[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

[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.]

[connectedsky]

It didn't feel like I was working hard. I was having fun! I just wanted to do it right, that's all.

[Especially since he doesn't get to do this very often...and having help made it a lot better!]

Do you get to do this with your friends a lot in your world, Miss?

[He would ask what her name is, but he already just ask her a question, so one thing at a time!]

[braidstobows]

[It's alright; she's done enough babysitting - Tetsuya, usually - to have built up a slight tolerance to little kids.]

No, I don't do this with anyone else. [The answer comes without a trace of self-pity, but with a certain closed finality that suggests she does not believe this is a state of affairs likely to change.]