hugtopia_logs | ♥ May (Ealom) Event Log

♥ May (Ealom) Event Log

May (Ealom) Event Log
Ainea's power begins to wane as the last of her months begins, but that doesn't mean it's completely gone yet! With all the effort everyone has put in to clearing and reclaiming the new parts of the city, Ainea and the rest of the gods want to show you the fruits of your labors. A fragrant and gentle breeze springs up through the city, winding through its streets. It's strongest near Ainea's temple, but the power seems to flow from the entire city as it sweeps outward through the new areas. As soon as the wind reaches the outskirts of Old Havenwell, it becomes visible - a shimmering semi-opaque swirl of mixed colors that curls along the ruins and streets. Wherever it goes, greenery and life follows, the atmosphere lifting and the city gleaming in its wake. Small, tentative flowers bloom along the path of the wind until it brunts up against the barrier wall, bursting into a shower of sparkles.

Congratulations, Havenwellians and off-worlders alike! You've cleansed the city!

❥ PROMPT I: It's All About the May-bies

an elderly woman looks into a mirror at her younger self

That beautiful breeze brings with it a strange magic as well. When it sweeps through the city, it touches everyone - flesh or metal-bodied alike - giving people a contented, youthful feeling. That feeling eventually subsides, but in its place is a little bit of magic gone haywire. Throughout the month, characters can experience a little bit of rejuvenation themselves as they suddenly find themselves de-aging abruptly. Whether they retain their memories of their adult lives or revert entirely to their previous selves at that age is up to player discretion. Curiously, no one becomes so young that they would be considered younger than a 6 year old human for their species. Characters can either know where they are in Havenwell or be completely surprised by this strange city full of robots and have no idea what they're supposed to do! Returning to their original age is quite simple though - they can either wait until the power snaps them back, or take the initiative and hug it out to see if it helps (it does, surprise!). If characters wait, they might find that it takes a while before the magic can remember what age they were supposed to be. You might snap from 17 to 29, then back to 12 and suddenly to 59 until you finally settle at your regular age.

Not everyone is affected alike, however. Some may find that they never age one way or another, and some may find they age up instead of down. For those who age up, only their physical appearance is affected and they will not gain canon knowledge of their futures. Sure might feel weird for that 12 year old to suddenly become a 25 year old though! But at least you got to skip the horror of puberty. To return to their original age, they just have to do the same as the others - wait until the power snaps them back (hopefully to the right age) or go find someone to hug these growing pains out with.

Please note, for this prompt you are welcome to use journals other than the ones currently registered to the comms, HOWEVER we ask that you post the journal names you intend to use to the Alternate Account thread on the plotting post. This is so we can more easily track comments for AC and AC Rewards at the end of the month. Thanks in advance!

❥ PROMPT II: There Must be Something in the Air

It appears that the offworlders aren't the only ones affected by the sudden influx of youthfulness. During the month, the city council puts out a call for help from those who are able to give it. The Havenwell Zoo and Animal Conservatory has had an unexpected surge of new baby animals born at the beginning of the month. There's so many that they can't keep them all at the zoo's nursery so they need your help! Characters can volunteer and arrive at the zoo to pick up a cuddly baby to take home with them to keep for the remainder of the month. They will be required to give it back once Ealom ends, however, since the natives will (hopefully) be finished with their new habitat expansions by then. As with any baby, characters will need to keep their little fluffy one close and tend to its needs - which may include having two parents. You and a friend (or frenemy, we aren't judging) will need to help this little one grow up enough that it can return to its conservatory home! The zoo will provide the basics that you'll need to keep these babies alive and well. The animals available are:

Clackoos: These rainbow colored chicks resemble chickens, except that the babies are almost a foot tall and when they "chirp" it sounds more like the clacking of wood. They're mostly flightless, but they do enjoy trying to fly and can get a few feet off the ground or glide when they get older. At this stage, they're testing their wings out and are more likely to fall off of high places and bump into people and walls in a manner more akin to flailing falling than actual flight. Keep them warm at night and make sure they eat a variety of seeds, simulated insect mealworms, or fruits.
Sinory Lizard: These feathery lizards look a little like a cross between an iguana and a komodo dragon, being almost 2 feet in length from snout to the tip of their tail. They come in a variety of colors like striped blue and green, yellow and pink, silver and black, etc. They're most notable for the downy feathers on their legs and along their backs. They make a rumbling sound if you pet the down on their back. These lizards are known for their sluggish nature when it's anything less than hot hot hot, so they tend to slither away quickly to seek sources of heat like sunny spots, people, or stoves. You might want to keep them away from stoves. They enjoy eating the simulated meats or kibble provided by the zookeepers, but will also steal whatever food is on the table if it's not guarded.
Lohpeh: This large pink creature resembles a rabbit with long thin ears and powerful hind legs, except that it also sports brown antlers that sprout light blue leaves and pretty yellow flowers. They're about half a foot tall not including the antlers and pink like bubblegum. They eat mostly grasses and vegetables, and will happily munch on anything that even slightly resembles their preferred food - so hair, clothing, anything flowing. Their teeth are pretty sharp though, so be careful of the accidental nip here and there. They don't like to be alone, so they'll follow the largest group of people they can find, chasing after them to rub their antlers against their legs. Apparently it's to mark them as family.
Nirofu: A small black and white giraffe-like creature with gangly legs, a long neck and two little stubs on the top of their heads that look like they're meant to grow into something much longer. As a baby, the creature is extremely awkward looking as it's trying to grow into its long limbs and neck and they vary in height from runts who are barely over 2 feet tall to ones that are nearly 4 foot in height. They like to swing their heads and bash them into things as a form of play and once they start running, it's hard to get them to stop. They're extremely playful, but the zookeepers still haven't pinned down exactly what they like to eat. Feed them a variety of raw foods from meat to vegetables and these nirofu seem to gobble everything down.

Please choose only one animal to foster!

❥ PROMPT III: A Bigger, Better Nursery

a zoo enclosure with greenery decorating it, and an elephant in the center

Remember when the city council said they'd be expanding the zoo? Well, they're going to need all the hands they can get and have asked people willing to help to do so. This job will be paid, of course, with a healthy dose of Dora into your accounts if you don't mind a little bit (or a lot of) physical labor. The habitats for the creatures in the zoo need to be expanded, new paddocks built and populated with vegetation, water, and play areas. The simulated vegetation like trees, grass that feels real but is very much fake, simulated moss and bushes need to be arranged and planted. Water areas need to be cleaned and then filled. The fake wood play areas with ropes and ladders, slides and swings need to be assembled and secured within the enclosures. There's no lack of things to do! For the more construction minded, they can help pour foundations and lay the mortar and stone for building walls in the new enclosures, or help add the glass or build fences to separate the soon-to-be curious zoo-goers from the animals that need protecting. Grab a friend, roll up your sleeves, get to work and earn some Dora!

❥ PROMPT IV: I Can Show You the City

With all the hustle of last month, the VR cafes were rather sparse and this month the owners of those cafes want to make up for the lost time and profit! This month they're offering a new experience that any and all may enjoy. The cafes' decor have been updated to be painted a light sky blue inside with soft diffuse light that resembles sunlight. On the ceilings and walls are holoprojections of very realistic clouds that slide along like they do outside. Hook up into the VR sets and join others in an extremely realistic and detailed flying tour of Havenwell.

Ever wonder what the city looked like from above? Well, wonder no longer! Once you're loaded up in the game, you'll find yourself floating gently in the sky high above the city. There are others here, too, holding hands or linking arms as they zip about, free as birds. You, however? Well...you can't do much more than float or sink closer to the ground! It seems you need to find a partner and keep in contact with them in order to control your flight, so you better hurry before you end up on the ground like some regular ol' walking Joe. Thankfully, everyone is being loaded into the same game experience, so it shouldn't be hard to find a partner!

If you want a little excitement in your game, feel free to load the "Balloon Challenge" mini-game and compete against other teams to catch the most balloons. Once the game starts, you have 2 minutes to maneuver with your partner to fly through virtual obstacles and collect brightly colored balloons. Catch them by the string and hold on because the more balloons you and your partner collect, the higher your score. If you're crowned that Balloon Challenge champion by beating out all the other teams, you can collect a little balloon of your own when you leave the VR cafe. The balloon floats happily along on a little string and never loses its air, no matter how long you keep it.

This event will run from May 14th to 31st. 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.

Flat | Top-Level Comments Only

[ Physically, she's there. Pyra reforms, takes hold of her hand, calls out her name, but... she doesn't respond, she cannot meet her gaze or even see what's in front of her. The crystal might be gone, visions passed, but mentally she hardly seems to be there, her free hand pressing up against her chest, heart and mind still... weighing all of this.

Perhaps some time ago in that now faraway place she had been far better at compartmentalizing information like this, no matter how painful or unreal it was. Information was meant to be discovered, taken in, broken down, understood, but here the gap between who she was and what she had seen, no bridge could cover that expanse. Processing could not be done in the way it usually had been before. She was... different.

But here... to take in such information, to accept it for what it was and then to even... reconcile all of that with who she was now, that was another matter entirely. ]

[ In response to her name being called, Honerva doesn't respond. This--... is okay, as much as it can be, Pyra determines. Honerva doesn't need to speak, not right away.

But she will be the one to attempt to support her (an assumption on her part, that she is wanted in this moment, or needed).

Pyra's hand goes to Honerva's shoulder, and she slowly applies pressure and guidance to bring her back to the couch to sit, if she can do so. ]

[ She may be stiff at first at Pyra's touch and encouragement to move, but eventually she allows herself to be guided toward the couch, absently lingering within this twilight feeling between vision and present. It is difficult to feel present in mind. The energy, the perfection, the sense of it all, wasn't truly real either, and something gnaws within her at the lack, the familiar drain of that depletion.

It's... complex.

But for the following moments she still doesn't have it within her to speak, though she exhales softly once they are settled on the couch, shivering and drawn. It seemed almost impossible to put to words... any of what had just taken place. To grasp that she was at least not alone in this moment. Focus. Focus.

The present was... important. The events in this vision had not come to pass for her. It should not be a certainty. But it hurts, all the same, invasive and twisted for all it wants to take away. For all that it already had, barbs of truth that were waiting to be caught on. ]

[ Upon the couch, Pyra keeps her arm upon her shoulder as Honerva withdraws into herself.

At length, she exhales, not knowing where to begin but this: ]

Honerva.... I'm... so sorry you had to see that.

[ Honerva exhales softly again, blinks as she struggles to acknowledge the present. It is hard to get back to where they had just been before this, difficult to navigate that twilight state but Pyra was... here, now. She hadn't gone. She'd... seen?

There is but one small fact worth honing in on, no matter how much she's withdrawn on herself, the barest of whispers after several more moments of this pass. ]

... it is not... the present.

[ Not that it can take the edge away from the hurt and... anything else. ]

[ Indeed, it isn't, but the future awaits, and now it looms over her. How can it not? Pyra may not understand everything of what she had seen, but the vision of seeing one's own son strewn within a pilot's seat, sapped of life, will not be easy to forget. Honerva conceals much, but Pyra refuses to believe she is so hardened for it not to effect her.

For Pyra, the image of Honerva standing there after the visions had passes, hand going to her heart as if to quell it, bone-silent, will not fade from her memory, either.

Just as it is okay to mourn for the past, it is fine to mourn for what is to come. She believes that. ] What will you do?

... do?

[ Her brow creases. The more aware she becomes the less she understands. She was just barely keeping her head above water, that deep ocean of pain, struggling to find root in the present, only to be thrown such a question. ]

... What... are you asking of me?

[ She stumbles over her words, uncertain, unsure, worried. ] Do you need... space?

... Space? I ...

[ Pyra's so hesitant, but it's still not easy to grasp what she's saying, or trying to offer. What could she possibly need in this moment? It was almost too much to ask, for all else she was trying not to listen to --

He is dead, he will die and what will you do? Sit there? Let it happen? Murdered and you would allow this, after all the ways you continue to fail him?

She presses her palms to her forehead, fingers curled in tight, muttering to herself. ]

-- Stop it. Stop it.

[ ..."Stop"?

Her eyes widen, but searching Honerva's expression tells her nothing. ]

H-Honerva... What's wrong?

[ What's wrong-- she cringes just after she says it, knowing that just about anything might be wrong. ] Speak. It's... okay. I'm here.

[ Honerva draws a sharp breath, for a few moments, quiet as she tries to recognize Pyra's presence outside of herself. It's too much, this onslaught, the demands of thousands of years of darkness that had ever thrived on her spirit. She's in pain, her instinct always to lock it up so deep that she can function, but those visions had stirred up much. Too much.

It's that I'm here that finally breaks through. ]

... it's too loud. I can't hear you.

[ What is too loud? A voice in her head, perhaps? Anxiety, dread, despair regarding the future? Or, energy-sensitive as she is, does Honerva mean her energy, the light of the crystal. Is it something else?

She doesn't know. Does she need to know? Perhaps not, not if Honerva might not be able to hear everything Pyra asks. And so she limits what she says: ]

--What is it saying?

[ Lup always tells her not to listen, but she's not here to urge her to do otherwise. Honerva struggles to hear Pyra, but because she speaks less, less of what she says goes through. ]

... That I should take your power. And prevent this.

[ Still there within reach, she could still sense it. Had glimpsed all she might do with such power of her own, waiting for her along with this despair. ]

[ Honerva... is not the first to have touched the very essence of her being. There have been others who have been able to glimpse into their futures-- all of them have shown something terrible, if not outright heartbreaking. None-- to her knowledge-- have realized that with what they have just come in contact is the very same entity, power, existence that could alter those terrible absolute fates.

That she's discovered this should come as no surprise, as Honerva has always been sensitive to energy.

And Pyra... understands. She understands that Honerva's suffering is very real, that she wants nothing but to change it. That she feels loss and dread, that instead of becoming what she sees of herself-- or of others, her son-- she can claim this, and put a right to it all. Anyone would want that. Anyone would want to fight for a better future for themselves. She understands, and as for Honerva... the woman's happiness is worth fighting for, each and every day, side by side with her family. ]

...You want to be happy.

[ She's not offended. She's not fearful. However, her touch does slacken upon her shoulder. ] You want to save your son.

[ She's quiet for a long moment, straining to listen for Pyra's voice, only catching a few words, then exhales harshly at the truth of it. There is much to be said for the fact that they are speaking. There was a time where she would not state such intention, only act upon them. What need would she have had of outside voices before? For the longest time the Emperor had been that outside voice, and little good all that had done, for all his enabling of her.

But she knew now they were what mattered, so she could not give in to these racing whispers, no matter the intention, no matter how capable she would be with it.

The best of her husband's intentions had led them all to this as it was. This fractured family, the entire ill fated universe, built upon pain. That her child should have lived and then died in such a way... ]

... In my point of time, I had not yet made that connection. That he... is who he is to me.

[ Her son. That had been on the Fleet, a universe away. But here, in this vision, she had clearly made the connection at some point... all too late, it would seem. ]

[ Would it have been worse or better, Pyra wonders, if the time the visions had shown were of the past. That instead of a mangled body, it would be of her son as a youth, smiling, playing, piloting his first mecha.

Pyra has no children. She does not even view either the Artifices or the Titans as her own. But she had traveled with two in her past, and she recalls their smiles.

Honerva had been robbed of that opportunity from the beginning. ] ....And... you love him still...?

Far more than I could ever express.

[ Far more than he would ever know or accept. Talking about him is like a knife in the heart, but it keeps her attention, barely, as much as she remains closed in herself. ]

... He hates me, of course. He has never known me as his mother and I had lost myself before he was born and his father... hated him for that. We... were on that Fleet together, but by the time I was able to realize, he... refused me. And then he'd vanished away.

Honerva...

[ Her vision blurs as her eyes mist.

"By the time I was able to realize.... he'd vanished away."

She cannot know what it means to be a mother and losing someone in that way, but she knows what it means to lose another, too little, too late, with so much left unsaid and regrets like spears. But in light of all that Honerva has been through, the grief Honerva must feel-- of being ignorant, not realizing the truth, then having it revealed-- must be insurmountable.

Pyra lowers her head to the other's shoulder. ] I'm... sorry. [ For what she's gone through. For her loss. For her son. For her. ] I'm sorry. [ She repeats, this time it's for that vision, tallying it up with those who cannot fathom the future or its crushing inevitability.

Had Honerva known her son better, Pyra would have asked about him. Any fond memories, any precious moments-- perhaps, something like a eulogy, some way to grieve for what has been lost. But she does not have any. ]

...What was his name?

[ ... Was? No. She makes a sound, soft, almost choked.

For all that she had seen, for all that may lie ahead on such a path and even not knowing if she could, change this, in some significant way, though he'd never want for her help. Whatever would lead him to that future...

It was not yet experienced, though it would haunt her still. ]

... is. His name is Lotor.

[ --An error on her part, she realizes too late. ] Is. [ She parrots, softly, shoulders rising, falling in silence.

She's at a loss. ]

Honerva... that... you saw this. I wish I could take it back.

... it was not your intention that this occurred.

[ Not that it made it hurt any less. But such regrets were empty. She has seen it, and now she must find a way to deal with it.

If that were even possible. There's simply so much. She can't even unpack all of it. All she can do is continue to sit there with Pyra's head on her shoulder, struggle through the loudness of her whispers, still ever demanding, her head pounding as she mutters to herself, this new layer of disarray delivered onto her already complicated life. Her breath hitches but she catches herself, trying to channel her pain into focus, into purpose as she always does, but her tone belies the desperation in it all. ]

... I need to know more. Why this happens. How I can prevent it, if staying away from that universe can do so much.

[ --There it is. Another one who wishes to change the future.

But Honerva hearing Pyra's thoughts on that is not what she needs right now. She still focuses too much on that future. ]

Honerva... may I see the palm of your hand?

[ There is no good reason for this future. There is only unhappiness there. Honerva had been seeking her happiness somewhere else, but now she must be faced with this awful reminder of what would happen were she forcibly sent back to that universe.

She isn't prepared to grieve. She knows she's not strong enough to bear the weight of this.

See... your hand...

Pyra's words only barely get through as she blinks. Her hands are still folded so tightly at her chest that she can hardly think to pry them away, but it is such a gentle command that one of them slowly falls free; it's up to Pyra to take it. ]

[ Pyra catches Honerva's hand as it falls free, cupping it beneath with the both of her own and gently spreading out her palm.

She knows better than to dare explain how dangerous it is to harbor the hubris of changing the future without foresight. Pyra also knows she is a hypocrite, a terrible friend, for telling Honerva that her happiness is worth having, all the while believing that she mustn't change that miserable future (and that, unless Honerva seizes her power, she won't be helping her). She... wants better for Honerva. She truly does. But wanting something and acting upon that want is something she must never cross, not in this case. So, too, does she find herself unable to encourage a false hope within Honerva, should her declared wish for change ultimately fail... and she fall further into despair.

So, she can only focus on what is before them. ]

In my world... some say one can read the future by looking upon the lines of a palm.

[ Charlatans, soothsayers, hedgewitches, and more: both people and practices would claim to predict the future, when in reality it was always beyond them. Her gaze drops from Honerva's eyes to her hand in hers.

She does not see the future within her hands. But she does see remnants of the past, she does see the present. ]

What do you see?

[ Honerva knew, she had experienced proof of there being multiple realities, even within that vision, but it was difficult to reconcile such a thought with the sheer dissonance in her mind right now; that horrible future, this fate for her child that she could never truly know. And who knew what more she might be driven to do, with such power at her hands and that despair.

Pyra keeps speaking though, or trying to. Read, lines, she wants her to look. Look for something? Her gaze shifts to their hands as well, but this was not a practice with which she was familiar, diviner though she may be, she read quintessence, not palms. ]

... my hand is in yours.

[ There is no whimsy here. It's too much to even remain present, though perhaps present enough to take in that fact, that she is... still sitting with someone. She was not here... alone. ]

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