A Metaguard Christmas Carol

[Endless Sea]

Finally, a chance to show off my voice-acting chops, be they good or not! COUNT ME IN.

[Replica]

I should like to join in with this myself. More so than accidentally starting it. Voice, is what I'm saying.

I also think there should be a song in there somewhere.

[Qara-Xuan Zenith]

I'd be happy to be involved in songs, if those are in. I'd want to work with Wolfie on it, or at least see what he/his script has in mind for what should happen in the song plot-wise, plus I'll leave it to a higher authority (i.e. Wolfie or Bonsus Girl or someone) to tell me what song you wanted to use. (The only song I can remember from Scrooge, which is the closest thing I came to being familiar with this story and which I watched once, probably about twelve or so years ago, is "Thank You Very Much"... and I'd need to look up lyrics for whatever I'm working with.)

Also I'm not trying to act with-elephants-ish about this... I just saw Bonsus Girl saying in the chat that she wanted me to be on this, so I *CAN*. But if anyone else wants to do it, either instead of or alongside me, that's awesome too.

[Scarab]

It looks like Deanna as the Big Bad is winning over some support in the chat.

And here is where we encounter a problem. If we're going to use this, it's very important that I be pointed at the information in question. (Remember, I wasn't here then.) Because if this is what we're doing, this is our Christmas Past -- for all that it's not last year at Christmas time.

I can email you over the relevant information detailing who and what Deanna was. Of course, essentially, you just need to get the spirit of her down, one of your editors is bound to understand Deanna more and can poke you in the right direction. Anyway her as the Big Bad future Admin makes sense, I think. Deanna's plan was crazy and A did not take it seriously. If she HAD been capable of doing what she wanted... of course at the moment she's seeing a therapist.

Remember that the big event, the big problem that causes the bad future, must depend upon peoples lack of faith in Mister A. At this point, in the 'real world' we're beginning to reach a point where we trust him and communicaton has improved somewhat. Something would have to happen to destroy that carefully budgeoning trust.

And that would have to happen in the gap between the defeat of Cthulhu, and the end of the world sooo um, basically in a timeframe of a SINGLE day. Sooo either we keep that, or we move the event back a bit. Cthulhu could be the breaking point, instead of the end of the world?

Perhaps the world in the bad future did, in a way, end, at which point Deanna (or whoeveer the big bad is) became a credible threat: she kills A, takes over his job, the instantations immediately bow to autority because they aren't used to being seperated from the hive mind. They panic and need leadership and she's closest, at which point Deanna has control over the Void.

I'd be happy to be involved in songs, if those are in. I'd want to work with Wolfie on it, or at least see what he/his script has in mind for what should happen in the song plot-wise

Not sure what they'll be yet, but yes, we'd really like you involved in that.

[H22]

I'm cool with doing songs too.

[The Wild West Pyro]

I'm watching the A Christmas Carol (Disney's recent one) movie today.

[Genndy Oda C.O.G.]

You mean the one starring Jim Carrey, Jim Carrey, and Jim Carrey?

[The Wild West Pyro]

You mean the one starring Jim Carrey, Jim Carrey, and Jim Carrey?

YES! FALCON PUNNNNCH!

Oh and, learned a bunch of things about the 3 Ghosts:

1: Christmas Past carries this extinguisher cap thing with him, and he can be a boy or a girl.

2: Christmas Present laughs a lot, and whacks Scrooge over the head with his torch. He doesn't really like priests, because they're completely doing the opposite of what they're meant to do-help the poor, scolds Scrooge twice and dies laughing. He dies very quickly too.

3: Christmas Yet to Come isn't actually evil. Yes, he IS the Grim Reaper, is a skeleton, and doesn't say anything, but he's kindhearted like the rest. What he's doing is showing Scrooge what would happen if he was to continue being a miser. We ought to have him carrying a Scythe.

4: I'd like it if we could choose a fictional that matched their personality, and cast them as the ghost.

5: Mr. A has to cause suffering and unhappiness to everyone who knows him because he's a miser. Oh, and he got engaged to a beautiful girl once, but threw it all out of the window when he became a miser.

6: The spirits visit him- IN A DREAM. Some of my classmates thought he was drunk or high, but it was a DREAM. A VERY REALISTIC DREAM.

[Genndy Oda C.O.G.]

5: Mr. A has to cause suffering and unhappiness to everyone who knows him because he's a miser. Oh, and he got engaged to a beautiful girl once, but threw it all out of the window when he became a miser.

I think we all know what to do in regards to this. Cast eli_gone_crazy as the girl, for those of you who didn't know.

[BlackWolfe]

Whee, I'm getting high on all this participation!

We're not going to be holding rigidly to the Christmas Carol story, just the theme. It's going to be the ARG's Christmas Carol Episode more than an actual rendition of A Christmas Carol.

Having said that, we're going to stick to the formula and writing style as much as we possibly can. And having said that, this is what we're looking at:

Critical: The book begins by explaining just how very dead Jacob Marley is, and that Scrooge is well and truly aware of this. I feel we would be well served by shifing the focus from the death of our Marley analogue to the final conclusion of the whole broken Wall scenario, and the Wall finally having been repaired. While this helps set the tone for the story and gives us an overall direction, it leaves a gaping Marley-shaped hole in the plot. Who comes to visit him to warn him of the three coming visitors?

Past: Since what we're focusing on here is Mr. A's interaction with humans, what could be more fitting than key points in the ARG itself? Also, if we're going with the whole Deanna plot, this would be a great point to show everyone trying to bring it to his attention, and the efforts they had to go through. It's important that we show his interactions with the Metaguards in a positive light here, not only overall, but personally.

Present: As I said, it's fantastic that the end of the ARG falls so neatly within the holiday season. We can focus on Metaguards celebrating victory as well as the holidays, and our frustration at his dismissal of celebration as "FRIVOLOUS, UNNECESSARY EXPENDITURE OF ENERGY" or some-such.

Future: It's most important that the dire future we set out for the story be a result of Mr. A's attitude towards people, both fictional and real. Because in the end, what Scrooge learned in the original was less about Christmas and more about being human:

“But you were always a good man of business, Jacob,” faltered Scrooge, who now began to apply this to himself.
“Business!” cried the Ghost, wringing its hands again. “Mankind was my business. The common welfare was my business; charity, mercy, forbearance, and benevolence, were, all, my business. The dealings of my trade were but a drop of water in the comprehensive ocean of my business!”

Scrooge was better than his word. He did it all, and infinitely more; and to Tiny Tim, who did not die, he was a second father. He became as good a friend, as good a master, and as good a man, as the good old city knew, or any other good old city, town, or borough, in the good old world. Some people laughed to see the alteration in him, but he let them laugh, and little heeded them; for he was wise enough to know that nothing ever happened on this globe, for good, at which some people did not have their fill of laughter in the outset; and knowing that such as these would be blind anyway, he thought it quite as well that they should wrinkle up their eyes in grins, as have the malady in less attractive forms. His own heart laughed: and that was quite enough for him.

[BlackWolfe]

1: Christmas Past carries this extinguisher cap thing with him, and he can be a boy or a girl.

The cap is, in fact, a larger-than life version of a candle snuffer. It is indeed referred to in the book as "an extinguisher cap", but it's based on a real thing (which was sometimes referred to as a candle snuffer and sometimes as an extinguisher cap).

2: Christmas Present laughs a lot, and whacks Scrooge over the head with his torch. He doesn't really like priests, because they're completely doing the opposite of what they're meant to do-help the poor, scolds Scrooge twice and dies laughing. He dies very quickly too.

The bit about the priesthood is less heavy-handed in the book, but essentially. The most important things that the ghost of Christmas Present does are show the Cratchits about their celebrations, tell Scrooge of Tiny Tim's fate, and care for Need and Want. As we've determined that Eli is our Tiny Tim because she's Mr. A's Morality Pet, this means showing the rest of us going about the business of celebrating the holidays. Not sure about Need and Want yet.

3: Christmas Yet to Come isn't actually evil. Yes, he IS the Grim Reaper, is a skeleton, and doesn't say anything, but he's kindhearted like the rest. What he's doing is showing Scrooge what would happen if he was to continue being a miser. We ought to have him carrying a Scythe.

I don't see why he needs a scythe, really. In fact, he shouldn't have one if we're sticking as close to the source material as we can manage.

4: I'd like it if we could choose a fictional that matched their personality, and cast them as the ghost.

This seems to be the consensus.

5: Mr. A has to cause suffering and unhappiness to everyone who knows him because he's a miser. Oh, and he got engaged to a beautiful girl once, but threw it all out of the window when he became a miser.

The first part yes, though the reason for Mr. A will be different because he's Mr. A, not actually Ebenezer Scrooge. The second part... we've got to have some kind of parallel, but it doesn't need to be engagement. He's not actually human.

6: The spirits visit him- IN A DREAM. Some of my classmates thought he was drunk or high, but it was a DREAM. A VERY REALISTIC DREAM.

Some of your classmates bother me. I take that back. Dickens himself made the comparison in the final paragraph of the book:

He had no further intercourse with Spirits, but lived upon the Total Abstinence Principle, ever afterwards; and it was always said of him, that he knew how to keep Christmas well, if any man alive possessed the knowledge. May that be truly said of us, and all of us! And so, as Tiny Tim observed, God bless Us, Every One!

That's right, Charles Dickens ended A Christmas Carol with a pun on the double meaning of the word "spirit".

[The Wild West Pyro]

Whee, I'm getting high on all this participation!

We're not going to be holding rigidly to the Christmas Carol story, just the theme. It's going to be the ARG's Christmas Carol Episode more than an actual rendition of A Christmas Carol.

Having said that, we're going to stick to the formula and writing style as much as we possibly can. And having said that, this is what we're looking at:

Critical: The book begins by explaining just how very dead Jacob Marley is, and that Scrooge is well and truly aware of this. I feel we would be well served by shifing the focus from the death of our Marley analogue to the final conclusion of the whole broken Wall scenario, and the Wall finally having been repaired. While this helps set the tone for the story and gives us an overall direction, it leaves a gaping Marley-shaped hole in the plot. Who comes to visit him to warn him of the three coming visitors?

Past: Since what we're focusing on here is Mr. A's interaction with humans, what could be more fitting than key points in the ARG itself? Also, if we're going with the whole Deanna plot, this would be a great point to show everyone trying to bring it to his attention, and the efforts they had to go through. It's important that we show his interactions with the Metaguards in a positive light here, not only overall, but personally.

Present: As I said, it's fantastic that the end of the ARG falls so neatly within the holiday season. We can focus on Metaguards celebrating victory as well as the holidays, and our frustration at his dismissal of celebration as "FRIVOLOUS, UNNECESSARY EXPENDITURE OF ENERGY" or some-such.

Future: It's most important that the dire future we set out for the story be a result of Mr. A's attitude towards people, both fictional and real. Because in the end, what Scrooge learned in the original was less about Christmas and more about being human:

“But you were always a good man of business, Jacob,” faltered Scrooge, who now began to apply this to himself.
“Business!” cried the Ghost, wringing its hands again. “Mankind was my business. The common welfare was my business; charity, mercy, forbearance, and benevolence, were, all, my business. The dealings of my trade were but a drop of water in the comprehensive ocean of my business!”

Scrooge was better than his word. He did it all, and infinitely more; and to Tiny Tim, who did not die, he was a second father. He became as good a friend, as good a master, and as good a man, as the good old city knew, or any other good old city, town, or borough, in the good old world. Some people laughed to see the alteration in him, but he let them laugh, and little heeded them; for he was wise enough to know that nothing ever happened on this globe, for good, at which some people did not have their fill of laughter in the outset; and knowing that such as these would be blind anyway, he thought it quite as well that they should wrinkle up their eyes in grins, as have the malady in less attractive forms. His own heart laughed: and that was quite enough for him.

In the future, Tiny Tim will be dead, Everyone will be celebrating over Mr. A's death, and the fictionals will be suffering terribly.

Can I be the boy Scrooge/Mr. A yells at in the streets to get the prize turkey?

[The Wild West Pyro]

For Christmas Present, if there is a party, the Metaguards are really happy, Adell will be the guest of honor and the remaining Cabal will be treated well. The fictionals and guardians have come back to celebrate. Mr. A will wish that he joined in when he sees how happy we are, and asks if Eli will die. The ghost will then tell him Eli suffered terrible injuries as a result of a deadly sword fight, and will probably die soon if she isn't treated. Bob doesn't have the money to pay for her treatment.

[Adell]

this sounds crazy awesome, can't wait to do this.

[The Wild West Pyro]

this sounds crazy awesome, can't wait to do this.

If you come back alive, which you almost certainly will, you shall be able to be the guest of honor in the audio play.

[Genndy Oda C.O.G.]

5: Mr. A has to cause suffering and unhappiness to everyone who knows him because he's a miser. Oh, and he got engaged to a beautiful girl once, but threw it all out of the window when he became a miser.

The first part yes, though the reason for Mr. A will be different because he's Mr. A, not actually Ebenezer Scrooge. The second part... we've got to have some kind of parallel, but it doesn't need to be engagement. He's not actually human.

That hasn't stopped shipping, so...

[The Wild West Pyro]

For Christmas Present, if there is a party, the Metaguards are really happy, Adell will be the guest of honor and the remaining Cabal will be treated well. The fictionals and guardians have come back to celebrate. Mr. A will wish that he joined in when he sees how happy we are, and asks if Eli will die. The ghost will then tell him Eli suffered terrible injuries as a result of a deadly sword fight, and will probably die soon if she isn't treated. Bob doesn't have the money to pay for her treatment.

Well?

[The Finch]

I want to join! Do you have a Spirit Of Christmas Present yet?

[The Wild West Pyro]

I want to join! Do you have a Spirit Of Christmas Present yet?

I think they do....

[The Finch]

BAH. Humbug.

I sorta wanted to be SOCP. Be modern with it, or so.

What parts, do tell, are actually open?

[The Wild West Pyro]

BAH. Humbug.

I sorta wanted to be SOCP. Be modern with it, or so.

What parts, do tell, are actually open?

Minor Roles involving us.

[The Finch]

Are we the beggars at Scrooges door minor, or store keep minor?

[The Wild West Pyro]

Are we the beggars at Scrooges door minor, or store keep minor?

Dunno. I'd like to be the kid who Scrooge yells at in the street to get the big prize turkey.

[BlackWolfe]

One of the things it looks like we'll be doing as this goes on (Scarab's idea, and a good one at that) is doing some run-throughs of the various scenes in the Christmas Carol chat room, with people acting basically as themselves in whatever situation. Some of the parts we've put down as being filled are just what we think would be good. I like the idea of Morgan as the Ghost of Christmas Yet to Come, for example, but it's not set in stone.

I'm glad you guys want to be involved. It's not too early to start making suggestions and requests. Just bear in mind that I might not use your idea. Having said that, I'm really needing help with Marley, as without that important role filled, I can't make it through the introduction.

Remember, we're not looking for Jacob Marley, but a person or character involved with the ARG who would be a good fit for the role of Mr. A's former partner/ally, and whose appearance would defy what he knows to be true. (For example, someone he knows has either been refictionalized or killed.)

[H22]

Ace?