The Estate, Sidra, Glacia, Christmas Eve

[glacial_queen]

It was Winsol! The first night had come and gone, celebrated in Dhemlan where they danced for the glory of Witch and made all the better because Witch was there. After that first night, the coven and boyos had returned to their home Territories to spend the rest of Winsol with their families and Courts, balancing the celebration of the holiday between politics and the people they cared for. In this, Karla was little different, save that her condition made it easier to say no to the endless whirl of aristo parties. She couldn't avoid all of them (some, like the ball for the Province Queens and another for the first few Circles of Court, the estate even hosted) and some events she attended with more pleasure than duty, but by the eighth evening of the holidays, she was pretty exhausted. The very thought of attending another event with strangers, no matter how well-intentioned, made her want to scream and see if she couldn't wedge herself under the bed in her chambers and not come out until spring.

Fortunately, however, such drastic measures were not necessary. Tonight, at least according to Fandom's calendar, was December 24th. And on years when Winsol and Christmas coincided, she declared that Christmas Eve and Christmas Day were for family. No politics, no stress, no visitors. Just two days alone with her nearest and dearest, both those who lived in Glacia with her and those who could be convinced to visit.

This year, at least, there were several, including Uncle Saetan. Jaenelle and Lucivar were spending the rest of Winsol traveling through the kindred Territories, so Karla had bullied invited Uncle Saetan to visit with them for the rest of the holidays so he wouldn't be lonely. Other invitations had gone out to the island, inviting old friends and new (including some of her students), to come and spend Christmas at the estate. The last thing Karla wanted was for anyone to have to spend Christmas alone.

Rather than anything grand and glorious, they'd decorated a large parlor (with a proper Christmas tree, instead of a Winsol tree, with nearby boxes filled the Christmas ornaments Karla had scavenged over the years, mismatched and gaudy and delightful, for people to hang if they wished), and had a cozy little celebration there. There was a roaring fire in the fireplace (along with chestnuts for roasting!), tureens of hot chocolate and mulled cider and eggnog, platters of food set up buffet style for people to nibble on when they were hungry and ignore when they were not, and a lot of relaxed, good-natured company.

Also, a pile of hideous holiday sweaters for people, if Karla could browbeat convince them to wear one.

[Open for anyone who thinks they might get an invite or wants one. Up now for the MOST EPIC of all SPs EVER; don't worry about tagging in late or vanishing for holiday stuff. S'all good.]

Comments

Arrive and Mingle

[glacial_queen]

Show off your ugly sweater! Karla's had a sloth on it, because she'd gotten to pick hers out.

As opposed to, say, the one she kept trying to force onto Warren.

Re: Arrive and Mingle

[hells-highlord.livejournal.com]

Saetan was in an easy chair, sipping his yarbarah, and shaking his head at the collection of sweaters that Karla had managed to unearth somewhere. He'd allowed himself to be convinced into one, though had managed to find a waistcoat that was...marginally less hideous than some of the others.

"Sufficiently slouched?" he asked, eyes glowing a warm gold with amusement. "I feel positively festive."

Re: Arrive and Mingle

[wwiii]

"I feel," Warren said, inching over and offering Saetan a sheepish grin, "like I should be apologizing for the sweaters or something, as Kaeleer's resident Christian. But, um, Karla maybe got a little carried away with appropriating our holiday traditions while she was living on the island, I think. It's entirely possible she cares more about Christmas than I do."

Warren... didn't really have Christmas traditions. He would have been just as happy to spend the day sitting around checking his stocks or something, but he couldn't deny that having friends over was cozy, at least. Nice.

Re: Arrive and Mingle

[sharp_as_knives]

Hannibal had no intention of wearing an ugly sweater.

Unfortunately, when even Saetan was, he didn't have much recourse.

So he was wearing the least objectionable one he could find.

At least it wasn't reindeer humping.

Re: Arrive and Mingle

[furnaceface]

Jono was... actually pretty happy with his sweater this year. No reason. (He'd brought his own. Might as well choose his own poison, if he was going to have to do this, and he could pretend he was just feeling the holiday spirit that much.)

Joni was... less thrilled about hers. For whatever reason.

Re: Arrive and Mingle

[endsthegame]

Ender's mun was about to go to bed and if Ben is going to show up it'll be tomorrow but fuck it hadn't seen Karla for a while now, for a variety of reasons he wasn't keen on going into. But while it wasn't Christmas back on Nagoya, he did have all the time in the world-- so he decided to stop by, if only for a couple of hours.

He wasn't wearing one of the ugly sweaters. He wasn't so easily browbeaten.

Re: Arrive and Mingle

[lovemykilt]

Yeah, Priestly had totally stolen his Christmas sweater look from Pharrell. He was unrepentant. He had a portal back to Santa Cruz scheduled late enough it actually counted as early tomorrow morning, but for the time being, he was content to show up, hang out, and enjoy the very atmospheric Glacia weather, of the sort he basically never, ever got at home.

"Mulled beverages as festive drinks make so much more sense to me, now."

Re: Arrive and Mingle

[had-a-birdie.livejournal.com]

Much like Nyles, Cora was also hanging back, Nemit perched on her shoulder. Still shy after all these years, she was content not to draw attention to herself and watch everything with wide, dark eyes.

Re: Arrive and Mingle

[pulseof_life]

Most people would be slightly nervous about being invited to celebrate the holidays with people who, for the most part, they were unlikely to know. Most people, however, weren't Yeul and Caius, as they arrived. Yeul had a faint smile on her face and Caius did not, but neither of them looked the slightest bit anxious about the reception they might receive.

Yeul was not wearing a sweater, since it had not even occurred to her to do so, though talking her into one would be rather easy, should there be any to spare. Caius, on the other hand, was not wearing a sweater and had zero inclinations to change that, even as he realized a number of people were wearing them.

"This looks pleasant," Yeul commented lightly to Caius.

"Yes," he agreed, smiling slightly. "I expect you shall have a good time."

It really didn't matter that Yeul had only half an idea of what they were celebrating and Caius had none.

Re: Arrive and Mingle

[trigons_child]

Raven really didn't want to wear the sweater Karla had picked out for her. At least it was partly black, but...it lit up.

There were times when Raven really regretted agreeing to serve Karla.

Re: Arrive and Mingle

[momslilassassin]

Excuse you. Ben's sweater was amazing. All sweaters should come with AT-ATs on them.

"Hello?"

Re: Arrive and Mingle

[wwiii]

Warren was resisting that sweater. Resisting, Karla. Because... nope. Being a guy with feathery wings meant that he had a sort of weird relationship with angels, especially since so many other versions of him used that as a codename.

It made him a bit squirmy.

On the other hand, he wasn't resisting wearing a Santa hat, which was going to be his one concession to the holiday. For one, it didn't involve scratchy wool causing weird static buildups around his wings, which was totally his excuse for not wearing that sweater, there.

Yet.

Re: Arrive and Mingle

[notamascot]

Kaylin's sweater had some green creature on it. And weird bows and things. "You are sure this is a custom here?"

They didn't celebrate Christmas in Elantra, so she had no idea what was normal here. She was both grateful and uncertain about her invitation to come and celebrate here.

Re: Arrive and Mingle

[blondecanary.livejournal.com]

Dinah's has suspenders. ANd looks like it was designed by Superman's publicist, maybe (http://www.tipsyelves.com/media/catalog/product/cache/1/image/9df78eab33525d08d6e5fb8d27136e95/w/o/women_s_hideous_christmas_sweater_with_suspenders_funny_.jpg).

She's so proud of it. As well as the artisan chocolates she brought Karla and Warren.

"They're supposed to promote labor, maybe?"

Nosh

[glacial_queen]

Plenty of food and drink out (and possibly more to be brought by friends), so help yourself to nibblies.

Re: Nosh

[sharp_as_knives]

On the one hand, it would be rude of Hannibal to attempt to outshine Ermengarde. On the other, he could hardly come to visit and not bring anything. So, he had kept it simple.

His contributions were duck liver paté and cranberry-rosemary florentine bars.

And Ermengarde was getting a large gift basket of Earth herbs, spices, and produce.

RE: Nosh

[glacial-urchin.livejournal.com]

Nyles was side-eyeing all of this. He understood Winsol right enough (and hadn't it been funny, finding out that Witch everyone had always talked so reverently once blew up a kitchen with Karla?), but he still wasn't entirely sold on the explanation of Christmas he'd been given.

Like any growing boy, he was sticking close to the food, sometimes shoving things in his pockets for later. Habit died hard, okay?

Decorate the tree

[glacial_queen]

There are plenty of moddable decorations in boxes. Feel free to hang them, puzzle over them, admire the nicer ones, and WTF over some of the things that Karla has managed to collect/scavenge over the years.

Re: Decorate the tree

[momslilassassin]

Ben had no idea where she'd gotten the ceramic gremlin ornament but it was hilarious and going up in a prominent spot.

Re: Decorate the tree

[notamascot]

Kaylin couldn't help but gravitate to the tree. Mostly because it was very big and had all sorts of strange things attached to it and more that looked as if they were still to be put on.

It was... beautiful in an odd sort of way, she supposed, but she had no idea why someone would tie things to a tree like that. She nibbled on some of the food she'd liberated from the tables and watched others put more things on the trees.

Cookie Decoration!

[glacial_queen]

There was a giant table set up in the corner, with tons of sugar cookies and moddable decorating supplies. The cookies were all baked by the kitchen staff, so people only needed to worry about Karla stealing them before they were properly decorated.

Om nom nom cookies.

Elsewhere in the room

[sharp_as_knives]

[OOC: Sorry! Didn't seem to fit anywhere.]

There was a piano in the room, and as it was in a bit of a corner, it was quieter back there, too. So when he wanted a break from the active socializing, Hannibal headed back to the instrument.

There might be a few Christmas pieces sprinkled in with the rest of the music - Classical, modern, a few of his own pieces - that he was playing, but mostly he was enjoying the break and people-watching.

Re: Elsewhere in the room

[furnaceface]

Jono was a big, big fan of 'not actively socializing.' And so, after he'd gotten his fill out in the main area (and it hadn't taken long), he was making his way over to the piano with an acoustic guitar in hand.

//Mind if I join you? It's a little... people... in there.//

And look, he was behaving himself and not pushing himself to a breaking point tonight, but that didn't mean he wasn't on high alert all the same.

Re: Elsewhere in the room

[hells-highlord.livejournal.com]

Eventually, Saetan left his seat by the fire, bringing his bottle of yarbarah and a glass over to sit closer to the piano.

"You play quite well," he complimented, giving Hannibal a friendly smile and nod. "It has been ages since I sat down behind a piano."

Like, say, a few millennia. Give or take.

OOC

[glacial_queen]

Happy Holidays, y'all!

And again, super-extra-ultra SP