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The whole mess had started during the ‘morning’ meal. For once, L had actually shown up to have breakfast with the others, and at some point during the usual minion banter, someone had mentioned cookies, which caused L to start regaling the others with half-remembered winter traditions, O’Chunks gleefully joining in. This, of course, had caused Nastasia to nearly have a conniption and rush to the Count’s office for advisement on the situation, but by the time he arrived in the dining room, it was too late--Mimi already had her heart set on seeing snow, and when Mimi had her heart set on something, you had about as much chance of changing her mind as you did turning back the Void.
And so, a day’s break was called from multiversal annihilation and other miscellaneous antagonistic duties. A quiet little dimension where it was always snowing was found (the Count personally suspected the place was post-apocalyptic but thankfully harmless), winter clothes were picked out (Nastasia had immediately begun fussing over all non-Dimentio minions about wearing enough layers as if she were dealing with children, much to the Count’s silent amusement), and within two hours, the little group was off.
They teleported into a clearing in the middle of the forest, by a lake long since frozen solid. The trees were mostly bare, though a bit of evergreen brush poked out of the thick layer of snow, curling and twisting in bizarre patterns native to the world. The sky was a pale shade of yellow, barely visible through clouds that were still pouring snow down on the party--not thick enough to obscure vision, but enough for the fat flakes (which were round, curiously enough) to make a lighter, fluffier layer above more densely-packed snow that had likely been there for years by now.
Mimi immediately flopped forward into the soft snow and flailed her arms as if to make a snow-nimbi, giggling half-excitedly and half-maniacally. Dimentio floated off to one side of the clearing, while L turned his face to the sky, hands open at his sides, with an incredulous look and a smile more genuine than anyone who did not know his identity would’ve thought possible from him. And then, O’Chunks promptly introduced the others to snowball fights by way of flinging a large wad of snow at Nastasia, nearly bowling her over. She caught her footing and had no choice but to retaliate, and in moments the whole group descended into gleeful chaos--save Count Bleck, who merely observed from the sidelines with his staff planted in front of him like a walking stick, cloak and hat practically blending into the snow.
It was...odd, seeing the minions like this. He’d been trying to keep them at a certain distance, given the situation, and yet watching them playing with each other and enjoying the winter like ordinary people, he couldn’t help but feel a certain fondness for the group. A pang of guilt lanced through his chest, though the darkness that had twisted itself irrevocably into his soul quickly smothered it.
“It is their first and last winter together,” he mused to himself, “It seems...unfair.” And then, “Pah, Count Bleck does not care about such sentimentality! Has he not been dealt just as unfair a hand?”
Something inside of him writhed painfully, and he gritted his teeth, bending over a bit. The Chaos Heart’s presence, its madness, had become more and more overpowering as the Void grew. What he’d thought was an immense amount of power that had pierced his heart when he’d taken up the Dark Prognosticus felt like nothing compared to now as he sunk ever deeper--and most of the time, there was little reason to fight it. There was comfort in madness, in knowing exactly what he was supposed to do next because it had all been foretold. Going through the motions, and knowing that it would all end soon enough.
And yet, this was the first spark of happiness--dare he say humanity, the closest word he could find despite its technical inaccuracy--he’d felt since he’d taken up that accursed book. Was it wrong to want to enjoy it, just for a moment?
“Count Bleck has no time for such frivolities,” he muttered to himself.
And yet, he thought, I might.
The snowball fight gradually died down, O’Chunks the clear victor due to his massive snow-throwing capacity compared to the others (though Dimentio was a close second, given he was teleporting snowballs in from Grambi-only-knew-where instead of making them himself and could, therefore, keep up a higher rate of fire). From the bits of conversation the Count could hear, L had mentioned the fact that he had a talent for ice-skating. Nastasia, agitated again after her brief moment of fun, hard vetoed Dimentio’s offer to teleport in skates for everyone (she accused him of potentially sabotaging the skates, which he did not deny was entirely possible) before teleporting off briefly herself and returning with several pairs she’d likely ensured no one who’d owned them would miss.
L and Nastasia were in the process of teaching Mimi how to tie her skates when the Count decided to come over. Mimi immediately looked up to him and waved as Nastasia inevitably got fed up with how long the process was taking and just tied Mimi’s skates herself, then went over to help O’Chunks with his (fingers that large were not suited to laces).
“Hey, Count!” Mimi beamed up at him, “You gonna join us?”
Contrary to popular belief, the Count did have legs and feet under his cloak (though no arms; the norm for his people), but he waved her off with a chuckle, internally beating back the darkness that threatened to cause him to blurt out something condescending. “No, no, Count Bleck is fine simply watching.”
Mimi pouted, then turned towards Nastasia. “Well, what about you, Nassy?”
Nastasia didn’t look up from tying. “Uh...no. I can’t.”
“Why nooooot? ”
“I believe she is trying to say that she has the grace of a chubby, newborn seal,” Dimentio chirped; he’d insisted he had his own ice skates in Dimension D, and was currently, to everyone’s surprise, standing on the ground with the garishly purple, tasseled things already on.
Nastasia shot him a look. “ No. I’m just saying I...um…” She lowered her head, voice dropping to a mumble. “I don’t actually know how .”
“Hey, I can help.” L was sitting at the shore of the lake, propping himself up with his hands behind him. He gave a lazy grin, though one with surprising sincerity compared to his standard. “I’m something of an expert, you know.”
“Oh yeah?” Mimi stuck her tongue out at him. “Where’d you learn?”
L opened his mouth to respond, then faltered. “...Natural genius, I suppose.”
Nastasia’s shoulders stiffened, but she said nothing as she tied the last knot and motioned for O’Chunks to try to get to his feet. The massive warrior had a bit of a rough time catching his balance, attempting to lean on Nastasia and nearly causing her to topple before the Count stepped in to offer his shoulder instead.
“That, um, won’t be necessary,” Nastasia said, with a nod in L’s direction. “I’m just gonna stay here and watch, ‘K?”
L shrugged, getting to his feet as well. “Hey, your loss.”
He gestured for Mimi to follow him, though when she tried to stand and walk towards the lake, she immediately fell. Instead of mocking her, L just laughed good-naturedly and headed over to help her. The Count glanced over to see Nastasia biting her lip.
“...Hey, L?”
“Yes, ma’am?”
Nastasia clasped her hands in front of her. From his vantage point, the Count could see her gaze behind her glasses was directed at the ground.
“Um, when this is over, could you maybe...meet me in my office tonight? I need to go over some things with you.”
L nodded, but before he could respond, the Count stepped in, catching the implications he didn't.
“That will not be necessary.”
L’s eyes narrowed in confusion as he glanced between them, clearly unsure who to listen to in this situation. “But, Count, if it’s about my performance, or--or maybe about the new Brobot blueprints, I gave those to her the other day--”
The Count raised a hand, both to stop L and in response to Nastasia looking up at him with concern. “It is nothing like that, Count Bleck can assure you. Go and enjoy yourself.”
L’s lips pressed together, and his eyes were full of doubt as he looked to Nastasia for her word. Count Bleck knew that she could likely override his order if she really wanted to--the man in green still obeyed her words over all others.
But she simply let out a long sigh and gestured towards the lake. “Yeah, you know what, it’s nothing urgent. Now just go on, and pretend I never asked, ‘K?”
The confusion instantly cleared from L’s eyes, and he nodded again, throwing an arm around Mimi’s shoulders and leading her towards the lake, Dimentio following and O’Chunks bumbling at the rear.
For a while, the two watched the rest of the minions in silence. True to his word, L took to the ice like a trained athlete, skating circles around the others a few times to show off before going to help Mimi, holding her hands and skating backward with an unprecedented-for-L enthusiasm to help. Dimentio immediately started doing tricks that everyone accused of being aided by levitation, and generally got in everyone else’s way as per the norm. O’Chunks was following L’s lead on his own on the other side of the lake and eventually managed to get himself moving with surprising grace for his size, though the Count was still glad that the lake’s ice probably extended all the way down and was impossible for O’Chunks to break.
Nastasia wrapped her arms around herself, a thoughtful frown on her face. As a Dark Tribeswoman, she needed less winter gear than the others; simply a buttoned red overcoat, gloves, and a crimson knit hat she’d awkwardly stuffed her bun into, though some strands of hair had come loose around her face. The Count needed no such protection from the cold, and in fact found it quite pleasant.
Mimi had already learned enough to skate wobbily on her own for a few feet at a time before Nastasia spoke, voice low to prevent it from carrying to the others.
“Count, are you sure I shouldn’t deal with L? It’s no trouble, and, um, he’s showing signs of--”
She abruptly cut off when Count Bleck rested a hand on her shoulder. She peered up at him over her glasses, an uncertain, pensive look saved only for him.
“He’s fine for now, is he not? You hold little faith in your own work, Count--” He quickly cut himself off, humming in frustration. “ I think. And anyway, is there harm in letting him have one day?”
Nastasia fiddled with the fingertips of her gloves. “I... guess not…”
He squeezed her shoulder and most definitely noticed the darker color that came to her face even as she tried to look away to hide it. “Let him have his fun. It is the last chance he will have, after all. If a problem arises, we may deal with it later.”
He felt her stiffen and saw her glance briefly skyward. The Void was not yet visible in this dimension, but that likely would not last much longer at the rate it was growing. The time would soon come, they all knew it. Her lips were pressed together in a thin line, and he wished he could offer her some more comfort. But now, it was all he could do to keep the madness at bay long enough to avoid decrying and destroying the landscape himself for daring to mock him with memories past.
“...You should go join them,” he managed.
“But--I really can’t--”
“Mimi’s learned, hasn’t she? We apparently have an expert in our midst. Why not take advantage?”
“But I didn’t get--”
The Count waved a hand in the air, trying his best to focus through the overpowering dark magic to remember a more mundane spell he hadn’t used in quite some time. With a pop, a pair of skates appeared in his hand. He held them out to Nastasia, raising a brow expectantly.
She hesitantly reached out and took them. He nudged her a little when she didn’t immediately move. “Go on. I fear all of my energy must go to maintaining myself for the moment, but you deserve to enjoy yourself.”
And I do not, his own mind whispered. Guilt and sorrow threatened to burn away into rage, as it always had since he’d taken up the burden of the prophecy. He stepped back. They will all die anyway. There is no purpose to this. Why should they be happy while Count Bleck suffers so?
“...Go.”
She stared at him for a moment more, as if unsure of whether or not she should do or say anything else, before nodding and heading for the edge of the lake, sitting down to trade her boots for skates as L skated over, Mimi clapped with excitement, and O’Chunks’ booming laugh covered up whatever flowery insult Dimentio tried to throw her way.
Count Bleck stepped back towards the treeline, watching as L and O’Chunks helped Nastasia get on the ice. He was satisfied enough with the results of this trip to allow his mind to sink back into the dark, though he couldn’t help some musings that were truly his own as he watched the snow fall.
He remembered the first time he'd ever seen snow, while staying in a rundown inn with Timpani. He'd assumed that the snow everywhere was the result of some manner of spell, that they'd been found, but she'd quickly set him to rights. How could he have ever assumed this was dangerous? It was quite silly, now that he thought back on it. He wondered; could she skate? Had she ever learned? Would she have been willing to teach him? He could imagine it, could almost see her out there with the others, brightly-colored scarf blowing in the wind behind her, flecks of white sprinkled on curly orange hair, her laugh echoing through the woods.
He closed his eyes, bringing the brim of his hat down over his face with one hand. The image of her his mind had conjured was a mockery he should be angry at, but all he could feel was quiet loneliness.
She had told him that, to her people, the winter was a season of death followed by rebirth. Yet as he watched his minions, he couldn’t help wondering what she would think of it being so grossly reversed, the death yet to come.
...He decided that, for her sake, he would enjoy the blooming happiness before the end, if only for one day.