Aided by a gigantic sigh of relief, a gray paw placed the final gift under the tree. Afterwards, the wolfhound paced towards the tavern's hefty doorway and turned around so that he could see the product of his day's work. He did not believe himself to be a practitioner of feng shui, or whatever art there was to home decor, but he trusted that he did a damn good job on sprucing up the place for the holidays.

Red lined adorned the inn's bar and numerous circular tables, acting as festive tablecloth. Wineglasses filled with eggnog were arranged neatly atop the tables - a few with spillage surrounding their crystalline bases, for Leroy lacked expertise when it came to pouring liquids. For those who found eggnog to be utterly revolting, such as the General, a handful of other holiday beverages were available for one's sipping pleasure, such as: mulled wine, ciders, punch, and of course, hot chocolate. The drinks that weren't eggnog were could be found situated upon the bar. Food-wise, snickerdoodles and shortbread cookies had been placed atop the wooden tables as well. These biscuits were but wee morsels in contrast to the turkeys, both of which would be consumed after the gifts were opened, and currently rested on two spit roasts in one of the back rooms. The birds' nourishing aroma permeated through the building, practically sticking to the walls, so the fact that the Gala doubled as a holiday feast wasn't a well-kept secret.

The fireplace became the home to four knit stockings, each being occupied by unknown knickknacks and baubles. To the right of the fireplace was a tree, leaf-bare and horribly bedecked with tinsel. Perhaps asking for assistance with the decorating process would have been beneficial, though Leroy wanted this to be a total surprise. If another soul dared to aid him while he prepared the tavern, then what lay inside the gift boxes might potentially become common knowledge. So, for the whole day, he operated in secrecy, closing off the building to all outsiders so that the element of surprise wouldn't be lost. The ugly tree was a sacrifice for this, but the presents wholeheartedly made up for it. Neath the tree's desolate branches were coloured packages, each sloppily wrapped in red ribbon. These boxes acted as the key component to the Gift Gala. Sure, the drinks looked appealing, and the food was to die for, but you can't have a Gift Gala without any gifts. Once enough familiar faces piled in through the grand doorway, some gift unwrapping could be done.

Everything looked tiptop. Awesome. Today was laborious for the male. Some of the materials, such as the tablecloth and ribbon, proved exceptionally hard to come by. And tugging the tree across the landscape while half asleep had been hard, to say the very least. At least its height only reached a couple of metres. His muscles ached, and begged for rest. Though, his task wasn't quite over just yet. No, for in fact, it hadn't even begun. The true challenge was getting everyone inside, and subsequently having a good time.

He pushed open the doors, allowing daylight to break inside for the first time in hours. "Everyone!" he shouts energetically, "The Great Gift Gala has commenced! Come in, or ya won't get no present!"

Following his announcement, he returns to his position in front of the tree. He wanted those attending to enter, maybe grab a bite to eat, and ready for the real fun.

// SO. HERE'S HOW THE GAME WORKS. WHEN YOU REPLY, I WILL SEND YOU A DM ON THE SITE, WHICH IS WHAT Y/C WILL RECEIVE IN THEIR GIFT. THIS DM WILL BE STRAIGHT TO THE POINT, AS I'M ONLY SENDING YOU THE OBJECT, AND NOTHING MORE.

// AFTER A GOOD AMOUNT OF PEOPLE REPLY, LEROY WILL TELL EVERYONE TO GRAB A GIFT.

Initially, Aurum had been happy to try and attempt to offer his services to Leroy, and had offered to help the new general set up the recently announced Christmas event. After all, he had already worked hard on the tavern itself, and he desperately needed something to distract himself after the whole Crowley thing, so why not? Unfortunately, Leroy had vetoed that idea immediately, telling the Captain that it wasn't personal, but he needed everything to be a surprise from everyone. The lion supposed he could understand it, since it added another layer of enchantment and uncertainty, particularly to the presents that the gala was centered around, but that didn't mean he hadn't been a little bit pouty to be kicked out for a few hours. Still, he had passed the hours as he usually did, napping, hanging out with Roy, and going about his Captain's duties. He had attempted to try and seek out Crowley a couple of times, but ever since his drunken confession, the demon had been making himself scarce, a fact that didn't particularly make Aurum happy. Still, he didn't want to force things, so his best bet had been to just go about his day, waiting for the chance when a whole bunch of Christmas cheer could distract him from his romantic problems. Plus, it would mean seeing all of his clanmates gathered around for one big exciting event, and that was enough to make a smile curl warmly onto the lion's muzzle. Perhaps even Crow would be there, despite his reclusive nature as of late, even with Leroy back. Aurum could only assume that would be the case, since he couldn't imagine Leroy would want his boyfriend to stay cooped up in his house, and it wouldn't have surprised him to see the canine dragging Crow kicking and screaming to the new tavern.

Aurum had been resting his head peacefully on his porch when he heard Leroy's loud call from the tavern, and his ears immediately perked up, his large body unfurling as he got to his paws. He eagerly trotted over to where the tavern was, pausing in his pace only a couple of times to get in a few quick stretches to loosen his long limbs. Once he reached the front of the tavern, he couldn't help the proud warm glow that he basked in, taking in the sign and everything else about the building. That was thanks to his hard work, as well as the hard work of his clanmates. Not to mention everything that Leroy had done to decorate it for the holiday, even if it was a bit sloppy thanks to Leroy's relative inexperience setting events like this up. Moving inside, Aurum grinned and moved over to where the drinks were, pulling one of the glasses of eggnog over and taking a long drink. He had no intention of getting drunk, after the disastrous consequences that had happened last time, but he didn't mind knocking a little bit back. Once he finished the drink, Aurum moved over to where Leroy was sat near the tree, grinning up at the large icon of the Christmas traditions. Sitting back, Aurum wound his fluffy tail tightly around his paws before he rumbled, a pleasant chuff accompanying his words, "You did good, Leroy. This place looks great all nice and festive-d up. Not to mention all the gifts... I'm almost glad I didn't get to help, since everything is such a pleasant surprise." He chuckled teasingly at the canine before glancing around once more, allowing his gaze to eventually linger on the doorway, waiting for others to come in and join them. He found himself wondering if Crowley would come and join in on the festivities. A very large part of him desperately hoped the snake slash serval would, but another part of him was filled with sheer fear at the prospect of facing Crowley again.

Gifts were a foreign concept to Abathur, similar to how an animal like giraffes were foreign to him - he knew vaguely of the concept, but if you asked him any details he would likely make an excuse and scuttle off to read up on it. It made sense, of course; he hadn't spent a lot of time around people yet, so he hadn't really ever gotten a gift, much less given one (as far as he understood it, typically one was given gifts at a young age, probably to nurture a sense of charity and sort of influence them into wanting to take care of their parents when they withered - again, as far as he understood it).

As such, the spider was relatively bemused when Leroy shouted to the heavens and to the streets about some sort of Gift Gala. Nothing he had heard about; maybe he was just not considered important enough to have the information, or maybe it was some sort of yearly tradition that nobody talked about because of how obvious it was that it was going to happen. He would have to ask someone important - maybe that fellow who was in charge of this event, and resembled heavily the Leroy he had heard so much about.

The spider crawled into the tavern, eyes bombarded with all the holiday cheer and gay colors that could possibly be stuffed into a glorified bar, making a concerted effort to ignore all the cookies and the people and focus on finding Leroy - which was easy, it turned out, since he was near the big tree, and the big Aurum - his quarry found, he would slip forward with purpose, standing near Leroy with a question already grumbling out. "Greetings; what is 'Gift Gala'?" Straight and to the point, forgetting the possibility that people, that Leroy, might get freaked out by the giant spider suddenly in his face.

tags - "speech"