[ open ] jingle bell, jingle bell, jingle bell rock

[lyingheart]

WHO: OPEN.
WHERE: De Chima.
WHEN: Saturday, December 13th, 2014.
WHAT: Earlier in the afternoon, there will be base-jumping in elf costumes. Later on is the charity silent date auction and different performances by USA celebrities fundraising for charity this holiday season. OOC information post here.
WARNINGS: None now, will update later. To avoid seeing all the silent auction threads, simply press on the (Hide ## comments) under the header comment for the auction section!

[ BASE JUMPING from TARTARUS TOWER ]
For those imPorts who volunteered to jump from Tartarus Tower, arrivals for fittings into their costumes begins at 2:00 PM sharp. Each costume comes with a name-tag attached, and make-up artists are on hand to help affix elf ears to participants and work on their eye make-up for the ease of the cameras catching all this live.

The jumps will start at 4:00 PM, and after all imPort elves have jumped and successfully reached the ground, they'll join the bus transporting presents and Malik to the De Chima children's hospital to deliver gifts to the children in the cancer ward (and elsewhere). ImPorts will then be transported over to the main facilities for the fundraiser event as a whole, invited to attend the Silent Date Auction as well as listen to any of the various performances occurring over the course of the evening.

[ CHARITY SILENT DATE AUCTION in DE CHIMA ]
Starting at 4:00 PM, the doors to the conference hall made available for the ImPort Charity Silent Date Auction will open. Live music will be provided, along with refreshments and catered hor d'oeuvres, and televisons displaying both the news stories and live coverage of the fundraiser events occurring over the course of the evening. ImPorts will be encouraged to attend any of these performances in person, but will not be required to leave the conference hall unless they wish to do so.

There is lounge seating available, and free wireless throughout the building. Different conference halls are hosting different events in this event center, and the largest productions are happening on a built stage outside. There's a massive lit tree in the central front courtyard of the event center, and many small stands selling hot drinks, good foods, and wares outside by the stage and surrounding streets, all with a portion of proceeds going to various named charities.

Please comment to this log with your own starters! Only the Auction Thread will be set-up under its own sub-thread, for ease of tracking. Auction Threads can be threaded in, but initial comments to those threads should be the bids that a character is placing on someone else (or themselves). Bidding will close OOCly by this time next week (or when a player states bidding is closed on their character - send me a PM to close that thread, or comment to close it on your own). ICly, all bids close at the end of the night.

Comments

annie leonhart | ota (tartarus tower & silent auction)

[lyingheart]

To start with, she shows up early to Tartarus Tower, face neutral when she's handed the costume they're supposed to wear. Assurances have been made that it's up to standard for being actually useful as a parachuting suit, but she's more wondering how this will even work for all the imPorts who expressed interest. It's not her problem, thankfully, so while she's in uniform and loses the debate on if she should be in elf ears or not, she wins the one on makeup anywhere other than her eyes.

She tightens the straps of her parachuting gear, having gone over it once with an instructor before figuring she had the basic idea down enough to be okay. Looking up, she spies a twisted strap running over someone else's shoulder. "You're twisted," she says from behind them, to their left. "Your strap is, I mean."

Later, after distributing gifts at the Children's Hospital (she isn't finding that she's all that fond of hospitals in general), Annie heads over to the Silent Auction, roughly two hours after it begins. She's still in her elf jump-suit costume, carrying her bag slung over a shoulder with what she'd worn over to Tartarus Tower inside. Her eyes pass over the auction tables set up in the foremost part of the room. She's looking for the refreshments table. Annie spots someone she recognizes (either as an imPort or someone she knows more than generally) and approaches, asking a pointed question. "Did you see if they set out any water bottles earlier?"

[ ooc: feel free to PM me for a starter! ]

tartarus tower

[bratziska]

Franziska is not the type of person who handles criticism with grace. When she hears the voice over her shoulder, she turns around immediately, ready to debate. "It's fine," she snaps, despite her hand groping around her back to try and remedy the situation. "I don't need your help with anything." Perhaps she would be less sullen if she recognized Annie, considering that she does have a respect for those who she considers 'experts'. But Franziska doesn't, for now, and instead glowers at Annie with a perfectly made-up face, which sort of matches the name tag on her jumpsuit which reads perfect elf.

[lyingheart]

Annie is unfazed by the glowering, her own expression staying on the neutral end of things. There's a moment where her eyes narrow, but it's to see if Franziska's fingers are finding the twist and remedying the situation.

"Have you done anything like this before?" It's a genuine question, meant to undercut the immediate debate she seems to be aiming for. Annie's own tag reads Grumpy Elf to Franziska's Perfect Elf, but she's not exactly living up to her name the way Franziska is - except in expression.

Annie doesn't look thrilled to be here by any stretch of the imagination. A bit indifferent, when she's not being engaged, but that's pretty standard.

[bratziska]

After a little more fiddling, she manages to untwist the strap. Her hands are still fidgeting somewhat, though, and she pats down the front of her jumpsuit. "No," she admits, reluctantly, biting her lip. She's a bit nervous, truth be told, but it'll all be worth it in the end. "But I'm fine. Have you?"

[lyingheart]

"Yes." She'd watched as Franziska finally set the strap to rights, looking away at that point. "More with freefall and using cables to prevent unfortunate accidents. Parachutes would have slowed us down."

Nothing in what she says sounds boastful, just nonchalant and matter of fact. Annie is adjusting one of her thigh straps, smoothing out the material of her jumpsuit so it doesn't bunch in ways that might work against the movement she wants to have by the end of this.

"From what I understand, we'll be aiming to land on a target down in the park."

[bratziska]

"That shouldn't be too difficult. How large is this target?" She's not quite sure what to envision: something typical, like what is painted on the boards at an archery range? A big 'X' marks the spot? Or something more fantastical? Her fingers curl around a riding crop that's not there.

"I suppose we're not in a hurry." She wonders what sort of experience this woman would have, where she would have to jump off a building urgently.

[lyingheart]

"I don't have the specifics, but somewhere over three meters in diameter. Closer to four, I believe." Then again, that might have been the radius. The man she asked hadn't been sure.

"No... not much. Only enough to make sure everyone's down in time. Those who aren't comfortable with jumping won't be forced to jump in the end."

[bratziska]

Franziska frowns. "Well, I'm not going to get cold feet at the last moment. Do you know what it looks like?" It would be a good idea to know what she was aiming for, but she also figured that it might be obvious once they're looking down from a height."

[lyingheart]

"Large, circular, and white, with a red cross drawn through it. It's in an open meadow, where none of the trees will be in our way."

Easy to see from on high, and the winds in the area are cooperating, pulling them away from the building and out over the park. "Even if you overshoot, just aim away from the trees. You don't want to get caught hanging if you can help it." So she's been told, and considering the parachutes she's seen, so she also believes.

The tower because Kay is too priceless to be auctioned off - wait

[yatagarasu]

[Kay twists around to look at her strap, blinks, and quickly fixes it. On the other hand, she was a good sport with the makeup artists, allowing them to give her the elf ears and the eye makeup.]

Darn, how could I have missed that? [Knowing her, it's rather likely, because she's way too caught up in the excitement of it all.] Thanks, Annie.

but for everything else, there's mastercard

[lyingheart]

[ Annie nods, all elf'd out and calm, ready for whatever will be happening once they're up and about to jump. ]

Feeling nervous?

[ Or just excited? This really is dangerous, even with all the gear, and she's... thankful, watching those who are here, to see no one taking it completely................ casually. for the inexperienced to pretend to know what they're doing is where deaths and the like come up. no need for user errors here. please? ]

You made her sound even more priceless...so priceless she'd steal herself 1/2

[yatagarasu]

[Kay stares at Annie, eyes so wide they look like they're about to pop out of their sockets.]

Nervous? We're up who knows how many feet in the air about to jump off a tower and give kids presents! You think I'm nervous?!

[yatagarasu]

[Then she breaks into a wide grin. Apparently she was just acting.]

Of course not! This is gonna be fun! [She jumps a little - just a little.]

[lyingheart]

[ Wow Kay. Wow!!! Then again, Annie doesn't find this response from her all that surprising. She's excited to be here, and that's generally a good sentiment, as long as it doesn't get in the way of being practical about things, too. ]

You remember how to operate your parachute once it's pulled?

[yatagarasu]

[She nods, now letting the full extent of her excitement show.]

Yup, don't worry! It's a piece of cake.

[lyingheart]

Good. We don't need to give people an excuse to practice their mid-flight catching skills.

[ That offered with a hint of amusement in her voice, because actually... maybe they do. p

Will your friends be watching this?

[ Her crows. Those friends. ]

[yatagarasu]

The imPort friends, or the feathered friends?

[Actually, the feathered friends indeed will. They were amused at the idea of their overlord/leader/better jumping off a tower and being airborne.]

[lyingheart]

Either... though the ones with wings were what I had in mind.

tartarus tower

[glowsferatu]

There's always that odd impulse when you stand near a ledge, one that's caught Kanaya like a magnet. It isn't rational, there's no real thought process to it, and logically she knows it isn't worth entertaining. And yet, as they wait for all the final preparations to go under way, as she stands there looking over, calculating a distance she's already had explained to her by one of the technicians here, she has that same odd impulse tugging at the back of her mind. Just jump, it says.

She frowns, doing the math in her head, determining where exactly she'd be by the time she could realize something's wrong, how much time she'd have to redirect her descent. And then there's still the momentum to consider. Sure, she could always put herself somewhere else, make sure she fell somewhere that not as far, not as likely to have a passerby to messily land on, but she'd still be falling at the same speed. She pulls herself away from the bottom to examine the other buildings, feeling a sense of deja vu as she tries to pick out an ideal alternate landing spot. It feels like she's been there before, and not just in the general area, but the heights themselves, reaching up to the heavens. But she hasn't, why would she have? There wouldn't be any point to it.

She shakes her head and looks away from the edge, spotting Annie as she helps another volunteer fix their pack. The Diligent Elf doesn't bother interrupting, waiting until the Grumpy Elf is finished before calling out to her.

"It's all a bit mad, isn't it?"

[lyingheart]

"This whole world is mad. So's mine... for what it's worth. Yours hardly sounds any saner."

Step by step, they all slide closer to chaos in these muddled landscapes, but it's not a hopeless motion. Accepting the chaos in the universe, balanced against what order they make for themselves, is part of life.

For Annie, at these heights, there's no temptation to jump that isn't already used to doing just that, for different reasons. She's also not tempted to re-enact her own fall.

Or the one from November, but even that she can compartmentalize. It's not the first time she's been falling without anything to stop her other than quick thinking and the cooperation of her comrades in arms.

Still, her words aren't heavy, or not meant to be. Annie is at ease with the situation on hand, used to less apparent security and higher speeds demanding more from the body than this ultimately will.

Jumping with a parachute? It's a luxury.

"Being a little bit mad is almost reassuring." She looks sidelong toward some of their fellow elves. "Or exciting, I suppose."

[glowsferatu]

That's a point that sticks in the back of Kanaya's mind, it's only over a month since that happened to Annie, yet here she is doing this anyway. It can't be something she hasn't thought of herself, so there's no point in mentioning it. Maybe this is her way of dealing with it, reframing the situation in a way she can control.

"It would have to be, I think. I'd feel ill at ease in a properly sane world." Though the danger isn't quite as attractive as it used to be when she was younger. Overexposure really spoils you for things, until you're about to jump off a building and realize that it doesn't feel as strange to you as it should. "Still, I think sometimes you just have to stop and recognize how mad it really is."

[lyingheart]

"I think most of us do... those of us not so focused on what we're running after that we're so part of that madness we're not seeing how mad we really are."

Eren. Though that might be unfair of her in a way - still, his obsession had driven him over the years, and he had not been quiet in professing what he believed in their own mad world. Or in adapting and taking in the words others gave him, framing that madness and finding it as ridiculous as some of the others did.

"Calling the madness out might be good for everyone, time to time."

Like the madness of leaping from a much taller building after last month, except here it's all choice, and no split second decisions made. Fulcrum had caught her before she'd needed to shift to survive the Fall... here, a shift would probably manage, but she didn't feel inclined to test that theory out.

She glances away from the edge, looking toward Kanaya. "How fruitful it is seems to vary."

[glowsferatu]

"No, sometimes it doesn't really achieve anything." Part of why she's keeping mum on that particular topic. "Still, one has to wonder just which side she rests on. I've always...it's a role that's often been expected of me, introducing sense into a situation bereft of it, but many of them will think they're doing the same thing in response."

Like all of the new arrivals who insist their first impressions must be correct, like Newt so determined that he can find a way to overcome the Porter. That the only reason no one has yet is because of complacency. Flashes of Nepeta, fighting against the fate she had waiting for her.

It's exhausting, arguing so much.

[lyingheart]

Annie doesn't respond with words - fulfilling her own role, which was often that of the quiet observer in the group, not even the one who was friends with the rest - that had been Bertholdt. There's nothing to say except in listening. One Kanaya had been expected to be the one who delivers sense. Annie's done so, in some situations... but hers was a sense that looked at a presentation of the world and called it bullshit, and went with it anyway. Hers is not firm when it comes to action.

Or hadn't been. In her way, in degrees, she's been working on that. Accepting is still a large part of what she does... but acceptance doesn't have to spell out any one response. What she does or doesn't want from this world isn't as simple as it had been by mission necessity back home.

"I don't know," she says at last. She supposes she never really will.

[glowsferatu]

"It isn't easy to answer. The most important questions rarely are, but I'm not sure the answer itself is so important as the fact that we're asking ourselves to think about it." It's a compromise, sure, because they should still be looking for those answers, as far as she's concerned. Those answers help them understand what route they should take, sometimes over which route they want to take.

Still, getting to the point where you can understand that takes a willingness to second-guess your perspective. She's probably better at talking about that than living it, though.