[Sarah]

"So, have you found anything you like?" the woman asked. Somehow she'd returned to hanging on his arm.

Ütezi raised a champagne flute. "Alcohol," he replied. Events weren't really his style. He'd only come because he had to assimilate to this new world and socializing was part of that. He still couldn't really believe that he'd never return to Earth. After all the time and work he'd put into keeping an entire solar system safe he felt cheated to be in Evelon.

"Besides that," The woman prompted, pulling him back to the present.

"Who are you?" Ütezi asked. He turned towards her suddenly - realizing he had no idea who she was.

She smiled at him and it seemed strained. "A gift," she replied. "A part of you that fractured off when your Ghost pulled you through to Evelon," she explained.

"My light?" Ütezi asked. Disbelief ran through him and he felt an intense need to get away from the phantom clutching his arm. It really was too bad how public this place was. As much as he wanted to flee, or destroy, the innocent people around him held him back.

"The Taken are a disease," the phantom said. It looked around the room, and then its glowing eyes settled on Ütezi. "Soon enough Evelon will be infested."

[Moofius]

Grid and Lusrd

"Wow this is the weirdest party ever..." Grid said as she pushed her hat back off her head before running her fingers through short, blonde hair.
"Why?" Lusrd buzzed, mandibles clacking as he scanned the room with suspicion, head barely needing to move with his compact eyes.
"Because~," Grid sang, grinning at her partner, "I don't sense ANY danger! HA!"

Lusrd gave her a look, one hard to read, but seemed to make Grid stick out her tongue.
"Come on, big guy, I'm just teasing you! It IS safe though. Have the night off. Have some fun!"
"Perhaps..." He said, eyeing the drinks that were varried and smelled sweetly. The beetanke eventually wandered off, though his almost 7 foot height and brightly coloured exoskeleton made him hard to miss.

Which worked out will for Grid. It was always easy to find her body guard. So she made a point to dissappear into the crowd only to come across a woman who was, perhaps, the most fascinated anyone had ever been in a candy cane.
"Hey there," Grid said, raising an open palmed hand in a quick wave, "need help getting the plastic wrapping off?" She asked, gesturing to the still very-wrapped candy cane.

(( Isalynne, a post! ))

[FrostWynd]

(@Silver - If it's okay, I'll be interacting with your adorable Kitrell in this post! c: )

"Right. Looks like the coast is clear. Now let's see what you have hiding beneath all that pretty paper and ribbon." Skylar started talking to herself, once she felt absolutely sure that the gift she received could be opened right now. She unsheathed a claw, and raised it up to start tearing into the giftbox.

She was just mere inches away from unveiling the mystery within...

"Skylar! There you are!" And then that happened, to spoil her fun. She made a weird sound under her breath out of frustration, as her claws curled up into the cat version of a fist.


She turned around, to unexpectedly see her friend standing there, and gave her a baffled look. "Elizabeth??" What in the world are you doing here?" A party, and even a tavern, were the last places she'd ever see Eliza hanging out at. "Looking for you! You were gone for like more than two days!" Eliza replied with a frown. She had been getting worried!

"Wait, what?" That didn't sound right. Had that much time seriously passed? It felt more like it had only been a few hours since she got here herself...

But before she could get the chance to ask anymore questions, the duo heard some sort of mew. Eliza suddenly gasped, and scooped up both Skylar and the giftbox into her arms. All while saying,
"look out!" As a grey blur suddenly crashed onto the table.

Moments after, both opened their eyes to peek over and see what just happened. Seeing a small creature sitting on what looked like some type of dessert, trying to clean itself.

"Um..." Hopefully nobody else had been planning on eating that...

[Day 8]

[Mojave]

From the freezing cold outdoors, a woman appeared wearing a luxurious faux fur coat, it's voluptuous weight hiding the form of the person beneath it. However, once in the warmth of the building she quickly shed it with a flourish to reveal her lithe form sheathed in a wild Santa dress. The faux fur edges were black sprinkled with rainbow glitter, the dress itself was a riotous mix of pink, purple, and blue with sequined tiger stripes, and her heels were six inch, metal spike stilettos with a slight platform base and rose to cover her legs just above the knees. She placed a matching santa hat atop her spiked black hair, fussing to make sure the pink and blue streaks in her hair were visible before turning to the woman hosting the gathering. "Sorry I'm late, but let's get this party started!" She said excitedly, grinning at everyone in the room. "Oh, and I'd like to claim today's prize, please~ I'm just sticking around after to mingle. I'm China, by the way; nice to meet you!"

[Skylark]

The pitter patter sound of feet outside was likely downed out by the general roar of conversation inside, but that didn't really matter anyway. Not as much as the whistling-honking that followed a loud thump that was probably someone falling against the door rather than successfully opening it. Whoops.

It took some more honking and weird thumping noises before the door finally opened to a new guest who seemed sort of... harried. They rushed in, looking around with child-like glee and tripping over the ugly sweater dress they were wearing that was about five sizes too big. "Hello!" Their nose twitched. It was adorable. "I would like a drink, please! And yes! I do like gifts! Eggnog would be wonderful!"

But.... were they.... old enough for it?

[FieldsofIris]

Kosok's eyes glowed in warning, ready to leap to Dahlia's aid in a moment's notice as he noticed the other man start to get up. But, as the man was distracted, Kosok relaxed back into Cody, chattering almost soothingly to the young man.

Dahlia smiled warmly as Cody began to relax, glad she had done the right thing in getting him away from that jerk with the bad attitude. "No problem at all, honey," she softly patted the shoulder Kosok wasn't occupying. "That guy made me wanna give him the old one-two, with the way he was bein' towards you."

Speaking of... Dahlia felt the hair on the back of her neck stand up as the guy's gaze landed on them once more. Maybe he has more than just a bad attitude... Dahlia attempted to subtly shift so she was more between him and Cody, blocking him from further view. "You don't gotta talk about him if you don't want to... but I just gotta say, methinks your friend might have some bad taste," she joked, winking to indicate her playfulness.

Kosok scanned the area in the meantime, looking for someone who might know the exact address of this place. After a moment, he caught a glimpse of someone attending the snack table. The individual at the snack table may have the address, he suggested to Dahlia, who had just nodded after listening to Cody's request and Kosok's observation.

"Do you wanna head on over to the snack table and ask the staff for the address of the tavern?" She made sure to ask, as so not to come off as demanding to the nervous man. Careful suggestions would probably work best, as they had with some of the more skittish of the Garden's residents.

"Kosok and I are more than happy to stay with you until your friend gets here, and you can talk about anything you like," Dahlia mentioned, and Kosok nodded in agreement. "But only if you want us to, of course," she added quickly.

[Claiming day 8 / the 18th's prize! c:]

[Middy]

It was so nice to see so much cheer being spread around the community with this year's advent calendar. So many people came in happy and left happy as well, and so many new faces too! Ray was overjoyed to be there so celebrate himself, as his job being a priest could be very taxing at times. Taking some time off to grab a prize or ticket would be the perfect opportunity to donate to charity, or someone that needed a gift too. "Ah, hello. I am here to happily claim today's gift," he smiled warmly. Ah, he should partake in some eggnog too, non-alcoholic of course, later in the day.

[Claiming Day 8's Prize]

[Indigo]

No one had told Ale there was a big Christmas party! Outrageous. Not that she was particularly invested in Christmas itself, but holiday parties were among the best possible parties, and if there was one she could get into there was no doubt she'd be there. Well, normally. This shindig had been going for quite a while before she'd even heard about it, so her absence was already pretty notable.

Nobody she knew was here, so maybe that explained it. Still, this was wonderful—a whole tavern full of new faces. And she'd heard some odd things about this place. Maybe, if she was really lucky, she'd find a carnivorous plant or two.

[Isalynne]

What on earth.. was this thing?

Aranyani was finding everything rather overwhelming, to say the very least, but her confusion had at last come to a head. Not the blinding lights or the odd decorated trees or the gaudy clothing everyone seemed to have chosen to wear. No, that had been managed with nothing but wide-eyed stares and curious noises. What was really getting to her was this stick-shaped item, with a hook at the end, red and white and wrapped in clear packaging.

At first, she had attempted to break it between her teeth. When the plastic crinkled against her fangs, she took it out to reevaluate the situation. Not for that purpose, then? But.. what..?

Someone was addressing her. The girl's head jerked around in the direction of the voice, and upon catching sight of the person, she swooped into a bow. It was more of a bob, since she was upright again in a split second.

"Greetings! Hello!" A very chipper tone, but a quiet voice overall, almost muffled entirely by the noise of the surroundings. "A.. candy cane. Please, what is this? I am confused."

[Sappheara]

Chumani watches as her to companions dance on the open floor. It was nice to see people enjoy their night. She didn't pay to much attention to the other guests. It was better not to get involve with other people. There was always some kind of drama when she got involve with people and she had her plate full of that already. She looked towards the doors of the tavern then her at her watch. She didn't know which of the family was going to join them and hoped they forgot about this little advent.

(Typing on phone. Claiming day 8.)

[Night]

Oliver shifted in his seat, his eyes finding their way down to the table once more. He could tell he was beginning to make Leo uncomfortable, though he couldn't place what he may have said that had caused it. Talking about family, perhaps, or expressing that he was glad to be spending the time together - it had been a stupid thing to say, he was beginning to realize. He was expecting too much from this little get together. He leaned back in his chair once more, removing the temptation to move further into Leo's personal space and take his hand.

He busied his hands with picking at a loose thread at the edge of his sleeve instead. "Yeah, no problem. I love my family, I really do - but it's just tiring sometimes." He admitted quietly. It didn't particularly matter anyway - he'd already done his damage. He wasn't losing out or making the situation worse by admitting that the lie they had to keep up around their families wore at him. Oliver shrugged in a way that seemed to imply 'what can you do.'  "Regardless, it's been a bit since I've seen any of the movies. Maybe we'll just check out the Hallmark channel and see what they've got playing for the holidays - they've usually got a healthy rotation of the classics."

Oliver nursed at his drink, suddenly unsure what to say. There were an abundance of things he wanted to ask - more about Leo's family, for one, and more about the man himself. However, he didn't want to pry and he didn't think his digging into Leo's personal life would be well received. He kind of felt like they'd done things all out of order, even if it had been in a very facsimile way; dating, even if it were fake, and then trying out being casual friends. He'd never done well with ill-defined boundaries.

"Aren't you going to order anything?" He asked after a moment.

[ToxicShadow]

At one point or another, the Quest Master managed to slip away from greeting guests, and went to bother her staff behind the counter, "Hey, hey, I need a gingerbread man, stat!"

By now, the server had mostly gotten over having to wear the silly santa hat that matched the Quest Master, but still wondered, "Why?"

"Haven't you seen!? Faceless hasn't eaten ANYTHING this whole time!" The Quest Master actually sounded alarmed by this.

"...You know Faceless doesn't actually need to eat anything, right?"

[Flame]

It was a rare day indeed that Cadenza actually managed to find the time in her busy schedule to think of doing things outside of her normal routine. After all, the business of running a cafe tended to be a round-the-clock sort of occupation, and she had a bit of a habit of erring on the side of putting more work than necessary into her job. However, it was the holiday season, and amidst the slew of Christmas baking that she was doing, she figured she'd earned herself the right to let loose just a little bit and enjoy someone else's cooking for a change.

It was for that reason that she found herself at the tavern; to be honest, she had really just shown up to find a bite to eat, but upon her arrival, she was greeted by the unexpected joviality of what was very apparently an ongoing party. For a moment, she almost turned to leave (after all, she didn't want to accidentally crash a party she hadn't been invited to), but she soon found herself ushered in by another guest with the reassurance that the party was open to all. A little apprehensive, she made her way inside, only to be greeted by the sights, smells, and sounds of holiday festivities. It was made quickly apparent that the party was indeed meant for all to partake in, and once she'd gotten over her initial nervousness, she made a point of visiting each table of food items, sampling a bit of each and reveling in the creativity of other chefs. Sure, she could bake like no other, but that didn't mean that there wasn't plenty for her to learn from here.

[RiDragon]

Null didn't even notice that Cyril approached him up until he was directly spoken to.  Even then, it took him a full three seconds to even realize he was being spoken to.  "Ehhh.."  He noticed his words slurred, but didn't really care.  A pang of worry fluttered in his stomach.  Perhaps the rage he was absorbing was so...  Bottled up that it was fermented like alcohol?  Was he drunk?

Well.  Whatever.  It felt kinda good anyway.  And now at least he could have some fun.

Oh.  This guy was talking to him.  Right.  "Uhh..  Business?"  Oh yeah, he was trying to help someone.  Right.  Well.  He seemed safe enough with that lady over there now.  A bit of pink drool leaked from his mouth as he gave the man a look with half open eyes.  He wondered if too much of the "fermented" anger would be bad for him.  He didn't feel like stopping his absorption though.

"Naaah..  I'm just enjoying the fooooood."  He managed to slur out, leaning back in his seat.  He didn't notice how he had no food at his table.

[Silver]

(@FrostWynd - Yea feel free! Muse is sticking around if anyone wants to interact with her.)

The little Kitrell was starting to become quite frustrated with her situation. This was not working at all! She needed a new approach. She rolled off the edge of the table and loosely flopped onto the ground with a splat. She shook her entire body as much as possible, throwing bits of tart and whipped cream every which way. Surely the people around her were offended to be suddenly covered in dessert, but she didn't seem to notice.

Her bright, mismatched eyes caught sight of a punch bowl that glistened in the fluorescent light. Perfect! She knew exactly what that was. She had one just like it at home. Muse flapped her wings, spraying yet more confectionery around, and flew over to the biggest punch bowl. She landed into it surprisingly gracefully considering her past actions. There she floated for a while like a swan on a lake.