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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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They're related to the Persona thing?
[ They might tell him something of value, but he opts to not say that to Jiro's face. ]
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Yeah. Somehow. I don't know what the fuck they're actually here for.
[He doesn't trust them.]
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The castle looks kinda clean. Did someone clean it?
[ He noticed this as he was walking out. ]
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[If Yamato means the place not looking like it's completely falling apart.]
It was flooded when I got here, and there wasn't really much of a second floor.
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That's weird. [ Yamato frowns. ] So one day it just becomes livable?
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[So much explanation.]
See that door?
[He points to a door in the floor of the castle. It has four slots, two are filled by ofudas.]
We get the ofuda from killing Daitengu, who run the dungeons or whatever. Putting them in the door restored the castle. We have the third one, but we're not putting in yet, because the Kotengu is strengthened by it.
[None of that will make sense to Yamato out of context, so he continues.]
This entire place, Hirajiro, is a prison for the Kotengu. He brought us here, and that door's our way home, or so we're told.
[That might not have cleared up much.]
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He folds his arms, thoughtful. ]
What reason do we have to help the Kotengu? He's kidnapped us, in essence. How can we be sure he's not using us?
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[Jiro nods towards the door again.]
Can't get out until he does.
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What the fuck.
[ Yamato rubs his temples. Better hope that Kotengu guy can be reached another way, maybe beating the shit out of him would help... ]
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No one knows what the fuck's going on.
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[ He sighs. Not so different from back home, where not one but two mad scientists had their time toying with all of humanity while speaking cryptically. ]
What're you gonna do, then? What do I do?
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Wait. I'm trying to talk to the Kotengu, but the crows aren't giving me much. Probably can't trust them either.
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[ ARI and Neuron were fed info by Yoseph, he can easily see the analogy. ]
Well, guess I'll need to look around more.
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[Jiro had kept a notebook of the Attendants' recovered memories, but he left it for someone else to deal with. The only information he'd gotten since has been through the crows.
He gives Yamato the address to Kido and Terry's house.]
Talk to them, and the house next door. There'll be another meeting at some point.
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[ He means it, really - mustering up a smile, different from his usual furrowed brows. ]
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[That was... polite, right? Eh. Jiro heads up to the second floor of the castle. There's some blankets in the corner, occupied by one cat and eight kittens.
The rest of the second floor is open and empty, except for a room of very old weapons - shields and spears. The floor is polished and shiny, and the windows are large. Steps leading to a missing third floor.]
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Are those... yours?
[ He asks Jiro once they have eye contact. He feels the urge to pet them, but it's not polite to do it without consent. ]
no subject
[He sits with the cats, and pets the closest one. Yamato is welcome to join, but Jiro will never state that.]
They won't tell me why. I dunno if they know. The Kotengu probably has control over the cats too.
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[ His tone is lighter than before, most of his severity gone. ]
They're cute...
[ Yamato squats down next to one. Maybe it'll come closer to him. He was forbidden from bringing cats to his residence, since they might have carried corruption, but.... it's fine here, probably. ]
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The town's infested with them.
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Better that they're here, than not.
[ Back home, most of the animals on Earth were gone forever. ]
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Yeah. They're just everywhere. Cats and crows.
[Speaking of animals...]
Watch out for the bears. Someone... got killed in here recently.
[He can't be inadvertently responsible for two bear deaths, so it's best to warn Yamato in case he gets eaten on his way back to town.]
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I will, thanks.
[ A pause. ]
A real bear?
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[Right by the ofuda door in the castle.]
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Okay.
[ Back to petting the cat then. He isn't sure what to say, really. ]
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