[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

[marakukaja]

[ Her eyes widen, and her expression gives way to a soft smile. It's just 2B, so she doesn't have to worry as much about hiding her...android-ness. No need for pretenses between them. ]

Oh, I see. All right, then.

[ She retracts the box of cookies, and tucks it under her arm. ]

It may be much more believable for you, but I'm trying to conceal my...true appearance.

[ Her mechanical body, in other words. It isn't a question of cruelty and kindness (she's met her share of kind, very kind people who didn't mind that she was an android, and accepted all of her, steel and iron and all), but just a reflection of the reality she lived in, back home. Revealing herself as a robot (or, even worse, a humanoid tactical weapon) would cause unnecessary panic among the human populace, and for possibly good reason. ]

[apatheia]

Is there a reason you're hiding it?

[She's genuinely curious, having always told everyone point blank that she's an android when asked. Then again, she lived in a world completely without humans and society in the first place, leaving very little reason to try and conceal what she is.]

[marakukaja]

Yes. My primary duties involve reconnaissance [ Not a lie. The element of surprise is one of the most powerful ones. ], so revealing myself may cause unnecessary panic, since I work with humans who aren't aware that units such as myself and my sister even exist.

[ A lot of humans. And her sister. And a dog. And Shadows? If Teddie is any indication. It's a lot of weird stuff, but it's normal for her. Nevertheless, as strange as her activities may be, she lives in a world of living humans who don't even know the shady underbelly of what really went on in Ergo Research, and she'd prefer to keep it that way. Labrys was already kidnapped once just for being an android, and mistreated horribly for being an android. ]

[apatheia]

[ooc: I AM SO SORRY FOR HOW ABYSMALLY LATE THIS IS, if it's been too long/you've lost interest, feel free to drop it, no hard feelings!]

Your sister... [She's a little surprised, and it shows in her tone. 9S alone is something like family to her, and A2 is important to her as well, but she's not sure she'd call either of them brother or sister. The differences between them, despite both being androids, are pretty fascinating to her.] So even though you were made by humans, the existence of androids isn't widespread knowledge?

[marakukaja]

[ Even though they're both androids, they have some things in common as well as so many things not. But that's not a bad thing, she thinks; far from it. It means that there are things they can teach each other and learn from each other. ]

That's right. Our existences are to be kept secret from other humans, since our enemies are also to be kept secret from humans.

[ They're not unrelated, of course. Shadows and the like spawned from humans and could affect them just as strongly. Letting the public populace find out about the nature of their work as well as gain common knowledge on how to control such things could be terrible indeed. ]

[apatheia]

And who, or what, were your enemies?

[Now there's something more familiar to her. Why else would an android be built except to aid or defend humanity in some way, right?]

[marakukaja]

...They are called Shadows. I cannot reveal much more about them, since I'm not authorized to disclose everything.

[ Shadows are weird, supernatural things. Nothing so literally concrete as machines. ]

However, they have existed alongside humans since ancient times, yet most humans are not even aware of them.

[ Beings that arise from the depths of mankind's collective unconscious, and their own individual Shadows. Only visible (and combatable, for the most part) in certain circumstances, like the Dark Hour, or the TV world, in her experience.

...Ryoji Mochizuki was an outlier. ]

[apatheia]

[She nods in understanding. Her higher ups were androids themselves really, but she's familiar with not having full authority.]

They sound like a difficult enemy. [She's not quite sure she can picture it actually. How could humanity not even know about them? Then again, she knows she's not actually getting the full picture on them.] Having to fight in secret like that can't be easy.

[marakukaja]

[ She lets out a small laugh, polite as it may be. ]

I'm sure it's caused Mitsuru-san and the others no end of trouble.

[ And to this day, it's a wonder that nobody caught on while she was attending high school with the others. ]

What about you though, 2B? Do you not have to hide that you're an android?

[apatheia]

[shaking her head] Although now that I think about it, I guess there wasn't really anyone to hide it from anyways. Humans no longer lived on Earth in my world.

[Maybe it was different when androids were first made? But honestly she has no idea when that might've been or what it might've been like. That was well over 6000 years ago and all.]

[marakukaja]

[ She lets out a soft gasp upon hearing that. Logically, she knows that the day will come that she'll outlive her friends, since they are mortal. Humans are mortal. And she dreads it, while also accepting that death happens. It's a bitter warmth. She presses her hand near the base of her neck, fingers slightly curled. ]

Then...who do you live with? Other androids? Animals?

[apatheia]

... With other androids.

[She sounds unsure though, crossing her arms as she thinks. Life back home was just too different compared to life with the coven, it's almost impossible to bridge the gap between them. She didn't live "with" people the way she lives with others here. There was always a mission at hand, always a new objective, barely any time to rest. The Resistance's base might have been something like a community, now that she thinks on it, but she doesn't think she can say she really lived with them.]

There were animals, but they weren't really our priority. [a beat] And then there were the machine lifeforms, our enemies. Living with them wasn't really an option.