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

[not_as_i_do]

"You're not the first one who's told me they've simply woken up with injuries or changes." He shakes his head - he's accepted the reality of it, because it's been there to see ... but the finer details of it still are a mystery, even so. He's about to say that he feels particularly lucky that he's been spared that particular aspect of being Different, and then Ben asks his own question.

"I'm not so sure about being a jerk, per se, but ..." He pursed his lips, glancing down at the well-trod floorboards of the sauna. "Something definitely happened to the version of me I'm starting to remember that changed me. I have the same profession, but I'm not allowed to practice. And I have a wife and children ... who I ... I'm not sure why but they're all very upset with me."

[neverjedi]

"That must be really hard. I don't know where my scars came from, exactly, or remember it and it irritates me, but it sounds like all your memories are shaped around some event or action you don't know anything about, yet." He hesitates for a moment, but just one. "Do you have a wife and kids now? Or have anyone you know here who shows up in your memories?"

[not_as_i_do]

"Been a bachelor all my life." He gives a sadly amused laugh as he opens the door to the sauna, disappearing in a cloud of steam. Martin can't help but think it's appropriate in some way: his actual self being lost in a fog as he's talking of these strange memories and unknowns.

"And I haven't had any familiar faces show up among the Different save for, well, my own, which is odd enough as it is. Have you met Mr. Fell? The resemblance is absolutely uncanny."

[neverjedi]

"I've met him, but only once and pretty briefly. To be honest I didn't really notice the similarity but I bet if we interact again it will be striking and upsetting." That's almost as weird as the memories themselves, if it was really that similar - and looking closer at Martin he can see how it would be. "I take it you talked and there's no chance you're twins separated at birth or something reasonable at play?"

[not_as_i_do]

"Nothing at all." He gives a little cross between a grunt and a sigh as he sits down on the well-seasoned wooden bench, tipping his head back to rest against the wall. The moist heat is welcome after the chill of both the new dimension, and wintry New York.

"He's not even from around here, and the Whitlys have been New Yorkers for generations. I even messaged my mother to see if she remembered any English relatives that could be in the city."

[neverjedi]

"I'd be tempted to ask the Bureau about that one. Is it more Different nonsense or just some random coincidence of the more mundane or scientific sort."

He settles into a corner for his own part, sprawled intentionally to increase surface area and closes his eyes.

"Not that I'd trust any answer they gave you."

[not_as_i_do]

"No, but ... we do have our mysterious contact. We could always ask the Bureau and then I could try to contact him to ratify it...?"

He scrubs a hand over his beard - a reflex, but it also lets the steam get past all the dense curls to his face. Martin gives a thoughtful hum.

"We haven't heard from him in a while, either. Here's hoping he didn't get caught."

[neverjedi]

"I hope he didn't get caught, too. I don't necessarily think the Bureau is behind this, but I don't trust them, either."

In spite of the baking heat and his general relaxation, even his eyes staying closed, he sounds pretty damn grim.

[not_as_i_do]

Martin nods his assent a few times. "There are too many unanswered questions about it all for me, right now. I need more information before I make any sort of decision. I'm not about to blindly condemn, but I'm not about to just follow, either. I'm a man of science, after all, and everything should be supported by either fact or experience."

He pauses, realizing that discussing all of this is probably counterproductive to sitting in a sauna. "But we should be talking about something far less stressful, don't you think?"

[neverjedi]

"...Can you think of anything less stressful to talk about?" his tone is amused but it's a very wry, self-depreciating sort of humor. "Because I am the most boring man on the planet aside from all of this. Bail, Elsa, and ice skating are just about all I've got."

[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]

"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?"

[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."

[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?"

[not_as_i_do]

That's a compliment to him, and he takes it with a grin. "My brother. He's only a couple of years younger than I am. He's in the military, made himself a pretty good career out of the Whitly family tradition."

[neverjedi]

"How many generations deep is that tradition?" Military sounds... hard to grow up in. Then again he moved continually until he was in his mid twenties, anyway, so maybe some weird empathy happening that way.

[not_as_i_do]

"Back to the Civil War," he said matter-of-factly. "But we've always been here in New York. My brother and I, we both trained at Fort Hamilton, like our father did. I just didn't stay in."

He leans back against the ruddy wood of the sauna and breathes in the steam, letting it fill his sinuses.