THE CHRISTMAS MINGLE YOUR PARENTS WARNED YOU ABOUT

[carpevinum]

At some point in the night, taking advantage of the perma-silence, Lucifer and a few others sneak about to decorate the dormitory for the holidays. The morning of 12/25, you'll wake up to the smell of Christmas cookies wafting from the dorm kitchen, and upon actually leaving your room, there are string lights and decorations thrown up in the hallways and the common room proper.

The decorating is, of course, courtesy of Nene, who has been working hard to ensure that there's something more beautiful than those ghoulish paintings on the walls here. You can thank Helena, Sidney, and Lucifer for both the cookies and other, more substantial food which will periodically be presented throughout the day — Lucifer practically lives in the kitchen for the duration of the party and can sometimes be seen shooing the other two out to go have fun. That said, the table housing all of these dishes, ranging from traditional Christmas meals (as best they can do with limited resources, anyway) to more ostentatious treats will never be empty, so please eat to your heart's content!

Thanks to Amami, there's a large, undecorated Christmas tree in the middle of the common room that looks to be very well taken care of. Next to it is a table full of art supplies for making colourful paper ornaments, and a small card lying nearby that instructs those participating to write down a wish on the ornament proper before hanging it on the tree. It may not come true, but you know it'll be safe since no mysterious forces set this up — wish away!

Should you come to spend time at the party and fraternize, you'll find that you're being waited on by a number of small little imps except they're all wearing tiny Santa hats — they'll bring you food and drinks and candy should you request it, and they're on their Best Behaviour, so please be nice to them! They are simply underpaid service workers. They're absolutely thrilled to talk to you in chirps and weird demonic chittering, and they understand what you're saying at least.

In the back corner of the room, there's a minute-to-win-it type game set up: two chairs are tied by the backs together by two ribbons, about two feet apart from one another. Nearby, there's a table of candycanes for use in this game. The goal of the game is to toss a candycane while standing on one of the chairs and get said candycane to catch on the ribbons, or to see who can get the most candycanes on a ribbon in a minute. The instructions are explained on a little card sitting nearby, with further note to not eat all of the candycanes (there are more set out on the food table, you see) so people can play, and another smaller note banning the use of magic against an opponent who doesn't have it. Let's keep the game fair, people. And let's thank Hikaru for running out to get an obnoxious amount of candycanes for everyone.

Lucifer will intermittently come join the festivities from time to time when he's not cooking, wearing this, please feel free to bully the demon for celebrating the holiday from the religion he hates. He can take it, it's okay.

Last but certainly not least, Noah is roaming about the party using his magic to try and liven the place up. Little stars hang from the ceiling around him in a ten-foot radius, and should you frown at all, he will come up to you and put cat ears formed of magic shadows on you until you laugh. On occasion, he can be seen slipping out of the party with cookies and stacking them on a plate in front of Komaeda's door. The stars go with him, but the good news is that Natsume is also helping with their little lightshow, so the twinkling indoor galaxies will not be absent for long. It's a joint effort between Clamor's apprentices, and their hard work really shows through, magic training is difficult after all. Feel free to bother either of them to do magic tricks for you, if you'd like, or just lie down under a curtain of stars.

The night promises to be magical (semi-literally), even if we're all stuck in purgatory, so relax, put your feet up, and sing Christmas carols to your heart's content. And don't worry about the cleanup — just try not to pass out on the floors.

[OOC: Merr Crimmus try not to kill each other, that is my only request, otherwise go buck wild]

Comments

[commences]

You're living, Riokun.

( learning, embracing, taking upon new information and feelings while being affected by them, he's living; now he knows to live in the moment, to live for something, to enjoy, to smile, to frown, to despair, and even to hope if time wills it. )

When you live, things change... you were living before, but humans come and go through changes, and now you can taste just that.

( he'll separate rio's clothes with his clothes, and then he'll wash them though he knows rio doesn't actually sweat, so his clothes are perfectly fine, just damp. even with that being the case, he reaches out to make sure that hinata's clothes fit perfectly on him, pulling the fabric forward to check if it's loose too; it seems comfortable enough. though, he's bigger underneath his clothes, and so the chest area is a little... puffed up. )

I'm still Nagito Komaeda, but... you know, Nagito Komaeda of the past would only team up with someone if it meant his death for hope. He lived alone, but... things are different now.

( even saying that makes him a little uncomfortable, but why can't he tell his partner that? it's probably bad that this happened, and the only way was to die, but he chuckles right after as he sits down on his bed right after. with his legs crossed, he places his hands on his lap.

nagito komaeda would still partner up for hope if it meant he had to die, but this time... he's never really had a person to go along with for this long. he thinks that's meaningful, right? )

[rearranger]

Ah...

[ It never fails to surprise him to hear about how alone he was, and it shows on his face. It's always as though he were being presented with a foreign concept, and that's no doubt because of how deeply entrenched in his life the concept was. He'd never known a world where he didn't have someone, and even here he had coordinated smaller connections that paled only when compared to the one shared with Komaeda. ]

Right, you said before that you're used to doing things alone.

[ He tugs at the shirt a little more without thinking, less because it's an ill-fit and more because he's simply not used to it. Without all the bright colors, layers and accessories, he might look a touch plain if not for the vibrant orange hair. He moves to sit down on the bed next to Komaeda, sitting as an angle to make it easier to look at him. He lays one arm across his lap as he leans forward, searching for his own feelings on those words.

Living for hope, dying for hope, only partnering with others to meet those ends... It fits everything he knows, and yet, ever part of him wants to reject it. He doesn't. ]

Are you satisfied with the way things are now?

[ Quiet, tentative, and vague in his wording, but the unspoken question is there - was it the right choice? Was he the right choice? ]

[commences]

What's with that look? Don't pity me, Riokun, no matter how alone I was, I have always made sure my goals were met.

( through means that'll be frowned upon, the hardships he went through to ensure that hope became a valuable part of someone's life. to make sure that those who were lost in the darkness found the light by just a little shove, and that's how far his love goes to see them succeed. he would give anything, any part of himself to see his hope win — he looks to his prosthetic arm, remembering the cold, tike floor that burned through his jeans. the pool of blood that soaked into the seams as he knelt before her dead body, and the loud whirr of the chainsaw beside him as he decided to take up assistance in that moment. being alone would have been the ideal, he could have avoided so much, but that's when he decided not to be alone anymore, despairingly so.

"if i'm able to make ultimate despair a part of me..." with his right, he holds onto his left arm at that moment in time, the palm of his left pressed against the cool ground that was stained in the bright that seeped from her corpse — the female who laid their lifeless, destroyed by ultimate hope, "...i will..." )

Ever since waking up, ( it sounds like something someone under yogen influence would say, but for komaeda, his feelings in that regard are complicated, connected by a red string that reminds him of someone else. that version of himself needed no string, though, he didn't mind cutting his heart so that the cord could connect to another, never being snipped away, and so he lived in tune with another. those were the old days.

if anyone knew, maybe they wouldn't connect it to what seems obvious. this way, maybe rio won't catch onto the true meanings of his words where he's referencing the sleeping pod.

he lifts his hand, pressing his index and middle finger together like scissors connecting, just to catch rio's attention. ) I've made questionable choices, but meeting you... ( was taking a part of junko's body the wrong choice? completely, it was the worst one he could make, but hope managed to overshadow her, coming on top as it washed her away as time flew by, those days ticking down in the simulation. )

Made you my answer.

( rio likes that which is logical, the connection between one point and another, so he wonders if this would be enough to make sense of how fine he is with this. komaeda's aware he needs others to have things done, and doing that with rio is part of that.

he'll attempt to kill his friends, he'll argue that his love for hope is good and pure, he'll force his peers to hate him as long as they could move forward, he'll crush all his happiest moments in his hands, watching everything turn to dust. he'll meet rio on the fourth floor, he'll lie to him, and he'll take him through the school again. he'll tell rio he's broken, that he's sick, too, and he'll allow the other to get so frustrated that he lashes out — komaeda would do it all over again. )

So don't worry about us, aha... if I could do it all over again.

[rearranger]

It's not pity. It's enough that you're satisfied with your choices.

[ But even if he weren't, Rio would simply tell him to do things differently in the future. He has no pity to waste on others, nor does he have patience for those who lament their circumstances without changing it. Even if he had no one else, he would carry on just the same. Even if no one could understand him, he would ensure his goals were met. Rio knows that intuitively. He knows that, and yet, it doesn't make the thought of being alone any less incomprehensible to him.

It's the same words as before, and it's no different than then. It was Komaeda's choice, so he won't dirty it by looking down and sticking his fingers all over it, smearing it with his feelings and biases. Instead he'll look at the person before him, and he finds that if he reaches out like this then he finds that the person before him is far more solid and far less frail than the recollection of who had been. He can stroke his hair and let his fingers trail down his face, and so he does, cupping his cheek for just a moment as he considers those words.

He's sensitive to the words that people speak, the way they say them, and so he thinks it's more than here. He won't linger on that, though, instead considering what he's made to be his answer. His answer was to let his current self be dirtied by his sticky fingers, left with smudges and stains from something not even human... Ah, he can see the grime on Komaeda's face as his hand slips down, trailing down his arm until it finally comes to rest on his organic hand. He might feel the way his hands tremble as he goes through these simple motions, something that only increases when he takes the prosthetic in his other hand. Both are important to him. Both are part of him.

He trembles, nervous and with eyes that dart to the side before he forces them to stay on his partner, cheeks tinted pink. It's something new and experimental, a little frightening, letting a barrier that he's held solidly in place since coming here drop for just a moment - just to see what might happen if he does, just to see if he's allowed to. It's an answer of a kind from a person who does so poorly with words, who can never seem to pin down what emotion they're feeling despite all the logical processes guiding them. ]

Me too. You're Nagito Komaeda, and you're my partner... So I'm satisfied.

[ "Partner" should encompass everything, but it became a secondary role without him realizing it. To what Rio isn't sure, he only knows that even if he weren't his partner, he'd want to be able to reach out and smudge the person he is now by holding his hands like this, leaving those feelings of touch and warmth from soft, inhuman skin and selfish feelings behind to be wiped off and washed down the drain as Komaeda pleases. ]

[commences]

Satisfaction doesn't matter, it's because it was by my will that I chose it.

( isn't that what this is about when komaeda doesn't have to make anything, he doesn't have to do when he completely ignores certain situations that can just pass him by. he wasn't happy, but he forces a smile on his face despite wearing ultimate despair's arm, he wore a smile when he decided that to justify his means was to make himself an end. he's never satisfied, he's always satisfied, so why does that matter, but he can see where rio is coming from. he doesn't fight against it, he's always been making the comment that as long as he was happy with the end, that it was justified. )

It's all mine, so don't sweat the complicated things.

( with his words leaving from past his lips, he's more concerned about the raise of rio's hand, watching it with his own trained eyes. they're tired, they've been empty, they're also curious especially when they come close to him, and there's this need to move away, this pinching sensation in his mind as he feels the other touch him. komaeda flinches, eyes closing as his eyes slowly flutter open to feel bare hand touching his cold, pasty skin that lacks all color. his hair however, at the moment was soft, well-taken care of that he could run his fingers through it without catching any knots. he's frozen in place, allowing him to scout komaeda's body in this manner, but it's not as comfortable when he doesn't know the reason as to why. they were just talking?

it sends a shiver down his spine, and with his palm placed on the bed, fingers curl into the fabric as he stares at rio to find what the point is within his eyes. instead, he captures the way he looks to the side, his cheeks tinting pink, nd komeda blinks even slower while identifying what's caused him to act so... is he nervous? most likely so considering the way his fingers twitch at komaeda's hand. )

You're embarrassing, you know that?

( he's always been fine with his prosthetic taken, but people trying for his organic has made him feel sick. if only rio knew how... disgusting he was, the things he did with this body, he's nothing worth keeping or associating with. he's what's left of despair, a remnant that can affect other people if left to his own devices.

he wants to change, too. )

Rio Ranger is my touchy partner that I'm proud of.

( even if it terrifies him knowing what his luck can do, he allows his organic fingers to lace between rio's, and he can feel how cold komaeda's hand happens to be. practically freezing, but he finds that rio's wet own are just as warm despite the condensation. )

Merry Christmas.

[rearranger]

[ Is it embarrassing? He frowns a little, wondering if perhaps he had done the wrong thing. Komaeda flinches and shivers, seizing up as though a predator had him in their sights, and it was probably too much for him to act in such a manner. He seems nervous, shy, uncertain, with just a bit of happiness beneath that - it would be the look of a teenager holding hands with their crush if not for the hint of guilt mixed in.

His hair is soft, though, and the feeling of that cool skin under fingertips makes his heart beat faster. It was just a whim, for no reason at all, and it wasn't that at all. Rio had wondered what it would be like to touch him even before being completed, but he could never work up the courage. He thinks to pull away, but he's stopped from doing so. His eyes widen a little, lips parting slightly as he feels Komaeda's fingers lace through his. His skin is freezing cold, so unlike his own, but he thinks that Komaeda's hand fits nicely in his own, and he doesn't want to let go. ]

Ah... Am I?

[ Embarrassing or touchy? He doesn't specify. But there's a slight, shy smile. Maybe it'll be alright if they stay like this, just for a little while... ]

Merry Christmas.