❄ I just wanna keep on waiting underneath the mistletoe ... [sisi voice] A Jingle Mingle

[alittlefuninstead]

Wherever you are, whoever you are, you'll likely find yourself blinking one moment and teleporting in a flurry of snowflakes the next. Luckily for you, there's no murder this time! (Probably.)

Rather, you'll hear Christmas carols aplenty as you approach a winter castle, snow lightly falling and various paths leading to gardens filled with still-blooming flowers (how.) and lit topiary displays.

Upon entering the castle, you'll find it's brightly lit and decorated...welcome to the party! Frost lightly dusts the walls and some nearby surfaces and guests will find there are halls and floors aplenty to explore. There are rooms filled with plush chairs and fireplaces for those looking for something cozier, rooms filled with all kinds of games and toys, and naturally there's a large ballroom prime for dancing. Spread through you'll find tables of snacks, full-course meals, drinks, desserts, and even champagne towers. Are you looking for something specific? Simply ask a member of the staff. Watch your step though! Their assistants really are doing their best to help, and the jingling bell may be too faint to hear if you aren't paying attention.

It seems as though you've all been invited to a wonderful holiday party for no reason at all...but there is one thing amiss...or, should I say...amistletoe?

Pinned up on every doorway is a sprig of fresh mistletoe, decorated with bright red bows and dustings of frost. And sure, perhaps it's easy just to avoid the doorways if you want to be a spoilsport. But should you avoid it for too long, it will seem as though the mistletoe is following you, almost as if some asshole is hiding out and purposefully trailing behind to keep it dangling over your head.

Oh. And did I mention you can't leave the castle grounds until you play along? Pucker up.

[ooc: this can be any past murdergame characters y'all, go nuts.

for clarity sake, this includes characters from: reapsody, grimmoired, plasmatio, subdivided, thotordie, bluesclues, tropicalgetaway, notagain, and redactable!

edit: and by popular demand any of you from the above games can also bring your yuggoths and your tikirobos. The Robowests were in CRAU and therefore don't count goodbye.]

Comments

[snyaiper]

[I like how I fed this hint to Claude and he just politely filed it away and said nothing. Flayn, meanwhile, just immediately goes for it.]

... I suppose you could say that.
[Stares at her as if daring her to press for more information!!]

[fishingforcompliments]

[She presses for more information because of course she does.

Flatly:]

What happened?

I don't have an icon for this use your imagination.

[snyaiper]

[He could and probably should just tell her, but as punishment for being nosy, Ogata's response is to just reach up and put the fake lens out of the now empty socket that used to be his right eye. Gross.]

[fishingforcompliments]

[She looks significantly less frightened by that than she probably should, but also, she's been spending most of her time in Ghost City and the ghosts and demons there can be a lot more gross than a single empty eyesocket.]

...perhaps I ought to have given you lessons in healing magic before we went our separate ways - or was your eye like that all along?

[snyaiper]

[Ogata huffs as he puts his fake eye back in. Perhaps offended at the lack of the reaction, or maybe he's just laughing at the question.]

Mm. I don't know. I think that would have only made the situation worse.
[Why does he insist on being so ominous.]

[fishingforcompliments]

[uh]

How so?

[snyaiper]

I told you about how Sugimoto was going to kill me if I went home, yes?

[Great place for this explanation to start.]

[fishingforcompliments]

...

[OGATA. She's got this look on her face like "then why did you go home??"]

Yes, and I was under the impression that you were going to use the time you have now to find somewhere you wouldn't be killed if you went there!

[snyaiper]

[Thinks on how to explain his thoughts on this, decides he can't in a way that would really make sense to Flayn, so he settles on;]

... I needed to know what would happen. Besides, you told me to outwit if I couldn't overpower him, didn't you?
[He didn't exactly do that but Flayn doesn't need to know the details of the messed up shit he pulled.]

[fishingforcompliments]

Well, yes... and it appears to have worked...

[He's still alive, which is a good(?) thing.]

I did not mean for you to lose your eye, however.

[snyaiper]

It's fine. I just had to teach myself to shoot left handed.

[Said as if having to basically re-learn how to shoot is a minor setback.]

[fishingforcompliments]

I see! I am sure you picked it up quickly - you certainly seemed to have an aptitude for guns.

[...]

Have you practiced enough with your left hand to be able to shoot an apple from someone's head again?

[oh n]

[snyaiper]

[Thinks about how he just shot someone around a blind corner through two windows.]

I suppose there is one way to find out.
[We really going to do this in front of god (xie lian) and everyone.]

[fishingforcompliments]

[We sure are.]

Very well! If we cannot find an apple on any of the tables, I am sure there must be one in the kitchens.

[snyaiper]

[If there's fish on the table there's surely apples. Ogata starts looking, if only because at this point he thinks the idea of Flayn trusting him a second time when she doesn't even know how much his shooting has recovered. After he basically SAID he was raring to murder this time??? Insane, truly.]


Really, it doesn't even need to be an apple.
[Just some sort of small roundish object.]

[fishingforcompliments]

Oh! Will another fruit do, then?

[Flayn has found



an orange!]

[snyaiper]

That should work.

[I'm internally like "someone should stop this" even though I know the only one who can make that happen is me.

Anyway Ogata's trotting off to take his distance from Flayn. Can he even make a clear shot across this room full of people? Even if he can, should he? This should not be happening for so many reasons.]

[fishingforcompliments]

[Flayn has the good sense to try and find a patch of wall to stand against where there are not a lot of people milling about, but not the good sense to, like, not let Ogata shoot at her.

Anyway. Once she's taken her place, she puts the orange on her head and waits.]

Whenever you are ready, Ogata!

[snyaiper]

[Everyone else is too distracted by mistletoe shennanigans to notice this and stop it. Ogata unslings his rifle and lines up his shot. He lingers over Flayn's face. He could pull the trigger right now. He could shoot Flayn right in the face and she'd have no time to react. He could prove her wrong for trusting him once and for all. The consequences would be dire but maybe that would be worth it too. Maybe Dimitri would kill him for it.

It's only a few seconds but it feels much longer. Then he adjusts and pulls the trigger. As before, the fruit, now with a bullet hole in it, drops off the back of Flayn's head.

That said, when the sound of a gunshot rings out, people will surely just turn and see Ogata pointing his fucking gun at Flayn? A troublesome visual to be sure.]

[shixiong]

What do you think you're doing.

[ yin yu where did you come from

irrelevant. ]

[snyaiper]

[Regards him cooly as he lowers his gun.]

Shooting.
[Ogata why don't you. Explain what's actually happening.]

[disreguarded]

[ there's a gunshot, and like, in six seconds, there's a beau, and she is punching ogata with the intent purpose of knocking him to the ground! or trying to, anyway. ]

Hey! Fuckface! What did we say about behaving in public?

[snyaiper]

[DJAFKJAKDF When she does this Ogata's fucking???? eye pops out of his face??? Hello??? As he falls to the ground he definitely just does not have a right eye anymore. Beau what did you do. From the floor;]

I've done nothing wrong.
[Ogata your eye??]

[stillnot]

[ she looks from him. to flayn. who is alive and not-shot? ]

Can you fucking not?

[fishingforcompliments]

[Flayn does not immediately realize The Problem, because she is very much not shot, and also really impressed by his marksmanship.

Although she's probably got orange juice in her hair now because oranges are juicier than apples.]

Amazing! Even with a different hand, you hit your target! Your skills are not to be underestimated, Ogata!