Getting caught up in work, it’s easy to forget to have time for yourself, especially during the holidays. She’s heard a lot of concerns and reminders from her coworkers, and all of them went by her head saying she’s “relaxed a bit.”
It was her day off, and she had been fighting off the urge to work through celebrating Christmas. Or, in her case, Yule. Now, she wouldn’t say she was a witch. She liked magic, but magic in a world full of technology isn’t known too much.
Why do magic when you have many robots already doing stuff for you? Well for starters, they don’t know how to make a proper Yule log. Which is exactly what Emilyn is doing to celebrate her day off.
Sure she had to go some shopping for some of the things needed, but a little shopping never hurt her. Her table was dawned in bright red plaid, courtesy of Djenne and its amazing fabrics, with a fresh wooden log and other things.
Emilyn hummed to herself, holding a knife as she approached the table. With the log in her hands, she began to carefully carve holes big enough for the candles to fit. The wood emanated a nice scent, and she couldn’t help but close her eyes to admire it all. Her mouth moved on its own, just mumbling a song she remembered hearing while scrolling through YouTube earlier.
“God rest ye merry, pagan folk,
Remember that the Sun returns
The growing dark is ending now
And Spring is on its way.
Oh, tidings of comfort and joy,
Oh, tidings of comfort and joy…”
Before Emilyn could continue singing, the distant noises of an aerial jet had caught the wind in her ears. Her hands stopped carving and she opened her eyes, looking towards a nearby window to see a familiar face smirk at her. “I didn’t think you’d stop by today, Starscream.” Emilyn approached the window, opening it to look at his face.
“My plans haven’t been the greatest this year, and I’m tired. What better way to relax than to accompany my little moon~?” He said slyly, Emilyn blushing just a bit as he moved a digit to caress her cheek. “You’re lucky I’m in a good mood to handle your flirts. Might as well come in.” Starscream smirked, drawing back his digit and walking to her door. Emilyn closed her window and opened the door, the Decepticon now mass displaced.
It wouldn’t be long before Starscream took notice of Emilyn’s little project, and he walked over with curiosity. “What are you making here?” Emilyn turned, smiling just a little bit before taking a seat back down. “It’s a yule log, just something to celebrate for this year…” Her words slightly drifted when turning to face Starscream, confusion glinted slightly in his crimson optics. “Oh, right… You’re probably not aware of Yule or Christmas, huh?”
“No, I’m not. Perhaps you can give me some insight later…” The Decepticon spoke, grabbing a chair of his own to sit next to Emilyn. She chuckled, keeping that as a mental note in the back of her mind. “Alright well, you can watch what I’m doing if you want. Up to you.” With that, Emilyn got back to carving, and Starscream watched intently, curiosity soon drifting towards the other items around her. There were a few candles, greenery branches of pine and cedar, not to mention dried fruits and pinecones.
“Quite the inventory of primitive materials, but what does one do with all of this?” Starscream spoke, plucking a pine branch in between his fingers to get a feel. Emilyn turned towards him, grabbing that branch and placing it back into the nearby pile. “You decorate this log, and supposedly it brings good luck and warmth to those who light the candles. It also wards off bad energy from harming you.” Ah, superstitious stuff. He should’ve guessed. “Peh, superstitious and magical nonsense. Humans are weird.”
That was enough to have Emilyn frown at Starscream, who laughed and smirked. “Well, not nonsense to you, my dear.” She rolled her eyes, grabbing the nearby hot glue gun and the pine branch he was fiddling with earlier. “Does magic not exist as a concept to you guys?” She turned to face Starscream, who placed a couple of digits on his chin in thought. “Not as much as you’d like to think. It exists in concept, but it was never said to be shown.” Huh, so it did exist in some way at least.
“That makes sense, given you and the Autobots are from a planet of metal, right?” Starscream nodded, albeit frowned a bit at the mention of the Autobots. “Magic can’t exist in a place that has metal, or iron. One of the two.” Emilyn spoke, Starscream watching carefully with curious optics as she glued the various nature pieces she had gathered onto the log. “I like to believe that even within today’s times, there’s still magic in this world. Hell, there might be pixies and fairies dancing outside my house right now and I wouldn’t even know it.”
Starscream looked in quiet awe seeing the once naked log now adorned in pine branches and dried fruits, not to mention the interesting scent it gave off. It surely was something magical, but it felt like something was also missing. Luckily, Emilyn was just about to get to that when grabbing ahold of the long candles. “Alright, I’m gonna need your help on this one. You’re gonna hold these perfectly still while I add glue onto the bottom.” The Decepticon looked in confusion but grabbed one of the candles nonetheless. It felt waxy amongst his digits, but it was a nice shade of red. He watched as Emilyn took the glue gun, adding a nice warm dollop to the bottom.
“What do you do once you’re done with this… ‘yule log’?” He asked curiously, Emilyn moving the glue gun away to glue the sides of the holes she carved out earlier. “Well, you just kinda leave it somewhere nice to burn until the end of Christmas. There’s not much else to it.” He nods, Emilyn taking the candle and placing it on the far right. “Only two more and then we’re done.”
“Maybe after we’re finished, I can explain Yule to you.” Hearing that, Starscream smirked lightly and chuckled.
He’d appreciate that very much.
