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Post by kryss on Mar 9, 2015 4:36:36 GMT -6
Dec 25, 2026_________________________
Antiquitus: Latin. Adv. 1. in former times 2. in ancient/olden times 3. long ago _________________________ Skylar sat on the edge of her bed, swinging her feet as she planned and plotted. She'd been sneaking and gathering for a few months now, on every mission she'd been sent on. She'd also spent a lot of her watch and construction time looting the surrounding houses (and she'd only been ambushed twice!) She finally had what she thought to be a pretty decent collection. At least, it was the apocalypse, she thought it was pretty good considering! And she'd been preparing ever since the Wal-Mart trip, even though they hadn't been anywhere so easy to pick up supplies since then. She really wished she had already been gathering at that point.
It didn't matter much, though, because she had everything together now. All she needed was the tree. She'd waited until the day before intentionally, since she wanted the celebration to be a surprise! Still, it was time. She tracked down Rick as soon as the initial morning bustle of assigning chores and breakfast was done. She dragged him out back with talk of a "secret plan". They pilfered the weapons shed, grabbing the ax and a hatchet. It wasn't easy to talk him into going into the forest, which always had at least a couple walkers in it and it was also cold enough to freeze any wayward digits straight off. Fortunately Skylar had bulked up with three different layers of shirts, two pairs of pants, actual freaking shoes, and fingerless gloves (although no matter how punk rock she thought they looked, she actually would have preferred the fingers at this point). Rick was also heavily clothed in a thick jacket, gloves of his own, and hiking boots.
Once they got into the forest, Skylar set to searching. Rick followed along, grumbling loudly as he did so. It didn't take her too long to find a pine, but it was fully grown, with a trunk she could barely fit her arms around. She huffed, sending a cloud of steam into the air.
"Too big," she muttered. Rick made a crude joke, then scratched his head.
"What'd'ya need a tree for anyway?" he asked, looking up at the monstrosity she'd passed.
"A pine tree specifically," she said with a grin, then informed him of the date. After that, he was eagerly tromping beside her, looking around keenly.
Twenty minutes later they'd encountered one walker (very easily taken care of) and both of them felt like their faces were going to freeze off when Skylar spotted it. She began hopping up and down on the spot, squealing and pointing. Rick examined her choice.
" 'S a little small, ain't it? Looks like the branches on this side got messed up by a real confused bear or something."
"I think it looks perfect!" she objected, hands on her hips, "And unless you want to tromp around out here for another hour..."
"Point taken, kitty cat. Stand back, then!" He went after the little tree fiercely. It only took him a few minutes to chop it down. They hoisted it together, Skylar taking the pointy, thin top end, getting a face full of needles for her effort. Squinching her eyes shut and readjusting, she made her way back into town with Rick. They deposited their prize a few houses away, as planned, and brushed themselves off before heading back, acting completely innocent.
Later that night, after everyone else had gone to bed, Rick helped Skylar again, moving the tree back to the house. He trimmed off the broken branches for her and helped her set it up in the living room. She went into her room. Instead of sleeping, however, she fetched the box she'd hidden in her closet. She'd found the decorations after exploring the attic.
She made her way quietly down into the living room, flashlight clutched in hand. Shifting it to her mouth, she began pulling stuff from the box, arranging them carefully on the branches, turning the tree so the wonkiest side faced the wall. It took a long time, especially since she kept having to adjust the flashlight. When she was finally done, she trudged back up to her room. She yawned ferociously, rubbing her eyes, but she couldn't stop yet.
She dug the second box out of her closet, and the tubes of wrapping paper she'd found. She was way too tired to make straight lines, or even even taping, but she did her best with what she had.
The sky was barely beginning to lighten, and she reached into the box. Her hand scraped the bottom. She almost thought she was done, when it closed on something small, smooth, and rounded. She drew it out, sleepily confused, and began trembling. She bit her lip hard, staring at the small tube in her hand. She'd forgotten they were in there, forgotten the first gift she'd picked up, that had made her think to get the others... she'd forgotten, now, that she didn't need to store this lipstick anymore, that she could have gotten rid of the makeup...
Ace: He walked down the stairs, the sun slowly poking over the horizon. In his defense, it was winter time, and the sun rose later. In fact, he'd slept in slightly today. He'd have to work a little harder to make up for it.
His thoughts were interrupted when he reached the living room. Wait. Was... it... Christmas? He blinked, slowly. It would probably be inappropriate to wake the others now (although at least one of them clearly knew). But perhaps, if they weren't up by 0700, he'd inform them of this turn of events.
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Post by ashestoApples on Mar 9, 2015 15:18:06 GMT -6
Conrad's watch alarm originally went off at 5:30, but despite how angry he'd be at himself later for doing so, he'd hit snooze about five times before turning the alarm off entirely. It had taken him a while to find a watch with the function, and even then the alarm wasn't loud. Thanks to the zombie-ridden-- sorry, MRZA+-ridden apocalypse, though, just about everyone was a light sleeper. How did Ace do this every morning? He had yet to find a time that Ace wasn't already up, and he was worried it was going to be 5 am.... or maybe.... earlier... No. Surely not.
After realizing what he'd done, Conrad shot up in bed and lunged for his watch on the bedside table. It was well past six, about twenty 'til seven even. Conrad sighed and ventured out from the warmth of his blanket and onto the cold carpet to change and make his way into the hallway. He didn't notice the display as he passed the banister the first time, instead fixated on the fact that Skylar's door was partially ajar. He peeked in without touching the door, expecting to find her asleep, and panicked when he saw she wasn't. Nope, he didn't see anything, he didn't see her-- wait. He leaned to look more closely- a move that failed when he accidentally touched the door and it creaked. Conrad froze for a nanosecond before dashing down the stairs to find the display.
"Wha--" he breathed before reaching up to rub his eyes. He had to be more tired than he thought- or was he still asleep? No, no he wasn't. Maybe he'd try Skylar's room again, considering he couldn't imagine anyone other than her being responsible for this. He hopped back up the stairs (almost quite literally hopped), and knocked on the door frame.
"Skylar?" he said quietly, still waiting for her permission for him to come in. "Did you do this? You did didn't you. How did you know it was Christmas?" His wide smile widened further when he saw the presents (not even registering that they were messy yet) but fell when he saw her face. At first he was going to ask what was wrong, but after a second or two of registry he had a feeling he knew. Finding an open place to sit, he said nothing for a moment before putting a hand on her back, allowing the silence for a moment.
"I miss her too," he said finally. Not helpful right now, he was sure, but he wanted her to know that he at least knew what was happening.
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Post by kryss on Mar 9, 2015 15:25:23 GMT -6
Skylar: She didn't realize how long she'd sat there. Behind her the sun had risen, although it hadn't been up long enough to drive the chill from the air. Her breath made faint fog clouds every time she exhaled, her face was almost numb. The rest of her felt pretty numb too. She'd been stuck in a reverie of stamping down emotions for hours. When Conrad came in she felt them spike, her concentration slipping. She raised her head slightly and was trying to say something when he sat next to her. The human touch, feeling almost hot through her cold shirt, and his words sent her tumbling over the edge.
Tears welled up and slipped down her face, leaving twin trails of fire on her cheeks. She shook, as much with cold as with sobs, and buried herself in his chest. She couldn't make words yet, all she could do was get swept along by the burst dam of her emotions. After a long while, she finally slowed, hanging heavily onto him still. When she finally went from sobbing to crying, she whispered,
"I'm sorry,"
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Post by ashestoApples on Mar 9, 2015 15:38:17 GMT -6
Conrad: Though he, of course, felt bad for Skylar, it had been easier to deal with her crying before she'd said she was sorry. His nose wrinkled involuntarily when she did and it was at that point that he felt tears in his eyes. Nope, now wasn't the time for that, so he ignored them.
"There's absolutely no reason for you to be sorry," he said almost instantly. "You haven't done anything wrong." He hugged her more securely as he spoke, knowing full well that even if you're not 100% confident in what you're saying being comforting, you can (almost) never go wrong with a hug. It occurred to him after a few minutes that there was no Christmas display when he went to bed and there had been one when he woke up, meaning she'd probably stayed up very late to put it up-- no, actually, wait... she was... like... awake now. Either she didn't sleep very long (not very long at ALL, especially compared to how long she NORMALLY slept) or, more likely.... she hadn't slept at all. Her emotions, he was sure, were valid regarding Jane leaving, but they were probably... exaggerated right now. What she needed was to relax, more than likely! He was proud of himself for working that out. But he couldn't quite do anything about that yet.
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Post by kryss on Mar 9, 2015 15:45:20 GMT -6
Skylar: She sniffled, just listening to his voice. She stayed there for a long time, passively crying now. Eventually the tears stopped and, she noticed, she was much warmer. Her eyes began sliding shut, but when she caught them she shook her head and sat up straight. She wiped her eyes, sniffing again.
"Thank you," she said quietly. She stood, gathering the presents in her arms. She smiled as best she could and said more brightly, "Let's go see the other's faces!"
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Post by ashestoApples on Mar 9, 2015 16:06:36 GMT -6
Conrad blinked at her, pretty sure that she wasn't okay still, but also willing to go along with whatever she did.
"Okay! I don't think anyone else is up yet, though. Except Ace. He's around somewhere, I'm sure," Conrad stood and reached to help her with her presents, but played it off like he hadn't when she left the room. He closed the door behind them and turned around to see Lorna at the banister, looking down at her living room as if someone had put a giant panda on the couch and she was wondering how she was going to feed it.
"Who-- why--... You know what? Nevermind," she said as she made her way down the stairs. "Who got the tree?" she asked after realizing it was in fact real. Rick very silently made his way past everyone, winking at Skylar, to get to the kitchen, thereby giving himself away to Lorna, who was (quite easily) able to put everything together. "Well, it... looks nice. Honestly, I don't remember the last time the family decorations looked decent. Thanks, Skylar." She was assuming Skylar was preparing for Christmas which wasn't for a few days. She'd be wrong.
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Post by kryss on Mar 9, 2015 16:50:22 GMT -6
Skylar: "You're welcome!" she said brightly as she moved past Lorna. As she headed down the stairs, she called back, "Merry Christmas!" She arranged the presents under the tree, noticing now how lumpy and lopsided they were. She winced, but moved onwards. At least they were wrapped!
"I hope Rick has something planned for breakfast!" she called meaningfully to the kitchen.
Ace: Coming inside from his workout, he saw that everyone else was up and about. Everyone except for one. Figuring now was a good time, he went to the room he shared with Alicia. He opened the door and entered quietly, smiling slightly at her small sleeping form. He gently scooped her up, carrying her to the living room.
"We've got a surprise for you," he whispered to her as she woke up.
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Post by ashestoApples on Mar 9, 2015 17:05:13 GMT -6
Rick didn't reply from the kitchen- who did Skylar think he was? He was already starting to make chocolate chip pancakes- it was Christmas for crying out loud!
Alicia stretched in Ace's arms, rubbing her eyes as she nuzzled into his chest- he was warm and it was cold! When she opened her eyes, though, she was willing to face the cold. She squealed loudly and wiggled in Ace's arms in an attempt to get down. "IT'S KWISMUS!" she shrieked, practically vibrating.
Mr. Whiskers weaved through the crowd of legs to get to the tree, batting a branch before jumping and latching onto the tree. His time had come. Lorna didn't agree, though, and picked him off the tree and draped him over her shoulder. "That's about enough of that."
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Post by kryss on Mar 11, 2015 1:23:05 GMT -6
Skylar: "Hah!" she yelled as Mr. Whiskers tried to scale Mt. Evergreen. She went for him, but Lorna got there first. Instead she turned, sniffing the air. "He is totally making pancakes in there!" she said, trying not to squeal. They'd only had pancakes like, once since her first time here! She bounced a little.
"Should we have them in the kitchen, or out here?" she asked, hands to her cheeks. Her family, at least when she was much younger, had eaten breakfast out in the living room on Christmas morning. Of course, now that she thought about it, it was more that her parents had eaten breakfast in the living room and she had already been in the process of tearing her presents to shreds.
Ace: He jerked a little when Alicia began vibrating, trying to shoosh her gently.
"I'll let you down as long as you understand we're not opening presents yet, and not all of those are for you." he said calmly. He hated to make that assumption, but Alicia was still very small and might well try to open everything the moment she got her hands on it. Of course, he wasn't even certain any of those were for her, but a quick count seemed to have one for every person.
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Post by ashestoApples on Mar 11, 2015 1:31:24 GMT -6
Conrad grinned, happy to see Skylar in a better mood. "I say we eat wherever," he said, feeling guilty that he only had three... no... two, now... presents in his room. He felt a pang of sadness but pushed past it. He was actually going to save them for birthday presents, but despite the fact he didn't celebrate Christmas, this was good. What was religion anymore, anyway? He honestly, truly wasn't sure. Christmas was as good as anything else, in his opinion.
Alicia looked up at Ace indignantly- which was probably a shock, considering she didn't do that, really. "I knowwww," she said, folding her arms. "I jus wanted ta look." She didn't understand the feeling, but she was actually kind of offended! She really did just want to look at the ornaments! It helped that she never got many presents come Christmas the years before, not that she remembered much more than eating candy and opening presents from Santa the year before.
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Post by kryss on Mar 11, 2015 1:42:22 GMT -6
Skylar: She nodded to him and rushed into the kitchen.
"However many pancakes you are legally allowed to give me, to go!" she announced, glancing out the swinging door at the popo. Fortunately, she was occupied with Mr. Whiskers. Good kitty. She felt a pang of remorse, however, when she remembered they had no more chocolate syrup left.
Then she chastised herself. Oh nooo, she had no extra chocolate to put on top of her CHOCOLATE CHIP PANCAKES in the freaking APOCALYPSE. She DID, however, figure this would be a good enough excuse to break out some of the fancy stuff.
"I'll be right back," she said, dashing away. She began shivering violently the moment she was outside, but she made her way to her stash by the shed and grabbed the handful of drink packets, and ran back inside as quickly as she could.
"I-I-I've g-got, fr-r-ruit p-punch and, and ch-cherry a-and l-l-lemonade, and b-b-lue r-raspber-rry," she said, trying to list off the flavors as she shook so hard she thought her bones would come loose.
Ace: "I apologize for doubting you," he said with a chuckle. It wasn't right for something like her to be so cute when they were offended, but he could just tell from her tiny face that how dare he question her integrity. He let her down to go examine the tree and walked over to Lorna.
"Merry Christmas, I suppose, Ma'am." he said. She had mostly shaken him of the habit of calling her that, but it still slipped out occasionally.
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Post by ashestoApples on Mar 11, 2015 2:01:25 GMT -6
Rick chuckled and continued stacking pancakes in the microwave (he was using it for insulation of heat so they'd stay warm, naturally!) as she ran away. He discreetly took care of the kettle before it went off and poured it in a mug before plopping a tea bag in it so it could steep while he looked for more mugs. He'd looked for hot cocoa when he caught on to Skylar's plan, but unfortunately hadn't found any. He did find a small amount of tea, though, so when Skylar came in shivering with drink packets he set the tea in front of her!
"Hell yeah!" he exclaimed when he got a better look at them. "I dunno where you hide this stuff, but I approve! Now we've got tea and fake koolaid. Merry fuckin' Christmas." He said everything with sincerity, despite his words.
"Ah, shit," he turned around to flip a pancake he'd nearly forgotten about to find that it was still fine. "Safe!" he cried like an umpire. He slid a plate in front of Skylar and plopped 3 pancakes down, figuring that was enough for now. "I made a shitload o' batter so DIG IN."
_________
Lorna rolled her eye but she did smile at Ace. She respected him enough not to see him as a hindrance- plus, nothing about him was a hindrance anyway. She set down Mr. Whiskers who went to play at Alicia's heels, leaving her shrieking and playing with him between poking at ornaments.
"Merry early Christmas, in any case," she said. "My calendar says it's six days off-- still, the sentiment is appreciated." She inhaled deeply through her nose and sighed out. "Breakfast smells good anyway." She looked around for Conrad (who had made a place on the couch to watch the cutest things in the house (apart from maybe Skylar) play around the tree) and caught his eye. His back straightened when he realized she and Ace were so near. Lorna made a head nod toward the door and Conrad stood, nodded, and dashed outside in his shorts and t-shirt.
The lights flickered on in the house and Lorna nodded. "In any case, everyone seems to be having a good time. I'd like to encourage that. We need some good times after..." she didn't finish her sentence, but she had a feeling she didn't have to. Jane left the house in a dreary mood when she left. Some feeling used, some feeling betrayed, some feeling just plain sad and others feeling sorry for anything they might have done. "Anyway!" she exclaimed when Conrad dashed inside, thoroughly frozen. She threw a blanket on him. "Breakfast is smelling good! Let's go join them."
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Post by kryss on Mar 11, 2015 2:11:26 GMT -6
Skylar: Feeling slightly dumb for not realizing they had tea (although to be fair she preferred fake Koolaid anyway,) she gratefully sipped anyhow, as fast as she could without burning herself too badly. She watched, her eyes growing shinier and smile wider with each pancake that plopped onto her plate. When the lights flickered on she hopped up and down in excitement. And she knew just what to do! She grabbed her plate and mug (she'd get a proper drink later) and ran out to the living room. Carefully placing the mug on an end table, she set the pancakes next to Conrad.
"Guard these with your life," she said very seriously before dashing off again. She found the box of decorations she'd kicked into the corner the night before, and extricated the line of Christmas lights she'd abandoned. It took a few minutes, but she untangled them. She felt like it would be too much work to get them around the tree, now that it was fully decorated and had a child and cat playing by it, so instead she draped them up and over the top windowsill, standing precariously on various bits of furniture to accomplish it. Once arranged, she plugged them in and grabbed her pancakes and plopped on the couch, smile so wide it hurt her cheeks a little.
Ace: He nodded at her correction. He'd trust her judgement, anyway. He knew the date when his team crashed, but that had been the last time he'd kept track. Part of him wanted to object to turning the generator on - it would be a waste of fuel when they didn't need it. But he bit his tongue, knowing that sentiment and moral were sometimes the most important resources a team could have. Instead he followed her into the kitchen after the tempting smells, ready for breakfast. As he gathered his pancakes, he had a thought.
"Could you do special ones for Alicia?" he asked.
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Post by ashestoApples on Mar 11, 2015 2:29:25 GMT -6
Conrad had been ready to help Skylar with her shenanigans, but she looked so into it that he didn't dare interrupt. Besides, he was guarding pancakes from a very pawsy little cat. He shooed the fluffball away and he indignantly went away to the kitchen in search of scraps. Conrad couldn't help but beam when she sat down next to him with her pancakes and tea and he absent-mindedly half massaged one of her shoulders before getting up and going to the kitchen to get in on the chocolate chip GOODS.
Alicia was shortly behind him, walking in on Rick replying to Ace in as indignant a tone as he could muster. "Nooo, I definitely can't make special pancakes for Alicia, definitely haven't already, I went to culinary school, I don't know anythin' fancy," he said mostly under his breath. Ace could definitely hear him, he knew, because Lorna could as well and she was mostly deaf in one ear and was standing only a tiny bit close to him. She made a special trip around the counter to elbow him and Rick, in a high voice (presumably imitating Lorna) said, "Don't make funna' Mr.-- no, Captain Perfect he was an Eagle Scout and is taller than you and is better than you at baseball and has biceps of steeeeel."
He handed Ace a plastic kid's plate with a rather impressive Hello Kitty pancake and a pancake that was slightly better well done in the shape of Captain America's shield with darker imprints of the star and a couple stripes. He went back to grumbling over the skillet after Conrad raised an eyebrow at him as if to say 'Seriously, man? What are you, 4?' Lorna hung back in the kitchen as Conrad left, having made it a personal goal not to leave Rick alone cooking. He said some dumb things when he didn't think anyone was listening, for one, and for another it was kind of rude to leave a cook in the kitchen, wasn't it? It was her excuse anyway.
Mr. Whiskers didn't even try to beg from Lorna, though, instead keeping a close eye on anyone who would eventually succumb to his kitty eyes, like Skylar, Conrad or Alicia. Emphasis on the first.
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Post by kryss on Mar 11, 2015 2:42:41 GMT -6
Skylar: She began happily eating into her pancakes, demolishing half the plate before anyone else even got back from the kitchen. Mr. Whiskers came up and put his front paws on her knees, looking deeply into her eyes. She grinned and tossed him a morsel while Lorna was still in the kitchen. She scooted to make room for Conrad, whittling down her pancakes to almost gone. By the time he'd gotten settled, she finished off the last one in an extra-large bite. She wiggled her way up carefully, putting her mug down again, and ambled back into the kitchen, giving her best puppy dog eyes to Rick. Seeing Lorna there, she couldn't help but add,
"Please, sir, can I have some more?" in her best faux-British orphan accent.
Ace: He carefully took the plate for Alicia and one for himself, also with two pancakes on it. He felt two was a little excessive, but they were celebrating, and he had seen the amount of batter Rick had made. He was confident everyone would get their share.
As it appeared everyone was congregating in the living room, he took the plates in there, setting them on the table. He took his water bottle from the crook of his arm and set it between the plates to share. Before he realized what was happening, Skylar rushed over and added a packet of drink mix that turned the water an interesting blue.
"Shake well!" she said cheerily before heading back into the kitchen.
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