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

[thatsnake]

[ Odin's one thing, but he knows Lucifer— except he's not used that name in eons, and this clown's nothing at all like him.

What do you mean, things are different in different universes? ]

Isn't that the sort of thing the devil would do? Tempt a human to a sinful little fiddle contest by dangling a shiny prize, only to make it entirely awful and useless in reality?

[ Not that Crowley would do something like that himself, of course... Not his style. ]

[turnanythingon]

[ Again with the harmful stereotypes. He was going to pull something form all of the eye rolling. But he, too, was still grappling with that whole "different universes" concept. Kind of hard to fix his thinking since there's only been the one for as long as he'd been alive. Which was slightly less than the length of all time itself. ]

For starters, what was so sinful about that contest? And second, I don't tempt people. Humans are more than capable of tempting themselves. Seems counter productive to go around making MORE work for myself, doesn't it?

[thatsnake]

[ Don't ask him, he's just a normal human person who is obviously not a demon.

—Hang on. ] Huh?


So you just... [ he waggles his head, eyebrows rising from behind his shades, ]

do nothing?

[ It's not that Crowley disagrees with the premise— rather the opposite— but Satan's quite keen on the whole tempting business. Or at least, on sending functionaries Up There to do the job for him. But that's Hell 101. Everyone knows it.

It's as if someone was trying very hard to convince you that they were Batman, with the deeply held conviction that vigilantism is morally unjustifiable. What, exactly, is he playing at? ]

[turnanythingon]

What? No!

[ Said with all the offense as if he'd already explained himself clearly and Crowley had clearly misunderstood him. ]

I didn't just lounge around like some unemployed loser in his mum's basement. I had a job to do. Punishing evil. Hell's full of enough souls without trying to pack in even more. I didn't even want them in the first place, but they just kept showing up at my doorstep like stray cats, demanding to be punished. Why the bloody hell would I want more?!

[ And he said it all with the seriousness, conviction, and vague offense of someone who was being honest. Because he was. ]

[thatsnake]

[ Why...?

He does do an admirable job maintaining a straight face as Lucifer goes on— until he hits that question at the end, and Crowley just,

barks out a laugh, something suddenly harsh and darkly-humored in it. (He sounds, if we're being honest here, a bit like a mallard.) ]

[turnanythingon]

[ He's been laughed at before for it, but it's usually a tittering sort of nervous laugh. Not usually something so...involved and frankly ugly. For a moment he just stared at Crowley as if a slug had just landed on his shoe.

But he didn't come here to be mocked. And there was this wonderful tool he had to be rid of problems he didn't want to deal with. And that was walking away. So he threw up his hands and strode passed Crowley. Only he didn't get far, stopping to throw open the door immediately next to the demon's. ]

[thatsnake]

[ He sneers as Lucifer throws his hands up, not feeling the least bit bad about laughing in his face. Six millennia he's spent wiling on Earth at Hell's behest, and to hear someone claiming to be the Big Guy himself say... that,

well, it's just too much. ]

Oh! I live next door the devil, lucky me.