[WORLD ONE] AIMINTAS (INTRODUCTION)

[spellbindmods]

Who: The coven & Palai people
Where: In and around the city land of Aimintas
When: Days 13 & 14
Open/Closed: Open to All

The initial setting information found here should be utilized for threads here.

There's no official OOC account for the Palai people. You're free to roleplay their actions and reactions on your own, as in depth as you want -- asking questions, hand-waved interactions, becoming best friends. The new world is your oyster!

Just like how you arrived, the process of leaving the hub and reappearing somewhere else is quite quick and uneventful. Brie and Genette gather as many people as possible so that everyone can explore the new world together in a group, which is where they all land once Qri has worked her magic. If you weren't in the vicinity, or thought that not being social meant you'd get to stay on the island, you come along as well, though you didn't exactly show up with the group. A ▢ Everyone starts their journey a reasonable distance from the outer city walls of Aimintas. It's about a four hour trek to the rocks on foot, which Genette tells everyone to move towards -- though you're free to do as you please. You may discover that traveling on your own too far away results in something quite unpleasant. The initial terrain is quite interesting -- it's at least different from the hub island, though you may not be particularly impressed. There's sticky kelp to step in, water in the sky to look at and sand to get stuck in every orifice of your body. How do you like the new digs thus far? B ▢ Genette explains that the gang must enter the city of Aimintas to survive, but it's easier said than done. Maybe as something of an incentive, Genette climbs into Qri's caravan and it floats away, over the rock face. There go all the supplies you brought! The rest of you losers will have to climb through the craggy rock walls, hundreds of feet tall with very few crevices and cracks that are navigable. Hope you can climb...or maybe you can find a way to get through using someone's magic? The sun sets while the coven is busy trying to get through the craggy infrastructure (at least, that's the fate of those who don't find a quicker way to get into the city). Brie locates a large cave in one of the rocks, and that's where everyone sets up camp for the night. If you want to carry on, that's your choice...but who knows if anything that goes bump in the night is out there bumping in the night time? C ▢ What will your character be doing tonight? Sleeping on a hard rock? Stuck awake? Even if they do manage to fall asleep, they may be haunted by the occasional high pitched screech that comes through the night, though the location of the noise is unknown as of right now.

It takes about a day to travel to Aimintas, climb through the rocks and come into the city. Thankfully the city hub is close to the side of the city the coven managed to climb through, so civilization is awaiting. That civilization is decently modern, lizard-like and very, very nosy. D ▢ Upon entering civilization, the Palai are immediately curious and in awe of their taller, bipedal visitors. They've only seen people like those in the coven in pictures, and if they learn that your character has magic? It'll be as if an A-list celebrity just wandered into town. Because they're so enamored, the Palai will readily give coven members gifts as a token of their appreciation. What exactly do they appreciate? Don't be afraid to ask a few simple questions. They'll be more than happy to give out answers. E ▢ Some Palai, though, will want to see some of that magic before they offer up any gifts. Some may be a little demanding, just because their curiosity is so overwhelming. A harsh no will result in an apology and a gift anyways, but maybe just show them some magic anyway...? Even outside of interacting with the Palai, there's quite a bit around here to look at. Genette can be found in the middle of one of the parks, handing out the stored supplies to their owners. (Don't worry, she'll tell you where she is with a little telepathic poke. Your supplies will give you access to shopping and bartering...your status as a magical humanoid thing will only get you so far. F ▢ The Palai marketplace is rather large and home to a variety of businesses, shops and services. Want a good night's sleep? Want to eat a delicious shrimp wrap? Need your hub technology charged? You can do that here. What strange items will you fine? Is their technology level something you're familiar with? G ▢ Finally, the Palai are a people of culture. That culture can be quite unforgiving to those who choose to wander around alone. Some Palai people, after the initial wonder has worn off, will deny services to people who are on their own. It just doesn't compute! Your character is better off with a group of three, but a friend is fine. Travel in groups or couples and your character will find that they get fewer strange looks and questions.

It can be easy to get overwhelmed within the Palai marketplace, so no one will blame a coven-member for escaping the city for a bit. On the outside of the marketplace is a very large house with dozens of Palai congregating -- and my dozens, we mean at least 200. A Palai mate triangle just committed to each other, and this is certainly worth celebrating. H ▢ The guests feel blessed by the presence of a coven-member, and they readily invite any that happen by to the festivities. There's cake, alcohol, drinks, dancing. The Palai people certainly know how to get down. I ▢ Wildcard! How will your character interact with this new and unusual world?

Comments

[splinten]

Humanity ended thanks to a series of events as absurd as they were cataclysmic. I grew up in an apartment that had been left behind for me about four hundred back. My only human contact was over the internet. [Does Meebo know the internet. Maybe not.] There was one other human girl alive in my time, and she was raised by some aliens, Carapacians. We were able to talk to two friends from before humanity ended due to shit with time travel.

[oneandmikleonly]

[mikleo just stares at him for a bit, exactly like his icon, too flabbergasted to respond immediately]

. . .

And here I thought our current situation was complicated. No wonder you seem so unflappable most of the time.

[splinten]

[It's fair, and Dirk is indeed unflappable in the face of expecting it.]

It gets you accustomed to a life of basically arbitrary circumstances.

[oneandmikleonly]

[hmm]

Are you adjusting okay to being around such a large volume of people as the coven, then? Or the Palai here in Aimintas?

[splinten]

[It's a fair question; he just didn't expect anyone to ask it.]

Honestly, it's still fuckin' weird. I'd researched past eras, but that doesn't really offer any preparation for so many damn people being everywhere, all the goddamned time. While I'm not exactly eager to be in total isolation again, I wouldn't object to slightly fewer people.

[oneandmikleonly]

[he was hoping the answer would give him an acceptable opening to tangent properly into 'SO WHY DO YOU FEEL BAD?' dangit. well, he does his best]

Do you think it would make you feel better if we made some kind of accommodation for that? Nothing to be done about the amount of people, but maybe we can negotiate with the Palai for, I don't know, a place to stay with more space? More distance?

[splinten]

[DIRK, CONTINUALLY OBLIVIOUS...

Is confused by Mikleo's concern, actually??]

Uh... maybe? I could always camp outside the city. My social ineptitude isn't a burden I'd put on anyone else's shoulders.

[oneandmikleonly]

That's...

[a little lamely, just SAY IT STRAIGHT MEEBO]

Probably bad.

[splinten]

[...Now he's even more confused.]

Uh.

Is it?

[oneandmikleonly]

[oh my god]

Er.

You are kind of registering as feeling bad to me. Magically. It's a thing?

[splinten]

[....???]

...Sorry?

[MIKLEO HE'S SO LOST]

[oneandmikleonly]

[god why. covers his face]

You're exuding malevolence. Bad feelings? Internal contradiction?

[splinten]

[Well. At least Mikleo seems to be having as bad a time as Dirk. He stops.]

So you have the power to sense chronic depression and an endlessly reinforced case of self-loathing. That's rough, dude.

[oneandmikleonly]

...I'm pretty sure I'm the one who should be saying 'that's rough, dude'...

[splinten]

I'm only dealing with my own shit. If this is harmful to you, I can give you space.

[oneandmikleonly]

It's not. It's just...noticeable? And I'm worried? And...if you think anything could help, talking about it, or, I don't know, doing something really ridiculous like fighting a goat or eating a lot of cheese...I would like to.

[sincere]

[splinten]

[...]

You sounded sincere even about the part where I would fight a goat while eating cheese.

[oneandmikleonly]

It worked for Sorey when we were little, and I don't have a lot of baseline for comforting other humans.

[splinten]

It might be rude to ask, but what exactly are you?

[oneandmikleonly]

It's not rude. I'm a seraph. We're like protective spirits but not...exactly like...we have power over the elements and usually humans can't see us, but we live in the same world anyway.

[splinten]

Your element is water. [That is reasonable enough.] That's why you can sense the malevolence in me. [He says it easily about himself. It's easy to imagine that all the things in him are a kind of evil, are a malice that marks the way he blights the world.




This is why he's malevolent. (Innominat voice: The Malevolence of Despair.)]

[oneandmikleonly]

[dirk please]

All seraphs can do it regardless of element. So can Sorey, since he's the Shepherd and borrows our power.

It's...part of his job at home to help people with it. I can't purify humans the same way a Shepherd does, not magically, but if there's a more mundane way to make you feel better, then that should help too...?

[he's thought about this a lot, since Sorey went to sleep, back home.]

[splinten]

[It's hard to answer. He feels like this because he deserves it. He feels like he's a monster because he is. The sickness is self-justifying, and any offer to relieve it feels strange and mis-angled, like it's impossible to grasp that it would help to treat how he feels when what matters is what he is. Dirk can't comprehend the way that helping one can make it easier to help the other.]

I... don't know. I'll think about it. [He decides to talk and learn first. It's easier than resolving this confusion of imperatives.] Do seraphim ever experience malevolence?

[oneandmikleonly]

Yeah. Everyone does, really . . . it turns people into monsters, eventually, seraphs and humans both, if it's too severe.

[sorry dirk!!!]

[splinten]

[Ha. How can you turn someone into a monster if they already are one?]

So does Sorey purify you, too? Damn, this imagery is super religious.