Beneath my Winter Wonderland...

Spoiler:

Rin wandered through the city streets, a thick sheen of snow obscuring her vision as she continued through the area, the wind was thick and harsh, the blizzard that was forming overhead only adding to how unpleasant it felt. She could sense the presence of many people in the area, but none seemed inclined to talk to her, and so she kept on walking, the wind blowing across her face like cold fingers.
She looked around at all the buildings, most were made from stone, though there were some wooden structures here and there, the iron-laced glass windows gleaming in the sunlight as they reflected off the snow. It had been several days since she'd woken up inside this city, her memories hazy and vague, and yet it was a place that still held an odd familiarity about it for her, as if she knew these streets well.
It didn't take long before she found herself standing outside the front door of one such building, a large structure with tall towering spires attached to either side. The doors were closed and locked, no doubt keeping out the chill that came when the wind blew against them, but she could hear the pleasant sound of many children chatting and playing together within, their voices carrying throughout the building as Rin watched from beyond its threshold.
There was something strange about this place, she just couldn't put her finger on what it was. There was a sort of warmth to it, almost like home, but also a loneliness and sadness, as if she had lost something important here once upon a time. As she stood there, listening to the children play, she couldn't help but think back to her life before she got caught up in the chaos, murder, embezelment, exploitation, corruption and torture that had become her day to day life, living as a missing ninja, branded as a criminal with a bounty on her head in most of the known world. It made things so much more difficult, and thanks to that accursed ragdoll she didn't even have anything to show for it. Rin heard a click shake her out of her inner monologue as the lock on the door was undone, and the sound of a latch, worn weathered and in need of some oil creaked open before the door handle jiggled, the door creaking open to reveal an older woman with a soft expression on her face. The woman was dressed in a warm ensemble that mirrored Rin's own, A thick woollen jumper and a colourful infinity scarf to match it was wrapped around her torso, a pleasant Red and green pattern contrasting with Rin's own blue and pink style quite nicely, The woman's own thick overcoat was a thick hide construction with a warm woollen inner lining and a beautiful fox fur collar, the two had very similar styles in many way's although rin couldn't help but notice that unlike her own scarf, which had the hallmarks of a standard, mass produced scarf, albeit one of a decent quality, this woman's own scarf was a crocheted scarf that seemed hand made, perhaps the woman had made it herself, or perhaps one of the older children within had made a hobby of crocheting.

The woman smiled down at Rin before speaking, "well hello there, are you here to join the children? everyone is welcome at our little winter celebration! Currently everyone is in the inner courtyard making snowmen. A few of the more ambitious children are even trying their hand at ice sculptures with the help of a few volunteers." The woman said, her tone oddly gentle. It took Rin a moment to parse through the woman's word's and work out what was wrong with them, they were the exact sort of tone that she heard people use when talking down to children. She knew she was short but she couldn't look that much like a child. Rin flicked her hair to the side, letting the wind blow it out of her face long enough for the woman to get a clear look at her missing eye, the simple rough eye patch that she used to cover the horrific web of corruption that was her wound only partially obscuring the throbbing black veins that surrounded that part of her eye. "I appreciate the invitation miss, but i think you may have mistaken me for someone else" She said in a clear and confident voice, one that you would certainly not expect of a child.

The woman paled slightly as her hair moved, revealing her eye, she could see the woman's face shift from shock, to horror, before settling on concern, the woman opened her mouth to speak, no doubt to offer some platitude or express concern for what she viewed as a horribly maimed child standing at her door. Rin couldn't exactly blame her for that, even she had to admit that she was horribly scarred, but before the woman could speak Rin's own voice spoke over her, and Rin saw the woman's look of concern shift to one of confusion, and then a moment of fear before the woman schooled herself, her face returning to a stony mask of neutrality as she replied. "Ah my appologies miss, i... didn't mean any offence, you are of course still more than welcome to come inside and join us, a number of adults often come by and help the children with an assortment of projects for the holidays.
Rin tilted her head at the woman's words, she would normally turn the woman down without a second thought, but lost in this strange town, and with this building seeming to call to her, a building that seemed incredibly familiar, she couldn't help but let her curiosity drive her forward somewhat. At the very least she wanted to get a look inside the building and see if there was anything else familiar on the inside. "I suppose i dont have anywhere to be for the next few hours, if you'll have me i can at least help a little" She said, schooling her own face to keep a calm and generous look upon it.

The woman clapped her hands together and gave her a genuine looking smile, one that Rin would have almost believed if she hadn't witnessed the woman's transition of emotions earlier, almost, Rin was still far too raw from the numerous times she had been betrayed to actualy trust this woman even if she had thought her genuine in her responses. Still Rin allowed the woman to lead her into the house, through a large entryway that housed a pair of ornate spiral staircases that rose above the pair of them, splitting off towards what Rin could only assume were the twin spires she had glimpsed from outside. The entry way itself was relatively short, though it had a number of doors on either side that no doubt led deeper within the abode, they were of course not where the woman led her however and as much as her curiosity itched at her to open a few she couldn't find an opportunity to do so. The Woman led Rin to a door at the end of the hallway that she opened to reveal an almost absurdist sight, within this house was a literal winter wonderland, children played within in droves and massive fir tree's that seemed to almost glow with lights of their own adorned the area, snow drifting down from the open ceiling to form a perfect blanket of white. Along the walls were dozens of snowmen with many of the children working on more and more of them with the assistance of a few adults who showed them how to pack the snow properly or help them to adorn their new creations.
TWC: 1306

For some reason as she stood there observing quietly, her two companion body doubles meandering about helping the various children and craftspeople of snow and frost, Rin couldn't help but feel slightly empty, like something was missing, she wasn't sure why, she wasn't sure what, she wasn't sure in any possible way shape or form, nor in any possible permutation of the many myiad of marvellous ways that one might pronounce the un sureity with which they did not most assuredly fail to comprehend the lack of knowledge of why their senses were providing the sensation of something that was lacking. Rin could neither comprehend nor compensate, nor explain the emotion that she was feeling for it was whole heartedly a construct and creation of a set of emotions that spawned from events well beyond her understanding, a set of events that existed outside of the bounds of the reality for which she knew and a set of events that existed in a bubble of reality that passed beyond the bounds even of the pseudo demi gods that strode through this wold which Rin knew with a level of boundless power and freedom that could never be comprehended by those without such power

The entire concept was laughable of course, absolutely hysterical and bizarre in a way that surpassed any sot of logic for you see this is all a rather incredibly roundabout way of explaining in depth and in excruciating detail, in a way both verbose and vehemently vague whilst insisting on the visceral details of the conceptual complications that this emotion stemmed from. One might best summarise the subject in a way that pointed to the emotion itself stemming from outside the bounds of the mortal realm, and yet that simple and concise summary of the subject would simply not suffice for the subject could not be summarised in such a way without failing to capture the complexities of a creation that failed to comprehend the bounds of its own existence, or perhaps it would be better described as failing to acquiesce to the aggravatingly restrictive requirements of a ruleset that remands the ill regulated reality of a rigorously righteous emotional construction to the un important and un intractable. 

Of course after all that potentially pointlessly verbose explanation of a point that could possibly have been summarised in a vastly simpler way. The simple way of course being, quite simply that an entity beyond the mortal veil who may or may not be responsible for the events, emotions, reactions, decicions, choices, actions, and so on, of everyone within this small snippet of the universe, Rin included, had experienced a sense of, if not betrayal then certainly a sense of loneliness and sadness resulting from the lack of an apperance of an individual or entity who it presumed or expected to have appeared within a timeframe that was simultaneously non-existant within the world itself whilst being markedly observable from outside of said world. World refering to the universal plane on which this story and all of its inhabitants reside of course, not literally refering to the physical world that this land existed on. If one wished to simplify even further of course one could do so thought once again that would of course inherently require the removal of even more subtleties of the explanation and as such one might misunderstand the tone of the explanation as hostile or agravated, which of course it is not, no the intention is not to convey either of those things within this explanation but rather to simply express the extreme tiredness of the previously defined and yet undefined entity of which this entire explanation was a reference too. In short the entity which might be considered the author of this situation was tired and mildly sad that they had not been joined by another author who's powers over the mortal world rivaled their own, and consequently said author felt a mild hint of loneliness, and of course coming full circle in the explanation this set of emotions were being projected onto the individual which was Rin togakawa.

Of course all of this is well outside the realm of the sort of deep philosophical theory that Rin engaged in on a regular day to day schedule and so, internally in her mind she had just found herself caught in a brief period of wistfulness and mild sadness, and so it was that she simply stood there silently, observing as her two mirror images, reflections of herself who had managed, as it would appear, to have avoided whatever force was projecting such a random and unjustified sadness onto her

WC: 774
TWC: 2080

Kira strode into the massive courtyard, still rather surprised at the scope of all this for what was basically just one massive orphanage with a few fancy bells and whistles. She couldn't realise what had compelled her to come here either, whilst she wasn't one to believe in superstition for the sake of superstition, as someone who regularly worked with the bodies of the living dead she had long ago learnt that sometimes superstitions were based in at least a grain of truth. Which is why as someone on the cusp of living death herself she thought it wise to keep her distance from anything that might be considered. "Sacred ground"

Despite that the prospect of the pay being offered by this 'orphanage' for simply assisting the children in their artistic pursuits was significant enough for Kira to ignore the minor risk of hanging around what seemed to be an old converted monastery. The nun who had let her inside had been polite and pleasant enough, she had welcomed her inside with little more needed than her to mention the job listing. Indeed it had been so simple that if it had not been for the vast array of people here joining in and helping out then it would have seemed too good to be true. Indeed even with that consideration Kira still was a little skittish about the whole thing, she couldn't help but wonder where the money to fund this was coming from. Was this a front for some sort of secret criminal scheme? Was this an excuse to conduct some sort of experiment, luring in strangers with the promise of a high paying easy job when secretly the real reason they were here was to test the effects of a neuro toxin on the bodies of those within this courtyard? The list went on, though she might have come here for the sake of the rather outrageously high offer of payment, that didn't mean her guard was down; regardless of that however she knew she couldn't just stand around here doing nothing and still hope to get paid for her presence, so she set off deeper into the courtyard, moving amongst the various snowmen and snow sculptures that were already being worked on. As she got deeper she found more and more children who were left out of the fun. Smiling at the clustered children she pulled a folded top hat and carrot from her sleeve. The priestess had made sure she was prepared to give these children a fun time after all

WC:426
TWC: 426
Final WC: 2506

Claims
Mission Name: Do You Wanna Build A Snowman? x5
Reward: 1,000 Ryō / 5 AP / 250 Winter Equinox Tickets
Reward: 1,000 Ryō / 5 AP / 250 Winter Equinox Tickets
Reward: 1,000 Ryō / 5 AP / 250 Winter Equinox Tickets
Reward: 1,000 Ryō / 5 AP / 250 Winter Equinox Tickets
Reward: 1,000 Ryō / 5 AP / 250 Winter Equinox Tickets

Starting Values: 500 Ryo / 0 AP / 0 Tix
Mission Rewards 5000 Ryo / 25 AP / 1250 Tix

WC claims to be done later

Claims
Rin
Mission Name: Do You Wanna Build A Snowman? x5
Reward: 1,000 Ryō + 15000 / 5 AP / 250 Winter Equinox Tickets
Reward: 1,000 Ryō + 15000 / 5 AP / 250 Winter Equinox Tickets
Reward: 1,000 Ryō + 15000 / 5 AP / 250 Winter Equinox Tickets
Reward: 1,000 Ryō + 15000 / 5 AP / 250 Winter Equinox Tickets
Reward: 1,000 Ryō + 15000 / 5 AP / 250 Winter Equinox Tickets

Starting Ryo/AP/Tix: 200,500 Ryo / 395 AP / 41,750 Tix
Mission Ryo/AP/Tix: 80,000 Ryo / 25 AP / 1250 Tix
Final Ryo/AP/Tix: 280,500 Ryo / 420 AP / 43,000 Tix

Codex

Reward: 1,000 Ryō + 4000 / 5 AP / 250 Winter Equinox Tickets
Reward: 1,000 Ryō + 4000 / 5 AP / 250 Winter Equinox Tickets
Reward: 1,000 Ryō + 4000 / 5 AP / 250 Winter Equinox Tickets
Reward: 1,000 Ryō + 4000 / 5 AP / 250 Winter Equinox Tickets
Reward: 1,000 Ryō + 4000 / 5 AP / 250 Winter Equinox Tickets

Starting Ryo/AP/Tix: 121,500 Ryo / 395 AP / 39,750 Tix
Mission Ryo/AP/Tix: 25,000 Ryo / 25 AP / 1250 Tix
Final Ryo/AP/Tix: 146,500 Ryo / 420 AP / 41,000 Tix

Vis
Reward: 1,000 Ryō + 4000 / 5 AP / 250 Winter Equinox Tickets
Reward: 1,000 Ryō + 4000 / 5 AP / 250 Winter Equinox Tickets
Reward: 1,000 Ryō + 4000 / 5 AP / 250 Winter Equinox Tickets
Reward: 1,000 Ryō + 4000 / 5 AP / 250 Winter Equinox Tickets
Reward: 1,000 Ryō + 4000 / 5 AP / 250 Winter Equinox Tickets

Starting Ryo/AP/Tix: 143,500 Ryo / 395 AP / 21,750 Tix
Mission Ryo/AP/Tix: 25,000 Ryo / 25 AP / 1250 Tix
Final Ryo/AP/Tix: 168,500 Ryo / 420 AP / 23,000 Tix

Approved

TWC: 426

Approved

TWC: 2080
Claims with max stat discount
Rin
Space-Time Art: Portals 1125
Glare 205/1313
Codex
Summoning Technique 750/750

Approved