[Night]

Note: Official image sans sweater

Oliver wasn't entirely sure if today was getting progressively better or worse. If he were being honest, he hadn't expected Leo to actually be home on Christmas Eve. The vast majority of people seemed to spend it with some sort of family or another. Hell, Oliver would normally be sitting down to dinner with his parents and fighting with Jay over some trivial matter just to inspire conversation that wasn't related to work with their mother. It had become somewhat of a tradition. But Jay had some new girlfriend, and his mother was going through some kind of mid-life crisis, and honestly he just hadn't been up to spending the evening hearing about how at least one of them may eventually give her grandchildren.

It'd been a bit of a shot in the dark, but he'd been pleasantly surprised when he'd been buzzed into the building. The ride up to the apartment gave him just enough time to second guess this whole plan, and he stood outside for a good two minutes trying to psych himself up to knock.

When Leo answered the door, he nearly dropped the poorly wrapped gift he'd come bearing. His eyes trailed against his will down the taller man's chest - which, to be fair, was eye level - before settling somewhere near the floor. He was pretty sure he was blushing, but he supposed it was a common enough occurrence that Leo may not even notice.

"Uhm... I'm so sorry, I thought... You buzzed me in, I figured that... Plans? Do you have any?" Not the most eloquent of responses, but it was the best he could manage and it seemed to do the trick. Riding down in the elevator, he kept his gaze firmly trained on the well polished floor. The priest was more than happy to continue to avoid Leo's gaze and definitely not imagine him shirtless, thanks, as they searched out somewhere to eat. He was prepared to agree to just about anywhere at this point if it moved them past the awkward silence that he'd probably created when he'd been eyeing Leo over in his door way. He nodded.

The tavern did look appealing, and he was dressed for it. Which reminded him...

"Oh, hey! I got you this." Oliver shoved the artfully decorated gift towards the lawyer as they approached the building, secretly pleased with himself. Everyone loved a holiday sweater, right?

[Flame]

The first day of the advent calendar had gone by rather uneventfully, despite Atlas's grand plans for the festivities, but that was mostly due in part to the fact that he'd actually been somewhat overwhelmed by the sensory overload that was the holiday party. Sure, visiting the Seasonal Specialties store on the regular was one thing, but when he went there, he never found himself as thoroughly immersed in the sights and smells (mostly of snacks and savory tidbits) that he was when he'd walked into the tavern. Of course, it had been a magical experience, but this time around, he fully intended to at least get a taste of some of the goods that were placed around the room. Even for his voracious appetite, there was no way he was going to make it through sampling one of everything, but he'd heard that this event would be going on for several more days at least, which put his mind at ease. He'd get his chance to try everything as long as he was patient enough and came back each day with an empty stomach. In his head, he was already mentally preparing himself to go lighter on breakfast the next eleven days so that he could cram more of these delectable offerings into his stomach.

First thing was first though, and he made his way over to the wall where the series of surprise gifts were displayed. He loped up to the person who was handing out the presents, a very evident expression of wide-eyed anticipation on his face as he awaited his turn to pick up the second gift in the series. For the moment, he ignored the loud rumbling of his belly as the smells of all the food around him wafted about his sensitive nose. There would be plenty of time yet to eat - he just needed to make sure he got Flame her gift first before letting himself loose on the food tables.

[crow]

Leo hadn't expected to have a gift thrust at him either, though he probably should have. Oliver had been holding it, after all. He just... hadn't noticed, apparently, which spoke to how out of it he was today. "Oh," he said, reaching out to take it with a look of surprise. "Thanks. I..." He tried not to flounder, or say anything that might suggest he didn't want it. It really wasn't that; it had just been ages since he'd received a gift from someone who wasn't his sister or a coworker giving him an obligatory gift. Or even from his sister. Generally Vivi's idea of Leo's Christmas present was being tolerable to their mother when she flew in for dinner, but this year their mother had cancelled, so that wasn't on the table anymore.

He was relieved now, at least, that he'd bought something for Oliver. At the time, it had felt like he was pushing the bounds on what had been essentially a pseudo-professional relationship, especially considering he'd gotten something of a group gift for the rest of Oliver's friends. "I... have yours up in the apartment." He tucked the gift under one arm, and rubbed at the back of his neck with the other. They were going back up after dinner anyway, so that worked out.

It felt awkward standing outside the tavern without heading inside, and it would have been more awkward to open the gift right then and there, so Leo wandered in through the door. The place was already pretty lively, though he managed to spot a table that another party had just vacated. "Over there," he said over his shoulder to Oliver, making a beeline for it.

[RiDragon]

Null wasn't quite sure how long it had been since he first got here.  Every time he tried to make for an exit, he was blocked by some party goer either coming in or trying to get him to eat or drink something.  After a while, he finally relented and sat down in a booth, as far away from other people as he possibly could.  Even he could get tired of standing stiffly in a corner for hours on end.

He eyed the cup of eggnog and plate of cookies in front of him, twitching an eye.  He had said he didn't want any.  But they had given him some anyway.  He wasn't trying to be rude, but he couldn't have any.  Not because he was watching his weight or anything, no, he literally, actually, legitimately, seriously couldn't actually eat any.  Though he had gotten the hang of being in human form months prior, he hadn't quite gotten the hang of the...  insides of humans.  Especially the part where..  The food... came out again.

He shivered a little and pushed the plate away.

"Null, my boy!"

A familiar voice made him prick up.  Professor Winter?  


"Fancy seeing you here, my boy."  The Professor said, giving Null a sharp toothed grin.

Null lowered his head, indicating that he wanted to talk quietly.  He hadn't seen the Professor come in, but he was used to the man showing up without any reason or even possible way to appear in the first place.  That didn't matter now, though.  

"Listen, Professor, I need your help."

"Oh?  I hope it's help to finish these cookies!"  The man said, gingerly picking one up and taking a small bite.  "Mmm, home made!"

Null shook his head, "No, no.  Listen, Winter, I know you can do that weird..  Teleporty thingie.  Like, you just kind of show up behind someone without even walking.  Could you get me out of here with that?  Every time I try to leave someone blocks me."

The Professor seemed to mull this over a second while chewing.  "Well, Null."  He said after a moment.  "There's a problem with your request, and well..  I can't."

"Why is that?"  Null had a sinking feeling.

"Well... it's simply because...  I'm just a figment of your imagination!"

Null awoke with a start, pink drool forming from the side of his mouth.  Crap.  He must've fallen asleep. Why couldn't he have dreamed about being outside of this place?  He sighed..  and then almost screamed his head off when he saw who was sitting next to him.

"Null, my boy!"

[zapdragon555]

The man who shouldered his way into the tavern hardly stood out among some of the other fancily-dressed guests, though his pressed suit was staunchly black against the sharp reds of the decorations. A pair of sharp blue eyes slid over the crowd until they landed squarely on a young blonde man's face, his vulpine expression flickering with genuine surprise. Strange to see Ava's little friend in a place like this, and not joined-at-the-hip with that obnoxious redhead, either.

Cody looked up with a start as Cyril's shadow loomed over him, his eyes wide as saucers as he stared up at the other man. "Oh," Cody's voice squeaked out, drawing into himself where he sat. "C--Cyr--"

"No need to hurt yourself, now," Cyril murmured, leaning an elbow on the bar where Cody sat, whistling at the bartender and ordering something. Cody's eyes were on his lap, where his phone rested, about to type in Zane's number before Cyril's presence acted as a wrecking-ball to his plans. Actually, quite the contrary, his plans to call Zane were only amplified now. "It's funny, seeing you here. It's been awhile."

"Yeah," Cody said, mouth dry, as he started typing out a slow, careful text to Zane. "How's... um. How's A-ava? It feels like forever since she and I have talked."

Good, Cyril's wry smile seemed to say. That's how it should be. "She's quite busy with her finals. Hardly any time for much of anything but painting."

"That's good... I-I mean," Cody corrected himself, cringing under Cyril's icy stare, and hurriedly continued typing.

C: I took a walk down to the city. I'm at a bar. Don't know where but Cyril is here. I'm sorry for tonight. I'm really sorry and I need an out, I'm really scared. Call me?

Send. Cody looked back up at Cyril, who now seemed to be distracted with a drink, at least. "Um--I-I should probably get going..."

"Bartender--a drink for my friend here?" Cyril interrupted Cody, and eyed him sharply, patting the seat where Cody had just gotten up from. "What's your poison, anyhow, Winborne?"

Cody swallowed, his throat bobbing, and slowly sat down again. "C-cider is... fine," he whispered, voice nearly drowned out in the crowd. The phone in his pocket remained silent.

[Claiming Day 11!]

[ToxicShadow]

Receiving the cup of hot cocoa, the Quest Master seemed entirely unfazed by the annoyed attitude of her staff member. Although, she did frown when she stared down into the cup, realizing that it was, indeed, hot cocoa. "But I asked for eggnog."

"You don't need any eggnog on the first day of your party. You only get hot cocoa. Or tea. Or coffee. No alcohol. You have twelve days of this. Twelve. Non-stop. Days." The sever huffed at the end, shaking his head, and walked back to actually serve their guests that were coming in droves now.

Once midnight hit, the party was going in full swing, and the Quest Master took it upon herself to hand out the gift. First by attempting to shove handfuls of keystones in the pockets of random guests, but got caught one too many times, before giving up and using magic to make the keystones simply appear somewhere on or before each of her guests.

One prize down, eleven more to go! Although, the next prize wouldn't be quite so easy to hand out.

[Freezair]

Advent calendars: Best invention ever, or best invention ever?!

Marion's mind had been blown by the concept of Christmas to begin with when she'd first heard about it. A holiday where, completely out of the blue, a jolly fat man came into your house and left you cool stuff?! For free?! That already sounded like paradise! But no--now she'd just learned that not only was Santa a thing, but she could actually get free stuff every single day. Well, until Christmas anyway. Sure, the gifts were small, but who turned down free money or the chance to win prizes?

Kelly didn't seem to be having as much fun as she was. Well, whatever! If he couldn't see how awesome free stuff was, that was his problem. Besides, if he was cold, he should run around aimlessly like she did.

[Adelie]

Day ... 2? Day 11? Inconsistent numbering systems, Chi decided, were truly an abomination. Not in the same way holiday parties were - few things could come close to the sheer indignation of having to leave her bed, with her laptop and spreadsheets and a cup of warm tea, in order to smile at people and pretend that she enjoyed being here - but a crime against humanity nonetheless.

Admittedly, her list of 'Things Chi Strongly Dislikes' was rapidly approaching a length where it was difficult for her, too, to consistently keep track of the indexing. And with every moment she continued to spend here, Christmas was making inroads higher and higher up that list.

Well, she'd basically done her part. She's showed up. She'd talked to one - maybe even one and a half - people and made some friendly, sociable comments about how much she enjoyed the holiday season, and how thankful she was for being invited to such a wonderful party. And she'd eaten enough snacks to count as dinner, which was the most important part.

[Silver]

Silver always did like learning about the holidays of this new land. This wasn't her first Christmas here, but there was so much that was fresh and new about it. Just this week she had found out that children ask a man named Santa to give them presents, and he actually did. Well, as far as she knew, anyway. Somehow, the whole thing hadn't come up last year with her mostly adult group of friends.

Now she donned a hat like the one this Santa guy wore and did her best to put on a brave face. She had been invited to a party, which was also pretty new for her. Kumoya didn't want to come, of course, so she was on her own for this one. She took a deep breath in and walked inside.

Nobody seemed to notice her, so she wandered over to a table full of sweets. Sweets were good. Could she take one? Who could she ask? Better not. It could be considered rude to eat them out of turn. Maybe she could find the person who invited her here. They might know. Now if only she could find them in the sea of red and green sweaters.

[SpringsSong]

As if things weren't already strange and strained enough with the Eternal Alliance, with one of its key members abandoning them just because he felt like they were taking the same path as Zakuul, it had taken everything that Commander Xyshari had to put one foot in front of the other on some days.  Another one of their earliest allies laid in a medical capsule, her condition still unchanged, and the Eternal Empress was still in command--despite their better efforts.

So, when her closest advisor--and her one true friend among the alliance, now; never mind the fact that they'd been a couple since just after reaching Odessen--had told her that there was some sort of Life Day event was happening, she jumped at the chance to take her mind off of things.

However, when they wandered into the tavern, Xyshari frowned slightly.

"I don't know who told you this was a Life Day celebration, Lana," she said, turning to her companion.  "There's no Wookiees, for one; and there's also not a single red robe in sight!  And here I was, feeling bad that we didn't have the time to grab new robes for us."

"Well, nobody actually... told me that this was a Life Day celebration," Lana said with a wry smirk.  "How else was I supposed to get you to take a little break from your duties as Commander?"

"...you do remember what happened when I went to meet with Empress Acina on Dromund Kaas, right?"

[FieldsofIris]

After giving thanks for the gift, Dahlia wandered over to the bar, smiling awkwardly in thanks as the grouchy bartender very nearly slammed a hot chocolate down in front of her. Kosok glared at the retreating form, but Dahlia winced in sympathy. It was becoming quite the madhouse in here. She clutched the mug close to her chest and turned to face the room.

"I'm not really used to parties," she murmured to Kosok, who had now perched himself between the antlers of her headband. The creature looked down at her, and curled his tail around her jaw in comfort, as well as to balance himself. With a deep inhale, Dahlia braved the crowd and moved away from the bar, giving others space to get their drinks.

It wasn't that Dahlia wasn't a fan of people - quite the opposite, actually. It was just that she was used to helping out and serving guests, not really socializing as a guest, herself. Sure, Iris had forced her to take a break at their own parties at the Garden, but that was with close friends - family, you could say. Dealing with strangers was usually all business.

Suddenly, Kosok began chattering with concern, causing Dahlia to look around the room. There, he jerked his snout in the direction he was looking. Following the Sonling's gaze, her eyes landed on two men at the bar - one looking incredibly uncomfortable. Without hesitation, Dahlia made her way towards the pair, but was careful to avoid their attentions. She simply wanted to make sure the smaller one wasn't being harassed.

Settling onto the empty barstool next to the uncomfortable man, she kept her ears open and sipped her hot chocolate.

[@Zap, I'm hanging out near you! XD Also claiming day 11 (December 15th), please! c:]

[Night]

Oliver trailed after Leo towards the table, trying to keep from running into any of the seemingly boundless people that had crammed themselves into the building. Luckily he wasn't particularly large. He slid into the chair opposite Leo and sat back to take it all in.

It seemed as though Christmas had exploded inside the Tavern, painting over every available surface until it dripped holiday cheer. Oliver poked at the plastic Santa figurine that had been abandoned near the salt shakers. "They've certainly got the Christmas spirit, haven't they?" Of course, now is when he could take his typical route and disdain over the clear lack of appropriate recognition for the holiday's real meaning, but tonight was already well in danger of being ruined over his surprise appearance and he didn't want to give Leo any excuses to ditch him amongst the tinsel. He felt some sort of childish glee in seeing just how over the top it all was, anyway. "It's kind of neat."

The priest finally managed to pull his eyes up to Leo's face, a shy smile tugging at the corners of his mouth. He was a bit at a loss for what to say to the guy, now that they weren't in any immediate danger of being caught out and offered up for sacrifice, or whatever it is that cultists tended to do. He didn't like to think about it.

"So... how have you been?" Oliver asked finally. It hadn't been that long, but he still thought he ought to ask. He wanted to reach out and take Leo's hand over the table, like he might have done had this been a few weeks prior in vastly different circumstance. He was pretty sure he was toeing a line somewhere that he shouldn't be anywhere near, seeking out Leo's company like this. But if he kept the conversation casual, and... well, it wasn't as though he had any chance with someone like Leo anyway, for a vast majority of reasons. The church, for one, and their clear disparity in both looks and class. Leo had made it pretty clear he had no interest, and Oliver had no room to want anything more than that regardless.

But they could be friends, right? This is what friends do, they hang out together at the bar and talk about... sports? Girls? Something like that. Oliver had no clue where to start. He clasped his hands together under the table and wished not for the first time he hadn't left his Rosary at home. His stupid sweater looked silly compared to Leo's ever polished attire, and Oliver's neck felt too bare without the itch of the clerical collar pressing against it. When the waitress appeared, he waved off food and ordered an egg nog to still his nerves. Not that... there were any reason he should be nervous...

[Jaden Wolf]

Though she had not been looking at the door at that particular moment, she turned to look at Steed before the door had even closed behind him. For a moment, she looked instead at someone passing rather close to her, taking a drink to someone else. She smiled for seemingly no reason, as though she were sharing in a secret no one else knew. Her eyes trailed back to Steed and caught his eye. She raised a hand in a gentle little finger wave. With her odd expression, it almost seemed as though she were waving to someone behind him.

Then, someone handed her a little parcel with her gift. Without missing a beat, she smoothly turned to the little fenling that had perched on a table nearby, safely out from under the feet of the growing crowd. No one could have guessed that this was actually their first meeting from the way Albany stroked the small creature's head or the way Candy ignored this breach of social contract. "I got a delivery request, apparently?" the small thing said, "Do you have the package to deliver?" Albany moved to hand her the parcel. In this moment before taking it, the fenling was muttering under her breath, "Do I look like a delivery service? Rock weighs down paper, doesn't it? Ugh. Whatever the mistresses want, I guess."

As the small thing disappeared expertly into the crowd with her package, Albany made her way toward Steed in what was probably the most indirect path possible. Even I really couldn't say why, exactly.

[Isalynne]

The temptation of food - and the presence of a sweet little gift - had Alex returning without a doubt for another night of festivities. He wasn't dressed the part, still bundled up in his trenchcoat and heavy boots with his hair fluttering at every angle, but there was at least a more cheerful air about him this time. Making a beeline straight for the buffet table, he managed to carefully avoid the attention of any other attendees.

Chicken. There was fried chicken there, and his stomach was desperate for it, as proven by the deep growl it made as soon as he laid eyes on the plate. It had to be chicken. He was happy to help himself, stuffing crispy pieces into his mouth with reckless abandon. So frickin' good.

[Here for day 11's gift. <3]

[Sarah]

Abbi had never been to this part of town before. She'd never really been able to celebrate anything, and it seemed like this place was a good one to start at. Some friends had agreed to meet up with her later, until then she decided to explore the place. The advent calendar was the first place she stopped, claiming her prize for the day. It was nice that everyone was guaranteed something on top of the bigger prizes.