trans_9 | And We're Gonna Pull Through [Bendytimed to After System Shock]

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And We're Gonna Pull Through [Bendytimed to After System Shock]

It's probably a solid two weeks before Christmas is due, assuming that their Thanksgiving dinner was on schedule which, given the nature of the ship, it presumably wasn't. But the robot attack was terrifying and disheartening and exhausting, and Howard wants a holiday, so according to him, it's Christmas. A nice, relaxing break from things trying to kill them.

Aside from this strand of Christmas lights doing its damnedest to strangle him, that is. Howard's managed to get it around his neck, and if it weren't for the fact that finding light strands is hard enough on Stacy, would be cutting it off with scissors.

He's still a bit beat-up, bandages around his head and his knees and one looping around his torso, under his shirt, but thanks to the healers and medical technology on Stacy he's not in much pain. His foot being in a brace is the worst of it.

He's managed to salvage an old plastic tree from a run-down building. A few packets of hot cocoa from the Warehouse sit on the table. Flossy Raptor is downstairs and dressed in a Santa hat and bizarrely, a feather boa in a shade of green too lime-ish to be Christmassy. A clunky-looking dog-sized gift for Zouichi is by the couch, wrapped in tin foil and newsprint, and another is on the table for Karis, although it's unwrapped. No one else quite makes Howard's list this year.

He pulls his way out of the tangle of lights. Christmas numero dos sans his family. Christmas numero uno on Stacy. He finds he's less okay with the former than he was last year, but more okay with the latter than he'd presumed.

Anyone who walks into the kitchen of the Susono Inn will be greeted by the rare and unusual sound of Howard humming. Go Tell It On the Mountain, actually. He even sings the section of the first verse that he vaguely remembers under his breath.

"Go tell it on the mountain, up over the hills and everywhere, go tell it on the mountain, tell them something, I don't care."

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When Cedric sees the familiar lights appearing on the house, he knows what Howard's up to. He also knows that it's time to quickly round up some presents! He scampers away, hopefully without being seen, and returns a few hours later with a lumpy green bag.

He's humming a familiar tune when he slips inside the inn, piling things around the tree. What a lovely day this is going to be, a far cry from the past week.

((Threadhopping's cool! Cedric has presents for all the people and pets he knows, go wild.))

Edited 2011-12-30 17:24 (UTC)

"Oh. Hey. You didn't get yourself killed." Howard tries to sound less relieved than he is about that.

At some point Howard's going to get used to people who don't live here just walking in. Right now, though, he adds "do wizards not believe in knocking before entering?"

"I promised I wouldn't," Cedric smiles up at him, planting a somewhat square package wrapped in what looks like old aluminium foil at the base of the tree. It has Howard's name written neatly on a tag of tape, next to ones labeled 'Zouichi', 'Kaya', 'Alan', and 'Spot'.

He shrugs apologetically at the next statement. "I'm sorry, I was in such a rush! I saw the lights a few hours ago and wanted to have everything ready before people started leaving. I might've almost knocked down the door."

"You know she doesn't live here, right?" Howard says, pointing to Kaya's gift. He's criticizing because he doesn't quite know how to respond. He didn't get Cedric anything, and now he feels awkward, because he assumed he liked Cedric more than Cedric liked him, and this all seems backwards. Furthermore, gifts weren't really commonplace in the FAYZ (in that they didn't exist at all), and he doesn't want to feel indebted to Cedric.

So instead he just shifts his weight in social discomfort, foot to foot.

"I didn't get you anything. I guess you can grab something out of the warehouse if you want."

"I know," Cedric shakes his head. "She just mentioned that she's a friend of yours, so I thought she might show up. She was actually the first person to tell me you had a good side," he grins. "If I don't see her, I'll take it with me."

He doesn't mind at all about the gifts. "I wasn't expecting it! Christmas is about giving, isn't it? Just take it, I don't need anything. Is there any time left to help with the food?"

"You sure she wasn't talking about another Howard? Because all I tend to do is make fun of her in Med Bay for being so...sugary." That's how she wound up with the nickname 'Bubbles', after all.

"Yeah, sure. We don't got much because, you know, Stacy, but I was thinking a thing of pie and ice cream for Christmas dinner. Ice cream's about the only thing we got a lot of and the pie's frozen, so." Howard still doesn't look entirely comfortable with either concept, the gift or the food. "Do you want me to open it?"

"How many other Howards work in the medical department?" Cedric asks cheekily. Oh, he knows all about being sugary. It's fun!

The mention of ice cream obviously pleases him. "That's perfect. We'll warm it up and have dessert after our meal of slop. And yes, open it! I wouldn't have brought it if I didn't want you to."

Cedric passes the package into Howard's hand and watches. The foil contains a home-carved grey mug with a lid, some awkwardly tied packets of grated tea leaves, and a small, squishy ball that felt like a beanbag. That was the only enchanted object of the lot, and it would take some explaining.

"There are a few enchantments I could've used, but they'd be dangerous if magic's ever blocked like that again. And I'll definitely pass on some dittany if I ever find it here."

"Good point. We used to have a talking duck named Howard, though."

Howard nods and takes the wrapping apart, meticulously, rather than ripping it like he would a few years ago. He pulls foil off and flattens it as he does, then picks up the mug and examines in. His eyes widen a little. "Did you make this yourself?"

Granted, he has no idea what dittany is. "What's the ball?"

"A talking duck? Well, I suppose it makes as much sense as the ponies I've met."

Cedric smiles awkwardly, confirming it. It's not a perfectly smooth mug. The bottom lies flat, but it has some interesting twists and turns and a lined exterior. "It would've been neater, but as I said, I didn't use magic---except on the ball."

He removes an identical ball from his own pocket. "This is mine. It's exactly the same as yours. It's meant to be a stress ball. It changes texture as you squeeze. It'll become tougher, then lighter, and if magical enchantments are disabled again it'll become an ordinary beanbag. But that's not the coolest part."

Lobbing it against the wall proves that it has bouncy tendencies, and it bounces back. Squeezing it its hardest, though, creates a fire shooting up from his hand. It doesn't seem to be hurting Cedric or the ball at all.

Howard looks genuinely impressed by the fire thing. His eyebrows shoot up and a smile teases its way out of his mouth. "Okay, don't get bigheaded about it, but that is definitely cool."

He takes the ball and squeezes it, not to the full extent of his hand's strength. He still isn't quite sold on the fire being safe. "So who told you I was high-strung?"

Because obviously Cedric couldn't have just picked up on Howard's very evident permanent sense of tension.

"No one had to tell me," he says gently. This is probably a difficult subject for Howard, so he won't spend much time on it. "It's just that you have bags under your eyes, you work odd hours, and you're prepared. You knew exactly what to do during those attacks, and you don't learn that without..."

Having a fair amount of practice.

"So you could use some lightening up!"

"Hmm." He tosses the ball hand to hand. Cedric's a little more observant than Howard guessed, but Cedric has had a way of surprising him so far. "I really could. We should, um, do some arcades or something sometime. For fun."

He pauses. "I mean, not a date, obviously. Since you don't want that."

Ah, yes. The attraction thing. Cedric still feels guilty about that, but he does his best to mask it all in good friendship.

"I suppose I owe you for the refereeing. Just try not to laugh too hard at the first hundred times I fail. I've never played your games before."

"Oh, come on. Laughing at you's the whole point." He winks and bounces the ball off the floor.

"Is it?"

Cedric laughs. It's good to see Howard smiling about something. The best Christmas gift of all!

"And you'll catch it on tape for later. If I was feeling especially charitable, I would've given you the tapes from the modeling competition as your present.

He waits a beat. "Maybe for your birthday."

"I'm going to find those someday, I swear." And you will rue the day when he does, Cedric. "And you're only saying that because you just missed my birthday."

"No way," Cedric taunts. "I'm as good at hiding as I am at finding. It won't be where you expect, or what you expect."

He doesn't actually have the tapes, but this game is all in good fun. He sobers when he hears that last statement, though.

"I'm sorry. I should've paid more attention! Oh, we do even more fun things on birthdays."

"Don't think I'm not good at finding things." He taps his nose.

"You didn't actually miss it. It's a little before Christmas but since we can't keep track on here anyway, who cares? It just doesn't feel like it's time for sixteen yet." He gets a bit of a nervous look on his face, thinking about that. Thinking about his last birthday, choosing to stay in the FAYZ. "Birthdays are kind of weird where I'm from."

"You found your nose. Good work!" Cedric teases. Hey, teasing can be fun, he's starting to realise.

"How are they weird?" He knows Howard likely won't answer him outright, but he's hoping for a little clue.

Howard grins. He likes that Cedric's teasing. Teasing is a sign of affection, as long as it doesn't go too far. Thin-skinned as Howard is, Cedric hasn't crossed that line yet.

"When you turn fifteen, you get to choose if you want to leave. And no one's made it to sixteen yet, so we don't know what happens then."

"So...you won't feel that you're sixteen until you've made it through?"

Given the state of their worlds, that sounds like an awfully long time. "You don't have to wait that long. I'll show you when the time's right," he promises.

Not that he ever guarantees the time will be right.

"I'm just worried I might be carrying around some FAYZ weirdness and get tempted to leave again when I turn sixteen. I don't think it'd be a problem for you." He starts water in a kettle on the stove. "I don't know if I'd stay, honestly."

It goes without saying that he chose to stay last time. It's also written on his face that he thinks that was a mistake.

"Do you know what would happen if you leave?" Cedric asks gently. It's rare that Howard talks to him this much. He's probably pushing it too far, actually, so he's preparing a backup plan:

Ice cream. He is prepared to fling the ice cream around.

Howard pauses, before finally saying. "No. We don't know. You just get tempted to disappear and if you do..." He makes a gesture with his hand. "Poof. Maybe you die, maybe you get out, we really never figured it out."

He chooses to pour the hot water in the mug Cedric gave him and a spare. "Hot cocoa?"

Cedric bows his head. Oh, that sort of thing. "Well. There's a while, at least."

And they don't talk about it any further. That's what Howard wants, right? He's gone about as far as they probably can today.

"Sure!" Cedric sounds quite happy to be offered hot cocoa. "Is the pie defrosting, or should I help that along?"

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