Deck the Halls [open to multiple]

[has_a_horn]

On the morning of Sunday, the city is free of the heavy snow that had hit it the week before, and a gentle dusting of snow itsfalling. And, if you happen to live in one of the angel-run buildings, you'll find that the entire front of each building has been lit up in festive colors.



On the other side of town, Gabriel is taking a more hands-on approach to decoration. He has a ladder propped up against the side of the building and a big coil of multi-colored lights slung over his shoulder. If things to hang the lights on appear suddenly out of the brick front of the building as he goes, that's just a matter of convenience. Gabriel is in a good mood today. It seems a little strange to be decorating for a holiday that he's not even sure exists in the same way here that it did back in his own universe, but it's nice to be celebrating something after a month of grief and worry and bad decisions.

[ooc: come throw a snowball at gabe's head or help him decorate :3]

Comments

[wildmage_daine]

One of the perks of being in crow shape is that her face doesn't betray any awkwardness Daine might feel. She hasn't really seen Gabriel since she found him in the Ramble. It's good to see him looking happy, though. And while the lights are a bit dramatic, it's not as if he's causing any harm.

She tips her head to examine the string of tiny, colored bulbs a bit more closely. "Pretty," she pronounces them, giving one of the lights a gentle tap with her beak. "Wat's kriss-mas?" She's seen the word before, and gathered it's the name of the holiday, but it doesn't mean anything to her. "Izzit like Midwinterr?"

[has_a_horn]

Gabriel nods. "It's a midwinter festival. Ages ago pagan celebrations got hijacked by Christians who wanted to attach my little bro's birth to something people were already celebrating." He smiles and reaches a little further to string the lights onto the next hook. It's a bit funny to be putting up lights and explaining Christmas to a crow. He feels like he's in the middle of a very odd children's book.

"So you got a decorated evergreen inside, but topped with a star or an angel, Christmas carols at outdoor celebrations, a Yule Log in the fireplace...mulled wine and eggnog, gift giving- that's the fun part." He chuckles and turns back to look at Daine. "It's all a big jumble. The business with the big guy in the suit is even more complicated...it involves a Saint and capitalism and all sorts of other things. I love it."

[wildmage_daine]

Daine blinks, slightly taken aback by this news. It's hard to imagine anyone hijacking any of the gods' festivals back home. Of course, the fact that the gods could make their displeasure known would put a damper on any of that nonsense. Near as she can tell, the gods in this universe may as well not exist, and Gabriel's story just seems to prove it.

The bit that really gives her pause, though, is gift-giving. Maybe she shouldn't be surprised - it was part of Midwinter, and it seems some of those traditions have survived - but she missed Christmas last year, and assumed no one here would celebrate Midwinter like they all did in Tortall. It had seemed unfair (and potentially embarrassing) to try and keep her realm's more public traditions alive with folk who don't know about any of them. What would the point have been, aside from making her homesick?

But if folk still do some of these things, it wouldn't be so out of place if she did, too.

"We did giff-tzz," she muses, now considering what to get all of her friends here. Goddess, she might have started sooner if she'd known... but there's still plenty of time.

For the moment, she eyes Gabriel's somewhat precarious set-up, then the string of lights. "Can I help?" she asks. If nothing else, she might be able to carry that string of lights along, and there's only so far Gabriel can reach before he'd have to move the ladder (which he could doubtless do as easy as blinking, but still).

[has_a_horn]

"Oh, please do." He hands the end of the strand forward towards Daine. "You'll make be feel like a Disney princess." He smiles, then realizes belatedly that she probably doesn''t grasp the reference. "Cartoons. Most of them had animal friends that would help them clean or sew, stuff like that. It was cute."

"If you want after you can come upstairs and see Scout." It's a tentative addition, but he knows that Scout would be excited to see her.