december 2019. welcome to the void.

[modblob]

Who: Everyone in Anchor.
What: Sixth Introductory Mingle
When: The Month of December 2019
Where: Around and outside the city.
Warnings: Please add any warnings in the subject lines.

Redshift: Welcome to the v͖͕̺̲̘̱̜͎o̴̦̣̠̦̘̹͞i̯̖d̛̪̬͈̱̦̝͍̕.

Click here to read what characters will experience when arriving in Anchor.

a. the generic holiday cheer prompt.

It's a dark, quiet, uneventful night. Only those up and about in the wee hours will notice something odd starting in the park.

It's snowing.

The phenomenon seems to be coming from a small bank of unmoving clouds hanging suspended above the trees and lake. A cloud that, upon closer inspection by any scientists in the room, appears to be made of harmless nanites whose sole purpose is to unleash a cheery, blustery kind of weather that remains mostly contained to the park.

Some bots are out serving hot chocolate, cider, flavored snow cones, and other small baked treats. Others are building a solid-looking bit of scaffolding that the snow is rapidly turning into a sledding ramp. In fact, there are sleds ready and waiting at the foot of the slide. The smaller ponds have frozen over in a sharp cold snap that came with the nanites' release, and there are other bots handing out ice skates - careful, though, because one of them is a chef bot and he's made the blades of the skates ridiculously sharp. At least they'll glide well?

Around the middle of the day, the intercoms squeal loudly, crackle, and start pouring generic seasonal music out into the air. Is it for Hanukkah? Christmas? Kwanzaa? Some strange holiday no one has heard of? Who knows, since half of it is in alien languages, but man, it sure is peppy! And kind of annoying after a while! Maybe someone should hack the system and change the music up?

b. the body heat trope prompt.

As the day wears on toward evening, the nanite winter storm starts to gather a little more force, sending cold seeping through the halls of Anchor. There are pockets of warmth here and there - notably, for once, the agricultural areas are largely unaffected thanks to their temperature regulators--but most of Anchor has a wintery chill, and snow is starting to bluster across the levels from bottom to top. Temperatures continue to drop when the suns go down.

The bots are out being helpful, though they can't stop the storm. They're rolling around handing out blankets and thermoses of warm drinks. Unfortunately, it's one blanket and one thermos per two people. Better get cosy - it's going to be a long, cold night!

c. the terrifying monster attack prompt.

The cold has woken up some creatures that have been slumbering away in one of the sealed-off areas of the labs. They couldn't get through the door that kept them caged, but they sure could freeze the windows and escape that way when they got cold enough to break. The little critters make a beeline for the park, prepared to wreak havoc-

If eating snow and ice and rolling snow into tiny balls for meal stockpiles is havoc.

These little creatures look conspicuously like the western dragons of Earth, though most are no bigger than a person's forearm. Their wings - some strange shade of white that sparkles when they move - seem largely decorative. They use them to communicate, to posture, and to keep themselves balanced when they rear up on their hind legs, but none of them appear able to fly. They're a mix of colors, blue and silver and white, some of them with a variety of shades swirling down their bodies, others with one color on their bellies and contrasting colors on their back and head. Some have splotches, or speckles, or tiger stripes of blue. They breathe steam and can freeze things with their clawed forepaws.

Also, if you feed them a flavored snow cone, they will follow you forever. No, really. You'll have yourself an undyingly loyal new pet.

Navigation.

Comments

[killedwithlove]

Dating is a weird word. Courting is much more appropriate. They go on dates, but they are courting. Clearly. Courting is about more than just the dates. It's about the spaces between as well.

"There's lots of terms. Dorian murmurs amatus in his own tongue. Vhenan from the lips of the Dalish, whispered in pointed ears and smiles scrunching their vallaslin. Love, heart, beloved, the words change but the meaning is the same, in the heart." It's the only way he can explain it.

"Yes! Because... I thought getting clean was always not nice, like the decontamination wash, but the showers were nice and the hot spring, and so I thought maybe clean clothes would be the same. And they were. But when I washed my shoes they stopped being one piece of leather and became lots of individual pieces that didn't want to be the shape they were before."

His shoes disintegrated when he washed them. This should surprise no one given the state they were in.

[benhargreeves]

Even the way Cole talks about the range of affectionate nicknames people have for one another makes Ben's heart skip a little. Thinking of himself as among that number - a person who has someone they can call their something - is thrilling and new. The words themselves mean nothing to him (well, that one sounds a bit like Latin almost?) but he thinks he gets Cole's point. The sound itself isn't as important as the feeling behind it.

"So... you're okay with me using whatever word for you feels right, once I find it?"

Ben is a careful sort of person. He isn't going to decide all at once, if he knows that Cole won't mind him trying out a few options. After all, the meaning in his heart won't be changing.

It is a relief that Cole says he looked for clean clothes for his own sake, because he realized that there might be something better, more comfortable, available to him. It doesn't really surprise Ben, that his shoes had finally fallen apart. They were only being kept in one piece by pure luck, at this point. Ben makes a mental note to himself, to find Cole some good shoes, and the fuzziest socks he can scavenge. Nothing to be done about it now, though, with the strange cold keeping them confined here.

Besides... Ben can't imagine wanting to move anywhere just now. He nestles himself in closer against Cole, tucking his face against the curve of Cole's neck where it meets his shoulder, pressing near him so that they are holding each other, sharing warmth. The cold can't reach them now and Ben's limbs feel heavy and exhausted from the series of intense emotions - worry and then relief and extreme happiness.

"I know outsides don't matter as much to you, but for what it's worth... you look really cute, in this."

And Ben lets himself feel it, without his mind flinching away, without trying to hide it from Cole or himself or anyone. That feeling of thinking that Cole looks good, in these new clothes. Of not just intensely wanting to be around Cole, wanting to make him happy and talk to him and be near him, but of liking the way the outside of him looks and feels. Being attracted to him.

"'m gonna give you one of my hoodies. I've got more than one and - and I know how nice they are and I want you to have one."

[killedwithlove]

"Yes. The language and word don't matter, they're... outside things. I can hear the inside that goes with it." And that's the thing that Cole cares about.

"We don't have to move. In fact, we need to not leave, so that you don't freeze. Especially now we've got some warmth in here." He rolls slightly onto his back, encouraging Ben to come with him, cuddle on against him, relax because the rush of emotions and the rush to survive have passed and he needs to recover now. "Okay. I'd like a hoodie. They look comfortable. And if it's from you, it will be extra warm and soft and special." He reaches to softly stroke Ben's hair back. "If you need to sleep, that's okay. I'll stay here with you, I promise."

[benhargreeves]

Ben nods; they need to stay here, which is just fine, because right now all the rest of the world and all the multiverses don't even feel real. It's like this little bubble of theirs is all that exists. Just him, and Cole, and the happiness of imagining what Cole will look like wearing one of his hoodies, and what else he can do in the future to make Cole feel extra warm and soft and special.

At first, Ben can't imagine going to sleep at a time like this. He is exhausted, sure, but he has just gone through something momentous, and the idea of rest seems absurd. He is never going to sleep again - he is going to be awake forever sustained just on remembering Cole's smile and how it felt to kiss him...

Which is what he is thinking as he begins blinking slower and slower, as his breaths even out and all his muscles relax, and soon enough he is asleep with his head on Cole's chest, cuddled in tight against him. Ben isn't entirely unused to sleeping near someone; he and Klaus would climb into each other's beds when they were kids and scared or had had awful days. They've even done the same from time to time, here, though moreso in the early days, when Ben was still adjusting to being alive again, and before Klaus had started spending as much time with Julie.

Still, this is the first time he has done so with anyone that isn't his closest brother. But he doesn't have any trouble, drifting off, with Cole so near. Even as he rests, his mind is a haze of happiness; it clings to him, even in his dreamless sleep.