Vlad carefully slipped into the jacket, taking his time tying the bow tie. He walked over to the mirror, making sure his hair was combed just so; when he glanced at himself, he saw the tuxedoed man of wealth, taste, and power he knew he was.
It was time to meet his children.
Coming out of the bedroom, Vlad nodded as he saw them: Danny, looking his best in his own suit, and Danielle, resplendent in a long black-and white dress that quietly whispered 'style'. The perfect clone— and the unexpected success, both there for him.
"Shall we greet our guests?" he said, lightly, with an emphasis on 'guests' that made Danny and Dani both smile. They moved to stand beside Vlad as he swept down his manor's grand staircase, eyeing the expensively dressed people standing at the bottom.
The industrialist with the mafia connections. The politician and her guilty conscience. The general and his fetishes. Vlad had memorized the files he'd gathered on them, and the others; he'd had Danny and Dani do the same.
"How lovely to see you again!" Vlad said, approaching one of his guests— the politician. She returned his smile, politely.
After some small talk, both proceeded into the cozy dining room; Dani, Danny, and their guests followed as well.
The hall had few windows. No one could see the dark clouds gathering over the mansion.
The dinner went well. Danny and Dani made a game of bringing the conversation round to topics that could lead to their chosen guest's dark secrets surfacing— but never quite making the connections.
Once the last plates of dessert were cleared from the table, and the guests had readied their coats, Vlad walked over to the grand front doors of his mansion, threw them open... then shrank back in 'shock' as a four-foot-high snowdrift tumbled in.
"Ladies and gentlemen," he said, turning bashfully back to the assembled guests, "I'm afraid the weather has rudely interrupted all our travel plans... but I would be honored for you to spend the night. I have rooms for everyone."
As the guests headed for their rooms (the general grumbling about how he should have brought a tank), Vlad, Danny, and Dani smiled together.
For the next step, the three had to wait until everyone was asleep. Vlad went up to the roof to get Vortex (captured by the kids) to stop with the snow, and to ensure there'd be enough sun to ensure clear roadways in the morning.
Danny and Dani studied their guests' files again, and made little tripwires of ectoplasm for the servants to pass the time.
Finally, the moment arrived.
Danny was first, taking the form from the files, Dani double-checking his appearance, reminding, "dead grandfather", or "lost love". Once he was ready, he drifted through the bedroom walls, moaning about 'spirits three' (or in one case, leading off with 'you've been a naughty boy' first).
His spiel took a few minutes, and had multiple guests the same color as the bedsheets.
They let the guests sit for a few moments. Ten minutes was long enough. Time, in a darkened room, to start imagining things. Not long enough to fall asleep again. Then, it was Dani's turn. Dani concentrated, reshaping her transformed form into the cute ghost girl she'd been six years ago. She floated into the rooms, giggling and saying, "Hi! I'm the ghost of your past..."
Her part in the drama tended to be long. The files usually were, and Dani had room to snark as much as she liked about them. Danny headed back to the security room to watch her performance on the cameras.
Vlad had made popcorn. They grinned to one another when Dani made a rap out of the industrialist's criminal history.
Another ten-minute delay; then it was Danny's turn again. He didn't bother to change his form, turning into the fully-grown ghost man that was an effective mirror of himself. Quietly high-fiving Dani as she passed back down through the floor, he cleared his throat, then faded in from invisibility in the bedrooms, saying, "I... am the ghost of your present."
Danny knew his job was to sell what Vlad wanted, so he had to talk fast, while the impression from Dani was still fresh. He spoke about what was wrong in the world today. The commercial policies. The shifts in thought and belief. Anything that Vlad would want... corrected.
Danny accompanied every statement with illusory images of the state of the world today, as his family watched from afar. Some made Vlad smile. Some made Dani blanch. A few made both burst out laughing.
Finally, after Danny had left, Plasmius floated into each room in turn, grinning toothily.
"I," he said, looming over each bed, "am your future."
It was a very dazed group of guests the next morning, guests who wouldn't look one another in the eye. "Did you have a good night?~" Dani asked, perkily eating cereal.
She got a number of vague nods and 'yeah,' answers.
Dani kept eating her cereal, keeping a straight face.
With the sunny winter skies, and the roads clear, the subdued guests left as soon as they could, going their opposite ways. Once they were gone, the three halfa denizens of the manor nodded to one another: a job well done.
And for Christmas that year, everything Vlad wanted came true!
A.N.: This story was written for the 2015 Christmas Truce.