Forum Advent Calendar 2021

[Jitter]

Catbirds it’s even better!

[tehta]

Spoiler: show

Would I be correct in assuming the best ending involves the mistletoe?

Oh catbirds, I hope you are not too disappointed.

Spoiler: show

My shippy soul would have loved to provide mistletoe scenes for all sorts of pairings, but I decided to keep things suitable for absolutely all audiences and keep the shipping to comic-equivalent levels.

[Róisín]

Grey, I’m glad it amused you! As mentioned earlier, the characters here are based on a group of people I lived and worked among when I lived in Walhalla, a mining ghost town (population 17 at the time). Paradise! They are all long dead now, except for me, but I think they would have been greatly entertained by being in a story, since at the time I mostly wrote poetry and they liked being in my poems, especially if those poems got published or broadcast. Even old Bill, who was a serious hermit of the kind who would see off trespassers with a shotgun full of rock salt except for a couple of days a year. Though Jack and I liked him fine. I figured that group would fit fine in the Minnaverse. And I hear Kitty is still there, friends who still own land there have seen her now and then. She has quite a story, and I like her. Her grave is one of the nicest spots in the area.

[wavewright62]

Spoiler: open the door • show

We can always trust Jitter to gift us all a little piece of Finland.  Just the thing for this time of year!

Spoiler: show

Tule talvi turvaksemme…………….Winter come protect us
Kasaa kinos kilveksemme………….Shield us with your snow
Tuhannesti tuiskuttele……………..Bring a thousand blizzards
Päällimmäksi pyryttele……………..Sprinkle snow everywhere

Kangista kylmällä kauhut………….Freeze fiends with your frost
Hirmut huurulla hajota……………..Destroy monsters with cold
Piä peikot pauloissasi………………Take the trolls under your thrall
Lumen alla luonnottomat………….Unnaturals under snow

Laske lapsesi levolle……………….Let your children have a rest
Väkesi vapaa-ajalle…………………Give free time to your people
Hulisimme huoletonna…………….We would rest carefree
Rentona reporankana………………We the tired would rest

Paukuttele pakkastasi………….…..Create us great colds
Levittele lumiasi…………………….Spread around your snows
Kylämme kotikulmilla ……………..Round the homesteads of our village
Sukumme syntysijoilla……………..Round the birthplace of our people

 

Jitter's Notes:

* Photo by Joona Kotilainen, CC.0 Public Domain, https://kuviasuomesta.fi/ Yes, it’s Koli again.

* For ancient Finns, the winter was a grave danger that claimed many lives. While snow and ice were also useful, hard winters were feared rather than wished for. With the troll-stopping effect, I’m sure winter is much more welcome in the world of SSSS. This is a song, or a runo if sung by a mage, pleading for winter to come and let humans have a break.

* Translating this was a pain, English doesn’t have the required vocabulary for winter

[Keep Looking]

Alkia, I love your artwork! What great friends for the crew to celebrate with.

Grey, the second part to your story was very compelling and I thoroughly enjoyed it!

Catbirds, your artwork is lovely!! The light from the window, and Reynir's sleeping face, and all the little doodles and details make it really wonderful.

Róisín, your writing is wonderful as always - you get a real sense for the people and place and attitudes within it! As another Australian, I always enjoy reading your fics about the rash in our country.

Tehta, wow! Your game is really fun and engaging - it took me quite a few passes to get a non-meh ending! And all the different writing for all these different results - just wow!

Jitter, what a beautiful poem! While I don't speak a lick of Finnish, I enjoyed reading the Finnish version just to get a sense of the rhythms and sounds of the poem (which I feel are a very important part).

Keep, your poems are actually so captivating and pleasing to read! It reminds me of the epics I liked in high school, with the vibrant images of nature. Did you pay attention to the stressed syllables, or were they there coincidentally?

I very much do pay attention to the stressed syllables! This poem is a sonnet, so it's very important that it's in iambic pentameter (five unstressed/stressed syllable pairs per line) - otherwise it loses what makes it a sonnet, y'know? But once you're used to writing within a certain meter, the rhythm often comes quite naturally to you. My mother's a poet, so I grew up having a lot of poetry read to me, which is probably why the rhythm of it comes easier to me than it does to a lot of other people.

Meter is very important in a lot of epic poetry, because epic poems were created in order to pass long stories through spoken form - it's far easier to remember and recite something when it has a rhythm, and also means you can put music to it! So it's no surprise that the rhythm in my poetry reminds you of the epics. A lot of modern free-verse poetry doesn't have so much emphasis on rhyme schemes or rhythmic meter, because it's not so much written to be sung or recited, but to be read on a page or spoken out loud in a different kind of performative manner - breaking from rhythmic regularity allows you to bring more emphasis to certain words and phrases - isolating them, stressing them more, breaking the normal pattern of speech, and thus adding to the meaning of the poem. Each type of poetic writing has its own value!

[tehta]

Jitter, I, too, love the poem, for the sound of it (the alliteration, the rhythm...)
If I were winter, I would surely reward such a composition, and come sooner.

Spoiler: show

Thanks to everyone who played the Tuuri game and told me they enjoyed it! When I finished it, I really feared that it would be too repetitive. Writing it was a very interesting experience, in that it did for me what Yoinktober did not: force me to dump down a lot of ideas and text very quickly, and trust in inspiration and the editing process. I have always been more of a slow fiddler, which is why I end up with so many drabbles and double-drabbles.

[lwise]

@tehta, that is awe-inspiring.  I managed to get the Christmas miracle (yay!) and a result with four injuries.  I have not managed to get five injuries, though I keep trying.

[tehta]

In case you're still stuck and want a hint

Spoiler: show

There are many ways to get five injuries, but all of them require Onni to decorate. If that leads to an injury, you're on the right track.

[lwise]

In case you're still stuck and want a hint

Spoiler: show

There are many ways to get five injuries, but all of them require Onni to decorate. If that leads to an injury, you're on the right track.

I did have Onni decorate; that's how I got four.  I will have to try switching up some other people.

[Jitter]

I have many times had Onni do the decorations! I kind of like the idea of acorns on string and I think it should count towards holiday cheer. I will have to try more!

[lwise]

"You have accumulated zero elements of Yuletide cheer, which is awful, while allowing four injuries to occur on your watch, which is terrible."

Zero elements of Yuletide cheer!

Is it possible to get zero elements PLUS five injuries?  So far the best I've done on injuries is five injuries and three elements.

[tehta]

"You have accumulated zero elements of Yuletide cheer, which is awful, while allowing four injuries to occur on your watch, which is terrible."

Zero elements of Yuletide cheer!

Is it possible to get zero elements PLUS five injuries?  So far the best I've done on injuries is five injuries and three elements.

I am not 100% sure anymore, since I tweaked a few things recently (like making the acorns festive), but no, I don't think so. To get zero you need some of the depressing outcomes that remove some cheer, and those don't tend to coincide with injuries.

[wavewright62]

Spoiler: open the door • show

We've done it! It's Christmas Eve!
I put out the call to you wonderful folk here on the SSSS Fan Forum and on the SSSS Discord server for miniportraits of your favourite SSSS characters, and ya'll answered!

Spoiler: show

Behold!

Many thanks to (in no particular order) thegreyarea, Mirasol, Abprallen, Clayres, skranken, Sevseres, and Solveig, for your contributions!

The individual portraits will go up in the next thread, so I can apply more spoilers for length, and so I can append comments, if they have been provided.

This concludes our Advent Calendar for the year 2021, and WHAT a year it has been!  Thank you all for being on this ride with us.

Thanks go out to our contributors: skranken, alkia, thegreyarea, Jitter, catbirds, Keep Looking, Róisín, Clayres, moredhel, and Gwenno!  Some of you contributed twice, you're spectacular. 

I want to single out tehta for a special mention, coming up with two contributions, one of which is that game that keeps on giving!  I have not gotten through all the combos of players, but my hat is off to you for the whole construction!

[wavewright62]

The Portraits (in order of the grid)!  Spoilered for length

Spoiler: first row • show

wavewright62 - I don't have a favourite among the crew, but scrappy Signe from the Prologue is a contender for my favourite of the whole comic.  Here she is attempting to get used to the hours a dairy farmer keeps.


Solveig - Tuuri


Sevseres - Reynir


Solveig - Emil (both coloured and the line art)


Clayres - Sigrun as a mermaid


Solveig - Reynir thinking - also with the Reynir and Onni from the bottom row

Spoiler: 2nd row • show

thegreyarea - Onni de Rivia, a witcher (A troll hunter on steroids and gods knows what else)


Clayres - Tuomi and Hannu from A Redtail's Dream, with bonus Paju and Little Hare


thegreyarea - Dr. Mikkel Jones, famous archeologist (from "Mikkel Jones and the Raiders of the Lost Book")


skranken - a fancy Emil (background inspired by an embroidered runner skranken's great-grandaunt made)


Sevseres - a triptych of Lalli, Reynir and Emil

Spoiler: 3rd row • show

Clayres - Tuuri Hotakainen


thegreyarea - Captain Sigrun Sparrow, Pirate... You don't want to be on her mutiny list (from "Pirates of the Artic - The curse of the black troll")


Mirasol - Mikkel has sewn Kitty's antlers out of a ripped shirt no one knew what to do with. Tuuri decided to have this photographed and properly protocolled, 'cuz who doesn't like cat-pictures.


wavewright62 - Mikkel with his forever-fashionable Kitty-hat


Clayres - Onni and owl

Spoiler: 4th row • show

wavewright62 - Sigrun Ex-Libris "Why, what definition of 'ex' are you using?" (I admit, I pulled this out of my archives to fill a slot)


Clayres - Reynir & Tuuri masked up


thegreyarea - Reynir, the Red Pilgrim, Wizard. Few know about this wizard. While Saruman, Gandalf and Radagast stayed on the North, and the blue wizards went East, this one was last seen going South, searching for palm trees...


Abprallen - a very sparkly Emil


Clayres - Hannu & Ville

Spoiler: bottom row • show

thegreyarea - Lalli (AKA Neo) and Emil (AKA Trinity), the unstopable duo from "The Matrix: Trolled"


Solveig - double portrait of Reynir and Onni


Solveig - Reynir


Clayres - Kid!Lalli

(There was a similar Kid!Emil - did I forget to download that one?)

[thegreyarea]

Wow wow wow! 

This is amazing! I'll have to make a list to properly comment all this!

Meanwhile many thanks to our extraordinaire promoter, organizer and contributor Wave! You are awesome!