Festival Christmas

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Aboard the S.S. Endeavor, A black haired, purpled eyed woman got herself dressed up in a rather festive looking dress that was both a spaghetti strap and off the shoulder sleeves held it up on her body as she walked down the halls. The top part of the dress was white with the sleeves slouching down to her elbows with a light fur lining and had a big bow in between her breasts adorned with a gold star over the middle of it. Under the top part of her dress, she wore a red sweetheart neckline tube top to cover her girls a bit more. The skirt part of her dress was red with fuzzy snowflakes on the bottom of it. Her legs had on white, thigh high stockings held up by a leather belt on each leg, and on her feet were black four inch high heels, giving her extra height to her already six foot self. While she hated her height, she wouldn’t reject herself the luxuries of heels.

As she walked around the ship, she found herself going to the Arborium and smiled to herself. She enjoyed how the forest looked and let her stride slow down some. In her slowing down, she spotted Mathis sitting under a tree. Her eyes lit up as an idea came to her. “Maaathis~!” She was still a little ticked that nothing happened after that Singles Night event a while back, but she was going to get him to do something with her. “Would you want to come to a winter festival with me? They’re usually fun to go to with others, and well…” She crouched down next to him before she slightly flicked her fingers up and a holoscreen formed before her. There was a map on the screen and she smiled as she grabbed Mathis’ hand and pressed on a point in the map and suddenly the two of them were teleported from the ship to another location.

They were at the outskirts of a small village, and she smiles as she looks south of their direction. There was something there that she could smell, but she wouldn’t tell Mathis that right now. She stood up, patting the skirt of her skirt, and looked towards Mathis again just as festive music started playing in the distance. “Come on, let's go see how the festival is.” She walks to the village and notices how small it was, but the smell of seafood around and the sounds of the river nearby was relaxing. River Village. A little festival on the other side of the village was happening with people enjoying themselves and enjoying the season and the treats it brought. Lethe walked forward to let her hands run over a counter near a food stall. The smell of the various foods and warm drinks were all so delicious. She turned her head slightly to look to Mathis, seeing how he was reacting, if at all, to the festival. “Have you been to a winter festival at all?” She asks him curiously. She noticed some karaoke and at least thought of doing it, but decided against it. She wasn’t a singer. That was her sister's thing.

“Excuse me, miss, would you like to decorate a tree? How about competing for it?” Someone had popped out from behind a podium and started to block the woman's way. She raised an eyebrow and put a hand on her hip while she took a deep sigh. “If my partner wants to join in with me?” She looks over to Mathis again, and smirked to him as she waited to see if he wanted to compete, or if he wanted to do something else.

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Lethe rolls her eyes at Mathis mentioning going to the winter festival with Poppi, honestly not wanting others to join them this go round. She just wanted herself, and Mathis, if they could help it. Maybe she could get father this time around without a crowd of others around Mathis. After popping up at River Village, Lethe smiled sweetly to Mathis. “Duh, my magic has the ships location locked to it. We’ll be fine when we’re done.” She waved her hand rather nonchalantly at him while she started to walk away and explore the festival with Mathis in tow. “Also! My outfit is just fine! My body temperature runs higher than most peoples, typically for certain… reasons. Plus, my momma didn’t raise a weak little thing.” She held up an arm and flexed at him. “But if I do start to feel nippy…” She stopped walking to stop near Mathis and lean close to him. “I won’t be afraid to take you up on that offer… okay?” She muses as she had reached a hand up and touched his chin gently before walking off again.

She seems to just smile at his response to her question about being to a winter festival before. At least he knew that experience is better than books sometimes. She lightly bit her lip at that thought, sucking on her teeth a couple times quickly before shaking her head, ignoring her thoughts. She let him talk small talk to her, honestly finding it charming as he did so. She also offered her own bit of small talk to give him more ammo with, wondering how he’d take it. She didn’t give anything away about her time and home, or her family. When she let Mathis decide if they would decorate the tree, Lethe felt her jaw drop a bit from him summoning a polar bear and a girl. She closed her jaw and put her hand to her forehead. Of course he’d be the one to invite others to this…

“I don’t sing.” She mutters when her name was brought up for karaoke. She crossed her arms a little as she stood up straight, glancing towards the little girl and the polar bear thing as Mathis introduced her to them. Then he asked her to be kind to the spirit. She leans her head back and sighs deeply. “Rarely do I ever not be kind…” She frowns to him. She then turns her attention to the girl and put on her sweet smile as she bowed to her. “Hello, I am Lethe. It’s a pleasure to meet you. I suppose Mathis and I are in your care for this game.” She tells her as she crouches down in front of the girl. She at least knew how to soften her expression enough for a little bit. She stood up again and nodded to Mathis as he suggested that her and Ursula take charge. “Works for me.”

She goes up to the table and grabs a closed up box before making her way over to a tree. Some people in the crowd were talking about her height, and she snorted to herself before she glanced out of the side. She noticed a few people from her future, and they seemed to stiffen as well. As she saw them move like so, she grinned devilishly before she turned her attention to the tree, and then the box they had after she opened it. “Huh… I did good.” She chuckles to herself and looks up. “Mathis, why not take up these lights and start going around the tree with them. Keep this plug end close enough to the outlet so we can make sure we can plug it up.” She instructs him as she pulls out the rolled up strand. She had started to pull out some ornaments. She purses her lips as she also pulls out the topper. “Think we save it for last?” She asks Ursula and sets the topper off to the side of the table, near the middle and away from the edge so it wouldn’t fall too easily. “Pick whichever ornaments you think would look nice, I’m a bit more partial to the silver ones on a tree, to make it glimmer.” She confesses to the girl as she smiles softly to her.

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The tree started to come out quite nicely between her and Ursula’s work and with Mathis’ help after she instructed what he could do. She looked at the tree as it was almost done, and smiles as her shoulders relaxed a bit. It looked pretty. Her and her adopted mother used to make pretty trees together. The sad part about this, she could go see her, but she probably had no idea about her like so. Maybe her father told her? She would have to talk to him later… Her thoughts were dragged away as Mathis mused to himself. She turned to him and snorted. “We can use our magics to help decorate the tree.” She says, looking towards Ursula, making it seem like she was talking to her in case she had magic that could do something. She held up her own hand and pulled out metal out of thin air. The metal turned into little snowflakes and she used the metal hooks she created on the snowflake ornaments to place them here and there on the tree.

As she was putting the ornaments on the tree, she looked over to Mathis as he was using his magic. She wasn’t sure if she had ever seen Mathis using his magic, ever. She squinted her eyes at the light and the wind after snow started slightly flinging at her. She brushed off some of the snow off of herself as she watched him, wondering what he had done, but that thought quickly blanked as she saw how he looked. “Oh that’s hot…” She said aloud unintentionally before she cupped a hand over her mouth to try to keep herself from saying more than she should right then. “If you keep on looking like that… I’m going to beat you up…” ‘And love seeing how your body reacts…’ She was trying to not groan as she lightly stomped her feet.

Quickly getting over herself, she looked back at Mathis and to his hand being held out. The gem he created in his hand was there, and she blinked a bit. As the lights on the tree turned on, the ornament lit up a bit too, looking rather sparkly in the lights. “Oh… it’s… it’s pretty.” She says as she hesitantly grabbed it from him when he handed it to her. She felt her cheeks get warm and figured her cheeks, and possibly the tips of her ears, were dusted red. “You… you don’t need to apologize… it’s really pretty…” She clutched the ornament in her hand and moved to give Mathis a hug. “It is a beautiful gift.” She tells him as she removes herself from him and looks to the ornament again. She reached a hand up and looked away from Mathis a bit to wipe a bit of a tear away while a soft smile was on her lips.

‘You still going to try to get that?’ ‘Definitely… but this was too sweet…’ ‘You sap.’ ‘So are you.’ She softly chuckles to herself and looks back to Mathis. “Also, Ignore what I said earlier… you look good like this as well.” She felt her cheeks get warmer, and scrunched her nose a bit as she slightly disliked showing herself blushing. One of the staff members of the festival gave her a couple more peppermints after she took Mathis’ and nodded a ‘thank you’ to them. She snickered as Mathis told her he’d let her lead the way, and nodded about the performance. “I do too.” She confessed as she looked back to Ursula. “But I should say, I don’t sing. My voice isn’t nice enough for that."

She led the way towards the stage that the karaoke was to be at and watched Mathis create an icy lute for Ursula. As soon as the little girl begun to play she felt she knew a tune similar to the song and begun to softly sing along her own song with it, singing just quietly enough to not overpower Ursula’s song. It was a lullaby she heard in her birth fathers village once upon a time. Even though they originally hailed from Midi, they did have some who had traveled around and came back. This song was made after one of them had gone to Iceberg and learned their language. It was about a lullaby involving wolves. And it was close to her. Her voice wasn’t as sweet as she felt it could be, but she could at least hold a tune.

When the song ended, Lethe’s face was a deep red as she never sung in front of others before. This was something new to her. She hated singing in front of others. Her voice wasn’t that great. The crowd around them cheered regardless. The staff member that ran the karaoke had up the lullaby that Lethe sung on the lacrima screen, making her blush that he knew, but then he winked at her, and she sniffed a little. He was from the village. Of course he knew the song too. A smile grew on her lips as she nodded to him, and he gave her a peppermint.

She then went over to Mathis and grabbed his arm, wrapping her own arm around his elbow and leading him elsewhere. “Don’t expect me to sing often.” She tells him without looking at him. Her embarrassment was written on her face as she looked away from him. Her ears were as red as her face still, and she was going to avoid talking about how she knew the song she sang and anything pertaining to her singing. She hated her singing voice. Even if he liked her voice, she would probably still hate it.

Without warning, someone grabbed the twos shoulders and pulled them back a bit. “You two clearly aren’t looking at your surroundings at all!” The person chuckles as he grins between the two. "You two lovebirds have just fallen under the traditional Christmas Trap!” He then points up and Lethe’s face suddenly pales at the sight of the mistletoe above them. The man then backed up and crossed his arms over his chest a bit. “You can’t leave till you’ve completed the deed.”

Lethe glared a bit at the man, pursing her lips out a bit. ‘Do it, Lethe. It’s not every day you can kiss Mathis. I’m well aware you think he’s gorgeous.’ Lethe’s face instantly turned a bright red again as she looked annoyed before she reached her hands out and just grabbed Mathis’ cheeks. “Come here.” She growls at him before she put her lips to his and kissed him right on the lips. She was tempted to put her tongue on his lips, but she felt something pop out from her hair and quickly pulled herself away from him and throwing her hands on top of her head and quickly spinning around to crouch on the ground.

“Oh no! No! No! No! No! Not now!” She whines as she was holding down a pair of dark grey wolf ears on top of her head, trying to hide them, but it was also inevitable as her tail was also showing as well under her skirt. She felt her face burning as she knew it was too late and slowly stood up. Her cheeks were puffed out as she let her ears perk up on top of her head, and glanced away from Mathis, and the man who made them kiss under the mistletoe. This would be harder to hide her emotions like this in front of him the longer they stayed here.

The man who had stopped them, then cleared his throat and handed them a peppermint for completing the Christmas Trap of a mistletoe. Lethe didn’t look amused as she grabbed Mathis’ elbow, regardless of his reaction to her sudden popup ears and tail. “Anything you wanna do? I’m kind of done with this place though…” She mutters as her ears were pressed down a little. She hated eyes on her for her height, let alone for her ears and tail showing as well. The eyes were even more uncomfortable when she looked like this though.

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