13553/It's Beginning to Look...Tacky. Really Tacky.

It's Beginning to Look...Tacky. Really Tacky.
Date of Scene:	11 December 2022
Location:	R and D Labs: Triskelion
Synopsis:	Elves decorate the R&D labs for the Holidays! The level of taste may be questionable to most normal people.
Cast of Characters:	Alexander Aaron, Monica Chang, Jessica Drew

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Alexander Aaron has posed:
    The R and D Labs in the Triskelion are not tiny.
    They are sprawling with an elaborate hub network where the central gear and equipment as well as the banks of computers are stored in the center, then various 'experimental' areas are off of those hubs, like spokes in a bicycle tire reaching to split areas where no small number of experiments are in progress.
    There is a location where an experiment in causality and the analysis of a natural force considered by the layman as luck is being researched using a rabbit's foot, a ladder, several broken mirrors, and a horseshoe.
    There is a location where the significance of shadows and their affect upon the fabric of the space time continuum is being observed primarily through a variety of cameras and sensors pointing in the direction of a tall statue of an angel only for once every hour on the hour the cameras are deactivated and the angel is measured precisely down to the nano-meter.
    There's even a lab where a watermelon is seated in the grip of a hydraulic press, though nobody ever asks about it.
    Today, however, the current project seems to be a gauging of the possibility of the existence of an entity known as Santa Claus and the amount of energy it would take or time slippage it would have to generate to successfully complete a visit to all the households of the world. Along with various gradations for narrowing that focus depending on local metrics.
    It is just such an experiment that Level 2 Operative, Alexander Aaron, has been suckered into. What is he doing one may ask? Currently... he is cutting snowflakes out of folded white paper.
    "We need more fake snow." He says without looking up.

Monica Chang has posed:
"You already used all those cans?" Monica asks as she looks down from the ladder she had climbed, hanging garland along one of the walls. She sets the garland down and loops the end of it a bit around the ladder so the rest won't just unravel off the cardboard nor will the weight of it pull down what she has so laborously already put up. Then she climbs down the ladder, hopping down the final two steps to move over to the pile of boxes near the door. "Or were you needing more of the cloth for the village?" Because yes, there will be a village complete with some sort of low priced matting that passes for snow. Since she only has so much money in the budget, even when padded with some of her own to stretch it out. They weren't going to be getting the good stuff.

"I have a case of six more cans of snow here." She moved two boxes to get to the one in question, glancing his way. "Oh, and I think I have that Hydra drone ready to use for the big finale!"

Alexander Aaron has posed:
    "Going to put the nativity scene in the control group in case there's some sort of belief augmentation to the velocity of the sleigh?" He stands up and spreads out the string of snowflakes, holding the wide and then taping them up to one side before sliiiiding them out and connecting them to the other side.
    Then he offers, "I saw Elf a week ago." Which should explain that idea.
    He continues around and then digs into one of the large Amazon boxes and pulls out some lighting, blinking as he looks at it. "Oh cool these flash and come with a remote." He starts to tear the boxes open as he looks up and down the thirty by thirty space they have. It's the equivalent of a lawn, but with some indoor decoration areas to cover all the bases.
    "You know there's a percentage of people that think Amazon.com is run by the Themyscirans?" He grabs the roll of packing tape and starts to string out the lights. "I read it on the youtubes."

Monica Chang has posed:
"Do you think that's a valid experiment? I don't think that the belief levels in a country make a difference on the sleigh speed. After all, lots of people don't believe yet they put out the milk and cookies. I think that perhaps it is more the disbelief that might. So yes, that's a good experiment so we can prove my hypothesis."

Monica had talked herself into it instead of out of it. Thus was her life and her brain.

"The village I figure we set up close to last since at least I'll need to be able to climb on the furniture a bit. Unless we want to go all out and instead build an entire area for it above and around? Could get with one of those home stores and play carpenter. Fitting for the season."

She climbed back up the ladder and continued her careful setting of the garland, using a staple gun to put it in place. So every once in a while she would finish a cute little swag in the garland then there would be the sound of three ka-thunks from the staple gun. Mention of the Amazon.com theory has her looking over sharply. "That's just stup--" Her voice fades as she considers. "Okay, maybe it's not. I mean consider. Hidden society on an island that is hidden. They use weapons that are more ancient in design, yet they have healing technology that can't be matched. They have things like the Lasso of Truth and invisible planes. Someone has to be footing the bill and it isn't like there is an internal financial system that would support it. Huh." She shakes her head a little and looks at him. "Forward me one of those links next time you see it?"

Alexander Aaron has posed:
    "If they could somehow store belief in some manner, like a battery?" There's the sound of tearing tape and then the lights are linked along the dividing wall that splits the small Christmas lawn from the other nearby experiment areas that for the moment are empty.
    "Did I ever tell you my theory aobut divine beings?" He says, smiling a little wryly in Monica's direction. "Remind me to tell you sometime." Since he might have some personal insight, though not exactly something he'd want to discuss. At work.
    He tapes up another part of the lights and asks, "Are we going to have tea lights for the village? Or run a seperate string of lights?" Since that was very important. Illuminating the X-Mas village is a reqiurement in his mind.
    But then the grim spectre of the truth behind the evils of Amazon.Com comes to the fore as Monica turns the might of her considerable intellect upon it. "They're apparently a mostly agrarian society, though they have magic which skews everything."
    He finishes with that string of lights and keys it into the others, nodding a little as it starts blinking in that slow lazy rhythm with the rest.
    "Sure, I'll toss you the link." He then turns back to the box and starts digging around in it and produces silver icicles that he takes in a handful and move towards the Christmas tree. "What're your thoughts about silver icicle saturation on the tree?"

Monica Chang has posed:
"Hmmm," is the response from Monica at mention of storing the belief like a battery. "It's possible. I still suspect it is more lack of belief. Though if it is a lack of belief, the battery need would be heightened."

She finished with the garland and leaned back a little, giving it a critical eye. It wasn't perfect. Some of the swags were three of four millimeters off from the others. But it was just going to have to do. Pulling out measuring lasers to get it perfect seemed a bit of overkill.

She climbed down, the cardboard the garland came off thrown into the oversized bin they had brought in from the janitorial areas for just that purpose. The staple gun was still in her left hand. "You have not told me your theory on divine beings so we will have that discussion in the near future." Since she had recently found out some details about him that put him in a category to talk on such things without just theorizing. He actually had understanding on the topic. Might even be considered an expert, though that wouldn't be something they could prove for a court setting. Or could they? She shook her head at her musings and moved to start setting up the next treasures, though she was digging through a box to determine what that might be.

"Magic is cheating," is all she says on the Themyscirans. It's why Monica didn't work in WAND. Well one of thousands really. There was just some weird stuff down there. And this form a woman who was trained to be the ultimate spy in a hidden facility, as she was talking to a literal god. So yeah. Weird stuff in WAND.

At the question on the tree, she glanced over. "The opposite of everthing else. Less icicles or it would just be a big block of ice, since it is supposed to represent that. And no one wants a completely frozen tree." She frowned a little as she looked at the tree. "Is it a little lopsided?" Because she had actually gone to a tree lot to pick it out, splurging for a live tree instead of plastic. Because that was another experiment which was involving that Christmas-tree scent and the effect it had on the dopamine levels of subjects.

Alexander Aaron has posed:
    If she had pulled out measuring lasers for the garland he would have been staggeringly impressed. But for now just mildly impressed as he looks up at what she hath wrought and nods. "Not bad."
    He steps forward and adjusts one slightly, moving the pins a touch, but then leans back and frames it with thumbs and forefingers to get a proper 'picture' of it before he nods. "Ok that works."
    "Magic is totally cheating, that's true. I heard some Amazons were giving Mr. Stark grief for his green new tech. Something like, 'ho ho ho, we've been green for millenia,' in a smug Brainy Smurf voice." He shakes his head, "Easy to go green when your country runs on pixie dust and fairy magic."
    "Alright, so fewer icicles. Got it." He starts to pull off some of the silver aluminum strands and tucks them back into the box. He answers her final question without looking up, "Christmas trees are always slanted a little."

Monica Chang has posed:
"They don't have a right to give anyone grief. They've hidden on an island for hundreds...thousands of years?" Since Monica wasn't quite sure what it was. She didn't know any of them personally after all. That was Alexander's department. Though he was a male and thus couldn't go on the island either so there was that.

As he said trees were always slanted, she eyed the tree he was putting the silver strands of fake icicles on. "I think it's really slanted though. It looks like a WhoVille tree." Which was saying something. It wasn't that extreme but it was to her eye. And she kept peeking up at the garland she'd hung because that was going to drive her crazy. Three millimeters. Dammit.

But then she proved that she was not up to all things from the past, though she addressed something else he said. "Brainy Smurf?"

Jessica Drew has posed:
Super hearing brings Jessica the following: "They don't have a right to give anyone grief. They've hidden on an island for hundreds...thousands of years?" which explains the puzzled lift of her eyebrows as she stands in the doorway, visibly deciding whether she is going to enter the room or flee back to her own personal version of bah humbug.

The agent comes by her humbuggery naturally, never having had Christmas as a child. Something she won't share with others because they might feel it's a bid for sympathy. She won't have it, she'd rather have a traffic accident. Consequently, she has learned the Christmas moves and has had a few Christmas's with friends but feels the gap between their Christmas glee and her own. She is working on it, trying to fit in. Really.

"Oh...wow. Christmas decorations or are you all setting up a lab experiment?" She motions to the plastic plaque engraved in black with Research and Development that is next to the door.

Alexander Aaron has posed:
    "And then they have the gall to open a multi-billion dollar goods delivery business. The nerve of those Amazons." Alexander's lip twitches as he adjusts the amount of icicles then he steps back, hands on his hips. He chews his lower lip thoughtfully as he looks over the general tableau and ponders.
    "Hrm... hrm hrm."
    Then he points, "You're right it's overly slanted. I'll put some shims under one of the legs." He walks over to one of the myriad boxes and picks up a few of the plastic disks that were used for this express purpose. Then he disappears under the first few branches of the rather large tree with only his blue-jeans covered bum sticking out. The tree visible shuffles as he lifts it a bit and starts to adjust the height. "How's that?"
    He waits for acknowledgement, "Now?"
    Which is finally when the tree is pointing straight up and down. He then crawls out from under the tree and asks, "Do we have a train to run underneath?"
    Though that is the moment when Jessica appears and he smiles. "Hey, Agent Drew." He gives a nod, "I believe Agent Chang is exploring something about the acceleartion required and energy quotient for..." He turns his head to look at the former Widow, his head tilting to the side.
    Then he looks back to Jess and his smile broadens a little, "She has it down better than I do."

Monica Chang has posed:
At the question, Monica glances to the door and gives a huge smile. "But of course. All of this is scientifically backed." She waved to the room that--well, honestly? It was starting to look a bit like a Christmas store had thrown up all over the place. There was garland on the walls, the little sweeping arcs all along--though some of the arcs were three to four millimeters off from the others. Spray can snow all over windows and surfaces. A Christmas tree that currently had a gift Alexander butt sticking out from beneath it as he was adjusting the tilt because it was looking a bit too WhoVille for Monica's tastes with that angle to it. He had been putting up lights before that. And there was a cleared area where there would indeed be a snowy village, complete with cheap white cloth 'snow' beneath it though they hadn't really started that build yet.

"We have multiple experiments in progress. There is the Accelleration required and energy quotient necessary to power eight reindeer pulling a sleigh with an obese male occupant along with a sack of containing enough toys for every child on the planet. Then there are the thermodynamic metrics for how much energy santa's sleigh would have to displace to hit a sufficient time envelope to be able to deliver within a single evening to all the children of the world." She pointed at the tree which was a real tree, live and all that. "The level of dopamine increase in the human body at the smell of a Christmas tree."

She glanced around. "About a half dozen more."

As Alexander joined them again in the world of faces, she gave a little nod. "Tree is far better. Hopefully water won't leak out now when we see to it daily. Maybe twice a day with all the heat from the equipment in here drying out the soil. That might be something to monitor as well for science." Yes, she has indeed found a way to write of all of this for the business expenses they are. "We have four trains. One for the village, one for under the tree, and two I was thinking about setting up tracks. But you never answered if we should build something that elaborate on top of everything else."

Jessica Drew has posed:
Eyes exaggeratedly wide, Jess takes a tentative step into the lab. "The Science of Christmas and the Theory of Santa Claus," she says in a voice appropriate for reading the title of a monograph. "Appropriate."

Jess has made no concessions toward dressing for Christmas and wears black slacks and a tweed jacket over a black turtleneck. Despite all the endurance training, she hates being cold.

Turning in place she admires the duo's industry, and asks incredulously, "And you are going to add -more-?"

A sly smile replaces her wide-eyed incredulity, "You looked better under the tree, rookie." Immediately adding, innocently, "If you need anything hung from the ceiling, I'm your girl."

After a more careful inspection of the ongoing work, "Trains? Four of them? Really?"

Alexander Aaron has posed:
    "The magic sack is easy, it's a pocket dimension with some form of filing system or sequencing available." Alexander can talk the talk a little bit, but he has no actual _knowledge_, more perhaps imagine if a Star Trek writer had escaped the bull pen and started yammering tech talk.
    Then his eyebrows rise, "Four trains, I'll start on those." Since trains are cool. He turns and starts to dig around in the amazon boxes, pushing them around and looking for the one big enough for several train sets.
    Then he points at Monica as he addresses Jessica, "I think she was talking about starting with a ton then lowering the gradient?" A glance over, then she cracks her joke about him under the tree and he gives her a mild level of rookie stink-eye.
    Though when she suggests something from the ceiling he considers. "Maybe those silver stars? The big plastic ones?" He looks back at Monica.

Monica Chang has posed:
"Stars and those snowflakes you were cutting out earlier!" They do indeed have jobs for people tall and short here! No size-ism in R&D. Monica moved over to a box and picked it up then carried it over to offer it to Jessica. Inside were indeed many silver stars along with silver ribbon that could be used to hang them from various points in the ceiling. Then she offers the staple gun she had tucked in her pocket to Jessica as well. "Don't let Alexander have the staple gun. He cannot be trusted with it." And she glared in his direction a moment before going back to that big smile on her face.

Where Jess hadn't learned to embrace Christmas after her upbringing, Monica was the exact opposite. She knew of it but it was something she was not a part of until the last two years. Now? Monica was the first to roll herself in glitter and would be putting up decorations the day after Halloween if people wouldn't complain.

She considered the trains. "I was thinking about ramps. Between the various stations and desks. So that the trains could go all over the room." And suddenly she was on the ladder and starting to adjust the garland. A frown as she was down, getting a laser for measuring, and climbed back up. How is she going to do that without a staple gun? Because she has a second in her other back pocket on her jeans. She just wasn't going to let Alexander touch one.

Jessica Drew has posed:
"Pocket dimension. Sounds like Special Agent Foster's forte. I'm surprised she's not in the middle of this," her British accent drawls with mock disdain - her faint smile softening it. After taking off her jacket, she puts it on a hangar, adding it to the row of white lab coats hanging by the door.


Pushing up her sleeves, she meets Monica half-way to take the box. "All of them?" It would seem that Jess falls into the school of less is better as far as decorations go. Still, a smile sneaks back onto her face at Monica's obvious Christmas enthusiasm.

"I will guard it with my life. Alexander is known for his attitude with weapons." She glimpses at him over her shoulder, pursing her lips against a grin. "Smart woman. You'll be alive by the end of the day. No.Lasers.For.You.Aaron."

Alexander Aaron has posed:
    Re: Staple Gun. "It was just one time." He defends his case.
    But he continues on looking for the right box, until he finds the four train sets and pulls them out of their extra padding from the cardboard box. He tosses them in a relatively clear area and then grabs the cargo knife from the top of the fireplace where he left it earlier.
    Then when Monica offers her advice on civil engineering he says, "We don't have enough track to go that far, just about... 40 feet worth total. So like, under the tree, around the village. Where for the others?"
    Though when he gets some shade thrown his way from the Spider-People corner he points at her, "I'm known for my _aptitude_ with weapons, my attitude is impeccable." He counters.

Monica Chang has posed:
"One time too many!" Monica clapped back instantly at the blond smarty pants. Needless to say, whoever was on security duty tonight watching the cameras had likely had quite a show earlier when the early start of decorating and turned into an all out staple battle as the pair were in what looked like full urban-combat mode trying to shoot each other.

Thus why his was confiscated.

After he won.

"All of them. There's another box too." And that might warn Jessica that this was going to be bad once they were done. So Very Bad <tm>. It was like Monica's taste in decorating wasn't 'more is better'. It was 'ALL is better'.

"Forty feet?" And suddenly she was down from the ladder, trailing the garland with her that she was in the process of redoing so it was strung from the wall to her across the room, possibly forcing people to duck to avoid getting clotheslined. "Oh that won't do. Set up the one for the village and the other for the tree. Save the last two. I'll order more track and some wood to build an entire path around the room." She pulled out that laser measuring device to do that, starting to pad over then realize she was already doing one thing. She, and her garland, returned to her ladder.

Jessica Drew has posed:
While taking off her modish boots, "Some say aptitude, some say attitude. Agent Chang is smart to keep the lasers out of your hands."

Who won?"

She pulls out each star from the box to examine the ribbons, draping them over a shoulder when they pass inspection. With the precision of a soldier checking her ammo, eyebrows drawn into a serious expression, she then opens the stapler to see if Alex hasn't used them all up playing, With a snap she closes it and walks to the wall with the least garlands strung on it. Carefully skirting a board filled with the graphs of ongoing experiments she climbs the wall with the ease of someone walking up a stair and stops mid-way.

"Really? More? Will we be doing constellations, too?"

Alexander Aaron has posed:
    "You realize there are a finite number of hours in a day?" Alexander says as he grabs one of the train kits and sits down in front of the tree as he starts to open the box. His reality for the next few minutes will be opening the package and assembling the little tracks, so he speaks cheerfully over his shoulder.
    "Or is that going to be part of the experiment? Time dilation?"
    Though then he felt the need to pre-defend himself by saying, "I won, don't let her tell you any different." As he says that he nods and pulls out the caboose first, then starts to grab the holiday christmas cars out of their plastic container.
    His eyebrows then rise at Jess' suggestion. "Ooh, constellations."

Monica Chang has posed:
"He cheated," is the response, with a disdainful sniff added for good measure. Monica continues her measuring to be sure the garland dips were not even a millimeter off from each other. And when that was finished, she stepped back and admired her work with a smile.

At the suggestion of constellations, that got a happy 'ooooooo' sound from Monica as she started to nod adamantly. "Yes! Constellations is a great idea!" And already she was seeing yet another write-off for that particular set of decorations. Though she did take a moment to admire Jessica's position perched on the wall. "There are times I'm utterly jealous of your abilities. This is one of them."

And she was off again, into the boxes and finding a specific one. She moved to one of the desks that currently didn't have an agent signed to it. And that desk became the Hannukkah Desk through the course of the next few minutes.

"We haven't even gotten to the tchotchkes and such. We'll be filling every bit of available space in." If the person who decorated South of the Border were an agent of SHIELD, that person would be Monica Chang.

Jessica Drew has posed:
"'Course you did," Jess quips, with an over the shoulder smirk at Monica when Alexander claims the win. "You shouldn't let him win like that. It will go to his head."

Jess continues the climb, the stars hanging from her shoulder as she crawls across the ceiling.

Addressing Monica, she hangs nonchalantly from three points of contact while mapping a possible star route.

In her best Scottish accent, "Alright, Captain. We can certainly manage Ursa Major, I counted out eleven. Something obvious for the non-spacers." She goes to work, measuring the lines by eye and suspending the brightest stars in the correct positions.

"How's that?"

Alexander Aaron has posed:
    Still working on the assembling of the first railroad set, Alexander lifts his head, "Are you doing stockings? If so are they actually for anyone? And either way, are you filling the stockings with stocking stuffers? Or just padding them out? Do we need it more genuine or superficial?" Which might be a good decision to make at this point.
    He glances over his shoulder, then up up up at Jessica and chuckles.
    "'Let him win'." He crinkles his nose as he shakes his head, then adds a judgmental, "Sha."

Monica Chang has posed:
Monica moves to a spot under Jessica. Then offers the laser measure. "In case you want to get the distances perfect." Which might be a way to say please get them perfect so someone in R&D doesn't freak out when they notice it isn't.

Then she is back over to the boxes and pulling out another set of lights. Which she eyes the room and then starts wrapping a desk, around the edges of it. Seems each desk will end up this way.

But the suggestion from Alexander has her pausing in her work. "Stockings?" She looks around the room suddenly, eyes going wide. "I forgot about stockings!" She's still new to this whole Christmas thing so it can hopefully be forgiven. "Should we do that? I don't think we should personalize since I don't know everyone's actual religious preferences and if they'd be offended or not. But stockings!" And now she was eyeing the room. "Should we get one of those fake fireplaces? We could use it in the monitoring of temperature to tree drying ratio. Put up a mantle to hang the stockings? Or just hang a stocking on all the desks?"

Jessica Drew has posed:
"Well, huh," she says, releasing her feet with an adroit  twist, then lowering herself to the floor on a strand of spider silk. "Okay, a laser," she says politely disguising her dubiousness. "I'm going to need a diagram and then we are going to have to figure out proportions that fit the distances we see with the naked eye." This is the point where Jess's upbringing (a polite way of saying: boot camp) and Monica's intersect. They both can be maniacally precise or as some kinder souls call them: nerds.

Jess takes the laser then goes for her phone. As she passes Alexander, she whispers, smiling, "Make her stop."

Alexander Aaron has posed:
    Pondering, "We have the fake chimney and mantle, no fire or fireplace in it. We could do that. Maybe make... like four stockings for Mom, Dad, Sister, Brother. Fill them with random treats, and then if people want what's in it have them enter a small raffle or something? That way only people who want the stuff can get the stuff?"
    All of this said while he's sitting under the tree and assembling the tracks in a large circle around it. "But yeah, stocking stuffers should mostly be candy I imagine." He looks over, "Though I'm sure if we fill it before we're done decorating you guys will be munching it the whole time."
    When Jess passes by and whispers he says, "Now you see what the true experiment has been all along."

Monica Chang has posed:
Watching as Jessica lowers herself, Monica just shakes her head again. "Jealous." But she passes over that laser measuring device and then she leaves Jessica to do her research on the phone. "I'm sure we have a program around here that can plot it out completely. Then use the projector to mark the points on the ceiling and then you can hang from there?" And she is puttering over to a computer, starting to type and getting it unlocked then scrolling.

Even as she is utterly missing the conversation the two are having about her just a few feet away, not even caring they were whispering. But she did address the stockings. "I like that. Let me get this....There!"

She pointed at the computer. "Voila! You can type in the constellation and the projector will put it on the ceiling. Save us some work with the actual measuring."

Then she was pulling out her own phone, tapping the app for Amazon.com. "So we need more train track." Seems she is not budging on that one. "Stockings. A portable fireplace to put under the mock mantle. Candy to stuff the stockings. We'll have to figure out things to stuff them. Protractor, scientific calculator...I'm sure there is other stuff. Make a list." THen she giggles. "You don't even have to check it twice!" Which is when she realizes she had failed them all. "Music! How did I miss music!"

Someone better keep her away from the computers or they all suffer.

But she's still working on the other order for now. "What else do I need to order? The Amazons must be supported through the holiday season."

Jessica Drew has posed:
After stealing a blank piece of graph paper from a desk, Jess sketches the constellation out, assigning distances and confirming that she had remembered the position of the brightest stars. "The biggest stars will represent the magnitude, not their actual size," she tells Monica while giving the paper a final glare.

"Oh, brilliant idea. Like plotting range for weapons," she says, with a nod of approval. Officiously, she announces, "Agent Chang is designated fire control!"

A few busy minutes follow while Jess sets up the projector and manages the computer. When she has fidgeted it into position, she scampers back up the wall and begins to move the hanging stars into their proper positions, stapler marking her progress with twacks.

"Music?" she queries. "Can I make some requests?" she asks from her perch on the ceiling. "No Little Drummer Boy on the playlist. I discovered 16th Century English and French Christmas madrigals a few years back. Could you add them?"

Alexander Aaron has posed:
    "Yes, we must support Themyscira." Alexander comments.
    But now he's got the train tracks down around the tree. He puts the trains on the tracks, connecting the caboose, then the cargo cars, then the coal car, and finally the engine. Once he has them squared away he flips the switch and now there is an active train chugga-chugging around the Christmas tree.
    "Hmm, doesn't smoke, was hoping it'd smoke." But he gains his feet and calls over. "We can have music so long as it's subdued, quiet. Like... smoov jazz Christmas music."
    Then he looks thoughtful as he adds, "Or something with ambience, like a coffee shop Christmas thing."

Monica Chang has posed:
Monica sends off the order she already has but she has the wishlist started for stocking stuffers for now. Then the phone is tucked back into her front pocket as she looks between them.

"I can add some of both." And with that, she's back at her computer. Pulling over a stool and typing away for a moment. Then the speakers in the room begin to share their lovely musical ambiance. It'll be a mix. Traditional songs with some of Jessica's choice and a bit of instrumental smooth jazz versions as well.

The complaint on the train is heard and Monica then moves over there, hunkering down in a squatting position to watch the choo-choo choo-chooing around the tracks. "I thought it smoked?" And she's reaching for the box only to find that it does not.

Then come the fateful words.

"I can fix that."

Jessica Drew has posed:
Several trips later the ceiling is alive with glittering stars that turn in errant drafts of air. Jessica has descended and stationed herself at a nearby desk to put her boots back on. "I, uh, can help with the stockings if need be." She catches Alexander's eye when Monica proposes to fix the smokeless train.

"Are you planning a party, too? Canapes, food, drinks?"

Alexander Aaron has posed:
    "I don't think it's a good idea to set fire to the train, Chang." Alex says in a cautionary tone, reclaiming the train again and putting it back on its tracks. Then he hops up and gets to his feet fully. He turns and grabs a second train set box and starts to walk over to the small village on the table and gets ready to assemble that bit for now.
    He works on the train and says over his shoulder, "I have heard no plans for a party. Though could be fun."

Monica Chang has posed:
"Your help with the stockings would be great," Monica admits as she glares at Alexander for taking the train away from her. "I wasn't going to set it on fire." Then she pauses, tilting her head slightly to the side. "Okay, fun image. But I wasn't going to do it! However, I am able to build a robot. I /think/ I could set it up so the train smokes properly."

But then the other suggestion is made by the pair and the brightest smile appears on Monica's face.

"A party!"

That level of enthusiam should not be displayed at one in the morning. Yet it is there as they mention yet another oversight on Monica's part.

"We have got to do that! Here and...." she lowered her voice. "For the place that shall not be named."

Then quickly reaches for a control for her formerly-Hydra drone. And it takes to the air. Then suddenly it begins dropping 'snope'. Which is in essence a soap like substance that resembles snow as it is falling but doesn't leave residue as it is dissipated in the air and recirculated without any issues for the objects below.

"Merry Christmas!"