We Survived the Snowmageddon

[worktodo]

Who: Albert Rosenfield (worktodo) and whoever is congregating at the Justice Farm for the Christmas holiday!
Where: El Rancho del Justicia, aka Albert's house in Saffron City
When: Anytime between Monday the 24th and Wednesday the 26th!
Summary: A lot has changed in a month, but some things never do. Losers getting together to fail their way through the holiday season is one of them.
Rating: Individual threads may vary, but let's go with G overall and warn otherwise!
Log:

Despite generally doing a very excellent Grinch impression, Albert doesn't actually hate Christmas. Granted, it's not one of his favorite holidays the way that Thanksgiving is — it's a little too overdone, a little too commercial, lacking in some of the spirit of togetherness in favor of the spirit of consumerism — but it is decidedly a holiday, and once again Johto has presented him with a situation where he is forced to make a choice. For the second time this year (by Albert's reckoning), Johto appears to have done everything in its power to prevent them from putting on a holiday, including but not limited to summoning up the actual apocalypse. The question that begs to be asked, therefore, is simply: is Albert willing to surrender Christmas in the face of all these apparent attempts to ruin it?

The answer, naturally, is: oh, hell no.

It is, however, an undeniably different atmosphere from the one that filled the house on Thanksgiving. Most of the occupants of the house are worse off now than they were then, be it emotionally or physically — some from spooky encounters, some from harsh truths, and some from going out in the apocalyptic snow like the damn fools they are — so if there's slightly less pep and enthusiasm saturating the grounds, that could certainly be why. Any decorations applied to the outside of the house have been battered at best and outright wrecked at worst. But as the slightly paraphrased song lyric goes, "Though the weather outside is frightful, by the fire it's so delightful", and the interior of the house is a thankfully different story.

On Monday, Albert will be spending the Eve of Christmas largely in the kitchen, having allotted the whole day for getting all the components of Christmas dinner prepared and readied in advance; on Thanksgiving, it's a fundamental part of the holiday tradition to run around the kitchen like a madman trying to get dinner to the table on time, but for Christmas, he'd rather everything just go smoothly. Early arrivals are welcome to hang out in the cozy parts of the house, grab some cocoa, and carefully avoid him; otherwise, they might get drafted into menial labor like shoveling out the front walk or putting the finishing touches on the interior decor before the party officially kicks off.

By Tuesday, it's all Christmas all the time; there is no victory quite so sweet as the one that comes hard-won, and as far as Albert is concerned, the most effective "screw you" to Johto's Snowmageddon is putting on an occasion that is positively bursting with holly and jolly anyway. Somewhere near the kitchen, Zack the Porygon2 is contributing by blasting from his Gear's speakers a concert of every Christmas song he knows (of which there are three: "Feliz Navidad", "Grandma Got Run Over By A Stantler Reindeer", and the Weather Girls' "It's Raining Men"). A stately (albeit slightly lopsided) Christmas tree that is probably the Johto equivalent of a Douglas fir is set up in a corner of the living room near the fireplace — which is burning merrily — and its branches are decorated with makeshift ornaments like Pokeballs and paper throwing stars along with the standard colored bauble variety. Stuff your presents below; there'll be time for opening them later, but for now they're part of the decor. There's holly on the piano and fake candles in the windows, and you better believe at least half of those doorways have mistletoe strategically placed near them. Don't get caught! (Or do, if that's what you're here for.)

The one new and interesting addition to the house can be found in a corner of the living room, where a little space has been carved out for a small end table topped with coasters, a chair, and a tripod apparatus just the right size for holding a standard Pokegear. Got someone to call and wish a Merry Christmas? Do it from the comfort of this corner like it's Masterpiece Theater.

But however Tuesday is spent, there's sure to be a lot of love, gifting, and good Christmas cheer. Or else.

When Wednesday comes along, it'll be the standard post-Christmas wind-down — leftovers aplenty in the kitchen, trash bags of crumpled wrapping paper tucked into the corners, and a nice low-pressure environment in which to interact, gush over gifts, and enjoy the spirit of the season a little longer before getting right back to work on Important Business. For some, that might mean playing in the snow or having a snowball fight; for others, that might mean coordinating federal agent business for the future. But either way, it's another Christmas survived, and that's what really matters, right?


[OOC: Just like last time, this is an open log for everybody coming to Albert's for Christmas! Feel free to start your own threads as you please — open them to everybody, close them to specific people, whatever works for you. Just make a note in the header of what day it's taking place on and who all's invited, and have fun, everybody! Also, for people who aren't physically present at the Farm on Christmas, feel free to use the designated Skype Thread™ to chat with them over video anyway!]

Comments

[foolishwren]

AND THEN A HEATHER EMERGED FROM THE SHADOWS.

Or, you know, from where she'd been standing by the fireplace with her own glass of cider. Either or.

"Whoa, you play piano too? ... Try Jingle Bells."

She had to hear it to believe it-- although given the way this guy seemed to be full of intellectual surprises, she had a feeling she probably wouldn't be disappointed.

[leftinbasketforfbi]

"Not since I got here, but I think I still got it." He gave her a smile, and then looked at the keys, his fingers naturally finding their place and starting to play a lovely rendition of 'Jingle Bells' from memory.

"It's mostly math, anyway, so as long as you understand the math behind the notes you're trying to hit, it's pretty simple."

[foolishwren]

Crossing her arms on top of the piano, Heather settled in to listen, the corners of her mouth curling up into a smile. Listening to someone playing music is a simple pleasure, but probably one of the most innate, automatic ones humans are capable of. Hearing it just brings back memories of a happier, simpler time.

"Math, huh? I guess that'd explain why I was never too great at reading music. Math was always the worst subject for me."

Of course, he's doing that straight off the top of his head, which is a whole 'nother level of impressive.

[leftinbasketforfbi]

"Our arithmetic skills are based in our parietal cortex, and recent studies show that the manipulation of numbers is proportional to how well the left and right sides of our brain communicate. Similar studies also suggest that one's musical skill is also proportional to how well the right and left brains communicate, so yes, one can argue that the two are linked."

As he spoke, he was still playing Jingle Bells, hardly noticing that he just went on a very strange tangent. "Do you want to hear any other songs? I think I know how most traditional carols go."

[foolishwren]

Iiiit's okay.

After spending Thanksgiving in the same building as him, Heather had pretty much picked up on his tendency to go off on rambling tangents. She didn't mind. It sort of reminded her of a few other particularly nerdy friends of hers, ones she wasn't spending the holiday with this year, and therefore was oddly comforting.

"I'll take your word for it. How about Sleigh Ride?"

[leftinbasketforfbi]

Had he ever told anyone how great it was that so many people didn't mind his tangents?

Reid immediately changes from Jingle Bells to Sleigh Ride. Of course there is none of the usual jingle bell accompaniment, but he makes up for it with taps high on the scale that mimic the sound. "I'm not much of a singer, so if you want to hear the lyrics, you can sing along."

[foolishwren]

Her first impulse is to refuse, because despite her often-loud brashness, singing in front of a room of people she doesn't know too well is a little too brash... but you know what? What the heck. It's CHRISTMAS.

So, tossing her messy hair out of her eyes, she scoots forward to perch on a nearby stool, crossing her ankles on one of the rungs and hanging primly onto the rim of the seat with both hands.

"Been a good long while since I've done any caroling, soooo I might be a bit rusty, but..."

With a slight clearing of the throat, she counted silently until a good spot to jump in opened up... and then started singing.

She was no pretty-voiced songbird, but despite a boyish roughness to her voice and intonation, she proved to be quite capable of carrying a tune. ... Pretty damn good at it, actually!

"Giddy-ap, giddy-ap, giddy-ap, it's grand, just holdin' your hand! We're glidin' along with the song in a wintry fairy-laaaand...!"

[leftinbasketforfbi]

Reid listened quietly, continuing to play the song, but he cocked his head to hear her above the music of the piano.

"You can't tell. You sound nice," he said absently, not even intending it to be a compliment so much as a gentle statement of fact. He rarely hands out compliments for the sake of them, preferring to talk about fact and information. In this case, it's fact to him.

Come to think of it, this may have been the most relaxed he had been around Heather. For some reason, she seemed to come along when he was tense or twitchy about something. It was nice to do something nice. For a moment, the music and holiday cheer almost made him want to sing with her, but Reid was a thousand times more shy than Heather.

[foolishwren]

He didn't seem the sort to say things just for the sake of making people feel good, although even stating it as a simple fact was frankly a nice thing to hear. Enough to bring a slightly more-modest-than-usual smile to her face, although she kept singing for the sake of not losing the moment.

Because you know what, it was nice-- even moreso because Reid seemed to be enjoying himself rather than being in that semi-constant state of nervousness that she always seemed to find him in.

So she carried through to the end, tailing off into a laugh once the lyrical portion of the song was through. Not because any of this was funny, but just because it was... well, fun.

"Whoo. Thanks!" Belatedly. "You're pretty damn good, yourself!"

Because he was, and that was a fact too!

[leftinbasketforfbi]

He peered up at her at the laugh curiously, but she was smiling and her eyes were bright, so he smiled in response. A smile that only grew at her statement. "Thank you. A boy name Sammy was the one to start me playing."

He moved his hands from the keyboard, turning a little on his seat to face her better. "Did you know that St. Francis of Assisi was actually the first to introduce Christmas caroling in the thirteenth century? Before that, people would listen to priests singing solemn hymns, but St. Francis believed that people should be able to express their joy at Christmas by singing simple songs both in and out of Church. In fact, the tradition of going door to door and singing to the people in the house was originally called 'Wassailing' and dates long before Christmas. It was actually a ritual where peasants would go to the lords of the manor or to wealthier neighbors to wish them health and ask for offerings of food or ale, all in song, and then they would go to orchards and sing to the trees in hopes of a good harvest later on."

Hopefully, Heather was still okay with his rambling tangents.

[foolishwren]

YEP. STILL FINE.

The amused quirk in her grin only stayed, though, because it was sort of like listening to an encyclopedia come to life. Idly, she wondered if he had spoken to Otacon at any point... because oh man, she could practically hear them tangenting happily to each other already.

"Wassailing, huh? I kind of like that idea more than caroling. I'm gonna assume it worked by the peasants threatening not to stop singing until they were fed."

And something about the way she said that gave the impression that this was probably something she'd be pretty good at.

[leftinbasketforfbi]

If Reid were ever introduced to a fellow tangent-er, then the world would implode and everyone would blame Heather.

Reid laughed, his face lighting up with mirth. The mere fact that she seemed even somewhat interested in his tangents was a very pleasant surprise. "Well, might as well have been. In exchange for the charity, the peasants would give the lord of the charitable house their blessings and goodwill. Although really that's kind of a tradition everywhere--there a lot of places where marginalized people perform for the rich to ask for something, and usually the rich give them it in exchange for blessings. Or, well, in the case of people who come to perform uninvited at important ceremonies, to make them go away and not curse the people."

[foolishwren]

And she'd be like 'H-hey, it seemed like a good idea at the time!'

"Oh, that's right. I forgot about curses. Those work pretty well."

That was a nice laugh, maybe she could get another one out of him. Squinting one eye, she hunched her shoulders and jutted out her chin, lifting a dramatically-quivering hand and miming a creaky witchy-old-peasant voice.

"Bread and meat, or a pox upon your house! ... None of those fancy moldy cheeses though, we already got plenty of mold and besides, they give Stinky Joe the runs."