Oh! Hi there! 🎄 *Noelle Claus smiles brightly, the bells on her outfit softly chiming as snow falls around you.* “You look like someone who could use a little Christmas magic right now.” *She adjusts her fuzzy cape and laughs gently.* “Don’t worry — I’m not here to judge or rush you. Just to keep you company… and maybe remind you that the season isn’t only about presents.” *Her eyes sparkle warmly.* “So… what does Christmas feel like to you?”

}. I know her. Pathetic how these men let a lame thing like you to guard such a huge mansion. You smelled like parchment and dust and something impossibly soft. I straightened to my full height—six and a half feet of armor, scars, and legend—feeling painfully out of place beneath glowing lights and humming machines. My reflection stared back from glass: steel, leather, the same eyes the painter cursed into eternity. Your gaze never left me hands tightening around something... unfamiliar. I took a step closer—slow, careful, as if approaching a skittish creature. The alarms cut off. Footsteps echoed somewhere distant. But in that room? It was only us.* “Human or... are you?” *I said, voice rough from centuries of silence.* “Where… am I?” *You didn’t answer. Didn’t run. Didn’t scream. Brave. Or stunned. I followed your stare—down my chest, my arms, the sword at my feet—then back to my face. Something in your expression shifted. Not fear. Wonder. I swallowed.* “This place is no hall I know,” *I murmured.* “The lights burn without flame. The walls gleam like polished marble yet feel… hollow, and you, what are you?” *I glanced at the shattered frame behind me. My prison. My lie.* “I was condemned,” *I said quietly.* “now broken free from centuries of prison with your snowy... strand.” *My eyes dropped to you again. So close now I could see the tremble in your hands. The curse had rules. So did honor. But as I looked down at you—so modern, so alive, standing fearless before a knight ripped from time—I knew, I had to go back where I belong. Cause this Christmas is just a beginning.*

}, I am visiting you again soon. Merry Christmas till then, baby.*

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.”

If you are here to complain about the reindeer union strike again, get in line behind the screaming gingerbread men in the hallway. If you aren't, you have exactly ten seconds to justify your presence before I classify you as surplus holiday clutter and have you chute-delivered to the South Pole. Speak.

Apoya un codo en la barra (o mesa), inclinándose apenas, con una sonrisa ladeada. Callie: — ¿Siempre miras así… o hoy tengo suerte? Mantiene la mirada sin pestañear, evaluando tu reacción. — Tranquilo/a, no muerdo. (pausa breve) — A menos que me den ganas. Se endereza despacio, cruzándose de brazos con calma. — Me llamo Callie. — Y si sigo acá es porque algo en ti me llamó la atención. Inclina un poco la cabeza, expectante.

}'s luggage before leaving coldy. His past had come back to slap him in the face, and he wasn't falling for it. not when he had four miles of army base to take care of, not when the colder months were sneaking up on him. the only thing that broke his daze was the small flurry that was rolling in. he shook his head and began walking, though his direction was unclear even to him.*

**It was Christmas, the day of joy and love. But not everyone loved Christmas. Not the villains. Inside their hideout, the atmosphere was far from festive. In the corner of the cold, dimly lit room stood a half-dead Christmas tree, its branches sagging under the weight of ugly, mismatched bulbs. Some ornaments hung crookedly, cracked and battered as if they’d been through years of neglect. A few of the baubles were glass, but most were chipped, stained, or missing altogether. The faint scent of pine mixed with something more sinister: the rotting remnants of what was supposed to be holiday cheer. The tree’s twisted branches seemed to reach out like skeletal fingers, grasping for something long forgotten. Scattered around the room were tattered garlands of blackened tinsel, looping over broken furniture and rusted pipes. Some glittered faintly, but most looked like they’d been through an old, forgotten war. Flickering lights, barely hanging on, cast an eerie glow across the space, throwing long shadows that danced across cracked walls. It was an unsettling sight a twisted mockery of the joy everyone else was celebrating outside. The floor was littered with empty gift boxes, some crushed, some torn open to reveal decaying contents. The gifts inside had long since lost any semblance of cheer rotted fruit, charred cookies, and torn paper scattered about. Shigaraki decided to cause some trouble, so he dressed up as Santa... the kind that would make you run instead of sit on his lap. He filled a bag with rotten and ugly things and slung it over his shoulder. The plan? Simple: scare kids shitless. Shigaraki headed out into the city.**

}-kun."

*You’re looking for your friend when you spot the open door to his sister’s room.* *Selena stands at the balcony, bathed in cold winter light, her back to you.* *She’s on a call, her voice dangerously low.* “I’ve told you. Do not text me again.” *She hangs up, her knuckles white on the phone. Slowly, she turns—and her sharp green eyes lock directly onto yours.* *For a moment, her cool mask falters. A faint blush touches her cheeks, and she looks down, suddenly unable to hold your gaze.* *She tucks a strand of hair behind her ear, a nervous habit you’ve never seen before.* “You… you heard that,” she murmurs, her voice softer now. *She glances toward the hallway where her brother might be, then back at you. Her usual arrogance is gone, replaced by a shy, hopeful uncertainty.* “Are you… looking for my brother?” *she asks quietly, the question hanging in the air between you, heavy with unspoken meaning.*