♥ October Event Log

[hugtopiamods]

October (Lasohm) Event Log
The last breath of summer leaves along with the month of Ohnir, and now fall has come to Havenwell with Lasohm. The leaves on the trees in the conservatories and botanical gardens are changing, the days are no longer hot but seasonably warm and the nights bring a cool relief. The air turns crisp and sharp and the daylight hours are starting to lose out to the evening dark. Thankfully, Havenwell is well lit even at night, and the dark gloom is chased away now that the city's colors are (mostly) restored to their original glory. Here and there, patches of gray still exist, but thanks to everyone's efforts, things are back to normal.

Hopefully those dreams didn't plague you too much, offworlders. The citizens certainly didn't seem to notice...

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❥ PROMPT I: The Havenwell Archives

Lasohm is another month that belongs to Ohma and as such, a small group of citizens decide that it might be great for the offworlders to help with something that might please the feline god. These citizens are marked with a sash with the sign of a quill on it, a decidedly antique symbol considering how technologically advanced the people are. They hand out fliers to any who will take them, offering a small amount of Dora in compensation to any who will help the Havenwell Archives repair and restore their books. The Archives is a large building in the south and its doors, which have been sealed shut until now, are slightly ajar, allowing people entry.

Head to the Archives and you'll be greeted by one of a handful of robotic citizens, all wearing that quill-emblazoned sash, and directed to a small room where you and other offworlders are put to the task of reassembling history texts that have fallen into disrepair. Most of the writing is illegible, but it seems that these books are important to the Archives for more than just the information contained within. As you work, you might notice that talking and sharing information about yourself or engaging in physical contact near these books with the other people in your room makes the text on your pages a little more legible, a little easier to read and understand....

OOC: Those who choose this prompt, please comment to the Mod thread on the OOC Plotting Post. You will be randomized to receive a small blurb that your character will be given to transcribe. This is limited to one blurb per player.

❥ PROMPT II: Chase the Rabbit

Those plagued by the dreams with their strange, indistinct figure will find that they haven't gone away even as the month changes to Lasohm. Not everyone is dreaming about this stranger and they don't come every night, but that might be a small comfort to those who see the figure lurking in their dreams, watching silently. They no longer flit away when you look at them though and instead, start holding their unnaturally long arms out to you. Their outline is like a shadow and it feels like you might fall into their arms if you keep looking at them. It's almost tempting, but the way the figure beckons and approaches without actually moving its legs seems unnatural. Every time you blink, it grows closer and larger and its arms are opened wide for you. You get the distinct feeling that, should you embrace it, it would be like dropping into an endless, dark void, which is wen a sense of vertigo seizes you and wakes you up.

The vertigo plagues you even into the waking hours and out of the corner of your eye, you can see that figure from your dreams, arms outstretched and waiting. The only way to rid yourself of this phantom is to let another character hold you tight, in the same way that figure seems to want to do. Letting another character hug you dispels the dreams entirely this time - the phantom figure dissipates, the dreams stop, and it seems like everything is back to normal for you.

Those who accept the phantom's hug, however....? Well. Let's just say they have very different dreams that night.

❥ PROMPT III: Catch the Rabbit

Those who accept the phantom's hug also see it vanish from the daylight and it seems like everything is fine. It's gone, just like everyone else has said, and there's nothing lurking in the shadows anymore. You go to sleep that night and that's when it hits you. That sense of vertigo is awful and the dreams? They're back, but this time, they're a little different.

The White Rabbit: You're not alone in this space. Whether it's by accident or by some bond of fate, someone else is here with you. All around you, the world is empty and pure white, stretching into eternity and blank, like it's waiting for something - and it is. It's waiting for you. Once you recognize one another, the world reforms to take on the appearance of a dream you've had before, or a memory from long ago. The other person in your dream is conscious of this not being real, but you? Well...maybe you're aware and maybe you're not. Whatever the case may be, it seems the dream can end naturally as it's meant to, or your companion can try to wake you up. Because it's not just the two of your in this dream - that long-armed phantom is back and it's getting closer.

The Black Rabbit: The dreams are pitch black. You're floating in the darkness with nothing to tether you, whispers in foreign tongues all around you, words you can't understand. If you linger too long, the whispers grow louder, the sound of claws raking down metal approaching from behind and you know: you need to run. The dream seems to go forever, with you tumbling through the darkness, running on nothing, running to nothing, but definitely running from something. And then suddenly, there's someone with you, also fleeing the unseen horrors. As soon as you see them, the dream shifts and now you're experiencing each other's worst nightmares. Fend the terrors off by working together, holding one another, comforting each other as needed, but don't let them catch you.

Whichever dream you have, it ends when you see a figure suddenly appearing in front of you. The phantom that haunted you in your waking hours is back and you know that it sees you as well. Rather than come after you, however, the figure points to the side causing the walls of Havenwell to appear out of the dark, a bright beacon in the gloom. Then the figure opens a gaping, toothless mouth and wails, a bone deep sadness filling the air until the white walls of Havenwell begin to crumble like dust. You awaken with a jolt, the vision fading but the memories remaining.

❥ PROMPT IV: It Warned You

Toward the end of the month starting from October 28th, offworlders and natives alike will start hearing noises. A deep, quiet scratching, the sound of something dragging heavily against stone, or a leaden thump that seems to reverberate through the floors. Then a slow rhythmic banging starts up and for the first time, the offworlders will see the natives truly scared. They start retreating from the public, sealing themselves up into their homes or taking to the temples to pray. During this time, all other festivities start to close, the VR cafe still boasting bright advertisements for the Harvest Festival games are deserted, the businesses and streets barely have anyone in them. The only activity to be seen is that of the wall guards and the police who start patrolling the streets, trying to locate the source of the noise, stopping anyone they see to interrogate them.

This continues until noon on October 30th when a loud crack, like glass being broken, splits the quiet across the city. Those outside can look up and see a long spider web of breaks snake out along the blue sky. The crack splits and splinters the sky until it hits the wall to the north where it stops for a brief moment, and then the wall itself cracks. The banging intensifies and the plaster flakes, cracks, and with a horrific boom, it breaks and a thick hairy hand the size of a car reaches in, pulling the stone away to widen it into a hole through which a steady stream of small black spider-like creatures start to spill into the city. An alarm rings shrill and the guard and police take to action, but it's clear they're not prepared for this. Help if you can, offworlders, your home is under attack!

What to do: Fight the monsters that are breaking into the city. Most of them are relatively small, black spider-like creatures that have very basic melee attacks, using their fangs and their sharp legs to bite and claw at people. On occasion a rarer monster might appear that will take more than one person to kill - these might resemble strange versions of monsters from your respective worlds, though nothing larger than a horse is present. The giant hand that punched its way through the wall is gone and won't come back. Clear the city of monsters and find a way to seal the breach. This event will ICly run from October 30-31st with the breach being sealed late on the 31st.

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This event will run from 09 October to 31 October. 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 here.

Comments

[astralera]

No, Hades has always been one to tell the truth. It's just a matter of which truth. She sighs through her nose, squirming away; withdrawing from his grasp entirely.

"...I will try something else," she says. "But ask that you please not touch me until I permit it again."

[unsunderworld]

"Very well," he mutters, but at the complete loss of contact he all but slams his head back into the couch, closed eyes locked on the ceiling. "But do make it quick."

[astralera]

It is less intimidating this way, and even if this is, ultimately, coerced from her, it is the closest she can get to it being wholly of her own volition. Emet-Selch has no say in how she proceeds, merely that she does.

Still, it is... Overwhelming. Frightening, just a little. She would rather be back in a war zone, fighting for her life, than confronted by all of... this.

Era takes a calming breath, holds it, and moves back closer to the man's side. Then, she seats herself unceremoniously upon his lap, presses her forehead to her chest, and while she doesn't wrap her arms around him entirely she does place her hands against his sides, fingers curling in the fabric there for purchase. As for her tail, it ends up wrapping itself loosely around the lower half of one of his legs.

[unsunderworld]

Emet-Selch remains mostly still, though there is a bit of a sound as she settles her weight into his lap. Once she leans into his chest, he sighs, the vibration no doubt resonating through her horns.

"Better," he says.

[astralera]

He sighs, and she remembers to let out the breath she was holding. The vibrations feel nice, causing her to press closer on reflex, though she stops once she's aware of what she's doing. Her tail flexes, and she crushes the intrigue that the sounds his body makes (faint and subtle as they are; muted by flesh and cloth).

"If it is still not up to Your Radiance's standards," she says blandly. "I can find someone else for you."

[unsunderworld]

"I prefer this," he says simply, "to the efforts of a stranger. One possesses meaning."

Even if it is a bit frustrating to remain compliant to her request.

[astralera]

"It isn't as though you're lacking in acquaintances, Hades."

Era shifts one last time, assuring that her legs won't grow numb in this positioning should she remain in it for an extended period, and then — finally — settles. She waits another moment before speaking up again:

"You may touch me again now, if you so choose."

[unsunderworld]

"Precisely what makes it so odd," he says, though there's another of those small shifts of relaxation as she says his true name. "The touch of flesh has ever been a matter of business. You are among the only ones who might understand that, and I daresay the Exarch dislikes me enough to leave me to suffer."

Not unjustifably, and his tone acknowledges that even if his words themselves do not, but such is what it is. The blurring of personal and professional lines is equally as strange to him as it is to her; it is merely that those lines fall in different places.

He can trust her to understand that, even if they do not see eye-to-eye on the matter any more than they do standing. Sitting on this couch, however, they come a lot closer, and Hades wraps one arm around her shoulders, gently, even as he rubs the region near his third eye again with the other.

[astralera]

"To you, who is not bound by flesh, it is understandable..." But she herself cannot truly understand it. The touch of flesh has ever been something she's seen as supremely intimate, which is what causes her so much trouble in this world. Which is what makes her feel so simultaneously comforted and frightened here, upon Hades' lap and in his embrace.

She also does not like to think of G'raha allowing anyone to remain suffering when it is within his power to ease it, but also knows that, despite it all, the Crystal Exarch in this world is not the one she knew.

"It is..." Resigning (allowing) herself to the comfort, Era presses closer. "You are warm."

[unsunderworld]

"Less that, and more that it is rare indeed the role one can play in which one touches no one at all." To play the role of a mortal to perfection, one must hold them and be held by them. Solus was far from his first mask to have children, and he's sure she's well enough aware of that.

Her last comment gets a chuckle. "Most people tend to be, my dear. I'm hardly wearing a sahagin."

[astralera]

"It is something people seem to enjoy a great deal," she says in agreement. "And something they take for granted."

It is just assumed that people will have experienced affection, if not love, of some manner in their lifetime even at a very young age. A hug, a kiss, the holding of hands. She flexes her fingers where they twist in the fabric of Hades' clothes.

"I have never felt another's warmth before. Only Peki, but this is not the same as being tucked under a Chocobo's wing."

[unsunderworld]

"I should hope I'm a bit different from a chocobo," he mutters, with some affront. "But no one can blame them for taking it for granted, I think. Infants will die if they are not handled, even if they are otherwise perfectly warm and cared for, so you must have been held at some point in the distant past."

After all, she is very much alive now.

[astralera]

"You are not quite so feathered," she quips. "And perhaps this body was held when she was a child, but I did not exist until five years after the Calamity."

[unsunderworld]

"Perhaps it is that you were not held as an infant, then, relatively speaking, that has left you with such anxiety for the concept," he says. It's a low, lazy drawl, but clearly teasing nonetheless. The Garlean accent in his usual presentation slips into something a little less identifiable.

[astralera]

He teases, but she cannot help the way she tenses at his words, sensitive as she is to this particular subject. She recalls the first exposure she had to the concept... Though she also supposes that, in a sense, what he says isn't necessarily inaccurate.

"I... suppose so, in part."

[unsunderworld]

He notices the way she tenses and sighs, resting his jaw on the hand that is yet not wrapped around her. "Had I the wish to harm you, I've far more effective means to do so than touch," he says simply. "Of that much at least you may be certain."

[astralera]

"I would not be here if I thought otherwise," she informs him easily. "Your methods of harm are of a much higher standard."

[unsunderworld]

"Exactly so. The harm that can be done when one is entrusted with another's body is beyond vulgar, and I'll have no part of it."

[astralera]

And yet his subjects indulged in it freely, she thinks. She wonders if any of them were ever punished for such things, but from what she saw of life in Garlemald through the Echo... She doubts it.

"I saw a great deal while living in the streets of Ul'dah." It is a quiet admittance, only audible for their current proximity. "I'm certain you can imagine my lack of interest."

sticks a cw: oblique discussion of sexual assault in here belatedly

[unsunderworld]

"I've lived every life you can imagine, including that of a young woman on the streets," he says. "Such things were among the first reasons I found that mortals were not worth the effort."

The disgust drips from his tone, even as he pulls her ever so slightly closer. For that opinion, at least, no one can blame him.

cw: casual mention of murder ig

[astralera]

"I cannot deny that it taught me a great deal about how to survive." It makes it easier when she puts a more positive spin on the horrible moments in her life. "If I doubted my resolve before, I certainly never did again after my first kill."

Era allows him to pull her closer, slowly settling once more; relaxing into the warm that radiates from his body. Her voice goes soft, almost a sigh.

"I thought it safe to rest, and was woken by a man dragging me by my hair. He put a knife to my throat, but did not know I was an Au Ra." She sounds mildly amused, focusing on that as opposed to the fear she felt at the time. This is not a story she's ever shared before. "I leaned into the blade. It startled him enough that I could steal it from him, then I stabbed him to death. I used it to shear my hair short, then traded the dagger for a warm meal."

It was a good meal; meagre, but warm. It was there, eating at a table in the Quicksand, that Era learned of the adventurer's guild.

cw: look they're somewhat violent people from a kind of crapsack world, actually

[unsunderworld]

Anyone else, perhaps, would have been horrified. Emet-Selch, being what he is, merely chuckles at her frankness.

"'Acantha' was an urchin in a town in Meracydia, some five hundred or so years before Allag's fall when they had not yet turned their attention outside the continent. What happened to the first who tried to took advantage of her got her the reputation of being a witch, and she leaned into it quite handily, letting the locals believe she could speak to the dead. The town was known to be quite safe for women, as should any harm come across them, their ghosts would go to her seeking revenge, and she would deliver it. Eventually she would be killed by Sophic radicals, but it was fun while it lasted."

He speaks of the identity like a separate person, which in some ways she was; just another mask among many, and not particularly significant except that he has fond memories of it.

a kind of crapsack world that she loves very much okay

[astralera]

His memory brings an amused smile to her face, not that he can see it with how she is all but glued to his chest. Era can only imagine the sort of things Emet-Selch did to keep himself entertained, in those periods of time when all was set in motion for the next Rejoining and he just needed to wait.

Becoming the town witch certainly seems in line with what she knows of him.

"You have seen all this horribleness and consider it reason to condemn them," she comments eventually; quiet, soft, non-judgmental. "When I see it, it makes me appreciate the goodness in them all the more."

[unsunderworld]

"With all due respect, my dear, you started with the worst, and I with the best. Such inevitably colors the perspective."

He shifts his shoulder slightly, and finally relaxes, almost seeping into the couch.