♥ November Intro Mingle Log

[hugtopiamods]

November Intro Mingle Log
Welcome to Hugtopia, and to the city of Havenwell. This mingle is meant for new arrivals to get settled and meet the other inhabitants. New characters should be the only top-levels but everyone is free to tag around and make new friends. Who knows, you may find that Perfect Hug in here. You can use the prompts here, or create a wildcard of your own.

ICly, this takes place from the 2nd to around the 10th, with a proper event coming soon after applications are processed. The prompts below are optional, but are a way to get you started if you wish. To help you create your own prompts, please take a look through our Settings and FAQ. 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 below.

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❥ PROMPT I: Awakening

When you awaken, you're in the last outfit you remember wearing, (up to) three of your belongings laid nearby or your animal friend curled up by you, waking as you do. A stone slab is not the most comfortable place to sleep, but once you're awake, a humanoid-looking robot comes into the room and explains that you're in Havenwell, then leads you out of the room and into the main portion of the temple where a welcoming committee of similarly humanoid-looking robots hand over a clear smartphone-sized tablet, some starting funds, and explain their dilemma. Then they release you into Havenwell to pick your new home from free housing in the city and give you the chance to settle. It might be a bit disorienting, but thankfully there seem to be a lot of robots and even some non-robots around. Maybe ask them for help? Strike up a friendly conversation, get to know your neighbours! It seems as if you may be here for the long haul.

❥ PROMPT II: Buddy System

With all the changes and the fear of a secondary attack lingering, the natives are a lot more protective of their newest arrivals. When new characters begin to appear at the temples, they receive the welcome speech, get their communicators and the simple map of the city, and a warning to stay away from the walls. Then they get taken to the front of the temple by a helpful robotic priest. Rather than turn the newcomers loose right away, they pull someone seemingly at random off the street and push the two people together with a cheerful, "It's dangerous to go alone, so please show our newest resident around. Please be buddies!" They wait until they're certain the pair is going to be moving off together before going back inside.

They try to place a new arrival with one of those who previously arrived, but who can keep track of all that, right? Characters may find themselves thrown together with an actual veteran or with another new arrival who only came here a day or even just an hour before them! Good luck helping each other out, offworlders, and don't lose your buddy!

❥ PROMPT III: Virtual Research

After the attack, every part of the city is on repair duty and the means the Entertainment District as well. As new arrivals wander the city, they might be called into one of the numerous Virtual Reality cafes. These cafes vary in layout, but most have areas for the natives to plug directly into the machines and other areas which have older looking virtual reality helmets that allow flesh bodied people experience the games. For those who need assistance with their sensory inputs, basic options like audio descriptions of visual scenes, enhanced audio and descriptive speech, closed captions, and crude mobility chairs are available. A handful of cafes have other options like direct visual or audio cortex stimulation to simulate vision or hearing, or suspension tanks to allow simulated movement, but these are currently unavailable due to damage.

All of these facilities are, unfortunately, under repair. The direct plug-in systems are easier for the robot natives to fix because they can do the most important part of it - testing - by themselves. But for the helmets and other interface systems, they need your help. Naturally, they'll pay you for the work, but they need the offworlders to play the available games and record any areas where they find glitches. Playing with a partner increases your chances of finding and fixing any issues, so feel free to log in for free for once and test any of the following games:

• Big Bass Fishing
The beautiful lake has blue-green waters surrounded by forest and rocky, reedy shores. You and your companion are on a small single-motor fishing boat and you have fishing gear - two poles in the water. As the game starts up a read-out announces the objective: Catch the largest fish before the time limit ends. What's the time limit? ...Well, that's your first glitch because it reads as static. Might as well start fishing though, right? It doesn't take long to catch a few regular sized fish, nothing too exciting, and then? You get the big one - it bows your fishing rod nearly in half as you reel it up. The fish leaps into the air and you realize this is your next glitch because the fish hangs there - the size of a minivan - and yells, "BIG. BASS. FISHING. ATTACK." The fish slaps its fins and tails at the boat and now you and your fishing companion better fight this fish or you'll end up in the lake or worse.


• A (un)Familiar Experience
Jump into the life of the temple familiars and see life from their perspective! Choose the temple, any temple is fine, and be transformed into a fledgling rainbow dragon, a purple mouse, a white raven, or a blue feline. You're free to move about the virtual confines of the temples and, in fact, you can even interact with other familiars in their temples - who may be other players in this game. Play, climb, try to get your fledgling wings to fly, tumble about with the other mice, enjoy your simple life as an animal! --or you would if you weren't an insane size. Rather than being a small mouse, you're the size of a horse. That fledgling rainbow dragon? About the size of a fly. The building sizes are off, too - one might have door that's 30 feet tall, but a ceiling that's only 12. Everything else seems fine, but those sizes? Well, you better figure out how to get around that.


• Robot Crossing
Logging in with another character will net you a little farm and a variety of games to choose from:
1. Pick and harvest as many Aellyn vegetables and fruits as you can before the timer runs out! The more you pick, the better your score. Work together with your partner to clear the field in any way you can. Strangely, once you finish clearing a tree or a field row of their bounty, they seem to magically refill when you turn your back. Strangely, when the timer runs out? It flashes 00:00 and the game...doesn't? Stop? In fact, the fruits and vegetables just keep multiplying and multiplying and if you don't hurry up you might just get buried in them all!
   
2. With a partner, use the giant slingshot to launch comically large fruits into a garden patch of other colored fruits. Match a line of 3 or more similarly shaped fruits to clear it from the field. The more fruits you can clear, the higher your score - aka welcome to Fruit Crush. Stack lines of 6 or more to get shining clear diamond fruits that clear the entire row and snag yourself some bonus points. Or they should, but whenever you clear away a matching set, the fruits explode, sending fruit bits and juice everywhere - most notably on you and your partner. Still, the game is going on and it looks like it won't stop until you finish, so good thing it's all a computer game, right? Sure feels real though - reeeeeeally sticky.
   
3. You and your partner(s) are given a magical golden pumpkin and it's your job to grow it into the largest pumpkin possible. Why? There's a county fair of course and the largest pumpkin wins! But how do you grow this pumpkin? Well, for whatever reason? This pumpkin is already the size of a grizzly bear and it just won't stop growing! You and your partner better find a way to stop it from growing out of control or you might get (virtually) crushed! You could do a song and dance routine together to touch the pumpkin's soul to teach it moderation or calm its insane vegetable puberty. You could hold hands and share stories and entertain the pumpkin until it feels satisfied that it's grown enough. You could just hack and slash at it in an attempt to reduce its unwieldy bulk. The possibilities are endless and so is the pumpkin's growth, so you better hurry!

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Comments

[astralera]

[ She loves you, doesn't she.

Hydaelyn loves all of her children. Era is not loved any more than any other, though she supposes in the end that it is a different kind of love she receives.

She knows not if the Mothercrystal stole away her life and memories when She bestowed the Blessing of Light upon her. Would it truly matter?

What manner of mother makes a weapon of her daughter, destroying all option of any other future for her?

Who would she have been if not the Warrior of Light? Would she have been the same as any other woman? Found a home, a love, and made a family for herself? Era could not imagine ever being a mother herself, but perhaps if things were different she would have had some children by now.

She has always enjoyed caring for others the best she can, keeping them safe, watching all of these lives blossom and grow thanks to her interference rather than wilting away, crushed under the heel of those who destroy them. With her body and soul she preserves their lives and gives them the chance of a future. Is that not what mothers do?

Perhaps, if things had been different, it would not be such a frightening thought to be one.

But things are as they are, and she is the Warrior of Light. Even were she not barren and stagnant as the Empty (there were enough orphans), even if she found a partner to love (she has already found one)—

Era stomps down on that train of thought immediately, gives a slight shake of her head as though to clear it of such nonsense.

Hydaelyn loves her, just as She loves all of Her children.

And Era loves Hydaelyn, because Hydaelyn is her Mother and her mother.

She loves Hydaelyn, because she does not think she could hate Her even if she tried. ]

The Mothercrystal has boundless love for all of Her children. She was the first one to offer me love, and I love Her in return.

[ You honor her by being happy.

But she is not happy. ]

I honour Her by continuing to survive, that I might return to our star and continue my duties.

[iustaegis]

[ She watches and waits patiently for an answer, taking in her countenance as she appears to think, noticing the shake of her head as if dismissing a thought, a memory, or perhaps something else entirely. Is she conflicted? Is she uncertain? Is she wistful? What goes through the woman's mind, Pyra cannot claim to know, but it is clear that Era has many more thoughts on the matter.

Her succinct response reveals more of her relationship. The goddess-- that "Her"-- has another title: Mothercrystal, and boundless love, apparently, despite destroying worlds and all those in it. By Hydaelyn's grace alone does Era and her own world live-- and as Era has said-- survive.

It is a lovely relationship.

But surviving... is the bare minimum, she believes. Can't this woman ask for more? Have more?

Ah, perhaps-- that's it.

She speaks her thought aloud, but it's no more than a worried murmur: ] ...In return, you seek no reward.

[astralera]

[ She frowns, shifting again; uncomfortable. Era sees nothing wrong with living for duty. With living for others. ]

What reward would I seek? To save others, protect them, and watch them flourish while Mother cannot... These things are all fulfilling enough on their own.

1/2

[iustaegis]

[ She agrees, privately, with all of what Era says. Others' safety and contentment are fulfilling indeed, yes, but the tragedy lies in that this woman seems... very human to her. Should she not have happiness for herself, just as those she protects? Furthermore--

A woman who is duty- bound. A woman who is seeks to protect others. A woman chosen by a mother goddess. A woman with light within her eyes that she carries, clear and bright as crystal.

To her, these all sound like she is... ] You are an inspiring champion. [ With awe, she says this, and then...

Overcome, she takes the last step forward to clear the distance between them, swiftly but gently reaching for her hand to bring it between the two of them. ]

[iustaegis]

[ A moment passes, the another, and soon her smile brightens. Pyra's hands are gloved but warm, and they hold Era's with appreciation that borders on reverence. ]

I imagine they write songs about you in your world!

[ Indeed, her delight at speaking with Era bubbles as if its own melody in her voice. ]

[astralera]

[ Era hasn't the opportunity to move her hands before Pyra reaches for them, and while she stiffens at the contact, she doesn't immediately pull away — she is fond of warmth, and it helps, however minutely, with the slight chill that still lingers from when she had fallen ill.

But this woman's hands do not bring the comfort that those of another do, and she quickly frees her hand from the other woman's grasp in as polite a way as possible, then tucking them away into the sleeves of her sweater for warmth instead.

What Pyra says is all truth, regardless of how much Era wishes she could deny it. She doesn't want to be hailed as something legendary and beyond reach. Of course... Era is not for who the storytellers weave tales, or the bards compose ballads.

Her cheeks flush, as they are wont to do when it comes to such unprompted praise. ]

Accolades are given to the Warrior of Light, Slayer of Gods, and Champion to Eorzea. But that hero would be nothing without her companions, all of whom should be lauded equally, if not moreso.

[iustaegis]

[ What legends she speaks of! Those all sound like titles granted to only the most august of men. Her hand falls back to her side, but she remains looking upon Era fondly. How wonderful, that there are people like her in both this world and her own. There ought to be more of them. But, she supposes, gods cannot just choose anyone to bless.

That hero would be nothing without her companions. ] 

You mean... friendship and, oh, more family, correct? [ Her fingers interweave together before her; she will keep in mind how quickly Era had withdrawn her hand. ] Are they here, too?

[astralera]

[ She glances aside briefly, for while she could speak for an age of her beloved friends it does make her uncomfortable to share so much with a stranger. All she knows of this woman is her name, and while she seems earnest Era has been tricked before. ]

No.

[ The Crystal Exarch that is here is not the one of her world, no matter how easy it is to forget that. And Emet-Selch is...

It doesn't matter what he is, because he is dead. ]

What of you, Pyra?

1/2

[iustaegis]

Ah, there are... none here of my world. [ Her voice is fainter, eyes drifting appropriately off to the side as she speaks. ]

[iustaegis]

But this is why I hope to meet more of those here.

[ On that note, the garden she had suggested awaits. ]

...I think... that this world will be restored sooner than later, with those like you in this world, Era.

[astralera]

If there were more like me in this world it would be doomed. [ She shakes her head. ] It is those like you who will empower the so-called gods that dwell here, and perhaps offer the world a chance to heal in doing so.

[iustaegis]

[ Politely, ] What a kind thing to say.

[ It seems that she has grouped three things with this woman. Her name, Era. Who she is, Daughter of Her. And what she is, kind.

Pyra takes the first step away; as much as she would like to speak further, she does have a duty here to find those more willing to hold hands. ]

We'll meet again, I'm sure.

[ With that, she takes her leave, heading towards the gardens. ]