♥ 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 breaks her gaze from him. Is touch enough? The barrier had been breached, attacked from the outside even with the presence of otherworlders to help sustain the gods’ power. Is mere hand-holding enough, or is tough graded on the type of contact? She does not know the answers to these questions. Falling into silent thought, she does not respond immediately.

Thinking back to her world, the Architect is not sustained by touch or anything else humans might do. He does not even call upon others to do his bidding, much less extract a few chosen people from the masses. The world does not need to do anything under his eyes; it simply exists, thrives. Her model for a deity leaves her lacking in experience with gods like these.... ]

You... have gods in your world, correct? [ Of course she knows he does; she’s spoken to both Noctis and Luna. Yet from how she had inspected Somnus’ hand and forearm just earlier, she had noted no runes upon his skin, unlike that of Noctis. ] What had been... necessary for them?

[meridio]

[ He pauses to think. There’s much that isn’t within his rights to disclose; as for what can be shared, is it really necessary for anyone outside of Eos (divine or no) to hear the details? Details that elude even the majority of the involved players here, for worlds are built on not just truths, but lies and omissions altogether. ]

They, too, seek to heal the world. To that end, each of us has been given a role.

[iustaegis]

[ Gods that seek to heal the world; she can ask for nothing more wonderful for deities to accomplish. Wouldn't they all wish to protect that which they created?

(She's not so naive to believe that. There had been a time when she did not care at all for the world or its future, after all.) ]

A role to help this world.... but you did not need to pay them tribute through touch. [ She tilts her head in a silent question. Was there something else he and others of his world gave instead? Or is his world's deities like those of Emet's-- born of people's hearts and desires, their wishes. ]

[meridio]

[ Bringing attention to tactility in regards to a prophecy where he's spent the majority of its years without a body seems to exaggerate the sensation of the water around him. His hand in hers shifts ever so slightly, and he feels the rub of their palms. ]

The gods fell to slumber in the wake of battle, and we have served as their envoys since.

[iustaegis]

[ Envoys...? Doesn't that sound important. And if the gods in his world wished to heal it, then he, too must have-- ]

....Ah. So that is why you wish to save this world, too!

[ Her lips curve into a small, hopeful smile. Looking to him, she leans forward. ] Because it is what you've been entrusted to do in your own world. [ A soft, excited breath leaves her, something like a giggle and a pleased hum. ]

[meridio]

[ She enters his field of vision with a smile so hopeful that he wonders if she's made the full connection. His motivation behind wanting to save this world is replete with what one might call self-interest, regardless of his feelings toward Aellyn's circumstance. At her giggle, he turns back to the water. ]

The plight of this world is not unfamiliar to me.

[ So he does what comes naturally: do as he's been commanded. ]

1/2

[iustaegis]

[ Does this make him something of a professional, she wonders. Her own world is dying, but she herself has no experience in helping it. If he's already working to save his own world, then another would be-- would be....

Ah. He doesn't appear excited at all. Rather, his expression is grave and serious. Of course. Healing the world, let alone saving it, is no easy task. Depending on how he happened to watch the world progress for millennia after his death, he would know exactly that.

Pyra had been able to answer with a hopeful, jovial tone of her own, giving away to her enthusiasm. Her excitement deflates... ]

[iustaegis]

[ ...But her smile does not fade. If anything, it's only grown softer. ] ...Somnus?

[ He's looked away from her. That's fine. She gives his hand another, tender reassuring squeeze. ]

Saving the world... or doing what you can for it, that makes you a hero.

[meridio]

[ A hero is “someone who protects the future for others.”‌ She’s said this to him before, and he had replied the first time around that he’s no hero. No matter the world or time, she would insist on applying the label to his person. It’s a deeply perplexing phenomenon. ]

We are all doing what we can for it. I am just one of many.

[iustaegis]

[ Humble, too, like any other hero would be she thinks. ] ...Little in the worlds can be accomplished alone. [ His words, and she agrees. ]

We are even tied to a specific god in this realm. [ Four here, only one in her own. Six, in his. ] Is that how it is, in your world?

[meridio]

[ They are, and he wonders just what that entails. What happens when one of the four gods has decidedly fewer followers and energy to harvest from their contact? Or when one god accumulates so much as to disrupt the balance of power? ]

The gods have enjoyed worship throughout the world. Though some have shown a select few their favor in the past, no such tie binds the people to them.

[iustaegis]

[ She thinks it's lovely, that even among both humans and gods, little can be accomplished alone. There is more than one god! And, they seem to work together to create the barrier that protects them all. ] And you are an envoy, one of those favored in your world. [ Unless he meant "we act as envoys" as in, all of humanity does.

But then he says that there are no such ties that bind the people to them. She appears just a little bit perplexed, but in the end-- she shakes her head, giving another apology. ]

...Ah, I'm sorry for these questions. It's only-- your world, this one, and others... have so many gods. [ Unlike her own. ] It's difficult to imagine what it's like. Even four is overwhelming.

[ ... ]

I have a request.

[meridio]

[ That’s right. Of her world, she’s mentioned only the Architect. Four gods are already an exponential leap from one, and his world boasts a grand total of six.‌‌ (From whom did she hear about them this time?‌) ]

What is it?

[iustaegis]

[ For someone who seems as dedicated to the gods at him, she wonders if he will laugh--


......Now that's a silly thought.

No, he may not laugh, but she imagines that he'll think her request odd, maybe even an offense if he happens to be especially dedicated to the gods, or tied to them as Noctis is. ]

If you have time... will show me how to pray? [ Making offerings of bread is one thing, honoring through touch is another. But actually praying? Never has she ever done so. ]

[meridio]

[ It’s an odd request, to be sure, but not one that he finds surprising. The daughter is closer to her father the creator than mortals can ever hope to be, making prayer meaningless.

Yet she wishes for him to show her, for all that his prayers went ignored in his foolish youth. Strengthening his grip around her hand, he leans slightly forward to release the tension in his back from sitting upright. He closes his eyes and explains: ]

Prayer is our communion with the gods. Offer them your thoughts, and they will hear.

[iustaegis]

[ Just.... thoughts? Could it really be that simple? ]

There are... motions too, correct? Such as-- [ She lifts he hand to clasp both of his in hers, folding them. This gesture might be correct. ]

Or... Kneeling, or singing, or dancing, or... [ Another shake of her head. ] Or burning. [ A pause. ] Incense, I think. [ But why burn it? ]

[meridio]

The motions serve as the bridge on which we greet the gods. There are many. The closing of hands is a single gesture of unification.

[ And the gesture that he assumes when submitting his thoughts to the powers that be. He continues to apply a steady pressure around her hand, as if it were his and he were praying at this very moment. ]

In the end, the choice falls on the god to whom you send your prayer.

[iustaegis]

[ She feels the extra pressure of his hand upon her, noting how... not tightly he holds her hand, but how respectfully he does so.

Seeking to copy the manner of hold, she provides the same pressure in return, eyes raising to his face as if searching for some emotion of approval, and then back down to their hands. ] Oh— and... there is kneeling, correct?

[ Still holding his hand, she moves from their shared seat to the bath floor. Careful of the towel wrapped around her chest, she lowers herself to a knee before him. Hm. On one knee? Seems too much of a salute. Both knees, then.

Her hands continue to clasp his, and now she lifts her head to look at him. ] Like this?

[meridio]

[ His expression slackens when she drops to both knees before him. He’s no god, and she shouldn’t be lowering herself in this way. His grip around her loosens. ]

See what brings you closer to Rawna when you next visit the temple.

[ It is the fancy of mortals to be closer to the gods by engaging in these gestures. Even if Rawna doesn’t answer, Pyra will have her perception on which to rely, should she offer a prayer. ]

[iustaegis]

[ His expression's changed.... Is she doing something wrong. Is this not how one prays?? She tries to think of the (brief) time her other had spent visiting the Praetorium. They have their rituals, their practices, their motions and gestures, but maybe what she's getting wrong here isn't these gestures-- but what she offers to them. ]

Closer to... Rawna. [ Meaning, logic. Negative emotions. Apathy. This is a fair reminder to her, that she is doing many things wrong by being here. Yet she remains puzzled still; logic to save this world would mean doing what she can for it, anything for it. Apathy would mean not caring at all-- which, had she been brought to this world at any earlier time, would have been easy to achieve.

She remains on her knees, holding his hand as she looks to him for an answer. ] How?

[meridio]

Pray.

[ He pushes his hand forward, bringing hers toward the crystal on her chest and urging her to rise. Unlike him, the gods are not wont to answer. The majority of mortals will live and die, wondering if the gods had heard their prayers and supplications; faith reigns in religion for this reason. It’ll be up to Pyra to decide if she’s grown closer or not. ]

That is all I can teach you.

[iustaegis]

[ With her hand brought back to her crystal, she stills for a moment at the closeness of his fingers to it, only to relax after. This is a simulation. In reality, they are only holding hands as they've entered this virtual reality side-by-side. He's not actually close to the crystal itself.

Pray. Pray by sending her thoughts to the gods and expect them to listen. So that is what all of the devoted had been doing within the cathedral and shrines... ] In... my world, [ Normally she would not speak of it, but she feels she must give some context to her ignorance-- her reason for asking all of these questions. ] while others may pray, only the Praetor can claim to hear and speak for the Architect.

[ Pyra rises, retaking her seat beside him. She smiles. ]

It would be wonderful if others might hear the gods' voices, and that they may respond to their prayers.

[meridio]

[ Claim, she says. The credibility of the divine message that’s been relayed is up for debate, then. Perhaps the Praetor claims revelation to control those who would listen.

Somnus watches Pyra return to her original spot. His hand closes purposefully around hers once more. ]

It is a matter of faith. The gods’ voices are not meant for mortal ears.

[iustaegis]

[ It's far more comfortable sitting than kneeling, although she can no longer shift back to the relaxed state she had been in before. Pyra glances at him. Knowing from Luna that calling upon the gods takes a physical toll on her, it makes sense.

She recalls, too, how the man who awakened her had been so reluctant to wield her...

Slowly, she repeats: ] ...They are not meant for...mortal ears? [ Her eyes shift away from him. ]

How so?

[meridio]

All too often, we seek answers that will undo us.

[ Mortals, particularly men, are fragile. They’re shortsighted and bound to a fleeting existence, whereas the divine are anything but. Prayers are as dangerous as they are humbling by providing humanity with an intangible venue to speak freely. ]

The gods’ designs are beyond mortal comprehension. To bear their words is a heavy blessing—one that comes with a price.