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There are three women sitting around a table in the middle of the room.

Or maybe it's one woman, three times.

Whichever it is, though, there are three figures at the table, which also holds two candy canes, a Christmas cracker, a sprig of holly, five replacement bulbs of various sizes for assorted strands of light, half a plum pudding, a red glass Christmas ornament, a gingerbread man (missing one leg), a four-inch-high nutcracker, an orange, seven walnuts, and some tinsel.

(It's amazing what can build up in their pockets over the course of Christmas Eve.)

The Ghost of Christmas Past looks down at the waitrat who has just approached their table and says very distinctly, "If you bring us eggnog, I will turn you into sugarplums.

"Coffee."

It was a long night.

The rat squeaks and scampers off toward the kitchen, and Past turns back to her sisters.

"So. Where are we going this year?"

This Plot Is Now Closed To New Sign-Ups. Thank you.

If you would like to participate in the Christmas Ghosts Plot, please create a set-up post for their visit, and leave us a link here. The Ghosts be along as quickly as we can manage. We're all EST types and have schedules that occasionally go mad.

Remember to add

christmas_past,

christmas_present, and

christmas_future to your access list if you'd like to keep the thread locked till you're ready to reveal it.

Finished threads with the Ghosts can be linked to Milliways starting on December 22, but all should be Millitimed to Christmas Eve. All threads should be finished and posted to the bar no later than January 6.

This post will be open for sign-ups until Friday, December 7. (And if you sign up earlier, we'll be very grateful.) Please do not sign up without including a link to your (completed, non-placeholder) set-up post -- we're tracking a lot of threads here, and having the links in the initial comment will make it easier on us.

Please do not sign up more than three pups, and please do let us know who you (the mun) are and the best way(s) to get in touch with you. If you are using a holiday other than Christmas, let us know what it is, so the Ghosts will know how to introduce themselves.

Remember, Please have your set-up post end with your pup in some way reacting to the presence of the Ghost of Christmas Past. If you need the Ghost to make some kind of noise, say your pup's name, or reach out and gently touch him/her, go for it. She also glows. Brightly.

If you're looking for the plot details, head over this way.

Thanks for participating!

Q&A for the Milliways Christmas Ghosts Plot

Who are the Ghosts?
The Ghosts, or the Christmas Ghosts, are three spirits who are both anthropomorphic personifications of Christmas and a warning-issuing triumvirate. Really, it was only a matter of time till they turned up at the end of the universe. They come from Charles Dickens's A Christmas Carol where they collectively provide the catalyst for Scrooge to repent his bah humbug ways. They visit in visions on Christmas Eve, in neat succession, showing the visitee images of his or her past, the impact he or she is having on the present, and the probable future should his or her path not be changed. More specifically, they are:

The Ghost of Christmas Past (

christmas_past, Georgia), the first of the visitors, and the only one to show scenes that cannot be altered. Christmas Past is generally kind, but can and will force a person to look back on scenes he or she may or may not enjoy revisiting. These would generally be one or two scenes that had helped to shape your pup's current personality, approach to life, view of Christmas, etc.

The Ghost of Christmas Present (

christmas_present, Joan), the second to visit, is jolly and warm, and very fond of hats. Christmas Present shows one or two scenes of the current Christmas (that is, the day after the visit). Generally, these are scenes of family, friends, associates, etc., and the impact or lack thereof your pup has on them, though they could also be of your pup. Your pup could, in theory, make different choices about the current Christmas as well as those yet to come.

The Ghost of Christmas Yet to Come (

christmas_future, Lynne), the last of the spirits, is grim, foreboding, silent, and more-or-less faceless (or at least remarkably skilled at keeping in shadow). This Ghost shows one or two scenes of a Christmas or Christmases in the future, either during or just after your pup's life. These scenes are the most alterable, should the visitee choose to change his or her path, and serve far more as warnings than set-in-stone predictions.

When is this happening?
The Ghosts are making a one-night-only appearance in Milliways on Christmas Eve night. However, as many of us, including the muns for the Ghosts, have other commitments on Christmas Eve, we'll be prewriting encounters and twisting Millitime into pretzels as necessary. Completed threads can be posted any time between December 22 and January 6.

I'm interested, but my pup doesn't celebrate Christmas. Am I just out of luck?
Nope! The Ghosts are adaptive and ecumenical, and are happy to embody the appropriate holiday/observance/occasion for your pup. If it's canon-specific or somewhat obscure, we the muns might need to ask you for some basic background, but we'll do our level best to accommodate people.

I'm interested, but my pup isn't exactly a Scrooge-y sort. Do they only do "change your ways" visits?
Not at all. The Ghosts could also arrive to show your pup that he or she is currently on the right path, especially if your pup might need some encouragement/validation that this is a good path to be on. They can be called on to validate the "world is better with you in it" a la It's a Wonderful Life. If you've got an idea, we'd love to talk about it.

I'm interested, but there's no way my pup wouldn't recognize these three. Is that a problem?
No. The Ghosts (or take-offs on them) have become a pretty pervasive part of pop culture. Feel free to let your pup recognize them, tell them they were awesome in that Muppet movie, etc. They'll roll with it. (And it will cut down on exposition, allowing us to quickly move on to the actual visions.)

What is a visit from the three spirits going to involve?
Visits start with Christmas Past, who will take your pup on a trip down memory lane, then return him or her to Milliways to meet up with Christmas Present. Christmas Present will give him or her a snapshot of the current Christmas in the world around him or her (home or Milliways or both, whatever makes sense), and again, return him or her to Milliways for the big finale. Christmas Yet to Come will wrap things up with a look or two at the future. It is up to you to determine what scenes they see, and to write the scenes. (And remember, if your scenes involve another character who is active in Milliways, touching base with that mun is always thoughtful.) See also: this example thread.

Each Ghost will show your pup either one scene, two scenes, or one scene and a sort of highlights-reel montage. Each scene/montage should play out mainly in a couple of longish observational tags from your pup. We anticipate that a finished thread with all three Ghosts will generally be in the 40-60 replies (total) range.

Who determines what my character sees?
In character, the Ghosts do. Out of character, you do. In character, the Ghosts know anything and everything they need to know about your pup and are choosing the right scenes for him or her, and compelling him or her to view them, by physical force if necessary. Your pup cannot successfully refuse -- that's the way it works. Out of character, however, we're really not out to mess up story lines or cause problems, and it's your call what scenes your pup is shown.

What about the explanatory visit from Marley or an equivalent?
If you want your set up to include a Jacob-Marley-esque figure who shows up to explain that the Ghosts are coming, etc., that would certainly be fine with us! But it's not required. That said, if your character would require a lot of exposition/explanation/convincing, this might not be a bad route to go -- there's a limit to the amount the Ghost of Christmas Past can or will do.

Can my pup just be visited by one, or two, of the Ghosts?
No, the Ghosts work as a team, and to be visited by one is to be visited by all. Like the Musketeers, only less French.

How do I participate?
Set up an OOM-but-not (in the main bar or upstairs or outside, etc., wherever suits you) of your pup asleep (or in a meditative state, or whatever your pup's closest version of sleep is), on Christmas Eve (but see above, re: Millitime). This setup post should end with your pup's waking up and noticing that the Ghost of Christmas Past has arrived. (If you need the Ghost to make some kind of noise, say your pup's name, or reach out and gently touch him/her to wake him/her up, go for it. She also glows. Brightly.) We're leaving it deliberately vague as to whether "it's all a dream" or the ghosts actually physically take your pup off for the visions. Once you've got a set-up post, leave us a link to it, and we'll be along as soon as schedules and brains allow. Please leave the link there no later than December 7, so we'll have time to get things written.

Is there a limit to the number of characters I can sign up?
At least initially, we are asking that no mun sign up more than three pups. (And if you are signing up three pups, we may have to ask you to prioritize two of them. We'll still try to get to them all, but we want to let as many muns as possible play.) As the plot progresses, and we get a feel for how much time things take (and how many threads we're doing with the Ghosts), we may reassess.

I have a question you haven't answered here.
Leave us a comment here, send one of us a private message, catch us on AIM, etc. One (or more) of us will get back to you!

Happy Milliwaysing, and Merry Plotting!
Georgia, Joan, and Lynne

From Dickens' A Christmas Carol, Ghost of Christmas Present

And now, without a word of warning from the Ghost, they stood upon a bleak and desert moor, where monstrous masses of rude stone were cast about, as though it were the burial-place of giants; and water spread itself wheresoever it listed, or would have done so, but for the frost that held it prisoner; and nothing grew but moss and furze, and coarse rank grass. Down in the west the setting sun had left a streak of fiery red, which glared upon the desolation for an instant, like a sullen eye, and frowning lower, lower, lower yet, was lost in the thick gloom of darkest night.

'What place is this?' asked Scrooge.

'A place where Miners live, who labour in the bowels of the earth,' returned the Spirit. 'But they know me. See!'

Alight shone from the window of a hut, and swiftly they advanced towards it. Passing through the wall of mud and stone, they found a cheerful company assembled round a glowing fire. An old, old man and woman, with their children and their children's children, and another generation beyond that, all decked out gaily in their holiday attire. The old man, in a voice that seldom rose above the howling of the wind upon the barren waste, was singing them a Christmas song-it had been a very old song when he was a boy-and from time to time they all joined in the chorus. So surely as they raised their voices, the old man got quite blithe and loud; and so surely as they stopped, his vigour sank again.
The Spirit did not tarry here, but bade Scrooge hold his robe, and passing on above the moor, sped -- whither. Not to sea. To sea. To Scrooge's horror, looking back, he saw the last of the land, a frightful range of rocks, behind them; and his ears were deafened by the thundering of water, as it rolled and roared, and raged among the dreadful caverns it had worn, and fiercely tried to undermine the earth.

Built upon a dismal reef of sunken rocks, some league or so from shore, on which the waters chafed and dashed, the wild year through, there stood a solitary lighthouse. Great heaps of sea-weed clung to its base, and storm-birds -born of the wind one might suppose, as sea-weed of the water-rose and fell about it, like the waves they skimmed.

But even here, two men who watched the light had made a fire, that through the loophole in the thick stone wall shed out a ray of brightness on the awful sea. Joining their horny hands over the rough table at which they sat, they wished each other Merry Christmas in their can of grog; and one of them: the elder, too, with his face all damaged and scarred with hard weather, as the figure-head of an old ship might be: struck up a sturdy song that was like a Gale in itself.

Again the Ghost sped on, above the black and heaving sea -on, on-until, being far away, as he told Scrooge, from any shore, they lighted on a ship. They stood beside the helmsman at the wheel, the look-out in the bow, the officers who had the watch; dark, ghostly figures in their several stations; but every man among them hummed a Christmas tune, or had a Christmas thought, or spoke below his breath to his companion of some bygone Christmas Day, with homeward hopes belonging to it. And every man on board, waking or sleeping, good or bad, had had a kinder word for another on that day than on any day in the year; and had shared to some extent in its festivities; and had remembered those he cared for at a distance, and had known that they delighted to remember him.

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