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Happy Holidays

✖ THE MALL

Ⅰ. THE REASON FOR THE SEASON
Boy, wasn’t November exciting? How about those Black Friday deals, huh? Hope you’ve had fun camping out in furniture stores! You can of course continue to bunk there, but the High Temple is also open to all Travelers again this month if you’d rather sleep there. Don’t forget to stock up on items that could fit inside your Traveler bag - this is the perfect time to get that fancy moisturizer you’ve been missing, some books, or maybe a copy of the hot new video game Bonestorm!

As December rolls in, you’ll notice that there’s even MORE holiday cheer to be found! Pressing in on all sides of you! Suffocating you! Or maybe you’re one of those people who just lives for carols and huge plastic evergreens decked out in tinsel and lights, in which case you’re going to be thrilled!

There are indeed plenty of those aforementioned trees throughout the mall, alongside wire and light reindeer, glowing stars, and oversized novelty gift boxes. If you have keen eyes you’ll notice that hidden throughout the mall are dozens of small, creepy elves with dead vacant eyes. They don’t do anything. They just… watch.

Who on earth could they be reporting to?

Ⅱ. HE SEES YOU WHEN YOU’RE SLEEPING

At the center of the mall concourse there is now a miniature village set up, themed entirely in ice and snow and candy. At the center of this plastic paradise is a lavishly decorated chair, and in front of it a camera. At times marked clearly on a schedule at the village gate you can wait in line behind a red velvet rope for your turn to see him.

Who? Well. That depends.

In many worlds, there is a benevolent figure who appears in December, bearing gifts for all the good children. Santa is the most likely person you’ll find sitting on that big chair, ho-ho-hoing and looking as kind and jolly as any creature possibly could.

Maybe you’re from somewhere without a Santa Claus, but with some other equivalent. In that case, you might see what you’re familiar with instead!

Regardless of his exact form, the figure who beckons you to sit beside him has only one concern: have you been nice?

Niceness is subjective, but if you’ve managed it you will be rewarded. With a twinkle in his eye, the Non-Denominational Mall Figure will reach into his magic bag and pull out a gift, JUST for you! What could it be?!

Oh, and don’t forget to smile for the photo! You may pick it up in half an hour once it is developed.

But if you’ve been naughty, or if you sneak over to that chair during the OFF hours? In that case there will be a cracking noise and the sudden overwhelming scent of rank goat.

“Better luck next year,” the Non-Denominational Mall Figure says sadly, his eyes trained on something over your shoulder. Turn your head and you’ll see that your naughtiness has attracted another holiday staple: Krampus.

Yes, this hairy, horned devil carries chains and bitch rods, the latter of which he uses to whip the everloving shit out of you if he catches you. You’ll have to outrun him long enough that he gets bored, or find some other way to distract him or pay him off. Maybe there’s a German market set up in the mall somewhere where you could get Krampus to do a Smorgasvein with you?

Notes:
1. This month if your character has been nice, they may receive ONE special item! They may only receive this gift once - multiple attempts to see the Non-Denominational Mall Figure will result in Krampus appearing instead.

The special item you may pick for your character can be one of the following:

- one animal companion. This animal can travel with your character from island to island from now on. The only stipulation is that it must be able to fit comfortably on the ferryboat. If your animal is too large, your character can instead get a mini version!

- one carriable item from your character’s homeland. In the case of weapons, this must be something that is not game breaking in terms of power level. (ie: yes, you can get a gun, no you can’t get a gun that explodes the sun.)

- a collection of holiday candies, all of which have magical healing properties.

2. You determine if your character’s actions put them on the Naughty or Nice list

Ⅲ. WINTER WONDERLAND
As you wander through the mall you will notice that amongst all the holiday decorations a large area on the first floor that was closed last month is now lit up and has a welcome sign standing outside. Whatever could it be?

Perhaps a bigger and better Orange Julius?

No silly! It's an indoor ice skating rink. And as if that isn't cool enough - get it? Cool? - it would seem that for the whole month skate rentals are free. So go on, slap on a pair of skates and take a whirl around the ice rink! Show everyone your fancy moves or just try not to fall on your ass.

Don't feel like skating? That's okay, there are dorky performances happening at noon and 5pm where a group of people dressed up as holiday creatures will skate around in formation and do tricks.

If you’re more mature, at 8pm there's a live jazz band that will play music for the skaters.

There’s plenty of beverages and foods to be sampled from the holiday kiosks that have popped up close to the rink.

Notes:
1. This is a public ice rink so you will have to share space with people, so if you plan on throwing out a triple lutz or whatever then you might want to make sure you don't hit or slice into anyone with your skates.

Ⅳ. ALL I WANT IS YOU
Cheerful generic holiday music fills the hall as the Christmas celebration hits full swing with a slightly panicked glee. The same rotation of a dozen different carols cycles through, one after the other, hour after hour. There are only a few refuges from the mind numbing music through the mall - that one New Age import shop that hasn’t changed its world music CD in a decade, and Spicy Subject which only plays pop punk covers of carols. Even the bathrooms aren’t safe from that rise and fall of notes that let you know a certain diva is going to tell you that you’re all she wants for Christmas.

Just as the hundredth iteration of the song is about to drive you mad, there’s a tremendous crash. A twenty foot tall Christmas tree that had once been suspended in the middle of the food court has crushed the Pizza Corner and taken out the power source for half the Mall’s sound system in one go. A caped figure escapes along the rafters that once supported the tree in a cloud of heavy fragrance. He pauses only once to bow as banner unfurls. Crude letters have been painted over a previous black Friday announcement: You have been warned: The Phantom!

The crowd begins to murmur and huddle in groups, and if you get nosy there are plenty of rumors. A teen from one of the ear piercing boutiques mentions a ghost story about a Luxuriate employee who got in a terrible accident while mixing bath bombs on site that rendered him permanently aromatic and with a permanent splitting headache that would have killed a lesser person. An older man from the Hotdog Hut pipes up that he disappeared into the labyrinth of hidden hallways that allow employees to navigate the mall for restocking and avoiding the overly aggressive salespeople. Every year the Phantom emerges in an attempt to banish the sky high notes of that ever popular Christmas carol, and every year the people who run the mall put it back in rotation.

Even after the incident with the choir.

A mother with two small children who are more puffy coat than person hushes the hotdog seller. It’s all nonsense of course. Some kind of interactive theater to drive up sales before the holidays. The looks that pass between the other employees, and the signs that the poor twenty-something postgrad working at Pizza Corner might have been crushed say otherwise.

So does the pungent waft of multifloral scent that starts to stalk you through the mall. Apparently, someone’s formed a crush, or are you giving him a terrible headache? What is it about you that you do better than anyone that might be appreciated by this deeply eccentric murder? Or what makes you the most annoying? Either way, it might be good to keep your hand at the level of your eyes because you’re about to be whisked away to the depths of the Mall into the Phantom’s lair.

Notes:
1. The Phantom is now more archetype than human. Killing him will probably not solve the issue, but it will make you smell like you’ve been eating bath bombs and drinking essential oils until New Year. Which could be fun.

2. Alternatively, if you agree with him about the music, you can always agree to team up to take out the rest of the sound system.

3. The Phantom has an excellent tenor voice. Just, you know, in case you were wondering.

Come on Jessica, come on Tori! Let's go to the mall, you won't be sorry!

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"I can still pick out skates, Jean-Paul. I'm only useless on the ice itself," he sighed. But when your boss says 'I won't take no for an answer' then he won't. So he rattled off the size he needed and tried to focus on whether or not he'd ask Jean-Paul to let David tap into the skill at any point.

He's gone and back again shortly - super speed means nothing when you have to wait for other people to do things - holding up a pair of skates triumphantly.

"Et voilà! Strap in."

He sits on a bench and pulls on his own, stowing his (new) shoes underneath in a cubby designed for just that. "You aren't useless, David," he points out. "You're just starting over. Which is hard. It hurts. But if you love it, you'll still love it even if you suck."

David sat as well, working on getting the skates on. His fingers were indeed supremely confident with this part of the process. How many times had he done this? Couldn't even begin to count.

"Perhaps. Perhaps it will just make me miss a lot of things and a lot of people. But..."

Okay, this was probably the time to ask.

"But before you're done on the ice, can I borrow the skill? Just ten minutes?"

A ten second touch to let him feel a little more whole. Wouldn't be his skill, but hey, at least he would be able to hold his head high for a bit.

Jean-Paul's smile is undeniably soft. "David," he says, "of course. You can take it now, if you wish."

So much kindness and support. David resisted saying he would try not to cry this time.

"I think it might be better to try and learn first," David answered. "I'm not like I am back home. I can't retain it. So maybe I can just try."

And if he isn't a complete mess, he can spend the month trying to teach himself again, with all the force of will he always had before.

Jean-Paul would naturally just pretend David didn't cry. He understands pride all too well.

"It's all any of us can do," he says. "Try. Come on, now. I promise not to bodycheck anyone." Which is a generous offer for someone who fully intends to get Wolverine on the ice at some point.

He leads David to the ice and offers his arm. "If you like."

Naturally. How could he be so lucky as to have that courtesy?

"I don't care if you bodycheck someone, provided you try not to put them into my path. In fact, don't promise. If people get violent on the ice and you don't feel like flying to stop them, body check them specifically away from me."

David could, from time to time, be practical like that.

Laced up and ready to go David walked with all the confidence of the graceful to the door, and then sighed before taking Jean-Paul's arm. Yes, he knew he was going to embarrass himself if he didn't. Well, not embarrass. No one would care but David himself. Still, the extra balance that was offered by the simple strength of the other mutant was enough to keep his foot from going out from under himself when he put his weight on first one skate and then both.

Still, David could feel how close he was to slipping and let out a series of curses in Krakoa that were, at their core, effectively comparing the bastard ice to Bobby's 'stupid fucking puns'.

"I swear to go I could walk a mile in skates off the ice. But the just abruptness of where the skills were pulled from my mind is so frustrating. Like hitting the sudden edge of a sink hole or something. Nowhere near as elegant as a proper telepath could do it."

And then David cursed again. Why hadn't that occurred to him? He could ask a favor from Quire. Get someone who had the basics at least down who would be cool with a telepath in their head, have Quire do a data dump with personal memories and details scrubbed, and at least start learning the tricks again himself.

"Sometimes I think I might be the most idiotic genius back home."

Jean-Paul grins in spite of himself at the swearing. He just can't help it.

He moves very slowly, making sure David is hanging on to him. He sees a sudden realization hit the younger man, and then laughs as David swears again.

"Oh, non, you're really not. I know a man who turned himself into a Sasquatch, you forget. And there's always any genius Avenger, they're all pretty dumb.

"Something occurred to you, I take it?"

Listen, David didn’t swear nearly this often, but he supposed he could manage it today. Because it mattered. There was so much swearing. And he felt it was needed. Still, he was very still at the moment and he bit his lip, hoping not to fall over because he could do some damage then.

“Right, I forgot about him. And yes, Pym and Stark can be fucking stupid. And Richards. But… It hadn’t occurred to me to ask Quentin for help with this. Mostly because, well, I’ve always had an issue with the fact that my powers could be cheating. But I KNEW this, and maybe I should just ask.”

Jean-Paul stills, letting David regain his balance.

"David, I feel I must point out that in all the world there's probably no two mutants who will argue with you more about whether or not using your god given abilities is 'cheating.' Well, Emma too. My point is I don't think you're a cheat, and Quentin certainly wouldn't. That kid uses every advantage he can get his hands on."

He smiles a little. "I think you should ask. I mean, why not? You'll have fun."

See, it was moments like this that proved just how much of a hero Jean-Paul was. At least in David’s book.

“I have a very complex history with my powers, Jean-Paul. The only reason they were ever limited in the first place was an unconscious fear,” he pointed out. But with his balance gained he tries to push forward and get a bit of motion. “And it’s in Quentin’s nature to do that. Maybe it’s even right for him. But we both know how easy it can be to fall to the so called dark side when your powers make you feel so distant from everyone else.”

Though fun wasn’t often in David’s wheelhouse.

"Also he's a dick," Jean-Paul points out dryly.

"Do you feel distant from everyone else, David?" he asks as they skate slowly along.

"And he can be a dick," David agreed, smiling to himself.

With Jean-Paul at his side to stabilize him it's easier to get moving, and it is relaxing. Or it was until Jean-Paul asked that question.

"Yeah. I do. Often actually. I am sort of bad for doing that to myself. I just... I told Kyle some stuff, but being open is hard. Missing home is hard. You're the only one here I really know back home and I guess I feel lonely."

"I know I am not the most emotionally available person," Jean-Paul says, aware of what an understatement this is. "But you may speak to me whenever you wish, David."

He glances over. "That said, I am glad to see you with friends your own age. I know how condescending that must sound, but it's important. Nobody will ever understand you perfectly - I am of the opinion that ultimately nobody will ever know someone else completely - but most people DO want to create connections and listen to others."

Not the most emotionally available? David can’t help how he chuckles at that. That’s pretty accurate, isn’t it? But David wasn’t asking for that. Not right at this second.

“I know that, Boss. But for now, I’m just trying to find my balance again. And not getting myself into more of a mess.”

And he always got himself into a mess. Though he laughed at the idea of friends his age. Yeah, Jean-Paul isn’t wrong. He needs those. Deserves those.

“Yeah, you’re probably not wrong either. But it’s hard to open up when people could go home at any time. That’s what the last world taught me.”

"Do you feel you're in much of a mess, currently?" Because David generally seems so put together.

Jean-Pal actually laughs. "David, in our line of work in our own world that's true. Ultimately it's just an excuse to close your heart off."

“Well, Carter’s implied that maybe something weird that happened with the tunnel of love may not just be ‘stupid mind affecting shit’, which means maybe having put myself into a situation where a kiss might have gotten me into a lot of trouble with a friend. Which would only be about the tenth time that’s happened.”

Listen, David and kissing are a HORRIBLE combination in his experience. A super horrible one. It gets him in so much trouble.

But Jean-Paul isn’t wrong. It is just an excuse to close his heart off. But for good reason. He wished he could skate well enough to pull away from the other. Not that any distance would last long next to the speedster.

“I’ve had my heart broken and tattered enough, literally and metaphorically, to be so tired of opening it up, Jean-Paul. I’m young, I know, but it’s just been so much since I first came to Xavier’s and the last few years have been the worst. I’m like a wound that won’t heal because you keep poking at it.”

Jean-Paul's eyebrow ticks up and he can't quite hide a smirk. "Oh, come on," he says. "WE'RE okay and we did a lot more than kiss. Is this person immature or something?"

His smirk fades into a sad little smile. "This is like talking to myself," he mutters. "Look. I am not discounting your pain. I'm actually not - my greatest heartaches were in my youth. You feel more when you're young, because it's so new. I'm just saying that being alone isn't any great salve."

"We're not supposed to mention having done a lot more than a kiss because I look up to you and your husband," David reminds Jean-Paul. Plus, you know, the fact that Kyle would be disappointed in him and Aurora and Jeanne-Marie BOTH would beat the shit out of him for that little bit of action.

Akihiro might give him a high five before kicking his ass for his girlfriend. Yeah. Not talking about that little interaction was probably for the best. But it was definitely on the list now.

"No, he's not immature. Hawks is perfectly mature, and about my age. But Carter had this whole 'well are you sure it was just compulsion and didn't have some actual interest side' to it, and fuck I hate it when people have points. I tried to point out I'm a bad person to have feelings for and was reminded that it doesn't work like that."

So yeah, he's got concerns. A lot of concerns. But he winces at the idea that Jean-Paul sees a similarity between his own youth and, well, David. That's not a good sign because fuck the guy hadn't had an easy youth.

"See, here's the thing. People look at me and say well you're young. And forget that in a lot of ways I'm overflowing with experience. Yours and Scott's and Hank's and everyone's. I'm not as immature about this as it seems. I know this ache, I know how rarely things work out, I know how it tears you apart. Fuck, I know what it's like to live a lie with your sexuality and hurt yourself over it because I've got Bobby up here too. I get that alone isn't a salve. I get that together isn't perfect either. It's complicated."

And his brain worked TOO HARD and thought himself into bad areas.

"David, Kyle wouldn't be disappointed in you," Jean-Paul replies, genuinely shocked.

Jean-Paul snorts. "Fucking telepaths are, unfortunately, pretty good at pointing out potential subconscious desires," he muses. "And I must say I am rather disturbed to hear you say having feelings makes you a 'bad person.'"

Jean-Paul tugs David along the ice just a little faster. "You are. And you aren't. I know you've felt it, you've had the knowledge, but it's not the same as living it, David. I know that's going to piss you off, but it's true. And you can't use other people's fuckups to hurt yourself, mon ami. It's stupid."

Like Kyle would be disappointed in Jean-Paul. That was just stupid. David, unlike young Jean-Paul, had known what he was doing.

"See, that's so horrible, that they see people that well. I just wish I could read it that well. And I didn't say that, I said that I'm a bad person to have feelings for. Which isn't wrong."

One thing Jean-Paul wasn't quite wrong about, but not quite right about, was that it wasn't the same. It's still a basis for experience. Life is about learning from other people's mistakes.

"I think I'd rather think of skating than anything else."

Neither of them is probably giving the guy enough credit.

"I know, right? Total cheaters."

He laughs and tugs David along. "Then come on, you, I'll pull you faster!"

No, but most people don't give sufficient credit to those around them. It just comes with the nature of thinking beings. Sometimes it's hard to acknowledge what others are going through and may or may not know.

"Speaking as someone technically under the telepathic umbrella, I have to agree. Worst cheaters."

But he usually disparaged himself with it. Still, he smiles and accepts this. At least he isn't falling.

"I just wish I could show you what I used to be able to do. I was impressive once. I think."

Jean-Paul laughs. It's a bright sound, surprisingly relaxed.

He glances over. "I said you coudl touch me," he reminds him. Then smirking, "Just keep it above the waist, mister."

"You had your chance to have me touch you elsewhere and you blew it," David countered. Okay, he hadn't entirely, but hey, the point stood. They could have done far more. As it was he adjusted his grip and let his shields down enough for him to reach for the skill.

It helped that he already knew where it was. And once he had it he could really feel it. The way the ice felt under him. It was familiar. Less than it should be, but good.

David pulled away from Jean-Paul and glided gracefully forward. Yeah, this was going to work.

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