[Nexus] Thanksmasnewyearskwanzakkah 5: Now with Mall Santas!

[Meredit]

Meredit leans against the boundary and picks up some needles with a sparkling festive blue toe and heel hanging off of them. It will help to pass the time until it's her turn and other sellers would be surprised how many agnostics have sworn off red and green but still want 'seasonal' traditional items.

She knits while watching the happy scene until she stops in the middle of a row. That's a thought. Is there a market here at all? There's a mall. There's magic.

There's also hugs and concern for a stranger. People still value the human touch.

Meredit smiles to herself. There's something to ask Santa about.

[Halae]

[Thanksmas Throne]

"Give me a moment then..." Harnel says, reaching into the Thanksmas bag once more, and pulls out book. It's of the proper size, but it's made of modern materials built like a textbook, "I'm afraid I unfortunately don't have an original copy."

[Shadowcaller]

[Vaguely Near the Thanksmas Throne]

A little elfboy bearing a bright green, bow-endowed Present gleefully skips towards Cessie.
Boy does he look ever so excited!
"Tra la la la la..."

[Vaguely Near the Thanksmas Throne]

The sorceress don't pay much attention to the boy, assuming he's going to visit Santa and not her. She was standing right next to the throne after all. It was nice to see so many happy people though, even if she wasn't all that good dealing with children.

[Chaotic Bob]

[Vaguely Near->Right Next to the Thanksmas Throne]

The little elf (North Pole elf, mind) boy seems utterly unperturbed by Cessie's initially lacking attention.
He can fix that in a jiffy, by golly!

Mostly be staring up at her with big beaming eyes and nudging the gift at the side of her leg a bit.
Nudge nudge.
Nudge nudge nudge.

[Shadowcaller]

[Right Next to the Thanksmas Throne]

The sorceress turns to look down at the boy. "Oh, hi there." Her eye sets on the present, a gift, for her? How odd. "What's this?" She asks with a smile as she accepts the gift, trying to get a eldritch reading of it to see if it's enchanted in some way.

[Chaotic Bob]

[Right Next to the Thanksmas Throne]

It's not enchanted at all!
Well, faintly magical in origin, kind of like how a summoned apple is technically magical in origin, but otherwise completely ordinary.
Just like whatever's inside.

The elf boy just looks pleased as punch that she's noticing him, and doesn't seem aware of her scanning at all.
"Hiya! It's a present! For you! And Santa! Well, assuming you're Santa's wifey-friend-lady. Which I think you are, because why else would you be standing there next to him this whole time with that kind of smile on your face and stuff?
Right? Right!
You're his wifey-friend-lady right?"

[Meredit]

Meredit stifles a giggle. Kids are kids even when they're elves. No indoor voice at all.

[Shadowcaller]

[Right Next to the Thanksmas Throne]

"Eh, yes. That's right, I'm Santa's wife. So who might you be?" She asks the little elf boy, holding on to his present as she figures putting it away might give the wrong signals. She was curious what sort of gift it was though.

[Chaotic Bob]

[Right Next to the Thanksmas Throne]

Hoozah, he was right!
First try too! Take that, faint risks of mistaken identity!

Upon accepting his gift, the elf's hands snap together in a giddy clap and he does an energetic little hop.
Goody goody!

"My name is Boregard, Missus Santa!
Boregard! Present Deliverer!"
He even does a happy beaming pose.

How he wishes there was a glorious burst of wind and he was wearing a cape.

It would look so. Awesome.

[Dark Elf Bard]

Sort of Close to the Thanksmas Throne

A short tiefling girl slowly goes towards the Thanksmas throne. She wears a too-long Santa-like robe, looking sort of frieghtened. She sees aother person with red skin and eeps!

[Shadowcaller]

[Right Next to the Thanksmas Throne]

The sorceress stifles a laugh, this little guy was just too adorable. "Oh? So who is this gift from then?" She asks, taking another curious glance at it.

[Lady Serpentine]

[On The Periphery of the Throne]

The tiefling girl might notice a drow, with a spiderweb pattern of scars on her face, starting just below her eyes, and, so far as can be told, covering the rest of her body, judging by the fact that the same pattern continues on her hands, as well as extending up onto her ears, who seems to be waiting her turn for a wish.

((Lellienth fits your request OOC, but she can also just be someone to provide interaction, if you prefer.))

[Chaotic Bob]

[Right Next to the Thanksmas Throne]

Oh right, another Present Deliverer duty is of course source-relating!
Don't forget that part Boregard.

"Oh, um. It was this little purple guy with these biiiiig pointy ears, like, four times bigger than my ears bit!"
He initially does a little bunny ear impression, but appears to realize at some point that this is a terrible indicator, and instead puts his hands a ways up from his head.
"He seemed kinda sorta shy, but wanted to thank you for something or other and so here I am! Delivering a fancy present!"
A little pause.
"I think his name was Podge. Or maybe it was Jared?"
He has no idea. Did he even ask?

[Meredit]

Meredit is busy listening to the elf and almost doesn't notice the little red-skinned girl. She is just about to cut in line just from being too shy to look up.

"Excuse me, little girl," says Meredit. "I will let you go ahead of me but you have to ask first!"

[Dark Elf Bard]

No, no, sorry! I didn't know... She quickly goes behind Meredit, the long robe's hood over her face.

She steals a glance at Lellienth, too!

[Lady Serpentine]

Lellienth smiles gently at the girl, taking a place in line behind her, though for now, since she seems to be talking to someone already, the drow doesn't say anything unless she does.

[Meredit]

Meredit smiles but she turns to the next grownup in line. "We are grown up, we can wait, can't we?" She points down at the little one trying to disappear into her cloak between them and winks. "Aww look at her, she's trying to wrap herself up like a present! All she needs is a bow!"

[Dark Elf Bard]

Near The Tree

She shrinks down in her robe-nightgown, seing the scars.

[Lady Serpentine]

"I can, at least," Lellienth agrees, nodding, though when the tiefling shrinks away on seeing the scars, she flinches somewhat, flipping up her hood, and pulling on a pair of gloves, which effectively hides every scrap of her skin.

[Shadowcaller]

[Right Next to the Thanksmas Throne]

Once again Cessie have to keep herself to giggle at Boregard's antics. She didn't actually know anyone like that that however which made her even curious, what was this? "Where did you meet him?" She asks while starting to very slowly unwrap the paper, completely forgetting it was supposed to be for her and Harnel.

[Dark Elf Bard]

"I can, at least," Lellienth agrees, nodding, though when the tiefling shrinks away on seeing the scars, she flinches somewhat, flipping up her hood, and pulling on a pair of gloves, which effectively hides every scrap of her skin.

The tiefling girl suddenly becomes conscious that she might have been making the drowsy uncomfortable, and turns a pale blue. She grasps the long folds of her robes uncomfortably.

Um, what are you two asking Santa for?

[lord pringle]

[Somewhere Near the Throne]

A thirteen year old girl stands around. She sighs exasperatedly and says half out loud, "Coldcoldcoldcoldcold coldfreezingcold." She then adjusts her scarf and goes back to muttering.

[Meredit]

Meredit puts the stocking back into the bag and kneels to answer the little red, oh, now she's blue-skinned, girl at her level. At least the little one is not hiding everything any more. "I'm new here! I am going to ask for help to find a place to stay here. A home. Someone will know better than I do."

She looks sad for a moment. Meredit knows now that there is no way back to the world she grew up in. But something makes it impossible to look back in sadness. She touches her pendant.

[Chaotic Bob]

[Right Next to the Thanksmas Throne]

Boregard does a little quarter-turn hop and snaps a pointing finger off in some direction behind him.
Off towards a small group of what looks suspiciously like carolers. No big-eared fellow though.

"Oh. Um, guess he left. Guess a shy person wouldn't really like it here..."
Lots of other people, after all.

And then Cessie tries to open the package!
Which gets the little elf boy to start prancing up and down on his feet flailing his arms.
"Nooooooo! You have to wait for Santa toooooo!"

[lord pringle]

[The Environs of the Throne]

The girl walks up to Meredit and the others. "Hi! Nice to meet you all. I'm Char." She says before rubbing her nose with her scarf and grumbling about the evils of the cold weather.

[5a Violista]

[Thanksmas Throne]

"Give me a moment then..." Harnel says, reaching into the Thanksmas bag once more, and pulls out book. It's of the proper size, but it's made of modern materials built like a textbook, "I'm afraid I unfortunately don't have an original copy."

[Thanksmas Throne]

Harley immediately leaves Santa's lap, standing by the throne now, so as to no longer make my odd offline schedule impede others from visiting Santa.

"Oh, no, that's fine. It doesn't have to be an original," Harley says. "It'll do the job, regardless."

She looks as pleased as a little kid on Christmas day. That's pretty pleased, in case you don't know. On a scale of one to seven, that's at least a red six.

Harley grabs the hefty book. "Thank you," she says to Santa Harnel as she smiles. "It's perfect." So that others may come up to the throne, she backs off and finds an empty bench to flip through the book.

Specifically, she flips to page 374, chapter 14.3, and seems intent on reading what it says on that page. It's a very important page.

[Meredit]

"I'm Meredit," she says. "This little one has not told us her name yet. And I don't know her," says Meredit and looks at the girl who just put gloves on.

Meredit sees the gloves and then notices Char and her scarf wrapped up. It is kind of cold even with fake colored snow instead of real snow. "It's a pretty scarf! That kind of fashion yarn is not going to keep the heat in though."

She opens up the knitting bag and pulls out a solid colored scarf. It's not dyed a pretty color. It's too wide and too short. But it's insulating wool instead of man-made fibers. "I was testing this yarn and the pattern on its wrapper. It works better than it looks. Try it on!"

[lord pringle]

[Near the Throne]
Char grins and grabs the scarf. "Wow, thanks! I'm just sorry I don't have anything to give you." She does a quick pocket inspection and then looks mildly sad. "Sorry, I don't think I have anything you'd want." She then does a scarf swap and stops shivering.

[Meredit]

Meredit studies the look of Char and this scarf and then does a closer inspection of the striped scarf. "I made some of these as presents!" She leaves out the part about selling most of them first.

"But if you don't mind waiting a little bit past"

Meredit stops for a moment. How do you say Thanksmasnewyearskwanzakkah?

"Wait a little bit past the holidays and I can copy your original scarf in wool. There's a post office here, isn't there? I can send it to you once I'm done? With tags and everything?" She is anxious. "Please don't tell people I made the one you're wearing now. There's no fashion in it. It's not a good advertisement."

[lord pringle]

[Throne Adjacent]

Char beams. "Thank you sooo much! I'll try to get you something else soon." Char thinks for a bit before saying, "Do you knit often?"