[JANUARY 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
IMPORTANT: While some prompts are newbie exclusive, all characters can tag this intro log!

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. You'll also have a letter slipped under your door with some explanation about your whole coven situation, as well as info that explains you have magic now! And yet what kind of magic is conveniently left out. Are you up to speed? Great. Now, here's the question of the hour: what are you going to do about all this? A ▢ If you're the sensible sort and want to explore your new digs before slinking around Shehui, you're in luck! You've got easy access to your apartment, and it's luckily not on lockdown right now. Feel free to check out your room, raid the fridge -- oh, and saying hello to your roommates should also be on your to-do list. B ▢ Let's say that hanging out with these people is a little overwhelming...that's fine! There are plenty of things to do in the apartment building without interacting with roomies! There are vending machines to prop up, a leisure floor that contains a totally vacant air hockey table and a nice garden to relax in. C ▢ But ah, there's also venturing outside! Out front is the job board, which is a nice place to hit up if you're looking to add to your currently fat but depleting credit account. The problem is that the jobs are currently disappearing quickly, and those around you aren't giving you such nice looks. This apartment building is a known problem area at this point, and your signet doesn't do anything to settle their fears.

D ▢ With new year's week coming to an end, the residents of Shehui are feeling more celebratory than somber now. A lot of businesses are closed in order to enjoy themselves and ring in the new year the right way. A lot of restaurants and bars are currently offering specials, from free drinks to cheap food in order to pull in the holiday crowd. If you're looking to meet people and socialize in Shehui, this is the best way to do it. E ▢ Also because it's the post holiday season, stores are trying to push out the rest of their overstock merch. One item of note that's being peddled quite often is a cell phone. From tiny flip phones to the latest Orange product, cellphones are a necessity in this modern society. Get yours right now and begin texting right away! There are a few social apps that are installed, so you might be lucky enough to connect with another coven member! They also have Redmolar capability, which will automatically allow you to text those with phones in the area. Maybe send some mysterious stranger texts? F ▢ While you're hustling around Shehui, you may realize that the telepathic messages get stronger -- perhaps the new coven members are near? In general, you may be subject to telepathic messages about current Shehui goings on, random thoughts or requests to meet up at so-and-so location. A.K.A. let's utilize that telepathy...it may not last forever! G ▢ Because the week of remembrance is still going on, flowers are littering the streets, though most of them are dead. Bunches of flowers are being sold, and flower fortunes are a popular activity during this part of the holiday. There are fortune tellers on the street who will give you your flower of the year, but it's more fun to have them read with one another! There are digital cards that you can buy that will allow you to read fortunes on the go -- simply tap the screen of the card and your flower will be decided. Not happy with your choice? Too bad! It won't randomize to something different, no matter how hard you try. H ▢ While a lot of Shehui citizens are trying to avoid the coven members like the plague, a small alien child isn't so much concerned with who helps her, just as long as someone does. She accidentally left her house's door open and her five new kittens are suddenly missing! Where are they? Who knows! But she'd certainly like some help looking for them. I ▢ As the day winds down, snow falls on Shehui for the last time this season. The government is getting rid of their supplies that create the festive weather. This is old hat for older coven members, but for newbies? You better enjoy the snow while you can. After an hour or so, it piles up enough to truly be utilized for merriment...this also means that it's pretty easy to get snowed in if you happen to be in a building during the snow fall, which also creates some interactive opportunities. J ▢ Wildcard! How will your character interact with this new and unusual world?

Comments

[counteracts]

Well, it could certainly be worse. It could certainly be better, though.

[He's not even sure where the ideal vacationing place for him would be... He went to your typical idyllic tropical locale once before, but since they had an interplanetary peacekeeping force bearing down on their position, he hadn't really had the time to appreciate it. Maybe revisiting such a place would be worthwhile, then...]

Well, now you've got me curious. [The slight smile on his face was sly, but there's a sharpness to his eyes.] Tell me about it. I might surprise you.

[Orga's day job sends him regularly between the teeth of certain death. In all honesty, a long vacation might bore him to death faster than it might find him back there...]

[sluggard]

[Well, if he really wants to know.

Python shrugs again.]

Oh, you know. Some explosions in a festival. Real loud ones. Then we all got locked up and questioned a while after. Just the kind of excitement you'd need to really round out your vacation.

Looks like they're on to us now.

[counteracts]

[He'd be no strategist worth a damn if he didn't want to know everything about whatever scenario he'd been dropped into the middle of, with little more than a single piece of paper explaining what the hell was going on.

But... damn. Sounds familiar. And here he thought he'd get some rest for a change.

Something about the news has changed something about his mien; it's fairly subtle, but there's less casual ease to him now, supplanted by the faintest sharpened edge.] Assuming bombing this city isn't part of what is on our to-do list.

[He seems to consider it a little further.] Do we have any leads on it? Got a bad feeling doing the police's work for them is going to be the best way to get 'em off our backs.

[sluggard]

News to me if it was part of our to-do list.

[Investigating it though? Huh. Not something he's really given much thought to, if he's honest.]

Probably, I guess. They seem real defensive of their everything though, so who knows? Maybe they'd just think we're trying to insult them.

Haven't heard anything yet though. I think people were mostly trying to avoid the questioning, you know? Not that it worked.

[counteracts]

[Well, he's glad that it's not on the witch's docket to have them become terrorists. Not that he's above such a thing, but... it's dirty business. He'd prefer to keep out of it, if he had any choice in the matter.

They might not have the time or wherewithal to investigate; apparently both were limited before... something happens. He's not sure what. Time would tell.]

Probably. [He... has personal experience with dealing with other groups becoming offended, having a young and upstart mercenary group show up and suddenly start upstaging whatever the hell they were trying to do before. So the guy makes a good point.] It'd probably be too much work to do it the right way. We'd need to lead 'em to the real culprits so they could feel like they did all the hard work.

[And then there was no acclaim, because they would probably just sweep it all under the rug... no fun at all.

Orga gives a singular laugh.] Quickest way to make someone more suspicious of you... though I wouldn't fault 'em for it. I wouldn't really want to put up with any interrogation.

[Mostly because he still has only a scant idea of what's going on in the first place.]

[sluggard]

[Too much work. Ugh, yeah, his thoughts exactly. No thank you.]

Yeah, see? So we might as well not do it, it's not worth it.

The questioning was kinda just annoying though, honestly. But...

[He grins.] I didn't have a whole lot of answers anyway. Not like I'm an expert on magic or anything. Maybe some of the others got it worse.

[Really, he's only just barely figured out his new ability. And it's still broken, as far as he's concerned.]

[counteracts]

[He's no stranger to hard work, but if there's anything he's learned since taking up the mantle of boss back home, it's that you had to be smart about it. Careful allocation of time and resources as well as delegation were both key.

Regardless, even if they had time and resources to try to get to the bottom of this, he feels they lack the organization and leadership. And he's... sure as hell not willing to step into that ring of fire, with only half an understanding of what was going on and what this whole "coven" business was about.

He gives a single, sardonic laugh.] Maybe they have reasons for keeping us ignorant of all the finer details, then.

[He's only got a sketchy outline of what his own power is, and it's pretty functionally broken. As in, it wouldn't work at all, most of the time. Oh, well. Maybe for the best. He'd never been much on the front lines regardless.]

Well, if they're not keeping you detained, then there's not much else to it. We just do... whatever it is we're supposed to do here and try to not stir the pot any more than that, I guess.

[sluggard]

Easier to keep us from getting in the way? [It... sounds more or less plausible to him. But he doesn't really try too hard to understand people in authority.]

So you mean we go around working and being little ol' model citizens like they want us to, right?

[He grimaces.]

Sounds unbearable. But, hey, so does the alternative, so I guess you got a point!

[counteracts]

Possibly. [The tone is somewhat hushed, almost conspiratorial.] Sometimes the easiest way to control someone is to control their information. That's what makes me uneasiest in this situation, anyways.

[It's possible that's not the case. It's possible it's just a mistake, or that the situation was just as confusing for the witch's handlers as it was for them. That the alternate explanation might just be incompetence or lack of organization, though, isn't a huge vote of confidence for their so-called employers, though... He just decides to be carefully wary.]

Yeah. [His smile is slightly crooked.] A total snore, though, right? Can't say I was impressed by our spread of options for things to do around here. Could be worse, but... it could sure be a hell of a lot better.

[He gives a slightly haughty sniff. It's just the reverse growing pain of going from a position of relative authority and influence, right back down to the very bottom again...]

[sluggard]

[He laughs.] Probably. They've gotta know the second we really find out anything some busybodies are gonna be reeaaal busy.

[Not him, but hey. He can understand the curiosity.

He sighs, loudly.]

Ugh, you're telling me. It could be so much better. They could at least give us some more time off, you know? More options?

[Honestly? Honestly? He just doesn't want to have to work.]

[counteracts]

[If properly motivated, Orga could be one of those busybodies. But, in this situation... probably not. He had his ambition, sure, and he had started getting used to being a mover and a shaker back home, but with everything turned on its ear here, he goes back to how he was when he'd just been an upstart kid in a mercenary company. Patient, watchful, biding his time for the optimal moment to make a move.]

We'll have to wait and see, then. [Pause.] And hopefully it isn't as explosive as this last little altercation.

[He gives a single laugh.]

You could probably take some time off, if you wanted. It's just the money that would be the problem.

[No one's holding a gun to their head, and the societal feedback was complicated. Pressure to contribute but also pushback for being strangers to the city? There wasn't much way to win, there.]

[sluggard]

Orrrr it's even more explosive and they're so busy with it they can't bother us!

[...Yeeeaaah, not likely, he thinks.]

Ehhh. [He shrugs, grimacing a little.] That'd be the problem, you know? You kinda need money here.

[He kind of liked the previous world better. Kind of.]

[counteracts]

[Orga shoots him a wry glance.]

Well, yeah, sure. If you want to bring the hammer down on us, anyway.

[If they were garnering this much suspicion now, what do you think even more explosive trouble would cause? He's usually the type to go full speed ahead, but with their limited knowledge and lack of centralization, he's far more cautious.]

You kinda need money anywhere.

[He's only got the experience of here and back home. Both were pretty hardline about it.]

Well, I guess we see how things shake out in the next few days. I could see the situation changing pretty easily.

[sluggard]

[He shrugs. Eh, he's got a point. About both things, buuuuut.]

That's the rub right there. Kinda felt a little less unbearable back home though.

[He's just ridiculously lazy, never mind him.]

Guess we're just gonna have to wait for now. Us jabbering here won't really change whatever happens to all of this.

[counteracts]

[Ah, the lazy ones. Yes, Orga's dealt with your kind in the past.

But right now, that's all on you, Python.]

Back home, things at least mostly made sense. It's the not knowing and not being able to get a straight answer around here that gets on my nerves.

[He's only a mild control freak.]

But you're right. There's no use rushing into anything.

[At a glance to his mental conversation partner.] Name's Orga. Yours?

[sluggard]

[Python nods.

Yeah, he can relate. Things are just a little too uncertain for his tastes here. And requiring too much effort, but. Whatever, not like he doesn't complain about it every chance he gets.]

'Course I'm right.

Name's Python though. Good to meet you and all.

[counteracts]

[Complaining can be a workable coping mechanism when handled well. There are worse ways to vent your frustrations.

Orga only gives a single laugh at the first statement. The guy kind of reminds him of Eugene, if that guy'd actually managed to learn to lighten up.]

Python. Nice to meet you.

If you ever find yourself in a bind, let me know. We have to have one another's backs in a time like this.

[sluggard]

[Python laughs in response. Okay, this guy isn't too bad.]

Yeah? I appreciate it. [And aww hell, fine.] I guess I'm usually around, too, if anything happens. Not like I can go anywhere.

[counteracts]

[He's mostly alright.

Orga responds with a nod, which perhaps looks odd, considering they'd been standing somewhat nearby one another and speaking mentally rather than the old-fashioned way. But who gives a shit. How the guy continues, however, elicits a smile.

Good to know.]

Alright. Until then, take it easy. Or, well, you know. As much as you can.

[And then Orga takes his leave.]