God Jól - Nexus Winter Party Post 2018

[pirateangelbaby]

The winter solstice has arrived, and with it, the Nexus has made good on the promise of frost and snow. Soft white banks blanket the streets and buildings, a darkened evening sky curling overhead with brilliant green and yellow auroras, and just off the Plaza proper, a roaring bonfire offers shelter from the chill. An entire oak tree trunk, carved with nordic runes and anointed with spices, blazes with merry heat in the center of a series of open-sided pavilions, their supporting posts wreathed with holly and pine. The entire gathering is ringed by evergreen trees whose boughs are decorated with ribbons of brightly colored cloth, carved wooden runes, cranberries, and small squares of toasted bread. At the back of the grounds, an enormous straw goat overlooks the proceedings, bound into shape with strips of red cloth.

Beneath the shelter of the pavilions sit long communal tables and benches, decked with greenery and candles that smell of warm cinnamon and cedar and bayberry, and tableware laid out to host a grand feast for all. One table is loaded down with food of all sorts, dishes donated by visitors spread out equally amidst those provided by the host, roasted meats and cheeses and breads, bowls of apples and oranges, and an entire boar's head with an apple in its mouth. At the end of the table sits an enormous silver punch bowl of steaming hot wassail, surrounded by bottles of colder brews, some labeled as non-alcoholic while some others warn against excessive consumption by anyone without a godlike constitution. Staff wearing white goathide cloaks and horned helms tend the tables, replenishing food and drink as needed, and handing out honey cakes and small paper-wrapped parcels to all in attendance.

The jólfather himself can be seen wearing a finer goatskin cloak of dark red, his head wreathed with a crown of woven holly and ivy, a gold patch covering his missing eye, and carrying an oaken staff carved in the likeness of Gungnir, with springs of mistletoe entwined around its head. As guests arrive, and fill their plates and cups with the bounty of the feast, Thor raises a horn of mead to the gathering and speaks the traditional Asgardian Yule blessing. "Come those that will, leave those that will, stay those that will, I declare this place a sanctuary. To all that sit at my hearth, today we are family, and I drink to your health. To a good new year, and peace!"

Welcome to Yule, Nexus-goers. Eat, drink, and be merry!



[OOC: As this is a party post, please feel free to threadhop and mingle to your hearts' content! There is a post in the OOC community about Yule gifts here.]

Comments

[outpostcook]

"Mornin', sir. And happy Yule to you, too."

Kinner is nearby with a wrapped package under one arm. He's not much of a social person, he's mostly here for the food and drink, but he has some friends he'd like to deliver gifts to. He screeches to a halt when he notices that the imposing newcomer is a stranger. The little scar-faced cook stands up and bows politely. He's a gruff fellow, but he tries to be polite to visitors. He feels small in the presence of this man, the same way he felt small next to, say, McReady or Norris. He knows power when he sees it.

"Name's Joseph Kinner. I was from Antarctica." He smiles, indicating his heavy winter coat. "Well, not from Antarctica, I'm from Missouri, but I was there before I came here. I'm a former member of the 1938 Secondary Magnetic Expedition under Commander Garry, if you've heard of us. Pleasure to meet you."

[bitterguardian]

At six-foot-three and around three hundred pounds, Horvath is used to people being slightly intimidated. On the other hand he’s gotten less gruff himself, over the centuries, and the Nexus helped his social skills. “I may have? I was with the scientific department in the States, then, and later OSRD.” His accent doesn’t sound American, but it could be British, diluted by time spent in the U.S.

He has a ring on nearly every finger, most of them with gemstones, but he grips the smaller man’s hand in a practiced way that’s firm but avoids crushing his fingers into the jewelry. “Maxim Horvath, Merlinian Sorcerer. Is this... do you know if this is just new for the holidays? I’ve been away for quite some time.”

[outpostcook]

Kinner shrugs, since he doesn't have a proper answer. He's a little lost, too. "This is my first Christmas here, so I've got no clue. I'm a new arrival. Never run into a real sorcerer before - and I'm guessin' you mean that Merlin." Kinner may have been born in rural Missouri in the 1890s, and mythology isn't his field, but he still knows who that Merlin was. "He was a real person, I figure. At least in your world. All this stuff is new to me. I'm just a cook."

He's brightened by meeting someone who might have heard of his team. "I was wonderin' if they'd just forgotten about us. Our expedition ran into something bad in the ice, the kind of thing people would want to keep under wraps. And I wouldn't blame the government for doing it, either." He sighs, thinking back. "There were casualties. I was one of 'em."

[bitterguardian]

“He was. And he seems to be remembered in many worlds.” Horvath’s expression softens a little, wistfully. Those remembrances are rarely wholly accurate, but just knowing his old teacher is remembered at all tends to be reassuring.

At the mention of something bad happening to Kinner’s Team, he sobers. “I’m... afraid that several decades in the past for me, now. But if you’d like I’ll attempt to look into it in my own world, and see what became of your team. There was... quite a lot the government liked to cover up, in those days.”

[outpostcook]

Kinner smiles at the offer. "I'd...appreciate that. Just so I could know who made it and who didn't, for closure's sake. Norris, McReady, Benning, Van Wall... I hope at least a few of them were able to kill that creature and make it back home."

He doesn't say it, but he's especially concerned about the four men he named. Not that he doesn't care about the others, but he considered those four his close friends, especially the last two. And Benning wasn't the kind of guy who was great at alien-fighting.

"Oh, most people know who Merlin was. I dunno if he was real in my world or not, but I sure knew about him. And if a poor Missouri farmboy's heard of Merlin..."

[bitterguardian]

“Then he is a well-read fellow, and well deserving of a small favor.” As he says this, he steadies himself and leans the can against his hip so he can pull out a small notebook and write down those names. Evidently he can stand without the cane, if he needs to. “Was that MacReady or McReady?” He’s perfectly serious about this. Research is what he does to pay the bills anyway, so digging into archives about a scientific expedition is an easy enough thing for him to do.

[outpostcook]

"Thanks. This means a lot to me, sir - I've been worried sick about my old team. Hoping they fought that creature off and all, and I'm willing to bet it already ate a few of our men before it got me..." Kinner already knows that there are two men with very similar names, though he suspects the MacReady he knows about is an alternate universe's counterpart to his McReady. Slightly different names and different career choices. "My guy's named McReady. He's a meteorologist."

[bitterguardian]

“Good lord. What... kind of a creature? Unless that’s too terrible to think about. I’m sorry, I shouldn’t ask such a thing in the midst of a holiday celebration.” Here Kinner just stopped to shake his hand and be friendly to a lost soul, and now he’s asking about nightmare fodder. Horvath looks apologetic.

[outpostcook]

"I don't actually mind. I'm gonna be dealing with it again soon enough, or somethin' close to it." The Thing was a creature of science, not magic, or at least that was how they approached it. "It was an alien - a shapeshifter. Big blue blobby thing with tentacles and three red eyes. Whenever it ate someone, a person or an animal, it could spit out a perfect copy with all their memories and skills. It ate me, so I reckon there's another Kinner running around in my homeworld."

"Thanks for offering to help." He can't help but give a wry smile. "To be honest, it's mostly closure - knowin' who on my team made it and who didn't. The Thing could've turned the whole world into copies of itself if it got off Antarctica."

[bitterguardian]

Horvath would say that science and magic are simply two sides of looking at the same thing, and he is certainly not lacking in understanding of scientific methods. Everything comes down to matter or energy, in the end.

He is very still, considering this, and then carefully tucks the notebook away in his inner vest pocket. “So it’s still very much a present threat, in your own world? And you’re going back to face it alone?”

[outpostcook]

Kinner's no scientist, but being around scientists made him pick up a little of their way of thinking. He's a little superstitious, but he also knows that he's knowledgeable in neither science or magic, so defers to others' judgement in those things.

"No, not alone - I'm making a team. Me and a handful of other folks, we're goin' to a fiend of mine's world where a similar creature attacked him. We're gonna try to kill it." He sighs. "It's not my homeworld, but it's a very similar one. I can't go back to my own world 'cause the blasted thing killed me. But I can visit others. And I won't let what happened to me happen to anyone else."

[bitterguardian]

“That’s very noble.” He takes his cane in hand again, and shifts on his feet, so he can lean on it again. He’s been back in the Nexus all of five minutes, but a Merlinian is a Merlinian no matter where he goes, and his master taught that power should be used always to help those in need of aid.

“If you would be in need of additional assistance, I have a fair amount of experience battling monsters and men, both.”

[outpostcook]

"I mostly don't want the same thing to happen to my friend's team that happened to mine. We didn't trust each other anymore."

Kinner swallows hard. "Thank you for the offer, sir. We'd be very grateful for your help. We're a small team and the Thing is extremely dangerous." He feels a strength from this gentleman that reminds him of McReady. The big meteorologist was probably the expedition's best Thing-fighter and a natural leader, so that boded well.

[bitterguardian]

“I see. Some way of ensuring that you know your own apart from its lies would be in order, then?” He’s not quite sure how to make that happen, and he’ll be wanting to do as much research on the monster as he can, but he might bring something new to the table. If nothing else, he can at least provide shielding.

If Horvath knew the mental comparison Kinner is making, he’d be flattered, but it’s not inaccurate either. “You’re welcome, but combating that kind of trouble is more or less my job. Any information you can give me on what we’re battling ahead of time would be useful, mind you, But- perhaps not this instant. I fear I’ve interrupted your merry-making!”

[outpostcook]

Kinner nods. "I think I might be able to help, too. Something happened a while back, something very small, but it made me able to, uh, see weird things. Not bad things, necessarily, but weird things. I'm not sure if it's any use with the Thing, but two heads are better than one. I have a treatise on the creature if you'd like to borrow it."

"Oh, you've been no trouble at all. Quite the opposite." He's happy to turn the subject back to the holidays. He's there to have fun, after all, and forget about the Thing for a little while. "I brought some salted cod and oysters, sir. I run a fish shop in the Plaza. Kinner's Kippers. That's where you can usually find me."

[bitterguardian]

“A treatise would help immensely, and I will still look into things on my own world, but I expect either the creature never came, or disaster was averted. I’ll seek you out at your shop.” He can come by tomorrow, or whatever the Nexus approximate of tomorrow is, because time is a tricky thing here. Thank goodness he’s already used to it.

He studies Kinner briefly with a thoughtful expression, “Seeing things can be both a blessing and a curse, but you may find it comes in handy.” He’s not picking up on magical abilities, per se, but Kinner must have some sensitivity to things that not everyone is aware of. “But I’ll let you get on with your holiday!”