Hello readers! It's me - Icetail, author of Yuki no Hana. I'm posting this one-shot for Hallow's End (Halloween, and I am absolutely not late at all), based off the Hallow's End event in the global Tales of LINK mobile app. It's somewhat connected to Yuki no Hana, but not too much. Though very mild spoilers to my plans for Arietta in Yuki no Hana, not that I've really been hiding said plans. So I hope you enjoy this story. For those who haven't read Yuki no Hana - please do, else OOC alert.
Summary - After the play written by Sara, Lippy and the Great Saviour; Lythia and Arietta decide to hold the events of the play over Jade's head and confront him about the ad lib.
Response to Guest review on Yuki no Hana:
Yes, I am still killing the other God-Generals. I can't get away with saving all of them.
Ad Lib to Victory?
The eve of Hallow's End was fast approaching and Major Lythia Balfour and her adopted daughter, Arietta, were walking through town helping the townspeople to set up for their festival. Though the main reason they were there was because they had heard word that Lythia's older brother, Jade Curtiss, would be performing in a play set up by Sara, Lippy and the Great Saviour, who had become quite famous recently. Lythia wasn't going to miss this for the world, and Arietta had agreed. Thus the two had travelled to the town where the festival was happening.
"Mama!" Arietta called from where she was standing, pointing at the stage that had been set up. The pink haired teen rushed back to Lythia and started to tug her mother's hand. "Uncle Jade and his friends will be putting on their play up won't they?"
"Yes dearest," Lythia replied with a smile, allowing the unusually hyperactive girl pull her along. "And we really need to make sure that Jade doesn't see us until after the play, so we can surprise him. Not that he'd really be surprised. I'm sure he'd be expecting us to have found out."
Arietta grinned happily up at her mother, far happier than Lythia had ever seen before, and the blonde woman led the young teen to the side of the crowd that had gathered, where they stood to watch the man who they loved to blackmail with events such as these. Then the cream and brown coloured cheagle-ish looking cat dog sprite that Jade had said was Lippy appeared and began the play.
By the end, Arietta was staring at Jade incredulously and Lythia was snickering at the group on stage as the curtains fell. The two girls worked their way to the backstage and waited for Jade to walk their way. When he finally did, Lythia spoke up.
"So the script truly has you as a poor sad soul under the sway of an evil cat daemon, brother dearest," she said slyly, causing the man to stop where he was and turn around. "And not you improvising your way into the good graces of the unknowing audience after placing everyone in danger because you took some petty revenge too far?"
"Uncle Jade!" Arietta scolded. "Your meant to stick to the script, even Anise can do that better than you!"
Jade held up his hands in mock surrender, smirking at the pinkette.
"I was hardly the first person to jump off the script," he defended, to which Lythia scoffed.
"So you admit to your crime then?" She asked. "Your performance was an ad lib from the original script?"
"You have no proof to this accusation of yours, little sister," crowed Jade, his smirk ever growing. This smirk was met by an equally evil one from his sister as Lythia held up the stack of paper that was the script that Sara and Lippy had written, leaving the brunette man to wonder where she had gotten it. A question answered a second later by Lippy running up looking a bit miffed.
"Who are you and where did you get the master script for this play?" he demanded. Lythia's violet eyes flicked down to the sprite before she looked at the pages in her hand.
"This is the master script?" she asked with false surprise. "It was just lying around when I picked it up. I didn't steal it or anything."
Lythia dismissed the sprite with a wave of her empty hand, going back to shaking the script in Jade's face.
"One day you're going to find yourself in a situation you can't just laugh your way out of and I won't be around to help you when it goes to hell," she scolded. Jade's expression didn't change from its smirk, but it was no longer mocking.
"I've already been in a situation like that, darling sister," the man replied. "You know that very well."
Lythia snarled at her brother for bringing that up. Arietta mimicked the blonde woman's expression. The glares of the two girls caused Jade's smirk to fade a little as he realised that he had pushed a little too far once again.
"Yeah, I know," Lythia snapped. "And you aren't allowed to do that to me again. No more brushes with death from you unless I'm around."
"Forgive me Lythia, I shouldn't have brought that up," murmured Jade, his smirk falling from his face, leaving his lips in an expressionless line. Silence was working its way around them until a throat was cleared, bringing attention back to Lippy, who looked very annoyed.
"Who are you?" Lippy asked again. Lythia looked the sprite over, noting the device around his neck.
"I am Lythia Balfour," replied the blonde woman, snappishly. "The younger sister of Jade Curtiss, and Arietta here is my daughter. And I must say, I owe your Great Saviour a burn or two for hurting Ari several weeks ago."
"Mama, it's fine," the pinkette tried to say but Lythia held up her hand with a wink sent towards her daughter. Turning her full attention back to the sprite, she handed the script back.
"Perhaps you'll come perform the real play without the divergences, for myself and my Lord Brother Peony next year," the blonde woman stated. "The original sounds like a lovely story. If you can't get the same actors, I know a few people who would be able to pull off those roles."
The cheagle like cat sprite stared at Lythia as if she had grown an extra head, but Lythia ignored it and ensnared Jade's arm with her own.
"Come dearest brother," she said, as Arietta grabbed the brunette man's other arm. "You shall show us around this lovely town."
The girls left no room for protest as they dragged Jade away from the stage. They eventually found themselves in a market place, Arietta in Jade's arms, having somehow convinced the man to carry her around, Lythia walking beside them.
The blonde woman eventually ducked over to one of the vendors and brought something, before bringing whatever it was back to her brother and daughter. They appeared to be candy, three pieces, all wrapped differently. She held them towards Arietta.
"Take one darling," she stated. "I did promise."
"Thank-you Mama," the pinkette said softly, picking up the one wrapped in dark purple and pink. Lythia then turned to Jade and moved one of the candies to her other hand and held them out as if she were giving him a choice, and she was.
"Alright Jade," she said with a grin. "I know how much you hate sour foods. One of these candies is sour, and I mean really sour, the other isn't. The one you say isn't sour is the one I'll give you, though if you guess wrong or don't guess at all then I'll give you the sour one."
Jade looked at his sister's grin, noting the way it was slowly becoming a smirk.
"So I basically have a one in three chance of getting this correct," he commented.
"If you wish to see it that way," replied his sister. The two candies in the woman's hands where different, one being wrapped in deep red, the other wrapped in orange, not really enough to tell the difference between sweet and sour. With a sigh, Jade followed the advice given to him from Fon Master Ion and indulged his sister, and he pointed at the red candy. Lythia handed Jade the red wrapped candy, and then unwrapped the orange one and stuck it in her mouth, grimacing at the sourness.
"It appears that I win," Jade smirked. His victory was short lived when he popped his own candy into his mouth, tasting its sourness. His sister started laughing.
"I lied," she giggled. "Arietta had the sweet one. That's for the stunt you pulled with the props in the third act!"
Jade huffed slightly at the disguised reprimand from his younger sister and accepted the punishment of sour candy quietly as Arietta and Lythia laughed together and continued to lead the Colonel around. He decided to always check to see if his sister or niece were around next time he was ever dragged into participating in a play, before messing around with the props. Oh well, what evil vampire doesn't have a far eviler younger sister to play pranks on him.
~fin~
So I hope you liked that. xD Lythia isn't evil, she is Jade's younger sister. Lippy thinks Lythia is crazy. I think I'll make this a collection of one-shots, much like my Club Penguin fic - Tragic is Only Another Word for Pain, and just update this when new one-shot ideas get created. Thanks for reading and please leave a review!
~Icetail of WindClan - Meta-If~