hugtopia_logs | ♥ December (Ranir) Event Log

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♥ December (Ranir) Event Log

Two cardboard robots wearing santa hats in the snow

December (Ranir) Event Log
The end of the year is here and winter has arrived. The chilly fall weather quickly gives way to cold days and colder nights, perfect for snuggling and watching the first dusting of snow fall. It doesn't seem to stick for long, but it's certainly a beautiful sight to watch out of your windows. Ranir is the beginning of Rawna's time to shine, but the god of apathy breeds apathetic followers and priests - or he usually does. Maybe it's due to the influence of all the offworlders for the past year, but this year? Ranir is strangely familiar in its festivities...

❥ PROMPT I: Bring Out Your Pens

No one is quite sure how, but over the past year, the natives have come to learn about a very particular figure in many of the offworlders' legends. He appears one time a year, shrouded in mystery, visiting in the dead of night, only to vanish until the next year. This godlike figure has piqued their interest to say the least and once Ranir is in full swing, offworlders who are aware of the legend of Santa Claus will start seeing some robots, especially Rawna's temple priests, wearing that familiar red and white outfit around town. They're carrying sacks on their backs and going door to door, electronics buzzing with excitement as they find anyone they can to shove an actual pen and paper into their hands.

"All hail the Santa of Clause!" they exclaim with glee. "Hail to your winter god! Nail your socks to the wall!"

Anyone who receives a letter set in person will then be told to write a letter to the Santa of Clause (and the robots ARE checking spelling. Who's ever heard of Santa Claus? Clearly you're mistaken and need a spelling software update) asking for a present, to a friend in town, or to someone back home. They won't leave until you write your letter, either. Whether it means they have to follow you all day, all week, or straight into your homes, they will complete their duty to the Santa of Clause and appease his great and terrible appetite for grammatically correct letters. For those who are lucky enough to avoid the robots in person, they may find a letter set in their mailbox one more with similar instructions about to whom they should be writing and a cheery announcement that someone will be by later to pick the letter up.

The sheer volume of letters being passed around town, however, is more than the robots alone can deliver. Soon enough, they start reaching out to the offworlders to help deliver the letters to their intended recipients, whether it's other offworlders, natives, or to temples to be placed upon the gods' altars. Anyone who is willing to help out will be given a small token of appreciation in the form of Dora, but more importantly, a larger gift of the Santa of Clause approved uniform. That's right: a Santa costume. If you're delivering letters, you must be wearing a Santa costume or you'll anger the Winter God, Santa of Clause! Or so the natives believe. So get into the holiday spirit and dress on up!

Those who wish to write letters to someone who is no longer among the city population or those who have never been here are more than encouraged to do so. In fact, Rawna's temple priests seem particularly interested in having people come by to read those letters directly at their temples to tie this offworld holiday into Rawna's typical purview. Read your letters to your loved ones or just read a letter detailing what you want for the holidays at Rawna's temple to unburden your soul as the year ends. Maybe you'll walk away feeling lighter than before.

❥ PROMPT II: This Isn't What I Ordered

pencil sketch of a dragon in flight dropping a package to a woman with arms outstretched

At the end of the month, characters will wake up to light scratching at their doors. The sound is enough to get anyone's attention, especially if the scratching is at their bedroom doors, rather than their front doors. When people go to investigate, they'll find a little rainbow dragonling at their feet looking up at them expectantly. By the dragonling's side is a box of varying sizes, decorated and topped with a holographic bow. Once the dragonling has determined that you recognize the package is yours, it slithers off back to where it came from, escaping your house with surprising ease.

Opening the package will reveal one item from your character's life. That's right, it's a regain event! The item inside the box is familiar to your character and it might bring a smile to their face - or it would if it wasn't just....slightly? Wrong? For whatever reason, it seems this year the gift giving went a bit awry and all the items delivered by the dragonlings are off in some manner or another. For example, you might have gotten a box set of your favorite books from home! But they're all in a language you can't read. Or you may have gotten your favorite sweater back! But it's fourteen sizes too big and looks like it was sized for a T-Rex instead. Or your favorite gun from home is now bright neon bubblegum pink instead of that sleek and cool gunmetal gray. Oh and the bullets shoot flowers instead of, y'know, bullets. Whoops.

Whatever the problem, every gift received seems to have something wrong with it. As the complaints start rolling in, the temple priests will try their best to fix it by having all willing characters come with their malfunctioning gifts. A few trials and errors reveal that the best way to get things right again is? You guessed it: positive contact. Any temple will do for this, but Rawna's temple is naturally the busiest seeing as it's sort of his holiday and thus, sort of(?) his fault. Come with a friend or a frenemy or just a straight enemy if that's your flavour, place both of your gifts on the temple's altar, and just hold on tight. Once contact is initiated, the gifts will start to glow with a soft light; and the longer the contact is held, the brighter the light gets. It can take up to an hour depending on the level of wrongness your gift went to in order for the light to grow bright enough to flash and set the gifts back to their original forms. But there are rumours that talking about the gift you received and why it is significant to you makes the process far faster, resulting in a light that might flash as soon as you finish your story. Just be sure to hurry to correct this mistake. Some of the temple priests hypothesize that the corrections can only be made so long as Rawna's power holds sway.

OOC: These items from home must be approved by a mod. They cannot exceed the Medium Item regain limit. It cannot be a power or other ability. It cannot be something your character did not own or have knowledge of in their canon or their CRAU. Please post your regain request in the Regain Request thread before threading out the receipt or restoration of the item.

❥ PROMPT III: Ghostly Consequences

young boy sleeping in bed hugging a glowing moon

Toward the end of the month, people begin having dreams of Havenwell. That's nothing truly unusual, certainly, as it's quite normal for dreams to mimic one's daily life. What is unusual is that these dreams feel...real. Too real. And the people in the dreams are ones that may or may not be familiar to you. The faces of the dream people resemble those of the ghosts that took over Havenwell a month or two prior, and they seem to be going about their business as if they lived in Havenwell. In fact, they seem to be living your lives instead of you, living in your house, sleeping in your beds, working your jobs, talking with your friends. No one in the dream seems to notice the switcheroo and try as you might to interact with people in the dream, it looks like you've taken on the role of ghost. Thankfully, these dreams are innocuous and short, snapshots of your life rather than full length dreams and are over quickly.

However, before each dream ends, the ghost living your life turns to you and puts their hands together in a pleading gesture. What do they say? That differs for each person.

For most offworlders, the message is the same. The ghost puts their hands together and says:

"Balance must always be kept. Nothing shall die here that He does not allow. Your sacrifice is balance, and balance must always be kept. Some must die or all shall perish. These were their promises and their demise."

But, if your character touched a ghost in the previous event, you will receive a PM from the mod account soon with your specific message. Keep an eye out for your message.

The dream ends once the message is delivered and you'll find yourselves not where you remember - your bed, your sofa, wherever you went to sleep - but someplace new. Apparently the dreams have caused some minor sleepwalking and you may just find yourself waking up in someone else's bed or up a tree or about to buy that super expensive plastic model of Havenwell's latest holomovie starlet. Whoops.

This event will run from 15 December to 31 December. 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. You can also use the Havenwell Status page or the General Plotting Comment to give you other ideas for original prompts!

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I. Bring Out Your Pens

a

Genesis had heard neither of Santa of Clause or Santa Claus, so he really couldn't be bothered with this nonsense. Until the robots got to the point of nearly coming into his home and after a swift boot out of the door, he finally gave them their oh so precious letter, written in perfect grammar (and he will not have you say otherwise, if he hadn't been a SOLDIER he would have very well had a degree of some sort of literature). The letter itself was nothing completely special, addressed to this odd winter god but written not at all to that odd winter god. It was written for a close friend. Genesis knew it would never reach him, Angeal was beyond the mortal realm at this point nor had he shown up here prior to his death like Sephiroth. So, he simply wrote a letter that would never reach the recipient because he wasn't really worried if anyone did happen upon it. The only person who knew the story lived with him.

Of course, then the infernal robots were back to drag him to the temple just so he could read the damn thing out loud. "Let someone else read it, I don't care."

"Nonsense, it should be you to-"

"I said I don't care. Now please move aside before I make you."

He didn't have his sword on him, he never really had much of a need for it right now in the city, but that didn't mean he couldn't do something he might regret. It was obvious he was coming close to it as his eyes glowed a little brighter as his frustration rose and brushed a hand through his shorter (but still auburn) locks before firmly planting it on his hip while the other clenched threateningly.

b

So, in exchange for not reading his letter out loud to anyone who happen to be listening at the temple (and he said they were free to do it for him if they really felt that need to share with the class) was that he would help collect the letters from the other townsfolk and yes, he would wear the very dumb costume. At least it was red, he thought with a roll of his eyes. Nonetheless, he went the homes of those who had not submitted a letter yet and offered to deliver it for them or pulled the finished letter out of the mailbox.

Or, if the writer was having difficulties due to the robots wanting to be so grammatically correct, he simply offered, "I can proofread it for you."

He probably didn't sound all that happy to do it, but he also wasn't angry or anything. He was just sort of tired of all this nonsense. But he also knew first hand at this point how persistent the robots were so if helping out a few other townsfolk kept them out of their hairs, then so be it.

II. This Isn't What I Ordered

a. - Locked to Sephiroth

"It's wrong and you are going to help me fix this."

There was no room for argument. Genesis held his precious book and he wanted it fixed and it was going to require Sephiroth's assistance. From the outside, the book appeared fine. It was the same cover as always, it looked brand new even, which was all well and good until one reads the contents. While the poem was where it should be, as were the script to the play, it was the words themselves that were off. Almost every other verse or line had something that was not supposed to be there. And Genesis would know. He knew the book front to back, back to front, right to left, and left to right.

And he had beaten the damn thing into Sephiroth's head so he better damn well know that it's wrong and it just wouldn't do!

"You're coming with me to the temple to get this straightened out."

b

Now that his book situation was all handled, Genesis was very much a happy camper. So much so that he had taken to strolling Havenwell, book in hand, as he alternated between reading to himself the lines that he knew so well or read them aloud. He was usually pretty aware of his surroundings, reciting even without looking at the book at all in some cases. He didn't care if it was annoying anyone, he didn't care if the area was crowded or empty, he was going to recite LOVELESS no matter what.

Too bad he wasn't always looking where he was going and a run in with a resident was bound to happen. Genesis is more worried about his book and is eager to catch that than the fallen citizen, sorry. Still, he does hold a hand out or offer a look of (slight) apology afterwards. "Pardon me, I was a little preoccupied. You're not hurt, are you?"

Wildcard

[Or we can work out some other prompt. Any of these can be modified to suit your character too, if need be. I'm open to anything rly, just hit me up at

mossflowered!]

And then there was one other type. Someone who happened to overhear Genesis reciting from the book.

And Genesis might be shortly aware that he had someone following him and jotting notes down about the book.

Don't think Genesis didn't notice. He certainly did eventually notice and his recital was cut off midway to shut the book with a hearty slam so that he could look over his shoulder slightly.

"I would appreciate if you didn't stalk me."

"Stalking...? I'm simply listening to a reading."

And he was making such progress...!

"You needn't stop on my account. I appreciate the arts as well."

"Following me without my consent is stalking," Genesis replied, deadpan. "Why are you so interested?"

It wasn't that he couldn't understand, it was LOVELESS, after all. But there was a difference when he was reading it to someone and someone following him and listening when he wasn't ready for it.

"Perhaps if I had followed you into your house, but I see no offense in listening. If you do not wish to be listened to, why read aloud?"

He wasn't one who readily admitted to fault. Oh, there were times when he could say he made a mistake. But he was smart so he liked to keep those to a minimum.

Still, he grew more excited as he continued, grinning, "Would it not be amazing to listen to the literature of a foreign world? It can tell so much about that world, even if it is fiction."

"People will hear, that much I was aware of," Genesis shrugged. "But I didn't expect an audience to follow me and take notes without asking."

It was a little too close to the fanclubs of home. Most days, they were harmless. But certain members left a lot to be desired. Verstael, you're not earning him any favors.

"Perhaps," He conceded. He would be the first to admit that LOVELESS was one such piece of fiction because, at the end of the day, it wasn't entirely fiction. But he was probably the only person to know about that and, after what he had been through, was keen on keeping that to himself. Sephiroth being the only one privy to that piece of knowledge. "Tell me, then, what this particular tale of star-crossed lovers would tell you about Gaia that is different over another?"

The only thing he could really glean from what had been inserted into his book prior to fixing was an odd use of the common tongue, but he was no linguist so it didn't interest him much. Languages change and evolve, that much was true, but overall it wasn't Genesis' area.

"Is it so wrong to be productive?"

After all, if he made his own copy he would no longer require Genesis's.

"Many things that most people might overlook. We take for granted that aspects of another world will behave the same as our own, but that is not necessarily true. For example, we might assume that another planet with life has water on it - however, that is because that is how life as we have known it functions. There could be forms of life that do not rely on water. The idea of souls, as well, is a spiritual concept, which suggests religion, as well as mentions of a 'goddess'. People overlook many things in art because they assume them to be true, but if you look at this very world you may find that it is misguided to jump to even conclusions that most would believe are universal truths."

Sephiroth turned to regard Genesis with a follow up question on his lips, but then he saw what Genesis was holding and everything suddenly became clear. After all, Sephiroth had his own item in need of fixing. It was a photograph of the three of them. Or, at least, it was supposed to be. What Sephiroth received instead was a trio of chocobos, one red, one dark blue, and one white, all of them in vague approximations of their outfits.

“Of course. We certainly wouldn’t want to leave you looking like this either,” he said, instead of commenting on the copy of LOVELESS Genesis was holding out. Sephiroth didn’t know what was wrong with it but if Genesis was this keyed up about it it had to be bad.

He held up the 8 x 8 photograph for Genesis to see. The original had been a gift and seeing it now brought back memories even though it was all wrong.

“What would your fans say?”

Genesis was actually a little surprised he didn't get any pushback. He was all geared to argue his point, to point out the wrong lines and such, but that wasn't the case in the slightest. It left him a little speechless, enough that he silently took the picture to see just what was wrong with it.

He couldn't stop the slight snort.

"That I'm adorable, that's what." It was completely wrong, but it was charming in its own way. Unless what was done to LOVELESS.

Sephiroth made an amused sound at that. It was just like Genesis to say so, not that he was wrong. The photograph did have its merits. It just wasn't the original.

"I see. Perhaps we should leave it instead of capitulating to Rawna then." He had no intention of doing such, but it was an option. Sephiroth really didn't like the way the so-called gods toyed with them. Still, this wasn't the worst thing they had done, not by far. Instead, they might be able to make a copy before they fixed it.

"Only if you really want to carry that around or display it and suffer through the questions," Genesis rolled his eyes lightly before already making his way to the door, book in hand. "Let's go, our audience awaits."

Honestly, he wasn't even sure how it was going to be fixed. But he certainly hoped it would. There was no point in keeping this book if it wasn't so messed up.

"If you're sure." Sephiroth said it just to be contrary, but he followed Genesis to the door and outside anyway. He was quite content with the level of anonymity being here afforded him. No questions about chocobos or audiences needed in his case.

"I assume you'll be giving a recital after this."

"Please," He rolled his eyes, shoving his hands into the pocket of his coat. "From what I understand, we won't be the only ones with issues with our presents from dear Santa of Clause. They don't need a recital from me. Not right now, anyway."

Maybe later.

With everything Sephiroth knew about Havenwell, he did not doubt that for a second. This added factor of Santa of Clause did not take away from the fact that the so-called gods and the populace that served them were nothing short of incompetent.

"Doubtless, we'll have to wait our turn."

Sephiroth was a patient man in most cases, but it would be interesting to see if Genesis was feeling as charitable in this situation. He kept walking at a casual pace, not bothered at all by the way the crowd thickened as they drew closer to the city proper.

You know, he likes to think he's gotten pretty good at taking whatever's being thrown at him at any given time; he's adaptive, quick on his feet if not always quick on the uptake and he's been taking this whole being-displaced-from-everything thing as well as it can be taken. He likes to think.

Except he stops dead in his tracks when he hears a familiar voice, familiar lines, and would you believe his eyes nearly pop right out of his head when he turns to confirm his ( rightfully placed ) suspicions?

Imagine that, just for a second. SOLDIER First Class Zack Fair, standing there with his mouth hanging open to the point it's going to be a wonder if he doesn't attract flies or … anything close to it, eyes wide like he's just seen a ghost. We'll wait. While you imagine this.

When he finally finds his voice again he's already taking one step forward, one hand outstretched and a finger pointing, though it's more out of disbelief than any measure of malice. No thoughts, head empty.

"Genesis?!"

Genesis couldn't help but stare right back. He wasn't completely surprised, not at this point. But he was a little shocked at the reaction he got. He shut his book with a sharp sound and crossed his arms, book snug at his elbow.

"Yes, that's me," He answered calmly. "Is something the matter, Zack Fair? You do know it's rude to point and stare at people, don't you?"

Backwater boy, through and through. ~~Says the country bumpkin~~

Okay, Zack. To start, remember to breathe. After that, please recall the fact that you were already aware of Genesis of being in Havenwell. Sephiroth told you. Because he lives with him.

He takes in a breath and lets it out, dropping his hand back to his side because yes, it's rude to point, and it's rude to stare, and he's already done both when there's absolutely no reason for it. It's just going to take him a bit to wrap his head around this whole thing because back home … well.

Nothing is even close to as normal as seeing this man wandering around reading LOVELESS passages out loud.

He sighs, shakes his head, scrubs a hand back through his hair. "Yeah, no, sorry. I just." ( Insert deflating balloon noise here. ) "I knew you were here, it's just … kinda weird." Zack. That's also just on the wrong side of polite.

"That sounds bad. I don't mean weird weird—" Boy you're making it worse. Please stop talking.

"I ran into Sephiroth while I was delivering letters. So, you guys're living together, huh? Must … be like old times, almost, right?"

Oh, the secondhand embarrassment is strong with this one.

So emotional as always, Zack Fair. He wore his heart and his emotions on his sleeve. Still, he waited calmly as the young man worked through his words and emotions to get out what he was truly shocked about. To be honest, it wasn't like Genesis didn't know. But it was always fun seeing others react nonetheless.

"I'm aware how strange it is to see me," He finished for Zack. But then lifted his shoulders in a small shrug. "Yes, we are. No, we didn't live together before but I suppose it's as close to old times as we'll get."

After all, he didn't cook for Sephiroth before or get Sephiroth actually interested in anymore than what was nutritionally required and sound. He also didn't get to decorate his apartment too much, there wasn't much point when it always felt like he wasn't there often enough. There were some touches that were uniquely his, of course, but when most things were supplied for you shopping just became a chore.

So he was very much made their shared living space cozier whenever something caught his eye. It also sometimes exasperated Sephiroth which made it all the sweeter.

"What do you last remember, anyway?"

It's just … how he's always been, probably how he's always going to be because he doesn't know any other way to be. He's expressive. He's never been given a reason to hide anything he's feeling. At the very least, though, he's reeling it back in as best he can so he doesn't end up being, uh. Overwhelming or anything close to it when it comes to holding a conversation with one ( 1 ) Genesis Rhapsodos.

It's still weird, no matter how he looks at it, and it's going to continue to be weird until the novelty of the whole thing wears off. When that's going to happen, we just don't know.

He can do this, though. He can act like a normal human being because it seems like Genesis is acting like a normal human being, or as close to one as a SOLDIER can get. So. No being weird, Zack Fair.

It is kind of amusing, though, to think about the two of them living together. Being close enough to domestic that it should count for something, and even more amusing is the thought of Sephiroth learning how to … well, be a person instead of a soldier. He's always seemed like the sort to need some guidance in that department.

He's about to say something else along those lines but then that question comes, and it doesn't catch him as off-guard as it had when Sephiroth had asked; it's never going to be easy to talk about, he doesn't think, but having done so recently enough makes the answer easier to get out, at least.

"Modeoheim," he says as neutrally as possible, and he's not sure if he needs to say anything else to make it clear what that means. "I wound up here almost immediately after all … that."

And while Genesis is busy stuck in his book, reciting his poetry, he ends up almost stepping on a poor toad. The toad tries to get out of the way and then bumps into an annoyed robot, who smacks him out of the way, causing him to fly.....

And end up on Genesis' book. Hi.

Well, hi.

Genesis wasn't sure what to make of a toad suddenly landing on his book. He almost flung it away from sheer surprise but instead, quietly picked it up and set it along a wall so he could see if he could get the toad... slime stuff from staining the pages.

"Gross."

How rude! It's not as if he put slime on your book on purpose!

Thank god the guy didn't smack him out of the way though. Cloud was about to hop off and keep going home when.....hang on. Did that man have mako eyes?

Was he a SOLDIER? Cloud didn't recognise him and he could be wrong. However, Cloud felt like he should stick around a bit. So he stayed where he was and watched Genesis tried to get frog slime off his page. God, he couldn't wait until he turned back into a human.]

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♥ December (Ranir) Event Log

Genesis Rhapsodos | Final Fantasy VII | Rawna

II. This Isn't What I Ordered - b

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IIa

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ii-b and i'm so sorry in advance;

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