♥ 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

[twistedempathy]

It probably didn't need to smell or taste good, as long as it worked.

[Will doesn't bother asking what it was for. Potions are for healing, of course! He slips into the water without hesitation, making a little pleased noise as he sinks down into the heat.

The scars he catches a glimpse of as Kiwi's shirt rides up are..... Concerning, to say the least. If he were at home, it would be different--he could just ask if they owned any Electric types, and they could probably share a good laugh over whatever mishap had led to such a vicious looking mark. Training Electric types can be dangerous if you're not prepared, after all.

But this isn't home, and Kiwi isn't a trainer. For that matter, the scar really doesn't look very faded, either. That's not an injury that happened years ago. A few months, at most..... Will makes a little concerned hum.]

Run into a monster back home?

[Kiwi hates fighting, after all. Maybe something zapped them while they were trying to calm it down?]

[wannabethehero]

Huh?

[At first Kiwi isn't certain what Will is referring to. Then after a beat, they look down and finally notice their top. They quickly pull it back down and sink into the water, cheeks turning red.]

It wasn't a monster.

[They mutter almost into the water itself, not making eye contact with Will.]

[twistedempathy]

[Oh no? Oh no, he didn't mean to make Kiwi sad! That was admittedly probably a dumb question to ask while they're here to help Kiwi relax and feel better.....

Maybe he should just scoot over a little and put an arm around Kiwi's shoulders. Cuddles help everything here, right? Maybe they help bringing up bad memories, too.

But if it wasn't a monster, then.....?]

[wannabethehero]

[Kiwi initially stiffens as Will scoots closer, blushing again at the arm around their shoulders. But after a moment, they relax, even opting to lean back against Will's arm, closing their eyes and taking another deep breath of the fragrant steam. They stare unfocused up at the open ceiling when they open their eyes again.]

...I never told you about her, did I...? About the hero.

[twistedempathy]

I don't think so.

[The hero, huh? Is that what had happened? She can't really be much of a hero if she'd attack someone as sweet and kind as Kiwi, in Will's opinion. How could she possibly have a good reason to hurt them unless it was all some giant misunderstanding?]

[wannabethehero]

[Kiwi was admittedly a little surprised at themselves for talking about this so freely. But in the warmth of the aromatic bath, here in Will's arm, alone, they felt safe. Safe enough to bring their thoughts out of hiding. Will wants them to be honest with him, right? They take another breath for courage.]

Her name is Audrey. Eya chose her to be the hero.

...My world is ending. The Overseers that hold it together are growing old and sick. The Hero is supposed to kill them...she says it's to put them out of their misery. And that's how the world ends.

But. I don't agree with that. I don't want to give up on the world, and I can't shake this feeling that if I just try, I can find a way to save it, and save the Overseers! But Audrey won't listen to me.

...she doesn't even act like a hero.

[twistedempathy]

[Eya. Overseers. Unfamiliar names, but he thinks he understands. Those are gods, right? Gods who govern the world and its affairs, who..... who change with the seasons, so to speak. Who fall like leaves, once their time comes, and unravel the seams of reality as they do. Gods who not just rule over the world, but are the world in spirit.

It's so strange, though..... he doesn't understand why anyone would design a world that way. Why would you ever let gods grow sick and old? Shouldn't they be immortal by nature? Why would you make their lives the only pillars supporting the world itself? It's just..... cruel. To everyone. To the people living in that world, to everything they'd accomplished, to the gods themselves..... even to the chosen hero. Wouldn't it feel horrible to be burdened with the destiny to destroy the world? To know that you were going to destroy everything--everything you knew and loved, and everything everyone else did, too?

All that blood would be on her hands. She would kill the entire world. Maybe not directly, maybe she wouldn't plunge the knife into each and every person herself--but it would still be the greatest mass murder since..... well. Since the world last ended, he supposed. The world in smouldering ruins, disintegrating at his heels as he sprinted down his street in Kiwi's nightmare--that was her fault too, wasn't it? The world really had been ending around them.

Will sighs and shakes his head, arm tightening protectively around Kiwi.]

She doesn't sound like much of one, either.

[wannabethehero]

Well - I don't know. She said it was to keep the world from falling into darkness. Everyone else really admires her, for helping fight the monsters that have been appearing. And she is really talented. Eya picked her for a reason...but just letting the world end can't be the only way, can it?

[They sigh and lean against Will's shoulder.]

I just don't know why a hero would be so mean. When we first met...when I found out that the world was supposed to end...she taunted me. She said I was being a baby, and said I should leave it to the real heroes. I...I was so mad. I don't get mad, but she made me mad! I wanted her to just shut up - and then...

[They ran at her. They don't know what harm they would have possibly done to her even in their angry state. But Audrey didn't give them that chance. She charged her strike before they even made any move towards her. They lightly clutch their side at the memory.]

...that's how I got those scars.

[twistedempathy]

.....Kiwi.....

[Even if killing Overseers was a mercy at that point, even it seemed to be the only way to ease the world's suffering, by making their trip through the darkness as smooth and fast as possible..... There was no reason to be so cruel about it. And if there was hope, even just the slimmest chance of it, there was no reason not to seize it.

That's not a hero. That's a big game hunter with delusions of grandeur. Just the thought of why she would decide to lash out like that makes Will a little sick to his stomach himself. He nuzzles into Kiwi's hair; it's hard to say if the gesture is supposed to be more reassuring to him, or to Kiwi.]

.....I'm sorry.

[wannabethehero]

[Whichever it is, it was a comfort to Kiwi. They lean even more heavily on Will's shoulder, reaching up to clasp the hand around their shoulders and squeeze it, clutching it like a security blanket.]

...I've never told anyone about that. Not even Miriam. All she knows is that the hero hurt me. I'm so ashamed...

[Not that self-defense was an excuse. Not when not long after she abused her power to strike Miriam out of the air, with no warning or sign she was even there.

Kiwi shakes their head.]

I'm sorry. This was supposed to be relaxing.

[twistedempathy]

There's nothing to be ashamed of; I think just about anyone would have done the same.

[Have a little reassuring pat; he can only imagine the stress of confronting someone tearing apart the world you love so much is..... terrible. He can't say with confidence he wouldn't have gone after her the moment he had a chance, even if he was hopelessly outmatched.]

But you know..... won't it be nice to relax without a secret like that weighing you down? Maybe you'll feel lighter when we leave.

[wannabethehero]

[They consider that question, staring up at the open sky again. They frown, seeming conflicted.]

I've never been really good at talking about my feelings. I love making people happy and helping them. I always felt like when I was feeling bad, I shouldn't let anybody know. It doesn't help anyone, and it just makes other people sad.

My mom would always tell me to just smile and pretend nothing's wrong, and that would make everything better. That's how I've lived for a long time.