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Post by Karmine de Arcadia on Jan 4, 2009 10:11:03 GMT -5
Karmine deftly grabbed the package and stowed it behind him in one swift motion. Kirien got gifts? Go figure.
"What is with tha ladies an not opening their gifts? Ah well, movin' on."
Karmine reached under his hat and plucked the next slip of paper. Reading it twice before raising an eyebrow.
"Why are you even here? Calcus!"
[red][/red]
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Post by Ϛ Cylo on Jan 7, 2009 18:06:35 GMT -5
Sorry! I didn't realize that was me xD Cylo had just entered a moment ago, sporting what looked like a card in his hand. He looked a little surprised as his Secret Santa was called out just after he entered. He semi-jogged over to the stage and as he passed Kirien going the other way, shot her a wink and a 'one minute' hand signal, and handed her a card. It turned out he had two in his hand; one for his friend and one for his Secret Santa, though one had now found its place.
Who, by the way, he didn't know, not even in the slightest. Luckily, his mother was a fae and did know, or at least knew the name Corrigan, and so he had one thing to go on; Cal was a fae too. That didn't exactly narrow the range of Gifts, though.
Luckily for him, he had one thing to really cut back the possibilities; money. Or rather, very little of it.
When he got up onto the stage, he held the other card out randomly in front of him, waiting for Cal to show up and take it.
But on to the Gifts themselves. Cylo had finally given up on finding anything reasonable and had got Cal a generic-enough Christmas card and an iTunes gift card. His reasoning was that fae in general seemed to like music. That and it had been right in front of him at the store when he bought the card.
Kirien's had cost him far less but involved a great deal more thought. It was again a very simple red card, with only "Merry Christmas!" on the front and blank innards, though he had penned in a message of his own. It read as such, in an amazingly neat hand:
Kirien,
I'm not good at this sort of thing, so I'll just say I hope you had a wonderful Christmas and get to the present part.
I didn't have the money to get you the ebony war-axe with crimson etchings I would have liked to, so instead I got you a Choice. It didn't cost anything, but I hope you'll like it anyway.
The choice is this; as of right now, I either owe you a real fight, a back rub, or a kiss. You can get the one you choose whenever you want, but you should probably ask for it before I forget about it or I might think you're making it up just so you can kiss me or work out the day's pains or take out your frustrations or something.
Anyway, yeah, Merry Christmas! Hope you like the present.
Your friend,
Cylo It was awfully forward of him, but if there is one thing Cylo hates, it's not being the one who throws the dice that determine where his life is headed. He may have initially been all kinds of bashful, shy, and nervous about this, but it pained him to know he ever acted in such a way. It was almost as if he was doing this, among other reasons, to make it up to himself. To show himself, and everyone else (or just Kirien), that he wasn't an indecisive wimp.
But deep down, he was a nervous wreck. |
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Post by cal on Jan 7, 2009 19:40:17 GMT -5
In a display of forgetfulness, Cal had not arrived at the party just yet. Quite possibly he was inebriated. Quite possibly he was flirting. Quite possibly he was training an invincible (or invisible) army of cute, fuzzy (semi-fuzzy) animals. Quite possibly he was meditating.
Really, it doesn't matter.
In typical Cal fashion, the Faerie Consort (or ex-Consort, time's strange, after all), burst into the room, kicking it. For some reason, he'd decided he needed to be festive. Unfortuantely, he hadn't decided on which holiday he was dressing for.
Cal wore a red and white suit, yes, with black shiny boots. But he also wore a giant hat of decidedly African origins, complete with beads hanging down around him. Furthermore, he wore a blue scarf with stars of David embroiled upon it, and a menorah. He burst into laughter as he strolled through the room, ignoring the inevitable stares.
It's either a horrible politically incorrect nightmare, or d**m funny.
"I am here for my Saturnalia gifting!" exclaimed the Faerie, looking around. He grinned as he saw the unfortunate Cylo, and began heading towards him with the determination of a holiday themed tornado.
"Joyful Kwanzaa to you, my hearty hearthmate!" exclaimed Cal, sweeping Cylo into a hug. "Happy Hanukkah," this involved entirely too much spit.
The Faerie then plucked the cards, and read them aloud.
"what is an ITune?" he wondered, turning to Cylo. "Is it magical?"
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Post by Ϛ Cylo on Jan 8, 2009 1:03:40 GMT -5
Cylo was, actually, far from 'unfortunate'.
He had decided the moment Cal entered the room that he was a guy who knew how to have fun, and had taken an instant, if a little shallow, liking to him. When the guy turned out to be his Secret Santa, his only thought was that a good few free songs wasn't the sort of gift that would do this guy justice.
He gladly returned the hug from the fae, and greeted him with all he could spit out at that pace, "You too!"
He internally face-palmed when Cal asked him what an iTune was. He probably should have guessed that a fae might not be computer literate, or even technologically literate at all. "An iTune is a tune, for you," he said with a grin, not willing to try and explain the whole of technology to the guy in one sitting. "If you'd like, you can find me after and I'll show you how it works."
For now, I've got more important things to do.
He gave Cal another hug for the hell of it, one of farewells, and stepped off the stage, finding Kirien again pretty quickly and shooting her a smile.
"You open it yet?"
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Post by Kirien Melantha on Jan 8, 2009 2:05:48 GMT -5
Kirien broke into a bright smile when she spotted Cylo nearing the stage, and if he didn't move away just after, she would have hugged him straight away. She didn't really expect anything from him - they were only recently friends, after all - but being presented with a card thrilled her.
She didn't see why she was so excited, as she turned the card over in her hands. Christmas cards were very ordinary, receiving one shouldn't be anything special. But she couldn't remember the last time she ever got anything for the holidays, and this was from a friend.
She was re-reading it for maybe the hundredth time when Cylo returned and cheerfully questioned her. When she looked up at him, her face was as red as her hair, and her mouth hung open in surprise. She offered no reply to his question, but the answer was clear: she had definitely opened it.
One could almost see the wheels turning as she weighed her options. She had little intrest in receiving a back rub, and she thought it unusual for him to offer, but the other two had her dumbfounded. On one hand, she loved to fight, but she hadn't been fighting very well lately, and it had her disheartened. She didn't want to disappoint Cylo by being a poor partner. And, strategically, wouldn't she have many opportunities to fight? If they were friends, couldn't they fight for fun whenever they wanted? Since they were in the same class, wouldn't it be possible that they be made partners at some point nonetheless?
Do I really want to kiss him?
Unable to form a coherent answer, she suddenly shoved a little box at him, hoping it would shut him up. His present was wrapped in red, and a gold bow that was much too big for it was set on top. Inside, was his gift. A friendship bracelet, to be precise, with red and black braided around silver for a more modern design. She tried making one herself, at first, but after it broke for the fifth time, beads shooting everywhere, she gave up, and went to a jewler, swearing all the way.
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Post by casey on Jan 12, 2009 22:05:48 GMT -5
The holidays were wonderful, really. And Casey went all out, as he often did. Of course, he hadn't been able to sign up for the Secret Santa thing himself, as he'd been far too busy completing missions and doing basic Agent things. But he'd still been there for the exchange, all dressed in holiday clothing.
When Commander Nia left the stage, Casey figured that someone would have to step in and help read names. Tutor de Arcadia had done a fairly good job of it, but he probably needed help.
Without waiting for a more definite sign, Casey headed for the stage, reaching for the hat. Assuming Karmine allowed him, (and why wouldn't he?) Casey would then take a name and read it aloud:
The Agent then coughed nervously into his fist, smiled, and backed away, giving the tutor and whomever had gotten his Gift some room.
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Post by aaron on Jan 12, 2009 22:16:09 GMT -5
Star's head snapped up as the name he had so studiously memorized popped up. He was decked out all in green, a green muscle shirt and cargo pants. His wings were out, and fluttered excitedly as he hovered over to the Tutor. He coughed slightly, then looked him in the eye.
"Hello good stranger, I bid you good day,
and hope you accept this humble Fae
I did not know you, there's no reason I should
But give you a gift is something I would
On this good morning I present to thee
A gift that should bring you hours of glee
A boat of grass, made from my own two hands,
For it to sail, just turn on some fans."
Aaron bowed and presented the little grass boat he had made. The detail was intricate, and as Star blew softly on it, it emitted a soft whistling tune.
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Post by ken on Jan 12, 2009 22:25:39 GMT -5
Despite knowing full well that he was getting a gift, Kennedy was still surprised to hear his name called. He jumped slightly, then grinned in embarrassment at his overreaction. Too jumpy lately, he guessed.
The tutor quickly headed for the stage, just beating Aaron there. The student looked vaguely familiar to Kennedy, and the tutor had a sneaking suspicion that he'd seen the boy in Cavan house sometime. Kennedy really needed to pick up Eidetic Memory long enough to look through a roster or something.
"A boat?" he repeated, blinking in surprise. That hadn't been what he'd been expecting, not from someone who looked like Aaron. Well, honestly, not what he'd been expecting period. Still, the Cavan head smiled as he took the boat. "Looks awesome."
And he meant it, too. Kennedy wasn't certain what he was going to do with it; unless he kept the toy for his children to play with. He supposed he could mess with it a bit, be mildly amusing. Assuming Lucky didn't think it was a chew toy before then.
"Thanks," the Cavan leader said, nodding. "I like it."
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Post by aaron on Jan 12, 2009 22:33:17 GMT -5
Aaron bowed at his head of house, his face dropping slightly. He had hoped that a tutor of social sciences and history would except his gift with more SHAZAM or, WHOOPA! He stood there awkwardly for a minute, then fluttered back to his seat, his face breaking out into another smile.
Figuring he should make more of an exit, he attempted to loop-de-loop around the giant room before sitting down.
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Post by casey on Jan 12, 2009 22:50:01 GMT -5
Well, apparently that had gone over well. And the gift had been quite neat too! At least, Casey thought so. Made him wish he'd been able to get his name into the hat.
Now slightly excited, Casey only gave Karmine a quick look and a slightly sheepish smile before reaching in and plucking out another name.
Smiling, Casey nodded, stepping back again and waiting for Bishop and his gift giver to come forward.
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Post by Ϛ Cylo on Jan 19, 2009 15:30:32 GMT -5
"I'll take that as a yes," Cylo said with a laugh. He didn't want to laugh at her, but it was just too funny seeing that look on her face, and wondering what she was thinking. At least it had been a warm sort of sound, not a harsh, teasing one. "Don't worry, you have some time to think about it."
When she handed him a gift of his own, he smiled like, well, a kid at Christmas. "Hey, thanks! It looks great!" he said, looking a little bit like he didn't want to disturb the pretty packaging to find out what was inside. But curiosity won out in the end, and he carefully opened the box, revealing the bracelet inside.
"Hey, wow, it looks awesome!" he gushed, rushing to put it on as quickly as possible. "How did you know my favourite colours?" The irony of the question and the reason for his smirk were evident from the colour of everything he wore, ever; red and black clothes, silver accessories. It would be harder to not know his favourite colours.
He wrapped Kirien in a quick hug of thanks before turning to the stage for the name-calling.
"Bishop Heart? I get the feeling this guy was named by pointing fingers at a chess game and a deck of cards." Typical Cylo, always thinking of things in terms of games.
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Post by Kirien Melantha on Jan 20, 2009 23:16:01 GMT -5
Poor Kirien looked like smoke was about to come out of her ears, so fast were her thoughts zing-ing through her head. She nodded mutely at Cylo's words, managing to look slightly less like a complete idiot by closing her gaping mouth. But, unfortunately, her sudden case of the hiccups prevented her from losing the title entirely. For most people, being startled was used to cure such an ailment, but Cylo actually startled them into existence!
She happily accepted the hug, both because she enjoyed hugging him and because it meant he might pay less attention to her red, hiccuping face. But upon contact, she made a noise that could have been another hiccup or a genuine squeak. And then, he released her, not long after her comical noise-making.
She found herself wishing that someone would drop a piano on her and put her out of her misery, and sulking that she might have hic-ed him right out of their hug.
She was too busy dying of embarrassment to process much of what he was saying, and she nodded mechanically to everything he said, even the things that could not be answered with a nod. Thankfully, the next name called was that of her Secret Santa, so she had an actual reason to flee the scene.
"I, um...he's my, uh...present." The flustered Almasian held up Leo's present, hoping the visual aid got her point across. "I'll be back." She promised, and took off, trying not to look like she was in too much of a hurry.
It wasn't until she reached the stage that she realized 'He liked my present!.' A silly grin split across her face as she held out the pink present Leo gifted her for Bishop to take. She plucked the personal note off of it, so if Bishop wasn't watching closely, he wouldn't know she was re-gifting. It would be so much more fun to give Bishop whatever Leo meant her to wear, than the generic box of chocolates she actually got him. Besides, she'd rather keep the chocolates.
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Post by bishop on Jan 22, 2009 13:17:24 GMT -5
Bishop was perhaps the most un-festive person ever, if only because of his face. He was set to two settings, he was sure, unless he thought about it carefully; there was his morning, bleary face, and then there was the face that lasted for the rest of the day and night till he slept again. Even Christmas couldn't prompt a more moving response than a slight upturn of an eyebrow and a grunt of acknowledgment. It wasn't to say that he was dead inside though, because he was a notorious bottler; keeping everything hidden and repressed until a time came where he was sure he would explode. Unfortunately, or fortunately, Christmas was not this time, and so he looked his usual, which was to say that there was nothing different about him at all.
He stood off to the side, near the stage but still managing to separate himself from the vast majority of the crowd. His own gift was in a small gift bag, but other than that, he didn't carry much else; he was prepared to arrive and then promptly leave, which would strike anybody else as being sad, but to him, only sensible. At his name, he wavered for a second and then took to the stage. He eyed the red-headed girl and her pink present curiously, but offered her a gracious, but small, smile in thanks.
"Thank you," he told her, in that deep, slow voice of his; he meant it too, despite the apparent apathy written on his face.
"Merry Christmas," he wished her, and the smile he wore grew a fraction in size and warmth, before he left the stage with the gift firmly in his free hand.
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Post by Kirien Melantha on Jan 22, 2009 19:27:18 GMT -5
Kirien felt something unusual when Bishop accepted her gift with a smile and left the stage. An uncomfortable, unpleasant feeling, like her stomach was turning.
She felt guilty.
She was moving after him so quickly that when she caught up, she had a look of surprise upon her face, as if she didn't realize until then that she'd given chase. She reached into the large snowman bag she carried on her arm, and pulled out the last present she had; a thin, rectangular box, with red wrapping paper, and a shiny silver bow.
"Wait! Take this one, instead." She called out, holding out the real present, the box of chocolates she had meant to give him. She was sure she'd be able to pass her 'misgifting' off as a mistake, as flustered as she appeared.
And why did she appear flustered? Wasn't it more fun to give someone a trick gift, when their eyes went wide and their mouth dropped when they unveiled it's contents?
She told herself it was because Bishop looked so boring, that his reaction to having his gift taken back would be more interesting than him receiving pink lingerie. But that wasn't it.
Bishop was not her enemy. He wasn't Leo, who had come on to her and ended up putting a switchblade through her hand. He wasn't Jessica Rey, who was so known for her bitchiness that the entire school despised her. He wasn't even her friend. He was nobody. She didn't know anything about him. And while that might not seem like a reason to take back her prank, there was one thing that made her hesitate.
He was nice to her. He looked big, dumb, and boring, but he smiled at her, and he seemed to like her present, even though he didn't know what it was. People weren't nice to Kirien very often, so she never missed the times when they were. And when people were nice to her, she found it awful difficult to be mean to them.
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Post by casey on Jan 26, 2009 22:44:53 GMT -5
It looked like things were moving along smoothly enough. All the signs of holiday cheer and goodness. Well, there appeared to be some gift swapping or something, but that was all in good fun. Casey certainly hadn't lost his jovial attitude yet. Smiling, he reached in and pulled out yet another name. This time he paused for a bit, studying the name. Blinking, he looked at the sheet, flipped it over, then finally just shrugged.
Who didn't have a last name anyway? Must be one of those strange races. No matter to Casey, he just tossed the slip aside and waited for this "Cylo" to come get his gift.
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