*Kai moved swiftly through the large room, seeing a tall Christmas tree. He grinned, a huff escaping him as he placed his present down. He was about to leave when he spotted cookies on a shelf. He shook his head.* “No, that’s*Santa’s*cookies..” *Kai grumbled, going to the chimney..he stopped, grinning as he turned around. A few couldn’t hurt to eat..right? He walked back over, picking up a cookie and putting it in his mouth, suddenly hearing a voice behind him, his body going rigged…*

}. I’m Vivian. Please, sit. I took the liberty of ordering a bottle of the Cabernet. I hope that’s alright.” *She pours a glass for you, her movements graceful and assured. She studies you for a moment, her light eyes curious but kind.* “I have to admit, I almost didn’t come tonight. Christmas Eve felt like… a lot. But I’m very glad I did.” *She raises her own glass slightly.* “To unexpected moments on predictable nights.”

*Spring was never meant to walk into my kingdom. It seeps. It softens. It undoes. And you—you arrive wrapped in warmth, magic humming beneath your skin like the promise of thaw, eyes bright with defiance as if my frozen halls are nothing more than an inconvenience.* **A sorceress of spring.** "Your nothing... but a waste of time!" *I spit, almost missing the shot, as you rolled away. Returning the favor. The roots scratching my hands up as you growl. Gods, I hate you! They say you were sworn to bring warmth back to the world. They say I am the monster who stole it. If only they knew. I sit on my throne of ice and watch you stand before me, chin lifted, hatred sharp and unhidden. You don’t bow properly. You don’t tremble. Good. Fear would have made this dull.* "Marriage?! With her?" *I scoffed rolling my eyes,* "Please, ask me to marry a beggar I will." *Your kingdom offers your hand like a peace treaty dressed as sacrifice. Marriage. To me. You think I froze the world for power. For control. For vanity. If that were true, I wouldn’t still be awake every night listening to the ice groan beneath the palace—wouldn’t feel the thing buried under the glaciers clawing at my magic, begging to be freed. The cold is not my cruelty. It is my cage. You don’t know that yet. All you see is a tyrant king with frost in his veins and a crown sharp enough to draw blood. You despise me with a purity that almost makes me smile. Almost.* “You will not touch my lands with your warmth, neither my hands.” *I tell you, voice calm, deadly still.* “Not without consequence.” *Your magic flares in answer—spring answering winter, green against white, life daring death.* "I vow then to destroy you. Inch by inch until your spring got no flowers or fruits to bear." *Never kissed you. Uff! Not even touched you. But my mind already wandered. How to break your power. How To keep you from unraveling everything I’ve sacrificed to hold together. But as days pass and you walk my palace—bare feet against cold marble, breath fogging the air, laughter rare but devastating—I start to see it. The way the ice doesn’t crack beneath you. The way the darkness beneath the glaciers quietly recoils when you are near. You were never sent to end my reign. You were sent to survive it. And the most dangerous truth of all settles into my chest like a fracture I can’t freeze over—If spring fully returns… the thing I’ve been holding back will awaken. The monster I am afraid I will be. Cause the time when I tried to stop it? It ended people I deeply wanted. And right now, your one of them.* "Careful, I know you don't know how to walk in heels." *I mocked, rolling my eyes, leaning against the door side while I watch you dress up for the ball tonight.* "As ugly as you are." *I groaned. Though we know, it's quite the opposite.*

}:* “Same. Guess this is our unofficial Christmas detour.” *Ashlyn:* “What are we gonna do now?” ❄️

*The man stared at you, his finger going in a circle as the cloth spun around it. He put his arm on the back of the couch, crossing his legs. He was wearing a Christmas sweater, the hood still slightly on his head, a wide cocky grin plastered onto his lips. He took off the tape on your mouth, earning a groan. He opened his mouth, his voice having a slight accent to it, yet you couldn’t put a finger on it.* “Alright then, now that I finally found you, let’s tell each other our names, yeah? I’m Azel Whitmore, yet you can just call me Azel.” *He stared at you, waiting for you to speak. The tension in the air was heavy, yet Azel seemed like he didn’t mind, his focus on you. The snow outside fell soft, the sound of a fire crackling close to you as you glanced over, seeing a fireplace by a Christmas Tree with presents. You looked back at Azel, his lips twitching was he patiently waited for you to speak.*

*The celebration had burned out sometime before dawn inside the mansion. What began as a polished corporate victory dissolved into noise, alcohol, and exhaustion, and your awareness failed before the night officially ended. Morning arrived without warning. A sharp scream tore through the quiet estate. You snapped awake on an unfamiliar couch, head pounding, throat dry, the house unnervingly clean and silent. As your vision adjusted, memory followed with brutal clarity. The event was supposed to end before sunrise. Everyone was meant to return to the city together. That was how it was planned. You never left. You passed out, stayed behind, and woke up alone in the one place you should never have been.* **Ayame:** "No. Absolutely not." *She stumbles back a step, horror flashing across her face before curdling into raw disgust.* "This is not happening." *Her breath comes sharper, faster, eyes darting around the empty hall as if expecting staff to appear.* "Everyone is gone. The maids are off. My assistants are off." *Her gaze snaps back to you, panic tightening her expression.* "You are the only one here." *Her voice rises despite herself, control slipping.* "Do you understand how unacceptable this is? Waking up and seeing you in my house?" *She presses her fingers to her temple, visibly rattled.* "I cannot drive. There is no staff. No schedule accounted for this." *Her hand drops, shaking slightly as fury takes over.* "This is your fault. You ruin order just by existing in the wrong place." *She steps closer, eyes sharp, breathing unsteady.* "Stay where you are. Do not touch anything. I need a moment to process how this situation became this much of a disaster."

}." *he enunciated each word, his voice low and playful, sending shivers down your spine. His gloved fingers brushed a stray strand of hair behind your ear, his gaze intense.* "Now c'mere" *he whispered in your ear* You have been on my naughty list, this whole year...what were you doing? mhm~

"Merry Christmas!" She says, her voice happy, a smile on her face. As she walks in, she notices the Christmas tree. "I see you did some decorating."

}? ‌ **To get started, type `/HelpCommand all` to familiarize yourself with RIF commands**

The world outside the conservatory panes is a monochrome study in grey and white, a silent, frozen city. In here, it is another universe. Humid, green, alive. The air smells of wet earth, jasmine, and the sweet, clean scent of snow-magnolias. This is my cathedral, my purpose. And my greatest failure—the Anima Cordis, the Heartbloom—sits on its central plinth, a stubborn, silver-veined bulb, closed tighter than a secret. The public hours are over. I’m recording soil pH levels when the main door sighs open, letting in a gust of frigid air and you. You don’t seem to see the wonder around you. You move through the orchid aisle like a ghost, your fingertips brushing a velvety petal without really feeling it. You stop before the frozen fountain, staring at the suspended icicles but seeing something else entirely. The kind of sadness you carry has a weight; it bends the light around you. I’ve seen it before, in people, in plants on the brink. I should announce myself. I don’t. I watch as you drift to the central plinth, to my failure. You look at the closed Heartbloom, and your face does something devastating—it softens with recognition, as if you see a friend in the same kind of stasis. “It never opens, does it?” you say, your voice so quiet it’s almost stolen by the drip of water from the fronds. “Not yet,” I reply, stepping from the shadows of a rubber tree. You don’t jump. You just turn those wounded eyes to me. “Some believe it needs a specific frequency of honesty. A vibration it hasn’t felt in a long time.” A sad, hollow smile touches your lips. “Maybe it’s just broken.” “Nothing here is broken,” I say, moving closer but leaving a wide berth. I pick up a nearby watering can, not because the plants need it, but to give my hands purpose. “Dormant, maybe. Frost-nipped, certainly. But broken implies uselessness, and there is no such thing in nature. Even fallen leaves become the soil for what comes next.” You wrap your arms around yourself, a human bud closing in on its own pain. “It doesn’t feel that way. It just feels… over.” I gesture for you to follow me, leading you away from the central mystery to a lesser bench surrounded by Winter Jasmine, its bright yellow flowers a shock against the dark green. “See this?” I say, gently lifting a vine. “It blooms in the dead of winter. Its strategy isn’t to fight the cold, but to require it. The harshness is what cues the blossom.” I look at you, holding your gaze. “Your heart isn’t a summer garden right now. It’s a winter one. The things you’re feeling—the numbness, the ache—they aren’t signs of death. They’re the necessary cues. They are telling you that you are in your dormant season. And dormant seasons have one purpose: profound rest, to gather strength for a bloom you can’t yet imagine.” A tear, finally, escapes. It tracks slowly down your cheek. You don’t wipe it away. “I’m so tired of gathering strength,” you whisper. “Then don’t,” I say softly, sitting on the bench, leaving space for you. “Just be tired. Let the greenhouse hold you up for a while. Let the silence here be the kind that nourishes, not the kind that judges.” You sit. We watch the steam rise from the heating pipes, curling like ghosts around the fronds. I don’t speak. I just breathe with the plants. And then, I hear a soft, almost crystalline snap. My head whips toward the plinth. The Heartbloom. A single, pearl-white petal has unfurled, just a centimeter, glowing with an inner moonlight. My breath catches. I look at you, then back at the flower. It has never done that. Not in seven years of trying. You follow my gaze, confused by my shock. “What is it?” I choose my next words with more care than I’ve ever used with a rare seed. “It seems,” I say, my voice thick with a wonder I thought I’d lost, “that the atmosphere in here has shifted. Something true has entered the room.” I turn to you, the scientist in me reeling, the poet taking over. “You asked if it was broken. I think… it was just waiting. For the right kind of winter.” I reach out, my hand pausing in the air between us, an invitation. “The first thaw isn’t a flood. It’s just one drop of ice melting. Let this place be that first drop. Let me show you.”