Santa Claus is coming to town

[afallenstar]

Who: Secret Santa participants, but also EVERYONE!
Where: Town Hall
When: Evening of day 24
What: Present giving! The Secret Santa reveal, and anyone who wants to have a christmas party is welcome to join too!
Notess: Party style thread guys, so go nuts. No order, everything is chaos, tag to your hearts content, feel free to break off into separate threads, and no spiking the punch! Also I think she's sort of mentioned it to a bunch of people but want to do me some lovely favours and handwave the actual name drawing? I will backtag if people want but it seems a little pointless to thread that out.


There's another message on the network that morning from Anna, just audio again. It's about as garbled as her first one regarding the Secret Santa idea, but for anyone who is listening closely enough they'll make out a few details. Namely this evening, town hall, and bring your presents before she shuts it off.

She's spent the rest of the day trying to do what she can to make the place look nicer. She's hardly got Christmas decorations on tap, but she's done what she can with what she has all the same. There's paper snow flakes up around the place, some of the food from her house placed in bowls to make it more party-appropriate, and it's no fir but she has relocated a small tree from the edge of the woods and placed it in the hall. Barely decorated, not even the right kind of tree, it's the best she can do with the resources she's been given.

Now all there is to do is wait for people to come.

Comments

[gloryisbullshit]

"M'not drunk, and m'not groping you, christ." Gabriel is not the only one with a gift for lying, look how smooth this guy is. (So smooth.) He clicks his tongue. "She think we should get along better? And here I thought I was trying..."

[hung_garian]

"Well, I say get along better, I think she was mostly just opposed to me murdering you."

He pulls a face - such an overreaction, jeez. He'd only have murdered him a little bit and he'd have put him right back after...

"So because I don't want to break her itty-bitty little heart, you get to live even if you don't get your hand out of my pocket within five seconds. Course there'd be a few adjustments, I don't know how easy it is to go about your daily business with only half your fingers, but I'm sure a smart guy like you could make 'em, no problem at all."

[gloryisbullshit]

Alright, fine: his hand jumps back fairly quickly, but Party doesn't much move back. Just plants his hands and leans. Loosely: "You this way with everyone? Not joking, man, I'm serious. I done nothin to you."

[hung_garian]

"I'll let you in on a secret, kiddo. I think it's fun being mean. I'm practically Robbie Rotten, but with better taste in clothes and a slightly higher success rate."

He's a lot more casual now that Party's not touching him. It's not as if he's usually picky about that sort of thing - in another situation he might have been happy to let it stay, at the very least. If he's stuck here for any kind of extended vacation, though, consequences are finally something he might have to pay attention to.

"'Sides, there's nothing in that pocket for you to take, so you'd be wasting your time anyway."

[gloryisbullshit]

"That's shitty. You're shitty." Not that he can really condemn anyone for being mean for mean's sake, but even so! "How you even make friends? Gotta be sweet to someone." A hazy grin and a wide gesture to the milling room. "'Specially cuz it's holidays."

[hung_garian]

"Oh, making friends is easy. I build 'em out of popsicle sticks, candy wrappers and some of the kids' toys that got left here. They're becoming a big hobby of mine. Remind me to introduce you to the gang next time you stop by my place. They're kinda quiet at first, but once you spend enough time with them they start getting real chatty. Some nights I have to sew their mouths shut just to get some peace and quiet."

Yes, yes, lying is bad - but it's also really fun.

"Besides, it's only holidays 'cause my sister decided it felt like Christmas, whatever that means. Bah humbug to that."

[gloryisbullshit]

"Sew. Heh, you--hm." He gets it, it's funny, look, he's hip and cool. Party nods like a bobbletoy, scrubs a hand over his nose. "What the fuck that means: your sister? who?"

[hung_garian]

Oh, wait. That wasn't supposed to be common knowledge, was it? That bothers him for about a second, before he decides that Party's drunk enough and probably ignorant enough of the angel situation not to care. He keeps his tone almost excessively nonchalant, just in case.

"She's the one in charge of all these Christmassy shenanigans. Secret Santa, this party thing, and I wouldn't be surprised if she'd arranged to make it cold out, too."

A pause, and then, as an afterthought:

"Hit on her and I'll rip out your lungs, just FYI."

[gloryisbullshit]

His hands settle mindlessly over his chest like that would somehow stop someone so inclined from touching his lungs. A squinting examination of the party before he mumbles: "Jailbird?" And then again, louder: "Anna!" His attention comes back to Gabriel. "Nah way, you lie again."

[hung_garian]

"Jailbird, really?"

He cuts himself off. No, he's not going to get silly about this. Anna could rip the guy's lungs out herself, after all.

"Well, perhaps I do. It's kind of my thing. The web of deceit is my playground, young padawan."

He pats him on the shoulder, faux-paternal, and takes another swig of his drink.

[gloryisbullshit]

"Anna? Really?" A nasty look as he considers. Lying is Gabriel's thing, he is a nasty fuck. But then again, considering what little Anna's said about her family... "Fuckin figures, I guess. What is she, adopted?" Because she's nice and normal, and you are...you.

[hung_garian]

"You can't assume she's adopted just because she's a redhead. Rude much?"

But actually, family is really not a topic he'd intended to bring up. Cue not-blatant and totally smooth subject change.

"Speaking of, you should totally get green highlights. Y'know, festive up your 'do."

[gloryisbullshit]

"You wanna help me out? We can bond, we need bonding time. So she's not adopted." What are subject changes? We just don't know.

[hung_garian]

"Not into our family. You'd better hurry if you're gonna find some green dye before Christmas is over, hadn't you? Probably need to get going round about now."

[gloryisbullshit]

He blinks like he's dizzied and maybe he is. Stay on topic! "Stop, no--what does that even mean, not into your family?"

[hung_garian]

"It means what it sounds like, dumbfuck. Not adopted into our family. She could've been adopted into any number of other families though, and being the truthful and honest kind of guy I am, the last thing I'd wanna do is mislead you by making a statement which could in any way be considered potentially untrue."

Which is a crock of shit, because that's what Gabriel usually does want to do - at least, when he's not just lying to you outright.

"Me personally, for example, me and my brother Romulus were adopted by a family of wolves in our youth. Obviously Romulus wasn't Anna, but for all I know she coulda been adopted by foxes at some point. Or just humans, but that might be a little too far-fetched."

[gloryisbullshit]

No wait, that's a crock of shit. Or it isn't. It might be? Who's Romulus, what wolves? He starts scowling around "potentially untrue" and keeps fouling from there, till his face is on the brink of forming a tiny black hole of frown in the center of his head. Party sputters and struggles for a question to clarify or a comeback to cut, but he ends up with a spectacular, addled: "I fucking--I hate you!"

[hung_garian]

Gabriel probably ought to see a shrink about his unhealthy love of tormenting people. At least he's keeping it to verbal. So far.

"Attaboy."

He smirks, infuriatingly smug, and reaches over to tousle Party's hair in the most patronising way he can manage.

[gloryisbullshit]

Verbal isn't exactly Party Poison's strong point. Physical isn't really either, not here. He doesn't have a lot of strong points right now! But his weakest weak point at this very moment is in general at the moment Good Choices. So he doesn't really see the issue with slapping Gabriel's hand away or crowding into his space again, shoving at his chest. Don't touch!

Why are you so fantastic? it's dumb i don't like it

[hung_garian]

"Woah. Sorry. Didn't mean to offend."

He'd act intimidated if he could, honest. Or actually, probably not honest. As is, he just holds his hands up in a very mocking gesture of surrender.

"Would you prefer 'attagirl', sweetheart?"

in my bed, pulling out my hair as i try to be SO COOL

[gloryisbullshit]

"Fuck you!" He retorts wickedly, or as wicked as he can be with his tongue only half-cooperating. Muscle memory steps in where his conscious cognition fails, twisting his hands tightly in the collar of Gabriel's shirt, pushing his weight over the non-man to try to lean him back. "Don't touch me! Don't smile like 'at, I see you! You think I don't see?"

don't go bald

[hung_garian]

For a brief instinctive moment there, Gabriel's far more solid than he has any right to be, and about as moveable as a brick wall. It doesn't last, though - something relaxes in him after that second and he lets himself be pushed, taking a step back so as not to fall over.

"Oh, I'm sure you can see fine, kiddo," one of his hands is hovering by Party's shoulder as if about to steady himself, but he draws it back, holding up three fingers, "Both of me and all six of 'em, right?"

i try, god knows i try

[gloryisbullshit]

"I'm not drunk." Or he's not falling over, but he tries to focus on those fingers and ha ha fuck his eyes are crossing. His jaw tightens, and he shakes Gabriel once. Twice. "I'm not, and if I was I still wouldn't bite for you, fucker, I still got you."

[hung_garian]

"What a shame. I kinda like it when they bite, y'know."

The other hand is still occupied with that bottle, which is a nuisance. The stuff's too good to just snap out of existence now that it's in the way. He sighs, and makes a half-hearted attempt to disentangle Party's fingers from his clothes one-handed.

[gloryisbullshit]

"That's cuz tricky's the only way you get laid, you need baits and bites." Alright. Good. Sufficiently satisfied with his dig at Gabriel's allure, he relaxes enough that it shouldn't be a problem to pluck his hands away. A little work maybe, but no real trouble. "You aren't gonna trick me."