Winter log

[faithfulsupport]

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!

Comments

[neurotoxicity]

"I see," she said with a shrug. She was curious but it wasn't really her business and she understood when someone clearly didn't want to talk. "I won't ask anymore, but thanks for answering my questions. I apologize if they were too invasive or made you uncomfortable."

[skyward_eyes]

"People give me grief for her sometimes. They don't get the connection. They assume the worst."

[neurotoxicity]

"I know how that goes." She shrugged one shoulder. "People always assume the worst."

[skyward_eyes]

Sounds like she had some experience with that. But at least she wasn't judging him.

"'m sorry for anything you've gone through here."

[neurotoxicity]

"Don't be. I keep most of my secrets to myself for a reason." Mostly because she knew how people would react. Or at least strongly suspected it.

[skyward_eyes]

"I can understand all of that," Nida admires with a smile. "I've had issues like that too. Dresden definitely has had opinions about my magic."

And very serious ones.

[neurotoxicity]

"Harry?" She chuckled. "He has a lot of opinions in general. What does he think about your magic?"

[skyward_eyes]

Oh dear, she's met him. He wants to laugh.

"Oh he thinks I'm possibly possessed by a demon, the costs of it are too high, Siren might not be easily trusted, I could keep going. We came to an understanding to not worry about it too much."

[neurotoxicity]

"He likes to poke into things," she said with a shrug and a tone that betrayed a certain degree of amusement. "Often things he doesn't really get." It was something she was familiar with on her own and not something she entirely minded. Maybe that all came from the fact that he was almost exactly like her partner back home. Rachel did the same thing and made the same hypocritical types of choices that Harry did.

[skyward_eyes]

Seemed quite likely that Harry was like that. He definitely had pried deeper than Nida would have liked, and had held that because Nida's bond was wrong in his own magic system, Nida's bond had to be wrong for paramagic too.

"One of the things about places like this is that we have to learn that the lives we live are so very different, and that means needing to make allowance."

[neurotoxicity]

"It's hard to let go of what you know," she said with a shrug. "But you're not wrong. I try to avoid mentioning what I am because most people have really specific ideas about what it is."

[skyward_eyes]

"I suppose I should keep my magic even more secret," he sighed.

Yeah, he should avoid that stuff.

[neurotoxicity]

"You'd think Harry wouldn't have much to say about magic. He's a wizard himself." She said with a shrug. "Though in my world humans that try to use magic usually don't turn out to be great people. They aren't born with the ability so they have to make deals with other creatures to get the power they want."

[skyward_eyes]

That makes Nida frown.

"Is that a problem? Contracts with other creatures?"

Because it hasn't been an issue for him.

[neurotoxicity]

"Usually only with demons or particularly old undead vampires," she said with a little shrug. "Demons never keep their part of the bargain, they can always find a way to twist the wording in their favor. Undead vampires only make deals with humans to get ghouls and they rarely follow through on fully turning them."

[skyward_eyes]

"I don't know if there are demons in my world," Nida admitted, frowning as he considered. "Or Vampires. But I guess it's possible they do and I just haven't figured it out yet."

[neurotoxicity]

"That seems to be the case for a few people I've met here. Hopefully they both just don't exist." She shrugged. "Though I expect your world has your own equivalents."

[skyward_eyes]

"There are Sorceresses and monsters, but I don't know if those are similar," he admits with a shrug. That wasn't something he knew he could understand the equivalents of. "And the Guardian Forces if you believe Harry."

[neurotoxicity]

"We have witches and some people consider werewolves and vampires monsters." And technically they probably wouldn't be wrong. "Sometimes it seems like most worlds have a similar base with some fundamental differences in how that base actually works. It makes it dangerous to assume anything about anyone's world."

[skyward_eyes]

"Witches is what we call Sorceresses, but I learned from an old boyfriend that we use the term very differently from other worlds. We mean something different," Nida said with a shrug. He didn't think he wanted to talk about it because people assumed he'd lash out at magic users because of that.

[neurotoxicity]

"What do you mean in your world?" it probably wasn't the most polite thing to ask but she was curious.

[skyward_eyes]

"Women who inherit a power that taints them, corrupts them, and ultimately they go mad and either try and conquer or take over the world," Nida answered. Yeah, he wasn't afraid to share that.

[neurotoxicity]

"So they're doomed from birth?" Sounded a bit too uncomfortably familiar for her own liking. "Is there anyway to prevent that?"

[skyward_eyes]

"Not birth. No one is born with magic. They inherit magic, passed onto the nearest woman upon the passing of a Sorceress," he admits. So doomed, yes, but not from birth.

"If they have a knight to anchor their power it could keep them safer. Edea kept her mind until she was possessed."

[neurotoxicity]

"Mm, I'm not really sure if that's better or worse. Maybe better since you could theoretically just avoid having anyone near?" If she understood it correctly, which something told her she probably didn't do.

"I see. It seems like a complicated system, though we have something a bit similar where I'm from. Who was she possessed by?"