Holiday Hell (open)

[Faye LaBeau]

The mall during the holiday season was saved for the insane and masochistic. Faye was slightly both, but she did not enjoy the absolute hell that she'd endured to get to the mall and then park. It took nearly an hour to do something that should have taken no more than 20 minutes and she was beyond frustrated and angry at this point. Once inside it was no better. The amount of people was enough to make her want to stab things, and she was full on stoic bitch face mode as she tore through the crowds trying to get to Macys to get at least some Christmas shopping done. Why she hadn't just stayed in and done it online was beyond her but here she was and she was going to get something damn it.

As she passed the beauty section she landed in the cologne... She usually got one for her dad as well as.. Dean... It was hard not to buy the cologne for Dean she had the past three Christmases... Maybe she should just get it... even though he wasn't going to get it... but she wanted to buy it anyway to spray... She loved how it smelt! It was a comforting scent... it reminded her of a much different time... It reminded her of... She put it down. She couldn't 

Perhaps something else.

[James Neilson]

Christmas always seemed to pass over James' consciousness until the last weeks before the holiday. With winter break quickly approaching, it meant that he actually needed to start doing some real shopping; whatever he got online would need to come in early enough for him to pick up before flying home, and then there was the battle of actually shopping at the mall.

It hardly helped that he still hadn't figured out what to get his mom. Each text asking for a hint had been met with I just want you home for Christmas, to which James had to bite his tongue to resist adding that she was paying for his plane ticket anyway, so it was hardly a gift. Bright eyes scanned the shop as he blindly entered, desperately searching for some neon sign pointing him at the perfect gift. In the meantime, he made his way towards the colognes, sniffing one at random. He had yet to find one he disliked, and this one was no different; the sharp scent clung in his nose as his lips twisted up into a smile.

"You buying one?" he asked the blonde nearest to him, setting down the bottle to look for another. "Not gonna lie, I've developed a bad habit of just smelling them for an hour without buying any..."

[Faye LaBeau]

Faye glanced at the younger man next to her who was observing what was in her hands. Maybe he worked there, she didn't see a name tag but you never knew with the seasonal employees.. they had nothing to loose after all they'd basically signed up for a quick trip down suicide lane only to be fired at the end.. that was until next Christmas.

Her eyes drifted back lazily to the bottle in her hand. "I haven't decided." She shrugged. "the scent is sentimental... but i'm not so sure if i want to keep those sentiments." She sighed. It was probably best if she didn't get it... it probably wasn't healthy.

She chuckled as he explained. "i hear that's a good way to kill braincells... these things are loaded with chemicals." morbid, insulting, pleasant as always the blonde was...

"Plus you need to cleanse your palette or they'll all blend together. This one i have is great.... it's a bit sexy, sophisticated, but doesn't smell disgusting or like someones dead father." She tossed him the bottle. "Is this for you or someone else?"

[James Neilson]

Dark eyes grazed across the collection of glass bottles as James nodded his agreement. He knew sentimental smells a bit too well. There were the pleasant ones, like the wafting scent of familiar cooking or something that reminded him a bit too much of home. Then there were the sharp scents that smelled a bit too much like lost people, which were good for a quick blast to the past and nothing more.

“I’d go for something new,” he answered, testing out another cologne on his arm and waving it around to smell the particles left in the air. Not sharp enough. He liked the heady scent of something spicier. “More fun to make better memories than let the old ones rot around you. Anyway, what am I going to use my brain cells for?” The teenager grinned. Freshman level classes were proving to be dull as hell, and all he could hope was that the next semester would bring more of a challenge.

Her description of the cologne was appealing, at the very least, and he quickly reached out to grab it as she tossed. “Mm, dead father smell – that’s always a turn-on.” His experimental sniff brought with it too many undertones from the last bottle, so he paused and breathed deeply to give himself a moment before trying it again. “Not sure who it’s for yet. Suppose it comes down to how long my new catch sticks around.” Not that they usually stuck or that he even kept guys around, but when he slept with a guy too close to a holiday, it only seemed appropriate.