t'was the night before christmas | round i

[The Elves]

'Twas the night before Christmas, when all through the house Not a creature was stirring, not even a mouse; The stockings were hung by the chimney with care, In hopes that St. Nicholas soon would be there; The children were nestled all snug in their beds; While visions of sugar-plums danced in their heads; And mamma in her 'kerchief, and you in you cap, Had just settled down for a long winter's nap, When out on the lawn there arose such a clatter, You sprang from your bed to see what was the matter. Away to the window you flew like a flash, Tore open the shutters and threw up the sash. The moon on the breast of the new-fallen snow, Gave a lustre of midday to objects below, When what to your wondering eyes did appear, But a green furry man and eight tiny demons All wearing antlers, so ugly and fake, You knew in a moment he must be The Grinch.   But what can you do? This is no ordinary Grinch, not the guy from the Seuss books whose heart ends up growing three sizes too big. His eyes glow a strange, hideous green, but you cannot see pupils. His fake little reindeer run on two legs, cackling, the snow turning to slush in their wake.   Something is wrong. Terribly, terribly wrong.   There’s another clatter on the roof, and you hear more cackling, the gremlin-like noise of the demons. They are clambering down through the chimney. No one else seems to have heard them, and you look around. Maybe this is a dream. You’ve never walked on two legs before, after all. Never had a bed, or children for that matter.   But it feels real. The hair on the back of your neck is standing up, a cold sweat beginning to soak through those cheesy red christmas PJ’s you wear every year.    But what do you do? Do you pinch yourself, try to wake up? Do you run to save the children, do you wake up Mamma (or Papa, whatever the case may be for you)? Do you run downstairs and try to save the gifts? Oh, the gifts! You can already hear the demons down there, destroying Christmas. You worked so hard on that tree, put so much effort into those gifts…   Christmas. It is so much work, isn’t it? Briefly, you consider going back to bed. Let the Grinch ruin Christmas. Then you’d never have to do it again. Your children are spoiled enough, after all.    The demons on are on the stairs now. Something heavier, larger, is on the roof. Their master, that demon Grinch. You have no more time to decide.    You have to act.    Write about how you are feeling during this time. What is your immediate reaction to seeing the demons, the Grinch? How do you decide what to do? This may or may not be a dream. You have no idea. Write about it, but you are not required to come to any conclusion. For the sake of clarity, you are human at this point, and you know all about Christmas and Santa and whatnot. You still remember your life as a horse. Lastly, write about what you choose to do. You aren’t limited to the options in the prompt, but make sure whatever you choose does make sense within the context of the story. You may powerplay the demons/the Grinch, but you may not kill them/magically save Christmas or anything of that nature. You have until Thursday, 9:00am EST to reply. The Elves understand that is is a busy time of year. Therefore, this quest will be 3 or 4 rounds and no more. You will typically have about three days to reply, unless the Elves really screw up. Sometimes they get distracted playing with all the toys. One entry per player. No entry limit. Failure to respond on time in the coming rounds, or elimination from a round, may result in a defect. There be demons here, after all. Eliminations will be based on creativity of the post, grammar, etc. If The Elves absolutely cannot decide, they reserve the right to use chance to help eliminations along. Any trait your character has is gone. Guess you better get out your frying pan. PM or post on the OOC board with any questions for The Elves. They will be along to answer your questions.