♥ 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

[pinkmin]

[You know, she had been about to protest that it wasn't shyness, but he'd gone and messed that up cuz look how pink she turned. How dare. Don't look at her either.]

That's cheating!

[At what? It didn't matter, it was cheating!!]

[carbungle]

[Actually, yeah-]

Cheating at what? Is there a prize I don't know about?

[pinkmin]

To distract me from the cozy spot.

[She's. Gonna. Boop him in the chest!?]

It doesn't work that way when you're the cozy spot!

[carbungle]

[Oh noooo, he is booped. What a terrible fate.]

Hey, you don't hear me complaining about it.

[pinkmin]

[Suffer.]

Hmmm. Or about other things, which is good. I am glad you were able to recover so quickly.

You were helping with the wall, weren't you?

[carbungle]

Yep. Or trying to, anyway. [Middling success, mostly supportive. Look at his almost-noodle arms, he's certainly not carrying around giant chunks of cement.] You too, right?

[pinkmin]

[Supportive noodles were still very important, Noctis! Vianca nodded though.]

Yes. I was helping carry things.

[carbungle]

Thought so. I guess we need to set better limits for ourselves, huh? Be a little more lazy when we're up close to the wall.

[He's fine with that excuse. The wall isn't going anywhere, after all, and he'd felt absolutely miserable when he left it. He has no desire to repeat that feeling.]

[pinkmin]

That... might be wise. Though I am not sure if it is the work, or simply being there.

[carbungle]

You know, the only way to test that is to go hang out at the wall and not do anything.

[nap?? nap time at the wall?? ....no, that's unsafe. but so tempting regardless.]

[pinkmin]

[She actually considered this for all of a moment before following it up with:]

... I would feel bad if I was not doing anything. Though maybe it would be a better experiment if one person was still doing something anyway.

[carbungle]

I volunteer. [Said immediately!

...but quickly followed with:]

Except the less we do, the longer it'll take to fix the wall. So maybe let's save that for next time.

[pinkmin]

[W o w . Vianca booped him on the chest again.]

Exactly why I would feel bad. I'm worried it might spread farther.

[She paused, tilting her head.]

Maybe next time, yes.

[carbungle]

[Booped, even when he redacted! There is no mercy to be found in this room.]

Experiment option #2: we work together to move all that crap around and see if the two cancel each other out.

[pinkmin]

[None. Perish under her mighty fists.]

Ohh... Yes. That is also a good experiment. Let's do that one. For science.

[carbungle]

[Welp, that settles that, and it's the push that gets Noctis to shift away enough to sit up, shoving back the remainder of the blanket nest and stretching his arms up over his head with a yawn.]

Feel up to going back now, or do you need to sleep more?

[pinkmin]

[Oop, now we scootin'. Vianca moved over enough to sit next to him with her legs dangling over the side of the cot while he handled the intricacies of blanket mountain. She stretched her legs up and her arms out to try and touch her toes.]

I think I am okay. I don't feel dizzy at all. Do you?

[carbungle]

[Noctis lifts a hand to press it against his forehead, feeling his temperature. He's no doctor, but it seems normal enough, besides the excess heat from being buried for so long. Since he kicked off the blankets a little bit ago, he doesn't notice any alarming signs.]

Nah, I'm good.

[He leans back on the cot, getting some leverage, aaand oop! Up he goes, wincing, and starts up the motions of doing a series of stretches, favouring one leg. The downside of sleeping is always the getting-up part.]

[pinkmin]

[Aha. The stretches of an experienced stretcher...! Don't mind her, starting up a quiet regiment of copy cat motions for the full experience. Actually following those motions made it a bit more apparent that only one leg we getting a lot of attention though.]

... Does your leg hurt, Noctis?

[carbungle]

...Huh?

[He was... only half paying attention, whoops. It takes a moment to click, and then he pauses for a few seconds longer before returning to his stretches.]

Not exactly. But if I don't do this when I wake up I'll be limping by noon, so I try not to skip it.

[He's learned the hard way- and gotten enough lectures about it, besides.]

[pinkmin]

[That was. Even more mysterious.]

Limping...? [Noctis!!]

[carbungle]

[what???]

Yeah, this one's kinda useless. [He gives his right knee a light smack and straightens up, glancing over at her expression and- oh. She looks far more worried than is merited.] Hey, relax. It's just a thing that happened a long time ago.

[And certainly not something he should be providing much detail about to a literal child.]

[pinkmin]

[The look he receives for that can only be described as dubious. There's nothing to really do but accept that, so she will, nodding in somewhat understanding.]

I see... Something older.

[What she was going to take from this was that if she was going to encourage naps, then she'd had to encourage extra stretches too. Yes. Plan: Set. Vianca nodded again to herself and propped her hands on her hips.]

Okay.

[carbungle]

[Give him all the dubious looks you want, Vianca, he's a pro at ignoring those. Just ask Ignis. Or any of his friends, really.

He taps the tip of each boot against the floor a few times, finishing up the routine, and jerks a thumb towards the entrance of the tent.]

So, are we off?

[Back to work... even though he could definitely sleep a few more hours. It's! For the greater good!]

[pinkmin]

[Don't you worry your head, Noctis, you'd probably be back here sleeping more soon enough. For the greater good!!

Up go her hands in the air in a stoic powerstance.]

We are off.

[To lift rocks and chew bubblegum. Only one of them has bubblegum. Actually no one has bubblegum, sorry Noctis. There she goes, speedwalking outside.]