♥ 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

[wifeacle]

[Boy what is this new fangled slang you are using, is this how the kids these days talk?]

I don't understand. What is a 'stat' and why would I wish to max it out?

[She has never once touched a video game in her entire life are you sure this is really the girl you want to date, Noctis? She's going to be absolutely terrible at this relaxation thing.]

I would like that very much.

[carbungle]

[Oh he definitely needs to catch her up on VR shenanigans. It's too bad none of the cafes have RPGs yet. He still has a lot of saving to do before he can request a version of Kings Knight. And he is determined! To teach her! How to chill!]

You know, like- how strong or fast you are, or how much magic you've got- in real life, you can track that and get better by training. Stats in a video game are just numbers, so when you max them out they're the best they can be. More numbers means more power.

[Spoken like someone who has put far too much time and energy thinking about this kind of thing. He pulls out his communicator, studying it thoughtfully.]

Wonder if you can get games on this thing, too...

[wifeacle]

[Hate to break it to you Noctis, but she has zero chill. Absolutely none.

She listens to every word especially carefully, soaking it in and trying to make sure she'll remember it. Because obviously this is something that is especially important to him, and therefore is something that will become equally so to her.]

I think I understand. My sleeping stat must be very high at the moment.

[Was that a thing? Was she doing this right?]

[carbungle]

[Ehhh... points for trying.]

Sleepiness is a debuff. But after that much of it, your HP's gotta be back to full.

[Sorry, Luna, you opened this can of worms and now you have to live with it. although, jokes aside-]

...You are, right? All healed up, and feeling okay?

[She'd said that she was rested, but these things don't necessarily just heal overnight. Especially something as jarring as what happened that day in Insomnia, which is a whole different can of worms.]

[wifeacle]

[Thankfully she was already well aware that you were, in fact, a huge nerd. And yet, for reasons even she doesn't understand, she likes you anyway.

Until he ask that and her first instinct is to answer that yes, of course. She's fine. All she needed was some sleep and a shower. Some fresh clothes and a hot meal. Everything is totally fine and in the past.

Two, perhaps three days in the past. At most. And suddenly it's so difficult to lie. To put on the very brave face that she wears every single day of her life, in front of every single person she meets. Noctis had always been someone with who she felt she could share those thoughts and secrets. Their notes and letters had been a light in her life, his quiet support always there for her when she needed it most.

And she needed it more than ever right now.]

I know that I should tell you I am. And I suppose for the most part I'm alright. It has been so long since I have slept that well. Or for that long. And I am with you. I could ask for nothing better. But -

[But there were people who were not here who should be.]

I keep thinking of Nyx. And the future he said he wanted. Of your father. In that way, I'm very much not alright.

[carbungle]

[He shifts beside her as he listens, giving her hand a light squeeze.]

You don't have to be okay for me, Luna. And you don't have to say you are if you're not. I don't want that.

[He's no stranger to brushing off concern, especially when life is too busy to stop just for him, but he doesn't want it to be like that with her. Not when she'd had all those expectations from everyone else in her life. It's different with the two of them, carrying the weight of the world on their shoulders, the burden of some mysterious and ancient destiny. But they're still just people; she can't expect perfection from him, and that means he shouldn't ask it of her, either.

He's worried, of course, but as long as she's physically okay, they can keep working on the rest. He's well aware that such things take much, much longer.]

Tell me about him? About what happened?

[She can refuse, if it's too painful. But this feels important- both for her, to overcome it, and for him, as future king. This is the man who died for her, for the city, to keep them safe while Noctis was being squirreled away to safety. He's more than earned the right to have his words be heard.]

[wifeacle]

[Doesn't she though? The weight which he carried on his shoulders was far greater than that which rested upon hers. All she had ever wanted, desperately, was to relieve some of it. To take as much of it from him as she possibly could. To gently help him forward, to keep quite so much from becoming a burden. Wasn't that all not being alright would be? Another burden. She should be strong.]

Your father was preparing for the signing of the treaty. During that time I... I feel so foolish now, but I went with someone who I shouldn't have. They planned to use my kidnapping as a distraction. Nyx learned of it and gathered the rest of the glaives to come and save me. Fancy that, a princess in need of saving.

[They had been on an airship. A torn part, crashing airship. But they could have made it outside the city walls.]

He intended to take me out of the city. But I could not leave your father behind. I suppose in that way, it is my fault. For not listening and doing as I pleased. But if I had not, your father would not have been able to pass me the ring for you.

[Was that even really a bright side? Would it have been better if it had just been lost forever?]

[carbungle]

[He has no way of knowing any better, so for his part, Noctis is glad, and he shakes his head.]

It's not your fault. The Glaives are the best of the best- Dad brought them together so they could protect Lucis, and they took it so seriously. "For hearth and home"... they were always saying that. I don't remember Nyx, but I remember his reputation for being a big hero- always saving everyone, never following orders. He did what he wanted. I doubt he'd have been happy, surviving by abandoning the whole city.

[His gaze shifts downwards, lips pursing tightly as he remembers those days leading up to his departure from Caem- Cor's arrival, fresh news from the city. Details from a surviving former Glaive of how it had happened.]

I heard that... they betrayed my dad. I heard about Drautos.

[And he'd felt wretched in that moment, had gone halfway to destroying his own hand on a tree before Cor dragged him off to channel his wrath in a safer manner. In your hands, he'd told the man. And those hands had turned on the king he'd pledged to protect. For what? For Niflheim? Even now, he doesn't understand it and likely never will. He doesn't want to. The Glaives are just a memory now, a mixed bad of heroism and mistakes.]

[wifeacle]

He did what was right. He remained loyal to your father, to Lucis through everything. Even when the other's gladly turned away.

[There was a strange sort of irony contained within this moment. Where once she had defended Noctis - his vast importance and his father's seemingly selfish decision to send him away - to Nyx, she now felt as if she were doing the opposite. Defending Nyx and his actions, no matter how reckless they were.]

His task was to protect me. It was the one that was given to him by your father. If I had not... I was so desperate to get to your father that I jumped out of the airship, forcing Nyx to follow. By the time we arrived it was almost too late. Your father was fighting Glauca and we barely got away. Nyx manged to fend him off and your father lead us to one of the secret passages within the Citadel.

I begged him to come with us. But he -

[Chose to protect them instead. She hated thinking about it.]

How? [As far as she was aware, there were precisely three people who knew of that particular truth. Herself, and she had never told another living soul. Had never had the opportunity. Nyx, who's life was made forfeit and who she was certain had been gone with the sunrise. And Libertus, who had made his intention to return to Galahd and help rebuild his once home perfectly clear.] Did Libertus find you? Was he alright?

[carbungle]

[Noctis nods at her correction, not about to argue. Even if he knew Nyx enough to think differently - and he did not - the conviction in her tone is not one to take lightly. Whatever kind of person Nyx was, in the end he made a choice to help Luna, to fight for Lucis, to support the will of the king. That's what matters, and that's the sort of heroism he should be remembered for. The last Glaive loyal to his father- as the next in line, he's going to honour that.

...But Luna seriously jumped out of an airship to find Regis? The rest is a distraction from it, and a sobering one at that, but his smile is brief and curious and he makes a mental note to circle back on that if he can. Turns out she's quite a bit more wild than he'd thought.]

Thank you... for trying. I know he'd be grateful for it.

[Of course he wouldn't go, though. He was there to play a role, to become a distraction against everything else that was to happen in the future. Passing the torch on to the next generation, or whatever flowery nonsense made it feel less defeatist. Noctis hates it, but he understands better now. It just took a while.]

I never met Libertus, but Cor did. He made it out of the city and found what was left of the Crownsguard to tell them what happened in the Citadel. Cor passed the message along before I left.