Christmas Log | The Gift Exchange

[folkscallmewander]

Who: Everyone who signed up for the Secret Santa!
What: Party where everyone can exchange gifts.
When: M11 D4
Where: A conference room at the hotel
Notes & Warnings: Feel free to tag around!

There's a sign at the lobby stating that the winter holiday party for the imports is in one of the back rooms.

Wander convinced the rest of the staff to let him take some leftover bagels and other snack foods from the guest breakfast, and there's a small table in the middle of the room with the food.

Comments

Closed to Belloq

[folkscallmewander]

For most of the get-together, Wander is distracted by everyone else and checking that no one touched the box he carted into the room. His gift was fragile, after all.

The moment he spotted Belloq, he rushes over to give him a hug.

"You're here! C'mon, ya need to open your present!"

[archeologue]

Belloq isn't the sort of person who often receives hugs, so Wander takes him by surprise. Still, he puts on a charming, agreeable grin even as he thinks that Wander's large eyes and hairy body make him look rather like a living incarnation of a South American demon spirit. Only small. And orange. And smiling a lot more.

"Merci, Wander."

[folkscallmewander]

A few more seconds of hugging, and Wander lets go of Belloq, only to grab him by the hand. "It's right over there," he points to a corner of the room with a fairly large box about Wander's size resting on the floor.

"It took a bit of time to save enough for this, but I hope you really love it!"

[archeologue]

Belloq looked at the box, then at Wander, then back at the box.

"How on earth did a little one like you carry this in?" he asked as he approached the box and ran a hand over the top, curiously.

[what_ho_jeeves]

Bertie peered around the room searching for Agent K. To everyone and anyone nearby him he said, "What ho, I'm looking for a man named K. Just K. Dashed short name. It must have been pleasantly easy to learn to spell as a school child. I still remember poor Beauregard Aloysius Buringham-Feldings at Malvern House Preparatory, who took three weeks to get his right.

"Anyway, I have a present for this K chap, so if you see him send him on this way."

[athousandcurses]

"Kay?" Grainne repeated to herself, giving the room a glance before shrugging. "I haven't seen him yet. He is a little hard to miss though, he's the chief security officer for the resort. Rather nice man, if you ask me."

[what_ho_jeeves]

"Is he? Nice, that is. I've seen him about but we've never been properly introduced. He looks a rather dour sort of chap, with a face like it was carved from granite, like it walked off the set from that mountain they're carving up over in North Dakota. Or was it South Dakota? I never can tell the difference. I can't imagine why one would need two Dakota's anyway, it's not as if there's very much in either of them."

He shuffled nervously.

"I do hope he approves of the presents I chose for him."

[athousandcurses]

Grainne blinked owlishly at Bertie, completely lost on what he was talking about with mountain carving.

"He has a lot of burdens, I would guess. He's always seemed a little bit lonely." Something Grainne would understand. Doing what one had to and being lonely as a result. "Have you gotten anything yet, Bertie?"

[most_feared]

And Kay, for his part, didn't show. Why, because Kay was relatively stunted when it came to socialization, and somewhere along the line recently the time that he allotted for personal space was used up.

But what did happen was one of the resorts bots came by, and after offering to refresh Bertie's drink, also added in his almost Jeeves-like formal Jeffer's voice, "Chief Kay sends his apologies as he was unable to attend. However I can have his gift delivered up to his room."

[what_ho_jeeves]

"Oh," he said, not very eloquently, surprised by the message.

"Yes. Right-o. I bought him a present and then wasn't certain whether or not he'd care for it, so then I bought him a second present as well." He held out the two presents.

"Make sure he gets them both and give him a season's greetings and all that. Oh, and sing him a Christmas carol or two."

And with that Bertie let the two gifts be taken away. One, a crimson tie. The other, a copy of one of Bertie's favourite books. Not an improving book, like the Spinoza Jeeves read, but an entertaining book.

Closed to Elle

[archeologue]

Belloq sought out the diminutive girl to present his gift to. The flat white box was tucked under his arm, tied with a red ribbon and bow.

When he found her, he bowed politely and held out the package.

"Joyeux Noël, my dear. Merry Christmas."

[quixotically]

Elle blinks when she's approached by someone she takes a moment to recognize. This is... Belloq, right, one of the explorers. Ah... Oh, he must've drawn her name. Still, she ends up finding herself turning a bit pink at his presentation. Eh... A bow? Really? She's not... um, okay.

"Th-Thank you." She takes the package slowly. Uh. What should she do? Should she... bow back? What? She settles for standing there awkwardly for another moment before speaking up again. "Figure we're supposed to be opening these here?"

[archeologue]

"That seems to be the idea, yes."

He nods to the package.

"Go on, then."

[quixotically]

"Um... Okay."

She tugs on one of the tails on the bow, slowly at first, so that she can shift her hold on the box so that once it's untied, what's inside won't just fall in the floor. She idly makes a mental note to tie the bow around ED-E so that he can look festive, too. The eyebot hovers to the side and up a bit as though to look over her shoulder at the gift as she works the box open.

[athousandcurses]

Grainne brought the gift she had made and wrapped, feeling a bit awkward. She honestly didn't really understand the nature of the gift exchange. Well, she knew a little bit about holidays in the modern world but not too much on the history, though she could guess. But it wasn't familiar and she didn't know any of the proper social cues, or what was expected of her.

So she stood awkwardly in a corner giving everyone that came a curious passing over. She was waiting for Ben in particular, and she hoped she had guessed well enough for his gift, given that she had one conversation with him and knew only a little about him.

At least, every so often when someone walked by, she would brighten up a little and smile at them, "Hello."

[usfuzzies]

Ben had bought a present-- it was sitting on his workstation, unwrapped-- and promptly forgot all about the exchange. He was chewing over some printouts on his way back to his room when the noise in the conference room got his attention, and his face was blank and puzzled when he looked in.

What do-?

[athousandcurses]

Trying to sneak by a Servant with hyper powered senses? No way... Grainne spotted him looking in and waved at him, then made her way over.

"Bennett?" She asked, looking a bit nervous, before she held out his gift. It was soft and loosely wrapped with a thin piece of cloth. "Happy Yule."

Inside was a well made and very soft simple leather vest, with what seemed more than the usual amount of pockets-- and inset at that--, lined with a silky material, and had leather tooling along the seams in a vaguely Celtic-style pattern. It shimmered slightly from the enchantment she placed on it, and though he probably couldn't tell just by looking at it unless he had magic ability, any arrows that found their way into the vest would stop as if they hit a wall.

[usfuzzies]

"Thank you," he said, frowning, taking the cloth wrapped package. Christmas, of course, but he hadn't been expecting any presents.

-no, wait, of course, he'd forgotten he signed up for-

"The gift exchange! Oh, the little fellow's present's in the lab." He knocked his palm gently into his forehead. "Thank you, Grainne-- I forgot we were even doing this."

[ratkicker]

Jade barely knew anyone here, so there wasn't much point in going around greeting everyone. She drifted towards the food table and back to one of the walls, observing the others. If someone she knew passed by, she gave him a quick greeting and went back to waiting for her gift receiver.

At least, she spotted Tuco. "Hey." She handed him a festive-looking bag stuffed with red paper. "I hope you like it."

AKA K is a brat and fails at social.

[most_feared]

Kay doesn't actually label his present as being from him, nor does he seek Jade out specifically. Perhaps if she does the math in who is missing and who got what, she might figure out that it's him.

But he sends his via one of the resort's robots, which shows up with a wrapped package and informs her in Jeffer's quaint, formal tone that a package was left for her.

Inside is a vintage camera, since antiques are a thing that he tends to lean towards. He hoped she would like it, even if he was sticking to the secret part of secret Santa and not actually making an appearance.

[ratkicker]

Jade, who has been spending most of the party leaning against a wall, eyes the man in the suit from a distance, who she automatically pegs as a bit suspicious, though not in the malevolent way. He seems to be more uneasy about being around people than most other quiet men in shades and formal black outfits, making her a bit curious as to what his job actually might be.

The robot finally makes its way over to her, and she pushes herself off the wall to pick up the package. The camera is very unusual: it's bulky, the zoom function is confusing, and it looks like it actually prints out pictures as you take them. Convenient, maybe, but those models haven't existed for hundreds of years.

Then again, Jade is holding a historic piece of technology, even if she has no idea how to use it.

ey bertie

[quixotically]

Elle wasn't exactly sure how to wrap the sweater that Grainne made, so... She ended up settling for sticking it in a bag and shoving tissue paper on top of it, something she noticed shopkeepers doing as a gift-wrapping option for their customers.

Which just leaves one more problem: finding Bertie. Elle, not for the first time, mentally curses being short as she stands on her toes, trying to figure out wherever it is he's gotten off to.

[what_ho_jeeves]

Fortunately for Elle, Bertie was very tall, and loud, and hard to miss for long.

He was, right now, trying to convince one of Jeffer's bots to harmonize "God Rest Ye Merry, Gentlemen" with him and singing the part in his efforts to encourage. The bot was giving its best (rather reluctantly), but Jeffers was not adept at rising his voice in joyful song.

[quixotically]

Oh, good! There he is. Elle immediately heads in his direction, but her pace starts to slow as she starts to realize what he's doing. Or, well. Maybe that's the wrong phrase to use, because she doesn't quite get it. She knows he's trying to get the robot to sing along with him, but... uh... Why?

"What are you doing?" Elle asks after she's come to a stop behind him. Even as she voices her question, ED-E bobs in the air excitedly behind her and lets out a few whistles that just so happen to be the next few notes in the song.

[what_ho_jeeves]

"What ho...Miss Days, isn't it? I was trying to add to the holiday spirit but this...errant...error...ersatz! that's the word I want, this ersatz valet isn't up to snuff."

He brightens as he looks at ED-D. "I say! Your flying round whatsits seems to know the tune. Perhaps it might accompany me in a rendition."