Two Birds On A Christmas Night

Maddox had a mixed relationship with Christmas. On the bad side, it was a holiday that mocked the lonely. Not that Maddox was lonely! No! She, uh, just sympathized with those who had no family or friends on a holiday that celebrated such! Yes! Also the colour scheme of red and green could not look good on anyone, ugh. A travesty! The overall taste of mainstream Christmas tended to be a fashionista’s nightmare, but it could be done well. Mostly if you just stick to red and white. Like Maddox, she simply decorated her black coat with red and white stars, white boots, and wore a white hat over her crow mask instead of a black one. No tacky Santa hat for her, oh no.

But the thing she did like about Christmas was the excuse to see the (sometimes) beautiful decorations and knick-knacks shops put out during the holiday season. Bright fairy lights, flickering candles, golden inlaid snow globes, sparkling tree ordainments, all top off with the smells of roasting chestnuts and steaming eggnog and cocoa in the air. Finish it off with a fresh layer of glittering snow (that she was pretty certain the city hired a mage to do), Cedar looked like a Christmas wonderland and Maddox was floating at the crowd's shared elation over it. The only sad part was that she couldn’t steal any of the pretty things since this was the home down of those stingy Dies Irae people. Unfortunately, while Maddox was a good thief, she wasn’t yet willing to risk stepping on those people's toes yet. So, no pretties for her. Unless she was actually willing to pay for them. At least since she didn’t have any (proven) crimes under her name yet she could walk around the city unmolested.

Currently, Maddox was doing her best to ignore the first part of Christmas that she disliked by nursing some eggnog while singing along to some carolers. In this area, there seemed to be a nice festival going on with its own events. Thinking to amuse herself for the rest of the night before getting piss drunk and returning to her in the room alone, Maddox took a shortcut through a less crowded side entrance with a garland over it. Stopping to admire what a beautiful picture the festival scene made, Maddox only barely noticed someone stopping beside her. Then she noticed a bit more when some nearby people began to point and giggle. Looking at them in confusion then where they were pointing, upwards, Maddox had to stop the bark of embarrassed laughter. A mistletoe! Right above her! How did she miss that? Wasn’t there a myth that if you didn’t kiss you would get cursed? Well, this would be amus- wait. Her mask. Her skin conditions. How the hell was she supposed to kiss someone?

“Well, my dear it looks like we are in this together.” Maddox drawls in her deep unisex voice all while thinking on the logistics of mask kissing. Remembering she hadn’t even made eye contact yet with her supposed mistletoe partner Maddox finally looks down. And down, and down, and down to the short person. Then confused amusement gets mixed with horror as she looks to what she can only assume to be a teenager looking back at her. “Um, we are not sure how this will work. Maddox is not comfortable with kissing underage young ladies.” The shadow mage says with an embarrassed cough in one hand. Also, was that a mouthguard? How the hell would this work even if Maddox didn't get arrested for kissing a minor? That was not how she wanted to start her rap sheet.

WC: 613

She had to break this wall she’d built and climb back to her old self. Curse or not, she had to make the effort and keep herself free of the thoughts that caused her to attempt to take her life as of recently. Beyond that, the idea that she either couldn’t die in general or just unable to end her own life felt like a curse in it of itself, but it was only another twist in an old plague of her body and person. Just that eerie fact alone was a frightening thought in it of itself and it was very demoralizing beyond what she’d already felt burdened by in her mind. Frankly, she was afraid of what would happen if it were to come to the day that Aoi was unable to control her curse any longer, but the more that she had seemed to compare herself to Kalama, the worse she began to feel about it all. As much as she wanted to keep herself from comparing each other to this because of how vastly different this affected them both, the more she had begun to feel like Kalama was able to move on much better than she could.

But today seemed to be something she wanted to throw herself out of her room for a day. It was in the season of giving and frankly the snowy season always made her feel better growing up, so this seemed to be the best thing she could think of to do. Bringing herself around to getting out of her room was a harsh thing for her recently for the officer, however she had to. If she didn’t try, why was she here? Trying to put the priorities that put her in Dies Irae in the first place to the forefront of her mind got her into the motivation to get herself up and dressed for the weather. Instead of her normal dressing or even a uniform, she thought to be as casual as possible given the weather. She had put on a burgundy colored sweater with link like pattern along the sleeves and body that slightly popped out from the rest of the material. With a bit of a shorter pencil skirt in a darker shade than her sweater had it neither popping out from the top nor did it blend in behind it either. She did make sure to cover her bases by putting on a pair of black leggings and tan shoes. Wrapped over her mouthguard had been a pink scarf with a prismatic looking design to it.

Trying to just be as normal as one could be, she had come along the way of the town to look over the festivities while silently listening to the sounds of others having a good time. It was a mix of emotions that told her that she could either feel joy from seeing others enjoying herself and the feeling of depression missing out on that ability herself. When her mind had gotten to a point of distraction too much for her to move on walking, she simply stopped walking and stood there without realizing where or with whom she had stopped with. The snickering and giggles of the crowd had brought her around to looking in confusion before hearing a partial sound of a “toe” and she looked down, seeing a second pair of feet beside her. When she looked up, she realized what kind of “toe” was mentioned. ”A... Really? Right here?” She thought, shaking her head a little.

When her head turned away and to the person that she had been standing with, the sound of the person had been a little hard to grasp whom it may be, but the mask was a little... off putting, to say the least. She had looked right up at this person with wide, pink orbs and the person then looked over, then down. Did.. they just refer to themselves in the third person? WAIT! DID THEY JUST-! A vein popped in her head from the comment, causing her to pull down the scarf over her mouthguard and then pulling that out of her mouth, setting it down around her neck. ”Don’t y’all assume I’m a youngin’ just ‘cause I’m only a few inches shorter than y’all! I happen to be nearly 30, beanstalk.” She hissed, glaring at them. ”At least I ain’t lookin like some weird cross of Edgar Allen Poe and Evil Kineval.” With a scoff, she popped her mouthguard back into her mouth and then huffed through her nostrils this time, awaiting her to get some kind of snap back, if nothing worse.

777 words
777/2000 total

The young girl dressed rather cutely, even fashionably to Maddox’s approval. She seemed like a nice girl with long beautiful black hair and eye just the shade to be called pink, though they may look red in different lighting. Overall not someone Maddox would have minded giving a peck to, if just in jest- oh. Oh my. Ok, Maddox admits that was not what she expected. Was that a, what was it called, a cowboy accent? That did not match this young lady’s image at all. Only she wasn't a young lady was she? Well, in comparison to overall human age, let alone some of the more long-lived species out there, she was as much of a young lady as Maddox was. And since Maddox herself would be put off being called so, an apology was in order. “Ah, Maddox would like to give our deepest apologies, we did not realize you were near the same age as this one,” Maddox says with a bow, choosing not to comment on the size difference. But it was mid-bow that the woman uttered her next sentence

Going stock still just as she reached the end of her bow, Maddox paused for a full second. Then began to shake. After a moment this shaking was revealed to be laughter, with one of her gloved hands covering the area where her mouth would be, trying to conceal her glee as a cough, badly. “Ah, no, no, our apologies again, Maddox is not mocking you. It’s just, that is the first time anyone has called out Maddox so… directly on their choice of aesthetic. Sir Poe and his works were a direct influence on it, as are the plague doctors of history. Really, darling, you’re making us blush with that comment.” Maddox says, waving one hand modestly, the other on her cheek. Then she paused. “Though we are uncertain, Evil Kineval is a stunt man, correct? Unless you are calling Maddox brave or reckless we don’t…?” Maddox pauses again and looks down at her personal Christmas decorations. "It’s the stars, isn’t it? Well, we’d say it’s just missing the blue dear.” She finishes with a laugh. Either the insult has gone over her head, or she’s ignoring it.

Then she goes back to business, pointing at the aforementioned mistletoe. “But Maddox digresses, and resolve we pay attention to the matter at hand. We don’t want to get cursed, now do we?” She says with a tone of slight glee, though admittedly she didn’t know the curse of the mistletoe. “But it would be rude to not introduce ourselves before a romantic Christmas eve kiss, no? We are Maddox, mage, art appraiser and lover of all thing beautiful, oh lady of feisty words.” Maddox says, bowing again but staying bent. “Now, shall we kiss? Since neither of use are underaged ladies, but people in their spry youth?” If Maddox could, she would definitely wink right now.

WC: 491
TWC: 1104

This person truly was a nut job in the cursed mages eyes. She’d never met a person who spoke in the third person to the extent at first thought she had seemingly looked around as though this person spoke for another person. Once she’d assured herself that she was indeed hearing this person was just referring to themselves in this way, it became a little clearer for her to understand what they were saying. Still, there was much of an ominous vibe from them in the way they were dressed... and not for the tackiness that she had previously notated on. But, they were roughly Aoi and Kalama’s ages, so the tenseness of that easily digressed as they at least seemed capable of understanding a bit of a basic understanding. It would make this interaction a little bit easier on the two of them more or less. At least she had hoped it would and not devolve into some form of a fight or anything. She still couldn’t trust herself in combat. Not at all.

Pink iris’s looked Maddox up and down as they went over their logic behind this type of attire choice. Her questioning of the stuntman did leave her to chuckle a bit, adding a bit of a smirk to her readied comment. ”Anyone’d be brave or reckless to be wearin’ somethin’ like that ‘round these parts. But hey, different folks, different strokes.” She replied, looking away for a moment while the laughter began to build up a little more. ”Then y’all probably are more like a walkin’ candy cane than anything.” At this point, Aoi broke out into laughter, but nothing too wild of one. ”But I ain’t tryin’ to be mean. I’d be much much harsher if that were the case.” Leaving it implied she was much more verbally brutal.. well that was down to interpretation.

There was a subtle twitch at the comment of a curse being afflicted to them for not following to the idea of the mistletoe. Her gaze shifted off in a bit of a dislike of the idea, but with her mouthguard back in, she had not said a word on it. ”If only you knew...” A sigh through her nostrils left and she once again pulled down the object holding her curse at bay. Already things were beginning to become slightly hazy. It was too much time already? Soon it would become a wonder if it would be necessary to wear it if the curse simply stripped her of her sight entirely, however to appease this idea, she brushed aside the joking comment and nodded her head. Admittedly, Aoi had no idea the gender of this Maddox person. They seemed to resemble a more feminine figure, however they didn’t give off the girly vibe one would expect. Still, the air of mystery did intrigue her. ”Th-Then you please lead in. Y’all know where to go, I suppose.” She closed her eyes in a bit of shyness, awaiting Maddox to lean in for the act, however they planned to do so.

512 words
1289/2000 total

Ok, this woman's way of speaking was starting to get more endearing than startling. Was she from the countryside? A woman from the country heading to the big city only to have a fateful encounter on a Christmas night. It would be picturesque if Maddox wasn’t the said fateful encounter. Just going by the Requip mage's appearance in contrast to the other woman’s one would start to assume this was the beginning of a holiday horror story. Not that Maddox intended it to be a horror story.

“A bit of fire in one’s manner is never a bad thing.” Maddox reasons. “It is good for burning those with ill intentions… and warming those with other intentions.” Maddox finishes with a flirty purr, concealed eyes dancing with mischief. She starts to slowly, dramatically, lean into the other woman’s space, and look like she was moving to take off her mask. Only to, at the last moment, touch the end of her mask’s beak to the pink-eyed woman’s lips, saying a small “Boop!” as she did so. Some of the onlookers groaned with disappointment, while others laughed.  

Maddox then straightens with an ‘ohohoho’ laugh. “Maddox is sure that will suffice for the mistletoe fairy’s, or whoever is in charge of handing out curses.” The Requip mage says with an easy wave of her hand, trying to be reassuring since the other woman seemed uncomfortable with the mention of curses. “But it was rather mean of us to tease you, was it not? Please then darling, since fate has deemed to put us together for the evening, allow Maddox to accompany you so we can both enjoy the evening’s festivities! No one should be alone during Christmas!” Maddox says, offering her arm for the other woman to grasp. If she was a country girl, she may be a bit overwhelmed by the events and not know what to do. “Ooooh, how about that tree decorating contest? Maddox’s fabulous sense of fashion will blow them all away, we are sure!” She says’ pointing to where the event is being held.

WC: 347
TWC: 1,451