hugme_mes | ♥ October 2019 TEST DRIVE MEME

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♥ October 2019 TEST DRIVE MEME

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October (Lasohm) Test Drive Meme
Premise ♥ Setting ♥ Rules ♥ FAQ ♥ Mod Contact

Havenwell is normally a beautiful city - all tall spires and pure white stone glistening with gold against a blue sky. Now, it's still quite lovely, but it's marred. The wall that surrounds the city has a large glimmering hole broken through the stone and the buildings are missing bits and pieces here and there. The city is still reeling from the aftermath of its siege when a new set of souls are drawn to its shore. Good luck, new arrivals; and please excuse all the dust.

two fingers together with smiling faces drawn on

❥ PROMPT I: Buddy System

With all the changes and the fear of a secondary attack lingering, the natives are a lot more protective of their newest arrivals. When new characters begin to appear at the temples, they receive the welcome speech, get their communicators and the simple map of the city, and a warning to stay away from the walls. Then they get taken to the front of the temple by a helpful robotic priest. Rather than turn the newcomers loose right away, they pull someone seemingly at random off the street and push the two people together with a cheerful, "It's dangerous to go alone, so please show our newest resident around. Please be buddies!" They wait until they're certain the pair is going to be moving off together before going back inside.

They try to place a new arrival with one of those who previously arrived, but who can keep track of all that, right? Characters may find themselves thrown together with an actual veteran or with another new arrival who only came here a day or even just an hour before them! Good luck helping each other out, offworlders, and don't lose your buddy!

❥ PROMPT II: The Havenwell Archives

Lasohm is another month that belongs to Ohma and after such a vicious attack, a small group of citizens decide that it might be great for the offworlders to help with something important to the feline god. These citizens are marked with a sash with the sign of a quill on it, a decidedly antique symbol considering how technologically advanced the people are. They hand out fliers to any who will take them, offering a small amount of Dora in compensation to any who will help the Havenwell Archives repair, catalogue, and restore any books damaged by the attack.

The Archives is a large building in the south and its doors, which have been sealed shut until now, are slightly ajar, allowing people entry. Head to the Archives and you'll be greeted by one of a handful of robotic citizens, all wearing that quill-emblazoned sash, and directed to a small room where you and other offworlders are put to the task of reassembling history texts that have fallen into disrepair or reviewing work that earlier offworlders completed, fixing any glitches that might occur in the text. Most of the writing is illegible, but it seems that these books are important to the Archives for more than just the information contained within. As you work, you might notice that talking and sharing information about yourself or engaging in physical contact near these books with the other people in your room makes the text on your pages a little more legible, a little easier to read and understand, and easier to fix.

❥ PROMPT III: Virtual Research

a virtual first-person view of hands reeling in a fishing rod

After the attack, every part of the city is on repair duty and the means the Entertainment District as well. As new arrivals wander the city, they might be called into one of the numerous Virtual Reality cafes. These cafes vary in layout, but most have areas for the natives to plug directly into the machines and other areas which have older looking virtual reality helmets that allow flesh bodied people experience the games. For those who need assistance with their sensory inputs, basic options like audio descriptions of visual scenes, enhanced audio and descriptive speech, closed captions, and crude mobility chairs are available. A handful of cafes have other options like direct visual or audio cortex stimulation to simulate vision or hearing, or suspension tanks to allow simulated movement, but these are currently unavailable due to damage.

All of these facilities are, unfortunately, under repair. The direct plug-in systems are easier for the robot natives to fix because they can do the most important part of it - testing - by themselves. But for the helmets and other interface systems, they need your help. Naturally, they'll pay you for the work, but they need the offworlders to play the available games and record any areas where they find glitches. Playing with a partner increases your chances of finding and fixing any issues, so feel free to log in for free for once and test any of the following games:

Big Bass Fishing

A (un)Familiar Experience

Robot Crossing

Pick and harvest as many Aellyn vegetables and fruits as you can before the timer runs out! The more you pick, the better your score. Work together with your partner to clear the field in any way you can. Strangely, once you finish clearing a tree or a field row of their bounty, they seem to magically refill when you turn your back. Strangely, when the timer runs out? It flashes 00:00 and the game...doesn't? Stop? In fact, the fruits and vegetables just keep multiplying and multiplying and if you don't hurry up you might just get buried in them all!
With a partner, use the giant slingshot to launch comically large fruits into a garden patch of other colored fruits. Match a line of 3 or more similarly shaped fruits to clear it from the field. The more fruits you can clear, the higher your score - aka welcome to Fruit Crush. Stack lines of 6 or more to get shining clear diamond fruits that clear the entire row and snag yourself some bonus points. Or they should, but whenever you clear away a matching set, the fruits explode, sending fruit bits and juice everywhere - most notably on you and your partner. Still, the game is going on and it looks like it won't stop until you finish, so good thing it's all a computer game, right? Sure feels real though - reeeeeeally sticky.
You and your partner(s) are given a magical golden pumpkin and it's your job to grow it into the largest pumpkin possible. Why? There's a county fair of course and the largest pumpkin wins! But how do you grow this pumpkin? Well, for whatever reason? This pumpkin is already the size of a grizzly bear and it just won't stop growing! You and your partner better find a way to stop it from growing out of control or you might get (virtually) crushed! You could do a song and dance routine together to touch the pumpkin's soul to teach it moderation or calm its insane vegetable puberty. You could hold hands and share stories and entertain the pumpkin until it feels satisfied that it's grown enough. You could just hack and slash at it in an attempt to reduce its unwieldy bulk. The possibilities are endless and so is the pumpkin's growth, so you better hurry!

Have fun however you like with the setting! Make a network post, make up other prompts based on the general setting, go wild. Havenwell is your oyster.

This TDM is for the November application round. If you have any questions, feel free to direct them to the FAQ or to the Mod Question thread below. The reservation round begins on October 30, 2019 at 10:00PM EST and our applications will run from November 2, 2019 to November 9, 2019 from 10:00PM EST to 10:00PM EST.

♥ Taken Characters ♥ Reservations ♥ Applications ♥

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[He glanced warily between Somnus and the door, halfway to snapping and raising a furious objection--how dare you call me that now, how dare you act contrite, do you have any idea--but he but he bit his tongue and followed. Nowhere near careless enough to turn his back on Somnus this time, of course.]

[Ardyn had every right to be suspicious. For his sake, Somnus chose only to go as far as outside of the Archives and not somewhere terribly isolated. Voices tended to carry farther indoors, after all.

Now he could say something. But there was nothing he could say to appease Ardyn's indignation, he knew.]

I expect you have questions.

[Despite everything Ardyn was, excepting matters of his own survival, something of a pacifist. He hated fighting and so long as he was in control of himself he could never have brought himself to strike first even against someone that wanted to kill him.]

[But something about that remark sparked a deep anger and resentment within him, and instead of a response he pulled back and threw a punch directly at Somnus' face.]

[He deserved that.

Somnus lurched from the blow. He took a step back and held the awkward position, exhaled, then straightened with his hands still resting at his sides. There was no reason to retaliate here.

He deserved that and more, so he said nothing about it.]

I can offer you nothing else.

[Just answers, none of which Ardyn was bound to like.]

[It was a lie to say he cared nothing for revenge. Only that it wasn’t Lucis or the crown that should have been victim of it. Ardyn was still sane enough to recognize that, to understand who was at fault—the gods, perhaps, if the others’ theories were to be believed, but none who cut so deep and personal a wound as the man standing before him now.]

[And yet it was another lie to say Ardyn enjoyed even that microscopic amount of vengeance. Once upon a time he would sooner have cut his own hand off than raise it against his brother, and now even knowing it was the least of what Somnus deserved in return...it just left Ardyn feeling as empty as ever. Even with that spark of anger threatening to catch into a wildfire he wouldn’t be able to extinguish, even though gold eyes were already reflecting that tightly controlled fury...he just found he hated every last second of this.]

[And yet, measured and repressed as he struggled to keep it, anger was what led Ardyn to speak next.]

You took everything from me—my home, my life, my people, and Aera worst of all—yet still that wasn't enough? You stole my very name from history itself and erased my existence? I know what it is the kingdom calls me, Somnus, and I know the line knew nothing else of what they stood vigilant over in Angelgard. [Hands scarred through by the impalement of restraints curled into fists, Ardyn’s voice shaking with rage.]

And you say answers are all you can offer. You can’t even lower yourself to apologize.

Edited 2019-10-21 17:59 (UTC)

[What good are apologies?

No matter how many times he were to say that he was sorry, the damage would remain. Aera, worst of all, had been an accident. What good was an apology, thought Somnus, when so much more anguish awaited Ardyn as his brother appeared before him now?

It was wretched, he knew, for he was a wretched man. He'd lowered himself once before, and they'd each departed unfulfilled. This time, he knew better than to seek understanding.

While Ardyn was trembling with righteous fury, Somnus was quiet. There was no going back. He'd burned that bridge beyond repair. But it was impossible to contain his pent-up sorrow in the face of his beloved brother, and his own mien betrayed his emotion.

The end had been so close. Now here he stood before the beginning.]

What do you ask of me?

I can't forgive you and nothing can ever even begin to repair what you destroyed. To that end, perhaps, nothing you say or do would be worth anything.

But you could at least do me the courtesy of saying anything more than that. I ask that you at least pretend to care about all that you did to me.

[Then why speak at all? This encounter was never meant to happen. But his brother had ever been the emotive one between the two of them. Loath though he was to say something, knowing that it could lead to nothing good, Somnus knew still that Ardyn was owed that much. Thus, he answered honestly:]

Not a day passed where I did not remember.

[Memories of his sins haunted him, causing his remorse to fester over the millennia. He took a step back.]

If my presence grieves you so, I shall keep a distance between us.

And yet you saw to it that no one else would. I didn't want recognition by any means, but why. What possessed you to think that--no, any of that was such a good idea? Did you value the crown that much, or was it that you cared so little for me?

[He still didn't know--not with any real certainty--which of them had been chosen. Sure, Verstael had explained the aftermath of a confrontation with Ifrit that had yet to happen for Ardyn...but that was Verstael's word alone, and he was nowhere near foolish enough to trust that.]

[Still...it was enough to doubt. Doubt that his brother had done anything but lie that day before the Crystal, doubt that Ardyn had ever truly been worthy even before becoming the wretched creature he was now.]

I acknowledge now that I was, perhaps...shortsighted. But I was doing the only thing I could, and I certainly wasn't killing anyone in the process. Is mere shortsightedness and stubborn idiocy truly a crime worth death or eternal solitude in your precious kingdom? Do you have any idea how long you left me there?!

[They had both done the only thing they could have done. His brother, with his god-given power of healing; and he, in all his envious powerlessness. They had both suffered the imperfection of shortsightedness, something he'd only realized upon seizing the throne for himself.

But he, unlike Ardyn, had craved the recognition that all had thrown at his brother's feet, and it had left him raging at the gods for spurning him so. And that idée fixe was not Ardyn's cross to bear in the present.

No, he wasn't going to answer that first question. But he would answer the second.]

I do. On the 721st year of the modern era, you, brother, were spirited away from Angelgard.

That's all you have to say? You executed and exiled me for next to no damnable reason, and you won't even answer-...

[Wait a minute.]

...How do you know that.

Just as you endured in the darkness, I continued to exist in the realm after my death. The moment you were released, I knew what had happened.

That's impossible. What are you talking about?

You witnessed what became of the kingdom, but not of the kings and queens who reigned over it. My soul resides within the Ring of Light at the gods' behest, observing the world from afar.

I witnessed nothing. I have only what Niflheim's mad scientist has shown me and the word of your descendants and their allies to enlighten me. I have not seen or returned home in whatever form it takes since you saw fit to send me away.

Now you tell me you have stood sentinel for generations upon generations of the bloodline? Do you expect I should feel sympathy for such a plight, for I find I do not. Sharply and painfully to the contrary, in fact. You were allowed a mortal life and family. And afar though you may have been, you were yet there to observe the changing ages and the generations that followed you.

...Have you any idea what I did, whilst you lived out your life and your spirit played observer? For I languished in darkness and silence, struggling desperately to remember what Aera's face looked like. Watching your spectre invade my dreams and rule my nightmares again and again and again, until now when I scarce know if the sight before me is even that of my waking eyes.

Tell me now, and do not dare risk a lie for I know not what I might say or do in answer to it: do you even care? Did you ever care?

[Feel sympathy? No, his plight was a mere byproduct of his calling. It was nothing compared to the fates doled out by the gods to the central players of their design. That terrible honor had gone to his brother and his last descendant. He would never dare to seek forgiveness, much less sympathy.

For who was dealt a calling worse than Ardyn Lucis Caelum, the sacrificial lamb of Eos?

Holding Ardyn's gaze throughout the tirade, Somnus, in spite of knowing his answer at once, hesitated.]

I never stopped caring.

...Never?

[Ardyn's hands shook with a mixture of tension and the desire to punch Somnus again, words still very strained with the effort it took not to start shouting.]

So I'm to believe that your little display back then, that was you caring? Calling me...what was it again, 'seditious traitor'? Mocking Aera as she died in my arms, that was 'caring' to you? Every single scar you left on me, driving a sword through my chest, making sure no one would ever know I existed, you expect me to believe you never stopped caring? You don't even care enough now to merely tell me you're sorry.

I had known for longer than I cared to admit that such a confrontation was inevitable. And I knew...I couldn't have done it, Somnus. Even had that mortal body not been dying, even if I had possessed the physical strength to kill you, I would sooner have died than go through with it. You were my brother, no crown or kingdom was ever worth that to me. But it has ever been clear to me that sentiment was never shared.

[Growing up alongside one another, had there ever been a time when they'd truly shared a sentiment? Somnus wondered. They'd always been too different. The rift created by those differences and his own actions was now too large to even hope of closing.

He could explain himself. Say that he'd put on a show to drive out any seed of doubt in the audience that no savior stood before them. That Aera had been an unfortunate improvisation. That, at that very moment, he'd finally felt adequate after years of dismissal from those around him. That he'd cut his brother down without a smile and instead with a heavy heart, knowing that Ardyn was incapable of making the hard decisions to rule.

If he were to say that he was sorry now, would it not sound insincere? Just like it had then.

Somnus stepped back.]

You've asked, and I've answered. Goodbye, brother.

[He could say whatever he liked, but it was all meaningless without even the faintest attempt at something approaching an apology. Anything to indicate actual regret instead of this pathetic showing. But nothing came, and Ardyn found he just hated all of this more. Even the thousands of time they'd failed to agree on something, even as things fell further and further apart, Ardyn had never truly doubted they were of one mind in simply caring about each other.]

[...He had been wrong about several rather major things, but none hurt quite so much as that.]

I would not dare waste Your Majesty's time further. [Like flipping a switch, Ardyn was just...done. His voice was flat and detached, as if he were speaking to a complete stranger.] Pray forgive a mere daemon for intruding on your heart's desire to be an only child, and do return to it swiftly.

[Perhaps, if his brother had been from a time closer to his, he would have issued that apology (and many more) in a forthright manner. To apologize for the past when so much of the tragic future loomed, though—he could not dare.

With a lingering look at Ardyn, Somnus turned and disappeared into the streets of Havenwell.]

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♥ October 2019 TEST DRIVE MEME

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