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

... We won't. Taako's promised to kill me three times over if we do.

[ Humor first, but then more importantly. Close calls are where the lessons are learned. Had she apologized properly to Lup as well? That whole early part of the month had been spent in similar misery with her, and yet. ]

... I do owe you an apology, Lup. It may be an instinct, to only consider capabilities and not... the level of care that others might have. At the time I did not fully understand why you had chosen to join me, or perhaps at that moment we were of a similar mind for what we both could do, out there. I had not thought enough of care of others to extend that... warning further, on your behalf, when you arrived at my side so suddenly.

[ She takes a breath, hands folded and drawn close to her chest. ]

I would not trade you for the information we earned and that goes for these memories as well. We... have time.

[Lup takes some time to consider those words, not responding right away. It's unexpected, to say the least. People don't really apologize to the twins, historically; they rarely apologize for anything either, so they tend to not expect it. And yet here it is.

There's a lot she could say. She could agree, lash out, scold the other woman, she could brush it off or defend her brother and the fears he still carried. But all of that has less to do with Honerva and more with the fact that their relationship is not normal compared to most people. A package deal, in every sense of the word. You can't have Lup without Taako, and every issue and anxiety and flaw and quirk that comes along with one is countered or complimented by the other in some way. They're a million complexities wrapped into one. One heart.

Honerva could have cost Taako his heart, again. You can't brush that off so easily.

So instead of the million things she could have said or done, she simply shifts closer, until her arm bumps up against Honerva's side and she says, quietly,]

Okay.

[ She knows all too well that there are many ways that Lup could have taken that. Whether she would have accepted it or not, but they would not have come all the way here to this place to bare all if there was the danger that she and Taako would have decided that she was too much trouble, that their lives were complicated enough without her being with them.

That she could no longer be... wanted.

In the end an apology solves nothing; it is only words, and from there forward, only action would matter. If she were capable of learning from her missteps. She was accustomed to a world in which failures were met with harsh punishment, and she had failed here. She has had time to reassess and feel that all too clearly --

But then Lup draws close, quiet, accepting, and she feels something wrench in her, too. A moment or so passes, before equally quiet, she murmurs. ]

... you deserve better than that, from me.

[And that makes Lup exhale in a huff, shaking her head.]

I said okay. You don't have to keep punishing yourself for it.

[She's not interested in a pity party, or whatever else Honerva is thinking about. The damage was done and they've handled it, right? They fucked up, they both apologized to the ones who needed an apology. What else needs to be said?]

[ ... Punishing herself. It was difficult not to punish herself for it, to run through all the possibilities that could have gone wrong that had somehow escaped her calculations all because she had neglected to take into account her actual worth to them.

How could she do so, when she would look into a mirror and hate her own self? And yet despite all of this, they were still here. Lup was right here and she said it was okay.

So maybe that meant it was okay, and whatever else her mind was trying to throw at her, it just needed to shut up and not make her doubt those closest to her. That was the poison in her, wasn't it? Those... nasty whispers, sometimes such a clear mimicry of her own voice that she hadn't realized.

She exhales softly, before she offers one of her hands to Lup. ]

... Okay.

[Lup smiles faintly at that, satisfied. She wraps her fingers around Honerva's, giving it a light squeeze, and settles back into the water, tilting her head against the edge of the bath and closing her eyes.]

Good. Now relax- we're here to enjoy ourselves.

[ She feels Lup shift next to her and she tries to follow suit. The "water" is far more comfortable than it has any right to be. And though it is difficult to relax, she is in Lup's company, and that is what matters here.

She sinks back, settling, allowing her eyes to close. ]

... it does feel nice.

Yep. I gave them shit before, but actually, they did a decent job. Can't beat the pocket spa, but points for trying.

[So, you know. Take a leg off, for once.]

It is strange to want to offer them credit. But perhaps they are no Atroma.

[ She's. Making an attempt. ]

The situation's different here, at least on the surface level. With the Atroma they were always blatant about their bullshit- we were prisoners, the capture was on purpose, their intent was malicious. Here, we don't know the truth for sure, but at least they're putting the effort into a cover story. Blaming the gods and asking us to save the world is a lot safer when we have to live side by side.

[And if it comes with little luxuries like this? Well, all the better to keep them placated.]

Their bond with their gods may not be quite so strong, given they have summoned others to champion for them, willingly or not.

[ A familiar concept for idle pondering. The gods looked elsewhere. ]

They do not seem resentful of these circumstances but we do not know how our time here will change their perception. We are already altering what they are used to by not being... them.

I don't know if I'd discount it like that. You can have all the god-bonding you want, but if you're not physically capable of giving them what they need, they're gonna have to find a different source. Supply and demand, y'know? Even gods have an economy.

I'll agree that it might be weird for them. We don't even know what species they used to be before they became what they are now. Hell, if it's been long enough they might not even remember.

Unless they are safeguarding any images of that in their tall buildings, they seem more keen not to want the reminders around.

[She does dislike it, when such considerations hit too close to home.]

And so they have lost their species but not their planet... not yet. If this was the height of their technology, I wonder if any had ever reached beyond the planet. To go elsewhere.

That's likely. I can think of a few things from centuries ago that I can live without remembering.

[Especially if it's something she can never get back.]

I'm not sure about that. Seems like their advancements were more inward than outward, and it's impressive but not altogether helpful if they have to make a hasty retreat.

It is entirely impractical, from our outside view.

Although it is clear that preserving what was left of their resources, changing themselves in an attempt to relieve strain on the deteriorating environment... so when was it that they had forgotten or stopped realizing what it was that generated growth on this world? How did they get led so astray... and are they aware of what it is, or have they forgotten?

[She's supposed to be relaxing, but it's hard not to start thinking, again, about all the theories they have but yet no answers.]

Maybe they can't leave. Considering how directly connected they are to their gods, even if they can't power them anymore, what if they're stuck here? Or the gods won't allow it?

[She drums her fingers idly against the tile behind them.]

Wouldn't be the first time I've seen that.

[What an interesting thought. Huh. She looks reflective of that for a moment, chin lowered in contemplation.]

... That is a possibility. If they had learned to explore space, they might have found somewhere else to go. As it is, they seem to have only kept rudimentary concepts about it.

You can't blame them for that. Not every world develops in that direction. They did the best they could, but their dice rolled shitty. It happens.

It is not as though there are civilizations that have developed in that direction that are truly any better off.

[It was only a curiosity to her that it hadn't happened at all, that they had been able to find so far anyway. Who knew what else was hidden.]

The gods, however, do have such power to... pull from other realities. That is something we should continue to be mindful of, for our own future.

Where the hell does everybody get this power from, huh? Because I know of at least three entities of some kind that can, and it's wild as fuck that this is so widespread.

[ She's very quiet for a moment. ]

When we first discovered such a phenomenon, it was because a comet that had the power to traverse realities had struck... planet Daibazaal, and caused a rift as a result.

Perhaps something occurred to this world deep in its past to alter the nature of it, or even the very way the Gods once interacted with it.

A rift to other worlds? Did they pull people in or out?

[There's too many unknowns about this place, so rather than dealing in theoreticals she'd rather get more information about the situations they know. Might give them ideas.]

[ Her tone is quieter, more distant, as she continues. ]

... To my... memory, it was only the dark creatures that had crossed over into our universe unaided, entities that could survive the passage, that had communicated and ... later attacked us.

Otherwise, only ships made from the core of the comet would have been able to survive a journey through the rift. However... this was unable to be confirmed, as a greater rift had formed between the creator of those ships and myself.

Mm... sounds like you had a lot going on.

[Understatement of the week, probably.]

I'd like to know how we appear here. Like, we show up at the temple somewhere, but we wake up there, yeah? Do we get dumped out a portal, or just poof into existence? I know about a lot of ways to teleport or shift between worlds, but you ought to be awake when it happens.

... yeah.

[ Understatement. Not the priority, if nothing she could recall at all were useful right now. ]

This world is rather organized on where we wake up and where we are sent, is it not? Not unlike the last, in that way... though the methods of the Fleet were more overt in their meddling, with the augments they had applied to us. If we had been aware of the process of our arrival, perhaps the Gods have seen to it that the recollection was taken from us, to make certain that we all receive the same... greeting.

♥ November Event Log

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