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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[ even after his conversations with onni and klaus after the fight, reynir had been hard pressed to drag himself to the evening party, and he's been staring blankly down at his plate for the last five minutes without moving, lost in his own thoughts.

which is to say, he's more than a little startled when isha slides over and speaks to him, and it takes him a beat to work through her question in his head before he finally answers. ]

Oh, I... [ he shakes his head in an effort to more or less shake the frown physically off his face, eyes clearing slightly in the process. ] I don't think any of them are really better than the other, it just depends on what you need from them. What you think they can help you with.

[Isha laughs, a singular mocking ha!, as if the notion of anyone in power, let alone a god would be willing to help anyone without some kind of payment.]

What I need from the gods? Bloody hell, I'd need my dog and vintage Alexander McQueen dresses, but I really doubt they'd be willing to help.

[She shakes her head as she gazes out. The thief knows enough stories to know that asking a god for anything is a disaster. Something inevitably fucks up, breaks, dies, what have you.

Sure, she may be in the business of making deals, but she's not in the business of making deals that she can't get out of.]

I really doubt upper management is so charitable.

[ wow that is a. really combative approach to take to this whole thing, huh? reynir's a touch taken aback by her answer, really. he knows that not everyone here is especially dedicated to his gods past simple necessity but nobody's managed to be quiet this fiercely disapproving until now. ]

It's not really about material objects. [ reynir starts cautiously, tamping down firmly on the desire to ask her what an alexander mcqueen is. ]

It's about them giving you the strength to get those things for yourself.

[Her eyebrows rise faintly.]

That sounds even more ludicrous. I built my dog and I stole money to get the dresses. [It's not as if it's a secret anymore, now that her record is more or less out there.]

No one gives anything for free, much less the means to do anything else. [If he squints, he might be able to see someone whose suspicions run far beyond her bones.

Isha crosses her arms, somewhat unimpressed by the idea of this whole scenario.] So what do the gods expect of us for granting us such power to do what we please?

You... you built a dog? [ reynir has no idea whether to be excited or horrified by that particular combination of words, honestly. enough so that his mind manages to completely skip over the issue of stolen money.

either way though, she's asking him a question and even if reynir can't pretend to be the utmost expert on the subject he feels like he owes his gods the effort regardless. ]

Well, I mean. You pray to them, I guess? Sigrun told me they like blood, but I never did anything like that and they were still there for me when I needed help so they're probably fine as long as you really mean it?

I hardly doubt Odin would take me for any sort of priestess.

[She's likely the least qualified to be anything remotely religious or devoted, given that she prefers to serve herself over others.]

But they do have your blood, in a way. Perhaps not quite literally, spilling blood was never a good look but...

[Isha trails off, trying to figure out how to best word it.]

We're all bound to them, and our life is made of blood. You've chosen to dedicate your life to them out of survival, so you've given them your body, entirely composed of blood. [She smiles wryly.] You probably have done something like that then. [A small beat.] And yes, I did built a dog, my pride and joy. Built from scraps at a tender age and ever a work in progress.

Oh, I don't think you need to be a priestess! [ reynir hurries to assure her.

because, well, he could hardly be accused of something like that himself. sure he'd been conscious of his gods before the trip to the silent world, but they hardly affected any part of his life.

what she's saying though? about his blood being his sacrifice to them? well that's fascinating. he's paying pretty rapt attention to her words and clearly making an effort to think them over. ] I never thought of it that way, but I guess that sort of makes sense? If I devote my mind to them why wouldn't that also involve my body?

[ she's given him a lot to think about basically. nothing troubling, but still. a lighter topic like her dog is a welcome distraction for now. ]

That's amazing, though! Are you... is it some kind of machine, or? What made you decide to make a dog?

Q is a robot, yes, the best robotic greyhound a person could never buy. We happen to match. [She says this with a bit of a sly grin as she raises her very overdone prosthetic left arm.]

I needed a bodyguard, really. Nothing too difficult about it. [And considering the circles she runs in, or, well, ran in? Having something or someone was necessary. She'd pissed off many people and she could really mostly rely on her speed and cunning, not brute strength.] I was raised a hacker and trained to be an engineer, so I built him what I knew. [Which is a lot. Odinhaus what's up?]

A... robot...

[ reynir's eyes drift slight up and to the side as if he might be able to find some sort of answer in that direction, but doesn't have much luck. robots might be something from the old world that was lost like, oh what were they, holographs? or maybe they were just something from her world alone, there was really no way for him to be sure.

either way he can sort of get an idea of how it works from context anyway, and combined with the newly supplied visual of her arm it's more than enough to leave reynir deeply impressed. ]

What did you need a bodyguard for?

[ and what the heck is a hacker???? ]

Oh, I was a criminal at large. [Said with complete nonchalance, as if she were answering questions about the time or the temperature.] Big boys aren't nice to big girls, so big girls have to have big toys.

[She sometimes regrets having built Q with such a heavy frame, given that's what was easily available to her. It slows him down, makes him difficult sometimes to carry if a mishap occurred, but honestly?

His weight alone is enough to physically stop people chasing after her.]

[ well, reynir's certainly never met someone that just outright admitted to being a criminal, and his wide eyes do a more than sufficient job of conveying this shock. nothing especially recriminatory, no, he hardly knows her situation well enough to cast any sort of judgement one way or another.

her little tongue twister after doesn't help matters any either. ]

Big... boys?

[She laughs, a singular ha! at his expression. Honestly, it's worth saying she's a criminal just to see everyone's expression.]

Yes, love, big boys. Tough boys, mean boys, boys boys. I hate to break it to you, but some of them are truly awful. It's always fun to prove them wrong.

[Whether it was drinking them under the table, outsmarting their clever ploys, or beating them in a fight, it was always so much sweeter when the opponent was someone who underestimated it.]

[ well she certainly has a particular way of talking, but reynir thinks he more or less gets what she's trying to get across to him right now, and that's more than enough for his expression to grow concerned rather than confused.

it doesn't matter if he doesn't know her, or that these things she's talking about were in the past, it still bothers him to hear about it in the first place. ]

... but your dog helped keep you safe?

For the most part.

[She cocks her head slightly upon seeing the change in his expression.]

You seem unused to the idea of criminal activity and fighting.

Ah, well. [ cue anxious, awkward fiddling. ]

Criminal activity, yes, I can't really say that I've... I grew up on a farm? There's really not much need for that sort of thing.

I've seen fighting, but never really between, well, people. We kind of have enough to worry about with the trolls and giants and ghosts.

[She gives him an incredibly skeptical look, because fighting trolls and giants and ghosts were always the ones for stories.

Then again, look where she is now.]

I can't tell if you got the better or worse end of the deal, really.

[ reynir actually takes a moment to consider that point thoroughly before nodding once with decisive motion as he proclaims: ] I think I'd still rather the ghosts than people.

I don't even like arguing with friends. [ if lalli and emil could really be considered such. ] I can't even imagine trying to hurt another person on purpose.

And besides, I think my magic was really better suited to dealing with ghosts than people, back home. [ a small, half shoulder shrug. ] Not that it seems to be much good for anything here, though.

[Isha shrugs.]

Who knows. People might suddenly turn into ghosts, or the ghosts will come out of the woodworks. We are in a land of gods and apparently anything is possible.

[She sounds as if nothing should be possible and has a very hard time believing as such.]

[ obviously ghosts were all originally people to begin with, there's really no getting away from that idea after all that reynir's seen, even if they barely qualified as such by the time reynir had much direct interaction with them.

back home that was a process of decades though, and the idea of people he knows here in asgard turning into a ghost suddenly sends a visible chill up his spine. ]

I... I really hope that doesn't happen.

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AUGUST INTRO LOG: MORE THAN MEETS THE EYE

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