AUGUST INTRO LOG: MORE THAN MEETS THE EYE

[asgardmods]

Who: EVERYONE
What: the August intro log and first god house competition, More Than Meets the Eye
When: August 8
Where: Gladsheim Palace for breakfast, around Asgard for the game/curse
Rating: PG-13; please take anything higher than this to a private log!

morning: a warm invitation

Everyone wakes up to a friendly invitation to breakfast at the castle with the gods. For most of you, this comes as a message on your bracelet, reading:

Join us at the castle today to welcome some new Wanderers into our midst. Breakfast will be served and a lively game will be available to all of our guests, both new and old.

New Wanderers are curious on their own, and this is the first there's ever been mention of a game. Perhaps it's enough for you to make the trek to the castle, to see what all the fuss is about, or maybe even to see if there's someone you know. Perhaps you want to learn more about the game, or maybe you just want the food.

For our new guests, this comes as a bit more of a surprise. Wherever you were before in your world, without even realizing it, you wake up in a strange new place. No time or space inbetween, just an awareness of There and then Here. A matronly figure tries to explain your circumstances with a sympathetic smile, but ultimately invites you meet them all for yourselves: the Gods of Asgard, and the Wanderers that arrived before you.



The sight that greets you on the castle grounds is a rather festive one, regardless of where you're coming from. Colorful streamers and flags are draped above large tables with room for several guests. Natives bustle about, cheerfully offering food and drinks to anyone that wants some. Everyone is welcomed to mingle and greet the new Wanderers on this bright summer morning.

the game: a friendly competition

Among the brightly decorated tables are ones highlighted in a specific color for a specific god house, and most of the gods themselves can be found sitting behind it with a few of their district's natives. They are here to welcome the new Wanderers into Asgard - but they're also here to explain the rules of today's game. There are coins hidden throughout the city and disguised as mundane items, and the god house that returns the most of their coins will win an upgrade to their god housing! No hints will be given, but the natives are excited to help facilitate the activity and happily invite you to wander through their districts to find what you can.

But you don't have to know about the rules to be playing the game! The coins are already hidden throughout the city, and no one knows what they are until they've been picked up. Whether you're banding together with friends to find as many coins as you can or blindly stumbling over an unpleasant surprise, the game and the curse are in full swing!

evening: a fair prize

At sundown, all of the coins in the city disappear at once, whether they're in your pocket or still disguised as a bowl. Points will be tallied and a winner will be announced (OOCly, on August 17) - but Asgardians are keen to celebrate regardless of who wins a rather inconsequential game. The same colorful display of tables and chairs is still spread across the castle grounds, although now they twinkle with fairy lights haphazardly blinking throughout the air. Snacks and drinks are made available, as well as more dinner-shaped meals for those that request it. Mostly the natives simply want to bask in the strangeness of these Wanderers from other worlds for a moment longer - but they're also eagerly listening to any stories from the day's mischievous game. Relax, enjoy yourself, or again, just stock up on some freely served food. Whatever suits your needs today. Welcome to Asgard, dear Wanderers.

[ OOC NOTE: This is the intro log for August, as well as our first god house competition/curse: More Than Meets the Eye. You are free to play with the curse prompts and searching the city in any way you want! If you would like to submit a map to earn points for your god house, please check out the rules to learn what to do. We will accept maps until August 17, at which point a winner will be announced and members of that god house will be allowed to vote for an upgrade to their god housing. As always, please let us know if you have any questions or need any help on the mod contact page. Enjoy, friends! ]

Comments

ib

[nineteenfortyfive]

[Claire might not do a lot to her own hair, but she does have a redheaded daughter whose hair she often braided when she was younger until she got too old for her mother to do it for her. So, she's used to this sight.]

Do you need a hand?

[A gentle offer asked with a polite smile.]

[unprays]

[ looking up at the sound of her voice, sansa sees an older woman, smiling down at her. she offers a hesitant smile back — it is not like her to trust anyone on sight, but something about the woman makes her feel at ease. perhaps it is the evident desire to help, the gentleness in her expression.

she nods. ]

Thank you, my lady. [ unsure whether she is one, but best to be polite just in case. ] I would often have someone to aid me with this... I can do a normal braid on my own, though, so I suppose I should have stuck to that.

[nineteenfortyfive]

[She has good manners, and that she talks about having help to do her hair makes Claire assume she might be a lady herself.]

Just Claire is fine. Claire Fraser. What's your name?

[Since she's about to be getting close to fuss with the young lady's hair, though Claire never has a problem with getting into someone's personal space. She'd be a bad doctor if she did.]

[unprays]

... If you insist.

[ not a lady, then, she assumes — but it's not a bad thing, here. once she might have judged her for it; now, there is no value assigned to a title. if she is kind, that is what matters. ]

I'm Sansa. Sansa Stark. [ and then, added with some wryness, ] Back home, I would be called Lady Stark or Lady Sansa... but it doesn't matter, here. So if I am to call you Claire, then just Sansa will do.

[nineteenfortyfive]

Stark?

[Small world. Of course, she could be wrong, but--didn't Jon mention a Sansa?]

You don't happen to know a Jon Snow, do you?

[She'll refrain from mentioning Robb given what she knows happened to the boy and his mother. Her mother.]

[unprays]

[ she looks up sharply at that. ]

Jon is my brother. [ said quickly, decisively. as if jon himself was there, frowning at her, telling her that he's not a stark. ]

How do you know him? Is he here?

[nineteenfortyfive]

[Well, that confirms it. Claire smiles easier, now.]

I do. He's been here about as long as I've been, I believe. Him, and your sister, Arya. [She only met the girl once, but she's made the connection between these Starks and Jon.

Robb is here too, of course, but she doesn't feel it's her place to tell her as such.]

[unprays]

Arya, too?

[ there's a moment that she absorbs the information, and when she breathes after, it is noticeably easier, with the line of her shoulders relaxing. jon and arya, here? she would have felt eased with just one of them, but both is a blessing.

perhaps the gods here knew something, after all.

(with a pang, she thinks of winterfell, thinks that there is no one but bran left there now — but bran could do it. bran could do it better than anyone, with all his knowledge, until they would be able to return.) ]

... Arya was in our home with me, the last I recall. And Jon — Jon was coming back to Winterfell. I don't know how they have both been here before me... but I am glad to know they are here. [ she sighs, smiles a little. ] Arya came home after Jon had been gone. They'd always been close when we were children, much closer than I was to either. [ she'd always been closer to robb — admired him most of all. jon she never paid much attention to, following her mother's lead; and her and arya... gods, how grateful she is that she grew enough to understand and appreciate her sister like she does now. ] I'm glad they came here together.

[nineteenfortyfive]

[From what she knows of the family, she understands. Claire nods, giving her perhaps a bit of privacy with her emotions as she moves to finally fix her hair.]

I'm sure they'll be glad to see you, too. You seem to have a lot of family here. I'm sure they've managed to wander out here somewhere.

[unprays]

Oh, [ she breathes, realizing her mistake, twisting to look over her shoulder at claire, ] I'm sorry. Do you... do you have your family here, too?

[ gods, she hopes she does. otherwise, she's going to feel very bad. it was selfish of her again, wasn't it, to only focus on her own happiness upon hearing about her siblings, not considering that everyone might not be as lucky. ]

[nineteenfortyfive]

Don't apologize. It's all right.

[She really is a polite girl.]

My husband and our daughter are here, too.

[The whole reason she's rather quick with fixing these braids and looping them at the back of Sansa's head.]

There.

[unprays]

That is wonderful.

[ she speaks truly, from the bottom of her heart — there was a time she didn't appreciate being together with her family enough. now, she knows better. ]

Perhaps the gods here are kind in one way, at least.

[ she moves her head, lifts her hand to touch the braids. ] Thank you. They feel very nice. Do you braid your daughter's hair, too?

[nineteenfortyfive]

[Sansa really has no idea.]

When she was younger, I did. She grew out of it when she got older and didn't really appreciate me fussing with her hair so much.

[unprays]

Really?

[ what she wouldn't give for her mother to brush through her hair one more time, to braid her hair with steady, sure hands. ]

... my mother used to brush my hair when I was a child, too. We had maids who could have done it, but mother liked to do it herself. She taught me how to braid my first braids.

[ there is a quiet wistfulness to her voice — one that might not mean much to others, but as claire knows what happened to catelyn, well. it is more than a quiet memory of childhood. it's a remembrance of something that will never happen again. ]

[nineteenfortyfive]

I would do the same, with such beautiful red hair. My daughter's is similar to yours.

[She always stood out, never quite looking like a result of Claire and Frank with that mop of red. She most certainly looks like Jamie's, though.]

Do you get your hair from your mother?

[Jon's is dark, and so she assumes their shared parent didn't have red hair.]

[unprays]

Thank you. [ she, too, is fond of her hair, not least because she is the only one who has the signature tully hair, out of all of them. then, when claire speaks of her daughter, sansa smiles. ] Perhaps I'll have the honour of meeting her, if she is here, too.

[ to the question, she nods. ]

Yes, it is a Tully trait. Most of my siblings share my father's look, the Stark look. They say I look just like my mother did, when she was younger.

[nineteenfortyfive]

[It explains Jon's features, she supposes.]

Bree gets her hair from her father, Jamie. You'll be able to pick them out in a crowd, easily.

[Jamie's hair might have faded some, age turning it copper, but Bree's is so similar to Sansa's.]

Your mother must have been a gorgeous young lady.