merry merry christmas, and I want you to know

[mansionstaff]

Who: YOU
What: KISSLETOES
When: December 14th - January 1st
Where: Everywhere
Warnings: Sloppy makeouts.

SUDDENLY, AND WITHOUT WARNING...



The entire school has become covered in mistletoe overnight. It grows out of the walls! The ceilings! Everywhere you least expect it? HOW CAN THIS BE??

It's probably best not to think about it. Attempts to uproot the plants or burn them away only makes the plants grow back faster. For the time being, it seems the school must live with it.

[OOC INSTRUCTIONS:
+ Post dudes, get kisses!
+ Some (NOT ALL) plants are cursed. If you manage to step under a cursed plant, you will exchange a memory when or if you exchange a kiss. The memories will be first-person and very vivid, and characters will feel like they are experiencing the memory in real time, though in reality the transfer is instantaneous. Memories can be as short, long, happy, sad, or traumatic as you like.
+ If you'd like to participate, we highly suggest making a list of a few memories (with accompanying links/descriptions) that are up for grabs, and linking or posting the list in your top-level comment. Memory exchange is COMPLETELY OPTIONAL. When in doubt, OOC communication!
+ PLEASE PLEASE PLEASE TAG YOUR CHARACTERS
+ That's it, we love you.]

Comments

[blueburnshotter]

Congratulations on witnessing Hayato's first time being stuck, Henry. Technically it was his second, but the first didn't count since he was freed before he even realized how rooted in place he was. Perhaps if he knew what was actually going on with the mistletoe, he wouldn't have wandered out so early in the morning.

But here he was, stuck and frustrated but too proud to call for help. The only person in this school who would respond to the only distress call that came to mind was not really someone he wanted seeing him helpless. mostly because if Hajime ever called for his help he would GLOAT FOREVER and expected the same in return

When Henry found him, he was trying to wedge his Teacher's ID between the floor and the bottom of his shoe to no success. (And yes, he tried taking the shoes off first. It didn't work.) Finally, someone who could help him out! He'd been here long enough that he didn't even care about pretenses of having everything under control anymore.

But what a dark and dreary vibe he was getting off this guy. Did he really want his help...?

Yes. Yes he did.

"I can't think of any time that would be the 'best.'" His gaze followed Henry's finger, landing on the mistletoe. What did... oh. Ah. That was it.

"Trapping people is a little excessive just for a kiss, isn't it? If you wanted one so badly, you could have asked. I'd like to think I'm generous enough."

[cruelcurse]

Henry laughs at Hayato's use of the word you, as though he were responsible for trapping him in place in pursuit of a kiss. Maybe Hayato could guess that he was a sorcerer, and perhaps knew of his ability with curses based on that? It was probably just a general statement, not one directed at him. Even so, he promised somebody that he wouldn't let anybody think he was responsible for this.

As he approached, Henry offered that clarification. Even if it wasn't needed. "Well I'm not sure about ME wanting a kiss, but the mistletoe sure wants you to kiss somebody," he said, stopping close to Hayato. "Maybe it's because you and me are destined to kiss~ But I'm warning you: these cursed ones are more than meets the eye, hee hee!"

It was possible Hayato didn't know about the memory thing if he didn't know about the mistletoe traps...

[blueburnshotter]

It was only natural to assume that someone who stepped out from the shadows when you were stuck for the first time and knew exactly what was up might be responsible for it. At least it was to Hayato, who had dealt with no shortage of creepier fands and admirers back home over the years. Henry's attitude certainly didn't help his case at all.

But Hayato had been at the school long enough to believe that these things that popped out of nowhere would be cursed. That was exactly what happened with the barn on Halloween, wasn't it?

"I've seen a fair amount of high-maintenance houseplants in my time, but never that demanded something like that. But who am I to argue with destiny?" Mostly, he just wanted the plant to let him go about his day already. "Come on, then."

[cruelcurse]

"You got it!"

Henry elevated himself on his tiptoes and gave Hayato a kiss on the cheek, during which that weird memory-exchanging experience immediately took place so that two strangers could share some memory. Henry always figured it was easier on people if a stranger learned about somebody's private memories over a close friend. That seemed to be the trend, so he hoped Hayato wouldn't mind so much.

A pink-haired girl sits across from Henry, mild disappointment accenting her mild features. She's in the middle of speaking.

"Look, Henry. Life is like dancing... You can't just mimic the moves. You have to feel them," she says, and her soft voice carries with it her concern. She sighs: Henry thinks to himself that she's behaving strangely over what he considers to be such a non-issue. She cares so much. "We need something to make you smile or frown from the bottom of your heart..."

Henry laughs: it cuts through the gentle flow of her voice not unlike the way a raven's cry breaks the silence of the night. "You look like you're in a bit of a bind, Olivia."

She withdraws into herself meekly, frowning and averting her gaze. She seems a little upset, and Henry doesn't understand why this is such a problem to her. "I don't think this is a laughing matter. I'm trying to help you, you know!"

Henry experimentally pulls the muscles of his face into some weird, untested expressions while she talks. Then he shakes his head and focuses back on the dancer.

"Thanks for teaching me these kinds of things. But I guess I don't really know how to express my feelings," he explains with his mouth twisted up into a smile. Talking about expressions makes him feel hyper-aware of the one he's wearing right now. It's the one he has on all the time. "Isn't it okay if I just keep smiling~?" People like smiles, prefer them.

"N-no," she stammers, curling her fingers into a gentle fist on her lap. "It's not... I've always said that-"

Olivia's breath catches in her throat. It sounds like she's choking. Henry calmly tilts his head while she gasps and squeaks.

"...Olivia?"

"M-my chest... suddenly... feels tight... C-can't breathe... It h-hurts..."

Henry feels awfully empty in that moment. It's a different sort of hollow from the way he usually feels, and he prods around with his subconscious for anything suspicious. Ah, there it is. He can feel the strong grip of a curse around Olivia's heart, not unlike one he might cast on their enemy to reduce their numbers before a battle. Some lowly sorcerer must have found out something about Olivia, managed to prepare a successful killing curse to end her before the next battle... Henry swallows.

"...that's a killing curse. It looks like the enemy has a dark mage among them," he drones, a dark, sludge-like feeling creeping up in his chest. It's not a curse on him, though. It just feels like one, only weirder.

Olivia's strength to keep herself up is dwindling fast, and she's breathing hard. He just sits there in front of her, stunned into silence. "Henry... please. You have to get... out of here..."

That's crazy. But that's Olivia for you, trying to save her comrades and send him off without even giving him the chance to do something for her. Henry hardly has the time to think about it before he says, "Wait, Olivia! Dispelling curses is my forté!"

He reaches for her before she falls to the ground, and he feels his heart rate rising. Finally. It's fear. His vision fades some while he mumbles some incantations, creates a few sigils in the air with his hand over her body, all while the panic settles over him. It was a solid curse, that was for sure. But he has to save her...! "Haaa!! ... Olivia, the magic's been repelled. It's fine now!" He shakes her very gently in his arms.

But she says nothing. Her eyelids are closed. She looks very peaceful, the way countless others in his life have looked when they've died. Is this what it felt like to lose somebody close to you? Henry's panic becomes dread. He wants this moment to be just a sick dream. To think that he, a dark mage, couldn't even protect a precious comrade from an enemy mage... And it was Olivia he couldn't save. He feels like his heart might burst with the dread, the panic, the possibility that she might never get to do what she loves again. It hurts. He doesn't want the army to lose a person so caring as she, one with such a big heart. One who would take in an injured puppy nobody else would bother with, one who would dance with her heart for the sake of her allies, one who would dedicate some of her time to help him with his tangled, untouchable, burdensome emotions.

"O-Olivia...?" Henry tries, his tone drastically different from before. "No, you can't, you can't die! Please, don't die...!" Don't be dead. She doesn't respond. Her face is pale. The curse feels like it gone, but what if it's too late? The symptoms are quick, he knows. His vision goes blurry, and his throat tightens. The reality is settling in too soon, and it's heavier than he would have ever imagined. He never realized what he was losing until it was already too late. It couldn't be happening. "No..."

[blueburnshotter]

And so, the mistletoe decided one tragic memory deserved another.

It's cold and dark and silent as the last winds from the impact fade away. Where he was standing only seconds before is a crater, as wide and deep as a school building, filled with ice shards and... Hayato can't tell if those spots are blood or shadows. He doesn't want to go down to take a closer look. Nowhere is there any trace of the bodies of the men who pushed him and his out of the way.

He stares into the crater, all the energy he built up before completely gone into thin air. He's numb, both from the snow beneath his hands and knees and from the completely hollow feeling in his heart.

Those idiots...!

The silence is broken by murmurs from the crowds huddled around the crater. They're barely audible, but carry with them a solemn sense of defeat and hopelessness. Things he hasn't felt so intensely in himself or in others for a long time. He'd nearly forgotten what it was like. His cheeks are even colder than before, and he realizes that they're tears.

Funny. When did he start crying?

The wind picks up again. Against the walls of ice surrounding everyone, a child's voice echoes, chanting out a single word.

Hayato was only vaguely aware of one of his own memories being dredged up. He knew his had a happy ending, and so he wasn't particularly bothered by it. Of more concern was the vision of the familiar dancer in his head, that delicate flower withering and dying before his eyes. No, not his eyes. The unnerving fellow's eyes, he presumed.

It wasn't real - he knew it couldn't be, not with Olivia being alive and well in the walls of the school, but it left him with a deep sense of grief nonetheless. Hayato pulled back, staring Henry down with a wary eye.

"What," he hissed heavily, "was that?"

[cruelcurse]

Henry hadn't the slightest clue what memory it was that Hayato learned from him, but judging by his reaction, it probably wasn't so pleasant in his eyes.

"I warned you~" he chimed. "When you kiss under these cursed mistletoe plants, you exchange a memory~"

Henry wanted to remark that he found it to be a profound mixture, to tie a kiss in with the exchange of a memory, but people didn't like the mistletoe at all. It might get him mad at him, and he was trying to avoid getting people angry with him this year. It was a genius combination that connected people closer together than a simple kiss. That must be the motivation behind the curse.

Maybe only a dark mage such as himself would think of it that way.

Overall, he was busy concerning himself with the emptiness he felt from Hayato's memory. What just happened there? He wanted to know what it was that the child said, but for some reason, it was left ambiguous- like even Hayato hadn't registered its meaning, or something. The image of that crater with nothing left was burned into his memory, but he could hardly understand what it all meant. The feelings from that moment still stirred within him, too. It was uncomfortable, something he still wasn't accustomed to feeling anymore.

"I got one of yours, you know. There was a crater, and some people you must have known risked their lives to save you from the impact." He wanted to tell him that he was crying, he could feel it, but it didn't need to be said. He probably knew.

[blueburnshotter]

Henry didn't have to go into too much detail for Hayato to know exactly which moment in his life he was describing. Sure, the entire population of two towns had been there to bear witness, so it wasn't exactly like it was a secret, but having someone else tell him about it was... creepy. But it was all the proof he needed to know that this apparent memory thing was legitimate.

Which was troubling.

"There's a theme, then." No, he couldn't muster up his usual detached interest. He grit his teeth, looking Henry square in the eye. square in the squint "You've watched Olivia die as well."