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Getting free Hot Chocolate from that new food truck seemed like a great idea at the time, and the blue sprinkles on top was just the cutest touch!

A few hours later though, you just can’t seem to get warm. Nothing helps. Not a bath, not wrapping in ten blankets and not sitting in front of an open fire. Your skin begins to turn a pale blue starting at your fingertips, and if you were warm enough to remove your socks, you’d see your toes were doing the same thing. As the minutes wear on you begin to sneeze small bunches of snowflakes as the icy blue continues to take over your skin. Perhaps it is a good idea to just go to bed and pile on the blankets.

The cold lasts for about six hours, and the blueish tint fades after you again get warm. Maybe you should think twice the next time someone offers you something for free…



On the walk home from class Xi-Wang had stopped at the food truck he’d been hearing about, several of his classmates had been talking about the truck, it had free hot chocolate and they were planning to get a cup on the way home as well. The word was spreading that the truck had free hot chocolate and it was good, at least that’s what the word was.

That was why once his last class for the day was over he headed that way, even if it meant a bit more walking to get home. He was, thankfully, bundled up because it was cold. It had snowed twice this week already and it looked like it might snow again, it certainly was cold enough, Xi-Wang was honestly hoping to get his drink and get home fast. He wanted to change into some warm, comfortable, in house clothing and settle in to do some gaming while having whatever would remain of his hot chocolate.

When he got to the truck he wasn’t surprised to find a line, not with how much he’d heard it talked about, but it did move fast. It seemed they had enough people in the truck working at a fairly decent speed so they could manage the long line they had managed to accumulate. That was, in his opinion, a good indication of how good their product was.

When he finally was able to place his order; a nice large hot chocolate. The wait was...well a bit annoying but that was mostly due to standing about in the cold with a bunch of other people, most of them he didn’t know and had never seen. When he did get his drink, his name being butchered in the process as it was called, he took a few moments to inform a group scolding the worker who messed up his name. It wasn’t her fault - his name wasn’t easy. He knew that the spelling didn’t help in knowing how to pronounce it and why were they mad? It wasn’t their name and it was, honestly, not their issue. She also wasn’t racist for messing up.

Shaking his head as he headed down the sidewalk, sipping his drink, he ducked his head slowly. His mother was the sort who did that to people, labeled them racist if they couldn’t pronounce her name right, he didn’t like those sorts of people. They made a person feel bad, and even guilty, for honest mistakes. There was no way to know how every language pronounced names and letters - no way. Yet people expected it; or so it seemed.

As he continued to walk he sipped at his drink, wanting to savor it so it would last, sadly it was gone by the time he got home and was changing into nice warm pajamas. New socks on his feet, the others were sweaty, the Chinese teen once dressed curled into his computer chair and settled in to playing some Overwatch - the holiday event was on! Not only was the holiday event live but he needed those new skins! Even the Junkrat one, since he didn’t ever play the hero, they were all so nice looking!

With a blanket about himself, to keep warm, he had a pillow in his lap as he logged in and picked the mei’s snowball game. His headset was slipped on just in time as a game started. Mei was his main, thankfully, so he knew how to play her. The other he tended to play, if he absolutely needed to, was D.Va. The only time he played her though was when no one was playing a tank...or they were short a tank. He had learned to play her because of that, too many groups going without a tank or one short.

After some time, he really wasn’t sure how long, he had two of the new skins as it seemed luck was on his side when it came to the rng that was loot boxes. However, he also noticed how cold he was. He’d already yanked his comforter from his bed and wrapped it about himself. Now he was exiting Overwatch because the cold was becoming a distraction and he just couldn’t play at his usual level, not that he was a pro or anything. As he logged off the launcher he shuffled his way over to his bed and dropped his comforter and blanket on top before heading for his closet. He had a collection of blankets - a massive collection.

Grabbing several blankets, he didn’t even know how many, he dumped them onto his bed before climbing on and moving about to arrange things into something of a heap which he could curl up under and shiver his a** off.

As he was slithering under his bedding he noticed his finger tips...not good. They weren’t supposed to be that color. Shivering he hurried under his bedding and tried to curl in as much as he could in order to somehow gain some warmth.

Sneezing, random as it was, he felt something cold against his skin. What was that? Pulling his blankets down, so he could see, he watched as snowflakes left him as he sneezed again. “What…?” He knew he should be panicking, he really should be, but he just wasn’t sure anything could be done. People didn’t sneeze snowflakes - it wasn’t normal or even possible. “Something magical…” Trailing off slowly as he sneezed again, damn it, cursing as he sneezed out more snowflakes he buried himself under his blankets amidst a small storm of sneezes. “Not good….really not good.” And no one else was home….hopefully he could sleep and when he woke they’d be home. Jason or Nischal could help - right?

Sleep was, as most would figure, hard to come by as the cold kept him awake for a good while. When he did drift off to sleep he was still shivering as his body attempted to generate some heat but to no avail.

When he did wake he stretched out and yawned, nice and wide, and as he uncurled he found himself...warm. Normally that wasn’t abnormal, for obvious reasons, but he was down right overheating. Remembering the circumstances which no doubt led to this he was quick in waking up enough to move some blankets off himself, before he really started to overheat. Once the blankets were off, several on his floor now, Xi-Wang curled back up to sleep some more. He didn’t know how long he’d been sleeping for but honestly he also didn’t care. He was tired.


(Word count 1,100)