Author’s Note:Clarity and Mariposa are characters that I created for an RP on Discord. He was supposed to be an evil MirrorFolk of Isellta and be the complete opposite of everything that Isellta is. I had such wonderful plans for him. He, however, came out as an absolute fluffball who goes on an amazing self-discovery character arc. He has grown so much from his starting point.

So, I decided to introduce him over here in a small Christmas story starring him.

(Danadad and Clarissa are not my characters. They belong to their own creator — ballofflame on the NaNoWriMo forums. Mart belongs to fionaH on the NaNoWriMo forums)

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The night was crisp and clear. The stars were on full display. And there was just a light layer of snow on the ground.

Clarity couldn’t remember being so cold before. The mirrored woods were not in a jungle zone…

~ Yuletide Wishes ~

We are in the business of granting wishes.

We come from a realm invisible to your eyes, but you are quite visible to us. From where we are, we can see it all. It would probably give you the creeps to know that someone is watching you and there isn’t a damn thing you can do about it. All the same, a fact is a fact and the fact is, all of you are being watched by all of us all of the time.

To what do you owe this intrusion?

Why, you summoned us, long, long ago. Since that time, our two races have become dependent on one another.

Your wishes hold the key. Wishes from your reality shoot into ours like rockets of…

Our family tolerated Uncle Avery’s eccentricities, given his service record, but secretly they considered him to be the family nutjob – just another crazy old pothead veteran. Most of my relatives only listened half-heartedly when Avery talked, but I found his stories entertaining. Avery was great company beside a campfire. Many a night I sat, riveted by his often graphic accounts of his many brushes with death during his time as a military pilot in the Middle East. As time passed, Avery’s tales veered away from war stories toward current events, which morphed into apocalyptic and inevitably to conspiracy theories.

He was convinced that “The Big One” was coming any day. He claimed to have seen all the signs: flocks of birds; unusual clouds; numbers in the subway that matched the birthdates of members of our…

The boy waited for her to leave. He knew that she meant well. He knew that she wasn’t going to hurt him in any way. But he waited for her to leave the bathroom before he removed his clothes.

He averted his gaze as he undressed. He didn’t look at the bruises on his arms or at his reflection in the mirror. Fortunately, that avoidance behavior was a familiar habit with him. Mirrors were not kind to him. They were blunt and cruel. He couldn’t pretend away what they impassively revealed.

But if he didn’t look at it, if he didn’t see the dark purples and yellowing-greens on his skin, he wouldn’t be reminded of where they came from. He wouldn’t remember the fear. He wouldn’t remember the panic, the certainty that he was going to die this time.

But this woman…This woman who’d just let him into her bathroom…She…

The palm trees had taken over Jan Hill’s world.

She had moved from Florida to Nebraska for a job opportunity. It was a great job — one that fulfilled her emotional and professional needs. Pay was much better than average, with the promise of yearly raises. Great benefit package.

And it was located next to a combined Mrs. Fields/Dunkin Donuts/Baskin Robins megashop. That megashop was a lifesaver on stress filled days.

But Jan missed the palm trees. She tried to see the joy and love in deciduous trees and pine trees and scrub bushes. But they failed to compare to the glory of a mature palm tree.

Palm trees were her universal symbol for home and peace and everything good in life that one couldn’t buy at a Mrs. Dunkin Robins megashop. But Nebraska was not Florida. Palm trees were not meant to live in Nebraska. The weather there was…

I have found myself in a difficult position. My rental home has sold and I need to move on short notice. Due to the housing crisis, the biggest hurdle is finding a place to live that will accept my dogs. I have succeeded in finding an ideal home, but it means a long distance move and leaving my current job to start another. The transition is going to be rough financially, with the cost of the move and the gap in paydays while I am between jobs.

I’m not one of those assholes who would get rid of a pet just to get a rental. My dogs mean everything to me, and I will make this move to ensure I can continue to provide them with a loving forever home.

I’m running a fundraiser between now and the time…

Jim and Dana were no longer newlyweds. They’d been married for a full year, hoping for a miracle. Hoping for a missed period. Hoping for all of those wonderful symptoms that most freshly married people hope for.

It took them another full year for that miracle to come true.

*************

Betty and Albert had been married for many years. They had no children. She was getting up in age. She believed that menopause would happen.  She didn’t hope for a miracle. Neither did he.

But they welcomed it when it came.

*****

Pete sat alone with his newborn baby in his arms. She was so small. So small. So frightfully small wrapped up in so many blankets. Her life was fragile, like a spiderweb line waiting to be snapped. Maybe even more frail than that.

Yet, she was still alive. Her heart was beating. She was still breathing.

She wasn’t…

Dear Tucker Carlson,

Hey Tuck, I just got done watching a segment of your show. You know, the one where you suggest that there should be a camera in every classroom in order to root out…let me get this accurate…”civilization ending poison.” https://twitter.com/ndrew_lawrence/status/1412566208763895810

I’m going to zig where you thought most teachers would zag. I welcome your Orwellian cameras in my classroom. Frankly, I don’t know many teachers who would object to having people watch what we do. As a matter of fact, I hate to tell you this Tucker Swanson McNear Carlson, but most of us spent the last year having video cameras in our classrooms.

See, I think you believe that your suggestion that people see what happens in our classrooms will somehow scare teachers. The truth of it is that we have been begging for years to have people, such as yourself, come into our classrooms. I…

Dr Rogin was right. These were no fruit flies. Nothing I’d ever seen compared to them. Sure, they were tiny, dark and winged, but the resemblance to anything on earth ended there. The most notable difference was the number of legs the things had. Insects had six legs, arachnids had eight, but these bugs had ten. I’d never seen anything with ten legs before, though I’d heard of one rather obscure case involving a ten-legged creature of Australian origin. What I was looking at had to be one of two things: a newly evolved or previously undiscovered species from Earth, or something alien in origin. Both options simultaneously excited and terrified me. Having seen the destructive power of these tiny swarming creatures, I had no doubt it was a matter of time before humanity was overcome, unless we could find a way to stop them.

The insects, if that was…

“Made through another week, Otto, safe and sound.”

“Yep. Amazing how relaxed a simple shot makes an otter feel.”