hugtopia_logs | ♥ July 2019 Intro Mingle

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.

❥ 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!

❥ 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.

❥ 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!

❥ 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.

Outdoor party space with hanging lights and flowers

❥ 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:

Attach your ribbons to yourself in a clearly visible location.
Tag and hold someone else for more than 1 minute. You can bear hug them, hold their hands, link arms, anything!
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.
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.

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!

♥ back to navigation

Flat | Top-Level Comments Only

The serious look on her face is both odd, due to her age, but natural as well, likely due to her time in the painting world. Yet she isn't even really aware of the look as she stares up her. Mind made up.

"Then helping one another stay safe is really important then, so we can all go home together."

And the serious look breaks as she smiles brightly with that blind naive hope only children seem capable of having.

She is not used to children, so the level of gravitas on the human child's face is no more odd than the child herself. This was a serious subject, so that measure of it made sense. Perhaps what is more startling to her is the smile that follows after, that bright determination. That perhaps, more than anything was what defined the girl. The naivety might have gotten her hurt, before.

"You are correct," Honerva agrees, her voice still quiet as she considers all of this. "It is very important." Even if the concept of going home means something very different for her, but that's not a detail she shares.

"Have you... talked to many people here, yet? Those from other worlds, not the inhabitants."

She seems to beam just a little bit brighter at the confirmation that she isn't wrong, or being told her ideas are silly. Though it dims back after a moment as she casts her eyes down thoughtfully to stare at her scuffed shoes for a bit.

"A few, mostly to say hello and such. Some though talked with me a lot and wanted to be a friend, and there were a few that seem to think I don't really know how to take care of myself here. Even when I tell them about the painting world and the rules Garry had to make for us to not get hurt there. No one seems too scary or mean though!"

"Perhaps they just do not want to think of you as being on your own, if you do not have to be."

Even if she wasn't exactly offering to look after her, it was hard to deny concern, even if she was listening to her.

"What were these rules like? They may have to be adjusted for this world."

"I wouldn't mind being with others, but they want me to stay in one place and that was always made the bad things find us if me and Garry stayed still too long."

The frown on her face shows just what exactly about people trying to look after her are ignoring when she tries to explain things.

"There was also the never let anything take your rose, and always know where it is. Don't get close enough for things to grab you just in case it's just pretending to not be alive, always close doors in case a painting lady is following us..."

She trails off because she realizes she's babbling and ducks her head down for a moment. The motion causing said red rose to bob a little behind her ear.

She remains quiet as she listens to the explanation. Well... that certainly explained a lot about the last universe the girl had been trapped in.

Once the girl stops speaking, she waits, to see if she will look up or speak again, before she begins her response.

"So the rules you are accustomed to are for... such a place where there's a constant danger to your life. And here we have yet to fully determine what we may be dealing with. And even more, the person who had once served as your guide... is also not here."

"Yes ma'am. The painting world didn't seem bad at first, just a place that liked to play mean tricks now and again, but it kept getting meaner and meaner the longer we were there."

She stops herself there because it's still hard to believe that Mary had been the meanest trick of all to them. She had thought she was a friend, but to find out she was one of the reason that place had been so mean to them.

"I got lost from Garry before and following the rules helped us meet again. I don't want to not follow the rules just in case it means I won't find him again."

"This... Garry is likely still in that painting world, if you have not yet encountered him here."

She quiets for a moment, since the girl did have valid concerns in her actions. This world made a point of promising overtures of safety, so of course, she didn't trust it, herself.

"Whatever dangers lie here are not as apparent to us. It is already a strange world."

Ib only bites the inside of her cheek for a moment, a habit her mother disapproved of, in order to not actually tear up at someone who sounds like they understand this place far better then she does confirm that she may not see Garry again. She can't cry, not when she really did need to do what she had to so she could go back. Hopefully before he tried going through the entire painting world looking for her.

"I would like the place to be as nice as the robot people are trying to say it is, but I'll keep a look out Miss. I won't let anything surprise me.

"Then be certain to follow your rules... and remain safe."

She's quiet for a moment, before adding, slowly.

"... But if you ever find that you are in need, you may contact me."

While not as open and bright as her first smiles at the start of this conversation, it's still there and the traces of tears being held back vanish as well as Ib nods in understanding.

"I'll do my best. Especially in keeping from having to bother you or anyone else Miss.

"... It is no bother."

Particularly since she made a point of saying that it was not so. Though it is here that she realizes that she did not offer this child her name, which was one of her own... bad habits that required addressing.

"My name is Honerva."

"It's very nice to meet you Miss Honerva. I hope we can get along for as long as we're both here then."

The slightly formal phrasing seem to trip a bit as she says such, showing she's copying from another source on such phrasing. Yet it barely causes her to pause as she smiles brightly again and gives a small curtsey.

Honerva has enough difficulty keeping up with anyone's informal manner of speech to judge anyone trying to match formality for once. It was clear enough an attempt was being made, and her own expression softens once more when the girl smiles.

"Perhaps we will."

Though now she pauses, thoughtfully. It was rare when she had enough thought to give her own name, without already knowing the other person's.

"Then, what may I call you?"

"My name is Ib. I'm happy you took the time to talk to me."

And she truly is, in one part for just the fact she was talking to her, and another part because even when Honerva was giving her advice or stating a fact she didn't do so in a way that felt like she couldn't possibly understand what was being spoken of.

♥ July 2019 Intro Mingle

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