A rambling palazzo in Cypria, where olive trees and sheep dot the hills.

Having arrived in Greece with Meg, Iris looked around curiously.

Chuck looked around greenly.

  Meg led the way into a sprawling house, and yelled something in Greek.  Which got a furious stir of activity as relatives came popping out of the woodwork, so to speak.  She told Iris "This is my grandparent's home, Iris, Chuck, so please be made welcome.  Pardon the Greek, we can't help it, you're in Greece."

  Two older people, a man and a woman, came out.  They looked classically Greek, with the olive complexions and dark hair, and came over to Meg, giving her hugs and kisses.  Then the woman greeted them all in Greek, and hugged and kissed Iris and Chuck too.

"Yaissus" Iris greeted the others in greek, accepting the hugs. She was very curious as to her surroundings and did not appear to notice that she was speeking Greek.

Chuck looked uncomfortable, "Do what?"

Iris explained in Greek for a few words, then saw the look on his face. She switched back to English unconsciously, "I was saying hello. You know what they say; when in Rome... We're in Greece, but the straight is narrow."

"How do you know Greek?!" Chuck asked, befuddled.

"I learned it at the Facility." Iris said, as though that explained everything and from the look on Chuck's face, it did. She switched back to Greek, telling the others that it was nice to meet them.

  Meg chuckled, and told Chuck "Give my grandparents a moment, their English is worse than their Chinese."  She said something in Greek, Iris understood it as My friends are American, but they wanted to see a holiday celebration among my family.

  At which point, the elder fellow said "Greetings!  In house, in house, food, drink, make welcome.  Megaira friends welcome."

Iris followed Meg's family into the house, looking around curiously for dead trees and socks on the walls.

  There was a small ceramic fir-tree with lights on it, and a great many stockings tacked to a wall.  And a SLEW of people!!  It seemed that Meg's extended family gathered in hordes.  Poor Chuck had the worst of it, since he didn't speak Greek, but a lot of the girl-cousins liked him.  They had a HUGE feast out, and someone fixed them a plate each.  They got sort of drug off, Chuck with the boys, Iris with the girls, and aunts and uncles all gave them friendly hugs and advice and someone was in a huddled discussion with Grandma and Grandpa at the moment.

Iris looked around at the others, chatting amiably in a very unpracticed, leaning towards older dialect of the language. It was like back at the group home! Only nobody was beating anybody up or getting sent to their rooms, "There are so many people here! Do you all stay up, drink eggnog, and wait for Santa Claus?" She asked the girls.

Chuck, meanwhile, was being his socially-awkward self. He tripped over a chair trying to get out of a boy's way, then when somebody came to check on him, began stuttering because he didn't know Greek. "I'm sorry." He finally told someone, "What you just said - that's Greek to me."

  The boys who had drug him off grinned, and one of them handed him a glass of eggnog, and a couple cookies.

  Meg said "Well, not everyone does, the way it sort of works, and I'm not allowed to help, is that everyone has to go to bed so that Santa can sneak in and leave the presents.  I always get banished to a little cottage at the far end of the property.  They all know I hear better than a dog, and can scent someone at pretty good range if it's a good, strong scent.  I'm not allowed to hunt for easter eggs either.  I can sniff them right out."

Iris nodded encouragingly, "Easter eggs, you say? Do they smell like chicken eggs or like rabbit eggs?" She asked, explaining, "I am doing research into a hitherto unprobed field of quasi-scientific beliefs like these. It's something like seasonal cryptozoology - the monster of the month, if you will."
This message was last edited by the player at 01:57, Thu 11 Nov 2010.

  Meg said with a grin "Mix of boiled chicken eggs and chocolate eggs, with some peanut butter and marshmallow eggs mixed in.  Those are even easier to find though."

Iris nodded, making notes on a pad that appeared suddenly in her hand, "Chicken, chocolate, peanut-butter, marshmellow... Got it." She said. After some chatting with some of the other girls for a while, she found herself near one of the trees. She turned to the person nearest to her, "Why are your trees ceramic?"