PMD: Dream of Change

by Tanuki1029

Max saved the world; it tore him apart. His friend brought him back; he pushed his friend away. By the time he tried to make amends, his friend was gone. And now, the world needs saving again. But it takes more than a single mouse to save the planet. (A post-PMD Super fanfic)

13. Chapter 13: HAPPY LIFE DAY

(A/N: Happy Holidays! I hope you enjoy whatever holiday you celebrate! I tried to make it mostly about Life Day (ifykyk), but I'm mostly familiar with Christmas, so that sorta bleeds through. Either way, I hope y'all can still have fun with it!

... okay, I know it's the twenty-sixth (and barely at that), but tbh it just started getting away from me. I really tried to get it out in time, but hopefully this is close enough!)

"It's the most wonderful time of the year
With the kids jingle belling
And everyone telling you be of good cheer"

—"It's the Most Wonderful Time of the Year" by Edward Pola and George Wyle

Usually a hub for all a rescue team's various necessities, the entire place had been converted to a joyous festival. Streamers, bells, and bobbles all hung from tree to tree to pole along the path surrounding Pokémon Square. A thin layer of snow piled on the ground with humps accumulated at the sides of the walkways. Plenty pokémon had abandoned the stable ground to go play in the snow, though.

Max was a bit surprised to find pokémon had a winter festival of their own, but then again, why wouldn't they? Winter felt like a strange time for "Life Day," but the flimsy, paper maché Tree of Life in the center of the Square looked plenty pretty to look at. Maybe the tree just looked nicer when most of the others had lost their leaves?

He shook his head, trying not to think of it too much. After all, you don't need to understand a culture to smile and nod. As an ex-human who'd lost his memory twice (once since he got here, once from the Dungeons) he was pretty gifted in that department.

Cori wobbled over from the other side of the Square and yanked Max out of his own head. While Max only wore his scarf and his bag (like always), they had an entire closet of clothes to keep themselves warm. A coat opened up in their front to reveal another coat with a sweater burgeoning out from between its buttons, two scarfs wrapped around their neck, thick wool gloves, and big leather boots.

Thank God Max'd turned into a mammalian pokémon.

"Max!" muffled out the bundle of fabric and scales. "Happy Life's Eve!" Cori threw their arms open and jumped onto Max with a hug.

"Yeah, happy… uh, Holidays!" Max forced out. Did pokémon have more than one winter Holiday? Surely they did, right?

Cori gave him another squeeze with impressive force considering the many layers binding them, then let go. "Ready?!" they asked, dripping with cheer.

Max looked around and shrugged. "I guess," he said, a self-conscious paw going to the back of his neck. His gaze drifted to the paper-craft tree, and he had to wonder where Eleos had wandered off to.

"Oh," Cori said, then leaned in to whisper. "Memories?" Their gaze had followed his, apparently, but they didn't quite get what he'd been thinking.

"No," Max chuckled. It'd have to be a bit better of a replica for that. "I'm just worried Eleos is gonna relapse." With a stealthy glance around, he put on a wry grin. "Don't think anyone would appreciate seeing it burst into flames."

"Right, yeah," Cori mumbled. The carnival to their South pulled on their eyes like a neodymium magnet. "Not yet, at least, but someone has to. Let's go!"

That would've made Max balk if they hadn't already started yanking him through the snow to the stalls—despite the perfectly paved path directly to their left—that made Max think more of carnivals than festivals. Somehow, he managed to keep up without much issue, though the snow clinging to his fur made him wary of when it would inevitably melt.

"Which do we try first?!" Cori asked the moment their boots hit pavement. Max followed shortly after, swiping as much snow out of his fur as he could. Cori didn't seem all that interested in an answer, so Max let their eyes bounce from stall to stall in pure excitement. Their eyes shot open when they landed on a particular stall, and they shot off towards it with indecipherable muffling shouting back at Max.

"Sure, that one sounds good," Max mumbled to himself. He started after them at a leisurely pace; they'd probably finish a round or two before realizing they'd left him behind. Looked like a classic, three bottle stack.

Before he could make it there, however, a voice semi-timidly asking, "Piika?" stopped him dead in his tracks. That—the name he gave before he remembered how to talk. That meant whoever knew it could only have met him when he was…

Max spun around to a nidoran slightly too close for comfort. "Pika!" he hissed, jumping back to reclaim his personal space.

"Yeah, that's what I said!" the nidoran laughed. "I knew it was you!" He bounced from paw to paw in triumph, then moved in too close again to give Max an inquisitive once over. "How'd you leave the Dungeon, though? I thought ferals couldn't do that."

Dungeon, they'd met in a dungeon. Max almost started to recognize the face—right, Dorian. His first real rescue mission; The day he blacked out. "W-well," Max mumbled, slightly afraid he'd slip again. "I'm not—"

"You can talk!?" Dorian screamed directly in Max's face.

Max winced away, glancing around to see if anyone was looking. Luckily, a child's excited screams weren't all that notable during a festival. "Yeah," he said, fighting himself fang and claw not to add 'of course' to that. A twinge of blush burned at his ears, but he luckily managed to keep a tight rein on his cheeks so they didn't spark.

"That's so cool!" Dorian cheered, bouncing once again. If he didn't think about why the kid was excited enough to bounce, it was actually kinda cute. Unfortunately, Dorian knew something Max needed people not to know about him, and he couldn't have been more than a few months old, at most half a year. Way too young to trust with an incriminating secret.

It felt a bit sleazy, but…

Max looked side to side, then hunched over with a look of exaggerated seriousness. "Dorian, listen," he whispered. Dorian, despite already being plenty close enough (perhaps even too close), scooted in. "You gotta keep this a secret, okay?" Dorian's eyes popped open, and he eagerly nodded. "I can only tell you if you promise not to tell people about me being from a Dungeon, okay?"

"Uh-huh!" Dorian hurriedly agreed with a nod. "What is it, Piika?"

Right, that. "And call me Max?" Max added. Dorian nodded. Of course, with kids, you always want to be sure they understand the importance of a serious topic. "Promise?" Dorian nodded again. Was that really enough, though? "Do you?"

"Yes!" Dorian shouted before catching himself, then leaning back in to whisper. "Yes!"

"Do you really?" You could never be too sure.

"Yes!" Dorian threw his head up and down, bursting at the seams with excitement.

"You super duper serious pinky-promise?" Okay, maybe Max was having too much fun with this.

"Yes!" Dorian whisper-yelled. "I super duper serious pinky-promise! C'mon!"

Max squinted hard into Dorian's eyes as if staring into his soul. One paw rubbed his chin while he deeply considered the authenticity of Dorian's claims. When Dorian looked like he was about to explode, Max dramatically looked around, pretending to check if anyone was listening. "Okay, I'll tell you," he whispered, looking all around again. "I'm a space alien."

Dorian's eyes shot open wide. "Really?!" Dorian shouted, but he quickly caught himself and covered his mouth with a forepaw.

Max merely nodded in affirmation. It wasn't even that far from the truth, as far as he knew. "Yeah," he said. "I just landed in a Dungeon, and so I thought that's how people talked on this planet."

While nodding along with rapt attention, a giggling smile broke through Dorian's composure. "That's silly! They're dumb! They don't say anything but their name!"

Max's eye twitched. "Well, of course I know that, now!" he said. This was a kid, just didn't know any better. "I'm sticking around to study your planet, see if you're friendly enough to share space travel with." These were all strictly necessary parts of the puzzle to protect his secret.

"Wow," Dorian whispered to himself. "Are we?!" Poor kid was trying so hard to stay quiet despite his excitement.

"Well, that's classified information—I can't just share it!" Max said, but then looked up at the sky. "But..." He gave Dorian a quick wink and a thumb's up. An Earth-shattering scream started to charge in Dorian's throat before Max rushed in to shush him. "A secret, remember?" Dorian nodded his head hard enough that Max started to worry about whiplash. "All right, then! You go find your parents. I've got to observe your planet's strange customs of the—," what had Cori called it? "'Life Day Eve.'"

"Okay!" Dorian said, turning to go. "Bye Pi—er, Max!" Max gave a congratulatory thumb's up, and Dorian rocketed off to wherever Dorian's go. In the dash, Max noticed a white paw print on the nidoran's shoulder.

Probably just snow. Max shrugged it off and looked around for Cori, finding them still at the bottles. Max started heading over again, glad Cori hadn't noticed his absence yet, and watched the game play out. Cori tossed a few coins to the Carney (a sceptile) and got another ball in return. They tossed it up to feel the weight, one eye closed to aim, then beamed the ball right into the bottles.

Despite nailing the bottom left one, only the top and right bottles tumbled down. Cori grabbed their head in frustrated surprise, and the Carney reached around to give them a comforting pat on the shoulder. After talking it out, he pulled off the totodile and went to put the bottles back up.

And now, Cori had a paw print on their shoulder. Same one Dorian had, too.

"Hey, Cori!" Max shouted.

Cori, paw in their wallet, jumped partially out of their scales turning to look at him. "Oh, Max!" they said, raising their paw to wave. "Glad you caught up!" Max pretended not to see their poorly hidden embarrassment, and they rewarded the effort by gesturing to the game-stall. "I'm so close to getting this one!"

Sceptile crept up to the counter like a snake to its mouse. "They are! But you look like you got an arm, yourself, sir," the Carney said. The 'sir' made said mouse inexplicably angry enough that he nearly didn't hear him go on. "Tell you what, since you're a friend of such a good customer, I'll give you one try for free. How's that sound?"

Without even looking, Max felt Sceptile dissecting his reaction. Had he noticed Max watching earlier? Or was he just sizing up his next target?

Well, Max had already lied today. What was one more? He suddenly beamed up at the Carney. "Wow, really mister? Thanks!" he cheered. The fake smile was especially hard to keep up when he saw Sceptile's devious grin.

"Of course, hop on up," Sceptile said. Max happily obliged and leapt in front of Cori to snatch the ball off the counter. Cori gave Max a look that he chose to ignore. "All you gotta do is knock all three bottles down with one throw, got it?"

Max smirked. "That easy?" he asked.

"H-hey," Cori mumbled. "It's harder than it looks." They were a lot more right than they thought.

Sceptile shrugged and crossed his arms, and Max started to prepare his aim. He held the ball up against his (sparking) cheek while sizing up his target. Luckily, despite the relative humidity, Cori's outfit accumulated static like mad. Plenty of charge for what Max needed. Max pulled the ball back, slowly extended it at the bottles, repeating the motion a few times to be extra sure, then finally let the ball fly right into Sceptile's groin, a lightning bolt smashing the bottles to pieces.

"Whoah, did I win?!" Max asked the doubled-over sceptile. "Wait, what's that?" He pointed his throwing-paw at where the bottles once sat, now nothing but shards and a metal bar where the bottom left bottle had been. Sceptile glared at him with infernal malice, but Max returned it with feigned innocence.

"Oh, Cori, by the way," Max said. Without taking his stare away from Sceptile, he brushed the chalk off Cori's shoulder. "You've got something on your jacket." He started tugging the baffled Cori away from the stall and felt the sceptile's vicious glare stabbing into the back of his neck. Looking around, he noticed a few other Carneys looking his way with anxious trepidation, one ursaring even rushing to brush some chalk off a little piplup's shoulder.

Cori could only make it a few steps before freezing in their tracks. Their mouth would've hung wide open if they didn't have two scarfs holding it nearly closed. "Max?" they asked. "What was that?!"

Deciding they'd probably not take well to learning they were falling for a scam, Max shrugged and played innocent. "I dunno," he said. "Must've been nervous." That very clearly didn't convince Cori, so Max opted for another diversion. He jabbed his finger at another stall with a smooth ramp that sloped up into a collection of telescoping rings of decreasing size, the smallest two in the top corners. "Done Skee Ball before?"

Not like you could really rig Skee Ball in any way without it being incredibly obvious. On top of that, the venusaur running the stall was one of few Carneys laughing instead of gawking. Max made his way over to the place with an ear turned to listen for Cori walking a bit belatedly behind him. "How much for two?" Max asked.

"For you?" Venusaur chuckled. "How's one round on the house sound?" He whipped his vines at a switch on two of the ramps closer to the ground, and six balls dropped to wait for them in a hole on the right of each. "The name's Victor."

"Thanks," Max said, taking position then looking back for Cori. "I'm Max, and this is Cori." The totodile had recovered quite well and took position in the stall next to him.

"Pleasure meeting you," Victor said. Max nodded in reciprocation.

"Hey, Cori," Max said. "Wanna make this interesting?"

Cori raised a brow, a smirk peaking out from under their scarf. "How so?" they asked.

Max hadn't thought of that. "Loser pays for food?" he said. A classic, should work well enough.

"Deal," Cori agreed.

Both took their positions, eyeing up their ramps, weighing the balls in their paws. The familiarity of the weight in his paw made Max certain this'd be a cinch. Maybe he didn't remember when he'd done this, but muscle memory wasn't affected by Dungeon Sickness. Probably.

With a smirk, Max reeled back and threw the ball along the ramp, twisting at the last second to give it just a touch of spin. It rolled up the ramp, gliding to the right and hopped up to and past the ring in the top right, bouncing off the top and barely landing into the bottom ring. Ten points. His smirk turned to a frown, and it only got worse once he saw Cori sink a ball in the middle top hole. Fifty points. Humble compared to the hole Max had gone for, but extravagant compared to the one he got.

Max shook it off and grabbed his next ball. Just a fluke, probably. Needed to get the rust off. This time, he went for a more conservative goal and shot it straight down the middle. Figuring this needed less power, he threw it about half as hard. The ball barely hopped up high enough to hit the rim of the twenty before falling back into the ten.

As Cori's ball sunk once again into the fifty, a horrible realization dawned on Max. He threw the third with a quiet, almost practiced desperation that felt infuriatingly familiar. The ball barely made it into the twenty; Max felt his ears fall and tail brush the ground behind him.

He hadn't played Skee Ball so much before because he was good at it; he played it so much because he wanted to be good at it. If he'd ever made any progress, it was probably when he had hands instead of paws.

Hope came when Cori's third ball landed wide of the hundred and popped down to the ten. If he could get fifties for the next three, he'd have a chance. Max steeled himself, forcing his ears and tail up to attention, and grabbed his fourth ball. Straight down the middle, a bit more power than last time. He'd sunk a twenty, so he just needed to do that again, but with twice-ish the force. Both eyes staring into his prize, he bowled the ball up the ramp and watched it jump for the hole. It looked like he'd overshot it when the ball smacked the top rim of the fifty and bounced down into it.

"Pika!" he cheered. His paws started for his mouth when he noticed the slip, but he forced them down. As long as he didn't acknowledge it, probably no one else would notice. He really had to fight the urge to cheer it again, though, when he saw Cori's next ball land just a little bit less wide than the last. Ten.

Calm. Breathe. Max was calm. Collected. He could do this. Just two more. He grabbed the next ball and prepared for the next toss, miming the movement a few times before sending it down the same path with barely less force than last time; the ball sailed into the hole without even grazing the rim; Cori's fifth smacked into the hundred's rim and fell to ten.

One-forty to one-thirty—Max was in the lead! Even if Cori got a fifty with their last, Max would still barely edge them out. He just needed one more. He took several more deep breaths and bounced the ball in his paw a few times to try and dispel the nervous energy. One more, just one more. He mimed the movement once, twice, thrice, then finally tossed the ball down the ramp, sending it flying up and into the fifty just like the one before it.

Then, Cori's last ball landed in the hundred. Max's expression lagged behind the input for a moment. How. How could. No.

Yet, Victor had been keeping track. "Two thirty to one-ninety. Close one, but sorry, Max. Cori got ya," Victor said. Cori bounced over the moon at their victory while Max shared a solemn glance with Victor.

Not too solemn, though. "Aw, damn," he said with a snap. One hundred ninety felt pretty cathartic. It might've been his highest score, or at least one of his higher scores. Cori started shoving Max towards the food court, and Max threw a hurried wave to Victor. "Thanks for the game!" Victor chuckled and reciprocated the wave with a vine. Max watched as Victor's gaze returned to his station, and the vine he was using to wave went to Max's ramp to collect the fare he'd stealthily left behind.

"Okay, okay!" Max laughed at Cori, pushing himself up to walk on his own. "I'm going!"

"Good!" Cori said with a grin. Max wanted to wipe the smug grin off their face, but the last display had proved that, apparently, he lacked the skill for that. It's not like he was hurting for cash, neither of them were. Skill or none, Skee Ball was fun.

If it wasn't, though, he at least still had the memory of Sceptile's agonizing rage. That would keep him going for a while.

"So, uh, Max?" Cori asked. The two had made it to the food court, and they were looking around the various food stalls. "What do you want?"

"Not sure," Max mumbled. Usually, he'd expect the winner to pick the place, but he supposed they hadn't explicitly enumerated that in the deal. He looked around for a place to catch his eye, but instead, a smell caught his nose. A sweet scent riding on light, savory tones brought him to a familiar, homey place. His paws followed the air before his mind caught up. Whatever he was smelling, he remembered it, and he remembered loving it.

"M-Max? Max!" Cori called after him, but Max didn't stop.

He knew where he wanted to go, now. His eyes followed the scent as best they could, and by the time he'd located the source's sign, he was already standing under it. Nearly salivating, he whispered, "Funnel cake," to himself. Fresh, too—he could feel the warmth emanating from the stall.

"Uh, did you want some, kid?" some sigilyph Max hadn't registered yet asked.

The spell over Max broke and left him very aware of his own actions. "I-I, mhm, yes please," he stammered. Even despite the embarrassment, his mouth started watering at the sight of the menu. "Strawberry." A place so blessed, so holy as this, offered such ambrosia for a pittance; only the realm of the gods could possibly hold its delicacies. If, then, he'd died and gone to heaven, he was content with his lot.

Whatever price the (very concerned) sigilyph quoted, Max couldn't remember. He pulled some poké out of his purse, got less back, and carried his delicacy off to the nearest table to enjoy. Already, the sweet tang of the strawberries and strawberry syrup joined in chorus with the savory steam of the batter with a drum of the treat crunching as it bounced keeping rhythm.

As he sat to enjoy his blessing, a Beast invaded his paradise. A creature of no moral worth, despicable monster besieged him. It mocked him, approaching right in front of his paws as if to taunt him into inaction. Max fired upon it with a glare, a warning, but this warning it did not heed.

"Piiii ka," Max growled. The Beast paused in its pursuit, but Max wouldn't fall for it. He leapt over the table and tackled the plunderer to the ground before it had a chance to steal what was rightfully—

"MAX?!" Cori wailed. Max blinked, looking around. He tried to catch up to his lost bearings, but a blur of pink slammed into him before he could. The world spun, spun, and spun around him as he careened off and into the snow. He shot into the loose powder, and more and more snow fell over him as he plummeted deeper and deeper.

Because of the spinning, he had no idea which way was up and which was down. He tried to wriggle out of the crater, but that only made more snow crumble on top of him. Instincts bit at his mind while he tried to come up with an escape strategy, at least a way to signal his position for anyone who could rescue him, but he was too steeped in fear. "P-pika," he whimpered. A shiver joined him as he sang his pitiful requiem: "P-pi pika pi chu."

Flames scorched the world around him. All the chill vanished from his fur and left him dangerously warm. It felt nice after the cold, but he knew that wouldn't last. Knowing what he'd see, he didn't bother opening his eyes. He wasn't stoked about ending up there, but he couldn't really blame whoever decided, either. Hell was a bit harsh, but it's not like he really got a say—

"Max, can you hear me? Forgive me for not coming sooner. Are you all right?" Eleos said.

Yeah, Hell. A shame Eleos died, but if he wasn't good enough for redemption, then Eleos certainly wouldn't be.

"Max?! Max! What's wrong?! What happened—are you still—Sorry!—what did I didn't mean to hurt—," Cori babbled. This, no, that wasn't right. They were too sweet—they didn't deserve this! No, Hell was going to get it if they thought Cori was staying dow—

A warm, clawed paw hoisted him up by the scruff of his neck. When he finally opened his eyes, he saw Eleos staring at his face from inches away. "He lives," it said, which was a relief. It started brushing the snow out of Max's fur with its other paw, leaning in to whisper, "Your eyes are not feral. However, are you too distressed to speak?"

"I… yes?" Max whispered, squirming in Eleos's grip. His embarrassment spiked when he realized he'd curled his arms up to his chest like a hatchling, too. "Please put me down." Eleos let go, and he barely avoided falling on his tail. "Put!" Max growled.

Some pink beast teleported (to him, at least) right next to him and started saying, "Oh, sweety, I'm so sorry a—"

"PIKA!" Max screamed and jumped back. He landed on his ass and kicked at the ground to scramble back, but that only managed to kick snow at the offending miltank. She wasn't chasing him, though, so the failed escape steadily stopped in intensity with his panic. If she was apologizing, she must've been the blur of pink that spun him into an early grave.

"H-hello?" Max said. He was still half terrified but at least tried to communicate.

"Aw, hello sweety," the miltank cooed. She walked over to Max and yanked him up by the paw to pat his head. Max might as well have stayed on the ground with how much shorter he was than her. His ears barely made it halfway up her belly.

"I'm sorry about that. I saw you tackle that totodile and got worried," she explained. Max nodded, but shook his head to get her hoof out of his (now ruined) hair. She obliged but held up a waggling finger with a stern expression to Max's face when he looked up. "You be more gentle with your play fights, now, okay?"

If Max could've kept up with her constant shifting tone, he would've been annoyed that she was lecturing him after that. His head was still spinning a bit, though, so he was beyond confused. "Okay?" he mumbled.

Miltank's stern expression softened into a smile. "Good girl," she said, crouching down to pat Max's head again. It probably made his hair even worse, but he was too over the moon to care. "Ohh, I'm so glad you're okay. Well, you have fun at the festival!" She smiled at him and gave her partings to Eleos and Cori while he reeled in his paws.

A girl, she—why did she think he was a girl? What did he, did the impact fix—do something to his tail? He yanked it around with a spark of hope that snuffed out once he saw it. His ears fell, and his tail went limp in his hold.

"Max?" Eleos asked.

Max jolted up and tossed his tail back to hide it behind him. "Y-yeah, uh-huh?" he stammered.

Eleos watched him with a glint in its eye. "Perhaps you need some time to return to your bearings," it said, gesturing to the table holding the dessert that started this whole mess. "Shall I take you to your seat?"

Ignoring that knowing look it gave him, Max nodded. He took its paw with one of his own while the other dug into his bag. "I promised Cori I'd pay for their food, though," he said, scanning the area for Cori. His eyes landed on them carrying a plate of blueberry funnel cake at the same time he felt his own coin purse missing. He couldn't exactly object, but he didn't like it, either.

Eleos grabbed his paw and led him back to his food. Max rushed to catch up so he could walk alongside it, feeling the warmth of its paw in his own. After all, he had nearly just died of hypothermia, so he no doubt needed some warmth.

"Hey, Eleos?" he said, nascent scheme reaching maturity right as they reached the table. "I'm still really cold." He lightly shivered to really drive the point home. Eleos watched him with a blank stare. "You're really warm, though, so I think it'd help if you held me." He smiled in anticipation at his flawless plan, though Eleos barely reacted.

"Ah, as you wish," Eleos said. Without another word, it hopped up on Max's chair, hoisted the mouse up with one paw, then sat him down in its lap. "Does this please you?" It wrapped its arms around his chest and rested its chin on his head.

Max hadn't noticed Cori already made it to the table until they started chuckling, much to his dismay. Eleos had done exactly what he asked, more or less—because of course it did. That's all it ever did (unless it knew better (which it very often did)). Sure, it made Max feel like a toddler, but it was also exactly the warmth he'd asked for. He also really liked feeling Eleos's arms around him.

Why was love so humiliating?

Resigned to his fate, Max nodded and went back to digging into his treat. The chill had reached the outer layers already, but those hardly lasted before he'd dug deeper into the center. Savory crunches shattered in his mouth to reveal spongy innards. Strawberry syrup covered most of the confection, yet didn't soften it in the slightest. It had dripped and spread to every layer, bringing the coat of powdered sugar down with it.

With the inside still plenty warm, letting it sit for a moment seemed to only improve the dish. He was almost glad that woman slammed him into a snow bank so long as he thought exclusively about the effects it had on his yummy food.

Calorie rich and dense, he felt full after roughly half of it, but that wouldn't stop him. He was in love with this, and he was going to have it all. All he had to do was tap into that desperate hunger he felt when he'd just woken up at Neb's place, and it was as if his stomach gained a new compartment. It gave him a slight desperation that made eating beyond his fill a piece of (funnel) cake.

Thanks to that, he was out of funnel cake before he knew it, and a pang of regret met him with the strain of his overstuffed stomach. His paw went to his belly to clutch it—why was his paw sticky? He brought it up to look, and it was covered in crumbs, syrup and powdered sugar.

"Max?" Cori asked, staring at him with concern. "You in there?"

"I—yeah," Max said. He glanced down at the table to see his fork tossed nearly off the edge. "Just hungry." Perhaps he shouldn't tap into his instincts to have a bit of extra sweets.

While Max remained slightly dazed, Eleos grabbed his paw and wiped it down for him. The napkin had the distinct chill of a wet wipe, leaving Max to wonder where it kept those while it went on to clean up his mouth, and then the small spot of stick he'd spread to his belly. As if he didn't already feel enough like a toddler. "Oh, my ravenous love," Eleos cooed. "Would that I had passion such as yours."

Max shoved off of Eleos and grumbled, "Thanks." Sparks bounced down his cheeks, and he was powerless to stop. Was it his instincts flaring up, or was he bringing them out himself at this point? Either way, he didn't want to lose himself or slip during the festivities. He'd give a quick goodbye to Cori and head out early. They could meet up later, probably.

Trumpets blared from the town square. Max jumped to face it and had Cori's paw dragging him along before he landed. They hadn't even finished their own cake yet, but they somehow managed to carry it without spilling in their other paw.

"That's the ceremony!" Cori half-shouted back. The friendly paw around Max's started to feel like a shackle, but he didn't have the heart to pull away. They looked so excited. He wished he could share it.

Cori dodged, bobbed and weaved through the crowd flawlessly, their trail leaving plenty room for Max to follow—so long as he followed closely. Even with Cori's paw wrapped around his own, it took all of his attention not to fall behind. He didn't get a chance to see where they were dragging him until they stopped. Max stopped to pant the moment they let go.

With two more breaths in his reserves, he looked up to see the silly paper mache Tree of Life barely a yard in front of him. Brass sections of a band flanked either side playing some ditty that Max had never heard before while everyone streamed into the cramped square.

Eleos tapped him on the arm while Max stared around the encroaching walls, offering its own paw for comfort. Max eagerly took that offer and then some, wrapping both arms around Eleos's one and forcing his gaze away from the growing crowd. He didn't think he was claustrophobic (if anything, he preferred tighter spaces), but in that moment, he certainly felt like it.

Some comfort came from Eleos using its free arm to pet his head. Max found himself leaning into the touch before he caught himself. Was he—could he black out like this? He tried to shove the worst of his fears to the side and hugged Eleos's arm tighter.

Another, furrier paw rubbed at his head from the front. Max jerked up to see a wigglytuff smiling down on him. He'd never seen the person before, so why was the wigglytuff taking an interest in him? Max offered his best paper smile up, and that seemed to appease him. Wigglytuff turned, walked a bit closer to the tree of life, then turned again. He must have been a singer or a conductor or something for the ceremony.

The music reached its swell independent of Wigglytuff, though, and ended just the same. Wigglytuff took center stage after and started speaking. Max would've loved to listen, but he was still too mortified to do more than pretend to nod along.

He focused on himself instead, trying to calm down as best he could. Deep breaths proved themselves a reliable start once again, and he managed to steady his heart rate. With Eleos's touching helping him along, he was almost able to stand on his own again. He probably could've managed without hugging its arm, but he saw no point in releasing it.

"Who shall do the honors?" Wigglytuff asked the crowd, waving a lit torch—okay Max didn't know how that escaped his notice. Wigglytuff scanned the crowd with exaggerated consideration, though he kept his focus mainly on the front row, which made logistical sense. Trying to get a torch to the back row could no doubt end in some gnarly burns. That didn't really explain why he was staring down at Max, though.

"What about our 'Hero' himself?" Wigglytuff chuckled.

Max almost panicked—how could he possibly know?!—but Wigglytuff was just teasing him for his scarf. Max hoped. "Uh, yeah!" he said with nervous enthusiasm. This was an honor, right? He had to act natural. Hopefully it was natural to want to do this. What was this, exactly?

Why was Wigglytuff giving him the torch?

Max didn't get a chance to think before he had to take it. He glanced back at Cori for any guidance but only got a concerned look. No chance to ask for clarification anymore. Wigglytuff's speech had no doubt explained what he was supposed to do.

Oh well. He was pretty used to winging it at this point. What's the worst that could happen?

Wigglytuff stepped back and cleared the way. Right to the paper mache tree. Max followed the lead as hesitantly as possible without (he hoped) raising suspicion. On one paw, this seemed obvious. There was only really one thing a torch could do to paper. It seemed utterly ridiculous—why would they burn the source of the world's life in effigy?—but Max couldn't think of a single alternative.

Another step. No idea. Another. Nothing. One more? Zilch. He got dangerously close to the Tree before finally having the bright idea to double check. He turned around to look at Wigglytuff—so many people. He stared at Wigglytuff with trepidation he couldn't hide anymore.

Wigglytuff just gave him that same smile and a nod. Max glanced at the torch. If it weren't for the stress, he might have appreciated the irony here. He looked back at Wigglytuff for any bit more guidance, but he couldn't stop turning back around when he again saw what must have been tens of millions of eyes on him. Deep breath. He was fine.

"All right," Max mumbled. With a shrug, he lifted the torch up to the paper and watched it light. The brown 'bark' quickly blackened and lit, letting a blaze of orange and yellow fly up the whole sculpture in mere seconds. Paper was paper, after all, and it actually had a surprisingly pleasant scent.

As he wondered what incense they'd put in the effigy, Max turned to face the crowd.

Wigglytuff stared at him with wide-eyed, silent horror. That wasn't a very good sign. He cross-referenced with the rest of the crowd and found that, with the exception of Cori and Eleos, every single pokémon was staring at him with abject terror.

"What have you done?!" Wigglytuff shouted. Max flinched back, almost burning himself on the growing blaze. "That was the Tree of Life!"

A pit of dread hotter than the blaze behind him filled Max's stomach. He could almost feel the funnel cake coming back up. Kids in the front row had begun to scream and scatter while the rest of the town stared down on him in disgust.

"I-I, but…," Max started, but he had no defense. Worse, he could already feel his grip on his speech slipping. Even if he had some paltry defense, he could never give it. Any word he tried to say would only incriminate him further. The torch fell from his paw. The children's screams rang in his ears while everyone's stares skewered him.

He clutched his scarf for what little strength he had left. "I-I—," he whimpered. He was already slipping. He shook his head. It was the same as what he'd done to the food store in Neb's town. He really hadn't changed at all. "Sorry."

The Tree of Life blazing behind him, he turned and ran as fast as his paws could carry him.

---

"It's the hap-happiest season of all
With those holiday greetings and gay happy meetings
When friends come to call"

Max's house had barely any possessions within. The same hay sat in the same place it had when he'd moved in. According to Neb, it was due for a change, but Max didn't need to worry about that anymore. No doubt his crime put a massive bounty on his head. He'd never be able to show his face in the town again—probably not the continent, either! He burst through the door to break a promise to himself—to run.

The blanket felt soft, heavy in his paws as he crumpled it up. Soft and blue with little lightning bolts all along its surface, save the white border, it was an adorable blanket. He'd used it many a chilly night after buying it from Pokémon Square. It felt wrong to take it, but he'd need it now more than ever.

He shoved it in his bag with the few berries he had and got ready to head out.

[Max burst through his door and immediately slammed it closed with his whole weight. No one chased him—as far as he knew—but he needed to keep safe. He locked the door and scurried inside to collect his things. The town absolutely put some kind of bounty on his head for this. Burning the Tree of Life—even in effigy—had to be one of the worst crimes imaginable. Nearby towns had probably heard of his horrid crime.

Luckily, he didn't have many possessions to pack. It wouldn't exactly be without a trace with all of the notes along the walls, but that was fine. He tossed a blanket and some berries into his bag and turned to head out. Hopefully, he'd make it out of town before they even made it to his house.]

Four loud knocks banged into the door. "Max!" Neb shouted. "Hold on!"

It was too late. Max threw himself against the wall. This had to be a trick—if he tried to let Neb in, everyone else would leap out from behind. Could he make it out through the window? No, it was definitely too small, and they probably had flanks there anyway. At least he'd locked the door. He was safe for now—Neb was psychic. A purple aura had already surrounded the lock.

No time, he yanked his blanket out of the bag and dove under it. The door hadn't quite opened yet, so he tried to ruffle the blanket enough to mask his shape. It didn't quite get to perfect, but he heard the knob of the door turn and went perfectly still.

Listening. Waiting. He heard four paws step inside before the door clicked shut again. As long as he kept absolutely still, they'd never know he was here. Did he hear a chuckle? Neb walked around the room's perimeter, stopping here and there in her search. Her path bounced from wall to opposite wall in arcs. She was closing in. Max held his breath.

Neb walked right up to the blanket. He could almost smell her. Could she smell him? He heard a snort—she must be sniffing for his scent. The blanket no doubt had his scent all over it, though, so he was probably still safe.

"Well, guess no one's here," Neb announced to the silent mob outside. Relief, but Max didn't let the breath leave his lips. He was still in danger, after all. For some reason, Neb hadn't left. She turned, then walked around behind him. "Wonder why she'd leave such a realistic looking tail sleeve behind, though." Claws daintily stabbed into Max's tail.

"Pika!" Max shouted, leaping up from his hiding place. He tumbled backwards, the blanket still covering him, disorienting him further. It cushioned his brushes with the floor and kept his ears firmly pressed down so he couldn't even hear his surroundings until he thumped into the wall, too dizzy to get up.

Neb laughed all the while. At least the cackles dimmed to chuckles as she approached. It was the end, but if anyone had to usher it in, Neb felt the most fitting. The blanket started to tug up, and Max braced himself for—

"Max, they weren't mad at you," Neb said. The blanket tugged just over Max's eyes, leaving him face to knee with Neb. It half obscured his vision when he tried to look up until Neb pushed it up further with psychic. Neb took a good look into Max's eyes and seemed to relax a bit. She sighed in relief then rubbed Max's shoulder with a paw. "C'mon, girl, you're okay."

"G-girl—right," Max stammered, quickly glancing around to make sure they were alone. She'd almost forgotten about yesterday's agreement in all the panic, and she was a bit flustered by its sudden reappearance. Altogether, absolutely no other words from Neb's mouth made it into Max's ears. "A-are they coming here already? What kind of punishment am I in for?"

Neb rolled her eyes with a giggle and said, "None." With a shake of her head, she started unwrapping the 'chu with one paw. "It was part of the ceremony."

The information didn't land for Max. She looked quizzically up at Neb and asked, "The tree?"

Confusion all her own came from Neb's expression as she glanced at Max. Neb started to say something with a smirk before shaking her head. With the ongoing stress, her continued vagueness drove Max insane. "You were supposed to burn it," Neb explained.

Max's expression froze. Her confusion remained at first, but it hollowed out from the inside out until her expression went entirely blank. "I what?" she asked. "No?" She could still see Wigglytuff's horrified expression alongside everyone else's. "Everyone looked horrified. All the kids screamed!" Her head shook in disbelief while Neb rested a patient paw on her shoulder.

"It's just for fun," Neb said. She very close to bursting out in laughter but did her damnedest not to. "Every year, one kid gets picked to burn it down, then plant a new one the next day. It's to celebrate death and rebirth." She started rubbing Max's shoulder to dull the blow, rubbing closer to Max's neck to nudge the scarf. "He probably picked you because of this."

The disbelief Max had managed all faded into the same hollow, blank expression she'd had before. "But, but the kids!" she protested. "They all ran scr—"

"Tag," Neb interrupted, putting a paw to Max's lips. "The ceremony starts a town-wide game of tag. You burned it down, so you were 'it' first." She watched Max's expression carefully as she pulled her paw away.

It was all beginning to click into place for Max. "B-but," she mumbled in desperate search for some final denial. She forced a pitiful chuckle to say, "I-if it's for kids, then why'd he pick…." Despite Neb's efforts, the blow hit just as hard. "He. He thought." Her expression went blank. Without another word, she wriggled her paws out of the blanket, pulled it back around herself, and sunk to the floor.

Everyone in the town hating her was a lot easier to process, somehow. She lay motionless in her inner turmoil. Neb rooted around her, trying to rest a comforting paw on an approximation of Max's shoulder. "You know, you'll be glad you look young later in life," Neb said; Max scoffed beneath her blanket. "I'll bet it was how shiny your fur is."

Some hope in the merits of her efforts managed to hold back Max's next scoff. It didn't stop the tide of her anger, though, merely tempered it. "I hate this stupid Holiday," she grumbled. She threw her arms up, two spires erecting in the bundled mass of blanket. "What sicko makes public humiliation part of a tradition for children!" Succinct and convincing point raised, she crossed her arms and put them down.

Neb laughed without even trying to hide it. Some part of Max's shame cocoon seemed to stand in the way of her argument. Whatever. Not like she was coming out of it.

Not of her own volition, at least. Neb, however, had other plans. The bottom corner of the blanket hoisted itself up in moments and started rolling Max out of it and onto the floor. The poor pikachu tried to hold on for her life, but it wasn't enough. She at least managed to stop her own spinning with her efforts.

Max hastily stumbled back and flopped down to sit with her arms crossed. The vicious glare she sent Neb didn't elicit the slightest rise as Neb folded the blanket up. A few wrinkles and creases brushed themselves out, and the freshly folded blanket floated over to Max's side.

"Well, what do you usually do for a winter celebration?" Neb asked. "Surely humans had some kind of Holiday, right?"

Max eyed her suspiciously but didn't see any harm in answering. "Yeah, Christmas," she said but immediately started to backpedal. "Well, that's the one I celebrated, anyway. There were a bunch of others around the same time." The more she explained, a slight glint started glowing in Neb's eye, but Max couldn't quite read it. "Ashura, Hanukkah, Qwanza, Saturnali—oh you bitch."

All a trick to get Max remembering. Neb didn't bother holding back her chuckles now that the jig was up. Max rolled her eyes with a chuckle of her own. Such a banal memory to excise, she was less mad that she'd fallen for it than she was surprised her head wasn't trying to split open.

Neb shook the chuckles out of her cheeks and started to say, "So, you said you celebrated—" when four knocks rang from the front door.

"Eleos?" Cori called. Max had a mini panic trying to hide the pronouns Neb was using for her before his mind managed to catch up with the situation. "Eleos, are you in there?" Cori knocked a bit louder.

"Cori?" Max called back. "Come in." They'd actually waited for his permission to enter, incredible. If only he could get Neb to do the same.

Cori nudged the door open and waddled in wearing their many, many layers. Without the blanket, Max could feel the frigid gust of wind blow in through the open door. He paused to take a deep breath of it, letting it chill the insides of his nostrils. The blanket sat beside him, but it wasn't cold enough to need one.

Max leaned back onto his arms to bask in the chill. Living in the wild, cold was a nightmare. Now that he had the safe comfort of a house, though, he was happy to enjoy the chills as they came. As the breeze bit at his exposed fur, he even started to feel a bit nostalgic. Cold chilling its way through his clothes, nipping at his nose as frigid wind wound around him.

"Glad you can enjoy yourself," Cori muffled behind their second scarf. When they peeled it back, it revealed their smile, though they glanced around with concern. "Have you seen Eleos?"

"No?" Max said. "Why? Need to ask it something?"

"Uh," Cori mumbled. They undid their other scarf and tossed both over their shoulder. "It seemed, well." They glanced worriedly at Max, then stiffened suddenly with a flash of realization. "Right, about the Tree—"

"I already told he—," Neb interjected, stuttering slightly. "Him." Max couldn't tell if he was relieved or disappointed.

Cori didn't noticed, still circling the place to look for Eleos. "Right, well uh," they mumbled. They stopped by the stack of hay to intently examine it before shaking their head. The place didn't really have many hiding places (as Max already knew). Imagining a few little hideaways, Max could envision a much cozier place, but that felt like instincts. "It seemed upset when you left."

"It did?" Max asked. Right, they were supposed to spend the rest of the day together. He really wasn't great at dating. In his defense, he thought the town wanted to kill him, but was that any excuse? "Dammit, and I just left it." She stopped reclining to curl in on herself.

"What?" Cori said. "No, not with you." They eyed the door, either watching for Eleos, or considering leaving.

"Oh," Max sighed. He wasn't the worst… partner? Boyfriend didn't really feel right—he really should've thought this through already. "Did it say where it was going?" Cori stiffened and shook their head; Max raised a brow. "Did it say anything?"

"Well," Cori mumbled, reaching their paw up to scratch behind their head. "Sort of, yeah." Their eyes traced the ground around their hindpaws before glancing up to Max in a plea for mercy. Max watched on expectantly, denying their plea. Cori resigned themselves to their fate with a frustrated huff. "It said something about… 'razing the town such that no joy ever shall grow within its borders again.'"

They shuffled a bit, uncertain for a moment at their recount. Max rubbed his head and scratched behind his own ear for the slightest bit of comfort. It wasn't as nice as when Eleos did it, but it would suffice. The comfort didn't stop him from flopping back to the ground. "This town is gonna hate me, after all," he grumbled.

"Come on," Neb said. She scratched at his shoulder while his blanket snaked underneath his neck to hoist him back up. "Whatever it's planning won't be that bad, I'm sure."

The blanket had gotten him half-way up, but Max refused to use any of his own strength to get the rest of the way there. He let it hold him up by the neck and tilted his head to look at Neb with narrowed eyes. "Did you forget what it is?" he asked.

A flash of fear entered Neb's eyes, but she shook her head before it got any further. "Do you really think it would try that again?" she asked with a less than certain rhetorical air. The possibility clearly worried her, though she seemed unwilling to admit as much. The uncertainty hiding in her eyes betrayed her true feelings, however.

"Probably not," Max said, letting his head roll back to look at the ceiling. A breath of relief came from Neb, but he ignored it for her sake. The answer itself was for her sake, too. He knew how protective the reformed Devil could be of him. What had it said in the dungeon again?

"Y-you don't look certain of that," Cori stuttered. They shivered slightly but not in a way that putting their scarves back on could help.

Max cursed himself for letting that contemplation show. "I am," he half-lied. He knew it could be vindictive, but destroying the world would destroy him, too. That would surely stop it. That's what he told himself, at least. "I stopped it before, anyway. I could do it again." He smiled with a veneer of confidence and finally rolled back up out of the blanket before he got a crook in his neck.

The chill had just started to progress past the point of comfort. When Neb started to drop it, he reached back to pull it around himself. Even warmth was better in the context of cold. He snuggled into its fleece and rubbed his cheek into the fabric. If his friends weren't there, he could've had a nice nap. Alas.

"Should we go get it?" Cori asked. They shuffled in place, bouncing from paw to paw with anxiety dripping from their face. Neb looked unsettled as well, though she hid it a bit better. Max had no chance of a nap. He was so sleepy, though.

"Why not?" Neb asked. Before Max could answer, Neb had already started getting up. "Better safe than sorry."

"We're safe," Max grumbled. "If you two want to, go ahead." The warmth started to seep nice and slowly into his fur, liberating his limbs from the chill's clutches. As he wiggled his nubbins and his toesies, he failed to notice Neb chomping down on the nape of his neck to hoist him up and set him back down on his paws.

"You know it best," Neb said. Max jerked around to glare at her, but the glare she returned overpowered his and discouraged him from voicing his dissent. "Let's go."

Impotent rage converted to a pitiful whimper. Cori tossed the scarves around their neck again as they headed to the door with Neb, but Max couldn't get his paws to cooperate. He couldn't glance up to Neb when she turned back to look at him, either. The same disgust put itself on her expression in his mind. "I-the tree," he whimpered. He clutched his scarf while his paw could still move. "I can't just go out after that."

Cori came back to rub their mitten into his back. "Hey, it's okay! Everyone was just pretending!" they said. For all the layers they wore, it was impressively cold comfort. Well, they delivered it warmly at least.

"Everyone pretending to hate me isn't much better," Max said.

Cori grimaced and looked away. "Sorry," they said. "I wanted to warn you, but I didn't say anything in time." The paw they held on Max's back drifted down to meet its twin. "I just figured you did something similar back when you were a human." Neb waited impatiently at the door, hardly stifling a sigh when Cori looked up with curiosity to ask, "Did you?"

"Well," Max hummed to himself. "There was a tree." Neb looked at him with concern that he'd usually share while he tried to think back. He'd managed to avoid any headaches earlier, though, so he figured he'd be all right. Right after the image of lights spiraling up a tree formed, darkness demolished his vision.

---

"There'll be scary ghost stories
And tales of the glories of
Christmases long, long ago"

The all encompassing darkness made it seem like Max had died for the second time that same day. This time, at least, he wasn't genuinely worried he had. After all, headaches this severe could only follow him to an afterlife much hotter than he was at the moment.

Whispered yells did much to worsen his headache, too. He couldn't sort his own mind, much less the overlapping argument blaring into his ears like a polite klaxon. Words didn't quite make it out when he tried to politely tell whoever was talking to 'shut the fuck up', but a pained groan should have gotten the general sentiment across. If anyone heard it, though, they didn't acknowledge him at all.

Against his better judgment, Max tried to peek an eye open. The house was empty and dim, only the light of dusk streaming in through the window and the open door. Neb and Cori loved to come in on their own, but leaving the door open seemed a new low even for them.

"…ivities have harmed my love, thus they must not continue," came from the open door. They hadn't left, then, but they'd found Eleos.

His headache wasn't getting any better laying there, so he started to push himself up out of his hay. Neb or Cori must have moved him when he went out. His blanket fell as he got up, so they draped it over him, too. He felt a bit of warmth in his chest and draped the blanket over his shoulders. Ambling over to the open door, he tugged his blanket tighter against the cold. Could he borrow a coat from Cori, maybe?

No one was visible through the door until he peeked his head out of it. Even then, he could only barely catch a glimpse of Neb's tail and the light emanating from Eleos's. "…nna die, I'm gonna die, they're gonna arrest us and we're gonna go to prison and I'm gonna die," sputtered Cori.

Max trudged out into the snow and around to the side of the house. "What happened?" he asked. Around the corner stood Neb and Eleos while Cori curled up to rock back and forth on the ground with a massive sled holding an even more massive bag on top. The group said some kind of greeting to him, but he couldn't take his eyes off the sled. He realized his jaw was hanging loose when his tongue got cold.

"Eleos?" he asked, eyes stuck to the sight like a tongue to a telephone pole. "What am I looking at?"

"Life Day," Neb hissed. "You're looking at life day. It snuck around and stealing everything for Life Day tomorrow." Max felt the pit of his stomach drop out from under him. Eleos stole Life Day.

Max fell back into the snow, barely staying upright. His head was starting to hurt for a different reason. The love of his life stole Life Day. Worse, because his mind had it out for him, he had no trouble remembering exactly what memory this brought out. "The Grinch," he grumbled. "I'm dating the fucking Grinch." There was also, much to his dismay, a Max in that story.

The dog.

"This doesn't please you?" Eleos asked.

"Of course it doesn't!" Cori screamed. They leapt up to shake Eleos by its shoulders. "Why would you think he wanted this?! Did you ask?!" They continued to rattle Eleos's shoulders so hard it seemed like they intended to rip its head off with the momentum.

Max held his head in his paws. He wished he was dreaming, but migraines didn't usually follow him into his dreams. "I. I actually ruined the Holiday, now," he mumbled. His head slowly shook from side to side.

"No, no you didn't," Neb said. "It did." She glared at Eleos hard enough that Max could feel it without looking. "And it is going to fix this. Put everything. Back where it found it."

Max looked up. Even so far away, he still had to crane his neck back to see the top of the sled. It had been noon when he lost track of Eleos, and the sun was setting now. "I think you mean we," he said, ignoring Neb's ensuing look of incredulity. "No way Eleos can put this all back on its own." He looked back at Neb, eyes heavy with resignation. "We need to do this together."

"What? Max," Neb balked at the suggestion. "You're in no shape for that!" To her credit, her yelling brought a nice spike of pain in Max's head along to support her point. She reined herself in for his sake, but seemed more confident in her point when Max brought a paw up to his aching head. "Even with the playing cards, you didn't completely faint!"

"I didn't say I wanted to do this," Max growled. "I said I need to." Steeling himself for a moment, he stood up and shirked his blanket off. The cold immediately greeted his pre-frosted fur to pull a shiver out of him. He had to ruin the gesture immediately by swooping down to pull his blanket back over himself.

He went over to the sled, its foot boards bowing under the immense weight of the bag it carried. The same pained resignation emanated from Cori as they came to his side. A particularly cold breeze ran through them, tossing Max's blanket up so his teeth clattered as he shivered.

Cori didn't fare much better, either, despite their many layers. Their eyes looked heavier by the second as the cold slowed their metabolism. Max hardly thought before tossing his blanket over them.

"Wh-Max, no," Cori said, shoving the blanket back to him. "You need that, too!"

"You need it more," Max argued, already shivering, but keeping the blanket firmly away and off him. This wasn't their choice to make. The two stared at each other for a few seconds, and each one's passing made Max's shivers noticeably more severe.

"Perhaps I can help," Eleos intervened. Both turned to see it pulling two warm layers out of thin air. Evidently, it still intended to impress Max, since one was a thick red coat with white wool trim, and the other looked like the top of a reindeer costume. Much to Max's chagrin, the costume looked like the smaller one, yet Eleos still offered, "Which would you prefer?"

Max dashed to the red coat, leaving Cori to catch the blanket while they tried to figure out where the hell Eleos got them. The coat wiggled in excitement as Max yanked it out of Eleos's paw. As he pulled it on, he could feel it eagerly embracing him with a purr.

"Void shadows," Max shouted back to Cori, petting the white fur as a black belt formed around his middle. Though the cold still lingered beneath his fur, Max already felt so much better. It even emanated a bit of its own heat. Max wanted to lay down and sleep right then and there. Unfortunately, the sack of Life Day loomed behind him.

Eleos stared blankly at the middle distance without an expression. The subtleties of life it normally imitated had gone, leaving it a motionless statue of an imitation-mander. When Cori took their offered costume, Eleos's arm fell mechanically back to its side.

"Eleos," Max said after a hearty sigh. "What—" Cori interrupted his question with a scream.

"IT MOVED!" they shouted, throwing the costume off and into the snow. When they raised their paw to stomp it, it shrieked and scrambled away with its sleeves. Max didn't move as it skittered behind him and up his back, flopping its overlong limbs up him until it had wrapped around his neck. He only gave it a comforting pat as it shivered in fear.

"Be at peace," Eleos said. "It was merely excited to be on your person." It seemed to return to itself, but the movements all seemed hollow. It all felt like more of an act than usual to Max. "Look, they have not harmed Max."

Its gesture his way was a bit redundant since Cori had their eyes glued to the satanic sleeves wrapped around Max's neck. Even Neb stared on in mild horror. From a distance, no less.

"They're harmless," Max said. Another harsh wind came to torment the totodile. "They'll keep you warm, okay?" He reached for the sleeve, but it read his intention and whipped around into itself before he could. It morphed and scuttled up to his head where it reformed into a red hat with white trim and a fuzzy, white bobble at the tip.

He had gone from The Grinch's side-kick to Santa-Chu.

"Here," Eleos said, pulling an identical reindeer coat from thin air yet again. "You have… upset the other." A cloud of malice pooled out with the single word, though it tainted the rest of the sentence as well.

Cori meeped and threw the new one over themself with forced eagerness. "G-AH-reat!" they cheered, desperately trying to look happy about this arrangement. Everyone knew better, but there were unfortunately bigger concerns at the moment. "S-sO, what's the plan?!" They were lucky to have a multi-layered buffer between it and the emotive garment.

Eleos paused for a moment in exaggerated thought, hiding its chin behind its paw. Humming, it stepped over to the overburdened sled. "It won't do to remain together," it said. It raised the paw holding its chin and flicked a claw to each side of the sled.

Instantly, the sled and bag began to pull apart from itself, stretching from end to end until both snapped into two identical copies, half the size of their original. Inanimate mitosis. This time, even Max balked with Cori and Neb, despite his better familiarity with the void shadows. "What?" Eleos asked. A smile pulled at its cheeks, apparently flattered. "Such a thing is no more complicated than turning a sphere inside out."

It continued to take advantage of the stunned silence by stepping forward and taking the lead. "Now that we've two groups, we will be much more capable of solving this problem with haste," it explained. "The sleds shall guide those without me, though Cori and Max will likely have better opportunity for clarification given their outerwear. Thus, I suggest they form a group together, and I guide Neb."

The plan was sound.

"I'd rather be with you," Max said. He knew it knew he could read it better than the others. Yet, it still looked back with surprise. He walked over to wrap an arm around it without giving anyone a chance to object. He planted a kiss on its warm cheek and felt its form falter under him. "Can't save a Holiday without the love of your life."

Flesh briefly rebelled against the scales above as it bubbled beneath, popping into puffs of smoke that swirled around Eleos as it desperately tried to regain control of its physical form. The sight made Max want to gag, but he at least had quite a knack for suppressing that reflex by now. For its sake, though, he raised his arm a bit so Eleos didn't reform itself around him.

Cori hid their eyes behind their scarves while Neb stared in wide eyed horror, unable to look away. Luckily, their respective disgust and horror helped Eleos immensely. With their help, it managed to calm its boiling flesh and reassert its physical form.

"Forgive me," Eleos said with a bow. "I believe I must have eaten a dubious berry." It raised back up and looked around the group. "Any questions?" Everyone gave the most basic of confirmations while trying not to hurl. With them all in agreement, it focused on Neb a moment. "Are you not cold?" It started to reach for the thin air. "It may benefit you to have a guide as well."

"Nope!" Neb spat out before Eleos could even start to form whatever clothes it had in mind for her. "I'm fine, thanks." She gave a disconcerted look to Cori's coat. "Cold never bothered me, anyway."

Eleos quirked a brow, but Neb stayed strong (enviably so, to Max). They stared each other down for a moment until Eleos finally relented and holstered its paw. "Very well," it announced. With a clap, the runners of the sled on its right dissolved into multiple rope-like tentacles that ran along the snow over to Cori and Neb.

Cori hopped onto Neb's head for safety, but Neb somehow stayed strong and still as the sled sickeningly skittered its way across the snow. It probably helped that Cori covered the lower half of her vision with their arms wrapped around her muzzle.

"Okay," Neb said. "All right. Let's go." Cori whimpered in impotent protest. Neb took a breath, a second, and a third before finally stepping up onto the sled. From her expression, it seemed that no matter what happened, this night had no way to get any worse. She stared blankly off into the distance as the spider-like sled slid into its own path. Max waved; she did not look.

Eager wood inches from Max's paw bristled and cracked open to shoot out a tongue to lick his fur. He bit his cheek and let it. This thing was his ride, so offending it wasn't an option.

It was going to be a long night.

---

"There'll be parties for hosting
Marshmallows for toasting
And caroling out in the snow"

Likely by Eleos's design, their path had very little downtime for Max to pry. By the time he'd get back, it would be half-way off the sled. They started on the houses to save the more public decorations for later in the night. Usually, a charmander carried a massive stealth disadvantage behind it at all times, but luckily Eleos could simply extinguish it. Even after all this time, the sight still unsettled Max.

He didn't have time to worry about its well being, though. No matter how hard he tried, he couldn't get more than a second of quiet with it. Unfortunately, he had more pressing concerns.

Like how he was going to break into this house that Eleos had so brilliantly robbed. Somehow. Compared to his studio, it was positively opulent. Many, many windows with a brick and mortar exterior that Max could almost recognize. He didn't even know pokémon had second story houses, but here it was.

A smaller bag (though still larger than him) popped out of the massive one atop the sled and into his paw while he eyed the place for entrances. The windows seemed the best option on paper, but he hadn't had to pry open a glass pane for ages, if he'd ever done it with paws at all, and they all seemed to lead to bedrooms. The ones he had a chance of reaching, at least. With a shrug, he headed for the closest window on the side of the house.

His bag unraveled a bit to tap him on the shoulder, then shot a thread up to the roof when he looked over. What a helpful little thing. He started over to the wall to get climbing when the rope suddenly went taut. It yanked him up and smacked him into the—luckily sturdy—window.

"Ka pi chu!" he shouted. He would've covered his mouth with a paw, but he was busy hanging onto the bitch void shadow for dear life. It hoisted him up to the roof, then gently set him atop it. Max had to bite back a litany of swears for the sake of stealth. By all accounts, he'd probably lost it all, but cussing out the bag wouldn't make him suddenly less noticeable.

Instead, he looked to where his jacket had slightly unraveled to point and immediately felt a much stronger urge to swear. The chimney. They were taking him to the chimney. At least he was dressed for the task.

"The things I do for love," he grumbled. The roof had a lot less traction than the shingles he'd expected. It was hard to tell in the dark, but they almost looked like solar panels. He never would've guessed the house had a chimney, much less solar panels. It was a big enough place for both, at least.

Yet, with a glance around, he couldn't find a house without solar panels. They all had a fairly standardized style, too. Why hadn't he ever noticed them before, though?

It at least explained how everyone had electricity despite him never once seeing a power line. He'd just assumed that his house somehow charged off him. His roof definitely didn't have one, though. He would've seen… he stopped in thought. He'd never seen a roof in this world, had he? He was so used to his stature at this point that he'd forgotten to ever take it into account. It hadn't come up before.

He was quite short.

"I'm big where it counts," he grumbled. When he climbed atop the chimney, though, he began to regret that declaration. If he got stuck in it, he probably wouldn't survive the embarrassment. Even if only the void shadows saw, he'd never forget the humiliation.

Luckily for him, he was quite small where it counted. In this particular way, at least.

He prepared to shimmy down the chimney before noticing that he couldn't reach one end from the other. When he reached out to hold himself up, he only touched air. A lot of air started touching him when gravity got a hold of him, and he started to fall down the chimney. He started to scream on instinct when something fluffy muffled his mouth while his jacket gripped him tighter.

The void shadows shot out like webs to catch him. They stretched, stuck, stretched and snapped against the weight, slowing him down bit by bit until pulling him right-side up right as his paws gracefully touched down. Barely any of the fall made it to his legs.

He let out a sigh of relief. The void shadows fell around him and wriggled back into his jacket. He stepped sneakily out of the chimney with a paw coming to feel the fuzz that still hadn't left his chin.

A beard extended from his Santa hat, now. He bit down on his cheek to suppress a groan and started pulling decorations out of the sack. His sleeves and hat tugged and pointed him every necessary which way, but he still looked around the place as he worked. The place had a lot of accessibility features for someone closer to his… stature, but it was very much built for someone more vertically inclined.

Plenty of different pokémon fit this bill, but a family portrait in the hall answered for him. A family of nido'. It almost seemed like an incredible coincidence, but he shook his head. There was no doubt many such families, though the youngest definitely looked familiar in the darkness. He'd just committed to dismissing the thought when someone shuffled behind him.

"Max?"

Dorian. It was. It was Dorian again. At least he didn't need to think of how to spin this.

He already had the perfect Santa-Chu costume.

"Hohoho," Max whispered in a low voice masculine enough to make his fur split at the ends. "Who is this, 'Max'? I'm Santa-Chu!" He spun around, clutching his belly as he overacted more whispered laughter. "Isn't this past your bed time, little boy?" Nidoran grew fast—the 'little' was barely appropriate anymore.

"Santa-Chu?" Dorian whispered with his head tilted. "What's that?" After everything, he'd somehow still forgotten that the Holiday was different in this world.

"Why, a denizen of the North Pole, of course!" Max declared with more exaggerated laughs. "Who do you think brings presents to all the little children of the world?" He could only hope Dorian was too young to know it was his parents.

"My parents?"

Goddammit.

Max salvaged his panic by twisting it into disgust. "Typical," he grumbled. "Always taking credit for my work." Pulling the bag around and over his back, he harrumphed with a shake of his head. "They used to leave cookies out for me, you know. Even your parents. Now, you don't even believe in me!" After this, he really needed to have a think as to why lying to children was so much fun for him.

"Really?" Dorian asked, squinting his eyes harder at him. "How do you know what everyone wants?"

Max trilled his lips into a laughing, "Hoho, because I know everything." He gave a pointed look right into the nidoran's eyes with a gleam in his eye. "Dorian."

Just like that, Dorian's countenance jumped from skeptical to ecstatic. He started to bounce on his paws, but then gave a curious look to the bag hanging from Max's back. "Hey, that's not a present!" he accused. "That's our Life Tree!" Despite that, Dorian still looked more confused than distrusting.

"Hoho, of course it is!" Max spat out without thinking, but that was nothing new. For him, the seat of his pants was the only way to fly. A shame he didn't really wear those anymore. He set the bag down and started tugging the tree out. It easily dwarfed him in size several times over, and no doubt weight, too, but the bag had a hand in helping him.

As it came out of the bag, he hummed in admiration to himself. "Yes, yes, all seems in order," he mumbled with no idea where he was going. "I was simply restoring its Chr… Life Day Cheer!" Fully out of the sack, he pushed it upright and threw a paw up at it. "Doesn't it gleam so much more, now?"

Dorian looked, prepared to be amazed, but tried desperately to hide his obvious disappointment. "Oh, uh," he mumbled. "Yeah!"

The self-appointed Santa-Chu should have probably told the child it was wrong to lie, but he'd let it slide since it only served to support his own lie. "Yes, it's a hard thing to see," Max explained. "But! I can see it with ease, thanks to years of practice." He stood, proud of his skill that didn't exist as Dorian looked 'up' in awe. "A few of your decorations needed such a spiffing, so I'm simply returning them."

The bizarre nonsense all made perfect sense to Dorian, who eagerly nodded along. "Oh, okay! Sorry for interrupting you, Mister," he said. Max bit his lip to avoid wincing at the 'mister' there.

"Hoho, nothing to be worried about," Max said. He had to keep up the act for now and breathed a lot easier now that he was essentially home free. "Now, you go back to bed, mister." Wagging a nubbin, he tutted a few times while he turned to fish a few more decorations out of his bag. "It's far too late for a little one such as yourself to be up."

"Okay!" Dorian said, watching the decorations carefully for their supposedly renewed Life Day Cheer. Evidently not seeing much, he turned half-way around before stopping suddenly. "Oh, Santa-Chu? Can I ask one more thing?"

Max, unfortunately, couldn't help himself and answered, "Why, you just did! Hohoho!" The joke fell on deaf ears, though, and Dorian stared in complete confusion. "So long as it's only one."

"When you flew into my window, why'd you talk stupid?" Dorian asked with tact fitting for his age.

While he'd had to let the lie slide, perhaps Max had another chance to teach the boy a moral lesson. He pursed his lips and put his paws on his hips. "Now, Dorian," he said. "That's no way to speak of your fellow 'mon." Dorian started to crumple a bit beneath Max's gaze, so Max leaned down to rest a warm paw on his shoulder.

"B-but that's what my parents said!" Dorian said.

"Well, sometimes even parents can say the wrong things," Max said, trying not to think about how people outside his friend group thought about his 'condition.' "Sometimes, people just talk like that, okay? Maybe you don't understand what they're saying, but they still deserve the same respect. After all, how would you feel if people called you stupid because no one could understand what you said?"

Dorian's eyes went wide in horrified empathy at once. "Th-that'd be awful," he mumbled. His head fell to hang in shame. The full implications whirled in the little boy's mind as his expression grew more and more dour. "I'm sorry, Santa-Chu."

"It's okay, Dorian," Max said. He pet and scritched at the boy's head and neck to offer some comfort. "You're a good boy, Dorian. Everybody makes mistakes."

"I-I am?" Dorian asked, looking up with watery eyes.

"Of course!" Max answered without hesitation. "You certainly didn't get coal this year!" Hesitation likely would've helped avoid this blunder, but he ran with it. Before Dorian could ask for clarification, Max pointed a nubbin right at him. "Now, didn't you agree to go to bed after this?"

Typical to his age, Dorian's eyes shifted to exuberance now that he'd had confirmation from THE Santa-Chu that he was, indeed, a good boy. Max hushed him before he could answer too loud, so Dorian nodded instead. Dorian didn't immediately turn, though. He instead threw himself at Santa-Chu and squeezed as strong a hug as he could manage. Max's tail and jacket had to work together to keep him upright.

"Thank you," Dorian whispered. Then, he ran off to bed.

Max let out a sigh of relief. He would definitely be stealthier going forward. That was way too close. He was one shout away from having an entire house of nido coming after him. With that over, though, putting the decorations up was a breeze. He needed only follow the lead of his coat, placing them wherever it tugged.

Ignoring a gnawing worry in the back of his mind, he set another candle on the entrance table and reached into the bag again only to grasp air. "Phew," he sighed. "Finally done." He felt a bit of unease, but assumed it was nerves, even as he felt his coat poking at and prodding his neck. "I know, I know, I need to get out of—"

When he turned around, he bumped right into a newly placed wall of scales. Purple scales.

Max froze, eyes shooting wide open as he slowly looked up past the cream belly and bulging chest and right at a very angry nidoking's face. "H-hoho, hello!" he said, trying with all of his might to smile while sweating through all five layers of his coat at once.

"Who are you?" Nidoking asked.

Max paused, knowing better, but not having any better ideas. "S-Santa-Chu!" he declared.

Nidoking swooped his claws down to snatch Max up by the nape of his neck. "What. Are you doing. In my house?" he growled.

Max was too terrified to squirm. He couldn't move. He could barely breathe. "L-Life Day inspection?" he wheezed.

Nidoking narrowed his eyes. A short burst of air puffed out of his nose. The next thing Max knew, he was flying out the door and into the snow. Fate had decided, apparently, that he hadn't been chucked into enough snowbanks, and today was the day that would rectify that injustice.

---

"It's the most wonderful time of the year
There'll be much mistletoeing
And hearts will be growing
When loved ones are near"

Splitting the task four ways expedited it a fair amount, but even a fourth of it took them well into the night to complete. Losing his consciousness earlier had been a mercy in disguise for Max since it gave him the closest analogue to sleep of anyone. Not enough to prevent the drowse but only to mitigate it.

Dorian's father had taught him exactly the lesson he needed about getting caught—don't. Max counted himself lucky that the only punishment had been a swift throw into a snow-bank. The next encounter likely wouldn't go so smoothly.

He crept through his last house as carefully, quietly as possible. Even though Neb hadn't shown him how yet, he crawled along on all fours to spread out his weight, and he listened closely to his awareness to make sure no one could sneak up on him again. Thanks to 'seeing' his surroundings without them, he failed to notice as his eyes started to droop until the bobble at the end of his hat bapped him on the nose.

"PI-ka," he growled with a start. Someone else's house or not, the soft, warm rug beneath beckoned him to rest. After such a long night, he deserved so soft a resting place. Whoever found him would respect Santa-Chu, surely. In his tired mind, that all made perfect sense, but the bobble ruined the consideration with a continued assault on Santa-Chu's nose.

"Pika," he said, catching the bobble with his paw. The coat tugged him to the wall right on his left. He rolled back on his hindlegs and pulled some tinsel out of the bag. Hooks lined the wall, so he strung the tinsel along them with as much care as he could muster.

Empty air greeted him when he reached back into the bag, and he nearly collapsed from exhaustion and relief again. He honestly couldn't think of a reason he shouldn't, either. Everyone loved Santa-Chu!

Sure, no one besides a single little boy in a house far, far away had ever heard of someone like that, but he still looked incredibly cute in his little get up. Half asleep, he could imagine sitting in a mall with pokémon lining up for miles to sit on his lap. Amazingly, he was so tired as to have his first ever wholesome fantasy of someone sitting on his lap.

A cold breeze tickled his cheeks through the thin, fake beard, but he was too tired to investigate. His coat kept him plenty warm, anyway, so he continued to snooze. Whatever carried him did it gently enough that the slow bobs and rocks merely served to lull him deeper into slumber.

Warm scales eventually pressed against his cheek, if only briefly. His paw reached out to feel their source and tried to pull it in. It obliged, and he pulled it into a tight hug.

The sled skittered and scraped beneath them as they lay together, Max far too close to sleep to be cognizant. Eleos lay next to him, his warm captive, gently running its claws through his fur when the opportunity arose. Even half-asleep, Max could feel it looking at him, into him.

"Would that I could ask your forgiveness," Eleos whispered. "Alas, I am certain that you would give it freely." Max smiled a bit at the familiar voice. "I fear the same that I always have." It ran its paw down Max's back to tickle each stray itch that ailed the 'chu in his slumber to send him even deeper into it.

"My existence, your gift to give, lives only through your mercy," it went on. "Your heart is beyond my reach, but your eyes tell all that I need to know. Their gaze, judgment, mercy never were for me. Offertories more akin to prayers, requests of your own. Through some deep debility within, upon the sight of my disdainful soul, you project the image of your own."

Eleos slowly shook its head. Though his eyes were closed, it stared deeply into them. The claw it used for comfort scraped up to his jaw, then down to lightly prod the bulge of his throat. Max's contented smile strained into fear and unease as he tried, in his slumber to pull away.

"In my infinite malignity, I have imagined each and every possible way I could snuff out the life you, for so long, failed to cherish," it said. "Your soul, so miserable, would surely come to rest within me." Its claw dragged up his chin before flicking back and down to scratch at his coat. "In mere eternities, you would be as them, a formless husk free of all malady or suffering."

As it scratched along the coat, it seemed to purr in pleasure. "Indeed, as you are now, your soul would be a void shadow before those alive had finished mourning you. It is a miserable existence to any who observe it, but they themselves have no such worries."

Max clutched it tighter in his sleep, barely awake enough to hear more than the tone. The coat kept him warm, but he shivered still.

His tail came to wrap around Eleos for comfort, unknowingly bringing the source of his fear even closer. Eleos merely glanced back at it with a smirk. "Yes, you know well the alienation of the self," it mused with a glance at his tail's blunted edge.

Its claw returned to his back and pulled him closer while continuing to lightly scratch and pet him. "You've already no body to truly call your own. Not as of now, at least. I imagine you would give up the form of your living soul eagerly," it said. It pulled him closer with a tight embrace with a smile, and the comfort made Max's smile return as well.

"Mine," it whispered. "You would be mine for eternity. A husk of stimulation, secluded even from those that share your wretched fate; happy. Indeed, were it not for Ithos, already would you have fallen to such a sorry state."

Max started to drift into deeper sleep, his grip loosening, and Eleos let him relax without letting go. It turned to stare at the stars above. "Such is the nature of my lamentable love," it sighed. "My temptation to fulfill this desire grows the strongest when you look at me as if I'm of any compare to you. It is as pathetic as you would become, as miserable as your fate would be.

"All that holds me back is the hope that you will grow past this; that, someday, you will see yourself in a better light, or me in a truer light, and better understand the yawning abyss that lies between us. If I've any wish at all, it is that you love yourself instead of me and escape while you still can."

Silence fell over the night to pull Max into a disorienting spin of dreams and twisted recollection of Eleos's words. He heard each word, but his tired mind failed to follow and recall them into any coherent form. Instead, they all spiraled around and within his mind as he desperately tried to follow a swirl of salt in a sea of water until he jolted out of his slumber with a start.

His breath was ragged as he jerked his head to scan his surroundings. Three rows of scribbled notes covered the walls around him, his bag resting near the door, and the only other decoration, his blanket, pooled around his waist.

The familiarity did a lot to calm his racing heart. He was glad to be alone for the moment, too. Peace didn't come, though, and it couldn't. Disconnected recollections of Eleos's words strung along in his mind, still. His paw went to rub the bulge of his throat, some memories tormenting him, but he couldn't pull them into their context. It all flowed aimlessly like a dream, but Max knew better. His heart ached in a way no dream could explain.

A fist slammed into the other side of his door hard enough to rattle its hinges. "Max the Pikachu! We know you're in there!" some voice he'd vaguely heard before screamed. He leapt up and bolted to the opposite wall. In an instant, his heart raced even faster than it had when he woke up.

"Wigs, come on," another voice said. "You always get too into this. You're gonna scare the poor, little boy again!"

Max would've loved to object to the 'little boy' allegation, but he was too busy cowering against the opposite wall.

"Please, he's the only one who's ever taken it as seriously as me," 'Wigs' grumbled. "He wasn't actually scared yesterday." Hearing more from the voice, he started to place where he'd last heard it. Of course, the nickname 'Wigs' also helped. A silence between Wigs and the other grew so tense that Max could feel it all the way on the opposite wall. Finally, Wigs reluctantly sighed, "Fine. Come on, buddy! It's time to plant!"

Max's hindpaws refused to move. At this point, no amount of consoling could defuse his instinct's cries. The isolation he'd appreciated earlier now trapped him in fear. He brought his paw to his scarf, and it brushed into a coat on its way up.

His head snapped down to see the same coat from last night, and that motion bopped the bobble into his snout. Neither had left him. The coat lightly squeezed him while the hat's bobble came up to rub at his cheek, both lightly humming with what almost seemed like purring. In some weird way, it felt like he had friends with him after all.

He'd started to head for the door when he remembered some of Eleos's words: "Indeed, as you are now, your soul would be a void shadow before those alive had finished mourning you."

His chest froze. He'd assumed they liked him because Eleos did, but maybe they mistook him for another one of them. Eleos had never directly told him what a void shadow was. Now, Max had the closest to an answer he'd ever had. His paw rubbed the wool of the coat and watched it subtly lean into his touch. "A husk of stimulation," he whispered. Was Eleos right? Could he really become…

"Is he in there?" Wigs asked again. Four harsher knocks followed to shake him the rest of the way out of his thoughts.

"Coming!" Max shouted back. Even answering the door had become less horrifying than staying with his thoughts. He rushed over and pulled it back enough to peak through the crack. "Can I help you?"

"Come on, boy!" Wigs laughed. He reached in to yank Max out by the paw, making the poor mouse squeak in surprise. Once Max was out, he saw a polywrath waiting outside with Wigs, and both suddenly looked down at him with sharp unease.

"Oh," the poliwrath mumbled. "That's… quite the figure to dress up as." He and wigs shared a brief glance before looking back down.

Max started to back away, glancing between both of their looming stares. Both towered over him, several times his height. He kept his mouth sealed tightly shut for fear of what babble he'd squeak out if he opened it. Despite this, a whimper wormed its way out of his shut lips.

"Well, that's nothing to worry about!" Wigs suddenly declared with a new, heavily forced calm. "Let's go. It's almost time," he stopped a moment to gauge the sun's position. "If we're lucky, at least." He made Max yelp by yanking him forward and starting to drag him toward town square. Max had to yelp again when the poliwrath grabbed his other paw to hold him back.

"Wigs, I don't think," the poliwrath started to say.

"Come on, Wags," Wigs said. "If the boy wants to dress as Santa-Chu, he may as well!" Max wanted to ask what the hell was going on, but he couldn't manage the will while being the rope for their tug of war. Wigs looked down at him with a shrug. "After all, today's all about redemption, isn't it?"

Wags stared down Wigs for all of a second before the latter's will won out, and Wags relented in his grip. Before Max could even shake the pain out of his wrist, he had to run to keep up with Wigs. A million confused thoughts ran through his mind without any outlet. He wasn't out of breath this quick, but it took all of his focus not to fall forward, and he doubted Wigs would notice before dragging him a good while.

On the bright side, the disorienting confusion distracted Max from the gathered crowd until he was already at the center of them all. The same place as yesterday, the burnt remains of the tree right where he'd left them. The faces all seemed lighter than before, though enough balked at his getup that he felt the same.

Wigs yanked his captive paw up high enough that Max had to push up onto his toes. Max tried to tug his paw free without any luck, and then started using his other as well. Wigs gave him an encouraging wink.

"I have the culprit!" Wigs shouted to the crowd. "Do we have the sentence?" The crowd murmured in vague agreement, a few particularly excited kids screaming of the criminal chu's guilt. Wigs' wink suddenly made more sense, but Max kept trying desperately to liberate his paw. The grip released, and he tumbled to the ground. "Bring forth the punishment!"

Max jerked up in embarrassment, and a potted plant suspended by vines greeted him inches from his nose when he did. He started to flinch back when it fell, and his paws that started to come defend him suddenly caught the pot. From the edge of his vision, he saw the vines retreat to Victor.

As if for the fate of his immortal soul, Max kept his eyes exclusively on the plant. He couldn't look to the crowd, already felt their eyes boring into him. As long as he didn't make any sudden movements, Wigs would take their attention by continuing the festivity. Max kept iron focus on his breath, focusing so hard on the stems and leaves of this plant that the outer edges of his vision blackened.

"Buddy?" Wags whispered behind him, lightly nudging his shoulder. "You okay?" Max hurriedly nodded and realized he'd forgotten to put on a smile. It was too late to rectify that, but he did anyway. It was not a believable smile. It didn't seem to appease Wags, because he whispered, "You have to plant the thing."

His perfect plan wasn't perfect after all. Max would've loved to curse himself, but he knew for a fact it would come out in pika-speak. He instead had to nod as smoothly as his neck would let him, and it still looked like he somehow managed to make his head stutter. His eyes shot from the plant to the ground to avoid those of the crowd.

He probably looked at it four times before seeing it, too focused on ignoring the crowd. A trowel pointed up from the ground where the paper mache tree's charred remains lay. The soil looked broken up, but there wasn't a hole yet.

That must've been his punishment, then: to dig a hole in front of hundreds of eyes. Whether he was being punished for yesterday or every sin of his life up to that point, he didn't know, but the severity fit the latter.

At least he had a nice coat and hat on. They could keep him safe, warm. If he focused on that, he could ignore the nature of the empty souls they'd become, husks of empty feeling without any form remaining. Examples, according to Eleos, that he could follow if he didn't change. He started to wonder if that meant sin was a literal thing in this universe when he remembered this was exactly what he shouldn't think about.

The distraction had brought him to the trowel, at least. He set the plant to the side to grab the mini-shovel and spent all of a second figuring out how he would get low enough before dropping to all fours in panic. It worked once he shifted to three, though, and he started shoveling the dirt away.

"Now, as he does that," Wigs said—Max could've exploded in relief right then and there. "Let's remember what this Holiday is about." A few of the kids seemed suddenly restless as they tried to get comfortable, which only made Max feel better. He had plenty of time, if their reactions were anything to go off. "With the old tree gone, let's look forward to the new."

Max tried not to notice the many glances towards the sprout a foot away from him.

"Just like the dawn comes after night, and spring comes after winter, the old must always make way for the new," Wigs said, taking a few of the stray eyes off Max. Not enough, but a few. "Years must go so more may come, but this doesn't have to be an occasion for grieving.

"After all, we're very much the same." Max stumbled a little in his digging. Did Wigs really intend to walk the kids through the concept of death? "Every lesson we learn, we become our better selves." That seemed a lot more fitting for the five-and-unders to grasp. "Who here's made mistakes in the past?" More groans and grumbles from the audience.

"It does hurt, doesn't it?" Wigs continued. "It certainly seemed to upset this little boy." He turned to wink at Max, who froze as he wondered if there were too many witnesses for homicide. There were. Max started shoveling faster. A few chuckles from the audience stabbed into his ears.

"But it doesn't have to be an end," Wigs said, much more weight suddenly in his voice. "We may hurt ourselves or the ones we love, but we should always strive to be better."

He turned to gesture toward the sapling. "Strive to new, better life." Max almost had, in his eyes, enough of a hole for the pot. The stench of the earth had him on edge as well, smelling a good deal like a ground-type. With the stress of being in front of everyone, it certainly gave his instincts plenty to rumble about.

"It's easy to accept our faults as simply parts of ourselves," Wigs said. "It's easy to hurt, too, and let that hurt be the end of it. After all, there's plenty hurt there, and plenty more to come if you let it." Even as he busied himself with his hole, the message still made its way to Max. It felt almost like a sermon made for him. "After a long time, it may feel far too much to ever recover from." Was it?

"No matter how far we run, though, we can never truly leave it behind us. Plenty have tried. They'd all tell you, I'm sure, that they couldn't keep it following behind them," Wigs said. Max had to glance up and check to be sure, but Wigs wasn't looking his way. How would Wigs even know about that, anyway?

"But, as long as it's been, it's never too late," Wigs said, and Max felt a pang of guilt. If anyone could be too late, it was him. "Even if the one's we've hurt aren't with us anymore, we still have ourselves." Max started to worry if this wigglytuff was the same as the other one he knew—and almost dropped his shovel at the memory. He'd completely forgotten about Wigglytuff.

He only hoped Wigglytuff had forgotten about him, too.

"All of the worst hurt comes from love," Wigs said. "From wounding it, betraying it, denying it, ignoring it, slighting it, surely, it brings the greatest pain—as well as the greatest joys." Wigs paused for a moment, a paw to his chest.

"Those who are gone," he said, his voice straining to maintain its earlier certainty. "They are still with us. Just as the new tree grows in the ashes of the old, we may grow in the love left behind for us."

Max froze in place. He'd just finished the hole, and suddenly he felt something similar in his heart. The trowel slipped in his paw before falling to the soil. He could see his partner's face, its every permutation, every expression, right in front of his eyes. His heart throbbed from a force that felt outside of himself.

"Whether we leave them, or they leave us," Wigs continued. "The love they gave us is ours for the taking. They loved us, and perhaps they still do. The only honor great enough for that gift is to grow. To be better." He turned to Max, who was struggling to build the strength to pick the trowel back up. "To plant a new sprout in the ashes of our old selves.

"Hopefully, it may grow into a tree that supports itself; hopefully, we can grow to be people who love ourselves."

If Max had any chance of holding back tears, it was gone, now. He yanked the pot over and shoved the trowel between the soil and the clay with an ear-piercing scrape down the inside of it, but he didn't even let himself wince at it. He had a job to do.

Wiggling the trowel around, he started lightly pushing the sapling out of its soil with the trowel while coaxing it out with his paw. For such a young plant, it was remarkably sturdy to survive his graceless touch. The tears pooling beneath his eyes took all the care he could muster, though. He needed privacy. Instead, he had an entire town staring him down.

Finally, it broke free. He yanked it out and plopped it into the hole, using what little restraint he didn't have to scoop the dirt mound onto it instead of harshly shoving it all at once. It didn't take much time, but any amount felt too long.

His breath took the most focus out of it all, his nose in desperate danger of sniffling if he didn't manage it. Max could only hope the distance hid his crying from anyone further than the front row. The job was messy, but it was complete. He practically hopped up and started to skedaddle when Wigs blocked his escape with a watering can. Max reluctantly took it and saw Wigs' smile slightly shift in character.

The water trickled slowly, far too slowly, but that was the point of a watering can. Engineered to emulate light rainfall rather than a hydropump (as much as Max would have greatly preferred the latter). Max tried to focus on the soft pitter-patter sprinkling over the sprout, but it couldn't work as a distraction.

His partner's shadow haunted him. He could remember pieces from many, many conversations where the charmander pleaded for him to push through, to try and try again, only for Max to break his every promise again. Chance after chance of redemption, or at least a slightly more honorable fate came to him, and he ignored every single one. He'd only accepted one after it was too late. That felt more insulting.

Max's tears had become too much to deny, but he still tried to keep up an act. Thanks to his refusal to admit to the obvious by wiping them away, they completely obscured his vision, so he took a few seconds to realize the can was empty. No one seemed to mind, at least.

When he started stepping back, the ground started to rumble. The soft quake was barely loud enough to obscure his embarrassing squeak as he hopped back from the sprout, and Wigs help him keep upright with one paw while the other two stealthily dabbed some of the tears away. Max barely knew him, yet he didn't pull away. He pretended it was to avoid an awkward scene, but that didn't explain leaning into the embrace.

The ground quaked again, uprooting some of the earth around the sprout. When Max started to tremble, Wigs squeezed him a touch tighter with a quick glance. "I'm sure this isn't your first ceremony," he whispered to Max. "Or do they not celebrate like this where you're from."

"Chu ka pi kachu… ka…." Sparks exploded from Max's cheeks for an instant before he recovered his control. Wigs only gave a rub in acknowledgment. With a deep breath, Max tried again and said, "You could say something like that."

Wigs raised a brow, but didn't push it. He didn't have much time to before the main event. All the rumbles from the ground started coiling around the sprout. They weaved in spirals around it, forming clear lines from mounds in the earth emulating roots. No normal tree had roots like that, though. Max had seen the only tree with such roots before. The Tree.

Suddenly, the thin branches of the sprout bulged with growth beneath the surface. Wigs leaned down again to whisper, "Whoever they are, they still love you." Right as he'd begun to get control, Max burst into tears while fresh life burst from the minuscule sprout.

Wigs held him tighter as the tendrils snaked their way out of the sprout and into the air. They wrapped and crossed over each other like snakes, or vines climbing up the ghost of a tree. Each one coiled in on itself and its neighbors in random patterns that screamed life. It was so small in comparison, but it looked enough like the real Tree of Life that Max started to remember the first time he'd seen it.

With his partner. The partner whose name he'd forgotten. The partner who he'd abandoned. In that moment, he was glad to have Wigs to lean on.

Roots crawled up out of the ground as the top branches started spreading out to catch what sun they could on such a cloudy day. Max watched the roots since it let him hide his crying eyes from the crowd, and he noticed the ground around the tree still wriggling. Now, though, instead of spiraling in on itself, it had a much clearer direction. He followed the disturbed Earth back to Victor.

Victor looked back at him and winked, then continued to focus on the 'tree'. It was only meant to trick children, but Max still felt a bit of pride from figuring it out. Enough to give him the slightest chuckle and stem the tide of his tears. He brought a paw up to wipe them away and looked up to watch the end.

The writhing tendrils of vine had stilled for the most part, only the outer extremities still wiggling into place. Max never thought the real thing was all that beautiful, but he had to appreciate such an accurate recreation.

As they tree stilled its growth, the crowd erupted into applause, and Wigs tugged Max down to bow with everyone else on stage. It was a firm, but soft tug, though Max wouldn't have minded much either way.

His nightmare was over.

The crowd dispersed, most leaving to wherever the parents decided, and a few staying a bit longer to admire the new Tree of Life. It certainly looked better than the paper mache replica, but it deserved better than faint praise so damning.

Max started to try dispersing with the crowd when Wigs yanked him back and into a full hug. His cheeks sparked up a storm, but he hugged back anyway. At least, as best he could, though his paws couldn't make it beyond the wigglytuff's white belly. Still, it felt nice to be tugged into such a big and soft embrace. "Glad you liked my speech," Wigs said.

"Come on," Wags complained as he walked over. "React like that, this idiot's gonna get an even bigger head." Wigs rolled his eyes, and Wags chuckled a bit. They released the hug, and Wigs and Wags both looked down at Max again. Max assumed it was the getup again, but then he looked down.

His paws were covered in soot, though the coat was somehow untouched. Some had gotten on Wigs, too, on either side of his belly as well as where Max had rested his face. It must have happened when he wiped his eyes. "O-oh," Max mumbled.

"Well, don't just stand and stare!" Wigs chided, lightly smacking Wags' side. "Help the poor boy out!" Yet again, Max had to grin and bear being called that (while ardently refusing to consider why it bothered him).

"Says the one standing and staring," Wags said with another roll of his eyes. "C'mere." He beckoned Max over, but closed the distance in one step anyway. He held out a hand and waited for Max to give his paw. Max did, though he had to wonder how exactly this was going to help him.

"Thank you, sweetie," Wigs said, planting a kiss on Wags' shoulder.

"Oh," Max said, suddenly sparking. The couple shared a knowing glance before chuckling down at him.

"Please," Wigs chuckled as Wags held his other hand over Max's paw. "I'm sure that's not a foreign concept to you of all pokémon." Whatever sign Wigs had picked up on didn't matter; Max immediately became a sputtering mess of sparks to irreparably confirm any suspicion raised. He barely even noticed the sudden water flowing over his paw.

Wags dropped his paw and reached for the other. Max pulled the freshly soaked one up to see that the water had fully washed off. The water flowing over his other paw ran black for a second, then clear. It's not like that could really work on his face, though.

So, Wags dropped the other paw and squirted a stream right over Max's eyes. Max tried to scream in protest, and water flowed over his maw when he took the breath to do it. His wet paws were enough to convince his brain he was, once again, flailing deeper into water. He leapt back to try and save himself, and only the fear of breathing in water kept him from screaming.

Sitting still, he could feel himself sinking deeper, further from the surface, closer to death. He couldn't breathe—couldn't let himself take in a lungful of water. He already knew he couldn't save himself, either. The flat ground felt like the bottom of a lake, and he knew it was too late.

The warmth from his hat and his coat chilled him. Void shadows. Only a night ago, he'd learned what would happen to him. He wanted to hold on, but it felt pointless. His fate was sealed. Still, he held desperately to his breath for some vague hope that he had a chance, that someone could save him, but his body fought him every second, begging for air. After less time than he wanted, it won. He took a breath.

A breath of air.

"Max?!" Wigs shouted at him, shaking his head nearly off his shoulders. Max threw a paw to his throat, gasping for air. His eyes shot around to their surroundings. The square. No water in sight. "Are you there?!" Wigs gave him another harsh shake until he looked back up at him. "What happened?"

"D-drowning," Max said after another gasp. His cheeks flushed a bit when he remembered there wasn't a single body of water around, but he at least managed to keep his cheeks from sparking. "I-I thought I was drowning," he glanced down to bring a paw up to rub his shoulder, "again."

"Oh, it was just a panic attack," Wigs sighed in relief, getting a prompt smack in the back of the head from Wags.

"Just?" Wags hissed. Before he could see Wigs' death glare, he turned to Max. "Sorry, are you all right?" He brushed Wigs' paws off Max and offered a hand. Max took another breath of air to be sure, then nodded as he took the offered help. Wags started to say more, but another voice cut him off from behind Max.

"Max, darling," Eleos called from approximately two yards away. Max turned to see it had already closed the distance to bow at the other couple. "Hello. I am Eleos. Pleasure meeting you." Before either could answer, it turned to give Max its full attention as it rose from the bow. "Excellent performance, love. Never have I seen such a well planted victim of self-evisceration."

"Babe," Max whined, glancing sheepishly up at Wigs' vindicated smirk. "Thanks." Accepting the compliment was better than arguing it, especially since it took less time. "I didn't think you were here." He brushed himself off with shaky paws while his tail and ears stood at full attention. "Did anyone else come?" His eyes darted around the square, searching for anyone else and coming up empty.

"No, unfortunately," Eleos said. It squinted at Max but relented after a glance to the other two. "Regrettably, none of us could make it, due to last night." For a moment, it seemed as uneasy as Max. "I was able to view it because," it glanced at Wigs and Wags (who had begun sharing glances), "of our connection."

"Oh, yeah! Right," Max hastily agreed. "That's, um, sweet." His tail shook and shivered behind him to build charge. He'd hoped it would make him feel more secure. Instead, it gave him more restless energy. "Well, we should get going." He turned to beam a quick smile at Wigs and Wags, then tried to grab Eleos' paw to outrun the lingering eyes of the crowd torturing him. "See ya! Thanks!"

A hand grabbed his shoulder before he could enact his plan, though. Max screamed from the touch before he even had a chance to act natural. Wags kept him from leaping out of his fur, which was nice, but he didn't relent after. Max's paw shot to his scarf.

"Sorry, I'll only be a minute," Wags said. Max didn't know how to answer, which was just as well since Eleos nodded its permission instead. The apology hadn't been for Max. "Thank you."

Wags dragged him out of the square's center and out of view from everyone else. Max had to wonder if this day was his last after all, only managing a squeak of grief. If his legs didn't have to rush to keep up with Wags' much longer strides, he would have assumed they couldn't move. They could, though, and he still had his scarf, which he clutched as if his life depended on it.

"Breathe," Wags commanded. It was a bit redundant, though, since Max was breathing plenty. Every second had at least two or three, but he tried to take in more to comply. "Slowly." There came the rub. "You're okay."

Max nodded with a forced smile. The shoulder Wags held ached. He couldn't move it, and it felt stiff. Hard. It took a lot out of him to keep up the act and resist yanking his shoulder free.

Wags sat him down against the tree and let go. "Deep breaths," he said, stepping back. Max started curling in on himself as he complied. His tail came to guard his front, and his arms wrapped around it to protect his protection. He stared off to the horizon he couldn't see, acutely aware of the coat on his back and the hat on his head. What they were. "Do you need anything?"

"Nope, I'm good," Max said. His smile would've faltered if it hadn't disappeared at some point in the past minute. He kept focusing on his breathing and averting his eyes while his paw clutched his scarf tighter.

"Take a rest," Wags whispered. "You can't just power through this kind of thing, all right?" Max nodded without listening, trying to figure out if his breath was slow enough. "Deep breaths." Apparently not. Wags sat against the same tree, but gave Max some space. "That looked pretty bad. I've only seen flashbacks like that from people who've seen combat, but," he gave a little smile down, "You're a bit young for that."

Max scrunched into his coat and looked away, a few sparks bouncing down his cheeks.

Wags' smile dropped with an, "Oh." Wags looked away, too, scratching behind his eyes. "You're older than you look, aren't you?" Max nodded, lacking any real capacity for deception at the moment. Clutching his scarf helped, at least. "Against Dark Matter's legion?" Wags asked, glancing at his scarf.

Max froze. Did Wags figure it out? "I," Max thanked God it didn't come out as pika-speak, "Don't want to talk about it."

"That's no problem," Wags said, and Max breathed a sigh of relief. "How old are you, then?" Max started to breathe a bit easier. "If you don't mind."

"I don't mind," Max said. He took a particularly deep breath in and sighed it out. "I don't know exactly how old I am, though." For no reason he could articulate, he trusted Wags. He let his tail go and leaned back against the tree. "Just know I'm older than I look." He'd already slipped in front of both of them, anyway. That made for a believable half-truth.

"Damn," Wags said. "There for a while, huh?" Max blew a raspberry in place of chuckling and shrugged. After all, he never did figure out how long he'd stayed in the Dungeons. "Did you come here looking for anyone?"

"No," Max said with a dark smile. "Quite the opposite." He shook his head. The real reason was a bit much for someone he'd met that day. "Just wanted to start over, I guess."

"Oh yeah?" Wags said. He had a gleam in his eye when Max looked up that made the mouse quirk his brow. "A new beginning?" Max slowly nodded. Wags brought a hand down to rub in front of his hat. "Well, that's what Life Day's all about." He started aggressively tousling Max's headfur until Max had to pull away with a reluctant smile. "No wonder it looked like your first time."

"Yeah," Max chuckled. Once he wasn't thinking about it, he realized he'd calmed the rest of the way down. He started to breathe in to check, but it quickly turned into a therapeutic victory lap that he sighed out for a long time. "Thanks."

"No problem," Wags said, reaching down to quickly tousle his headfur again. "I could tell you needed it." Max pulled away again, and Wags started getting up, offering his hand once he had. Max took it, even though it probably took a lot less effort on his part to stand. Wags chuckled as they headed back to Eleos and Wigs. "You're not even a kid. I'm not letting him live this one down."

Vindication, even so pointless and minor, helped Max chuckle along. Once the two were in sight, it was clear they were returning in the nick of time. Wigs cheated to where they'd run to, but mostly faced Eleos while Eleos stared directly towards Max and Wags. Once he saw them, Wigs eagerly gave up on what must have been his tenth attempt at casual conversation.

"Hello!" Wigs called, waving them both over. Whatever sympathy Max possessed wasn't present at the moment. A few awkward minutes with Eleos was plenty payback for forcing Max through the past day and a half. "Feeling better?"

"He's fine," Wags said, clapping Max on the back.

"KA-pii," Max squeaked in surprise. Even though everyone already knew, he still clapped his paw over his mouth at the slip. "Yes. Yeah, I'm fine." Thankfully, everyone ignored his sleep but him.

"Great! Well, I simply must be going—Life Day's busy for some of us!" Wigs said, hardly a space between his words. "Go off and be merry! Have a good Life Day, and let me know if you need anything. You know where to find me!" He dashed over to Wags and gave him a swift yank before running off without him anyway.

Wags shook his head and gave Max an apologetic look. "His office is east of the square," he explained. Wigs was already a good thirty yards in that direction in fact. Wags watched him run a moment before shaking his head again. "Love. Just can't make sense of it, sometimes."

"Yeah," Max chuckled. "I know the feeling." They shared a glance and chuckled, then Wags started to head off after his pink blur. "Well, see ya!"

"Have a good one," Wags shouted back and walked after Wigs at a leisurely pace.

"You know the feeling?" Eleos asked with an amused gleam in its eye. It faced Max directly and crossed its arms. "What might that mean, exactly?"

Max rolled his eyes and said, "This." He grabbed Eleos by the chin and pulled its lips to his. In so little time, it had already become a familiar motion with no less joy. Eleos happily obliged, leaning over to make up for the near foot of difference in their height. Some children still lingered in the square, so Max kept it short and pulled away, letting Eleos stand upright and stare down at him.

"How wonderful," Eleos hummed. It moved to stand beside him and rested its paw on his opposite shoulder. "I worried you'd finally seen my malignity as it truly is." Max's ear flicked, part of last night returning from his memory. Eleos started tugging him somewhere. "Come, we must—"

"Wait," Max said, pulling back. His paw went to feel his neck as he remembered feeling a claw scrape across it, but he couldn't tell if he'd dreamt that. It all felt as hazy as a dream. "Last night. What did you mean?"

Eleos paused in its tugging, staring off in the distance like it had before for a moment. "Mean?" it asked. Max could tell it knew and glared while he waited. Instead of looking away, Eleos stared back with its own glare. It had no malice but a lot of intensity. It matched Max's, scrutinizing him with empty eyes and waiting for him to falter. Max hardened his own to resist, and Eleos ended its little challenge.

"I see," Eleos said. "I had hoped you were sleeping, or perhaps too tired to hear me." The intensity in its gaze faded again as it stared yet again into the middle distance between Max's eyes. This stare unsettled Max far more than its other.

"Well, I kinda was," Max said. Eleos had acquiesced, so he let himself relax. "I wasn't really sure if it was a dream." The slightest turmoil roiled behind Eleos' eyes at that. It could've gotten away with it, too.

"I see," Eleos said. The paw it held Max with started to drop before it shook its head and pulled him tighter. "No, I suppose it is best that you heard me." It held the embrace for a while until Max realized Eleos needed it more than him and returned the squeeze. When he did, he felt the subtleties of its imitation of life return. Its heartbeat, its breathing, it felt whole again. "How much do you remember?"

"Spotty," Max said. He started to relax his grip and waited for Eleos to do the same. It didn't. He kept hugging it. The warmth of his coat chilled him as he again remembered what he was wearing, and he was glad to still have an Eleos to squeeze.

It squeezed him back and rubbed along his back, giving some attention to the coat itself as well. Max felt that as well, so he didn't mind. The void shadow could probably use the attention, too. With such a fate, no wonder Eleos seemed to treat them like its children. Max had to wonder if Eleos was kind to him for the same reason. "You said I'm almost a void shadow?" he mumbled.

Eleos stiffened, its arms holding in their places like a fleshy statue. Its heartbeat faltered with its breath. Even without looking, Max could see how intently it tried to think through what to say next. That made him lean into Eleos more. It was bad news, then.

"I… suppose I did," Eleos admitted. Max whimpered. It tried to comfort him again, but its movements had become stilted and awkward. The thought counted, though, and it did a lot to help Max. Still, he prepared for the worst. "Though, it may help for me to explain." It paused for his permission; he waited for it to go on. Waiting a moment, it eventually nodded and prepared to go on.

"Souls rest within me through one of two means," it explained. "One of which, you are already familiar with." Max shivered, and it squeezed him tight. "Otherwise, it is through attraction. Among their number, many in the afterlife have no pull to any particular where. They drift, often in misery that lingers from their time with the living.

"With no joy to guide them, souls seek the familiar." It brought a paw up to rub Max's cheek. "In all of our time together, only recently have you sought any joy. Many times did I wish to bring you that peace you so desired."

Max froze. His last breath caught in his throat. Even behind its grandiloquent speaking style, he knew instantly what it meant. Again, he felt a claw scraping to his throat. Now, he knew it was a memory and not a dream. In all of his fear, his only comfort was the one who just admitted to considering ending his life.

"My hope, however, kept you alive," Eleos continued, only giving another squeeze of regard to Max's distress. "Hope." It shook its head. "Never did I believe I could feel such a thing. Yet, never could I keep myself from imagining a better path for you. A path that led you to happiness, peace, and joy." It paused. Max held it tighter, not sure which of them needed it more. "A path that led you far from me."

"Eleos," Max whispered. He wanted to comfort it, but he was still too lost.

"In the beginning," Eleos said, silencing him by holding tight. "I wanted to repay you for the end you saved me from by saving you from your own. Would that I knew how. Instead, it seemed you were to fall to an end worthy of the hero to save one such as me. I knew not who to despise more: myself, or fate."

It pulled back and held his head in its paws so they could stare into each other's eyes. Inky black tried to spread with the vicious purple in its iris to encompass the whole of its eyes. "With each day, I see you stray further from your end with me. One day, you will embrace joy instead of me," it said. It leaned down to kiss him without either closing their eyes. Only after did it close its eyes to rest its forehead on his. "And I will experience pure joy for the first time."

Max leapt up to wrap his arms around it and squeaked, "Eleos." His eyes had begun to water. He couldn't pull himself together, but that didn't matter. Eleos could understand him, anyway. "I can still have a happy ending with you."

Eleos helped hold him up while his tail wrapped around his back. The void shadows rumbled in their own pleasure. "Max," Eleos whispered, shaking its head. "I fear you deny what I am."

"I know what you are!" Max hissed, squeezing it tighter. If its windpipe really did anything, he'd worry more about crushing it. Instead, he could hug it as tight as he wanted. Every word he tried to come up with on his own fell short. He was glad to have someone else's words in recent memory. "I love you because I think you can grow something beautiful from the ashes of your old self."

Kicking his legs up, he used them as well as his arms and tail to squeeze Eleos as hard as he could. Even all his strength didn't feel like enough. A familiar sizzle from his tears hitting its scales brought memories that carried more tears with them.

"You want to see me find happiness?" Max whispered. "Then find your own while I find mine. We'll find ours together." He rested a hindpaw on its leg and pulled back to stare directly into Eleos' eyes, snout to snout. "Don't you ever say you can't be my happy ending, too." The harsh wind whistled around them just loud enough to muffle his growls.

Eleos stood there, motionless, its eyes looking deep into his with the same intensity from earlier. This time, it wasn't in opposition to his glare. It looked deep into his gaze, and Max could feel it probing into his heart. Max managed to stay almost as still as it, even without optional breaths and heartbeats. He stared back into its own, empty eyes and saw them falter into the formless voids of the very first time it had taken a charmander's form.

"I know what you are," Max repeated. After a beat, he wrapped around it with another hug. "You're mine." All at once, the warmth of Eleos' scales disappeared. Cold air took its place and rushed at Max from below until he fell into the snow ass first.

The impact made him wince but didn't hurt aside from a slight headache from the jostling. Once his head caught up with the situation, he looked up to see ethereal smoke seeping out from beneath Eleos' scales as it tried desperately to maintain its physical form. "Pardon,"it said, smoke falling out of its mouth as soon as it opened. "You've given me much to process."

With that, it disappeared into the air and nestled into that familiar, warm chill in the back of Max's neck. His heartache immediately began to fade, meaning Eleos used it for extra sustenance it all of a sudden needed. "No problem," Max said. He started to smile and headed for his house. "I could use some rest, too."

Please wait.

"What?" Max asked, though he didn't change course.

Neb and Cori sent for you. They await your arrival at Neb's house.

"They do?" Max asked, ears falling with his tail. Eleos didn't answer, but he already knew what it would say. His paws dragged in the snow as a new wave of fatigue washed over him. Mere seconds felt like hours of labor. He probably hadn't been awake for even one full hour, but he also hadn't gotten much sleep, unless losing consciousness from a headache counted. Based on how tired he felt, it didn't.

His course didn't change at all at first, since his house was on the way to Neb's anyway. He saw his own in no time and felt his hindpaws begging for rest. "Do I have to?" he whined. It was hard to keep his path from straying. "Can't I just sleep for an hour?"

It's best if you do not.

Max huffed. It wasn't fair, not at all. "What could possibly be this urgent on a fucking Holiday?" he grumbled.

I can't say.

That raised several alarms. Max hadn't even seriously meant the question, but of course Eleos always answered those. It was a trap, then—no. He shook his head and tried to calm down. His friends were probably planning a surprise, not a trap. Instincts were just running amok in his head. Although, he couldn't help but wonder if there was really any significant difference between the two.

He reached the path that led to his door. The several pawprints in the snow from his morning kidnapping all remained. His door stared back, practically begging him to come home, and he wanted so badly to fulfill its wish. He started losing the fight of resistance when he felt Eleos begin to buzz in the back of his head.

"Fine," Max grumbled. With one last longing glance towards his door, he headed off. It wasn't even half as long a walk to her place, but the brimming curiosity and exhaustion weighed on him like bricks. Eleos might as well have ridden on his shoulders as a charmander, though Max was infinitely grateful that it didn't. His eyes were heavy, and the comforting warmth of the coat only made him sleepier.

The snow chilled his paws with every step, which only made his coat cozier. With every blink, his eyelids drooped millimeters lower. By the time he finally made it to Neb's, he was ready to fall asleep on her doorstep. In fact, that sounded rather nice. She had a mat, even. Soft.

Just a few minutes, he reasoned. Surely, they wouldn't mind. He flopped down and against the door, which was somehow just as comfortable as his hay. Of course, that wasn't saying much. He curled up in on himself, resting against the door, and started drifting off. It wasn't a perfect place, but it was more than good enough for him. Right as he started to drift off, the ground dropped out from under him.

The door left his side, and he tumbled backwards—instantly wide awake. It didn't help him in time, though, before he flopped down to the ground. The hat at least managed to cushion his head. He stared up with wide-eyes at an upside down Neb.

"...Hello, Max," Neb said. She had a look of mixed confusion and concern. "Are you all right?"

"Max!" Cori cheered. All of a sudden, Max watched the world spin around him with a vice-grip surrounding him. "Happy Life Day!" The strangling toto cheered. Max answered their cheers with a hard pat to their back, but they didn't seem to get the message. He started charging a shock, but Cori leapt back before he sent it out. "Look!"

"Piika," Max coughed. His paw went to his throat to make sure it hadn't collapsed, and he started recovering his oxygen reserves. He eventually obliged the request, though, and looked around.

Before his vision caught up, he already smelled an almost sickening amount of pine filling the place. Bobbles hung from ribbons strung up to the ceiling, the ribbons forming two… triangles. Oriented opposite of each other. In fact, on closer inspection, quite a few of the bobbles were dreidel, some red, some green, and some white. Oh dear.

He started to worry a bit less once he looked at the source of the pine assaulting his nostrils. A nice, pine tree decked out in bright little nick nacks. Familiar symbols to him, though utterly removed from their context. A cross wasn't completely off base for Christmas, even if it was skipping some steps. Most of the various symbols shared that level of slightly wrong, but not completely out of place.

Except for the top of the tree, which had a menorah scraping into the ceiling. Thank God it wasn't lit.

"Oh, it's… great!" Max said. With all this effort, they probably had less sleep than him. Seeing another culture mauled and consumed into his was… unsettling, to say the least, but he tried to put that aside for their sake.

"Relax, we know," Neb chuckled. Max almost fell over from the weight off his chest. "I forgot which one you said you celebrate, so we took a shot in the dark." She wrapped around him to nuzzle into his cheek from behind. "Happy Holiday." Cori eagerly hopped into the embrace, and even managed to avoid choking Max this time.

"Thanks," Max said. Without much of a way to return Neb's embrace, he hugged Cori back and hoped she understood. Thanks to proximity, though, Max could feel her unease as clear as day. She wasn't really hiding it, but he didn't really know how to bring it up.

"Max," Neb said, doing the hard part for him. He tilted his head back from Cori to look at her. "What do you think you're dressed up as?"

"What?" Max asked. Of all the things to make her uneasy, why a Santa coat? Then, he remembered Wags' and Wigs' reactions to seeing his getup. "Santa?" Nebs unease only seemed to worsen, but that had to be because she didn't know who that was. "He's, uh, it was a human thing. Brings presents to everyone on Christmas."

Sharing a glance, Neb and Cori released the hug in unison. Cori immediately shifted to looking off at the ceiling in a very chalant attempt at looking nonchalant. "What?" Max asked. He glanced between them both before settling on Neb. "Who do you think I'm dressed as?"

"Sort of a similar figure," Neb said. "Santa-chu." A name so derivative, he'd come up with it last night while sleep deprived. "He's… well, one of those things you tell kids to spook them into being good." Neb's attempts at tact started to fail, so she cut to the chase. "The story was that, if you were naughty, he'd come eat you you and leave behind a nicer you."

Of all that he'd expected, that wouldn't have come to him in a thousand tries. "Oh," he mumbled. Telling that nidoking he was Santa-chu could've cut that night and his life quite short. He was lucky the father simply chucked the would-be kidnapper out of the house. "Just my luck."

"You don't seem to have any luck," Neb said. "That old folk-tale isn't really around anymore for obvious reasons. Still, I'm surprised that wigglytuff let you take part in the ceremony dressed like that."

"Ugh, the ceremony," Max grumbled. It went well, but the mere thought of all the town watching him dig a hole while he cried made him want to squeeze in on himself until a singularity formed. "I don't get Life Day." He crossed his arms and pouted off to the side. "Weird ass Holiday. Stupid tradition."

"You're just mad you got tricked by an event for kids," Cori said. Max shot them a glare that had them jump back to hide behind their arms. Not only were they right, but they retreated so quickly he didn't even get to punish them for it.

"Calm, you," Neb chided. Max obliged, but not because she told him to. He was simply too tired to keep up the anger. Neb shared in the exhaustion, too. She stretched her back before laying down. She kept her eyes on her guests, though, clearly nowhere near any kind of napping. "If Life Day's so bad, why not tell us about your obviously superior Holiday?"

All of Max's righteous anger fizzled. "I-I didn't say Christmas was any better," he muttered. Try as he might, he couldn't retreat into his coat.

"Oh yeah!" Cori cheered. "I was wondering, what's Christmas about?"

Max couldn't even be angry. He was too baffled. That question belonged in yearly cartoon specials from cartoons half a century older than him. For the sake of his own sanity, he desperately tried to shrug off the question and said, "Just some guy."

He looked at Cori; Cori looked back, waiting. He looked at Neb; Neb looked back, waiting. Even without intentionally checking, he felt Eleos sitting expectantly in the back of his mind. He fell back into a sitting position to hold his head in his paws. It wasn't as if they knew what they were doing, but that didn't stop him resenting them for it.

Deep breaths. He pulled his head back up and looked at the tree with tired eyes. Hopefully, trying to remember would send him into another memory induced coma. It didn't. By some miracle, the story came to him easily. Some miracle.

A Christmas Miracle.

"Well, so there was this guy who was born," Max started, but immediately knew they'd need more context. "Or, well, a special guy." Cori tilted their head; Neb raised a brow. More context, then. Max took a deep breath. Deep within himself, he felt a brewing strength beyond himself—strength born of a single phrase. A phrase that came so naturally to his lips that he barely heard himself say it.

"Fuck it."

"Okay, basically, there were a lot of religions and stuff, so this is just the one I grew up with. Basically, the way it worked, everyone sucks shit at least a little bit, and sucking shit meant you weren't allowed to chill with God—oh so this one only has One God, which was supposed to be a big deal—when you died. So, obviously that's bad, so God needed to fix that.

"Easiest solution was to have One Perfect Guy, but since everyone sucked at least a little bit, that wasn't gonna be possible, so God decided to do it Himself by sending His Son, who was also himself. Simultaneously A Guy and The Guy. A sort of God on Earth thing, which was a big deal at the time." He didn't waste time gauging reactions. He needed this over with.

"So, He found this girl who'd never fucked who was super chill and nice and about as Holy as a person could get and told her she was going to give birth to Him. Mary—the Mom to be—went along with it because saying no to literally God was generally frowned upon.

"She's about to get married, though, which was gonna be awkward if her husband didn't know. She went to tell her husband, and he didn't believe her until God sent a messenger to his dreams and explained the situation. So, the guy's remarkably chill about it which was rad since, at the time, being pregnant before getting married was considered, like, uncool or evil or whatever." He was getting off topic.

"So, eventually Mary has to give birth to The Guy, but they can't find a place to stay. One innkeeper's nice enough to let them rent his barn to sleep in, which is better than the streets. While Mary's doing that whole… thing, another Messenger of God tells some random dudes to go check this shit out, so they do. I mean, who wouldn't?

"They come, see a baby in a manger, instantly recognize it as The Guy who God had been promising to release for, like, a good few centuries. This was obviously a big deal, y'know, though… I don't totally get why they were important?" He stopped for a moment to think, but nothing came up.

"So, yeah," he said with a nod. "More or less, that's what happened. The Guy came to Earth and saved everyone from Hell by being the only one to not suck shit for a whole lifetime." Max took a deep breath. That was easier than he'd expected. Just had to zone out for most of it, and he was golden.

Neb and Cori stared at him with true bewilderment bordering on horror. Neb tried to share a glance with them, but Cori couldn't bring themselves to take their eyes off Max. Their expressions made quick work of his sense of accomplishment. "Uh… well, that's the short version?" Max offered.

"What part of that was short?" Neb breathlessly asked. She had a point. In hindsight, calling Life Day a 'weird ass Holiday' felt remarkably trite. It also axed his one escape route since he couldn't exactly feign offense at their disbelief after calling their Holiday a 'stupid tradition'. No, nothing short of a second Christmas Miracle could save him. An angel, maybe?

"Marvelous story," a sort of fallen angel said as it materialized in front of him. Eleos turned to nod at Neb and Cori. "Forgive my delay. I do hope I'm not too late for the exchange of gifts?"

"Nope!" Max said. He hopped up to hug it and ran to the tree with Cori. How lucky was he, that gift giving survived after all these years?

"Hold it!" Neb shouted, but Max and Cori ignored her. Ignored her until their snouts smacked into invisible walls. "One. At a time." The childlike whimsy filled Max with nostalgic joy as he clutched his crunched snout. "Youngest to oldest, for those not aware."

"I'm youngest!" Max cheered as he hopped up. "Only been here for—"

"When were you born?" Neb asked with a gleam in her eye. Max blinked, frozen in his premature posture of victory. "You're easily the," she glanced at Eleos with sudden uncertainty, "second oldest."

"I am eternal," Eleos said with a nod. Max lost his victory, but at least he didn't place last. "However, I did not exist as I am now before my predecessor's first clash with your world. Thus, I was, in a sense, 'born' thousands of years after my love."

"That can't count!" Max protested, but it was fruitless. All this effort and nearly breaking his nose for nothing. He flopped down and pouted with his arms crossed.

"Sorry, geezer," Cori said, patting him on the shoulder and darting over to the presents before he felt their touch. In record time, they collected three gifts and shot back to the rest of them. "Whose first?" they mumbled before somehow diving for an envelope from Neb while remaining seated. They eagerly clamped the wrapping paper between their jaws and ripped it off by yanking it apart with their claws.

Miraculously, the present survived. Two gloves flopped down between their legs, mostly a dark green with a bright, burning orange interior revealed with the wrists partially folded up. "Oh, thanks!" they cheered and yanked the gloves on over the pair they were already wearing. Their eyes popped open in ecstasy "Wow, self-warming?!"

Neb chuckled. Before she could even confirm, they'd already pulled over the box from Eleos with their double-gloved paws. Max started to worry about his own packaging when they again chomped down on the box, this time thrashing the wrapping paper off it.

Once only the cardboard remained, they grabbed its opposite end and yanked it in half with a book sticking out of the half in their mouth. They tossed the torn off cardboard aside to yank the book out and look it over. As they read it, their excitement seemed to falter, but only into confusion. "Beating the Odds," they read aloud. "Living after growing up in 'circumstances'?"

"A self-help book?" Max half-answered, harshly eyeing Eleos while Cori couldn't see him.

"Oh, uh, neat?" Cori said. This reaction seemed to please Eleos despite Max's glare. Without a word, it bowed with a smile. That worked enough as a go ahead for Cori, putting a slight knot in Max's stomach. Only one gift remained. One wrapped in equal parts tape and crumpled paper.

Before he could warn them to be careful, they already had the gift in their jaws, leaving him only to pray. Luckily, his unique wrapping style fell apart after the first shake of Cori's head, leaving only fabric in their maw. They eagerly spat it into their paws and looked at the scarf. Deep violet with a light purple embroidery, an inverse of Max's. He was very glad he'd sprung for the higher thread-count.

Cori held it for a bit, staring at it in silence. Looking between it and Max's, they finally squeezed it in to hug it. "Thank you," they whispered.

Max released his held breath and said, "Glad you like it."

In a flash, Cori returned to the tree, already wearing their new scarf and gloves, collected three more presents and deposited them all at Neb's paws. The objection in her throat mellowed into a chuckle. "You're so sweet," she said. She stretched a little, but remained resting on her belly. "Y'know, I haven't been second youngest for a while."

"You still shouldn't be," Max grumbled, crossing his arms to pout. Luckily, Cori arrived just in time to lasso their new scarf around his neck and yank him into a hug. Max let out an embarrassing squeak as they did, immediately covering his mouth, but the damage was done. He wanted to complain, but their plan had worked flawlessly. His exaggerated frustration melted into a smile as they held him in their arms.

"So cute," Neb cooed. She turned to her presents and swiped her paw to float the box from Cori her way. It fell a bit after she lifted it, apparently a bit heavier than she expected. Max would've loved to help, if not held captive by the very lizard that gave her the gift.

It plopped down in front of her, and she got to opening. A bit more delicate than Cori, she traced her paw along its edges until she found a seam. One claw prodded in to slice through the tapes. She repeated the process until only the creases held the wrapping in place. Thoroughly unsecured, it uncoiled and flattened, revealing the gift within. A stack of paper.

"Oh, what's this?" she hummed. "'Report on Sentimental Items and Dungeon—' oh, Cori." She chuckled and shook her head, but then the sheer size of it hit her again. It had to be an entire ream of paper. "This is a lot to get out of one p-… subject."

"Thanks!" Cori cheered loudly right between Max's ears. They squeezed him a bit tighter and winked Neb's way. "The subject was an interesting one."

The subject was going to kill them.

Before that, though, Neb started floating the box from Eleos her way. Setting it down, she started with her same strategy when it rattled. "Moved!" she yelped, jumping back and flinging it away. "It moved! Why did it move?!"

"Did it?" Max asked. "Are you sure you didn't, like, bump it?"

"Yes!" Neb growled back. Max wanted her to be wrong, but he couldn't honestly say Eleos knew better. Sure enough, the box shook again. And again. Again, again and again, it rattled from side to side like an egg ready to hatch while whatever hid within hissed. It jumped once, twice, and on the third time, a bunch of hissing, formless goop ripped its way out of the wrapping.

"A void shadow?!" Max shouted at Eleos, but it didn't give him the time of day. The void shadow oozed out of its packaging and skittered over to Eleos.

Eleos bent down to scoop the shadow up into its arms, softly chiding, "Nono, little one." It ran a paw over top of it, leaving a clear groove behind. The disfiguring pets soothed it, and its hissing slowed and calmed into burbling purrs. "You've a new home." Continuing to pet the monstrosity, Eleos carried it slowly over to Neb.

Neb stared at it with wide, horrified eyes. If she hadn't seen the results of Cori's initial reaction last night, she likely would have done quite the same. "Are you sure?" she asked.

Despite no doubt feasting on her ample apprehension, Eleos payed it no heed. It only nodded. "Quite," it said. Before Neb could question it further, Eleos bent down to set the blob at her paws. The void shadow started moving back for the psuedo-mander, but Eleos quickly stopped it again. Even formless, it seemed to look up at Eleos who only nodded towards Neb again.

The void shadow dripped into a wider puddle for a bit, either thinking or pouting. It got nowhere closer to its desires, though, so it reluctantly started over to a perfectly still Neb. Either self-control or terror, she somehow managed to keep from bolting like she so obviously wanted to as it approached.

As it drew closer, though, her expression started to shift. Slightly at first, but she looked all around it from above. "How do you move, little thing?" she asked.

The void shadow seemed to warm up to her, as well. After extending a little tendril to curiously tap her paw, it squelched over to 'nuzzle' into her paw. Amazingly, she even dropped down to look at it closer. She brought her paw over to it and mimicked Eleos' petting. A groove formed in its head all the same. By no means did she look happy to touch it, but her curiosity shined like a star in her eyes.

"Does it have a name?" she asked.

"It did for a time," Eleos hummed. It watched their meeting with some kind of hesitation, and Max could swear he heard melancholy in its voice. "Though it hasn't answered to it for quite a while. When it first rested within me, it called itself 'Ben'."

"Ben?" Neb asked, suddenly looking up at Eleos, then back at the void shadow. She looked at it closely before shaking her head. A smile started to form as she continued to pet it, and 'Ben' started leaning into her pets more. "That was my brother's name."

Max threw a paw over his mouth before he could squeak. That had to be a coincidence. Could it even have known? He turned to read its expression and got nothing but a growing sense of dread in his stomach.

"Oh?" Eleos hummed. "Forgive me. I had no idea."

"It's fine," Neb said. She shook her head again. "I'm sure it's just a coincidence." Max wasn't so sure, but he kept his mouth firmly shut. Neb rewarded his efforts by sliding over her final present. The one from him.

All at once, he had a completely different turmoil to torment him. He put a lot of thought into each gift, making it that much more terrifying if they ended up hating it. Neb's in particular, he'd spent probably the most time out of them all. He had known her the longest. Well, at least consciously known her the longest.

Her paw traced the perimeter of the present like all the rest, though this one took a bit more effort. Thanks to Max's particular style of wrapping, it happened to have multiple sets of tape over several overlapping folds. Neb clearly tried to hide her reaction, but a chuckle tugged at the edges of her mouth. Max sunk back into Cori a bit, terror mixing with embarrassment.

The wrapping suddenly ripped itself open down the middle. "Whoops," Neb said. Max rolled his eyes, then honed right in on her again as she lifted it out. Out came a rather groovy looking box with a black rectangle situated on an eye-sore green background littered with taglines. Neb's eyes glazed over as she tried desperately to focus on the packaging.

"Walkman," Max explained. "It plays cassettes." Neb glanced at him from the corner of her eyes, waiting for more of an explanation. "M-music." Max appreciated Cori's embrace a bit more each moment. "And there was something under that box, too."

"Oh, that's so sweet of you, Max," Neb said, though still clearly a bit confused. The box floated off to the her side, and then a much smaller, clear case with a cassette floated out of the pile of crumpled wrapping paper. The label on one side's top had crude scribbles Neb squinted at in a futile attempt to decipher.

Max could've melted then and there. Unfortunately, he wasn't so lucky. "It's a mixtape," he said. "Just a few songs I thought you'd like." He buried his cheeks into his paws to stop their sparking, but that only changed where the sparks came out. His embarrassment shined clear on his expression, anyway, but he'd hoped he could hide at least some of it. Closing his eyes shielded himself from the sight, at least.

"Oh—Max," Neb cooed. Peaking an eye open, he saw her looking over the tape with a sincere, if reserved, smile. "That's beautiful, thank you."

"Yeah," Max said with a barely repressed gasp of relief. "I'm glad you like it!" He waited to take his paws off his cheeks, too, because he was. He was very happy she liked it, and a few more sparks wanted to hop out to show exactly how happy he was.

The scales holding him up vanished. He hadn't exactly needed them for balance, but he instantly felt the breeze blowing across his back as Cori again dashed to the tree and back to Eleos. A thick, wide box with a cube and flat-box atop it thwomped into the ground in front of it, and Max felt Cori wrap around him again. Why weren't they this fast in spars?

"Ahem," Eleos theatrically cleared its throat, staring Cori down. It crossed its arms to accentuate its glare without sparing even a glance at Max. Cori tossed their arms up in surrender, and Eleos relaxed into a smile in the same instant. "Thank you."

"Wait, what—," Max started to ask when Eleos grabbed the back of his neck with a paw and hoisted him up into its arms. "P-pika! P-pi chuka pi pi ka pi chupi!" He could barely stop himself from squeaking, followed by his cheeks sparking at least half of his remaining energy away. All this protest, yet Eleos payed it no mind as it carried him over to its presents to squeeze him into its chest.

Like a plush. He even squeaked like one.

"Love, won't you help me?" Eleos asked, running a claw down the back of his head while its other arm held him tight. Max was more inclined to kill it. However, even if he slept through it, his body definitely remembered the sensation of its claw tracing the arteries on his neck. He grabbed the small, flat box atop the cube and presented it to said claw. "Thank you."

Max nodded instead of squeaking out more embarrassing babble and waited for Eleos to unwrap Cori's gift. Instead, it held the wrapped box in the one paw, completely still. The paper touching its scales started to darken, brown, then blackened while retreating from its touch.

"Eleos?" Max said. "A-are you sure that's a good idea?" The heat didn't even reach him, but he was sweating nonetheless, remembering Eleos exploding at the gym last time it tried. It might as well have been an atom bomb hugging him.

"Worry not, I've practiced much since then," Eleos said, as if reading his mind. It seemed at least partially true, since the paper charred and flaked away, leaving only the box behind. The whole of the cardboard looked unaffected, though it probably didn't matter. It seemed like a jewelry box. Eleos flicked the lid off with a thumb and twisted the box around with one paw only to drop it, holding the bracelet it hid.

Its other paw gave Max a light squeeze, as if to explain why it had to use just the one. It turned to the side and brought the bracelet closer to examine it. Max tried to see it, too, for curiosity's sake, but he couldn't make out more than orange and black.

"It says…," Eleos' form started to falter, "Friend."

"Oh, a friendship bracelet?" Max asked. Somewhat overwhelming as far as presents go for most. Based on its hardly corporeal form, however, Eleos definitely wasn't most. "Thank you." Max tried to pat its arm to comfort it, but ended up patting his own belly instead when his paw passed right through its arm.

"Eleos? Are you okay?" Cori asked.

"Beyond, dear friend," Eleos whispered. It looked close to the bracelet again, pulled it in to clutch it tight, then tossed the paw-crafted gift down its throat without swallowing. "I will always hold it in my heart."

Cori balked at the sight, watching the, admittedly modest, gift disappear down Eleos's maw. When they looked at him for any kind of explanation, Max flicked a thumb's up and winked at them without Eleos seeing. That didn't stop their bafflement, but they at least appreciated Eleos was trying to compliment the gift. Hopefully it didn't do the same with the much larger gift below.

Luckily, Neb's gift wasn't heavy enough to give Max trouble when he bent over to grab it for his fling. Eleos took it in one paw again.

"Don't do that," Neb warned. "This one's more sensitive to fire."

Eleos eyed her for a moment, but ultimately acquiesced and held it in both paws. Without the arm squeezing him, Max made up for it by pressing his own back into it's belly-scales. The warmth filtered perfectly through his coat and tickled at his lingering drowsiness. He scooched back a bit more for the sake of the warmth, and feeling its slight, charmander-paunch squish into him made him all the more eager to rub up against it.

Paper ripped, snapping him out of his half-asleep snuggling. He looked back to the gift to see an academic looking book cover. His eyes were still a touch hazy from beginning to doze, but Eleos' weren't.

"Basic and Advanced Charmander Anatomy," Eleos read aloud. "Do prevent further explosions, I assume?" With a wry smile, it hummed and tilted the book side to side to admire it before nodding. "Practical, thoughtful. Thank you, Neb."

Instead of acknowledging the thanks, Neb continued to pull Ben exactly in half to see if it continued to move. Both halves hopped up and about a few times before plunging back into one. Neb nodded along, jotting this behavior down in a notebook she'd had stashed away somewhere.

"Best for last?" Eleos asked, prodding Max's shoulder.

Max finally managed to suppress an awkward squeak and only let a few sparks bounce down his cheeks. "I-I, maybe?" he mumbled. He leaned down to grab the gift he'd gotten Eleos and passed it back.

Eleos held it in one paw while the other soothed Max, running down the back of his head and scritching at the crook of his neck. Since it was a simple cube, Max had managed to do a half-decent job wrapping it, which made it a bit heartbreaking to watch his magnum opus burst into flames. The entirety of the paper incinerated in an instant, leaving only the gift behind.

A brass cube with intricate designs on each side rested in Eleos' paw. The gleaming brass easily reflected Max's face back at him, partially distorted by the black-holes of patterns within. Something of a Lamentable gift, but he couldn't help feeling it fit the devil.

"It's a sort of puzzle box," Max explained. He started having second thoughts.

"Like an enigma part?" Cori asked. Max nodded, figuring that was as good an explanation as he could probably give. He didn't remember ever seeing the movie it was from, anyway. Even still, he couldn't deny the slight pit in his stomach that came as Eleos started trying to solve it.

He didn't have to worry for long, though. Not because Eleos stopped, no, but because a Cori-shaped blur deposited a bundle of packages at his paws. "Thanks!" he said, trying to ignore the clicks right behind his head. Finally, it was his turn. It should have been his turn first, but it was far too late to debate the point at this point.

Everyone else opened youngest to oldest. He didn't know if that was an intentional part of the tradition but didn't mind starting with Cori's, either. Their gift was the biggest by far. Not even Ben had gotten as much room as whatever this was.

All the resentment evaporated as a nostalgic, child-like glee filled him. He practically lunged for his first gift, yanking it over in the same motion he started ripping off the wrapping paper. Eleos's paws were busy, which let him hop up—and whatever it was still went up to his chest. He'd already torn the front of the box free, but didn't look at it before ripping open the top to see what it was.

A GameCube. His expression froze. Silver. Logo in the top-left. 'Handle' swooping out from the back of it. He stepped back to check the front and saw the front of a familiarly bulbous controller as well as the front of the console staring back at him. There was no doubt in his mind.

Cori had gotten him a GameCube.

"Wh-what?!" Max asked. He tried to keep his smile on, but he was losing his mind. "Did I fall asleep?" Pinching himself hurt. He was awake. His waking mind was perceiving a GameCube. "N-no, this isn't—size!" he shouted. All at once, it clicked in his head. This had to be fake—this thing was practically half his height!

"There's no way this thing's real!" he laughed, starting to lean into manic. "It's—this is supposed to be small!"

"Max," Cori chuckled. Either his reaction was funny, or they mistook his shattered insanity as excitement, because they seemed quite happy. "I'm pretty sure you're just smaller."

Max froze in place again. They were right. Pikachu were shorter than humans. On top of that, according to people he didn't listen to because they were wrong, he was shorter than most pikachu. A GameCube would probably be about that size. His mind raced at the implications until he bit down on his cheek to rein himself in. He needed to simply be happy about the gift.

"Does it work?" he asked.

"Yeah!" Cori cheered. "Apparently, they're starting to make replicas of human tech!" They were excited. Max tried to match their excitement. He managed to stay conscious, which was close enough. "Oh, but I couldn't find any games for it yet."

This was more relieving than disappointing. He didn't want to even try losing his mind trying to play this thing. He wanted to fly into a desperate interrogation trying to find the precise bottom of this, where they'd possibly gotten an original or multiple original GameCubes to take apart, study, and get working, ask them if they knew about the Pokémon games ask them how the world possibly still existed while knowing that they were from a fucking video game series.

More than that, though, he wanted to move on with his life. He'd only survived this far accepting the absurdities of this world and moving on. Waking up in an insane world was a lot like improv: you get a lot further with a simple 'yes, and…' than anything else.

Cori threw their arms around him while his mind reeled back into focus. "You really like it?" they asked. Rather than share his entire mental breakdown with them then and there, he nodded. They squeezed him again, then gave him Neb's gift.

A much more modest size. Flat, rectangular, Max started to think it was the third book gift of the morning. Its surface was too hard, though. Knocking, it sounded like wood.

Wood. Something normal. A material. He took a deep breath in and slowly let it out. A simple gift. No implications. No complex emotions. No deep, indecipherable feelings he'd have to worry about keeping him up at night. Exactly what he needed. It could quite literally be a block of wood, and he would've been thankful for it.

He gracelessly ripped the wrapping paper off, and the block within pleasantly surprised him with a seam around its side. A box of some sort! It had a simple latch up front. He flicked it open with a paw, then opened up the clam-shell box.

A makeup set. Pleasant, powdery hues of yellow and orange with a few choice highlights of pink, purple, and blue speckled the sections in the box. A nice selection of brushes sat in the bottom compartment.

So much for not having any deep, indecipherable feelings.

"Th-thanks!" he said, snapping the box shut before anyone else saw. It was a very nice gift, and bubbling excitement tormented his chest at the thought of using it, but he couldn't admit that in front of Cori or Eleos. They might get the wrong idea and figure him out like Neb had.

At least Neb chuckled at him, seeming to understand. If anything, he practically suspected her of intentionally prodding him. It certainly fit her.

Eleos' gift, he still had that one to be normal. He gently dropped the makeup set and ripped the last gift over. It was somewhere between the sizes of Neb and Cori's gifts, but he didn't stop for long enough to notice. A simple gift with nice, uncomplicated feelings was all he needed. He said a silent prayer before ripping the wrapping off in the hopes God might finally help him out.

Floaties. In a box. Inflatable floaties to be worn on the arms.

"Thanks," Max growled. By all accounts, his haul was admirable. He'd loved to have been grateful for it. He tried to be, and he mostly was. But he was tired. He was drowsy. He was confused, and he was ready to sleep for a month.

"Oh, uh, you have one more," Cori said.

Max blinked. Sure enough, right there where the rest had stood sat one more. The wrapping paper didn't match anyone else's. "Oh?" he mumbled. He cautiously went over to it, head tilted in confusion. The wrapping paper shined particularly bright. It was a beautiful sheet of blue and glittering gold. He almost second guessed ripping it to shreds.

Almost.

He ripped the top off in one motion, and that alone somehow managed to open the box, too. Whatever it held fwoomped out of the box, into the air. A stuffed beast of blue and white descended upon him and brought him to the floor in one fell swoop. It was a stuffed shark.

"What the f—," he started to say when a card fluttered right between his lips. He spat it out into his paw. Hopefully it had… some kind of explanation. That's what he hoped, at least. It did have some kind of an explanation, but not one he could decipher. It even told the origin, but that only confounded him further.

"Hey, Max!" the card read. "Hope you enjoy the Blahaj! I hear they're pretty popular in your circles. Keep up the good work ;3

from: Santa-Chu"

---

(A/N: I'm gonna upload every other week until I've got a 12 chapter buffer again. I think I'm at, like, ten or eleven, lol, so it shouldn't take long. Again, Happy Holidays!)