♥ 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

[whenyouneedme]

Got 'em.

Kai grinned a bit, softer around the edges. "Good." It was a fine time to get that established, since they'd probably gotten through a good portion of that omurice. Nom.

[hedgehogsdilemma]

Well done sabotaging that plan, Kai.

His own expression softens in turn, it's hard to stay even slightly upset with that look turned his way. They can make some time for it later, and the glitter won't be ruining anything in the meantime. It can be a break for both of them, easy.

Most of it's gone, but there's still some left! If either of them want to relax, better get the rest of this food eaten!

[whenyouneedme]

The conversation, in addition to the food being in Shinji's control, were probably the best things for Kai's tummy. Both meant he wasn't wolfing it down too fast and dooming himself to a horrible, upset period of forced rest. He was still able to have a choice in the matter! How exciting.

And now that they had established that Shinji wasn't going to leave OR leave Kai to his own devices while he did Domestic Housework, resting... maybe seemed a little more appealing.

Let's just quietly finish up that plate then.

[hedgehogsdilemma]

Shinji knew better than to let that food get wolfed down! Even if he hadn't needed to stay in control, he would have at least made sure Kai paced himself, but the outcome they arrived at is a good one for sure.

Once those last few bites of omelette are safely delivered to their destination with no more glitter mishaps, Shinji sits back a little in his chair.

"So, how are you feeling now?"

Better? Still a bit hungry? Does he need anything else?

[whenyouneedme]

Kai hmmm'd, leaning on his hand and shutting his eyes. Some assessment needed to be done here on the issue of 'feeling better?' "I think it's a bit better."

Maybe a little hungry still though. But maybe also a fine line away from tipping into nauseous territory. Hm. Kai's brows furrowed a little at that, and he looked back at Shinji. "Should probably let it settle before I try much else, I guess. Supposedly."

[hedgehogsdilemma]

Good job listening to what your stomach is saying! That's about what Shinji expected, but it's nice to hear it from them person involved.

"That's probably a good idea, then."

He offers a gentle pat to Kai's wrist along with his approval. Let's get you some relaxation going, friend.

[whenyouneedme]

There was a big old heave of a sigh. It was very dramatic. "I guesss," Kai said, very totally not whining about it. Definitely wasn't pouting either.

What he was doing was rolling his wrist a bit so he could catch Shinji's hand, lightly grasping it as he heaved out of his chair so there was no escape. Not that he thought Shinji was going to wiggle his way out of cozy time. It was just a little easier to roll with when he was heading towards the couch with a friend in tow.

[hedgehogsdilemma]

How awful for you to have to go through this, Kai, and just terrible of Shinji to enforce a take-care-of-yourself-break. Truly the only punishment fit for this crime is, in fact:

n o e s c a p e

So, up we go! He even offers Kai's hand a tiny squeeze, as if to assure him that he won't be going anywhere besides following Kai's lead. He can put the dishes and sparkly disaster out of mind for now, there is definitely something appealing enough about cozy time with Kai to not stress about what a huge mess there is waiting to be taken care of. No, instead we focus on digesting that meal and keeping each other company. That should be nice and easy.

[whenyouneedme]

So easy. All it took was the short trek over to the living area, and Kai was flopping himself down on the couch. Seeing as Shinji had graciously agreed to his punishments, that meant he was getting tugged down right along with him.

Down we goooo.

[hedgehogsdilemma]

"Ah-!"

down

we go


Okay, okay, he did set himself up for this kind of inevitability, so just give him a moment to get comfortable!!

[whenyouneedme]

You do that. He's gotta do that too, so here's a whole bunch of

wiggling

... And we're good! A comfortable pile. Kai made a content sound, leaning his head back against the couch. "Good?"

[hedgehogsdilemma]

A nice, cozy, comfortable pile, on this nice, cozy, comfortable couch. Really, with the comfortable-horizontal-surfaces situation over at his house being the way it currently is (bad), hanging out here for a while sounds extra appealing, but he'd still be willing to bet a good chunk of that appeal comes from the company the couch brings with it.

"Mmm, yeah." Just a little more wiggling, and Shinji finds himself a satisfactory position to sink into. Yeah, there we go. "Good."

[whenyouneedme]

The appeal certainly isn't coming from anything else in the house, that was for sure. There still weren't that many fun options for hanging around otherwise, so it was nice that there was any implication that Shinji wanted to hang out there. Baffling, but nice.

"Good."

Having found the best configuration for laying around, Kai went ahead and draped an arm over him. It was the ultimate in lazy protection against absolutely nothing. It was time to bask. Also, to ponder.

"Mm, hey. Was there a reason you wanted to come over tonight?" Not that Shinji ever needed one. He just usually did.

[hedgehogsdilemma]

He knows he doesn't ever really need a reason, but having one for a cover always makes asking feel more reasonable. If it's something outside of simply wanting the company, or assuming Kai might want company, there's less of a chance of feeling like he's imposing for no reason, despite however many assurances he may have already gotten contrary to that worry. So, in a way... thank you, mysterious bed-shrinking-affliction?

"Hmm," he reaches up to gently rest a hand on that arm, an appreciative gesture for that extra degree of protection. "Couldn't fall asleep last night, and it always feels easier here."

Which are two totally true statements! Wow!

[whenyouneedme]

Kai shifted his head a little, quietly watching Shinji for a moment. Always easier here, huh? Kai couldn't say he knew why that was because that would be assuming a lot, but it was a good thing to hear regardless.

"That so," he murmured thoughtfully, a lazy hint of a smile on his face. "I'm glad."

That's what he wanted this to be, wasn't it? To be a nice respite and all that. Though it was maybe sort of tickling a thought in his head. If it felt easier to fall asleep here, why not... stay? The fact that the idea had even floated to the surface caught Kai a little bit by surprise and he. Well. He didn't know what to do with that.

"We'll get you some good rest later then."

[hedgehogsdilemma]

Maybe it's the company? Or maybe it's the bigger bed? Literally who could say? Probably a mystery to be left unsolved.

It's good, though, that he has this option to turn to. If Kai hadn't made it nice and clear that he's always available as a place to crash whenever it was needed, Shinji would probably... well, probably just keep suffering through Havenwell's mysterious hijinks on his own. Truly, there's no one else he'd be able to comfortably go to for this kind of help. Even if it's just a temporary stay, the depth of his gratitude for it is deep.

The thought crosses his mind, and he holds Kai's arm a fraction closer to himself as it does.

"We can call it even for the meal and whatever cleanup there is later, then."

That sounds like a good trade-off to him.

[whenyouneedme]

Very ideal.

Kai's smile curved a touch more, his eyes soft. The thought was still there, but it wasn't one he was going to act on just yet. It was a quiet one at best, no where near the amount of simmering it needed to bubble on out without a second thought just yet.

"I can agree to those terms," Kai said with a soft chuckle.

[hedgehogsdilemma]

When faced with such a soft expression from Kai, how can Shinji not return it? Kai gets a front row seat to one of those small, gentle smiles for his efforts.

"All right, it's a deal." What a good agreement they've arranged, definitely worth looking forward to.

[whenyouneedme]

Oh, another one to add to Kai's collection of thoughts. There'd been a lot more of those lately, huh? 'A lot' was probably the wrong amount, but there were definitely more than when he'd first started to sneak himself in Shinji's days. Kai was glad that he'd gotten settled down or gotten comfortable enough or... whatever it was that let Shinji smile more like this.

Yeah. Definitely worth looking forward to.

"Heh. Good doin' business with you."

[hedgehogsdilemma]

After sitting so steady at '0' for so long, any number is 'a lot' in comparison. Either way, it's nice to feel open enough with someone to relax and unwind as much as Kai allows for.

Very comfortable to be around, for certain.

"Still..." expression falling back into something a bit more contemplative, he shoots a brief look back in the direction of the kitchen. "I wonder why all of that even happened in the first place."

There are always strange happenings in Havenwell, but glitter food strikes him as extra weird.

[whenyouneedme]

"Who knows," Kai grumbled softly. It didn't seem like it was anything as potentially universal as the gravity pockets seemed to be. Though even if this was an affliction that affected the natives too, it wasn't like they'd even notice.

"Seems like a luck of the draw."

[hedgehogsdilemma]

"Pretty lousy luck," he says, mildly indignant on Kai's behalf. He doesn't deserve that at all! But, now he's wondering if his particular problem is the same - just some randomly bad luck? It isn't like either issue seems like it would be related to the other at first glance, and maybe they really aren't, but. Hm.

"Well, I hope it doesn't happen again, but if it does, you know you can ask for my help again, right?"

[whenyouneedme]

Surprise, boys, the answer was right in front of you. Probably in your pockets.

Kai had lifted that protective arm as if to go in for that playful hair ruffle of lore again. Except then he seemed to reconsider the move, simply resting his palm just there on Shinji's head.

"... Yeah. I do. I will if it gets bad."

[hedgehogsdilemma]

Will they figure it out? They're already awfully close to the solution, but who can say if they'll manage take those last steps in the right direction!

Ah! He braces for that ruffle, but is surprised in a different way when a less playful route is taken. This is fine, though, and he relaxes a few degrees as that hand comes to rest on his head. Nice... this is Nice.

"Good." If it's something this simple, there's no reason even he can't be counted on. It's probably easier than waiting for a stranger to notice and help, he figures, and a much nicer alternative to letting yourself starve. Gotta keep trading those goodsleeps for goodmeals...!

[whenyouneedme]

What an extremely easy trade. It almost felt like cheating. Surely there should have been more Kai was bringing to the table. This was going to have to do for now.

Which was maybe fine, because this was certainly satisfying in its own way. It was warm, Shinji was soft, and the food was settling in and leaving him more or less content for now. Far more appealing than catching scraps from a stranger.

"Lemme know if things go weird so I can return the favor, yeah?"