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There's music pouring from well-concealed speakers in the Firehouse as Tyler arrives, and we do mean well-concealed. When a building's decorator corps includes a twenty-three-foot-tall transforming robot and a five-armed, five-eyed, five-brained alien from an arboreal species, the decorations get everywhere. The outside of the Firehouse is practically wrapped in strings of lights, and the inside- well. Someone introduced Jhalak to the concept of pine garland this year and she kind of went berserk with it. The tree in one corner is as sparkly as a north Jersey homeowner's attempt to get on the local news. Even the dinosaur skull hanging from the ceiling of the ground floor is decorated. Ecto's probably to blame for the dinosaur-sized Santa hat, though.

Which isn't to say that's the only holiday being marked here. Miss Eartha the golem has very firmly staked out part of the Firehouse's ground floor for Hanukkah, on the grounds that it was a Jewish ritual that got her into the golem body she now occupies and she feels a certain measure of gratitude for that. Janine's been helping her with that, and somewhat reluctantly Egon's been doing so as well. No sign of Kwanzaa on the premises, probably because Winston is as big of a Christmas man as you'll ever find, but someone tacked up several solar symbols and "Joyous Solstice!" messages. As a matter of fact, about the only sign that anyone here isn't celebrating something is the periodic snark of "Bah humbug!" from the fish tank on Janine's desk.

"Here we are, Tyler. How's that look to you?"

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"Winston's on a classic movies kick lately," says Miss Eartha. "Virgin Megastore coming right up."

Assuming, of course, that the people surging out of subway entrances don't trip her up. They don't always see her coming.

"INCOMING!! MAKEWAY!!"

Let's see how hearing her coming works out, Tyler's just gonna yell like a crazy kid right now.

Yeah, that helps. Although considering that the store is suddenly looming large just ahead-

"Tyler! I'm gonna duck!"

Because eight feet of golem plus several feet of kid means trouble getting through the door unless there's a serious loss of altitude.

Aaaand Tyler's just going to duck down himself and really hug Eartha's head. Even so he can just about feel the top of the door moving past his head and back.

Momentum's not really something Miss Eartha can do anything about. Fortunately, the people at Virgin have an area rug just inside the door to deal with water and yuk being tracked in by thousands of visitors a day, so when Miss Eartha proves unable to stop on a dime, she simply goes to her knees on the rug- and skids a good several yards before coming to a halt just shy of a massive display of Justin Bieber CDs.

There may be some applause from the other patrons, who weren't expecting a show today.

Blink. blinkblink.

He's just going to make an eew face at Justin Bieber, and having come within inches of being forced to kiss his likeness okay?

"Thank you, thank you," says Miss Eartha, who was, after all, quite a show-woman during her original time on Earth. "Would someone mind pointing my young friend and I in the direction of the DVD selection?"

"It's over this way miss, if you'll just follow me." One of the floor-clerks waves her in the direction of the dvds. "Any particular genre you're looking for? We've got an excellent sale on the children's holiday classics."

"We're good on those thanks, could you show us some of the old classic movies?"

"Right this way," says the clerk. "Looking for anything in particular?"

"Which ones has Winston already picked up?" That question is more directed at Miss Eartha.

"Most of the Jimmy Stewart section," says Miss Eartha, absently flicking through the discs. "Think he was talking about starting on Cary Grant next, so you might want to beat him to the punch."

"You heard the lady." Tyler smiles from his safe perch atop Eartha.

"Right this way." The clerk chuckles nervously, leading them down the section to pick out the movies.

After some rummaging, Miss Eartha comes up with a couple of DVDs. "Bringing Up Baby, His Girl Friday, The Philadelphia Story... take your pick," she says. "There's others, too, but I think he'll go for some of these."

"Bringing up Baby and His Girl Friday, I think. I don't know what The Philadelphia story is about."

"Aw, it'd take too long to explain," says Miss Eartha. "You'll just have to watch it someday. C'mon, let's get to the counter. Folks're starting to point, and I don't want to draw a crowd."

"Hokay. I'll save that for whenever Winston's birthday is." Tyler smiles, climbing down from Eartha long enough to pull out a $50 bill and this time get his change back. "Best Buy next I think, unless ThinkGeek has a store here."

"Nearest Best Buy's over on Fifth Avenue," says the golem. "Gonna be a couple of blocks to get there. You want to get something to eat along the way?"

"Yes. i don't think i'll spoil dinner if I have just one raspberry cup right?" Tyler says, climbing back up onto Eartha's shoulders and digging into the Godiva bag for one of the mentioned sweets.

"Oh, no, honey, you should be fine," says Miss Eartha. "But I do want to ask you one question first. You want to go see the tree at Rockefeller Center? That's not too far from here, and we can go there on the way, more or less."

"I think Ray said something about taking me there for ithe-thkating ffaater thif weekh."

Okay. He's just going to take his time with this cause oh wow, no wonder Miss Kyle goes on about Godiva chocolate.

"Okay," says Miss Eartha agreeably. "We'll skip that, then. You just hang on and let's get moving."

She lopes off down Forty-Seventh Street, which by and large doesn't look like much- some restaurants, some business buildings, a couple of parking garages- until they get to Forty-Seventh and Sixth. At which point the street lamps are all shaped like diamonds in overly fancy jewelry settings, and there are no Christmas decorations to be seen.

"The Diamond District," Miss Eartha says. "There's only one block in New York where more money changes hands every day than this one, and it's the one with the Stock Exchange on it. I'll tell you, kiddo, it's a good thing I'm not Catwoman any more."

"...you know, Ray always talks about selling the opals he grows for light sabers here."

"Mm-hm," says Miss Eartha. "His contact's in there." She indicates one of the buildings, a broad, five-story affair with RUBIN DIAMOND EXCHANGE on the sign and two guys handing out brochures saying WE BUY GOLD AND SILVER out front. "There's a good couple hundred people working in there every day but the High Holy Days. Ari's the one who works with Ray the most."

"Hunh." Tyler's going to make a good mental note of this location. "If I get paid in some weird currently like ambers or garnets or something on another world, I'll have to stop by there."

"Sure thing, kiddo."

They reach the end of the block and hoo, nelly, it's Christmas out here all over again, with strings of lights wrapping most of the lampposts and Santa Clauses of various types and affiliations at different points along the street. Miss Eartha just points out the impressively decorated Filipino consulate and starts down Fifth towards Best Buy.