♥ 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?

---

❥ 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?

---

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

[iustaegis]

[ Pyra beams at seeing a familiar face-- and, oh, just look at her, stuffing herself with food. She may not quite be smiling, but she seems to be enjoying herself. Where does all that food go, anyway? The woman is incredibly slender and petite!

Last time she had spoken--

"I honour Her by continuing to survive."

...She supposes that eating lends to that. ] 

Enjoying yourself?

[astralera]

[ The question certainly catches her off guard, and she is still unable to voice an answer even if she had one to give. Was she enjoying herself? When was the last time someone asked her that in earnest?

Era instinctively glances to where Hades lurks nearby, so very aware of his presence even without meaning to be. He exudes the element of her opposition, something her very soul cannot help but reach toward after the Light so very nearly destroyed her.

He is picking at the food, his entire posture screaming of judgment. Era cannot prevent the slight smile that quirks the corners of her mouth at his expected behaviour. She supposes that even if she is not enjoying herself she can at least find amusement.

Finally, she manages to swallow the too-large mouthful. ]

An abundance of free food is always enjoyable.

1/?

[iustaegis]

[ Pyra notices her gaze with a curious tilt of her head, for she has never seen it upon Era before (not that, of course, she has known her long). But her eyes, rimmed with light, are soft, fond, sweet, the corners of which crinkling with grace, her lips curling in a smile so slight and gentle it might as well have been painted with watercolor.

She follows where Era's eyes trail from the food she covets before her to across the room...

Oh. ]

[iustaegis]

[ ....Oh. ]

[iustaegis]

[ OH!!! ]

[iustaegis]

....Era!

[ --Exclaiming suddenly, her head whips back to Era herself, her eyes bright with excitement and realization. ]

done

[iustaegis]

[ Pyra leans in a bit. Although she drops to a conspiratorial whisper, there is a giddiness that cannot be concealed. ]

Your eyes are shining today.

[ GURL U GOT IT BAD ]

[astralera]

[ Era feels as though the food she just ate turned to stones in her stomach for how quickly it sinks at Pyra's words. She has not been blind to that lingering scar in her eyes, though she wonders what must be wrong for them to shine to such a degree that someone would take note. She feels fine — better than she has in a long time, in fact. Eating her fill means more energy to be converted into aether, which means more than enough of her own aether to keep the corruption at bay...

On the surface there is no sign of the way she fights back her rising panic. It is only when Ardbert shifts, moving so that he can brush his painfully soft snout against the line of her jaw, that Era's panic slowly abates. He says nothing, not needing to, because for all he glows a faint gold there is no sign of corrupted Light's touch upon him. ]

I—

It is likely the angle of the light. The eyes of my kind reflect it.

[ Of course her own have always been different, not that Era is entirely aware of it. Carrying the Blessing of Light with her, and thus being divinely radiant to those with the ability to sense such things, her eyes do not merely reflect light, but also contain a light all their own. ]

[iustaegis]

[ ....What is that adorable creature that has appeared and looks like a lovely floof of an animal, yet feels like delightful and beautiful energy given solid form?

The stutter catches her attention, however; her eyes snap back to Era. The angle of the light, she says, but Pyra wholly disagrees. This light isn't anisotropic. It is a solid, unwavering, and obvious-- ]

Love.

[ She cuts her off, beaming still. ]

You're in love.

[astralera]

[ She flushes pink from neck to brow, made all the more apparent as the colour contrasts with the delicate ivory of her scales. On reflex she nearly answers not a denial (for that would be a lie, and she does not lie to others), but something non-committal that can be interpreted in the negative.

But then just as quickly Era remembers that love is something she's allowed to feel. At least for now, it's something acceptable. Should something happen, and things shift, then she may return to viewing these feelings as something unwanted and in violation of her duties as the Warrior of Light. ]

I... That is one way to phrase it.

[iustaegis]

[ One way to phrase it? It's the simplest way to phrase it!

Thus, her follow-up question is immediate: ] --Have you told him? [ DETERMINED. LOOK. ] If not, let's go do it now!

[ She will drag Era over there to him herself!! ...Okay, no she won't, but she will try to do her best to persuade her to go! ]

[astralera]

I— [ This is all so very new to her, and Era still has difficulty fully coming to terms with all that he is to her, and the possibility of what she may be to him. ] We've... discussed it, and come to a suitable agreement.

1/?

[iustaegis]

[ An--- agreement. ]

[iustaegis]

[ AN AGREEMENT!!! ]

[iustaegis]

[ Architect does that mean---

DOES THAT MEAN......?! ]

/done

[iustaegis]

Well.....?


When is it?

[ THE WEDDING, MOTHERFUCKER. TELL HER. ]

[astralera]

...When is what?

[iustaegis]

The wedding!

[ She's waiting...! With baited breath!! ]

[astralera]

There is no wedding.

[iustaegis]

[ Aaaaaand full stop. ]

What?

[astralera]

[ Era knows the Echo did not fail her, and so withholds a sigh and merely repeats herself. ]

There is no wedding.

1/2

[iustaegis]

[ A bluh-- ]

actually 2/3

[iustaegis]

....Is there-- why.... [ UM??

Oh wait.

Oh shit. ]

3/3

[iustaegis]

[ Now for a look of horror! ] Does he not return your feelings?

[ Was her assumption just another instance of being caught up in the moment? (It's her worst trait.) ]

[astralera]

[ That is a difficult question, as she does not truly know what feelings he has for her, simply that he does not love her. Though he can, once he allows himself, and now that she's given him the opportunity he may do just that.

For now, however... ]

He does not love me.