Subject: "Huh, I didn't know they could shift between forms," said Chris.
Author:
Posted on: 2018-01-15 20:04:22 UTC
"Or maybe pokéball is just shy, I dunno. Anyway, try to keep it away from your consoles; I wouldn't want to be indirectly responsible for your games getting wiped."
(Oh darn, apparently I hit the Create Post button by accident. Oh well.)
Whitney cleared her throat, unsure of where to begin. She hadn't seen this many people in RC #88224646BABA before, and she certainly hadn't had any experience with hosting a crowd event, let alone the New Years' Gift Exchange like she'd attended like what, two years ago? Still, it was worth a try.
"Alright everyone," she said. "Welcome, come one, come all, to the annual PPC New Year's Gift Exchange! I know it's been a while since New Year's Day, but I guess all's well that ends well, as the saying goes. Apparently, I'm going to be your host for this year, and I'll try my best to be a good moderator. So, shall we begin?"
There were murmurs of assent all around. Whitney cleared her throat, getting everyone's attention.
"Before you is a collection of Party Balls from the Super Smash Bros. series, all of which have been enchanted with, in the parlance of a certain famous literature series, an Undetectable Expansion Charm. You will not be able to guess what each contains, but once you pick one, you'll have to stick with what's inside. Unless you want to steal a gift, of course - but remember that a gift can be stolen up to twice, and you can't steal back a gift once someone else has taken it."
She smiled warmly before continuing. "Each of you will have received a ticket with a randomly selected number, so you will go in numerical order. We will go around from 1 to 18 until everyone has received a gift. So with that, let the gifting commence!"
(The rules of the game can be seen here, and the spreadsheet for the participants and gifts can be viewed here. Have fun, y'all!)
"The one I got you has a few of the more popular songs from seasons one and two of the show. Hope you enjoy them!"
She trotted up to the stage. "Let's see here...gah, it's so much harder to choose when they all look the same." Her horn lit up and a party ball at the back of the pile levitated towards her.
"If she gets my present I'm gonna laugh," said Miguel.
The Party Ball opened, and a jam jar full of a strange gel landed on the stage. "Well, this is...interesting..."
"That is some premium-grade Monstrous Nightmare gel, locally sourced from my boy Fellrazer here." She patted the blue, dog-sized dragon at her side, who parted his jaws in a toothy grin. "Coat something with that, and it'll burn. Hot." She turned from Ami to the other agents. "And there's more where that came from! If you're interested, come to Response Center 1110 with a reasonable offer, and we'll talk. No Zorkmids, though. Fellrazer Brand Monstrous Nightmare Gel: Get It While It's Hot!"
Her partner gave a long-suffering sigh. "Gall. Are you going to choose a gift today?" He gestured at the remaining Party Balls.
"Oh, right." The Viking went up to the pile, stared at it a moment with her lips pursed, then stuck her hand in and snagged one. She offered it to Fellrazer to sniff. He nudged it with his snout, licked it, tilted his head, and attempted to eat it.
Gall yanked it back. "Okay, good enough for me!" She shoved the dragon's snout down with one hand and opened the ball with the other. Out popped the distinctive form of a lightsaber handle. Gall's face lit with glee, and she eagerly scooped it up. "Is this what I think it is?" She toggled the control—and immediately flinched away from the bright urple beam. "Aw, no! Why would you do that?!" She held it as far away from herself as she could.
Fellrazer, too, hissed and backed away from the urple 'saber.
Derik laughed, although he was careful not to turn his good eye in Gall's direction.
(( For the record, I rolled a d20 to make it a random selection. More fun that way.
(( A little more info on Monstrous Nightmare gel: it is bright lime green, and similar in action to kerosene gel or napalm. ))
Almost instantly, Backslash blushed and covered his face with his scarf. "Whitney, we're in public! Ugh, alright then. Let's get this over with."
He stepped over to the collection of Party Balls, picked one up, and punched it hard. Instead of flying across the room, the large orb gently floated into the air, and started flashing red with its distinctive jingle.
Next moment, the ball split in half, and something glitchy-looking flew out of it, landing on top of his head. It seemed to shift between a bunch of pixels, several skeletal fossil Pokemon, and a black ghost-like shape, unsure of what to make of itself.
"Just my luck," he muttered. "I get the glitch Pokemon right out of the gate."
"Or maybe pokéball is just shy, I dunno. Anyway, try to keep it away from your consoles; I wouldn't want to be indirectly responsible for your games getting wiped." He got up to choose his present, and then something sank in. "Wait, Whitney, did you call him 'Mr. Fitzgerald-to-be'? I didn't even know you guys were dating!"
"Congratulations to both of you!" said Ami, smiling fondly.
Chris took a deep breath and grabbed a random Party Ball. "Please don't be awful, please don't be awful, please don't be--"
The ball split in half, and a pair of gauntlets with curved blades and shotgun barrels landed in front of him.
"Aw, man, how come you guys always get all the cool toys?" said Violet.
((Uh, Violet doesn't appear on the list of participants, please fix))
"The Stu who had them really felt it when Richard remembered that little fact to the fic."
"I think I could have done without the 'charred raw burger' look he had once the fic was done giving him all the damage he should have got from the exhausted Aura," Richard said with a grimace as he paled at the memory.
"Hey logic said he impaled his arms, so no Aura, so damage. I'm not complaining when our target kills itself for us."
"Really sorry, it's the first time we participate to this event. Marina?"
"Go for it. I'll be watching for now."
Richard went to the gift balls left, took one on the left and opened it.
"Ooh, a MLP soundtrack album," Richard said with a small smile once he had taken a look at his gift. "Is there any Equestria Girls song on it?"
Marina rolled her eyes. "Don't you already have these ones?" She just could imagine how her little sister would have reacted instead of her partner. And how... enthusiast she would have been. She had saw her receive albums like this one before.
((I present all my excuses to the other participants for dragging down this game because of my misunderstanding of the rules for picking gifts. On the plus side... we're still sort of early for Chinese New Year?
Hardric, apologizing once again.))