hugtopia_logs | ♥ November Event Log

♥ November Event Log

a gloved hand places a brick in place on a wall

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

a stone wall with a large collapsed hole in the center

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

a collage of different foods on display: salads, meats, and pasta

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

a spa/water park with large open pools, an enclosed building, a bridge, and a water slide in the background

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.

Flat | Top-Level Comments Only

[While she's working away, she might find a somewhat familiar face watching her curiously in the same work zone- familiar in a vague, ten-years-younger face twin sort of way, if she found Somnus memorable enough to recognize the features.

Though his eyes are less on her and more on her Carbuncle. Now that's familiar... but at the same time, not too familiar.]

[ Era does her best to remember faces, and names, and the circumstances in which she learned them, and while she doesn't always manage it at home (there are always so many people) it is easy enough to do here. And even if she did not note the similarities in facial structure, it wasn't the sight of him that pulled her away from her current task, but the oddly familiar... oddness of that peculiar magic Ardyn's blood contains.

Of course, once she turns to see the source of it she is given her immediate answer: someone of Somnus's lineage. ]

...I did not realize Ardyn had a great-grandnephew in this place.

[He does certainly have that magic about him, though mercifully without the daemonic taint. It's something different from either brother, if she can sense that deeply- touched by the Astrals.

He tilts his head to one side at her comment, finally shifting his gaze from the Carbuncle to her.]

He's got a couple, actually. Just add a few hundred more greats to that.

[Which makes the resemblance to Somnus is extra weird, but they can blame Bahamut for that one like everything else.]

You're a friend of his?

Does he? [ Somehow that is far more surprising to her than the generations between this young man and her friend. ]

He is a dear friend to me, yes.

[ She would never presume he thought of her as one in return, though most signs point to him doing do. ]

Have you been treating him well?

My dad's here too, so.

[That's a couple! And what a quiet delight it is to be able to say that now instead of dancing around it, even with a stranger.]

I... think so? I try to get along with him, anyway. But if you can tell who I am by sight, then you probably know the whole situation's complicated.

[In his case in particular... not just his resemblance to Somnus, but personal history did not give them the best of first impressions.]

[ Era is not quite sure how she should respond to that, as her initial thought is that it must be nice to have one's father with them, but when it comes to matters of family she would rather not be overly presumptuous.

Still, he called his father 'dad', which she imagines lends credence to her first thought being a fitting one. ]

It must be nice to have him here. Familiar company is a wonderful balm for a restless heart.

[ 'Complicated' is certainly one way to phrase things, and Era knows very little about the situation in question. Her tail curls behind her; flicks once, twice, then returns to the slow back-and-forth sway it tends to favour during idle conversation. ]

I know little of the situation beyond the bare minimum, but it matters naught to me — what matters to me is that a path that he has not yet tread is not held against him. So long as you treat him with kindness I have no quarrel with you.

[ His ancestor on the other hand... If he should happen to step out of line Era is more than willing to set him straight again. ]

It is now.

[He nods, scuffing a hand through his hair and trying not to feel awkward. It's different, certainly, with the truth out in the open, but they're figuring it out. At the very least it is much better to have him here than to not.

As for Ardyn...]

I won't lie and say it was that easy at first... the whole "path not tread" was definitely a thing in progress in my time. We're figuring things out, though. He's a different person, and far as I know we all like it better that way. I'm not interested in holding it against him.

[If Ardyn had actively done anything to harm him, perhaps he'd feel differently, but he's not there and Ardyn has given him no cause to be hateful or outright violent. And even if he wanted to, what would be the point? Punishing an innocent man? Yeah, that's not his thing.]

[ It is a relief to hear, and some tension eases from her posture. ]

It is my hope that he can remain this 'different person' to the one you came to know.

...Yeah, me too.

[He doesn't like that person. And more importantly, Ardyn doesn't seem to like him, either. If it wasn't his choice to become that, then it should be his choice to stay the way he is now.]

It's good that he's making friends here, though. Maybe somebody'll eventually hammer some self-worth into him.

...His Aera is here now. I imagine if anyone could do such a thing it would be the one he loves so. [ She and Emet-Selch have both been working on it, with clearly rather limited (if any) success. ]

Yeah, probably. Through pure stubbornness as much as the love stuff.

[He can't help sounding amused and a little fond at the mention of her; he's only just recently met the woman of course, considering their thousand-years-plus time difference, but she's endeared herself to him very quickly, and he can see why Ardyn loves her. The Oracles, evidently, are very easy to love.]

There is much to be said for stubbornness.

[ Emet-Selch has called her stubborn more than once, but she would consider him the same in return — simultaneously infuriating and endearing. ]

Though it can only go so far.

I'm not worried. You can't underestimate an Oracle.

[Not quite as thickheaded as a Lucis Caelum, but incredibly effective at combating them nonetheless.]

She'll probably need some help, though.

Nor can you underestimate the lengths one will go to protect those they love, even from oneself, however misguided.

[ She glances away briefly, shifting her gaze to her Carbuncle in its golden form. It notices, of course, and begins skipping over to her with that distinctive Carbuncle's gait. ]

She has his family to help her, or so I should hope.

More family than any of us are used to, that's for sure.

[He's used to it just being him and his father- and in recent months before arriving here, literally just him. Suddenly he has great-aunt and uncle and grandparent and it's all a little dizzying.

His gaze follows hers to the Carbuncle, his previous interest returning at once, and he crouches down to get a better look as it approaches her.]

Who's your friend there?

I believe that is oft how it goes — to start out with no, or very little family, and suddenly find oneself with an abundance. [ Some more tension eases from her as she thinks of those who became her family. For all that she misses them and yearns for their company, she would not wish for them to be trapped here with her.

Much like its mistress, Carbuncle is disinclined toward touch with strangers, though it is friendly enough despite that; gives a curious sniff and a small yip in greeting. ]

It is my Carbuncle.

[Noctis doesn't push or reach out further, simply allows himself to be sniffed and offers up a little wave. Aww, it's cute. He loves animals, but he isn't about to force a pet.

Her answer makes him look up, though, eyes widening.]

Carbuncle? Seriously? [His gaze shifts back to the Carbuncle, his head tilting slightly. Huh... it does have some similarities.]

Carbuncle, yes. In its topaz form.

"Topaz form"...

[Yeah that's not going to ring any bells at all.]

Carbuncle exists in my world too, but it's not exactly like this. Kind of close, but...

[He shakes his head. Damn, he wishes he had a picture! But as far as he could tell, even in the ones Prompto took, he was the only person that could see the little guy.]

What is it?

A Carbuncle. [ She repeats as she sifts through her mind for the various explanations she's given in the past, yet hasn't needed in the past few months. ]

Aether — magic, or life energy — given shape and form by use of geometries. The latent aether within different precious gemstones can give a Carbuncle different elemental aspects and variants in colour and size. The most common are the wind-aspected Emerald, and the Earth-aspected Topaz.

[ She gestures to her own summoned companion. ] They are the signature of one skilled in the art of arcanima, or arcane magicks. Mine differs from others as I do not use a gemstone to shape it, nor do I have need of aetherially conductive inks or parchment to summon it. My younger brother is a far better trained arcanist than I, having invented his own Carbuncles using moonstone and obsidian.

[ Yeah, she's never not going to take every opportunity to preen with pride over the twins and how far they've come in the short time she's known them. ]

[It would probably sound much more impressive if he knew what most of that meant, but as it is, he can only nod. Magic construct, more than one exists. Got it.]

On Eos, Carbuncle's a Messenger of the gods. It's kind of fox-shaped, like yours, big ears and big tail, with a ruby horn on its forehead. [He gives his own forehead a light tap, glancing at her companion's similarly marked form.] Funny...

[ Eos sounds familiar, like something she should remember but is just beyond her reach. She lets out a quick, hummed note of acknowledgement, then shakes herself of her distraction. ]

Yes, Ardyn has mentioned as much, though had no comment on its appearance. I think I quite like mine as it is, without a horn to interfere with cuddles.

Nah, it's just a little one. Inch or two, maybe. No cuddle interference, far as I noticed.

[Not... that he's had very much experience with Carbuncle cuddling, considering all of that happened in a wildly vivid dream 12 years ago.

...But it was very soft and gentle, not spiky at all...!]

Still a substantial thing when you wish to rub your cheek upon their forehead. [ Her Carbuncle perks up and looks at her at the comment, as though expecting to receive such affection right now. She gives a small shake of her head, shooing it away with a gesture. It gives a soft yip to Noctis as it turns away, prancing off to offer more aid.

She sighs once it's a fair distance away. ]

It will likely decide to track your granduncle down soon enough rather than continue to work. They can be such finicky creatures.

[He watches the little creature toddle off before straightening up.]

Got a will of its own, then?

[Not unlike the Messengers in that regard either, in that case.]

rebuilding;

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wtf i had this comment half-typed for hours apparently mb lkadjh

lmfao gotta love when that happens

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