recolle | DECEMBER EVENT LOG

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DECEMBER EVENT LOG

MINI-EVENT

Ho Ho Oh No...
The city of Recollé...is far too busy with the hustle and bustle of the holiday season for a strangely foreshadowing forward. Let's see what the city is up to today, shall we?

I.

Are you ready for holiday cheer, Recollé? On December 3rd there will be a giant commotion in Tribunal Terrace that marks the start of a big ReVA sponsored event. This holiday charity drive has one simple mission: spread goodwill around the city by doing various acts of kindness for strangers! Whether you've been raring to go since November or are just dropping by to see what people are up to, you'll be given the spiel by a ReVA volunteer lingering nearby.

• Participants will have a partner to complete chores with.
• The ReVA coordinators will be making the list of chores, and the participants will be checking it twice-- to make sure they finished all of them, that is!
• Each team member will earn one ticket that can be entered into a grand prize drawing. Teams can come back for more chores, which means they can earn more tickets to try and win higher tiered prizes.

The front of the ReVA office building is the hub for these chore teams to check in with. If you missed the sign up date, don't worry, you can still do your part! ReVA volunteers will be selling baked goods and hot cocoa. For those who might want to do some Christmas shopping, ReVA is also selling donated craft items from the various clubs at the community center, which include anything and everything to hats and scarves from the knitting club, whittled statuettes from the woodwork club, candles from the DIY home decor club, and on and on. All the proceeds will go to the local children's hospital. So stop by for a midday pick me up, or just to say hello!

II.

All across the city patrons begin decorating for the holiday season and as an ever-growing melting pot it's easy to spot decor recognizing several holidays. While you may find menorahs in the windows of some shops in Tisse and inflatable Santas on the lawns in Viea Village, Retrospec users will also find themselves surrounded by a few other things.

No matter where you are, garland appears to be draped on the walls and ledges, dangling down just enough to ensnare you and intertwine you with anyone nearby to become a part of the holiday display. Though it's several feet of colorful plastic, the binds are fairly easy to escape with some teamwork.

December is also the season of flavors, and who doesn't love peppermint? Stores in Chata and Tisse have discounted prices on candy canes in all sorts of flavors including new red and green striped patterns. Tempting, aren't they? You may wish to be careful with them. They taste fine (probably, but with taste being ineffective it's hard to say) and they're great for decorating, but these candy canes have the unfortunate side-effect of stickiness. Like superglue, the candies will stick to your hands and you will find your hands sticking to everything else (doors, vehicles, people, you name it.) While the stickiness isn't permanent and citizens will only stick to any given surface for ten minutes at a time, the effect will continue all the way until the candy canes are eaten.

Maybe they should just be used for decoration instead...

III.
It might be your imagination at first. After all, when you turn your head to pinpoint the sound of the fluttering wings you will find that you're all alone. You go about your day as normal, hearing the shifts and swishes of wings beating together and just when you think you're safe you hear a squeak.

Looking up, it becomes quite clear that the source is...a bat? Maybe it is a few bats, but the longer you look the easier it is to see that the head of the bat is made of a tiny red bow and the wings are leaves. Some bats are decorated with little white berries, but upon closer inspection, everyone will come to the same conclusion: it's mistletoe.

Mistletoe bats soar through the air like any other bird and seem to happily follow citizens and hover overhead. The bats won't be satisfied until their job is done, and only when a kiss is shared will they take flight to spread cheer to someone else. Most of the bats aren't too picky what kind of a kiss takes place (a kiss to the cheek, hand, or even an exchange of a Hershey's kiss or some other creative loophole will do), but some bats are more persistent than others. The longer the bats are ignored, however, the louder they will squeak until their squeaks begin to sound... melodic? But that's okay. They are pretty harmless otherwise.

IV.
The first day of winter isn't officially until December 21st, but that doesn't stop the weather from changing the atmosphere of the city. The sun shines weakly and it's nearly impossible to step outside without a jacket and some boots, sky grey and snow and ice frosting the windows and sidewalks. The trees have all lost their leaves and birds have seemingly flown south for the season. Seems stereotypical, doesn't it?

Every now and then though at various points throughout the month, citizens will suddenly feel the earth move like an earthquake rattling the city as snow swirls around in little cyclones and flurries in all districts. It falls quickly and a fresh coat of snow graces all surfaces in Recollé as the sky above seemingly switches from blue to gray almost too-quick to notice. There is no pattern to be found in these little tremors and though they aren't necessarily dangerous you may wish to hold onto the nearest steady surface.

But the minor earthquakes aren't the only reason the ground may be unstable. Patches of ice seem to pop up in different locations on the sidewalks and streets, and perhaps they may even appear right under your feet! Watch your step, or you may slide right into the arms (or back, or legs...) of a stranger.

BONUS.
With the failure of phone calls and emails to people outside of the city, it seems as though things are bound to get worse as the mail system begins slowing down as well. Online outfitters will refuse to deliver to the city and mail from other places will be lost or arrive at a glacial pace. But what about sending mail out? Well, the post office is still up and running, but while you may be trying to mail that nice fluffy afghan to your grandmother, the package will get redirected and delivered to someone else in the city. Holiday packages and regular mail continues to be misdelivered all through the month of December and you may end up with more than one surprise.

Meanwhile over at the Retrospec mailbox a large, beautifully decorated Christmas tree sits near the mail slot and several boxes and bags sit under it. Check it out if you'd like. There's probably a package with your name and corresponding ticket number on it.

Welcome to

recolle's December's mini-event!

Please remember that you may claim any 10-20 point item as a freebie for the month of December (and this must be claimed before December's over!) New characters are also eligible for this freebie!

Special thanks to Rayne & AJ for providing the write-up for the first prompt!

The prompts are simply loose guidelines for you guys to play with and make up your own fun adventures for the entire month of December! You may also create your own logs or inbox threads based on these prompts. Any questions you have regarding this event may be directed to the mod comment here.

Flat | Top-Level Comments Only

[ don't you mean minyato john "0 or 1000% there's no inbetween" aricato kirigiri

Upon affirmation, Clover leaves to tell the kids it's time for them to decorate a gingerbread house but to make sure it's properly cool before they start otherwise the icing will melt all over and no one wants that. She finds and collects the decorations they should hang up: paper snowflakes that the kids cut up and covered in copious amounts of glitter, some wreathes, some lights, some stockings. She gathers the adhesives, push pins, etc. that they need as well.

She comes back to the kitchen and holds up their bag of decorations. ]

I told them to come in about a half hour or so.

[ yes but it does not fit in his display name, I tried it just now :( so i guess the epithet is going in as his journal subtitle instead ]

Great. We can sneak out the back way before they get here.

[ or else there'll be glitter all over the kitchen. He takes the lights from her, careful not to get them tangled or their entire evening will be spend trying to get the string unknotted, and also the box of pushpins to hang them up. Snowflakes and wreathes and stockings need to be tastefully interspersed, but lights are a little easier. ]

These go around the windows, and the banisters of the stairs? ...I guess we'll also have to climb the roof to nail them up outside.

[ slkfjsd i can't believe you actually did it ilu ]

Minato... [ Please. ] We don't have to sneak. We can just walk out back this way. It'll be fine. I'll direct them away if we run into the children. They'll care more about cookies than you.

[ She looks at the lights in his hands. He makes a very good point that she didn't think too deeply about before, and now it worries her. What if Minato decides it's too bothersome and isn't worth it and decides to just fall asleep on the roof? That's too dangerous. ]

Perhaps we should leave the lights for someone else more qualified. We're still helping decorate with everything else. You can frame some of the doorways with the lights for a nice ambiance. [ That's... probably safer. ] There should be a step ladder down the hallway.

[ He keeps picking up more names and I want to honor them, because people's views of him are very important to him, as are their words and their beliefs and he remembers what Clover said about taking initiative. ]

No, I can handle the outdoor lights. I hung the bird feeders in the trees around the apartment; I can do this. Ladder's in the hallway, right?

[ He's not afraid of heights, and neither is he afraid of slipping, because it's snowing outside and snow is soft, so it'll be fine. Like that story that I'm not sure is true but it's about soldiers flying over Russia who jumped out of airplanes without parachutes because snow is soft!! and then fell to their deaths. ]

[ that metatext isn't reassuring....

Clover considers him for a long moment. Her face spells out her how worried she is for him, but he's taking initiative, and she'd be going back on her words if she tells him not to here, so she concedes. ]

Yes, that's where it is. I'll trust you. I know you can do the job when it's what you want to do, but I'll come hang some wreaths outside just in case. I'll meet you outside. [ Because that's trust.

If he fell to his death, he'd die sooner than Ryoji did in game. ]

[ Twenty feet might break a bone or two, but it's better than two hundred feet and I currently only have 74 bonus points left for Minato so he won't die this year.

He nods before they part ways, finding the ladder and bringing it outside, thankful that it's still light enough to see. He finds a patch of snow that hasn't been too trampled down into ice and sets up the ladder there, then goes ahead and starts climbing, leaving the lights down below so that he can pin the nails first and make a second trip for the lights.

But also like... he could A) climb up the ladder, hammer in a nail, climb back down, move the ladder a couple of paces over, and repeat the slow and arduous process; or B) climb all the way onto the roof and sit up there as he leans over and hammers the nails in more or less upside down.

Of course it's plan B. ]

[ Clover hangs two or three wreaths, arranging them so they're perfectly centered on the doors, before she comes to check on Minato. When she sees him, she has to keep herself from shouting and startling him.

Holy fucking shit, Minato, have the fear of death struck into you.

She dashes to hover underneath him. She shouldn't be surprised, but she is. She absolutely is. ]

Why are you like this?

[ There is no fear of death because if he falls in this position, luck will have it so that he snaps his neck and it'll be quick and painless. Or he'll live and be paralyzed forever but that's an excuse to lie around all day, so. Why is he like this... ]

Do you not trust me?

[ Right now, if he falls, Clover is positioned so he'll just fall onto her.

She frowns up at him. ]

In a battle between you and nature, nature will win. [ That doesn't directly answer it, but all he needs is to put a hand or foot on one patch of snow or ice on the roof, and then it's over. ] In a drier environment, I wouldn't worry as much.

...I'll be quick, and I'll be careful.

[ Those two things are sort of at odds against each other, but he slides over a couple of feet so that Clover is no longer positioned so he'll just fall onto her. He's already more than halfway across one face of the building, and after that, he'll just...

He glances over to where he'd left the ladder behind. Waaaaay back there. ]

I'm almost done. Could you bring the ladder over?

If you slip in the time it takes me to bring the ladder over, I'll be really upset.

[ That's such an ineffectual threat, but she does as she's asked. She's slightly less than graceful bringing the ladder over because she's not the tallest person around. It takes a little while. ]

[ He could so easily die right here, but not making people upset is more important to him than Clover thinks, especially if it's so easily preventable by not slipping. He can't slip if he just- very very carefully- lies down on the sloped rooftop, squinting up at the dark grey clouds above, back flat against the tiles.

What was that other fear of hers?

Minato falling asleep?

... ]

[ Clover is going to die of a heart attack because of Minato before she gets any regains. She finally makes it and aligns the ladder at the right angle for Minato to climb down. ]

Minato?

[ She backs up to get a better look at him.

She's going to scream. ]

Minato! Hey!

I'm not dead.

[ he mumbles from up on the roof, but when he draws his feet up to sit upright, his sole slips and he slides halfway with his legs danging off over the edge of the roof from the knee down before he's able to catch himself on the gutter.

...

...

Not dead, but he's also sort of scared to move another inch. ]

[ Clover screams and feels her heart stop. She frets for a full five seconds before she starts forward to grab the ladder. She moves it right under Minato. ]

This is why I worried. The ladder is right below you, so you should be all right now.

[ She hopes the fear of death has now been born within him. ]

[ He doesn't trust himself to sit upright until he feels around with his foot and finds the top step of the ladder, the second step, secures both feet on that one and then pushes himself up. ]

...Thanks, Clover.

[ He makes to climb back down— two steps— then turns around so that he's sitting on the top and pulls one of the nails out of his pockets so he can hammer this one in here. His thigh is probably scratched up and bleeding by now, but it's cold enough not to feel. There are multiple ways to die, always. ]

[ If Clover were one iota more immature, she'd rattle the ladder, but she refrains. She's better than that (for now). She holds the ladder steady instead. ]

You're not hurt from that small fall, are you? Please come down once you're finished with that there.

[ If Minato has no fear, Clover has enough for the both of them. ]

[ No, she should have taught him a lesson because that's the only way he will learn, instead of shaking his head and glancing down to see that he's got Clover's support and therefore can relax a little, leg swinging idly as he finishes up this last nail. ]

It's cold enough that I can't feel pain, so... [ He steps down carefully, however tempted he is to simply hop down the very last step. ]

Now for the lights. I'll use the ladder properly, so you can continue your work.

[ He is t e s t i n g her.

She's going to sock him. In her imagination. She's not that violent (yet). She closes her eyes, counts to ten, and breathes out through her nose. ]

No. Come down right now. That means you were hurt, and I can't in good conscience allow you to continue now that I know.

[ She uses her best mother hen voice. ]

[ I cannot believe how much frustration a small 100x100 icon can convey but there it is.

But he's always been rather numb to pain, the snow and ice making it even harder to tell where the nails he so stupidly kept in his pockets have lacerated his leg, so he complies readily by holding up his hands for inspection, palms rubbed slightly red and fingers trembling slightly with the cold and exhaustion, but otherwise he looks fine. No tetanus for him today. ]

[ She looks him up down, her concern palpable. There's nothing visible, but she's not satisfied. She saw that slide... and she's doubtful that he got out of it scratch-free. ]

We're going back inside, and you're going to go into the bathroom to check your legs.

[ Clover thinks he scratched up his calves, not his thighs because she assumed he put the nails in a pouch in his pocket, not just straight into his pocket like an idiot. ]

We're going to need to warm up again in any case. We still have a snowman to build, if you're up for it.

Yes, m- [ "MOM," in that exasperated, barely tolerating tone of voice that he keeps in his head, but he cuts it out before he can actually say anything. ] ...Ma'am.

[ and picks the ladder back up over his shoulder to carry, the added weight on one side masking any indication of a limp in his usual slow shuffles through the snow. She's fussy, but it's clear to him that she cares, regardless of if it's about him or about a person in general dying on her watch. Having somebody to look out for him is a nice change of pace. ]

I can handle a snowman. [ Just like he so wonderfully handled these lights. That are still hanging around the front steps because he never unraveled them; they can go on the door like a brightly lit wreath. ] It's something we can have the children help out with too, isn't it?

[ She doesn't want a son like Minato.

She narrows her eyes at him, only half sure about what he was about to say. She doesn't like being called ma'am either. She's much too young to be called ma'am. ]

Yes. If they're done decorating the house, we can solicit their help. I think it's best we all don't spend too much time out in the cold. I don't want anyone getting sick.

[ She opens the door for Minato and the points down a hallway. ]

The bathroom is that. I'll check on the children while you check on yourself.

[ Nobody does. His parents being free of that responsibility may have been the one blessing to their untimely end. ]

Alright. Be right back.

[ He imagines it'd be a quick break; maybe he can sneak a five minute nap in the stall or something under the guise of checking, because he's not going to find anything anyways. Leaving Clover and the ladder at the door, he heads off to the bathroom and pulls his pants down right there in front of a urinal and

of course

a child leaves one of the stalls and takes one look at Minato's bloody thigh and immediately starts screeching like he's being murdered, Clover, you took your eyes off Minato for one second and. This. ]

[ BE NICE TO MINATO.... he can't help he's the bad end protag.

But why this

Clover left him alone for a moment, and it ends in shrill shrieking. She quickly abandons the ladder she was putting away to rush to the bathroom. She has enough sense not to barge in but she hovers outside like a helicopter mom. ]

Minato? [ She doesn't recognize kids by their screams, so she doesn't know who's also in there. ] Are you okay? Who else is in there? What's going on?

[ Does she need to call for an ambulance? ]

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