[ 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

[kanadian]

No -- we had a better setup, but...

[ He lifted a shoulder, to pick at the uniform. He looked (and felt) ridiculous, but it was for a good cause, right? That was at least something. That was what kept him going. ]

Jumping long distances wasn't as big of a deal? I guess you could put it that way. Sometimes you did it, but your equipment wasn't as likely to fail.

[ ~*~the future~*~ ]

[bratziska]

( Oh. She'd gotten in the wrong way around. )

So you had better equipment for this kind of activity where you're from. ( A beat. ) Are you worried about it? The equipment, I mean.

[kanadian]

A little.

[ He shifted from foot to foot, before he leaned forward slightly, as if he could see over the edge, even though they were too far back to really get a good look. ]

Back where I'm from, we can free drop off needed, although normally we...do it in a tank, rather than free fall. Which is at least something, although free drops aren't unheard of.

[bratziska]

A tank... ( Her eyebrows knit. She's having trouble visualizing it, and besides, these parachutes seem pretty reliable. They are where she's coming from anywhere. ) What sort of tank? There's several kinds...

( Although some seem more feasible than others. )

[kanadian]

Uh --

[ His hands make a (approximate) shape of the Mako -- or a submarine sandwich-- and he squinted. ]

It's an all-terrain tank. Made for scouting other planets. It handles really badly. Probably because we launch it from low-atmosphere.

that damn mako is my only strong memory of mass effect :')

[bratziska]

( Oh. He did mean the military type of tank. )

So, when you fall in the tank it prevents you from being exposed to the outside elements. ( Like the ground.

But wait -- )

Sorry, did you say other planets?

i'm so sorry it stays with everyone forever

[kanadian]

Ah --

[ He danced from foot to foot, trying to keep from being too... well, Kaidan often felt like he was explaining the whole space marine from the future thing.

Honestly, it was probably the most interesting thing about him at first glance. ]

Yeah, I'm...a marine? [ A pause. Everyone knew what that meant. ] For the Systems Alliance, I guess you could say from the future? At least compared to here.

[bratziska]

( She looks the man up and down. It makes sense, insofar as alternate universes make sense. Some days, it takes some getting used to. ) That would explain why your technology is more advanced.

( And because her curiosity is not quite sated, she asks: )

But what is the 'Systems Alliance'?

( It sounds like some sort of network for engineers. )

[kanadian]

It's...the military?

[ As if that should answer it. He paused, though. He knows that doesn't say much, not really. ]

The Earth military, anyway. Well, not just Earth anymore -- our colonies too.

[ Because if there's one thing mankind didn't learn: it's that colonies are bad. ]

[bratziska]

( A future where mankind has conquered other planets... what a fantastical place that must be. The awe is evident in her eyes for a bit, but when she speaks again she tries not to sound too amazed. )

So I supposed finding yourself here wasn't as shocking as it might've been for the rest of us.

( It's not clear what she's referring to as 'here', here, as in getting ready to jump off a building in the name of charity, or here in alternate universe America. )

WOW I am an asshole somehow I lost this!!

[kanadian]

Well, I wouldn't say that...

[ He shook his head, and ran a hand through his hair. He thought of it as being in Heropa, and he stepped forward to peek over the building, but rolled his shoulders. ]

Think about it this way, it's like...getting stuck in...what's that really old book -- a something in King Arthur's Court. Being here is so far back in the past, I have to relearn everything I know.

haha that is okay! i just assumed you got waylaid by the holiday season

[bratziska]

You mean being here is like being a knight? ( That's actually really fascinating. ) Is the future really different, then?

just a little bit, yes!

[kanadian]

Ah, no, it's... [ He pulls up something orange on his arm, glowing faintly, and taps at it. ] It's a book about... someone from the present going back in time, and getting trapped there. It's like being out of place, and instead of everything being too advanced, you're so far ahead you're out of place.

[bratziska]

( The corner of her mouth curls slightly. ) The current present or your 'present'? ( She hasn't heard of that book before. )

Do you really feel so out of place?

[kanadian]

It was the eighteen hundreds, I think? I don't know, it's a classic, but I haven't read it. [ Sorry he might be smart, but he's not that smart. He tapped at the haptic display again. ] Yeah, the eighteen hundreds.

Anyway, It's...like that. I'm used to being off planet. I was just on Earth for a few months, and that was the longest I'd been here since... I was a teenager? I'm just not used to living like this, you know?

[bratziska]

That's in the past for both of us, but moreso you than me. ( She pauses to think things over. ) If it helps any, I can't imagine being anywhere other than Earth. At least this Earth is similar to the one I knew.

[kanadian]

Well, that's good. You're lucky. What kind of place are you from? Is it like this? [ Honestly, he didn't know what kinds of places other people came from, other than the fact that some of them came from places with superheroes.

He was a bit in over his head. ]

[bratziska]

Well, there's some main differences. Mostly in the history and the whole 'superpowers' ordeal. There wasn't any such thing where I'm from. The technology is somewhat different as well, possibly due to the historical changes. ( Is that all? She mulls things over. )

Oh, and their age restrictions are much less lenient. ( Sore point!! )

[kanadian]

Yeah? You can do anything you want back home?

[ He sounded bewildered, and surprised. ] How old are you, anyway? What did they let you do back home?

[bratziska]

I'm thirteen. ( It's admitted a little reluctantly. ) I was about to take the bar, back in Germany. ( After everything he's said to her so far, though, she wonders how much of that would make sense to him.

She attempts to clarify: )

It's the test you take to become a lawyer.

[kanadian]

Yeah, I know what the bar is. [ A little stiffly. Then again, he did just say that everything was different. ]

At thirteen, though? Don't you have to graduate high school first? And college? And law school?

[bratziska]

( Stiffly: ) The university process is a bit different where I'm from. But, yes. You do and I did.

I don't know why people have a problem with that.

( Well, alright, she knows but she doesn't like it. )

[kanadian]

I don't think it's a problem, just...

[ Disbelief. Mostly. Kaidan could remember being thirteen, and going to go work was the furthest thing from his mind. ]

I don't know many people that are that driven.

[bratziska]

( She can't help but smirk at that. )

There's not many people like me.

[kanadian]

I gathered. [ But seriously thirteen.... ]

You must have had a lot of resources, to get that far, though.