polylogs | Happy Holidays

✖ THE MALL

Ⅰ. THE REASON FOR THE SEASON
Boy, wasn’t November exciting? How about those Black Friday deals, huh? Hope you’ve had fun camping out in furniture stores! You can of course continue to bunk there, but the High Temple is also open to all Travelers again this month if you’d rather sleep there. Don’t forget to stock up on items that could fit inside your Traveler bag - this is the perfect time to get that fancy moisturizer you’ve been missing, some books, or maybe a copy of the hot new video game Bonestorm!

As December rolls in, you’ll notice that there’s even MORE holiday cheer to be found! Pressing in on all sides of you! Suffocating you! Or maybe you’re one of those people who just lives for carols and huge plastic evergreens decked out in tinsel and lights, in which case you’re going to be thrilled!

There are indeed plenty of those aforementioned trees throughout the mall, alongside wire and light reindeer, glowing stars, and oversized novelty gift boxes. If you have keen eyes you’ll notice that hidden throughout the mall are dozens of small, creepy elves with dead vacant eyes. They don’t do anything. They just… watch.

Who on earth could they be reporting to?

Ⅱ. HE SEES YOU WHEN YOU’RE SLEEPING

At the center of the mall concourse there is now a miniature village set up, themed entirely in ice and snow and candy. At the center of this plastic paradise is a lavishly decorated chair, and in front of it a camera. At times marked clearly on a schedule at the village gate you can wait in line behind a red velvet rope for your turn to see him.

Who? Well. That depends.

In many worlds, there is a benevolent figure who appears in December, bearing gifts for all the good children. Santa is the most likely person you’ll find sitting on that big chair, ho-ho-hoing and looking as kind and jolly as any creature possibly could.

Maybe you’re from somewhere without a Santa Claus, but with some other equivalent. In that case, you might see what you’re familiar with instead!

Regardless of his exact form, the figure who beckons you to sit beside him has only one concern: have you been nice?

Niceness is subjective, but if you’ve managed it you will be rewarded. With a twinkle in his eye, the Non-Denominational Mall Figure will reach into his magic bag and pull out a gift, JUST for you! What could it be?!

Oh, and don’t forget to smile for the photo! You may pick it up in half an hour once it is developed.

But if you’ve been naughty, or if you sneak over to that chair during the OFF hours? In that case there will be a cracking noise and the sudden overwhelming scent of rank goat.

“Better luck next year,” the Non-Denominational Mall Figure says sadly, his eyes trained on something over your shoulder. Turn your head and you’ll see that your naughtiness has attracted another holiday staple: Krampus.

Yes, this hairy, horned devil carries chains and bitch rods, the latter of which he uses to whip the everloving shit out of you if he catches you. You’ll have to outrun him long enough that he gets bored, or find some other way to distract him or pay him off. Maybe there’s a German market set up in the mall somewhere where you could get Krampus to do a Smorgasvein with you?

Notes:
1. This month if your character has been nice, they may receive ONE special item! They may only receive this gift once - multiple attempts to see the Non-Denominational Mall Figure will result in Krampus appearing instead.

The special item you may pick for your character can be one of the following:

- one animal companion. This animal can travel with your character from island to island from now on. The only stipulation is that it must be able to fit comfortably on the ferryboat. If your animal is too large, your character can instead get a mini version!

- one carriable item from your character’s homeland. In the case of weapons, this must be something that is not game breaking in terms of power level. (ie: yes, you can get a gun, no you can’t get a gun that explodes the sun.)

- a collection of holiday candies, all of which have magical healing properties.

2. You determine if your character’s actions put them on the Naughty or Nice list

Ⅲ. WINTER WONDERLAND
As you wander through the mall you will notice that amongst all the holiday decorations a large area on the first floor that was closed last month is now lit up and has a welcome sign standing outside. Whatever could it be?

Perhaps a bigger and better Orange Julius?

No silly! It's an indoor ice skating rink. And as if that isn't cool enough - get it? Cool? - it would seem that for the whole month skate rentals are free. So go on, slap on a pair of skates and take a whirl around the ice rink! Show everyone your fancy moves or just try not to fall on your ass.

Don't feel like skating? That's okay, there are dorky performances happening at noon and 5pm where a group of people dressed up as holiday creatures will skate around in formation and do tricks.

If you’re more mature, at 8pm there's a live jazz band that will play music for the skaters.

There’s plenty of beverages and foods to be sampled from the holiday kiosks that have popped up close to the rink.

Notes:
1. This is a public ice rink so you will have to share space with people, so if you plan on throwing out a triple lutz or whatever then you might want to make sure you don't hit or slice into anyone with your skates.

Ⅳ. ALL I WANT IS YOU
Cheerful generic holiday music fills the hall as the Christmas celebration hits full swing with a slightly panicked glee. The same rotation of a dozen different carols cycles through, one after the other, hour after hour. There are only a few refuges from the mind numbing music through the mall - that one New Age import shop that hasn’t changed its world music CD in a decade, and Spicy Subject which only plays pop punk covers of carols. Even the bathrooms aren’t safe from that rise and fall of notes that let you know a certain diva is going to tell you that you’re all she wants for Christmas.

Just as the hundredth iteration of the song is about to drive you mad, there’s a tremendous crash. A twenty foot tall Christmas tree that had once been suspended in the middle of the food court has crushed the Pizza Corner and taken out the power source for half the Mall’s sound system in one go. A caped figure escapes along the rafters that once supported the tree in a cloud of heavy fragrance. He pauses only once to bow as banner unfurls. Crude letters have been painted over a previous black Friday announcement: You have been warned: The Phantom!

The crowd begins to murmur and huddle in groups, and if you get nosy there are plenty of rumors. A teen from one of the ear piercing boutiques mentions a ghost story about a Luxuriate employee who got in a terrible accident while mixing bath bombs on site that rendered him permanently aromatic and with a permanent splitting headache that would have killed a lesser person. An older man from the Hotdog Hut pipes up that he disappeared into the labyrinth of hidden hallways that allow employees to navigate the mall for restocking and avoiding the overly aggressive salespeople. Every year the Phantom emerges in an attempt to banish the sky high notes of that ever popular Christmas carol, and every year the people who run the mall put it back in rotation.

Even after the incident with the choir.

A mother with two small children who are more puffy coat than person hushes the hotdog seller. It’s all nonsense of course. Some kind of interactive theater to drive up sales before the holidays. The looks that pass between the other employees, and the signs that the poor twenty-something postgrad working at Pizza Corner might have been crushed say otherwise.

So does the pungent waft of multifloral scent that starts to stalk you through the mall. Apparently, someone’s formed a crush, or are you giving him a terrible headache? What is it about you that you do better than anyone that might be appreciated by this deeply eccentric murder? Or what makes you the most annoying? Either way, it might be good to keep your hand at the level of your eyes because you’re about to be whisked away to the depths of the Mall into the Phantom’s lair.

Notes:
1. The Phantom is now more archetype than human. Killing him will probably not solve the issue, but it will make you smell like you’ve been eating bath bombs and drinking essential oils until New Year. Which could be fun.

2. Alternatively, if you agree with him about the music, you can always agree to team up to take out the rest of the sound system.

3. The Phantom has an excellent tenor voice. Just, you know, in case you were wondering.

Come on Jessica, come on Tori! Let's go to the mall, you won't be sorry!

Network · Logs · OOC · Memes · Plurk

Flat | Top-Level Comments Only

Yes. That’s very true.

What happened once they reached Jotunheim?

The princes nearly started a war. With accusations and fights flying on both sides. For that the sunlit prince was banished and all that was left was the prince of shadows to rule.

I suppose it would seem to most that he’d gotten something he wanted. His time in the sun.

I don't recall saying that.

No, no, it just seems the assumption most would make. That the shadow craves the light. I’m not saying it’s necessarily the case.

I suppose the narratives would feed into such a story. It would be more thrilling, wouldn't it?

The shadow prince was made king, but alas, he also learned the truth. He was of the frozen realm Jotunheim, brought to be a pawn. When such a thing came to light, his mind fractured. Who was he? What was he worth? Or was he simply the worth kings deign to give him?

I find this story far more interesting, actually. It’s easy to paint the shadow as the simple villain of the piece, as is often the way.

But I know a story a little like that of the Shadow Prince, so I suppose I can sympathise.

Did he find any answers to his questions?

Let us see.

As fear and doubt ate away at him, he began to take drastic actions to prove his loyalty. He killed the king of Jotunheim and he lashed out at the sunlit prince he loved so much. He believed if he showed such devotion, his loyalty could not be questioned. That his true nature meant nothing.

However it was. A cataclysmic fight occured between the two princes and he fell. Forgotten from memory.

For he was, after all, only a shadow.

This may be an unpopular reading of the story but… did the Sunlit Prince ever see how much the Shadow Prince was hurting?

Why would he?

Who looks at their own shadow?

They grew together, played together, fought together. It sounds like he looked at the shadow then, when the shadow perhaps reflected happy times. But if the shadow cast reflects something other than that, one can’t entirely blame the shadow, can they?

[ a little wry. ]

It's not much of an aesopian tale. Who knows what informs those events? Nature or nurture?

It’s certainly a debate that could go round and round. Though I wonder if a monster would consider themselves as such without being told that’s what they are?

A monster can usually tell what's under the surface, even without a name to give it.

May I ask what makes the Jotuns monsters? Yes, they sought to conquer Earth and yes, there were conflicts but I wouldn’t say those sorts of acts are unique to them.

They may not be unique, but are they not still monstrous?

Would that not make most in the story monstrous? The king for taking the child for his own ends, the Sunlit Prince for seeking revenge?

Perhaps.

If that is how the story was told.

If there’s a bias in the telling of the story, it will impact upon how the listener interprets it, certainly. But if the storyteller has presented the events as they were, even if not necessarily the motivations or reasoning of those involved, then the events are as objective as they can be.

But I suppose there could also be the question of whether those who’d see themselves as monstrous would wish to frame themselves as such.

[ loki chuckles at that. ]

Why not? Who needs pale illusions of themselves when the truth will suffice?

As it stands, interpretations belong to those who hear the story. It's not for me to debate it.

I meant more that framing oneself as a monster may make certain things easier to rationalise. I am a monster, therefore this happened or I took this action.

Well, for what it may be worth, I don’t really see any monsters in your story.

It is just a story after all. There's some truth in it, but all truths become stories in the end.

If all truths become stories then surely no story would be ‘just’ a story?

But thank you, Loki, for sharing it. Perhaps one day you’ll continue with what happened to the kings and the princes, in the end.

That depends on who takes in the story. Who makes it their meaning. Otherwise they do just remain stories.

[ a laconic shrug to that. ]

We'll see.

Ah, yes. I suppose there’s also the looking beyond the story itself to why the teller tells it the way they do. But then, not every listener might want to consider a story to that degree.

We shall. I’d always welcome a story from you, whatever it may be.

(no subject)

dothelokimotion - 2021-12-31 11:23 (UTC) - Expand

neverwither - 2021-12-31 11:40 (UTC) - Expand

dothelokimotion - 2021-12-31 11:42 (UTC) - Expand

neverwither - 2021-12-31 11:46 (UTC) - Expand

dothelokimotion - 2022-01-01 09:29 (UTC) - Expand