[ 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

[isaytheeneigh]

It might not just be girls who are betting on you. What are you gonna do if things fall that way?

[Jean is genuinely curious, given this guy's apparent preferences. From what he's seen, those preferences might not be accounted for by the bidding.]

[mantlepieces]

[ Reggie doesn't answer right away, but he does bristle slightly, as if Jean hit on a very specific insecurity of his.

He wrinkles his nose, frowns, then attempts to scoff dismissively. ]

Well, it doesn't have to mean anything. It'd be a waste of time, but I guess that ain't my business.

[isaytheeneigh]

[The fact that he bristles is something that Jean notices, and he debates following that line of thought. Had it been a different time, with a different Jean, he might have utilized that to be a needle in Reggie's side. But right now, he doesn't see the point.

Of course, it's also that he just doesn't understand it entirely. Why the hell would anyone bristle over an observation like that anyway?]

I'd be willing to bet that half of them just aren't taking it seriously. Doesn't mean you have to, either. [It's a less ... provocative statement by far. That's even apparent in his tone.]

[mantlepieces]

[ It's complicated, Jean -- real complicated. If ever the two of them become friends (or at least "people who can tolerate each other") maybe Reggie will talk about it sometime; it's not like they don't have plenty in common, even if they don't know it yet.

Mostly the "on the run from creatures trying to kill and eat them" thing. Awesome. ]

Yeah. This isn't exactly The Bachelor. There'd be a lot better variety if it was, for one thing. [ If "variety" means "lots of women and one guy." He smirks for a moment, then adds: ] That's a TV show, if you didn't know.

[isaytheeneigh]

One of those things, huh? You're going to have to tell me more about it so I can follow what the hell you just said. [How does a TV show lead to more variety? Do they have auctions like this on there? Is that what inspired this whole thing, and is that why imPorts are being bet on in the first place?

Jean would be willing to let it go, but he can't respond accordingly otherwise.]

[mantlepieces]

Uh -- well, it's got more girls on it than we got to choose from here, that's my point. But they're also all after just one guy, so it's like I said -- not exactly the same thing.

[ Probably for the better, not that Reggie has anything against reality TV. ]

This is just about havin' a good time, not true love.

[isaytheeneigh]

Then whoever buys you, make sure they give you a good time. If they're the ones making a point of doing that, then push that. That's all you need to do, right? [Not that Jean has too much experience with dating. He's making his own bid, but it's for a really stupid reason. When it comes to actually following through, he has a feeling it's going to be a pain in the ass.

Not that he wouldn't mind that kind of normalcy, but the longer he's here, the less he settles into that pattern. It's almost a fact he's just accepted.]

[mantlepieces]

[ That causes Reggie to raise his eyebrow -- he has no immediate retort to make, which is unusual for him, mostly because it takes him a couple of moments to decide if he agrees or disagrees with that point.

Never mind that it's the logical conclusion of what he himself just said, but Reggie isn't sure how much he really agrees with that, either. ]

Yeah, that's all -- no problem for me. Having a good time when I'm around is just the natural order of things. [ At least, it feels good to say. ] What about you, anyway? Here bidding on someone?

[isaytheeneigh]

For some reason, a friend from home actually put himself up. [Jean shakes his head. He's already effectively framed this in his head, to distance himself from it. Later, when it's all over, it'll be less difficult, but there are certain things he's established for himself. "Difficult" will be the only problem.]

I figured I wouldn't leave him hanging, he uses these sort of things to determine whether anyone wants something to do with him. [Or that's Jean's skewed perspective on the whole matter.] It's about the only way he's an idiot.

[mantlepieces]

[ Reggie's instinct is to laugh at that, to agree with Jean and call it desperate, but he decides not to -- somehow he just doesn't have the energy to be quite as much of a jerk right now as he could be. ]

A pity bid, that's all? Seems like a waste of money to me. You can still hang out with him plenty for free. [ Reggie tries to imagine if he'd think to do something like that if one of his friends were involved, or if one of them would do it for him. No, and probably not. ] Won't it be awkward if you win?

[isaytheeneigh]

Last time I hung around him, he got some stupid idea in his head that I didn't like that. [Jean's shoulders roll back stiffly in irritation. This action isn't for show. Being reminded of it pisses him off enough to not want to return to it, but he's returning to it all the same.]

So even if it's awkward, he won't go on about that anymore. So, I guess I do get something out of it. He wouldn't listen to me before. Besides, who likes hayrides anyway? Something like that just to sit around is too much like home. [Where being carted around like that is ... almost normal. The vehicle difference was all that really mattered.]

[mantlepieces]

[ The look Reggie gives Jean is one of careful scrutiny, as if trying to determine what exactly he means by that; are these guys boyfriends or something? Hayrides? Though Reggie finds, to moderate -- surprise? Relief? Apathy? -- lack of emotion that he doesn't really care even if they are. It's a thought that has no real impact on him.

He offers, helpfully: ]

Hayrides are pretty cliche. Only ever worth the time if you're alone with someone, if you ask me. Kind of date-like. So what would you do this time?

[isaytheeneigh]

It wasn't a date. [As far as he knows it wasn't a date. Given how it went, it might've been a date that went wrong. The thought grates against Jean's nerves in a way that he doesn't really want to think about, especially now that the obvious has suddenly been made apparent to him.

So much that he nearly forgets about the second question. It's only a beat of "I don't want to think about this" that makes him more aware and willing to recall it.]

And—I'm not sure. Maybe we can take the bullet train somewhere to a museum he hasn't seen yet. He'd like that. [He gives an awkward shrug.]

[mantlepieces]

[ Reggie tenses the awkward tension and decides, rather than prod at it, he'd rather proceed with a different subject matter if it's all the same to Jean. Reggie, after all, doesn't even know this other guy (yet), so it's not like it's any of his business. Something about Jean cools that urge of Reggie's to provoke and piss off, maybe because he vaguely reminds him of himself. ]

Yeah, the bullet train's cool. I wish we had something like that back home, it'd make getting outta town a piece of cake.

[ Idle thoughts that have no meaning, though-- well-- what ifs are hard to not ever humor. ]

Do you like having a friend here? I mean, from home?

[isaytheeneigh]

[At the first half of Reggie's statement, all he makes is an agreeable sound. They didn't have anything like that. Could they ever? Did they ever? Those things are an eternal mystery to Jean. The world before the walls is meant to be unknown, after all. That was on purpose.

But to the second half, he considers the question seriously. Having comrades is a definite positive for him, but he's worried about the eventuality of it all. The uncertainty is too prominent in his thoughts, and too many conversations have circled back to the same point. Where did they stand in the wake of it all? Did they have to have a stand? Jean tried both ways, and he still found himself at a loss.]

For now, I do, [he says finally.] This world's a mess, but it's not like the mess we came from. Better that we're here together than back home. [Because all in all, those struggles beat titans, even if titans gave them a defined purpose.

Then again, even that purpose is in question. What, or who, are the titans? That's something else that haunts his thoughts, and he doesn't like it. Where does humanity begin or end anymore?]

[mantlepieces]

Hmm.

[ Reggie stands in a similar place as Jean on the subject, except in Reggie's case he doesn't have anyone actually here to solidify his opinion. How would he feel? Comforted? Safe? Happy, even? Would he feel even more haunted than he does now?

It'd depend on who it was, probably. How alive or dead they were, are, or otherwise. ]

Yeah. Guess you're right -- I can see how that wouldn't be so bad. Especially if you're from some place that's a real hellhole.

[isaytheeneigh]

Being here doesn't fix the mess back home. And it won't. [Jean doesn't think that they could do much with the knowledge they've gained here. The titan shifters are still being annoyingly close-lipped, and he figures that even if they managed to get some knowledge back, it wouldn't be enough. How would they even use it?]

But I'm not going to say that it's a bad thing to live without worrying for my life. Still, this is a pretty screwed up world, too, in its own way. Some of it, I just won't ever get.

[mantlepieces]

At least being here gives you the choice of how much you have to think about it. If you even wanna think about it at all.

[ Reggie frowns slightly, eyebrows furrowed almost skeptically, or irritably. ]

Any world's bound to be screwed up in some way, we might as well take whatever break we do get. [ He pauses, thinking for a moment. ] For me it's the superpowers. Things I don't "get."

[isaytheeneigh]

Most of the "abilities" back home ... they made about just as much sense. [If they could even be called something like that. What's it called when someone becomes a titan? Well, ability's about what it's called anyway, even if it's a strange kind of superpower.

And even then, the amount of control titans have is ... questionable at best. Eren's own ability to control them is still something he's working out. Was still working out. The fact that he's captured isn't doing anyone a world is good.]

I don't understand what's the point in giving everyone them.

[mantlepieces]

[ Abilities back home? Reggie raises his eyebrow, looking at Jean in uncertainty. Great, more people that had lives like in comic books; not that Reggie should be fazed by that at this point. ]

No point to any of it except to keep the nerds and self-righteous goody-goody types happy, as far as I can tell. But-- [ Shoving his hands deeper into his pockets, he shrugs. ] Seems kind of counter-productive to me. For all they know we could all decide to kill each other or somethin'.

[isaytheeneigh]

Aren't there people out there who are killing people? [Jean doesn't involve himself in it, partly because he doesn't know what to do about it. But he spoke to that Manipulator guy, and he's heard about Lunatic. Who hasn't heard about him?]

I don't really think they care. We're still assets even if a few of us are dangerous.

[mantlepieces]

But not all of us. We could -- or at least the civilians around, since it's not like they got powers.

[ The whole thing just seems unreal and stupid, except for the part where they can live their own semi-decent lives for most of the time. That part is an improvement to him, but obviously it would only seem like one to people in special circumstances. ]

They got another thing coming if they think I'll be an asset to this crap. I didn't even get cool powers. They should've skipped the whole "hero" part altogether and just given us the free ride for all the trouble.

[isaytheeneigh]

Does that mean that you've been doing hero business even with your crappy powers?

[Jean can't help but lean on that part of it. If he hasn't skipped the hero business, why is that? He has his own group, but it hasn't always been the most organized and functioning bunch of people. At the end of the day, they've wanted to help.]

[mantlepieces]

Nah. I mean, I guess I could always do magic tricks for sick kids or something if I was desperate, but what do you do with an ability to pull things out of hats?

[ There's that other power of his, too, but Reggie doesn't like talking about it. Literally feeling what other people feel, physically, is just bullshit. ]

[isaytheeneigh]

Can you pull out anything you want? [Almost immediately, he starts finding about fifteen different uses for it. All of them are pretty good, but hey, he might be wrong.]