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DECEMBER EVENT PT 1
DECEMBER EVENT PT 1
premise ⬥ taken ⬥ faq ⬥ navigation
→ 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.
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We sold so much already~! Look!
[He notes the dwindling pile of sweaters on the table.]
I think we'll have to make more tonight!
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[ It really is a lot of money. Kido wouldn't mind knitting as a business if it means she gets to sit under the kotatsu all night with a mug of hot tea and zoning out while making sweaters, really. ]
I'll pick up some more yarn before heading back tonight. I was thinking we could try putting hoods on them, with drawstrings with pompoms at the ends of it. Wouldn't that be cute?
[ The cats can pat them around too; it's warmth and entertainment all in one, and Kido has a hoodie bias. ]
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Oh my god, they'd be adorable~! And! We can charge more for those.
[They will never have to actually work.]
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That's right. Good business sense, there.
[ She pats Kuroko on the head, imagining what she'd look like in a dark red sweater with white pompoms. Cute. ]
It's really easy to customize these sorts of things: we can special embroider the cat's name on the sweater and such... I'll leave the design portion to you, alright? You're the head of creativity.
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[He's so excited. Toki will have Kido oversee the embroidering because he will spell all their names wrong.]
The hoods should have ear holes!
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Yeah, see, that's why you're the head, so we can have good ideas like that. Cats wouldn't want their ears covered, so we'll have to account for holes. Maybe we can have mittens on the side, in case their paws get cold.
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[It's a very good idea. Toki takes a little notebook out of his bag, and starts sketching mitten ideas. Some can have bells or ribbons. It will be great.]
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... ]
I'm going to take a quick round. Are you hungry, Tokidoki? I can bring back something to eat and drink.
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Oh! I saw like bread shaped like turtles at one of the stalls! That would be fun!
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Oh, that sounds cute. I'll keep a look out for those.
[ She takes her leave and is back in about fifteen minutes with two wrapped turtles balanced on top of one another, and a cup of hot chocolate she places on the table in front of Toki when he returns. ]
It's still hot, so leave it for a couple of minutes before drinking it.
[ It's lidded and everything so it won't get everywhere if it accidentally spills, even if that makes the wait time for not scalding his tongue longer. In the meanwhile, there's a sweet melon pan turtle for the each of them. ]
Do you like cute food, Tokidoki? You sounded pretty happy when Terry cooked breakfast for you the other day.
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I do! Because it shows that people really like making the food and it's like made with love and care since they spend so long making it cute even if they know it's just going to get eaten!
[Much like with the omurice, he contemplates how sad the turtle would be if he lost one of his stubby legs. Will it still smile? He'll stare at it for a few minutes before choosing which part to eat first.]
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Toki's answer surprises Kido a little, because she just likes cute food because they're cute. It's purely selfish and aesthetic reasons, with none of the sentimentality and care of the chefs. Even when she cooks, she focuses more on flavor than appearance, though they sort of go hand in hand and her food looks nice and professional anyways. ]
I never thought of it like that, but it's true, isn't it? [ She tears the turtle's head off because, yeah ]
I bet it'd make the baker really happy to hear that too. Are you interested in cooking at all? You picked up knitting pretty easily, and cooking is sort of like science, isn't it?
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It is, I think! But like... I could know how to cook things with like the amounts of ingredients and how it's supposed to go, but then I could like burn the house down by touching the stove!
[He has no faith in his abilities for a lot of things, because others have told him he can't do it or he needs to be supervised, and no opinion on that is ever revised. Toki bites the head off the turtle.]
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[ All theory and no practicality, but she doubts Toki or anybody would be able to burn the house down by touching the stove. That sort of stuff only happens if he walks away from the stove. ]
But that won't happen after you get the timing and everything down, right? It just takes practice, like knitting without skipping a stitch and messing up the pattern.
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Practice! Knitting wasn't too hard, so maybe I can make something simple like... pancakes!
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We can do pancakes. Have you ever had the tall fluffy ones? They're steamed and look like little cakes.
[ And they're less likely to burn. Which is the most important part. ]
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I haven't! Let's make those~!
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Alright. We'll make them tonight for dessert. When you get good at cooking, you can be in charge of dessert.
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[In charge of dessert and cat sweater designs. He's never leaving Hirajiro.]
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Glad to have you on board. Terry's always busy cooped up in his room doing whatever the hell, so it's nice splitting up chores like this and having help.
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[It's not something he got to do often, not without messing everything up. He'd forgotten about the hot chocolate, so he drinks that now. It's nice to be out here in the fresh air, and having a normal conversation without interruptions. It's been so long.]
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[ Enjoy these nice, mundane things while you can, Toki. The turtles limbs get twisted off and popped one by one into her mouth so she just has normal melon pan left. These are probably easy to make too, and it can be tomorrow's cooking lesson, she thinks. ]
You were so worried before about living with us, but that's not the case anymore, right? Even this whole sweater business is more than I expected.
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I just... I didn't want to make things harder for you. Maybe these have been good days, but they won't always be.
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[ She... can also be a pain in the ass, but she's not talking about herself. ]
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[He hasn't seen much of Terry's other sides. Except the Shadow one.]
We can all help each other...
[Like a family is supposed to, he's heard.]
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