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Azzo carried his two snowglobes to the Town hall. He was dying to know who it was, bundled up in a nice coat with a festive scarf it looked like there was a reindeer on it. He blinked as he noticed people that were coming around, so many of them had snow globes, he noticed Tony.

Walking over to stand beside the older man, "There's so many people here." He mused, honey brown eyes glancing at the older man with the dog. The corgy seemed to fit the older man. Azzo had, had ever intention on sending his mother the second snowglobe but he decided to keep it when it started talking.

-----

Istas had to sneak out, she was looking for someone she knew, it was very crowded and she didn't see many she knew, she frowned softly as she tried to get a closer look, for a nine year old in this crowd there wasn't much of a way to get through expect to push her way through, her plush red jacket with white fur trim and hood was keeping her warm.

Her snowglobe was cradled under her arm as she tried to nudge her way through the crowd, "I'd like to see" She said softly, ending up beside Marlo and Elzo, she sighed because she couldn't get any further, "Being short isn't so fun." She muttered sadly, few pale blue curls peeking out from under her hood.

-----

Alexis was driving back from her Christmas work party, the snowglobe on her seat, as she drove back, it suddenly said come to town hall. So she went to public parking and walked from the parking lot to the town hall. "Holy Cow bells. There's a lot of people here!" Alexis oggled the amount of people that were in the crowd already. She walked up and stood beside one of them. "I wonder what's going on."

For a moment, Gabbie worried at Audrey's questions. Apparently, the bluenette had not been plagued by mysterious snowglobe voices. And, rather than worry her and make her wonder if everyone in town had gone crazy, Gabbie kept smiling and told just enough truth to keep the other girl from suspecting too much.

"No memo that I know of, I just had a feeling like I needed to be here. And given that this big lug," she elbowed Hammie playfully in the side, "was here before me, I'm guessing that's where the feeling came from. How've you been? Are you and Elzo together yet? My offer to shut him in a closet with you still stands if not."

She covered her mouth with both hands to hide the smile as Audrey looked up at Hammie. Never mind that she did the same thing herself, it was always amusing to see it happening to others.

****************************

Hammie simply smiled and let Gabbie do the talking. If directly asked, he'd simply say that he'd felt like a walk and had decided to snap some pictures of the tree while he was at it. And since he always had his camera with him, it was hardly a lie.

Grin deepening as Audrey introduced herself, he made a courtly bow and ehld out his hand.

"A pleasure to meet you, milady. My full handle is Hamish MacAllistar, but you may call me Hammie if you so wish. And I am only this big because i made sure to eat all my veggies as a kid," he replied, eyes twinkling as he winked at her. Then, he straightened and gestured to his camera bag.

"If you don't mind, may i have the pleasure of snapping a few quick shots of you two lovely ladies a little later? It's not very often that I get pictures of pretty girls in the snow to show off in my composition class."

Zac carried his own single snow globe, that he probably should have more forcibly foisted off on his over enthused lieutenant, in his backpack in two sweatshirts and a large chunk of bubble wrap he had salvaged from someone else's christmas cookies. They hadn't minded so long as he hadn't taken any COOKIES with it. It was amazing how breakable they felt for something that carried such weight, never mind the ominous whispering, the sadness...the tune that still lilted in the back of his mind almost ceaselessly.
He saw Audrey's bright hair and perked up almost immediately, certainly they did not know each other as well as 'civilians' but there was an immediate thrill to see her there. It was quickly followed by a balk to see her so busy with people he didn't know. He pulled out his cellphone and texted her.

//strange days these? Merry shop-mas. - Z//

((edited cause I'm slow))

Zac blinked as he made his way towards the fountain, what a spectacle... this =had= to be associated with the senshi somehow he was sure of it. Still... curiosity nagged.

Lumiere sent alook of surprise to see a familiar face. Senri? When did he participate in such nonsense? Of course.. Lumiere was here too. That answered that. The lamp was only to the side of the fountain, crossing the small distance easily between herself and the fountain.

She hesitated. What good would this do?

But Lumiere didn't want to hold on to this snowglobe any longer. She didn't want to be haunted by this voice-- She didn't want these persistent fragments of imagination invading her life any further. It was a nuisance as is. Both hands cupping the globe, she slowly lowered it onto the ice, guarded and apprehensive at the directions. But she stood, back straight up, staring at the fountain with purple eyes, deeply shining with dissatisfaction.

"What it takes to rid of you, I suppose." With a last affectionate brush of her fingers against the glass, one more snowglobe was added to the count lining up on the fountains.

.. Was this the right choice?

If it wasn't for something important, Tara would have been impossible to drive from her house. It was Christmas Eve, for crying out loud. She was supposed to be home, baking cookies with her brother and getting some sleep, so they could drive to see their parents the next day. It wasn't the best Christmas, but it was better than freezing outside.

But no. The (obviously alien) being who'd been trying to communicate with her through her kitschy snowglobes had summoned her to the town square. As cold and unwelcoming as it was outside, she'd begged Kent for a ride. "There's an alien coming," she told him. "I have to be there when it happens."

He'd agreed, of course. Which was why Tara found herself getting stuck in traffic, her snowglobe collection (minus the one she'd left with Laney) on her lap. In the end, she'd gotten out of the car and walked the last few blocks through the frigid air. "This had better be worth it," she muttered, blowing on her hands to keep warm.

It was already crowded when she got there, but Tara did arrive just in time to hear the voice's directions. The center of the fountain? Clearly an alien that liked circles. Shame there were no crops around. Rather than suggest a better location (like, say, a nice coffee shop), Tara moved with the crowds towards the fountain, waiting for the alien to reveal itself.


It had taken Sophie half an hour to cram her six (six! How had she eneded up with six?) snowglobes into her backpack and tote bag, wrapping a shirt or scarf around each one to keep them safe. She still wasn't sure why she was doing this. It was probably some lame ad campaign by Imperium Greetings, she knew that. Knowing just didn't stop her from needing to see it for herself.

The crowd was huge. Sophie had no idea what was going on, but it was clear that Imperium Greetings had amazing ad men on their side. She almost turned back there, but in the end, decided not to. After coming out all that way, it would be a waste not to see it all the way through. Even though she didn't hear the voice, too busy with her own thoughts, she followed the crowd towards the fountain.

Okay that was weird. Was there some sort of speaker system? Obviously the City Council had been planning something and Elzo had been hoping to surprise her with some winter wonderland thing? The annoyance that had formed like a crust around Audrey fell away easily with this easy excuse for his behavior; she was always willing to forgive him. Most people were really, Elzo had a magic about him that made him innately very hard to hate unless you were blood-related to him. Marlo never had any trouble getting through that magic and hating his older brother half the time.

Gabbie's question had her starting a bit though, not paying a whole lot of heed to the weird voice from the hidden speakers. "Uhm...actually yeah. We're sorta living together and all now. We broke up a bit around my birthday because I'm a total idiot and undeserving, but it's all okay now." There was a moment of consideration where the bluenette thought of the sparkle lurking inside the velvet box on their mantle at home. Should she mention that? It was still uncertain in her mind if she would put it on any time soon, but it had been offered. "I guess you can say we're sorta serious now." Yes. Sorta serious was the best way to explain what they were doing!

Hammish provided the perfect change of topic while Gabbie bustled away, and earned her undying admiration for the way he was able to bend all the way down to her pixie frame. "Nice to meet you Hammie, you make me wonder what sort of veggies they fed you. I ate most of mine, and I barely grew up from my roots! If I'm alive later, you can snap all the shots you want. I'll probably be throwing snowballs at that," gloved fingers waved in the direction of Elzo's sandy head, "guy later. He dragged me out and is going to pay for it." It was all said with the sweetest of smiles, and a great deal of affection in her eyes. Audrey's good regard, once won, was very hard to eliminate.

She certainly jumped about half a foot in the air when her phone jangled, a whole minute going by until she pulled it out and read the message with a smile. Looking up a familiar tiny blue head caught her eye - there was no mistake that it was anyone but Zac. Merry Frostmas, I'm turning blue out here. That was clever, wasn't it? Tagging on at the end, the message was sent off and plan hatched. Stay nearby, I wanna talk to you. Maybe he knew what was going on.

Zac knew a lot, at any rate.

"The center... the fountain..." Paris heard the voice again. In the back of his mind? All around him? He wasn't sure anymore, but he looked everywhere, to his snowglobes in the duffle bag to the area around him, looking for something, someone -- the woman perhaps, the one from his dreams.

Hesitantly, he approached the fountain, shoving his way through the crowds of people, even going so far as to push some of the ones he thought were moving too slowly. He arrived at the fountain's edge and climbed on top of the ledge, testing the solidity of the frozen water with a single foot before stepping out onto the slick surface.

Was this enough? Was he close enough? Should he move further into the middle? He didn't know, but others were making it to the fountain now and he searched around for the best spot. It didn't help that he had no clue what was supposed to be happening. Where was the woman? Why wasn't she there yet? She'd said she would be there... she'd told him she would... but he didn't see anyone who looked like the woman in the snowglobe anywhere.

Determined, Paris moved as close to the center of the fountain as he could possibly get, cutting in front of people and shoving them out of his way. He'd invested too much time in this for it to end up being nothing more than a disappointment. Carefully, he unzipped his bag to take his three snowglobes out, one after the other, and set them there on the ice.

He wasn't supposed to just leave them there, was he?? What if someone stole them before the woman came???

Gently watched as more and more people gathered. She had her snowglobe in a satchel at her side, coat drawn tight to protect from the cold, scarf around her neck. She adjusted her glasses, pulling from her pocket a notebook and pen.

This was clearly news worthy, whatever it was, and she was going to take as many notes as she could.

She took notes quickly, using her shorthand script to the best of her ability. It had taking some perfecting, and wasn't the kind she was taught in school. Instead, she had adapted it for herself, and sometimes she couldn't read it when she came to her notes later. But it always worked out in the end.

She scribbled down descriptions of the scene, of the feelings inside her, of the people gathered around her. She wrote about the decorations, the emotions in the air, the conversations she picked up. Anything she could write down, she did. And then she heard something strange, felt it even more than heard it, a voice telling her to take the snowglobe to the fountain. She wrote a bit more, then pocketed the notebook hastily and took out the snowglobe. Frowning, she wished she knew how the thing worked, but there was no time now. She moved toward the fountain, fascinated by the display, and made to put her one globe down. It surprised her, how much care she was taking, when before, when she first got it, she had tried to take it apart.

She'd have to write that down, too.

---

Tony smiled at Azzo as he came up, nodding his head in greeting.

"Yes, there are a lot of people. I'm really surprised. I guess we all are... responding... to the same thing. I'm still not quite sure..."

He frowned at Randy. Dogby was a good name for a dog. What was lame about it? It was convenient! It let him shorten it to 'dog', which was about as easy a name to remember as possible. Though, he found he often referred to her by her full name, or by calling her 'sweetheart'. She was the cutest dog ever, after all, so it fit.

Dogby whined, ears dropping back, once again digging against Tony's coat as if she were trying to hide under it. Assuming she was cold, he made to tuck her under the coat, protective and slightly worried. Maybe he shouldn't have bought her out, as cold as it was.

"Dogby is a she, and she likes her name," he said, shaking his head. He completely missed the fact that Randy had actually confessed to stealing the dog, chalking it up to his weird 'lingo' that he liked to use so much.

He tensed as he heard the voice on the breeze, all around them, and he looked at Randy, then at Azzo. He nodded his head, limping toward the fountain with the two kids. He had to balance Dogby and his cane as he moved to get the globes out, putting the dog down. She whimpered and yipped, nuzzling to his leg instantly, while he took the snowglobes out, politely waiting his turn before going to put them down, not wanting to get in front of anyone else. He hesitated, though, before putting them along with the others that had been gathered.

He didn't know what to feel.