INTRO LOG + SKADI CURSE.

[asgardmods]

FEBRUARY INTRO LOG( FEB 16TH & 17TH ) february 16 ↴ INTRO: NEW WANDERERS' ARRIVAL! Our batch of new Wanderers wake this morning, as all new Wanderers have before, on a plush bed with a mild but lingering sense of recent disorientation. Frigg greets them as per normal, though rather than outright escorting Wanderers to the front doors this time, she and Sigyn allow the Wanderers time and space to leave their bed, meet the pantheon, and even depart the palace at their own pace - but not without a warning. All Wanderers must choose a deity to tether to before dawn the next day, or else one of the gods will choose them. This is of grave importance, as that's precisely how long the magic giving them form is able to last untethered before the Mother's own magic overwhelms it. (Though the gods are more than willing to allow Wanderers to leave, it's worth noting that many a castle servant - natives, born in this land - might see fit to intercede and insist on the choosing of a god before Wanderers step off the Gladsheim Palace grounds.) Stepping outside, you're greeted by an almost bright and sunny day... Undermined thoroughly by a sharp, biting wind that permeates any small gap in your clothing. I bet the gods might give you a sweater, if you ask. It probably won't even look that absurd, depending on which one you ask. A trail of what seems like stringless balloons float at eye level from just outside the palace door, guiding Wanderers down the path to a notice board just outside the palace grounds. On this notice board, Wanderers find a brief handwritten guide to accessing the city map on their cuffs, specifically denoting the little colored house icons ( ⌂ ) to help Wanderers make their way to each god's housing. Also on this board appear to be a variety of job listings, for those who want to get more involved in Asgard as a whole. But let's not get ahead of ourselves, shall we? There's more than enough time for that once you've chosen a god to tether to in the first place. february 17 ↴ GOD CURSE: CHARACTER-BUILDING WITH SKADI. The storm brewing within Skadi is hardly a secret. She was impatient during the gods' supposedly unanimous address, and in the days to follow, Sigyn (with all her desperately good intentions) tried to balm the irritation but only abraded the goddess further still. She attended the Wanderers' arrival purely by the letter of her duty and swept back out the doors as soon as that duty released her, and since then she's been holed up in her temple, her pointy-faced statues positioned just outside as sentinels meant to intimidate mortals away. They dared to tell her that she does nothing. Nothing for the Wanderers, that is. Nothing to help them grow and self-actualize, as if these 'Wanderers' are so much more important than Asgard itself, which weakens by the day as her fellow gods fling their magic about to overprotect the Wanderers, or even to satisfy their whims. The consensus to draw back some of that wasteful protection would have pleased her, if she weren't so thoroughly fixated on the slight that preceded it. They want her to help the Wanderers self-actualize? So be it. There's no better way, truly, than to confront and overcome the ways in which you're flawed. So the morning after arrival day, many Wanderers wake up with a stinging, itching spot somewhere on their body. Maybe their arm, maybe their back, maybe their throat. In that spot, as it turns out, is a set of words in a deep ruddy brown (almost like old blood) under their skin as if tattooed in place. But these aren't just any words - they prey directly into the Wanderer's fears, their regrets, their insecurities, and their mistakes. They're facing down some of the worst things they've ever thought or feared about themselves. The other gods, of course, are eager and willing to try to relieve the poor Wanderers of these cursed marks... but they find that it's not quite so easy. Wanderers who seek a god's removal of the words find that not only do the words remain, but a new set appears: Flees the truth. But that's fine = For most Wanderers, these words disappear on their own in a day or two. A handful of unlucky souls find that their marks linger indefinitely, or seem to disappear but return at truly inopportune occasions down the line. MOD NOTES This is the February intro log and Skadi's curse, our mini-event for this month! Skadi's curse is is entirely opt-in - not all Wanderers are affected - and is detailed more fully in the 'This Month's Events' section of the February Bulletin, and you're welcome to direct any follow-up questions to the Bulletin's mod questions top-level. You've also likely noticed that god jobs are now live! The listings themselves can be found here (same link as within the 'arrival' prompt), with a brief FAQ featured over here.

Comments

[yiling_laozu]

"Lan Zhan," Wei Wuxian breathes as he clutches at him, nearly undone, and Hanguang-Jun is not a man who should ever be laid so low. He tugs at him until he's upright, climbing into his lap after to throw both arms around his neck. "It's alright," he says into his dark hair. "It's alright, it wasn't so long ago for you, but it was a lifetime ago for me. Don't be sorry. I love you, don't be sorry."

[lan_wangji]

"Those words are all a lie," he hisses, gathering Wei Ying as close as he can, wishing he could always keep him like this, away from anything and everything that would hurt him even more.

"Not a lifetime ago if you believe those words. Wei Ying, you are good. You're so good. You taught Lan Wangji what good was."

[yiling_laozu]

"They're not a lie," Wei Wuxian murmurs. "I did leave you, I did lose my family, and Jiang Cheng does hate me," he says, voice wobbling for the last. "I don't know why this place wants me to wear words I already know are true, but it isn't so terrible anymore, Lan Zhan. We're together. Nothing can be so terrible if I have you."

[lan_wangji]

"Not your fault," he breathes, kissing Wei Ying's hair, his temple, his neck, anything he can reach without letting go of his tight hold.

He knows it will not make a difference, perhaps never will make a difference. Nothing Wei Ying says can convince him his own words are untrue but he truly believes Wei Ying's are wrong. Believes it now after this revelation more than ever. Lan Zhan's pride and lack of conviction led to his words, Wei Ying's sacrifices and goodness led to his.

"Wei Ying has me for as long as he wants me. Have been Wei Ying's for years. Have ever only been Wei Ying's."

[yiling_laozu]

Wei Wuxian breathes out, tucking a smile against Lan Zhan's shoulder. "I know," he says. "I was foolish for a very long time but I know that now. And I'm happy in this strange world with you," he promises. "Despite all the attacks, and the enchanted snow, and that demonic tree, I'm happy here. I love our home and our little paddy."

Wei Wuxian pulls back to look at him. "This is the best my life has ever been, truly."

[lan_wangji]

Lan Zhan nods, keeping one arm wrapped around Wei Ying's back while he pushes Wei Ying's hair away from his face.

"Best my life has been," he agrees, leaning into to kiss Wei Ying's cheek. "Happiest I've been. Like his life, like our home. I like who I am with you much better than who I was."

He loves this house, built from Wei Ying's careful planning, before he even knew what they could be to each other. He loves their paddy, Lan Zhan's desperate outlet for his feelings. He loves their bunnies.

[yiling_laozu]

"You smile so much now," Wei Wuxian tells him, tracing Lan Zhan's bottom lip to the edge which curls so often now. "Even running after me into danger all the time, you are lighter." And Lan Zhan has always been stunning, but now he is simply gorgeous, so lovely that Wei Wuxian would kiss him right now if he hadn't so recently been sick.

"This place is good to us, and we are good to each other."

[lan_wangji]

"Mm, Wei Ying is very good to Lan Zhan," he says, looking around at the careful woodwork and decorations starting to come together in their house. These little details that Wei Ying had worked so hard to design, to make this place a home in ways Lan Zhan would never understand how to do.

"Anything you want, I will give you," he says, looking back at Wei Ying's perfect, nearly otherworldly lovely face. "Anything Wei Ying desires, anything Wei Ying ever wants, anything at all. Want and love all of you."

[yiling_laozu]

"Well then," says Wei Wuxian once Lan Zhan meets his eyes again.

"I want a son. One I get to see grow this time."

[lan_wangji]

Lan Zhan blinks, not expecting that answer but thinking on it, nonetheless. Anything Wei Ying wants, he said and he meant.

"Am certain Asgard has orphans," he says slowly, wondering how difficult it is to convince the Gods to simply give them a baby. Surely the Gods would have this authority? His mind, rapidly filling with logistics and practicalities has reserved a small corner to simply imagine it. Imagine Wei Ying with a child, teaching him as he has done with Lan Yuan.

"Can find you a son, if Wei Ying desires. Can ask."

[yiling_laozu]

Wei Wuxian laughs, delighted by the lack of hesitation of Lan Zhan's part, though perhaps he ought to temper him. Lan Zhan is very intense when he chooses to be. "They don't actually grow out of the earth like radishes," he says.

"But, if we do come across a child on their own, boy or girl, we could help them, couldn't we? We'll have a proper home soon. Life is very unkind to children on their own, Lan Zhan."

[lan_wangji]

He nods but immediately wonders how they might come across a child like this, wonders if there is a way to ensure they in a position to acquire a child like this. He will research. He will learn about this.

"Think that is a very good idea," he murmurs, smiling softly at the idea of Wei Ying with a child of his own. It hurts that Lan Yuan will not know Wei Ying, at least not in his youth. Wei Ying would be a wonderful father. And as much as Lan Zhan doubts his own abilities in that area, he cannot help but think of what Wei Ying has said. He is lighter, now. He would not be like Uncle with his own child.

He glances down at his own hands, again. "I am not as Cold as I was. I would not be cold to our child."

[yiling_laozu]

"You were never cold," Wei Wuxian tells him, taking that cruelly marked hand between both of his own. "You wanted to be, but you are very hot in here," he says, lifting their hands to poke at Lan Zhan's breast. "It's why I couldn't leave you alone when we were young. I could feel it. No one looks at you as if they want to murder you when they are cold inside," he laughs.

"You needn't worry," he adds, sobering. "Lan Yuan is the best of his generation. He is well-educated like any Lan will certainly be, but so kind, Lan Zhan. I know what a well loved youth looks like. You did right by him."

[lan_wangji]

Lan Zhan nods again, wishing he hadn't been so immediately taken away from Lan Yuan. Three years of Lan Yuan's life that he cannot tell Wei Ying about. Three years largely unknown to both of them.

He is so very relieved that he'd done right by him, eventually.

He raises his other hand, Unworthy and cannot so easily dispel that truth. If anything, he is more unworthy now that he knows the true extent of Wei Ying's bravery, but - "I will work every day to feel more worthy of you. Next time, these words will not haunt us. I will work hard enough that even I believe it."

[yiling_laozu]

Wei Wuxian's smile fades, and he recollects that hand, knowing even as he does so that he can't convince Lan Zhan anymore than Lan Zhan can convince him that the words on his body are false. "You are all I want," he says anyway, lifting those bony knuckles to his lips. "You are perfect to me just as you are. If you work hard, then I will also work hard to make you believe it."