[Lilith Michaelis]

Kakashi grinned to himself from beneath the fact as a thought came to him, inspired by the child's monosyllabic exclamations. It was a stupid, silly thing, but he thought it was funny and so might the kid. "You could call me Box Friend."

He didn't stop the boy from removing his protective gloves, he even went about helping him. Sometimes the damn thing got caught, so he'd at least assist him with that little hurdle. He wore no rings on his fingers, just the gloves, which certainly left an odd tan line on his fingers due to how often he had to wear them. His palms and finger tips had a roughness to them, with callouses built up over time. It was the nature of his job. And as gentle as they were with the child in front of him, those hands had seen and delivered plenty of death in their time.

"Do you like all the pretty lights?"

[Saahs]

Omen didn't look up to the man as he inspected his now bare hand, not even when permission was given to call him by a nickname. At the very least, he did give an answer to him: "No." It was a simple and friendly answer, but refusal was refusal "Friend."

A soft nod was given in response to Kakashi's question, the child careful not to get his antlers caught on any precious boxes. "Pretty," he whispered, his eyes sparkling a tinge just at the thought of all the pretty little holiday lights. The bigger ones, though? Ehh... He could do without.

As he inspected Kakashi's hands, Omen began to hum just barely above a breath. The sound both echoed and was muffled, a rasp of air blowing through a dense fog. But he seemed happy, and nothing more than some spooky atmosphere was going on at the moment. Eventually, he took the stripped gloves and pulled them back onto their respective hands, and nodded his head once in approval. "Good!"

[Freezair]

Noah couldn't believe his luck! He was getting to spend Christmas in Evelon again! Last year, when he'd really, truly got to experience his very first actually-for-real Christmas, not just Christmas in July, he thought it was a miracle that'd never happen again. But someone new had joined the Starbursts, and they had the power of TELEPORTATION! Noah could come over for Christmas ANY TIME HE LIKED!

The young kirin was overjoyed. He hoped he'd be able to attend this Advent Calendar thing every day! Today he was alone, but he wanted to attend with his friends as well.

He'd heard there was cake. That was worth the price of admission alone!

[Isalynne]

Cecil didn't waste time. The second Cyril caught his eye, and gave that look, he was pacing back across to him with as much confidence as he could muster while carrying a pair of fruity cocktails. The glasses were dumped on the bar next to them - the paper umbrellas garnishing them wobbled with the force of it.

"'s there a problem?" Alright, there was probably no need for his voice to lower so many octaves, and take on that harsh feline hiss, but he'd rather have been safe than sorry. "Can we help you?"

The intensity of his anger at the mere thought of someone bothering the boy startled him. Such power of emotion after so short a time.

[FrostWynd]

Taking a moment to glance around the room, Valent didn't really see anyone doing much with the pool. The majority were all pretty occupied with chatting away with other people, or enjoying the food and drinks being served here. So without going up to someone to ask them about it, all he could do was assume that maybe the pool wasn't meant for playing in.

Pyrrhus must've thought differently, or didn't really care. Honestly it was hard to tell sometimes just what he was thinking. But the next thing Valent knew, was that his friend had disappeared somewhere into the crowd to probably go mess with it.

[Mousen]

The two figures stood outside the tavern, snow still lightly falling. They were dressed for the party, the woman in a flattering gold dress with a long slit up one side, her companion dressed in a dark suit and bow-tie. The woman shivered in the cold, her light jacket not much help in this weather. She pulled a watch from her pocket and sighed. "How an earth can we be late, Horatio, we're bloody time travellers! What a mess."

Horatio shrugged slightly. "We've never been particularly organised at the best of times. It's not the end of the world, anyway."

Her expression softened slightly. "No, you're right. But still, you'd think we'd have a better grasp of the technicalities by now. Or I should have a better grasp of the technicalities."

"You got the right year, didn't you Genevieve?"

"Of course I did! Now come on. There's no point in being any more late than we already are."

Horatio nodded and opened the door for her. She smiled at him before heading inside.

[zapdragon555]

Cyril was relieved when the man began to leave, but when he returned, he realized he really should've kept his mouth shut. And then suddenly the man was talking nonstop, animatedly, and Cyril had to lean back slightly under the sheer force of his chatter. "M--Mooklings?" he echoed dumbly, then nearly jumped out of his skin in surprise at the drinks that were forcefully set down.

Relief washed over him immediately after to see Cecil had returned. He turned his attention back to Cecil, shifting ever so slightly closer to him on the barstool. "Sorry," he began, turning back to the old man. "I... still don't understand what you're talking about, or who you are. I've... never experienced that, I don't think. Will that be all?" He wanted to feel intimidating, but he was beginning to see that the price he was paying for peace of mind was letting his guard down. Thoroughly startled and confused, it was difficult to put on a stern face. He was immensely thankful that Cecil had that part covered. He quietly reached for a hold on the man, his hand grasping Cecil's upper arm gently in wordless thanks.

[crow]

"What?" said Soda, blinking in surprise, the smile falling from his face for a moment. "Of course not! Hey, I'm not asking you to do a gig there or anything! Come on man, we're friends--- I wouldn't do that!" He seemed genuinely surprised, and maybe a little hurt by the implication, so Alex laughed to show him that he hadn't really meant it.

"Alright, alright," he said. Truthfully, he had known Soda hadn't meant it that way. He was just... He didn't know what it was. The holidays were always a strange time for him, and he was a little more closed off than usual. Even he could tell.

Soda was still looking at him expectantly, so Alex smiled helplessly back at him. "I'll think about it, okay?"

Soda heaved a sigh. "Alright," he said. "You know, it doesn't have to be this party, but just... You should have a good time on Christmas, you know?"

[ToxicShadow]

Rather than actually being useful, the twin brother and sister ended up plucking a few of the drinks for themselves from one platter or another and found themselves pool side. The girl, Aria, lounged comfortably in one of the beach chairs set up around the pool after kicking off her boots, while Ace stood nearby, watching the party goers with vague interest as he sipped his drink.

"Who would have thought we'd be attending a party somewhere else for the holiday?" Aria casually commented.

[Jaykobell]

The only thing that somewhat salvaged their blunder was the fact Orion was just as awkward and sheepish about it. They smiled back timidly, grateful the comment hadn't come across as creepy or weird. At least, not that they could see from Orion's reaction and words.

When he asked for their name, their opened their mouth, but no sounds came. They breathed for a moment, forgetting how to talk. "C..." their voice got stuck in their throat. "C-Canopus," they finally breathed, but who knows if poor Orion had managed to hear the name between their soft voice and the loud ruckus of the holidays behind them.

"I-it's so n-nice to meet you!" Canopus squeaked, their voice failing them again and again in such a short amount of time. They hoped Orion wouldn't lose his patience with them, or worse — that he wouldn't feel awkward enough to force himself away.

[RiDragon]

Winter put up his hands to show he meant no harm to the new man.  "Apologies for bothering your partner, mistaken identity you see, happens to everyone right?  Once I thought a woman was my mother, quite surprising (and impossible since she died centuries ago.)  I made quite a fool of myself when trying to see if it was her.  I'm sure you can relate, people can look remarkably similar in bad lighting."

He turned back to Cyril as he put his hands back down, nervous smile still on his face.  "Ah, maybe Mooklins was a bad example.  Old show that played when I was...  Visiting somewhere foreign.  Makes sense you don't know them.  Cute though, little bear things that liked to eat cupcakes.  My favorite was the green one, I think his name was Moomanomamamo."  He paused a second as if he had forgotten his train of thought.  "Ah, yes, my apologies, you look a lot like someone I met at this same party last year, my mistake.  You are a much better person I might add.  Ah, try not to change.  Again, very sorry for bothering the two of you, ah..."  

He shuffled around in his pocket for a second, a pocket that one may have sworn hadn't been there before.  He pulled out a couple different currencies, some familiar like Canadian dollars, other unrecognizable and...  Cherry scented?  He picked out the correct currency and held it out.  "Here, an apology for my rudeness, let me pay for those two drinks, I insist."

[Sarah]

Relic continued to eye the tavern as people came and went. Beyond keeping an eye out for trouble he did like to people watch. It was interesting, studying mortals, and there were plenty around here. Oreon predictably had his interests in whatever information he could glean from writing. Posters on the wall, signs for the event, even the menu - anything with words held the scrutiny of Relic's little brother.

Relic realized then how they must look. Father and son. Oreon's human form was that of a child, while Relic looked to be in his early thirties. The ridiculousness of it had him smirking, Oreon was probably older than every living creature in the tavern combined.

"There's another prize for today?" Oreon said, his question breaking Relic's amusement.

Relic nodded shortly and followed Oreon to wherever one went to claim prizes. He was content in leaving Oreon to his own devices, and eventually the person he had meant to meet up with would arrive.

[Kyrit]

Estebanito was getting more and more asked by the moment as he continued the hunt for Kyrit. She knew he hates large crowds. They made him feel claustrophobic, and this certainly was quite the crowd. He'd bumped shoulders with many people, others were constantly asking him if he wanted this or that. All he WANTED was to get that damn woman back on the shop and get out of here, but it didn't seem like he was going to be able to do that any time soon as he still hasn't caught even a glimpse of her anywhere.

[Adelie]

She is not late, of course. There is no such thing as late in her vocabulary, and thus such a thing, such an incident could not possibly exist. She simply always existed in the state of on time.

And thus, she was at this holiday party, exactly on time. Not that she was here to attend, of course - no, no, she would never deign to do such plebeian, such normalized things. Parties were a luxury of those who did not have to struggle in their daily lives, performing heroic feats and fighting against the dark and evil realities of the world. That was certainly why she was currently sipping away - in so much as a little bird could sip - from a mug of eggnog almost as tall as she was.

She was just doing her job, after all.

[ToxxicRenegadeAngel]

It was a dark, cold, miserable day. The rain fell in sheets, straight down as there was no wind, and the streets were all but deserted despite it being the last few shopping days before Christmas.

Rheese shivered and pulled her coat tighter around her, clutching the large black umbrella tightly and keeping it close to her head. She was really only out to visit the Tavern today, and she strode through the streets quickly, barely glancing at the goods on sale.

Breathing at sigh of relief as she spotted the familiar door, she hastened through it and shook off the umbrella before striding over to the Event area.

"Sorry, I can't stay long I'm afraid - I'm just here to request today's gift please." She smiled at the event manager and waited patiently for her prize.