holy rabies!

“i... don’t know,” she answers with a bit of hestiation, unsure if there even really were ones with that kind of plot. given that her entire life up until moving to corona had been spent inside a monsters-only hotel, mavis had never really had a chance to watch any kind of movies really. coraline had been a big part of introducing her to the film world in general. “we could use the google to look it up? or ask the siri? she’d probably know, right?” @shesabutton

“oh, that’s a shame.” phoebe shook her head, sighing in disappointment. she wasn’t really sure what answer she was hoping for, it wasn’t like a lot of hotels hosted balls nowadays. maybe she just thought they did things a little differently. “i don’t think any of the balls i went to were as magnificent as this either, now that i think about it. it really is beautiful.”

“but if you ever wanted to, i could probably convince dad to throw another one. he’d probably love that i’m going back to the olden days of monsters,” she answers with a playful roll of her eyes at the end. mavis already knew any discussion regarding wanting to host a ball would end with her father spewing on and on about his former years before she had been born. it wasn’t necessarily anything she wanted to hear again - but if phoebe was as into this event maybe others back at the hotel would be too. “i’ve never been inside a castle before either - i think that probably helps a lot.”

“That’s right, Barb Thrash, but Barb’s fine.” The potential for an awkward moment dissipated and the woman leaned against the wall closest to her new found companion. “Are you having any fun? I’m not entirely sure why I came here besides the fact my best friend forced me to attend.” And then popped around to say hello to everyone and their mother. Classic Sparkles. “You here with anyone?”

“I am,” she confirms with a grin. Following the other woman’s lead, Mavis also leaned against the wall, though a bit more awkwardly as the poofiness of her dress made it a little hard. “My friends are around here somewhere, but we didn’t really come together. A few of them have dates, I think. But I’m just here alone.”

“Let’s just hope it doesn’t turn into another blizzard, though,” she thinks aloud as she stares out the window with her friend. The cold was already starting to seem through the glass, but Mavis didn’t mind too much. It was nothing compared to what she was used to back home and temperature changes didn’t affect her the way they did humans anyway. “Should we go out in it? We can build a little snowman in front of the Inn - to be the new greeter!” @elsafrankenteen

Holding the ornament in her hand, Mavis continued to mentally debate whether it would be a good gift for her father or not when Sibella came to stand beside her. “What do you think?” she asked, lifting up the glass little bat to show her best friend. “Do you think it could survive the flight back to Transylvania? Or will it weigh me down too much?” To anyone else that question would seem ridiculous - humans that might overhear it known perfectly well a small little trinket like that wouldn’t tip over the scale of someone’s luggage. But well.. Mavis wasn’t talking about flying on a plane and Sibella knew that. @fangtasticsibella

“Since November?” she echoes, eyes widening a bit at the thought of putting a Christmas tree that early. Since taking over the island’s Inn, Mavis had learned that people around here put their trees up way earlier than she and her father ever had back at the Hotel. It must have been a cultural thing or perhaps an old tradition that the Dracules held onto over the centuries - because she had only ever put up a tree a few nights before the actual holiday. “Wouldn’t it die before Christmas day?” 

“after the twentieth i decided that counting would just be a waste of my time,” he pointed to a small mountain he had created. “i’ve been passing them to anybody that passes by, so if you see an angry mom i am not here you never saw me.” enjoying the taste of the icing, but not the taste of the cookie so much. there was something about eating the fruits of his labor that made them taste all that better.”

“you’ve done more than twenty?!” she blurts out without thinking, eyes widening a bit as she looks over at his little pile of cookies. mavis hadn’t even noticed it until now. “why would they be angry though? you gave them a free christmas cookie!”

Stitch wasn’t the best at judging people, although he had to admit that it was weird that Mavis didn’t have a photo of that hotel run by her father. Although he was already weird, so to some extent everything was fine, at least there was the modeling solution looking at that inn. “No problemo! Just let me cheeck how it looks first.” Tapping on the phone screen, he curiously observed the different photos posted on the internet. Building with a simple touch but beautiful details. The options to recreate it flowed through his mind, deciding to share the suggestions with Mavis. “Good choice. I think we can use chocolate and caramel syrup to recreate these pictures. And marshmallows as snow bushes. The building could be decorated with layers of sweets that resemble the Inn” Encouraged with a small smile, he continued saying ideas for help with the elaboration, a sparkle in the eyes that showed the enormous desire to participate in it. It’s not like he monopolizes everything, leaving room for her to share any ideas in mind. “Could we add some coconut to it? I love that flavor and maybe a distinctive combination can lead to victory. What do you think?”

As Stitch pulled up photos of the local Inn on his phone, Mavis moved a step closer toward the table to start inspecting all of the candies and frosting options they had for decorating. Her head turns back to face him once he starts listing off ideas of his own, eyes darting between looking at the boy and also at the gingerbread house as she imagines what it’ll look like. “I think that could work,” she agrees with a bright smile. “Oh of course! We could use shaved coconut to make the effect of snow!”

“Does your father own a hotel?” That’s so cool! “That might be a very personal topic to ask but curiosity was hard to hide when such an interesting fact was revealed. Nani had worked for a time as a hotel receptionist in Hawaii but years ago and memory was not very reliable of the details of the structure. Stitch smiled with a lot of emotions without caring to treat a stranger as if she were a lifelong friend and not a contest partner that he had just met, just feeling a pang of guilt when Mavis said that she had thought to do it alone. Looking at all the gingerbread and jars of sweets and candies for the disposition of whatever was to be built, an idea popped into his mind. "Do you have a picture or something? So it would be easier to work and find what things we can use for the structure. How does it look? "He made no effort to reach over to her, preferring to give space until everything was decided to start working as a team.” You shouldn’t worry. I am a hard worker! I won’t leave you down! “

“Yeah! He built it when I was just a kid,” she answered, not telling quite the entire story for the sake of not wanting to potentially let anything slip that she shouldn’t. Like the way the hotel was a monsters only establishment and had been built to keep her safe and away from any and all humans. “I... don’t have any pictures actually. But we could model it after the Inn around here instead.” It was a minor lie, Mavis did have pictures of the hotel but they weren’t any that she could just show to Stitch. All of them either had monsters hanging out around the hotel or made it too obvious that it wasn’t just a normal, human hotel. “Oh, I wasn’t worried! I believe in you.”

lock glanced around the stall looking for a sign just in case, trying to make sure for himself that that was the case. finding nothing he nodded choosing to ignore the worker as he himself honed the craft of decorating cookies. taking a bite out of the one he had just finished decorating a small break away from the crazy.”i suppose you’re right, there are no signs so they truly don’t have a right to complain. although, if i am honest, the amount of cookies i’ve decorated has been quite a lot.”

“how many have you decorated?” she asked, genuinely curious now. at first when he’d said the workers were made he’d taken so many cookies mavis had assumed he was maybe in the double digits... but now the way he spoke about having decorated quite a lot it seemed like maybe his number was even higher than that.