[Mingle Post] Holidays

[passingmod]

Who: Everyone! Open to All
What: Holiday Mingle Log
When: the holiday season
Where: Locations in comments, or add your own.

Tonight, dreams take the form of the winter holidays. Everything is imagined in grand scale, from a winter wonderlandscape to a glorious feast, to gifts under the tree and the inevitable mistletoe. All of everyone's favorite things have made their way into the dreams. And it feels so vivid and real.

(ooc: This is a post to keep threads together for winter holiday antics. Separate posts are also fine, and this one is optional. Feel free to use the location subthreads as prompts, or to add something entirely different. These include hints of the dreams crossing into waking life; those are small and entirely optional as well.)

Comments

Dreaming of a White Christmas

[passingmod]

It's a magical time of the year, when the softly-falling snow makes everything white and ice glitters in the lights of storefronts and holiday decorations. Whole streets are transformed into a winter paradise, to be enjoyed to the fullest or observed from somewhere indoors, warm and cozy.

(ooc: Characters waking up from the winter wonderland may find their clothes have snow on them, if the player chooses.)

[connectedsky]

[There's nothing more magical than a child's first white Christmas...even if it can only be white in dreams.

As a matter of fact, this would be Sora's first snowy day ever. Winter on the islands didn't amount to much, and snow seemed like a thing of fairy tales, especially to the kids. It's no surprise that the child's eyes are wide with wonder as he shuffles through the streets of the city, hardly noticing the fact that his coat is a bit too big for him and that his hair (and everything else) is slowly but surely getting covered in globs of snow.

Now he's found a clear spot, and is making a big pile of snow, trying to shape it into a nice circle before shoveling more on top of that with his gloved hands. Is...is he trying to make a snowman?

Maybe someone should teach him how to do it the right way...]

[guardiano_perduto]

[Ratchet's caretakers were usually pretty adamant about taking care of their charges, but every so often, one would be able to wander off on their own personal field trips. Veldin had never seen snow to this extent - of course he would use the opportunity to explore!

So just as Sora's starting to build a snowman, there's a little pair of yellow ears peeking out of the snow, moving along a trail, then stopping just inches from the boy's feet. A head is next to pop out, securely wrapped in a thick winter hood and aqua eyes bright and curious at the other child's actions.]

[connectedsky]

[At first, Sora is too wrapped up in trying to make his lumpy makeshift pile of snow look like the pictures of snowmen he's seen in books to notice the yellow ears nearby. But the sense that he's being watched creeps up on him, until finally he looks around and spots...a face! That looks like it belongs to someone his age! Well, maybe.]

Huh?

[Sora gets down on his knees, trying to get a closer look at the face.]

Why're you in there? Isn't it cold?

[guardiano_perduto]

[Some of the cold, white fluff manages to get in his mouth, so the Lombax spits a little before trying to talk back. He's curious to know why there's so much cold, fluffy stuff around! What was it, and what was he doing with it?]

Really cold!

[Oh, so he could talk! It sounds like he's still learning, though. What an odd little cat-baby-thing.]

Ich fiel in ein Loch. So I just kinna tunneled around until I found some'ody.

[connectedsky]

What did you say? That first part sounded all funny.

[Guess who's never heard someone speak another language before?]

[guardiano_perduto]

I dunno! I just remember other people talking like that before.

...but how come you're all different?

[connectedsky]

All...different?

[For a long while, it doesn't even occur to Sora what he may be talking about - he had hardly even noticed the fact that they looked different. After a few minutes of thinking, though, he manages to put two and two together.]

Oh! Well, you're from a different world, aren't you?

[He says this as if it's the most obvious thing in the world ever.]

[guardiano_perduto]

Uhhhmm...

[He felt like he should have answered 'yes', but he'd pretty much lived on Veldin his whole life - he was going to be four next year! - so the concept of 'other worlds' hadn't even crossed his mind, at first. The Lombax kit shuffles his feet and bows his head, wrapping his arms around the small of his back as he mumbles back;]

--alwaysbeenhere. The Caretaker is really nice and lets me sleep with him at night when I get weird dreams.

Does that mean you're from somewhere else...?

[connectedsky]

[Normally, Sora wouldn't have been so quick to think of other worlds, either. But considering the strange visitors to the islands a few months ago, and more recently all the strange people he's been meeting in his dreams, assuming that odd things were from other worlds just made sense.]

That's right! I'm from Destiny Islands. My name is Sora.

Are you from this place?

[braidstobows]

[It's been a long time since Homura's dreams have taken this type of pleasant turn. She's oddly at peace as she walks through the quiet, snow-filled landscape, and even smiles to herself, oh so slightly, as she notices the boy playing amid all the white.

Then her sharp eyes notice Sora isn't precisely making progress. She steps closer before speaking.]

If you want to build him up tall and strong, you'll need a sturdier base. [It's a very convoluted offer of help.]

[connectedsky]

[Sora is in the process of globbing another pile of snow onto the mess of a snowman he's trying to put together when Homura approaches him, and that pile falls to the ground with a nice plop when he turns around to look to her. He tilts his head in confusion, unsure of what she means.]

A sturdier...base?

[braidstobows]

[Homura does not have the most patience with explanations, so she settles for demonstration.]

Like this. [She kneels down to scoop up a handful of snow in her hands, rolling it into a proper ball before starting the next. A miniature model.]

[connectedsky]

[He watches, completely fascinated as he tries to understand exactly what she's showing him. Sora thinks he understands...maybe.]

So I just have to make it like that...but bigger?

[braidstobows]

That's right. [And now that he has the idea, and she's all snowy and cold and wet anyway...] I'm willing to make the base together.

[connectedsky]

Really?

[Oh boy, Homura, you just made the kid's day! He visibly perks up, grinning from ear to ear.]

You're gonna help me?

[braidstobows]

[Homura does not respond with nearly as much as enthusiasm, but although it's quiet, there is still a smile there.]

If you would like. I have some time at the moment. [That, she finds, is a statement it's nice to be able to say.]

[connectedsky]

[That's okay - Sora has enough enthusiasm for the both of them, and then some, if the way he's ready to jump right into things means anything.]

How do you even make a big enough base, anyway? When I tried to do it, it kept coming out all lumpy. [He gestures to the pile of funny-shaped snow that's still there, waiting to become a snowman.]

[braidstobows]

Pack it more tightly. It needs to be strong. If it's left loose and soft, it will crumble again.

[connectedsky]

[Pack it...oh! Like his Mom does with brown sugar when she's baking!

Sora immediately sets to work, taking a few minutes to gather a decent sized pile of snow on the ground. Once he has it together, he starts trying to squish it all in. Which mostly just makes little handprints in the pile.]

Um...like this?

[braidstobows]

[If it were her, and a snowball war instead of a snowman, she'd be packing it enough to partly melt it and form ice.

Homura does not suggest this to the little kid, however. Instead, she shakes her head, and demonstrates again, scooping up a snowball and packing it tightly. She then starts rolling it along the ground to pick up more snow.]

Like this. It will grow bigger.

[connectedsky]

Woah...

[He starts again, gathering up a pile of snow in his hands and doing his best to make a snowball. The snow is still strange to work with, even though he's been trying for a little while, so it takes a minute to make a good ball. But once he thinks he has one he tries to start rolling it, and grins from ear to ear when it does, in fact, start getting bigger.]

I get it!

[braidstobows]

[Even Homura smiles at that; not the wide, happy smile of Sora, but a quietly contented one. She finds a bit of solace in moments like these.]

You should be able to make a very large one now.

[connectedsky]

Alright!

[And that's exactly what he does - he keeps rolling and rolling it, having a bit of difficulty every now and then but, for the most most, getting the hang of it. He doesn't stop until he realizes that he might not be able to roll it anymore without breaking it. Besides, it looks perfect for the bottom of a snowman.

He turns to Homura for the final approval, though.]

Does that look right?

[braidstobows]

[Homura gives the snowman a quick once-over before answering.]

It looks fine. You worked very hard to make it.

[Effort alone, she knew all too well, was no guarantor of results; but she didn't burden Sora with that.]