♥ 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

[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.

[pinkmin]

[It’s still fascinating to watch, even if it was probably something she shouldn’t wish for. It’d still make her more useful than she was, and that seemed like a fair enough trade off to her.

Her gaze traveled from the flames back to Noctis’ face, and she gave a thoughtful humm that sounded more sing-songy than one might expect from her serious face.]

A little, but not in practice. Mostly first aid.

[carbungle]

That's still pretty useful, depending on, y'know.

[He gestures around. Apparently this isn't the most dangerous place to live, but you can't believe everything you've heard, and who knows what'll happen in the future.]

[pinkmin]

Mm. Anything can happen.

[Like rapidly changing weather leading to other, bigger problems if it decided to stay for a prolonged amount of time. One ocean-like flood was enough for her, thanks. She made a mental note to see what kind of supplies she could find.]

Did you do a lot of outdoor things on your trip?

[carbungle]

Tons, yeah. We had to cross the country, but there aren't a lot of cities to stop in- just little outposts and occasional hotels here and there. Most of the time we had to camp outside when it got too dark to travel.

[Though there'd been some frantic rides in the dark when they were caught between the havens. It's seriously a miracle they didn't die a few times.]

[pinkmin]

A whole experience.

[Wasn't there a car? It must have been a whole different kind of dark out there. It was important to rest either way, so it was heartening to hear there wasn't that much reckless driving. (At least in that regard.)]

Was it just you and... um... Gladio?

[carbungle]

[The only time reckless driving was involved was when Noctis was at the wheel, which... thankfully was less often. (seatbelts, everyone!)]

No, there were four of us. Ignis and Prompto came along, too.

[pinkmin]

[Ironically, the two friends that were also here in Havenwell with him were the ones she couldn't see Highly Convenient Thought Bubbles of. That's what imaginations were for.]

And all of Gladio's books. That's an entire party. [Of both the adventuring and friend sort.]

[carbungle]

[Stick around long enough and she'll find them. Noct requires an orbit of friends around him to keep him out of trouble.

She does net a little laugh out of him for that one.]

Gladio brought so many books. I don't know how he got his muscles so big between all the novels he got through.

[Well, okay, he does know. He trained with the meathead for most of his life. ...Still.]

[pinkmin]

[Oh, a laugh. She won. There wasn't any smiling going on here, but her expression still softened with this pleasing result. Very good.]

Novels can be very heavy. [A pause.] ... Not just because I am small. I can carry a lot of books.

[carbungle]

[Yeah, you claim that victory, kiddo. It's not easy to do. He mostly laughs at some nerdy stuff, or when he gives his friends heart attacks stunt-diving his car off a cliff.]

Oh yeah? How many?

maths.gif

[pinkmin]

[She sat up a little straighter, as if that would do anything to make her seem any taller. (It didn't.)]

Ten encyclopedias. The stack starts to lean too much to walk with after that and that's not safe.

[Since, you know, small. But if it wasn't going to fall over all over the place, she could have handled twice that at once.]

[carbungle]

Whoa, that's a handful.

[He lifts a hand to hover it in the air- not over her head, he knows better than to get that close- above her seated height, mimicking a measurement of a stack of books.]

You're stronger than you look.

[pinkmin]

[It was probably bad to feel flattered by a compliment. It never led to anything good, she knew that. But... she still kind of wanted to feel nice about it, even if it was just once or twice. ]

It was just me in the library for a while, so it was up to me to get everything done. You have to move a lot of books.

[carbungle]

[And any hesitation she shows will just sail right over his head. He's not used to giving compliments, either, so it's for the best really.]

I can't remember the last time I went to a library... probably more than a year, now.