Christmas Day 2020 Opening Skye's gift

[Kaze]

"Come on in, do you want some water?" Kaze asks as he leads the way, opening the door and stepping in first to invite Skye into the the upstairs unit.




Kaze's condo is a second floor walk up in a gated community called, 'Woodside' nearby the University of Sacramento. Inside the floor plan is spacious and airy with a private balcony and vaulted ceilings that make it feel open despite only being a 1 bedroom; 1 bathroom unit. The living room has two fairly nice oak chairs with a coffee table in between. In one corner is a large cage holding a number of pigeons, 8 to be precise if one takes the time to count them. The cage is about five feet square and about four feet high, with boxes mounted inside for roosting pairs. The cooing of the birds is omnipresent though not particularly loud. A 55 inch flat screen television has been mounted up on the wall above the cage with a glass media shelf under it with a sound bar of speakers and a cable box and what looks like a camera aimed down at the cage.

There are stacks of books on the floor and on the counter of the kitchen area, and the bedroom itself has a high king sized platform bed with a desk underneath with a computer on it, and a swivel chair. Beside the bed, there is a padded mat on the floor and a wooden post with dowels projecting out that might be recognized as a kung fu training equipment, or just look like something for cats or maybe the pigeons. There is a holder on the bedroom wall for various staves and a set of two sheathed swords, one with about a three foot blade and another with about a two foot blade, both of them slightly curved.

On the counter are two unopened bottles of whiskey of two different types, two each.

[Skye]

Looking around as she heads into Kaze's home at long last, dressed nicely and comfortable not thinking that she would really need to be on or to impress in any way.
"That would be nice thank you." Taking a look outside before closing the door behind her. "What's the point with all these fences and living so confined? I have never really grasped these gated communities thingies, I do get the safety aspect of it but it all seems so restricting."

Quickly being taken in by the pigeons, taking of her shoes before quickly hurrying over to watch them.
"Aww how adorable, do they all have names or are they just friends?" Looking for Kaze for a second but quickly falling back to watch the little birds. "What lovely little ones, have you had them long?"

Whistling as her eyes notices the bed.
"Wow you actually have a bed you need to climb into?" Smiling ever so softly. "I have never seen one in real life before, how does it feel to get so close to the ceiling?" Clearly a bit to excited.

[Kaze]

"It's kind of just what you do if you live in a city." Kaze explains, lightly when Skye asks about the gated community.

"Oh! Nope, no names." He answers about the birds. "They're feral; I caught them a couple months ago. They aren't protected in California."

"Oh that's new, but yeah, no big deal. It's really sturday, and has a lot of clearance, over and under, and I like having a king size, memory foam mattress instead of a futon."

He grabs Skye's present from the closet in his bedroom and comes back out to the living room.

"So, anything I should know before I just...open it?" He asks.

"Oh wait, since yours is something awesome and hand made, let me just give you mine first, so it won't be a let down." Kaze says, grinning.

He hands Skye an envelope with a Christmas card in it. Inside is another, smaller envelope with a gift card inside, and in the card he's written, "Merry Christmass 2020, Skye!"




The front of the gift card has Target on it, and the back has $100 written on it in black sharpie.

[Skye]

Shrugging.
"I am never gonna understand that, it just seems like another way to box yourself in when you are already boxed in. A way to separate yourself even further from others."

Looking to the birds with a happy outlook.
"Feral or not they are lovely little ones, it's a nice setup you have for them. Do you ever let them out to fly freely and what's your aim? Do you plan to keep them until spring or permanently?"

"It's still really interesting, nice way to save some space. I saw plenty of them in movies as a child but never really seen anyone whose had one for real. Then again my experience with being in other's homes is severely limited." Extremely even.

Her eyes getting big and worried as he brings out the gift.
"You haven't opened it yet? Ohh the poor bugger is gonna be furious, did you at least throw in a mouse to feed him every now and again?" Looking worried at him.

Blinking a bit and looking generally surprised.
"Wait what? A gift for me?" That was unexpected, softly holding the card as a tear runs down her cheek not really sure how to react. Softly hugging the card with a gentle smile before looking up to Kaze and speaking in a warm soft voice and glistening teary eyes. "Thank you, thank you, thank you."

Gift

A masterfully handcrafted and painted dolphin made and painted in the image of the picture he sent her before. Complete with a stand so that it can be placed as an ornament.

[Kaze]

"Oh sure, that's part of the point. They're mated pairs, so I can take one out and it will find its way back to here, to its mate." Kaze explains. "I've been learning a lot about them. I mean, it's a little weird, because if I let them go and then ate one when I was an eagle...that'd be kind of sad. But totally could happen, so that's partly why I don't name them."

He gets nervous when Skye makes it sound like her gift is alive, and he's been neglecting it! Then he laughs when he opens it, "You got me, Skye! I was getting nervous! Good one!" He says.

"Wow, this is pretty awesome! I am not surprised, though."

When she tears up over the card and gift card, Kaze is quietly respectful.

"Sure, of course!" Kaze says. "I mean, I didn't know if you were into gift exchanges, but since you told me you were going to give me a gift, no way I'm not going to get something for you!"

[Skye]

Frowning a bit, that was not really nice to hear.
"You must control yourself, to chase down your prey is one thing but to devour a prey with no chance is not nice. Animals are our friends and they have just as much right to live as us, eat or be eaten is fine but at least give them a fair chance. Self control is a virtue, still they are lovely ones and it does help that we do not need to worry about potential diseases from them." Always a nice little boon of being skilled in the life arcana.

Chuckling a bit.
"I told you from the start that it could bite or explode, gotta have a little fun where you can." Giving him a jesting wink.

Giving him a happy look.
"I had expected to make an eagle so you caught me really off guard with the dolphin still hopefully it will serve the same purpose, hope you will like it if not don't be afraid to discard it down the line. A gift should never be something that feels forced to keep." Even if they often were for many.

Taking some time just looking at and holding the card, softly touching it for a couple of minutes before taking up her phone and taking a picture of it and slowly typing up an Instagram post and ultimately carefully as if it were made of glass putting it into her purse.

Walking over to him and giving him a soft gentle hug.
"A gift should only be given if you want to give it never be forced, still thank you this means more than you can imagine." It were the first gift she had gotten in years so of course it did.

[Kaze]

Kaze smiles and listens as Skye lectures him about self control while shape changed into the form of a predator to not eat the nice pigeons.

When she is done preserving the gift card's image as a memory, Kaze smiles again. "Oh, it's not forced at all; just that some people don't really like getting Christmas gifts, and feel obligated if you ask, so I don't do it unless someone else does first." He says, seriously.

"So, do you have any other plans today? I don't, honestly. Just chilling and taking it easy with no classes or anything. Oh, hey. Could you do me a favor? Could you show me how to hold a bow, so it looks like I know what I'm doing? I mean, I can actually fake it and hit a target, but I want to just be able to show a proper form, so someone who knows archery wouldn't see right off that I don't really know what I'm doing. Huh, I didn't plan for this; maybe sometime at your place? I don't have targets or anything."

[Skye]

Waving her fingers towards the pigeon, signing a rune but not channeling any power into it surely he could care for them by himself she didn't need to do anything but still the impulse were there.

Slowly shaking her head.
"I really have a lot to learn about all this social stuff, in my eyes so if you wanna give someone a gift you do it. This year I felt like you and Phoenyx were those that I had gotten either close to or had some form of relationship with so I made one for each of you that's all there was to that." She wanted to hence she did it. "Would have made one for Jenna as well if things had worked out there, it didn't but that's another story. Think you would have a better shot if you wanted to give up your within the community idea."

"Nope, no real plans at all it's just another day for me. Holidays really doesn't matter much to me, without family, partner or kids so are they just a reminder that it's a day for such so it doesn't really matter." Drinking her water. "Heck I even missed the last two Christmases missing that they came and left." Easy to do when you were away.

Jumping up and looking him over for a moment, carefully studying him for a bit.
"Sure that would be easy but if you wanna get really serious about it so would we have to get you a proper bow. I don't mind you using either of mine for now and they would work but would not be optimal." Getting into drawing position and drawing back an imaginary arrow. "See you would have a different arm span and draw length than me so we would have different optimal ones." Easing up "In addition so whilst I prefer the Mongolian recurve style so is it not certain that is your best one. Naturally so given some time so could we make you one if you wish, it would take a week or two though in my estimation. Most parts are rather easy but some aspects are better to give it's proper time."

[Kaze]

Kaze listens, but doesn't comment on Skye giving Phoenyx a gift at all.

He smiles and says, "Great! Let's hang out!"

When she gets excited about his interest in archery, he grins and then says, "Yeah, well how about if I am not interested in fighting with it, for real, just want to be really authentic with my Robin Hood costume or something, you know? Like, can you show me how to hold it correctly? I really don't want you to go to a lot of trouble, hand making me a bow or anything."

[Skye]

"Sounds like a delight to me. So how do you like it here? Now that you finally seem to have gotten some order to things and not just boxes."

Calming down a bit.
"Well for that so do you only really need to learn proper basics and that shouldn't take more than 10-15 minutes to get done. Although if you really wanna fire a real bow so would I recommend either wearing safety equipment or if your shield arcana is active and enhances your hmm lets call it durability of the body so should you be fine." Tracing a finger on her lower arm. "A wrong move and that damn bowstring can cut flesh and trust me when I say that it is not a pleasant feeling." Having been young and stupid with a bow not optimal for herself once.