[Indigo]

Dean slowed as they approached the bakery. It looked awfully crowded in there, and while he'd been pretty okay with the large number of people present when he was just standing by the fire not trying to get anywhere, the idea of trying to press through a throng like that made him nervous. He already didn't take well to crowds, and with his screwed-up instincts, well.

Amp didn't notice at first, or maybe didn't think anything of it, but just went straight past him toward the entrance. When she looked around and didn't see him nearby she came back and tilted her head again. "Something wrong?"

"Just, ah, it's a lot of people. You go on in." He waved a paw. "I'm not sure I can even eat what they have anyway." That was a lie; he'd tried regular food almost immediately after figuring out what had happened to him, not willing to miss out on his morning coffee if he could help it, but it seemed the easiest way to deter her.

"Mm," she said, "yeah, nothing like standing outside in the cold, right." She looked over her shoulder at the building. "Hold on. I have an idea." With that she turned and walked a couple steps away from him, sat back on her haunches, and clapped.

A dark cloud materialized out of nowhere over the bakery's entrance, barely visible with the darkness of the sky and the smoke from bonfire and bakery, although one or two people took notice of it. Then there was a loud crack of thunder and a flash of light. No rain followed, and after a moment the cloud evaporated again, but the crowd definitely thinned.

Amp came back over. "Weather mage," she said.

He watched people hurrying to other parts of the festivities. "That seems a little..."

"Oh, they'll get over it. Soon enough someone will notice there's no real storm and everyone'll go right back to what they were doing. It's harmless." Impossible to tell, but she sounded like she was smiling. "Are we going in or not? Even if you can't eat any of it I bet it smells amazing in there."

[8 - Bakery]

[Indigo]

Well, there was no undoing what had been done, so he followed her into the bakery. It did indeed smell amazing, though different than he would have expected—probably just his weird senses again, another thing he had yet to get used to—and there was a large enough crowd inside that he felt a little better about Amp's deception. He turned to say something to her, but she was already gone, having headed over to look at some muffins while he took in the scents. Her mask was practically pressed against the glass.

He walked over to stand next to her, since the alternative was blocking the doorway. "See something you like? Hang on, can you even eat these?"

"I'll never tell," she said. "I have some friends who might appreciate them. They'd probably get squished in transit, though. Maybe cookies. You have a funny look on your face. Missing your mortal pleasures?"

"Oh, no," he said, "I was lying about that. There are just a lot of smells in here."

"You haven't been doing this very long, have you." It wasn't really a question, he could tell. She was still looking into the case and not at him and her voice was slightly muffled by it. "Well, do you want anything out of here? I can't tell if they're charging or not, but I was expecting to have to pay for entry to this whole thing and I didn't, so I can grab something for you if you want. I definitely can't eat these." She snorted. "I guess I could try shoving some crumbs in my ear, but I don't think it'd go down too well."

[9 - Bakery]

[Indigo]

"I don't know," he said, "I'll have to think about it." About whether he wanted anything and how to pick just one, of course, and also about whether or not he could accept that from someone who, despite their conversation, was basically a stranger. He really should have planned for this himself, but then, if he'd stayed alone he probably wouldn't have come in here to begin with.

"You do that," said Amp, like it was a joke.

"I've changed my mind, by the way," Dean said. "You've made me wonder about that weather mage thing. You're employed by the city? Some sort of weather control?"

"Yes and no," she said. "Yes for most purposes. I do some basic weather control stuff, mostly making sure the worst storms avoid us or don't do too much damage, and sometimes I bring rain in when we need it. Not very often because, you know, rainforest. Once someone tried to get me to bring in snow for the holidays, but with the climate that would take at least four people with my power and I don't know anyone who's half as good as me, so that was out."

"That seems like a pretty straightforward yes, if you ask me."

"I don't work for the city, exactly. It's complicated and I don't really think I could explain it to you in a way you'd understand," she said. "No offense, you're clearly an adaptable guy, but there's a lot of groundwork to be laid before I could tell you what's up. This isn't the time or place."

"Fair enough." They moved slowly along the case of baked goods, Dean contemplating several of them; he could smell them even through the glass. He was beginning to consider taking Amp up on her offer.

[10 - Bakery]

[Indigo]

"So what about you?" Amp said, after they'd been drifting in silence for a minute or two.

"What?" He'd lost the thread again.

"What do you do? Nothing magic, I'm guessing." She turned toward him again and looked him over. "You look like an accountant."

"Thanks," he said flatly. "I'm an editor at a small publisher, you probably wouldn't have heard of it. It's not very exciting by comparison."

"To an accountant?"

"To a weather mage."

"Eh." She shrugged unevenly. "It's not as glamorous as I make it sound, and I didn't think I made it sound that glamorous, anyway. I don't usually get involved in any of the exciting stuff. Something something civilian casualties. Can't really argue with that."

"Okay," Dean said, "and I'm back to not wanting to know." He smiled, so she'd know he meant it playfully, but she wasn't looking at him. She didn't seem to take offense, though.

"You might change your mind someday," she said.

"That's a lot of assumptions you just made."

"Actually it was just one, but now I can relax knowing you're really not an accountant. Do you want something or not? You've thought about it for longer than I think about anything."

[11 - Bakery]

[Indigo]

He looked over the cases they'd passed and then back at Amp, who was watching him—intently, he would have said, though he didn't know what exactly gave him that feeling. "You seem awfully impatient to get back outside," he said. "I thought you said it was cold."

"Yeah," she said, "well. You've never changed your mind about anything in your life, of course."

"Oh, of course." He shifted awkwardly. He still felt a little weird about accepting her offer. Granted, he'd probably gotten to know her better in the last hour than he did most people he'd known for years, and god that was depressing, he really did need to get out more. But she'd made the offer freely, and those muffins did look good. But on the other hand he still barely knew her, and maybe this was some kind of secret test? Then again, if it was, maybe he wanted to fail.

Piotr would reject it, because, he'd say later when the person who offered had left, mortal food was beneath him and he didn't need charity from prey.

"Yeah, okay," Dean said. "Maybe one of those muffins. They do smell wonderful."

"I'll bet," Amp said, which didn't make a whole lot of sense to him, but he didn't ask because as soon as she finished speaking she was brushing past him to go to the counter. He stood uncomfortably to one side while she talked to one of the women working, his eyes ranging over another display he hadn't looked at in detail, hoping he didn't look too out of place. Amp was talking so fast he didn't understand what she was saying, and the crowds were beginning to return to the bakery, as she'd predicted. He'd timed this well, somehow.

[12 - Bakery]

[Indigo]

His mind wandered so that he didn't notice Amp finishing her negotiation, or whatever it was she was doing, with the baker, and she had to nudge him a few times to get his attention. She handed him a muffin—chocolate chip, it looked like, with some kind of nuts—and started for the door without another word, shouldering people aside to make room for both of them on the way out. He winced. Well, at least she was mostly shoving the adults, though possibly just because she didn't notice the children.

She stopped once they were outside, a good distance away from the bakery entrance so as not to block the way—at least, he assumed that was why—and rotated her ears in different directions like satellite dishes.

"Something up?" Dean said. He bit into the muffin. It was at least as good as it smelled, though there was something slightly dulled about the taste, which he'd expected. Mostly it wasn't dampened too much, especially with what had happened to his sense of smell, but it was enough to have been jarring the first couple times he experienced it. Now it was just another thing.

"Not really," Amp said. "Just another storm coming up, a real one. Shouldn't get here for a few hours at least, and it might pass us by. I should probably stick around for a while, though, just in case. Break it up if necessary. I wouldn't want anyone's holiday cheer to be ruined."

"I thought festivity went against your nature."

"Sure it does, but that doesn't mean I have to take it out on everyone else." Her ears returned to their normal positions. "Anyway, want to head on to the next stop? Or are you fresh out of Christmas spirit?"

"I didn't have any to start with, so we might as well go on." He was beginning to feel better about things, at least. This sort of thing was much better with company.

[13 - Moving from Bakery to Petting Zoo]

[Jaykobell]

It didn't take long for Isabeau to be right at home with those around the Bonfire. By the time Avery had caught up to him, he was already striking up friendly conversations with strangers. His ears were upright, his smile reaching all the way to his ears, his eyes beaming, his wings hanging gently by his sides, and finally, his tail was wagging faster than Avery's eyes could process. There was no denying that the Tali was ecstatic and beyond happy to be here. While she was happy to see him so happy, Avery was having a hard time pushing her worries away.

She stepped closer to the Bonfire, and Isabeau looked behind him as he heard her approaching. "Avery!" he called out with a high-pitched voice. "This is so cool! These nice people were just telling me about a few of the things we get to do here!"

If Avery didn't know any better, she would expect the Tali to explode from his excitement. She smiled sheepishly, trying to hide the fact she was still unable to relax. "Sounds nice, Isabeau," she replied, but deep down, she really hoped there weren't too many things to do here. Because if there were a whole bunch of things to do, then they wouldn't be staying here "a little while", but much longer than that.

[Bonfire: 2]

[MillietheWarrior]

Isalynne:

Pumpkin Frost leaned on the counter, one hand under her chin as she watched the holiday-goers come and go from inside her bakery. She sighed heavily; man, she sure wished she could be out there enjoying some of the festivities. Maybe she could sucker one of her siblings into watching the counter for her. Before she could think to slip away and grab Pistachio Pie to cover her, she noticed a small group of people loitering near the sweets cases. “Hey,” she called, and she didn’t notice that her brother, halfway across the bakery and helping an old woman, had snapped his head up to glare at her for her rude tone. “Are you gonna buy something or what? You’re taking up space in the shop.”


Shrewdberry:

It just so happened that another Tali was watching the new arrival with a very wide grin. The Branta Tali species was usually the type who migrated for the winter, but this specific Tali was quite happy to stay where she was. Swaddled in a scarf, her wings covered in giant mittens, the Branta Tali waved a paw to get the attention of the newcomers. “Hi, hello!” she called, smiling brightly. “You’re new here, aren’t you? I’m Morgiana. What are your names?” Maybe she could get their help with something, if she was lucky.


Nyxia:

“Oh! What did you get, what did you get?!”

The sound of roller skate wheels clacking against the cobblestone street was loud as a little seal rolled towards the little group near the tree, circling Sakari and excitedly barking. “What did you get, what did you get?!” he cried, his chubby cheeks alight with an ecstatic glow.

“Oh dear, I am so sorry.” A harried looking Batti bustled towards them, grabbing the little seal and hefting him into his arms before he could make another circle. The skateboard would have rolled off into the night, had a very large, very regal looking Mooncheeka not stopped it with one dainty paw.

“My, what a commotion,” she remarked, looking amused. Her gaze shifted from the Batti and the tricky to the little group near the tree. “I do apologize for my charge. Yukon does tend to get a little excited when presents are involved.” The tricky was still squirming and barking “what did you get?!” in the Batti’s arm. The Batti did not look pleased. “I’m sorry for intruding; my name is Moonracer. This is Yukon, and my attendant, Hermey. I do hope you are enjoying the holiday festivities? It’s such a wonderful time of the year. And I see you have a gift. How wonderful!”

The little tricky was still squirming in annoyance. “Open it, open it!” he cried.

[Indigo]

The barn, it appeared, was mostly full of children; under parental supervision but definitely not parental participation. There were a few adults chatting at one end of the barn and a few others feeding the animals, but Dean still felt a bit out of place.

"I thought for sure you'd be further in by now," Amp said. "You're blocking the door again."

"What?"

"You didn't even notice I was gone, huh. You're really bad at this whole paying attention to your surroundings thing." She nudged him playfully and went on past him, leaving him trailing behind her once again. Her ears turned to point toward several of the animals as they passed, but she went right on by.

"Hey, Amp—"

"You don't have to follow me that closely," she said. "I'm not your mom. Just don't leave without me, hey?" She paused and did that head tilt again. "Tell me if you do, anyway. I wouldn't want to be stuck waiting around for you." She sped off toward where a few other people had clustered.

Well, all right, then. He shrugged, not that anyone was watching, and drifted over to the Yingshee. There was a moment, while he was looking down at them, that something surged in his blood—or, well, whatever, he thought—and then it passed. That had been happening a lot recently. Something else to worry about. He reached down and the Yingshee shied away from him, and that was probably justified, they could probably smell it on him, but it made him a little sad.

He hadn't realized just how badly he was adjusting until tonight, trying to connect with, well, anything. And he didn't especially want to realize it. It had been a few months, he should be used to the situation by now, what was wrong with him? He drifted over to the Sahound puppies, and they at least seemed enthusiastic about his attention; maybe he'd stay there a while. Stop dramatizing so much.

[14 - Petting Zoo]

[Indigo]

When he eventually tore himself away to go looking for Amp, and who knew how long it had been, he found her by the reindeer, one paw dangling over the stall door, the other holding an empty packet of feed. She was just staring up at the deer, which didn't seem terribly interested in her now that she'd run out of food to give it, perfectly still, apparently lost in thought.

He tried to approach quietly so as not to disturb her, but before he could get very close one ear swiveled around in his direction, so he just came up next to her and leaned against the door. He didn't say anything. Somehow he doubted she would be interested in his vampiric introspection.

"Amazing creatures," Amp said. Her voice was still flat, almost toneless, but he got the feeling she was being sincere. "I don't know what it is about them, I just..." She shook her head and kept staring at the reindeer for a while, then glanced over at Dean as if she'd just noticed he was there.

"Sorry to interrupt," he said.

"Nah. You're good." She looked down at the bag she was holding. "I hope you didn't want to feed this guy."

He laughed. "No, I don't think it would like me very much."

"Sure."

They stood there in silence for a few more minutes, and he wondered what she was thinking. He didn't know what to do with a completely unreadable face. Piotr always claimed to be able to smell emotions or something, but that had always seemed dubious, and at the very least Dean had never been able to do any such thing.

Something occurred to him. "What did you mean earlier, when you said festivity goes against your nature? Was that just a weird joke I didn't understand? You don't seem all that dour."

[15 - Petting Zoo]

[Jaykobell]

"Come on!" Isabeau insisted, jumping up from excitement. "I wanna see all those nice things!"

Avery's worst fear was now manifesting itself right in front of her eyes, and her smile turned upside-down, looking worried. "N-now, Isabeau, remember what you told me just now," she pointed out. "You said you just wanted to stay here a little bit." She couldn't afford to have Isabeau spend all his time here. Regardless of festivities, they had work to do.

At her words, Isabeau looked confused. "Well, yeah, but a little bit isn't just... this," he clarified. "I thought... you'd understood I wanted to spend the day here, to enjoy the festivities a bit." He'd been pointing behind him and around them, and then he turned his head back to Avery, his ears against his head. "Don't you... Wouldn't you like to have some time off?"

He was doing that sad face again. "Ugh, Isabeau, that's not the point," Avery argued, trying to think of something quickly. "It's just that—"

Their conversation was interrupted by someone greeting them. Isabeau turned to look at the source of the voice first, and Avery followed shortly. The Sygriff didn't think much of it, but the fact it was another Tali speaking to them, had caught Isabeau's attention. He wasn't... used to interacting to other Talis, due to his upbringing.

Avery's first instinct was to smile and hope to scuttle away, but before they had a chance to do just that, the Branta Tali had already started talking to them again. They were stuck here... weren't they? "Ah, y-yes, hello," Avery greeted a little awkwardly, giving Morgiana a small, sheepish smile. "Ah, yes, we... we've never come here," she explained. "We're usually... um, always very busy." They, in fact, were "busy", but not that Isabeau wanted to remember that. "It's nice to meet you," she continued. "I'm Avery," she said, and then she paused. She'd expected Isabeau to introduce himself, but when the Tali didn't say anything, she turned to look at him. "Isabeau?"

The Tali had been staring at the ground the whole time, looking tense; his wings looked like they were trying to tuck right into his body, rather than comfortably hanging close to his sides. He snapped out of it when he heard Avery call out his name, and he gasped, eyes widening a little. "Y-yes?" he squeaked, his voice going horribly high-pitched. "I-I'm Isabeau... Yes," he said, but he wasn't quite sure what was going on.

[Bonfire: 3]

[Isalynne]

"Oh!" Callisto immediately looked towards the woman behind the counter, and smiled broadly, as if that would help the situation. As could be expected from him, he made no effort to hurry himself up. Her snippy tone was entirely beyond his grasp, which was possibly a good thing considering how sensitive his female companion was. Victor looked a little disgruntled at her command, but said nothing.

"I - I'm sorry, ma'am," Trixie mumbled out a nervous apology, looking rapidly between the ground and the nearest case of sweets. "We'll be as quick as we can, I promise."

"What do you mean?" Cal's total oblivious nature was undeniably jolly, but wasn't the most ideal thing for that situation. "It's going to take me ages to decide what I want in here. There's so much, and it all smells so good!"

"We can't loiter all day, Cal, there's other people who wanna come in too," Victor nudged him, his tone jovial, before pointing towards a display of cookies. "Hey, look. Your favourite. We could get a couple of those and be out of here real fast."

(21: Bakery)

[MillietheWarrior]

Shrewdberry:

"Oh?" Morgiana asked, picking up on the unease of the two she was speaking with. She wasn't that intimidating, was she? She knew her species was a little bigger than most, but really, she liked to think she looked like a big ol' cuddly teddy bear. Feeling a little self-conscious, she scuffed a paw in the snow, looking hesitant. "Um, I am sorry to hear that you're so busy; these festivities only happen once a year, you know." Now she wasn't so sure if she wanted to ask them for a favor. It would be in bad taste if they weren't interested in talking with her. "I do apologize for taking up your time; I...notice you don't seem very comfortable around me." She plopped her bottom down in the snow, tail wagging once. "I promise I'm not as scary as I look, you know. I'm a Tali-" She added, looking to Isabeau. "-just like you, you know."

Isalynne:

Pumpkin rolled her eyes; sheesh, people were so touchy these days. She opened her mouth again to tell them to hurry up and make a selection, when a hand suddenly clamped itself over her mouth. Her brother, Ombre Caramel, was glaring at her with dark eyes, before his gaze shifted to the group that was humming and waffling over what they were going to get. "Oh my, I'm sorry," Ombre apologized, bowing his head. "My sister has never been the best at...customer interactions." He shot Pumpkin a pointed glare before turning back to them. "I know it's not much, but to make up for her rudeness, why don't you pick something out, on the house." He smiled, the genuineness of it reaching his eyes; with his dark hair pulled back in a low ponytail and a bright colored apron emblazoned with the words "Everyday is a good day for cupcakes" he looked far less intimidating than his morose sister.

((On a side note: once you guys find an item, feel free to move on and go where you will and do what you will; I'll make the interactions short so you don't have to worry about interacting with the characters long. Also, prizes have been listed!))

[Nyxia]

Sakari was a little startled by the Tricky, but she smiled nervously at him. Slowly pulling open the box carefully, taking great care to remove the bow and ribbon before tearing the paper away. The attention they'd drawn wasn't a bother to her, despite the fact that the little Tricky was very excited. Inside was a small black box that fit in her small palm, and Sakari's expression grew puzzled at that. She couldn't think of what might be hidden within such a small box, but her own excitement caused her to open the black box with a click. "Oh." Inside was a small, delicate looking silver chain. It was an earring that had on the end of it a green gem, the gem sparkled in the lights from the tree as she held it up from the box.

Annika offered a smile to Moonracer and Yukon, "Oh, it's alright. He's just excited." She wasn't the least bit bothered by the young Tricky. After all Annika was more accustom to over excitement in the young, which was why Annika offered him a bright smile. "We wanted to surprise our sister." A glance behind her though, showed that Luka was less than sure of the situation. "We are enjoying the festival, it's lovely really." She watched as Sakari looked over the earring, her little face glowing with happiness. "I know Luka was hoping to find one of the gifts that's hidden around, but I think it's more practical to bring these." It wasn't as though she doubted Luka and Sakari could find something, it was more that she didn't want Sakari to be too disappointing if they didn't.

(Christmas Tree - 7)

[Isalynne]

Trixie had sidled closer to Victor in her moment of anxiety, and found herself grasping at his hand as soon as she saw the lady open her mouth to speak again. No, this wasn't so nice; she didn't like confrontation, not one bit, even in a situation as mild as that. It was scary. Victor's size easily dwarfed hers, which made her feel safer and more secure, but she couldn't help but quiver a little. It was not good to upset anyone, not at this time of year, and not good to be in places that they weren't wanted--

Thankfully, her concerns were dealt with swiftly by the approach of the other man. He looked and sounded far nicer, which allowed some of the tension to drain from her body and her death grip on Victor's fingers to loosen. It was okay, there was no lasting anger to contend with. The bakery was busy, of course, it was reasonable that tensions were high now that she could think about it rationally.

"Oh, you don't have to do that," She murmured softly in response to his offer, but Callisto wasn't going to let it slide that easily. The idea of getting any kind of sweet treat for free was too thrilling to ignore.

"Thank you! That would be awesome! Hey, what do you think about getting some gingerbread?" He gestured to a display with a gingerbread house nearby, and Victor rolled his eyes, pertubed but also endeared by his friend's unrelenting happiness.

"If you really want the gingerbread, we can get some gingerbread, and I'll grab some cookies for us too, okay?"

(22: Bakery)