Entry tags:

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.

Flat | Top-Level Comments Only

i. 12/11-14: in town

[ A) Sometimes in town, you might have seen 45 working in one of the stores you visit to. Sometimes you might see her "twin". She has different hair and eye color and bustier than 45--which is good enough to set them apart despite how they look "identical" otherwise. They're not wearing Attendant clothes, but it becomes apparent that they're not the real 45 when they don't even acknowledge you when they're working. They gotta earn money, dude. Leave them alone.

B) Meanwhile, the real 45 is actually in the market street, performing "magic tricks" for fun. She has her assistant, Malphas and Mara, who are here to help fool the townspeople. She's getting hefty amount of tips in the hat next to her and performs magic tricks for a price with the townspeople. She's doing things like floating juggling, which Malphas seems to be really good at. Another one of her tricks make it look like a playing card goes right through her wrist! Wow. ]

wildcard

[ Wildcard me otherwise. She can still do ema wishes! Come be a wish granter with her. ]

[ Whenever 45 drops by, she's going to have to wake Minato up from where he's sleeping inside the conductor's cab. He's trying very hard not to be found asleep in the lounge all the time, but ends up just sleeping in the chair instead... it's a work in progress.

He'll make a portal to the school gates so it'll take them right out in front of the lake where the ema trees are, but he's also going to insist both Malphas and Mara get to come out and skate too. ]

[ Malphas is having fun. Instead of with skates, he has the usual white sheet over his head and is sliding across the frozen surface of the lake. He's used to doing this on the second floor of the lake dungeon, but without the sheet, so he doesn't fall over. ~~Apparently Mara is weak against ice, so maybe he'll have a harder time on the frozen lake.~~ Akira's version isn't, so I guess he'll be okay.

45 rented skates for both herself and Minato after estimating his shoe size. She's in Attendant clothes again, because it's suitable for winter weather. ]

Oh no... is he going to shrink because it's cold out?

[ referring to mara ]

Edited 2019-12-14 00:00 (UTC)

[ Laughs, I forgot that about P5 Mara, while P3 Mara was back there suffering with his ice weakness. Mara-chan still gets a nice thick knitted scarf wrapped around him and a hat that keeps almost sliding off his head until Minato gives up trying to get it to balance and just sets it down on the chariot. It's a bit wet, but maybe Malphas would like to wear it instead. ]

He'll be fine. I'll give him this.

[ He sets a light blue rock down on the chariot and covers it with the hat, then summons Vassago so he can tow them around on the ice. It's amazing that neither Kido nor Terry noticed all this going on in the background It's a big lake. ]

[ They were too busy focusing on each other and not falling on the ice. Yeah. Malphas comes back to put the hat on his head instead, but it's over the white wheet. Now he just looks silly.

45 holds onto the rope and lets Vassago lead them around. It's fun and she doesn't need to use energy other than keeping her balance. Easy enough. ]

I feel like we'll go faster than the dragon if the speed continues.

[ Malphas continues to be cute. Minato's looking like he's having the time of his life too, zooming across the ice like this. ]

Do you think we can?

[ Go faster than the dragon. That sounds exciting, seeing how fast Vassago can go. How cool. Alright. He gets Vassago to make one more loop around the perimeter of the lake to build up speed, and then he's heading for the bottom of that sledding hill.

It's a launch pad now. ]

[ Oh............................

45 holds onto the rope tightly as they fly off the launchpad hill. She looks down at how far the ground is below her, yet it feels like she's not getting any closer to the sky.

Malphas is down below, staring up at them while resting on Mara's chariot. ]

[ Ah yes, the zero gravity feeling. Minato waves to the Personas down on the ground while they're sailing overhead, and then looks out and where their projected landing pad would be. It looks like the rooftops. That's no good.

Vassago can't help much about the speed, but he can at least lift them up higher into the air so they don't crash, and leave them danging while flying back towards the lake. ]

[ They sure are dangling. 45 looks down at the ground while holding onto the rope. ]

Hey, clown god. Let's fall and have the dragon catch us. We're waaay high up.

[ ...Minato looks up at Vassago, who looks down at him before disappearing into a shower of bright blue light, leaving both him and 45 to plummet to their deaths. They're probably a good dozen feet in the air and Vassago's not coming back until they're less than five feet from smashing their skulls into the ground, but Minato has never doubted his Personas in a trust fall. ]

[ Malphas was immediately worried about 45 and Minato falling, but Vassago comes back at the last minute and it feels like all SP has been drained at once.

45 laughs. ]

Nice save.

[ Minato grins too, but directs it up at Vassago for making the save, because it had little to do with Minato summoning him at the right time. ]

We wouldn't have crashed. More than everything, I trust myself.

[ What little he has direct control over, himself is included, and his Personas are a part of himself. Everybody else is complicated, but at least he can understand himself, and that makes his bonds with his Personas strong. ]

Of course. If you can't trust yourself, who will?

[ Self-doubt has no place when you're fighting for your life.

Anyway, 45 looks pretty at the ice leisurely again and then off to the side. ]

They sure are being mushy.

premise ⬥ taken ⬥ faq ⬥ navigation

→ 12/3 Lockdown

→ 12/3 - 1/2 Town events

→ MOD NOTES

no subject

wc.12/11

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

12/15

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject