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Benitoite, just pulling on the hideous sweater, found himself assaulted by Painite. Yelping the blond smiled at his superior and watched her dash off. Finishing pulling the sweater on, god those ornaments were uncomfortable and he jingled! "I think she's had a bit too much to drink, but it's pleasing to see her like this." He commented to himself, watching Painite with a light smile in place.

Folding his coat, and turtleneck, he held them close to his chest while wondering if he could send them off to the same place as his weapon. It would be good if he could do that, he didn't care for the idea of laying them on the floor. Looking around, wondering if he should ask someone and if so who, he spotted a certain cat and decided to leave her be for now as she didn't seem to be in a very good mood.

"I wonder if anyone would know about banishing some clothing..." And not everyone, he didn't need all of his clothing to vanish, save for the sweater. God he was swimming in it too, it was too big on him. At least he was only wearing it tonight, it wasn't like next year he'd be mandated to wear it to another party, or have to wear it next time he saw the General-Queen.

There was the small click of metal unclasping and the noise of heavy fabric hitting stone as Uranophane unceremoniously took off her cape and let it drop to the floor, followed shortly by her gloves. It wasn't classy in the slightest, and they were bound to get dust all over them, but they would be back and in pristine shape the next time she powered up. She didn't really give a s**t. She had to get that sweater on somehow, or else Apatite or someone would probably find some exciting new way to torture her for her insubordination, or something like that. So off the cape went.

And on went her horrifically feigned Christmas cheer in the stylings of a Floridian grandmother. She wanted to puke, and it was not because of the heavy drinking Hematite had roped her into. Speaking of Hematite, she was morbidly curious about what knitted monstrosity had been forced on him -- but the noise of struggle caught her lethargic attention before she could look.

The noise was coming from some grayish Captain whose name she couldn't recall, making a bigger display of rebellion against the party than she would have chosen to muster. It pissed her off. And even though it was a party, she still outranked him. As such, Uranophane made the completely rational decision of striding somewhat clumsily up to Raite and reaching out to smack him upside the head.

"Quit being a b***h, Captain."

Hematite was easily repulsed by how festive and saccharine the sweater was. He wasn't even sure what the hell it was on his. A cat? A bear? And it was in a sweater too? What the hell. He supposed the yarn tangle in the middle of its sweater was yet another unfortunate creature in a sweater too, just sweaters within sweaters unto infinity. Christmas meeting Inception meeting god this was an ugly sweater.

So, he had to put this thing on, or something. Like, for real on, judging by the way Apatite's sweeping gaze paused a few seconds too long on him. Without Nutmeg in easy reach at that particular moment, Hematite instead draped his lieutenant jacket around the shoulders of a much shorter and less spiny server youma who suffered the interruption with wide, nervous eyes. At this rate, they'd all stay far away from him. "Keep the coat, man. All yours. Now you're a lieutenant for an evening."

He was starting to lose any sense of continuity tonight. It felt like as soon as he turned around again, bedecked in his awful sweater, there was Graphite, and Uranophane was pretty much forgotten for the time being.

"Graphite? s**t, man. How've you been?" But Hematite's attention span was fading. It wasn't long before he glanced around and his gaze settled on Sassolite. He started walking before he realized he was wandering away, and turned back to Lieutenant Graphite to half-beckon him to follow if he wanted to. "C'mon. I gotta talk to someone."

"Sassolite!" Nothing weird about talking to a girl he used to hit on, nope. He steadied himself by reaching out to grab her shoulder, coming into contact with thick and itchy yarn, flashing both Sassolite and Titanite an inebriated grin. "Hah. Nice sweater - I hope she got you some pants too... have you got anything on under that?"

"Oh, presents!" As if she had forgotten. Painite escaped from Serandite only to hurry to the tree and run right back to the kimono sporting General. She offered the large-ish box she had brought for her secret santa.

"This is for you, as it so happens! I'm afraid I wasn't sure what you might like, but I did hear you had a rabbit as a weapon so I ah... went with that."

She smiled.

One of her favorite things to do in her free time, when she had it, was tinker. She had an affinity for steampunk-y type gizmos, and she thought, because of her new allegiance with some art oriented people, she might make a present for Serandite. It was a rabbit made of light metals and gears, taken from old clocks and whatever else she could think of that would have gears in them, just for looks. She'd fashioned it by hand, and not all of the metal was as smooth as she would have liked, but she had done her best on it, and was hopeful she would like it.

Or at least fake that she did.

At the moment, though, Painite would easily handle any reaction at all, every one likely to garner the same response from her. A big hug and a kiss.

Chromite was late because she wanted to be late. Okay, no. That was a blatant lie. It was nearing Christmas and in her family that meant that it was family "tree picking time" and then it was family "cookie baking time" and following that it was family "caroling time"... She loved her parents, she really did, and she understood that being only children themselves they wanted her to have the most magical holiday seasons they could afford to give her; but, she was still a seventeen year old girl with plans of her own.

They didn't need to know that unlike other teenaged girls her plans involved being pulled into what could be described as a very purple version of hell though. What they didn't know would definitely not kill them. Definitely. Still, it had taken a bit of base lies and vile trickery to get them to leave her be for the night. Anything to let her answer that insistent nagging that pulled from the inside of her chest.

So there Lieutenant Chromite was. Late. A package tucked primly in black wrapping paper held to her chest until she tucked it away under the tree and as inconspicuously as she could find her way as far away from the tree as possible. Being as far away as General-Queen Apatite was a bonus too, the woman somehow managed to make even the most festive of meetings terrifying and strange to behold...

Staring, eyes narrowed as she scanned the crowd, at the heads of those around her she made her way to bobbing dreadlocks that looked awfully familiar. As she came closer she could tell he was incredibly inebriated and at once wanted to know where he'd gotten the booze and if the sweater was cause for the drinking. "Hematite," she said sweetly as she got closer to him and the general he was harassing, "you should be proud of how truly that monstrosity of a sweater embraces Chaos." Her tone did not match her smile as she watched him. He either needed coffee or she needed alcohol.

Ilmenite was surrounded by horrified faces, by shocked expressions and terrified officers. He himself, however, blinked down at his gift from the General-Queen and tipped his head to the side, thinking that maybe he'd seen worse. Sure, the deer emblazoned on the front was three-dimensional and looked more than a bit brain damaged, but at least the stitching was even. Near the end of his life at home, some of the sweaters his grandmother had knitted had been this bad.

Well. Almost this bad.

He shrugged out of his coat to put it on, and then hauled the coat back over. The deer's head flopped as he grabbed back up packages and bee-lined for Zinkenite, for the General-King, a hand against his shoulder and head tipped down as he offered the package over. This might look like sucking up. He didn't care.

"I'm not your secret santa, but I got you a present, Zed." He nudged the box into Zink's hands and kept going with a little flash of a wave, back toward the present table, eyes scanning the room for Tanzanite. "I advise against opening it til you're home."

Having no clue who the agent was that he'd had to shop for Benitoite didn't go to get the gift from under the tree, so he could hand it to the officer personally. Rather he went to the tree to search for whatever gift lay under it's piney coverage for him. Finding the gift it didn't take a genius to figure who had gotten him a gift, he only knew one female who would address herself in such a manner. Dahlia. Smiling as he looked toward where he'd previously seen the cream colored cat as he wondered what she'd gotten him, and how. It couldn't have been easy for her to do the shopping, or have money to use to shop for him. Someone had to have helped, and whoever it was he owed them a bit of thanks as well.

Benitoite really hoped Bismuthite liked the double gift he'd gotten them, or at the very least liked one of the gifts. Just in case though he'd added in the receipt, who knows if he'd gotten a wrong size or something undesirable? At least they could exchange it, he'd asked before purchasing anything. He didn't feel like getting something for someone who didn't like it and they wind up stuck with something useless and displeasing.

Shaking his head the blond went to go open his gift and see what Dahlia had gotten him, he'd have to thank her with some sort of special gift. Inside the package, once the paper was removed, he found the tortoiseshell brush and comb. Gently fingers ran over the handles while a smile lit his face, she had good taste and knew what the sorts of things he liked. Yes, he'd have to get her something equally as nice.

"Perfect really." Unlike the usual brush which was kept in the bathroom this set would remain in his room, nice and safe.

For a moment he looked around the hall, looking to find a certain cat so he could thank her. "I wonder where she is...." Her being small as she was,a and people milling about, it was no doubt hard to find her but he was hoping to locate her so he could properly thank her in person.