♥ 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

[scourgingstars]

...I suppose it would be an overwhelming list of things to consider, when you phrase it that way.

[He moved a bit closer, his shoulder just lightly brushing Emet's in a silent offer of support.]

But should you settle on a place to start, I will ever be glad to listen.

[unsunderworld]

[Perhaps unsurprisingly, he leans into Ardyn's shoulder, just enough to make it obvious.]

I will think on it, at the least.

... More and more I find I forget their names. How shameful.

[scourgingstars]

Such is the unfortunate truth of time’s passage. I have found I forget many things from my past, so intent I was on remembering one thing to the detriment of all else. I can scarcely imagine the difficulty for you.

[unsunderworld]

I've considered writing down a record, at various times, but when such records are less permanent than one's own self, it feels a bit pointless.

[Paper and stone wear away faster than does a soul.]

[scourgingstars]

Mm...true, but perhaps it would yet help put your thoughts in order. I find writing things out does quite a bit for that specific purpose.

[unsunderworld]

True. Though outside this enterprise, I've not seen nearly the quantity of paper it would require. I'm a bit old-fashioned that way, I suppose.

[That, and he sees no reason to commit his story to the natives of this world. It is for himself, and Era, and perhaps their friends here, should they wish it.]

[scourgingstars]

A terrible shame. I imagine it would require a good library's worth, after all.

[unsunderworld]

What I've forgotten would fill a library, to be sure. What I remember would perhaps be made to fit upon a floor-to-ceiling shelf.

[scourgingstars]

Better that than no shelf at all, even should it seem so little in comparison.

[unsunderworld]

True enough. But still rather more paper than we have to hand at the moment.

[scourgingstars]

An unfortunate truth, yes. Would that there were something I could do about that, but I fear I've naught of such use in the Armiger at the moment.

[unsunderworld]

Perhaps we ought to have toasted to the restoration of our full power in the new year.

[scourgingstars]

[He laughed quietly at that, a bit more tired than the usual sound. Which was already pretty damn tired.]

Perhaps so, though I doubt it would have helped.

[unsunderworld]

What's one more impossible dream to dream?

[His cavalier statement is belied by the way he looks at the paper city.]

[scourgingstars]

The occasional impossible dream isn't all that bad.

[A light nudge to his shoulder; either playful or grounding.]

Too much realism to one's life tends to be a detriment. [somnus,]

[unsunderworld]

[He hears the name even if you didn't say it.]

True enough. Though I should hope even my realism is more expressive than some.

[Don't mind him reaching past you for a curve-drawing tool, Ardyn. Long arms long.]

[scourgingstars]

Indeed. You are no doubt a myriad of things, but none of them 'boring'.

[unsunderworld]

The highest compliment you could possibly pay me.

[A pause, in which he draws some few more lines.]

Most all in Amaurot wore the black robes that you are familiar with, from the memory of that day, along with masks. The thought was that it was not our bodies that truly represented ourselves - such was the school of thought professed by the Emet-Selch who preceded my ascent to the post, who was among the few in the city's history more gifted in the Sight than I. For what does the flesh truly matter, in the face of the soul, which never falters or flickers even when the body is turned to so much dust?

[scourgingstars]

...I don't quite understand. Even as true as such a perspective may be, does it not also hold true that even souls themselves carry differences in appearance? Especially for a people so possessed with the power to create what they imagine as they choose, why not embrace the unique rather than present so uniformly?

[unsunderworld]

It was out of recognition that the soul was what truly distinguished people; the body was a source of commonality, rather than separateness, and so in public spaces, all were attired the same, save some variations in masks. Most were white; the Convocation of Fourteen wore red, for easy recognition, and the design of those masks was passed down along with the title - Emet-Selch, Lahabrea, and so forth.

In private, of course, it was a different story, and many dressed quite flamboyantly in the privacy of their own homes. But it was a faux pas in public, at best, because it indicated a separation between oneself and others, and could be taken as a sign of selfishness or lack of empathy.

[In other words, Amaurot was a highly collectivist society, perhaps unsettlingly so to those who are not its natives.]

[scourgingstars]

...Hm.

[It was definitely unsettling in a way he couldn't quite put voice to. Not that he would have voiced it, out of respect for Hades and Amaurot both. Besides, he'd long since accepted such things were beyond his full understanding; that they lived starkly different lives by virtue of their very worlds, and that some things may have been beyond either's reach.]

I suppose I can see the thread of logic to that, at least.

[unsunderworld]

[Sometimes you just have to admit that you don't get it.]

The one exception to the rule was Emissaries, both to and from other cities, who by tradition wear white. One might on occasion see other foreign visitors n other attire in the streets, or children.

Our Emissary, Elidibus - that is another title, not his true name - is now the last of us standing.

[scourgingstars]

In that case, it would make sense to stand out somewhat. [Identifying a messenger on sight was usually a useful thing.]

...Would you tell me about him?

[unsunderworld]

He's terribly fussy. More concerned with maintaining the natural balance of the world than with Zodiark's direct restoration, much of the time - not that that is a particular flaw, mind you. His is the seat which oversees the big picture, and he is slow to act unless his hand is forced.

[Which it has been of late, thanks to Era and the Scions. An unfortunate reality for Zodiark's servants, but not one he can exactly do anything about.]

As a result of his role and choice to safeguard balance above all else, he tends to be rather aloof even to us, and his expressions of emotion are subtle especially in comparison to mine or Lahabrea's. He prefers to work through agents from on-high, but one can always be assured that those he chooses to speak to directly are significant and worth keeping one's eyes on.

[scourgingstars]

Something of the overly professional sort, is he?

[Ardyn tilted his head in interest, encouraging Hades to continue if he so chose.]