December Star System

[spaceshipit]

Ice, ice, baby.



CALENDAR:
→ The fleet will be in this star system from 12/11 to 1/12.
→ We will not be posting a mingle for this planet - please feel free to post your own mingles as you wish!



The Selvin-9 System.



After the chaos of the last two systems, it seems as if Atroma is rewarding the Fleet for their hard work benefiting others. The next system, Selvin-9, contains a litter of tiny gaseous planets - Selvin-1 through 8 - that aren’t really conducive to supporting life or being explored (by virtue of… not having any surface). But there is one habitable planet: Selvin-9. It does not appear to be terraformed; its natural state of being is beautiful and able to support life by itself.

Selvin-9 seems like just an icy hunk at first, but there are a few settlements on the planet’s surface. The largest one, and the easiest one to get to, is a big city with a surrounding plain big enough to land fleet ships. Aside from the occasional village, though, the majority of the planet is snowy wilds-- forest, tundra, frozen desert, you name it, all covered with white snow. Trees and other plant life range from leafy to needly depending on elevation, with higher elevation having smaller leaves and needles. The flatter areas near large bodies of water (like the ocean) are occasionally green, but only because the green is actually tiny photosynthetic organisms! Something like grass lurks beneath the ever-present coating of white snow, but it doesn’t seem dead-- far from it, actually.

Upon closer inspection, the snow here isn’t cold at all. It’s still crystalline in structure, fluffy and powdery to the touch, and it can still be packed into round balls or whatever other shape you care to make. It shows all the signs of chilling the planet, yet the ambient temperature on average is actually just slightly above freezing. The snow melts easily in any warm hand, but then it starts to get sticky.

Also, it tastes like marshmallow.

Rainbow Lights in Snowy Cities.
The largest settlement and essentially the face of Selvin-9 is Berrivalia, a decently-sized city that houses the majority of the population. Citizens range from the usual orange-skinned humans with varying hair colors to the bug-like Nunnilis, and even a few of the Co’Kal (the bird-centaurs) seen a few systems back. There are signs of Dasioe artistry in shops as well, though finding them is impossible. When asked, merchants shrug helplessly and suggest they come from the ocean… or something.

Everything is art to these people: pale white buildings made of marble, colorful accents on roofs and alcoves here and there, and of course, the magnificent stained glass. It features prominently in the tallest buildings, and the reason is easily seen: when the sun shines through them, it makes the lights dance along the snow. The buildings are arranged in a symmetrical pattern so that rainbow starbursts decorate the entire town at dawn and dusk, creating an ephemeral painting over the white canvas of the city. While watching this, someone might push a small, musical bell into your hand. Ring it and make a wish!

Smaller towns on this planet are arranged in a similar way. Even if they’re not as tall, the result is still beautiful.



Even lights through windows can be art.

Technology is a bit behind Atroma’s brand. Though of course space travel and trade is involved, the focus is on harmonious survival with the land, not conquering it. As a result, you’re more likely to find metal bullets and radios than laser guns and flat-screen TVs. Here they do things the old-fashioned way: with hard work and a lot of patience.

Things To Do in the Fluff.
EXPLORING:
Characters will have a lot of new places to explore: caves made of icy fluff, beautiful snowplains, white-capped mountains, rolling hills, and forests that stretch toward the horizon. Water features include beaches both snowy and green with moss-like relatives, lakes with ice so thick you could live on it, and glaciers that you can climb. So take your time - enjoy everything the (cold, snowy) planet has to offer! If you prefer to explore in groups with locals, guided tours, expeditions, and other trips are almost always available, ranging anywhere from day trips to week-long excursions.

That isn’t to say it’s devoid of wildlife, either. The animals found here are of the fluffy variety. There are giant furry seals, arctic blue bears, prides of white lions complete with bushy silver manes, snow leopards, puffball kangaroo rats, and a few other things resembling earth animals but with a snowy bent. Perhaps they descended from the original settlers-- hard to tell.

Rather than icy snow, the precipitation is of a crystallized marshmallow variety that resembles it. And yes, characters can lick the ice and glaciers if they’re desperate for a marshmallow pop or ice lolly… but they might get stuck!

SHOPPING:
Prices here are a little higher than one might expect to be standard. Despite the weird non-cold non-snow, the people of this system can’t grow huge crops. In the city, however, there’s still a decent collection of pretty things, mostly glass and crystal-inspired, and various familiar imports from far-off systems. Those will run the highest price, of course. The biggest export is definitely the stained glass, but there’s also a decent amount of chocolate and pastries as well.

They also sell jars of their crystalline, marshmallow-fluff snow! Locals will swear up, down, and sideways that the snow tastes different depending on what region it comes from, and then of course they’ll swear even more that one region has better-tasting snow than the other. Of course. Seriously, locals can be seen fighting over this from time to time. Maybe you should buy a jar from every place you visit on this planet! Try them all and decide for yourself!

Animal lovers rejoice: there are domesticated and bred snow leopards and otters up for adoption! These have some differences from their earth counterparts.

The snow leopards will eat just about anything, though they do need some form of protein (meat, fish) in their diet to stay healthy. They remain small and kitten-shaped forever, with about the same care and lifespan as a housecat. In fact, they’ll never grow bigger than a typical cat.

The snow otters also never grow bigger than a housecat, and are omnivores. You can feed them the protein from the kitchen dispenser but they may not enjoy it as much. The otters require a lot of water for bathing and recreation, but they’re happy to snuggle up with whoever like a normal pet.

JOBS:
There are plenty of jobs that need doing on a sparsely-populated planet like this. The need for workers is high, and the pay is almost always decent! From hard labor, to clerical assistance, to waiting tables, and anything you can think of: there is a job for you, and credits to be earned! Some other, more specialized examples are below.

Hunting. Interested in a hunting trip? This is certainly the place for it! The snow might make hunting a little more challenging in some ways, but it’s still a great way to catch some food for yourself and your crew - or to earn a little bit of money from the locals. They’ll pay well for any kill you’re willing to part with, and they will assure you that every bit of it will be put to use in one way or another. Be on the lookout for: large deer-like creatures with impressive antlers, round animals with short snouts and tusks that are likely descended from wild boar, birds of all kinds and shapes - some with two sets of wings… All of these animals are fair game!

Fishing. Ever gone fishing on a frozen-over lake? Well, now is your chance! The fish here are plentiful, and plenty tasty too - fish up some dinner for yourself and your crew, or take a job to catch some fish for the locals. You can fish solo on the ice, or you can join a fishing boat that ventures out to sea. Either way, you can get some decent credits for any decently-sized fish you hand over. And if you’re good enough to catch a huge one? They’ll certainly pay you handsomely!

Marshmallow mining. Another phenomenon of the marshmallow-flavored snow-stuff is that, in caves in the mountainous regions, naturally occurring formations of hardened, marshmallow-ice line the walls - and sometimes the floor. Watch your step! Stalactites and stalagmites of this sweet-tasting crystal can be snapped off and sold to some marshmallow-snow-jarring companies, but they’ll pay even more handsomely if you’re willing to go deep into the caves and mine large cubes of the stuff, and then haul it all the way back to the city limits for them!

RECREATION:
Hiking, snow-vehicle riding (or racing!), snowboarding, curling up in a log cabin next to a fire with a good book… The standard fare of wintry activities can be found here, and relatively easily at that! And of course, what’s an ice-covered planet without ice-skating?! The locals love it, and so will you! There are buildings with indoor ice rinks where visitors can skate freely, and some frozen-over lakes are just as skate-able. Don’t have a pair of skates? Don’t worry! It won’t be too hard to find some skates in your size! Though the Co’kal and Nunnilis like to skate too, so do be sure to specify that you need skates that are fit for humanoids…

For those more interested in some cold-weather competitions, speed-skating is a very popular sport here! The first, and most prevalent, type of speed-skating involves a flat, indoor ice rink, and racers skate around the circle for a set number of laps. The second, and more dangerous, type of speed-skating starts the racers at the top of a slick, icy mountain, with the objective to be the first to the bottom - hopefully without crashing into a tree, getting stuck in a snowbank, tumbling over rocks… Yeah, it can get brutal. Both types of speed-skating are pretty easy to work your way into, should you wish to compete, even if only for fun! If you’re more of a gambling individual, there are absolutely some rings you can slide your way into. Might be a fun way to pick up some extra credits…

A completely different type of competition can be found in the kitchens on this planet… That’s right, there are Snow fluff cooking and baking competitions! With prizes ranging from bragging rights, to credits, to a year’s supply of sugary crystal fluff goodness, Fleeters have the chance to show off their cooking or baking talents against the locals here! Competitions can be a challenge to make the best of a certain food (cake, cream, fluff-laden main course, etc), to come up with the most creative use of fluff in a recipe, or to simply decorate the most extravagant plate of food you’ve ever seen with copious amounts of the sticky, sweet, crystalline not-snow!! No matter the trial you get yourself into, be prepared for some seriously tough competition - and a fun time, too!

Anyone looking for some serious rest and relaxation can spend the credits to rent out a nice log cabin in the mountains or the forests, or perhaps just a single room in a large mountain lodge. The choice is yours! There are higher-end resorts as well, with all of the extras you’d expect for spending the pretty penny it will cost.

A Gift from your Fabulous Hosts! … No, Really, Actual Presents. We Promise.
It’s been a few months since we offered a chance for item regains, so this month, Atroma will be surprising everyone with something special! Each character in the game will be receiving an item from home, OR receiving an item of your choice for those who have nothing to regain.

The characters themselves will not know what they are receiving - it’s a surprise! They will wake up one morning to a parcel in the cargo bay, addressed to them. Who is it from? Well, the tag says it’s from… a red lipstick print, and an ace of hearts. Gee, I wonder who that could be? The parcel will be wrapped up in pretty paper with a bow on top… … … very poorly. Some of them have open backs, others have way too much paper for something way too small, others look more like a bunch of scraps of paper taped all over it until whatever’s inside couldn’t be seen. Is the gift a strange shape? Then it’s probably wrapped accordingly and you can tell what it is just by looking at it. At least an effort was made…?

There are some stipulations to regains, of course!

• Items cannot be larger than furniture. If you want to be specific, anything longer than five feet will need to be in pieces.
  
• Weapons and weapon parts, special ammo, items from previous games, and living things will need mod approval. This is to make sure that we keep the game fair.
  
• You cannot receive anything that could be apped as a separate character. Non-talking animal companions are generally okay, but we’ll need to approve them anyway.
  
• The item cannot come from another canon, i.e. you cannot regain materia if your canon doesn’t have it. The only exceptions to this are if you play a CRAU and received something as a gift in a previous game. This will require mod approval.
  
• Small personal items, clothes, armor, etc. will not need approval.

Please comment to the ITEM REGAINS thread below if you would like to regain something. Once commented (and approved, if necessary), feel free to have your character find their parcel at any time during this system!

Comments

ITEM REGAINS

[spaceshipit]

Comment here with the item your character will be receiving from home.

Weapons and weapon parts, special ammo, items from previous games, and living things will need mod approval. Please do not play with these items until they have been approved.

Small personal items, clothes, armor, and other more innocuous things will still need to be noted here, but you will not need approval to play with them.

Thank you!

Asking for Mod Approval!

[goldkiss]

Can Victor have Makkachin as his gift? That is his brown poodle. Info about Makkachin here if you need it.

[tough_love]

Requesting Looma's warhammer! SOME DEETS:

-It's nigh indestructible, since Tetramands are pros at metallurgy (seriously, they specialize in an alloy called Infinitum, which is widely regarded in canon as being virtually indestructible). And also because when you use it like she does, you're putting a ridiculous level of strain on it. It's gotta be built to last.

-THERE'S A BEAM CANNON INSIDE. It's essentially a light artillery piece in its own right, but more suited for anti-infantry usage or for firing on small vehicles / animal mounts (so, she couldn't like, shoot down one of the ships in the fleet with it, but an unshielded shuttle would be in trouble since it's basically getting hit with the focused equivalent of a car crash).

Possible tweaks for game balancing end of things on that last part include either the cannon being disabled entirely, or having a drastically reduced power supply so that it can only manage a couple shots before needing to be charged back up (so like, per day or something, just so she's not in a situation where she's just firing it at all the things).

Size-wise it's probably on the upper end of the limit, but I don't think it'd be much bigger than five feet. If anything, could we assume the Atroma shortened it slightly? Since she arrived a foot shorter herself, maybe they adjusted its size accordingly as well?

[sylphid]

Requesting Fie's second gunsword, please!

[stormfist]

Party Crasher +1 is a shotgun. The wiki page has a stupid amt of information about randomized perks you can get on the weapon when it drops but i'm ignoring like 99% of them.

Basically I just want the shotgun, and I want it to do arc damage. :|b

[wingedman]

Sam's gift will (hopefully) be his jetpack and related non-weapon accoutrements (Redwing, goggles, gauntlets).

[hollystrike]

Katie would like:

* a very large battle axe which is fitted to a person who's eight foot tall and very muscular. It's technically magical but not really (it can do a lot more damage on the chimerical plane, but as that's a plane purely relative to Katie it just makes it a normal axe for Drift unless she accidentally trips over the sharp end). It's also extremely heavy, she can't lift it by normal means, and it doesn't belong to her, but she was dragging it through the street looking for its long dead owner when the Fleet picked her up, so... idk sentimental value???

(In short, it's completely useless to her but she'll treat it with precious care and occasionally glare at it)

Nami would like:

* idk how about her collection of maps from home. (Everything else I could ask for is way too powerful.)

Re: ITEM REGAINS

[touchallthebooks]

Can Khadgar get Atiesh?

[wallcrawler]

Would Pete be able to get a little box with his web shooters and cartridge belt and such in it?

Since, I know it says one item, but. They are not very big and kind of a set! He'd still have to get to making more web fluid and the tech to refill the cartridges with as he uses them up, but it'd at least save him some time.

(I figure he already arrived with his costume, since the nerd actually wears most of it under his clothes and the mask's usually in his bag)

[dreamvour]

would baku be able to get her muramasa sword? there's a demon crafted inside it but it can't escape/it's bound to her and past that it's just a sword

[rebuildyourruins]

Thor will get a bottle of Asgardian whisky. It's strong as hell but still just booze.

also because i'm mean, can he get a regular nail hammer with it?

Re: ITEM REGAINS

[tempredmental]

I'd like Keith to get his Marmora blade. It's basically a large dagger that transforms into a sword. It just also happens to have glowy bits on it.

[supertardiness]

For Barry, I would like to request McSnurtle the Turtle, in his terrarium, if it at all possible?

Asking for Mod approval

[starless_sky]

Since Luna dropped can we say that Umbra remained in the fleet in Noctis' care and also can Noctis have Pryna as a gift? She'll just be a normal dog like Umbra. No magic powers.

[wolfehawke]

I'd like for Wolfe to get his canon staff (this but with a white-blue orb from Inquisition). It'd come with the blade as a separate piece since otherwise it would be longer than 5 feet.

[wolfuncaged]

OKAY HERE WE GO:

Fenris - Changing it to his Blade of Mercy. It's a greatsword so it's WAY longer than five feet, so it'll have to come in two halves.

Crowley - Eve, his Ekans from the Paradisa pokemon plot. She's already conveniently de-powered and sized down to about four feet.

Sokka - The carved 'fish' he made for Yue - because I'm a monster.

Lumière - If possible Sultan, the castle dog - he's owned by the entire castle rather than one person, so that might make him a no-no, I understand. He'll still be cursed as his footstool self until such a time comes that the curse gets broken.

[apurrstate]

Requesting Shepard's Omni tool, though it'll only function at Atroma-levels of technology/capability

Also, requesting for Anders an inquisition/Knight Enchanter spirit blade hilt to replace his Arcane Warrior sword from Awakening. They function basically the same with exception to the blade itself, just the Arcane warrior is an ancient elven technique whereas the Knight enchanter is the 'politically accepted' modern answer.

[asphodels]

HERMIONE: In Eachdraidh Hermione helped adopt/take care of a pack of Direwolves alongside Robb Stark. One of the Direwolves, Romulus, imprinted on her after she took care of him and named him. If possible, could she have him?

LAVELLAN: Solas' wolf bone necklace. There's nothing special about it other than painful sentimental value!

AERITH: The 89 letters she wrote to Zack.

ZAVEID: A horn/claw/scale from the white dragon that Theodora/his lover became!

[samahl]

Cyril is going to get his personal copies of Varric Tethras' books. He has all of them back home in his Kirkwall manor. These copies have also been signed with a personal message to him from the author. The collection would include all of the books Varric has written up to All of this Shit is Weird: The Inquisitor Lavellan Story - which stars Cyril himself as Inquisitor. Notably, though, Tale of the Champion would be missing. I just don't want to deal with introducing another more different Hawke's story to the game so that will be the only book of the collection that would somehow mysteriously not make the trip.

question!

[rebuildyourruins]

What clothing styles are available on the planet? Is it all snow gear?

answer!

[spaceshipit]

It's not all snow gear! But clothing here is definitely still focused on warmth. Think tall and heavy boots, thick coats, strong/durable materials, warm fur (or faux-fur) linings, long sleeves - things like that! Fashion isn't quite as high of a priority as, say, not freezing, but none of it looks terrible.

question!

[padadin]

Hi mods! Thank you for all this!

It says "and a few other things resembling earth animals". I'm not sure how much freedom we have for that so I wanted to ask if alien dogs would be ok! I want Shiro to adopt a puppy so yeah. ^^; (something like this actually)

Happy holidays, guys!

answer!

[spaceshipit]

Any wolves/canines on this planet are not domesticated - they are wild! In fact, they probably eat the puffball kangaroo rats. ... Just FYI. Unfortunately, Shiro would not be able to adopt a dog from this planet. There will (very, very) likely be canine adoptables in a future system.

However, if you want for him to have dog right now, that can be his gift from Atroma instead of a regain from home! Same stipulation of "no larger than 5 feet" applies, but it is an option.

question!

[sylphid]

Say a character does get their tongue stuck on something when licking it... How easy is it to hack at the crystal or whatever to free themselves?

Asking for reasons.

answer!

[spaceshipit]

The crystal is as sturdy as normal ice. So if it's cold and dense enough for a tongue to get stuck to, then depending on what you're hacking at it with, it could be anywhere from pretty difficult (bare hands) to pretty easy (a pick of some kind).

Question!

[crowkiller]

Are the only animals available to purchase as pets the leopard and the otter? Or would dogs also be available?

[spaceshipit]

Only leopards and otters are adoptables in this system!

Every few systems, we try to have pets that Fleeters can adopt - and it's always at least a little bit different than any that have been available in systems past. Canines will (very, very) likely be an option in the future.

If you would like a dog right now, you're welcome to have that be your character's present from Atroma, instead of an item from home!

[english_dignity]

Can Arthur get Crumpet?

[spaceshipit]

We're not familiar with Crumpet, and a quick googling has told us only that Crumpet is a pet cat. That should be fine, but first we want to be sure: does Crumpet have any sort of powers, or an appable personality?

Thank you!

[axi]

Definitely a super... after the fact question, but what's the holiday situation like on this planet?

[spaceshipit]

It is currently not this planet's holiday season. Many Fleeters have their own holidays around this time on the calendar, however, and those are fair game for celebrating!