[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

delicious

[marakukaja]

It's unfortunate. That's why I live vicariously through everyone else.

[ She can't eat or drink (although she can have popsicles, they make for good coolant) so she'll simply have to find other ways of experiencing something similar.

Without even asking, Aigis fishes out a handkerchief from the inside of her coat and offers it to him, dangling it with her fingers so as to reduce the chance of his fingers brushing against her own metallic ones. (Though that doesn't mean it won't or can't happen.) Don't lick your fingers, boy. ]

Do you like it?

[deusex]

[ he'll lick them if he wants to???

Mikazuki looks up questioningly but takes the offered handkerchief without any word, staring at it for a ... minute or two, like he's pretty sure what it's for but he doesn't quite, before he wipes it against his mouth to brush the stray crumbs away. their fingers do brush slightly, barest knuckle against knuckle, but if he's noticed he isn't saying anything about it just yet. ]

Mm, it's good.

Why did you buy it if you can't even eat it?

[ just so she can give it to other people to watch them eat doesn't .... really make any sense to him, really. it's not that he's suspicious, it's just ... an odd way of sharing.

he glances down at the cloth, wondering if she wants it back... but maybe she won't, because it's pretty dirty. ]

[marakukaja]

[ If she wants the handkerchief back, she makes no sign of it. ]

Ah. A young girl asked me to.

[ Wait. That's probably not enough of an explanation, unless she wants to come off as the type who simply does what's asked of her. Which she isn't. ]

...She was fundraising, and very persuasive.

[deusex]

[ even if she was very persuasive, that still makes Aigis sound like she'd do what's asked of her ... To Mikazuki, at least. ]

Huh.

[ he's just going to tuck the handkerchief into his sling for later use, and pull out another cookie. ]

You're a pretty nice person then, buying things you don't even need and giving them away.

[ that isn't exactly a good thing, in his opinion. The motion of his hand pauses on the fourth cookie halfway to his mouth, as a thought occurs to him. ]

Did you need something in return for this?

[marakukaja]

No.

[ She shakes her head with a smile. ]

I simply didn't want to see them go to waste. ...Your company is also enough in return.

[ That's one way of redistributing things she doesn't need. And she has more, while others have less. It seems second nature to her, to give and give but never quite take. She likes talking to people, getting to know them and their lives. She's admittedly curious about the sort of life someone would lead to never even have heard of caramel. ]

[deusex]

Hmm.

[ Mikazuki glances at her sidelong out of his good eye but doesn't say anything too forthcoming or outright, preferring (this time, for once) to keep his thoughts to himself on hearing that. ]

Thanks.

What can you eat, then?

[ oh boy, here goes. ]

[marakukaja]

[ ...Oh. Well then. This got awkward all of a sudden. But it's salvagable...probably. All she needs to do is to not be a weird robot or give anything away that would out her as a robot. ]

I-I...can have popsicles. They are effective coolants.

[ She can subsist on a diet of popsicles. Believe her.

..."Coolants" probably gave it away already, though. ]

[deusex]

[ maybe aigis is terribly underestimating how unfazed Mikazuki can be to a lot of things. Giant robots? Ok. The said giant robot talking to him via a whole bunch of nanomachines in his spine? Ok. Fighting a whole bunch of other people and getting involved in an interplanetary political war of sorts? Ok.

The only thing he probably is ever uncomfortable with would be fish. Their eyes are weird, ok. ]

Coolant, huh.

[ crrrunch, there goes another cookie. He is apparently giving that statement some thought. ]

Do you need a lot of it?

[marakukaja]

[ What a weirdo. Then again, who's she to talk? ]

Not normally, no. Only when I overheat...from straining myself too much.

[ Orgia mode. It's a helluva thing. And even then, a popsicle or two still isn't going to help her jump back into combat any earlier. ]

[deusex]

[ huh.......

Other people often got a little unnerved by Mikazuki staring at them; his gaze was too calm no matter what they were talking about, what situation they were in, always watching like he's thinking of doing something completely unexpected. ]

Mikazuki.

That's my name.

[ he tilts his head slightly to one side, considering. ]

If you need any help, I'm okay with fixing up little things that can go wrong with you.

[ though her and Barbatos seem two different things altogether, obviously. ]

[marakukaja]

[ Aigis bows her head once in acknowledgement. Mikazuki. Mikazuki-san? It's probably okay to use honorifics with him. Nevertheless, before she has the chance to say anything about that particular topic, he just goes ahead and implies that she is totally not human. ]

H-Huh? Like...a doctor...?

[ Mechanic, really. She's not an android, please believe her. ]

[deusex]

[ im forever sorry............... for inflicting Mikazuki on .... people ....... so I'm sorry ]

What?

[ He doesn't believe in playing nice, or skirting around the issue - it doesn't occur to him that maybe Aigis is trying to hide it for good reasons, because things like that don't really matter to him overmuch. It's not terribly an important thing to him, to learn whether you were a robot or a human or something else. ]

I used to help out where I come from. You're not like Barbatos, but it won't be that hard.

[marakukaja]

[ he's trying so hard!! they're both trying hard. kind of. ]

Barbatos...?

[ Wait, no. Back up a bit for a sec. There's no reason he'd bring up a particular name or phrase if he were referring to being a doctor or a doctor's assistant if he thinks she's a regular old human. Which must mean that...he either has the half-right impression (not human), or is completely correct in his assumptions. It'd be a bit of a fool's errand to try to keep deceiving him if he's assuming that she's not human, though, since not only is that correct, but trying to deny that might push him to try to confirm his own suspicions for himself, which would give up the chase anyway.

Without warning, she steps in a little closer, lowering her voice. Her sensors indicate that there isn't anyone right now who can overhear, thankfully. ]

I...what can you tell about me?

[deusex]

[ He's never actually verbally talked to anyone like Aigis before - the connection between him and Barbatos had been more of a mental thing, the connection between the forbidden technology in his veins and the more ancient system of the mobile suit guiding the flow of the neural link between them. It had been less like words than was it just half-impressions, some kind of a gut feeling, even though it was pretty much the same either way to Mikazuki.

Maybe if their fingers hadn't brushed earlier, it would have taken Mikazuki a little longer to figure out, but he was always good at this sort of thing; some kind of keen sense developed from his childhood years spent on the streets, or maybe it was the implants that allowed him greater control in battle. ]

You're not human. [ not like him, though some people would have words to say about that. some people would consider him less than human, more like animal or common beast, some pest to be chased away. ]

But you talk better than some people I know.

[marakukaja]

...Ah.

[ Her mind races, processing information faster than the human brain, putting together all the pieces of how he could've figured her out. Was it her behavior? Her appearance? Her speech? Or perhaps he's simply experienced enough with machinery (if this "Barbatos" is what she thinks it is; if it was a biological lifeform, most people wouldn't refer to maintaining them as "fixing"...for the most part).

...And there's the fact that she held out her hand earlier. Drat.

She's not the greatest at lying, merely deflecting (in more ways than one), so she heaves a sigh and basically gives up. Trying to refute that poorly might end up making him suspicious enough to confirm for himself, which would give her up almost instantly if he simply grabbed her hand or something. ]

Thank you. ...Was it obvious that I'm not human?

[ Sending her to school was a challenge and a half. It wouldn't have been a quarter as successful if Mitsuru wasn't running the show, she imagines sometimes. ]

[deusex]

No, [ and just like that, he's going to pull out another cookie and bite into it, like they're just talking about simple topic like what the weather is like today -- that's how it is with Mikazuki; he took things at their face value as they came, unhindered by things like opinions or any sort of personal judgement clouding his viewpoint. ]

You look and talk like one. I was a bit surprised.

[ surprised, he says... he would be killing it at poker, if he ever took up that hobby. ]

[marakukaja]

[ Her eyes follow the cookie, a bit surprised that he's so calmly discussing this. ]

You don't seem very surprised.

[ An understatement. Nobody let the two of them play poker against others. Perhaps he's also just weirdly well-adjusted to all of this strange stuff, robot girls included. He implied being a mechanic of sorts, after all. ]

Are you familiar with dealing with people like me...?

;; im sorry im so late with this!

[deusex]

[ that disappears into his mouth pretty fast, and he's just gonna pull out another one ... just how many can this small boy eat? who knows. ]

Don't I?

[ he just tilts his head .... slightly to one side, considering what she'd just said; people did tell him that it was hard to read what he was thinking. it didn't really matter to him overmuch though, as long as Orga knew what he was thinking. ]

Not really. Barbatos doesn't talk in the same way. It's more ... [ it's clear he's not really used to discussing this, or to put it into neat little words. it doesn't matter how you do the deed in battles, as long as you are good at it. ]

It's more, he's talking in my head.

[marakukaja]

In your head?

[ That's not the strange part, really. When your life is surrounded by stuff like manifestations of your other self, voices in one's head don't register as that strange. It's the fact that he claims that he's worked on Barbatos (which means it should be physical and metallic like her), yet also doesn't talk in the same way. Code? Programming? Telepathy? It's possible. Living machines, like her and her sister. ]

Like a telepathic connection?

[deusex]

[ he doesn't know how to explain it properly.... Mikazuki isn't very well-versed in technical knowledge or terms enough to be able to talk to anyone about it well, especially to someone who (even though they are mechanical) doesn't really know about mobile suits at all. ]

Something like that. He told me his name, when we first connected.