vallo

It is officially my Vallo anniversary. Valloversary? Didn't think I'd actually be living here for a full year, although in my defense, I was also not thinking I'd be living in Texas for two years before landing here either.

Anyway. What do people do in this occasion? I'm assuming it's not a party right now considering the circumstances.

TEAM SPARE THE DRAGON + NIKOLAI & GENYA

Don't ask me why, but I'm feeling generous and a little bit social. I apparently have some extra money and, instead of buying something for the future house something I need, I feel like splurging on the fanciest restaurant in Vallo and you're all invited. It's on me.

You should probably say yes because I think this feeling happens maybe once in twenty to thirty years at the very most.

Is anyone able to recommend somewhere that might offer cooking lessons?

[ FILTERED TO DAPHNE ]

I don't want to hover like a fussy mother, but I just wanted to check in and make certain you're doing all right.

I do recall at the end of April saying it seemed like the month was suspiciously quiet for the most part.

I do apologize for that now because it seemed like Vallo decided "You want excitement? I'll give you excitement." Oops. In any case, I'm pretty sure I took the world's longest showers when we got home, so I think if the apartment ran out of hot water, that's on me too.

[Team Spare the Dragons]

Is anyone currently a coppery bronze dragon flying over the forest near the mountains right now or is there another new dragon in our midst? Or is someone missing a dragon? I saw it land briefly and take off again (I think it caught a deer). I'm not judging if you're hungry, just teach me how to turn into one, too.

The bright side of being sent to the past with Nikolai Lantsov is the fact that a) this all still seems a fair bit calmer than Ravka and b) this man can quite literally charm the proverbial pants off of anything. If anyone is needing additional clothing for blending in, food, or money, we have a limited amount of each to share thanks to him. We've made it to Civitas and found a room above one of the taverns if you need to know where to find us.

NIKOLAI

We might want to lay off the dice games tonight. I have a feeling that someone was at least on the verge of figuring out my little gust trick and they're already suspicious enough. I think we've got enough to sustain us for a few more days, though, depending on how long this lasts. And also depending, I suppose, on how much others take me up on my uncharacteristic generosity.

TEXTS TO NIKOLAI

-- Have you started dinner yet?
-- If not, don't.
-- And don't order anything, either. We can pick something up later.
-- We have an appointment with a realtor.

Did I fall asleep for half the month or were the craziest things that happened all of April just the momentary clothing change and candy falling out of the sky?

I'm tired of feeling absolutely useless when it comes to being a fight and also ending up in situations where I can't even defend myself and need to do dependent on someone else to help me (that being said, Erik, I'm still grateful that you found me).

I'm also really tired of sitting here with yet another cast on my arm, so I will make a classical Ravkan (known as Russian in other worlds) dinner for someone who wants to come over and heal my arm completely.

Also should probably start looking into defensive classes.

In what I think is truly my favorite tradition that I have observed in this place, I am here to share one of the newest additions to the Lantsov-Nazyalensky clan: ( Cut for image! )

His name is Misha and he has never done anything wrong in his entire life, including chewing on my shoelaces. Surely someone else used their teeth to fray their ends.

Alright, Vallo. I have a couple of things to discuss with you.

First and foremost, who has good recommendations for local wines? I've been pretty much sticking to Essek's supply or tried and true labels, but I'm ready to branch out and become a true aficionado.

Secondly, if one were to be interested in an animal companion of sorts, but I've was uncertain as to whether they were a "cat person" or a "dog person" or an "other animal person", how would one hypothetically go about deciding which to consider adopting?

Bonus points if this hypothetical animal companion is an asshole.

What. The. Fuck?????

Is there somewhere around Vallo you can go to practice knife skills (throwing, not chopping vegetables) that won't attract attention? I'm assuming people don't want you just doing it out in the open, but I know I'm getting rusty and can only do so much in my apartment. Even if I don't need to use them like I did back home, I don't want to lose that.

And because age seems to matter here a bit more than it did back home, I'm almost 17.

I've gotten far too used to universe hopping to locations that have this form of healing magic. I can't imagine landing somewhere where it didn't exist and I had to sit around for several months without using my arm, or you know.. stuck in a godawful itchy cast.

Filter: Allison Hargreeves

Well, I meant to message you earlier and tell you my plans for working in your salon would have to be on hold, but I feel better than before now. If the offer is still open, of course.

Hey, Vallo Prime and Vallo Dark - everybody should be able to see this on network-connected devices.

Thanks, whoever you folks who helped stabilize the connection on the Vallo Prime end are. I'm Dr. Morgan Yu, and I'm about to go full typhon because that shit was exhausting. Vallo Dark-area psychics, don't freak if you sense a weird white noise; my thoughts are always like that, but they tend to get a little louder when I'm not holding a human form.

While I'm napping, see what you can do about getting us all out of this foggy hellhole.

So- Ah- it's been a morning, but we're doing our best to figure out exactly what's going on. Our notification system isn't showing any glitches, but a large number of people went missing in the last twelve hours and we have no way of tracking them at present. It's possibly linked to yesterday? Adam is doing his best on the psychic level to see if there's anything he can pick up, if anyone else is in the same position, feel free to check in here.

So if you woke up to a loved one being gone this morning, please comment here so I can put together an extensive catalog of those that disappeared in the last 24 hours.

I'll add to this list as people comment, so everyone can stay up to date:
( CUT FOR LENGTH :( )
For obvious reasons, the market will be closed today, and possibly Thursday. Thank you.

In an attempt to get a read on the situation and see if this bears similarities to what happened during the summer, is anyone else experiencing abnormalities with their magic or other abilities this morning?

I was worrying about getting job, because all I have done in life is play hockey. I left school at 16 to play pro in Russia, then to America at 18, and I have thought of what I would do if injury put me out of NHL, but I always thought of coaching, lessons, things like that. Things that need hockey, you know? Here there is not so much hockey, so I needed new plan.

Good news: I am lucky and found job fast! Geliara Academy needed custodian (cleaner, gardener, move things from here to there, do what needs doing but is waste of magic), and I am it! I will not starve, and job has hazard pay for mopping up nasty potions that might be turning me into frog. This is good, because I am big guy and starve fast, then get in bad mood and growl at people like bear. Also I come here in full hockey gear but no regular clothing, and I need to buy pants.

[In Russian]
Hey, can anybody besides Yuri read this? (Not that I don't want to talk to you, Yuri, I just already know you speak Russian.) I've spent ten years in America, in a city where the Russian population is 1 (me), and I miss the mother tongue sometimes, you know? And I can't exactly call my mom from a magic island at the center of a dimensional convergence. I was thinking maybe we could have a meet-up somewhere just to hang out. It'd give the native speakers a little taste of home, we can see how much the languages from other worlds that are like Russian but not exactly Russian match up, and people who're still learning the language can practice! If that sounds fun to anybody else, let me know and I'll start looking for someplace with good pierogi to hold the first one.

I'm under the impression that people make resolutions or goals or whatever for the upcoming new year. I'm already pretty happy with myself most of the time, but I'm here for trying anything once, so I could use some suggestions in this regard.

So, if you're taking part in such things, what resolutions might you be setting for yourself, if you're willing to share publicly, so I can shamelessly steal one?

ZOYA

What are the chances you will let me take you out for new year celebrations? If I might make a recommendation, I think the chances should be high, but don't let that sway your answer.

I think I lived in Texas for so long, I forgot a whole lot about snow. This brings to mind all the days in Ravka when snow coated the palace grounds and for the moment, everyone that stayed there forgot their place and it was just one giant snowball battle, between the servants and the soldiers in training.

Remember when, Zo? The very few times living there was actually tolerable.