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

❰ end of the day ❱ for reynir + eventually onni and whoever else.

[skittering]

❰ the day has been... interesting. not fun necessarily, but something adjacent to it, even with the odd and involuntary 'curses' (he hates to call them such, but there it is) taking over his body and will at the occasional misstep.

but then came the text, and all of that screeched to a standstill. emil, always close at hand, noticed the change at once. maybe it was the storm raging behind his tight expression, maybe the sudden tension in his body. he asked what happened, and all lalli said was 'tuuri knows' before storming off down the a side-street in search of the object of his ire with no regard for whether or not his friend comes along for the ride.

it's not long before he finds them, his cousins and the stupid icelandic idiot who ruined everything - and if there was any chance of this going any other way, that chance is utterly destroyed with a single glance at tuuri and her red-rimmed eyes.

so his eyes fall on reynir, glaring absolute daggers as he storms right up to the boy and seethes, ❱ You idiot! ❰ he's very much in reynir's face now, maybe even shoving him backward a little with a sharp jab to his chest. then, low and furious, ❱ Tulet tänne typerällä hiuksellasi ja tyhmällä kasvollasi ja pilata kaiken!

[draumstafir]

[ reynir's been in a low level panic ever since he discovered that tuuri hadn't even known that she was dead. it sends him reeling back to the day she was first bitten and the terror of the unknown future that coursed through him when he looked at her, back to the moment he chose to lie to onni about it and felt physically sick with the guilt of it, back to the day she died.

tuuri is crying and reynir can't speak, can barely even breathe because she's always been so strong, so cheerful, had even tried to smile and reassure him after she'd been bitten. and now this.

lalli is in his space and jabbing sharply at his chest in an instant, and reynir allows himself one brief, startled moment to wonder how he knew as he stumbles back out of his reach gracelessly, before realizing that onni must have told him. reynir can't even begrudge the older man for doing it, even if he's genuinely scared of the small scout for the first time in his life.

they're family, and lalli deserved to know. just like onni had deserved to know. just like tuuri had deserved to hear it from her family instead of him.

reynir holds up his hands in front of him as a makeshift and entirely pointless barrier between himself and lalli, barely managing to keep to his feet as he retreats away, eyes wide and freckles stark against ashen skin. ] I thought she knew! [ he offers up as a thin defense against whatever accusation lalli has just thrown his way in finnish. ]

Nobody told me that it was a secret!

[skittering]

❰ reynir's all but stumbling backward now, which just gives lalli that much more momentum. another step forward and he's in reynir's face again, hissing - ❱ You ruined it! You ruin everything, you should've stayed in your stupid box! Sen olisi pitänyt puremaan sinua sen sijaan -

❰ he's a bit too angry to consider the coins, or the possibility that reynir might just push back. ❱

[draumstafir]

[ and just like that, between one stumbling step and the next, something ignites in reynir's chest like a hot coal, roughly the size of one of the coins that they've been searching for throughout the day.

in that moment, a fury to match lalli's own enters reynir's eyes and he stops retreating, starts pushing back, gets right into lalli's face to yell back. ] Fine! Blame me for everything! Like you always do!

[ he's angry, angry like he can't ever remember feeling before, but even as he's yelling at lalli, tears are filling his eyes and threatening to spill over. ] At least now you finally have a good excuse to hate me!

[skittering]

❰ and all at once, reynir's not backing up anymore. he's pushing, and there's a shocked sort of moment in which lalli's stumbling back with the force of it, then a renewed anger flares up in his chest.

spitting out what is very clearly a finnish curse, lalli shoves back and follows right up with a sharp, quick closed-fist punch aimed for the side of reynir's stupid face. ❱

[draumstafir]

[ reynir grew up eternally the youngest in a large family so of course he's experienced with well-natured tussling, but there's nothing well-natured about his fight with lalli now, and lalli knows how to actually fight. none of his siblings have ever gone so far as to throw a fist at him, and reynir is wholly unprepared to dodge or block it.

he is, however, surprisingly sturdy given his generally whispy frame and nature, so he leans into his strengths and his experience and throws himself into the fist instead, throws himself into lalli with his full, 6'2" frame. ] All I've ever done is try to help>!