The Gift of Us! [Event Xmas 2020]

"Ah! Perfect timing! It's Christmas!"

A trio was approaching a city dripping in twinkle lights and wreaths, the music of joyous carols echoing through the trees before they could see more than the colorful glow. The shortest, Neema, all but skipped through the gates of Rose Garden, too excited to pretend to be a sophisticated woman. It wasn't that her home didn't celebrate the holiday, it was just that all the customs were different due to all the different species of people, and after several hundred years of the same old stuff, it was nice to have a change of pace.

This was technically Neema's second trip to Fiore. The first time had been an extended stay, though she'd been by herself back then. Things happened and she was eventually called home, leading to some messy exits, but exits all the same. Her hair was back to its natural orange now, as she was here as herself this time.

The two with her had never been to Ishgar before, as far as she knew. Her twin brother Fang sauntered along behind her, a pleasant smile on his face though he wasn't particularly impressed by what he saw of a Fioran Christmas so far. All the foods smelled too sweet, though that did mean the local selection of blood would be sweeter, which he appreciated. They'd only just arrived in Ishgar, so he was forbidden from causing too much trouble with his feeding habits. They were meant to integrate and destroy from the inside, and they couldn't do that if they became notorious bloodsuckers right out of the gate.

Poppy, despite Neema's presumption, had been to Fiore before. Long ago. His distaste for this land wasn't evident on his composed features, but he felt it stirring in his gut. His intentions had been to never return here while his brother still roamed these lands, but it wasn't his place to put his own will before his masters'. He was to keep these two ginger twins safe as they did their royal duties, so if that meant returning and potentially running into the one person he hated most, then he would gladly suffer in his silence. He walked behind the Farraday twins at a respectable distance, forever looking like a bodyguard rather than a friend. The happy music being played from speakers all around was soothing his apprehension, but nothing would divert his attention from his charges.

Ignoring Poppy for now, Neema and Fang roamed around the floral town teeming with crowds, admiring all the fresh poinsettias and sampling the seasonal treats with varying results. It was then Neema heard a voice calling out ahead. "Guess the gift!! Get it right and you get to keeep iiiiit~" a girl lilted, nearly dancing around a pile of colorfully wrapped gifts. She didn't need to say anymore. "Fang! We have to do it! It sounds so fun!" Neema squealed, grabbing her brother's wrist and dragging him closer to the vendor. She snatched up two square gifts and handed one to Fang, and the twins began to viciously shake them.

[wc: 515/2000]

rolling for gift guess~

The member 'Hiru' has done the following action : Dice Rolls

---

'Normal Dice' :

"EWWWW!!!"

The twins cried in unison as magic rippled over their bodies. Swapping genders would be alarming to anyone, but it was especially creepy for the pair because...well, they just looked exactly like each other if they were trying to dress like their twin. Fang looked like Neema if she was wearing an oversized black shirt and jeans with her long hair in a braid instead of dual buns. Neema looked just like Fang if he'd taken the notion to get in her closet and put on one of her white qipaos and put his long hair into buns. Neither of them was thrilled being the other.

"Why couldn't I have done this with someone else? Anyone else!" Fang lamented, casting his blue eyes toward the darkening sky as if to ask whatever deity might be up there for clarification. "It's bad enough having to look at her, now I have to be her? I would rather perish," he sighed, though soon enough an impish grin appeared on his face as he stole a glance at his sister.

Neema was predictably infuriated by his teases, stamping the ground and balling her fists at her side. "You think I wanna be you?! You look hideous in this dress, I can feel it. These shoulders better not be stretching the fabric," she warned, then whirled on the amused vendor. "This better not be permanent! No one would miss you, you know!"

Slightly taken aback by the insinuation at the end, the vendor nonetheless remained amused by the magic her presents wrought. She'd seen a lot of dates come by and the shenanigans that held, but she'd yet to see twins encounter it. Frankly, it was hilarious that they looked exactly like each other, but she knew better than to chortle like she wanted. "Please, miss, calm down. It'll only last a few minutes, I promise. It's a gag!" the woman clarified, then encouraged them to continue to try and guess the gift inside.

Poppy watched from a distance, nearly rushing in to slay the woman who had hexed his masters, but he sensed no malice so his hand was stayed. Now that he was just watching, even someone like him could find the humor in it. He raised a fist to his mouth to conceal a wavering smile, one that threatened to make him snicker, but he fought it off. It was unbecoming of a servant to take pleasure in the misfortunes of their employers.

Bickering as siblings do, the two returned to trying to find out what was in the boxes. "I bet I can figure mine out before you, if you can at all," he said, poking his tongue out at how feminine his voice sounded, but just rolling with it for now. Of course, he had to make this a competition. Everything was a competition with Fang.

"Oh yeah?" Neema squeaked, purposefully making her manly voice jump up near her own octave, which made not-Fang sound absolutely ridiculous. "You're on, bro. Let's do a count down. Three."

"Hey, don't make me sound like th--"

"Two."

"I said, STOP IT NEEMA--"

"One!"

"AUGH!" Fang roared while Neema giggled, and both started frantically shaking the gifts again, holding them close to their ears.

"An eyeball!" Neema declared confidently.

"A watch!-- Why the heck would it be an eyeball?!" Fang guessed at the same time, then turned to quirk a brow at his sister.

"Correct!" the vendor chuckled, pointing at Fang, then abruptly pulled a frown for Neema's poor attempt. "And wrong. Indeed, why would I put someone's eyeball in here?"

In the end, they were both sent away, one with a cheap watch and an irritatingly smug grin and the other with a handful of peppermint as a consolation prize. Poppy smiled sympathetically at Neema, patting her on her braided head. "It's alright, there was no way you could know it was a bouncy ball," his low voice rumbled out soft words. It did little to raise her spirits, and fearing she'd be in a mood for the rest of the evening, Poppy directed both of the royals to their next activity. "That looks fun. You get to decorate ugly sweaters."

[wc: 700 || total: 1215/2000]

With their attentions drawn to a new activity and off of wrong guesses and swapped, Poppy rested on a bench nearby with a steaming coffee while his charges had yet another opportunity to squabble with each other. At least their hands would be busy.

The ugly sweater vendor couldn't possibly be prepared for the forces of nature that were the royal twins. Neema and Fang descended upon the table of sweaters like feral beasts. Of course, they grabbed the same red sweater with sleeves of two different lengths. It was ugly on its own, so it was perfect, and neither of them would let go. Sparks flew between their eyes as they glared, then the screaming began. Despite being adults, when the two were together, they usually acted like petulant children.

"Gimme that sweater!"

"NO, I SAW IT FIRST!"

"DID NOT!"

"DID SO!"

"H-Here's another just like it, but in green...." a nervous attendant wheezed, holding out an equally hideous, uneven sleeved mirror image of the red sweater, only in bright emerald. The twins paused, looking between the two sweaters, then both grabbing the new one at the same time.

The arguing began anew over who would get which color as they tugged on both. The attendant gave up and went to help or shield others from the chaos until eventually, Fang wrenched the green one from his sister's demonic clutches with a bright grin. This was more infuriating than a sneer since Fang had a habit of those happy facades that hid his nasty intentions.

With the sweaters finally settled the two set to decorating them with gaudy decorations. Shiny ornaments of all colors were hung in the woven fabric by the hooks and gingerbread men of felt were glued on. They both seemed to have the same idea, taking glitter paint to write 'I'm with stupid' and arrows pointing in opposite directions. The phrase was a little ostentatious for where they were from, but Neema had preferred Fiore's irreverent approach to things ever since she'd lived here. Fang had found the stories of her time here very amusing, so it seemed he'd adopted her love of these silly things, especially since they were so...unroyal. It wasn't like he'd be King anyway. A bitter thought, but it had it's small advantages.

Neema wove candycane ribbon haphazardly over the fabric, while Fang took some shears to his and cut it to make it look more edgy. The glitter paint wasn't enough for the girl, so she proceeded to dump glitter all over it, while Fang glued tinsel around the bottom hem as a gaudy fringe. By the time they were finished, they were quite ugly indeed. They'd been keeping them secret from each other, working on them back to back instead of side by side. Pulling them on over their clothes, they whirled on each other to reveal them, only to find their sweaters calling each other stupid. Curse the stupid twin brainwave thing! Even though they were over 800 years old and vampires, they still had to put up with some classically human phenomena.

"You copied me," Neema huffed, puffing out her cheeks and moodily placing her hands on her narrower, boyish hips.

"Funny, I was about to say the same thing," Fang smiled in his sicky sweet way, looking even more angelic and frustrating as a girl.

Either way, the sweaters were done and were what they were, so they wore them out from under the tent and moodily continued their terrorizing of the festival. As they peered toward the bench where they'd left Poppy, he mysteriously wasn't there.


Elsewhere nearby...

Poppy had sensed the malicious disturbance before it breeched the festival grounds. He was on high alert, as a servant-turned-bodyguard should. The beautiful red-head had no intentions of being heroic and saving all the innocents. No, his focus was entirely on the two he protected, though they could defend themselves just fine. They also couldn't really die, none of the trio could. Not by conventional means. Even so, his job was everything, and he was quite bored with this Christmas mumbo jumbo. He also never missed an opportunity to earn some praise.

They came at him one at a time as he stepped out of the town's gate as if drawn to his life force. First was a little girl. A ghost? He was familiar with all types of spirits, but there was no time to chat. This little girl probed his brain and showed him quite an old scene with ice and illusion. A woman in knight armor gestured toward another with purple hair. There was no sound, but he saw himself walking toward the lavenderette, and he knew what came next. He'd done it of his own will serving under someone else, but it still had quite the effect on him. As he plucked the eyes from his own brother's skull and handed them to the woman, Poppy had had enough of this game. A frown tugged at his lips. His luscious locks extended and darted forth, acting like hundreds of whips to bash the little ghost out of existence. She disappeared, but this wasn't the only one, was it?

Poppy didn't wait for the other ghosts to do their thing. He'd had enough of mind probing and illusions, so as an older version of the little girl riding a skull-faced deer approached, he made a mallet with his hair and bashed it out of existence as well. Yet another ghost came, this one black and looking like death's wife, but it was also easily dispatched with his beautiful red hair and a little work with his magical sword. He thought that might be the last of it, but a geezerly cackle from a very real person revealing themself informed him that this was the source of this miserly fun. Seems he had a grudge against the holiday, which he found just about as dumb as the holiday itself. He resummoned his ghostly tormentors, but Poppy didn't enjoy playing around.

In an explosions of hair, silky crimson strands elongated and served to lift him into the air and rush him across the field. The rest of his thick coiffure acted almost as if it was a beast with many appendages. He acted as the core, and the mass of hair did the rest. He didn't care what this old man had planned or why. If he ruined the fun for Neema, he'd have failed his duty. His moved as a tsunami through the spirits, pulverizing them back out of the realm of the living and burying the old man. He claimed he was strong, and probably thought so because he was old, but if only Duke Scrooge of Humbug knew just how much older and more powerful Poppy was. Not that it mattered, because within moments, he was dead...and that beautiful red started to flow. Beautiful~

Just as he stooped down for a taste, Neema and Fang appeared out of nowhere, drawn by the scent of fresh blood. A little sip whlie it was still warm wouldn't hurt, right?

[wc: 1185 || total: 2400/2000 || Gift Guess and Ugly Sweaters done for 5/5 Peppermints. Ghosts of Past, Present, and Future defeated. Scrooge murdered and drained like a juicebox~]