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 Posted: Tue Dec 24, 2013 10:04 pm
On the shores of Deus Ex Machina, two slender figures stepped lightly on the sand. With every movement, the cheerful sound of bells laughed into the night as the scent of peppermint filled the air. One of the figures looked quite merry but the other's face was set into solemn lines as she stared at the dim, flickering lights of the island's buildings.
"It's not a kindness, this," she began as the other spun in a circle, sparks glimmering from her hands. "We'd better to leave them be."
The other laughed, "It's every kindness to bring JOY to these grim folk. They helped mother in her time of great need, and she was forced to repay them by taking so much of their JOY away to get home. It's only right to return it to them, really. To use it to grant a special kind of wish."
"But it won't last," the first sighed.
"Nothing ever does, so they should be able to enjoy a holiday wish for as long as it lasts!"
The entire conversation had the feel of a long and dearly held argument, tread time and again between the two. After another sigh, the solemn elf lifted her hands and the sparks in the air multiplied tenfold. Soon the sky was filled with a second set of stars that bounced and played merrily across the island until suddenly they stopped and quivered intently in place. A moment later they began to swiftly converge at a single point that shone intensely, pulsing as it rose high into the sky and then burst like a brilliant firework all across the island.
The merry elf clapped and cheered and the other just sighed again, her mouth quirking bitterly even as her eyes shone with a sort of pride, "So that's it then. One holiday wish."
"A great wish!"
"Let's hope so."
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Posted: Thu Dec 26, 2013 5:20 pm
12-31-2013
In the infirmary, Sunny was throwing used up healing runes and clipboards full of detailed accounts of sparring injuries. "This isn't how this place is supposed to be!" Stephen lifted placating hands as he dodged a stapler. "I'm ******** tired of how wrong everything has become!"
Elsewhere a Moon hunter looked down at a picture with a grim smile, "It shouldn't have been you. If only..."
In the Sun division's office, Simon went over their ledgers. For the other divisions, that would mean funds and supplies. For Sun it meant body counts and new recruits. Looking at the current list, the assistant wondered how long he could keep the current numbers away from Allan. Allowing himself a small moment of wistfulness he began, "I wish..."
Several levels beneath the town, in a small, secret complex, darkly hooded figures stood over a map. "We were better than this..."
All throughout the island, various hunters looked at the coming year and saw only a continuation of pain and suffering, many of them wishing, hoping, longing for a better life. A better Deus Ex Machina.
In the infirmary, Stephen held the petite nurse as she made a snotty mess of his jacket, all her fight giving way to an immense grief, "I wish this place was the way it used to be, before...before they all ******** died and left us desperate."
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Posted: Thu Dec 26, 2013 5:23 pm
The air around the island shimmered and blinked, and suddenly existence shifted. Everything was lighter and brighter, most especially in the hearts of the hunters and their families as the prepared for the annual New Year's Eve Ball. The year had been a good one, with the fewest casualties of any on record, not to mention all the promising trainees and newly minted Hunters that had come into their own.
It was a year worth celebrating and many hoped the next would be just as kind.
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