First Adventure [Scene 4 and Sub Quests]

[finnality]

Characters: Finn Mertens | Jack (of the Beanstalk) and Kotori | Sweet Porridge Girl or YOU
Campaign: Hollow Christmas (Act II)
Format: [ brackets ]
Open
Summary: Finn acts out a scene as Bromfred and also takes part in some subquesting!

[A. Scene 4: Promfred] (Locked to Kotori)

[Finn's finally gotten a role! It's not exactly a role he wanted, however. Bromfred seems like kind of a bad guy. But for the sake of the story, he'll have to try his best to fill those dirty shoes.

Once he's all dressed up, he searches the party for this Beltrina-to-be.]

Beltrina! Um... Beltrina, where are you! [He tries to sound assertive, but his voice wavers somewhat.]

[B. Another Christmas Carol]

[Finn's not too familiar with the Christmas spirit, but he'll do his best to join in on Christmas carols! He should probably learn how to do one first. He'll look over a book of lyrics while also experimenting with a flute.]

Soooo, which song should we try first?

[C. Mind Your Manor]

[Finn's most at home when it comes to action. And sure enough, there's action afoot! Outside the manor, Finn can be seen dealing with Santa's nefarious gang. His right arm, half of which is now made out of beanstalk, is on full display during this battle. Finn ends up clinging to the back of a reindeer, trying to direct its course to run down some of the old man's elves!]

Just when I thought I was done fighting old guys with big beards... Don't tell me this guy's an Ice King too! [Been there, done that. Come and help him? Or maybe the reindeer Finn's riding is accidentally on a crash course towards you!]

[D. Wildcard]

[Feel free to come up with another prompt, using any of the sub quests, or hit me up for further plotting!]

Comments

[finnality]

[Finn looks towards the person at the piano with a shrug.]

Hey broski, neither do I. But that's what these are for. Think fast! [With that, he throws a folder of sheet music at him!]

[decryptic]

[ 9S catches the folder! He opens it and is immediately puzzled by the sheet music. He can see that there are lyrics to match the tadpoles, so clearly it's some kind of musical notation. Beyond that, though... ]

How do you read these?

[finnality]

[Finn steps over towards him.]

Well the words are the parts that you sing. And all the little marks in the lines are basically the notes that tell you how to play and sing it. They're like the ingredients for a musical stew!

[decryptic]

[ This boy sure is chipper. 9S tilts his head a little skeptically, but studies the sheet music again. He's got nothing to lose... and hey, it might end up being fun. ]

All right, let's give it a shot.

[ He shuffles through the pages. ]

Which one strikes your fancy? There's "Jingle Bells", "Silent Night", "Winter Wonderland", "Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer"...

[ He'll keep listing until his new companion stops him. ]

[finnality]

[You bet he's chipper! He watches over his shoulder as he looks through the pages. And it's not long before he chimes in.]

Ooh! How about that reindeer guy? I wanna know what his deal is!

[decryptic]

You got it.

[ He pulls out said tune and puts it on the angled board thing on the piano, because that seems right. He reads the first bit of the lyrics: ]

"You know Dasher and Dancer and Prancer and Vixen
Comet and Cupid and Donner and Blitzen..."

Whoever wrote this sure made a lot of assumptions. Do you know who they are?

[finnality]

[Finn taps his chin thoughtfully, and then he quickly shakes his head.]

I don't know any of those peeps! Well, I know of a comet, but I don't think they mean the same one. Yeah, this song writer's making some big time assumptions!

[decryptic]

[ This seems like bad song-writing!! But oh well, 9S continues reading. ]

"But do you recall
The most famous reindeer of all?
Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer
Had a very shiny nose
And if you ever saw it
You would even say it glows
All of the other reindeer
Used to laugh and call him names
They never let poor Rudolph
Join in any reindeer games
Then one foggy Christmas Eve
Santa came to say
'Rudolph, with your nose so bright
Won't you guide my sleigh tonight?'
Then how the reindeer loved him
As they shouted out with glee
'Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer
You'll go down in history.'"

[ He shuffles through the pages. ]

Then it just repeats.

[finnality]

[Finn listens attentively. He really seems to be into this narrative! He even mutters "Aw no not the reindeer games!" after that verse. Then his excitement builds in the last verses, and the end, he raises a fist triumphantly!]

Aw yeah!! You go, Rudolph! You show those dingle-lords how tricked out you really are! [He gently tries to jab an elbow at 9s.] Guess he nose what he's doing after all, eh?

[decryptic]

[ Unfortunately for Finn, the android predilection for puns is not especially strong. 9S blinks at him from behind his visor. ]

Uh, right. The other reindeer sound kind of shallow, though... I wonder how happy an ending this really is.

[ He shakes his head. ]

Anyway, let's give this thing a shot. I can try singing if you want to play your... blowstick?

[ he has zero clue what that instrument is called ]

[finnality]

[Finn waited for a moment for a response to his joke, only to sadly find none. So he settles for adding his own two cents to the thoughts on Rudolph.

Yeah, they really do, but I bet they'll learn a thing or two from our boi Rudolph.

[And he also snorts at 9s's guess, waving the flute in his hand.]

It's a flute, yo. But blowstick's not a bad name. Okay then, time to blow this baby up! [He squints at the sheet music and tries to play it on his flute! He seems to be fine at playing the flute, but less so at following sheet music, so it'll sound a bit clumsy.]

[decryptic]

[ That's okay because 9S has no musical experience whatsoever, so whatever Finn is playing is what 9S assumes is righty tighty. He tries to follow along with the pips of the flute, while also following the general ups and downs of the sheet music, and everything is probably wrong. He can sing on pitch; it just doesn't amount to much when he has only a vague idea of what the right pitch is. He keeps trucking along though, because he's willing to ride this trainwreck to its natural conclusion. ]

♫ You know Dasher and Dancer and Prancer and Vixen ♪
♪♪ Comet and Cupid and Donner and Blitzen ♪
♫ ♪ But do you recall ♫
♪ The most famous reindeer of all? ♫
[ ... ]

[ And so on. One could describe his singing as a minute-long question mark. ]

[finnality]

[And so it comes to an end! Finn lowers his flute and claps.]

Hey, not bad! You got some good pipes on you, bro. I bet we'll get it down after some more practice. How did I sound?

[decryptic]

Really? That was okay?

[ Singing is strangely embarrassing... But. He has to admit it was a little fun. ]

You sounded... great, I think. Should we give it another round?

[finnality]

It was fine, really! And it'll only get finer, like a... diamond or some other kinda mineral.

[Finn nods in determination as he readies the flute.]

Yeah, I'm ready! Let's take this one to the fridge!

[decryptic]

[ What does that MEAN. 9S just rolls with it though, and gives Finn a small smile and nod. He's starting to feel a little amped up now. ]

Let's do it!

[ He doesn't know about counting off, so he just takes an exaggerated breath to cue Finn in before launching into the song. Now that he has an idea of what it sounds like, he sings his part more confidently, keeping in time rather than lagging after Finn's playing. It's a marked improvement over the first run-through. ]

[finnality]

[Finn plays along excitedly, and the improvement is very clear! Once it's done, Finn cheers and raises a fist in the air, while spinning the flute around in his hand.]

Yeah! You're really getting the hang of this, man! ...Y'know, I don't think we did the whole name thing. I'm Finn!

[decryptic]

[ 9S smiles at the praise, pleased. ]

The name's 9S. I wouldn't have gotten anywhere without you, Finn.

[ He taps the score for the music back into order and starts leafing through all the titles again. ]

So how'd you learn to play your flute?

[finnality]

Yo 9s. [He smiles.] Glad to help!

[And then he fiddles around with his flute while 9S looks through music.]

Oh, I picked up a bunch of lessons here and there. Especially from my brother Jake. He's the real musical whiz! But I guess it was when I had a cursed grass arm that I really learned how to jazz it up!

[decryptic]

[ Uh. 9S pauses in his paper-shuffling. ]

Cursed... grass arm?

[finnality]

Yeahhh, that was kind of a thing back home. Long story short, I had a cursed grass sword, it helped me get a new arm, but then things went kinda super bananas and some sad stuff went down.

[A pause. He takes off the glove on his right arm to show that his entire right forearm seems to be made out of a beanstalky substance.]

Now I got a beanstalk arm. Doesn't seem cursed so far!

[decryptic]

[ ?????

He has so many questions, but he has a feeling that he'll never find arrive at a satisfactory answer. So he'll just settle for dubious acceptance. ]

I guess all's well that ends well? So... your cursed grass arm bestowed you with the power of music?

[finnality]

[The sooner he accepts there are no satisfactory answers, the better.]

Wellll, it wasn't like a full-on magical transformation-type dealio. It was more like having a really good tutor that was also my hand.

[decryptic]

I'm starting to think that my understanding of a "curse" is different from yours.

[ Also, he's noticing that a lot of these song titles are on the lower side of effort. Half of them have "Christmas" in the title... Finally, he stops on one that interests him. ]

How about this one? It's called "Frosty the Snowman".

[finnality]

Nah, it might just be that I didn't cover the actual curse part. But yo, Frosty? Sounds neat, let's load it up! [He goes back to peering over his shoulder to check this song out!]