[center][img]https://i.imgur.com/CaCcRyv.png[/img][/center] [center]-Starring-[/center] [center][img]https://cdn.discordapp.com/attachments/312091373136248835/378425599015911431/cooltext265165307791979.png[/img][/center] [center]-And-[/center] [center][h1][b]Maddy Fen Ming[/b][/h1][/center] “I’m still not convinced this isn’t for a Sombra cosplay…” Yavor said quizzically, holding out the stretchy fabric in one hand. [color=DarkGreen]“It’s not for a Sombra cosplay!”[/color] Maddy insisted, stamping her foot hard enough to jostle the sketchpad propped up on the easel. [color=DarkGreen]“Besides, I wouldn’t be using my experimental fabric for something outside of work anyway!”[/color] The uncomfortableness of the lie made her shrink an inch as she internally scolded herself for not getting a better handle on her powers. Luckily, Yavor was distracted by a content Kaiser purring in his lap long enough for her to correct the height issue. “In my defense, it does look a lot like the pattern she has, what with the purple hexagons and all.” Yavor said, turning back to the easel. “So what do you want to use this for anyway?” [color=DarkGreen]“Mostly some field testing,”[/color] Maddy said, the half-truth not causing her to slip up in her self control. [color=DarkGreen]“I don’t think I want it to seal me in but it should be built with protection and ease of use in mind.”[/color] Setting the cat aside, Yavor grabbed a marker and walked over to ponder the crude human figure sketches into the center of the pad before starting to make some strokes. “Well if you’re going to do testing it should be kept...fairly simple. Close to the skin and not too bulky, like so...add some padding on the hands and feet for traction and on the chest for a little bit of protection...cut it off at the….crap!” Yavor shook the marker as it dried up and tried to keep sketching, only to give it up and chuck it in the nearby trash bin. “Your stupid pens keep running out of ink!” [color=DarkGreen]“Sorry, sorry,”[/color] Maddy said sheepishly, vaulting the arm of the sofa to get to her closet and start ferreting around inside. [color=DarkGreen] “I think I ordered a new pack a while ago and I haven’t gotten the time to...oh that’s where this is!”[/color] Maddy reached into an old bag she almost forgot about and pulled out an old, battered Nintendo handheld, faint pink stains covering the silver surface. [color=DarkGreen]“I thought I lost this on the trip over!”[/color] “Lost what?” [color=DarkGreen]“My old DS! I bet it still has...hehe…”[/color] “What’s so funny?” Yavor asked, absently attempting to get some ink out of one of the dead markers. [color=DarkGreen]“Nothing, I just...remembered how this got stained…”[/color] [b][i] -Ten years ago- -St Moritz, Switzerland Christmas Eve-[/i][/b] Tinsel was hung and Evergreens dotted the inside of the resort decorated with golden ornaments bought at Tiffany's, waiters dressed as elves with green caps ran about with candy cane trousers. As three men stood near a window. “Fantastic, I have vacationed here every year and it’s beauty brings me to a loss of words. My party is in full swing and all seem to be merry and bright.” As the man held a glass filled with champagne that would put a working man’s salary in the gutter he turned so elegantly towards his well groomed pal. Alistair Wahlforth. “I see you’ve brought your granddaughter. She seems, free spirited. You’ve also invited a personal friend Terrance Maclain,” pausing to remember what he was remotely in charge of. “He’s... the Curator of the New York Museum right?” “Quite so, he’s had the privilege of handling some of the most impressive pieces of their collection, and I heard they acquired more. What pieces were they again?” Stopping himself from shoveling another far too expensive lobster horderve into his mouth, he sat it down on the dish and wiped his thin moustache. “Ah, some rather interesting pieces initial carbon dating reveals some are from the fourteenth century. We’ve uncovered possible remains of a forgotten battle, armor and bucklers what survived of course, and a odd stone staff. We’ve yet to fully examine it due to it’s delicate nature. Could simply be a fossilized walking stick.” “You cast quite a net Mr. Wahlforth.” “As do you Mr. Braven Stonewood, even more so do you cast quite the figure. I doubt it’s an exaggeration to say you could bench press half of this room in your gym, yet you find time to explore ancient ruins and manage your vast business.” Laughing the duo picked up another glass from a passing server. “I believe I still owe you a favor, do not you truly need anything? I still will never know how you managed to find an antidote from mamba venom in the middle of nowhere.” “I told you, I knew a medicine man in a nearby village. That said, I do think my granddaughter has run off. Perhaps I should find her?” Stonewood laughed, “no, let the girl have her fun how much trouble can she get into.” Running through the halls of this massive resort, platter of shrimps in hand Eva dashed through the help spilling cocktail sauce with edible golden flakes into the carpet. Her face plastered with shrimp juice and sauce as she sprung out into another room large enough to host a dance looking for a spot she could snipe food from undetected. “Darling, why don’t you put that away and socialize for a bit?” came a posh voice from a nearby table. Peeking out from beneath the tablecloth, Eva spotted an older woman in a smart looking evening gown talking to a black-haired girl close to her age sitting at a table, her glasses poking over the edge of a silver Nintendo DS. [color=DarkGreen]“B-but Mom, I almost beat Ignatius…”[/color] the mousey-looking girl pleaded from behind her handheld. “Madeline you can play that Flaming Emblem game whenever, can’t you? You’re ten years old, a little fraternizing won’t hurt you.” The girl named Madeline gave a sad little sigh as she put her system away, looking forlornly at the tablecloth. Taking notice, of one of the few kids that looked even remotely her own age got Eva a little excited, this party was one for adults, to mingle and talk shop. Kids were either left at home or brought here to suffer a boring hell until night came to end the party. But perhaps Eva could have some fun yet she mused as she waited for a better moment to move. “Good, now why don’t you introduce yourself to some people? Good to get a head start on your future when you can, after all. Oh, Mr. Harcourt, wait! It’s me, Janet!” Dashing off to find some colleague of hers, the older woman was gone. The girl made a few half-hearted attempts to be noticed by the important looking adults walking by, only to end up staring at her lap instead, looking utterly miserable. Slipping out from underneath the tablecloth right underneath Madeline Eva spoke as she stood up. [color=00aeef]“Hey hey, that a game. My parents won’t let me have those, they say it’s trailer trash. I don’t see how anything that could bring smiles is trash, but hey we both have similar names, I’m Evangeline, you’re Madeline right, heard your mom say so. I call myself Eva tho. Never liked long names too formal, like it’s best used for someone you respect not like.”[/color] Taking the time to eye up their heights.[color=00aeef] “Bored too Maddy?”[/color] Stunned to silence by the sudden appearance of a girl covered in shrimp juice, the shyer of the two realized she had been asked a question and stammered out a response. [color=DarkGreen]“M-Maddy? But...I’m Madeline...uh...wha….W-why were you under my table?” [/color]This was followed by a yelp as Eva tugged ‘Maddy’ by the arm underneath the tablecloth into the hiding spot. [color=00aeef]“Adults are boring, always hiding their boo-, um I mean hard ciders. And chatting works.”[/color] Sitting by Eva was a couple platters she had freed from the table. [color=00aeef]“Those aren’t mine by the way. Anyways you wanna have a bit of fun? I know where they keep the room for the water pipes. Found it by myself!”[/color] Eva said triumphantly. [color=00aeef]“But they won’t let me into the kitchen and I need to be in there. Mr. Creepshow won’t budge for me, said I cause problems. Me. I make things fun I swear. You like fun yea? Come on.”[/color] Maddy, chewing on one of the shrimps that Eva yoinked from the servers, started to get a little acclimated to the weirdness of the situation before she heard that. [color=DarkGreen]“M-Mr. Creepshow? I don’t know, mom said I shouldn’t lie to adul-eep!”[/color] Maddy gave another yelp as Eva tugged on her arm and ferried her out from under the table and towards the kitchen, dodging guest and serving staff to reach their destination. [color=00aeef]“It’ll be fun! You’re not lying, you’re distracting!”[/color] Eva said as she dragged the poor girl through the halls and stopped short of the kitchen, [color=00aeef]“There. Come on, this will be grands. You’re my buddy my pal, mate even. Just get em away from the door, here.”[/color] Eva said as she shoved an expensive bottle of wine into her arms. [color=00aeef]“We’ll break that. And have him come and clean it up. It’s the cheap stuff promise. While you do that I’ll sneak by and get in there.”[/color] And like that, Eva gave her new friend a little shove with the wine bottle clutched in her arms like a doll, right into one of the scariest looking men Maddy had ever seen in her life. Clad in a dress uniform she didn’t recognize, the man glared down at the little intruder with eyes the color of cold steel, his craggy, severe facial features looking so much like a gargoyle’s through the mist of his cigar smoke. [color=DarkGreen]“Uh...uh…”[/color] “And what do you want?” the man demanded sharply, sounding as unpleasant and jagged as his face would suggest. Maddy’s mind blanked as the gold gray eyes continued to stare at her, but right when she saw Eva sneak into a spot where the gargoyle man would certainly spot her, she reflexively presented the wine to the man. [color=DarkGreen]“It’s a gift for you, Mister, uh, Cross,”[/color] she improvised, misreading the name Krauss on his lapel. Suspiciously, the gargoyle man took the bottle and looked at her, trying to deduce what was going on. “A...gift…” [color=DarkGreen]“Y-yes. From my...mom!”[/color] Maddy said desperately. [color=DarkGreen]“Misses Ming!”[/color] “Janet Ming, from Yínhé?” he said, sounding both surprised and impressed. Looking closer at the year, he let out a low whistle as he admired the ‘gift’. “Not bad,” he remarked plainly. “Perhaps...I should thank her for this, then.” And without so much as a glance towards the young girl, the gargoyle man strode off importantly, revealing the inviting, bronze doors of the kitchen. Watching, Eva snuck behind Maddy, [color=00aeef]“That was Aces, now we need some red dye.”[/color] Said Eva as she grabbed her pal by the wrist. [color=00aeef]“Look this we’ll be fun, we should chat along the way too. Can’t know nothing about my new partner can I?”[/color] Pushing the doors open Eva looked to her left, then right. For any sign of a storage closet where food dye might be kept, syrup or bloody mary mix anything with enough red in it to really make a splash. [color=00aeef]“Now, if I were food dye, where would I be?”[/color] [color=DarkGreen]“Um, my mom has some stuff for those Bloody Mary drinks she keeps in the fridge at home,”[/color] Maddy suggested tentatively as the pair of them hid behind a counter from the patrolling servers. [color=DarkGreen]“Is there a big fridge nearby?”[/color] [color=00aeef]“Shush.”[/color] Eva said as the waiters came back round for a new set of platters taking them promptly outside. [color=00aeef]“Let’s get going quickly wherever the fridge is, it’s clearly not here, might be further in, maybe in that other room.”[/color] The pair slid in quietly as the room was unoccupied, and in the corner…. the prize. [color=00aeef]“That is a big fridge, like four whole doors with a small room attached. The whiskey they must have, I mean yes bloody mary mix.”[/color] [color=DarkGreen]“Th-they must have it in there by the gallon!”[/color] Maddy exclaimed, actually smiling slightly as she joined Eva in trying to open the massive doors. With a joined heave the doors cracked open and through the cakes, caviar and shrimp was indeed gallons of mixers all for various drinks. Swiping a couple Eva looked to Maddy, her mouth full of a cupcake yoinked from one of the waiting trays. [color=00aeef]“See you’re practically glowing. Now.”[/color] Taking a peek round the corner. [color=00aeef]“We need to make a break for it before anyone comes back.”[/color] --- [color=DarkGreen]“Wonder what’s taking it so long?”[/color] Maddy wondered, staring at the water fountain in the center of the big dance hall. She took another bite of her cupcake as she pondered. [color=DarkGreen]“Maybe the pipes on that thing are really old?” [/color] Eva eyeing the massive tree in the corner with presents underneath responded. [color=00aeef]“Could be, hey you think those are real or just for show? The presents I mean.”[/color] As Eva drank a mug of coco while they waited. [color=DarkGreen]“If they are, I’m pretty jealous. Some of those are bigger than I am.”[/color] Maddy observed. [color=00aeef]“So,”[/color] Eva a little nervously asked. [color=00aeef]“You were talking about your family earlier, the Lings right, what do they actually do?”[/color] [color=DarkGreen]“Um, I don’t really know what my mom does...something with a lot of money I think,”[/color] Maddy said, sounding uncertain. [color=DarkGreen]“But...my dad’s a scientist. He does stuff with biology for the same company, it’s pretty cool. What about you?”[/color] [color=00aeef]“Family’s traders, merchants, ties with old shipping company’s. Made quite the fortune. My Grandpa is the only nice one though, everyone else just wants me to be a proper lady. I do have a claim to the throne though, after a billion years or so. If I lived that long I’d be Queen of E.”[/color] Maddy giggled at the idea of her friend dressed like a fairy tale queen, complete with the robe and pointy crown. [color=00aeef]“I know right, me Queen, first official rule cake is always eaten first!”[/color] Still giggling, Maddy got a glimpse of her mother across the room, having an animated conversation with a handful of businessmen in expensive looking suits. Spotting her daughter, the elder Miss Ling pointed her daughter out to the businessmen, who waved at her before returning to what was certainly a conversation involving her in some capacity. [color=DarkGreen]“No one really asks me to behave like a lady,”[/color] Maddy mused, her smile faltering slightly. [color=DarkGreen]“They all just talk about how great and awesome I am. My mom always tries to bring me to meet all these important and wealthy people that care so much about ‘my future’.”[/color] Maddy added a hint of bitterness to those two words before her eyes drifted back down to her shoes. [color=DarkGreen]“Only here because my mom wanted me to see this person who knows about colleges and stuff. Don’t really have the time to meet...you know...friends…”[/color] [color=00aeef]“Well, you got one here. You doofus.”[/color] Eva said smiling just as a photographer kneeled to snap their picture. Maddy turned a little red, this time not from embarrassment but from affection. [color=DarkGreen]“Y-yeah, I guess I d-”[/color] [i] -VOOOOOOOOSH-[/i] Eva and Maddy both jumped as the fancy fountain in the center of the room suddenly erupted in a spray of tomato-red water, the sound of the water pressure and the panicked shrieks from the guests drowning out the chintzy ambient Christmas music. Eva and Maddy dove to the ground in shock just as the photographers camera snapped, the pair of them turning around to look back just as the red water poured down on them like rainfall. [color=DarkGreen]“I...uh...think the Bloody Mary mix worked,”[/color] Maddy commented, lifting up her glasses to get a better look. [color=00aeef]“WOW, Just wow. This is Grand you know!”[/color] Eva said with a wide smile just as her Grandfather entered the room to see the commotion. Tapping his foot arms fully crossed as he inched closer. “Why do I feel like you had a hand in this?” “Madeline,” Maddy’s mother said coolly, stepping out from behind the older man. “Is there something you’d like to explain, young lady?” “...Merry Christmas?” both girls said in tandem, grinning ear to ear. [i] -----[/i] [color=DarkGreen]“...I was grounded for like six months when we got home,”[/color] Maddy explained to Yavor as he looked over the DS curiously. [color=DarkGreen]“And my mom didn’t bring me to one of those parties until I was old enough to drive. She had to pay for the repairs with the Wahlforths afterwards, though I heard that Stonewood was so amused he helped to pay for it too.”[/color] “I’m just amazed you met Braven freakin’ Stonewood,” Yavor said impressively with just a hint of jealousy. “The man’s a legend, I’d give my left...whoops!” Maddy spotted a wrinkled bit of paper slip out from between the closed surfaces when Yavor flipped open the game. “Sorry, didn’t think there’d be anything in there.” [color=DarkGreen]“No prob, I’ll get it,”[/color] Maddy said, catching the game system as Yavor lobbed it towards her and picking up the paper. “You know, I think I have some markers in my car,” Yavor pondered before getting up and heading to the front door. “Let me check real fast, okay?” [color=DarkGreen]“Sure, not a problem,”[/color] Maddy said absently, looking over the paper as the door slammed shut. Slowly, a smile spread on her face. It was a clipping from a newspaper, a Swiss paper discussing a holiday party gone wrong. Right in the center was a picture of the fancy water fountain erupting in a geyser of red water. In the foreground, a bespectacled ten-year old with familiar black hair and a brunette seven-year old diving for cover with a mixed look of panic and joy on their faces were identified as “Madeline Fen Ming” and “Evangeline Wahlforth”. Where the article began, a ten-year-old Maddy had scrawled out the names with a pen and written “Maddy” and “Eva”, covering the rest of the words with crudely drawn christmas trees and snowflakes. The twenty year old Maddy smiled warmly, folding the paper in half and putting it in her shirt pocket. [color=DarkGreen]“Wherever you are, Eva,”[/color] she said quietly. [color=DarkGreen]“Merry Christmas.”[/color]