A Stranger's Christmas [Christmas 2017]

Though the Popping Pappus fields are without any snow, a cold winter wind blows outside the café, rustling the swaying flowers...

"You've been here quite a while, haven't you?"

You look up from the book you were reading to see the Wood Norn approaching. She slides a mug of hot chocolate to you and sits down across from you, taking the other chair at the small table by the window. She gazes outside at the winter night.

"Of course, you can stay as long as you like... but tonight is Christmas, don't you know?" Slowly, she blows on the surface of her own hot chocolate a little before taking a sip. "If you don't have anywhere to be, of course, I'm happy to spend Christmas with you... it's not like I get too much company out here these days."

You look up from your book at her, then over at the mug. Nodding a little, you fold the book closed and take the mug in your hands. It's warm, which is nice because of the cold that seems to seep in through the window. The mug is green and looks like it was a little spottily painted, with splotches of brown on it. Did the Norn make it herself?

"I know Christmas is a holiday where people reunite with their families to spend time together and such... but for someone like me, I think spending a Christmas or two with a stranger isn't so bad, either. There's so many people out there I don't know yet, and I want to share moments like this with them too..." The Norn gives you a warm smile, and raises her mug. "So... merry Christmas!"

You give a smile back, and raise your own mug, clinking the two together. "Merry Christmas."

Applewood Fields || Cold Christmas

Things remain fairly mundane in the woodlands, at least for a while. Happy and comfortable with their current lives, the Norns live together in peace. They enjoy one another's company, playing games and loud music and celebrating Christmas festivities.

However, while everyone else was celebrating a particularly fun holiday with plenty of food, fireworks, and flashing lights, Ember slipped away under the radar and disappeared into the winter night.

Something was bothering her, a voice whispering in the back of her mind: something out there was calling her, and she needed to go.

Without drawing much attention to herself, Ember activated a portal to enter another world.

The atmosphere in the place she reached was new to her, something she had never experienced before. It didn't have the same natural, comforting feeling that the woodlands did; this was a place filled with futuristic technology, strange machines she had never seen before. Instead of growing in the ground, carrots grew in a machine! Music was played not from a radio, but from a bizarre, topsy-turvy looking device, bigger than she was and twice as loud!

It was here that Ember discovered a pair of creatures that had, apparently, also made the journey from the big spaceship to this smaller, more futuristic one. One was an Ettin, and the other was a Norn who appeared to be the Ettin's daughter.

To Ember's surprise, she found that the Norn, whose name was a simple and easy-to-understand "ETN-06", had lived here her whole life! How different it must have been, Ember thought, for this creature to grow up in such an advanced environment.

Back at home, Nith'eroi was the first to notice Ember's disappearance. How had she managed to vanish like that? Right behind her back! After searching high and low for her dear friend, Nith'eroi, too, embarked on a journey outside the woodlands. She reached the portal, and activated it, shocked and frightened by the blue whirl of light that whisked her away to another world!

However, unlike Ember, Nith'eroi becomes lost in the strange hallway that lies between the old spaceship and the land that Ember reached. Confused and deeply concerned about Ember's safety and where she could have possibly gone, Nith'eroi lies down in the company of an Ettin who has stood here, unmoving, for an incredibly long time. Soon, the Ettin leaves, too, leaving Nith'eroi alone in this frightening new world.

With seemingly nowhere to turn, Nith'eroi lies lost in the hall on Christmas night, neglecting her needs as her mind remains occupied with worry for her friend...

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The Waterworks || Prologue

Albia was once a beautiful world, teeming with life, mystery, and wonder. Countless generations have grown here, spawning many tales of life and death, of joy and misery, of carrots and cheese.

In the wake of a disastrous volcanic eruption, it has fallen into ruin.

Although the alien creatures that had once inhabited this world have long since fled, having escaped the planet in search of a more suitable place to live, it seems that not everything has been taken with them. Two pairs of eggs lie alone in this world, abandoned by their parents and the aliens that brought their very species to life.

They mirror each other with orange and light blue patterns, as if they've been connected by fate. One pair lies near a turning water wheel, their shells gently dotted with mist from the roaring waterfalls nearby. The other pair lies at the top of a wooden platform built on a tree, near a nest of birds, cooled by the rushing winds beneath a breathtaking sky of stars.

A new generation is about to begin: one in which these two opposing clans shall rise, each eager to reclaim the once-wonderful world that was prematurely torn from their hands.

This is their fight: The Waterworks.

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[The Waterworks is a C2toDS world in which two clans of Norns will grow up in separate parts of the world. When Norns from the two opposing clans meet, they will fight! This scenario was inspired by suggestions from the C3/DS Game Generator, by C1anddsaddict. If you're interested in seeing what the generator has to offer for yourself, you can try it out here!]

Applewood Fields || Of Friendship and Gadgets

Life in Applewood Fields resumes a peaceful atmosphere, as the grief that the dangerous disease caused begins to slowly fade away. 

Beneath the blinking lights of the Christmas tree, Nith'eroi and Ember meet one another for the very first time. Though Nith'eroi's birth mother was of the very same species that attacked Ember when she was a young child, it seems that she is able to put those differences aside, and the two instantly form a bond.

Together, they play with the radio and fireworks machine set beneath the tree, creating an incredibly noisy display of friendship and harmony despite the nearby Felicia's attempts to sleep.

In fact, they become practically inseparable, and begin to spend every moment they can together!

Meanwhile, Felicia is chosen as the next to have a child. Now that Ember is of age and happy adventuring out in the world, it seemed that it was finally time for Felicia to have a child of her own!

After a short while, Felicia settles down and lays her egg beneath the nest of the great Gosh-hawk. Always a protective mother, she keeps close watch near her egg until it hatches, although the woodlands are quite safe these days.

The baby that emerges, however, is a little unusual...

Though she appears to be an Ettin, Felicia's child is, in fact, a Norn! Perhaps an oddly shaped Norn, or the soul of a Norn occupying an Ettin's physical body... but a Norn nonetheless! Felicia, choosing to combine the traditions of her daughter's ancestry (as Nith'eroi told her in tales about her adoptive Ettin mother) with her own customs, names her NRN-01 - a Norn with a neat, orderly Ettish name.

Although she behaves mostly like a Norn in the way she explores the world around her, NRN-01 seems to have a close connection to her Ettish instincts, as she quite enjoys playing with gadgets!

Time and time again, although she does not seem to have any need to collect gadgets as Ettins do, she has a great deal of fun seeking out and playing around with them. Perhaps someday she'll become an engineer?



In the meantime, another Norn also joins the quickly-growing family in the woodlands, this time a Norn born from an Ettin! As her name shows, evidently she is the fifth Ettin so far - even though she's not truly an Ettin, it seems the Ettins accepted her as one of their own. After making the long walk from the terrarium door to the main area, she fits right in with her fellow Norns.

Felicia decides to watch over her, although she seems to be quite independent already, even at such a young age! The unusual (but loving!) family in the woodlands continues to grow...

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Applewood Fields || Grendelborn

In a dark, dangerous place, far from the woodlands, there was a Norn named Nith'eroi.

Her mother, a kind of creature known as a Grendel, abandoned her not long after her birth - but the Grendel died shortly after, once she had distanced herself from the child as much as possible. She may have been ill, or maybe she knew something was coming and didn't want her newborn to be near; whatever it was, her reasons were a mystery that Nith'eroi would likely wonder about for the rest of her days.

Nith'eroi, a Norn with a Grendlish name, grew up under the care of a kind, elderly creature that called itself an Ettin. The Ettin, whose name was simply ETN-01, took it upon herself to bring Nith'eroi up as her own, teaching the young Norn the Ettish language and telling her tales from Ettish mythology.

Ettins are very practical, calculated creatures, Nith'eroi found. They are born not from a living mother, but from a machine beneath the surface of a desert. They name themselves in the order of their birth, quite literally, using numbers. Their lives revolve around structure, logic, and routine: they believe that they have one purpose, and that purpose is to gather as much machinery as they possibly can. No matter which Ettin she spoke to, she found that each and every one responded to her in the same way, and they all had the same goal in mind! Nith'eroi, though she wasn't sure she understood, followed ETN-01 on a few journeys to locate such machinery.

And so Nith'eroi's life, though perhaps not quite as ordinary as the lives of the Norns in the woodlands, began. By the elderly Ettin's side, she wandered from place to place, in search of somewhere safe she could call home... not quite fitting in with one group or the other, rejected by Grendels, yet growing up without ever seeing another Norn.

During a lone search for gadgets to bring home, she found herself in the woodland terrarium. It was there that after spending the first half hour of her life struggling for survival in dangerous, barren lands, she finally found a place where fresh food was abundant and she felt like she truly belonged...

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Applewood Fields || By Mother Nature's Hand

Quietly, without any particular sort of ceremony or special announcement, the powers that be chose Fyrah to bear an egg.

Just as quietly, and without drawing very much attention to herself, Fyrah laid her egg just below the ledge on the left side of the terrarium. It was there that the white egg, colored with specks of robin's-egg blue, slowly began to develop, protected from the elements by the ledge and surrounded by the company of the forest's native animals and insects.

Though Fyrah remained reasonably close by, it seemed she trusted the environment and forces of nature she grew up with to care for the egg's safety!

However, despite the quiet, subdued circumstances of her birth and the equally quiet, subdued coloring of her egg, the baby Norn that emerges is a fiery hot red. Coming into this world surrounded by friends of Mother Nature, she observed some of the critters around her before chasing off after a dragonfly, taking her first steps out into the world. Going by her bright, heated fur coloring, and her fearless passion even right at birth, her mother named her Ember - the spark of fire that would bring forth a new generation.

For a short while, life continued on as normal. However, it wasn't very long before a meeting happened. By chance or by fate, Ember came upon the terrarium's mysterious visitor, who had, up until this point, been running around out of sight up by the railing. Though Ember was pleased to meet a new friend, it seems the mysterious other creature did not return the favor! Unfortunately, this friendship ended as quickly as it began - with the creature attacking Ember, prompting her to run away! It doesn't take long for the adults to separate the two.

The creature, dejected, returns to its place in the railings, though it does not leave. Perhaps the terrarium is the best place this creature has ever known, despite its abrasive behavior.

Things go back to usual until, suddenly and without much warning, disease strikes.

Fyrah, just seconds after she contracts a mysterious illness, suddenly passes away. In her final moments, she didn't seem particularly displeased, having hardly known what hit her. At the very least, she passes comfortably in her home, not far from the place of her birth. Though her life was cut short, her legacy will continue on in her child.

Not long after Fyrah's death, Lacie falls to the same illness. Ember, too, falls ill, but but is able to quickly recover with emergency aid from Felicia and the medicinal properties of the colorful plants. Felicia, distraught, vows to watch carefully over Ember - and keep the scaly creature that may have brought the disease far away from her home from now on.

The sun begins to set on the horizon, an orange light filtering through the glass dome over the Norns' heads. Felicia, with her newly adopted daughter, lies down in the grass and decides to reflect on her situation for a while...

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Applewood Fields || Mysterious Visitors and Yuletide Lights

For the first hour or so, things remain fairly quiet and peaceful in our little creatures' world. Each of them begins to explore their surroundings individually as they grow more comfortable and begin to feel safe in their home.

Fyrah, while traveling to the far left side of the terrarium, discovered a curious potted plant with long, leafy stalks and brilliantly colored flowers. Those flowers are pretty tasty, too, she finds - it's like eating candy, almost, a burst of flavor coming forth as she bites down on the soft petals. She likes them so much that she doesn't want to leave!

However, as our dear Fyrah settles down for a nice nap in the grass, a mysterious new creature passes her by! This creature, with smooth skin, buggy red eyes, and what appears to be a head of hair, sneakily passes Fyrah by as she's sleeping. 

Before Fyrah can even awaken, the creature darts in, grabs some food, and gets out of her sight! In fact, before anyone notices the creature, it leaves the terrarium entirely and goes on its merry way. Perhaps maybe sometime these mysterious creatures will visit again in the future?

As our Norns begin to grow and change, so does the forest-like terrarium they call home. A field of flowers has begun to grow on the ground level, tickling at Lacie's legs as she romps through in search of something tasty to eat. Her beautiful, bright pink fur seems to let her fit right in with the equally colorful purple butterflies!

Sometimes, the Norns make a game of catching the seeds that explode out from the flowers as they mature. POP!

Felicia, meanwhile, has taken to finding higher-up spaces in the terrarium. At the very edge of the railing, at the highest spot, lies a canvas where creatures are free to paint to their hearts' desires!

Though it may simply look like she's taken a paintbrush and made some scribbles in red, yellow, blue, and a touch of green, perhaps Felicia's actually created a complex piece of abstract art that only her fellow Norns can truly comprehend...

Finally, since today is December 1st, a little bit of Christmas decorating was due! Together, the three Norns worked hard to decorate a Juniper tree with colorful blinking lights and shiny golden ribbon. The tree topper? A Norn angel, of course, which Felicia carefully fashioned from an uneaten cheese wheel using her newfound artistic ability. (Will it still smell as good as it does right now by the time Christmas comes around...?)

In addition, by standing on each others' shoulders, the trio hung up long strings of blinking Christmas lights everywhere they could, ensuring that the terrarium will give a dazzling display of Yuletide spirit to anyone that happens to pass through!

...But not all is well! 

Just who is this mysterious creature? Unlike the visitor before, although this one also certainly seems to have hair, it's also got green scales, a lizard-like tail, and an underbite with a row of sharp teeth!

Is this new visitor to our lively terrarium friend or foe? Only time will tell...

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Applewood Fields || Prologue

Somewhere far, far from here, on a ship deep in space, lies a self-contained ecosystem teeming with life. Birds sing, insects buzz and dart about, and fish swim back and forth, their scales glimmering in the bright light of the sun and stars past the dome of glass that separates this tiny woodland from the vacuum of space.

It is here that, for the first time, a brand new life is about to begin. Somewhere in the forest lies a trio of eggs, each sporting a monochromatic pattern on its smooth shell. Tiny cracking noises occasionally come from each as the creatures inside slowly begin to make their way out...

Though they stand on two legs and have human-like hands, these tiny baby Norns are their own kind of creature indeed. Each of the three of them has a soft coat of fur, a ruffle of fluff on their head, and a pair of long ears! They begin to explore their world together, overwhelmed by a barrage of new sights, new sounds, friends to make, things to eat, places to be.

The first, Felicia, is a Siamese Norn. Though she knows little of her breed's terrifying past, she seems to want to explore quite a bit, eager to break from the pack and survey her surroundings. She may never be kept in a cage, but her desire to adventure where her ancestors could not seems to run strong in her being.

On the other hand, the second, Fyrah, is a Wood Norn who seems to prefer the company of other Norns. Just as they were together right at birth, Fyrah sticks to Lacie's side like glue, looking to her friend for guidance and companionship as they explore their surroundings together.

Last but certainly not least, Lacie is a Colortrue Bruin Norn, sporting rather flashy hot pink fur! Unlike her friends, Lacie's shockingly neon colors don't seem to blend in so well in a forest environment... could this prove to make trouble for her survival down the road, or will she be able to use it to her advantage?

Just what, exactly, lies ahead? What dangers could there be? Are there others in the world out there? In a place this big, with the outside world even bigger, nobody can be quite sure what adventures await these tiny newborn creatures...

[As a sidenote: This world, Applewood Fields, is using Amaikokonut's Scenario Script Hera. It interests me so much that I decided to give it a try for myself! Scenario Script Hera forces the world to be all-female, and scores creatures based on how well they care for themselves. If you are also interested, you can find Scenario Script Hera here on Amaikokonut's blog, Naturing::Nurturing.]

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Into the Café

A field of flowers at sunset, the great unknown lying ahead...

On a cold winter evening, you wander through the fields, the grass and flowers rustling softly in the wind. Every once in a while, one of the flowers bursts in a loud "POP!", a cloud of spores flying out and floating away in the breeze. The sun is just setting over the horizon, painting the sky a brilliant deep orange as the moon and stars are just beginning to peek out overhead.

You've been traveling for hours in this direction along this worn path. You're not entirely sure where you're going, or what you'll do when you get there; the only thing you're certain of is where you've been.

As you trek on and on, you eventually come upon some kind of structure on the horizon. What is that? Approaching closer, you can see it's a cozy-looking cabin. It has a porch, with a small couch and stained glass table. Though the shades are drawn, a faint light flickers through the windows on the front. Someone must be home!

You climb the steps up to the porch, feeling the wood creak under your boots, and approach the door. After glancing at the wooden plaque mounted on the wall, you knock on the... wait, is the door crooked? Now that's a little odd...

Shaking your head, you raise your hand and give the door a solid knock. At that moment, a gust of wind rushes by, causing a set of wooden wind chimes hanging on the porch to clunk and clonk against each other. A warm, cheerful voice resonates from within: "Oh! Come in~!"

You hesitate, and then turn the knob, opening the door to a rush of warm air and the sound of a crackling fire...