The Park, Tuesday afternoon, January 7, 2020

[heroic_jawline]

Well. It wasn't the stupidest plan Steve had ever heard of (that one still went to "let's drop a bomb into a hurricane full of sharks!") but if Nina's oh-so-handwavy message about a ritual that involved hand holding and singing and showing that they all had peace and joy and whatever in their hearts, Steve was up for it.

He'd find someone to punch over it later.

So here he was, in the park with song lyrics printed out helpfully for folks who hadn't memorized the song last night, ready to use his very best Captain America is Disappointed in You face to get people to play along with this and hopefully get their people back.

Comments

Gather!

[heroic_jawline]

Pick up your song lyrics and your Santa hats/ugly sweaters/festive socks!

Or be Extremely Confused about why we are still celebrating the Spirit of Christmas in January, wonder what Christmas even is, etc., etc.

Re: Gather!

[thishouseishaunted]

Mae looked at the lyrics.

"Wait. Hang on. Is Christmas a holiday or a dude? And what is a 'fahoo fores'?"

Re: Gather!

[heroic_jawline]

"Christmas is a holiday celebrating a...dude," Steve said, looking a little pained to call Jesus "dude." "And I have no idea what fahoo fores is. Sorry."

Re: Gather!

[somethingwithturquoise]

Oh, Summer knew Christmas. Summer had actually had mostly normal experiences with Christmas up until a few years ago, and, seriously, with the presents linked to the disappearances, this all seemed to check pretty well.

She was still skeptical about it working, because, you know, the whole January of it all, but she was more than willing to try, because what else were they going to do?

And, hey, she'd even came out sporting a coordinated red-and-green outfit for theh occasion, that should help, right?

Just please. No giant exploding Santas, that's all she asked for out of this.

Re: Gather!

[heroic_jawline]

"You're back!" Steve said, genuinely smiling for the first time since the welcome picnic.

Re: Gather!

[thatwaslucky]

Rey liked the idea of Christmas, even if she was definitely not sold on the surrounding stuff. Santa was a stalker, she wondered if the elves were getting paid, etc.

But she was here, and she'd brought a bottle of Coke- this was what happened when your education on the holiday came from Fandom advent- and she was ready to, uh. Sing? She guessed?

She'd also come with weapons, in addition to the Coke. (Also a weapon if you broke the bottle right!)

Re: Gather!

[intotheout]

"So I looked it up," Tip said, as she pulled a santa hat on over her curls. "It is technically Orthodox Christmas today."

Re: Gather!

[seriesofbaddecisions]

"Last year I had to dance, this year I have to sing..."

Sabine was making notes, Fandom.

Re: Gather!

[okteiviakom]

Oh, fuck off with your look, Steve.

... Octavia was still pulling on one of the Christmas sweaters, even though she hadn't originally wanted to. But only because, well, because apparently this was what they had to do, the best solution they had at hand, and she was desperate for it to work.

(It was also a little bit because of the disappointed look. Shut up.)

Re: Gather!

[throughaphase]

Kitty was someone who'd actually go all out for this. She had a terrible sweater that was too big for her, a hat, she brought her own socks...

She was also going to sing badly, so you're welcome.

Re: Gather!

[died8yearsago]

"This is the stupiest idea I have ever heard of," said Rosa.

And yet, she was there.

And appeared to have brought her own ugly holiday sweater.

What?

Re: Gather!

[goldfishontherocks]

Keyleth just wanted to help, okay? She didn’t even mind the sweater! (The hat didn’t get along with the antlers though.)

She went over the lyrics, and looked up, frowning.

“So... why exactly is this specific to this particular holiday?”

Winter’s Crest deserved some appreciation too, okay?

Re: Gather!

[brat_inslayage]

Yeah, if they had missing people they needed to get back and there was something she could do to help, of course Kennedy was going to cancel her planned office hours and come help.

With a crossbow and a poleaxe (she was trying to get a little better with those), sure, but look, she knew how this place was.

She was also maybe wondering a little bit when she’d started thinking “I know how this place is” with a little bit of a mental sigh. Oh god. She was getting so old.

SING

[heroic_jawline]

While holding hands and having joy and innocence in your hearts!

...yeah, this was doomed.

Re: SING

[thishouseishaunted]

Was singing very loudly and off key having joy and innocence in your heart?

Because Mae was ALL OVER THAT.

Re: SING

[okteiviakom]

Octavia was singing, sure, even if it was kind of weak. And she was holding hands with people.

But she had neither joy (ha) nor innocence (HA) in her heart. Did a build-up of desperation mixed with anger count towards either of those?

Re: SING

[thatwaslucky]

All right, fine. Rey would sing, and feel weird about it.

For reasons, she was going to blame Duke for this part.

Re: SING

[brat_inslayage]

Kennedy didn’t have a singing voice to speak of, but she was trying to get into the spirit of it all!

She had not, however, dated Willow Rosenberg for eight years to not be able to picture, with perfect clarity, all the choice things her fiancée would have to say about this being so focused on Christmas. She also agreed with those choice things, for the record.

Sooooooooo yeah. She wasn’t going to be giving this 100%, even if she’d intended to.

Re: SING

[heroic_jawline]

Steve was holding hands with whoever was close, wearing a very jaunty Santa hat, and trying very hard.

And thinking how Tony would laugh his ass off at this story later.

Well, That Didn't Work

[heroic_jawline]

Because here come hordes of deranged Christmas toys and sentient cookies, off of gingerbread boats from...Ingvar.

Huh.

Fighting now, tracking them to Ingvar later!

Re: Well, That Didn't Work

[okteiviakom]

Of course the singing wasn't working. Why would it be?

Octavia was this close to just giving up and rage-screaming when she spotted the -- what were those? Toys? Didn't matter. They were the enemy, and that meant there was finally something for her to do.

She didn't even bother to peel off the ugly sweater. She was wearing it under the belt holding the scabbard at her back, anyway. It only took a second for there to be a sword in one of her hands, and a knife in the other.

And then she charged.

Re: Well, That Didn't Work

[thatwaslucky]

Rey could sense when a threat was coming, and she'd sort of expected this would come to that anyway. This meant that the instant any of them got anywhere close, she gave up on singing- actually grateful- and had a lightsaber out.

It may have been a practice lightsaber, but you better believe Rey had figured out how to make the "practice" part go away as soon as no one was watching. Because things like this happened.

Re: Well, That Didn't Work

[brat_inslayage]

Kennedy looked at the toys. Then at her poleaxe.

She sighed, laughing a little bit. “Overkill, much? What the hell.”

So don’t mind the honestly kind of tiny young woman swinging a big ass poleaxe around, knocking entire waves of toys back (and into pieces, to say nothing of the cookies) with each swing.

OOC

[heroic_jawline]

I typoed "festive socks" as "cocks" originally. I blame everyone seducing Krampus.

Feel free to mod your own toy/cookie horror to fight against, or hit me up down here for an NPC!

The rescue post/kidnapees bitching while hanging over a pit on Ingvar will go up a little later!

Re: OOC

[thatwaslucky]

I would like a toy/cookie horror, please!