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

[asgardsflight]

At her question, he tilts his head with a non-committal hum.

"I mean, technically yes? But also in a way, no."

Which is terribly confusing, so he smiles warmly at her and holds out one of his hands between them, open palm facing up. One of the little lights starts blinks into life above the center of his palm, then flickers away, only to come back joined by another one nearby.

"The magic is already there, because it's everywhere and everything around us. But I like asking it to shine for us."

At some point in this explanation, he stopped looking at the mortal and went right back to being enchanted by the lights, watching them with an expression of deep fondness.

[demonicbeauty]

Ariadne watched with growing interest. She'd seen far more complicated spells, during her time at the missionary school in Valeria. But it seemed to her, that the purpose of this one was simply to be pleasing. So that was a new experience. "Sister Liaza used to say that," she murmured, her eyes following the light. "When I saw in on her magic lessons. Some girls used to laugh at me because I couldn't make the magic do anything."

What they saw was a mere Human. Which was exactly what Ariadne wanted them to see. But it would be a complete lie to say that she hadn't occasionally felt jealous. And while she lied quite often, she tried not to tell lies to herself.

She raised her palm, lifting it under the light as if she were trying to catch a firefly. "You must have real power."

[asgardsflight]

He smiles and drops his own hand so the lights can start gathering around her fingers in their own off-beat flickering. Real power, hm?

"I guess so. As the Mother's children, we've had the power to do just about anything we want to do for a long, long time."

They have bent and broke reality to their will over millennia, only just recently finding the stability to let life truly begin to flourish in Yggdrasil. Much of that magic is older than Honir himself, but even still - he grins at Ariadne, bright and earnest.

"But I've been having a lot of fun now that we're sharing it with others!"

[demonicbeauty]

One of the Mother's children, then? She had half suspected as much. But he didn't quite demonstrate the airs of a god. At least, in Ariadne's limited experience.

Not at all a complaint.

She laughed a little, as the lights flickered around her fingers. She turned her hand over, rippling her fingertips just slightly, watching to see the way they danced. "I still don't entirely understand it all," she admitted, looking up at him under her heavy-lidded eyes. "If you're sharing your powers with us, how do you know where we begin and you end? Or is it all one?"

Ariadne didn't feel different, despite her rather hasty decision to align with Sigyn. Not in her mind. But she wondered if that would come later. It scared a little, to think that she could be losing herself. Especially since there was so little of her to begin with. But on the other hand...

Oh, she'd just had no preparation for this.

[asgardsflight]

"I've never thought about it like that! For us, it's more like - hmm."

Honir wrinkles his nose as he ponders this one, because he's not always the best at explaining things. Odin would have a smarter answer, or any of the other immortals whose minds are less prone to defining things in bright lights and a wild imagination. He's a creature of whimsy by his very nature.

"Oh, okay! It's like if we're different colors of paint, and you are a perfectly unique painting with all kinds of colors and backgrounds and shiny details. When you join our god house, it's like we're looking for our paint and then making it a little brighter!"

There's an excited lilt to his voice as he says it all, seemingly pleased with this mental image he's running with even though it's not really accurate.

"So I don't really know if there's an end or a beginning between us. We're all made out of the same magic! We're just giving you… a new paintbrush, maybe? No, that's not quite right."

Ah, he lost himself in his own metaphor. He goes back to puzzling over it, obviously no more prepared to answer something he doesn't fully understand himself but still earnestly trying.

[demonicbeauty]

If anyone could sympathize with not being able to explain things, it was Ariadne. She knew she wasn't smart. Not in the ways of magic or books or rhetoric. And though she had many languages at her disposal, none of them could really do justice to her childhood. To what it was like to be part of a pack.

Huh. But maybe that was a way to look at these gods. Leaders of packs.

She'd have to think about it more.

"What should I call you?" she asked, canting her head to one side like a bird.

[asgardsflight]

Her question pulls him back out of his musings with a surprised little hm?

"Oh, my name is Honir! They call me the God of Travel and Whimsy, but that's a lot of words, so I just like Honir."

He is a simple creature delighted by simple things, so he beams at her and says far more excitedly, "It's very nice to meet you! What's your name?"

[demonicbeauty]

"Ariadne," she said, dipping into another curtsy, just as she'd been taught. "But you can call me 'Airy' if you like."

It was a nickname that suited her well. Because gravity barely held onto her. And when she was comfortable, she seemed to hold her arms out to either side, elbows slightly bent. Like she was about to spread her wings and fly.

And how she missed flying!

"We have a god of travelers in my realm," she added, almost apologetic. "He's the uncle of two of my..." Friends? Well, she couldn't exactly call them that. "...two courtiers in the court of Princess Amanda."

[asgardsflight]

Oh! He almost goes to curtsy again as she does, but he's so caught off-guard by it that he only teeters slightly before she's already done with it, and then he just straightens out with a confused smile. How does this thing work? Is it for thank yous or for names?

Who knows? Certainly not Honir.

But he's immediately distracted from trying to puzzle it out by the mention of another god of travel. His eyes light up like the sunrise and he looks fully enraptured in anything she might say.

"Really? Is he nice? Do you like him? Do your courtiers like him?"

He's misunderstanding a lot of things here, but he's vibrantly excited about it all the same. It seems the idea of another god under his name isn't an insult of any kind; he's rather delighted by it!

[demonicbeauty]

She realized that it was, perhaps, a bit out of line to mention another god with the same domain. But back home, the Elves respected the Daruc gods and the Darucs respected the Elf gods, even though neither would necessarily deign to worship the other. There was no harm in it. And Honir didn't seem upset, so Ariadne decided not to worry about it too much.

There was certainly already enough to worry about.

"I'm told that he's very, very kind," she said. "And much prefers the company of mortals to other gods. He even took a mortal wife."

...which, as she understood it, hadn't ended well. But she decided not to mention that. Honir didn't seem the sort to appreciate sadness. Then again, what did she know? This day had seen some of her longest conversations with gods ever.

"Lady Adriana and her brother Philip are quite fond of him. Apparently, he was something of a surrogate father to them."

[asgardsflight]

Honir makes an awed little ooh! when she mentions 'a mortal wife.' It's not scandalized in any way either; he doesn't have any frame of reference for what's "inappropriate" to do with a mortal, and he also doesn't know what a wife is. Rather, it's the excitement of hearing something he never would've thought about himself.

"Wow, he sounds amazing!"

Color him fully enchanted. It's the sincerity of a child listening to a fairy tale and knowing with absolute certainty that it must be true. Honir could listen to you tell your story until the end of days, Airy, be careful with this one.

"Are you friends with them? Lady Adriana and Brother Philip?"

[demonicbeauty]

Ariadne was pretty good at enchanting people when she needed to. After all, she was pretty and had a sweet demeanor. But she had to admit, she wasn't really trying with Honir. He wasn't like other immortals. She knew that. And she sort of liked it.

To say nothing of the fact that he hadn't once mentioned her green skin.

She appreciated that in anyone.

"Not really," she admitted, shrugging up one shoulder. Frankly, Ariadne didn't really have friends. Friends, from how she understood it, knew everything about each other. There wasn't a soul in Valeria, save for her auntie and uncle and maybe Princess Amanda who she didn't lie to. Constantly. Daily. "But I like to watch them sometimes."