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hugtopia_logs2020-11-17 10:50 am
hugtopiamods) wrote in hugtopia_logs2020-11-17 10:50 am
♥ November Event Log
November (Malom) Event Log
The flurry of Lasohm turns into the quiet chill of Malom, and fall at last begins to give way to winter. A chill wind runs through the air, and small, sporadic snowfalls begin to occur in the latter half of the month. Clean-up from the chaos of the events from the previous month is in full swing; abandoned communicators are collected, and for the souls who remain, are traded out for more advanced models, along with their belongings. There is undoubtedly a wave of disappointment in town, as there had been an obvious buzz of excitement to see so many extra bodies populating the city. For those who remember, at least… those who had forgotten are left only with a lingering sadness they don't understand, as loved ones from the past vanish from this world and from their lives once more.
Still, life must go on. And for those who remain, there's plenty to be done.
❥ PROMPT I: Get on the Hydra's Back
Construction has been in full swing at the arena for some time now in the background, mostly underground, though it's been busy recently as the work in other areas of the city settles down enough that they can focus on one more slice of their old history. If you've been in the area and have wanted to lend a hand, the residents are very grateful! There's been lots of crumbling old pillars to dismantle and move aside, steps and seats to re-pave and clean, electricity to be wired. Progress has been fairly slow but steady, mostly due to it being a low priority overall. Still, they're proud of what they've gradually been able to accomplish.
Finally, around halfway through the month, it is announced that the arena has at least been partially opened to the public, and offworlders are invited to come and try out the mechanisms that the locals have unearthed from the deeper sections of the basement that had been sealed by degradation and some very poorly labeled blueprints. Most of the new construction has been to clear pathways, open up the field, and set up observation areas that are out of the way enough to make it secure for patrons, while still offering a decent view. The arena is still pretty rough around the edges, and not all sections of it are back to 100% working order, but it's functional and safe enough that the locals would like to know what sort of interest it garners as-is, and in the future will budget city resources accordingly. (In other words: if you like it, use it, and they'll make it fancier over time!)
A particular machine beneath the arena has been unearthed and repaired, and the workers have discovered its crown jewel: an enormous collective of nanomachines, tiny interconnecting robots that can be linked via computer to form temporary 3D models of all shapes and sizes. In the past, the primary purpose of these machines was for mental and physical training, and while combat is hardly a common requirement in town, the locals have recognized that many of the residents have a tendency to feel… well, restless. Or bored. Perhaps a relaxed lifestyle ill suits the otherworldy visitors, which they don't understand, but they can understand that it might be frustrating to be dragged from a more adventurous world and trapped in such a silly bubble. Not to mention that certain emergencies (such as the walls breaking or expanding) have made combat necessary a couple of times, so a place to hone one's skill might come in handy later. Thus, the revival of the arena has been on the to-do list for the last few months, but they've run into some bumps along the way, namely getting the darn machinery to function with their modern technology. The nanomachines are astonishingly advanced, but the rest… not so much. They also needed more of the factory to be up and running before they could utilize what the arena had to offer.
What might that be, you ask? Well, in short: the sky and your creativity is (mostly) the limit! Remember the experimental holodeck technology from a few months back? (Bear Hands!) Well, that was the stepping stone to how the nanomachines might work. The holo VR was able to use your requests, both described and imagined, to create all sorts of challenges - monsters to fight, buildings to destroy, etc - but such challenges were mostly digital, and the rooms were too small to really make the most of this technology. The arena is under no such limitations however. Want to fight a stomping Magitek mecha? Or a host of shambling zombies? Or a line of Goombas? Nanomachines have got you covered. They have an impressive level of AI, so while they might not behave like real thinking, breathing creatures, they can still put up an impressive fight. For some beasts, they might even be more challenging than the real thing. Computers can think awfully fast, after all.
If you're not the combative type, you still have options to play around with and exercise your brain. How about a changing labyrinth to solve? A giant Rubix cube? A life-size game of Monopoly to ruin friendships with? The biggest jigsaw puzzle you can imagine…
The locals running the arena only have one request: please do not use magic or weapons that will completely obliterate/vaporize the nanomachines! They are durable little critters, and can take many a heavy hit, and they are designed to collect their fallen comrades, either to repair one another or take them to the re-assembly facility for recycling. However, they can't fix or recycle what no longer exists. So remember the three R's: recycle, reuse, reassemble! Don't reduce into unrecognizable molecules.
Finally, around halfway through the month, it is announced that the arena has at least been partially opened to the public, and offworlders are invited to come and try out the mechanisms that the locals have unearthed from the deeper sections of the basement that had been sealed by degradation and some very poorly labeled blueprints. Most of the new construction has been to clear pathways, open up the field, and set up observation areas that are out of the way enough to make it secure for patrons, while still offering a decent view. The arena is still pretty rough around the edges, and not all sections of it are back to 100% working order, but it's functional and safe enough that the locals would like to know what sort of interest it garners as-is, and in the future will budget city resources accordingly. (In other words: if you like it, use it, and they'll make it fancier over time!)
A particular machine beneath the arena has been unearthed and repaired, and the workers have discovered its crown jewel: an enormous collective of nanomachines, tiny interconnecting robots that can be linked via computer to form temporary 3D models of all shapes and sizes. In the past, the primary purpose of these machines was for mental and physical training, and while combat is hardly a common requirement in town, the locals have recognized that many of the residents have a tendency to feel… well, restless. Or bored. Perhaps a relaxed lifestyle ill suits the otherworldy visitors, which they don't understand, but they can understand that it might be frustrating to be dragged from a more adventurous world and trapped in such a silly bubble. Not to mention that certain emergencies (such as the walls breaking or expanding) have made combat necessary a couple of times, so a place to hone one's skill might come in handy later. Thus, the revival of the arena has been on the to-do list for the last few months, but they've run into some bumps along the way, namely getting the darn machinery to function with their modern technology. The nanomachines are astonishingly advanced, but the rest… not so much. They also needed more of the factory to be up and running before they could utilize what the arena had to offer.
What might that be, you ask? Well, in short: the sky and your creativity is (mostly) the limit! Remember the experimental holodeck technology from a few months back? (Bear Hands!) Well, that was the stepping stone to how the nanomachines might work. The holo VR was able to use your requests, both described and imagined, to create all sorts of challenges - monsters to fight, buildings to destroy, etc - but such challenges were mostly digital, and the rooms were too small to really make the most of this technology. The arena is under no such limitations however. Want to fight a stomping Magitek mecha? Or a host of shambling zombies? Or a line of Goombas? Nanomachines have got you covered. They have an impressive level of AI, so while they might not behave like real thinking, breathing creatures, they can still put up an impressive fight. For some beasts, they might even be more challenging than the real thing. Computers can think awfully fast, after all.
If you're not the combative type, you still have options to play around with and exercise your brain. How about a changing labyrinth to solve? A giant Rubix cube? A life-size game of Monopoly to ruin friendships with? The biggest jigsaw puzzle you can imagine…
The locals running the arena only have one request: please do not use magic or weapons that will completely obliterate/vaporize the nanomachines! They are durable little critters, and can take many a heavy hit, and they are designed to collect their fallen comrades, either to repair one another or take them to the re-assembly facility for recycling. However, they can't fix or recycle what no longer exists. So remember the three R's: recycle, reuse, reassemble! Don't reduce into unrecognizable molecules.
❥ PROMPT II: This Might As Well Haven
Things have been very weird around here lately, that much is certainly undeniable. The residents are eager to get everyone back on track and focused on what matters: healing the world and working towards an eventual peaceful existence once more. Restoring the arena has been the latest step in achieving those goals, and in the process has gained the locals access to buried historical records of how it was used in the past, long forgotten festivals and Olympic-style contests, all of which has been food for thought for the governing body of Havenwell who are often trying to come up with new ways to liven the place up and make life a little more bearable for their reluctantly abducted guests.
One of those festivals is announced to occur this month: the Feast of the Winged Lord. Technically it's meant to be a summer festival, but Havenwell already has a handful of seasonal celebrations that they hold near and dear to their synthetic hearts, so instead they've opted to integrate it into an end-of-fall festival to coincide with the re-opening of the arena. Many of the restored architecture heavily features a creature that, if asked, the locals can't quite give a name to; some renditions show it to be a gryphon-like animal, others an enormous dragon that dwarfs any imagery of Rawna, a few show a giant bird clad in flames. The general consensus is that a Winged Lord does feature in certain old texts, but the truth of said tales has become muddled over the centuries. Some cite him to be the creator of all things at their origin point, others dub him a usurper of undeserved power. Most people honestly can't remember anything about him, so they're having a ball making up a bunch of nonsense that may or may not have an ounce of truth to it.
What does the Feast itself entail, you ask? For the most part, it is self-explanatory: there's a lot of food. Decorative display carts are set up in lines along the sides of the arena, in and out, though the majority is outside to avoid interfering with whatever folks happen to be doing with the nanomachines. Meat skewers and fried dumplings, cream-filled pastries, dipped fruits- the food is all manner of strange and spicy finger food recipes uncovered from the old days, measured precisely and quite delicious. A year of trial and error (and lots of feedback, good or bad) has given the locals plenty of experience in how to cook again, despite lacking the ability to eat it themselves. The entire street smells amazing and enticing.
Offworlders who have been around the block long enough may feel wary about eating the food here to avoid strange or uncomfortable effects, but they might be surprised to discover that there are no side effects from the food.
Throughout the Feast, everyone can enjoy several forms of entertainment like...
A Daily Parade
At the end of every festival day, the native robots parade from temple to temple, playing music and carrying holo-images of the different deities - now including the Winged Lord in its various interpretations. The parading robots themselves are dressed up, swapping parts for things like mechanical wings or cat tails or adorning themselves with rainbow sashes or synthetic feathers. Some robots have taken it a step further though and have decided to dress up as some of the offworlders. They would love it if the offworlders themselves would join along with the procession and some might be a little more insistent than others in trying to get characters to dance and follow along with them.
Winged Delights(?)
As the festival ramps up, people might see some of the natives walking about with wings sprouting out of their backs. The wings range from mechanical to animalistic in nature and seem to grow directly out of the metal chassis quite naturally. When asked, the robots will direct people to one of several booths that have large wings projected onto them, and a sign with an amount of Dora. Every booth seems to have different prices from expensive to relatively cheap. Go up to the booths and the owners will offer (for a fee) to give characters a nanotech patch. The patch, when worn against the skin, causes small wings to sprout from their own backs. The wings can be of any design of your choosing, so long as the size is adjusted to be small. These wings remain on and move like a natural part of the body so long as the patch is on, or for 24 hours, after which the nanobots retreat into the patch and go dormant. The patches can be recycled at the booths for recharging and a new patch can be bought at that time.
For the native robots, these wings seem to be nothing more than an interesting decoration, but for the offworlders, there's another unforeseen perk: flight. So long as characters are in contact with another person, the wings are capable of short-range flight! Aerodynamics be damned, these small wings can help you and your partner soar the skies for an hour, graceful (or graceless, we don't know your style) as a bird. After an hour, the wings will gently guide you back to the ground, whereupon the nanobots retreat into their patch, the wings melt away, and you'll need to buy another patch to get them back again.
Or...do you? For some offworlders, it seems the pull of the Winged Lord is too strong, and they naturally grow a pair of small wings even without wearing the patch. These naturally grown wings are also capable of flight for one hour when you are in contact with another character, and come in the same wide variety of styles. These wings, however, do not melt away after flight, but remain behind, albeit as inert appendages until the next day. The wings can either molt off after 24 hours and return at any time, or remain continuously throughout the event at player discretion.
Silly Games, Silly Prizes
What festival is complete without at least one thematic game? The Feast of the Winged Lord is no exception and these game booths can be found scattered all over the festival area. The booth consists of a small stall decorated with prizes that range from silly whistles with wings on them to scale models of representations of the Winged Lord to "Mystery Coupons." Behind the stall is a cylindrical glass chamber filled with flying VR-realistic miniatures of the Winged Lord. The gryphon-like animals are mixed with dragons and flaming birds, all flitting around the chamber in erratic patterns.
Pay the Dora fee and grab a partner because this game needs more than one to participate! The gamerunner will take your fee and hand you and your partner(s) a multicolored length of ribbon before explaining the rules and opening the glass door to the chamber. Once inside, your team will have a set amount of time to work together and loop the ribbon around as many of the flying creatures as you can. The different versions of the Winged Lord all have different point values and the more creatures you wrangle, the better your points! At the end of the time limit, the booth owner will count up your points and hand you a prize that corresponds to it. ...You think? The prizes and points seem to be set to a system only the booth owner understands, while quality control on the prizes seems to vary booth to booth. The whistles might be made of cheap plastic at one booth, but made of gold at another; or the Mystery Coupons could be an IOU for a back rub by a random robot, or for a free meal at a cafe in town. Feel free to make up your own silly prizes if you feel like it!
Tasty Pursuits
A feast needs imbibement and merriment in turn, and this festival delivers! For adults who are of drinking age in their respective worlds, offworlders can pay a fee and make their own personalized bottle of wine at the winery booth. Choose and sample the different varieties of Alcosynth (a newly developed synthetic alcohol with all the flavor and none of the drunkeness) and full alcohol wines, both red and white, then mix and match them together to create your own personal bottle to take home with you. The flavours of wines range from things like a basic red merlot to stranger things like sour green apple or toothpaste. The natives aren't quite sure what kind of things you offworlders like to drink, so they decided to make it in every flavour available. Luckily, every bottle flavour is clearly labeled so there isn't too much danger of accidentally adding a splash of limeade to your rose. Each bottle will be laser printed with your name and a design of your choice before being handed over with your concoction inside, along with a notice for a secondary event.
A friendly showcase of the created wines is being held concurrently, and people are asked to donate their bottles to a tasting event at the end of every day. Donations receive the fee they paid to participate back in exchange. Those who are of age can come by and try everyone's wines, including those that some of the natives tried their hands at making despite not having the ability to taste them. Those who come by the showcase can vote on the best tasting wines of the day and winners receive a small Dora prize. Every day might have a different winner and different wines to try, so come by and enter often!
For those who aren't of age or simply lean more toward sweets than drinks, candy making is a newer pursuit to take hold in Havenwell, and it's a roaring one! Characters can come by the candy booths, pay a small fee, and spin sugar into their own designs using every color under the sun. The flavours here also have the same wide variety as the wines, from things like licorice to cola to fruit flavours, to downright strange ones like taco meat. But maybe you really need that particular shade of brown in your special treat? The reason why you may be so particular is there's a candy-making competition to see who can make the best representation of the Winged Lord out of confectionary delights! Since there's no real set image of this particular god, everyone is going all out on what they imagine the "real" Winged Lord must have looked like. Characters can donate their candy representations to the booth, and at the end of every day a winner is judged by a rotating panel of priests, citizens, and researchers. Losers get their candies delivered to their doors that night, while the winner has their candy displayed in the town center for the next day before being similarly returned when a new winner is chosen.
Build Your Own Booth
For the entrepreneurs among you, there are many open booths that characters can sign up and take for their own uses. If your character is interested, please sign up below to create your own festival delights! Do you have a business you want to advertise? A ware you'd like to sell? Maybe you want unwitting test subjects to try a maze of your own design or to drink your latest potion so you can record the results? The festival is for everyone so post below with this form and people can visit your booths!
Booth Name: The name of your booth!
Owner(s): Who is running the booth?
Purpose: Are your advertising? Selling? Buying? Researching? Playing games? Keep this short and sweet.
Description: Include a description of your booth and what it is doing or what it looks like, a menu of things offered, etc. Go crazy here, but please keep descriptions within reason lengthwise (300 words or less preferably).
Link: LINK (a link to your event comment if you have one)
One of those festivals is announced to occur this month: the Feast of the Winged Lord. Technically it's meant to be a summer festival, but Havenwell already has a handful of seasonal celebrations that they hold near and dear to their synthetic hearts, so instead they've opted to integrate it into an end-of-fall festival to coincide with the re-opening of the arena. Many of the restored architecture heavily features a creature that, if asked, the locals can't quite give a name to; some renditions show it to be a gryphon-like animal, others an enormous dragon that dwarfs any imagery of Rawna, a few show a giant bird clad in flames. The general consensus is that a Winged Lord does feature in certain old texts, but the truth of said tales has become muddled over the centuries. Some cite him to be the creator of all things at their origin point, others dub him a usurper of undeserved power. Most people honestly can't remember anything about him, so they're having a ball making up a bunch of nonsense that may or may not have an ounce of truth to it.
What does the Feast itself entail, you ask? For the most part, it is self-explanatory: there's a lot of food. Decorative display carts are set up in lines along the sides of the arena, in and out, though the majority is outside to avoid interfering with whatever folks happen to be doing with the nanomachines. Meat skewers and fried dumplings, cream-filled pastries, dipped fruits- the food is all manner of strange and spicy finger food recipes uncovered from the old days, measured precisely and quite delicious. A year of trial and error (and lots of feedback, good or bad) has given the locals plenty of experience in how to cook again, despite lacking the ability to eat it themselves. The entire street smells amazing and enticing.
Offworlders who have been around the block long enough may feel wary about eating the food here to avoid strange or uncomfortable effects, but they might be surprised to discover that there are no side effects from the food.
Throughout the Feast, everyone can enjoy several forms of entertainment like...
A Daily Parade
At the end of every festival day, the native robots parade from temple to temple, playing music and carrying holo-images of the different deities - now including the Winged Lord in its various interpretations. The parading robots themselves are dressed up, swapping parts for things like mechanical wings or cat tails or adorning themselves with rainbow sashes or synthetic feathers. Some robots have taken it a step further though and have decided to dress up as some of the offworlders. They would love it if the offworlders themselves would join along with the procession and some might be a little more insistent than others in trying to get characters to dance and follow along with them.
Winged Delights(?)
As the festival ramps up, people might see some of the natives walking about with wings sprouting out of their backs. The wings range from mechanical to animalistic in nature and seem to grow directly out of the metal chassis quite naturally. When asked, the robots will direct people to one of several booths that have large wings projected onto them, and a sign with an amount of Dora. Every booth seems to have different prices from expensive to relatively cheap. Go up to the booths and the owners will offer (for a fee) to give characters a nanotech patch. The patch, when worn against the skin, causes small wings to sprout from their own backs. The wings can be of any design of your choosing, so long as the size is adjusted to be small. These wings remain on and move like a natural part of the body so long as the patch is on, or for 24 hours, after which the nanobots retreat into the patch and go dormant. The patches can be recycled at the booths for recharging and a new patch can be bought at that time.
For the native robots, these wings seem to be nothing more than an interesting decoration, but for the offworlders, there's another unforeseen perk: flight. So long as characters are in contact with another person, the wings are capable of short-range flight! Aerodynamics be damned, these small wings can help you and your partner soar the skies for an hour, graceful (or graceless, we don't know your style) as a bird. After an hour, the wings will gently guide you back to the ground, whereupon the nanobots retreat into their patch, the wings melt away, and you'll need to buy another patch to get them back again.
Or...do you? For some offworlders, it seems the pull of the Winged Lord is too strong, and they naturally grow a pair of small wings even without wearing the patch. These naturally grown wings are also capable of flight for one hour when you are in contact with another character, and come in the same wide variety of styles. These wings, however, do not melt away after flight, but remain behind, albeit as inert appendages until the next day. The wings can either molt off after 24 hours and return at any time, or remain continuously throughout the event at player discretion.
Silly Games, Silly Prizes
What festival is complete without at least one thematic game? The Feast of the Winged Lord is no exception and these game booths can be found scattered all over the festival area. The booth consists of a small stall decorated with prizes that range from silly whistles with wings on them to scale models of representations of the Winged Lord to "Mystery Coupons." Behind the stall is a cylindrical glass chamber filled with flying VR-realistic miniatures of the Winged Lord. The gryphon-like animals are mixed with dragons and flaming birds, all flitting around the chamber in erratic patterns.
Pay the Dora fee and grab a partner because this game needs more than one to participate! The gamerunner will take your fee and hand you and your partner(s) a multicolored length of ribbon before explaining the rules and opening the glass door to the chamber. Once inside, your team will have a set amount of time to work together and loop the ribbon around as many of the flying creatures as you can. The different versions of the Winged Lord all have different point values and the more creatures you wrangle, the better your points! At the end of the time limit, the booth owner will count up your points and hand you a prize that corresponds to it. ...You think? The prizes and points seem to be set to a system only the booth owner understands, while quality control on the prizes seems to vary booth to booth. The whistles might be made of cheap plastic at one booth, but made of gold at another; or the Mystery Coupons could be an IOU for a back rub by a random robot, or for a free meal at a cafe in town. Feel free to make up your own silly prizes if you feel like it!
Tasty Pursuits
A feast needs imbibement and merriment in turn, and this festival delivers! For adults who are of drinking age in their respective worlds, offworlders can pay a fee and make their own personalized bottle of wine at the winery booth. Choose and sample the different varieties of Alcosynth (a newly developed synthetic alcohol with all the flavor and none of the drunkeness) and full alcohol wines, both red and white, then mix and match them together to create your own personal bottle to take home with you. The flavours of wines range from things like a basic red merlot to stranger things like sour green apple or toothpaste. The natives aren't quite sure what kind of things you offworlders like to drink, so they decided to make it in every flavour available. Luckily, every bottle flavour is clearly labeled so there isn't too much danger of accidentally adding a splash of limeade to your rose. Each bottle will be laser printed with your name and a design of your choice before being handed over with your concoction inside, along with a notice for a secondary event.
A friendly showcase of the created wines is being held concurrently, and people are asked to donate their bottles to a tasting event at the end of every day. Donations receive the fee they paid to participate back in exchange. Those who are of age can come by and try everyone's wines, including those that some of the natives tried their hands at making despite not having the ability to taste them. Those who come by the showcase can vote on the best tasting wines of the day and winners receive a small Dora prize. Every day might have a different winner and different wines to try, so come by and enter often!
For those who aren't of age or simply lean more toward sweets than drinks, candy making is a newer pursuit to take hold in Havenwell, and it's a roaring one! Characters can come by the candy booths, pay a small fee, and spin sugar into their own designs using every color under the sun. The flavours here also have the same wide variety as the wines, from things like licorice to cola to fruit flavours, to downright strange ones like taco meat. But maybe you really need that particular shade of brown in your special treat? The reason why you may be so particular is there's a candy-making competition to see who can make the best representation of the Winged Lord out of confectionary delights! Since there's no real set image of this particular god, everyone is going all out on what they imagine the "real" Winged Lord must have looked like. Characters can donate their candy representations to the booth, and at the end of every day a winner is judged by a rotating panel of priests, citizens, and researchers. Losers get their candies delivered to their doors that night, while the winner has their candy displayed in the town center for the next day before being similarly returned when a new winner is chosen.
Build Your Own Booth
For the entrepreneurs among you, there are many open booths that characters can sign up and take for their own uses. If your character is interested, please sign up below to create your own festival delights! Do you have a business you want to advertise? A ware you'd like to sell? Maybe you want unwitting test subjects to try a maze of your own design or to drink your latest potion so you can record the results? The festival is for everyone so post below with this form and people can visit your booths!
Booth Name: The name of your booth!
Owner(s): Who is running the booth?
Purpose: Are your advertising? Selling? Buying? Researching? Playing games? Keep this short and sweet.
Description: Include a description of your booth and what it is doing or what it looks like, a menu of things offered, etc. Go crazy here, but please keep descriptions within reason lengthwise (300 words or less preferably).
Link: LINK (a link to your event comment if you have one)
❥ PROMPT III: They're in My Eyes, My Eyes, Oh No
Good news, all you VR lovers! The seasonal Robot Crossing VR game has added a new minigame: beekeeping! Create your own little honey heaven, make friends with your new buzzing buddies, and collect as much honey as you can before the timer runs out. It's all very cute and oddly relaxing, despite the time limit. Perhaps it's the ambiance.
What isn't so relaxing is the fact that through upgrading the game, a fragment of the VR network has gone slightly haywire, sending the code out of the cafes… and into the arena. The result is that a bunch of the nanomachines have assembled into a collection of shoebox-sized bees that are programmed to search for their hives and aggressively defend them. And since the arena has no hives, the nanobees split off and populate the city in search of anything that might resemble either a hive or a bee's natural habitat- such as the household yards, the botanical gardens, any greenery… maybe some really colourful hair…
A giant robot bee invasion is understandably troublesome to the local population, especially when some of them start trying to tear apart whatever greenery still exists in the tail end of fall, trying to cross-pollinate in accordance with their borrowed AI programming. The locals would very much not appreciate their gardens being destroyed by a bit of accidental hacking, thank you! And you might not like it happening to your property, either. Thus, the city urgently requests that if anyone happens to come across a nanobee, please contain it and bring it back to the arena for de-programming as soon as possible!
How you choose to get the bee back is up to you. Maybe convince it to follow you through bright colours, flowers, or a hive disguise. Maybe trap it in something you think might be nanomachine-proof. Heck, maybe keep it and end up with the world's most annoying disobedient pet. We're not here to tell you what to do. Just try not to make them angry! A few of them might come with taser stingers.
What isn't so relaxing is the fact that through upgrading the game, a fragment of the VR network has gone slightly haywire, sending the code out of the cafes… and into the arena. The result is that a bunch of the nanomachines have assembled into a collection of shoebox-sized bees that are programmed to search for their hives and aggressively defend them. And since the arena has no hives, the nanobees split off and populate the city in search of anything that might resemble either a hive or a bee's natural habitat- such as the household yards, the botanical gardens, any greenery… maybe some really colourful hair…
A giant robot bee invasion is understandably troublesome to the local population, especially when some of them start trying to tear apart whatever greenery still exists in the tail end of fall, trying to cross-pollinate in accordance with their borrowed AI programming. The locals would very much not appreciate their gardens being destroyed by a bit of accidental hacking, thank you! And you might not like it happening to your property, either. Thus, the city urgently requests that if anyone happens to come across a nanobee, please contain it and bring it back to the arena for de-programming as soon as possible!
How you choose to get the bee back is up to you. Maybe convince it to follow you through bright colours, flowers, or a hive disguise. Maybe trap it in something you think might be nanomachine-proof. Heck, maybe keep it and end up with the world's most annoying disobedient pet. We're not here to tell you what to do. Just try not to make them angry! A few of them might come with taser stingers.
This event will run from November 16th to 30th. 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.
no subject
"That...is good. I am sure he is pleased to have you as yourself."
He cleared his throat again, still a bit awkward and unsure how to navigate.
"Is this Lup someone you are close to?"
He didn't pry any further. She'd mentioned her friends here and he figured this Lup was likely one of them.
no subject
Much deeper than that, her first friend held as preciously as family, but to say all of that would invoke a layer of complexity that Honerva is not certain how to explain to her son who was still only now getting to meet her as she is.
"In fact... it is in part because of Kova that we are. It was Lup who helped me learn how to... provide him with the affection that I had been unable to give. More than that she was there for me once I... knew I had to change myself, and did not abandon me for my situation."
no subject
And how strange that was to say, to feel. But it was true, despite all his long standing resentment of what she'd been all his life.
"That was good of her." He was unsure what to say, really. But it did make him happy to know that she'd had the opportunity for that sort of growth.
"Should we perhaps take some of this flora to a safer location? These erratic machines seem intent on destroying them..."
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She knows it's... uncomfortable, but if seeing Kova would give him any small comfort she can only hope it would help.
"... I had been intending to bring most of them in if I could, due to the changing weather before these machines came upon them. I do not know how long my scout can keep them occupied, so I would... appreciate your assistance."
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But he surveyed the plants and nodded.
"I inherited Father's long arms and large hands, so I can carry quite a bit."
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Which... also was a bit awkward to offer, but perhaps it might serve as a more neutral location than his dropping by the house at any given time.
"I've already set them into the pots and planters here." She nods toward the array of flowers, juniberries and a few varied sylleblossoms alike. "We can bring them to the porch and then... see about leading these machines away."
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Not that he didn't already feel as though he was, in this place he had no real place in.
"Ah. That seems to be the most expedient plan." With that, he took several of the pots and looked at her expectantly, the robotic bees seeming to have no interest for the moment due to the other robot.
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"Right now are doing our best to... remain grounded despite the circumstances, so reopening isn't quite on our minds. At least when she is up to it, everyone will certainly become aware near immediately."
She's not certain how much of those circumstances Lotor is aware of given he was just starting to settle in his own way, but she had wanted him to have that space, too.
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"I see. I do not mean to pry, but...should there be anything you wish to discuss, I am here. Unfortunately I will likely lack any effective solutions, but. Perhaps discussing it may make things a bit easier?"
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He has no reason to help her, and it was possible he was only after information to her intentions, but this patience he allows her is so much more than she would have even hoped for, when she was so certain that scorn would follow and it still did not. Both of them, still learning how to breathe around the other.
"The person who disappeared was her twin brother. To lose him suddenly to the uncertainty of whether or not all of our collective memories would... maintain themselves is... quite a lot. We must ask ourselves how we can create that certainty instead of having this world decide for us. Were I to lose her as well, I imagine I would feel... quite lost."
And Honerva more than anything, does not want to lose the clarity she has right now, which the threat of vanishing without warning brings, as much as the lingering fear of being caught up in desperation over the loss of loved ones.
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"I see. I find myself to be fearful of the same - the place I resided previously gave me a great deal of information as well as experiences I would be denied in life in my own reality, and I wish to retain those memories. Perhaps I can be of assistance in creating that certainty."
He paused, unsure quite how to proceed.
"I am...sorry for your loss. It seems to weigh heavily on you."
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"...It does weigh heavily. Others have vanished from this world before, of relative closeness, but this does impact us personally."
She never was one to handle loss of any kind particularly well, or she likely would not have been so vulnerable to lose herself in the first place. To want reassurances that an ordinary life could not provide. Change was hard won, if it could ever be won at all.
"Your presence ... does reassure me. As it is, so long as we remain in the present, if we can... hold on to this time we have been granted now to find the means to make it work, there yet remains hope for a new future."
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"I do not know about a new future, but I suppose it is worth the attempt to try. I am...rather content with the knowledge I have died, as long as the war is over and peace is restored. I need not see it."
But he sighed, the possibilities appealing regardless.
"However, I greatly enjoy research, and should we be unsuccessful it changes nothing. I am happy to assist. And perhaps it could take some of the weight away. I believe that after so long not knowing yourself, you should not be forced into sadness."
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She hates it. She knows it is a choice he is making to accept it, as much as he is making it a choice to accept her regardless of how he may have felt toward her otherwise. Yet those two things don't even feel comparable, not when possibilities were so near and yet so currently out of reach.
But she listens, and he does speak further, as though to mollify these thoughts. Somewhat, anyway, but it is... hard.
She had lost lifetimes. They both had lost lifetimes. But anything he chose to do with his time now would be his own choice. It was as much as Lup had told her to help her make the attempt to move forward in any significant way and not give in to the despair of it all.
"... your... decisions are your own. I know so little of you, but I know it all was hard fought, because... that is how things were with the Galra. Your birthright, your role... it all was constricting. If... you could instead consider the death that may yet await back upon another path as the end of a dark chapter, while here away from it all a chance for a new beginning, in... whatever means suits you, then... that is all I could hope for. That you would choose to live, and find a new path, even if it may yet be separate from mine."
Few things could put her mind more at ease than that, but she knows it's a lot to ask. If he could even bring himself around to that sort of thinking at all, she doesn't know. All she knows is that it is painful, perhaps even more painful than having her existence denied once more would have been, that he would deny his own.
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"Forgive me. I realize it is not something you wish to hear. But I am so very tired. I do not know what you remember of your life as the witch, but I am plagued by every tick of my far too many decaphoebes."
He sighed.
"I am not... happy about the things to come. As they have been told to me, they are ridiculous enough to be enraging. But as I have not yet experienced them it seems foolish to focus on the events overmuch.
I am happy to attempt to make things better. But I wish to know peace. Even if it is short lived."
After a moment, he admitted softly,
"I would like to attempt the path with you, if you would allow it. If we cannot know one another in our true reality, we should take advantage of our time in this one."
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"I have... learned that the present is what to value most, lest it all slip away. Not our past, and not what may yet haunt us from our reality."
Even if the past lingers, their legacy little more than ruin, there was nothing to be found by looking back to their universe now that they were beyond it twice over. There was too much pain in that; certainly hearing those words would continue to be painful. He was not yet dead, and yet it had such a profound effect on him. Let alone herself.
"If there is any measure of peace I can but help you with... if you truly wish for that here, to seek... any of that with me, then surely it is I who should ask, if that is what you desire. If... you would allow it."
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That it would be offered so readily and so honestly seemed nearly incomprehensible, and it took him a good few ticks to clear his throat and compose himself somewhat.
"I would not have asked had I been averse to the idea."
But he couldn't help smirking, despite the seriousness of the situation and the impossibility that she might genuinely care for him.
"We are quite the mess, aren't we? It appears this reality has given us at the very least the possibility of something approaching contentment."
Of course, he couldn't believe it would last, but what did?
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This was such a tentative new ground and a possibility unlooked for. At the way he describes them, however, even she manages a soft laugh. A hot mess is rather how Lup had described them, that first time around.
"A mess we may be, but... at least we can both well admit to it."
She knows that he still expects it not to last, and there's plenty of difficulty around the burden of future knowledge; she has certainly witnessed that struggle even among others she's become closer to here from other worlds.
All the more reason she must cling to hope and possibility then, even while she too, struggles rather intensely with the battle against despair.
"We have more opportunity now to learn about who we are than anywhere else might grant us. For us to be able to create good memories, here... it would mean a lot to me. And I hope to you as well."
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He stopped, not wanting to upset her with anything further. While Zarkon had obviously loved Honerva until the very end, he had been adamant that she never be mentioned even in the histories of his reign.
"Perhaps we can attempt to avoid further mess, if nothing else."
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Zarkon loved Honerva until the end, perhaps, but he had gone well out of his way to never call Haggar by that name, and Honerva's existence was quite beyond her. Even now, the memories she'd had access to were hardly enough to inform her of the kind of person she had been outside of her husband's sphere, and the all consuming work habits. So much she had to build just from being around others, separated from the Empire.
"But... thank you, Lotor. I rather hope that we could."