Yule in Port of Pearls [Private]

[TrashRabbit]

The first snow blanketed the little town of port of pearls like a fine lace wedding veil, leaving a hush and frost curls on every pane in it's wake. It was the first day of Yule and the eves of the houses were strung with brightly colored flags, the doors guarded by evergreen wreathes. And the town's fountain, smashed when the wizard returned that spring had been converted into an ice rink for the season and the festivities were starting early, Stalls going up in the fresh snow to sell their wares, hot chocolate and roast chestnuts and other treats.

"Mmm," Tom said looking at the snow. Cathal had explained snow to him and insisted he'd love it.

He did not.

He took a sip of his coffee and followed after Cathal as they entered the market.

​

 

[wickedlittlecritta]

Cathal's breath was a puff of dragon smoke in the cold air, and he did a little half-twirl in the snow, coat spinning around him, to face Tom as he walked backwards into the market. "Will you go ice skating with me?" he asked. "Please?" He wanted to go ice skating and burn his tongue on chestnuts and hot chocolate and dance Tom around the square and eat as many little gingerbread cookies as he could, but he figured he'd start with one thing, especially where Tom looked like he wasn't sure about the whole Yule business yet.

 

[TrashRabbit]

tom had no idea what ice skating was. And this point he'd learned to stop asking stupid questions.

"Uh, sure," Because Cathal looked so happy he might pop and who was he to ruin that.

 

[wickedlittlecritta]

Cathal laughed triumphantly and took Tom by the hand, leading him through the crowd to the fountain. "Last year you spun me so hard I went right to the edge and fell backwards over it," Cathal said fondly. "Nobody let me live it down for months."

 

[TrashRabbit]

"I'm unconvinced you had any dignity to start, so it probably wasn't as much of a scandal as you think," Tom teases.

Tom was rather concerned that perhaps ice skating was a sport but tried to keep it off his face. He let Cathal take his bemittened hand, because resistence was usually futile and he usually enjoyed himself despite himself. The mittens were a pair of yellow monstrosities with a sunflower embroidered on each first that Cathal had knitted that fall after declaring "What do you mean you left your mitten in Fantasy-georgia? You have the circulation of an old man. you'll catch your death!"

And Cathal had been right. he'd been living in a hat and mittens since before harvest.

The hat was lumpy but less garish, mottled grey and blue with little caribou paterns and ear flaps. Anyway Tom looked less like a wizard without his patched broad brimmed wizards hat and more like a vagabond.

 

[wickedlittlecritta]

"Of course I didn't have any dignity," Cathal said, as if the idea was patently ridiculous. "But they do like to make fun of me, don't they? It's like a sport." He grinned brightly at Tom. Usually in winter, Tom wore his wizard's hat over the lumpy hats Cathal knitted him with more love than skill, but he seemed to have forgotten this. "Here, let's see if there are any skates big enough for your feet left," he said.

 

[TrashRabbit]

Cathal was in fine form, more pixie like than normal in the yule sqaure and he couldn't help but chuckle at his admission of having no dignity. When they got to the rink Tom watched carefully until he felt he had some understanding of "Ise skating" and was dubious about strapping knives to his feet. This felt like some Sapenti level bullshit honestly. The old man renting skates hooked them up with a pair of large metal skates to tie up onto their boots and tried to talk to Tom like they were acquainted- which Tom faked his way through marvelously.

"Okay, Knives are on the feet," he announced when they were secured and then attempted to stand on the ice like a new born giraffe. He was after all 95% leg. "Cathal- I have a terrible feeling about this."

 

[wickedlittlecritta]

"It's fine, you're great at ice skating," Cathal said, wobbling slightly before he steadied enough to pull Tom to his feet and into the rink with him. "Just go steady like."

 

[TrashRabbit]

"Are you sure?" He said sliding after him and looking nervous and making a distressed Tom noise; "nnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnn,,,,,"

The most interesting thing about Tom since the amnesia was his absolute willingness to try anything once, wich mayb had been always true and he was just very old and set in his ways by time he'd met Cathal.

But after about maybe a minute of Cathal struggling and nearly falling Tom discovered that yes, Cathal was right, he didn't suck at ice skating.

 

[wickedlittlecritta]

"See?" Cathal said, in a huff of cloudy breath. "I told you you're great at it." He himself was still wobbling. He liked ice skating tremendously, but that had never helped him get any good at it. Then he added with a grin, "I'm better at sledding, but you told me you'd never do it again after we crashed into that fox fae's den and it chased us for a mile."

 

[theunearthlyfool]

Molly Sill was a vision of color against Port of Pearls' first snowfall of the season. Her scarlet coat stood out all year long, but to combat the cold she'd added a rainbow tie-dye stocking cap, scarf, and mittens to the mix. Face ruddy with chill and cheer, she trudged through the snow with her guitar on her back, eager to visit the winter market.

In comparison, her sister Nicola Drake was an elegant black scar on the landscape. Stomping along behind all Molly's color was Nicola in a flowing black cloak and dark fur hat. Her hands were hidden in her sleeves, arms crossed tightly against her chest; a scarf of deep, velvety purple pulled up over her nose and mouth.

"Oh my goodness," Molly breathed, her voice a cloud in the frozen air. "Isn't it so beautiful? I always forget how much I love snow until it snows again. It's like a lovely little surprise every season!"

Nicola couldn't disagree that winter, like everything else in Port of Pearls, was more beautiful than anywhere else. That didn't mean she enjoyed being out and about in it. "You're adorable," she grumbled, shivering.

They came around a corner and saw the former fountain, now a busy ice rink. Molly grabbed Nicola's arm and gave a little hop of excitement. "Oh! Oh, Nic, look! Ice skating!”

“You’re going to slip and fall if you keep jumping like that.”

Molly continued to tug Nicola closer to the skating rink. “I’m not very good at it, but ice skating is so much fun! And I bet there’s some marvelous sledding hills around here, we’ll have to do that later too. Ah, I can’t wait to catch up on all these winter things with you!” She squeezed her sister’s arm.

Nicola stopped. “Molly, I…” She hated to knock that smile off her face. “I’ll hold your guitar, but I’m not going to ice skate.”

“Aww, why not?”

“I’ve… I’ve never done it before.”

“Well then, you can learn!” She started tugging again.

“Molly, nooooooo…”

 

[TrashRabbit]

"So that's why the Duke hates us," tom laughed. He had figured how to point his feet away from each other and arc lazily around Cathal while still facing him. "I think I could go sledding again," he said tenetivly. Thanks to be extremely tall he caught sight of Molly and Nicola aproaching the rink and waved, "Oh the girls are here!"

 

[wickedlittlecritta]

"I mean, it's a reason," Cathal said, because surely there were more. When Tom said the Sil sisters had arrived he tried to pivot to see and instead tripped himself and fell on his ass. "Oof. Ow. Hi Molly!"

 

[TrashRabbit]

Tom made an oops I spilled my drink sort of motion at Cathal as he fell and hurried to help him back up, "Cathal!"

 

[wickedlittlecritta]

"I'm fine," Cathal said, but he was quite pleased that Tom came over to help him quickly. "Just tripping over myself is all."

 

[theunearthlyfool]

She had her sister linked by the arm, partially to keep her balance but also just out of fondness. “What do you mean you’ve never been ice skating? It snows in Royes.”

Nicola scoffed. “Um, yeah, and snow is cold and wet and gross. No, thank you.”

Molly gave an offended gasp. “No, it’s not! It’s lovely!”

“It’s very lovely, yes, when you’re looking at it out the window while sitting by the fireplace.”

She gasped again as a tragic thought occurred to her. “Nic! Does this mean you’ve never been sledding, either?”

“No.”

“Or… or built a snowboy?”

“No, my people, we stay indoors. We have books. We have darkness.” Nicola waved at Tom and Cathal as they approached the ice rink.

“Ugh, you spoiled rich girl,” Molly laughed. “You’ve been deprived of a proper childhood, my dear sister. But I will happily remedy that now.”

Nicola rolled her eyes. “Oh, boy.”

“And I’m sure everyone in town will gladly hel- Oh! Cathal!” Though Tom had already gone over to help him, Molly anxiously hovered by the edge of the rink and wrung her hands until Cathal was on his feet again. “Are you okay?!”

 

[wickedlittlecritta]

"I'm fine, I'm fine!" Cathal said, laughing at Molly's anxious questions. "I bounce!"

 

[TrashRabbit]

No sooner had Tom gotten him back on his feet than a snow ball pelted him square in the face and sent him tumbling back down to the ice. There was a single barking laugh and then another snow ball hit Tom's shoulder heralded by a familiar laugh.

most unsettling thing about Tuesday once he'd become a fairy again was how completely mundane he manifest. Just regular disheveled baggy sweatered old Tuesday. His sweater though was of the magpie uniform now, dark, blue and white in all the right places and he did not look a spec out of place the way most fairies did. He wore a little paper crown like some of the children did for Yule and was looking extremely pleased with himself. Chiefly though, He had not been standing next to Molly a mere moment ago, offering her a snow ball but now he was.

"Here have a snowball, haven't you ever just wanted pelt a man, Molly?" He asked in good humor, "Catharsis."

His affection for Molly had not dwindled in the slightest. Nor had his level of feralness. Nor his animosity for Cathal.

 

[wickedlittlecritta]

"Oof! Ow," Cathal said again, back on his ass on the ice. He brushed snow from his hair and shouted, "Did you have to aim for my face? It's cold!"

 

[TrashRabbit]

"It would be weird if the snow was warm," He said like Cathal was stupid.

 

[wickedlittlecritta]

"Congratulations on entirely missing the point," Cathal said, and let Tom help him up a second time.

 

[theunearthlyfool]

“Good, I’m gla- Eek!” Molly jumped as Tuesday appeared out of thin air, and snowballs pelted her friends. She laughed, taking the snowball from him. “Perhaps,” was her reply to his question, “but then I try to take a step back and be patient with people. Maybe you could try it sometime.” She tapped the snowball against his chest and said fondly, “You ought to be nicer to them.”

Nicola gingerly stepped onto the ice, going up to Tom and dusting snow off of his shoulders with a motherly air. “Warm snow would just be sand, wouldn’t it? Although I guess sand doesn’t fall from the sky.”

Molly was smiling adoringly up at him. She hadn’t lost affection for him either, despite past bad experiences with the fae, and it had made life very interesting. “Happy Yule, Tuesday! I like your crown.”

“Get a room!” Nicola hollered at them, making Molly go as red as her coat.

 

[TrashRabbit]

"Well that's no fun," He grumbled taking the snow ball back but managing to look about as reproached as a faerie could, "Wouldn't he simply be confused if I was nice to him? He wouldn't know how to be around me- or maybe its me who wouldn't know how to be." He said this to the snow ball all very much under his breath. A faerie with the ability to introspec was a funny thing, and Tuesday had been a little off from the start so these moments came to him frequently now. But Molly wishing him a happy yule and looking down at her very pleased countenance was wiplash and only being able to feel one thing at a time, he quite forgot the snow ball-

"Happy Yule indeed!" He chirped and with out pause took the paper crown and put it on her head- since she said she liked it, "You look resplendid as usual. You're red coat in the snow was very easy to spot!"

Tom made a thinking face at Nicola, "I mean I feel like you could simply imbue snow with a tranversion illusion and that would make the snow ball feel warm. But it wouldn't actually be able to get to have warmth...." He said in wizard speak. He had nearly finshed rereading the bulk of his library and like the muscle memory of skating found the topic easy to navigate once a previously familiar topic was explained.

 

[wickedlittlecritta]

"I wasn't even thinking about the snow being warm, just that I don't want cold snow on my face," Cathal said patiently. "I have no idea what any of that means," he added to Tom. He held onto Tom's sleeves for a moment until he was sure Molly had sufficiently distracted Tuesday before he let go.

 

[TrashRabbit]

"Of course you didn't. Only a faerie and wizards would entertain the concept of warm snow," He said tucking Cathal under his arm where hit so nicely and where his muscle memory liked to put him.