Welcome to Gaia! ::

He's wearing a dark gray peacoat that falls nearly to his knees, a slate blue scarf wrapped around his neck to keep himself warm. His gloved hands are in front of him, and he keeps rubbing them together to generate heat in the chilly air.

"That probably would have been a good idea," said Gale, with a little laugh. He pushed his blonde hair out of his eyes and glanced around. "I don't see a good tree that's small enough yet, do you?"

He felt peculiar, somehow, but Gale brushed that aside. He gave a small snort and shook his head, rubbing his hands together again to try and generate a little bit more heat between them. "With that weapon of yours, I'm sure you'd be good at that," he said dryly.

She had fallen down, her blonde hair flying, and Gale gave a little laugh as he stood above her, his breath clearly visible in the chill air.

"Sure, sure," he said, and then, after a moment's hesitation, dropped down into the icy snow beside Clarice, wincing slightly at the cold that seemed to seep into him almost instantly. Shivering slightly, Gale spread his arms out wide on either side of him.

"This isn't helping us on our quest for the perfect tree," he pointed out, but he was already starting to mimic her, moving his arms up and down in the freezing snow.

"Sorry I'm late!" It was obvious he had left in a rush, and was just haphazardly stuffing his scarf back into his coat, puffed up the wrong way so it looked like he had gained a little bit of extra weight, or just had developed a rather sizeable chest. One end of the scarf was still sticking out from his from the collar, the other half-covering his jacket, so it looked more like one scythe instead of two marking his division.

He paused, and took a moment to catch his breath in the biting snow, face all red, like his hair. "You guys didn't get to the fun part without me did you?"

For a moment, Clarice's expression froze and her darkened into something terrible. Something ancient and angry. And then she was throwing a snowball, hard, at Ben's head and scrambling out of the snow while laughing, "You're late!"

She barreled into him, throwing both arms around the man, pulling him in for a kiss that looked like something out of a movie from where Gale was sitting, but involved many more teeth than two human mouths should contain.

He thought he saw -

- but no, it was a trick of the light, and the next thing he knew, Clarice had flung herself into Ben's arms and kissed him. Gale's face flushed a deep red and he averted his eyes; their obvious displays of affection were sweet, and for a moment he was wistful, almost longing -

- a strange, uneasy feeling swept over him, sending shivers rippling up and down his spine. He blinked rapidly, bemused, and then turned his head back to the other two, Ben and Clarice looking very couple-y in the snow, scarves bright and cheeks flushed.

"Okay, okay," said Gale, a grin tugging at his lips. He sat up straighter and brushed snow from his bangs. "I dunno, er..."

He thought for a moment, and then said lightly, jokingly, with laughter in his voice, "I could always do with a better job."

It took him a little longer for him to get out of the snow, and then he was shaking his head playfully, like a dog vying for a little too much attention.

"I think Gale's old enough to make his own choices," he laughed, and simply sat from his position on the snow, the scarf discarded on the ground, still oddly slowly unraveling. "Sometimes you can't choose what you feel like, you have to choose what is right. Happiness must be sacrificed for something greater."

As he looked at Gale, for a moment his form blurred, and there was no longer Clarice and Ben but instead a long white room and in the center were two-

- "So," he interrupted, "about that Giftmas gift. How does a tricycle sound?"

"You're right, he is," Clarice agreed warmly, eyes bright with fond affection. "But people have skill and talent for a reason, how is wasting that potential on an uncaring authority a worthy sacrifice?"

She then shoved a snowball down the collar of his shirt, "Gotcha!" Blink: a heroic figure, frozen within crystal that was already beginning to form cracks. Blink: Clarice, grinning, tries to do the same to Gale, but trips and falls instead, foot tangled in the scarf.

With a laugh, she adds, "If you do, I'll add some tech to it and make things really interesting." Clarice was always doing those things, trying to make things better with her skills. Even if it backfired, her intentions were good, were meant to help the people she cared about, and that was all that mattered.