jingle bell jingle bell jingle bell

[mansionstaff]

Who: YOU
What: SNOW
When: DECEMBER 6th
Where: EVERYWHERE
WHAT: SNOW (BONUS TREE DECORATING)

As a quiet Friday dawned on the school's campus, one could perhaps...feel it in the air. A creeping chill, a silent, barely-detectable indication that yes. Tonight would be the night.



By Saturday morning, the entire academy would be covered in snow.

BUT WAIT



That wasn't all--a large pine tree had made an appearance on the main quad, in desperate need of decoration.

Comments

Eirika - Anywhuuuurrrr - Open

[heartofarapier]

Out went the season of changing leaves and slightly warm days. But then when she'd returned to the academy, Eirika had found it mostly cold. And damp. Yet mainly cold. The very concept of the ways the days grew longer, the sun lasting less, it was somewhat miraculous.

And she had not parted from her ways. Characteristic tunic of red and gold over a skirt and boots not made for snow, she looked as she always did. And felt as she often had, a sense of longing for home and wistfulness for days that had long passed. Still, she remembered her blessings and the people at the academy who helped her along, for it was not merely one or two, but rather many.

So in the face of all ill things, she really didn't have it as poor as she could have. And it was difficult to forget that as she stood in light snowfall and seemed simply content to watch it. And be covered in it.

Saturday, evening

[will_be_god]

"You seem melancholy." The sudden voice from beside her seemed to come from nowhere. Cyrus had approached softly, the snow not deep enough to crunch beneath his shoes. "What troubles you?"

[heartofarapier]

She hadn't heard him and for that reason alone, she briefly tensed when he addressed her. With crisp motions, she looked over to him and for a few moments said nothing and then she shook her head.

"Melancholy, no. Thoughtful, excessively perhaps," she replied with a diplomatic smile. She offered him a small curtsey before she contemplated the placement of her hands. Settling on resting one over the hilt of her sword for comfort's purpose, she left the other one free.

"Cyrus, is that correct?"

[will_be_god]

"Yes. And you are...Eirika, yes?"

Rather than wait for an answer, he continued. "What thoughts catch your mind so intently?"

[heartofarapier]

She managed to get out an 'aye' in response before the inquiry he followed up with garnered from her a pause. He hardly knew her to talk with her in such a familiar manner and already was at an unease. It was one thing to wax on about trivial things, but to ask her to start indulging personal information seemed hardly called for. If it had been Renais, she couldn't see it being taken so lightly, but to be fair, for as open as she was about who and what she was, Eirika didn't exactly advertise her crown status.

"Nothing to the concern of anyone here," she replied politely. "Idle thoughts." Simply that she had a lot of them and nothing she said was false. Her thoughts only affected her and were only of import to herself and there was no harm in saying so.

[will_be_god]

"We must not permit idle thoughts," Cyrus told her, though there was a dullness to his tone. "In taking them up, we take away the ability to consider more important things. The world, the universe..."

He was staring off into space by the end of it, seeming distracted by something.

[heartofarapier]

"Idle is subjective," was her very direct reply, which basically indicated she didn't agree with him. But to be fair, Cyrus had yet to say a thing in combination with method or motive that she really stood on the same ground about. Was he a dangerous man? She couldn't say, but she certainly had the better sense not to trust him.

When he trailed off, she found herself looking over to him. Straight posture, one hand behind her back, her eyebrows lifted. "You've a love affair with the universe, it would seem. Or one that takes you far from here, if I were to make an educated guess."