♥ 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.

---

❥ 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.

---

Comments

[scourgingstars]

Depends on who you ask.

[was....that a joke]

Somnus was more of a hunter, I always had a distaste for the work unless it was necessary to survive.

[promittere]

[Ardyn can't make jokes, that's illegal.]

Well, hunting is largely unnecessary in a place such as this - so I suppose that means you can have all the vegetables you want. [A beat.] Though, your ancestors don't seem to share your preferences.

[scourgingstars]

I suppose they've all gone and taken after him instead. Not that it matters--I don't even need to eat anything, so I'll not ask for any manner of accommodation on that front.

[promittere]

[Ignis gives him a Look.]

Whether or not you need to eat does not mean you're not allowed to have opinions on what you're eating. It's no trouble to accommodate you.

[So don't be a moron, geez.]

[scourgingstars]

It's fine, truly. I've no desire to bother with the action when it's utterly unnecessary.

[promittere]

Do you enjoy it?

[scourgingstars]

I doubt there to be much of anything I enjoy anymore.

[promittere]

You certainly seem to enjoy being contrary.

[scourgingstars]

I just...don't wish to trouble anyone. I shouldn't even be here, and if not for His Majesty's insistence I wouldn't be.

[promittere]

It's no trouble. Besides, you've as much rights to be here [to exist] as any of us.

[scourgingstars]

...I genuinely, sincerely doubt that. But it's kind of you to say.

[promittere]

[its ok 2 be wrong]

I do not say things without meaning them, Ardyn. Troublesome though our pasts may be, I mean this.

[scourgingstars]

[Ardyn didn't answer, silently working his way through cutting vegetables. When he did speak up again, it was in a quiet and tired voice.]

You've no reason to do this, you know. Any of you. We're all well aware I'm a monster, so what exactly does anyone stand to gain from pretending otherwise?

[promittere]

[Ignis lets the silence linger, turning to the stove to put a pan on the heat.

After a moment, he speaks up.]

I will not try to make claims you are not a monster, but from your point of view you've yet to become the man I know, haven't you? Why should I use my preconceptions against you, when there is a possibility you may yet change and become a different man entirely?

This world has thrown everything I know out the window. It has made impossibility my new reality, and yours.

[...]

Plus, cleaning blood out of carpet is a task I do not wish to undertake.

[scourgingstars]

[Ardyn let out a quiet laugh, tired and hollow.]

...The only person I would have sought vengeance upon died countless ages ago. My calling is to save lives, not take them--I don't wish to harm anyone. I merely fear my wishes may not factor into the situation.

[promittere]

Why wouldn't they?

[scourgingstars]

I barely understand what I am or how this inhuman form operates, so who exactly is to say I am no danger to anyone? Surely the plague incarnate is threat enough on its own.

[promittere]

You...are not something I quite understand, but you seem to be no harm except when you decide to cause harm.

I'm not sure that's any reassurance to you.

[scourgingstars]

It's alright. I don't understand myself very well, either.

[Another brief silence, as though Ardyn was debating how much he wanted to say or even if he could.]

I...killed the royal guards back on the island. I didn't-...want to, I was barely even conscious of what was going on. Neither of which absolves me of guilt or responsibility, though it is not something I would seek to do again.

But if I can awaken powers beyond my comprehension as if on mere instinct and lash out like no better than a cornered daemon, what else am I but a threat and a monster?