Event: RP Secret Santa 2021

Eleanor · Jan 2, 2022

Hello hello~

I think I can agree with pretty much Cubeth has said, from this period just being hectic in general to the potential of Discord... if that helps, I've already used threads over on the main PC servers for Challenge events and it's been going well so far- Moderoids as far as I know are fine with setting threads up and they can always be archived later.

Now though, can we please also talk about who made who? I know it's my fault for not saying anything when I signed up but... don't you know I have zero sense of humor? And... really, mistaking flipping people off for a cheerful greeting? Who even...
Ok, jokes aside, I'm sorry I couldn't do much better with "Ellie but with an F". I suppose part of the problem was giving them even more traits I'm not used to write (like barely knowing English), which- and here's the key point- only make writing as them take even more time than it should, but I hope I can still try and build something up from this concept if there's another setting that works with them ♥

This event really fits quick posts where you just write with your gut, uh?

Dragon · Jan 2, 2022

I made Yūrei Tanaka - macho's character! Got inspired by Yu Yu Hakusho; and love detective like characters, soooo, yeah!

Eleanor · Jan 3, 2022

Cubeth said:
My character was pretty fun as well, even if I could barely even write as her for the reason stated above (I have some ideas on who could've made her too hehe).

It's January 3 here so I may as well... it was me. I made Lily ♥

I'm genuinely curious to know who you were thinking about there, Cube... even if I suppose it was easy to guess that if you know me well enough! I'll say the original idea I had was to make a Zorua, but I wasn't sure whether or not this RP setting allowed Pokémon so I went with the next best thing.
~~Now, did I specifically ask you to JP with me so that the char I made would get more time in the spotlight? Uh... no, I would never! Ok, maybe just a little... oops... hehe~~~

Aquacorde · Jan 4, 2022

I'm quoting everyone but please read everything- a few of you made similar points so I consolidated a bit :)

Dragon said:
My fault really; IIIII kinda lost track of time; the only time I had to write during that time was during the late evenings for me when I was dead tired from work, buuut, in terms of prompts it wasn't that tough. I was just like, 'I'll write it later, I'll write it later' - I kinda put it off writing too much by the time the deadline kinda came out, I was at a I knew I forgotten something approach...

But, I will use my character in future scenarios - I wrote up a small introduction for them!

I'm glad to hear you'll use them but sad to hear you had a busy work schedule for the whole time. Hopefully next year won't be so busy!

Cubeth said:
I don't really know if something can be done at all when it comes to giving people more time considering holidays are, for most people, busy times, and both Anna and loomsie know full well I also had like 5 million assignments due for this month, so there's not much that can be done on that regard since it depends mostly on how we administrate our time.

Something I think is necessary is letting us know what timezone we are working with, though. Like I think we were working on the Australian one, considering we had to send our chars to GP, but I didn't know that when I woke up the 14th to his msg telling me time was running out and I thought I still had a whole day and ended up rushing things a bit. It's something that goes back to the time administration thing as well.

The prompt itself was pretty easy to work with imo, I think it was easier than last year's, actually. My character was pretty fun as well, even if I could barely even write as her for the reason stated above (I have some ideas on who could've made her too hehe).

Also if these events are meant to be jp focused, is there a reason why we didn't have a discord server/group chat of some kind to organize things better? I think it's easier to know everyone else and their takes on their characters that way, and we could also help each other out if someone is stuck and/or doesn't know what to do with the prompt. RP is about collaborative writing, so I don't see why this wouldn't work :thinkrem:

We'll make sure to give more solid times for the next event for sure; scheduling in these wild times is always a bit rocky so I can see how more definition can help~

As for Discord discussion- I'd def like to try having a thread in the writer's channel next time! I think you're right in that having immediate access to each other is helpful- anyone could absolutely use the OOC as well but as per our convo today, that's a strength of Discord, right? I don't imagine we'll need more than just a thread for an event.

Hyzenthlay said:
I feel really bad I couldn't manage at least one post - between busy holidays, chronic sleep deprivation and then falling sick on the last day, I just lacked the energy to take any initiative with this! Whoever my secret santa is, I want them to know that I really like my character and will definitely use Moonblossom in future writing, one way or another! Just imagining how the post would go was super fun. ^ ^

As for the prompt, I did struggle a bit. That's because I am not very good with loose prompts and need to picture my environment in detail, but I also don't want to retcon things in my description, if that makes sense. So I hesitated a bit, waiting for somebody else to make the first move so I could bounce off of that.

I also agree with Cube: a Discord server would be super beneficial in future, since JPs seemed to be taking place behind the scenes and there was no way of knowing what's going, really!

I hope things are getting better for you now!

I do wish this would have been brought up to us during the event- if you needed help or wanted a bit more prompting or wanted to discuss JPs, the OOC is absolutely the place for that, or a direct PM to the organizers! Since events are generally very loose scenarios in the first place, definitely don't worry too much about contradictory worldbuilding! We're just playin' around, yknow?

We can definitely do a little more structure next year, though, if that might help y'all out~

Janp said:
I was too afraid to be the first one to post, so I was waiting for someone to post their stuff first. But that happened way too late and I wasn't able to finish up my own post in time.

I love my character and will use it somewhere. It's not a kind of character I could come up with, but he's charming and sounds like a fun character to play.

Don't be afraid! These events really are an extremely low-stakes mess-around time. Anything is welcome!

Eleanor said:
This event really fits quick posts where you just write with your gut, uh?

Absolutely! Everyone, please don't get hung up on making things so perfect and exact for these events, this is very much meant to be fun and silly and just give you something different to write that you might not have tried otherwise. :)

Thank you all for the feedback, by the way! Let us know if you think of anything else, okay? GP will be coming by with the list of who-made-who and the winners are def obvious but will be announced anyway haha~

gimmepie · Jan 4, 2022

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Characters

Machomuu created Grookles Flex for Janp

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Name: Grookles Flex
Age: 22ish
Gender: Non-binary, They/Him

It's that time of year again, and for Grookles that means exactly one thing: short story writing! Every year Grookles enters the "Brains Over Brawn Decathlon"- though the name is a bit of a red herring. There's nothing athletic about the event, it has its name in part because it rhymes but also because the purpose is to instill the idea in disabled children and teenagers that physical ability is not the only path to achievement. Flex finds this sentiment very inspiring, and so he often spends his Decembers gathering inspiration through binging novella to the dulcet tones of Christmas playlists on Spotify and binging Netflix shows during his free time...all the while trying to achieve a new high speed on the treadmill and packing in protein bars.

In fact, it's almost ironic that Grookles participates in this writing competition at all as he generally tends to be one of the larger people in any room he enters by way of pure muscle mass. He is, in fact, a hulking giant by way of width and seeing the man perform pushups, raise himself up, lick his thumb and turn the page of the book below him seems almost comical, especially as his long mane of thick brown hair acted like a curtain between him and any would-be onlookers. The reality is, however, that he only believes that no matter how much of a titan he may be, that alone won't make him happy. That he can even spend all of the time that he does writing, working out, and indulging in creative research is because he doesn't really have anyone to spend the Christmas season with. To him, there would be no better way to spend the Christmas season than to give back in the only way he felt he could, using his big ol' underutilized brain that was filled with dorky ideas kids might like. His mom always did say he got along with children so well because he felt like a big kid wearing inflatable muscles.

This year, however, Grookles was thrown off of his plan. He was invited to a Christmas party, and that never happens. It NEVER happens. It was, by chance, by an old friend from high school. She messaged him out of the blue, saying that she knew he wasn't busy and she missed that immediately recognizable Brooklyn accent he always tried to cover up out of embarrassment. Initially, he'd planned to ignore it. After all, the last week before Christmas was supposed to be when he devoted his time to writing the short story in full. In the end, though, he reconsidered, realizing it'd been too long since he'd received a gift from another human being that wasn't his parents sending him food gift cards and asking if he was eating alright. All he'd to do now was do some last minute Christmas shopping, bake some of his apartment-famous Ginger Jocks (which are just homemade gingerbread cookies with a bit more protein than usual), and crunch down to meet the competition deadline.

Foxrally created Dr. Ty Steele for Flowerchild

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Dragon created Yūrei Tanaka for Machomuu

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Name: Yūrei Tanaka
Aliases: "Yu"
Gender/Pronouns: Female/They
Age: 16

Appearence: [CLICK!] A teenage girl with brown hair, hazel eyes, and fair toned skin. Mainly she's seen in her school uniform: a royal blue blazer over her white dress shirt that is accessorized with a red ribbon. She also wears her school's styled pladed skirt, long black socks, and black shoes. Her school bag is green and small, but still enough to carry everything she needs for classes.

Personality: She's best described as a cheerful, curious, and optimistic yet impulsive and determined girl. As Yu is very social, kind, and truly compassionate, people are often drawn to her happy disposition. Her impuslive nature can get her into trouble; she'll recklessly challenge herself to overcome obstacles that seem too much for her, and her impuslive thinking can affect the other people around them too.

History/Ghost Files #1: Growing up, she was able to see things that no one else saw. When she tried telling about them to her parents, they casually just shrug it off and claimed that Yu's eyes were playing tricks on her. One day, while she snuck into school at night to recover her forgotten notebook, she saw a wondering figure wondering about the halls. It was a young girl - one that Yu did not recgonize - who was crying all by herself. When Yu approached the figure, and asked her what was wrong, she immediately noticed one particular thing about her after the girl ran away from Yu - going right through the nearby wall. She was not human, but a ghost. Still, a curious, and concerned girl that she was, Yu went to search for her, and while she was on her search, she noticed, and picked up something interesting: it was a photo that was sitting on the floor, one of the principal of the school, and the same girl that Yu came acrossed...

Finally, Yu encounters the spirit once again, but this time, she showed the photo to the girl. The girl noticed the man in the photo immediately, it was her father, and this was taken a couple of years ago. She explained that years ago, she was a student of this school, but when her classmates found out about her family, they grew jealous of her, and no one wanted to be around her. As well as lonely and depressed, she was frail and very sickly, so more often, she would have to skip school days. She eventually subcommed to her illness, but wondered as a spirit, watching all the other students in the school become friends and play together. Above all else, she wished that she had a friend... but that dream was soon realized as Yu put out her hand in front of her, declaring with a wide smile that she will become her very first friend. The spirit cried tears of joy, and when she reached to carefully grab Yu's hand, she started to glow. Yu watched as the glowing spirit started to dissapear. She explained that she was finally able to move on... in peace. But before she finall vanished, she gave Yu a wide smile. As her parting words, she thanked Yu for her friendship, and it was one that she was going to keep.... forever.

After the events, Yu had finally realized one thing: spirits and ghosts exists... and even from her childhood, she was able to see them. Perhaps there was more out there? If that was the case, there might be more who are looking to move on in peace like the one she had met. It was then she decided: if she had the power to see them, was going to search for them. This was her first step on becoming Yūrei Tanaka: Spirit Detective.

Flowerchild created Mooblossom for Hyzenthlay

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Cubeth created Rob Hollick for Foxrally

Spoiler:

Name: Rob Hollick
Age: 41
Pronouns: He / Him

Rob is a tall and physically imponent man, if you came here uninvited like him, you might as well believe he is this party's host. He has short black hair, small brown eyes and always has a smile on his face that gives the impression that he is either an egocentric idiot or the person with the most self esteem in the party, the fact that he's wearing his best suit right now just adds to that illusion. Regardless, he's pretty good looking, according to most people at least.

Rob likes taking care of his appearance, but despite all that and the smug smile he always has on his face, he is actually a pretty chill and friendly guy. However, he can be very impatient if he is being ignored about something important and might actually put on a whole scene for the sake of being listened to.

He is always carrying a picture of his wife and his dog in his wallet (taken by himself). Absolutely nobody cares about them (except maybe the dog), but he still loves them a too much and likes showing them to everyone he gets into a friendly conversation with, telling them different stories about either, like how he met his wife, or that one time the dog almost ate the whole New Years' Eve dinner four years ago. He has a problem with repeating the same details in his stories over and over, though, and while it can be annoying for some, he will be a bit embarrassed if it's pointed out.

He works as a photographer and was supposed to go to another event now to do his job, but he ran over a beer bottle while driving and now needs a replacement for the front right wheel, which he doesn't have. Thankfully he has a replacement to go to that one event and cover for him, but he still needs a new wheel, or someone to give him a ride back home. He's hopefully gone by the time the gift giveaway takes place too, because he's terrible at improvising, but he can always take some pictures for free (or charge half the price as usual, since he just lost his job), if needed be.

Eleanor created Lily Brooks for Cubeth

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Janp created Yvonne Brady for Dragon

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Hyzenthlay created Elfie for Eleanor

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Winners

Obviously, our winners this year are Cubeth and Eleanor! Specifically, Cubeth in first place and Eleanor in second. Congratulations guys, that post was a lot of fun to read.

This year didn't end up with much in the way of posts because of a bunch of unfortunate circumstances. Remember though, this is not the only place you can use these characters. They were gifts from your secret santa to you, and you can continue to use them wherever and however you please. Personally, I'd love to see this wonderful cast of characters appearing all over the place.

Thank you to everyone who gave feedback, we've already talked a fair bit about how to incorporate it into future events.

Foxrally · Jan 7, 2022

Aquacorde said:
Spoiler:

Hi everyone! Thanks for participating in this year's Secret Santa! We didn't have much action in the IC thread but y'know, that's okay- the main point is giving each other the gift of a new character. :) I hope even if you didn't find a way to fit them into this scenario, you can use them in future writing!

But, even though the IC isn't the main point, we still want it to be good and fun! So what's up, y'all? What went wonky this year? Did you just not have time during the busy holiday season this year? Was the scenario not something you felt you could work with? The ideal was to JP and interact with other characters- did JPs fall through? Would you prefer more structure in some way? What changes can we make to this format so you would be more likely to write?

A bit late on the feedback but I mentioned it a bit when the event came out - while my favourite part (the character creation) was super fun, I feel like the prompt was a little too open-ended which made coming up with posts quite difficult. I had the motivation to write something, but it felt like more of a setting with no objective, since we weren't given anything to do besides attending the party. Perhaps a list of gifts to hand out, or giftees to surprise, would've been easier to work with as prompts.

Regardless, I absolutely loved Cubeth's Rob and I of course plan to re-use him in Spear much like Victor from last year, so stay tuned for that ;)

Aquacorde · Jan 7, 2022

Foxrally said:
A bit late on the feedback but I mentioned it a bit when the event came out - while my favourite part (the character creation) was super fun, I feel like the prompt was a little too open-ended which made coming up with posts quite difficult. I had the motivation to write something, but it felt like more of a setting with no objective, since we weren't given anything to do besides attending the party. Perhaps a list of gifts to hand out, or giftees to surprise, would've been easier to work with as prompts.

Regardless, I absolutely loved Cubeth's Rob and I of course plan to re-use him in Spear much like Victor from last year, so stay tuned for that ;)

I get that it was open-ended but I don't think that attending the party was all there was- I did design the points system to be a prompt list, and the goals there were basically JP with people and exchange gifts with players or NPCs- so that was the "giftees to surprise", in a sense. I didn't think that was overly different than prior years?

I certainly wouldn't be opposed to setting up a list of prompts or gifts next year and I do wish y'all would have like. Asked for prompts? Asked for help? Rather than just drawing blanks and then not really doin' much.

Foxrally · Jan 7, 2022

Aquacorde said:
I get that it was open-ended but I don't think that attending the party was all there was- I did design the points system to be a prompt list, and the goals there were basically JP with people and exchange gifts with players or NPCs- so that was the "giftees to surprise", in a sense. I didn't think that was overly different than prior years?

I certainly wouldn't be opposed to setting up a list of prompts or gifts next year and I do wish y'all would have like. Asked for prompts? Asked for help? Rather than just drawing blanks and then not really doin' much.

I definitely agree that there was more I could've done to be proactive on my end, such as asking for ideas from others, but that beats the point of a prompt - the creativity should be in "how do I write this story" rather than "what do I write", in my opinion. The point system didn't feel as much of a prompt either, since it simply had criteria like "gift exchange with NPC" or "gift exchange with a player" which still don't provide anything beyond a setting.

I realize the point was to encourage people to gift to each other rather than NPCs, but perhaps limiting it to just that was what made the prompt feel too open-ended.

Event: RP Secret Santa 2021

More options

Eleanor

Princess Era 🎀

Dragon

lover of milotics

Eleanor

Princess Era 🎀

Aquacorde

⟡ dig down, dig down ⟡

gimmepie

Characters

Winners

Foxrally

[img]http://i.imgur.com/omi0jS3.gif[/img]

Aquacorde

⟡ dig down, dig down ⟡

Foxrally

[img]http://i.imgur.com/omi0jS3.gif[/img]