Yukimatsuri (Yuuyake Koyake)

[Sicarius]

Mizuki

Grinning evilly, Mizuki just started to laugh, not even bothering to run. After all, it wasn't like she was guilty of anything at all. She let go of Hikari to see if she'd run, and just smiled and smiled.

[Yuki Akuma]

The young girl's eyes become as wide as dinner plates as the teacher(!!) begins running towards them! She squirms in Mizuki's grasp... so much so that, when the tanuki lets go of her, she slips and falls, landing on her face in the hard-packed snow. The girl lays where she is for a while... and then there's something that sounds like a hicchup.

And then the girl gets up and starts bawling her eyes out!

[Dorizzit]

Zounan grins to himself as he morphs back to human form, remembering the school kids. It was a shame no one would believe them; it might be nice to have the community treat him as actually existing rather than merely being an ironic curiosity. He examines the statuette. Watanabe, eh? Hm...perhaps the name of the carver. I'll seek out this..."Watanabe" later. I wonder why they carve these. Pocketing the statuette, Zounan wanders out, looking at the venue for the ice sculpting competition. Suddenly struck with an idea, he looks around, seeing if there is some kind of place he can sign up to participate.

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"I'll pay three dream points to pass the check, but Zounan is still going to let people get glimpses of him."

That works for me. However, you don't spend Dream points to pass skill checks. Those are Thought points. Also, it costs 4 Thought or Mystery points to shift to human again.

I meant thought points, I deducted thought points from my total, I just...said the wrong thing. Man, I need to stop spending so many points...

[Tichrondrius]

Shuichi

Shuichi bursts out laughing from behind the hill as hes rolling another one before hearing the exchange, and peeking back over the hill. "Oh man!" He mutters, and started to take off running at nigh-full speed. He pauses only to grab onto Yukkio's coat, "Ah, come on, teacher!" Shuichi nearly hisses, not even knowing where this supposed dislike of teachers comes from, and not even noticing Hikari and Mizuki's exchange.

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2 DP to Hikari for being awesome, and hurting herself.
1 DP each to Ryuta and Yumii for causing Kuma Da's post, which made me laugh out loud.

[mistformsquirrl]

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I'll spend 2 thought points and keep the tail >.> I'll just hide it in my kimono.

[UglyPanda]

Ryuta

The little bird moves from his perch on the ramen-maker's shoulder and back to his seat at the counter. With a poof, Ryuta returns to human form in his crouching-hunched position, but he looks a bit different. He looks quite scared, having the same expression as when he thought he was getting sick. His outer layer of clothing was being held in his right hand, revealing a white undershirt with two holes in the back. And then there were the giant black wings poking out of his back in said holes, communicating the fact that Ryuta clearly wasn't human. "Fear really warms you up, doesn't it ramenmaker-dono? I'm terribly sorry I used you as a perch. I forget that you humans don't like that unless we're close. I just wanted to get away from the cat. THE CAT IS GONE, RIGHT? Please let it be gone."

OOC:

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So how many points did I have to spend to change back? My character's main animal features are his wings.

[mistformsquirrl]

Yumii

Yumii returns to the ramen stall in human form, and upon spying Ryuta seated again, walks up to the stall.

Ryuta-chan! <^,^> Konbanwa~ Ooh, dinner, I'll join you!

Yumii plops down on the stool next to Ryuta and orders a bowl of chicken ramen.

[UglyPanda]

Ryuta

"Yumi, it was you!" Ryuta hops a stool over, away from Yumi. Then he remembers why he was sitting there, hops back, moves his tea and other things two feet over, and then hops again so there is a stool of space between himself and Yumi. "Why did you try to frighten me? Did you already know that fear makes you warm, Yumi-san? Or should it be Yumi-hikoku, you bird eater, you."

OOC:

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Hiroku is the honorific for a criminal, I think. Who knows if it's correct?

1 point for Yumi for giving my character an excuse to transform.

[mistformsquirrl]

Yumii

Yumii grins wickedly at Ryuta.

Me? What did I ever do? <^_^>; All I did was see you at this nice little resturant and decided it was time for a little food for me too!

[mistformsquirrl]

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Why? <;_;> What's wrong with them? Usually people like them <_ _>

[Yuki Akuma]

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On further research, I can't read. "Hikoku" is the defendant at a trial, so it is a word, but. It makes no sense in this context. Like, at all.

Also, out of order "Please for the love of God stop the smilies!" post.

Reasons?

It's really, really annoying and makes you look like the annoying brand of Japanese fangirl. Please, stop.

While we're on the subject of annoying Japanese fangirl habits, please don't use totally superfluous Japanese like konbanwa. We have a perfectly useful English phrase for that, "Good evening". >.>

[UglyPanda]

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Wrong with what? My character thinks you're going to eat him, he's in paranoia mode.

Edit, On Hikoku:

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Even if it doesn't make sense, my character has a fickle grasp on language, so it's still in-character, even if it doesn't sound right.

[Kuma Da]

Hikari, Shuichi, and Mizuki

The instant Hikari starts crying, Kei-chan skids to a stop in a powdery spray. Oblivious to the advancing teacher, he dashes over to her and kneels down in the snow, getting powder all over his jeans in the process. "Are you okay? What happened?!"

"Excuse me?" booms a voice two or three shades deeper than Kei-chan's.

-

Yukiko is too caught up in the moment to notice any of this drama unfolding and, with Shuichi in tow, she sprints half-way to the center of town before she realizes that neither her friend nor Nakamura-sensei is still following her. She turns to look at Shuichi, who's still holding onto her coat. "Um...have we met before?"

Zounan Zaraki

In a big city like Sapporo or Otaru, there would probably be some sort of formalized sign-up process for the snow sculpting contest. Samuyama's, however, works on a first-come first-served basis. There are still a couple of spots open when you arrive, and after a quick chat with the woman supervising the event you're given one.

Now, what do you make?

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I have no idea how to properly set up a snow-sculpting skill check, so I'm going to just wing it and homebrew some rules here. Anyone who works on the sculpture can invest as many Thought points as they'd like into building it. The total number of Thought points in the statue determines how good it is.

There you go. Try not to go too crazy with it.

Ryuta and Yumii

The ramen chef holds up the palm of one hand in a "wait a minute. I can't deal with this right now," gesture. He disappears into the back of the shop, then comes back a moment later with a large brown bottle of shouchuu (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Shochu) and a couple of glasses. He waves them towards his other customers, but the three local men are already getting to their feet and heading towards the door. The youngest of the three fumbles with his wallet before eventually extracting a 5,000 yen bill and dropping it by the register. The man behind the counter makes no move to pick it up. He pours himself a stiff drink instead.

Once the other customers are gone, he walks to the front of the shop and flips a little hanging sign from 'open' to 'doing maintenance'. Then he downs the glass of shouchuu.

"Now, odds are pretty strong that right now I'm dreaming. Or maybe I have a fever. I've never hallucinated before. Maybe this is what it feels like. However, on the off chance that some sort of...of...god really did just walk into my shop and order a bowl of ramen...well, what would you like?" His manner suddenly becomes professional again. Even when the rest of the world has just been heaved end-over-end, ramen still makes sense. He might be clinging to that. "Our miso-ramen is pretty famous. It's topped with corn that grows right around here. I don't know how it measures up with, uh, whatever gods usually eat, but a lot of the regulars like it. Um." He switches focuses, turning to Yumii. "Chicken, right? That'll take a few minutes to fry up. You're not a god as well, are you?"

He thrusts a warm towel and a glass of water in front of her, then quickly sets to work making the ramen. It seems like he might be afraid of the answer.

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Mistformsquirrl, remember that your shifter ability score deducts from the cost of any shape-shifting you do. You have a shifter score of 1, so you only have to spend one point to shift into human form+tail. Sorry if I didn't make that as clear as it could have been.

Ryuta can shift to human with wings for free. He's got a shifter score of 3, and shifter counts towards shapeshifting checks just like other stats do towards skill checks.

Everyone

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I'm not sure if I ought to award Dream points for characters being extremely creepifying, but Ryuta's "Fear really warms you up, doesn't it ramenmaker-dono?" struck me as the kind of thing you'd hear at the start of a trailer for a Japanese horror movie. So, uh, 1 DP for that.

Now, on the subject of smilies, superfluous Japanese, and incorrect honorifics...

Well, actually, I don't mind them at all. Yuuyake is not a serious game. You do not have to get Japanese right to play it. I'm rather impressed by the amount of effort everyone has been putting into this so far.

Yuki Akuma, I can sorta understand being irritated by some of that. Your level of comprehension is waay ahead of mine (I only spent two years as a Japanese major.) And, yeah, I know it's a Japanese-major-y thing to do, critiquing people who have enthusiasm but not practice with the language/culture. But does this really bother you that much?

If so, then we'll all try to scale back on it. If not, please chillax. No one's going to think any less of you for not pouncing on potential fanboyishness/girlishness.

Jeeze. This game is supposed to make people feel all warm and fuzzy.

FEEL ALL WARM AND FUZZY, PEOPLE!

[Tichrondrius]

Shuichi

Shuichi scratches the back of his head, and sticks out his tongue in a slightly embarrassed pose. "Yeah, I'm Shuichi! Looked like you could use some help back there. Looks like we all got free from the dreaded..." He shuddered involuntarily, still not really knowing why, "...sensei."

As he says this, he takes a peek around and notices no one else is with him. "Hm, guys, guys? Sometimes I forget I run so fast." The dogboy said forlornly, and blushed before releasing Yukiko's coat. "Gomen nasai!"

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I'm going to give Ryuta a point for an entertaining conversation, for for the bird eater line, no matter what false honorifics he used.

One to Yumii for being his partner.

And, yes, that line was exceedingly creepy. I want to hang out with Ryuta. lol

[Yuki Akuma]

Hikari cries and sniffles, and then clings to Kei-chan as he kneels down next to her! "M-Mizuki... neechan dropped me, and I fell over and..." She begins bawling again, holding tightly to him! "Kei-chamaa..." She looks over her shoulder towards the approaching teacher, then promptly buries her face in 'Kei-chama's' shirt.

(Note: -chama is the diminutive form of sama. It's a bit of a weird thing to call someone so much older than you, but she doens't know his actual name...)

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Spendin' 10 DP to make a new connection: Kei-chan++ (Hero Crush)

Edit: Waaait a second, my Cute ability makes that only cost 8 DP. Awesome.

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It does, in fact, bother me a whole lot when people use superfluous Japanese. Words that don't have any elegant translation (such as most food items and clothing) don't bother me, but saying konbanwa instead of "good evening" is just...

We're assuming everyone is speaking Japanese already, right? So we're just using the Translation Convention? So why would you randomly leave words untranslated when they have a perfectly elegant translation?

[Dorizzit]

Zounan walks over to a woman apparently supervising the event. At his most charming, he quickly worms his way into one of the last spots. Thanking her, he trots off to the carving spot. Checking over the provided tools, he then looks over the block of ice, tracing his scar with his hands, something that he does when he thinks. What to carve, what to carve...hm...Ah, that should work. Zounan, inspired, grabs a carving tool and gets to work. Moving carefully and meticulously, he takes his time in the crafting. He has only ice sculpted a few times before in his life, and not in a loooong time. Drawing on his mystical nature to supplement his little skill, he pours himself into his work, ignoring everything around him. Some time later, Zounan finishes and steps back a pace, admiring his work. The sculpture is a wonderfully carved rendition of a Fox in a dynamic pose, six tails fanning wildly from its back. Sighing contentedly, he glances around at some of his competition.

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Right then, I'm going to spend five thought points on this. Zounan will accept nothing less than the best for himself.

On another note, Ryuta gets a dream point for being hilarious, and Kawa gets one for being consistently adorable.

[Yuki Akuma]

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Zounan receieves a dream point for being so damn vain. My various gods.

[Dorizzit]

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Is Zounan's vanity getting on people's nerves? I can cut back, if so.

[Yuki Akuma]

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Would you be getting DP for it if it did?

Hint: No, you wouldn't.

[mistformsquirrl]

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Situation resolved, commense happy fun times! This is archival! ((I'm trying to find a way to say this to avoid causing drama or flames - I really do not want to wreck the atmosphere of a very cool game; nevertheless, I can't simply leave this issue unaddressed.

First - No, I'm not going to stop using my smilies. I've used them for nearly a decade with little problem, and more compliments than trouble. Quite frankly they've become something of my online persona - look at my posts completely unrelated to this game and you'll see the same thing.

If its going to cause huge problems, I'll go ahead and go. I don't want to bother people, but likewise, I want to enjoy myself, and if of all places I cannot use my smilies in a game like this, there's no sense in me sticking around as I'm obviously a poor fit.

Second - Not all of us have years of Japanese study under our belts. I had one single year of it, and that's been three and a half years ago without regular use. In other words: Most of the Japanese words thrown around in this thread I don't understand. That's perfectly OK with me - its not an issue at all. But it is rather irritating to be chastised for using a tiny piece of the little I know. I was intending it simply to lend atmosphere.

At any rate, I don't mean for that to be hostile or rude, but being blindsided about stuff like this in a game that I very well thought would embrace them is... disheartening to say the least.

Anyway, like I said, I don't want to cause trouble; but nor will I change who I am to suit someone else.

Please understand I'm very willing to just let this drop and move on; I don't want to cause any trouble and I'm pretty good at just letting things go if I feel I've gotten a resolution. Just understand, what you see is what you get; you can either accept me as I am, or not - either way I am who I am.))

[Yuki Akuma]

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I'm sorry for snapping. It's just one of my pet peeves, is all. Don't worry about it, I'll try to get past it.

Why does everyone seem to think I've studied this language a lot? I took a year of Japanese four years ago. That's it. I barely passed, too...

[UglyPanda]

Ryuta

"I'm sorry for scaring you Ramenmaker-dono, but Yumi over there attacked me! And I'm not a god, I'm just a bird-spirit-thingie with weak magic. Yumi is a cat-spirit-thingie, by the way."

OOC:

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I did not realize that what my character said was creepy. Now that I think about it, it's too creepy. How many points does it take to use wing pillow? If it's twelve, then it's not very useful in this situation. And letting him borrow my wings would cause him to really hit the bottle.

I'm not going to use it but I'm curious, since we're using convention translation, what would be a good way to signify gratuitous English? Times New Roman and italics?

Yuki, I'm guessing the name and honorific chart is the reason why people think you're good at Japanese. I took no years of it and all I know I know from anime.

[Yuki Akuma]

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I learned honourifics usage entirely from Negima!. Okay, and a few anime and other manga that kept the honourifics... I am okay at Japanese, but not because I took that one-year course (although it certainly helped!).

If we go by "reverse translation" - that is, English is Japanese and Japanese is English - Yumii becomes about ten times cooler for using gratuitous English.

[mistformsquirrl]

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Its ok, I appreciate your willingness to try to get past it. I'll try to tone it down a bit, but it really is one of my 'things' - I'm instantly recognizable online because of it >.> kinda funny honestly, getting a "hi" in an MMO from someone on a forum because of my smilies <,<

Yumii

Yumii grins widely to the shopkeeper.

Well I've been told I'm a goddess... but I never thought they were being serious! A cat, really Ryuta-chan? What an imagination.

Yumii gives the shopkeep a wink. <^.~>

[UglyPanda]

Ryuta

"You're lying, you evil-cat-person-lying-spirit-thing." Realizing his wings are still extended, he shrinks them down to a more manageable size and puts his outer layer of clothing back on to conceal them.

[Tichrondrius]

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Ah, try to keep these discussions to the OOC thread, or at least in spoilers, okay guys? >>

Zounan gets a point for being amazingly vain. I love it! Just so i'm on topic.

[Sicarius]

Mizuki!

Mizuki looked rather sheepish. She didn't mean to drop Hikari on her face, but she was just so squirmy. Pranks were all well and good, but making Hikari cry just made her feel bad. But the cute couple looked like sympathetic people, so Mizuki had to look sympathetic too. "Hikari-chan, you know I didn't mean to drop you. It was just an accident and I'm sorry." Of course, those who knew Mizuki had good reason to suggest it was nothing but a croc smile.

[mistformsquirrl]

Yumii

I'm shocked Ryuta-chan! I thought you knew I would never lie to you <;_;> *pout pout*

Yumii hugs Ryuta.

[UglyPanda]

Ryuta

Ryuta rejects the hug and moves to the opposite end of the counter. "But you're not lying to me, you're lying to ramenmaker-dono. And you lie to me all the time, what are you talking about?"

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1 point to Zounan for pouring all of his effort towards carving a statue of himself.

1 point to Hikari for losing a snowball fight.

Which mod do I have to message to get the OOC thread moved to the OOC sub-board?

[mistformsquirrl]

Yumii

Yumii sighs heavily and sits back in her chair to wait for the ramen.

Ahh well.

After a moment's contemplation, she thinks of something else to ask Ryuta.

Ryuta-chan~ where'd Zaraki and Hikari go? And where's that dog, err... I mean Shuichi? After we eat we should probably try to catch up to them, eh?