Untitled Holiday Thread (i.o., etc)

[Goro TanakaCitizen Survived 2021 You've completed the Christmas Event of 2021 and qualified for the last reward, by partisan you are awarded this fancy badge!]

Set up Shop, Work the Stalls, & Leisure Time

Mission Specs:

This wasn’t a mission offered by his village, but some of the random residents around the Peppermint Gates were offering money to set up and run some stalls, and it wasn’t like he was lacking for free time.

Goro’s pajamas were slightly damp with sweat, worsened by the lingering chill of frost. His house sandals were only kept attached to the soles of his feet through liberal application of the Surface Walking Technique. The best way he contributed to the stall setup stuff wasn’t through skilled labor, that’s for sure. He was a mite stronger than average, though, so he mostly saw himself hefting planks and boards across the plaza.

Little pinpricks ran up and down his hands and wrists, mostly from splinters and a few run ins with nails. It was exceedingly unpleasant, but whether due to luck or some metaphysical feature of the area, he wasn’t suffering frostbite or hypothermia atop that.

His current cargo seemed to be a bundle of heavy fabric rolls. They needed to be sturdy enough to support the additional weight of ice and snow, plus whatever wear and tear would come unbidden when working with ninja regardless of caliber.

He dropped off the load at the requisite station and made his way over to a refreshment table manned by elves(?). There was cider, hot chocolate, and a few other assorted beverages on tap.

After a moment’s consideration, he grabbed a hot chocolate and dumped in a veritable mountain of sugar. When stirred, the mixing stick he was using seemed to scrape against particulates at the bottom of the cup. Evidently, he had added too much to entirely dissolve.

The stick was promptly recycled, and he leaned against a nearby pine. He was just short enough to avoid getting scraped on the scalp by various branches and needles. After a few moments, he gave the area a quick scan, looking for any familiar figures. Bright eyes narrowed in concentration as he caught sight of what he thought was a head of blonde hair- was it the tavern dude from earlier, or was he mistaken?

[WC: 350]
[Total WC: 350]

[Yamato TanakaCitizen Survived 2021 You've completed the Christmas Event of 2021 and qualified for the last reward, by partisan you are awarded this fancy badge!]

The festival seemed fun. It seemed like the kind of thing just about anyone would have enjoyed. There were drinks - some designed specifically for this occasion, there were games that nudged people to socialize with each other; there were gifts being shared, prizes being earned, pastries being scattered to the crowds… There wasn’t much missing for any kind of person to enjoy. Needless to say, the weird occasion had created a situation where people from all over the world got to be in the same town for a celebratory event. No need for travel and all the bureaucracy and the dangers that came with it. No invasions. No wars. No politics. No conflict… Almost. It seemed there were still some lines being drawn between people who wanted to cause some chaos, and those who wanted to stop it. Yamato had only met Yoi, the charming mysterious person who appeared only for his celebration plans to go well. Some people, it seemed, were being paid by a person (yet unknown to Yamato) to cause a little mischief.

To be fair to them, it was hardly the ill-intended matters of death that were the usual shinobi conflicts. It was just a little bit of excitement to add to the situation and it seemed to have worked. All of the sport-like battles the shinobi were waging across the quaint little place only brought out the adrenaline. There were no deaths at all, as Yamato had been told by some of the shinobi going around who specialized in medical ninjutsu. Everyone seemed to be in the holiday spirits, not taking the fights too seriously. It gave Yamato the feeling of a snowball fight. In this case, the snowballs were shuriken, but the feeling remained the same. The holiday mood.

Which brought up a good question. Why wasn’t Yamato simply drinking some tea and enjoying Yoi’s baking? Why was he here instead, to meet Goro again after a brief departure, to work again. Yamato himself could not tell you. There were a lot of reasons, and most of them were bad. Yamato had already been in a battle earlier, guarding Yoi’s bakery, then stopping the attack on the workshop and the big tree. It had left Yamato in blood, sweat, and tears. A lot… Of all of them… The sleeve of his jacket was still red from the blood he had swept from his chin. So why, again, was he not done with work? There were so many fun activities he could have been doing instead.

Well… There were multiple reasons. First of all, Yamato did enjoy work. He liked all the things people considered work. He liked being fulfilled after having done something that he knew helped someone live an easier life, even if by the smallest margin. He liked making that difference, no matter how much people actually appreciated it. He also liked keeping himself busy. He didn’t know what to do when he was not running on a tight schedule. One more thing, which coincided more with the holiday mood, was that the young man he had met named Goro… Yamato was a man who liked animals, and Goro reminded him of a puppy. He couldn’t let this dummy try to figure things out on his own, or he might have jumped into the street in front of a cart one day and seriously injured himself. Yamato couldn’t fight the instinct to try to help the young (aspiring?) shinobi.

It seemed that a time of such grand celebrations came with some busy work that needed to be done. Nobody seemed to want to work at times like these, which meant the shifts were being taken by either people who were being forced into it, people getting paid extra to make it up for them, people who owed someone, or (as it was in the case of Yamato) people who just loved working and did so no matter what. Lunatics, as most referred to them, and for good reason.

Yamato approached Goro who was already looking at his direction. "Yes, it’s me.". Yamato had already set up a stall somewhere, but he moved to the side Goro was stationed in, in the hopes of making time go faster by conversing at the same time. "Make sure you watch out for shoplifters." Yamato said bluntly to the young man, "They don’t take time off for the holidays.". A scrawny little kid in clothes that were too thin for the weather than walked by the stall in front of Yamato. He tried to sneakily grab a small cupcake as he passed by, but it was very apparent to anyone watching. Yamato took out a few ryo from his pocket, and added it to the cash register. "It doesn’t count as stealing if you see it and allow it.". Yamato took out a cupcake from the case he had brought from Yoi, and put a new cupcake in the place of the old one. "Why did you agree to this again? You low on money, or couldn’t choose what to do?".

---

Post WC: 845
Total WC: 845

[Kita HajimeCitizen Survived 2021 You've completed the Christmas Event of 2021 and qualified for the last reward, by partisan you are awarded this fancy badge!]

Kita wandered through the streets of this strange village he had found himself within, staring wide eyed at the many decorations and displays he had found. He had just completed a mission for some strange employer who had summoned him her, though unfortunately for the young Shinobi she had not provided him with a way back home. Quite the disappointment for the young boy, as he now had to walk through this village in hopes of finding someone who could bring him home.

Kita's wanderings had inevitably brought him into this strange market district, where it seemed a number of individuals were milling peacefully about. Bright multicolored lights cast a festive hue over the dozens of denizens of the markets below, all seeming to be laughing and chatting with one another. It was completely different to the environment he had been in before. Though admittedly he had been breaking into a number of various buildings and other institutions, so that might be an explanation as to why the people here were so much friendlier than those he had met earlier.

Kita wandered through the various stalls, taking note of the various objects and oddities that were available for purchase. There were baked goods and toys galore, from cupcakes to plushies to croissants to wind-ups, this place seemingly had it all. Including a very odd refreshments table, seemingly manned by a good number of little people, dressed in red and green outfits and artificially pointed ears. At least, Kita hoped they were artificial. Though what really caught his eye was that standing nearby under a little pine tree, chatting with some other blonde haired individual. Kita had no idea why, though he couldn't shake the feeling that these two were in a similar position to him.

"Hey!" Kita began making his way over to their location. The two of them would see a pale young boy, roughly 15 years of age with gray eyes and black hair, outfitted with a gray kimono and a Kirigakure hitai-ate around his waist. "Would you guys have been teleported here as well by any chance?"

Word Count - 350

[Yamato TanakaCitizen Survived 2021 You've completed the Christmas Event of 2021 and qualified for the last reward, by partisan you are awarded this fancy badge!]

Yamato was usually the type of person to plan everything out meticulously. Even this little job, he had spent some time planning his activities around. He had spent some time socializing around the little joyful town, but not much. He was, as always, more focused on the work he could do in the short time he was given. His obsession with thoughtful planning had its downsides, mostly to his social life, but the undeniable benefit was his missions usually went by quite easily. Which is why it was a surprised to the Yamanaka clan member from the hidden rice village, when he realized he had made a grievous error in this simple mission. He had failed to check his watch. If he had, he would have realized much earlier how little time he had left in the Moon country. He needed to go back to Tanbo, he had so much work he still had to do.

[EXIT. WC: 1001. Claiming 10 Speed and Summoning Jutsu]

[Goro TanakaCitizen Survived 2021 You've completed the Christmas Event of 2021 and qualified for the last reward, by partisan you are awarded this fancy badge!]

It was around this point that Goro felt an odd tugging at his gut- like he'd eaten something he wasn't supposed to, or perhaps forgotten to use the fume hood correctly. Either way, the sensation intensified until it came to a sharp, sudden halt- he was back in his room.

[WC: 50]
[Total WC: 400]
(EXIT)


just, deciding to abandon the missions.
Claiming +4 stats to chakra & 400 words into Genjutsu Binding
Also 400 words into learning Kita & Yamato's chakra yo holla

[Toshiro SenjuCitizen]

I can approve you for the first mission only since you made the wc for that one.

Exits and claims approved.