hugtopia_logs | ♥ December Event Log

♥ December Event Log

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...

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

a pair of hands holding each other with a red ribbon tied around their wrists

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

a wooden lodge at night, blanketed in snow

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.

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.

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That depends...

[With mage hand and her own way of levitating items, there's no need to let go just yet.]

On if whether what I have is something viable that you all will enjoy, or if I should learn a proper recipe from you that you favor.

In that case, hold off until your cookies are done.

[Most cookies don't take that long to bake, so at least it won't be a lengthy wait.]

And do your dishes.

[ That is quite a lot of dishes isn't it. So many things do pile up when getting caught up in experiments and not having assistants around...

Oh, well. She summons up her magic. She thinks she's seen this part done, they get the sink nice and soapy first, yes -? ]

It should only be a few more minutes.

[ From the time that Lup came back to start figuring out what she had put together anyway, it hadn't been too long, from her working out times and temperatures. ]

[Lup gets busy on her side of things, collecting some of the ingredients Honerva had already used, tapping her chin to consider the adjustments. Partway through, around when it ought to be time for the cookies, she speaks up again,]

Oatmeal. Thicken it up good, mash 'em with the apples so the chunks stick together. With cinnamon, the flavour will soak right in.

[ It takes her a moment to mentally place the ingredient as she turns to catch sight of Lup's expression while shifting over the dishes from soapy to rinsed to leave dry. ]

... I would not have considered oatmeal as a part of the equation. You have that same expression when you are solving something.

[ But that reminds her that it's time to check on the batch, so she switches attention from sink to stove, checking the oven and gently levitating out the tray so they can look at the results. Hm. She had been more hopeful when they had gone in. There is clear improvement over the previous mistakes, at least; certainly more softer than the rock-like initial creations, though they do not hold together well in the center. Still, visual was only one portent here. ]

That's because it is solving something, doofus. Cooking is just another kind of science- it just happens to be delicious at the end result.

[She leans in to check Honerva's finished product... and her brows furrow. Hm. Yeah, definitely could be better, but could be worse...]

I'm gonna say an improvement on the recipe is definitely required. How much, though, will have to be determined... how's about we let those cool, and you can try and figure out what you did wrong first?

Perhaps I should have taken up baking instead of becoming an alchemist. Would have saved a lot of trouble.

[ Humor at her own expense, though she appreciates the tips that Lup provides, thinking of her edits to the board. It's... an interesting process. She studies the batch for a cursory glance to assess. Some backtracking and dissecting would be in order there once it cools. She knows it doesn't look like what Lup or Taako usually turn up in their finished products, though she does not often witness any failures from them. Too much or too little of an ingredient...? And then having to incorporate the oatmeal somehow later, but that wasn't the focus now. She thinks it over, pondering. ]

Not sure what I expected, getting started like that.

Isn't cooking just alchemy with food?

[Mixing ingredients to make something new- different means to a similar end, really.]

Don't sweat it, though. I think you did okay. Didn't burn the place down, that's better than most people.

[ She actually seems a little surprised when Lup puts it that way. She had always been chasing other things, hadn't she? Not that she has any memories to support whether or not she ever had any interest with cooking on its own, like this. ]

... Perhaps it is in a way.

[ And while she hadn't burned anything down- ]

Do you think he will be angry with me?

Who, Taako? Only if you leave a mess in his kitchen. [Lup scoffs. This place better be spotless by the time they finish, or there'll be hell to pay.] I'm sure he'd pretend he doesn't care, but he might even be proud of you for taking initiative with food.

[ Proud, huh? Taako? She's not sure if she's ready for that one. The shock could very well kill them both. So she laughs softly instead, lightly poking at one of her cookies with the edge of a spatula. ]

Then we shall have it so spotless that he would not believe you if you told him.

There's that "we" again.

[Roping her in like it's her mess, honestly!]

Did I stutter?

[ Experimental cookie is taken off the tray, transferred to a clean plate, and carefully parted into two pieces, messy as it is. There was still tasting it to consider. It wasn't a rock, but . . . ]

If only I had a way of improving the ingredients beforehand.

[ She could certainly change them into other things, but altering the taste and improving the quality... ]

[Lup snorts indelicately. Brat. Who taught her to give such attitude!

Oh wait, it was them.]

I mean, you've got an expert right in front of you, you big nerd. Why do you think Taako and I make such excellent meals despite the garbage we're working with here? Back on the fleet, too. Yikes at that gel shit.

[ She couldn't help learning from them, being around them like this. ]

... I know. Taako has never kept that a secret. Although I have... been wondering if that is something that can be learned as well. I ... never had reason to put so much thought into something like this before. The nuance, even in something like cooking. It was such a lost art, for us. Even that gel on the Fleet was similar to what I had known for so long.

[ And even to have Taako start preparing different things had taken so long to warm up to. ]

I don't exactly know the ins and outs of your magic, not like you do, but it seems like you have different limitations from us. If you want to know if you can do it, the best way is to try it for yourself, right? Worst that can happen is it won't work.

[Well, okay, lots of worse things can happen with magic, but Honerva's old enough that she ought to understand risks without Lup saying it. And she has plenty of control.]

[ She's quiet for a moment. ]

... Perhaps. It is strange, my magic. If I should wish to put it to another use, then I should find that way. That is always what I have done. But something like that... I had never tried.

[ She smiles, a little ruefully. ]

Sounds like I'd have to put more even work into learning about flavors, then.

Yeah, you absolutely gotta have a flavour in mind before you try and make it real. Like alchemy: even with a recipe, if you're trying to make something, you have to know what the end result is gonna be. Otherwise it's just mixing up a big mess.

[ She laughs. ]

You are quite right. Although at least the chance to study the ingredients in this way has been productive, if nothing else. But I think I would like it if someday you could try a meal of mine and find it ... a treat.

Mm... that'd be nice, sure. Though brace yourself for some harsh criticism!

[Particularly from Taako, if she makes it for all of them. He's harsh with everyone, even those learning. ...Besides Ango. Honerva might be better off than most.]

[ This was going to take a lot of work. But she liked work and she liked... challenges. Meeting goals. Every day with Taako was facing some new criticism anyway, so it wouldn't be that different. She shrugs, lightly. ]

The goal is to improve, not to stop.

That's what I like to hear.

[And she's pleased with how much easier it is to get this sort of conversation out of Honerva over the last half year or so. Even beyond then, but she can mark that progress so much more clearly, especially since they'd decided to venture back towards the same world, towards what will hopefully be a better future.

Weary of waiting, she reaches out and fetches a cookie, finding it cooled enough now to take a bite. How does it taste?]

[ Well, it probably tastes like... a work in progress. Simplistic; the flavor of the replicated ingredients and with all of the imperfections that Lup had discovered in the recipe on the board aside make it a little dry, but the apple comes through. There's the sense of less sugar having been used; too much had resulted in the rock-like cookies of a previous batch and so that was cut down significantly.

There might be the sense of a missing step, here, perhaps the part where the dough needs to be chilled before being cooked standing out as one of them, to explain why they are so soft now.

It's not a great cookie. She knows that Lup's had a lifetime of experience to know what would make a cookie taste better, the right balance, perhaps even instinctual; between her and Taako, that was their lives, and this was what she had shared with Honerva, from some of their talks over the time they had known each other: That was the legacy that they had built with one another, from an aunt they'd had long ago. Such things were good memories for her. Because it was more than just the food, or even their survival; it was the emotion behind the food, the memories she could conjure from it.

Honerva doesn't know what Lup has went through today. She stayed out of her way, allowing her her space while she remained in here, driven to find a way to help, even without words or even being there to listen to what had gone wrong. If that sort of emotion could be put into cookie flavor. She knows it must have been bad, she has seen Lup react poorly to experience before, and she knew it was something she did not want to speak of. She just needed everything to be okay. And when this batch had been ready, that was the time she had emerged, after all the others; perhaps that meant something too.

But she watches her take that first bite, wondering if this recipe was something that could be saved, or even something she would truly enjoy at all. ]

[Yeah sorry Honerva, you know what they call that in the Taako/Lup kitchen? A shitty cookie.

Lup winces a little, but does not say as much; she chews thoughtfully, taking in each flavour individually, as much as she can pick out. She can feel where the potential lies, taste the errors, recognize the gap of missing or underutilized ingredients. It's not a complete write-off, but to an expert's tongue, she can piece together the picture of what went wrong.

She sets down the rest of the cookie, dusts off her hands, and goes to the chalkboard.]

Sometimes, when you go astray, the best way to move forward is to start over.

[She holds the eraser up to the board, though she doesn't erase yet, watching Honerva's expression.]

Shall we make something together?

[ There's the tell-tale flick of her ears as they momentarily cast downward, as Lup's silent assessment conveys just enough to know it was a miss, even if she was kind enough to not say the words. And yet, she had just said it herself: the point was to improve, and so they quickly perk up again.

It was only baking. She may have had herself some misplaced ambitions she might have let herself run away with, but, what was it Lup had said once? That she had no chill? What a bad habit.

Still, when Lup looks to her, this time holding up the eraser to all of her well-intended but not quite there calculations, she smiles. Wasn't that all a giant metaphor for her entire life. She crosses the gap between them, offering her free hand again. ]

... Okay. Let's start over together.

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