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! ]

Flat | Top-Level Comments Only

Yeah, I could definitely do that. And the outside'd probably be blue or green, like my teal. But inside? There'd be red, but there'd be all sorts of colors. I like a splash here and there, everywhere really. Just go nuts with the slathering of it all.

[Do not let this girl paint every room of the house. It would be a disaster.]

[ Ironically, Naminé was probably exactly the wrong person to try to stop her. After so long surrounded by white, she had quite an appreciation for more colorful choices. ]

That sounds exciting. [ Which she said genuinely, despite having a beat in there wherein she was struggling to choose the correct word. 'Eye-searing' was probably what someone else might have said. ]

Would you want to paint murals? Not just colors, but-- pictures.

[Well, there were far worse follies to enable. It would just be a little eye blistering is all. She bobbed her head and grinned broadly as it seemed like she got it.]

I could almost certainly do murals. I used to paint pictures, but they're always a little crude when you do them with a blindfold on. i could do so much better detail without that, couldn't I?

[ Hey, so long as Terezi was happy, it didn't matter much whether everyone else was quite as excited about her decorating choices. ]

You probably could...!

[ Or so she would assume. But of course; ]

You'd know better than I would if it would make a big difference. I'm not as familiar with how well your nose works as you are.

[ Terezi's capacity for detail even while technically blind was not exactly something Naminé was bold enough to question. ]

Not quite as well as it should, but this kind of work's more what I can do. I can smell the colors up close, so I can get a feel for it as I work. Still, my art skills are absolutely primo, so it'll turn out something great and avante garde.

[It would definitely be one of those things, definitely. Both? Was all in the eyes of the beholder.]

[ Perhaps it was a good thing Terezi spent so much time blindfolded. ]

I'd be very interested to see what you would come up with. [ Encouragingly said, as was, ]

Although now that you mention it, I realize we've known each other such a long time to not have drawn together.

[Possibly. Funny story was that, when she got her sight back, some of the places she thought smelled wonderful were WAY too bright for her tastes. Price of being a nocturnal creature, really.]

Hehe, that's true. We haven't drawn much together, have we? I do own some colored chalk if you want to do the cobblestones one of these days?

[ Naminé would be quite sympathetic, were she aware. She still found all the color and motion of places outside her familiar white rooms a bit overwhelming at times, herself. ]

We could, [ she agreed, looking as though she was considering something. ] Or-- we could use my colored pencils. On paper, that is - I've got plenty for us here, if you'd like to draw today instead...!

Hmmmm... yeah, that would be a good use of our time. I'll get the chance to paint a house eventually, after all. Why not do a little drawing right now?

... I claim the red ones, Naminé! [Duuuuuh.]

No reason. [ Not to, that was - said cheerfully. ] It might even be good practice...!

[ Though of course she had neither the desire not inclination to impugn Terezi's art skills. Hiding a laugh behind her hand, ]

Of course. I won't even ask you to share. But you'll need some other colors, won't you?

Hmmm, probably. Let's see which colors pass the smell test when they're here, and I can decide what sorts of drawings to do.

[Really, sort of the odd thing here was that she was known for fairly monochromatic drawings at times, but multicolored did sound good here. Lots of different flavors to work with, after all.]

Alright - that sounds reasonable.

[ For Terezi, anyway. Naminé wouldn't have expected anyone else to inspect the drawing materials for their scents. ]

… But my pencils are back upstairs. I'll get them down for us, if you'd like to wait here.

Sure thing. I'll wait here for you, Naminé

[And with any luck? She wasn't going to cause any trouble in the interim. Probably. Hopefully... probably!]

I'll just be a minute.

[ Clearly she had sufficient reason to believe Terezi wouldn't get up to any mischief... right? In any case, Naminé didn't seem worried as she returned to the ladder, disappearing upstairs for a few moments. Her footsteps were light as they moved across the floor, and a bit of rustling indicated she was collecting the pencils in question. That done, she returned to the ladder, proceeding down it without incident, although a bit more slowly with one arm clutching art supplies against her side. ]

I think I found most of them...!

[The main room wasn't even destroyed when Naminé had gotten back. Besides, the little terror was trying to behave herself, and she wasn't usually that destructive most days. As soon as she arrived, the troll was grinning back at her, settling back where she was seated on the floor.]

Awesome, thanks! Now what do we draw? That's the question.

[ Naminé had enough faith in the troll not to even check to be sure nothing had been defaced, disfigured or otherwise devalued in her absence. The blonde's eyes stayed firmly on the rungs of the ladder until she was back on solid ground, then shifted to her moirail as she made her way over with the aforementioned goods. ]

It's a very good question, [ the Nobody agreed, glancing at the floor before deciding where to place the materials and herself. Sitting next to the other girl, Naminé spread the drawing utensils out in the space before the two of them. Various pencils and papers were arrayed, some of them rather mismatched; she'd done a lot of collecting during that rain of junk, it seemed. Eyes lifting, ]

What do you usually draw?

[She reached with a sniff rather instinctively for one of the red pencils and held it up, barely, just barely avoiding licking it by the thinnest of margins. But oh she wanted to lick it. That was the thing with red stuff after all.]

Mmm? Oh, I'm usually drawing trolling of my friends as a rule, poking fun, that sort of thing, or I'm drawing legal kinds of stuff... though that'd be kind of boring here.

What about you?

[ It was a very nice red pencil - clean, well-used without having deteriorated or gotten too small for comfortable manipulation yet. All neatly sharpened, too. Naminé tilted her head as the troll sniffed it, unaware of the temptation that could theoretically risk getting it all spitty. ]

Drawing legal...?

[ What those kinds of depictions were Naminé couldn't say, so instead she let the thought go, perking at the question. ]

Things I remember, mostly. People, or places, or moments that seemed important.

[ To someone, if not to her. While she spoke, she considered the other pencils, fingers trailing idly over them as she considered which she ought to start with. ]

Oh! Not like legal briefs. That'd be boring. Legal proceedings. You know court cases in progress, the judge standing over it and presiding over the proceedings. The execution. Fun stuff, Naminé.

[If one considered drawings of hanging stuffed animals to be fun, that is. But then again she'd always been a little on the violent side, hadn't they?]

Those are good things to draw, to remember. You wouldn't want to forget any of them.

[ Naminé umed very quietly, looking slightly bemused at the description. (Or the last part of it, anyway, since she had no particular fondness for depicting people coming to bodily harm, state-approved or not.) But she was nothing if not capable of seeing things from another's perspective, and responded presently, ]

That... does sound more exciting than paperwork. I don't think I've ever seen what a real court case looks like, other than-- well, a not very nice one. I'm not sure it was legitimate.

[ Although on the subject of memories, she nodded faintly, expression easing slightly. ]

No, you wouldn't. It's amazing, how deeply buried memories can become if you aren't careful.

[ Or if you were careful and happened to be a memory witch burying them on purpose, but that was neither here nor there. ]

Mmmm? What kind of memories you talking about there? Why would you bury them real deep? Oh right because you don't want to lose them at all, do you? Little buried treasures in the blood pusher and the like.

[She nodded vigorously at that. Admittedly, she was curious what Naminé might be referring to, but also willing to leave it at 'just speaking in general' even if she suspected there was more to it than that. Her curiosity, though was also piqued rather predictably by the court case.]

What kinda court was it, if you don't mind me asking?

Oh-- any kind of memories, really. [ Except by the falter in her voice, it sounded as though she could think of some specifics if she were truly willing to. Casting a hand over her hair, she hesitated, though when she spoke it was with the directness of someone who knew about the subject. ]

Even cherished ones can become hidden under all the others. The things that were important to us once get forgotten eventually, with enough time. It can be for the better, but... not always. That's why I try to remember what I can.

[ So that she could help other people remember things, too. Even without her powers, that, at least, she could manage to some extent. And naturally Terezi would inquire about that particular memory, and with the ghost of a smile Naminé responded, ]

I don't mind. Actually, I wasn't there myself, but from what I understand - a young lady was on trial for attempting to kill the queen. Only there wasn't any evidence at all, and the queen herself was the judge. She... didn't seem to care very much about what the truth really was.

You know what you really need, to add to all that? A camera. You should start uh... what's the word... bookscrapping? No, no, scrapbooking. You know. To keep pictures of the memories along with the stuff in your think pan, just in case.

[Hey, it sounded like a great idea to her! Something that would let her have things to help with recall. Make it easy to share. Did the bracelets have some sort of feature? She wasn't sure off the hand.]

Wait... so she was on trial for attempting to kill the person whoo was putting her on trial? That... uh, that doesn't work normally. I mean, why didn't the queen just try to kill her? Why bother with a court if she didn't care about the truth?

That's really weird.

Scrap... booking? [ The, 'I don't think I know what that is' was circumvented by the description that followed, which caused Naminé a soundless, 'oh'. ] Pictures, huh? Like - the way the bracelets can send recordings?

[ But as still pictures? Or something? It sounded like it could be promising, really, once she could get her head around it. Nodding at the question, ]

Yes, exactly. I think the queen usually let her guards do all the dirty work - she mostly just yelled a lot. It was... a very strange world. A lot of things there were backwards.

Yeah, like that, only you're supposed to put it in a bookworm hive or the like. Not on the bracelet. Humans do it, from what I heard but I never quite saw the point. But here? It's kind of a neat idea, don'tcha think? A chance to hold onto the memories.

[It wasn't usually her thing, but it kind of sounded good in a way. Just a way to hold onto the little snippets she'd run across here.]

Ahhhh, there we go. She had the guards to do the... yeah, no, now that makes more sense. Royalty's like that sometimes, but she kind of sounds on the real bad side of it. Like the Empress was.

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AUGUST INTRO LOG: MORE THAN MEETS THE EYE

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