♥ 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

[vamptired]

I see . . .

[These things always seem to trace back to a barrier. He had a feeling. A crystal, though—that's different.

It's also different that people can just up and no longer be here. As unfamiliar as they are, he has to hinge on those differences.]

Then the crystal is a medium for the gods' power?

[iustaegis]

It seems to be some sort of conduit. [ This is the best theory she can give, but in the end, it's speculative. ]

As for where the crystals come from, I'm not sure. [ What the mines and the factory above the mines seem to have produced were only metal ores. ] It's another mystery of this world.

[vamptired]

Do the locals even know?

[Perhaps it's a mystery that isn't meant to be solved. If it is, though, he's very interested.]

[iustaegis]

[ Uhhh... ]

From my impression, one isn't supposed to tamper with those replicators, so it would be suspect to ask a local about the origin of those crystal. But I've always assumed that those in the Research Towers know...

[vamptired]

Ah, so we're not meant to know.

[In other words, that's a matter better left alone for the time being. Peculiar circumstances aside, the locals have been nothing but welcoming. He can't be too selfish.]

I'll keep that in mind. I don't mean to rock the boat, so I appreciate your telling me.

[iustaegis]

[ She nods in response. ] It's no problem at all...! If I were being honest, I wish they would share a little more information with us off-worlders, too.

[ Although them not being willing to share is understandable, too. ]

[vamptired]

Is there anything in particular that you want to know more about?

[He starts to pick up their pace to their previous normal. He thinks he stalled, inadvertently, enough on getting to their destination.]

[iustaegis]

How they, or the gods, brought us all to this world...

[ First and foremost. That. ]

And what-- particle or force, did the gods invent from the beginning, to allow touch to effect the world like so.

[ That. That neither she nor either of her siblings would have ever thought to create. ]

[vamptired]

Those are good questions. I'd like to know the answers to them, myself.

[Did the gods even come first? How much light can the locals shed? (How much can miracles be explained?) And if such answers were to come to light, would they be able to address the world's very plight? He wonders.]

[iustaegis]

[ She looks at him. ]

Are there gods of your own world? That may be any like these ones?

[vamptired]

. . . As far as I can remember, no. However, I do recall a god who was conceived by the touch of another god's hand.

[iustaegis]

Oh...?

[ Her brow raises, and she looks at him curiously. ]

[vamptired]

[Louis angles his head toward Pyra.]

I should mention that the gods of my world don't exert themselves the way those of Aellyn do. There are many religions, but the Gaol of the Mists can be described as a godless society.

[There's only one place where the names of olden gods appear, and that has no bearing on this conversation.]

The god I speak of was actually a demigod, who founded a city and became its king before his death. His mother was mortal, while his father was the king of gods. Other than his conception, I'm afraid touch has little else to do with his story.

[iustaegis]

[ In other words, Louis' world doesn't have similar deities to this one. No dice, then.

However, ​]

The Goal of the Mists...?

[vamptired]

[As much as he'd like to help, no dice.]

That's where I'm from.

The Gaol of the Mists was created to contain revenants and keep the horrors out in the form of the Red Mist. No one can cross its borders, hence its name.

[iustaegis]

What sustains this Gaol?

[ The barrier here is sustained by, she assumes, the energy generated by touch + the gods in some fashion... ]

[vamptired]

[His brow pinches, narrowing his eyes.]

Blood . . . and willpower.

[Far too much of the former. Even now, it's a little hard to get the stench out of his nostrils.]

[iustaegis]

[ If it's... a barrier or wall of mist of some sort, then... ]

Where... does all that blood come from?

[ She's almost afraid of the answer. ]

i'm going to print and frame that other tag on my wall.

[vamptired]

[He knows the answer, and its consequences have never sat well with him.]

It comes from a combination of donations and bloodsprings—a source of blood substitutes known as blood beads. . . . It's enough to fuel the Red Mist, but doesn't leave much for the revenants living within its walls.

[iustaegis]

[ She stops walking, bringing a hand to her lips. She's both horrified of what suffering he and other revenants may have endured and aghast that his world has such awful circumstances. ]

That's-- [ Her voice is quiet. The implications of his explanation lead back to their previous topic of the need for a replicator in his world. Its existence here, so conveniently supplying him with enough blood, must be both a miracle and almost insulting. ] That makes it sound as if you were starving, before you came here. [ She looks at him, sympathetic. ] Louis... I'm so sorry.

[vamptired]

[Louis slows to a stop two steps later, gently coaxed back by their handholding. He reckons that they're nearly to their destination by now, so it comes as a surprise that Pyra has just stopped. Looking back, his features soften when she apologizes.]

You don't need to apologize.

[He takes a step back—toward her—and gives her hand a small squeeze.]

It gladdens me to see how much you care, but I'm okay. Really. I wasn't thirsty at all before I was brought here.

[iustaegis]

[ That's... good, that he hadn't been thirsty. Still, what a terrible situation. ] O-okay...

[ She manages a small smile when he squeezes her hand, and she brings her other one up to cup over his knuckles, returning that squeeze meaningfully. ]

I hope you're able to do it-- to make a replicator in your own world.

[vamptired]

[He smiles back.]

I hope so, too.

[Replicator, pill—anything. Contrary to what she suspects, the existence of the replicator didn't offend him in the slightest. If anything, it was a miracle—the birth of a new hope in his tired heart, even if it's all based on a mere possibility.

His other hand comes up to rest briefly on hers before he points a shoulder in the direction of their path.]

Shall we?

[iustaegis]

[ She drops one of her hands, but keeps her other with his. For someone who comes from a world that (she assumes) is struggling, he's very poised and calm. Maybe he's handling it well. ]

R-right. It's over here.

[ Time to head to some random cafe that has hot chocolate. ]

Allow me to treat you, okay? What do you prefer on yours, whipped cream, cinnamon? Marshmallows or caramel?

[vamptired]

[She beats him to the punch. He'd intended to treat her as thanks for her help, yet here they are with her continuing to do him a favor. She's very kind. His gaze lingers on her before it shifts to the counter ahead.]

I'll try the cinnamon.