melodiesoflife | [Open] something about lovely weather and sleigh rides together

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[Open] something about lovely weather and sleigh rides together

Who: Ventus + you!
When: December 4-24
Where: Christmas Village, Aqures Ixen, places in between.
What: Spreading cheer and doing Christmas things following his letter and otherwise being a generous cinnamon roll. Whether volunteering or visiting, feel free to start your own threads!
Why: BECAUSE IT'S CHRISTMAAAS
Warnings: overzealous use of capslock on the mun's part but otherwise dude it's Christmas

4-6th - Christmas Village - Preparations

[Ven figured it would be a lot of work, but it turns out to be even more than that. He doesn't know much (anything) about the fine points of running any kind of business, but that's where Rae and his friends come in. As empty as the village is when he arrives on the cold morning of the fourth, it doesn't take long at all to procure a small building for their purposes, and from there both Hero and moogle have their work cut out for them.

The first few days are spent setting up as well as making the empty room more cozy for the volunteers; before long, the fireplace is lit and warming the place, and a few armchairs have been donated for those who want to work on their wares in-shop.

The decorations are still pretty lacking, though, and there are a lot more raw materials on hand than actual products. They do get a sign up out front, however, painted in Rae's girly handwriting:]

Holiday Hearts and Crafts
Decor, fashion, and custom orders kupo!

6-8th - Aqures, Balicea, Esdham - Advertising

[Once the basics are done and left to the other volunteers to manage, Ven and Rae head back to the home continent. They take his Chocobo from town to town, making deals with shop owners, buying more materials, attracting more volunteers (not least of all because Ven is generous with his new Christmas Spirit skill), posting flyers, and otherwise getting the word out about their craft shop. Any help is appreciated!]

9-24th - Christmas Village - Keepin' busy

[It's a slow start, but the business soon attracts a steady stream of customers; by the fifteenth, they have a long list of orders and a longer waiting list. Fortunately, Rae and those who assisted in advertising did manage to recruit a number of crafters from both continents in addition to those Ven initially spoke to, so there's a blend of humans, Bangaa, primal moogles, and others about at any given time (as well as Aqures moogles darting in with letters and materials and back out with packages). Orders have centered mostly around jewelry and warm clothing, but there's always a bit of everything in demand.]

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[Yuna steps up behind Ventus silently. She tosses a bright red jacket over his shoulder and then leans around to peer up into the hood that flops over his view.]

I have something for you.

[She then pulls a warm dark green scarf from her other hand and wraps it around Ven's neck. It looks a little awkward since she's just piling these things onto him. She then holds out her hands where she's holding matching green mittens.]

These are for you. Christmas presents, I thought it'd be better to give them to you early so you can wear it through the winter.

[Yuna doesn't have the Santa job but she's wearing a bright red dress with a Santa hat on. She has white stockings and dark brown boots that end just as they reach her knee. Her arms are bare but her gloves are black and long reaching to her elbow.]

[As concentrated as he is on assessing the inside of the shop, Ven jumps slightly when that jacket's suddenly plopped on top of him.]

Whoa!

[But he's quick to grin when Yuna moves into view. He pulls the sleeves over his arms proper and pushes the hood back.]

Heh, this should make Rae happy. [She's commented more than once that he needs to get something more festive to wear since arriving. Accepting the mittens, he slips them on and finds that they're a perfect fit, and then beams up at her.] Thanks, Yunie! I'm warmer already.

[As he straightens the scarf, he notices her dress.]

You look really nice!

[Yuna laughs and just as she thought it looks very nice on him. She’s secretly glad that it fits because she was more or less guessing when she made it. At his compliment her smile widens slightly. Yuna likes dressing up though it wasn’t the sort of thing she admitted openly. It is however the sort of thing she’d admit to close friends.]

You think so? I really like this dress.

[She also has a jacket that she’s hung up but with all her bouncing around she had been overheating.] Happy Christmas Ven. I hope you like it. [She’s more than a little worried about her presents this year.]

Oh! I have one other thing for you. [She pulls out a brightly wrapped present, its small and the bow is a vibrant white ribbon. When he opens it he’ll find a little star key chain with a heart shaped at its center.] I figured you could attach it to the end of your sword. [If he wants to anyway.] I hope you like it.

[He blinks in surprise, but accepts the gift with a happy smile; when he unwraps it, he looks even more surprised -- and then realizes that Yuna probably doesn't know the meaning behind keychains attached to Keyblades. Either way, however, it's a more useful gift than she knows -- or will be, once he has his real powers back.

He grins up at her again.]

I really like it! Thanks a lot! It'll really come in handy.

[Then he looks sheepish.]

I don't have yours yet, sorry. I've been kinda caught up in getting the shop ready. But I will! By Christmas, definitely!

[Yuna shakes her head with a smile.]

You don’t have to get me anything. [She’d rather he worry about Christmas town and getting everything done that he wanted to get done. That’s why she’s here after all, to help out.]

Besides. [Her smile only seems to widen.] There are plenty of other people who need gifts.

[Yuna isn’t really one of them. As long as she has her friends she’s happy.

She jumps up and then turns which forces her skirt to flare out in a red mess of fabric around her waist.] What do you need me to do?

[Her enthusiasm makes him laugh. Then he looks around the shop thoughtfully; most of the furniture's in place, leaving a number of boxes and bags to be opened.]

We can start unpacking! I can organize the supplies if you wanna work on the decorations. Rae said she got a good deal in the market, so there's enough for inside and out.

[She handled that entirely herself, so he's not sure what all they have on hand.]

[Yuna looks over at the pile of boxes and then nods with a bright smile. She steps lightly over to the boxes looking for anything that could be decorations. After a moment her smile widens.]

Found it!

[She reaches into a box and like magic she pulls long streams of garland from the box. She rolls and rolls the shiny silver up, eventually just draping it over her neck as she tries to collect it all.]

It's never ending.

[Ven moves over to help her, leaning over and pulling more of the silver stuff from the box. Jeez, what are they gonna do, gift-wrap the building with it?

Finally, he finds the tail end and holds it up, although he has a couple yards of garland around his own shoulders by now as well.]

There! [He looks at Yuna, then at himself, and laughs again.] How do you even put this much up?

[Yuna laughs realizing how ridiculous they might appear with the silvery shiny winter decorations wrapped around them like scarfs. She begins moving through the long trails, following them with her finger.]

We will have to find the end first.

[After a moment Yuna finds it. Her lips are curled into a smile and she holds it up in triumph.]

Let's start at one corner of the room and circle it. [It's the only idea she has.]

[This definitely seems like a two person job, so the materials can wait. With a nod, Ven grabs the hammer and nails that are also in the box, and then helps her carry the stuff to a corner. They don't have any ladders or stools on hand, so after a look around he pulls a low table over and hops on top of it. Risky? Naaah.]

Okay! If you can hand me the nails, I can get those in and we can loop the garland over it.

[Yuna positions herself so that she could catch Ven should he fall. The garland is wrapped around her neck a few times still so she hopes he doesn't pull it all at once or they will be a pile of limbs on the ground again.

She holds the nails and then nods.]

Please be safe up there Ven.

[He takes it with a word of thanks, giving her a reassuring grin before turning and hammering it into place. He's got this, no worries!]

So what d'you think of the village so far?

[Yuna is still probably going to worry but she trusts Ven and begins to unravel the brightly colored garland as he moves along.]

It's wonderful. [Like a winter wonderland.] I've been singing a lot too and the children seem to like the songs.

Since last year I've learned a lot of holiday tunes.

Heh, that's no surprise! Your singing's really nice.

[He shoots her a smile over his shoulder before continuing.]

You gonna go caroling?

We can but shouldn't we finish this first?

[There is a soft laugh as she unwinds more of the glittery garland from around her neck. Yuna loves singing and she's memorized the songs from the song book she had gotten last year for Christmas.]

How about we sing while we work? When we are done we can still go out and sing but it might help us work faster.

[At least she thought so and without much pause she began to sing a song.]

Jingle bells jingle bells.

[Grinning, Ven doesn't miss a beat before joining in as his answer.]

Jingle all the way~

[He puts a bit of a pop sound into the tune, out of habit. With this section of the wall done, he hops down again, moves the table over a few feet, and climbs up to continue, still singing along.]

[Yuna following behind singing as well. They slowly work their way around the room and after Jingle Bells Yuna starts to sing Winter Wonderland and then Frosty The Snowman.

Towards the end of that song they finished and Yuna couldn't help but laugh.]

That made the time slip by quickly.

[Ven jumps down off the table one more time, dusting some stray pieces of the garland from where they've peppered his shoulders.]

Sure did! Guess we should try it more often, huh?

[He looks back over their work, glad to see that it's already spruced up the room quite a bit. He takes a look inside the next box, and from there pulls out a couple sheets of window decals -- gingerbread, snowmen, elves, and the like -- and some large, plastic snowflakes that can be hung from the ceiling. There's also some holly and a sprig of mistletoe, huh.

...why did Rae get so many high-up decorations when Ven is so short...]

Wow, she was pretty thorough.

[After a little more digging, he finds some plastic-wrapped pots of flowers, which make him feel better; he can reach the counter, at least.]

I can get these if you wanna do the windows!

[Yuna watches him as he unpacks each decoration. She can't help but smile and for a moogle, high up decorations wouldn't be that much of a problem.]

Sure. Any particular way I should set them up?

[She might try and make a scene though with what she has random placement might look better.]

I can also help with the snowflakes and mistletoe.

[Since she's like two inches taller than him.]

Nah, any way should be fine! I'm sure you'll make it look nice.

[At the mention of hanging up the mistletoe, however, Ven hesitates, giving the shop a sweeping glance; then he hesitates some more and glances over it again.]

Uh... yes? But maybe... somewhere that's kind of out of the way? Y'know, just so it's not...

[Obnoxious. Or constantly a problem. Or does that sound mean-spirited? It could just get very awkward very fast okay]

[Yuna laughs softly while twirling the little plant between her fingers.]

Guess you don’t want to be kissed?

[Her tone is light as she teases him but she’ll leave it at that. She understands his nervousness about the plant since many feel the same way. Her mismatched eyes flick around the room before stepping over towards one of the windows.]

How about here? It’s against the wall, not in a doorway and you can see it from outside. It’ll look nice.

[And only those standing by the window will get trapped by it.]

Not -- it's not that, really, I just...

[He trails off, looking more uncertain than embarrassed.

He nods his approval of her selection, and then after a moment tries to finish his thought.]

I guess... I just think it's kind of weird, in a way. For it to be so... casual?

[Then again, he's never kissed anyone, so he's not sure if it's supposed to be a big deal or whatever. Books make it seem that way.]

Mm... I dunno. Not that I think it's a bad tradition or anything.

[Ah, right, plants. He gets to setting those up along the counter, as planned.]

[Yuna listens as she hangs the curious little plant. She can understand it because it’s meant to show love, even to your enemies though she’s already kissed her enemy and it had been awful.]

I think you’re right. It shouldn’t be so casual but I think a kiss on the cheek, forehead or hand isn’t so bad.

[She looks over with a smile.]

My father used to kiss me on the forehead and my cousin would at times steal a kiss on my cheek. I know it’s silly but I think it’s something families do… so maybe if it’s family. It isn’t so bad.

[At least that’s what she reasons. She doesn’t really like getting caught beneath it unknowingly.]

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[Open] something about lovely weather and sleigh rides together

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