lunariansage:

Selene simply sat there, conveniently starting into another plump mochi so that she wouldn’t have to answer the question immediately. Truth be told, she didn’t mind the others too much, so long as they knew their place and left her alone. However, it wouldn’t do well to admit that or else she’d never get any privacy. At the same time, she found it difficult to work up the nerve to tell her half-sister that she disliked them. Stupid childish bodies from their stupid mother. If they were normal she’d have no problem telling them off for such a stupid question.

She hadn’t even finished the last of the mochi in her mouth before she took up another one. Any excuse to not have to answer right away. However, they looked expectant of an answer soon, or at least Elly was. Rin seemed to be shrinking away as if to avoid the backlash of what was certain to be a cold and cruel answer. Was she really that kind of monster to these girls? She told herself that she didn’t mind, really, that they were right to fear her, but deep down that fact kind of soured the taste of the mochi that she had just consumed.

Finally the second bun was swallowed, leaving her mouth feeling dry. However much of that sensation was nervousness she could not say, but she did manage a response. “Well it doesn’t matter if I like you all or not, does it? In the end I’m kind of stuck her. It’s that or disappear out in the fields.” A bit of a sour tone, but not too harsh. “But I guess that I don’t mind you two. The rest of your sisters can screw off, but out of all the pains in my butt you two are the least.” A thin, whip-like tail flicked out, only to gently slide along Elly’s cheek. It was a half-teasing, half-reassuring gesture. “So is it all right if I just go to my room now? I’ll probably ruin all your fun if I stay. I can guarantee I wouldn’t be able to get along with everyone else even for a meal.

Contrarily to popular belief, emotional rollercoasters are not called so because of a distant similarity between the heart-stopping contraptions’s manner of showing how drunk architecture somehow finds a use and people’s feelings - not exclusively, at the very least. The manner of speech can in fact be used to perfectly describe what goes on in the common human(-oid) brain, as the neurons often find their usual routine too boring to follow the paths laid in front of them; thus, there they go, suddenly challenging each other as they boldly turn left and right, up and - goodness! - even diagonally along the nerves that house them, bringing forth a whole slew of reactions to the poor person shackled with their unruly lapse in behavior.

This more or less describes what the two imaginary girls were suffering at the hands (and extra appendages) of their very special housemate. Nevermind the slightly… well, more than slightly regressed capability to cope with tongue-snapping uncooperative people, for matters of family are renown for reducing even the coldest piece of living ice to a melting pool, bubbling about the difficulties of dealing with the strained bonds of blood they’re shackled with. A matter made even harder to confront by the strength of said bond which, at least on Elly and Rin’s part, was felt: they were little more than a partly shared dream, in which Selene’s presence was such a glaring exception to a rule that could only be terribly stretched to allow it. She was the luckiest, and yet had the most misfortune among them; together, they were all bound by hopeless hope. It was less camaraderie on the twin’s part than borderline pity, if even supported by a genuine sentiment of care for this homeless creature. The least they could do, they felt, would be to give her that much of a feeling of being “home” which she would otherwise never attain.

“Then… then you do?” It was less Elly’s inability to understand Selene’s particular choice of words than a need to search for a definite confirmation, to feel Rin’s and her efforts being not in vain. Yet the half-demon’s playful gesture seemed to push away that last sliver of unsureness, stealing a giggle from the child and a relieved sigh from her twin. Oh, and an eyebrow twitch from the little spy hiding behind the turkey.

“Okaaay…” Truth be told, the conditions set by Selene weren’t exactly appealing to Elly, nor for that matter to her sister, who once again had to take matters in her hands - by literally grabbing hold of Selene’s, that is - and shaking them in a manner as vigorous as her expression. “Fine fine! But you gotta come out when he brings the presents! Okay? Okay?”

Ah, the usual dirty tactic of insisting with the support of Elly’s lucid, hopeful eyes. Never gets old, even at Christmas!

(Source: rachelmusume)

lunariansage:

Selene allowed herself to be led this time with little struggle. It was far easier to just go along with them for now in order to get her reward. Then she could shut herself away in her room and let the rest of them spend Christmas without pestering her any more. Entering the dining area—of course that’s where they kept the snacks… Selene almost cursed at herself for giving children too much credit in thinking the reward was hidden—they found the piles of confections and its single guard. So this one was small too. The sight of Sayu was enough to bring a smile, or more accurately a small sneer, to the half-demon’s face. Sayu was one of the residents who seemed particularly strong in her dislike of Selene. Whereas most of the other daughters were content to leave the one non-Diorata alone for the most part, passive aggressive taunting was not uncommon between the girl and her more violent housemates. Perhaps the girl was still upset about being dealt with so handily upon Selene’s original intrusion? The half-demon didn’t particularly care, really. All it meant was that she occasionally have a target other than her sisters to bully while feeling somewhat justified.

Selene now took the topmost mochi, appreciating the doughy texture in her hand. It would probably suck, compared to the rabbits of Eientei anyway, but she wasn’t going to complain too much. Prior to sinking her teeth into the snack, however, she directed a somewhat imperious smirk down toward Sayu. “Be careful with that firearm, ‘dearie~’, you might poke your eye out.” This punctuated with a vicious, if not somewhat sloppy, bite of the mochi.

The confection was surprisingly good. Selene moved away from the table in order to appreciate it, not really caring about the other girls at this point as she chewed the dough-like ball into much. It could use a little flavoring, but otherwise it was a basic mochi with little to complain about. “Heh, well at least you didn’t mess this much up.”

Stolid faces are seldom children’s business, but Sayu, for all purposes, managed to craft a particularly convincing one without bordering (too much) into a more appropriately silly pout. That would be reserved for when her minuscule figure would end up being obscured by the mountains of food being brought to the increasingly big pile on the table. Would all of the mansion’s residents, as numerous as they were, be able to scarf down even half of these absurd amounts of delicacies? Perhaps they would be helped by the lack of firm reality, yet even a fantasy would have probably be put to the test by this culinary flood. If worse was to come, they’d have a substitute to simple firewood to burn in the chimney, with the added bonus of spreading the fragrance of turkey and sweets in the air. It would happen anyway, seeing the trigger happy tendencies of some unruly members of the family, alas…

“All the recipes are stuff from mom’s memory, actually! These are the ones given to her by mother, but they lost a bit of taste because they got frozen for a bit!” All of this was spoken in one strained breath, before Rin could take another one big enough to let her stuff her mouth with the tasty imaginary replica, which sure felt as filling as the real thing would have for actually existing people.

“Hey hey, Shelene.” Tugging at Selene’s side was the other half of the twin pair, one of the bigger spheres of rolled up paste filling her other hand, but not being as large as the eyes staring straight towards the half-demon. “Do you shtill dish… dishlll… don’t you like me and the other shishtersh?”

Uh-oh. She would have almost choked right there, poor Rin; instead, she resorted to flailing to substitute the words she couldn’t quite voice, as if trying to tell Elly that the question and the topic were a no-no. And was that Sayu peeking from behind a particularly elaborate kiwi cake? Maybe, maybe not. Hard to tell with all that purple around the decorations.

(Source: rachelmusume)

lunariansage:

They were too close. Of course Selene knew that she would have to remain in contact with them to fly, but she figured it would be just that and they could finish the task quickly. She hadn’t accounted for them more or less cuddling up to her in the air and rubbing against her so affectionately. She was not sure whether to be amused or indignant at the heat from them constantly rubbing up against her, faces pressed together so awkwardly. At any rate, it was more familiarity than she could handle even after a few moments, and the trio dropped to the ground like a stone in order for her to quickly put them down and pull away with a slight scowl. Still, the angered face grew softer as her gaze drifted to the tree. The colors quite honestly looked a bit harsh against the dark green of the tree, but the childish enthusiasm was hard to deny. Selene’s hands found her hips as she brought her gaze back down to the two girls, expression mostly flat and voice carrying an air of resignation. “Yeah, I guess it is. At least it’s done with now. Can we go get that mochi now?” Her original purpose to tag along returned somewhat abruptly. She did not want to seem like she was putting up with this for their sake, after all.

Tumbling down was not exactly what the twins had expected, but their hands were quick to latch on even tighter than they had to begin with so as to avoid painting this Christmas in a red that would not be as appreciable as that of the decorations. Would Selene prefer it, though? The cruel possibility was one that neither girl even began to contemplate, although the pragmatic explanation is that they were a tad too busy with avoiding an impromptu meeting with the floor and the laws of physical impact with it.

“Uwaah, sish’s impatient.” Elly’s remark was given with a face as worried as her tone, which contrasted rather well with the puffed out cheeks of her sister, less amiable with the possibility of their efforts coming to naught. The Diorata blood flowed strongly in the girl, as her abrupt gesture of taking Selene’s hand showed, along with the almost annoyed “Fiiiiine” that she could muster, Christmas spirit be damned. A façade that really couldn’t be held for long of course, both for the sake of avoiding to finish Selene’s job by wasting her sister and her’s job, and the fact that walking through the mansion’s decorated hallways would have tasted anyone’s grumpy mettle - and the grumpiness was mostly on Selene’s part to begin with, while being a latent quality (or, well, flaw) in the twins… well, in Elly’s case it was less latency and more a fact of wondering where exactly it was. But let us leave the matter of hereditary peculiarities aside, for all of that could fall in second place once the set of double doors opened to the sight of the initially described round table that now held an even bigger quantity of delicacies that would put even imaginary stomachs to test. Narrative can be pretty convenient, mh?

“Here they are, here they are!” chirped the twin duo, basically dragging their half-sister towards the side where the mochi constituted a fluffily-colored mount only awaiting to be partaken in. Of course, guarding it and the rest of the food was none other than a much smaller gun toting Sayu Diorata, the gun in question big enough when confronted with her tiny hands that one had to wonder whether her skill with it would be any less efficient. The coldness in her gaze, on the other hand, was barely touched by the lack of apparent age, especially given the presence of Selene and what the next course of action taken by her and the twins would be. A heated battle surged in the matter of a few seconds, two pairs of pleading eyes eventually winning a surrendering gaze, the impromptu guard stepping around to supposedly guard another part of the table where she would not be able to say something about the imminent attack on the mochi mount. A pair of grins rejoiced at their victory, hands finally freed from any grasp and pointing to the spoils of war. Of course, the first one would be Selene’s for putting up with everything up to this point… and after that, but let us not tell her just now, mh?

(Source: rachelmusume)

lunariansage:

Selene grunted with annoyance at Elly grabbing onto her legs, but rather than immediately kicking her sister away as she might have, she simply waited until Elly let go, flinching slightly whenever the title of sister was imparted. ‘Don’t call me that!’ she wanted to snap, but held her tongue. Better not to make the girls cry and just get this over with. Once the girl had released her Selene quickly set about hanging the garland around the tree as appropriate.

Then came the call for the star, which drew the half-demons eyes down even as the twins brought theirs up. Of course the gaze would lock just after they had set their eyes on top of the tree, sparkling with an innocent hopefulness with the anticipation of a job well done. What did they honestly expect her to say to that?! It was practically unfair at how happy they seemed with all of the stupid decorating.

“Fine. Let’s just be done after this, okay?” With a sigh Selene lowered to the ground just behind the two girls and took them both by the waist in her arms, lifting them up on either side of her before floating upward toward the top of the tree. They really should find a ladder or something next time, not that she’d trust young children with those either. Stopping to float at the pinnacle of the great pine, she spoke with as annoyed a voice as she could muster, though her gruffness was quickly losing steam. “Hurry up and put it on already.”

If a wicked streak had happened to grace the birth of either of these twins, the innocent vibe of their visages would have melted under a much less gentle expression of satisfied esultation for the right course of events giving fruition to their plans. Rather than give Selene the very reason she needed to drop them down uncerimoniously with such a display, no villainy dared to even touch their features, repelled by a light of excitement that would have scorched even the electrical ones that had been bestowed around the tree.

“Ahah, okay, okay~!” It took all their mental effort not to move about and risk to bring their Christmas to a premature conclusion (or rather concussion) in the infirmary, but the glowing star was making a good job of making them attentive for the sake of performing the task perfectly. Slowly, with one of their respective hands latching behind Selene’s head, the two girls reached for the tree’s top, carefully placing the decoration where it was meant to be. Once it slid down, the inner mechanism clicked, making the object sparkle in a manner that would have made even the most scientifical-oriented mind wonder if that wasn’t how a star truly looked: the physical form was just a shadow of the light emitted, strong yet gently reaching the sight of the onlookers, as if respecting their wishes to take in the charming vision. With a small chorus of “waah~!” Elly and Rin leant back, arms locking around the neck of their half-sister as best as they could, threatening to rub her cheeks out with the amount of nuzzling involved in the process.

“Thank you, sis! Isn’t it nice to do these nice things with family?” asked Rin, an eager series of nods burning Selene’s poor cheek from Elly’s side, both expectantly awaiting the response of their efforts.

(Source: rachelmusume)

lunariansage:

Constant allusions to Eirin, especially in the form of the selected colors for the decorations, were more than enough to make Selene cringe in her position in the air well above her two sisters. Memories of what should have been, or what never was, or however one might describe it, filled her mind with a somewhat painful nostalgia. Still, the thought of what she was doing, this silly decorating… wouldn’t it make mother happy to see her like this? She’d probably laugh that the selected colors were red and blue, of course, but it wouldn’t be hard to imagine that Selene’s own antics as a young child would be all that different.

With her previous load now affixed to the tree, the half-demon descended to find Rin’s handiwork on her twin along with the exclamation of the similarity to Eirin. While the sight was indeed comical to an extent, the small ire that it brought up within Selene was enough to keep her belligerence in reasonable strength. “Don’t be stupid…” Any further reprimand seemed to catch in the girl’s mind as she let out a long sigh accompanied by a brief shake of her head, ashen locks swaying to accompany her annoyance. “Come on… stop screwing around or we’ll never finish.”

With a quick gesture Selene had taken a small grip of the garland on top of Elly’s head and proceeded to lift off again, unraveling the bound girl in an ascending corkscrew of red and blue vestments. It was probably a good thing that her sisters couldn’t fly, or else one of them might have seen the faintest trace of a smile on their stepsister’s face. Holiday nostalgia was a powerful thing, even if the events never necessarily happened.

Trimming a mountain down with mere icepicks was a challenge that only the most patient pair of girls could have undertaken, and Elly and Rin felt they fit the bill enough to make their attempt slightly less than a desperate one, unlike some of their more abrasive sisters had remarked - with the attention they’d have to put, just to avoid letting out too mean of a remark that could have preclued their inclusion in the list of people to be graced by the magnanimous man in red. That being said, it was still hard to maintain smiles while Selene seemed intentioned to do her best to make them falther, almost succeeding with the most sensible of the pair. Luckily, however, she soon was too busy with being freed from her silly colored prison to preoccupy herself with the prospective of failure.

Like a spinning top of absurd proportions, Elly started to turn around in unison with the garland’s leaving her body, under the careful attention of her twin’s knowing gaze: silently, she waited for it to happen, and sure enough…

“Waaah!” There. Right as the last centimeter of brightly colored garland left the small girl, Elly managed to stumble at the end of the tenth or so turning motion she had taken, inevitably taking hold of the only thing in her short arms’ reach, the ‘thing’ being Selene’s legs (height was yet another aspect in which her size was presently lacking). Thusly embracing her half-sisters’ lower limbs the young nurse raised her slightly dizzy gaze, confusion giving way to yet another cheery expression accompanied by muffled giggle. “Eheh, okay sis!”

That she said, but she lingered enough that it took Rin’s poking her shoulder to finally let go and set back to working to the final touches, those being simple decorations that resembled the manor’s residents - of course, the three decorators’ own ones were put together in the center of it all, with ‘Selene”s grumpy-faced figurine standing shoulder-by-shoulder with those of Rin and Elly. Now, only one last particular remained…

“The star! Let’s put it… oh.” With the big, typical representation of a golden star held between their hands, the two sisters gazed at it, then at the top of the tree… higher… push that gaze a little further, girls… there. Uh oh, it seemed that alone they would never reach the tree’s top, and yet so longing they looked, almost forgetting their original purpose. Maybe their forms did affect their minds a bit, after all.

(Source: rachelmusume)

lunariansage:

The fact that the girls had taken Selene along to help with a task away from the others was likely a godsend. There was a relatively good chance that the girl would have thrown a punch at the first person she met who could actually handle that kind of aggression without having to be bedridden for a few days. The sheer exuberance of her ‘sisters’ was on the verge of making her ill, or at least she liked to think that was the case.

Then they came to the library, or whatever random name the girls picked for the place. How juvenile to think that a simple name could make it more than it really was. It just seemed pointless, though admittedly Selene was trying to grasp on to anything that she could use to justify being annoyed about being forced to involve herself with these festivities. And of course she couldn’t get any mochi right away either. Just great. Maybe next they would try to force her into a Santa suit or wear a red nose!

“Feh, you two can’t fly, can you? Useless…” She didn’t know if they could or couldn’t, but it seemed that most of the daughters took after Rachel’s sensibilities. Normal people didn’t just lift from the ground by magic or anything. Selene, on the other hand, did not even technically need her wings to achieve that manner of levitation. “Fine, whatever. Let’s get this over with so you stop begging for help and I can go back to avoiding all of you.” With a huff she grabbed up an armful of ornaments and floated up, working to place them high on the tree.

It would have seemed strange for a couple of children to rejoice for the fact of being unable to lift off from the ground, and yet there they were, twins Elly and Rin nodding with glee at Selene’s harsh remark about their glaring lack of such a power. The near-perfection of their plan stemmed from having carefully taken note of all kinds of particulars that while seemingly secondary, would have contributed in some measure to make their half-sister’s presence feel like an invaluable, irreplaceable one. Feeding her ego of course would just be part of their innocent ploy, being the easiest way to tug Selene’s mood into a manageable spot. These two weren’t the daughters of refined scientific minds for nothing!

“We take the blue and then we take the red, and it’s like mother’s dress!” Rin’s voice chimed as she attached spherical decorations all around the lower branches, almost dancing as she jumped from one to the other with her sister struggling to keep up but smiling just as brightly, humming a tune to go in synch with her sister’s words. It barely did, but the effort was there. “And then…”

A surprised yelp, with hints of falsehood in it, escaped from Elly’s mouth as her twin started to run around her in circles, a couple of garlands of the enunciated previously surrounding her from head to toe, until only her eyes were left devoid of the brightly lucid things. “Ta-daa! It’s like mother’s here!” It looked more like a shiny red and blue mummy than anything close to Eirin, but Rin presented her sister with the same eagerness nonetheless, with Elly doing her best to smile through the itchy cover. Their work wasn’t really done, but this interval felt necessary to brighten Selene with a bit of a silly mood, if only to not let silence fall and put their efforts into an oblivion of failure… if they had not it just now.

(Source: rachelmusume)

lunariansage:

Selene bristled at the offer of mochi. It was not enough that these two girls could see her mother, but they had to go and remind her of it constantly, whether intentional or not. It was enough to make her blood boil on most days, but in their current states getting mad would just make things worse. Making the little children cry would only cause her more grief.

Even so, she was having a hard time coming up with an excuse to deny them. Of course she knew that it wasn’t contagious. Even the dimmest of idiots in the house knew that anything that happened to the daughters was because of Rachel, which is what exempted Selene. “Heh, your microscope? Like I’d trust your medical skills…” It was really all she could say before these exuberant girls. In the end there was little choice. She would be dragged out to join or she would be constantly pestered for not taking part. “Fine, whatever.” The door opened all the way now as the demon’s slender form passed through the doorway. The look on her face was undoubtedly sour, but she did hope to get some mochi.

It should be noted here that, had Elly’s physical age been her usual, the ultimate result of Selene’s blunt comment would have been exactly the same: a surprised yelp, quickly followed by the glistening of her eyes, along with cheeks so puffed they could have easily exploded, had Rin not given her intervention in the form of tugging at her tiny hand. All signs of uneasiness disappeared anyway, when the slight creaking sound emitted by the door accompanied the full appearance of the stubborn girl. Victory washed over the twins as they mirrored each other’s innocent satisfaction, emitting all sorts of giggle as they took hold of their half-sister’s hands and started to pull her with quick, little steps.

“Thank you, Shelene! We’re gonna have lotsh of fun, you’ll shee!” The odds seemed to indicate otherwise, but Elly seemed hell-bent on proving the contrary as she skimmed the hallways along with her sisters. “But if you want the mochi, you have to help like all the others too!” added Rin, just for the sake of reminding Selene that hers would be a hard trip towards the goal of actually getting into a mood that couldn’t be summarized as ‘reluctant’.

The room they entered was not the one where all the food was being brought, but rather what could be referred to as a recreational one, at least as far as the least rowdy members of the family were concerned. Bookshelves lining the walls, a fireplace as big as any of the residents themselves and comfortable armchairs, the most relaxing of the house’s places and one that had not been chosen so casually by the two childs, knowing how eager their half-sister was to deal with the others. They brought there, stopping only after having reached the corner where a new piece of decoration stood, so high it almost touched the tall ceiling above them.

“We have to finish decowating the twee, shishter! Can you help us?” The boxes where at least three, filled to the brim with red, white and the obligatory purple-colored glinting spheres, not counting the messy pile of electric lights lying next to them. Both girls turned around, grinning in unison and silently pleading Selene. Would she help them, pleeease?

(Source: rachelmusume)

lunariansage:

Selene quite visibly flinched at the knocking at her door. At least no one was around to see it. To be quite honest, it was not necessarily that the half-demon hated the idea of Christmas. No, she had many memories—false memories, she had to remind herself—of how Christmas would have been like at Eientei. No, the reason that she remained sealed away in her private quarters was exactly those two knocking at her door. Rather, she wanted nothing to do with any of the other girls at the mansion, especially the ones that would remind her of her own mother. To pretend to be happy around them was asking too much. It was idiotic, even. To make matters worse, less than a week ago every single girl in the mansion had suddenly regressed in age! Selene was the only one who had been spared this strange fate, but that put her in the incredibly awkward position of being the single ‘mature’ one among a household of gradeschoolers. The very thought of being responsible for any of them made her skin crawl.

Nevertheless, it was unlikely that her half-sisters would allow her to isolate herself so easily. They knew that she was there, after all. Rather, she simply hoped that she could drive them off fairly quickly. The demigod stood in a single flowing movement and moved to open the door just a crack before peeking out. “Like Makai am I going to let you two drag me into something so stupid,” she said with a slight scowl. Normally Rin and Elly weren’t much shorter than her, simply the amount that one would expect with their difference in apparent age. However, she found herself looking farther down in disdain at the girls in their current form. In a way it was immensely gratifying to feel so authoritative over them, but the red and blue of their Christmas coats soured whatever small amusement that she would have taken from the situation. “If you’re done being pests then go away. I don’t want to catch whatever turned you into bigger brats.”

While it had gone about as well as they had expected, the fact still stood that they had managed to have the young - not as much as them, in terms of physical age - girl open her door, if only enough so to let half of each sister’s gaze to reach the sliver of what little of Selene was visible. What met the half-demon’s eyes was a couple of faces nearly identical to each other, cheek against cheek as they united the pleading looks of their eyes in a peculiar combination to strike in unison at an impenetrable barrier of stubborness.

“It ish not infec… infecchu… it’sh not contagioush, I checked very well on my microshcope!” exclaimed Elly, her one free arm, the one not pressed against her sister’s, flailing about, the slightly longer sleeve flapping over her hand as she tried her best to show the reassurance that her toy, gifted by Rin herself, had given her about the matter. Not that the part about the phenomenon being related exclusively to the ‘official’ residents of the mansion lacked any bit of truth, but perhaps it would be best if the part about the tools used to ascertain it would have been best left unmentioned as it was for now.

“You are a member of the family, we can’t leave you all moody and alone while everyone else has fun!” said Rin immediately afterwards, her own free arm less eager in its movement as it simply held out to put her glowed hand on the small space left between the door and its frame. A low jab, admittedly; not for nothing Rin was the one that had taken more after the less judgemental of her mothers. “There’s even the mochi and it’s gonna get bad if nobody eats it…” Her cheek puffed enough to push her slightly away from Elly’s visage, which was nodding furiously as if to imply that the issue was deadly serious. Nobody could let the mochi go to waste, not even Selene! That would have been rude!

(Source: rachelmusume)

Had an adult with some common sense in its head stepped inside the grand mansion that stood out in the endless expanse of green, there would have been much to rant and feel preoccupied about. Then again, the sight of such a big abode being inhabited by anything but children was really of secondary importance, as would have been the age and disposition of said supposed intruder, when compared with the fact that said young ones, all girls of apparent age no higher than eight years at best, could have easily made up a mess of apocalyptic levels. It was only by relative luck that there was nobody to walk this empty landscape and get lost in this place, barring the occasional gray-faced intruder that would quickly be disposed of, and that most of their minds were too busy caring for their very first true instance of what was their first Christmas.

Not even the more reclusive ones were immune to the charm of the sparkly decorations they were busy hanging around every nook and cranny of their place, each dueling with the other for the sake of making what they perceived as the best disposition for what they had been tasked to work with. The Christmas lights created by the Childish Scientific Department (unofficial name) hummed tunes as bright as their own lights, alternating between red, blue and a combination of both types of photons to create a most appropriate purple shining on every room around the place. What truly took the cake, however, was the enormous representations of the Common Mother, strung in place of the usual painting welcoming guests in the hall, and representing her in a most hilarious Santa outfit.

The kitchen wasn’t less busy, all manners of appliances, cookers and stoves shelling out cookies at the speed of two sweets per second, the big round table quickly getting filled with the manner of delicacies that could make any child drown in a heap of their own saliva. The occasional stealing of one or two pieces of the chaotic composition laying atop the red and white embroidered tablecloth was irrelevant, seeing that as soon as a pair of tiny hands would close around a pastry or piece of cake, one more would immediately be brought on a tray by another inhabitant. The only thing stopping a food fight from happening, along with the usual kind of chaos that would easily explode at the slightest signal, was the awareness of the existence of a single person that everyone was awaiting, and the fear that, were their records to be smudged once the time of his coming would near, the joyous event would fail to happen. And that, to (temporary, at least in most cases) children like them, would be the direst consequence!

But there was one who kept away from all of it. Her room had been just a recent addition, the door behind which it stood standing out from the others; it was not a matter of exterior difference, seeing as the structure was, for all purposes, the same as that of every other door inside the house. But there was no doubt that it, like her owner, were at least partly differentiated from the rest. That, however, was not reason enough for two residents to so easily accept the girl’s refusal to partake in their activities.

“Sheweeene! Why don’t you come to pway with evewyone elshe?” The small-sized Elly, while sporting a blue coat that made her resemble a Christmas elf, still sported her nurse cap atop her head, but rather than being busy tending to the usual scratch or wound, she was knocking at the door that inexorably stood closed in front of her. A sigh was exaled next to her, by the nearly-identical girl with a similar set of clothes but red in color.

“You aren’t going to stay there for the duration of the month, right? This is an important and fun celebration we are going to have!” exclaimed Rin, following with a knocking motion of her own. Their attempts didn’t seem to have much success, but if Selene was going to hope that they would tire of it eventually, she was in for a particularly long and grating period of festivities.