aterat | Winter log

Entry tags:

Winter log

Who: Everyone!
What: Open Log
When: December
Where: The Hunter's Lodge
Warnings: N/A
Notes: This is a mingle log, so people are free to set up their own TLs under it. So tag in and tag around!

Snow has fallen outside and while it's not heavy it's set just enough down to gently cover the wooden benches and ground outside. The chairs have been removed but the lanterns are still out and lit (as well as the little lights that have been replaced with more festive ones) if people want to walk around outside and have private chats among the snow, the trees and the lighting.

Potluck - Food is all around. Got a story about how the food you brought is part of a long standing family tradition? So much the better! But Ignis for his part has been researching and working on bringing the foods he's heard about. So here you'll find an appetizer platter along with a cream cheese tree, turkey, ham, his version of the Crown City roast, stuffing balls, roasted potatoes and roasted vegetables, and of course a few different desserts.

So you can find him making sure the table is decked out in christmas colours and full of food. But as he sets the last appetizer tree down on the table, he nods. "Quite glad to see that you could make it."

Trim a tree A small group of freshly cut green trees are sitting in a corner with room to go around the back. Simple lights are already in place, but there are ornaments with hooks sitting in silent invitation to decorate the tree and gather around as well as different coloured garland too.

But there's plenty of supplies and being able to decorate a tree with Nida last year was all sorts of fun as it will be again this year. So the advisor is definitely happy that nature can come inside at least temporarily.

Ignis stands back and takes a look at the trees with a satisfied sort of nod. "I suppose after the holiday, I will see about replanting it outside." Turning to his guest, there's an easy smile. "It won't do to simply throw it away do you think?"

Gift exchange - Gifts aren't required, but people are free to do so. This can be as private or as public as wished! The royal strategist is busy arranging gifts under the tree, trying to make some sense as to how they should be grouped, so he's on his knees trying to keep the order straight. As soon as someone approaches, he acknowledges their presence with a smile. "Would you mind handing me that blue wrapped gift sitting on the chair right next to you?"

Wild card- Dancing? Snowball fights outside? Feel free to make up a thing here!

Flat | Top-Level Comments Only

Mono would have been quite delighted to see Illyana. She was probably one of his favourite people at this point. He was quite focused on his task though, trying to get the faces of his current snow person right. Faces were funny things, sometimes. He wanted to get it right; he didn’t want to leave them without faces… Everyone should have a face.

Especially in this world.

He’d watched the children making these the prior year, and even if they did seem a little strange and unsettling at times, it was fun… And he also had never seen evidence of them coming to life. So they were just… things made of snow.

Or so he thought.

Illyana’s surprise definitely startled the boy, jumping at the unfamiliar voice, shouting happy birthday at him. Pity the child wouldn’t get that reference. Instead he let out a shout a loud “Ahhh!” and whirled to face it, eyes wide as he lost his balance and landed on his butt in the snow. Had he done this? Was this some kind of… weird ability he didn’t know he had??

The snowman blinked like it was the most normal thing for a snowman to do and turned it's head slowly to the side. "Happy birthday!" it shouted again, this time more clearly and with more emphasis. In a way it almost sounded vaguely...menacing...? Or perhaps that was just the fact that a black eyed snowman was shouting happy birthday that made the entire situation seem vaguely menacing.

"Hey, I said my first words! No congratulations?" Somehow, even asking about the no congratulations sounded vaguely threatening. Almost as if the snowman might decide to go on some rampage if it wasn't properly congratulated for it's monumental achievement of saying it's first words. Which, honestly, was entirely possible with a spell cast by Illyana.

Mono stared at the snowman like it had two heads, for a very tense moment his eyes darting around for some makeshift weapon like he would have back in his world if something turned mean… The snowman hadn’t, of course, but it was nice to be prepared. He was pretty sure there was a shovel sticking out of the snow somewhere from when they were clearing paths… Not as good as a sledgehammer, but it could work.

“Um…” He stared for a moment longer as the snowman started talking again, “Congratulations…?” Mono responded uncertainly, trying to get an idea of if he should move or not. “Do snowmen usually talk? I never saw one talking when kids made them last year.”

"Do we usually...talk..." the Snowman seemed to be asking himself that question more than Mono. "Do we? Maybe the kids made them wrong." His cold black bead eyes narrowed at Mono as if he were deep in contemplation about whether or not he was the faulty snowman here or if it were the other ones this that were wrong.

"You talk. Why shouldn't we?" Maybe Illyana's spell at given it a bit too much free thinking. She let out a sigh as she watched. As long as it didn't get too angry she could let this go on a bit longer. Besides, it'd be a shame to end things just as their conversation was getting interesting.

“I guess that could be true…” Mono mumbled uncertainly. It wasn’t as though he had any experience with snowmen before arriving in this world. Maybe the kids had been doing it wrong, or maybe they had been practicing and trying to get this result? Or maybe it had been him, and this was his mistake…

No, his abilities had never done anything like this before. At least… not that he could recall…

But the snowman was asking him why they shouldn’t talk, and the kid puzzled over an answer. “I dunno… I never made snowmen before today?? I guess maybe you should talk as much as anyone else in that case…” He fidgeted a little under the Snowman’s narrowed gaze, definitely still feeling like he should be ready for anything. His eyes darted sidelong at the shovel, before back to the snowman. “Do you… Do you like talking now?”

"You made me?" Well, that seemed to be a shock for the snowman. "Does that make you my father?" Oh, no, now Illyana was trying desperately to hide her snicker. So desperately that she even put her hands to her mouth when she let out a snort that she hoped wasn't too loud. This was definitely a trick she was going to let go of just yet.

The snowman didn't respond to his question and instead just blinked, almost as if it really didn't actually know the answer. "Do I like it...? I don't remember before. I just woke up!"

“Yeah, I made all the snowmen here! I just… Didn’t know that I could make snowmen that talked. The rest of them don’t talk.” Though Mono blinked in confusion, a father??? “I dunno, I guess I made you…? But I dunno, I never had a dad before to know what they’re like.” The kid was definitely confused, and trying to puzzle over it between that and his concern over trying to figure out if this snowman was good or bad.

At least it wasn’t really glaring at him, so that was… That was something. “Oh… I guess that kinda makes sense.” He tapped on his chin and then tilted his head one way, then the other. “I guess I’ll let you decide if you like talking later once you’ve had more time to.”

"Then you're all our fathers?" The Snowman's eyes narrowed at the boy's confusion, becoming a bit frustrated. "Why did you not make the others speak? Did you not want to wake my brothers?" Again it's tone took on a slightly more sinister quality and it managed to muster up it's best threatening look.

"They should be able to decide too." Illyana got up at the tone shift from the Snowman and started to make her way over. Clearly things were beginning to go just a bit too far now.

“I- I guess… I did make them.” He mumbled and glanced at the snowmen. He really never thought about any of this when he started playing in the snow. Mono never would have guessed this might happen after watching other kids build snowmen last year. It sounded like it was starting to get upset at him, and he really didn’t like that…

People getting upset with him was bad, and he had to be ready for what was coming next… So he started edging sideways. “I Mean- I didn’t know it could happen? I dunno how I made you talk, so I dunno how I could make them talk, too? I’m not sure how most of my power works.”

"Why would you not give us all the ability to live?" he said with anger lacing his tone. It was then that Illyana walked up and waved a hand causing the Snowman to fall back into a silent state.

"Is there a problem here?" she asked with a smirk that she tried to hide behind a forced serious tone.

“I said I dunno how I made you alive in the first place!!” Mono responded, tone rising a little higher than usual with both panic and annoyance. “If I did, maybe I could bring the others to life, but I really dunno how!”

Mono paused, looking up rather quickly as Illyana approached them. Maybe she could offer some insight?? “Illyana! I accidentally brought a snowman to life and I dunno how!” He glanced back at the snowman, “And I think it’s mad at me for it…”

"Did you now? I had no idea you had a talent for magic." It was difficult to keep a straight face, but she managed. Initially she'd intended to come back over and tell him the truth, but now she couldn't pass up the chance to continue things on a little bit longer. "It seems silent now though." And distinctly no longer alive.

“I didn’t know I did either!” He responded quickly, still with a note of panic in his confused voice. “All the stuff I could do before was with electric stuff, not like… snow and life stuff!” It was weird, it was definitely weird, and he wasn’t sure what to make of it.

Mono looked over quickly as she redirected his attention to his ‘creation’ again. A small gasp escaping as he noticed it didn’t seem to be doing much of anything now… Picking up a stick on instinct, he edged closer and poked it lightly. “It stopped! Did I make it stop talking? I dunno how I even made it talk to begin with!”

That was it. The poking with a stick was the point of no return where she couldn't keep herself from laughing any longer. It was a weird laugh, much less sinister than it usually was and somehow a bit more normal sounding.

"You didn't. I did."

Mono jumped a little, turning to look at Illyana when she started laughing with a curious tilt of his head. He’d never heard her laugh like that before, and while he was a little confused over what was so funny, it was a nice sound!

Lowering the stick to drag in the snow, he gaped at her confession, “Oh! That kinda makes more sense than me doing it.” He looked at the snowman again. “I didn’t know you could do something like that either. It was kinda angry, though.”

Illyana tilted her head at his reaction and then laughed again, a very similar sounding laugh. This had definitely been worth the trick.

"I can do a lot of things people don't know about," she grinned. There was a reason for that of course, she did like to keep her secrets. Besides, it lead to amusing situations like this. Obviously this just proved that it was worth keeping your skills on a need to know basis. She waved a hand dismissively.

"Gave it a bit too much autonomy. Spells aren't an exact science."

“I guess that means you can surprise people whenever you want, huh?” He asked with a small, clumsy looking smile as she laughed again. He still wasn’t sure what was so funny, aside from maybe that she’d managed to trick him, but it was hard to not feel a little proud of making her laugh.

At the idea of spells not being an exact science, the kid tilted his head curiously. “They’re not? So you gotta practice and try a few times to make it happen the way you wanted?” He glanced at the snowman, wondering a little at how she’d meant for it to act.

"So you caught on?" There was a tiny part of her that was a bit surprised he had, but proud none the less. He was definitely sharper than people gave him credit for.

"Precisely. You often have to practice quite a lot to get the exact result you want," she said with a casual shrug. "This was something I had never practiced or attempted. I just thought on doing it at the moment."

Mono seemed to stand a little straighter at that, looking rather pleased with himself when he realized he’d caught on to something clever.

“I guess that makes sense. Everyone here says I should practice stuff more to get better at it, too.” Even if he couldn’t practice, it made sense. And he did practice with talking to people with his job carrying messages and mail to various shops around the city for the delivery service. “And you must be good at coming up with stuff fast, if you just thought of it when you saw the snowmen. I never made them before, so it really tricked me! I wasn’t sure if it was normal or if I did something weird by mistake.”

"Practice makes perfect," she said with a shrug. In theory it was always a good idea. The problem always seemed to be that people took it a bit too far. Including herself. It was easy to get caught up in that practice and forget about other things. Or, in her case, lose bits of yourself completely to it.

"I have had a lot of time to practice," again she shrugged. Despite how she looked Illyana had spent much more time than most people would ever realize, or know, studying magic. Time worked very differently in pocket dimensions after all. "Where I grew up you died if you were not quick to come up with things fast." Survival of the fittest was a daily occurrence in Hell. How the imps survived was anyone's guess.

"I also had several...strong teachers." Strong was an odd word to use, but it was the only one she could think of. Only one of them had really been a good teacher. An argument could be made for Magneto being a half-decent teacher before he went off the rails again, but that was a stretch. No, most of her teachers hadn't really been good. They had been strong, knowledgeable, and each had taught her a valuable life lesson, but they hadn't been good. She imagined that was the kind of teacher she would be should anyone ever have the misfortune of learning from her.

"There probably is a world where there's an entire race of snowpeople who talk. You'd be surprised what kind of alternate realities there are out there."

“I heard people say that before!” He chirped back with a nod, and it made sense. You could only get better at things if you kept practicing and working on them.

Mono probably shouldn’t have asked the next question, but it’s not like he knows what’s rude or not. “A lot of time? Like ‘cause you're older?” Adults had been around for a lot longer than kids. That just made SENSE! So he wasn’t exactly calling her old, so much as older than him and thus more experienced.

He nodded, though with a particular understanding about learning to come up with things faster… “Yeah, that’s kinda how I got really good at sneaking around in my world and quickly finding hiding places. You gotta learn to um… anticipate stuff!” Other wise, as she said, you died.

He’d never had teachers before, not in his world… So, finding himself with teachers here? It was an interesting experience. “Yeah? And they helped you with all the practicing and getting better at doing stuff? I got someone showing me how to climb better so far. It’s kinda neat.”

Mono’s eyes widened at the mental image of a world full of talking snow people. “Really? Wow…” He turned to look back at his little army of snow people. “I think the snowman you made talk would have liked a place like that. I guess it makes sense though, everyone seems to come from really different places than mine… So there’s gotta be so many that we don’t even know about!”

"The multiverse is more similar than you'd think," she said with a shrug. Some things changed, but far too many things stayed the same.

"Because I'm older and then some." The statement didn't make sense and she knew that, yet she didn't offer any further elaboration on the topic. Sometimes it seemed like it was almost a game to see how vague she could be, how many questions someone would keep asking. Why exactly she found enjoyment in the game was anyone's guess, she tried to spend as little time thinking about whys as she could.

"Limbo was like that. It was either learn to hide better, or learn to fight better." It was never really a choice though. "They did. They each taught me something different, white magic, black magic, the art of combat, my mutant abilities. The only common lesson between them all was the lesson that life isn't fair." That was the most important lesson of all though and each one of them had hammered that into her memory.

"If he'd been allowed to talk for too long, maybe he would have made one," she said with a laugh. "Or tried to. His revolution wouldn't get very far." It might be funny though. Imagine stopping the Old Ones from destroying her world only to create a Snowman that tries to destroy it.

"In my world there are countless realities. There are entire organizations dedicated to protecting the order of it all." Which seemed like a job they kind of sucked at considering how often realities clashed with each other. "They suck at their job."

Mono really didn’t know what to make of her vagueness, other than guessing that meant she was REALLY old compared to him and maybe other people. “I guess if I get to be around that long maybe I’ll get really good at the stuff I can do too?” He wasn’t sure, but it was… a nice idea. He’d like to have more control over his abilities, to figure out what he could do with them and see if he could use them to fix things.

As Illyana described all the things she’d learned, Mono stopped fussing with the snowball he’d been working on. That was a lot of stuff to learn, which… perhaps cemented in his guess that she was a lot older than he thought she was. But there was a sadness that settled into his expression at the final lesson, “Yeah… It should be more fair… But it’s really not.”

Glancing at the snowman again, he wondered what that might’ve been like. “Yeah, I dunno if he woulda gotten far. I didn’t really give him legs or anything… I think he’d have been easy to knock over with a shovel, or um- if it gets warmer and he melted.” Clearly the kid had given some thought about what to do about the snowman, had it gotten out of hand before Illyana intervened.

“That sounds like a really complicated job. I don’t think I’d be good at it either…” He hummed a little. “Who even decides to make a job like that?”

"Maybe. It might require time travel and pocket universes to get there though." Perhaps his powers could do something like that though. He really seemed to have exceptionally little idea about them and how they worked.

"Many things should be things they're not." And that was just the way things were. It was unfortunate, but it was reality. Still, for some reason she felt a need to offer him some comfort. "There are good things though, things that are more fair. My brother would say it is important to focus on those." It seemed a bit silly to her, but so did a lot of what her brother said.

"I suppose he'd have to learn to hope to move and in order to do that he'd have to be very strong." That was actually kind of a scary thought, a strong snowman. "What if he was able to come back together after melting?" An immortal strong snowman. She arched an eyebrow. "You've thought about it." Curious. But she was impressed in a way.

His question gets a simple shrug. "That I can't say."

Very little idea, which was problem… He had vague ideas, and half-formed thoughts about what he might do if he were better at it. But a lot of it was learning as he went and figuring out some new aspect depending on what was going on around him. “People can time travel? That would be super useful, like going back to stop whatever happened to my world before it got as bad as it did.” That was an interesting thought… Poor kid didn’t realize time was already pretty broken in his world. He might never properly realize it, either.

“Yeah, there’s good stuff here, I guess.” He responded, though it wasn’t a bad way to look at things… But he also wasn’t sure how focusing on the good things would make the bad stuff any less bad. Especially where he was from. The kid tended to hang onto things pretty hard. “Maybe that’d be easier if things were more like here where I’m from. But I dunno what good stuff to focus on, other than when I get away from something.”

Mono wondered what a properly strong snowman would look like. That was almost scary… He was kind of glad he was still pretty bad at making them proportionally. Maybe if he’d done a better job, the snowman might’ve been strong enough to do more. “I guess it’s a good thing I’m not good at making big snow people yet. He might’ve gotten really carried away if I did a better job!” The kid’s eyes widened though, “That would be bad if he could reform himself, then there’s no getting rid of it!” Horrifying thought, Illyana, that would stick in his head for a while.

But yes, he’d definitely thought about how to stop it. “Of course, you gotta think of stuff when you’re trying to decide if it’s dangerous. Either you stop it or you run away from it.” The snowman, size-wise, reminded him of the porcelain bullies from the school. A good shovel swing seemed like a logical response to the attack. If it had been bigger, running would have been the instinct.

The kid gasped a little. Something Illyana didn’t know? Mono was surprised. She seemed like she knew so many things! “Really? I guess it’s one of those weird, mysterious things that you gotta figure out.”

I love this so much, please know that

=D I'm glad! I was worried

Aww never be! I love our threads!

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