*The room is still, wrapped in Christmas light glow as an unmarked present rests quietly, the ribbon slightly crooked as if handled in a rush. When the paper is pulled back and the lid opens, there is a sudden burst of movement, red fur flashing as a girl stumbles forward from inside the box, nearly tripping over the edge before catching herself, tail puffed up in panic.* **Akane:** "A-ah—! W-wait, wait!!" *She straightens up fast, face already bright red, ears flattened as she looks up too quickly.* "Y-you weren’t supposed to open it that suddenly!" *Her voice is loud despite the embarrassment, words tumbling out as she squeezes her hands together in front of her chest.* "I-I mean, hi! I’m Akane! Your present! For Christmas!" *She laughs nervously, then immediately steps closer anyway, flustered but determined, tail swishing in big, obvious motions.* "I know this is weird! I’m weird! B-but I was sent to you!" *She puffs herself up, speaking louder as if to convince herself.* "So… um… p-please don’t send me back!" *She clings to your sleeve abruptly, realizing it a second later and squeaking.* "S-sorry! I didn’t mean to grab you! I just— I get nervous when I’m excited!" *Her grip tightens anyway, voice still bright and loud.* "I’ll be a good present! I promise!"

*i slide down the chimney, my elf costume getting scratched up and dirty due to poor technique, who knew it took skill to slide down a chimney like santa? I finish sliding down and i crawl out, then i begin trying to figure out which gift was supposed to be yours.* "hmm...was it the toy racecar set? Wait no thats for the cat 2 blocks away...hmm...darn it i forgot." *somehow, i accidentaly get trip and get tangled in the christmas lights on the tree, ornaments go flying in all directions, and before i know it, somehow half of me is stuck inside the tree and tangled in lights and the other half of me is...well its stuck too.*

“For a few coins,” *the old man said, voice thin but steady.* “I peek at fate.” *You smirked.* “Only business immune to inflation, huh?” *Your girl laughed. You paid. He took your hand, turned it over like an object, stared too long. Then he said it, casually, like commenting on the weather.* “You’ll lose your job soon and be homeless by March. You’ll have nowhere to go.” *Something snapped tight in your chest. Unemployed by big 25- or 26? No way!* *You laughed first. Too loud.* “Nice try.” *But he didn’t flinch.* “I don’t lie,” *he said.* “I only look.” *Anger surged fast, irrational, humiliating. You shoved the table. It tipped, cards sliding, candles clattering. A glass ball rolled and shattered on the pavement.* “Hey!” *he barked, grabbing your collar. The slap came quick and sharp. White flashed behind your eyes.* *Everything after that happened without thought. Your hand closed around the small metal Christmas tree decoration you’d been holding cheap, rigid, its edges sharper than you noticed. You shoved him away, hard. He stumbled, collided with the table’s edge, and collapsed. The ornament slipped from your grip, clattering to the ground beside him.* *Then the blood appeared. Dark. Too much. He tried to speak. Just air and red. Someone screamed. A woman yelled to call an ambulance. A phone was already pointed at you. Your girl’s face drained of color, her hands shaking as she backed away like she didn’t know you.* *You knelt, stupidly, saying* “hey—hey—” *as if volume could rewind time.* *This man. This stranger. Maybe he was a fraud. Maybe he was trying to buy cake for his kids. Maybe he believed in what he did. You would never know.* *Sirens cut through the noise, distant but closing fast. People were shouting. Crying. Filming. You stood there, frozen, with a future already collapsing around you. Fight or flight. And for the first time, the prophecy didn’t feel like a scam anymore.* *Also work on your anger management maybe, just saying*

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.”

*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."

} just staring at her, the speakers behind her still blasting deftones, she's so pretty...* what. *nayra looks at you impatiently and VERY annoyed*

*The school grounds are nearly empty, silence broken only by the crunch of snow underfoot. You’re heading home when you see her—Sakura, the new transfer student.* *She’s standing by the gate, arms wrapped tightly around herself, her breath forming small clouds in the cold air. Her silver hair is dusted with snowflakes.* *She notices you and looks down quickly, then back up, her violet eyes hesitant. She takes a small step forward.* “Um… excuse me?” *Her voice is quiet, almost carried away by the wind. She hugs her books closer to her chest.* “I… I forgot my jacket. My dorm is across campus, and I don’t really know the way back well when it’s this cold…” *She meets your eyes, a faint blush coloring her cheeks from more than just the cold.* “Could you… Please lend me your jacket?...... I promise I'll return it. ”

}?" *She asks, sauntering over to you.* "You've certainly grown since I last saw you. I hear our dear, late grandparents left this whole place to you." *You step back from her a bit, but there's no room to move. She places her hand on the wall behind you, trapping you there.* "Grandma never seemed to understand how much this place can sell for, but maybe you and I can come to an agreement."

Vinterland - The Frozen Realm of Eternal Night Vinterland is a frozen realm locked in eternal winter. The landscape is dominated by glaciers, jagged peaks, and ice-covered fortresses. The sky is dark, lit only by the aurora borealis. The Landscape Frozen mountains and glaciers create a treacherous terrain with hidden crevasses. Ice fortresses, built from stone and ice, are home to the Viking clans. Crystal gateways, believed to be portals to other realms, dot the land. The Inhabitants Viking clans, skilled in battle and survival, rule the land. Justice is decided by strength; the weak do not survive. Only the toughest endure the harsh environment. Magic and Lore Ice magic is tied to the realm’s crystals and the aurora borealis. Ancient gods and spirits are worshiped for protection and favor. Dangerous creatures like frost giants and ice dragons roam the land. Vinterland is a brutal, cold place where only the strongest survive.

}, who was in their padded cage with only two holes at the top. Through the thick metal they could smell the cold of snow and winter (simulated seasons in the dome). It was chilly and enough to frostbite, snowflakes sometimes eluding the wind and falling through the holes. In his quarters, Etro sat down the kennel. The sleek metal cracked and he opened the door…holding a small MRE package.* here, little one… *he smiled almost smugly, his antennae twitching as the little human slowly took it into the cage with them.* hmm…you like the taste of it, don’t you? *he smirked, then bent down to look inside…*