Nice.
Meanwhile, since I already compiled the stuff earlier that I said I would, and I want the other RPM members to see it, here are the ideas I scratched up for Twelve Days of Christmas Ninjas!
[spoiler]
- Santa Claus and the stories of Christmas that are commonly told are actually misrepresented and somewhat off track stories of how Christmas actually operates, especially at the North Pole.
- The story starts out by informing us that while Santa had been the one to deliver presents to children at one point in time, in current times, he had actually been retired for quite some time. Nowadays, he leaves the work to his newer trainees, the "Christmas Ninjas".
- The Christmas Ninjas are all divided up into ranks determined by their ability and experience. There's "elf" rank, who act as the grunts and are basically responsible for making the world more "holly & jolly" by spreading their influence. They are also the intel as they get the know how on what gifts the kids want in the world, who's been naughty or nice, etc. They are usually deployed year round with alternating shifts as getting the information requires being discreet and constantly alert. (And yeah, they look elf like, so small and near childlike) Subdivisions of the elf rank include:
- Those that work in the North Pole's premier workshop. They are responsible for running the machinery, gathering supplies from the world beyond the Aurora Borealis, and defending the complex and:
- Those that work on the field. These guys take on numerous different forms and use a combination of Christmas "Cheer" (re: Magic) and skill to blend in with the people about Earth. Sometimes, these elves are given tasks from Santa himself to test those people that might be teetering on the hardly ever mentioned "neutral" list.
- The next rank is the "caroler" rank. These ninjas are specially trained to relay information from one area to the next within the network while the season is in full swing. Usually disguised as ordinary people, they go from place to place singing what sound like festive songs to normal people. To the spirits of the season though, these songs are actually an intricate audio code that relays up to date developments on the people within the household they sing in front of. These guys work with elf rank ninjas in order to make the work load easier on everyone in pinch situations.
- The rank where the most action takes place however are with the group designated as the "Northern Lights". These 9 groups of 2 are Santa's greatest assets and the reason why presents get delivered as efficiently as they do. Within this rank, we meet our main characters, the Stars of The East, Holly & Rudolph. The rank is divided into two groups, the Mistletoe, or the name given to the female kunoichi that do the delivery of the presents for a given section of the world during the night of Christmas Eve, and the Reindeer, male ninja who accompany the mistletoe on their affairs worldwide, be it for the delivery of presents or their other missions and actions. They are named after the traditional reindeer (derp).
- All of the ninja ranks are trained in both the "spirit of the season" (another way of saying that they are all happy souls that understand why Christmas is such a joyous time and welcomed by all in different cultures) as well as the Arts of Advent (the name of their Christmas based combat ability if you will. Laughing). The standard gear and talents vary for each of the ranks with the lower ranks relying more on trickster styles and hand to hand combat. The Northern Stars however are much more diversified as they need to be ready for everything at a moment's notice. They carry:
- Candy canes that they shape and fashion into blades. The type of blade is usually up to their preferences. (Katanas, Short Swords, a Scythe, Chained Sickles, Spears, etc.)
- Snow flake shuriken with individual designs that freeze anything they pierce.
- Large shuriken that resemble a traditional gold star atop a Christmas tree.
- Christmas orb ornaments with a Christmas like take on the smoke bomb effect. (It lets them vanish in a draft of snowy wind or when used as a distraction, blows up a blizzard around their opponents)
- They are also talented in the ways of the Gift Wrap. They summon large magical ribbons that they fasten around their opponent, restraining their movements. They can also use this to trap the feistier opponents in gift wrapped boxes no larger than the palm of their hands.
- The reason they must be trained in some form of combat is to defend against the forces of Ruprecht, the Christmas Pirate. He is the North Pole's #1 adversary and general public enemy. His M.O. is to steal everything and anything he can until his avarice has been satisfied. His henchmen are all the spirits of people who have had their Christmas Cheer stolen from themselves. All of Ruprecht's spoils are contained in a sack that has an inverse quality to Santa's. Where Santa's sack is an ancient tool that knows no bottom and always provides, Ruprecht's sack is the opposite and seeks only to consume endlessly.
- Adding to some stuff from before, the Arts of Advent are another name for the various incantations and "magic of the season" that make up the intangible parts of their battle style. Other additional abilities this grants them include summoning snowmen for crazy mob battles or larger than life snow golems, calling forth the nutcracker brigade, a small group of animated nutcracker toys who do just that (Watch your lower parts! lolwut), and transforming themselves into smaller gingerbread men & women when they need to be more creative with their appearances.
- The 9 pairs of Northern Lights are all from different backgrounds. The backgrounds are American, Brazilian, French, Egyptian, Indian, Japanese (Holly & Rudolph), Jamaican, British and Antartican (wild card duo - go wild with their design).
- Out of them all, the only one who resembles a traditional ninja in their attire is Holly. Everyone else chooses to wear clothes that suit their tastes and background, albeit with more holiday styled colors. Their tastes and personalities are also reflected in they way they do their tasks, fight, act act among one another and in the city around the North Pole.
- Santa's personality is that of a joker who prefers to keep an extremely positive outlook on most things, no matter what the situation. He has a great sense of humor, doesn't hesitate to use more eccentric means to make someone smile and has quite a bit of wisdom on the ways of the world. Some of his quirks include frequently lapsing into other languages as he speaks, falling asleep at random times, and using convoluted references to pop culture to illustrate his points (he frequently refers to himself as "the other round guy in red with hops"). He also comes across as being slightly aloof when there are situations that call for a serious response from him or when he has to speak to a crowd. Behind all of this however, Santa is quite a capable and talented fighter with a deathly serious tone when the need for it arises. In the past, it's revealed that he was quite athletic and dapper, despite his round stature. Mrs. Claus also confirms this by stating that he was like "a Casanova in Gift Wrap".
- Holly, one of the newest Northern Lights, is a headstrong girl with a bit of sass to herself. She could be seen as the most normal of the group as her time within the top of Santa's elite has been much shorter than the time she has spent just being a teenager (in spirit) in the modern world. She often chooses to march to the beat of her own drum, making things much more interesting for herself (but harder for herself and most of the people she's frequently in contact with on her rounds). A great way to describe her would be "an intelligent dumbass". She's dumb enough to try anything as a solution, but smart enough to pull it off more times than not.
- She travels with Rudolph, another ninja who had just been promoted to the rank of Reindeer as the prologue started. Quite the yin to her yang, Rudolph prefers having some semblance of a plan to improvising everything on the fly and shows great tactical ability with his own maneuvers. Rudolph's classic and defining trait is a recurring series of nosebleeds that have earned him the nickname "red-nosed". (Sorry, I wanted to take that trait and make something more interesting out of it, but I'm going to use this as a place holder.) The frequency and intensity of the nosebleeds are often determined by the type and level of stress he finds himself in. While this doesn't seem to have adverse effects on his health, it has been noted that his exposure to Holly has exponentially increased the intensity of his stresses and thus the number of these occurrences. She has also been known to make him pass out at a moment's notice using this strange condition to amuse herself or to her own advantage.
I also have a bit of an outline on the flow of the introduction prologue. They would just be silly one shots of each duo delivering a present or something of the sort to different areas of the world. All of them would be connected by Santa who is receiving direct feed info from his carolers who are relaying the events to him outside of the Northern Lights' knowledge. I can't think up any fight scene ideas currently, but I'm sure if you need me to, I can come up with something crazy and interesting. Laughing
Now then, I'd love to hear what you all think about this. If anyone wants to make something fun out of this, be my guest![/spoiler]
[spoiler=Ideas For The Prologues of The Northern Lights]1. Holly & Rudolph (Japanese duo) are en route to deliver three gifts to three different houses. Holly decides that she wants to show off a little. Hilarity ensues. They return to face the other Northern Lights who all act like their errands went smoothly and chastize Holly for her late return. As the file out however, Santa lets out a half humored, half concerned sigh as he recants the events of the other Northern Lights to us as the readers.
2. The Egyptian duo are sent on a retrieval of coal from the mines of Ol' King Coal in upper Africa. They blow it up on accident due to a fight that broke out in the lower levels and a misjudgment from Blitzen. As per the Christmas Ninja tradition.
3. The American duo are sent to Miami to oversee a test of Christmas spirit for one specific man stuck on the neutral list. The one they meet up with actually turns out to be the wrong person and is subjected to so much random crap he walks off enraged and his resultant actions drop him off the good list for 3 years.
4. The French duo are sent to Italy to retrieve Santa's special Christmas special pizza only to find out that they arrived there late. Meanwhile, a minion of Ruprecht runs them around the entire European area saying that they can get another pizza from him if they go through with it. They catch him, beat his ass, and return to Santa... With an empty pizza box and a lulzy comment from said minion.
5. The Jamaican duo go off to the West Indies to meet with the Sugar Plum Fairies in an effort to get them to make some last minute fruitcakes. They decline, pissed off as hell since they haven't gotten a break from this job in years.
6. The Antartican duo have to deliver CocaCola to the Polar Bears of the North Pole and Pepsi to those at the South Pole. They get the orders mixed up and wind up having to play damage control and stop a potential gang war due to the mix-up. (Yes, the Bears refer to their respective areas as their land, and they're pissed when they find out the other "gang" has their stuff.)
7. The Brazilian duo set out for the mountains of Argentina for a specific type of berry the Sugar Plum Fairies need to finish the batch of fruitcakes they got coaxed into making. Meanwhile, Ruprecht who has been scoping the area in search of those fruits is currently in the process of hoarding it all.
8. The British duo are sent for a miniature replica of Big Ben from England's premier toymaker and ally of Santa. They get the order mixed up and actually take THE Big Ben from London using their Arts of Advent and bring it back, only to be told to bring it bad and quick due to a midnight celebration that was to take place there.
9. The Indian duo are sent to meet Jack Frost and ask him to alter the amount of snow in one area of the world. When they arrive, they find him asleep and decide that they would use his machine themselves. They accidentally freeze everything along the equator, affecting most of the other Northern Lights' events in play (for better or worse).
Final Note: No, I'm not trying to make them all incompetent. I just want to make their intro stories humorous. The story doesn't take itself too seriously and always gives room for a laugh or two.
Also, these might be weak since I improvised them on the spot, but I'll try writing up more clever scenarios soon.[/spoiler]