♥ November Event Log

[hugtopiamods]

November (Malom) Event Log
The chaos of Lasohm's invasion is still fresh in the mind, but it's over. The ugly scar of the hole in Havenwell's wall is a jarring reminder that this world is dying and nothing goes quietly into that dark night. The phantom is gone as Malom overtakes Lasohm, the weather turning colder and chillier with each passing day. Still, the city of Havenwell has all of you offworlders to thank for its survival, and the fearful citizens make sure you know just how much they appreciate you by stopping you on the street to say their thanks. Your new home still needs your help to recover from their ordeal though, so will you lend them your strength once more?

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❥ PROMPT I: Rebuilding Effort

The magic barrier over the hole that unknown monster punched through Havenwell's wall is repaired, stopping the onslaught and encouraging any other nightmares that lurk outside to move on and away, but the hole itself remains. Throughout the month of Malom, robot natives are working tirelessly to gather bricks and stone and patch the breach, but they could use some help. Work together with other offworlders and natives alike to repair the wall and be rewarded with a handsome bump to the Dora in your bank account. They need all sorts of help, from clearing away the dead bodies of the spider-like creatures for cremation, to retrieving and hauling stone for the wall, to actually slotting the heavy blocks into place to cement them back together.

Outside the barrier, now clearly visible through the hole, a storm rages on, obscuring the view of the world beyond it. Gray and black clouds whip against the invisible barrier, and occasional debris slams into it, causing the impact site to light up with silver, pink, blue, or white hues before it fades away again. It seems even without monsters, the world outside is as inhospitable as was rumored.

Work together or take a break along the base of the wall and get to know your fellow offworlders a little better. It's going to take a while before this mess is cleaned up.

❥ PROMPT II: Air Sickness

Those who worked at or were near the breach in the wall for any extended period of time will notice that, over time, it gets harder to breathe. Then they begin to feel feverish, even if they don't have flesh bodies or are immune to disease. Their bodies ache and groan and it gets harder to move about without help. Once the natives notice, they set up a recovery area away from where the breach occurred: a giant tent with cots and pillows, thick rugs and blankets to keep the chill away. Unfortunately, they don't have medicines available to treat flesh bodied people, so they're at a loss of what to do otherwise. The priests gather anyone who is ill and brings them here...which is when a curious thing occurs.

While conventional medicines and healing spells seem to have no effect on the illness, staying in contact with another person alleviates the symptoms. After a period of contact with another person or persons, the fever breaks and it's like you were never sick at all.

Return to the wall, however, and you'll notice your symptoms coming back with a vengeance after a few days. It seems that making regular trips between the wall and this recovery tent is the only way to keep working. At least it's an easy fix so long as you're not a germaphobe.

❥ PROMPT III: A Tasty(?) Reward

Toward the end of the month as the hole in the wall is completely repaired and the risk of illness declines, a message is sent to all the offworlders' communication devices. Those who choose to open it will find a very official looking message from The Havenwell Council that reads:

Greetings, Saviours of Havenwell!
We of the Havenwell Council greet you and wish to express our eternal gratitude for your valiant efforts to keep our wonderful home safe. Without you, we would not have survived this terrible onslaught. As such, we wish to express our gratitude in a more concrete form. Your emissary, Magolor, has been in contact with this venerable Council and has brought to our attention that your greatest concern is for the food available. We apologize that due to our inability to taste we have been unable to supply you with satisfactory meals.

To that end, we invite you to work with our scientists to improve upon the taste of currently available offerings from our replicators. Please come to the Northern Research Tower (map included) at any time this month to sample what our replicators can produce and give us feedback on their flavour and textures. We ask that you be as specific as possible in your criticisms so we may improve upon your general quality of life. Please feel free to bring as many friends as you wish.

May the Gods Protect You,
Havenwell Council, Community Liaisons

Those who take the invitation will arrive at the Northern Research Tower and be taken directly to the 40th floor, where a large banquet hall has been laid out. Five rectangular tables, over 5 meters long each, stretch down the room, creating aisles for people to walk down. At the far end are several high round tables, covered in white cloth, and high round stools for those who wish them. The tables are overflowing with food, much like the welcome dinner, but at each table and scattered throughout the room are scientist robots with arm bands that read "Experiment 73" in that peculiar Aellyn script you saw during your time at the Archives. They invite you to taste the foods - both raw and cooked - and to give your very honest opinions.

Enjoy the food, help them improve the flavours, and walk the room to talk with the others who have come. Those who participate will receive a small synthetic fruit basket to take home with them on their first visit. Feel free to come back as often as you like, however! Each time, they'll be changing and adjusting the food available so your first and last visit may be very different. Perhaps that strawberry actually even tastes sweet, finally.

❥ PROMPT IV: A Virtual Spa

The VR cafes are uncharacteristically quiet while the rebuilding effort goes on, but there are still those who come to plug in to unwind after a day of intensive labor. And what better way to unwind than with a hot bath, right? Since the people of Havenwell can't actually submerge themselves in water, they're doing the next best thing: going to a virtual hot spring. There are several types to choose from and despite being digital, their calming and soothing effects on the body seem very real. Choose from:

• The Classic Outdoors: a rock lined hot spring with natural rock floors and steamy mineral infused waters nestled in the mountains. All around you is beautiful greenery like a sweeping pine and low fragrant bushes. The serene air and the calm forest is only occasionally broken by the sound of a wooden pipe thudding hollowly against a rock at a steady interval or the sound of birdsong off in the trees. The relaxing atmosphere is enough to set even the tightest wound nerves at ease.
  
  
• The Marbled Columns: white and painted marble columns lead to a series of different shaped baths with statues of the gods pouring water into them. Each bath has a different healing property, which is clearly marked with a plaque at the rim of each: good for your circulation, your bones, your aches and pains, even acne and metabolic rate. The columns support a beautiful open ceiling that shows the perfectly blue sky overhead dotted with the occasional cloud.
  
  
• The Steamy Sauna: though seemingly austere in their white tile and deep blue bath basins, the air here is thick and steamy and the baths are deep with hand-rails leading down steps to help you enter. All around the basins are stone or wooden benches with towels laid down for those who wish to simply sit and let the warm air open their lungs. If you get too hot? Grab a bucketful of cold water from one of the freestanding tubs and douse yourself to get a shock and cool off.
  
  
• The Milk-and-Honey: a beautifully tiled bath with a large shallow rectangular basin. The surrounding walls and ceilings have blue, white, and gold geometric designs laid out with loving care in pleasant designs that ease the mind. The bath water here is filled with a concoction of milk and honey to soothe and smooth the skin, filling the air with a pleasing sweet scent. The effects of these baths on a person's skin is said to make them glow from the inside out for at least a day after bathing.
  
  
• The Theme Park: the first thing to greet you is the comically oversized bottle of red wine tipped to pour a continuous stream of red liquid into the large crystalline bath basin. The smell of wine is heavy but pleasant in the air and the crystalline basin is round and shaped like a wine glass. Climb up the glass steps and give yourself a good old soak in the red water. You might even find that taking a dip here gives you a heady happiness that lasts all day. And if it feels like you're a little drunk while there? That has to be your imagination! ...Maybe.

Hot springs are great to experience with friends to deepen that feeling of skinship you have with each other, and several Havenwell natives are doing just that. But what about those who don't have a friend to log in with? Don't worry! The game will randomly select another player from this or another facility and match you together. Isn't that nice? We're sure it is! Who doesn't want to talk to someone else while naked, right?

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This event will run from November 14th to the 31st. 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 here.

Comments

[begguiling]

What, you've never seen a teacup ride? Those aren't nearly so literal! But our native hosts do have a certain type of straightforward mind.

[He says this while scanning the plaques on the baths so he can make his decision, tapping his chin, or at least where it looks like his chin probably is under his scarf. . . . That's another thing he's spinning around in his head right now on top of the rest. He wouldn't take off his clothes in front of most people. A handful of them have seen him naked now, through no doing of his own, and that had gone—fine, actually. Magolor's still not exactly keen to change anything about the way he dresses, but nothing had come of it with any of them, though to be fair, they'd all seen much worse than that during that dream. And Will of all people is—Magolor can't imagine him having anything to say about it. The man is both shameless and accustomed to all manner of weird anatomy through his Pokemon. He sees Chansey naked all the time. What's the harm?

And yet it still gives him that bit of pause. But if he's here anyway, looking over their options . . . he knows he's more than half committed.]

Hmm, how about this one? I'm still pretty achey after all that mess. I thought I'd never get out of bed again for a few days there!

[twistedempathy]

Would you believe me if I said I hadn't? I can't remember even hearing much about decent theme parks anywhere but Lumiose City, and that place has so much to do..... I wouldn't have been able to fit it all in if I'd stayed for a month.

[The commentary is enough to earn a sympathetic noise from Will; if nothing else, Magolor will have plenty of time to make up his mind.]

It has been pretty rough, huh? If this doesn't do the trick, I can ask Arete to take a look at you.

[begguiling]

Right, she's a healer, isn't she? Is there anything you and your team can't do?

[He winks over at Will. Pokemon are so useful . . . ! But they can't provide luxurious spa days, at least not that Magolor knows of, though Arche could probably heat up a hot tub real nice, come to think of it—

No, it's not the same! Magolor hovers at the edge of the tub they've chosen; he pulls off his glove to test the water, because that's simple enough, and finds his gaze drawn to the statue of the gods pouring the water into the basin. That's some kind of mood, anyway.]

Anyway, it's a shame you haven't had yourself a proper theme park experience yet! I'll whirl you around the galaxy sometime to visit my franchises once we're off this planet, how about that? Hehehe.

[twistedempathy]

That's right! There is at least one thing we can't do, though. We can't travel through dimensions like your ship can! I'd love to learn how to do that. How am I supposed to drop in on you if I have to wait for you to pick me up instead?

[Laughing, Will starts to strip down himself. The mask stays on, but he's not shy about it otherwise, or hesitant to step into such hot water.]

I should've known you'd own a few yourself. Count me in!

[begguiling]

[Masks are so convenient compared to Magolor's setup . . . he has to envy Meta Knight a little right now . . . except Meta Knight isn't nearly as cute and fashionable, so scratch that.

And it's only now, after all this time, that it occurs to Magolor to wonder about Will's mask. He's spent too much time around people like Meta Knight after all, not to mention himself. It hardly seems out of the ordinary to have friends who wear masks all the time, even if most humans don't! But he leaves it on in the bath, too. Huh. Interesting.

Unlike Will, Magolor has no choice; this may be VR, and his clothes wouldn't get for-real wet if he wore them into the bath, but boy would it be uncomfortable if he did. The equivalent of jumping into a jacuzzi in jeans and a sweatshirt, blegh. So here goes: with the belt unbuckled, he pulls off the scarf and attached cloak, and then down with the hood, and then off with the bodysuit that's attached to the hood, and then that's everything. There he is on display, feathery head and tail and wide, toothy grin and all, his ears twitching at the heat of the water as it closes over his body.

. . . Damn, that feels good, though. This VR really is amazing?!]

One of my maaaany entrepreneurial endeavors! I don't do much of the theme park thing anymore, but for a while I was all about traveling from planet to planet and opening up entertainment centers for the people!