[Night]

Oliver wriggled in his seat, pleased with himself. "Yep! I usually make them for everybody in my free time. It's relaxing." The soft flush of embarrassment still hadn't left his cheeks, but he did seem happy. He supposed that it was a bit of an unexpected hobby, and normally he didn't care to advertise it. Knitting? That was something that old women did. He had to admit that he was proud of his work, though - he had taken a bit of extra care in working on Leo's.

The priest held his breath as Leo unwrapped it, his lower lip caught between his teeth. What if he didn't like it? Or laughed at him? It was probably a silly gift, and Leo likely would have preferred something a bit more useful. He tapped his fingers on the table, unable to keep himself from fidgeting.

When Leo didn't immediately say anything, he couldn't keep himself from looking crestfallen. "You don't have to wear it if you don't like it. I know it's a little childish, and it's not like... professional. I just wanted to make you something." He offered a shy smile, clearly nervous now that the initial thrill of gift-giving had worn off.

[FrostWynd]

For a little while out in the cold, across the street from the tavern, two pairs of eyes attached to two little furry bodies would stare out at all the people coming and going. They could hear all the chatter and laughing from all the different humans.

And they could smell the scent of delicious food from where they sat.

"Kass, come on. We should get back now, before the others start worrying..." The first one would say, as he gave the other a light nudge. But she would just shrug him off, giving him a halfhearted glare. "No, Bee! Not yet. I just need another minute." There was still a chance that they could do something here, if they just planned it right...

But that made "Bee" sigh very loudly. "You said that last time! And we're still here freezing out butts off!" "That's because I'm still thinking!"

They wanted to sneak into that tavern, to see what the fuss was about, and maybe get a bite to eat. But as was the usual for two little wild strays like them, they wouldn't belong in there, and so just couldn't go in through the front door.

Or... could they?

"Alright, I think I've got it. Come on!" Suddenly, Kass would get up and start running across the street, towards the front door. While Bee scrambled after her. "W-wait for me!"

[ToxicShadow]

The Kuhna flicked his tail. "I would say that's great for business then, but the Quest Master isn't charging a thing for all of this, are they?" The food, the drinks, the prizes, the guests weren't buying anything, aside from maybe renting a room upstairs, since they still charged nightly for the rooms. It would be a little more impractical to rent rooms for free; then they wouldn't ever have any open.

The man nodded his head. "I guess it might be good publicity, but they're already pretty well known, these days." Many around Evelon had at least heard rumors about the Quest Master by now.

[Sappheara]

It was getting too crowded for Chumani. She stayed way too long, longer than she wanted. She looked at Hono then at the two demons that were sitting in front of her. "Do you two think it's getting late? I mean we been here for a while. Do you guys wanna go home now?" Anguish spoke first. "I'm enjoying myself. I don't see why we should leave now." Anguish spoke with a mild tone and puppy dog eyes.
Enigma jump in after Anguish spoke "What's wrong metra?" She spoke with a worried tone.

[zapdragon555]

Cody nodded, wiping the last of his tears on his sleeve and smiling slightly. Now that finals were coming to a close and the library staff was about to let him go for the year, it had been a worrying thought on his mind. Surely there was something around... oh, maybe a plant nursery. Cody's eyes sparkled slightly with quiet ideas, before he blinked and looked back up at Dahlia with a breath as she moved the phonebook closer. Cody eyed the book, a nervous flicker in his eyes, and he lifted up his old flip phone to stare at the number pad. He could call Zane, tell him the number and name, and Zane could look up the address...

If he even cares enough to come, some tiny voice in the back of Cody's head whispered, and he shut his eyes tight for a moment, just gripping his phone. "N-no, that's okay, I'll..." Just call him. Just call him... Cody knew it should be easy, but it was never easy lately. He slowly looked up at Dahlia, then back down at his phone, then at Kosok. Something steeled behind his eyes, and he nodded, calling up Zane and putting the phone to his ear. Ring... ring... click. Cody's eyes widened.

"...Zane?"

Cyril's expression shifted ever so slightly, the hostility morphing into bemusement. Cyril shifted on his feet, then scoffed and shook his head, turning to leave--and then, he felt the tug. Cyril froze, looking back around towards Null, and pulled. What... on earth...? "What... did you do?" Cyril's voice was deathly quiet, crossing the floor slowly towards the smaller man. The tug lessened, and panic started to rise up in Cyril's chest as he realized it must have something to do with this guy.

On some anxious, impulsive instinct, Cyril's hand shot out to ball up in the fabric at Null's chest, jerking the man closer with a murderous intent in his eyes. "I don't need a drink," Cyril snarled into the man's face, his knuckles white with tension where he gripped Null's shirt. "I need you to fix this. Right now. Whatever you did... or..." Cyril's other hand balled into a fist, and he raised it up, looking very much like he was about to send it straight through Null's face.

"Cody? I'm here--where are you, C--woah... hang on, I think I took a wrong... turn?"

Suddenly, Cyril's wound-back fist was grabbed, and the dark haired main whipped around to stare straight into a familiar set of green eyes. "Hey--Cyril, right? What's all this about?" Zane's voice was low, and about as dangerous as it could be for someone like him--his phone was held between his free hand's fingers, held up to his ear. He was barely taller than Cyril, but the animosity coming off of the latter was enough to make Zane wilt slightly.

Cyril's brain caught up with him, and he instinctively let go of Null's shirt. Crap. Right. Cyril knew Cody wouldn't tell Ava anything, but Zane was another story. Cyril scowled slightly, but tried to paint a polite mask over it as best he could. "Nothing. A gentlemen's disagreement, is all. Are you here for Cody?" he asked, easily adopting a purr into his voice. Zane wrinkled his nose slightly.

"Glad I'm not a gentleman. Seems like rough business," Zane muttered, then glanced at Null, a worried look on his face--wait! "Oh! Did--did you say Cody? Right--right! Cody said you were here!"

"He did?" Cyril blinked, but Zane was already turning away to start looking through the crowd. It wasn't long before he stumbled upon the table that the trio was sitting at, his eyes widening as he ran towards Cody and bent down to the boy's shorter, sitting height to throw his arms around him in a tight hug. It seemed both men were still holding their phones, an afterthought.

"H-how did--" Cody started to say, and Zane pulled away to give him a huge, lopsided grin.

"I find you?" he finished for Cody and laughed, shrugging. "Apparently you didn't go far. Just the alleyway on Seventh... guess they put a new bar here, huh?" Zane blinked and looked up at Kosok on Cody's shoulder, startled, then at Dahlia with raised brows. "Hey there!" he offered a grin, putting his hand out. "I'm uh... I'm Zane. Hey..." He could tell that Dahlia had been trying to help Cody, by the look of the phonebook and her weird (but strangely cute) pet. He kept a hand on Cody's other shoulder, not wanting to break contact. It was clear, despite his sunny demeanor, that he'd been worried moments before. Cody unconsciously leaned into the contact, his a mixed cocktail of unreadable emotions--except relief. That one was definitely there.

[Claiming Day 4!]
[Also I have Baconwizard's permission to use Zane here!]

[Sarah]

Night fell upon Evelon with a hunger, but the party raged on. Christmas was only a few days away and the stress of the holidays would finally lift of the shoulders of anyone who happened to celebrate. It really was too bad - the obligation to get gifts for everyone. At least for those who had nowhere else to go there were parties. Silly, gift-obligation free parties. A place for those to drown their sorrows alone, as always.

[RiDragon]

Null was trying to get his thoughts together to explain the accident, he really was.  Honest.  No no, he wasn't trying to lie and squirm his way out.  Haha, why would you ever think that?  He opened his mouth to perhaps get the man to listen to him, maybe they could uh..  Work something out.  But it seemed that Cyril had..  Other plans.  Mostly of the violent kind.  He gasped quietly as he was dragged by his collar.  Eugh, this guy had bad breath.

...  Yeah.  Maybe he deserved to get decked in the face.  It would probably break his physical form, which was just as embarrassing to him as getting caught with his fly down.  He imagined having to scurry through the crowd as an ugly little lizard until he could turn back again.  Ugh..  Maybe he could just..  Feed off this guy a little more, maybe enough to tire him out before he threw a punch?  Or maybe it'd weaken the punch a little bit.  He tried to focus.

"I uh.  I might've fucked something up?"

Though, luckily for him a (admittedly super cute,) tall man seemed to step in like some sorta super hero.  Was this what a "prince charming" was?  He hoped so.  It seemed that whoever he was, Cyril feared and respected the guy.  Or..  Mostly feared.  He stumbled back as he was let go.

"Th-thanks."  He managed to sputter, his voice cracking a lot more than he meant it to.  He wasn't shaken up by the fear or shock of being handled roughly, oh no.  It was that this towering sunshine man was..  Really cute.  Null's face went red, his basically albino skin hiding none of it.  He shrunk back while trying to hide it...  Only to trigger that pull again.  Crap.  This was not good at all.

He nervously looked around, catching a glimpse of the man before giving a smaller dude (who was also cute, but in a more innocent nerdy shy-guy way,) a hug.  Oh, well.   Null doubted he was on Zane's level anyway.  He inched towards them, hoping that Cyril wouldn't try to pull anything while the prince-charming was close by.

[Flame]

It wasn't uncommon that Valkyrie found himself in the mortal realm, but today, his task was more pressing than his usual business. Normally, his job was to carry out whatever odd missions Loki bestowed upon him, but his reason for visiting today was more personal (not to mention the fact that his 'boss' didn't exactly know about this little outing). It seemed that his sister had snuck off sometime recently and hadn't returned yet, and it was Valk's intention to find her before Loki discovered that she was missing and punished her for it. After all, they'd come to find that no matter how hard you tried, you couldn't hide from the god's sight for long.

It was partially luck and partially knowing the right people to talk to that eventually brought him to this strange corner of town, and at this moment, he stood in front of the doors of a very festively decorated tavern, wondering if his sources were really correct. It seemed like there was a party going on inside, and despite all of his reservations, this did seem like the sort of place that Wren would go on a day like this. The girl always had a propensity for human holidays (and who could blame her, based on the noise and cheer he could hear drifting out from inside the doors). With a sigh, he made his way in, hoping against hope that he would find Wren and be able to bring her home safely. He was surprised when he actually did see her inside, especially considering how crowded the establishment was. She was currently sampling foods at one of the numerous tables, and as he wove his way through the crowd to reach her, she glanced up and saw him heading over.

"Valk!" The exclamation of delight was very quickly followed by a small, savory pastry being shoved unceremoniously into his mouth, not giving him a chance to get a word in edgewise. "You have to try this, it's amazing! Oh, and they're giving out free gifts too! Isn't that just unbelievable? Mortal traditions are the best!"

[Silver]

Muse continued to waddle around the floor, looking for dropped treats. Sweets were interesting, of course, but what she really wanted was some real meat. Luckily for her, it looked like someone lost the corner of a sandwich under a table over there. She hop-skipped over and sucked the lunch meat out of the sandwich, leaving all the other parts where they were.

"Muse? Muse!" Silver spotted the little creature out of the corner of her eye and dashed over to attend to her. "Oh my gosh Muse, what are you doing? You're covered in... whipped cream? How did you get so messy? When did you even get here?" Her voice was hushed as to not draw attention to herself, but it was obvious she was quite upset about it all.

The little Kitrell was happy to see her owner, and rubbed her head against Silver's leg and purred. The look in her eyes suggested she was proud of herself and her adventures. Silver sighed and grabbed some serviettes from the table and started wiping the Kitrell down. Muse thought this was a very fun game, and started snapping at the napkin as it ran across her wet fur.

[SpringsSong]

"This stuff is... actually better than the stimcaff that Gault spikes from time to time," Lana said after she'd had another mug or two.  "I don't think Tora could handle that much of it, though.  Not if what we saw after that conversation that took... ahem, longer than we thought was any indication."

Xyshari couldn't help but chuckle as she recalled Koth calling out to his two crewmates to get going, you miserable lightweights.  Lem had said nothing, but Tora had curled over on her side, groaned, and fired back at Koth to shut up! in her usual gruff tone.

[FieldsofIris]

Dahlia smiled encouragingly as Cody made his call. It must've been nerve-wracking (making a phone call usually is, these days) but the young man had showed courage and went through with it. She squeezed his free hand and waited quietly, but made sure to keep her focus elsewhere. It would probably just make him more nervous if she was staring.

Though, the second the young man spoke, her eyes snapped back up, and her breath caught in her chest. Kosok had quieted his chattering and was now just keeping his side pressed into Cody's arm. Before anymore words could really be exchanged, Dahlia glanced up and saw the jerk from earlier, looking even angrier. Some poor guy looked like he was about to get the brunt of it, and Dahlia tensed, ready to leap up in defense.

But - another guy, on the phone, kept it from escalating. The two looked like they knew each other? Suddenly, before she could really put two-and-two together, the newest guy had rushed over and swept Cody into his arms. This must be Zane, Kosok chattered, trying to avoid getting squished in the embrace.

Dahlia grinned widely at the two, relieved that the two were finally reunited. She startled as Zane suddenly addressed her, but quickly recovered and took his hand with a warm smile. "It's nice to meet you, Zane," she greeted, giving him a firm, but friendly handshake. "My name's Dahlia, and Kosok's the little guy over there with Cody."

She released Zane's hand and reached out for Kosok, who gave one last squeeze to Cody before leaving him to Zane and leaping onto Dahlia's shoulder. "If you two want a moment alone, we can go take this phone book back to the staff," she suggested, giving the two a knowing wink. She still felt worried about the angry guy back there, and glanced back at him once more, but he seemed preoccupied for right now.

As Dahlia swiped the phonebook into her arms, she gestured to the previously occupied table. "If you guys are planning on staying for a bit longer, feel free to sit with us at our table," she suggested. It'd be better to be in a large group, even with Zane now here, if only to make Cody feel safer.

[Claiming day 3 / the 23rd's prize! c:]

[Middy]

Vex was certainly unsure of what to do at such an event, were they there just to observe or participate in something? They watched for a moment to judge what others were doing before deciding to join in... if they really wanted to be around a tar beast. It wasn't like they were going to drag someone in and get them stuck, at least, it's not something they purposefully did. Vex slowly approached, tar dripping behind them with every step. Maybe they can accept them.

[Claiming 3rd Day]

[Saahs]

Sadly, the hand signs went straight over his head, but he got the gist that she wanted a notepad and thing to write with. Nodding his head, Warren patted himself down in search for a notepad and something to write with. Come on, he had to have something, the little doll was so enthused to be able to talk with him, where did he put-- "Aha!" he barked, fishing out a small notepad and an even smaller pencil.

With the notepad and pencil procured, he set them down in front of the tiny little doll. "There ya go!" He sat back, letting her write out to her heart's content, while he hummed under his breath.

(Claiming today's present!)

[Freezair]

It was a bit unfortunate that, on Christmas Eve of all nights, Random was dragged out of his warm little nook in the Caravan to go to the advent calendar... again. Random knew that whenever it was his job to do things, something was always up Upstairs--doing it one day meant The Lady Upstairs was in a good mood, twice in a row meant... she wasn't.

As he stood outside the calendar, the Maham looked at the sky. "Everything OK up there?" he said to no one.

He seemed to get the response he needed. "Figures things are hectic out there in The Real World," he sighed. Wherever Reelwurld was, he did not explain.

[Lilith Michaelis]

Hadya waited patiently while the boy searched for his notepad and pencil. In the meantime, she returned her watchful eye to the crowd at large. The party seemed to be in full swing, most of the attendees seemed to be enjoying themselves as they drank, ate, and conversed the evening away. The one that didn't want to be here....well, they were here anyway and doing much of the same. Just with less laughter and smiles.

At last, the young man retrieved his writing utensils. Hadya snatched them as politely but quickly as possible and began to write, though it was a little difficult when the pencil was at least a quarter of her height. But this was a circumstance she was used to. Her writing was a little swirly but her penmanship was good. She'd had a lot of practice after all.

Hello! My name is Hadya. What is yours? Your instrument is very funny.

((Claiming the prize for the 3rd day/December 23th))