EVENT ★ WINTER WONDERLAND, THE RECKONING

[futurologists]

HAPPY (NONDENOMINATIONAL) HOLIDAYS When recruits arrive back at Oska, they'll find the place already full of other ALASTAIR teams visiting Oska, and the castle and grounds entirely decked out in festive cheer. The castle is draped in purple and white finery, with a light dusting of unmelting snow everywhere -- even inside, somehow. Don't worry, the indoor snow has been enchanted to be strangely warm. Dagny has taken it upon herself to add a little plant life in and around the castle: mistletoe, of course. It can be spotted growing in little sprigs out of chinks in castle walls, around from wooden doorframes, or even sprouting out of other, unrelated trees. You're never really safe from mistletoe. And what would the use of mistletoe be without the enchantment? Dagny has made sure that there are enough variant species of the mistletoe to offer something for everyone. Recruits may find themselves stuck under any manner of mistletoe, trapped until they fulfill the mistletoe geas. The Classic: This is the standard magical mistletoe, that traps people in a lightly shimmering sphere until they exchange a kiss. Any kind of kiss will do, just pucker up! The Papilion: This is similar to the classic, but its berries come in brilliant shades of orange and pink. It will only release its catch after a butterfly kiss. Clinging Merriment: This mistletoe is all wrapped up in itself, and climbs whatever surface it's on in twisting spirals. All it wants from its catch is a hug, but make it a good one! The Lively Stepper: This mistletoe seems to shiver in some unfelt breeze, and if you listen closely enough, there's a gentle chime of bells that fades when you lean away from it again. People stuck under this plant will have to dance together, to whatever music they can find or make. Whispering Mary: This mistletoe comes with deep purple leaves and seems to hide within itself. Only after a secret has been shared from each person trapped under it will it flower open and release them. Evening Gown: This mistletoe is a gaudy display, with brilliant green leaves and splendid white blossoms instead of berries. It will only release its catch after they compliment each other -- and the Evening Gown always knows when it hears a genuine compliment, and accepts no substitutions! Catflowers: Dagny didn't put this kind out, and has named them after the suspected perpetrators. She's been trying to take them down when she finds them, but there might be a few she's missed. This thorny sprig of mistletoe will only release its catch after they've punched each other. Sorry about that. THE WINTER BALL Exciting news, passed from recruit to recruit and team to team: the castle will host a ball soon! It's set to be on the second night of team Audentes's arrival in Oska, and it's going to be a truly extravagant affair. Nothing to wear? No fear! The wardrobes in each recruit's room will open upon an enormous display of fancy clothing in a multitude of styles. Once you've settled on one (and somehow, the wardrobe knows the difference between trying on and settling on), the rest of the outfits vanish the next time it's closed. The festivities start as soon as the sun begins to sink. Music filters through the air, growing louder to guide partygoers through the castle and into the dance hall, which was definitely not a room in existence until today. The music flows from no discernable source, sometimes swirling orchestral pieces, sometimes something with a heavier beat, for a different kind of dancing. The selection is as varied as the ALASTAIR teams tend to be. Listen long enough, and you might even hear something from your own home universe. A large glass flower shimmers in the center of the room, under which various recruits have taken to leaving presents for one another. Be sure to stop by and check the brightly wrapped parcels for your name! Team Audentes in particular gets a special gift. The north side of the room is decorated in an unmistakable Christmas theme, complete with an enormous, glittering tree. The care put into these decorations definitely has a personal touch, it might even outshine the rest of the hall's decor. Each member of the team has a lovingly wrapped box complete with a bow under this tree, and upon opening it will find a small, intricately detailed, never-melting ice sculpture of themselves -- very possibly in a ridiculous pose. Those who were acquainted with former teammate Nicholas St. North will find that their sculpture features two figures: themselves, and North himself. And of course, what party would be complete without the food? The kitchen has really outdone itself with its spread of delicious foods, suited to all appetites and palates. From gently steaming roasted bird to strangely colored foreign piles of tiny quivering spheres, there's something for everyone. Including the alcoholics among us: the punch is delicately spiked with that incredibly strong drink of Nalawi, which leaves a pleasantly fruity aftertaste and an immediate alcoholic burn. (Any children partaking will find that their cups have somehow filtered out any alcohol and are strangely juice-only.) ICE MAZE Outside the castle, the courtyard has been transformed. Giant shimmering ice walls have sprung up seemingly overnight, forming endless, winding pathways: an ice maze. Stepping into this beautiful, gleaming maze immediately cuts off all sound from the castle life around, so loud just a moment ago. Inside the maze is only the crunch of light snow underfoot, the sound of one's own breathing, and the echoes that bounce faintly here and there. Throughout the maze one might find bits of warm, inviting clothing. A pair of bright red mittens, a puffy coat that fits perfectly to the wearer, a scarf woven in brightly colored, warm wool. If a maze-goer chooses to ignore and walk past this clothing, they might find that something begins to follow them. It starts as just an unsettling feeling, but put off accepting the clothing for long enough and it may turn into lurking shadows in the corner of an eye, a black shape that's there in one second and vanished in the next. A faint yowl may float down a corridor, vaguely feline if only it weren't so deep. Whatever that came from must have been large. Accepting and wearing just one of the offered clothing chases away this unwanted visitor immediately, and in just five minutes more the ice maze will finally bring you out the other side. Don't take any of its gifts, though, and the maze may just lead you to meet the Yuletide Cat instead. (Which just so happens to be Cherenkov and Crowley sharing a giant cat costume. Don't laugh, they worked hard on it.) THE VILLAGE Far outside the castle, the village has been brought back to warm, glowing life. Or at least, that seems to be the case. Team Hearthstone was recently on a mission to recover an item called the Time Catch, and has used it to temporarily, visually turn time back to a time when the village of Oska was populated and lively. Humanoid villagers, all in various shades of purple and blue, hurry to and fro, talking and laughing in a language that goes untranslated by the magitek jewelry. They don't react to any of the recruits, though, and trying to touch any of them will have your hands passing straight through them. Even the restored village around them is just an illusion. One can walk straight into one of the villager's houses and find the warmth of the fire and aroma of the roasted fowl to be completely believable -- but trying to take a seat at the set table will send you crashing straight to the ground to sit in the illusion-covered rubble. THE SQUIDGE PARK After the festivities wind down, you may want to visit the newest addition to the Oska grounds -- the brand new squidge park. After Audentes's success in its mission on Zeta-12, ALASTAIR has been gifted with a clutch of squidge eggs to look after. Audentes need not worry about the squidges in their absence; there will always be someone in Oska to make sure the jelly-like aliens are being nurtured properly. The squidge park is located off the greenhouses in the courtyard; it's an enclosure containing many artificial habitats so the squidges may interact with different environments to help them grow. Right now, they are just eggs, but with enough love and care, they may "hatch" (read: their amorphous blob selves will grow limbs and enter the larval stage) before Audentes even ships out again. OOC NOTES Blind date assignments for those working to complete the Lonely Hearts Club bounty can be found here. ICly, the match-ups are publicly posted in the ballroom for all to see. The other ALASTAIR teams present consist of everything from humanoids to strange creatures; feel free to handwave them in your threads! The only stipulation is that transferred characters (ex. those who have dropped) are not present. The party lasts for one night, and the following day the rest of the teams will pack up and leave Oska to Audentes. The ghostly village-that-isn't will revert back to ruins at this point, as well. However, all other winter amenities will remain for the holidays! Following the party, characters can expect to be in Oska for several more weeks, with the next mission starting in late January. A more detailed calendar for next month will be up soon! Questions about this log, Oska, or the game in general should be directed to the FAQ. You may submit mission ideas or player plots at any time.

Comments

[daimeinashi]

Romantically?

[Ah, wait, he knows this word, he thinks. It's the word for when people get married and have children, right?]

--But that aspect doesn't matter to you, then?

[He's confused, and it shows. You can't just explain something and then throw ambiguity into the mix with Sai, okay. He needs clear definitions of things!!!]

It is nice to meet you, Giorno-kun.

[That comes out stilted, mostly because he's literally just parroting the phrase that he's come to realize is one you use when you introduce yourself to a person, though he does not feel anything at all about meeting this man.]

[digiorno]

[Boy. This is hard to explain even to people who have the baseline of normal social interactions to work with, which Giorno is rapidly getting the sense Sai does not. He frowns for a second, trying to think of how to put it; then:]

Not to me. But I'm not normal. I'm a deviation from what is average or typical for people from my age and culture. So perhaps not the best example to use for this explanation.

[He has to keep himself from saying sorry to be difficult or something like that. It seems like that might just overcomplicate things. There's enough complicated happening, with the honorific. Giorno doesn't want to think about honorifics or all the different reasons for his own deviation from normalcy. He does not particularly want to be Giorno-kun, but then again, at least it's not Haruno-kun.]

[daimeinashi]

Ah. [And then there's that smile again, a little too plastic, like it's been rehearsed a thousand times over. Abruptly, the questioning ceases.]

I'm not, either.

[Or more accurately, he's very new to uh, personhood in general.]

[digiorno]

[Giorno . . . tips his head, an almost birdlike gesture of curiosity. He's suddenly a lot less obtrusive than before, just for a flicker of a second: someone who always watches and is never seen.]

Does that make you happy? That smile you're doing.

[I don't think you mean it, he thinks, accusingly, and bites his tongue again. Instead:]

Is it fulfilling for you to smile in that way?

[daimeinashi]

...Fulfilling?

[That's the tone of someone who knows the word, but not quite in that context. Self-actualization is not exactly something Sai is anywhere near to achieving, given how he's only just recently rediscovered his capacity to possess a sense of self in the first place.]

I do not know what you mean...but I suppose you could say it is habit.

[A smile can get you out of a tough situation, even if it's fake. I read that in a book, once.]

[digiorno]

Ah, I see.

[And he does, he thinks. The shape of it, at least; part of it, at least. The lack of a bridge between comprehension of the word's specific meaning and the use of the word in this context speaks volumes, really. He hums a little, smooths out his skirt with both hands before glancing up at Sai again. This time, his smile is a little more real.]

Well. I didn't intend to make you feel as though you had to smile at me. You're welcome to, but it's not necessary. I like this better. It's more honest.

[daimeinashi]

[His lips twitch in the direction of a frown, instead, at that response. More honest? What does honesty have to do with anything?]

I do not understand. You do not wish to be smiled at? I had read that a smile is a way to put others at ease.

[When Giorno had said he wasn't 'normal', it was easy to smile back at him; it wasn't real, but there was a certain display in it. He wasn't normal either. He didn't know how to be, and it seemed a straightforward enough cue to demonstrate that it wasn't an issue to him.

But perhaps he is even less normal than Giorno, because it apparently didn't work. Suddenly, he thinks of Naruto. Somehow, it wasn't so difficult to interact with him--perhaps because he was so straightforward, because his emotions were so strong and vibrant and expressed right there on his sleeve that Sai could absorb it all even with his dulled empathy. Even though he couldn't understand what it was like to feel all of the things Naruto did, he could read them as easily as he could a book itself.

It was easy to tell what to do and what not to around him, if only by sheer trial and error. He couldn't put words to the feeling, foreign as it is, but he...misses that simplicity.]

[digiorno]

I don't want you to smile at me if you aren't happy.

[His smile falters now, too. He doesn't fight it, though, this time; it just slides away like raindrops down a windowpane. He clasps his hands together in front of him, fingers loosely linked.]

A smile is a good way to put others at ease--if those people don't know that the smile is false. I wear a lot of false smiles myself, so it's easier for me to tell when other people are smiling falsely. I distrust false smiles, because I myself am a liar.

But I like you. I would like to be honest with you.

[daimeinashi]

[I don't want you to smile at me if you aren't happy. But what does being happy even mean? What does it feel like? He knows the concept, academically. He knows it's connected to smiling. He knows it's connected to chemicals such as dopamine and serotonin and endorphins.

But he doesn't know how to connect the definition to the subjective experience of happiness. He's experienced it before--when he remembered what he had meant to draw for his brother in the center page of that picture book, when he was given permission to stay with Team Kakashi longer, after his mission was a failure--but those moments aren't ones he thinks to connect with such an abstract concept. He remembers feeling a warmth throughout his body, like coming in from the cold and placing your hands by a fireplace. A fullness, like being hungry and then eating a meal. Sai is a boy who can yet only think in the concrete, and so ideas like happiness are difficult to identify within oneself, without a set of features to check against.]

I would not know how to do it honestly.

[He admits, as if he doesn't realize that that is the point. There are many ways to make oneself smile: disingenuously, politely, with indifference or with malice...but one cannot intentionally smile genuinely--it is merely something that happens, when someone feels the appropriate emotion.

There is a pause, then.]

Are you saying you wish to be my friend?

[digiorno]

[Giorno doesn't say, I know; it could read as condescending. He doesn't say, I'm sorry, because that could read as pitying. He won't condescend to or pity Sai, not if he can help it. It's not as though he's unfamiliar with the concept of social clumsiness--not to this extent, of course, but he's always strived to push past his weaknesses. He can tell that Sai is striving too.]

[There's nothing pitiable about that, in his opinion.]

[His smile--again this time--is genuine. Soft and a little shy, but honest.]

I'd like that. If you want to be my friend, too, of course. Friendship goes two ways.

[This is something he's learned. Friendship goes two ways, with care evenly distributed; friends are equally important to each other, and love each other with fierce protectiveness. It's still a new concept to him, but he's learning. Sai can learn, too.]

[daimeinashi]

[He's tempted to do it again, the smile, because one is supposed to smile at one's friends. And truthfully, he does feel something stir inside of his chest, tickling his ribs at those words, but is that happiness? He's not sure. Best not to chance it.

The look in his own eyes is much softer, then.]

I hold no objection.

[Which is about equivalent to "wanting" something for Sai, at this juncture. There are very few things he expressly, actively desires. One is to return home. A second is to learn more about the nature of bonds. A third is to assist Naruto in retrieving Sasuke before Orochimaru can steal his body as a vessel.

Anything beyond that is too abstract, too faraway for him to really get his grip around.]

I suppose we are friends, then--Giorno.

[Look at that, the -kun is mysteriously gone. His books had said that a good way to get to know someone was to take the initiative to remove honorifics from their name, after all.]

[digiorno]

["I hold no objection." Yes, that's about as good as he's going to get, isn't it? Still. This time Giorno trusts it. There are a lot of reasons why; mostly, they're reasons that he would find difficult if not impossible to articulate.]

[The easiest one, though, is the way the honorific is dropped. It registers in a distant part of his brain, as well as the part that brushed up on such things when preparing to meet with Kujo--a meeting that never took place in the end. Respect versus familiarity.]

[His smile warms a little further.]

I hope I can be a good friend to you. Truthfully, I don't have very much practice.

[daimeinashi]

Neither do I.

[He assumes that much is obvious by now, of course, but he states it nonetheless. Sai doesn't even really have a concept for what makes a "good" friend any more than he does for what makes a "good" hug. Subjectivity is an area too nuanced for him at this point in time, after all.]

I would not have thought of friendship as akin to a skill that could be honed until you suggested such a thing, in fact.