PARADISA

[Outside in the gardens, Tenma is setting up a table of hot drinks and hot drink condiments. It's got everything from hot chocolate to coffee, both regular and decaf, and all sorts of holiday creamers, marshmallows, peppermint bits, you name it. After finishing up, he gives it a proud nod and opens his journal]

I know inside the castle has that weird kissing thing going on, but that shouldn't be an excuse to stay inside your rooms all month! So I set up a bunch of hot drinks in the garden, so you don't have to hang out inside the castle with all the germs.

[he pauses]

Bring sensible shoes if you want to play soccer afterwards.

[ooc: A kissmas can be worked out]

[The journal picks up the crunching of leaves and the soft sound of a ball being kicked around. Tenma then opens]

Now that the leaves are falling off the trees, it would be kinda fun to start playing soccer in them. Even if people don't know how to play, we can make a game out of how many leaves we can kick up! And it won't be like the Fifth Sector's roulette fields. Those could really kill someone...

[as you flip through, there's suddenly a messy stroke of really wet ink on the page of the journal, then the sound of someone picking it up and shaking it a little, making the ink run]

...Whoops. Maybe I shouldn't practice on the desk.

[and then he stupidly rubs it in hopes of getting it to dry faster, smearing ink all over the place]

[World change? No problem if Tenma finds a soccer ball.

Which he did

Which he and is Lillipup are now playing with on the outskirts of Castelia City]

Hehe, you're pretty good at playing soccer! It feels like I'm betraying Sasuke, but I don't think he'll mind if I play with you for a little bit.

[his Lillipup barks happily]

[A certain someone thought it'd be a good idea to practice soccer in the lobby where there were strange things going on, because hey, if you played in a stadium that had flippers and bumpers popping up every so often, you wouldn't think twice.

Unfortunately, he's not used to the idea that the castle does funny things, so as soon as he kicks his soccer ball, it starts ricocheting off everything, like a giant super bouncy ball]

Someone stop that ball!

[Perhaps it was because practice had been particularly grueling. Perhaps it was because he didn't hear the non-existant alarm go off more than twelve hours earlier. But for whatever reason, one 7th grader only just woke up.

In the music room.]

Nnnn? [It takes him a moment to become fully conscious and mentally functional before he can even begin to take note of his surroundings]

...Eh? What am I doing in the Captain's house?