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Holiday mingle log

It’s the most wonderful (welcome) time of the year

Christmas is coming earlier and earlier every year, which isn't a surprise but hey they're starting the Christmas/Winter stuff the week before thanksgiving. Because why not. this month’s party takes place in the Merchant dome. But it’s not the everyday appearance of the merchant dome. No, for the next five days the Merchant dome’s appearance has been altered to look like a sort of Bavarian Christmas Market. There are small clusters of tables every so often, so people can just sit and chat and eat and drink.

Some enterprising person has even managed to make it snow through some unknown means. It’s not cold, but the snow is soft and steady and slowly building up.

The entire dome, all of the streets and all of the merchant stalls are practically glowing with white fairy lights that are strung everywhere. Vendors in their stalls gleefully cry out to paterons passing by, offering them free food or drinks. The food consists of the sort of things that one might expect to find in a place like this: sausages on buns and on sticks, pretzels, pizza, loads of cookies of every variety that one could think of, including elaborately decorated gingerbread, chocolates, fruits, french fries. Think winter fair food, and be as absurd and as complicated and extra as you want. It is a fair, after all. Go nuts. Drinks are also along the same line: hot cider, mulled wine, hot buttered rum, hot chocolate both with booze and without, as well as all the normal things: water, coffee, tea, milk, soda, and a variety of fruit juices that you’ve both heard of and not.

But food isn’t the only free thing that people are giving away! They’re also offering characters hats and gloves and scarves, small toys, books, delicate ornaments, perfumes, wine… it’s a giant welcome party after all, and these people are cheerful and happy. Even offering to pay just gets met with laughter and being told not to worry about it.

Fun and frivolity.

There are even carnival rides set up! A medium sized ferris wheel, a carousel, a giant slide and ice skating ring are all along the outside of the stalls.

At the far end of the dome, the snow has fallen deeper and held to several inches. Wouldn’t you know it just happens to be perfect snowball snow! So, there of course needs to be a snowball fight! What did you think those free mittens and gloves and scarves are for after all? The snowball fight can be organized into teams, or one on one depending on the player’s choice. This is a friendly fight, of course, so no rocks or slush balls or anything. Well, probably not. No one in the Sphere is your mother.

So you want some summer?.

While the welcome party rages on in the merchant dome, people have made a smaller party in one of the recreation domes. Around the pools, as a matter of fact. There’s almost like a small barbecue clustered around the largest of the three pools, and the light is constant and sunny here. The large pool is olympic sized, and is a sparkling blue. It’s fresh water, and probably clean enough to drink. I still wouldn’t drink it. The second pool is slightly smaller and more kidney shaped with a gradual sand mound at one end of it. This pool is salt water and looks a bit more like a beach than a pool. The third pool is a kiddie pool, complete with a splash pad, that’s running. Buckets drop, it’s got one of those mushroom things, and sprinkler jets. There aren’t any kids though, so people are welcome to go nuts.

Bathing suits and towels are provided in the changing rooms. There’s frozen and fruity drinks flowing freely, along with finger food and snacks. Loud music is playing from a local band that’s just generally of a pop sort. There’s people dancing rather in a rather haphazard fashion, but the dance floor is there and present!

Oh yeah, and there's definitely the baths and everything too!

Network.

In the Sphere, the network is neural, and accessed via touching the glowing golden circle behind your character’s ear. They can identify themselves with a screen name if you so desire, but messages should be one of three ways or a combination of them. 1. Audio. Your character thinks audible words onto the network. 2. Writing: Your character thinks text into the network. 3. Video. Your character projects a broadcast of a video of themselves onto the network. Replies are determined by the player.

The network needs to be accessed by choice, so character broadcasts are not automatically beamed directly into people’s heads. The Sphere isn’t that rude.

Private messages are allowed by pressing and holding and pressing and holding again as you picture the person in your mind. This can be an image or a name, err more on the side of things being more accessible than less.

Welcome to my nightmare.

For anyone within the architecture dome, the library dome, the sunlight rec dome and any personal dome that people chose, around midnight people will have a curiously tired sensation. They just need to rest their eyes for a moment, or some may fall asleep for longer. No matter the length of time that the character is out, the nightmare infects them, and when they wake they will be filled with a curious but urgent sensation.

They have lost something. The loss can be a physical object, an emotion, a memory, a person or perhaps a sense of self. If the lost person is currently present in the game, they will be unable to be seen by the character who is experiencing the waking nightmare. Urgency will grip the character, because the longer the sensation goes on for, the worse it becomes. Characters can search and scrounge for their loss everywhere, but until the nightmare is over, they will not find whatever it is. Even if it is themselves. Instead, they may be frantic, angry, or just play old scared to death. They need to find this at whatever cost. Where they may find it is something that their own brains will settle on, but of course until the nightmare is over, they will not be able to.

The nightmare ends with either the character falling into a normal, restful sleep naturally or through some other means (someone might mention the infirmary has sedation medication just for the is purpose, or that there’s always a brick) or when they are woken with the intervention of someone else. The intervention of someone else is entirely up to you, and can come from a player character or a NPC, depending on how the player is feeling with the thread. By intervention we mean someone who is able to talk the person out of the nightmare, or to slap or shake them out, or to use some sort of trick that shows them that they are indeed inside of a nightmare. The knowledge that someone is affected by a nightmare must come from an external source, and should come from a character that your character would trust. After all, would you believe someone who told you that you were in a nightmare if you didn’t know that? That said, the best way to deal with waking someone is to remove them from the affected domes. Too bad you don’t know which domes are affected.

Flat | Top-Level Comments Only

[Dude, tigers don't come in green, right? That's just... unnerving. Tommy starts to pace, well beyond an easy pounce of the creature. Sure, he knows he's faster than it could ever be, but it's still nervous making.]

Good kitty. You just, you know, stay over there? Right? Right.

[ Okay. This isn't really working.

Gar huffs out a breath of frustration, snow flying up a bit. He doesn't like scaring someone but there's nothing to hide behind right there so well. This is going to be a bit embarrassing.

The transformation doesn't take long and soon it's just Gar there, green hair and naked. ]

Nothing to be scared of okay. [ He grins and he's suffering with pressing into the snow to try and cover important bits. ]

[Oh, that's... WOw. The second he sees the shift starting, Tommy looks away. Because, dude, that's just rude to stare at. And once the guy is talking he runs forward, lightning fast. Doesn't slip ~~almost does but that happens too fast to really see don't mind him though there is a slightly smeared footprint in the snow~~ and drops his coat on Gar before returning to his distance.]

Yeah, except for teeth, right?

[ Gar doesn't notice the other looking away but if he had he'd be grateful because like it is kind of awkward and usually he tries to get behind something, anything to do it. Even more so he's grateful for the coat even less because of the cold and more because well he likes not being seen naked by strangers. Still it's cold without fur or clothes on. ]

I don't bite.

That's only a downside if people aren't into that.

[Fuck, he should NOT have said that. Listen, stop being naked, okay?]

Didn't mean to mess up your kitty party. Was just, you know, cutting through.

wait...what?

[ Gar's brow furrows briefly as he parses that statement for a second. ]

I just meant, I don't hurt people when I'm a tiger. At least good people.

[ He grasps the coat a little tighter around himself. ]

Didn't mean to scare you. I didn't think anyone was around here or I uh...wouldn't have been so dumb.

[Dude, he made a sex joke, but he's not going to clarify. Instead he nods and shrugs.]

No one else coulda stumbled on this. You would have heard them coming. I'm just special like that.

[ Yeah. He got that belatedly and he's just awkward. ]

Special, huh? Uhm... hold on if we're gonna keep talking... I'm gonna go grab my clothes. I mean it's kind of weird I'm here naked and you're well not and now you don't have your coat so.

[ Gar, shut up. ]

Where are they? I can get them for you.

[What? Running will make this faster, and him warmer.]

[ Well, Gar's not going to say no to that offer. He grins a bit sheepishly and nods at a small structure not too far away. ]

Behind there.

Okay.

[And in less than an eyeblink there is a pile of clothes on the ground in front of Gar. Tommy? Back to where he was standing. NOT looking at him.]

Thanks.

[ Gar grins a little bit. It only takes a couple seconds to get dressed. He's really good at the quick change and everything and he finishes by zipping up his jacket and then offering the other his coat back. ]

You're nice, huh. Also...how'd you move so fast? That was awesome. [ Nice and manners on the same level as superpowers, deal with it. ]

[And with the speed of a thought Tommy is there, coat back in his hands and getting tugged on.]

No problem. And I'm not nice. Just don't want you to freeze your balls off. Literally.

[But Gar's dressed and Tommy smiles at that. This works for him.]

I'm a speedster. Fastest guy in the whole place.

[ Yep that's cool but also weird and a bit to get used to trying to track with his eyes. Conner can move pretty fast but even he's not that fast. ]

Who argues about being called nice? [ Gar laughs a little. He probably shouldn't have asked that out loud but it's out there now. ]

Pretty cool. I'm Gar.

[He'd love to know he's faster than whoever Gar's friend is.]

I do. This is me. Arguing. And I'm tommy.

Well, it's nice to meet you and I still think it was plenty nice of you anyway.

[ Gar's hands shove into the pockets of his jacket and he feels just a little sheepish. ]

So you're not gonna tell everybody, right? I mean... I don't know how people would feel about it here and all.

[Interesting offering.]

Listen, you don't eat anyone, I'll be fine.

[ Gar lifts a shoulder and well. He used to be able to say he'd never even bit anyone before but after the asylum that wasn't true. He rubes his mouth without thinking. ]

Thanks. I eat cereal and pizza, for the record.

Yeah, that's a great set of choices. Burritos too.

[He grins, buttoning up his coat and wrapping his arms around himself. Probably better to just run himself to get his work done. But there you go.]

Oh burritos sound really good.

[ Gar grins a little and then he shrugs a bit. ]

You were busy weren't you?

Busy? [Tommy shrugs and looks into the satchel he’s wearing. A quick count and some ruffled pages and then he smirks.]

I’ve got ten minutes to deliver six packages. Give me two and we can talk?

Alright. Impressive.

[ Gar laughs and lifts a shoulder. ]

Timing you.

I don’t disappoint.

[When he goes he kicks up a lot of snow. It does have time to settle. Not much because just under two and a half minutes later he is back and cursing.]

If you are expecting a package, be there to receive it

Oh is that what you're blaming it on? [ Gar says and teasing just comes easy. ]

[Tommy narrows his eyes at the man. Is he being questioned?]

Six packages across this whole place in two and a half minutes? I think I am pretty badass still.