Corwin's Annual Christmas Festival - Intro Event

[uploadedmods]

Who: All Participants/Open Mingle
When: December 8, 2008
Where: Church grounds and inside the church.
Warnings: CW - Seizure Warning

CW: Seizure Warning

Prelude

After receiving the briefing for their current setting, characters will be released from their coding pods to find themselves in what will be their current residence. If a character were to leave the room and return, the coding table will be gone - replaced with a bed.

All lodgings will have winter clothing available to all participants to better suit the weather. Characters will find role-appropriate attire packed away for them as well.

Corwin’s Annual Christmas Festival is underway as participants begin to wake up. As characters begin to explore their surroundings, they will find that NPCs are encouraging them to go to the town’s church to attend the festivities. In fact, it seems to be all anyone is talking about. NPCs’ dialogue will begin to loop if a character loiters in one place for too long or continues to try to talk to people to get more information. NPCs will note how important it is for locals to support their hometown or urge tourists to enjoy the celebration they traveled so far to see.



The church grounds are decked out for the holidays in truly small-town fashion. From decorations that have clearly been put to use for decades to the occasional “new” donation - the town’s Christmas spirit is certainly quaint, if not brilliant. The front doors to the church have been propped open, welcoming guests to explore all the festival has to offer.

Outdoors

Christmas Lights
Brilliant displays of light wind through the churchyard, a walking path through the display open and free to all. People may stop and look at a scene as long as they wish, there’s no need for strict order when everyone is so accustomed to such a timeless tradition. From nativity scenes to more secular displays of candy canes and rudolph, there’s a sight for everyone to enjoy. A twelve track Christmas album plays on old, staticy speakers, the brief pause between songs carrying a high pitched humming. Interspersed throughout the light display are flowers from the town’s own florist, proudly serving as centerpieces for many of the landscaping throughout.

Church Rooftop
While the basement is locked away, shrouded in shadow, the same is not the case for the roof. The stairs to the Church’s bell tower are bathed in warm light, warped wood sturdy underfoot. Unlocked, the door is heavy but well oiled. It’s a common vantage point many young people in Corwin enjoy, and tonight, it’s the best possible view of the light show beneath. A romantic destination for many, people also retreat here to enjoy their solitude or have a private conversation. There isn’t much space, just the flooring under the bell and four pillars to act as a bulwark against the wind.

Mulled Wine
Outside of the doorway to the church stands a booth decorated with antique barrels and tankards – a sign decorated in looping calligraphy states “FREE EVENT WINE” sits to the side. The smiling NPC behind the booth urges you to taste some of the greatest wine the town has to offer – they give you a wink and tell you “don’t tell your parents” if you appear to be underage. Mugs line the counter, and three huge drink dispensers with spigots sit for you to serve yourself. One is labeled “Mulled Wine”; another “Hot Chocolate”; and yet another reads “Homemade Blackberry Wine, courtesy of the Douglas Family”. The first two drinks taste as one might expect a free drink to taste – cheap and watery, but palatable. The last one however...leaves a lot to be desired. Mainly the desire to never have to taste something so foul ever again.

Indoors

Church Raffle
As you walk into the church, an NPC greets you with a warm smile and guides you to a nearby table that bears a handmade sign that has “Raffle” painted on it in large, red lettering and little holiday accents added to fill some of the negative space. You’re told to reach into the hat and pull out a ticket. Upon doing so, the other NPCs working the table will hand you a gift box that corresponds to this ticket and wish you a “blessed holiday.” This may not be how you recall raffles working, but are you really going to argue with a free gift? You are expected to open your gift in the sanctuary. If you hold onto the boxed gift for too long, NPCs will begin asking you rather pointedly about your box with increasing frequency until you finally do.

If your character participates in the raffle, comment under the raffle header below to learn what item they received.

Artisan Fair
What Christmas Festival would be complete without a proper display of the town’s talent? Tables covered in white cloth line both sides of the sanctuary and are covered in little trinkets. One table has a plethora of stained glass ornaments and chunky, gaudy jewelry. Another boasts handmade candles, soaps, and bath bombs. One NPC is desperately corralling any poor, unsuspecting person they make eye contact with to their booth before beginning to tell them their whole life story. If the person tries to leave, the NPC will aggressively start the entire interaction over again until they can complete all instances of their dialogue - or until the person buys something. Another vendor has a collection of clothing and handbags they’ve made. Even the local flower shop has a table set up with a nice selection of arrangements to choose from. A few other vendors have set up with a variety of things, sometimes with things that are a curious copy of “art” seen in a participants’ homeworld. NPCs will urge you to come and enjoy the products these fine craftsmen have to offer before you dive into the food or attempt to leave the church.

Community Potluck
Across the way from the Artisan fair on the other side of the sanctuary stand more tables – this time lined with food. Loads of traditional Christmas fare fill the space; honeyed ham, mashed potatoes, cranberry sauce, figgy pudding, fruit cakes, and Christmas cookies among other foods are offered free to anyone, provided by the community. The NPCs behind the table are eager to serve anyone who comes up, and are sure to fill your plate to the brim. There are a few repurposed picnic tables that have been brought into the church where you can enjoy your meal. If staying inside sounds too stifling, there are also picnic tables outside in the courtyard, circling a large fire pit that offers warmth to those who want to get fresh air.

Glitches

Baby It’s Cold Outside
As you enjoy the festivities, your body temperature drops dramatically. This chill washes over you and no amount of warm attire wards it off. Mulled wine or hot chocolate also fails to warm you back up. In order to beat this chill, you must go inside the church and hold a conversation with another person. Failure to find shelter will cause the effects of hypothermia to set in, and you will simply want to stop whatever you are doing and lay down. Upon laying down, the character will fall asleep and wake up the next morning on a pew in the church.

Hear the Angel Voices
There is no choir singing in the sanctuary, but you hear a medley of Christmas hymns. They get louder as time goes on, acapella and distant. Verse after verse, the songs carry on until they're overwhelming. You won't be able to hear anything but the singing, and it won't stop until dawn.

Jingle All the Way
With any movement you make you will find yourself emitting a ringing noise, as if there are bells tied to your wrists, legs, and head – though no presence of bells can be felt or interacted with. The noise grows louder with sudden movements, and can be heard by you and other characters. The noise will persist until you have traveled at least one mile.

Thorny Crown
Though there isn't a rain cloud in the sky, a wet feeling starts to develop from the top of your head, seeping its way down through your hair. Upon inspection, you find the wet feeling to be blood – your own blood, spilling from the crown of your skull. The flow will be persistent, dripping down your forehead and neck at the pace of a thick syrup. Attempts to stem the bleeding will only work temporarily—bandages will soak through in a matter of minutes and will need constant changing. If the bleeding is not treated, the affected will find themselves becoming faint from the blood loss. The bleeding will stop if the affected passes out, or after the player has slept for at least two hours.

Winding Down

The party winds down around 9pm, a respectable time for every member of the community to return home and prepare for their busy week ahead. Some of the crowd may migrate to the bar, while others loiter around in the churchyard to chat until they’re politely shooed away. When the Christmas lights go out, most partygoers will be gone - though some cult members may have found just “one more thing” to busy themselves with.

Most will return home on this warm winter’s night feeling a sense of calm, their rest that night deep and reenergizing. The coming week isn’t so kind - restless sleep abounds, from discomfort to waking up in a cold sweat, something is off, and no one seems to mention it.

Comments

[twohares]

[ Genis is going to pretend the rest of that comment was going to be "because you're so unintimidating". Not that it would be wrong to point out that he isn't a very convincing cop--if anything, it proved the only thing that made him seem like an adult is his ID.

But, regardless, stopping there and letting Genis fill in the blanks for himself let Genis calm down and be less defensive. ]

Yeah, the town I'm from is a lot bigger than this. [ Totally untrue, but that was what his role said... ] Compared to that, it's really quiet here. It's nice.

[ ...He wondered how true that'll be as time passes, though... He wouldn't be assigned to be a police officer if everything here was going to be just fine. ]

How about you? Have you been here a long time? What do you do?

[thetyger]

[It's nice? Atsushi found it creepy and weird. He was from somewhere much larger, too, though the small town vibe was anything but quiet to him. Everyone knew each other and acted like they knew him, and smiled too much, and had a host of other... unnatural reactions. They talked about the same things over and over again. Maybe this guy just hadn't been interacting too much with the other residents yet.]

Oh, me? I was born here. I've never left.

[Now he had to come up with some sort of backstory. Nothing in his 'house' hinted at him having family in this place either, or gave any clue as to what he did for a living. Judging by the condition of his home, he's going to go with 'unemployed'.]

Yeah, my um, mother, she used to work at the diner. And my d-dad...

[Don't think about him.]

He was a teacher! At the high school. They died when I was 16 and I've been living on my own since then. Uh, I used to work at the pet shop.

[Was there a pet shop? Too late now.]

But I got fired because I over-fed the cats and now I'm unemployed and can't get good references. Which is really sort of a good thing, because I have so much time to devote to hobbies!

[Like sacrificing people to protect the town from demons.]

What do you do when you're not working?

[twohares]

[ You know you've been in a real dump when the Stepford smiling and repetitive, scripted dialogue from the townspeople isn't even a blip on your radar... It could be worse! At least it made it easier to tell which people were genuine...hopefully.

...And Genis really wonders how much of that story is based on his actual life and how much of it is written for him as part of his role. It's pretty sad... He tries not to show it, but that definitely took the smile off Genis's face. ]

I like to read about other - places. The library used to have a lot of different history books, and... And I used study swordsmanship, too?

[ He's more concerned about what the other guy just said, though. He leans forward, resting his elbows on his legs. ]

Is it really okay not to have a job, though? What are you going to do when you run out of money? You can't live off of hobbies...

[thetyger]

[Atsushi doesn't notice the change in expression. To him, that was a perfectly reasonable and not-at-all concerning backstory.]

I like to read too. There weren't a lot of history books, but I like novels. [It was really the only decent part of his entire childhood, the books.]

You can use a sword? That's amazing! I should look into that; pick up a new hobby. Are they heavy? Guns are really heavy.

[He was going to ask more about the swordsmanship because that definitely changed his opinion of the guy from “weird short kid-cop” to “interesting capable adult”. But he was suddenly all serious and looked concerned and was talking about employment. No, it wasn't okay not to have a job, Atsushi knew that, but did it really matter here? He supposed it did, in the context of setting at least. He makes a strangled noise when the guy mentions money. Now that was a major problem. As far as he could tell, starving to death was still a possibility inside the setting, because he'd been hungry earlier. Money, and thus a job, was needed.]

Yes, you're right. I mean, I'll eventually have to get a job somewhere. It's just I... I don't have any skills, or um, much experience or education.

[And he wasn't going to count his only previous “employment”, because it's not like they hired him for actual job-related reasons. He was pretty much going on basic literacy and determination here.]

I could clean things! Wash dishes or something. Oh, is the police station hiring? I mean, really, no one ever answers the phone there. Everyone's been complaining about it. Do you even have a receptionist?

[twohares]

[ Oh... Oh no, he seemed to really admire the fact he was learning to use a sword... He felt a little embarrassed to admit: ]

I...still haven't used a real sword yet... I was still training with a wooden sword. My teacher left before I could get too far.

[ Not nearly as cool. ]

But maybe there's someone else here that can teach us. It'll be good to pick it up together! Besides, they're more reliable than guns and magic.

[ And they could share books too... He hasn't met someone who shared his interests in a really long time.

But there are more important things than hobbies.

He's really getting serious about this whole thing. Genis at least knows enough about the police station to talk about it in particular. ]

I can ask my partner if there are any open positions. If it's that much of a problem, maybe he can convince someone to open up a position. I'm pretty sure most people don't have many more skills than you do.

[thetyger]

[Training with a wooden sword was certainly not as impressive, but it was still an interesting choice for combat training as far as Atsushi was concerned. He barely registered the use of the word “magic” because he was utterly shocked at the suggestion they learn swordfighting together. Someone actually wanted to spend time with him without ulterior motives, without just needing his abilities, without considering him expendable if something went wrong with the plan. It didn't happen often.]

T-that would be... good.

[And he was actually going to look into jobs at the police station? Why was this guy being so nice?]

Thank you.

[It was a whisper; he was barely keeping himself together.]

I would a-appreciate that...

[Was he crying? He was crying. Shit. And this wasn't even “real life”. He was completely disgusted with himself. He needed to focus, because this behavior was ridiculous and embarrassing.]

It is! A serious problem. The phones. The old man selling the wreaths by the door? Someone stole his car last week and he still hasn't been able to file a report. The general store got robbed last month and no one's investigated. There's been suspicious night-time activity on the side streets and several people have said they aren't even bothering to call the police anymore. If you don't do your jobs, you're going to have a militia on your hands!

[twohares]

[ Genis hasn't seen someone cry like that before. He figures he's crying in gratitude, but it didn't seem like it was such a big deal before... Maybe this whole job thing was really weighing on him. He reaches over and pats his shoulder for now. Maybe they can talk about this later.

But right now he was really digging into the police force. It was really looking like he was trying to sell himself for this potential position.. He was really passionate and informed!! Genis flushed, going rigid like he, personally, was being reprimanded, though. ]

I-I'll investigate that! [ As he says this, a small rivulet of blood slips down his nose, like speaking up like that popped a vessel. Not that Genis would expect that, so he just...wipes his face with his glove and continues on, sniffling. ] If there's that much unchecked crime here, I don't know why the older officers aren't taking it seriously. You've all been here your whole lives; there's no way they can be completely oblivious to things going on in their own town!

[thetyger]

[Good, he was going to focus on the police ranting. That was so much less stressful, and Atsushi was going to pretend that display of weakness did not happen.

He may have been a bit too over-zealous with conveying the townspeople's distaste for the police. That just happened to be where his conversations with the Corwin residents tonight ended up, so that's what he was passing on. Though, in hindsight, he probably shouldn't have brought it up with a cop. A cop who was now potentially annoyed that he'd been called out when he hadn't even been part of the inept police force during the alleged incidents. But Atsushi didn't know how long he could wait to “spill” things before something bad happened, so he had gone with it.]

Yes, a thorough investigation! ...Um, you're bleeding.

[He gestures to the trickle of blood coming from the guy's nose, not considering it may be the start of the system's consequences inadvertently set off.]

I don't think they're oblivious, exactly...

[And neither was he. How was he going to phrase this without mentioning or alluding to the cult aspect too much? It couldn't hurt to at least suggest there may be shadier things going on.]

More that they... might have uh... o-other leads they're following that are... more important.

[He wonders for a second if there was going to be some sort of announcement or event; the lighting had dimmed a bit.]

You should look into it.

[That was vague enough, maybe, to satisfy avoiding the cult topic and still count as spreading information on it.]

[twohares]

Er... [ He has a nosebleed?? He looks at the back of his glove, and yep, there sure is blood there... As he continues to cryptically talk, Genis digs through his pockets for something to use, and eventually pulls out a napkin from the potluck. Holding it to his nose, he glances back up. ]

More important leads? [ He gives him a suspicious look. Genis doesn't know much of anything about what's going on in town, but it seemed like (obviously) this local guy knew a lot. ] Like what? Do you think all those incidents are related? Like there's an organized group committing those robberies?

[thetyger]

[When the cop looks back up at him, it's with suspicion. Vague was bad. All he had done was implicate himself and invite more questions on specifics. Specifics he wasn't going to talk about.]

I-I really have no idea! It's just a theory.

[There must be too many Christmas lights and displays siphoning off the church's electricity. Atsushi looked up at the ceiling lights. They weren't flickering or anything, just not as bright. It kept getting darker, but people around them were still carrying on like they hadn't noticed. Was it starting? Was this some weird “consequence”?]

It could be an organized group, though Corwin's really small. I uh, I just watch a lot of crime films and have an overactive imagination! I have to go now!

[He was intent on leaving the church as quickly as possible and hiding out until everyone but the cult members went home.]

[twohares]

Hey, wait!

[ If he wasn't suspicious before, he sure was now. Genis gets up, not paying any attention to the fact he took his hand away and now he was bleeding on the floor and his soggy shoes. ]

You know something, right? [ He tries not to be all too loud. ] We can talk. If someone's threatening you, I'll protect you.

[ Maybe. If he can somehow cast magic despite feeling like he definitely cannot cast any magic. The thought was there, at least.

Though if he runs or even walks particularly briskly away, Genis wouldn't be able to keep up with him; he's not particularly tall or fast. ]

[thetyger]

[He turns back, though he knows he's better off just running away even if it looks more suspicious.

Ugh! The cop was bleeding everywhere. That wasn't normal. Was he setting off the consequences? The guy obviously wasn't involved with the cult, but there was something he was doing “wrong” for his assigned role; Atsushi has no idea what though. Maybe he had two as well; cop and something else.

And he genuinely wanted to help with whatever he thought was going on. Atsushi would definitely tell him everything about the cult eventually, when he had more information. Like who they were going to sacrifice, when it was going down, who the leaders were, every person involved. He had made the decision to go along with the cult activities until then. If that was a good decision or not, only time would tell.]

It's not like that. I'm fine. It's not me. Um...

[There was no doubt anymore whether he himself was experiencing consequences for keeping the cult a secret. Colors had become muted and desaturated, fading into mainly shades of green or gray. But nothing hurt, so he could deal with this for now.]

I don't know anything. Really, it's just wild theories... and I uh, had too much wine.

[He's never had wine, nor was he old enough to drink here, but he thought it was a decent explanation.]