♥ December (Ranir) Event Log

[hugtopiamods]

December (Ranir) Event Log

As another year winds to a close, the air grows sharp with a wintery chill; the perfect weather for curling up with someone under a cozy blanket with some warm hot cocoa. To contrast the cold weather comes a distinctly festive warmth to the city itself; it's some holiday season, even if the natives still can't quite grasp what. While recovery from the recent worm-based catastrophe is still an ongoing thing, the natives are going through with the festivities as they've learned to celebrate: Decorations strung about the city are a bit haphazard and in all manner of colors both holiday-themed and simply colorful in general, the spirit and enthusiasm are certainly there.

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❥ PROMPT I: See You Next Level

Residents who venture past the wall to the northwest of the arena to visit the fishing pond might find an unusual sight this month: it's frozen over. This is kind of a big deal, because the city hasn't had a substantial amount of open water in- well, no one quite knows how long! It seems to have totally frozen overnight, which is definitely unusual, but hardly the strangest thing to ever happen in Havenwell. Examining the ice will find it sturdy and solid, a good 6 inches thick at minimum. It is safe to walk on, and more importantly...

Excited for a new experience after all the glum and gloom, some local metalworkers are creating skate attachments that can be adjusted for size and connected to the shoes (or the feet, in the case of the local robotic population) of anyone who wants to give skating a try. Visitors to the area will find a booth set up, occasionally manned but mostly left as a trust exercise, with a collection of these devices that are free to use. Please take as many pairs as your party requires and skate to your heart's content! As a courtesy, borrowers are asked to return the skates once they're finished with them, but if you're really itching for a pair, the booth has the equivalent of a QR code you can scan with your communicator and commission a personalized pair.

It seems that part of the city is extra cold this season, because an influx of snow has practically drowned the arena, leaving a thick layer across the entirety and high piles along the sides. Locals have cleared the entrances and done their best to keep it functional, but those wishing to use the facility might find the ground far less sturdy than usual. You can use it as extra training, or maybe just give in to the urge and have fun with it instead. Go sledding, have a snowball fight!

❥ PROMPT II: Fresh or Frozen

Purveyors of the fishing part of the new rink might be unhappy to have lost their hobby, but hey, no one's stopping you from carving a hole in the ice and giving it a go regardless. There's bound to still be something down there, though perhaps not what you'd expect. While you're out at the lake with another person, if you should happen to look into the water through a hole or the ice itself, you might occasionally see a series of dancing lights flitting around beneath you, mysterious but innocuous. Sometimes they disappear if you stare at them too long. Sometimes they follow you. If curiosity gets the better of you, maybe you ought to try dropping a line - or a hand - in to see what it is. If you're feeling really brave and don't mind the cold, you could even take a dive in and see what's going on up close. (Funny: it's not nearly as cold as you'd expect it to be, considering the frigid circumstances.) And there's no reason to worry about the rink, either. Likely through whatever actually turned the pond to ice, any holes carved into the ice somehow manage to freeze again overnight, as though it was never broken in the first place.

Whatever method you choose, these dancing lights will swirl around hook or hands, pulsing gently, until that light bursts and manifests into something familiar. Something you've been wanting, perhaps, or something you once had and have missed dearly. Maybe something you hadn't thought about at all, but would bring you delight. You can pull it from the waters and find it intact and undamaged by the cold or the water, alive if it is a living creature, though it appears to be hibernating. Dry it off, take it home, and check on it in the morning; you will find your gift as whole and well as if you'd plucked it from wherever you'd find it back home. Do with it what you choose, it's yours now. For those who might have the clever idea to try fishing more than once, surprises may await in the form of...a waterlogged old shoe? An empty tin can? A broken fishing lure? The possibilities are as endless as the objects are useless.

For those who may not have any creature or object of note they need or want, it is also possible for fishing to produce a small crystal, faintly glowing with some form of magic. Leaving the crystal by one's bedside overnight will result in a peculiar but pleasant dream; fulfilling one's heartfelt desire. Whether it's wanting to see somewhere back on your homeworld, getting closure with someone not in Havenwell, or hang gliding off of Everest, you will be able to see your desire in a dream and awake comfortable and well-rested in bed the next day.

This is a regain event! One regain is allowed per character, and it can be anything (within reason) that would fit within the Item Regain: Medium (100 point) category on the Activity Rewards page. Like with AC Rewards, regains must be approved by mods prior to regaining them, so please use the form below and comment to the Regain Request thread.

Player:
Character:
Item requested:

<b>Player:</b> <b>Character:</b> <b>Item requested:</b>

❥ PROMPT III: Snow Problems

As the weather shifts to something seasonally chilly, on occasion some small patches of clouds can be seen in Havenwell--specifically, hovering over the heads of offworlders. These localized little clouds find people to stick to and follow them a couple of feet overhead to shower them with a gentle dusting of snow, so hopefully you have an umbrella handy. And while the snow can be just snow and nothing more, to others it might have one (or even several at once) effects to it.

Cheers To You: No matter how much one drinks or how they choose to mix their cocktails, they will find themselves completely impervious to the ill effects of alcohol. No hangover, but also no fun to earn it in the first place.

Hand it Over: Some with their own personal snow clouds may feel nothing odd except for a slight tingle in their dominant hand. Whether one stumbles upon the actual effect or not, it is a very simple change: the power of their unarmed punch becomes superpowered and several times stronger than normal.

Sticks and Stones: Still others may feel completely normal and go about their usual day's business with absolutely no awareness of any change but a persistent snowfall overhead. However, should they meet with anything that might ordinarily hurt, they will find that they have twenty-four hours of complete invulnerability starting from when their snow cloud latched on to them.

Time and Tribulation: Perhaps along with the slight chill comes a sudden awareness that one is a bit shorter than usual. Or taller? It would seem that yet another odd side effect of the little snow clouds is that one has aged an entire decade–in either direction, rendering them either younger or older. Luckily, the changes seem to stop at only physical…at least this time.

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This event will run from December 15-31. 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

[revolucian]

I... guess it's a puzzle then? You gotta figure it out for yourself.

[Puzzle games, ugh.]

Know anything about rocks with holes in them?

[astralera]

He likes it when I discover things on my own.

[ And as irritating as it can be when he dances around the answers, she can appreciate that it brings him some measure of joy. ]

They taste the same as rocks without holes in them.

[revolucian]

[Noctis glances at her, deadpan, for a long moment.

....Anyway-]

So what usually happens when something is, uh, an aetheric confluence?

[astralera]

Aether currents flow all throughout our star, like a circulatory system supplying lifeblood. An aetheric convergence is where multiple flows of aether converge, like an intersection.

[ She has no idea how aetheric confluences have anything to do with magic rocks though. ]

It's what I've been searching for in this star — with promising results! The town centre seems to be the strongest confluence here, and the latest attack only strengthened my hypothesis.

[revolucian]

[A magic intersection... in rocks. With holes in them.

...Right.]

Is that too obvious an answer? Or I guess it would be, considering the central point's meant to hold everything together. There's no reason why they wouldn't build a city around the strongest point. [He crosses his arms, brows furrowing.] Insomnia was the same way- the Citadel with the Crystal in the center, and the wall stretched out on all sides from there.

[astralera]

[ She shakes her head. Naran gives a long, lazy stretch and decides to leap onto Noct's shoulders instead. The warmth of her impossibly soft fur is replaced by the pleasant inner, soul-deep warmth that always comes when her dream guide touches her loved ones. ]

From what I understand of it, in a healthy region all confluences tend to be of equal strength, comparative to the number of aetherial currents flowing through them. [ She tries to recall all that Urianger explained during their time in The Empty. ] I think the primary differences between them are the balance of elemental energies they carry? There's been so much since Urianger explained them to us. Would that he were here...

[ Era sighs, trying to keep the swirl of homesickness at bay. She had noticed her emotions have been more volatile while aged down like this, but...

She sniffs, stubbornly refusing to let her feelings get the best of her, and wondering if Naran's change in perch was meant to preempt the inevitable yearning for home. ]

You'd never call me a nerd again if you met Urianger. [ She changes her inflection to match her friend's for added effect: ] Thou wouldst struggle to comprehend his words even with thine universal translation magicks.

[revolucian]

[He scoffs a laugh at that, lifting a hand to scratch at Naran's fur in whatever spot she likes best. She might find him a little warmer than he ought to be in the cold air.]

I bet I would, I'd just call him something worse. [He does sound like a huge nerd, though. Maybe he and Ignis would get along.] Do you know how many currents there might be?

[astralera]

He's definitely the nerdiest of the Scions. They're all some of the most skilled, intelligent people in my world, but he is the biggest dork.

[ He'd probably enjoy it in Havenwell. The chance to learn about a star not connected to the Source? A rare opportunity indeed, and one she is hardly suited for. ]

Here? A minimum of four. I've located some other likely confluences and was working on something with them, but... [ Things happened, and now she can't help but feel her idea was stupid to begin with. ]

If my magic rocks can create an aetheric confluence... If I shoved my aether into them it would probably do something, right?

[revolucian]

Pretty sure I'm the last person you should be asking that.

[Magic isn't even called aether where he's from.]

I will say, though... any time I've poured my magic into stuff, it's turned out pretty awesome. At least 95% success rate. So I think it's worth a shot at least.

[astralera]

...Want to see if it works?

[revolucian]

If you're looking for an excuse to try, consider me interested.

[astralera]

All right.

[ She'll hold out her armful of fabric for him to take for a moment, so she's free to dig around in her pockets for her 'magic rocks'. Each being the size of her palm makes it a bit tricky to hold them all at once, and it's evident that while she's been referring to them as rocks they're really crystals in the rough — four of them, each a different colour. And each with a hole right through the centre. ]

They shouldn't explode.

[revolucian]

[He lifts a brow at that - really - and accepts the fabric in one arm, keeping the other hand on Naran in case he has to phase out of the way. He doesn't know how durable dream guides are, but he can warp and phase with small creatures so it doesn't cost anything to be safe.]

Does this kinda stuff have a history of exploding?

[astralera]

[ Era pauses, thinks about it, then deigns not to answer. She moves a good few steps away from Noct before squatting down to put the stones neatly on the ground. It's been a while since she charged anything up with her aether, but once she gets started it flows out freely from her hovering, brightly glowing hand to settle in the stones.

While the stones do readily accept her aether they don't do much else but glow with the energy given to them, which Era takes to mean she just needs to keep putting aether in them until something else happens to give her a clue. This is, of course, a horrible idea. ]

See? It's fine.

[ Spoiler: it was not fine.

The stones begin to vibrate, which Era takes to be a good sign until a moment later when all four of them shoot out at high speeds in all different directions. ]

[revolucian]

[Noctis is almost impressed, for those handful of seconds. It looks neat! Magic is always kind of neat, even the kind he doesn't understand or cannot do himself. They don't seem to be doing much, but then, potions and spell flasks don't do much besides glow until you break them either, so that's nothing new for him. And then they start to vibrate, and she keeps going, and-]

Whoa!

[Speaking of phasing. One of them goes flying past where his leg used to be, and he has no idea where the rest went, but he's listening for potential screaming of some poor passerby. Hopefully it goes no further than a dented windowsill or something.]

Uh... oops?

[astralera]

...Huh.

[ She looks around, unsure where they all went and quietly hopes that Hades doesn't find out about her experiment. Fortunately it's no matter to summon Carbuncle with a wave of her hand, then set it off to sniff out her lost property. ]

At least they didn't explode.

[revolucian]

What, that thing you didn't answer me about? Yeah, lucky us.

[Thankfully his tone is a mixture of amusement and annoyance rather than anger; he's well used to the hijinks of his friends. ...Or his own. It happens, no one died. All is... well??]

So, probably don't overfill 'em, is what I got out of that.

[astralera]

You'd've been fine.

[ If she thought there was any danger to him she would have put up a shield at the very least. Even if they did explode, the pieces would hardly be large enough to hurt anything.

Narangerel takes this moment to chime in— ]

'Call them back'? What is that supposed to mean?

[ A pause as Naran elaborates vaguely, and Era shoots her dream guide the most dubious of looks, but closes her eyes in concentration a moment later.

Noct will hear a burst of laughter-like chirps from the polecat around his neck just before Era is suddenly pelted by her magic rocks returning to her. She stumbles and covers her head with her arms, but the rocks are quick to fall to the ground, inert and as dull as they were before Era's experiment. ]

You're a piece of shite, Naran.

[revolucian]

[Naran is not alone in the laughter; Noctis tries to hide it behind his hand, but... yeah. Sorry not sorry.]

Considering you almost got us in the first round, it's a little merited, isn't it?

[Tit for tat, and all that. He does close the distance between to offer a hand and help her up, though.]

[astralera]

[ Era huffs but accepts the helping hand. ]

If she'd tell me what Hem knew about magic rocks it wouldn't have happened, but apparently Ancient souls are cryptic pricks these days.

[revolucian]

Sorry, looks like you'll have to endure the struggle of solving that puzzle on your own.

[It's fine, he's enjoying the show. Up you go!]

[astralera]

I'd rather a pleasant dream than a stupid rock puzzle.

[ Though it's probably evident to everyone but the churlish currently-a-teenager that this curious puzzle is a much needed and healthy distraction for her. Something she desperately needed, even if she hasn't realized it. ]

[revolucian]

Maybe your stupid rock puzzle is secretly a dream come true and you don't even know it yet.

[Even if it doesn't end up changing much for her, surely it'll be entertaining (and distracting). That's gotta count for something in the grand scheme of things.]

[astralera]

[ She rolls her eyes. ]

They're a bunch of rocks you can control with your mind. [ At least that's what it seems like. She can't think of any other reason they would have returned to her. ] It's not like that's anything useful or cool.

[revolucian]

That's more or less what the Armiger is, and you thought that was cool enough.