♥ July 2019 Intro Mingle

[hugtopiamods]

July Intro Log
Welcome to Havenwell! The walled city and its robotic inhabitants welcome all of the offworlders to Aellyn. New arrivals are given their tablets and showed to open housing, given tours around the city, and generally helped with settling into their new world. Some robots are more curious than others, more helpful than others, but overall the atmosphere of the city is one of hope and celebration. It is, however, a city that needs some help, and as newcomers wander, they may find that they can do a lot to aid Havenwell in its recovery.

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❥ PROMPT I: Temple Jobs

The priests of each temple have a digital bulletin board in front of their temple doors that lists several tasks that each temple is asking of natives and newcomers alike. Havenwell is protected from the worst of the damage outside the walls, but it's still an ancient city and there's always something that needs to be done. Of course, the priests won't ask you to do these things for free, so anyone who wants to join up and complete a task will receive a reward of Dora sent to their bank accounts.

The sudden weather changes sometimes results in localized floods, so businesses and homes are always looking for help cleaning debris and mopping floors. The temples themselves always need a little extra help picking up after the temple animals or cleaning the altars. Some stores need help transporting goods across the city - normally a two person job, pulling carts and wagons. And lately, temples have been asking for help in cleaning up the city square for a "big *wink wink* project" coming soon. The priests won't say more than that, but they will offer payment for anyone willing to keep the square clean. Which may be a little difficult with the influx of new people, maps, and general trash and broken debris everywhere. It may be smart to team up to keep things clean!

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❥ PROMPT II: Repli-fails

One thing that new residents might find that needs some help are the food replicators found in each home. They've been unused for so long that issues and trouble were inevitable. People who can fix them are few and far between, however, so until an antiques' maintenance-minded robotic denizen stops by, characters may have to suffer through some glitches. When characters ask for potatoes, they might find blue-flavored toothpaste getting dispensed instead. Or if they ask for 1 carrot, they get 20 hot pink ones instead. Or asking for a drink becomes a never-ending stream of said drink. Or they might not dispense anything that looks like food at all and instead inundate you with vaguely fish-shaped wooden blocks. Good luck, newbies. Even the natives are a little baffled by this one.

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❥ PROMPT III: Virtual? Reality?

The VR simulation of the month, Petting Zoo, seems to still be pretty popular. Natives are plugging in to pet animals in record numbers and it's encouraged the proprietors of the VR parlors to keep the game a little longer than normal. New arrivals are encouraged to take the VR headsets for a spin to help proprietors gauge how to better adjust them for non-robotic clientele. That said, they'll still ask characters to pay for the experience, just not at a slightly discounted rate if they answer a survey afterwards. Characters will notice that holding hands with someone else during their VR experience significantly improves the quality of the visuals and audio input.

Unfortunately, as with most things in Havenwell, the VR experience doesn't always go as planned. On occasion in the city, glitches happen while residents are plugged in and suddenly that flock of giant pink sheep they were petting? Yeah, they're now manifested in the real world. In and around the entertainment districts, illogically colored sheep, giant house cats, miniature ponies, and - of course - the dreaded aggro rainbow chickens suddenly start appearing in packs. Their images glitch in and out, fuzzing into static in places, but they're very real and very confused about not being in their happy green pastures. Which means they panic, of course, and start running amok. Help the citizens corral these strange beasts until the glitch ends, run away from the now very real flocks of rainbow chickens that want to dogpile you, or simply stand by and watch the chaos occur. It's up to you how you want to help!

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❥ PROMPT IV: The Ribbon Games

A couple weeks after everyone has arrived and had time to mostly settle into the weird weather patterns and machinery muck-ups, a notice is plastered across the network:

The citizens of Havenwell wish you well, offworlders! To show our appreciation for your assistance in saving our world, we cordially invite you to participate in an ancient tradition: The Ribbon Games! In the old days, this festival was held as a celebration of joyous events. You have a week to collect as many ribbons as you can from your temple by completing their Ribbon Task. Then, at the end of the week, we are hosting a party in your honor where you can compete to collect ribbons from the other temples to win fabulous prizes! Please visit your deity's temple to find out more and we hope you will join us for the Ribbon Games Party at the end of the week.

With all our gratitude,
The Citizens of Havenwell

Those who choose to participate and head to their deity's temple will find a priest with a sash and a box of ribbons in the colors of your chosen deity. They point to a digital board at their side that lists the task you'll need to complete in order to earn one of these ribbons, and will allow characters to complete a ribbon challenge once a day until the week is over for a total of 7 ribbons if they come each day. You may only earn the ribbon of your assigned deity, so if you are an adherent of Rawna and go to Ainea's temple, even if you complete Ainea's task, you cannot receive her ribbon. The tasks are:

• Rawna: Give comfort to someone or ease someone's pain within Rawna's temple to receive a shimmering silver ribbon.
  
• Ainea: Do an act of kindness or show compassion to someone within Ainea's temple to receive a soft pink and purple ribbon.
  
• Diacht: Reveal an honest truth about yourself within Diacht's temple to receive a bold red and white ribbon.
  
• Ohma: Learn something new about or from someone within Ohma's temple to receive a delicate blue and gold ribbon.

Once a task is completed, the priest will remove a ribbon from their box and affix it to your clothing. Don't let anyone steal your ribbons! Good luck keeping them safe, offworlders.

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❥ PROMPT V: The Fanciest of Welcome Parties

At the end of the month, once the city square is clean and the ribbons have been distributed to participating citizens, the newest residents of Havenwell will wake to the sound of music floating over the city. During the night while people slept, the natives decorated the city with streamers, brightly colored lanterns, and strings of beautiful lights that glow no matter the hour of the day. The natives have decorated themselves, too, and provide the offworlders with clothing and decorations to match. Garishly colored sashes, brilliantly (artificially) plumed hats, skirts and tunics, boas and fake flower leis - just about anything you can imagine, they're wearing. In and around the city square there are long tables of oddly colored finger foods - orange-colored grapes, bright pink meats, blue cheeses and the like are provided along with golden chocolates, fuchsia frosted cupcakes with pink cake underneath, and minty green cookies. The foods might look strange, but at least they mostly taste like they're supposed to. The citizens are trying, they promise.

All around the fountain depicting the four gods in the center of the square, pre-recorded music is playing and the natives are dancing in pairs, groups, and lines. Join them for a dance and they'll happily teach you the local customs, or break out your own moves and share your world's best moves to earn some applause and awkward attempts at recreating them.

The big game of the night is shared by the natives and it's announced halfway through the party. The culmination of the Ribbon Games is a contest to try and collect a set of four ribbons - one from each different god's temple. The rules are simple:

1. Attach your ribbons to yourself in a clearly visible location.
   
2. Tag and hold someone else for more than 1 minute. You can bear hug them, hold their hands, link arms, anything!
   
3. After sustaining contact, you can take one of their ribbons. If you aren't the character who initiated contact, you can't take a ribbon.
   
4. Gather one of each god's ribbon in order to win a prize!

If you successfully manage to get all four ribbons, a little shower of confetti will burst from your ribbons and a nice little chunk of Dora will be transferred to your account. This can only work once unfortunately, but it's a nice little bonus for your first month in Havenwell! The party continues late into the night and the natives are happy to keep the party going as long as any of the offworlders wish to keep dancing.

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As a reminder, please post your character to the Taken Character list and your own information to the Player Contact list as soon as possible. It helps us keep track of our player cap!

If you have any other questions, please ask them in the QUESTION thread below. Feel free to use the CR/Intro Meme to do OOC plotting. Otherwise, welcome to Hugtopia's first mingle log!

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Comments

I

[this_loser]

[Prompto is most definitely not paying attention to a man hanging out in the trees. He's more interested in taking photographs of the temples. He's very impressed with this one. Crouching down, he tries to get an interesting angle, shifting and readjusting every so often.

He pauses when something wet hits his hand. Frowning, he swivels around and looks up.]

[flawed_immortality]

Apologi...e... Prompto!

[Saying the Immortal sounded excited might be saying too much but there's something warmer in his voice when he calls out to the blond. The bucket he's been working from gets hung carefully from a nearby branch and then the Marshal lets himself drop from the tree, rolling through the landing to push to his feet.]

I have to admit I'm relieved to see you... Have you spoken with Ignis yet?

[this_loser]

[That's Cor! He waits until the man is done jumping and rolling to really confirm it, and yeah. Definitely Cor.]

Hey, Cor. Uh, Marshal. Sir...

[He stows his camera away with a smile.]

It's good to see you, too. Uh, Ignis? Yeah. I've seen him.

[flawed_immortality]

Good. It is best we keep one another as up to date as possible on any information we collect about the state of things here or home.

[Already 100% business. But really anyone expecting him to not try to get home doesn't know him well, assurances of time stopping tech or not.

Paranoid? Him?

Definitely.

Also he doesn't know Regis is here yet.]

[this_loser]

[He wouldn't have it any other way. It's comforting, in a way, especially since he hasn't actually seen his own world in over two years. By then, he'd almost given up on finding
a way back (and wasn't sure he even wanted to, in the end. Going back meant leaving Kaname.) But if they found a way out in the last place, there should be a way out here as well, right?

Anyway!]

Yeah. Probably a good idea. And uh, not to sound weird or anything, but what year is it back home?

[He already knows people can come from just about any time period - he met Verstael, after all - so it's more out of curiosity than anything else.]

[flawed_immortality]

[Cor is quiet for a moment, head tilting ever so slightly, just enough to make it clear he's considering all the implications that question brings with it.]

758... What year are you expecting?

[this_loser]

[He has no expectations. It's best to just roll with it.]

That's not too far off, actually. You're a couple years in my future.

[flawed_immortality]

[That has him cocking a brow. Your future. Prompto you know that sounds daft.]

I'm sure there's more explanation forthcoming...?

[this_loser]

[Is there? Prompto's head tips sideways.]

Uh. Well. It was 756 when I got... [He waves a hand, looking for the right word.] ...whooshed off, the first time.

[That's probably not the word. He also, probably, didn't make anything clearer.]

[flawed_immortality]

I don't recall you ever leaving us, Prompto... what do you mean by whooshed off?

[You just made him say that, how dare you.]

[this_loser]

Yeah. It's ... it's weird. And kind of a long story.

[He draws a breath. That's all the warning Cor gets.]

This isn't the first time I've been, like, abducted to another planet, or universe, or whatever. The last two years, I was on a fleet of ships... space ships! We'd move from planet to planet, but we couldn't really escape. Not until recently. And I thought I'd be going home - but I guess not! But it's okay, because Kaname is here too.

And the reason you don't know any of this is because they could take you from any point in time, and plop you right back like you never left! I didn't even age. Back home, it'd be like I never left.

[Makes sense, right?]

[flawed_immortality]

[Prompto chatters along and Cor begins to look more concerned by the moment, unsettled and worried and by the time Prompto's exclaiming about how it's like he never even left he's completely shut down, locked every thought and emotion and the gnawing sense of horror in his belly behind a steel wall of impassive neutrality.

Makes sense? Sure. In a horror movie plot sort of way.]

This... they you mentioned. Is this Niflheim's doing or something from some distant universe?

[this_loser]

[Prompto manages to miss any display of worry before it's tucked away, caught up in his own rambling.]

Oh, distant universe for sure. They were called Atroma. Even Niflheim has nowhere near the kind of tech they were operating with. They even snagged Ardyn.

[It was equal parts weird and horrible.]

[flawed_immortality]

[Prompto please stop being so cavalier about all of this.]

They- Adagium?

[A crack in the mask at the sheer absurdity of it all and then he's clenching his jaw, restraining himself from any further exclamations.]

And after escaping you've found yourself here... where these people claim to have similar abilities. You think they're speaking the truth then?

[this_loser]

[No.]

He was only around a few months.

[The damage had been minimal, all things considered. Ardyn had only used his alien-given telepathy to mess with his mind once.]

Mmm... I dunno. The Atroma weren't exactly trustworthy. I'm reserving judgement until we know more.

the guyliner is *intense* in that icon lol

[flawed_immortality]

For the best. I daresay most of them believe what we are being told is true but that hardly means anything about the true intent of this place.

[The idea of Adagium lose in another universe is terrifying really. The implications of spreading the Scourge beyond Eos... to other worlds.]

All this time away... it's useless to ask if you were safe but are you alright?

[Let him Fuss, Prom]

Gotta look his best

[this_loser]

[Ardyn had seemed more interested in being a nuisance and drinking wine than spreading darkness and evil. Though it was also possible the Atroma had neutered his abilities.

He offers up a shrug and a smile.]

I'm fine. There were some rough spots, but I have a really great support system.

[He mostly means Kaname, but he'd made quite a few friends. At various times, Noctis, Luna, and Ignis had also been there.]

/whistles

[flawed_immortality]

Does that mean the others were there?

[Not that Prompto couldn't make friends, he was one of the friendliest people Cor knew. But a great support system clearly must include at least his King. Right?]

[this_loser]

[The smile slips.]

Sometimes. Off and on. Noct and Ignis, anyway. And ... and Luna.

[He can guess the next question.]

[flawed_immortality]

[Cor's eyes go wide for a moment and then he frowns, falling quiet to think through the rapid fire revelations Prompto's dropping here. Slowly he nods, coming to a conclusion of his own.]

So Lady Lunafreya was drawn into that world before her death? Only... what? To be returned to Eos to die? Or might she have come to another place like this?

[this_loser]

[His lip wobbles.]

I don't know. Last time I saw her, she seemed pretty at peace with...y'know...

[She had also come from ten years plus, which he really didn't know how to explain. She was tight-lipped about what happened in those ten years, as well. At least with him.]

[flawed_immortality]

I am sure His Majesty and Clarus feel the same, that hardly makes their loss any easier for the rest of us to bear. Nor do we wish it to come to pass. It seems doubly cruel though, to spare her to the whims of some universal tides.

[The thought is enough to have Cor reaching up to rub at his temples some more.]

[this_loser]

I won't argue with that. Still, I was happy I got to actually meet her.

[She'd been a good friend. It's a loss that stings more than others, because he doesn't know whether she went home to her death, or off to another world with another second chance.]

In my experience, though? I don't think they care if it's cruel.

[flawed_immortality]

Then we'd best hope these "gods" here have nothing to do with your Atroma.

[The idea of things being so inconclusive would be maddening for someone like Cor. Having no concrete answers as to where or when or how those he cared for ended up.]

You certainly seem to have learned a great deal in your time away.

[There's an edge of seriousness, something almost hard when he speaks of the Atroma that Cor's certain he hasn't heard back in Hammerhead.]

[this_loser]

I don't think they do. Aside from the whole kidnapping plot, this feels very, very different.

[He spent two years not knowing where they were going or what was going to happen next, if the next stop was going to be peaceful or boiling over with cannibals. It was good to be ready for anything, and roll with the punches as they came.

He rubs a hand over his nose with a small laugh, though there's something hopeful and searching in his eyes.]

Nah. You think so?