asgardchrysalis | AUGUST INTRO LOG: MORE THAN MEETS THE EYE

AUGUST INTRO LOG: MORE THAN MEETS THE EYE

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! ]

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❰ and sure enough, someone does indeed happen to peer over her shoulder. a moderately familiar someone at that, scrutinizing the page with no regard to how rude it might be, then casting his gaze off across the crowd to identify the subject of the sketching. ❱

It looks like her, ❰ comes his decisive but thoroughly unsolicited feedback. ❱

[ Whether she realized he was there or not, Naminé's shoulders jump very slightly when he speaks up, but the surprise doesn't seem to be an unpleasant one. She turns to peer back at him, lips already rounding into surprise which becomes the ghost of a smile. No rudeness detected here, clearly. ]

You think so? I was hoping it would.

[ She even holds it up a little for him to see better. ]

I thought she was very pretty.

[ Which apparently is reason enough in her world to draw some random person, although Naminé's not exactly discriminating here. It seems like she's been at it a while, since she's a significant part of the way through the sketchbook. ]

❰ lalli's not really one to speak for the prettiness of other people - people are people, it's not something he really pays attention to like he does the prettiness of a summer forest or the glassy surface of a lake - but that's fine. it's accurate art, and that seems to be enough of a compliment for naminé.

as she holds up the book, though, he notes that a bunch of the previous pages seem used up too. curiosity tugs at him, intensely enough to say: ❱ Show me others. ❰ she can choose which, he's not picky. ❱

[ Her blonde head lifts slightly at the request, turning slightly as if she might peer back at him but - well, it shouldn't be that much of a surprise, should it? And so she obliges him, giving a quiet, ]

Alright.

[ Naminé hasn't really got enough pride to hesitate about which pictures to show; instead she moves to carefully flip back through the book, page by page regardless of whether the contents are simple sketches or better-realized drawings. She does it slowly, affording him the opportunity both to look and to ask her to pause somewhere if he likes. The drawings are many and varied, but the most recent ones are exclusively of the partygoers. Lots of them, really - honestly it'd probably be a shorter list naming the ones she hasn't drawn yet. Obviously there are plenty of familiar faces - Tuuri, Honir, even Lalli himself. ]

❰ for his part, lalli lets her flip through the pages at her own page - at least until tuuri's face shows up. his hand reaches out to set fingertips on the edge of the page, a wordless 'wait' as he looks over the picture. naminé seems to have caught tuuri in one of her quieter moments, watching the partygoers with intrigue instead of actually interacting with them herself. maybe she was eating at the time, hard to say. it's just... interesting, because this is the exact tuuri that he most enjoys being around.

then he lets his hand drop and peers at the faces on the next couple of pages. honir he recognizes, but his next reaction doesn't come until the flip of a page reveals his own face. it earns a quiet surprised sort of noise in his throat, one he likely doesn't even quite realize he's made as he studies the lines of it, the way a few dozen strokes of her pencil captured his likeness so recognizably.

he's seen his reflection on many a window or pool of water, but the lines of his face here are softer than he's used to seeing them. she must have drawn him while he was talking to emil. ❱

They're good, ❰ he says this time, just a couple of seconds delayed. he doesn't thank her for showing him - doesn't even realize that might be a thing he should do. both emil and tuuri take shifts balking at his lack of anything resembling manners, but neither of them are here right now and a rarely-delivered compliment should be plenty. ❱

[ The girl stills before his hand even reaches the page, her slender fingers relaxing around the paper as she sees him move from the edge of her vision. They slip away entirely after a moment, both of her palms curling around the sketchbook to hold it steady so that he can look as long as he wishes. Clearly he's seen someone he recognizes, though Naminé makes no comment on having observed as much. To expect he'd volunteer such information would probably be foolhardy; she merely elects not to pry, at least not right away.

Presently he no longer blocks her from moving on and she doesn't dawdle about continuing to flip through pages, perhaps just a tiny bit more slowly than before. Curiosity creeps up in the back of her mind as they near the drawing of him, and he doesn't disappoint. She knows he's recognized himself by the sound, and pauses accordingly.

She's stolen a few glances to check for his reaction so far, and she does so again now, head tipping slightly to the side so that she can peek at him. Her gaze is as nonintrusive as she can make it, but she can't help wondering what he'll think. It's not often she's been able to share her drawings; although she's never been one to give much thought to how she appears to others, she still hopes that he'll like it. (That he won't be bothered, at the very least.) It's hard to know for sure what it is he's thinking, but he doesn't seem put off - and yet there's a notable hint of relief in the smile that curls her lips at the compliment. ]

Thank you, [ she says in a breath, genuine gratitude filling the words, because at least one of them has manners. But she doesn't even think to feel as though she's owed any pleasantries herself, and whether his lack of them is atrocious or not makes little difference to her. (She's not used to people being polite in her general direction anyhow.)

Now that she seems to have exhausted most of the drawings she's done at the party, she takes a moment to consider the most recent page, herself. The likeness is uncanny, it's true - there's something strangely honest about her drawings no matter how complete or incomplete they are, as if they're more recollection than creation. For a few seconds she's quiet, and then, ]

You can have one of them, if you want to.

[ Turning, she regards him properly, face kind and eyes just that little bit curious. ]

Maybe that picture of the girl?

Edited 2019-08-20 05:59 (UTC)

❰ though lalli wasn't at all subtle, he still feels a bit like he's been caught when the girl (politely but astutely) offers to let him keep the picture of tuuri. he huffs out a breath and glances away, almost like he's going to deny it - but different words come out instead. ❱

Tuuri. ❰ but without context, that's basically just a sound effect, so - ❱ My cousin. ❰ that's who the girl in the picture is. ❱ Guess I'll take it if you don't want it. ❰ which is as close to 'yes please' as he's ever going to get. ❱

[ The tilt to her head becomes more pronounced for a moment after his reaction, as if she's contemplating whether or not to apologize for having pointed it out. But she holds her tongue long enough for him to speak up, and soon her expression shifts through surprise to a quiet sort of happiness. ]

I didn't realize you had family here.

[ And yet this development seems to hearten her; she looks awfully pleased by the idea considering it's not even her relative. ]

In that case - yes, I think you should take it. Since you know her, after all.

[ Naminé begins to turn back to the page that contains the drawing of Tuuri, then proceeds to very carefully extract the paper from her sketchbook. She's both conscientious and practiced at it, and it comes out cleanly. Task accomplished, she holds the drawing out to Lalli for him to take, expression right on the edge of a smile. ]

Here.

❰ and as grudging as lalli may have seemed about it in words, he accepts it into his hands without a moment's hesitation, giving it another quick once-over before letting it drop to his side. ❱

You should show me, ❰ he says, ❱ if you draw any more. ❰ he really wants to tack on an 'especially if it's emil' but she doesn't know who that is and neither pointing him out nor answering questions about him are worth the energy. ❱

[ Naminé makes sure he has the paper firmly in his possession before her own hand falls, coming to rest lightly along the side of her sketchbook. He certainly doesn't seem as reluctant as his words would imply, but she keeps that to herself as she regards him, the corners of her mouth staying curled. ]

I can do that, [ she agrees, then adds with a hint of an apology in her tone, ] Although I draw pretty often. You might have a lot to look at next time.

[ Is that a warning or a bonus? ]

Okay, ❰ he says, one shoulder lifting in a vague shrug. if it's a threat, it's not a very good one.

he glances off across the gathering now, spotting his group (klaus and emil, in this case - the other three are batting for heimdall) before turning back to naminé. ❱ Should probably get back. ❰ it seems like it's all going to be starting kind of soon-ish, and he'd like to be in their general vicinity when that happens. ❱

[ It appears she didn't really want to scare him off, because she smiles just a smidgeon more noticeably as she responds with the warm echo of a differently-toned, ]

Okay.

[ Her eyelids flutter in a ghost of a blink as his attention shifts, her head naturally turning to follow the line of his eyes. More friends, perhaps? That seems like a reasonable assumption, and there's a funny mix of understanding and genuine gladness in her expression when she straightens as he excuses himself. ]

Yes-- of course. You wouldn't want to keep anyone waiting.

[ Although she's alone, herself - but that doesn't seem to trouble her, or if it does it isn't visibly. ]

Until next time, then. It was... good to see you again.

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AUGUST INTRO LOG: MORE THAN MEETS THE EYE

A, are you sick of him yet

NOT EVEN A LITTLE BIT

g o o d

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