♥ January (Lasra) Event Log

[hugtopiamods]

January (Lasra) Event Log
Are you feeling free of last year's burdens, offworlders? The natives certainly are after spending the final month of the year at Rawna's temples. Now it's time for a new beginning even as the cold deepens, leaving snow drifts piled along Havenwell's streets. Industrious robots are hard at work keeping the city clean and removing any ice from the stone roads, leaving only beautiful winter scenery behind. The city sparkles under the snow and the silvery white decor brings out of their temples the priests not only for Rawna, but all of the gods.

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❥ PROMPT I: The Temple Celebrations

As noted in the Intro Log, the residents of Havenwell have been invited to help with the decorations in order to incorporate your worlds' cultures with their own, and to assist in celebrating the new year's coming. Residents are encouraged to visit any temple at their convenience or pleasure and join in the design process. There are craft tables, ranging from basic (for the younger or less skilled, such as kites or papercraft) to intricate and advanced designs (like glass lanterns or embroidery). Those less creatively-inclined are welcome to use their various skills, magics, or just ladder-balancing talents to help with the decoration installations around town. Many hands make light the work, after all.

Each temple has music playing and all of them have their associated animals not inside the temple like normal, but spread all over the temple grounds and surrounding areas. They aren't lost for once, but seem to be beckoning people toward their respective homes which are bedecked with holograms of dark green leafy boughs, ribbons, and ornaments all in the temple's colors. Diacht has red and white striped ornaments, Ohma has blue and gold, and Ainea is bringing up the cute factor with pink and purple. But Rawna is looking especially resplendent with rainbow sheened silver ornaments hung in the air, mixed in with real ones that are suspended from wires so thin they look as if they're hanging in midair. The dragonlings fly through the air, trailing silver ribbons behind them that make the temple really seem to shine this month. At each temple, simply by showing up, you can receive a small gift from the priests regardless of whether or not you're an adherent. And they invite you to play the temple games or dance along to the festive music playing from speakers. Each temple has something different to offer, so grab a friend and make your first visit of the year a special one!

• Ainea:
Ainea's temple offers a soft fluffy pink and purple-swirled scarf that's long enough for you and a friend to wear at the same time if you so wish. The temple's game is called "The Best Of." You and a partner step upon a small silver platform and each pull a card from a pile. Tell your partner about the prompt on the card in order to clear it. Only honest answers count and you'll know when the other person is being honest because the platform sings a little jingle and counts a point for your pair. The more cards you can get through, the higher your points! Some examples of the prompts are things like: the most embarrassing moment of the last year, most exciting moment of the last year, hardest you laughed last year, most beautiful thing you saw last year, most memorable trip from the last year, favorite song of the year, etc.

• Rawna:
Rawna's temple has an offering of beautiful gloves, threaded with rainbow thread at the wrists in an intricate and abstract pattern that somewhat resembles dragons in flight. Their game is one of flying kites. For a small Dora donation, priests will give you a thin slip of paper to write a wish upon. Tie your wish, or wishes if you're here with someone else, to your kite and get help from someone to make it fly the highest in the hopes that the gods will hear and answer you. As you deepen your relationship with the person you're flying your kite with by talking or sharing the meaning of your wishes, the kite seems to fly higher and higher.

• Ohma:
Ohma's offering is a tasteful blue, wide-brimmed hat with a gold ribbon and flower accents. Their game is a card matching one. For those read up on Havenwell's poets, try your hand at this game where you match the beginning of the poem with the next line. A robot judge reads the first line and then you have to find the corresponding card among a field of brightly colored cards. Grab the card first and win points! For those not familiar with Havenwell's poetry, you can try the game with more simple themes like colors and fruits (not that they make much sense - why is an apple blue??) or facts about the other people in Havenwell. ....when did that game become so popular?

• Diacht:
Diacht's offering is a white and red feather pendant necklace on a thin white-gold chain. Their game seems to be something like Earth's game of badminton, but minus a net. Grab a pair of large white and red wooden paddles and a multicolored shuttlecock and try batting away the year's bad luck by keeping the shuttlecock aloft. If you're the one to drop it, your opponent gets to draw on your face with a special ink-brush that has the ink contained in its handle. For the non-athletically inclined, you can watch the professionals play the game as the robotic natives most renowned for the art of this game are trying to break a Havenwell record for a single continuous game: 22 days.

❥ PROMPT II: Your Yearly (Mis)Fortunes

At each temple along all the other celebrations and games, you can also find a separate booth that has a strange and unreadable Aellyn script on it. The robot sitting behind the booth has their face covered with a strip of fabric that obscures it completely, but it calls out to you when you walk by. It offers you an ancient-looking wooden container with a single small hole at the top. If you take it, it mimes shaking the container and tipping it over. Do as they say and a wooden stick pops out of the top with that same strange script on it. The robot takes a look at what you got and takes the container back, passing you a single strip of paper with reverence. "Keep your fortune close or learn to let it go," it says, and then looks to find another patron. Turn your paper over and discover what your fortune holds for you.

• Big Luck:
"The world shall become your limitless bounty, until you choose to rely on others." After reading your fortune, the world does indeed seem limitless. Or maybe it's just large? Everything around you has suddenly gained in size. The fortune-teller's booth seems like a mountain. The stones under your feet like a massive raft. Has the world suddenly grown? Nope, you've just shrunk down to about 5 to 6 inches tall. Everything you were holding and on your person is also proportional to your new size. Hopefully you can find someone to carry you around for a bit because only by being carried will you return to your natural size. As an option, this can happen to you again randomly at any time during the month so long as you keep the paper fortune on you.

• Medium Luck:
"All that glitters is gold for you until another helps you out." After reading your fortune, nothing much seems to have overtly changed. And you probably won't notice anything until the next time you try to eat something. Any time your hands touch any food or anything that can be used to feed yourself, it explodes into glitter and your communicator rings as a deposit of Dora is made into your bank account. This seems pretty awesome at first, until you realize you can't eat anything and you're getting hungry. You may need to get someone else to feed you your next meal, after which the curse seems to have been broken. However, you have the option to have this effect happen again randomly at any time during the month so long as you keep the paper fortune on you.

• Small Luck:
"The smallest things can bring the biggest rewards." After reading your fortune, nothing much seems to have changed until you return home and find all of your pillows, blankets, and bedding have turned much, much too small for you. If you're an adult, the bedding is now the size suitable for a baby. If you are a child, you're looking at something small enough for a large doll. Any bedding you try to borrow changes its size as well, and it seems the only thing that can change them back is to share your bed or a blanket with someone else for a night. When you wake up from your nap or your slumber, everything will be back to normal. As an option, you can have this effect happen again randomly any time during the month so long as you keep the paper fortune on you.

• Bad Luck:
"The love of an animal is almost as strong as the love of your fellow people." After reading this fortune, all the temple animals turn and look at you in unison. They seem to be drawn toward you, literally, as they begin to converge and run toward you like a tidal hoard in an attempt to cuddle you. You best run or they threaten to bury you under their mass, and they'll keep chasing you until you find comfort in the arms of another - whether that's climbing on top of them to get away or jumping into their arms to avoid the tidal wave of mice - as soon as you cling to someone else, the animals seem to lose interest. You can optionally have this effect activate again at any time during the month so long as you keep the paper fortune on you, creating a new stampede of animals of any variety that try to love you just a liiiittle too much.

• Terrible Luck:
"Even bad luck can be the beginning of a beautiful friendship." After reading this fortune, you don't immediately feel any different. In fact, nothing much seems to have changed at all. You decide to walk away from the booth though, and that's when it hits you - or rather you hit it. You're overcome with a clumsy streak the size of a meteor belt as you bump, trip, and fall into just about everything in your path be it inanimate or animate. If it's inanimate, hopefully you don't mind a few bruises. If they're another person, maybe they'll catch you because only by being caught by someone can you break your clumsy streak. As an option, you can have this effect come back at any time so long as you keep the paper fortune on you.

OOC: If you wish to roll for a random fortune, leave an comment with your character's name in the Request Thread. The mods will randomize for you and give you your fortune. Your character can only claim 1 fortune, no matter how many times they attempt the fortune-teller's game. Feel free to choose your own fortune instead, if you would prefer a set result.

❥ PROMPT III: Memories of the Sun (VR)

This seasonal VR simulation is especially popular with the natives for the fact that it lets them see their world as it used to be. Load into the simulation "Memories of the Sun" and you'll be transported along with all others who are currently logged in to make a pilgrimage up Aellyn's most sacred mountain. Although its peak is rocky and somewhat barren, it has a serene beauty as it reaches up through the cloud layer and you climb upwards through the dark. The path is clearly lit by small lamps embedded into the ground, but you might find it easier to take the climb if you hang onto someone else. Once you reach the peak, whether you're alone or with someone else, you'll be treated to the sight of a gorgeous sunrise peeking over the thinning clouds. It's a sight to remember, and a sight that brings memories. As you watch you're overcome with a very real vision of your home, a place you remember, or people you know. This vision is typically of a better time in your life, something to bring you hope and peace as the new year dawns - but not always. Is this a vision of your past? Your future? Of your present? If you came here with someone else, they can also choose to share in your vision and you in theirs. Are you brave enough to face what the mountain has to show you?

❥ PROMPT IV: All the Ups and Downs

And while the celebrations continue, there seems to be something a little awry with Havenwell. Here and there throughout the month, gravity has gone utterly haywire. You can be walking from temple to temple or going about your everyday life when suddenly you feel yourself lifted off the ground or heavier than you have any right to be. Havenwell's natives aren't immune to this effect either, and you might see a robot go shooting up into the sky suddenly to hover a good five to ten feet in the air. Or they might take a step and suddenly fall flat on their faces, their gears whirring with the strain as they try to pick themselves up. Thankfully the other natives are quick to jump up and grab their companions if they're flying overhead or pull their friends out of the well if they're stuck to the ground. If you find yourself caught up in these gravity wells, you'll need someone's help to do the same. Be sure to pay it forward because you'll never know when it could be you in this awkward position.

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This event will run from January 15 to January 31. Click on each prompt's title to see the text. If you have any questions, feel free to direct them to the FAQ or to the Mod Question thread below.

This post is meant to act as a catch-all for convenience, but feel free to make your own posts if you prefer!

Comments

kaito | ajin [rawna] (ota)

[whenyouneedme]

★ i. Work Hard, Play Hard
Never a dull moment in Havenwell, huh? He probably should have expected some festivities! Kai wasn't usually one to wander off to the other temples too often, so he was once again usually around Rawna's. More often than not, he was being a helpful guy with the ladders and hanging up the decorations that everyone else was making. That's kind of all he was suited for, probably! Did you want your craft hung up? Catch him with that ladder!

Of course you could catch him loitering around other things sometimes. Here and there when it was a little less busy, you might find him tucked away at a craft table, quietly folding some weird shapes. Sometimes he'd just be sitting and watching kites and dragons alike. If you really wanted those gloves, well, he was easy enough to persuade to join you.


★ ii. It's like eating sand
You'd think having Medium Luck would have been a good thing. Kai didn't even think much of the fortune when he got it, shrugging and wandering off with a 'cool.' It wasn't until later when he realized something was... amiss.

His gosh dang replicator was on the fritz? Apparently! It was the replicator, right? It just kept... making glitter! Was it a bath bomb maker now? Like, food shaped bath bombs? What the hell? How baffling. How confusing. How terrible.

His stomach voiced its concerns, and so Kai ventured off into the wild to forage for food at any food place that was open.

When you chanced upon him, he was sitting at a brushed off, snowy table. Gold was strewn about its surface. His head was in his hands, expression vacant. At a loss. Betrayed.


★ iii. Why is Kaito climbing the mountain
The VR... wasn't really his favorite thing, cool as it was. He just wasn't into it. H o w e v e r . Once he caught wind of the fact that there was a mountain-related one (he hadn't caught the details), he figured what the hell. Why not? He'd been pining for that scenery a little bit, and it wasn't likely that he was going to get his ass up to any legit mountainsides any time soon.

It's not any mountain that he's familiar with but... it is really beautiful. It's enough to make him stop every so often on the trek just to take in all the sights. The sweeping of the trees, the mist rolling the sprawling expanses, the twinkling of the night sky behind them and the burning of the sky ahead of them. It was just a lot.

If you met by chance, you were probably going to have to tug him along if you ever wanted to reach the top in a timely fashion. Or maybe he'd been the one to convince you to come with him somehow-- he'd turn and grin a little, jerking his head towards the mountainside. "It really is pretty cool, huh?"


★ x. wild card
Feel free to combine prompts or even just do. Whatever you want!! Tag styles will be matched so follow your dreams~

eventually III

[daikonrose]

Kyoko'd had a lot of rough days in her life, but they usually--usually--weren't painful in the physical sense. Maybe it had been around 15% of her unhappy days that were focused on injuries? Before this past week, anyway; that number was quickly ratcheting up now.

She had tried holing herself up for a while, hoping the weird gravity fluctuations could just be waited out, but somehow that seemed to make it even worse? Probably because having walls and furniture and door frames so close at all times was tipping the odds in favor of her running into them. So, whatever! Being bored and bruised at the same time was dumb! Maybe if she wandered around the entertainment district again, she would finally stumble into someone who could tell her how to get in on robot show biz!

Or maybe she would just knock shoulders with some punk guy as she rounded a corner somewhere, and then trip over his foot when she turned to apologize. Hi Kai.

[whenyouneedme]

Oh lord here we go again.

Except, no, maybe they could avoid another injury-mandated sleepover. There were a lot of things to process really quickly here, from the sudden shift in balance to the realization that someone was going down swinging. Luckily for everyone involved, there wasn't any need for any intense dives to minimize the damage. Just his arms would suffice!

"Oi--" Here they were, shooting out to catch her before she tumbled on any farther. Also before it clicked just who it was barreling into him? Oh. Hi Kyoko.

[daikonrose]

Arms, wow, hello! It's been a while!

More out of habit than any particular lack of faith in the person she'd tripped over, Kyoko had already thrown out her own hands, bracing to catch herself and save her face, at least. But instead she caught a pair of shoulders, and here they were now.

"Ah--" There was a confused pause as her eyes focused on Kaito, and then a blink as reality caught up with her. Gingerly, she lifted up her hands. There you go, sir, freedom. "Sorry. Thank you. Hello." Oh no, too many things to address at once? "Um--is your shoulder all right?" Hers kinda ached, but it was hard to say if that wasn't just from all the bruises on it already.

[whenyouneedme]

There was a moment to make sure that everything was in order. Nobody ate shit this time, everyone's ankles seemed to be fine, everything seemed fine! Kai let her go without any issues this time.

"Hey," he greeted first, tilting his head a bit as if to try and look at his shoulder. There was a tiny ache there, but nothing he would have really thought about if she hadn't brought it up. "It's fine, you're good. Everything okay there?"

[daikonrose]

"No," she sighed, looking wearily into the distance, "but it's kinda in a cosmic sense, so don't worry about it. This isn't a problem that can be solved by mere humans like us." Straightening up and returning to the present, Kyoko's eyes traveled over Kaito. "You're looking as sturdy as ever, though. Have you managed to avoid being yanked around by the ground and the sky?"

[whenyouneedme]

"Ah." It was a very understanding tone. Cosmic problems. Of course. "No, I'm not that sturdy. Got to float around for a while there and all my food was turning into glitter."

[daikonrose]

So the glitter thing was actually going around too. Kyoko grimaced in sympathy. "It's kinda early in the year for the gods to be trying to kill us off, isn't it? Do you think they've given up on us already?"

ii

[unfavorableinstigation]

Nita recognized the expression on his face more than the actual person.

That, and the glitter was telling.

Sliding over next to him, she thoughtfully rubbed a finger through the glitter.

"I think this whole thing's supposed to be solved by getting someone else to feed you. It's way more trouble than it's worth, from what I've seen."

She turned to look at him. "We need to get some water into you, at least. Fast."

[whenyouneedme]

Who was this then, sliding all up in his business. His first assumption was that he was not the intended focus, but he hadn't been sitting with anyone and why sit with him to talk with anyone else?

Kai turned his head, squinting a bit at all of this unsolicited advice.

"That so."

[unfavorableinstigation]

Nita nodded, expression wry.

"I mean, I can bug one of the natives to help with that too? But it's not right to just leave you here when this is happening."

She scattered the glitter - or rather, attempted to; glitter was persistent.

"Don't know why I did that. This stuff gets everywhere!"

Luck for luck

[hedgehogsdilemma]

Equipped with one (1) personal portable source of music means that going out for long walks is that much more appealing, even when the weather is still too chilly to really enjoy, and even if the listener happens to be a little more tired than he'd like. Being out and about more often means that bumping in to someone else out and about is so much more likely! Who could have guessed? And what are the odds that he'd run across the familiar shock of black and gold he was hoping to see?

That's. Uh. More gold than he was anticipating, though.

Music paused, earbuds out, he approaches with a look of Concern.

"Kaito?" What? Is this about?? Are you okay???

[whenyouneedme]

Aw bro were you hoping to see him? That's so nice, bro.

It was actually a comfort to hear the other boy's familiar voice. So much so that Kai felt completely comfortable to just sink his head against the table with a pathetic noise. There he went, right into all that glitter. What a sad, bejeweled looking display.

"Everything is the worst."

[hedgehogsdilemma]

Oh... no.....

"What in the world happened here?"

Let's just pocket those tunes altogether and move in a little closer. Where? Did all of this glitter come from? What clearly terrible things caused this sparklepocalypse? Does Kai need? A gentle hand resting on his back? There, there, it's gonna be okay.

[whenyouneedme]

Kai made another sound as that gentle hand settled on his back, one that sounded very suspiciously like a whine. These were the boons of him being comfortable with you, Shinji, getting to hear all these Truly Difficult Hardships. Kai turned his head to look up at him, glitter sticking to his forehead and flaking off as his brows furrowed.

"Everything turns into glitter."

[hedgehogsdilemma]

What a high honor he's been granted...! He rubs a small circle on Kai's back as he looks up, trying to offer as much reassurance as he can in these clearly very mysterious yet dazzling circumstances.

"Everything?" You're going to have to elaborate on that at least a little, buddy. There sure is a lot of glitter here, but plenty of other things that aren't glitter as well.

[whenyouneedme]

There, with it's power so strong Shinji might have felt the rumbles through his back, was the terribly strong gurgle of Kai's stomach. Kai finally sat back up, making a pathetic gesture with his hands towards the glitterpocalypse.

"If I try to eat something, it turns into glitter. This was a sandwich?"

[hedgehogsdilemma]

"For real?"

Oh gosh. That's both totally ridiculous and absolutely no good. For all of the weird nonsense that Havenwell's thrown at the offworlders, very little of it has seemed actually dangerous. But if that's true, and all of Kai's meals are turning into glitter, of all things, that's. Uh. Pretty dangerous, actually??

He's got another hand, though, so maybe he can brush some of that glitter off your forehead, Kai.

"Okay, let's get you somewhere that we can try and figure this out."

I !!

[zapdope]

When Zenitsu heard of what Rawna rules over, he thought that if he were brought to this world earlier, he'd have picked the follow after this god. He wonders if being under Diacht was still suitable for him, but there was also another side of him where it felt it didn't matter which god he'd have chosen.

Anyways, with trying to adjust to his new life here at Havenwell, Zenitsu barely got a chance to meet Shinji's friend ever since he was told of him. So aside from taking interest in all the activities they had going on at all the temples, Zenitsu was a bit curious if he would be able to take this opportunity to meet a friend of his newly made friend. A friend of a kind-hearted friend wouldn't be so bad, right?

If he had Tanjiro's scent of smell, he'd probably be able to quickly pick up who Shinji was talking about, but alas he doesn't. Aside from being a kind person who looks rough, Zenitsu had no clue who he should be looking out for.

"...Maybe I should've asked him more in detail of how this guy looks like... Then again, it's definitely weird having some guy come up going 'Hi! Your friend was talking how nice you are so I wanted to meet you!' out of nowhere..."

He grumbles underneath his breath as he moves over to the craft table and sees Kai. Oh. That's some rough-looking guy.

Again, he's not Tanjiro, so instead of not knowing personal space and approach the other with a friendly smile and a hi, Zenitsu shrinks back a little, wary. Oh snap, did he hear what I was grumbling about?

[whenyouneedme]

Yep. That sure was a rough-looking punk ass sitting right there, bent over a few sheets of paper. Looked like he was really focused on his folds. Or, he had been. It seemed like now he was really focused on Zenitsu, gold eyes having raised to level a scrutinizing stare at the other boy.

... It'd been a minute since someone had backed off before he'd even said anything. It was weird to think he'd almost gotten used to that not happening. Huh!

"Looking for someone?"

Oh, yeah, he heard him.

[zapdope]

Zenitsu jumps for a second, almost wanting to immediately run away, a little too familiar with that look. But the moment the other opened his mouth to say something, he blinks at the sound he hears. This guy may look rough, but his sounds say otherwise, and that makes Zenitsu's scardy-cat nerves relax a little.

"Uhm..." Zenitsu starts, wondering how much of his dumbass mumbling was heard. "Do you happen to know Shinji-kun...?"

At times like this, Zenitsu wished he'd have the communication skills like his teacher, or even the friendly persona Tanjiro has.

[whenyouneedme]

"Oh," Kai said with unspoken understanding behind the syllable. This situation was very understandable, if they were talking about Shinji. Of course he had a friend that would talk about how nice Shinji was.

There was a slight shift in Kai's voice for super-hearing ears only, a softness indicating that maybe Kai would have done the same. "Shinji? Yeah, he'll probably be by later if you wanted to hang around."

Good job, Shinji! Expanding your social circle!

[zapdope]

And Zenitsu didn't miss the shift in the tone. He could tell that this guy cared for Shinji a lot when he spoke of him, even if it was for a brief moment. Ah, this must be the person Shinji was talking about.

"Actually..." Zenitsu responded, "I was wondering if you're Kaito-kun?"

There was no reason to doubt Shinji's words, but it really was super easy to find Kaito here.

[whenyouneedme]

H u h .

Kai blinked slowly, not understanding the focus shift to him now. The negative self-worth alarms were attempting to go off in his head, and Kai did his utmost best to defenestrate them by shifting his focus back to the paper he'd been folding into a small triangle.

"That's right."

[zapdope]

What is up with these kids and their self-depreciating thought process, including Zenitsu? Tanjiro probably would not have any of this. Zenitsu himself, on the other hand, picks up the confused reaction.

"Oh, sorry." He started, "I got to meet Shinji-kun when I first got here and he was very nice to me. When we were chatting he mentioned your name and said you're a really nice person, and I got curious."

Hopefully that was a good enough explanation. With the way Shinji spoke of Kaito, he cared a lot for him and Zenitsu felt like Shinji wanted Kaito to make more friends. Or maybe he was overthinking it? Maybe Tanjiro's habits were rubbing off on him a little more than he first thought.

"Uh... Sorry if I interrupted you..." With whatever he was doing. Zenitsu peered over to look closely at what Kaito was doing just before they started talking to each other. Crafting?