Shout out to Ola from Doll Divine, who (a very long time ago, like, around or before 2010) co-made a pysanky egg decoration game. It's a very simple game, but can lead way to a lot of creativity in the right hands! Also, anyone else notice that these chapters ending with 5 are almost exclusively focused on Ephemer and Anora? I'm trying to be intentional with it, not gonna lie.
Thank you for reading!
Anora's shoulder felt so stiff Easter Sunday that she barely wanted to get out of bed. When she did finally get up, she pitifully moaned the entire time, getting her things together for a nice hot shower. The steamy shower did feel good against her sore muscles. The girl closed her eyes and let the running water envelop her body in a loving embrace.
When she returned to her dorm, Anora happened to look out the window. Standing out there, asking any of the girls that came out of the Vulpes dorms for something, was Ephemer. The girl raised an eyebrow as she brushed her hair out. Whatever Ephemer was looking for, he was being awfully animated about it; using his hands to indicate an approximate height and tugging on his own hair to indicate the length of someone else's. And that was when she realized it; Ephemer was looking for her.
Moving a bit faster now, Anora put one of her nicer knee-length dresses (because it was Easter, of course, show some respect) and high top sneakers before darting outside.
"There you are!" Ephemer happily greeted as Anora sprinted up to him. At first he found himself admiring her dress, but then he saw the shoulder brace and his jaw dropped. "Whoa, what did you do to your shoulder?"
Anora raised and lowered her unguarded shoulder in indifference. It did not stop Ephemer from staring. Unconsciously, he raised his hand to touch the brace- he almost didn't stop himself in time. When he did realize what he was doing, the boy immediately put his hand back down by his side with a shake of his head.
"I didn't come here for that..." he admonished to himself. To Anora he said, "I came by to see if you wanted to decorate pysanka eggs with me."
Anora did not bother to hide the confusion in her face. Ephemer picked up on this easily and gestured for her to follow him. The girl humored him, and together they started to walk toward the cafeteria.
"You see," Ephemer explained as they walked, "Some kids in the Ursus house decided to have a pop-up workshop by the cafeteria. They're doing this thing called 'pysanka' where you dye eggs, make patterns with wax, dye them again, and you keep on going until the whole egg is covered in wax. Then you melt the wax off to see what you've made. There's lots of ways of doing it, but I think the more popular method is called 'pysanky' where you just draw whatever on normal eggs. Or maybe it was malyovanky. Those kids at the workshop will know."
Trying to absorb this information, Anora gave a small nod to show she understood. But then she tugged on Ephemer's sleeve, inquiring on why Skuld wasn't with them.
"Skuld's at a meeting with the other formal activity coordinators." he explained, looking happy but sounding a bit disappointed. "She wants them to knock out the basic stuff before the actual theme is decided. Isn't that crazy? I can't even stop her. Once Skuld gets put into a position of power, she's nigh unstoppable."
Anora gave a sympathetic nod in response. The rest of the walk was met with silence, but it didn't seem awkward to them. If anything, they walked closer together, as if their presence with each other was enough. As the two got closer to the cafeteria, the more abundant the smell of beeswax became. The source was easily tracked to two kids manning three long tables worth of stuff.
"Save some eggs for other people Liliya." the boy in charge told the girl next to him- they looked so much alike, it was obvious that they were siblings, maybe even twins.
"Oh, I can't help it Bohdan!" she giggled. "I just love decorating eggs like this!"
The boy rolled his eyes at his sister before noticing Ephemer and Anora. He gave his sister a nudge in the elbow, causing the girl to look up and notice the duo as well.
"Hello there!" she cheerfully waved at them. "You guys here to decorate some eggs?"
"You bet!" Ephemer grinned. Anora offered a small smile and a polite nod of her head.
"We have three different stations prepared," the boy told them. "The first is basic painting with watercolors and washable markers; malyovanky. The second uses glue to press beads, flowers, and whatever else we have here to decorate; nakleyanky."
"Also known as biserky if you use only small beads." the girl happily cut in.
"And then there's the third station where you dye an egg, make a pattern with wax, and redye until you think you're finished; pysanky."
"If you use only dots, then it's called krapanky!" the girl once more chimed. "It's my favorite way of decorating!"
Ephemer gave a small whistle of approval. "So many options..." he mused. "I think we were going to try pysanky. Right Anora?"
Anora nodded. She would have liked trying malyovanky, but since Ephemer seemed so dead set on doing pysanky, who was she to object?
"Great!" the Ursus student happily declared, giving a small clap of her hands. "Let me get that station ready for you!"
"While she does that," the boy then told Ephemer and Anora, "As per Headmaster Invi's instruction, all of our eggs have been hollowed out. However, many of them were refilled with hot glue or beeswax so they wouldn't crack when you draw onto them. We do have unfilled shells if you want the extra challenge..."
"We'll take the ones filled with glue." Ephemer insisted without a second thought.
"How many?"
Ephemer looked at Anora, who in turn looked back at him.
"One for each of us." he decided. The Ursus boy nodded his head and stuck his head under the table. When he came back up, he was holding two eggs for the friends.
After a few more moments of instructions, Ephemer and Anora were then left to their own devices. The two were quick to start dying their eggs and etching various designs onto them. Anora made her time as she carefully drew on king crowns and hearts onto her egg. Ephemer, on the other hand, drew whatever shapes came to mind. It was rather funny as he got into it; he even stuck his tongue out as he tried to decorate with as much precision as he could muster.
When they were finished, Ephemer's egg was completely covered in wax, while Anora's still had some of the egg visible. They handed their eggs to the girl in charge.
"Before you leave, can you write your names down for me?" she asked them. "Once we melt the wax off, we'll send someone to deliver them to your dorms."
"'Course!" Ephemer agreed as he wrote down his and Anora's names. With that done, the two waved goodbye to the twins.
"That was fun!" Ephemer grinned. "What did you think?"
Anora thought about it for a moment. She eventually turned to Ephemer and nodded her head. A small sigh escaped Ephemer's lips before smiling at her.
"That's great!" he even elated. At Anora's half smile, the boy tilted his head at his friend. A sudden thought came to him that he hadn't considered until now; whoever was going to take her to the formal was going to be an incredibly lucky guy. That thought then sent a jolt through his body. Anora was pretty reserved and didn't talk very often, would anyone ask her to the formal? Did she even know anyone outside of him, his friends, and her study group?
Ephemer gave a small, thoughtful hum to himself. Usually he'd take Skuld to the formal- it was usually a matter of convenience than anything else, spare for that one time a year ago. Maybe this year it was time to do something a little different...