"For the last time, this is not going to be an excuse for a brawl!" sotto voce "Or at least I hope not."
"Sixdammit. Tha's no fun."
"Besides, you're drunk already."
"I'm no'- not drunk!"
A sigh. "Yes. Yes, you are."
"'m not."
"Then would you care to explain the bottle of gin in your coat pocket?"
"'s for emergencies."

Archer rolled his eye and pushed open the door, blinking somewhat at the decorations. Back home, solstice celebrations were...well, somewhat more low-key. Ah well, when in Rome... (Although he had to admit to not knowing exactly where Rome was)

Sabbat pushed past him, heading for the table of Bleep products. Why he was doing this wasn't entirely clear, as he'd far rather drink something he knew the provenance of than trust something from an unknown source, but he'd probably decided that if there was going to be a brawl, that was where it would start.

Archer watched him go, then rolled his eye again (this was beginning to give him a headache) and started to make his way across the room to the snacks, careful not to bump into anyone. If there was going to be a brawl, he wasn't going to be the one to start it.

Since WikiMaster was sick of Retconitis (apparently, his author found out he was 'over the top' and tried to delete him), the Keeper of Fanfics, a DIY Chaos Daemon created as an emissary to the PPC was sent to the Christmas party in his stead. Savoring the food and drink laid out before him, he was having a very good time until he saw the Space Marine.

Not ready for a fight, he spread printed copies of Legendary Goodfic in a circle around himself, and begean negotiations with the Ironic Overpower to keep himself from being noticed.

Cautiously, Tirsaer peered into the room and, once he was positive that nothing was on fire (yet), entered. His partner, Ryni, followed, glaring at everyone and everything in sight.

The two made their way to the food-covered table, where Tirsaer grabbed a handful of cookies to munch on. "Hey, these're pretty good," he observed around a mouthful of crumbs.

Ryni, on the other hand, declined to touch any of the food. "Truly, Tirsaer, one should be wary of accepting nourishment from such an unreliable and uncertain source."

"Meh, it's Christmas. Try losing the paranoia, will ya?"

Zodfang, having decided to make his entrance with a mighty kick to the door, subsequently made his entrance as if he were a conquering king, confidently looking around as he strolled in, a wild grin baring his teeth.

"OI, 'OOMIES! DIS A PARTY OR WOT?!" he shouted, before immediately setting course for the food and drink tables.

Deciding to be a bit less conspicuous (and obnoxious) than his partner, Marcus simply walked into the room, closing the door behind him. A couple minutes after they had gotten back from that absurd double-mission and sent the report, the console had beeped again. Zodfang had been about to smash the damn thing, until they'd seen that it wasn't a mission. Instead, it was an invitation from Ansela Jonla, to a Christmas party. Agent Ansela had joined sometime during Marcus' suspension, but they'd both heard of her at least somewhat. It helped that she had a reputation, especially for supposedly keeping a second Armoury behind closed doors. Marcus hadn't been too keen on going, mostly due to the mission putting him in a sour mood. However, while Zodfang had no concept of Christmas, he did have a concept of wild partying, and practically dragged Marcus out of the RC. Being even less keen on having his arms ripped off than going to the party, he elected to simply go along with the eerily-jovial Ork.

Besides, the veteran agent thought. It's Christmas, I might as well have some fun.

That was what found him walking after his partner in the middle of a throng of Agents, all partying and enjoying themselves. There were some familiar faces, but a lot of them were people he didn't recognise. So many had died, retired, or been recruited in his year of absence that it wasn't surprising that he didn't know too many people he really noticed, but still somewhat saddening. Not that he'd let that ruin his mood.

"Yo, Marcus!"

The voice caught his attention, causing him to look to his left where a peculiar-looking Agent stood. He was a young man with long black hair, wearing wire framed glasses on his boyish face. There was a bit of black to his uniform, but most of it (including the hood) was red and yellow. Marcus couldn't help the small smile that appeared on his face; this was an Agent he did remember, and one that'd always amused him at that.

"Hello, agent Kalmer."

"Didn't think you were the type to go f'r these, man!" Kalmer laughed, clearly a bit tipsy. He'd always been strangely cheerful for someone who worked in the DAVD.

"Well, I am, sometimes. Why not? Figured, might as well have some fun if they chose Christmas to put me back in," Marcus replied, shrugging a little. "Anyway, I'll just go mingle, might get a drink. See you later, Kalmer, we oughta catch up with each other sometime, anyway."

"No w...worr...what'stheword? Worr...worries! Thassit! No worries, Marcus, sees ya!"

Stifling a laugh, Marcus left the drunk Agent to his own devices, seeing who he could run into. Besides, he had to keep Zodfang from hurting somebody.

Deryn paused from trying to surreptitiously sneak some of the Bleep-products into her bag to stare aghast at the boombox. "What- who thinks a boombox is appropriate for music around Christmas?" she spluttered. "What happened to everyone, you know, getting together and singing- off-key, sometimes, I'll grant, but- singing carols?"

"What about CDs?" Leas asked, reaching into his bag.

Deryn waved a hand. "Background music for when the conversation falters, and if you sing along, mostly you're going to be loud-" She stopped when Leas pushed a board and attachable beard into her hands. "Um?"

Leas smiled. "The human touch, right?" he said, pulling out a hat for himself.

Deryn put the board down for a moment to put the beard on, the picked the board up again and gave it an experimental wobble. "I'm not sure about this…"

"I don't think it uses the wobble board much, so you should be fine there," Leas said. "Now, note… hmm…" Deryn joined him after a moment, and they hummed together for a little while. "All right, got it?"

"Got it," Deryn said, giving the board another wobble. She took a deep breath. She could do this.

"And a one, a two, a one two three and-"

"Early on one Christmas morn a joey kangaroo
Was far from home and lost in a great big zoo
'Mummy… where's my mummy? They've taken her away.'"

"'We'll help you find you mummy, son. Hop up on the sleigh'," Leas sang for the deeper part, then lightened up a little as Deryn joined him for the rest of the narration.

"Up beside the bag of toys little joey hopped,
But they hadn't gone far when Santa stopped
Unharnessed all the reindeer and Joey wondered why
Then he heard a far off booming in the sky."

The two stopped to glance at the boombox, then shrugged at each other and went on, Deryn trying out the wobble board.

"Six white boomers, snow white boomers!
Racing Santa Claus through the blazing sun!
Six white boomers, snow white boomers!
On his Australian run!"

...a youngish-looking man with slightly pointed ears and long dark hair.

"Heya!" Cassie yelled, bouncing over to Ansela cheerfully and producing a very large amount of chocolate. "Merry Christmas! Isn't this great? How are you?" Without waiting for a reply she dashed off to greet everyone else.

Nat strolled over with the stranger. "Sorry about her, she's had about half that supply of chocolate already. This is Kelvin, by the way." The Elf nodded, smiling uncertainly. "He's our new partner. Cassie's been trying to explain to him about Chritmas, but I think she just got him more confused."

Kelvin nodded. "Hopefully someone will be able to explain it to me before the end of the day." He smiled again, looking around. "So, now what?"

"We're last on the list to have Christmas," explained Scientist Lori as she strode in on her husband (and lab partner) Bill's arm. "It's three hours away."
"But we don't give a frak about that!" added Agent Eledhwen cheerfully. So much for elven poise.
Lori rolled her eyes. "Next time, I am never going to let those two anywhere near Battlestar Galatica..." she muttered.

"Heard there was a party goin' on," Zach remarked, snagging some food.

"'Course, it's not even Christmas yet, but that doesn't mean we can't party," Sara grinned, setting a basket of small wrapped parcels under the tree. "Help y'selves."

Tawaki, Tadkeeta, Dustin, Five of Six, and K-9 emerged. K-9 was trying to sing "O Holy Night" in the original French, with about as much success as a certain canonical K-9 had had with "We Wish You a Merry Christmas".
"Merry Christmas," said Tadkeeta.
"Mind the wings," Five reminded Dustin.

"MER-RY CHRIST-MAS" said Agent Omicron, entering the room.
"Wait," said Agent Tasha. "Don't Daleks only say that in that really bad Christmas song?"

The Agent and the Disentangler came in, with a boombox blaring "Song for Ten".

Snatching up a bar of bleepolate, she munched as she looked around, snickering at the sight of the tree angel and waved to Ansela as a few other agents began to trickle in. "Your idea, I take it?"