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

[He had been passing by, but isn't one to complain either way whenever snow spatters his hiking boots. One, they're built for that sort of thing, and two, Aaron just isn't really a complainer. That being said, his eyes go wide when he looks up at the man who dumped the snow in the first place.

And doesn't say anything for a moment before shaking his head and looking away, swallowing.]

I...I'm sorry, did you say something?

[Oh, great. Another idiot, he thinks.]

I said, wipe that gormless look off your face.

[Which is not what he said, but in his irritation, Sidurgu doesn't take too well to being stared at.

Really, never has been. He prefers being invisible, even if he cannot be in this moment. Black armour on white snow tends to stand out after all, the same way his black scales stand out on his pale skin.]

[He stared for another second more before shaking his head and blinking.]

Oh...right. I...I'm sorry, really. [He raised his hands slightly, almost in surrender.] I didn't mean to stare.

[He swallows.]

You said something about the snow, didn't you?

[Sidurgu makes a noise of irritation and impatience deep in his throat-- it sounds much like a human with a deep voice attempting to imitate a dragon. Which shouldn't be surprising, really, given his general appearance.

He really is not interested in indulging in someone's curiosity about his person... Nor does he have the temperament to. He wont slow down simply because a person has never seen anyone of his kind before. Nevermind that everyone here so far seem to be Hyur, and no other races of Man are to be found. Sidurgu simply does not have the patience.]

I shan't be repeating myself.

[Aaron is nothing if not adaptable, though, and he recovers pretty quickly, mostly because Sidurgu kept talking. He nods.]

Yeah. It's a little weird that it isn't cold, but we're also hundreds of miles beneath the surface of the ocean, which the last time I checked, was a physical impossibility, so...all in all, it's not really that strange.

[And then the guy is going to try to recover by offering a hand.]

I'm Aaron.

[And smiling.]

[Sidurgu looks down at the proffered hand, then looks back up again to the man's face-- though that's not much of a change in the position of his head, when this person is simply so short compared to him.

I don't shake hands. [Who would like to shake hands with a man in full armour, anyway? Especially with gauntlets as heavy as those.]

And you should broaden your horizons if you believe that a city under the surface of the ocean is such a strangeness to yourself.

O...kay.

[Not the least bit awkward ~~this is totally awkward.~~]

And yeah, I'm working on that. Maybe you could help me out?

[Sidurgu sighs heavily, crossing his arms over his chest.]

That depends on what exactly you aim to get out of it. I shan't be answering any questions about myself-- and don't think I don't know how much you have been staring.

[Aaron is fairly certain he has stared no more than a few minutes, but he's not going to argue the rudeness of that. Because it is. Very rude.]

That's...fair. I...I'm sorry. I've never seen... [He shakes his head.] Nothing like this has ever happened before. I'm sort of...at a loss.

You've never seen my kind before, you mean. And have never been in a world different than your own. [Definitely cutting right to the chase, because Sidurgu has never cared for social norms despite having had them hammered into his thick skull by his late mentor.]

I know the look.

Right. On, uh, both counts.

[He clears his throat.]

But I can adapt. Let's start over. I'm Aaron. What should I call you?

Best see that you do, for I'm not always this restrained. [Slightly better, Sidurgu thinks. Although he's still rather miffed at being stared at like some sort of new entertainment.]

Sidurgu.

Of course, and who likes being scrutinized?

[Having reined himself back in, Aaron feels a bit more put together.]

It's a pleasure to meet you, Sidurgu. Have you ever seen or heard of anything like this before? You mentioned knowing I'd never left my world before because you'd 'seen the look'.

No, I have not. [But... there are some things forever seared into his brain. That he will undoubtedly not admit, and simply be as vague about as possible.]

But this is not the first time I have come across people who have never seen my kind.

Being a stranger in a strange land does that.

But humans are common in other worlds, too?

[That's...actually sort of fascinating.]

Obviously, given I'm not surprised by your appearance. [And they're far more common where Sidurgu spends most of his time in Ishgard. Though he knows Hyur are everywhere.]

Hyur are everywhere.

Hyur.

[Definitely not a work he's familiar with, but he's not an idiot, contrary to appearances. He can figure out what that means.]

I wonder why that is... [Aaron may be many things: explorer, confidant, protector, but he isn't a scholar.]

Why are you asking me such?

[Sidurgu leans over, irritation all over his face.] Do I look like an expert on Hyur?