Winter Spirit in Napedia!

What's this? Yankie Doodle Hades and Elpis home! Will be rolling first then doing the shindig!

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Home was where the snow was in the winters. It was starting to get bad, but the incubus didn't mind. His red eyes peered out the window as he brought the cigar to his lips. His hair was slicked back and he was wearing a suit. There was a festival down in the city that he found to be rather unimpressive. A shorter, black haired woman with her hair pulled up into a fancy looking bun and wearing a long sleeve black to grey ombre dress came down the stairs to the parlor that the man was in.

“Hieronymus? Are you looking at the Esprit de Noël, Spirit of Christmas, Festival?” Her voice wasn’t squeaky like most womens, it was low and alluring. Her eyes matched his with their red color. Her heels clicked across the floor as she walked up next to him and grabbed the cigar from his fingers before she put it to her lips, taking a puff out of it for herself. “And really, these are mauvais goût, bad tasting. Should try the mint flavored ones next time. Heard they’re better.”

The man softly smirks to the woman as he plucks the cigar back from her, blowing the smoke that was in his mouth out at her. “Merci, Eris.” His voice was deep and husky, nearly matching the females voice in terms of ‘sexiness’ if one were to hear them. “But I like this bitter taste of the calmative.” He mutters as he glances back towards the window. He took a long drag of his cigar before he let out the smoke around the room. “I was wondering if it would be worth the effort to go to the festival. It seems rather boring.”

Eris smirks as she covers her red lips with a couple fingers. “I feel like enjoying the day out. But it would be a bore to go out alone. Come with me, frère.” She says as she leans her head on his arm. “S'il vous plaît? You’ve been working at the office often, relax just a little. Maybe we can go ice skating.” She moved to wrap her arms around his and cuddled up to her older brother as she batted her eyes. “Or would you like me to become a blague? A joke to the circle of high society? House Straton doesn’t need the ill talks… not when we’re at the top of the food chain here.” At those words, a deep sigh came from Hieronymus and he hung his head.

He continued to smoke his cigar till it was no longer usable, then he ditched it to grab his coat. Eris already had on hers over her shoulders, waiting on her brother. He held out his arm and let her hang on the crook as they went to their carriage to the festival. The ride to the festival was rather quick, and they were able to get off near the entrance before the carriage trotted off.

Eris’ eyes lit up a bit at the sights before them. It was like a winter wonderland with all the decorations set up for the games and the like. Hieronymus takes a deep breath as he already knew what was on his sister's mind. She was thinking of being able to find her true love here, or something like that? He wasn’t too sure of his sister's fantasies. “Oh!" She had called out while they were walking around. “Frère! Let's decorate the tree.” She smiled at him and he nodded slowly. All these people. He wanted nothing more than to cut them up and see how they reacted to the motion. He bet they’d be similar to how HE had reacted, but humans can be surprising at times. His thoughts were interrupted when Eris hands him a box and smiles sweetly. “Your job is to hand me the ornaments and decorations when I tell you to.” She let her red lips split her face into a sweet smile as she popped the lid off the box to expose their decorations. She picked up a string of lights and smiles to herself as she let her magic move the tree just right to help her string the lights up on it. It seems like it was an effortless ordeal, but the beautiful string of lights with the tinsel, popcorn string, and the Napedian ornaments dressed around the tree looked rather delightful.

“Hieronymus, could you put the topper on?” Their topper was of an angel, and Hieronymus smirked to himself as he gingerly picked it up out of its box in the box they were given, and reaches his hand up to stack the ornament on top of the tree. The crowd behind them clapped for them as they stepped away, and the person observing the trees for the contest clapped to them. The other contestants had finished about the same time, and Eris and Hieronymus were declared the winners, and earned three peppermints in turn, which made the Straton siblings utterly confused. That was a rather lame prize to them.

Eris dragged her brother along with her to view the festival some more before she dragged him over to some area with a bunch of gifts. “Guess the gift and win a prize! You, Monsieur! Why don't you come and try your luck! You have nothing to lose! Maybe your dignity, but, cher moi, that's not my issue." He chuckled to him. The tall male takes a deep breath as he hangs his head, Eris grabbed onto his arm and smiles slyly to her brother. "Come on… just once, frère? For me?" With a huff Hieronymus gets into the stage with five other people. They were all seeming excited, except for Hieronymus, who was fixing his jacket sleeve and dusting off some lint off of himself. "Every participant gets to have one cadeau. They get to guess what is in it and the first to do so wins a prize!" The man, who had gotten the incubus to come on stage, spoke into a microphone. Everyone was handed a gift and the black haired man glares in utter confusion. It was plainly obvious what his gift was…

"Really?" He looked at the 'box', and held it up. "A pair of shoes." The box was more shaped as a pair of shoes, as it was really just wrapping paper around each pair of shoe, then wrapped around both of them together at one time. He handed the gift back to the host of the game, and they opened it to show the pair of sneakers to the crowd. “And we have a winner!” Three more peppermints were given to the incubus and he blinked down to them. Slowly he walked down from the stage and over to his sister as he glanced to her. She had a frown on her face and sighed deeply. “Want to go for a walk?” He asks as he holds his arm out to her. They were near the edge of the festival, near a park. She smiles sweetly as she nods to him and hooks har hand onto the crook of his elbow before Hieronymus leads her away from the noise.

They had walked a little bit towards the forest, lingering on the edge of the area before Eris had removed her arm from her brothers and pulled out a cigar from her coat, and lit it. She took a puff at it before passing it to her brother. “That was completely peu passionnant.” She growls as she snatches the cigar back from him and takes another puff from it. Hieronymus sighs as he moves his coat to be able to grab his own cigar and light it. Of course she wouldn’t share with him. “Why did I even decide to come he-” A rumble was heard as the two paused and looked towards the forest. While they were walking around the festival, they did hear words every now and then that there was an old man trying to mess with the festival and the day in general. He summoned ghosts or whatever. Of course, the Straton siblings didn’t care one bit about this, they weren’t scared of ghost stories. But they were sure that the man might of been real, and at least harassing people.

From behind a tree a little girl who giggled a little at them made Hieronymus frown. She wasn’t touching the ground and dressed a little outdated for the times. Was this a ‘ghost’ that the others were talking about. As soon as the girl saw the two siblings, she held her hands out and opened her mouth, making a mist come towards them. As soon as her mist touched them, both of them froze for a moment before they glared at her. Eris growls lowly before she threw her own hand out and vines shot out to stab at the ghost. She seemed to disappear not a moment later. It didn’t last long as she was slightly panting. “Did you see that too?” “Beaux?” “Wha-? No! It was… Rodger...” Eris frowns as she looks to her blank faced brother, but shook her head a moment later. She watched her brother stuff his hands in his pockets before he started walking into the forest now. “I’m wearing heels…” She grumbles before she starts following after him slowly.

The clomping of hooves came from the siblings left. The sound had caused them to stop walking any further, waiting to see a woman riding upon a skeletal reindeer. She had looked just like the other one, but an older version of her? Eris takes a deep breath as she closes her eyes. “Great… I killed her daughter.” The succubus groaned before she started twirling her hand a bit. Poisonous flowers started to sprout out in front of her towards the reindeer. “Go ahead and touch these.” She purrs towards the other. Hieronymus watched quietly as he knew his sister could deal with this on her own. Then a peculiar sight came. The ghost had started to pull out a weapon of ice from her… mouth? He raised an eyebrow before pulling out his gloved hand and snorting a bit. That was quite interesting. Then the reindeer raced forward, barreling through and over the flowers. There was acid on the petals and it was slowly eating away at the reindeers feet. This wasn’t stopping her from coming though.

“Eris…” Hieronymus was starting to feel a bit uneasy, even though his voice didn’t show it. She threw her hand out at him before Eris had threw her other hand out before throwing her other hand at the ice spear wielding woman. The vines whipped out in the direction her hand had gone, nearly knocking the weapon out of her hand as the reindeer started to stumble a bit. She had a plan, but it was going uncomfortably slow for Hieronymus. “Eris…” His voice was a bit more stern this time. The tree right next to the reindeer rider had a vine shoot out from it and hit her directly in the back of the head, making the deer have a headless ghost rider for a moment before the body fell on top of the acid flowers, dissolving in the flowers.

A wailing sound came from behind the siblings a moment later. Honestly, the incubus didn’t feel surprised too much. The hairs on the back of his neck stood up on end though, and he turned his head to look at the ghastly figure behind him. Suddenly he was hit with visions of something. He was seeing a cute brown haired youth looking at him from laying on the ground with a gaping hole in his chest. There were a few other faces on the ground around him that he wasn’t aware of whom they were. “You didn’t make it in time…” The voices said in a chilling monotonous sound. A snarl came from the black haired man's lips. He* pulled his hands out of his pockets before he unleashed some needles towards the figure. The needles were coated in a poison that would slowly eat away at the body. “Shut up.” He hissed under his breath. He noticed something shoot past his head and started to go towards the figure. It was Eris’ vine again. Though, this time, the vine missed it’s target because the ghastly woman moved. “I did love him!” She had shouted from behind him. Her vines were shooting out erratically now. This wasn’t good for them. This never happened. Beaux was still alive as far as he remembered. Sonya protected him… he wanted to harm her…

It took a bit of Hieronymus’ energy right now with the swirling visions of his old lover dying before him, but he managed to shrug off his coat and his vest, exposing the back of his shirt having six holes in it. A moment later, six identical demonic wings exposed themselves to the forest, the ghastly woman, and his sister. He shoots himself forward and found his hand grasping her black veiled neck before he opened his mouth and let out a poisonous breath around her face. “This will end you faster than the needles…” He muttered before he watched the cloaked figure slowly go limp in his hands, eventually disappearing from his sight.

A terrible, strangled, laugh started coming from ahead of Hieronymus as he let his hands drop at the sides. The visions of the young man had him rattled. He thought he was done with him, over him, moved on. This was clearly a rude awakening. He needed to find him before someone else got the smart idea to do so. “Hieronymus!” Eris’ voice rang through his mind sharply, making him turn to look at her. At first, her red eyes were glaring, but she threw out her arm and pointed ahead of him. His own red eyes looked up to see the old man with a top hat on ahead of them. He sensed magic from him. Hieronymus reached into his shirt and pulled out some more poison tipped needles. Before he could do anything, the old man started calling out names.

“Past! Present! Future! I summon you to attack!” He cackled out before the same three spirits from before. Eris gnashed her teeth a bit, barring them to the man as she saw the ghastly figures from before. “We’re going to end Christmas… once and for all! First, destroy these peasants!”

Hieronymus blinked as he looked to the man. “We don’t care for Christmas though?” He muttered as he straightened his shirt, avoiding stabbing himself with the needles. “Eris, sit back.” He orders as he steps forward slowly before he starts getting faster, eventually going to a run and a sprint. He leaped over a log in the forest, knocking some snow off of it with the toe of his shoe, before he spun and managed to get ‘Past’ with his needles around her neck. He reached into his pocket and pulled out a syringe. He breathed out and started to pull the syringe out and take in the poisonous air. Once his breath was in the syringe though, it started to become liquid and a devilish grin formed on his lips. “It’s been a while since I’ve used this… You’ll be my cochon d'Inde to be sure I made this batch right.” He chuckles menacingly before he stuffed the syringe back into his pocket and pulled out some more needles.

Suddenly, ‘Present’ was upon him with a sword and managed to get his arm a bit. As soon as the sword left his arm, he was seeing Beaux’s disappointed face again. He growls as he glares and spins himself around before stabbing Present with the poisoned needles. Her reindeer had already been consumed by Eris’ acidic flowers again. The incubus felt himself shivering as he glared over his shoulder. There was ‘Future’ and the old man. Future was trying to make her robed way over to him, while the old man was doing something. He felt himself rising more in anger. Turning to face the two, he growls rather unhappily. His wings stretch out and lift him up a great deal. Eris looks panicked for a moment, before she holds her hands up in the air, then throws them down at the ground. Suddenly a blast of green air shoots up and dusts Hieronymus and thus making him feel invigorated. He inhales for a moment before he belts out a tornado of red, green, and purple energy. Toxins. The toxins fire wherever his mouth pointed, and it was blasting right towards Future and the old man. The old man had bounced back a moment before a vine suddenly stabbed him and held him in place just as the toxin tornado consumed him and Future together.

It took him a moment, but Hieronymus slowly let himself settle back down on the ground. His red eyes looked at his feet in the white snow of Napedia. What was he doing with himself here? Eris walked up behind him, feet crunching on the snow as she did so. She was holding onto his vest and coat. “Frère, we should head back home. Mère et père are waiting for us.” Hieronymus casts a glance towards the softer version of him. “Hieronymus?” She had a rather blank expression on her face as she stared at him. She was studying her brother's face to see how he was reacting. “You mentioned Beaux earlier?” He flinched. “I see… are you going to go and find him again? I can let mère et père know that you had something you wanted to do.” Hieronymus flinched a moment. He wasn’t expecting her to be so supportive of him just then. A grin slowly formed on his face as he stepped forward, kissing his sister's cheek as he grabbed his vest and coat.

“Merci, Eris… I think I will be going to go and find him. Tell mère et père that I will be back eventually. But I will be taking a medical trip first for a more… cultural understanding.” He chuckles as he holds his vest and coat to himself. He was already set on D’or, so he wouldn’t be low on cash for quite a while. Eris would also help him out as well if he requested it. But that wasn’t an issue right now. He needed to find someone… he had an idea where after seeing it in a magazine briefly, but he wasn’t sure if it was who he desired to find. Only time would tell.**

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