#divus

Divus Crewel

Ashton Vargas

Mozus Trein

Sam

Just a burning sensation on your neck, before he swoops in, licking and sucking on the wound ever so gently…

He’s ever so fond of dressing you in scarlet, after all. Smooth, silky scarlet that seems to reveal more than it hides. Curving around your every curve, dipping at the chest and the back… gold chains dangling from your neck, a rather flashy ruby placed on the very end.

What most people don’t see is Crewel’s name, carved onto the back of that locket. A collar, for his favourite little puppy. He’ll pull you around gently, slipping a finger and tugging you around wherever he’s going.

When he takes a seat at the meeting table, you’re right next to him. On your knees, on the ground. Hm? You want a chair? Good dogs sit on the ground, so behave yourself and keep your paws on the ground.

Maybe you’ll get a treat once he gets bored of the meeting. His fingers slipping through your elaborate hairstyle, grabbing at your scalp firmly, pulling you closer to his lap… you let yourself be dragged, despite the way his grip stings, because the alternative is being shot through the skull.

If you hesitate in any way, Crewel’s going to tut, before blowing a cloud of smoke in your face.

Huh, don’t you want to be a good puppy?

If there's one thing you like about being in this world--you know, besides the magic and all of it's fascinating variety--was the fact that this place had stable weather. So much so that you actually don't need any sort of central air unit most of the time. You just open a window in Ramshackle and leave at it at that.

Ramshackle was a…unique place. A hazard among other things, but you can't find it in you to call it horrible for whatever reason. You don't know, you suppose it's because ghosts live here, so calling a place with sentient beings in it horrible is a little harsh. That and horrible implies that Ramshackle was beyond saving, but look at it now! Look as this beautiful masterpiece of a place you've made!

Practically a hotel now if you do say so yourself, all with your own money, and a little blackmail.

Well, all this to say that sleeping here has never been more comfortable, and now you can enjoy the nice weather to the fullest without have to worry about overheating or getting hypothermia.

Right now, it's early in the morning, sun just a few inches off the horizon, light hitting streaks off of your wallpaper and all you can do is languidly stretch over your pillow as the soreness from your janitorial work fully settled into you.

You still haven't gotten rid of the habit of just letting yourself sleep in on the weekends. Your body was wound just enough to anticipate an alarm that's not going to ring. You have a few days off but it's going to take a bit for it to hit in the rest of your limbs.

So, all you can do is enjoy this nice and windy morning.

"Can you close that?" A hand lazily smacked the back of your head, giving you a glimpse of black and white painted nails. "Get the window already…"

Apparently you're the only one that appreciates such calm weather and winds.

"In a minute," you pushed Divus's hand off, who just as lazily fought back with a couple of additional smacks on your wrist.

"It's too early for this," Divus groaned before retreating under the sheets, clearly nursing the mother of all hangovers. Turning, all you can see was a few wisps of his dual colored hair from under a few layers of blankets, and a custom made sleep mask.

You plucked it and lightly smacked Divus's head. "Your mask slipped off."

He didn't move for a solid minute. You thought Divus went back to sleep, but then his curled figure moved, shuffled, then snatched the mask from your hand like an underground mole.

"Mmm…thanks…"

You pushed yourself out of the sheets and gave as large of a stretch as you could, taking care not to knock over the opened wine bottles and movie projector.

"I'm making breakfast, you want anything?" You reached under your bed to grab your slippers.

With a deep breath and a slight wince, Divus popped his messy head out from under the covers, sleep mask fully in place but still wearing an uncomfortable frown, "My clothes. I'm not wearing a thing."

You snorted. "Food, Divus. I'm talking about food."

"…eggs." Divus gave up sitting up and flopped back on the pillow.

"And raisin butter on toast?" You stood up and gave your spine one final stretch.

"And tea. And all the snacks in your pantry."

Divus Crewel

If anyone was more likely to take you in like he would a child to help you feel better about the holiday season, it would be this man. You would spend a lot of time with him, shopping and wrapping gifts for the other staff members. He makes sure to keep you distracted so that you have no time to mope about and wallow in self-pity, even if that’s all you want to do.

You help him decorate his apartment as well, and each ornament he has belongs in the color-theme he selected for this year, which was black, white, gold, and a splash of red. He, too, used his magic to lift you up so that you could place it on top of the tree. This is also a time where you learned that Professor Crewel preferred to remain well-dressed even in the comfort of his own home.

When he gave you your present, it had a well-written card on it. He told you how proud he was of you and how far you had come, and you didn’t even get to the gift itself before you started crying. He opened his arms to you, and you ran into them, sniffling your tears away. He placed a gentle kiss on the top of your head to comfort you, holding you as a moment of silence took hold.

Ashton Vargas

His apartment was… unique. His living room didn’t have a couch, but rather was a gym itself, despite the apartment complex having a gym. He claimed that they didn’t have the equipment he needed, and he kept you on an exercise regimen during your stay ‘so that you wouldn’t slack off.’ In reality, he didn’t know what to do about your seasonal depression, but he knows exercise can help, and he offers to exercise alongside you.

There’s not a lot of room to put up a tree, so you instead decorate the equipment stands, and you place the gifts that you wrap onto the treadmill that he owns. His kitchen has a few holiday-themed things, and you put lights on top of his cabinets so that the lights will shine onto the walls. It was simple, but it worked and spirited the place a bit more.

Coach’s gift to you was a few gift cards to a few different places in the town below NRC, as he didn’t know what you or Grim would have liked. He freaks out when you start crying, but you say, through sobs, that it was from being grateful. It had been a while since you saw someone as a family figure, and you were glad that he was the one.

Mozus Trein

When he had invited you to his house for the holidays, you were low-key kind of expecting a dungeon. Lo and behold, it was a small but warm and welcoming house. You met his two daughters, and they were very happy to meet you. They became your older sisters, in a sense, with how quickly they accepted you as their family.

A tree was decorated in the corner of the living room, and everyone sat gathered. Presents were passed out, and you were going about in a circle, unwrapping one present each. You were aware that you would be meeting your professor’s daughters, so you made sure to get them some gift cards, as you did not want to show up empty-handed. Trein told you that they would understand, but you were pretty adamant.

Eventually, it got to you, and you unwrapped the one from Mozus, him looking at you with an amused look. Inside of it were a few books to read in your free time that reminded him of you, and each of them had a message that he wrote within them. One of those messages was detailing how proud he was to call you one of his students, and that Lucius even liked you, and you wrapped your arms around him and started crying. He returned the favor, hugging you as though you were his child, and your newfound sisters joined in on the hug as well. Family hug.

Sam

He didn’t go home for the holidays, and opted to stay at the Shop because there were students who still needed things. That being said, he did invite you to celebrate in the shop with him. He’s kind of like your cousin with how close you two were. Anyway, you decided to help him decorate the shop appropriately, as it was feeling a bit dull in there. Lights lined the corners of the walls and the edges of the shelves, making it more festive.

The back of the shop looked similar, but there was a tree back there as well. His friends on the other side helped him decorate it, as well as you and Grim. It had a bunch of different colors, but it was able to portray the different personalities between the multitude of you. You smiled with nostalgia lining your lips at the star on top, and you had a feeling you were going to make it through this season unscathed.