[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

D it needed just a pinch more punchline

[probablynoteren]

[It's like the worst texting game where random messages keep pinging in and you definitely don't have enough spaceship bullets to hit them all. As if tonight weren't already disorienting enough...]

I already have a scarf.

[It occurs to him that they may be talking about the same scarf, but while he does reflexively grab his own scarf there doesn't seem to be anybody nearby with particularly scarfish sensibilities. Hmm.]

Isn't it easier to talk out loud for this...?

[They're probably in the same area and this is silly.]

[girasole]

I don't know. All I heard was hello, hello, hello, so I assumed that's what you wanted. If you wanted to ask me about it you should've said something instead of doing this.

[probablynoteren]

I think everyone is saying hello. Or something else is happening.

I don't think I was asking you anything, so maybe you-- [misdialed the telepathy, however that works. If it works like a phone, is the rest of the thought, but contrary to its presence in brackets, he does in fact send it by accident; it just sounds a little staticky.]

[girasole]

Have you done this before? No, do you see anyone who's...I can't believe I'm saying this. Or thinking this. But do you see anyone who is glowing like a firefly in your vicinity?

[probablynoteren]

Not before today.

[That seems to be the case for most of them, so he's sort of rolling with the punches and the misfires and everything else that doesn't seem like it should be a problem when you're in people's minds.

Speaking of rolling with it, he'll just go ahead and listen to the stranger in his head and do another sweep of the people around him. Even with the description, it's a little harder to immediately find someone under the glow of the caravan itself towering all over them, but-- oh, there's a bulky-looking guy, who's sort of... twinkling? Winkling? Hmm.]

Next to the box with all the shoes?

[He's checking, sure, but he's also already ambling over, getting down to the business of just talking in person in case he's got the right person.]

[girasole]

Yes. And you're-

[And he's looking up and looking around and there seems to be someone ambling towards him.]

I see you.

[Probably. He's basically got a Gryffindor scarf minus the Harry Potter logo.]

[probablynoteren]

[I was absolutely too lazy to decide on a visual representation of his scarf but please imagine it being relatively lengthy and soft and jet-black. He's wearing it over his military-issue uniform from home, so really he looks just a little more like your average JRPG protag than he usually does.

Lenka tilts his head and puts up a hand in a wave that's more out of habit than anything, they've already said hello (who knows how many hellos...), and stops in front of Caesar to stare for a little longer before--]

You're really glowing. Do you do that all the time?

[girasole]

[He's expecting a lot of things but-]

No? [Why would anyone normally glow.] I had the crab earlier. [That explains everything.]

[probablynoteren]

The crab makes you glow??

[Look, he's Seen Some Shit today and every other day, cut him some slack here. The rules of the universe kind of got rewritten or at least overhauled.

Anyway, he's currently checking himself for any sort of glow, and not really finding anything. He did have quite a bit of crab, but the effects are delayed, or something. Either way: no glow.]

[girasole]

...what are you doing?

[Seriously, it's like did you notice something's on you?]

[probablynoteren]

I had a lot of crab... but I don't think anything's happened.

[girasole]

... [...] ...when you came here, did you notice something was taken from you?

[probablynoteren]

No. There are things I didn't bring, but...

[The thing that was taken from him wasn't on his person at the time, so for all he knows, it's still sitting with one of his teammates at home.

Man, he keeps thinking things are done messing with them.]

Did you lose something?

[girasole]

Yes. [And he's not going to get into it.] Anyway, one of the side effects of that being...taken was that I was given the power.

[And this is a little bit of a pause just so that the stranger can understand just why he's so salty about this.]

...to glow. And after I ate the crab I started glowing and I can't control it.

[probablynoteren]

[He's not particularly the prying sort except in extreme situations, and while this is an extreme situation of a sort the fellow already seems crabby enough.]

Oh. So the crabs are affecting our powers here and--

[...]

That's a problem.

[Not just the inkling that there's something significant in what the guy said about side effects but that if there's going to be a rain of refrigerators here soon, I should probably move. Which is sent out in another accidental telepathic burst, because why not.]

[girasole]

If there's a rain of what? [What? Actually, what?] Hey. What are you doing standing here? You idiot!

[Hey, they're going to take a trip somewhere else. He's standing up. He's marching over. He's grabbing Lenka's arm if Lenka doesn't take the hint and dragging him along for a couple of steps because they're going to go somewhere else. Somewhere with less people. Right now.]

[probablynoteren]

Refrigerators. I, wait--

[Actually, did he say that out loud? Any of that?

Lenka is understandably a little confused and a little dazed by the sudden deluge of information, but he catches on pretty quick after getting dragged since he was heading in that direction anyway. He's a little wobblier than he was a while ago but he can still move at a good clip, and he goes right into a jog away from the caravan.

He hasn't done too much with his power besides scare some boars, get a snack or two and accidentally teleport too many crabs (don't ask), but he does know it can be dangerous, absurd as it sounds. So... maybe the forest. Or at least the section of beach near it; the encampment and activity are a little further down the coast.]

[girasole]

[Okay, you know, they’re far enough away that it’s...it’s okay. They can take a moment.] How did you learn of your refrige- just so I’m clear, we’re talking about the appliances. Correct? The things you find in kitchens. The metal things you store food in. Those things. You can summon those...things.

[Which might seem obvious but now they’re a ways away from most people they- that’s something they need to cover.]

How did you learn to do something like that- no, maybe the better question is who thought it was a good idea for you to be able to do something like that. [You idiot.]

[probablynoteren]

[Ah, the guy is still here, and there are so many questions. Lenka can kind of sympathize, since he's asked himself all of that particular avalanche throughout the day. But he also feels a little bad for accidentally dragging the guy along into it, so...]

You probably shouldn't stay too close.

[Though he dutifully gives the proper warning first, it takes him a few more moments to juggle everything else Caesar wants to know. It's a bit dizzying trying to figure out which parts are actually questions. Actually, he's just a bit dizzy in general. Great.]

They're going to be refrigerator-sized. Like normal ones. [vague gesture with his hands that's supposed to sketch the rough height and breadth of one; he could summon one for demonstration but somehow that seems like a bad idea] ... I don't know why.

[The 'why' here encompasses all of it, why are they here, why there are refrigerators when he waves, why the caravan is likely the source of their weird powers, why crabs are even involved. There are so many whys.]

[girasole]

Given what's happened so far I probably should stand close just in case I need to knock you out of the way because you summoned a refrigerator over your own head.

[Fact.] Is there anything inside of them?

[probablynoteren]

It's new, but I wouldn't drop one on myself. [it's a bit petulant, because his power is ridiculous enough without the danger of actually crushing himself with kitchen storage, please -- is it confidence or] Or I'd get out of the way.

[Ah, it's not confidence, just grumbling. It's also debatable how fast he'd get out of the way, and neither of them have accounted for unforeseen variables, because the power of refrigerators is actually deeper and vaster than mice or men can predict.

Also, everyone keeps asking him that.]

Sometimes there's food, or other things. Sometimes there's almost nothing. It's unpredictable.

[girasole]

I can't believe I'm asking this, but can you summon one right now? Over...

[He turns to the left, the right, glances behind them, and then decides they probably need more of a safety distance because he can still imagine random people getting crushed by it.] Maybe we should walk further away. You sound unpredictable.

[probablynoteren]

I'm not the unpredictable part.

[Grumble, grumble, but it's also a matter of fact that he hasn't found anything that can really control what comes along with the refrigerators, just how they come along. He's not really sure what the crabs are going to do to his power, either -- what if he summons 10 refrigerators and all of them stack on top of him?! No, that probably wouldn't happen.

Anyway, he complains, but he still recognizes the value in preparing for the worst, so off they go into the trees. If nothing else, those could serve as... fridge umbrellas.]

Okay. [once they're far enough in (maybe), he motions for Caesar to stand back a little] Let me...

[He's just started the follow-up actual summoning motion (he's winging this) when there's an impressive crash. There's now a fridge a little ways to Caesar's right, where his hand moved to. It might have crashed from like... chest-height.

... It's sparking a little.]

... Sorry.

[girasole]

...

[He's staring at Lenka in judgmental, horrified silence.

Sometimes you got five paragraphs of introspection and action. Sometimes you got a speech, one that was filled with words and deeds.

Sometimes you just got a stare.

This is one of the latter times.

He's just going to stare.]

[probablynoteren]

[He came out here to have a good time and he's feeling so attacked right now.

That's a lie, he definitely didn't come out here to have a good time. Lenka makes a small, embarrassed motion, doing his best to keep it away from Caesar, and the... top of the fridge vanishes. He blinks. That's new.]

I... Maybe you need to move a little further.

[What he doesn't say is that according to his own experimentation, he's not actually sure what the range is on this power. Some knowledge (or lack thereof) just isn't all that helpful at the moment.]