♥ September Intro Mingle Log

[hugtopiamods]

September Intro Mingle Log
Welcome to Hugtopia, and to the city of Havenwell. This mingle is meant for new arrivals to get settled and meet the other inhabitants. New characters should be the only top-levels but everyone should feel free to tag around and make new friends. Who knows, you may find that Perfect Hug in here. You can use the prompts here, or create a wildcard of your own.

ICly, this takes place from the 2nd to the 16th and then we'll have a shiny new event post up for you all soon after that date range. The prompts below are optional, but are a way to get you started if you wish. To help you create your own prompts, please take a look through our Settings and FAQ. 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.

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❥ PROMPT I: Awakening

When you awaken, you're in the last outfit you remember wearing, three of your belongings laid nearby or your animal friend curled up by you, waking as you do. It's not the most comfortable place to sleep, a stone slab, but once you're awake, a humanoid-looking robot comes in and explains you're in Havenwell and leads you out of the room and into the main portion of the temple where a welcoming committee of similarly humanoid-looking robots hand over a clear smartphone-sized tablet, some starting funds, and explain their dilemma. Then they release you into Havenwell to pick your new home from free housing in the city and give you the chance to settle. It might be a bit disorienting, but thankfully there seem to be a lot of robots and even some non-robots around. Maybe ask them for help?

❥ PROMPT II: Buddy System

With all the changes going on, it might be hard to be a new arrival to Havenwell. The natives understand! Sort of. When some new arrivals begin to appear at the temples, receive the welcome speech, get their communicators and the simple map of the city, they get taken to the front of the temple by a helpful robotic priest. Rather than turn the newcomers loose right away, they pull someone seemingly at random off the street and push the two people together with a cheerful, "Here's your guide to Havenwell! It's dangerous to go alone, so be buddies!" before going back inside.

They try to place a new arrival with one of those who previously arrived, but who can keep track of all that, right? Characters may find themselves thrown together with an actual veteran or with another new arrival who only came here a day or even just an hour before them! Good luck helping each other out, offworlders, and don't lose your buddy!

❥ PROMPT III: Weather Wildcard

Havenwell's weather is generally so well controlled, with beautiful blue skies and temperate climes that it's hard to remember that there's a whole world out there that might not be so nice. Every so often, however, the controls break and something not so nice and temperate comes through. Pockets of unpleasant weather happens all over the city at random intervals and new arrivals might find themselves and others caught without warning. Is that a snowstorm with green snow? Sure is. A windstorm that only seems to affect three streets? Yup. Did a deluge of rain just pour the equivalent of an Olympic sized swimming pool of water on you? Uh-huh, sure did. A deep cold fog that suddenly rolls in and blankets your entire area? Yeeaaah... hopefully there's someone around to help you get about and find shelter or just dry off and get away from it all. Good luck, offworlder.

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Comments

[pinkmin]

There is a distinct wiggle of her nose. It's not quite a wrinkle of dislike, but definitely a little twitch like she had to sneeze for a second there. It was just... too clean, almost, and not in the way the nurse's office did. That had more of that antiseptic dash that used to sting her nose a little before she had gotten used to it.

This had been a worry she had before they got there. The confirmation just made something lonely open up inside in ways she couldn't describe, as if she had lost the last friend she had. That was a bit dramatic, since there were probably still things to read, but it was... different.

"I had a feeling it might be like this," she mumbled at maximum quietude. "They would not have a whole building just to download things, would they?"

There were shelves? Why have shelves? Vianca steadfastly led them directly to some of these shelves to investigate the secret rectangles they held within.

[begguiling]

He follows her, latched loosely onto her arm and swiveling his head back and forth to look around. The atmosphere doesn't bother him. Magolor isn't a person who has a particular attachment to the physicality of books or the sanctity of the library. But he knows it's a thing, and it's clear to see it's a thing for her. His ears prick up to better hear her, but even if he hadn't been able to make out the words, the tone kind of says it all.

"They probably feel the same way you do about having a place to sit and enjoy it. Unless they're studying for their exams, right? Who wouldn't download in that instance?"

He waves his hand, trying to inject some levity; even though he keeps his voice down, it's still so bright compared to hers.

"But you'll find that the people of this world miss what people like us have. They put a lot of their resources into trying to recapture what they've lost. So, even if it's not entirely practical, it still has meaning for them to pretend."

[pinkmin]

There was another small pat of her hand over his, a small reassurance that she was listening. She was, but she wasn't quite there for the moment. She felt very far away, floating through an experience that wasn't hers. (But it was.)

There was a small group of robots quietly, animatedly discussing things they had read. Another was standing contemplatively at a terminal, maybe searching for something among available archives. There were tables to lay out materials, chairs to sit and get lost in stories in, big windows letting all that natural light come flowing in on a nice day like today. She could imagine that homey twinge of a glow of the late afternoon hours filtering in later. The shadows they would cast she couldn't place. They'd be strange and unfamiliar to her.

They slipped by a few aisles, an unprecedented amount of hestiance to her step before choosing one to venture down. It felt strange to feel lost. When was the last time she had ever felt lost in her library? She'd been so committed to learning where everything was, making sure everyone got back to their proper spot and didn't feel overlooked. They were always there for her, and it meant so much for her to make sure everything went smoothly.

When everyone had left, it was all she had. It was the one constant she could count on, in a place where everything changed all the time. It was home, and all she knew, and people important to her had trusted her with it. It was hers, until they came back. If she kept everything safe, if she stayed right there... They'd be able to find her, if they came looking. If they missed her as much as she missed them.

But they didn't. Even if they did... Her library was gone. She was gone. There was nothing to go back to, was there? They'd gotten crushed together.

At some point, Vianca had picked up one of the book tablets off the shelf. She dimly realized it was there in her hands, all light-weight and slick. Her fingertips brushed across the surface, feeling the disjointed sensation of what paper might have felt like in a memory. It was something she could adjust to easily enough, but it wasn't hers. It didn't react well when it was a little wet, and Vianca thought it was very odd that a place like this could let things get water droplets on them.

It was very odd that her eyes burned, even if she was just standing there extremely straight and nothing at all had happened. She didn't understand why she was shivering when she wasn't cold.

The sound of her whisper was barely there, not actually meant for anyone but herself at all. "All we do is pretend."

[begguiling]

Vianca beginning to cry feels very sudden—had it been? Is Magolor only bad at picking up on the signs before it all comes to a head? He knows he is. Watching a little human girl succumb to some emotion he has little context for feels, now, to him the same way these things usually do: like he's peeking into someone's house from outside, watching them, through a sheer curtain that separates him from truly understanding the details. . . . Once upon a time, that curtain may as well have been a blackout curtain, for all that he could see the intricacies of the feelings of others. These days it gets lighter and lighter. Maybe someday he'll be able to pull it aside, though he doesn't always like that thought very much when he has it.

Anyway. The awkwardness of seeing it settles uncomfortably in him. It's a little bit easier because he doesn't know her very well at all, and while he likes her so far, he feels no responsibility for her happiness. But even Magolor won't just sit there and let a girl cry without saying anything (though it's mildly tempting), or disappear into a dimensional portal and leave her there (even more tempting than the last, but he doesn't do it!). And as quiet as she is under the weight of those tears, he does make out those words too: all we do is pretend. Well. That's not untrue. There are definitely less on the nose things she could have chosen to say to Magolor of all people. He just might have an unusual perspective on the topic—and, now, he chooses to be honest about at least the basics of it.

He's already holding onto her, but after a few beats of watching her cry, he lifts one hand to pat her on the arm, firm and warm.

"Sure. But a lot of real things start out pretend. That little book club over there . . . they're probably talking about something pretend they read, but their feelings about it are real. They do pretend things every day. Petting animals, smelling the flowers in the garden, all of those things are what we'd call pretend if we had to do it the same way they do! But the difference between pretend and real isn't as much as you think. They're real people who really are happy, even if they got there by telling themselves a few lies first."

[pinkmin]

The touch jolted her, just a little, pulling her out of wherever it was she had been. Vianca looked down at him, her expression still so similar to the one she had been wearing during their more jovial conversations despite the tears that still quietly rolled down her cheeks.

She sniffled, which only made it sink in that she had been crying. Oh. Someone had seen. That wasn't supposed to happen at all! She had always been so careful, but... Vianca bit the inside of her lip, embarassed. She couldn't even wipe her face yet with her hands so full.

"What lies?" It came out a little thick, but it was a genuine question. It was all truly a very nice sentiment, but in this exact context it didn't make the most sense to her. "They know who they are. Is that still pretend?"

[begguiling]

They know who they are, huh? In that sense, maybe they're a little more real than Magolor is That's not something he'd ever cop to . . . though he can recognize the liiiiiiittle bit of projection he'd inserted into his own response to her sadness just then. Just a little.

But he smiles up at her with a more understated kind of sunniness.

"Nope, they're a hundred percent real! That's all I'm trying to say. When they first became what they are now, I'm sure they also felt like their experiences were lies. But those experiences make them who they are, and since they're real, all of it's real in the end."

[pinkmin]

That... didn't entirely make sense to her, but it wasn't because he had explained it badly or that she didn't believe it. They were very real! She just didn't think they would have thought of their experiences as anything close to false-- they'd made the choice for themselves. They'd wanted to be that way, didn't they?

Which was the thought that made everything start to unravel from what she knew, because she'd made that kind of choice too, hadn't she? Then again, the robots were essentially getting punished for their choices too, huh.

Setting the tablet back on the shelf, Vianca rubbed at her face with her other sleeve. Taking a deep breath, she nodded her head. She didn't get it, but it all sounded very nice.

"Thank you."

[begguiling]

"It's just the truth. That's why I'm with Diacht, after all!"

Saying something that pat and misleading—though it had been the truth, actually, all the way through—is easier than accepting thanks for something he'd had some feelings about himself. He doesn't reject them, but can't bring himself to take them without some derailing. Still. He pats her arm again, comforting, but also in that way that signals "you're better now, right, and have no more need for comfort."

Surely?

[pinkmin]

Unless.

Except no, it was surely actually alright. She'd already been offered more than Vianca would have asked for. For now it was enough to tap the cork back in and just forget that happened. That was much easier for everyone involved. She gave another quiet sniff, and returned the pat over his hand. She was okay.

"Then we both have good picks." She stood up a little straighter, giving a tiny nod. "I will read them all. I did not get to finish mine."