A Festive Yule at Home

Log Info

• Title: A Festive Yule at Home

• Emitter: Ravenstongue

• Characters: Ravenstongue, Telamon

• Place: Lupecyll-Atlon Home

• Summary: Safe from the blowing snow and vicious cold, Tel and Lana exchange Yule gifts and happily plan to make one hell of an impression the next time they go out in nice weather. Pothy also gets a box of sugared pecans and contents himself with them when Lana opts to drag Tel off into the bedroom.

Lupecyll-Atlon house, evening.

There is no better excuse to stay inside today than what's outside. It's dark and there's snow everywhere on the ground, with the only saving grace for the night being that the wind hardly blows to make the damp and cold ambient weather chill that much harder to the bone.

Inside the house, however, Cor'lana's curled up on the couch with a large cookie in hand. Pothy sits on a wrapped box next to her. "Am I still the cutest bowtie?" Pothy asks sweetly.

Cor'lana rolls her eyes and grins. "Yes, you are the cutest bowtie," she says. "But I can't feed you another cookie if you're going to sit on that box. I don't want Telamon's gift to get messed up."

"At last!" Telamon manages to get the door open, puffing from the chill outside. His haversack slung on his shoulder, bundled up against the cold, as he pushes the door shut and locks it. "I cannot wait for spring," he grumbles, as he peels out of his heavy cloak, and steps out of his boots... leaving both at the door.

Padding into the living room, Tel smiles at Lana and Pothy. "Well well, if it isn't my bride and my favorite little brother." His starry eyes twinkle. "I'm glad we're all finally back here, what with the weather intent on turning into another round of 'winter wonderland' out there." He slides onto the couch with Lana, his haversack set down next to his feet.

"Welcome home, darling!" Cor'lana calls out to him as he enters the house. She grins as she makes room for him on the couch, shifting some of the blankets that were on her lap and spilled out onto the couch out of his way. "Why do you think I didn't want to go out there?"

"As much as I'd love a hot snack from my favorite stall at the market," Pothy says, "I don't want one /that/ much. It's gross out there, and I'd rather be here with both of you."

Then he lifts his birdbutt off the wrapped present. "Speaking of which..."

Cor'lana clears her throat. "Right. Seemed like as good a day as any to give you your Yule present, my love," she says. "Pothy, go on." Pothy hops over to the coffee table to get a cookie, idly watching Telamon.

Telamon shakes his head at Pothy. "Pothy, even if we disagree on things, I would rather cook you hot snacks than take you out in that. It's awful. Cold and damp and snow and ice." He pauses, then gives Pothy a look. "No, I'm not cooking just for you tonight. Enjoy a cookie."

He grins at Cor'lana. "Ah yes, it IS that time, isn't it? Fortunately, the wise Yule elf... well, half-elf... has his bag of goodies." He reaches down to open the haversack, and removes a couple boxes. "I have a couple things for you, love, and something for Pothy as well."

Cor'lana smiles widely as she sees the boxes. "Aww, Tel," she says, a blush already coming to her face. "I... I know my instinct is to say that you don't /have/ to give me anything, but it /is/ Yule. It's sort of the whole custom, isn't it."

Pothy looks at Cor'lana and Telamon from the safety of the table, already biting into a cookie. "This is the first year where Cor'lana's given a Yule gift to someone that isn't me or Nadi," he says. "Don't worry, Tel, I helped her pick the present out."

"That's right," Cor'lana says cheerfully. "No mistaken swimsuits for underwear here."

Telamon smiles gently. "It'll be fine. And it IS the tradition to give gifts. I... kind of got you two. Think of it as one for who you were, and one for who you are now and will be."

The boxes are neatly wrapped with ribbon. There's actually three, two of which he presents to Cor'lana, and one which he sets on the table in front of Pothy.

"Merry Yule, Lana. I love you," he says, eyes full of happiness.

Well, that gets Cor'lana's eyes watering, and she hasn't even opened the gifts yet. She throws her arms around Telamon and hugs him tightly, kissing him. "I love you too, Telamon," she says as she draws back. "Merry Yule."

She picks up one of her boxes and begins to unwrap it. Pothy goes for broke and unwraps his, too, pulling apart the ribbon effortlessly with his beak. The bird apparently has some practice with unwrapping gifts. (This is somehow both the most surprising and most unsurprising Pothy-fact ever.)

The boxes aren't hard to unwrap, really. Once opened... Pothy's gift is rather sweet, literally. It's a box full of sugared pecans, freshly made. Resting on top is a small silver chain, similar to other jewelry he's collected, though this one is stamped 'T+C'. "I figured I owed you for taking Nadina's ring," Tel explains. "And those pecans are -really- good."

Meanwhile, Lana's first box reveals a book -- specifically, a book of poetry inspired by the fey, from the Mythwood. "The author, Glendon Longleaf-Hart, was a half-elf too," Telamon comments. "And he remarks on it in some of his poems. Interesting stuff, and very classy." His eyes twinkle a bit, as the other package is opened.

This one, though... it's a rose. But not -just- a rose. It's wrought from delicately hammered steel, and despite its weight, one could swear it wasn't just metal. "I commissioned it from Brisby's forgeworks. He was bragging about being able to craft anything with steel, and I decided to put him to the test." He admires the metal flower. "I think he did a good job."

Pothy's eyes are wide and bright as he beholds the pecans--and then, of course, he beholds the shiny. "Awww, I love it!" he says, taking the chain delicately off the box. "These snacks look really tasty, too!"

Cor'lana looks positively thrilled by the book, of course. "I've heard good things, but I've never been able to track down a copy," she says. "Poetry books are hard to come by sometimes... Thank you, my love."

Then, of course, there's the rose, and Cor'lana's eyes glitter with tears again as she holds it in her hand. "This is... Oh, it's gorgeous, Tel," she says, sniffling with a wide, wide smile. She wipes her tears from her eyes and gives him another tight hug. "We'll have to find somewhere to put it on display. Maybe on my nightstand in the bedroom?"

She takes the gift that Pothy had been sitting on earlier and presents it to him as well. "Go on and open it," she urges. It's a moderately sized box, long and slim.

Telamon hugs Lana back tightly. "I know sometimes you doubt," he murmurs in her ear. "But never ever forget that you are strong. You are my rose, but I've seen the steel in you." He kisses her cheek, before finally letting go with a smile. There's even a little shine in his eyes as well, and he brushes his hand across his face before taking the box.

"You'd mentioned that volume before. I'd put out some feelers, but it turns out Jovani knew someone who had it. And you know Jovani, he's always happy to lend a hand -- and in this case, he got me an introduction so I could make the offer." Tel's fingers are deft, as he opens the box, eyes now curious and intrigued.

Cor'lana grins a little sheepishly as Jovani is mentioned, and as soon as Telamon opens the box, he knows what this happens to be: a box from Jovani's Fine Garments. "I had to ask Jovani to, err, 'anonymize' it, just so you wouldn't see my name in the clients list if you came calling to inspect records, but I think it was worth the bit of subtlety."

Inside the box is a knee-length tunic with long sleeves, immaculately embroidered and tailored for Telamon's measurements. Cut from a dark-blue silk, the tunic has a curious property that it appears to shift to a darker violet when it moves in the light. "It's a material that I found at the marketplace," Cor'lana explains, "and it seemed like the perfect thing to make a really lovely tunic from, so I bought the whole bolt and asked Jovani if he could do something with it. He agreed, of course."

She lifts up the wrist of the tunic to reveal the embroidery along the wrists actually consists of a very tiny series of two letters hidden among the black and silver thread that makes up the embroidery. "See? T and C." Cor'lana grins.

Telamon stares in fascination, turning the tunic to and fro to catch the light. "...Wow. I... this is -nice-, Lana! No wonder Jovani looked like the cat that got the pigeon when I was asking him about the book. He's going to be absolutely insufferable -- but he earned it." Tel laughs softly, looking at the embroidery with interest. "This is absolutely wonderful, Lana."

He looks up and into her eyes, and kisses her softly. "Thank you. This is a wonderful gift. I can't wait to wear it."

Cor'lana grins as Telamon leans in for the kiss, kissing him back just as merrily. "Told you it wasn't underwear," Pothy chimes in from the table. "Although someone did try to tell Lana in the marketplace that it was okay to try and buy lingerie, wrap it up, and tell you that it's your gift."

The sorceress draws back and snorts, rolling her eyes. "As funny as that would be, I wanted something that was meaningful," Cor'lana says. "Something that reflects all that you do for me and... how I look at you, and how I look at /us/. I mean, you're handsome physically, Tel, no one could ever doubt that, but to me, you are /the/ most handsome person in existence because you've always supported me in the bad times and reveled with me in the good. You are my starborn king, and while I can't buy you a crown, I can at least have your king's regalia made for you."

She smiles brightly at him. "We'll have to wear that and my starry dress together out one night," she says. "We might be the talk of Alexandria, but that's a price I'm willing to pay."

Telamon smirks at Pothy. "Oh? See, I'd be expecting her to greet me wearing only a strategically wrapped ribbon and inviting me to 'unwrap my present' as it were. Come to think of it, I bet Nadina did just that a time or two."

He strokes Lana's cheek, "Queen of my heart, nothing pleases me more than to be your husband. The tunic is gorgeous, but the fact that it came from you means I -will- wear it." Tel's eyes sparkle. "And if we turn out to be the talk of the town, going around in our finery, then fine. I don't mind setting a good example for sartorial choices. Adventurers sometimes wear the strangest things, and then you have the nobles..."

Cor'lana does look wry. "Well," she says, "I was sort of hoping I'd get to unwrap my /third/ present from you, later." But then her eyes sparkle a little in precisely that sort of dangerous fashion. "In fact, why not now?"

"Here? In front of my cookies?" Pothy complains.

That gets a snort and rolled eyes. "No," Cor'lana says, "and that's my gift to you this Yule, Pothy."

She drags Telamon with her to the bedroom... Right as some taps on the kitchen window arrive. Pothy grumbles. "At least Grandfather won't ABANDON me!" he calls after Cor'lana, and he flies over to the kitchen window to let Grandfather in. "You just missed them."

Grandfather forms in the kitchen and simply grins widely as he goes to set his own wrapped presents down. "That's all right," he says to Pothy, patting him on the head. "Maybe I'll receive a grandchild for next Yule."

He won't, but it's a nice thought.