[Concluded] Kingdom Hearts - BOTR - Special Holiday Episode

[Kuukyo_Fushichou]

[Jared] you know, it is a good thing i'm not in fireworks mode, otherwisei'd consider this an insult to fireworks. as it is... *brings out the huge roman Candles, large mortar shells, so on... and a large ACME-style rocket, nabs Larry and ties him up in Adamantium chains, sets everything up* HAPPY CHRISTMAS AND MERRY NEW YEAR, HAPPY PEOPLE! *fireworks goup... and Larry gets blown into sparkly little red particles.

[Shiro] ... yeah, he'd definitely call it fireworks abuse if he was working. *snicker, deal-with it shades on before heading into portal.*  

[[XIII] Roxas]

Roxas didn't fully appreciate all the hype about Christmas at first, in part because his first Christmas not including his time with the Organization had been spent in the vicinity of a grumbling Sora who was still excited for the holiday, but also pouting excessively about his status of being on the naughty list for having denounced his belief in Santa in front of all his and Riku's friends when they were little. There were very few things that would have made Sora truly spiteful, but being on the naughty list was something that Riku wouldn't soon hear the end about. This year was going to be different though. Roxas was no longer living in Sora's shadow. He had his own life and his own friends to share the holidays with. Even if they did ultimately have the same idea of visiting Santa's workshop in Christmastown as the place to celebrate. It was still peaceful and it was nice to see everyone in good spirits. It would be no surprise to anyone that Roxas's own costume for the occasion was a Santa suit that was mainly white in color that incorporated his usual checkerboard pattern theme.

Crystal's costume was a Santa suit that had a silvery snowflake pattern, achieving a metallic look from a combination of glitter and sequins. She was also, unsurprisingly, the one who had masterminded the idea of coming to Christmastown to celebrate the holidays, not that there was anyone amongst them who would have objected to the idea. Once she had posited the idea to everyone it was pretty much impossible not to want to go.

Xion was wearing a sort of minty green striped elf costume for the occasion and was pretty excited about getting to meet Santa given this was going to be her first Christmas outside of the Organization and more importantly the Organization had never done any missions in Christmastown even though there had been plenty in Halloweentown so this was all a very big first for her and it really showed. Seriously, she's adorable and no one can deny it.

Sora was in his usual gothic accented black Santa suit for Christmastown and clearly intent on pestering Santa to see if he could help out in any way to possibly redeem himself. Not even Kairi, adorned in a cute pink Santa suit, could hold him back when he was like this. Hopefully Sora wouldn't get them into too much trouble. Riku was looking rather disgruntled while wearing dark green striped elf costume alongside Namine who was dressed to match, although the stripes of her own costume were a somewhat lighter pastel green color, and she seemed to be totally okay with it. Obviously, their group had chosen to visit Christmastown separately from the others and so had also arrived separately, although they really weren't surprised to see the rest of them when they got there.

"It looks like we all had the same idea," Kairi seemed pleasantly amused by this not-so-coincidental turn of events.

"Looks like it," Crystal agreed with her own irrepressible grin showing through for the moment.

"Great minds think alike, I guess" Riku smirked a bit mildly, a marked improvement over that scowl he'd had on his face about the elf costume. "Well, really it was Sora's idea to come here because he wanted to show this place off to Kairi and me, but now it seems like all he really wanted to do was to try to impress Santa. But I'm sure you guys probably had more noble intentions for coming here."

"Let's see... snowball fights, eggnog, candy canes... we're really just here to celebrate," Crystal was already grinning entirely too much and she hadn't even had any of the aforementioned sugar products yet.

"And the mistletoe," added Namine while pointing out Zero who was attempting to float stealthily over Shiro with a small sprig of mistletoe in his mouth.

"Mistletoe?" Xion wondered. Roxas had encountered it last year during the many failed attempts by Riku to get Sora to kiss Kairi, but obviously it was a totally new concept for Xion.

"There's a tradition that if you find yourself standing with someone beneath the mistletoe you're supposed to share a kiss," Namine explained helpfully with her usual knowing smile.

Cue instant blushing from Xion.

A year ago, Roxas had found the whole concept to be rather obnoxious, although that probably had more to do with Riku being the one who had been instigating it and doing so a little too forcefully and because the entire focus had been on Sora and Kairi which, after a while, really wasn't all that interesting to watch. But now Roxas had someone he really wouldn't mind getting caught under the mistletoe with, not that he actually needed any encouragement in that department.

"This should be fun," Crystal had somehow gotten her hands on one of those aforementioned candy canes and now had it sticking purposefully out of her mouth. "Mm... peppermint."  

[Kuukyo_Fushichou]

Shiro of course would be in a wintery knight/nut-cracker like outfit, of course looking all too amused at Crystal's infectious cheer, of course the mention of the mistletoe made him blink, and look upwards towards the offending sprig and sweatdropped "oi! Bad Zero, no ghost treats for you if you're doing that! go try and get Riku and Namine to kiss, or Roxas and Crystal!" and now cue Shiro trying to get away from the Mistletoe carrying Zero, while he knew the tradition, he did -not- want the drama of it thank you!

Roveth would laugh himself, wearing a blue and white striped candy-cane designed pants and overcoat with the same for a scarf and beanie "hahahaha! okay, as much as i can see someone doing that i didn't expect Zero to be the culprit, cause i surely didn't plan on any mistletoe hijinks!" he said, clearly marking himself as innocent, given while he -would- normally put those who like pranking up to it, he had planned to at least lay off the snark and jokes for this vacation trip, he was more in the mood to watch Axel who looked a bit cold.

of course, Axel was a -BIT- cold. (understatement of the millenium.) however he just grinned a bit lightly "let's not forget visiting Santa and giving a hi~" he would say, grinning a bit lightly, looking over to Shiro and Roveth "Oi, Shiro, Roveth, you guys believe in Santa?" Shiro stopped for the moment from his flailing and fleeing from Zero a bit, while tilting his head "well... i'm on the fence with that, since while i've had good things happen to me, i've also had some bad/crazy things happen too. though i at least don't believe in those santas that are in the marketplaces and malls, those are -totally- posers." Roveth shrugged lightly "can't say he doesn't exist. thing about most myths, legends, and of course, supernatural things... there's always a hint of truth to it. now unfortunately, i'm probably on his naughty list because of my completely justified pranking of Seifer, among other things." Axel just snorted a bit "if you are on his naughty list i wouldn't be surprised in the least!"  

[[XIII] Roxas]

Zero had ceased hovering over Shiro for the moment after being scolded by him and whining a bit as he concealed himself in the snow.

"In case it wasn't obvious, I definitely believe in Santa," Crystal mentioned while continuing to work on that candy cane with a cheerful grin.

"Oh, it's obvious alright," Riku acknowledged. "Even if you do contain your excitement better than Sora."

"Considering how worked up Sora is about him and the fact that Crystal has probably been here before, I'm pretty sure Santa must be real," added Roxas. "I'm not sure where I stand on his list though."

"Well, I don't think you've done anything that would warrant being put on Santa's naughty list, but that's certainly something we'll know for sure once we go inside to meet him," Crystal nodded. "And Xion is definitely on the nice list."

"Don't worry Roxas, if Riku and Axel have managed to stay on Santa's nice list even with all their mischief, then you shouldn't have any trouble," Xion tried to be encouraging.

"Given that, Roveth might still have a chance too," added Crystal. "I mean, it's not like he's really done anything too sinister. No offense, Roveth," she added quickly knowing Roveth did sort of pride himself on being an arch b*****d and all. But seriously, as obnoxious and delinquent as his behavior could be, Roveth wasn't actually a bad person.

"Well then, we'd better go in and meet Santa," Riku asserted. "He's going to be really busy soon so we should do it while we aren't going to be holding him up too much."

"That's a really good point," Roxas agreed. He took Crystal by the hand with a smile as they headed off in the direction of Santa's workshop.

"Those two really aren't shy at all anymore, are they?" Riku switched from his regular smirk to something more closely resembling a real smile.  

[Kuukyo_Fushichou]

Shiro would sigh in relief seeing that Zero was properly chastised, thankfully he would resume his walking with the others, granted, he saw Crystal's enthusiasm, and just gently smiled, though he at least commented on Riku's words "no thanks to you, Riku, given you made it completely awkward and confusing for them every chance you got." he said snarkily, before starting inside himself, lord knows he's probably on Santa's naughty list on principle given how crazy things usually get around him... adjusting the helmet a bit to hide his forehead and all.


Roveth would hold his highly offended look for a few more moments before letting it settle back down into a soft smirk and all "meh, seems i need to ramp up my Arch-bastardy tendencies again on Ojou-Sama." you could literally -hear- the capitals in that one to show his minor irritation at best at being called not sinister enough. thankfully it was all in good fun and he would at least head inside with Shiro, making sure the poor guy doesn't get caught in a room surrounded with Mistletoe at least for the moment.


Axel just chuckled a bit at Roveth's antics but shook his head, looking over to Xion "yeah, don't ask how or why, but i somehow managed to stay off the naughty List, Roxas and Demyx are easily able to stay off that, the latter cause he's lazy." he said, following with the others at a more sedate pace.  

[[XIII] Roxas]

"It's not my fault they were so easy to tease," Riku shrugged with his usual smirk returning as he accompanied the others into Santa's workshop.

Naturally, once they all managed to file into the workshop, they would find Santa in his armchair checking off the names on his list while the elves were busy with the actual toy manufacturing and making final preparations for Santa's sleigh to be ready for Christmas.

"Oh my, we certainly have a lot of visitors today," Santa glanced up from his list to greet everyone.

Roxas and Xion's faces naturally lit up seeing Santa for the very first time, and even Riku couldn't completely suppress his excitement. Namine was a little more subdued, although she certainly seemed more cheerful than usual. Kairi was certainly happy to be there too, even with Sora being a bit more grouchy than usual, although even he couldn't completely suppress his excitement even knowing himself to be permanently on the naughty list unless he could think of some way to change that. Riku made a mental note that Sora was already treading on thin ice and grabbed him by the scruff of his coat to hold him back from wandering into the workshop proper.

"Thank you, Riku," Santa nodded to him appreciatively. "And Sora, do try to contain your enthusiasm. I have enough trouble with Jack Skellington wanting to make improvements to my holiday. You haven't seen him, have you?"

"No, not yet," Sora answered thinking it over. "Actually, that's kinda weird because we just saw Zero outside."

"Yes, I thought so," Santa nodded. "Jack is probably up to something, but he's being very secretive about it this year. Well, enough about that," Santa smiled pleasantly while looking everyone over. "Well, I must say, we seem to have a very good crowd here today. My goodness, this lovely young lady can't be the young Princess Crystal? You're really coming of age."

"Doesn't look like Christmas needs saving this year, but I felt like dropping by with my friends to enjoy the festivities," Crystal admitted, blushing a bit in response to the compliments.

"As long as you can keep Sora and Jack away from my workshop, by all means make yourselves at home," Santa spoke encouragingly. Several elves were darting around with serving trays carrying mugs of hot chocolate to pass around as a show of hospitality. "And I'm sure you'll all be wanting to know where you are on my list, won't you?"

"That's the idea," Riku confirmed while keeping a firm on the scruff of Sora's coat. "We already know about Sora's predicament, but the rest of us are all a little bit curious."

Santa would listen to each of their introductions while skimming over his list to find each name in turn. "Yes, well, it looks like you all are on the nice list, although Roveth I should warn you that you're treading on some very thin ice. Do try and stay out of trouble. I really don't want to have to put you on the naughty list if it can be avoided. And I must say, Lea, I'm very impressed with how well you embody your inner child."

"What, even Roveth is on the nice list?" Sora was practically inconsolable at that revelation. "But he messes with everyone!"

"True, he's a bit of a trickster and prankster type, but none of his mischief is truly malicious enough as to be irredeemable," Santa reminded Sora. "And it certainly can't be said that he isn't being true to himself."

"Okay, well we should probably get out of the way so we don't take up too much of your time," Roxas pointed out. Even he was feeling a bit giddy over meeting Santa, being particularly happy to learn that he apparently made the cut for the nice list as well. Apparently his previous connection with Sora wasn't enough to get him into trouble with Santa so that was good to know at least.

"That's right, we don't want to hold you up with checking your list," Kairi added while moving to help Riku with escorting Sora out of the building.

"Especially since he'll be very busy with checking it twice," added Namine with some amusement. "It's an extraordinary responsibility."

Sora squirmed a bit as he was taken back outside, but there wasn't much he could do right now to escape from the clutches of both Riku and Kairi.

"Not to mention we'll probably have our hands full keeping Sora out of trouble," noted Roxas. "Does he seriously not know any better?"

"He's desperate to please Santa and he's jealous too," Xion pointed out. "If he'd just stop trying so hard he'd stand a better chance of making a good impression, but I don't think he knows how to leave well enough alone."

"Not even slightly," Crystal agreed. "We should really put a leash on him."

"I'm pretty sure Riku is the only one that can effectively hold him back and even he's got his limits," Roxas mentioned with a slight laugh. "Not that it wouldn't be hilarious to see."

At that point the group was filing their way back outside and Crystal was nearly halfway done with her candy cane while looking reasonably cheerful as she began plotting out where would be the best spot to orchestrate the obligatory snowball fight. First they would need to prepare their armaments and build the requisite snow forts, but there was clearly more than enough fresh powder on the ground to make it truly epic once they got started. And Zero was suspiciously nowhere to be seen...  

[Kuukyo_Fushichou]

Roveth raised an eyebrow hearing that he was actually still on the nice list and just smiled lightly watching everyone's reactions to their names being on the good list as he pondered something, more appropriately the fact that he noticed Sora trying to get away, and remembering asking Riku about Sora's escapades with Santa in private, well, at least when he wasn't wanting to belt Riku in the face. "actually Santa.. since i'm noticing a certain miscreant trying to do anything he can to save face and get back on the nice list... and not to mention i know his... penchance... for destruction towards technological items..." he said, giving Sora a clear look of 'stay out of that workshop or you'll have -me- to deal with.' before returning to his train of thought "i would like to formally extend an offer to help fix up your workshop as well as streamline it, as it probably has been a mess the last few times Sora's gotten himself in there." he said with a smile "and i ask nothing in return for it, as i like working with technology, and i can't turn away from at least helping others on such a front, Crystal should know, given i've been the one tinkering with the Dimension Grid whenever she asks me to." he said.

Shiro of course cheered and hi-fived Axel on the fact he was on the nice list, while noticing a suspicious lack of Zero he'd narrow his eyes, and then glance upwards just in case, before at least following Crystal back out, grinning a bit and getting to work setting up his own snow fort to ready for the snowball fight. of course, he had something at least poking into his powers that made Shiro's hair glow strangely glittery underneath the hat, but he'd just keep working, he'd save this ace for firing on Axel or Riku if need be.

speaking of Axel he just gave off a peace sign and grin hearing he was on the good list "someone has to lighten Isa's mood!" he joked a bit before raising an eyebrow at Roveth actually offering his services with tech and all, before shrugging, he'd at least take the hot cocoa and sipped on it with a happy contented noise.  

[[XIII] Roxas]

"Hm... now that you mention it, the elves have been complaining about how outdated our computer system is and how the machinery in the workshop isn't really up to code," Santa admitted to Roveth. "I might take you up on that."


Meanwhile, outside Santa's workshop, it was becoming increasingly apparent how the teams were going to be divided up for the snowball fight, basically being the Destiny Islands VS Twilight Town at this point, although there might end up being some defectors if the teams became too uneven. Or it might just devolve into a free-for-all. Regardless, Riku and Kairi were attempting to keep Sora out of trouble by having him focus on helping to build up their snow fort. Namine was helping out too, of course, although she was more involved with decorating the exterior of the fort to make it more cosmetically pleasing regardless of whether or not doing so would make it more functional as an actual snow fort.

On the opposing side, Crystal was working with Roxas and Xion to build up a formidable wall of snow not unlike the walls of sand she had used to fortify the sandcastle during the party at Opassa Beach. This would give them a nice solid line of defense even if it wasn't all that impressive aesthetically. Of course, they would be counting on some help from Shiro too, once he was done being all paranoid about Zero being on the prowl the mistletoe at least.

Not long after, Isa arrived via Dark Corridor still wearing his costume from his part-time job being dressed up rather embarrassingly as a reindeer. "Go on, get it out of your system," Isa stared pointedly at Lea knowing full well there was no way his friend wouldn't be able to contain his laughter at Isa's present ensemble. "It looks like there was quite a turnout for this little excursion of yours."  

[Kuukyo_Fushichou]

Roveth nodded, and turned to the side to give a small whistle, oddly enough, a couple of dusks appeared, some of the few that liked Roveth and tended to help him out, in fact, they brought what looked to be a tool box, and his own technological gear and stuff he usually keeps on call at Twilight Town in case he needed things "thanks for bringing my stuff you two, tell the others to be on call in case i need extra parts not in the pack you brought me." he said, the two dusks gave off their own tells of nods, and disappeared back whence they came as Roveth chuckled "kinda helps to have things on call in case i do encounter interesting technology, or someone willing to ask for my assistance on that end." he explained to Santa while moving to check his gear to make sure everything was still in place.

Axel meanwhile had turned away from about to help the 'twilight town' group, to look at Isa, and unable to help himself fell to the ground starting to laugh his a** off at the Reindeer'ed Isa. it would take a good five minutes (due to Axel trying to stop laughing, getting another good look at Isa, and then just falling back down in stitches again.) and by that time more than likely the fort was set up for the Twilight Town Participants while Axel chuckled "it is, Roveth's inside talking with Santa so be thankful for that or he might add a picture of you right now to his album of embarrassing photos." he responded, before proceeding to turn his head back towards focusing on the coming snowball war, and just as he did, Shiro relinquished his position as part of the Twilight Town Team.. to go and start building a snow fort of his own, apparently he wanted to strike it out alone on this one, if only cause it'd be 5 on 4 in that case, that, and he felt like and told them he was gonna act like the 'deterrent', meaning he'll snipe both groups, but the moment he's targeted, someone gets a snow filled pummeling.  

[[XIII] Roxas]

"As much as I appreciate the warning, this is supposed to be a Christmas gathering of sorts so I'm not too concerned for my dignity and it's actually rather well-made costume," was all Isa had to say on the subject as he moved to the sidelines to preferably watch the ensuing snowball fight without getting dragged into it.

Not long after the snowball would begin to fly, with some impressive defensive maneuvering from Crystal as she managed to deflect some of the opposing snowballs in mid-flight with some well-aimed throws of her own. Both teams gave Shiro some leeway to get his fort built as they exchanged blows with each other. Roxas managed to nail Riku squarely in the forehead with one lucky throw, although Sora retaliated on Riku's behalf and Roxas had to duck back down behind the barricade to avoid a sudden barrage of high speed, poorly aimed snowballs coming from that direction. Xion was more just flailing and throwing snowballs at random trying not to get hit, but Crystal, when she wasn't fully on the defensive, was selecting more strategic targets and naturally went for Kairi knowing that would be the surest way to land a hit on Sora when he jumped in the way to defend her. When this happened he not only got bombarded with snowballs, but also got the back of his head pounced on by Zero causing him to stumble even more so that he landed on top of Kairi in the snow all while blushing profusely as Zero whined cutely while wiggling the branch of mistletoe that he still had in his mouth at the two of them. Sora was so surprised and caught off guard that he just kinda froze there for several long seconds before Kairi pulled him down and kissed him causing his face to turn an even deeper shade of crimson, not that he was unhappy about it or anything.

"That took long enough..." Riku snorted in amusement while he focused on covering for the pair by lobbing more snowballs at the opposing fort and keeping an eye out for whatever Shiro might be planning.

Zero flew off somewhere after tagging Sora and Kairi with the mistletoe and seemed to vanish again amongst the snow-covered hillsides. Naturally, once Kairi was done with Sora he was looking pretty distracted and would most likely be finding it rather difficult to concentrate for the rest of the duration of the snowball fight, although it wasn't for a lack of trying.  

[Kuukyo_Fushichou]

thankfully for Axel he provided a decent sized meat shield for one of the three to hide behind when he went up to fling snowballs at Riku or Sora, more Riku than anything cause he liked the challenge, and did aim defensively too to snipe snowballs out of the air, however his accuracy was not as great on that. he was having fun regardless with a laugh, though he'd look at Isa almost -tempted- to fling a snowball at him out of principle, but given the large fort Shiro hasd built, he'd be wary over that direction.


Shiro, thankfully built a pretty good fortified structure using a bit of Alteration magic to get the shape and size right, and then popped his head over it and flung a snowball at Sora but with the angle it could potentially hit riku as well, and then proceed to do the same over at the twilight town area aiming for Roxas or Crystal with a sniping snowball himself, it seemed he was picking and choosing his timing, but definitely indiscriminate against teams as he was targeting both equally, grinning all the while, though spying Zero with his antics, he'd narrow his eyes at the ghost pup and mentally prayed he wouldn't be caught any.


Roveth, thankfully after a few more assurances from Santa about being careful not to do anything that might set Santa back any, would get to work on repairing and upgrading the Workshop for him, thankfully his work with other techs and everything has left him with a resounding honor in to not tinker with experimental things unless he was 100% absolute certain it worked, or he'd test it using his own gear before hand, but either way, he'd work on getting things a lot more streamlined, and fixed any changes or damages done from whenever Sora and Jack would try to -help- Santa.  

[[XIII] Roxas]

Shiro's first few snowballs would hit their mark simply because his targets weren't really paying attention to him while he had been building up his fort and so didn't anticipate when he'd finally be joining in on the actual snowball fight shenanigans. Sora made for a much easier target to hit than Riku and this didn't go unnoticed as Riku was becoming an increasingly popular target because of the challenge he presented to everyone trying to lob snowballs at him. Xion was definitely taking advantage of Axel's availability as a human shield to give herself more time to properly aim her throws. Roxas and Crystal were both acting with a bit more reckless abandon, not being overly concerned about being hit themselves as long as they managed to hit their mark and Crystal in particular was making sure no one got left out, taking a particular interest in Kairi and Namine since everyone else really just seemed to have it in for Riku and Sora. Crystal also tossed a few snowballs in Shiro's direction after he exposed the fact that his snow fort was complete by hitting her with one of his sniping throws. Of course, while Roxas was certainly taking plenty of shots at Sora on principle, he was also trying to get an edge on Riku to see if it might be possible to trip him up with Namine, but so far that didn't appear to be working.

It wasn't lost on Riku that Roxas and Crystal were both making themselves into easy targets and it wouldn't be difficult to knock at least one of them off balance since they weren't being particularly careful at the moment, but Shiro probably had a better angle on doing that than he did with so many people trying to nail him already. Case in point, Sora lobbed a snowball right into the back of Riku's head. "Sora, we're on the same team!" Riku reprimanded him harshly.

"Sorry Riku, I couldn't resist," Sora giggled and made another snowball, this time actually throwing it over the barricade attempting to hit Roxas. He was thwarted, however, as Riku grabbed up a huge armful of snow and dropped it over Sora's head causing him to topple down into the snow again.

"Gah! Riku, that's cold!" Sora wailed as he rolled around trying to shake off the excess snow. This inevitably got both Kairi and Namine laughing at Sora's expense leaving Riku as the only one really focusing on defending the fort.  

[Kuukyo_Fushichou]

Shiro of course just giggled himself seeing the antics on team Destiny Islands, so for now he'd zero in on Twilight town, to at least even the playing field, however his back started to bubble, before in a burst of black blood, the draconic interesting form of Apocalypse would appear, looking around, and then poked on Shiro's head "Oi, Bozu, where's the bloodshed and war? this is supposed to be a fight, not some kiddie game!" of course Shiro looked up, snorting "chill out Apocalypse, Snowball fighting is relatively harmless, so long as no one starts using yellow snow or rocks inside the snowballs, which is what i'm preventing thankfully." Apocalypse eyed the scene a bit, before bending down beneath the fort to scoop up some snow "so fling balls of this stuff at others?" Shiro nodded, and apocalypse gave off a creepy grin, before making a pretty large snowball, and poked out to fling it right at Riku's head while he's distracted by Sora's betrayal, and Shiro would indeed, fling two snowballs in a sniping way for the currently poking out Roxas and Crystal.

Axel of course would hide when he could, but still be the main human shield for the team, though he did do one haphazard toss, and unfortunately it went right in the direction of the current bystander, Isa. of course, he hadn't noticed, so he was busy making new snowballs and flinging them at either team Destiny Islands or Shiro and apocalypse.