Leaf was the last to walk into the dormitory lobby that late afternoon after taking his last midterm for the winter, layered only with his usual pullover sweater. His fur did a good job keeping the cold away already. As his boots kicked up snow onto the welcome mat, he managed a smile to an excited Pearl rushing in to greet him.
“Welcome, Leafy! You’re just in time to help put up the Christmas tree lights!”
He peered over to Saki, who was pulling out said lights from a large box, frustrated at the multitude of tangles and knots within the wires. It was a good thing his shadow companion Chel was good at fixing up little things like this.
“Speaking of on time,” a loud feminine voice boomed. Lady Skyber walked over and put her hand on Pearl’s shoulder. “I’m thoroughly surprised we’re still on schedule. It’s been ages since I’ve seen a school event like this actually go to plan.”
“Hey, don’t jinx it!” Pearl playfully elbowed her divine dorm mate in the gut. Leaf could pick up a certain tinge in her voice that gave off the impression part of that sentence was serious.
“So, uh, h-how should I put on the lights?” Leaf said.
“Maybe he can help with the untangling first!” Saki called from his post.
Pearl called back. “You’re doing fine, Saki! Anyways, Leaf, just get creative. Imagine the tree like a… like an ice block! And if you picture the lights to be your chisel, you can sculpt it however you want. I’m sure however you do it, it’ll look beautiful coming from you!”
The fox’s smile brightened. “Thanks, Pearl. That really means a lot. I’ll get started right away.”
“Of course! And thanks again for agreeing to help us decorate today, we really appreciate it!”
He nodded. The lobby looked stunning already. Along with yesterday’s decor, now there was glitter on the walls, paper posters with crude depictions of Christmas-related characters painted on them in acrylic, ribbons and bows on every corner in every surface, roaring flames on a Yule log in the fireplace, and so much more he could barely process without getting overwhelmed. He walked over to the box, getting a fist bump from Saki before starting his work.
A young man with a blue lab coat walked down the stairs, carrying an oddly cloudlike Shiba Inu on his shoulders. He yawned, yet once he saw the near magical Christmas decorations he struggled to close his jaw in surprise. He hadn’t stepped out of his room since Halloween. It was winter already?
“Man, I’ve been asleep for way too long,” he said. The dog hopped off his shoulders and pounced onto his creator’s. Skyber pet his head.
“Good evening, James,” the dragon-like woman spoke. “I see you’ve been keeping Deg busy.”
“I’ll say. Actually, I’m pretty sure it was the other way around. The little guy’s been having a field day in my dreams ever since the Doc told Nova about my sleeping habits. I said to both of them two hours a day was plenty, but they insisted on getting Deg. Can’t say I regret it, haven’t had a full night’s rest in God knows how long.”
“I’m glad to hear that. Overworking yourself will do you no good. Take it from me. That being said, I hope you feel more productive now that Deg has helped clear your mind.”
“Yeah. Well, I see you guys are busy, I’m probably just gonna go back to bed.”
The lady frowned. “…You know, since you’re here, we could use an extra hand decorating.”
James was about to say “I think I’m good,” but knowing Skyber’s persistence he simply shrugged and strolled over to the center without much direction and started acting busy. Skyber roller her eyes.
“Forget about him,” Pearl said, “let’s not let Mister Gears-For-Brains bring our spirits down. We’ve got a lot of work to do!”
“…Yes, you’re right Pearl,” her attention refocused on Saki and Leaf, who worked out a little system of the former straightening the wire while the latter wrapped it around the tree. They seemed to be having fun.
“Pearl, I hope you don’t mind me asking, but are you sure sending Splats to aid Brown and Knowledge in their shopping was a good idea?”
The blue-haired girl broke her gaze at her boyfriend and turned to address the question. “Wha-? Oh, Splats? She’s just out to lighten the load for the both of them. I did ask a little much of those two…”
“What I meant to say was, are you sure they’ll be safe by her side? She does tend to get a little… adventurous on her way back home.”
“What do you mean?” Pearl tilted her head.
Skyber crossed her arms. “She keeps going on and on about shortcuts she finds throughout campus. Apparently that’s how she gets around so quickly. On top of that, she can be a bit… feisty at times. You and I both know that. How will we know she won’t guide them astray?
“Trust me, she won’t. I asked her to find Ms. Abigail to chaperone them on their way back. Jesse told me she’d be bringing her mom to the district to ‘embrace the culture of the holidays,’ which I think is really cute, honestly.”
“But are you certain she’ll actually follow through? I don’t exactly assume she would take kindly to following your orders, especially after…”
“Okay, okay, I know you have doubts about Splats. Admittedly, I was a little nervous about my decision too. But then I thought, maybe we’re being a bit rude to act like this at Christmas time. And sure, she’s made some mistakes in the past, but hasn’t she been changing for the better? It might just be the little things for now, but I’ve been noticing her wanting to make things right with me, after we broke up and all. So trust me when I say they’re in good hands!” Pearl beamed.
The goddess could only grin back. “Whatever you say, Pearl.”
As the pair finished their conversation, the other pair finished their tree decorations. Or at least the first box. The second one was still unopened. Saki groaned to himself. He loved helping his girlfriend almost as much as he loved her herself, but his task kind of felt like a chore to him. Though, it didn’t matter much—he wasn’t going to let his friends down. Not on Christmas.
“Hey Leaf, I just got an idea,” Saki proposed.
“Oh, yeah? What’s that?” Leaf opened the box, subtly nodding for his partner to finish what they started.
“You know how Nova’s bringing the ornaments for the tree?”
“Uh huh…?”
“Why not mark the places you feel the ornaments should go with your ice?
“Oh, wow… t-that feels like a lot of responsibility… w-what if people don’t like it?”
“Nah man, you’re a great artist. People like literally everything you make. And if they don’t, we’ll just make them like it,” Saki jokingly withdrew Softy and brought out Eros, punching his fist into his palm.
“W-we don’t need to get that far. I’ll give it a try.”
The fox reached over and grabbed a tree branch, putting some effort into creating a giant snowflake that would entangle itself around the leaves.
“Is that good?”
“Off to a great start, dude! Just keep at it, I’ll get the rest,” Saki wrapped the other set of lights himself, as the wires weren’t nearly as tangled as the first box. Within minutes, the boys finished their jobs. Even as placeholders, the snowflakes looked beautiful, as Saki predicted.
“See what I told you?” the boy nudged Leaf’s shoulder, inadvertently making him inch away a bit.
The two girls walked over to check on the tree, being utterly astonished. On Skyber’s shoulder, Deg wagged his tail.
“Very impressive,” Skyber commented.
“Wow! This is incredible!” Pearl’s eyes lit up like stars.
Deg yipped.
“It was nothing, really…” Leaf reached his arm over his shoulder.
“Let’s just check to see if it actually works, we wouldn’t want anything blowing out,” Skyber then reminded everyone.
“Oh yeah,” Saki said, “let’s see if this baby lights up!”
He grabbed the cord plug and stuck it into the outlet. Nothing happened.
“I think we forgot to connect the two cords on the tree,” Leaf suggested.
“Oh yeah!” Saki found the plugs, and connected them as well.
The tree finally lit up. The group gazed at the lights for a short while. A very short while, in fact. The tree lit up a little too well—it shorted out in seconds.
Deg barked. Skyber heard him say, What happened?
“Hm. I’m not sure. James?” The lady turned her head to the man lounging on the sofa, not even pretending to be busy anymore.
“Eh?”
She motioned for him to get his ass up and check out the wires. Getting up took him longer than necessary, but he got the idea. Merging his fingers into the wires, he made the lights turn on for just a second more, but unfortunately only for that second.
“Bruh. These lights are ollllld. Beats me how long they were in there, but I’m pretty sure if they stayed in that box a year longer, they would’ve flatlined if someone turned them on. Or exploded. Yeah, exploded, we’re gonna go with that.”
“Can’t we just get new lights?” Saki said.
“I don’t think anyone has any spares,” Leaf answered.
“You think I can jumpstart them?” Pearl asked.
“If you struck yourself with lightning, maybe.”
“I believe we can have that arranged,” Skyber muttered to herself. Pearl was the only one who understood.
“Wait, you don’t mean…”
“Excuse us for a moment, everyone,” the towering lady pulled her human companion aside. Deg perked his ears.
“Skyber, are you sure we should do this?”
“It’s worth a shot. None of them will understand what will happen anyhow.”
What does she mean by ‘doing this’? The dog said to Skyber.
“Ah, I suppose I should let you in on our secret,” she gave a warm smile to Deg. “I may be a goddess, but in this state I can only temporarily grant my power to others. Fortunately, we may be able to turn this to our advantage here.”
“B-but we’ve only tried this once, Skybie! Is this really safe?”
“I would rather take the risk than see you broken up without a working tree. Trust me, Pearl, as I trust you with getting our shopping crew home safely.” She called out to the rest in front of them. “Stand back, everyone. Pearl is going to restart the batteries.”
Oh boy, I wonder what’s going to happen! Deg marveled.
Stepping aside, Saki said, “Please don’t strain her if she doesn’t have enough power.”
“Don’t get your knickers in a twist,” Skyber gruffed, “she will.”
Pearl took the cords by the hands and turned back to her friend. The goddess nodded to her, placing her hand on her shoulder. With little to no effort at all, Pearl felt an overwhelming surge of power, a sensation she was blessed with only once before. Taking the cue, the electric girl discharged her energy, not even thinking of holding back. In an instant, blue electricity streaked and arced across the wires, blasting every outlet with energy, even jumping across wires and plugs not even connected to the tree. The people in the lobby watched in shock and awe, not quite sure what was happening before their eyes. Pearl screamed, and fell out of Skyber’s reach, letting go of the cords.
For a blink of an eye, the school burned brighter than the biggest LED lightbulb in existence. And then, just as quickly, the room went black.
The whole school went black.
The only sound they heard after that was the howling wind outside. Skyber was the first to get up, followed by Deg, James, Saki, Leaf, and finally Pearl. She looked absolutely fried.
“Pearl! Are you okay?” Her boyfriend rushed in to inspect her, eyeing the faint burn marks on her neck and arms.
“I…I’m ok…”
Leaf was still cowering in the corner, ice forming between his paws. He hated loud noises and blinding lights. This was like a double whammy to him. Deg tried to comfort him, which seemed to help.
“What the heck was that?” James asked Skyber.
“A lapse of judgement, perhaps,” she admitted, turning the fireplace back on, “You can guess how determined she gets when she wants something done. Check the electric box outside, make sure the building hasn’t shorted out.”
“Uh, aite, I guess.”
While the group recovered, James went outside to find the electric box. The freezing wind blasted him in the chest, but he was pretty sure he felt colder. He took out a flashlight from his coat, merging his hand with it for extra control. The light revealed a snowstorm, a flurry hitting his coat every second. He’d hate to be Brown and Knowledge right now. Turning the corner, he found the box, opening the hatch to find what would make any electrician throw up. It looked like a charred mess of molten metals, blackened circuit boards, and frayed spaghetti-like wires. The engineer inside James saluted the tragic loss.
He closed the box and turned, seeing a tall man in an officer uniform approaching the building. The man saw him, and waved to James, walking to him instead. The two met in the knee-deep snow.
“I take it you know what’s going on with the power?” The officer said.
“Yeah, not really. Who’re you?”
“Officer Charles Walker. Call me Charlie. I’m on patrol right now — or was on patrol at least, until the whole school blacked out.”
“Oh jeez, the whole school?”
“The office sent me out to identify the source and report back so they can fix it.”
“Well I don’t think there’s anything worth fixing in that circuit box I just saw. It’d be better just to replace the whole thing.”
“That bad, huh? You know what broke it?”
James didn’t feel the need to rat anyone out. “Maybe someone left the box open and got damaged by the storm?”
“Of course, probably someone from the janitorial staff,” Charlie facepalmed, talking about the incompetence of some people under his breath. “You an electrician?”
“Nah, just a student.”
“Well, in any case, you seem to know more about technology than I do. You think you can run this up to the office and get a team out here? I have to check on the occupants in that dorm building.”
“Beats decorating a tree all night,” he shot a finger gun and tugged his coat, walking out of view.
The lobby was re-illuminated with gas lanterns when Charlie came through the front door. “You kids alright in here?” he spoke aloud.
Pearl perked up, bundled up in a blanket Saki brought from his room. “Oh, hey Charlie! We’re doing fine.”
“You know him?” Leaf asked her.
“Only through Miss Abigail. They get on each other’s nerves all the time in class, whenever she breaks a computer or he takes down her Wanted posters. It’s really funny.”
The outage was a big setback for sure, but Pearl seemed to be handling it alright. Truth be told, she was rightfully upset that she blew out the whole building, but she hoped the officer would come with good news.
“Alright everyone, I’ve got some bad news.”
So much for hope.
“The circuits are fried across this whole building, maybe even the whole school. Your friend went to contact the office for repairs, but under the circumstances he reported, he won’t be back with working lights until tomorrow morning.”
Pearl’s heart sank. This was going south fast, and they had no time to fix this, let alone even having enough time to complete their preparations.
“Wait, what about my bro?” Saki started.
“What about him?” the officer raised an eyebrow.
“Guys, isn’t Brown still at the shopping district?”
The realization stuck the group. With the power gone, how will him, Knowledge, and the others find their way back? It’s pitch dark out there.
“I sent Splats out there… and Abigail and Jesse…” Pearl mumbled.
“We’ll make sure they come back, r-right?” Leaf assured the panicking girl.
“Officer, don’t mind us. We can take care of ourselves. I suggest it should be your priority to save those students from the snowstorm,” Skyber told Charlie.
He saluted. “Fine by me. My equipment’s in the library, I’ll have your friends back in no time.”
As he left the building, another realization struck Leaf. “H-hey, now that I think about it, isn’t Nova supposed to be back too?”
“Yeah, that’s right!” Saki thought aloud. “Where are they with the ornaments? Did they get held back by something?”
“I hope not,” Skyber put her hands on her hips, “Nova may seem odd to some but they’re no flake. I don’t see why it would take so long unless something’s gotten in their way.”
Like what? Deg barked.
“Hard to say for certain. But they can take care of themself, so I wouldn’t be too worried for now.”
Charlie came back in a hurry with ceramic debris on his uniform.
That doesn’t look like snow, Deg pointed out, what happened to him?
The officer brushed off the shards. “I’m gonna need my megaphone.”
“What’s wrong?” Pearl asked.
“Some kids from the second floor pelted weird shit at me. I’m giving them a warning.”
“There’s always a group of delinquents on the holidays that ruin it for everyone else,” Saki grumped. “What’d they look like?”
Charlie had opened the closet door again, digging through the junk to find what he was looking for. “I don’t know, I couldn’t get a good look at them in the storm. Maybe one of them was wearing a mask?”
Must be Carrie, Skyber thought to herself, sighing.
“M-maybe your Electi ability can help you?” Leaf suggested.
The officer held up a finger, muttering something into a walkie-talkie. The receiver spat out a digitized voice, prompting him to nod.
“Just got the OK to use executive force if things get hairy. My ability isn’t much, but they put me on patrol during this storm for a reason.”
He took out a small canteen and poured some water on his hand. Concentrating a bit of effort, the water slowly froze over. Leaf was caught by surprise. He was another ice-based Electi like him?
“So you can freeze stuff over?” Skyber said.
“That’s half true,” he corrected, then using more effort to melt the ice back. In fact, it melted so much the water started to steam, and eventually evaporate entirely. “My power allows me to change the physical state of water. I’m not able to bend it or control it, but I can turn it into a solid or gas, and change it back to a liquid again. Of course, the process takes a while. Anyways, enough chat. I’ve spent too much time here.”
Charlie found the megaphone and rushed out to the lobby foyer.
Good luck! Deg howled.
“Stay safe!” Pearl yelled.
When he left again, the group’s concerns shifted back to the lights. Or lack thereof. The snowstorm was horrible out there. They hoped James was okay. And Nova. And the shopping crew. Otherwise, they didn’t quite know what to do now.
Suddenly, Leaf broke down in tears. He put his freezing paws over his face and pouted. “This is all my fault. I’m so stupid…”
“Hey, buddy, this ain’t your fault,” Saki walked up to him, “why do you say that?”
“The snowflakes I made… w-what if they melted i-into the wires? What if they s-short circuited and messed something up?”
“It’s ok, Leaf,” Pearl patted his back, “James said they were old lights anyway. Saki probably just turned them on the wrong way.”
The boy in question defended himself. “Hey, what? I didn’t fuck up those lights!”
“I dunno, Saki, you might’ve broken a wire when you were fumbling around with the tangled knots.”
“Don’t pin this all on me! You didn’t have to blow out the entire school trying to fix it!”
“It wasn’t my idea! Skyber told me to!” Pearl said, offended.
“And you thought it was a good idea to listen to her?”
Leaf’s paws grew more and more frozen. Deg softly whimpered on the sofa.
“I would recommend both of you watch your mouths,” Skyber warned. “Especially you, boy.”
“Oh, don’t act so high and mighty now! Who were you to let Pearl do something so dangerous? She could’ve gotten hurt!”
“She trusted me just as I trusted her with having Splats guide our friends home,” the goddess gritted her teeth. “Not that you know anything about the concept of trust.”
“So my friends’ safety, including my best friend’s, is in the hands of that bitch? What the actual fuck, Pearl!”
“She deserves another chance!” she cried. “But I guess you just wanna be an asshole about this today, huh?”
“Wow, is everyone just gonna call me names over stuff I didn’t do? If I wanted to suffer, I should’ve just gone with Brown and froze to death outside!”
“Fitting punishment for a loudmouth such as yourself!” Skyber’s eyes started glowing, her scales sticking out of her suit like needles.
The disharmonious choir of students continued their accusations and threats for a painfully long while. Their harsh voices drowned out the screeching wind outside, and the panicking fox inside.
“I should’ve j-just kept my mouth s-shut,” Leaf whimpered through his stuffy nose. “W-why did I have to b-bring up those s-stupid snowflakes?”
Deg couldn’t take it anymore. He pounced off the sofa, in the center of the distracted ring of his bickering friends. Though the shouting, he focused his energy, his form dissipating and wavering. The room felt dizzy and confusing, as the Shiba never tried what he was about to do with this many people at a time. Then, the students began to feel dizzy as well. Unfortunately, this did not sway their arguing until they all collectively fell asleep into Deg’s dreamscape.
One by one, the group awoke, and their consciousness returned. Or perhaps, did they awake at all? They were still in the lobby, with the lights turned back on again.
“Wha… what happened?” Leaf said, rubbing his eyes.
“Is it morning already?” Saki sat confused.
“Wait, morning?” Pearl shot up quickly. “That means the party’s today, and we’re still not ready for it!”
“I wouldn’t be too sure about that,” Skyber said, gesturing to the amazingly lit Christmas lights around the tree. Beautiful ornaments of red, green, and gold hung on the branches. It shined brighter than the whole room.
“What the-” Saki began, but was cut short by a blurry form of a student brush past him, making a beeline for the cookies on a neatly decorated table. Two other bodies followed, one stopping to face Pearl before it faded out of existence.
This party rocks! it said with no mouth, Can’t wait for next year’s event!
Pearl was dumbfounded, looking around the amiable room in shock. Who did this, she thought, How come-
“Perhaps you’re wondering how come you’re at the party?” Deg reappeared, in his usual dog-like shape. His features were much more defined, despite his blurs and blips in and out of the fabricated reality. Saki and Leaf jumped, not expecting to hear a talking dog today.
Skyber turned to him. “I take it we’re in a shared dream?”
“You catch on quick,” he giggled, “I should expect that from my maker.”
“Wait…a shared dream? Like, we’re all having this dream at the exact same time? And you’re not just figments of my imagination?” Saki checked.
“If we were, you wouldn’t feel this,” Pearl leaned in to pinch his arm, emitting a quick yelp from her boyfriend.
“W-Why’d you bring us here?” Leaf said.
“I didn’t want to do this against your will, but you left me no choice,” the dreamweaver admitted. “I would have said something for Skyber to tell you, but she seemed… preoccupied. This was the only way to communicate directly to you all. I just couldn’t stand to see you fight anymore. Not on a day as special to you as this. I don’t know how important those lights were to you all, but we can make amends here.”
“I appreciate your sentiment, Deg, but you didn’t need to intervene. We could’ve solved our differences on our own.”
“You didn’t seem that way when you got angry,” Pearl pointed out.
“Yeah, you threatened to kill me,” Saki stood defensively.
“And you insulted my friend, someone I hold in a much higher regard than you,” Skyber crossed her arms again.
“G-guys, please don’t start again,” Leaf interjected. “Deg brought us here so we can stop fighting, not continue it in our own dream.”
“Thank you, Leaf,” Deg nodded. “Now, holding you all in this same dream is a lot more taxing than I expected, so I would like to keep this as short as possible.”
“We’re listening,” Skyber said.
Deg began. “From what I see, I believe you three have forgotten the meaning of Christmas. Of course, I don’t understand much about the holiday myself, but Nova taught me that this should be the happiest time of the year. And it doesn’t look like anyone’s happy right now.”
The group stared at the ground in moderate embarrassment. They realized they weren’t holding a great example of the season for a demigod’s first Christmas.
“This dream setting is what Nova described the party to look like, just before everyone leaves the school the next day. To be honest, this is the most magical thing I’ve seen in my short existence. All these people, smiling and having an amazing time. It warms a part of me I never knew existed.”
Pearl teared up, then spoke with a shaky voice. “I’m sorry… I’m sorry this couldn’t come to be… Now, with half our preparation crew missing, I don’t know what to do…”
Saki put a hand around her shoulder, pulling her close. He tried to summon Softy, but it seemed he was on his own in the dream world.
“I should’ve checked the lights before we wrapped them around the tree and turned them on,” he chuckled guiltily.
“And I should’ve went with Brown and Knowledge, just in case,” Skyber admitted.
“Please, everyone.” Deg raised a paw. “It’s not about the lights, or who went with who before our party. It’s about coming together, whether friend or foe, putting aside our differences for at least one day of happiness and joy. Doesn’t that sound like the true meaning of Christmas?”
Skyber was going to correct the true meaning of the holiday to celebrate a filthy baby being born in a manger by a virgin, but the point would have been completely invalidated. She liked Deg’s meaning a lot better. The rest seemed to agree. The room seemed to sway in response. It faded and twisted and became near-unrecognizable, then it went black.
A ray of sunshine hit their eyelids. There was no first person to wake—they all rose at the same time. Back to their dark, unlit lobby; back to reality.
Deg reappeared as his cute, innocent self once more. He barked a few times, then went to curl up in Skyber’s lap.
“I believe we all learned something today,” the lady spoke.
“What’s that, Skybie?” Pearl inquired.
“Never plan a holiday party again.”
They all laughed for an unusually long yet satisfying amount of time.
“So what should we tell the others?” Saki wondered.
“You mean when Nova and Mister Charlie come back with our friends?” Leaf clarified.
“Yeah. Hey, speaking of the devil…”
James walked into the lobby with a small team of technicians behind him.
“Hey, uh, it’s pretty much sunrise. That officer found Brown and everyone else in a stranded bus, and Nova’s on their way with the Doc and a couple others. Power’s coming back on in five. What the hell were you guys up to?”
“Too much to sum up in a nutshell,” Skyber concluded. “It’s a long story.”