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Christmas is the season of giving! Or at least, that's what the ads want us to believe. (Buy this at 50% off, so someone else can awkwardly thank you and stash it away in a box, never be seen again. 'Tis the season!)

Let's try something different. We'll skip the consumerism and exchange digital gifts instead!

Here's how it works:

Respond if you want to join. On the 24th, I'll let you know who you'll prepare a gift for.

Gift ideas:

• A drawing of them (or at least, an attempt)
• A written piece, e.g. a poem ending with mogami river
• A short story where they murder you due to a coin flip
• A photoshopped card
• A review of one of their storygames

Since I know most people will be busy around Christmas, feel free to take your time. The gifts can continue trickling in until early January. I'll add a link to this thread later so everyone can post them anonymously. And once you have received your present, then there's the added challenge of trying to guess your Secret Santa!

And yes, I admit it, I may have stolen the title idea from another thread lol. 

TL;DR - Give presents, get presents. 

This is an extremely wholesome idea, sign me up

I'll do it!

I would love to join this. Sign me up too.

Interesting little ASSUMPTION you made about where we would be putting the names! I can't help but wonder what kind of agenda and reasoning you would have to be so pro-hat all of a sudden

I'm in

I'll do it! :)

Sure, sign me up

Me! Me! Me! I'll Join!

Don't be a grinch

Kill yourself right now

Belt hung above the stairwell

Mogami river

I'm really glad to see so many sign ups! For those of you who haven't decided yet, you have about a day left before I finalise the list of participants :)

I'd like to join, this site is the only place in which I have a social life.

Count me in.

I'd like to join.

You should all have received the name of your Secret Santa giftee by now! Here's a link to upload your presents anonymously: https://padlet.com/mysticthewarrior/SecretSanta

Scroll right to see each participant! You should be able to add pictures, text and files under each section. If there are any technical issues or you prefer to use a forum post layout, feel free to send me a message.

We have five gifts so far! Let's keep this going.

As for Tim, Stargirl, Gryphon, Cavus and Zake - you may begin guessing who your Secret Santa is :)

Or you could look at the artstyle. 

If none of the paper + table combinations match your samples, at the very least, you'll be able to rule out a few people. Process of elimination! Then it's just a matter of finding out who the most likely person to have made that post is. 

Maybe start by considering which members are likely to write a long review, as opposed to other forms of gifts. Then you could glance at a few of their past reviews to see if there are any similarities.

Whoever got mine

If you review Randomly Walk I will kill you and then myself

Whatever this booklet wizardry is, I commend it, and I must say that Peng's gift was fucking adorable (the rest are good too).

I'm sure your drawing will be great, based on what I remember from the MHD Appreciation Thread. Also, there are other options such as designing something on Photoshop or Canva, writing a short piece, reviewing a storygame, etc. 

Thanks to whoever wrote the poem, I appreciate it!

@PerforatedPenguin, @TypewriterCat, and @goodnight_a

Your gifts have been posted! Check them out and see if you can guess who your 'Secret' Santa is.

We're adding the threat of SHAME to this activity.

For those of you who already submitted your presents, you're safe! Congrats to the eight of you for being creative and productive CYStians. But for the procrastinators, you have until 11.59pm on the 7th of January 2024 to submit your gift, otherwise you'll be thrown in the SHAME pit. Sorry, I don't make the rules.

Well, at least you won't have to do anything until next year, right?

I will get mine in before the deadline.  Posting this will help keep me reminded.

I don't think I'll get mine and that there's a high chance that it was Petros.

And I do not have you, so me turning one in has no effect on the probability of you receiving one.

Unfortunately, you're wrong. May I know what led you to this conclusion? But go ahead and take another guess.

Hint: this person has written at least a few featured reviews :)

Reading the review it does sound like it's written by a teenage girl, though the more organized structure with headings kinda reminds me how Gryphon used to write his reviews (bar the "gosh"). I would lean toward Suranna, but since she's the type to draw stuff, my guess for yours would be Peng. 

That is an extremely interesting conclusion.

@MadHattersDaughter, your gift has been posted too! 

I love the implication I stop the fight after every gift for a wardrobe change. This someone certainly knows me pretty well.

@Petros and @Suranna, your gifts have been posted.

Yeah, their gremlin snark towards me made their identity very apparent. They also mentioned me in a review where I wasn't even present.

Yep

To whom it may concern:
Your poem didn't quite so burn,
I read your attempt to incite me,
with a drawing to entice me,

But a small fleeting promise
isn't quite so honest,
When yours truly
and quite cruelly,

Spent a couple days
during her own holidays,
To create a gift so perfect,
That even Ace could discern it.

But don't take it back now,
I'll one-up you right meow.
With a declaration to win,
or at least for me to go all-in.

I'll make Top 5, I'm sure
Then we'll see who's immature. 

@Ogre11 your gift has arrived.

@Darius_Conwright and @ISentinelPenguinI, your gifts are here.

Also, for anyone who hasn't already done so, this is a reminder to upload your gifts by the end of tomorrow. 

I always love a fun horror story and very lovely drawing! How did they know I have this exact kind of toaster? 

Think it's from Ogre, just a hunch. 

But it could be anyone who was in the discord a year ago since they got my hair color right.

@DBNB, your present has presented itself! (Excuse the pun, I'm still recovering from the questionnaire thread). 

To those still procrastinating, don't be a Grinch/ Scrooge, submit your presents today! As for the two people who attempted guesses, I'll give you a tip: your Secret Santa has not been guessed by anyone in this thread (which rules out eight people).

Yay! 

Thanks Santa!

I've been working on this in a notepad file that was last updated this morning, and I'm at the end of my rope as far as what I can spin without knowing further. Can't wait to see where I was wrong.

Secret Santa Detective File
~~~

Peng - MHD, unquestionably

MHD - Well of course I know him, he's me!

Goodnight_a - Got a drawing and a review, which contains CYS Discord Shibboleths. Pointedly aware of Goodnight's general site activity in a distinctly Miz-like way. Mizal did imply she was going to draw a thing, I think we got 'em. ADDENDUM- I did indeed find out this was Mizal.

Darius - Feels like ogre did this based purely on vibe and the fact that none of the other gifts seem ogrey

TCat - Darius, unquestionably

Zake - Analogue pencil drawing done by someone with an unlined notebook and a straightedge, these seem like things somebody in school would have, but they aren't exactly school equipment so it could be an adult who draws occassionally. Would not be Miz or Ogre. Suranna draws but electrically. Would not be Darius or MHD.

Ogre - Whoever this is probably uses the discord because being a chef wasn't one of the known traits of ogre before all this.

CavusRex - Given a review. Mizal, Suranna, & Peng, already commented so their odds are significantly lowered. Mizal wrote an *actual* review the first time, so it would be weird to do it twice. Zake would do this but it feels like it doesn't seem to follow a Zake structure. Too lighthearted to be TCat. Possibly it was Gryphon or Sherboid. I think this was Sherb for some reason.

Suranna - A borderline Suranna-negative poem, giving vibes of Mizal or Petros. Leaning on the side of Mizal because the poem is about cracking the productivity whip and Petros probably would've just drawn the picture if he had it in him. ADDENDUM: It's gotta be Petros.

Gryphon - A poem. Feels like TCat, Suranna, or Stargirl made this by the way that it's bent around the rhymes.

Stargirl - electronic drawing, seemingly made off of a model. Zake does these, but so does Suranna. Leaning on the side of Zake because Suranna is more freeform and uses far thicker/more variable lines, probably a stylus.

DBNB - N/A

Tim - Given a shitpost poem image that could be made with very common computer tools. Not a single shibboleth except Mogami River, which was already spoiled in the OP. Someone very young who doesn't know Tim may have done this. Goodnight_a or Stargirl are in the age range. Or maybe not, they've been here forever but my mind still sees babies when I look at their usernames.

Petros - Looks like suranna could've done it, but Sherbet thinks this is TCat and some of the review does read as Tcattish. Theorizing that this is TCat.

Mizal - N/A

Sentinel - a fuckin DIGITAL *PAINTING!?* Completely out of left field, can't think of anyone who does this. Regardless both included reviews of randomly walk so I have to kill them both whoever they are.

Sherbet - N/A

You've got most of the guesses right. Only one of the guesses for a specific person is wrong. Of the guesses mentioning several names, just three does not name-drop the right person :)

Some seem to be on the right track so far; the others, not so much. 

Last night, the remaining gifts mysteriously appeared under the tree! Feel free to submit more guesses in light of this new information and maybe even confuse each other about who you've prepared a present for.

I'll just add that I'm honestly really pleased with the turnout rate. I don't think I've seen this level of productivity before (except maybe the first prompt contest). There is lots of high quality work too, this activity somehow produced a collection of great art, reviews and written pieces. Maybe we should do this again next year.

Also, all participants may reply to this post for a commendation! 

I am going to guess the review of my story was from Griffin.  

Whoever did it though, I greatly appreciate it.  It was well thought out and helpful. Thanks.

I loved how you organized it. Kudos to you too!

One free commendation, please.

I enjoyed my gift. I'll attempt to set the picture to my storygame cover once I figure out the HTML for that. Thanks, Darius.

It's been an honour. :)

Thanks for hosting this!

Thank you to Mizal for the picture and summary of my activity on-site. I'm going to assume it's you because you've used the word 'wholesome' twice now to describe my writing. Once I figure out how to get technology to cooperate the picture's getting slapped on the front cover, as it's far better than anything I could ever draw.

Again, thank you for the gift exchange and a belated Merry Christmas.

This was pretty neat.

Thanks for hosting it, Mystic.

Thanks for organizing this, lots of fun!

yahoo!

For fun, I'll be giving 50 points to the first person to correctly guess all of the Secret Santas' identities. But the catch - you each only have one try.

Go ahead and exchange information with one another, read through the past hints, and rely on the process of elimination. I doubt it'll take long for someone to figure it out. I'll reveal the results once guessing has died down. 

It's oddly touching that so many of you recognized my art style. Everyone so far guessed right!

It's certainly a peculiar style!

Ok, I see the problem with this now. I'll change this slightly - the first three guessers will have 2 attempts, and the first person to get 10 correct will be given 10 points. Simple enough, right?

I'm feeling confident in my answer. 

Five wrong and twelve correct. Not too bad!

If there are no other guesses, I'll reveal the results tomorrow! Then we'll see how well CYStians know one other.

Speaking of the guesses, there are some really well thought out ones that show how well members in this community can recognise someone else's art/ writing style. Then there are some equally as well thought out, but it's hilarious to see how off they are.

Alright, time for a bit of wholesomeness. Here's the list of Secret Santa allocations! There were some pretty sneaky ones in the mix too, it was interesting to see a few people fooled.
 

Thank you for the picture, Suranna!

But unfortunately when I find out who left the first review, you know what I'm gonna have to do to both of you.

For those of you who wrote reviews, don't forget to post them. Go claim your free featured spot :)
 

@fresh_out_the_oven

I think it's this.

Thanks for finding this! Definitely it

I'm definitely down for this.

I'd also do this.  Thanks for digging it up ben.

No problem. I doomscroll the forums looking for old history to bring to light. Some might call me an archaeologist on CYS's exciting bits of history.