(Love the post, Totle...er, Risto )

If Dan hadn’t been so worried about his younger child’s safety, the scene would have struck him as rather hilarious. Reindeer running amok in and out of the Mansion, a large St. Bernard dog sliding around inside – not to mention Grace calling out, “Doggie!” and dashing inside, the cookies forgotten.

It was all he could do to close the door to keep the remaining animals inside, but only after a quick “Hi!” to Rya as she ran out after the others.

Angie stared around in disbelief, not used to seeing animals in buildings, especially places that served food. But life with her family had prepared her for the unexpected, so she headed for a nearby chair so she could sit and tend to Emma.

Grace was obsessed with the large dog, and Angie hoped the pair would get along. A large dog like Mel was a little different than their little corgi. She kept one eye on that pair while unwrapping the blanket and coverings from Emma’s carrier. The baby smiled and gurgled up at her, content for the moment.

Dan knew nothing about reindeer wrangling – he’d never even seen one before tonight – so he decided to do the next best thing and wrangle his own kids instead. At least for a while, that would be easy since only one of them was very mobile. A quick glance showed Emma with her mother and Grace reaching for the St. Bernard. He reasoned that a dangerous animal would not be allowed inside, but before going to her he glanced out the window at the streets outside. There was a lot to see – Rya and others trying to catch the reindeer, and now a young man was apparently trying to catch their attention by introducing himself.

He was torn between caring for his children and his curiosity regarding the newcomer and everything else going on outside. Ah well, perhaps the action would come inside and he could have his cake and eat it too.

Speaking of treats, he retrieved the cookies from where Grace had dropped them and decided that since the refreshment table was near Grace, he could check in on her and snag a piece of chocolate cake at the same time.

However, Dan's inability to retrieve every last crumb of the cookies allowed an opportunity for the rarely-seen blue lobster to come out of hiding and make an appearance by eating the remaining crumbs before crawling off to his next destination, wherever that may be.

Somehow, out of everything she'd seen in the past five minutes, this stranger was the weirdest thing she'd seen yet. She was quite sure he was speaking her language, but the order and phrasing was so unfamiliar to her that she had to stare at him for a good ten seconds in order to parse it all out. His name was Aristotle, she got that much, and she should call him.... Oh, go with the last one he said, Risto. "Um... nice to meet you there, Risto. Welcome to Ditto Town, just in time for our annual holiday party.... GOTCHA!"

One of the reindeer had come dangerously close to her, and she was able to snatch it up along with the other she already had in hand. She hadn't really thought through holding two of these things at once, though, and now she had two squirming reindeer to take care of. The armed stranger had started up a proper (if improvised) corral, so she quickly deposited both of them in there. Thankfully, the ones that were already caught seemed to have calmed down a bit - maybe they were just out of energy? Or maybe they weren't completely wild after all, and they were used to being penned up?

"I... don't mean to impose on a visitor, but would you mind helping us get the last of these critters rounded up? We need to take care of these ones so we can get started on the ones invading the Mansion...."

Ainsley quickly shook Rya's hand in return. "Ainsley, pleased to meet you. Thanks for the help." She replied, forcing herself to be cordial. Mercifully, the scatter brained woman was quickly distracted by a man who could only be described as a tourist. This, of all things forced her to crack a smile. It was hard to look out of place in Ditto Town, but this fellow seemed to have mastered the art. Seeing that Rya fairly well had her two reindeer under control, Ainsley staked down her netting, ensuring that her catch wouldnt escape and moved on to the next task at hand, rounding up all those who had made it into the mansion.

---

Jeff shook his head, "grew up on a strip mine in the belt, you haven't experienced true cold until the Gamorian Furnance goes kaput and you are forced to burn phosphate while the nearest repair man is five systems away."

Kaelin wove her way between the adults and around the baby carriage, using her better judgment and avoiding vaulting over both mother and child, she instead glanced off the wall behind Angie before vaulting over the drinks table after her quarry. She misjudged, however, and instead of landing steadily on her feet and continuing her run, she tripped over a very large St. Bernard and landed firmly on her bottom.

"Oops, I'm sorry!" she exclaimed. "I didn't hurt you, did I?"

~~

Maeve wrinkled her nose at Jeff's description.

"Alright, I'll give you that one. Now, I'm assuming you didn't let these little floofers loose on purpose, but...any idea where they came from and/or where we can put them once we catch them?"

“Haha! Reindeer in a mansion!” Risto laughed. “That’s funny.”

Rya looked uncomfortable. Risto knew he had misspoken.

“...funny that I’d never heard of that Ditto Town tradition before. They didn’t mention it in the brochure. I’m from out of town, you see, and only know what little I’ve read. Do you always keep reindeer indoor as pets? Not that that’s bad. -I’m just more used to something smaller like a parakeet or a gerbil. Or maybe you have barns connected to your houses here, like in the olden days. I’m sure that would save on heating costs. It would also be way more convenient when it’s time to milk them. The reindeer, that is, not the gerbil. Or the parakeet.

...That was stupid. Why did I say parakeet? You can’t milk a parakeet. Although, you can’t milk an almond either and yet some how they make that work.

Wait, did you ask me a question?”

Rya repeated herself.

“Oh, yes! I would love to be a part of the annual reindeer catching festival! This will be more fun than the time I polkaed at the Oktoberfest. At any rate my clothes are way more comfortable than the lederhosen. Of course there was also that one time I tried to fire dance at the luau. -Grass and fire don’t mix, let me tell you. I lost my favorite hat. Am I talking too much? I don’t want to be disrespectful if this is supposed to be a solemn event. We can catch the reindeer in silence.”

Just then, a comet streaked across the sky, and Aris couldn’t help thinking that for some other couple, a starry sky like this could be all that’s required for Cupid’s arrow to strike true. A crash from inside the mansion was enough to bring him out of his ponderings and back to the task at hand. Maybe if he showed himself useful, he’d be invited to this dinner party (not to be confused with Donner Party). Well, if all that there was to do was to blitz the house and catch a few reindeer calves, it was time to get to blitzin’!

“Don’t you worry none, Miss. I’ll help ya wrangle these calves," Stot said, using his best John Wayne impression (which actually turned out sounding more like Jimmy Cagney) and together they set about gathering up the caribou.

'"Tradition"? "Annual"?!' Rya wasn't entirely sure which one of them was more confused, but she wasn't going to turn down help just now. Thankfully, it seemed like most of them were already rounded up - at least, the ones outside. She didn't even want to think about inside the Mansion. Then again, there were more people there....

After a couple minutes of wrangling, it seemed they finally had the escapees under control and corralled. Rya took a couple of heaving breaths before turning back to the stranger. "Man. Thanks for the help, though... I should probably clarify, that... wasn't a tradition or anything. That was just a disaster. But hey, the real party's inside the Mansion." She frowned as she realized aloud, "That is... assuming the reindeer in there have been caught, and haven't escaped any farther...."

She shook her head. The last thing she wanted to do was scare him off. "You know, I'm not sure I gave you my name. It's Rya. I'd promise that Ditto Town isn't usually as weird as this, but.... Well, I will say that stampeding reindeer are a new one by me."

"The badge doesnt know diddly jack," announced Ainsley, having overheard the conversation between the cop and elemental.

Jeff whipped around upon hearing that all too familiar, yet wholly unwelcome voice. "Ainsley-Marie Keller, its been a while."

"You could say that, Officer."

"I assume you are to blame for these little critters and their rampage?"

"Tracking them, actually. Nice party you got here."

"Appreciate that, care for some hot chocolate?"

"No thanks," Ainsley glanced at Maeve, "Who's your friend?"

"Maeve," she said. Ainsley proffered a hand, but Maeve waved.

"Oh, sorry, I don't shake. What's the deal with the reindeer?"

"Morte D’Eve!” Totle shouted upon entering the mansion. “What a lovely place this is. Who lives here? My name’s Aristotle by the way. I’m a stranger in town. Ryan and I caught your reindeer outside. -There looks to be quite an infestation in here. That’s why I have a cat.”

As chaotic as the party was at this point, the interruption of the stranger was so bizarre that most in the room stopped to take notice.

“I’m a tourist.”

"Present!" Delia shouted, emerging from the kitchen with a tray of eggnog. "Somebody called for Death?"

She stopped, suddenly aware of the disaster zone she had stepped into. After surveying the sights, Delia slowly walked backward into the kitchen. She reappeared a moment later, sans eggnog.

"Hi, Delia Death," she said, smiling brightly and shaking hands with Aris. "Welcome to Ditto Town. I...hope the reindeer haven't been too destructive to you, your person, or your belongs."

She glanced sideways at Jeff.

"What are they doing here?" she hissed at him. "I only left you alone for ten minutes!"

Mel was startled when someone tried to vault over the table and her, and even though she tried her best to be helpful and not move so that the vaulter's calculations would remain the same... she still ended up being an obstacle.

She whined, anxious about Kaelin's health--it was a hard slide across the floor as she knew from doing the same thing only minutes earlier--which apparently gave Kaelin the wrong impression.

"I'm fine," Mel hurried to reassure Kaelin. "I barely felt anything at all--the question is, are you all right? I'm Mel, and this is..." Mel twisted, looking for the child who had been right next to her only moments before. Hopefully she'd only crawled under the dessert table, though hadn't there been a blue something-or-other down there too? "Well," she barked. "That's odd. I could have sworn there was a Grace Baxter here. At any rate, it's nice to make your acquaintance."

"Yeah, the reindeer belong to Santa, the one from Earth 1275, if I remember correctly-" started Ainsley, before she was cut of by the screeching emanating from the mouth of Delia Death.

"I swear on my life Delia, these boogers just popped out of nowhere!" Jeff shot back in mock seriousness, he couldn't help but smile at all the madness.

"As I was saying, the mama reindeer are all on strike until I return their babies. Which is a big problem for ole saint Nicholas, if you know what I mean. So I've got a pretty hard deadline here."

"Oh! I'm fine, I get knocks all the time," Kaelin responded cheerfully. "First time you try anything new, you're gonna fall down a few dozen times. Best thing to do is get back up! ...and maybe wear some pads."

She paused for a moment, thinking.

"I'm sorry, I keep forgetting not to be rude. I'm Kaelin! And that's," --here she pointed-- "my sister, Maeve. She's my guardian right now, ever since the guy I was apprenticing with disappeared."

~~

"So, since they're flying, I'm guessing teaming them together so they can't run in opposite directions would be the best idea?" Maeve asked. "What's Santa usually do for that?"

Mel nodded. Padding was essential--it also made things more comfortable while hibernating. Sleeping on bare ground was not a good ingredient for a nap. "I used to be pretty good at finding folks who disappeared in the snow. Had a business set up around it too. But the invention of GPS gave me a whole lot of vacation time."