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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He outright rolls his eyes in response, too. At this point he should get a reward for being able to keep his cool. So far, though, his run-ins with Vault Hunters - which have existed of a solid one - has been more positive than not.

He puts a hand on his hip.

"Yeah, well, I'm not a Vault Hunter and I was brought here in the same manner as you, so I'm pretty sure they're not hiring you. They're more inclined to increase the population at the moment, actually."

There was something about this guy. Everyone here - they'd had a blank look on their face when she'd brought it up. Talked about who she was, what she did. Or they just looked suddenly and unexpectedly ill.

He... wasn't though. No, he really, really wasn't. Her eyes narrow briefly, his words tuned out. What he's saying, it doesn't matter particularly right then. Not to her anyway.

She jumps off the table suddenly. Landing heavily in front of him on her boots. Which - yeah. Yeah, she's damn small as she looks up at him. Really looks up at him. Hands on her hips, rocking up on her toes then falling back in that skittering inability to stand still. Pandoran ready, Pandoran made.

"You're not freaked out. Everyone else goes green when I start talking like they've never even heard of Pandora before, let alone half the shit I just said. Why aren't you freaked out?"

Well, at least she's off the table. That's progress. It's no surprise, either, that she realizes that something is off in comparison to anyone else here. Everything is wrong, everyone is off. Nothing fits the patterns that he's used to, and she's undoubtedly noticing it too.

He does grimace a little, as he trows a glance around. Everyone seems to be from places that are ... nicer, even with illnesses that wiped out most of humanity or being persecuted for being some 'lesser' species.

"Because I've been on Pandora. Nobody else here has heard of it. They're from somewhere else in the universe, or from Earth a thousand years ago. What was your name? I'm pretty sure I've seen your face on a poster or something."

Her eye go big and wide, bright green in the soft lighting for just a second, that almost manic edge, pushed against, then pulled back as she lands flat on her heels.

"Shit. I mean, yeah, duh I am not surprised if you've been on Pandora. Handsome Jack smacked our faces on every damn poster he could find space for after we had the audacity to not die when he wanted us too. I'm Gaige. Think the posters called me Gaige the Mechromancer. Think the Halloway's still have that 10 bajillion dollar bounty out on me too."

But there's that mean sharp, far too competent smile on her face. Bad enough that she's loud, brash and arrogant, but there's a surety there, to her violence, to her capabilities. It's not even that she thinks she's a big deal, not like that anyway. Not when she stood in a fight next to a goddamn siren, took orders from another one, and had been around the biggest badasses this side of the galaxy. It's that she knows it was her that stood beside them, it's that she knows exactly what she's capable of. "Or they did until we killed Jack, now they're just around as momentos. Fuck Off Signs, that's what Axton calls them. No one's trying to cash that cheque now, no matter how many zeros they stick after it."

Edited 2019-08-18 15:57 (UTC)

Gaige the Mechromancer. That's the robot she was talking about. She built that herself, didn't she? God. Imagine just building a robot from scratch. Loader-Bot is great and all, which he's pretty sure he's obligated to think considering how often it's saved his life, but if he could build his own-- He totally would.

"You're Gaige?" he says, his voice suddenly a bit more high-pitched than it was a moment ago, and he clears his throat. "I'm Rhys."

He's fine. He's cool.

Wait, that name? Felt somehow...

Nah, didn't ring a bell.

"Yep, that's me. The wanted posters made me look way less cute than in real life, huh?" there is a correct answer here, obviously, to go with the smile. "Nice to meet ya, Rhys. You come from Pandora? guessing not, you're way too able to have a decent conversation."

"Uhhh ..."

Well. It's not wrong. They definitely made her look less cute and way more mad. Standing on a table and shouting at the top of her lungs definitely made her look quite like the posters. He's surprised it didn't hit him immediately, but he supposes he didn't exactly study those things too closely.

He just. Won't say anything, and hopefully that makes her think she's so cute she just makes him speechless or something.

"No. I've spent all of, like ... two days maybe, on Pandora, right before I was suddenly here. And I'd like to say that was plenty."

"Pfft, anyone you care about dead yet? That's how you know you've been on Pandora long enough."

That's not comforting, but to anyone on Pandora - that's just life. Her head tilted, grin too sharp, too thin on her ribs, too full in her mouth. The way of someone who had been there far, far too long, that no longer where she came from - she would always come from Pandora.

His throat twists painfully, as the image of Vaughn and the rest surrounded by those Atlas drones springs back into mind. After what they've been through, he'd like to think that wouldn't be enough to take them out, but-- What does he know?

At least that's what he wants to believe, so he shakes his head.

"Not yet. Hopefully."

"Here's hoping buddy."

There has been too many - now. Too many for her to count. From the ones that are seared open. Roland. Bloodwing. Angel. Nevermind the stories she's heard. About TK, CL4P-TP's entire production line. The way that there is a graveyard under her feet, and the way she's learned to compensate with too much laughter, too much violence, an inability to ever stop.

"Anyway - nice to meet ya, Rhys. So if you're not from Pandora, why you there? No one goes to that craphole for no reason."

... Well, shit.

He doesn't really want to say he went there looking for a Vault Key. Sure, plenty of people do and plenty of people want Vault Keys, but that doesn't mean he's keen on letting a Vault Hunter know about it. He especially doesn't want to say anything about the Gortys Project.

It takes a couple of seconds for him to answer, and he opts for something very vague.

"Let's just call it bad luck."

No one especially wants to let a Vault Hunter know about it. That was just common sense. She was one, and she knew better. And maybe there is suspicion there. A gut low instinct. The madness that made Pandora so awful was the same reason everyone came there. The Vaults. It always, one way or another, came back to the Vaults. That gutless, merciless race, hunger for it. That went beyond even the corporations. Because Vaults were a wasteland of people who thought they were so strong, and it all came to nothing in that pointless pursuit for what might be hiding inside of those strange places.

But there are a few things that have been beaten into her since that out so fatalistic train crash: don't say nothing, don't start nothing.

So she gives that mad little grin without a beat missing, laughs with it. "Yeah, that's all of us. Don't think anyone calls it good luck when you get landed there."

He laughs, a bit awkward, pretty dry, and scratches the back of his neck. It was definitely a given answer, but at least it was an answer.

"Yeah, I guess there's no one that would." This seems like a good place to try and change the subject. "So. You weren't born on Pandora either? Where you from?"

"Eden-5, way back before all that crap went down."

Erg, Marcie. But whatever, she shoved her first. She should have been paying attention and not been a bully and shoved her to start with. It was Gaige's fault that DT had been calibrated slightly wrong.

Okay. maybe it had.

"You?"

His eyebrows shoot up in recognition.

"Huh. Me too."

Not that it's necessarily strange. People come to Pandora from all over for the Eridium and the Vaults, and Gaige is clearly a smart girl to be able to build a robot. A student? Maybe.

"Why did you leave? Did you get bored?"

He's been gone from Eden-5 so long he has no idea what's going on there anymore.

"No fucking way, small galaxy huh? But you don't know the story? It's why my bounty is so damn high. Like I'm good, but I'm not Lilith or Athena."

More than even Maya's, and it's not because she was in anyway scarier than a freaking Siren. No, it has everything to do with that explosive fucking exit. "So you know how I built DT for the Eden-5 science fair, yeah? Well. Everything went to hell the night of the science fair."

He shrugs. No, he doesn't know it. Clearly something happened.

"I've been away for a long time, but I'm not surprised to hear it went to hell." Everything is a competition on that planet, and people tend to approach it like it's win or die. "What happened?"

"You know the Halloway family? The rich jerkbags?"

Well, who didn't on Eden-5.

"I was the same year as their daughter, Marcie Halloway. After she stole my idea, and my designs for DT, to sell them to freaking police. You know like those corrupt jerk bags need help. Then entered into the science competition, with MY idea. But go figure, her idea was shit compared to mine, I should have won and everyone knew it. They knew it so much, that Marcie's dad paid off the judge's panel."

She's gesturing with it wildly, getting angrier as she goes with the story. "And I got third place. Third place!"

A snort.

"Yeah. Of course they did."

Duh. Sounds Eden-5, all right. They were few enough for Rhys to count them on his hands, but plenty of people would get good grades who definitely didn't deserve them but, really, what does it matter? Let teachers take their bribes and the idiots who don't have the know-how to do their work gets the short end of the stick in the end anyway.

...

Well, sometimes. Unless their dad or mom is up for coddling their kid forever even when said kid is messing up their company.

"What would you get for first place anyway? Why did you want it so bad?"

Edited 2019-09-06 06:11 (UTC)

"Uh, buddy you forget money rules the world? My parents are Tediore retirees. We aren't exactly loaded. This was my chance to land a scholarship with any university I wanted or get a job offer right after school was finished. Plus, she stole my idea. Yeah I freaking care."

Duh.

"Anyway, didn't happen. Obviously. She won, and but Marcie couldn't help but come over and gloat at me. That she had won and I hadn't, and she... shoved me. And - I kind of made a mistake in my calculations? It was tiny. Just forgot to adjust one little zero in DT digistructing claws, that I had made initially to stop bullies, that was all. DT was supposed to help with that, and he just - did what he was supposed to. It should have been fine."

And she still sounds, that little bit nervous, panicked, despite the years since then. But it doesn't get better, the distinctive night that the whole world went to hell. That she lost the chance to ever go home again. Made her a Vault Hunter. Made her run and never stop. She hadn't wanted to kill Marcie. Highschool's bullies were just a fact of life. They happened, it didn't mean she wanted her dead, just to show her up. Show off how good she was in comparison.

But then she was -

"Marcie - just - exploded. Like, bits, everywhere, blood, just - over the walls. Just. Boom. Gone. I had to pick her teeth out of my hair. Everything went to hell."

"Oh. Shit."

Gaige had been ... perfectly normal. As normal as anyone can be outside of Pandora, anyway, which is honestly pretty normal. She just wanted to go to university, find a job, not have to worry too much about money.

That's why she's on Pandora now. Much easier to stay off people's radar.

"Wow. That sucks." For everyone involved. What does he even say? "I'm sorry."

"Yeah. It did." He doesn't, but she does at least. Used to it now. Not just that this is her life, but that life sucked. For everyone. Things just freaking happened some times, and compared to all the days that would follow? It seemed small now. "I was facing life in prison when I'd never been in trouble once before in my life. I'd never even gotten detention. I was a whole lot of talk and no teeth, never actually stepped a toe out of line, I had no idea what to do. But my Dad - he helped me out. Staged this big diversion, and I ran the chance I got. Ticket to the first place I could think of where no one from Eden would follow me. So, off I went, straight to Pandora."

Not an easy choice, and yet, at the time - the only choice. Live or die, run and don't stop, not if you don't want to get caught. If you don't want the thing that was chasing you to catch you. Law enforcement, skags or loader bots. It's what kept her alive. All mean spaces between the ribs. The hollow under her tongue when it clicks against her teeth. That fidget in her body that is never still, because stillness no longer served it.

"Halloway's still have a bounty out on me. It's for like, a bajillion dollars. But yeah, after Jack, no one has bothered to claim it. Officially not worth it when I got DT and hang out with people like Maya and Zer0 and Salvador. And Axton. And Krieg. Especially Krieg. Hooo, boy, no one is ever ready for Krieg."

Yeah, it checks out. He's pretty sure the bounties on all the Vault Hunters are gathering dust by now. It just isn't worth it, no matter how many zeroes you'd get. It's possible Hyperion would still pay it, considering the Vault Hunters killed Handsome Jack, but the question doesn't need answering anyway.

Everything considering, he supposes Pandora is better than prison.

A lot more exciting, anyway.

"Do I want to know about Krieg?"

Probably not, but here he is, asking.

Edited 2019-09-11 10:34 (UTC)

There's a little hum. "You ever seen a Badass Psycho? The really big ones. Not just a bandit, but the guys that got mutated to be 8 feet tall, and covered in muscles. Krieg is one of them."

You can't miss 'em. If not the actual thing the planet was really known for. "Just not quite. See, he wasn't the slow product of years of exposure. He was a normal guy, we think, but he was... experimented on by Hyperion. The scientists tortured him, twisted him. Until he turned up the other side like that. But... we don't know. It's not like he's capable of talking to us but ... he understands. Somewhere in there. He's devoted to Maya the Siren, he goes anywhere she goes. I mean, still crazy. But, good. Good kind of crazy."

Which is - well, it's honest. It's Pandora. That's what you get. At least Krieg knew what he was. Followed it like a line. They may not know what was going on in that crazy landscape that was his head but, as long as they knew that about them, then? Well, the rest didn't matter.

Luckily, he's never seen that. Just ... normal sized psychos, and that was enough. There's a full-body shiver at the very idea of it. Sounded terrifying. This Krieg guy? Also sounded really terrifying, 'good' kind of crazy or not. Not someone Rhys wanted to run into in an alleyway.

The fact that Hyperion caused it for him ... No, that's not surprising. Why wouldn't they do shit like that? The place is rotten to the core.

But, really, what isn't?`

"Are we sure Pandoran brand psychos can't understand too?"

Is there actually such a thing as a good kind of crazy.

AUGUST INTRO LOG: MORE THAN MEETS THE EYE

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