♥ April (Lasai) Event Log

[hugtopiamods]

April (Lasai) Event Log
This Lasai marks one year since the outer walls moved, expanding Havenwell for the first time in centuries. The natives are commemorating this event in their own ways, watching the walls for any further changes just in case. With the turning warmer and spring sweeping through the city, it's natural for them and the offworlders to expect something new and exciting to happen. This year, however, it seems they should have been watching for something other than the walls...

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❥ PROMPT I: Life Has Many Doors

Whether closed, open, or slightly cracked ajar, mysterious doorways have begun to appear all across Havenwell. They could be in the entryway to your closet, in the middle of the street, or perhaps directly in your path for you to stumble unwittingly into, and they seem to have absolutely no compunction about appearing wherever and at whatever time.

If one crosses the threshold through the door whether through intent or by accident, they will find themselves in another place, at another time...

Beyond the doors lie moments in time--past incidents a character may regret, wish they could change, or an instance where they were completely happy. Or, even potential futures they worry may or may not come to pass. In order to leave and return to the present in Havenwell, one need only join hands with another and speak about their feelings; why they regret doing or not doing something, what they fear or anticipate about their future, or any such truth that might indicate why the specific moment is being shown to them beyond the doorway. To facilitate this, doorways may either link up to that of another Havenwell offworlder's, or lead into a sort of featureless limbo until the same door is used by another.

❥ PROMPT II: Hatoful Bombardment

With everyone preoccupied with the mysterious doors appearing and whisking people away, the shimmering of the barrier might go unnoticed. The color has been so strong lately that people might think it's oily sheen over the blue sky is even normal by now. Then, one day, that sheen is suddenly dotted with tiny ripples, like raindrops hitting water. Not many people may notice this phenomenon right away, but when hundreds upon hundreds of birds suddenly burst through these ripples? They definitely take notice. Flocks of birds swarm en masse through the barrier all at once and then the ripples harden and disappear. They seem confused and scatter throughout the city, bringing with it all sorts of trouble.

These birds are all different species, sizes, and colors - from recognizable ones like the rainbow chickens to strange ones with inky black feathers and bright iridescent eyes. They appear to be completely wild, completely natural birds, however, and act as birds do: fighting for territory, nesting, eating - and boy do they fight, nest, and eat! Offworlders and natives alike will have to deal with the nuisance of these birds chittering, chattering, and screaming at all hours of the day as they try to nest in the city, in the trees, and in the eaves and roofs of people's houses and businesses. They fight with the temple animals - especially Diacht's crows and Rawna's dragonlings - and hunt Ainea's mice. They hassle people's gardens and the botanical gardens looking for food, and make messes trying to eat the leftover replicator goo and any bits of food or chocolate still hanging around.

People are free to try and catch, kill, or eat these birds if they can, but their meat is usually tough and gamey, and soon the zoo and conservationists are overrun with specimens and refuse to take more. By the end of the month, as the event comes to a close, most of the birds that are still free will suddenly begin swarming back towards the barrier and...disappear back through it? ...huh.

❥ PROMPT III: A Feather A Day

One by-product of all these birds in town is an overabundance of feathers. Long, short, stubby, colorful, black, grey, white, spotted, striped, iridescent - there's so many different types that the natives are going absolutely gaga for them all! This is the first time in a long time that they've had so many natural materials to create things from that the costumers, tailors, artists and other creatives in town are clamouring for more, more, more! The feathers begin to make appearances as decorations for headpieces, capes, sashes, bags, digital pens, epaulettes, bracelets, necklaces, artwork - you name it and it has feathers in it! Some enterprising natives even try incorporating it into food before they realize that they're inedible. With this massive demand comes a big business opportunity for people willing to go out and gather up the feathers, clean them of any gunk, sort them, and bring them to the natives. So long as the feathers are in good, useable condition, native artisans will pay a nice sum of Dora for bags of them and will actively ask characters to sell feathers to them.

However, it seems some feathers carry more than just a Dora price tag. Being in proximity or possession of feathers can sometimes have...unexpected effects on the offworlders.

• Fluff for You, Fluff for Me: Your character will randomly and optionally painlessly sprout feathers. They can sprout from anywhere on your character's body, and can be in addition to or replace parts of them. For example, you can have feathers sprout from your hair, or have your hair turn into feathers. You can have feathers pop out of your wrists or have your fingers turn into wingtips. Pulling the feathers out does sting a little, but new feathers will simply grow back in their place and even runs the risk of having more feathers grow in new places. The only way to rid yourself of these is to wait the effect out after dumping your gathered feathers, or physical contact with another person.
  
• Light as a Bird: After gathering up your feathers, your character will begin to feel lighter and lighter until they begin to lift off the ground entirely! Characters who can fly may have no problem with this, but others might find it quite disturbing when they suddenly float off the ground. No matter how hard you try, or how much control you usually have over your flight, it seems that you cannot return to the ground until you either wait for the effect to end after you get rid of your gathered feathers or grab and hold onto another offworlder for a few minutes. The highest you seem to float is up to two stories in the air, and as the effect wanes you gradually get heavier and heavier until you sink back to the earth. When up in the air, characters usually, but not always, tend to bob around like a balloon as if they're stuck in a zero gravity environment.
  
• I Gotta Tweet About This: After incurring this effect, a character's speech will gradually and randomly turn into birdsong, chirping, twittering, and tweets. It can be every word, every other word, just certain words, or any combination you like, but when your character speaks, what comes out of their mouth will be the call of a bird and not their normal voice. Characters are free to try and interpret their friends' songs to find meaning, and characters can have their bird song be from one bird or multiple if they wish. The tweeting will continue so long as you are in possession of the feathers, or until you are able to get some sustained physical contact.

These effects can happen at any time when the feathers are close to your character, and you can even stack them if you like! They will linger even after a character dumps the feathers for a few hours, but for no longer than 24 hours at a time after getting rid of your feathers, whether it's by selling, gifting, dumping, burning or other methods. If characters pick up new feathers after getting rid of their old ones, it's possible for the effects to continue or for new effects to happen. The type of feather your character picks up has no bearing on what effect they incur.

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

Comments

[iustaegis]

[ She watches, she listens. She holds his hand in hers. Feeling the warmth of his palm against hers reminds her of how alive he is. That won't always be the case-- or that she'll have a hand of his to hold at all. Yet, reinforcing that they must do what they can to focus on what they have, to live in the present, while reassuring, merely pushes away unpleasant emotions instead of truly addressing them. It doesn't tackle the dread of future death, and it wears upon the present itself. It is true, all must face their deaths in the future; however, he has witnessed his twice over, and he knows it comes soon. ]

Don't think you have to be. Optimistic, I mean. [ She leans forward a bit, tilting her head so that she might look at him.

He's never wanted to become king. He's never really had freedom. A whole year here, and he's still struggling with it because having that external purpose and path has-- oh, she doesn't know, conditioned him to not know what to do with it. ]

And I think that's part of that freedom, too: you can be optimistic or not.

[ Finally, rounding back on his previous words: ] And you don't have to tell yourself that it's easy to die.

[carbungle]

Mm... less that I have to do anything, just...

[He trails off, wincing slightly as the rest catches up with him. Yeah, that was probably poor phrasing on his part. He was hoping maybe calling it easier would help him to believe it, but he's clearly not committed, and he doesn't want his failed attempts to make her feel worse. He pauses, taking a deep inhale, exhale. Try again.]

I didn't mean easy like... that it didn't take anything. I'm not naive. [The fact that he's struggling now means it isn't easy. He knows that.] Just- everyone else has to suffer in a world of darkness, fighting daemons, for ten years. So many people are gonna die waiting for me. I just... I sleep. I walk up some steps and all that happens. Compared to the rest of Eos, it's over so fast. It could be much worse...

[He worries idly at his lower lip, wary of his own words, then adds quietly,]

I don't want to discount what everyone else has to go through by spending all my time complaining about what happens to me. It's one thing to feel it, or talk about it, but... dwelling too much is bad. Right?

[iustaegis]

[ She appears to think over his words. He isn’t wrong— dwelling can be harmful to his own health.

But she still appears worried. ] Noct... [ “It could be much worse”, “compared to everyone else”, “complaining”... ]

I know what you’re saying, and balance is important, but maybe... do you see how you’re dismissing yourself too much? [ He’s being sacrificed. For the world. His soul is going to shatter, that’s it. She could very well be biased, but she feels she’s allowed to be. She loves him, and she wants him to care for himself as well.

On the other hand, she is concerned if he feels he needs a few dismissive barriers to cope... unhealthily, but it’s something until he finds something better. She does the same thing. ]

[carbungle]

[He grimaces, reaching up to scuffs his free hand through his hair.]

I don't mean to. It's just... how I feel, that's all. [His lips twist awkwardly.] Never claimed that what I'm feeling is good.

[To be what he wants, and to feel what he feels- that's freedom, isn't it? Or has he yet to learn the balance between good freedom and negative feeling? That's probably the case. That might always be the case.]

Maybe what I'm saying is, at least my death gets to mean something. A lot of people in the world die for no reason... but I get to save people who've suffered for a really long time. And- I like helping people. Being the big hero. Like a video game. I just- [He blinks again, then a few more times, sliding his hand against his eyes.] Shit... I-I don't... I don't want it to be a bad thing...

[But I wanted to be with them in the end...]

[iustaegis]

[ To those that love him, his death will absolutely be a bad thing. To the world that cries for light and life once more, his death will be salvation. Yet he continues to focus on others, how others will be saved, how how others have suffered, trying to see the silver lining that at least his death will be for a reason, at least, at least...

He’s not giving credit to anything of how he feels, how he’s going to be gone, how being gone means he won’t be with those he loves and wants to be with. And she knows that he’s does, that he has these wants, that he pushes them down and dismisses them himself because—

”...freedom to figure out what I wanted to do with my life, and to spend time with the people who matter to me.”

She pulls him to her again, embracing him. ]

You’re worth everything, Noct. [ Her hand squeezes his shoulder, and she whispers. ] Celebrating... and [ A shaky, short, inhale. She can’t keep on brushing this topic away just because it’s unpleasant. ] mourning.

[ But not just those two things, no. Because mourning and grieving only show how much one felt for the other. ] ...and loving and being with, too. [ Maybe it's inevitable that his death will cause grief for those that love him, and that's not up to him. He's just that lovable, after all, and she wouldn't trade a second of loving him if it meant not missing him when he's gone. So while he's still here, she'll continue to love him, whatever the future holds. ]

[carbungle]

[For a long moment he resists, fighting against himself, until quietly he tilts forward to lean against her, face burrowed to her hair. His shoulders shake a little, but his hands against her are firm- probably holding her harder than he should, but she's strong and not fragile and will hopefully forgive his soft desperation. A noise bubbles up for a second or two, a weak, humourless laugh, or perhaps it's closer to a sob as he tries not to start crying yet again.]

I'm sorry... I'm so sorry. Feels like all I've been doing is mourning for myself. I... I'm happy, too. You know that, right?

[He loves being alive, he loves being with her, he loves her, he loves his family and friends. There's so much good still in the life and time he has left. He does want to focus on that, truly. It's just harder and harder with each reminder he gets of what lies in his future. It isn't fair to him, or to anyone else he shares his time with. It isn't fair to Pyra that she have to keep holding him like this and telling him things he ought to know already.

What more can he do?]

[iustaegis]

[ He’s happy, he insists... while fighting back breaking down into sobs. Her eyes shut, and her hand upon his shoulder lifts to the back of his head, once again combing her fingers through his hair, rubbing circles tenderly into his scalp.

She knows that he can be happy. She’s seen his smile, excited ones, grateful ones, silly ones, proud ones, soft ones, his loving ones. She cherishes each one. Yet week and week, month after month, in this world  and perhaps in his own, those opportunities for those smiles are taken from him, overridden with some sort of negative event. It’s not his fault if he isn’t happy, it's not his fault that the world continues to weigh down on him.

Yet while she does feel he is occasionally happy, she also feels that he underestimates how.... sad he is. She feels those moments of happiness are becoming rarer and rarer, and those smiles, more memories than not. This is not the end, however. She'll continue to fight for those brief moments of happiness. Things will get better. ]

I know... I know. [ She replies gently, holding him.

She continues to hold him. She'll never grow tired of supporting him when he needs it. Happy, sad, and everything else. She wants to be there. ] But today--

Today, Noct, [ She pulls away just enough to look at him, her other hand going to his cheek, caressing his fondly. ] You don't have to force yourself. You can feel what you want to feel.

[carbungle]

[He'd been trying so hard to hold on to his calm, grasping at the strings of it even as it drifts away from him, but those words, her soft expression and the hand on his cheek, are what finally snaps the last tether and something breaks in him. He doesn't have to force himself. He hates the idea of lying to her, but he doesn't like that his problems so often hurt or worry her either. The safer alternative of burying it has always been his default. "You pretended you didn't care," as Carbuncle has so bluntly called him out on before. He'd been trying to get better. He is getting better. But there are still slip-ups, when things so especially bad.

Today had been... especially bad. He needed this- not just her kindness, but her own version of a callout, too. When it's this bad, he doesn't need to force anything.

He doesn't try to smile again, this time. He closes his eyes, but does not clench them. He breathes in, out, and acknowledges the noisy hitch in between. He grasps her hand, weaving their fingers together, and... quietly, wordlessly, simply allows his tears to fall free, no more fighting. He feels wretched, but he feels, unrestrained. He's sad. He's intensely sad, but he'd become so resigned to that sadness he stopped himself from acknowledging it. His bad habits once again became the norm.

He needs to be careful about this. He knows he ought to be asking for help more, that his friends and family, loved ones, are here for him. He'd vowed to make the most of this time they share together. But time spent together, when based on a lie of omission... where's the value in that? Everyone deserves better. They deserve honesty, even if he doesn't feel great about what it means for him.]

[iustaegis]

[ As she watches his expression give in to tears that slowly roll down his cheeks, she keeps her hand, taken by his, secure. She leans in closer, and she guides him down to her, so that she can press her forehead to his-- to be as close as possible in this moment, to not just be the shoulder to cry on, but to feel with him.

And she feels it, too, her own sorrow and mourning for him, knowing that one day he'll be gone (or she'll be gone, or that they'll be separated), and that his fate is both salvation for the world and cruel, unfair to him. It rather baffles her that he's said he's felt as if he's only been mourning himself, when she sees quite the opposite. He's so often expressed his concern for others and the world, knocking himself down as he continues to look to a future that brings light back to all.

If she can facilitate any amount of freedom while they are still together, while they are in this world, then it's as she's said: to feel what he wants to feel, to do what he wants to do.

What she wants to do is hold him until he's tired, allowing him the time, patient and whispering to him small words of reassurance and care, I love you, it's okay, you're here, and more. ]