Log:Christmas in March

2021/03/01 	 Evan Phantom|Travis Summer Tessa Kid Tengu Bran

1

You have all been summoned, well, asked over text to show up for a little get together to celebrate the end of 'The Exile', whatever that means. The location is listed as 'The Gaming Room in the basement' and the time as 'Around 7ish. A note says, 'Please stay out of the basement after 5. Or no special treat.'

Travis is confused by the invitation, but he has suspicions. He's finally stopped moping about and is dressed in actual clothes you should go out in, namely jeans and a t-shirt, plus a red and black flannel extra layer due to the chill. He's not on campus, and he's at "home", so no need for the letterman jacket. His phone alerts him of the time and he stops studying and heads downstairs.

Celebrations? Special treats? Basements? The most difficult part of Tessa showing up related to all that is NOT showing up way early, even with the warning.

On the bright side, this means that she *BLAMF*s into the basement on time. 7:00:00.7.

The basement has been draped in Christmas decorations. There is even an actual (artificial) tree set up in one corner near the gaming/conversation pit in the west end of the basement. Quite instrumental Christmas music plays in the background.

KT seems very excited. He hated visiting the dorms and checking in on Evan. Keeping his humans corralled to one general roosting area is a much less stressful way to manage them. They're already free-range enough during the day.

So after the school day was over Tyson bee-lined it home and ran upstairs, closing the door to his room behind him.

He spent the rest of the afternoon in his room trying out shapes that might be appropriate for Evan's return from his exile.

When the appointed time comes, he pauses and waits a couple of minutes so as not to let his humans know how excited he is for everyone to be together again.

When he steps out, he hopes that the party will perk up their M(opey)BMOC.

He re-reads the invite and second guesses his out fit, reverting to his boring old Tyson-shape just in case its a real party.

Bran is a bit confused by the invitation as well, but he shows up at the house after school. Thankfully he doesn't have to work today.

Evan stands next to a table set up with all sorts of cookies (some frosted holiday, some not), cakes (white, German chocolate, and yellow), even a coupe of pies (pecan and Dutch apple). There are also bowls of savory snacks. As well as a wide selection of non-alcholoc drinks. And one bottle of champagne chilling in a bucket.

Travis walks down to the first floor, having not taken the attic shortcut by accident. He smiles as he senses others, and waves to Bran as he shows up. "Hey, bro. Sup? The basement's definitely improved since last time we had to go down there." All the bones are gone. And that creepy well thing. "Still not sure what this is all about, but I got a hunch."

Evan has taken part of the festive nature by setting the gaming system to project a winter wonderland in the conversation pit area. And he's wearing an elf hat with ears along with his usual outfit.

Bran waves to Travis. "Hey there. You have more than I do, then. Because I feel clueless about what's going on." He shrugs, like that's a normal state of affairs.

Summer stands at the top of the basement stairs. She looks down the stairs and then back at the invitation.

"Am I allowed downstairs? I know you, like, said not to be down there after five, but... Like. The party starts at seven."

Tessa waves to Evan. "Hey,Ev-Ooh! Snacks!" *BLAMF* At the table and quickly with plate in hand, she starts the process of transferring cake, cookies, and pie portions to the portable intermediary holding area. "Christmas? Again? It's not April yet, so... what is it?"

Summer's voice draws her eyes from the sweets to the stairs. "Come on down!"

Evan says, "Eat, drink, be merry! After all, we missed Christmas this year. Well, couldn't really celebrate it where we were living. So, time to a re-do. And we can celebrate me leaving the dorms again and moving back here," says Evan.

He calls up the stairs. "Come on down, Summer! There's food and boys and presents. Even some mistletoe.""

"Ooh! Boys under the mistletoe?"

Summer comes sailing down the stairs with a pink-tinged rainbow streaking the air behind her as she somehow never quite sets foot on stairs or basement floor.

Tyson emerges from the atticway shortcut and waves to the others.

He hears Summer at the top of the stairs and his arm stretches waaaaaay over to wave her down as he looks over the spread.

He looks like he approves. Nevertheless, he doesn't grab anything. Instead he wraps his other arm around Evan's shoulders and says, "Welcome home, Evan." He flashes a toothy grin.

Evan gets his normal grumpy look for a moment at the hug from Tyson, but it fades after a moment. "Good to be back, Tyson," he murmurs.

Tyson looks pleased by the results of his hug. All is as it should be.

Seeing Summer set to hover he switches from boring old Tyson - Normal Human Child of Earth 1-B to Kid Tengu in his latest, most dashing, and dangerous look so far.

Luckily everyone here is too young to recognize Uncle Jessie rolled back to his teenage prime in a fine white suit with crow-taloned hands and feet. In this day and age that's a deep dive surely.

Travis leads the way to the basement door for Bran's sake and walks down through the rainbow left behind by Summer, not able to see it. "You def know how to make Summer's day," he laughs on the way down.

Bran smiles to Travis, "I guess...let's see what this is about, huh?" He follows down the stairs, looking around curiously.

After acquiring snack foods, Summer floats over toward Evan. She leans in close, still floating in air, and asks, "Can I give you a welcome home hug? I promise to, like, not squeeze too hard this time."

"Yes, you may, Summer," Evan says without even a hint of eyeroll. He even opens up his arms voluntarily.

Summer floats in and wraps her arms around Evan, hugging firmly!

Travis steps out and gets a sense of the decor from the others. "So that's what that's about. You back again? And what's with the Christmas theme? It's not April yet."

The red headed grump seems to enjoy the hug, but doesn't let it linger too long. As he separates from Summer, he looks over at Travis and Bran. "Well, since we missed it in December in our old digs, I thought we'd celebrate it along with the end of my dorm exile slash extended therapy at school." He shakes his head. "Gods, that was annoying.:

KT returns to the snack table and grabs a couple of things. Things no human would ever want to mix together- like the crispy kale chips sandwiched between two lemon squares.

He takes a bite and looks very pleased with himself.

"I don't think I'll ever get used to Christmas." KT admits, looking around at all the strange lights and an indoor tree that isn't for sleeping or food production. So. Weird.

Tessa walks over (walks!) around the table to the others. A piece of cake is missing a suspiciously-shaped piece, and she has frosting around her mouth. Maybe it could be a Claus impression? After swallowing, she points out, "I like it just fine. Free stuff that people -give- you?!"

"So you're on reprieve? What, permanently? Did that detective guy and his sidekick stop snooping?" Travis asks.

Bran sees the tree, and has the same question that Travis does. Once it's explained, he nods slowly. He doesn't say it out loud, but he has this feeling of intruding. Still...maybe he can grab some food anyway.

Evan shrugs. "There's no sign of them being around any more, so, yeah, so long as I don't do anything stupid again, should be fine."

Travis goes to grab a soda from the snack table. "Pos, glad they aren't lurking anymore. We gotta be a bit more careful, I guess."

Bran tilts his head as he looks at Evan. "So...what did you do that got the attention of a detective?"

The red headed teen looks over at Bran as he walks over to the tree. "Um, I've been grifting crooks to pay for shick for us all, Bran. Got spotted eliminating some evidence. But, the detective didn't have enough to arrest me. So, he warned me to find a better use for my 'talents'. So, no more grifting." He sighs then gestures to the tree. "Yeah, but enough dark, tis the season of light, innit?"

HIs Scots is showing through in his speech.

KT nods in agreement. "Extra careful."

"I bet there's lot of stuff we can do instead. Street corner table games, bounty hunting, hmmm... probably other things that are less greasy." He suggests.

Bran nods and then gets quiet again. Sure, he used to help out with stuff like that back at his old school. But he has a job now. Even though...it is literally greasy. He grabs a piece of pie and some soda for himself.

Evan looks over at Bran. "I'm sorry to have brought down yuir opinion of me, Bran. But I wasn't raised by a good woman. Grifting is among the least of my mum's sins." He gestures are the presents. "But, none of these are bought with dirty money. From the sale of new clothes, yeah, but not crime. So don't worry about that."

"I don't think it's that," Travis comments as he cracks open his soda. "Bran's trying to stick to the straight and narrow. Just don't get him caught up in that shi--err, stuff."

At Evan's mention of "the season of light", Summer's head meerkats upward. She lifts her hands and gestures, pulling light from the air around the group before dozens (hundreds?) of rainbow colored orbs start manifesting throughout the basement. The tiny motes of light float lazily about like the gentlest Rainbow Brite snowstorm.

Bran shrugs, "My sister keeps saying that I shouldn't let my circumstances control what I do. That I always have a choice. Not sure I buy it, but she certainly feels strongly about it." He looks around for a good place to grab a seat.

Evan looks up at the faerie lights Summer has conjured up, a faint smile settling on his lips after a moment. As he watches the dance and drift of the lights, mixed in with the winter wonderland effect of the holographics, his features lose a bit of sharpness for a moment, making him truly look his age for once.

Then he nods to Bran and Travis, "I'll never involved you all. Evidence will prove that clear. I won't endanger any of you."

Travis considers Bran's comment about his sister's wisdom. He nods slowly. "I guess in some cases, I'd agree with that. There's gotta be some cases where that isn't possible." He smiles at Evan's proclamation. "I know you wouldn't endanger any of us on purpose. But if you get yourself into trouble, we'll still be there to drag your butt out of it."

"Only so long as you don't break the law, cubie," murmurs Evan.

Evan goes over to the presents under the tree. As he kneels next to the tree and grabs the first gift, "I've found a custom or two, I like. I'm gonna to give each of you a present. And, well, one for me. Then, I'm gonna open a seventh gift. Then I'm gonna roll a die and who ever it lands on, in alphabetically order, can either open their gift, or exchange an unopened present someone else has, or an open present someone has until the we've all chosen. Got it?"

Tessa finishes her own display of prowess: namely making that piece of chocolate cake vanish! With lots of traces; mostly on her faces. Looking up at Summer's show of winter, she grins frosti(ng)ly. "We're like family. You can't cut us out of everything. At least involve us in the fun!"

Speaking of fun, she reaches out to tap the floating Summer's calf.


 * BLAMF!*

Said calf, along with the rest of Summer, is slightly relocated. Namely to be floating immediately under the mistletoe. Tessa adjusts the guilty finger to point to the relocated one. "Tag. She's it!" There's a present. Who needs dice?

"That's right." KT agrees. "We don't leave anyone to flounder."

He watches Evan closely and listens. He shrugs. "Sounds easy enough."

"Wait. What?"

Summer looks around confused as she finds herself floating upside down under the mistletoe. Rolling over a few times before finally just landing on her feet, Summer looks around owlishly.

"Tessa! No fair teleporting me mid-food," complains Summer.

Isn't kissing upside-down in the snow what ros do? Or was that rain? Isn't snow just frozen rain?

KT looks around, placing all the things after Tessa gets to blinking about.

He has no idea what's going on- but something's changed. Tessa's pranks may usually be without reason but they are usually pretty well reasoned.

He glances at the mistletoe but has no idea what is going on over there.

He steps over to Summer with a grin- one wouldn't be remiss to think he's going in for the seasonal smootch but when he gets there he just looks around cluelessly.

Travis gives Evan a pointed look, even making eye contact. "Sure. Don't make me break it to bail you out, then. Simple 'nuff." He flashes a smile after and lets Evan explain his game. "I think I understand." His head turns to Tessa's antics. "Well, Tessa, get to it. It's tradition," he grins and motions to the mistletoe.

Travis walks over and pats Tessa on the back. A little too hard maybe, as it may push her into Summer while making that kissy face.

Evan shakes his head and rolls his eyes for some reason as he tosses the package he's holding to Tessa. "No opening it yet!"

5rThe then stands, does an acrobatic flip over to Summer, then takes her head gently in his hands and gives her a warm and gentle kiss. "Merry Christmas, Summer Hollywood!" he murmurs, his cheeks slightly flushed.

Bran keeps out of the way, and scarfs his piece of pie down. He watches the interactions among the others closely, though.

Summer sighs dramatically as she's beset from all angles while righting herself and landing. One hand comes up to straighten out her silver hair before her other hand reaches out to pull Tessa in by the front of the shirt.

"I was promised boys kissing under the mistletoe," comments Summer to Travis before she turns toward Tessa. There is almost immediately an Evan dropping from acrobatic (and aerobatic!) maneuvering to land between Tessa and Summer. Summer laughs softly and smiles, giving Evan a sweet little kiss in return. "Merry Christmas, Evan McGowrie!"

Summer hugs Evan again, though she cranes her head over his shoulder to plant a kiss on Tessa too. "Merry Christmas, Tessa."

KT is quite naturally more interested in the hanging plant than the beautiful young woman. He's way too young for all that- but this plant though, that clearly smells great.

He lifts a taloned hand toward it and opens and closes his hands a few times taking the smell in while his humans frolic.

Evan returns Summer's hug then steps back and goes back to the tree and the presents. He coughs slightly then says, "Alright, I can toss these gifts to y'all or I can hand them. Choices?" The slight flush is still on his cheeks.

Travis grins as Summer gives Tessa a kiss, like he knows some secret. He walks over Summer. "Fine, fine. Tradition and all that," he concedes. "Toss the gift, just not at my head. And give me a heads up."

KT's perfectly white suit turns into an outfit that'd make any rock n' roll Santa Claus proud.

"I want to throw them!" He says- which is a terrible idea considering he's so much stronger than most humans.

An array of expressions shift beneath the frosting on Tessa's face. First is a blink as she's pat-pushed by Travis, then grabbed by the shirtfront by Summer.. and pulled in? Eyes widen and then... there's an interposing Evan! Surprise turns to ... something as he takes the mistletoe advantage.

At the end of that, Tessa's left standing, staring, with frosting on her face. One that may have forgotten what expression was supposed to be next. A package landed on the ground somewhere at her feet, or where her feet used to be. Her mouth is open, and, for once, there's not words coming out nor food going in.