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Who: Sonico, Cassian, Demyx, Dorothy, Mobius, Garrus, Emerald, David and Kay.
What: Family lunch
Where: Sonico/Cassian/Kay's house
When: December 25th

A) Outside the house:

Baby it’s cold outside...but who doesn’t love building some snowmen by the pond? Or lighting up some fireworks? Drop to the ground and make your own snow angels by the pond too, before the falling snow covers everything again.

B) Inside the house:

The house it’s been decorating following both the Christmas tradition and the time-honoured Galactic holiday: Life Day. And thus you can find Christmas decorations hanging on the ceiling and walls, candles by the windows, ominous elf shelves sitting on random places, cookies and sweets...and also wookie paper chains, Life Day orbs created using clear Christmas balls with jewels to make them shine and a miniature Life Tree made out of cardboard and paper with the branches and roots made out of crushed and twisted craft paper.

Red is also traditional, so there's a lightweight red felt tablecloth on the table. The table is laid with an assortment of foods, all of them strange, more than a few horrifying. The proud owner of a copy of Christmas Cooking With Cassie will remember a number of dishes from the book, such as the shrimps pyramid with a savory fish filling and the stuffed salmon. If you think the lobster is trying to walk away, that’s just your imagination, promise. Among the foods from home there is a jug of green milkshake, which smells suspiciously of fish, and perfectly normal Wookiee-ookiee. You might be less amused by such foods as deep-fried gorg or pickled space worm but it’s all perfectly edible! On the other hand Garrus gets a special dextro food selection, which is smaller, but looks like a perfectly normal meal.

C) Mistletoe:

No Christmas party is complete without some Mistletoe here and there to make it even more special. Make sure the person you get caught with under the mistletoe is the one you want...or soldier on if they aren’t.

D) By the tree /Present sharing:

The proper Christmas tree is a huge monstrosity of a tree whose tip nearly brushes the ceiling of the room - but only nearly, which is a good thing for the Swablu which keeps flying to and fro, busy building a nest at the top of the tree. It looks strangely mauled in some places, and has been secured in place with several sturdy ropes spanning the width of the room as if it had to withstand a tsunami. Presents are scattered under the tree, but nosy partygoers beware! Get too close, and you run the risk of a white hellcat leaping out of the tree at you.

Once it’s time for present sharing it’s quite possible you’ll have to fight the cat to get yours. Consider this the boss challenge of your Christmas quest!

E) Choose your own adventure:

Pretty self explanatory. Wanna take a look around the house? Need some quietness? Would you like to go play with the pokemon? Crash on the couch and watch a Christmas movies? Feel free.

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"If you feel more comfortable with that, you can see today as a Life Day celebration. It's a holiday with spiritual roots, too, but I doubt you had bad run-ins with the Wookiee's faith, and for us non-Wookiees it's a celebration of our defiance and rebellion anyway."

He ceased in stirring the pot, eyes only on Demyx now. Maybe it would be pushing too hard or too much for a life which Demyx had left behind, but that he was bringing it up by himself had to be an encouraging sign, right?

"Or you could consider today's get-together a celebration of your people's holiday. Where there is room for two, there is room for three."

"I don't know much about Life Day. I know Christmas is unpleasant, but then I learned about Santa and he was a jerk." He found what he wanted and sprinkled it in.

He hummed thoughtfully at his suggestion. "I don't know if I have the right to celebrate. It was Yule anyway. A celebration of the Solstice."

Demyx hesitated. "It's not the kind of thing that's been... welcome to others."

"It can be welcome here. If you'd like to share it, that is. If it's private to your people, then you don't have to share anything. Just be a guest to our celebrations.

He picked up a plate of Wookiee-ookies that had been abandoned on the kitchen counter and awkwardly thrust it at Demyx.

"Life Day is a day of promise for a better future to us rebels. Maybe we can start with that."

He smiled and accepted one of the Wookiee-ookies, stirring his cider a little more. "Thanks. I guess that's good?"

Demyx honestly doesn't know much about rebel holidays, at all. "I don't know, it's not private or anything, at least I don't think so, it's just like everything else, people didn't want us around." He smirked slightly. "They thought we were all trouble."

"This is just about done, I really don't know about adding alcohol though, what should I put in it?"

"I was thinking rum, it tastes good in hot beverages and should warm people up nicely when they come back inside." From playing in the snow, not that he's going to call it such.

He fetches the bottle from the living room, pouring a tiny shot into a glass and offers it to Demyx since he's not sure how familiar he is with alcohol. "What do you think?"

Cassian leans against the kitchen counter, content to just watch Demyx. "And we do want you around. So... solstice then. I don't know how to celebrate solstice properly."

Demyx's relationship with alcohol has been having it twice, once he completely overindulged. He takes the shot and swallows it thoughtfully and nods. "Yeah, that'd probably go good in the cider."

He hummed thoughtfully. "It's not fancy, we'd burn a log, and exchange gifts, have a really big meal with whatever we could get our hands on, or whatever was left that might go bad over the winter. Usually we'd get pastries or something as a treat." It wasn't entirely different from Christmas, it was just non-denominational.

"The storytellers would do their magic...I wish I could perform like someone like Clopin."

"Hmm..."

He poured some rum into the pot for Demyx and tried a spoonful before offering it to him for taste-testing.

"Well, we have the gifts and heaps of food, and you're contributing a dish from home with your cider. I'm not sure if we can whip up some more pastries quickly, though the Wookiee-ookies might pass muster in a pinch. You're a good storyteller and I'm sure everybody would enjoy your music."

He let his gaze wander towards the living room, where they already had the tree secured against pokemon and pets. "Maybe we should burn the log outside, just in case..."

"I..." He was completely flattered, and it made the heat rise in his cheeks. He actually felt that, that was a strong feeling of something, fleeting as it was.

"Well you don't have to do that, I mean, it's really nice, we didn't plan on anything like that and I...it's okay. But thanks that's really really nice." He wasn't sure he could put a name to that strange burst of something.

"I can't storytell, but I can play music. There's an art to performing like that and I am way out of practice." He wasn't sure it was something he should do, considering he was a Nobody.

"Then you'll be playing your sitar," Cassian said, tone of voice leaving little room for argument. He reached for him, placing a friendly hand on his shoulder. "I'm sure Kay will be happy to take over the storytelling... preferably regaling everyone with some story which causes me embarrassment. Maybe you could play music from home, or what you've picked up in the different worlds you have visited."

And at some point they should have Kay play a recording of A Day to Celebrate for Demyx to learn the Life Day song.

"But if you do want to storytell... Well, we'll want to hear it."

"I...yeah, okay." Demyx seemed bewildered and overwhelmed, and he looked it. It looked decidedly human, like someone with a heart might react to that kind of offer.

"Um, well not today, but I can maybe try and remember how to do it, come up with a routine and everything." Storytelling to him meant singing, and movement and noise, it was completely different possibly, from what Cassian was imagining.

He might like to do it sometime. "...If I do that, Arelen will want to come." He flushed. "She's from the same world as me, originally."

"Then she should be here for it," Cassian agreed. "It will be good for both of you to share this... to have something from home."

They all needed to cling to what they had left from home, after all, and maybe it would help Demyx remember he was more than the Nobody he had become. Even just talking about it made Demyx look so alive and emotional, Cassian found himself very glad to have encouraged him. Even if he had no idea what that was about coming up with routines for storytelling. It was just storytelling?

"Yeah, I guess. She told me she used to watch the performers during the Festival of Fools." Demyx said with a smile, that kind of thing was a fond memory.

There was standing up and telling a story, but then there was the kind of storytelling he was familiar, it was a real performance art and Demyx wanted to make it interesting and amazing all at once.

"It's kinda weird we come from the same place."

“Is it?” It wouldn’t have been odd to Cassian, who still feels like he knows little about their lives despite all he has learned. “Why?” Because there should have been a sense of kinship between them for coming from the same world, is the best he can figure.

“But regardless of that, yes, you’re welcome to invite her for your storytelling performance. We can see about having another get-together sometime soon.” Some kind of we-survived-hell-month celebration or such. “Maybe for one of your world’s holidays, even.”

"Yeah, because it's like what happened to me was kind of a freak accident? Even if they told me my world had fallen, I guess it didn't until later." Demyx mused. "It's definitely gone now, lost to the darkness. And it's weird because we're not founders. I mean the founders are all from Hollow Bastion." He'd really been a bit of a surprise.

"Anyway, if we'd stayed there, we never would have met. She was upper class." He was definitely not. "Her life was totally different from mine. She definitely wouldn't have given me the time of day."

Demyx hummed slightly, and smiled at Cassian. "I bet she'd like that, if I can remember how to do it right." He flushed. "Ah, well we just had the solstices really, for me anyway. For Arelen, it's probably all those church holidays. There's a ton of them. Saints or whatever."

Cassian nods as Demyx explains. That makes sense to him.

Yet he still tries for an encouraging smile, and another little brush of their shoulders. "But now you're the survivors from your world and for all your differences, you might discover you have more in common than what sets you apart."

He fetches two glasses. "Is the cider ready for tasting yet? And I'm thinking, maybe we could celebrate one of Arelen's church holidays then, if yours have gone by. That should make her happy."

He sighs slightly, tilting his head. "I'm not too sure, but maybe." Demyx wasn't really sure, he'd lived with her for months and he wasn't entirely clear on what they had in common. They didn't really talk about it. "We don't really talk about home, I mean, she makes the baked goods from home, they're amazing."

Demyx nodded and grabbed a ladle to scoop some of the drink up and he pours it into the first glass.

"Ugh. Do I have to?" He grimaced. "If I have to, but I am not a big fan of the church since they think I should be dead and burning in hell."

That earned Demyx a somewhat horrified look from Cassian. "Sure, there are colorful religions in my home galaxy, but isn't that a little... extreme?" Another shake of his head. "It sounds like Ted and that nonsense about sin he scared Sonico with."

He snatched the glass filled with cider for himself but waited for Demyx to have one as well to take a sip.

"On the other hand, it's not about doing a favor to that church, it's about doing something nice for Arelen. Giving her something from home, which she probably associates with memories from a happier life. If her human life was happy. We should find out first if baking's the only thing she liked about her old life."

"Ted needs to shut his stupid face up about it." Was that a flash of irritation? It certainly was, because he'd had this discussion with Ted as well. "We're considered heathens because we don't believe, and we believe in magic and that can get you killed. Also, the government is probably just using those things as excuses to get rid of us."

He hummed slightly with a sigh. "Well...I'm not sure. I get the impression she didn't like much about it, but she might like holidays."

"Alright. Then we'll wait until you have learned more about her and her opinion on these holidays. And if you can, find out how they go. I know nothing about your world's Church, and the only one I know who does know is Ted."

Who he is certainly not going to ask, as the scowl clearly says. He sips on his drink and makes an irritated noise. "If he bothers Sonico again I'm going to get unpleasant. Mobius said he drove her to tears, she was still upset when I talked to her about it days later."

"Well I'm not gonna tell you about it, I'm not interested in it." He snorted softly.

"He was bothering me too, and then when I protested he said he was going to hug me." He frowned. "I would have punched him, because I told him not to, a lot. Fortunately he didn't try it."

He listened to Cassian's lessons.

Cassian shoots Demyx an unimpressed look over the rim of his cider glass, saying firmly, "You're going to tell me about it. This is about doing something nice for Arelen, remember? If she likes these holidays we'll do our best to celebrate one."

It can't be too hard, right? There's probably some Guardian chanting about the Force or... stuff. He'll figure the 'stuff' part out later.

"And by the way, I'm all in favor of punching Ted, so yes, go ahead." He's proud of you, Demyx, both for sticking up to your boundaries and for almost punching Ted.

"Well I'm pretty sure most of them involve going to church, which I will never do, not even for Arelen. She can go if she wants." He wasn't entirely sure she did. "But I guess, sometimes after there's music? Food? I don't...really know. There's no way in hell we went to the city when they were having church things. "She'd know though. As long as I don't have to listen to...whatever sermon thing, then it's fine. I'll do whatever."

That was pretty generous, considering he hadn't really wanted to. He hadn't wanted to do Christmas either, but here he was in Christmas House.

He laughed at that. "I really would've he was being so annoying and I really don't want him to hug me."

Good, Demyx, you protect yourself from non-consensual hugging.

Cassian nods. "Music and food. Alright, we can do that. Because I'm not going to church either. I don't even go to my own galaxy's temples." The Force and him so aren't on a first-name basis and if the church sermons are anything like Ted's... Well, he'll pass on that.

With some luck there's a holiday which involves eating fish. They get a lot of free fish from the fairy prince's boon, after all.

He laughed softly. "Yeah, exactly, no one wants to go there."

The church sermons are exactly like Ted's. No one needed to hear that, as far as Demyx was concerned, even though probably some people liked it. He couldn't see why.

"It should be good with food and stuff. I think she'd like that, if nothing else." He smiled. "Food is good."

"Alright, then we have a plan." He nods, satisfied for now. Not like they can do anything else before Demyx has learned whether Arelen even enjoys her church holidays.

"I think the others are probably wondering what we are doing hiding in the kitchen for so long. Do you think you're ready to share your cider... and your songs?"

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melodiouspacifist - 2018-01-30 03:14 (UTC) - Expand

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