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[[Stupid question, but what exactly is the setting? Is this ship in the sky? Is it docked? If it's in the sky how are we suppose to reach it?]]

It was Christmas Eve; a horrible time, really. The only thing holidays are good for at this point are so his own crew can get drunk and have fun for one day…week…whatever they claim every damn day is a holiday. Little bastards.

So why was he on one of those flying surfboards on a way to a party where he probably doesn’t know anyone and has to learn even more names?

Because if he has to spend another day near Penn’s freaky tree he’s going to break that thing in half.

He really hadn’t told Penn he was going or that he was even going anywhere. She won’t care. If she joins in, wonderful; if not, just as well! Sinsario had snuck out in the early morning to find himself a flying surfboard; which means he stole that sucker. Not his fault some idiots left it outside. Actually in a safe area. With a lock.

Whatever.

Of course he had no idea how to work the stupid thing so a lot of time was spent figuring out how in the hell to make it go. It probably took an hour, but several more to goof off and steal some little things. Like this one cool thing. It’s a sphere! And when you screw around with it…it’s a map! A map of space; but a map regardless! It’s cool. He likes it.

The party ship was just right in his view; the ship was nicely decorated actually. One could almost call it cute. Finally Sinsario was able to dock. He just threw the surfboard to a corner; just in case the actual owner arrived. Or if someone wanted a nice Christmas present. Maybe he should have written “From Sin, with love” He’d have to find a way back to Penn’s ship alone then.

Annddnd no one was…even there. Maybe all the party guests just materialized to the ship. Maybe he should have picked up one of those instead.

Sinsario decided to call out to all the materialized people, just in case they didn’t completely make it attached.“Heeeeeeyyy-lo…anyone?”

No one responded to him; not directly anyway. Some random person yelled out "Captain, we've got company!"
“Wow way to make it sound like I’m going to wreck your ship…” He muttered to himself. “Fret not whoever you are! I’m here to uh… party. That’s what this thing is for, right? Party? I’d like to party. Are there any other people here? Partying?” No reply.“Yes. No. Maybe.”

“Oookkaaay.” He walked farther in just to lean on the wall. “I’ll just wait here then. Twenty minutes tops and I will wreck stuff up.”

((and then he wrecked stuff)

Ancient, buzzy recordings of early century Christmas carols filled the cabin on the Kinetic Hawk. Beatrice wished she was thoroughly enjoying the sound of them, but sadly, only a handful were actually worthwhile—this was probably her mother's old vinyl copied onto some half-modern compact disk, and her player didn't possess the ability to skip tracks. Probably because it wasn't actually a CD player in the first place, but rather a modified toaster. Piece of rotten junk's what it was, anyway. She'd have it fixed. One of these days.

Suddenly, there was something showing up within close range. She looked out through the window while taking a sip from a glass of cooling mulled wine she'd picked up from a peculiar fellow on some market day a while back. She scarcely believed her eyes; there had been some loose talk of a flying nest of tangled Christmas lights, but she'd dismissed it as humbug and/or not cared about it. Yet here it was. She was rather overwhelmed, and stood imagining how immensely sparkly the whole thing would have been late at night. If she'd come here at that hour she probably would have been blinded and cra—

Note to self: don't forget you're piloting an airship while piloting an airship. She managed to take rough, sliding turn in time to save the top of the tree and the mast. She circled the whole spectacle a few times before she descended and ultimately docked as conveniently as was possible, so overwhelmed by curiosity she didn't even have time to realise it. Grabbing her bottle of mulled wine she stepped out into the cold wintry wind, heading towards the large, bustling deck.

"Oi, little helpers, that's some Tannenbaum you've got right there!"

“I told you leaving the lights on all night was a bad idea!” Taku yelled back to her crew while trying to steer the rapidly descending ship. Crew, meaning her best friend Katt and ship, meaning the tiny vessel they had “borrowed”.

“H-how was I supposed to know that the tree wasn’t fireproof!?” Katt yelled back, trying to smother the flames. “These things are supposed to be a little resilient, right?” She leaped on the last bit of burning deck with the heavy blanket, putting it out. “It’s out! B-but…why are we still going down?” She had to yell over the screaming wind.

“Don’t know! Might have done more damage than we thought!” Taku strained from the effort of keeping the ship from doing a nose dive. He red and blonde hair streaming behind her as they hurtled through the clouds. “Come on.” She gritted her teeth. Then, with a jolt, the craft sped upwards again, more jittery than before, but they were flying.

Katt collapsed on the deck. She was too relieved to speak. After a minute, she staggered up, tamed her windswept ginger hair and stood by her friend. “What now? I don’t trust this thing anymore.”

“Right now? I need a stiff drink. And I think that’s the place to get one.” She pointed to a glow on the horizon.

“P-pirates!?” Katt stammered, quick to assume the worst. “Shouldn’t we avoid them?”

“Katt, dear. We are pirates.”

“Well, shouldn’t we avoid other pirates?” She was getting nervous.

Taku slumped over the helm. “I swear, you see the worst possible outcome. They might be friendly. After all, it’s Christmas eve!”

Katt gave out a little gasp. “What? I didn’t- I thought…there was more time! Christmas is tomorrow and I didn’t get you anything!” Her hands flew up to her mouth. “I hope you didn’t get me anything! Oooh I would feel so bad!”

“Relax! Besides, do you even have any money?”

Katt thought about this for a second. “Now that you mention it…”

“Then don’t worry about it. Let’s just get to that ship before we fall out of the sky.”

What a shame, people immediately began to show up. He somewhat really wanted to wreck havoc. Maybe he’ll pretend to be drunk later. “Howdy girlie. I’ve sailed through worse.” Sinsario stepped back and glanced at all the incoming folks. One was briefly an owl, then…not. Too bad, the owl was adorable. And…BEA! “Hey Beeeaaaaaa-trice. What-cha doooiiin’?” he leaned close to her “Izzat wine? Drinkin’ alread-y?” and nudging her elbow. Two other ships swooped down on dock, distracting him from being annoying…for now. The party host motioned everyone to the drinks on a table; she looked exhausted already. “Don’t mind if I do!” Sinsario made a beeline toward the eggnog, his favorite drink, because it contained eggs, and Sin loves eggs. Glancing at the ship that was on fire, he said "Thanks fer having us here, by the way. I'm all for interesting nights."

Kestrel arrived in front of Beatrice and Sinsario a few minutes later, covered in black ash. Without saying a word, she filled the bottom of a mug with rum, emptied it in one gulp, and repeated.

"Well s**t," she said at last, "I haven't had such a bad day since that grand mix-up in the Devil's Run. Apparently, Beatrice's ship isn't the only one that attracts weirdness. Which reminds me. I found a couple of packages under the tree for you two. Unmarked, but three guesses who they're from."

Kestrel raised an eyebrow. "Big red package on the left there. I have no idea how Aki managed to get that onto our ship without anyone seeing. Although I probably wouldn't notice her in this crowd." She gestured to the motley assortment of people gathered over the deck. Kestrel filled her mug, this time adding eggnog and sipping more slowly. Her crew was starting to filter back into the party, all looking as ash-covered as Kestrel, and in some cases more.

Good thing we're pirates and don't care, thought Kestrel. Well, except for Aurelia, who had somehow managed to avoid getting even a speck of ash onto her red and gold getup.