♥ December Event Log

[hugtopiamods]

December (Ranir) Event Log
The city of Havenwell is recovering very well thanks to your efforts, offworlders. The hole in the wall is sealed up and, while maybe not looking like new, it certainly looks sturdy and safe. The city itself has removed much of the rubble from the battles you fought, and the people are back to their regularly scheduled lives. They're eternally grateful that you continue to put in the time to rebuild this final bastion of civilization and are pleased to see that you enjoyed their festivals so far. As the weather of Ranir turns colder and the nights longer, some may even see snow dust the cobblestone and paved streets in the morning. The time of Rawna has come and with it...

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❥ PROMPT I: At Least It's Not a Sweater

Normally when a new season belonging to a god rolls around, the temple priests gear up and start with temple festivities. Seeing how this is Rawna's month, however, nothing much of the sort seems to be happening. In fact, it's almost as if Rawna's priests don't even care that their god's season has started. Rawna is, after all, chiefly the god of Apathy, so is it all that surprising?

What might be surprising is the sight of Ainea's priests in pairs out around the city in their stead. Each pair carries with them a single bright silver sash and they alternatively stand in broad daylight or hide in the shadows of the buildings. Walk by on your own and you'll be left alone, but when the priests spot two people walking even remotely near each other, they spring into action.

The two robotic priests zip around you and another person with surprising speed, tying the sash off around you - either around your wrists, your waists, your legs, whatever it takes to tie you to another person. With a triumphant buzz of excitement, they declare "Happy Ranir! Kindness comes in many forms!" and depart to find a new pair of victims patrons. As they leave, one of the pair calls out an additional clue for you: "Be kind to unwind!"

Good luck, everyone, you're now stuck with this other person. You can either wait until the sash naturally falls off in a few hours, or you can take the direction of the priests and be kind to the other person to encourage the magical knot to come undone. Each compliment, word of encouragement, or other act of kindness directed at your new partner seems to loosen the sash a little each time, so get to winning the Niceness War.

Oh, and in case you were thinking of blasting, teleporting, or cutting your way out? No amount of magic or physical force seems capable of cutting or removing the sash. Hopefully you went to the bathroom before they got you.

❥ PROMPT II: A Delicious Delight

After a long hard day of dodging Ainea's priests or just slogging through the colder weather around the city, what could be better than imbibing a seasonally festive drink? Well, the scientists in charge of Experiment 73 certainly think so! They've added a limited edition drink selection to all of the replicators and have some delightfully festive booths spread about the city staffed by a few robots wearing Rawna's colors in their sashes and hats. There are five drinks in total to choose from and you should certainly try them! They're only here until the end of the month and then the scientists say they'll be gone! The best things in life are fleeting, aren't they? The best things in life are also surprises, so when you take a sip of these exquisitely delicious (honest! For once they're good) beverages, prepare yourself for a little trick with your treat.

• Ginger and Honey Tea: A hot, thoroughly warming drink with the bite of ginger and the sweetness of honey. Drink this and you'll be shored up against the cold, but also feel compelled to tell or blurt out the truth. Whether you're asked a question or trying to tell a little white lie, you find you can't say anything but the truth. This effect lasts for up to an hour after drinking the tea.
  
• Strawberry Shortcake Smoothie: A cold sweet treat of vanilla smoothie topped with sweet strawberry pieces and whipped cream. At the bottom, you'll find a layer of sweet sponge cake cut up into pieces. Drink this with its own special thick straw and enjoy the taste of cake; and the effect of a personal miniature snow cloud that appears over your head. The cloud dusts you and your immediate area within a foot of you with beautiful multicolored snow - and that snow leaves splotches of color behind that last for up to an hour after drinking the smoothie.
  
• Hot Cinnamon Apple Cider: A deliciously steamy beverage that tastes of apple and cinnamon and comes with a cinnamon stick stirrer for effect. This beverage smells as delicious as it tastes and the aroma wafts around the area more strongly than the others. Drink this penultimate holiday drink and you'll find yourself heating up so much that you'll want to stay cold by giving your heat away via holding someone else. You'll want to be everyone's personal heater for up to an hour after drinking the cider.
  
• Gingerbread Latte: A nice piping hot latte with the hint of gingerbread threaded through the coffee, topped with whipped cream and dusted with gingerbread spice. Served in a tall red cup that seems to transfer the heat uncannily well through its thin walls, sip this and you'll find yourself painlessly sprouting an animal's appendage at random. You can have one functioning or non-functioning, cosmetic animal appendage like a cat's ears, a dog's tail, a duck's beak or whatever else you can think of for up to an hour after drinking the latte. They can replace your original body part (e.g. your ears become cat ears) or grow superfluously (e.g. you have regular ears AND cat ears). You can move the appendages or talk with them as if they are your own, but they don't confer any special magical powers with them. So you can fly with those griffin wings, sure, but you're going to need to put the effort into it.
  
• Hot Mulled Wine (alcoholic): This one isn't for children - and in fact, under 18 people might find it hard (but not impossible, be industrious, little ones!) to get their hands on this drink. Red wine is heated with spices and citrus fruit over low heat for several hours - or it would if it wasn't all synthetically created. The effect is the same though, a delicious adult beverage that's a nice way to spend an evening with someone special. And you'll want them to be someone special because drinking the hot wine makes you inclined to get a little steamy with people. Kisses, both chaste and passionate, seem to alleviate the urge which you'll be under for up to an hour after drinking the wine.

❥ PROMPT III: Winter (VR) Wonderland

There isn't quite enough snow on the ground to allow it in reality, but in the VR Cafes anything is possible. This month, the VR Cafes are decorated with snowflakes in odd patterns and designs - holograms, naturally - that spin and change shape and color in a timed routine. Plug into the games and you'll find a new selection among the usual offerings: Winter Wonderland.

There are two modes to Winter Wonderland and each are fun in their own ways.

Snow Fight! Head out into the powdery snow where fantastic snow forts await and battle it out with snowballs to claim the most territory or just see who can hit the other side the most. You can choose Team Battle, Solo 1vs1, or Battle Royale. All magic, skills, and cunning are at your disposal. While the snow might not be falling outside, it's definitely going to be raining down on you here, so bundle up and have some fun. You earned it!

Ski Lodge But maybe you don't want to go flinging snow down someone's shirt and would rather cuddle up on a couch in front of a big warm fire, huh? Sure, we understand that. Welcome to the Ski Lodge, a cozy getaway up in the mountains where you can relax with a hot chocolate (or cider, or glass of wine even) and curl up on the couches and experience a lazy afternoon in thick fluffy sweaters. It's even better with a friend, they say, so why not create this private little getaway for the two (or three or four, we're not judging) of you? For people wanting a romantic lean, you can always slip out the back (and out of your clothes if you prefer) into the private jacuzzi on the wooden deck, too.

For people who want to have some fun tearing it up on the mountain-side though, we suggest trying Ski-venture! A year-round game that lets you ski or snowboard your way down the mountain.

❥ PROMPT IV: A Mysterious Gift [REGAIN EVENT]

Toward the end of the month starting from the 20th and on, some people may find themselves drawn to Rawna's temple late at night, when most of the priests are offline or elsewhere. The only native creatures you can see here are the fledgling rainbow dragons which watch you from their various perches all around the sanctum. As you approach the temple's altar, you realize someone else has been drawn here as well. In the quiet, dim lighting, the barest of candles still burning and the watchful eyes of the dragons, you feel compelled to unburden yourself to the other person. Tell your tale of woe or sorrow, relieve yourself of a secret you've kept hidden for too long, and listen to your companion as well. They say a burden shared is a burden halved after all.

Once you've both shared something, a pair of dragonlings crawl up into the altar's clawed hands. They wind around each other until an iridescent light shines from their scales. The light is blinding and you must look away as it reaches its pinnacle and releases a burst of rainbow light. When you look back, the dragonlings are slithering away and in their places are two objects - one familiar to you and one to your partner - so long as both of you have shared. It seems your tithe has been rewarded with something from home.

OOC: These items from home must be approved by a mod. They cannot exceed the Medium Item regain limit. It cannot be a power or other ability. It cannot be something your character did not own or have knowledge of in their canon or their CRAU. Please post your regain request in the Regain Request thread before threading out the receipt of the item.

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This event will run from December 6th to December 31st. Click on each prompt's title to see the text. You are welcome to use this log, or create entries of your own! If you have any questions, feel free to direct them to the FAQ or to the Mod Question thread.

Comments

[twistedempathy]

Ah, there it is. That urge, that pressure..... Even someone as composed and controlled as Miles can't resist it. Then again, who can resist the will of the gods?

Still, not being able to sleep much sounds like quite a few people he knows here. Will just hums, knowing and sympathetic. "Bad memories?"

Not bad dreams. If they were only dreams, Miles would probably be far more capable of just dismissing them, not struggle with them year after year. Something painful happened, something that haunts him to this day--something that Rawna thinks he deserves some relief from.

[turnaboutson]

Miles makes a noncommittal noise. "Six of one, half a dozen of the other." Because they were dreams, yes, the worst nightmares imaginable, the ones that had plagued him every night for fifteen years until--

--don't think about it. Don't think about the trial, the revelation, his confession, how that man had believed in him, and that scream, the one that had been seared into his mind and memory since that horrible day.

Because those dreams were memories, twisted ones, a memory of the worst day of his life that he'd blamed himself for for fifteen years, the one that despite his nightmares mostly vanishing made the month of December, or Ranir, or whatever this was, a complete wash.

[twistedempathy]

"Sounds like a rough time. Need to talk about it?"

Will reaches up to offer Miles a hand, along with a subdued, sympathetic smile. He may not want to, but he does need to, doesn't he? He wouldn't be here otherwise.

[turnaboutson]

No, I don't.

Miles hesitates before taking Will's hand, and says, almost against his own will, "I think I might."

He doesn't want to talk about it, or think about it, or do anything of the sort, but Rawna seems to have other plans.

[twistedempathy]

Rawna's plans aren't going to win brownie points from anyone, frankly--but just because they're not welcome doesn't mean they're not needed. Miles needs to talk about this, no matter how much he doesn't want to--and to do that? He needs someone to listen, too. It's a duty he doesn't mind fulfilling--though he has to admit, he wishes Rawna would've asked first.

Either way, it's going to happen. So Will simply wordlessly tugs at Miles' hand, encouraging the man to come sit with him. He can talk when he's ready to do so, if he needs a minute or two to gather himself first.

[turnaboutson]

Miles accepts the hand, and sits down next to Will. He has been walking for a while, and could use the rest. Not because he wants to talk about this. It had been hard enough to tell Miss Fey and that man, and worse to explain the whole thing on the stand, accepting fault for a crime that had never been his in the first place.

A few minutes pass in silence before he finally says, "This time of year, about eighteen years ago, my father was killed. No, murdered." Killed was almost too clinical a term; murdered encompassed the true horror of what had happened. "While I was mere feet from him."

[twistedempathy]

Not just killed. Murdered. Murdered while he was right there, possibly even watching it happen. That man watching the children with such a warm smile in the dream--that was him, right? Miles' father?

His stomach churns at just the thought. What a gruesome scene that must have been. How old was he eighteen years ago? He doesn't look that old..... Arceus, he must have been only a little boy. And he dreams of that every year? How often? In how much blood-soaked, harrowing detail?

Wordlessly, Will turns to pull Miles into his arms. He may not want a hug, but he's getting one all the same.

[turnaboutson]

Miles rejects the offered hug, holding a hand out to stop Will. "You may want to hold on to that," he says sardonically. "I'm not finished."

He grabs his elbow and looks away in that old unconscious tic. The words are coming easier now. "For fifteen years I had that same dream, almost every night.

"Because I thought that I was the one who had accidentally shot him."

[twistedempathy]

"But--then how--?" Will struggles to make sense of the new information. A rigged gun, maybe? Why would a boy that age be holding a gun to begin with, though?

Either way, it adds a new level of horrible. To frame a child for something like that--to grow up believing you kikled one of the people you loved most.....

That kind of wound changes people. How much of who Miles is had been shaped by those scars?

prepare to see a lot of this icon

[turnaboutson]

"We were in an elevator," he says. "My father, myself, and a court bailiff. And then there was an earthquake. The elevator dropped and the power went out. Something must have blocked the ventilation, because we started running out of air. We were in there for hours. The bailiff was panicking, and he and my father were arguing. The bailiff's gun fell out of its holster and slid over to me...it was pitch black. I didn't know what I was picking up, but I yelled at them to stop fighting and threw it.

"I heard a gunshot, and a horrible scream...and the next thing I knew, I was waking up in the hospital."

He's trying to keep his voice calm and even, but there's a tightness to it, because even though it's a nightmare he's had often, and a story he's told a few times, it's not something he usually discusses.

Re: prepare to see a lot of this icon

[twistedempathy]

Oh. Oh. So he--he had thrown a gun without knowing what it was, but the bailiff must have had a second one. Under the cover of darkness, with a perfect way to blame a little boy too young to know better or be able to defend himself, they had--

That's appalling. But why? Had it been anger in the heat of the moment? A pre-existing grudge? Calculated survival instinct? Why would that misunderstanding have been allowed to last so long if it wasn't premeditated? He can't imagine anyone with a conscience would allow it.

"Miles....." If he can't hug his friend yet, maybe he can at least lean his head against the man's shoulder? He's here for you, no matter how much you'd rather him not be.

[turnaboutson]

Miles makes no move to push Will away, at least. But the way he stiffens slightly shows that not only is he not to the contact, he's particularly unused to it when he's vulnerable.

"The gun did go off when I threw it," he said. "And since I was an orphan, I was taken in by my father's rival in court. A genius prosecutor, a man who hadn't lost a case for forty years. I followed in his footsteps instead of becoming a defense attorney like my father, who I'd idolized. I thought myself guilty, a criminal, and aimed to punish all who committed murder.

"And then, a matter of days before the statute of limitations on the case was to expire, I was framed for a murder I didn't commit - and it all tied back to that one horrible day." He looks up at the ceiling and takes a few steadying breaths.