♥ 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

[astralera]

...If all else fails, you would be welcome in my worlds. [ Some of the tension begins to ease from her shoulders, though Era is still far from settled. ] You and Aera would be a boon to the First.

[scourgingstars]

That...isn't an offer I can answer right now. Not when my existence is itself a plague, and not while the descendants of Houses Caelum and Fleuret both are yet my family in need of aid.

It--it isn't 'no', only that it's something more complicated than a clear and immediate answer.

[astralera]

[ She knows, which is why she chose to offer it as a last resort. If all else fails, she can claim them as hers and perhaps take them home with her. It would be a better fate than what awaits him on Eos.

Era releases the grip she has of his shirt, instead moving to wrap her arms around him the best she can in some semblance of a proper hug. The flat of her horn presses firmly against his chest, and Era briefly stiffens at the odd feeling that runs through it. With how cold he tends to be there was no doubt his circulation would be altered, but...

She exhales through her nose, choosing to ignore it. The vibrations of his voice are accented by the vibration of his lungs as he speaks, which are both much more pleasant to listenhearfeel. ]

I was not wrong before, you know. The speculation I had made in Rawna's temple... While not wholly accurate it is not far off.

Have you considered speaking to him via text?

[scourgingstars]

...Noct suggested the same. I...don't know that it would do much of anything, even were I able to compose something expressing myself well enough.

[astralera]

[ She shakes her head. ]

Not to express yourself, but to ask him why. With text you will have the time and privacy to truly absorb what it is he wishes to say — there will be no risk of emotions interrupting the conversation, merely delaying it.

...Gift him with the discussion you refused him in the past, and perhaps in return you will be given the answers you seek.

[scourgingstars]

I don't know, Era. Such discussions between us never seem to end well.

[astralera]

And have you actually attempted a discussion where your temper has not flared and he has not merely accepted your vitriol as what is due?

[scourgingstars]

That would be the purpose of a letter instead, yes. But I don't even trust that he would read it, much less do anything but interpret it as some scathing words where none are meant to exist.

[astralera]

He will read it.

[ Her answer comes immediately and with a confidence that has otherwise in absent in their meeting up till now. ]

The question is if you will misinterpret his response.

[scourgingstars]

Neither of us seems to understand what the other means anymore, so it's entirely likely.

[astralera]

...Do you recall what I had said before? [ Her tail flicks back and forth nervously behind her, though she pays it no mind. ] That I would sacrifice one of my worlds in order to save the other five?

[scourgingstars]

I believe that I do, yes. What of it?

[astralera]

Do you think it would be easy for me? That I would not wish for any other option? That my heart would not break for every life I would need sacrifice? That it would not utterly destroy me?

[scourgingstars]

I've little doubt that it would be difficult at the best of times, certainly.

[astralera]

Then do not doubt how much your fate utterly destroyed your brother.

[ It feels wrong, to say all this whilst still holding him close; clinging like a child afraid he might disappear were she to let go. ]

You could not see the forest for the trees, Ardyn. Just as you could not see the future for the present.

[scourgingstars]

...I was shortsighted, I know. But I was doing the only thing I could, as I thought I was meant to.

[He sighed, hugging her a little more tightly.]

It destroyed both of us. I won't claim either to be in more or less pain than the other at this point.

[astralera]

...You could have tried harder to listen, and he could have tried harder to reach out to you.

[ At the mention of their pain she cannot help the tears that finally fall, her shoulders shaking with her silent cries. ]

You both hurt in such different ways. You feel keep everything so close in your heart that it's liable to burst, while he hollows his out. Your pain is loss, and his is anguish.

You both hurt so much, and would that I could take it all away, but I can't.

[scourgingstars]

It shouldn't be your responsibility to bear, my friend.

[astralera]

It is because you are my friend that I would willingly bear it. If it rid you of your hurt I would gladly take it upon myself.

[scourgingstars]

...That kind of thing only destroys one in the end. Believe me, I know better than most.

[astralera]

Better than most, save for myself. I believe we are equivalent in that regard.

[scourgingstars]

...I suppose you're right. Perhaps we could both do well to look after ourselves a bit more.

[astralera]

...I am getting better at it, in no small part due to Hades' persistence. Perhaps between us we can start a... I believe modern society calls them 'support groups'.

[ Her tears slow now, no more than small sniffles. She notes with no small amount of embarrassment that he's made a mess of Ardyn's shirt. When she speaks next her accent is thicker than he has ever heard it: ]

...Apologies. It seems I've gotten snot all on your front.

[scourgingstars]

Oh, don't worry about it, such things are hardly permanent damage.

[astralera]

[ Seeing as there's nothing for it now, Era sighs and presses herself close again, enjoying the security Ardyn's presence brings her as she sorts through her lingering mess of emotions. ]

My Echo seems to have grown stronger since my Rejoining.

[ She doesn't give voice to her concern, though the implication of it is there. ]

I never used to embody them as I do now... I never used to feel guilty for having them.