zanzivata_logs

Each character is given an adjustment period. After all, to do otherwise would be gauche. And after they've had a chance to catch their breath and find their feet, a courier arrives for them with an invitation to a beautiful garden party at the top of the Sentinel's Rest the following evening. It's implied that attendance is less than optional, and the letter is signed simply with a stylized letter R.

Each letter will also contain a specialized series of clues that will lead them to several different corresponding areas throughout Avastarya. Each location will lead them to the next, and so on and so forth until they reach their final destination. Said destination is a small token, that can be presented at the party in exchange for a gift. The option to keep them is also possible. Surrendering the token or choosing to keep it will both come with benefits, albeit of a different and not necessarily equal sort.

UTA'S token (a small unbreakable wireglass globe, warm to the touch and very bright that seems to swirl and shift like the surface of a star) will be gifted to him after he completes a series of quests. These quests involve the musical arts. His first quest will lead him to a small, dusty workshop with every conceivable type of instrument. He must play the piano in a certain sequence of keys to unlock a secret compartment in it, which will give him directions to the next quest. This will lead him, with a very complicated poem in iambic pentameter, to an old opera house in the Plaguefire district. There, hidden under the 19th seat (they're numbered) he will find the wireglass globe. On the old, rotten stage of the opera house there is a simple mask that looks rather Grecian in origin and mimics the tragedy/comedy mask styles of the day (half of each emotion). It's not what he came for, but will he take it too, or let it lie?

CLARK'S token (a roughly ostritch-sized suspiciously green (but not actually Kryptonite) egg. It pulsates strangely - is it stone, or is it something alive? It's impenetrable to X-Ray vision) will be given to him after he has performed three acts of unselfish kindness throughout Avastarya. Is someone watching him? Hard to say, but once he has done these three things (of the player's choice) a young man will approach him to give him the egg. The young man will tell him to treat it kindly, even though it doesn't appear to be fragile at all...

BUCKY'S token (a small wolf made of steel) will be given to him after he spends a day in the Plaguefire District. This area is one of the poorest in Avastarya, and he has been tasked with reading stories to the children in the orphanage there. The children get to decide to vote on when and if he will be given his token, so he had better be willing to entertain them! The child that gives him the wolf will also tell him a story she's heard, about a demon terrorizing the streets at night. Children's fable, or honest truth?

STEVE'S token (a small striped badger made of petrified wood) is in the old city on which Avastarya has been built. He has been tasked with cartography of an area that was sealed off some years earlier after a plague decimated the spot. His natural immunity should, theoretically, serve him well. The badger will be found on the lip of an old fountain, next to a child's diary of the plague years.

GENE'S token (a long ribbon that seems to be a darker colour than black, it cannot be cut or torn) will be given to him after he helps escort a young woman through Dahl Ahouran. She is looking for her sister, she will say, and navigating the realm of the dead is no easy thing. Gene's being able to talk to ghosts may come in handy here, and once he locates the girl's sister, she will give him the ribbon from her hair.

ELERA'S token (a box full of bones. One familiar with the composition of living things might notice that the bones belonged to something in the Canis family once upon a time...) is a bit tricky to get to. She is going to have to infiltrate a lavish party, charm the host and find a series of small totems (maybe they represent halla?) to unlock a special door on the premises. The door leads to a hidden antechamber, and the bones - in their elegant carven-wood box - are in the middle of an ornate circle. Getting close to it might remind her a little of the Fade from her homeworld, but nevertheless - if she wants the token, she has to chance it.

NATASHA'S token (an unbreakable hourglass, filled with shifting red sand, but when flipped the sand will mysteriously turn black) will be given to her if she attends the trial and potential execution of a wanted criminal. Traditionally, trials and their judgement are not a matter of deliberation in Avastarya. The facts will be laid out before the crowd, lawyers will argue the case, and depending on the crowd's decision the man will either be executed (in a manner they will also decide) or set free. Natasha will have a role in the proceedings - she will be called on to read the tallies for and against the man's death. Will she read the true answer, or lie to the crowd? Either way, afterwards the executioner will hand her the hourglass.

ILLYANA'S token (a small toy ship, beautifully handcarved, with impossibly ornate details) will be given to her after she does a series of small quests. The first thing? Her invitation will have a drawing on it of a precise skyline. Her job will be to find the place where the paper lines up with a real part of the city. She will find that this will have her standing directly on top of a storm drain. Should she choose to go down into it, she will find the next piece of the skyline mystery carved into a beautiful ice sculpture down in the bowels of the old ruin beneath Avastarya. The next phase will take her to the front door of a soup kitchen, where she will be asked to help serve the city's homeless. Once that is done, one of the workers will tell her to go down to the docks. It is here that she will be given the small ship (not a boat-ship, but a space-ship) by a child playing there. He may tell her about a monster that's been seen threatening the bay, but is there any truth to this or is it simply a child's story?

JIN'S token (a beautiful moon pendant, lovingly carved and hung on a chain of something that's almost more like mithril in its nature than anything found on earth) is something she will have to find on her own. She will be given a poem that speaks of fair forests and the rising moon and little else. However: at some point in her travels throughout the city, she will encounter an old man telling a story to a group of enraptured youngsters, and he will repeat the poem. Her IIMP's translation of the local tongue won't be exact, but it will sound like they're talking about a fairy or... spirit? If she chooses to inquire about the story, he will give her details, of how on a full moon in a forest glen outside the city, a magical creature will appear to grant someone's truest wish. Should she attempt to seek out this place, however, she will find that it has been burned down. However, at the centre of the clearing, nestled in an old tree stump, she will find the necklace. If Jin ever happens to use foxfire around it, she will find that her name has been inscribed on its back...

Sentinel's Rest will be decked out beautifully for the evening's festivities. There is an area strung with lights obviously intended for dancing, a table of beautiful canapes that contain myriad delicacies from each character's own world (and in some cases, their own life and experiences), there is an area blocked off for tournament fighting and also one for poetry readings where a young member of the Idyl Eben is reciting while her partner plays the lute.

Otherwise, choose your own adventure! After all, you're practically on top of the world. You are also free to have your character run into another one while doing their scavenger hunt. Team up, help with clues? Also possible!

Flat | Top-Level Comments Only

[Corn and cotton were the two crops that didn't have much slow down in the '20s. It weren't all that expensive, neither, especially if you didn't mind a bit of rot.

Clark's smile is taken in playful stride, Gene matches it.]

Ah, I'd take any of those too, but corn makes me think of Agathine. Little town in the south of Walker County. We grew corn and cotton mostly, plenty for a mining town.

[It's painfully obvious that his heart is well and truly given over to Alabama. He's got a lot of pride in the place he grew up - warts an' all, an' he's got more cause to know those warts than most. When you can talk to the dead on both sides of the Civil War, you can't exactly plead ignorance of 'em.]

[ He tilts his head companionably. ]

I grew up in a town by the name of Smallville, if you can believe. And it was, according to a rather antiquated sign, the 'creamed corn capital of the world'.

[In a tone of well-amused wonder--]

Ain't that a thing. It as good as all that?

[He knocks a little rock out of their way to the grass on the side of the laneway, tucks his hands halfly into his pockets and then quickly pulls them back out. Something learned, rather than innate. Regulation 670-1, an' all that.]

I can't say as we ever enjoyed too much of the stuff, but it was appetizing as such a thing can be.

Certainly the best creamed corn I've ever had.

[ He glances over at Gene. ]

Tell me about your town? Was it small, large?

[He waves one hand towards the low stone fence, where the greenery starts to give way to the city streets.]

Oh, small enough as these things go. Three, four thousand folks dependin' on the time of year. Everybody knows everybody else. Reckon it was a good place to grow up, even though it weren't near as excitin' as a place like New York.

[He's been there only once, for the forty-eight hours before they shipped for Casablanca. Hell of a city, to be sure, but he don't think he could live there none.]

It sounds roughly the same size as the town I grew up in, though perhaps just a touch smaller.

[ The Luthorcorp chemical plant that added a significant portion to the population in the area, after all. ]

Have you ever been? To New York, I mean?

[He pauses to step around a local lady fussing with her toddler on the sidewalk, giving her a polite nod and a murmur of 'ma'am' as he does so. Once they've passed--]

Yeah, I been to New York. Not real long, just a couple days. An' by most folks' metric here it woulda been a long time ago, in 1943.

[The first few times the dates came up, he weren't quite sure how to take it. Reggie'd just told him to ask about space travel, which he'd obligingly done. But now that he's had a bit to settle in, it's more a point of curiosity than anything. He's spoke on all manner of subjects with ghosts from a thousand years ago, this ain't any more queer than that.]

I'll admit that I'd be among them. Among those who consider that a long time ago.

[ He glances over at the other man, not terribly troubled by it, but somewhat curious. ]

Have you asked any of them about the future?

Ah-- not in so many words. But I know the War ends, if'n that's what you mean.

[He doesn't have a pressing desire to know about the future, beyond a few vague details. He sort of just-- wants that experience for himself. Ought to be quite the thing. He ain't got a clue if he'll survive the final days of the push through Germany or not. He hopes so. But either way, bein' here-- Reggie will have another chance.]

[ He nods and that's all he'll say about it. It was an elephant that would have been in the room had he not asked, and he's glad to have it cleared up. ]

And how many of them have asked you about the past, I wonder?

[It's a curious question, and Gene tips his head to one side. Thoughtfully:]

Reckon it ain't all that interestin' to them, honestly.

[He doesn't say it with any resentment. Just the truth. People ain't all that into history, which is why it tends to be a cyclic thing.]

I'd be interested, if you wouldn't mind.

[ He spreads one hand with a tilt of his head. ]

I'm a journalist back home, or more precisely, the editor of a newspaper. Interesting stories are always worth listening to.

[That just makes him shift a little uncomfortably, drawing his shoulders up in something obviously meant as a protective gesture.]

Ah... it ain't been so interestin' as all that. I don't mind the talkin', but I don't think I'd be keen on the focus.

[ He glances over at Gene for a moment before turning his hand towards himself.]

Part of being the editor is knowing which stories ought to be published and which should be left unwritten.

[ He pats his chest the once. ]

You've seen what I can do. I certainly didn't tell the world about that.

[He huffs, and as they approach the coffee shop he'd mentioned earlier--]

Well. Supposin' that's fair.

[Truth is, he ain't even sure he's ready to talk about it. He likes to think he came through all right, but. Well. Reggie says otherwise, and he's got more cause to know than most folk.

He pushes the door open, and holds it so's Clark can go through.]

[ He doesn't ask any further, slipping through the door and making his way to the counter to find out where they ought to sit, which turns out to be just about anywhere. He smiles and settles in, gesturing to the other side for Gene to take his seat. He says nothing, leaving the ball in Gene's court since he'd obviously pushed on something sensitive. ]

[He's content with the silence while they get sorted - there ain't a thing about it that's recalcitrant or touchy, it's just mellow and easy - and he moves one of the coasters until it's a bit out of his way.

He don't reach for the menu. Don't mean much to a kid who can't hardly read, an' he already knows what he wants.]

So what year're you from, Clark? Don't think you made mention.

[He's intensely curious. The future seems a bright thing to him.]

2010.

[ Which he doesn't mind sharing. There's details of his world, of his reality, that he'll keep to himself, but the date isn't one of them. ][ He gestures to the menu. ]

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