Chapter Text
Thorns was always annoyed how Elysium dragged him into each new mess he got into, but at least this one would benefit someone. He'd come supplicating for help with what apparently was a tradition in Rhodes Island, in which any volunteer (mainly Messengers) would procure toys for children and help deliver packages to patients’ family members, always needed during this busy season . At the beginning it seemed a pure wish, but Thorns expected some twist and stubbornly insisted on knowing why he needed help. It took a few hours until Elysium cracked, faster than expected due to his obvious desperation: he and Exusiai had each bet a month’s salary that they could deliver more than the other.
Sadly for him, the moment the bet had been official (with Amiya and a passing Penance roped into acting as neutral parties, enforcers and regulators) the entire Penguin Logistics had pivoted into helping Exusiai. All of the deliveries PL made were officially done by Exusiai, and any major toy store or company working with Rhodes Island was suddenly using PL as the middle man. Elysium was losing badly, and so he'd come, begging, to ask for help from Thorns. He was ready to tell Elysium to leave and let him work, but the thought of leaving children without toys made him hesitate, an opportunity Elysium took. He told him he just needed ten toys from him, that he’ll pay him back and left sprinting from the lab.
Now Thorns was stuck with this, but what the hell is a chemist supposed to do? He'd spent the next hours contemplating how he was supposed to make these toys, until the Doctor arrived, breaking his line of thought. As someone who knew pretty much everyone in RI, maybe they could help him find the proper craftsmen. After a quick explanation they were happy to help, giving him a long list of children without toys, what type of toy they wanted each and recommending him to start talking with Vulcan, Mayer and Weedy. Thanking the Doctor for the huge help, he left to get started.
First, that Vulcan lady. The Doctor had described her as a kind, talented blacksmith who could create wonderful things with a broad expertise on materials, and more importantly for Thorns, her workshop was the closest. Straight down two hallways, three turns to the left, a detour past whatever chaos Closure had done in that room with the holidays’ lights, two to the right and past what seemed like a suspicious and huge crowd that was trying to buy from Sesa crates full of illegal mistletoes? Whatever that thing was about, Thorns didn’t want to be involved so he slipped as stealthily as he could. Finally, he had reached the place and it was full of noise. Huh? The Doctor had said Vulcan was calm and soft spoken, promising him that she’d be the one who would give him the least trouble.
But Thorns was in it too deep to back down, and with a short sigh he entered.
Which he regretted immediately, as a Perro girl started a barrage of questions. “Who are you? Do you have cookies? Candies?” Only stopping her listing of treats after looking at his weapon, which made her start wailing. “Why does it hate C? C has been a good girl. Waaaah. Waaaaaah.” Inconsolable. Even noisier. Thorns was really confused, and most importantly, annoyed at this whole ordeal. Luckily, that’s when a Minoan lady entered and defused the whole situation after some short explanations. She was the Vulcan he was looking for, the Perro girl was her ward called Ceobe and Vulcan was more than willing to help Thorns, with some conditions. First, she’ll take a while to start as she has to request the extra materials, a few days to make them and Thorns getting a good hoard of honey biscuits for Ceobe and her for this special season. Pretty reasonable so he quickly agreed with no objections, considering he estimated being behind schedule.
Now, he could try to do it himself but baking was so close to chemistry that, well, his results had to be cleaned from the ceiling. Damn, he needed a cook.
Thorns chose to ask the Doctor once again, because he didn’t have the leads on who could volunteer cooking that ridiculous amount of honey biscuits, with the kitchen so contested this winter. During his trip he crossed paths with Exusiai herself, talking with Texas, Croissant and Bison. She couldn’t know Thorns was aiding Elysium, but she kept her narrowed gaze on him, focused, as if measuring how likely it was. The last thing Thorns wanted is her knowing for sure, because he was certain she’ll attempt something obnoxious to stop him, so he attempted to leave as naturally as possible.
It was after some turns that he found Elysium, chatting up a Logistics lady named Susan. This dude… Thorns butted in the conversation, telling him about all that happened so far and asking if, meanwhile, Elysium had wasted his time doing nothing to help. "Oh, you are helping with this year's gifts? You're so sweet, Elysium" commented Susan, while the smug bastard smiled, unfazed by Thorns’ jab. He replied that first of all, he’ll take care of that biscuit problem, organize the deliveries with Vulcan and secondly, he had been productive this morning too.
He had made a wonderful deal with Stainless, who right now was working on them. He kept on, ignoring Thorns’ question about what that deal had entailed. He had convinced Lumen to give him some more gift recipients, and even any future leads in the Medical Dept he could dig for Elysium. And before Thorns could berate him for using Lumen too, he whispered how now Rope was "slowing down" PL, pride oozing from each word.
Reacting to Thorns murdering gaze, he elaborated that no gifts would be missing, just some stray orders would come to him instead of PL, they'd get some fake jobs or that some packages will get mixed up. Harmless stuff.
Irene didn't seem to agree, who had popped out at some time in the convo and ambushed him with a strong kick, dragged him away saying that they'll have a long talk with Penance about this.
That was an abrupt end, but Thorns was thankful for it. Elysium was starting to get too smug. Anyways, Thorns had to hurry to the Doctor's office. If he was too late there would be a long waiting line, as the Doctor was requested for all manner of work. He feared that was the case as he arrived at their door, seeing a group already there. Matterhorn was right in front of the office's entrance, as if he was a bouncer. Odd, usually the daily assistant was inside with the Doctor, but Thorns wasn't interested in knowing why he was there. He just went up to Matterhorn and asked if he could go in. He kept quiet and after some deliberation, he entered the office and talked with someone for a while. When he came back, he told Thorns he could if he accepted being frisked. Weird, but sure. After a thorough search, Matterhorn granted him access, satisfied with the results.
The office was quite familiar to Thorns, except the mountain of red presents on the Doctor's desk. A huge bouquet of roses and mistletoes from a Gravel, a package from a Platinum decorated with mistletoes, a flowing water sphere with a mistletoe inside from a Mumu, a Siracusan pen with mistletoe from an Angelina, a red vial with a wonderful fragrance of mistletoe from a Perfumer, a conch filled with mistletoe from Skadi. All from the ops waiting on the bench outside. And behind the presents, there was a pissed Amiya sitting on the Doctor's chair, glaring at Thorns like he was some spy. It was clear that the CEO was abusing her powers to stop admirers from taking her parent away. Luckily for Thorns, he neither gave a shit nor had noticed any of these romantic gifts, so when he asked if he could have the Doctor work with Mayer, Weedy and him to build some gifts Amiya gladly accepted. She didn't need any Arts to see that Thorns wasn't either lying or interested, and the work would keep the Doctor too busy for these solicitors, so their schedules were free and had top priority when requesting resources.
Honestly, it was unbelievable. Working with these permits allowed them to use any materials without worrying about any kind of limits, in a clear flex of Rhodes Island’s logistics and connections. The loxic kohl flowed like water and they had more crystalline circuits they had ever seen together, the Doctor being quite salty about how hard they usually had to “farm” for these. A certain bunny would have to face the consequences when faced by Kal’tsit, but she was sure she could convince SilverAsh to pay for this under the pretense of training to work with top of the line resources, and keeping a certain Doctor single for a few Kjeran maidens.
As for the group, Thorns was glad Mayer and Weedy had accepted to help. He wasn’t so glad about how anything Mayer created was hyper and bent on destroying their lab, and how Weedy was nagging him to go decontaminate after each explosion. The new battery he'd designed was theoretically safer, lasting longer and better insulating the originium inside, which reduced chances of infection greatly, but so far the composition was too volatile. The Doctor and Thorns had to go back and forth with hypothesis and prototypes, each ending with blasts and complaints from their lab partners.
But as days went on, the team clicked and production went smoothly. 35 toys in less than a week, surpassing Elysium's request and still going. Honestly, it was thanks to the Doctor's managing's skills, keeping the three clashing personalities focused on their goal. If this pace continued for 5 more days, Elysium would win the bet by a wide margin.
And Thorns would enjoy some peace. Well, as much as he could with his new nuisance, an operator named Sora.
She'd find him everyday and ask constant questions about his work, his suppliers, if he took requests. She seemed desperate to get as much info or get him out of his lab. A blatant and ineffective spy and saboteur from PL to anyone with a modicum of care about the bet, which wasn't Thorns case.
And so the final day came. It was a small competition, so obviously everyone knew and was invested in the result. Passing through the hallways to the cafeteria, where the winner would be announced, Thorns could find operators speculating about it. It only got worse as he arrived, the place almost full with curious people looking expectantly at the improvised stage. Up there, Amiya was preparing to give thanks to what were now teams for their actions, Elysium waving at Thorns and gesturing to come atop.
When she considered the teams were complete and no more people were coming, Amiya started her speech. She said how grateful RI was for those kind Messengers, who had volunteered to bring us something special and connect to those who we love most, for keeping this wonderful tradition alive and making the world a little more warm. Especially to these two, gesturing at Elysium and Exusiai, who had gone above and beyond with a little bet as motivation. The crowd was quiet, expectantly waiting for her to announce the victor. "So, with a new record of 216 deliveries, our winner is... Exusiai!" and as soon as Amiya said it, both the PL team and the crowd celebrated, cheering, whistling and whooing well beyond what Thorns tolerated. Meanwhile, Elysium was frozen in shock, his cocky smile slowly vanishing alongside his expectations of winning.
However, Amiya was waiting for everyone to calm down. Once the chaos lowered enough to be heard, she went on: "Sadly, as we had agreed when making it official, any attempt of inflating the results with fake info would result in disqualification. And Ascalon has found proof of a certain Lupo tampering our records, so our real winner is... Elysium!" Once the surprise settled in, the noises doubled. Even the Doctor cheered, happily embracing the team. Elysium laughed at poor Exu, carried away by a slightly drunk Penance to be "taught a lesson" about fraud. Only to be dragged away by Stainless, Rope and Gummy, due to "not honoring his deals".
Damn the bet, Amiya thought. It had gotten out of hand and she almost couldn't catch all of those hussies after the Doctor during these days. To make matters worse, the winner's celebration had gotten so out of control she had to intervene and the Doctor had vanished. Probably another promiscuous lady had dragged the trusting idiot to some hidden corner to confess. Kal'tsit had been missing lately too. Shit. Amiya would have to be quick to stop it and get them to Kal'tsit. She knows it is unlikely, but maybe with this festive mood her get-back-together plan would work for her pare-, for them. Hopefully.
So she went room after room searching, running past every isolated and romantic place in the landship. And while going to her next spot, she found the Doctor by chance. And Kal'tsit. Seated on a sofa together, surrounded by attentive children waiting for a tale to begin. What a miraculous opportunity. So Amiya decided to take it, sitting near Rosmontis and Cecelia. The Doctor and Kal'tsit searched for the proper story in the book, which the more impatient Ceobe and Ifrit could barely withstand. But once they chose, those two were the first to shush everyone else, ready for the tale.
With her usual tone, Kal'tsit narrated the Kazimierzian classic "The forgetful squire". She described how clumsy, useless and forgetful he was and the Doctor played along with a funny voice. They, in turn, described the narrating Queen as bossy, nagging and distant. But despite their hidden barbs to each other, Amiya could see a faint smile on both as they went on. The squire suffered all types of misfortune and got lost many times. But he pushed onwards, trying to rescue the Queen despite forgetting her. The kids gasped each time he got tricked or defeated, cheering each time he tried again and again.
Kal'tsit told with a big smile their happy reunion, nuzzled against the Doctor. Perhaps, Amiya thought, she just had to wait for the squire and the queen to find each other again.