[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

[splinten]

I had a lot of free time when I was a kid. [It's an easy way to dismiss years of loneliness, doing anything to fill the time.] I'd be pissed if they were. I'd have to make yet another damn pair.

[windeity]

[Ah. More Strider things. As Dirk's talking John is subtly shifting to follow Dirk's advice and lay on his stomach, trying not to move too much and shivering just a little.]

If you broke them though couldn't you just fix them like you fixed Dave's drawn shades? Or is that not how your power really works?

[splinten]

[Dirk notes the shivering and frowns. He takes off his waistcoat (drawn by Dave) and drapes it over John.]

That'd be cool, except the caveat on my powers is that I have to 'fully understand' the things I destroy. Dave's drawn shades were easy to fix because I get how he does art thanks to my Bro.

[windeity]

[Oh. Thanks, Dirk. He doesn't verbally say anything but he does shift under the coat a little even while keeping his focus on Dirk.]

...it's pretty weird hearing you call him Bro. [He's used to the reverse.] I still can't believe he's worn those dumb things this whole time though. So if you don't fully understand, you can't fix or destroy?

[splinten]

[There's a pause, distinctly awkward and unsure.] I didn't mean Dave by that. I can imagine that calling him that would generally be considered what academics and cool guys alike call 'pretty fucking weird.'

[He has wanted to. He has slipped up and done it once, in a moment when his head was turned around and it felt like the splinters overlapped, strange and eerie. But he thinks Dave would hate it. And he really, really doesn't want Dave to hate him.]

Fixing isn't a thing I can do in itself. I can only destroy brokenness, and yeah, if I don't understand the way something is wrong, I can't destroy that thing to make it right. Which sort of sucks, since I don't see anything particularly wrong with the things Dave makes except their impracticality.

[But he likes them. He likes his shitty little Peaches toy. He likes the way Dave draws.]

[windeity]

It would, yeah. But then you meant your actual Bro, but. [Isn't that technically Alpha-Dave? God timelines are so stupid. John settles for shaking his head instead.]

Destroying brokenness is still inadvertently fixing a thing. How do you get to a point where you understand something like that?

[He can't help but snort though.] His drawing is pretty bad, dude. I mean all of us read SBAHJ but his drawing is not Picasso. [He probably should have picked a different artist to insult Dave with.]

[splinten]

It's bad, sure, and yes he apparently lacks Picasso's understanding of how to draw realistically before going to his own style, but it's how he does it. That belongs to him alone.

[And that's what matters. It's uniquely Dave's, in the way that a photorealistic sketch of an apple isn't, in the way that learning how to mimic other forms couldn't be. It's just Dave. Dirk really likes it for that.]

My Bro made SBAHJ movies that were basically totally unwatchable. Jpeg artefacts, horrible noises, a complete lack of sensical plot, you name it. He left them all behind for me to watch.

[windeity]

[...he's just going to lay here curled up under Dirk's jacket and raise his eyebrows because ??? These are definitely words coming out of Dirk's mouth and he wonders how Dave would feel about that?

Actually. Dave would probably eat it up. Jerk. (Little does John know...)]

Yeah. I guess that is true. He's been doing the comic for a while so who knows if he will try to improve on that. [He's heard a little bit about their post-scratch selves from Jake, but hearing that Alpha Dave made movies intrigues him.

...at the same time, he smiles a little. He won't explain why, but it's funny to him.] Did you actually watch all of them? I sort of wish they were here just so I could see them myself. [There's a pause.] ...where did your Bro go?

[splinten]

[It would be nice to see more of Dave's comics. Dirk hesitates, unsure whether or not that's a safe place to go, a safe thing to want or ask for. He feels like he exists on quicksand with Dave. He just doesn't know.

He can answer the other question more readily, but he's surprised to hear it. John must not have known.]

I watched them all, yeah. My Bro died four hundred years before my meteor landed. Same with Roxy's Mom. Me and Roxy arrived long after the party had ended.

[They never met their guardians. They never knew them. They never got to truly understand them. They were grew up in the detritus of a dead civilization, daydreaming that the front door would open to someone who was never going to come home.]

[windeity]

[It's like this. John is starting to get to know the teen-guardians well enough to try and decipher the similarities and differences between them and the actual guardians. John himself has thoughts on Dave's Bro, but looking and listening to Dirk he kind of wonders.

Roxy didn't seem that much like how Rose described her mom, but then again it's not like has much basis to go on. So instead. Yeah. SBaHJ. And dead guardians. Maybe he knew, but maybe he wants to hear it from Dirk himself. It's been a really, really long day...]

Oh. I know Roxy wanted to meet Rose a lot, so that would make sense. [So Dirk probably wanted the same? That would also make sense.] Roxy also said you guys were in a session full of skeletons or something.

[splinten]

Yeah. That's why we started initially really looking into the game.

[Meeting their guardians. Finding their families. Escaping the loneliness they had been raised in. Meeting their friends. Finally ending the battle that took their guardians' lives'.

And now there's this. Something is wrong with how Dave is around him, even if he doesn't know what. His relationships with most of his friends shattered, Jake barely talking to him. Everyone dead. The Condesce alive. Game over.

He hopes John can save some versions of them. He hopes that some iteration gets it right.]

It was a dead end session. We couldn't prototype our kernelsprites before game entry. The battlefield never developed, so there were no consorts, nothing really living. Nothing to do but wait for you guys to show up. [He glances past the cabins. This place was the first time he got to see a tree. He hadn't had time to stop and think about it.]

[windeity]

[Yeah that doesn't sound depressing or horrifying at all...]

...sorry it took us so long to get there. Jade said that our ship was going as fast as it could to get to the window to get to you guys, but it was still three years. And I think I still do not really know how things went in your session besides what you and Roxy have said. But I mean. This isn't the end of it. Roxy and I won't let it be.

[splinten]

[It's the end for him. He doesn't mind it so much. Maybe a restart will make a Dirk better suited to his friends.]

If you could have arrived sooner, you would have, relative-time speaking. Paradox Space dumped you out exactly when it wanted. So don't worry about it, dude. You're hittin' the reset button to help us all out.

[windeity]

Paradoxes are stupid. [But his gaze narrows a bit as he mulls over Dirk's words.] Reset button? [Is it a reset if he's just fixing everything? It's more like a rewind, isn't it? Taking things and soothing them over. He shrugs again.]

I can't really do anything about that here though, so what now?

[splinten]

[Dirk takes the shrug as a sign that John doesn't want to talk about it, and Dirk isn't sure he wants to go into it anyway.]

You read Genette's letter, I assume. Any thoughts from that?

[windeity]

It is a little confusing, but what isn't these days? [He's feeling a little better now, enough that he can sit up even wrapped up in Dirk's coat.] Magic vibrations through a bunch of planets, needing our help to stabilize things before the universes are destroyed. I think it sounds a little familiar somehow.

[But...] Do you think they are telling us everything we need to really know? And why haven't we heard from Qri yet if she is the one who needs our help?

[splinten]

Genette told me that Qri was in a magical coma. In the caravan, specifically. She also said that Qri communicates with her telepathically.

[That doesn't answer whether or not Dirk thinks everything was answered, or whether Dirk believes or trusts the people here.]

[windeity]

What? [UH.] Okay not even going into how I do not understand how anyone in a coma can still telepathically communicate, how long has this been a thing? Is that because Qri expelled energy to get us here and give us the powers we didn't ask for?

[splinten]

It seems like it's been ongoing. Genette or Brie would have more information, if you're curious.

[windeity]

Maybe I will ask them, but I don't want to bother them yet. [Not when he's aware someone else is probably asking the questions anyway.] I think they are getting a lot of questions from us right about now anyway.