Welcome to Gaia! ::

Istas had seen the little Santa house and the small line of people that'd already assembled in front of it. The Preteen figured her parents would like a picture of her with Santa. She happened to be wearing a powder blue fluffy jacket with snowflakes on it and a nice white hand knitted scarf. She had on jeans today too though and white fluffy knee boots.

Her backpack choice of the day was a Polar bear, and when she noticed the sign a picture for 5 dollars she fished into the pack to find her my little pony wallet. She was positive she had five dollars to spend on a picture. . .

Istas looked up from her wallet to Jonquil. Had she known that she was being labeled 'Kinderlolli' she'd have to protest this wasn't quite as frilly as what she normally wore.

Her head tilted at the five. "Oh, HI!" She said with a smile, shaking her head as she pulled out a five of her own. "I have money for shopping." She paused glancing at Quila as she shrugged, "I'm not here to tell Santa what I want. I want to get a picture for my parents, they're still nostalgic."

She chuckled, "Buy anything interesting?" She asked curiously as she hummed.

Owen didn’t want to be here. He hadn’t believed in Santa since he was four and realized that it was impossible for one man to visit every house in the world in one night, especially now that he was old enough to read books about time zones and how day and night worked. But it was a tradition for Mama to take a picture of him with Santa to send to his grandparents, and so here he was, waiting in line to climb on the lap of some man who probably smelled of pizza and chicken wings.

Yuck.

If it wasn’t for Mama, he’d have been out of here already – but she hung onto this tradition, and he wanted to make her happy. So instead of making an escape from the line of wiggling toddlers, blank-eyed parents and the kids his own age, Owen instead tried to simply distract himself by looking at the others trapped in this terrible line with him. Maybe there would be someone else from Knightside here? Maybe even one of his classmates?

... Wait.

He didn’t want any of his classmates here. They were kind of dumb and might actually believe in Santa Claus. He already knew from experience that if he tried to tell them about the real origins of Santa Claus (he’d read it in a book!), they would just get upset and he would end up getting in trouble. He really didn’t want to get in trouble, not when it was so close to Christmas! Mama got so stressed around Christmastime, and he wasn’t going to make it worse. So he would just have to hope he didn’t run into any classmates, and if he did that it would at least be the ones that were smart enough to know that Santa wasn’t real, because he hated seeing people believe incorrect information!

Bleh. This was so boring. And dumb. Maybe he could grab a book from his backpack. Would anyone notice if he tried to read in the middle of the line? Probably, but it was worth the risk, and small hands tugged the backpack off of his back and dug through it, grabbing his copy of The Chronicles of Narnia: The Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe so that he could read through it while he waited. Books were way better than waiting around and being bored.

"Oh come on, stop being too cool for everything." Istas said with a shake of her head at Quila, "Plus the bus doesn't leave here for another fifteen minutes I'm sure we have time."

Istas watched at the Santa Claus showed up with a sack of toys. Her eyes squinted as she looked at him he was a little thin for a Santa it seemed. Though she was curious what he had in the bag, "You can't tell me you're not at least curious to see what he has in the bag."

She paused as she turned around and noticed a boy she'd seen from Knightside though she wasn't sure they'd ever really met besides passing in the hallway. She waited for Owen to look up before waving at him.

Istas then beamed at Quila again, "See there's others from Knightside here. It's not that bad."

She watched as the line waited for Santa to sit and the assisting elf would let them through.

Quila actually growled as she pinched the bridge of her nose, lip curling in a grimace.

She hadn't. She HAD.

"...Actually..." She noted through clenched teeth, each sylable of the first word drawn out angrily. "I can tell you exactly that. It's toys in the bag. it said so in the ad. So the farg what if I don't want to sit on some stinky strangers lap and pretend I think his fake beard doesn't look like he glued half a bag of stuffing to some fabric and hoped for the best. If that makes me..." She paused for very sarcastic air quotes. "Toooo cooool for everything." Than fine. I'm "toooo cooool" for everything." (Air quotes again.)

She spread her hands, palm up and added a very, very forced smile to the equation as her bags swung from her arms.

"Tooooo coooool mannnn. WATER TRIBE."

Ok that was a serious non sequitur, but her own pose had reminded her of Soka, and he was her kind of goofy idiot-warrior, and he was sort of awesome when he put on war paint. Kinda hot awesome. For a cartoon.

...Speaking of which ohgodtherereallywereotherkidssheknew. FUGNAUGHT.

Alise didn't believe in Santa, and hadn't since probably first grade or so, possibly earlier. She believed in ghosts, could come up with conspiracy theories about what Santa really was, but otherwise wasn't particularly interested in sitting on some stranger's lap to ask him for things she knew she'd never get.

Last year, she had asked for EVP recorder to look for ghosts. 'Santa' had laughed, and suggested she ask for some new dolls instead. Never again... except her mother wanted the picture-taking opportunity, and thus Alise was stuffed into yet another frilly dress and shuffled out the door, to stand in a line of other kids, some of whom she was pretty sure went to the same school. Fidgeting uncomfortably (she hated dressing up), Alise waited in line as she hoped for something interesting to happen to make the day go by faster.

The sooner she could get home and out of the dress, the better.

The rents were out doing the annual Christmas shopping, which meant only one thing would be happening for Scott Erlea this evening. The children, all four of them, would be left with him, where they would then partake in a classic holiday tradition: seeing Santa Claus!

Scott himself knew it to be an older man in a suit, forcing himself to be overly enthusiastic and jolly, allowing children to sit on his knees all for the sake of a paycheck, and while he suspected that Mikey and John knew it too, he warned them to play along, for not only the sake of the younger Erleas, but for the sake of the other children that were there as well. And by warned, he more or less meant bribed them with a sugary treat before the night was through.

It wasn't that Scott didn't want to be there, in a crowded place full of children screaming in his ears, being pushed and prodded by his siblings, one of which bouncing around excitedly on his shoulders and the other constantly pulling at his shirt asking questions. It was more like he was looking forward to seeing a certain someone again. Something had just crossed his mind a few days after he spoke with her, something that would have answered her question, and while he could have easily called or texted her the answer, he wanted to do it in person. Not that he knew why... it just felt like it was necessary to see her again.

"Scotty, Scotty, are you Santa? Your face is all red!" George's laughter pulled his attention back to the present, forcing Scott to steady steel himself and prepare to defend himself before the other kids jumped in. Thankfully, there was another distraction set for the children, as Paul's bouncing intensified as he pointed to 'Santa'. "He's here! He's here!"

Which meant that this line would get moving soon, which meant a great deal of relief for his neck. He ushered the other children forward, not wanting their spot in line to be taken by others now that Old Saint Nick arrived. "Come on, then, let's not make Mr. Claus wait too long. You all remember what you want, right?"

Each of the kids bobbed their heads up and down, even the two non-believers that were Mikey and John. Scott was grateful that they were willing to play along with him, and he was preparing to take mental notes so that he could quickly flip open his phone and text the rents while they were out on their quest. Paul was too excited, waving his little arms around and shouting for everyone to hear, much to Scott’s dismay. “Santa, Santa, Santa!”