sign up. A massive field with snowbanks and excellent areas for hiding, snowball paintballs that hurt twice as much as usual. What more could you ask for? I ▢ Wildcard! How will your character interact with this new and unusual world?

Comments

[rootandbranch]

Noooo. I just got these! I was wondering if people in the coven might want them -- I don't think they'd all fit on the bottom floor.

[he draws back respectfully so his new acquaintance could get a better look at the flowers. they're in sturdy little individual pots, attractively presented so they can go on some lucky patron's windowsill or table. pansies are pretty hardy, either indoors or out...]

You are in the coven, right? I'm Geir.

[cloak]

[Roxas doesn't mind the dragon-wing awning in the slightest, but he keeps his attention fixed on the flowers until he's asked that question.

He looks up at the flower-loving dragon then, evidenced only by the movement of his hood, its opening upturned toward the dragon's face]

Seems that way... But I don't know how to take care of flowers. What do you feed them?

[rootandbranch]

They eat sun and water! But not too much water! Just enough to wet their roots, then you wait till it's dry... and you have to check and make sure the earth is still nourishing them now and then.

[his claws twitch a little, thoughtfully, as an idea occurs to him.]

I think there are places to look, or people to ask, about that stuff -- if you want to know the specifics. Vern for sure knows more than me. I've just been watching him.

[cloak]

Too bad you can't just ask these guys...

[In Wonderland they certainly could talk, and weren't shy about making demands. It seems flowers like these don't have that ability, or perhaps they are simply very shy.

Quiet and shy, but stronger than they seem...

Despite the cold, he's warmed by thoughts of the girl who first encoded his data]

So long as there's someone to ask... I could try.

[rootandbranch]

Hahaha...! I don't think they talk much. But, yeah, there are a few people around in th coven who do things with flowers. Even I canat least give advice!

[he separates one of the flowerpots out with his talon and nudges it towards the mysterious cloaked figure. the guy hasn't given his name yet, Geir realizes, but he doesn't ask for it immediately.]

Here you go; all yours.

[cloak]

[Roxas collects the flower pot between his gloved hands, looking it over. So it just needs water and sunlight, right...? He thinks he can handle that.

But he has to wonder something, if this dragon is giving his flowers away]

You'll still keep some too, right?

[rootandbranch]

I'll keep a couple of them! As many as Vern wants. He might want to save a few to plant back at the Hub. We started a garden.

[Geir's tone lifts as he says his next words: it's a nice mental image to think of these flowers back in the little place they've carved out for themselves.]

If we find Qri and get back there in time, maybe we'll see them grow in the snow while it's still winter!

[cloak]

Hub...?

[He echoes curiously, and despite the lack of expression in his voice, his interest is apparent. This dragon certainly has his undivided attention]

Is that the world we're going to, after this?

[What a very strange name]

[rootandbranch]

We'll go back there! At least, I think we will. Has anyone told you how we travel to different worlds yet?

[it's been a while since Geir's played newbie informant -- he settles a little more comfortably on the ground, tail curled around his front feet, ready now to explain one more time. it feels pretty nice, in an odd way, to be the one who more or less understands at least this aspect of what they're doing.]

[cloak]

[Roxas shakes his head. If such information is readily available to them, that's news to him]

No. I know how I'd do it, but...

[He's sure the methods here must be different]

[rootandbranch]

Oh... wait, what do you know so far? I didn't realize that things might be different with Qri missing.

[that's more unsettling than he wants to think about immediately. Qri is still the arbiter of an awful lot of the life of the coven. not having even the small amount of information they're typically used to seems like... a problem.]

[cloak]

I showed up here and had somebody tell me a bunch of stuff I'm supposed to do, and not do.

[Does that count? He's not really sure what it is he's supposed to know, although he has heard that name by now. If there's a hub and it's not here, then he's not sure what he was supposed to have been told]

[rootandbranch]

Geez... without Qri here, everyone explaining things has been even worse! I'm bad at it, but I'll try.

[he gathers his thoughts for a moment.]

I don't know how Qri moves us between worlds, but if you try to use your own powers to do it any more, it won't work. Our "home base" is the Hub. It's a weird floating island. Most of us have been to one other world, Aimintas. Qri sent us there to get magic for her, then we went back to the Hub, and now we're here.

We can't use most of our powers because the way the magic works in the world doesn't let us, but we can still use the ones that Qri gave us. Except, they don't like that here.

--I know that was a really bad explanation, so you'd better ask questions!

[he tried, and therefore no one can criticize him]

[cloak]

[At least Roxas has a secondhand understanding of traveling between worlds, so the concept is nothing new to him. The execution, on the other hand, seems strange]

So she gives out magic, and has us gather more?

[Seems like a weird way to go about...whatever it is she's going about. Different worlds working differently and having their own rules makes enough sense, but are they supposed to be gathering the same thing in this place despite that?]

[rootandbranch]

You should really get Genette or Jay or someone to tell you all this... but, anyway. I think it's like: she can give us some of her magic, in exchange for us giving something of our own up, and then we use that to gather more magic, that she doesn't have already. In Aimintas, it was magical bones. Genette has said that other worlds have magic in different forms.

So you'll have some kind of ability, and we're here to look for whatever the new form of magic is... that's how it's supposed to work. And we'll go back to the Hub for a while in between.

[cloak]

[Roxas takes a few moments to absorb this, after which there's only one question to ask:]

...And what happens to these worlds we're taking magic from?

[Because it sounds potentially harmful to him. Taking something from worlds for some unknown use is more than a little strange, and he's not sure what necessitates this or even makes it a stable system]

[rootandbranch]

[the fact that he asked that right away tells Geir something about the sort of person his new acquaintance is immediately -- that's really his first thought, huh? this stranger is a nice guy. he's worried about the worlds they visit.]

Thaaat... we don't know. Qri says that usually nothing happens, but there could be cases where it does. I don't think it hurt the world when we visited Aimintas! We just picked up magic bones. We even asked the people who lived there if they minded first, and they said no.

Apparently, she needs them to restore her power, so she can keep all the worlds running. Because that's what her kind of witch does. That's just her word for it, but Genette and Brie, who've been with her even longer than the rest of us, believe her because of the powers we've been given.

[cloak]

[Roxas mulls that over, making to fold his arms only to pause because of the flower pot in his possession. The end result looks more like he's hugging this new item to his chest more than anything else]

Unless the hearts of those worlds have been compromised, I don't see why they would need an outside force to sustain them.

[Not to mention, he's never heard of a good witch]

...has anyone ever mentioned darkness, in all of this?

[rootandbranch]

Uhhh... why would they? There's plenty of light around, isn't there?

[Geir glances up and then back to Roxas in confusion. SUN SEEMS TO BE THERE!]

I don't know about the hearts of the worlds, either. This sounds like a your-world thing... or maybe a your-universe thing. What is it?

[the idea that there are other universes with different rules was a great relief in all these conflicting explanations of how different peoples' rules for magic operate. Geir's glad that Terezi explained that one to him.]

[cloak]

[At least Roxas has gotten his crash-course in world mechanics.

But it seems to him that even Monad had a heart. It had given him nightmares about it, despite his normal inability to sleep]

Every world has a heart, and it's full of light. If darkness overtakes it, worlds fall to ruin. That should be true of any world.

[rootandbranch]

Why do they fall in darkness? That's just the night coming.

[Geir's... gotten less comfortable with darkness being a harbringer of destruction, as he's stayed with the coven. he could follow that unease to the logical conclusion of its source easily enough -- dig into his thoughts about his own dark nature -- but he doesn't choose to do so right now. it's uncomfortable.]