[Second Life] The Best Christmas Pageant Ever

[cityship]

Ah, the Fairplay Christmas Pageant. It took place in the Fairplay VFW Hall every year, which, due to the regular needs of the town had received enough money to expand the hall to use it for most community events. People filtered in and out all night so that most families in the town made an appearance at some point. There was punch, egg nog, Christmas snacks, a guy who dressed up as Santa, little kids doing the Nativity play, the mayor's speech, Christmas raffles...

Everyone was expected to attend. Everyone. Parents dragged their kids and teenagers sulked in the corners, presents were exchanged among members of the town, people who did business together used it as a time to talk shop and be a little social, and parents talked about how great their kid's grades were or how little Johnny was doing on the football field.

What a wonderful celebration of townish togetherness, right? People talking about gifts they'd gotten their family members as the status symbols they were, people trying to compete with others in a competition of "Who has the most impressive child?," people sniping each other because of what happened at the last PTA meeting or because they were jealous of another person's success with their business. Funtimes, funtimes.

And as sad before, everyone was expected to attend. Everyone.

[ooc: Follow the rules for each subthread that are in the ooc notes.]

Comments

Mingling

[cityship]

The main thing to do at the pageant was to mingle in between raffles, plays, and Christmas games. Teachers could talk to students they only ever saw in class, business owners could talk to other business owners, everyone could talk to the mayor and pretend he made perfect sense.

[ooc: Mingling subthreads are go!]

Re: Mingling

[icanhashat.livejournal.com]

Jayne was dressed...comfortably for the evening. One could even go as far to say nice.

But he still felt horribly out of place.

Clad in a ugly brown and beige sweater with a diamond pattern on it he lurked about awkwardly by the snack table with a little plate of cookies and some fruit punch.

Why was he even here this year? His daughter had made it very clear she didn't want to go. The kind of clear that in his house resulted in her yelling hurtful things at him and slamming the door. Even with such blatant disrespect he couldn't bring himself to discipline her.

So while she was out having fun he was at the town pageant watching the other families mill about and silently wishing he had one of his own that would play along with his silly sentimental traditions.

He popped another cookie in his mouth and chewed slowly. This was just another place and another day. Nothing special about it anymore.

[boundlesslight.livejournal.com]

Corinne was simply passing through, waving delicately and playing her part as a wholesome teenager. By luck, she happened to focus on someone in the crowd.

The man looked...cozy, for lack of a better word, but alone. As she was, and lacking any spark of holiday spirit. Painfully familiar.

"Happy holidays, sir," Corinne said quietly, curtsying as she was expected to do. "Are you well?"

Pleasantries, sir, but there just might be a spark of genuine concern behind them. Coming from a teenager, though? Her motives probably appeared questionable.

Re: Mingling

[starlightace]

Nanoha's family, of course, had set up a sale table as they had every year - this was just the sort of event at which people bought cookies, pieces of cake and pastries ... and it was the sort of event that had kept them afloat financially every year, just barely squeaking by. She was manning it right now.

[cityship]

"Right, so, Mr. Takamootchi--"

Re: Mingling

[gunslinging.livejournal.com]

Axl didn't have much interest in religious anything, or much patience for the kind of social pussyfooting that was always going on at events like this. But if there was one thing that was always a surefire distraction from the parts of the event that bored him to tears, food was definitely it.

He wasn't exactly a regular at the bakery (he didn't really have much of a sweet tooth, he was more a spicy kind of guy), but he did drop in often enough that Nanoha's name had always stuck in his head easily enough. Though when he thought about it, weren't there places he dropped by more often where he still couldn't keep track of the employees...? There didn't seem to be much of a reason why he'd find her more recognizable than anybody else, but...whatever, he was probably imagining stuff.

"Sup, Nanoha." He took a glance across the table. "What's the most decadently chocolatey thing you've got out tonight?"

Re: Mingling

[bonnypiperlad]

Jamie's family was always at the pageant, and this year was no exception. At his father's insistence, the young Scot had put on a respectable suit and a matching tie. Once his father had left the room, however, he had switched the tie from the rather dull specimen to a tartan one, patterned in the McCrimmon colors. Luckily, his father hadn't noticed, thanks to having already indulged in some Christmas 'cheer' earlier. The elder McCrimmon was now off making his rounds of the other business owners, leaving Jamie to his own devices.

Currently, he was idly wandering through the room, occasionally sipping from a cup of eggnog in one hand. Donald's booming voice carried back to him, sounding just a little too cheerful. He must have a flask with him, Jamie thought, and he pinched the bridge of his nose, looking pained.

It was going to be a long evening.

Re: Mingling

[governorkang]

Kang and Felicia both hated the Pageant. They didn't dare not attend, though, no matter how tempting the idea was; spending a short amount of time in the uncomfortable atmosphere was preferable to the long-term treatment they'd receive if they didn't behave like good townsfolk.

Felicia had disappeared somewhere, probably to talk to some of her friends. It didn't take him long to spot her halfway across the hall and confirm it. His parents had already zoomed in to harass the two of them, luckily, getting the most unpleasant part of the evening over with. Laughing politely, he managed to extricate himself from his conversation with one of the teachers, and went to fetch himself more punch.

[Responses for Kang go here!]

Re: Mingling

[governorkang]

When Kang and Father Thomas had talked before, they had purposely kept their voices low, and had assumed that all the other noise in the bar would prevent anyone else from overhearing their conversation. Unfortunately, someone had. And, even though this particular person never intended to share this information with a soul, they had, quite by accident. A simple slip of the tongue while speaking with one of the rumormongers, and within hours, it had spread to nearly every adult in Fairplay.

At first, the couple was unaware, and confused, at the glances and whispers that followed them when they entered the VFW. It wasn't until one of the older ladies in town came up to them and told them in sympathetic tones, "It's alright, dears. You're good people; when the time is right, it'll happen."

"...Mrs. Evans?"

"Oh, don't call me that, you make me feel older than I already am. Call me Caren," she smiled, giving both of them a warm, tight hug. "You know, my sister and her husband had problems for years, too, but then one day, bam! Pregnant! A miracle, it was."

Kang froze, and Felicia nearly dropped her glass, "How... how did you find out?"

Caren put a comforting hand on her arm, "Patricia told me; she overheard Mrs. White. It's nothing to be ashamed of."

"If Mrs. White knows, then practically everyone else does by now," he muttered, biting back a curse. Wonderful. He really didn't need this right now.

Felicia gave Kang a worried look and pressed herself closer to his side, "...Caren, we, ah, appreciate it. Really, we do. We never wanted anyone else to know about this, though."

"Oh, I understand, dears," the woman smiled kindly. "My sister was the same way. I just wanted to let you know that there are people here that wish the best for you. Do try not to let this ruin your Christmas?"

"We'll try not to," Kang said with a wry smile.

[No responses to this one, please! I'm just setting something up for future stuff.

It's unlikely that any of the kids will hear about this, but the majority of the NPC adults around town will know. So, it's completely possible for your character to not have heard if you'd rather that be the case. They may, however, notice that Kang is a little more... stressed lately, and that others in town are treating him a little bit differently: odd looks, whispers, avoidance (because obv. there must be something wrong with one or both of them), all that jazz.]

Re: Mingling

[psi-flames.livejournal.com]

Jono considered not coming, despite the long-term treatment he might receive. He'd felt more than a little off since his attack at the music shop and all he really wanted was a night at home with his feet up and Siouxsie in his lap. Instead, he was at the pageant, leaning heavily on his cane.

He nodded toward Kang as he approached the punch, pouring a second cup and offering it to the older man. "How long do you think's polite t' make nice before yer allowed t' leave?" Making nice was not one of Jono's strong points when he wasn't feeling well.

Re: Mingling

[nothawkingbird.livejournal.com]

Kate or 'Lizzy' yawned, feeling a bit bored. She walked around, occasionally waving to the more popular teens from school. Her father was too busy schmoozing to really notice so she knew she was on her own. She had her arms folded in front of her. She was dressed in a simple but stylish blue dress with a wrap and coat against the chilled air. The refreshments didn't interest her much, and many of the games seemed so lame. She hoped it wouldn't last much longer.

Re: Mingling

[neverwastenaya.livejournal.com]

Tenaya made her way over to a chair against the wall, near Kate. She didn't hear her, so as far as she knew, the area was empty. Which was fine for her; she didn't want to be here anyway.

"Tennie, stop arguing," Dylan had said. "You know Mom and Dad would want us to keep up our old traditions. You'd disappoint them."

"Easy for him to say," she sulked. "Everyone admires him for being so brave to quit school and take care of his poor, blind, difficult sister."

[riseupnchargem.livejournal.com]

Jamie slouched in a chair in front of the stage where the nativity play was going on, watching the proceedings with bland detachment while he nursed a cup of punch. His dad was off chatting with some of his friends from work, leaving Jamie to his own devices.

The entire holiday had seemed increasingly weird and alien to him this year. None of the traditions or symbolism felt familiar; it was as though he was viewing them through some kind of filter that made them appear unrecognizably bizarre. A teenage virgin giving birth to a god, in a barn, in the middle of winter. Foreign dignitaries travelling across the desert to bring him gold and frankincense and myrhh, whatever those last two things were. And somehow the celebration of this event tied in with a completely different myth about a fat man in a red suit who employed midget slave labor and watched people throughout the year to weigh their deeds on a moral scale. What the hell was this holiday.

Jamie shook his head and took another sip of punch, wondering where the sudden cynicism had come from. Sure he'd been more than a little dour the past year, but so far he'd limited his incessant scrutinizing to things like his own future and how best to handle the parade of disappointment that was his life, not the internal consistency of holiday symbology.

Maybe it was just the depression talking. Who knew.

[gunslinging.livejournal.com]

Axl wasn't sure if he was remembering the guy's name right offhand -- Jamie? something like that -- but he did look awfully familiar.

Well, duh. Not in my grade, but it's not like the school's that big.

"You look about as thrilled to be here as me," he said cheerfully, dropping into a chair nearby. Random? Sure, but randomly bugging people was one of those things he'd always been good at, and at least he was pretty sure Jamie (?) probably rated pretty low on the Bullshit Social Posturing scale.

The Mayor's Speech

[cityship]

The Mayor made a speech every year at the pageant. It never really made a whole lot of sense. This year, what would make even less sense would be what happened after...

[ooc: Plot post. This will be a single subthread with some weird stuff happening in it. Reactions go in the next subthread]

[cityship]

When the music cut off, Mayor Westling approached the stage; a handful rolled their eyes or made a quick whispered comment to their neighbor before giving their full attention. He waited patiently for the crowd to quiet down with a smile, hands resting on the lectern.

The words that came out of his mouth when he finally spoke, though, were feminine, warm and motherly; and, oddly, sounded in their heads instead of audibly.

|| My name is STA'C K'LTRRB'TXFT, but you may call me Stacy. ||

The mayor's mouth continued to move, streaks of color escaping and drifting through the air. They spread throughout the room, looping their way around some people and going through others, changing their appearance.

|| You are here. You have been Chosen to accomplish a Great Purpose. You have been Chosen to help fight the Ohm, a race of insectoid beings that are the destroyers of worlds. You have been Chosen as champions of life, as protectors of the worlds and peoples that are left. The others are waiting for you. They will explain everything. ||

The VFW transformed into a giant chamber, with sculptures nearly fifty feet tall along one wall and windows that were reminiscent of the inside of giant eyelids. Everything looked alive, even the furniture, and the floor pulsed under their feet. Even the atmosphere changed, becoming warm and humid.

Those who hadn't been changed were surrounded by a mass of strangely familiar people, mostly human, but not all; in one corner, a dragon with red markings sat majestically, deep in conversation with a woman. A man that looked remarkably like Han Solo walked by, pausing to say hello to another. Some sort of creature that resembled a centaur with blue fur and no mouth watched the crowd, the two extra eyes attached to the stalks on the top of its head moving continuously. An elf in robes of some sort, seemingly straight out of a fantasy book, brushed by.

The vision lasted for a full thirty seconds before disappearing as if it had never been there.

A male voice echoed about the VFW. "Enjoy the rest of your evening, and Merry Christmas!"

Mayor Westling had finished his speech.

Reactions

[cityship]

Only they could see it. Only some of them understood that something was wrong, and some of their expressions in the crowd marked them as the only ones that could.

Instantly, most one of them could look across the room and know who else had seen what they'd just seen just by the expressions on their faces.

[ooc: Mingling subthreads again, but this time, after the event in the Mayor's speech, so obviously don't start reacting here until it's written out.]

Re: Reactions

[i-saw-myself.livejournal.com]

Harold stood there, completely frozen--and was only shaken out of his extreme shock by the cookie he'd bought from Nanoha slipping and dropping out of his hand to the floor.

As people clapped politely at the mayor's Christmas speech, he blurted out, loudly, over the thrum of applause so everyone in the hall could hear it:

"What the #$%& was that?"

Re: Reactions

[gunslinging.livejournal.com]

Axl had been slouching, not paying much attention -- but when the mayor began talking (the mayor? or -- "Stacy"?), his posture snapped up straight as if someone had jammed a steel rod into his back, and his eyes widened.

"What the scrap --"

...and since when had he started using the contents of junkyards in lieu of normal profanity, anyway?

Re: Reactions

[birthmural]

Damon stared at the podium, long after the Mayor left.

There were... they were not memories, at least not quite. But senses, flashes of another life. Of a sentient ship, of waking up naked and covered in an alien goo. Of Patsy- not his Patsy but still strong, still beautiful. A menace defeated and a still larger one still to be challenged.

There was something- someone screaming in his mind. Yelling at him to wake up, to reject this reality and come to his senses but that was madness. This was reality. There was nothing else- certainly nothing that he wanted to return to.

He was going mad. He had to be. And yet- if it was only him then were others affected as well? Why had Mr. Cobb seen the car. Why had-

No, no. Something was going on. Something had to be going on. Or else Damon was more unhinged than he had thought.

Re: Reactions

[governorkang]

What the...

It was a damn good thing Kang hadn't been holding a drink in his hand, because it would have ended up all over the floor. A curse in Korean escaped him, and he looked around the room to check if anyone else had just seen that. Several of the faces registered the same shock he was feeling, and he unconsciously filed them away; a hand on his arm made him jump as if he'd been electrocuted.

"Kang?"

"Did you just..." he asked Felicia, voice a little shaky.

She frowned, giving him a concerned look, "You look really pale. Are you feeling alright?"

So she hadn't seen it. He shook his head, "I'm... I'm fine." It was clear from her expression that she wasn't buying it. "Really. I'm fine, 'licia."

"...you're lying, but I'll drop it for now."

Kang sighed.

Re: Reactions

[bonnypiperlad]

The cup of eggnog that Jamie was still holding slipped from nerveless fingers and fell to the ground. While there wasn't a lot of liquid left, most of it splashed out and onto Donald's shoe before the cup bounced and then rolled away into the crowd. Donald glared at his son, and opened his mouth to say something.

Jamie didn't give him a chance - whatever it was, it wouldn't be pleasant. "Sorry," he said quickly, and knelt down to start cleaning up the mess. Luckily, this also meant that he could hide his rather shocked expression. He had caught fleeting glimpses of similar looks on a few others in the crowd, and he guessed he might not have been the only one to have heard that feminine voice in his mind. Something nagged in the back of his mind about the words, too. They were...familiar. Why would they be familiar? Did it have anything to do with the odd things he had seen? Had anyone else seen them as well?

It was all he could do to keep the thoughts from showing on his face as he mopped up the eggnog with a napkin that had been grabbed from a nearby table.

Re: Reactions

[neverwastenaya.livejournal.com]

Tenaya had jumped to her feet when she heard the voice and saw the strange vision. She was dimly aware of her cane clattering to the floor, but she couldn't think about that right now.

She saw something. And it was nothing she could have imagined.

As if summoned by her momentary sight, memories returned to the rest of her senses.

Red: The sense of her body overheating, worse than a fever, as everything inside her screamed for her to stop. But she couldn't--the feeling of her fists hitting the enemy and the sound of her blasts scoring a hit meant she had to keep going.

Blue: The voice of a friend, one of the first she'd ever made, working on several different projects.

Yellow: The heat of the desert sun, the smell of flowers growing in metallic earth, and the sense that she needed to hold onto this always.

Green: Voices of people who were always crazy and not always on the ball, but deep down, she knew they were good for a laugh.

Black: Coolness, protection, but also darkness. The sense that if the darkness returned, she'd be able to handle it this time. And a presence always in the back of her memory...

"Tenaya?" Dylan asked, snapping her back to reality. "You dropped your cane. Do you need help finding it?"

"...No," Tenaya answered, carefully reaching down to pick it up. Her vision was gone again, but she felt oddly dizzy--almost like she'd been dancing in a wild circle (wildly swing-dancing, her mind whispered).

She managed to pick up her cane and get back to her feet, but she kept her distance from Dylan. For some reason, she couldn't help but feel that the brother she'd known all her life was a complete stranger.

Re: Reactions

[psi-flames.livejournal.com]

Jono collapsed in a nearby chair, his legs unwilling to hold him up anymore. It wasn't quite an attack, but it felt--wrong. And right at the same time.

He knew that place. It was familiar. Familiar in a way that this town didn't always seem.

It didn't make sense. Jono shook his head, letting his head fall back against the wall and closing his eyes. He just needed a few minutes to get his energy back. Then he was going home. The rest of the town could just deal with it. He was past caring at the moment.

[boundlesslight.livejournal.com]

Corinne's breath caught in her throat. The first feminine voice....that name, she could still pronounce it with perfect clarity. "Sta'c k'ltrrb'txft," she whispered, making noises with her throat that most humans in Fairplay did not. Once, she almost-remembered, her linguistics were even better than her current mastery of French, German, and Japanese suggested.

The other shapes weren't as scary as perhaps they should have been. Even the interior that had flickered across her eyes was warm, inviting, familiar. And she had a feeling that it wasn't just the effect of far too many sci fi movies on lonely nights.

As she glanced across the crowd, she saw flickers of confusion that mirrored her own. Running to someone, she breathed: "What's happening?"