week zero: mingle

[cyclists]

Week Zero
32 in Competition

On Monday morning, the sun rises on the sleepy village, and when the first ray of light touches the gates at each corner of the village, the previously tightly sealed doors open.

The barriers around the village fall, and leave it entirely open. Each cardinal direction will have a path exiting the village, taking the curious explorers who follow it on an adventure to new territories to be explored. They’ll find that each location that they arrive in appears to be associated with one of the elements. As the Signs had explained the day before, each of the participants in the game possesses an elemental assignment, whether they are aware of it or not.

When they approach the elemental areas, they’ll find themselves more in tune with their new powerset, as if the location invites them to take them out for a spin. The new areas appear to be perfect for training and learning how to use the new skills, or maybe if you’re curious you can discover which of those listed powers you’ve been granted.

Just try not to hurt yourself while you’re out there.

In addition, it seems now that more pieces of the core are being revealed, the river that runs through the village will begin to be dotted with small lanterns floating on the water. Some of them seem to be holding small notes. Try as you might to grab one, they’ll always just barely float out of reach.

Perhaps try sending one yourself and see what results you might get?

Occasionally in the village, you might hear the sound of drums and flutes - is that festival music? - though no matter how you search, you can’t find the source… yet.



Welcome to your tutorial week mingle log! Please see all the links within the log to check out the new updates. In addition, your status page has been updated. In case you missed it, please report all item theft to this top-level where all comments are screened. Private conversations are also open and should be reported under the Week 0 top-level.

A mini-event will also be posted on Wednesday, June 5th, so please keep an eye out for that!

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Comments

[stillstands]

[ i appreciate that they're going to tumble down in an ashy mess at some point, but she really wants to try and get a view of everything. any scrap of information. ]

Hold on.

[ She's squinting out into the distance, trying to pick out shapes or anything she recognises out there. Maybe?? She can see the ocean on the south side? Either that or she's convinced herself she can. ]

[twinsightful]

[Ashes to ashes, etc etc. He's busy turning toward the west.]

There's a lot of rocks out that way. It looks pretty dark. [So they're probably seeing two different things, but even that's hard to make out. A rock falls loose and rolls down the volcano.]

[stillstands]

Did we spend too long climbing?

[ HATH THE SUN SETTETH? Oh no. ]

Or is it just... dark in general over there? [ She's not sure she wants to go that way if it's basically dark and miserable the whole time. She shifts a little to one side, and her foot slips a little in the ashy stone. ]

[twinsightful]

Just over there. The sun's still out here. [He's crawling off to the left to get a better look, hand grappling the surface a little as he digs his fingers in for better support. It's still fine.] So that area must be something different. It doesn't look like rain or anything though.

[stillstands]

Is something making it shadowy? [ Look at these monkeys? clinging to the side of a volcano like this??

hold on, she's scrambling up a little further, kicking a stream of loose pebble and rock as she almost forcibly drags herself up to a jut of solid looking rock and manages to roll herself onto it with a little "oof". ]

... It looks... sheltered? I think? Not like a forest but like something's making the area more dense and covered. Maybe rocks?

[twinsightful]

[She's probably now a little higher up than he is, but he's fixated on the earth domain.]

Maybe rocks. I bet that's where earth magic can be used. It wouldn't make any sense for air, that doesn't look like a canyon. [His foot slips, leaving him to scramble a little for another foothold.] It doesn't look too far.

[stillstands]

[ Please don't look up she's in a skirt. ]

It'd make sense. I guess that means the mystery Air area-- [ "Air"ea. Haha. ] -- is round the other side of the volcano, then.

[ Mmmmm. Can they make it all the way around...? Maybe it's worth trying. ]

[twinsightful]

[Excuse, he is a Gentleman. But there's dust falling on his hand as Miki moves and his gaze is still focused on the dark rocks. Hm.]

If we crawl sideways, we probably won't have to go too far before we see what's over there. You go first. [Since she's above him and all.]

[stillstands]

[ She’ll drop a rock on his head if he doesn’t act like one. First kill, go. ]

Side shimmy all the way around?

...

I guess it is narrower up here than the base. Not as far to go. [ She cranes her head around to try and see where the next hand or foot hold might be, and then, after spotting a possibility, stands up and brushes some loose ash off of her skirt. ]

Alright. Let’s see how far we can get.

[ How can any of this go wrong? ]

[twinsightful]

[The ash rains down on his hair and he doesn't seem to notice. There's a nod, and he stretches to grab the next handhold below.] The peak is still solid enough we can move. Just watch where you're going.

[It's going to be bad, they're fine. He has to jump a little to reach his next landing but it's fine.]

[stillstands]

[ I'm glad the first death is going to be two idiots falling down a volcano because neither of them is willing to give up while the other is still going. ]

I'm being careful, don't worry.

[ She has to stretch a little to get the next handhold, and almost swing herself across to find somewhere for her foot. Which she misses, and there's some awkward scrabbling and she finds somewhere to wedge her foot in, and just. Keeps on going.

Like an idiot. ]

Oh-- [ She looks back, and then ahead again. ] I think we're starting to see more of the other side.

[twinsightful]

[It's just how things are now. He startles a little as she grapples, but he's clinging onto the volcano and shuffling his way around. The rocks are embedding into his palms at this rate, but this is still important.]

Any idea what's over there? It looks brighter, at least. [...] And sorta empty?

[stillstands]

It looks... yeah, empty? Compared to everything over in the south and west.

[ There's a little more shuffling. ]

Like canyons? There's variations of ground level over there.

[twinsightful]

[Squinting.]

Are those...tree tops? [Just how far up does that go? He's going to attempt to climb a bit higher to get on Miki's level and take a closer look.] That must be the air region then. It really is canyons.

[stillstands]

[ Welcome. They're on top of the world. ]

So it is a wind tunnel!

[ Exciting. ]

Wow, I wonder what it's like. Those are pretty big canyons; the air flow must be intense.

[twinsightful]

We should go look later. [He doesn't care so much about the earth kingdom but he's fine with the air for whatever reason.] It's hard to see from this far away. [Shuffleshuffle. Ash falls and rocks scatter. His fingers are getting tired though.] If it's only canyons that makes the geography of this place even weirder.

[stillstands]

Instead of hanging precariously off the side of a volcano?

[ Drrrrry. ]

... Yeah. There's a rich forest area, beach area, and volcanic desert land all really close by. None of it actually makes logical geographic sense.

[twinsightful]

Which means the chances of this world not even being real are suddenly a little higher. [He turns to face her instead.]

Think we should head back? [The rock crumbling beneath his hand doesn't give him much of a choice, but he doesn't notice just yet.]

[stillstands]

[ That's enough to make her feel a little cold, all down her spine. Even though they're right next to one whole volcano. ]

Kidnapping from multiple worlds, the set up and now the fact this place might be entirely created just to hold us here...? What's the point of all this?

[ She's snapped out of her thoughts when Kaoru speaks up, and she glances around, looking at the surface of the volcano and how high up they are. ]

Oh, wow we climbed really high up. Yeah, it might be an idea, before we get too tired to safely make it back.

[twinsightful]

The point...I don't know. [But he wishes he did.] At least the land is mostly steady.

[With that, he doesn't even wait before he begins climbing down, going much slower than before.]

[stillstands]

[ Small victories. ]

At least we got an idea of the layout from up here. That's something, at least.

[ She watches, letting Kaoru descend a little before she makes her own careful way down as well. ]

[twinsightful]

[And this is how two dumb teenagers work their way back down, slipping on ash and rock occasionally. Kaoru probably falls a few feet, but it's fine. Good job, everyone.]

[stillstands]

[ Look at them go, slippin’ and slidin’.

True heroes. ]