Subject: Charlie shrugged.
Author:
Posted on: 2022-01-05 17:49:00 UTC
"I hope not, that joke's been used way too much over the years." Their tail waved lazily back and forth. "But I wouldn't know. Didn't wrap most of them, after all."
Charlie had no idea what the area they had set up in was called, but that in no way curbed their enthusiasm as they put the finishing touches on the decorations - if you could call them that. As the last few attendees filed in, the tabaxi hopped off the stepladder they were perched on and took a good look around the room.
The old Dojo was a mess, and not just because its use had lessened since the Holodeck was implemented. Well, maybe that was part of it. But besides that, the room was garnished with tacky banners nailed to the walls and half-inflated balloons in neon colors scattered across the floor. In the center of the room was a rickety table, far too small for the precariously piled stack of presents resting on top of it. Around it was an assortment of brightly-coloured chairs arranged in a halfhearted circle.
Next to the doorframe, tacked to the wall was a sheet of paper listing the rules for the gift exchange in messy handwriting. Surrounding it was a long row of other papers listing the same rules, but in other languages across the multiverse, though most of them weren’t necessary for the people attending the gift exchange anyway.
It was perfect.
As the last of the attendees filed in, Charlie walked up to the table dressed in a tuxedo and top hat far too formal for the occasion, lightly tapping a mahogany cane against the ground to get the others’ attention.
“Well met, all, and welcome to this year’s New Years’ Gift Exchange! Thank you all for coming and let’s hope for a good time!”
Without waiting for a response, they swept the top hat off their head and held it out in front of them. “Inside this hat is a bunch of papers with your names on them. Whoever’s name is drawn can choose a present first, right over here.” They gestured towards the pile of wrapped gifts on the table.
“After that’s done, whoever gave the present will be going next, and…” They crossed the room to the instructions pinned on the wall and gave it a quick check. “Well, I think you know the rest! So let’s see who our lucky starter is!”
And with that Charlie stuck a paw into the top hat, reaching in far deeper than they should have been able to, their arm being swallowed nearly up to the shoulder before they retrieved a crumpled slip of paper. They unfolded it, held it up to the light, and cleared their throat.
“Hm. ‘Di-ane’. Alrighty then, Diane's going up first! So with all the fancy stuff out of the way…”
Charlie tossed their hat up into the air, sending scattered papers whirling around the room and into the faces of some of the closer attendees.
“...Let the exchange begin!”
Alright, with the attendees locked in and the New Year upon us, I figured it was time to get this started, so… here it is!
The rules can be found here, and the participants and gifts can be found here. If you have any more questions about this, feel free to ask.
Thanks, and here's hoping this works!
-OrangeFox
Oh dear, what are we gonna do? Is this year's RP just going to stay unfinished?
I guess there's the option of asking for the RP to be pushed a bit higher up again, we did that once with the Wicked+Divine thing last year. I guess if people are still interested in continuing, I can always ping whoever's next. So I guess I'll see if said interest is still there?
-OrangeFox
Honestly, threads like these tend to die out naturally, so it isn't too much of a fuss. The enthusiasm for this has (mostly) seemed to die down anyways, but I'm glad it got this far to begin with, really, and we were close to the end anyways. But thanks for participating, at least! Hope you enjoyed it while it lasted, and who knows? Might try this again next year.
-OrangeFox
Kaguya recalls a certain rule about "stealing" a gift, and decides it's time to put it to use, even if he can only steal one. And so, he walks up to the purple-haired girl and nicely asks to have the noisy mini back, not forgetting to apologize one more time.
“Sure thing. Betcha Doom would have hated that anyway.” She wiggled her fingers, looking over the pile. “Hmmmm, what about you?” The present she picked was blue with an obnoxiously sparkly red ribbon. Thalia eagerly opened it and grinned evilly. “Punses, we like punses, precioussss.”
She held up one of the shirts. “Bit big, but it’ll be really comfy! Thanks, puddin’!”
A short girl with bright purple hair sat up, rubbing her eyes. “Sorry, musta dozed off. Haven’t slept in a week.” She grinned, bouncing over to the gift pile with a surprising amount of energy for someone who just claimed she hadn’t slept in a week. “Lemme see... this one!”
There was a pause and she grinned even more. “Did... anyone get me explosives? No? Ok!” She opened the gift and pulled out a daruma doll. “Ooo, what does this do?”
The doll cackled, making her jump a bit, before she laughed as well. “Nice! Thanks, puddin’!”
but her repeated pleas go unheard, as her master continues to profusely apologize to the two recipients of RC 381's gifts for the hellish cackling the minis keep unleashing.
“Relax, puddin’. It’s fine.”
Jiwon paused in front of the pile of presents, which was already reduced to nearly half its original size. He spent a good ten seconds looking over them until Charlie spoke up.
“You know, if you don’t want to leave it to chance, stealing’s always an option!”
Jiwon looked almost appalled at that. “What? No, no, I’m… I’m good, thanks.” And with that, he took the top present from the pile. He walked back to his seat, placed the box in his lap and slowly began to peel at the edges of the wrapping paper. After half a minute, he pulled out a small box of chocolate, which he tilted his head at.
“Hey, are those good?” Charlie asked, leaning over to look.
Jiwon flipped over the box to read what was on the back. “I’m not sure?”
“Heads,” Miguel replied. “Wait, can ponies even do coin flipping?”
Ami pointed at her horn with a deadpan expression.
“Oh, right. Unicorn.”
She grabbed the coin in her clear blue magic, then flicked her head up. The coin spun through the air and (with a little extra guidance) landed on the arm of her seat showing a horseshoe emblem.
“It’s tails. Good for me!” Ami trotted up to the pile of gifts, which was looking a bit smaller already. “Eeny, meeny, miney…this one,” she said, pulling a small yellow box from the pile. She magically undid the ribbon and lifted the lid to reveal…
“Oh, this looks interesting. Is this cabbage? It looks sorta like cabbage, but in pickle juice.”
He blinked tiredly for a few seconds, then uncurled himself and shifted back into human shape, letting his tail drape over the side of the chair.
“Yeah, that’s... that’s most of what kimchi is,” he said. “Um, other than the pickle juice. Not sure about the exact ingredients of it, but there shouldn't be pickles. I think. I mean, you can substitute the cabbage with a few other vegetables, cucumbers included, but—”
“It’s spicy rotten leaves!” Charlie said unhelpfully.
Jiwon stifled a reactionary hiss. “It is not.”
“Well, thank you for the kimchi. I’ve never had it before, can I just eat it out of the jar or…?”
“I think people usually put that in soup instead of eating it as is,” Miguel commented. “Besides, Charlie said it was spicy, and we both know you hate spicy things.”
Ami grinned sheepishly. “True. Maybe I can give it to Chris instead,” she said.
Charlie walked over to the pile of presents and took the top one, before sawing off its lid with a few deft claw strokes. Taking a look at its contents, they paused, then reached in, pulling out a clump of dark fur. They blinked a few times, rolling the stuff between their fingers to confirm that yes, it was in fact fur.
They looked over at their partner. “Hey, Jiwon? Is this from you?”
Despite being a fox and thus lacking much of an expressive face, Jiwon still managed to shoot them an incredulous look.
Charlie shrugged. “I’ll take that as a no, then.”
A lanky girl in the brightly colored chair closest to the door smiled cheerfully back at Charlie. “Don’t worry, she’s a clean creature.” She shoved her slipping glasses back in place and settled back comfortably, nudging her purple-haired companion’s head off her shoulder.
Charlie packed the box of fur away in the Bag of Holding at their side. "Bear fur has a nice texture to it. I'll find a use for it somewhere." They straightened up and clasped their paws together. "Alright, I think you're up next! Any present catch your eye?"
She looked through the presents, finally deciding on one that was brilliant purple with a polka dot ribbon around it. “These don’t explode, right?” She asked, looking questioningly at Charlie.
"I hope not, that joke's been used way too much over the years." Their tail waved lazily back and forth. "But I wouldn't know. Didn't wrap most of them, after all."
“Eh, one more explosion won’t kill me.” She then knocked on the floor in an attempt to ward off the Ironic Overpower, before unwrapping the box. “Someone got me food? Real honest to goodness food?” A truly happy grin spread across her face. “I don’t know who made this, but you are a hero and I love you.” She skipped back to her seat, holding the dish of rice pudding close.
“This is another first; no one’s ever called me a hero for my cooking!”
Miguel smiled at his mother. “Your rice pudding is pretty impressive, Mom. We might have to send Zara the recipe.
“On another note, I guess one of us should go pick a gift from the pile, since you already have yours and it wouldn’t be fair if you got an extra turn.”
The gift she's unwrapped half resembles a weapon, half a model of a DNA chain, the blades gleaming chillingly, the hilts richly carved and decorated with jewels. It looks like it could've been a legendary, limited event item in a fantasy MMORPG, available only to players most unflinching in paying out and emptying out their real-life wallets. She doesn't know exactly how to use this object, but there's no denying it's the most beautiful thing she's ever seen.
"It's all yours, Momo," her master says, smiling sweetly. "I'm not one for bladed weapons."
“Ooh, nice one! That thing’s a real beauty‒ provided you don’t try to fight with it. The balance is too off for it to swing right, but at least it looks pretty.” The tabaxi’s arms rested behind their head, and their chair was leaned back against the wall.
“Just don’t mind the glitter. Belonged to a Narnia-type Suvian, and Jiwon never got to cleaning it off.”
Beside them, their gumiho partner blinked in surprise. "Wait, why was that my job again?"
"You were the one who took it in the first place, right?"
Jiwon hesitated, then sighed. "Well, um. Yeah, I guess so." And with that he shifted into a fox and curled up on the seat of his chair, resting his bushy tail over his snout.
Charlie shrugged, then took a moment to readjust their hat.
Having missioned in continua populated by yōkai, she nevertheless still has minor trouble believing she's actually interacting with a cat-person and a creature called a kyūbi or a yōko in her language. Even so, she thanks the duo in English, not heeding the traces of glittery substance staining her palms and her dark green dress.
Since this is the first time participating in this type of thing for most of us, here's a link to the last Gift Exchange RP so you can know how the formatting for these tends to go.
Thanks!
-OrangeFox
A middle-aged Latino woman with dark hair and a smile as warm as her reindeer sweater walked up to the present pile. "Thank you for including a plus-one on the invitations. I'm glad I could make it; the Nursery holiday party takes just as long to clean up from as the party itself! Now, um..." She looked at the boxes, then the list of rules, and then at the boxes again. "These aren't going to explode in my face, are they?"
Two rows from the front, Miguel facepalmed. "Ay, Mamá, it was one box, two years ago, and I didn't even get that one."
"You can't blame me for being worried about my boy," Diane replied in rapid-fire Spanish. Then she picked up a red box with black ribbon and carefully opened it. "Awww, what a cute doll! Miguel, look, it's like a little man!"
As soon as she took it out of the box, however, the daruma doll let out a piercing "Nyahahahahahahahaha!", startling Diane into dropping it on the stage.
"What on God's green earth is this? Who put a laughing doll in the pile?"
This has never happened, the mini-daruma never made noise before. I will take full responsibility for this grave oversight; I can try training the mini to be quiet before sending it back to you. Once again, I am terribly sorry about this 💦
The correct spelling is Shigisawa, sorry 😅