Christmas event

The magenta haired youth had decided as it was getting closer to the time of giving that he would do a round trip of Fiore and by a few things here and there, there was of course how he would get all that stuff back to the guild hall or even to the people they were meant for but that was a problem for tomorrow's Alma to worry about. Todays Alma was all about the rush of seasonal shopping and had spent a few days writing a list of who he wanted to buy for and for what kind of thing he thought they needed. It wasn't like it was a big list but he was pretty sure he wouldn't find things in the same place and this gave him a reason to play hooky when it came to his responsibilities to the guild while exploring. It wasn't exactly like even his guild master knew who he really was he signed under a pseudo name when entering Silver Wolf, this wasn't because he had done anything wrong or he intended to do anything of the sort, no this was because he had not only run away from his influential family and hiding from them but he didn't want to be known as the heir of the Miten family. He had found that as soon as people find out you're rich then they tend to want to get close to the power teet and get as much as they can as quickly as they can. Well there was that and he would never be allowed to do anything on his own due to people hoping to cash in with the 'we helped your family so you should reward us' or they would just down right take him back to his gilded little cage. He was through with being used by not only his family and others while being told what was expected of him but wanted to make it on his own; albeit that it hadn't been easy thus far for the magenta haired youth.

He had tried to decide where he would begin his trip but even looking at the map hologram coming from his archive lacrima he had no idea where to start. It wasn't exactly like he could ask anyone either because this what most would refer to as a 'me day'. He had every single intention of enjoying and spoiling himself in every place he went as it had been a while since he had done such a thing. "I wonder if there are any festivals happening." he said looking to the map still as he walked out of the guild hall and started down the phoenix mountain, it was snowing but he was starting to get use to that given the time of year but still didn't put on a jacket. At current he was wearing a loose set of black cotton trousers, a white cotton long sleeved t-shirt, a brown set of shoes and his normal set of glasses. The only difference from what he normally wore to now was he actually threw a white scarf around his neck on the way out. "That should keep me warm. Now, where should I begin?" he spoke to himself once more as he headed towards the place he now got a transport from. He was actually getting better at booking transport in advance so he knew that there would be a car waiting for him at the bottom of the mountain that would take him wherever he wanted to go. That however was the problem... he had no idea where he wanted to go first. After a short while he managed to get to the bottom of the mountain and moved into the car without any issues. "Aren't you cold sir?" the man in front said looking back to him making Alma lookup "I'm wearing a scarf." he said back somewhat confused "You really should wear a coat in this weather, you'll get ill otherwise sir." Alma could hear that the other was concerned for his health and nodded "I'll pick one up at our first destination." he said looking down at the map again "Where to sir?" the man asked awaiting to hear where he was driving to.

Alma could only shrug "I actually don't know where to start today, I am intending to do a round trip of shopping in Fiore." he said to the elder man, now he looked at him the man had long black hair, tanned skin, emerald eyes and wore clothing native to that of his guild masters home land of Desierto or at least what they wore in cooler weathers but in bright festive colours. "I see." he wasn't expecting to be gone for a few days but knew that Alma paid well and so would have plenty of money to provide a good christmas and start to the new year for his family. "Do you know of any festivals going on?" he asked the other who looked up as if trying to remember something before going into the glove compartment on the passenger side and began to look for something. After a long minute he brought out a booklet and started flipping through the pages mumbling about how it was the wrong month or that such and such had been boring when he had visited til he finally opened up a page and held it out for the magenta haired teen to read "Let's see here..." he said looking over everything on the page "Oh! That seems magical!" he said looking to where it was located "Okay Clover town is where we start." he exclaimed happily strapping himself in "Very well sir." he said giving Alma the booklet to look over as he started driving towards the town in question. Given the time of year and where they were currently he didn't expect to much traffic until they got to the cities and bigger towns, one thing that the driver did expect was going to be a nightmare was somewhere to park but he had expected that Alma would have that sorted as well. The magenta haired youth must have fallen asleep because the next thing he knew he was feeling a cold chill over his body waking him up and the door opening "Oh, are we here already?" he asked watching as the elder male nodded "And parked in the bay you reserved, I will do some shopping while I await your call for us to move on." he said to the youth.

"I'll book us some rooms in case we stay the night." he ended up saying seeing how livly the place was "Good call, there is a hotel called home sweet home. Go there and say that Alma wants two of their best rooms." he said handing him a unique looking card "It's the preferred customer card." he said with a smile the man nodded and walked away to try find the hotel in question leaving Alma on his own to investigate the area. The sound of christmas carols and children laughing assaulted his ears while the smell of hot chocolate and freshly baked seasonal cookies assaulted his sense of smell, he was so excited in this atmosphere but then he was always a hyperactive kid that seemed to be running on a sugar rush at the best of times at least. Feeling the chill he started to go over to the hot chocolate stand and blinked seeing all the little cups "A hot chocolate tasting station?" he said unsure if that was what it actually is "That's what it is indeed!" said a jolly woman dressed in a misses clause suit "We at Marlow's only want to bring the best hot chocolate to our customers so we asked twenty of our employees during summer to make a unique hot chocolate and said at the beginning of December we would release the five most popular at the festival this year for the public to decide the best!" Alma stood there blinking not quite understanding fully "The winner will get a prize and their hot chocolate will be officially released by the company for an entire year!" she continued, Alma just nodded understanding that this was some sort of competition for those who made the hot chocolate and he would be helping choose the winner by tasting them all. "Would you like to taste test?" the woman asked and Alma nodded heading to the top of the table where he was given a card.

"So what do I do with this?" he said looking at the card "After you've tasted them all you rate your favourite to least favourite and put it in the envelope provided before putting it in the little ballet box at the end of the table." the woman said happily "That's it?" he said "Yup, that's it. You can even get a full cup of your favourite hot chocolate at the end! Thank you for taste testing!" she said with a wide jolly tone. He was starting to wonder if she should cut down on the sugar but said nothing and tasted the first cup, to him it was nothing special at least by smell on reading the card it said 'cherry mallow cocoa' on tasting it he almost wanted to spit it out as the cherry overwhelmed everything else in the cup, he liked cherry but really wasn't a fan of this one. Putting the cup down he moved down to the next one and read 'spiced apple pie' this was a unique one to him and he drank it, it wasn't to bad as strange as it tasted, it was like drinking a hot chocolate apple. Putting his cup down he went to the third and read 'winter wonderland' and couldn't help thinking 'If you're claiming that then this should be amazing.' as he picked up the cup he could smell the winter spices like cinnamon and nutmeg, the hot chocolate to his amazement was white and he swore on tasting it he could taste peppermint with the things he smelt and even some toasted marshmallows so far this one delivered, the taste was so subtle on everything but made him want more. The fourth read chocolate mint and he got exactly what it said so wasn't wowed by it but it delivered what it said, the fifth was called 'santa's workshop' on first sip he got caught by cool mint, followed by a citrus and gingerbread flavour which did catch him off guard but by far his favourite had to be the third one he tasted. Taking the pen he marked down which liked the most to the one that he disliked the most before placing it in the envelope and into the box. When he did he was given a token "This is for you to exchange for one of the five sample flavours in a full cup for free." the woman said "Thank you." The youth said before heading away from the area believing it might be better to wait until later to get that.

He started moving down the streets and even gave some jewel to several charities and singers along the way, but before long he ended up in an area seemingly meant for paintballing. "What is this?" he asked looking at someone else "Snowball war, it's Amazing!" one kid proclaimed "Uh-hu..." was all Alma was able to get out before he was given his snowball gun and heat grenades "So we just shoot each other like we would do with a paintball gun?" he asked quirking an eyebrow "Well yeah, but also need to watch out for the other team and the snowmen." the kid said again making the magenta haired youth blink "Okay then..." he said looking at the board showing that the team he had been assigned to was still waiting on one more person to join "I hope you and the other person aren't crappy shots." one of the other kids said making Alma roll his eyes "Actually, I'm a bow user so unlikely to be a bad shot." he said and left it at that, he knew this contraption he was being made to use was a lot different from the bow he used but was pretty sure he could pull a trigger with less effort than it was to pull a bowstring and release an arrow on a moving enemy hoping for the arrow to hit. For now all he could do was wait for the last person to turn up.

Word Count: 2,101
~~Word count met will continue as a job~~
Left over word count: 601
@Aemon Trahaearn

Activities Finished:
Hot Chocolate Tasting

Activities Started:
Snowball War

Alma was messing around with the lacrima in his hand, he almost seemed like a bored teen with an ilac but that wasn't the case when it came to him. For all he should have one of those things he hadn't yet ventured out to go get one, in honesty he thought it was nothing more than senseless brain rot filled with selfies and foodie photos. It was enough to make him want to hurl. This lacrima was special, he had, had it for as long as he could remember and as far as he was told when anyone tried to take it from him he went one of two ways and neither were pleasant so his parents, nannies and the other staff just stopped trying after a while. Anyone else he had ever shown the lacrima could only see something that was blank or would empty have been the better way of describing it? To him however it was a database of knowledge much more than any archive could have stored but it did make him wonder as to why he had such a thing; surely it would have been of better use in someone else's hands. Who was he to complain however for the gifts he had been given? Every now and then he did lookup as the others that were going to take part in the snowball war were becoming increasingly restless even saying that he could sit out and they would have even teams still. The host of the game wasn't having any of it, in fact he told them that the next person to complain would be not only banned from this run of the snowball war but would be banned for the rest of the festive season. With some quiet grumbling the other teenagers that had been outwardly complaining and trying to exclude him went quiet as they would wait for the final participant to turn up.

It didn't take much longer, perhaps five minutes or so and as the final person did turn up he looked up from his lacrima once more. What he seen was a man obviously older than himself, white hair in a red overcoat and black trousers. He shrugged as where he personally couldn't pull of the hardened drifter look this guy obviously could. On his arrival everyone was given a snowball gun with coloured snowballs, darker colours for one team and lighter colours for the other, each snowball gun having been set with a distinct colour so it could be seen who hit who and which team they were from. Each person had also been given three heat frags to be used on the snowmen that would also be throwing snowballs. The white teams snowman sentries would have pale blue snowballs, while the black teams snowball sentries would have navy blue snowballs, the unaligned snowmen would have forest green snow balls but these snowmen could be change to a team by hitting their hats and changing them colour either white or black, if a claimed snowman's hat was hit by the opposite team once again it would become neutral until claimed again. There however was a one minute countdown before said snowman would be able to have its alignment changed again. With all this told everyone was given a bracelet with two lacrima crystal on it, one was black and the other one was red. The black would track how many times a person had been killed and the red would track how many times you hit your mark. It was noted that melting an unaligned snowman would be worth only one point but melting a snowman of the other team would be worth three. This was all starting to bore the youth but he was fine and dandy to go through it all, but he kinda watched the others and noticed the others were boasting about just how many kills they were going to get without being hit themselves. 'Pride comes before the fall or so they say.' he thought to himself. The last piece of information they got was that the round would run for thirty minutes and a flare would be used to signify a cease fire, the owner also said that anyone shooting after the flare would lose all their points because of people shooting others in the back to gain extra points after the round.

With all of that said the owner sounded a horn and told everyone to make their way to their assigned side and the round would begin at the first flare which would transform into a timer. Alma made his way to the white side and waved to the new commer politely "Thank you" he said to the other before turning back to the one who tried to trash his skills without knowing anything about him. "Archers need accuracy, speed, focus, timing as well as a whole host of other understanding to make sure the bow matches the owner." he said pushing up his glasses covering his mouth as he yawned it was clear this other teen had bored him but he wanted to drill the point home. "It is a time consuming art to even get the basics right and needs more discipline than pulling a simple trigger." he said the teenager looking stunned as if he had just been slapped in the face by someone who was seemingly younger than himself. "I've done archery for as long as I could hold a bow, I understand how they are made, how to choose the best wood, how they feel on completion, what woods make a better bow than others, how to make arrows what is the best feathers to use for the fletching, what is best to make the string... now... is that enough to pass your little test or do I need to go on and by the way I'm a composite user and they are harder to draw." his tone was quite matter of a fact and still left the boy speechless, his friends just laughed at him for making an idiot out of himself and being called out for his bullshit. He then turned his gaze to the new commer once again "I'm Alma." he said plainly but had a huge grin on his face like he knew something about the other but wasn't telling. This of course wasn't the case he just was an overly energetic teen. As he went to where he was meant to be, with the announcing of the ready, set and go a green flare was sent up into the air with a timer that was counting down.

The others of his team were making plans but like the white haired man he just jamp into the thick of things, if they waited to long then they other team would get an advantage and he wasn't having that. He was raised in a highly competitive environment being the heir to one of the wealthiest families on Earthland, he wasn't allowed to be second on anything he done so he wasn't about to start now. He ran a little past his team mate and pretty much ran up a fir tree and took cover amongst the needles, it wasn't exactly the most comfortable but he could at least keep his position for a while. These were untrained teenagers they wouldn't be looking for a sniper, sitting on a branch he watched out for the enemy teams movements and seen how two of them were trying to flank the other teammate that was out with him. With a slowly released breath took both out in quick succession with a gentle squeeze of the trigger twice, he was already missing his bow because this took no real effort in his opinion, regardless he would play overwatch for now. It was then he seen something that didn't quite fit anything else in the snowball war area, it looked like a snowman but it sure as hell didn't look like any of the others. Instead of making his presence known to alert anyone he waited just a bit longer and watched it get within his range others had already started trying to shoot it and all it seemed to be doing was making it more violent, soon there was red on the otherwise white snow as it seriously hurt one of the kids and was dragged away from it by his teammates. At that point Alma threw one of his thermal grenades and watched as it melted upon impact. "Why hit snow with snow" he muttered to himself, he was surprised that they had been so stupid but then they likely were trying to claim it for their team thinking it was an ultra rare snowman.

From his position he seen other things on the field that weren't meant to be there, they looked like what he imagined jack frost to look like, they were floating slightly off the ground and looked hostile. This time he wasn't taking any chances so again threw a thermal grenade hitting two of the three icy individuals, missing the last one he took his last grenade and was about to throw it when he noticed a thermal grenade the injured boy had dropped and made his bow appear, he knew he would have to move positions after this but got on his feet and drew his how focusing on his breathing, the wind and the movement of the enemies. 'Almost...' he thought to himself 'C'mon a little further...' he continued to think to himself as if willing them to follow his commands soon enough his waiting was rewarded 'Now!' with that he let go of the bow string, he wasn't aiming for the remaining ice elemental but the thermal grenade they were now hovering over which caused them to melt it was then he seen a raging yeti coming from the north and scorpions that looked like they were made out of ice to the east. He brought up his fingers to his lips to his mouth to whistle to get the others attention "Angry Yeti from the north, irritated ice scorps from the east!" he yelled out allowing him to take care of the other threats while he would keep the other players to the south and west so they wouldn't be harmed. Of course he would take shots when he could till he found another tree to use as a sniper's nest making sure to snipe his enemies and shoot by both teams feet if they got to close to being out of the area he needed them to remain in.

Word Count: 1,774
Total Word Count: 2,375
@Aemon Trahaearn

Activities:
Hot Chocolate Tasting x2
Snowball War

Enemies:
Ice Scorpions
Ice Elementals
Snow Brute
Yeti