EVENT: US MAKE FOR THEY

[trpmods]

US MAKE FOR THEY
- or -
How the Agrii Did the Opposite of Steal Christmas


It begins with music.

It sounds like what might happen if you fed as many Christmas songs as you could think of into a machine learning database, and told the AI to write a new one. It's festive. It's cheery. It's got jingle bells.

And you can't turn it off.

In fact, it's strangely compelling - maybe not to the point of dancing (unless you're that kind of person), but certainly to the point of investigation. Whether you enjoy the music or despise it, you need to go towards it.

Sure enough, it's coming from the ships. You find yourself boarding your ship in a kind of daze (a holi-daze?), and once you and all your cohorts are aboard...

Yep, the doors are closed. And the ships are taking off.

The journey isn't long, and the ships are still well-stocked with good old protein gel, beds, and a fresh change of clothes for everyone.



When you land, you'll find yourself on a planet covered in snow and ice. This is Not Hoth. Noth, if you will. The Noth Pole.

While it looks pretty desolate in general (no critters roaming about), the ships have landed just outside a brightly-colored, warmly-lit settlement. It's comprised of a strange little village, an abandoned ice castle that looks like its builder was letting it go, and a big barn just outside the cluster of cabins with the weirdest nativity scene you have ever seen painted on the side. Is that ... you? Are those your friends? The Agrii's art skills seem to be getting better, because you can recognize that you have all been incorporated into a traditional Nativity scene. (Baby "Jesus" is small and green, with big ears and bigger eyes, and may or may not be very powerful in the Force.)

But seeing as how the ships' environmental controls aren't working, and it's starting to snow, you're going to have to go somewhere. Especially since that snow is coming down pretty hard...

VILLAGE:
The strange little village looks simultaneously incredibly durable and also like it's made out of gingerbread. It's not gingerbread, but each cabin is well-appointed, with cozy furnishings, festive decorations, a fireplace, tasty food (which may or may not be protein gel molded into shapes, or "proturkey"). However, you may be pleased to learn that they haven't done anything as monstrous as disguise protein gel as candy. Most of this is perfectly ordinary, seasonally-appropriate candy, which will confer no unusual side effects, but ... if you eat the chocolate gelt, you'll find yourself turned into a child (between the ages of 5-15) for 8 nights. Holidays are for kids!

Some of the decorations also involve candles. They know that some of your holidays involve adding more candles as time goes on, so every night there will be, well ... more candles. More than just one per night. Some of the "candles" are helpful power rods, which can be used back on Agra 10. Some might be battery-operated and flameless. Some may just hang in the air with a soft, warm glow, like they've been taken from Hogwarts. But the majority of them will be standard candles with wicks and flames. And they will keep appearing on every conceivable surface. You ... may want to keep an eye on that. It's starting to look like a Meat Loaf video in here.

ICE CASTLE:
The castle is a fortress, with cold secrets locked inside. You have secrets too, but you don't have to hide ... your feelings. Or your hidden talents. Because once you enter the doors, it's awfully hard to just talk. It seems like no matter what you do, whatever you mean to say comes out as a song, whether or not you have the natural talent or ability to sing.

The castle itself is very pretty, but otherwise abandoned. You're not going to find any supplies here, unless what you're looking for is ice. (It should be noted that the acoustics are awesome.)

NATIVITY BARN:
There are several wrapped gifts, all the same shape and size, laid out on a series of sleds next to the nativity mural. They aren't labeled, but each one contains one four-armed sweater with a portmanteau name knitted into the design. Those Agrii really want you to share, huh? Or maybe they're looking out for your safety, since it's really cold here.

The names on the sweaters are as follows:
ELILLY
STYRION
DAKOTASHA
JULANX
DELTAIR
THRANDA
KLANCE
RAYCTIS
LOX
LORNSA
KATOMMY
KRISTAL
VICTOR
DANVERON
BARNES

S.A.N.T.A? I KNOW HIM!:
But of course, the most important part of this celebration is the gifts. The Agrii have done their research, and they know how this works! They have called upon the services of a Seasonally Appropriate Niceness Tossing Apparatus (or S.A.N.T.A.) to break into your cozy little house in the middle of the night, and perform a reverse burglary! This round red robot, with its twinkling LED eyes, will visit a different house (or series of houses) every night during the event, and expel your gifts like projectiles into your living room. They're pretty sure they even put the right name on the right gift! It's hard when you're still getting the hang of this writing thing.

---

FAQ!

• Your character will be compelled to go to the ships they have been assigned to in the ships post. The ships can power on, but the heat doesn't work, and they will not take off.


• Snow will be occurring on and off (mostly on), so feel free to play with the outside environment!


• The homes in the village will have food and clothing familiar to you from your home universe. Whatever is considered "festive" or "homey" to you will be here. We aren't strictly Earth-centric, after all.


• The gelt is NOT labeled as causing the change in age. Your character can figure it out as other people eat it and avoid it, though. Age change is up to player. None of the other food will alter your character in unusual ways.


• If you go to the ice castle, your character can sing existing songs or the words they intend to say might just come out in a melody. The effect ends when you exit the castle.


• A key for the sweaters will be released upon request, but we encourage you to have fun figuring it out!


• The presents can be delivered to you or you can talk to other people and have your gifts scattered around. There is no set day for the gift delivery. S.A.N.T.A. can strike at any time.


• This event will run until February, but the ships will not be returning to Agra 10 at that time.


• If you have any other questions, as always feel free to ask us in the comments of this post, via PM, or on Plurk!


• Please use this post's comments for questions and plotting with each other -- your toplevels should be in your own posts, so people can see them on their reading page without having to track this post.

Comments

[kallig]

Re: turning characters into kids-- is it only their bodies that change, or do their minds revert back to that of a child, too? Inquiring minds wish to know.

[trpmods]

Both options present interesting story opportunities, and it depends entirely on the character as to what would be more fun to write, so we're leaving it up to player discretion to decide how you'd like your characters to be affected! Both "body only" and "body and mind" options are fair game.

[happybeeps]

If you get turned into a child, do they magically come with their own child sized clothes on, or are they stuck in their current over sized adult wear?

[trpmods]

They will be swimming in their adult sized clothes when they first change, but the houses do have kid sized clothes if they look for it! Just be aware that the style of the clothing may not be exactly to your taste - maybe it's a little retro, maybe it's full-on Christmas elf uniforms...

[doubled_speed]

Two questions:

1) Are the gifts from the S.A.N.T.A. the ones from the check-in/request we did for December? And what should newly arrived characters expect?

2) Will gelt de-aged characters be as they WERE when they were the age they went to, or is it just a child based on who they are? Reason I ask: mutants like Tommy tend to manifest their powers in their teens. Thus de-aging Tommy to what he was at, say, 13, will net a dark haired child with no speed as opposed to a tiny and annoyed speedster.

[tingmoonshadowpowers]

So, Rayla and Noctis are together, but are the sweaters designed in a way to accommodate the fact that Noctis is blind? Like, are the letters on the name raised in some way? Or do we have the license to just make them look and feel like we want?

[trpmods]

1. Yes! Newly arrived characters can make a request at the post on the ooc comm, since that post was not considered IC (that is, the Agrii didn't directly ask your characters what you want, but the mods did). Anyone who is in the game during this event can make a backdated request that will be fulfilled before the event ends.

2. Good question! We will confer and get back to you on this.

[waywardking]

I was thinking like this.

[doubled_speed]

Cool. I'll wait on 2 before I throw Tommy at this.

[trpmods]

The appearance of the sweater is up to you and your sweatermate! However each one is designed for a specific pair and thus should be considered to fit them together, in the cases of things like height, size, or ability differences. So in this case, yes, the lettering would be in a raised stitch.

[trpmods]

Okay, the type of chocolate you eat determined the effect (and we will amend the post shortly):

1. White chocolate: The body you had as a child, with the mind to match, as though child you was plucked out of time and landed here.

2. Milk chocolate: Your current body, with all its powers and abilities, but de-aged, with the mind of a child.

3. Dark chocolate: De-aged current body, but with your adult mind.

4. Weird Green Chocolate: Past child body, adult mind.

For some characters this won't make much difference, but it is a good question considering we do have several it will affect!