♥ 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...

---

❥ 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.

---

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

[shroudedsecrets]

[Kova gently kneads at him, gently starting to purr. He can tell that Taako's heart is still racing a bit, so he's doing his best to be as calming as possible for him.

She's ... honestly not all that familiar with liquor on its own, or booze as they call it, so it takes a few moments of fiddling with the machine and hoping that whatever it spits out is something the elf would find ... well, suitable to his needs at the moment.

And then there's the case of bringing it back which is also strange enough. She'd rather float it along to him with her magic or teleport back over, but again, it seems better to be cautious. Which means actually carrying him the glass. Knowing him he'd probably find that stranger.

But it was a choice, she might as well commit to it now. As she heads back toward him.]

[abracafcku]

[After a moment of the kneading, Taako lifts his arm from his eyes to look at Kova. The cat is doing his best, even if he doesn't know what's wrong and that? That brings a smile to Taako's face, despite the cold dread that sits like a rock in his stomach. While Haggar is gone, he lifts his hand to scratch under Kova's chin, murmuring quietly.]

Thanks, little dude. Taako's good though, so you don't gotta worry.

[He's just finished talking to Kova when he sees Haggar come back into the room, carefully balancing a cup in her hands. She looks off-kilter in her own right, walking around and carrying things instead of just zapping them around with her powers, and Taako snorts, dropping his arm back over his eyes.]

Don't strain yourself there, Miss Marvel - just zap it to the table. I'm not so delicate that I'll die from fright at having magic flung around.

[shroudedsecrets]

[The cat may not quite understand what's wrong, but he knows discomfort when he sees it. He gives a little lick to Taako's fingers after the scritch and talk. Smiling is a good sign, but he'll just remain sitting where he is until Taako has him move.

When Taako addresses her, Honerva frowns slightly, but nods and acquiesces to his allowance of it, releasing the drink and allowing it to float toward the table instead. She so rarely ever carried anything physically that it honestly did feel strange, to do so deliberately.]

I hope it is to your liking.

[Or does whatever he intends it to do. Because she honestly has no way of knowing that, either.]

[abracafcku]

[He got licked. By a cat.

Holy fucking shit, he's the Chosen One and no one can ever dissuade him from this idea until the end of time.

He waits until the cup settles on the table and then grabs for it, lifting his head enough to take a sip without forcing Kova off. It's palatable and while he might toss a current of transmutation magic through it to make it stronger, it's good enough for his purposes. After a second drink, he sets it down with a huff.

The burn is what he needs right now anyway, something to take his mind off the faceless creature and the grasping hands made of black opal.... Taako shudders involuntarily.]

Harder to give a shit about dreams when you're drunk as fuck, y'know? Doesn't have to be good, just has to get the job done.

[shroudedsecrets]

Perhaps... for the moment. But then, what would happen once the intoxication passes?

[She doesn't... she hasn't quite dealt with drunkenness, to understand what it meant to be in such a state for a time, but she knows that chasing one distraction out with another only works for so long, before a crash. Especially if what it was being used against was lingering and mental.]

Eventually you would reach a point where it all... coalesces.

[abracafcku]

Well well, Miss Nancy Drew, look at you being all knowledgeable and shit.

[Taako raises an eyebrow and then shrugs.]

But I dunno. Pretty sure I've been living at a level of lowkey to highkey existential horror crisis for over a hundred years now, so if there's an indication that it's going to coalesce anytime soon? I haven't seen it.

[shroudedsecrets]

[She's quiet for a moment, tilting her head at his words. This she knows, from Lup, though it's sometimes strange to hear Taako speak of it so casually, too.]

Such indications are not... always visible.

[That at least, she knows too well.]

Shall I retrieve another glass for you?

[abracafcku]

[He holds a hand up, flapping his fingers and thumb together and rolling his eyes.]

Yes, yes, invisible traumas blah blah post traumatic blah blah, thanks Deanna Troy.

[Taako drops his hand and lets it hit the floor, sighing.]

If dying nineteen times and watching my friends die uh...probably a combined hundred isn't enough to break me, a few bad dreams [every night] certainly won't. I mean, all of us - present company included - have basically had the shittiest luck in the universe and we're not blubbering messes yet, so I think we'll be just fine.

[So long as Lup didn't try to drink herself into oblivion again, or Taako didn't start thinking of people as dust again, or Honerva didn't lose her memories again.

He sighs and drops his arm over his eyes again, squeezing his shaking fingers into a fist.]

Might as well start lining them up. If I don't drink 'em, you can then.

[shroudedsecrets]

[She's quiet for a moment, studying him with that considering look before murmuring her response.]

... perhaps it did not break you then, because you were not trying to take that on by yourself.

[He'd had a support system, that he had surely forgotten about, and sure she and Lup were here, but she doubted Taako thought of her in that way at all, and who knew how he was actually handling things with his sister.

Even so, on that, she'll turn almost immediately around to swoop back to the kitchen -- that was almost too blunt, for her, and she could see the way he was shaking now. So much for appearances. But if he wanted a few more of those glasses? Fine, that was doable. Drinking it herself? That was... weird. She did not want to create so many of the things that she'd have to take care of the rest herself.

So... three more? Three more, that seemed like a good number. He might not be able to handle so many, but then the excess would not be so egregious.]

[abracafcku]

[He still wasn't because he'd have to address the issue first in order to take anything on at all. And Taako? Taako was good out here in Denialville, population Taako, thank you very much. He raises a finger to protest, but Haggar's already moved off back to the kitchen, leaving him in the living room with Kova purring on his chest.

Since she's off to get more alcohol, Taako knocks back half of what was left in his cup and then points at Kova.]

You know that Taako doesn't need any of Talk Out Your Feelings junk, don't you, Kova? Taako's totally fine right where he is.

[With the nightmares and the feeling that he can still see that stretched out shadow reaching for him even now. He shudders and drops the cup back onto the table, raising his voice so Haggar could hear him from the kitchen.]

Also, it's kinda rich being told to rely on people when they won't even tell you their damn name and it's been a fuckin' year!

[shroudedsecrets]

[Kova continues to do what he does best: continuing to purr and providing kitty comfort in these trying times.

The additional floating glasses return before Honerva does, one, two, three, and after that last line Taako shouts at her she can't help but add another to it, as it follows, a little delayed after the rest of the glass procession before she reemerges from the kitchen, frowning because she knows he's not entirely wrong but this has been something she's not known how to address with him because it had been all that time.

And... perhaps it was, wrong of her and that she should have tried harder to correct it but he had also left her with the impression that it would not matter if he knew it or not. Also it was pretty damn weird to have to introduce yourself after a year to begin with.]

... You're right. I should have ... informed you, months ago.

[Given at the time they had met she had not yet fully accepted it, but at least she might have tried back when the plan to go their world had first emerged, of course, but there was always something else to talk about that got in the way and in the end, never addressed. Likely, it was also easy to think he'd already known it for her to have to say it herself, but perhaps it would have meant more if she had been the one to say it.

How could she even express her point if he felt he'd had no reason to tell someone who could not be as open with him due to her own shortcomings? Sometimes she was too fragile for his callousness, but she dealt with it.]

My name is Honerva.

[abracafcku]

[Technically, Taako already knew that. He'd known for months that her name was Honerva, even before he heard Lup using it. He'd been in her head, after all, had seen her memories and had kept all of that absolutely silent. It was an invasion of privacy that he hadn't been privy to and it had always left a bad taste in his mouth.]

Fuckin' finally. I was running out of nicknames for you, nerdo.

[Now, with her name in the open, he relaxes and thrusts his hand over the top of the couch in a lazy gesture waiting for a handshake.]

Hail and well met, Honerva. Good to actually meet you after living with you for, like, forever.

[shroudedsecrets]

[It's... not the response Honerva was expecting, given the way his moodswings tended to keep her unbalanced around him. Always braced for the sarcastic comeback or biting remark, and this was oddly disarming.

Still this was relieving, in a way, a chance to overcome at least some part of that ambiguity that was always left hanging between them. She glides her way forward to close the gap, so she can slip her hand into his waiting one.]

... Well met, Taako.

[It is nice. A lot warmer, too, than their meeting a year ago.]

[abracafcku]

See? It's not so hard to be a normal person and introduce yourself.

[What was that about a sarcastic biting comeback? Did you miss it? Because he's always happy to provide.

Taako snickers as he shakes her hand over Kova, and is somewhat confused when the rapid-fire beating of his heart actually starts to slow a little. Maybe it's the alcohol finally kicking in, or maybe it's the fact that this planet apparently has a hard-on for destroying personal bubbles. Honestly, as Taako holds onto Honerva's hand, he's thinking it's probably the latter.]

Now we might even have regular conversations because I'm not constantly using 80% of my brain power trying to think up worse and worse nicknames in an attempt to make you break out of annoyance.

[shroudedsecrets]

[Ah, there it is. But with the slight delay in delivery and the fact that she's still holding on to his hand, it's still nicely buffered than if he had led right in with it.]

Then, I am glad that such a thing will no longer distract from the... quality of our conversations.

[But normal? Regular? By whose standards, indeed. But no time like the present to make an attempt...?]

... Although, Lup told me once that she never tried to be normal, and said that you would back that up for her.

[abracafcku]

Well, natch.

[He doesn't try to pull his hand back since he's growing calmer by the second, even if it's an odd position to be in. Kova's still sitting on his chest, there are four and half cups of alcohol on the table, and here he is with his hand stuck up in the air, holding onto Honerva. The blood hasn't started draining out of his arm yet though, so here he stays.]

Normal for us and normal for the rest of the boring ass world is completely different. Most normies would think going out to a bar is for drinking, but us? Pfft, nah. Going to a bar is for hustling suckers at pool for their shoes. And drinking after we steal their shoes.

[shroudedsecrets]

[It was nice to hold his hand like this, given it provided a layer of ease there that had not been present before. Not quite the same amount as braiding Lup's hair had provided, but... it was a difference, certainly noticeable in a world which relied upon such things.]

Then it seems that "normal" is only defined by your priorities, in that situation...

[The priority of them being in some need or want of shoes, in that case, instead of spending the money for it that they may not have had access to, with the bonus of whatever fun there was in winning it.

When she applied that analogy to what she was used to, normal for her once upon a time would have been taking ownership of the bar and then using it for a completely different purpose and not even having a drink at all by the end of it.

And now she was back to trying to understand such concepts in the first place, with her priorities so altered and not even established.]

Perhaps you can show me what pool is, sometime.

[abracafcku]

In all situations, natch.

[He shrugs his shoulders, pointedly ignoring that they're still holding hands. The unease is nearly gone by now, but the lingering edges of it encourage him to continue what is easing it.

At the suggestion, however, he laughs a little.]

I can show you what pool is - but only if you're willing to wager your shoes.

[shroudedsecrets]

[She has nowhere to be, so if he makes no sign of wanting to let go, she's not about to either.

Hard to tell if it's a rare opportunity or not, after all, that his mood seems to be allowing for it. And it's -- nice.]

Really? Sounds as though you think I'll be a quick learner.

[Or the opposite. She seems amused, though. Not as though he hadn't helped pick out the shoes for her in the first place.]

May I ask why are shoes your wager of choice? It seems like there is a story behind that one.

[abracafcku]

You're either going to be a genius and I'll find someone else I can use to hustle people, or you're going to be terrible and I'll get a new pair of footwear. Either way, I win.

[Because he assumes she's not going to obliterate him and take his shoes. She has no use for them, unlike the other way around.]

And we were leaving our plane for a few months - why would we need money, right? But shoes? You can always use shoes. And even if you don't want them? [He laughs in a slightly unkind manner.]

There is nothing funnier than watching some sucker have to walk home without his damn shoes.

[shroudedsecrets]

If you say so, Taako.

[She gets it, though. His explanation helps, confirming some of her thoughts; either a beneficial use or a source of amusement, perhaps it didn't take much, to amuse him in that way.

Or it was just about the sort of thing that was needed, while they got by. Simple enough. The sorts of elusive things she'd struggled to make sense of now that there was opportunity to.]

You make it seem as if all of your amusement comes with such a price.

[abracafcku]

I mean, ch'yeah?

[What good is amusement if it doesn't amuse him? If most of his entertainment comes at the expense of others, he can't really be blamed for that, right?]

I never professed to be a good person.

[Even if he's often gone out of his way to help people or do things that would benefit others or spent the last century trying to save all of reality. Taako rolls his eyes and then realizes that his unease is gone and the blood is rapidly draining out of his arm. This is the most at ease Honerva has ever been around him though, so he has to consider his options here. He can pull his hand away and break this little moment up, or sit here and end up losing feeling in his arm.

Choices, choices.]

And anyone who says the opposite can go hug a bugbear.

[shroudedsecrets]

[Whatever kind of person Taako was, he had a far better grasp of the concept of person than she did, anyway, so it wasn't as if she could judge him for those choices. She is far more at ease around him than she ever had been, though. It's nice, if unusual. Hard to know if it would last with him, but for now she wasn't... worried about that.]

You are yourself.

[She does at least understand the twins are more... unique as far as some things go.]

You have the... choice of the sort of person you want to be, regardless of how others may see you. Or the role you find yourself in.

[That's... how it works, right?]

[abracafcku]

[He snorts in amusement and pulls his hand away finally, waving it to both get the blood flowing and chase away her words.]

Look at you being all Lady Wisdom there. What brought about this little nugget, huh?

[He shakes his arm and then drops it down, frowning at it as he starts to scoot Kova off him.]

Been talking to Lulu, I bet.

[shroudedsecrets]

[Kova gives a little start at the movement, though he acquiesces and shifts with a kitty yawn and stretch, trying to figure out how the elf plans to position himself.]

She and I do speak often, of thoughts like that.

[Though that particular gem... well, there's a little more bittersweet to that.]

Although, perhaps that consideration had been... initially inspired by Loki.

[It says a lot, that she's not referring to him as Captain as she so often did, even if she realizes, they may not have quite been on proper first name terms before the separation. So much of that left over, on her part.]