towerofanimus | The weather's annoying, isn't it?

Entry tags:

The weather's annoying, isn't it?

Characters: Enoch and anyone!
Setting: Around the tower, forward-dated to the 12th.
Format: Either is fine!
Summary: Enoch made several cloaks last week and is handing them out....even if he's sick.
Warnings: None yet!

He'd been pressing his luck, going around and trying to give comfort or company to the sick. Though, one couldn't blame him, given that the most illness he's had in a century is a bit of an upset stomach. He's built up quite a resistance.

He'd almost forgotten what it was like to be truly sick, to have a headache behind his eyes and for his limbs to feel weighted. But he wasn't letting it stop him. He was going to give out these cloaks he made before it got even worse. So he wandered the tower, handing out a cloak to anyone who seemed as if they could need one, or anyone who asked.

There were ten of them in his arms, varying colors. All of them were hooded, and about medium-length. They would be large on a child and a little short on someone taller like him, but they would do either way. So even with the occasional cough and sniffle, or the stop to sneeze (not into the cloaks, thankfully) every now and then, perhaps it was worth the risk of being sick for a chance to get a little warmer.

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While Tohko's eyesight was terrible, and while she did have a light fever, she couldn't just ignore her library duties. Plus..she'd have to get something to eat soon. What she ate didn't matter anymore, now that her tastebuds had fully died. It was slow going up the stairs, as she was being careful not to trip, and as she ascended, she spotted Enoch holding quite a few cloaks.

She didn't need one, as she was wearing the cloak she made herself and the cape Legolas was letting her borrow, but she saw him sneeze and thought that he might need some help. At least they would be able to talk this time around.

"Good morning, Enoch. How are you feeling?"

"...As well as I can." His voice was quiet, weak-sounding without as much breath behind it. "I've caught the illness, myself."

It wasn't impossible, he supposed. Just very unlucky.

Tohko sighed and scratched her head. Thanks to her cold dulling her hearing, she was barely able to make out Enoch..but thankfully, she still could.

"I see..you too, huh? How badly is it affecting you? If you want, I can go and grab some medicine from the clinic."

After all, she couldn't just leave him without helping. After all..this illness, whatever it was, was terrible. If it was able to wipe her sense of taste out completely and dull her other senses, it was pretty powerful.

"Does their medicine work?" Enoch, for once, stood with his shoulders slumped, feeling the weight of his muscles. For all the illness, he saw few people with medicine or in the infirmary.

Tohko nodded, and barely managed to notice the slumping. If he was standing like that, he really must not be feeling well.

"It's been helping me with my fevers and nose. As for the rest of my symptoms..I'm not sure what medicine you could use to help it." Tohko sighed. "However, if you tell me what's bothering you, I could go grab some medicine for it."

"Something for the congestion would be appreciated." Enoch didn't feel like using more energy just to speak up.

Tohko nodded again, thinking of what sort of medicine he would like best.

"Alright then. Hang on a moment..I'll be right back!" And carefully, Tohko ran down the stairs. She was a little slower than usual, due to a slight fever and her worsening eyesight. She had to be careful not to trip. However, she eventually made it into the clinic and grabbed two large bottles of Advil before running back to Enoch.

"H-here you are! Sorry for the wait.." Tohko caught her breath as she handed the pill bottles to him. "Take two of them with some water every three hours. That should help."

Since he didn't know what a polar bear was, Tohko wasn't quite sure if he knew how to handle modern pills, so she gave him a small explanation, hoping that it might help.

He'd at least seen them before, and Armaros had him take some once in Meridian. So he trusted Tohko with that much, taking the bottles and managing to fold them into the pile of cloaks. He'd dump them into his chest at some point...

"Thank you..."

Tohko smiled and nodded. "Oh, you're welcome! It's no trouble at all. Hopefully your cold will clear up soon..stuffed up noses are pretty terrible."

And with that, Tohko sneezed over her shoulder before thinking over something. If Enoch might not know much about pills, it was doubtful that he knew what Christmas was. Might as well ask and find out.

"By the way..Enoch, do you know what Christmas is? If you don't, I could explain it to you."

"I can't say I've heard of it."

Well, why not? They were both pretty miserable, so storytelling might well help them out at least as far as morale went.

Plus, Christmas was a pretty joyful holiday. Talking about it might make them both feel a little bit better. Tohko smiled and nodded.

"Alright then. Christmas, at least, where I come from, is a holiday that takes place every December 25th. People gather around with their families, friends, and loved ones to give presents, eat food, tell stories, and generally be happy in their company. There are many stories that explain why the holiday is celebrated, but there are two that are the most popular.

The first, my personal favorite, is about a fat, jolly man named Santa Claus who lives in the North Pole with his wife, his worker elves, and his twelve magical reindeer. His elves make toys for him, and every Christmas Eve, Santa gathers a large amount of toys and gets on his sleigh, which is driven by his reindeer. They can make the sleigh fly around, and thanks to this power, Santa delivers toys all around to the world to good children.

..Of course, it's a story mainly for kids, but it tastes pretty sweet. The second story..it's pretty long, even for me to tell, but it's basically about the life of the son of god, Jesus Christ, and how, at the end of his life, he allowed himself to be crucified and killed so that humanity could be washed of it's sins. I'm not sure how much truth is in that tale though. Due to history, records and accounts have been mangled and destroyed, so it's hard to tell what the actual truth of that story is. However, that is the second story and reason surrounding Christmas in my world.

..Does that make any sense?"

The explanation brought a smile to his face. It sounded like another winter solstice festival, and that first story was charming.

The second, though, one phrase jumped out at him. "Son of God...?"

Tohko sighed and nodded. This was going to be difficult to explain, considering Enoch lived in Heaven and probably knew more about the subject than the people who had come up with the story. Assuming that it was just a story.

"Yeah..you see, in the beginning of the story, god impregnated a human female named Mary. It's never explained how in detail how he does this though. Again..this may be just a story. So much of the tale has gotten twisted and lost, due to time and people messing with it that it's hard to tell whether or not the story is actually true."

Enoch fumbled through the haze of his thoughts for memories. Something seemed familiar. Not in that story, but the story of a miraculous or divine birth in conjunction with a man who was fat and jolly...

"Is...Is Christmas also connected to...false evergreens, tiny colored lights, and decorated spheres?"

Tohko smiled a little bit and nodded.

"Yes, now that you mention it. People usually celebrate Christmas by having evergreen trees in their house and decorate them with lights and glass balls. However, people have taken to using false ones to preserve trees. Why do you ask? Did you see them in the world you were at before?"

"I did. ...Would this Santa normally be shown wearing a red hat with fur trim, and would Jesus have been born nearer my time than yours?"

Suddenly, everything was making sense. The contents of the attic were stored away in preparation for the winter...he wondered if that ornate dress hidden away was part of the celebration, too.

And that smile only grows wider..

"Yup! Santa usually wears a red suit and hat with white fur trim, and while I don't know the exact year Jesus was born, he would have been closer to your time than mine."

"Ah...would it involve dressing in expensive gowns as well?"

He'd been going conveniently long without a coughing fit - before he could go on about the box of clothes in there, his body decided to rectify that.

"Sometimes, as people do have Christmas parties..and in the Jesus story, three wise men in expensive robes visited him when he was a newborn. Why do you ask?"

When he started coughing, carefully held onto his arm so that he didn't fall or trip, due to the force of the coughs.

"Hey, are you alright? Want me to grab some cough syrup?"

Enoch shook his head, taking a deep breath after those coughs.

"So that was...what the noblemen were. I'd wondered."

Tohko nodded and let go. If he was fine, then it was alright.

"That they are..did you see some figurine of them or something?"

"In Meridian, I did." Which reminds him, he needed to get on telling Tohko about his time before that. With everything that had happened, he hadn't had the drive to gather his thoughts on such a painful time.

Which was fine. Tohko was patient when it came to this telling stories like this. At his sentence, Tohko smiled and nodded.

"Ah, alright then! So that's what the world you were in before was called..you probably saw a nativity scene then. Small figurines of the wise men with Jesus's parents, a child in a hayloft and some animals surrounding them, right?"

There weren't any animals, no...

*Or was there a lamb somewhere? No, the detail couldn't be fuzzy already! He couldn't be losing those memories! His panic was, thankfully or not, lost in another coughing fit.*

...but everything else was definitely there, with angelic figures above them.

Tohko looked a little worried at Enoch, as it seemed like he was panicking about something before he went into another coughing fit, but she said nothing about it.

"That was probably a nativity scene then. It's common for families to display them during or near Christmas."

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