MoaRH: Christmas (and a strange dream...)
Apr. 24th, 2005 07:32 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
gracie_musicaSo I had a dream last night that I was a phantom thief... Woah. The best part of it is I got away from the cops by squirting them with ketchup. Hehe.
Also, this one has been long overdue.
---
My (very, extremely) belated Christmas gift to everyone, co-written by the one, the only... KOU! (who says 'thanka, thanka')
---
The Misadventures of a Rogue Hawking
by Gracelyn Musica
Chapter Six
Merry Christmas, Starwind and Hawking
---
The first thing that popped into Gene Starwind's head was "This is going to cost me a lot of money."
The second thing was, "I am so killing those two."
'Those two' would be his business partners, Jim and Kou Hawking. He knew for a fact that it was them; he could hear their voices wafting down from the roof. It was faint, but from across the street he could distinctly pick out their voices singing, Jim's voice a warm baritone while Kou warbled between alto and soprano.
"Hark now hear the angels sing
Glory to the newborn King..."
The two had decked out "Starwind and Hawking Enterprises" with white twinkle lights and silver tinsel, green wreaths hanging in all the windows, an electric candle flickering fakely in the center of each green circle. On the rooftop, a single animatronic reindeer lifted and lowered his head over and over, 'grazing' on the cement rooftop. Someone had also lowered the window washer to spray paint "Merry Christmas From" above the painted company logo.
Thus came Gene's third thought:
"Damn it, now I need a drink."
---
'Wait, wait, wait,' I hear the faithful fans cry. 'Outlaw Star is based upon Asian cultures, mostly Chinese. The Chinese don't celebrate Christmas!'. Well, my darlings, this is the future, and the merchant giants have won. Christmas is completely commercialized in this day and age, and people celebrate it universally, no matter their race or spiritual belief. For once, the greedy Americans of the past did something right: Christmas is now a time for peace, prosperity, and family.
And if you don't buy that explanation, hey, it's a fanfic.
---
Gene Starwind is well known amongst bounty-hunter circles for being stubborn and for not backing down.
Among his business partners, however, he is well known for doing anything to stop a woman's tears. Be they fake tears or not.
So when Gene began chastising the Hawking siblings for decorating the building, all Kou had to do was let her lower lip tremble a little and to tear up just slightly, and the redhead was putty in her hands. All was quickly forgiven with a promise that the two would cover all expenses and put a fresh coat of paint on the building come spring. With that, Kou and Jim set about decorating the inside of the building with a new fervor--after all, the Starwind and Hawking account was footing the bill.
"What exactly is Christmas?" Melfina asked as she watched Gene curse at the Christmas tree, which was tilting in its stand.
Kou looked up from her task of dying requested red and green streaks into Aisha's braid. "Wha?"
"What exactly is Christmas?" Mel asked again, a quizzical look on her face.
"You've never had a Christmas?" Kou asked, looking at Jim.
The blonde shrugged, shifting the boxes in his arms to a more comfortable position. "This is the first year we could actually really afford a Christmas--"
"We STILL can't afford it!" Gene interrupted from the corner.
"--And you know how much Christmas spirit Gene has," Jim continued, rolling his eyes.
"Bah humbug," Gene called again, but this time a cocky grin was plastered on his face. As much as he hated to admit it, he was actually enjoying himself. Thankfully, the tree hid his smile, otherwise the others would never leave him be.
"Christmas is traditionally a Christian holiday," Kou explained to the dark-haired android. "It celebrates the birthday of a man named Jesus, whom Christians view as their Savior and the son of their God. Actually, the date is most likely incorrect; the date was actually selected by the old Catholic Church to coincide with a pagan holiday." When Mel looked confused, Kou gave her trademark smirk. "It was easier to get pagans to convert if major Christian celebrations coincide with major pagan celebrations."
"Gotta love the Catholic Church," Jim interjected, placing the boxes on the coffee table between the two women. He opened them to reveal shiny glass ball ornaments in various metallic colors. "It is customary for family and friends to exchange gifts, since Christians consider Jesus 'God's gift to the World'. However, merchants quickly caught on, and Christmas is now the consumer orgy it is today."
"Stop stealing my metaphors," Kou told him, eyes back to her task.
"You don't have the copyright to the word 'orgy', damnit."
As the Hawkings bickered good-naturedly between themselves, Melfina's eyes gazed over the Christmas ornaments Jim was unpacking from their containers. Most of the balls were resting where they had rolled from the middle of the table, and he was currently unpacking glass figurine ornaments, setting them carefully away from the edge of the table so they wouldn't topple over. One of them caught her fancy, a figure of an elderly, fat man dressed in a red suit with a white beard. A brown sack was slung over his back. "Who is this?" she asked, picking it up and gliding her fingers over the blown glass.
"That is Santa Claus; he's also called Saint Nicholas, after an old Turkish saint," Kou explained. "Children believe that if they act good all year long, Santa will bring them presents."
"Does it only work for children?"
Everyone in the room stopped to look at Mel: Kou with her paintbrush halfway to Aisha's silver hair; Jim with his hand firmly around an ornament, suspended three inches above the plastic concave where it was stored; Gene with his arms above him, pushing on the tree lest it collapsed on his head; and Aisha up from her game, the handheld console beeping to let her know her man was dead.
Kou smiled at Mel. "Have you been good this year, Mel?"
"I think so..."
"Then maybe Santa will bring you something."
"Really?!"
Jim looked at Kou as Mel's voice took an excited undertone. The bottle redhead nodded. The blonde leaned in to his sister to speak to her in a whisper as Mel turned to talk to Gene excitedly. "What d'you think you're doing?"
"What? There's nothing wrong with an adult still believing in Santa Claus. Don't you believe anymore, Jim?"
"I haven't believed in Santa since I was six and I caught Dad filling our stockings*."
"Tut, tut. You should never lose faith in things. Look at how happy she is." Jim's eyes slid over to Mel, her face flushed with happiness as she chatted from her seat with Gene. "Would you deny her that, Jim?"
"No."
Kou was silent as she slathered green dye into the C'tar-C'tar's hair. "Besides, for all you know there really is a Santa." She smiled kindly as her brother gave her a glare. "Christmas miracles, James."
"Yeah, stuff only for sappy movies and bad fanfiction," the blonde grumbled under his breath as he went back to his task.
---
As night fell on Christmas Eve, Kou lit a single candle in the front window.
"Kou? What are you doing?" Zurg asked from his seat at the breakfast bar.
"It's an old Irish tradition: Irish families would light a candle on Christmas Eve, and anyone who approached the door that night was given food, a place to sleep and money upon departure the next morning."
"Who do we know that still knows Irish traditions, much less keeps to them?" Jim asked, popping up from behind the breakfast bar, a hot cookie sheet in his hand.
"Duh, I like, totally know the author."
"The fourth wall's there for a reason," Taylor called out between sips of eggnog.
Kou stuck her tongue out at her girlfriend and shook the match out as the bright orange flame burned centimeters from her fingers.
As per Hawking tradition, everyone was allowed to pick one present to unwrap on Christmas Eve. The eight of them sat around the table with their single present and eggnog, before staring at each other. "Who gets to go first?" Aisha asked, her ears twitching to and fro.
"Rock, Paper, Scissors?" Taylor suggests, holding up her hands, her right hand balled in a fist on top of the outstretched left one.
---
After a few rounds, Melfina won, and from there it went clockwise. They were almost completely around the table when there was a knock at the door. Kou opened it into the cold wind and furious flurry of snow to find a tall young man in his mid-twenties, dressed in a nice tailored suit and gripping a briefcase. "Hello, I am so sorry to impose at such a late hour, and on Christmas Eve, but I would like to request a favor."
"Of course, come on in out of the cold," Kou replied with a smile. She stepped aside and he came in, shaking the snow from his black hair and stomping his feet to warm them.
"I have a very strange favor to ask. My name is Timothy Donaldson. My flight off-planet has been delayed due to the storm, so I was wondering if you wouldn't mind terribly letting me stay on your couch for the night? I, of course, would be happy to compensate you for your troubles," he added, a hand going into his coat
Wide grins met the newcomer. "No trouble at all," Kou replied, grabbing Timothy's wrist before he could pull his hand out of his jacket. "And it's Christmas. Now come, sit, and eat with us."
---
The next morning was Christmas, and Kou was up with the sun, a stack of wrapped presents in her arms. She had been planning on playing Santa for Mel, but when she went downstairs, she found presents already littered under the tree and on top of the low dinner table. Confused, she scratched her head as she scanned the nametags--all signed in red from "Santa".
There was a note on the breakfast bar, too, with her name written in red. She flipped the folded paper open and read:
"Kou,
Merry Christmas, sweetheart. I'm sorry I couldn't stay
too long, but everyone was asleep. Anyway, my brother
Cal (you might know him as Timothy) says that since
everyone was so kind to him, you all deserved a treat.
See you soon.
Love, Grace"
Kou smiled to herself, folding the note back up and sliding it into her pocket. Humming 'Greensleeves' to herself, she hid her presents in among the Musica's offerings before starting upstairs. Something, however, caught her eye from the kitchen. Shuffling over, she realized what it was--a slip of paper was on tiled floor. She picked it up and flipped it over.
In what she recognized as Grace's neat, looped handwriting, was a check for two-hundred fifty woolongs.
"Gracelyn Eliza, you psychopath," Kou muttered, starting upstairs to call her friend.
---
*This is actually inspired by actual events. When I was in first, maybe second grade, my father accidentally recorded himself playing Santa.
Also, this one has been long overdue.
---
My (very, extremely) belated Christmas gift to everyone, co-written by the one, the only... KOU! (who says 'thanka, thanka')
---
The Misadventures of a Rogue Hawking
by Gracelyn Musica
Chapter Six
Merry Christmas, Starwind and Hawking
---
The first thing that popped into Gene Starwind's head was "This is going to cost me a lot of money."
The second thing was, "I am so killing those two."
'Those two' would be his business partners, Jim and Kou Hawking. He knew for a fact that it was them; he could hear their voices wafting down from the roof. It was faint, but from across the street he could distinctly pick out their voices singing, Jim's voice a warm baritone while Kou warbled between alto and soprano.
"Hark now hear the angels sing
Glory to the newborn King..."
The two had decked out "Starwind and Hawking Enterprises" with white twinkle lights and silver tinsel, green wreaths hanging in all the windows, an electric candle flickering fakely in the center of each green circle. On the rooftop, a single animatronic reindeer lifted and lowered his head over and over, 'grazing' on the cement rooftop. Someone had also lowered the window washer to spray paint "Merry Christmas From" above the painted company logo.
Thus came Gene's third thought:
"Damn it, now I need a drink."
---
'Wait, wait, wait,' I hear the faithful fans cry. 'Outlaw Star is based upon Asian cultures, mostly Chinese. The Chinese don't celebrate Christmas!'. Well, my darlings, this is the future, and the merchant giants have won. Christmas is completely commercialized in this day and age, and people celebrate it universally, no matter their race or spiritual belief. For once, the greedy Americans of the past did something right: Christmas is now a time for peace, prosperity, and family.
And if you don't buy that explanation, hey, it's a fanfic.
---
Gene Starwind is well known amongst bounty-hunter circles for being stubborn and for not backing down.
Among his business partners, however, he is well known for doing anything to stop a woman's tears. Be they fake tears or not.
So when Gene began chastising the Hawking siblings for decorating the building, all Kou had to do was let her lower lip tremble a little and to tear up just slightly, and the redhead was putty in her hands. All was quickly forgiven with a promise that the two would cover all expenses and put a fresh coat of paint on the building come spring. With that, Kou and Jim set about decorating the inside of the building with a new fervor--after all, the Starwind and Hawking account was footing the bill.
"What exactly is Christmas?" Melfina asked as she watched Gene curse at the Christmas tree, which was tilting in its stand.
Kou looked up from her task of dying requested red and green streaks into Aisha's braid. "Wha?"
"What exactly is Christmas?" Mel asked again, a quizzical look on her face.
"You've never had a Christmas?" Kou asked, looking at Jim.
The blonde shrugged, shifting the boxes in his arms to a more comfortable position. "This is the first year we could actually really afford a Christmas--"
"We STILL can't afford it!" Gene interrupted from the corner.
"--And you know how much Christmas spirit Gene has," Jim continued, rolling his eyes.
"Bah humbug," Gene called again, but this time a cocky grin was plastered on his face. As much as he hated to admit it, he was actually enjoying himself. Thankfully, the tree hid his smile, otherwise the others would never leave him be.
"Christmas is traditionally a Christian holiday," Kou explained to the dark-haired android. "It celebrates the birthday of a man named Jesus, whom Christians view as their Savior and the son of their God. Actually, the date is most likely incorrect; the date was actually selected by the old Catholic Church to coincide with a pagan holiday." When Mel looked confused, Kou gave her trademark smirk. "It was easier to get pagans to convert if major Christian celebrations coincide with major pagan celebrations."
"Gotta love the Catholic Church," Jim interjected, placing the boxes on the coffee table between the two women. He opened them to reveal shiny glass ball ornaments in various metallic colors. "It is customary for family and friends to exchange gifts, since Christians consider Jesus 'God's gift to the World'. However, merchants quickly caught on, and Christmas is now the consumer orgy it is today."
"Stop stealing my metaphors," Kou told him, eyes back to her task.
"You don't have the copyright to the word 'orgy', damnit."
As the Hawkings bickered good-naturedly between themselves, Melfina's eyes gazed over the Christmas ornaments Jim was unpacking from their containers. Most of the balls were resting where they had rolled from the middle of the table, and he was currently unpacking glass figurine ornaments, setting them carefully away from the edge of the table so they wouldn't topple over. One of them caught her fancy, a figure of an elderly, fat man dressed in a red suit with a white beard. A brown sack was slung over his back. "Who is this?" she asked, picking it up and gliding her fingers over the blown glass.
"That is Santa Claus; he's also called Saint Nicholas, after an old Turkish saint," Kou explained. "Children believe that if they act good all year long, Santa will bring them presents."
"Does it only work for children?"
Everyone in the room stopped to look at Mel: Kou with her paintbrush halfway to Aisha's silver hair; Jim with his hand firmly around an ornament, suspended three inches above the plastic concave where it was stored; Gene with his arms above him, pushing on the tree lest it collapsed on his head; and Aisha up from her game, the handheld console beeping to let her know her man was dead.
Kou smiled at Mel. "Have you been good this year, Mel?"
"I think so..."
"Then maybe Santa will bring you something."
"Really?!"
Jim looked at Kou as Mel's voice took an excited undertone. The bottle redhead nodded. The blonde leaned in to his sister to speak to her in a whisper as Mel turned to talk to Gene excitedly. "What d'you think you're doing?"
"What? There's nothing wrong with an adult still believing in Santa Claus. Don't you believe anymore, Jim?"
"I haven't believed in Santa since I was six and I caught Dad filling our stockings*."
"Tut, tut. You should never lose faith in things. Look at how happy she is." Jim's eyes slid over to Mel, her face flushed with happiness as she chatted from her seat with Gene. "Would you deny her that, Jim?"
"No."
Kou was silent as she slathered green dye into the C'tar-C'tar's hair. "Besides, for all you know there really is a Santa." She smiled kindly as her brother gave her a glare. "Christmas miracles, James."
"Yeah, stuff only for sappy movies and bad fanfiction," the blonde grumbled under his breath as he went back to his task.
---
As night fell on Christmas Eve, Kou lit a single candle in the front window.
"Kou? What are you doing?" Zurg asked from his seat at the breakfast bar.
"It's an old Irish tradition: Irish families would light a candle on Christmas Eve, and anyone who approached the door that night was given food, a place to sleep and money upon departure the next morning."
"Who do we know that still knows Irish traditions, much less keeps to them?" Jim asked, popping up from behind the breakfast bar, a hot cookie sheet in his hand.
"Duh, I like, totally know the author."
"The fourth wall's there for a reason," Taylor called out between sips of eggnog.
Kou stuck her tongue out at her girlfriend and shook the match out as the bright orange flame burned centimeters from her fingers.
As per Hawking tradition, everyone was allowed to pick one present to unwrap on Christmas Eve. The eight of them sat around the table with their single present and eggnog, before staring at each other. "Who gets to go first?" Aisha asked, her ears twitching to and fro.
"Rock, Paper, Scissors?" Taylor suggests, holding up her hands, her right hand balled in a fist on top of the outstretched left one.
---
After a few rounds, Melfina won, and from there it went clockwise. They were almost completely around the table when there was a knock at the door. Kou opened it into the cold wind and furious flurry of snow to find a tall young man in his mid-twenties, dressed in a nice tailored suit and gripping a briefcase. "Hello, I am so sorry to impose at such a late hour, and on Christmas Eve, but I would like to request a favor."
"Of course, come on in out of the cold," Kou replied with a smile. She stepped aside and he came in, shaking the snow from his black hair and stomping his feet to warm them.
"I have a very strange favor to ask. My name is Timothy Donaldson. My flight off-planet has been delayed due to the storm, so I was wondering if you wouldn't mind terribly letting me stay on your couch for the night? I, of course, would be happy to compensate you for your troubles," he added, a hand going into his coat
Wide grins met the newcomer. "No trouble at all," Kou replied, grabbing Timothy's wrist before he could pull his hand out of his jacket. "And it's Christmas. Now come, sit, and eat with us."
---
The next morning was Christmas, and Kou was up with the sun, a stack of wrapped presents in her arms. She had been planning on playing Santa for Mel, but when she went downstairs, she found presents already littered under the tree and on top of the low dinner table. Confused, she scratched her head as she scanned the nametags--all signed in red from "Santa".
There was a note on the breakfast bar, too, with her name written in red. She flipped the folded paper open and read:
"Kou,
Merry Christmas, sweetheart. I'm sorry I couldn't stay
too long, but everyone was asleep. Anyway, my brother
Cal (you might know him as Timothy) says that since
everyone was so kind to him, you all deserved a treat.
See you soon.
Love, Grace"
Kou smiled to herself, folding the note back up and sliding it into her pocket. Humming 'Greensleeves' to herself, she hid her presents in among the Musica's offerings before starting upstairs. Something, however, caught her eye from the kitchen. Shuffling over, she realized what it was--a slip of paper was on tiled floor. She picked it up and flipped it over.
In what she recognized as Grace's neat, looped handwriting, was a check for two-hundred fifty woolongs.
"Gracelyn Eliza, you psychopath," Kou muttered, starting upstairs to call her friend.
---
*This is actually inspired by actual events. When I was in first, maybe second grade, my father accidentally recorded himself playing Santa.
