(january catch-all) 2021 IS OFF TO A WEIRD START

[vestigemods]

JANUARY CATCH-ALL

► AT LEAST YOU FINALLY GET TO REST?

Though the new year starts off uneventful enough, with sunny skies and an inch or two of snow melting away with each new day, that good fortune lasts a whopping two whole days. At 5 AM on the 3rd, those slumbering fall into an even deeper sleep, and those still awake (or already awake, you overachievers) find themselves struck with an abrupt and insurmountable wave of exhaustion. It's all you can really do to lie down deliberately rather than collapse altogether, let alone making it to any sort of bed. And this is how the population of the containment zone remains for fourteen whole days, dead to the world (figuratively, of course) and to anything which may or may not be occurring around them.

Then, sometime throughout the 16th, you wake up - though the ambient ache in your neck, back, and joints may make you wish that you hadn't. It's almost as if you slept wrong, or... y'know, slept on the floor, apparently. (At the very least, those who were outside at maintenance time were moved indoors for the duration of it, though they were moved to the nearest available building so... have fun waking up in someone else's cabin, I guess.)

The first time you notice the date (on your phone, or maybe someone else breaks the news in their own confusion or panic), you probably struggle to believe it. Two weeks that you've been asleep. It doesn't feel like two weeks - you're clean, only mildly hungry or thirsty, with only a faint weakness in your muscles as you stand. It almost feels more likely that the Technicians adjusted the date overnight to alarm you. Perhaps you might even believe it, but for the evidence otherwise. The milk in your fridge has expired. The snow outside your door is fresh and untouched, with no sign of your passage supposedly yesterday. And the animals are gone, as well. Perhaps not a sign of how long you've slept, but certainly a sign that something isn't right.

If you expected an explanation, you aren't going to get one. Unless by 'explanation' you mean 'goddamn blizzard'.

A GODDAMN BLIZZARD

Because that's exactly what sets in on the 20th, a gale-force blizzard with increasingly limited visibility. Here's hoping you were smart enough to set out for home as soon as it began, because you aren't given more than a couple of hours before navigating outdoors is damn near impossible, between the visibility issue and the rapidly-deepening blanket of snow. As the afternoon fades to evening, it only seems to be getting worse. Those cabins with appropriately-slanted roofs find that the snow slides down to pile heavily against the cabin's exterior walls and door. Those cabins with a flat or gently-sloped roofs, on the other hand, are at strong risk of a part of their roof (and thus ceiling) collapsing under the weight of all that snow. As if having a blizzard outside the cabin wasn't bad enough.

And then things get just a little bit worse. Just before sunset, the cabins' electricity starts to flicker - just a little at first, but increasing in intensity until it finally goes out altogether a half hour later. This lasts through the night, and while it may seem promising that electricity within the town itself remains steady, that too goes into a blackout just before dawn.

This blackout lingers through the 21st and into the 22nd, cold seeping in through the windows and cracks as you huddle near the fire or generator-run space heater and hope for the best... But even the best isn't pleasant in the slightest. The lack of internal heat lets the doors and windows freeze shut, and snow piles high enough around the house's exterior that you'd have to climb out an upstairs window in order to exit. Not only is it cold as hell, but everyone's more-or-less trapped in it for now.

But not even the cold and the dark can last forever, and the blizzard lets up to a light dusting of snow mid-day on the 22nd. That evening, the power flickers back on as well, but some cabins/apartments/buildings may find that it's less consistent than others, continuing to flicker dangerously throughout the next day or so. But that doesn't mean the ordeal is over yet. The snow may have slowed to an almost laughable sprinkle and the sun may shine warm and bright in the rapidly-clearing sky, but that still leaves each cabin or building piled up with snow nearly as deep as you are tall (except you, Vivi - it's about twice your height). Might want to start digging yourself out, since it'll take nearly the rest of the month to melt down to reasonable levels if you don't.

► MOD NOTES

• This is the January Catch-All Log, for all log top-levels throughout the month. Large gatherings (parties, meetings, etc) are still encouraged to post their own logs for organizational purposes!
  
• This log also encompasses both Annual Maintenance (Jan 3rd - 16th) + Hey, Who Turned Out The Lights? (Jan 20th - 22nd), discussed at the bottom of the January Bulletin.
  
• Because this is a catch-all for everywhere + all month, try to remember to label your top-levels with identifying information like the IC date and location of each prompt (whether in the subject or in the prompt title within the comment), and be sure to clearly indicate event prompts.
  
• ( ! ) For the sake of organization, a top-level has been provided for all Annual Maintenance shenanigans and exclusively those. Please put any shared dream prompts under the top-level for the sake of organization, while any non-dream prompts should be posted as a regular top-level as normal.
  
• Cell phone signal does work during the blackout, but inconsistently! If you'd like to play with the trapped/isolated feelings, feel free to say they can't get a message out/in (or that it takes a long time to do so) even if others are able to more easily.
  
• Any questions can be directed to this top-level or, for a quicker response, to Trace on discord/plurk.

Comments

ANNUAL MAINTENANCE shared dream top-levels

[vestigemods]

( All top-levels/prompts taking place within the shared dreams between the 3rd and 16th go here! )

Lan Jingyi | MDZS | OTA

[gusumouthcannon]

Fruit Swordsperson Challenge (Yikes! App)

Jingyi has discovered the Yikes app.
Jingyi has a budding addiction to the Yikes app.
Jingyi is cornering the next person to pass by into doing something fun(!) so he can record it and put it up on Yikes.

The explanation is this, which he launches into as soon as he spots his next candidate: "Okay so you just have to hold my sword and when I throw this at you, you just have to hit it before it hits you." He is holding various past-ripe winter fruits that he has collected from the grocery store. The selection of apples, one miserable banana, and...well, that's a potato. Still. They don't look too squishy. "And then you get a score, depending on how many you hit or do not. And then we go find someone else and see how they do!"

What do fish have to do with anything? (NEF App)

Jingyi is...baffled, to say the least. He found the app and its profiles and his profile in particular.

Case in point: Jingyi's Profile.

So now he is hanging out, in public (hanging out around the town proper on a bench nearby, or next to the lake, or in his living room), fussing with his phone. The next person who walks by gets a, "Do you have one of these?" and the phone with his profile open unceremoniously thrust beneath their nose.

"Dragon" out of Bed in the Morning—Backdated to ~Dec 20thish

Morning at the Bachelor Pad dawns winter-late and brings with it gifts! Namely, upon the front porch, Jingyi has discovered that the technicians made good on their promise of a ghost-eating dragon.

He is. Over the moon.

The thing is a pale blue, recognizably Lan blue, and a bit long and noodly with little wings and white tufts of downy feather stuff along its spine and at its joints. He has not yet named it, just figured out that it is, indeed, friendly, as specified.

(That morning): He does not actually kick the front door in. He does spiritually kick the front door in and break about eighteen different Lan rules by shouting, "MY DRAGON GOT HERE!!" while holding said dragon in his arms like a long-suffering cat.

(That afternoon): Jingyi honestly has no idea how to take care of a dragon. Cloud Recesses has never allowed pets, so his knowledge of animal husbandry is restricted to rabbits and horses, and he has certainly never lived with any type of animal indoors. Maybe the dragon is a little like a dog? Dogs need...walks? So here he is, taking his dragon for a walk along the lakeshore. It (he?) seems to like sniffing around the icy edge of the frozen lake, at least, and getting the fuzzy down all over its legs muddy-wet.

What Year is It?—Jan 16+

At the end of the two weeks, Jingyi drags himself to consciousness at early o'clock as usual and drags himself down to the kitchen to start making breakfast equally as usual. He notices nothing amiss until he is in the middle of eating said breakfast, dragon curled up on his lap and refusing to move, and he is poking around his phone. The date is wrong? Er. That is...weird.

Come to think of it, more of the perishables had gone and perished a lot faster than he had anticipated. (Thank goodness for all of Gilia's preserved stuff.)

The rest of the day feels a bit subtly off, too.

Anyone he encounters, either in his house or as he wanders into town to go to the grocery store to restock on said perishables (dragon at his heels, just in case of rogue ghosts; he had the weirdest dreams last night), gets a casual hello and a, "Hey, so, did you wake up to anything weird this morning?"

Blackout Conditions (Closed to Cabinmates~)—Jan 21st

To be fair, Jingyi is used to not having electricity, so he copes like he would if he were stuck anywhere in a creepy cabin in a horror bubble full of ghosts and bullshit. He lights candles and camps out in the living room on the couch as the snow piles up past the windows.

The biggest issue is the forced inactivity. Jingyi is all but bouncing off the walls, and for the moment, going through his sword forms seems like the thing to do, right? He is pretty focused on waving his sword around without knocking anything over; anyone coming in takes him right by surprise as he swings toward them with a startled stabbing motion.

Wildcard!

Text him, maybe, if you saw his Yikes fruit challenges, or want to give him shit about his NEF profile, or you'd like to help him train his poor dragon to not try and murder any fierce corpses(coughcough).

NEF

[bombshelled]

Lana's just walking through town, on her way to pick up some groceries at Foodland, when she's stopped by one of those ancient Asian weirdos that are all over the containment zone. At least this one seems to be around her age.

When he thrusts his phone into her face, she blinks, taken aback for a minute. She reads the profile, gives Jingyi's forehead ribbon a suspicious glance, then backs up a step, pulling out her phone and showing him her own profile.

"Yeah. When I asked the Technicians to give us some apps, I didn't think they would include one like this..."

Naminé | Kingdom Hearts

[lethechained]

A. || FOODLAND | JANUARY 20th

[ The door rattles ominously as it shuts against the harsh wind. Panting from her run, Naminé turns around to face the glass, then proceeds to brush the fresh snow out of the fringe of her hair. The flakes still caught in her eyelashes present something of a nuisance, but once she’s done swiping at them (and scrubbing more thoroughly at one eye with the back of her hand when she’s promptly introduced to how uncomfortable it is to get snow on the outside of one’s cornea) it’s not hard to see the situation progressing outside.

The grocery store doesn’t provide much in the way of heat, but it makes a good enough pitstop for the present moment. The blonde’s clothing is still flecked with snow as she considers the weather, watching the windows shift from the rushing air with her arms pressed tightly around her body. Her secondhand knowledge has never taught her much about blizzards, but even now as the storm is just beginning, she’s got a sneaking suspicion that it bears worrying over. ]

… Is anyone else here?

[ She calls it out after a moment’s thought and another few seconds’ hesitation. Her voice isn’t naturally loud, though the howling wind is; perhaps it’s better to take a look. Shifting, she proceeds a few extra steps into the store, glancing around for any sign of company. ]

The wind is getting pretty bad out there…!


B. || OUTSIDE - THE ROAD | JANUARY 20th

[ This was probably not her single greatest idea.

Staying in the chilly Foodland to wait out a storm that only seemed to be getting more intense had felt like the greater risk at the time. Now, though, as the frigid air drives right through her extra layers of clothing which are already coated with white on the windward side, Naminé finds she regrets her urgency about getting back to the comfort of her own cabin. The poor trembling thing trudges through the snow with as much purpose as she can still manage to have when each step seems harder, slim arms wrapped around herself to muster all the insulation that her laughably small frame can afford her.

Although a minute or two ago she’d been pretty confident that she was headed the right direction, she finds herself squinting just a little harder now to try to spot the same trees she was using as landmarks the moment before.

It really is continuing to get worse, isn’t it? ]


C. || CABINS | JANUARY 23

[ If one happens to be concerned enough to investigate the state of their neighbors (and enterprising enough to make a way out of their own home first) they might happen to be sufficiently nearby to hear the abrupt squawk of surprise and subsequent rushing noise as some of the snow in front of this particular cabin’s door sinks out of place. Judging by the positioning of it, the occupant was trying to dig themselves a way out, but…

Well. This is going to be a long day for her, apparently. (Maybe she should have invested in a shovel.) ]


D. || WILDCARD

[ Choose your own (snow-related) adventure. ]

Yikes App

[toosmall]

Vivi is admittedly shocked when this young man comes over to him. He's quite excited and talking about swords and fruit and hitting things. He kind of just blinks a little owlishly up at him while he explains things before nervously twiddling his thumbs.

"I dunno that sounds like it could be kinda dangerous. I've never used a sword before!" It also looks almost as big as Vivi. Are you SURE, Jingyi?

"Wh-What if I hit the fruit with my magic?"

Renfri | The Witcher

[thelesserevil]

[ individual prompts in the comments below, contact me for personalized prompts. will match prose or brackets ]

for Geralt, January 2nd

[thelesserevil]

[ Having successfully squatted in one of the empty apartments in the abandoned town, Renfri sticks close to the town in her explorations for the most part.

Today, however, her path has taken her in the direction of the farmhouse, and she finally comes across the horses.

Horses. She hadn't even known this place has horses. And there is nobody around to keep an eye on them on this meadow.

Not seeing anyone outside at first glance, she approaches the horses, clearly eyeing them for the best one like someone going horse shopping. Is she considering to take one? Well, yes. ]

Jiang Cheng | The Untamed

[legbreakings]

[ individual prompts in the comments below, contact me for personalized prompts. will match prose or brackets ]

January 19th, lakeside, OTA

[legbreakings]

[ There is a man with a dog to be seen on the main street of the nameless town (he still adamantly refuses to consider Virginville, not even in honor of Luusi's unfond remembrance).

Jiang Cheng is standing there, Blossom the quickly growing puppy taken off her leash walking nearby sniffing here and there or chasing after a snowflake and paying heartily little attention to him. Jiang Cheng, meanwhile, is looking increasingly exasperated as he goes ignored. ]

Blossom! We are here to be practicing! I know Wei Wuxian found you, but you'll never become a proper companion for night hunts if you don't outgrow his attention span!

OTA, January 17th, at the lakeside

[thelesserevil]

[ Renfri is not the most social inmate despite her regular complaints about the lack of a bar, but today she is sitting on a stone at the lake, fiddling with that phone she is slowly getting ever better at using and looking very upset.

As soon as she catches sight of another person, she approaches them, holding up the phone. ]

How do I tear out a page from this?

[ Someone has found her NEF profile and she's not happy. ]

dream: ghosts & hosts, drowning in the lake - OTA

[legbreakings]

[ It is a beautiful day and Jiang Cheng is drowning.

He is in the shallows of the lake, a giant commotion of splashing water and strangled screams as the water around him is doing its best to suck him into the deep - much as it had in the middle of the lake when he first woke up in the containment zone. The rest of the lake is calm and placid, completely unaffected.

A half-translucent girl, bloated and rotting, with seaweed tangled in her hair, is hovering over him, her feet dipping into the water. Her face is complacent and a little curious, her head tilted to the side. ]

[coolmotivestillevil]

[ By now, the barn has been cleared out enough for the horses to have it for shelter. But they have thick fur and each other, so there's no harm in letting them outside to graze for any grass through the melting snow. As far as Geralt is concerned, horses are generally capable of taking care of themselves.

He's on his way to leave. He doesn't yet know exactly what he'll be doing, but with the snow melting, it seems like an as good time as any to see if anything has changed in their prison. Of course, he's heard that someone is outside, but he only intends to take a quick look to make sure it's no one untoward or anyone who might have less than good intentions. Something about this person seems familiar, though, even before he can see them.

As soon as he does, he knows exactly who it is. Only it can't actually be possible. So it has to be another trick by the Technicians, just one more thing to make him hurt. It's little by a dull ache, duller than most aches already are for a witcher, but he still thinks about her often, wondering if there was some way he could have stopped what happened, something he could have done differently, done to help her.

Well. Might as well get it over. ]

Renfri?

[ Can she even hear him? ]

[thelesserevil]

[ She can hear him, as evidenced by the hand that had been carefully reaching out to pet the largest and most impressive of the horses suddenly stilling, her entire body following suit.

She sucks in a sharp breath without moving. No. No, it can't be him. He can't be here. She had left him behind asleep in the forest, she had left to do what needed to be done no matter the price, no matter what decision he made...

But he shouldn't be here. Not him, in this hell. Trapped along with her, if this place is real, or a mirage to taunt her with if it is really just one of Stregobor's illusions. ]

Geralt [ she says, quietly, still not turning around. ] You have a talent for being in places that are trouble.

ghosts & hosts, for Wei Wuxian

[legbreakings]

[ Sandu sinks deep into the chest of the beast - sinking in too fast, too easily, too quickly even for something that is rotten, this feels hollow until he finally meets resistance.

Curious, or maybe just frantic, maybe just feeling closer to madness than anything else, he yanks the sword to make a large slash and cuts open the chest cavity wide to reveal the empty expanse he isn't even surprised to find.

He laughs, a choked, teary noisy, and sinks to his feet. Reaches out and scoops out the heart, pierced right in the middle by Sandu. A human heart, no longer beating now but still warm and gushing blood over his fingers.

And as the heart bleeds over his fingers, something almost like memories bleeds into his mind. There is the cackling laughter, the jeering, there is a voice almost Wei Wuxian gloating as his mother dies and then there is Wei Wuxian, the one he knows, not the one with the twisted smile and cruel voice in a forest, alone...

He died alone. He will die alone. Has died alone. He is dead. Will be dead. Again. Tears flash through his mind, an embrace, a message, a plea for ten minutes...

He will die alone.

Still clutching the bloody heart, Jiang Cheng finds himself staggering into the forest, still uncertain if he actually wants to find him - he laughed! He jeered! Or did he? There is a trail of resentment to follow, strong enough almost to make him nauseous as different contradicting memories blur with reality, all of them only having one thing in common and that is being soaked in resentment, but he stubbornly keeps following that trail deeper into the woods.

He needs to find him, before he dies alone. Again. ]

lan sizhui ♪ the untamed

[deferences]

store runs and snow fun; (ota)

[two weeks. that's really, truly how long he'd (they'd? and if that's the case, how many?) fallen asleep for. disbelief aside, once the weakness in his muscles subsides, lan sizhui is up and moving around shortly thereafter. easiest way to distract himself from being unconscious for so long is doing something that has him too focused on the activity and he just ignores or forgets it, even if just for a little while.

so, the first thing he does is pile on as many layers as he can handle and fly into town on his sword for some luxury items; whatever fruits, veggies, snacks and perhaps a couple other perishables he can stuff into his backpack, he does, making sure certain things don't get crushed during his careful packing process.

if anyone familiar happens to be around, he cheerfully greets,] Hello, [and eagerly gestures them over with his free hand while the other fusses with an orange.] It's nice to see you're awake.

[or if it's someone he doesn't know, sizhui isn't afraid to help; he's been here so long, after all, it's the least he can do! (and there's obviously safety in numbers.)] Hi there! Do you need help finding anything? [like, a particular kind of food item or funny t-shirt? because this here's your guy!]


[after he's gotten somewhat replenished provisions-wise, still layered up, he ventures back outside into the snow to simply admire the way it covers everything in a pretty white blanket. it's quiet out here, sound muted by the snowhills and continuously falling flakes, but it doesn't take long for him to wander off his porch.

when he does, that's when he can be found building snowmen, making snowangels or testing his luck with some ice-skates out on the lake. whichever activity, he's doing it, earnestly and enthusiastically, even though his skating skills could use some work.

the point here, mostly, is that he keeps moving because he'd been sedentary for too long.]



phone apps; (ota)

[whether he's in town or nearby the cabins, there is a very likely chance sizhui can be caught messing with the new apps on their devices. the cute little filters being the main things but there is the off chance one might catch him attempting the ridiculous chickchuck game, too. the other game and ‘not enough fish’ don't appeal to him much, but hey, nobody's saying he can't be convinced.

mindlessly bouncing back and forth between the same two apps has to get tiring after a while, yeah?

should you be (un)lucky enough, perhaps the boy abruptly perks, turns toward you and offers,] Would you like to try this game or take a picture with me? They have a lot of those cute— [a moment's hesitation then,] Oh, ‘filters,’ I think.



not-so-fun blizzard; (cabinmates + people that end up stuck(?) there)

[whenever the lights start flickering, he doesn't initially think much of it, given the frightful weather outside, but he is wary. always makes sure there's wood to keep the fireplace going just in case despite it only being the slightest thought in the deep recesses of his mind. which is smart since the lights do eventually go out. good thing he's been collecting candles, albeit they're just bulk packages of tiny, mostly scentless tealights.

he lights them up and leaves glittering trails of flames in all the communal rooms, then if anyone needs any extras, he's right there to offer a few for their bedrooms or whatever else is necessary.] They won't last very long, so use them sparingly, but I hope they help.


[another thing he's somehow gathered his fair share of is blankets; two big, heavy comforters – one green, the other pastel blue – and an oversized fuzzy throw, all of which he's dragged out into the living room, gathered into a big pile and buried himself underneath beside the fire in a desperate attempt to keep warm. he's used to the cold but this is absolutely absurd!

to be honest, it's his hope that someone will join him and offer some company (alongside possible body heat) during the blackout. there's more than enough room in front of the fireplace, of course, and he has blankets to spare.


when sizhui isn't just a lump beneath the pile, he's striding around the room, either making food or tidying things up, but no matter what, he drifts from the task every so often to the nearest window, drawing pictures across the glass with the hand not holding his little tealight.

neverminding the fact it's taken him a few minutes to realize he isn't alone, once he has, his attention is on whoever has joined him, big doe eyes almost comically wide.]

What? [an innocent question, really, followed shortly after by a faint, almost sheepish-looking smile.] We have to entertain ourselves somehow, don't we? This... seems like a safe enough activity.

[and there's plenty of snow to keep the windows constantly fogged, they'll never run out of canvas.


but thank goodness, the precipitation does eventually stop. the moment it does and electricity comes back, regardless of it not being wholly steady, he dares venturing outside into the mess to at least start digging out the front door and some windows. not having a proper shovel proves difficult, though he's managing with his hands and an extremely delicate rolling process that works better than he would've anticipated.

this also helps because it lets him examine the glass after mounds have been pushed aside, make certain nothing is broken or cracked before keeping right on with the laborious snow removal.

something tells him this would be so much easier if he had a few endless fire talismans.]

[coolmotivestillevil]

[ Sounds like her enough. Doesn't mean that it is her, more likely it isn't. After all, she's dead. Years and years ago, by his blade, and he'd grieved for her like he didn't expect.

Why is this happening to him? ]

As do you.

[ Because he's not convinced she's the one who brings trouble. When people are convinced that she will, they will create it, knowingly or not. ]

Dream: H̸̠͉͖͌̓̋̽E̵̯͐ͅĻ̵͛̕̚L̶̨͈̪̗͑̀̀̚Ơ̵̢̠̣̐̏̚ — OTA

[singularwidower]

cw: buried alive, blood, general horror nonsense from daemon's canon.

Weakness

The first sign that something is wrong is a subtle sense that he is being gently vibrated out from within his own skin. Daemon looks up from his mending project and toward his cabin window. He can't see anyone and when he sends out a psychic probe not only does it not register anything, he suddenly feels like there are two Daemon's inside of his mind.

The second one, the one that's not him, reaches out with a psychic communication thread on broadcast, clutching at every mind in the vicinity even as Daemon tries to make himself stop. Because he gets this, he does, this feels like he's sliding headfirst down a muddy slope straight into the Twisted Kingdom and to be fair to this other self, he also does not want to return. Just not enough to possibly harm those unused to psychic communication.

*Anchor me!* his other self howls at the first mind he latches onto.

Daemon stumbles down the front steps of his cabin and toward the lake and whoever his other self managed to find, trying to keep his thoughts to himself. "Don't listen to me," he says, like that will help when he is broadcasting mentally. Still, the other him isn't wrong that an anchor would be beneficial. Gritting his teeth, he manages, "But—are you real?"

Lowlight Reel (Slight Memshare)

This time Daemon sees the creature as he comes around the corner of a building in town too close. For a moment he feels torn in two, thoughts ripped from his head and placed...elsewhere. Replaced with someone else's. Scraps and images.

He feels the fleeting edges of the thoughts given away: the scrape of his bloodied knee against the roof of the grave he's buried himself in, relief at the safety of so much earth between him and those hunting him; the glorious freefall of diving into the psychic abyss and turning sharply before he can shatter his own mind; the more prosaic taste of poison, the kind he mixes himself every month so he doesn't end up with an irritated venom sac and a fever.

The moment ends and the creature is gone, and Daemon is left staring at...presumably the source of the bits of pieces that had briefly been shoved inside his head.

Wildcard~

HMU on discord or plurk for any other dreamstuff, too. I match brackets or prose! Also wibbly wobbly is fine, imho, since I know these seem like very specific prompts. XD

Store run

[coolmotivestillevil]

[ It's never a great idea to go out during winter, not knowing what the weather will be like. Snow is more treacherous than rain. Still, the weather is nice enough, and if there happens to be food in Foodland right now, it doesn't hurt to get some more provisions. The farm isn't too far away from town and he's sure he'll be all right.

Ian Suzhui is at least not the worst person to encounter out in the wild, as much as Geralt would rather not encounter anyone at all. ]

Hm.

[ Yes, that's all he's giving for now, but it's soft enough to be amicable as he wanders over to browse the fruits and vegetables. ]

[gusumouthcannon]

"Ah. So we can blame you for this," Jingyi says, squinting at her phone, speaking even as he reads, "Why did you want apps in the first place? I mean, a couple of the other ones are very fun, but this one does not seem like something anyone would—you used to rob banks?"

He pulls back and gives her a serious once-over. Or as serious as someone in mismatched winter clothing in post-apocalyptic chic could look. She looked like she could maybe rob a bank, but she could not be much older than he was. Curiously, he adds, "Were you any good at it?"

[gusumouthcannon]

Jingyi looks at his sword and then looks at the small person and maybe reconsiders a little? "I would not try and actually hit you with any of the fruit," he tries to reassure him. "It does not matter if you have not used it, I think. That is part of the challenge. Have you ever wanted to try to use a—oh!"

It sinks in that he had said 'magic,' and that is 1) extremely interesting and dare he say fantastic and 2) would be equally as exciting to film.

"Oh! What kind of magic?"

[thelesserevil]

[ She laughs at that, a little sharp, a little bitter, a little sad. A whole lot wistful because there isn't even a river here and yet... ]

Are we having that conversation from the river all over again? [ she asks as she finally turns.

She had recognized his voice and yet seeing him here still hits her like a shock. Her face tightens, good humor vanishing as if it had never been there. ]

You shouldn't be here [ she grits out between clenched teeth. ] Either you're an illusion sent to torment me or you shouldn't be here.

[ Who, other than her, has got the right to use Geralt for their devices, anyway? Who dares? ]

January 16th

[keeperofkeys]

She can't quite believe the date on her phone. Two weeks? Two entire weeks she's been asleep? It doesn't feel like it, but why would the technicians change the date on her phone?

Or why wouldn't they, perhaps.

The longest she'd fallen asleep like that was at the hospital, but that was only for a few days. She doesn't like the feeling that she's lost time.

Still, her food in the fridge is starting to go off, and she needs to venture out for supplies. So she bundles herself up and heads out into the snow.

Feel free to run into her somewhere along her trek, or bump into her while she's buying food.

[toosmall]

"I've um, I've used my magic with swords. Like casting fire or ice on it so when you strike a monster weak to that it does a lot of damage!" But use a sword, he's not sure he could actually use one.

"I can use all sorts of magic, but the main ones are fire, ice and lightning."

Winston | Overwatch | OTA

[moonape]

Of Cabins and Peanut Butter: 16th-19th

[After his arrival on the network, Winston can be seen having a look around the cabins and the immediate area. Big ol gorilla in his gear, jump pack on his back. He definitely stands out.

If he's not at the cabins he'll be in town checking out Foodland. I'm not saying you'll catch him checking out the peanut butter, but. Yeah. He's definitely considering stocking up.]

... hmm, I wonder if they have any bananas here too?


Tis the Season for a Blizzard: 22nd-???

[During the blizzard and the power being out, along with the heat, Winston had taken to collecting all the blankets and pillows in the cabin and making a big ol' nest in the living room. He's now thankful he did stock up on that peanut butter!

When the snow seems to stop piling up, Winston adventures out of his warm nest to open the door to his cabin. Oh boy.

Closing the door he ends up having to very awkwardly, it's already awkward enough fitting through the doors here, pull himself through a window on the second floor and up onto the roof. Surveying the white wonderland, Winston makes a leap for it!!!

He'll spend a lot of time clearing out the snow around his own cabin, and works to try and make his way to others. He's a big boy, he can do a lot of snow slinging. Do not be alarmed if you hear noises outside your door!

A polite knock will come eventually.]

Uh hello? Everyone okay in there?

[toosmall]

[Sadly Vivi has only seen poor sad scrawny dogs and cats and the like in town. They're looking a little better with his help, but when he hears a familiar voice and follows it, he sees a very nice puppy!

Waddling about in the snow in the snow jacket he'd found, plus a nice scarf and mittens, Vivi's voice is a wee bit muffled as he calls over to Jiang Cheng.]

Jiang! Hello!

[With a wave he heads on over, stopping a little away if only cause he's not sure how this Blossom might handle someone new.]

Blossom? That's a really pretty name. I don't think I've ever seen a dog quite like her.