Pahuuden Maa Event Catch All Log

[tramitem]

Who: You and everyone else
What: Exploring Pahuuden Maa, the newly expanded universe
When: Pre-dated Dec 15 - but all events in this thread happen Dec 21 - Jan 4
Where: Pahuuden Maa
Rating/Warnings: Please add approprite CW/TW labels to your threads if necessary when necessary
NOTES: Solstice Plot Dec 2020: Pahuuden Maa


Welcome to a new universe, everyone.

Please use this as a Catch All Log Event post for all your winter adventuring needs. You may use the link above to remember all the various things you can do in this new space. But below, we've listed a summary

1. Visit the Ice Palace

• The Ice Palace has gardens with ice and snow sculptures
• There is also the ice maze to have fun in.
• The Ballroom
• Fine dining

2. The outdoor ice rink

Spend a day skating the whole way around, there are skate rentals and food all the way around the rink.

3. Visit the Ski Lodge

• For skiing and snowshoeing
• Rent a room for a night or week, or whatever
• There's the dining room for a good warm meal
• The saunas
• The hotsprings

4. Explore the Mountains and Forests

• Go for a walk
• Take note of the unique plants (get high?)
• Take a picture of the unique animals
• Run into a wild Energy Burst

5. Visit the town

• Go shopping!
• Go for a sleigh ride
• Remember, there's a big trolley pulled by a team of reindeer that is essentially a bar on wheels
• Visit the reindeer stables
• Run into/capture some mischievous Energy Bursts

6. Generally marvel at the magic in this place

7. Have fun!

Comments

[chenqing_player]

"Both?" He smirks, clearly not ashamed of how he behaved. "I didn't really like authority much so every chance I got to mess with the teachers...I did so. But I also was smart and did well so it made them hesitate about disciplining me."

Which mean Wei Wuxian got away with a lot and was smart enough to get away with things people couldn't even pin on him.

[seawalled]

"Who you're with in a place can make loads of difference," Ellie agrees. She could think of a billion examples, her current living situation looming large among them. "I'm glad you've got someone who understands. I could imagine anyone less happy about it would make things a nightmare pretty fast. ... What other instruments d'you play?"

The warm water was silently dissolving any of her sore muscles from walking around the ice maze in the cold all day, and she found herself relaxing bit by bit. Even briefly thinking about her living situation with all the boys in her family hadn't made her tense up - which was a good sign.

[not_as_i_do]

"Vanilla in its purest form can be very valuable, you know," he said with a smirk. "But thank you for the compliment. Not many people call me outright charming."

He had a bit of his soup to fill a little silence between them and looked out the window at the snow. It was coming down even steadier, now, and he was beginning to think he might have to talk Alec into camping on the couch.

[not_as_i_do]

"Well," he says, seeing a way in already, "I only recognize one of those names, so I guess we could start there. Who's Elsa?"

[neverjedi]

"Besides a Disney character?" He smiles, just a bit. "Elsa's my cat."

[not_as_i_do]

"Hah, yes." He chuckles a little. "My niece is a little too old for those movies now, so I mostly get my exposure from clients who bring their children or grandchildren to the waiting room. ... How long have you had her? I don't have any pets of my own, since my schedule changes at the drop of a dime. I'm afraid I'd neglect them unintentionally if some emergency came up with a patient."

[neverjedi]

He laughs, just a little. "I've always been a people pleaser and more so when the person was an authority figure, but I know the type and even I managed to get into some trouble over performing got me out of. You would probably have been a kid I considered 'cool' and was intimidated as hell by."

[neverjedi]

"I've had her... four years now? Nearly five, I think. I don't have a medical type likelyhood of being called out but I do rely on the neighbors to check in when something comes up." Just absently. "How old is your niece?"

[chenqing_player]

"I still am cool but not at all intimidating." Wei Wuxian had always made friends easily and if there were people who were intimidated by him, he never noticed. He always tried to friend everyone he has ever met.

"Well now we get to be friends and you don't have to worry about being intimidated."

[scotch_egg]

"You are. You have to know it. No, you have to. People like you with your smiles and easy ways--easy for you to get away with anything if you put your mind to it." Not that he thought Whitley would get up to anything terrible, but it was difficult to remain guarded around him.

[neverjedi]

He laughs. "I am absolutely going to be your friend, and I am way harder to intimidate after a couple of olympics than I was when I was a kid - so you can maybe be a little intimidating and not have me melt."

Consider yourself adopted - in return, maybe, but adopted.

[chenqing_player]

He is glad to be adopted to go along with his gold star and ice skating lessons. Talking at least helps him stay distracted from the fact that he is on ice. "Good to know I don't have to turn the intimidation off completely."

But now he is curious about something else, "Did you to go the Olympics for skating? Is that why you teach it now?"

[neverjedi]

"A couple of times. Once in pairs, once just men's. I teach now because I love it, but I love it way more than it loves me." There's a joke in there, really.

[chenqing_player]

"Impressive. I didn't realize I had an all-star coach showing me the ropes." He's clearly amused. He doesn't think he'll really be able to skate any better because of it but at least he feels better knowing that his teacher really is quite capable.

[traceofeffort]

"Oh, tell me about it. I didn't even get that many strange looks about my bass!" she adds, relief in her tone that she still definitely feels. "With the whole... logo of a band that doesn't exist thing. I thought I'd have to talk my way out of that really fast." Which goes neatly into Ellie's question, as Lisa lets herself bonelessly sink a little deeper into the spring, letting out a small sigh. "Just the acoustic guitar, and the bass, really. I know bits and pieces of other things - the other me's been around too many of her band members for too long not to pick up a couple things, and college means I have to know the basics of other stuff - but mostly just those two."

[neverjedi]

"I'm not actually showing you much, just acting like training wheels, but thanks." He's kind of wryly amused because-

Well, he's him.

He doesn't really consider it impressive.

[not_as_i_do]

"Anything, hm?" He chuckled softly. "You start saying things like that, I might have to pick up murder as a hobby just to see if you're right. Really, though, Alec, we're in the middle of nowhere. What's there to get away with save for - oh no - forcing some good hospitality on you? Perish the thought."

[not_as_i_do]

"She's ... just turned twenty-six, actually. Pretty hard to believe. It feels like just the other day she was sharing her drawings of her imaginary friend, and giving me pictures out of her coloring books. ... I still have a couple of the best ones taped to the inside of my kitchen cabinet, just to embarrass her when she's over."

[seawalled]

"Well, you can always say it came to you in a dream and you're saving it for a future project, yeah? Not completely a lie if you put it that way." She gave Lisa an encouraging smile, but it faded a bit as she realized what they were actually talking about, here. "So ... wait. You have ... your bass ... from this other life? Here?"

[chenqing_player]

"Training wheels is enough. I don't really want to try any of those fancy jumps or spins." Just not falling down is a good enough goal in his mind.

[scotch_egg]

"Don't even joke like that. I've had enough of murder." And he didn't want to imagine someone he knew doing something like that.

"And I don't know, but I'll realize it after you've done it, you shit." This was more of a joke than anything. The wind rattled the windows and he looked out and swallowed. "Let's hope you won't have to do it indefinitely."

[traceofeffort]

Ah. Had she not-? Lisa let out a soft breath and shook her head softly, her hair loosening from the motion and flopping a bit. "Mm, I do. Just found it by my desk a few months back, in its gig bag, a little wear on the strings like I'd been playing it." Her tone was a little distant, as she remembered the morning and the wonder of finding something both hers and not hers at once. "A few picks in the pockets, with our band's logo on them. We had merch. That almost surprises me more, y'know? We were good, but... other people thought we were good enough to want stuff with our names."

...unbidden, the thought of her own image on a wall scroll came to her. She shuddered at the idea, pushing it out of her mind.

[seawalled]

"That's so surreal!" Ellie's eyes widened. She wasn't thinking about it in the moment, but later, once she was back in her room, she'd realize that there was something about the way Lisa spoke to her that made her feel so much younger, like a teenager again. Maybe it was because she didn't feel like she was bringing herself down to a younger level like she did with a lot of kids, she wasn't conscious of curating her responses.

"I haven't found anything like that. If I did, I don't know, it'd probably be a police hat or a jacket or something. I'd feel a bit odd wearin' it."

[not_as_i_do]

"You have?" Martin frowned. "News to me... but you don't need to talk about anything you don't want to. And I won't joke about it again. I'm sorry, I - I didn't know."

It also meant he'd have to be very careful about what he shared, and how. He didn't think he, himself, was capable of what his memories were insinuating with increasing frequency, but ... he also wasn't sure if Alec would consider a divide between the memory and the man.

The joke gave him something to fall back on, though, and he raised his eyebrows over the rim of his soup mug. "I guess I've got some thinking to do on how to pass the time. Unless you've got any suggestions."

[neverjedi]

"It doesn't seem possible to me that she's that old, either. Mostly because it doesn't seem like you're that old." Which was not meant as a compliment or insult, he's just startled. "Do you have a brother or sister? Older or younger?"