[open] If Santa Claus isn't coming to town, we have to go and find him.

[theearth]

Attention! By popular vote the Big Finale has been postponed!

Who: Everyone!
What: As announced, the NSCG+friends have been called to Lapland! There, they travel North, hunt down some kidnappers and finally discover...
When: 13th-19th 24th of January after Toushiro and Dani's post.
Where: Lapland
Warnings: Abduction of children, scary Santa Clauses, violence, one instance of (not graphically described) brutally murdered reindeer



On the David Graibiger and Monika Hallbach will greet the numbered in Rovaniemi and together they will all get on a bus northwards. Up there, they will all room in a few cabins, each with two four-person-bedrooms; food will be provided and the beds are made, but they'll have to cook for themselves. TV is available in the living room/kitchen of each cabin, but the internet connection sucks. Up there, they will be taught how to drive a car in the snow, how to drive a snowmobile, how to shoot a rifle if they have no combat power (for self defense). They will then be tasked with one of the following things:

1. People with combat powers: Go out there and hunt down the kidnappers! If those people seek for long enough, they will find:
- Haggard, wild looking old men with unkempt beards who are either dressed in red santa's clothes or have been jammed into green fur suits, their faces painted green with what appears to be markers. These men are feral: They will run away but, if attacked, use hands and teeth to fight, and not be afraid of injuring a person in any way. They are superhumanly strong, but seem to be incapable of human speech - they can seemingly neither speak nor understand what is said.
If a child of up to 14 years is with the group, they are much more likely to find one of these as the beings are seeking out children. They will try to get their hands on and run away with the child in question.

2. People without combat powers: They will be sent on various trips to look at sightings, talk to people, etc. These include, but are not limited to:
- Talk to the parents of abandoned children. There isn't much information to be had from the conversations themselves, but keen numbered will realized that there are vermini in the bedrooms of the vanished children...
- Checking out a flock of reindeer that was bitten to death - yet whatever killed them doesn't seem to have eaten anything. Disturbingly enough, the brave researcher will realize that these were human teeth that killed them...
- Checking out an abandoned excavation site. The only description is that the mad guy who just recently started it (no, nobody knows who he was or why he did it or how he got the permission) hasn't be seen in almost a month now and the workers left for Christmas and didn't return after it. The place is full of vermini, but vermedi can also be found. What they will find too is a letter in Russian, written by the two last guards of the place, in which they resign from their spot, quoting that none of their tasks, which they describe as "watching lunatics and guarding the rise of a monster", was in the job description and that they just aren't paid enough. If someone wants to try, these guards can be tracked down, just comment to the Lapland plot post and ask for more information.

3. Everyone:
- Captured not!santas and not!grinches, after having been tied up or locked up or something similar, need to be watched. And questioned, but really, they will only be violent and still not say a thing or show intelligence above a scared badger. The only way to get any information out of them will be to set one free and hope that they lead the numbered to the place that they live in, but through trial and error one who attempts that will realize that they'll only return there once their mission of kidnapping a child is accomplished.

4 And last but not least
- Much more MUNDANE and nothing that they will strictly be tasked with but: Cooking! Fighting over the shower, throwing things at the snoring person in the next bed. Learning how to shoot, learning driving, petting reindeer, fun in the snow, do you want to build a snowman... go wild!


Please start your own threads and head over to the Lapland plot post if you have questions, need more information on something, want an NPC, want more tasks, etc.

Comments

[alilyinthemoonslight]

[Behold Lily Tuskuyomi: the abomidible snow mahou.]

Oh yeah, we're way intimidating.

[She frowns, continuing to push her way through the snow.] We'd better find something. If those bastards have done anything to those kids...

[She's... not sure if she's going to be able to stop herself, for all of her inability to harm mafia goons fatally. She's also not watching her language, which is.. new. Mostly, it's a sign that for as much composure as she's been keeping since sending the Network post out...

Lily is mad. Maybe madder than she's been in a long, long time, and it's only seeping through in ways that the people closest to her get to see. For better or worse Marina, you're one of them.]

[dragon_blossom]

I've got a sword and some spells to put to use if they have done anything.

[ She was on the edge of getting in on the killing there; if Lily, Winter, and Jasmine hadn't provided an alternative she might have. Killing these guys wouldn't be much of a stretch.

Obviously, Lily, though outwardly composed, is seething just as much over this. ]

We'll save them.

[alilyinthemoonslight]

[Even then of course, Lily's not sure if she can go through with such a thing. No matter how much she wants to, and practically on a government sponsored trip capture is probably a better idea, but...

She still feels that want, even if it makes her a little sick. Her mind constantly flickers back to Yuri falling into her darkest place, wanting nothing more than Dune's quick, violent death... That hand on her wrist, stopping her is something that Lily can almost feel, but in her mind's eye there's another face and voice stopping her that is most definitely not Cure Blossom.]

We will.

[She balls her mitten covered hands into fists, which manages to look more cute than intimidating, but it's not like she notices.] We can't not. Not after the monsters, whatever the aliens are planning, or the mafia... We have to at least be able to do this.

[dragon_blossom]

[ Nor is Marina - memories of the only time Umi killed echo every time she thinks of it, but Umi did it without all the facts. Maybe if Marina... gets enough facts, it could still be worth it.

Or maybe it'd break her. ]

It helps that we got a lot of people to cover all this ground.

[alilyinthemoonslight]

We do, but...

[She looks out at the expanse of white before her, and shakes her head.]

Let's cover a little bit more around here, and if we don't pick anything up, we'll set out by snowmobile to get a bit further away.

[She quirks her mouth a bit.] It's too flashy for searching, but given I can just fly us back or use the Mirage, we can go out pretty far without having to worry about getting stuck out in all this in the middle of the night.

[dragon_blossom]

[ Hey, at least if everything is white then green and red hobos are gonna stand out. ]

Right! Snowmobile time. [ Be careful Lily. ] We should be fine as long as we've got you around.

[alilyinthemoonslight]

[They would at that, and zeroing in on some hobos is top priority. The only one, really.

Marina's comment gives her a little pause and she blinks, looking back to her, though a smile tugs at her lips.]

Talking like that, you'd almost make me think someone's relying on me here.

[dragon_blossom]

You say that like I don't do it, like, all the freaking time.

[alilyinthemoonslight]

[If her face wasn't already red from the cold, it'd probably be so now. All the same, she tugs her scarf up around her face a little more.]

...I guess I spend so much time feeling like I'm relying on other people sometimes, I forget the feeling's mutual.

[dragon_blossom]

You're super reliable too. And... y'know. Kinda cool in your own way.

[ A better way, frankly, than what a bunch of high school kids thought was cool. ]

[alilyinthemoonslight]

Geez...

[She trudges along just a little bit more.] And here I thought I was the sappy one. I'm going to melt the snow around me with all of these warm fuzzies at this point.

[dragon_blossom]

Oh, it looks like you figured out my plan to keep you from freezing.

[ Clever girl. ]

[alilyinthemoonslight]

[Lily grins in spite of herself, and is about to deliver a retort, but... Stops short. A flash of color, a slight bit ahead in the distance, catches her eye, and she seizes up.]

...Marina.

[Her voice is suddenly tense. She's not sure if that was an animal or... whatever it is they're looking for, but still.]

[dragon_blossom]

[ And now that internal bit of commentary, for a split second, almost makes her think 'snow raptor' but that's slightly less likely than a lot of things.

She stops, and there's a flash of blue as her sword appears in her hand. ]

Right...

[alilyinthemoonslight]

[Marina, don't push their luck. You never know around here.

Of course, thankfully Lily has packed her transformation device and Precure Seed in an outside jacket pocket, and she quietly motions with her head for Marina to move around their position.]

Just verify what we're looking at first. I don't want to accidentally steamroll one of ours.

[Between the both of them, that's a pretty valid possibility.]

[dragon_blossom]

[ She's still keeping her sword out and at the ready, and follows Lily's instructions, moving carefully. ]

I'll keep a close eye on 'em.

[alilyinthemoonslight]

[Moving as quietly as possible, though that's a little hard when the snow slushes around, Lily moves through the trees until she sees... well, some old man in a green fur suit, scurrying about the woods and clearly seeking something or another. Neither of which the two young women with their eyes out for him.

Lily's hand grips tightly on her transformation items, but she's not jumping in just yet. Her eyes dart about, looking for a familiar blue that will indicate Marina's position.]

[dragon_blossom]

[ Neither of them are ninjas, exactly.

Nor is the furry green guy. That makes it a lot easier, anyways. Marina moves apart from Lily a bit, not quite flanking but close enough to cover another angle, and nods. It was hard to guess how someone like this might react. ]

[alilyinthemoonslight]

[Unfortunately, her can still hear. As Lily moves around a tree, she puts a hand to a branch and - frozen - it snaps rather loudly. The ... not-Grinch looks up, startled, and... starts to take off like a bat out of hell.]

Oh, dammit!

[She slams the two transformation items together, and with a shout -] Precure, Open My Heart! [-Cure Moonlight, her dress mercifully replacing Lily's several layers of winter wear, is in her place.]

[dragon_blossom]

[ GOOD FREAKING JOB LILY.

Marina would've done it a moment later anyways. She sighs, covering herself in armor as well in a flash, plodding off through the snow after Mr. Grinch. ]

Get back here!

[alilyinthemoonslight]

[LOOK, SHE TRIES, OKAY?

The tree cover makes it so that Moonlight can't exactly jump over him to catch up, and for a guy in a freaky fur suit he's booking it pretty well through the woods. The snow is still impeding her going fast so in a fit of frustration she suddenly jumps up... and begins bouncing from one tree to another in her pursuit, shaking snow and ice off each one as she slams into them.

Probably a good thing she and Marina had split off just a little ways, as that's a wake that would be unpleasant to be caught beneath.]

[dragon_blossom]

[ Marina's fast, but this guy is at least more used to the weather.

It's not long before she's following the snow and ice Lily shakes off as she leaps from tree to tree, though, and with a frustrated growl she throws out a Water Dragon to blast her path a little clearer. ]

[alilyinthemoonslight]

[Moonlight notices the Water Dragon plowing through the air and falling debris behind her and she winces.] SORRY!

[Still, she doesn't slow down - rocketing off one particular tree, she flips over the fleeing Grinch and lands, skidding along the ice and snow. The man comes to a cold stop for a moment...]

That's far enough! We've got a lot of questions for y--

[Before he gives a vicious snarl and lunges straight at her.]

[dragon_blossom]

[ Lily still has a lead on Marina by the time the Grinch goes for her, but that's just followed up by another attempt at a Water Dragon - this time not only clearing her path but aiming straight at the crazy person. ]

Water Dragon watch out Lily!

[alilyinthemoonslight]

[Moonlight doesn't dodge. Instead, she brings up a shining barrier before her, as the man is lunging through the air and... is blasted right out of the air by Marina's Water Dragon. He's slammed right into her Moonlight Reflection, and as the rest of that attack's impact splashes against her shield, pushing her back through the snow, he goes careening off. Into a tree.]

...well.

[She lowers her shield, looking down at their target.] ...that's one way to do it.