Unbiased Giving: A People's Non-Profit Charity Drive

The mixed bag of costumes continued, displaying a dangerous pot-luck between decent, suspect and downright scandalous. FurnaceMan and Luchadora weren't the only ones momentarily surprised by Garde's sudden desire to be outside in her new costume, if it could be called such. The other two unaffiliated hosts both stared at the door for several seconds after she fled, unsure what to say about it, Uprising even seeming to forget her dire wardrobe predicament for a few moments. She took another sip of her wine and leaned over to the flustered Shogunate girl.

"I'm just hoping someone sends me a different one soon, before out tech guy gets any ideas. If you end up in something 'just barely' safe, keep your eyes open..." It was more of a murmur than anything said aloud, and most likely a piece of advice offered because the ribbon-dressed one could see how uncertain Sky was becoming.

The build up of heat in the cosy Christmas space only ramped up further when Garde returned, understandably frosted, and FurnaceMan in his good-natured way cranked it up a bit more to help warm her back up. Those who hadn't been outside in the snow a few moments before would probably be feeling the temperature in the room going from 'cosy against the cold' to 'really rather warm'. Uprising, for her part, wasn't actually doing to badly, given her distinct lack of warm clothes. Even so, the blush on her cheeks hadn't abated and the girl was looking distinctly flushed all over her face and even partway down her neck as well.

Zenny was less fortunate, in her elegant gown comprised of a surprising number of precautionary layers, and without really thinking about it she paused to fan her face slightly with one hand. If anyone was specifically watching the depository of FurnaceMan's cookies, they might be momentarily startled to see a slender hand with too many fingers creep up into sight from behind and delve in. The hand looked to be costumed in fuzzy green fluff, all the way to the wrist. As the hand searched for a cookie, however, it became clear that it wasn't an ordinary arm. Rather, it seemed more to be a hand attached to a long, prehensile, almost tentacle-like limb. It found a cookie and retreated again, snaking back out of sight accompanied by the sound of a mirthful giggle.

One easy distraction from this small occurrence was Luchadora's next costume which drew a raised eyebrow from Uprising and the ghost of a smile from Zennocracy. The former had finished her second glass of wine and, after taking a small wander around the table and selecting another slice of fruit cake, returned to Skywriter with a grin. The Neo-shogun girl had done better with her costume, but the rebel didn't seem to resent her for it. For her own part she was still folding whatever free hand she had across her chest, to help make sure the protective ribbon there kept doing its job.

"Well, she's more covered than the last one... barely. Let's see what else we have in store tonight." the girl was still being cautious and careful of herself, but seemed to have moved on from being mortified, at least for now. She began to read another letter "Hmm... ResQ and their operator seem to be at odds for why they think the Police should dress up, but they both agree that they should! Thank you for your donation!" She waved the email once then took another bite of her fruit cake. Across the room, Zennocracy had moved quite far away from the increasing heat source and was inspecting one of the shelves of hard-back books casually, but turned back to open an email of her own to read.

"Ms Heart-Payne writes in with a charitable donation, and her well wishes for the underprivileged. HPP is known for their own charity work, so we thank you for writing in to us with a personal donation of your own, Dharma!" Zenny paused to flick her eyes to the document again, still smiling. "Her navi, Phero, also adds her own well wishes, and in the name of spontaneity has included designs for an outfit she says that her operator seemed to enjoy wearing greatly, just recently! I'm sure it will be my pleasure to model it all for you now. Let's take a look shall we?"

Zenny didn't seem to have actually taken the time to read the attached .GMO, apparently trusting in the decency of an outfit gifted from one refined business woman to another. This turned out to be a rather dangerous assumption to make. Another whirlwind of virtual zenny shrouded the woman while she switched over from Ante's classy gown, into:



When the visual effect cleared, Zenny looked down at herself and visibly flinched, baring her teeth. This was not her usual grin, but more of a held-back snarl. Despite the fact that the woman had shown good aptitude for dealing with over-short skirts and the like, this outfit really didn't give much hope for maintaining any kind of class or decency. There were a few moments while Zennocracy closed her eyes and calmed herself, then looked up again.

"Well, Miss Phero, I'm not sure how a cowboy themed swimsuit counts as Christmas, and I'm equally unsure that Ms Heart-Payne would have enjoyed wearing something like this in any situation that you should be sharing with the general public, but Merry Christmas to you both anyway, and thank you for the donation." Rationalising the undergarments simply as a swimsuit, with some extra clothes over the top, seemed to be how Zenny was dealing with the outfit in her mind. She glanced down again at the monogrammed badge, perhaps pondering the letters. "Well, I did say I would be everyone's Secret Santa tonight, didn't I?"

For her part, Uprising had forgotten her own plight temporarily in the face of this change, and had stopped covering herself to put a hand to her mouth instead. She was staring quite openly, and it sounded like she was stifling a giggle. The moment of distraction gave opening for something else, however: another of those many-fingered fuzzy green hands snaked out from under the food table, silent as it rose up behind the girl, until it grabbed mischievously at the back tie point and pulled hard, undoing the knot. It fled immediately, pulled back out of sight, though the fingers held onto the end of the ribbon it had pulled. Uprising gasped as the tug turned her around, but didn't manage to get her free hand to the right ribbon in time to prevent the strip being pulled from her body.

"Cryptic you—" The others heard a series of particularly forceful curses and expletives come from the diminutive woman, but thankfully those watching at home got only a soft censoring tone. She had dropped her win glass, thankfully empty now, with both fists clenched as she shouted at the empty space where the had had been, so the bleep wasn't the only censorship that would be needed. Pity it was a live airing. After a moment she spun about again, wrapping both arms across her chest protectively. The good news for Uprising was that her hands and arms alone were perfectly capable of providing her modesty cover, perhaps more so than the ribbon had, just so long as she didn't have to use them for anything else. The string of insults ended abruptly as Uprising looked down at the ground instead, clutching herself tightly and grinding her teeth. Her flush was pure crimson at this point, reaching down her neck and across the top of her chest. Zennocracy cleared her throat.

"Seems we've got a naughty grinch playing tricks on us tonight, everyone. Be careful now." The explanation seemed to match the fuzzy green dress-up on the hands, but it was quite obvious that Uprising, at least, hadn't been in the loop on this entirely, let alone any of the other guest hosts. The smaller woman was quickly flicking through emails with the fingers on one hand, doing her best not to move it form her chest any more than she needed to.

"Must be another one in here somewhere... Ah-ha!" When she spoke, her voice moved a little bit faster than normal, and it seemed like she was, understandably, rushing to get through the email so that she could change costume into something that actually covered her, before certain parties tried to steal any more of what she was currently wearing. "Jocelyn and her navi Sleuth write to us this time. Jocely says that she enjoys playing Santa at her mall, and thinks that junior employees should always be happy to change their outfits at the request of their superiors. As of right now, I can't say I agree with that sentiment, Jocelyn. I hope you understand, but thank you for your donation! Her navi, sleuth, offers what she claims are fancy holiday knickers. Whatever they are, I'm sure they'll be more appropriate for live audiences than this, so, let's try it on!"

She had to lift one hand to make the transition flourish, apparently, and those watching for it would get a last, brief, peek at what she was struggling to cover on one side, before the outfit shifted and changed on her body.



When it settled, Uprising looked herself over cautiously. Under any other circumstance, the outfit might be classed as minimalist, but despite its immodest design, Uprising seemed to find it more suitable than what she had just changed out of. It may have been relief at having what felt like proper covering compared to the last, but the girl actually seemed to relax a little bit, despite showing off enough of herself to an unknown public number to normally make her cry out or hide. Maybe a part of that was the wine, too. As she modelled the reindeer lingerie, turning about once, she paused to pour herself a fresh glass of wine with a new glass, and even wiggled her tail a little for the viewers as she did.

"Asking ze NetPolice and ze NetMafia to put aside zeir rivalry is like asking wine to pair well with brussel sprouts! It does not happen," Garde scoffed, twirling her hand in a nonchalant way. "Holly understands zat as well! In fact, if I recall correctly, it is part of her job to have animosity towards an officer like myself and part of my job to arrest a criminal like herself! My very being here and not raising a fuss is almost a scandal itself!" It was hard to tell if she was joking, but with or without justification, she didn't appear to be afraid of Luchadora's threat. She looked over Luchadora's outfit for a moment longer before she ran outside. "Hm... you seem to have a lot of fans so far! But I haven't lost yet! In fact, my winning has only just begun!" she announced, raising one finger in the air dramatically before she hurried out.

"Did the sender really just give you underwear?" Skywriter asked, thinking that picking non-custom lingerie for the wearer was somehow more offensive than wrapping them in Christmas bows. She held her tongue from saying anything more, thinking it would send the wrong message to berate those sending in letters. She smiled to FurnaceMan, meaning to thank him for his sympathy, but she sort of found herself wishing she could ask him to reign in the heat a bit. Garde had burst back in and with her had come the need for a sauna-like level of temperature that made even her pantsless sweater feel like a bit too much. The smile vanished from her face and she gulped as Uprising gave her an ominous warning about the tech guy. "There's a guy here?" she whispered back, momentarily forgetting that FurnaceMan might count as one. Suddenly, the events of the night felt more suspect to her.

Properly warmed, Garde was just about to grab another cookie, when the sudden emergence of a hand startled her. "M-Monsieur! S'il vous plaît , monsieur , notez qu'il ya une main dans vos cookies!" she warned FurnaceMan in her impossible dialect, pointing in fear and suddenly losing her appetite for sweets. "O-o-oh! It's like in ze Christmas Carol! Jacob Marley!" she cried, seeming afraid of the ghost rather than the message he was usually associated with. "We're in that scary story!"

"I think you have the wrong Christmas story," Holly teased her, though she also went over to cradle the girl's back in a way that seemed overly familiar, yet strangely was not rejected by the police officer, despite her earlier oath of rivalry. She'd spied the hand from a distance away, mostly because she was watching Garde to ensure the bikini-clad girl didn't have a wardrobe malfunction, which seemed likely given that she'd just done a baseball slide after coming in from a strong blizzard. She hadn't, although Holly thought the officer really ought to be covering her chest just for decency's sake, since at certain angles... Well, best not to stare, and if she didn't, perhaps nobody else at home would either.

Skywriter hadn't seen the hand at all and remained pretty calm, hanging out with Uprising over at the snacks, which she was now partaking of without thinking. Zennocracy's next couple of messages seemed to imply that things were going to calm down now, with one innocuous message following another, but when it came time for Zenny to swap her outfit, they all got a surprise. "O-Oh no! It's a stripper outfit..." Skywriter murmured, covering her face again and remaining unaware that in some ways, the one Zenny had just lost was also a stripper's outfit. While everyone was still pondering what sort of color commentary to add to that revelation, another revelation occurred; the worst possible scenario had happened and Uprising had found herself going from 1/20th of an outfit to about 1/40th. Panicking, Skywriter began to fire up her hands. "I've got it! Smokescreen!" she announced, creating a blast of smoke that would hopefully hide Uprising's important parts from the viewing audience, though she was, indeed, just a little too slow. If only she had her squadron commander's speed... At any rate, once Uprising had replaced her costume, she seemed to be in good spirits again... Surprisingly so. "I'm not sure I would have rebounded that quickly," Skywriter thought to herself, smiling delicately as she watched her friend model the outfit. "It is kind of cute..."

"Now ze color of your nose matches 'zat of your face!" Garde joked, having gotten her hand back into the cookies and seemingly forgetting that another ghost/grinch might be waiting in there for her. "Wait, zere's no red nose? Tut tut! Ze costume is not complete!"

Holly shrugged, causing the flaps of her vest to move tantalizingly outward from the center for a moment, only to fall back into place with a gentle sway. "There are other reindeer besides Rudolph, you know, Garde? Now, speaking of variety, let's proceed to the next letter! I'll take this one," she chuckled, opening it and reading carefully. "HYDE- that's in all caps- writes that she's whipped up some quick costumes to go along with her donation; she's only disappointed that she didn't have less time to prepare. That said, there's quite a selection! They're broken down into factions, so why don't I model the NetMafia one for us?" she suggested, activating a new costume to replace her nice mouse gear...



... "These are..." ... "... This is..." ... She managed to keep her smile on, but that was it. From the moment the giant pajamas were on, Holly found herself wishing she was wearing anything else. "A bit toasty?" she finally commented. Sure enough, it actually felt like she'd be in danger inside the suit; even if FurnaceMan dropped the heat at this point, it would take the room too long to cool down and she might pass out. "O-Oh dear... A little help, Garde?"

"Me, help you? Ha!" Garde laughed. "I will, but only because I am so generous! You need me to-?"

"I need you to cut me out," Holly stressed in an urgent whisper, trying not to upset the viewing audience any more than they might already be. "Quickly."

Nodding, Garde removed her fencer's foil and grabbed a big lump of the fabric at the back of the snowman head. She began to saw through the fabric, experiencing some difficulty and tearing into it like a person clumsily opening an envelope. She discarded giant balls of fluff and down as they came out of the stitching, scattering them around the carpet in an awe-inspiring quantity. "I zink I've almost got it!" she announced proudly, reaching down into the suit to retrieve Holly.

"Woah there, not necessary-!" Holly announced, just as Garde pulled her up and out of the pajamas, such that she was sitting on all fours in a pool of stuffing. It was immediately apparent by the large amount of flesh tone that Holly was naked, her butt hidden only but Garde's positioning and the modesty of her upper body preserved only by the suit that was still clinging to it like a parasite. Bits of stuffing covered her body here and there, as well as clinging to her hair. The mafioso looked side to side for a moment, then went red in the face, flattening herself back out. She made a grasping motion with one hand for Garde to hand her the envelope again, but the results weren't much better this time around...



"Ooooh, dear, that's bad," Holly cringed, smiling in stupefaction with a face that might have said, "God, why have you forsaken me?" She immediately found herself itching, trying to adjust the suit to fit in a way that wasn't awful. Garde held up her fencing foil, offering to cut it off again, but Holly shook her head. "Th-This one doesn't come with underwear either... Eeeech... I'm too scared to try the last one at all," she half-laughed, half-sobbed. At this point, she was so bothered by the outfit that she had no time to think about the flap at the butt of her suit, which threatened to come open at any moment.

With Garde in her completely out-of-place bikini, Zennocracy dressed like a stripper, Holly having some truly awful luck twice in a row, Uprising going from a wardrobe malfunction to another set of underwear, and Luchadora modeling the latest in undergarment fashions, Skywriter was feeling very bad about her chances. Thankfully for her, the next letter didn't come with any costume at all. "It's from... MachMan! To me!" she announced, sounding like all of the worry had just faded from her mind. She tore it open quickly, then perused it with unguarded interest. "MachMan says that all of the NetMafia should dress in festive attire so that it would be ironic... and Aera and I are going to have a shopping trip!" she announced, holding it over her head excitedly like that ought to interest someone else in the room. Holly smiled, just to be friendly, while Garde returned a confused expression.

Realizing she was making a goof out of herself, Skywriter quickly set the letter down, to try to play it cool, and opened another. "Ahem. This next one is from Rayner.EXE. He sounds excited about all of the lovely girls and asks us to spread cheer... which... I guess we're doing already," she laughed, looking around the room at all of the silliness going on. "The operator, Joan, says 'wasn't that time on Dentech Net enough for you'...?" she read aloud, before realizing that she ought to have omitted that part, since nobody would understand the significance; she didn't think she did. "A chip is attached too, of course. Thanks to all of our viewers for their donations so far."

Holly was trying to keep quiet for the others, but she couldn't help making a scene now, squeezing her legs together and scratching both arms in unison. "Please... if anyone finds another costume in one of these letters, please pass one on to me?" she pleaded desperately. Garde was feeling like the situation had calmed down enough now for her to enjoy another laugh at Holly's expense, so she did.

"Oh ho ho ho! I like ze sens de l'humour zat Hyde has! Zat's ze most genuinely entertaining you've been in a long time," the blond girl giggled, reaching out for another cookie from FurnaceMan's plate. As she took it and placed it into her mouth, she tried to speak at the same time. "Luchadora!" she called out, realizing she was probably still bugging the masked lady and hoping to pick a fight. "If you really want me to play nice with Holly, you will have to do no less than defeat me in a game! I won't go down wi'zout a challenge!" she taunted her supposed rival, smirking confidently while chewing her thirteenth or fourteenth cookie. "You name ze game and I will whip you at it!"

"That was not a request. Stop acting like children, or else people will be turned off by a failed attempt to come together for a common cause, and in turn, turn off this program!" Unknown to anyone else in attendance, Luchadora had considered joining the NetMafia for a time...this sort of thing was making her very happy she hadn't. She actually had another word or two for Garde, but she was gone before she could continue. She sighed, and shook her head. Why would anyone go out there willingly, unless they were a living furnace?

"Generic underwear, by the looks of it. Not the most festive of choices..." FurnaceMan gave Skywriter an odd look after she apparently forgot there was already a highly visible male Navi in the area, but at the request of a certain frozen Navi, looked over at his remaining cookie supply just in time to see a hand snag one and bolt. He seemed mostly unfazed, though. "Relax, that wasn't a ghost. Wouldn't be surprised if that was the tech guy. No wonder people need to be wary." And sure enough, a young lady's outfit was soon partially removed by an identical hand. And once more, he only got a glimpse as he turned to see what the fuss was about. "Seriously?! You're gonna do that to them on live television?! Try it again, and I'll fry your circuits!" The room momentarily because incredibly hot, as the sounds of fierce flames echoed inside the blazing Navi. He regained his composure soon enough, though, and the room cooled down...relatively speaking.

"As a friend of mine in the wrestling business once told me, it is not a true party until someone's top is ripped off! Though, I cannot say I am entirely sure this was not one already..." She folded her arms across her chest, and tilted her head as she observed the scene. A part of her wished to be part of the increasing amounts of mayhem, but this wasn't about her. This was about the charity event, and they were doing a good enough job keeping people's eyes glued to the show without her. This viewpoint was only strengthened by Holly's pajama fiasco...suddenly, generic underwear almost seemed modest.

"What a mess this has become..." The fiery Navi made a sighing motion (despite lacking a mouth and lungs to sigh with), and grabbed a new e-mail to read. "Let's see what this one says......yeah, that sounds about right, the way this is headed...hmm, sounds like this Navi's really down in the dumps. I say we cheer her up and try all of these on! She did make them all special for us, after all. You all got copies of this one, it seems, so look for an e-mail from a Navi called Lyntael, and try on the GMO! We're going to bring cheer to her, or else I'm going to burn every piece of fabric in this entire building to ashes!" This completely ignored both the message's plea, and the very real chance that wouldn't be the only thing he'd set on fire as he did that. "Here, I'll try mine on first, to give everyone an idea of what they're like. Yeah, I get one too." The largest of the Navis glowed for a moment, as he finally got to engage in a little dressing up...



"Huh, neat." FurnaceMan took a moment to check out his suddenly clothed self, since naturally he seldom wore anything. "Everything's nice and heat resistant, too, so I can keep on wearing it. That's pretty thoughtful of her." As a bonus, the outfit was blocking a decent amount of his heat, cooling the room a bit. "Huh? Hey, I've got that propeller-like thing on my head." He reached up and gave it a casual flick. "Heh, even that works! She thought of everything!"

"Oh, that is quite precious! Very well, let me bring up this e-mail...now let us see what mine is!" Without bothering to check what it was first (again ruining Lyn's message), Luchadora activated her GMO, anxious to see what was inside...



"...I cannot say I am entirely thrilled with being a snake...but that aside, it is so adorable, is it not?" She puffed out her chest a bit, undermining her own opinion a little (unless someone viewed large breasts as adorable) as she turned to the other. "Come now, ladies! I cannot believe this creativity was all used up on mine and FurnaceMan's! Try yours on! Prisa, prisa!"

The evening was going about as well as anyone in the know for these sorts of events might have suspected. Even so, Between adventurous sneaky hands, FurnaceMan's heat, Garde's desire to be helpful, and the costumes themselves, it seemed like they were all diving towards the empress' new clothes territory with alarming speed. From where she was standing, Zennocracy got a slightly better, if unintentional, view of Holly's 'rescue' from the claustrophobic snowman outfit ,and had to smother a small, startled cough behind finishing her glass of wine. She tactfully refilled it, averting her gaze while the Mafia girl got herself covered.

For her own part, Uprising didn't seem to be feeling quite so mad now that she'd gotten all her cursing out at the 'playful' hands, and was wearing something that covered her, even if it was highly questionable. Sexy-reindeer wasn't really that bad, after all. The petite woman was also on her fourth glass by now, and it was a fair guess that her flush wasn't entirely from embarrassment any more. As a result, she actually ended up putting a hand to her mouth to stifle a giggle as holly struggled through one treacherous costume after another, rather than getting worried for her. The bells on her costume jingled as she did. Behind her, two of the sneaky grinch hands crept up and grabbed hold of the 'reins' on her back, whipping them once and making the bells ring again. Uprising didn't seem to notice. Instead she pulled up another email with one hand and another slice of fruitcake with the other.

"HangMan.Exe says that they don't much care for factions at all, but they still wanted to make a donation to our charity drive, so thank you very much for that!" Her voice still sounded quite level and clear, despite the wine, though she did sound a bit... bubbly? Whatever it was, it was a far cry from her usual stern, serious demeanour. She looked over to where Holly was struggling not to make a scene with her sudden itchiness. "No GMO, sorry Holly!"

FurnaceMan hit upon an email with costumes for all of them, though, so hopefully Holly would soon have something to change into. Before she could, though, another quiet giggle seemed to come from nowhere in particular.

"Got an itch there? Here... let me help you..." While Holly struggled to deal with the insane scratchiness of her Pjs, a pair of similarly green-fuzz-clad hands snaked out from under the low table just near the Mafioso, coming at her swiftly. They started benignly enough, scratching helpfully at her back and shoulders. this was, until two additional many-fingered hands darted inside the hanging flap at the back of her outfit and could be seem visibly writhing around under the fabric, scratching at her middle, mostly. They didn't behave for long, sadly, and soon darted upwards inside the pyjamas to work on places that Holly probably didn't want uninvited foreign hands, no matter how itchy they were... though it'd probably take her focus off the itching itself, it didn't seem inclined to stop there... the hands itching and massaging Holly's back and shoulders curled back on themselves to begin taking care of the horrible itching she must surely be feeling on her behind, rupturing the remaining button in the process. One hand slipped inside the one-piece garment to join the others, but this one reached down instead of up once it had slipped around her waist to the front. There were just so many places with itches that needed rubbing, right?

Fortunately for all involved, there was nothing to actually see, since it all took place inside Holly's all-covering PJs, and fortunately for Holly herself, the limbs weren't particularly strong or sturdy - if she tried to pull away from the source of the hands and yank them out of her clothes, she'd be perfectly able to. The only difficulty was that she had only two hands of her own, against what was now five 'helpful' itchers.

"Now now, play nice, you naughty Grinch!" Zenny's voice sounded chiding, rather than outright scolding, and she certainly didn't make any move to actually help Holly with her predicament. Instead, she opened another email.
"Hikari and her navi, Divina, also wanted to send us a donation, despite not knowing many faction-involved navis. Don't worry about that, you two, this is a charity drive for everyone, regardless of their affiliation. Even if you don't normally support anyone, this is the perfect time to show your heart and give to those in need! Thank you very much for your donation!" She looked across towards FurnaceMan's snazzy new costume and smiled. "I'll be sure to try on her design for me soon, FurnaceMan, I promise, but first I had set aside this one to try on." The business woman retrieved one that she'd glanced at a little earlier, and now addressed it.

"Daybreak.Exe and their operator write in with their donation and a costume that they say is best worn on a sunny day. They seem to think that every one of us is up to something sinister, but have still enclosed a donation and this nice-looking outfit. Thank you, Daybreak!" In a brief shower of virtual currency, Zenny changed her costume again, saying goodbye to her Clusterbucket apparel, and hello to:



"Hmmm, quite classy, I like it, in its own way." She reached down to adjust the belt slightly, then settled again, content. Uprising, who was still trying not to giggle and was refilling her glass, Opened the email that FurnaceMan had pointed them all to.

"Well, I'll try on mine!" She flourished her hand - which happened to be the one holding her wine glass, causing a small spill down her wrist and landing a few drops on the white table cloth.



When it settled, Uprising paused and blinked a few times, then looked down at herself.
"Oh..." The outfit seemed to quiet her and she set down the wine glass carefully. Without really seeming to think about it, she ran her hands down over her waist and hips for a moment, and cupped her chest, then let her arm rest outwards so she could turn about once and glance over her shoulder as well. "Um... wow, I..." One finger played with the small star at her neck for a moment, and her features were scarlet. "It's hard to think this is me under here..." Her voice had gotten quiet as well, and she ducked her head. "Thank you, Lyntael, for your generous donation, and for the lovely designs!" After another moment, she cleared her throat. "I've got an email here from Vincent Miles, and his navi Phase. He writes that he has little knowledge of the virtual factions, but enjoys it when the neighbourhood watch gets into the Christmas spirit. We hope you don't get in trouble for using your work email as well! Thank you and Phase, both, for your donation!"

In between the other distractions, and additional mischievous hand seemed to think that Skywriter was getting off too easy so far tonight; it peeked out from under the centrepiece on the food table and curled silently towards the NS representative, waiting until her attention was elsewhere before ducking under her over-sized sweater from behind to pinch... something. It wasn't anything like the fun they'd been having with Holly, but it was still uninvited.

Garde was probably the only one who was still thinking about it, but she was nonetheless stunned that her request to duel Luchadora had gone entirely disregarded. "Vous coward! You know zat means I win, don't you? Yes, I'm ze winner if you don't play with me!" she announced proudly, pressing one hand to her chest and sounding especially childish as she toted her victory by opponent forfeit.

For her part, Holly was still itching uncontrollably and did not have the mental faculty to devote to either chiding or consoling her sometimes rival. "This really isn't too far off course for the regular when we host charity drives," Holly informed FurnaceMan, to ease any concern he might have that viewers weren't getting what they wanted out of this event. "Except for the itching. That part's new!" she added, squirming her legs and scratching her back feverishly. In the excitement over new costumes, FurnaceMan and Luchadora weren't exactly offering her a timely replacement. Perhaps, given the various states of undress, being hideously itchy wasn't seen as such a bad thing? Uprising wasn't really worried either and Skywriter didn't seem to understand the dismay the itching must be causing. Truly, Holly was suffering alone on this one.

Skywriter did notice another pair of hands take the reigns on Uprising for a moment, but it seemed less like the owner of said hands intended to do anything dirty this time around and more like it just couldn't sit still after seeing the reigns hanging there. Nervous again, she took another sip of her drink cautiously.

Even Holly wasn't optimistic enough about the good lurking within the spirit of all things to believe that the mysterious, disembodied hands that had pestered Uprising earlier had found their way to her with just the intent of scratching her back. "No, thank you, I can handle it on my own until I have a new costume," she responded through clenched teeth, but whoever the perpetrator was, they wouldn't be sticking their hands through her costume's butt flap if they were interested in respecting her wishes. She reached her hand behind herself to find where the arms were sticking out and try to pull the appendages back through that way, but once the squeezing, rubbing hands made their way from her middle up towards her bosom, her needs became more immediate prevention. Each of them grasped hold of what they were looking for, but she uprooted them again with the full strength of her arms.

In the mean time, the other two hands from earlier decided to converge upon her bottom, scratching with enough vigor to pop loose her other button. Having a portion of her butt revealed would ordinarily be embarrassing, but was far from a concern in Holly's mind right now. What was a concern was another fifth hand, which snaked its way inside the widened opening and tried to work its way towards her legs. The long fingers got just far enough to feel what they were looking for before the red-faced and panting mafioso switched her attention from those on her chest to that reaching down below, using both hands to make sure it didn't get any farther, while surrendering her upper body to the whims of the hidden party guest.

Seeing as her challenge wasn't being answered, Garde would turn her attention back to her old nemesis, who looked to be in need of help once again. "I've got it!" she announced, whipping out her foil again and posing dramatically, aiming her foil briefly down the guide of two fingers. "Stand very still!"

"Can't," Holly answered briefly, squeezing one eye shut as various parts of her were assaulted.

"Oh, well, do not worry! I shall use finesse et de soins!" Garde added, before unleashing a flurry of fencing thrusts upon Holly's terribly itchy pajamas, presumably with the intention of stabbing various hands and encouraging them to withdraw or defend themselves. When she relaxed her arm, instead of the hands falling away, the pajamas did, leaving Holly again disrobed with just two hands over her breasts and one extending its fingers over her lady parts, the view of which was also obscured only somewhat by her legs squeezing together.

"Not helping!" Holly retorted, still doing her best to pull the hand away from her lower body despite the fact that it was more or less tasked with preserving her modesty at this point. It wasn't held on very tight and would probably come off if she kept yanking it full force.

"I-I had to cut it off to see ze perpetrator! Now I'll get zem!" Garde defended, now taking swipes and stabs at the various hands, intending to discourage them from their pursuit.

Knowing this could only end worse than it started, Skywriter jumped in to help as well, creating a smokescreen out of her palms to hide Holly's form, which would presumably be naked after this. Still yet, no one had actually given Holly another GMO yet, instead activating several for themselves. "Maybe they've given up on trying to get out of embarrassing things now? Or... or maybe they're actually into it?!" Skywriter thought to herself, as she raced over to acquire contents from the e-mail FurnaceMan had opened. She tossed one each to Holly and Garde, who both activated theirs immediately (the former more urgently than the latter).



Thankfully, Holly finally got some modesty out of her new outfit; being the magnanimous person she was, she managed to spare some words of thanks as she wiped strands of loose hair from her face, those having been displaced as she thrashed about earlier. "A fantastic gift, and so festive! It's lovely for Christmas time," she praised the piece, taking a moment to examine the charm at her belly, which had been attached by clip rather than by piercing. "I think Lyntael's passion for Christmas may rival my own, with all of these nice costumes!" One had to be amazed Holly could have any passion left for the holidays at this point. She took a moment to look around and make certain she was free of extra hands again, those hopefully having been at least momentarily repelled by a combination of fencing thrusts and smoke.



Garde was just as pleased with hers, but for different reasons. "Oh ho! You see zere? The precious girl understands zat zere is little improving upon perfection, so she has made a modification of my armor to suit ze season! Tres magnifique!" Garde applauded, modeling her outfit enthusiastically despite the fact that it fit her about the same as her original. She glanced at the lights circling her armor and frowned for a moment. "Pourquoi ont-ils allument pas?" she asked, momentarily nudging the string with the length of her rapier. The tap of sword to shoulder pad caused the lights to all come on. "Ah ha! Fabuleux!"

At least until the next onslaught, Garde and Holly would be happy for a bit. Skywriter, feeling happy to see them happy, took the time to read over another e-mail, having moved to stand near Uprising again, despite the possible hazard of having wine dumped on her. She watched the drink warily, trying not to make it too obvious lest she be pulled into informing the little girl that she seemed to be going at the drink a bit too hard. "I'll try another e-mail... This one is from another, different Vincent, based on the address. Either the navi or the operator writes that they have friends in the Shogun's empire... Now I feel bad about not recognizing them. The writer suggests, funnily enough, that we in the Empire ought to try on some festive Christmas outfits, dressing us as Christmas trees and the like, with 'nothing naughty.' It seems like the ship's sailed on that one, though," she sighed, taking another sip of her drink.

Just then, she ended up spitting the drink over her partially exposed cleavage as another hand took it upon herself to give her bottom the first pinch of the evening. "Aaah! Shoo, shoo!" she warned however it was, then opened fire on where she presumed the enemy would be, namely, behind her. Open fire in this case was literal, being that she shot a stream of jetfire from both hands, lighting the rug beneath the table on fire and presumably hitting no one. "Oh, crap!" she further exclaimed, wishing that her hands were capable of shooting out fire extinguisher jets as well; smoke and fire were the only options, though, and they were already going to have both of those in abundance shortly. "Can someone put this out? Can the tech guy do it?" she asked, hoping that fixing the room would be as easy as making it.

Garde was especially concerned, seeing that an arrangement of fancy cheeses she'd been eating was about to turn into grilled cheese. Anyone with a vested interest in continued snacking, past FurnaceMan's cookies, would probably need to give the fire immediate attention. Rushing over, Garde attempted to put it out by throwing her cape over it, which turned out to be a terrible idea; not only did the cape burn, but with the additional Christmas lights and wiring, a tremendous crash of pops and sparks flew up and the fire grew stronger. "Ma faute! My fencing skills cannot deal with fires," she informed the others, who were certainly on the edge of their seats waiting to see how she'd stab the fire into submission.

As she continued to enjoy her latest outfit, Luchadora frowned as Garde simply refused to let things go. She was going to have to say something, wasn't she? "Only a true coward would bask in such an empty victory. If you wish to be so petty, then do so, but I shall not indulge you on such a matter!"

Meanwhile, FurnaceMan's threat was called, as Holly proceeded to be the victim of handed tentacles. He...did not especially care for that. "Oh, that burns it! Prepare to be charred!" ...But he couldn't. At least, not without hitting someone else. Or setting something on fire. They were just too thin to take the brunt of a flame attack. Instead, Garde tried to forcefully remove them by...cutting off the pajamas? He wasn't quite sure about the logic there, and stood confused until things managed to (mostly) sort themselves out and return to normal.

But normal simply would not be allowed to exist in a giveaway of this sort, and soon there was a fire in the building. Not caused by FurnaceMan. Even he would've had to admit he didn't see that one coming. Luckily, the wrestler Navi wasn't one to shy away from the heat of the moment. "FurnaceMan! I hope you are hungry!"

"What? You know I can't...ah. Gotcha. Yeah, I'm ready."

"Bueno! Now then...everyone may want to get away from the table now. ...Yah!!!" While dressed as an Anaconda, she most certainly was not one, as she charged the table, and dropkicked it as she approached it, sending it sailing away. The not SnoBlow responded by opening his gates, grabbing the flaming rug, and shoving it inside of himself before it could spread. "There, problem solved!" ...There was a new problem, however, in that everything on the table didn't magically go along with it, and was now scattered all around the place. "...Well. I am certainly glad that we are not responsible for cleaning afterward!"

"Yeah, if we had to do that, I'd just make everyone else leave and burn this place to ashes myself."

"...Well, tentacled man? Are you happy at what your antics have resulted in?" Seeing the area become a disaster zone really wasn't getting her into the spirit of things. "How do you expect us to continue in these conditions?"

"Actually..." A small window had appeared in front of FurnaceMan, which he looked at intently. "We don't have a ton of time remaining. We had a set time allotment for the giveaway, after all...maybe we oughta wrap things up."

"Mmm...perhaps. A shame we must end on such a relatively dour note...but that is life, sometimes." Luchadora looked over at Zennocracy, seeing as how she was basically running things. "Care to close us out? If this lasts much longer, who knows what could happen to us."

In the moments of panic that followed the latest invasion, Holly became the victim of another wardrobe dissection; one had to wonder whether cutting Holly's clothes off her wasn't somehow a secret desire of a certain NP rep. Regardless, the Mafioso herself didn't have a hard time pulling the groping hands away from the delicate parts of her body; a calmer, more attentive person might realise that, for all their outnumbering her and the speed of their reaching, the hands weren't 'overdoing' it, the excessive limbs replacing each other only about as fast as Holly could yank them off, and no faster. In particular, she was fortunate in the case of the lower-reaching hand - unwelcome as it was, it still seemed only interested in covering and rubbing slightly, and nothing more invasive. Even so, it was an exceptionally marginal consolation, probably on the same level as the consolation that, while the hands were doing their thing, they were also covering Holly's bits from view.

Small slips were inevitable in between the frantic removal of the groping hands, of course, but once the situation reached the height of panic they relented into being 'fought off'. There was a yelp of pain from somewhere as several of the hands got poked and stabbed (and potentially had fingers crushed if Holly was feeling particularly vehement - the hands themselves were actually quite delicate), but if anyone had been hoping that the mysterious 'Grinch' had actually been wounded, they might be disappointed to recognise the cry out as the more comical type of 'stage' exclamation - the bad guy being sent packing in humorous style. Regardless, they all withdrew smoothly, pulling themselves out of sight again quickly just as soon as Holly got her important areas covered again.

They had tried again with Sky, but the neo-shogun girl was having none of it, creating a second loud cry of stage-theatrical pain as she flamed the pinching fingers and caused them to slither away quickly. The fire was a problem on its on, however, and the situation degraded with worrisome speed. Uprising found herself jumping back from the table sharply, gliding a couple of feet across the floor with her hands coming up into a combat-ready pose as Luchadora employed her own forceful mode of fire containment. If she hadn't been five glasses of wine down, the smaller woman probably wouldn't have reacted like she was under attack, but at the same time, it was a sharp display of precise and controlled reflex, even with that amount of wine in her. Even so, she struggled to relax again while looking at the shambles that their setting had become. Some part of her was still clearly caught up in looking properly feminine for once, because her features had returned to softness quite quickly, rather than her usual harder expression.

Across the room, the fire and excessive light sources of the past few moments had been having a different effect entirely on Zennocracy. There was enough time for her to make a concerned sound, before her classy attire shifted and altered itself on her body, apparently against the businesswoman's will. Much of the outfit collapsed into falling ashes, leaving something rather more sinister in its place.



Zennocracy froze, transfixed as the restrictive, yet barely covering... gear... settled on her. It was obviously too tight on her chest, with the bat shaped front pressing and the metallic band cutting in on her chest tightly. The first action the woman took after this, was to snarl in a very unlady-like fashion, and take a small step back to put her back towards one of the room's bookcases. She had gone from demure, presiding lady, immune to the wardrobe disasters of the others, to a woman who looked both caged, and maybe violently dangerous, in a matter of seconds.

"This had better be some kind of joke... and I am going to fire whoever's idea it was." She ground out the words through clenched teeth. If FurnaceMan radiated heat, Zennocracy was suddenly seething a chill fierce enough to crack glass. Uprising put a hand to her mouth, stifled a giggle, failed to block another one, then finally burst out into a shower of giddy laughter, and then clapped her hands. It was a sound that anyone who knew Uprising was probably aware that she more or less never made, but somehow the wine, the dress, and seeing Zenny get turned on her head, had all come together to make the girl's night, despite everything that had already happened. She took a step or two to pick through the wreckage of the table and its various foodstuffs, and picked up a tin that still had its lid on. Popping it open, she found shortbread, and took a slice.

"All in good fun, right Zenny?" She called, still grinning. "For charity? You should keep that one on for a while. It suites you!" Casually, she offered the tin to Sky with a small wink, then pulled up another email, humming to herself. She paused with a glance for Luchadora, finding the other woman's eye after she was done with her fire-fixing moves.

"We're running out a bit, yeah, but there's still some time left. I'm sure we can get through the rest before we have to cut off. We'll just go a bit quickly. Hey, hey, besides... this one was made for you!" She pulled out an email, reading it over quickly.

"It's from Kabuki and her operator Hideyoshi. It's nice to hear from you again, Kabuki! I can't say I was exactly 'wanting' to be exposed like that, you know, but I did agree to it, and I'll stick it through. Besides, look at this! I don't think I've ever worn anything like this, hehe." Even Uprising seemed to realise that giggling like that was very unusual for her, and she put a hand to her mouth. She passed the letter across to Luchadora. "I'll let you read out whatever bits you want, and Kabuki says you don't have to try it on if you don't want to, because she thinks her operator might have been naughty with it." She flipped over a few more emails in her hands and she wandered about in her outfit, arriving next to Holly close enough to lean in and whisper that her latest outfit looked really cute. Turning back to her mails she continued more audibly.

"ZephyrMan and Arial, Martia and Leslie, and ClampMan and Jack all wanted to donate to our drive, though they didn't have any particular faction answer for the question or costumes for us to wear. Thank you all for your kind donations, and merry Christmas!" She seemed completely unconcerned that they were now occupying a thoroughly trashed room, and took another piece of shortbread from her tin.

Zennocracy was less pleased by the turn of events, but alas for those hoping that her suffering would last, she was rarely without contingency. In this case, contingency was the fact that she had delayed in trying on the other costume made specifically for her, and shortly after Uprising quieted, there came a flurry of virtual zenny from her corner of the room as her restrictive vampire-prison was over-written by a new GMO.



Zenny stretched and turned, then breathed a sigh of relief as she took in her now completely covering and utterly safe outfit design, then stepped away from where she had been crowded against the bookcase. The number of bows and ribbons on the outfit, along with the individually wrapped parts of the abstract design might have seemed a little excessive to begin with, but given the tone of events so far, Zennocracy didn't seem about to complain about it. Instead she nodded and began flipping through more mails. She nodded slightly to Luchadora as well while she searched.

"Uprising is right, my dear. The evening is running late indeed, but we should have enough time left to give our generous viewers a few more acknowledgements. Let's see... Alda, and her navi, SmogMan, think the Shogunate should change their stripes for the season, while HunterWoman... seems to be having trouble with ordering her thoughts, but still makes a donation that is very much appreciated. Thank you both very much for your generosity!"

Having been stabbed and burned from their previous efforts, the mischievous hands clad in their green fuzzy costuming crept out from the space behind the bookcase this time and made a grab for the many ribbons on Zenny's costume. They tugged and pulled at ribbons, undoing various ties, but this proved to be a mistake. It was hard to follow exactly, but when she felt the first tugs, Zennocracy spun about and made a motion with one leg. The motion was very quick, but the result was another comical cry of pain and Zenny standing with her hands on her hips, and two of the hands pinned to the ground by the point of her stiletto heel. She had not been gentle - it looked like her heel had actually pierced the two hands in her effort to pin them down. The rest had withdrawn while the stuck two tugged vainly.

"I've—" About to reprimand their mischief-maker, Zenny paused as a dark-sounding laugh cut through the room. It actually sounded a lot like her own voice, modulated somewhat, and her outfit shimmered. It probably drew the voice byte from the wearer itself.



She paused to look at herself. Two surprise-changing outfits in a row seemed like a strange coincidence, but this one at least drew a briefly approving nod from her before she continued, grinding her heel slightly.

"I've had about enough of your antics, master Grinch. You've gone a little bit too far tonight. I don't want to see your fuzzy green hide again unless you mend your ways, am I understood?" The hands gave a few more twitches and spasms, then ruefully tapped out on the carpet beneath her heel. Still with her hands on her hips, Zenny gave a small, satisfied sound, and pried her heel point free of where it had, in fact, pierced even the carpet. "Off with you then." Suitably chastised, the remaining hands slithered back out of sight. Zenny breathed a short sigh of relief, then turned back to the others. "Well, I think we've only got a few left to go through now. The lines closed a few minutes ago. Anyone have any other costumes they'd like to try on? I know I feel like I've done some good tonight." She seemed somewhat more aware that they were broadcasting from a thoroughly destroyed shambles of a room than Uprising was, but even so, the general atmosphere from the two co-hosts at least, seemed to have brightened up considerably now that everyone was more or less respectably dressed.

"I'll bask all I want! Why shouldn't I? If you're not going to act, zen you may as well hold your tongue, wrestler," Garde managed to return a barb, even during a raging fire that she'd helped make worse. She didn't approve of Luchadora's method of fire removal any more than she did Luchadora's method of challenge refusal. "Oh mon Dieu! I cannot eat cheese zat's been on ze floor! Christmas is ruined!"

"We've made it through a lot so far, I don't think we should let cheese be the straw that breaks our backs tonight," Holly laughed in response. "We've still got cookies left, anyways." Garde nodded and reluctantly chewed on a cookie, still pouting. Being a generous herald of Christmas, Holly had managed to keep a good mood on, even though the hammy death cries of the unseen owner of several lecherous hands were somehow even more annoying than those hands' vulgar actions. With everyone focused on the fire, Zennocracy's wardrobe malfunction went unnoticed... until Uprising laughed about it, at which point everyone turned to see the subject. "Oh dear... I think someone got the wrong holiday," Holly commented, although one had to wonder if metallic, barely covering Christmas shapes would have been any better.

Skywriter waved off Uprising's offering with an awkward smile. "I don't think I need any more food right now. I wouldn't mind trying on another outfit though... f-from the nice batch that Lyntael sent," she responded, feeling a little guilty for just trying out another safe bet costume. "Let's see..."



"Aw, it's cute... it matches my hair," Skywriter commented, feeling love-at-first-sight with her new costume. "It's a bit warm with the um... recent fire, though," she admitted, shedding off some of the layers. It might be kind of sexy to watch, if the competition wasn't so stiff from the rest of the night's activities. When she'd gotten down to just the light dress and various accessories, she gave a sigh of relief. "I'm keeping this one! It's so me~" she sighed happily, cutting a dangerously alluring figure in the thin gown.

Garde seemed confused for a moment when Zennocracy proposed that they'd done good tonight. "Well, I suppose any opportunity to show off my bikini figure is doing a public service, but..." she started, pressing a palm to her cheek, before raising her eyebrows. "Oh, right! The donations. Yes, we did do a good 'zing," she agreed, nodding with a confident smile. "Zat's what I'm all about! Helping o'zers."

"You'll be the first person I call the next time I want to be nude in public again," Holly responded with a sarcastic smile. "Which may very well be next year!"

Indeed, in their focus to eliminate rug fires, both Luchadora and FurnaceMan had completely overlooked Zennocracy's new and exciting form of wardrobe malfunction. And much like the others, only Uprising's laughter clued them in to look over. The wrestler's only reaction was to shake her head slowly. "Indeed, Holly. Though personally, I cannot decide if that's closer to Halloween, or the Dio de los Muertos!"

"The...what?"

"...Ah, my apologies. I have been trying to avoid using much Whazzapian tonight, yet I made such a simple error...to you, it would be the Day of the Dead."

"That honestly doesn't help. At all. You take a day off to celebrate the dead? I get it, I guess, but that sounds sorta weird."

"...Well, never mind. I shall explain it to you later." At least she didn't take that attitude with Uprising, reaching over to snag the e-mail for her. "Mmm hmm...it would seem that this Kabuki's operator would prefer everyone dress up in kabuki costumes instead of Christmas attire. I cannot say I know much about kabuki, but based on the attached costume, there is little wondering why he would desire that. I would change into it, but as everyone's changing into their Lyn...I forget her whole name, GMOs, I feel as though I would be ruining the theme. Plus, I have little time to model something new. My apologies."

"Ah, shoot, I forgot her name, too. Lyn...tail? Was that it? Yeah, that sounds right." FurnaceMan watched as everyone else went with the virus themed outfits. Honestly, for the most part, it seemed like everyone preferred them to everything else they'd worn for the duration. That Lyn girl wasn't in the greatest of spirits...hopefully, seeing everyone enjoy what they got from her would return the favor a bit, somehow. Before he could ruminate further, the sound of evil laughter caused him to turn to face the source...wait, was Zennocracy's shoe heel THROUGH those hands? He couldn't help but flinch a bit, even though he had no sympathy for them. "Ouch. That looks like it hurt..."

"I can hardly blame her, the way they have been on some of us tonight. ...Not myself, of course, since a wrestler is capable of some rather painful holds if they try anything."

"Yeah, that's not really something I need to worry about, for obvious reasons." He nodded at himself, then at the notion of them doing good. "Indeed. If all of this helped rake in the donations, then I say it's well worth all the trouble. Though that probably rings hollow for you ladies, coming from me."

"Meh, I understand what you are trying to say, and I concur. At the end of the day, the donations are what matter most." The wrestler looked around at the carnage around her (some of which she caused), and straightened up and raised her arms, forming a Y shape with her body. At least, if viewed from the front or behind. "All who offered their hard earned chips today...from the bottom of our hearts, we all thank you!"

FurnaceMan looked around, noting all the destruction. "I'll say it again...it's a good thing we're not on janitor duty, so we don't have to care about this place."

Factional rivalries and personal challenges aside, the evening was clearly winding down now. Uprising had poured herself another glass of wine from a pitcher that had survived the table wreckage, but seemed now to be contemplating whether she really ought to drink it or not. She settled for taking very small, slow sips between bites of her shortbread. Giggles aside, she seemed to be doing remarkably well for being such a petite woman on her sixth glass. She did look across to the conversation that was going on between some of the others, though, and pointed towards Luchadora with a grin.

"That's the one with the sugar skull candies and all the bright colours, right? I've always wanted to go to that! Jane says I..." She trailed off quietly and took another sip of her wine, glancing down again, and let the conversation flow past her without continuing. Elsewhere, Zennocracy was back in full spirits from her earlier mishap and was offering a bright, professional smile for all and sundry. Her hands were still on her hips and her stance just a little bit too 'business predatory', perhaps, but otherwise things seemed to be much more on track.

"Indeed, it has been a good night for donations, but we are out of time. I'd like to... hmm?" She looked to the side as movement caught her eye. More of the mischievous hands were appearing from just about every shadow and crevice about the room now, including, if anyone was looking closely, the two that had received the piercing touch of Zenny's heel - the holes were obvious, but the hands didn't appear to really be hindered at all. For the most part, however, they were all setting about picking up spilled table settings, straightening things and swiftly doing the best that could be done to clean up and set the room back in order. It was hard to really tell from tentacle-armed hands, but there was a subtle sense that they were all acting rather sheepishly. For her part, Zenny cast a warning eye from hand to hand, making sure they weren't up to anything, tapping one foot slightly, while Uprising shuffled swiftly away from wherever any of them were working, eager to keep clear just in case.

Soon enough, the room had been neatened up and the furniture that hadn't been outright destroyed, straightened. Aside from tidying, several pairs of hands took time out to produce and offer small white boxes, wrapped in red ribbon, to each of the hosts for the evening. It might not exactly be a 'grew three sizes that day' event, but it was something at least. Zenny continued after most of the cleaning and gift-giving was done.

"Thank you all for all of your generous donations tonight, and thanks too to everyone who sent in interesting costume designs for us all to try on for your entertainment. I also want to thank all of our hosts for helping us spread and share a little bit of cheer this evening." She began to thank each host personally, giving each of them a chance to wave or give some other gesture if they wanted to. "Our gratitude to Holly, from the NetMafia; Garde, from the NetPolice; Skywriter, from the Neo Shogunate; and also our great thanks to Luchadora and FurnaceMan, and to Uprising." She took her hands off her hips to clap politely for the other hosts. While she waved, Uprising spoke up to follow on from Zenny. "And we'd also like to thank miss Zennocracy for hosting with us tonight too, and getting into the Christmas spirit a bit. Merry Christmas Everyone, and good night!!"

One of the hands had begun tapping Uprising on the shoulder with a finger, trying to get her attention.
Hmm— what?" When she turned to look at it, the hand flourished and produced an email, which she took. "No. No , I'm not. We're out of time, I'm not doing that!" Fortunately, at least as far as public viewing was concerned, anyone watching at home would be seeing the final show special thanks and crediting scrolling by while she argued.
"What is it darling?" Zenny had raised an eyebrow at the exchange, but Uprising only sighed, taking the email but still only holding it in her hand.
"There's one email left, and it's got a costume... but I'm not. I'm not going to put that on."
"Oh come on dear, just slip it on during the out credits."
"No!!"
"It can't be any worse than anything else we've all tried on tonight."
"It's made of snow! Just Snow. Nothing else. It'll melt the moment I put it on!!"
"Oh give me a look at that, surely it's not... Oh my. Someone's got quite the imagination."
"You see? Just no, ok, we're done."
"There's no harm in it. Holly put it all on the line earlier. Just try it. Maybe if you're lucky the out credit will end before the snow melts?"
"... I'm not. I don't want to. Don't make me..."
"It's just for a minute, come on now, try it on. You did promise."
"But the show's..." she sighed and knocked back the rest of her glass. "Oh fine, give me that... You're all a bunch of perverts. Here..." Sadly, for those viewers keen on seeing the more or less non-costume, that was where the show credit ended and the feed stopped, and with it came the close of another year's successful charity.