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"Oh… No, I guess not,” Chris found himself saying in response to Sailor Iris, trying not to look as awkward as he suddenly felt, withdrawing the offered blanket. “So… I’d ask if you were going to protect us when your aura drew in unwelcome guests… but you guardian cats can mask that, right…?” he wondered, glancing down at ********* before looking back up at Iris curiously and keeping his increasingly awkward smile in place as best he could.

Of course, he could hear his name being called, and glanced over towards Holiday as she tended to Zia. “Yeah, just a second,” he called back, suddenly finding himself needed in more places at once. But that was alright — it wasn’t like they were spread out very much.

He did laugh at *********> request and Iris’s response, his grin returning from his moment of self-consciousness. “Nothing’s wrong with boldness. At least she knows what she wants, right? You’re welcome to help yourself. There’s plenty to go around,” he promised, but nudged a cupcake closer to ********* before switching the strap to put his guitar behind his back and reached under the table to pull out one of the folding chairs that were brought ‘just in case’.

“I don’t know if you’d remember me. I don’t think we actually spoke much, but I’m Valhalla of Jupiter,” he said to the guardian before, nodding to both her and Iris as he made sure his guitar strap was secure before bringing the requested chair over to Zia.

“I don’t mind,” he mumbled to Zia, knowing that she’d tried getting him off of chair duty, and chose to ignore the comments about the people he didn’t know very well, if at all. He went about setting up the chair for her as she rambled on to everyone else around her, trying not to get too upset by the fact that she was contemplating alcohol.

“I wish you wouldn’t,” he grumped before fussing, “Do you need a blanket? How’s your leg?” He kept his eyes averted from Finn because despite going to freakin’ Alaska to talk to him, he still wasn’t his bff or anything like that. But the mention of stitches had Chris’s eyes snapping up towards the other young man, his face blanching almost immediately.

“What the hell did you do??” Chris hissed, his eyes wide and suddenly feeling an unreasonable amount of guilt. But it only lasted for a moment before he threw his now chair freed hands in the air and turned his back. “Nope. I’m so done with this.” And by ‘this’ he meant Finn, but what did it really matter in the end?

He would just go help Penelope or something. Penelope always made him feel better to see.

Carneli

Ryuthulhu

Silverah

Finn did a little fidgeting with his pocket knife, transforming it from corkscrew to bottle opener, and then handed it over to Holi. "This work?" he asked. "Maybe I couldn't cut it in boy scouts, but I think I've got the always prepared thing down. Anyone else want anything while I'm pouring? I've got, um, your choice of slightly shitty Chardonnay and something that claims to be Shiraz but to be honest I'm not quite sure."

"Aww, come on," he added, smiling over at Zia. "If she wants to drink, let her drink. We've all earned our weight in fancy cocktails fighting Chaos, and it's her own liver she'd be wrecking if the antibiotics thing turns out to be true. Me, I'll just haul everyone's drunk butts home at the end of the night free of charge. But, like I said, cupcakes are super nice and a totally welcome form of payment."

He might have been hinting just a little bit too hard.

And here was Chris Gallo... and there went Chris Gallo. Finn sighed. "Hey!" he called. "It's kind of a funny story! Remember my crazy best friend who you dragged me back here to confront? Well, I confronted her!"

Finn poured another glass of wine and took off after Chris. He pressed the cup into the taller boy's hands. "Here. Here. The story goes better with alcohol. I mean I wouldn't know because I'm DD tonight, but I assume it goes better with alcohol. So why don't you come back, hang out, I'll keep the booze flowing?"

It had seemed like a great idea to Jaeger at first. A Christmas party organized by Senshis and/or Knights for those on the same side, a chance to meet and get to know others like him and maybe more. After all, parties always meant that there was food and fun aplenty for all present. He had arrived with Liryn shortly after most of the others had turned up and begun socializing among themselves when he started to get cold feet about approaching them.

Hugging the bag containing the gift he meant to contribute to the gift exchange that would take place later and the gingerbread man cookies he had thought of bringing to share with everyone, he alternated between looking at the tasty treats that had been set up and the people around him, feeling particularly awkward and out of place as he stuck close to the familiarity that was the guardian cat next to him.

"Look Liryn. Jae sees other kitties like you here. See? There's even one with glasses like Jae."

Penelope gratefully accepted the help that Keren offered, flashing her a smile. "Thanks... both for the help and for setting up the gift exchange. I'm so sorry to be late. I hope I didn't forget anything..." Her eyes wandered between the trays in her own hands and in Keren's, but she could see nothing out of place. That was a relief, at least.

A blush quickly spread across her face and her gaze to her feet at the compliments thrown her way. She was feeling a little overdressed already, now that she had gotten a look around the room, and now with the taller girl pointing out her outfit too... she swallowed back a knot in her throat and tried not to sound too sheepish. "Thank you, but... it's nothing special, really. I just thought it'd be nice to show everyone how much they mean to me..."

Thankfully, the topic shifted quickly. She unburdened herself of the objects in her hands before answering more earnestly, "Yes! There are so many of us... and we don't get to go meet up for nice reasons very often. I'm glad to see so many here!" From the corner of her eye she spotted a very familiar face. Penelope smiled broadly and waved over to him, "Chris!"

==

Alejandro decided to follow the purple-haired girl (Keren) and place his bag amongst the pile of presents. The box of Cocoa Puffs, however, he kept to himself and tore open. He was pretty hungry and fully intended to make a plate full of buffet selections. But, for right now, he would start with the snack closest to hand. Maybe he could use it to make introductions to all of these new, older people. A blonde Senshi in yellow and pink (Iris) caught his attention mostly because she was the only one still in uniform. He meandered over towards her, mouth crunching down on the chocolate cereal as he offered her his free hand, "Hi! I'm Alejandro. You got stuck with pink too, huh?"

A party had sounded like a great way to spend an evening and Liryn was looking forward to meeting some new faces. The little tabby bobtail had heard about the event from an Earth Page that he'd run into whilst out and about on one of his nightly trips out and about the city, they had gotten chatting and the party had come up and Liryn had cheerfully agreed to spread the word about the event along to any Order person that he managed to run into.

He'd run into Jae - Jae of the really good scritches and who when powered up was also Sailor Mizar and his mention of the Christmas party that the Earth Page had passed along the invite to had turned into Liryn suggesting that he and Jae should both check it out together.

With the information that he'd been given from the Earth Page, Liryn knew that everyone here was somehow powered although what they were and whether they were anyone that he knew was impossible to tell since pretty much everyone seemed to be powered down - well apart fromt the eternal senshi.

"There are" he agreed his small tail waving cheerfully at Jae's mention of other cats being there, having caught sight of the streak of cream and what looked like some sort of flag heading off towards a small group of people and totally planning to at some point to speak to them, for the moment however, looking up at the red head he said "We should find out where the food goes first though" after all Jae came bearing cookies gingerbread men. Spotting a purple-haired girl (Keren) with a tray of something he added as he started in her direction. "Lets try asking her."

Liryn was off even before Jaeger could propose an alternative or make known his thoughts on approaching a stranger out of the blue like that. The little bobtail was obviously excited from being here with the opportunity to meet other Senshis and Knights, albeit as civilians, as well as other guardian cats like himself so he could hardly blame him really for wanting to help him get his present and cookies sorted out proper before diving into the socializing that was already going on around them.

He wasn't far behind as he went along with the feline, letting both girls (Keren and Penelope) finish their conversation first before he tried to tentatively interject with his question. "Um... Jaeger brought some gingerbread man cookies from his favourite bakery and he was wondering if you um... know where it should go..?" He looked nervously at them both for a bit, his hands quivering slightly as he reached into the bag he had brought with him to fish out said confectionary.

The cat attempted to get up to her paws and start meandering off as Chris seemed to give her permission to do as she wished. "...we can do such a thing if we concentrate, yes..."

However, a hand soon enough cut its way into the manx's path. "...nice try..."

Big ol' green kitten eyes widened up at the senshi.

It was ineffective. "Yeah... 'Chris' ya said?... I'm here t'make sure she doesn't ruin th'party by eatin' everything..."

Seeing as her attempts to get on Iris' good side did not seem successful, she settled her haunches back down. "...I do tend to remember people pretty well, Chris... though I suspect I'd remember better if I saw you in uniform." With a wink, she added "...but that's not necessary at the moment, seeing as this is an evening of relaxing as I recall."

Some kid approached the presents and set his piece down, but rather than scamper off to mingle, he spoke to the eternal senshi. A brow lofted at the newly introduced Alejandro and his choice of words.

He had manners and soon enough Iris had shoved her gloved hand into his and was shaking it firmly. "...this is comin' from th'guy who has pink hair? Natural or did ya dye it?"

Planting a free hand upon ********* tailless rump to ensure she didn't go anywhere, the blonde added with a grin. "...nice t'meetcha.... I'm Sailor Iris."

From the table the cat added "...and I am ********* class="quote">

Guine

"Thank you everyone who brought food or gifts, the food goes anywhere there's a spot, please label it if there's anything you think people might be allergic to, like Strawberries...there are index cards and a pen! And gifts go down at that end with the nice little Manx!."

Holi finally gave up and raised her voice to be heard by everyone, before holding out her cup for the drink she was craving and adding. "I don't have a preference yet, but I'll let you know if I develop one after tasting them."

She couldn't hear the hissing conversation, but she saw the line's of Chris's body tense aggressively, and set her jaw firmly, her dark eyes lighting up with a little spark of frustration that danced like a candle waiting for some wayward moth to get too close.

This was definitely not going quite the way she'd planned, and that was... a bit frustrating... but she was going to make this work... somehow. People had shown up. That was a good start.