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Prompt 2 (Paint the Night Sky): Destiny City has already had its fair share of snowfall but for the past week it’s just been constant. There hasn’t been a clear sky in days, and even when it’s not snowing it’s still too cloudy to see anything. Finally, one night, the clouds have finally thinned--only to reveal something more surprising than the suddenly good weather. A glorious display of colorful light dances over Destiny City. Auroras are uncommon in this area, but it’s something unique to see. Especially because it almost seems like the colors blend like watercolors, and look like they’re deliberately weaving around each other.


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Prompt 10 (Runaway Reindeer): Someone thought it would be a good idea to get real reindeer to pet while visiting Santa, and someone should have considered that might be a bad idea. No one knows how they snuck out, but one by one they disappeared–and now they’re wreaking havoc on Destiny City. Or, so the reports say. The reindeer have been spotted eating everything, running in front of cars, chasing people down. It’s strange, almost as if they are possessed. They’re aggressive and hostile and not having any of this holiday nonsense. Are all reindeer like this? …Or have you run into a very aggressive youma masquerading as one?


The holidays were always a bit odd, Lucis thought. It was something he’d grown used to over the years, after having left home for school, coming to Destiny City. Even just the name, Destiny City, seemed to just, call out to him as a teenager.

This year, however, things had gotten…extremely strange. Reindeer had been spotted and…he might not be knowledgeable about the creatures that were native to the area, but he was pretty damn sure they were not local. Especially not that one that had attacked himself and that girl, one that had looked entirely too intelligent for an animal.

The reindeer hadn’t even been the only thing that had happened. There was the girl – Cara, Casablanca – young but determined, bright and creative with impromptu weaponry in a way he could appreciate. Himself…but not himself. Kom el Shoqafa of Saturn, which he certainly knew how to be, knew that he was, but at the same time…he wasn’t. Lucis was who he was, but Shoqafa was…also part of him, if one he didn’t know as well.

It was confusing on top of everything else that holiday season. Thankfully, he didn’t have much to do now that students were gone on break. Sure, he needed to make sure and get his classes organized and set for the coming semester, knowing when his slots were, and then the classes he taught not at the university…

But right then, it was snowing – had been snowing since just before he’d met Cara, had to handle the not quite normal reindeer. He leaned against the glass door which looked out onto the sky, a bit of snow on the railing that was at the edge of the small balcony outside his apartment, dark and cloudy as he held onto his mug of cocoa, sipping at it carefully as he waited, to see if anything would change, now at the end of the year.

“Alexa, play spotify.” His voice was soft, but loud enough for his device to pick up, rough instrumental music beginning to play from the small speaker at the side of his bed, sounding less like a gentle, soothing melody and more like something someone would workout to. Would fight to. Not what someone would expect to play in the night, even as outside the clouds began to part, to reveal the sky beyond.

…the colors. Beyond the thinning and parting clouds were colors, colors blending and playing, moving fast, almost as if to the music playing behind him. Eyes widening, Lucis pulled the balcony door open, stepping out into the cold air in little more than pajamas, no shoes.

“Would you look at that?” Carefully, he looked up to the sky, as everything seemed to be quickly clearing – much more clearly than should be natural – only to leave colors dancing over the sky, stars sparkling in the sky between the waves and dips, as if the sky was an upside down bowl, and the colors swirling were just paints added in that swirled, yet never combined. His hand reached into his pocket, pulling out his phone before getting a picture.

“Happy New Year.”