[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

Under the mistletoe we'd kiss / and the world would be in a state of bliss / I dream of Christmas

[passingmod]

What better way to steal a kiss? Some people avoid it like the plague, some try to catch their crush under it, and some people just plant themselves right under it and hope for the best. Be careful; some of these can't be so easily ignored.

(ooc: Magic and non-magic mistletoe both exist here. If trapped under a magic one, the only thing that will let the dreamers pull apart (and wake up) is a kiss. For those caught, a sprig of mistletoe can appear beside the character's bed when they wake up if the player wishes.

[fridgeninja]

It seems to Souji as though he's been standing under this tree for hours, unable for some reason to turn and go back in side. TSamping his feet and rubbing his arms, he leans back against the bole of the tree behind him, watching his breath fog, wondering what's going on.

[braidstobows]

Homura had only wanted fresh air. She'd slipped out of whatever that dining hall was meant to be, and into the cold night. She walked for some time, dressed too lightly to be strictly prepared for the weather, but she didn't seem to mind that. She bore it without outward reaction.

It turned out that Souji was a hard guy to ignore and walk past. This was not his fault, though it earned him a quick, sharp look as Homura suddenly failed to pass the tree.

Her words were drastic understatement. "Is there something going on here that I should know about?"

[fridgeninja]

"I've been wondering that myself," Souji replied. "When you try to walk away, you're unable to?"

[braidstobows]

She never would have turned around otherwise.

A witch wouldn't take such a human form, or be this coherent and cohesive. A magical girl would be, well, a girl. There were few other options for something like this. Homura decided to believe it was possible Souji was indeed another victim.

"You are correct," she spoke aloud. "If you are having the same difficulty, we would do well to discover the source before more people become trapped." This was less noble, and more practical.

[fridgeninja]

"I've been wondering about that," he said, seriously. "I'm not sure why it would make a difference, but there is one thing different about this tree. None of the trees around it have anything like that."

He pointed up above them, to the shaggy green clump of mistletoe haloing the branch directly overhead, with clusters of white berries plainly visible.


"I'm not sure why it would be keeping us here, though."

[braidstobows]

Homura looked upwards, half expecting to see some witch's mark. No- just a plant. A plant hung on a tree branch? Definitely out of place, and she eyed it warily.

"If it is that plant, then we will simply have to remove it." This, of course, did not prove nearly as easy as it sounded, and no amount of tugging seemed to bring it down.

[fridgeninja]

When she pulled on it, seeing a single sprig pulled out from the rest of the mass, Souji realized that he'd seen something like it before.

"Ah.

Mistletoe."

[braidstobows]

Homura had very vaguely heard of it, but somehow right now, she knew what it was supposed to mean. She looked at the mistletoe, and back at Souji.

He was attractive, and nice enough for someone she'd just met, she supposed, but she really had no desire to kiss him.

"I hope you won't take it the wrong way if I say this line of thought is not encouraging." The real question, she supposed, was whether they were both willing to do it anyway, for the sake of escape.

She had somewhere else to be, after all.

[fridgeninja]

Souji nodded. "It's an awkward possibility," he said, acknowledging it. "Even if the situation could be worse, I definitely understand."

He glanced up at the mistletoe speculatively.

"I suppose it might be a coincidence."

[braidstobows]

"Let's treat it as coincidence until we've determined otherwise." Kissing a strange guy was not on her list of 'first things to try to solve a problem'.

"Do you have a lighter?" If not, she probably had matches or a lighter on her somewhere. After a bit of searching.

[fridgeninja]

A brief search of his pockets turned up a dark blue matchbook, like the ones handed out at bars, with THE VELVET ROOM printed on the front. He frowned at it for a moment before handing it over.

"looks like this is the best I can do."

[braidstobows]

"Please give those to me." Homura took the matches as Souji offered them. She struck one and held it by the mistletoe. If they burned that away, perhaps the spell would not linger anymore, either.

She made sure a snowy branch was handy, to put out the fire if need be.

[fridgeninja]

Unfortunately, the mistletoe refused to catch. Souji found himself mentally shuffling through Personae, wondering if Pyro Jack would do him any good, before reluctantly devoting his attention to the current situation again.

"It looks like we're down to two options," he said. "And setting ourselves on fire is probably a bad idea."

[decaying]

Mistletoe. Kanda didn't like it. For a while there had been a running joke within the order involving mistletoe but it had been a rather foolish feat considering Lenalee was the only girl if you didn't count the head nurse. Nothing good could ever come of these things so as he made his way, he made sure not to slow.

The last thing he needed was some crazy woman trying to kiss him.

[drinkandforget]

Lethe wasn't exactly planning to try to kiss Kanda, but unfortunately, she also didn't have his warnings about what might happen with that strange little plant with its waxy white berries. Somewhere along the street, she found herself making no progress any longer, and standing in front of a long-haired, stern-looking boy. Who also didn't seem to be moving along.

"Were you going somewhere?" she asked him somewhat coolly. Move along.

[decaying]

"Excuse me?"

The attitude on this girl. He only bothered to give her one glance before turning his head away. He didn't have time to correct stupid women. He wasn't here for her, move along.

[drinkandforget]

She didn't step aside. This was because, when she decided to do so, she found herself going nowhere. In fact, she found herself not moving in the least, not even the slightest bit.

The only other person here... was this boy. Was he doing this, then?

"I'm on my way home," she said stiffly. "Let me by."

[decaying]

Why was this girl still talking to him?

"Does it look like I'm holding you in anyway trying to prevent you from going wherever it is you're going? Get lost, annoying woman." He didn't bother moving, this was his spot. Man in charge, here.

[drinkandforget]

Look, as much as she was right and he was wrong (obviously), Lethe still wasn't going anywhere. His words, being exactly what seemed to have happened, only made her more suspicious.

In her river, this would be easily solved. He'd gradually forget everything until he was left wandering aimlessly, with nothing in the world left to him - and out of her path.

"Go ahead, then," she said, but the courtesy was empty with her cold smile. Let me go.

A terrible thought, then: Mnemosyne. If she was trapped here, what was happening with her sister?

[waterfell]

Well, some had argued she was crazy before, but Mercury had no particular liking for this particular type of holiday antic, either. So when she caught up with Kanda, and then glanced upward to notice a sprig of the stuff...

She knew what it meant, after Econtra. She hesitated only a bare second before her arm came up, and with a simple, quick turn of her wrist, she sliced the offending decoration cleanly apart.

"I have no intention of doing that just because of some plant," she said sharply.

[decaying]

When Ami approached him, he wasn't sure which one she was. His eyes were moving to her neck trying to catch a glimpse of the necklace he had given her but her actions spoke far louder than words. He smirked.

"Will you kiss me out of your own free will, then?"

[waterfell]

A few years ago, she'd have been mortified, frozen in panic by a situation like this. A year ago, it wouldn't have only been the mistletoe she cut; it would have also been whoever put it there.

Now, she was a reborn Mercury, and she was standing in front of guy with power and standing, and boundless self-assurance. And she wanted to touch him, mistletoe or no mistletoe.

That was why she'd gotten rid of it first. Her answer was a sly smile, all but an invitation to come closer, typically flippant. "If I want to."

[decaying]

"If you want to?"

Oh Ami, that just won't do. You see, this particular General here wasn't going to take things very lightly. He didn't have time to let some girl tease him around. Now. He wanted a kiss and he was going to get it. He took a step towards her and managed to wrap an arm around her waist before tugging her forward.

"You're taking too long." And he'll kiss her instead.

[waterfell]

Despite the obvious invitation, any man but Kanda would have been received with a quick, stinging strike to keep him distant. But Kanda was taking nothing more than Mercury wanted anyway.

"You didn't wait long enough," she retorted. But she let him kiss her. She let herself kiss him.