citta: (Default)
cetana mods ([personal profile] citta) wrote in [community profile] cetana2019-12-03 05:20 am

DECEMBER EVENT PT 1

DECEMBER EVENT PT 1

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12/3 Lockdown

    The wind picks up at midnight, flowing through the streets but softened by the snowflakes that drift down from the sky. Over the full hour of Lockdown, the snowfall dampens the wind and makes it harder to follow the stream than before, blowing out from the forest and towards the center of town where a snowdrift builds up against the shut doors of the hospital's main entrance. Defeat the Daitengu, and the next dungeon appears the month after... During Lockdown, black blobs of Shadows continue to seep out of the hospital, shrine, lake, and school, but with the third Daitengu defeated, the wind doesn't howl as strongly and the snowfall is light, leaving the town dusted with snow the next morning that easily melts by mid-day. The town is cold, quiet, and still, almost as if holding its breath, but perhaps it's an illusion created by the townspeople staying indoors to keep out of the cold, and that everybody who had arrived from the alternate Hirajiro has been spirited away overnight, gone without fanfare by the time the wind dies down at the end of Lockdown. The only thing left behind is a complete deck of tarot cards with no duplicates, neatly stacked and set by the entrance of the honden, with a heavy stone on top to keep the cards from blowing away in the wind.

    With the wind picking up around the shrine, a slow, deep ringing can be heard from a large bell that has been tied up above the offertory box with a thick rope, swinging with the wind; the offertory box itself is emptied of gemstones at the beginning of the month, but will slowly fill back up if the Persona users continue to donate the stones dropped by defeated Shadows, with the understanding that any boon they receive comes with strengthening the Kotengu as well. As if called by the toll of the bell, it seems like all of the crows in town have congregated around the shrine for the winter, perched on the rooftops, lit stone lanterns, and even the torii, all peering down at whoever enters the shrine and keeping an eye on them all the while they stand on sacred land. Although the crows seem unbothered by the ringing bell, the resident fox skitters away whenever it hears the noise, although it will always return when the wind dies down, or if the bell is otherwise bound and still. The sign that's supposed to contain the shrine deity's name still lacks the name, but this time, the sign is painted over with solid black, the paint layered on so thickly, you can see where the trails of paint are pulled to the bottom of the sign, under which dry spots of black paint can be seen before covered by the dusting of snow.

    Near the path leading from the shrine to the castle, a large area of trees has been demolished in a vaguely serpentine shape, the trees lying splintered and fallen but far enough to pose no danger to the castle. Unlike the shrine, there are little to no crows that hang around the structure, the same two stories with the broken stairs up to the incomplete third floor becoming hazardous to climb with the falling snow and the wind that blows through the open windows of the second floor, making the castle howl. The throne sports a new cushion and a thick woollen blanket draped over the back of it, but with the ofuda door containing just the same two as before, the castle remains stuck in time, and the night goes on.

12/3 - 1/2 Town events

    It snows on and off over the next few days, getting steadily colder as the month progresses. While the snow is powdery and easy to clear, there's a lot of it that piles right back up by the end of the day, creating a constant demand for help shoveling the roads around the neighborhoods and marketplace to keep them clear, although the Persona users will have to keep the path to the castle and shrine clear on their own, as none of the townspeople are concerned about the forest in general. In town, all the extra snow initially gets pushed towards the center to dump into the lake, but after the lake freezes over after the first week of the month, the excess snow gets piled into a large hill and packed down to be perfect for sledding, with makeshift sleds ranging from laundry baskets to trash can lids left lying around for people to grab and slide— and pray they don't veer off course and crash straight through the ice covering the lake. A Persona may be able to thicken the ice and make it safer to skate on, but in the meanwhile, people will just have to watch out for the spots where the ice is thin and easily broken. Please don't fall in, unless it's near midnight and you fall straight into a random floor of the lake dungeon.

    Strings of plain white Christmas lights adorn the trees in town and around the outskirts where it borders the forest, leaving the entire town lit with a soft glow after sundown. Throughout town, the decorations are similarly subtle, with fancier decorations seen in storefronts rather than people's homes, and instead of a single Christmas tree towering over the town, a set of four smaller trees line the back of a large stage set on the lakefront across the school building, which has made its appearance for summer festivals in the past. Surrounding the stage are many stalls that make up a holiday craft market that will be open all month. For a small fee, anybody can purchase a spot at the craft market to sell their own crafts, most of which are intended to be decorations for people's homes or to be given as gifts for Christmas and the New Year. Among the crafts are traditional gifts like knit scarves and sweaters, as well as clay figurines, beaded crafts, painted plates, and any manner of handmade items people have to offer. Although the main focus of the market is for crafts, there are also stalls selling refreshments such as hot chocolate and baked goods.

    On the stage itself, each of the four trees is topped with a bird-like angel painted in soft reds, blacks, and golds, and rather than lights and ornaments, the trees have emas hung on the branches, with wishes written on the small wooden plaques. While emas are traditionally hung at a shrine for the kami to receive them, the emas here are for the community to offer and receive: for every wish you hang up, you're encouraged to take at least one other ema and fulfill that wish in return. Some of the wishes are very general, such as asking people to do good deeds to make the world a better place, wishing for the exams at school to be a little easier next year, or hoping everybody in the hospital will get better. Other wishes are more personal, such as wanting to learn a new skill, receive a certain toy, or help cleaning out a basement, and these personal wishes contain the person's name and contact information to indicate who to report to grant the wish. Not all wishes can be granted directly, but the effort put towards them still counts. There is no payment or other incentives to fulfill multiple wishes other than good karma, which will surely be returned to you in the new year.

MOD NOTES

    ⬥ Each character may make one free ema wish in the top-level below and the mods will reply with how the wish is fulfilled. Note that personal wishes will be signed for everybody to see, and while ICly all wishes will be fulfilled by the townspeople and not the Kotengu, for this first wish, a crow will occasionally swoop down and take an ema, so you guys can get your stat boosts and skill upgrades.
    ⬥ Additional ema wishes may be made for every thread reported that involves fulfilling one of the townspeople's wishes and must have a minimum of 5 comments from you. There is no limit to how many ema wishes that can be made, but all threads are due by 1/3/2020 when January's dungeon log goes up. These extra wishes will be fulfilled by the townspeople, so they might not know what to do with wishes like "+1 to all stats." You are still welcome to try, though, and they will do their best.
    ⬥ Part 2 of December's event will go up on 12/15 to encompass Christmas, New Years, and tragedy.
    ⬥ This month, the full moon occurs on 12/11 - 12/13. While Personas are stronger around the time of the full moon, they are more difficult to control and may behave strangely and disobey orders around these dates. This is an optional mechanic.
overstrain: (♦ ...)

[personal profile] overstrain 2019-12-05 08:46 pm (UTC)(link)
[ Orien swallows those eggs. What a waste... and he swallows them whole too, so it's not like there's any taste. ]

... I'm definitely full now. Just keep eating your chips.
overstrain: + (pic#13542626)

[personal profile] overstrain 2019-12-05 08:53 pm (UTC)(link)
[ By the time Kido comes back after putting the cat food in the crane room, Terry looks like he's almost done. He's been thinking on how the cake could look like that would fit a child's preferences while not letting the shape protrude too far from the central body so that it would be difficult to bake.

He's very focused on his task at the time being...
]

[personal profile] reveilation 2019-12-05 09:07 pm (UTC)(link)
[ Kido nods slowly, because that's about what she remembers from her books too. Snakes swallow things whole, and eggs are easier to swallow whole than things like mice that can get caught in their throat.

She crunches another chip while she looks around the kitchen. What a small house. She walks over to the living room and pulls aside a curtain to look outside, before letting it drop and wandering away from it too. ]


...Are your parents home?

[ She says to a snake that sounds like a 40 year old guy i guess ]

[personal profile] reveilation 2019-12-05 09:12 pm (UTC)(link)
[ Kido looks back over at Terry. Not having a good day... Ah. It's the Depression. 6-year-old Kido knows what that's like, and pats Terry on the head. There, there. Sometimes you just feel like wanting to die, and that's just how it is. ]

Mm... When I have a bad day, I listen to music.

[ So like... every day. ]

Do you have something like that?

[personal profile] reveilation 2019-12-05 09:19 pm (UTC)(link)
[ He shouldn't have to think too hard outside of bright colors and sweet cake, but Kido keeps quiet when she sees Terry concentrating on his work, and washes her hands before getting ingredients for the chocolate and the cake out. It's going to be a two tier lemon pound cake, to offset some of the sweet. ]
overstrain: (♦ ...)

[personal profile] overstrain 2019-12-05 09:42 pm (UTC)(link)
I don't have parents.

[ The irony isn't lost on him, but he doesn't show that it's significant. ]

So you can come back to stay here however long you want. You can consider this your home too.
overstrain: (♦ ...)

[personal profile] overstrain 2019-12-05 09:48 pm (UTC)(link)
[ 6-year-old Kido knows Depression... that's so sad. Terry looks at peace compared to his blank face from before when she pats his head. He doesn't answer the question, because he doesn't know who it's directed to, and it might as well not be him. His eyes have been closed the entire time.

Orien goes into Terry's room and takes out the music box, opening it to play the melody. He comes back to where Kido is.
]

He likes this one a lot.
overstrain: + (pic#13542616)

[personal profile] overstrain 2019-12-05 09:50 pm (UTC)(link)
[ Terry finishes and waves the metal a bit so that it's not hot when he passes it to Kido. ]

Here you go. I should get ready to make the chocolate egg, right?
infiltrationtools: (SURPRISE ⛓ take you down)

[personal profile] infiltrationtools 2019-12-05 09:50 pm (UTC)(link)
[That's not how Akira expected this conversation to go, and he looks up at Terry with some concern as he hands over the goods.]

How?

[Not why, because Akira has no room to talk.]

[personal profile] reveilation 2019-12-05 09:52 pm (UTC)(link)
Oh.

[ She bites at her bottom lip, because not having parents is always a sad thing, no matter what. This is before she was taken to the orphanage, so it's the fact that she'd lost her family and her home in one fell swoop before opening her eyes in that room surrounded by cats.

...Now that she thinks about it, ]


Are we both dead?

[ Is this heaven? It's so sad that he has to be stuck as a snake even in Paradise. ]

[personal profile] reveilation 2019-12-05 09:59 pm (UTC)(link)
[ 6-year-old Kido: wow, it'd be nice if I just disappeared, if i didn't exist, then I would never cause trouble for anybody ever again

Unfortunately, she did not disappear, and now she's here to cause trouble for everybody all the time. ]


...It's pretty.

[ Kido pulls herself fully out from under the kotatsu so she can pick up the music box and place it next to Terry's head. And then after a second, she takes the knitted cat off the table and does her best to lift Terry's head so she can stuff the cat under his head so he's not going to wake up with a stiff neck later. She's been there too. An anpan gets set on his hand, but she leaves it wrapped because she thinks it'll probably roll off and fall on the ground if he's not going to hold it properly, and that'd be a waste compared to Terry accidentally taking a bite of paper. ]
reveilation: (053)

[personal profile] reveilation 2019-12-05 10:09 pm (UTC)(link)
Thanks. And yeah, we'll have it in the freezer overnight so you can take your time with it. Do you need a recipe, or do you know what you're doing?

[ It's... basically just chocolate and nothing fancy as long as the chocolate is melted slowly so it doesn't dry. There's dark chocolate and white chocolate chips so he can make fancy swirls or something to make it look more like a dinosaur egg.

Cake is cake and she's made enough of them to be able to eyeball amounts and what order to do things in so there's always something going. Two tiers means two cakes, but instead of cutting the cake in half, she's just going to bake one and then the other. ]

I

[personal profile] cicadashell 2019-12-05 11:19 pm (UTC)(link)
[Akira seems to be selling scrap metal junk. He can't eat it or wear it, so it's nothing Jiro intends to buy; even with whatever pitch Akira's trying to give here. The coolness factor doesn't resonate, because "secret menu" just sounds sketchy.]

Save the propositions for your maid cafe. The fuck is this?

[He holds up one of the twisted crafts.]
overstrain: + (pic#13576987)

[personal profile] overstrain 2019-12-05 11:35 pm (UTC)(link)
... I lost it at the hospital dungeon. If you want to know more details, we can talk about this another time when you're not working.

[ He doesn't want to obstruct Akira's business... ]
overstrain: (♦ ...)

[personal profile] overstrain 2019-12-05 11:37 pm (UTC)(link)
I died once.

[ That's all he's gonna say about it, because he thinks that's a surprising conclusion to make. He wants to see how far Kido's imagination will take her. ]
overstrain: (♦ ...)

[personal profile] overstrain 2019-12-05 11:44 pm (UTC)(link)
[ present Terry: same

Terry seems to be a lot more content when the music box is closer to him. He doesn't really make any movement otherwise, even when the anpan is set on his hand. Orien watches Kido do all this. She still has a soft center, huh... it's nice to see. He doesn't really want to interrupt the mood, so he's fine with the music box melody playing in the silence.
]
overstrain: + (pic#13473293)

[personal profile] overstrain 2019-12-05 11:47 pm (UTC)(link)
[ After washing his hands again in the kitchen sink, Terry starts making the chocolate egg. I don't want to write out the whole process, so he'll just be making it while striking up a conversation. ]

Kido, are you running out of socks lately?

[personal profile] reveilation 2019-12-05 11:52 pm (UTC)(link)
Huh...

[ Kido nods slowly, because she thinks she knows who the witch that cursed him is, but she's a nice witch and there's no way for them to talk anymore anyways. ]

Um... well... I don't know how to help, but you'll figure it out. And then things will go back to normal.

[ Ganba mastering your eye ability, Orien. ]
overstrain: (♦ ...)

[personal profile] overstrain 2019-12-05 11:56 pm (UTC)(link)
Yeah, things will go back to normal.

[ He doesn't count on it, and his original body has been long since dead anyway. It's probably compressed into the earth's dying crust or something. It's funny you say that because the reason why Orien's eyes are so blue was because when Terrence was younger, he gave his blue eyes to the Orien back then so that he could see. Nothing magical though. ]

It'll be fine in the end. You'll be okay too.
reveilation: (022)

[personal profile] reveilation 2019-12-06 12:02 am (UTC)(link)
[ Cool, we can both pretend they're just cooking in the background. ]

That's such a suspicious question... I don't run out of socks on a regular basis. Why?
overstrain: + (pic#13473317)

[personal profile] overstrain 2019-12-06 12:04 am (UTC)(link)
Clothes in general, but I guess you wouldn't...

[ Terry does. He needs to go shopping again because he's lending clothes to people and ruining them. He thinks about this for a moment, and thinks of a great gift idea. ]

[personal profile] reveilation 2019-12-06 12:15 am (UTC)(link)
[ ??? ]

Do... you want me to buy you socks? I can knit you socks?

[ Is he fishing for something? She doesn't get it. She looks down at his feet to see if he's wearing socks, or if there's holes in the toes or something. ]
overstrain: + (pic#13473298)

[personal profile] overstrain 2019-12-06 12:17 am (UTC)(link)
Haha, no... it's fine. I have enough for myself.

[ Terry is indeed wearing socks. They're clean and pretty good condition in black color. ]

I was just thinking about something... at least it's good weather for your hoodies, huh?

[personal profile] reveilation 2019-12-06 12:20 am (UTC)(link)
[ Why is he collecting all these body parts, what the hell happened in those 40k years??? ]

Hm... I don't think so. It's already the end. And I don't know what's supposed to happen after.

[ She just died half an hour ago? That's what it felt like to her. Half an hour ago, she was having tea with Azami, who tells her she has to continue living instead of resting in peace and it sucks. ]

[personal profile] reveilation 2019-12-06 12:23 am (UTC)(link)
...Yeah. They also don't have holes in them, and I can patch them if they did.

[ She's not sure what he's thinking about, or if she could even follow the thought process. ]

Are you going to tell me what you're thinking about, or are you going to keep being cryptic?

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