♥ 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

[iustaegis]

[ She's not sure what to say to that. On the one hand, Era should place her feelings in someone who is sure to return them; she should have no less. On the other-- this might be the only opportunity they have to be together.

Or worse, the only opportunity Era might have the leisure away from the duty of her home to fall in love, to feel it. Regardless, it's not a matter of simply not feeling. ]

...Well, he does have affection for you. That is a start. [ Beat. ] But I do think someone should tell him to give you flowers.

[astralera]

He gives me far more useful things than flowers.

[iustaegis]

[ At this point she's glad that Era is getting anything at all!

But at that, she places a hand to her own cheek, a softer sigh escaping her. ] Ooh-- like a kiss?

[astralera]

Useful things.

[ They are not the most overly affectionate of ... together people, but affection is difficult for her, and Hades certainly understands that.

She gestures to her plate as example. ]

He makes sure I am fed.

[iustaegis]

[ Is a kiss not useful?

Her expression deflates-- fed is a rudimentary sign of affection, and a platonic one at that. Hell, Pyra feeds her own roommate! ] 

Would you be wooed by anyone who feeds you?

[astralera]

[ A frown, and she looks to the plate of food in front of her, consistently being added to with whatever Hades thinks she has need to try for whatever reason.

It certainly isn't what caused her to feel these things, as by that logic she would have been wooed by a great many people by now.

Still, she flushes at the implication. Embarrassed, and mildly offended that anyone would think her so... simple. That her heart would be so easily swayed by such a mundane thing. ]

I am not wont to be wooed.

[iustaegis]

[ She shakes her head, brief; semantics are not the point! But she cannot chide her for it, not when she wears such an blush. It's almost innocent. ]  What I am saying is... that, over time, he has done something-- or many things-- that have come to move your heart. 

[ She chances a glance at where Emet stands at some other display, and then looks back to Era. Once more, Pyra brings a hand to lie over her own chest, over where her heart would be-- if she had one. ]

And now... now the world looks far lovelier when he is there, doesn't it?

[astralera]

[ 'the world looks far lovelier when he is there, doesn't it?

It is such an absurd question to her, catching her off guard to such an extent that she bursts out with a laugh that she's quick to stifle. ]

Had he his way my world would cease to exist.

[iustaegis]

[ While alarming, that's also not the point! ]

Will you be able to be with him, in your world?

[astralera]

While tempered by the will of his binding god, no.

[ She frowns down at her food, then offers a wry smile and adds: ]

His being dead by my hand would also complicate matters.

[iustaegis]

[ Her expression wavers, her eyes widening before she blinks, looks away briefly, and then returns her gaze to take in the wry smile that Era gives.  The story is far more complicated than she might have ever imagined, but while curious, the past is just that: the past. Era has feelings for him now, here, and in this world. They will never have this opportunity again. ] 

That is... all the more reason to do all that you can for your time with him in this world. 

[ And, subsequently, to do what she may to help this world exist. She cannot be with him is this world truly perishes; and on that note, Era's apparent sensitively to touch is a glaring weakness. Pyra sorely wishes there was an easier solution. Until then-- she has no issue with making a pledge: ]

I'll fight for you, too. [ To return to her mother or to remain with him, she will do what she can. The choice should not be taken from her. ] Because that love you have, Era...  Is that not worth fighting for?

[astralera]

[ Era falls silent and, forgoing proper manners, rests her elbow upon the table, then places her chin upon the heel of her palm. She doesn't turn her head to face her Architect again, though her eyes flicker in his direction, bright blue largely obscured by the thick, dark curtain of her lashes. Her tail curls behind her absently, back and forth, slow and languid; thoughtful.

She turns her gaze back to Pyra and there is a heavy weight to it that was not there before. Her eyes are bright with an inner glow that has nothing to do with emotion, simultaneously painfully young, yet so very old — the eyes are the windows to the soul, after all. And for all that hers is tattered and malformed, no longer the whole it once was so long ago and lacking in all memory, it is not any less aged than the soul of Emet-Selch.

Her expression is also that brokers no argument. ]

You will not fight for me, Pyra. I am capable of fighting on my own behalf, should I so choose.

There is nothing worth risking the lives I am meant to safekeep.

[iustaegis]

[ There is a duality in her gaze Pyra has not seen before: distant yet clear and bright.. She knows what she must do, and that is to return to her mother to act as both envoy and sentinel of the goddess. The clearness in her bright eyes is derived from duty and path that has been laid out for her, perhaps since birth, perhaps even before then. The distance, the weight, the longing look comes from knowing that it comes second to what lies in her heart.

Must it be a choice, however?

Pyra looks to the plate in her hands, recalling how she had gouged herself on synthetic food. Soon, she will have to refill its contents. How easily she eats, but just as easily-- denies herself. ] Have you ever told yourself... that you can be greedy?

[ These words may fall on deaf ears, or maybe they'll simply have to be repeated at a later date, over and over, to ingrain them. Or maybe saying them will have no effect at all, if she might only listen to her mother. Nonetheless, Pyra volunteers: ] 

You can have... both. 

[ Both safekeeping her world and love. ]

[astralera]

I cannot. [ Her voice is quiet as ever, but stern. ] It matters little that brings contentment to this soul of mine. In the end the love I hold for my worlds and those that dwell upon them far outweighs what feelings may have sprouted these past months for the Architect.

Were he to return to the Source, or the First, or any of the Shards, he would have no choice but to seek out their destruction. I would then have no choice but to kill him once again, or be killed by him in the attempt.

There is no future for him and I there, and I hold no desire to stay in this place. [ The way she says 'place' is a complex mixture of resentful, disgusted, angry, and tired. ] Should the opportunity present itself I would leave at the first opportunity.

You know nothing of our worlds, or our lives. You make these assumptions, and have pressed for information you have no right nor need to know. Matters of the heart and how those involved choose to deal with them are private, and you are barely more than a stranger to me.

[iustaegis]

[ Source, First, Shards, Architect; these are more terms she takes in. Her world sounds absolutely fascinating; more revealing still is how she uses that term in reference to Emet.

Yet, it’s all so terribly tragic. ]

To kill someone you love, or have to kill them... I am sorry. I spoke out of turn.

[ Is it not natural to want something more for this woman? She is not a monster for caring for her own world. ]

[astralera]

[ It is clear enough to Era that this woman is less experience with the world than even she herself is, and so it leaves her shifting between the desire to be lenient and harsh with her. She remembers when she knew nothing of the world — nothing beyond the most basic of concepts, and even then being unable to match knowledge with experience. ]

So long as you learn from this, there is naught to be sorry for.

[iustaegis]

[ Her eyes shift to the side, away from Era, from her light, and from the flicker of the animal-like spirit that accompanies her.  Her look remains appropriately apologetic, and she gives her a polite bow. ] 

I am sorry, still.

[ Her expression remains sober, as if she's been reminded of something else. ] Era... [ She starts, stops, and then starts again. ] I am sure others have said this before... You are strong. Please, take care.

[astralera]

[ Era notes the shifting of Pyra's gaze, and it prompts her to reflexively lift a hand to stroke Ardbert with petite, gentle fingers.

Her words, however, pull Era's attention away from the soothing presence of her soul-creature. She furrows her brows, confused. ]

Yes, of course. [ 'Take care' can mean so many things that Era couldn't break her ready agreement even if she tried. ] You as well, Pyra.