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

[ It makes her laugh. There's a difference between how things seem and how they are, but the expression carries something more genuine in it, a solid weight at its core. ]

Yeah, [ Natasha agrees easily. Thoughtfully, too, as she keeps smiling at him. ] Maybe I'll get the chance to find out.

[ Lightly, ]

You never got sick of it? [ A beat. She grins: ] I guess the girls must have helped.

[He's always smiled easy. Even in the war, there weren't no dearth of things worth the doing. You just have to know how to look. Sometimes, it's the simple act of findin' someone who needs to see one that makes it all worthwhile. But Natasha manages to inspire him to them without any effort at all.

He does seem a bit at a loss for what to do with his now-empty plate, though-- which lasts all of a few seconds before one of the attendants comes to sweep it away from him. He thanks them in a soft murmur and then stands at ease, hands behind his back.]

Ah-- well, they were always swell dancers, sure.

Nothing serious, though?

[ Somehow, Natasha doesn't think there's anything about Gene that's been locked away under years of ice and sleep, but 'shared life experience' covers a magnitude of sins.

Arms folded across her chest, she shifts her weight a little, leaning into Gene's space slightly. ]

I'm a pretty good matchmaker.

No, I ain't--

[He laughs, soft and helpless.]

I ain't lookin'. Wouldn't feel fair, bein' here, knowin' we're goin' home.

[Reggie could do casual dalliances. Gene-- well, with him, it's permanence or bust.]

[ It doesn't come across like a brush-off. There are moments, already, that make her think of Laura Barton; how normal everything is, how easy it looks to some. There are things worth protecting in whatever world you live in.

(It's sort of annoying, actually. The Black Widow is a soft touch these days.)

Natasha retreats, resettling her weight back on two feet. ]

You're practically a sweetheart, Gene.

[He ain't shy, no, but Natasha has set her mind to workin' him into a fluster. He's not usually one for it, but she's gettin' him perilous close.]

Well-- you'd have thinkin' so in common with my Ma.

[He's too Catholic to take the compliment, too Southern to deny it. So instead, he finds the middle ground and does his best to navigate it.]

I remind you of your mom?

[ Natasha laughs. It's not offended, anyway, not with the way she's quirking her brows at him, her arms falling back to her sides. ]

I have a friend who's a veteran.

[ Well, more than one. But she says it like it's equal parts explaination and a little apologetic. ]

I get nosy. It's an old habit.

She meant the world t'me, so I promise you're in good company.

[It's said with that little touch of playfulness that's been the benchmark of most of their chats so far, but there's something genuine and soft behind it, too. No bitterness, and the grief is so old and careworn that it's barely a ripple across the still water of his words. His Ma-- she really was somethin' else. An' he was never in want of knowin' how fierce and deep her love ran down.

To the rest--]

I don't mind you bein' nosy, you go on however makes you happy.

[ She looks at him. It's a mild sort of expression, neither here nor there, but there's something in it all the same that's coached in a sharp kind of understanding. Maybe a little surprise, too. ]

Yeah.

[ Not for the first time, Natasha wonders why he's here. What, if anything, he wanted badly enough. In war, the only crime is to lose. Somehow, Natasha doesn't think he'd subscribe to that.

The expression fades as quickly as it appears. Her mouth quirks. ]

Can I ask you something personal?

[ As if, you know, matchmaking wasn't a personal conversation. She gently tips her head, walking a couple paces away from a cluster of people, indicating he should follow her to somewhere with less ears. ]

[There are secrets that he keeps. Ones that are older than him, things that span generations, near nothin' about himself. He doesn't think she'd ask him anything painful or hard, and so he trails after her politely.]

'Course.

[He doesn't fidget or look much troubled by the direction of conversation, he just waits patiently for her to say her piece.]

Hypothetically.

[ She knows how it sounds. But it's supposed to, by virtue of the conversation. Natasha smiles as she walks them away to a quieter corner. From this high, it's not just the skies that seem closer; the view's good from here too, towering wireglass structures twisting through the darkened skyline. Above, the string of lights flicker gently. ]

If you could find out the truth about something, even though you knew it would hurt. Would you?

[ Two graves behind a chain-link fence. Natasha knows her answer-- it's why she's here in the first place.

But it's a funny litmus test. Steve's answer wouldn't be the same as it would have been three years ago, she thinks, and neither would her own. ]

[He doesn't answer right away. His thought processes, as they pertain to serious things, are not instantaneous. He likes to approach things from different angles, slot them together until they make a sort of sense he can abide.

The question is serious, and he gives it the attention it's due.

At length,]

Depends on who it's gonna hurt. Supposin' only me, I'd rather know the truth. Other folks, who ain't never brought me to harm-- no, not unless I could talk it out with them first.

[He tries his best to be respectful of other folks, their autonomy, their wants. Maybe it's on account of seein' ghosts, an' bein' exposed to so many lives at their most honest. Ain't nobody much ever lies to him, after they're dead. Why would you bother? The last soul you can ever speak to, what's the point?]

[ Yeah. It's not a hard answer to come by; it's what Laura would have answered with that blank, simply-put look as she peeled potatoes at the sink. Natasha knows where she stands on second chances, and she knows where she stands on how she wants to live her life. Giving up the lie, though, no matter who it's for-- she doesn't know if it counts as either of those things. ]

Okay.

[ She smiles at him. Something in her expression narrows, not out of suspicion but of-- focus, maybe. ]

Can I ask you another one? [ The curve to her mouth turns as she laughs, almost like she's self-conscious. ] And then I'll stop, I promise.

[He laughs, and spreads his hands.]

Be my guest.

[ She looks directly at him. It's not combative, but it's— watchful. It's looking for the answer. ]

How are you sleeping?

[His mouth twists. The first week here, he slept like the dead, for hours longer than he probably should've. The Gardener encouraged it, said it was helpful to the healing process, so there were definitely a couple days when he would get up, have breakfast, and then go right back to bed.

He got sick of that real quick, though. And now that he's-- caught up, feels like, well.

He supposes there's a reason a keen gal like Natasha would ask him that question. There ain't no way in polite company to talk about night terrors or all the times he wakes up screaming, so his smile is a touch helpless. It doesn't occur to him to lie. He ain't built for it, even to spare his own shame.]

Ain't always pretty. But it happens.

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