joy to the world, we have some peace and quiet

[wrfm-mods.livejournal.com]

Who: everyone ever \o/
What: Christmas all over the world
Where: everywhere \o/
When: Christmas

It was perfect. It was Christmas morning and for one day there was peace throughout the universe.
There were presents to be open, feasts to be had and company to enjoy.


Merry Christmas!




[mod note: so to keep this at least a little neat for viewing pleasure, there'll be separate threads for each world and if you want; location. And all comments would go under each of that. . A sample with Radiant Garden will be posted before you guys even start tagging Also~ we're gonna try something new! Action tags will be allowed for those who want to use 'em. For those who don't know what they they're basically what we use in the crack room at times. The [I am doing such and such] 'blah blah blah' type tags. HAVE FUN]

Comments

[songbird9.livejournal.com]

"Oh, surely you can come up with something creative. You seem to have an amazing ability to retain most of your mental functions, despite all the head trauma you attract."

[epauranonavere.livejournal.com]

He tilted his head, pretending to be in deep thought over her comment. Then he moved quickly, half-tossing Song over his shoulder and picking her up, ignoring any protests she would make. "At the end of the day, I'll just have to go for the old Neanderthal move and drag you off."

He quickly crossed the space between the couch and the tree before setting her down. "You just want me to get a bunch of pine needles in my hair looking for this, don't you?"

[songbird9.livejournal.com]

"Eep!"
She didn't struggle. Well, not after the initial flail of surprise. It was hardly a comfortable position to be in, but the humor of the whole scene made it more than worth it.

By the time he set her down, she was wearing that familiar, slightly maniacal grin. "Yes, because then I'd have to pluck the needles out, and you would be at my mercy."

[epauranonavere.livejournal.com]

"That scares me more than any Heartless possibly could." He glanced at the presents beneath the tree. "Do I get a hint about where it is or do I get to open each of the presents individually and just claim whatever I like the most?"

[songbird9.livejournal.com]

"It's not like I'd do any permanent damage, after all the trouble I've gone through to save you," she pointed out with the usual lilt of playfulness heavy on her voice. "I had to argue with Lilith for your sake."

Then, in a matter-of-fact voice that sounded downright emotionless after her teasing tone, she said, "small box with your name on it, wrapped in brown paper covered in doodles. It's hard to miss once you see it."

[epauranonavere.livejournal.com]

"She can be stubborn like that," he replied, and it almost sounded as if there were a faint accent coloring his words. But he didn't seem to notice as he ducked down, peering beneath the tree for a few seconds before quietly murmuring "a-ha" and reaching for something.

He nearly lost his balanced overreaching for it, but managed to come away mostly unscathed except for a few pine needles that had fallen when he tried to catch himself. He laughed as he looked at the little box, turning it over in his hands before beginning to unwrap it. "You definitely had too much fun decorating."

[songbird9.livejournal.com]

The accent didn't quite surprised her... but she did eye him carefully for a moment, while he was busy going after the present.

"It seemed more interesting than regular old wrapping paper." Each little doodle was something different. Some made sense, and some seemed to have been done at random. A bird, a sailing ship, a kitten, a heart formed out of spirals, a wolf howling at the moon...

Under the paper was a white cardboard box without any markings, and inside the box was an orb of glass ringed by a thick band of copper, with a copper dragon inside the orb and some sort of slot on the band with tiny buttons on either side.
The whole thing could be held in Josiah's palm.

[epauranonavere.livejournal.com]

He unfolded the paper carefully, a small, leftover trait from his family of never destroying the wrapping paper. When he opened the box, he blinked at the small glass orb inside and then grinned.

"Is this your way of saying that I need a bubble too?" he asked before wrapping an arm around Song's waist and pulling her close. "Thank you."

[songbird9.livejournal.com]

She smiled and leaned into the one-armed hug.

"Funnily enough, I hadn't thought of that. It's a world compass. My world compass. You travel more than I do now, and much farther, so it'll be more use to you than it is to me."

She took it carefully from him and held it so that he could see as she pushed buttons and turned knobs, demonstrating how to select the names of worlds in the slot, and how to make the dragon turn to point in different directions.

[epauranonavere.livejournal.com]

He watched as she demonstrated how the world compass worked, taking mental notes so he wouldn't be left confused later on how to get the thing to work. Fortunately, the little device wasn't one of those new gadgets that always seemed to break around him (or just left him in an eternal state of frustrated confusion).

He liked it - in all honesty, it was easy enough to use, big enough not to lose, and since it was from Song, he was going to try his damnedest not to break it.

He glanced back down at her. "Looks like I'll have to do better than a Santa hat now."

[songbird9.livejournal.com]

"I have enough junk and random gadgets. Presents of that sort are unimportant. Now... if you want to give me something that I'll really enjoy, you could stay a while longer," she said boldly.

[epauranonavere.livejournal.com]

Josiah frowned and pulled away just slightly. "Song..." he began, ready to give her a number of reasons why he couldn't stay. But hadn't Chase already asked him to stay awhile longer too? For all of his arguments, he really couldn't find a solid reason not to stay for a week or two longer. Well, other than his own personal objections.

He sighed, resting his chin on top of Song's head. "Somehow, I get the feeling if I say yes, it'll be harder to leave when it does come time for me to."

[songbird9.livejournal.com]

She echoed his sigh and closed her eyes, enjoying his closeness. This, for once, felt the same as a moment with Orpheus. It was one more detail for her to contemplate later, but she was beginning to think that it had something to do with feelings of certainty and uncertainty, among other things. Her own heart never ceased to present her with puzzles...

"... It might be easier, though, once you're gone. More memories of your own to sustain you." And to bring you back, she didn't say.

[epauranonavere.livejournal.com]

"Heh, I guess that's true," he said quietly. He paused for just a few moments before adding, "I guess another week or two wouldn't hurt. Lilith probably wouldn't mind either."

[songbird9.livejournal.com]

Her lips curved in a faint smile. "Thank you. I wanted to spend some time with Lilith anyway. But for now..."

She slipped around behind him and plucked a pine needle from his hair. "I have a little job to do, don't I?"
She waved the needle in front of him before tossing it against the trunk of the tree, where it would hopefully stay out of the way.

[epauranonavere.livejournal.com]

He blinked when she pulled a pine needle of his hair. "Dammit, I thought I had managed to avoid those," he grumbled. He ran a hand through his hair, causing a few more of the pine needles to come tumbling out. "Now this is just ridiculous."

[songbird9.livejournal.com]

She giggled and shook her head. "Maybe you haven't been attracting enough trouble lately. That magnetic energy of yours is getting desperate."

She returned to his side, though, as he seemed to have taken care of what pine needles had managed to assault him.

"Hey Josi, I have a question..." She sounded a little timid, but mostly just curious.

[epauranonavere.livejournal.com]

"So the universe is catching up on lost time?" he asked, making a face. "Wonderful - just when I thought I was out of the woods."

He peered at her curiously when the tone of her voice changed. "Hey Song, I may have an answer."

[songbird9.livejournal.com]

That response made her grin for a moment, before she started.

"I've just been thinking about the last year or two. Remembering moments. I dwell on the past too much." She caught herself about to start rambling again. It seemed to be turning into a bad habit. One that was recovered, not newly gained, as she'd had a tendency to talk this way before it all began. Funny to think that she was finally 'back to normal', for the most part...

"Anyway, I wondered..." She mirrored his curious look back at him. "When did you start to feel anything more than friendship towards me?"

[epauranonavere.livejournal.com]

He frowned at her question, and his eyes became slightly distant as he tried to make sense of the memories (and not-memories) that had filled up his mind in a space of a year and a half (and longer). Pinpointing the answer should have been the easiest thing in the world... if his memories weren't conspicuously blank in some areas and overwhelmed in others.

"Honestly? I'm not sure," he replied, a bit of guilt in his voice. "I love all of the Refugees like brothers and sisters, but I think with you..." He closed his eyes. Maybe it had been Atlantica, when she tried to break Calum's hold on him.

Or was it long before that? He remembered an almost overwhelming rage and despair when Xemnas had informed the Refugees that he had "killed" Song only weeks before that final battle, something different from the heartbreak that had occurred after Ray and Cheryle's stunt.

Still, the lack of memories in some places accompanied by the overlapping memories of Calum's life were beginning to give him a migraine. "It's been awhile," he admitted. "Just not quite sure when the definite date was."

[songbird9.livejournal.com]

She hadn't wanted to make him uncomfortable, and admittedly she hadn't thought that his memory problems would be an issue here. She just smiled a little reassuringly and shook her head.

"It's alright. I was just... startled, I suppose. We'd been so close, and I'd never noticed. Even with all that silly flirting and teasing on the community and such." Those were fond memories, and one of the reasons that she always wanted to laugh when Josiah crossed her mind.

"I always did find you sweet and kind of sexy," she admitted with a rather foxy grin. "Even before you started keeping company with a sex demon."

[epauranonavere.livejournal.com]

There were reasons why she had never known, but he kept his mouth shut, even as he had back then.

"Actually, I was just as surprised when you kissed me before I left," he said, shrugging slightly. "I didn't actually think that-" He stopped and then laughed. "I guess it doesn't really matter."

He looked a bit startled by her last words though, and despite the slight blush that appeared on his face, he joked, "What can I say? It's part of my natural charm."

[songbird9.livejournal.com]

She chuckled, very slightly, and felt a familiar wave of relaxed calm wash over her. It was the same effect he'd always had on her, since long before she'd ever realized anything romantic for him. Of course, 'realized' was the keyword here, as she was fairly certain that she'd had something of a crush for quite some time, buried and hidden behind her much more desperate feelings for Orpheus.

She stood up, and brushed a hand through his hair affectionately, as if picking out pine needles a minute ago hadn't been an excuse for exactly that.

"Well, you certainly look charming sitting there with the presents by the Christmas tree. Shall I find a nice big ribbon to complete the look?"

[epauranonavere.livejournal.com]

He gave her a deadpan look. "You're not putting a ribbon in my hair." The look quickly vanished with a wink. "Besides, I still haven't given you your present."

[songbird9.livejournal.com]

Her expression was one of pure innocence, and her voice matched it. "Well, I just thought, since we agreed that my present would be you staying a little while longer... that does make you the present, doesn't it?"