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Goddamn it.
The snow crunched under wool boots. Snowflakes fell from the sky.
I should have stayed at home.
The breeze carried cheek-pinching air for whoever was unfortunate (or dumb) enough to be outside in this weather. And at this hour.
Should have stayed home with a nice hot chocolate and a fluffy blanket.
The sun was setting behind the towering inn. It was decorated in garlands, flashing green and red lights, and snow, of course.
For Mir’s sake…here we go.
The wreath on the door waited for her to enter. She hesitated. She hasn’t really been on an actual social event before…oh fuck it.
Rebecha was greeted by festive smells, also rootbeer. The bar was filled to the brim with people. Everyone was chatting and drinking, merry and jolly. Everyone she had ever met was there, faces she thought she forgot surfaced into her mind. As soon as she closed the door to not let the cold in, she was met by a small man with a monocle.
“Let me help you with your coat.” “Thank you…?” He took off her fur coat and put it on a nearby hanger. She rubbed her shoes on the door mat and started looking around, she stepped through the crowd of characters and sat down on a random unoccupied stool. On her right was Irving, faceplanted on the counter. How did she not notice him before?
“What are you doing here?”
“They convinced me with rootbeer.” The blue man slurred.
Rebecha could only imagine that Irving wasn’t invited and came here to arrest everyone, only to end up getting wasted.
“Rebecha!” A familiar voice rang through the room and a blonde wizard in green clothes practically floated to Rebecha. “Glad you could make it!”
“I thought I was going to turn into an icicle out there.”
“Ha ha! Gosh, we really need to catch up after all these years!” Wizarro hugged her from the side. “Hey barkeep! Get the nice warm Christmas special for my best friend!”
“…Christmas special, really…?”
“I’m sure you’ll love it!”
A glass mug slid across the counter to her, the brim was coated with sugar, and a candy cane was in the rootbeer with a holly leaf. “Welp, down the drain we go.”
Savory, spicy, and overly sweet. Sweet as a tit. A fucking dwarf could get diabetes from this.
“Jesus Christ.”
“I know, I know. I keep telling Reggie to calm down with all the sugar but he’s just a really stubborn old man.”
“…does this have alcohol in it?”
“I also asked this question, and Reggie told me ‘Of course, it’s rootbeer ’-”
“Good.”
Rebecha sulked in her seat for a while, or, at least until Wizarro got distracted with something else (which was Super Weasel Kid breakdancing on the counter and Moji Junior beatboxing while Reginald and Jeremiah scolded them). She got up and walked around for a bit with the shitty drink in her hand when the drunk Irving started making out with Bryce (who was bringing gingerbread and other sweets) for no fucking reason.
The rest of the room was relatively normal, Rust and Prospector were arm wrestling, the mox students were eating gingerbread (the previous batch, not the one that’s currently on the floor), Chandrelle and Lazarus were under the mistletoe, and Royal was chugging a large container of something while some people cheered ‘CHUG! CHUG! CHUG!’
Yeah no, she doesn’t want to have anything with whatever that is.
Then there was a table where Jack, BitBuddy and a fisher were playing Inscryption.
She still has the card packs that she’d sometimes get as ‘payment’ from the scrybes. Why not put them to use?
“Yooo it’s ‘Becca!” The Sphinx’s ex-servant howled. “Hello!” BitBuddy waved their spherical hand to her.
“Who’s this?” Rebecha took a seat and pointed at the fisher.
“Oh that’s Icey, Wizarro found them on one of his little ‘adventures’. They’re not much of a talker though.” Jack explained as Icey shyly hid their face behind their cards.
“I saw y’all playing Inscryption and thought that I should join in on the fun.”
“Don’t. They suck at it.” P03 floated by. “I’ve been watching from afar and it’s like watching bugs trying to swim.”
“HEY!”
The jackal and P03 started arguing and Rebecha simply ignored them as she took another sip of the rootbeer.
This is going to be a long night.
This was a mistake.
That was Rebecha’s only thought as she vomited from the balcony of the second floor. How or why she got on the second floor in the first place is a blur to her.
“Don’t drop your hat.”
She held her hat in place- WAIT WHO SAID THAT-
“-whuh?”
“You wouldn’t want your hat falling into the mess you made, would you?” Rebecha must have been hallucinating, a fucking cat was sitting on a floating green rug in front of her…oh wait, that’s just Catarina.
“Leave me alone you digital apparition of a wraith.”
The projection giggled as it disappeared.
Rebecha stared below her, rootbeer-colored puke laid there in the snow. Her feet tingled at the thought of jumping down the balcony- No, no. Perish those thoughts, Rebecha. Your life isn’t as miserable anymore.
It’s so cold. She dropped to her knees while still gripping the railings. Get up. She tried getting up, but she felt exhausted. Come on. Nothing. Her own feet wouldn’t budge.
She heard footsteps…no, it sounds more like clip-clopping. Wait, clip-clopping?
Rebecha raised her head up to find an alicorn centaur walking over to her, pitch white as the snow. It kneeled on its forelegs and signed: ‘Are you okay?’
She nodded, too shocked to say anything. ‘Here.’ He gave her his red and blue scarf. ‘You need this more than me.’
“T-Thanks…?” Her voice trembled.
‘Let’s get you somewhere warm.’ He helped her up and started leading her into a gaping hole in the wall. “Wait, who are you?”
‘T-h-e-o-d-o-r-e.’
A green holographic wall closed in between them, and Theodore disappeared in the snowstorm. Rebecha just stared into the blizzard until she snapped out of it and left.
“There you are!”
She encountered Grimora in the hallway. “We’ve been worried sick…well, you look like you’ve seen a ghost!”
“I have…I think I have…”
Grimora put a hand to her cheek. “Oh my, you’re practically freezing! Let’s get you to the fireplace, shall we?”
Seems like at least half of the guests have left already.
Rebecha sat on the couch wrapped in a fluffy blanket and drinking hot chocolate, I suppose Christmas miracles indeed do happen.
“How yer holdin’ up?” Rust plopped down next to her. She took a swig of her hot chocolate before letting out a refreshed sigh and answered. “Better.”
“Glad to hear that, ye could’ve caught frostbite or sumthing. But I’m more glad that our paths crossed again, how yer been?”
“Oh y’know, still doing the mechanic stuff.”
“Gotta pay the rent somehow, eh?”
We don’t pay rent in this world. “Yea yea, sure. And what about you?”
“Er- Well, I’m not doing much, but at least these blokes that I live with are fine company. Weasel Kiddo makes sure this place ain’t completely a bore, Bryce makes spectacular food, Chandrelle has started sewing recently, Lazarus is trying to write poetry and…the perspective guy, they’re just drawing stuff.” Rust pointed at his roommates, pausing each time to turn around in his seat and look for them around the room.
“Cool. I just met a bunch of weirdos since we last met.” Literally everyone in Inscryption isn’t normal.
“It is what it is.” He smiled and gave her a few pats on the head. “I’m gunna try some eggnog, take care.”
Rust has always been a strange man, maybe socially awkward because of the fact that he has no idea that he’s a video game character, but he’s always had his heart in the right place.
Wait.
Something is behind that window. She saw a glimpse of something moving. Or someone.
Normally she’d shake it off and convince herself that some snow fell from the roof, despite the fact that it clearly wasn’t snow- but right now dark clown Sado returned to the window and waved at her. Rebecha’s hot chocolate is running dry (and cold), and it wouldn’t hurt to check out what is her girlfriend (who she’s got this weird on-and-off, frenemies AND lovers relationship with) doing outside…right?
“Oh! Rebecha! Leaving already?” Wizarro floated to her.
“Just going for a walk. Gotta get some of that fresh air.”
“Can I come with you? I’m just worried that you might still be tipsy…”
“Don’t worry about me, I won’t be long.”
Rebecha put on her coat and went outside, to find Sado and a little red imp building a snowman.
“Hi darling~”
“Heya…have you been outside this whole time?”
“Obviously, I’d probably give everyone a heart attack if I did. Especially Rust.”
“…I can’t even begin to imagine that. And who’s the lil guy?” Rebecha pointed at the imp giving the snowman snowball arms.
“It’s just Louey, say hi Louey!”
Louey pushed a stick into where the snowman’s nose would be. “Hi!!!”
Then suddenly a snowball was thrown into Rebecha’s face, accompanied by Sado’s mischievous chuckle.
“Hey!”
“Catch me if you can!”
And so the snowball fight began. She could feel her heart pounding against her chest as she ran around on the glittering snow, making her blood boil in her veins. She felt so alive.
“Come back here you emo clown!”
Some of the other characters came out of the inn to join them in the dawn’s rising light. Her friends, colleagues, acquaintances, or whatever you want to call them. For once in her life she felt content. It probably won’t last, but so what? That’s life. And life has to be shitty sometimes. But you’ll always get through it, I know it.