melodiesoflife | Getting in the Spirit (sort of)

WHO: Jack, whoever happens along
WHAT: Christmas-y shenanigans
WHEN: December
WHERE: All over the place in Aqures Ixen
Warnings: Jack swears like a sailor.

Decorating (Outside of A-01)

Jack's first few weeks in this strange new world sulking. Aside from the adoption of one of Terra's kittens, she kept to herself and holed up in her room when she could. Christmas was a human tradition, sure, but Jack hadn't really had time for ever celebrating the holiday and didn't see much of the point. She didn't have family and barely had any friends. None of them were even here, but her moogle was foolish in her persistence. Royale couldn't abide the idea of her Hero being a grinch and after a long few days of tense, profanity laden conversation the ex-con was coerced into doing something for the holiday season. It might have also been due to the fact that Royale had put up her own money to get Jack to do it.

Which was why any passers by of the house could see Jack, decked out in most of her pirate gear (and more importantly, the warm as hell coat that came along with it) balancing on a railing and hanging a garland over the door, singing as she worked.

I broke a bat on Jacob's head - somebody snitched on me
I hid a frog in Mordin's bed - somebody snitched on me
Spilled some ink on Miri's rug, I made Tali catch a bug
I hit Grunt with a rubber slug - somebody snitched on me

Oh, I'm getting nuttin for Christmas - Shepard and Santa are mad
I'm getting nuttin for Christmas 'cause I ain't been nuttin but bad...

Relaxing (At home in A-01)

She'd gotten suckered into taking this stupid cat and found herself enamored of the little shit - a little black and white monstrosity now named 'Hellion'. The kitten followed her (and to a lesser extent Johnny) everywhere and whined whenever she couldn't, scratching at doors and jumping at doorknobs to get the attention of the humans. Today, that meant trying to get on the counter where Jack was laying out ingredients for cookies. Three times, Jack removed Hel from the area and washed her hands only to catch the cat mid-ascention.

Finally, Jack shoved the little adventurer into the pocket of her coat - draped on the corner of the nearby pantry door and smiled smugly as she washed her hands before starting on the recipe that Royale gave her.

Ice skating

Its late enough that most of the children are home in bed when Jack first goes out to the ice. Late enough that she's happy that there is no one to witness her, no one besides her moogle anyway, as she moves ungainly and off balance for the first half an hour. Being able to move fluidly comes slow, and she can feel the bruises forming on her hip, her forearm and shoulders, the cold and adrenaline keeping the ache at bay. She goes down hard a fourth time, arms flying up to shield her face as she ptiches forward.

"FUCK!", she strikes the ice to punctate her frustration as Royale flutters over. "This is the last damn time you talk me into anything for the sake of Christmas spirit."

"But that time was so much better, kupo!"

"You're a shit liar, you know that?"

Wobbling as she got to her feet, she scowled at Royale, who hovered just ahead of her and kept the straight line to the edge blocked. Jack swatted at her in a 'shoo' motion and nearly unbalanced herself with it. The moogle simply dodged before swooping in to take her hand and gently began to pull. Jack scowled watching her little 'partner' flutter her wings a bit harder and sighed, rolling her eyes and pushing off lightly to follow her lead in slow, but smooth circles over the lake.

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Johnny walked into the kitchen holding a bag of groceries, surprised to see Jack working in there. He set the bag down on some unoccupied space on the counter.

"Huh. Never woulda figured you for a baker. Whatcha up to?"

A mew of protest came from behind him, and Johnny turned to see Hellion struggling from the inside of the coat pocket.

"I see someone's in the time out corner, too."

"I'm not," Stirring the wet ingredients, Jack gave Johnny a quick nod of acknowledgement. "Royale said it was tradition and when she found out I've never 'done' Christmas before she flipped her teeny fuckin wig."

Making these things by hand was a pain in the ass, but it had been the only way to get the moogle to stop making those awful puppy dog faces. Rolling her wrist a few times, she looked over at the scrap of paper with instructions.

"Apparently, these are ....holiday spice cookies. And Hel is on time out because she tried to pull the 'mommy, look at me' bullshit by jumping on the counter."

Edited 2015-12-16 14:39 (UTC)

Jack has started to tune out all of the Christmas caroling throughout the city, but a carol of a very different kind catches his attention. He slowly strolls over in the direction of the singing, with an amused look on his face. One eyebrow raises at the scene of a Pirate woman with a shaved head working on putting up decorations at Johnny's house.

Jack pauses, cocks a hip out to one side, and puts a hand on it. "Hel-lo..." And what have we here? "Good to see somebody's making D'Amico get in the spirit."

"Fuckin shame I'm doing it for my own benefit, huh?"

She gave a quick once over to the garland, before stepping off of the railing in a smooth stride. More secure footing attained, she shrugged the coat closer to her body and sized this newcomer up.

"You want somethin', Trouble? Or you just like chatting up strange women?"

Hmmm. "Mostly the latter," Harkness smirks, and eyes Jack up and down. "Especially if they're new to us, ah- Heroes, so to speak." Jack rolls his shoulders in a slow shrug. "Not my favorite name, but nobody's come up with a shorter term for 'people who are here from another world' yet."

"Jack Harkness," Jack offers his name.

"Damn, I must reek of being fresh meat if it's that obvious," she smirks back at him, expression dark but friendly all the same. It's a curious thing that he slips into a conversation and for a minute she wonders what got his attention. "Alien usually works, doesn't it? But just like the people in charge to make things fucking difficult."

The mental tally of reasons why he's staying begin to dwindle as the conversation continues. Obvious ones being dog eared when he gives his name.

"Well. Shit," For a second she grins wide, too amused at the coincidence. He could be some charming psycho, testing waters for his next mark. He's got manners at least, so she'll wait to ignore hers.

"Jack Nought."

Edited 2015-12-17 04:21 (UTC)

There's the people who get into the spirit because people who push them into it and then there were the people who found it on their own. Honestly the Santa job was doing a lot to lift Cloud's spirit, but after the past few months he welcomed the warm feelings it gave him.

Cloud had been busy posing as Santa at one of the local shops, doing his part in asking kids what they wanted and also to help promote the Christmas village. It was only a half day shift so he was headed home to relax a bit when he passed the house and the pirate busy at work.

"Ho ho ho! That's an interesting song." Sorry Jack, as long as he's in this costume and there might be kids around he can't break character!

Scooping Hel out of the pocket, Johnny attempted to hold onto her while she tried squirming her way over to see what was going on at the table and counter. Not that she wasn't glad to see him, too.

"Yeah? No Christmas where you are, or you just not the festive type? I'm not exactly into it myself, but I've definitely had to do all this stuff with my mom when I was a kid. No way I was gettin' out of that stuff. She's way into Christmas."

"Never had anybody around who celebrated." It was half a lie, but to be fair she'd known Shepard for the wrong part of the year to find that out. "Seems nice though. Figured I give it a shot. When in Rome or some shit."

Dumping out one bowl into the other, she put the empty one in the sink and stared at the mixture, arching an eyebrow as the flour began to absorb the moisture. Huh. Figuring she could give her arm the break for a few minutes, she turned to Johnny and reached to pet Hel. The cat purred but didn't quite give up squirming and Jack found herself smiling.

"So all this fuckin' work for one day? What's the point?" Not that she was asking him, it was more like pondering about it out loud.

"Man, I always wondered the same thing. All the shit people do for one day of Christmas blows my mind. All the shoppin', decorations, cooking, cleaning, traveling..." He rolls his eyes.

"Y'know, this means I've been here almost a whole year now. I showed up in December. I guess that probably means there's some folks I oughta be buyin' gifts for then, this time around." He's managed to make some good friends in the last year here. Too bad he never makes much money with his line of work.

Jack paused in her hanging, arching her brow at whatever poor dude decided to stop at her doorstep for bringing Christmas cheer. Blinking once, her curiousity was immediately stoked - even under all the holiday bullshit she noticed the brightness in his gaze. The last person she saw with eyes that blue was Grunt. Stepping down off of the banister fluidly, she grinned toothily meeting his eyes.

"Gotta warn the kiddies about what happens when you're a fu-"she hestiated slightly, eyes cutting to the side to look for any children who may have been following him." -uggin' brat."

It was a shit recovery and they both knew it, but thankfully there were no impressionable minds around to hear here.

"So what brings you to my doorstep 'Santa'?"

"Well, good on you for making it. Seems like a year is a long time to be stuck in a place like this."

Washing her hands, Jack set back to mixing the cookies - scoffing slightly at the ideas of gifts.

"I thought the whole point of the day was goodwill towards man or some shit?"

Cloud's smile quirked into a near chuckle as Jack corrected her own language. Even though there weren't any kids around but he still appreciated the gesture. One on one he wouldn't have been offended by the language, but the care she took was telling.

"Just heading home for a little break. So much to do but even Santa needs a little time for lunch or a nap. So, you're expecting to be on the naughty list this year?"

"That's what people say, but it's all about shopping for shit, at least where I'm from. Not to say there isn't charity stuff happening, but it's the people punching and trampling each other during a Black Friday sale that makes the eleven o'clock news. At least here, they seem to have a lot more goin' on. And no Black Friday sales."

Johnny's just a tad on the cynical side.

"People can have good will for free all year 'round. Getting 'em to shop like a bunch of wild animals let loose takes a special occasion."

Getting in the Spirit (sort of)

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Decorating

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Re: Decorating

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Re: Decorating

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