Star Trek: Starbase 777 - gingerbread-grove

Upon reaching the town centre (as Santa had described it was easily identifiable by the town hall, some picturesque little old-timey designed shops, and a frozen water fountain which some birds were ice skating inside of), street signs directed them to Gingerbread Grove. It was a short street with two houses on either side, but it was evident that more were set to be built due to the plots of land at either end. The first house looked to be an average size with two floors. Two snowmen had been made in the garden outside. They both had little icicles hanging from their carrot noses. The lights inside were all turned off, so hopefully everyone was asleep.

Konstantin reached the town centre and immediately as he did he spotted the two birds ice skating, that was an odd sight, this felt like some sort of fantasy holonovel about Christmas. He couldn't help but become mesmerized by the birds ice skating. "You all seeing this to? Like wow, wow, I do not know what to say but that is amazing! Magic!" He said with fascination and excitement. Oh the wonders of Christmas, he thought as he continued looking at the birds. Also he was very tempted to make snowmen to and snow angels, if they had the time that is, they probably did, right? He then looked at the houses tilting his head slightly wondering how they'd get in undetected to drop off the presents. "So any thoughts on how to drop off the presents unnoticed? Do it like Santa maybe?"

Twas a night saving Christmas. Yes we're doing this again. As the crew of team two make a move to Gingerbread Grove. Maya chuckled at the sight of the birds in their skates before she put the question of 'Magic' here aside and went back on to focus on the task they now had as of late. "Good question Konstantin, how on earth do we get in?" She asked before she glanced over to the snowmen, maybe break in and frame them. Now that's a fun plan. "Well we could always try to be Santa and slide down a chimney, knowing him, we could probably fit through it easily with a shimmy. Though if that doesn't work I have another plan of attack... well basically, it boils down to coming in from the back." (edited)

This house was two storeys high and had both a front and back garden. There was a little gate along a path to the far right of the front garden: presumably, it connected to the back garden if they wanted to give, ahem... 'Coming in from the back' a try.

Konstantin looked around as he finally stopped being so mesmerized by the birds ice skating around the fountain, he had watched them for a while and that was enough. He then spotted a path leading to the garden. "That rhymed! Well there seems to be a path to the garden that could lead to a backdoor we could go through. I'll go see." Konstantin chuckled a little at Maya's words that seemed to rhyme, he walked over onto the path to get a better look, as he wasn't so sure about going through the chimney to drop off the presents, that was probably Santa was the best at doing.

"Where are these presents usually meant to be put?" Mirrim asked as she pulled out two green scarfs out of her ~~inventory~~ bag, that she placed around the snowmen's necks. She was highly confused by what was going on seeing as she had been under the impression that human Christmas traditions were not actually based on real occurrences

"Huzzuh! A gate! C'mon let's go before it's too late!" Maya said with a quite cheer as she headed to the path with her fellow Starfleet mates, Santa's jolly toy sack slung from her shoulder to her back. "Wait hold on, be careful. I think that this family might have pets. If they wake, they can be a handful, I bet." Maya cautioned as Konstantin went to make his investigation before she turned over to answer Mirrim. "I like to think there would at least be some tree.... and also some milk and cookies since it's Santa the kids want to appease... I feel kind of famished, as you can see. Though if we be careful and also find some stockings, well that's a good sign that those as well need some generous yuletide stuffing."

"Oh right, I'll proceed with extra caution, don't want to disturb any potential pets and attract the family's attention." Konstantin said carefully treading on the snow to see if there were indeed any pets the family had, he tried to get a look to see if there was a backdoor they could get into. This felt a bit wrong, sneaking into other people's houses but they had to deliver the presents as Santa wanted but it still felt a bit wrong.

There was a back door, and no signs of pets... Yet. The snow muffled everyone's footsteps, but who knew what it would be like when they got inside.

"Well the outside is clear, but that doesn't mean there isn't anything inside that would jump at us when we draw in near. Let's just hope that on this night before... Christmas??? that throughout this house, there be not a creature stirring, not even a mouse." Maya said as she approached and checked if they faced locked doors. If ever, she would pick from her tools set of picks for giving locks a click, as an engineer it would be an easy fools chore.

It would appear that the people on this colony (or maybe just this particular village) trusted in the Federation's no-crimes policy... Or maybe they just wanted ot make it easier for santa to get in. Either way, the back door was unlocked.

"...huh... Damn that was easy. Well gang, c'mon, let's head in while we still have the chance to be all sneaky." Maya said as she led the way. Despite not really believing that old man's actually Santa, she still wanted to help save Christmas day. "Lets find a tree so we can plant down these gifts. Maybe we can head up stairs to check if there are stocking hung on the doors of these kids?" Well either way she was still kind of hungry, and although this was verbally omitted, she still kept eyes peeled for a nice platter of milk and cookies.

Konstantin nodded, he quietly entered the house, quiet as he could be at least. He prayed the family that was staying here wouldn't here them entering. Well basically breaking and entering, it still felt a bit wrong to be entering peoples houses in the middle of night like this but it was what Santa did all night, he sighed to himself. "Soo let's see where the tree is at, and someone should probably eat the cookies and milk.. I sort of just ate before I went here so I'm stuffed."

"I call dibs. Now with that settled. lets find a place for these presents in this crib." Maya said as she looked around for those mystical festive cookies, and a glass of milk for them to go in for a dip.

The ground floor of the property was incredibly quiet. Nothing was stirring at all (not even a mouse). The back door led into the kitchen, and it smelled like there had been some Christmas cooking done in advance -- i.e., it already smelled amazing. Through the hallway was the living room, and situated right in the middle was a giant Christmas tree. In an interesting engineering design, a hole had been cut into the living room ceiling. Above it was part of the second floor's landing. It looked like it had been done specifically so the Christmas tree could go up and up until it hit the very roof.

Twelve, naturally suspicious in some ways of many things and having decided that precautions should be taken when one 'helped out' a fictitious entity like this. Helped them out and did so through entering someone else's property without authorisation, which seemed to them to violate some Federation laws, switched her tricorder to continuous scan and liked it in with her audio implants. Now, if a non-Starfleet signature arrived started to move about, the borg would hear a audio cue warning. Something which..satisfied her need for caution somewhat. As they followed the others into the property, Twelve looked around. Did so and then briefly stared at the tree once she spotted it. Spotted the unusual design decision that had been alighted upon. "Curious design decision for a seasonal item." The xB observed softly.

"It is... thought I have seen cutouts like this before. Perhaps they exchange it for something else during the year?" Mirrim was trying to stay as quiet as possible. Why exactly did they have to go into the house? Wouldn't it be much more reasonable to simply leave the presents on the doorstep, perhaps hide them around the garden?

There was no sound of movement yet, but that could change. The only ambient noise was coming from a fireplace, although it looked like it didn't have a real fire and was just holographic. Above it two children's stockings with the names Taejhik and Ghuyaerrg were hanging from the mantlepiece. Nearby, a plate of cookies and a glass of milk had been left on the coffee table - along with some carrots for the reindeer.

Konstantin noticed the smell, he was tempted to follow it because it smelled so amazing but he shook his head slightly moving on to the mission at hand. He saw the Christmas tree and stood wide eyed, that was one hell of a big Christmas tree nothing he had ever had as a child could compare to this. He then looked over to the fireplace, holographic fire, nice but not the same as the real deal well you wouldn't want to burn Santa and it would be irresponsible going to sleep with a real one on. "Look! Stockings.. Do we have any small presents for a.. Taejhik and Ghuyaerrg?" He asked as quiet as he could but enough for the group to hear.

As soon as the names were read out loud there was a faint buzzing from the sack of gifts. It appeared that something was vibrating within.

Twelve snapped out their tricorder, turned and proceeded to scan the sack of gifts. "We suspect that the gifts for the persons indicated have reacted through voice recognition to your query." The xB responded then simply before they then added. "This..vibration may assist with retrieval of the items in question."

"Well Commander, as much as I would love to investigate peculiar sight even this further, I think we can set aside scans with tricorders for later. For in a quest like this, time might be our biggest hater." So with no hesitation she reached into the large bag that was Saint Nick's holly jolly holiday gift sack. And with her hand blindly shuffling around the innards of this bag entrusted to them by Santa, she quietly muttered the kid's names as if it were her mantra. "For Taejhik and Ghuyaerrg, whom Santa probably designated as 'nice'... Good Sack, what do you think would be the gifts they deserve for this Christmas night?"

The sack buzzed again, and then it rattled - all of a sudden, a multitude of presents shot out. Perfectly wrapped presents flew into the stockings and under the tree. Golden sparkles shimmered behind them. Along with gifts for the children, there seemed to be ones for the parents too, even though they hadn't put stockings out.

"Well that's a job well done!" He said excitedly as he watched the presents fly into the stockings and in under the tree, what a magical night it was truly going to be one of the best stories he had in his arsenal which he would definitely tell his child at some point, whenever they came to the station that is. "So we should get out of here now, right? Or have we forgotten something?" He asked forgetting if there was anything else they had to do due to the excitement.

There was milk and cookies to consume if that counted as 'forgetting something', but they didn't have to be eaten. Surely people would understand that after a night of eating cookies all around the planet, Santa would get bored of them.

"According to data inloaded about the fictional entity designated 'Santa Claus'." Twelve started before she gestured to where the cookies and milk were. "The indicated repast left for Santa Claus is usually indulged in by said fictional entity prior to departure." The xB observed simply. "We suggest that consumption of the repast should be undertaken prior to departure, to preserve the fiction for the Juvenile individual residents in this property."

They could have the milk and cookies if they wanted to, but it was likely that most children understood that after going around the whole planet eating cookies all night, Santa might get bored of them. Twas up to the away team.

Twelve proceeded to grab several cookies, careful to not create too much noise. She then downed the milk. One of the cookies were consumed. The El-Aurian then started toward the exit. If nobody else was going to eat some, the Liberated Borg would. This fiction needed to be preserved, in their opinion. For the Juvenile residents of the household.

Cookies consumed, the team were free to head out.

Twelve, being who they were, departed without further comment. Brief pauses all that marked her movements as the Liberated borg offered people cookies. Individuals required sustenance. Also, given the odd actions of some when the individual who transmitted the distress call was located, perhaps the chocolate identified in one of the cookies that wasn't offered to vulcans of course would ah..help with any shock? That seemed like a good reason for it, they reckoned. Not that anything about this mission happened to make any sense. After all, why would some unidentified entity elect to utilize advanced technology while in the guise of a fictional human individual to deliver presents and make 'Reindeer' telepathic? That was a question they struggled with a bit. This wasn't something they commented about as they stepped outside, looked back for a moment and then elected to wait for the others somewhere better concealed from the homeowner. If they looked out of a window, that is. There she remained until, whenever others started on out, she started her own way off back to the woodland. Back to the unidentified entity, that masqueraded as a fictional character, who resided there currently. (edited)