(no subject)

[oblivium]

LOVE AT FROST BITE

I. COLD HANDS, WARM HEART

---

From December through January, high winds gradually rise all across the Netherworld, large flakes of snow causing white-out condition. The wind howls and whistles, blades of icy gusts cutting through your clothes as frost clings to your hair and lashes. No matter where you are, you feel its glacial, bone-chilling force, and no matter what you do, you quickly find that nothing keeps you warm. You're freezing, shivering, teeth chattering. Fire and the proximity of others may offer brief reprieves, so bundle up and find a cuddling partner before you crystalize. If you don't have a Soulmate, now might be the time to search for one.

Unfortunately, when it rains, it pours. Some of you may experience sudden, intense headaches, followed by a sense of panic. Your chest tightens. Your head swims. Your lungs ice over, and you know then: someone's messing with your home in the Shadowlands.

► If you're already in your home, stay alert as light goes out: squint through the dark, and you'll soon be able to distinguish an enormous figure. Krampus.
► If you're anywhere in Stygia and are unable to teleport, crossing the Tempest is particularly perilous on your own, though if you explain what's going on to a Ferryman, they'll oblige.
► Luckily, Krampus doesn't seem extremely interested in your Tethers, but it's entirely possible that he damages a few while being in your home. He's mostly interested in you, and whether you've been a good Restless.

If you feel like your character's done a decent job at silencing their Shadow, Krampus will curse them; every full moons through December and January, they'll be compelled to tell a significant lie. A single lie can be told multiple times to different and/or the same people, and multiple lies can also be told multiple times to different and/or the same people. If, on the other hand, you feel as though they've been struggling -- or worse, enjoying its presence -- Krampus will give them a unique coin: everywhere you go, it'll loudly comment on anyone within 10 feet, giving a brief but accurate description of what your character truly thinks of them. You can't get rid of it, but after its first use, it'll disintegrate within a couple of weeks.

II. DON'T LEAF ME HANGIN'

---

Kiss kiss fall in love, it's mistletoe time! And its provenance is a little gruesome: some Restless have been coughing them up due to the floral disease affecting Stygia's citizens, and for reasons unknown, the plant's made itself a home in tree branches, bushes, and ceilings. Having the time of its life, probably! Some sprites have taken a liking to them, and started worshipping them as flowery entities. It's believed among them that kissing underneath the mistletoe is the greatest way to honor said entities, while refusing to is a terrible affront; the sprites will start following you and pranking you in retaliation.

► If you walk under mistletoe along with someone else and refuse to/do not kiss, you'll be followed by a sprite for 24 hours, during which they'll prank (see list below*) and just generally annoy you. Only one sprite at a time will follow you, even if you walk again under mistletoe within the 24 hours time frame.
► If you walk alone under mistletoe, this unnamed creature will stalk you from the shadows, whispering and trying to coax you closer, promising delightful kisses you'll never forget. In truth, it just wants to devour your tongue, a delicacy. It'll give up after 12 hours, and will never follow you inside your home.
► An old woman sells mistletoe berry tarts in the Marketplace, and claims it'll help anyone who suffers from insomnia. She's not wrong! One bite and you'll fall dead asleep within the hour, and only a kiss will be able to awaken you. Sweet dreams, sleeping beauty!
► If you do wind up kissing anyone under the mistletoe, you'll find it easier to deal with your Shadow through the month, a blessing from the sprites! If, on the other hand, you don't partake in kissing endeavors, your Shadow will seem louder than usual.

Additionally, many patrons in Mirth host festive and/or cozy soirées throughout December. If you feel like dancing, singing, drinking eggnog in good company and eating delicious hors d'oeuvres, wear your ugliest festive sweater and have some fun! Just be careful, as mistletoe will 100% find its way inside these venues!

PRANK LIST

---

*you can either RNG or choose! all effects disappear within 24 hours. can be pranked multiple times within 24 hours.

► the sprite enchants your clothing to make them colder and colder.
► the sprite swaps your character's voice with someone else's.
► the sprite steals an object that belongs to you and puts it in another character's pocket/room.
► your breathing becomes loud and obnoxious.
► when it snows, you perceive every flake as a human face.
► everything you eat tastes like ashes.
► you feel compelled to scream everything you say.
► you think you are the world's greatest bard, so sing your heart out!
► you gain a forked tongue.
► when breathing out in cold weather, you exhale black smoke instead of white breath.
► anomalous orifices begin appearing on your body, such as mouths, eye sockets, etc.
► you can now hear all heartbeats within 10 feet of you.
► you hallucinate a worm in your chest trying to eat its way out. you can’t feel it, but the skin on your torso ripples as it burrows beneath.
► you feel like your body is slowly melting, like a candle with a too hot flame. it's not.
► your ears constantly hear a repeating brief tune.

---

ooc note

► As always, check out the Notice Board if you'd like additional prompts! Older quests from previous months are always available as well. You'll also find the Calendar right here.
► If you have questions, check out the plotting post's thread here, or ask new ones here!
► Cozy ambience for your cozy nights in Mirth!
► HAPPY HOLIDAYS ✨

Comments

tartaglia (childe) ❖ genshin impact

[lackluster]

01 — only when it's dark.
cold hands, warm heart (shadowlands)

A. HIS DOOR.

[ Of course, the first thing he does as soon as he experiences the intense headaches and sense of panic is to cross the tempestuous waters just to make it back to his home. He doesn't appear to be all that affected by the cold, maybe too used to this sort of weather given where he was born and raised, but that's not the important part.

The important part is someone is trying to break his door down and he isn't about to let that happen. So in a flash of lightning (quite literally, in fact), he charges right at Krampus with dual blades made out of pure electro energy in his hands, crashing into the beast with very little care for his surroundings. Maybe you happen to be (unfortunately) close by, and now you find yourself this close to what's practically a live wire as the Harbinger starts to fight against the would-be intruder.

If he sees you, he'll fix you with a Stare. ]

Don't just stand there!

[ You have a feeling he isn't asking for help. He's telling you to run. ]

B. YOUR DOOR.

[ Enter: one dishevelled-looking ginger, with cuts and bruises all over, poking his head through the open crack of your door. Or he could just be coming up from behind you while you remain outside your home. Wherever he shows up, he's all grins and smiles while he checks up on you. ]

Need a hand with anything?

02 — winter blues.
cold hands, warm heart (stygia)

A. BABY, IT'S COLD OUTSIDE.

Wow, it's coming down like crazy, huh?

[ The snowfall is particularly crazy today, but despite the red on his cheeks crawling all the way to the tip of his ears, he isn't all that affected by the sudden drop in temperatures at all. He has a paper bag full of winter-appropriate treats in one hand after his trip to a nearby shop, and now that he's trying to make his way home, the weather has suddenly decided to take a turn for the worse.

If you're caught up in it like he is, he tosses you a grin. ]

I was planning to make some hot chocolate back at my place. Want some?

[ Or you might catch him later on while he's already halfway into building a snowman. At least there's someone out here who's enjoying the wintery weather...

Come help him finish building it! Or kick it down, whichever works. ]

B. BABY, IT'S COLD INSIDE TOO. (FOR NEIGHBOURS)

[ Are your blankets missing somehow? What about your fur rug?

You'll find the culprit down in the lobby, close to the small fir tree, surrounded by what appears to be a haphazardly-made blanket fort. There's room for more than one person inside too.

And the culprit? Fast asleep, curled up in one of your favourite blankets, probably. ]

03 — won't you stay with me?
don't leaf me hangin'

[ There are mistletoes everywhere.

Tartaglia has been doing his best not to get caught standing anywhere near them, but it's getting harder and harder to avoid them as the days go by. Eventually, he winds up stuck under one of the pesky plants together with you. He laughs, equal parts amused and bewildered by this current predicament. ]

If you wanted a kiss, all you needed to do was ask, you know?

[ Is he blaming you for this? Probably, but he's also not that serious. It's a joke. ]

04 — wildcard me, baby.
surprise me tbh

( ooc. let me know if you need something specific from me! i'm happy to write custom starters. tartaglia has been doing a p good job ignoring his shadow, so he's going to be a chronic liar at some point. pls feel free to pm me. 💜 )

2b

[philandery]

[ throws in mistletoe later somehow but this is too funny to pass up, sylvain entering their apartment complex and IMMEDIATELY seeing a familiar pile of blankets. those are from their suite?

he crouches at the entrance of the fort and peers suspiciously inside. ]

You know, I don't remember you asking if you could borrow my bedding.

[ ...is he asleep????? the AUDACITY. sylvain's more amused than he is mad, at least, and he scoots inside so he can shake him by the shoulder. ]

Hey, shouldn't you be napping in your own room?

[lackluster]

[ where is my bone, omo—

Tartaglia has always been something of a light sleeper, but the cold weather has made it impossible for him to keep that up. That, and the fact that he's surrounded by warm blankets and such means he's more interested in staying asleep.

Even when Sylvain shakes him by the shoulder, he only turns over to face the other way. ]

Five more minutes.

[ He says, as if that makes a difference. ]

[philandery]

[ bone?? in the blanket fort???

when tartaglia gives no indication of actually waking up in five minutes, sylvain proceeds to try and tug the blanket off him. it's extremely juvenile, but then again, they are literally in a blanket fort. ]

Okay, then at least give this back.

[ it's not his!! sylvain didn't spend all day as a clown to get his sheets stolen!!! surrender, punk ]

[lackluster]

[ in the blanket fort!!!

As Sylvain is about to find out, even while asleep, Tartaglia remains surprisingly strong. His grip on the blanket doesn't loosen despite the attempts to pull it away from him. There's no way he even understands what is being said since he's fast asleep, but then — ]

Get your own.

[ He has the AUDACITY to be annoyed when he's the one who stole this. Time to roll himself into a burrito too, for good measure. ]

3

[dissonyance]

[ it happens quickly. one second leaks is passing underneath one of those damned mistletoes, and the next second? it's childe... tartaglia... did leaks just not pay enough attention to those around him to realize it's this same familiar face with the grating, joking tone? ]

... do you want to die?

[ is leaks kidding??? probably not. his tone is cool but not frosty. call it a miracle. ]

[lackluster]

[ Even if Leaks isn't joking, that doesn't make the Harbinger fear for his life. If anything, he seems more excited than usual... (What a weirdo.) ]

Don't promise me a good time.

[ Is he joking? It's hard to say sometimes. ]

What's wrong with a little kiss?

[dissonyance]

I could strip you of your flesh. I could cause your organs to disappear, leaving nothing in its place.

[ just two fine examples of what leaks could've done in the past. here? probably not to the same extent, but definitely just as lethal. ]

A kiss should have meaning. Do you not agree? Freely giving them lessens their impact.

[ what meaning it should have, leaks has no idea. ]

[lackluster]

[ Two fine examples of what a lovely time they could be having instead of this mistletoe nonsense. Dang. Tartaglia makes a mental note to ask Leaks for another fight sometime soon...

He's looking more and more like a dopey puppy who just wants Leaks' attention now. ]

Something like this is just for fun. I don't think you're supposed to attach any meaning to it— unless you're telling me you're a romantic at heart.

[ He would have never known. ]

3

[appeale]

[ this has happened to Rudbeckia so many times already that she thinks she should be desensitised to it by now, but somehow it feels like it's getting more embarrassing instead? she went twenty years of one life without ever being kissed even once, and three years of another life, and it's in Hell that she's actually kind of losing count of how many people she's kissed. ]

Um. Um! [ is he blaming her or is he just being a sarcastic bastard??? she's known enough people that would actually blame her that it's safer to go with the former: ] I-I'm really, really sorry! I should have looked where I was going!

[lackluster]

[ One of these days, Tartaglia is going to clue in on a few things about Ruby that should be worrisome, but today isn't that day. Right now, he simply laughs when she begins to apologize to him, fully accepting the fault as hers even if he didn't mean it too seriously. ]

You're fine, you're fine— I'm just messing with you.

[ He glances up at the mistletoe directly above them. There might be a sprite or two fluttering about nearby, and he isn't about to give them fuel to prank them with, but he's also going to do this on his time. Not theirs. ]

There's just no avoiding these things, huh?

[appeale]

[ Ugh, don't scare me like that.

Ruby follows Childe's gaze up to the mistletoe, and then she quickly looks down with a blush, feigning shyness. ]

They're very persistent... I've seen Felix and Signor Joonghyuk tearing them down around the apartment building, and they just keep coming back. [ it would almost be funny if only the consequences didn't fall on her head too. ] Have you been caught many times, Childe?

[lackluster]

[ Seeing that blush on her face makes him smile, and thinks to himself about how cute she looks, unaware that it's just a front.

Why is he such a sucker? This is how Signora and Zhongli managed to pull a fast one on him, because he takes everything as they are without questioning ulterior motives. ]

I've only been caught under them a couple of times. I don't know why people make such a big deal out of them. Isn't it just a kiss?

[ Just a kiss, he says, as if it's truly no big deal at all. ]

What about you? Have you been lucky enough to avoid them?

3 im here as the 50,001th kiss

[pyojeol]

[jokes are supposed to be funny... though Sooyoung puts a hand under her chin like she's calculating the potential profit of using mistletoe on people in order to threaten them into doing her bidding, so maybe Childe's not that far off the mark here.

...SHE CAN'T FIND ANY.... THERE IS ZERO PROFIT....

She holds up a dagger, and then holds it out, hilt first.]

Ten coins if you can hit the sprite.

[sometimes you try to kill a sprite, but said sprite just poofs away before impact. she's had it up to here? maybe childe will have a better chance??]

stop, he isn't kissing that many people

[lackluster]

[ For a moment, Tartaglia is confused why he's being handed one of her daggers, and then it all clicks. There's a sprite fluttering about in their general vicinity, waiting for them to do the deed or else it's going to prank them outright. ]

Why? Can't hit them yourself?

[ Have an eyebrow raised, but more so out of curiousity than anything more malicious than that. Still, he knows how annoying these things are, and—

Without warning, he flicks the dagger right at the sprite as soon as it swoops down to get a closer look at them. The blade doesn't kill it by any means, not by a long shot, but it does graze its wing — ever so slightly. ]

Hm.

[ Now he's about to make an electro-infused blade if Sooyoung doesn't stop him... ]

sacrilege....

[pyojeol]

[She does look a little too pleased at Childe's near-miss, as if she's forgotten what missing the sprite means, but that's only because he had the GALL to TEASE HER even though she has BRILLIANT AIM.

Except in this one instance, with these sprites. It doesn't make sense for both of them to miss, which means that there's probably something magically funky going on here -- she makes a grab for Childe's elbow,

hopefully before he makes the electro infused blade]

Okay, as much as I'd like to see their heads severed from their stupid fairy bodies... they're just gonna curse us with something stupid if we try.

just have hsy kiss him more :)))

[lackluster]

[ There's a split-second where he looks affronted when Sooyoung puts a stop to his antics, but then she reminds him about the curse, and then he goes, oh, that's right. He'd rather not deal with any of that.

It looks like the sprite gets to live another day now that his electro energy is completely extinguished. ]

They're still gonna curse us if we don't give them what they want. You okay with that?

[ It's like they lose either way. ]

2a

[fallingsand]

[ Being asked that out of the blue as he was trying to keep out of the wind and snow in the mouth of an alley gives Bruno a start. He gives Tartaglia a wild-eyed look for a second or two before recognition settles in. ]

Childe?

[ A friendly face, then, and it makes him want to accept the invitation immediately, only... Bruno himself doesn't seem to be doing too well in this weather — or maybe it's something else, with the way he hides under the hood of his now much more torn and stained ruana and a pair of gloves, trying to disguise his new claws and furry sideburns and fangs the best he can.

At least he's had the sense to update his wardrobe under the ruana to something more winter appropriate, though. He actually has boots and warmer clothing now, even if he does still huddle against a wall to keep out of the bone-chilling wind. ]

I... would love some but, uh, I probably shouldn't. Thanks, though.

[lackluster]

[ The spontaneity is just something Bruno has to get used to if he ends up hanging around Tartaglia often. He's the type to just go with the flow, no matter where it ends up taking him, and more often than not, everyone else simply has to follow suit. At least it's something as simple as just being asked to have some hot chocolate at home.

It could have been much worse. ]

You shouldn't? [ His face falls, just a tiny bit. He looks like a kid who got denied candy. ] Why's that?

[ Bruno must have a good reason, right? Otherwise, who would turn down a comforting drink— especially when it's free. ]

[fallingsand]

[ Oh, oh no, that look. Even if it's only a tiny amount of disappointment, it still hurts to see, and so Bruno is quick to stammer out, ]

No, no, it's... nothing to do with you, if that's what you think, just. I'm just sort of cursed right now? And you probably don't want to deal with that? And... and I don't... [ And here he sighs and looks down at the ground, mumbling a bit quieter, ] I don't want to cause anyone trouble, that's all...

[lackluster]

[ Sorry, Bruno. There's a reason one of his callsigns is Childe. ]

That's a lot of assumptions for something I don't even know about yet. Why are you so sure I don't want to deal with it?

[ What a strange thing to say. Tartaglia takes pride in his strength, so a comment like that would almost be insulting if Bruno wasn't already backpedalling from his earlier statement. ]

What are you cursed with?

03.

[invinciblemikey]

(mikey hasn't noticed them much - or perhaps he just hasn't yet had an encounter with the mistletoe adventure enough to be wary of them. what's wrong with kisses, anyway? but once his stroll is cut short and mikey notices his current predicament, he can't help but scan the man up and down, an eyebrow rising at the comment.)

... Nah. Too old.

(teen attitude...)

[lackluster]

[ For a split-second, there is only mild surprise on his face— and then he breaks out into a hearty laugh. ]

Seriously? That's why you won't kiss me?

[ Maybe it would have been offensive to the wrong person, but Tartaglia feels like he's spent many years of his life fielding accusations that he is far too young to be a high-ranking member of the Fatui that hearing he's too old, for once, is almost refreshing. ]

[invinciblemikey]

(also because mikey's 162cm ass can't reach--)

What even makes you think you're worth getting kissed?

(it might not be fatui-level, but mikey's known, respected, bowed to wherever he goes. the name 'invincible mikey' has power, and well, his ego doesn't particularly decrease from his status in the delinquent world of tokyo.)

[lackluster]

[ Oh? This one's a fiesty brat, huh. That's fine. Nothing he can't handle. ]

Nothing. I just think it's the better alternative compared to dealing with whatever those sprites have in mind, but if you'd rather have that, then...

[ By all means. There are sprites fluttering about nearby, waiting for the opportunity to strike. ]