#[ tagged a few people who didn't RSVP but could plausibly be there ]

[midnightactual]

Christmas

The holidays hadn’t gone as Yoruichi had intended. She had fortunately, however, drawn up her plans in advance, and so when she returned to the Urahara Shōten on the 23rd of December, she was all-business and ready to go. There was a schedule and a time table to adhere to when it came to preparations for the party.

The first question had been what day to hold the party on. Everywhere was different as to whether the main meal was on Christmas Eve or Christmas Day, but after some thought, she’d unilaterally set it on the latter (with a focus on the afternoon and evening given the season and weather). They were in Japan, after all, and the 24th was usually for couples and the 25th was usually for chicken. With that matter settled, everything else followed fairly naturally. She’d never been a fan of eating turkey again so soon after Thanksgiving, and so she settled on a two-track meal.

The first track was a spin on Japan’s love of Kentucky Fried Chicken, with fried chicken five ways: 1) classic Southern country-fried chicken; 2) Nashville hot chicken; 3) Indian ‘Chicken 65’; 4) Korean fried chicken tossed in a spicy seasoning; and 5) Japanese chicken karaage. There were to be a variety of dipping sauces, like honey mustard, yogurt sauce, and spicy mayonnaise. Sides included mashed potatoes and gravy for traditional accouterments on the one hand, and on the other plain waffles, with butter, maple syrup, and various hot sauces if one wanted to mix it up and have a potentially international spin on chicken and waffles.

The second track was a fairly traditional Christmas spread, for a certain value of tradition as literally everyone’s were different. There would be both a beef standing rib roast and a Christmas ham, with sides of roasted vegetables, roasted potatoes, a salad, and a somewhat different kind of gravy. There was nothing saying one couldn’t mix and match between the two tracks, after all. In addition, there’d be gingerbread and chocolate chip cookies on offer, as well as an apple pie and a trifle. Beyond water, eggnog was (of course) de rigueur.

With all that decided, the schedule itself easily unfolded. The 23rd was to be given over to assembling Christmas stockings for the guests who’d responded in advance—although coming up with thoughtful and personal presents for everyone was a nice idea, it simply wasn’t practical given the numbers involved this year and their tastes—and making the cookies, pie, and trifle, since they’d keep well for two days.

The core Shōten staff of Kisuke, Tessai, Ururu, and Jinta (@mysteriousshopkeeper) were sent to decorate the underground study room. (There were simply too many guests and the weather was too unpalatable to hold the party topside in the courtyard.) Meanwhile Yoruichi commanded the assembly of presents and the running of the kitchen with Kouta (@the-lightning-underdog), Tomoe (@amaranthineoni), Yūno (@ice-cold-shihoin), and Yūshirō (@strcngered) as her assistants and sous-chefs. Ichigo (@ichxgo), who’d already been roped into working on wagashi with Ururu earlier, was folded into this too. She leaned most heavily on Kouta when it came to baking, sussing out the relative skills of the others as she went. This continued into the next day, as the real preparation of the meals began: a lot of chicken had to be broken down and set to brining, and the rib roast also had to be spiced and set aside in the fridge to dry out.

But the real test started on Christmas morning. Rising before the sun did, Yoruichi rallied her troops in the kitchen and really set in on her campaign of chopping, mashing, mixing, broiling, and most of all, frying. They were at work all morning and were just putting on the finishing touches before the first guests began to roll in around lunch time. There were, of course, the usual suspects already floating around. Grimmjow (@deivorous) skulked about watching the proceedings; Westly (@bleachedoracle) flitted between the two groups trying to help where he could; Udyati (@nirgama) had been invited given her appearance for Diwali and seemed to be observing with Nozomi (@neverxalone) who had just happened to pop in. The first visitors were Liz (@pure-patissiere) who—thoughtfully!—had brought her own baked goods to augment their own, and Akane (@akanekishimoto), with whom Yoruichi had her first re-acquaintance in quite a long time.

With all the food and preparation done, everything was moved to the freight elevator and taken down to the study room, which had been fitted out to hold the party proper. Finally having a moment’s break, Yoruichi and Tessai briefly excused themselves to take the precautionary security measures that’d been agreed upon, the two of them flooding the boundaries of most of the private and confidential areas of the Shōten compound with UV light and letting loose the little science experiments she and Kisuke had whipped up to guard them; they probably wouldn’t go horribly out of control. Probably. Five sigma certainty that they wouldn’t!

By the time that was done, the Shinigami (and their associates) showed up in a single big batch via Senkaimon. There were, of course: Shinji (@hirako5hinji) and Hiyori (@viciousvizard), already bantering and bickering as was their way while Rose (@semplicementerojuro) looked on; Soifon (@waspandr) and Shoyo (@maddmuses) with her plus two—apparently her boyfriend and girlfriend!—who seemed to observe the others with sighs and wariness; Rukia (@rukia-kuchiki-divided) and Renji (@wild-pineapple-butt) who were also trading their own shade and burdened down with Chappy-themed presents; Kūkaku and Ganju (@themercyless) who had tagged along for convenience; Mayuri and Nemu (@kxrotsuchi) who seemed to be scrutinizing everyone else; and the odd man out additions of Kōtarō (@windstormwielding), Shūsuke (@raikagoenkaku), and Hanatarō (@bleachintothemultiverse), who all seemed a bit perplexed, if pleasantly so rather than nervously, at least in the case of the former two.

They’d all assembled and begun to filter into the prepared area when Nelliel (@raggedyespada) appeared via Descorrer right behind, and then the Hōgyoku (@sphaeraa) simply popped into existence nearby. With all the guests assembled—at least for the moment, for who knew if any unannounced visitors might show up from Karakura (or elsewhere?); and the absence of most of the ‘kids’ was intriguing, but maybe they had other plans—Yoruichi finally called them to order.

“I kinda hate making speeches, so I’ll keep this short: thanks to all of you for coming! It’s not much, but we’ve tried to at least make it as comfortable as possible. I hope you all enjoy yourselves here. It’s a season for togetherness and making and reaffirming connections, and hopefully the intermingling of this motley crew is aided by a hearty meal and holiday cheer. Merry Christmas, everyone! Let’s eat!” she declared.

She milled about doing a meet and greet with all the others for a time while they got their meals, before finally getting her own plate and wandering off a bit to a chair to sit and eat, just… breathing that it was all finally moving on its own. Still, she watched, finding she couldn’t help but smile a little.