[OPENING] island hub - day 1

[spellbindmods]

Who: All Characters
Where: Main Hub
When: Day 1
Open/Closed: Open to All

TDM threads can be considered canon if you so choose, they contain the power that you apped with and both parties confer that the thread is canon.

For characters that were on the TDM and who were not accepted/didn't app, these characters will be considered dropped characters that were magicked away.

Night has fallen upon everyone. It's thus far been an eventful day -- you've met some new people, discovered some new aspects of yourself that weren't there before you appeared here (however that might have happened). The original inhabitants of the island have been working hard to prepare a few things. One activity might have been one you were a part of, but there's still time to get your hands dirty. A ▢ Brie has rolled out a large copper pot and created a pit on the beach. It's unrealistic to think everyone can subsist on the few foods she's collected from other words and boar jerky alone. She's got a few boar carcasses sitting on the beach that need attending to as well. Your characters can help feed themselves and others, and here's what needs to be done: Fire needs to be started for cooking the meat AND a large bonfire for light and warmth. The large copper bowl needs to be filled with water. Crabs need to be bravely collected from the bath house for boiling. The boar needs to be either cut up for kebabs or stuck through. Does your character know anything about spit-roasting? Any other helpful magical skills are welcome to help make food. Post feasting, there are dozens of crabs and a pile of roasted boar meet that are up for eating. Even if you didn't offer to help in making any of the food, they're open to eat it -- even if the true helpers may give you dirty looks. The boar is fine, if not a little bland and chewy, but it's probably better than the jerky. The crab is delicious, if not a little tasteless...there problem with the crab isn't exactly the taste, though. B ▢ The crab isn't a species that's immediately edible for most species, though your character will grow to get used to it eventually. For now, the meat isn't settling well within your character's system. Your character will experience sweats, a high fever, blurred vision, potential vomiting, hives...it's very obvious their body is rejecting the unfamiliar meat. This may also cause a bit of an issue with your character's powers. They're still getting physically and mentally acclimated to these new changes, so expect their telepathy and magic to go a little haywire.

It's almost completely dark outside when the next event of the evening happens. You're living your life when you see it out of the corner of your eye -- it's absolutely hard to miss. What you see is a large lit caravan, larger than even an army tank. It's bright white and shining, covered with golden, ornate details that emanate an even more dazzling sparkle. The entire thing is aglow, and it's quickly coming towards the large bonfire that's been made. It's not rolling across the sand, but instead it's floating, and so is a matching trunk that's sailing along next to a figure beside the caravan. C ▢ A tall, slender woman has also come along with the large caravan, quickly opening the trunk that eventually lands on the sand with a large thud. She's handing out sacks, very similar to the ones previously in the large lobster cage. These contain a parka, a type of candy of your choice, a bottle of water, a large shard from a broken mirror and a letter rolled up and bound with a roll of twine. There are two other thread options associated with this prompt: Genette's top level and her telepathy training post. Around the same time as Genette is handing out this new little goody bag, you suddenly receive a telepathic message. It might seem a little strange at first -- but on that note, what about tonight isn't strange? D ▢ The telepathic message your character will receive is a simple one: Hello. It shows up in text form across your character's line of vision and it doesn't go away until they respond back, though the message that's sent out won't go to the original telepath. Instead it will ping pong to a random person in the group. You've made a new friend! After you've met Genette, she's also got a few more supplies that she pulls out a small door in the base of the caravan. She's insistent that you only get two items, since there aren't exactly a lot of them to go around! E ▢ The last of the starter supplies are being handed out, and these are items that are more cumbersome or rare -- they may not be immediately useful for your character, but maybe you can make use of them somehow, whether eventually in another world or with your power. An electronic/technology: these can be as obvious as an MP3 player, as useless as a garage door motor or as scandalous as a Hitachi Magic Wand. If it can be powered by electricity or batteries, there's a tub of them. They're also partially charged if they don't need constant electricity to work. A fashion accessory: there are a lot of these, surprisingly. Flower crowns, belts, bras, shoes, earrings, other types of jewelry. Your character can look cute while suffering from crab vomiting. Books and stationary: maps of various worlds, books written in a myriad of languages (maybe even one you recognize!), writing paper, ink pens, gel pens, stickers. Any kind of stationary can be found here. Other household items: this can include cleaning supplies, furniture, and other miscellaneous goods. These won't be personal affects from your character's home, but they may be useful! Feel free to come up with unusual or alien items -- these have come from all over the universe, remember!

As the night winds down, it's recommended by Brie that you should probably go to be in your hut -- or at the very least get somewhere inside. There are a lot of people around the camp, however, so it's no surprise that there are a few people waiting around to get their fill of food and supplies before heading to bed. The noise of the new members and the light of the fire have attracted a very large pack of boars, who you'll later find make routine trips to the beach every night. Boar mating season has made the wild hogs rather testy, and the smell of food -- even if it's their own boar brethren -- have made them even more volatile. F ▢ If your character isn't quick to get inside tonight, they're likely to get a boar charging at them. The chances are doubled if they happen to be holding onto a food item. Female boars can leave a few bruises and trample you, but beware the males -- they've got tusks. However, it's not like staying up at night doesn't have its advantages. Once midnight hits, another species of animal makes its regular rounds across the base camp. In the sky, characters can see an Aurora Borealis-like sight. Instead of being dancing green and blue lights, however, the reality is that they are a massive species of space worm, and hundreds are wiggling past on their way to travel back home. They're shimmering and in every color imaginable, lighting up the sky with their magnificent hues. G ▢ The space worms operate outside the natural barrier of the hub, but they still are in close enough proximity to shed a film as they travel. If you're still awake, boars or no, you'll be in the middle of a shower. The film sheds from the worms and enters the atmosphere, creating multi-colored, sweet-smelling mists of worm water vapor. Worm water vapor is kind of weird, but it's also pretty cool. It's also calming, and that's a bonus. Inhale too much and you might become a little too calm.

Comments

[p_mortem]

[ Oh. Minato's eyes trail off to the side where the bread had fallen, then back to Lalli attempting to become one with the tree. At least let him do this...

He stands up again, just long enough to retrieve the bread and return to Lalli's side to pull back his shoulder slightly. Let him slide the bread there in between his head and the tree trunk like a cushion. ]

[lalliho]

[This does not have the intended effect... Lalli completely abandons this bread puzzle in favor of latching onto Minato's arm with his teeth because he'd dared to touch him longer than half a second, much like a wounded animal.]

[p_mortem]

[ ouch, why

Minato doesn't even register pain for being momentarily stunned by this turn of events, and not knowing what else to do, he... tries the bread thing again, reaching over with his free hand to pick it back up and try to lodge it in between Lalli's face and his arm, eat this instead, bro. ]

[lalliho]

[WHY ARE YOU LIKE THIS

Well, on the bright side, this baffles sick Lalli enough that he lessens the pressure and it gives his brain a chance to catch up to his instinctual actions. He draws back and wipes his mouth against the back of his hand as if in a daze.]

Don' want it...

[p_mortem]

[ Alright. Minato puts the bread away, feeling around his pockets for anything else that might help. Rancid gravy...? He suspects that his school nurse believed in Mithridatism, so throwing up and sleeping it off is about the extent of Minato's medical knowledge of food sickness cures. ]

Can you sleep?

[lalliho]

[if you give him rancid gravy he will bite you again]

Mm-mm.

[And he looks even more miserable at that fact. Sleeping it off was definitely how he'd wanted to deal with this.]

[p_mortem]

[ Minato hums in his throat in sympathy, never having trouble falling asleep and unsure what to suggest besides closing one's eyes and just sleeping. Aside from that, he carries lots of things that are counterproductive to it, like overly caffeinated soft drinks, or rap music with too much bass, so. Throwing up it is.

Or maybe somebody else can help before he resorts to that. ]

Have you seen Genette?

[lalliho]

[He gives another hum that suggests he hasn't, but he doesn't look around for her now. Just plops his forehead in his hands with his palms pressing against his eyes like that will make them stop feeling like they were melting. At the very least, it would keep them from oozing out in the event that they did.]

I like Brie better...

[clearly important.]

[p_mortem]

We can find Brie.

[ Maybe seeing a friend(?) will make Lalli feel better. Or she can yell and threaten the sickness out of him, or know how to handle this stuff if she's been living here a while. Or Lalli can sit here and feel like dying, whatever he wants, really. ]

What do you want to do?

[lalliho]

[Lalli doesn't think Brie would know how to deal with this any more than he did, given their earlier conversation. He doesn't have a ton of faith in these attendants. With another grumble, Lalli flops onto the ground and stares up through half-lidded eyes.]

I want to go home.

[But that's not an answer to the question, really...]

I want...to not move. I want things to stop.

[p_mortem]

[ Of the three, not moving is the only thing Lalli can do, and not something Minato can really help with, even if he wished. ]

Time doesn't stop... But I don't think we're going anywhere. You can probably stay like this until you're ready.

[lalliho]

...Yeah.

[He wants -- needs -- to get moving, but there isn't much of a point, now. The thing he was rushing to get to has long since passed on by, hasn't it...? It doesn't matter that he can't bring himself to move. There's nothing to move to. Shuddering, Lalli curls up into a ball.]

Why is everything bad?

[p_mortem]

...That's just how life is.

[ It sucks and then you die. Nonproductive words that Minato keeps to himself, searching for something more appeasing. ]

But it's not always.

[lalliho]

[Hilarious. He'd laugh, if it didn't hurt and he was so out of practice.]

Maybe for you.

[p_mortem]

[ For him, yeah. He was happy, and then his parents died. He made friends, and then the world turned upside down and now he has to die. But it wasn't always bad. ]

You don't think things will get better?

[lalliho]

[We had a good life again...]

...Maybe for a little while.

[...and now...all of it...]

Start hoping because you're stupid...then it gets worse. You lose everything. I'm tired of it.

[Why can't he sleep...!]

[p_mortem]

[ Hope isn't stupid. Maybe if Minato gets a shovel and knocks Lalli out, it'll make them both happier for it, but all he has are ineffective words and the stubbornness to keep trying. ]

You haven't lost everything. That only happens when you're dead.

[lalliho]

[His voice is small when he breaks his pause with,] No one gets it.

[He can't storm off this time, so maybe he's just...put his foot against Minato's leg and push. Really, really weakly push.]

Stop talking like that to me. I don't want to hear it if you don't get it.

[p_mortem]

[ It's a direct order and so Minato shuts up immediately, eyes leaving Lalli's face to stare at his feet. Of course he doesn't get it, and Lalli has no reason to tell him anything. So he just sits for a while, in silence, unable to think of anything that would help. ]

...I'll come back later.

[ Even if Lalli doesn't want him to, too bad. Minato is good at finding people. ]

[lalliho]

[IT'S LATER, MOTHERFUCKER

only it's Lalli shooting off a guarded mental message.]

I don't need to see Genette or Brie. I'm fine.

...If you're the stupid blue one that hopes too much.

[thanks lalli]

[p_mortem]

[ Stupid blue one... ]

John?

[lalliho]

Lalli.

[HOW MANY MISUNDERSTANDINGS IN A ROW CAN THERE BE]

[p_mortem]

[ A lot. Minato lets it slide, glad to get introductions out of the way. ]

It's good to hear you're still alive.

[lalliho]

[Well, half of them, anyway. Lalli doesn't have the manners or awareness to straighten it all out.]

For now. This place is weird so it's dangerous.

[p_mortem]

Poisonous crab, aggressive boars, potentially falling off the face of the earth... What else?