thespherelogs | (no subject)

Who: Everyone!
What: December's welcome log.
When: Dec 1st-7th
Where: The Merchant Dome/The Pools
Warnings:
Notes: This is your December welcome log. Come in, go nuts.

It’s the most wonderful (welcome) time of the year.

The Council knows that being a newb and not knowing anyone (especially when one might be living in close quarters to them in the very near future) can be a real pain in the ass. So, every month they throw a welcome party, the theme and location tend to vary. The theme for December is Holiday Cheer and this month’s party takes place in the Merchant dome. But it’s not the everyday appearance of the merchant dome. No, for the next five days the Merchant dome’s appearance has been altered to look like a sort of Bavarian Christmas Market. There are small clusters of tables every so often, so people can just sit and chat and eat and drunk.

Some enterprising person has even managed to make it snow through some unknown means. It’s not cold, but the snow is soft and steady and slowly building up.

The entire dome, all of the streets and all of the merchant stalls are practically glowing with white fairy lights that are strung everywhere. Vendors in their stalls gleefully cry out to paterons passing by, offering them free food or drinks. The food consists of the sort of things that one might expect to find in a place like this: sausages on buns and on sticks, pretzels, pizza, loads of cookies of every variety that one could think of, including elaborately decorated gingerbread, chocolates, fruits, french fries. Think winter fair food, and be as absurd and as complicated and extra as you want. It is a fair, after all. Go nuts. Drinks are also along the same line: hot cider, mulled wine, hot buttered rum, hot chocolate both with booze and without, as well as all the normal things: water, coffee, tea, milk, soda, and a variety of fruit juices that you’ve both heard of and not.

But food isn’t the only free thing that people are giving away! They’re also offering characters hats and gloves and scarves, small toys, books, delicate ornaments, perfumes, wine… it’s a giant welcome party after all, and these people are cheerful and happy. Even offering to pay just gets met with laughter and being told not to worry about it.

There are even some carnival rides set up! A medium sized ferris wheel, a carousel, a giant slide and ice skating ring are all along the outside of the stalls.

At the far end of the dome, the snow has fallen deeper and held to several inches. Wouldn’t you know it just happens to be perfect snowball snow! So, there of course needs to be a snowball fight! What did you think those free mittens and gloves and scarves are for after all? The snowball fight can be organized into teams, or one on one depending on the player’s choice. This is a friendly fight, of course, so no rocks or slush balls or anything. Well, probably not. No one in the Sphere is your mother.

However, the meeting isn’t just about socializing! the opposite end from the snowball fight, there are smaller tables set up with people sitting behind them. In front of the tables are homemade brightly colored signs that advertise things like jobs and clubs. The people and interests here in The Sphere are hugely varied and people are just so earnest to tell newcomers about them. They’re earnest to the point where they may just actually reach out and grab a person in order to force them to stop and to listen to whatever spiel they happen to be working on. Booths that are in attendance for jobs include: Agriculture: “help grow the food that feeds us all! Farming is life!”, The library: “No skill needed! We’ll teach you what you need to know!” The school system: “Teachers wanted! Education is the right of everyone!” Maintenance: “Help keep the domes clean!” As well as various restaurant booths looking for help for both servers and chefs.

For the hobbies involved they are even more varied. Book club: “we live in a multiverse, let’s read the books from it! With wine!” Garden club: “we want to grow stuff on our terms!” Sprinkled among are various skill learning clubs, among them: woodworking club, smithing, robotics, technology, first aid. It seems that despite the fact that no one is required to work in the City, people are still offering skills as needed.

If discrete enough inquiries are made, a passcode to the Black Market hidden behind some of the stalls is offered. The entrance is hidden enough that someone needs to be looking for it, and there is a rather large bouncer guarding the door and asking for the proper passcode. The passcode of the day happens to be gumdrops.

Inside the black market is large, but much more dimly lit than the regular market dome that the welcome party was held inside of. There are various pockets of people clustered under bright neon lights. The lights, someone confides to you, are code for what they’re offering. And nearly everything is on offer if a person has the ability to make a trade. Things from home, character skills and even favors tend to be the currency here, but watch out: the hawkers within are shrewd and sharp. If they make a deal with someone, it’s nearly always going to favor them. Eventually.

There’s also a large and loud party happening inside. Think of a rave with a large amount of people who happened to be a bit out of their minds. Drugs aren’t given freely here, they’re too valuable, but should someone want to figure out what they’re rolling on, eventually someone will ask or offer. The drug that they are currently using is called ‘self’ and it’s something that affects your character in an intensely personal way. For some, it’s an experience like your favorite cocktail mixed with a vicodin, and for others it’s just like being drunk. For still more people, it’s like ecstasy without the side effects.

The drug has no physically addicting properties.

But seriously though who cares about Christmas?

While the welcome party rages on in the merchant dome, people have made a smaller party in one of the recreation domes. Around the pools, as a matter of fact. There’s almost like a small barbecue clustered around the largest of the three pools, and the light is constant and sunny here. The large pool is olympic sized, and is a sparkling blue. It’s fresh water, and probably clean enough to drink. I still wouldn’t drink it. The second pool is slightly smaller and more kidney shaped with a gradual sand mound at one end of it. This pool is salt water and looks a bit more like a beach than a pool. The third pool is a kiddie pool, complete with a splash pad, that’s running. Buckets drop, it’s got one of those mushroom things, and sprinkler jets. There aren’t any kids though, so people are welcome to go nuts.

Bathing suits and towels are provided in the changing rooms. There’s frozen and fruity drinks flowing freely, along with finger food and snacks. Loud music is playing from a local band that’s just generally of a pop sort. There’s people dancing rather in a rather haphazard fashion, but the dance floor is there and present!

Wildcard
Go nuts, choose your own adventure!

Inspiration images

Flat | Top-Level Comments Only

It really wasn't his lucky day, as the snowball Eric had thrown before darting toward the bush glanced his shoulder as he popped up from behind the bench to aim, and he'd already been committed to the throw, which meant he was thrown off and fell backward because he slipped.

And landed on his ass, where he sits for a moment, just laughing.

"Don't get any ideas, babe. I'm still in this." You know, as long as he can make some more snowballs.

Eric laughed heartily from his position ducked behind the bush, gathering as much snow as he could to make a sufficient supply of ammunition. He leans to the side of his hideaway to scope out what Aaron is doing before lobbing another one in his direction.

"Just surrender and this will all be over!" No it won't, because it's them.

"Never!" He didn't raise from his hiding spot, but he did duck when the next snowball exploded on the edge of the bench and rained strangely, not cold snow onto his head and he began to frantically form more snowballs. These were probably going to suck because he wasn't completely focused on them, and Eric was better at making them in the first place.

"You know I don't give up, babe."

"This could take a while. I just have to outlast you."

At this point, it was more about the quantity than quality in getting either of them to relinquish their cover. Eric took the time to make an armful of snowballs before deciding on making a run for it to another, closer bush. Once he launched two consecutive snowballs, he abandoned his cover and made a run for the other.

It may not have been a challenge before, but it was now, and so Aaron stopped making snowballs that had no way of standing up to the ones formed by his mountain-raised boyfriend, and listened, waiting until he heard Eric make a run for it to spring into action.

If he had it his way, he was going to tackle Eric t the snow-covered ground.

Aaron does happen to get his way as Eric makes a beeline for the bush. He lets out a surprised yelp as he's caught around the middle and tackled to the ground. It devolves into peals of laughter, even as they're sprawled in the snow. Eric takes revenge by pulling off his boyfriend's beanie and smushing a handful of snow into his fuzzy hair.

Grinning like a schoolboy, Aaron shakes the snow from his hair, mindless of the lack of chill and cradles Eric's neck in his hands, pulling the two of them together for a passionate if brief kiss before pulling away.

"I'm on top. That means I won, right?"

His hands grasp at Aaron's wrists, not pulling his hands away from his neck, simply resting there. Keeping the contact. Eric hums into the kiss, smiling warmly at Aaron when he pulls away.

"Oh, is that how it's decided? I had no idea."

"Yeah, it is." Spoken matter-of-factly through a slightly flirtatious smile. "Now we need to talk about my prize."

As a non-answer, Eric pulls him closer by the lapels of his coat, kissing him firmly. When he pulls away, he keeps Aaron close.

"And what is it that the victor wants, hmmm? I seem to be at his mercy."

Moments of intimacy for the two of them were so fleeting most of the time these days that when they arrived, they were always surprising, and Aaron smiled, breathing a little heavily.

"To...be somewhere a little more private than the snow in the middle of the Merchant's dome?"

His boyfriend's awkwardness about the situation is one of his more charming aspects, and a grin spreads across his face. With one more stolen kiss, he lets go of Aaron's jacket, wiggling upwards.

"I think that can be arranged, babe."