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. |
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asgardchrysalis2020-02-16 10:08 pm
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She knew he wasn't. But just for a second, she kind of wished he was. She'd gone years with only Aunt Lysia and Tahafra as mutual company. It was hard to wrap her mind around how much she craved her own kind.
Asgard made her think in some funny ways she wouldn't have dreamed of thinking back home.
Best to shake the whole thing off.
"I've never seen you before, my lord," she said, plucking another strawberry for him. "Are you a new Wanderer?"
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Yet, he's already taken a bite. Might as well finish it off. In for a penny, in for a pound.
He nods towards her. "Mm, yea. Let's not have you calling me 'my lord' or anything like that," he suggests. He's not been in a position to be called that for a while and honestly, it's worn a little thin. It's not as fun as it used to be.
"I guess. Something like that. I assume you're not."
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But still a Wanderer, like you.
She hoped that, as a Human, he wouldn't feel insulted, to be compared to her.
Then again, most of the Wanderers lacked the prejudices of back home.
"I live in Sign's cottages, just over there." She nodded her chin, to the silhouettes of the cottages, just visible in the morning sun.
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Fantastical places really did like to slip that sort of shit in to catch you off guard. The idea of it irritates him, but there's not much he can do. She's a stranger. Instead, he offers her a small shrug.
"You've got that look about you," he answers. He makes a loose twirling gesture with his pointer finger. Then he continues, "like you've got something figured out that no one else does." Probably how to live here peacefully. Despite all the weird shit.
He turns his wrist over then, showing off the dull blue stone on his bracelet. "I was given a house in Njord's district. Could probably use some visitors," he tells her. A casual offer.
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Lying. Storytelling. They sometimes went hand-in-hand.
What did that mean about this lanky stranger? No way to know for certain. And Ariadne knew better to assume.
"The only thing I have figured out, really, are berries," she said, offering him another one. "The rest of it, I'm trying to figure out. Just like anyone."
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"Is that so?" he drawls with a little laugh underneath his breath. Then he glances back down at her hand and the bright red berry between her fingers. "Not to sound ungrateful, but are you just going to hand me berries one by one?" He asks as he flicks his gaze back up to her face.
"It's too nice of you."
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Ariadne couldn't remember where she'd heard that name. But it seemed very exotic to her. Perfect for a place as strange as Asgard.
"I'd introduce you to the rest of them," she continued, "but somehow, I have the feeling you wouldn't care for that much." She leaned in and dropped her voice to a whisper, as if she were telling him a secret. "I've been told it's very eccentric, naming plants. I kind of like that, though. I've always wanted to be a little bit special."
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"I'll stay out of your garden," he tells her, glancing down at the strawberry bush she named Walter. It's cute, really. He would probably be more eager to listen to her tell him all the names of her plants, but he's too tired for that.
What he does is gesture down towards Walter. "I always thought you were supposed to name them. Plants grow better with affection, I hear." Actually, that's a bit of a lie. It's not something that he's just heard, but something that he knows. The difference hardly matters though.
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And she would have enjoyed it much more, if she didn't always feel like she was letting people down by not being there.
"Do you know a lot about plants?"