songerein | Saving Christmas

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Saving Christmas

✵ SAVING CHRISTMAS ✵

As the sun sets and the moon rises on Christmas Eve, a strange sound of jingling bells is heard high in the sky as the snow suddenly begins to fall heavily upon the town. A heavy weight of sleep slowly overcomes everyone, and just as their eyes close they'll hear a loud, raging bellow—

That damn bastard!! I won't let you ruin—!

Before the words are finished, everyone will suddenly jolt awake and find themselves scattered in a strange looking town called Whoville. Although it looks as if it's supposed to be festive, none of that holiday cheer is evident. The town is completely ransacked with torn up decorations, broken gift boxes and toys. Even its colors seem faded, music distorted and muted.

All through the town the Whos stare listlessly at their hard work now ruined, some crying openly while others remain indoors in their grief. A brave few young souls try to help clean and bolster some cheer, chanting, "It's not too late, we can fix this! We can't let that Grinch get us down!" But many just shake their heads, their eyes dim. No one seems to have noticed the sudden arrival of new faces.

In the meanwhile, the tapirs appear to inform the Dreamwalkers that they are inside another large dreamscape similar to the one during Halloween. This time, however, an entity called "The Grinch" had suddenly appeared and attacked it, stealing all the presents and leaving everything to ruin as they see now. The tapirs point to a meter floating high in the sky, and although it's not rock bottom, it keeps wavering and lowering as time passes. The Dreamwalkers must help raise the meter to save the dreamscape from turning into a nightmare.

"But the big guy is really angry now," the tapirs chatter among themselves. "If they help fix things, maybe they'll gain a powerful ally!"

Dressed in Christmas themed attire, it will be up to the Dreamwalkers to try and restore the Christmas spirit before the day is ruined forever.

I. HELPING WHOVILLE

The town is an interesting looking place with its unique architecture, bright colors swirling and curving about that it make it look like it could be made of cake or candy instead. It's supposed to be adorned with all manner of Christmas decorations and lights, and yet all of it is missing and instead everything looks so drab and dreary, the colors faded and nary a carol sung. Its tree has also been stripped bare, the presents pilfered, and the much too big Christmas Star gone.

A. Gift Retrieval. The Grinch has scattered all of the presents and decorations throughout the surrounding forests and they need to be returned before Christmas is over. Dog sleds big enough to load up found presents are provided to be used, and the dogs will help track down presents. However, those who enter the forests should be cautious. While there aren't any huge threats, there are present mimics, monsters that pretend to be present boxes only to attack any who approach. They will also eat real presents, so be careful they don't reach the sled!

» BONUS: PRESENT DELIVERY. The last objective is to deliver the present to their rightful owners. However, it's possible the Grinch may have tampered the presents, and this will only be revealed upon opening. Players must RNG 0-5 to determine if the recipient likes the present or not.

» BONUS: SPECIAL PRESENTS. There are some special marked boxes that are guarded by present mimics. Get past them to retrieve the present. However, upon touching the box, it will disappear in a poof of orange and be replaced with a pumpkin pie that will help amplify one's dreamotion abilities if eaten.

B. Fixing Decorations. With broken ornaments and torn wreaths and ribbon everywhere, a massive cleanup is in order along with repairing and redecorating. While anyone good at crafts can help, positive emotions and dreamotion abilities will be key to help brighten everything from its current dreary atmosphere. Creative minds can help produce the necessary decorations while the athletic can figure out ways to bolster their skills to reach those high, hard to reach places. Another RNG for rating is here as the residents will judge their work.

» BONUS: JUDGMENT. Anyone can throw up decorations, but will it be to the residents' liking? Players must RNG 0-5 to determine what kind of rating their efforts receive.

» BONUS: CHRISTMAS STAR. The original Christmas star was smashed to bits so a new one is in order. Although anything can be used, the Whos do have some preferences on what can be used on the star, even if those materials may be hard to find. Rainbow crystals found in the forest will surely help give the start that glittery feeling; they prefer to have it gold; and it needs to illuminate on its own so some kind of light source is needed.

C. Christmas Carols. Carolers are doing their best, but everyone is stumbling over their verses and instruments are out of tune. A bit of positive reinforcement and Christmas cheer will help sort things out. Those who are musically inclined can lead the way by singing and even creating new songs to help inspire others.

» BONUS: A SPECIAL CHRISTMAS CAROL. In the designated thread, a new carol will be composed by the dreamwalkers. Each one will supply their own verse in response to the previous (click here for example). The thread is only for the verses, but there will be another thread where players can go ham for their characters to comment on the song as it goes on. Anyone can participate multiple times but must wait for another comment to be made first.

II. SANTA'S TOY FACTORY

Just beyond Whoville with just the Winter Forest to separate them is one of Santa's toy factories. It, too, has been attacked and smoke rises from the damaged buildings. With machines malfunctioning, toys are running rampant and everything is chaotic. If not fixed soon, there will not be enough toys for Santa to deliver.

A. Elf Rescue. The Grinch not only stole the presents and destroyed the toys, but they also sabotaged the machines running the factor. Now elves are trapped inside and are in desperate need of rescuing as toys malfunction and start to turn on them. The machines are even trying to box up the elves as gifts instead! Behaving similar to the present mimics, boxes, wrapping paper, and ribbon bounce around in search of anything to wrap up. Dreamwalkers must venture in to try to turn off the machines and rescue the elves without getting turned into a present themselves. The more elves rescued, the more allies gained to fix the factory and more favor earned from Santa.

B. Reindeer Games. The reindeer have been scattered all over and the only way to bring them back is to attract them with fun and games. In order to do so, dreamwalkers will transform into reindeer and will have additional abilities granted to them, such as flying and manipulating snow. As for what kind of games, they can choose from any of the following:

Ring Racing. High up in the air is a flying course with rings made of magical frost. Racers must pass through each ring to count, but they must fly quickly. As soon as they approach, the ring will start to contract, and if too late it will close and the racer will be disqualified.
Sleigh Pulling. This is a contest of strength! Sleighs will be piled high with presents and, if not enough presents are available, large rocks to weigh it down. Each reindeer must then try and pull their sleigh down a simple straight lane to the finish line. Just beware, rogue toys will appear on the track and will need to be dealt with somehow. There are no restrictions—each reindeer can use whatever ability or skill they can think of to help pull the overloaded sleigh. The contest can be 1v1 or 2v2.
Robot Reindeer. All the excitement does attract many of the reindeer back, but unexpected guests arrive as well—and they're not friendly. Sent by the Grinch, robotic reindeer will suddenly descend from the skies to ruin the festivities. It will be up to the dreamwalkers in their reindeer form to fight back against them—or try to convert them to help out instead.

C. Gingerbread Army. Giant gingerbread men occasionally appear and try to smash through the toy factory, hampering rescue efforts. Fortunately, they are only made of gingerbread and easy to fall apart. Unfortunately, they will not only regrow lost parts but grow from severed parts. Their weak point is the glowing gumdrop located among the many gumdrops on the body, and destroying it will destroy the gingerbread completely.

[Mod Note: Details can be read and questions can be asked on the Event Details post. Submit all special threads and ratings to the Event Thread Submissions form.]

Threaded | Top-Level Comments Only

wait! that is a lot like christmas! and santa! except he never had a eight-legged horse i don't think?? that sounds kind of neat

sometimes i do think if santa his called different stuff in other worlds! but maybe it's basically the same thing!

reindeer don't have wings they just fly on the power of christmas magic!

[YEAH. Whatever the heck Christmas magic is.]

Oh, w-well... [ Susato really doesn't think she would make a good teacher for this, not when her best advice so far is "get really mad." Still, something about Sora's face is so very hard to say no to, so she just...kind of trails off, until he says something else. ]

I, I can certainly try. We don't want the presents to be damaged any more than they already have.

[ Or else childrens' dreams will be crushed all over Whoville! ]

((OOC: Alastor is still dressed impeccably but he has a green with white fur-lined jacket in place of his usual red one. The rest of his clothes are in green as well. The red is obviously his hair, eyes, claws, etc.))

Helping Whoville: Gift Retrieval

[Alastor is keeping his distance from the dogs, ears flattening every time one comes sniffing too close.]

Focus on finding the presents, you vile Hellbeast!

[One of the dogs is snuffling along when it suddenly yelps and runs away from a present mimic. Alastor's grin widens.]

I'll take this one!

Helping Whoville: Christmas Carols

Oh, come now! You can't expect to make joyful music when you won't even smile!

[Some of the Whos look more than a bit worried to be in the grinning demon's presence.]

[Alastor taps his chin for a moment before snapping his fingers. His ears twitch before starting to play "Let It Snow! Let It Snow! Let It Snow!" by Frank Sinatra only it's just the background music. He summons his microphone stand and twirls it in his fingers before starting to dance along to the beat. Time to put on a show!]

Feel free to join in if you know this one!

♪♫ Oh, the weather outside is frightful
But the fire is so delightful
And since we've no place to go
Let it snow, let it snow, let it snow!

It doesn't show signs of stoppin'
And I brought some corn for poppin'
The lights are turned way down low... ♪♫

[He then holds his microphone out to the closest person from Reverein, a silent prompt for them to sing the next line.]

Reindeer Games: Alastor the Demon Reindeer

[As a surprise to absolutely no one, Alastor looks like Halloween threw up on one of Santa's reindeer. He's tall and majestic, yes, but his coat is danger sign red with the parts one would expect to be white in black. He still has his wide, fanged grin and red-on-darker-red eyes. His antlers are solid black and rather pointy.]

[He trots in a circle, experimenting as his shadow trots in its own reindeer form beside him.]

Well, this is a treat, isn't it? [He gives himself a shake, the bells on his green harness jingling.] I can't complain!

Reindeer Games: Robot Reindeer

I'm sorry, but you all weren't invited to these reindeer games. [Alastor's eyes glow red, his grin widening maliciously, as his shadow paws the ground. A few robot reindeer stalk towards him.] Looks like I'm going to have to ask you to leave.

[He leaps out of the way as one of the robots rush him. He lands, spins about, and plants his rear hooves into the side of the machine.]

[He looks towards his companions.]

Well, shall we?

Wildcard

Don't see a prompt you like? Toss one Alastor's way!

[Honestly, what was it about Earthen holidays that brought out such garish decorations?]

[Still, if this is how it's supposed to be done, he'll have to assist. Azmuth climbed up onto the young human's shoulder to get a better look, the tiny alien studying the star carefully.]

It might be easier to change the arrangements of the ornaments. Space out the shinier, more reflective ones to catch the star's light and bounce it towards other ornaments on the tree.

What sort of light source are you using?

What an intriguing gift, Miss Namine!

[Alastor's ears twitch excitedly as he approaches. He'd seen her trick with the sketchbook. Marvelous! Simply marvelous!]

Perhaps I could be of assistance putting those in place?

[ There were benefits to being turned into a cat two months ago during Halloween. Like the fact that walking on all fours is now familiar. Awkward as these longer legs and big hooves are, Tenn comes to appreciate the snowshoe effect as he trots out into the field.

He's white-furred as the snow, with a pair of fuzzy antlers frankly smaller than he would have liked, but it seems his youth is a factor here. And he’s relieved to see he has a similarly aged reindeer to compete with. The voice, he doesn’t recognize, but then he hasn't met all of the other dreamwalkers in person... or animal, as the case is shaping up to be.

This new anatomy doesn’t allow him a smirk, but Tenn’s tone has an ambitious edge. ]

Good. I'll be disappointed if you don't.

Christmas? Why would kids get presents on Christmas....

Ohhh...this is more of a Western thing, right? Never really celebrated myself. But I'm curious, is this what you do? Get presents to kids that hopefully won't kill them?

The horse is pretty cool, but never meet Odin on a bad day.

That's true, and fun!

Christmas magic? Sounds strong if it makes reindeer fly.

Woah now!

Are you questionin' this mighty sorcerer?? Peh! I bet you don't get any gifts cause you ain't believe in his power.

Thank you!

[ Let him grab that and pull it into his workspace. It's probably hard to see what he's doing from outside, but there does sound like something being pulled back into place. ]

To think, he managed to disable the entire safety mechanism with a few missing screws. [ He's screwing something in here. ] Mmh. And I don't think THAT ought to be there. [ Unscrewing.... Repositioning... Screwing back in... ]

[ It was already bad enough that Merisia had been swept into the dream world against her will. It wasn't unlike a vision granted to her by the Echo, come to think of it, though thankfully it was far less disorienting. The worst part of it, quite frankly, was the form she had taken: a carbuncle not unlike the one she so often summoned. Much larger, perhaps, but still similar. Worse yet, now she was donning a Christmas vest and even a little reindeer antler headband.

Ugh.

As long as she was stuck here, however, she might as well help out. Though she may claim it's only because she thinks helping will release her from this mess quicker, it's also because she does have genuine concern about whatever happened here. Starlight isn't her favorite holiday - she's more of an All Saint's Wake person - but anyone who meddles with harmless festivities needs to be taught a lesson...and she's not about to turn down an opportunity to blow off some steam. ]

[ Gift Hunting ]

[ It's a little awkward ordering a dog around when she almost looks like one herself (or are even big enough to pull a sled on her own), but given that Merisia doesn't have much of a choice, she does her best not to think about it too much. She's focused on the mission: retrieve the presents and bring them back to town. Standard adventuring job, honestly.

The hard part comes with trying to bring the gifts back to the sled. It's a tricky endeavor when one lacks opposing thumbs. She tries multiple times to pick them up and walk on her hind legs before she gives up and drags them back by mouth. Surely the resients of Whoville won't mind a few minor chew marks on the ribbons, right?

She's trotting back to the sled with a particularly small present in hand - er, mouth - when a box off to the side catches her eye. Merisia sets the present she was carrying down onto the sled before slowly making her way towards the mystery present. That's weird...it wasn't there earlier. Something about this seems a little off. And moments later, when the present bares its teeth, Merisia's hunch proves to be right on the mark.

If the sudden chaos of loud squeaking and yelling isn't enough to draw someone's attention to the scuffle, perhaps the barking of the sled dog might. ]

[ Sled Racing ]

[ As it turns out, being a Reindeer isn't that much better than being a Carbuncle, but at least she's taller now. It takes her a while to get used to having longer legs, but before long she's gotten used to her new form and is ready to go...almost. Now, manipulating snow, she can do. Easily. But flying? Nnnnope. She's fine right here on the ground, thanks.

Although feats of strength aren't really her thing, Merisia ends up joining the sled race, if for no other reason than it's least likely to force her to start flying around. Fortunately - or unfortunately - she's partnered up for this.

Merisia glances over at her partner. ] Don't go tripping over anything.

[ Gingerbread Army ]

[ Merisia has seen enough strange sights - both in Eorzea and in Verens - to know better than to overestimate an army of humanoid cookies. For a moment, they seem frail enough not to worry about; one strong enough headbutt from her is enough to break one into multiple pieces. But just as she's getting confident, Merisia suddenly finds herself surrounded by five of the damned things. ]

Oh, for Oschon's sake... If I have to eat all of you to put a stop to this, then someone else can do the honors!

[ She likes sweets, but she doesn't like them that much. That said, she's rather cornered and could use a hand! ...paw? Whatever you can spare, she needs it before these hostile treats get the better of her. ]

[ Wildcard! ]

[ you do you \o/ ]

[He grew used enough to the movement, the feel of wing, that he was able to lean forward enough and dig out a blanket, carefully but quickly draping it over Susato. Some silent sign for her to wrap up and protect herself from the cold.

76 himself was fine, even if ears were laid back a bit. Made to survive cold weather, and at least his outfit was relatively warm and... probably made to stand the wind chill, given he was some sort of reindeer.

Kept his eyes ahead-]

Going to take a turn and head back towards town. Probably where these presents belong.

[So he'd hope, at least.]

My name is Anya and this little dog with me is Pooka.

(Pooka is still too shaky to bark up to Sora happily, it is going to take a while for him to recover.)

It’s really nice to meet you, Sora.

I would assume that's the case. Or they have some trick we've yet to discover.

[Having found a better place to stand more or less, Ira reaches out a hand if Momo needs it.]

Either way, we still have our work cut out for us.

You did great! You got a natural talent for it~

[He really thinks so!]

So if you don't write them often, it means you've done it before, right?

Ohohoho! You got it, Momo~

[Shuzo actually lifts his guitar, that's carefully hanging around his back, and gets ready.]

Any requests?

Right on the border, there!

[Shuzo points to the top of the nearest building as he hands the armour the garlands he's been making.]

I think there's ways to hang them already, just gotta place them!

We grow GREEN!

[He twirls and the nearest branch starts growing the little pine needles.]

I'm sure you can grow anything! Think of what you want to make, and do it the same way you do the sunflowers!

[Momo manages to get up unaided without too much of an issue, though it's not the most elegant movement in the world. The slightly more complicated part is finding somewhere to stand upright without falling straight back off again, but after some moving his feet around, he finds a decent spot.]

Yeah, I bet the one who sabotaged all this knew that. This is probably at least a few days' worth of work on the part of the townspeople, so if they were on their own they'd have no hope of fixing it all up tonight.

[He keeps his tone low enough that it's unlikely anyone on the ground would overhear it, though there's not really anyone nearby to hear it right now anyway. Momo's just used to having to be a bit cautious about certain information.]

[Momo gives a bit of a laugh at that, though his smile falters momentarily before he drags it back up.]

None I wouldn't feel weird about singing without Yuki, so maybe if you've got something from your world, we could sing that? Or make something up on the fly.

[He's not about to suggest TO MY DEAREST when he's still reeling a bit from that disappearance, but he is technically a lyricist now, so making something up on the fly should be fine...probably.]

[Feeling woefully unprepared for any big adventures or fights, Yujin instead stayed behind in Whoville to help clean the place up and repair the decorations. Moving debris and garbage is the least he can do. He was feeling really good about his work so far, which makes it all the more disappointing when someone with super speed sweeps the trash bags over. Yujin hadn't closed them yet, and so, all the contents go flying, mingling with shiny new decorations that the superhuman sweeper apparently sent his way.]

Aah! Wait! Hang on a moment!

[ Satan, dressed in a plain Santa outfit with the long red hat included, looks at what she's done. He supposes it looks festive, but who is he to judge? Sure, she asked him, but he has a very different idea of what Christmas is supposed to be like if the residents of this dreamscape or anything to go by. ]

I think it looks elegant, but not in a cold sort of way -- in the kind of way you could string it up anywhere and it would look warm and inviting.

[ Satan presses his hands together, and when he pulls them apart, a small hologram powered by dreamotion energy floats above the palms of his hands. It mirrors her string of garland, but looks like a transparent, digitized version that could never pass for the real thing. ]

So this -- this garland -- where do you normally string it up, anyway? Trees, houses...? Just anywhere?

Oh why thank you, Sir. That is a really kind comment.

Now I am thinking of putting them up on the roof edges of the houses in the town, but I wouldn’t mind putting them on the tree branches at all.

(Pooka by this point had gathered more than enough pine cones that they are beginning to stack up into a pine cone ‘pyramid’. The little mutt surely does take his pine cone gathering job very seriously.)

[ Ugh, his heart. What a cute dog. He's honestly a little jealous at how lucky other dreamwalkers seem to be when it comes to animal companions. Thankfully, Pooka isn't a cat because Satan would absolutely ditch his work for the opportunity to play with a cat. ]

Do you think they'd stand out on tree branches?

[ He dissipates the dream energy duplication of Anya's work. He can't use it anyway because it looks so tacky when compared to the real thing. He mostly wanted to see if he had a good understanding of the effort she put into making her garland. ]

My Christmas knowledge is a little limited, so I get the big pine trees, ornaments and lights, but I never really understood beyond that. Honestly, I think it'd look nicer on the eaves of rooves than on tree branches, though. Definitely.

If you show me how you made yours, I can help to make more garland and we can hang them together.

That’s understandable, I was going to hang the garlands onto the roof eaves as intended. I don’t know how it would look like if someone put garlands on the trees outside.

(The tree branch idea was just a random throwaway idea she did considered, but as Satan pointed out, it wouldn’t make sense to toss garlands onto tree branches outside the trees being put up in homes as she has observed upon arriving in Whoville.)

Oh certainly, I can show you how I am able to make these garlands and we can work together to put them up on the eaves.

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Page 8 of 54

Saving Christmas

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Alastor | Hazbin Hotel | OPEN

A Star is Born

Fixing Decorations - A

Reindeer Games! (The Ring Racing or Sleigh Pulling?)

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Merisia Thenel | FFXIV (OC) | OTA

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[Deck the Halls]

Decking the Halls

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