♥ 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

all the rains

[carbungle]

[Noctis glances over at the very quiet (and a little familiar) voice, in the middle of shrugging off his jacket to start wringing it out.]

Oh, hey. You got caught in it too, huh?

[pinkmin]

[Moving in a bit closer to the Dry Zone, Vianca nodded.]

It was very sudden.

[A clothes wringing party is probably a good idea. She looked thoughtfully down at her layers for a moment, frowning a little. Time to wiggle out of this sweater vest at the very least.]

[carbungle]

No kidding. So much for the nice day.

[With how sudden it had come, it doesn't appear to be going anywhere, which is just as weird as its abruptness. Whatever, though... it just means they're stuck for a while.

He reaches up and tugs loose a chunk of the display under the awning, a portion that had been damaged by an arc of lightning just before he'd taken cover. Making a little pile in the center, he deposits his fireball to let it catch and burn independently, then sits cross-legged in front of it. He gestures towards it- and to the empty space next to him.]

C'mon, may as well dry off while we wait.

[pinkmin]

[She'd been so pre-occupied with the hassle of wiggling out of a wet sweater that she almost missed it. Almost. The movement of light caught her eye, and they went round at the sight. So casual! As if that was a normal thing he'd just did!

Vianca hovered around for a moment, hugging her sweater to her chest, but it didn't take long for her to take a seat next to him.]

You can do magic?

[carbungle]

Ah... a little bit. I'm not that good at it.

[He holds a hand out, palm upturned; with the storm there's a bit of electric energy in the air, so he uses it to help call up a few sparks that dance awkwardly around his fingers. He releases it after a moment, drawing his hand back and rubbing his wrist. Magic always tingles weirdly, he may not ever get used to it.]

[pinkmin]

[Vianca let out a very tiny gasp, leaning closer to him to get a better look. Maybe it looked awkward to him, but Vianca was captivated. It was a bright energy that seemed almost alive as they sparked and fizzed because he asked them to. She was so transfixed now that it was impossible not to notice the way Noctis held his wrist afterwards.]

Does using it hurt?

[carbungle]

No, not exactly.

[He flexes his fingers once more and goes back to twisting the fabric of his jacket around, dripping water away from the fire.]

More like... exercise, I guess. Like if you run for too long and your muscles start to burn. Magic's energy, it's gotta come from somewhere.

[He figures it'd be worse if he couldn't absorb it from the elements, but that's been beyond his capabilities since he was a child, so there's no sense in thinking about it.]

[pinkmin]

Oh.

[It was a relieved syllable. She'd been just about to fuss over unneeded harm. Overuse was a thing, like over-exertion, but it didn't seem like that just yet.]

Yes, that makes sense... [She laid her sweater vest out on the ground a little bit near the fire.] A friend tried to teach me. His powers came from listening to the spirits.

[carbungle]

What kind of spirits?

[He's not used to knowing people outside of his family or companions who can use magic, so it's hard not to be curious about it.]

[pinkmin]

[She didn't mind indulging someone's curiosity-- it made her feel useful to be able to share.]

Spirits of the life around us, I think. Their energy could be channeled through a staff that could be used for healing.

[carbungle]

Oh, healing magic. That's pretty rare, even where I come from... I've only ever known one person who can do it all on her own.

[Potions are a whole different thing.]

[pinkmin]

[Making those is an entirely different job class. Vianca gave a knowing, eager nod.]

I've read about different kinds, but Rhys was the only person I met skilled at it. He let me borrow one of his staves to practice.

[carbungle]

Is magic something that anyone can learn where you're from?

[Other wolds are kinda wild.]

[pinkmin]

The school offered magic classes when teachers were available, but everyone's potential is different. Mr. Canas said everyone has some inside, but I do not think that is correct.

[carbungle]

Probably a bad idea to talk with absolutes one way or the other.

[Always or never... either way, it's bound to be wrong eventually. People change, and even when they don't there's still exceptions.]

[pinkmin]

Yes.

[Vianca drew her knees up to her chest, watching the fire that Noctis had made a bit wistfully.]

I was only able to get to the 'hello.'

[carbungle]

"Hello"? [It takes him a second.] Oh, from the spirits. Maybe they're shy.

[His voice drops to a mumble.]

At least you understood them...

[pinkmin]

[The mumbly nature of that made her look at him.]

Not really. It was more...

[She reached over and gently nudged his arm with her palm. A feeling, rather than words.]

Is yours similar?

[carbungle]

No, it's more like...

[He lifts both hands, making simultaneously a choking and shaking gesture for a few seconds.]

Like an earthquake, except it's in your own head. Or thunder in your ears. You don't see it coming, and you can't understand it, but it's big and loud and it hurts like- [KID] -a lot.

[pinkmin]

[No wonder it was such a work out.]

That sounds very exhausting.

[A beat.]

... You said it did not hurt.

[carbungle]

[It is definitely exhausting.]

Normal magic doesn't. But from the Astrals? That's the closest it gets to spirits where I'm from, them and their messengers. And their magic hurts.

[And then there's the Royal Arms, but that's... different. He's not sure how to describe that, and with a little girl, it's better left unsaid.]

[pinkmin]

[That makes sense. She's relieved again that he didn't mean the 'normal' magic (since it wouldn't be the first time someone just put on a show).]

I see. That makes sense, they do not seem shy at all.

[Even if she only sort of saw one. But it makes her wonder if that's how it is supposed to be.]

... Rhys would fall ill often. Maybe those spirits weren't actually shy either.

[carbungle]

...Maybe.

[Replace illness with tiredness and it's a familiar story. He's always napping, every chance he gets, and for all the jokes and jabs he knows it isn't just because he's lazy. They met because he fell asleep on a park bench, for gods' sake.]

Maybe you're better off not learning magic. It can be more trouble than it's worth.

[pinkmin]

It is alright. I already know I can't.

[Rhys probably knew it too, but he was so nice and encouraging that he probably convinced himself that maybe she could.]

It seems handy for rainstorms though.

[carbungle]

Yeah, but it's nothing that a lighter or a good piece of flint can't do. Just takes less work this way.

[He reaches out to add a little more flame to the pile, as it'd started to burn low. A cursory glance towards the sky tells him that it's still raining as hard as ever, so they might need it a while yet. Though with how often the weather changes around here, it could wink out in a second.]

You know much about that kind of thing? Surviving outdoors, I mean.