[action]

[slaying]

[ it is about time to try and smile on through the difficulties. there is a christmas day to be celebrated and gifts to be opened and given. so buffy puts on her bravest of brave social faces and is out making her christmas gift rounds.

at home, there will be gifts under the beautifully decorated tree for bones, willow, emony and scottyaround

Comments

[likevegeta]

[ andrew can be found in the common kitchen of his apartment floor. for once, he's not cooking! he's seated on the floor, his very malnosso christmas present is sitting under the table and he's tempting it out with carrots. ]

Here piggy piggy piggy...

[slaying]

[ she knocks on the door to the common kitchen with a small bag in her hands. ]

Andrew --what's that?

[likevegeta]

Hey Buffy!

[ -- and it's grabbing the carrot in his moment of distraction and running back under. sigh. ]

Um. A pig. My Very Malnosso Christmas-y present.

[slaying]

A...a pig?

[ she looks a little flummoxed. ]

[derek_bliss]

[Derek has guard turtles, but if Buffy is willing to sweet talk them a little, she can probably make her way inside the house and to Derek's workroom.

He'll be sitting at the desk, still looking like a Mac truck ran over him twice, and reading...something. If she comes closer, she might notice it's a bible.]

[slaying]

Merry Christmas. [ she offers a small smile and knocks carefully on the door. ]

[derek_bliss]

Hey, Merry Christmas.

[Derek will stand, although he's a bit wobbly with it.]

Doing all right?

[slaying]

Letting myself get infected by the holiday cheer, which is working out well so far.

[ she holds out a gift bag with tissue paper spilling out of its mouth. inside will be an assortment of jokey gifts. sunglasses and gourmet extra-garlicky spice mixes with a little note suggesting derek simply must count buffy in on any meal he uses them for. the real gift is more carefully wrapped at the bottom of the bag -- a pair of tough looking cat boots (she confirmed the right size with spy work a few weeks before. plus a little folded card with the note: i know i go through way too many pairs on patrol. here's a tough pair to keep you going. merry christmas! ]

action;

[thirdhost]

[ while this is emony's second christmas in luceti, she doesn't quite understand the tradition, but she can appreciate how happy it seems to make everyone and respect that it's a big part of earth's culture. the trill have their own big holidays of choice, but emony doesn't pay much mind to them, because celebrating them without her family and away from her homeworld doesn't quite feel right. to each their own, and she can't deny how lovely the tree looks and how the festive cheer has made luceti feel less like a prison and more like a community, a home. ]

...does that one have my name on it?

[ she bends down a bit, bracing her hands on her thighs and squints at the present. yup, that is definitely her name. ]

action;

[slaying]

Mmhm! Why -- I didn't go an spell it wrong or anything, did I?

[ a moment of social panic hits her. she is already on edge about the gift, having been relatively uncertain about what the trill would most appreciate. in the end buffy settled on a fairly practical, typical friendly gift. this is a small gift box which includes a scarf, gloves, and hat set as well as a pamper-yourself bath bomb set filled with delicious christmas-themed bath treats.]

action;

[thirdhost]

[ emony laughs and waves the unnecessary worry off. ]

No, no. It's the right spelling. That's how you spell it with English characters, anyway.

action;

[slaying]

Oh, good. Of course -- that does beg the question of what the non-English characters look like.

action;

[univalent]

[ the gift is unmistakably from buffy, but to tell the truth, spike wasn't expecting to get anything from her. at all, let alone this and a replacement for that mug she broke. buffy broke things-- they broke things. it was a fact of life. repairing things sometimes happened, but never by them. and never replacing things. this was... new. and the vampire sat on one of the chairs, fingering the cup as he turned it around in his hands like it was made of the most precious of materials and would shatter if he didn't handle it carefully. ]

filtered voice; (later in the evening)

[slaying]

[ with all her presents delivered, buffy settles at the kitchen table with her journal. she tries (perhaps in vain?) to contact spike. ]

Hey. You 'round?

filtered voice;

[univalent]

[ spike's around, but he's not near his journal. fortunately for her, vampire hearing means he can hear her voice coming from the open journal in the next room. he sets the mug down and goes to retrieve it before settling back down in that same chair. ]

Am now.

filtered voice; (wait. what. i swear i replied to this. /blames spotty internet)

[slaying]

How about those local sports teams, huh?

[ the signal is unmistakable. aiming for casual smalltalk and expecting to fail. ]

sFjhds /late

[slayersidekick]

[ Willow's left Buffy a present, too, and she wants to see her BFF's reaction. Or at least make sure Buffy gets it. So she heads down to see the tree. ]

ah don't worry about it!

[slaying]

[ buffy is sitting on the couch with her attention directed to the little bartending manual bones gave her. when willow comes into the room, she will look up with a smile. ] Merry Christmas!

[slayersidekick]

[ Willow smiles in return. ]

Merry Christmas, Buffy! Whatcha got there?

[slaying]

Bones got me a mixology manual. Some day we have got to try a...[ squinting ] grasshopper.