After two feet of snowfall and the distant howling of Ithaqua all thought the night, the sky brightened behind the snow clouds on a frosted Luna Nova lit from within by magic, delight, and relief. And presents.
"Merry Christmas!" Akko said. "Now let's open our dang presents!"
"Let's," Sucy said.
The room was decked out in fairy lights and Lotte's phone played Christmas music as they dug into their gifts. Akko ripped open a care package from home first.
"Pickled plums, mom's lemon tarts she likes to make-oh, look!" She held up a couple of carded action figures that looked oddly familiar. "It's bootleg action figures of me and Diana! How awesome is that?!" She held her HERO WITCH action figures beside her head, trying to mimic the brown-haired not-Akko's slightly lopsided expression.
"It's like there's two of you," Sucy said. She held up an Amazon gift card from her mother.
Lotte wrapped herself up in a big soft blanket her parents wove her and investigated her next present. "Huh, this one's from Sucy?" She lit up once she liberated it from its prison of paper and cardboard. "Ohhhhh it's a Night Fall official Carrier Bag of Holding! Oh my G... in the name of the Outer Gods!" She checked the instruction sheet tucked under the flap. "It holds up to fifty Night Fall books?! That's amazing!"
"I figured you weren't gonna go digital any time soon," Sucy said, a forlorn smile on her face as she watched Akko attack her next present. "So I thought I'd give you a taste of the good life."
Lotte was already cramming books off the shelf and into the bag. "I can get more of my books out of storage! Oh, I should leave a buffer in here for the next books... but I've got a couple months, I should be fine... oooh, this is too wonderful! Thank you, thank you!" She gave Sucy a hug, to Sucy's squirming dismay.
"That's enough, there," she said, gently pushing Lotte away, who got the message after a moment. "You're welcome, by the way."
"Ooh, Diana got me a porg plush!" She wiggled a fat cat-pug-hamster-puffin with the soulfully distressed eyes of a possum. "Now Alcor has a lil' brother!" She grabbed her childhood plush and squeezed the dolls together.
Sucy rest her head in her hands and watched her roommates pal around with their Christmas goodies and a shameful feeling of jealousy washed over her. "Merry Christmas," she said.
"Merry it is," Lotte said.
"In fact... I think we've got one more gift to go!" Akko said.
Sucy raised an eyebrow. A hidden one, mind. Gotta maintain that air of ironic detachment. "One more, huh."
"Yes, we do," Lotte said. "On the count of three, Akko." She held out her wand as Akko held out hers. "One, two..."
"Three! Gaura cheii!" A glowing white tether connected their wands; the two of them stepped away from each other, and an economy-sized bucket of marshmallow fluff thumped onto the floor. A post-it note on the side read "Merry Christmas Sucy."
"I..." Sucy hiccupped. "I don't think I've ever been, uh, conventionally good enough for a gift like this."
"You're one of my besties, Sucy," Akko said. "Plus, world-saving."
"Just give us a little heads up before you get carried away, okay?" Lotte said.
"S-sure," Sucy said, struggling to keep, among other things, her tears from bursting free in a blatant display of human weakness. "Thanks, you two."
"Hugs?" Lotte said.
"...fine, sure," Sucy said, and hugs were had.
A little later in the drama department, Akko killed a little time by reading her book on Witchmas.
The last day of Christmas, Akko read, was the day devoted to the Outer Gods themselves: Azathoth, god of entropy, Shub-Niggurath, goddess of fecundity, and Yog-Sothoth, god of space-time. Their symbol looked like a simple drawing of a tree: a straight line with three upward-slanting diagonal branches reaching left and two more reaching right. The book had it as the pupil of a burning eye in a pentagram, the safest way to present the Elder Sign (so the book said).
Unlike other witchgods, these three were not stranded on Earth; they were present everywhere in the universe due to the nature of what they were. Other gods were, in a technical sense, alien entities of such scope and power that "god" was the only way to describe them. The Big Three were more like laws of physics with agendas and something like personalities. Only people who absolutely know what they are doing are to engage in their worship directly, rather than going through Nyarlat Hotep, their soul and voice. Worship of these gods was the spiritual equivalent of handling the Demon Core, where one mistake would lead to spectacular death.
Thus the Day of the Three was devoted to briefly acknowledging the gods and then celebrating regular mundane-style Christmas as hard as possible. One was encouraged to get weird with it, if one were so inclined.
"Is this our version of gettin' weird with it?" Akko said.
Constanze, setting up a rear projector nearby, grunted.
"It's not Christmas music, although it is awesome!" Akko said. "So I ain't complainin'."
"Better not," Sucy said as she analyzed the flashpots set around the stage. "We've been practicing this slightly off-screen all month." She made sure Lotte was nowhere near and whispered, "Especially the parts Lotte doesn't know about."
"Oh yeah," Akko said, winking and giving a thumbs up. "This is gonna be her best Christmas present this year."
LINEBREAK LINEBREAK LINEBREAK
A dozen or so students opted to show up to the big show advertised on fliers Wangari handed out after Akko's victory over the avatar of Mormo:
WOODEN WINTER
X
SUCY MANBAVARAN and the SUCY MANBAVARAN BAND
present
2112: A MUSICAL INTERPRETATION
BE THERE, SLUTS
The show was, for once, not in the cafeteria, but the actual stage the drama department used to put on their performances (though an enterprising Hannah and Barbara set up a snack stand just inside).
In the wings, Akko taped her mic on. "Man oh man, I can't wait! This is gonna be killer!"
"Remember," Sucy said in American sign language to the rest of the crew, "Akko's mic is not on because she sings like one of those screaming frogs."
"Pardon?" Lotte said.
"It's cool," Wangari said, signing back "If you didn't turn it off I would have." "Anyway! On your marks, kids, outfits on, and when the magic happens, let it happen as hard as it can. It's Miracle Day, bitches! Fistbump!"
The two bands engaged in a collective fistbump with assorted sound effects.
The lights came down, the curtains rose. The rear projection kicked in as Joanna played eerie synth notes on her keytar, starfields and planets from old cartoons giving abstract, intermittent silhouettes to Wooden Winter that became more defined as the stock footage grew more intense and bright as the music grew more fierce and commanding. Lotte, not yet on stage, spoke the first line of the song.
The limelights kicked in and Wooden Winter was revealed in all their splendor:
Wangari, in a silver dress with a prominent red star on the chest and no shoes, on lead guitar and vocals for the Priest of Syrinx.
Joanna on keytar, Kimberly on bass, and Gaelle (the German girl Akko sat next to in Magic Philosophy, she knew her!) on drums, all in silvery vaguely Soviet-ish uniforms with furry hats. What was it about German girls and drums at this school?
And, of course, Akko on cowbell.
Sucy had to hand it to her, Wangari could shoulder the weight of the guitar and get plenty athletic without missing a note. On one hand, she would've preferred to be the bad guy. On the other, her outfit for her role was pretty neat, so...
She played her first few notes as the lights went out and the stock footage went from assorted cyberpunk movies to caves with waterfalls and all that good stuff. Under cover of darkness Wooden Winter magicked their asses off-stage and Akko distracted the audience by taking front stage, metamorphie-ing from her Priests of Syrinx uniform into a shimmery fairy getup and exchanging cowbell for rain stick. She had like six costume changes, part of a silent apology for keeping her from singing or musicking too distractingly.
Sucy played soft, plucking guitar and as the lights returned a little Lotte wandered on stage in her humble peasant dress, approaching Robo-Sucy strumming her guitar while seated on a rock. Part clever use of metamorphie magic, part excuse to put on excessive amounts of 80s makeup, Strange Device Sucy had shiny plastic skin and helmet-like hair and kitchy Tron-style light-lined clothes and a bitchin' guitar.
The choreography for Lotte finding the Strange Device and finding out it made beautiful music was a little more touchy-feely than Sucy would have preferred with a female partner, but it made Lotte happy, and, well, she still felt the ghost of apologetic...ness... over how things got that last day in Vegas-Waikiki. So let 'er sing her happy little Finnish heart out. Girl had the voice of an angel anyway.
The rest of the Sucy Manbavaran Band emerged in clouds of fog via, what else, magic: Jasminka on bass (subbing for an enchanted self-playing bass they usually had propped up while playing) and Constanze on drums. Akko's outfit switched out for a colorful dancing outfit as she went nuts on-stage, blissfully ignorant of what the rest of the performers were doing. Wooden Winter reemerged via their own magic in time for the idealistic protagonist played by Lotte to be confronted for daring to bring forth a music thing that played music they didn't approve of.
The intense guitar duel between Strange Device Sucy and Priest of Syrinx Wangari was the stuff of school paper headlines, going on a bit longer than the classical composition as Lotte had the idea that their performance of 2112 would be exactly 21 minutes and 12 seconds long, and nobody present could think of a reason to say no. It ended, as the song demanded, with Wangari victorious and proudly stepping on the defeated SD Sucy, Sucy going the extra mile to feign displeasure at the turnout and Wangari pretending that Sucy meant it.
The bands slunk into the wings and played together for the next leg of the composition, where Lotte went back to the Lotte Cave and had a trippy vision guided by Oracle Outfit Akko and cutscenes from Sid Meier's Alpha Centauri. Lotte got into her role with a fervor that actually exceeded Akko's, dancing with her less like a partner and more like a pet cat she was confiding in, up to picking her up under her arms and spinning around with her with sheer excitement at the prospect of the Elder Race returning. Which, of course, led to a nice, melodramatic comedown once the vision ended.
Lotte climbed to the top of a big prop rock and as she sang the last lines of the protagonist in the darks(?) of despair, took a dramatic dive off and into the arms of Super Armor Oracle Action Akko, with the concluding instrumental soon kicking into high gear as the two bands reemerged, Sucy Manbavaran and the Sucy Manbavaran Band in matching Super Armor Oracle Action outfits as the Elder Race of Man reclaimed the solar system, flash pots sending bursts of flames and sparks into the air when dramatically appropriate or Akko hit the wrong foot pedal trigger.
Sucy planted her high-heeled boot on a fallen Wangari and intoned over her microphone the last words of the song. Constanze squeezed out a few more seconds' worth of drum solo before they hit the 21:12 mark, and the performers paused for applause.
The remaining students obliged.
Akko had an idea and improvised a few lines of dialog. Mysteriously, it didn't get picked up by the microphone, so she cupped her hands around her mouth and shouted "HEY, GUY! GOOD SHOW THERE! BUT DO YOU HAVE ANY WORDS ABOUT THE NICE PEOPLE WHO SHOWED UP?"
"Goddammit, Akko," Sucy said through her teeth while smiling.
"Words?" Lotte said, confused. Joanna played a few echoing notes on her synth, Akko shook a bead-covered rattle, and Wangari plucked a few notes imprinted on her very soul. "Oh-ooooh. Why, yes, I know an old song about these people..."
Wooden Winter and Sucy Manbavaran and the Sucy Manbavaran Band came together for a surprise encore of "Homeworld (The Ladder)," Lotte's favorite song of all time. Sucy quietly excused herself as the rest of the team got into the swing of it.
Tiptoeing behind the projection screen, she crept up to Diana. "You ready?" she whispered.
"Of course," Diana said, cracking her knuckles.
"Hang tight... yooooou," Sucy said, not looking at Diana.
"-WE FOLLOW THE SUN!" Lotte sang, and exhausted, fell into Wangari's arms, sweaty but content. Sucy was playing guitar somewhere, and someone else a few tinkly, impish notes of piano. The rest of the players drew their playing to a close (Constanze and Gaelle holding out their drumsticks and letting them clatter to the ground) 'til only the last instrumentation of the song remained: Sucy playing guitar somewhere, and a few impish notes of piano from... someone, that's for sure.
Lotte prepared to sing the final verse, but someone beat her to it. A soft, melodic, and intimately familiar voice.
"Truth is a simple place..."
The rear projection screen rose up. Behind it, lit by a single spotlight, was Diana, playing the piano, and Lilou Phalène-Jannson, in a plain white dress, standing, waiting. One hand out, her green wedding band glinting in the light.
Sucy, from the shadows, killed Lotte's mic before she blubbered into it and damaged the effect. For oh did the tears flow, as she crept across the stage, unsure what to expect as she reached for Lilou's hand, and took it, and her hand was warm and soft and small like in her memories.
"...as I will always need you, inside my heart," Lilou said, and the curtains closed on the couple.
For their part, Diana and Sucy bailed with a quickness to give them some breathing room.
"Well, that was pretty great!" Akko said, taking the opportunity to hydrate while the bands cooled down in the green room, yanking out earplugs, restoring electrolytes, removing makeup, de-metamorphie-ing their outfits, all that good stuff.
"How exactly were you able to set that up?" Diana said.
"Mm, it's a long story," Sucy said. "But, suffice to say..."
Outside in the snow, some big spooky thing howled its intense displeasure at being summoned.
"Might've involved calling in a raid boss to Luna Nova, admittedly," Sucy said.
"So we're gonna fight a monster?" Wangari said. "Hell yeah! I still got a shitload of energy and I need to fight something."
"Well, the faculty orgy is probably still in full swing," Sucy said, "so yeah, logically, it's up to us, as ever."
"Hell yeah!" Akko said. "Let's get us some XP!"
Constanze pumped a shotgun. "Lock 'n load," she said.
Akko and her friends rode out to battle against a rampaging Dark Young of Shub-Niggurath, Lotte and Lilou spent some time together, and the faculty at Luna Nova kept having dirty, dirty mature-lady group sex.
All but one.
Chariot held out her cup of mulled wine. "To a better tomorrow," she said.
Croix, with some hesitation, met her toast. "For all of us."
The two watched the epic battle unfold from their window, and for a while, at least, it was almost like being in love again.