♥ 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

[unsunderworld]

The Source is what one might think of as the 'original' or 'largest' piece, and the others are reflections of it. Grand geographical features and climates are largely the same between Source and shard, but society and history can be quite different.

[An amused quirk of his mouth.]

To give an example, the citystate of Limsa Lominsa in the Source is notorious for being one step above an open pirate coven; privateers are an accepted part of the structure of their navy, and contraband is a market as strong as any legitimate goods. But in nearly the same location on the First is the city of Eulmore, which until recently was a city of opulent decadence funded by the rich sacrificing their personal wealth into a communal paradise. The two are dissimilar as can be, but the harbors they are built upon are fundamentally the same.

[A thoughtful look.]

As for what we call simply 'the rift,' it is equally as difficult to traverse as what you describe, at least for most people.

[betheirwayfinder]

Hm.

[She can't think of too many similarities between the Worlds she's visited and trying to think about the many she knows she hasn't and might never visit. Besides humans, there are all sorts of races, plenty of worlds have castles but others don't.]

I suppose... There are the Keyholes. They keep the Worlds separate from one another but every World has one. Which means every World has its own Keyblade, just not a bearer.

[unsunderworld]

So there is something that maintains their separation? How odd.

[Compared to the effort of Rejoinings, at least.]

If Keyblades are linked to one's spirit, as you said before, how is it that a world can possess one?

[betheirwayfinder]

In a way. I don't think we could put them all back together but we can keep the Darkness out, at least. And keep people from traveling between them and risking other worlds with conflicting beliefs or lifestyles.

[She'd be terrified to imagine her Worlds being rejoined.

That question gets her back onto good footing though.]

Every World has a Heart all its own. If a Keybearer visits the World, it's possible to find a Keychain for it. It modifies our Keyblades into the one for that World.

[unsunderworld]

[The mention of keeping Darkness out, naturally, gets him to raise those incredibly distinct eyebrows. Clearly he isn't at all unaware of his own affiliation with the element.]

Mm. I cannot say if it is the same in your worlds, but an imbalance of Light will do you no good, either.

[And he seems willing to leave it at that, unless she pushes further, because he immediately turns back to the subject at hand.]

Still, that is very interesting. In that case, does the world have a will of its own? Does it choose to entrust its power only to those who are worthy? Or does it simply seek any suitable person?

[betheirwayfinder]

You... [Damn, he's got her there. It's something she's had to learn herself since her Master's murder.]

You're right. No World is pure Light though, it has it's own Darknesses, but we have to keep excess out. Or the Worlds could be swallowed up and disappear into the Realm of Darkness.

[Slowly, she shakes her head.]

Only those who are worthy. I'm not sure how much of a will each World has, but it's enough that only Keybearers have ever been entrusted with Keychains. Though there are some people on each World who know about it all. Merlin, in Radiant Garden, knows quite a bit. Beyond the story about the Worlds.

[unsunderworld]

We have lost one shard to darkness, and nearly lost another to light - and quite recently, too. The void however remains, and its denizens hunger always.

[Though the idea of stopping the aetherial flow between shards... Even were it possible, it would be counterproductive to everything they desire.]

I imagine that those you speak of are more scholars than survivors?

[He wouldn't ask, except - Once in a very great while, he allows himself to indulge in the thing more dangerous than curiosity. If even the possibility exists of others like himself, somewhere so far away...

The question of what he would do is one that he doesn't even allow to be consciously addressed, longshot that it is. But he cannot not ask, for as casual as his tone remains, to say that he would forever wonder is no understatement.]

[betheirwayfinder]

The void. They sound like the Heartless, almost. Darkness engulfs the Heart, swallows a person whole, and leaves behind a Heartless.

[A nod then, thinking back to Merlin and his crowded, slightly cluttered, home in Radiant Garden.]

A scholar, I wish I'd had more opportunity to talk with him. [There was Scrooge too but she knows he wasn't from Radiant Garden. Without talking to him and Merlin more though? She's at a loss as to his story.] He might be friends with Master Yen Sid. He's the oldest member of our order, he may have learned a lot from him before he retired.

[unsunderworld]

If the creatures you fight are anything like voidsent, it speaks well of him that he lived to retire.

[Mortals die all too quickly. Those who throw themselves in the path of doing good, of protecting others, even more so.

His disappointment at her answer doesn't show, because he expected no less.]

[betheirwayfinder]

He's, I think, the most powerful of all of us.

[How old even is Yen Sid? Hundreds of years? More? Less?]

If I could show you a bit about the Heartless or Unversed, I would. I wouldn't wish them here though. As much as this world has endured.

[She has a thought though, looking through her communicator at the apps available to them all, frowning.]

Maybe I can find some paper or something somewhere. I could sketch out some of the ones I've seen then.

[unsunderworld]

Nor would I wish either voidsent or sin eaters - their Light counterparts - upon it. They'd likely consume everything that's left.

[Starting, of course, with the places richest in aether and the people who remain there.]

Perhaps our hosts can be enticed to grant some, or some equivalent, sooner rather than later.

[betheirwayfinder]

That- no, I don't think anyone would really want that. This world is already enough of a mess and who knows how many people here can actually fight.

[At least, she hopes no one would want that!]

That would be nice, wouldn't it? A chance to learn a bit more that words alone just can't really express.

[unsunderworld]

Should it come to that, I would think it at least enough to defend our small number. Our hosts, bereft of what one might call living aether, would largely be uninteresting to the monsters I know so long as living people are about.

[And he'll defend his own - even the fragments of his own - first, anyway. In the long term, the two souls of the Source that are here are even more valuable than most.]

To learn, and to create. I can only imagine that the arts of this world are as stagnant as the people.

[betheirwayfinder]

They would be to those I know as well. No Hearts to steal, no emotions to feed on- well, not so strong as what we might feel. I'm sure the Unversed would prefer us to the natives, mostly.

[And that, she would agree, was more than fair. Even expected.]

It's a sad state of affairs, really. I can't imagine going so far as to give up my own body, part of what makes me who I am.

[unsunderworld]

[And that last comment - not a person living would say that Emet-Selch is not expressive, and though his raised eyebrows by themselves might be taken as innocent curiosity by themselves, the amusement in his eyes fairly gleams.]

Oh? I understand their feelings quite well, actually. The flesh is not as inherent to identity as many think, in my experience.

[betheirwayfinder]

Really? Body, Heart, and Soul make us up, where I come from. Is that really not something very important in your world?

[Wait, in his experience..?] Have you lost your body before?

[unsunderworld]

The soul is the thing of real importance; I've not heard of anyone distinguishing the heart from it.

[It is perhaps an interesting line of thought to consider later.]

Technically speaking, I've no body of my own, nor do any others of my kind. We make do with what we might create, or what the previous owners no longer have need of. I'm admittedly not particularly sure where this one came from.

[He makes a show of looking down and picking at his robes before shrugging.]

[betheirwayfinder]

I would show you, if I could, but I only know of one Master who ever tampered with a Heart before. And it tore my friend apart.

[Friends.

That thought falls to the side though at hearing that comment and her face pales slightly. Snd she just looks shocked, maybe a little horrified.]

That... that's terrible! How can you survive without a body for any period of time- what about whoever that was?

[unsunderworld]

Probably for the best not to chance such things, agreed.

[...Ah, heroes.]

This form wasn't anyone's - assuming it to be alike to the bodies I've been using of late on the Source, which were cloned specifically for that purpose. Even outside of that, my kind tends towards... Bodies that are already free of occupants, to put it politely.

[Less politely, they possess corpses. And anyway mortals don't matter.]

Being without a body does me no particular harm, it's just annoying to be largely unable to interact with the material world.