nexus_crossings | Ho Ho Ho! Happy HP Holidays!

Ho Ho Ho! Happy HP Holidays!

There is something different about the Nexus this Christmas season. There is a light snow falling over the entire Nexus plaza. The snow is gentle, with no real coldness to the falling snow flakes. As one approaches the main gathering area, they will notice that there are many Christmas decorations, including garland hanging from the air, and there are twelve towering decorated Christmas trees, some sparkling with tiny icicles, some glittering with hundreds of candles. There are also thousands of floating tiny candles in the Nexus plaza, that gently move at their own discretion.

In one corner, there is an orchestra, directed by a Dwarf. All of the musicians are playing music on instruments made from ice. In the center of the Nexus plaza, is a huge banquet table, loaded with holiday foods and treats that showcases a variety of food from different cultures, and some of the different worlds that gather into the Nexus itself. The main delight of the banquet table is that magic can make the food replenish itself, meaning Christmas dinner never has to end. Most will be able to find something they would enjoy. With the added perk that the food is LOL-free.

There are some added little Christmas adventures, for those who get caught up in the holidays. Here are some of the extra options for the Holiday season.

Secret Santa!
There is an added bonus to the Secret Santa gifts this year. The presents will deliver themselves! There are tons of wrapped gifts floating through the air, destined to only drop when they reach the person to which they are intended. Please note that not all gifts will be given in the spirit of the season. There are a few prank gifts floating around too. Be sure to watch out for them!

Christmas Crackers!
There are Christmas crackers scattered among the tables, and in amongst the branches of the trees. They are decorated with festive paper that is twisted at either end like a sweet wrapper. Inside of the tube are prizes, and some contain Muggle prizes such as a paper hat, a plastic toy, and a slip of paper with a joke printed on it. But the rare person will receive a unique, peculiar magical prize, and will envelop everyone nearby in a cloud of blue smoke.

Weasley Sweaters!
Time to try your luck at the Christmas Sweater bin. There is a large rotating clothing rack that seems to have an endless supply of them. Each one more Festive than the last! Pick one and show your Christmas spirit for the rest of the day.

Enchanted Mistletoe!
Be warned Nexus traveler, the Nargles** have hung enchanted Mistletoe all around the plaza. If an unlucky person steps underneath the Mistletoe, they will find that they are magically stuck to the spot, until they can find someone to kiss them. Of course, the kiss can be platonic, familial, or even romantic. For a few unfortunate people, the kiss may be the last thing they would want to do... but it is that or be stuck in the same spot for the rest of the season.

**Nargle Wiki
[Click Here for information on the HP Holiday Event!]
[Your character is free to give other Christmas gifts to people they care about -- HOWEVER, please do not deliver your Secret Santa gift. That will be handled by the Secret Santa moderator. Please post details on your Secret Santa gift in this post please.]

Flat | Top-Level Comments Only

Generous hospitality is not necessarily a Winter trait, but keeping people he cares about is. And while she doesn't know of any established courtesies between spirits Reynard can't help but feel that it's his duty to make sure a fellow Seasonal spirit is looked after. Besides, it gives him an opportunity to make sure he knows where she is.

Thinking of easy solutions, however, is difficult. "I know of all the bed and breakfast establishments worth knowing," he tells her after a moment. Then he hesitates, shifting his weight from one leg to the other before settling his hands on his hips. "Or... My own cabin, on my world- our world, is... Well." He half laughs. "I won't be using it for a few months."

"I had considered finding a more permanent home for myself here in the Nexus. It would be so convenient not to have to move every few years if I stayed here and simply commuted to Earth for my work and duties to Autumn, but I'd hardly know where to start looking."

Her eyes widen at his offer. Offering to allow a stranger into his home? What a decidedly unWinter thing to do! The generosity has her smiling before long, small and understanding.

"You wouldn't mind if I moved some of my things and stayed there for the Winter? Are you sure?"

Having someone he doesn't know move into his personal space? Yes, yes he would mind a great deal. But there's no better way to keep his eye on her than to loan her his home.

He puts on a smile. "Of course. It's not a very big place, and you'll have to excuse the mess, but you can have it for Winter."

"Thank you for your hospitality, Reynard."

Hazel offers the smallest of hopeful smiles. She couldn't have even planned for this to have gone as well as it has. She was still busy worrying that he would hate her, and now she's going to be staying in Reynard's home for a few months.

How strange.

"Do you think now perhaps we could get a drink and you could show me around?"

Reynard turns on the spot, looking around him. They're at a solstice related celebration filled with Winter things. The air outside has a bite to it, the air inside invites people in. Winter is in full force here. What else could he be doing? Surely overtures for another Seasonal spirit were a part of his duty...

Still he's little awkward when he turns back to smile at her. "Yes. Right, yes." He places a hand gently on her back, pushing the untouched cider she'd given him into her hands. "Where have you seen already?"

There's a tiny knowing look on Hazel's face as she accepts the drink she'd tried to offer him earlier and takes a small sip of it. It's gone rather cool but it's of no matter really. Reynard can't be helped for not being particularly warm to the touch, after all.

It's not his way.

"I saw the block that was fragmented between planes during the Samhain celebration. I spent some time wandering round that area, but it was mostly little shops of one variety or another."

With the spirit's hand on the small of her back, Hazel falls into step next to him. Letting him guide them where he will.

"Do you control the whole of this place like we do on Earth? I can't believe there's a whole other plane we have reach in. I hope I haven't been shirking my duties here..."

The mention of Samhain gets an unhappy wrinkling of his nose, but he presses past it. If there's anything he wants to avoid talking about right now it's that.

"There are a hundred hundred shops to discover, but let me show you some of the wilderness." He assumes she enjoys Nature just as much as him, after all. Why would they focus on civilisation when there is wilderness to explore?

"It's... different here. Easier, and more difficult. It takes very little to change things here, but this place is fickle. It likes to be convenient for people, and Seasons rarely are, so you often have to redo your work," he explains. "It snaps back to how it was before and... Well. You'll feel it when your Season comes around again."

The quieter the voices from the Plaza get the more pronounced their footsteps crunch through the fallen snow. Winter has a way of silencing the world round it. Sending animals to hibernate or gone entirely for warmer climes. It brings a sense of serenity to the air, crisp and cold as it is.

The whole world waiting with bated breath for Spring's thaw and a return to hustle and bustle. Hazel allows her eyes to slip shut as they walk a few paces and enjoy that void of sound. It's easy to imagine there are no other souls save for the two of them in that moment.

The breeze picks up ever so softly and carries Reynard's words to Hazel.

"It seems like rather a lot of extra work. And yet I've not noticed anything amiss back home. You've done quite well keeping up everywhere however long you've been here." Hazel sips at her drink. A tiny mischievous smile on her face hidden by the action.

"We aren't our Seasons..." He pauses and corrects, "Not the whole Season. A part of it. A servant to it, but not all of it."

Looking around at the glittering air and frosted plants, he can't help but feel a warm sense of pride. "Our Seasons persist without us. We just..." He rolls a hand as he thinks. "Channel their power. As long as I make sure to spend my time roughly evenly... everything works out. Winter tells me where to go and when to go. I can hardly be led astray by my own Season."

"How easy it is to forget that sometimes, in the midst of it all."

The world of dancing colors she helps create for a few weeks of the year drowned out now in a sea of whites. Frigid greys and blues. It's beautiful too, in its own way. Hazel may be out of her element here but she does not feel unwelcome. She has quite the host to make sure of that.

"Likewise, the winds have always guided my hands." Hazel gives a nod of understanding. "I try so very hard to make a difference, though. Perhaps it's vanity."

It's a layer of white on a blanket of dead leaves and decay, a carpet Winter couldn't do without. Not in this place, not for this Winter.

Reynard shakes his head. "Not vanity. Love. The need to do our best to serve what we love, to make the world sing about it." Realising he's talking to someone who might know, might understand, he turns to her. "You feel that way too, don't you?"

Eagerly now, he turns to her as he walks, putting a hand on his heart. "I find that often the best way is by making humans understand it, feel it. They remember. They don't live long, but they live longer than most creatures. They can be as good at honouring and respecting it as they are at destroying and erasing it."

"My season gave me life. Of course it's out of Love and Devotion that I tend to my duties as a seasonal spirit."

It doesn't feel like the words are lacking the depth for which she feels when she's in her season. Hazel knows that her humanity fades to nothing but a background memory in those weeks. Unlike Winter, however, Autumn is a time of careful planning and introspection. Of balance and protection. She doesn't become as cold as he during her time. It's simply the nature of her Season.

"If only we had met sooner I feel you'd get a more respectable answer out of me. One I'm sure you'd appreciate more in the state you're in until Winter's end. It's all so...so Much during the season. Now it feels like I've been woken from a very nice dream and I know I'll not get back to sleep and to that place again for some time."

Reynard returns his gaze to the path ahead. It's the start of the Season. The initial flurry of work is over and now he just has to maintain Winter's grasp. Right now he has time time to think, and to listen.

He looks at her again suddenly. "How old-?" He catches himself and laughs, shaking his head. "No. That's not right, is it?" Calming himself, he tries again. "How long have you been... here? Human?"

"Are you asking a lady her age, Reynard?"

Hazel can't hold her serious expression for very long. It soon dissolves into a teasing grin and she nudges him with her shoulder. "That's not very polite of you."

She sips at her cider for a moment before casting a look around them. Pulling her shawl a bit tighter over her shoulders. She's more resilient than a human yet, but it's best to be cautious all the same.

"I first took on a human form in what's now Ireland, two thousand years ago, during the very first Samhain the Celts celebrated. Before that I'd watched and wondered. Yearned for a body of my own. But it took time for me to take the next step."

Reynard opens his mouth, but closes it again with a huff and an innocent shrug. That's certainly not what he meant...

His playing fades quickly when she answers him properly. "You've experienced a lot of human life then," he mumbles. Turning to her he adds, "Real civilisation hasn't been around all that long. Now you can experience so much of it at once." He looks back to the snowy path. "But you've been around long enough to get to know what it is to be… like us. In this world."

He shakes his head slowly. "I can't believe I never found you before now."

"I have. Not as much as some of the others, but. I took my time in making the choice to become one of you. There's much we give up when we take on a human body, but the price is worth learning how our kind depends on and nurtures humanity. On bridging the gap between our kinds."

It is not always easy. Humans live such short lives, especially back then. Learning how to cope with loss and how to let go took time. Learning how to say goodbye and be alone. Truly alone. It is not for the faint of heart.

"Truthfully, I wasn't looking to be found. I was frightened of the other Seasons, at the prospect of meeting them while they were in power and I was not. When Autumn is over..." Hazel gives a slight shrug of her shoulders.

"So the wheel turns, and so does one season pass on to the next. I'm glad that of all the seasons I could meet, I met a Winter first."

Depends on humanity? Reynard scowls and scoffs, rolling his eyes as he looks away. Clearly there are some facts he needs to get straight with her. Maybe it's just as well she found him when she did. Who knows what life lessons he needs to teach her…

The fear of meeting another spirit, however, is something he can sympathise with. His expression softens and he nods. "I'm glad I met an Autumn first too."

The soft falling of snow starts to dust Hazel's hair and brings Reynard out of his thoughts. He clears his throat and starts walking again. "There is so much to see here. Really the only way to discover it is to spend the time exploring. Is there any kind of place you need to know about to get you started? A particular shop? Or the library?"

Perfect geometrical shapes of crystallized water sitting like glittering diamonds of decoration in Hazel's bright hair, twinkling in the wan light as she angles her head to meet Reynard's gaze once he starts speaking again.

"I'd like to know how we get back to Earth, really. As generous as your offer is, I've not been able to find a reliable way back. I'd have no way of locating your home."

Reynard's eyebrows shoot up. "You haven't gotten a PINpoint yet?"

It makes sense then that she might be a little apprehensive in this place with no way home. He pats her back and steers her around again. "You need a PINpoint. It's a device that does many things at once, like a modern phone. You can send messages on it, but its main, most important function is teleportation." He puts a hand over his heart. "I'm not fond of technology, but they are far more convenient than the portal I found to this place."

It isn't long before he locates a vending machine with the famous Nexus gadgets. He beams and pats the machine, sending frost patterns spiralling out from under his hand. "They come in all shapes and sizes. Pick one whichever one you like."

"Oh!"

Of all the places to get a magical artifact of matter displacement Reyanrd leads her to a vending machine. You know, like you do. Some of them look nearly identical to the smartphones dominating the tech world of human culture today. Hazel selects one of the devices programmed into what looks to be an iPhone and smiles when the machine deposits one into a slot right next to her hand.

"How convenient. But how does it work? Teleportation is no simple magic, surely. Is it safe?"

To ease all of Hazel's concerns, Reynard… shrugs. "PINpoints are like any other part of the Nexus, so far as I can tell. No one knows how they work, only how to use them."

Pulling out his own PINpoint, a sturdy looking block of a smart phone, Reynard takes her PINpoint from her and starts copying over numbers. It's a decidedly faster process than it would be in any other Season. Putting his PINpoint away again, he points to a button. "Just press that."

Travelling through the air is more natural, smoother, easier on the senses than travelling with a PINpoint. Or so he thinks. Mortals he's brought with him have often thought the opposite. He's unapologetically curious to get Hazel's thoughts on the matter.

"Press this--?" Hazel reaches over where Reynard is still holding onto her PINpoint and presses the screen.

bip!

"--here? Why what's it OH GOD." It's a good thing Reynard's holding the PINpoint because Hazel startles something fierce at suddenly feeling like she's dreampt about falling and jerked awake from the sensation. They're not in the Nexus anymore.

Edited 2018-01-24 01:01 (UTC)

Laughter echoes through the damp, cold air, light rain decorating Hazel's hair with beads of water. Once they arrive Reynard's amusement is easy to see in his broad grin. He lets go of the PINpoint to stroke his beard, lining it white with frost. "It's an experience, but you get used to it."

"Come on!" He starts striding, past an old truck that's seen better days, to the small cabin nearby. It looks traditional, not unlike old Irish cottages with its carefully assembly of stone. Inside it's slightly more modern with its plastered walls, though there's still an unmistakable draught running through the house. Once they're through the tiny entranceway where a pair of hiking boots sit in the corner, one large room is used for several things. At one end is the kitchen, sectioned off by a table and chairs, with sturdy iron pots visible and yellowing electronic devices. Couches gather around a fireplace, no television in sight. Then on the opposite wall to the kitchen sits a desk with a laptop buried beneath a thin layer of papers. Overall it's neat for somewhere so small, but there's a general layer of messiness.

When she's taken a look around Reynard points to the doors. "There's the pantry by the kitchen, the bathroom and the bedroom. I have a few spare sheets in the wardrobe in the bedroom, but you might need to get some blankets for yourself." He shrugs. "I've never needed them."

"Where is this?"

Hazel's fingers trail gently along the walls of the home while she follows Reynard inside. Even Reynard's home smells crisp and sharp, the scents of pine faintly wafting through the small cabin. It's such an eclectic mix of old and new that she can't help but to smile softly.

This place truly does fit Reynard very well. It could do with a bit of a cleaning, but that's no trouble to her in the least.

"Where is the nearest town? Or should I stick to the Nexus for my shopping?"

"Scotland. The nearest shop is an hour's drive away if you know the roads." His eyes twitch into a squint as he thinks. "You might want to stick to the Nexus unless you're prepared for nosy questions." A small smile tugs at his lips. "They'll either assume you stole from me or you're my woman if they see you driving my car or in my house."

Flat | Top-Level Comments Only

Ho Ho Ho! Happy HP Holidays!

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject