[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]

[Mika always has this sort of muted aspect about him; where some voiced themselves and their opinions loudly and almost proudly wore hearts on their sleeves, Mika had always done practically the opposite, seeming closed-off and even obtuse in the way he expressed things to most. Orga's familiar enough with him to glean the truth, though. He might not take too much pride in this, viewing it as something merely necessary and not exactly thrilling, but that's fine. Orga will take pride in it for him, then.]

Mhm. [It's not questioning; he knows that's Mika's genuine reasoning behind it. But he hopes - or perhaps he knows - that the boy will realize how it opens other doors. Maybe he'd find something he was interested behind one or two of them. Just something to pass the time until they got back home, of course...

The fingers wrapping around his wrist is a familiar, insistent pressure, one he responds to with an easy smile, a momentary connection between them as the rough pad of Mika's thumb passes over where the pulse carried through his wrist. He moves his hand, manipulating it so that it slips into Mika's threading fingers for just a moment and giving him a light squeeze.]

Yeah. You should.

[He looks at the flowers in question.] We should take some back, too. [They'd look nice in the room.

He looks back to Mika.] You got anything around here that I can help with? Might as well lend a hand, rather than distract you.

[The smile accompanying these words didn't really imply much remorse on that front, though. But if Mika finishes up work early, they could find something else to do; this city seemed to have basically everything.]

[deusex]

[ of course, he sees the benefits of learning this, somewhat - in the maybe-distant future, when they have reached where they wanted to be, Mika would like to own a small farm, after all. Something smaller than Sakura's, something he could easily care for even when he's like this. Someday, somewhere, the possibilities exist, a different future that he only need to reach out and grab hold of - some place in this world where they won't be judged by anyone's eyes, some place where they can feel at peace. But that's still something far in the horizon, still more a dream than any potential reality.

Right here and now, shining even brighter than what he can see in front of him, is Orga, and what he promises him. What he had promised. That's more real than any of this, the green grass and the dark earth and the sunlight shining through the glass panel of the dome they are in.

None of this reflect on his outward expression. Mika doesn't have enough words to ever explain this to him, but he doesn't need to anyway; he trusts Orga to understand him regardless. For now, Mika returns the squeeze of the fingers before they let go. ]

You're not distracting.

[ a breathy edge of a laughter, and he turns back to his task. ]

I'll grow some more now, if you pass me the pots there.

[counteracts]

[Orga tried to avoid illusions of grandeur. They were dangerous. One could become easily ensorceled by their idealization of the future, allowing it to poison the good that they had in hand at the given moment, making the drive to achieve something outlandish so great that it pushed them into something monumentally stupid. Sure, taking a revolutionary maiden to her place to make a great stand for Mars' independence had been a lofty goal for a bunch of upstart orphans from a backwater colony, but they'd done it. Each step, however, had seemed reachable. The base, the job, the ship, the suits, the battles, the alliances - all up until their final push on Edmonton. That had been Orga's gambit, where they had bid it all, and it had paid off.

Their position back home might've seemed a few years back like a delusion, a daydream he might've had while nursing bruises gained as collateral damage of the First Corps' frustrations.

And now there was Mars.

Fareed had offered it, and despite whatever cautions he might have, Orga had accepted to help him for this prize. Perhaps the biggest delusion he could have: that one day they could own the planet that had looked upon them as garbage, that only ignored the whiskers sprouting from their backs because they feared the strength it gave them. A home for their family. A place for a throne.

Maybe somewhere, deep down, he knows that he is a fool. And a hypocritical one at that.

But in his vision of that future, on Mars, the base is secure, the ships are docked, and the mobile suits rest, ready but without much pressing need for their use, as everyone of Tekkadan extends to what might interest them, what might continue to make them strong and independent. The mines, what Kudelia was doing with the people and children in the city, and a farm that Mika could tend himself - one that could maybe produce something else from a distant sun and harsh soil. That, more than anything they had seen, felt the most like what he had promised all those years ago. That was why he had ignored his own cautions, pushing them into what might prove to be a tenuous situation.

Looking at Mika, content with the work he was doing here, feeling the squeeze of his hand before they parted once more, he thinks again that it was worth it.]

Mm. [And as he speaks, he initially seems blithe, though,] I could be, though. [ending with a slightly sly grin.

He doesn't follow through with it. He merely stands to fetch what Mika indicated. He returns with them after a moment, setting the pots down next to him, eyeing him with curiosity.]

Now?

[Does he mean start to grow some now? Plants take their sweet time, from what he recalls.]

[deusex]

Now.

[ Mika agrees easily enough, like he's merely talking about repairs needing to be done on Barbatos or how nice the weather is today - like it's nothing special, just some every day occurrence. He takes a handful of seeds from the small pouch that's been assigned to him, and holds them in the palm of his hand, concentrating hard; he hasn't had too much practice with this, considering they were pretty adamant about keeping it off the radar, but there wasn't anybody else here but him and Orga..

He concentrates briefly, trying to envision the growth of the flowers, the slow unfurling of the leaves and the petals that he's observed over the past little bit of time since he started working in the greenhouse. That much he's figured out so far - though it makes sense to him, that he won't be able to recreate anything without some basic understanding of what it was. That was part of the reason why he was working so hard to learn things, after all - reading and writing, and now this as well. Destruction was altogether too easy - this was something else entirely.

The seeds meld together, before slowly forming into a small shrubbery in his hand, the flowers only just in their early stages of growth; there's hints of red about the buds. The furrow that'd formed between his brows lift slightly as he lets out a breath, breaking his concentration to look towards where Orga is. ]

The pot.