[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

[mapsio]

Ah? It's more like I can take notes on their growth. I wanted to try making a garden somewhere around here and keeping a notebook of what works and what doesn't would be handy.

[She might be blushing a little. Fever? Embarrassment? BOTH?]

[windeity]

[See like. She explains herself and now he sort of feels stupid for asking, but he plays it off with a little laugh.]

That makes a lot more sense. [He's giving the diary another cursory look.] My sister had a greenhouse she was maintaining on her island. If she could grow stuff there, I think you could start a garden here. Besides, the forest seems to be doing okay for itself.

[mapsio]

I was thinking of looking at the edge of the forest, actually.

[She could make her own soil, turn the land. It would be a lot of hard work.] Your sister had her own island?

[windeity]

Couldn't hurt. [John knows exactly jack shit about gardening so Haru gets a nod since sure, okay, makes sense.]

She was raised on an island by her dog, yes. [Ah.] I think it was an island her grandpa discovered or something but that is where she has always lived. She had a lot of plants she was taking care of out there.

[mapsio]

[Oh, John. She could teach you gardening. The green thumb is definitely a learned skill.]

I don't think I have ever heard of someone being raised on an island by their dog, but, I don't have any reason to disbelieve you. [No, really. Weird shit happens to her too. So a guy has a sister that was raised on an island? Can't be any weirder than fighting some big bad in the Metaverse.]

Do you think they were more tropical type plants?

[windeity]

[It's not so much that he thought Haru wouldn't believe him, but his face lights up a little when she does just readily accept all of this. Sometimes Jade's life didn't make sense to him from what he learned about it. John's blatantly aware that out of his friends, he's lived the most normal life.]

Apparently he was a very smart dog. [And that's all he says on the matter.] She probably grew a lot of tropical flowers and stuff, but I sent her pumpkin seeds for her birthday once because I knew they grew there. Are pumpkins considered tropical?

[mapsio]

That's a good question! But I don't believe they are. Pumpkins are considered a type of squash. Though perhaps a little different than a squash.

[If Haru sat here and told John she could summon basically a goth pokemon to fight for her sake, she's sure that they could swap stories all night.] I bet her flowers were beautiful.

[windeity]

[Someday maybe they will have that talk, but for now John's just going to wonder about the mystery of squash and pumpkins.]

I think they are supposed to be fairly sturdy so maybe that is why they could grow anyway. And they probably were. She took good care of them. [But...let's not talk about Jade anymore. He seems to be more focused on shifting away from the subject.] A garden is a pretty big project to do by yourself, isn't it?

[mapsio]

[She thinks about it for a moment, thoughtful about the usefulness of growing pumpkin. They could make sweets out of them certainly.]

Probably. I thought about scoping a good spot and maybe asking around to see who would be interested in helping to tend it. I could even teach the proper way to tend a garden if someone really wanted to know.

[windeity]

That sounds like a great idea. If we are all here and we're expected to be sort of self-sufficient here, knowing how to grow our own food and stuff could be a good plan. [He gestures around them.] I know we are getting hand-outs now, but who knows how long that will last.

[mapsio]

I didn't want to count on it to keep happening. The hospitality upon arriving here seemed to also be followed with that long letter we received.

[The environment was plentiful, and maybe they would all find something besides death crabs to eat eventually.]

What do you think about everything so far?

[windeity]

Like a trade. "I gave you all of these nice things, now here's what you can do for me." [Like. He'll still help, but he has his own questions surrounding that letter and their stay here.]

Out of anywhere else we could have been kidnapped or rescued to, this was not a bad choice. It seems pretty empty besides us and those other two--[He means Brie and Genette, of course]--but if the boars and crabs can live here it can't be that bad. The magic is different than what I expected and I still feel weird with people speaking to me in my head but...[Shrug.] Are you settling in okay? This is a lot to take in.

[mapsio]

A deal we hardly signed up for.

[It's not like she hasn't experienced that before, that is the most frustrating part about this. They've been given all they'll need for now, and are expected to do something in return. It just hit a little too close to home for her.]

I'm settling in, but I'm not really settled... if that makes sense. Of course I'm like everyone else who knows there are things to do back home. [She pauses, it's really kind of tough to put into words.]

I'm a heroine of justice, and if someone needs help I don't want to say no.

[windeity]

It makes sense. [There's a sympathetic little smile. It makes more than enough sense, seeing how he's been weighing the pros and cons of being here now. The pros: his friends are here and alive and safe. The cons: he has a mission back home, he doesn't know where the others are, and he's still sweating out a fever. It's hard to grasp.

Of course then Haru keeps talking and that gets his attention, allowing him to turn toward her and lift an eyebrow.]

A heroine of justice? [He doesn't sound disbelieving, just genuinely curious.] What exactly does that mean? Like a superhero? [Like the Sailor Moons? No, shut up, John.]

[mapsio]

It's a little different than being a superhero. But we do a lot of things that are supposed to be for the greater good, or...well, that's our purpose.

["Our", "we". There were a lot of references to a group. Since being here she was able to find her leader and one more of the group members. She has to admit that she misses everyone else.]

I've always wanted to be a heroine of justice though. The thought of being able to help people who can't always help themselves is appealing.

[windeity]

That sounds really cool. [It's not quite what they're doing. Actually, what they're doing isn't even for the greater good but rather to save their world, make a new world, and start over. Is it justice to fight the evils waiting for them? He doesn't let himself think of that for long before he decides it's better to ask Haru more about herself.]

You guys must be really good at it. Helping people is a good thing to do if you can. [He notices those buzzwords, too.] You have a whole team? Are any of them here, too?

[Eventually he'll connect two and two and realize this is someone he's spoken to before even if he doesn't recognize her. But oh well.]

[mapsio]

We do have a whole team, and two of them are here now. If the rest of them could be here too it would be wonderful.

[She's going to connect that they've talked before as well at some point.]

I'm not as good as the rest of them. They've been doing it for a little bit longer than me. See...what we do is we help to change people. To get them to admit their crimes.

[Starting over wasn't really an option, for them it would be going to the root of the problem.]

[windeity]

Still sort of sounds like a superhero to me, but a heroine of justice is a neat term, too. But..what do you mean you help to change people? Don't you mean you help people change?

[Please explain, Haru.] And anyway, I don't think it's about if you're as good as the rest of your teammates or not. You are still a part of their team so you are good enough.

[mapsio]

Whether they change is up to them in the end, whether the change of heart worked.

[How does she even explain?!] That's very kind of you to say. I just, well...I always make it my goal to do what I can to help them even if I'm not good at using my power yet and I'm not used to fighting.

Sorry, I know this must be difficult to understand if I'm not explaining everything clearly. It's just that we try to keep our identities a secret at home.

[windeity]

[He seems to understand at the word "power" and he nods enthusiastically, waving a hand and accidentally knocking over a stack of pens. Oops.]

No, it makes sense. If you're a heroine of justice and you're fighting evil, a disguise makes sense in case the change of heart doesn't work. Say no more, your secrets are safe with me and you do not have to give up your identity or anything.

[But.] The power you're talking about is missing from this place, too, isn't it? Like the rest of us.

[mapsio]

[She is surprised to hear John add that last part, nodding.]

That's right. I can't use my power right now, and it feels like it might not even be there.

[She also seems pleased that he won't push her any more about her more secret identity.] If we ever get to a place where our powers can return to us, then it is possible that you might be able to see what I am capable of. I think that would be a lot more exciting than just explaining it.

[windeity]

[While he won't make a big deal of it, he is definitely taking note of who has powers and who doesn't. It's weird how this island has managed to take so much, especially when it sounds like something integral to who they are as people.

Still, his curiosity is undeniable.]

It feels like that for us, too. [He's still not clear on who "us" is, but it is a little weird to not sense the breeze and he knows Dave and Rose are with him in how strange it feels not having their aspects or god tier status at all.] But if that happens, I would like to see that? It sounds different than things we're capable of and it's pretty exciting to learn, I think.

[Magic is magic, and John likes magic enough.] But who knows when we're leaving? We didn't exactly get a timeframe, did we?

[mapsio]

[She wonders what the point of taking their original powers away and giving them new ones. It would have been so much easier to keep them as they were. She guesses things just couldn't be that simple.

She is very curious about what powers John could have as well. Since that was what he was more than strongly hinting at.]

I would definitely show you. It really is much easier to show rather than to explain.

[Shake shakes her head.] It doesn't seem like there was a time frame, we could be here for years for all we know.

[windeity]

Same with mine. Mostly. [The ones he knows how to use, anyway, and that's about all of the confirmation Haru needs for that.] The cool thing is that if yours works then mine works. It'll be easy to tell when whatever planet we are on has a high enough frequency to use our original powers.

[But he follows with an echoing headshake.] I just got off of a years-long journey, I'm not sure I want another one so soon. I hope we're moving in the close future. But maybe it's not like that for everyone.

[mapsio]

And if our powers work then we can give this mission our all, right? More opportunity for teamwork as well. [Never be against making an ally, of course.]

You were on another journey before this? Why? Oh, if you don't mind me asking of course.