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Ember's hug had been nice, but the giant group hug that immediately followed felt like she was two seconds from being murdered. Despite her general disapproval for being on the wrong end of murder, Caroline's mind couldn't quite decide if she should be panicking again, too dulled by the cheer in the atmosphere.

As if to solve this for her, the train stopped and she found her mind very easily made up. Santa was in danger! Santa was going to be kidnapped! Peter wouldn't get his presents!

All she outwardly managed in response to this was a pout, but she still moved to work on fixing this anyway. After brushing off her hands (which did nothing - everything was too sticky to come off), she turned to Liam, making no indication that she knew he'd ever been missing.

"Uh-huh! Uh-huh!" She nodded once, and gently placed one of Ember's freshly-baked cookies in his mouth. "Got to help. Got to! If he's all tied up...no explosions!"

No, that wasn't right. She made a perplexed face and tried again.

"No Christmas!"

There. That was better.

HP: 30/40
JOY: 30

Stomping and kicking his way through s**t, Jake was the embodiment of what not to do on Christmas.

HP: 30/60
Joy: 20/100

Dmg: 11
GINGER HP: 9/30

Peyton blinked at the Death lead, expression flat, before heaving a sigh. She'd just gotten there and now she was being ordered off again. And who was Melody? She would probably find out quickly.

Summoning her daggers, the Sun gave a salute to the Death lead with one blade, then took a running jump, landing almost gracefully in the snow near where the twiggy Santa had fallen. To her, 'deal with' meant, at the very least, apprehend, and at most, eliminate. Since Caelius hadn't been specific, she was going to go with the former, first.

Stalking towards him with daggers up and ready, she'd call ahead. "I'd stay down, if I knew what was good for me." Then, more quietly, and over the headset, she'd try to get a bit of clarification. "How dealt with should we be make him, Sir?"

"Well I'll be Da-" the rest was muffled as Caroline stuck a cookie in his moth, and he coughed once before tugging most of it free to make a much more manageable bite. His smile, though, and the happy chewing faded after a moment, confusion chasing boyish features as Caroline explained the situation at hand. Or the situation as she saw it, at least.

"So...why don't we untie him?" And how had he gotten that way to begin with?

And underneath the beard was -

- another beard.

This guy was good.

Liam watched Jake warily as he waited for Caroline to finish chewing, lips pursed, then turned back to her as she agreed to his suggestion. It made him smile, pleased that he'd been able to help some how, and eager to give as much further assistance as required.

Because of course he would take Caroline's word for what was going on. He had no reason not to!

"I don't have a knife on me, do you? We can cut him loose." Sinking into a crouch, he tipped his head to eye the runic bindings.

Wait, runic?

"These are..." He looked up again, frowning and clearly puzzled.

Jake stared. And stared.
And perhaps it was the stress, ridiculousness of the situation or just the JOY finally getting to him that he finally burst out laughing.
This guy was HILARIOUS. Perhaps he shouldn't kill him just yet.

He turned to Caroline, merely grinning at her comment of "naughty".
"Release him? Oh no. We should keep him. That way Santa will give us presents all year round, right?"
Instead of cutting him loose, he grabbed the ropes and pulled AS HARD AS HE COULD.
He had never believed in Santa when he was small, but now that the real thing was right in front of him, he wasn't going to let him slip out of his sight.
The man owed him PRESENTS.

Melvin tried once again to try and heave himself from under Santa. The struggle was real.

This was not the type of man Melvin liked being under.