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hugme_mes2019-10-20 11:04 pm
hugtopiamods) wrote in hugme_mes2019-10-20 11:04 pm
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♥ October 2019 TEST DRIVE MEME
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.
❥ 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!
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.
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
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:
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 The beautiful lake has blue-green waters surrounded by forest and rocky, reedy shores. You and your companion are on a small single-motor fishing boat and you have fishing gear - two poles in the water. As the game starts up a read-out announces the objective: Catch the largest fish before the time limit ends. What's the time limit? ...Well, that's your first glitch because it reads as static. Might as well start fishing though, right? It doesn't take long to catch a few regular sized fish, nothing too exciting, and then? You get the big one - it bows your fishing rod nearly in half as you reel it up. The fish leaps into the air and you realize this is your next glitch because the fish hangs there - the size of a minivan - and yells, "BIG. BASS. FISHING. ATTACK." The fish slaps its fins and tails at the boat and now you and your fishing companion better fight this fish or you'll end up in the lake or worse.
- A (un)Familiar Experience Jump into the life of the temple familiars and see life from their perspective! Choose the temple, any temple is fine, and be transformed into a fledgling rainbow dragon, a purple mouse, a white raven, or a blue feline. You're free to move about the virtual confines of the temples and, in fact, you can even interact with other familiars in their temples - who may be other players in this game. Play, climb, try to get your fledgling wings to fly, tumble about with the other mice, enjoy your simple life as an animal! --or you would if you weren't an insane size. Rather than being a small mouse, you're the size of a horse. That fledgling rainbow dragon? About the size of a fly. The building sizes are off, too - one might have door that's 30 feet tall, but a ceiling that's only 12. Everything else seems fine, but those sizes? Well, you better figure out how to get around that.
- Robot Crossing Logging in with another character will net you a little farm and a variety of games to choose from:
- 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.
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I didn't say that! But just because it isn't bothersome doesn't mean it isn't still some effort. You'll see just how many excuses they come up with for us to get cozy. You are new, right?
[Considering the original question, he's fairly confident in that.]
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She goes a step further: bringing her other hand up to cup his one in both of hers. The gods wish for touch to sustain themselves, the gods protect this world; therefore, this shared touch helps this world.
It is the.... the very least she can do. ] I am. [ She replies simply, looking down at their clasped hands. ] And I need no excuse to hold another's hand, little one. You need only ask.
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His moment of surprise is visible in his expression—he blinks down at their hands and then up at her—but only briefly. Then he just smiles again, less aggressively bright than before.]
I see . . . I'll keep that in mind, big one!
[Wink.]
You seem like exactly the kind of person they'd want helping them out.
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And you? Coming so readily to my hands- [ For indeed, she's pulled him closer now, lifting him upwards. ] --you seem like an expert at initiating the help they need.... and, just maybe, the same need this world requires to thrive... [ She chuckles, teasing, and, should he not be opposed to it, she will begin to carry him not unlike a mother would to a child. Up on her hip you go, little one. ]
For how long have you been paying fealty to these gods through touch?
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Errr, um—how long—about three months.
[It's going to take him a bit to even think to pull away, if he decides to. That's how infrequently he's on this side of things.]
What a way to put it, though . . .
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He isn't opposed to being carried. Good. Pyra will continue as she is, deicing to keep him balanced upon her hip, an arm about him to support the rest of his weight, as she moves. From there, she begins to walk through the temple slowly as they talk, pausing every so often whenever they come across a different mural, artifact, or other sort of structure. ]
Ah, that would be three months away from your world, wouldn't it. [ Her tone turns sympathetic. ] I'm sorry.... that you've been taken away from your home. I hope that there are others from your world here.
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It takes that long for his brain to recover itself, though, to his private embarrassment. He's a genius! He shouldn't be floundering like this! But after spinning its wheels for that little while, it regroups at least some, and Magolor comes to this conclusion: he just can't bear to face this in any way other than playing along with it. Just can't handle honesty right now all snuggled up against a stranger! So he lets his expression fall into something wounded and open, his tone going quiet with grief:]
I do have one friend with me here, but . . . well, I think we're both trying not to think about it too hard, you know? Our best friend isn't here with us. I miss him so much . . . I know he wouldn't want me to be sad, but I can't help myself.
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Sometimes... [ A pause, and then she begins again. ] Sometimes it's hard, to be happy for another's sake. [ She replies, brow knit with sympathy. ] But perhaps your friend might understand...
That even if you do miss him, he might want you be honest with your feelings overall. [ There, a loophole to this whole he-wouldn't-want-me-to-be-sad business! A good friend would want their friend to be honest overall, to accept their feelings for what they are. And those feelings, she thinks, are beautiful. They are human, even if this being certainly is not human. Thus: ]
If you miss him, miss him. [ She turns her gaze to him, kind. Then, softer: ] If you love him, love him. So long as you are true to what is in here [ With her free hand, she lifts a finger to poke him upon his chest. ], all will be well.
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You're . . . you're right. You're absolutely right. He would understand my feelings! Maybe right now, he's crying for me all the way over on his own planet. I just hate to think about that, but I'd cherish his feelings . . . !
[Actually, thinking about that is pretty fulfilling and funny, but no one needs to know that.
He "recovers" somewhat, managing a brave, though covered, smile up at her.]
You know, if you haven't picked a god yet, Diacht would just love you. Ainea would too, but she's too popular, if you ask me. We could use good, kind, honest souls like yours.
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This being belongs Diacht; following that, he may exhibit those virtues. That, or perhaps he wishes to become more honesty and honorable. She's not quite sure how it's supposed to go. As for Pyra, she's already "chosen" her god. ]
...You speak of them as if they are present. [ "Diacht would just love you," he says, as if they are there. ]
I'm sorry if this is an odd question, [ She begins, plainly but earnestly, as if she's puzzling through something. ] but... are they?
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[This is much easier footing, so to speak: something he knows about and can speak about with confidence. It's so much easier to ignore the snuggly reality of his situation when the conversation is like this! And he does have, he feels, a special insight into this that most people here didn't experience, and boy does he love to talk about things he knows. His tone evens out into something much more normal—not embarrassed, or playing sad, or playing cute.]
It's hard to say. But if you ask me, they are, on some level. I can tell you that I had something happen to me here not long after I showed up that the priests of this temple couldn't explain. It'd have to be some kind of magic . . . but if the priests weren't responsible for it, who else was?
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What had occurred?
[ To make him think it was the act of a god.
Not that she doubts him, she just wants to know of what phenomena these gods might be capable. ]
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[He casts a look around the temple, as if looking for Diacht's face staring back at them from some corner, godly and severe. It's mostly for dramatic effect, though, and he leaves the pause hanging in the air juuuuust long enough to build tension.
But the story is true:]
A couple months ago, they were rewarding us for doing certain tasks for the gods. Since I'm with Diacht, mine was to tell someone a personal truth about myself in the temple. So I went through the whole shebang with a partner, buuuut just to test what would happen, I lied about what I said. Oopsie!
Anyhoo, the priests gave me the reward anyway, just as I thought they would. There's no way they could know, right? But when I left the temple, the reward dissolved right in my hands! And when I asked them what happened, they couldn't explain it to me. . . . Obviously, if they'd known I was lying to begin with, they wouldn't have given me the reward in the first place. And if they'd put up some kind of spell around the temple that can detect honesty, they'd have no reason to hide that. It's only a waste of their time and resources to let people come in and lie if they know how that ends. So, it must be that they really weren't responsible for punishing me for lying to Diacht. And if they weren't, who was?
[It had happened mostly like that, anyway. The only fib there is that he hadn't lied as a scientific test of the gods' power at all, but for much more selfish reasons. But he got this experimental knowledge out of it anyway, and he'll consider that a win.]
1/2 oops over here
And then— ]
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[ Her eyes seem to sparkle. ]
I’m glad the punishment for lying wasn’t anything more than a withdrawal of your reward... and that you were not hurt. [ How awful would that be. ]
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That is worth snuggling shamelessly into this hug, with an adorable little giggle of his own.]
Oh nooooo, that's too much! You're going too far! I'm so embarrassed now that you think so highly of me! To hear all that from such a kind and bright person . . . !
1/2
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[ Softly, softly, she continues with those pats. ]
Such as what may be outside those walls, or what attacked the city to cause that chasm in the wall... Or, maybe, can you tell me more about this... touch that is needed by the gods? Have you seen any changes in this world for yourself-- by us otherworlders' contact with each other?
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That said, he sneaks curious peeks at her face from time to time, when she laughs and when she questions him. There are two types of people who are this friendly and effusive: the type that's filled with genuine love and light, of which Magolor does know some, like Kirby and Goofy. And then there's the type of person who puts it up as a front, to get something out of it, like Marx—and like Magolor himself. Being of that second type, he's predisposed to look for it everywhere.
And which is she? He's not sure yet. It's a curiosity, not a fear; he can't think of any way in which she might be using any of this for anything he himself isn't using it for, so it's all good. But he wonders.
In any case, she wants information, and he respects that, even if he has to hassle her a little over her delivery:]
You're just full of questions! Not that I mind, but one at a time, you know? They're all good ones. Sooooo, let's see here, last one first . . . there are definitely effects the more we touch one another. Some of them are even noticeable! But as far as I can tell so far, they're all temporary. I haven't seen any evidence that the world is healing itself thanks to our brave self-sacrifice.
[You know, the self-sacrifice of cuddles. He giggles.]
I wonder why not?
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Temporary, noticeable.... as in...?
[ She cants her head, melodic tone encouraging him to continue. That there is a specific power derived from contact— and one that effects the world— is... fascinating, really. ]
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. . . But I haven't noticed any signs of us making anything better beyond that. That's what I mean by temporary. We can take whatever this planet throws at us, but we can't throw anything back preemptively. Get it?
[He waves his hand out in front of them in a meaningless gesture. Ta-da! An explanation! For all that this isn't exactly good news, Magolor's tone is much more explanatory than concerned.]
Maybe it's a slow process, but that's the long and short of it! Things haven't actually gotten better since we arrived. That wasn't all that long ago, though, so for now it's still a big mystery what's going to happen next!
1/4
But it's also-- ]
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[ She looks up towards one of the statues depicting Diacht, humanoid but distinctly not, draped in feathers as sharp as blades, their eyes adorned with sapphire as if the crystalline gaze could pierce through hearts themselves.
She has no heart. ]
All evoked from touch, no less.
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[ After a pause her attention returns to him, and with it, her smile. ]
I apologize for the questions. The... ah, "Havenwell Archives", would have more information, correct?
[ tho' she doesn't know u have to hold hands to make the scripts legible there... ]
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