ROUND ONE, FINAL PART
"Bank robbery," your treacherous brain vomits out before you have a chance to stop it.
+5 Stress.
"Look, May, just because it doesn't SAY it's a pyramid scheme doesn't…Wait, what?" One of your aunts says immediately, taking a moment for what you had actually said to register, coming to a full stop as her face scrunched into confusion as she registered what, exactly, you had just said. "Did you just say Bank Robbery?"
"Bank robbery. Theft. Criminal activity," You continued to mind-barf to your utter horror as your family members looked at you with concern.
"Ha! The girl isn't falling for pyramid schemes, she's running em!" Uncle Klaus's voice boomed from the living room. "Carol, you owe me fifty dollars!" Carol slumped, rolling her eyes, walking to her wallet, fishing money out, swearing the whole time.
Your mother let out a snort, her face a mix of amusement and annoyance. "Well. Can't say I'm happy about the idea of you making money that way, but it explains why you haven't been in to see us, at least."
+5 Stress. 4 Grinch Tokens, 2 Cheer Tokens: Everyone is now vaguely disappointed in you, but most of them probably figured you'd get involved in crime eventually: better pyramid schemes and other forms of fraud than anything actually dangerous.
HANK HEADBUTTS IN WITH A CHALLENGE ROLL! [SANITY][FARM]! THRESHOLD TO HELP SALVAGE YOUR DIGNITY: 3
6D6S4 = 4 <2; 4; 3; 6; 4; 4>
"What Maylene means to say," Hank says, sliding in, having slipped into the kitchen at an unknown point, "Is that she's planning to join the local farmers co-op: May mentioned the stuff she helped make for the farm, yeah?" He said, sipping at the soda in his plastic cup. "Helped get me into the black this past harvest, thank Christ," he sniffed. "Yields increased by up to 40%, and her winterized crop treatment means we'll be growing tomatoes all year round. We think that the farmers co-op'll pay good money to get exclusive right to the patents for this stuff before Mosanto-Burke: good money, AND it'll help keep small farms solvent."
"Y-yeah," You said, going with it, your hand growing somewhat more steady. "A lot of places have been getting foreclosed here lately: Mosanto-Burke has all the good patents, meaning they fish people in with leased tech, then squeeze em dry with predatory interest rates. Figure giving the county co-op my tech'll help make em competitive," You lie through your teeth
"Oh. That's…actually fairly admirable," Your mom admitted, leaning back, setting the Turkey brush down and placing the lid on the roaster once again. "I'm sorry, honey, I don't mean to sound judgemental," She apologized. "I think it's wonderful you're helping Hank. It's just you didn't call, you didn't text, you didn't email…"
And after the whole 'dropping out of college and narrowly avoiding assault charges', that probably looked…very, very suspect. "It's fine, I, uh. Just got really, really distracted helping Hank," You claimed, coughing, your eyes sliding to the side to see Hank creeping away, doing his best to avoid notice and slide once more into the background of the party.
Your mother sighed. "Alright. Look May, I'll let it rest here, but in the future, please call?"
You let out a breath. Victory, sweet victory.
Round one complete! Your initial claim was met with the disappointment of knowing your child was engaged in white collar crime, but Hank managed to salvage it! Now, they believe you're involved in small farm agritechnology, a respectable enough career, providing a respectable 2 Cheer Tokens. +2 Grinch Tokens though because you still came off like a weirdo in the process.
You have 25(30)/100 Stress
Grinch Tokens: 2
Cheer Tokens: 2
Credibility: High
Dignity: Mixed
You have five rounds and may pick one action per round. Each round, the actions available change and shift.
At the end of this event, two stats will be measured: Grinch Tokens and Cheer Tokens. End the event with sufficient Cheer Tokens to succeed at Christmas, a thing that is both possible to do and healthy to want to achieve.
End the event with sufficient Grinch Tokens and you'll ruin Christmas again.
Second Round, Settling In
Food Status: Food was cooking. Everyone was out of the Kitchen while the final stretch loomed, with the exception of your mother and a few Aunts, who were sharing a glass of wine as they discussed their childrens careers.
Television Status: Turned to the same movie Uncle Klaus loved, though it was in it's back half. After this, it was the meal, and then the football game started, and the chance to rest with the Uncles will be gone: when the food was ready, the television pit would be filled by hungry family members, and after, when the game started, the couch-pit turned into what could only be called an angry bearpit.
Aunts Status: The Aunts. Walking fucking nightmares, every conversation with them was like hell. Worse, they were joined by several of the Cousins this year, acting as the remora accompanying a herd of sharks. Hank's lie had mollified them somewhat, meaning that they hadn't built up steam yet and weren't openly gossiping beyond a few light titters about your Bank Robbery gaffe.
The Gifts: Oh god the gifts. Every time you looked at them you felt a spike of anxiety.
Mood: Calm, but the Football Game promised to ratchet energy up greatly.
Actions:
[ ] Seek Protection Amongst the Uncles: It wasn't hiding, it was tactical retreat. By nesting among your uncles, you can hopefully build resolve and mentally fortify yourself for dealing with the Aunts. Further, Grandpa Klaus held a lot of sway in the family, eccentricities aside: if you could get a good rapport, people would be hesitant to openly pick you apart. However, the Aunts would be left to gain steam, making this a risky play. Soon, however, the Football game would start, and attempting to gain Klaus's assistance would be more fraught.
Fortify yourself mentally, giving you more mental preparedness for dealing with the Aunts. Chance to gain Ally: Grandpa Klaus, reducing temporary stress gain from Open Gossip.
[ ] Brother Brother: Mikey was currently playing with some bugs he had found, meaning he was in a good mood. This would...probably still be a stressful conversation, but it was Mikey: you could probably trust him to not be judgey, and this was probably the best time to have this chat.
Modest stress gain and necessary, but not urgent: so long as you talk to him at some point you should be fine. He's currently in a pleasant mood, making it more likely to generate Cheer Tokens.
[ ] Dad Hanging Out: Dad and Hank were currently chatting in the corner, sipping on beers. This was probably going to be the best chance you'd get at de-tangling the Dad situation: Hank was there to act as backup and you had already established a career with Mom.
High stress gain, but Hank to assist you in preventing any major gaffes, reducing Grinch Token gain. The longer you put this off, the worse it gets.
[ ] Oh Sister of Mine: Maggie, your much cooler, wealthier, government employed sister, was currently gesturing at you from the hallway: she wants to talk to you in private. This probably wasn't good, but it might allow you the chance to remove Maggie from the board with only some private embarrassment.
High stress gain. No chance to gain Grinch Tokens, little chance to gain Cheer tokens, but removes Maggy from the board.
[ ] Baking Treats: You had most of the required tools here: why not buy some good will by making some QuikBake Holiday Bread? It would require interacting with Aunt Carol to get the ingredients and pans and interact more with your mom, which would be unfortunate, but you'd be able to go on the offensive instead of just assuming a defensive pattern.
[BAKING][Chemical Engineering] Challenge Roll! Threshold 3: Generates 3 Cheer Tokens! Moderate Stress Gain.
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AN: This is back. From now on, I'll be working on this every Wednesday for a minimum of one hour, more if I can swing it. To make a very long story short, I have a new job and to help balance that and my quests, I now have a writing schedule: every evening on Monday I work on Eve, every Wednesday it'll be this or CURATOR depending on mood, and every Friday it's going to be Into that Vast and Unrelenting Darkness. Tuesdays-Thursdays and the weekend are either gonna be break days or free days where I get to goof off with whatever small dumb project I feel like messing with instead of my main projects.