route_1065 | We Survived the Snowmageddon

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!]

Flat | Top-Level Comments Only

If he's got it, it'll be in the kitchen drawer next to the stove. If you need something stronger, he might keep the better adhesive out in his lab.

[Naturally, Carmen is aware of these things because she is nosy and snoopy.]

I can go look.

If you don't mind.

[It's not that Harry doesn't want to get it himself — he just doesn't want to start poking around for something that might not be there and incur the wrath of Albert.

~~ha ha ha~~]

[Fortunately, Carmen's had plenty of time to get used to incurring the wrath of Albert — and really, she's probably the best suited for it anyway, since she seems to incur his wrath just by existing, so it's not like it's going to be any different whether she does something to provoke it or not.

Gracefully (and surprisingly silently), she gets up and heads into the kitchen; oddly, where one might ordinarily expect there to be the sound of a drawer squeaking and items rummaging, there is none. Curious, huh?

But soon she's back, and with a bottle of glue in hand, which she passes over to him once she's seated again.]

Found it. Will this work?

[Upon her return, she will discover that Harry took the bait: her strategically-placed mug of cider is now much closer to him and missing a considerable amount of liquid.

He takes the bottle with a grateful smile, peers at the label — why he had expected to see something familiar, like the Elmers logo, is beyond him — and nods.]

It should. Thanks.

[Worked like a charm. It's tasty cider, too; she's been drinking it all day. Maybe she'll work her way up to the harder stuff a little later — or if some romantic happens to schmooze her into it — but for the moment she's going with nonalcoholic and Harry can too.

She watches him work a little, quietly, and then finally opts to remark, more to fill the silence than anything else:]

I've never been to such a...busy Christmas before.

[For the moment, Harry is just fine with nonalcoholic. It's still early.

He also seems to be just fine with Carmen's company while he carefully applies a thin line of glue to the broken piece — he doesn't want this to be a messy fix — and puts it back in place.

Except it's slightly misaligned, so he tries again. When Carmen speaks, he glances up at her, then turns his gaze back toward his work and hopes she won't be offended.]

Small family?

[His own has been steadily shrinking in size since he was a boy, so he's naturally assuming it might be similar for her. But you know what they say about assuming...]

[On the contrary, she's more than happy to watch him work, her own gaze trained on the way his fingers move, the moments of skill and the brief fumbles as he tries to repair what was broken. She likes to watch people work, and there's always something about fingers in particular that's fascinating. Also, the delay buys her a moment to decide how she wants to answer that. He's right, of course, but...]

I usually work on Christmas.

[Well, it's true. For a given value of the word "work".]

I spent a fair number of them with just my partner for company. But never with family like this.

[That's technically true, too.]

[Harry can relate to that.

Crime doesn't take a day off just because it's Christmas. B|

(And by "crime" we mean "public drunkenness" and "domestic disputes." Holidays.)

Anyway, he smiles at her use of the word family, and then a question occurs to him.]

How long have you been here?

[Ask her about the big jewel theft case she once cracked in Sweden, Harry. Not that you'd know about it, but suffice to say, she's rarely anywhere near anyplace she might call "home" on Christmas.]

Since March fourth of this year.

[Just three days after her birthday. What a birthday present, huh?]

That was the day I met Agent Cooper, too. He was the first person to talk to me once I arrived.

[Well.

That's adorable.

It makes Harry a little sad, too, because oh no thinking of Josie no no stop, but the feeling fades quickly enough when he reminds himself how happy he is that his friend found someone as dynamite as Carmen.

...but attaching that label to Coop makes him feel shitty all over again because oh, right, Harry's been giving him the silent treatment.

Reattachment attempt #4. This one seems to satisfy him.]

Do you always call him that?

No. Sometimes I call him "detective".

[Well, if her last remark was adorable, then this one is...well. Hm. She really does have a knack for drawing out that one word so it's smooth and satisfied and almost like a purr, doesn't she.

But now it's her turn to take over the questioning.]

Is it still just Johto that's bothering you, or is it something else?

[She sure does.

Harry would have been thankful for the topic change if she hadn't started down that path. The way he swallows suggests there may be a lump in his throat, and if that's not answer enough...]

I don't want to talk about it.

[Good grief, is everyone in this house wrecked, or what.

But while she's curious now, she's not without sympathy, either, and chooses her next remarks carefully.]

You don't have to. But no one wants to see you upset on Christmas.

[Not carefully enough, it seems.

Harry's not quite glaring at her, but there's tension around his eyes that wasn't there before.]

There are plenty of other people in this house you could be looking at right now.

[Apparently they are. She doesn't jump at the look he casts her, but the thought does arise that she ought to start planning where and how to make a graceful exit, because it might soon become necessary.]

"Peace is a journey of a thousand miles and it must be taken one step at a time."

[And perhaps that's her cue to rise.]

Feliz Navidad, Harry.

[Maybe, if she didn't have such a knack for occasionally reminding him of you-know-who, Harry would have been able to properly glower. Peace. Who's she kidding?]

You too, Carmen.

[Pause.]

Thanks for the cider.

We Survived the Snowmageddon

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