image features polar bears lounging in the snow surrounded by purple pine trees. a castle in the background glows in shades of pinkish-purples and greenish-blues.
Enter a fairytale story, led by our orphan protagonist and a new friend as they embark together to engage with the royal, polar bear family within a fantastical land, who are desperate to find the realm’s cubnapped heir before an evil sorcerer claims power over their wintery domain.
Organized by:
Prof. Sindor Aloyarc
Timeline:
• December 1: Week One Posted
• December 8: Week Two Posted
• December 15: Week Three Posted
• December 21: Everything Due
Up For Grabs:
• 225 beans/sapphires and up to 2 shinies spread over 12 tasks! (15 beans per task, 15 bonus beans each week for submitting all four tasks over any given week by end of activity).
• The Silver Storm award:
For completing 6 tasks.
image features a tree beside a path within the swirl of a silvery evening winter storm.
• The Glowing Ember award:
For completing all 12 tasks.
image features bright red embers protruding from a lick of hot yellow-orange flames.
Join in:
This is a castle-wide activity. Post below expressing your interest in joining and I'll add you to the list! You do not need to wait to start submitting any available tasks.
** Participants: **
Anne-Marie Gagne
Evie Figg
Artemisia Thorne
Adeline Morior
Katherine Laurier
Janne Halla
Scarlet Robloutain
Lex Green
Dibyarup James Potter
Rose Dove
Mia Fountain
Viviana Kingston
Maeve Madden
Hiya Debnath
Aurelia West
River Fenwick
Prof. Will Lestrange
Aquaria Sandalwood
Proceed to the Activity Introduction, Tasks, or keep track of your progress with the "Once Upon a December" Spreadsheet!
— QUESTIONS may be posted below or sent via Private Messaging.
Questions might include:
• How late can I start participating?
You may join in at anytime, however everything is due by Thursday December 21st at 11:59pm (HOL time).
• Is AI acceptable to use for completing tasks?
In the case of writing assignments, this means you cannot submit text generated by an AI/ML tool and claim it as your own. Everything you submit must be written in your own words.
In the case of artwork, graphics that are purely AI/ML generated are not permitted. As many graphics on HOL rely on source material that you do not create yourself (such as stock images and elements), we can’t prevent you from using AI generated art as part of a graphics submission but you must have altered, added to or manipulated the source material in some way to create a graphic. This is exactly the same approach we would take with photographs that were not directly taken by you.
From the “Use of AI Tools at HOL” post on the main forum.
• What if I can't (or don't want to) do a Task?
If accomplishing parts of this activity becomes impractical or undesirable for any reason, please feel more than encouraged to ask for an alternative if one hasn't been provided, suggest something, or skip that section altogether. Our goal is to have fun! We simply wish to support your most enjoyable experience.
• How do I post Graphics?
A few popular Image Hosting sites are Postimages, Imgur, and Imgbb where you can upload your work, the locate a direct link toward sharing elsewhere. The “BBCode” to attach on The Roost forum submissions (which can be accomplished automatically for you by the click of a button from options at the top of your editing page) is [*img][*/img] with url in the middle (i.e. [*img]link[*/img]) — NOTE: You would remove the asterisks (*) in order for this code to be successful. They’re added here to display the example effectively. Images imbedded directly into posts must be kept within 600x600 pixels.
• Can I come and go as I please?
Absolutely! There are no rules against passing over anything you're not interested in, or doing tasks out of order. No pressure at all.
• Do I have to post submissions to the forums?
While we love seeing people posting/interact together should that be their preference, if you would feel more comfortable turning in some or all of your work via private message where prompted otherwise, that's perfectly fine!
