[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]

Who's Orga? Someone you know?

[Geir wonders idly if this Orga is part of the coven or someone from Mikazuki's own world. he's heard before from coven members who were brought here without their most important friends or family. it gives him a shudder when he thinks of it, an uneasy chill scraping its way down his back, along the raw nerves under his scales. he still can't imagine being here without Vern.]

[deusex]

He's...

[ What can he say as an answer? How can he put it into words, the connection they have, the sheer depth of what he owes to Orga? Mikazuki is silent for a moment, apparently thinking about how to word it -- which in itself is rare for him, already. ]

He's a friend. [ it's the easiest thing to say, something that Mikazuki has found that people understand the best without him explaining everything to them - and even if he explained it, would they really understand? What Mikazuki and Orga have is something between them, something stronger than words and labels.

Preoccupied, he only catches onto the other's unease a little late. Mikazuki slows down a little, glancing up at the other questioningly. ]

Are you okay?

[rootandbranch]

[Geir looks down at Mikazuki with wide eyes, a bit startled that the momentary unease was noticed. this young human is more attuned to his surroundings than Geir realized -- highly sensitive. what is he watching out for?]

Oh, sure. I'm fine. I was just wondering if your friend was with the coven or not.

[hm... if he's not, that might not have been the gentlest thing to say. Geir quiets suddenly, abashed.]

[deusex]

[ Mikazuki has always had an uncommon knack about picking up seemingly random details about others - for all his apparent lack of interest, this guy was actually pretty good at intuition. Maybe it's in part due to his AV-implants, maybe it's because of his past experiences, but those eyes are always wide and watching. ]

He isn't.

[ He's never been without Orga before, not involuntarily, not without Orga telling him. When they were apart, he knew it was because of the other's trust in him, the belief that Mikazuki would be able to carry it out to the best of his abilities. That he wouldn't fail Orga.

This is different. This is something beyond either of their control. Some witch, and this world, and the strange magic in his veins now. ]

I have to get back to him.

[rootandbranch]

That's awful. I don't know what I'd do without Vern here.

[it's nothing more than what he was thinking, but he's willing to say it out loud, with vehemence, for Mikazuki's sake. Mikazuki should know that there are people here in the same boat as him -- people who understand that there are people near them they'd do absolutely anything to protect.]

He might show up soon, though. We've been noticing while I've been here that a lot of times, people who are connected on the same world show up together, or follow each other soon. It's still sort of random, but if your connection is strong, then maybe--!

[deusex]

[ Again, a faint flicker of interest in the gaze that's turned toward Geir. Again, the spark of something that's more than a casual focus, some sort of intensity that blazes up bright. If there's anyone who Mika feels any kind of connection to, it would be Orga. He owes him his very life, or that's how Mikazuki thinks of it. ]

I hope so.

[ compared to the unspoken reaction the words might seem to fall flat, almost disinterested if one isn't taking proper care to watch, but Mikazuki falls silent for a moment as he apparently thinks. ]

People are happy here. [ that's not a question, it would be obvious to everyone - at least, on the surface of everything. ] Orga might like it, too.

[rootandbranch]

I hope so too.

[happy...

Geir thinks back to the expressions he's seen on the faces of the humans (and traveling nonhumans, too) around Shehui. he considers bustle of the streets, the commerce, the industry of many hands doing work; the public parks, the purchased snow, the opportunity to play. is that all happiness? is it normal life? how do normal people feel happy?]

...what do you think being happy is?

[it's asked with the same casual tone as one might ask "so, what do you think of the weather?", but Geir's eyes are bright as they rest sidelong on Mikazuki's face.]

[deusex]

[ how do normal people feel happy? what is the standard of 'happiness'?

it's not really a question that Mikazuki has asked himself often, if at all. Surviving to live another day, doing whatever they could do for that simple thing as clinging onto the kind of life they were granted, that had been the extent of what little childhood he remembered. They are still children still in people's eyes, albeit tainted irrevocably with the forbidden technology that now ran in their veins. Life was better now with Orga, with the Tekkadan, but the rest of the world wasn't so forgiving or kind to their attempts at humanity. What happened at the Earth base proved it for good. ]

I don't know.

[ always honest to a fault, straightforward in his thoughts and actions, Mikazuki speaks in a way that's almost nonchalant, were it not following a little, barely-noticeable pause. ]

But if Orga is happy, then I'm happy.

[rootandbranch]

So maybe he knows what happy is... huh. I know people like that.

[if Vern's happy, Geir's happy. he was content to let that dictate his life, till everyone started pushing him to make up his own ideas about these things -- but that drumbeat still remains, below everything. he doesn't really want to reject it, in the end. shouldn't making the person who you love most happy be the most important thing, in the end...?]

Does he like flowers?

[deusex]

[ everyone is, to an extent, always going to push and pull about having a will and opinion of their own. it's not like Mikazuki follows Orga blindly without thinking - though it may seem so, considering the outward projection of their relationship from strangers' gaze. Mikazuki might seem more like an unfeeling, inhuman weapon rather than living breathing human, the way he leaves everything up for Orga to decide. But he is still human, still alive, with the ability to think things through for himself and to express his opinions. ]

He hasn't seen flowers either.

[ probably, that was true; they shared too much of their past together for Orga to not remember the same things as him. Mikazuki gives it some thought, thinks back to the petals, half-buried in snow. The softness of them. ]

I think he'll like them.

[rootandbranch]

We'll get him some more, then! See, this is the best place for it--

[they've made it to the greenhouse by now: it's a huge and absurd dome, befitting this high-tech, glittering city, and neatly fitting into the other impressive buildings. Geir ducks inside the large entryway, holding it open for Mikazuki -- once they're inside, everything's very warm, and it immediately becomes obvious where Geir found all the flowers. they're spilling out of pots and hydroponic tanks along with vegetables and trees, simply everywhere.]

[deusex]

[ despite his nature, Mikazuki is a little surprised - he's never seen any building quite like this, nor had he seen this much different sort of greenery. He's just going to openly stare, and while his expression remains as blank and stoic as ever, there's a certain light in his gaze that's a little like when he first saw the flowers that Geir had. ]

It's big.

[rootandbranch]

It's got to be, or I wouldn't fit! --and the trees wouldn't, either.

[Geir still has to duck his head a little to move around, but it's more psychological than anything else, and doesn't greatly impede his movement. he glances back at Mika with a grin.]

Want me to give you the tour?

[deusex]

[ there's .... too many things to look at, he wouldn't know where to start if he was left to himself. ]

Yes. [ a slight pause, and he looks up at the other again, the set of his brows furrowing. ] If it's okay.

[rootandbranch]

Why wouldn't it be okay? I offered.

[Geir looks back down at him in honest puzzlement for a moment, then shakes his head a little and turns back to the greenhouse.]

Anyway...

[he takes Mika through the wide, winding paths, pointing out how the plants are watered and where the pallets of soil are kept; practical things that he's learned. he doesn't know many of the flower names, but there are banks of them, overflowing. some are in bloom.]