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

[abheirrant]

"Or I could just conjure ice," he offers helpfully, forgetting for a moment that not everyone comes from a world where magic is so prevalent. He steps away to his desk, setting the little dragon aside as he gets a piece of paper and quickly scrawls out a glyph.

He sets the page on the surface of the desk, touches a point on the symbol, and it lights up, energy filling up the lines like the flow of a stream of water. Once the light reaches the other side of the drawn circle, an orb of water manifests in the center, floating an inch or two above the glyph. It hovers for a second longer before it suddenly freezes over, then drops to the paper below with a heavy thud. Catching it before it rolls of the desk, Carlisle offers it to the tiny dragon, who immediately attempts to put his entire mouth around it. The main problem: the ball is as big as the dragon itself.

"Hm. That... might be a bit large."

[arcadedragon]

Genji watches curiously. He'd seen him make the orbs of light, which seemed to come from nowhere, and having subsequently seen Carlisle's hands he knows that there isn't some hidden machinery doing it. But still, seeing actual magic is new, especially when it seems to be made from.. calligraphy? Or maybe a rune like the one Reynir had given him.

He chuckles as the dragon eagerly tries to munch up something much larger than himself.

"May I?" Carefully extracting the ball of ice from the dragon he backs up a bit, looking around himself to make sure he's not about to destroy anything as he tosses the ball up into the air and quickly pulls his sword, slicing it into powdery bits and catching them in his hands, all in a blink of an eye.

He sets the snow chunks down on the desk, flicking his fingers to get the water out of the joints.

[abheirrant]

Both the dragon and Carlisle are undeniably impressed with Genji's show of swordsmanship: the dragon curls himself around the icy shards and gets to work on devouring the nearest one, while Carlisle applauds softly, feeling that's the appropriate reaction here.

"Cisth, remind me to never get on your bad side," he remarks, "or whichever side it is that results in that sword being used against you."

[arcadedragon]

"I can't think of any reason that I would. There is no one here I wish harm on." Even the people he doesn't particularly like he wouldn't want dead.

"Perhaps I can use this to be a blender for dragon snacks. I have been trying to figure out ways I can help around here. I do not have many skills beyond fighting, and not all problems can be solved with a sword."

[abheirrant]

"You could learn new skills," Carlisle suggests with a glance Genji's way. "I am attempting to do some of that myself, given that what I am able to do now is... not exactly helpful in most situations."

Not unless someone is looking to raise an entire army of skeletons. He gets more specific: "What is it you would like to do?"

[arcadedragon]

"I never gave much thought to it. When I was younger I wasn't mature enough to be so forward thinking, and then later I didn't see a future for myself." And now he's in a place where his options are limited.

"What are you trying? I was thinking of maybe something with food, since I eat so much of it, I should contribute."

[abheirrant]

"If nothing else, cooking is a good hobby to have," Carlisle assures him. "You feel productive, get to see the fruits of your labor, and others can enjoy it, should you have others with whom to share. A good pastime."

And one he used to enjoy partaking in, back when he still had family members to feed. He stuck to what was easy in his later days, but his uncles were once voracious eaters.

"As for me, I'm working on glyphcrafting, an art I didn't hone as much as I should have during my time." He's also been playing a lot of Snake*bert.

[arcadedragon]

"That is true. I can only make a few things, and I do not want to waste food experimenting. But I'm sure there are many who could teach me. I was very sheltered when I was younger."

Rich. He was very rich and didn't have to do anything for himself, had others to clean up his messes and take the responsibility he wouldn't. It's only now that he's realizing how little he actually knows how to do. It's impossible to blame the robotic parts for the fact that he wouldn't be very good at being human even without them.

"Glyphcrafting? That is with runes correct? Reynir was showing me. Something about protecting from ghosts."

[abheirrant]

"Yes, that's right," Carlisle confirms, perking up just a little at the mention of Reynir. "I've been showing him some of my glyphs, hoping there might be some way to combine both his magic and mine. Thus far, we've been largely unsuccessful, but a sleeping kalugra never finds a new den, now does it?"

He chuckles, finding more humor in that local idiom than someone not of his world might.

[arcadedragon]

"Yours I can see working, when you want light there is light. But for his they seem to be more protective. I am unsure if they're working, I have to trust that they are." He frowns, wondering about taking something like that on faith.

"A true test of belief in his skill I suppose."

He doesn't get the aphorism, but he can grasp the context at least. And Carlisle making any sort of joke is an upgrade from being depressed. The dragon is working already.

[abheirrant]

"Indeed," Carlisle agrees. "I am certain he would have some potential for casting, were he to learn how. Apparently, his magical potential has been in doubt before. A shame."

Carlisle can't help but think it's doubly a shame, given his own lack of such skills. "To cast magic like an evocationist rather than invoking it through a glyph is far more practical, if one can do it. My uncle could conjure enough fire to set a forest ablaze in the blink of an eye, but I can barely create enough to light a candle even with my utmost concentration."

[arcadedragon]

"Yes he said something about not being able to go to school. Because of an outbreak of a plague." It sounded awful, though Reynir was strangely still cheerful about all of it.

"Your uncle likely had decades more practice than you. My father used to demonstrate fighting techniques he'd been doing for years and then get frustrated that my brother and I could not replicate them exactly on the first try."

He huffs, still prickly about that, "Sometimes Hanzo could. I couldn't though."

[abheirrant]

Hearing that irritation in Genji's tone, Carlisle tries his hand at reassurance.

"Some are blessed with natural talent, while everyone else must work to acquire the same skills. And even then, they may never be equals. It is an unfortunate truth I learned long ago from my own father."

If there's one thing he and Genji can commiserate on, it's being disappointing sons. "I suppose I am lucky I had no brother to be compared to."

[arcadedragon]

"It is true, no matter how much you may desire it so, simply wanting it is not enough to will it into being." Which seems a little unfair, hard work and dedication and wanting something should be enough. But alas, life isn't like that.

"It is a constant comparison too. Forever one is in the others' shadow."