abraxaslogs | OPEN MINGLE: Welcome to Thorne!

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OPEN MINGLE: Welcome to Thorne!

WHO: OPEN to all Summoned in Thorne
WHAT: A party, info dump, and magic study session all rolled into one! Eat, drink, mingle -- make some friends!
WHEN: A couple days after the newest Summoned start appearing
WHERE: A ballroom in Castle Thorne

NOTES: This is an open mingle log where everyone can tag one another! New characters may hear some gossip and chatter about recent important events that happened in Abraxas. They may have heard that the Summoned were invited to the Nether in October to help save the ailing dragons from extinction. Kyle and Rhy Maresh represented the Thorne Summoned in a negotiation with the Nether officials to exchange supplies for assistance with their navy. The dragons are alive and well, and the Draconae are very grateful.

Due to an announcement in November, the Summoned are invited to visit Borrel after Nocwich (the first weekend of the month) for the Maritime Fair. It is a three-day festival with lodging provided for the Summoned and a small stipend.

General.

With Rhy Maresth's blessing, Jill Warrick will be taking over his hosting duties on the celebration side of the mingle. Jill will have sent a written invitation to all Thornean newcomers within a couple of days of their arrival, inviting them to meet their fellow Summoned. Otherwise, there will be fliers posted in the dining area that anyone can see. If your character has CR with Istredd, Jill, or Rhy, you can assume they were told and got an in-person invite -- and you can even assume your character helped with setup if desired (decorations, helping set out food, etc.), since they needed the assistance. Up to you!

Istredd will also be hosting a group meditation to allow newcomers to access to the Horizon (and network). New Summoned who wish to learn how to step into the Horizon have an opportunity to have their connections to the Singularity activated. If preferred, they can also get one-on-one help from those who've been around for a bit. He will also discuss the magic in Abraxas and point them in the direction of teachers of magic, combat, or other things they may be interested in.

Banquet.

The large ballroom is bathed in warm, golden light from dozens of chandeliers above, reflecting off the gleaming inlaid floors and brass light fixtures along the walls. It is at once neatly sectioned, yet naturally open, allowing the length of the room to flow from one potential activity to another with ease.

In the center, a circular area has been left clear, and every half hour or so during the first half of the evening, two native Thornean (apprentice) mages come up to offer magic demonstrations -- mostly flashy elemental magic, adding sparks and atmosphere. If any of the Summoned who've been around longer wish to show off as well, they are welcome to do so.

Along the walls stand narrow refreshment tables, where one can serve oneself wine and liquor from large glass carafes. Hot tea and a variety of warm drinks are also available in a few flavors. For those looking to eat, a large dining table has been set out toward the center of the room, with plates and utensils and large platters of food in the center. Jill arranged for special refreshments to be offered in partnership with local businesses. Dante has also offered pizza for those who want something less traditional.

Both the handful of large tables and the smattering of small, taller tables for standing at are in full view of the demonstrations so the show can be enjoyed with food and drink, whatever your desire. Everything is decorated in Thorne's local winter flowers, filling the space with pleasant smells and pretty atmosphere. There is plenty of space to stand and mingle, walk around, and see what everyone else is up to. In the back of the room, the folding screens offer a quieter area, for more private conversation and meditation as desired.

Magic Studies.

Behind the folding screens made of tall, carved wood in intricate patterns, there are a handful of low sofas and chaise lounges around a fireplace at the far side of the hall. This sectioned-off area has been enchanted to provide some insulation from the sound of the banquet beyond, and once you step inside, the quiet is like a gentle blanket settling over everyone who chooses to spend some time here.

This is the best place to ask questions in some semblance of privacy, to learn about your new home, and to receive guidance on entering the Horizon and using the so-called network of telepathic notes only the Summoned can send one another.

Istredd is the one 'in charge' of this particular endeavor, but others who have been in Abraxas a while are likely also about, lending their assistance to those who are newly arrived and sharing thoughts on their experiences so far. Istredd recommends people visit his Horizon because he has a history of the Summoned and general helpful details written in there for anyone to see.

Just be careful -- even if the insulating enchantment is sturdy, there are still Thornean natives around, refilling refreshments outside and demonstrating their magic. You may want to be careful how candidly you discuss any displeasure toward Thorne or its crown, considering the Queen's notoriously explosive temper, and the rumors of the dungeons deep beneath the castle. It's hardly a secret, at this point: a conflict has been sparked, and the mood around the castle is a tense one, even amidst a celebration such as this.

(( ooc: Feel free to make your own top levels and tag around! This is meant to be an open mingle, with the above as mostly setting and flavor, so don't feel limited if you want your character to do their own magic demonstrations, for example, or even if your thread ends up moving outside the ballroom. Have fun!

It should be noted that if you would like to handwave your character's first experience to the Horizon, you can do so. It's a blanket permission from me / Istredd that he took your character there, helped them leave, and showed them how to go back in with their memory now. Your character can also know anything from the entries I linked to above that are in his library if you'd like to jump-start them into having information, or they can know none of it.

Thanks to Lena for originally designing this mingle every month, and Ammay for joining in on the fun now!))

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"Yes, and we are forced to be here. But there are good things we can take from it." Istredd never considered himself an optimist, but in truth, he always has been underneath his weariness of his sphere's flaws. He's been hopeful for people to surprise him, for things to somehow get better. And he feels like the Summoned have managed to do some of that here, in this unexpected place.

He smiles faintly, shrugging his shoulders. "We are all in the same position, I see no reason we must allow their separations to control us. You'll find there are very good people in the Summoned, who can help this situation feel less alone." She seems like someone who could really use that. She seems very young to him, and most people here are, since he's closing in on a century soon and appears otherwise.

Optimism and hope are rare things in River's world, both within her own mind and the people around her. Kaylee is a pocket of sunlight, always looking to find the best in a situation, but everyone else she knows is some degree of bitter and jaded. Maybe folks in the Core have the luxury of dreaming while everyone else is just trying to survive.

( She tries not to think of the Academy, where hope was crushed alongside her mind, body, and spirit. Her fellow captives there certainly weren't holding hands and meditating together. )

The people she's met in Abraxas have been kind. Warm. Unexpectedly... at peace with their situation, or at least not outwardly raging against it. Sure, she's only been here a few days, so she can't reasonably have met an appropriate sample size of the Summoned to know the overall sentiment about their situation here. But at least here, they seem to have banded together, hoping those connections will help them survive in this realm.

River eyes Istredd for a long moment and can't help asking, "Are you happy? Here, away from your sphere."

Where there are those that might wish to escape it. Was he one of them? Is being here what lets him feel that sense of optimism?

Istredd's always been a little more optimistic than he should be, given his background. Yennefer taunted him once that he had romantic ideals of the world, but that was as a youth. He does keep finding reasons to hope, whether it makes sense or not. And he probably does want that for other people, for the new people, otherwise he wouldn't be here.

The question is apt and an explanation, and he nods.

"I am. There is nothing good to go back to in my sphere. I have only misery ahead of me." With the violent loss of his home and family, disliked or not, and his disastrous fate at the hands of a cruel man, Istredd would stay here if he could. It's something he's working on, but he doesn't want everyone to feel like they have to be the same way. Going home is an acceptable desire too.

"There are some people here who are dead back home. Not everyone has somewhere to go." He's thinking of his partner Lucifer, but there are others. This is the only chance they have to experience a life, and a fulfilling one, if they're lucky. "That doesn't change that I would give people the choice to go back if I could. Like you, if that is your wish."

That the dead might walk among the living is news to River and it shows on her face, a shocked expression that's torn between amazement and an ounce of horror. The dead still speak, she thinks, in the memories they leave behind, but to create new memories? To live again, an ending with a new beginning - can magic really be so powerful?

For those with nothing to return to, only misery or the final curtain on a story with more to tell, perhaps this is limbo, a sanctuary of sorts. She wonders if it's a prison for others, those with things they would return to in a heartbeat if given the chance.

She doesn't know where she falls on that spectrum yet.

"My brother," she says quietly. "He's missing. A missing factor. He's home. The rest of my sphere is... questionable."

To say the least. But whether it's here or there, she is lost without Simon. Would it be an easier decision to make, if he were here? She can only wonder, if Abraxas is a prison or a sanctuary.

Istredd has some desperation over trying to find an anchor, a way to keep people here who don't want to leave. The reality is that any minute someone dead could go back is terrifying to most of them. It was an unusual thing to him when he first arrived, how a second chance like that is possible, and how it changes the experience here. He is no friend of Thorne and while he's grateful that Lucifer is here and alive, it doesn't make them or their actions right. It's a tightrope walk though.

Istredd has no blood family that he's aware of, having been taken from them as a child. His adopted family is mostly dead now. But he nods as if he understands, since it's normal for family members to wish to be together.

"Sometimes people from the same sphere do show up, there are several from mine, but I can't promise you." If her brother does come here, will that be better for them both? He doesn't know enough of their story to guess, but she doesn't seem as filled with fire as some people are to go back home. Since her sphere is questionable.

"What is your brother's name? We'll keep an eye out for him, he could come into one of the other factions."

Would he even want to be here? River knows he would choose to be by her side rather than not, but it's at the expense of everything he might want for himself. She waffles on what to say for a moment, fidgeting in place before she saying, "Simon. He's a doctor."

Said with a note of pride, because River will always look up to her genius brother with the healing touch. But she doesn't give their last name; they can't say for certain that the Liángméng aren't hiding somewhere, listening for any trace of them.

The notion that Istredd knows folks in the other factions is intriguing though. She hasn't found a lot of information about them, at least not yet, and she can already get the sense that's by design. How can they know what's going on elsewhere in the world? She eyes him curiously and asks, "You have friends, in the other factions?"

"Simon. If he shows up, we'll find him." Istredd is confident about that. The Summoned aren't exactly a big group, and he assumes a brother would ask about his sister, in case she's around too. He stopped wondering if he'll find one of his own people out there. He already has four of them, and if Triss shows up, she'll be found.

He hears the pride in her voice and smiles. He knows healing magic so that is his leaning for it, but he knows that doctors in the future put in a lot of work and learning to become skilled at it. It's something to be proud of.

"Oh yes, close friends." Wanda, Castiel, most of the Pit people. He would perhaps think of Geralt as somewhere on that list, although the witcher is unlikely to think the same. "You can meet them on the Horizon, it's a psychic plane where you can create your own home and everyone can go there." He's been teaching people how to do exactly that at this very party. "You can also meet people in person once a month at a neutral location called Nocwich. We're all in the same situation, it makes it easy to connect."

It's perhaps unsurprising that fellow Summoned might band together; maybe it's the nature of the factions being divided and generally at odds with each other that made her imagine the faction leaders wouldn't let them see each other much. Or maybe it's just that she's too used to living in cages, hidden away from the rest of the world.

The Horizon, though - it's still too strange of a concept to wrap her mind around just yet. She's been watching and listening, listening to the silence as they meditate, and it seems like something utterly impossible in all the ways magic was supposed to be. She does perk up a bit at the mention of Nocwich; still strange, but a tangible thing she can touch and see for herself.

"I went yesterday," she says with a gentle undercurrent of excitement. "Saw some wolves. Met a shark. We're allowed to go again?"

"Yes, we're allowed the first weekend of every month to visit Nocwich, and you can go to Luna too. Ikorr has yet to open its borders." The vampires are apparently more cagey, although he can't blame them, given the history of this continent. Filled with a lot of violence and hate. They are in a precarious position, requiring the night spell to work at all times in able to live. The werewolves at least can be in the sunlight.

"Ah, you met Nanaue the sharkman. He's very interesting. There are a lot of people who aren't human here, some of them just look human." Nanaue cannot hide what he is, but he seems like a good person. Istredd's not really spoken to him but he finds his drawings sweet.

"If you get a chance to go on the Arcanis, that's a giant ship from Luna, you should take it. Although I get a little seasick, humorously enough." Not funny to him, but it's funny to other people and he doesn't take it the wrong way. Geralt of all people gets the right to be amused at him, given Istredd being snotty about his reaction to portals.

Luna. Ikorr. The Arcanis. So many names of places to go and things to see - the promise of adventure will never not be exciting to one whose heart has only ever wanted to see the world ( without her eyes being forced open to see things she shouldn't have to ). She smiles warmly, a soft laugh at his admission.

"It's fair," she offers. "Sea sickness and space sickness are the same. Can be hard to float when your feet know they were meant to touch the ground. We come from the earth and the trees. It's your ancestors trying to keep you safe."

From an evolutionary standpoint, at least - and perhaps it doesn't even apply to Istredd, if people can look human when they aren't. Being here will challenge so many of her assumptions, especially with her eyes closed to the things she doesn't know yet. It's terribly exciting.

"I'd never been at sea before, I'm an archaeologist, I'm very firmly about the ground." Istredd's spent so many decades searching the earth for answers to old, old questions, and it kept him distanced from humanity and other people. Coming here has changed it significantly, but he is still someone who prefers to be grounded. Boats and airships, they are a little over his head.

"I have a friend who gets portal sickness, he was gracious enough not to laugh at me on the ship." And yes he's calling Geralt a friend now, the witcher isn't around to give him an annoyed look so it's fine. "That's why I usually don't need other types of travel, back home we step through portals to anywhere we want to go. They have that here too, not quite our style but similar."

River will probably see his portals over time together as he can still use it to move himself around, and he often does. It's instinctive.

For all that she's marveled at the many strange and impossible things in this world, River can't help the way her nose scrunches at the mention of portals. She'd taken the one to Nocwich ( without getting sick, fortunately ) but it was with no small amount of trepidation.

"Doesn't make sense," she grumbles, "There's no scientific or technological basis for it. Haven't achieved teleportation in five hundred of advancement but there's more of an underlying rationale than portals."

She's not mad about it; it's more like a child being petulant about something they don't understand. She'd certainly like to see Istredd's portals to continue collecting data for her brain to process this.

"It's magic, not technology." So it simply would not be possible to combine the two in this situation, there's no science to it. It's impossible otherwise. He smiles at her. "I'll show you some time. I can't take other people through mine like I could in my sphere, but I use them to get around." They look like giant swirling glowing doors and he pops in and out of them even to go to a different room. Why not, if you don't need the walk?

"Why don't you come a little more in here, and I'll tell you about the Horizon?" She's still been hovering.

At the end of the day, River is, in fact, still a child. Istredd will probably catch the way she halfway rolls her eyes as she ducks her head away, muttering 'it's magic, not technology' under her breath. It's not to mock or tease, but the quiet exasperation of a kid that doesn't want to accept the easy answer given by an adult.

She doesn't quite believe the magic bit yet, but she's going to have to eventually. So, with a glance toward Yennefer who had said he was capable and knowledgeable, River pulls herself together and straightens out to nod at him. "Okay. I'll listen. Xièxiè nǐ, Istredd."

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OPEN MINGLE: Welcome to Thorne!

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We can probably wrap on this one!

perfect! 💝