[MythicDusk]

Orion nodded gently. He knew all about being a homebodhy, his entire job was putting a crick in his back and staring at the night sky through a tube after all.

He let himself chuckle at the thought, smiling softly. "That's much the same with me. An amatuer astronomer's life, eh?" He let himself grin, wide and broad and bright. Then, he heard the chiming call for last orders, and he chewed on his lip slightly. Gosh, he really had been late huh?

"Well, I suppose it's time we parted ways." He smiled slightly, almost a little sad, before he grabbed a napkin and a pen, scribbling something down on it. "This is my personal e-mail, contact me any time. We could all use a new friend, eh?"

[Lilith Michaelis]

Kakashi watched Omen go on with his display of joy, full of hisses and squeaks, his eyes crinkled into a smile. Creepy forest kid or not, he was still a kid and Kakashi always liked seeing kids happy. "I thought you might like that."

His eye scanned over the room yet again before stopping on the clock for a moment. Oh. Oh it was late. And, unfortunately, he had duties to attend to in the morning, not to mention his own family's celebration plans. He knelt down next to Omen to better look him in the eye. "I gotta go for now. Do me a favour and enjoy the hell out of those snowflakes, huh?"

He gave a wink and a "see ya later" sort of gesture before disappearing into the crowd.

[Sarah]

"I've met your price for him. Where is he?" Relic asked, his voice was low and harsh. It was particularly difficult to conduct meetings about illegal human trade in such a crowded bar. Unfortunately that same difficulty worked for the both of them, and it protected them.

"Where do you think he is?" Del asked, her tone mild - amused.

Relic took a sharp look around. "A prize? Really?" he surmised, correctly and exasperatedly. The trade had just become wildly more difficult. Perhaps bringing Oreon had not been so unnecessary after all.

[ToxxicRenegadeAngel]

Christmas day had come at last, and Rheese was having trouble walking after stuffing herself at dinner. The day had been lovely - for once, there had been no pranks, with Lloyd declaring that one of his Christmas gifts to them was a stress-free day.

She smiled, remembering Gabriel's face as he unwrapped his new leather boots, and her smile grew when she spotted the now-familiar door. She pushed it open, and walked into the warm glow that always filled the Tavern.

Today, she had brought a bag with her, and she found the bartender with a grin and a wave.

"Merry Christmas" she said; "I'm here to collect my last prize, please - and I brought you something, to say thank you for running this event." She reached into her bag, and pulled out a miniature version of the Tavern building, with a little ribbon that could be used to hang it on a tree. "I hope you like it, and I hope you have a Merry Christmas and a wonderful New Year!"

[Mousen]

By the time Horatio and Genevieve had gotten their coats, Turpin had already slipped outside. Luckily for them, though, she'd hung around to smoke a cigarette, the light from the end of it just visible in the dark, some metres away from the Questmaster's tavern. She almost seemed to be waiting for them, and was unsurprised when they approached.

"Miss Turpin," Horatio said cordially, extending his hand towards her. She took it, and her hands were cold beneath his, calloused with dirt under the nails.

"I thought you were quitting, Arty." Genevieve said, by way of a greeting.

Rachael Turpin was a slim and poorly dressed woman, her knotted hair pulled into a ponytail and a coat two sizes too big draped around her shoulders and almost reaching the floor. She had kind eyes and a lopsided smile. She nodded at Horatio, and smiled at Genevieve. "I am quitting, Jenny-penny. You staging an intervention or something?"

"Just wishing you a happy holiday season before we head home," she said. "No intervention here."

Horatio looked at Turpin suddenly. "What's wrong?" he asked her. "You want us for something."

Turpin shrugged noncommittally, but took a thick envelope from the inside pocket of her coat. "Not that you can tell anyone or anything, but our dearest time travelling fish let me filch this from his desk when he were pretending not look."

"Herringford's desk? What is it?"

"As someone who isn't a member of the TTA, this is all pure gibberish to me, of course. But, to one of you educated lot, I'd imagine it looks awful lot like an internal report form from someone who found TTA members #829 and #830 in breech of the by-law prohibiting time travel within certain restricted zones, specifically Era 293, marked due to the technologically advanced despot known as the Overbody. I'm just guessing though."

Horatio blanched, Genevieve gripped his arm. After a moment, he reached forward and took the envelope.

"I don't know what you kids are playing at, but be careful. Herringford's let this go once, he won't be able to help you again."

"Thank you, Arty. We'll be more careful."

"My advice is to give it up, and if you can't do that, make damn sure you don't get caught," Turpin looked at them both, and knew they were going to run headlong into the next bit of trouble that'd have them. Of course. "Have a Merry Christmas, loves."

"One last thing, Turpin," Horatio said, surprising himself with his informality. "What were you doing in Herringford's office over the Christmas holidays?"

She blushed. "None of your damn business. Now get out of here before I change my mind."

[Isalynne]

The smell of Cyril's hair, soft and curling against his cheek, had Cecil inhaling with vigour. If he had it in him to be ashamed of creepy behaviour like that, he would have done his best to feel it - as it stood, he enjoyed the scent like the unbearably enamoured man he was. Did love make you want to bottle the smells of your partner? He'd never considered it before--

What was he thinking? He cast a sly look at their glasses, wondering if they had a little more alcohol in them than he'd thought. Still, he took the rest of Cyril's when it was offered and glugged it down in no time, setting the empty next to his own.

"E'scuse me, I regret nothing about this jumper," He said with a quirk of a brow. One last glance around the room was mandatory before he stood up to make their exit; he wanted to be sure no one would pester them on the way out. There was no hesitance in his movement to take Cyril's hand. "Let's bounce, baby."

[crow]

Alex blinked, caught off guard by Xinyi's admission. They usually weren't one to cede defeat, at least not in the realm of their craft. "Wait," he said. "Really? They're that good?"

"Right? What'd I tell you? Our boss says it's an experience," Soda chimed in. He had quite recovered, apparently, from Xinyi's bullying.

"Apparently pharmaceutical chemistry and cocktail crafting have more in common than you would think. That, or Ambrose is a freak savant, which I don't really want to think about," said Xinyi. They grimaced, and took a longer sip from their drink.

"We'll show you when we get there. You know, they say these days that the owner doesn't do drinks themselves much anymore, but they're doing it special for the party," Soda said.

Alex smiled. "I'll look forward to it, then." He picked up his own glass and held it aloft. "Happy holidays."

"Happy holidays!"

"Yeah, yeah."

[zapdragon555]

Cyril's eyes shone as Cecil took his hand, slotting between Cecil's fingers easily with his own as he pulled the other man to his feet. Baby. He liked that, really, he liked it too much. Made him grin something foolish, all soft inside. "Hope you're not too tipsy to walk a straight line," he chuckled, swinging their hands lightly between them as he lead the way towards the door. "Wouldn't want to get stopped for public indecency."

His joke trailed off as that same feeling from before rushed through him. That anxious pulling on his skin, as if every inch of it were crawling. He froze and stumbled for a brief moment, looking around, his eyes falling on an almost ghastly pale man who had begun to fall asleep where he sat. He stared for a moment longer, racking his brain over the familiarity, the deja vu even, that resided there. And then, he hurriedly tucked it away, not wanting to focus on such things.

He grasped Cecil's hand more tightly and smiled at him, continuing towards the door. "Sorry--run in the carpet," he lied gently, a white lie. There was no need to bring it up--and besides, Cyril was quite inclined to forget about it, and simply enjoy the evening with the other man. "You should call me 'baby' more often. Better than 'pet,'" he murmured, grinning with a mischief as he tugged Cecil out the door with a wink. "But maybe 'pet' is alright, too, when it's you."

[Jaden Wolf]

"Uh, Qu...Rylah," Reuben called nervously to the woman ahead of him. The Queen had eagerly gone ahead into this Quest Master's tavern, eager to experience the holidays in ways other than the age-old traditions of her village. Unfortunately, she had still not learned her lesson about leaving her guard in the dust.

Reuben was rather nervous about the whole thing. It was Christmas Day, after all. There were almost too many people here, and some of them were giving him uncertain vibes, and others were unreadable altogether. That just didn't feel good, especially given that his Queen's safety was his responsibility. "Rylah, please," he called, reaching out to snatch up her hand before she could disappear into the crowd. Her eyes turned to him, glittering. "Well, hurry up then, slowpoke!" she laughed, tugging him into the festivities.

[Freezair]

So this is Christmas.

And what have you done?

The older Noelani got, the more she came to like that particular Christmas song. Many Christmas songs were happy and joyous; if they were sad, it was almost a happy sort of sadness. But there was something melancholy and uncertain about that one. It was one thing to wish people a Happy New Year, but when your only stated wish for said year for it was to be "without any fear," well, that told a story, didn't it? It seemed to invite personal reflection in a way other Christmas songs didn't.

Noelani could identify with that. She identified so strongly, she didn't go into the Advent Calendar's building right away. She stood outside, thinking about this Christmas, and her Christmases before.

Merry Christmas, me, she thought. For Christmas this year, I want to give a present to my past self.

I want to be someone she'd be proud of.

[ToxicShadow]

It was getting close now. The very last day of the advent calendar was coming to an end, just a little more than an hour from the current time, though, even then, the party did not let up. They were still serving food and drink, playing music, and even giving the occasional round of hula dance lessons or hosting a limbo competition.

The Quest Master did something that some might have found unthinkable and undignified; they climbed up on top of the bar top with ease, standing up on it, above the entire crowd.

"Well, it's almost come to an end, but it's not over yet! Thank you for attending our party! Mango Mahools for everyone!" And with a single circular motion of their hand, hundreds of drinks appeared everywhere, the alcohol-free sort and the not being served in totally different style glasses, as it had been all twelve days to prevent confusion.

[Flame]

Atlas had been planning on ordering a drink for himself, but it seemed the proprietor of the establishment already had something else in mind. He watched with great interest as they got atop the bar and announced the imminent ending of the party. The Tali looked crestfallen for a moment - that meant another Christmas was almost over, as well as the rest of the year. It had been a hard one, but in retrospect, it was sad, wishing away time and he reflected on that for a moment. He didn't have long to be somber though, as a moment later, a bright orange drink materialized directly in front of him, to his excitement. With a bark of enthusiasm, he gave the bright beverage one quick sniff, then downed it in one gulp.

[FrostWynd]

Lydia's progress with getting to the other side of the room would be fairly quick, as despite having the crowd not being particularly eager about stepping aside, she wasn't shy about giving a few of them a bit of a shove whenever they insisted on being stubborn. There may have been a fair number of complaints along the way, but she didn't really care all that much right now. She only had one thing on her mind, and that was to find someone that was apparently here for whatever strange reason.

She became even more sure this when she finally reached the other side and would find herself standing before a row of chairs. Sitting on one of them was another one of those two-legged creatures. This one had long bright orange hair, and was happily nibbling away at various small morsels of food.

Lydia sat there with a puzzled look on her face as she watched this one eat. There were things about her that seemed familiar, yet she didn't recognize her one bit! "Grandam...? Is that you?"

Amala had gotten really preoccupied with trying out everything this tavern had available on their menu, that she had taken no notice of just how long she had actually been here. Before she knew it, her time in this amazing wonderland of flavors would soon be coming to an end, as a familiar voice would shift her attention from eating another bite.

Her eyes would light up in delight at seeing her grandchild when she turned to see who it was. Forgetting about the food completely, she hurried off the chair to go give her a hug. Her grandchild looked even more confused by this than she did a moment ago. "But... how...?" Lydia was at a loss for words as she now had a human clinging onto her. A human that smelled exactly like her grandmother, who was supposed to be a dragon.

Amala would have quite a bit of explaining to do later.

[Jaykobell]

Canopus had wanted nothing more in this world than for this interaction to last just a little bit longer. As the last orders were requested and put in, as the whole experience came to a close, they felt their heart sinking. Already? It felt like they had just started chatting with Orion, sharing something special. In the blink of an eye, it was all over.

And yet, like a shooting star traveling across the night sky, something beautiful happened. Canopus stared, their mouth open and their eyes wide, when Orion handed them a piece of paper with his personal email on it. For a second, they forgot how to breathe. "I..." they breathed, taking a moment to pick up the napkin. They held it gingerly, as if this napkin held secrets to something grand. "I-I'd be honored," they gasped.

With no more time to think or hesitate, Canopus stood. And then, his hands went to his copy of the astronomy journal, and they pushed it towards Orion. "P-please take it!" they said. "M-my contact information is in it." Orion wouldn't know which email address was theirs if he didn't have it, right? "I-I'd be honored if y-you took it!"

Over the cacophony, Canopus hoped Orion wouldn't turn down the offer. In this season, it was the least they could do. Orion had offered his time and his friendship; all Canopus could do in return, was to offer this book, from this shared interest that they had.

[Kyrit]

While all wasn't forgiven, Estebanito had seemed to accept Kyrit's apology, gift and all. They had started long enough for him to open the gift, grab a drink together, and get ready to go. All in all, there were certainly worse ways to enjoy the holidays. After all, at least the two of them didn't have to deal with the stress of anyone's extended family. Crowds weren't great, but extended family could be far, far worse. And now they could go enjoy each other's company in the comfort of their room.