thespherelogs | January Welcome Event

Entry tags:

January Welcome Event

Who: Everyone!
What: January's welcome log.
When: Jan 1st-7th
Where: All over the place.
Warnings:
Notes: This is your January welcome log with Sphere New Year Traditions. Come in, go nuts.

A new day has come.

So unlike many other places, the Sphere doesn’t celebrate New Years on New Year’s Eve. Instead they celebrate it in s three day festival commencing on January first to the third. The festival starts on the first at dawn with people waking up early to watch the first unofficial sunrise in the Sphere. Unlike most other days, this sunrise is universal, moving into each of the domes and filling them with such a bright light that it looks like an idealized version of a bright summer’s day. Groups of people join together to watch it in the dormitory dorms as well as in several public areas. The agriculture dome and the recreational domes are popular places for such activities and there are several places where there appear to be flowers blooming and almost the sound of birdsong.

Also in the more public places, there are large tables filled up with what seems to be a standard light breakfast of fruit, cheese and various loaves of bread, including a particular loaf of bread that everyone is given either in their attendance or in the dome itself. It’s a circular loaf with nuts on it that’s perfect for sharing. Indeed people keep trying to share a piece with the characters around them.

One thing that’s missing though? None of the places seem to have any sort of caffeine in any form. If questioned about it, someone knowledgeable will respond: “you can’t have caffeine until the sun sets!” The words come with a good natured laugh and characters are then handed a glass of fruit juice.

Out with the old and in with the new.

As the sun is about to set on the first day, crowds gather in the rec dome. There in the middle of the area there’s a large bonfire set up. The smoke billows up towards the top of the dome before it disappears. People gathered around the fires are throwing old possessions into it, some of which are their own and some of them are the possessions of the people who had left. The idea is to unburden yourself of things to face the new year with a clean slate.

There are smaller fires around, and they burn different colors with the smoke being sweet smelling and light. Some people show the newcomers how to gather the smoke in their hands and release it over their heads, in order to clear out dark thoughts and whatever is troubling people. The smoke gives people a slight feeling of euphoria, and makes them feel as if whatever is happening isn’t quite as bad as they think it is.

And we’re dancing through life.

On the second day, the public domes are fairly dead. The merchant dome is closed and only a few restaurants are open, and only those are for delivery. The entire city almost seems to be holding their breath and waiting for something. When the clock turns to eight pm, it’s almost as if the entire city is lit in a combination of stars and candlelight. In the gardens in the Rec dome, a large ball has been set up. Everyone in the city has been given their ideal fancy dress outfit, including mask in order to wear to it. The idea behind it is that the characters are in the middle of their transitional state. Day one was the day they put their old life behind them, and day three will be the day that they form their new selves for the year ahead. Which is why at the ball, people wear masks and have the option to give into some of the things that they wouldn’t normally do.

Wanna eat that there whole pint of ice cream? Go nuts. Wanna drink a bottle of vodka? Hey it’s your liver and it’s not like you can die! Wanna hook up in a dark corner with a stranger. It’s your life and there’s some nice velvet couches over there; out of sight and out of mind.

Dinner is in the form of an elaborate meal, sort of along the idea of Fat Tuesday in New Orleans, no expense is spared and everything is extremely well done and extravagant. Rich food, insane desserts, open bar, everything this night is too excess. At various points in the evening, the sky which has been showing stars shifts into things like fireworks, and glowy nebuleuses, causing people to burst into spontaneous bouts of applause.

All the while, there are various and shifting dance floors with an assortment of music to dance to, including classical, swing, fiddles, big band, pop, R&B, and basically anything that you can think of. The dances that people do there are as varied as the population, the drunkenness level and of course the all important dances of people's native Caucasia.

The party goes until dawn, at which point, the drunken releveries spill onto the streets, and people return to their personal domes singing loudly and off key.

A new day a new you

So despite however much you may have done the night before, or whatever else you may have engaged in, and however long you may have stayed awake for, when your head hits the pillow, you wake up feeling well great for lack of a better word. You have no hangover, you're not tired, you're not in pain, and any heavy or dark thoughts will suddenly seem not at all so bad. It may be better than you've felt in your entire time in the Sphere, or better than a long time depending on how things are at home.

Either way, when you wake up, day is late (even if your character doesn't normally sleep) and there is a crowd of people in the agriculture dome. People are there working together in order to plant new things in the greenhouse. They're planting baby plants that will grow to feed people in the new year, according to Annie, and it's all about breathing new life into the world.

Afterwards, there are different things like yoga and meditation classes, and people just spread out smiling among the flowers. No one is as pushy as normal, it's just kind of there. They're just kind of there, stretching, enjoying the sunshine and just kind of chilling.

Later, people set up a large sort of barbecue and outdoor kitchen. Food is cooked communally, and people will ask your character to come and cook. Even if you can't cook, passing out food or cleaning up. This is a community building activity people tell ya, so you can go with it or not. But the rest of the city is, so please enjoy some delicious food your characters may or may not have a hand in cooking or giving out. Wine and fruit juice is in a wide abundance here, as is water and caffeinated drinks. A few people can even be found having some harder stuff (vodka and whiskey) if your character looks to be in need of it.

And the end of the night, the sky above the dome lights up with aurora borealis, in brilliant lights and hues, and there are what appear to be a smattering of actual, living fireflies buzzing lazily around. People who are here longer than the characters seem puzzled, and more than a few children and adults are out catching them between their palms.

Inspiration images

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[It was hard to look at her, and he found himself getting silent for a long moment. This was going to be harder than he'd expected; especially now with them together, like this.]

Real or imagined, you do understand how this place works, correct?

[Alex just frowned hard at him. She knew that look, she knew that look well and it created a small tightness in her chest as she let the amusement of everything go. Even the lack of caffeine didn't bother her in this moment as much as the look in his eyes was.

Letting out a slow breath, Alex just caught his hand with her own again, wrapping her fingers tightly around his as she twined them together.Even doing that, with her headache and the lack of caffeine, Alex can't help but snap a little.]

Of course I do, I'm not a complete idiot.

[Strand has a bad sense of timing but she quickly added in a more contrite tone:]

Sorry.

[There was a beat and she snuggled closer to him.]

You think I'm going to disappear don't you. [It wasn't a question. It was a statement.]

[He can't help letting his fingers curl tightly around hers. It doesn't matter if she's snapping (in fact, at almost any other point it would be a bit of a turn on), what matters is that all this fully registers; at least as best as it can with her. So he waits for it to.]

It's a possibility; for either of us.

[There's gravity in that. It didn't matter which one, neither was safe from losing the other, no matter the rest of the mechanics of this world.]

The same for anyone we meet.

I know.

[The words are a sigh, soft and brittle. She does know, because they've already seen it with people who Alex had attempted to get close to. Laura and Jeff came easily to mind, as to how they were there and then how suddenly they were gone. It was worrisome, especially with the way that Max seemed to suggest that living was the norm rather than the exception to the rules here.

Yes, it scared her. She wasn't going to deny that it scared her--honestly she couldn't. If she thought about it too much the tightness in her chest would reach upwards and wrap around her throat, strangling her oxygen from her brain and any sort of sense from them too. So, she shoves down the thought just like she does demons, Warren and the end of the world. It's just one more thing.]

Are you trying to prepare me for it? Cause I'm pretty sure that's not something that can be prepared for. And I'm not you, I can't just close things off.

I know.

[But he could still try. He could do his best to prepare Alex for the blow that would inevitably come. It was the most and the least he could do at the same time.]

[It was almost like reading his mind at times, seeing that look on his face, and Alex just sighs softly again, reaching up and touching his cheek.]

No matter what, I'm never going to be able to do that, Richard. It's just not in me to do it and you know it. And it's not in me to avoid meeting people or liking them, or to suddenly stop loving you. That's not something that you're ever going to be able to prepare me for.

[A beat before she adds softly:]

Not and still have me be me. So I guess those are the options you've got to think of: me closed off or me being me. Can't have both.

I never said I wanted you to be different.

[He let the unspoken implication that he could just 'turn off' his feelings for her go. It wasn't worth the argument, and if that was what she thought then it would be easier if he disappeared for her to move past it.]

[Alex just sighs softly, rubbing her forehead above the rim of her glasses for a moment.]

I know that...

[Alex paused for a moment before she continued.]

I know you worry about me, Richard. And I know that you're worried about losing me. But I think you're forgetting something. We're one of the few people who came here together. And if I chased you in Chicago, there's no way I'm letting a giant glowing Sphere stop me.

Some matters are even beyond your control.

[The joke is humorless. If this place chooses to separate them he's sure that, while she would try, it would be unlikely that she would get to him again.]

[Alex just frowns at him, before she takes his hand and bumps him with her hip.]

I'm pretty sure my determination totally counts as a rule of science by now, you know.

He raises a brow at the hip check. "I don't think science would agree."

"Well, I don't care if science agrees or not, honestly." Look, she's going to make light of this, because she can't not make light of it. It's just her way, and he's the one who provided her with the flask of scotch. A flask of scotch which she is just going to elevate from his pocket, thank you.

Reaching over he removes the flash from her hand, pocketing it inside his jacket this time. "I think you should go back to bed." It's not a tempt for anything sexual, he just thinks the world might be better for her if she's asleep today.

"Hey." Alex just frowns at him, raising her brow upwards as she peers at him. "It was your idea, actually. Besides, we both know that I'm not going to sleep." She knows that he doesn't mean it in any sort of romantic way. But she also knows the reality of her situation.

"You could re-read your notes." He knew that this whole thing was bothering her, and maybe looking over them again, while frustrating, would be distracting enough.

“I know them all by heart now.” There may have been the slightest bit of a whine in those words. “Besides trying to read my writing isn’t a good idea when I’ve already got a massive fucking headache.” Alex only tended to swear when she was angry so that said a lot about the state of her headache at the moment.

[He'd offer some form of head drugs, but they were probably all missing too.]

Ice might help.

[Alex just sighed dramatically for a moment, before she countered quickly:]

Or you could give me the scotch back until everything is spinny and I don't feel it anymore.

[And then she makes an attempt to look pathetic; she doesn't need to work all that hard at it.]

Because you love me and I'm far more charming when I'm drunk than I am with a headache?

You forget that I'd have to deal with you when you have an even larger headache and are sober.

[That is so not working out the way she wants it to.]

But by then the caffeine and meds will be back.

[Richard, come on.]

Or they'll wear off and you'll have twice the headache.

[He doesn't plan on plying her with booze.]

[Alex just sighed softly, and tucked herself into the crook of his arm, burrowing her face against his shoulder before she whimpered:]

This is seriously just cruel and unusual punishment, taking away the caffeine.

I'm sure you'll survive.

[WHile she can't see him he frowns. He's not sure everyone else can survive her annoying habits when she's off caffeine. He's not sure he can. Still, he wraps his arms around her.]

Oh I don't know about that, my love. You didn't see me during the worst of when Dr. Bernier was trying to get me off of it. I'm pretty sure Nic was actually scared of me.

[He wasn't in the studio much during those days.]

You're still seeing them?

[He didn't think much of them when she'd told him.]

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