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!

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Even so removed from Detroit, Aterat was starting to feel like home, and the white blankness of it all when the snowed began to fall in winter helped it along. The slush in the streets was the same, the soft, muted sounds that came with a fresh blanket of snow. It was all part and parcel of wintertime, and while he was missing the more familiar elements of home, some things remained constant.

It wasn't often business took him out toward the lodge, and it hadn't now, but an afternoon stroll. He was lost in his own thoughts until a scent he hadn't smelled since leaving home reached his nostrils. Frowning for a moment, he looks around for the smoker before his eyes find Jacob. He shoves his gloved hands into the pockets of his pants and turns his attention to the other man.

"You've been here before, haven't you?"

Edited 2021-12-25 22:22 (UTC)

Jake inhaled a slow breath of smoke before answering. "Yeah. Though not to the Lodge. I remember when it was first mentioned but I had been... busy back then."

That was the best way he could describe his attitude the last time he'd been in the city. He hadn't reached out very often and had been happy to seclude himself in his work. It was work or the constant insomnia that had plagued him back then.

"I didn't think it was too obvious. Were you here back then?" He didn't remember and he hoped that Jagger wouldn't take it to heart. "It's all a bit hazy." It was the truth but it felt like an excuse.

"Busy." He nodded along with his response. It seemed reasonable enough, for one, and it also sounded almost like an excuse, a reasoning for brush off a possible recognition, but Jagger wasn't familiar enough with the man to know for sure. He'd really only seen him around, and not often.

He rolled his shoulder in a shrug. "Yeah, but I was busy myself, I suppose." Learning things he'd rather not, being completely out of his depth. "Jagger Crowe." He offered an inclined nod but his hands remained in his pockets, saved by the cold from refusing a shake.

Jacob might have answered if Jagger prodded further but he usually counted on the fact that people were too polite to pry. Even his family let things slide, all except Lyla.

"Jake. Miller." He added his last name awkwardly. It didn't feel all that important now that he was displaced from home. "So you were here back when I was here last? You looked familiar." He had not been paying attention back then. "The memories are still a bit fuzzy."

He lifted the bud of his cigarette to his lips and inhaled a deep breath. "I'd offer you one but this was my last one."

Jake Miller. The name carried a vague sort of familiarity, the kind you acquired in passing rather than anything akin to actual knowledge. He agreed with the other man, though. He looked familiar.

"We must have seen each other around." Either on the network or around town. There had been nearly as many 'natives' the last time Jacob would have been here. It made sense he looked familiar. "No thanks, mate. I don't smoke." That did begger a question, though. "Where are you planning to get more?"

"Not sure yet. If they have tobacco I can roll my own." He rolled his shoulders in a shrug. "But I wouldn't be able to look until after all this snow melts." Jacob liked the snow but it was typically a deterrent to normal everyday activities.

"If you know of a place or find anything, it'd be great if you let me know." He inhaled and felt a small pang of loss of the tantalizing smoke. Jake didn't think he needed the cigarettes but they helped him relax and often numbed his nightmares. It was also easier to get than the medications that he used to be on.

Looking out for tobacco hadn't been in the cards, but the idea was an intriguing one. No one who'd been in Aterat for an amount of time could deny the place tended to collect things from other worlds. He found it interesting what sorts of things, too, and he wondered if looking around for something new might make it appear.

"I'll keep an eye out, mate, sure." He nodded. "It's been a while since you were around last. Did you go...home or...elsewhere?" It was a question that had been concerning him since a few people had left, and since others had arrived from somewhere other than their homes.

"Thanks." Jacob would do his own search for tobacco but he didn't know if he'd find it. He'd likely have to ask a few people to keep a lookout or find a new addiction to replace the old. Ever since he'd been kidnapped he'd needed something to calm his nerves, be it prescription drugs or something more easily attainable.

He'd have to see what existed in the city.

"I went home for a bit. About a year I think. It's all a bit hazy but the memories slowly come back." His sister had helped them come back when he had been living at home. Luckily the city didn't make him forget the same way leaving had.

"Sure, mate. We're all here ripped away from our homes. The least we can do is help each other deal with it."

He could be short to the point of rudeness, but Jagger did have the best of intentions, and a really good reason to keep people at more than arms' length. Still, he was curious about the others here and Jacob was no exception.

"Does the world you're from have anything above the mundane?"

Jacob smirked. "I think that way too but I know that not everyone does." It was a logical way to look at it but emotions often got in the way of logic. A logical world didn't exist.

"It does but I'm not really apart of it. I'm a bit boring." He didn't look too bothered by it. It was just another fact of his life. "But my sister and my adopted family had various powers and things that were a bit more than mundane. Well, maybe not compared to here but compared to 2027 Seattle."

It was hard to know what was normal for other people.

It didn't, but Jagger's first inclination was the keep the world at arm's length, which called for a healthy dose of logic whenever emotions were in play. It kept him grounded, and the feelings of others out of his own. "They don't, but it doesn't make it less true."

He nodded. "Various powers? I've heard about things, but I've only seen a few. Any specifics?"

"Yeah." Truth was rather subjective in Jacob's experience. He knew his truth but the truth of others usually confused him. The most he could do was recognize the difference.

"Oh, A whole mess of things. My adopted family were werewolves. Or Human-wolves. Wolf's that turned human. My sister is a god." Which was still weird. His memories of his sister wasn't the woman who had saved him. She'd changed so much from the girl he knew growing up. "Um. I have less experience with others. Vampires I guess but they aren't dead or anything. Just really fast and don't like light."

(OOC: I'm so sorry that I completely missed this notification!)

His brow furrowed for a moment before he raised a hand, pinching the bridge of his nose. "That's...a lot to unpack, mate." And it was. Werewolves? Wolves that turned into humans? Were they one and the same or two different species? His sister was a god? What the Hell did that even mean? And Vampires?

"But you're just, what? Normal? How'd you manage that?"

(ooc: that's cool. I was out of commission for 2 weeks anyway)

"Is it?" Jacob laughed as he ran a palm through his hair. "Sorry. I guess it's just my life. It all seems really normal for me now but it's probably not normal." It wasn't normal in his world either but Jacob stayed away from regular people. He didn't have a good basis for comparison.

"Mm? Not sure." He exhaled slowly and tried to think of any reason for him to be normal. It wasn't something he put a lot of thought into. It was nice being normal and he liked it. Being special made someone a target. It wasn't a good thing.

"I don't know any of my blood relations besides my sister and she didn't know she was a god until after high school. Maybe it just passed me." His biggest fear was that he wasn't normal and one day some unknown power would wake up inside of him. "No one I've met knows and I've talked to a lot of people who use various forms of magic. Though I don't know if they've tried to look into that." Jacob was probably going to spend a lot of time thinking about this now.

"I'd say it was luck but I actually have terrible luck." It was funny how bad his luck was.

Jagger could respect that. There were a lot of things about his life that weren't normal, were far from it in fact, and even some that he'd begun to take for granted, such as how prevalent ghosts were, and how often they weren't ghosts at all, nevermind the fact that he just knew things by touching things.

He frowned, thoughtful for a moment before looking back to the guy. He was sure he was going to regret asking, but his curiosity was always stronger than his sense of preservation.

"Hang on, how do you just find out you're a god?"

Jacob let out a low throaty laugh at the question. "You aren't the first person to ask me that. I honestly think my sister is a bit of a ditz." He spoke affectionally but he also had no illusions about his sister. She tried too hard and at times her combination of guilt and self-righteousness was annoying.

"I think it's because she tried to hard to fit in. I can't really relate but maybe it was because she saw herself as odd." He shrugged again. "I don't really know. If she ever shows up here I'll point her in your direction. Maybe she'll have a better answer."

"You know, I look forward to meeting her, on the off chance she ever shows up around here, anyway." The odds of that actually happening weren't as low as he originally thought, considering how many people had arrived here from other places together.

"She'd probably like that." Jacob reflected wistfully before looking back at the bright lights pouring from the lodge windows. "We should probably get back to the party, huh?" He wasn't a big party person but he'd come here to at least show his face.

"I'm not good at big gatherings."

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