♥ September Event Log

[hugtopiamods]

September (Ohnir) Event Log
Ohnir is in full swing now and the weather, while still boasting hot days, is starting to cool slightly at night. The residents are recovering after the lightning storms from the previous month and, curiously, most of the robots that had been damaged in the storms are back. They don't look the same as before, but they seem to act the same, still happy, still thankful that the offworlders are here. A few even thank those who carried their bodies to the temples with small gifts of painted stones. Havenwell continues as it always has and welcomes their new arrivals with a few rather odd changes...

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❥ PROMPT I: Robot Crossing

Now that all the new and old arrivals have mingled and met, the robotic natives start pointing everyone toward the VR cafes. The bright lights and cozy insides have been decorated with fake leaves and carved and painted plaster approximations of fruits and vegetables in odd colors. When an offworlder comes in, they explain that back when they were still in their flesh bodies, the month of Ohnir was one for harvest and celebrations of the summer bounties. Now, without any real farms or need to eat, they've translated the Harvest Festival into a game, so why not play?

Logging in with another character will net you a little farm and a variety of games to choose from:

1. Pick and harvest as many Aellyn vegetables and fruits as you can before the timer runs out! The more you pick, the better your score. Work together with your partner to clear the field in any way you can. Strangely, once you finish clearing a tree or a field row of their bounty, they seem to magically refill when you turn your back. Oh well, at least you won't run out before the timer hits zero and with the sheer number of levels and combinations of trees and fields with obstacles in your way to make harvesting a little more challenging with each new level, you certainly won't be running out of things to do.
   
2. With a partner, use the giant slingshot to launch comically large fruits into a garden patch of other colored fruits. Match a line of 3 or more similarly shaped fruits to clear it from the field. The more fruits you can clear, the higher your score - aka welcome to Fruit Crush. Stack lines of 6 or more to get shining clear diamond fruits that clear the entire row and snag yourself some bonus points.
   
3. You and your partner(s) are given a magical golden pumpkin and it's your job to grow it into the largest pumpkin possible. Why? There's a county fair of course and the largest pumpkin wins! But how do you grow this pumpkin? Well, there are a lot of methods! You could gather up materials and work together to stick it to the pumpkin until it absorbs them and grows. You could do a song and dance routine together to encourage the pumpkin's soul to grow big and bright. You could hold hands and share stories and entertain the pumpkin until it feels encouraged enough to grow on its own. The possibilities are endless, so get to work making the best pumpkin that (digital) fair has ever seen!

As always, when playing the game, the picture and quality seems to increase as long as you're in contact with another person. Once the games are over and your scores tallied, the cafe attendant walks over and asks to see your communicators. To the winners, he or she attaches a little floating charm in the shape of one of Aellyn's weirder fruits. It looks like a cross between a blue rambutan and the hala aka puhala fruit, and it's called the sikheen fruit here. The sikheen are extremely rare nowadays, but their appearance is so unique that Havenwell residents still like to remember it for the Harvest Festival. Enjoy your prize!

❥ PROMPT II: Paint by Number

The new arrivals get to enjoy Havenwell in all its glory for about a week before suddenly, one day everyone wakes up to find the entire city has gone gray. And not a natural, nice gray either, but a strange dull, lifeless gray. Everything from the sky to the houses to the grass to the native people have all turned the exact same shade of graphite gray. Even the natives are confused and the devout flock to the temples while the science-minded head to the labs to study this new phenomenon. The only ones who seem spared from this strange color drain are the offworlders and the statues of the gods in the center of town. Or, well, at least most of the offworlders are spared. A few people might notice that their colors aren't as bright as they once were, or that parts of them are starting to turn gray as well. Those offworlders unlucky enough to lose some of their own can touch another player character to regain what was lost easily enough. Overall though, no one seems harmed by this sudden loss of color, but they're certainly perplexed.

A few days later and round silver platforms start showing up around the city, dragged out of storage by the natives. The first arrivals might remember these as the fireworks platforms that are activated by people standing and holding hands on them. The temple priests and scientists encourage the offworlders to stand on the platforms again and to hold hands or engage in some other sort of physical contact on them and wait.

When characters do as asked, the platforms shoot fireworks like they did before - in brilliant colors instead of the dull gray everywhere. And wherever the sparks fall, color starts returning to the world in splotches. The natives are overjoyed and move the platforms all across the city, asking the offworlders to find and use them wherever possible to return the color to their town.

❥ PROMPT III: Sharing is Caring

Ohma's temple is particularly lively during Ohnir and the priests are busy cleaning and sweeping, decorating it with rolls of parchment and digital inkwells and quills that write as if they were actually fountain pens. The natives, especially adherents of Ohma, start to make pilgrimages to the temple in little processions, some playing music, others flying banners. It would probably be far more impressive if the colors weren't still so gray and splotchy, but they're trying their best.

Anyone who chooses to follow can observe the natives going up to the altar and sharing stories with one another. They talk about things they did over the past year or things that are far, far in their past. Some of the stories are happy and result in the procession laughing and some are...well, not everyone came back from the lightning storms. The priests diligently write every story down on those parchment rolls and deposit them onto the waiting altar, where they're summarily lit on fire to the cheers of those present. The more emotional the story it seems, the brighter and bluer the flame that it emits and the louder the procession cheers.

As the file out, they notice you watching and urge you to go up with someone else in the temple to clear your heart and offer up your own stories. They can be stories of home, information about your worlds, or stories about your life. It seems the more personal the story, the brighter the flame though and the more Dora that will mysteriously show up in your account at a later date. If the priests are asked about this donation later, they're just as perplexed. No one they know would have paid anyone for an offering to Ohma, so where could it have come from....?

❥ PROMPT IV: Sleep Sweet

With Ainea's temple familiars finally back where they belong, quiet returns to the city at night. We're sure that first long uninterrupted sleep felt heavenly, right? Although there may not be color in the city, the world of dreams at least is fully technicolor and safe. Which might be weird for some characters in case they don't normally dream or remember their dreams because now everyone is dreaming at night. Most of the dreams are the usual variety that your character always has, but every so often in the midst of a pleasant dream about home or a funky one about flying pizza (whatever it is you usually dream about, we don't judge), there's a glitch.

Out of the corner of your eye or just on the edge of your vision, a person appears. Their face can't be seen and their arms are longer than they have any right to be, but they appear and stand there, watching. Trying to focus on this person causes them to flit away and it's easy enough to dismiss as a random event, until it keeps happening. And it keeps happening, and it keeps happening, and every time you see this person, they get closer and even less distinct. Waking up and talking to or holding someone might help calm that disquiet in your heart, offworlder, so hopefully there's someone around to help you.

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This event will run from September 16th to September 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 on the OOC Entry.

Feel free to also use the OOC Plotting Post for planning what your character is up to!

Comments

[begguiling]

"Who, me? I'm just a baby compared to how long ago we're talking here! Their descendants still exist, but I'm not one of them. But I lived on the planet they hailed from, and my name comes from their language. So I'm not entirely unconnected."

This time he doesn't claim to be from the planet they came from, unlike the first time he mentioned Halcandra to Verstael; he just says he lived on it, which is more honest. He's not sure how much telling any lies on the altar might affect the ritual here.

But that aside, after that clarification, he tilts his head and gives Verstael a thoughtful look, eyes lowered.

"Anyway, that's a nice thought, but great minds are still minds. Is a mind free of any desire really great? And if great minds never conflicted with one another, wouldn't that mean they're all the same? Could they still be considered great then?"

It's something he's had a lot of time to think about in the years since he was the person who believed his own will was the only one the universe needed.

[original_is_best]

Not a descendant, but close and named after their language. Perhaps raised by someone connected, then.

"I suppose conflict is often the source of progress. My job would not have been so urgent were it not for war. I have always thought that, had I the chance to be with like-minded individuals, I would be relishing the opportunity to make great strides in technology. It's disheartening to hear such an opportunity go to waste... but I suppose it is hardly the first time an ancient culture has been destroyed."

Solheim. He smiled slightly.

"I suppose in return, it would make sense to tell you of our own civilization. Solheim was said to have originated in the Duscae and Cleigne regions, existing over 2,000 years ago. According to legend, they worshiped the fire god, Ifrit, and it was his gift of the knowledge of fire that led them to be prosperous. Peace ruled the lands, with airships drifting through the skies and magitek armor on land.
The people worshiped Ifrit, with fire symbolizing life. They built Steyliff Grove at the Vesperpool to pay tribute to their deceased, with water being a reminder of death. They created many other architectural marvels, some of which still stand to this day. Solheim was a light of inspiration for the world, a leader in technology.
According to tales the people became too proud. They turned on Ifrit, and it became the start of the Astral Wars that nearly brought extinction to all of humanity. Solheim collapsed, and the remnants of mankind rebuilt from what little was left.
My home, Niflheim, came to be hundreds of years later when House Aldercapt began a movement to revive Solheim. Details are few, but given the leaders of Lucis were razing entire villages to the ground I can guess at the reasoning for other countries being formed in the following time.
Truthfully, I question the idea that the people of Solheim simply became arrogant. The gods are cold and distant and care little about us. I feel certain there is more to the story than what we were left with. After all, our books described the "Founder King of Lucis" as a hero who freed Lucis and protected the Oracle. In truth he was a Ursurper who murdered the Oracle. But, as they say, history is written by the victors."

[begguiling]

Aha, interesting. Magolor listens to the history with genuine, focused attention, ears pricked. So many aspects are so familiar. These things are the nature of society, and intelligent beings, across the universe.

When Verstael finishes he nods, with a slight smile of his own.

"Who can say? Peaceful societies are the greatest targets of all. I could tell you a few stories about that, too! There's not much safety in peace so long as unrest exists anywhere else. . . . Well, I'm not saying it isn't worth aspiring to, though. I'd still take peace over war any day."

[original_is_best]

"I was born into war, so I have always aspired to find peace. With my work, we should finally be able to conquer our foes in the near future... In some ways it's difficult to imagine what the world will be like without war, though. I suppose, though we've fought hard to bring the war to an end, peace cannot last. Those who never knew war will become restless in peace, and the process will start all over again."

He could theorize though they'd been at war far longer than he'd been alive.

"When we think of this society in that context it certainly puts things in a different light. They appear to strive for peace, and yet it seems there may be much that has gone wrong. They only have this small space to even live in anymore."

Which begged the question: What happened to the rest? He tilted his head, his gaze dropping down to their still locked hands.

[begguiling]

"That's true. And there's been no need for progress in a very long time."

If there had been, surely there wouldn't be so many problems with the technology being outdated, and there would have been a solution to what's going on with the world long before it got to this critical point.

"This may not be a war, but maybe this strife will be for the better for this world, hmm?"

[original_is_best]

"I suppose I have an inquiry for you when we're in a more private situation. Whatever the situation, I have my doubts that all is as it appears."

He flung a hand open. The empty one, perhaps to Magolor's delight.

"Do you suppose our exchange has been adequate?"

[begguiling]

"I think we fulfilled our purpose here, Chief. And I'm dying to know what you've got to say in private! How embarrassing~."

He presses his own free hand to his cheek. One last bit of theatrics before they hop off the altar and leave it to everyone else.