[Mojave]

Across the tavern from the tall stranger Diego was working the dance floor switching partners, dancing with multiples, going solo, whatever the music and his whim dictated. He was at it for quite a while, long enough to catch the attention of the stranger. Normal people couldn't dance that vigorously for that long and many of his partners had retired to tables or couches to catch their breath. As he turned back to watch Diego he saw the young man would dance with anyone, male or female or undeterminable, though he was noticeably more hands on with female partners. The song changed and the young man was starting a solo dance when the stranger stepped in, taking cues from the smaller man to dance with him.

[crow]

"... that's him coming this way," Soda finished awkwardly.

"Speak up sooner," Xinyi hissed. In a detached little corner of his mind, Alex thought, that wasn't fair. Soda tried. It was just that neither of them listened. But mostly he was preoccupied with staring, and then trying to look like he hadn't been staring. Under the erratic lights of the Goblin on a Friday night, Jay's good looks had been a vague thing, easier to brush aside. Or maybe he had just forgotten. But here, now, it was easy to see why the girls liked him. Alex's breath caught despite himself, though he told himself it wasn't just that Jay was cute--- they had just been talking about him, after all.

Gods, he hoped Jay hadn't heard any of it.

"Are you okay?" The smile faltered from Jay's face, and Alex hurriedly managed one of his own.

"Yeah! Yeah, I'm, uh, I'm good. How... What are you doing here?" Too late, he realized how much it sounded like an accusation. Xinyi's words from earlier didn't help. 'He's not following you around, is he?'

But Jay didn't seem to think anything of it. "Oh, I'm just here with some friends," he said. He glanced behind him, and for a moment, Alex tried to follow his gaze. He had just caught the eye of a big bouncer-looking type when Jay moved to cut off his field of vision, eyes sparkling with a mischievous look. "Hey, this works out, actually. I've been looking for a reason to duck out."

"You don't like your friends?" Soda interjected. He was looking in that direction too, but judging from the confusion on his face, he hadn't figured out which ones they were.

Jay's smile turned into a grimace. "Well, my brother's here with his boyfriend, and..." He made a helpless, pained gesture, and understanding dawned on Soda's face.

[Jaykobell]

It had been expected for them to appear tonight, being the last pair in the rotation. How unfortunate that they had been brought down so low as to try and rely on free gifts to keep on going on their journey. This truly wasn't her style, but traveling was not cheap — especially as a large group.

This place — this wasn't her style, either. She did have an appreciation for music, but classical and more melodic genres were her preferred kind. This sort of disco, rave, techno — they all sounded the same to her, electrical noises that didn't evoke much musical feeling.

"Where's that counter for the prizes?" she asked her partner, a taller man almost all in white who stood out like a sore thumb in this environment. She waited for a second, but when she didn't get an answer, she looked up at her partner. "Leo?" she called out, only for her to notice him looking towards the heart of the rave, one foot tapping to the beat.

She blinked. "Are you into this?" Besides his very serious, business-like appearance, she knew for a fact that his tastes usually matched hers.

He also blinked upon being questioned, and he looked down at his partner, a small, sheepish smile on his face. "Ah, well..." he hesitated, putting a hand to the nape of his neck, "a little bit," he admitted. "I'm curious, at least."

She tilted her head curiously. "Well, I'm not dancing," she said quickly, "but you can check things out while I get the prize," she offered. "Whatever it is."

Her aversion to dancing made Leocadio look at her curiously, but he didn't question it. "I won't be dancing either," he promised with a small, quiet laugh.

[Kylo]

Orion wasn't normally comfortable with such large, and loud, crowds but he was curious about this event and the mysterious gifts so he had shown up anyway. Xanatos did not know he was here and Orion was honestly glad he didn't. Xanatos tended to suggest they do rather...lewd activities once he was drunk in public and it made Orion just a touch uncomfortable. Not to mention the man was rather busy and if you asked Orion, was planning something.

Regardless of his motives, Orion was here and nibbling on cookies now.

[FrostWynd]

When might those free gifts start being handed out? Tenebrae was beginning to wonder this as he started busily munching on some random bit of food he'd manged to get his hands on. So far, nothing had actually come about involving the gifts he'd been hearing of, and he did at some point take notice of all those boxes with numbers on them on one side of the room. Presumably they were part of a countdown for how many days were left until Christmas, and he was burning with curiosity over what was hiding inside of them. Though with so many eyes around, he wasn't feeling particularly inclined to actually try sneaking a peek like he usually would in these sorts of situations.

So for now, he would just have to wait...

[Adelie]

Despite the cookies being good and the punch being just a little stronger than expected - she wasn't much of a drinker, but years of social obligation had taught her to hold her alcohol - she was bored. Feigning interest could only get her so far.

Just as she was about to start looking for an exit - and hopefully one that got her back to her place and not whatever bizarro world these people came from - she overheard a few other guests talking about waiting for gifts.

That perked her right back up. She'd be happy to wait if she were getting something out of it.

[Silver]

Iggy pulled her face out of the bowl of snacks and used her long tongue to lick all of her face at once. She used her claws to rub the crumbs off her face and left them strewn about the table. Lucky for her, nobody seemed to be watching what she was doing. They were all too busy with their own problems to care about a cat sized dragon chowing down on bowls of party mix.

All of those pretzels and chips in the mix made her really thirsty, so she hopped onto the bar. She quickly found an abandoned drink and looked around to see who it might belong to. When she was fairly sure that nobody would come back to claim it, she started lapping it out of the glass with her tongue. She tried as hard as she could to tip the glass toward herself and get the little bit left at the bottom, but she fumbled it and dropped the glass, shattering it on the counter. She made a quick escape and slid back under one of the tables.

[zapdragon555]

Johan watched him for a long moment, a small smile tugging his mouth as Karl fumbled with the paper wrap on the napkin-bundled silverware. After a few beats of silence, he spoke. "My own safety is neither here nor there," he began, and could see Karl start to bristle slightly as he comprehended what was said. "But I'd never purposefully put you in danger."

Karl paused, then frowned, ripping the paper at last and retrieving the spoons. "That's no good, either," he murmured, his brow furrowing as he held out a spoon to Johan.

"Well, it's the way that it is," Johan countered gently dipping his spoon into the stew and bending forward to take a bite.

Karl's brow tilted further. "And what would you do if I wasn't here, then?" he barked, though he still kept his voice down as best he could. Johan didn't answer for a long time, just eating, then finally murmured a soft,

"The stew will get cold if you don't eat up."

[Claiming Dec. 18]
(Also if anyone wants to interact with these two they can, but please put a sort of "@Zap" at the end or beginning of your post so I can tell!)

[Freezair]

Lottie wasn't sure what to make of this... music. Christmas music as she knew it was supposed to be... cheery. Full of singing children and joying to the world! This music was... strange. Rhythmic. To her, it almost felt alien. And CERTAINLY not Christmassy.

But she looked around her as she warmed herself from the cold and she saw... happiness. Smiling faces. Children laughing, dancing, and eating treats. Adults warming themselves with hot drinks and swapping stories. And everywhere, people fetching presents off the walls.

Maybe Christmas could be more than one thing at once.

[Jaden Wolf]

"Oh, I'm so glad you're here, Momma!" chirped Toriel excitedly, "it just wouldn't be the holidays without you!"
"Of course, kiddo," her mother answered as they entered the tavern, "though I'm sorry Merah wouldn't come."

Tori seemed to falter for a moment before shrugging flippantly. "Oh she's just being Merah, as usual."

Selka raised an eyebrow but said nothing. She wasn't oblivious to the state of her children, even if she wasn't home the majority of the year. Rather than answer, she wove through the crowd as one accustomed to them do, finding a table near a window for the two of them. "Well, in any case, I have presents for the both of you. And Una and Deuce, if they want them," she finally said.

Tori's face brightened, and she practically threw herself into the seat. "So where are they from? Where have you been? What have you been doing?" She was eager to know everything about her adventurous mother, and honestly, she always had the best stories anyway. For a little while, at least, she could forget about the strained relationship between her mother and sister.

[Sarah]

"You know you didn't have to stick around," Zli said. Sev hadn't seen him approach. Beside him Raziel scoffed.

"I'm not leaving you here unsupervised," Sev replied dryly. He gave Raziel a look. The last thing he needed were his top advisers to cause a scene. There was no telling the trouble Zli could get into. Annabelle had been clear when she'd said she wanted to keep a low profile and for once Sevastion agreed with her reasoning.

[Mojave]

If the sudden appearance of someone who could only be described as a beefcake threw him off, Diego gave no outward sign. After the song ended, he gave the man a fist bump with a laugh before walking off, disappearing into the crowd. Satisfied that his hunch had been confirmed, the tall man returned to the bar for another drink, refreshed after his snack.

In the bathroom, Diego rinsed the sweat from his face and neck. The last dance had been vigorous, his surprise dance partner not only keeping pace with him but challenging. There had been moments he honestly didn't know what to do because his partner's moves were just.... bad. On top of that he was unusually tired. He checked his watch and shrugged, he'd been dancing for about two hours straight. Weird, he thought to himself as he left the bathroom. Maybe he just needed a drink.

[SpringsSong]

Xyshari and Lana continued to hang at the edge of the dance floor, watching as people danced - if it could be called that - in the crowded space on the floor. People entered and left at will, and there seemed to be a good number of drinks flowing.

And speaking of drinks, Xyshari was tucking into her second of the drinks she had sampled upon her arrival, while Lana was still on her first.

"This really is good," Xyshari said. Lana nodded in agreement, looking around for some snacks. She excused herself briefly, went and found some cookies, and brought them back to Xyshari, whose eyes lit up brightly.

[Jaykobell]

Sigh. Here he was again. Everybody from the group had come to this place, so it only made sense that they restart the sequence. That didn't mean he would dance.

He hung by one of the counters full of various little finger foods. He had little interest, but he did nibble on some things. Free food was also free food, and he ought not to scoff at anything offered for free. That, and surely, time would pass quickly. Soon enough, he would get today's prize, and he could go back home.

And then some other unlucky member of their group could come and pick up the prize the next day.

[crow]

Soda's sympathy transformed him; he placed a hand on Jay's shoulder, and with a look of deep commiseration, said, "That's rough, buddy. You can chill with us. We're not doing anything special."

The look Xinyi was giving Soda now was positively unreadable, though not in the stoic sense. It was more as if they couldn't decide whether to be incredulous, aghast, disparaging, or maybe some kind of unhappy disappointed emotion that hadn't been invented yet.

Alex was caught between the two--- really the three--- of them. Part of him wanted to say yes, and part of him was worried about what Xinyi would say to him later if he did. But the decision seemed to have been made for him before he could get a word in edgewise. "Sit here," said Soda, pulling out the chair at the table between himself and Alex.

"Don't mind if I do," said Jay, sliding easily into the chair. He took a look around at each of them in turn, then smiled. "So, you guys ordered any drinks yet?"

"Oh shit, that was me," said Soda, half rising out of his seat, but a hand stopped him before he could run off again.

"Don't," said Xinyi, their tone firm and weary all at once. "I'll get 'em."

"Are you sure? You said you didn't want to do any work toni---" Soda began, but by then Xinyi was already gone.