Santa Claus is coming to town! (tl;dr)

[toallagoodnight]

Somewhere in Grant Park, just after midnight, the Rift spits out a magical sleigh, pulled by eight reindeer. Driving that sleigh is an old man wearing red and white, with twinkling blue eyes and a full white beard

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[emodebauhaus]

Edna doesn't discover her gifts until the following day; St. Steven's Day might be considered part of the holiday for most, but it's the second biggest shopping day of the year after Black Friday. However, the excited SQUEE can be heard in teh basement a full city block away.

She is on the phone almost at once, begging Doc to bring over the material he's been working on.

THEY HAVE WORK TO DO!!!

[chimaerasaurus]

When Abby comes wandering in at some obscene hour of the morning after leaving the party, she is, in fact, shocked to see the Kashtta. It takes her a minute to realize that there's a certain familiar creature sleeping under the tree.

"...Rex?"

The lizard lifts its head, croak-trilling sleepily.

"Rex!" She crosses the room at a run and sweeps him into her arms, giving a little half twirl. All of the ornaments around her fairly blaze with light. "Rex! What are you doing here?!"

[cyfor]

Here comes a kitty, lookin' like a kitty, nosing around in the sudden pile o' gifts that have invaded her domicile. She would be affronted, but something smells like CATNIP. And there's a comfy bundle that comes with it. She curls up on the bundle and attacks the baggy, muttering happily to herself. Yes, she likes this Christmas business. Likes it fine, she does.

[nothingsodivine]

Des comes downstairs, not really anticipating unexpected gifts. In fact, he walks right past them on the way to the kitchen to get a cup of coffee (the door decides to be festive and play "Jingle Bell Rock," which is not the worst thing it could play, and when he walks back in coffee procured, he stops and just stares.

"...The hell?" He blinks.

[cyfor]

"Desiree!" She managed to tear the catnip packet open and now has it all over her head. "I got a squishy thing for Christmas."

No, she hasn't quite gotten around to the part where you open the gifts yet. She's never gotten a gift before. It's new and exciting! And covered in catnip.

[nothingsodivine]

Des stares at her. "I can see that," he notes dryly, walking over to the pile of presents- some of them he knows were put there by Donna and Martha for the kids, but there's some that... Should definitely not be there. He picks up the note addressed to him and frowns at it. "Huh.."

He looks down at Cy and her package and scritches her catnip-covered ears. "You know, there's probably something inside the squishy thing."

[changingtheodds]

Ruvin comes wandering out of her room and away from her notes in search of some hot chocolate. Molly has gotten her addicted to the stuff. It's so sweet. It takes her a minute to register the change under the Christmas tree; when she pokes cautiously over and sees the stacks of books addressed to her... well. She really doesn't know what to say. Though saying much isn't really an issue--she takes the topmost one reverently from the stack and opens it up, settling against the common room wall to pore over the history Caste, Class and Race in South Asia.

[der_weevilkonig]

Owen has no idea what the fuck just happened here. He's just jolted out of sleep by the Tower feeling weird in yet another new way, but this time... this time, it just leaves the both of them confused. He rolls out of bed, grabs his pistol, and wanders into the hall...

...which seems to have suffered an attack of interior holiday decorators.

Ordinarily, he'd blame Ianto, but this... has a touch of the whimsical to it that he's not sure Ianto displays. So he pokes around until he comes to the lobby, and...

...uh...

.........

...o...kay.

First stop: check that the tree isn't explosive or anything, not that he really has the equipment to do that. So he's just going to...

He hits his headset. "If anyone's on the channel, you... may want to come down to the lobby," he says. ...there's a bottle of Johnnie Walker under the tree with his name of it. A nice bottle. ...well, he thinks, quirking a smile, assuming it's not the weirdest and most convoluted assassination plan ever, there are worse things to wake up to. "You're

[o_hai_meatbags]

Speaking of assassinations, HK-47 has awoken from standby to the tune of HAPPY AND JOY IN HIS SOUL PROCESSORS. Dropping his blaster and retracting all of his weapons, he happily clomps into the lobby, humming a garbled rendition of five different holiday tunes at once.

And then he spies Owen.

"Greeting: heartfelt holiday wishes to you, meatbag!" he says cheerily. "May this human celebratory ritual bring you peace and joy on this happy occasion!"

[der_weevilkonig]

Okay, well, that's weird and getting weirder.

Owen glances over at the previously-highly-unfriendly assassin robot with a quirked eyebrow. "Did you just wish me holiday... wishes?" he asks. Not that it's much weirder than the rest of this, but - hmm. He waves a bottle of scotch at the tree. "Did you do this?" He's figuring it's got to be one of the robots, given the speed and efficiency of it getting set up. And the... general inscrutability of all things involved.

[o_hai_meatbags]

"Affirmation: Holiday wishes are an appropriate gesture on such a joyous occasion, are they not?" HK says, photoreceptors glowing happily. "I do not wish harm on any beings today, or any other day. I have come to realize the true value of organic life, squishy though it may be."

Though, to the second question... "Negatory: Sadly, I do not know who performed this selfless and kind gesture," the assassin droid laments. "I regret that I was not activated during the time period in which it must have occurred. I wish to express my gratitude."

If Owen looks closely, he may notice a note taped to HK's chest. Of course, he may be more distracted by the killer robot trying awkwardly to hug him.