//SCENARIOS.EXE
PHASE I [ 16 00 ] At 4:00 PM, the lightly falling snow will stop and no sounds will be heard.
What will be heard is faint sound of ‘hohoho’ and ‘sleigh bells’ faintly in the distance distinctly in one direction but when you turn that way it seems to disappear and you can’t pick up a trace of sound. It will keep occurring intermittently no matter where you are and each interval of 15 minutes, it will sound as if it’s gotten closer but the same things will occur.
by 6:00 pm, when it sounds really close (like right behind the character or next to them), when they turn they’ll hear the sound of laughter that comes from someone they greatly admire or care about to one side of them. However, unlike how everything else has disappeared, that person remains and even seems to recognize they are there. At first, it seems well enough as they will ask innocent questions such as “What are you looking around for?” and if told the truth, their important person will kindly brush them off as joking and tell them they are imagining it. If told ‘nothing’, the important person will prod them with curiosity (you can have it be annoying, whiny, friendly--however that character would most likely nag them to let them in, including things said such as “you can tell me”).
Regardless of choice from there, the person will eventually decide to assist in locating this sound, as your character will hear it once more and from the sudden surprise on the other person’s face it seems they may have heard it, too.
At 6:30pm, the person will give up, suggesting you guys go back (go home, go shop, go eat, whatever the character would suggest as something fun and interesting. if they are the type of character who would just simply part ways with the other and say they will meet them back somewhere else, that’s fine, too!) In the end, they will start to walk past the PC if they are in front of them, but as soon as they are behind him the PC will get a hand on the shoulder and pulled to be whispered to by that person in the ear (or any variant of it at the player’s discretion to sound more like said individual): “You always did have a habit of looking for the things you can never find. A trait of only the most worthless.” followed by a strong wind that drowns out laughter of the person when they came, but this time much crueler. The wind is gale force so the character will not in any way be able to turn around fast enough to see whether the person walks off or disappears.
Looking to the ground, there are footprints, though, that suggest that person was there. Unfortunately, the snow is light and not wet, so unless the character looks quickly they may miss the evidence. And with the wind starts the heavy wet snow, increasing until blizzard conditions are reached.
OOC NOTES:
- If doing this prompt, people who tag into other people’s top levels can choose if they also have an important person that’s come to them in the same way or they can simply be alone.
- Both characters can see each other’s important persons (assuming the individual tagging the top level has one), and they will treat the other PC polite enough but would do what they normally do with strangers while around their PC. Players might want to take the opportunity to do some simple ‘npcing’ of their character’s important person in relation to the tags their top levels receive or the tagged into, but it is by no means required. Just one more potential thing you can add to your threads if it helps or will be more fun/interesting ).
- If any player-characters would happen to have the same important person, the player-character entering the thread will have their version start to slow down in their movements until they are behind them and no longer keeping up. When they turn around to look for them, they won’t be there any longer, but they will be fully acknowledged by the spectre and act as if the newly arrived isn’t remembering correctly (they ran ahead to find the player they are with now or etc.)
- The spectre should at least be believable to be able to cause doubt on whether it is real or in their heads or some other type of trick. If directly asked, the NPC will never quite say one way or another, but sort of be sympathetic to their uncertainty or laugh it off or dismiss it… again, however that character’s NPC would react to being doubted.
- It doesn’t have to be their “MOST IMPORTANT” person. Just someone that they are close enough to that their opinions matter/the player character really misses/they would be bothered by them not finding them worth anything/etc.
PHASE II [ 1700 ] Now that blizzard conditions have suddenly come into play, including white outs, all that lighting doesn’t seem to be much help (and that’s before any lighting finally ends up blowing out due to the conditions). You might want to look for that person that was with you, because you swore you saw footprints in the dry snow before it was all erased with the force of the wind.
Traveling outside may be more dangerous than you intend, however, not because of the cold, but because you can’t see who’s (or what) coming at you nor who’s (or what) coming behind you… or from any other direction, either.
Pretty convenient for an accidental murder in the form of a hit and run by a moving vehicle.
...Or a sleigh speeding forward by the work of nine reindeer and equipped with saw-blades used for ice cutting in place of the normal runners. You will want to get out of the streets as fast as you can because, while you will not be consistently chased, increased attempts at various times will be made on your life the longer you stay out.
While your character is welcome to run into the nearest place they can or continue to stay outside despite being an intended murder victim, the combination of the disorienting whiteout along with the sleigh attacks will strategically attempt to push characters towards the large mall that has been now shut down for the evening. They will find the doors unlocked and most likely others there that have be also driven here by the same situation. Somethings not right, though. Because the mall suddenly doesn’t look the way it once did, especially if you were just there earlier in the day. You are about to find out that the lot of you aren’t much safer, inside, either. Be prepared to run or fight your way out.
PHASE III [ xxxx ]
Depending which side of the mall you enter from depends on the layout of the mall and what you’ll be finding. Please note Cerealia’s mall is incredibly large so it would be quite the effort to go from one end to the other. However, it is possible, and if you reach the middle of the mall, the two variations of the mall will collide with one another. Once you step over into the other version, whatever dangers you faced from the other side will cease. However, now you have the other sides dangers to face, as well.
3A: WARM
The mall looks as if it’s been abandoned suddenly—there are no guards or any sign of movement initially. Despite the power being out, you will actually be able to search if your characters want to and get the power to turn back on. Be aware that turning the power back on in the mall will result in a change noted below for both prompt 3A and 3B.**
Regardless of whether you turn the lights on first or stay in the dark, you will find the multi-levels of the mall scattered with various gifts, left for all of you as gratitude for complying with coming to the mall. These may or may not be your definition of a gift, however. Every package is addressed to someone who has shown up at the mall, yourself included. While wandering by a gift that doesn’t have your name on it will do nothing, doing the same for one that does… Merry Christmas to you! Santa’s elves will be busting out of the packages and will solely be focused on you and you alone. They’ll be sporting just about anything and everything you could think of they could use to harm you, but it’ll be in the form of a creepy toy or candy (to try and choke/suffocate you with if they manage to get close enough to you to do it)—basically anything that could be harmless but is now not, but they will avoid any direct death methods. Their intention is incapacitate you to the point they can eat you. Note they are not easy to kill, but they are killable. However, there will always be at least one elf out chasing you. You might want to team up to take these guys out. (think of them as the hardest normal enemy on a map for your level).
Whether you turned the lights on yourself or not, at some point the lights will come on and make your lives more festive: different elves will be appearing on the upper floors with just about and every possible projectile weapon. There is probably even a canon or two, as well, so watch out! But probably nothing bigger than a canon… and no rocket launchers because there would be no fun in that if everyone died too quickly during playtime. These types of elves are more numerous but they are easier to dispatch and do not have a specific target. They also don’t care if they kill you, but they are more likely to try and slow you down so they can watch you become dinner for one of the bigger ones.
3B: COLD
The other side of the mall looks like quite a bit different and in heavy disrepair.
It is also possible (although more difficult) from this side of the mall to turn on lights (even if the lights will be a lot less numerous than on the other side of the mall.) There are no christmas decorations here, just the snow littering the wrecked structure. Even though it is clear there is a hole in the roof, for some reason the blizzard outside is not through it. Instead it’s just a quiet and light snowfall.
But this is side of the mall where there are LESS, but quite a bit more dangerous enemies. The elves that appear are identical to the ones in packages on the other side of the mall, however, they do not sport weapons other than their sharp teeth and claws (despite pictures, these features aren’t super noticeable on the ones on the other side of the mall like this side until they get at your throat). They are also faster and while they also want to eat you, they don’t care if they rip you apart in the process before getting to eat. All-in-all this would be a lot more of a visually gruesome death to experience as well as watch as the victim will end up in pieces. Since these are a little stronger than their counterparts hiding in the presents, there also aren’t as many (probably 1 for every two characters at all times). They would be the strength of a small mini-boss.
But, it won’t be long because you hear some inhuman snorts and growls that don’t sound very animallike, either. looking up you’ll find that it looks like Santa’s let his 9 reindeer out for the hunt and they’re coming in after you.
There’s only 9 of them (you know dasher, dancer…etc. etc..), but they are each the strength of a harder mini-boss. They withstand a lot of damage and the more injury they take, the more aggressive/frenzied they become. They will eat you/tear you apart/trample you/impale you with their antlers, whatever. While you’ll see them come in from the roof, they act like predators and use the shadows and disrepair of the mall to their advantage to try and corner you and otherwise surprise you. Your best chance with them is to stick together as one of you alone won’t be able to kill one of them), but they will make every effort they possibly can to separate all of you to take you each out one by one (and, why yes, the reindeer will gang up on you once they separate you like a little lamb from its heard…).
This side of the mall is definitely a team-effort survival trip. Each reindeer is slightly different in its methods, but who can really tell the difference when things are at this stage? Rudolph IS THE BOSS OF THE PACK… taking him out first will help your characters greatly, although he’s also the most difficult (and your characters would have to icly figure out killing him will actually help them out, too).
***CONCERNING TURNING ON THE LIGHTS (PROMPTS 3A + 3B): If characters on either side end up turning the lights on manually, they will also end up releasing a creature that is unkillable and will stalk your characters until you are too far away from it and it gives chase to another (so you have to run away when it finds you). The trick to encountering it the least amount of times is to constantly keep moving, although this will make any strategic things difficult against other problems being faced. It is possible to stun it/slow it down temporarily to aid in characters escaping when it shows up if the character has the ability to do it (summons, magic weapons, superhuman strength characters, etc).
This monster is also the only one that will not cease its attacks and ignore you should you cross between the center of the mall. So, yes, if it’s chasing you and you run straight through… it’s gonna CHASE YOU STRAIGHT THROUGH into the other version/side of the mall, so don’t stop D: !!
PHASE IV [ xxxx ]
And if you didn’t run to the mall, or didn’t get chased by santa’s killer sleigh, or heck, maybe you stayed inside your apartment all day? Don’t feel too safe for too long. If you aren’t celebrating christmas properly, aka in an area (a building, an office, a bathroom stall, your apartment, your bed etc etc) that is lacking either a Christmas Tree or the proper milk and cookies for Santa to assist him while he is so busy this night, he’s not going to be happy. Which means, he’s going to come punish you for your lack of respect for the hardworking. It doesn’t pay to be impolite to your elders, you know. This is why we can’t have nice things.
The room/area has to have both the Christmas Tree and the milk & cookies in order to be safe. This is literally the only way to keep Santa from coming at you with a machete like a jolly serial-killer. He starts with a machete, but he can pull just about anything out of his toy sac (semi-automatic machine gun, you got it…). Because Santa is magical, he is unkillable and you can’t injure him, either. The best you can do is break his weapons to stall him and hide, but he’ll stalk around looking for you, telling you what a naughty boy/girl you’ve been and now you’re hiding from the consequences! You can hide from him under beds, in lockers, closets, etc, and while he won’t open any of those things unless you make noise to alert him, he will leave. Don’t stay in the hiding spot for too long, though, because he will come back and that time he will find you.
The trick to getting off of Santa’s murder list? While he disappears once he’s lost sight of you (maybe 15-20 minutes is the grace period that he’ll leave you alone), get a christmas tree and get those milk and cookies out. OR run to a place that has both of these things.
While Santa is chasing/stalking you, he will talk to you and give hints on what the characters need to do to be spared (things along the lines of “good little girls and boys always leave Santa milk and cookies for his long journey” and “where is your christmas spirit? not even a christmas tree for old santa to put his gifts under.” etc etc.).
Once you complete this, he will return and be planning to be murderous once more, but once he sees the tree and cookies he will immediately stop and be extremely jolly and forget you in favor of the cookies in milk as well as putting a couple presents under the tree like he didn’t just terrorize the living snot out of you with sharp objects. And then he’ll be heard with his trademark commentary for those familiar with the Santa Claus lore: “MERRY CHRISTMAS TO ALL AND TO ALL GOOD NIGHT…” and disappear without (anymore, or at least, yours) bloodshed.
BONUS [ whyo'clock ]
{ there isn't a bonus this event, apologies! but we will do our best to remedy this for you guys on the upcoming test drive by connecting it to something appropriately traumatizing for mental processing. Please stay with us :D! }
[ Remember to apply proper warnings on threads with trigger-y or inappropriate material and do let a mod know if your thread careens off into maiming or canoodling so we can lock the log. ]
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no subject
I-I'm not a kid! I can walk by myself—
[ But something in the wind seems to howl, prompting him to take other's offer without question. ]
no subject
Oh. Well. That was quick. He'll hide his laughter for now, considering Yata seemed pretty spooked. Instead, he'll give that hand a reassuring squeeze, slowly stepping forward into the snow.
But... something did seem a little off. He'll be keeping on high alert for now. ]
It would be wise to stay as close as possible. We will proceed with caution.
no subject
[ Yata would rather be here than out there alone where ghosts may roam. This might not be an ideal situation, but thanks for holding his hand and not laughing. He follows closely as they walk, partly because of the cold, mostly because... well, why else would he be gripping Mikazuki's hand so tightly? It's just in case another ghost pops up. ]
Last time was nothin' like this.
no subject
That can be said even more so as he felt the hand laced around his own tighten. Was he really that worried? The sword supposed it was a normal reaction, so to help dispel the fear, he'll give a small squeeze to the hand he was holding. Physically reminding Yata that yes- he was here and it was going to be alright. ]
Last time? Are you saying this world has storms like this often? [ That certainly would be troublesome if this was a constant occurrence. ]
no subject
or it would be, but Yata's too scared to even think about it. ]
Oh, you new? Nah, but there's "blunders". A ton of 'em. We're like, in a bubble, y'know? So CERES controls the weather around here. When their tech broke, there was snow everywhere. It was freezing. We coulda died.
[ He'll spare him the details. As far as Yata is concerned, Mikazuki doesn't need to know what they had to go through to beat the cold. ]
They fixed it up a few days later, but a lotta people say they did it on purpose. Willing to bet this ain't no accident either.
no subject
[ He's so quick to admit it, too! But shh shh little one. Jijii's got this.
Yet even through this mess, he listens closely to Yata's explanation of the area. Goodness, this place really was like nothing he had ever imagined before. Technology controlling the weather? ]
That sounds rather unfortunate. I am glad, however, that you were able to make it out alive. [ He seems like a nice boy from what he could tell. But even still... ]
Perhaps. This is rather usual from anything I had witnessed before. [ And he's lived a long time, so believe him. ] It would be best to remain on high alert. Something feels... quite strange.
no subject
He gasps. ]
Don't tell me... You can sense ghosts!?
no subject
Ah ha ha! Yes, of a sort, I suppose. I am what is known as a tsukumogami. [ He won't go into too much of an explanation unless Yata were to ask. That'll be for his imagination. ] Does this frighten you?
no subject
Huh? But— [ Yata's hand is still in Mikazuki's, warm and very, very real. Was he scared? He still does have his reservations about the man, but ] Well, you're not tryna kill me...
[ So he figures he's safer here than anywhere else. Not that he'd admit he was scared! ]
no subject
Just don't touch his sword, okok. ]
I would never dream of the sort. Of that I can assure you.
[ Though safer... might not exactly be the case. For a moment Mikazuki finishes his sentence, his body suddenly becomes tense with alert. Was that the sound of bells? Something wasn't right indeed. ]
Quickly now, we must look for shelter.
[ Just keep holding on to that hand of his, because he'll be tugging you along a little hurriedly at the moment. ]
no subject
Gotta pick up the pace, Mikazuki!
[ Yata's grip is now tighter around Mikazuki's hand when he hears the soft noise of clopping—galloping hooves against the road. He can tell they aren't alone either. The sound grows louder and Yata walks faster. Between the two of them, he thinks he has the greater advantage against what's coming. The snow makes it hard to see, but he hopes they're headed in a safe direction.
But what's that silhouette in the distance? ]
no subject
Still, Mikazuki heeds the advice and hurries his face. Giving an occasional glance to the side in hope of figuring out who the approaching noise could have been-
-what he could see though, he had never thought to expect.
The sleigh was fast, much faster than the sword had expected. It charged forward with bells ringing even louder and having no sense of stopping anytime soon. ]
Yata-kun!
[ Having just a split second to spare, the man will have just enough time to tug the boy closer to his chest as he launches himself to the side. Just barely missing the impact that was sure to come.
How strange... perhaps it didn't notice they were there? It almost seemed as if... it was aiming for them. ]
no subject
Fuck, that one almost killed us!
no subject
Mikazuki doesn't particularly seem to mind about their current positions. He simple remains there for a moment, shielding the boy with his body, before honing into the direction from which they narrowly escaped the sleigh from. ]
... It would seem that was their intention all along.
[ Because that thing is turning right around and heading right back for them!! ]
no subject
When the sleigh comes back, Yata notices it first. He's stronger than he looks, so he pushes Mikazuki and throws his weight against him, rolling them out of the way. Yata's hovering over the sword now and I hate what this thread has become. ]
We really gotta get outta here.
[ pulling the old man up! ]
no subject
Mikazuki is actually surprised the moment his weight is shifted. It's not as though he is too heavy (aside from the miles of layers he wears) but suddenly becoming the Bottom does allow his eyes to widen in the slightest.
Well then, it looks like they will be going back and forth as to who saves who. Not that the sword particularly minded in the least. In fact, he was glad that Yata was there to help support him.
So when the boy pulls him to his feet, it is his turn to take off into another direction. Returning the boys hand into his own as he tugs him at a faster rate. ]
We should look for a narrow opening. I doubt they would be able to come after us in those conditions. [ But... trying to find one would be the most difficult part. ]
no subject
While they're running, he shoots a red ball of fire from his free hand to light the way ahead. It's a little too intense for a simple purpose, but fine control was never his forte. ]
A building's up ahead... We can stay there until this blows over.
[ He stumbles a little after saying that. ]
no subject
But... oh. Oh. Mikazuki was not expecting that at all. Perhaps this boy was not as defenseless as he thought. The fire was still appreciated though, however much surprise had been caused by it. ]
Yes, I agreed. [ He's lifting his arm up higher in attempts to straighten the boy out the minute he stumbled. Seriously, he doesn't have to carry you, does he? ] Do be careful now. Slipping at a time like this will only cause casualties.
no subject
I know, you're not my dad!
[ But he speaks too soon. A car is catching up right behind them. ]
Got any advice!?
no subject
... He doesn't quite get it.
But that will be something to ask about later, for now his attention breaks to the fast approaching sleigh, thoughts reeling. ]
That fire of yours. Perhaps it will slow down our attacker should you use it on them. [ He could provide back up, of course. But they should keep moving while they do so. ] As long as we stay low and our paces quick, we should make it to safety.
no subject
[ He's not used to sending his fire over distances, but Mikazuki was relying on him and their lives depended on it. He had to try. A red glow surrounds his free hand once more, dancing like flames as he looks at the incoming vehicle behind them.
With an open palm, he sends a barrage of fireballs at the windshield in an attempt to blur the driver's vision. ]