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Looking at the hat, earwings fell back in disappointment. No shoes could be made. "Lucien.." He chirped a slight sadness. "Are you sure? I...Oh....Oh..." He gave his friend another hug. "I'm sorry I didn't notice! I'm a terrible friend."

It wasn't clear why Jericho and Riley had lagged behind. Perhaps the quiet that had settled between them had slowed Jericho's pace as well. Or perhaps he'd gotten lost. Who could say? All that Riley knew was that she wasn't even aware they had reached their destination until they had actually stepped across the threshold of the town and were bombarded with Christmas cheer.

Lights. Blinking, happy little lights. Everywhere.

The distant sound of yuletide carols being sung by a choir.

The foul, penetrating stench of candy.

And the elves, oh. The elves.

Riley snapped to, taking everything in at once, and a terrible sound could be heard (actually heard) coming from her tentacles. She grabbed them quickly with one hand, squeezing them shut, but it was too late. She scrambled off of Jericho, falling onto her knees in the snow, and then ran as fast as her shoeless feet could carry her behind one of the gingerbread houses. She wanted no one to see her like this. No one.

There, atop a little snowman, Riley lost her lunch.

"You're going to clean that up, right?"

HP: 8

Gabrian watched as Alessa apparently battled with her thoughts, no doubt trying to ponder what it was she ought to do versus what she wanted to do. Yes, he'd been there, done that, and had decided a while back he was done with internal battles; until he got out of this Jack-forsaken place he was going to do what he wanted, whenever he wanted to. At least, if the situation allowed for it anyhow. After all, he wasn't entirely even sure he was going to make it back to Halloween in one piece, so he was going to make this worthwhile, that was for sure!

"My dear," he drawled out, making sure to infuse as much mock hurt as he posibly could into his voice, "You wound me," in fact, he made show of clutching at his chest where his heart would have been, "I might be cold blooded, and a serpent," which obviously explained his intense dislike of this place, "But I'm far from heartless!" he would have liked to think he was a romantic, at heart. But then again, perhaps the nix was hopelessly oblivious, and perhaps just a touch naive (which was probably ironic). The again, perhaps he just lacked a good amount of common sense at times, which was also entirely possible.

He saw Alessa awkwardly wave at Livi, and he made a small salute with his head before he got distracted; he'd just spotted Quarria's massive frame landing a small distance away, "Quarria's made it," he slowly nudged the rabbit girl towards the serpent's direction, "We should probably go check on her; I'm worried she might be wounded," that said, he moved, while still having his arm around Alessa, pressing his side against her for warmth, over to where Quarria was currently conversing with Sin, Junko and Alcie.

"Oh, thank Jack!" exclaimed the demon once he spotted all 4 ghouls, whom seemed to be in more or less decent condition, "How was the Southern path, my dears? Hopefully better than the Northern path?" he probably looked a bit worse off than Junko, Alcie or Sin remembered him, but taking in all that had happened... Gabrian didn't look too bad. Though this had a lot to do with Johan's bell, "Quarria... are you quite alright? I feel simply horrible that we moved on without you. I was just freezing up, and Alessa was kind enough to help me down from that icy path," he paused and turned towards the smaller girl that was, for all intent and purposes, pressed against him, helping him walk (though in all honesty, they'd been helping each other, "Alessa? These are Junko, Alcie and Sin," he made motion towards the ghouls in front of him, addressing them by names, "They were my Gromble car-mate, and helped keep me warm in the forest, "Ghouls? This is Alessa, she's a...." a pause as he frowned, "Actually, I'm not quite sure," he turned to looked down at her with a small, concerned frown; he'd never bothered to ask, "What are you, my dear?" he turned back to the other ghouls, "She turns into a rabbit," He found that he had a horrible time refraining from mentioning it was a rather cute rabbit, at that. Alas.

((Gabrian: 21 HP))

"Well aren't you terribly dramatic," Alessa scoffed, "I wasn't even referring to the state of your heart." She didn't see why he was even bringing it up. Him being cold and her being a touch irate really had nothing to do with him being heartless. He was glad when he mentioned Quarria instead, squinting to see the other ghoul. She hoped she was alright. So she was quick to nod in agreement and walk with him over to her, "Yes, let's see how she's doing."

When they reached what to seemed to be a rather large group of ghouls she offered them a smile, especially to Alcie who she had met briefly before at school. Of course, as usual, Gabe seemed to take over the introductions without batting an eyelash. "You really need to stop doing that," she grumbled at him, "I can introduce myself just fine."

She then looked back at the others, smiling weakly and continuing more audibly so they could hear her, "Uh, yes, I'm Alessa. I'm a Nagaul, a type of monster shape shifter. It's good to see you again Alcie! I didn't know you'd come on the train but...I guess most everyone did, didn't they?"

J.P. was so lost it wasn't even funny. NO one would talk to him and also could find anyone that he knew. He felt like he was the out cast of the group but that didn't stop him from wagging his tail. He never let thing get him down before...why now? Nope he wouldn't let that happen. Even though no one want to talk ....it was fine with him. He wag his tail and kept going. Maybe he'll find one of those guy that did talk him sooner or later.....

The elf rolled it's eyes at the threat.

"RiiiiiIIiight. And I'm Santa Claus." it dismissed, before repeating. "But seriously, you're cleaning that up, right?"

HP: 8