Open!

[eatsyourscience]

Who: Souji and you
Where: The diner
When: 12/15-12/25
Rating: PG-13 at most
Summary: Souji's catch-all for the second half of December
The Story: When not having crazy Mansion dreams, Souji can be found...

The Diner
The diner has been decorated just like everything else in the Mansion. Of course, like every year, Souji's made his own additions, like the Colonel (plus twinkling fairy lights). This is the fourth annual KFC Christmas in Wonderland and he's pretty sure he's gotten even closer to the 11 herbs and spices recipe (it took a lot of practice and many days eating nothing but fried chicken).

Inside the diner, visitors will find plenty of fried chicken, a few appropriate sides, and plenty of Christmas cake complete the menu. Cocoa, coffee, tea, and various other drinks are available.

Souji's there, of course, to greet anyone who comes in and to hang out with folks, especially the others who work there when they choose. Regardless of which category people fall into, he will try to feed them. (He'll even make any non-fried-chicken-or-cake foods people might want, but seriously, what more could you want?)

Outside
Now that there's finally snow, Souji can be found outside playing with his very fat, small pet dragon and a gray and white bunny, which remains mostly bundled up inside his jacket, its head peeking out under his chin. He plays with the dragon, coaxing it to run, as well as making rather distinctive snowmen, each of which Tefra (the very fat, small dragon) immediately pounces on. He never seems particularly bothered by that.

He also takes his little troupe down to the beach, though that's less to play and more to just stare out at the horizon. He did that at home in the past, though it wasn't usually during the winter. It makes him feel nostalgic.

Around the Mansion + Gifts!
Souji spends time at various tables around the mansion working on his Christmas gifts. He can be found in his own room, the library, diner, tea rooms, even the dining room working on them as well as their very nice packaging.

He makes enough of these gifts to give to everyone he knows, even those he's only spoken to a handful of times. He delivers them on December 24, giving them in person if he can, and leaving them at peoples' doors along with a "Happy Christmas" note if he can't.

Of course, there are a few people he has special gifts for.

Dreaming
Here is Souji's dream thread!

Wildcard
Choose your own adventure. c:

[ooc: Feel free to use prose or brackets. I'll match style. If you want something to be on a specific date, just put it in the subject line along with the prompt name. :3]

Comments

[eatsyourscience]

[Tefra romps around in the snow, making an absolute mess of the entire area.]

It's supposed to look like Teddie, a friend of mine.

[It was a replication of the one he'd made with Nanako.]

[jivitadana]

I'll help you build a new one.

[Maybe if the both of them are there, Tefra might let at least one Teddie snowman survive. Plus Minato wanted to see what Teddie looked like too.]

[eatsyourscience]

[Souji thanks him by way of smiling. Maybe they can take turns keeping the dragon away.

Making sure the bunny is tucked safely inside of his jacket, he starts to pack up some snow so he can roll it up to make the base of the snowman.]

[jivitadana]

[Build build build. Roll roll roll. Minato rolls over some more snow for Souji to use in his sculpting. He kept Tefra occupied by petting her or having her pounce on other untouched parts of the snow that really needed dragon footprints.]

[eatsyourscience]

[Without the unnecessary, albeit cute intervention from the dragon, it doesn't take Souji all that long to finish the snowman. He stands back. He's just missing the pot holders they'd used as hands before.]

That's kind of what Teddie looks like when he's wearing his bear suit.

[jivitadana]

[Minato saw and thought it was cute. He touched one of the ears, thinking that it would be super fuzzy on the real Teddie.]

But why does he wear a bear suit?

[eatsyourscience]

[Souji holds Tefra off long enough for Minato to take in his creation.]

He's a Shadow. Originally, the bear suit was all there was.

[jivitadana]

[Minato blinked.]

A Shadow?

[A Shadow as a friend? Why does that sound familiar?]

[eatsyourscience]

[A nod.] My Star link.

Eventually he developed a human body and could come into our world.

[jivitadana]

[Stars. They did have a way of doing things if they were determined enough.]

How did he become your friend?

[Like he just happened to come out and they somehow knew of him? But they knew he was a Shadow?]

[eatsyourscience]

When we ended up in the TV world, he was there. He said he'd always been there.

[That was a long time ago.]

He let us out again, and in the beginning he was our navigator.

[jivitadana]

[Minato nodded, thinking that over. He thought of anyone, Shadows were the ones that needed friends the most.]

He's cute. I'm glad you were able to help him.

[And he was glad that he could help them in turn too. He was glad he got to see the Teddie snowman before Tefra had a chance to get at it.]

[eatsyourscience]

[Speaking of Tefra, he is barreling through that snowman right the heck now. Souji couldn't hold her back much anymore - that dragon does what she wants.

But that's fine. Souji isn't bothered by it, now that Minato's had a chance to look at it.]

He helped us a lot, too.

[Souji unzipped his jacket enough to take the bunny out. Crouching down, he sets it on top of the snow, wanting to see if it can hop around or if it will sink in. He wasn't ignoring Minato by any means - he knew they could play in the snow together without having to talk.]

[jivitadana]

[There goes the Teddie snowman. Minato smiled and didn't mind either. They could take their time now to play in the snow.

He petted the little bunny once it was free, then while Souji was occupied with the animals, Minato hopped around the snow, leaving footprints next to those dragon footprints, like he had trekked through the snow alongside Tefra. Who else beside Souji could say that they could walk through snow with a dragon?

When he got to an untouched part of the snow, he picked up a stick and started to draw in it, like music notes, stars, and a Persona or two, rough sketches. But then he smiled and did start to draw something else, taking more of his time with it.]

[eatsyourscience]

[It turned out that the bunny was small enough to walk on top of the snow. When it tried a bigger hop, though, it sank in and couldn't get back up on the surface. All it managed to do was make more snow fall on top of it.

Souji took pity on it and extracted it from the snow. He brushed it off, then put it back into his coat for safe keeping. It could warm up there, anyway.

After running around with Tefra for awhile, throwing snowballs for her - or at her - he returned to where he'd left Minato, leaning to look over his shoulder at whatever he was drawing now.]

[jivitadana]

[By this time, Minato was crouched down and in the snow had drawn a star as an experiment to see how clear the image would show up, a couple of bars of music notes, then an outline of sorts of Messiah since the snow was white.

But the last thing he was working on was on a certain umbrella with a couple of names. He was finishing off the じ when he felt and saw that a certain someone was behind him.

He looked at the umbrella and smiled at it, letting Souji see his finished drawing too.]

[eatsyourscience]

[Souji blinked in surprise, his face growing warm at the implication of that. He was glad Minato was facing away from him so he wouldn't see that slight flush, but he also thought Minato was just teasing him.]

I'm flattered.

[jivitadana]

[Minato blushed lightly too when his eyes traced over all the lines of the umbrella and the names. Then he turned toward Souji, looking up over his shoulder.]

It's Christmas. I wanted to ask if you'd spend it with me.

[This was his small way of asking. Souji should know what exactly he was asking just by context too. Souji didn't have to play along though or free up his time for him. It was why he left the decision up to Souji.]

[eatsyourscience]

[A slight smile played across Souji's lips.]

Yeah. I'd like that.

[jivitadana]

He said yes.

[Minato had looked away from Souji a second after he responded, his eyes falling to the umbrella, smiling to himself and whispering to not anyone really visible, although having present company hear it too was okay.

Then he nodded and slowly got back up on his feet.]

Can we go inside?

[Since that's where he had planned to take Souji. He hoped Tefra and the bunny didn't mind the change in the schedule.]

[eatsyourscience]

[Souji nodded.]

We can take them back to my room first.

[He said before he had to go and wrangle a dragon.

Once he'd convinced Tefra she wanted to go inside where it was warm - really, she was cold-blooded, why did she love the snow so much - he headed back into the Mansion with Minato.]

What did you want to do?

[jivitadana]

I made something for you.

[Minato smiled as they walked down the hall to their rooms. Once they were in front of them, he touched his hand to Souji's arm.]

I'll see you soon.

[He would be waiting in his room. Souji knew where to find him.]

[eatsyourscience]

[Souji nodded and headed into his own room. He got Tefra calmed down and set the bunny on top of her to warm up. After changing his clothes, he gathered up a long, plain box under one arm - he'd had to put the case inside another box to disguise the shape - and went actoss to Minato's room. He knocked once as a warning before letting himself in.]

[jivitadana]

[It didn't take too long to set up since there wasn't too much. Minato had also changed and was in a T-shirt and jeans since it's warm enough in his room (and he didn't mind the cold so much either). He had two boxes on the table, one blue one and one white one, and then he had another smaller box, wrapped with silver paper and a blue ribbon, hiding in plain sight underneath it.]

Hi.

[Minato had just placed a couple of plates and forks on the table too next to the boxes. He invited Souji inside, thinking that Souji should just treat the room like his own. He knew it well enough too since it looked like Minato's dorm room in Iwatodai.]

[eatsyourscience]

Hey.

[Souji peers at the gifts then at the one under his arm. With a smile that's almost sardonic, he sets his gift down, leaning it against the leg of the table while he takes a seat across from Minato.]

Merry Christmas, Minato.