Midnight is a magical time of night; parties, dancing, kisses--there are a number of rituals celebrated in the winter nights. Every night as a midnight, but this one is special. There is an old church with an older bell tower on the quiet outskirts of town near a beautiful forest that has been decorated with lights to celebrate the season. Maybe you are alone, maybe you are with friends, or maybe you’re at a party celebrating one of the many events--whatever the case, small, delicate snowflakes have been falling lightly for the past hour. And then--suddenly--they stop. The clock strikes midnight and the bell echoes a low, metallic chime that feels like it can be heard for miles. By the second chime, you realize that nothing else is moving. Snowflakes are suspended in the air and all living creatures--plants, animals, and people alike--are completely frozen. The clock chimes twelve times and the world is still frozen. Suddenly, there’s no way to tell how much time has passed--but nothing moves. Maybe it feels like a moment, maybe it feels like an hour. You can try to leave the area but you can never go far enough that the church is out of sight. In an instant, time seems to snap back into motion. To everyone else, it feels like no time has passed. To you, you know. The church seems eerie and foreboding and if you return you feel uncomfortable, as though you have broken something and are unwelcome. If roleplaying with a partner, multiple characters can remain unfrozen as the world around them freezes!
Momma and pappa always threw the best parties. They spent days, no -- weeks before getting ready for them. Curating menus, decorating, baking, cooking, and planning. Now that Cerise was older, she was also involved in the planning. At the ripe age of 8, she had personally requested her papa’s spinach dip and her momma’s hot chocolate. And, by the way, she was immensely proud to be chosen to serve those things at the party itself. (And by extension, be allowed to stay up all night.)
The day of, the whole house was decorated with gold and black -- though pappa had thought it was cont...contr… stupid, momma had insisted on a Roaring 20’s theme. Though Cerise was fairly certain she had gotten it wrong, because there wasn’t a single animal anywhere in the house. If there wasn’t a single animal, how could it be roaring? Momma had explained it to her once, but Cerise got bored and stopped listening.
Cerise had spent hours helping her momma get ready that day. She held makeup and combes and jewelry. She’d given her opinion on dresses and shoes and hairstyles. Finally, her momma was finished, wearing a very uncharacteristic slim black dress that stopped at her knees and had endless amounts of what she was recently informed is called “fringe”. Pappa was in a suit and hat and kept calling people “wise guy.”
Cerise was fitted into a black baby doll dress, stockings, and little ankle boots. Her momma had even given her a little lipstick to wear, though she promptly licked it all off. She felt so grown up!
As the snow began to fall, people began to arrive. All manner of family friends all dressed up for the event.
She was, by everyone’s standards and according to multiple reviews, a wonderful serving girl. Even if people had to stoop down to get something from her tray. And even if she did spill a whole batch of hot chocolate on the floor once. (In her defense, the tray had been heavier than she had anticipated.)
Outside, Cerise could see the snow still falling, this time in huge powdery puffs, like the cotton balls her momma used to take off her lipstick. Whenever she looked outside, she found herself transfixed. Hypnotized by the steady falling of the snowflakes.
“It looks like someone is losing steam,” someone remarked with a laugh. Cerise wanted to argue that no, she most certainly was not, and she could go on and party all night long if she wanted, but found the words wouldn’t move from her mind to her lips.
Sleep took her like a whisper, creeping over her silently and gently. That kind of half-sleep where she could still sense what was happening around her, but not respond.
Not until the clock began to chime and the cheers of the new year abruptly stopped. Cerise opened her eyes to see what had happened and had to blink several times before she was sure it was really happening.
Everyone around her was frozen -- literally frozen -- mid cheer. Adults all around here stood statue-still, like a game of freeze tag, and even a few drinks which were mid-spill had stopped moving. It was like someone had pressed pause on real-life and gone to the bathroom. Cerise wandered around the room of frozen adults, worry nibbling at the back of her mind, but was present in too much awe to really be worried.
And then the world started again, causing Cerise to jump at the sudden sound.
“Oh, Duchess. Did we scare you,” her papa said, scooping her up in his arms. Cerise was silent for a long time, her eyes wide with wonder, before she finally said, “I think I need to go to bed.”
He laughed and patted her back until she fell asleep on his shoulder. Next thing she knew, she was in her jammies, tucked away safely in bed while the party hummed on below her.
