Chapter 01: Act I - The Horseman of Christmas Past

[keeperoftales]

A Hollow Christmas Carol: Act I—

§ instructions.
This is the designated log for all the main scenes for Act I: The Horseman of Christmas Past. All sub quests and nonrelated threads are to be made in their own posts. The scenes are listed below along with the assigned cast. Organization wise, the threads can happen in any order so you don't have to wait for one group to post before you do. Just start when you're ready! But to help, include in the subject line the scene header (ex. Scene 1, Scene 2, etc.) You can fluff it up a little to make it more specific like including the main characters or even scene title. Just be sure to have the number so we know which is which!

As a reminder, characters will have the necessary information within their journals. Those who are selected to play a scene will find their journal flashing red, so hard to miss. Aside from a few aesthetic changes (costumes, makeup, etc., think stage effects), all characters will be unchanged and won't gain any new powers or properties (ie. "Ghosts" are still tangible). The information they have is roughly the same as what is written OOCly.

Although there are certain characters set for a scene, it's not impossible for those not directly involved to make an appearance as random side characters or helpers. Characters can either just happen to be there or those cast as the role can make a "call out" through the journals. Any items and locations found through the main scenes are also free to be used by others for fun. There are also Bonus scenes that are basically extra prompts for people to have fun with if they'd like.

If you have any questions, post them to the Game Notes.

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§ main scenes.

¶ Scene 1: Ebegeeser and Horseman of Christmas Past. The Horseman is supposed to show Ebegeeser how he was as a teacher and he was (supposedly) a decent guy. So the best way to showcase that is give Ebegeeser a classroom to teach. The two will need to recreate the Schoolhouse, take care of some pranks, and deal with animated straw children. The "children" can behave however players want them to. Angels or devils, throwing things at Ebegeeser. Even the Horseman can be a brat and play along if they want. The Horseman will also have their pony to deal with and yes—must ride it at some point. Note: If it's pre-planned to not find the Schoolhouse here, let us know so that it's noted in other scenes involving it.

• Find the gift with the Schoolhouse to kick things off. [It's a big green box with a piece of a chalk on top so it should be be pretty obvious]
  
  
• Disarm three pranks set up within the Schoolhouse. [Pranks can be whatever you guys want]
  
  
• Ebegeeser "teach" a class of "children" and the Horseman.

Cast: Ebegeezer - Kazuma Asougi; Horseman - 9S

¶ Scene 2: Ebegeeser's first meeting with Beltrina. Set in the Schoolhouse, Ebegeeser first meets the beautiful Beltrina...and starts thinking about her wealth. Beltrina herself is practicing the violin and is already in a relationship with Bromfred. But could Ebegeeser worm his way into her heart!? Time for Ebeneeser to get his flirt on...and the Horseman might sit on the side and watch. MUSICAL NUMBER ♫ Note: If the Schoolhouse is pre-planned to not be found in the other scene, then they will need to find the box. Otherwise, the scene is set in a random building.

• Beltrina plays or uses the violin. [Can be meshed with the musical]
  
  
• Ebegeeser tries to flirt with Beltrina through song. [♫]
  
  
• Mention Bromfred.
  
  
• Bonus: Horseman of Christmas Past makes an appearance to speak with Ebegeeser [Can have a separate thread]

Cast: Ebegeezer - Cyrus Albright; Beltrina - Pearl; Horseman - Therion

¶ Scene 3: Bromfred's arrogance and Ebegeeser's jealousy. After learning about Beltrina's relationship with Bromfred and Bromfred constantly messing with him, Ebegeeser is brimming with hatred and jealousy. Bromfred's feelings are far simpler—he just finds the guy dumb and an easy target (no one said Bromfred was nice). So they are at each other's throats and will showcase their dislike through the magic of rap. The characters will have to find microphones, make a stage, and then dish out insults at each other a la "Drop the Mic." Who will be the victor? Will Ebegeeser let slip his murderous thoughts!? MUSICAL NUMBER ♫

• Find the gift containing two microphones. [Small yellow triangular box up in a tree]
  
  
• Make a stage. [There will be planks of wood and a toolset available nearby]
  
  
• Rap at each other. [♫]
  
  
• Bonus: Horseman appears to warn Ebegeeser through rap. [♫; can have separate threads]

Cast: Ebegeeser - Edna; Bromfred - Therion; Horseman - Ib

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[Mod note: Refer to the accompanying Game Notes for more information. If you wish to switch out of your current role, let us know!]

Comments

[decryptic]

[ Meanwhile, 9S hangs out with his steed in the back of the room, observing. The class stays put obediently for all of three seconds before Straw Kid #11 (hereby denoted as SK11) jabs the back of the head of SK05 in front of him. SK11 and his friends burst into laughter, much to SK05's indignation.

All at once, SK05 hurls himself at his bully, causing the rest of the class to erupt into cries and cheers. The two begin to wrestle, knocking aside chairs and desks and classmates in an explosion of straw. ]

Are all kids this violent...?

[ The pony doesn't answer. 9S just keeps watching. There are a lot of interesting social factors to take in here.

... For a minute or two, at least. When it seems like enough time has passed for the Disciple to have taken care of the runaway child, 9S ties the pony to the door handle, goes to the front of the class, and writes on the chalkboard:

THE HORSEMAN IS WATCHING

That should be sufficiently spooky. By the time 9S turns around, the children have begun to notice the message and are frantically shushing their roudier classmates. He goes about setting the desks and chairs straight, and the twice- frightened children get the hint. They sit down one by one, though they're one step from bolting, and glance around nervously for the ghost haunting their classroom.

With that business out of the way, 9S goes back to standing in the back of the room and watching, waiting for the Disciple to return. ]

[chippedsoul]

[There sure was lot of a noise coming from the classroom, but he's got a kid to help right now. Carefully, he picks him up and sets him on his lap. He starts putting the kid back together, letting him continue to cry until he stops on his own. Having a calming presence beside him seem to help.]

Feeling better now? [His voice was quiet as he smiles warmly down at him reassuringly. The straw kid looks up, patting his now proper headful of straw.] Hey, if anyone laughs and say something bad again, I'll give them a makeover. [Is that what teachers do? Well it managed to get a laugh out of the student, so who cares.

As they make their return, he noticed the classroom had gotten very quiet. Opening the door, he finds everyone was still in their seats, waiting expectantly for their teacher to return. He's honestly surprised until he turns to see the writing on the board.] Ah. [That explains it. He looks in the direction of 9S, a small grin on his face.]

I assure you that none of you have anything to fear, at least, as long as you're all on your best behavior. [You can just feel the tension in the air, a big hush spreading throughout the classroom. The Disciple picks up the textbook, unfazed by all of this.] Now, let's get the lesson, shall we? [Yes, he's leaving that message on the board.]

[decryptic]

[ The rest of the class goes smoothly... for 9S, anyway, who sits quietly in the back for most of it. The Disciple's lessons are peppered with a variety of harmless pranks and elusive alliterative literature, but for the most part it seems like a good class.

9S can't put a fast finger on why he thinks so. Some of the children are undoubtedly bored, passing notes when the Disciple isn't looking or even falling asleep. But others are engaged, trying their sincere best to answer questions and read passages when called upon. Maybe it's the fact that it's its own little microcosm, dedicated to things as simple and innocent as learning how to pronounce a word or how to multiply 8 by 9. Androids don't have classrooms like these; there's no need when your language core comes pre-defined and you have a built-in mathematical processor. Most androids also don't have the time or curiosity to learn about things unrelated to survival and the war effort. The children's learning speed is painfully slow by 9S's standards, but there's plenty else to appreciate in this setting, in the very idea of a room dedicated to the pursuit of knowledge for knowledge's sake.

... With that said, it doesn't stop 9S from being extremely bored by the end of the schoolday. Life is way easier when you can download data directly into your head. By time the final school bell rings, 9S has flipped through all the textbooks and taken in all the information that seems like it could be relevant, run every internal diagnostic, and filed a personal analysis of every student in the room. 9S's shadow, still a simple thing, has laid its head on its shadow desk and fallen asleep -- until it's rudely awoken by said bell. Then it jumps back awake, snapping into its usual place under 9S.

The children stampede out of the room as quickly as they came, tossing out their happy goodbyes to Mr. Icharooge as they pass. 9S watches them all go before standing and looking to the Disciple. ]

Well, it looks like this mission was a success. Nice work up there, Disciple.

[chippedsoul]

[He bids them farewell if they choose to say goodbye to him, and once the last student was gone, he closes the classroom door and takes a breather.]

Not as easy as it looked. I liked it when they behaved. [Initially he'd catch the ones passing notes or sleeping, but in the end, he just stopped caring. They weren't causing trouble anyway. He looks for the broom so he could sweep up the sand around his desk. He needed to be prank, but he wished they weren't so messy.]

[decryptic]

[ He straightens up the desks and chairs and leaves the Disciple to the sand. 9S had nothing to do with the sand, nope nope nope. ]

Do you have much experience with kids?

[chippedsoul]

[Yeeeah, totally not involved.] Not at all, let alone teach them. I admire teachers with that amount of patience.

[decryptic]

But you were a kid once too, right? Is this what you were like?

[chippedsoul]

[He stops sweeping for a moment.] ...Yea, but I don't remember.

[decryptic]

Oh. How come?

[ Do humans' memories not go back that far? ]

[chippedsoul]

Because I don't. [That explains everything. He goes back to his sweeping.]

Your shadow.

[decryptic]

Sensitive subject?

[ Well... that's fine. 9S lets the topic shift. The head of his shadow moves, seeming to look at the Disciple when it's mentioned. ]

My shadow's part of my essence. Kind of a grim story, actually. This scholar's shadow leaves him to become its own person. Eventually, it becomes so rich and successful that it tries to make the scholar its shadow.

[chippedsoul]

[He raises his brows, intrigued.] Does that mean it'll make you into it's shadow one day?

[decryptic]

[ His head tilts. ]

I suppose it could try. But if it ever did, I wouldn't hesitate to kill it. It knows that, so we shouldn't have a problem.

[ The Shadow returns to its normal state, inscrutable. ]

[chippedsoul]

[He hums quietly as he dumps the sand into a nearby bin. How did someone manage to get this much sand in here?]

Does it do anything? Besides live in your shadow?

[decryptic]

[ Wow, it's like someone had to make multiple trips to get multiple buckets of sand or something ]

At the moment, that's about it. It's a work in progress. How about your essence? "Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde"?

[chippedsoul]

[He stiffens, being put on the spot. It's only fair that he talks about it, having asked 9S about his.] ...As the title says, having a doctor as an essence grants me knowledge in medicines and human related illness and symptoms. Mr. Hyde is... [He shrugs.] he comes in a pinch during a fight.

[decryptic]

Two in one, huh? That's handy.

[ A lot handier than 9S's at the moment, anyway. ]

I'm not familiar with the story. What's it about?

[chippedsoul]

...It's a story about Dr. Jekyll, fighting against his alternate personality Mr. Hyde. A inner conflict between good and evil. [He wasn't comfortable talking about this, not after his experience with "Hyde" left him uncertain of what it could be capable of. The story is available back on the Index though, so he saw no reason to withhold the information when asked. Once he's finished tidying things up, he heads for the classroom door.]

[decryptic]

Hmm. I'll have to give it a read.

[ Yep, 9S will be looking up that story immediately once they get back to the Index. All things aside, it sounds interesting. And the Disciple doesn't seem like he wants to get too much into it, so there's no reason to push. Actually, there's a lot the Disciple doesn't like to get into. 9S hops back on his pony, and together they plod off after the Disciple. ]

Sooo... the law. What does a "prosecutor" do?

[chippedsoul]

[He's just not a very chatty person in general. They're moving onto a subject that doesn't make him uncomfortable though, so he'll probably be a little more willing.]

Do you know about trials? Courtroom procedures?

[decryptic]

Nope. Back home, it's been over 7000 years since anyone was around to enforce the law in the old human ways. If someone like me ever got out of line, they'd be subjected to a data wipe or outright terminated.

[ So it's square one with 9S on this subject, really. ]

[chippedsoul]

[Data wipe and--...wait, what? He stops, looking surprised. Some actual life on his face, amazing.]

You're actually a machine? [The whole data collecting explanation probably should have clued him in, but he just thought 9S was a spy in some advanced hi-tech world, not the actual hi-tech.]

1/2

[decryptic]

No!

[ 9S's response is sharp and caustic. It's his turn to stiffen, his entire being rejecting the Disciple's question. ]

2/2

[decryptic]

[ But he quickly realizes that he's overreacted to an innocent question, and he forces himself to calm down. ]

... Sorry. I think our understandings of that word are different. I'm technically an android. I'm made out of metal like a machine, but Machine Lifeforms are agents of the Aliens who took over the Earth. We've been at war with them for millenia.

I'm not a human any way you cut it, though.

[chippedsoul]

[That, was quite a reaction. Eventhough it was an innocent mistake, he felt bad for making it, especially when he hears what the actual machines have done to the Earth. He lowers his head.]

I'm...sorry for the misunderstanding. I've never heard of the word android before.