plottingchristmas-blog

[plottingchristmas-blog]

Giving up? Aren't these things important to her?

"Sure thing, I guess. Didn't think you would quit after looking around one freakin' bench though."

He didn't know why he was provoking her. Maybe he was just too stubborn to give up with nothing but wasted time to show for it.He didn't give a damn if the card was mangled or something, but he had already spent ten minutes looking around a bench. It seemed ridiculous to give up there.

"If there was any wind, the damn thing is probably stuck in a bush or something," he muttered. 

A Not So Quiet Corner (Santa || Nozomi)

{♪} ❝Yeah… I could read for you if you want…❞

Nozomi just didn’t feel like talking anymore. With every minute that passed, she could feel that little bit of hope ebb away inside her. It really was proving to be useless, she didn’t know why she bothered trying anymore. She hoped she would retain some bit of spiritual power within her, it just meant those attuned to that card would be lost. 

With a deep sigh, she finally looked up at the white-haired stranger. She could feel herself on the verge of tears, but with what little strength she had, she blinked them away. ❝…Thanks for your help.❞  

[plottingchristmas-blog]

"Yeah, sure, just a sec," Santa said to the kid, and turned back to to his boss.

"Hey, we've got another one of those scavenger hunts."

She just waved him to go and turned back to her computer.

"Well kid, let's see this thing. Most of them take a while, so they just send us out. I'm pretty sure that's why they have so many helpers here today."

Santa snatched the sheet of paper and read the list, letting out a low whistle. It was long, and mostly pointless. He knew where most of the offices were, and how to find the ones he didn't. And he was positive he never needed to know where half of these things were. 

"What a load of crap this is. The Reference Catalogs are here in the library. We should start there. Unless you wanna waste time."

campus q&a ☆ santa & slaine

Upon arriving at the desk, Slaine was a bit surprised at the number of students who were also tasked with the campus scavenger hunt. Of course, any student was capable of completing the form by themselves, but what would have been the point of free help? Any student in their right mind would have immediately paired up with a friend or asked for help in completing the task. Slaine, being a student thinking straight and a little too conscious about completing his work on time, currently found himself at the help desk.

"That’s a relief," he remarked, a hint of relief in his voice. Glancing at the clock overhead, he had a little over two hours to complete the task assigned until the next time his lecture met. From the map of campus he saw earlier, the entire scavenger hunt should only last around an hour. It was a reasonable estimate until he skimmed the sheet over once more—on second thought, perhaps he needed the two hours and then some. He made a mental note to thank whoever thought of questions with multiple parts.

"In that case, may I ask for your assistance on this assignment?" the sandy-haired student asked, sliding the paper forward on the wooden desk. Despite the sheer amount of questions printed on the paper, Slaine hoped he could finish the task within his originally predicted time frame.

[plottingchristmas-blog]

♞

"Oh yeah, you really told him, didn't you?"

Santa snorted and rolled his eyes.

[plottingchristmas-blog]

♞

"If you leave now, you lose everything."

Santa shuffled up the deck of cards again, just behind the pile of odds and ends they were using as chips. 

[plottingchristmas-blog]

♞

"I'm telling you - the guy was a complete stranger, just walked up and gave me the bag."

[plottingchristmas-blog]

"Tell me!"

"I got drunk at a company holiday party once, (which was especially bad cause I was a minor) and ended up picking a fight with the biggest guy there."

"Ended up usin' a real cheap shot to down him before I booked it outta there."

[plottingchristmas-blog]

Tell me c:

"When I was in fourth grade, some kid made fun of my sister on the playground. I found him after school and broke his nose."

"You shoulda heard him squeal!"

[plottingchristmas-blog]

send a ♞ to my inbox

and i’ll generate a random sentence from this generator for my muse to say to yours

[plottingchristmas-blog]

Send 'Tell me' for my muse to confess to an ill deed they have committed in the past

[plottingchristmas-blog]

Then why don't you just have your cards tell you where the missing one is?

"That's, uh... certainly something. Do you... get interesting readings?"

He kept his sarcasm in his head and tried to be interested in her hobby as looked further out. If the wind had blown it away, there was a chance is could be anywhere, really. He had an idea of the direction it could have gone, but that would only help a little. He glanced over to her, seeing if she was going to give up her search or not.

If is blew away, it went that way. 

A Not So Quiet Corner (Santa || Nozomi)

{♪} Head low and still searching profusely, she answered the male from across the other side of the bench.

 ❝Extremely sure. I was using it right here before when I left—❞

But maybe Nozomi had lost it. As the male had said, the card must’ve simply blown away from a gust of wind, or maybe it was lying around somewhere on the walkway from where she had come from. These seemed like the most logical answer, since the pair was coming up short but… something still made her search near the bench.

❝I’m an occultist,❞ Nozomi said, ❝I read people’s fortunes using my cards.❞

[plottingchristmas-blog]

"You already said it. I said something about there being a festival, and she spent an hour interrogating me to see if I had a girlfriend. Got her off my case by agreeing to take some pictures for her."

To accentuate his point he took a photo of a couple before sliding his phone into his pocket.

"Sometimes I swear she makes me go to these things just to make me uncomfortable or something. She know's I don't do all this mushy stuff." Santa grimaced. "I don't think you can find a damn thing out here that isn't a balloon or heart shaped."

fish out of water || [Lightning & Santa]

She tilted her head, surprised to actually hear someone respond to her. “Not entirely,” she responded, though the slightest grin tugged at her lips. “Definitely wishing I was somewhere else though. I’m not entirely sure what possessed me to  come up here.” She’d known it would be fairly crowded, all those people who believed in the local legend..

At least she wasn’t the only one who didn’t want to be there in any case. It almost made her wonder who else out there didn’t want any part of this event, but had come anyway. He seemed to be taking pictures, so she could guess what he was doing there.

"No, I’m not waiting on anyone. I was just thinking my sister would like this sort of thing, but she’s back home in Bodhum." Serah definitely would have wanted to send up a balloon with the person she believed was her soulmate. This was her sort of thing, where Lightning would rather be across town.

Probably doing desk work, if she had any say in it. 

"What about you?"

[plottingchristmas-blog]

 First straight answer I've gotten out of this chick, goddamn. 

Santa forced down his frustration and attempted to compose himself. He had no reason to be pissed at this girl, and he needed her help. At the very least, he wanted to keep her somewhat happy.

"Look, I'm sorry. Just a little pissed that I came all the way out here to find a closed down slaughterhouse," he gave her a forced grin, "Could you please show me to the animal shelter?"

Santa Claws (Santa || Clover)

His reaction was the last thing Clover had expected. Perhaps he didn’t understand the incredible concept of comedy, though his lack of laughter was probably due to the urgency to locate an animal shelter.

Whatever the reasons were for the man to find the shelter, Clover couldn’t seem to find any reasons of her own to care about them. Her arms came down at her sides while her brows furrowed. Her voice was firm as she spoke. “Of course I do, but that’s no way to ask for directions. Didn’t your parents ever teach you some manners? A ‘please’ and ‘thank you’ would’ve been nice.”

[plottingchristmas-blog]

"Bullshit. I've walked past here too many times to have completely missed that."

He let the kid go and looked at him. How could someone just not notice a building? Of course, it was totally possible that he had somehow missed it, but Santa liked to think he was pretty observant. He refused to believe he could have missed something that big. 

"Whatever kid. Get outta here." Santa turned to cross the street to the store and muttered, "Kids these days don't pay attention to shit goddamn."

Something's Changed (Santa ||Momotarou)

[plottingchristmas-blog]

"Until 4 o'clock I am. What can I do for you?"

It took a concentrated effort on Santa's part to not make a flippant remark,like "Thank goodness you know how to read" or the like. Santa had gotten stuck behind the desk for part of an extra credit assignment to "better understand the role and duties of a customer service representative". 

That translated into hours behind a desk telling other students things they should already know. Occasionally, someone would need a form, or ask something Santa had no idea about. In those cases, he would send them to his manager, or send them away. 

A few of the other aides had been sent to help students with scavenger hunts, and he wasn't surprised to see the sheet this kid had. Santa didn't know if he wanted to get away from the desk and its monotony, or stay away from some idiot who didn't know the campus, and either way, he couldn't wait til the clock read four.

campus q&a ☆ santa & slaine

For the first day of classes, Slaine’s schedule was not all that bad. In the morning, he had an environmental science lecture and a chemistry lab, with the former a lot more engaging than the latter. Although most of the content introduced in both classes comprised of review, his notebooks were already filled with an array of colors and key points. Slaine could have easily looked over his old notes from his previous courses, but those sets of books were currently nestled in more than one cardboard move-in box. Both classes passed with relative ease, and before he knew it, Slaine headed towards his next class. 

Midday brought a physics lab turned five-minute class as a result of the professor’s absence. Slaine found himself momentarily confused by the elated expressions as he walked down the hallway. Upon arriving at his class, he noted the stack of syllabi and a lone assignment. Picking up the papers, Slaine then navigated his way through the rest of the hallway and out the building. With classes over for the day and nothing else to do, he started the walk to the library, reading over the assignment in hand.

Bellona College Scavenger Hunt! Find the following stated in the questions and fill out any additional questions below. 20 points. (Hint: For help, student guides are located at the library help desk).

Scavenger hunt? Isn’t that an activity usually done on the first day of school and not the start of the second semester? On the other hand, there were students��like him—who transferred in during the second semester with no knowledge of the placement of various campus buildings. Slaine’s knowledge of the campus so far only contained the science department and resource centers, or the only locations in which he would be frequenting the most. Then again, it wouldn’t hurt to learn the campus, even if he wouldn’t be frequenting nearly half of it.

After a few minutes’ walk, the sandy-haired student set to work, scanning the surrounding area for the help desk. It didn’t take Slaine long to find the desk with a “student guides here” sign taped to the front. Not another minute later, he was already situated in front of the desk, slightly raising his hand for the attention of one of the workers. 

"Excuse me," he began, skimming over the assignment sheet once more to confirm the location before looking back up. "Are you a student resource aide?"

[plottingchristmas-blog]

"Okay, okay, jeez. Man and woman, got it."

He renewed his search, circling outward from the bench, and scrutinizing the ground. Nothing stood out to him. A can peeked out from under some bushes, and a sheet of paper was fluttering across the ground, but nothing of interest appeared.

"Hey, are you sure you lost it here? I don't see anything resembling a card here. Either it blew away, or you lost it somewhere else. Why the hell were you out playing with cards on a day like this anyways?"

A Not So Quiet Corner (Santa || Nozomi)

{♪} As soon as she heard the other’s voice ringing out, she turned on her heel, her expression lighting up, but her happiness was replaced with disappointment. Even though the silver-haired stranger had a good point, she couldn’t stop herself from twitching in irritation.

❝I-it’s not a piece of paper,❞ she said, allowing herself to laugh stiffly, ❝It’s a card, and it has an image of a man and a woman.���

Her explanation was most condensed, but she simply was too preoccupied to provide a thorough one. ❝And it’s extremely important to me, it was given to me as a present. It just.. can’t go missing.❞

[plottingchristmas-blog]

"No, maybe not, but it wouldn't hurt to have some cash. I've spent enough of my life without any that I can guarantee that I would rather make some bank."

Santa stretched. This guy seemed way more formal than almost anyone he had ever met. He supposed holding such a high rank would do that to a person. Not too bad a guy either. Santa made a mental not to look him up later.

"But I don't think I could do much on the water. Boats really kill my sister."

Twinning! (Santa || Shirasu)

[plottingchristmas-blog]

"Probably feeling like a lonely asshole and wishing you were somewhere else."

Santa cracked a wry smile as  stepped up next to the woman. He had been passing by, and heard her comment. Someone else being alone here would make it a little more bearable. 

He wasn't particularly interested in the festival. If he hadn't have mentioned it to his sister, he wouldn't have even considered going. Sending up balloons to show your love... what a load of garbage. Probably would just screw the ecosystem when a bunch of rubber got into the water and the strings got eaten by birds or something. But Akane wanted pictures, so Akane was going to get pictures.

Santa snapped a couple of pictures with his phone before speaking again.

"Unless you're waiting for someone. I can go stare down some lovebirds on my own if you want."

fish out of water || [Lightning & Santa]

They had a festival for something like that? Lifting balloons into the air as couples? She almost preferred the fireworks of her hometown. Bodhum was probably famous for them. But balloons? She couldn’t wrap her head around that. Still, she couldn’t help but think it was exactly the sort of thing Serah would enjoy. Maybe their parents would have too.

She was really only here so she could write home about it. She didn’t have any plans of sending a balloon up herself. Why would she? She ran a hand through her bangs, feeling just a little out of place. 

After all, she was practically surrounded by couples… She rubbed her arm, eyes lifting to the sky. At least it seemed like a clear day.

Lightning let out a sigh as she shook her head. “What am I even doing here..?” She was probably the only one here on her own. How irritating..