hugtopia_logs | ♥ November Intro Mingle Log

♥ November Intro Mingle Log

a house lit by sunset colours, with orange-leafed trees around it and a tiny pumpkin by the wall

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.

❥ 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

two fingers together with smiling faces drawn on

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

a virtual first-person view of hands reeling in a fishing rod

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

A (un)Familiar Experience

Robot Crossing

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!
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.
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!

Flat | Top-Level Comments Only

Bragging rights? [ Her gasp is a falsetto. ]

Mmm, you’re getting ahead of yourself. [ So she cautions, but the laughter held back in her voice, accompanied by a wag of her finger, gives away that she is only joking with him. ] That’s not even a passing grade!

Well. [Fair.] I just won't share that part, then.

[Spoken with the confidence of someone who's never had to be the one to tell his father when his grades slipped. (That's what tutors are for.)]

You sneak! [ She giggles, giving him a light nudge. ] Exactly who do I have to ask to sign your report card?

Ignis. Definitely Ignis.

[And this isn't just because he's blind. Let's face it, Ignis would be doing it anyway.]

Ignis, mm. [ She’ll have to remember that name. Not for reporting any grades of hypothetical grades of course, but just to know someone with whom Noctis seems be close. ]

And he’s friend of yours from your world? Maybe you can practice extra-handholding with him.

Edited 2019-11-11 23:24 (UTC)

Uh... I don't know. Maybe?

[The idea of just walking up and asking for it is daunting as hell. Ignis has looked after him since he was basically still a toddler. Their relationship is layered and complicated; he can't imagine Ignis would refuse, but would it be too weird?]

He's known me for long enough that a 60% grade on touching someone would be well beyond a pass compared to how it usually is.

[ Ignis must be one among those with whom he feels as if he's "home", she thinks. But then-- compared to how it usually is.

Her eyes flit down to their held hands and then up to him. ]

You would find this difficult to do... even with someone like him?

[ That doesn't make sense to her. If anything, it should be far more difficult to hold hands with her, a total stranger! Or maybe this is simply the bias of unfamiliarity: sometimes, it is easier to be open with those who are ignorant to someone's past. ]

I don't know, maybe. It hasn't really been our thing. He's always talking about protocol and responsibility and I'm supposed to remember my status or whatever...

[He gestures vaguely, shaking his head. Something-something-princes should maintain a respectable distance...!]

Plus I... wouldn't know how to ask.

[ Protocol... responsibility... she hopes this Ignis is not so strict to not be able to -- comfort Noctis. Or realize that he needs a chance to mourn.

Her expression, however, remains patient. It is true, sometimes hand-holding can be awkward! But--

Baby steps. ] Would he know to give you an embrace, if you needed it?

If I needed it? If he thought I couldn't move forward without it? Sure, probably.

[It's kind of been a while. Not like he's spent a great deal of time or effort hugging Ignis, either.

...Wait, should he be doing that.]

It's not really how we do things.

[ Giving an embrace or a reassuring touch only when necessary sounds even crueler than not-- for the both of them. For Ignis, who has a duty, and for Noctis, who has a destiny. While she does not know the details, she's starting to build this picture of the both of them. That how they supposedly "do things" is...

Pushing feelings away.

It's hurt Noctis, as she's seen here, burying his head into her shoulder as she embraced him-- her, of all strangers! She is also sure, then, that it must have hurt this Ignis all the same: he has a responsibility to Noctis in some way, but-- "protocol" Hm. Not in a manner of providing comfort, then. With Noctis having his own destiny with which to contend, it would make for a vicious cycle of not addressing comfort. ]

I think, then, Noctis...

[ Her gaze turns knowing. She inclines her head, earrings catching the sun as the sway once with the movement. ]

That the both of you need practice.

[ Ten hugs, together, each! Turn in yo' reports at the end of the week! ]

[Hit the nail right on the head, there, and it's on point enough to get Noctis wide-eyed once more. Practice hugs... with Ignis.

Yeah, that would be one strange conversation. He shrugs his shoulders, giving his cheek an awkward scratch.]

Can't deny that, I guess. Maybe he'd be less serious about everything if that was a thing.

He is one of those you feel safe with. Or comfortable with. Or loved. Two of those three, isn't he? [ 66%! But also, it's a rhetorical question. From the way Noctis speaks of him, it is obvious that they must be truly close. Therefore: ]

The embrace we shared today... [ She continues softly. She lifts her free hand to tuck a strand of hair behind her ear. ] I am sure he will be able to give you a far more endearing and memorable one.

[ Noctis... has a backlog of hugs to give. His father, for one. And now Ignis. There are probably others-- and, naturally, this is all good to give to the gods here. It rightly shouldn't matter with whom he shares his comfort and warmth, but clearly it would be easiest for him to take those he loves into his arms. What a beautiful opportunity he has in this realm, she thinks. Saving this world, all while saving himself. ]

[Two of three? No, that's unfair. He may not necessarily feel entirely safe or comfortable here, in this world, but with Ignis, with Prompto? They're his best friends and his brothers. He knows there's love there, subtle but very mutual, and together they all keep each other safe. Months of travel and shared space, cramped in a tent or a car, seated together around fires and dinner tables- the comfort that they take in one another's presence was cultivated through all of it. Embarrassing or no, he can't just shrug that off. It's not just them, either. They've all felt the absence of their fourth, of their Shield, the shape of their friendship a lopsided square with one missing corner.

It takes him a long moment, but he finally smiles faintly, releasing his breath in a soft sigh and a shake of his head.]

I don't know, you give pretty good hugs.

[ He says such a thing... because it is something to say, she suspects, a way to deflect. Very well.

She regards him with a faintly flattered smile, shy. ]

Do you wish for another one?

That's, um. That's okay.

[She's good at it, yes, but that doesn't mean it's entirely in his comfort zone right now. Nothing against her- it's not her fault he's kind of sensitive about this stuff.]

I'm not ungrateful, is what I mean.

[ She settles back, her expression shifting to the gracious one of before. ]

...Me, neither.

[ Sincerity touches her voice like a bell to crystal. It reverberates once, then vanishes. Her point has been demonstrated by action of her offer and his refusal, but just in case it flew over his head: ]

That is why I suggest... to practice with those you love, instead of strangers.

[Another sheepish smile, scratching at his hair (and it's ruffled all over again, now) and shaking his head.]

You're the one who started it, though. I think it's easier to be the recipient then the one who makes the first move. [A beat, and then-] When you're out of practice, especially.

[ She makes a small, affirming sound to her agreement. Out of practice, he says... How awful it is, that he hasn’t had such contact to be considered practiced. What he has within him is... that want to help others, that light. It’s extraordinarily precious and rare, like diamonds set upon lapis lazuli. ]

Mm, Noctis....? [ Her gaze drifts, as does her attention. She looks outward just as a zephyr of wind dusts through her hair. ] I have a question.

[ She only announces it, of course, for the reason that it does not follow their current topic. She waits for his consent. ]

[Her questions tend to lean more on the intense side (at least, intense when it comes to his usual arms-length comfort zone), so she can hopefully forgive him for hesitating. The distracted look in her eyes is what makes him finally answer, however, as he's not certain what exactly that means.]

What's up?

[ From her profile, she glances sidelong at him. ]

What do you find beautiful?

[ This question is spoken softly, accompanied by a measuring, curious light in her eyes. It is time to find out if he and that man are truly alike. ]

Edited 2019-11-13 05:35 (UTC)

Beautiful...?

[Definitely didn't expect that question. His brows furrow, puzzling over it; his answer does not come immediately. He's seen a lot of beautiful things in his travels, but it's not often he sits down to name them. How to answer? Maybe something specific?]

...I remember... one of the first nights in Galdin Quay, this little beach resort we stopped at, we had to camp out because we didn't have the money for a hotel. Gladio woke me up at the crack of dawn so we could train. And don't get me wrong, I hate mornings, but... something about the sun on the beach really got me. I didn't get to see that kind of stuff back home. The city and the barrier always messed with the light, if you could even see it between all the skyscrapers.

[More than that- it'd been the last day he'd woken up satisfied, happy, genuinely without care aside from the whimsies of the day. The morning that followed they gotten the news about home, about the treaty, about his father. That was the day his easygoing roadtrip towards an arranged marriage had shifted instead to a journey of fate, gods, war, revenge. He woke a prince and by nightfall was titled a king, something he hadn't wanted and wasn't ready for. Peace became such a rare commodity, the nights became longer, and eventually even he, who hates mornings, could wake up and find the sun still rising, the last of the daemons descending back into the earth. He'd see the sky, and he'd remember that day again. The last day he'd been free.

He closes his eyes for a long moment, trying to hold on to that feeling, and when he opens them again his expression is softer, nostalgic and longing.]

There, though? The whole ocean looked like it was on fire. It was so cool.

[And it was beautiful. It was the most beautiful sunrise he'd ever seen.]

[ She listens attentively, his tone and expression captivating alone: he appears peaceful, content, lost in the past. He describes a memory, a time passed, and the nostalgic cadence with which he speaks gives away longing. A wish to return to that time? No, a wish to have a memory like that once more: sitting upon the shores with those for whom he cares, sharing a moment of tranquility together.

He thinks of not just any sunrise, but the light of one that curls over the horizon and sets water ablaze with soft peaches, washes of oranges, and deep, soulful reds. It is a fire, only one that burns a memory into hearts so privileged to witness. She can just imagine it: the surface of the ocean glimmering like a stretch of beaded satin as the earth gracefully turns upon its axis in the same slow dance it has done for eons. He describes a sunrise which would challenge even the most masterful of painters to render, for mere depictions of peace never capture the serenity of the moment...

...

For one, the world. For the other, the sunrise.

Neither of them seem to take its slow, daily raising for granted. They are both doing their part to ensure the next day follows.

Somnus, for the world. Noctis, for that sunrise. For both combined, it seems, the future: that the light might continue to shine upon the world.

Her lips part as a slow breath escapes her, thoughtful and humbled all at once. There are many things she can say in return here, but something far more important catches her attention instead: ]

Your smile... [ She peers closely, brow lightly knit, lips pursed quietly as she speaks slowly. ] Just now, I mean.

[ Then, she eases away a margin, just enough that the levelness of her gaze reins in with the new distance. ]

It was... different.

[ Different-- for a multitude of reasons: for describing the past, for bringing up a pleasant memory, for seeming so peaceful in that moment-- it's as if he's taken piece of the past with him to the present, reminding him of what he holds as precious. He has these memories he cherishes with those he loves... ]

66% even wow, self

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