Event 2 - Celebrating the Holidays in the Library (Event and Test Drive)

[central_librarymods]

Celebrating the Holidays

More of the holiday spirit has crept into the Library. Evergreens and fairy lights decorate the main rooms. The sound of carols can occasionally be heard if a patron is quiet and waits long enough. The atmosphere of the Library is filled with goodwill and hope but that doesn't mean that things will be quiet in the Library. Again, potential patrons will be allowed to visit the Library to see if they wish to stay and help the Librarians with their duties. Current patrons will be enjoying the holidays and the unique situations presented by a festive Library.

1. Mistletoe Mayhem. The holidays would be boring without a little mistletoe to make the holidays merry. This particular variety is more magical than most. When a patron is caught beneath the mistletoe, he or she cannot leave the spot until they have received a kiss. If two people are caught at the same time, then the solution seems simple but things in the Library are never easy. If the pair who are kissing do not love each other romantically, then a message will appear in festive red script that will tell them that they must say the name of the person they love. In this case, platonic love can be the solution.

2. Winter Wonderland. The atrium has become a winter paradise. Don't worry. Unlike the storms that escape from the books, this version of winter is purely decorative. Snow drifts lazily from the ceiling, creating drifts that are only deep enough to allow for snowball fights and building snowmen. An ice rink has appeared, complete with skates that will magically fit each patron. Warm beverages and snacks must be supplied by the patrons since anything left in the atrium will eventually become tepid.

3. Christmas Memories Revisited. The manifestation of this event depends on the player selecting this option. The can represent warm, loving holidays of the past Christmas or something dark and edgy. If this selection will include triggery topics, please post it in one of the Library comms or in private journal. A link can be included later to help with point totals.

4. The Market. The portal has shifted from one point in London's timeline to another. Now the gate has opened up to Victorian England reminiscent of A Christmas Carol. Patrons can shop for gifts and explore a time that might not be familiar to them. Please remember not to do anything to disrupt history or confuse the locals.

5. Presents for all the Good Children of the World. Everyone, even Library patrons, should complete a few good deeds to get on Santa's 'Good' list. Santa needs help getting ready for Christmas Eve. Patrons have been asked to help make toys and wrap presents so that everything will be ready for the important night.

6. The Ghosts of Christmas Past, Present, and Future. These spirits have decided that they need a few days rest before they fulfill their holiday duties. They will be found milling around the reception area, probably around the eggnog and other refreshments that have appeared on the main desk. If the ghosts are feeling generous, they may allow patrons to enjoy a holiday with someone from the past that they might never have a chance to see again.

7. Wild Card Option. This option should be festive and related to Winter or the Winter Holidays.

Comments

Rei - potential Star Wars spoilers (I will try to limit) - 2

[greyrei]

Rei woke up, confused. She looked up at the falling... what was it? She reached a hand up and something cold landed on her palm. Cold and... wet? What was this? She brought her hand down, but all she saw was small spots of water. What was it?

She pushed herself into a sitting position, then stood, trying to get closer to the falling white stuff. She frowned at it, then realized that it caught on her staff. She lowered it so she could look at where it clung. But when she touched one of the white spots with her finger, it turned to water.

She looked around for someone else, anyone else. "What is this?" she asked.

[neededapilot]

She had just been flung away from him, and he had thrown his blaster to go help her. His chest burned with fear and anger, unsure what to do. He thought she had called for help. Thought he could hear her call to help. So to his surprise, when he answered the call, he stumbled into a snow drift that wasn't there before.

With a surprised gasp he dug around for her, hand grabbing the lightsaber at his side, still in his possession as he stood, about to call out the one who threw her. Worried this wasn't going to go well. When he stood in full though, he didn't see anyone. He saw snow, and a room, and nothing seemed right. A sick feeling fell over him as he started to look around, a bit frantic.

It was when he saw her at a distance that he was suddenly in motion, scrambling over snow and to a cleared path, skidding to a stop. Eyes wide. "Rey!?" She was okay. She was there, standing, okay. He ran up to her, looking started all the same.

[greyrei]

She spun hearing a voice she couldn't possibly be hearing. Not with that much energy. He hadn't had that much energy hadn't been awake since... Since the last time she had seen this cold stuff, whatever it was. She stared at him as he ran then dropped her staff so she could hug him. He came back. Again. He came back to her, again.

"Finn. You're okay!" she said with a gasp, clinging to him. He was here, he was okay. He was here. He was okay.

[neededapilot]

Finn had never been in a place where hugs were a thing. Growing up a trooper didn't offer much contact unless it was a fist or the floor. But in the shortest amount of time he had managed to get hugs from two important people, and they were the greatest feelings.

Even now. He came up to her so fast that as she clung to him, he wrapped his arms around her and clung back, lifting her off the ground just a little bit for all of a moment.

The exact moment she said his name and that he was okay, he too said "Rey. You're okay!" And was still hugging her. He had thought that bastard had hurt her.

[greyrei]

She pulled back and nodded. "I am but... you.. how are you... I saw you... the medics said you might not wake up for a while." She was babbling. She wasn't someone who babbled. She didn't think she was, but she was babbling. She was just glad he was okay.

She had finally... found people who cared enough to come back, who cared about her, who needed her. She had lost one of them... she had thought she was going to lose Finn too.

She hugged him again, then stepped back.

[neededapilot]

She was babbling, and nothing at all that he understood. But he took the second hug gladly. Just so glad she was okay. When the Sith flung her in the air into that tree, his heart had stopped. Stopped and filled with anger.

Anger that crashed so swiftly as he showed up here in a new form of snow, no trees around, and Rey, standing here, all right.

"Whoa, slow down." He said to her, looking confused. "I'm right here. I'm fine. I... don't know what is going on though. Where are we? I just saw you... I mean, you hit that tree and I thought..." He let out a breath, his hands on her shoulders, touching the sides of her arms, looking over her, her face, as if trying to make sure she's really all right.

"Just... you're okay? Really?" because that was what was important to him right now.

[greyrei]

"I'm fine, Finn," she said, "Really, I am. But I hit that tree..." she took a breath, swallowed. How to tell him how long he'd been out, how long he had been in the medical area? "Maybe you should sit down, are you sure they told you that you could be up and about now? I'm sorry I wasn't there when you woke up." She should have been. She should have been. She wouldn't let that happen again. People who needed her... she'd be there for them.

[neededapilot]

He drew back a bit at that, looking confused. He glanced around, now wondering if he was still in the snowy woods with Kylo Ren and he was doing something to his mind. Can Sith do that? Was that POSSIBLE? He had no idea. He knows Ren can do things though.

He looked back to her, confused. "Rey, I'm fine. Woke up? What do you mean? What am I missing here." Well, now he wanted information. What was she going on about?

[greyrei]

She took a deep breath. I was out cold in the... whatever this is," she said, gesturing to the snow. She bent and picked up her staff to lean on it. "I don't know how long. When I woke up though..."

She closed her eyes, trying to fight back the memory of what she saw. "He hurt you. I... I lost my temper," she admitted. "We fought." She shook her head. "We got back. They took you to be cared for, said they could save you. Would save you. But you wouldn't wake up. I... thought you wouldn't come back," she admitted, softly.

[neededapilot]

But that didn't make sense. That didn't make sense at all. Here he was, chilly, cold, scared still, yes. They just lost--... and... and maybe lost-- but then there was Ren and...

He had just grabbed for the lightsaber, to stand when he heard the call for help. He had thought it was her. The Jacket he wore? No burn mark in the shoulder. No slash up the back. He had no idea why she said he had been hurt.

"I'll always come back for you, Rey." He said clearly, because that was damn well the truth as far as he was concerned. "But... I wasn't hurt. Just now, I moved to stand up from beside your body and... fight him, myself." He pulled up the lightsaber he had tucked up away as he ran to her, but now held it out to show her. "I thought you were calling to me, so I agreed and... next thing I know I'm here. In snow still, but not in the forest. I... have no idea what is going on." Or if this is his Rey...

[greyrei]

She stared at the lightsaber, so confused, then pulled out her own copy if the same lightsaber, holding it up.

"Finn.... what is going on here?" she asked in a small whisper. His words, that he promised to always come back for her touched her deeply. It was why... why he was someone she could trust. It was still odd and new... trusting someone.

[neededapilot]

And that was the same lightsaber, wasn't it. Surprise clear across his face, he looked down to the one in his hand with wide eyes. HOW. How does that work? How can two of them... how does... what?

"I... don't know." He said distantly, then blinked, looking at her suddenly. "Wait, what do you mean I was hurt? That I wasn't waking up? What happened? We're still on the Starkiller, as far as I know..." Then a pause, as he glanced around. "Or, not. I'm not sure how to explain this place." He was only starting to get a better look at it now.

[greyrei]

"They took us somewhere else. I met..." she shook her head. "They expect me to follow the map, to find Luke Skywalker. They said they'd call me if they thought you were going wake up... I went to take a walk to get away from everything... and then... then I was here. But it's not the same place. I don't think it is. I don't know where this is... or how we're here though."

[neededapilot]

He frowned at that. Wake up? Was he hurt that badly? He'd been hurt badly before, in training, growing up, fighting and sparing and such, but never to the point that they weren't sure he would wake up.

Running a hand over his face he felt weird. This felt wrong. This had to be a trick. "Something weird is going on here. How are there two of these?" He said, hefting the lightsaber in his hand again. "I don't get what is going on here. And why is there snow inside a building? We are inside, right?" He asked now, looking up at the large atrium they were in.

[greyrei]

"I don't know. I don't know how... wait, this is snow?" she asked, tucking away the sabre and kneeling to touch the snow. She had heard of it before, in stories, but snow had been like the Force, like oceans. Things people said were real, but were not part of life on Jakku.

It was enough to derail her attention, for the moment.

[neededapilot]

The derailing threw him for a moment. He too put the lightsaber up on his belt, though he thought he should at least offer it to her. If she had one maybe she would want this one as well. It was... her's he was told. After all.

Still, he looked at her as she bent down to check out the snow. He gave her a faint lost smile. A bit boyish in wonder at her. "I guess we didn't have time to go over the white stuff were were tromping through on the planet, huh?" He realized she must have no clue what snow is. Or rain even. All the watery things she wouldn't know because of Jakku. He didn't have great experience with it himself, but troopers were trained for all weathers and locations, meaning he had seen snow and ice before.

Gosh she was cute.

He crouched down as well, picking up a little bit in a hand, hefting it. "This is snow. Frozen water, basically. You are currently holding water." He said with a smile.

[greyrei]

She had heard that snow was water, but when it had been a story it had meant little, and she hadn't paid it much attention. Now it was real it was here. And it was hard to believe. She lifted her own handful to match his.

"Water? This is water?" she asked, to be sure. It matched the stories, the lessons, but it still seemed hard to believe. But she felt something trailing across her fingers and looked as it turned into water, just as he had said. As it had when she tried to catch some as it fell. She put her hand to her mouth, to sip, getting a mix of cold water and semi-solid white. Snow.

"Cold," she said, awed that anything she could drink could be that cold. Colder than the worst night in the desert. On Starkiller, she had been too focused on trying not to die, trying not to let anyone else die, to notice the cold. This... this she noticed.

[neededapilot]

"Water" he confirmed, smiling a bit more. Everything felt wrong. Everything made no sense at all. And yet here she was, enchanted by snow. He couldn't help but feel a bit distracted by it.

When she said it was cold, it clicked. Again. Back at the base he had pulled his coat off for her then too. It was cold outside there also. Colder then this, he thought, but then again they were in the heat of the moment there.

He moved to shrug off the Jacket. Poe's jacket that he got to keep. Pulling it off, he moved to loop it around her again. "Here. Take this." He said as he tried to get it over her shoulders. "I'm a bit more used to cold then you are." He said with a smile. Ships and training halls were always a bit on the cold side.

[greyrei]

She gave him a small grateful smile and nodded, pulling it up more over her shoulders so it would stay on. "Thank you," she said. She brushed her hand on the side of her pants and looked at him.

"How can there be two of the same lightsaber?" she asked him, brought back to the topic at hand. She didn't ask how it was he didn't remember the battle, a knock on the head could do that.

She frowned suddenly and pulled off the jacket. Looking at it. She frowned again and looked up at him over the top of it. "There aren't any holes in this jacket," she said to him. "How are there no holes?"

[neededapilot]

That would have been his argument, if she had voices that he might have just been knocked in the head. If he knew how bad his 'wounds' would have been to her, he could have pointed that out. Instead, because he doesn't KNOW how he gets hurt... he just stands again, brow raised.

"Again, not sure why there are two lightsabers, but if you want this one to, it belongs to you." He said, unhooking it to offer to her. If she wanted it, she could have it. Even if he did like the weapon, he was no Force user. Not like her.

But as she looked over the jacket, he frowned more. "Explain to me why there are holes in my jacket. Or should be." That doesn't sound good. Ren hurt him, but how? Like... like Solo? He felt cold suddenly, frowning at this. This can't be real. Was she from his future? Or a figment of his busted mind, laying cold on the ground and half dead maybe. Maybe he lost... they both lost, and this was it. This was the end.

[greyrei]

She stood when he did, holding the jacket carefully with one hand, as she grabbed her staff and slung it over her shoulder.

"If there are two, for whatever reason, better that we're both armed." If he didn't have his, she might have even offered hers for the time being, as she had Han's gun at the small of her back, and her staff.

It was easier to talk about that then to discuss his wounds. She closed her eyes, trying to focus herself, trying to center herself, so she could speak without wanting to kill someone who wasn't even there.

"There was a hole in your chest. And he had cut open your back," she said, her voice trembling as she lost control over her emotion. She wanted to protect him, and if somehow... somehow that hadn't happened to him... she wanted it to never happen to him.

[neededapilot]

He frowned, but nodded, hooking the saber back to his belt carefully. He had tossed his stolen blaster away and didn't have much else on him, so it made sense, he supposed. He'd rather a trusty blaster at his side any day, but this would do.

He noticed the closed eyes, the focus she was trying to bring to herself. The ache that came from her as she explained. He couldn't help but raise a hand to his chest, as if to check suddenly, if he had a hole or not. His back felt fine. He even turned to show her, glancing over his shoulder to frown. "Nothing." And turned back again, looking her face over carefully. "It hasn't happened for me. Which is starting to make me think that one, I messed up big time, and two... you're either in my future or I am dreaming one weird damn dream."

[greyrei]

"How could I be from your future?" she asked. She wouldn't have believed it possible, if not for the fact that it seemed to clearly be the case. But then before she met him, she would have said it was impossible that the ship she sometimes took shelter in the lee of was the famous Millennium Falcon.

Who was to say what was possible, anymore?

[neededapilot]

He raised his hands up as he said "I don't know." And really sounded as if he had no idea how it was possible but... "It sure as hell sounds like it. I don't remember getting hurt. I remember you getting knocked out and then this. No holes. Two lightsabers. I have got to be dreaming... that's it." he said all at once, as if working this out in his head.

"This is a weird dream and I am in the snow and dying. That's what this is, huh?" He said, giving a nervous laugh now, really wanting her to say that this isn't... that.

[greyrei]

"You're not dreaming," she snapped with too much vehemence. More than she meant. But if he was dreaming, that meant he wasn't alright, hadn't come back to her. She refused to accept that. Refused. "You're here, and I'm here, and that is that," she said. It had to be that. Had to be. "Wherever here is."